"I'm gonna throw up...then I'm gonna die!" - the Grinch (or "Blowin' Chunks in Ghana")

Dear Family, 

I’m running out of ideas for good quote lines.

Last night after stumbling home in the dark for miles, after stepping into our apartment I took a drink of water cuz my mouth was so dry that was enough for my stomach to say, "I’ve had ENOUGH!!!!!"  and I booked it to the toilet and barfed for the very first time on my mission. I wasn't sick, it was just TOO much food! 

"Am I just eating because I'm bored?" - The Grinch

Me and Deborah our ward missionary, my Ghanain little sis.
She is afraid of the camera like most 14 year old girls... 

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas everyone! "Afishyia pa"!

We are gonna chop this Sunday papa! It's gonna be nice! One thing that is cool is that the stake president live in our ward and his family lived in Utah for 6 years while he went to school. They have 4 kids Franny, Eliza, Aaron and Levi. They are all really funny and they love talking to missionaries about stuff in Utah. I was talking to Eliza about Seven Peaks after primary last Sunday. 

"Do the chickens have large talons?" - Napoleon Dynamite

Dear Family & Friends,

Elections in Ghana are a party. The current president Jon Mahamma and the new president elect Nana Akufo-Addo had a pretty good face off here in Ghana. I guess Nana Akufo-Addo has been trying to become President for the last 3 elections here in Ghana and has lost only by narrow margins the last two times. It was clear entering the election that Nana had way more supporters (at least here in Accra) than Mahamma.

"All right, its up to you Delmar...well…I'm with you fellers." - O Brother Where Art Thou

Visitng the beach on P-day

Dear Family & Friends,

This week is a kinda weird one because Ghana is having its elections tomorrow and so we missionaries have to try to stay out of it because there could be some violence involved, but don't worry I’m safe. Everywhere we've gone for the past few weeks people have asked us who we are voting for and we have to explain we aren't citizens so we can't vote. It’s funny because some people get really argumentative, “well your living here, you should be able to vote!" (For my candidate) I can say that sometimes it has been difficult to turn people’s minds to the gospel with all the elections going on throughout the world. Toward the end of the U.S. presidential campaign I got asked about Donald Trump A LOT.

"We ain't had nothin' but maggoty bread to eat for three stinkin' days!" -The Two Towers (I think)

We received notice that because of elections in Ghana this coming week, that Elder Peters will not be able to write until Tuesday, so we have a wait an extra day to hear from hm next week. 
 
Dear Family & Friends,

I hope everyone enjoyed thanksgiving and all the food! I kinda forgot that it was thanksgiving until someone in their training reminded me at our multi-zone conference this Tuesday. Later in the week I bought fried rice from a street vendor that was crawling with ants. When I opened the take away box sitting in his lawn chair behind his little booth with his propane stove to prepare the rice I said, "Chai!! This thing is crawling with ants!" Elder Tohouri:"its ok, its just extra vitamins" The Fried Rice guy (who looked just like a chef from the brig of the ship in one of those army or pirate movies ya know oil stained wife-beater, baggy shorts, missing teeth, etc…):"they like the salad, they won't hurt you.." I chucked the rice. 

On Tuesday we had another multi-zone conference in Kasoa. We left our apartment at 7 in the morning and got back at 5:50. It was long papa! After the meeting we were standing by the highway trying to catch a tro to Malam Junction and this guy in a really nice Infiniti rolled up and asked us where we were going. we told him we are headed to Malam he explained that he was going to CP (a junction in Kasoa, but it would get us a little closer to Malam) and I and the fellow missionaries in my apartment hopped in his car. We just assumed that this guy was a member because usually members do this kind of a thing. As we drove Elder Ntumba talked to the guy and we found out that he had actually only investigated with missionaries but that he has a lot of respect for us and the work we are doing. By this point we had arrived at his destination. He felt bad that he couldn't take us all the way to Malam so he wanted to pay for our transport back. He handed elder Tohouri some money and we walked to the roadside to pick a car. After we got in the car unfolding the bill we discovered that it was not one 50cedi, but two. The dude had dashed us 100 Ghana to get back to Malam. We have the rest of the money in a box that we are going to use to by bankuu powder to give to families that we meet and know in the ward that could use it for Christmas. You can buy SO much bankuu with 100 cedis, like I could probably fill the back of a pick-up truck with balls of bankuu for that much money. It was a huge blessing for us. 

 

"Hey, it's Elder Peters!"

It went right along with the main focus I guess of the multi-zone conference: Christmas. To explain this better I would like to explain the Ghana missionary technology. We are blessed with a Nokia indestructible cellar device that has a little flash light on the top and the battery in ours is held in place by a folded up piece of paper jammed into the battery housing to hold it in place, it also has a panda sticker on it. The back of the phone is held in place by duck tape cuz the little tines that clip the back of the phone into the actual phone got broken. We also have a china crapstastic DVD player that holds a charge for a time. It’s got an on and off button, a play and pause button, buttons to select the clips you want to play and a usb port. Oh ya and it will only play 3pg files. The screen also rotates 180 degrees. Sister Munro made the entire mission copies of the #LighttheWorld video produced by the church for this Christmas season encouraging all us to share the 25 days of service in 25 ways with our investigators and other members of our ward so that they can be involved in this church wide program. I'm pretty excited for it. Christmas is always a somewhat difficult time of year for missionary work cuz a lot of people travel, and are really busy with family stuff. Imagine if two missionaries knocked on our door on the 24th of December and said, "We’d like to take 15 min to share a message with you!" I know I would have been like, "uh, it’s Christmas. I’m going to my grandma's house..." But this will be good cuz it will encourage people to take the time to remember the example of Jesus Christ through service, and it will also help us as missionaries stay busy with things to do. I remember last year carrying a sack of pineapples around to members during the week of Christmas, I’m excited to do that kind of thing again this year.

A lot of this week I was at the doctor with elder Ntumba. He is struggling with some back pain and we had two doctor's appointments that we had to go to, to try to help him out. His companion was being stubborn and didn't want to go, so I went with him.

I was still able to teach many lessons this week. Since we have been using the DVD player more because of the #Light the world thing we have also used the 20 min restoration movie more too. It’s been pretty cool because they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, a moving picture is worth 10billion.

We have Flourence Alaba that will be baptized this weekend. She wasn’t feeling too well this past week and so we didn't baptize her. But this week for sure. 

Ghana is great, the work is good! 

I love you guys! Love, Elder Peters

"What about you?!! I'm sorry..me? What's your dream?!!!" - Tangled

Dear Family & Friends,

It was a good week and it started with an exchange with Elder Desta this Tuesday. He is one of our assistants now, but I’ve known him ever since I was in Kasoa last year. It was a rough day with a lot of appointments falling through but the last appointment of the day was a recent convert named Abena. She lives WAY far away and UP a huge hill.

"Its a good thing your not a big fat guy, or else this would be REALLY difficult!!!" -Emperor's New Groove

Dear Family & Friends,

Yesterday Elder Tohouri and I were riding our bikes up the hills of Gbawe and he stopped next to a poster advertisement and said, "Companion! We need to call this number! You’re to chingalingy you need to look like this!" as he pointed to a big ol' fat mame on the advertisement. It was one of those weird "get thin quick" medical things that are such a fad all over the world I have learned. We rode our bikes away laughing. Chingalingy is a Ghana word for skinny, it’s not Twi, I don't think its pidgin, it’s just a goofy word...

"MAWHAGE!! MAWHAGE is what brings us here today!!" - The Princess Bride

Families are forever! At the temple with the Eluwa family for their sealing. Elder Tohouri is on the far left, then Elder Peters, the Eluwa Family then Elder Dy and Elder Okechukwu

First off...a couple of things we learned from his other emails this morning:

 

He asked about voting.  He told us that he hears a lot about the election there and that: “I’m sorry that it’s so bad there. I hear about it here. Everyone is kinda laughing at us (Americans). The world thinks we are all so stupid for raising Trump and Hillary.”

"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift." -Steve Prefontaine

Hilltop view of Gbawe (ba-whey). This is considered "the city". One of those amazing elders is Elder Tohouri.

Dear Family & Friends,

One night as we were walking home it was dark and we were on a red dirt road with lots of puddles from the rain. There were abandoned unfinished buildings and bush covering the sides of the road. In the distance I could see lights peaking out above a cluster of plantain trees. I could also hear a lot of noise. it reminded me of that part in Jurassic park when the dude with the British accent is showing the main characters the Velociraptor cage

"Quit yer cryin' or I'll give you somethin' to cry about!!" - A Christmas Story

That is a big pile of plastic bottles!

Dear Family & Friends;

Transfer week.



Elder Peters is headed to the Gbawe (pronounced bah-whey with a very subtle 'g' sound in front)Ward in the Kaneshie Stake.

Elder Prescott called me on Sunday morning to thank me for a short note that I wrote to him just to tell him that he was a great example to me. This is his last Monday and on the phone his voice started to waver a little throughout our conversation. He said, "You'll really feel the love people have, and how much you love them when you are going home one day" That didn't put me in the best emotional mindset to go to sacrament meeting and bear my own goodbye Lartebiokorshie testimony.

"It's where my demons hide.." - Imagine Dragons

Dear Family,

Saturday mornings we usually go to the chapel to clean it up for church the next day. this particular Saturday we went and there was a man who was about my height, thin, had a scraggly beard with yellow hairs in it, wearing a dirtied up lab coat and a hairnet with cargo shorts pacing back and forth on the stand. (Our chapel is really open, almost outdoors). He walked kinda slow and it almost appeared like he was floating like a ghost, back and forth. We were kinda confused about this and were trying to figure out what to do with this mad man. He grabbed the pulpit and

"Look down! Look Down! Your standing in your grave!!" - Les Miserebles

Elder Peters and Elder Barr doing some training at Mission Leadership Conference (MLC) I think that Elder Peters is pretending to be an investigator...that's why he's got a 'skeptical' look on his face...

(Dear Family and Friends)

We tugged at the ropes, struggling with the sand under our feet to pull in the boat. Several Ga fishermen were towing in their broken vessel onto the shore and Elder Pohlsander and I decided to help them. I stuck my video camera in a side pouch on my proselyting bag and hit the record button.

"You’re just gonna have to TRUST ME" - the Emperors New Groove

Dear Family & Friends,

A lot of the time the spirit just says (in the voice of Pacha) "You’re just gonna have to TRUST ME!" it always makes me chuckle, and smile and keep going. Listening to the Spirit doesn't have to be a difficult task; it can even be kinda fun!

"I like to ride my bicycle, I like to ride my bike" - Queen

Elders Peters and Perry one year later, posing at the temple like they did in the MTC.

Dear Family & Friends,

 

This week I went on an exchange with Elder Green. He is a cool guy from Arkansas. He is an inspiration to me because he went home about this time last year from his mission cuz of a sickness that he got and he went home for six months and then came back out into the mission field and is doing awesome! As we got up in the morning and studied and were getting ready to proselyte we locked the front door of the apartment (which was the same apartment I was trained in by Elder Liera) and said our prayer before we go out. As I opened my eyes and looked for my bike I saw this really beat up tattered bike with a ripped up seat, broken brakes, it looked like nobody had ridden it in ages. I asked Elder Green, "Whose bike is that?"

"I've been everywhere, I'm like an institution..." - Matchbox 20

Dear family & friends,

I would like to start this email by sending a thank you to: (I hope I don’t miss anybody, this is from memory…)

Bryce Huff, Kevin Day (and family), The Williamsons, Coach Talley, Brad & Ethan, Coach T, Stokton, Sarah Peters, Michael Peters, Trish & Russ Peters, Mark Peters, Grandma & Grandpa Peters, Colter Blanchard, Danny Tumblin, Colton Rimann, Tanner Satchwell, Caleb Satchwell, Logan McKay, Zach Wilde, Emmanuel Bondzie, Gabriel Liera, the Christopherson family, Steve Lindsay, Elder Perry, Elder Herrod, Elder Mantz, the Satchwell family, Kaity Datwyler, Jordan Barnett, Papa Hill, Nicole Wood, Kimball potter, Alex “the girl” Tanner, Johnson family, The Sprague’s, Elder Ward, Tatum (Beard) Smith, Elder Rayl, Sister Meyer, Josey Hedquist, Matt Page, Elder Aposhion, Karen Stoker, Josh Peters, Lance and Kellie Moss, Linda Van de Merwe, Bruce and Julia Johnson, Alexa Peters, Nate Hodgson, and The Kaysville 9th Ward Primary. (Sorry if I didn’t get everybody’s names…) Thank you all so much for the letters you wrote! I will do my best to send personal emails to all of you and thank you, but I wanted to tell all of THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH! You guys made my birthday SO awesome! That was the best thing I have ever received on my mission!

"I packed your ANGRY EYES just in case..." - Toy Story 2

Happy 20th Birthday Elder Peters!!!

Dear family & friends, 

It looks like it does gonna be at least 9 months for me in Larte'b. I'm happy because I don't have to pack up all my stuff. Elder Pohlsander and I are staying together. I'm excited because I will get to work on my 5k plan with the stake president and the other missionaries in my zone. 

"Takin' my time on my ride" - Twenty One Pilots

Elders Peters and Pohlsander at the Accra Temple. 

Dear family & friends,

Sometime last week I got a call from sister Munro that I needed to arrange a trip for some elders in my zone to go and renew their non-citizenship cards in the mission home on Thursday, and that Elder Pohlsanders long awaited package was there in the mission home and the elders could come and pick it up and take it back to him. So I called up Elder Fryar and elder Ngoy and told them the travel plans and then asked them if they could retrieve any mail that they find in the mission home and they said they would. I told Elder Pohlsander about this and he was so excited, maybe a little too excited. 

"Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave." - Madagascar

Pure happiness with a bunch of kids who just got out of school.

Dear Family & Friends, 

This week had its highs and lows. The best news of the week is that Eva got baptized! It wasn't very easy though. Our chapel hasn't had water for the last 3 weeks and the polytank has been completely empty.

"What is your quest? What is your favorite color?" - Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail

Dear Family & Friends, 

On Friday our shop woman's daughter was getting married over in Korle-bu area. We see her everyday, help her move things in her shop and even use her washing machine on P-days. She is really awesome and she invited us to attend her daughters ICGC (International Central Gospel Church) wedding.

“What’s in the bag? Uhh…chocolate chip cookies. FOOD!!!” – Bedtime Stories

Dear Family & Friends,

The weather has been nice especially today. Right now the sky is clouded and rain is falling, but so lightly that it kinda floats down like snow. The air is cool. The dust is absent, because of the rain. Its nice. But it does get cold at night, last night was COLD 

This week I did 3 baptismal interviews! Our zone is doing really good. Oh ya we are the smallest zone in the mission right now, only 14 elders.

"I may not know Karate, but I know crazy!" - Shanghai Noon

Photo from Elder Cristopherson. P-day on the beach. Out to see the lighthouses.

Dear Family, friends and adamfo,

Apum wey? (what's up?)

This week was a really crazy one. It started with Elder Ferrin going home on Monday. It was hard to say goodbye to him. Then Tuesday was transfers. We had two elders coming to our zone to replace the sisters in their former area and they had no idea where the apartment was, they had no phone for the area and are completely whitewashing it. I had no idea where the apartment was either; it was the sister’s apartment I never had a reason to go there.

"Remember the good ol' days" "Which good ol' days" "Oh..ya know, yesterday, last week" - Ice Age



The Accra KFC.  Elder Perry, Elder Peters, Elder Pohlsander and Elder Babira enjoy some extra crispy Americana. (they didn't eat there...too expensive) The bigger question here though is what the heck is Elder Peters wearing on his feet? (turns out that he inherited Elder Ferrin's All-Stars)

Dear Family & Friends,

 

It has been a really good week. Some days are hard, usually they are really awesome, it’s funny because every time I see or talk to Elder Perry we have pretty awesome conversations but we tend to reminisce a little, at first it was about high school, now it’s about mission, and what we have discovered our friends all over the world are doing. These are good days!

 

Photo from Elder Christopherson, shows the missionaries helping repair the fishing nets.

Last Tuesday we went out to the beachside in the morning and I met up with Godlives and his dad. They took us to their friends who speak strait Ga and I learned how to fix fishnets. It was awesome. It took some work but at the end I was doing pretty good. We climbed up into their giant canoes. And they had this big ‘ol pile of fishnets in there. The nets holes were about a 1 inch square and you use a needle about the size of my finger to weave the thread in and out to tie new knots and repair the net. Also you have to pinch the net in-between your big toe and pull it really tight so that the knots will be tight as you are tying them on your finger. I’m looking forward to doing it again next week.

 



Closer Picture of the Elders in front of KFC.

On Friday we had the coolest lesson I’ve had for a while. In the morning as we were studying I was looking over our plans for the day and I had this thought that I should invite Bishop to our lesson at 6 with Joseph and Belinda. At first I was kinda fighting it. I had actually had the idea for a few days but I hadn't made the appointment with Bishop thinking he would say, no, I won't have time. So what’s the use in calling? eventually I had elder Pohlsander call him, and he was available to come with us. Bishop Chris served in the Ghana Accra mission back in 2002. His last area was even Laterbiokorshie. So when we went and introduced him to Joseph and Belinda at first it was kinda awkward, but they broke the ice pretty quick and I initiated the start of the lesson. at first I was trying to take turns talking and giving Bishop time to talk and Elder Christopherson (we were on splits) to talk, but eventually Bishop just went full-missionary mode and me and Elder Christopherson just sat there and listened to a master teacher expound! It was sweet. I learned SO much from that lesson and it has completely changed the way I will teach someone the restoration.

The way I have been teaching the restoration my whole mission goes a little like this: 

1. God is our loving Heavenly Father

2. Because He loves us, He has given us His gospel which is taught to us by prophets

3. Not anybody can call themselves as a prophet -explain priesthood

4. Prophets taught about the coming of Jesus Christ

5. When Jesus came he established his church on apostles and prophets (Eph 4:11-14) and he gave Peter the keys to run the church (matt 16:18-19) 

6. Those apostles were killed so the church was lost. Many different churches arose.

7. Confused, Joseph Smith asked God what to do, who told him not to join any of the churches.

8. Eventually Joseph Smith was called as a prophet and given priesthood authority. The church was back.

9. Oh ya and he translated this record called the book of Mormon that is also the word of God. 

 

I have made it sound better than what I have written but basically that’s what I was saying and I realized as Bishop taught, he didn't talk much about the church, but more about the gospel which are two different things. He taught more like this:

 

1. God is our loving Heavenly Father

2. Because He loves us, He has given us His gospel which is taught to us by prophets

3. Not anybody can call themselves as a prophet -explain priesthood

4. Prophets taught about the coming of Jesus Christ

5. Jesus Christ taught us the gospel. His apostles wrote it down. They were given authority to baptize (same scriptures as before)

6. As the followers of Christ were persecuted they many of the records kept pure and correct were lost or destroyed. People fell into the dark ages and they suffered. Eventually they realized how much they needed God and started to try to find these records of Christianity.

7. Good people did their best under intense persecution to translate these records, and by so doing they recognized errors in the churches they were attending and founded their own organizations to try to follow Christ. 

8. This confused Joseph Smith, and made him wonder where he could find the true gospel. So he prayed to ask God about it

9. God told him that their teachings were not correct, they were close, but not quite there. They also didn't have the authority

10. Joseph Smith was led to an undisturbed record that contained pure doctrine from Jesus Christ. There he discovered the need for authority

 

It was so cool to watch him teach about the restoration of the GOSPEL of Jesus Christ instead of the restoration of the CHURCH of Jesus Christ. After all it says right on the pamphlet the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It reminded me of something that President Snow said, “We don't want to help anybody come to church, we do want to help people come to Christ"

Its crazy how much you learn and how much you are always trying to improve and change on a mission.

 



We discovered that a member lives near a lady that we buy fruit from in the evening time and decided to go and find his house. We found it but he wasn't home, but as we were in the compound I started speaking Twi with this woman pounding fufu. Her name is Dorin. She has one little boy and one little girl and she lives with her husband. We gave her a Restoration pamphlet and then said we would come back on Saturday cuz that’s when she could meet with us. Now knowing what I did about the restoration message that I learned from Bishop Chris I taught that way for the first time and her whole demeanor changed as the lesson went on. She told us that when she first saw us she was a little freaked out because people had spread rumors that Latter Day Saints were a cult-secret-society thing and we were there to just try to win her over to our church. But as I talked about the gospel and how much it blesses families, that really that’s what we are all about. There was a spark of interest in her eyes. We will see what happens this week with her and her family. Her dad is a reverend and she goes to his church so that might be kinda hard but we (us and the spirit) got this!

 

On Saturday night Angel (Leslies 4 year old sister) had her birthday. It was after choir and it was like 8:30 and I was really tired and was debating in my mind just going home, but I thought about how I promised her that I would come and bring her something and how much I hate it and distrust people when they don’t come through with me so I went to our shop woman and bought a chocolate bar and a pack of cookies and we went to angels house. We played “hot-and-cold”, and I tried to teach them about the “bonk on the head” tradition that we do when we are giving presents but I got up there to do the little rhyme and I forgot it! How bad is that! I still can't remember! It’s been bugging me all week! Anyway it was really fun and I am super glad that I took the time to go and do that for her.

 

I'm so happy that I will be staying here in Lartebiokorshie! This ward rocks! when I get transferred from here I am going to ask President Simpson if I can finish my mission either here in Larteb or in Korle-bu cuz I love this ward so much!

 

Watching Elder Ferrin pack up and leave has been weird. thought you guys would be interested to know that I have 152 pages in my journal so far, so I am working on documenting the events of my mission better for this next year. Also I think I have about 700 pictures, so I need to do better with taking pictures as well. 

 



Mom, that is a super cool apron, where did you get it? I had a backpack made in a market that is that same kind of material. Very colorful all different swatches. Just so you know there are several different types of material. They all have names. I think your apron is “basa-basa” (Twi for “nonsense”). There is also angelina, kente print, and battique. 



Some types of Ghanaian fabric patterns.

You asked me “What was the 'stuff' Pres. Simpson wanted you to bring to the mission home?” I found this packet of papers in a manila envelope that pres hill gave to elder Gabriel and elder sharp when they were zone leaders in Lartebiokorshie. It has some papers on how to be a good leader, what qualities make you more effective as a leader; ideas for making things run smoothly in the mission like district and zone meetings. Exchanges, ideas for how to give missionaries correction. He wants me to bring it to MLC to share it with him.

You also asked: What did you do for the birthday program? We were actually really late to Sis. Ramie’s b-day party. We basically were fed Rice and Stew. It was really good though!

Mixing Fufu

Write to us a little more about “affliction week”: Ok so we get 400 cedis of subsistence for 4 weeks. If you budget that out right you will get to eat decently for that time. if you ever splurge and decide to buy something like a candy bar at a gas station or just exceed more than 3 cedis a meal then the last week you will suffer cuz you won't have $. Things like drinks other than water, meat, or anything in a nice container or can (especially if it’s from abroad) will eat up your sub so fast! Our shop woman got a Capri Sun from somewhere and is selling it for 5 cedis! You may be asking, why only 3? That doesn't add up. If you include transport (taxi's) for 4 weeks, cafe (for 4 weeks), and soap for washing and toiletries you can only eat on about 280 cedis a month.

 I am excited to see Thomas when he comes! I really loved the advice that he gave in one of your previous letters, I am excited to get more advice! I love you all a ton!

 

More to come next week!

 

Love, Elder Peters

 

800 M

Playing games with some local kids

Half way.
Dear Family, 

It’s weird to think that I have been out for one year. The third lap (in a 1600 M race) is always the most gutsy, and it makes or breaks the race so here we go. 

"We can stay up late, swapping manly stories, and in the morning, I'm making waffles!" - Shrek

Gifts from home make missionaries smile!

Dear Family & Friends,

This week has been a crazy one!

To start off Elder Pohlsander got a staph infection in a very inconvenient place. On Tuesday evening it got to the point that he couldn't proselyte so I took him to the mission doctor, Dr. Anderson. He is a cool guy; he covers all of West Africa so it was good that he was here in Ghana. We hoped in a taxi and cruised over to the area office (also lucky that that is so close) and Dr. Anderson checked out Elder Pohlsander. He prescribed an antibiotic and told us that if its not improving call him on Wednesday afternoon, he would slice the sore open and drain it. So we went over to the Move-n-Pick, one of the few pharmacies in Accra area that would have Elder Pohlsanders meds and that place was SUPER NICE!! It was weird to go in there. Anyway we got him on his meds and went home. The next morning he was still in a lot of pain, and wasn't feeling up to going anywhere. So as the afternoon approached we called Dr. Anderson. He said, all right! Bring him in lets slice him open! So Elder Pohlsander and I picked a taxi to the mission office and it was gory! It was funny because Dr. Anderson was pretty busy, kinda like mom cooking a crazy meal in the kitchen. At one point he tossed me this sack of fluid and stuffed this giant seringe into it and filled it up. Never thought I would help a Dr. do surgery on my mission before. It was to flush out Elder Pohlsander's wound. After the ordeal was over, I asked Dr. Anderson, what can I possibly do to avoid this? He said, "Oh nothing really, it just happens sometimes" in my head I was thinking, "WHAT?!!!"

So later that night I got a call from President Simpson to tell me that they have worked out a solution for me and my companion. So Elder Pohlsander was to go and enjoy in the mission home, and I was to be taken to Maamobi to be companions with Elder Mapinda for however long it takes until they could return my companion to me. So the next morning Elder Pohlsander and I took off to the AP's apartment and met them at a gas station near their house and Elder Pohlsander hoped in their truck and Elder Jackson (elder Mapinda's companion) hoped out of the truck and said, "Let’s go" and that was the extent of our conversation with the AP's.

Elder Jackson and Elder Mapinda (of Milawe) are super cool guys and have an awesome missionary mindset. It was fun to try to learn some of Elder Mapinda's local language and hear his awesome conversion story. He has been a member of the church for a little more than a year now. One of the missionaries who baptized him is still on his mission in Milawe. I thought that was SO COOL! We went proselyting with one of Elder Liera's recent converts named David. He was a funny dude, who is mad at all the girls that he is trying to date that keep asking him if he is a returned missionary and drop him as soon as he tells them when he was baptized. I kinda felt bad for him, but he was a fun dude to talk to throughout the day. Elder Jackson is also a cool guy, worked at Camp Bartlet and grew an awesome Brigham young style beard for a play when he was in high school. He also served with Elder Friday in Lartebiokoshie in the area I am trying to re-open and had this awesome map of member’s houses in one of his study journals and we had a pretty awesome conversation about that.

Then after an awesome day of proselyting with Elder Mapinda, at 9:37 PM (yes I remember it very clearly) I got a call from President Simpson. He said, "Umm, Elder peters. Will you be coming to the mission home tonight?" I said, "Ya know president I have no idea. The AP's took Elder Pohlsander and Elder Jackson hoped out of their truck, so I assumed that I would be staying the night here in Maamobi." President:"Oh OK, that’s fine. Sister Simpson just cooked this really nice meal for you and we were wondering if you were coming back for it, but its OK I guess we will maybe see you tomorrow!" click. The phone went off. I MISSED AN AWESOME SAMOAN MEAL!!!   I texted the AP’s and told them what happened, they said: “Sorry we didn't know, we will see you tomorrow”.

The following morning came. No news from the mission so we just went about our day like normal. Elder Jackson had to come up with stuff to do because all the sudden his area got split in two so he could cover two times the number of appointments. So we went out proselyting that morning. After our first lesson we got a call from the AP’s saying that they took Elder Pohlsander to the doctor, and Elder Perry also showed up with the same problem but in his armpit, so they would be hooking me up with Elder Babira and sending us back to enjoy our area's and Elder Perry and Elder Pohlsander would go to the mission home to enjoy root beer and milk.

If only President Simpson knew what was going on when he
calls missionaries that are posing for photographs

So I got to be companions with Elder Babira for a day and a half. The AP's drove us back to the Mamponse apartment so that we could pack up Elder Babira’s stuff for a stay at my apartment, Elder Perry was in the car and so I got to enjoy a nice conversation with him for a while. Elder Babira is from River State Nigeria and speaks Kana. He wants to go to BYU Idaho after his mission and prays that he will be able to get a visa. He is the coolest guy. I have been on several exchanges with him and have watched him progress and he is an AWESOME missionary. it has been interesting to watch how he has progressed SO WELL. Elder Perry has done an awesome job training Elder Babira. He is a full functioning missionary independent of his companion.

After a really cool day of proselyting with elder Babira, we taught some really cool lessons. We also sent him on a split with his former MTC companion Elder Christopherson, so that Elder Ferrin and I could bike like crazy far to this place called Sakaman to interview the sisters’ baptismal candidate. Then back. A few hours after I got back the AP’s called and said that Elder Pohlsander and Elder Perry are good to go home, they need to be home for Church the next day. And then they showed up in a taxi and that was that.

Elder Pohlsander said that Sis Simpson told him to go to church and then rest for the rest of Sunday. So that’s what we did, until we found out that Lisa (the white lady from Utah) came to Korle-bu ward and invited us over for chicken noodle soup. We had told sister Princess that we would try to come to her place to help her make some fufu so we went and did that and then took off to Korle-bu area. Lisa brought my contacts and mom's home-made cookies. That was super awesome. I learned some cool stuff from our visit that I need to record somewhere so I can stow it away for future reference (maybe) it’s easier to get sponsors doing humanitarian work in Ghana than as a student. A 3 and a half week trip to Ghana that includes doing humanitarian work, visiting mole national park and safari, visiting cape coast castle, and Kakum national park rope bridge, and several other cool events costs $4000 per person. That includes flight tickets, housing, and food and everything mentioned prior. So I’m gonna sock that info away, but hey who knows maybe it will come in handy some day.

In my scripture study this week, (which I did a lot of during down time) I was reading in Ether. I don't remember the exact chapter because I read a lot of them, but I found this story in them. At some point Jared and his brother (the brother of Jared) were getting old. So they decided to have a big conference with all of their people and ask them what their last request would be. The people asked if they could have a king. and I can just picture Jared and his bro sitting next to one another and the brother of Jared said, "surely this thing leadeth to bondage" (I do remember that part) but Jared says, ‘naah it can't be that bad, plus we want them to be happy so who would you like to be your king?’ It doesn't say much about the brother of Jared’s reaction but I’m sure he was frustrated. C’mon bro? You know this is a bad idea, why won't anybody listen to me? It must have been hard. As I got thinking about it I realized that every king, prophet, captain, or leader in the Book of Mormon has enemies. I am beginning to realize that you truly can't please everyone, and trying to do so only makes you an indecisive hypocrite. You can't have a summer home in Babylon as Pres. Ucthdorf would say.

Keep Elder Pohlsander in you prayers, he is recovering and doing well, but you never know what could happen.

Mom - Thank you so much for the cookie! And the contacts! the real treat with the cookie isn't the sugar in it, but the fact that I get to think about you making it, all the memories I have of making cookies with you, snitching cookies when you weren't looking, the story you told me last week about meeting Lisa on the highway and getting stuff to her to take to me! It means a lot. I love you a ton!

I love you all!

Love, Elder Peters

When you haven't had chocolate milk for over a year and
someone gives you Hershey's syrup and some Milk to mix it in...this
is a totally normal reaction.

Look a that happy face stirring his chocolate milk!

The other elders sampling the chocolate milk though Twizzlers Straws...