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| The morning after a huge rain storm. |
Dear Family & Friends,
Lots of
unexpected things happened this week. First off on March 6th is Ghana's Independence
Day and it was also Sunday so a lot of people didn't come to church. I was in Bawjiase
this week and it was cool because we had a pretty crazy storm this past week
that ripped the roofing off of the building that we have been meeting in out
there. And it wrecked everywhere but where we meet for church. I took a picture
because I thought it was so cool. The members there were really excited about
it, it was fast and testimony meeting and almost all of them said in their
testimony that they knew that God was watching out for them in Bawjiase because
he saved the part of the building where the roof was still intact. It was a
cool experience for me too because I realized that we can choose to build our
faith. Often times we talk about having faith building experiences, well the
word “having” is kinda passive. Those members chose to make something a faith
building experience. They took something rather small and what some would even
consider coincidental and chose to let it bring them closer to God. I learn so
much stuff everyday...
For Independence
Day people march. I thought this was kinda weird, I asked someone, "what
do you do for independence day?" after explaining the elaborate
festivities that take place in Kaysville. They said, "We march and salute
the flag." and that is exactly what they do. Schools will march down the
road and they even have some sort of a marching contest in Accra. Its not a
marching band, they just march as a big group of students, sometimes there’s
something like a drum line but they mostly just march. I thought that was kinda
a weird way to celebrate but its cool.
This past
week we have been looking for new people to teach so we have been arranging a
lot of Family Home evenings with members to ask and find part member families,
less actives, referrals. one day we had like 4 appointments fall through in a
row and decided to carry our DVD player around and ask, "who wants to
watch a movie?" a lot of people just kinda sleep during the hot hours of
the day, and often when we ask them if they want to learn they say they are
busy, mostly because they don't want to strain themselves. But a movie, ok, I’ll
watch a movie. So we contacted several people we are working with now that way.
If you have any creative ideas for finding new investigators that you have
heard of or other missionaries that read my emails let me know. I’ve heard of
like offering free haircuts, and some other cool stuff but I would like to do
more stuff like this. It really makes people smile. Elder Kaelin and I are
thinking of finding people by basically becoming street performers for a couple
of hours. We got kush-ka's, a type of Ghanaian
percussion instrument and we also have our guitars and we were thinking of
sitting in market and playing hymns while Elders Brown and Herrod pass out
pamphlets and take phone numbers. I think we would get quite a crowd. I heard a
story about some missionaries in Kumasi who were invited by a pastor that they
had contacted to teach the entire congregation for a service and they basically
baptized all 40 people in the church including the pastor. So who knows? I will
let you know if we ever do it.
This past
Saturday we ran home from a rainstorm that we could see coming and made it home
just in time. It rained for several hours and then we decided that we needed to
go see Simon Nortey and remind him to be early for his confirmation the next
day and so we trekked to his house. As we went outside. I could see giant bolts
of lightning in Accra (you can always tell if it will rain because it will come
from Accra) so I suspected that it wasn't over yet; that this was just a lull
in the storm. But we went anyway. It wasn't raining for the walk to Simon’s
house but about half way through the lesson it sounded like a dump truck was
dumping a load of marbles on the roof and we realized, it was POURING rain. It
was about 9 at night by this time and we had to get home. So we stepped outside
of Simon Nortey's compound into the river that was flowing down the road. I
would have taken a video but my camera was out of battery. It was literally a
river. I sent home a picture from the next morning by a house in the same area.
We got home soaked and I took a shower in the rain outside behind our apartment
it was so nice. Also it was “light out” this whole time so none of our
utilities were working (including our sink, toilet, and shower. no electricity
no water pressure)
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| This is how the "rains in Africa" soak you all the way through |
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| Kinda looks like Indiana Jones in this one... |
This past
Wednesday we had a Zone Conference and we were encouraged to make a map of our
area and to work with the members. So I have spent a lot of time coordinating
with the people in our area. I realized that often times in the past
missionaries would contact somebody, they would come to church a few times, the
missionaries would teach them all the lessons, their district leader would
interview them for baptism. The missionaries would baptize them, get transferred
and the members of the ward would have no idea they even exist. So I am working
a lot to make Kasoa an area that has a good hand drawn map of the area with member’s
houses on them and ways to get there, their phone numbers. And coordinating it
with the area book so that future missionaries will be able to just dive right
in with the members because the members truly are key to the work.
Simon traveled to Cote de Ivorie
to sell cars for the week, at least that’s what we thought until we went by his
house and he was still there. That was kinda awkward.
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| Is it a motorcycle? or a Truck? |
Simon Nortey is really progressing in the gospel and making friends in the ward. He is such a stud.
Abell Osei is working on his Duty
to God; he is trying to get his family to join him at church.
Things are
going good, I’m really happy to be in the service of the Lord.
I think we
have a transfer coming up and I’m pretty sure that I will be leaving because I
have spent 1/4 of my mission here in Kasoa. (6 months now) I have really
enjoyed training Elder Herrod, he is a great guy who wants to just WORK which
is awesome, I love it. Truly the key to missionary work is work. As long as you
are trying, something will happen. its like captain Moroni who sent his spies
to follow the Lamanite army and also sent some dudes to go ask alma (the
prophet) where the Lamanites will go. He shows his faith by his works. Same for
us, we pray then get on our feet and get to work. It rocks!
I love you guys!
Love, Elder Peters
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| Elder Peters and Elder Perry found each other at the mall on P-day...both wearing their Cross Country shirts. I think this was a very happy day for them both. |
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| With some kids from the ward. |
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