Elder Brandon Peters: July 2016

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.