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| 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.”
His area Gbawe “is really hilly and we are teaching a lot of people. Missionary work here is slower because it’s a richer area and most people are at work all day, but we are working small small.”
He ran two miles in the 30 X 30
foot compound area. “My first mile was around 8 min, my second was 7. I ran like 15:03! I was pretty happy with it
considering that I was turning 180 degrees every 8 seconds or so.”
He sent us this link: https://beta.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-02-2000-mormon-missionaries?category=missionary/introduction-to-mormons&lang=eng
to a video that shows some clips of what it’s like to proselyte in Africa.
So here is his big letter:
Dear Family & Friends
Some weeks I really have to think
hard to come up with something to fill an email with, others SO much happens
that it is hard to contain in one email. This week was one of those
weeks.
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| Learning to take care of a Chicken farm. |
It started with an experience of
trying to feed chickens. We have a recent convert family that we went to help
feed their chickens and collect the eggs. As I stepped into the chicken barn
(is that what you call it? it wasn't a coup, coups aren't the size of
basketball courts...) I had all these movie scenes flash through my mind,
namely parts from chicken run and when Mr. bean looses his train ticket in a
sea of chickens like the one that stood before me. My job was to yield the
beating stick (a broken palm branch) to shoo the chickens away from their eggs
and to hold off the hoard from the little bins that we dumped their food
into.
The next morning I got up, did my
personal study and hopped in a trotro to Odorkor to go on an exchange. I would
be going with a young missionary (7 weeks old on mission) named Elder Uko from Nigeria.
As I met with him to finish up companion study I wanted to talk with him to get
to know him. I usually do this on exchanges for the first time so we can function
as companions as best as possible for the day. At some point in our conversation
he asked me a question that required me to explain that EVERYONE in Utah is a
member of the church. I told him to imagine that everyone in this compound is a
member and everyone in the next compound, everyone you talk to on the street,
everyone in that shop over there. They are ALL members. I told him we have 2
missionaries in our stake of 8 wards, 200+active members in each ward. I have
only had the missionaries physically in my house twice. His eyes filled with
wonder and awe at such an idea. I went on to tell him that it's not as good as
it sounds. I explained to him that people take the church for granted,
especially the youth. Because they haven't seen whit its like to not have the
church, they fail to see why it is so special. Many members ACT like they
aren't members until Sunday rolls around. I told him I’ve never seen or had an
interaction with a Baptist, Pentecost, Presbyterian, catholic, or Muslim until I
came here to Ghana. He was shocked. What he told me next shocked me though. He
told me that where he's from the Muslims aren't like they are here in Ghana; Muslims
in Ghana are "nice". He told me about how, in his hometown in
northern Nigeria, he has SEEN fathers conceal explosives to their kids and send
them into Christian churches and detonate and kill everyone inside. He said,
"Every week, before we walk to church, my family prays that we will be
safe at church." He told me about how there are bands of thieves that will
lay houses hostage and that do all sorts of brutal things to people. Kinda makes you feel sick
the last time you made some excuse for sleeping through sacrament meeting huh? After
talking to him about what the church is like in parts of Nigeria, how it is
such a beacon of hope and light among darkness, I’m so grateful to have the
gospel in my life
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| Baptism Day for Christina and Emmanuella |
Saturday morning I got up at 5 am
to go to the temple to see the Eluwa family sealed! It was so cool! It was the
first time I have ever seen a sealing before and it was so cool! Made me think
a little bit about what it will be like to one day be sealed to my wife. The
man officiating the sealing was really really old and was kinda going a bit
over the top with some stuff that he was saying before the family when to the
altar and it reminded me of the marriage in Princess Bride. Hannah and
Darlington's youngest daughter Jackie (2 years) was really frightened because
she was the last one to go to the altar and everyone was looking at her so she
started crying A LOT and so I got up and moved to the other seats behind her so
she couldn't see us (it was just me, my companion, elder Dy, and his companion
at the sealing) and the others followed so Jackie calmed down. Their two little
girls will have their birthdays this week and so my companion and I are trying
to figure out a little present that we can get them.
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| Beautiful view of Elder Peters Area |
Ok so I thought I had a lot to
write about but I really am scraping the bottom of the barrel now. I bought Pricilla
(a recent convert) a hymnbook at the temple. Also Christina and Emmanuella were
baptized so that was awesome!
Being a missionary rocks!
Love, Elder Peters
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| The "Coolest Gingers" in Ghana...according to Elder Ngoy |
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