"You're all clear kid, now let's blow this thing and go home." - Star Wars: A New Hope

On July 5th, Elder Brandon Peters returned home from his mission.

What an amazing day!

Thank you to everyone who has supported and encouraged him along this adventure.

Love you all...

"That's the good part (about finding your dream) i guess, you get to go find a new one" - Tangled

Elders, Antwi, Beall, Evans, Jackson, Peters and Parker...conquering the mountains of Ghana.  Elder Parker is holding a cutlass that they had to use to hack their way though the jungle.

This letter is a day late because the power went out on them yesterday (Elder Peters explains below) but is was worth the wait.

Dear Family,

So it is now Tuesday, the internet cut out last night while i was writing this letter so I bought just enough cafe time to send it to you guys today.

This could be my last email home to you, but I’m not sure. We went to Accra today and so we are getting home late and writing to you.

"I was caught away into an exceedingly high mountain...” - Nephi



The missionaries in Elder Peters area who will be going home soon.

Dear Family & Friends,

I had an awesome week this week and I think I’ll start with today while it’s still fresh on my mind.  (Usually he writes short letters to his family before writing his bigger letter)

This morning I had planned to make the 3 hour trip to Accra to visit some people in Lartebiokorshie. I got up this morning and there was a text on the phone from the Asamankese Zone Leaders asking us if we wanted to come and climb a mountain with them

"Rock of Ages, still a' rollin" - Def Leppard

No photos again this week, but one of Elder Peters former companions posted this image on Facebook that we'd never seen before.  

Dear Family, 

This week we ate some pretty giant balls of fufu, taught the gospel, spoke some small Twi, it was a good week, but kind of a hard week. 

So I made some cool connections with my name this last week. Peter comes from the Greek word "Petros" which means stone,

"All we have to do is decide what do with the time that is given us" - Gandalf

Elder Peters SD card reader has rusted from all the humidity and the computers in the cafe he goes to in Kade keep giving him error messages that it wont recognize his SD card, so we may not get any new pictures until he gets home...dang!

So here are some older pictures just for fun...

Dear Family, 

On market day last week we found a former investigator that I lost track of. We always taught him at his friend’s house (also one of our former investigators) but he stopped us and showed us where he lives and asked us to come and visit with him. That was pretty cool. 

This week was District Conference at Asamankese and we were hoping to have an investigator that we found in Akwatia come,

"He's a rootin' tootin' cowboy from the wil' wild west!" - Toy Story 2

Dear Family, 

My week was hard, in that we were just really tired at the end of the day, but it was good! 

On Tuesday we said goodbye to Elder Ofosu Hene and Elder Beya, I will miss those guys. Elder Ofosu Hene didn't get transferred far and I will actually see him this weekend at a District Conference. My new companion Elder Parker is sweet! He came from a place called Odobeng, which is much more bushy than Kade. He was there for the first 6 months of his mission and as come here to Kade, his second area. He comes from Rexburg, Idaho

I've lived life to the fullest, let this boy die like a man. - Bon Jovi

Elder Peters and his son Elder Herrod.  (He wasn't able to send any photos, so I'm just posting this because they got to spend some time together this week.)

Yo Family,

I just finished reading all your letters for the week and my family is FULLY AWESOME!

There is a whole new vocabulary that you will learn when you serve a mission. A member of our branch pointed this out to me but we have our own missionary “Pidgin English” here in Ghana. Things like "finished, cha, chae, FM,

"But the Lizard? He is going to die" - Rango

Brandon's catch of the day with his makeshift, Bear Grylls style, fishing pole.  Also pretty impressed with Elder Ofusu Hene's green ukulele. Looks like a fun P-day

Dear Family & Friends,

So we had some fun adventures this week. Lots of teaching, lots of trying to find new investigators.

On the roadside women will cut up these giant "yams" and fry them in vats of oil, it’s a typical lunch that we eat. Usually they serve it with ground pepper. This lady happened to be selling avocados as well and so I bought one and put it inside of the bag and squished it up with the pepper and had a guacamole and fried yam lunch! It was awesome!

"I'm just too white and nerdy" - Weird Al

Elders at zone conference. Elder Peters looks pretty dang nerdy in this photo!

Dear Family,

The Biggest news of the week is that we Baptized Kwadwo and Derrick! It was a great service and i got some good pictures! Unfortunately Emmanuel couldn't make it to his baptism but we are planning for another one next week, so all is going well in Kade!

The baptism of  Kwadwo and Derrick! Such an awesome picture!!!

"Why do you look...rugged?" - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Typical Jungle around Kade.

Dear Family & Friends,

Sunday morning I stepped into our little rented branch house and wiped my face with my bandanna. After removing the bandanna from my face I noticed it was now red from the dust that had clung to my face from the taxi ride from Abomosu that I had just taken. I hadn't shaved since Friday, I was wearing the same clothes I had since I had left Kade on Friday. The senior couple, the Ballsteadts, were there for our branch conference and after greeting me and looking at my dusty, shabby appearance Elder Ballsteadt asked, "Did you wake up late?"

"Are we there yet? WE GET THERE WHEN WE GET THERE!!!!!!" - The Incredibles

Riding the tro-tro

Dear Family & Friends,

My Café time is short today, Abomosu Zone is fighting for computers and Elder Beall and I wanted to get here early.  16 missionaries and 3 working computers in the whole zone depending on if there is light, and if there is an internet connection.  Those guys in Abomosu haven’t heard from their families for 2 weeks now. I think they want to come in here and use these computers today.

"You can't say nothin' 'bout TEXAS!!!!" - Sandy Cheeks

Enjoying the work!

Dear Family & Friends,

Yesterday I went on a small exchange with our new Abomosu zone leaders. Elder Ofusu Hene went with Elder Msomi from South Africa (he was with me in the MTC) and I went with Elder Morris of Texas. It was funny to talk to him and catch up. I served with him as a zone leader so I would see him at MLC and other meetings and it was cool to talk to him again. Texas accents are fun.

"I'd stay away from there,That stuff is like broiling hot!" - Wreck it Ralph

Dear Family & Friends, 

This week is transfers and our entire district is staying together. So I will have Elder Ofusu Hene for at least 1 more transfer, but I think that they will take him away from me for my last transfer because he has been here for a long time. The only difference is they split Asamankese Zone and we are now part of Abomosu Zone. 

"Are you gonna have to wear cut-offs? can you wear those with a tie?" - Grandma Satchwell

Elder Ofusu Hene, Elder Beal and Elder Peters.  Elder Peters says that his toe is healing well, that his Twi is coming along nicely and that he LOVES being a missionary. (He's not sure what he's going to do when he comes home in July...) 

Dear Family & Friends,

This morning for P-day we washed our clothes, cleaned our apartment and went to a swampy forest area to catch crabs for this one member family. it was pretty fun, you find a hole and just shove your arm down there and feel around for the crab and then grab it and yank it and all the mud and dirt around it out, and pray it doesn't pinch you.

"It's the fuzz! Scatter!"; - I forgot the movie, but I remember that it's a kids cartoon

Elder Peters was limited on internet café time this week, he had to take a 3 hour tro-tro ride to Accra to see the Mission Doc and get an ingrown toenail taken care of, then the 3 hour ride back to Kade so he could wash all his clothes (by hand of course) and in the middle he was able to squeeze in an hour to write to us.  The excitement of mission life!!!

Dear Family & Friends,

"Prove to me that God exists" I said. The Pastor reached for his bible. "Without the Bible" I said, "the words of a man are not evidence...”. He admitted that he could not prove to me that God existed. I, my companion, and a ward missionary had come to the home of one of our investigators in Akwatia. Esther had another "friend" over who agreed to sit in the lesson with Esther. Turns out it was a small pastor from her church,

"No matter what you do, you have to work hard to be successful" - Elder Ballsteadt

Modeling my sun hat.  

Dear Family & Friends, 

The sun has been hot like crazy this week! But it's been good. We started out our week with a lot of contacting at this town that is about 20 min (by taxi) from our area in Kade. It's called Boada we have 3 members that live there and we are trying to build up the area and I’m sure the hope is to one day make it a branch or a group. Elder Ofosu Hene and I decided to just try to talk to as many different people we could meet there and we found A LOT of Muslims. We discovered that most of Boada is a “zongo”

"Dense, irritating, miniature beast of burden!!!" - Shrek

"Eh, Obruni! Oo ti Twi?" (White man, do you speak Twi?)

Dear Family & Friends,

I'm sure that some stuff I said in my last letter was kind of strange, but I had a fever of 103 degrees Fahrenheit and my head was spinning when I wrote last. I was afraid that I had malaria and called Sister Simpson later that night.

"Now you have a testimony..." - Elder Ofusu Hene



Elder Ofusu Hene, Elder Peters, Elder Beya and Elder Beall on the far right.  The Kade District

Second Title: "I packed your angry eyes just in case" - Toy Story

Dear Family & Friends,

Life in the bush is crazy! Everyone speaks Twi, the first question people ask me is, "O Ti Twi?" do you speak Twi? Its great, but kind of frustrating because they LOVE to hear white people speak their language. Sometimes if missionaries from the U.S. learn Twi very very well people will join the church just for that reason, then go inactive when that missionary moves out, so I am super super blessed to have a Ghanain companion who can speak the language. We are hoping to really work with the members here so that the people who were taught in Twi will be able to stay active cuz their friend who speaks their language is still here. Right now I can hear more Twi than I can speak. 

"Fly you fools!" - Gandalf

"A mission is a bunch of 'hellos' and 'goodbyes'...
it's especially tough when you really love the people you work with. 

Dear Family & Friends, 

I sat in the back of the AP's truck bumping down a dusty hill from the new Gbawe district meeting. Elder Tohouri was talking about transfers and I was reading the most recent new era magazine. We happened to run into them on at the district meeting, it wasn't planned at all, but we convinced them to give us a ride back to our area. Elder Tohouri asked how many new missionaries would be coming, then I heard the conversation change to. "You should give my companion a treat and send him to the bush, he's never been there!!!" 

Moving from Gbawe to Kade is about as far from civilization as you can go. Elder Peters is excited to be 'in the bush'

"Nice outfit, did your boyfriend buy that for you?" - The Amazing Spiderman

Dear Family & Friends,

Just finished washing clothes and stuff, now we are café-ing. This will be my last week with Elder Tohouri, I’m looking forward to it, but I’m also going to miss him a TON.

 

Elder Peters once wrote that a mission is "a lot of hellos and goodbyes" Elder Tohouri has been a great companion and he will be missed.

"Why don't you find it some place to sleep, WHILE I THINK OF A PLAN!" - Monsters Inc.

"HELLO!" from the coolest district in Ghana!



Dear family & friends,



I have more time this week than I have had over the last few weeks.

On Monday I didn't get to email for a very long time because we got home a lot later than expected because of the traffic. I’m sorry I also haven't got a picture of me fetching water at Hannah and Darlington’s house I will try to get one soon. We are going to help them paint their house.

"Well, what are you waiting for? I don't know, something amazing I guess!" - Incredibles

Dear Family, 

I had a email all thought out that i was going to write to you but we went out to Hannah and Darlingtons again to help them fetch water so I only got 30 min this week. 

Beatrice is progressing small small. I'm learning a lot of lessons about patience and work here in Gbawe. We found a lot of new people to teach this week so that's good, but our area is still not up to par for what i want. We are working for something amazing! 

Elder Tohouri has two more weeks left basically and then I will receive a new companion, and I will miss him! 

Sounds like you guys are doing awesome at home! I pray for you all and hope that everything is going well for you! 

Love, Elder Peters

"What were you expecting, an exploding pen? we don't really go for that kind of thing anymore.." - Skyfall

"...sitting on a bench under a palm tree teaching somebody.."

Dear Family & Friends, 

This week was really really fun. A lot happened, and unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures, sorry.

 

On Monday, I will explain why I wasn't able to write last week. Elder Tohouri and I got up and washed our clothes and studied small and then we went to Hannah and Darlington's house. They moved from Gbawe and live about and hour and a half tro tro ride away past Amasaman. We had no idea how far it was until we got there.

"The cold never bothered me anyway" - Frozen

Dear Family & Friends;

So Hamattan is back! Hamattan comes from giant dust storms in the Sahara desert and some of the dust that they kick up lingers over West Africa for a few weeks and it blocks out the sun and makes the weather colder. It gets especially cold at night, I don't know how cold (I haven't seen a thermometer since I came on my mission) but I pulled out my fleece blanket from my suitcase last night and turned off my fan. I'm freezing at night! (I looked it up and during Hamattan the overnight lows can drop into the 50's...)

Bell Lap (the last lap of a distance race when they ring the bell to let the runners know they are almost done)

Dear Family & Friends,

So I actually missed my 6 months to go mark, it was last week, but I really haven't done very good at keeping track. 

To start out this week our District had interviews with President Simpson. Throughout my mission I have had Elders come up to me in private moments and share with me that they are struggling with choosing to not have contention in with their companion (3 Nephi 11:29 can't have the spirit) or to choose to do the right thing (1 Nephi 3:7) I have done my best, but it is also something that I have struggled with throughout my mission.

"I'm Yao, King of the Rock!!! And there ain't nothin you girls can do about it!" - Mulan

This is Sister Munro. She is one of the amazing office missionaries there in Accra who watches over and takes care of our Elders and Sisters. She's always been so good to let us know when packages arrive and she likes to snap photos of the missionaries when they encounter them out and about. It was her birthday last week and Elder Peters made a card for her. 

Dear Family & Friends,

It sounds really cold there in Utah...I'm sweating sitting at the computer here. I washed my clothes, just cafeing now in Weija with Elder Perry so that's pretty cool.

Ya so Christmas has been fun, and it has really given me an opportunity to get to know my area really really well. I feel like I can confidently stand on the top of McCarthy Hill and say, "Yep, I really know this place" Sitting in church and looking around I could name most of the members sitting in the congregation and in my head could locate their houses.