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, father, mother, son, bush, city, born, apostate, TC, and a bunch of other weird words you'll probably hear me say at home but one of the words is "Die" if a missionary is "dying, dead or will die" it means he isn't finishing his mission strong. This week marks my last transfer and as the transfer news came on Saturday night
I had a strong impression not to die! I don't want to die, I want to live!

Elder Ofosu Hene will be transferred to Anumapopem (deeper bush than Kade actually, I kinda feel bad for him he thinks because he's a Ghanaian and can speak fluent Twi he will spend his whole mission in little tiny villages which can be really hard because that’s where illiteracy, poverty, and things are the most challenging with missionary work) I will receive Elder Parker of Idaho! He is the same age as Elder Ofosu Hene on mission and this will be his second area.  Tomorrow he will travel here, so I think I’ll just study in the morning and then clean the apartment with Elder Beall while we wait for our companions to get here.

On Tuesday we went to Akwatia. (Every Tuesday and Saturday we take a 20 minute taxi ride to a smaller town outside of Kade called Akwatia). We have a small band of recent converts there and we are trying to build it up small small. We spent a lot of our time there this week trying to help Bro. Agypong (he was baptized this past December and he's been called as the 2nd councilor in the Sunday school presidency) to prepare a lesson on the plan of salvation for the adult Sunday school class. We told him to prepare and then he could practice on us so that he wouldn't be as nervous on Sunday. It was fun to talk about the plan of salvation with him and explain some basic principles of that plan that are easily forgotten because of the "Christian culture" of Ghana. Things like God not being a spirit, but having an immortal body, that the fall of Adam and Eve was a necessary part of God’s plan, that all of us will inherit kingdoms of glory and there is more to life after death than just heaven and hell. These simple truths are things that members of the church take for granted, but can also cause a lot of dispute with other faiths and you have to be careful as a missionary when teaching these things that they don't distract from your purpose of motivating people to act on commitments, and not just discuss the bible.

This Drunk guy contacted me in market while we were on our way to an investigators house. We told him we work by appointment so we couldn't sit down with him there in his shop, and that someone is expecting us to come at this time, but that we would be happy to meet with him another time (when he was hopefully sober..) I gave him a restoration pamphlet and took his number....three times. It was probably a mean thing to do, but I just wanted to see how many times I could take his phone number from him, cuz he was forgetting stuff in about 20 seconds. No one else was really following our conversation so I wasn't mocking the man, but I felt that I needed to repent of that. Its so cool how repentance works, because I felt way better on Sunday taking the sacrament knowing that I had made a conscious effort to repent.

Elder Herrod and Elder Sakala were making their way out here to go on an exchange with our zone leaders but it was late and they called me and asked me if they could come sleep at Kade (its on the way to Asoum where the zone leaders are) it was about 10 at night when they called me and they got to our apartment at about 10:15. It was fun to talk to my son!

I love you all so much! You are all doing such incredible things at home!

Love, Elder Peters

P.S. congrats Davis on keeping the title! Way to go TEAM!

 

P.S.S. I almost forgot…Emmanuel got Baptized! I didn't get a picture because president has asked us to take pictures before the baptismal service starts but the branch was rushing everyone to start the meeting so they could go home and eat and I didn't get a picture. I will take a picture with him tonight at an FHE with his family.