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,
but I called him that morning like 3 times and he didn't pick up his phone so I guess we will just keep trying. I told him there is no cost, but I think he wasn't listening very well. That has been something difficult to master is giving the most important information in the first visit with someone. The teachings of ALL the different gospel sources we have vary A LOT on this. Some sources say you have to teach your investigator how to pray first, some say you have to explain the first vision first, others say the most important thing to teach in the first lesson is about the Atonement of Christ, or to make the baptismal commitment and teach about Baptism. I could fill this whole email with the different things that missionaries have been asked to do in the first lesson and I have learned that you really have to use the spirit of discernment to not give TOO much information, otherwise you'll confuse your investigator really bad. I usually just like to explain our purpose as missionaries, because so many churches do evangelist work here in Ghana and most of the time people can't distinguish between us and Jehovah's Witnesses, even if you remind them. In fact in the 90's the Government of Ghana froze all activities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because of a Jehovah’s Witness doctrine of not participating in Military units. The Government thought we were Jehovah's witnesses. I usually like to start by explaining that we aren't bible teachers, we are here to invite you to learn on your own, and we can't prove to you from the bible that what we have to share is true. Only God can prove to you that what we have to share is true, and only if you ask Him.
This week we got fed some bankuu by a member who made the peppe with some really rotten tomatoes and they had elder parker running to our apartment for the toilet about 5 minutes after completing the meal. That was pretty funny. I had an experience like that with elder ofosu hene last transfer, where we were really close to our apartment at night and I dropped my bag and ran to our house.
We have spent most of this week contacting members and teaching them about the restoration to help them understand better. When we haven't been doing that we have been trying to find new people that can read and speak English to teach. We had some good success and will be able to have a lot to do this week because of it.
I had a really cool experience with an elder in our apartment who lost his father last transfer and had his funeral this past Saturday, I will tell you more about it when I get home.
We also created this idea of having a "Book of Mormon" class because our branch doesn't diligently do seminary and one of the finding ideas suggested in Preach My Gospel is to start a scripture study class. So we will invite everyone we meet to attend the "Book of Mormon” class. Elder Antwi suggested the idea and said it worked awesome while he was in Nigeria (he got transferred from the Benin City mission back to Ghana.)
I love you guys!
Love, Elder Peters
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