"If you can just muscle your way past the gag reflex, all kinds of possibilities open up!" -Ratitoullie

Dear Friends & Family,

I remember the first time I ate fufu and you really do just kinda swallow it. I’ve been trying to get Elder Christopherson some fufu. I guess that he had some of the powder mix fufu stuff in the MTC, that’s not really fufu though. we gotta get him some REAL fufu.(which is gotta be my favorite food in Ghana now) I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get a motor and piston home because I am having a lady in our ward teach me how to make it sometime this week. 

Throughout this week we have gone to teach Pascaline. On Wednesday we went to her house and she excitedly ushered us inside. Where we met Samuel Offori! Her husband. We have been waiting to finally get to this dude forever! He was so pumped to see us. We were in a bit of a rush because we were trying to get to a meeting with the stake leaders so we didn't have a lot of time to teach him, but we see him more this week. Brother Alex Koffi and his wife Johanna are awesome and are fellow shipping them really well. Pascaline has learned a lot of English since I first met her, she is doing really well with that. Unfortunately her daughter Eva went to boarding school in Asamankase and so she won’t be back until around august I think. Sister Pascaline also has completely given up her tea and her husband will be working on the word of wisdom as well. We use the Book of Mormon story book a lot to teach their family. It’s so cool because it’s about as close as it gets to a comic book of the Book of Mormon. Every time we go we bring Leslie (a deacon in our ward who I carry on the back of my bike) if Ferrin or I can't explain something well enough, he helps us with the Twi. He will be an incredible missionary someday. 

This past week we went on an exchange with the AP's Elder Vandehei and Elder Taylor. We took BANG! The Wild West card game (which is super fun) and Eddy's Pizza. It was a great night. Those poor guys are in a lonely 2 man apartment so we decided to liven it up a little! The next day Elder Taylor took me and Elder Christopherson and Elder Vandehei took Elder Ferrin and the truck (I don't know why Ferrin always gets lucky with these things). It was cool to see how they worked with the members in their area and the relationship they had with their branch president. It was also cool to see that at about 5 in the afternoon, they were struggling finding something to do to fill this 40 min hole that was left. it was nice to see that even the AP's struggle every now and again and just like the rest of us they have these thoughts, "I’m not sure what to do right now, I guess I will have to figure something out.." I think that a lot of missionaries think that they just have this awesome perfect area where they have an army of ward missionaries teaching lessons for them and with them all day every day. It’s not like that at all. It was cool to spend that day with them. 

Elder Ferrin and I have been trying to come up with a cool zone activity for our zone. We have come up with the idea to have a bi-zone activity with Kaneshie zone and play pure water dodgeball and order pizza. We did the math and the pizza should actually be pretty cheap if everybody pitches in for it. More news to come on that one.

Elder Christopherson had his birthday this past Monday after I emailed home and I bought him a chocolate bread and cut it up and squeezed a bunch of fan-ice onto it and froze it small then stuck a match in it and we sang happy birthday to him and then soaked him with a bunch of pure waters on his way up the stairs to bed. I hope he had an OK birthday. I can't really tell if he is homesick, I think he is small. Either way, he's not letting it effect his work. He is a great tri-panion.

I had a couple of cool spiritual thoughts this week that I thought I would share with you guys. On Tuesday morning this past week my alarm went off and I rolled out of bed and said my prayers. I had this thought, "I don't wanna exercise today, I know I will just read my scriptures for a little bit instead...” I was answered with this scripture in 1 Cor. 6:19 "What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" basically Paul was telling me to stop being lazy, your body and your spirit are connected. It you don't take care of them BOTH you’re not taking care of the gift that God gave you. Can you picture the Salt Lake Temple with belly fat? It would just be ugly. You see the awesome Moroni statue at the top, pan down the stunning strait architecture and as your eyes get down to where the doors are and the temple like bulges out on the sides with some belly fat. That would be stupid! It would ruin the temple. So I can't ruin my temple. So I whipped out my Muslim mat and jump rope and got to work. 

I also listened to a talk by Hank Smith about being nice to people. I realized that I need to be a lot nicer to people, especially other missionaries in my apartment. I also realized that I need to have a way better attitude. He says something in the talk that I really liked. He mentioned how a really small thing was considered a miracle to his friend, and though the same thing happened to him he only has bad memories about it. It made him ask himself are their cut-offs for spiritual experiences? Can you picture Mormon assembling the Golden Plates: ok that story is lame, let’s take that one out, Aha! Ammon, this parts great lets through that in. (no I’m sure that he didn't do that) but I’m sure that there were a lot of other cool things that happened in the scriptures that we just don't know about. Perhaps the same thing happens to us sometimes. Maybe we miss out on spiritual experiences because we chose to have such a bad attitude that we didn't see it cuz we chose not to. With that in mind I have determined to try to write more in my journal about cool stuff that happened during the day and where I can recognize that help from on high was there, cuz I know it is. It's just way cooler when I notice it. 

Alexa I have an idea for your summer bucket list: find a way to smash a cake, maple bar, or some sort of other pastry into dads head without him knowing you are coming! That’s my suggestion. Get josh and James in on it too. Dad you've been warned! We’re coming for you! 

That’s cool that you guys are going to hiking. I long to go on a hike SOOOOO BAD! Unfortunately our leaders don't want us to travel far enough to get to any mountains right now. Maybe if I get transferred to the bush I will be closer. Oh ya on exchange with the AP's they basically told me I’m gonna be here for a while. In response to Josh's question about the family history, it’s not so much that people don't have access to the technology as people and their families haven't kept adequate records of birth and death dates. I interviewed a boy for baptism the other day whose mother gave birth to him while she was so drunk that she didn't remember where she was, what day it was, or who his father was. Filling out his baptismal record we guessed that he was 10 because that’s about his size. It’s difficult to go back very far in your family tree (most of the time, there are exceptions -mostly chiefs) here in Ghana.

Mom - I wanted to tell you about Primary here. The other day after a ward council meeting the primary pres. came and asked me to teach the primary some songs that I remember from primary. I taught the Book of Mormon stories with the actions and they LOVED it! They had never heard that one before. Ghanaians love dancing and the young kids love to play games with their hands. I will take a video of this little girl named angel and I playing this cool hand slapping game and send it to you. But because of this they really loved the Book of Mormon stories song. Can you think of any other songs that have cool hand signs and stuff like that? I thought of scripture power. Once there was a snowman wouldn't make sense here, neither would popcorn popping on the apricot tree (what the heck is an apricot tree?) if you could send me the lyrics that would be awesome

Dad - I went on exchange with the AP's. I learned a lot from that exchange. I also learned a little bit about my belief in God. I think there is a reason he wants us to call him Father, cuz his example is seen in our fathers. I look at you and my grandpas. I think about going to Grandpa Peters house and finding him under his truck with his overalls on covered in grease and dirt. When he finds out we are around he slides out from under the hood and breaks into his big grin. Gives us a nice bear hug and we laugh. Our conversations are usually not very serious, but I always learn a ton from him. It’s the same for you. I remember walking outside in the morning while you are lifting weights before school and we smile, crack some jokes, and I head off to school feeling great. And hoping in the car to go get something from Home Depot to fix our house together and just talking in the car. I firmly believe that God is the same way. I don't see him sitting on his golden throne making witty comments to anybody who comes to ask him a question, but I’ll bet he is usually working on something, building something, fixing something maybe he is even covered in celestial dirt and grease, and I bet he tells the best jokes. I'll bet he has a grin that just makes you SO happy, and gives the best bear hugs. 

Shout out to Jaron Erickson, congrats on winning state! Also Congrats to The Darts both boys and girls for their state titles! 

Love, Elder Peters

Elder Scott Herrod ran into Simon Nortey at the Kasoa Stake Conference.  He and Elder Peters taught Simon about the Church and Simon is now preparing to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood!!!

"You know, what do people scream when they see you coming? Like...Look out! Here comes...?!!" - Monsters Vs. Aliens



Sunrise over Accra



Dear Friends & Family,

It’s funny to watch somebody have to learn to cope with people calling them "obruni" all the time again. Elder Christopherson is a really cool guy

"I like these guys! they are funny guys!...just kill one of them" - The Three Amigos

Elder Ferrin, Elder Christopherson and Elder Peters...the Three Amigos

Dear friends & family,

Yes its true we are in a three some (sum?) and yes, Elder Ferrin was my companion before in Mamponse where Elder Perry is now serving. Weird. This week was a lot of just getting business
stuff done and things like that. unfortunately not as much proselyting as I would have hoped for.

When he was a young wart hog, When i was a young wart HOG! -Lion King

WE GOT TO SKYPE WITH ELDER PETERS ON MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!

This is one of the primary boys from the Laterbiokshie Ward

Dear Family,

Today my email will probably be kinda short and I will do my best to answer your questions because I spent all day roasting a pig with a couple of elders from Tonga, Samoa, and Hawaii for our zone today.

"You are who you choose to be!" - The Iron Giant

Chillin' in the Tro-tro.

Dear friends & family, 

On Thursday I went on exchange with Elder Friday (of Nigeria) and it was probably one of the worst proselyting days I’ve had on mission. We had several appointments fall through right after the other and I was stressing out about having the "model area."

"His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy" - Eminem

Stole this from Elder Perry...Elder Peters and Elder Perry got to be companions again for a day, and decided to take a snapshot with a photo of Elder Josh Ward while they were together.

Dear Family and Friends,

You know its HOT when you are sitting in Sacrament Meeting and you can feel drops of sweat running down from your hairline to your eyebrow, slip off of your eyebrow and fall down and roll down your nose, onto your lip and into your mouth so when you stick your tongue out (not that I do that a lot in sacrament meeting) you can taste salt. You wipe your face with your bandana and they just keep coming. It was really really hot this past week.

"You see my beautiful angel son Cal?" - Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Ready for that GQ cover shoot...except your tie is backward...

Dear Family & Friends, 

This week has been a good week. Sometimes on mission you just really get into the daily grind of missionary work and before you know it Sunday has come and then P-day and you get to write home again. The longer you are on mission, the faster the weeks seem to go by. I can't believe that it’s April already. 

A little about my companion:
Elder Miller is from England. His mom is from Jamaica and his dad is from England. He lives in Lester City and the local football team is in the top of the premier league there right now. He wants to be an aerospace engineer when he goes home and he will go home in august. He is a really cool guy and I like him a lot. He is really focused on the work. Right now we are trying to organize a zone activity in which we will have the islanders in our zone roast a pig and play volleyball on a p-day sometime soon. 

He is a great example and we exercise in the morning which is really nice

Elder Miller is in this photo somewhere...and YES on the right is Elder Perry and Elder Peters!

Thank you for the rubber snake that you sent me in the last package. In my new apartment there are six missionaries living here and we also have all these seamstress that work in this sewing shop on our front porch. I started with Elder Friday from Nigeria. He got a huge jump out of it and a good shout too. Then I took it outside. I started to talk to the seamstresses and told them I had something in my pocket that I found behind our apartment and asked them if they wanted to see. Ghanaians are very curious, yet very superstitious people mostly and the snake is closely associated with Lucifer so it is something they are very fearful of usually. I took it out of my pocket and they all ran of our front porch, out of our compound front gate. I showed them it was just fake. Ghanaians also love jokes, they love to laugh and they got a good laugh out of that one. 

I took a picture of our apartment; we call it the "great and spacious apartment" because it’s really really big compared to most other missionary apartments. Elder Herrod and I were very, very clean in our last apartment and when I got here there was seemed to always be a mess. So Elder Miller and our apartment leader wrote a constitution for the cleanliness of the apartment. If anyone has left one of their dishes out past 10 at night then someone is to report it to the apartment leader and qualify themselves for a strike. When you get 3 strikes at district counsel meeting, you get flogged with a cane we bought at a school supply shop for 50 peswes. The whole idea is that we will all be getting ourselves into the habit of checking ourselves and picking up our own dishes.

The photo of their "Spacious" apartment

We have been teaching a lot of people, I’ve got the area down now. today we went to market to get elder miller a new waist bag, the bag of choice by Ghana missionaries, because it doesn't touch your shirt so its a lot easier to keep your shirt clean when you wear one. I quit wearing the strap on my bag and it has cut down my wash time by about 30 min. 

We had a meeting this past Thursday and talked about how to help members become more involved in our work as missionaries. I was reading in a book about missionary work and the author mentioned something about how converts to the church that are strong have a better social transition along with a doctrinal conversion. It’s easy to help somebody understand the doctrine of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints, but it’s really hard to help somebody make the social transition. We have been working with several members of the ward including a member named Leslie (who is 12) and our ward mission leader. Elder Miller has a carriage on the rear tire of his bike and we usually just have our ward mission leader sit on the back of it, or Leslie. I took a video and sent home a few pictures. But it’s pretty funny to watch Leslie just contentedly bouncing along. 

Riding on Elder Millers carriage.

As I was studying and teaching this past week I thought a lot about Jesus Christ. I’ve learned and realized so much more about Him as I have been on my mission. It’s pretty incredible if you think about it that the somebody who was assumed to be the son of a shamed carpenter (Joseph should have been king at the time, but the Romans were in power. he is descended directly of king David.) was sent to save us from death, and also from our sins. Elder Miller and I have been using the because of him video that the church made for Easter a few years ago a lot as we have been visiting less actives and members. The more I watch it and think about Jesus Christ the cooler it is to me that I’ve decided to follow him. I’ve noticed that the Pharisees’ were always going back to "well the law of Moses says..." cuz they weren't willing to accept that God still loves his children so he will send them more. The same has happened to us today. I hear people all the time, "well in the bible it says..." show me in the bible where it says that Joseph smith was a prophet. But they won’t get a testimony on their own until they want to believe. Alma 7:11-13

I thought of the Cloudy with a chance of meatballs quote as I was thinking about Christ’s Atonement. I'm sure it was super hard for God to watch his son suffer and die for us, but I bet he couldn't have been more proud of him. I think back to Dad and mom cheering me on at races and soccer games. Sometimes it would make mom sick to watch. I think God experienced a similar type of feeling as he watched his beautiful angel son do the most fearless, incredible thing in all of history. 

The other day I sat down on a little wooden stool and set my bag in the dirt and opened it up to get out my sword and wrestle with the foes of Satan! We taught brother Hankiel with our Elder’s Quorum President. He is trying so hard to help his wife and small boy, Gabriel, come to the light of the gospel. We, as missionaries, have a good relationship with sister Aggie (his wife) but she never really gives us time to sit down. She is really pregnant with their 2nd child and we help her fetch water, but she isn't really giving us time to teach her. We pray for her a lot, and continue to strive to strengthen their family. She is an awesome woman and is really funny. 

James- Thanks for the drawings.  You are getting really good. I draw pictures in the dirt all the time for people while I am teaching them, especially the Plan of Salvation lesson.

Dad - Happy birthday! I got some kente stuff recently and am gathering things little by little, but I’m not really focused on gathering souvenirs. I try to keep my mind focused on the people I’m serving and the work I’m called to do. It is incredible how much the gospel gives people perspective if they will let it, but it’s sad that some people, even those in the church, choose not to let it help them. You can tell when someone is an active member of the church here in Ghana. They carry themselves different. They act a little different. I remember you telling me about STP one time. It’s totally true. I have never really realized all the work that those of the ward council try to do to help strengthen those in their ward, now that I regularly attend Ward council and PEC I’ve got so much more perspective on that. 

Edler Herrod and Elder Peters on the back of a motorcycle...riding across Kasoa

Mom - how are you? In your last letter you expressed to me that you were really having a WOW changing moment from being a mom of little kids to a mom of teenagers and a missionary. I wanted to thank you for all that you have taught me and especially the things you taught me when I was little. As I have been in lots of members and investigators homes I have realized all of the little things that little kids are taught to do, or not do, that really shape them for the rest of forever. I'm so glad that you taught me to clean my dishes, use a planner, do my best on my homework, etc. it really has made such a huge difference for me as a missionary. Every time I get an email from you, I always leave the cafe motivated to be the comic book super-hero missionary that you envision me to be. (This is based on James’s action figures) I honestly miss you guys a lot, but when I think of you, it only motivates me to work harder. At times when I want to give up, I think of you, or like you taught me Jesus, standing beside me, and think to myself would I do this if they were here? Thank you so much for all that you have taught me and continue to teach me. I love you so much! 

Love, 

Elder Peters