"I love the feeling I get when I'm in the temple"

Elder Eppich and his companion from South Africa - Kade said he is a wonderful missionary.

March 25, 2013

Family,

This week was a pretty awesome week because our district got to go to the temple on Tuesday and that was awesome! I love the feeling I get when I’m in the temple and the temple has AC so it’s super nice!

So just a few things I wrote down to tell you guys were when we are praying at investigators house they will say amen during the prayer when they agree or like something . Also the Doxys (daily pill he has to take for Malaria prevention) that I take are making me sleep talk I swear!! Pretty much every night I sleep talk about something but my comp thinks it’s funny.  The food is awesome, I love it! I’m even staring to love the fish here! I weighed myself the other day and I was 83 kilos. (**some missionaries have a hard time adjusting to the food let alone gain weight  - 83 kilos is approximately 182.6# Kade weighed abouat 175# when he left. He has never been able to gain weight J  ).Also when the lights are off in our area and then they turn back on all the little kids start screaming and running around on the streets because they are so happy for lights again. It sounds like that also when the Ghana team scores a goal but even louder!  

We also have been using electronics more when we teach lessons.  Like with a few investigators we watched “The Restoration” and then Elder Rane has a lot of conference talks on his iPod so we take that with us and listen to it with my little speakers and it brings the spirit so strong!!! So we listen to talks all the time when we are at the apartment.  I really like "A temple for West Africa" by Glen l Pace and also "Be men" by Carlos E Asay and pretty much every Jeffery R. Holland Talk.  We also gave a few of our investigators some hymns to listen to on their little computers and they love it! Oh a little side note, Elder Satiati came to our building and we got to meet him! It was awesome! We are supposed to have two baptisms this week, Prince and Sterling. They are super awesome. They live with their parents but their family doesn’t want to listen to our message. We were suppose to have more but they didn’t show up to church and they have to be at church 3 times to be baptized.  But one of the guys we are baptizing is one of our investigators we found the very first day I got to the field so I hope he can be baptized this Wednesday and then he can baptize his best friend a few weeks later! but my day goes like this....
630 wake up
630-7 work out
7-8 eat and get ready
8-11 personal study, comp study, then training for me
11-3 teach people
3-4 lunch
4-830\9 teach people
9-915 study
915-10 eat, get ready for bed, write in journal,
1015 bedtime!!!

That's pretty much every day except for a few days. So I hope everything continues to go well there and baby Bree is growing big!!

Love you all!

Elder Eppich, Jr.

These are the drinking water pouches they buy along side of the road when there is "lights off" and there is no water anywhere else.

Elder Van Scheltema's homeade mouse trap



Kaneshie District



"Welcome to Africa, Elder Eppich"

Children in Kaneshie

March 18, 2013

Family,

           Atta girl Karigan!! That’s way awesome that you are a finalist for Jr. Miss and I’m so happy for you! The Lord blesses you when you are doing what’s right! You guys are going to be super busy this summer, but will be super fun! So this week was a pretty good week, and it started off with zone training with President Judd, it was awesome.

 I finally got the proper introduction to Ghana this last week....throwing up and having super bad diarrhea, we had to go straight to a filling station and I barely made it. It was a rough day and then the lights were turned off at night that made it worse because of no fan and it feels like a real green house lol but Elder Ujifusa and I just slept outside on our bed and in our net and it was super legit!! There was a nice cool breeze going and we slept good! We’ve done it the last 2 nights now. It reminds me when we were kids and sleeping outside Haha so it was awesome!!

I forgot my little note thing that has all my things I wanted to tell you guys but I left it on accident, so I’ll try my best to say everything. So right now we have about 17-20 investigators that are suppose to get baptized if they come to know the gospel is true (which they would if they would actually do their commitments but out of all those maybe 6 if we’re lucky will be baptized. We were suppose to have 2 baptism this week but they cancelled it and moved it to next week so hopefully we will have around 4 next week which would be awesome!! And one of the guys that would be baptized is a 23 yr old guy who we met my first day in the field so hopefully he comes to church next week so he can be baptized!! A huge accomplishment for me and Elder Van Scheltema. We also found some solid investigators that have a real strong desire to learn more about the gospel so that’s sweet. Speaking of Elder Van Scheltema, we decided that we are going to be like Elder Cook and Elder Holland because if you read the talk "Can You Feel So Now" by Eder Cook it talks about Elder Holland was one of the first 19 yr old missionary in the England mission in 1960 so pretty much we're probably going to be apostles because I was one of the first 18 yr olds out also Haha. So that spider I talked about last time was found a few days later and we decided to kill it with a shoe so it didn’t get away but the crazy part was that about 4 hrs later the ants took the whole thing completely away!! It was absolutely insane! But the ants here are pretty huge Haha.

 The bleach pen helped a lot because when I was eating fufu last night I spilt some of the soup on me and the bleach pen got it out right away! and before I received the package I was going to ask if you could send some starburst and skittles because I was craving them Haha so well done mom and family :) and if you happen to send a Easter package try and send chocolate (like a symphony bar, dove chocolate, and something else Haha) because the chocolate here is super expensive and not as good as back home. oh and today we were at the market and I was looking at some stuff and then somebody either touched my butt for fun or they tried to pick pocket me so I was a little scared and moved my wallet to my shirt pocket. But I guess right now there has been a lot of stealing so I hid my money plenty well. :) Well I hope I haven’t forgotten too much stuff I love you all and the church is still true!! Elder Eppich Jr.

sporting his new soccer jersey

sleeping outside during "lights off" (no electricty or water)

"I only have small time today"

**Notice how Kade’s language is changing…when he says he only has “small time today”.  I love it!

March 13,   2013

Family,

I only have small time today so probably no pictures and a short letter. So this week was a good week because we had lights on for most the week! But right now they have been off for almost 24 hours :( but I’m getting used to it. So I finally experienced my first Ghana storm and it was crazy awesome! The rain came down so hard and the wind was super strong! It was at night time so I was just waiting for our little tin roof to fly off Haha but it was pretty scary at first. We woke up one morning and there was a huge spider on the wall and so we have a little game where we shoot them with a rubber band but we all missed and he got away, knowing my luck it’s probably in my bed! Oh I also tailored all my shirts for 1 cedi each so now it’s so much nicer because I don’t have all the extra cloth on me. Let sloan-leavitt (insurance company)know that those light pens are amazing and help so much during lights off! Tell Shayne to send me a March madness bracket so I can fill one out haha I miss basketball!  Also thank everybody for all the letters I’ve been receiving lots and they really mean a lot and to keep sending them and I’ll try and reply the best I can. So we still have around 10 investigators with baptism dates but not all will be baptized, which stinks and we normally teach them every other day.  We have an investigator name Bro A___ who is about 50 and knows the gospel is true and been to church about 20 times but he has word of wisdom problem and he is down to 1 cigarette and 1 beer a day which is a huge change but he needs to be complete change to be baptized. Me and my comp fasted for him so maybe just remember him in your prayers would be super awesome! He also has a health condition where he needs a little Gin everyday I guess but who knows.  This last week it’s starting to kick in that I’m still only 18 yrs old and on a mission in Ghana Africa Haha it’s so crazy to think about! All the members in our district are 20 + but I’m still taller than all of them Haha. We get 160 cedis (80 bucks) a month for our subs but we have no propane because there is a propane shortage in Ghana so we have to buy all our food already made. So today we went to circle market and I bought some awesome Toms for 20 cedi Haha I wanted some so bad and then I almost bought another jersey but decided I better wait. Then we went to Accra mall by tro-tro (a little bus system that’s super scary Haha) and it was like I was in America! It was so nice and clean and AC in there. There was also a puma store that had legit soccer jerseys for 80 cedis so when I get more money or maybe for my birthday I'll buy one Haha. Oh and I received janae's package and it was so awesome!! And creative, there was a lot of cute things in it and candy oh and a cute little heart snow globe. Tell her thanks! Also tell Jordan Clark congrats for me that’s way exciting and she leaves a day after my birthday lol. So like I said I only have small time and need to get going I love you all and the church is still true and Ghana is still hot as ever Haha. love ya.

Elder Eppich

My first Baptism in Ghana!

First Baptism -  Richard on February 27, 2013

March 4, 2013

ete sen family?!

(how are you)

Once again I don’t know where to start.  I try and write stuff in my notebook to remember to tell you, but the highlight of the week was my first baptism!!! Richard! Super awesome guy and fun fact for you he was baptized on dad’s birthday!! So my first ever baptism was on my papas birthday!  Richard was the one with a bad job that dealt with the law of chastity and the day after he got baptized he got a new job offer that pays more. It’s so crazy how we are blessed when we are doing what’s right!!! It’s pretty sad though because a decent paying job is around 100 cedis a month which is about 50 dollars in American money! idk how you could live on that but everybody is super happy about it!  I wish you hadn’t sent the package yet I wanted you to send me a symphony bar and peanut butter because even if it melts, we can toss it in the freezer and it gets hard, but its fine if you didn’t...I’ll live lol oh and I found out a few days ago that right now the Ghana Accra mission has the highest baptismal rate in the world!...... but numbers don’t matter,  I just thought how awesome it was. You know I honestly feel bad for the people back home that don’t have any religious beliefs! Everybody here believes in Jesus and it just makes me sad thinking that people don’t want anything to do with religious stuff! That’s one of the reasons why I love the people here! Oh and tell Kortneigh she needs to get as little blanket and wrap Bree up to her back and just wrap something around her whole body to hold Bree - all the African moms do it here and it’s so cute! I tried to take a picture but I thought it would be weird lol just Google it or something. Well this last Sunday we had 6 new investigators come to church and I think they really enjoyed it but the bad thing is like during priesthood meetings since a lot of the members are new to the church they have to teach them about things like naming and blessing babies or baptism for the dead and so it throws our investigators off for a little bit. Oh and concerning the split of our mission it depends on where we are located during July that depends where we go. Hopefully I'm on the east side of Accra because that is where president Judd is going to be at and he is a way awesome guy! He was an all American football player! But I know it’s where God wants me to be. So on Monday there was an emergency transfer and elder Kanu was sent to Tema and we got a new missionary named Elder ujifusa(from Utah) so now all the missionaries in our district are white!! I was like what the heck?? I didn’t come all the way to Africa for bunch of white comps lol jk but everybody is way cool! Oh and a few days ago I found some chocolate ice cream called Fan Ice and it was so good!!! I bought a 2 liter box of it for 12 cedis (6 dollars, kind of expensive) so the last few days have been really hard because every 12 hours or so the power goes off so no water or fans. I’ll be lying in my bed and be covered in sweat!! It’s so gross!! Like it literally fells like I just hopped out of a shower Haha. But I think something happened at Lake Voltra or something and so the power is unstable or something like that. But the mosquito net is pretty nice to sleep in because it make me feel like I’m in a cocoon lol So this last week we ate lots of beans and fruit for our meals so I’m eating actually really healthy here.  But I’m getting a little rash on my stomach but the other missionaries said it’s just from it being so hot and that it will go away soon! So hopefully it does! I hope I remembered everything! I love you all and the church it still very true!!

-Elder Eppich!!

This is an investiagtors back yard. Lots of banana trees

Kade enjoying some chocloate ice cream in his messy apartment :)

public restroom with an open drain that you can see what you left.... I can't imagine the smell.