More Baptisms and Pizza!

Baptism of Rosina and Daniel in Achimoto Ghana

Elder Eppich, Rosina, Daniel, Elder Gusa and Precious

Ghanian Pizza

July 29, 2013

Family,

Well this was a good week that went by way fast!!! Each week seems to go by faster and faster Haha. So not much happened this week but yesterday we were blessed with two baptisms. Daniel and Rosina Boakye (bo-a-cha). The other family of 3 decided that they wanted to wait until the 10th for baptism which is ok because we want them to be able to understand everything clearly which is hard because the mom only speaks Twi. But the baptism was way awesome. They are going to be a great addition to the ward and love the church! The next step for them will be to get married in the temple next year! And they totally will! They have the cutest little girl name Precious! She is 3 :) Well we have transfers coming up and I honestly have no clue what is going to happen with me Haha I think my comp will train because every other comp I have been with gets called to train right after one transfer with me. Haha So I’m not quite sure what’s will happen. We will find out tomorrow because that is when the trainers will get a phone call from President Judd. Whatever happens I know it is what the Lord wants and needs! Like I said a few days ago it was Elder Gusa 1 year mark and so we went and celebrated and bought some pizza!!! It was so nice! I miss pizza Haha. Than today we had a big zone activity where we all went to the stake center and played soccer forever!! It was so much fun! I do alright playing with all the good Africans, well most of the time, there are a few who are way good and make me look dumb Haha but it’s so much fun to play! It makes everything so nice!! Well I love you all and don’t have a lot of time to write more! Hope you all have a good week! Love ya!

Elder Eppich

"Becoming as Little Children"

Elder Eppich and Prosper



This is the cutest picture ever and so typical Kade :) I think he will want to bring African children home with him :)

July 22, 2013

Family,

Well it sounds like you had fun at the cabin this last week! It didn’t even make me sad that you guys were there because I know it’s only a party when I’m there :)

Well this last week was a good one! Just like all the other ones Haha. But one thing that really hit me is Christ words "becoming as little children" it never really took that much affect to me until during a lesson with a family we are teaching.I asked the small boy to close for us and he said honestly one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard and it blew my mind! During the whole prayer I just had the thought pop into my mind "you see why we must become as little children".  And it was just so awesome and I loved it! Little children are truly divine!

Well as for our investigators they are all progressing and we had 5 set for baptism this Sunday. The solid ones are Daniel (28) and Rosina (22). They are a married couple. With the cutest 3 yr old daughter. They love the teachings and already had there baptismal interview. Then Monica (33), Joseph (16), and Emmauel (12) are the other 3 that were set for the 28th. Emmanuel didn’t come to church yesterday and the mom speaks very little English but loves the church and loves to come but she still wants to learn more this week and she will decided at the end of the week if she wants to be baptized or postpone it. I feel very blessed with these people because when I first got to Achimota we seriously had almost nothing but we worked hard! And found great people!

So today was an awesome Pday! Elder Gusa and I went to the driving range to meet with Prince, one of our investigators who is a golf teacher, and he normally charges like 20 cedis to teach but he helped us for free and he took us to our own spot where it was just us on a cricket field so he could be literally 1 on 1 with us! It was so nice to play golf again!! I missed it like crazy! He taught me a lot of good points, but he just kept saying the whole time "hey, this boy can play!!" Haha so we had a fun time doing that. And then once he finished he was like "oh hey there is a small zoo in the forest over here if you want to go check it out' and so that’s what we did! It cost us 3 cedis but we saw a ton of different monkeys, snakes, birds, ostriches, camels, crocodiles, tortoises, wart hogs, hyena, mongoose, bush bucks and a few others. All the big animals got sent to Kumasi while they make the zoo a lot bigger. Our guide said in a year or so it will be a huge park with everything there to see, so that will be really nice!! But the coolest ones were the monkeys because they were doing flips and smiling the whole time, and then the hyenas!! The hyenas were huge and looked way scary!! I could imagine them in little pack trying to kill something! But today was just an awesome day that put a smile on my face and made me think how lucky I was to be in Africa on a mission.

Oh and mom I got your package! It was awesome and I loved it! I’m trying not to eat everything all at once Haha but the ho-ho's made it fine and I love them Haha. That’s another thing I’ve been so blessed about is love and support from back home! Like not just close family but every body has either sent me an email, dearElder, letter, or a package and it means the world to a missionary! So thank you very much and I love you all! Oh and I got Allison’s and Luke announcement and that was the worst idea to open it around a bunch of missionaries because they were just crazy about Alison. Haha But they look very happy/pretty together. 

Well that’s pretty much everything I had to write about this week, but I love you all!

Elder Eppich

ps Mom,can you get me Elder Jared Sabin’s email address if possible, I miss that guy and want to see how he is doing. Thanks

Achomota Ghana - Long sleeve day

Monica and baby Kate

golf course in Achimoto

Elder Eppich at the driving range in Ghana. Where did he get the purple plaid shorts from? Not sure they go with the Connell Eagles Football shirt very well? ha

monkeys at the zoo. Kade LOVES monkeys.

see any resemblance? maybe just in personality :)

a

Elder Gusa, David the tour guide and Kade

"See Others as They May Become"

July 15, 2013

Family,

Well I had a good week and I’m doing great. Infact, my mind was blown the other day when I found out that not only do we have a mini golf course, but also a driving range, and a full golf course that is so beautiful except some rich people from the UK came down and are doing the whole thing and will be done in 2 yrs! But it’s so pretty! It has awesome African trees, you know the ones that are super tall and then it finally branches out at the very top? Idk if that makes sense Haha. But the even better part is we received this referral who stays right next to the golf course and he is an awesome guy who is a golf instructor and already told us that he will take us to the driving range for free because he has clubs and everything and help us with our swing! How awesome is that?!! Before I forget aren’t Bryant and Dallin coming home soon? That’s crazy!

So when I got to Achimota we didn’t really have any investigators and we set a pretty high goal for the month of July and I was afraid that we weren’t going to make that goal because investigators must come to church 3 times before baptism.  I was praying all week for help and on Sunday we had 7 investigators at church!! It was so awesome! Hopefully they will be able to continue to come so we can reach our goal! A few of the investigators are from a family that we met - a mother, 3 boys and a small baby girl. Three of them are over the age of 8. The father works all the time and so we never see him, but they have this cutest little kid who reminds me of Dallas Bennett just skinnier and black. We met them by the church to walk them in and I put the little boy, Prosper, on my shoulders and he loved it!! I don’t think they have ever seen that before because everybody was laughing at me while I was walking down the dirt road to the building. Haha.

I also got an awesome birthday package from Calaways. It had a bunch of energy bars and box of cereal and then a head scratcher and a little expandable back scratcher!!!! It was so awesome and thoughtful! I loved it!

Then remember that man that was watching 24??? Well I finally had a feeling to go contact him and he is an awesome guy!! He is from Congo and in Ghana for schooling. But the awesome part is that he had been meeting with missionaries in Congo!!! So he never a bunch already but just lost contact with the church when he moved to Ghana 2 yrs ago! He didn’t come to church on Sunday but the problem is he is a strong Baptist member and so it will take longer for him to come to church. But I just couldn’t help but think that because I heard that 24 playing it was specifically for me to go contact him. Just what I was thinking to myself.

Also, we have this investigator who her husband is a member of the church and she knows everything is true that we teach her except that there is only one true church! Missionaries have been teaching her for like 7 months. And the other day she was sick and I had the strongest feeling that we needed to give her a priesthood blessing! And she had never heard of that before so we kind of explained it to her and she said she wanted one and so we gave her a blessing and the next day she was all better!  Hopefully because of that she will understand that the priesthood is what sets our church from a good church to the only true church!

One last thing I was studying President Monson's talk last November called “See Others As They May Become! It is such an amazing talk and I visualize all my investigators in white! I even did it before I read that talk but I think it’s because I heard the talk in October.

Sorry I wrote such a long letter I just had a lot to talk about. Well I hope you all have a good week! I love you all.

Elder Eppich

The Life of a Missionary

July 8, 2013

Family,

That sounds so awesome about going to that branch! I bet you had a huge impact on them! More then you realize I bet! I didn’t think they had branches like that in America Haha jokes. That was sweet though!! Ok before I forget where did we come from? Like our ancestors? It’s probably a dumb question because I don’t know lol. But everybody here asks me that and I always forget to ask you guys.
Well this week was another good one! We found some investigators that have potential to be great members but none of them showed up to church Haha the life of a missionary. But we had 4 people that aren’t members that were referrals or just came to church because they heard how good of a place it was and so the Lord blessed us even though we didn’t have the ones we were expecting. We were blessed because of our efforts and received 4 new investigators that have some friends in the ward which makes it so much easier for them to come to church and eventually be baptized!
So this week was 4th of July and it was really weird because obviously they don’t celebrate it but we still wanted to in the apartment. So we decided we would work hard and then at night time we would go for dinner at a fancy little restaurant called "treets" which was amazing!! We were going to eat pizza but too expensive so we got cheeseburgers and fries for 7 cedis and then 3 cedis of ice cream and it was so amazing!!! I loved it! For my comps 1 yr anniversary were going to go back and get pizza! oh also the Under 20 World Cup is playing right now and Ghana played Chili last night for the quarter finals and they beat them in extra time 4-3 I guess and so I guess they play France in the semi finals. And Ghana won the under 20 world cup in 2009....no big deal :) but it’s funny because we know when Ghana scores because we will be sitting around and all of a sudden everyone just starts to scream and run around Haha. They love their football!
We also taught lots of French speaking people this week. We found a little college apartment and they are pretty much all French from Congo, Guinea, Togo, and Benien and so it was really weird to hear such a different accent. But I learned how to greet in the MTC from my French buddies so they thought it was funny when I greeted them. Oh and we were teaching this French girl outside her apartment and it was a super good lesson and all of a sudden I hear a loud "dun dun, dun dun" (like a clock ticking) and was like noooo!!! The apartment next to us was watching "24" and I was like dang I miss that show so much Haha I recognized it right when I heard it, you know how it does that when it goes to commercial? lol but it was funny! I was going to go contact the apartment but I figured I better not or else I would get start watching it with them Haha.
Also, a lady next door to us is very kind and loves us so much and so we bought a bunch of ingredients and she made us a huge batch of cabbage stew and tomato stew and it is soooo nice!!! She is a bomb cook and so we just reheat the stew and make some rice and we got a nice little meal going for us :)
Also last thing, how’s Daniel Ferenbacher doing??? I was reading some of the letter last night and saw the one he made for me and I seriously almost started to cry because of what he said and
how much I miss him! I hope everything is going good for him! But let me know how he is doing please!
Well I hope you all have a good week! I love you all very much!

Elder Eppich

Transferred to Achimota

Elder Gusa (Kenya) and Elder Eppich new companion serving in Achimnota

July 1, 2013

Family,

Well this week was a little crazy just because I knew I was going to be transferred and had to say my goodbyes and then trying to learn a new area but I will start at the beginning of the week. So last Monday our district decided to climb Mt.Yogaga its right behind where we stay and is huge!! I guess it’s like the 2nd biggest mountain in Ghana. So from where we stay the mountain doesn’t look very tough and an easy path to the top. We couldn’t have been more wrong!! Right from the beginning we were walking through seriously the jungle!!! Like the path was all overgrown with trees and grass! We got lost a few times Haha. Then on the way up we would find people on the mountain that stay on the mountain for a week long and fast for the whole time, except I think they drink water. It’s something they do for their church. When we reached towards the top of the mountain there was seriously no path because the grass was probably like 8 ft tall so Elder Hansen took the lead and grabbed a bamboo tree and started to make his way to the top. It was kinda sketchy because there could have been snakes and all that crazy stuff but none of us got hurt. Then at one point of the hike we were like climbing on hands and knees Haha. But we finally made it to the top and it was worth every bit of the 2 hour hike!!! It was so pretty!! We could see everything for a long ways and very pretty!! I took lots of pics but they don’t do it justice!! It was super nice! And the cool thing is that we did it in our missionary clothes!!! No big deal :) it was another good way to say goodbye to Kpong :)

So yes I got transferred because my comp got called to train, but I’m still in the Accra mission. I got sent to Achimota which is pretty close to where I was trained (Kaneshie) and actually pretty similar!! Lots of dirt roads. It has poverty and big pretty homes!!! So it’s the best of both worlds you could say :) My new comp is named Elder Gusa and he is from Kenya!! Super awesome guy who is pretty much like me but black Haha so we get along well and we can talk about anything. The ward is a very nice place and nice people. I’ve already had a couple of FMs from them.

It was funny because while we were in tro tro from Kpong to the mission home we were sitting in the front seat and I saw the driver put a few cedis in his license because on the road to Accra there are like little check points by the policemen and they stopped us and he gave him the license and then the man took the money and didn’t look at anything else and let us go on Haha I’m hoping his license is just old instead of him not even having one Haha. Then later in the week we found out that Ghana vs. USA under 20 game was playing and so we stopped to glance at it and there were about 15 Ghanaians and then one American in the middle of all them and right when I got there Ghana scored and they just started to scream and make fun of me and America Haha it was really funny! I wanted to get a photo but I thought it wouldn’t be smart :) I guess Ghana killed USA.

I got a little late bday present that I bought for myself. It was a sweet Kente scripture bag that says my name on the front and has a Gye Nyame symbol, which means “Accept God” on the back. You see the symbol all over Ghana on walls, chairs, and cars. It was sweet and idk if I want to use it or just save it :)

Elder Gusa and I have been working hard finding new investigators and so we ride our bike lots. We never rode bikes this much in my previous area and so I’m pretty dang sore Haha. Today we played football and basketball for like 3.5 hrs at the church building and there was like 30 guys there and it was lots of fun! Except I got hit in the eye when I was driving to the hoop and now I’m starting to get a black eye Haha so ill just wear my glasses instead of my contacts to try and hide it all :)

Well, it sounds like everything is going good back home with swimming lessons, Kaitlan and David coming home, then Shayne and Kort leaving! Love you all! The Church is true.

Elder Eppich

Birthday scripture case (front)

Birthday scripture case (back)

Elder Eppich on top of Mt.Yogaga

Kpong district on top of Mt. Yogaga

View of Kpong from Mt. Yogaga

Happy, Elder Eppich and Samuel in Kpong