A nice week in Kpong

Kpong - Jospehine and Michael

October 28, 2013 Family, Well this was a nice week for not only Elder Steinman and I but also our district and all the missionaries in Kpong. So currently we have 5 sets of missionaries that are at one branch out here in Kpong. They are preparing to split our branch in the near future, so we had a nice little baptismal service where 9 investigators were baptized. For Elder Steinman and I had a lady name Josephine who is 26 years old, she is very soft spoken but very smart and loves the church! And another brother named Michael. He is 25 yrs of age and has been taught by missionaries for six plus months, but they all dropped him because he would never come to church. Finally Elder Halavaka and I started to teach him and got him to come once before Elder Steinman came in and took over for elder Halavaka and he came ever since the first time and he loves the church! When president and Sister Judd came for the district conference, Sister Judd talked with him for a little bit and he was just saying how much he loves the church!! It was really awesome to hear him talk about the church that way! Brother Elvis wasnt able to be baptized yesterday because he had some concerns, but we helped resolve the concerns when he came to church yesterday. Oh by the way Elder Halavaka got called to train this transfer! He is going to do awesome!! Oh Then this week was the Krobo Festival. Where we are there are so many Krobos and so the place got really crazy. They were playing loud music all the time and everything was super busy all the time! It was so funny because there was some advertising going on and there were four dwarves in the back of the truck dancing while loud music was playing and it was so fun. All Ghanaians here can dance! It is sweet! Then Elder Steinman’s mom sent a suitcase with a missionary that is coming from there ward and it was full of straight candy and pancakes!!! It was awesome! It was like a straight jackpot Haha so we’ve been eating pancakes every morning and enjoying! She also made us other 3 missionaries in the apartment little Halloween bags with candy, very sweet of her! Something that made me happy this last week is that people kept saying that I’m getting obollo (fat) haha so that made me feel good! And no my sonicare broke like a week after you sent me a new one. I’m hoping we get to watch conference next week! I’m happy that Daniel F is doing well! Well, family I love you very much and I’m grateful for your love and support! Elder Eppich

Kpong Ghana

Trek to Accra Temple

Kpong District

October 21, 2013 Family, Well this week was a very nice one! Not too much stuff happened so this letter might be a little short. So to start off the reasons why I haven’t been sending photos lately because I had a virus on my memory card. I was so mad and afraid I would lose all of my photos, but the man that works at the café was able to remove the virus and save my photos! It was awesome!! And then also I had spoiled my hair slippers like 4 months ago but I had left them in our same apartment and I looked for a little electrical repair man, and he was able to fix them for 25 Ghana! I was pumped! I would have paid 50 to get them fixed; I don’t like getting African haircuts Haha. Then on Thursday we had our district temple trip/interviews with president Judd. So we had to make it to the 8:30 session in Accra, so we woke up at 430 in the morning to be there by 8 and we got there at 910 Haha I was pretty frustrated because we were suppose to go Wednesday night so we could make the temple session, but the APs said we would be ok to leave super early Thursday. We didn’t make it so I was pretty mad/sad. We were able to still do baptisms, but I want to watch the new endowment session! But right when we started to do baptism those feelings were able to leave me and I loved it! And yes that is the hardest thing going from nice AC rooms to outside in Africa Haha. The interview with president Judd went good! We then traveled home at 5 in the evening and got home around 9pm. I was so tired by the time we got home! It normally doesn’t take that long to travel back and forth but the traffic was terrible!! Oh Haha a funny story when we were in the changing room there was a white man with an Australian accent (sounded very similar to Elder Halavaka) and so I asked where he was from, and he said he was from Sydney and then I told him I knew Elder Halavaka and he said how he knew the Halavaka family. Then I asked him his name and he said Elder Vincent, and I was like oh crap! he is in our area presidency and I didn’t even know him hahaha and I guess he talked at General Conference! It’s not my fault we don’t get to watch conference for a month later. Then yesterday was district conference and it was was awesome! All the members from Ho, Tshito, Senchi all came to our building (because it’s the district center) It was a packed housed!! We had to set up chairs and canopies all outside for members to come and sit! I wish I could have taken pictures, but I know Elder and Sister Cosgrave did. Well I love you all very much and thank you for the support! Elder Eppich

Elder Eppich and his companion

Elder Eppich and family in his area

"Strengthened my Testimonry of Being Obedient"

October 14, 2013 Family, Well this last week was a nice week for Elder Steinman and I. Today we were able to go to the Akosombo Dam and it is huge and really nice! Dr. Dughbatety and Bro Eric (I baptized his wife) took me and my comp. It was a really fun time! Dr. Dughbatety is a way awesome guy! Have I ever told you about him? Elder Steinman and I had a really cool experience on Saturday where we met a man, in my opinion, an elect the Lord has prepared for us! His name is Elvis. It was a Saturday night and we were walking to our next appointment when a small boy came to our side and told us a man had sent him to go and call us. So, we turned around and far away we saw a man waving his arms at us. When we reached the man he told us to sit down and talk with him. He then told us that last week he had entered the church but left right away because he didn’t feel welcomed there. But the few moments when he was there he had felt a nice spirit and wanted to return to the church, but he didn’t want to go because he didn’t know anybody in the church and so all week he had been praying for God to place someone in his life to help him feel welcome, and on Saturday night his answer to his prayers came when he saw two white missionaries walking far away! We talked more and taught him a great lesson! He came to church the very next day and enjoyed it very much! He was able to discuss with President Akuse about the church, and he really liked everything! This whole experience really strengthened my testimony of being obedient and not wasting time at people’s houses or staying too long at our own apartment. If we would have stayed maybe 5 minutes too long at someone’s house then we would have never met this man and his sweet spirit! Made me feel really good about being in the right place at the right time! We’re going to continue to work with this great man and see how it goes! Sister Pat and the family is doing really well. Our investigators are doing good as well, we are trying to work out some of their concerns. I don’t really like to talk much about our investigators in case something happens where they end up no joining the church. Kinda like “not counting your chickens before they hatch”. Dad do you remember saying that to us when we were working with those mini pumpkins a long time ago? But that is kinda the case here. We have some solid ones that we are working with and by God's grace things will work well with everything!! And yes I met Elder and Sister Call on Saturday. One of their responsibilities are teaching the members here the new curriculum, “Come Follow Me” . They did some training in the Kpong branch and sister Cosgrave was like “hey that’s one of our missionaries”, and so a lot of the members were saying I was a movie star and then a small cute little girl came up to me on Sunday and said she say me on the big screen lol. Oh and our zone activity last Monday was way sweet! Sister Cosgrave and Elder Cosgrave prepared us Hawaiian haystacks! It was so nice! Then a few of us spent the night in Ho at their apartment because we had zone training meeting the next day and she made us pancakes!!! They’re so sweet! It’s so nice to have couple missionaries here. I wish I had more time to try and cook more! Wow I can’t believe Dallas is 8 years old already!! That’s so awesome for him to be baptized! They should have waited one year for him to be baptized so he wouldn’t have been a child of record and they could have helped the missionaries out by getting them a baptism hahaha jk. Well, family I love you all and I’m grateful for everything you do! Have a great week! We get to go to Accra on Thursday for a temple trip and meet with President Judd! Love you all the church is true! Elder Eppich

The Church is True

October 7, 2013 Family, Well this last week was a really nice week for Elder Steinman and me! This week we really focused on working with branch missionaries!! We have 10 branch missionaries that will probably be leaving on their own mission in the next 6 months, and it helps so much to work with the members because they know the language really well and the area a lot better than us!! We had a lot of cool experiences this week! One was we were contacting in Somanya and we had the feeling to go and contact this house and we met this really nice guy named Jared and we gave him a pamphlet and the next day he called me and was asking questions about Joseph smith, the Priesthood, the church and all those cool things! Basically taught a lesson over the phone for him Haha, the only bad thing is he is going to Ada for university so we won’t see him tell he comes back! But he definitely has potential in the future! The next cool thing is about Sister Pat! It so cool but so frustrating! Haha so this last Sunday the whole family comes to church and Sister pat and her older Sister Gifty both paid their tithing!!! It was so sweet because she called and asked if we pay tithing the next day and we told her yes and showed her how to do everything to pat her tithes! It was one of the coolest things I have seen on mission, yet also one of the most frustrating as well because she won’t commit to a baptismal date. But this fast Sunday I fasted for her and with her paying her tithing I know the Lord will open the windows of heaven and poor out the blessings on her and their family! Plus our Branch President has really been working a lot with her so that is nice!! Hahaha so funny story, this last week it rained a lot and hard and both Elder Steinman and I love the rain and so we would go and work in the rain, and while we were walking to an appointment a car comes flying by and hits this puddle and a bunch of mud just came flying up and got all over us hahaha it was so funny because you see things like that happening on movies but this time it happened to us! We just walked it off and when the rain was falling hard we would just walk under it and try to wash it off by rubbing the clothes together Haha so funny!! I’m doing really well! A lot better week and seriously it flew by!! I don’t get sick (knock on Wood) and I’m staying about the same weight. I’m never hungry anymore because I can cook some way nice beans, rice, stews, and pasta!! The only thing bad about it is it takes time to cook Haha. I’m super jealous that you all got to watch General conference!!! That’s the only bummer here Haha but its ok we will probably watch it the last week of October or the first week of November so we will see!! Well I love you all and thank you for your support!! The church is true. Elder Eppich **(This is an excert of Kade’s letter to Todd. I included it for blogging/book purposes.) This week was a lot better than last week ! I don’t ever get down but I get stressed Haha. Especially now because I’m district leader and our zone is the highest baptizing in the mission, and so when we don’t reach our goals it seems like we are letting down the zone and mission and the blame normally comes to the DL Haha but its all good! This month our zone of 26 has a goal of 50 baptisms so we will see how it goes! Our district is hoping for 10! Yes as a district leader I have to go on exchanges, do baptismal interviews, and give instruction at district meeting. It’s really nice and I enjoy it! We have a sweet district!! That’s awesome about GC imp so jealous Haha! I’m happy your foot is healing slowly and your little scooter run was way funny (I emailed a video of Todd on his scooter in our house ) Haha well I love you very much!

"There's No Place I Would Rather Be"

September 30, 2013 Family, Haha I liked how you said "Y'all" in your letter Mom. (I am in Texas) This week was a pretty good one. It was pretty frustrating but with awesome experiences. So we asked Sister Pat to really pray and ask God if 1) If this church is the true church 2) If she needs to be baptized into the church. A little after she prayed there was a voice that came into her head that said "Yes, Yes!!!". I have no doubt that it was the Holy Ghost because when she told us the story you could feel the spirit so strong!! But then she said that "But I’m not sure if it was the Devil speaking to me or the Holy Spirit" and I was like what??? are you serious? But the last few weeks people have been really pounding her with anti-Mormon things and it’s so frustrating because she doesn’t want to offend us so she wouldn’t tell us what the concerns were until a few days ago. They are just crazy things that other churches say about our church, like when you are baptized they take you into a secret room and blind fold you and whatever body part you touch on a table is what you have to donate when you die. Haha some crazy things like that! But the end of the story is that Sister Pat and her family needs more time! She is fearing men right now more than God.Our branch President lives close to her and so he visited her and talked with her. Hopefully a few weeks will help solve her concerns! We found more investigators this last week. One man who is 20 and we contacted him on Monday and he came to church on Sunday and really liked it! He already asked about serving a mission himself!. Oh we met a lady the other day whose name is "Janet" and that was the first time I’ve heard that name in a long time and it blew my mind lol. Also I’m so happy I brought my Keens on my mission because that’s all I wear now except on Sunday when I wear my normal shoes. They are so much nicer to wear! Also mom have you had a chance to send those pictures of me to give to RC and a new USB? I still haven’t bought one yet. One thing that really helped me out this week was I was reading in my personal study DC 100!! I changed the names of Sydney and Joseph with Kraymer and Kade. It was a really cool thing to do and I know the Lord takes care of everything back home for us while we are gone away! Oh and I had a Friend name Exodus (he is a Rasta man) but super cool guy and he split my scriptures and put African material on it and it looks so awesome!! I’ll send a picture. Well I love you all and I’m grateful for you all. Yes we will be able to watch conference but it won’t be until the end of October :( I can’t believe it was over a year ago when they announced the age change for missionary service and it changed my life!!! I love it. It seems like yesterday, I could tell you everything that was going on when I got your phone call! There is no other place I'd rather be than here!.......ok except maybe Dairy Queen, Costa Vida, Tucanos hahaha, naw I’m just kidding. I love it here :) Edler Eppich JR