Merry Christmas from Ghana

December 30, 2013

Family,

Well this last week was a nice week that kept us very busy! On Tuesday we had a Christmas carols night in the Austuere branch and everyone went and sang songs and there were small skits that our branch clerk came up with and it was very nice.  Then Christmas was Wednesday and we woke up opened our presents and enjoyed the whole day. Sister Steinman sent all of us small nerf guns and little remote control cars for us to play with. So sweet of her! Then most of the day was just going around and getting fed by investigators and members. One of our investigators that Elder Steinman and I found and taught for a while got baptized on Christmas Day so that was awesome to watch!!  I’m sorry if I sounded different on the phone. It's because I was laying on Dr. Dugbateys bed with the lights off and fan going and so I was having a hard time staying awake. It was good to hear from everyone, but the last few minutes I’m not sure what was going on because I heard Kraymer start to talk to me but than I couldn’t hear anything else so I just said a few words and hung up haha (Kraymer was on Skype and we had Kade on Speaker phone so it was difficult for them to hear anyway and at the end Kraymer was bearing his testimony to Kade and us and we were all bawling, I was afraid Kade couldn't hear what was going on. :( Then Thursday was our Christmas party for the 3 branches and it was way sweet, nothing like a church Christmas party I’ve been to! They brought us a bunch of food and then brought in huge speakers and had way sweet music playing the whole time while visiting with everyone! Friday we had a dinner party for all the missionaries in our area that was put on by our district president and then Saturday our branch president fed us as well! So this whole week was crazy but awesome!!

This next week should cool down and do some good work in our area! Also yes I got the package from Janae' Saturday night! The Cosgrave’s were in Accra and picked it up for me :) there were two boxes! One box was for Elder Steinman and I. It had remote control helicopters (I was flying it this morning and got it stuck on the roof haha) and chocolate! Then the second box was for me with so many things in it! Wheat thins, jerky, chocolate, pictures, etc. It was really cool, she sent a puzzle that she put together and then wrote a letter on the back of it and than undid it and I had to put the puzzle together and read the letter on the back of it! Super creative and awesome. Make sure to let Janae and Sister Calaway know I got it and thank them so much!

Well family, I love you all very much and I'm grateful for the presents you sent me, especially that Nike watch!!! It is so sweet! It has GPS and tracks how far we walk and things like that!!! Elder Van Scheltema got his package and the zone is doing pretty good, we had a bad month and are working on trying to figure some things out. Have a great week!

Elder Eppich

"Afechia pa" and "sending lots of love from Ghana"

Kpong Primary with Geckos made by BC1Ward

Kade's "family" in the mission (trained)

Washington Elders

December 23, 2014

Family,

Afechia pa… (a way to greet someone merry Christmas in Twi) this week was a very busy one again! We started off going to Ho Monday night so I can be with Elder Jones and prepare for our zone training meeting the next day. That went really well in my opinion. After we finished that we ate some pizza in ho and then came home. We then went to Accra on Thursday morning for our Christmas conference. That was was fun because we were able to meet up with all the missionaries and I was finally able to meet a familiar face! I saw elder Hatch right when I got there and was able to talk with him a little bit. He is doing really well and enjoying mission. It was so weird to see him though! I took some photos ill try and send. I was also able to some of my former comps and they are all doing well. Elder Kandeh is in his last transfer on mission! Oh also before I forget Elder Van Scheltema got called to be an AP in the other mission. I knew he would! He is a stud and I miss him a lot! After the Christmas party the Kpong zone and the Kofridua zone slept the night at the mission home and so elder hatch and I were able to talk more about things back home. We woke up Friday morning and left Accra back to our areas. Then on Saturday morning we had our branch temple trip and I forgot to tell you that the one a few weeks ago got cancelled and so elder Steinman and I went and helped with that. Which was good because there were very few Melchizedek priestholder there. So we enjoyed but when we returned home that afternoon we were so tired!!

I got the family Christmas letter and it was very nice the only compliant I have is that why is Karigan's picture the biggest and mine the smallest? I mean what the heck hahaha jokes it was all very good. I also received a letter from the Riries and it was very nice of them for thinking about me in the Christmas season! Also, I was able to give the Gecko key chains out to the kids and they loved it!!! I will try and send a photo and you can share it with Shaniel and aunt Kathi and the rest of the ladies. The older people in the ward wanted some too, they liked them so much and so they all got taken fast haha.

So hopefully Christmas Day we will be having baptism. Sister Pat is still scheduled for that day but I'm not sure if it will be a yes or no. I'm praying that it will be!! So we will see. If it does, it would be the coolest Christmas for me haha 6 months of working with her!! Normally we never spend that much time with an investigator but Sister Pat is different so let's see how it goes J

Well family, I love you and I'm grateful for the support you give me. It doesn’t feel like Christmas and so I don’t really have to worry about getting homesick. I'm excited to talk with you but it will probably be around 40 minutes long. Have a Merry Christmas! Sending lots of love from Ghana!

Kpong Soccer Match

Elder Eppich

Ghana Accra Mission - Decmeber 2013

"It will be a Christmas Never to Forget!

December 16, 2013

Family,

So this week was a crazy busy week and very tiring! On Wednesday Elder Jones and I got together with our district president (president Tyson) and discuss something that the district needs and then we went to Accra that night and spent the night there and had the Mission Leaders Council where it started at 9am then ended around 4pm. We talk about so much but it was sweet because for lunch sister Judd made us some ice cream with chocolate syrup with mango and bananas on it!! after the meeting Elder Jones and i headed back to Ho and i went on exchanges all Friday with missionaries there! then Saturday morning i came back to Kpong with the Cosgraves who were going down to Accra for a YSA meeting. When I got home I found out part of Sister Pat's shop that she sells African wear that she makes caught on fire from a candle. We went there for a couple of hours to help her clean up, she accepted a BD (baptismal date) for Christmas day and we're praying that it goes through!! She came to church yesterday and paid her tithing a third time! We're praying that the 25th is finally the day for her and her family! It will be a Christmas to never forget if all goes well! We had one of our RC (recent convert) whole family come to church yesterday and they loved it. We had been working with the father for a week or so and he has already come twice and so he will be baptised on Christmas day also and hopefully his wife will follow him the next Sunday after that!

So transfers really surprised us this time. No one in our entire zone got transferred! We all have our same companions and everything! I was happy because Kpong is too sweet, and Elder Steinman and I will enjoy together! I got all of the packages and so that was very nice and we opened that first package and started to decorate the place, so it looks really nice :)  well as nice as our apt can look like haha.(I sent pillowcases, Christmas stockings, 12" tree and battery lights and blue foam snowflakes) 

And yes we bought the triple combo for bro Deborah, but we buy them at the distribution center and it cost like 80 peswas which is 40 cents so it is nothing. Yes I gave the money for Christmas to Sister Avery on Thursday.

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week and remember the true meaning of Christmas!! 

Elder Eppich

Hard to say Goodbye

December 9, 2013

Family,

Well this last week was a pretty busy week, from Thursday to Saturday I wasn't in my area but was on exchanges with missionaries in the zone. On Thursday and Saturday I was with Elder Pouinu from New Zealand to show him around Somanya and have him meet our investigators that are there. He and his comp will do a good job in helping them progress to baptism. Before I forget, I found out that my RC (recent convert) in Achimota received the Melchezidek priesthood on Sunday and his wife is doing super awesome in the church as well! It made me feel so good knowing that they are doing so well in the church!! 

    So one of our investigators sister Mary was able to be baptized on Sunday and it was a very special day for her! Her daughter is actually a member in Accra and came up to Kpong to see her be baptized! It was also a nice Sabbath day because our branch building wasn't full of members because they split the branch into three and so there wasn't as many members there making noise.

And then a cool experience is our investigator bro Deborah that stays in Somanya came to church to Kpong and he seriously loved it! i cant remember if i mentioned him to you last week but this man loves to read and so we got him a triple combination and I think he is in Mosiah now in his reading and then he also loves reading in the Doctrine and Covenants! He even asked about possibly being baptized with the lady if he would have known how amazing the church is! He truly is elect and it is going to be hard to say goodbye to him and hand him to the other missionaries,but like I said, they will do a good job with our investigators there!

We won't find out what will happen for transfers until tomorrow morning and I'm somehow nervous haha because I don't know what will happen! It will be sad to say goodbye to Elder Steinman, but it would be super sweet if we could stay together but that normally doesn't happen once the training is finished. We will see what the Lord has in store for us! If I do get moved I hope I  get put a little closer to the other ZL, it's really hard to be split apart and be so far away. We are literally  75 minutes apart tro tro (bus) drive so its a little tough. I am still missing package #2, I hope it comes. I love you very much and hope all the best! Have a good week!

Elder Eppich

"One of the Crown Jewels"

December 2, 2013

Family,

Well this last week was an awesome week and a historical one for where we are in Ghana! Our branch in Kpong got split into 3 different branches! The church is growing in places it hasn't been before and it is so awesome to be a part of it! We now have branches in Odumase, Astuarye(spelling ?) Kpong, Senchi, Tshito, and two in Ho. The only bad thing is that Elder Steinman and I were told yesterday that the Odumase elders will be taking over Somanya, which is pretty sad because we have such awesome investigators there. We even had a cute little family where the parents are probably late 20's and have 2 small kids and the mom is pregnant and is suppose to deliver the baby on November 28th. They all came yesterday to church and it was so awesome! Our teaching pool has really dropped because we handed over Somanya to the Odumase elders and so this week we are really going to work hard to find some new investigators in Kpong! Nothing else really happened this week that I can remember. I didn't really celebrate Thanksgiving haha but we had a party last night with that suitcase that Sister Steinman sent Elder Steinman! It seriously blew my mind once more haha the things that were inside i havent seen for 10 months. My stomach kinda started to hurt after some of the things we ate like snickers, ritz crackers with cheese and a huge summer sausage haha it was great! Well I love you all, oh it was awesome because yesterday President Judd spoke to the congregation about the area we are serving in and he was telling everyone that he knows this area (Kpong area) is one of the crown jewels on Heavenly Father's crown and it is so true! This place is amazing! love you lots!

Elder Eppich

Oh funny story it was fast Sunday yesterday and a lady went up and bore her testimony on missionary work and how her daughter is serving her mission in Kumasi Ghana and that she said she called her a few days ago to tell her she got transferred... the look on President Judd's face was so funny. So he got out a piece of paper and wrote something down on it. I'm guessing he wrote down the lady's name to tell the mission president in Kumasi what is happening. Haha it made me laugh so hard, because that was the worst time for that lady to bare her testimony about that right in front of a mission president. lol