"The Mission is sweet and the Gospel is sweeter"

AWESOME picture that Kade took of a storm coming in.
Tema, Ghana 2014

March 31, 2014

Family,

Well, this week was an ok week for us. Definitely had some tough days but we know it’s because Satan doesn’t want us to open the branch in New Town! We’ve had a couple of rain storms the last week and they have been legit so I will send an awesome pic that was taken by The Elder Eppich. I honestly don’t remember much of this last week because of everything going on has been hectic and busy, but one thing is we will be having a baptism for a lady named Cecillia this Saturday. Cecillia is 9 months pregnant and so every time we are at their house she prays that her baby doesn’t come out so she can be baptized! We are working hard on the dad but he is being very stubborn!  Cecillia is the lady where her son is Kofi. (The one on my bike and he is wearing my helmet) But she is so awesome and prepared for the Gospel and I know that everything we have taught her will resonate in all aspects of her life. I just pray everything goes well this week and she doesn’t deliver! Haha

Also a little funny thing, I was doing a baptismal interview underneath a coconut tree and during the interview one fell and hit my chair!! It was a good thing I was leaning forward listening to the man or else it would have nailed me on the head! But hey I got a free coconut from it :) Then last night Elder Kisembe and I were doing the monthly totals and we made Japates! They are somewhat like pancakes but Kenyan style and it was way bomb with a nice stew one of the elders made for us!

As for me I’m doing really good! This week will be very busy, but I’m enjoying everything! The mission is sweet, and the Gospel is sweeter. It brings blessings of comfort, joy and so much more. I hope everyone is doing their best to be anxiously engaged and not taking the scriptures, including the Book of Mormon lightly! Whenever I have a bad day, all I have to do is read a few versus from the Word of God. Also I can’t believe General Conference is this weekend! It will be my third one on my mission, so crazy. Hopefully sometime in April we will be able to watch parts of General Conference with investigators as it kindles their testimonies. I Love you all. Have a great week!

Elder Kade Eppich

I will definitely never forget this experience and always treasure it!

sweetest picture ever!

March 24,  2014

Family,

Well this week was yet again another awesome one for Elder Iyamu and I! We had two experiences that I will never forget! It may not seem that cool but if you were in my shoes and saw everything that I do, it would be amazing to you!

1) We have been teaching an investigator right next to one of our recent converts, Jones. The lady we have been teaching was still in the middle of whether or not she needed to be baptized and leave Assemblies of God. It wasn’t until the end of the lesson on Tuesday when our recent convert opened up and bore his testimony to this lady. He didn’t say a whole lot, but said enough by telling her the church is true, and the Lord will bless her with this knowledge AFTER she takes that step of faith through baptism. He was also told her that people would fear her physically and spiritually haha I love jones! It was such a powerful experience for me and really strengthens my testimony from a convert who has been a member for 3 weeks! The investigator committed to baptism and we will continue to work with her and progress for that day. Jones is such a stud.

 2) The next experience that we were able to have is on Saturday night the Bishop, 2nd counselor, Relief Society president and us missionaries went around Tema New Town visiting Less Active/Recent Converts. When we had finished visiting the first one she decided that she would come along, and so did the next one and then the following one. This continued all the way to the end of the night where we had around 15 members with us visiting and showing the love they have for the members in the great area of New Town! It was so awesome to see the members faces that hadn’t come to church for a while, because of transfer fair, light up (I’m not sure what these 2 events are…light up has to do with electricity I think) and have a huge smile on their faces! I will definitely never forget this experience and always treasure it! It was awesome to witness 15 members walking through New Town looking for the members! It was amazing!!  We finally found a building to work for a meeting house, but it will take a month to renovate it and get it up to church standard. The church in New Town will be a huge blessing for the members here! Definetely a great week for Elder Iyamu and myself!

Dang I forgot that dad can choose his companion speakers as a high council.....maybe I won't come home anymore haha jokes. (Kraymer spoke with Todd yesterday)Yes it was my idea to rearrange the furniture and I will try and send a photo. Its not the best photo but should manage. (I told him if it was his idea to rearrange the furniture it was Grandma Edler coming out  in him) And yes I’ll be very sad to see president Judd go home in July. The new president will be President Heid from California. He has been in Ghana a lot before so I think he will do great! The food here is all the same no matter what area I am in and I wear my Keens everyday. I still have this stupid plantar wart! Haha it is almost gone, but I’ve had it treated with straight acid from the doctors here and its still being stubborn. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure it is off before I get home haha. Well family I love you all and I’m grateful for you support! Have a great week! Much love

 newly arranged apartment

Elder Kade Eppich

More great things happening in Ghana

Tema zone (zone companion, Elder Kisambe) directly behind Kade

Kofi

March 17, 2014

Family,

Well this week we were able to do some good work with our investigators. Our investigators are really great. We have a sweet teaching pool that we are working with that has great potential for the month of April!  We have this awesome lady who has the cutest/most stubborn kids in the world. Her whole family is members of the church except her. Her brother is serving a mission in Nigeria! He actually called and greeted me and made sure that we were working hard on baptizing his sister.....haha I was like what the heck? You can’t be calling home haha. But the lady has been making great progress and reads. The only problem she faces now is her husband. He doesn’t give her money for transportation and she cant walk the long distance to church because she is 8 months pregnant. Sunday night we had a really good lesson with the whole family and we are going to start teaching him at his work place! She was able come to church on Sunday with her less active sister!

This last week we decided to re-arrange our apartment.  We decided to move all of our beds into the big room and then in our two small rooms that our beds were in is now our changing and study room! I love the new arrangement because it brings us all closer and helps bring unity! Plus there is a lot more room! I'll try and send a photo next week of it because I forgot today. Then we also have a somehow (this must be a new word, he used it last week describing the dog he ate) gym that is run by a ripped Rasta man and it has a bench and a few other gadgets and so we set up a rotation where two of us will go at 5:50 in the morning and work out. I love doing it because it feels so good to actually work out with weights. My health is very well.

Elder Kisembe (zone companion) and I were going to do baptismal interviews and the man next to us on the tro tro had a small little porcupine looking animal in his hand! I was petting it and then the man gives it to Elder Kisembe to hold and he just started to freak out haha. I was like “Elder Kisembe in your country you have lions, giraffes, rhinos and you're scared of a small little porcupine” haha it was so funny. Elder Kisembe is very small also by the way and so I love being around him because he is so small and loving!

I can’t believe so many priests are getting their mission calls! (our ward had 6 in the last week, with two more on the way) Tell them to continue to prepare hard and congrats! I can’t believe Jr miss is already here again! It seems like yesterday when Karigan was participating in it! Tell Jessica Hawkins congrats for me! Well family, I love you very much and hope you have a great week!

Elder Eppich

porcupine on the tro tro (bus)

   

tired, sleeping baby. So cute

The Lord will always help us

Elder Eppich's new apartment

March 10, 2014

Family,

Well this week was seriously so busy! Transfer news came and Elder Strong left me and went to Korfidua! I’m happy for him though because he will do awesome! And I got myself a nice new companion from Nigeria! He is my first comp from Nigeria so I’m excited to work with him! He was actually in my district in Kpong so it was a nice coincidence:) So I’ll try and tell you about my hectic week haha. So on Tuesday we pretty much said our goodbyes to RC (recent converts) and members for Elder Strong and then on Wednesday we went to the mission home and I got my new comp name Elder Iymau. We didn’t return home until around 630 pm, so we hurried and rushed to New Town on our bikes and met with Yaw (a baptismal candidate that was preparing for Saturday) because he said he wanted to talk with us.  I was really nervous because I was afraid he was going to back out. It turned out he just had a question about a JST in the bible. haha Then on Thursday we had Mission Leadership Counsel in Accra again. So me and my zone leader companion, Elder Kisembe, (he just got called to be a zone leader, and goes home in three months) went to Accra and had such an awesome counsel yet again with President Judd! I seriously love being around him and learning from not only him but other leaders of the mission. We finished the meeting around 3:30 pm and we made our trip back to Tema where we had special interviews scheduled for our candidates, both of them showed up :) Then Friday I had a baptismal interview in an area that should have only taken a few hours but because of traffic and miscommunication it took pretty much the whole day|! Saturday morning we had a temple trip with our RC! Both Jones and Michael came and they loved it!!!! They wouldn’t stop talking about how awesome it was inside! I’m so happy for them and their growth! Jones is a stud and comes to church each week early in his shirt and tie :) but on Saturday I was very nervous that our three baptismal candidates wouldn’t come for their baptism because for one, it’s a long trip for a Saturday night and then we have hardly see them the whole week!! And that is the time Satan works on them the most! So I said I short pray pleading with Heavenly Father that all will work out to His will and they would baptized. I just said I had other responsibilities that I had to attend to this week and I need your help with the baptism! And sure enough everything was good! Yaw, Nana, and Jessica showed up for their baptism! Jessica is Nana’s daughter and they brought her boss from work to witness the baptism and he is a solid referral for us! I was so happy for all of them and my testimony was definitely strengthened that the Lord will always help us when we are having tough, stressful times! I love you all very much and I thank you so much for your love and support. I got your package and Janae's package this last week and it was so awesome|!! It seriously was the best getting two packages with amazing things inside! Tell Brittany I’m sorry I couldn’t attend her baptism but I’m so happy for her! Have a great week! 

Elder Eppich

Ps Also I ate dog yesterday for the first time haha it’s not common to do that here, just had a small bite and it was somhowe (he ends the sentence here….I sure wish he hadn’t mentioned this….)

baptism of Yaw, Nana and Jessica with Elder Eppich and Elder Iymau

 Elder Nzoyi from South Africa, Elder Iyamu, Nigeria and Elder Mackay

tro tro (bus ride) to the temple

Elder Edward Dube came to our Ward!

African Sunset

Baptism of Michael, Jones and Van Ike

Dolphin Accident

Scorpion in the Shower

March 3, 2014

Family,

Dang that is so awesome about Brittany! Tell her I wish I could be there as well for her baptism! I’ll be praying for her! This week has been good! Just a normal week and we tried to work with some of our serious investigators and then look for new "elect " people in New Town to help the branch grow, whenever it starts. We have some really nice people! This Saturday we should be having a baptism for a lady name Nanah, and her daughter Jessica, then also a man named Yaw (a Thursday Born). This week is going to be so busy with transfers then Mission Leadership Meeting and other interviews I need to go and do for the district leaders at the end of the week! I’m just praying that I can work as hard as I can and the Lord will help me accomplish the rest! We also have a temple trip Saturday morning that I’m super pumped for! The sun is getting so hot here right now!!! Also I forgot to tell you that a husband and wife that Elder Steinman and I were teaching in Kpong before I got transferred got baptized! I was so happy for them!

Sunday we had Elder Edward Dube come to our ward and it was so awesome to meet him again and shake his hand then talk Small (African dialect) with him! I always love meeting GA, but there is always something different I feel when I meet an African GA! I think maybe it’s because they are converts to the chruch, or something like that! It’s hard to explain! It also could be that I love the African people so much. I hope that makes sense.

 One thing that was hard to see is one of our investigators was telling us about her life and how much money belongs to her name! Each day she works for money to provide for her and her family. If she doesn’t sell the fish then she and her family will have a tough day! Its so sad, but awesome to see the faith of these people here! But God is always in charge!! And they love their lives!

Well family I love you very much! I’m not sure what will happen this transfer but we will see! It will be tough if Elder Strong and I get transferred because it was awesome to be with him! We are like best friends now! love ya!

Elder Eppich

March Madness Bracket