"We were friends before..."

May 26, 2014

Family,

Well by God’s Grace I’m still doing good! This week we had a busy week yet again, and the days go by so fast! This was seriously the fastest 6 weeks! I can’t believe it’s already transfers this week, which means that we will be very busy!! just like always :) But the highlight of the week was we were finally able to go and do an endowment session!!! It was so sweet!  I loved it!  I was so happy I was able to go! It seriously really helped strengthen me and keep me going! Kind of a new start!

Dang what is up with all of the health issues in the basin? Tell bro Mackay, Bishop Ririe, and Jande that they are in my prayers~! I’m happy that they are improving small!

Dang Alan is home off his mission, great Kraymer will never get married because he will just be around all of his high school buddies again ha But I’m happy with that because I want to be around for kraymer's wedding!

I honestly don’t really remember a whole lot this week; I like to look in my journal to see what I was thinking and doing a year ago! It’s so crazy haha. 

I actually had a neat experience this last week that I would like to share. If it sounds weird or you don’t really understand what I’m trying to say I’m sorry just know that I understand. We had a man around 25 come to church last week and because of his busy work schedule and schooling schedule it is hard for us to see him. We were finally able to see him on Saturday where we taught him at the church (which is right next to the temple, so it is a perfect place for a first discussion) and when we were teaching him I was just thinking where have I met this man before?? He looks so familiar, sounds so familiar and so forth. But as I was thinking about this a thought popped in my mind saying that “you know this man, and you have known him for a very long time, you were friends in the pre mortal world”... and after that I just felt peace! It was so awesome and hard to explain unless you were me, but it is not the first time where I have had that same feeling or thought and the person ends up getting baptized! Now obviously I don’t know if all of this is correct, but it felt right! I guess you would just need to experience it to understand it. Maybe other missionaries know what I mean. So we are going to be working with this man by all means! Hopefully he will be able to meet with us during our busy schedule!

Also, today we had a sweet soccer match where it was legit!!! We played our ward vs. another ward and we had jerseys, socks and everything! It was great! I played defense the whole time because these boys were way good haha. It started around 9 and finished about 12 so I got burned. haha I’m turning to Obruni (white person) because of having a truck and everything so it was good for me to be in the sun haha. After we get done emailing we have to go and meet with president and finish all the transfers! We were thrown a curve ball this week by two of the French speakers needed more time to learn English and so we had to re due a bunch of stuff haha. So we will pray it all goes well. Family I love you all and hope all is going good back home! Enjoy your week.

Elder Eppich

Zone Conferences

Ghana Accra Temple. The trees and grounds are beautiful

This is my Kontomire Stew. Kontomire is a leaf that they use for cooking here. And Eba is a Nigerian food that they use to eat with a stew. So i would get a golf ball size of Eba on my hand and scoop some Kontomire up and eat it! it is way good!!! 

May 19, 2014

Family,

Well to start I was looking at those photos that I sent home last week and I didn’t realize how explicit those baboons were haha my bad, hope I didn’t offend anyone.

This last week flew by! So yes we had our Zone Conferences and it will be the last one for President and Sister Judd. So it was definitely sad but so great at the same time! It all started last week Monday when the elders from Kpong and Ho zone came to the mission home to spend the night. The next day (Tuesday) we had the Ho and Kpong Zone go to the temple in the morning and the Adenta zone had the first conference, after the conference with Adenta we had lunch and the Adenta elders went to the temple and the Ho and Kpong zone came to the conference. So this happened from Tuesday - Friday with different zones and it was really busy. Because of the conferences we weren’t able to go to the temple but this week we will go just my comp and me and the 2 office elders. It will be great! I’m praying I will get to see the new endowment video; I haven’t been for an endowment in almost a year so it will be very nice!

The main part of the Conference was a Questions and Answers segment where the missionaries got to ask questions to president and Sister Judd about life, marriage, doctrinal questions, and so forth haha I learned a lot! I feel very blessed to be around president Judd everyday and learn from him where other missionaries get to be around him like I do once a month! So its great and I have learned so much! I hope I can remember everything! Its funny because he will correct me on small little things like for an example when I’m conducting and I say page number 2, The Spirit of God, he will correct me by saying Hymn number 2. It’s great because I’m learning so many wonderful things from him and I know it will help me when the new mission president comes in July and when I’m older! We were only able to teach 10 lessons this last week but it was alright! We were blessed in many different ways!

I’m pleased to announce that I have been approved as a good chef from my companion. haha on Sunday I made a nice Kontomire stew!!! It is delicious and is basically made out of leafs and oil haha I will send a pic of it with my Eba (Nigerian food)

As for birthday requests, I honestly don’t really know, I don’t even know what there is from the US anymore. I know I will be spending quite a bit of money in the next few months to get a new suit because I gave mine away to a member that is leaving on his mission soon and a few other nice things :) but I can just buy that with my own money, so send whatever your heart desires J. I love all of you very much and hope all is well! Just know the church is true and how important it is to learn the language of the spirit. That is critical for me as a missionary and for when I go home to know when the spirit is talking to me to help guide me in the right direction concerning education, marriage:), and so forth! Have a great week,

Elder Kade Eppich

Immerse ourselves in the Scriptures

Family that Kade taught in Kpong and then was later baptized. Juliet, Lawrence and Clinton

Baboons on the way to Kpong

Truck that Kade drives

May 12, 2014

Family,

Well it was great to be able to talk with all of you yesterday. It seemed like it went by really fast but it was all good, just what I needed to hear from everyone. So this last week was good and we were able to teach quite a few people. We weren’t too busy, but this next week will be a lot different with Zone Conference all week. We have different zones coming to Accra each day all the way until Friday. It will be a great week because it will be President and Sister Judd’s last Zone Conference and so it is going to be a great time for learning on our part! We are part of every Zone Conference so I don’t think we will get much time to proselyte this next week. We have awesome investigators and 6 came to church, which is a miracle in itself just because of the small amount of time we get to spend in our area!

On Tuesday I was able to go to Kpong Zone Training Meeting and help out there. It was a great meeting and we have strong missionary and Zone Leaders there. I was most excited to go back and see some of the RC in the area, obviously we didn’t have much time, but we visited one family (lawrence, Juliet, Clinton) that Elder Steinman and I started to teach and they were baptized a few weeks after I left to Tema. They were so happy to see me and they had also went to the temple for baptisms for the dead. They just looked awesome. Also I went by Sister Pat’s. She is still being stubborn and not being baptized but going to church every few weeks. She made this huge meal for us and gave it to us to eat when we got home. She is so awesome and told me she will be baptized soon, so I hope so.

We also got to take nice pictures of the baboons on the side of the road because I was the one driving and not some crazy tro tro driver so I will try and send photos in a little bit. It has been raining quite a bit the last few days and I love it! Also we are teaching an investigator that reminds me so much of Morgan, tell Morgie to email me cause I miss her haha. I love all of you family and friends, I know the church is true and that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God. Sometimes there are so many people that are trying to do all these crazy and hard things to increase the spirituality of a home, or increase church attendance or missionary work, but all we have to do is immerse ourselves in the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, and by the "Power of the Word" things will change as you find answers in the scriptures, and by the Lord blessing you! Many prayers are being sent to all of you back home from Ghana.

Much Love

Elder Eppich

"Being Grateful Will Take Away Life's Bitterness"

Elder Izekor(my comp) Elder Oguche, Elder Frimpong and myself. Just takin a nice cruise

May 5, 2014

Family, Happy Cinch De Mayo... :)

Well this last week seemed to fly by like usual! We had quite a bit of meetings that we had to attend and so we weren’t able to do a lot of teaching but it was ok. The small time we had we met some super nice people! Also, we had to have an emergency transfer this last week and so that threw us a curve ball and trying to move some missionaries around to the Lord’s will. Well to start off I just want to remind my family that my clothes are still off limits, you all know how I feel towards my clothes :) that picture of Kraymer reminded me of everything that I left at home, and I remember exactly the way I put everything in those boxes...even my shoes... so I will remember :) I’m going to bring back some Ghana juju so you won’t want to mess with me when I get home ;) jk

But hey we were finally able to watch General Conference yesterday! Well at least Saturday and Sunday morning session, and it was fantastic! There were a lot of things that stuck out to me when I was listening and so I will try my best to remember everything... The first thing I loved was from Elder Nelson how he said "keeping God’s Divine commandments brings blessings EVERY time" The Lord has to bless us when we do what he ask of us and that is a promise that we give to our investigators that their lives will change for the better by coming to the Lord’s true church! Then the next one was President Uchtdorf's talk about "Being Grateful will take away life’s bitterness" And the first thing that came to my mind was that the Ghanaians have mastered this! They have so little yet they are still grateful in everything that they have. So I would like everyone to remember to be grateful for what you have and not what you want or wish you had (unless you want or wish you had me there, then that’s ok :)) then the last thing that I really liked is how the scripture Luke 22:42 "not my will but thine be done" we need to align our will with the Lord’s will just as Jesus Christ has done! That is one thing that I have been really trying to do the last few months is doing what the Lord would have me do to help the fellow Ghanians, mission, and even myself!

Well family I love you all, and I’m super jealous you opened the pool already (not really, but I’m happy for you) just give those new babies a few weeks on their mothers breast and they will be looking like those chubby walker babies haha  (that phrase gets said a lot around here) can’t wait to talk with you next week on the phone! Much love

Elder Eppich