Definitely a great mission to serve in and at a great time!

"Socker" in Ghana

July 28, 2014

Family,

Well it looks like you had a very busy week! I’m jealous you got to go to the cabin, but not really because I will get to go next year! I hope the boat and Jet skis are going to still be working when I get home! That is crazy about the wild fire in Wenatchee! Super scary.  Hopefully you don’t need that generator the next couple of weeks if a black out happens. That would be something you would want to buy another one after you donated it to the people there.

Yes Johnson’s wife came to church yesterday and it was so awesome! She loved it! The Relief Society here is great for the sister investigators because that is all they talk about when they leave from church each week! The Lord continues to bless us with his Grace as we are working hard in other parts of our responsibilities besides proselyting but yet we were blessed with 9 great investigators at church! I like being so busy because it helps us focus on our most important investigators!

So we had an interesting experience yesterday. We got a call from our sisters early Sunday saying they need to be rushed to the hospital and the sister couldn’t move so we had to drive fast to Adenta to pick her and her comp up then took them to the hospital. She was super sick and couldn’t really move. So the problem was that we only had 400 ghc in our assistants reimbursement, and so you have to pay cash for them to see the sister and whatever drugs that she needs. It was crazy but it came down to I had to pay 640 ghc of my own money to cover all of the needs, so that was a pretty crazy Sabbath! We were there from 630am-2pm. We missed sacrament but once the sister missionary was ok and was sleeping we ran over and greeted our investigators at the chapel for a while and then went back to the hospital to find out the test results. Apparently she had an infection in her stomach from something she ate! It was a fun experience but I was super tired!

There was also a great experience at the beginning of the week where we were able to head east from Accra and go look around an area east of Tema where hopefully we will be able to open a branch soon there! The church isn’t very far east of Tema and so its great to be a part of preparing the future of the church here in Ghana! Definitely a great mission to serve in and at a great time! We met some strong members there!

Family and friends I love you all and pray for you each and every day! The church is true, have a great week!

Elder Eppich

"A Successful and Busy Week"

July 21, 2104

Family,

Well the week was a successful week and pretty busy! We were able to see Brother Johnson confirmed a member of the church yesterday and he was looking way good in his African wear. We are still working on his wife but she is still somehow stubborn and not willing to come to church yet; nevertheless, we will continue to work on her because eternal marriage is our goal, not just baptism. 

This week we were able to visit a couple of zones with President and Sister Heid. We first went to Korfidua where we were visiting the different missionaries and their apartments and meeting house, but when we were in Maase (which is the farthest north our mission has a meeting place in the eastern region) we got a call from a sister missionary saying that she needed to go to the hospital and so we had to come all the way home from there and meet her at the hospital. It was a very long day with lots of travel. We were just going to spend the night and work with some more missionaries the next day, but the Lord had different plans for us. So Elder Fausett (office Elder) and I drove to the hospital to pick up her comp because we thought the sister missionary was going to be staying the night at the hospital but actually the doctor just gave her some different medication and all was good. So At 9:30 pm we had to drive these sisters back to their apt in Tema. It was definitely a long day but it was a good experience to travel pretty much most of the mission in one day!

 We also had a sisters’ conference on Friday and it was good to hear some of the sisters concerns and way to help them out more.

 Also, yesterday we got a call that there was a missionary from Korfidua who needed to be released as a missionary because he was flying home to Accra on a Sunday because his flight got cancelled and nobody really was aware of it and so basically to make the story short we found out that a missionary landed in the airport at 11 am and we didn't get there until 1:30 to pick him up......So mom and family don't let that happen to me haha that is my worst fear of coming home and nobody is there in the airport and I have to get a taxi home haha jk Well family, I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Eppich

"Everything Just Makes Sense"

I'm going to miss Elder Shults, one of my best friends on mission!!! from Las Vegas Nevada..... He was trained by my grandfather haha so he is my "Uncle" on mission. He was a ZL so we worked a lot with each other.

I gave this small boy that was begging for money a pamphlet (cant give money) and he just started to go to town on the book and never walked off to ask for money the rest of the red light and was just either looking at the photos or reading...not sure which one

Brother Johnson's baptism

July 14, 2014

Family,

Wow what a crazy busy week, like seriously probably the busiest week I have ever had on mission! I don’t know if I want to explain it all but I will try my best! It started off on Tuesday where we had our missionaries going home, which by the way are some of my best mission buddies :(, and we had to help weigh their luggage, eat dinner, and then drive them to the airport for their flights. But because of traffic we were pretty far behind schedule and one of our Kenyan elders thought that he could take 2 pieces of luggage that weigh 30 KG each but actually it was a total of 30 KGs and so when we found that out we were all stressing because his flight was going to leave in an hour and he still had to go through all that security crap for an international flight.  So the poor Elder had to throw open his bags and start moving everything around to take his most prized possessions home and finally we were able to have him send one bag that weighed like 33 KGs and then we had to run to the security check point and sit and watch him go through the security, which stunk to sit there and watch him get ready to board his airplane and fly home.... but anyways its was all good. 

That night we got home late and had our transfers the next day! So we woke up once again at 4 in the morning and ran to the MTC to pick up the new missionaries and bring them back for their orientations and to get their trainers! By the way I’m staying with my comp, which I’m happy about, and actually Elder Hatch and his comp moved into the mission home because we lost the lease for their apt because it is so expensive so now we have 6 in our apt! We took home some sister missionaries that live a ways away and when we were coming back we got a call that one of our sisters that was in the hospital was about to be released and we needed to collect 4000 GHc from President Heid to go and take her out and send her to Tema! So all of that fun stuff happens and took the rest of our night! We got home at 9, met with President Heid to discuss everything and then we had to prepare a PowerPoint for the following day, which was our mission leadership council!! So we got to bed late but in the morning (Thursday morning if I have lost a few of you in my unorganized description of the week) we were able to play catch because one of the ZL in Kof town had two mitts so we played catch for a few minutes than it was back to work and finish prepping everything for MLC which lasted from 9am-4pm haha so much fun..... The rest of the night was pretty chill and then Saturday morning Elder Hatch’s comp walks into the kitchen and tells us he is going into crisis (sickle-cell amenia) and needed to be taken to the hospital.... so that is what we did Saturday morning! Took him to the hospital and President Heid and I just stayed together and had a good long chat about the future and what I should do! So it was great! Elder N____ is doing better now, but basically something in the bone marrow just causes extreme pain in the body!!! So that somehow summed up the week!

Sunday we had a great baptism of our brother Johnson who was somehow a referral from a less active member at the time until he started to come with his brother. He was prepared for us to come and teach him! He had an open heart and a willing mind and he truly loves the church and teaching! We are still working with his wife but she is still somehow stubborn and loves her church! So that will take some time!

This week looks busy as we are going on a mission tour and going out see two zones this week and do interviews with President Heid to get to know him better! I love everything though so it’s great! Wish I could spend more time proselyting but this calling is really going to help prepare me for future callings in the church! I often catch myself noticing how things are run wrong in a ward or branch because of different things President Judd has taught me and just from being a missionary. I try not to say too much because I don’t want to offend the bishopric or anything like that... they wanted to postpone our baptism because of Ward council yesterday to move it to next week but me and my comp said NO haha. It was great because we had so many members supporting him! Even a lot of whites because they want to see an African baptismal service!

Today we had an awesome sport day where we met up with the AP’s and Office elders from the other mission at the temple site and played forever! Elder Van Scheltema (Kade’s trainer but got transferred to new mission)is going home next week (Tuesday) and I’m going to miss him so much!! He will do great things! Also, President Heid trusted me enough to cut his hair! So I thought that was sweet! I got pulled over by a cop again for a U-Turn that was completely legal and this time I didn’t waste anytime in bringing out a book of Mormon haha so he let us go pretty fast.  I love you all and know the Church is true! Everything just makes sense! Have a great week. Oh also I forgot that last night the Crisps’ fed us chicken fettuccini alfredo and it was amazing!!!! They are so awesome and loving! Also, for dessert we had root beer floats!!!! booyahhahah love you all once again!!

Elder Eppich

"always look for those small little missionary moments where you can discuss the gospel with those around you"

eating Hamburgers and milkshakes at Cuzzy's on the 4th of July

July 7, 2014

Family,

Well a lot has been done this week and it was great. Things around here are a lot different with President and sister Judd gone and President and sister Heid here!! It’s a great learning experience for me however to be able to serve as an assistant to 2 mission presidents and see how they run things differently.

I can’t remember of what really happened this week but a couple of things that were sweet was first brother Ezekiel was confirmed and so he is doing great!

And the second was the 4th of July and it was an awesome night! We went to a place called Cuzzy's Bros and it was so amazing and expensive. I dropped 49 ghc on a hamburger and milkshake but totally worth it! The hamburger had so much cheese on it and it had bacon and everything!!! It was an awesome night! The US embassy had a party that we were invited too but that wouldn’t have been the best environment for us missionaries’ . There were 6 of us missionaries that went to Cuzzy bros and President and sister Heid were suppose to come as well but they had to go to meet a missionary in the hospital...the last week we had to put 2 missionaries in the hospital for malaria and a blood clot! So we spent sometime driving around and visiting missionaries in the hospital. One was a sister missionary and she was just in the MTC and has been in the hospital for 3 days now. She is getting better though and we visited her for about 2 hours! 

I got pulled over by a cop who was just asking for a bribery or else he was going to give us a ticket, but instead I offered him a Book of Mormon and we got a couple of nice referrals haha. It was funny how fast everything changed when I said we could give you a bible and they were like “oh, please I need the word of God" and they harassed us no more haha. Always look for those small little missionary moments where you can discuss the gospel with those around you...it can be the smallest little moment but that little moment can lead to a big opportunity for those people who are searching for the gospel but don’t know where to find it.  It was a funny and sweet experience! That is awesome about how well Janae did at Miss Washington! I'm glad you were able to go and cheer her on. I knew she would do so well! She’s great. That will be fun when you head down to Argentina! Better be careful! Sorry for the short letter. Love you all and have a great week!

Elder Eppich

New Mission President - help hasten the work of Salvation

President Judd and Elder Eppich

Welcome to the Heid's, new mission president of Ghana Accra Mission

baptism of Ezekiel

June 30, 2014

Family,

Well I remember that this week was a really nice one but I don’t remember the specifics. It was a great and last one that we had with president Judd. We tried to finalize everything for President Heid's arrival and everything we really smoothly. We were able to meet with President Heid and President Judd Saturday evening and it was great! I will miss President Judd very much but I pray and hope I will be able to retain everything he has taught me. I am also excited to learn different things from President Heid. President Heid is super awesome! He is much different than President Judd but they are both great in their different ways. President Heid likes to have fun but be obedient at the same time.... that has pretty much been my Motto the whole mission haha. He will be great for the Ghana Accra Mission.  President Judd could have still taught me a bunch of things and helped the mission out so much but his time is finished and it’s President Heid time to help hasten the work of salvation.

We had a great baptism yesterday with brother Ezekiel, I was given the opportunity to baptize him. I can't remember if I told you about him, but basically he is the definition of an "Elect Man". He came to church, loved the teachings, read, and so much more. Whenever we talk with him he always has his eyes on the temple and going there some day. He is 31 yrs. old and not married but hopefully that will change. It’s kind of hard because right now the economy is super bad and so people see the nice beautiful church and temple and so some think they can come and be baptized and then receive financial aid from the church. We have to discern if the person is putting on a show or really elect. So we make it clear to everyone that we can’t assist them with money when they are baptized.

We actually had a pretty crazy event that happened last week in one of my old areas.  There was a kidnapping and some missionaries saved the day and helped assist the police in catching the kidnapper! It was pretty crazy!

The church is true! I love each and every one of you and hope you enjoy the cabin. Kraymer has to either take a class from President Judd at BYU or go and greet him! I told president Judd that he would do that so he is expecting it! Have a great week!

Also, I had no idea you are going to Argentina that will be awesome and I don’t know if I want you to come and pick me up haha just depends, time will tell. 

Elder Kade Eppich