Elder Kade Edler Eppich: An awesome week in Ghana

Elder Eppich, Greg, Frederick and Elder Van Scheltema

April 22, 2013

Family!

Well everything here is going awesome!! So to start off, I just want to say that we just left the beach!!! It was so awesome. We took a tro-tro to Korle-bu and then walked the rest of the way! I miss the ocean so much! I was thinking that the last time I was actually on a beach was when we were in Hawaii my 7th grade yr...Is that true? But it was a little dirty but so awesome to just be there and feel the sea breeze! I’ll send some cute photos :)

So yes we had a baptism on Wednesday but only Greg and Fredrick got baptized. Debora texted us earlier that day and said she wants to wait for her brother and sister-in- law to be baptized with them so we decided that was all right but she has been getting a lot of persecution from her previous church and is still confused why she needs a second baptism. Which is super easy because the guy that baptized her didn’t have the Priesthood!!! It’s hard for some people to understand that concept. But the baptism was super nice with Greg and Fredrick! They both came to church on Sunday but only Fredrick got confirmed. The hard thing is that we have church at 8 am and it’s hard for people to get there on time because in Africa everybody is super late. They have to do the announcements at the beginning and the end of the meeting because half of the ward isn’t there until the sacrament. Its good though because it shows who the elect is and not!

Our next baptism is on Sunday where we were suppose to have 4 people baptized. But we found out the couple that was supposed to be baptized that the husband has a drinking problem, which killed me when I found out because he is so awesome and has such a great desire and that’s why we never taught him the word of wisdom because it never crossed my mind!! We will probably baptize them both the 8th.

So we both got the packages and loved them!!! The chocolate was super nice (little deformed) but still great! And Elder Van Scheltema was super surprised and wanted me to tell you thank you! So yes I’m almost out of saline solution so please send like 3 big bottles with Ashley!! Am I going to see Ashley? She should try and come to my ward. Haha but we have transfers on the 15th and I don’t think I will stay in Kaneshie because my training will be over :( and those hi-chews are super nice so please send more of those and skittles mike and ikes, sour worms things like that. The chocolate will last forever haha oh and on that same day that we got the packages we went to visit our investigator that works at a shop and the owner buys stuff from America and sells it there but she is closing the shop so she dashed us 12 kit kat bars and 6 3muskateers haha then the cocoa puffs were only 5 cedis so me and elder van Scheltema bought some!!! Cereal here is super expensive so that was nice to eat that. But they only have this lame powder milk so it doesn’t taste the same! I would kill for a gallon of whole milk!!! Haha but its ok. Oh and the wet wipes were such a great idea!! :) I think those vitamins have been helping me out so much!

So this week was a little tougher for some reason...., idk what it is because we had such a good week but I think it’s because our investigator pool is going down because of a lot getting baptized these next couple of weeks! And then we would find some awesome investigators that have a great desire but then we find out they go to boarding school in central or eastern region and are just on vacation right now! So that stinks because we can’t really baptize them or else they leave to school and never go back to church! Then I read an awesome talk by Elder Oaks in the March 2012 liahona called 'Gospel Culture" if you read it then you will understand some different culture things that Africa has then America. You have to literally buy your wife from her family or else you can’t marry. Just read it because I can’t say everything Haha too long.

Oh but one funny thing that reminded me of home is we were teaching some guy and he doesn’t have very good eyes and so he was trying to read the Book of Mormon and he held it far from his face and had to squint, it reminded me of dad hahahahah. Has the NFL draft happened yet? Did Ziggy (the Ghana football player) get drafted?

Answers

*Yes all the kids touch our skin, they think it’s awesome because it changes colors when you press on it then release Haha

*We don’t have light off very much anymore (knock on wood) but we had it yesterday. No fun

So I hope you all have a good week but yes don’t be afraid to open your mouth about the church! It may be hard to do so the first time just pray for strength!! Prayers have seriously helped me so much out here on the mission!!!! I literally can’t describe how much its helped me out.

Another thing I’ve realized is that the church just......makes sense Haha its pretty much the only thing in the world that actually makes sense to us, if that makes sense. Haha Alright I need to go but I love you all and the church is true!

Elder Eppich, Jr