"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

"Super elect and prepared for us to teach him"

Elvis and Gabriel

Kpong football field

November 25, 2013

Family,

Well this was a nice week for Elder Steinman and I! We were able to see brother Gabriel and brother Elvis baptized yesterday!  Brother Elvis was the one who called us over and told us he was praying to meet someone from this church to fellowship with and brother Gabriel was one that was just super elect and prepared for us to teach him!! I'll try and send a photo of the baptism.

And yes i finally got that package from October and was super pumped when i got it! I was also able to receive a couple of Christmas presents that came super fast!!!

Dang, so super awesome story....so, a few weeks ago I went on exchanges with a Senchi Elder and we did a lot of finding to help teach this missionary how to contact. We met this very nice older lady that seemed like she had potential to be a great investigator. A few days later after I returned to my area, the missionaries in Senchi went to go teach that nice older lady that we contacted and taught. When they got into the compound where she stayed they couldn't find her, and they asked other people  around in the same compound where she stayed and everyone said that there is no lady that stays here and have no idea who they were talking about. While they were looking for this lady they met a super awesome family that stayed in the compound that was very curious about what they had to share and the father came to church the very next day and then the family came the week after that! The missionaries in Senchi said that they think that the lady they went to go see was one of the three nephites or something like that, that would lead them to this elect family.  Hahah it was a really cool story and I thought I would share it with you! (I hope it all made sense Well this Saturday  our branch is having a temple trip and the missionaries are invited to go and so were going to take our RC (recent converts) and its going to be way awesome!!! Wel,l I love you all and hope you have an awesome week! That's awesome Kaitlan is having a boy and a girl!! I was hoping for two boys so they both can be big Walker outside linebackers hahaha. Love ya

Elder Eppich

Member Referrals

Elder Steinman, Brother Mark and Elder Eppich

November 18, 2013

Family,

Well this week was a nice one for Elder Steinman and I; we were able to see one of our investigators baptized yesterday. His name is brother Mark and it's awesome because he is good friends with one of our RC (recent converts) Emmanuel and Emmanuel was a good friend to David our other RC so because we were able to baptize brother David a while ago it led to two other investigators getting baptized. It helps so much when we are able to get referrals from the branch and they fellowship them really well and bring them to church. I honestly don’t remember much about what happened this last week, but one positive thing is that Sister Pat is getting closer to baptism we believe. The time is soon approaching and our branch president lives really close to her and so he is really encouraging her about baptism and once she commits then her family will as well! So I'm really praying for that! Oh and yes I got a package from you…but it was the one you mailed November 8th!! It got here in 9 days! I thought it was the Halloween one but when I opened it up it had little individual wrapped presents and I’m guessing they're ties so that will be nice to give out to the Elder's that don't have Christmas gifts! I couldn’t believe it got here so fast!! I’m praying the one you sent in October will get here somehow soon! Dang that is sweet that you finally got rid of the old computer. Haha. I think I will just call on Christmas, because there is absolutely no place you can skype from out here unless you go to Ho and we would have to do that on a Pday which is the 23rd or something like that so I would rather just call on the 25th. As for the suitcase, that is awesome of Sister Steinman but one thing that Elder Steinman just said is that we can buy the pancake mix in Accra so maybe don't send that because the Cosgraves can pick it up for us sometime and we just opened the second bag of mix today. And I honestly can’t think of anything right now besides chocolate Haha but I’m hoping you sent some in the October package (if I ever get it) or the Christmas one, so we will see. I think this is the longest time I have been with out chocolate sent I came out of the womb! I love you all very much and hope you have an awesome week! I’m proud of Karigan and how hard she has worked this volleyball season!!

Elder Eppich

Crazy, Busy Week

November 11, 2013 Family, Well this week was a crazy, busy week! On Tuesday morning Elder Jones and I came down from Ho to Senchi and went on exchanges with some of the missionaries there. Then we went to Kpong and met with our district president (President Tyson) and then we went to Odumase for the rest of the night and did exchanges once again. Then on Wednesday we went to Akuse and went on exchanges for the day. Then around 5 at night Elder Jones and I went to Accra for a meeting with all the zone leaders, I think there was 12 of us. It started at 9 am Thursday morning and ended around 4 pm. It was such a long meeting but we learned a lot and were able to get a lot accomplished. We headed back to Kpong and during this whole time Elder Jones and mine companions were with each other doing work in both our areas. We had all day Friday to proselyte in our area, and then Saturday we had a big wedding at our branch building. So us missionaries went and set up a little table with a bunch of handouts for people to take. It was a very nice wedding and they fed us afterwards so that was double bonus! So this week went by very fast for me but was very busy. Oh then on Sunday we had lights off and we had just got a new generator and when the generator kicked on it started a small little fire in the control panel so that was pretty exciting but we were able to put it out quick and then turn off all the power Haha, it could have been pretty bad if nobody was around or smelt the fire! It was cool we had this investigator come to church for the first time when we watched General Conference (they have only received Saturday am session) and they offered CDs of it after we watched the conference and our investigator named Gabriel took one and watched it like 4 times and he loved it! He said he was so touched and moved listening to the Apostles and Prophet! He came to church again yesterday and was participating in Elder's quorum class! He is an old man around 60 yrs old and really wants to be baptized as soon as he can and so we set a date of the 24th this month! Well family I love you very much and appreciate your support! Have a great week. Elder Eppich

Leaning on Prayer

 

Dugbatey, Elder Eppich, Eric and Elder Steinman in Kpong



Kpong Zone Pizza Activity!

Elder Steinman and Elder Eppich

November 4, 2013 Family, Well this week was a nice week for Elder Steinman and me! We weren’t able to do confirmations for our baptismal candidates because we had General Conference finally!!! And it was awesome! We watched only one session but I absolutely loved it! It’s so funny how my perspective has changed for GC in the last few years (mostly just this last year) I enjoy being able to listen to our Prophet and Apostles! We had some investigators come and watch it but we’re not really sure how they saw it or enjoyed it so this week we will try and see them and help them understand more about it! Well, last week on Monday I got a call from President Judd at 10:30 at night and I was already passed out asleep. (Pdays I’m always super tired) and I honestly don’t remember what was said, but he asked me to be a zone leader for Kpong zone! I was very surprised and don’t remember what I said other than yes Haha. So Elder Jones in Ho and I will be the Zone Leaders (mom I think you said that Elder Jones mom emailed you last week Haha that’s funny) so I’m pretty nervous right now! I’m really going to have to lean on prayer a lot these next few months!! Elder Steinman and I came up to Ho last night so I can be with Elder Jones to report numbers to the AP's and then we played basketball this morning and after we café (email) we are going to get pizza or hamburgers afterwards! Ho is a very nice place and so there are really cool food joints around! I think today was the year mark of when I received my mission call or somewhere around this date! Time has been really flying by! I keep thinking things I want to tell you back home but I keep forgetting what to say Haha. We should be having a baptism this week and so please pray for Bro Elvis and Bro Mark this week! Oh and you can read Elder Steinman’s blog because he gives a lot more detail about things that have happened to us that I don’t remember Haha. Thanks mom for those awesome quotes! I can’t wait for the Liahona with all the talks in it so I can study them more! Well I love you all and if I think of other things that have happened in the last week in the next little bit I will email them to you! Have a great week! Elder Eppich

A nice week in Kpong

Kpong - Jospehine and Michael

October 28, 2013 Family, Well this was a nice week for not only Elder Steinman and I but also our district and all the missionaries in Kpong. So currently we have 5 sets of missionaries that are at one branch out here in Kpong. They are preparing to split our branch in the near future, so we had a nice little baptismal service where 9 investigators were baptized. For Elder Steinman and I had a lady name Josephine who is 26 years old, she is very soft spoken but very smart and loves the church! And another brother named Michael. He is 25 yrs of age and has been taught by missionaries for six plus months, but they all dropped him because he would never come to church. Finally Elder Halavaka and I started to teach him and got him to come once before Elder Steinman came in and took over for elder Halavaka and he came ever since the first time and he loves the church! When president and Sister Judd came for the district conference, Sister Judd talked with him for a little bit and he was just saying how much he loves the church!! It was really awesome to hear him talk about the church that way! Brother Elvis wasnt able to be baptized yesterday because he had some concerns, but we helped resolve the concerns when he came to church yesterday. Oh by the way Elder Halavaka got called to train this transfer! He is going to do awesome!! Oh Then this week was the Krobo Festival. Where we are there are so many Krobos and so the place got really crazy. They were playing loud music all the time and everything was super busy all the time! It was so funny because there was some advertising going on and there were four dwarves in the back of the truck dancing while loud music was playing and it was so fun. All Ghanaians here can dance! It is sweet! Then Elder Steinman’s mom sent a suitcase with a missionary that is coming from there ward and it was full of straight candy and pancakes!!! It was awesome! It was like a straight jackpot Haha so we’ve been eating pancakes every morning and enjoying! She also made us other 3 missionaries in the apartment little Halloween bags with candy, very sweet of her! Something that made me happy this last week is that people kept saying that I’m getting obollo (fat) haha so that made me feel good! And no my sonicare broke like a week after you sent me a new one. I’m hoping we get to watch conference next week! I’m happy that Daniel F is doing well! Well, family I love you very much and I’m grateful for your love and support! Elder Eppich

Kpong Ghana

Trek to Accra Temple

Kpong District

October 21, 2013 Family, Well this week was a very nice one! Not too much stuff happened so this letter might be a little short. So to start off the reasons why I haven’t been sending photos lately because I had a virus on my memory card. I was so mad and afraid I would lose all of my photos, but the man that works at the café was able to remove the virus and save my photos! It was awesome!! And then also I had spoiled my hair slippers like 4 months ago but I had left them in our same apartment and I looked for a little electrical repair man, and he was able to fix them for 25 Ghana! I was pumped! I would have paid 50 to get them fixed; I don’t like getting African haircuts Haha. Then on Thursday we had our district temple trip/interviews with president Judd. So we had to make it to the 8:30 session in Accra, so we woke up at 430 in the morning to be there by 8 and we got there at 910 Haha I was pretty frustrated because we were suppose to go Wednesday night so we could make the temple session, but the APs said we would be ok to leave super early Thursday. We didn’t make it so I was pretty mad/sad. We were able to still do baptisms, but I want to watch the new endowment session! But right when we started to do baptism those feelings were able to leave me and I loved it! And yes that is the hardest thing going from nice AC rooms to outside in Africa Haha. The interview with president Judd went good! We then traveled home at 5 in the evening and got home around 9pm. I was so tired by the time we got home! It normally doesn’t take that long to travel back and forth but the traffic was terrible!! Oh Haha a funny story when we were in the changing room there was a white man with an Australian accent (sounded very similar to Elder Halavaka) and so I asked where he was from, and he said he was from Sydney and then I told him I knew Elder Halavaka and he said how he knew the Halavaka family. Then I asked him his name and he said Elder Vincent, and I was like oh crap! he is in our area presidency and I didn’t even know him hahaha and I guess he talked at General Conference! It’s not my fault we don’t get to watch conference for a month later. Then yesterday was district conference and it was was awesome! All the members from Ho, Tshito, Senchi all came to our building (because it’s the district center) It was a packed housed!! We had to set up chairs and canopies all outside for members to come and sit! I wish I could have taken pictures, but I know Elder and Sister Cosgrave did. Well I love you all very much and thank you for the support! Elder Eppich

Elder Eppich and his companion

Elder Eppich and family in his area