"Afechia pa" and "sending lots of love from Ghana"

Kpong Primary with Geckos made by BC1Ward

Kade's "family" in the mission (trained)

Washington Elders

December 23, 2014

Family,

Afechia pa… (a way to greet someone merry Christmas in Twi) this week was a very busy one again! We started off going to Ho Monday night so I can be with Elder Jones and prepare for our zone training meeting the next day. That went really well in my opinion. After we finished that we ate some pizza in ho and then came home. We then went to Accra on Thursday morning for our Christmas conference. That was was fun because we were able to meet up with all the missionaries and I was finally able to meet a familiar face! I saw elder Hatch right when I got there and was able to talk with him a little bit. He is doing really well and enjoying mission. It was so weird to see him though! I took some photos ill try and send. I was also able to some of my former comps and they are all doing well. Elder Kandeh is in his last transfer on mission! Oh also before I forget Elder Van Scheltema got called to be an AP in the other mission. I knew he would! He is a stud and I miss him a lot! After the Christmas party the Kpong zone and the Kofridua zone slept the night at the mission home and so elder hatch and I were able to talk more about things back home. We woke up Friday morning and left Accra back to our areas. Then on Saturday morning we had our branch temple trip and I forgot to tell you that the one a few weeks ago got cancelled and so elder Steinman and I went and helped with that. Which was good because there were very few Melchizedek priestholder there. So we enjoyed but when we returned home that afternoon we were so tired!!

I got the family Christmas letter and it was very nice the only compliant I have is that why is Karigan's picture the biggest and mine the smallest? I mean what the heck hahaha jokes it was all very good. I also received a letter from the Riries and it was very nice of them for thinking about me in the Christmas season! Also, I was able to give the Gecko key chains out to the kids and they loved it!!! I will try and send a photo and you can share it with Shaniel and aunt Kathi and the rest of the ladies. The older people in the ward wanted some too, they liked them so much and so they all got taken fast haha.

So hopefully Christmas Day we will be having baptism. Sister Pat is still scheduled for that day but I'm not sure if it will be a yes or no. I'm praying that it will be!! So we will see. If it does, it would be the coolest Christmas for me haha 6 months of working with her!! Normally we never spend that much time with an investigator but Sister Pat is different so let's see how it goes J

Well family, I love you and I'm grateful for the support you give me. It doesn’t feel like Christmas and so I don’t really have to worry about getting homesick. I'm excited to talk with you but it will probably be around 40 minutes long. Have a Merry Christmas! Sending lots of love from Ghana!

Kpong Soccer Match

Elder Eppich

Ghana Accra Mission - Decmeber 2013

"It will be a Christmas Never to Forget!

December 16, 2013

Family,

So this week was a crazy busy week and very tiring! On Wednesday Elder Jones and I got together with our district president (president Tyson) and discuss something that the district needs and then we went to Accra that night and spent the night there and had the Mission Leaders Council where it started at 9am then ended around 4pm. We talk about so much but it was sweet because for lunch sister Judd made us some ice cream with chocolate syrup with mango and bananas on it!! after the meeting Elder Jones and i headed back to Ho and i went on exchanges all Friday with missionaries there! then Saturday morning i came back to Kpong with the Cosgraves who were going down to Accra for a YSA meeting. When I got home I found out part of Sister Pat's shop that she sells African wear that she makes caught on fire from a candle. We went there for a couple of hours to help her clean up, she accepted a BD (baptismal date) for Christmas day and we're praying that it goes through!! She came to church yesterday and paid her tithing a third time! We're praying that the 25th is finally the day for her and her family! It will be a Christmas to never forget if all goes well! We had one of our RC (recent convert) whole family come to church yesterday and they loved it. We had been working with the father for a week or so and he has already come twice and so he will be baptised on Christmas day also and hopefully his wife will follow him the next Sunday after that!

So transfers really surprised us this time. No one in our entire zone got transferred! We all have our same companions and everything! I was happy because Kpong is too sweet, and Elder Steinman and I will enjoy together! I got all of the packages and so that was very nice and we opened that first package and started to decorate the place, so it looks really nice :)  well as nice as our apt can look like haha.(I sent pillowcases, Christmas stockings, 12" tree and battery lights and blue foam snowflakes) 

And yes we bought the triple combo for bro Deborah, but we buy them at the distribution center and it cost like 80 peswas which is 40 cents so it is nothing. Yes I gave the money for Christmas to Sister Avery on Thursday.

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week and remember the true meaning of Christmas!! 

Elder Eppich

Hard to say Goodbye

December 9, 2013

Family,

Well this last week was a pretty busy week, from Thursday to Saturday I wasn't in my area but was on exchanges with missionaries in the zone. On Thursday and Saturday I was with Elder Pouinu from New Zealand to show him around Somanya and have him meet our investigators that are there. He and his comp will do a good job in helping them progress to baptism. Before I forget, I found out that my RC (recent convert) in Achimota received the Melchezidek priesthood on Sunday and his wife is doing super awesome in the church as well! It made me feel so good knowing that they are doing so well in the church!! 

    So one of our investigators sister Mary was able to be baptized on Sunday and it was a very special day for her! Her daughter is actually a member in Accra and came up to Kpong to see her be baptized! It was also a nice Sabbath day because our branch building wasn't full of members because they split the branch into three and so there wasn't as many members there making noise.

And then a cool experience is our investigator bro Deborah that stays in Somanya came to church to Kpong and he seriously loved it! i cant remember if i mentioned him to you last week but this man loves to read and so we got him a triple combination and I think he is in Mosiah now in his reading and then he also loves reading in the Doctrine and Covenants! He even asked about possibly being baptized with the lady if he would have known how amazing the church is! He truly is elect and it is going to be hard to say goodbye to him and hand him to the other missionaries,but like I said, they will do a good job with our investigators there!

We won't find out what will happen for transfers until tomorrow morning and I'm somehow nervous haha because I don't know what will happen! It will be sad to say goodbye to Elder Steinman, but it would be super sweet if we could stay together but that normally doesn't happen once the training is finished. We will see what the Lord has in store for us! If I do get moved I hope I  get put a little closer to the other ZL, it's really hard to be split apart and be so far away. We are literally  75 minutes apart tro tro (bus) drive so its a little tough. I am still missing package #2, I hope it comes. I love you very much and hope all the best! Have a good week!

Elder Eppich

"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