Dreaming of a Black Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

I'm really missing the snow right now. but Christmas is the best when you get to give the best gift ever to everyone. it is so great to be a missionary during Christmas time. this last week we had our Christmas conference. we got to go to the temple site and eat a ton of delicious food, and president hill gave us some gifts, and we got to do a session at the temple. it was such a great thing to go through the temple. i have missed it. i felt so much peace.

President hill gave us these cool wood carvings of a sankofa bird. Sankofa in twi means to go back for something good. San means good, ko means go, and fa means back. they are really cool.

Our week proselyting was great! we worked really hard this week. i don't know, we have had such great lessons with such great people, but no one is progressing... it is kind of frustrating. it can be difficult to tell who is serious and who isn't. people are just so polite and they wont tell you that they aren't interested. the last couple Sundays we only had one investigator to church. but she is a referral, so she could be really promising. we haven't taught her yet, but we will see this week.

But all is well in Kasoa! hahaha i don't know why, but water has been a struggle this last couple of weeks. we have had water for i think three days in that period of time, and our apartment is getting so nasty... we cant mop, or do dishes, and i have been fertilizing the field next to our apartment really well, but i am getting good at pure water showers! lol

One day we finished a lesson and decided that we would contact, and the first person we saw was a lady a little ways off of the path sitting on her porch. we started talking to her and asked her if we could help her with what she was doing. she replied, "only Jehovah can solve my problems!" i looked at my companion with the look that means lets just keep going, but he started to walk toward her. we told her who we were, and then explained that we would like to start with prayer. she said, "no just tell me what you came to tell me and leave." hahah at this point i looked at my companion again with the look of please can we just leave! haha (she was obviously a Jehovah's Witness) after that she and my companion bible bashed for about 30 minutes trying to prove to each other who Jehovah was... it was a disaster. she was screaming at us and i was laughing, and then she told us to leave. we got her name, but i don't think we will be going back there again..

Well it sounds like you have had a great week! thank you for all of the pictures! i couldn't see the video tho, the filter on the mylds wont allow it. so that was a bummer. i hope that all works out with the skype this week! if not i will just have to call on the phone. so we will see. there is a possibility that the light will go off. so if it does i will just have to call. but i hope to see your faces!! i miss you all and talk to you soon!! Merry Christmas!!

Love Elder Eldredge

P.S. when did the guy fly to Ghana with my package? was it on Friday? also how much money did you put into my account? just curious. oh ya today i went to the guy who makes the really nice suits, because elder Broadhead went to start his. i kind of want to start making mine in the next few months. he can take a while making the suits, and there are a ton of people coming home around the same time as me. but the suits are 280 Ghana Cedis which is about 70 dollars.

P.P.S. can you make sure that Lisel is at the house when i call? hahah that would be great :)

P.P.P.S. the office elders and aps and president went to Winneba on Saturday. it is going to be a new zone for our mission. we are taking it from the cape coast mission this transfer. so there is a possibility that i could go there. it is a bush tho.. they said that they have to bring a translator with them for every lesson. so that will be interesting. also the Sierra Leone mission opened again, and they are taking some of the missionaries from our mission. so we will see when they will take them, and who will go. it will be interesting.

a member who owns a chop bar gave us lunch the other day: rice with cassava leaves, and cow skin... surprisingly it wasnt too bad. it was super spicy tho!! she like pepe too much haha

i bought a jalavia this last monday along with a muslim mat haha the robe is so comfy!! you get a nice breeze ;)

here is the mat

here is the sankofa bird that president hill gave us. i named him samuel. samuel the sankofa bird :)

Saturday Saints

hello family! 

sorry this is coming so late. we have been at the cafe for like three hours waiting because the internet was down. and it was full of people so there were no open computers. this week was so great! like i said last week, i got a new companion, Elder Kabwika. he is such a cool guy! he is super nice, and a very hard worker. he has been on mission for almost ten months, so he is still pretty young, but we are working together well. 

here is a pic of me and my new companion from church yesterday. 

the tie i am wearing is our mission tie. it is made out of kente.

This week has been filled with failed appointments, but we have been doing a lot of contacting. luckily when we have a failed appointment it is somehow easy to find someone to teach. if you tell them the you teach the word of God, they will always let you sit down and talk haha it is great. especially if you speak in twi, they instantly love you. it has been a fun week with a lot of changes. 

We met this really nice lady who we asked if she knew which church we were from, and she said,"yes of course! you are from the Saturday saints church." hahahahahahahahaha i laughed so hard, and it was kind of right in her face.... but she also thought it was funny to see obrunie laughing hysterically. so it was good. 

This week the water has been off for most of the time, but it was okay. i am getting good at showering with pure water now ;) it was also funny because i had to teach Elder Kabwika how to shower with pure water. i don't know how he has spent 10 months in Ghana without having a pure water shower. he is a funny guy. 

On Saturday i baptized two of our investigators! W----- and A----- were both baptized, and are confirmed a member of the church. it was so good. they are L----'s younger sisters. it was funny, we were teaching the word of wisdom to them, and they are twelve so i was expecting that there wouldn't be a problem besides maybe tea, but A----- came right out and said that she like alcohol... hahah i don't know who gave her some, but she said she would never touch it again hahahah. i was shocked. 

on thursday, we went to a recent convert to visit and to help her with her my family book, and when we got there she was cooking outside, and her three year old son was running around being crazy and singing and stuff. as we were talking, the small boy came up and bit me straight in the leg! hahahah it hurt so bad, but then he gave me a mango so i forgave him. it was cute. 

Dang, sounds like your guys' week was good. sorry you were sick dad. that sounds pretty miserable. that's so cool that the red sox got David Price!!! that makes me excited.

Our investigators are doing well! we have some great new investigators that we are teaching! i just pray that they continue to have the desire to learn, and to progress. there is a bright future if we keep working hard.

It is totally true, the hard parts make you grow fast. if you don't chose to grow and learn from the trials, you will die. your mission will suck. and you wont be able to fulfill your purpose as a missionary. i have found that it is so important to have trials. i was reading in the book of either chapter 12 this last week, and it talk a TON about faith. i love that it expresses that success or miracles wont come until AFTER the trial of your faith. it is important that we are thankful for our trials. sometimes you feel like you're killing yourself when you thank Heavenly Father for our trials, but if we pass the trial with faith we will enter into the realm where miracles happen. (thank you Parker for that quote, i love it) 

i haven't had any crazy food lately. i think it was Tuesday night, we went to L----- house to teach W----- and A----, and their mom fed us appeley. i had never had it before, but it was nice. it is kind of like banku but not as sour. i thought it was good. and it is a Congolese food, so Elder Kabwika was loving it.

My laundry situation is okay. we have a lady that we give our clothes to and she washes them, but i was my garments and sometimes my shirts by hand. i hate washing by hand hahaha when i have kids i will use that as punishment lol.

Twi is coming cacra cacra lol that means small small. i can greet people and have very very very small conversations, and i can also pray a short prayer. but i hope to go to the bush for a long time so that i can learn more twi.

You are sending me another package??? THANK YOU!!!!!! I'm so excited! that will be the best! what is in it?? how long ago did you send it?

haha sorry mom, but no new boob story this week. just the usual breast feeding at least once a day lol 

also Elder Yao is in Tesano now. he is with Elder Nxele. he was called as a district leader, so that is good for him.

i hope you all have a great week and stay safe! love you all! 

Elder Eldredge

p.s. also i forgot, but i worked it out with a member. he is going to let me use his computer to Skype on Christmas! i was thinking i could call at 3 o clock Ghana time. which is 8 o clock am mountain time. would that work??

p.p.s  okay! i wanted to tell you about this fabric called kente. it is only found in Ghana, and it is super pretty. it is weaved in a really cool way, and they have some really cool designs. a lot of the missionaries like to use it to make ties, or scripture cases. when you buy it, you buy it in strips. and one strip costs anywhere from 10 cedis to 30 cedis. but with one strip you can make two ties, or one scripture case. and it is super cheap. it only costs like 6 cedis to make a tie. so i was thinking i could make some ties and give some out when i got home. 

p.p.p.s. oh ya, i also forgot to answer your question about the new mission president. President Hill is still the president right now, but in January we get a new temporary president, President Snow. He will be president until July when we will get our new mission president. so i will have three mission presidents while I'm on mission. haha 

another pic from when D------ stole my camera

the harmataan in the morning is so thick. it clears up during the day tho

this is D------ ... he stole my camera while we were teaching his sisters W----- and A-----. i love that kid haha 

A Perfect Plan

Hey everyone! 

you guys are having eventful weeks lately! geeze. haha i am glad everyone is doing well and are safe. that is so crazy that Bronco wont be at BYU anymore. i guess he is the only coach i have known, so it will be weird seeing him at Virginia. mom, that's super exciting that the furniture is finally going in. i know it will look amazing. 

My week was very humbling, and i am so grateful for it. i learned so much this week. last week we were able to teach so many people no problem, but this week we were fighting to get four lessons in a day. i don't know, everyone was just gone. they had a holiday this week, but i didn't think that it would effect us as much as it did. but it was a really big test of keeping a good attitude. i just kept telling myself that i shouldn't get frustrated. just control what you can control. sometimes all you can do is move on and go to the next person. i know that our Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for all of us. Since i have been on a mission i have realized that i could change someones life just by opening my mouth and telling people what i know to be true. i realize that i am not the one who converts anyone, but if i don't say anything then they might not have the chance for the spirit to enter into them and testify. so maybe all the people that we couldn't see didn't need to see us this week, and all of the new people that we met instead needed us more. i don't know, but i have confidence and faith that everything will work out. 

Transfers are tomorrow, and i will be staying in Kasoa, but elder Yao will be leaving to Tesano to be a district leader. my new companion that i will get tomorrow is called elder kabwika. he is from the D.R. Congo, and i hear that he is a really cool guy. but i am a little nervous because he is coming from Asamankase which is kind of the bush, and when people are in the bush they become lazy and apostate because they are so far away from everyone. but i will not let him be lazy or apostate. we are going to do work. 

This week will be a good week! we have two baptisms scheduled for this Saturday, and that will be so nice. i am excited for them to be baptized. 

Funny moment for the week: we were on our way to district council meeting, and i was on my bike. as i was riding i could hear a taxi coming so i got over to the side of the road to let him pass. but there was a small dirt ledge thing that made me loose my balance, and i fell over and hit the taxi so hard with my shoulder! hahahaha it made a loud thump and i somehow stayed on my feet. the taxi didnt stop to even see if i was okay tho haha i haven't laughed so hard in a long time. 

another funny moment: we went to a members house yesterday for dinner and after we finished eating and as we were getting ready to leave we were talking with the members. one of them asked me how old i was. i told her that i was 18, and she continued to talk to her family in twi. she told them that i looked too young to be 18 and that i should go home and suck on my mothers breast.... hahahahaha i would have been offended if i wasn't laughing so hard lol but anyways i love and miss you all so much! thank you for the update and i hope you have a great week.

love Elder Eldredge

P.S. i am going to talk to a member this week to see if he will let me use his lap top to skype on Christmas so i will let you know next week if i will be able to.

I also forgot to talk about the harmataan. it started just this week. it is where all of the sand and dust from the Sahara is blown over Ghana and the whole sky is just brown. you cant even see very far. you can even look straight at the sun and it wont hurt. it is nice tho because it isnt near as hot and it is more dry like home. so the weather is nice. they say that it will last for about a month so that is good.

An Uncountable Number of Souls

hello family! 

wow it sounds like you all had a really nice week! lots of family fun. i miss that. but i feel like my family here is pretty good. this week i have felt unusually at home. its nice to finally feel comfortable. this week i played the role of senior companion. so i lead the whole week. i think i grew more in this past week than i have the whole first two months of my mission. i have a strong testimony that if you do what you are supposed to, and work as hard as you possibly can the Lord will take care of the rest. i saw that a lot this week. i cant tell you how many lessons i taught where i had absolutely no idea what to say. or how to answer someone questions, but as soon as i opened my mouth and started to talk i knew what i needed to say. it was so powerful, and i will never forget it. i love my Heavenly Father so much. sometimes i wonder why he cares so much. i was thinking about me only being a small part of the universe. i am only one in an uncountable number of souls, and my Heavenly Father still loves me more than i could ever comprehend, and knows me better than even i know me. i am so grateful for that. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL SO MUCH! it is true, and i could never and never would deny it. i am so thankful for the sacred calling i have to be able to spend all of my time and energy toward bringing the truth to everyone i meet.

This week was so great! like i said before i was senior companion for the week, and so i led every day. i have slowly come to the realization that i HATE contacting people by knocking on their door, but i loved finding people while in their shop or on the street. see for me, i am white haha and because i am white people love to say obrunie as i go by, so whenever someone says obrunie i just stop and talk to them. haha it has been effective so far. we taught 35 lessons this week! and we found some really amazing people who seem really interested. in order for you to know for sure if someone is interested is if they let you teach two or more lessons. because in ghana if you tell someone that you share the word of God, they are all ears haha but some people are stubborn and once you start to talk about the Book of Mormon they get defensive and say that they only need the bible haha. they are crazy. it is sad how absolutely lost people are here, and they dont even know it. but that is why im here :)

One night this week we were riding our bikes home and we passed a shop that sells water. i made eye contact with the woman who owned the shop, and i decided that i should stop. as i turned my bike around and started toward her, she started screaming across the street for someone named La----. haha she seemed extremely distressed. when i got to her i realized why she was called the girl. the woman couldn't speak English, and since I'm white she knew i would[n't] speak twi so she called her daughter over to translate for me haha. but they are so awesome! we gave them both the restoration and when we went back the next day, they had read almost the whole thing! i was so happy because you know someone is interested when they read the book. (Ghanaians dont like to read at all) and it also makes the lesson go a lot better. it was so nice. and as we were teaching, three more of her daughters came to the shop and listened to the lesson. so there is potential for five baptisms right there! i am excited for them. i could tell that they were so happy to hear what we were telling them. they knew it was true.

I think it was on Saturday night, but an investigator made us ampeceay. which is just boiled plantains with some sort of stew, in this case we had fish and egg stew.... haha it was a miracle that i chopped all.. hahaha even, as i was eating i picked up my third plantain and underneath floating in the oil was a dead mosquito... freak. lol i didn't puke, but i wanted to hahaha. i hope i wont have to eat that too many more times ;)

I also had a sweet African shirt made this week! the tailor made it pretty slim-fitted tho, so it is kind of hard to put on and take off, but its sweet. ill send a pic.

oh ya i almost forgot again! last week, we were riding our bikes down the main road and a big muslim guy went passed us on his scooter. as he drove passed us he started yelling at elder yao who was in front of me saying, "american! american! CIA CIA!" hahaha so he passed us and we caught up to him at the mosque and started talking to him. he said that we were CIA and that we came to Ghana so that we could spy on them and make a plan to bomb Ghana. HAHAHAHA he was being totally serious! he even said that the button on my shirt was a camera lol he was crazy.

but anyway that is my funny story about a muslim man. gotta love it

i hope you all have a great week!! i love you all so much, and miss you all a ton! but all is well, all is well ;) stay tuned, pics are coming your way

love elder eldredge

P.S. parker! great to hear from you. sorry about you and gretel... but no wahala bro. (no wahala means no worries) your Heavenly Father is perfect, and He has a PERFECT plan for you. love you bro. i miss you so much! it is true, our missions are very different, but at the same time they have the same exact purpose. i am so thankful to have you as my older brother. i am proud to follow your example. that is sweet that you are applying for the photography course! you should call my buddy devin! i know for a fact he has some cool spots for you to take pics. but i have faith in you. you are a great photographer. keep it real bro. love you

also.. i forgot to put it in the main email. but i went to the health clinic near my apartment the other day, and i weighed myself. i have gained 16 pounds hahaha im getting kind of fat.

i also found these really cool bead bracelets where you could get any countries flag you wanted. so i had some made with dad's, parker's, and my mission flags on them. 

Some Members Made Us Foo Foo with Aponchey

Hello Everyone!

This week has been great! i cant remember exactly what happened, but it was good! everything happens so fast here so it is kind of hard to remember what happened haha. This week we were fed so well! we ate foo foo with light soup one night, banku with pepea for lunch another day, and yesterday some members made us foo foo with aponchey. which is goat soup. it was so nice! i love foo foo, and i am getting more used to banku. i ate a whole ball of banku without gagging! so thats good haha.

This week we taught i think 23 or 24 lessons, which is kind of a low number, but we had some really really good lessons where i felt the spirit so strong. so i was happy with our teaching this week.

on friday i went on an exchange with one of our zone leaders. his name is elder straddling, and on that day we only got to teach two lessons... it was super sucky. BUT i taught three white people! hahaha they were from Germany doing some sort of study or something in Ghana. one of them was from Freiburg i think is how you spell it, but i guess she is going to school is Konstanz when she goes back to Germany. so that's cool haha. i never would have thought i would teach white people, but i got to teach three in one day lol.

I gave a talk in church yesterday on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. it was just a short talk, but it went well. i love to bear my testimony. and hopefully it touched the hearts of our four investigators that were there. i never realized how much your testimony could grow from simply bearing it to people. i love this gospel so much!

Today we had our zone activity, and all 24 of us, and the APs went to buduburam to play soccer. it was pretty fun! i scored a goal! haha then i started to sweat really bad, and sat under the tree for the rest of the time. after soccer we went to the apartment in buduburam and ate a lot of chicken and rice and french fries. it was so good. it was also fun to be with the whole zone. i like them all a lot.

Missionaries here don't like to wear their priesthood on Mondays, and today i felt like i should. so i wore my priesthood to go to the cafe. when we got to the cafe, all of the computers were taken so elder fryar and i went to the market to look around. man, EVERYONE was asking who i was and wanted to talk to me. so i got to contact some really nice people. I'm so glad i decided to wear my priesthood, because i know that if i didn't, no one would have asked me who i was or what is was doing in Ghana. none of the people i contacted were living in my area, and i don't know if they will progress in the church, but i have a feeling they might :)

anyway everything is good in Ghana.

I will try to send some pictures, but i have to use elder fryars card reader, and i don't know how long he will use it for and i think someone else is using it after him. but i will try my hardest!

I was just thinking about chad the other day! i would love to get his emails if you could! i will try to email him as well.

Sounds like it was a pretty good week at home! im glad you are all still alive and doing well.

for my plaque you can use Helaman 14:30. i like that one.

I love you all so much! stay safe and do the work!

Love Elder Eldredge

here is our kitchen. the stove is just behind me 

mine and elder yao's room. my bed is the farthest one. last week it rained and i left my window open and my bed got soaked! haha i felt pretty dumb

pic from L----'s baptism

my shower last week. so good ;)

this little kid is super cute. he is one of L-----'s little brothers

these are all either L----'s siblings or some of her neighbors. i took out my camera and they wanted to have a photo shoot hahaha. they were all posing and i took a ton of pictures.

elder broadhead and i caught a baby goat. and then we ate his father for dinner lol jk but kind of we did..

dig in! foo foo and aponchey (goat)

I had to dunk her four times...

hello america! 

This week went by so fast. it seems like just yesterday i was writing to you. but this week was good. the teaching was a little rough this week for some reason, but we contacted some great people! i guess i need to stop looking at just numbers, what matters most is the effort you put into your work, and your effectiveness. i didn't feel very good at all this week, so i just kind of pushed through each day. i don't know what was wrong, but it wasn't good. but they took some of my blood on Saturday to run some tests, but i am feeling fine now so don't worry ;) although getting your blood drawn in Ghana isn't the most comfortable feeling haha. 

I am so mad that i forgot to bring my camera to the cafe because i took some good pictures this week, and i also had pictures from my first baptism!! freak haha. but the baptism went well, except for that i had to dunk her four times... the water level was pretty low, and she kept kind of freaking out about how far down i had to take her. it was a struggle, but finally we got her all the way down. it was such a special feeling that i will never forget. you could immediately see the difference in her spirit. i was so happy. this church truly is true, and when we do the things that heavenly Father wants us to do we will be so blessed. i love this gospel and the pure joy it brings. and i am so proud of L---- for taking the step she did in being baptized. 

On Saturday we had a memorial service for sister hill. it was really nice, but really sad. everyone from the whole mission was there! even the elders from the bush haha. it was a really good experience. president hill is such a great guy. i look up to him a ton. i am sad that he wont be my mission president for too much longer.

I guess our mission will be gaining a new zone from the cape coast mission. we are taking the winneba area for some reason. its just a little ways from kasoa, on the other side of budumberum. it sounds like it would be a cool place to go. they say it is kind of half bush half city.

i feel like i am going to spend a lot of time in the bush... once i get assigned there i don't  think i am going to come back to the city haha. but i also heard that some places in the bush are nicer than the city to teach in. they said that in the bush you have to start proselyting at around 8 and then come back to the apartment in the middle of the day to do personal study because everyone is either at the market or on their farm. and then you can teach the rest of the day. and it looks super pretty out there.

it is been a tough week teaching i think this week because the light has been off every night. and when the sun goes down at six, and it is light off, everyone just goes to sleep so they don't get bit by mosquitoes. it has been pretty frustrating.

Also the water pump in our apartment broke... so we haven't had water for the last two days in the apartment. which means that you have to shower with pure water which is this little tiny bag of water that you bite off one corner of the bad, and just spray water all over your body.. it sucks. you have to use like ten bags of water and you don't really feel clean after because the water is pretty chemicalized. water off at the apartment also means that you cant flush the toilet... so yes i sat on a couple bricks in the field next to our apartment, and pooped... lol it was not good. hopefully we get our pump fixed soon.

This week we got two free meals! ahh they were both so good. on Friday a member gave us foo foo. i took a picture, but i kind of looks like banku but it tastes way better! it was so good. and it was pretty spicy, and light was off so we didn't have a fan to cool us down, so i was sweating really hard haha. then on Sunday another member gave us joloff rice and fried chicken. it was really good. she gave me a mountain of rice. i was so full.

Oh ya this week we were contacting, and we walked into this compound, walked over to the first house we saw, and there was a woman sitting there just finishing to feed her child. she didn't feel the need to put her boob back in her shirt tho, so i just let elder Yao talk while i looked at the ground.. lol i don't think i will ever get used to seeing that.

Our investigators are doing really well. im pretty sure we are going to achieve 2-fers for this month, which means that we will have at least two baptisms, two less actives brought back to church, and two recent converts experiencing the temple! this will be a good month :) we have two more investigators with baptismal dates for the 28th and it looks like they will be able to do it. im super excited.

Wow your trip looked so awesome! i hope i will be able to go there some day. i can totally relate with the people asking for money or food. i wish so bad i could do something. whenever we take a taxi to Accra or something people who have polio will come up to your window in their wheelchair asking for money. or they even will be sitting on like a skateboard pushing themselves around. it breaks my heart.

That picture of Ainsley with grandpa asleep in the background made me laugh so hard haha. classic.

mom! happy birthday tomorrow!! i'm sad i wont be there, but i will be there in spirit ;) i love you so much! and also happy birthday grandma! love you!

sounds like everyone's week went well, and everyone is still alive. love you all! see you someday ;)

P.S. dad i think we need to unlock my card again. i tried to take money out, but it wouldn't let me. i only used it once since i have been here, so i don't think i made a good enough habit. so if you could have them unlock it today or tomorrow it would be nice :)

P.S.S i will make sure to bring my camera to the cafe next week to send pictures. sorry again that i forgot.

A Delayed Baptism

wow, india sounds crazy! i thought the drivers here were insane, but that takes it to another level. the flight around everest will be so amazing!! that sounds like a dream. almost everyone here cooks their food over an open fire. they just set there pot on top of this little thing that holds wood. but mostly they just deep fry everything. or they make banku or foo foo. but not too many people have stoves or ovens. 

This week was a good week. i am trying to remember all that happened. weeks go by so quickly and things are often just a blur. but it was a pretty ordinary week. just teaching plenty people and finding new people. it is always so funny when we go up to someone to try and contact them and they turn out to be muslim. haha they dont want to hear anything we have to say. which is also really sad. i didnt realize how lost people were. i went on an exchange with elder broadhead in his area, and we basically just contacted all day because their area was suffering. but i swear everyone we tried to talk to was muslim. it makes me so sad that they are so lost in their beliefs. it also makes me wonder how many of them know that what their family believes isnt true. if you are born a muslim and you decide to convert to Christianity, your family kills you... it is so sad. i have seen so many people that i just know that they know that what they grew up believing isnt true. and they just cant do anything. but i know that someday they will all get there chance. our Heavenly Father loves each of us more than we could ever comprehend. i am so grateful for the plan of salvation, and for the knowledge i have of the gospel. i wish i could teach every muslim here haha. i love this gospel and i know with all of my heart that it is the only true gospel. i have gained such a deep love for the scriptures. i cherish my personal study and look forward to it every day. i love this gospel. being a missionary is the hardest thing i have ever done. but even in the short time i have been a missionary my life has been changed. i am so happy to be a missionary. i love seeing other people realizing the truth. and finding there way through this tough journey that life is. 

I was so sad on saturday because i was supposed to baptize L-----. but that morning her dad sent her to Accra to pick something, and she didnt make it back to kasoa until like two hours after she was supposed to be baptized. by that time the bishop and the first counselor both left, and we couldnt perform the baptism. but oh well i guess, this week she will be baptized.

also this week for church we got to watch two sessions of general conference. it was so nice. even though i had already seen it, i loved listening to the prophets speak. even three of our investigators showed up! which was pretty surprising, but i was so happy. we should have plenty baptisms coming up soon! 

I got my package!! thank you so much! i couldnt stop smiling all day, and i enjoyed so much candy haha. dont worry i still have some :) i am going to send some pics today! but i dont know how many i will be able to send because the computer is being super slow. but i love and miss you all so much. 

love elder eldredge 

[Note regarding the pictures:] just some pics from this last week or so. that first picture is banku and pepeay. it is not good to me yet.. haha then me and my companion, our zone, and just a pic of elder yao and elder fryar that i thought was cool. sorry it isnt much, but this computer is being difficult.

Exchanges

hey everyone! 

wow it has already been a month since i have been a missionary! that is so crazy to me. i feel like i just barely left. this week was a little bit more rough, but it also had some pretty great highlights. on tuesday, elder yao was sick and elder fryar hurt his knee the day before playing football, so they both stayed in the apartment while elder broadhead and i went on an exchange. we spent most of the day in his area, and then taught someone in my area right before coming home. then the next day elder yao was feeling better, but since i still dont really know my area that well, he and elder broadhead went on an exchange together while i stayed with elder fryar. it sucked! haha i was so bored! but on thursday, elder bednar came to the temple site stake center and gave a devotional! it was so nice. elder yao and i brought two of our investigators along with us. it was a really cool experience. after the devotional it started to rain, and i mean rain! i was sitting out in the rain waiting for our taxi to come pick us, and i was drenched. it was kinda fun tho :) 

Friday and saturday went well tho, and i found out that i am going to have my first baptism this saturday!! i am so pumped! her name is L----- and she is 18. it is going to be great. i was a little nervous we would have to push her date back tho, because we needed her to come to church yesterday, but when we woke up it was pouring, so i was pretty nervous she wouldn't come. i guess if it rains here on a sunday, no one goes to church. and its true, there was no one there yesterday. but she came! haha i was so happy. then this morning elder broadhead and i woke up early so that we could go to the temple site to play basketball. it was super fun. i havent eaten anything interesting yet, but this morning i was making french toast, and when i went to crack one of my eggs it was straight black inside. it smelled awful! 

that sounds like a pretty rough flight! but im sure it will be worth it. that is cool you got to spend some time with grandpa and grandma and them. im sure it was fun. i was pretty sad i missed halloween, looks like everyone had a good time and had some sweet costumes. thanks mom for putting the package together! you have no idea how nice that will be to have. travel safe and have fun in india! love and miss you so much! 

love 

elder eldredge

A Sweaty Death Oven

Hello everyone! 

This week was great! it felt like just yesterday i was writing you. the time is flying by already. we have been working really hard, i am starting to catch on to how the people talk here. it is still pretty hard to understand tho. their english is so different, and they use words differently here. like here the word chop, means to eat. or instead of saying im going to cut my hair, they say i am going to barb my hair.. haha but i think i am getting it. and also we are teaching some people who only speak twi. haha it sucks because i cant tell what they are saying at all. but i am slowly catching on. 

There are four companionships in my district, and the other elders in my apartment is elder Broadhead, who is from California and elder Fryer who is from Idaho. they are really cool. our apartment is really nice for Ghana, but if it were in the united states it wouldn't be legal to live in. its kind of gross, but i guess i'm grateful that i have somewhere to sleep. 

I went on an exchange with elder fryer who has only been on mission for two months which went a lot better than i thought it would. it helped a lot because it forced me to talk to people haha. we contacted 8 people and it went really well. on thursday we went to a members house for dinner because it was her birthday. their family is super rich, and i felt like i was back in the US. it was nice. 

Yesterday we had stake conference in accra, and the ward rented tro tros for them to get to the temple site. so we had to wake up super early and leave so that we could get there on time. the traffic is so bad here it takes so long to get anywhere. elder yao and i had invited one of our investigators to come with us, but she was late so we had to let everyone else leave while we waited for our investigator. but as we waited, 9 other members and one person investigating the church showed up. so elder yao and i had to rent another tro tro all the way to accra.. it sucked haha but it was good that we could get everyone there. i saw a lot of my mtc friends there which was really fun. 

None of the missionaries could attend the conference because it was too crowded which was a bummer, but i walked around the temple grounds for a bit which was nice. things are going super well here! we just set another baptism date for next month as well so thats good! this morning some of the missionaries from kasoa and some from buduborum got together and played football. it was so fun! my team won 10-9 and i scored a goal. but dang i have never sweat so bad in my life haha. this place is a sweaty death oven. but its great. your trip is going to be a blast. im pretty jealous. glad to hear everything is going great at home. i miss and love you all so much! 

Love,

 Elder Eldredge

P.S. grandma i love you so much! i miss you tons and please get well soon. 

P.S.S. skittles, strawberry twizlers, starburst, sourpatch kids, watermelon sourpatch kids, laffy taffy. anything like that really. they don't have any solid sweets here. i'm dying haha. also if you are sending some photos in the package, can you text lisel and get some from her family as well? i would love to have some more pictures. oh ya and tell ainsley and piper happy birthday for me :)

Eh Te Sane?

eh te sane? 

(how are you?)

Hello everyone!! sorry, i feel like it has been so long since i have heard from you. they made us wait until the next monday to email. but oh well. this week was so awesome! my trainers name is elder yao. he is from the ivory coast. he is one of the funniest guys i have ever met! and he is a really good teacher! the other two elders in my apartment are super cool too. being out in the field is sooo much better than the mtc. my area is called kasoa (cass-wah). it is crazy tho! i almost got hit by like twelve tro tros which are like a bus, and like 50 taxies... haha but i'm still alive. 

My area gets to ride bikes which is nice. for the most part everyone is so nice. sometimes guys get in my face a little tho, calling me oh bruney which means white guy haha. but whatever. almost every little kid will try to call me oh bruney too, but i just turn to them and yell oh bibini, which means black guy lol and they just look back at me with a stunned look hahaha. but i love it here! being a missionary is the best! 

Dad that is super cool that they showed you on the big screen! i wish i could have seen that. mom, im glad you went to the game! that sounds like so much fun! i miss you guys so much! i have only eaten one Ghanaian food tho. it is called banku. which is kind of like foo foo but more gross haha. i have a picture of it, but i am too afraid to plug in my camera to the computer at the cafe... i dont want to loose all of my pictures! but the banku comes with a whole fish.. and i ate it.. bones and all. it was so hard to eat haha.

Other than that i just have been cooking bread and egg at the apartment which is soooo good. i have already gained some weight. my pants are getting a little tight haha. i am a 32 now. instead of a 30.. yikes. oh ya dad, can you cancel my membership at the quarry?? i forgot to do that before i left. if you go to the quarry and tell them my name you should be able to. that would be great. i have been taking plenty of pictures dont worry! i will just have to save them on a flashdrive until i can figure out a good way to send them. sorry. 

A really odd thing happened to me tho.. i was passing the sacrament yesterday, and i gave it to this woman who was breast feeding right there... with nothing covering her.. freak!! haha it was so awkward for me. anyways everything is going great, and i am working hard! i think i am going to baptize some peeps in the next couple of weeks so that will be great!

love you lots! 

elder eldredge

aka elder kechwe (my twi name) 

Message from the Mission Office

No email from Ben so far this week, but we did get this message from the Ghana Accra Mission Office:

Attached are pictures of Elder Eldredge, with President & Sister Hill, and his arrival group.  These pictures were taken 13 Oct 2015 at the Tesano Stake Center, in Accra, Ghana.  While here he went through Mission Orientation, was assigned a companion, and sent to his area.

 

P-Day/Temple Day

Elder Eldredge and Elder Finch

Accra Temple

hello everyone! i am so glad to hear from you! this week has definitely been hard. the first couple of days i couldnt keep my eyes open, and i was constantly sleeping during class. it was a struggle, but everything was fine after the second day about. my companion is a really cool guy and he will be such an awesome missionary. hopefully we will be companions again later on. conference weekend was good! we watched the first two sessions on saturday, and then priesthood and the other two on sunday. it was an odd feeling watching the sessions at night for one thing, but also, i am in africa which was weird, but on top of that, we had fast and testimony meeting.. haha we did a lot of sitting around in a dark room being tempted to fall asleep. which i may have fallen to a couple of times... lol but i blame it on the jet lag, because what i did hear i loved! after conference the week seemed to fly by. i am really starting to adjust to the heat and schedule. we went to the temple today, and it was so beautiful!! the weather was perfect and the grounds are amazing. i felt so much peace and comfort there. i needed that temple trip badly. thanks for cleaning up all my stuff. im sorry i left everything all over the place. haha thats so funny you found that stuff in my bag, i didnt even know it was there. dad that is so cool that guy wants you on your talkshow! you will have to record it so i can listen to it when i get home. sorry i dont really have that much to talk about, but i will have much more next week seeing that i will be out in the field! 

love you and miss you so much

love elder eldredge  

p.s. sorry i didnt really take many pics. and i couldnt figure out some stuff on my camera so a lot of them were super dark and not good. but i think i figured it out. so there will be a lot more quality pictures from now on

Some Pictures from the MTC

These pictures are courtesy of the Ghana MTC Blog  We were thrilled to find that they have a blog and an Instagram feed. Very savvy of them!

The First Email from Ghana

hey! i made it. the flight was soo long, but i slept for about four hours on the way to ghana. we got to the mtc and got into our rooms, checked in and got our name tags. then we ate breakfast and lunch. i am insanely tired and i just feel super loopy. but tonight i am going to sleep so well. everyone here is so cool and kind. my companions name is elder finch. he is from highland. he is super nice. he gave me the top bunk ;) the weather is very nice today and not too hot. and all of the rooms are pretty well conditioned. i am so happy to be here. anyway we are only supposed to send a short email. but i love you all 

love, elder eldredge