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