Fufu in the Bush

Hey Fam!

This week was great. We seem to get busier and busier each week and i love it. We had zone training this last week and it went well. We talked about working with members, and how to have a spiritual baptismal service. I was grateful to give instruction on that because I had to learn a lot about how to have a more spiritual baptismal service. The last one we had was so bad haha.

Nucy (recent convert) and Sarah her sister

We also got to watch the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional. It was so good. This is such a great time of year. Getting to celebrate the Lord's life while a missionary is special. We went on an exchange with the assistants this week and it went well. I learned a lot from it. It was a lot of fun.

We have been super busy making sure that two of our investigators are going to be ready for their baptisms this coming Sunday, Christmas! Merry Christmas to you, your present is the gateway to heaven! haha i am excited.

Our bishop gave one of our recent converts an assignment to give a talk on Sunday, and it made me so happy to see her give her talk. We are also planning on going to the temple with the ward this week and she should be coming to do baptisms, which will be so awesome.

On Sunday I ate some Indo mi and it kind of messed with my stomach. Then we went to our Branch President's house and ate a ton of fufu, and it didn't end well.. our investigator watched as the fufu she prepared for me ended in the bushes.. All is well now tho.

Today we went to the University in Winneba and had a zone activity. We played football against the Kasoa zone, and we won! haha it was epic. They had a field that actually had grass on it, so everyone had a good time.

Life is sweet here in Ghana. Cant wait for Christmas to see you!

Have a good week! The gospel is true.

Love ELDER BEN

Winneba zone training

goofy hat number one

goofy hat number two

pic from the village

Deep Clean

Pounded some fufu. Wrecked my hands lol

Hello family! 

this week was awesome! Ghana is a party right now. Everyone is celebrating the election of a new president. Lots of fireworks, car horns, and rallies. Last night we couldn't even get to where we were going because the entire town of Swedru was having a rally. I have never seen so many Ghanaians at one time.

 

On Thursday, we deep cleaned our house. I didn't even notice how dirty it was until i put forth an honest effort to clean it. I can say that this sometimes applies to us. How often do we neglect sincere repentance? Our apartment got super dirty because we neglected to clean it fully, regularly. The Spirit lives in clean vessels.

We have had a good week this week sharing the gospel. We are continuing to work hard and the Lord is blessing us so much. We wouldn't be able to accomplish anything if it weren't for Him. 

We have started teaching this one guy just recently named Erik. He stopped us one time while we were walking through the zongo, (i think i told you about him already) and at first he was telling us that he really wants to go slow, and learn for a while before he came to church or anything. We were kind of sad, but hopeful that one day he would get baptized even if it wasn't us. 

Yesterday, we met him after church, and taught him about the Book of Mormon. I testify that there is real power in the Book of Mormon. As we were teaching him, you could see a light switch on in his mind. It was like he was hit by a truck. Then at the end, he just said really quietly, "i think i am going to have to come visit you at church this week." in my mind i was just thinking.. "yeahhhh" hahaha so crazy! The Book of Mormon changes people who are willing to search, ponder, and pray. 

I love this work and i am so happy to be here. I can't believe how fast time is going, and i am going to miss this so much. I love this gospel. I am grateful to have a Savior. 

Have a great week! I love you all.

ELDER BEN ELDREDGE

All the trash that we cleaned out of our apartment. (our apartment is so clean it could be in the parade of homes)

I fell in a well.... lol jk they dropped their bucket, so i offered to go in and get it. 

The school out in a small village in our area.

Elder Mantz in the bush

Just Another Manic Tuesday?

Hello family,

this week i don't even know where to begin. The beginning of the week consisted of going around and sharing the Light the World video to as many members as possible. I think we showed it to every family we know the house of in our ward and branch. It was a good experience sharing it with people. Everyone is working hard to be a light.

We have been working really hard trying to work with members to find and fellowship investigators, and it has been working! It has been awesome to see how much more effective it is to work with members. A lot of the members can teach much better than i can and they have such great testimonies. So this week, even though we didn't have a lot of time because we are always traveling for different reasons around our giant zone in a rickety old tro tro to teach a lot of lessons, our lessons were so powerful because of the Spirit which was there.

We have also been so blessed to be lead to really prepared people. We were walking down the road one day a couple weeks ago, and one guy called for us and said, "I always see you walking down this road, but you never talk to me. Don't you want to share the gospel with me as well?" It made me feel really awful and like a terrible missionary because we had never talked to him before, but he is so prepared! By the questions that he asks, you can see that the Restoration is exactly what he has been looking for. I am so excited to see his progression.

We also found a sweet guy in the zongo who would have thunk.. (zongo is a giant Muslim community) who might be one of the more prepared people i have met. He has basically all the same concerns and questions that Joseph Smith did. We taught him twice and he is doing really well.

We had transfers this weekend, and i am staying put here in Swedru 3rd ward/ 4th branch. I am pretty happy. I love it here.

Sunday we had a baptism, and it was by far the most stressful, crazy baptism I've ever had. Our bishop on Wednesday at our PEC told us that he wanted to have the baptism on Sunday morning before church. So he gave the baptismal clothing to his first counselor and assigned him to wash them and bring them on Sunday. We went to the church on Saturday and filled the font. Sunday morning, we got to the church around 7:30 and both our candidates came just after 8. Still we didn't have any clothing... So i called the first counselor and he said that this morning he remembered that he was supposed to get the clothing washed, so he did it as fast as he could, and was ironing them to try as speed dry them. Bishop came around 8:30 and we still didn't have clothing, and the one who was supposed to do the baptism wasn't there yet. Finally around 9:30 we got one pair of white pants, and one white gown. Then bishop looked at me and asked me to do the baptism because the one who was supposed to do it still hadn't showed up yet. So the rest of the day i was a little damp... but the most important thing was that Elizabeth and Aaron were baptized.

We met with Elizabeth the next day, and she told us about how when she turns 19 she wants to serve a mission. It made me SO happy! She is so strong. She goes to seminary everyday, mutual every week and is already started with her personal progress. This gospel really does change lives. It is like a ripple effect. A countless number of lives can be changed from one impression from the Spirit of the love of God. I am so happy to be here to help my Savior do His work. I am blessed beyond belief. I am so grateful for his example, love, and sacrifice. I am so grateful for all of you and your love and support. I love you so much.

Oh yeah, my father elder Yao went home this week. crazy! i will miss him so much.

Have a great week! love you!

ELDER BEN ELDREDGE

So Much Light in the Ward

Sup fam! 

This old woman wanted to snap a pic

Sorry it has taken such a long time to write. Just as I was about to write, the internet went down and we were sitting in the cafe for like 3 hours waiting... But I am here now.

This week was so awesome. We had a multi-zone conference on Tuesday, and they introduced the new, "light the world" program for this year. I get chills each time I watch the video. He really does love us. I am so grateful to be a missionary and to be able to share this message with everyone here.
Our mission president has asked us to share with all of our members in only five days, and we have been pretty busy trying to share it with our are members and also our branch members. It has been great. I am excited to do my best this Christmas to become Ike the Savior.

On thanksgiving we went on exchange and I got to go to Winneba. It was my first time to go there, and we had a good time. The work is really progressing. We also celebrated the holiday by going to this really nice restaurant called connies, and ate a really nice pizza. Not very traditional, but we make do in Ghana. I'm thankful for all y'all. 

Sorry I don't have any time today so more pictures will be coming your way next week.
I love this place, I love these people, and I love the Savior. 

Have a great week
Love
ELDER BEN

Full of Fufu

Hello, fam! and friends.

Fufu Lover

this week was awesome! We have some great investigators who are progressing, and are finding some awesome new people! I see miracles everyday, and i know that the Savior is in the details of our lives. There really is nothing quite like serving a mission. I am so grateful to be here in Ghana serving in the Lord's vineyard. 

This week started off with a really good experience that strengthened my testimony of the Restored Gospel. We were teaching a family who have all just recently joined the church. The man just recently lost his job, and they are struggling a lot. Sometimes i wonder how people can be happy when in such a situation. Going into the lesson, we didn't really know what we were going to share with them, but my companion began to share the story of Joseph Smith when he was in prison and the saints were suffering as well. As we read about how the Lord comforted his son in his trials, i looked up to see the biggest, widest smile i think i have ever seen. This family really took the message into their hearts and it gave them immediate comfort and joy. I am sure that a simple prompting from the Spirit, has immeasurable effects on the human heart. I know that God loves each one of His children, and nothing can change that. I love Him and i love serving Him. 

Yesterday, we were invited by two members to come over and eat fufu! So good! I don't think i have ever eaten so much fufu since i have been on mission. Good thing i have elder Mantz to take me running to burn the hundreds of calories i must have consumed. 

I don't have too much time today, but i know this gospel is true. I love you all so much! pics are on the way!

love ELDER BEN

Leticia's Baptism from a Couple of Weeks Ago

David and Goliath

Hello, family!

Another great week here in Agona Swedru! i could stay here for so long, i love it here! The work is really starting to pick up as well. My first week here they split our ward and created a branch out of it. This Saturday, was the 4th branch's first baptism! They were so happy, and excited to have someone get baptized. I am grateful to be a small part of it.

I am sorry, but this week i don't have too much time so it will be a pretty short email, and i also forgot my camera at the apartment so i cant send any pics this week.. sorry mom!

This week we had MLC so we weren't able to have a full week in our area which always hurts a bit, but we still had a great week. Elder Mantz and i are working hard to build the relationship with the members and find people through them, and it is crazy how much easier and how much more effective it is to find through the members. They have been giving us people that they really care about, and you can feel it during the lessons. It is awesome to see them share the gospel with their friends and family. I realize more and more each day, that missionary service doesn't begin or end at the baring or removing of a black tag. It is much much larger than that. This work will never stop "until the Great Jehovah shall say, 'the work is done.'"

At presidents house on Thursday morning, we had a small discussion for companionship study, and president showed us some really cool things from Revelations chapters 2-3. We can understand these truths because of the Restoration of the Gospel. I am so grateful we have the fullness of the gospel at our fingertips.

Our office couple sister was telling us of something she was studying, and i thought it was so cool. She was reading about the story of David and Goliath. Goliath was this huge killing machine who basically represented everything evil, and David was just this normal boy who had extraordinary faith, and he was able to slay Goliath with a "stone." She likened the stone to represent Christ. There are many places where Christ is referred to as the stone in the bible, and that David able to overcome the adversary with the power of the Savior. It was something so simple, that had such an impact.

anyways, i thought that was cool. i never thought of it like that.

I love being a missionary! This work is so great. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love ELDER BEN

p.s. mom, the kitchen looks awesome! you have skills!

Hey fam and friends!

This week was another great one! i cant believe how fast it went. Each day is just a blur and i feel like this week the only thing i can really remember is that we taught A LOT of people about the gospel.

Elder Mantz and I have been working so hard. When we had our mission tour with the general authority, he asked us if we would all just work a little harder. We realized that it is true that we can all work harder than we think. We owe it to the Savior as well for all the things he did for us. I don't think i have taught more people, or talked to as many people in a single week as we did this week. I felt so much extra strength from Heavenly Father as I went through each day, and he blessed us so much.

It has been a while since it has rained, and i was a little worried thinking that the rainy season had come to a close, but it rained like three times this week! That felt amazing. 

We had an investigator come to church yesterday who I am very excited about. We contacted her my first day in Swedru, and she is getting her testimony little by little. We are teaching her husband as well. I really hope that we will be able to bring their little family to the true gospel. Her son was disturbing the whole meeting tho. I felt so bad for her, and she was pretty embarrassed about him screaming and crying the whole time. 

This work is great. i love it here. i have been so blessed to be in Ghana and serve these wonderful people. Im happy to be a missionary. 

I hope you all have a great week! Sorry this email isn't much.

Love ELDER BEN

Ward Liberian

Hey family and friends,

This week was great! we had transfers and Elder Mantz made it to Swedru safely. We had a lot of trials this week for sure, but also so many miracles and good times! Elder Mantz is a big runner, and we went running twice this week. He was talking the whole time, smiling and not even breaking a sweat, while i was just trying to keep myself from falling over.. saw stars a couple times..

Most of our week was trying to find new people to teach. Our pool of serious investigators was just starting to get smaller and smaller, so we had to put on our walking shoes and get super dusty to find the elect.

One miracle we had this week was on Tuesday. We had a bit of a rough day finding and teaching, and in the evening we decided that we would go to see one of our investigators who lived pretty far from where we were. We got to the house, and for the first time, we were able to meet our investigators husband and teach him! At first he was a little skeptical about the Restoration, but we answered a lot of questions and he understood everything we taught him. Huge blessing. Hopefully we will be able to get the family into the gospel.

We are teaching someone who stays out in the bush part of our area, and she doesn't speak English very well so usually we have to go with a member to teach her. For some reason, each night we went to teach her we had a member who planned to go with us, but failed... so each time, we just had to go and do our best to speak English in the most simple for possible mixed with the very little Fanti we know.. and then try to understand her incredibly fast Fanti in return.. haha the lessons went better than i could ever imagine. I felt the Spirit so strong! She has a true desire to learn about the Savior and His gospel. In a situation like that, the Spirit says it all. She will be baptized in a couple weeks.

As we were leaving the lesson, she walked with us back to the road, and expressed that she was worried that she wouldn't be able to come to church the next morning because she didn't have any money, but that she would do her best to be there.

The next morning as church started she wasn't there. But after a few minutes i looked up and saw her sitting there listening! I am sure that she walked all the way from her house to the church with her child on her back. It would take about 15 minutes to take a taxi in that distance. I am still amazed with the faith that these people have. She will be so blessed for her sacrifice to keep her commitment to keep the commandments.

To explain the subject line, after church on Sunday, we had a "ward council meeting," i put parenthesis because our whole ward was there... lol but at the beginning, our bishop was taking roll, and at the end of the roll he called for the ward Liberian... hahah i looked around and saw this super skinny guy raise his hand. I asked a member if bishop meant to say ward librarian, and he said, "no, he really is from Liberia." hahahah Elder Mantz and i were laughing pretty hard! I guess to be a Liberian is now a calling.

This work is great! i love it here so much! sad to think it is more than half over..

The gospel is true!

Love, ELDER BEN 

Bye Bye Broadhead

Hello family and friends,

Missionary "Killer"

I can not believe how fast this week went. One day it was Monday, and the next thing i knew it was Friday!

We had such a good mission tour and MLC with Elder Vincent, the area president. He has such a love for the Savior, and knows the scriptures like the back of his hand. We are blessed to have such great church leaders.

After our MLC on Wednesday, we went to stay with the assistants for the night so we could travel with them to our mission tour the next day. I had a little too much A/C if that is possible haha i started to feel a little sick. It was also Elder Broadhead's birthday on Wednesday, so after proselyting in the ap's area, we went to get pizza from pizza hut! Pizza hut is like gold for someone who has been eating rice and beans for the past year.

Baptism

After the mission tour on Thursday, Elder Broadhead and I with permission from president, went to one of his old areas, Buduburam. He got to say goodbye to some of his converts and talk to them before he left. His hard work really made a difference in the Buduburam Liberian refugee camp. It was a cool thing to see.

On Saturday, we had two baptisms! Joyce and Sarah were both baptized in the dark lol because they came late. They are new people now. After the baptism, the ward threw a little send off party for Elder Broadhead. It was really nice. They shared scriptures, sang songs, played games, and gave him a little gift. They also gave us SO much food!! We both ate a whole bowl of fufu, and then a giant plate of fried rice. Not sure how we finished it or held it down.

We just dropped him off at the station, and by Wednesday he will be reunited with his family. I am grateful for the time i have been able to serve with him. I learned so many things from him, and he is a great friend.

Tomorrow, my new companion will come! His name is Elder Mantz. He is from Utah and he is such a cool guy. I am excited to serve with him now.

I love this work. Sometimes it sucks to say goodbye, but that is how it goes. I love the Savior, and i know this is his true church. Everything is possible through Him.

Have a great week! stay safe, i love you.

ELDER BEN

Chasing Monkeys

Peace

Testimonies

Hey, fam!

This week was great as usual. Elder Broadhead goes home in a week, so this was his second to last week here in Ghana. It is weird to think that he is actually going home. I still remember my first day on mission and seeing him and we ended up in the same apartment. That time he was just 11 months on mission, and now i am killing him with two hands!

This week was nice because we didn't

have any interruptions of having to take someone something or bring someone somewhere or go to any meetings. It was nice to just be able to proselyte all day everyday and spread the good news.

Don't tell Elder Broadhead but he is getting a little trunky lol which is normal i guess. i am doing my best at not letting him die, and also keep myself alive at the same time. When i say trunky i just mean his desire to do certain things is a little low right now ;) luckily for him we have mlc and mission tour this week, so there wont be a whole lot of proselyting until Friday. He can die in peace.

We had a really cool experience this week. One day our morning plans just dissolved so we decided to see if a recent convert was home. When we got there she took us and brought a friend that we have been trying to teach already but she has been pretty stubborn, and we sat down. haha we teach by force sometimes here ;) anyways.. as we taught her, we just reviewed Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. The investigator didn't seem to really pay attention, which i don't blame her, she just got dragged into listening to us, but at the end, her friend the recent convert bore such a simple, yet powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. It brought tears to my eyes as i watched her tear up telling someone she loved that the Book of Mormon was from God. That testimony was more effective than the whole lesson we had just tried to teach. Testimonies are powerful, and can change people. We all need to keep our testimonies strong and we need to always be willing to bear it.

This Saturday i will find out who my new companion will be and i am excited to work with whoever it is. I love this work, this place, and these people.

I hope you all have a great week! Stay safe. i love you all!

ELDER BEN

Busy

Hello everyone,

this week was such a great week! I cant believe all the blessings we received this week, and i am so grateful for what happened.

The past couple of weeks have been pretty difficult and frustrating, but because of our willingness to not give up and keep trying, the blessings started to flow.

The week started off good with a great MLC. Staying at president's house never gets old ;) Sister Simpson gave us two bottles of soda before dinner, some mashed potatoes with mince for dinner, which to you probably doesn't sound that good, but when you have been in Ghana for as long as i have it is amazing! haha and she also gave us root beer and some ice cream with fruit for dessert. After that i just had to lie down on the couch and relax haha

President also put on the Sunday morning session for us which was really good! We didn't get to watch all of it because it was too late, but i was grateful for the part i got to watch.

MLC was good, and Elder Broadhead gave his dying testimony because it is his last MLC before he goes home. He was super close to crying, and i am glad he didn't, because i probably would have cried too. I'm sure going to miss this guy.

The rest of the week, we were blessed with so many new people to teach and helping all of our investigators progress. I was so grateful each day coming home and just feeling absolutely exhausted with a feeling of accomplishment.

We had a miracle on Friday night. We planned to see an investigator who lives pretty far away in a small village called Asafo, and when we got there she was sick, so we couldn't see her. So we didn't really know what we were going to do because we were so far away from everyone else that we are working with, but we both got a random idea to go and visit a recent convert. He was baptized a few months ago, and his niece who is staying with him was just recently baptized. It took about 15 minutes to get there by taxi, but when we finally got there, J our recent converts wife came out of no where and said she was ready to be baptized now! She was going to get baptized the same day as her husband, but the day of she backed out and said she wasnt ready. Since then we just kind of gave her time to think and see what happens. Now we are preparing her to be baptized this month after we review the lessons with her :) For some people, it just takes a little longer for them to become converted to the gospel. But all who diligently seek, will find.

MLC (Borrowed from Elder Peters' blog)

I'm so grateful for this gospel and for my mission experience. I love it so much. Thank you for all your support and love. Have a great week!

Love Elder Ben

1 Year

Hey fam, 

it has been one year since i have seen any of you. That is weird to think about, because it sure doesn't seem like it has been a year.. It is sad to think that it is half over. i am loving it so much here.

This week was really good. Hard of course, but still good. Each day, our plans just seemed to fall apart and we were left out in the hot sun to find new people. Finding people can be super fun sometimes. You never know who will answer the door, or what kind of people you will meet. Ghanaians are hilarious too so there are always some good laughs.

The weather is really starting to heat up, and as soon as you walk outside, you are drenched in sweat. i love it ;) luckily Elder Broadhead has some sweet sun hats that we have been wearing to keep the sun out of our faces.

We watched some of the general conference yesterday. The whole stake came and we filled the stake center. it was really nice to see so many people come. It was funny tho, because when we sat down, we heard the speaker at the conference say, "welcome to the general priesthood session." hahaha the clerk was a little confused, but didn't want to change it, so the whole stake watched the priesthood session. After that the stake president said that all the women and children should all go home and the priesthood should stay, and we watched the Saturday morning session.. ? oh well. I loved all the talks. i liked elder Yamashita's talk, and Elder Holland's talk. His was way sad, but good. Home and visiting teaching is important. Elder Curtis talked about Ghana which was cool. Everyone was pretty excited about that here.

For my one year on Saturday, we planned to burn some shirts and eat some ice cream with Elder Condie, who is also in my TC. And in the evening a recent convert invited us over to eat ampisie which was so good. After that we were on our way home, and as we started walking it began to rain a little, so we started walking a little faster. Then the rain was coming down with force haha we were running as fast as we could to get to the road side so we could get in a taxi. We were running for about 3 or 4 minutes before we got in the car, and by that time we were absolutely soaked hahaha it was really funny.

Luckily the rain stopped and we got to burn our shirts. It felt good, but now i am down a shirt ;)

We have some great investigators that we are working with in our other area. They both accepted baptismal dates for the 22nd of this month! im excited for them.

Also at the conference we saw an investigator who had moved to another area just before we were going to baptize her, but she was so excited to see us. She is going to be baptized in a couple weeks from now. It just felt good to see her so excited to be baptized and to know that you helped someone. I am happy for her too :)

I love this place. I cant believe how fast it is going. I hope i can make the best of it while i can. I love you all, have a great week!

Love ELDER BEN

ampisie (no clue if that is how you spell it) boiled plantain with cocoa leaf stew with fish. 

MLC (Borrowed from Elder Peter's blog)

"Elder Condie Fell Down"

Sup fam? 

Seems like everyone back home had a great week! I am happy to see you are all doing well, and are safe. This week was so crazy. I think it was probably the most backwards week of my whole mission so far.

Exchange with Elder Keddington playing with some kids

So it all started Monday night. We were all inside playing uno (we were inside for special reasons, i promise i am not apostate..) and we were keeping score each game, so that at the end we would have an ultimate winner. I won, but that is not the crazy part.. so the final round came down to Elder Condie, and Elder Ndlovu, who currently were tied for last. so whoever won, could take pride in not being last i guess lol but unfortunately for Elder Condie, Elder Ndlovu had an unusual amount of +4's and +2's.. so after making Elder Condie pick like 16 cards, Elder Ndlovu won! Elder Condie was NOT happy hahaha and in his frustration, punched a brick wall about 5 times lol his face was bright red. After a good laugh, thinking all was well with Elder Condie, i went to brush my teeth when i heard something come from the main room, followed by Elder Ndlovu coming to us and telling us that Elder Condie fell down, and hit his head. As Elder Broadhead and I rushed into the room, we found Elder Condie on the ground having a seizure! It was the scariest thing i have ever seen. We ran to him and as soon as we got to him he stopped convulsing and relaxed. So we called the dr. and he wanted us to meet him that night to check on him. So we took him, got in a taxi and went to Accra.. Finally we made it to the area office, and the Dr looked at him and asked him a few questions. He couldn't tell us what 100-7 was.. haha it was so sad.

After that the Ap's took us to the mission home. We got there around 2 am. Dr. Anderson wanted Elder Condie to stay in Accra for at least the day, so we went on exchange with the assistants for the day. It went well, but i didn't have my scriptures because of the rush we were in to get Elder Condie there. So i just grabbed a soft cover Book of Mormon, and off we went haha it was a good time.

The next day, we went back to Swedru and we had interviews with president, and then another exchange with Winneba. So this week was pretty full. My schedule got kind of ruined there for a few days, but i think it is better now. So there is the crazy part of the week.

For the rest of the week, it was a bit rough.. i don't know what was happening, but it seemed impossible to see anyone. Even the people we contacted were pretty rough.

I was getting a little frustrated on Saturday after appointments failed, and contacting not going to well. The whole time i was just praying so hard to be able to find someone to teach. But it just didn't happen. After our last appointment before lunch failed, i was drained. I had never felt like that before on mission. I was confused by what was happening. And then i just got this voice in my head that said, "when are you going to learn that you are always teaching?" When i heard that, i was instantly reminded of when Alma is speaking to his son Corianton about how because of the way Corianton was behaving, the Zoramites didn't want to believe in Alma's words. And also i was reminded of the last MLC we had, when Sister Simpson gave us a quote that said, "i would rather see a sermon that hear one any day."

Exchange with the Ap's. Elder Martineau rode nick the goat

As I remembered all these things, I suddenly wasn't frustrated anymore. I didn't care that i wasn't able to teach the lessons that we had planned. it was really humbling to learn that it doesn't matter where i am, or what i am doing, i am still teaching. You never really know who is watching. I think this is something that the Savior has been trying to teach me for a long time, and i just haven't been able to fully realize it. I think that the same principle applies to all of us. We are all disciples of Jesus Christ, and we are always teaching.

At the end of the day, we had a baptism! Boakye and Nucy were baptized on Saturday night and confirmed members of the Church on Sunday. Nucy's family wanted me to confirm her which was so special. I was so proud of the both of them and the decisions they have made to be baptized.

I love my mission. I can see the Lord in each day of my life. He loves me so much, and if He loves me, i promise He loves you too!

have a great week! stay safe. you are in my prayers.

Love ELDER BEN

Reflecting

'Sup fam :)

This week was a lot of fun! we had a combined mission conference with the Accra mission on Wednesday morning, and because the Winneba zone is so far away from Accra, we all got to sleep in various apartments throughout Accra on Tuesday night. Elder Broadhead and i slept at the assistant's apartment, and on Wednesday morning, we went on a mini split with them and took trucks to the airport to pick up all the new missionaries coming from the Provo MTC. (one of which was Elder Christiansen from pleasant grove!)

These kids are the next WWE stars

It was weird being back at the airport after this past 11 and a half months. As i watched the new missionaries coming through the gates i had some major flashbacks to my first day in Ghana. I tried to remember how i was feeling, and what was going through my mind at that time.

This also made me reflect on my mission so far. I was almost in tears thinking about my mission memories, companions, areas, investigators, and just Ghana in general. I truly love my mission and being here has helped me to realize how much my Heavenly Father knows and loves me. It amazes me to think about. I am so grateful to be here, with such wonderful people. The Lord's hand really is in the details of our lives. Everywhere i look i can see His infinite love for us.

Franklina Again

We also had the privilege to listen to an Apostle of Jesus Christ speak to us. Elder Gary E. Stevenson is such a great speaker. He talked a little bit about Christ-like attributes. He quoted in PMG when it says, "just as important as what we do, however, is who we are." It made me think about who i am, and what i am doing. We need to ask ourselves each day if what we are doing, will make us who our Heavenly Father wants us to be.

It was also really nice to see some friends from the mtc who are in the Accra mission. I felt like the sons of Mosiah :)

I love this life so much. I love the Savior, and He loves each of us individually and infinitely. I love you too ;)

have a great week and keep living!

love ELDER BEN

Content

Hello, everyone,

this week was great! We were busy traveling back and forth from Accra for our MLC meeting that we had this week, but it was great. Our MLC was awesome, and we got to stay the night at president's house again which was fun. We got to know Sister Simpson a lot more and she is an amazing person. She prepared burritos for us and i was in HEAVEN. it was amazing. plus she gave us a&w root beer. Great night.

Because of MLC, we didn't have a whole lot going on this week, so i don't have a whole lot to write, but i thought i would just share some thoughts i have had during my personal study of the Book of Mormon:

So this week i have been studying in Alma, and about Ammon and is brethren going to preach to the Lamanites. Ammon had so much success, but Aaron and those who were with him got off to a bit of a rough start. They suffered a lot, and no one would listen to them, and they even here beaten and thrown in jail. Then Ammon came and they were released, and as soon as they were released they continued to do what caused them to suffer so much - to preach. But because of their faith, and willingness to obey, they were blessed and they brought many to the knowledge of the truth.

Then Ammon talks about how he wishes he were and angel with the voice of a trump so that he could cry repentance to the people. But he says that he sinned in wishing that, and that he should be content with the assignment that the Lord had given him. That he should be happy with what the Lord has already done for him.

This particular passage really struck me. It reminded me of times early on in my mission where i was really struggling, wondering if i was being 'punished' in a way for how hard it was at points. I wasn't content at all. I wasn't being very grateful. But i have come to realize that this is the best possible place i could be RIGHT NOW. And i have been blessed beyond what i deserve to be here with these wonderful people. I love it here. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. I wouldn't want to serve anywhere else.

We can all feel like we got the short end of the stick sometimes, but we need to make sure and enjoy where we are in life, and not look forward too much or outside of our sphere. We might just look past all the blessings right in front of our face as we look for blessings to come.

I hope we can all enjoy where we are, and be grateful for all that we have been given.

I love this gospel so much. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. It changes lives.

I hope you have a great week. i love you all!!

ELDER BEN ELDREDGE

Portia x 2

Hey everyone,

I had another great week here in Ghana. Each day is always a new adventure. You truly never know what is going to happen. Things always go the way they are supposed to go if we are willing to submit to Him and follow His guidance. We have continued to look for those who are prepared to receive the gospel. This week we have been praying half way through the day still to Receive help from the Lord. It has been cool to see how powerful those prayers have been for me. Seeing those who are ready has been so much easier. They are beginning to really light up. We have found some new people in the last couple weeks who have had such a strong interest from seeing relevance to the message of the restoration. These people have been looking for this, and wanting to know the truth, and i know for sure that they weren't found by my power.

Over the span of the last three or four weeks i have been learning a lot about the correspondence between obedience and blessings. At our zone training a few weeks ago, we talked about d&c 93 which talks a lot about light and truth. When we are obedient, we receive more gifts from our Heavenly Father, one of those gifts is knowledge. But i think the greatest gifts that comes from obedience is the blessings that come from the Atonement. Peace and happiness can flood our lives if we are humble and willing to do things the Lord's way. The Lord commanded us to be perfect even as our Father in Heaven is perfect. I have a long way to go on the way to perfection. But it is possible for all of us. Line upon line, precept upon precept. Here a little, there a little. Grace by grace.

He loves us so much that He doesn't expect immediate perfection from us. He just wants us to progress immediately.

I know that when we are obedient, we will feel the true happiness and love that our Heavenly Father wants for us.

I love this gospel so much. I know it is true. I love you all so much. Keep progressing and trusting in the Lord.

Have a great week

love,

Elder Ben Eldredge 

Portia and Portia = dunked

Traditional Ghanaian wear. Sorry it is kind of blurry

Franklina, one of the recent convert's daughter. She always tells Elder Broadhead and me that we look like goats.

Contact?

Happy Monday, everyone!

This week just flew by! Most of our week consisted of finding new people to teach, which i am not going to lie, is hard for me to get excited for. Contacting at least. But for some odd reason, i had such a great time finding new people and knocking on doors and talking to people. The best is when you go up to someone and you start to introduce yourself to them, and they just say men nti ooohhh haha or men nti brofo.. which means I don't hear, or i don't hear English. And the only thing you can say in response is also... me su men nti ooohhh hahaha which means me too i don't hear! lol sometimes you get a good laugh out of it.

Half way through the day one day, we prayed as a companionship for help to find new investigators, and that day, we went to our ward mission leaders house, and he referred his entire house to us! haha it was like 6 people. I would love to see that whole house become members :) Such a blessing from the Lord. Prayer is a powerful thing.

We attended a funeral this Saturday for our bishop's younger sister. It was very sad. It was a bit of a reality check even for me. We need to make the most of our mortal lives while we can. I am glad to have the knowledge of the plan of salvation, and i am sure that bishop and his family are as well.

I felt the Spirit so much as i sat there and thought about the plan of salvation. Our Heavenly Father truly truly loves each and every one of us personally.

I was reading in the Liahona about trusting in God's time. I love that talk by Elder Bednar. He gave a story about a man who was diagnosed with cancer just three weeks after he and his wife were married. The couple had so much faith that he would make it through his illness, and when Elder Bednar came to give him a blessing he asked him if he had the faith no to be healed.. Personally if i was in that situation, i don't know what i would say in response. But he was still faithful knowing that no matter what happened, it was all part of God's plan. I thought this story was amazing. Such a great example to all of us. It is so important to constantly build our faith and never stop.

This gospel is without a doubt true. It is the way for all of us to find true happiness. If you haven't found this out for yourself, please don't give up, keep searching.

I love you all so much, have a great week and be safe.

Love ELDER BEN

All-African Service Project

Hello everyone,

Sorry for not explaining 'dead cat soup' last week. last week one of the elders in my apartment got a cat from a member and killed and we ate it. haha he burned like a marshmallow on our kitchen floor.. he didn't taste that good tho. oh well

This week was great! We have some great investigators that are really starting to progress! Hopefully we will be having some baptisms coming up in the beginning of September.We had a really nice zone training meeting this Friday and Elder Broadhead and I gave an instruction on How to Begin Teaching. I was pretty nervous, but it went well. President and Sister Simpson gave some really inspiring discussions and we had a lot of fun. They also challenged us to finish reading the Book of Mormon before Christmas, and i challenge you all to do the same. i know you will be blessed. They are really great people. We are blessed as a mission to have them as our leaders.

On Saturday, we have the All-African service project. We helped fill pot holes in the road, clean out gutters, and cleaned up the station here in Swedru. it was a lot of fun, and it was good to help out the community.

This week i was thinking about John 14:27 again, and i realized something that i have wondered for so long. I have always wondered why people who live in such difficult circumstances, and struggle to have basic needs, can still be so happy. How is it possible? But this scripture helped me understand probably the biggest reason why. It talks about how the Savior leaves His peace with us. The part where it says "not as the world giveth, give I unto you," answers everything. I realized that at home, we have so many "comforts" that come from the world. Sometimes we forget that we need the comfort from the Savior. We get caught up doing other things and honestly life at home is easy. Some people have no choice but to rely on another source of peace other than those that come from this world. That is why (for the majority) these people are still happy no matter what their condition is.

I have a testimony that the peace that comes from the Savior, is far greater than any comfort that comes from this world. Rely on Him. He will never disappoint. I love this gospel so much. I am so happy for this blessing to be a missionary.

Thank you for your prayers! I love you all so much! have a great week!

Love ELDER BEN

All African service project

Beautiful Swedru in the background

Here is a pic of our chapel (for now)

Dead Cat Soup

[No idea where that title came from but I'm dying to find out! ed.]

Hello, friends and family.

This week was awesome! Life as a missionary is great and it is so unpredictable. it is important to always be willing to do whatever the Lord wants us to do.

Zone Leader duties are different from what i thought it would be, but it is cool i guess. we didn't get to teach as much as i wanted to, but we were able to do our best with what we had. We had to help some missionaries who were sick and needed to go to the hospital. malaria is really starting to affect people during the rainy season.

This week i was reading in Mosiah about Abinadi and his story. That man had a lot of faith. I tried to liken it to me and to my situation and try to figure out ways of getting more faith and being more diligent. Abinadi knew that he was going to die, but he had the faith to keep proclaiming the truth. He had true love for the people he was teaching. He knew that happiness didn't come from iniquity, but that if they repented and followed the commandments that they could have true, eternal happiness.

I realized that none of us have any excuse to not share the gospel. We can be like Abinadi and forget ourselves and serve the Lord. Following His plan is the greatest thing we can do. Sometimes things don't go the way we may want, but if we put our trust in the Lord, we can have peace even through the toughest of times.

One day this week we went to pick up a member to help us teach and he told us to come in and sit down for a bit while he got ready. He put in some Mormon messages to watch and one of them talked about a girl who's mother had passed away. She said that her favorite scripture is John 14:27 and she talked about how grateful she was to have the Holy Spirit as her constant companion.

It truly is such a great sign of love from our Heavenly Father. He is always there for us no matter what we are going through to help us to get through it. He helps us eat up all the gray so that it will fade all away.

I am so thankful for my mission and for this everlasting gospel. I love it so much. I am so grateful for all the support it have gotten from all of you and most especially from my Father in Heaven. If He loves me, i know for sure He loves you too.

I hope you all have a great week! Odo babraa (lots of love) from Ghana

ELDER BEN

small child in time out ;) she likes to insult too much 

hammock hangin

dad, i know how much you and mom love canes and this crazy store has a cool cane with a sword inside! plus the guy who has a ton of wood carvings has some cool canes too!