Farewell Ghana

Hello family,

Elder Ben Eldredge returned home from Ghana on Sept. 1st, 2017

I can't believe the time has come to say goodbye. This has been the BEST two years of my life. I am so grateful to God for His plan for me to come to Ghana. I can't describe how happy I am that I was able to come here and serve these wonderful people. I will miss it dearly. 

Over the past two years, so much has happened and I have learned so much about myself and my relationship to God. I have learned how important His gospel is for everyone, and how it applies specifically to me. I know that Jesus Christ lives! I know this is His Church. We are so blessed to have the knowledge we do and I am so grateful for the time I have had to share it with as many people as possible. I have seen it change many lives, beginning with my own. Because of the Savior, I have a bright hope in the future.

I have so many experiences I want to share, and I can't wait to see all of you and tell you all about them! 

I love you all! Thank you so much for all the prayers, emails, and support! See you soon!!

Love,

Elder Eldredge

[Written from Accra, August 28th, 2017]

Becoming a Christian

Hey fam! 

We had such a great week in Newtown. The work is moving along, and i am loving it here. This week we were working really hard to get our recent convert to the temple before he moved back to his village. Elder Fossou left us for some time sadly, because of some uneven numbers in the mission, so he had to go fill a vacancy until they could refill it. He will be back soon though, but this week was mostly just Elder Nilsson and I. 

We saw our convert almost everyday this week to prepare him for the temple. The main reason he wanted to become a Christian is because both of his parents have passed away and he wanted to know what they might be going through and what happens to all of us after we leave this life. He came to the right place ha. We helped him fill out his My Family book and printed off his parents names for him, and on Saturday we got him to the temple! It was such a special moment for me, and he told us how he felt the Spirit so strongly and that "this is a true temple of God." I am so grateful for this gospel!

It is so sad to me that soon all of this will be over. I love being a missionary and I love Ghana. Being here has helped me to know that I am truly a son of God, and He knows me and loves me. This is exactly where i am supposed to be right now. 

Sorry this is such a short email! Have a good week!! 

Elder Eldredge

Dying Testimonies

Hey fam,

another busy week, and loving life. Elder Fossou, is such an awesome missionary, and the first week with him has been great. Teaching in a three-some is interesting, but so far it is okay. We had MLC this week and everyone in my MTC group bore their "dying testimonies.." I still feel like i just got here! 

MLC was great, we talked all about the Book of Mormon and how it is central to our testimony of the Savior and how it needs to be at the center of our tools for teaching. I underestimate how incredible the Book of Mormon truly is. Everything about it is a miracle. How it was written, preserved, brought forth, and now how it is flooding the Earth with the most pure and simple doctrine of Christ. We are so lucky to be able to read it's pages and feel the Spirit. I know it is the word of God. 

Sunday was a pretty special day. We conferred the priesthood on both of our recent converts who were baptized last week. They are both so prepared to hold the power and authority of God. One of them has been rejected by all of his family and friends, because of his choice to become a Christian, but he truly understands what his purpose is here. He always has the biggest smile on his face, never complains, and simply wants to share the gospel and serve God. A member gave him a new set of scriptures and a scripture bag on Sunday and his face lit up and he told us that now, he is a missionary. He is willing to give up everything to know the truth, and to share it. 

I couldnt imagine a better place to serve, or a better place to finish my mission. I love it here. My testimony has grown so much in this area. I know this gospel is true. Jesus Christ lives. Have a great week!! 

Elder Eldredge

Open House and Elder Renlund

Hey everyone,

what a week! I loved this week. We had so much stuff going on and and not enough time to do everything we needed. All week was just packed full of different activities and I felt the Spirit so constantly all week. We had a mission conference with Elder Renlund, which was great as you could imagine, MTC tours three days out of the week, two baptisms, and a zone devotional on Sunday. 

To start off the week, we had a mission conference with Elder Renlund, who is awesome! He came to deliver three messages to us. The first message he came to give us was. "On behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ.....Thank you!!" The second was, "You have been called of God, by prophesy, to serve in this mission (Ghana Accra West) at this time." And third, "President and Sis Simpson have been called of God by prophesy and revelation, to preside over this mission, now." 

I had chills throughout the entire conference with Elder Renlund and thinking about the messages he came to deliver to us made me reflect on my mission and I could not be more grateful to God for how much he has blessed me. I know for sure that this is the exact place I am supposed to be right now and that everyone i served around was for a reason. God is so good. I know the Lord is so grateful for all of his missionaries. 

We did tours for the MTC on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday this week and it was really cool. I wanted to start my mission over again ;) All the little kids were so excited and when they saw the bedroom they would all say, "i want to go on a mission so i can sleep here!" haha and i was thinking the same thing. It is really cool to see how much the Lord is looking over west Africa. The new MTC will help the work move forward much quicker. 

On Saturday evening, we had a beautiful baptismal service with two converts and two children of record. We also had a recent convert perform the baptisms. It was his first time, but he did great. 

Sunday, after church and studies, our whole zone came to our chapel and we had a zone devotional which was great. We had people sharing experiences from their mission that have strengthened their faith. It was awesome to see how far people have come and to hear their experiences. The Lord is in the details of our lives for sure. Afterwards, we had zone "family" dinner. It was sad, because this was the last Sunday of the transfer and a lot of our zone is getting transferred out to the bush, so i don't think i will be seeing any of them for a while. I hate goodbyes haha

Crazy to think this is my last transfer... I will miss Ghana so much, but I still have a lot to do here and these are going to be the best, last few weeks. I love this mission. I am so grateful to help others learn about the Savior, and learn about Him myself. 

Have a good week!! 

ELDER ELDREDGE

Rush

Hey everyone!

this has been the craziest P-day ever. we woke up early and went to Swedru to say goodbye to all my friends there. It was so good to see everyone there and to be back out in the forest, but it is far away and we just got back to Accra not long ago, so this email will have to be a little short..

This week we were able to spend a lot of time with people who are more prepared and also find more people. We have been blessed with some great people to teach, i love them so much. We are planning to have a couple baptisms this coming Saturday! 

This last Sunday we had some new people come to church and people are really starting to progress in our area. It is looking good in the coming months for New Town 2. 

I am loving life in Ghana! Taking it one day at a time and soaking it all in. I know the gospel is true and changes lives!

Thanks for all the prayers and support. I love you all!

ELDER ELDREDGE

Teaching Pool

Hey, everyone,

this week was one of the busiest weeks of my life! Our area is full of great people ready for the gospel, and the Lord is helping so much to find them. Our teaching pool is getting bigger and bigger and right now our biggest task is figuring out who is ready for the gospel and who needs more time. I have felt so much joy this week as my mind was constantly thinking of others and what they need.

We were finally able to teach a referral from the elders in the area next to us, and we had an awesome lesson with him! He has been investigating the church for about a year and a half, and hasn't been baptized because he was afraid he was just following his friends and his heart wasn't fully into it. We asked him if he had prayed about it and he said he has prayed many times, but still wasn't sure. He said that as he prayed he had a sense of peace come over him and that it was a good feeling. So it turns out he already received a witness, but he just never understood it. He chose his own baptismal date for the 12th of August!

It is awesome to see the Lord's hand in the work as you do all you can to share the gospel. I am loving the work right now. This gospel is true! I know the Savior lives! I see His influence everyday!

Have a great week!

ELDER ELDREDGE

Finding

Hey everyone,

hope you all had a great week! We had another week in paradise. Our focus is still to find like mad, and so far things are going great. This is the busiest I have been on my mission. Always something to do, and someone to see. We have been so blessed with some prepared people this week. One lady was a referral from the assistants. She is a nice lady who has two sons who are members in other parts of Ghana. She is really smart and I talked to one of her sons and he was so happy we found her.

Right now I feel completely overwhelmed trying to plan each day. I don't know how to fit everyone in that we need to see. Some nights we feel like we did a lot, but there was still so many people that we needed to see, but couldn't. It is a good problem to have i guess.

Angela was supposed to be getting baptized this coming week, but we weren't able to meet with her all this last week and so we have to push it for next month. Pushing people's baptismal dates is becoming too normal. All in the Lord's time.

Gyan, our recent convert who got baptized in June is doing great! Every week he brings a clan of like five friends to church! haha it is so funny. It almost looks like a church service at home by the third hour, all of them are in class, but dead asleep. I think it is from them running around and playing during the first two hours. I love his effort to share the gospel.

I got to visit kasoa today. I went to go say goodbye to friends. I got to see Lydia, my first convert! She is still doing well and is active in the church. She said she is thinking about serving a mission. It was sad to say goodbye to them.

I love my mission so much. It will be so bitter sweet to go home. Luckily i am still here! There is still so much work to do, and i am so happy to be here.

The gospel is true!

Elder Eldredge

dad, this is the food we tried making at home! It tasted a lot better this time though!

bye Lydia 

Bye Theresa 

Bye Margret 

Exchange

From July 17th

Hey everyone,

Exchange with Elder Paulsen

Things are sweet here in Accra Newtown! We had a really solid week here. The weather was great, and one night I even slept without the fan on. I might just be used to the heat though, because it was still 83 degrees. We spent a lot of our time trying to find new people to teach, and we were super blessed with some cool new investigators. We also got to do some service on Tuesday, which was really fun.

Tuesday morning, we woke up and went to one of our investigators place to paint their restaurant for them. It took us about four hours and now their chop bar (restaurant) is looking good ha. After we painted for them, we walked across town just in our normal clothes to grab our clothes from our wash lady, and we talked to a ton of people it was amazing. No one was even running away from us! Maybe we will have to proselyte in street clothes for a few days, until they catch on to who we are.

This week we had two investigators tell us that they prayed about the Book of Mormon and about Joseph Smith and they know it is all true. Such sweet moments when they said that. Unfortunately, both of them have obstacles that are holding them back from getting baptized right now. Probably one day down the road they will come and be ready.

On Sunday, we were desperate for investigators to come to church, so we woke up early to go and get them and bring them with us. We got to two of our investigators and they were just waking up and said they would get ready and come, so we went to church without them, and they didn't come.. That was a shot in the heart.

I went on an exchange with Elder Paulson this week and it was an adventure. I am super grateful he is here and that we got to work together for a day.

Ghana is a great place, and i am loving my mission. I am excited to see what this week has in store.

have a good week!!

ELDER ELDREDGE

Painting project, shirtless man in the back..

Serwaa's Birthday

Elder Paulson's first fish in Ghana! He was a little sick after ha

Grandma's Birthday

'Merica

Hey, everyone!

Abdul

Being a missionary just keeps getting better and better, sadly time is also going faster and faster. Gotta make the most of what time I have left. This week was such a great week though. It had some sweet moments. We made some tacos for our stake president and his family on Monday night, celebrated the Fourth of July on Tuesday, had a great MLC on Thursday, and got some good news on Sunday!

Monday night, we had some missionaries staying at our apartment because they are training and needed to come in close to the mission home because their areas are so far away. We all went to our stake president's house in the evening and made tacos for him and his family. President loved them, but most everyone else couldn't eat theirs.. haha so all the missionaries had to eat five or so to finish all of them. I don't think they will want us to make anything for them again..

We have four Americans in our district, so on Tuesday we celebrated the Fourth of July by going to Eddy's Pizza and bought the biggest pizza's possible. I couldn't finish more than half of mine and my stomach is still in pain... Cheese is a killer if you haven't eaten much of it in two years.

We had MLC on Thursday, and it was really uplifting. Our focus for this transfer is finding in all its forms. That is something we definitely need to work on too. Sometimes it is easy for us to get lazy with finding new people because it is kind of easy to get a big teaching pool, but it is our duty to continue to find all the time. 

One insight I liked is in Moroni 7, where tells us the role of angels: 

31 And the office of their ministry is to call men unto repentance, and to fulfill and to do the work of the covenants of the Father, which he hath made unto the children of men, to prepare the way among the children of men, by declaring the word of Christ unto the chosen vessels of the Lord, that they may bear testimony of him.

32 And by so doing, the Lord God prepareth the way that the residue of men may have faith in Christ, that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts, according to the power thereof; and after this manner bringeth to pass the Father, the covenants which he hath made unto the children of men.

Angels are declaring the word unto the chosen vessels constantly so that they can bear testimony of Him. We are the chosen vessels as we keep the commandments and are willing to obey the Lord. This is how we can become an instrument in the hands of God so the residue of men may have faith in Christ. Awesome!

The rest of our week was great and busy as usual. On Sunday we had ward council meeting, and got some good news! Jeremiah will be able to get baptized as soon as we finish teaching him the lessons! Thank you everyone who prayed and fasted for him. The ward has been so loving to him and they are all still looking for a job for him. Hopefully we will find something for him to do.

Life is good. I love it here. I know this gospel is true, and that the Savior lives, and loves us. If we turn to Him, he will make life worth living.

Have a great week!! Love,

ELDER ELDREDGE

Tacos

Fourth of July

Lots and Lots of Walking

Hey, everyone

another week has just flown by. Can't believe it is already July! Things are still going great with Jeremiah. He is progressing quickly, but not sure when things will be in place for him to get baptized. This was the last week of the transfer, and it is crazy how fast the transfer went. Things need to slow down a little. 

This week was full of walking. Lots and lots of walking. We are getting a lot of great investigators and referrals, the only thing that makes it hard is that all of our investigators are on the edges of our area, so we have to trek pretty far to see all of them. It is a bummer when you walk super far and then people are not around, or busy or something. 

We had some really great moments this week though. One of them was on Sunday evening. We started teaching a sister last week and in our first lesson we basically taught her all about Joseph Smith and the Restoration, which isn't very common. Usually we don't get to that point in a first lesson with someone, but Sunday's lesson was perfect because of what we taught her last week. She gained a lot of trust in us and she told us a lot of what she is going through and some addictions she is having. We were able to answer all of her questions and give her peace by reading from the Book of Mormon. We read like 4 different passages from the Book of Mormon with her that day and it taught her way better than i could teach her. I felt good after the lesson feeling like the Lord lead us to know how to really help her in what she needed. 

I love the Book of Mormon so much. It can change lives, and it does change lives. 

Despite having a bit of a slow week, there were still some great moments. I love it here so much. 

Hope you all have a great week! 

love,

Elder Eldredge

Unspeakable

Hey, everyone

She smacked the camera

Where do i begin? This week was unspeakable for two reasons. First reason is because I don't really know how to describe my feelings to you, and that might be good because of the second reason why my week is unspeakable; Due to some situations we are having with one of my favorite investigators, Jeremiah. In order to keep him safe I wont go into detail, all that has happened with him. He is doing great! He has felt the Spirit of God. He is changing me. That will have to suffice I guess. If you want to know more into detail you will have to email me personally.

So, this week was AWESOME! I am at the point where i love being here so much, that i am even going to miss having failed appointments and having investigators hide from us! I love being a missionary. 

Angela is also doing great! She has some bad voices around her telling her a lot of things, and Satan is really trying to stop her from coming to church, but we are smarter than Satan. We woke up early on Sunday to go to her house and pick her up for church! She came and now has so many solid good friends! We were pretty happy about that. 

We went on exchanges with Akweteman this week, which was great! I spent the day with Elder Wunderlich, and we had a good time. Half of our day was spent trying to get their stubborn baptismal font filled up. We tried three times, but ran into random problems each time and couldn't get it filled up. 

Sunday night, we were on our way home and started talking to a super nice Muslim man from the Bronx. At length, our conversation came to the subject of how much money we spend on average a day, and we told him we usually spend about 10-12 cedis, which is about 3 dollars, and he just looked at us with the shocked/concerned look on his face and said, "that is just not enough! Come take some stuff!" And he took us into his shop where he sells bulk goods from Sam's club and gave us some coco puff and fruit loops and some cranberry juice! Jack pot! 

Today was a solid day too. We went to Achimota and played a game of Ultimate Frisbee, which made me think of Parker even more haha. I also brought my gloves and taught a Ghanian kid how to play catch. He loved it! 

I am so happy to be here, and to serve my Master. This is the greatest thing I've ever done. I love my Savior. His gospel is true! 

Have a great week y'all! 

Elder Eldredge  

Weekly Planning

Baseball has come to Ghana

Miracles

Hey, everyone,

This week was so good! We got to meet a lot of new people, and some are really solid. The weather was great all week with overcast almost everyday and one day was pretty rainy so walking around with umbrellas and no sweat dripping down my face felt pretty good. We were supposed to have a baptism this week, but turns out Wisdom, our candidate is still 8 years old lol so we technically werent supposed to teach him. It was still fun to teach him though, he is a great kid. 

The first half of our week was a little slow. We had multi-zone conference on Wednesday, and some good friends gave their "dying" testimonies which was so so so weird to me. A dying testimony is the last testimony given by a missionary at his/her last zone meeting. Elder Mantz, my former companion is Swedru gave his and I just felt weird the whole time. I dread the day i give my dying testimony.

Thursday, we went to get a free dental check up close to my first area. There were some people from the states doing a service project and they gave all the missionaries free check ups. Almost all of the people there served in Ghana on their missions. I only knew one of them but it was fun to talk to them about mission stories. Plus. they gave me a sweet Spongebob tooth brush. Score. 

Friday and Saturday were incredibly busy trying to make up for all the time we lost in Wednesday and Thursday. We saw the Lord's hand all over the place! We met some super prepared people! 

Miracles:

Miracle 1: We went to try to teach an investigator, but she wasn't home. We knew of a guy in her area who was spreading a lot of terrible rumors about the church and scaring a lot of the community. So, we decided that we would try to contact his house and talk to him so he could know what we really talk about. We went to the door we thought was his, and when the door opened, we were invited in and started talking to a young man. He told us that he wants to change his life and be baptized and asked us how he can do that.... My jaw was on the floor. We went there expecting to face an anti-Mormon, and got the complete opposite. His name is Greg. He was on his way to church yesterday when he had to go to the hospital because his aunt went into labor. so next week.

Miracle 2: We were walking through Nima, which is a really big Zongo (Muslim community) and we got stopped by a man named Jeremiah. He is from Burkina Faso, and doesn't speak English super well. Luckily he lives right next to our Stake President, who is from Ivory Coast. Anyways, we contacted him on Saturday, and he came to church! We taught him later that day with the stake president which was great! We found out that he grew up a Muslim, but both of his parents passed away not too long ago, and since then has had big questions about where they are and if he will see them again or not. He did a lot of searching through the Quran, but couldn't get what he was looking for, so when he saw us he said he had a strong feeling that we could help him. Right now we have to meet with him in secret because he is living with Muslims and if they find out they will stop everything and possibly shun him. But he said that if he comes to know that what we are saying is true, he will have the courage to talk to his family about his religion change. We could, and he more specifically Jeremiah could use some prayers! 

This email is too long, so i'll cut it off here. 

I love it here! I know i am in the right place. Have a good week! 

Congrats to Parker and Amber! Hope you too have a great day without me ;) Can't wait to meet you Amber. 

Happy late Father's day to all you dads!

Love,

Elder Eldredge 

Earnest

Half missionary, half punching bag

Goodbye Elder Mantz

Innovation

A free shower

The Middle of a Drug Deal

Hey everyone,

this week was really rewarding, and our area is doing great. The days are going faster and faster and faster. I can hardly remember what happened this week, but i have nothing but great feelings about it.

Gyan was supposed to be confirmed this past Sunday, but i made a rookie mistake and left his baptism and confirmation record at our apartment and Bishop told us that we will have to do it this coming Sunday. I felt so bad for Gyan. Sorry Gyan. We will make sure he gets confirmed along with Bro Wisdom this coming Sunday.

We started teaching a young sister named Angela recently who is doing really well right now. We contacted her mother a couple months ago when i was with Elder Udo, but she owns a small restaurant and is super busy all the time, so we started talking to her daughter. At the beginning of our lessons with her, she was having a hard time understanding what we were teaching and we really struggled knowing what to teach her so she could get it. After we taught her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, we read with her from the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 3:5-12 which talks all about Jesus Christ and his mission here on Earth. We were going to share the reading by taking one verse each and taking turns, but she loved it so much that she just read it all by herself. The Spirit was strong, and you could tell she definitely felt it. From there on she started getting it a lot easier. She kept her commitments and her faith has noticeably increased since that day. Sometimes i take for granted what i have, and sometimes i forget how great of a blessing it is that i get to read from the Book of Mormon and study about the Savior from it every day. There is so much power in the Book of Mormon to change people and to feel the Spirit. I am going to do my best to never take for granted God's blessings in my life.

Mom wanted to know the funniest thing that happened this week, and there were many so it will be hard to put one down but i will try. On Thursday, we were walking through the heart of our area where there are tons of small pathways and closely packed houses and TONS of people. As we walked down a narrow alley way we had to squeeze past two guys, who just so happened to be right in the middle of a drug deal... we got really scared at first, but then they just looked at us, laughed and greeted us. We tried to act like we didn't see anything, and walked away holding in our laughter until we got around the corner and then we let it out. Ghanaians are really nice people :) was that funny? or have i been out too long?

We finished off the week at the Munro's house (our office couple). They fed us sloppy joes and milk shakes and finished it off with some fudge brownies. I basically inhaled the sloppy joes they were so good. By the time i got to my milk shake i looked like a two year old slurping on a straw trying to get the last bit of chocolate out of the bottom of my cup with my face covered in sloppy joe sauce. No shame. I think i might die from the food when i get home.

Hope you all have a great week! The Gospel is so true and i love it here!

LOVE YOU!

ELDER ELDREDGE

Wild One

Hey everyone,

Go Gyan

This week was a wild ride! We were so busy with exchanges and instructions, that my mind is blurry. Hopefully i will remember some things that happened.

I guess to start off, we had a baptism this week! Gyan got baptized on Sunday. He is a sweet kid. He is 14 and he invited some of his friends to come haha it was cool.

Elder Nilsson and i spent half of our week with different missionaries going on exchanges. Unfortunately for Elder Nilsson, he had to go to the other area each time because he doesn't know our area well enough yet. Our area has improved a lot in the last couple of weeks though, so i think elder Nilsson has some sort of magic touch. Super grateful he is my comp.

We didn't find time to follow up on the president this week.. hopefully we will check on him this week.

Rosemond, our recent convert is doing great! She got called as the young women secretary and is preparing to go to the temple! She is really excited to go and has been doing her family history. We hope to be able to go to the temple either this week or next week with her.

I got to go on an exchange with my former companion, Elder Sakala! He is awesome. I learned a ton from him and his example. He goes home at the end of the transfer which is crazy! i feel like i was just companions with him, but it has been 17 months! Time is going too fast.

We found a lot of really cool people this week and were able to set some baptismal dates. We are looking like we might be able to meet our goal of three baptisms this month. Keep your fingers crossed.

We proselyted with the stake president this Saturday. He was baptized when he was 18 and due to some health issues was not able to serve a mission, but he takes every opportunity he can to go out with the missionaries. We had some great lessons with him and it was cool to see his diligence in trying to be like Christ.

Things are looking really great here in our area. I always get excited to go out and see our friends and teach them and help them. Life is great as a missionary. I am going to enjoy it while i can!

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Eldredge 

My Guy Wisdom

Mr. President

Hey everyone,

MLC

Week one of the transfer was great! If each week of the rest of the transfer goes as quick as this one, i am in trouble. Time is going too fast. Elder Nilsson and I are having a blast! I feel comfortable teaching with him and things are moving very smoothly. I am super grateful he is my companion. We had a super crazy week with transfers and MLC and meetings, but it was so great! We have been able to find some new people and things are moving forward in our area.

Each transfer, our mission has a theme that we focus on for the transfer, and right now our theme is, "teach people, not lessons." I love this theme because this gospel gives everyone a personal relationship with their Savior and Father, and everyone has their own needs that can be taken care of, we just need to follow this Spirit to help us know what they need. 

Eric was supposed to be baptized this week, but for a couple reasons we weren't able to baptize him. Hopefully he will be ready in a couple weeks. Gyan is still doing great! We are hoping to baptize him this weekend. 

This week we went to see one of our members who likes us to come and read the Book of Mormon with her, but she wasn't feeling well, so we thought we would stop by the President and see if he was home. The guards of his house are super nice, we just walked right up to the security check at his house and talked to the bodyguards and police and asked them if we could give the president a Book of Mormon to read. So we gave it to the bodyguard to give to him. We are going to follow up this week ;) 

Sunday, our stake president held a meeting with all the missionaries in our stake and we talked about how the missionary work is going and how our relationships are with our wards. It was a great meeting, and we were able to discuss a lot with him. He also scheduled to proselyte with all the missionaries in our zone in the coming months. It is awesome to see everyone's love of the gospel and willingness to share it. 

Everything is going great! I'm excited to see what will come ahead in the next few months! I love my mission, and i am so grateful to serve the Lord. 

Have a good week! 

love,

Elder Eldredge

Eddy's Pizza

City Bush Falls

Farewell Elder Udo

Hey everyone,

Me and Mawena

we had another great week here in Newtown. The work here is beginning to pick up more and more each week. We have some great investigators, and the Lord keeps blessing us with new people to teach. We had stake conference this weekend, and elder Udo had to say a lot of goodbyes which was not easy. I am super grateful for the time i had to serve with him. 

Bro Eric is still doing great! He is continuing to progress and is loving the gospel. We are hoping to baptize him this weekend with another part member named Gyan. 

Stake conference was great! There was a general theme of "Look to the Savior, and live!" It was such a great, inspired conference. Sometimes when something big happens, either good or bad, i can tend to look to other sources for comfort or to give thanks, but I always need to remember the Savior for all my needs. At mid-week, we read about the story of Jonah. After Jonah gets swallowed up by the whale, he says to the Lord in chapter 2:4, "I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple." To Jonah, the temple became like a lighthouse on the shore helping him back to safety. The Savior loves us so much and has given us so much in order to remember Him and receive His guidance. When we look to the temple, and to the Savior, He will help us through any trial we may have. I am so grateful for this restored gospel.  

I also met a man at the conference who was the first missionary in the Tesano area many years ago. He was so happy to see how much it has grown over the years. I cant imagine the thought going through his mind, seeing such a large stake, and being the missionary who helped start it. We can count the seeds in an apple, but you cant count the apples that come out of the seeds. He is now living in Chicago, in a stake where Fletcher served! Small world. 

So I guess i should say something about transfers... I will be getting a new companion, his name is Elder Nilsson from Springville Utah! We came here together, and we have been best buds since the MTC! Now we will finish our missions together hahahah. President said that in our last transfer they will put us in a three some and we will finish together. I am so excited! It will be a fun time. 

I love it here so much. I am so grateful to be here and to serve my Savior. I love Him, and i know He loves each one of us. 

Hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Eldredge

Some sweet graffiti 

Rice, soup, sister Kate 

Sister Kate

Happy Mother's Day!

Hey, everyone!

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day yesterday! It was so good to talk to all of you yesterday. Sorry i couldn't Skype! Next time we talk will be face to face, so it is alright. 

This week went too fast. I am having a hard time remembering what all happened! It was a good week though! We struggled to be able to sit down with people though. Sometimes things just don't work out i guess. 

My chair broke in the middle of comp study

Sister Rosemond got confirmed yesterday! She said she felt really good. You could already tell a difference in her. Just looking at her you could tell that she was just happy. It reminded me of Matthew 6:22, where it talks about how if our eye is single, we will be filled with light. It made me so happy, and grateful to be a missionary. This work is true.

On Wednesday, they asked me to provide an activity for mid-week. So we watched "Meet the Mormons." Unfortunately the volume was pretty quiet, and by the end of the movie, half of the members were dead asleep.. The activity kind of bombed hahah 

We had a pretty interesting experience. It was good and bad at the same time. So on Thursday, we were walking to go to an appointment, and we felt like taking a random route to get there, and on the way there, we were walking through a giant Muslim community, and someone called us over to talk to them. So we kind of hesitantly went over to see who it was. When we saw him, he was just this guy watching a store and he told us how he used to be a Muslim, but that he met the missionaries in Cape Coast and they gave him a Restoration pamphlet and he converted to Christianity. So we set up an appointment to come on Saturday. When we got there on Saturday, we began the lesson and he bore such a powerful testimony about the Restored gospel. It was awesome. Not too long after that however, his mom came to where we were sitting, and asked us to leave... So we just had to get up and go without saying anything else. Hopefully we will be able to continue to meet with him though! Pray so that his mom's heart will be softened! I know we didn't meet him by accident. It was just another testimony to me that this is the Lord's work, and we just need to be worthy to work for him. 

This is the last week of the transfer, and i cant believe how fast it has gone! It is sad to think that i will go home soon. I will miss this so much. 

This gospel is true, and God is there. He loves us so much.

thank you for all your support! I have the best family and friends! 

Have a good week! 

Love Elder Eldredge 

Baptism

Hey everyone! 

Rosemond's baptism

I don't have much time to write this week, but we had a great week! Our area is starting to pick up a little more each day. We also had Multi-zone conferences this week, which was great. We have some great leaders in our mission.

This week, we had a lot of failed appointments, which led us to other people who were ready to hear the gospel. We saw a lot of miracles after we showed our faith. We started teaching a part member this week and he came to church! He struggles to speak English, but he has some great support. 

On Wednesday, we had our multi-zone conference, and we talked a lot about integrity. I want to be completely trusted by the Lord, and do what is right whether someone is watching or not. 

Sunday, we had a baptism! And four investigators came to church! And we got two fm's (free meals)! haha it was the greatest day ever. 

The baptism was so nice. Basically the whole ward was there supporting sister Rosemond. Our ward is great! 

Everything is great here! excited to talk to you this week!! 

love you all! have a great week! Happy mothers day to all you mothers out there!

Deep fried rice. Super good

Exchange with elder Taunuu from Samoa

Ghana schools

Sunday night football

sunset

fufu and palm nut soup from our neighbor

Ozzie burger at the mission office! Our office couple rocks

This picture of Elder Paulson perfecty describes how i felt on Sunday