Chocolate Milk Fixes Everything

Hey fam,

What a week. I wont lie, I am tired.This week we got rejected a few times, but luckily we have our friend Sam, who makes some killer chocolate milk to drown our problems in. But i couldn't be more happy, or grateful to be able to serve here with Elder Wiscombe. Elder Wiscombe and i are doing great! He is super funny, and we can be pretty normal around each other. I have learned a lot from him already in the short time we have been together. He has a sincere desire to help people and loves them a lot. I am glad to have him as my companion.

Our week was busy as usual. We had zone training, a mission broadcast, and we rode bikes.. it was my first time riding a bike in like 8 months, and it wasn't easy. Some people just live too far away.

This week at our zone training, we talked a lot as a zone about obedience and progression. I learned a lot. As i was studying more about obedience, I looked in the topical guide, and one of the sub-topics for obedience is 'Walking With God.' I thought about that for a bit, and thought it was the coolest thing. We learn of Noah who walked with God, and how he was living on the Lord's standard. It stuck out to me a lot that obedience is and attribute. Not just an act. We shouldn't just be obedient because we should, but because we want to. That is when it becomes an attribute. I think sometimes i am obedient because i am afraid of what might happen if i am not, but it is much better to be obedient because we have a sincere desire to be like God, or to walk with Him. 

There are just too many things to be grateful for. President Hinckley said that everything that he cherished most in life matured while serving his mission. I can see that in my life too. It is crazy how much your priorities change, when you do your best to follow the Savior. I love it here. This gospel is true, and nothing can change that. The Savior lives today.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Ben Eldredge

Come and See

Hey everyone,

This week was great. It was a little stressful just because I got my new companion and I am doing my best to show him the area. But Elder Wiscombe is such a great missionary and we are working hard together.

We had a great MLC this week at president's house. The AP's gave an awesome instruction about the sacrament. The objective was to help improve the mission in increasing our investigators at sacrament. I really learned a lot for myself that i was especially grateful for. Going to church and partaking of the sacrament is usually the most sacred and spiritual time of the week. Each week we get to go and partake and remember the Savior. We get to go and see the goodness of the atonement as we remember Him and strive to keep his commandments.

We had a lot of fun teaching people about the sacrament and how special and important it is. I really felt the spirit when teaching. Even though not everyone we wanted to could come to church and I was disappointed with them, I still learned things that i will never forget.

We also talked about obedience. I have always loved when Lehi is promised that as long as they were obedient they would obtain a land of promise, and that if his posterity were also obedient, they would prosper in the land. This is true. As long as we are obedient we will obtain our land of promise, and we will prosper. Sometimes it can seem like those who are disobedient are happy, but really it is just chocolate covered poop and is only sweet for a moment. When we are obedient, we show our love to our Father in Heaven. I know that through Christ and His Atonement, we can be made perfect, even as He and His Father are.

I love this place, and i love these people. I love this time i have to serve my Father and Brother. Jesus is the Christ, and our Advocate with the Father.

I love you all, have a great week.

Love,

Elder Ben Eldredge

P.S. mom, sorry but i don't know when i will send pics again. i don't want to lose all of them again.. haha but i will find a way somehow. maybe. 

Staying Put

Hello everyone,

Things here are so good. We had another great, successful week. I cant believe another one has already begun. The work is Swedru is really progressing and being a missionary here is sweet.

So this week was transfer week, which for some reason is always a struggle to stay 100% motivated, but the whole week i was thinking that i would leave and Elder Mantz would stay here considering he has only been here for 3 months and i have been here for 6. But the exact opposite happened... I am staying here for another 6 weeks while Elder Mantz is going.. It is always hard to see a friend leave, but i am so grateful for the time i was giving to serve alongside such a great missionary. These last three months have flown by, and so much has been done.

I am pretty happy to stay here in Swedru tho. I don't feel like i have been here for six months. I am really fitting into this place. It sure will be hard to leave when the time comes, but for now i still get to hang around. (and enjoy the washing machine we got today :))

On Friday, we went to a members house to do a baptismal interview, and while they were doing the interview i cooked dinner for their family. I made tomato stew with rice and fried chicken. I fried it with flour, like how we do at home and none of them had had it like that before and they loved it so much haha they even took the skin and put it in the flour and fried it...,

On Saturday, the fourth branch had it's second baptism! Sister Janet was baptized and confirmed the next day and is now a full member, and receiving tons of blessings. Super happy for her to finally join her family in the true and everlasting gospel.

I am excited to stay here, and i am grateful to be a missionary. I am loving it here. It definitely isn't easy but I am managing. I know we can all receive so much strength from the Lord when we ask for it. I am honored to be an instrument in His hands.

The gospel is true, Joseph Smith was a true prophet. No doubt.

Have a good week.

Love Elder Ben Eldredge

Obolo Kakra

Hey everyone!

This week was awesome! A lot of fun things this week and some really cool experiences. I am so tired though. But everything here in Swedru is going great. It is sad to think that this could be my last week here, but who knows. I really love this place though.

I was super blessed to go to Ansaful this week and proselyte. We had an exchange there and it was so much fun to be there and to see old friends. I felt like i was just out of my training again and it was such a good feeling. We went to see someone who was first being taught by me and my companion when we first got to Ansaful about a year ago, and she didn't even recognize me as who i was. She kept saying, no this inst him, Elder Eldredge was obolo kakra which means a little fat...

lol but after a bit she recognized me.

Our area is doing good, our members are really helpful and it is such a blessing. It is cool to see people bring their friends to the gospel, and special to be a part of helping them as well. I sure do love this work.

On Saturday night, our evening appointments crashed and burned, and so we were struggling not knowing what to do. We eventually just started walking and we walked toward this house that we always walk by and I always look into it, but we have never contacted it before, and when we got there we tried to talk to some of the women sitting outside, and i got a little discouraged because they didn't speak English at all... but then they called for someone who was in the room and she walked out and we started talking to her. Turns out her sister is a member, but not only that, but she is serving a mission right now..  haha wow. Hopefully we will be able to help her and she will be ready to listen.

Today we went to the beach which was way fun. We helped some people pull in their fishing nets and played some football. Good times. I love this place.

Glad to see that everyone had a great week. I love you all and miss you. Keep doing great things, and stay safe. The gospel is true! Jesus is the Christ, and this is His church.

Love

Elder Ben Eldredge

20

Hey fam!

this week was so great! We really saw the hand of the Lord this week. We had so many tender mercies all week. Our area I felt like, wasn't progressing the way it should be. Mainly because sometimes we don't get a lot of time in our own area while doing some other assignments, so we were having a tough time juggling the people we already had. This week we had a lot more time to just focus on our area and our investigators. It was great.

One day we had a plan to see one of our investigators, and it fell through. We didn't

really know what to do with the extra time that we had, and we got the thought that we should go see a recent convert at the place she works. At first i was a bit skeptical because usually she is super busy and we can never meet with her there, but when we got there, she was there! And she had a friend there that she has wanted to refer to us for a long time. We had such great lesson with them, and the next day they came to church. Miracle.

We also had some things fall through and we decided that we would go to see a less-active and just see how he is doing and if we could help him in any way. When we got close to where he was, we were talking about how we have a good relationship with a lot of our members, but we have been struggling in getting them to do their own missionary work, and literally 5 seconds after I said that, the less-active said, "i have someone that i want you to teach".. I was a little stunned, but so excited. We sat down with the guy, and he seems to be so prepared. Such a blessing.

It is so important to always follow the promptings of the Spirit. A lot of the time you don't know the reason behind the prompting, but when you just humble yourself and follow it, things always work out.

My birthday was good. weird that i am not a teen-ager anymore.. We didn't do anything special, just proselyted like normal. My companion bought a six pack of mountain dew for me, which was so nice.

This last Sunday, we got to have interviews with President Simpson. He reminds me a lot of Dad. He told me that a lot of times we grow more than we see in ourselves. We need to just work hard and do the right thing and the Lord will mold us into the person that we can become and the person that He expects of us and sons and daughters of God.

I love this work, and i know that it is true. I love this gospel. I know that true happiness comes only from following and obeying.

Have a great week! love you all

ELDER ELDREDGE

Merry Christmas

Hey fam! 

This week was a lot of fun! We were so busy all week and i am so tired right now, but it was still great.

We had a lot going on with Christmas and everything. On Tuesday we had a multi-zone conference in Kasoa. They did a cool devotional on Christmas and it was sweet. After that, we WATCHED A MOVIE. Haha before you think i am apostate, the movie was planned by our mission president. We watched Despicable Me 2. I don't know if it is just Ghana speaking, but i loved it haha. On Thursday we went to the temple. It was so hectic getting there, but it was really cool, because one of our recent converts went to do baptisms. At first she was really nervous because she was afraid of the water or something like that, but after she said she didn't want to get out she felt so good. I think that was the first time i have been there with a recent convert to go to the temple so i was super happy.

Getting home from the temple was a lot harder than getting there lol. Our ward paid a guy and his tro tro to take us there and back, and he was supposed to pick us up at the temple at 3 to take us home, but 3 rolled around and nothing.. Our bishop eventually just had to go and find a different tro tro to take us back. We didn't leave the temple until about 6 and the whole way home there was traffic and it was so packed and hot. There was a baby who was just suffering from the heat and trying to sleep, so while her dad held her i was fanning her down with a Restoration pamphlet trying to cool her down. We got home right at 9:30 and i was dead haha Sunday, we had a baptism! We baptized sister Augustina and Seth. It was super special because i contacted sister Augustina my first day here in Swedru, and she finally was able to get baptized. I was so happy.

This work is wonderful. I love it so much. I am so grateful to be here, and to learn from so many great people. Life is always better when we choose to follow God's plan.

Skyping was great. i was happy that we finally got a good connection.

Glad to see that you are all happy and had a good holiday. Love you all, have a great week Elder Ben Eldredge