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