Slivers of Hope

Hey everyone,

we had another great week here in Newtown! This area has been the most challenging of my mission by far. I am grateful for what i am learning here. Even though it is hard, there are always slivers of hope to keep us going. We also had ward conference this week and received great instruction from the stake. Our ward is doing such a great job.

I was finally able to go on an exchange with one of my MTC mates this week. I have never proselyted with someone in my MTC, so it was fun to be with Elder Skog. It was a good day and we walked a ton! I think we walked through the entire area. We went to see a member who is blind. She is such a faithful member, who goes to the temple every week, and we go and read the scriptures and sing hymns for her. When we got there, she said she wanted to read from the book of Abraham, which i thought was a cool but unusual request. As we were reading she got so excited and she was so happy. She said, "this church really has the truth! this church is true! Joseph Smith was a prophet!" haha I'm sure if she could see, she would never put down the scriptures. she is awesome. 

At the end of the day, we were walking back to the apartment, and it started to rain super hard out of no where. I looked at Elder Skog and asked him if we should go find somewhere to get out of the rain, but he just kept walking and said he was enjoying it. So we walked home as slow as possible, just soaking up the rain while we could. People were looking at us like we were crazy haha it was really funny.

Emile got confirmed this week. After he got confirmed, he left. We didn't really know why he left so fast, but later when we got home we saw him and he was with his brother. He had to go pick up his brother, who also got baptized not long ago in Malaysia! He came to find out that his brother just got confirmed also! They were both really happy.

Things are going great, and i cant believe how fast time is going! I love this place. Hope you all have a great week! Thank you for the prayers and emails! 

Love, 

Elder Ben Eldredge 

White Sunday

Hey everyone,

remember Emile? The one that contacted us a few weeks ago? He got baptized yesterday, so we had a white Sunday on Easter. I am amazed at how much he has changed and how prepared he was for the gospel. I felt like i didn't even need to teach him. We would just give him things to read, and he would teach us in detail the next day. Didn't feel like I did much, and that is because I didn't! It was all the Lord. This is His work.

We had MLC this week, and it was great. Each transfer we have a focus that we maintain throughout the transfer. This transfer our focus is on the Doctrine of Christ. There is so much beauty in the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This week we have just been studying so much about the Doctrine of Christ, which was perfect for preparing for Easter. It brought a lot more meaning to me, and I cant even explain how grateful I am for the Savior and His atonement. He lives!

Sister Rosemond also came to church! yesterday was her first time to come, but she loved it so much. She is doing great. Hopefully she will be ready for baptism in a few weeks.

We are still trying to find more people, and this week we met some great new friends. The Lord continues to help us out so much.

Overall, we had a great week, and a great Easter!

Have a good week!

He lives!

Love,

Elder Ben Eldredge

Staying Put

Hey everyone,

Sweet graffiti and a happy happy boy 

this week was pretty difficult to stay focused, but we were really guided and helped a lot. We went on exchange with Tesano, and I got to proselyte with a good friend for the day. The rest of the week was pretty normal. We are working hard to find more people, because the ones we have aren't really progressing. Emile came to church though! His baptism will be this week we hope.

This week, the Spirit taught me a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. My mind reflected over it again and again, and i can say that there is no greater peace that comes to us than when we have an understanding of the Atonement. Obviously, we can never comprehend the Atonement in its fullness, but when you learn and apply to your own circumstances, it really changes things. The Savior really loves us all. God has a perfect plan for you and me.

The exchange this week was great! I went with elder Fryar. He and I were trained in the same apartment, and it was fun to proselyte with him. We went on an exchange when we were both new on mission and had no idea what we were doing, so it was fun to see how much we have grown. I learned a lot from working with him. 

Like i said, we are still trying to find people, and the Lord has done most of the work i can say haha. We were so blessed to be able to find people. I felt like i was just following sometimes, with my mind struggling to stay focused, and before i knew it, we sat down and began talking to people. 

Our investigators we have now are struggling a bit, and the rain we had on Sunday morning didn't help us get them to sacrament. But we will try our best to help them. 

There is a talk that I listened to this week by President Nelson. He talked about how we can have joy through any circumstance. He talked about how our happiness has little to do with the circumstances of our lives, and everything to do with the focus of our lives. When we focus our lives on Jesus Christ, and His gospel, we can have joy no matter what trial we have. This is true. Jesus Christs gospel and His church give us such a great blessing to always be able to remember Him as we go to church and partake of the Sacrament. 

I am super grateful for my Heavenly Father, and His Son. I don't know what we would do without them. I am so grateful to be here and share their message of hope. 

Thank you for all your prayers, and emails. Have a good week!! 

love,

Elder Ben Eldredge 

Elder Fryar and me, with their investigator that got baptized this week

This is what most of our area looks like

My companion, Elder Udo

So Little Light, Made Up For

Hey everyone,

this week was cool. I think it was one of the most different weeks i have had on mission though. We didn't have a normal proselyting day until Thursday, and we were really busy doing other stuff. It was nice on Thursday to finally get out there and teach and help people. The beginning of our week was pretty dark, but by the end of the week, it was pretty bright. 

Got some pizza to celebrate 18 months in Ghana

Our light went out on Monday, so that day we tried to put more money on our card (it is pre-paid here) but when we got to the vendor, they told us that there was a fault in our card, and we needed to go to the main office to get it reprogrammed. Unfortunately, by that time, the main office was closed, so Monday night we slept in the dark and our apartment suddenly turned into a sauna.. So Tuesday morning, we had to go with the ap's to the doctor for my companion, and on the way back they dropped us off at the electricity place so we could reprogram our card, but they told us we needed our meter number. Finally after going back to our apartment, getting the meter number and reprogramming the card, we went to buy more credit, and... right when we got there they turned off the lights and said they were closing... So, we had no choice but to go back to our dark, hot apartment. We tried sleeping outside, but that didn't work, because our neighbors were up till 3 am making noise. Plus, my body is covered in mosquito bites lol.

Thank goodness we got our light back on Wednesday.

Emile is progressing so well! I haven't met anyone so prepared to change their life and accept the gospel. Things just make sense to him. He wasn't able to come to conference on Sunday because he had to pick up a friend coming from Liberia, but he did come to mid-week and he brought one of his friends! We watched a video about how the church came to Ghana and it was great. We are hoping to baptize him in a couple weeks on Easter weekend.

Someone drove their car into the gutter.. don't drink and drive.

We were super blessed to watch some sessions of conference yesterday. We watched one of the Saturday sessions, the priesthood session, and the Sunday morning session. They were all great. We have some great leaders to follow. We are so blessed to be able to listen to living prophets and apostles of Jesus Christ. I loved Elder Sabin's talk about standing up on the inside. I thought that was a cool analogy. Even though we may have tough times, or things around us may be deteriorating, we can still stand for what is right, and be an example. 

I also loved Elder Holland's talk about how everyone belongs in God's choir. Everyone has a place and a duty. I love when he said, "Come as you are, but don't plan on staying that way." If we allow Him to, God can change us into something better than we are now. I know this is true. 

So the light we received at conference made up for the light we didn't have at the apartment ;)

This gospel is true. It is the only way to a better world. I am so happy to be here and to be able to share the message that will bring us home. 

I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Ben Eldredge