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.