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

Fufu in the Bush

Hey Fam!

This week was great. We seem to get busier and busier each week and i love it. We had zone training this last week and it went well. We talked about working with members, and how to have a spiritual baptismal service. I was grateful to give instruction on that because I had to learn a lot about how to have a more spiritual baptismal service. The last one we had was so bad haha.

Nucy (recent convert) and Sarah her sister

We also got to watch the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional. It was so good. This is such a great time of year. Getting to celebrate the Lord's life while a missionary is special. We went on an exchange with the assistants this week and it went well. I learned a lot from it. It was a lot of fun.

We have been super busy making sure that two of our investigators are going to be ready for their baptisms this coming Sunday, Christmas! Merry Christmas to you, your present is the gateway to heaven! haha i am excited.

Our bishop gave one of our recent converts an assignment to give a talk on Sunday, and it made me so happy to see her give her talk. We are also planning on going to the temple with the ward this week and she should be coming to do baptisms, which will be so awesome.

On Sunday I ate some Indo mi and it kind of messed with my stomach. Then we went to our Branch President's house and ate a ton of fufu, and it didn't end well.. our investigator watched as the fufu she prepared for me ended in the bushes.. All is well now tho.

Today we went to the University in Winneba and had a zone activity. We played football against the Kasoa zone, and we won! haha it was epic. They had a field that actually had grass on it, so everyone had a good time.

Life is sweet here in Ghana. Cant wait for Christmas to see you!

Have a good week! The gospel is true.

Love ELDER BEN

Winneba zone training

goofy hat number one

goofy hat number two

pic from the village

Deep Clean

Pounded some fufu. Wrecked my hands lol

Hello family! 

this week was awesome! Ghana is a party right now. Everyone is celebrating the election of a new president. Lots of fireworks, car horns, and rallies. Last night we couldn't even get to where we were going because the entire town of Swedru was having a rally. I have never seen so many Ghanaians at one time.

 

On Thursday, we deep cleaned our house. I didn't even notice how dirty it was until i put forth an honest effort to clean it. I can say that this sometimes applies to us. How often do we neglect sincere repentance? Our apartment got super dirty because we neglected to clean it fully, regularly. The Spirit lives in clean vessels.

We have had a good week this week sharing the gospel. We are continuing to work hard and the Lord is blessing us so much. We wouldn't be able to accomplish anything if it weren't for Him. 

We have started teaching this one guy just recently named Erik. He stopped us one time while we were walking through the zongo, (i think i told you about him already) and at first he was telling us that he really wants to go slow, and learn for a while before he came to church or anything. We were kind of sad, but hopeful that one day he would get baptized even if it wasn't us. 

Yesterday, we met him after church, and taught him about the Book of Mormon. I testify that there is real power in the Book of Mormon. As we were teaching him, you could see a light switch on in his mind. It was like he was hit by a truck. Then at the end, he just said really quietly, "i think i am going to have to come visit you at church this week." in my mind i was just thinking.. "yeahhhh" hahaha so crazy! The Book of Mormon changes people who are willing to search, ponder, and pray. 

I love this work and i am so happy to be here. I can't believe how fast time is going, and i am going to miss this so much. I love this gospel. I am grateful to have a Savior. 

Have a great week! I love you all.

ELDER BEN ELDREDGE

All the trash that we cleaned out of our apartment. (our apartment is so clean it could be in the parade of homes)

I fell in a well.... lol jk they dropped their bucket, so i offered to go in and get it. 

The school out in a small village in our area.

Elder Mantz in the bush

Just Another Manic Tuesday?

Hello family,

this week i don't even know where to begin. The beginning of the week consisted of going around and sharing the Light the World video to as many members as possible. I think we showed it to every family we know the house of in our ward and branch. It was a good experience sharing it with people. Everyone is working hard to be a light.

We have been working really hard trying to work with members to find and fellowship investigators, and it has been working! It has been awesome to see how much more effective it is to work with members. A lot of the members can teach much better than i can and they have such great testimonies. So this week, even though we didn't have a lot of time because we are always traveling for different reasons around our giant zone in a rickety old tro tro to teach a lot of lessons, our lessons were so powerful because of the Spirit which was there.

We have also been so blessed to be lead to really prepared people. We were walking down the road one day a couple weeks ago, and one guy called for us and said, "I always see you walking down this road, but you never talk to me. Don't you want to share the gospel with me as well?" It made me feel really awful and like a terrible missionary because we had never talked to him before, but he is so prepared! By the questions that he asks, you can see that the Restoration is exactly what he has been looking for. I am so excited to see his progression.

We also found a sweet guy in the zongo who would have thunk.. (zongo is a giant Muslim community) who might be one of the more prepared people i have met. He has basically all the same concerns and questions that Joseph Smith did. We taught him twice and he is doing really well.

We had transfers this weekend, and i am staying put here in Swedru 3rd ward/ 4th branch. I am pretty happy. I love it here.

Sunday we had a baptism, and it was by far the most stressful, crazy baptism I've ever had. Our bishop on Wednesday at our PEC told us that he wanted to have the baptism on Sunday morning before church. So he gave the baptismal clothing to his first counselor and assigned him to wash them and bring them on Sunday. We went to the church on Saturday and filled the font. Sunday morning, we got to the church around 7:30 and both our candidates came just after 8. Still we didn't have any clothing... So i called the first counselor and he said that this morning he remembered that he was supposed to get the clothing washed, so he did it as fast as he could, and was ironing them to try as speed dry them. Bishop came around 8:30 and we still didn't have clothing, and the one who was supposed to do the baptism wasn't there yet. Finally around 9:30 we got one pair of white pants, and one white gown. Then bishop looked at me and asked me to do the baptism because the one who was supposed to do it still hadn't showed up yet. So the rest of the day i was a little damp... but the most important thing was that Elizabeth and Aaron were baptized.

We met with Elizabeth the next day, and she told us about how when she turns 19 she wants to serve a mission. It made me SO happy! She is so strong. She goes to seminary everyday, mutual every week and is already started with her personal progress. This gospel really does change lives. It is like a ripple effect. A countless number of lives can be changed from one impression from the Spirit of the love of God. I am so happy to be here to help my Savior do His work. I am blessed beyond belief. I am so grateful for his example, love, and sacrifice. I am so grateful for all of you and your love and support. I love you so much.

Oh yeah, my father elder Yao went home this week. crazy! i will miss him so much.

Have a great week! love you!

ELDER BEN ELDREDGE