Week #31

sick

ayyyye its never fun being sick especially in ghana but hey thats mission! from last weeks sunday night FM from about sunday night to thusday my stomach was killing me!! i went to the bathroom from monday to tuesday about 50 times... no kidding. my body couldnt retain anything hahahah my stomach was aching allll tuesday! i was given a priesthood blessing and was comforted the next few days as the pain went away. ayyyye its not easy but all is well now!

though the week started out rough we had a great week and i learned lots! nally was able to be baptized on saturday, was a great baptismal service that was! elder woyesa and i are working hard these next few weeks we should have a few more ready to make a big change! this week is conference weekend and i am soooo pumped!!! we are inviting all our investagators to come and watch and actually hear the prophet of god speak to us!! there are all preety excited! cant wait to see there reaction this week! 

well i read the book of Job this week... man what a fantastic book that is! Job, what a powerful man who has taught the world to endure to the end and how great your reward will be! reminds me of the 13th article of faith, "... We believe all things, we hope all things, and hope to endure many things, and hope to be able to endure all things..." Endure, a word that comes with much question and not really knowing what is ahead of us. Endure what? how long will i have to endure? sooo much mystery cause we really dont know what the answer is. thats why enduring is sooo hard!!! but i love what Job tells us, "till i die i will not remove mine integrity from me, my righteousness i hold fast, and will not let go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as i live. " 

let us take that profound statement from Job and hope to endure alll things. have integrity to do what is right even when it doesnt matter how well you do. do your best and hold fast to the love of God. i know God only gives us trials that he knows we can overcome. so dont give up, in anything! whether its just a race for shotgun or youre having a problem with getting over an addiction. God can and will help you as long as you, Endure. and truly your reward will be great just like Job, Twice as much as he started with. God truly blesses those who endure to the end.

i love you all i hope you had a great week!

elder jeppson!

1.bought some cereal to help revive my stomach to the good ole food haha
2. teaching anthony, one of our investagators

3-4. bought me a dopppppe muslim robe hahah sooo jacked about it lol

Week #30

yemenadum boko

by the grace of God im cooooooool! that what i love about twi, fante, aximian all the languages here, they all implement god in their greetings with one another. aye ghana! my second home! well this week was great! its funny to think its been 7 months and my body still is not used to the food but aye thats mish broooo! hahahaha like last night we went for free meal at one of our old investigators, brother adu-gyamfi, and the wayyyyy momi fed all 4 of us....... and all of us just had eaten right before we left sooo we couldnt eat anymore!! so my companion and i started stuffing the empasi into our water sashes and put them in our pockets hahaha and as we were leaving brother adu-gyamfi said, "ADEN?!?! you dont like my wife soup?? is it bad?!?" we said heck nooo its ver very good we are just full!! they wouldnt believe us sooo we all took turns drinking the spicy, hot, thick ground nut soup.... not only was i already getting fat but my buttons on my shirt were about to bust!! we all took turns and downed the suckkeer hahhahahah ohhhh my gosh i have never been soooo full in my hole life! i felt soooo freaking gross hahahah but hey you cant offend a family over food.

well we had a great lesson this week with our brother albert, our recent convert. during the lesson i felt prompted to ask him, "albert since we started teaching you a few months ago, do you feel like a different person now that you are baptized??" took him a sec and then he said something that really moved me. he said, "before baptism i felt good about what i was learning and tryin to change my life, but after i was baptized i feel guided now, like someone is telling me what i should do in my life." the way i was struck when he said that. anyone can feel the presence of the holy ghost, but to have the "gift" of the holy ghost means the constant guidance of God. we just have to be listening to hear those promptings. i love my albert. that guy has taught me sooo much about a change of heart can really change who you are and how you act.

well another week come and gone. happy st. patricks day lololololololo 

elder jeppson.

1-2. us taking turns with the soup

3-4. the elders were a little scared to baptize fragile momi mary so i did it. man the way i was nervous hahahahaha

5. my name in my elder woyesa language

6. momi mary teaching me how to farm cassava

Week #29

The Book of Mormon

this week was great!!! had a wonderful opportunity to have Elder Stanfill of the 70, come and speak to our mission this past week. it was a great full day conference with lots of talks and the spirit taught us sooo many things! i loved it! president stevenson also taught us about have at looking at our mission with an eye of faith. he told us that all of us will never see the lasting effects of our mission. and that anyone that we convert can also change the lives of 100s! it went along with elder stanfills instruction about how the brethren of the church having been discussing about the 1 on 1 effect. its quite remarkable. if one person gets another and then those two go grab another and then those 4 grab another and so on and so on. after only 10 times...thats a 1000 people!!! 

he related this to in our efforts as missionaries we have nooo idea what changing just one persons life can do, let alone 10 or 50 peoples life. so as we have a completely perfect focus on our investigators, the effect of that one can multiply many MANY times over. it was a great discussion! he also told us that west africa covers for about 35% of convert baptisms per year! its remarkable and its soo wonderful to be apart of it! the meeting was wonderful! also hahahah sister stanfill...aye charlay that lady knows the scriptures sooooooo well!! any question she had an answer from the scriptures.. it was incredible! 

i also would like to share about one of my investigators, Paul. paul is a 16 year old boy who is close to a professor on knowing the bible. kid is sooo bright and its pushing me to really know the bible so i can answer questions that come to us as missionaries. anyways paul told us this story after the lesson, he told us that he had been struggling with the idea of the book of mormon and he couldn't accept the fact of having something more then the bible. but he said that while one after noon he was doing his washing and while he was washing he was thinking to himself saying, "why am i going to be baptized into LDS? i dont know if the book of mormon is right?" he said he started to think about what he felt was true about the church, he said that he feels strongly that prophet joseph smith was called of God and he truly restored this gospel, then it clicked for paul... how incredible he said he felt when he realized that if the joseph smith was a prophet then the book of mormon has to be true cause he translated it! and that being baptized in this church has to be the right thing for me! 

as paul told elder woyesa and i this story i knew, i knew paul had felt the spirit of the lord testify to him that this is his church on the earth. and that him being baptized is what god wants for him. wow. missionary work is truly divine and im sooo grateful i can even just watch people change all because of a desire to know the truth. like the back of my dads jeep says, "LIFE IS GOOD" 

it truly is good and i lovvvve my ghana! love you all!

elder jeppson

1.beautiful ghana, its amazing

2-3. at mission tour! good to see the father and my TCs!

4. my crazy zone in our tro tro to cape coast

5. "this heres my thinking shed" -chaw

6.nothing like a little fufu pounding

7. package from mom given to the stephenson then to a member then to me in fosu! thank you stephensons! hahah

Week #28

Happy march 6th! (independence day)

what a great, fantastic, dope, chill, sad, fun, learning, joyful, ect.... this week was everything! hahah it was sad to say goodbye to elder Adu-gyamfi but my new companion from Ethiopia, Elder Woyesa is a hommmmmmie!! the guy is maybe MAYBE 5 feet tall and learned english on mission but he has in just a few days taught me soooo much about teaching the gospel slow and with simple words. the guy is sooooo dope and i cant believe im serving another transfer in good ole assin fosu with him.

this week was stake conference sooo we had lots of good meetings with the stake and with the area general authorities. i cant believe how fulllllll that stake center was, sooo many devoted loving saints in the assin fosu stake and ive had the opportunity over these past 7 months to get close to many many of them! 

ive been reading the old testament, like cooking through it!! i only have about 700 more pages left and i started only a couple of weeks ago. but this week i also started and finished the book, Our Heritage, a book about the early church history. and its soooo crazy to see how the gospel being lived and preached 2000+ years ago to early church history only less then 200 years ago.... What makes the gospel sooo correct and true is that, its the same. the church 4000 years ago is the same church that Joseph Smith restored in the early 1800s. To think that the Israelite's when they became good and they followed gods commandments, God he always tested them to see if they were truly willing to follow him. they either passed or failed gods test of faith. just as the early saints and pioneers in this dispensation. God tested them, he tested them soooo great i cant even imagine the persecution those saints when through, i envy them and i show my most love and gratitude for them. its because of them i am able to wear this black tag with Jesus christ name on it going around telling the wonderful people of Ghana that Jesus christs church is Restored back on the earth today! how great is my job. and i loooove it sooo very much!

to think about patriarch Bonda only a couple decades ago was 1 of the first 6 missionaries in west africa! and now there are almost 800 missionaries just in ghana alone! the church is truly amazing!! i love this gospel, the way i learn from just a few minutes in the scriptures everyday has and is changing my life. God bless you all for who you are and what you do! i LOVE YOU!

elder jeppson!!!

my new comp

old fosu zone

ugliest chicken ever!!