Week #57

Joseph Smith

Elder Mease and i are going to stay together another transfer! we are both very excited to continue to work in nkanfoa! this week nothing really happened. i can just feel haamitan (dry season) coming. im sooooo burnt and its tooo freaking hot latley!

joseph smith, the prophet in this last dispensations, as been stated, " has done for the salvation of mankind then jesus christ himself." someone i owe everything to. because of him, i am who i am today. and with out his faith, i could have non or faith in the wrong things, things of the world, not of god.

for the last 3 weeks we have had 4 young men in the ward that came up to us missionaries after church to ask if we could teach them more about joseph smith and especially his history. of course we said yes and all 4 of us were sooo excited to learn with these powerful young men.

as we read out of joseph smith history and even a few sections out of the Doctrine and covenants, my eyes were opened to a whole new perspective of jospeh smith. as the boys asked us question after questions, i asked my self, "why on earth would 4 young men in the middle of west africa care SO much about knowing what a small 14 year old boy who lived many decades before them, in a country so far away?"

then of course the spirit of the lord answered my questions almost as soon as it came into my head. Joseph Smith is a True prophet of God and this is the church of christ that through Him was restored in its fullness. those boys knew it and they wanted to know how it was possible. even though they already knew he was a prophet they wanted to know more and more and more. the testimonys those boys shared to us changed my life and perspective of the prophet joseph smith.i am forever greatful for that man.

cant wait for another week to share about him and our savior jesus christ! love it!

love
elder jeppson

1. the 4 boyz! emmanuel, benjamin, mogabe, john
2-4. more dinners with president and the durrants hahahah (WE ENJOYING)
5. Elder Stephens is going on transfer, gonna miss that guy
6. little baby going to the bathroom lol one of our investigators daughter hahah

7-11. (pictures we received from Elder Mease's mom - thank you!)

Week #56

TAKORADI CHilliN

went to takoradi to renew my non-citizen card in takoradi! was such a blast to be with my TC's all together after 1 year. we spent the day together and went to the nicest hotel in the mission and got some great foooooood of course! its amazing how much you can change in just a year. THE PROVO 9! the first ever to come to ghana and come from the provo mtc. hahah man we enjoyed! i think everyone in the whole mission knows my group is the best in the wholllle mission! i love it! hahaha

mease and i started to teach a few new investigators this week. and some of them turned out to be soooo great! had a couple of people come to church. so we are starting to see some more people prepared by the lord.

we are on week 9 of training.... man the way time goes. elder mease is doing soo great and is farrr better at teaching then i was when i came i love it, and i love how even though he is in training i feel that i am being retrained and remined on the things that i need to do better.

questions. ohhh how i love questions. i used to fear the idea of getting asked a question by someone and not knowing how to answer it. brother dadzie one of our investagators has some crazy crazy questions. but there are sincere and real questions, thats why we continue to answer them. but what ive learned about teaching people is that if youre talking more then the investigator, the investigator might learn something, but if you want someone to really come unto christ and change there nature and not just there behavior.... ask questions and have THEM talk.

instead of telling people what they need to do to follow christ, have them answer there own questions. it might not make sense cause if you have a questions its usually cause you dont have the answer. but when someone has to really think why they need to repent and why they need to be baptized. before you even tell them the scriptural answer, they will have some kind of idea why. it might not be 100 percent the correct answer, but there is always truth in a sincere response. and after they give an answer on there OWN questions you add to what they said and testify of the truthfull ness that you know.

brothers and sisters im not just learning how to teach but i am actually learning how to learn myself. its amazing what inspired questions can do to those you meet. dont fear to question the scriputes as long as your motives are right, you will receive an answer. i know it and i see my prayers and questions get answered everyday.

god bless you my friends

elder jeppson

1-2. one of our members husband died and so the relief society did some service and got some food and things to help her out during this hard time. but we had to carry most the stuff of the BIG hill hahahah its was awesome to see the relief society doing what they do best. SERVE
3-8. Atlantic hotel with the BOYZ!! man that burger was goooooood hahah

Week #55

swag100ganggangyeaaaa

yea well our district rap we are writing for our mission is almost done so you can say i am pretty stoked for this week hahahaha

well elder mease and i went to our trainers follow up meeting at ola chapel this week. we watched clips from the movie miracle on ice, (one of the greatest movies of alllll times) hahaha we talked about the first few weeks of mission and how there stages. the first being forming, the part where we get assigned to our companion and we are all so full of energy, straight from the mtc sooo stoked for missionary work!

the next stage is the storming stage, after the first week or few days on mission the new missionary is tired and not used to all the new stuff that mission has in front of them. there are small fights with the companionship cause of not understandings and others. this stage is the stage companions need to get out of.

the next is norming, chemistry, where the companionship is starting to get along and they have a rhythm in teaching now and they learn to talk and work with one another. this is where the skill is developing and the lords work it progressing! 

the last is performing, the stage of miracles where now that both companions know each other and love one another and work with an obedient mind the miracles and people being baptised are converted to the lord. this is the stage what all missionaries should strive for!

it was a great meeting and elder mease and i are having a great time i love it!

well elder young wants to get on so i love you all. remember to choose the right at all time. god is watching. 

LOVE YOU

elder jeppson

1-3. foooooooood, pizza, cereal at president house, MASSIVE platain

4-5. trainers follow up meeting

6. president gave us goooood ole idaho potatoes!! we enjoyed!! hahah

7.me sooo tired after my hour argument with bishop about a temple marriage and a traditional marriage ayyye the culture of ghana is not easy ooo hahah

Week #54

The biggest festival in Ghana.

man oh man these week was a tough one!! all week we just walked around trying to talk to anyone we could meet but all went to town for the big festival! had like 3 lessons alllll week and not even 1 investagator came to church.... but we did enjoy a little district movie night watched 17 miracles and played some volleyball this morning so it made up for the bad week! 

but something i would like to share comes from my reading in doctrine and covenants section 59:23, one of my all time favorites. it reads, "But learn that he who doeth the works of righteousness shall receive his reward even peace in this world and eternal life in the world to come."

now the reason i like this scripture so much is cause its sooo simple and it applys to alll mankind no matter who you are or where you come from. i love how it starts by saying "but learn" without going to the scriptures and actually studying what god wants us to do we will never know joy and peace. having the knowledge of what god wants us to do exactly, is a feeling of relief, not worrying about messing up or doing something wrong. with knowledge of gods plan we dont have to guess or worry whats gonna happen, we will already know!

the next states, "he who doeth the work or righteousness" he didnt say anyone who just does work or someone that is just a member of his church. doeth, is an action word so those who are acting on their faith and working for gods gifts will recieve what he has promised. we can not be idle, being there is simply not enough, we must be involved.

and the last part, "will recieve his reward" it sounds personal to me like each of us will have peace and joy but the word HIS makes it sounds like i will personaly have a reward for what i do. SO COOL! and the coolest part about this scripture is that God is promising not just peace in this life but also in the next even the greatest of all gods gifts, Eternal life.

what a coool scripture i just love sooo very much, let us all do our part and work to reicieve OUR reward. god bless you all have a great week!

elder jeppson

1.BBQ sauce face after a solid egg sandwich hahah
2.just a small parade through just tiny nkanfoa
3-4. the brethern (elder williams on exchange with stevens)
5. nothing like some empasi, yam and egg stew!! sooo nice!