Week #62

Cape Coast, Nkanfoa

well this next week could be my last week in Cape, transfer news is saturday....

nothing to report this week. had about 50 people say they were coming to church and about 2 came so it was a solid 5% as usual hahah went on a few exchanges with the elders in my district and life is just always sooo sweet.

missionary sunday was yesterday and i was able to give a talk on how we are all growning together in the church. told them about jethro, moses father in law and how he told moses what he should teach the people. a humble servant such as moses himself hearkend to the words of jethro because he sustained his leaders. gotta love the stories in the old testament. My reading in jesus th Christ has been nothing but a dream. i missed learning about the saviors life and what a perfect time to do it cause guess whats in like 9 weeks..............CHRISTMAS! hahah my goal is to finish the 700 page book before that hahahhah LETS EAT

nothing else to say besides ive learned to love talking to people about what missionaries do. people might not care about our message, (YET) but they are sooo concerend why 2 obunis are walking around all day in this hot sun telling people about christ. so its a blast to explain our purpose and why we are here and why we even came on mission and left the great land of "America" hahah its a seed waiting to grow. as people see what we are willing to go through to help others they will want to learn more and eventually know the truth for themselves.

we walk and talk cause we love.

HAVE A GOOD WEEK! happy halloween, mease and i are thinking of dressing up as muslims and trick or treating president hahahahh elder nash of the 70 will be at there house on halloween night so were having second thoughts but i think it would be kind of funny! hahah we will have to flip a coin i guess.... HAHAHAHAH love you all!

elder jeppson

1.our water filter after like 3 hours of use.... water is yummy\
2. just some coconut and CAPE BEACHES

Week #61

soaking, nothing better!

Brother dadzie! the man was finnally baptized on saturday! i thought about the last 3 months on how many times i had taught dadzie and how big of a change i have seen in that mans life. hes gonna be one strong leader in the church in a few years here in nkanfoa! So funny we were filling up the faunt and we didnt know why it wasnt filling. were sooo stupid! hahahahah the plug wasnt in........ and here the best part once we put the plug in we went and proslyted while it was filling........ yea we forgot about it.... hahahahh after we bought some rice were were driving by the chapple and we see just this river of water coming out of the gate. i was like STOP!!!! hahahahha good thing the faunt is out doors. ohhhhhh mission. sometimes you just gotta laugh on the stupid things you do!

well we had our boy emmauell (hes like 55 btw) lol come all the way from Edu-Krom some bush village past nkanfoa come to church! bishop was SO LIT about it! hahah he wants to start a group out there sooo bad. so we will see what happends but were soooo excited! also a recent convert before i came has gone less active and she finnaly came back to church! speaking of church....yikes! as fun as it was to see the chapple packed to the BRIM like seats in the hallways! halfway through this, not to be rude, beyond awful talk by the high coucliman, guy litterly read every verse in D and C that even metions the priesthood hahahha THE POWER WENT OUT!! yea ghana.... no fans..... lots of people..... put ya to sleep talk..... I love it. 

hahahahah well that ghana for you and you just learn to appreciate it! i started jesus the christ again! plan to finish it before xmas. so we will see. that a lot of pages in just 10 weeks. but that book.... yea you wanna know jesus a little better ( alot) read that book!

well nothing much else to say. the gospel is true, people can change through the will and power of god. the book of mormon, yea its still true hahah well i love you all! god bless you

elder jeppson

Pics -- just some goood ole fun.. baptisms, chicken killing, amas husbans builidng there house.... with MUD hahahah i love ghana so much

Week #60

sometimes its not easy

GOOD LONG WEEK OH MY GOODNESS! elder mease has finished his training! its all over now and its time for hard HARD work. jk weve already been working hard hah but we gon go lots harder in the paint now! haha i honestly cant believe its already been 12 weeks... time has just flown! and elder mease and i have just become the best of friends!

well the reason i said its not easy is cause despite the 10 new investagators weve been getting recently and all the ghanians in ALL of nkanfoa promising us they will come to church.... yep, not even one came.

patience. its a lesson and a principle i am trying to master and understand.... OHHHH MY GOSH ITS HARD THOUGH. hahah you just wish people understood how important it is for them to go to this church. you teach them what this gospel offers, eternal life, you help them with members and friends, and activites and still they dont get it and dont come. but the question i find my self always asking is why?

and i think i got an answer..... heheheheh the answer is simply the world...

now i know that makes no sense but like its the world. people see that if youre not doing what everyone else is doing then youre doing it wrong if your church doesnt have like 5 programs a week and play loud music or if they dont speak in the gift of tougues (quick example of what that sounds like) lsdhfoskdafjdsaokjfsdioafsmdaflkdsjflkdsafjldksjfsakjfsdlkjfsdlakfjsdkl then youre doing youre life wrong and youre church is false.

you get the point? everyone wants to go with the current. and just be like everyone else. but what does gods want!? he wants us to do what is right and go the way he wants us to go. i am trying to learn these people situation and put my self in there shoes cause i see that after your whole life of knowing something. to have some missionaries come and tell you you have been doing it all wrong.... it wouldnt be easy to take hahah but by small things i know that the people we are teaching will understand the imporatace of this gospel. cause miricles DO happen but only after the trail of our faith.

brothers and sisters ALL is Well is Zion! and god still reigns on high so dont worry about what the world says. listen to that beautiful song that God is singing for YOU personal to hear. cause he knows the way.

love you dearly

elder jeppson

Week #59

well, another week!

nothing like mission. everyday the same stuff. but at the same time everyday is unique and when i write in my journal every night i just reflect on how truley blessed i am for having this very rare opportunity to serve the lord, in the country of ghana. now the reason i say that "rare" is that only about 75000 other people around the world know exactly how it is to be a missionary in our day and time. OH HOW LUCKY AM I!! btw cool fact for the day for 1 missionary, there are about 101000 people that are not missionaries hahahah BLESSED.

well elder mease and i just had a KIller week! we had like 6 new investagators who we are hopeing to progress reaally fast. missionary work is soo different in every area but for the most part the challenge is when knowing when to drop and investagator cause of non-seriousness or other reasons. you want to help these people sooooo bad especially after you have taught them everything and you feel that you KNOW that person sooo well and yet they still are not ready to comit to follow our saviour and joing his church... its not easy droppign people you have taught for months. but its like a unripe mango... they just aren't ready yet. patience is the key to this work, i have a big testimony of that.

well i have nothing to really share this week. just finished the doctrine and covenants again! the last few chapters... are tooo good! crazy how much unknown mysteries there are in the scriputes. i cant wait till all things will be reveled and everything will just makes sooooo much more sense hahah.

10 weeks till christmas, but whos counting........... hhahahah

god bless you all.

elder jeppson

PICS
-- momies makin some boncu for us 

-- beautiful ghana!! gotta love nkanfoa lol

Week #58

All 5 sessions of the greatest conference

funny story: 

so a few weeks ago we had a young priest ordain a recent convert in the ward to a priest as well. the boy giving the blessing is benjamin. it was his first time to ever ordain another person to a priesthood office. benjamin began the prayer and it sounded like he had preformed this ordination many many times he did such a great job! and gave such a beautiful blessing at the end.

the funny part is right as he said amen. HIS jaw dropped and he turned his palm over looking at his hand like he had just thrown fire out of his hand on the particks head!! hahahahahahahhaha the whole priesthood was laughing soooo hard. love how these boys are learning to practice their priesthood. hahahahahahh sooooooo funny! (maybe you had to be there) lol

conference.. this was not an average conference there was a type of spirit that i have never ever felt before as i listen to conference. the talks were sooo inspiring and sooo touching and i know god truley does call prophets seers and revelators to teach and edify our learning and spiritual growth of this restored gospel.

Tad R. Callister. FIRE! hahahah i will never ever EVER take anti stuff about joseph smith and the book of mormon. man that guy laided it all out! such a great talk i loved it all!

"we can see spiritually beyond what we can see spiritually" - W. Christopher Waddell

yeaaaaaaaa so pretty much pres uchdorf made the word. IT. be like a full sentence!! the guy took the word LIGHT. to a whole new level!!!! hahahha soooo sweet!

and my most favorite talk of conference was richard J. maynes. he said something i will never forget. he said that his dad once told him, "once you compromise your integrity, you can never get it back. Dont ever do it. not even once." i loved that statment and it means a lot to me. have integrity be trustful and do what is right always. never give in!!! 

let us all go back and read these talks. ALL OF THEM. each of them had such inspiring hidden messages. just as elder anderson said as you read them you will find treasures in these talks meant for you. 

LOVE IT!! such a good week! love you all!

elder jeppson

1-2. for 13 months i have been with elder young. he finally went home! imma miss that guy soooo much! learned soo much from him.

3. just crazy stuff hahahah our stupid house
4. I HATE SPIDERS SOOOO MUCH
5-6. conference and a view (dont mind moroni and his butt lol)

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