Everyday We Are Having An Eternal Consequence On Someone's Life

Sounds like Thanksgiving was a success!!   We didn't do anything special for Thanksgiving besides say HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!  Elder Eppich didn't want to do anything because he was going home, :) so it was nothing like last years Thanksgiving. Don’t know where November went... feels like it was just Halloween.  Now we're counting down for Christmas.   Elder Eppich will be leaving this next week, so this means I'll only have ... weeks left!  Guess we'll all find out when I will be going home in 24 days!!  Better start a countdown.  Gotta  keep things interesting somehow.  

The phone call home, not sure what time. Its 7 hour difference, so I’d be calling you in the morning time or early afternoon.  You guys decide.  It’s easy for us to fit it in.  Anytime before 12 would be best, so you guys figure it out and let me know.  I haven't got any of the packages yet... maybe in the next two weeks or so.  I’ll be seeing people to get packages at the latest December 22.  That'll be the last day of getting Christmas packages.  so hopefully they arrive before then!  I'd love to make the rolls, but we don’t have ovens in the Ghana Accra mission.  They have microwaves though.... can you use microwaves to bake rolls? ha ha Guess we'll try! (Lion House Rolls are Elder Zaugg’s favorite, so we thought it would be fun if he had some for Christmas.  Didn’t think about not having an oven.) By the way, start looking into some recovery/ anti virus reversal software that can get pictures back. I think all of my photos are corrupted. I pray they're not.

I remember President Kirkham telling us that every day we are having an ETERNAL consequence on someone’s life.  I've taken that with me ever since that day, and it gives me a desire to do all I can to help all of the people we visit with.  I think back to how I acted towards religion back home, and yeah, it’s something I did, but guess I didn't know really why.... I knew it was something I needed to do, but I hadn't had that real purpose hit me yet until on mission.  I can see that same attitude in people here and it bothers me!  We try all we can to get people excited and have a desire to search the scriptures, but they continue on the path they were on and don’t change.  On a happier note, when you have an investigator tell you they're in Mosiah or 3 Nephi, That’s when it feels like everything is paying off!  Most people don’t reach 2nd Nephi let alone 3 Nephi.  :) So to have someone tell you that, gives you reassurance that your work is not in vain.  

The temple Trip!!  The trip took 15 hours 20 minutes. 10 members went.  We rented a tro tro which is a small van that carries 14 people.  We woke up by 3am, and left by 430.  6 hours later we were in Accra at the temple.  The man who scheduled the baptisms for us didn't mention that by 10am was our time. so we were there by 1030 and they had sent a whole district to go in front of us... ah... not what we needed.  We sat around until 1230 and they finally got us in.   They were able to take our three woman in earlier though.  Beatrice, (Jonathons wife) Josephine (endowed member), and then Helen (Gamelis wife).  All of them had their testimonies strengthened!!  Sister Helen is pregnant and was only able to do Confirmations, but she loved it! She said,"I’m excited to be here! It’s so beautiful!"  She had so many questions after, where we sat in some of the chairs and talked.  Great experience!  Even Jonathons son, whos an endowed member, met us at the temple where we were able to meet him in person!  To say the least, it was amazing!!  Saw Elder Keaton Jones there as well!  All the men then went in around 1 and got to do it.  They didn't let Daniel Opoku because he was endowed and they didn't have enough clothes, so they said to let the other people go ahead.  He was sad, but still kept a positive attitude.  We were able to get back on the road around 230 and get home in a decent time.  Not an easy trip to make in one day.... 12 hours in a van.... not what i call fun, but we made it fun. :) First HoHoe Temple Trip was a success!!!  By the way, We weren't able to do it either, so I still haven't done a temple ordinance for 21 months....its overdue!  I'll do one with President Heid before I fly home, but I think we should all do one when I get back as well.

We have an investigator named Sister J.  Her husband G. will be getting baptized this Saturday.  Anyway, Sister J. has had 5 witnesses and answers to her prayers, and she still attends her church that she knows to not be true.  First one, she had a dream that she explained to us telling her that her husbanded needed to join the church.... okay... don't you think if God is telling your husband to join, that'd mean you as well?  Why would God tell you to do something different?  Second, G. had low blood pressure that he didn't know about and was seriously sick, so we gave him a blessing and he was fine in the morning. Third, she was seriously sick from her High Blood preassure, and we gave her a priesthood blessing and she was healed... Fourth we did a comfort blessing for the same sickness when it came back, and shes been fine ever since.   We went back to talk about all these incidents and to see what she thought they were if they were answers to prayers or
not, she told us about another dream she had about the church. She was at the Temple in Accra and people were asking her why she's not baptized yet.... that's the fifth one.  How many answers does it take for someone to realize where they need to be.... keep praying for her!  Hopefully her husband will have an impact on her!

Thanks again for everything!  Love you all and hope you have a great week!  Keep the festivities going!!  Anything you guys want from Ghana?  Let me know...  thanks again! 

Love you!!

Elder Zaugg