Howdy,
I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. I know I did! I've already told a lot of you but Elder Holland came and talked to us! It was amazing. He brought his entire family. Kids, grandkids. The grankids all got up and sang for us and it was super cute. One of the younger ones was like belting it out right into the mic at the start and it was hilarious. The rest of them got him to calm down though and it was a very glorious thing to watch/hear. He talked to us about how the Savior was alone during the Atonement but that us serving missions is helping him to not be alone on his mission anymore. We are serving alongside of him. It was very spiritual. It was such a great feeling even just watching him walk into the room. I did have to wait in line for like 1.5 hours to get into the actual room and not be in overflow though. It was well worth it. Also on Thanksgiving we did a big service project where we made backpacks for kids around the world. We made over 30,000 so that was pretty cool. That was the highlight of my week. It sounded like you all had great Thanksgivings too. It also sounded like Grandma V's birthday bash went over well. I can't believe she is already 90! That is incredible. She really is incredibly strong. Also, being in the MTC couldn't even stop us from hearing about the HUGE SNOW STORM OF 2010!!! Everyone braced themselves, the MTC presidency warned us (and told us not to throw snowballs) and the morning came and boom, we had a whopping 1/2 inch of snow. It was pathetic. These kids, or I mean elders, think they know what Utah is all about now. psh. Elder Woodbury is pretty stoked on any snow we ever get though. "wouldn't it be great if it snowed again tomorrow?" I love him. He's great. I'm super jealous of all ya'll that got lots of snow up in Cache Valley though. It sounded like it was actually a bit of a snow experience for you. By the way, if you notice I say ya'll more now keep in mind that Elder Davis is from Texas and Elder Call is from Alabama.
So I'll try and hit on some MTC experiences now. Last tuesday we had our general authority meeting as always. It was Per G. Malm of the 2nd quorum of the seventy. I believe he spoke at a recent general conference. Very thick Swedish accent. He was funny. He spoke about missionary work (of course) and how we are affecting the lives of so many people. Then he had the missionary that converted his father stand up and talk to us for a bit. It was a really cool experience. It was cool to think that this seventy might not have the gospel in his life if it weren't for that one missionary, yet look at how many people's lives Elder Malm has changed. It all came from that one missionary. Wednesday was not anything too crazy or special that happened that I can remember. Thursday is the same. They all blend into one great big day between Tuesday to Sunday. Friday we taught at the TRC (Teaching Resource Center or something) where we teach somebody who acts like a real investigator. They usually have members come in from stakes around here and act like it but they didn't because of Thanksgiving or something so we just ended up teaching some other missionaries. Anyways, we taught for our first time in Spanish. Usually you don't teach Spanish until week 5, but our district is apparently really confident and thought we could do it, so Elder Woodbury and I took the challenge as well. We did a great job in my opinion. We were able to say everything we wanted to and answer questions etc. Of course we conjugated some verbs wrong and messed up occasionally. But neither of us accidentally said a swear word, told them that WE translated the plates, or told them that Jesus Christ is our loving Heavenly Father (all of these situations have happened to people in our district hahahah) so I felt like we did a good job. I always seem to be the one that accidentally says the inappropriate things in class though. I don't know how or why, but it's always me. For example, Calzones are not food in spanish. Nope, not at all, so don't use that as an answer for good food if the situation ever arises. Aaaannnnyways... Saturday is always a really long day because it is the last routine day in a row. Sunday is usually a pretty good day though. They do feed us mom. In the morning we just have cereal, then lunch is always a great meat/mashed potatotes/gross vegetables deal and ice cream bar on sundays! When they open the ice cream bar (sundays and wednesdays) is always a fantastic experience. But we have sacrament meeting from 8-9, study from 9-11, priesthood from 11:10-12, lunch from 12-12:45, district meeting for an hour after that, then we have study time from 1:45-5, but we get to take a temple walk during that time. We just get to walk up to the temple and hang out on the gorunds with our district for a bit. It might not sound like it's that amazing, but it's a nice break and a lot of fun AND we get to take pictures. P-day and Sunday are the only days we can take pictures hahaha one of the great MTC rules. I did get a picture with Elder El-Bakri finally. He left yesterday, so we got together on Sunday and did the whole point at your mission picture. It was great. He said he was gonna come say bye to me before he left on Monday, but that scoundrel didn't! Or at least I didn't see him. So we didn't get a super official bye, but it was still great to have him here for the first 3 weeks of my MTC experience. Jake Thomas comes in tomorrow, so that will be fun. Oh yeah, it's the 30th, so I'm supposed to be leaving for Spain today. Unfortunately, I still don't have my visa. I'm a visa waiter officially now. Whenever it comes I will be off to Espana about 6 days after. I just want to spend a week or two there. I'm really fine with whatever, but I would like to get to go to that CCM for a little bit. When you go out and practice contacts there, you really go out and contact people on the streets. That would be way nice rather than speaking to other missionaries that Don't even know what the heck you're saying half the time. I know the Lord will get me there when I need to be there though, so for now I will play volleyball. Speaking of which, Thanksgiving really messed that up for me! I wasn't able to play volleyball on Wednesday OR Thursday last week because of that. How lame, right?
Welp, that's really all I have for this week. I have also learned more about the importance of the Book of Mormon though. Even in the MTC it really is a noticeable difference when you don't find enough time to read from it. It is amazing to me how much of a difference consistent reading in the Book of Mormon makes in our lives. It is impossible to read a book that testifies of Christ on every page and not find yourself closer to our Savior. I know it's true. I want to read from it more, and I challenge anybody who reads this to read more if they find themselves forgetting to at times. I love you all!
"Never let your faith be difficult to detect" -J. Reuben Clark
Love, Elder Jeppson
P.S. Thanks for all the Harry Potter reviews. Gavin won the prize though. He was first.
Anybody out there-if you can get me an address for Branson "Motown" Smith or Connor Perkes, I will love you forever.
Mom-I got my shots yesterday. I wasn't sure what to do with the billing/insurance deal so I chose the "bill home" option(of course). Apparently you need to call (801) 422-8940 and pay with a card then request a "HCFA insurance form" which will get you a reimbursement or something. I don't really know. But thanks and I love you! Oh also do you still have Meikle's address? AND I bought some more stamps, they sell them here, so I'm set to go on those. Thanks though :) You're the best.
Greg and Kristina - Thanks for all the letters and I'm glad your birthdays went so well. I hope you guys recuperated from the hard-core skating in time to have fun this past weekend too. I also hope you didn't get FAT from all the thanksgiving dinners you had.
Abby - Good luck (again) with the cheer/tumbling shenanigan. That's cool that Thomas said you were good enoguh to need you on both teams. love you! read every night ;)
Dad - I just wanted to say I love you. I don't really have anything specific to tell you other than that.
Stepmom - I love you too
Brad - I love you too. And yes, I saved the best for last!
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