Hola!
I have been here for 6 days now. Tuesday is obviously my P-Day, and is it ever glorious! First of all thank you to everyone who has written me letters. DearElder works like a champion and letters down here are like gold! Nay, better than even. First off, my companion. His name is Elder Woodbury. He is from Phoenix Arizona. He's great. He's here for the right reasons and that means he is good to study with/work with etc... I love that he is from Phoenix because whenever we go outside he is like "Wow it's cold!" or "Look there's snow on the mountains!" It's great. I have already learned lots of things from him and that is great. We have a great companionship. My district is a good district too. At the start we had Elders Woodbury, Jeppson (me of course), Davis, Martell, Andersen, Call, Littlefield, and Hermanas Cook, Humphries, and Lawrence. The three hermanas and Elder Littlefield all decided to try and test into the advanced class rather than the Intermediate though. They made it. So they're gone. It almost made me want to try. I am pretty sure that would make me die though. They don't talk about spanish at all, they just teach from Preach My Gospel in spanish all day long. I would get so lost. Elder Call is our district leader. I'll talk about them in a minute if I have time.
Onto spanish. I walked into class and boom, my teachers just started rattling off in Spanish. Talk about humbling. Made me realize how much I have to learn in Espanol. It was a little bit hard to deal with at the start but I quickly got used to it and am working hard at it now! I'm glad I took so many Institute/Docrtine classes so I can focus mostly on the Spanish side and don't have to worry about learning about the doctrine as much. Preach My Gospel and Spanish are all we go over in class. My teachers are Hermano De Leon and Hermano Koller. Hermano De Leon speaks Spanish natively (from Guatemala) as well as English, French, Italian, some Mayan and some Portuguese. He's legit. Obviously. Hermano Koller is from Payson, Utah and just got home from his mission in Mexico in like June or something. They both served in Mexico. Both go to School in Provo.
The food here is not bad at all. They always have like 3 or 4 different options that you can choose from and they usually all taste pretty good. Only like 1 meal so far have I been disappointed, and even then they ALWAYS have chocolate milk. I have had it at every single meal, how fantastic is that? It's delicious!
So my schedule each day is rather consistent. Wakeup at 6:30, be to my classroom at 7. From 7-7:45 I have MDT time (Missionary Determined Time) which is essentially just when I decide what I want to study or work on for that time. No teacher. 7:45 is breakfast. 8:25 is gym. 9:15 is class until lunch at 12:30. 1:15 is class again until like 5:45 or something around there. Then I have dinner for 45 minutes and then class from 6:15 until 9. 9-9:30 is planning time for the next day and then 9:30 - 10:30 is "think about the day and grow in your companionship time". It's pretty chill. Lots of class time. But it somehow goes by quickly. It's weird to me that I have been here for a whole week already.
I have seen lots of people I know. Jon El-Bakri I see almost daily. I love it. I also see Elder Garrett Hinton, Colby Tracy, Brandon Johnson, Jackson Everton occasionally, Zayn Rhodes. They are all doing well it seems and it's always nice to see them.
Sunday was a little bit different than the others days. We have MDT from 7:30 again, then breakfast, then Sacrament meeting from 8-9. The way they do it is they have 2 missionaries speak in Spanish. Everyone has a topic and prepares a talk on it, then they randomly call up two and they have to give their talk. I did not get called thankfully, but I suppose they never call up los misoneros nuevos. After that there are some leadership meetings from District Leaders and Zone leaders with the Branch Presidency. The lesser beings, like myself, have MDT during that time. We met our Branch Presidency on Thursday night. President Craig is my president with Brothers Jurgens and Claybough for his counselors. Craig and Claybough are nice and uplifting and stuff and Jurgens definitely came from the military. If your suit isn't buttoned or your hands are in your pockets or you say "guys" instead of "elders" (such sinners, I know) then he will definitely let you know.
My address has changed. It's the exact same except the 0112 on it is now 1130, which means my estimated departure date is Nov. 30. That is if I get my visa on time. Which is rare around here these days. So pray for that! I hear there are only 8 missionaries at the Spain CCM right now. So it would be super interesting to go there. That's for sure.
Quickly: my district. Elder Martell is from Sandy Utah and he is hilarious. He's one of my favorite elders. Elder Call is different. Very businessman-like. He is from Alabama though. Huntsville. Antoine Dodson is from there. He knows all about that stuff. Elder Andersen is from rural Oregon, and Elder Davis is from San Antonio. That is pretty much all I have time for.
Greg- Happy birthday this week. I hope it is full of all the glory that you always wanted it to be. 24 years old I believe? Glorious.
Abby - Thanks for your letters. They're great. You can use that iHome if you really want, but it's super ghetto, so best of luck with that. Keep me updated with any great things you have going on in your life! (that goes for everybody)
Stepmom - Thank you for your DearElder. It was great. It was especially nice to hear such uplifting things from my Dad. Tell that scoundrel to write to me. And tell the siblings about DearElder. Those are great.
Mom - thanks for the letters. Especially the hockey updates. It was great to hear that Colorado and Pittsburgh both won 5-1 last weekend.
I know this church is true! I love feeling the spirit down here as often as I do. It's amazing. Christ is our savior and through him we can live with our Heavenly Father. I want you all to know I love you. I am so appreciative of all that you have done for me to help me get to this point in my life. I have no idea what I have in store for me, but I know that this is where I need to be and the Lord will bless me as well as all of you for all time spent in his service. I love you all!
Love,
Elder Tanton Sil Jeppson
P.S. send pictures
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