Ups and Downs Love it!

Hello all.  It is beloved Tuesday and you all know what that means, a glorious E-mail from Elder Jeppson. Here goes:

 

This past week has gone by really fast, but at the same time not a lot has happened.  I will try and give you a pretty chill little rundown though.  So last Tuesday our speaker was Sister Julie Beck.  The relief society president.  She was pretty good.  She pretty much just told a lot of missionary stories.  Then Wednesday Elder Woodbury and I did a TE (Teacher Evaluation or something) which is when you teach a random teacher a lesson and they act like an investigator.  This teacher was Hmo. Silva and he speaks Spanish, English, Portuguese and Mandarin.  He's almost as crazy as my teacher Hmo. De Leon!  Anyways, we did an alright job of it.  There is a lot of room for improvement but it's great that Elder Woodbury and I have a lot of teaching chemistry, aka we can switch back and forth with each other well and neither of us just dominates the lesson the whole time.  There is a trio in our district (Elders Martell, Andersen and Jones (oh, Jones transferred in from a beginner class like, 1 week in, forgot to tell you all about him)) and I hear that it is really hard to teach in on of those, so I'm grateful I have Elder Woodbury.  Thursday was nothing too amazing.  We had a LGM (Large Group meeting) which is just like a couple of zones (or branches) get together for a meeting thing.  We learned about how important it is for our investigator's to assist (or attend haha) sacrament meeting before they are baptized.  Of course, they HAVE to go a couple times to be baptized, but we focused on how the Spirit teaches them there and how it will benefit them and whatnot.  Friday we had another TRC outing.   We taught lesson 2 in Espanol.  It was fun because finally we didn't teach other missionaries.  Some girls came in and volunteered to be "investigators."  It went well other than we forgot to teach them about the Spirit World (Lesson 2 is the Plan of Salvation) but let's be honest, the Celestial kingdom is all we're really worried about right?  Saturdays are always very long.  Sunday is always a nice break.  The temple walk is always grand and it's nice to have different activities. Last Sunday was my first fast sunday here.  It was not too bad.  They don't offer meals for Breakfast and Lunch (mind blowing,isn't it?) and then Dinner is the same as always.  Sundays are great because they have the ice cream bar, I might have mentioned that before though.  Wednesdays and Sundays have it.  Anyways, on Fast Sundays we have Mission Conference.  This merely means that instead of going to Priesthood meeting we all gather in the gym and have the MTC presidency talk to us.  It was not too bad. Monday went by fast but my body got owned (more on that in a minute).  And now it's Tuesday again, crazy how that happens eh?  My P-day schedule is this: wake up at 6:15 as always, head straight to the laundry room to beat the rush.  Pick up a sack breakfast and eat it while the laundry goes.  Also write a couple of letters.  Then switch my laundry load to the dryer: write letters while I wait.  Then we take our laundry back and fold it, shower and get ready for the temple.  We try to leave for the temple between 9:15 and 9:30.  We go to the 9:50ish session.  Then we come back and eat Lunch at 12-12:30ish.  then we write letters from then until right now, which is when I write my e-mail home (crazy stuff so far right?)  Then we have a couple of hours that we do our study time during.  Personal and Companion study.  Then we eat dinner at 5:30 and go wait in a blasted line for the General Authority/Hot Shots of the church Devotional.  Which starts at 7.  Which means yes, we have more time to write letters during that wait-in-line-time.  Then we are spiritually fed the word of God, and have a district meeting for an hour after talking about what we learned etc.  Then we have about an hour to "unwind, not unravel" in our residence halls.  Sound like fun? It always goes by so fast!

Onto random stuff now.  First of all, how my body got owned.  I have been sick like the whole time I've been here.  Sore throats, cough, runny/stuffy nose, etc.  And that was pretty bad Sunday night/Monday morning.  Then, I went to gym and jacked my ankle up (whenever Kylie reads this I bet she goes "I warned him" with a big ol grin).  It really isn't too bad, I just rolled it in the deporte del diablo: Volleyball.  So I was hobbling around like a gimp all day yesterday.  The good news is that it happened like 7 minutes into gym time.  I just toughed it out and played on it the rest of the time though.  Good stuff.  Then, it hurt the rest of the day hahaha.  Last thing that happened is a wart on my hand got like half ripped off at some point, so I just finished the job.  It was...gory, haha and now I'm having a great re-charge day of a P-day.  My ankle feels lots better today and hopefully I won't even miss a day of playing, although I will probably take it a little easier for a couple of days.  Yup.  I'm human still.  Spanish has been going well.  I feel like since it's such a constant thing I'm working on that I am not really learning it but when I look back at what I knew how to say when I got here and how hard it was to follow what the teachers were saying I realize how far I have come.  I still don't have my visa of course, although I am not sure how it will work when I do get it.  I will get my travel plans for Spain, but I am not sure if I will get to call you or whatnot.  I know I get to call from the airport though.  Mom, stop praying for it to be after Christmas.  If I am at the MTC for Christmas I might not get to call home for Christmas...jussayin'.  Speaking of Christmas, if you have packages or gifts or whatever you want to send me I think it would be a great idea to hold off until I am in Spain (If I'm still here for Christmas) because I'm already way overweight on my bags and that is no bueno.  I think I will just have to load a ton of crap into my carry on bag to get the weight down in my luggage.  I guess we will see eh? I am glad to hear Elder El-Bakri's adventures!  I'm so jealous.  It sounds like he is having a great time already and it most definitely was an adventure getting to Madagascar.  Crazy stuff.  Thank you Kylie and Mom for the pictures I got last week.  They are incredible and my district loved looking through them all.  Also, I love looking through them.  Win-win!  Mom, I definitely don't care that I am at the MTC, I am still taking Brad's side of the temperature war in the house.  The fireplace and heater should not take the house to 75-80 degrees! That is just ridiculous.  If anybody could tell me when Beaver is open (if it isn't already) that would be cool.  Mom, you don't have to cut out all the hockey scores but if you tossed them into a DearElder that would be sweet.  Brad keeps me up on some of it, but I'm greedy. Dad-That sounds like a great plan with my money.  I trust that plan.  You have my go.  I saw Jake Thomas, he is just as tall as ever.  he is in a beginner Spanish class and I don't see them all that often, but I have seen him a few times.  Speaking of which, I also don't see Jackson Everton all that much.  Sad, I know.  But I did see them both at my temple walk on Sunday and so I made sure to snap pictures with them both.  I am going to try and get my SD card sent home today, so mom you can start the hallelujah chorus.  I hope you all got to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional dealio.  It was fantastic.  We watched it for our Sunday night devotional. I really noticed a common subject of remembering Christ during this time and to not let the stress of the season own us.  Mom, I thought of you on the 5th.  Yes, I did remember.  I thought you would like to know that :). Christmas is in the air here too.   They have lights all over the MTC campus that is pretty sweet.  I took some pictures with them so be happy to see those.  The number on my address is no longer 1130 (since I obviously didn't leave November 30) and now it is 0111.  It isn't really that big of a deal.  A lot of people have asked so I must have forgotten to mention that Elder Woodbury is also going to the Madrid mission.  Cute, right?  I have gained 10 pounds since I have been here. Psych. I weigh the exact same even though I eat a ton and sit for hours.  Yay for metabolism.  I love this gospel.  I can't wait to get out and actually teach it to people! It will be so nice to see non-members.  I know this church is true and I know that the Book of Mormon is evidence of it and everything that it entails! I love you all and appreciate all of your support and everything that you all do for me. You're all the best!  Good luck with everything this week.  Abby, stop being sick so you can go to school (I know you sluffed it) :)

 

Love,

Elder Jeppson