¡Hola!
Wow, what a week! It went by really fast. A lot happened, as I´m sure you can imagine. I will first off give a quick rundown of what happened and then see if I have time for much else haha.
So last Wednesday we had a lesson after P-day ended (at 6:30) and we set a baptismal date with Fernando! hahaha what a first lesson for me, eh? I didn´t teach a ton, but I did whenever Elder Driggs would throw it over to me. And I really like bearing testimony. But after that we had 2 other lessons, one was just a regular lesson, and one was a no-show. So basically, my first day had everything possible in it! Thursday was a little bit different. We do our weekly planning on Thursday in the morning, so we were there doing that for a while, then had Mediodia, then went out and I think did some contacting. We do a lot of street contacting, which I really like most of the time. It´s super weird to think that I am randomly stopping people on the street and telling them about Jesus Christ, but they need to find out somehow! I don´t really remember anything too specific with what happened on what days. Sorry. But also we had a pretty sweet lesson with this one guy that was at a house that the person we intended to meet with wasn´t there, so we just taught him, I think his name was Marcell? I dunno. But it was really spiritual and got me all excited and stuff, and then we tried to call him a little later and he falso-ed us! haha but it was ok with me because I was still really glad that I had the opportunity to have that lesson with him. Really Spiritual. Hmmm, oh! So the AP´s have been going on intercambios with all the missionaries in teh Madrid area, so they are on exchanges like 3 times a week. When they do this, they are obviously not our companions, so Elder Gardner and I are either left with each other (always an interesting experience) or else we go on splits with Elder Reist and Elder Carey, the other two elders that live with us. I do not sleep on the couch, I sleep on a mattress on the floor usually. Saturday was the baptism of Francisca and Javiera, they are 9 and 10 years old I think. It was cool to see their dad baptise them. They are all new in the church, and they were invited by a different recent member haha It just goes to show how much missionary work you can do by inviting others to come unto Christ. Sunday was a really busy day. I don´t really remember specifics (sorry) but we did a lot of running around and we had a good amount of investigators that made it to church. Monday is the day that my life got a little harder. The AP´s decided that since it was weird having 4 missionaries in the same area and sharing investigators that they were going to open up ¨Barrio 2 B¨ which has the exact same boundaries. This means that I have not had any investigators for the last couple days and all I have been doing is contacting people trying to find people to teach. That is a lot of contacting! I really like getting to talk to that many people though. Sometimes it does make for long days though. Yesterday we had District Meeting, but the office elders are in our district and they had to leave to go do something so it was pretty short. That´s a very brief overview of my last week! Now, onto answering questions and talking about the mission life here.
First off, this is the best mission ever! We get up at 7:00 instead of 6:30 (and between april and October 7:30) and we go to bed a half hour later than the usual schedule because the Spaniard culture is later than usual cultures. That is such a blessing to me! For Mediodia, we go back to the piso (apartment) for 2 hours each day, whenver fits best with our teaching schedule. We have 30 minutes of language study and get to eat lunch during that time. If necessary, we are allowed to take a 20 minute nap as long as our companion wakes us up on time, hahaha. How amazing is that? But we are supposed to avoid taking one if we can. So that just depends on how you´re feeling each day. I am going to try and not take naps if possible. We will see. Elder Driggs is legit. I like him because he´s stoked about the work, does a good job, but doesn´t like suck the fun out of what we are doing everyday. That´s good. His family is the family that founded Driggs in Idaho. His great great great grandfather or something, but he has actually never been there, funny, eh? Brad will love to know that I thought though. There is also a lady in our ward that is here from Driggs. What in the world? Small world. The people here are...various. There is such a variety. Pretty much everybody from Madrid/Spain is Catholic/Atheist, so that´s really hard to contact, but there are a TON of people from South & Central America here. Honduras, Bolivia, Dominnican Republic, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador. Tons. It makes it really nice to start conversations cause you can always ask them where they are from. They are way more golden for missionaries. They have believing blood. It´s true! I don´t really know President Watkins very well yet. I had a quick interview with him last Wednesday and then today we had a big get together at the Mission home. He was there, but I didn´t really get to talk to him or anything. I am excited to get to know him better over the next two years. But the shindig today was for P-day and a lot of fun. All of the Missionaries that live within like an hour of Madrid came, so there was like 50 missionaries there. We just played futbol and ate and talked and chilled. It was great! My zip code is 28027 I think, but look that up on the internet before you send anything. Make sure. It might actually be better if all letters are just sent to the mission office for now because the AP´s are there every monday so we get our mail from there weekly. When I get transferred in 3 weeks I will let you know my address and it might be better to send my letters write to me after that. Packages always to the office though. Speaking of which, thank you for the packages this week! I love the cocoa krispies and stuff. Oh, Greg, Dad, Doug, Tim, all the moms out there, if you have any advice on what foods are quick and easy to make, I would love suggestions, because I don´t always have a lot of time and I would like to try things and improve my cooking abilities, so I´m open to all suggestions! The food here is good. It doesn´t taste like anything super crazy to me. I did eat a huge lunch on Sunday, then went to 2 different lessons that ended up feeding me. It was SO hard to eat all that food and not want to vomit. I didn´t want to offend them though so I tried to eat as much as I could. Ugh. The trials of a missionary ;) Spanish is great. I speak really well I feel like for my time I´ve had to learn it. I can almost always say what I want and people tell me I have a decent accent. My weakness though is understanding. Ugh. I´m bad enough at listening in English that when people whip off a sentence in Spanish sometimes I just stare/smile/nod my head then continue with my message hahaha it will come with time. It´s just hard cause I have never been able to practice it much! The weather has been cold lately. It´s a good thing I am used to Utah/Cache Valley. So it isn´t really too terrible. Just being in the streets all days makes my hands cold. But that coat I got is legit! Thank heavens. Also, I was glad to hear everything went well with Natalie and her surgery. I would love videos if anybody has any or anything.
Welp, I know this gospel is true! There are lots of hard times out here but the more I bear testimony of this gospel and see how it affects lives and how everything just makes sense with the gospel really builds my testimony! I´m so grateful to have the gospel in my life, and amazing people like my family and everyone else that reads this :) Thank you!
Love,
Elder Jeppson
Abby-Heard you did a great job in your first meet, so great job! Also, I´m jealous you got to go in and watch Brad do surgery.
Kristina-Congrats on the internship! You´ll do great.
All Immediate family and I guess anybody-I would love immediate family email addresses and anybody can email me, but I am only allowed to email direct family and mission president. Love you all though!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
¡Primer Día en el campo misional!
¡Hola!
I made it. I am here in the mission field with my handy dandy companion and everything. Since it was a pretty random time for us to get our visas we came in in the middle of a transfer, which means that everyone had companions. Hence, there were six of us and they put us together as companions haha. The good thing is that Elder Gardner (the nephew of Rulon) is with the Assistants, so basically I have Elder Driggs as my companion, one of the assistants. He´s awesome. Very happy and very go-get-em, so that´s good. I am in Barrio 2. I believe it is pretty much the East of Madrid in the middle. There are 8-ish areas in the Madrid area, and they all meet in the middle, so it kind of is like a spider web if you draw all the boundaries on a map of the city. Yup, sorry if that confused anybody, but we are in the area directly East out of those 8. It´s good stuff.
So nothing really happened on Monday, but Tuesday was a great day. We, the 8 visa-waiters in the CCM, went into Madrid! We just hopped on the metro after lunch and went on into Madrid. We visited a bunch of like Cathedral/Palace things. I don´t really know the name of any of them. Sorry. I will be sure to send the pictures eventually though. That´ll give you something to look forward to, eh? I also had my first contact that day! Woot! hahaha in the Plaza Mayor there was this lady (little crazy) that was wearing a wig and these little devil horns that came up to us and wanted to take a picture with us. We were like ¨nah, it´s ok. But thanks!¨ and she was like, ¨Well hey, who are you all?¨ So Hermana Sturgess and I busted out a quick little belief thing and told her what we believe and she talked about how she believes in God and Jesus Christ and Saint Maria and all the Saints that number as many as the sky and all that, so we were like awesome, have this pass along card and we will hook you up with a Libro de Mormón, and you will love it. It´s like the bible, but there´s more. So there´s the story of my first contact haha.
Soooo, I am glad to hear about the package I have coming my way. Unfortunately, I will not be able to get it until Monday, so we will have to see if the Mud Pie is still any good. But thank you for sending those other things! There are 6 of us in our apartment and I am pretty sure that might mean I will be sleeping on the couch hahaha who knew that all those times I crashed in front of the TV I was really just working on my mission prep. I have an hour and a half of computer time every Wednesday now. I think that this is because my companion is Assistant to the Pres. and has to have some extra time on the computer to do awesome stuff, but I am not sure. Maybe I will always have this long, maybe not. I will keep you updated. Oh, here´s my new address:
Elder Jeppson
Calle Miami 7, 3ºC
Madrid, 28027
Spain
This is for letters. It is better to send packages to the address I sent on Monday. But letters are great there. I am not sure what the zip code is, but I´m full of faith that it can be found on the internet! Holy smokes, I still ahve 45 minutse but I don´t have a ton to say because it has only been 2 days since I last wrote you. I have time to put contacts into my email account now, so if all family members want to send me their email address I can just send it right out to everybody. It isn´t really that big of a deal, but just let me know what is best. Natalie´s big ear turn on shebang should be going on this week right? I hope all goes well with that. I am finding out if I can watch videos or not. I hope that I can. I got a DearElder when I got here! It is from Jimmy Hales haha. It was sent from Provo on the 10th, although I don´t know when it got here. But I apparently get them within 9 days, so that´s good news eh? Hmmm, Oh, we contacted somebody on the way over here. My companion did all the talking for the most part and got him to stop walking and whatnot and then asked me to bear my testimony so I just bore my testimony right there on the way to this little internet cafe haha. And other than that I can´t really think of a lot more to say. Mom, would you please make sure that Chase (my bank) knows that I am in Spain so that if I use my card they won´t flip out that it is in use in Spain? Thanks. They gave me my mission card today, so I shouldn´t have to use it for a while anyways, but it would be nice to get that done before any problem actually happens. I do have a lot of time on the computer now, so everybody can feel free to email now. I will hopefully have more stories and stuff to tell you next week. Apparently we have 2 baptisms this Saturday, maybe 3, so we will see how that goes. Hopefully they all come through and work out nicely. I don´t know if I will even be involved in them at all, since we have 4 missionaries in our area. We will find out I suppose. Keep me updated on everything that is going on back home. Sounds like all is well.
Well, This is it. I do have a testimony that this is the only true church. Although we go through hard times Satan seems to fight us harder than usual, we must endure through these times with faith in Christ. I hope all goes well in the big and little trials as well as the many successes I am sure you are all experiencing back home. Thank you family for all that you have done for me. All the support, and don´t be afraid to still send real letters too. I need a hard copy of our family Dad/Stepmom! I only have ones that don´t have Colby, and he´s my favorite brother! (Just kidding Caden, Gavin) Keep on keeping on all. I love you all. I shall preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and bear testimony. If anybody wants to convert their testimony to Spanish and send them to me I can paste them in a Libro de Mormon we give out. I think that´d be especially guay (cool) if they are handwritten too. Food for thought!
Love,
Elder Jeppson
I made it. I am here in the mission field with my handy dandy companion and everything. Since it was a pretty random time for us to get our visas we came in in the middle of a transfer, which means that everyone had companions. Hence, there were six of us and they put us together as companions haha. The good thing is that Elder Gardner (the nephew of Rulon) is with the Assistants, so basically I have Elder Driggs as my companion, one of the assistants. He´s awesome. Very happy and very go-get-em, so that´s good. I am in Barrio 2. I believe it is pretty much the East of Madrid in the middle. There are 8-ish areas in the Madrid area, and they all meet in the middle, so it kind of is like a spider web if you draw all the boundaries on a map of the city. Yup, sorry if that confused anybody, but we are in the area directly East out of those 8. It´s good stuff.
So nothing really happened on Monday, but Tuesday was a great day. We, the 8 visa-waiters in the CCM, went into Madrid! We just hopped on the metro after lunch and went on into Madrid. We visited a bunch of like Cathedral/Palace things. I don´t really know the name of any of them. Sorry. I will be sure to send the pictures eventually though. That´ll give you something to look forward to, eh? I also had my first contact that day! Woot! hahaha in the Plaza Mayor there was this lady (little crazy) that was wearing a wig and these little devil horns that came up to us and wanted to take a picture with us. We were like ¨nah, it´s ok. But thanks!¨ and she was like, ¨Well hey, who are you all?¨ So Hermana Sturgess and I busted out a quick little belief thing and told her what we believe and she talked about how she believes in God and Jesus Christ and Saint Maria and all the Saints that number as many as the sky and all that, so we were like awesome, have this pass along card and we will hook you up with a Libro de Mormón, and you will love it. It´s like the bible, but there´s more. So there´s the story of my first contact haha.
Soooo, I am glad to hear about the package I have coming my way. Unfortunately, I will not be able to get it until Monday, so we will have to see if the Mud Pie is still any good. But thank you for sending those other things! There are 6 of us in our apartment and I am pretty sure that might mean I will be sleeping on the couch hahaha who knew that all those times I crashed in front of the TV I was really just working on my mission prep. I have an hour and a half of computer time every Wednesday now. I think that this is because my companion is Assistant to the Pres. and has to have some extra time on the computer to do awesome stuff, but I am not sure. Maybe I will always have this long, maybe not. I will keep you updated. Oh, here´s my new address:
Elder Jeppson
Calle Miami 7, 3ºC
Madrid, 28027
Spain
This is for letters. It is better to send packages to the address I sent on Monday. But letters are great there. I am not sure what the zip code is, but I´m full of faith that it can be found on the internet! Holy smokes, I still ahve 45 minutse but I don´t have a ton to say because it has only been 2 days since I last wrote you. I have time to put contacts into my email account now, so if all family members want to send me their email address I can just send it right out to everybody. It isn´t really that big of a deal, but just let me know what is best. Natalie´s big ear turn on shebang should be going on this week right? I hope all goes well with that. I am finding out if I can watch videos or not. I hope that I can. I got a DearElder when I got here! It is from Jimmy Hales haha. It was sent from Provo on the 10th, although I don´t know when it got here. But I apparently get them within 9 days, so that´s good news eh? Hmmm, Oh, we contacted somebody on the way over here. My companion did all the talking for the most part and got him to stop walking and whatnot and then asked me to bear my testimony so I just bore my testimony right there on the way to this little internet cafe haha. And other than that I can´t really think of a lot more to say. Mom, would you please make sure that Chase (my bank) knows that I am in Spain so that if I use my card they won´t flip out that it is in use in Spain? Thanks. They gave me my mission card today, so I shouldn´t have to use it for a while anyways, but it would be nice to get that done before any problem actually happens. I do have a lot of time on the computer now, so everybody can feel free to email now. I will hopefully have more stories and stuff to tell you next week. Apparently we have 2 baptisms this Saturday, maybe 3, so we will see how that goes. Hopefully they all come through and work out nicely. I don´t know if I will even be involved in them at all, since we have 4 missionaries in our area. We will find out I suppose. Keep me updated on everything that is going on back home. Sounds like all is well.
Well, This is it. I do have a testimony that this is the only true church. Although we go through hard times Satan seems to fight us harder than usual, we must endure through these times with faith in Christ. I hope all goes well in the big and little trials as well as the many successes I am sure you are all experiencing back home. Thank you family for all that you have done for me. All the support, and don´t be afraid to still send real letters too. I need a hard copy of our family Dad/Stepmom! I only have ones that don´t have Colby, and he´s my favorite brother! (Just kidding Caden, Gavin) Keep on keeping on all. I love you all. I shall preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and bear testimony. If anybody wants to convert their testimony to Spanish and send them to me I can paste them in a Libro de Mormon we give out. I think that´d be especially guay (cool) if they are handwritten too. Food for thought!
Love,
Elder Jeppson
Monday, January 17, 2011
Mission Address
So here is the Mission Address for packages. You can also send letters here, but once I get an apartment it will be faster if you just send it right to my apartment. Great!
Elder Tanton Sil Jeppson
Fuerteventura 4-2 Oficina 8B
San Sebastián de los Reyes
Spain 28703
Tel:(91)-623 7030
Elder Tanton Sil Jeppson
Fuerteventura 4-2 Oficina 8B
San Sebastián de los Reyes
Spain 28703
Tel:(91)-623 7030
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Hello! I guess now I have to say ¡Hola!
¡Hola!
I made it. Safe and sound. Jet lag is kicking my butt, but I am here and I am alive! I haven´t really had an opportunity to see Madrid yet, but there is a lot of red buildings I have seen haha. We are pretty much just here in the CCM (next to the temple) until Wednesday when we will get to go to the mission field. There are 8 of us that just showed up. 5 of us traveled together from the MTC and the other 3 traveled in from other temporary assignments that they were serving. 6 of us are going to Madrid, 1 to Barcelona and 1 to Malaga. There are 8 missionaries that were here before us. 7 from France and 1 from Arizona. 2 of them can speak Spanish and they all speak French (except the Arizona elder). That is definitely an adventure listening to them all blab off a storm in that mumbo jumbo French. It makes me think of Tim and wish that he was here to teach me how to speak hahaha. Basically we have a CCM schedule here again. It´s way more chill though and this CCM is way nicer! The beds are way comfortable, the showers are way nice. The food is...still good. The temple is closed for cleaning, so we will not be able to atttend. But that´s ok, because it´s in my mission. I feel bad for like Elder Call who is going to Barcelona and wil not be able to go. Maybe at the end of his mission I guess. But so that is pretty much where I am at now. Traveling went well to get here. We left the Provo MTC at 8 AM, so it was not crazy early like some of the people´s leaving times (Elder Andersen had to be there at 4 AM) which I was grateful for. Of course, you know that I got to call you for a bit, then hopped on the flight. It went well. I sat next to a convert and a girl that is going to school in Connecticut that wants to be a doctor and did not seem very excited that I was talking to her. She´s from Idaho. Crazy Idahoans... Then we were in Atlanta. We got over to our gate, went and got some food, called people. Went to board and boom, the flight was delayed. It was supposed to leave at 6:55 and was delayed until 7:55, then 10, then bumped up to 8:55. So during that time I just called you parents of mine again and then the new President of the England MTC, President Walker (I believe) and his wife, were there traveling to England and they saw us and came over and talked to us. Sister Walker´s father is President Hinckley, so that was pretty cool to be able to talk to them. Then on the next flight I got a window seat and nobody sat next me so I had that many more opportunities and positions to try and sleep as much as possible before a whole day of Spain. I slept for quite a bit of the flight luckily. But we got here and it was like 10:30 in the morning and so that was killer to be awake for the whole day (they told us we couldn´t sleep and had to wait until night haha punks...) but I survived. Then they told us that we did not have to get up today but could sleep in (Miracles happen!) so we got up at 8 in order to get ready to go to district meeting at 9. It was amazing. I slept hardcore. Yes. Hardcore. Then today, after Sacrament meeting, they let us take a nap! bahahaha 1.5 hr nap before we had a devotional with President Earl (the MTC President). It was a really great devotional about what it takes to baptize and how to get investigators to feel the spirit and follow through on commitments and what not. I like President Earl a lot. I believe he will be sending you a picture of me by the end of tomorrow night, so be ready for that! We do have more time here to email, so if ya´ll wanted to send emails now that would be great. I believe I shall have time to read everything and still say everything I want to (unless you all decide to type novels I guess) so that should be good stuff. I don´t have an address yet for mail really, because I will be leaving the MTC in like 3-4 days for the mission, so I guess that you will have to hold off on that.
Welp, That´s all I can really think of for the update of the last couple days, so I´ll go ahead and summarize the last couple days of my Provo MTC experience as well. Tuesday night Elder Holland came and gave us an AMAZING talk on what it means to be a missionary and how Peter went back to his fish net after the Savior died and then Christ asked him if he loved him and then told him to leave the net again. It was an absolutely amazing talk about what it takes to be a solid missionary and leave your net and serve the savior. I love Elder Holland, and I got to see him twice in Provo! Then thte next day, which would be Wednesday, the new district for Hermano De Leon came in and Elder Call and I would just hang out with them when we had free time. That is also the day I got my Visa! The new district is super cool. Then after that we just got ready on Thursday to come here. Bought all the stuff we needed and what not and then packed (50 lbs. in each bag with 35 lbs. of carry-on, callin´ it close eh?) Everything went great.
Welp, It seems to me like we are wrapping up our time here to e-mail home, so I´ll close this up. Thank you everybody that has helped me come this far! I love you all. Keep up the good work back home and I´ll see what I can do here in Spain.
Love,
Elder Jeppson
I made it. Safe and sound. Jet lag is kicking my butt, but I am here and I am alive! I haven´t really had an opportunity to see Madrid yet, but there is a lot of red buildings I have seen haha. We are pretty much just here in the CCM (next to the temple) until Wednesday when we will get to go to the mission field. There are 8 of us that just showed up. 5 of us traveled together from the MTC and the other 3 traveled in from other temporary assignments that they were serving. 6 of us are going to Madrid, 1 to Barcelona and 1 to Malaga. There are 8 missionaries that were here before us. 7 from France and 1 from Arizona. 2 of them can speak Spanish and they all speak French (except the Arizona elder). That is definitely an adventure listening to them all blab off a storm in that mumbo jumbo French. It makes me think of Tim and wish that he was here to teach me how to speak hahaha. Basically we have a CCM schedule here again. It´s way more chill though and this CCM is way nicer! The beds are way comfortable, the showers are way nice. The food is...still good. The temple is closed for cleaning, so we will not be able to atttend. But that´s ok, because it´s in my mission. I feel bad for like Elder Call who is going to Barcelona and wil not be able to go. Maybe at the end of his mission I guess. But so that is pretty much where I am at now. Traveling went well to get here. We left the Provo MTC at 8 AM, so it was not crazy early like some of the people´s leaving times (Elder Andersen had to be there at 4 AM) which I was grateful for. Of course, you know that I got to call you for a bit, then hopped on the flight. It went well. I sat next to a convert and a girl that is going to school in Connecticut that wants to be a doctor and did not seem very excited that I was talking to her. She´s from Idaho. Crazy Idahoans... Then we were in Atlanta. We got over to our gate, went and got some food, called people. Went to board and boom, the flight was delayed. It was supposed to leave at 6:55 and was delayed until 7:55, then 10, then bumped up to 8:55. So during that time I just called you parents of mine again and then the new President of the England MTC, President Walker (I believe) and his wife, were there traveling to England and they saw us and came over and talked to us. Sister Walker´s father is President Hinckley, so that was pretty cool to be able to talk to them. Then on the next flight I got a window seat and nobody sat next me so I had that many more opportunities and positions to try and sleep as much as possible before a whole day of Spain. I slept for quite a bit of the flight luckily. But we got here and it was like 10:30 in the morning and so that was killer to be awake for the whole day (they told us we couldn´t sleep and had to wait until night haha punks...) but I survived. Then they told us that we did not have to get up today but could sleep in (Miracles happen!) so we got up at 8 in order to get ready to go to district meeting at 9. It was amazing. I slept hardcore. Yes. Hardcore. Then today, after Sacrament meeting, they let us take a nap! bahahaha 1.5 hr nap before we had a devotional with President Earl (the MTC President). It was a really great devotional about what it takes to baptize and how to get investigators to feel the spirit and follow through on commitments and what not. I like President Earl a lot. I believe he will be sending you a picture of me by the end of tomorrow night, so be ready for that! We do have more time here to email, so if ya´ll wanted to send emails now that would be great. I believe I shall have time to read everything and still say everything I want to (unless you all decide to type novels I guess) so that should be good stuff. I don´t have an address yet for mail really, because I will be leaving the MTC in like 3-4 days for the mission, so I guess that you will have to hold off on that.
Welp, That´s all I can really think of for the update of the last couple days, so I´ll go ahead and summarize the last couple days of my Provo MTC experience as well. Tuesday night Elder Holland came and gave us an AMAZING talk on what it means to be a missionary and how Peter went back to his fish net after the Savior died and then Christ asked him if he loved him and then told him to leave the net again. It was an absolutely amazing talk about what it takes to be a solid missionary and leave your net and serve the savior. I love Elder Holland, and I got to see him twice in Provo! Then thte next day, which would be Wednesday, the new district for Hermano De Leon came in and Elder Call and I would just hang out with them when we had free time. That is also the day I got my Visa! The new district is super cool. Then after that we just got ready on Thursday to come here. Bought all the stuff we needed and what not and then packed (50 lbs. in each bag with 35 lbs. of carry-on, callin´ it close eh?) Everything went great.
Welp, It seems to me like we are wrapping up our time here to e-mail home, so I´ll close this up. Thank you everybody that has helped me come this far! I love you all. Keep up the good work back home and I´ll see what I can do here in Spain.
Love,
Elder Jeppson
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
News Flash
Hoooooray! I just got a 5 minute call from Elder Jeppson, he RECEIVED HIS VISA TODAY!! He will be flying to Spain on Friday! So, so exciting. He is very ready to get out there and start spreading the word. I am so extremely excited for him as he enters this new "phase" of his mission. Check his blog for his new address, I will post it as soon as I know what it is (remember; missionaries LOVE letters!). And please keep him in your prayers for safe travel, quick adjustment to time and culture etc., and of course that he can be led to those seeking the Gospel! Wahoooo! Let this journey begin. :)
Thanks again for all of your love and support!
Love, Kelly
Thanks again for all of your love and support!
Love, Kelly
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
Hello everyone. It's your favorite missionary, yet again. Just like every other Tuesday. Cool, eh? I've been saying "eh?" a lot today, so I'm sorry for those of you who I wrote letters to earlier today. Let's get crackin'.
Last Tuesday night we had Elder David S. Baxter of the Seventy give us a delightful talk about why we are Christian and scriptural references that hammered traditions of other Christian churches. It was sweet. He was super straight up and blunt about it. I liked it.
Then on Wednesday we got the newbs again. It's always great when we get the newbs. I don't know why, but it is. Like I said last week, I was part of a little teaching seminar activity deal for them, it was pretty fun and cool. Definitely glad I got the opportunity to do it. Also, along with the newbs, Shaun Harris, Sean Bergeson, and Joe Quillen made an entrance into the grand and luxurious center of training. I see Elder Bergeson a lot, Elder Harris a few times, and Elder Quillen like 3 times a day almost. It's great stuff for sure. So it's nice to have them all around.
Hermano De Leon has been back for the last 2 weeks too. It's been absolutely amazing having him back. He really is an amazing teacher/person. I want to grow up to be him. He's from the streets of Guatemala and the missionaries showed up and taught him. We don't have Hermano Koller anymore, I don't know if I mentioned that last week, but it has definitely been sad without him. It's alright though he's just over in the TRC so we can still set up "appointments" with him and teach him or learn specific lessons from him. Very nice.
So the visa news: No visa. No reassignment. Just hangin' out in the MTC with Elder Call and who knows who else. We are not sure what we will do about a district. Hermano De Leon and Hermana Bauserman (our new teacher) are getting a new district of natives (so they are fluent in Spanish of course) that we might be able to hop in with starting on Monday. That would be amazing because I would get to be around Spanish a lot more. And a lot more Spanish is a lot more learning. Win! But so they're not reassigning us because they expect a visa soon. But, if we don't get our visa in the next week the lady at the travel office said she would push Salt Lake harder for a reassignment. So whatever happens we'll all just have to wait and see!
On Sunday we sang as a district in Sacrament Meeting. Llevar al mundo la verdad (or something) anyways it's "Army of Helaman" but we sang it in Spanish of course. I didn't get called on to give a talk, it was Elder Andersen from our district. It's funny cause the whole week he had been telling us how he had a feeling it would be him, and sure enough, it was! But so we tore up that song and then at night we had a talk from Richard I Heaton. He does something here at the MTC. But he talked about teaching techniques and what it took to convert someone. The coolest part is that he had a bunch of recent converts (within the last 2 years), that are now missionaries here, stand up and share their story. It was really cool. Almost all of them (more than half) found the church through girlfriends haahhahahaa. That was pretty funny.
Also, on Sunday night was the CES fireside from Elder Christofferson. We don't get to watch those as missionaries, but they do get put up on LDS.org within like 8 minutes of the ending so I watched that Sunday night instead of watching a different church film (we get to watch church films for an hour on Sunday nights. They have like 4 options, or you can go back to your classroom). He talked about how we need daily "manna" from the Lord just as they did in the bible, except it's not physical bread (sometimes it is) but spiritual bread. It was really cool to be reminded that we need to rely on the Lord every day for help. If you didn't see it, I suggest you watch it.
I really don't have much else from the past week of awesome things. Greg gave me a challenge, but I'm too big of a chicken to answer it on here cause I don't want to publicly humiliate myself. I answered it in his letter and if I was right I'll throw it on the next email. We'll see how I did! Oh yeah, we got an email from Elder Woodbury like on the 2nd and he was telling us about Spain. It sounds pretty sweet. He gets to go out and really contact and on P-Day he gets to roam Madrid and go sight seeing and what not. Legit! He also was forced to stay up until midnight on New Years Eve and watch Madrid go crazy. That made me a little Jealous! Next year, eh?
All I have left is a couple of things to tell people/request. Yay.
Mom! I need Grandma Vinson's address again please. I forgot to write it down and I'm not gonna dig through all of my mail to find it unless I have to. Thanks! Also, if you're gonna send me awesome hockey stats then put enough postage on it punk! Just kidding. I loved the stats. Thank you tons. Stupid penguins needed to win! But I hear Crosby has a concussion now? Uh oh....
Abby-Good luck with your first Cheer competition this week! Tear it up, have fun, and remember you're the shiznat's little sister!
Tim/Melissa-I am pretty sure that I can watch movies on my email. I don't think I can here in the MTC, but when I hit somewhere in the real world I should be able to view it. If not, the DVD players are PAL in Europe. Greg can convert them if you don't know how or don't have the proper program to do it or whatnot. Nonethless, we shall find a way that I can see that amazing moment. I'm stoked everything went well with Natalie's surgery and she even became "Princess Leia" after! Can't wait for pictures.
Dad/Stepmom-I know you're both dying to make mud pie, so when you give into that urge toss a piece in a tupperware and ship it to me! I'll return the tupperwares even when I send my box home before I leave teh MTC. I love you both so much!
Welp, to close I just want to tell everybody I know this church is true! Sometimes when we go through hard times in life it might seem like it's too much or that the Lord isn't helping us out, but that's not true! Sections 121, 122, and 123 are amazing scriptures for when you feel like this. Prayer opens the heavens and is an amazing blessing in my life as well as scripture reading. Also, I'm amazingly grateful for all the amazing support I have and the love I feel each and every week, both from my loving Heavenly Father and all friends and family. Love you all!
"Hope is the anchor to the souls of men"
Love, Elder Jeppson
Last Tuesday night we had Elder David S. Baxter of the Seventy give us a delightful talk about why we are Christian and scriptural references that hammered traditions of other Christian churches. It was sweet. He was super straight up and blunt about it. I liked it.
Then on Wednesday we got the newbs again. It's always great when we get the newbs. I don't know why, but it is. Like I said last week, I was part of a little teaching seminar activity deal for them, it was pretty fun and cool. Definitely glad I got the opportunity to do it. Also, along with the newbs, Shaun Harris, Sean Bergeson, and Joe Quillen made an entrance into the grand and luxurious center of training. I see Elder Bergeson a lot, Elder Harris a few times, and Elder Quillen like 3 times a day almost. It's great stuff for sure. So it's nice to have them all around.
Hermano De Leon has been back for the last 2 weeks too. It's been absolutely amazing having him back. He really is an amazing teacher/person. I want to grow up to be him. He's from the streets of Guatemala and the missionaries showed up and taught him. We don't have Hermano Koller anymore, I don't know if I mentioned that last week, but it has definitely been sad without him. It's alright though he's just over in the TRC so we can still set up "appointments" with him and teach him or learn specific lessons from him. Very nice.
So the visa news: No visa. No reassignment. Just hangin' out in the MTC with Elder Call and who knows who else. We are not sure what we will do about a district. Hermano De Leon and Hermana Bauserman (our new teacher) are getting a new district of natives (so they are fluent in Spanish of course) that we might be able to hop in with starting on Monday. That would be amazing because I would get to be around Spanish a lot more. And a lot more Spanish is a lot more learning. Win! But so they're not reassigning us because they expect a visa soon. But, if we don't get our visa in the next week the lady at the travel office said she would push Salt Lake harder for a reassignment. So whatever happens we'll all just have to wait and see!
On Sunday we sang as a district in Sacrament Meeting. Llevar al mundo la verdad (or something) anyways it's "Army of Helaman" but we sang it in Spanish of course. I didn't get called on to give a talk, it was Elder Andersen from our district. It's funny cause the whole week he had been telling us how he had a feeling it would be him, and sure enough, it was! But so we tore up that song and then at night we had a talk from Richard I Heaton. He does something here at the MTC. But he talked about teaching techniques and what it took to convert someone. The coolest part is that he had a bunch of recent converts (within the last 2 years), that are now missionaries here, stand up and share their story. It was really cool. Almost all of them (more than half) found the church through girlfriends haahhahahaa. That was pretty funny.
Also, on Sunday night was the CES fireside from Elder Christofferson. We don't get to watch those as missionaries, but they do get put up on LDS.org within like 8 minutes of the ending so I watched that Sunday night instead of watching a different church film (we get to watch church films for an hour on Sunday nights. They have like 4 options, or you can go back to your classroom). He talked about how we need daily "manna" from the Lord just as they did in the bible, except it's not physical bread (sometimes it is) but spiritual bread. It was really cool to be reminded that we need to rely on the Lord every day for help. If you didn't see it, I suggest you watch it.
I really don't have much else from the past week of awesome things. Greg gave me a challenge, but I'm too big of a chicken to answer it on here cause I don't want to publicly humiliate myself. I answered it in his letter and if I was right I'll throw it on the next email. We'll see how I did! Oh yeah, we got an email from Elder Woodbury like on the 2nd and he was telling us about Spain. It sounds pretty sweet. He gets to go out and really contact and on P-Day he gets to roam Madrid and go sight seeing and what not. Legit! He also was forced to stay up until midnight on New Years Eve and watch Madrid go crazy. That made me a little Jealous! Next year, eh?
All I have left is a couple of things to tell people/request. Yay.
Mom! I need Grandma Vinson's address again please. I forgot to write it down and I'm not gonna dig through all of my mail to find it unless I have to. Thanks! Also, if you're gonna send me awesome hockey stats then put enough postage on it punk! Just kidding. I loved the stats. Thank you tons. Stupid penguins needed to win! But I hear Crosby has a concussion now? Uh oh....
Abby-Good luck with your first Cheer competition this week! Tear it up, have fun, and remember you're the shiznat's little sister!
Tim/Melissa-I am pretty sure that I can watch movies on my email. I don't think I can here in the MTC, but when I hit somewhere in the real world I should be able to view it. If not, the DVD players are PAL in Europe. Greg can convert them if you don't know how or don't have the proper program to do it or whatnot. Nonethless, we shall find a way that I can see that amazing moment. I'm stoked everything went well with Natalie's surgery and she even became "Princess Leia" after! Can't wait for pictures.
Dad/Stepmom-I know you're both dying to make mud pie, so when you give into that urge toss a piece in a tupperware and ship it to me! I'll return the tupperwares even when I send my box home before I leave teh MTC. I love you both so much!
Welp, to close I just want to tell everybody I know this church is true! Sometimes when we go through hard times in life it might seem like it's too much or that the Lord isn't helping us out, but that's not true! Sections 121, 122, and 123 are amazing scriptures for when you feel like this. Prayer opens the heavens and is an amazing blessing in my life as well as scripture reading. Also, I'm amazingly grateful for all the amazing support I have and the love I feel each and every week, both from my loving Heavenly Father and all friends and family. Love you all!
"Hope is the anchor to the souls of men"
Love, Elder Jeppson
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Oh Snap!
Hello family(and everyone else that reads this),
That subject makes this email seem more interesting than it will be. But that's the mood I'm in right now, so whatevs!
So this past week has pretty much been back to the same old routine. The biggest difference being that Elder Woodbury is gone and that Elder Martell has been my companion for the past week. It's good stuff. He is on board with speaking Spanish a lot with me which has been really nice. Our district is not really super huge on speaking a lot of Spanish and so that made it hard for Elder Woodbury which in turn also made it hard for me, but Elder Martell and I don't care and so we just speak as much gringo and slaughtered Spanish as we want. It's glorious. Speaking of Spanish, it continues to go well. Slowly but surely. Hermano De Leon will be back this week and he is super legit so I'm excited to see him again. Hermano Koller is actually no longer our teacher as of tomorrow. Since it is a new semester at BYU the teachers got their schedules changed and so we will have Hermana Bauserman for the last week here. Luckily we still have Hermano De Leon. Phew! No word on my visa yet. Everyone else in my district got their travel plans except for Elder Call and I(we are both still waiting for visas, but he's going to Barcelona) and so that was fun for them. They all leave on Monday and Tuesday next week except Elder Martell. He leaves on Wednesday. It'll be interesting to see what happens with me and Elder Call. I'm fine with both, a reassignment as well as a ticket to Spain. Oh, and the temple was open today again finally after 3 weeks. That's the longest break I've had from the temple in a long time! We did Initiatores today because they were short on people. So many amazing blessings!
So this past week, New Year, eh? Super party in the MTC as I'm sure you all know. Fantastic bed time of 10:30 and totally forgot that it was New Years day the next day hahaha the only difference holidays seem to make here is we don't get mail, and we usually get apostles :) but not for
New Years day apparently. Crazy!? I wish I could have gone to Driggs with the family. That sounds like it was a lot of fun, and a lot of new snow! So jealous. We just get wussy snow down here. Lame! Oh, something I did this past week was I blessed the sacrament on Sunday. In Spanish. That's the only cool thing I have that was out of the norm haha. But hey! Natalie's big surgery is/was today! I'd love to hear about that of course. I'm sorry you got sick this week Melissa. That's no good! and it sounds like it made quite a crazy schedule. Lame timing, but I hope all is well!
So, it sounds like church was an adventure for you this last week mom. Great! I love 4-year old stories from Primary. It's crazy how much preparing Primary lessons has actually helped me prepare my lessons as a missionary. Who'da thunk it.
Last Tuesday we had Elder Lowell M. Snow come and teach us about Faith and Repentance in missionary work. It was great just as Tuesdays nights usually are, and on Sunday we had President Gerald R. Williams. He was the President of the Bordeaux France mission, so I was wondering if that was Tim's president? Anyways, he did a great job. He talked about the seed of Faith in Alma 32 and how we need to work on our testimony throughout our whole life or else it will dwindle in unbelief and die. So true that is! It is amazing to me how much the Book of Mormon especially helps that grow. I think I talk about this every time, but I love reading the Book of Mormon! I actually have been reading it in Spanish and translating the words I don't know into English. It takes a long time! But I think it's worth it. It really makes me read and understand every word I'm reading. It's crazy how much more I get out of it when I go that slow and examine that much.
This week they have asked me and my companion to participate in a little activity that we do with the newb missionaries. On the first night we are here they take us around from room to room for a couple of hours and have you watch some veterean MTCers begin to teach a lesson to an "investigator" and then after about 10 mintues the newbs are let loose and try to ask questions and what not. Well, being so good looking and them seeing that I have a whopping 8 weeks in the MTC they wanted me and Elder Martell to do it. So that's tomorrow night. That will be fun. I'm back to healthy too, almost. So mom, stop worrying!
So for anybody that has the courage to write me a letter this week, remember you can give me challenges. Because I don't have very much to say at this point and it'll make these interesting haha. Yup....Dad, I hope all goes well with the ward and lacrosse!
Welp, that's all I really have for today. Thank you everybody for all your prayers, mail, support, thoughts, and everything else. I'm super blessed to have you all in my life and I'm excited to be able to preach this gospel to Spain/somewhere in the US soon! :)
Love, Elder Jeppson
That subject makes this email seem more interesting than it will be. But that's the mood I'm in right now, so whatevs!
So this past week has pretty much been back to the same old routine. The biggest difference being that Elder Woodbury is gone and that Elder Martell has been my companion for the past week. It's good stuff. He is on board with speaking Spanish a lot with me which has been really nice. Our district is not really super huge on speaking a lot of Spanish and so that made it hard for Elder Woodbury which in turn also made it hard for me, but Elder Martell and I don't care and so we just speak as much gringo and slaughtered Spanish as we want. It's glorious. Speaking of Spanish, it continues to go well. Slowly but surely. Hermano De Leon will be back this week and he is super legit so I'm excited to see him again. Hermano Koller is actually no longer our teacher as of tomorrow. Since it is a new semester at BYU the teachers got their schedules changed and so we will have Hermana Bauserman for the last week here. Luckily we still have Hermano De Leon. Phew! No word on my visa yet. Everyone else in my district got their travel plans except for Elder Call and I(we are both still waiting for visas, but he's going to Barcelona) and so that was fun for them. They all leave on Monday and Tuesday next week except Elder Martell. He leaves on Wednesday. It'll be interesting to see what happens with me and Elder Call. I'm fine with both, a reassignment as well as a ticket to Spain. Oh, and the temple was open today again finally after 3 weeks. That's the longest break I've had from the temple in a long time! We did Initiatores today because they were short on people. So many amazing blessings!
So this past week, New Year, eh? Super party in the MTC as I'm sure you all know. Fantastic bed time of 10:30 and totally forgot that it was New Years day the next day hahaha the only difference holidays seem to make here is we don't get mail, and we usually get apostles :) but not for
New Years day apparently. Crazy!? I wish I could have gone to Driggs with the family. That sounds like it was a lot of fun, and a lot of new snow! So jealous. We just get wussy snow down here. Lame! Oh, something I did this past week was I blessed the sacrament on Sunday. In Spanish. That's the only cool thing I have that was out of the norm haha. But hey! Natalie's big surgery is/was today! I'd love to hear about that of course. I'm sorry you got sick this week Melissa. That's no good! and it sounds like it made quite a crazy schedule. Lame timing, but I hope all is well!
So, it sounds like church was an adventure for you this last week mom. Great! I love 4-year old stories from Primary. It's crazy how much preparing Primary lessons has actually helped me prepare my lessons as a missionary. Who'da thunk it.
Last Tuesday we had Elder Lowell M. Snow come and teach us about Faith and Repentance in missionary work. It was great just as Tuesdays nights usually are, and on Sunday we had President Gerald R. Williams. He was the President of the Bordeaux France mission, so I was wondering if that was Tim's president? Anyways, he did a great job. He talked about the seed of Faith in Alma 32 and how we need to work on our testimony throughout our whole life or else it will dwindle in unbelief and die. So true that is! It is amazing to me how much the Book of Mormon especially helps that grow. I think I talk about this every time, but I love reading the Book of Mormon! I actually have been reading it in Spanish and translating the words I don't know into English. It takes a long time! But I think it's worth it. It really makes me read and understand every word I'm reading. It's crazy how much more I get out of it when I go that slow and examine that much.
This week they have asked me and my companion to participate in a little activity that we do with the newb missionaries. On the first night we are here they take us around from room to room for a couple of hours and have you watch some veterean MTCers begin to teach a lesson to an "investigator" and then after about 10 mintues the newbs are let loose and try to ask questions and what not. Well, being so good looking and them seeing that I have a whopping 8 weeks in the MTC they wanted me and Elder Martell to do it. So that's tomorrow night. That will be fun. I'm back to healthy too, almost. So mom, stop worrying!
So for anybody that has the courage to write me a letter this week, remember you can give me challenges. Because I don't have very much to say at this point and it'll make these interesting haha. Yup....Dad, I hope all goes well with the ward and lacrosse!
Welp, that's all I really have for today. Thank you everybody for all your prayers, mail, support, thoughts, and everything else. I'm super blessed to have you all in my life and I'm excited to be able to preach this gospel to Spain/somewhere in the US soon! :)
Love, Elder Jeppson
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