The Dominican Republic/Most Diverse place in the world...

Buenos días familia.  ¿Qué tal estáis?

Welp,  I´m never going to try and predict transfers again.  I´m in Madrid.  Yup.  I´m in Madrid.  I said it twice so that if anybody had as hard of a time believing it as I did they could hear it twice.  I already left Vigo! Ugh, so sad.  It was sooo beautiful.  I wanted to stay there forever (summer).  Welp,  let´s get this bad boy rollin´, eh?

Not a lot happened since last Wednesday.  P-day meant many smiling faces in the missionary world, and then we taught some lessons after it ended.  Thursday I went to Cangas!  It´s across the bay from Vigo.  Google map it.  It was pretty cool going on a boat across to Cangas.  It reminded me of when we were in Mexico a year ago and we ran into the missionaries there on that boat.  Except this boat was a lot smaller.  No big deal.  I wish I could go back to Mexico now and speak with them.  Although I´m sure it wouldn´t be THAT much better than last year hahaha. Keaton and I running around telling people ¨Tiene un buen día!¨ in a super gringo accent! bahahaha at least now I can say it properly in a little bit less of a gringo accent.  People still don´t believe me when I tell them I´m from Columbia though, so there´s room for improvement :) Friday, we had another lesson with that grand Honduran I told you all about last week.  We set a baptismal date with him! The 23rd of April.  We got a calender all ready so he knew what we would be teaching and everything.  Super stoked, then we returned to the piso and found out transfers.  Hey, Elder Jeppson, you´re going to Barrio 1 in madrid.  Have fun! They closed Vigo 2.  I´m pretty sure this is the only reason I got transferred back down.  Nobody EVER goes to the north for just 1 transfer it seems.  They´re always up there for like 6 months.  But it´s ok.  I love Madrid too.  Maybe someday I´ll head north again, or, if I´m REALLLY lucky, I´ll head south to the Canary Islands.  Who knows what the Lord has in store, eh?  Saturday was a day that we did exchanges with the other elders in Vigo so that they could get to know our area from us.  They now run the entire city missionary work-wise.  They are gonna have a lot of work up there.  Then, at night (well at 6) we got to watch conference!  Wahoo.  I looovvveeee conference.  It was the Saturday morning session.  BUT we had to watch it in Spanish.  I understood everything and all for the most part, but it just wasn´t the same!  I love English.  I appreciate it more now hahah.  Then Elder Quevedo and I took some pictures of us in Vigo after and that was Saturday.  I noticed a lot of talks about service and caring for/helping others in that session of conference.  It´s always so amazing to me that they don´t have assigned topics yet they always flow together so smooth.  Sunday was an interesting day, at 11 in the morning we watched the priesthood session.  I loved it! I especially loved President Monson´s talk.  He really hit home for Elder Jeppson.  I always love the priesthood session so much.  But here´s the bad news.  My train left at 1:30.  So right after conference ended at 1 I was right off to a train with my luggage and didn´t get to see any more conference! ugh.  How sad is that.  As a missionary, we sure love to watch conference. It´s crazy to me that that was only my first one.  3 more baby (on the mission).  I rode back down to Madrid for 7 and a half hours with Elder Albretsen from Wisconsin.  He actually knows the Ropers that worked with me at the movie theatre.  So we had fun talking about that and about life on the mission and stuff.  He was on his way back down to Madrid so that he could go home after his 2 years of service, so I tried to keep his mind off the sad part.  It was a good trip.  He´s great.

Elders Jeppson and Raiano

Now I´m here in Madrid.  Monday I met Elder Raiano.  He is my new companion.  He´s a native from Argentina!!! Two natives already.  How lucky am I?  He lived in Málaga for a bit and now he´s serving a mission.  He is 24 years old and speaks more English than Elder Quevedo did, but still I wouldn´t call him fluent.  I´m really excited to work with him.  Like Elder Quevedo and I, he also entered the mission November 10, so we´re still rockin a companionship of young guns.  I got to say goodbye to Elder Ketchum (who goes home) on Monday, so that was awesome.  He was a great example to me as well.  I also got to say goodbye to Elder Knorr bahahhahaha.  He still doesn´t know.  Ummm that´s pretty much it for Monday.  Yesterday we had district meeting, so I got to meet my new district.  We have hermanas, 4 of them, in our district now, so that´s something new for me.  We also have the zone leaders and Elder Raiano and I in the district, so there´s 8 of us.  It´s gonna make for some good times I´m sure.  We have a baptism this Friday with Jaquelina, who I still haven´t met, so that should be good.  And that´s the down low on my past week. Boom. Roasted.

It´s been great to hear from everyone this past week.  I´m sorry the North Carolina clan has been getting owned by temperature differences without AC/heating.  I´m sorry!  I´m also sorry to hear that Trey smashed in his two front teeth.  Ouch!  Although I am glad to hear that both are pumped to go to KINDERGARTEN this coming year.  Wow.  Time flies, doesn´t it?  I hope that all goes well with that.  I´m sure it will.  Oh! My new address is

Elder Guapo Jeppson

C/ Bravo Murillo 127 3ºD

Madrid 28020

ESPAÑA

Make sure you put España in caps so you don´t forget which country I´m in.  I bought a bunch of stamps so that Elder Hoskins can forward me any letters that are going to Vigo right now hahaha So don´t fret about that.  Ummm, I don´t really know what´s going on with the package situation, but I do need some short sleeved t-shirts.  It´s gonna be KILLER in Madrid this summer. It´s already getting up to like 26 degrees, and I hear it´s around 35-40 in the summer, so that´ll be...interesting. I´ve never melted into a puddle before, should be fun. But obviously if you send a package, send it to the mission home now.  Not to my piso in Vigo.  That´d be interesting.  If you could toss in a new missionary journal from Deseret book (the gray binder kind) That´d be nice too. I´m about to fill one up.  But if not, It´s not a big deal, they sell journals here in Spain too apparently.  Crazy! Also, if you could either print out the conference talks or download them and put them on CD, I´d be super grateful.  I´m too impatient to wait a month for the Liahona. Love you! I'm stoked to hear Gavin gets to know what it´s like to be a king at Movies 5.  Nothing better than rockin´ the projectors day in and day out.  Mom, Brad, and Abby-Disneyland is the land of happiness.  I hope you walked away happy.  I´m sure you did.  I´m pretty jealous you got to go to Cali.  Hope it was amazing.  Dad & SuperStepmom (hahaha) I´m glad to hear all is well with ya´ll as well.  Good luck with the coming month in lax.  April was always super busy with games and dinners and hating practice by the end of the month.  Good times. 

Welp, gotta run!  Love you all.  Keep reading and praying.  The church is true.  I love being a missionary.  I love you all.

-Elder Jeppson