You trade your baseball cap for a crown...

Well hello there family.  You all look really good today.  Every one of you.  So thank you for that.

Haha I´m short on time again.  I really say that so that I don´t feel lazy not writing a lot.  I dunno.  I´m hoping everybody is ok with that.  By the end of the mission my emails will  probably look like this "Hello all.  15 baptisms this week (haha). Still alive here in Spain. Love you. Bye."  Just a heads up for everybody. 

This past week has been interesting.  So my proselyting area now Alcobendas and San Sebastián de los Reyes (and surrounding pueblos we never make it to) and this past week has been giant fiestas in San Sebastián de los Reyes.  Like the Preston rodeo, but a whole week and not ghetto, and they have running of the bulls every morning and a giant fair and a carnival of rides and everything.  It´s definitely interesting.  The streets smell of urine and there´s always like piles of vomit.  It´s glorious. Sorry if you didn´t want to hear that. You´re getting the real experience now I guess.  So that has made the week hard.  Lots of drunk people.  Lots of people in a hurry to get to the parties.  But today is the last day.  So We´re hoping it´s over.  The good thing is that I got to see the running of the bulls today!  It was pretty sweet.  A guy even fell down right in front of us and the bull jumped over him and kind of half landed on his leg.  Good stuff.  Pictures included.  Now I feel like a Spaniard.  There is a member that has a piso on that street they run down.  Really it was just like a ton of drunks running down the street and then a couple of seconds later a bunch of bulls went running by with a few more drunks that actually wanted the risk of running with bulls.  Yup. 

As for investigators, this past week has been...meh.  They´re all busy with work and festivities and stuff, but we were able to go to Miguel´s house Sunday morning and walk with them to church on Sunday.  They only came for the first hour, but it´s ok because that was good. The bad part is that it was the McDevitt´s last week here and they all had talks.  So the talks were a bunch of crying Americans with terribly gringo accents.  So it was cool to see the ward come together to say goodbye to the family holding them all together, but sad to see the Peruanos leave after an hour.  We haven´t had a chance to meet with them since though.  People here in this area really like to have a long time in between visits.  It´s frustrating cause the more time we´re not there the more time that scoundrel face Satan is there.  But it´s ok.  We also haven´t been able to even see Adel in the last week because he had one of his Iran friends come visit him or something and so he hasn´t had time.  He´s still on for the 8th though.  Wow.  That´s soon!  So wish me luck that all can go well with that.  Ummm. I´m out of ideas already.  We´re going to help a family move for P-Day today, so that´s why this email is so early and short (another excuse, teehee). 

People keep asking me what I want and I want people to know that all is well over here.  I´ll try and come up with stuff for the end of this month, but really I just want people to send me emails/letters and be my friends/family.  But I´ll try and be a little more worldly next week.  I love you all.  Elder Woodbury is the financial secretary, so don´t worry.  He doesn´t just sit there bored while I do all my secretary jazz, he does his own secretary money stuff.  I´m glad I don´t deal with the money....

The testimony comes from Stepmom this week.  Mosiah 26:29-31.  Everybody should read it.  Let me know why you think it´s important.  I love it. 

Love,

Elder Jeppson

P.S. Elder Vogel is now in Santiago.  So I´m on my own (yay!).  Friday, the Ovards (the senior missionaries in the office) took us to T.G.I. Fridays to say goodbye to Elder Vogel.  American music was playing.  A Taylor Swift song came on.  It made me really happy.  I thought you would all like to know. 

P.P.S. Punk. You know who you are.

P.P.P.S. If I was 5 hours away from a temple in Mexico I would think to myself "I love my life. Missionaries REALLY do get food a ridiculous amount.  Spanish is a beast to understand, but it comes with time.  Elder Jeppson loves me".  But I´m not, so you can all ignore all of that.

¡Tu hijo tu hijo!...¿Cómo? Nooooo!!!

Bueno.  ´Ello mates.  Que tal.  Familia.

Wow.  The weeks fly by these days.  Does that even make sense? That´s what it feels like, right?  I guess it was Lake Powell time again in this world.  It sounds like everybody had fun and our family is the same as we have always been.  We´re such a great little ball of happiness. :)  Haha but seriously, we´re good.  I guess I should get sitting up and typing serious now, cause I´m short on time again.  It´s funny that back in the MTC I had 30 minutes and didn´t do anything all week and still typed the whole blasted time but now I have 30 minutes and I still can´t think of stuff to tell everybody.  I´m sorry. 

This past week was a good one though.  Even up until this morning.  Things are well with Adel.  We set a baptismal date with him for the 9th of September, and he will then be confirmed on September 11th.  (which by the way, can´t believe it´s been ten years already. madre mía).  I´m excited.  It´s nice to see people choose to be baptised.  We also had a great lesson with Miguel and his family.  They´re from Ecuador.  Wait, Peru.  They´re from Peru. I mix them all up sometimes.  Forgive me.  But we taught them about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon/scriptures. They hadn´t read in between our visits so that´s always a little bit sad.  But it´s ok, cause we teach to their needs and invite them to come unto Christ.  So that´s what we did.  They were even going to come to church, but Satan decided to make the piso (apartment) above theirs leak, so there was some leak catastrophe or something Sunday morning and they couldn´t come al final.  We´re hoping this is a legit excuse and not like, a lie.  We´ll see this week I suppose.  Also, We are moving forward with Nani.  The reference from a member here (Oh how important are the members.....soooo important).  She is going through some hard stuff in her life these days (like pretty much everybody in this blasted Spanish economy).  So sometimes it´s ahrd to teach her cause she goes on and on and on (to the tune of that one popular song).  Yes, she goes on and on and on. (haha moving on) Which is good, cause she trusts us, but bad at the same time cause we teach one principle and then she tells us a whole story about some crazy thing that happened years ago in her life.  So we´re gonna invite her to be baptized too.  Because that´s what we do.  We invite. The lame thing about August in Spain is everybody goes on vacation.  For the whole month.  I don´t know how that´s culturally ok, but whatevs I guess.  Makes it hard to find anybody.  Everybody. Is. Gone.

Sunday we got some bad news.  Well, we knew before, but it was more reaffirmed on Sunday.  The McDevitt´s are moving.  They´re an American family here in our ward that is super legit (I´ve only met them like 2 times) that always give the missionaries food and are just all around legit.  But they´re off to Connecticut/New York so they´ll have to spoil the missionaries there.  They´ve donated tons of stuff to all the members of the ward here though and on Sunday we drove boxes of food to people.  The box they gave us did have 2 giant things of JIF peanut butter in it though.  So that was pretty glorioso.  Also, Elder Woodbury almost hit a squirrel on Sunday.  It was funny, cause we both screamed like little girls and I just pointed at it.  But, it decided to live at the last second and did a on-the-dime turnabout and saved its own life.  Something else cool is that a menos activa member came to church and invited us to come over and teach her again.  It has surprised me how much of misisonary work here in Spain is helping out the lost sheep.  There´s so many lost sheep that need our help!

New paragraph.  Today for P-day, to end this glorious week of average things making me happy, I went to the temple!!!  Wow, it´s been like, 6 months!  I can´t believe it´s already been over a year since I went for the first time.  I love to see the temple.  It´s such an amazing place.  It´s crazy to me how much we can feel the spirit there and the Lord can answer our prayers.  I hope that in the future after the mission (after the mission, what´s that?) that I don´t take the 14 temples in Utah (with 2 under construction) for granted.  They´re such a blessed refuge from the world.  I hope that everybody that can will go this week and think to themselves "Man, I´m glad I went to the temple this week."  You can think of me too.  And by the way, I would love to get some real hard photos in the mail.  Melissa is the queen of photos.  Thanks Melissa!  It´s nice to have things to like, be able to see occasionally throughout the week.  I love you all.  You´re good people.  Sois buena gente.

By they way, my subject means "Oh look it´s your son! Your son!" and then me saying "What? Nooooo. That´s not my son! I´m not even married."

I love you all.  Keep it up.  Do something good for somebody this week.  I´m gonna try too.  Don´t worry. It was nice to hear from people today.

Love,

Elder Hijo de Jepp

P.S.  How´d I do Greg?

Going Private...

So, we are going to go private with this blog.  I guess that some people in Spain googled Elder and can look up whatever is being written home about investigators, members, life as a missionary, etc.  Therefore, for the sake of privacy we have decided to take it private.  Anybody can really be accepted to read it, I just kind of want to know who is on the list due to what Tanton has experienced.  Thanks for understanding.  :) Just leave me a comment with your e-mail address and I will send you an invite to view the blog!!  Tanton is doing so awesome I cannot believe that he has been out for almost 10 months already.  Thanks for your support.  Kelly

It´s the BLUE sheet now baby!

Wasssuppppp! (in a dignified missionary way...)

Familia.  Lake Powell.  Legit.  I haven’t been in a year.  Always such good times.  So I’m glad to hear everybody is living up the summer back home.  Things are going swell as a bell here.  I don’t know if that’s a saying or not, but it is now.  Alcobendas is my ward mom, not Barrio 1 or 2.  Although I have served in both of those wards already too....   Things are dandy here in Alcobendas/San Sebastián de los Reyes.  Basically we’re in the office on weekday mornings and we trabajar por la tarde.  It’s great.  We don’t get naptime anymore, but I’m ok with that because I never really did it anyways.  Spoiled Spain missionaries...  There are some legit people here in the area, both members and investigators.  Adel is an investigator that has wanted to get baptized for a while but because of his lack of legal papers and whatnot he hasn’t been able to (it’s a long story).  BUT we talked to President and we got his permission to baptize him.  But when we asked him for a date he told us he wanted to wait a little longer still hahaha. Ugh. But It's looking like September 10th-ish.  Also, we have started teaching a lady named Nani from Paraguay.  She has a lot of potential.  We’ve only taught her twice, but she’s looking forward to meeting with us and coming to English classes and everything.  Very cool.  Also, there is a family here that the other two elders (Elder Woodbury and Elder Vogel) contacted right before I got here that we are going to start teaching tonight.  I met them at English class, but apart from that I’m not really sure about them.  They seem pretty good though.  Basically everything is going well over here.  

The office aspect of things is definitely different.  But it’s good.  Somebody’s gotta do it.  The residency laws here in Spain are pretty chungo, but we still get to live here so I’m grateful.  They just are really strict on lots of lame stuff and when missionaries get letters from the government they just don’t care about them lots of the time so stuff gets sketchy if they don’t let us know.  But it’s all good. I’m dead sure I won’t get myself kicked out of the country (if I can help it) so that’s the good news.  Elder Vogel is still with us (so we’re in a trio) and he teaches me occasionally what I’m supposed to do, but for the most part I think I’ve caught the hang of things.  It’s not too hard, just lots to do and stressful at times when everybody is just adding things to my to-do list.  Luckily I’m so blasted organized, right? psh hahaha. I guess the Lord has something in store for me in the future involves an office.... Let’s hope not though.  haha Whatevs. Come what may and love it.  This email is a lame one.  I’m sorry.  This last week has literally been the fastest one I can’t remember (get it) on my mission.  Training, teaching, contacting, training, teaching, contacting.  But church on Sunday was good.  It’s always nice to meet the ward.  I’ve noticed the wards outside of Utah don’t all run so dang smoothly. Ay ay ay, just stop fighting everybody!  I need to get to writing a list of things to tell ya´ll during the week again, because I always think of stuff and then I forget it when I get to this big white box full of words.  Ask me questions everybody.  I love answering them! Also, let me know what stuff is awesome to hear about and what stuff is lame so I can make these better. Oh, and for P-day today we went to Alcalá and Torrejón.  It was pretty legit.  P-days are gonna get a whole let better now that we have a car!  Speaking of which. I have been driving the past week.  I’m super rusty, and Europe/Spain driving is lots crazier than Utah.  I’ll tell you that much.  Don’t text and drive! hahahah I’m still alive though so far, so as of now all is well.  Welp, I´m outtie!

 I love you all.  This church is true.   All you have to do if you really want to know is put forth a real effort, do our part, and then the Lord will do His.  He never lets us down.  He’s always waiting for us to go running to him, but what are the things that are stumbling us as we run to him?  It’s hard, but always worth it.  I know that Jesus Christ is our older brother and Savior, and that he is waiting for us with loving arms wide open.

Con Amor,

Elder Jeppson

I have Lanzarote in my mouth...

Well hello there family of mine.  I hope that all has gone well for vosotros.  Is everybody dying to know que pasó?   Well heres a hint as to my new companion: It´s Elder Woodbury.  He´s from Arizona.  Oh, by the way if you want more information you can just go back to my first email you were ever excited to get and realize oh snap! he´s my companion from the MTC!  That´s some of the best news I have for today.  I´m super stoked to be with him again.  I loved having him in the MTC and I can already tell you I love having him in Madrid too.  Oh wait, what was that? Madrid?  Yup.  I had to say goodbye to Lanzarote already.  Sad.  I am apparently the missionary that gets sent all over the world.  Well, all over the Spain Madrid mission.  But it´s cool. 

Soooooo Thursday and Friday went by rather fast cause, let´s be honest, we knew transfers were coming.  We were both pretty dang sure that Elder White was leaving Lanzarote.  So he was trying to get all of his stuff done haha.  Then we got the call on Friday night and Elder Jackson, the zone leader told me I was going to the freaking office in Alcobendas to be the new secretary.  Bahahhaha.  Soooo I was like oh man Elder White you condemned me!  Here´s the story.  Elder Jackson was the financial guy in the mission (companion of secretary. aka Elder Woodbury right now)  and hated it (or so he always said. I think he really liked it).  Then got shipped down to the islands after he was done there.  Well during his last transfer Elder White started telling President that I would be a good secretary (mostly as a joke).  Then Elder Jackson came down and Elder White told Elder Jackson what he did and Elder Jackson was like "Hey blah blah blah I´m from Georgia and maybe that would be a good idea."  So he told President the same thing.  Well, apparently president hizo caso of what they were saying because I´m here in Alcobendas now.  Yup.  Sooooo Saturday and Sunday were like run around and say goodbye to everybody days.  So I have lots of pictures.  I better upload tose real quick, one second.  There we go.  That´s a lot though. I dunno if they´ll all work.  We´ll have to be patient and see I guess.  

Mom, in the one with the family of Columbians (like that´ll help hahaha) You can see the daughter is wearing a funny band from the church.  So there! You can see I really do do the crap you tell me to do. :) Soooo I´m pretty dang sad to be out of Lanzarote but the truth is that I am glad for the change. I either wanted out of there or I wanted a new companion hahaha  Elder White and I are great friends and all but...I was ready.  Yup.  I think he was too.  So I don´t really know what to say about it.  It was a sad goodbye.  I bore my testimony in church and basically just thanked them all for their faith and told them that I know that Jesus Christ lives (which is true, by the way).  Then I shook hands with people and hugged them if they were hombres and then that was it.  Early Monday I was already back in Madrid, well, at like 3.  Nothing to report from the flight.  So basically as Secretary I get to be in charge of the residency of all the missionaries here in Spain.  Which just means if I do my job everybody is happy and here and if I don´t everybody is upset and getting thrown out of Spain.  It´ll be interesting.  I also just do a bunch of random stuff for president when he tells me he needs it done and help around the office to keep things running.  Then we go work the afternoons in Alcobendas.  It´ll be completely different from what I´ve been doing for the last 9 months (but who´s counting).  So basically you can send all my mail to C/Fuerteventura address.  Packages will be received easily.  I have a car now.  So I´ll be driving here pretty quick.  Oh, I should tell you all that I´m being trained by Elder Vogel.  He´s the current secretary right now.  I don´t know how long we´ll be in a trio.  But it´s fine.  It´s a good trio.  I never wanted to be in a trio, but I like these two, and so it´s all good.  Mom, send my love to Elder Robbins.  He´s hit the real world and I love that he doesn´t understand anything, but he´ll catch on.  I love him.  I love you all.   I´m too lucky to have you all. I´m excited to get to meet President Watkins more these days (let´s hope that´s a good thing, eh?) That´s a joke. I´m sure it will be, he´s a great guy.  So is hermana Watkins.  Does anybody check spainmadridmission.blogspot.com? You can learn a lot about what´s going on in the mission there.  para que sepáis.  Read the Book of Mormon.  It´s true.  I love you all. I´m sure I have forgotten of lots of stuff to say, but it´s time to go! Ahhhhh. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Brad today, and to The great Sil on Friday.  You´re both amazing.  Yup.

Love,

Elder hijo de Jepp.

P.S. the gross pictures of me are the "Gofio challenge".  It´s gofio, and it´s like flour basically. The goal is to eat a lot without water and without puking.  Oh, and I´m feeling lots better these days. 

If I was a flower growing wild free...

Hello all.  The time only gets faster and faster it seems. 

Things have been well here.  I got feeling better, although I still have a blasted head cold.  Which just consists of lots of nose blowing, coughing, and my world sounds like it´s under water right now.  Don´t worry though, I´m not worried about it.  I´m way too trained in being sick to let this stop me.  Although yesterday my companion got sick hahaha. So that's how it´s been lately.  The best thing from this past week was definitely that we took Carlos Velazquez, a member that recently (in may) got back from his mission in Málaga, to our lesson with Patricia.  He was legit.  We found out some things that have been concerning her and why she hasn´t ever come to church (like she thought no mormons could go to the beach or the discoteca) and so hopefully she will be able to make it this week.  I just wish she would let us meet with her more than once a week.  Ugh.  Speaking of this week, before I forget it´s transfers.  Which means that on Friday night or Saturday morning I´ll find out where I´ll be for the next 6 weeks and who I´ll be with 24 hours a day.  Elder White and I have 3 together already and he has 4 in the area, so we´re thinking there´s definitely a chance of things getting switched up, but you never know with President Watkins.  Elder Albretsen and Elder Spears had 6 transfers together in Salamanca so... guess we´ll see!  Feel free to still send letters, even if I get moved I´m sure they´ll all get forwarded to me just like what happened after I shipped out of Vigo (and Barrio 1). So no fear.  Life will continue on.  It always seems to.  Sorry about that running off track there.  Back to the game.  Gladys came to church again, but only to Relief Society (it´s like the opposite of Utah hahaha) but she keeps moving at her slow pace.  Learning poco a poco.  The branch here is pretty good still, but attendance has been down lately.  Everybody in this blasted country takes like month long vacations during July and August.  It´s definitely made it hard to find new people and some members have just shipped out to London for a month, no big deal.  We don´t speak English, but let´s go hang out with the brits.  So there are some families that are outtie right now and there´s a LOT of tourists here in paradise these days.  It´s great fun hearing all the English people speaking with their tea and crumpets accents.  Haha or German, but that´s not as funny to me, they just sound angry.  Archa archa argle let´s fight! Yup.  Such is life.  So here in the Reef things have just been chugging along.  The work has been slow, and we´ve been a bit sickly.  Not a great combo, but as long as we keep pressing forward like saints, with a steadfast faith in Christ, we´ll be good.  We´re just instruments in the Lord´s hands.  

Today for P-day we finally made it up to Jameos de Agua.  We have been trying to get up there in the North end for a while, but since it´s a good chance it could be one or both of our last p-days here in the islands we asked some members to llevarnos up there and it was good fun.  Check it out.  Good times.  Google it to learn more of what it was we saw.  I´m sorry. I´m short on time though.  I love you all! Thank you for all your support, letters, and especially prayers.  I love being part of a such a great family.  Ya´lls iz da bestz! (but you´s the dumb! ahjeahjeahjeah)

Love,

Elder Jeppson

P.S. Anybody that can get me Keaton´s address before next p-day would be fantastic. Punk has an upcoming day of birth.  AND I haven´t heard a word from him in 9 months!