...Para que tengan gozo

Hola familia! Qué tal estáis?

I feel like I don't need to remind you, but this could be the last time I sit down at a computer and type in "dope family members" and then "apostate missionary friends" and then send a big email to all of you.. as a missionary.  I don't think it's set in yet.  I don't think it will until I hear a little *click* as they steal my chapa from me.  Thieves.  But it's alright. There's a time and a season, and even cold winter follows the heat of summer and so we play in the snow.  

It's been a good week.  Edid got baptized! It went really really well.  Very spiritual, no problems, lots of people went, and it was everything I could have ever asked for at the end of the mission.  It's been a great blessing to see her change and let the gospel into her life.  Isn' t it amazing what the Lord can do when we let Him? Isn't it amazing that he let's US choose?  that's a loving dad if I've ever heard of one. I don't know if I could be so trusting.  But I guess I need to llegar a ser así.  It's all about becoming.  And that's what Edid has been doing.  Progressing and making changes and becoming a happier person that understands more of what her Father has in store for her.

Argenis had his interview right after the baptism.  It was a really spiritual experience for him.  He decided he wants to wait longer before his baptism, but you can see the difference in him now.  We've met with him a couple of times since and you can just feel the difference.  He'll get baptized in like a month or so, so I'm not even worried or sad about it.  I actually feel really, really good about it.  So I guess that's another blessing from the Lord.

Today was an epic p-day.  Would you expect anything less for the last one?  I wanted to go out in style, as you already know, so we went to La Gomera.  That's a different Canary Island. I saw el Hierro while over there too. So I have officially stepped on 5 and seen all 7! Canario for life baby! We took the car on a ferry and toured the entire island in like 5 hours.  We picked the perfect day to do it too.  It had rained the night before, so there were like waterfalls off of all the cliffs and lots of rainbows everywhere... It was amazing.  Even the ferry ride over was fun.  We went from the ocean to mountains to canyons and up and down and in between all of it for the whole day.  Lots of memories.  An epic way to end the p-days.  

And that's about all I have.  I'm really grateful for all the help and love and support and letters and emails and packages and everything you've all given me throughout the mission. You probably never even realized how much it really meant for me and helped me.  But it did.  I probably don't even realize it either.  I definitely couldn't have ever done this without all the help I've gotten.  I feel really good about these two years I've been able to turn over to the Lord.  I know I've done my best and He's made up for the difference when I've fallen short.  At the start of the mission I always wondered where I would go and who I would be with and what stories I would have, and now it's all been written and I have been very blessed.  I love it.  I. Love. It.  

So onto the next step.  That's what they all tell me.  Another chapter in the Book of Jeppson.  Back to the world, but not back to the old life.  Onto the studies and the part where there's a princess and dragons get slayed more than ever, right?  I'm pretty sure I turned that into a fairytale on accident.  But let's be honest, we all know it's the Gospel that really takes us to our "happily ever after."  And that's what it's all about right? That's what it's always been about. Ever since the start.   Lehi said it best. 

That they might have joy.

I love you all.

-Elder Tanton Sil Jeppson

P.S. Take that Spain! Boom. Roasted.

Por ti, lo haría mil veces

G´day mates! Let's throw another shrimpo on the barbie! 

I added the o to shrimp so it'd seem more spanish. that's how we speak spanish, right? Add o's to all the words and it's all good. Buah! Maybe in Mexico... Toma Robbins! hahaha I love you.

It's been a good week. I'll get started from the start.  I believe I was in Gran Canaria the last tiem we talked. Did I tell you that on Hermana Eynon's computer the ENTIRE new Taylor Swift CD downloaded before my very eyes and I didn't even listen to any of it? You can high five me later.  That took courage. but seriously..

Zone conference went really well.  Elder Woodbury and I talked about goals, studies, not comparing ourselves to others to see success, and a couple of other things as the things that we wish we had known to focus on more at the start of our missions.  We then changed over a bit and talked about how to make lessons spiritual experiences by really focusing on the needs and situations of the investigators.  If you put yourself in somebody elses situation for like 4 seconds before just getting upset or losing patience it's amazing how easy it is to see why they are doing the thing that they are doing.  Sometimes it's still stupid, but at least you can see a bit why. And then help them. It's all about Inspiring. INSPIRE.  Mayday Parade anybody? Yeah? cool.  So we talked a bit about that. And it was cool. and I feel good about it.  

I just found a crying shame. My card reader broke.  2 years of lugging it around in my backpack and it kicks the can finally.  I had some real good pictures for this week too.  Including one with fellow Cache Valley Canary Island missionary Hermana Marshall.  You'll have to wait until later I guess.  Lots of good pictures of the zone conference and P-day today. 

I'll talk about P-day now!  Are Greg and Tim super proud of my new found paragraph habit that I formed thanks to them?  For p-day we went up through Anaga again cause it was raining and I must say it was B-E-A-utiful again.  We dropped down to a city called Taganana.  It was legit.  We saw a black sand beach and got lots of rain blown in our faces from the many lookout points over the gorgeous valley.  I think it was another success p-day.  Next week is the going out with a bang day. Hopefully it goes well.  Details to come.

Missionary work? Alright.  Edid is all set to go for this weekend.  We literally had to clean out cobwebs from teh baptismal font a couple of days ago to get it ready. It's been over 2 years since there was a baptism here.  Legit! She's way excited.  It's always fun to see the change that comes over pepole and see them through to this point.  We also have Argenis set up for next week still, but he's a lot more hesitant.  We've had some good lessons with him and he's praying about it a lot, so let's hope that all goes well with that.  I guess we'll know a little more next week.  So much good stuff for next week, eh? And let's be honest, I'll probably forget to talk about half of it.  Such is life....

Welp, I don't have a lot else to say.  I'm just trying to keep it real over here in the Canary Islands.  Awwww I love them so much! Ser canario - un orgullo.  I guess I'll have to come up with a get rich quick scheme so I can make my way over here again someday... Until next time. 

-Elder Jeppson

P.S. When you're the best of friends.  Tod and Copper.

When she smiles

Today is not Wednesday. Today is Thursday the 25th of October.  I have a long lost friend whose birthday is today.  I haven't forgotten. Happy birthday! 

Well, I don't even know where to go with these things these days.  It's been a pretty slow week this past week.  Argenis went to Fuerteventura with work, another investigator went to Madrid because I guess that's what people do to get away from paradise.  But it's going well other than that.  Would I ever say differently though? This is missionary work.  If you're doing your job then it's always going well.  The Lord makes it go well. He gives us what we need.

Edid is doing really well.  She is set to have her interview this weekend and get baptised the coming week.  She's doing really well.  She wants to start paying tithing and is all taught and committed and excited to get baptised.  The cool thing as well is seeing how much it is helping her daughter in her tough situation.  I think she will eventually be open to missionary visits as well and get baptised.  It's just the way it should happen.  Entering with support set up and éxito more asegurado.  

On Sunday we did an MTC for members activity.  They're all not really used to having missionaries it seems so we did an activity to train them on how to help with investigators and how to teach their friends and help them enter the church without it being a weird experience.  All that good stuff.  It went quite well.  About 1/3 the branch showed up.  Not too shabby!

Yesterday we caught another boat to make it over here to Gran Canaria.  Cool, eh? We have zone conference tomorrow.  It's our last one.  Me and Elder Woodbury's.  We're doing it on "Crap we wish we had freaking known in the mission."  It'll translate a little more appropriate than that. But that's the point we're gonna try and get across.  Old wisdom from such oldies in the mission.  I'll let you know.  The cool thing is we made shirts for the whole zone.  They're pretty legit, not gonna lie.  Except the yellow ended up looking a bit green.  Oh well. P-day was fun today.  We did a hike and saw some old abandoned spas and even went through this tiny little tunnel that burrows into a mountain side.  Good stuff!

I'm gonna leave. Hope you all have a great week.  This church is true.  If you already know it, share it. If you don't, I invite you to look into it.  It'll be worth it.  Yup. Love you all!

-Elder Jeppson

...the path that's before me, this is my story...

Hello hello. You can tell by the tardiness of this email that we're running around doing this and that and the other.  So once again, might be a short email.  But you're getting used to that now. Just like Pavlov's dogs.  Take that!

Good week.  Nothing too extraordinary.  Edid is doing really well and on track for her November 3 baptism.  She is reading lots of the Book of Mormon and even said that she is happy that God has a "secretary on earth" talking about the Prophet.  Hahaha Good point, eh? Never really looked at it from that point of view I suppose.  Argenis is doing well too.  We had some good visits with him.  He also doesn't have to leave for 2 weeks now. Jsut 1. Left yesterday. Comes back next Tuesday. So he'll miss church unfortunately.  But it's all good.  He's getting more and more prepared with time. Hopefully he remembered his Book of Mormon and is reading over there.  We're gonna keep in contact with him during the week.  So life is well with them. New investigator is what is being hard for us lately.  Not finding a  lot, but we're just keepin' on keepin' on and makin' sure we focus on keeping the ones we have too.  Yup.  

Dope P-day today.  We went to Loro Parque.  Big zoo mixed with cool shows.  Whales splashed water on us and we saw Sea Lions balance balls on their nose.  It was sweet. Kind of like a mix between Hogle Zoo and Sea world. Not that I really remember ever going to either... Welp, guess it's a good thing I went to Loro Parque then, eh?  Pictures attached. Nuff Said. Moving on.

Welp, thanks again for all your support and whatnot.  Keep on hangin' in there and I'll tell you all the stories in person someday. That's not a trunky comment.  But even if it is, it's still true :) Have a great week!

-Elder Jeppson

Sneak Attack Ricky!

What another beautiful day we have here in the islands! How's it lookin back home? Any snow yet? Gotta get more faith in those prayers, don't we?

It's been another average week.  I think it was week number 100 of the mission.  Forgive me if I'm wrong.  What made the week extra-ordinary? well duh, General Conference!  Wasn't it just absolutely amazing! or is it just me that thinks that?  New missionary age.  Sick! Especially for the girls.  All those girls that are like "Yeah, I'm gonna serve a mission probably...If I'm not married..." Are gonna be put to the test now, eh? Hahaha I really like that President Monson still said that it doesn't mean that they SHOULD go when they have 18/19, but that it's an option.  Still gotta make sure the people are ready and prepared.  Which means more seminary paying attention! Should be lots more sister missionaries though.  Good luck to the future AP's and mission presidents! hahaha

So what were your favorite talks and whatnot? I absolutely loved Uchtdorf's talk about not looking toward the ends of things always.  Let yourself be happy! It was basically a talk perfect for me in my head, so I loved it.  I also really liked Elder Bowen's.  It was extremely personal to me and I love when the general authorities let us into their own lives and share their personal experiences.  Not just stories they've heard before, but things they have personally gone through.  I think that's probably because as a misisonary I have learned/seen the importance of sharing personal experiences.  God knows us.  He knows exactly what we've been through and how we've become who we are.  I know that he sends us to people that need to hear OUR stories and see OUR example of overcoming challenges.  It's the only thing we have to offer these people.  Any missionary can teach the message.  Blast through the lessons.  But God sends us where he sends us because we have experiences that specific people need to gain strength from.

I also really liked President Monson's talk about seeing people as they can become instead of how they are right now.  Seeing the potential within everyone.  Isn't that the beauty of missionay work and the gospel?  It's all about progressing and learning.  I love it!  We got to see it all in english. I wanted to watch a session in spanish though.  I couldn't NOT watch a session in spanish for my last conference in the mission, right?  Argenis came to the priesthood session so I watched that one with him.  Worked out well cause the english version ended up fallaring anyways so all the other missionaries came and watched it in spanish.  Toma!

What else?  I'm running out of things to talk about these days... Edid is doing well.  She has a lot of work this weekend, so she won't be able to meet with us or go to church, but she's been reading a lot in the Book of Mormon and her family is really warming up to the gospel.  It's another case of being able to see the people progress and change and recognize the Spirit.  It's beautiful.  It's what the mission is all about.  I'm very grateful I've been able to see it as often as I have.  

Argenis is also doing well. As I already said, he went to conference.  The difficult thing with him is that he will be giong to Fuerteventura for 2 weeks for work so we won't be able to see him during two weeks.  Guess we'll see if he can overcome the challenge and keep preparing for baptism without the constant help of the 2 missionaries.  We'll still call and text and do all we can to help him.  There's always a way.

Welp.  I think that's about it.  Thanks for all the love and support.  You're the greatest.  You.  The one reading this.  You've made it so far in this long tedious email. So thanks! Now go out and live life!

-Elder Jeppson

Ricky

President Jackson gave us permission to go to the Mickey Mouse Live! magic show.  So we did.  Dope, no? I forgot to tell you about it. It was a couple of weeks ago.  Sorry.  

That's the constant view we have over the island of Gran Canaria.  Isn't life just soo rough?

Acabo de robar a una chica embarazada!!!

They always start with one of two ways.... What will it be....

I'm short on time.  So sorry in advance.  We wasted a lot of our email time trying to fix the Aultman's internet and looking for parking at a locutorio when we couldn't come up with any solutions.  I guess we'll all have to aguantar this one like always.

It's been a really good week though. Wanna know why? Alright. I'll just go ahead and tell you then I guess.  We set two baptismal dates!  We set one with Edid and another with Argenis.  Edid is the 3rd of November and Argenis will be the 10th of November.  They both are totally on track.  Just gotta keep reading and praying and doing their part and we all know it'll work out.  That was really exciting for us though. It's fun to see the progress.  That's the beauty of the mission and the Gospel, eh?  Seeing the blessings and witnessing the growth of testimony.

Other than those two we don't really have a whole ton of other people barging their way through the crowds to listen to us.  We've been teaching a 19 year old Argentine.  Dang argentinos and their dang argentino accent.  It's always fun to teach people closer to our age though.  Which there are tons of at the university always, as I have already told you.  University. Spain. On an Island.  Let's just say USU or BYU campus will probably be a treat for the eyes.

Our dang p-day schedule got ruined by rain today.  Lame, right? right.  So instead of going to Loro Parque or going to the zipline park, we ended up walking through malls and stores and stuff.  Which was fine too.  Not the first time I've dedicated a day of happiness to that.  But with the 5 that are left, we gotta stay away from that! Pray for snow in Utah and sun in Tenerife.  That's the combination of power.  Yup.  

Welp, I have pictures and everything, but the computer here just won't let my USB adapter plug in.  So take that! You'll have to wait another week I suppose.  Too bad too cause in some of the pictures I was just a little 20 year old and in some I was 21.  That's right.  Take away the "under 21 until xx/xx/xxxx" part of the license.  Unfortunately 21 isn't any better than 18 in Spain. And to be honest, 18 isn't any better than 14 or 16 hahaha.  I guess this world will just continue to deteriorate at the rate we make it.  I love you all. The church is true.  Thanks for the package mom.  You'll be blessed in heaven for the stress it caused.  :) Now everybody go out and take beautiful pictures of Utah leaves to send to me in an email.  October of 2012.  See ya next month??? No more talking about that!! ;)

-Elder Jeppson

It's like watching a cloud go through myself...

Elders Merrriman and Jeppson

 Well hello hello! Well aren't you all looking quite fine today.

Al grano.  The work is picking up a bit. Not like, a TON, but slowly but surely.  We're definitely setting a good base for La Laguna to be a really good area.  It makes me wish I was going to have more time here.  But alas, even paradise has a time and a season to it I suppose.  The coolest thing from this past week is that Edid told us she wants to get baptized.  Awww yeah! We don't have a date with her.  She works "interna" so she is at work literally all work long, sleeping there and everything but gets out on Saturdays at like 4 and enters Sunday afternoons.  So she comes to our English classes and church on Sunday.  We teach her right before English classes.  But so that's cool.  We'll see if we can't get a goal for her on the baptismal date.  

Another sweet guy we're teaching is Argenis.  He's way cool! He's technically Venezolano, but he came to the islands when he had like one year and considers himself canario. So chacho, he's canario.  But he has heard the missionaries a bunch of times before and never really clicked I guess.  We've started teaching him and this time he's married and his wife is preggers so I guess he's looking more at eternal things and plus he's like me if I was canario.  But a lot more tranquilo.  So we basically get along really well.  I feel like he's one of those people that I was sent to La Laguna to teach.  Maybe that's just me being crazy, but whatever.  I was born this way.  I can't change, right? Wrong. You can change.  But don't let me get distracted on that topic. 

Other than that we have had some lessons with some cool jovenes since there are about 6 million of them walking around EVERYWHERE.  It's way cool. It's just like serving on campus, since it is.  Sometimes it's way cool, sometimes it's like "Alright, how is this not supposed to be killing me?" But it's all good.  But it's fun to talk to them if they don't make fun of us and think they're hilarious.  The down to earth ones are way sweet. I wish I could have just worked with YSA aged people my whole mission.  that'd be a sick senior couple mission to serve.  But I might be getting ahead of myself on that one.

Hmmmm, for p-day today we continued our giant island tour.  We had already nailed the coast and mountains, so today we went for the forest.  Rough life, I know.  We went up on the very north-east part to a national park thing called Anaga.  It was beautiful.  It was a lot like going up Logan canyon, but less mountain and more green/alive-ness.  Yup.  So now we have the island down I think.  We're gonna move onto all the fun activities there are to do on the island now.  We even made a schedule.  I call it "going down in style".  It includes La Gomera.  ´Nuff said.

That's about all I have for today.  thanks for all the love and support.  I know this is the church of Jesus Christ.  I love being a missionary.  It's crazy that this is the only time I'll get to do it this way.  There's nothing else to do than to darle duro! 

Like a boss,

Elder Jeppson

On the picture where Elder Merriman and I are the EXACT same in the air, that was our very first jump picture EVER together. And completely unchoreagraphed.  I guess we're just the exact same person in the end....

The other one is us above La Laguna.  What a beautiful area....

Oh my column!!!

Well hello there family-a.  

Good week. No time. typical missionary stuff. It's cool to hear about Jeppson's in other parts of Europe though. What luck!

Basically the work continues over here.  We're still in the looking and finding process, just as always.  We do have some good people that look like they will be investigating the church though.  O sea, investigators.  investigatores.  Pick the correct one.  Yup.  One of them had listened in the past, but now he's married to his girlfriend and she's pregnant and he's worried about being a good dad and all that stuff that comes along with starting a family.  Hopefully he'll realize how much the church can help him do it well.  Yeah. So... cool! What else? A lot of our investigators have been busy with new jobs/school starting and whatnot.  It looks like Ernesto might be able to come to church this week. That'll be cool.  Hopefully the Spirit can get in there and wedge open that heart of his.  We'll see.

All is well with the Merriman. We actually have less time than normal to do proselyting work because the church has this 12 week training program that has us stay in an hour extra everyday and go over a lot of the basic missionary mtc stuff again.  It's cool. I loike it a lot.  loike wasn't a typo like all the other ones above it.  

Today for p-day we did an inland adventure instead of the coast and went up to Teide.  It's the mountain I went to April 28th-ish of 2011. Remember that? Well we went up today and actually took the cable car up and everything. It went well. Good day with a fun drive through windy forest roads.  The beach last week, the forest/mountains this week. It's like a mini continent!  Pray for investigators, snow, and the NHL. Ay ay ay I am already out of time...

I love you all like a missionary loves when people listen to him.  Keep up the work back home.

-Elder Jeppson

Makin hair grow on a bullfrog

Reppin' the lone star.  Betcha didn't see that one comin', did ya?

Elder Jeppson & Elder Merriman

The adventure I've come to call the mission continues off the coast of Africa over here.  I'll start with today just to mix things up.  Today we did what could be called the boomerang.  We threw ourselves down the south coast of the island, stopped at the cliffs that were in "Princess Bride" They're called Los gigantes. I'll see if you can translate that one on your own. It's a toughie.  It was really sweet.  Then we experienced this crazy effect called "going home on the north coast".  It was essentially that, we went home on the north coast.  So basically we did a giant loop of the entire island.  It was definitely pretty cool.  We saw the cliffs, went to a cool lookout by a town called Masca.  Beautiful.  Simply beautiful.  Then we stopped in Icod de los vinos and saw this really really old tree that is apparently pretty cool.  Just seemed like a tree to me, call me crazy.  El Drago Milenario. Look it up if you're that interested.  Now we're back up here in La Laguna.  it was quite a fun little adventure.  The north of the island is way more pretty than the south half. that's for sure.  

As far as the work goes we have been getting things rolling here a bit more in La Laguna.  Our best prospect right now is a colombiana.  The Santa Cruz elders had started teaching her right before we got here. But she lives up here in La Laguna so we have since taken over the teaching.  She is really trying to learn English too haha.  But she has had a lot of learning the bible as she has grown up so that's a big help when it comes to explaining things.  She knows her stuff better than most.  

Speaking of people that know their stuff well, we had a cool experience with Ernesto this past week.  He is the one that likes to "talk" about the bible.  He wasn't really liking the idea of having Joseph Smith as a prophet or having the Book of Mormon.  The lessons were way too long and didn't feel the Spirit during them.  but on Monday we had a lesson with him that started out the same, but I did my absolute best to control my tone and almost talk in like a bored voice haha. Something quiet and controlled, sabéis? it totally changed everything.  I felt the spirit bearing testimony of the Savior that day more strong than I can almost remember in any other moment of the mission.  I love talking about the Atonement and testifying of our Savior, but this time was just different. I think he felt it too, cause he accepted the Book of Mormon and said he would come to church in two weeks (of course he can't this week..).  It was really cool though.  Just a nice reminder of what the mission is all about, ya know? It's about sharing the gospel.

That's about I've got for ya this week.  I gave a talk on Sunday. It went well. I honestly think I prefer to give talks on the gospel in Spanish now instead of English. Crazy how that works. I also remembered Chad's birthday on the 6th.  I didn't necessarily throw a party, but I hope he knows I love him from the Canary Islands too.  Welp... Love you all I suppose. Thanks for all your support.  Eat a bowl of Cocoa (or Fruity, if your name is Tim) Pebbles for me. Unless you're on a mission in a remote (to cocoa pebbles) country. In which case, the wait continues....

-Elder Jeppson

A lagoon, sunsets, and a cool ocean breeze...

Kickin' it old school in the Canary Islands.  Awww yeah!

We stayed on our own island this week.  It was cool.  Tenerife.  Lanzarote still holds that special place in my heart, but I'm definitely thinking Tenerife is a lot more beautiful.  We've pretty much got to get around the whole island in the past week.  On Friday I got to do an interview for baptism in Los Cristianos. I was actually in San Isidro.  But we got to drive down the whole coast (did I tell you we have a car in this area too? If not, we have a car in this area too) and see that side.  We also are in charge of Puerto de la Cruz on the west side of the island.  We have been over there about 3 times and it is another beautiful drive with a cliff down to the ocean on one side and a beautiful view of Teide on the other side. Teide is the highest point in all of Spain.  So we see sea level and the highest point in all of Spain at the same time.  It's pretty cool.

I can tell you a little more about La Laguna as well now that this week I actually have a little bit of time.  La Laguna is a city up a ways from the ocean.  I heard it was the first city established on the island, that might be a myth though.  It's above the island's capital, Santa Cruz.  We actually go down there every now and then for district meetings and whatnot.  It's a branch here that has about 50-60 people that attend.  We have our own chapel. The only one in all the islands.  Yup.  Elder Merriman and I get along amazingly well. It's like we're almost the same person sometimes.  I even got him to drop the theta and become a Barça fan.  hahaha I don't know if you would call that training or corruption, but we're doing well.

Since we're opening the area, it's been a LOT of talking to people in the street.  It's weird going from Barrio 2 where we didn't really have that much time to street contact to now having all day long to do it.  It's nice, and sometimes long, but things are starting to pick up now.  We have one investigator that Elder Woodbury had been teaching, and a Columbian that we found on the street.  There our only like legit 2 investigators for now.  We've got some potentials set up for this afternoon and basically we're just doing what we can do find people to teach.  I believe that we're going to start some activities like English Classes and whatnot to see if we can get the members involved too.  I don't think I'm qualified to teach them these days though, half the words that I use these days are spanglish. Buah. Don't make fun of me when you see me next.

I don't know what else to say. Are my emails seeming shorter and shorter these days? Welp, sorry.  I hope they're still interesting.  If you've made it to the point of reading this I guess I haven't lost you completely. So that's cool. Thanks.

Welp, it's quite a blessing to be over here serving the Lord. I don't know how I have gotten so lucky to be here serving him in this place at this time, but the only option I really see is to keep working hard and show that I'm amazingly grateful for all the experiences I have had up ´til now in my mission.  I know this church is true.  The more I learn about it and the more questions and doubts people ask us the more and more I realize that it just all makes sense.  We are children of God.  He loves us.  He has a plan for us.  Obey and serve and receive the blessings.  Learn the lessons that need to be learned.  Life is good.  I love you all.

-Elder Jeppson

The stakes are high, the water's rough...I'M ON A BOAT

Elder Woodbury & Elder Jeppson

Well hello family. 

Well, it's been quite a week.  I got out of Madrid on Thursday.  My companion was not able to come with me because he had not got his residency card yet and we did not want to have to send him back again.  So he waited until able to get his card. I just worked with Elder Woodbury in Santa Cruz de Tenerife for a couple of days.  Our comps weren't supposed to be able to get their cards until Monday.  Buah!  But, they got them on Friday! That's like a miracle on it's own.  So that was cool.  Saturday I got Elder Merriman down here by my side.  We got everything set up in the piso and that was about all we had time for that day.  Sunday we went to church and it was really cool to see how excited the members all are to have missionaries again.  I basically just have a mind full of members names and faces and buah.  Craziness.  But other than that, it's been a pretty slow week.  There are a couple of people that could end up being investigators.  It's a long story.

Elder Jeppson and Elder Merriman

The cool thing from this past week is that we just barely got back from Gran Canaria!  We had a zone leader council on Monday and then had what is now called basically a zone meeting instead of district meeting. Long story short, we went to Gran Canaria to have a 2 hour meeting about the things President Jackson wanted the mission to know.  Since travelling is such a big deal here we decided to do it the night before P-day and stay over for P-day as well.  So we had P-day there today! That's why this email is so late. Sorry! But that's pretty much all I really have time for.  So just know that we went to the Sand Dunes, went go-karting, and played some wicked volleyball.  Not bad for a day's work, eh?  But now we're back. More stories to come next week.

Love you all!

-Elder Jepson, but with two p's

Love is spelt T-I-M-E

I believe "spelled" and "spelt" are both equally acceptalbe in today's modern language of English, whereas acceptalbe is a typo.  Forgive me if I'm young.  

I'm still in Madrid.  But I'm with a straight up gangsta!  It's been a rather eventful week. I'll try and sum it all up in a bit of time that I have here in a beautiful locutorio.  On Wednesday night I went out with élder Ashworth to visit the Ovards.  Hermana Ovard has been a little overworked lately and I thought they might appreciate a normal visit from the younger missionaries.  It was a really spiritual experience and it made me realize that I could have done that a lot more frequently while I was serving in Alcobendas.  Funny how sometimes the people we can help are so close to us and therefore overlooked.  I felt really good about that visit though.

Got fallar-ed on Thursday by Monica, which kind of worried us since she had her fecha baptismal for Sunday.  But we found two really good people during that time. One was from Honduras.  I'm fairly sure she'll get baptized ;) Just like all these great people we find in our spare moments on the mission hahaha.  But seriously, she was sitting on a bench waiting for a job interview so we taught her a little bit and prayed that the interview would go well and she got the job.  So now she'll probably be too busy to meet with the missionaries.  I'm hoping Elder Ashworth keeps me up to date.

The baptism went well on Saturday. Claudia, the 15 year old Romanian got baptized.  She had a LOT of non-member family members that were there to support her.  That was cool to see. It looks like her mom will also be able to make a trip to the baptismal font within a couple of months.  It's cool to see how they can all support each other and help each other progress and improve.  That's the purpose of families I guess.  We support each other and love each other no matter what happens.  Some of us even get lucky enough to have two dope families.  Awww yeah!

Monica also got baptized on Sunday.  It was a real cool experience.  We were a little worried because she had not been able to meet with us a couple of times at the last second this past week, but we met with her on Saturday and everything was still fine she had just had a couple of out of the ordinary situations involving a Romanians. Ay ay ay los rumanos.... President Kent F. Richards of the Seventy was there.  I baptized her.  As she was under I saw her hair floating on top of the stupid water. Nothing I could do. So I had to do it again. After the service Elder Richards told me "Bien hecho élder! But you can only count it once!" hahaha punk.  I really like him.  It was cool to have him be there at a baptismal service.

The last couple of days have just been a little busy with all the transfers and whatnot.  We picked up élder Wilson on Monday and I was with the AP's all day.  We even got to eat with the missionaries that were going home.  Élder Tyndale will be missed.  Crazy that he is going home now.  Life is just on fast-forward mode it feels like.  On Tuesday I got my new companion: Elder Merriman. He's way awesome. He plays hockey. Was raised in Colorado. He's even an Avs fan.  Like, what the heck? Where was this companion my whole mission? Nobody else has even known what a puck is.  He can talk to me about Ray Bourque winning the cup his last season before retiring, ya know? Buah. You probably don't know. And that's the beauty! So he doesn't have his residency card yet, but he can get it real soon. So he has to stick around here in Madrid until then.  Meanwhile, I'm going to fly out tomorrow and work with elder....Woodbury! for a bit.  We always find our way back to each other, don't we?  So that's where the adventures will start off next week. To be continued....

I have a lot of cool pictures from this past week, but the computer I'm on is super lame.  So I guess you'll have to wait until.. A long time to see them.  I'll see what I can do next week. Welp.  Keep it real back home.  I hope you all know I love you. I hope you are all going to church and reading your scriptures. I know it's so cliché for an élder to say that.  But like, I guess we really learn out here how important it is. I love this work. I love being a part of it. I love that it never makes sense, and yet it all makes so much beautiful sense.  Ya know what I mean? If not, discover it.  It'll leave you feeling full.

I love you all. Sois los mejores.  

-Elder Jeppson

Clip my wings, but I'll still fly!

August 15th.  That means August 10th AND August 12th already happened. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADS!!!  Hahahaha...

No parties thrown over here though. Sorry! I did remember them though, so you were remembered at least. It's been a pretty average last week.  Some crazy days full of adventures running from place to place and two baptismal interviews for investigators.  And other days of just normal phone calls and business side of the mission. 

I'll start with the big news: I'm being transferred.  I will be serving in La Laguna on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.  It is an area that has been closed my entire mission, but while President Jackson was visiting there he felt the need for it to be opened.  I will be training an elder.  Elder Merriman.  He is from Orem, Utah.  It should be pretty dope.  I don't know a lot more than that.  So I'll be training, opening an area and also a zone leader.  Not a lot of ways to keep me busier than that still.  I'm real excited.  I think it'll be good to feel the ocean breeze on my face again :) Transfers will be next week.  I'm sure that will be quite a fiasco. I'll explain it next Monday though.

This past week Claudia and Monica both passed their interviews.  I wouldn't say they were flawless, but the lack of communication was overcome and everything turned out well in the end hahaha. I'll leave it at that and let you picture lots of worried people and no need to worry.  I'm still convinced lack of communication is the cause of 90 percent of problems.  But Claudia is the 15 year old from Romania and Monica is from Ecuador and around 45 or 50 ish.  Claudia is scheduled for Saturday and Monica will be on Sunday.  It will be a good way to go out of Barrio 2.  It's been a crazy ride both times I have served in this ward.

Something really cool that I came across in this past week was the conference issue from November of 2009.  I flipped through some of the talks and there were certain ones that jumped out and me and all had to do with questions that I had had in my prayers earlier and even led to more questions and desires to learn.  I love seeing how much of a pattern there is and how the Lord can guide us where he wants us when he wants us there.  Even some of the pictures in the issue jumped out at me.  Crazy! 

So other than that we have just been getting transfers ready, picking up colombianos from train stations, teaching lessons and living the missionary life.  I'm very grateful for all the things I'm learning over here.  I'm VERY grateful for the letters and packages I'm still receiving every now and then too. Thanks friends.  Thanks family. If you are still faithful, here's a temporary address until we get a piso in La Laguna:

Elder Jekkson

C/ Prosperidad 32, 2-A

Santa Cruz de Tenerife 38006

España

Tots units fem força

-elder Jeppson

Favada. ´Nuff Said.

Well.  You look quite nice this morning.  Don't haircuts just look amazing? I just got my haircut too!

 

Anyways... Hello! Today is Wednesday.  Last Wednesday, we caught a train to Gijón.  Ever heard of that city? Of course you have! I talked about it a lot cause I love it.  What don't I love? the 5.5 hour train ride that it takes to get there.  But I'll take it.  It went really well. On Thursday we played soccer on a real field.  Turf. I hate the rubber in my shoes after, but once again. I'll take it. Cause playing on turf is sick!  I even bought some sweet football shoes.  They'll be my normal person shoes in November. You'll love them.  During the afternoon we had visits in Gijón. Who did I visit? Duh! The Dominican family and Pedro! Only Zoraida was home for the Dominicans, but I still loved seeing her.  Pedro was doing great it seems. A little bit sad because of his recent breakup, but hey, stuff happens. 

 

The zone conference went well. And that's it.  We've officially made it around to all of them and now we're done.  And it's great.  It was a real good experience to get out and see all the missionaries and I feel like what we taught was good for the mission.  I got to see Carmelo again as well because we asked him to be in charge of the food after the conference. I have definitely been blessed with good people in my life on the mission.  Before it too I suppose. We'll see if I keep getting lucky afterwards.

Real quick.  We have also seen a lot of progress in an investigator named Monica this past week.  you can TOTALLY tell when people actually read and apply themselves. It is SHOCKING how obvious it is. You can totally see it in their forma de ser.

What else has happened in the past week?  Not a lot to be honest. I'm pretty short on time as well.  So I guess instead of making up a bunch of stuff I just will finish the email.  Thanks for all the support and love. I know I say it every week, and if I don't then sorry! I mean to. Sabed que os quiero!

-Elder Jekkson

That is so dope!

Well hello there familia! Familia means family in Spanish.

It has been quite a week once again.  I really know that all missionary letters start out that way and then everyone of them says "I bet you're getting sick of hearing that" but I bet you really are getting sick of hearing that.  I am no longer in the Canary Islands.  So that's just a crying shame.  I might not seem so chipper this time.  But I might still, cause I have the song "El Amor Volverá" stuck in my head. EFY songs were never so great until they were in Spanish and I was on a mission.  Es cierto, algo me falta a veces!

Since we last spoke we have had 2 more zone conferences.  The first one was in the Islands.  It went pretty well.  We had played football(soccer) the day before and been in the sun lots and so I was pretty dead tired, but that was ok.  It still went quite well.  What we have been teaching in Zone Conference is about working with the members as well as tracting. How there is the importance in the both aspects of finding people.   We use the story of Ammon and Aaron.  Ammon served Lamoni by chopping peoples arms off and then the king listened to him.  That was a baptism thanks to his own initiative.  Then his whole family got baptized and gave the missionaries a reference of his father.  Which is then the importance of working through the members, less actives, and recent converts.  Look at that, the scriptures really do teach us how to live life.  Even how to be missionaries.  Crazy.  I really like the part where King Lamoni's dad asks Aaron where Ammon is and basically Aaron is like "Dude, they transferred him. I'm the new missionary. What's up?" Because whenever there are transfers people are always like "Ohhh man and 'so and so' was just about to get baptized in my last area too!" Suck it up dude, it's been happening since 90 years before Christ in the Antiguas Americas! So that is basically what we have been teaching. We also use a marble example with bags and they represent people and whatnot, but I don't really want to explain all of that right now, so just know we came up with it in the Vigo piso and it seemed kind of lame but people seem to legitimately enjoy it, so that makes me feel better about it. 

Elder Jeppson & Amado (mini-missionary)

After the conference on Thursday we had a little bit of time before our flight, so I asked the Vecindario missionaries if they could take me to see my mini-missionary that I had had a year ago.  They said yes. I said thanks.  So they took me and Elder Ashworth over to see him and it was real cool to get to see him again. He was with his girlfriend, who actually reminded me a lot of Kylie. So maybe Amado will get out on a mission here in about a year.  That'd be wicked cool.  But it is crazy to see how much difference a year has made in my ability to communicate with him.  Back when we were together I think he didn't like the fact that I sounded like a terrible American and couldn't say hardly anything. Now I sound like a terrible American but I can actually joke around with him and communicate now. It's crazy how much a year changes things.  The language really does just come with time....and study I suppose. Mostly just time though.

The weekend went pretty normal.  Had some lessons on Friday and then Saturday night we had Katty's baptism! It went quite well.  The one nice thing about working in a ward instead of a branch is there are a lot of members and that means that sometimes you'll get a good ward mission leader that actually plans and gets everything ready for the baptism.  Which means we don't have to worry about it while we're flying to the Canary Islands :)  But it all went well and even her husband, who is going through the separation thing with her, came and supported her. So we're hoping that might spark some interest and maybe he'll hop on board in the future. 

Katty's baptism

Monday was a pretty normal day, but during our meeting with president he definitely made it sound like a very likely possibility that I will be transferred out after this transfer. I would not complain about that. I guess I have done everything I needed to do or learned everything I needed to learn real fast here.  Mostly president just found out I have never trained in my mission and that I will only have 12 weeks left of the mission after this transfer. Well, with the new training program it takes 12 weeks to finish, so I would need to be moved out of AP to train at the end.  I always wanted to train. Never got to. Obviously nothing is final til it's final, but I thought I would let the family in on a little transfer leak there.  

Yesterday was the Madrid zone conference. That is about 2/3 of the mission.  It was actually what I would say our best presentation though up til this point.  Everything went really well and it's always great to see all the missionaries and have a good time.  But I will not lie, I was dead tired in the whole afternoon.  I love the mission. The best two years of your life? Que va! More like the two most tired years of your life. Doesn't even matter that I sleep way more now than in High School.  I still somehow always have the energy I need to be a missionary though.  Life moves on.  

So that's about it. I'm real excited for this week. We have a train in an hour and a half that will take us to... Gijón!  I miss that place.  We're having zone conference there on Friday.  Today is actually not our P-Day.  But I'm writing anyways so that my mother doesn't think I've gone scuba diving without a tank in the islands or something.  We're going to have P-Day tomorrow with the León Zone in Oviedo.  Then do intercambios in Gijón with the zone leader and I am way excited to go visit all my little Gijonés friends.  It's gonna be dope! That is soooo dope! I love you all.  Tune in next week for another email that starts "Wow. It's been a crazy week!"

Love,

Elder Jeppson

And a little less like a board...

 

Well hello there family!  I have probably done more things in the last week to write about than any other week in the mission and I have less time than usual. 
Good combo...and go!

So last Wednesday night after P-day ended we had to catch a train to go up to Vigo.  There was a zone conference in A Coruña on Friday and since President Jackson wanted us to go with him, we figured we might as well go a day early to get some exchanges in with the zone leaders since we don't usually get to since they're so far away.  It was fun to be in Vigo again. Crazy to be back to that area after I had been away for so long. Seems like just yesterday and it also seems like 3 years ago.  Either way, fun to be back on the same streets. I even finally took a picture with the fishermen statue that I always walked past and always wanted a picture with but just procrastinated too much.  I got to go on exchanges with Elder Reeder while I was there. He is from Brigham City and basically lived the same life I lived, just on the other side of the mountain. I mean, the kid was even a projectionist before the mission! It was good to get to talk to him and all.  He has been going through some rough times with the companions and whatnot he has had at the start of his mission so I just talked to him about how hard Vigo was for me too and I feel like we had a real good time together.  Elder Ashworth went with the zone leader Elder Tyndale-Biscoe and then that night we caught a train to A Coruña for Zone Conference.

Zone Conference was great. It was the first one with the Jacksons so they had a lot of good plans and a good message to basically get the mission transitioned over to the Jackson style of life I guess you could call it.  Talked about the Army of Helaman and how we know how great they were, but it never talks about any of them individually.  What really matters is they had unity and they got their job done.  It is the same in our mission.  It was good. We talked about members and the importance of working with them.  I would love to talk more but I'm in a 9 minute rush so... I got to go with the zone leader in A Coruña after the conference.  Elder Rodríguez Silva.  It was fun to get to know him and talk about his zone a little bit and get a cool picture with the sea hahaha.  Not a lot more to share about that. We caught another sleeper train (super small, tight beds) and were back to Madrid.

Elder Jeppson, Zoila, Elder Ashworth

So we woke up in Madrid on Saturday.  Crazy fast trip but crazy busy and went really fast.  The baptism of Zoila was the big news from Saturday.  It went really well. Katty also had her interview for her baptism next week.  It was cool to hear her tell us how strong her testimony is. I am honestly grateful for the 2 week delay because of all the things that happened and how much it strengthened her testimony of this decision. I know she made this decision because she truly believes it and not just because she wanted others to see her get baptized.  I also got to confirm her on Sunday, so that was really cool.  Always a good experience to get to use the priesthood.

I'm gonna jump to Tuesday night. We caught a flight to the CANARY ISLANDS. So I'm back here in paradise baby! I don't know how I have gotten so lucky on my mission.  But I'm here again. I'mon Grand CAnaria and we had a real good p-day today. So I'm not complaining. I am out of time though so just know that we got to see some cool look out points and I miss the ocean breeze like nothing else in this world. Except a couple of people maybe. And even then it's a close tie probably.  So have a great week. Keep it real. The gospel is true. I love you all!

-Elder Jeppson

It's all about style...

Well hello there. A wonderful day, isn't it? A bit hot, but I'll take what I can get these days. 

It has been another crazy week.  Basically we just run around doing everything we need to and in between everything we try and think of things we're forgetting to do. It's great fun. I'm gonna start with a miracle of the week. Actually, I'm gonna start with a miracle of the mission. Gotta get it out before everyone gets bored, eh?

Elder Jeppson, Zoila, Elder Ashworth & Sergio in front of Plaza de Toros

So back to Zoila.  I can't remember where I had ended off with her. Probably with her not getting baptized but saying she would still meet with us.  Cool.  I'll go from there. So Friday we called her and asked her if we could meet with her on Saturday.  She was a little bit like "Well I don't know when I get off work and so I don't know if I'll get home but if I do I'll call you..." Right. So we set up a visit with her sister at 7, hoping that we would catch her at home as well.  Success! When her sister got home Zoila was there as well. Fantastic. So we used the opportunity of Elder Ashworth being new to ask her what was her story and what she was looking for and everything and all seemed well. She told us about a dream that she had had in which she returned to our church and a bunch of dead plants became alive again.  I wonder what that dream can be interpreted as, eh? We unfortunately didn't have a lot of time, but she came to the Ward Home Evening with us and then took us out to pizza after! Legit.  So we were pretty excited and seemed good. 

And then on Sunday she didn't come to church.  She had told us she had gone back to the catholic church the week before, and so when she wasn't there, I immediately knew she had gone to the catholic church again.  Which was another downer I suppose while we were there in church. Especially since one of her doubts had been how we partake of the sacrament.  Ugh.  But she can only meet Saturdays and Sundays, so right after church I called her to see if we could meet with her in the afternoon cause we didn't want to miss that chance.  She said yes.  We chose to take Victor, a member that had accompanied us a couple of times before with her. We asked him to ask her some questions as well, since we wanted to verify some of her doubts but we had already asked her.  So as we started the lesson he started asking her questions about what had happened and how it had made him sad and whatnot. She explained that she had gone to the Catholic priest that morning and had a talk with him.  She talked to him about what she wanted in life and mistakes she had made and how she was about to be baptized in our church but didn't in the end. She also asked him about the Book of Mormon and whatnot.  She told us that he said the Book of Mormon was a good book, and the Mormons were a good religion.  He then told her that he doesn't believe in baptizing babies, but only does it cause parents ask him to.  

Throughout all of this she kept saying "esto."  that means "this" in English.  "This" is not very specific when talking back and forth between Mormons and catholics.  She kept saying "I have decided I want to continue with 'this'."  Every time that got my hopes up, like "this" means the Book of Mormon and our church.  but then she seemed really nervous and so I thought maybe she meant the catholic church and she didn't want to continue with us.  The third time she did this, the member asked her when she was gonna get baptized.  She was like, well, I guess these two (talking about us) are in charge of that, aren't they? Which was like the moment we finally found out what "this" meant hahaha.  My companion and I (and Victor) all had like a giant sigh of relief.  So we talked to her and decided it'd be best if she gets baptized this Saturday!  So she's back on track for baptism this Saturday.  All thanks to her catholic priest testifying to her of the Book of Mormon.  That, my friends, is a pretty cool story. I guess the Lord has lots of tools to bring his children to the fold...

I don't even know what else to talk about haha.  We're way excited about that.  We also set 2 other dates this week. So we have 4 lined up for now. 2 are real fijo.  2 are...coming along. We'll see if they do their part.  It's crazy cool to get to see the gospel work in the lives of others.

We also had a leadership meeting this last Monday.  All the Zone Leaders and District Leaders came.  President talked about the desire to work coming from within us and not needing outside motivators (like counting contacts) to make us want to work.  We then talked about having a good attitude and not being prideful as leaders because one day we might be ayudante and the next just a regular missionary or district leader.  We all change seats around the table of leadership in the church.  After the meeting we helped the Elders in B8 move.  

After having such a miracle story of this week I'll also share a failure.  I missed a train.  After all my months I've had running missionaries around the blasted mission, I have never missed a train. But we did on Monday. We picked up a mini missionary and drove him to Chamartín.  We were running late and had taken a wrong turn or two so when we got there we knew it was close.  We literally ran through the whole station and ran down the platform and the lady saw us coming and looked us in the eyes and then grabbed the rope and slowly dragged it shut in front of our faces.  We missed it by like literally 6 seconds.  Ugh. So we bought another stupid ticket and put him on the train that left 20 minutes later.  No big deal. Just lost some money and damaged my pride.  Thought you would like to know that not all missionary stories are throwing the bags on at the last second and making it.  Awww man!

Taking the English to an American diner.   

"Let's go to Calle Alcalá to contact. There's
ALWAYS people there."

So that's about all I have for now. I get along real well with my new companion.  He's from England, and he's a champion.  We're always laughing and just making sure we don't lose the spirit of the work.  It's great.  The best is that we always argue about if England is better or if the States are better. Obviously the States. Revolutionary war, need I say more? I guess I have a pretty bad English accent now though. He says it used to be better and it's getting worse.  Stupid kid from Manchester. It's all about London!

Love you all!

-Elder Jeppson

Us with Zoila and Sergio in front of the plaza de toros

"Let's go to Calle Alcalá to contact. There's ALWAYS people there"

Taking the English to an American diner.  Toma tío!