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