Kidney Stones are NOT Fun

Good day family and friends,


So it has been a hectic 24 hours for me haha! So I woke up Sunday morning with some random stomach pain but I didn't think anything of it. But as we were at church and working through the day it started do hurt real bad. So we went home and it was like 9 pm and I just tried to go straight to sleep but that didn't work. I tried medicine and everything and nothing worked! So it was so much pain I lowered my pride and I finally called president Reynolds at 2 in the morning and told me what was going down. He told me to go to the emergency room and get things figured out. So we got there at 3 am and they did an ultrasound on me so that was cute. The reason they did the ultrasound was because I guess I was peeing blood. They said there is only blood in your Pee when you have an STD or a kidney stone haha. So we come to see that I peed out this kidney stone around 5:30 a.m. Fun times! We had to walk there so it was pretty scary walking in down town Brooklyn
at 3 a.m!! But all is well and I feel better.

Everything is going great right now! We actually taught the law of chastity 3 times this week and they were all to black old ladies! Haha so that was fun. So Consuela and Marianne will be interviewed this week and will be getting baptized this upcoming Sunday! Pete and Eve are going to be the following Sunday because we don't feel like they are fully ready quite yet! But  things are still going well with them. We have some others on baptismal date for August so we'll see how that goes. So good work is going on here.

We also met a super cool lady named Nina while we were knocking in the projects! It's always fun knocking in project buildings. So much weed and fun things like that. But we talked to her at her door and she let us right in! As we got through the discussion she told us that she never answers the door for strangers, but something kept telling her to let us in. She kept on telling us how happy she was that we came by and says that she wants us to teach her husband as well! She even has a co worker who is Mormon and has talked to her before but she never gave her a Book of Mormon! She was so happy when we gave her a copy! So moral of the story, share the gospel with your friends and don't be afraid to give them a Book of Mormon.
 

So last story has to deal with "The Great Elder Shepherd". We were at a members for lunch yesterday and the member was asking us where we were all from. She asked Elder Shepherd and he said vernal and then she said "oh I went to the vernal temple open house a long time ago". Then he said "oh I wasn't even there yet" (implying that it was a long time ago). And she took it as that he was calling her old and she didn't like that very much. So he reached out and touched her shoulder and said "sorry I didn't mean it that way, I'm just socially awkward". Hahaha it was the funniest thing ever! You just had to be there.

So it was quite the week for me! Kidney stones are not fun, Elder Shepherd is socially awkward, and we have two baptisms next week!! I'm so excited. I'll send pictures next week! Have a great week all! Much love


Elder Jeppson

Giving it Your All

Hello Family and Friends,

I hope all is well wherever you may be! Things are going good here in the Heart of Brooklyn!

So we started of the week with a zone conference given by President Reynolds and the assistants! It was definitely the best zone conference I have been to on my mission!! It was 8 hours long but it didn't feel that long and I enjoyed the whole thing! President Reynolds is such an inspired man! The whole conference was about giving it your all and personal conversion! 

Elder Young (one of the assistants) gave the work shop on giving it your all. He showed a little clip out of the movie  "Facing the Giants". It was the part where the coach has one of the football players bear crawl with another kid on his back and then blind folds him. He tells him he needs to give it his best effort and not give up until he doesn't have anything left. So while in the middle of the crawl he's getting super tired, but the coach keeps yelling at him to keep going and to give it his all. So finally when he runs out of juice he takes of the blind fold expecting to only be at the 50 yard line, but then finds out he made it all the way to the end zone! Super motivational so you should watch it. But it really made me think about if I have been giving it my all, and how at the end of my mission I want to feel like I've given it my all and have nothing left. So that was a great experience for me. Then it was Presidents turn and his whole talk was on personal conversion. He told us that your most important convert out here is yourself. He brought up the scripture D&C 18:15 where it says  "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" That one soul is each of us! I liked this conference because they didn't grill us saying we are bad missionaries and that we need to do better, they made it so personal and showed us what personal conversion is. Honestly if i didn't go on this mission I would have know idea what it means to be truly converted to Jesus Christ, but Because of this experience, I'm figuring it out.

The work is going great this week!! Marianne told us she was so thankful to us for stopping and talking to her that day, "because without it, I would still be looking for a church I feel comfortable at" super cool! Consuela is great! She is so ready to be baptized! She literally has no hesitation! See has been to church now 7 weeks in a row! Pete is solid! We had a lesson with him where he was hesitant at first about committing to follow every commandment, but by the end of the lesson he said "you know what, I've already changed my life this much, I might as well go all the way". Dang this kid is my inspiration!

We met with Bridget again (she was the one who has the son that had that crazy conversion experience). But we met with her 3 times this week and really hammered down on the restoration and the Book of Mormon. She finally understands the importance of the restoration and said she would pray to know if he was a prophet. And then yesterday she came to church!! Miracles are happening all over this place.

Interesting experiences:


Oh we also got in a bible bash with a Jehovah Witness! Haha I decided that I would let Elder Shepherd do his first bash on his own. This guy was testing him at first seeing what the Shepherd knew about the bible then out of no where this guy starts roasting Elder Shepherd on the bible. So I felt bad and stepped in a just bore testimony about the Book of Mormon and the guy was super hard hearted so we left haha. Elder Shepherd was so proud of himself though so that's good.

We ran into another dude this week who looked like he was homeless and asked us if he could share a bible scripture with us. So we go on to find out that he sold all his stuff and became homeless because that's what Jesus told us to do. He went on for a little bit telling us that the has become perfect, and then finally he let us talk and Elder Shepherd brought up the Book of Mormon. It was funny because he used some preacher voice and was using words like "thee" and "Nay". It was the cutest little thing. After, we were walking away and he turned over to me and said "That Man was a fool" haha. Good times with new missionaries in Brooklyn.

So that was the week! Pretty good but not as good as July 31st will be! Only two more weeks until they enter the waters of baptism. I love you all, have a good week!

Elder Jeppson

Go to the Temple as Much as You Can

Happy day family and friends,


So it was an interesting week here in Brooklyn!

Like I said last week that I went to the temple! Wow I love the temple so much. It's not easy only being able to go every six months. For those of you that have the opportunity, go as much as you can! You are lucky to live 5 minutes away from the temple. But anyways I just think it's so cool that we have a temple in the middle of a really busy city with people honking their horns all the time and making noise, but then you go into the temple and you can't hear a thing and it's so peaceful. Super cool!

The people are doing great here! We finished up all the lessons with Pete and Eve! Edve had to go out of town for military training for two weeks but when she gets back we are gonna review the baptismal interview questions and they'll be getting baptized! It was cool because we taught all these commandments this last week and they just accepted them with faith and were totally willing to sacrifice whatever It took. Wow they are a great example to me! Also Pete is like our best friend now and hangs out with us on p-days! We play basketball with him every week. He's the man!

We had one day this week where we literally didn't have a break! In the morning we did service for two hours doing yard work, and literally right after we had a lesson with Marianne. She is doing so good right now! She came to church again and we had a lesson on the word of wisdom and she just excepted it like it wasn't a big deal! She said she'd do anything to follow God's commandments! Then immediately after that we had a lesson with Pam! We talked about being baptized by proper priesthood authority and she understands that she needs to be. She said she thinks she'll be ready for July 31st for baptism. And then immediately after Pam we went to Conseula's house! We had the member from Utah, FaceTime into our lesson. We talked about the Celestial Kingdom and the member bore her testimony on having an eternal family! She was tearing up while she did so and the spirit was so strong. Consuela said she wants that for her family! She decided that she'll be ready for the 31st as well! So if everything goes as planned we will have FIVE baptisms on July 31st! Wow I am so excited for that day. It'll be right after church so all the ward members will be there and it's just going to be a great spiritual experience! I feel so blessed that the lord has led me to meet all these amazing people.

One last story! So we met this lady yesterday and her son just got baptized in Florida. She told us his conversion story and it is intense! Her son was in the hospital with heart problems, then while in the hospital he had a heart attack and died! He said he went to a peaceful place and Christ was there and gave him a hug and said "son now is not your time, go back and accept my church and pray about its message." His spirit then came back into his body and he woke up! The doctors had previously determined him dead so they were so shocked when they saw him wake up!! So while we were teaching his mom we just kept on referring back to her son's experience on how this has to be the true church otherwise her son wouldn't have had this experience and accepted this church. She totally agreed and said she would read and pray about the Book of Mormon! She also accepted to be baptized!

Miracles are happening all over his place! So so blessed!!

Super spiritual week for me! No death threats this week or any crazy experience for me, so I guess that's good. Elder Shepherd is doing good. He's finally starting to be "less" awkward in lessons so that's good! Haha. He'll get it soon. Anyways have a great week Fam! I love you all


Elder Jeppson

I've Never Been Happier

Good morning Everyone, and happy late Fourth of July!

I'm writing today because I'm going to the temple today which I'm pretty excited about! But anyways our week was pretty good! Like I told you last week I am training now. My trainees name is Elder Shepherd and he's just a cute little guy. He's and corky, awkward, funny kid from Vernal Utah. He has a thick accent that everybody here likes point out to him constantly. Haha anyways he's picking missionary work up pretty quickly! He's super knowledgable about the gospel and has a lot of fire to work!

So we had some funny experiences this week while we were street contacting. We talked to some really cool black guy that was just jacked out of his mind!! Wow his biceps were huge! But anyways he told us that we were straight Gangstas! But not the dummies running around in the street, but Gangstas for God. Haha it was awesome. 

Then there was another lady I talked to and I offered her a card and then she went on to shout some choice words that aren't so nice and then told me shove the card up my... you know what. I was laughing so hard on the inside! But I said "oh.. Well that kinda hurt", and She then went on to say some other things so I decided I should probably leave and I told her that if there was anything we could do to help her to give us a call. It was a fun experience. :)

Now the people!

So Pete and Eve are doing great! Elder Hunt said bye to them for the last time last Monday and it was super sad! We were all crying and stuff. It made me realize how much I truly love these people! Before I left on my mission my Dad gave me one piece of advice and it was "Just love the people". I've been trying to figure out what that truly meant my whole mission, and this experience was the answer to that question! I really feel like they are family to me! Pete is my brother. He even said that he honestly will fly out to Utah and spend a week with Elder Hunt and I. It was such a special experience. These are times that you look for on a mission. Anyways they are still looking good for baptism this month.

Also Marianne is doing great! She was the one that walked into Church last week and wants to be baptized. So she showed up to church again and stayed all three hours! She said she kept on getting the chills all throughout the meeting because she was feeling the spirit so strong! We then had a lesson with her after church and it went super well. She knows the Book of Mormon is true already! So we pushed her baptismal date up to July 31st instead of August 14th! That's how much she is progressing! Wow I don't know how we got so blessed to come across her.

Consuela and Pam are doing good as well! We didn't get to meet with Consuela this week but she came to church and still wants to be baptized. We gonna push her date back a week so she can be completely ready though! We also had a good lesson with Pam this week. She said she still wants to be baptized but she wants to be completely ready and willing to commit to this for the rest of her life. So she'll come around in the next few months.

In the end we had 5 investigators show up to church on Sunday! It was such a blessing to see them all walk in! The ward did so good with fellowshipping them as well! Bishop has already set home teachers for them so that they can already feel apart of the ward.

I am definitely at the best part of my mission so far!! I've never been happier and it makes me want to work as hard as I can because I only have a year left! I love my mission and the Lord so much. Thank you for all your prays, they have definitely gotten me to the point I am today! Have a great week all

Oh one last thing! Yesterday we were playing a little bit of basketball and I was guarding this really good black kid and he ended up full on dunking on me and I took a tumble. Haha it was embarrassing but pretty cool that I'm getting balled up in Brooklyn. I'll send you a video of him dunking!

With love and care,

Elder Jeppson