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

I'm Training

Hello family,

So this week has been crazy! Elder Voorhees (an Elder In my district) has been called to be an assistant! So the this last week Elder Garcia, Hunt, and I have been in a trio! It's been so fun but so busy at the same time. It's hard because we have to work in two different teaching pools with only us 3! There was one day where we had like 10 appointments set up between the 3 of us so there was no time to even eat that day. But it has been so good! Elder Garcia is a really cool, down to earth, funny, Hawaiian guy. He actually went to Herriman High School and played football and rugby! Small world huh?

Also on Friday night I got a call from President Reynolds saying that I'll be training a new missionary next transfer! I'm pretty excited but nervous about it at the same time! I'm excited because my trainer had such a big impact on my mission and I want to help this missionary as much as Elder Barola helped me. But I'm nervous because the way you start your mission pretty much sets the course for the rest of the two years. So I'm hoping it can be a good experience for him. But I won't find out who he is till tomorrow so I'll send pictures of us next week!

But let's get into the investigator side of the week! So we met with Eve and Pete Twice this week! We taught the law of Chastity and the Word of wisdom! Usually these two topics make it or brake it. But it went really well!! The spirit was super strong in both lessons and they understood that it was a commandment from God and it was just there to protect them. It's always so nice when people take it like that! But when we taught the word of wisdom we found out Pete was smoking 3 cigarettes and day so we committed him to go down one each week. But when we talked to him last he is already only smoking one a day! He is such a stud! We had to push back their baptism to July 31st because of it, but they'll be completely ready for that day!

While we were at church yesterday we had two random people walk into sacrament meeting! One of the guys was named Adam, and he is a guy from Nigeria! His whole family are members except him. His brother even served a mission! So he showed up to Church and really enjoyed it and he already has like 5 friends in the ward now!! We will be meeting him with him this week so I'll let you know how it goes, but I see a lot of potential in him!

Our other walk-in was a lady named Marianne that we talked to on the street like 4 days ago! We invited her to church and she said she would come. At first I didn't think much of it because so many people say they will come but don't show up, but she did!!! She really enjoyed sacrament  and she said that this is the first church where she felt the spirit of God! We had a lesson with her after and we talked about the restoration and we related the story of Joseph smith to her on how they were both looking for the truth! She was so engaged the whole time and agreed to all the things we talked about it. She even excepted a baptismal date for August 10th! She said she truly thinks this is God's church Because of what she felt today! These kind of experiences make all the rejection we have worth it! She is such a blessing!

So that was my week! Super busy but so amazing!! I love my Trio, I love the people I'm working with, I love this area, and I love the lord for blessing us with all of it! I'm sure gonna miss Elder Hunt, but I'm excited for this next chapter of my mission! I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Jeppson

I'm Really Happy About the Work

Hey friends happy day to all,


First of all shout out to Kolby and Hannah for being parents to little Emma! You two move quick, I'm happy for you!

So we had another good week over here in the slope! The work is cruising! We met with Consuela again! The member that she met in Utah actually skyped into the lesson that we had and it went really good! The member was baring her testimony and crying the whole time. She even said that she will fly out for Consuela's baptism! Consuela already knows that the church is true so now all that we have to do is teach her the rest of the content and she'll be ready for July 17th for baptism! She comes to church every week so all is well.

Eve is coming along well! We had a good lesson with her and Pete this week! We committed them to meet with us 3 times a week to get ready for their baptism! It'll probably be on July 10th! But she came to church again on Sunday and she really loved it and said she wants to be apart of the church. Also we have been FaceTiming with Pete every night reading the Book of Mormon  and he is just loving it! It helps having this technology in missionary work! But they are definitely gonna be ready to be baptized by the 10th.

So we also have a lady named Pam, who is progressing just fine. We had a solid lesson with her this week and we asked her to come to church and at first she said she wasn't ready to come but we were persistent and promised a lot of blessings of she would come. So she said that she would "think about it". We got a call from her Saturday night saying that the thought that she needed to go to church kept coming to her mind, so she decided to come!! We had a member walk with her to church and she explained everything to her and Pam ended up really enjoying church. She also has a baptismal date for July 17th!

I'm really happy about the work in this area right now!

So funny story now. We were walking down the street and there are these guys that always yell at us telling us that we are false. But this time I was walking by and one of them called me a "White faggot boy". Sorry for the language but I just thought it was the funniest thing! I turned around and said "thanks for that", and just walked away. If you're not gonna laugh out here, you're gonna cry! Nothing like New York haha.

It's crazy how fast the transfer went by! This is the last week already! I found out Elder Hunt is going to Bermuda next transfer so I'm gonna be getting a new comp next week! It's sad cause Elder Hunt is1 probably my favorite companion but it's all good! My guess is that I'll be training next transfer but we'll see. So that was my week!

Happy late Father's Day to all you papas out there! Especially my boy Bradley! I love you all, have a good week!


Elder Jeppson

Diligence is the Key to Missionary Work and Life

Good morning everyone,

I hope that you all have a had a good week. I sure did! Things are heating up here in downtown Brooklyn, both in temperature and with the work! It's like 90 everyday but it sucks because of the humidity! Sweating like a pig our here. But we are also running 3 miles in the morning then lifting weights at the other Elders apartment, so I'm down 10 pounds since I've been in this area! My beach bod is well on its way. ;) But anyways like I said earlier the work is heating up here as well so let's get into that!

So this week we weren't able to meet with Pete, but we were able to meet with his mom Eve! We have a member that just moved in that came up to us last Sunday and said that he won't be working for the next two weeks, so anytime we need him to go teaching, he'll be there. Wow, what a blessing that is. So we took him with us to Eve's house and we had the best lesson with her about the Book of Mormon! Brother Smith, the member, bore his powerful testimony on how the Book or Mormon has blessed his life! He also shared his wife's conversion story and what she needed to go through to get her answers! The spirit was so strong, and you could tell Eve was feeling it. She committed to reading a chapter a day! Yay. She also came to Church yesterday! She wasn't gonna come because she really hurt her foot, but she just had a strong feeling that she needed to come so she did! She loved it and all the members just took her like she was family. Her baptism is in two weeks so that's exciting!

We also met with this lady named Consuela! She was in Utah a few weeks ago for some conference, and she met a lady and they got talking about our religion. She was really drawn to it because all of the Mormons she met were super nice to her! She said that we are just "beautiful people". But she had us over and we brought brother Smith with us again, and had a lesson on the restoration. It was crazy because she just totally understood the whole thing. She knows why a restoration needed to happen. She committed to be baptized on July 17th, so we're really excited about that! She also came to church and said she "loved how I felt through the meeting". The spirit does wonders. We will be meeting again with her Wednesday, I'll let you know how it goes.

So the work is great right now! We have 6 people and baptismal date, and 5 investigators show up to church on Sunday! The bishop said it was the most he has seen since his time in this ward. For the last 4 years this area has just been dead, nobody wanted to go to Park Slope. But just in these last couple weeks the  Lord has put solid, prepared people in our path. We are just busting our butts here! Diligence is key to missionary work, or key to anything in life! It's so cool to see the lord give us these great people and the strength we need when we are so tired and just feel like we want to give up! I'm really happy with this area right now.

I have just been thinking lately and the 3 things that have helped me most on my mission is gaining charity, sincere prayer, and sincere scripture study. I think those 3 things would be the advice I would give to you future missionaries, or just anybody in their own lives. Learn how to have charity towards others and learn how to study the scriptures, and you will feel the spirit so much more in your life I can promise you that! I never thought in my life that I would desire to read! Well the Book of Mormon proved me wrong.

I'll end with a funny story! So yesterday we were in the hood, of course, and I started talking to some guy, and we were actually having a really good conversation, then out of no where this group of 5 guys came over and started talking to the guy I was with and told him that he didn't like us white boys, and that we need to leave his hood! He told us black people only. But then some other guys were defending us and told us we could stay. This didn't go to well and these two guys started getting in a fight over it so we just had to leave before it got worse. Haha it was so cool that two white guys started a fight because we were just chilling in the hood. Oh how I love the hood!

So it was a good week! Things are really picking up and I'm just having the time of my life. Thanks for all the love and prayers! Have a great week all


Elder Jeppson

You're Happiest When You Forget Yourself and Serve

Hello all,

It was another good week here in the hood! We didn't teach to much but we had fun! We met with Pete again though! He invited his mom and his friend to sit in on the lesson! We had a great discussion about the plan of salvation and they both excepted a baptismal date for June 26th! We now have four people on baptismal date for that day!! So they are doing great right now!

We also met with a guy named Sebastian who actually stopped and talked to us and wanted us to come over to his house! He is really struggling in his life and just wants the best for his family! So we went over and just talked about how the gospel will bless, strengthen, and unify our family relationships! He was so pumped about that, he excepted a baptismal date for the end of June as well.

Other then that we just did a lot of service this week! We do 4 hours of service for this park each week and this week we put up a fence! Other days this week we helped some lady who is a hoarder clean up her house a bit! You do the weirdest service on a mission! I have gained so much random experience it's crazy! But the best thing about it is that service pleases others and softens people hearts. When you forget about yourself and just serve others that's when you are the happiest.

We also had exchanges this week with Elder Voorhees and Garcia! We went over to their place for the night. We went up on their roof and they have a perfect view of the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, and all of Manhattan! It was so cool. We had like a super deep talk about life and what we think our lives would be like if we didn't serve missions! We all know that we wouldn't be as happy as we are if we didn't serve! It was a good night. Then in the morning Elder Garcia and I were together and I learned a lot from him. He is the most charitable guy I know and truly knows how to love people! Such a stud! He's from Hawaii so it makes sense.

Today we played some basketball again!! It's so funny because we show up and we're just white boy's from Utah and all the homies there think they are just gonna ball on us! But today we beat 3 different teams and went undefeated! I never pictured myself balling up the homies at their own game in downtown Brooklyn haha.

So not much happened this week but it was a good learning week! There is always new ways that we can improve as missionaries and people in general. Have a great week all! 

Much love!

Elder Jeppson