Two Weeks in One!!!

Last week, Julia just sent us a bunch of pictures and this week we got a long letter.  Sorry for the delay in posting. Enjoy

Hey Mommy!

 

I'm so glad to hear that Celeste's surgery went well! Honestly, I've been praying a lot about that this week, so I'm happy to know that Heavenly Father is still taking care of you guys. And worrying about who is picking up the kids from school does sound like Celeste. Make sure to send me pics next week! 

 

I'm sorry that your observation didn't go too well. The first is the worst, right? It will just get better and better from here on out! I know that my comp and I have to practice a LOT in order to teach a lesson well that the investigators will understand. I'm sure that worrying about the surgery didn't help, either.

 

As for why people fall away from the church... don't get me started on that. I have met and visited and taught so many less-actives and people who have fallen away that I have heard every reason imaginable. But you are totally right. A lot of it begins with neglecting the simplest things. I never realized what a difference it makes just reading the scriptures everyday, or even doing home teaching. Heck, I think if everyone did their home/visit teaching, these stories would be a whole lot different. 

 

As for this week, it has been getting a bit hot over here. It's not too bad yet, but that may just be because I remember what last summer was like. I will be way more diligent with my bug repelent this year. MY COMPANION HAS BEEN WARNED. 

 

Have I told you guys about Analia Recalde? She is the 20 year old daughter of Carolina, and we have been working with her for MONTHS now. She accepted the message of the restored gospel from the beginning, but could never get baptised because she was living with the dad of her youngest baby (she has 3 kids, all under the age of 3, and they are my best friends). He's only 17, and they had absolutely NO desire to get married, she had no money to move out, and he refuse to go because he had nowhere else to go either. We honestly just about gave up with her, but at the beginning of this month we had set a goal with her that she would be moved out and baptised by the end of September. Well, we may be a week late, but SHE FINALLY MOVED OUT! We prayed, fasted, and continued teaching her, and eventually she was able to get help from friends and family to get the money together and find a small place to live with her 3 kids. By another miracle and lots of guidance from the Spirit, Hna Palombo and I even managed to get an inactive member with a truck to help us out on Saturday night move everything to her new place. Analia is now officially living the law of chastity and will be getting baptised THIS saturday inbetween the sessions of Conference. YAAAAAYYY!!!!!!!

 

I thik my favorite part of being a missionary is getting to see these miracles take place. We trusted in the Lord that Analia would be able to move out and keep the commandments of God, and she has been changing her life to be able to come more unto Christ. Now we get to see how the Lord is blessing her for her sacrifices. I love having a front row seat to the effect that the Atonement has on the children of the Lord!!!

 

So that's the run down on what happened this week. We are SUPER excited to get to watch conference soon! Once again, the Spiritual Superbowl has come around. 

 

I love you guys so much and I'm so glad that you guys are happy and healthy. I keep praying for you guys every day!!

 

Con amor,

Hermana Jeppesen

 

P.S. Hna Palombo would like to remind you guys that there are 88 days left until Christmas. Yeah. She's counting.

Yummy Treats!

                                            

Holy Shoes!        

                                       Silly Girls!!!

Over Coming the Red!!

Hey Momma!

I'm not allowed to view videos... :( That picture is awesome, though!

I am marking my calendar for the 25th and I will be praying a whole lot that day.... maybe fasting. Yeah, probably fasting. It will go super well! And now is her chance to secretly get a nose job without anyone asking too  many questions ;)

Sorry this letter is super short, but I was a little focused on other emails. This week went pretty well. Tuesday was rough, though. Hna Palombo had a "red moment" and was completely determined to go home. I think that the stress of everything had been building up and building up until she was convinced that she would never be able to teach, speak Spanish, or complete even the smallest of missionary tasks, and she just burst. I remember very well when I had the exact same feelings. I talked to her about David and Goliath, how God took this little punk shepard kid, and helped him slay a GIANT. God looks at the heart, and can see our full potential. We talked about all of the awesome things that she's doing and how much she really is learning. Honestly, after all that, she still said that she wanted to go home, so I just looked at her and said, "Well, just stay for now, and we'll figure this out." So she went into the other room, possibly to pray? and came out 5 minutes later. All she said was, "Ok, I'll stay for now. Lets go out." We went and taught a few investigators, and she started to feel better, although still a little stressed. Then on Friday we went on divisions and my comp went off to another area with the sister trainer leader Hna Kimball, WHO IS AWESOME. They actually had to run to another sisters' apartment because she was having a red day too! I guess Hna Palombo stayed and talked with the companion while Hna Kimball talked to the struggling sister, because the next day when she came back she was smiling and told me, "Hermana, I had an hour and a half conversation with a latina, and I only told her that I didn't understand TWICE!!!!" Needless to say, she is doing a whole lot better.

Welp, I'm out of time! BTW, I took out some money to buy new shoes, FINALLY, because mine have fallen completely apart. I will be getting them today, so I'll send you a pic next week ;) HEY! Did you pay my tithing/extend my loan deferment? Kind of important....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY LITTLE NEPHEW THAT I LOVE BUT HAVEN'T MET!!!!!

Con amor,
Hermana Jeppesen

Baptism....take 2!

Hey Momma! 

How cool that Reid, David and Bonnie all got to speak in sacrament meeting together! I'm sure it was a great meeting. As for the thought on faith, the little things really do matter. Remember that it is a commandment to always have a prayer in your heart, which to me means always have your thoughts directed towards him in every moment. You can even pray to have the strength to get up in the morning and go to the gym! It seems silly, but I'm realized during this last year that Heavenly Father really wants to help us in EVERY aspects of our lives if it means that we are happier, stronger, and better people. Kind of amazing, right?

To give an example, this week was kind of crazy. Remember Claudio, who skipped out on his confirmation a couple weeks ago? Well, this weekend was his "take 2", so Hna Palombo and I were passing by every single day to make sure he would be ready. To be honest, we weren't teaching like we should have been. It was more like just going and forcing him to read scriptures about the importance of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost until he got it through his head that he HAD to come do this. On top of that, his mom talks A LOT, and it can make it a little difficult to focus everyone and feel the spirit. Oh man, mom. We prayed like crazy all week. We even fasted. TWICE.... although one of them was a whole zone fast. 

So on Saturday, we did the baptismal interview with the district leader so that he could be baptised Sunday morning before church and confirmed right after, leaving absolutely no time to go off and do something.... silly. And he passed! So we went through the day, still praying that he would actually come to the church in the morning. At about 7:30 that night, Hna Palombo and I were walking past our apartment when my comp stopped, looked at me, and said, "We forgot to fill the font." HOLY CRUD! How could we forget to fill the fetching baptismal font! It takes 3-4 HOURS to do it, and the baptism was planned for 7:30 the next morning! And since the font is outside, we still had to run over and clean it out!!! So we ran into the apartment, threw on some pants, and started looking for our copy of the keys to the chapel.... which were nowhere to be found. We had forgotten them in the church during Claudio's last baptism, and we never noticed because we almost never use them! So we called the bishop, who didn't answer. We called his wife, who wasn't home. She DID, however, give us permission to just walk into the house and get their copy of the keys. We jogged over, got the keys, and jogged over to the chapel, getting there at about 8pm. We then starting trying every single one of the 20 keys on the keyring to open the door, but NONE of them worked! We ended up calling the Elders, and they ran over to open up the building for us. We cleaned everything out, but the elders kindly pointed out that we would have to get up at 4 in the morning to come fill up the font in time. In their words, "Sucks for you guys! Isn't being a missionary GREAT?" By the time we finished cleaning, we literally had to RUN to drop off the keys at the bishop's and get back to the apt before curfew. 

At 3 am, I was woken up by a clap of thunder and the sound of rain. Oh. My. Crud. The alarm went off an our later, we threw on our boots, and started out in a raging thunderstorm at 4:15am. THE STREETS WERE RIVERS, and I seriously thought we were going to get struck by lightning, but at the same time, my comp and I were completely calm. I starting think about all this trouble we were going through for a baptism that we weren't even sure was going to happen. I thought about Claudio, and the Spirit came to my mind, reminding me that he is my brother. We had failed to be motivated by love for him during the week, and were fueled only by a sense of righteous duty. The Spirit was lacking in the lessons. I personally needed to repent and have faith in Claudio and that the Spirit would testify to him and get him to where he needed to be. Honestly, it was a very humbling moment for me. 

We got to the church, turned on the water, and trudged back home. We woke up again at 6:30 with the sun shining and hardly a cloud in the sky, got dressed, and got to the church at 7:15.... when we saw that the drain for the baptismal font had been open the whole time, and the font was EMPTY. All of that work for NOTHING!!!! But, I think at that moment I realized that everything was out of our hands, and we just had to be patient. Happily, we just closed the drain, waited until the font was filled half-way, and had the baptism during Sunday School. He had to sit on his butt and lay back to get under the water, but it went perfectly, and he was conferred the gift of the Holy Ghost 30 minutes later! IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED! Claudio is FINALLY a member of the church!!!

We go through a lot to make baptisms happen, but this time was just a little insane. I did, however, learn a lot. God listens to our prayers. He helps us every step of the way, and when we start to forget what's important, he gently reminds us of his love for us and for others through the Spirit. I will say, though, I am so glad it's Monday and I can take a nap!!!

So that's my crazy week. Hey! You guys still haven't sent me a picture of the remodeled bathroom! I'm crazy curious and I want to see it!!!

I love you guys!!! Stay safe!

Love,

Hermana Jeppesen