Adventures!

Hey momma!

I'm glad that you guys got to have that experience to sing with Dad at the memorial service. You and Dad should definitely sing that song for me when I get back, or at least record it now and show it to me after the mish so that way neither of us forget ;)  Also, did you get a recording of his translation of the bratzli song? Anyway, the importing thing is that I love you guys, and I consider myself very blessed to be a part of this family, especially to be Grandma Vicky's great-granddaughter.

On a somewhat related note, how are Grandma and Grandpa Jeppesen? Please tell them that I say hi and that I'm thinking of them!

In other news: HERMANA WEEKS AND I ARE STAYING TOGETHER FOR ANOTHER TRANSFER!!! Seriously, we are both so stoked! I have such a good time with my companion, and I am learning so much from her. She has such a strong desire to help the people around her, learn as much as she can from the scriptures, bring the spirit as much as possible into the homes of those we teach, and just be an all around fantastic missionary. On top of that, we have some pretty awesome adventures together.

SPEAKING OF ADVENTURES, we had quite an interesting one this week. Hermana Weeks has had some skin problems (aka, a rash) for the last 3 months now, and it finally got to the point where she called the mission president's wife, Hna Agazzani, to set up an appointment with the doctor. Thursday morning, after our 3 hour weekly planning session, we set off on a 1 1/2 hour colectivo ride to the hospital in Asunción. We met some Elders from the north mission on their way to a zone conference, and then our colectivo got pulled over because they were missing some legal documents and we more or less got a free upgrade to an actually somewhat nice bus. Then Hna Agazzani called to tell us that the appointment got postponed an hour, so once we got to the bus terminal in Asuncion and took a taxi to the hospital, we had an hour to kill and got a super yummy lunch at one of the little lunch places (I don't know if I would use the word "restaurant"...) nearby. Afterwards, OFF to the hospital! I'm so glad I can understand Spanish now, or I would be so completely, utterly lost! But we got through the paperwork and sat outside the doctors office. Hna Weeks turned to me and said "I'm going to be so mad if we went through all this trouble and they just tell me it's a heat rash and put some hydro-cortisone on it." Welp, we went in and talked with the doctors, and it turns out it's a chronic skin infection, so... yay? The dermatologist prescribed a super special cream to put on it, and only two pharmacies in the area make it. So super duper fun times, we set off into the rain (oh yeah, it started raining), and walked, and walked, and walked until we were drenched. After asking several people for directions, a guy from Uruguay finally set us on the right path, and we took a colectivo for another 20 minutes to the center of town. We talked to the pharmacy, and the prescription wouldn't be ready until the NEXT DAY. We just about cried. So we called Hna Agazzani. AGAIN. For the 5th time that day. Turns out we have a zone conference in Asunción on Friday (by the way, found out later that I'm singing a solo for that), and we can go back after the meeting and get Hna Weeks cream. For her skin infection. That she's had for 3 months. After a 30 minute colectivo ride to the bus terminal and a 1 1/2 hour ride back to Ypacaraí, we finished our 8 hour adventure at 9pm, wet, hungry, and tired.

Now we are sitting in a cyber waiting for the internet to come back (it's been out for 15 minutes now) so we can actually send our emails. You might not even get to read this story.

I love my adventures with Hna Weeks. We are going to have an awesome transfer.

Yes, if you send me cake mix I can TOTALLY make a cake!! That would be so awesome! I'll have to share it with my comp since her birthday is the day before. More awesomeness to our companionship. Also, just ask Dani what I told her that I want for my birthday. Make sure she doesn't laugh too hard.

Aziel is not allowed to be that old. Tell him that I forbid it. BUT, if he insists, it would be AWESOME if he got assigned here with me!

Chugging along!

Hey Momma!

I love you so incredibly much. Let me know how the memorial goes, please. I wish there was something more I could do, but I'm sending my love from way over here in Paraguay.

So remember that investigator I wrote about who is super pregnant? Well it turns out that she's already a member! She was talking with her mom who lives in Spain that she has been receiving the missionaries when her mom told her, "Oh how great! Do you still remember when you got baptized when you were a little girl?" Yup. We call the office and found her baptismal and confirmation records and everything. That definitely threw us a bit! After she has her baby we are going to focus on her getting to go to the temple.

Other than that, it was a bit of a rough week. It rained a lot one or two days, so not a lot of people let us in. I think Paraguayans are very much like cats, and are really afraid of the water. Also, I should really get a pair of boots.... Wet feet do not make proselyting quite as much fun.

On a positive note, Elías' cousin, Juan Jonas, got baptized this weekend by the elders, and Elías received the Aaronic priesthood! It's so neat to get to see his testimony grow a little stronger every time we meet with him and every time he comes to church. He even told us that he wants to work towards being able to go on a mission, as is going to start going out on visits with the elders this week!

Tomorrow we find out our transfers, and Hermana Weeks and I are pretty convinced that I'm going to have a daughter, aka, training a greenie. Either that, our Hermana Weeks will be staying here for one more transfer. I will be SHOCKED if it's not one of the two. I kind of really hope that we stay together, because my companion is super awesome and I am learning so much from her. We seriously have a BLAST every day, and we have been caught having laughing fits in the streets on several occasions. I'm a little afraid of what she's going to tell her future companions, or even her future kids, about me. She's got way to much dirt on me from our ridiculous proselyting experiences, like when she caught me talking to myself, or last night when I tried to make tortillas and the end result looked like a mashed brain, or when we were out in the middle of nowhere and I had to use a bathroom that was basically a hole in the ground and didn't have a door. I've got some pretty good stories on her too, though, so I think we're almost even.

I love you, Momma. I hope the last paragraph made you laugh a little and could cheer you up! I'm still praying for you every night. Please keep me and my comp in your prayers, specifically that we can find more people who are ready to hear the message of the restored gospel. Let me know if there is anything more that I can do for you guys, too!

Your daughter that's following the example of her wonderful mother and chugging along,
Hermana Jeppesen

Paraguay!

Elias' Baptism

Girl Power at zone training.

Tucan owned by the Brazilian family we eat with every Sunday

Super classic mission pic with BoM

Baptisms!

I don't know if I tell you "thank you" enough for the emails that you send me. Thank you. I hope you're doing great up in Idaho. I told Gramma to give you a big hug from me, so you have to give her a big hug from me, too! Also, please tell Grandma Vicky how much I love her and I'm thinking of and praying for her. Also, Mom, I love you so much. Thank you for everything that you do for our family and your wonderful example. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful mother.

We had a baptism this week!!! But I forgot my camera, so I'll have to send you the pictures next week. Elías is 18 years old and such a great guy. He has an incredible desire to draw closer to the Lord, and is very excited to recieve the priesthood next week! He absolutely lit up when we taught him about the power of the priesthood and how it can bless his family, today and in the future. When we asked him how he felt after his confirmation, he said, "¡espectacular!" I'm pretty sure it's his favorite word.

We are making plans to have another baptism this week of a beautiful woman, Clara, who is 9 months pregnant and due any day now. That one really depends on what happens with the baby.... Clara is so wonderful, though! She already has such a strong testimony in the Book of Mormon, and when we asked her if she had prayed to know if the church is true, this beautiful light came into her face. She told us yes, that she had been thinking about it all week, and even had a dream that we came to her house to invite her to be baptised. She knows the church is true!!! It is so wonderful to see the changes in people's lives and the spirit fill their hearts. These are the fruits of our labors here!

Mom, I know that this gospel is true. I am so blessed to have this oportunity to see the Spirit work through us first-hand. What's more is that I know that our family will be together for eternity. My gratitud for that blessing really cannot be described. Now I get to help other people have that blessing, too! The Plan of Salvation is real, and Heavenly Father really does guide us in our lives. 

I love you, Mom, and I miss you. I'm thinking of you and praying for you every night. Thank you for all you do for me.

With eternal love,

Hermana Jeppesen

On Sun, Mar 2, 2014 at 7:02 PM, Jodie Jeppesen <jjeppqueen@msn.com> wrote:

This has been a tough week. Grandma Vicky's health got worst and she went home to Idaho with Grandma Jan. We skyped with Grandma on Monday and I couldn't believe how far she declined. Grandma Jan was so tired from taking care of her so I flew into Salt Lake and your aunt Liz and I drove the rest of the way up. It was a surprise and of course we all cried. I am still here today. Grandma is worse and she doesn't have much time left. I'm sending a picture of grandma Vicky and grandma Jan. Grandma has a hard time at night and she just wouldn't settle down so Grandma Jan snuggled into bed with her. It is such a precious moment.

My heart is really tender watching my grandmother. But I know that plan of happiness is for everyone. I'm not sure what she is holding on to, but I'm sure when she passes she will be all the better.

I want you to know how much I love you.  I am so glad that you are with our family eternally. I know that our family has different philosophy about things, but I know with out a doubt that we are together.

But the good thing about this week is that I get to spend time with Grandma, Liz, and baby Georgia. It snowed and we got to play in it. Many of my cousins came down and I got to visit with them.

They dedicated the Gilbert temple today. They had the cultural celebration last night and it poured! There were 12,000 youth who performed. Many of my friends in the surrounding stakes got to participate. They Facebook posts all say they came home drenched but to happy. I can't wait to show you this beautiful temple.

I love you so much. Stay safe and I hope you and Hrma. Weeks are doing well.
 Love you,
Mom
Smile

Every member a missionary

Once a year, our family will go out to a Chinese restaurant. Yep all 10 of us.  It is always so much fun with lots of food and great conversation and joking around.  This year is the first time someone has missed it. We had a ton of fun, but can't wait for her to join us again. 

Yaaay I'll be home in time for Chinese Dinner Night!! And yeah, I'm totally fine with not going back to that buffet....

That's so great that you had the missionaries over! Did you give them tons of references? Because you really should! Honestly, that's where we get all of our success is references from the members. It's SUCH a huge help, and even more so when we actually get the members to come out to lessons with us. It helps show the investigators that we're just normal people, their neighbors and friends, and they gain so much from hearing the testimonies of people who aren't the same missionaries teaching them over and over again. This week, we had an awesome experience with a family that we've been working with for a while. Remember Miguel and Karen Amarilla? On Wednesday we got a married couple, Hermano Aponte and his wife, to come to a lesson with this family. We watched the video of the first vision (which is AWESOME and super powerful), and then had Hermana Aponte share her conversion story and her testimony in Joseph Smith. The spirit was super strong, and you know what? IT WORKED. We FINALLY got them to come to church yesterday, after WEEKS of teaching! They got to meet a bunch of the members and make a few friends, and I really think that they felt the power of the Spirit. I can't wait to meet up with them and get all of their thoughts. Moral of the story: MEMBERS MAKE SUCH A HUGE DIFFERENCE. Seriously, get to really know and love those elders, and you guys will be so blessed to see the growth of the church through your combined efforts!!

As promised, the details of my incredible companion, Hermana Weeks:
19-years-old
From St. George, UT
1 sister, 2 brothers
HER MOM SERVED HER MISSION IN PARAGUAY 24 YEARS AGO
Super smart kid who took AP classes and got awesome grades and stuff
very athletic, played volleyball and crosscountry in high school
wants to be a teacher in elementary school
has the most gorgeous, curly hair you've ever seen in your LIFE
Spiritual power-house, always says 20-minute prayers that make my knees hurt
very hard worker, but very goofy, so we get a lot of work done but we have a DANG good time doing it!
Kind of hilarious, and laughs a lot at my jokes to the point where she stops in the middle of the street half bent over.
eats a lot of dulce de leche (caramel sauce, aka DELICIOUSNESS)
really loves her family and is super tight with her siblings
has a brother that's pretty much exactly like Mia, and we are making plans for their betrothal.
One of her best friends is serving in Mesa! Keep an eye out for Sister Emily Brown!
We've only had 1 kind of half-argument, so that's a super success.
LOVES guayabas like crazy
Yup. My comp is awesome, and I love her a lot. I'm pretty much sure that we are going to be buddies forever

I miss too, Momma!  Thank you for all your love and support, and don't let the one-sided conversations get too out of control! Just like I need to focus on the work when I get really trunky, you guys can focus on the work going on at home. The ward needs you over there!

With all the love in my heart,
Hermana Jeppesen

Crazy Week!

So in the email we sent, we told her about how both Mia and Ashton's glasses broke and we are replacing them today. Her letter is as follows:

Iiish, that sucks about their glasses! I guess this is a bad time to tell you that my glasses broke and I need you to send me new ones....... sorry!

I know I promised to tell you more about Hna Weeks this email, but we had such a bizarre week that I have to tell you all about it!

A guy driving around our area in his car was blasting his own CD of Hispanic gospel music to advertise, and tried to get us to sing into his microphone. We did not. Nope, not even tempted a little bit. But he gave us a free CD, and yes, we did listen to it, and yes, it is pretty terrible. My favorite is the Gloria Polka.

On Saturday morning we went to an investigators house to have a lesson with her when from a distance we saw that she had visitors. Turns out it was someone paying her to kill a couple of chickens, and my companion jumped in and started helping her pluck the feathers! We got to watch the whole process of gutting and cleaning too. What's even better is that next week my comp and I are planning on buying some chickens of our own and learning the ENTIRE process of killing, plucking, gutting, cleaning, and cooking. I'm not gonna lie, I'm actually super excited but still nervous and grossed out to actually do all that MYSELF. I. Love. Paraguay.

Church on Sunday was a mad house in our branch. We finally had two investigators with us, but as usual none of the primary teachers were there and the Young Women's teacher was missing. This is nothing unusual. So we left our investigators in Relief Society and Priesthood to go start Primary until the teacher got there (thank goodness, because I have NO IDEA how to do Primary), and then I got to give the Young Women's lesson. After that we didn't have a teacher for the youth Sunday School, so we combined it with our Gospel Principles class taught by the amazing Elder Castro from Mexico. That guy is a spiritual GIANT. Anyway, we met up with our investigators for Sacrament Meeting, and then just about collapsed afterward. It's a little rough when sometime we feel like it's us missionaries completely running the branch, but we're working with everyone little by little to really fulfill their callings and support themselves a little more.

Yesterday evening was the BEST, though! I found out that 1.) Our area is HUGE 2.) There is, in fact, a big abandoned zoo that is creepy as all get out, and 3.) You meet all sorts of people while contacting new areas. We decided on a whim to contact a really huge house because it was one of the rare ones with an actual doorbell. As the guy who lived there came out and started walking to the gate I saw that he was wearing a shirt that said Wyoming, and shouted out in Spanish, "Hey, where did you buy your shirt?" He replied, "My sister bought it for me in the US," IN PERFECT, AMERICAN ENGLISH. Holy crud, you should have seen our jaws drop! We seriously flipped and yelled, "DUDE, YOU SPEAK ENGLISH!!!" Turns out his dad has a crazy story of being a Paraguayan politician who got banished and then married an American and then they lived in Sweden where they had two kids and now they are all back and happy living in Paraguay. He let us in and we sat and got to know the whole family and ate really yummy cookies with real M&M's and talked about how crazy Paraguay is. Although they said they wouldn't come to church, we're are welcome whenever we want to come back and eat more cookies and zucchini bread and other yummy baked goods. It was pretty much the most awesome, random moment that I have ever had here.

Yup. That's my crazy week. I will make sure to write about Hna Weeks next time, unless we have a whole ton of even crazier experiences this week.

I love you guys!!!!

Hermana Jeppesen

P.S. No, I did not actually break my glasses. But I got you there for a second, right? Haha... Ha.... I love you, Mom!

Such a good week

OH MY GOODNESS I TOTALLY FORGOT ALL ABOUT THE OLYMPICS!!! Make sure to cheer extra loud just for me. I'm right with you, Momma, I get totally stoked too. Dani said there are 2 Paraguayans. What sports are they in?

And yes, there are many more bugs to worry about. Please see the attached picture below. That doesn't even include the GIANT black moths. I love Paraguay.

Yay for Hayden! At least he's got something for now. I'm sure something more stable will turn up. Tell him I pray for him every night.

The work here is fantastic. We are working SO hard with a couple people who really want to get baptised. One nees to get married first, and the other just needs to come to church a few more times before she's ready. The people out here are so fantastic, though. They are incredibly humble. Honestly, with most of the people we've learned how to teach in a way that is really simple and easy to understand, otherwise it gets a little difficult. It doesn't help that my companion and I are both American and they don't always understand our accents.

We had an AMAZING experience last night, though. We've been teaching a small family, Miguel and Karen with their little baby Benjamin. Miguel comes from a very Catholic background and has also taken a lot of discussions from the Jehova's Witnesses, so he is very versed in the Bible and has a lot of questions about the more profound doctrine. He reads every thing that we assign him in the Book of Mormon and always has questions for us when we come back, which is GREAT, but he still hasn't prayed to know if it's true! I started bearing my testimony to him that if he really is searching for the truth, he has to read the Book of Mormon, attend church on Sunday, and most importantly pray to Heavenly Father. Then, as if someone completely took over my mouth, I pointed at him and saidvery boldly and firmly, "But you are looking only with your mind, and not with your heart." Holy cow, Mom. I felt chills all the way down my body. For a couple of seconds it was like a fire inside my chest. It was so bizarre. And you should of seen his face! He was completely shocked! The conversation continued, and my companion stepped in and bore her testimony of the importance of sincerely searching with the heart in almost perfect spanish without pausing once to think of the words. She seriously had the gift of tongues in that moment. We wrapped up the lesson, said a prayer, and freaked together as we walked home. 

Mom, I have never felt like that in my entire life. I got to witness firsthand as God took two of his very humble servants and spoke through us. He literally in that moment put the words in our mouths and guided our speach. There is so much truth to the promises of the scriptures that he will help us and guide us despite our weaknesses. I now KNOW that I really am a tool in the Lord's hand, pushing forth his work in this part of the vineyard. Mom, I know this is the only true church in the earth today. I feel so incredibly blessed to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. Sheesh, Mom, I feel like a freaking missionary, and it's AMAZING.

I love you guys so much. I hope I'm making you proud. We tell people all the time that the reason we go by our last names is because we not only are representing Christ, but our families as well. I'm so proud to have the name Jesucristo AND Jeppesen on my name tag.

I miss you guys a ton. Enjoy the beautiful weather while I suffer here in the crazy heat of Paraguay!

LOVE,

Hermana Jeppesen

There were 4 more of those same spiders on that web. To give you a reference, including the legs it's a bit bigger than my fist. I almost didn't sleep that night.

Transfer Day

I will TOTALLY email Grandma Vicky.(Her great grandma is sick) I'm warning you that it will make this email much shorter so I have time.

Mom, you totally jinxed it. I got sent out to a city called Ypacaraí, which may not be the MOST rural area in the mission, but is way more rural than my last one. But be assured that I will always have access to the internet. There are guayaba trees, which I recently found out is guava, all over the place, so we never have to worry about going too hungry when we're out proselyting all day.

Also, THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE! I was completely surprised by it and it made me so happy!!! The chocolate was a HUGE blessing too. Yes, it got melty, but it is safely stored in the fridge now ;)

I hope everyone feels better! The flu totally sucks. At least it was only contained to three people (for now).

I'm sorry I can't write more, I'm out of time. I love you so much and I'll send you more pictures next week!!

With love,
Hna Jeppesen


My district, amazing investigators and recent converts (the baptism pic is from the elders, they weren't actually our investigators), my new companion, GIANT KILLER WORMS THAT ARE FREAKING EVERYWHERE, the amazingly beautiful area of Ypacaraí, and more fun stuff.
Oh yeah, and I TOTALLY used that bathroom.