Zone Conferences!!!

This week was pretty great, actually. We had interviews with Pres. Agazzani on Tuesday, in the which I dumped out all of my feelings and worries that I've been having as I come up on the end of my mission about what I'm going to do afterwards. That's when he ever so lovingly reminded me of the wonderful promises that the Lord makes in D&C 84.... I don't remember which verse. The one about the lilies and the birds of the air and not worrying about what to eat or wear or whathaveyou. So I'm doing my best to push everything out of my mind and focus 100% on the work here. I'm actually trying something new with Hna Goering to do a "40 day fast" of the English language. IT IS HARD, but we are actually doing pretty well! I think we've gotten to about 95% Spanish, exept for when we get super frustrated and need a good rant.... which has only happened once or twice! PROGRESS!!!

We also had Zone Conference on Thursday. Basically everything that we did at the Leadership Council on Monday, but we got to teach it all to the other missionaries. Hna Goering and I are trying to apply what we've learned by searching out every single member in the ward list that lives in our area that we don't know yet. That can be SUPER difficult when most of the streets in Caacupé don't even have names, and house numbers pretty much don't exist. It's like a super extreme hide-and-go-seek! The best part though, is after a long day of disappointments and frustration, prayer and motivational drawings to get us pumped to baptise, we found a family of 10 that want to learn more about the Gospel and accepted the invitation to be baptised! They've already shared with missionaries where they lived before, and have even gone to church several times!! It's so wonderful how the Lord blesses us when we put our trust in him and work our hardest to do what he (and our mission president) wants. 

In other news, Pres. now wants us to start doing twice as much divisions with the sisters than what we were doing before. Tomorrow we'll be in a bus for 3 hours to go to Caaguazú, which is super out in the "campo". We are going to be working A LOT.

Welp, time to go. We've got our district activity today, so we're going to go eat Burger King (AMERICAN FOOD!!!), take a tour of the great and abominable basilica, and then play fútbol. Yay for p-day!

I love you guys!!!!!!!!

Hermana Jeppesen

Our serious about baptism faces

Phone calls

Saltamonte!!!

Awesome Companion and Keeping up with the work!!!

HOLY CRUD, we're not going to have anymore kids in the Primary?!?! That just about as weird as when we stopped having to buy diapers! Isn't it so cool to see how our family is growing up? And I'm sure that Ashton sang wonderfully. I probably would have cried too.

Sometimes when Hna Goering and I start talking about home, we go over all of the different foods that we miss. Chili is one of our most frequent topics. Just saying.

Btw, speaking of Hna Goering, can I just tell you guys how much I love my companion right now? I am learing so much from her!!! Here's the downlow:

-From Iowa (Oh my goodness, an Amercan comp that's not from UTAH!)

-Was studying nutrition before the mission

-1 of 13 kids (Yup... 13. They beat us.)

-Super hard worker and a BOSS.

OK, I would write more, but I have very little time. Basically, she's fetching amazing and hilarious.

This week we went on divisions in two areas calles Villarrica and Coronel Oviedo. It involved waiting for a bus for 1 hour, traveling in said bus for 2 more hours, taking another bus the next day for 30-40 minutes, and one final bus back home for 1 1/2 hours to continue working like crazy in our own area. It was only just a tiny little bit absolutely exhausting, but so much fun at the same time! Love getting to see other areas of Paraguay and getting to know the other sister missionaries. In Villarrica I was paired up with Hna Cruz from Honduras for a day. She is such a sweet heart and probably one of the most professional missionaries I've ever met as far as her conduct with the investigators. Then in Coronel Oviedo I got to be with.... (drum roll)... Hna ESCOBAR!!! It was so much fun to get to work with my old companion again! She is such a loving missionary! She actually reminds me a lot of Noelle in how she talks... except that she talks in Spanish.... 

When we got back to our area, things got a little rough. 3-4 investigators completely dropped us, and we got a TON of doors slammed in our faces. Honestly, it was pretty discouraging. I think Heavenly Father decided to be nice and make up for it though, because the next day we found two families and another investigator to start teaching that are just awesome! Plus, everyone kept giving us super yummy food to eat, so that was a huge plus ;)

It's really great to see how much the Lord blesses us when we put all of our trust in him. Right now I'm studying a talk called "The Fourth Missionary" that is just incredible, and really highlights the importance of giving our entire heart to God. That's my goal this week, is to give all of my desires, whether they be good or bad, to my Heavenly Father. Needless to say, I had a nice long chat with him this morning about my desires here in the mission and after as well.

Welp, times up. I love you guys so much, and I LOVE the pic of you guys in front of the temple. ALWAYS KEEP YOUR SIGHT SET ON THE TEMPLE!

Con mucho mucho amor,

Hermana Jeppesen

Baptisms=Pool Party!!!!

Hey Momma!

This week has been so nuts. I thought that I was a busy missionary before, and I had finally gotten used to somehow finding a tiny bit of time to breath, think, write in my journal, and relax just for a few minutes, but that sliver of time just poofed out of existence. Now we are constantly working, eating, breathing, living BAPTISMS. On top of that, I got to go do my very first division as sister trainer leader this week, so we were making way more phone calls and setting up the next two divisions that we're doing tomorrow and Wednesday. Let's just say that I'm learning how to put way more organization skills into practice. 

On Wednesday we went out to Piribebuy and I got to do my first division with Hna Valle from Bolivia. She actually has a transfer more than I do here in Paraguay, but less time in the MTC because she didn't have to learn Spanish. We'll be leaving the mission together!! That being said, it was kind of weird to think that I was there to help and train her because she's more of a peer in my mind. We did have a really good time, though. It was nice to just get to work in another area and make it as fun and exciting as possible. Although, they don't have air conditioning in their little house, so I was DIEING at night. I'm so grateful for AC.

We also had an AWESOME baptism this Saturday! Araceli, 17 years old, is the cutest girl ever. She was a reference from the member that she works for, and the sisters have been visiting her for a little while.  But THIS baptism was super special. The branch president and his wife, Presidente and Hermana Burger (btw, they're german) decided to have an activity with the youth of the branch and do the baptism in the swimming pool at their house. The elders in our ward also baptised 5 kids from the same family, so we had 6 baptisms total. The youth got to swim in the pool for the first half hour or so, then everyone got out and we had a BEAUTIFUL baptismal service, including a special musical number from the best sister companionship ever (us), and then everybody got to swim again for a while afterwards. We made brownies. Best pool-party-baptism EVER. 

Have I told you guys just how much I love being a missionary? Honestly, I have never been so happy or have felt such purpose in my life. I love you guys so much, and I am so grateful for our Heavenly Father's Plan of Salvation, so that we can be together forever. Honestly, words cannot express how glad I am to be able to teach these things to the people here in Paraguay and to see all of the blessings in my life and in your lives.

That was off topic.

I love you guys, and I'll here from you next week!!!

Looovvve,

Hermana Jeppesen

Baptisms!!!!

The Burger Ranch

Missionary Feet!!!

Conference Weekend! Plus we got lost....kind of.

 I LOVE CONFERENCE!!!! 

Did you guys feel the spirit like crazy like I did? Man, I wish it was conference every day!! The talks were just so inspired, and it was so wonderful to sit back and receive revelation for all the things going on in my life as a missionary and just in general.

Do you realize that we witnessed an incredible moment in history listening to the first ever general conference talk in ANOTHER LANGUAGE?! I honestly wish that you guys could have seen all of the missionaries' faces when they announced that, and how even MORE excited we got when we heard that Eld Gavarret would be speaking in SPANISH!!! Please be reassured that we immediately muted the television and turned on the speaker to the chapel so that we could watch and understand him speak in his own native tongue with his own words. And lucky us!! We got to do it all over again when Eld Martinez spoke the next day!! WE ARE LIVING IN A WORLDWIDE CHURCH. Isn't that so incredible that we get to see this amazing development in the history of the living gospel of Jesus Christ, filling the whole earth? I had such a spiritual freak out day!

The talks that really got my attention this conference were Eld. Chin Hong Sam Wong's and Eld Bednar's. I LOVED Eld Wong's example of how we all need to work together as a ward and as leaders to bring others unto Christ to be healed. We are here as missionaries to serve the wards that we are in, and WE WANT NAMES!! We truly need the support of all of the leaders in the ward, and we need to be there to support them as well. If we don't hold up our end, there are people who will suffer the consequences, and if we are trying to pull all of the weight, no one is going to get very far either. And with Eld Bednar's talk, WE JUST LOVE EVERYBODY AND WANT THEM TO BE BAPTISED SO THAT THEY CAN BE HAPPY FOR ETERNITY!!! I have very strong desires to print up his talk and pass it out to every single one of our investigators, but it isn't available to read yet... :(

Honestly, I could talk and talk about conference all day, but that's not all that happened this weekend. We had a service project and Analia's baptism!!!!

On Friday we were assigned last minute (as in the night before) to travel to Fernando de la Mora and help Operation Smile (google it, it's awesome) unload a couple of trucks of donations. We left at 10:45 in order to get there at 12, following the directions of one of the assistants to the president and a local lady who told us what bus to take. Apparently this bus would head in the opposite direction at first and then loop around to where we wanted to go. So the whole zone, 4 companionships, got on the bus and headed out. And we drove. And we drove. And we drove, waiting for the bus to turn back toward our destination.... which in never did. We ended up in VILLETA, which is SUPER FAR from where we wanted to go! WE ENDED UP IN THE COUNTRY!!!!! Of course we immediately got off of the bus and figured out how to get to where we wanted to go, but we were at least an hour or two late. On top of all of that, we had to wait for the truck to get to the building so we could unload everything, and the first truck came pretty quick! But then we waited. And we waited. And we waited for the second truck to come. I will make sure to attach our bored waiting pictures. Long story short, we didn't get back into our area until about 7:30 that night.

On Sunday morning we had Analia's baptism!!!!!! I wish you guys could see how happy she was. She has really done a lot to be able to get to this point, and now she can finally be clean and show to the Lord how willing she is to follow him. Hermana Palombo gave a wonderful message during the baptismal service about the importance of baptism, and started crying during the talk. That's when I really started to reflect on how much work we put into these people and how much we really have come to love our sister and friend, Analia. Honestly, I am so glad to be a missionary, and I know that this is where the Lord wants me to be.

Ok, this email is so ramble and scattered and crazy, but it's just an accurate reflection of what our weekend was like. I love you guys so much. I really hope you guys got as much out of conference as I did, and are applying everything that you learned!

SO MUCH LOVE,

Hermana Jeppesen

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