Here's What Happened These Past Weeks

How is it going everyone! Since you haven't heard anything from me the past couple of weeks, here are the big things that have happened.

Week Of December 16: Goodbye Elder Wright. We went to the airport in the morning to get him checked in and to get everything settled for his travel home. We spent about 2 hours hanging around the airport until it was finally time for him to leave. I'm going to miss that man, he was a good missionary. This week was also Zone Conference and Thursday was the day the new intake came in. So I spent most of Monday and Thursday at the airport which was pretty fun. When the new intake of missionaries came in we took them to Moroni High School and did their orientation. I did get a new companion whose name is Elder Higginson and is from Arizona, but once transfers happen he will get his real trainer. I am basically "babysitting" him for 2 weeks down south, not in my area haha. 

Week Of Christmas: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Half of Tuesday were spent in the house because Elder Lenthe (one of the zone leaders we were staying with) got pretty sick. So i got a lot of study time in, and I got pretty good at playing solitaire with cards haha. Tuesday Night we had a really awesome Christmas Eve Dinner. The YSA made awesome food, we played fun games, and they made us gifts. It was really awesome and it made it feel more like Christmas. Christmas did not feel like Christmas hahaha. The senior couples threw a Christmas brunch for us which made it feel a little more like Christmas, but other than that it felt like a normal day. But it was really good because it was very simple, and we were able to focus on the true meaning of Christmas.

That is really all that has happened these past weeks because I haven't been in my area haha. But i will be back out in my area next week.

Love you Guys

Elder Jeppson

Saying Goodbye to Elder Wright

Christmas Eve dinner and party 

Baptism with Elders Barkett and Young 

Always Sing Karaoke

What is going on everyone out there in the Christmas themed world! We got a good amount of stuff done this week, so I will give you the rundown

Tuesday: We started teaching one of our neighbors whose husband went on a mission to Florida and wanted her to start taking lessons from the missionaries. So when we asked her if she wanted to take the lessons she was more than happy. After the first lesson we gave her a Book Of Mormon which she glady took and said she would read it. After we went and taught another lesson to Nei Berita who of course is always super excited to see us. She is such an awesome lady. You know we couldn't go a day without gardening, so thats what we did for the rest of the day haha.

Wednesday: We started off the day with a quality garden build for a store keeper that lives down the road from us. Elder Wright and I cranked out that garden pretty fast because thats basically our profession out here in the islands of Kiribati haha. Basically from 12 to 7:00 we were walking around trying to find new people and visiting people. Our dinner got cancelled, so on our way back to our house we stopped by the "hotel" and grabbed something to eat. While we were there they pulled out the karaoke machine and wanted us to sing, so us being us you know we couldnt pass up an opportunity to let people hear our garbage voices haha. So we ended up singing for about 50 minutes and Wow my voice was tired. And guess what, the store keeper said she wanted to take lessons with us. Karaoke always pays off!

Thursday: We had a branch picnic basically all day long. It was a way awesome activity because a lot of people came that were both members and non members. There was a lot of food, games, and of course some sweet kiribati music.

Friday/Saturday: We went back and had another lesson with our neighbor and we found out that she ended up reading a good chunk of the Book of Mormon which is super happy. We had a couple other lessons with some more people. I have to say i am definitely starting to speak and understand a lot more because of the lessons we are teaching.

Sunday: It rained all day long and didn't stop once until 10pm. So from when we left our house in the morning till we got back at night we were completely soaked. We also got pretty muddy because the whole road is basically one huge puddle. But it was still a solid day, we taught 2 lessons and church was great.

Well that its for this week, not that much happened but we still got a lot of work done.

Love Elder Jeppson

Name tag picture

Who said you can't hold a turtle 

Another awesome sunset

I bet America doesn't have bananas this big. 

My favorite little kid 

Can you find the Kiribati kid? 

Elder Wright and some Kiribati Kids 

This is what keeps the mosquitoes away 

Talking to Emma who just got home from Brazil on Wednesday 

Island hoping!

How's it going everyone! This week was crazy exhausting but very rewarding. Here's the rundown,

Tuesday: We had another solid lesson with Nei Berita  On the Plan Of Salvation. She was very interested and she surprisingly knew a lot about it which was super awesome. She keeps telling us how much she loves our church and how much she wants to join it. We also had a sad experience with a member. We went up to teach a member about the temple because he and his wife want to go, but when we got there he was pretty drunk. It was super sad because when he saw us he got super sad and knew that he messed up. So that kind of stunk. 

Wednesday: Man today I got destroyed by a huge migraine and a high fever. It hit me hard when we were at our branch presidents house, so I slept in his hammock for 30 minutes to try and get my migraine to calm down. We ended up going back to the house early because I felt like garbage. I layed in the dark for about 1.5 hours then went to bed around 7. Let me tell you that fevers are not fun here because your body is super hot but you have nothing to cool you down haha, so you just sweat and sweat.

Thursday: Today was an adventure for sure. We got a call from the AP's telling us we needed to go down to Nabeina(which is the area below ours) to grab some stuff elders left behind, but to get there you have to time the tide right because it's about an hour and a half journey through the ocean. The way down there was easy because the tide was all the way out, so it took us about an hour to get to Kaineba and about another 30 minutes crossing the channels of water that connected to the ocean to get to Nabeina. Well on the way back the tide had really come in which made crossing the channels a lot harder because the water was up to our necks and the current was strong. Once we crossed the first channel we realized that we wouldn't be able to cross the other 3 because of the tide and the current. So we prepared ourselves to spend a night on this tiny little island with no people, tons of mosquitoes and we had nothing. We decided to say a prayer and after we said it we walked down to the point of the island. As soon as we got to the point of the island a boat was passing us do we were able to hop on. All I can say is that was an answer to our prayers. Our journey that was supposed to take 3 hours ended up taking 7 hours. And we found out when we got back that it was the King tide which happens every couple years, so that's why the tide was so high.

Friday: I went on splits with Elder Sryneck today up in Tearinibai. We had 4 lessons set up, but only one of them went through, so we ended up playing cards with old ladies for about an hour or so haha.

Saturday: We had a very productive day of building gardens. We spent about 6 hours building and preparing 4 gardens for members and non members. Here I was thinking that I would escape yard work for two year while on the mission, but man was I wrong. I do yard work almost every day haha.

Well that was my week for you all.

Love Elder Jeppson 

Me and Taitai and my big Ol Fish  

All the Fish we caught on Pday 

Welcome to the desert in the Pacific ocean (Low tide)

High Tide 

Mom I swear I wash my feet

Sunset! 

Gardening 101

How's it going everyone. How is everyone's Thanksgiving Break going? Well we actually got a lot of stuff done this week, so here is the rundown:

Tuesday: I'm sure most of you have heard about how the church is helping people learn how to garden so they can grow vegetables, well the 2 people that are in charge of that is the husband of a senior couple that is serving here, and a member from Kiribati. A lot of people in our area have heard about this gardening going on and they really wanted them to come here. So for a couple weeks we were trying to figure out a time that would work for Elder Brock (the gardening master) to boat over here with all the tools and supplies and teach the community how to garden. And today was that day. When he got here everyone was super excited, it was like a celebrity walked in the room and no one could talk because they were in awe haha. Then for the next hour and a half he explained to them what dirt to use, how to plant and take care of new seeds, and what the best way to make your garden boxes were. Everyone was taking notes, asking questions, and getting pumped to eat some REAL food haha. Once Elder Brock left, Elder Wright and I spent the next couple hours planting all the seeds and watering them because everyone went to go set up there gardens. It was super awesome seeing how excited everyone was to garden. I for one am excited to eat vegetables again. 

Thursdsay: Today I went on splits with Elder Holman from Highland Utah. He's a way cool guy, and we got a lot of stuff done. We went to this one ladies house in Noto (which is an all catholic town) and had lunch with her. She then told us that she wantsd to lesson with us because she said "I love the missionaries and your church, and I am not afraid of people judging me anymore if i start lessoning with you guys". So we taught here the first lesson and set up a time to return to her. That was a way cool experience for me. Also the language clicked for me a little more because I was able to talk a lot more than i used to be able to. I was way happy when that happened. 

Friday: We had our District meeting/games with the YSA today up in Tearinibai. In the morning we got the truck hired, went and picked up all the YSA, and drove the hour and a half ride up to Tearinibai. When we got there we did our district training and the YSA did our language training which was super helpful. After we had our meeting, it was volleyball for the next 2 hours until the truck came to pick us up. But the truck didn't come when it was supposed to, it came another 4 hours later at 8pm at night haha. We ended up playing a lot of volleyball and card games until the truck finally came.

Saturday: We taught another solid lesson again to Nei Berita (catholic lady that lives in Noto). We taught her about the Book of Mormon and she seemed super interested. She said she would start reading it which is happy. The rest of the day was spent visiting and finding people to teach. Also, when we got back to the house at the end of the day i went to the bathroom getting ready to shower when all of the sudden  a pretty big crab ran right in front of me and another one was trying to come it but i threw a rock at it.  Man that scared the poop right out of me hahaha. That definitely would not have happened in America that is for sure 

Sunday: Elder Wright and I basically run all of church haha. We give the talks, bless the sacrament, teach class, and assign people things. There hasn't been one Sunday yet where we haven't given talks in church. All those years of not getting assigned talks in young mens is finally catching up to me hah. After church we starting teaching this family who wants to get baptized. The lesson went a little slow but it was still good. 

Well that is my update for what is going on here. 

Love ya

Elder Jeppson

Elder Holman and I on splits.  He is from Highland Utah

Me contemplating if I should ride my bike off the bridge haha

We saw our man Mautaake spear fishing

The wildlife 

Gardening 101 with Elder Brock 

Always Crash Catholic Parties!

Mauri Everyone! What is going on in the massive land of the United States. This week was a pretty good week except for what happened to my foot, but you will have to keep reading to find out what happened. Here's the rundown for the week:

Monday: We went back down to Te Runga (Kiribati Olympics) and watched some more sports. There is this one game called Te Oreano where there is a log with a team on both sides of it, -one team has this super heavy rock wrapped in rope which is then soaked in water for a couple days so its extra solid- then the team with this huge rock ball runs and throws it at the other team. The other teams goal is to catch it hahaha so funny and so dumb. We also watched some more soccer. After we went back to Moroni highschool and played games with all the other missionaries.

Tuesday: Today was my first Zone Conference on the mission. It was so much fun and we had some quality homemade food that the senior couples made. Also the elders and sisters in each district try and match with each other, i dont know why but its fun. Usually the sisters make dresses and ties for the elders because there way good at it. So that was pretty fun. President Foster and His wife are so awesome! They gave some awesome training and advice for us. He also introduced the new missionary handbook to us, and its way awesome. We were the first mission in the world to recieve copies of it. It was getting released online a couple days later to everyone, but since the missionaries don't have phones yet, we wouldn't be able to recieve it. So the Church sent us them early which was sweet all by itself haha. One of the best parts of zone conference is when tranfers get announced. Everyone goes crazy when people get transfered out to the outer islands hahah. Its so awesome.

Wednesday: Today was our last day down south for a couple weeks, so We spent the morning buying food to take back out to our area because all we eat out here is crackers, peanut butter and fried dough haha. At least thats all that were able to buy for our house, so we filled our bags with good food. The afternoon was spent on the boat coming back up to Abaokoro. When we got back it was about 5 pm and we didnt have a dinner, so that meant rice, noodles, and crackers with peanut butter haha.

Friday: We started off the morning with a solid study session. After our studies we were planning on visiting a non member family, but we were told by our neighbor they were going to a big Catholic Botaki (party) So us being missionaries went to crash this catholic party because there was gping to be a lot of people to talk to. Even though it was invite only, we got into the party because Kiribati people think parties are more fun with white people. There was tons of food, dancing, and talking. When the dancing starts, it is usually just one person dancing at a time in front of everyone. So when the dancing gets past off to you (its not like you can say no because its bad manners) you have to go all out and have no fear haha. Especially since we are white people, were basically forced to dance a ton.So much fun!! And guess what, we got a family to teach! Thats what happens when you crash catholic parties.

Sunday: First off on the way to church, we were riding our bikes dodging puddles and branches when there was this one tree i had to dodge with a 3 foot hole on the other side that i didnt see. I went striaght over the front of my bike haha so funny. Also Elder Wright and I had to give talks in all of our meetings again today. It is actually way helpful for me because it allows me to practice the language. It was also dumping rain all day which kind of stunk. Because it was Sunday and it was raining all day, everyone was asleep. There was probably 10 people in the whole village who were awake. Way crazy!. So we played card games with 1 person who was awake haha. On our way back from dinner we only had 1 small light because mine died, so it was pretty hard to see. Elder Wright was in front of me since he was holding the light and i was following behind him. When we reached the last turn before our house there was this fence sticking out and since i could barely see I got a little to close to it and it grabbed on to my foot a cut it open. Luckily it wasnt deep and luckily I watched people close up cuts for me, i got it all cleaned up and stuck together. But man it stung haha. 

Well that was my week! Hope you all are doing great!

Love Elder Jeppson

Me after the Catholic Party 

Left to right: Sister Kami, Sister Reitati, Elder Wright, Elder Leiataua

Zone Conference- The Sisters made the dresses and the ties.   

Goodbye dinner for Elder Tamatoa

Down South

What's up everybody! How are you all doing? This week was way fun because we got to go down south and see everyone.  We are still on Tarawa, but just in South Tarawa. Its pretty fun down here! It's way awesome because there's fruit and lots of food, so I am happy about that.  

Here are the highlights for the week:

Monday: We had a super awesome combined P-day today because I got to see all the missionaries from my intake, and all the ones I have gotten close to so far. We had an intense tournament of Volleyball hahaha and hung around and talked with everyone. We also went to Te Runga, which is basically the Kiribati olympics. All of the islands compete against each other in Soccer, Boxing, Tennis, Ping Pong, Volleyball, Basketball, Weightlifting, and this game were they throw a huge rock wrapped in rope at each other. Later that night we went to an Elder's 21 birthday party. That was way fun because 21st birthday here are super big.

Tuesday: Since we were down south and we didn't have an area, we went shopping and chilled all day. Man I forgot how good fruit and cold drinks are haha. That night we tagged along with some sweet elders to there district dinner. That was a ton of fun because we ate a lot of food and played a lot of games. There definitely the most fun district. Also, I got a haircut from an Elder and he basically shaved my head hahaha, but luckily we can wear hats in this mission because i am going to be wearing one for the next little while.

Wednesday: I got pretty sick today because we went to this restaurant to get some food, and boy it destroyed me and another Elder hah. I was hating life all day long. The rest of the day was spent boating back to our area, so we didn't do a whole lot.

Friday: We had another full day of service building some houses and gardens. We spent about 4 hours helping a member rebuild his roof on his hut. That was way awesome because I got to see how they build their roofs so the water doesn't comes through the leaves. I'm definitely going to have to build one when I come back haha. After that we built a garden and pushed wheelbarrows full of sand around for our neighbor. So awesome.

Well thats the highlights for my week!

Love you All

Love Elder Jeppson

Me, Elder Wright, Kautira, Mweka (little boy) and Tiibee

Baptism of Kautira 

Baptism of Mweka

Te Runga: Soccer Game 

Killer Sunset

This is what our dinners look like

Us at the 21st birthday party

Rainstorms + Sleeping outside= ......

Man this week has been a great one! It has definitely thrown me into more of a missionary mode. Here's the rundown

Monday Night: So you know how we sleep outside right. Well Monday night there was a massive rain and wind storm, and Man It Was Exciting! It was lightly raining when we went to bed which was fine because it rains a lot, but that all changed 2 hours into the night. Around 2 am I woke up from Horizontal rain pelting me in the face hah. Then about 10 minutes later the wind decides to pick up to about 40 mph. I straight up felt like i was in the "Other Side of Heaven" movie because I was getting soaked while stuff was flying by me while trying to sleep. That went on for the rest of the night haha, so i woke up in the morning completely soaked from head to toe.

Tuesday: I taught 2 lessons today! It was actually a lot of fun because I could speak the language for that short amount of time. It was still dumping rain pretty much the whole day, so we got pretty wet. Also our branch council meeting got cancelled because of the rain haha. When have you ever heard of a  church meeting getting cancelled because of rain. My companion and I were laughing so hard.

Wednesday: I taught another lesson today. It went pretty well except I couldn't respond to the questions she asked me. Then we went to visit a members wife to ask if she wanted to take the lessons, and while we were asking her 3 other people came up and listened to us. So we ended up getting 3 potential people to lesson with by visiting one person. Some little kids also taught me how to play a fun version of rock, paper, scissors. We also moved some more sand.

Thursday: We Spent the entire day preparing people's gardens for them. So we moved sand from 11 to 4 haha. It was definitely a little tiring moving sand back and forth all day long, but it was pretty fun at the same time. We would move sand, drink coconuts, move some more sand, then drink some more coconuts haha

Friday: Today was a very weird day. The Zone leaders came up to visit us and to go to our district council with us, but on the way up there the car ran out of gas. So we were about 30 min from our house with no ride back ha. We did some stretches and were about to start walking back, then we jumped into another car that was passing by. Then we spent the rest of the day at a members house.  

Saturday: Today was super awesome because we had 3 people get baptized! One lady is named Tiibee and is 65, Another boy named Kautira is 19, and then a little boy named Mweka who is 8. I got to baptize Kautira and Mweka! It was so awesome, and such an awesome experience. Kautira is was way awesome guy with such a good heart. He always wants to help me with the  language which is super helpful.

Well Thats It For This Week! 

I Love You All!

Love Elder Jeppson

Broken Bikes and Amazing Sunsets!

Mauri Everyone! How's the Mainland? This week has been pretty awesome and also super exhausting, so here's the rundown.

Tuesday: We had a pretty awesome lunch with a Non-member who is about 64 I think. I least I thought it went well, but i had a huge headache and trying to focus on what she was saying made my head want to explode haha. We also moved some more sand for another family in the branch. This time we had to walk a lot farther haha. It was about 3/4 of a mile through the wild jungle of Kiribati haha, to the beach, and then we had to walk back with a wheelbarrow full of sand. It was actually a pretty decent workout. The reason we are moving sand so much is because one of the Senior couples is going around and helping people plant and start gardens.

Wednesday: There was supposed to be a marriage for our neighbors so the girl could get baptized, but the branch President said he wanted the wedding to be bigger so it got rescheduled. So we went and moved more sand for the same family we moved sand for on Tuesday.

Thursday: I taught a lesson today! We taught a 19 year old boy named Kautira. He's super awesome. It went very slow because it took me a while to think of how to say things haha. It was good though because my companion let me figure out what i was trying to say instead of him doing it for me which was super helpful. We had another lesson lined up right after the first one, but when we got there they told is to come back another day and that was that ha. On our way to visit a less active member my bike broke again. My back tire bent to the side a little bit so i couldnt pedal, and my brakes broke. Se we went back to the house, broke out the tools and went to work haha. When we finally got it fixed and we started riding off, it wasn't even 30 seconds before BOOM, broken chain haha. So we spent a little more time fixing that. But i think it paid off because there was a killer sunset that was super pretty.

Friday: This is when the marriage happened. So you know how i said the branch president wanted it to be bigger, well this time there was a cake and 1 more person then before haha. So now we were at a total of 7 people which it "bigger" i guess. The marriage went awesome, and now the wife can get baptized.

Saturday: We had to go to the sisters today because we had to do baptisimal interviews. It took about an hour by car to get there, so it took a little longer on a bike. The interviews lasted from 10 to 4 and it was just Elder Wright doing them because only one person does them, so i sat around and played with the little kids for 6 hours hahaha.

Sunday: We actually got to watch Genereal Conference today. But it was in Kiribati so i didn't understand a single word of it hahah. So i was completley zoned out from 10 to 4. Then we had a pretty good dinner at a members house.  It is a custom here that they feed the guests first.  Everyone sits and watches you eat and then when you are full they let the men eat then the women and children.  It is hard to know how much to eat because you don't want to eat all of their food first. 

Well thats it for this week! Love you all!

Love Elder Jeppson

Elder Wright and I on our bikes.  There is only one road on the whole island.
 

Yet another amazing sunset

 Me and some Big fish (name of the fish is Tenunua)

Chilling on a Buia (bungalow)

My boy Karawa

Members taking a break during Service 

Our neighbors: Arimes, Tebitak, and Margaret 

At the wedding