Peace Out MTC, Have A Good Life!

What's Happening everyone. We only have 3 more days here in the MTC so I'm super excited about that. This week was definitely a great one to leave on. Our District has grown super close together throughout the weeks here, so it is definitely going to be hard saying goodbye to them. Anyways, let me tell you about my week.

Sunday:  Today was basically the same as every other Sunday so far haha. I convinced our Branch President to let us go on another temple walk instead of sitting inside of a building. Elder Qarase, Elder Johnsen, and I laid in the cold grass again and talked about some awesome stuff. After that we had meetings the rest of the day and then went to bed.

Monday: We had another language fast today so that meant no English. It was still super hard but I definitely felt a lot more comfortable in the language. During Class one of our teachers showed us pictures of his mission for about 30 minutes, and I'm so much more excited now because the pictures he showed us were awesome. Also I met 2 sisters from Papa New Guinea while we were playing volleyball, and of course there way good haha. I have realized that while I have been at the MTC, I have about 90% Polynesian friends, and 10% American friends ha. 

Tuesday: Today we practiced teaching The Restoration lesson for about 55 minutes during class. We would teach one person in our class then move on to the next person until we taught every person in our class. That was probably one of the most helpful things we have done with the language so far because we taught 13 lessons in a row without stopping. Also Patrick Kearon in the Presidency of the Seventy came and spoke to us. He is an outstanding speaker and way funny. He also has a sweet British Accent, so that helped with staying focused. One quote that stood out to me was,

"Happiness is doing something you don't want to do, and being glad you did it afterwards"

This hit me way hard because this is basically what my father told me all the time growing up.

Wednesday: Today we didn't really do much at all haha. It was a pretty uneventful day except for when I saw my cousin Abby come into the MTC. That was super awesome.

Thursday:  When we went into class this morning our other teacher said he was going to show us pictures for about 15 min before we started class, instead he showed us pictures for 3 hours haha! We were all so happy because our class was looking a pictures instead of teaching a lesson. We also had another Skype TRC later that night. It went pretty well except for the fact that the Kiribati lady we called was trying to calm down her crazy screaming kids the entire lesson. So she didn't really listen to anything we said hahah. We also learned that the Church invited the President of Kiribati to Utah and they are bringing him here to the MTC. So on Monday the President of Kiribati is going to come into our class so we can talk to him. It's going to be so cool, we are all so excited.

Friday: OUR LAST P-DAY IN THE MTC! We went to the temple this morning at 7:00 am. It was so nice. So now we have the rest of the day to hang out and chill. 

Love You All!

Love, Elder Jeppson

Sister Fillmore (my cousin) came in on Wednesday

My Brotha Ben Hilburn

Residence Pictures

Elder Kauri (from Papa New Guinea)

"Study Time"

10 Days Left!!

MAURI Everyone! How's it going. It's so crazy to think that I am almost out of the MTC. I am definitely super excited to leave America haha, but also sad to leave of course;) 

Favorite Memory of the Week: Elder Qarase (Fiji), Elder Rangi (New Zealand) Elder Johnsen (Utah) and I did the Haka in our classroom hallway after one of our lessons haha.

Funniest Moment Of the Week: When we were learning the haka hahaha. We looked like a "bunch of fools", Words from the Fijian and New Zealand Elder.

Most Spiritual Moment: Stephen W. Owen the Young Men's General President came and spoke to us. One of my favorite quotes from him was " Never Give Up, Always Give It Your All No Matter What"

Well Here's the rundown for the week,

Sunday: This was easily one of my favorite Sundays here, and I will tell you why. We started off the day with some awesome meetings and an awesome Sacrament. I mean it would have been a little better except I had to give a talk. The way they pick talks kinda stinks haha, everyone has to prepare a talk and during Sacrament meeting they will tell two people to come up and give a talk on some subject. So Brother Chandler (In the branch presidency) always messes with me by saying "are you ready for your talk today,"  then he would laugh which made me think I was going to talk every Sunday so far, but I never got chosen. So this Sunday he said the same thing and I was Like "Oh ya Definitely" -thinking to myself i'm not going to get picked- and sure enough when the talks came around my name was announced. After lunch we walked around the temple, laid in the cold grass, and fell asleep. It was felt so good to take a 5 minute nap. After the rest of our meetings we decided to go and take a nap instead of going to choir haha, best decision I have ever made.

Monday: We had another service project cleaning the windows and vacuuming. We taught another lesson to our teacher/investigator, and it went surprisingly well. I was able to understand most of it which was good because i knew what he was asking us, but I wasn't able to respond haha. For some reason I can't respond, but I can understand it's weird. You guys know what happened next in my day, Volleyball:) After that we had a sweet study sesh on the rooftop garden.

Tuesday: Our Classes were super fun today. We learned how to buy things in Kiribati which is super different to how we shop here. It was really fun. We also sang in the choir again during the Tuesday Night Devotional. The song was so awesome and super powerful. There were about 1200 missionaries in the choir so it made it even better. Stephen W. Owen The Young Men's General President and his wife spoke to us. He gave an awesome talk on Humbling Ourselves, Hard Work, and Obedience. Amazing!

Also we did a language fast today. So basically we couldn't speak English all day long. It was really frustrating not being able to say whatever I wanted to say, but it helped out a ton because I was forced to think and speak in Kiribati

Wednesday: We started off the Day with a Book of Mormon study. One of the Elders was talking about how the Book of Mormon Is one singular book instead of a bunch of little books put together, I never thought of that idea and it blew my mind haha. So it was so cool when I was reading it this morning because it made way more sense to me like that instead of thinking of it as little books put together. We had an Intense game of spike ball after lunch. It was way fun. Also Ben Hilburn came into the MTC, and it was way good to see him. It's super fun seeing someone from home.

Thursday: Today we had an Online TRC. So basically we skyped someone in Kiribati and taught them a lesson. It was so amazing! I mean I still wasn't really able to respond, but I still loved it. That was definitely the highlight of my day. There are also 3 Elders here from Kiribati. They are literally the nicest people ever, There so happy about everything and love laughing. They laugh at the dumbest jokes haha it's so awesome.I can't wait to go there.

Well That's the Week For You Guys!

Love You All!

Love Elder Jeppson

Spikeball greater than Classes?

Mauri Everybody!! How's it going.

This week was one of the better ones for sure, here's the rundown

Sunday: More Meetings. My companion and I had to teach the priesthood lesson to our zone. It actually went surprisingly well. After our classes we went to choir with a ton of other missionaries. The choir director is one of the coolest people. Depending on what song we are singing he will give us the back story of that song which is super awesome because we are singing and learning all in one.

Monday: We stated off the day with yet another service project, super exciting. We washed the windows of the building with all the classrooms in it. It was kinda fun because that's what I did back home for people, the only difference was I didn't get paid haha. We also had some pretty quality classes about the language and the gospel. Our teachers were telling us some awesome stories about the islands. Monday was a pretty nice day temperature wise, so we went out to the field and played spikeball. That was nice because there was no one out there. 

Tuesday: Today was great! We had awesome classes and awesome lessons. We have been teaching at least one lesson a day now to our teachers/investigators. I feel like this is helping a ton because it allows me to talk in the language with no English, and i'm forced to think about what my teacher is saying back to us. Also we had our Tuesday Night Devotional. That was super awesome because Gary E. Stevenson came and talked to us. He gave one of the best talks I Have ever heard. It was awesome.

Wednesday: Well Wednesday was awesome, but not fun at the same time ha. It was Raining/Snowing/ Freezing all day, and I didn't have a jacket so i froze all day long haha. But it was super awesome because the mountains got pretty covered in snow which looked way cool from our classroom window. all of the Polynesians we freaking out because most of them have never seen snow before. I was laughing so hard. We of course played some more volleyball. We also have this mini basketball hoop in our room, so we play shoot or dare, (TB to the Loomis Nightz)

Thursday: Yesterday was pretty awesome. We started off the day with some pretty awesome classes. Our teachers make class way fun. There super chill and funny, but really good at teaching. After Lunch we went and played spikeball again because it was the perfect temperature. I think we are starting to migrate more towards spikeball and away from volleyball because no one goes out to the field to play it. We also taught another awesome lesson. It was probably our longest one yet.

Well I Love All Of You Guys! Tiabo

Elder Jeppson

Livin' on the "Edge" 

Left to right Elder Smith, Elder Nordfelt, Elder Jeppson

Saying Goodbye To the Australian Elders

Saying Goodbye to Elder Dengin whos going to Australia

Saying Goodbye to Cousin Elder Parks

Warning, Polynesians Are Good At Volleyball

Mauri Everyone! How has it been going out there in the real world haha. This has been pretty awesome here in the MTC. Here's the rundown,

Sunday:

Had Meeting from 7:30 am - 9:00 pm so thats was great hahaha

Monday:

The craziest thing happened, we had more classes hahaha. We started off the morning with a service project. We vacuumed some hall ways, and then we got distracted with the people in charge, and started playing the piano with them and talking haha. So we didn't really do a ton. We also had another practice lesson teaching a pretend investigator in our language. My brain was dead after that because it took so much effort to figure out what to say and to listen to what they were saying. We of course played volleyball again and that was awesome!

Tuesday: 

The highlight of Tuesday was defiantly volleyball and our devotional haha but more the devotional. James E. Martino of the seventy came and spoke about missionary work. There were 2 quotes that really stood out to me.

1"Don't fall into the trap of complaining and murmuring. Don't compare yourselves to others, it's okay to learn from them but don't compare yourself to them. You become the best that you can become"

2: Don't Complain, Don't Murmur, Just Serve

I was also able to sing in the choir with my district.  We sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer". Super cool spirit and the choir director was amazing.  

Wednesday:

We had some more classes and more language study. I feel like the language is started to piece together more because our district trys to speak in it as much as possible which is really helpful. We also had another "party" on the rooftop garden. A lot of missionaries go up there and hang which is really fun.

We also had a crazy intense game of volleyball. These 3 new elders came from Tahiti, and they are way cool. We played volleyball with them and i swear there professinals because they have like a 6 foot vertical haha. It was those 3 Tahitian elders a tongan elder, a Hawaiian elder, and the Fijian elder in my district on a team. It was insane because i have never seen anyone so good at volleyball. They were in such unision with each other that they would destroy everyone every play. It was super fun though because i blocked one of there spikes one time and everyone in the gym went crazy, It was Awesome! And then they spiked it again and destroyed me hahaha.

Thursday:

Yesterday was pretty slow haha. We didnt really do much except for sitting in class all day. We tried to keep ourselves entertained by playing basketball with paper and a trash can haha.

Friday: 

Its our P-day, so that means more volleyball and laundry pictures hahah. We also are going to the temple today and that will be awesome. But tonight we have a TRC which is were we teach an actual investigator, so that is very scary hahah.

Love All of You Guys! I Tangiriko

Elder Jeppson

My boys Perry and Ethan "accidentally" showed up at the temple. 

Kiribati Crew

Elder Mo'o, Elder Rangi, Elder Johnsen, Elder Qarase (in front)