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 

Moving Sand > Yard Work

Mauri Everybody! Hows it going? The people here are amazing, and way nice! They are all super friendly which for the most part makes it pretty easy to talk to people. Here is the rundown,

Tuesday: We had an awesome service project moving sand across the island to a members home so they could have a garden box. We got rice bags and rode about half a mile down from there house and filled up about 24 rice bags full of sand. Man that was a workout haha. We then made about 12 trips back and forth until all of the sand was moved. We also had to stop for a second a take a picture of a killer sunset. It was so insane how pretty it was.

Wednesday: It rained hard, and I mean hard! I actually did't know it could rain so hard and so much. So we were stuck in the house for a little while until the rain stopped. We had an  awesome study time though. We then went over to a members house to do some service for them. It was more moving sand hahaha. We also had the YSA dinner at their house. The YSA is super awesome here! Two of them just got baptized right before i got to this area, and one more of them is getting baptized this Saturday. I am super excited for that. 

Thursday: We spent most of the morning helping Baraniko (member) dig a well. The first 4 feet we pretty easy to dig, but once we hit water it got super solid. It took us about an hour and a half to dig about a foot haha We would rotate digging about every 5  minutes because you would go hard chipping away at the solid ground, and then get burnt out haha. After that we found a new lady and gave her the Book of Mormon, so hopefully we can keep progressing with her. We also met a old man who is super good at the ukulele. He played us a song he wrote and it was actually pretty good. So i asked him for the chords and the lyrics. 

Friday: We had District Council about an hour North. So we got the YSA and jumped in a truck to go meet up with the sisters. The ride up there was pretty fun because the YSA was playing pretty awesome Kiribati Music. After district council we played volleyball and basketball for a couple hours while we waited for the truck to come back up to get us. That was a lot of fun.

Sunday: Guess what? We had to talk in all of our branches again today haha. It was supposed to be 2 members, but they didnt show up. I also have to Lead church next Sunday for 2 of our branches. Also something pretty funny happened, my bike seat bent all the way back to the tire haha. So i had to bike for a couple of hours standing up until we had enough time to fix it. Our dinner also got cancelled which was rough because we didn't have any food in our house either.

Well Love you All

Love Elder Jeppson

Me and the Killer sunset! 

Kiribati Construction 

The well we dug 

React and Erata 

Elder Wright and I 

I did a screen shot of where Hunter was calling us from.  It is a families hut.
 Loved the pictures and decorations in the back.  Hunter said that rain does not get
 through their roofs at all.  Amazing! 

My awesome bike seat

Karawa on the Left and Kautira on the right who is getting baptized.  

Warning: Fire and Humidity Don't Mix

Whats up Everyone!! Hows it going! This week has been pretty good, and way Too Hot, and flys are the most annoying creature alive haha.

Tuesday: We finally got setteled into our house  and our area, so let the work begin. Elder Wright is a way good teacher for the language and we had a way awesome study session. After our study time, we went to go visit some people in the area. The culture here is that everyone time you go to someones house they either give you food, or a drink. The drinks are usually nasty haha because they put some water and then they dump so much sugar in them. Its pretty funny. I also had my first branch council meeting tonight, but I had no clue what they were talking about.

Wednesday: After Study and Exercise time we went to go to our Branch Presidents Buddy's House to go and do service, but no one showed up. So we just visited with them and one of there neighbors for a little bit. Then we went back to their house for dinner. They showed us how to make "donuts" which is just fried bread, so that meant we had to sit in front of a big fire. I started sweating in places i didn't know i could sweat hahaha. It was basically like i jumped into a pool and then came out. My companion and I were dying/laughing the entire time because we got stuck there for like an Hour and a half. Once we came back to the house we layed outside and dumped water on ourselves haha

Thursday: This morning our neighbor taught us how to husk, crack open, and eat a cocunut. It was probably the best cocunut I have ever tasted. We had about 8 of them. Then we went to Tarabeia's house because he wanted to help me study the language. He is so awesome. Everytime we see him, he always quizzes me on words. Its super helpful and way awesome.

Sunday: Church was pretty awesome.  We went to 3 different "branches" because there all in our area but there only about 45 minutes long so thats way nice. The first branch had 4 other people in it besides us because they were the only family that were members in the whole town. It was a Dad a Mom and 2 babies hahah. Our second branch we went to had the most people there because its like the main bracnch. The third branch had like 10 other people hahah. Oh and these were all at peoples houses, there are no chapels. I also had to give a talk in everyone of them, so that was kinda rough because I had know idea how to say things. But everyone said it was really good so thats happy. Then we visited a couple people and chilled at there houses.

Monday: We went fishing this morning with a member and we were only supposed to go out for 2 hours because he had to be back for something, but time doesn't exist with islanders, so we were out there for 6 hours. The first 2 hours were great. We caught about 25 fish and it was kinda cool weather. Then we just kept going farther and farther out to sea and me and my companion got pretty sunburnt haha. We of course put plenty of sunscreen on, but that doesn't matter here haha. So our legs are pretty toast haha. 

Well I love you Guys!

Love Elder Jeppson

James (the only name I can remember right now because it is English)
Little Baby Fish- we caught about 25 fish, skinned them and
ate them right there on the boat.  It was great!!
 

Coconut Tree

Sunset Number 1

Elder Write and I 

Sunset Number 2 

Kiribati Kids

ITS HOT! 

Welcome to Kiribati!!

What's Up Everyone! How is the air conditioning because I honestly forgot what it feels like hahahah. The record for being outside so far and not sweating is 8 seconds haha. Well let me explain what has happened so far,

Thursday: The flight was super long and tiring.  The President of Kiribati and his wife who visited us in the MTC were also on our flight so that was cool.  My legs started to cramp up towards the end of the flight so that was so awesome. haha 

When we came in sight of Tarawa from the plane, it finally hit me that I'm on a mission. As we got closer and closer i was like dang, i could be teaching people in like an hour. When we landed and got out of the plane, it was about 5 seconds before everyone was dripping sweat haha. There were a ton of people outside to greet us because a couple missionaries were going home, so that was scary haha. I heard people yelling the language to each other and me and the other  missionaries looked at each other and lost our minds. It is insane how fast people talk here, and it doesn't help that they mumble because you can't understand them at all. We put our bags in the truck and drove to the stake center for orientation. It was so crazy driving down the road and seeing what people live in. When we got to the stake center we met our companions, other missionaries, and did our orientation. My companion is super awesome and way chill. His name is Elder Wright and is from Spanish Fork Utah.   We are super similar people which is awesome. The mission president and his wife are super awesome.  After orientation,  we went back to the house where we were supposed to stay for one night, but ended up staying there until Sunday.

Friday: We woke up around 6:35, then went outside and  played volleyball for 2 hours. It was a ton of fun. We then left to the warf to get on a boat to go to our area, but when we got there the boat had already left. So we had to stay until Sunday because that's when the next boat came. So we just hung out the rest of the day in the house. 

Saturday: My companion and I went on a 7 mile run in the morning, and let me tell you that I am way out of shape hahaha. When we came back,  the sisters came over and we played volleyball from 7:30 - 10 because we can't do anything else cause we are not in our area. After volleyball we went to the store and bought Lava Lavas. I also got to hold a 5 foot Tuna but forgot my camera so I didn't get a picture.  Later in the day we went to a Baptism in the ocean,  and it was so awesome. There was also a huge party for a couple who just got married so we went to that. The was a ton of food and dancing and singing. It was a sweet experience.

Sunday: We didn't go to church today because we had an 3 hour boat/canoe ride to our area. When we came within a mile of the shore the water was super shallow,  so we had to carry our bags all the way into shore through knee deep water. We put our things down and then walked back to help other people bring in their stuff.  Man that was so tiring. We then got to our "House", took a bucket shower.  We had dinner at our "neighbors" hut.  They served us bone fish, rice and some for of plant.  It was really good.  They are feeding us tonight as well. 

Well that's all that has happened so far. 

Love you all.

Elder Jeppson 

Our house on Abaokoro

Kiribati kids

Elder Rangi and I 

Elder Wright carrying our luggage to the island from the "boat" 

Abaokoro

This is how crowded the boat gets - we came on this to the island

First night sunset

Elder Wright and I 

A Visit from the President of Kiribati, Goodbyes and First pictures on Tarawa

A visit from the President of the Republic of Kiribati and his wife

President and Sister Foster

New Companion - Elder Wright from Spanish Fork, Utah 

They made it!! 

Orientation and meeting their new companions 

Elder Jeppson meeting Elder Wright for the first time 

Orientation