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