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!