{The Life of a Director}

Mauri Mauri Ingkami Kain Amerika! How are you all doing?! I have to say that this past week was a pretty good one because I had to summon my inner Director/ Filmaker haha. It definitely is weird doing missionary work by filming videos and posting them on Social media, but it's the kind of the new direction of missionary work. Here are a couple highlights from the week:

So every Thursday morning we have mission wide zoom devotional calls, and this last one was pretty awesome because (insert drum roll here) we found out we are allowed to go outside! We have a lot of restrictions, but hey I'm not complaining. We are allowed to meet with person as long as they are not high risk, we are social distancing, wearing masks, and some other jazz. We can't really meet with any of the members of our ward because everyone, and literally every single person is over 65 years of age. But we can finally meet some of the people we are teaching in person which is super nice!

Also filming was a highlight! It made the week go by pretty fast because we had something to do haha. If you haven't checked out our new videos, head on over to my Facebook page and give them your love ha! Also if any of you have any suggestion for video ideas/ you want us to do something feel free to email me them.

Here's a little Spiritual Food for Yall:

Elder M. Russell Ballard Tells us in his April 2001 General Conference Talk,

"Today I make you a promise. It’s a simple one, but it is true. If you will listen to the living prophet and the apostles and heed our counsel, you will not go astray."

I think that's pretty awesome right there!! Like who doesn't want to be lead astray! I know I don't. I hope you guys can take this to heart and apply this to your lives. 

Well I hope you all have a Great Week! Jump in the lake/pool/ocean for me haha.

I Tangiringkami ni Kabane!

Tia Bo!

Elda Jeppson

Our District - we finally got to meet in person at the park 

Kiribati Zoom call for language study with our MTC instructor 

Some scenery

Filming on the Mission?!

Hello Again Everyone! Man these weeks are just flying by. I don't even know what day it is anymore because they all merge together as one. This week we had some fun experimenting with videos.

Let me tell you how it went. First I got to give a shout out to my Brother Colton Stone for teaching me some wild filming skills because they have definitely come in handy. (You'll see in the coming video) Anyways, I'm sure most of you saw our little news show -If not go to my Facebook page and check it out- I have to say I had a fun time doing it. Its definitely a very unique way of doing missionary work, but it has worked so far.

A little spiritual note: I encourage you all to read Either chapter 12 in the Book of Mormon. Super awesome and pretty quick read.

Well Have a great week you all!

I tangiringkami 

Elda Jeppson

Summoned my Inner Samurai 

First attempt at French Bread 

Apartment? More like Bakery

Mauri Mauri Everyone! How is everyone doing today?! Not really anything to crazy happened this week except a little storm. But there was one highlight of the week;

On Friday night I had an idea of delivering cookies to members of our church so I made about 75 cookies haha. It definitely took a little longer than expected cause I had to mix everything by hand, but hey, who dosen't love a good messy arm workout. So on Saturday we drove around for about 4 hours delivering cookies to people. Our plan was to basically doorbell ditch them, but each time i rang the doorbell i would walk very slow hoping they would open the door and start talking to us before I got in the car. Wow! Human interaction is sooo nice. 

That was definitely a highlight of my week because we were able to make connections with people.

Here's a cool little quote for you all,

"A secret to happiness is letting every situation be what it is instead of what you think it should be, and Then making the Best of it."

That definitely something we can all work on during this crazy time of life!

I hope you all have a great week! Serve others always and Smile at everyone you see throughout the day!

Elda Jeppson

I'd say this is the prettiest Ocean I have seen since Kiribati 

The new In N out 

Our bakery

Quarantine fun

I think this should be the new missionary look haha 

The Week Of The Fourth Day In July

Mauri Mauri Everybody! I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. Well not much happened this week because we are still stuck inside, but I will share with you a couple highlights:

On Wednesday we got a referral for a guy asking for a Book of Mormon, so we set up a time to go and drop it off with him. We met him at his barber shop -which is this tiny little thing- and started talking to him for a little bit. Sidenote, human interaction is great. Anyways, he started talking to us and told us he was from the islands. I started thinking to myself, "this guy could be from Kiribati because he looks like he might be from Kiribati, and he sounds like one when they speak English." I was really hoping that he was from Kiribati because how cool would it be to teach a guy out in America in the language of Kiribati. I finally asked him where he was from, and it turns out he is from an island in Micronesia. That was a little bummer, but he is a way awesome dude and very excited to read the Book of Mormon.

Another awesome thing was on the 4th of July, we were allowed to go out and see some fireworks. That was super awesome because anytime time out of the apartment is amazing. And driving at night is always a plus.

Well that has been pretty much all that has happened this week.

I tangiringkami ni kabane!

Elda Jeppson

Mauri From The Other Side Of The Country

Hello Everyone! I can no longer say "How is America treating y'all" because well..if you didn't know, I am in New Jersey Now. Yep That's right, I have resumed the mission life. Just this time in a different part of the world. Hopefully, I will be able to return to the wonderful and absolutely amazing islands of Kiribati, but until then I will serve the people of New Jersey.

Fun Fact for you all:

-Our mission has the most car accidents out of any mission. So if that's not cool I don't know what is haha. 

-The Statue Of Liberty is actually in New Jersey, Not New York

-The City Of Lakewood (which I live in) in known for having the most car accidents in the country

Some of you are probably wondering what the whole dealio with the corona is over here, well I will tell ya. We are not allowed to go outside and visit people, or tract, or get together with other missionaries haha. Don't worry we get a couple breaks throughout the day to go outside and play around or to just get some sun. Basically, all we do is call people, cause that's the extent of what we can do. It's definitely something to get used to for missionary work and just life normally because I'm so used to being outside almost all day everyday.

Our area is pretty big. You could fit the entire island of Tarawa (the main Island of Kiribati) a couple times. I am in the area that has the Beach and the Ocean, so that's pretty sweet. The only bummer thing is that we are not allowed to go to it. My companion (Elder Mortenson from Highland Utah) said that missionaries are allowed to go there during the winter because that's when people aren't there in their swimsuits.

Well that's the update of where I am and what I'm doing. Hope You All have a Great Week!!

Sorry There's no cool survivor pictures, the closest thing I can get to that here is...Well I will have to figure that out haha.

I Tangiringkami!

Elda Jeppson

Saying goodbye - again! 

Made it to New Jersey 

Elder Jeppson