55 Mile Per Hour Fist Bump...

 Hello, Hello everyone! I hope y'all had a wonderful week and I hope you all remembered to smile. This week was pretty busy and had some exciting moments, so let's just get right into to them:

First off, Elder Young and I are staying together for another transfer which is awesome! We will be training a new missionary together. I also got called as the new District Leader. It should be an awesome transfer for sure.

Now you might be wondering, "how in the world can you have a 55 mph fist bump?" Well let me tell you. We were driving back from our trainers meeting when we see this guy pull up next to us while we are driving. He started yelling and telling us to roll down our window. We thought "oh man this guy is going to say some interesting stuff," but when we rolled down our window he yelled, "HEY I'm a Mormon too!" He told us he was from Arizona and was here for a job. Then he stuck out his arm trying to give us a fist bump hahaha, so we inch closer to him and gave him one. Pretty cool if you ask me. We pulled up to a stoplight and he parked his car and walked right back to us to talk to us haha. People around us probably thought this dude was crazy. He got out and talked to us at 2 more stoplights before he drove off. Pretty exciting out here in New Jersey.

There is a talk given by President Eyring from the October 2008 general conference titled, "Our Hearts Knit as One." I encourage you all to read it because it's a great message!

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2008/10/our-hearts-knit-as-one?lang=eng

Well that was pretty much our week! Remember to keep on smiling!

Tangiringkami

Elda Jeppson

Elder Young, Elder Jeppson, Elder, Elder Lebaron 

Our Road Friend 

My friend Bubu from Kiribati gave me a call 

Putting "Gangsta's" In Their Place...

 Hello everybody!! I hope everything is going fantastic for y'all. Did you remember to smile? Well this week wasn't as busy as last week, but there were a couple highlights for sure. 

Now you may be wondering about the title so let me explain to you what that's all about. On Saturday we met with our friend Delancey down at the basketball courts because he wanted to play with us a little bit. We played a couple games of horse while we were teaching him (A little background on what's about to happen, everyone around Delanceys town knows who he is because he is always walking around singing. This where the title comes into play) While we were playing horse 4 teenagers walked up and said "wat up" to Delancey. We asked them if they wanted to play 3 on 3 and they agreed. Now these teenagers are your typical white, think they are gangsters, pot smoking, think they run the town kids, and they were up in the clouds when they came up to us. Elder Young and I realizing that they think they are all that, had to teach them a lesson on the court. Also, keep in mind this hoop was a tiny bit shorter than 10 feet which meant I could dunk. The teams were Delancey, Young and I versus the 3 hoodrats and we absolutely destroyed them haha. Elder Young was throwing me Oops, Delancey was draining threes, and all in all we made them look like fools haha. It was even more embarrassing for them because we were in our church clothes and dress shoes. I don't think I have ever been as good at basketball as I was in that moment haha. I think they're a little salty they lost because they told us they wanted a rematch, so we will be playing them again this week after we teach our friend.

We were also able to go to church again which was awesome! We just found out that we will be going back to church every week now with everyone able to attend which is awesome.

Helaman 5:12 is an amazing scripture and an amazing reminder for all of us. You all should go and give it a read and then ponder on how you can apply it to your lives.

Well that's the week for y'all! Remember to keep on smiling and looking for ways to serve others!

Tangiringkami ni kabane!

Elda Jeppson 

Our District

Elder Young taking up acrobatics 

Teaching Pastor's and Becoming a Street Band

 Hello Hello Everyone! 

I hope you are all having a stellar week. This past week was definitely our busiest for sure. We were running around dropping off Books of Mormon, teaching lessons, and meeting new people. From that sentence it may sound like we are out and about but we are actually still in quarantine. We have just been getting a lot of referrals lately and have been able to teach a couple people in person, so let's get into it shall we:

We were able to meet in person with the Pastor we are teaching and his wife this last Tuesday night. Before we started our lesson he wanted us to play a game of darts first which was super fun but I never realized how good someone could be at throwing a sharp pencil sized stick into a board haha. The lesson went really well. He is definitely progressing and his heart is softening which is awesome. We talked a little about the word of wisdom and he didn't really see the point in it, so we asked him to go without coffee for this week and to sincerely pray to see if anything changes. Well he accepted the invitation which was awesome! Also, he finally allowed us to pray with him and his wife. Before, he never let us pray, but when he told us we could say prayer before we left we were excited.

Our singing friend Delancey is doing great! We met with him at the boardwalk again this week. After our little lesson with him the coolest thing happened, we started singing songs when this young father with his son and his son's friend walked up asking if they could join us and of course we said yes. The father ran and got his guitar and we all started singing. Just imagine seeing two dudes dressed nicely singing with two 12 year old kids and two other younger guys in their twenties on a boardwalk. I have to say it was pretty awesome. I guess you could say we were one of those street bands that make money by leaving out a hat or something, but without the making money part. People would walk by, stop for a second, join in on a song, then keep walking. Now this is what you call missionary work. Before we left, Brian (the guy with the guitar) said that God brings people together in mysterious ways and was very happy to be able to meet us today. He asked us if we could say a prayer before we left which was so awesome to hear. We got his number so hopefully he will be interested in learning about the church.

Although it's easy to get caught up in focusing on the negative now a days, if take Hugh W. Pinnock's words which are " The good will ALWAYS outweigh the bad" we can reset our minds to be focused on the good. 

Remember to keep on smiling in every moment of the day!

I Tangiringkami ni Kabane!

Elda Jeppson

Boardwalk Singers from left to right Elder Young, Delancey, Me, Danny, Brian, Tyler

Selfies 

Who can get higher? - cool little nature walk 

Beach Volleyball cancelled haha 

Cool aquarium with our district 

What our Jewish friends wear on their Sabbath (Saturday) big fur hats 

Temple In Kiribati...Whaatt??!!

 Woaaahh how's it going everyone! It's October already!! That's crazy. General Conference was just amazing right!? I mean every talk was just so powerful. Let's just jump into the week shall we...

First off...Kiribati is getting a Temple!!! I was so happy when that was announced! I don't even have words to describe it. Here's why a temple getting announced for Kiribati is so cool. It's going to make getting married in the temple, going to the temple, and Family History work a whole lot easier because they no longer have to fly to Fiji. Also, the temple is literally going to stand out and be a beacon to the whole island because of its smallness. I mean you will probably be able to see it from almost every place on Tarawa. 

Here's a couple awesome quotes from Conference that I loved:

-"True disciples of Jesus Christ are willing to stand out, stand up, and be different from the world."  -Neil L. Andersen 

-"The Lord expects us not to do what we can, but to do all that we can."   - W. Christopher Waddell

-"One cannot be both Faith filled and stress free"  - Jeffery R. Holland

Hope you all enjoyed those quotes! 

Also earlier in the week we posted a new video that is pretty cool, so if you haven't seen it you should go check it out haha.

Well I hope y'all keep the awesome spirit of general conference with you all this week, and remember to keep on smiling!

I tangiringkami!

Elda Jeppson

Our Conference Setup.  We got to go to the church because our WiFi didn't work. 

Elder Young- and our candy! 

Book of Mormon Givin'...And Piano Movin'

 Mauri mauri ingkami ni kabane!

 I hope you all had a great week and I hope y'all remembered to smile at all times. This week was definitely one of the busiest weeks I've had since being here. We had a fair amount of appointments everyday, and we were even able to meet a couple new people. So with out further ado here's the highlights;

We met again with our friend D this past week and were able to teach him again and of course we sang with him again. He loves the lessons and can't wait to come to church. Since church is only twice a month here right now and since a person has to go to church at least 3 times in order to be baptized, they came up with something cool. We can host a zoom meeting where there are at least two members present with our friend. The members lead the discussion/give a talk so it feels kind of like a church service. Well we were able to do one of those last night with D and three other members. We were kind of nervous before it started because we didn't know if it was going to go well, but turns out, it went amazing! At the end of the call it felt and sounded like the members have been friends with D for years. That was definitely a huge blessing.

We got a call around 7:30 one night from a member this past week asking if we could move this piano they found by the dumpster into their house. Of course we said yes, cause who would pass up the opportunity to lift a crazy heavy piano up a couple stairs and into a house with only two people. But we didn't care because we were able to get out of the house. 

We were also able to give out a couple Books of Mormon this week which is always awesome. 

That's pretty much it folks for this week. We got some videos coming out here pretty soon so #StayTuned. If you haven't seen our other ones...well go check them out on our Facebook page.

Remember to keep on smiling even when you don't feel like it!

Tangiringkami ni kabane!

Elda Jeppson

Found the surfers