"Welcome To New York"

 Hello Hello Everyone how are you all doing? First off, I hope your all enjoying that nice California weather because it's absolutely freezing up here haha. I thought New Jersey was cold but man was I wrong because its actually cold here. It's all good though because were still inside pretty much all day. Well let's jump into the week shall we,

We started teaching this Jamaican Lady and I have to say she is the coolest person. This lady is one of the most prepared people I have met. She is super open to the gospel and loves sharing it with others. She keeps telling her friends about us, so know we are teaching a lot of Jamaican people which is awesome because they are super cool. Teaching them reminds me of teaching Kiribati people because of how humble and open they are. We invited her to be baptized and she is super excited.

My new comp is super sweet! He actually just found out he is going back to Argentina in the next 2 weeks which is way sweet so maybe that's a sign😉 haha.

Some other random highlights from the week:

-Some elder left a super nice puffy jacket behind so now I'm nice and toasty 

-Someone was throwing away and perfectly fine stationary bike, so we brought it to our apartment haha

-We found these remote control cars in our house so we built an obstacle course for them (everyone is still a child within haha)

I'm loving it up here in New York though. It's definitely a nice change of scenery because now I get to stare at some new walls instead of the ones I was looking at for 7 months haha I'm only joking. But ya that was the week

Remember to keep on smiling!

Tangiringkami ni kabane 

Elda Jeppson

Thanks Emma for the recipe 

Golden Gate Bridge?? 

Had to do a little morning hike to get a picture for the mission 

A little chapel out here 

Standing under a train bridge 

Elder Bargeron and I 

Goodbye New Jersey, Hello New York

 What is going on everybody!? How's the warm weather over there on the west coast treating y'all? Some of you might be wondering why the title says what it says, but I will get to that in a second. Until then here's the update on the week:

We had a super fun service project this week for our friend Cindy. She had a ton of tree logs that she wanted chopped so of course we told her we would help. We got there and found out that Cindy's axe was broken so we called up another member in the ward and he brought over 4 of them. I'll tell ya that my new found hobby is chopping wood haha. Not only is it fun but it's also a way good workout. Not going to lie my lower back was definitely a tad sore afterwards.

Well as you saw in the title, I am leaving the state of New Jersey and I'm heading up to New York to a city called Newburgh. I'm got called to be a Zone Leader with Elder Bargeron, my new comp. I'm definitely way excited for a change because I have been looking at the same walls for about 7 months now haha. Apparently, it snows a lot more and it is a lot colder so that's going to be fun. I also am going to live right on the Hudson River so that is pretty sweet! Lots of members have told me that it's a really pretty area with "mountains" so that will be sweet.

There is a BYU devotional called "Be 100% Responsible" by Lynn G. Robbins and I encourage you all to go read it because its phenomenal. Hands down one of the best I have read. 

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/lynn-g-robbins/be-100-percent-responsible/

That's the week! Remember to keep on smiling and looking for ways to help others!

Tangiringkami ni kabane!

Elda Jeppson

Goodbyes 

A lesson with a member of our ward who is deaf 

Saying Goodbye- Elder Young, Elder Jorgensen, and Me 

Tennis

Elder Shurger

Me and Elder Lebaron

Transfer day 

Elder Kelly 

Singed Hair and Literally Most Insane Experience

 Hello Hello Everyone! Coming at you live from the chilly state of New Jersey with another update on the week. We got things to run through so let jump straight into it!

First off I just want to tell you literally the most insane thing that I have ever heard of a person doing! Remember our friend Alice (the one that is supposed to get baptized this Saturday) well we get a call Saturday night from some other missionaries telling us to check this Facebook group. Now this group has about 16 thousand missionaries on it and it is used to give other missionaries referrals in their areas. Well we open to the page and we saw the craziest thing. Alice (our friend) has been traveling from state to state getting baptized by different missionaries! Like what!! She has been baptized at least a confirmed 4 times already. Within 30 minutes of that getting posted around 60 missionaries had commented saying that they were also teaching her and that they also had a baptismal date with her. People were also saying how they knew her by a different name. She literally has been changing her name and giving different addresses to different missionaries, like what?! I got in touch with some missionaries in Texas and Washington and they also said they had a baptism for her this next week. Honestly, the craziest thing I have ever heard haha. As soon as we asked her about it she deleted her facebook and canceled both of the phone number we had for her. Last we heard of her she was in Florida. Now's she off the grid haha. So sad to say, we will not be having a baptism this Saturday. That's the short version of the story, ask me at the end of my mission for the full story because it would take forever to write it out.

Now your probably wondering how my hair got singed, well it all started back on Thursday afternoon when we were doing service for our friend. We raked a ton of leaves and broke up a lot of branches and our friend Dave (the guy we are doing service for) wanted to burn the sticks. So I summoned my inner eagle scout and built a fire. Well when I was in the midst of starting the fire I had to get down by it and start blowing on it. Apparently, I got a little too close because when I blew the fire the front of my hair and eyelashes got singed haha. I've never laughed harder in my entire life haha. It's not to noticeable anymore but man y'all would have gotten a kick out of it.

Those were the most exciting parts of the week for sure. If any of you are wondering what are covid restrictions over her are, well I'm pleased to tell you that I have been in Quarantine for 7 straight months. I'm so used to it this just feels normal now.

Here's a great scripture for us all:

Alma 37:37 "Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day."

Remember to keep on smiling and helping those around you!

I tangiringkami ni kabane!

Elda Jeppson

Oh yeah! 

Post Chick Fil A 

Elder Jorgensen, Zinkland, Young, Me, Groll 

The District 

Happy Happy January 2021

 Happy New Year everybody! Can you believe that it's already 2021 because I sure can't. This last year was probably the single fastest year of my life hands down. Honestly looking back on the year I have to say that it really wasn't all that bad. Of course it easy to say that at the end of every year but 2020 truly was a good year. I mean from my eyes, families grew closer together, people were more charitable with one another, people were able to recognize the things that matter most in their lives and the list goes on and on. 2021 though is going to be an even better year that's for sure. Well lets jump into the week shall we;

This last week was busy busy busy. Who knew someone could make so many phone calls in a single week. I think if you looked at our recent call history, well, you probably wouldn't reach the end for about an hour haha. We found two awesome people though and were able to have 3 friends come to church, so that was awesome. We have also been getting around 3 referrals a day most of which have actually been responding to us. So I think this week should be just as busy.

New Years Eve was great. Although we only made it to 10:30pm we were still able to celebrate with some tasty sushi and some sparkling cider of course. Our neighbors above us and below us were going crazy once it hit midnight haha. 

Here's some Spiritual Food for y'all:

Elder Soares last general conference talk called "Seek Christ in Every Thought" is pretty amazing and I think would help a lot with setting goals for 2021. One thing he said that stood out to me the most was this, "Thoughts...they can shape the desires of our heart and lead us to what we will become in this life and eventually to what we will inherit for eternity." 

You all should definitely give this talk a read and apply it to your lives. 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2020/10/43soares?lang=eng

Well that's the update on the week! Remember to keep on smiling!

Tangiringkami!

Elda Jeppson 

Good Morning Kiribati style 

New Years Eve Sushi

I signed Elder Young's guitar

Pday 

A sweet message a member gave to us