Finding Joy

 Hello Hello Everybody what is going on!? This week turned out to be one for the books!

We just got approved to start doing one in person lesson a day which is music to our ears because if you guys don't know, I have been in Quarantine for almost 10 months now. There is this awesome part member family in our ward that we have been talking to for a little bit now over zoom. She has 3 boys ages 12, 10, and 7 and they are super fun. The 10 year old got baptized back in January, and the 12 year old wants to get baptized on his birthday in September. It is always super sweet to see how the gospel is able to touch all people no matter the age and you can definitely feel the spirit through these 3 boys.

So here's a little funny story for y'all. We have this mini charcoal grill here at our apartment that we have been grilling some amazing food on these past couple weeks. Well charcoal doesn't really disappear, it just falls apart and fills up the grill. On Thursday I decided to grill some chicken thighs but I totally forgot to clean out the grill first, so as soon as I lit the fire to warm up the coals the ash started making a ton of smoke haha. Usually this wouldn't be such a bad thing, but, our balcony faces the main road and if someone sees a bunch of smoke coming from an apartment people would probably start to freak out. Being the smart person I am I decided to close the lid on the grill which did stop the smoke for a second but as soon as I took the lid off...wow... I mean soooo much smoke hahah. I could not stop laughing after seeing the amount of smoke that this tiny little grill produced. We decided to just let it play out and luckily no fire trucks were called on us.

Elder Steven J. Lund gave an awesome talk last general conference titled, Finding Joy in Christ and there is this awesome quote that I love from it which says, "The surest way to find joy in this life is to join Christ in helping others." As I was thinking about how I can start doing this better, I started reflecting on everything that has happened in my mission so far. From going to Kiribati where I instantly fell in love with the people, to getting sent home, to coming out to New York and New Jersey, I have seen that as long as I'm focused on the people I can always find Joy in my life. Although it was a bummer to leave the islands, I have come to love the people in the East Coast just as much as I did over there because I realized that God's work is exactly the same no matter where you are in the world. I am so grateful for all that has happened to me these last almost 20 months and I wouldn't change a thing. There is nothing I love more than serving other people and I have found so much joy in it.

I hope you all have an amazing week and remember, Keep on smiling!

I tangiringkami ni kabane!

Tia boo moa

Elda Jeppson

Elder Olevao, Elder Glauser, Me, Elder Kelsey, Elder Kelly

Prom???? 

Elder Kelsey and I (His cousin served in my mission in Kiribati)

Guitar session

Elder Kelly and I (in Uncle Mark and Aunt Kim's ward)

Park on the Hudson River 

Elder Olevao and I (Elder Olevao served in the same mission as Latham Jeppson)

Cool boat on the Hudson haha 

Helping someone move in 

Our puzzle that took us a week and a half off and on to complete 

There is Sunshine in my Soul

 Hello Everybody! Can you believe it's already this time of the week again!? Well I can't haha. This week wasn't to eventful but it was a good one so let's get right into it.

This past week has been nice and sunny which was absolutely amazing! There isn't anything better than some nice sunshine that's for sure. We have been spending some decent time out on our balcony doing missionary work because sitting on our phones in the sun is better than sitting on our phones inside.

Funny fact haha so I have been getting into this thing called meditation lately and wow is it just amazing. It makes me feel like a new man every time I do it and I would highly suggest it to you all haha. 

We had a cool experience with a former person that was taught by missionaries, we called this guy to see how he was doing and he told us that he has been reading the Book of Mormon everyday and is almost done with it. We were so confused haha. Here was this guy that hasn't answered us in months and he hit us with the I'm almost done with the Book haha I mean that's awesome right there.

That's really all that happened this past week, hopefully I will have some new adventures to share with all of you next week. Remember to keep on smiling!!

Tangiringkami ni kabane 

Elda Jeppson

District hike over Newburgh

Elder Rhoades and I 

Our charcoal grill- keeps us warm and we made come great chicken 

Teaching, Pickleball, and Gospel

 Hello Hello! First off let me say that this past week was literally the most beautiful weather, well until yesterday, and I loved it! It was sitting in the mid 60's -low 70's and wow I haven't felt those temperatures for a while haha. 

We definitely had one of the busiest weeks in this area this past week for sure. We were teaching lesson after lesson which was absolutely amazing! If there is something that I have learned to love on the mission it is this, teaching people about the gospel of Jesus Christ and meeting new people through it. This past week especially I have realized that you can become pretty good friends with most people almost instantly if they can tell you just want to be there friend, and if you bring up Jesus Christ haha. It's pretty cool how that works. 

Since the weather has been pretty nice this past week we got back into the Pickleball grind and all I'm saying is "Ryan Suchomel you better watch out cause I'm coming for ya haha jkjk."

Something fun that happened this week was that Ashley Jensen (from the ol' hometown) hooked us and a family that we have lessons with up with a virtual tour of Temple Square. If you haven't done that yet, you should because it's pretty dang sweet! 

Fun Fact: 

-Since I have been in quarantine for almost 10 months now I have come to love cooking and cleaning. I don't know if it's because I have nothing else to do or if it's because what my Mom taught me has finally been clicking in my brain. But either way I enjoy it haha.

We had one of the most spiritual lessons with our friend Shakara that we have ever had. We taught her more about prophets and the Restoration and WOW she just absolutely loved it. She shared some super awesome things with us which definitely strengthened my testimony ten fold. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the true church. If your wondering if this church is true or not, I'd invite you to read Moroni 10:3-5 and then pray.

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

Tangiringkami ni kabane

-Elda Jeppson

Train Bridge exploring 

Me and a volleyball haha 

Zone Conference 

Temple Square Virtual tour with Ashley Jensen and a family in our ward 

Almost Got Jumped...

 Hello Hello Everybody! I hope you all have had a wonderful week and remembered to smile everyday. This past week was pretty good filled with lessons, meetings, driving, and sun. So let's just jump right into the week shall we:

Elder Glauser and I are training a new missionary so the adventure begins. His name is Elder Roundy and take a wild guess about where he's from...Yep you guessed it, he's from Utah. I have only had 3 out of my 9 comps not from Utah! He is a cool guy!

We were able to do some service this week for a lady that reached out to us on Facebook which was super nice because it meant we were going to be out of the house. She wanted us to shovel out some snow but the only problem was that the snow isn't light and fluffy anymore. We were hacking at straight ice haha we might as well have been hitting the concrete because that was it felt like. I loved it though because it meant I wasn't sitting on my phone inside. She hooked us up with 2 large pizzas afterwards so i would say it was worth it.

Oh funny story. We were walking from our car to our apartment when this guy comes up to Elder Roundy puts a cigarette in his mouth, uses some colorful language and starts saying how cool his suit was. He was eyeing it up and down and I was watching him thinking, "I'm going to have to run after him in a second because my comp is about to get jumped haha." It was pretty funny and it added some excitement to our day. He didn't get jumped which was a little sad because I really wanted to run after this dude haha. 

We have been staying super busy teaching people, driving, going to meetings, and enjoying the missionary life. The mission is so awesome and I love every second of it. I just found out that I'm going to be staying here for the rest of my mission so that's definitely a bummer to not be returning to Kiribati, but I have come to love it here so it will still be full of awesome experiences! Don't worry I will be back there after the mission so stay tuned for some sweet pics;)

Here's a little spiritual food👇🏽

"If thou wilt do good, yea, and hold out faithful to the end, thou shalt be saved in the kingdom of God, which is the greatest of all the gifts of God; for there is no gift greater than the gift of salvation"

That was pretty much the week here. Hopefully this coming week is a little more eventful. Remember to keep on smiling!

Tangiringkami ni kabane!

Elda Jeppson

Hey there how's it Going? 

Peace 

Portraits 

Landscapes 

Some snow shoveling 

Delancey, E. Jorgensen and I 

Oh No haha 

The Pizza Place Miracle...

 Kam na bane ni Mauri! 

    How is everyone doing? I hope you all had a fantastic week because I know we did over here. Mainly because it was sunny and warm(er) for most of the week, the snow has basically melted, and we had a lot of awesome lessons. Also thought I'd throw this little fun fact out there, but, I have a little less than 6 months left on the mish! It absolutely blows my mind haha. Anyways, let's jump into the week shall we.

    We had a cool/funny/crazy experience from this past week. Right now we aren't allowed to eat with people in person which is a bummer but hey what can you do. There was a member that wanted to eat pizza with us but when we told her our predicament she said I'll call right back. Five minutes later she called us and said come across the street, I ordered pizza and we can talk till it's ready. Let's just say she finessed the system and we couldn't do anything about it at that point. The funny part happened while we were talking to her outside the pizza place. There was a man next to us also waiting for his pizza and he turned to us and asked if we are from "the church" which we told him we were. He then looked at Elder Glauser (my comp) and said, "You look familiar, I think you added me on facebook." We were going crazy because the odds of that are very small haha. For those of you that don't know, we as missionaries add a lot of random people on Facebook in hope of being able to teach someone new and I guess our work finally paid off! We ended up having a pretty solid conversation with this guy and we have been talking to him since. After the guy left the member looked at us and said, "See I knew you were supposed to come here today."

Spiritual Food for the week:

1 John 4:19 says, " We love him, because he first loved us."

Take some time to think about that scripture this week!

The rest of the week was pretty chill honestly. Our friend Shakara is still doing super awesome which is amazing! 

Remember to keep on smiling!! 

Tangiringkami!

Elda Jeppson

Our new companion Elder Roundy 

Some Peeps 

Chatting with Elder Kelly

Walmart shenanigans

Learning the ways of my father 

Parents watching the Sunday talk (guess that's a perk of Zoom??)

Elder Jorgensen and I