Moving Sand > Yard Work

Mauri Everybody! Hows it going? The people here are amazing, and way nice! They are all super friendly which for the most part makes it pretty easy to talk to people. Here is the rundown,

Tuesday: We had an awesome service project moving sand across the island to a members home so they could have a garden box. We got rice bags and rode about half a mile down from there house and filled up about 24 rice bags full of sand. Man that was a workout haha. We then made about 12 trips back and forth until all of the sand was moved. We also had to stop for a second a take a picture of a killer sunset. It was so insane how pretty it was.

Wednesday: It rained hard, and I mean hard! I actually did't know it could rain so hard and so much. So we were stuck in the house for a little while until the rain stopped. We had an  awesome study time though. We then went over to a members house to do some service for them. It was more moving sand hahaha. We also had the YSA dinner at their house. The YSA is super awesome here! Two of them just got baptized right before i got to this area, and one more of them is getting baptized this Saturday. I am super excited for that. 

Thursday: We spent most of the morning helping Baraniko (member) dig a well. The first 4 feet we pretty easy to dig, but once we hit water it got super solid. It took us about an hour and a half to dig about a foot haha We would rotate digging about every 5  minutes because you would go hard chipping away at the solid ground, and then get burnt out haha. After that we found a new lady and gave her the Book of Mormon, so hopefully we can keep progressing with her. We also met a old man who is super good at the ukulele. He played us a song he wrote and it was actually pretty good. So i asked him for the chords and the lyrics. 

Friday: We had District Council about an hour North. So we got the YSA and jumped in a truck to go meet up with the sisters. The ride up there was pretty fun because the YSA was playing pretty awesome Kiribati Music. After district council we played volleyball and basketball for a couple hours while we waited for the truck to come back up to get us. That was a lot of fun.

Sunday: Guess what? We had to talk in all of our branches again today haha. It was supposed to be 2 members, but they didnt show up. I also have to Lead church next Sunday for 2 of our branches. Also something pretty funny happened, my bike seat bent all the way back to the tire haha. So i had to bike for a couple of hours standing up until we had enough time to fix it. Our dinner also got cancelled which was rough because we didn't have any food in our house either.

Well Love you All

Love Elder Jeppson

Me and the Killer sunset! 

Kiribati Construction 

The well we dug 

React and Erata 

Elder Wright and I 

I did a screen shot of where Hunter was calling us from.  It is a families hut.
 Loved the pictures and decorations in the back.  Hunter said that rain does not get
 through their roofs at all.  Amazing! 

My awesome bike seat

Karawa on the Left and Kautira on the right who is getting baptized.  

Warning: Fire and Humidity Don't Mix

Whats up Everyone!! Hows it going! This week has been pretty good, and way Too Hot, and flys are the most annoying creature alive haha.

Tuesday: We finally got setteled into our house  and our area, so let the work begin. Elder Wright is a way good teacher for the language and we had a way awesome study session. After our study time, we went to go visit some people in the area. The culture here is that everyone time you go to someones house they either give you food, or a drink. The drinks are usually nasty haha because they put some water and then they dump so much sugar in them. Its pretty funny. I also had my first branch council meeting tonight, but I had no clue what they were talking about.

Wednesday: After Study and Exercise time we went to go to our Branch Presidents Buddy's House to go and do service, but no one showed up. So we just visited with them and one of there neighbors for a little bit. Then we went back to their house for dinner. They showed us how to make "donuts" which is just fried bread, so that meant we had to sit in front of a big fire. I started sweating in places i didn't know i could sweat hahaha. It was basically like i jumped into a pool and then came out. My companion and I were dying/laughing the entire time because we got stuck there for like an Hour and a half. Once we came back to the house we layed outside and dumped water on ourselves haha

Thursday: This morning our neighbor taught us how to husk, crack open, and eat a cocunut. It was probably the best cocunut I have ever tasted. We had about 8 of them. Then we went to Tarabeia's house because he wanted to help me study the language. He is so awesome. Everytime we see him, he always quizzes me on words. Its super helpful and way awesome.

Sunday: Church was pretty awesome.  We went to 3 different "branches" because there all in our area but there only about 45 minutes long so thats way nice. The first branch had 4 other people in it besides us because they were the only family that were members in the whole town. It was a Dad a Mom and 2 babies hahah. Our second branch we went to had the most people there because its like the main bracnch. The third branch had like 10 other people hahah. Oh and these were all at peoples houses, there are no chapels. I also had to give a talk in everyone of them, so that was kinda rough because I had know idea how to say things. But everyone said it was really good so thats happy. Then we visited a couple people and chilled at there houses.

Monday: We went fishing this morning with a member and we were only supposed to go out for 2 hours because he had to be back for something, but time doesn't exist with islanders, so we were out there for 6 hours. The first 2 hours were great. We caught about 25 fish and it was kinda cool weather. Then we just kept going farther and farther out to sea and me and my companion got pretty sunburnt haha. We of course put plenty of sunscreen on, but that doesn't matter here haha. So our legs are pretty toast haha. 

Well I love you Guys!

Love Elder Jeppson

James (the only name I can remember right now because it is English)
Little Baby Fish- we caught about 25 fish, skinned them and
ate them right there on the boat.  It was great!!
 

Coconut Tree

Sunset Number 1

Elder Write and I 

Sunset Number 2 

Kiribati Kids

ITS HOT! 

Welcome to Kiribati!!

What's Up Everyone! How is the air conditioning because I honestly forgot what it feels like hahahah. The record for being outside so far and not sweating is 8 seconds haha. Well let me explain what has happened so far,

Thursday: The flight was super long and tiring.  The President of Kiribati and his wife who visited us in the MTC were also on our flight so that was cool.  My legs started to cramp up towards the end of the flight so that was so awesome. haha 

When we came in sight of Tarawa from the plane, it finally hit me that I'm on a mission. As we got closer and closer i was like dang, i could be teaching people in like an hour. When we landed and got out of the plane, it was about 5 seconds before everyone was dripping sweat haha. There were a ton of people outside to greet us because a couple missionaries were going home, so that was scary haha. I heard people yelling the language to each other and me and the other  missionaries looked at each other and lost our minds. It is insane how fast people talk here, and it doesn't help that they mumble because you can't understand them at all. We put our bags in the truck and drove to the stake center for orientation. It was so crazy driving down the road and seeing what people live in. When we got to the stake center we met our companions, other missionaries, and did our orientation. My companion is super awesome and way chill. His name is Elder Wright and is from Spanish Fork Utah.   We are super similar people which is awesome. The mission president and his wife are super awesome.  After orientation,  we went back to the house where we were supposed to stay for one night, but ended up staying there until Sunday.

Friday: We woke up around 6:35, then went outside and  played volleyball for 2 hours. It was a ton of fun. We then left to the warf to get on a boat to go to our area, but when we got there the boat had already left. So we had to stay until Sunday because that's when the next boat came. So we just hung out the rest of the day in the house. 

Saturday: My companion and I went on a 7 mile run in the morning, and let me tell you that I am way out of shape hahaha. When we came back,  the sisters came over and we played volleyball from 7:30 - 10 because we can't do anything else cause we are not in our area. After volleyball we went to the store and bought Lava Lavas. I also got to hold a 5 foot Tuna but forgot my camera so I didn't get a picture.  Later in the day we went to a Baptism in the ocean,  and it was so awesome. There was also a huge party for a couple who just got married so we went to that. The was a ton of food and dancing and singing. It was a sweet experience.

Sunday: We didn't go to church today because we had an 3 hour boat/canoe ride to our area. When we came within a mile of the shore the water was super shallow,  so we had to carry our bags all the way into shore through knee deep water. We put our things down and then walked back to help other people bring in their stuff.  Man that was so tiring. We then got to our "House", took a bucket shower.  We had dinner at our "neighbors" hut.  They served us bone fish, rice and some for of plant.  It was really good.  They are feeding us tonight as well. 

Well that's all that has happened so far. 

Love you all.

Elder Jeppson 

Our house on Abaokoro

Kiribati kids

Elder Rangi and I 

Elder Wright carrying our luggage to the island from the "boat" 

Abaokoro

This is how crowded the boat gets - we came on this to the island

First night sunset

Elder Wright and I 

A Visit from the President of Kiribati, Goodbyes and First pictures on Tarawa

A visit from the President of the Republic of Kiribati and his wife

President and Sister Foster

New Companion - Elder Wright from Spanish Fork, Utah 

They made it!! 

Orientation and meeting their new companions 

Elder Jeppson meeting Elder Wright for the first time 

Orientation

Peace Out MTC, Have A Good Life!

What's Happening everyone. We only have 3 more days here in the MTC so I'm super excited about that. This week was definitely a great one to leave on. Our District has grown super close together throughout the weeks here, so it is definitely going to be hard saying goodbye to them. Anyways, let me tell you about my week.

Sunday:  Today was basically the same as every other Sunday so far haha. I convinced our Branch President to let us go on another temple walk instead of sitting inside of a building. Elder Qarase, Elder Johnsen, and I laid in the cold grass again and talked about some awesome stuff. After that we had meetings the rest of the day and then went to bed.

Monday: We had another language fast today so that meant no English. It was still super hard but I definitely felt a lot more comfortable in the language. During Class one of our teachers showed us pictures of his mission for about 30 minutes, and I'm so much more excited now because the pictures he showed us were awesome. Also I met 2 sisters from Papa New Guinea while we were playing volleyball, and of course there way good haha. I have realized that while I have been at the MTC, I have about 90% Polynesian friends, and 10% American friends ha. 

Tuesday: Today we practiced teaching The Restoration lesson for about 55 minutes during class. We would teach one person in our class then move on to the next person until we taught every person in our class. That was probably one of the most helpful things we have done with the language so far because we taught 13 lessons in a row without stopping. Also Patrick Kearon in the Presidency of the Seventy came and spoke to us. He is an outstanding speaker and way funny. He also has a sweet British Accent, so that helped with staying focused. One quote that stood out to me was,

"Happiness is doing something you don't want to do, and being glad you did it afterwards"

This hit me way hard because this is basically what my father told me all the time growing up.

Wednesday: Today we didn't really do much at all haha. It was a pretty uneventful day except for when I saw my cousin Abby come into the MTC. That was super awesome.

Thursday:  When we went into class this morning our other teacher said he was going to show us pictures for about 15 min before we started class, instead he showed us pictures for 3 hours haha! We were all so happy because our class was looking a pictures instead of teaching a lesson. We also had another Skype TRC later that night. It went pretty well except for the fact that the Kiribati lady we called was trying to calm down her crazy screaming kids the entire lesson. So she didn't really listen to anything we said hahah. We also learned that the Church invited the President of Kiribati to Utah and they are bringing him here to the MTC. So on Monday the President of Kiribati is going to come into our class so we can talk to him. It's going to be so cool, we are all so excited.

Friday: OUR LAST P-DAY IN THE MTC! We went to the temple this morning at 7:00 am. It was so nice. So now we have the rest of the day to hang out and chill. 

Love You All!

Love, Elder Jeppson

Sister Fillmore (my cousin) came in on Wednesday

My Brotha Ben Hilburn

Residence Pictures

Elder Kauri (from Papa New Guinea)

"Study Time"

10 Days Left!!

MAURI Everyone! How's it going. It's so crazy to think that I am almost out of the MTC. I am definitely super excited to leave America haha, but also sad to leave of course;) 

Favorite Memory of the Week: Elder Qarase (Fiji), Elder Rangi (New Zealand) Elder Johnsen (Utah) and I did the Haka in our classroom hallway after one of our lessons haha.

Funniest Moment Of the Week: When we were learning the haka hahaha. We looked like a "bunch of fools", Words from the Fijian and New Zealand Elder.

Most Spiritual Moment: Stephen W. Owen the Young Men's General President came and spoke to us. One of my favorite quotes from him was " Never Give Up, Always Give It Your All No Matter What"

Well Here's the rundown for the week,

Sunday: This was easily one of my favorite Sundays here, and I will tell you why. We started off the day with some awesome meetings and an awesome Sacrament. I mean it would have been a little better except I had to give a talk. The way they pick talks kinda stinks haha, everyone has to prepare a talk and during Sacrament meeting they will tell two people to come up and give a talk on some subject. So Brother Chandler (In the branch presidency) always messes with me by saying "are you ready for your talk today,"  then he would laugh which made me think I was going to talk every Sunday so far, but I never got chosen. So this Sunday he said the same thing and I was Like "Oh ya Definitely" -thinking to myself i'm not going to get picked- and sure enough when the talks came around my name was announced. After lunch we walked around the temple, laid in the cold grass, and fell asleep. It was felt so good to take a 5 minute nap. After the rest of our meetings we decided to go and take a nap instead of going to choir haha, best decision I have ever made.

Monday: We had another service project cleaning the windows and vacuuming. We taught another lesson to our teacher/investigator, and it went surprisingly well. I was able to understand most of it which was good because i knew what he was asking us, but I wasn't able to respond haha. For some reason I can't respond, but I can understand it's weird. You guys know what happened next in my day, Volleyball:) After that we had a sweet study sesh on the rooftop garden.

Tuesday: Our Classes were super fun today. We learned how to buy things in Kiribati which is super different to how we shop here. It was really fun. We also sang in the choir again during the Tuesday Night Devotional. The song was so awesome and super powerful. There were about 1200 missionaries in the choir so it made it even better. Stephen W. Owen The Young Men's General President and his wife spoke to us. He gave an awesome talk on Humbling Ourselves, Hard Work, and Obedience. Amazing!

Also we did a language fast today. So basically we couldn't speak English all day long. It was really frustrating not being able to say whatever I wanted to say, but it helped out a ton because I was forced to think and speak in Kiribati

Wednesday: We started off the Day with a Book of Mormon study. One of the Elders was talking about how the Book of Mormon Is one singular book instead of a bunch of little books put together, I never thought of that idea and it blew my mind haha. So it was so cool when I was reading it this morning because it made way more sense to me like that instead of thinking of it as little books put together. We had an Intense game of spike ball after lunch. It was way fun. Also Ben Hilburn came into the MTC, and it was way good to see him. It's super fun seeing someone from home.

Thursday: Today we had an Online TRC. So basically we skyped someone in Kiribati and taught them a lesson. It was so amazing! I mean I still wasn't really able to respond, but I still loved it. That was definitely the highlight of my day. There are also 3 Elders here from Kiribati. They are literally the nicest people ever, There so happy about everything and love laughing. They laugh at the dumbest jokes haha it's so awesome.I can't wait to go there.

Well That's the Week For You Guys!

Love You All!

Love Elder Jeppson

Spikeball greater than Classes?

Mauri Everybody!! How's it going.

This week was one of the better ones for sure, here's the rundown

Sunday: More Meetings. My companion and I had to teach the priesthood lesson to our zone. It actually went surprisingly well. After our classes we went to choir with a ton of other missionaries. The choir director is one of the coolest people. Depending on what song we are singing he will give us the back story of that song which is super awesome because we are singing and learning all in one.

Monday: We stated off the day with yet another service project, super exciting. We washed the windows of the building with all the classrooms in it. It was kinda fun because that's what I did back home for people, the only difference was I didn't get paid haha. We also had some pretty quality classes about the language and the gospel. Our teachers were telling us some awesome stories about the islands. Monday was a pretty nice day temperature wise, so we went out to the field and played spikeball. That was nice because there was no one out there. 

Tuesday: Today was great! We had awesome classes and awesome lessons. We have been teaching at least one lesson a day now to our teachers/investigators. I feel like this is helping a ton because it allows me to talk in the language with no English, and i'm forced to think about what my teacher is saying back to us. Also we had our Tuesday Night Devotional. That was super awesome because Gary E. Stevenson came and talked to us. He gave one of the best talks I Have ever heard. It was awesome.

Wednesday: Well Wednesday was awesome, but not fun at the same time ha. It was Raining/Snowing/ Freezing all day, and I didn't have a jacket so i froze all day long haha. But it was super awesome because the mountains got pretty covered in snow which looked way cool from our classroom window. all of the Polynesians we freaking out because most of them have never seen snow before. I was laughing so hard. We of course played some more volleyball. We also have this mini basketball hoop in our room, so we play shoot or dare, (TB to the Loomis Nightz)

Thursday: Yesterday was pretty awesome. We started off the day with some pretty awesome classes. Our teachers make class way fun. There super chill and funny, but really good at teaching. After Lunch we went and played spikeball again because it was the perfect temperature. I think we are starting to migrate more towards spikeball and away from volleyball because no one goes out to the field to play it. We also taught another awesome lesson. It was probably our longest one yet.

Well I Love All Of You Guys! Tiabo

Elder Jeppson

Livin' on the "Edge" 

Left to right Elder Smith, Elder Nordfelt, Elder Jeppson

Saying Goodbye To the Australian Elders

Saying Goodbye to Elder Dengin whos going to Australia

Saying Goodbye to Cousin Elder Parks