Digging trenches, saving souls, and rescuing palm trees: Rancho Cucamonga edition

 Hello everyone!!! 

Wow this week has been so crazy! I am in California now! My area is the San Sevaine ward in Rancho Cucamonga. It is super pretty here but also super hot. We had a crazy lightning storm here and 100 degree weather.

Here's the highlights of the week:

-monday was the last day at the MTC, and we had a beautiful sunset to send us off

-tuesday, we were traveling all day and got to California and met our companions that will be be our trainers! My trainer is Sister T. and she's the coolest! We get along super well:)

-we do a lot of finding, contacting and teaching all day long and its awesome

-we also do service projects! We went to the communtiy garden and dug trenches for a couple hours haha. It was way fun and we got pretty dusty and dirty. 

-My apartment complex has like ten white people total haha. I definitely need to learn Spanish because pretty much everyone hears speaks it. Even though I can barely understand people, everyone is so nice and friendly and i absolutely love it. 

-One of the people we are teaching has some crazy stories! He was telling us about how he had his big toe amputated and then proceeded to take off his sock and show us! haha it was crazy

-Another guy we are teaching is the coolest and has the strongest desire to find God and change. He spent 16 years in prison and he's only 36, but he tells us that God has blessed him and given him a second chance. We are helping him see that God loves him so much and that he can be forgiven! Its really cool and awesome

-a feel sort of like a therapist because people just unload all their problems on you and sometimes you have no idea what to say other than, God is here for you and helping you through all the hard things we go through in life

-we also found a free palm tree on the side of the road so we stuffed it in the car and took it home haha

Anways its been a great week and I love being a missionary. I have learned many things but the biggest thing I have learned is that God is a God of miracles. He loves us so much and wants to bless and protect us as we reach out to Him. There may be really hard times in our lives, but as we trust in the Lord, and that He is our loving Heavenly Father, we can see His Hand everywhere in our lives. I love my Father in Heaven and I know that His Son, Jesus Christ, atoned and suffered for our sins and felt everything that we go through. He is our Savior, our Exemplar, and our Redeemer. 

Hope everyone has a great week!

Love, Sister Jepp:)

Me and Sister T

Saw Elder Tucker and Elder Metcalf from my
MTC district at the airport! 

I love Sister Kranz so much!! She's the best! 

Our palm tree Todd :) 

Rancho Cucamonga 

Sunset Sendoff 

The classic map pics at the MTC :) 

Training Complete, Sis. Jepp now entering the field :)

 Hello everyone!!

This past week flew by! I don't know where time went, but tomorrow I fly to California! 

There wasn't anything necessarily new this week. I had two classes each day, devotionals, and taught lessons! The lessons went great and it gets easier to teach people the more I do it, so that's happy. 

I did get to see a few familiar faces this week so that was a highlight! Hunter came to the fence one day with an acai bowl for me and my companion haha. So that was awesome. It was fun to see him. Also got to see my cousin Seth a the MTC! He teaches here so I got to talk to him for a little bit. And my mom sent my district crumbl cookies! Love ya mom! They were a hit, especially after eating the cafeteria food here for so long.

Anyways, that's about it this week! I am so excited to go out and teach people the gospel! I have felt God's love for me this week so much and can't wait to share it with others.

Love you guys!

-Sis. Jepp:)

Found my cousin!

 Another fun district pic

Last gym time out on the field!

Matching with the BEST, Sister Dobbs

Last district picture

 Found the British flag

 Hunter giving me the acai bowl

Saw Elder Sterri from California!

playing some piano haha

Guess Who's Moving Back to California!?

 Hey everyone!!!

I am sure you are confused by the title so I will get it out of the way real fast. I have been reassigned temporarily!! I am going to the California Arcadia mission! The UK visas are all backed up right now so pretty much all the missionaries going to Europe are being reassigned. I am supposed to leave next Tuesday, the 21st for California though! I am actually super excited and totally ok with the change. I know that I will get out to England as soon as possible so I am content with patiently waiting in the best state ever. And who knows, in the next week I could potentially get my visa and just go straight to England! It's been a fun adventure to not know for sure what's happening.

In OTHER news... I have been at the Provo MTC for the past week and I LOVE IT!! Here's a few highlights:

-When I got to the MTC, I was whisked away by sister missionaries and taken to my room and guess who got to take me? My amazing friend Sister Brooklyn Dobbs!! We were at BYU together and it was so comforting to see a familiar face. She's the best! I also was able to see four other Sisters that were in my BYU ward so it was amazing!! It kind of felt a little like BYU all over again haha

- I have two, 3 hour classes each day with my district and I love them! My teachers are amazing! My district is super fun, super nice, and we are all super tight. We don't have to eat meals together or hang out outside of classes and stuff, but we literally do everything together. I seriously lucked out in that department

- Also I love my companion!! Sister Randle is my favorite and I am going to be so sad to leave her next week! Pretty much every break and meal we have, me and Sister Randle end up dying laughing to the point of tears sometimes haha. She's the very best. We are pretty similar and she has the best testimony and I learn from her everyday!

- Gym time has been a blessing haha. They have a track and gym and we usually run some laps and then play knockout in basketball which is really fun. We also play volleyball, and Spikeball so that's a blast

- the views are beautiful from the sixth floor of the buildings, me and Sister Randle go there for comp and personal study

-Sundays as a missionary are the best!! The Spirit is so strong the entire day and there is so much peace!!

-also went to the temple today for pday and it was awesome!!

I absolutely love being a missionary!!! I love learning about Jesus Christ every single day and I continually grow closer to Him as I try to be like Him! I also love the Book of Mormon with all my heart and I know it's so true!!!

Love you all!

Sister Jepp:)

Me and Sister Randle taught the Elders a lesson 

We love Sister Sheffield! 

First Day with my Companion, Sister Randle!! 

Me and Sister Randle after we just taught our first in person lesson! 

Love this scripture and love my comp. :) 

Getting gains from gym time 

My teachers are on the far left, shoutout to Elise Rexinger from Roseville! 

Found out about my reassignment at 10:30 at night hahahah

Home MTC=Complete, woot woot

 Hello everyone!!

I just finished my first week of being a missionary AND home MTC!! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! I’m heading off to the Provo MTC tomorrow and I’m so excited! Home MTC was so amazing! I love my companion so much! She is the very best. I also love my district and my teachers at the MTC:) 

This week was filled with lots of spiritual experiences, and fun times, so here are the highlights:

- I had two classes everyday, plus a couple of devotionals. The devotionals are so cool because there are about 300 missionaries on a zoom call, which is super empowering. I am excited to see even more missionaries all at the MTC together. Cool experience with that. We watched a video which was a slideshow of pictures of missionaries, and while we did that we put in the chat what we thought Christ would be saying to us and the Spirit was so strong! It was a really neat experience.

- For pday this week I went climbing at Momentum with my siblings, which was so fun. I’m also going climbing for the last time today for 18 months:)

- Turns out, my companion, Sister Randle, lives 5 minutes away from me haha. And apparently she lived on the second floor of my building at BYU,  but we have never met before! Kinda crazy. We met up on Friday to go to the temple together! It was a really cool spiritual experience. Also turns out we are the exact same height which is pretty funny. 

- Some of the fun things I did with my family in the evenings were pickle ball, my cousins state soccer game (which she scored an amazing goal at and one, shoutout Elise), Stella’s dance shows, and game nights.

Although I am sad to be leaving my family for 18 months, I am so so so excited to be serving the Lord! I had two thoughts as I was thinking about leaving. First, I am so incredibly grateful for my family. I love them so much and they mean the world to me. I’m going to miss all the crazy and fun times we have, but that’s ok. Which leads me to the second thing. How can I be ok leaving my family for 18 months, missing trips, Sunday night dinners, important events and more? Because Jesus Christ sacrificed His life for me so the very least I can do is sacrifice 18 months of my life, completely devoted to Him. He gave His all for me, so in return I want to give my all to Him. 

Anyways, love you all so much!!

-Sister Jeppson:)

Sister Randel my companion 

Draper Temple 

Stella's dance recital 

My District 

Last Pday rock climbing in American Fork Canyon 

Home MTC life 

Goodbyes