Do a bit, sit a bit, cause if you don't move it you lose it!

 Hiya everyone!! I am doing tickity top bippity bop! haha I think that means I am doing good? Don't really know, I just asked an old man how he was doing this week and that was his response:)

This week was transfers and we got a new flatmate Sister Richards! I love her so much already. She is from Salt Lake City and knows a few of my friends from my ward at BYU so that's a fun connection. She really is just so amazing and I am excited to be with her this transfer!

Here's a couple more highlights from the week:

-on Tuesday we went to Young womens and played badminton and football (real football, not American football haha). It was so fun!! The young women are so nice and it was so fun to just get to know them and play football!!

-I finally found pretzels here and that made me pretty happy this week, also found Reese's peanut butter pretzels which I have never heard of so that was amazing.

-We did a lot of cookie making this week to take to all the old ladies we talk to haha. That brings me to my title of the week. We dropped off cookies for Doreen who is about 80 and lives by herself with her dog but is a powerhouse and looks so good! She loves to meet with us because she just loves hearing all our beliefs and opinions, but really likes her church:) Anyways, everytime we go over she tells us that she has been gardening all morning and takes breaks because her physiotherapist says, ''Do a bit, sit a bit, do a bit, sit a bit, cause if you don't move it you lose it!'' So that is her motto and she tells us multiple times while we are there haha. But hey if that's the key to looking that good and being that independent at that age, I'll take it!

-We had a lesson with Stephen and he brought us presents! I got a Carrie Underwood CD haha, and Sister Thuernagle got a massive picture on a three part canvas of a lake in Scotland haha. It was awesome.

-We had a relief society activity this week and we made hygiene and care kits for the refugees living in Darlington. Which reminds me that this coming week we are meeting with a women who takes care of all these refugees and we are going to get involved with it because there are 200 families of mostly Ukranian refugees in Darlington! Also we are starting an English class this week and the people that we have signed up speak Russian, Spanish, Portugese, Turkish, and Ukranian. So it will be a challenge because there are so many languages, but I am very excited:)

-We did a lot of finding and knocking on doors this week! I actually love it so much because I just love talking to everyone! Although we didn't have much success necessarily, I am just grateful that people actually gave us a chance and were kind:) That's a success in my book.

-Oh yea! I forgot! This past pday we watched the queen's funeral at a member's house. It was one of the coolest things and also very sad! The whole country was basically shut down that day and everyone was watching it. The funeral was super long, we could only stay for the first three hours of it. But it was really cool to see how much people really truly loved the Queen and how big of an impact she left.

This coming week is general conference and I am so so so excited!!! I challenge everyone to not only watch it this weekend, but come with a question you have and I promise you will get an answer by watching General conference!!

Love you all!! Have a great week!!

Love,

Sis. Jepp:)

OG Darlo Flat Squad pics for the last time before Sister Larsen leaves us :(

Pretty clouds and sun :) 

Brother Oakley in our ward gave us matching beanies for the cold, because well.... ITS COLD 

Reeses dipped pretzels and crunchy rocks!! 

Big group picture: all the missionaries in our stake. Far left is our Stake President, President and Sister Broadbent.  In the middle is President and Sister Turvey, then on the right back row, stake presidency: Brother and Sister Nolan and Brother and Sister Reynoldson 

Queens funeral procession 

I love Sister Lucas!  This was taken at the airport when we first got to England :) 

I may not survive the winter here...

 Hiya everyone!! 

For starters, let me just address this: It is indeed cold in England. I wasn't expecting it to get this cold, this fast. I have never felt this type of cold in SEPTEMBER! It actually blows my mind. As we were walking the 1.5 miles to the bus stop one day this week in the freezing cold wind, I told Sister Thuernagle that it felt like a December day and that Christmas is right around the corner. She had a good laugh over that and is scared for me when December actually comes. I am too...

But anyways, despite the fact that it is cold here and I have had to bring out my coat already, this week has been great!! Here are the ins and outs of the week:

-for pday we went to South Shields, a lil town by the sea, for ice cream at the Marseden Grotto for Sister Hatch's birthday. It was just all the sisters and it was really fun. Found a pretty cool heart rock and had to take the classic missionary tag picture so check that out:)

-Tuesday was an amazing day!! We went to Richmond to have our lesson with our new friends we made, only they didn't show up aha. So we took the hour and a half bus ride there for a no show, so it doesn't sound like an amazing day but it was. We were going to walk to Easby Abbey with them for our lesson, so we just decided to do it anyways and talk to everyone we see. Well, it was a 3.5 mile loop and boy did we talk to everyone we saw. It was so cool! We met some awesome people and had great conversations. And we got the extra bonus of walking around the coolest abbey!!

-continuing on Tuesday, we decided to knock on some mansions. So, we saw this MASSIVE, beautiful house and we were like yes this is the one. We go up and knock on these huge doors and the happiest lady opens the door and invites us in right away. I was like WHAT?!? This is super exciting. So we start following her through this mansion and she leads us to this bedroom and was like, ''will this be alright?'' We were so so confused and explained what we were doing and turns out that the mansion is a Vacation rental home thing and she thought we were the guests that booked the room! She was then a very unhappy lady and quickly ushered us out the servants quarters door haha. It was the weirdest thing and was hilarious.

-then Tuesday night we had a tea appointment with the cutest lil family in our ward. The husband is a ex-army, ex-Hell's angels gang Vice president. He is hilarious and has the coolest conversion story!! Basically, he was baptized when he was 8, but then went inactive when he was about 10 and didn't think about the church again. Then when he was about 27, he and his Hell's Angels dudes got caught up smoking and drinking and the cops put them in a charge room and charged them for ''bad'' behavior, as he explained it. But really the cops just didn't like them and were trying to get them locked up for any reason they could. Anyways, they ended up in prison on false charges, and the second day there, he got a Book of Mormon sent to him by his brother who had stayed active in the church. Moroni's promise was highlighted and that night he read it and prayed to know if it was true. The next morning he woke up with a grin on his face and knew without a doubt that it was true. One of his dudes was like ''why are you smiling you are in prison?'', and he was like because this book is true and gave it to him to read. The next day, his buddy said he read it and received the same answer that it was true!! All the other guys were like no way, so lame, boooo, basically, but he and his buddy didn't care because they knew it was true. And then three days later, he and his buddy were the only ones that got bailed out, and the others spent a couple more months in prison until the charges were dropped. After that, he worked his way back to church, got the priestood, got his temple recommend, and baptized his buddy that had also come to know of the truthfullness of the Book of Mormon.

Sorry that was so long, but I just loved it and thought it was so cool. The Book of Mormon is so powerful and can change lives! He got emotional telling the story and said that even if he ever wanted to, he could not, could not, deny that the Book of Mormon is true and that this church is true. It was awesome:)

-Another cool story is with our friend Alex that we found!! We were walking in town and he came up to us asking for directions to the movie theaters so he could watch Lord of the Rings. We walked him there and talked with him for a little bit and set up a time to meet again. On Saturday we met him at the park and had the coolest lesson with him!! He is 15!! I was shocked because he seems so much older, also because that's my little brothers age and it just seemed so crazy to me. Anyways, we taught him about the Book of Mormon and read the introduction with him and he loved it!! He said that he felt a glow as we were reading it and we helped him recognize that that was the Holy Ghost that he felt. He said that he wanted to read every single page of it. It was just such a cool lesson. The sad thing is that he said his parents aren't going to approve of him meeting with us again most likely so we will just have to pray that they will let him or that he will continue to have the desire to learn about the gospel in 3 years when he is 18. But very cool lesson, nevertheless:)

-this weekend was stake conference and it was awesome!! The missionaries in the stake sang 5 songs at it haha. Two at the adult evening session, and three at the sunday session with the youth. Although it was a TON of singing, I loved it and the Spirit was so strong!!

-also because stake conference was far away, we spent the night Saturday night with Sister Lucas and Sister Edmunds!! So that was a fun, 6 sister sleepover:)

-we got to pick and peel apples this week for service and it was so fun! It felt like late fall and it made me so happy

-oh yea! The transfer is already over haha, it went by so fast! I am staying in Darlington with Sister Thuernagle so that's exciting!! Only sad thing is that Sister Larsen, one of the sisters we live with, is being transferred:( I am going to miss her so much!

The main theme that I got out of stake conference is that we are all children of God and that He loves us so much! The Savior is our shepherd and whether you are the 99 or the 1, He loves and values you so so much! I know it to be true and I am so grateful that I get a chance to teach people of that most beautiful truth:)

Hope you have a great week!

-Sister Jepp:)

Pics around Easby Abbey 

our "little sister "Kate! She took the selfie so sorry its blurry haha 

The River Swale 

Classic missionary tag pic :) 

South Shields, overlooking the sea :)

Sisters Pday- Left to Right: Sister Archibald, Sister Larsen, Sister Hatch,
Sister McComas, Sister Thuernagle, Sister Foster, Sister Lanier

Long Live the Queen

 Hiya everyone!!

This week has been a time of mourning for England and it has shown from the continual downpouring that has been happening. As you all may have heard, Queen Elizabeth passed away this past Thursday. It has been very sad and the nation misses her so much already!! There are memorials and condolensce books for her everywhere and it is very sweet. Everyone is sad to see her go but they are happy that she passed away peacefully at the age of 96:)

Other things that happened this week:

-Stephen sadly wasn't able to be baptized this week because a few things needed to be sorted our first but he still wants to be taught and work towards baptism so that's very happy! 

-On Monday for pday, a member in our ward, Sharon, took us on a tour of the Yorkshire dales which is a 85 mile loop through the country side and it was just gorgeous!! We stopped at lookout spots, castles, and the most delicious ice cream spot ever!! I got lemon and black current sorbet in honor of my dad who always gets the sorbets everywhere we go:) but yea, very good day indeed. 

-one of the days we went out to a little town in our area called Richmond which is the cutest town ever and is the epitome of what you would imagine England to look like. Our plan was to go and find in the town center, so we rode the hour bus ride got off in the town center and only after talking to someone for 5 mins it started a torrential downpour. I have never seen it rain so hard so fast in all my life. We were drenched and it was hilarious. It made it quite an adventure, and then it was bright and sunny an hour later. the weather here is crazy.

-Wednesday we had a mission tour and elder whiting of the seventy came and spoke to us!! It was really cool and we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how it has changed our lives. I just love the Book of Mormon!!!

-one of the tea appointments this week was with a very wealthy person in our ward and she fed us a four course meal and I was so full. It went like this: bread, chutney and peppers as appetizer, lamb, potatoes and veg as main course, sticky toffee pudding for dessert, and cheese and crackers for after dessert. disclaimer: pudding is not actually pudding here, it is basically a cake or bread. So it was kind of like a molasses cake. It was delicious and super super fancy. She's the sweetest ever.

-I went on exchanges with Sister Larsen!! She is the very best and I love her so much. We were able to talk to so many people and just had the best time together. That morning we went on a run in the torrential downpour of rain which was hilarious. We couldn't stop laughing at it. 

-people think our american accents are super funny and groups of young boys have stopped us multiple times this week to freak out over our accents and try and flirt with us. classic teenagers

-we went to Durham this week to do whiteboard finding as a district!! That was so fun because it is a really busy city and there were eight of us in the crazy busy square asking people how they find peace. I had some really cool conversations with people and found some great people who are interested in learning more!! It was very cool.

-also went to the Durham cathedral where part of Harry Potter was filmed. SO COOL!!

-I gave a talk on Sunday about coming to Christ with full purpose of heart. The first thing that popped into my head when I was writing my talk was the youth theme song, ''Come Unto Christ''. I noticed how we are asked to do three things in it and then He promises us so many blessings in return. He asks us to ''let Him in, Feel His love, and Come unto Christ''. As we do these things he promises that, ''He will take away your pain, He will pour out His love for you, by His grace you can be made holy again, He will set you free, He will mold your life and change your willing heart, and He will bring you eternal life.'' What beautiful promises!! I know that there is no better way to do these things and to gain a testimony of Him then by reading the Book of Mormon. You can truly come to know Jesus Christ as you do so and then you will be able to ''let Him in, feel His love, and come unto Christ''. As you do so you WILL find happiness because ''His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come.'' (the Living Christ). 

Hope you all have a great week!!

Love, 

Sis Jepp:)

Beautiful Richmond 

Pouring rain...again

                                 All of us on top of the Castle Bolton:)

Yes, these are real stocks...hehehe

Whiteboard finding!! Left to right: S. Foster, S. Mccomas, S. Hatch, S. Larsen, me, S. Thuernagle, Elder Lacey, Elder Williams

Beautiful rose gardens and Yorkshire dales beyond

Torrential downpour in richmond:)

Pictures of the queen are everywhere:( her majesty the queen, may she rest in peace

Durham cathedral

Selfie in front of the famous Durham cathedral where part of Harry Potter was filmed:) Yes, elder lacey is really that tall. He's 6' 6"

Black current and lemon sorbet:):)

Left to right: Sis Thuernagle, Sis Larsen, me, Sis Foster and Sharon with our Brymor ice cream cones!!

Beautiful Durham Town Square!!

Beautiful Richmond!!!

Our morning run in the pouring rain

Me and Sis Larsen on exchanges!!

The Union Jack flying gloriously in the wind

District selfie: left to right, Sis Mccomas, Elder Lacey, Sis Larsen, Sis Hatch, Elder Williams, Sis Thuernagle, me, and Sis Foster

Funny angles :) 

Memorials for the queen

Crazy old castle!!

Scooter Riding Grandma's are the Cool Kids on the Block these Days

 I feel like I am finally starting to get the England that everybody has been telling me about. It rained a lot this week and of course the one time that it is sunny, I don't bring my raincoat but then it started POURING rain and we had to walk to our lessons in it. It was super fun though:) This week has been pretty good I'd say, here's the highlights:

-First, I will explain the title. Me and Sister Thuernagle are just sitting at our kitchen table with the windows open doing comp study when all of the sudden we hear the song Low by TPain blasting. We look out and see this Grandma riding a scooter flying by us hahah. It was the funniest thing and I couldn't stop laughing.

-For pday we went to Seaham and played spikeball on the beach for about 4 hours. It was so fun!!!

-We had a tea appointment with the Stroud's who are the kindest ever. Turns out Sister Stroud has a sister in law in Highland Utah and facetimed her to talk to me and showed me thanksgiving point haha. It was funny. Also, we played cover your assets with them! blast to covid times when my family played that all the time.

- We have had great lessons with Stephen this week! He is so happy and excited to be baptized on the 10th, which is coming up!!

-We were sitting at a bench in the park and this old lady came and sat by us and chatted it up. She proceeded to tell us that she has a ''BC'' name and we were like huh? She said that all the names before Christ are real, and all the ones after are not. She said her real name is Clovis and that people called her Chloe but that isn't a real name so she goes by Clovis. When I told her my name was Chloe she laughed and was like yea that's not a real name. Oh well.

-We got to help out at a summer fair at the care home!! It was so fun and I just had a great time. We danced with them, talked with them and just had a great time. One of the old guys was from Wales and was flirty haha. It was funny. I love care homes.

-We had interviews with our mission presidents, President and Sister Clare! They are the absolute best and I am just so grateful for them:)

-Painted our friend Brian's living room a beautiful bright purple to match his leopard (the actual animal not just the print) wallpaper and pink curtains haha. It was painful haha, but he did it for his daughter so that's sweet.

This week, I have been so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. He really has walked with me this week and given me the strength I need to talk to people as well as immense peace. I know that as we focus on Christ we can find peace and comfort in our lives. I am so grateful and happy to be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:)

Double decker bus at night :) 

Ice cream in the park!! 

Beautiful sunset 

Care home special :) 

Yes that is a homemade burger on a homemade buns, I'm telling you the Crawfords are the best! 

On the cliff with Sister Foster 

Trying to save a dead birds life 

The most beautiful garden, belongs to the Crawfords who are awesome!! 

Our district with the Clares!! 

Flirty guy from Wales hahaha 

Sister Larsen thought my facemask was hilarious