Sister Chloe Jeppson- Leeds England Mission : 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:)