Sister Chloe Jeppson- Leeds England Mission : Alone in the city?!?!?

Hiya everyone!!!

Hope everything is going well back there in the states:) England is good!! The temperatures are starting to drop, and warmer sweaters, coats, tights, and boots are becoming a regular occurrence. The heating prices have gone up a ton here so no one puts the heat on in the house yet to save up for the colder months. I'd say those are now but apparently not haha. In other news, the trees are all changing colors and it's still so green here! It's amazing!!

Here's the highlights of the week:)

-Monday we went to Seaham again for pday! This time it was a lot colder right on the beach but we still played a ton of spikeball and had contests to see who can through rocks the farthest haha. Classic.

-me and Sister thuernagle got matching Greggs sweatshirts. Greggs is a little bakery shop with famous sausage rolls and chicken bakes. It's not really that good, but there's a Greggs on like every corner and they are pretty popular so we had to get the merch

-we traveled to Middlesbrough this week for Sister Thuernagle to take her theory test to get her permit. Middlesbrough is a university town about 25 mins by train from Darlington. Its super diverse and very cool! Well when we got to the testing center they wouldn't let me in, and there was no sitting area, so I had an hour and a half to just wander the city. ALONE. scary stuff for sure. I was like ok, the safest place I can think to be is on the university campus because everyone is around my age, so I went there and wandered campus and sat on a bench haha. It was so cool and the students were from all over the world. It was super weird to be alone but it was a nice lil break:) if anyone wants the vlog of me enjoying my time alone, message me:) haha

- we went to a baptism on Saturday!!! It was for Ben, who is 18 years old and is so prepared for baptism! When the elders met him, he knew everything and could teach them. He had been studying and learning everything on his own until he turned 18 because his parents didn't give him permission to go to church or meet with the missionaries. So then when he could, he was so ready. It was a very sweet baptism and I was asked to play the piano for it. God really does amplify our talents when we put them to good use because I haven't practiced in a while and it was able to play songs I've never played before. That was a blessing:)

-we went whiteboard finding in Peterlee and asked, "what makes you happy?" People are so nice and it is my favorite way to find people. But it's also scary because we get some drunk and high people that come up and want to write things. But hey I guess they are thinking of things that make them happy which is what we want:)

-English class was a success as always! It's so fun and we are getting to be good friends with those that come to class:) they always love to stay for the spiritual thought and are so grateful to us. Its a humbling experience for sure because I'm not qualified or experienced in any way to teach English, but I do my best, and the class is so incredibly grateful for our efforts:) they inspire me to be more grateful for the little things in life.

-we had a really cool experience finding in the park the other day! We were walking around and it seemed as if we were a repellant to everyone, no one was talking to us. But then I opened the book of Mormon and found a scripture that I could read so that I was prepared to talk to people. Sister thuernagle said outloud, "God we have bourne with patience our afflictions, please help us find someone." And then we continued to walk and talked to five really kind people!! It was very uplifting. Then before we were about to leave, we met Finn, who was so so curious!! He asked us pretty much every question in the book. It was cool because he kind of was trying to prove us wrong and everytime he would try to argue something you could feel the Spirit leave. But then when we would answer him, the spirit came back and we were able to testify of the truths we know. It was a testimony builder to me because I truly felt God helping me know what to say by the power of the Holy Ghost. We talked to finn for about an hour and a half and he was very grateful and accepted a Book of Mormon and said he would read it:) It also was cool to see that as I prepared with a scripture ready is was like God was saying, I just wanted to wait until you were truly prepared and then I was going to send you everyone. And He did!

-we went to my favorite people, the Dunn's for dinner! They are the ones from Scotland and decided to feed us a traditional scottish dish, you may have heard of. Hagas. Oh yea, you heard it, hagas. As in the ''leftovers'' of the sheep cooked in a sheep's stomach. Yea. Nasty. To be honest, the taste wasn't actually that bad, it was just thinking of what it was while eating it that made it really gross haha. But hey, I made it through!

A favorite scripture I have loved this past week is Psalms 28:7:

''The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.''

I know that when we put our trust in Him, we are helped and He will bless and guide us. He truly loves each and every one of us and is just waiting for us to reach out to Him and put our trust in Him. I know this to be true and am so grateful that I get to praise Him everyday by teaching others about the love that He has for us.

Love, Sister Jepp :)