Sister Chloe Jeppson- Leeds England Mission : Raining, Running, and Really Long Conversations

Hiya everyone!!

As they say over here, this week it was chucking it down! Rain every single day. But it was a good week!

You know that song, ''Pioneer children sang as they walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked...etc''. That's what I felt like this week haha. A lot of our plans fell through so we mostly just walked around and found all week long. But it was awesome!! We talked to a TON of people!

Here's the highlights:

-went to Richmond Castle, the Richmond falls, Easby Abbey, and Brymor Farms on Monday for pday which was so fun!! Some of my favorite places I have been so far:)

- English class was so fun!! It was just me, sis Flake and Husein and Burcu, but we just had a really good time. We genuinely have become really good friends and I am going to be so sad to leave them the most!

-Cool miracle! We were walking down this cool street with a bunch of lanterns overhead, and found the shop that made these lanterns. Turned out they are actually plant pressed lampshades! But anyways, I was thinking we should go in and talk to the person working there, so we did, and we had the coolest conversation!! This probably 30 year old woman was just baptized into a Christian church just a year before and has been just learning about everything. And the day before she was watching a video about two missionaries talking to another guy about Joseph Smith! and then we walked in that day! We had a really good conversation with her and she was super interested because she had to look up on Google what her church even believed, and thought is this really the right one if I have to look up what we even stand for? So yea, pretty cool. She wanted a Book of Mormon and two of our pamphlets:)

-lots of really good interactions with the nicest people!!

-went to visit our dear friend Doreen. She is the sweetest ever. And we were stuck there for 2 hours. I would like to see someone successfully, get in and out of her house in less than an hour. It can not be done. She is a chatter box. even when we stood up to leave we stood for another 15 mins because she had another story for us haha

-BEST THING EVER. It is going to sound super lame to everyone else I'm sure but it was heaven to me. So here, all across the UK, there are what's called park runs. And every saturday at 9:00am there's a 5k run in most big parks here. And it is all volunteer based!! So you sign up online, get a barcode and can run in any park run across the UK, every Saturday! And its this point system online, and you try to beat your time from before. It is amazing.

So, we wanted to go volunteer and help! Because I can't convince my comp to run it with me...yet haha. But anyways, we start walking to the park at about 8:30, and it is POURING RAIN. My comp is like, it's not going to happen, it's raining!! But obviously I know that runners love the rain and that it won't stop them, so we continued the 30 min walk there haha. My comp hated me that morning haha, but secretly she had fun. Anywho....as we get closer to the park, sure enough there's all these runners warming up. I had no idea how happy seeing runners could actually make me! I was so excited haha.

We found one of the marshals and went and stood by her on the corner to mark the race and cheer people on! IT WAS SO FUN!!!!! There were between 100-200 runners and we, well I, cheered so loudly and was so excited! All the runners shouted to us as they were running, thank you! best cheerleaders!! we love you!. it was so fun. And the marshal we were with, Catherine, we became good friends with!!

So yea it was just amazing. I wasn't even running, I was standing on the side, in the pouring rain, watching all these people run this 5k. Sounds pathetic to everyone else I am sure, but it made my week so that's all that matters, right?

Last MIRACLE that I have to share. So, on August 20th, we met this guy. Dave. Just an fyi (if you ever go to England, and you don't know a guys name, take a random guess of Dave, Stephen, Brian or John and you are 9 times out of 10 gonna get it right).

Anywhoooo, so we were just walking by and asked if he was interested and he said he was busy but to come back next Saturday. So on the 27th we went back and his girlfriend kicked us out in a mean way so we didn't ever go back.

Then on Dec 11th, I got a message from a dave. And he was like he you might not remember me, but my girlfriend kicked you out and I actually wanted to hear about your beliefs and learn more. And I was shocked!!! So we arranged a time to meet, and because of work and the holidays, we didn't meet until Sunday, January 8th.

And this was the most genuine lesson I've ever had!! He has had a really hard past couple of years and went down a dark road and was really struggling. But he has four kids and he was like well what happens to them if I'm gone. So he pulled himself back out and has been really searching and trying to find a better way so he can be there for his kids. It was heartbreaking but also so neat because he feels like he has found it with us! He asked so many questions and is so excited to read the Book of Mormon and meet with us again! So please keep him in your prayers! Miracles!!

So that was my week:) I love it here! I love being a missionary! And I love Jesus Christ!

Love,

Sis. Jepp:)

Sisters Call!! Top left: Sister Richards & Kingston, Sister Sousa and Lucas, Sister Hritz and Crook, Sister Flake and I. Bottom left: Sister Zhang and Giannai, Sister Archibald, Sister Wight and Tjussen, Sister Tait and Olsen. Lots of Sisters from all over the world. Spain, Italy, China, Belgium, Norway and America :)