I Just Love People

 Hiya everyone!!

This week was absolutely just so good! So tiring, so busy, and so so happy. We met so many cool people this week! We taught every single day:)

This week I want to highlight some of the amazing people we have taught. I love everyone we meet so very much and learn so much from all of them!! 

First: A! She is from here in England, and we met with her for the first time this week. Her boyfriend is a member and she wanted to learn more about his religion! So we got in contact and had the coolest first lesson ever. She had so many questions and the Spirit was so strong. Her son is disabled, nonverbal and in a chair. She was a little nervous to come to church because of him being disruptive and what not. But number one miracle: there is another family in the ward with a son who is disabled, nonverbal, in a chair, and the ward absolutely loves him! So that was a comfort to her that the ward is already used to those needs. and then second: a member in the ward is a teacher at the school that he goes to! So that was a familiar face and someone who knows how to take care of her son should she want to sit in a class! So many miracles. She is the coolest!!

Second: S! She is from Nigeria, and she is doing her Masters at University of Bradford! We got to meet with her in her student housing on campus. It was so weird to be walking around a uni campus. Only difference between Bradford and BYU is oh yea, everything. Random people throwing fireworks down alleys, no white people, like at all, and everyone speaks about 4 different languages. But I loved it. Anyways, back to S! She is really cool and loves that she has found a community of people who love Jesus Christ! We were able to give her a Book of Mormon and teach her! She is so cool.

Third: K! She is from Nigeria as well! She has been working over here and sending all her money back to Nigeria for her three daughters still there. She is trying to get enough money for them to come over and live with her. Her heart is so pure and her love for God is undeniable. It was so sweet to meet with her and read from the Book of Mormon with her! 

Fourth: P! He is from India and super interested in the church! He has a daughter who is also interested in coming to youth and is just super sweet. He loves the Book of Mormon!!

Fifth: N! She is also from India, she is the one that we had the meal with last week. She comes to church almost every Sunday and loves studying the Bible in church! She always chips in to the lessons and has some beautiful thoughts to share!

Sixth: M and D!! They are from Bradford, born and raised and they are mother and daughter. They were baptized about 4 weeks ago and just have hearts of gold. Their testimonies shine through! We are preparing them to go to the temple for the first time in a couple weeks:)

Seventh: R! She is from some islands off the coast of Africa that speak Portugese. I can't remember where right now haha. But she is so sweet!! She has a 2 year old little boy who is the cutest. Her husband isn't a member, but we are reteaching her and helping to teach her husband! She hasn't been to church in a long time, but has this pure desire to live better and make better choices for her sweet son. She is such a sweet example

It is just such a neat experience to meet with people from all over the world. It is a testimony to me that God loves ALL of His children. I can feel His love for each and every one of the people I meet each day. 

I also have a testimony of the Book of Mormon! What a blessing it is in my life. I know that is the most correct book on the Earth, and that we can grow closer to God by reading it, than by any other book. It is an additional witness and testimony of Jesus Christ, and works hand in hand with the Bible. Because I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, I know that Joseph Smith was in fact a prophet. I know that we have a living prophet on the Earth today, and that God does speak to us today. How grateful am I for that knowledge and testimony:)

I just love being a missionary!

Other fun things that happened:

-almost burned down the flat, don't worry my spidey skills kicked in and it was put out with no harm caused

-had a crazy guy come up to us at night with a cig in his hand and waving it around, got inches from my face and prayed over me and Sister G. Then proceeded to try and sell us some shoes. Bradford man. It was hilarious.

-played minute to win it games at youth:)

-had a continental breakfast and clothes swop for Relief Society on Saturday and it was SO FUN!! And our friend A came and LOVED it!!!

-zone blitzed in Leeds. This coming week there are lots of activities going on for the YA in Leeds and so we all want aroud inviting all the uni students to it! We walked around for 2 hours around Leeds City Center and probably talked to over 200 people. It was insane and so fun. 

-we are out of the flat everyday by 9:30am, and don't come back until 8-9pm at night. And you know English weather, 

 "if you don't like it, wait five minutes, it'll change". And change it did. From sunny in the morning to pouring rain in the afternoon. Only problem is that we didn't bring rain coats, hence the sun, and got completely soaked through, having to walk in in for 25 mins to a tea appointment.

I just love all the fun adventures we have as missionaries. And most importantly, I love every opportunity I have to testify of my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Love,

Sis Jepp:)

Italian vs. American pizza. I bet you could guess who won.

                        Cool hill we found overlooking Bradford

Got a melon and our keys back:)

This heart is the famous Lidl symbol. Lidl is a grocery store here:)

Snoozing:)

I don't know if you can tell but this bus is INCHES from the car.

 And this isn't even the worst of it. On the other side, the cars are 

this close too. It's super scary, but also super skillful.

                We got caught in the rain with no rain jackets:)

A lil "forest" in Leeds City Center

            Beautiful town square in Baildon

Leeds Zone Zoom Call!

Zone blitzing Leeds!!

SPICY pizza!¡!¡

 Hiya everyone!!! Hope you all had a great week!!

This is kind of crazy, but the countdown officially starts today... we are under 10 weeks now. So 9 more pdays left. That is super wild. The only reason why I allow myself to say that is because I know that the most important part of my life is yet to come. I have learned so many things and have had the most life changing opportunites as a missionary. But it has been just the start of my life mission. And I am excited to do all I can these last weeks to give everything to Him and to continue to be the person God needs me to be even after my mission. 

Really cool thought that I was taught this week. We are all worth so much in the sight of God. His love for us is never ending. Sometimes we do things though that make us feel unworthy, or worthless, and other times we are completely worthy. But the thing that never changes through that all is our worth. Look at it like this:

     WORTH

     WORTHY

UNWORTHY

      WORTHLESS

You will notice, that even though these additions are tacked on to the word "Worth", it never changes. Because God's love for us never changes. He will never love us more, and He will never love us less than He already does. What a blessing and a comfort.

Anywhos, here are some of the cool/funny things this week:

-For pday we went on a walk/ hike and played a game of makeshift Kubb out of sticks haha

-we ran the Young Womens activity on Tuesday night, and it went so good. We did a scavenger, picture hunt and they loved it. We gave them a set of items they had to go and take pictures/selfies with. Then they would come back, get it approved, and receive a challenge, either a word, scripture puzzle, or a physical challenge. Then they would get the next set of items. And it was a race. It was so fun. And the prize was popcorn and American Jolly Ranchers we found. Quite fun.

-we had zone conference this week! It was so so so good!! Sister G was playing the piano and Elder Haines was playing the guitar and singing for a musical number and they roped me into singing a solo part and duet. It was so scary, but pushed me outside my comfort zone so that was cool

-went on an exchange with SISTER KINGSTON!! Oh I just love her. We were flatmates for a transfer and it was just so good to talk about everything that day

      

-Ok this was so funny. Let me set the scene. Nishu is our friend that moved from India 6 months ago. Her husband and son have followed 2 months ago and now they are all living in Bradford, dont speak too much english and working a ton. The husband is Sik religion and Nishu is christian. And nishu has come to church a lot. So we went over with the plan to teach them and what not, but kind of like a first lesson because it was my first time meeting them. And they want to feed us. Which was fine. But sidenote, I have been eating gluten free for the past two weeks and feeling much better, but sometimes people don't know what that means and still feed me gluten. And there was no way I was about to tell that to this cute indian family who probably don't even know what that word means. I mean the 7 year old boy couldn't even say my name so he called me Sister Japanese. Anywhos. They say they want to just give us snacks and start to lay food out on the table. here is the spread. 8 slice pizza, 4 donuts, cookies, digestives, doritos, fries, corn nuts, and burning hot, hot chocolate. I was shocked. Like my worst nightmare. And what makes matters worse is that the pizza was SPICY! How does that even happen? So here I go, I eat one piece of pizza. And try to wash it down with hot chocolate, burn my tongue, eat a donut to tell her that hey, main course, dessert, I am done. But no, she puts another slice of pizza on. And another. And another. They just kept feeding us. I couldn't look at Sister G because we were both trying not to die laughing. Neither of us can handle spice. It was hilarious. I left 20 lbs heavier that night. And man it was just so bad.

But yea, I can't remember what else. We are teaching some of the coolest people ever!! People from all parts of Africa, India, Iraq. It is just so neat to meet all these people and to see their hearts changing.

I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ! There truly is power in His name. I challenge you all to testify of Him this week. Whether it be to a friend, sister, brother, grandparent. Anyone. I invite you to join with me and open our mouths to “speak of Christ, rejoice in Christ, and prophesy (teach) of Christ” (2 Nephi 25:26). We have the sacred opportunity to share the name of Jesus Christ to all the world. Our message is the most important message in the world. He is the most important message to the world. I so testify, in His name, Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Love,

Sis Jepp:)

The cute young women in the ward! 

Jolly Ranchers!!!

    

       My cutest comp, Sister Giannini 

These are the elders we did the musical number with!
Elder Haines and Elder Yamaguchi

Sister Kingston!!! Reunion:)

Knockin in the rain!!

AP's Selfie with the Zone, Elder Van Alfen, Elder Gilbert

All the sisters in the zone!! Back row: Giannini, Olsen, Me, Lord, Ford, Holbrook, De Guzman, Ashton, Freeman. Front row: Hobbs, Brown, Wade, Kingston

Hull Zone Squad: we all served together a couple transfers ago:) Ford, De Guzman, Olsen, Wade, Lord, Me, Holbrook

President Clare photo bomb!

Leeds Zone!!

Go to the shade, and make a plan

 Hiya everyone!!!

This week was mighty fine, and mighty hot haha. It was the one and only heat wave of the whole year. It was so so so so so hot. But probably not that hot actually, I have just acclimated to the cold here so 80 degrees feels like death. Hence the title, no matter what we did, we always went to the shade and made a plan haha. We tried to be out the whole entire day and it was so good! We saw tons of miracles!!

Here we go:

-we played sports at Hyde Park in Leeds. Twas a blast

-we were in a trio for a day!! We had Sister Olsen with us and it was so much fun! We went to a park with a family event on for a couple hours and talked to SO many people! It was really fun. And we went to a petrol station with American stuff and bought Kool-aid and ice cream for lunch. And my Italian comp made pasta. Also Sister Olsen is from Norway, so it was so fun to tell people all day where we are from!!

-this week really just consisted of walking everywhere, taking oven rides, oops I mean bus rides..., and talking to so many people!!

-We had a goal this week to testify of Christ every opportunity we had. We also wanted to teach every single day! We prayed for these opportunities and really tried to do all we can to be where God needed us to be. And we were able to teach so many people!

-took some trains into Leeds for Sister Giannini's driving practice

-I got my official UK driving license in the mail. It is valid for 10 years, so anytime any of you want to go to England, take me, I will be your legal, experienced driver

-we had the option of walking an hour to a tea appointment under the sun, or taking a bus which would get there at the exact same time, an hour, so we walked

-fun things about Bradford, that actually just make me laugh and I wouldn't have it any other way:

-the driving is horrendous, next level scary. No one pays attention to anything

-Uber drivers are crazy here, and we get to take them. It was funny because I was chatting it up with the uber drivers this week because it was my first time on my mission, and Sister Giannini just laughed because she is so used to it.

-the chavs and roadmen are next level crazy here, especially in the heat, all shirtless on these motorbikes with masks so you can't catch them on cameras when they do dumb things 

-we live by a train station so every 10 mins a train screeches into the station, but don't worry the Lord blesses me because I can for the most part sleep through them

-Bradford is very hilly

-it takes us an hour, by 2 buses to get to church

-we go running along a canal in the mornings

Funny story. Sister Giannini run out of clean socks so i let her borrow a pair of mine. At the end of the day, we took off our shoes, and i got a hole in my sock, and she got a hole in her sock (my sock) haha. It was hilarious because we walked so much that day we wore holes into our socks

I have just been having a lot of joy meeting so many people and just being out on the Lords errand. I'm so grateful to be here!!

Love,

Sis. Jepp:)

Bradford Train Station

Waiting for the buses in the heat

The sunrise from our balcony:)

Us resting after walking an hour, waiting to get energy to walk
 up the massive hill haha

The holes!!

Trio for a day!! Sister Olsen, Giannini and me!

Made a new friend: Batman

American store with my Norwegian and Italian friend

Kool-aid for the win

Cool pictures with the coolest bush haha

We were all blinded by the sun

        Visited a sweet Sister in the hospital whose appendix burst

District council!

The district on pday!! Sister Giannini, me, Elder Olsen, 

Elder Fröbel, Sister Holbrook, Elder Bailey, Sister Brown,

Elder Braithwaite