Merry Christmas to All

Wow, Crazy crazy week! 

Pretty Tree!

We had an amazing contact this week with this lady named Olga. We stopped her in the street and just started telling her about Ilumina El Mundo and then taught her the Restoration right there in the Calle. We got to the part about Joseph Smith and we opened the Folleto to the page with Jesus and God coming down from the Sky and she said ¨Stop, I have seen that picture before in my dreams when I am going through a really hard time and I pray that is the picture I see everytime¨

The spirit was literally so strong. My companion and I just looked at eachother and were like WOW! We have a Cita with her this week!

I got to talk to my family on the 24th and it was awesome to see them and I definetly cried a lot but its okay! haha. We also had a party with our Rama which was fun. They had a lot of lights and a lot of food. 

On Christmas day we did our secret santa exchange with my district. We also went to get pizza at Dominos and we also had ice cream from McDonalds. Literally nothing was open except those 2 places. Chile is kind of like New York, there are always people and always a lot of traffic but it was so dead yesterday!  Then we went to the Capilla to hangout as a district and played fútbol and chatted. 

My Companion found a dead lizard and decided to dissect it for a bookmark for her scriptures. hahah crazy

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and played in the snow for me because I'm just here in Chile dying of heat! 

If any of you get the chance there was a really awesome talk by John C. Pingree in the most recent general conference I think it's called I Have A Work For Thee. It is amazing. But anyways, have a great week! 

Hermana Jepsen

The elders in front of the most lit house ;)

Branch Party

Our feo tree.

Secret Santa exchange with the district.

Fastest Week of my Life!

Hola!  

This is my District  E Leal, E Barre, E Buxton, Me, H Lyons, E Monja

I don't have a lot of time today, but this was the fastest week ever and I literally remember like 1 day of it. 

We had intercambios with the Hermanas of Buin, so I went and spent a whole day with one of the Hermanas there and one came and spent the day with my companion.  It was fun we basically did the same things as normal.  I also spent the night there which was kind of strange.

We had a service activity and we literally just organized trash! It was really kind of gross but, we were Christ like and did it with a smile. We had another service activity the next day where we dug a hole for a family. Basically they wanted it to be taller than my companion who is quite a bit taller than me. (which is not hard to be, but still it is deep) 

Our mission leader had his birthday this week and so we went and surprised him with a cake and just spent some time with him. He is a really awesome guy, He served a mission in Argentina. 

Then on Sunday we had a Christmas Devotional with all the Ramas in Buin and Paine. It was just a singing activity and it was really fun.  We were there until 12 AM, so today I am really tired haha. 

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and spends a lot of time with family and time serving others! And enjoy the cold for me because it's so hot I never stop sweating!

Love Hermana Jepsen

Slower and Better? What?

Yes, I wore that hat in public, haha what has my life come to?!?!

Slower and better? What? Nothing about the mission is slow hahah. But this week was a lot better. Hermana Lyons is from Gunnison Utah and has been on her mission for 7 months. 

My area is nice, Paine is right between Santiago and Rancagua. Everyone here is so nice and loving. I wouldn't say it's remote but it's not a super awesome town, haha. The Elders in our area have a nicer apartment than ours! haha But it's still nice, just 2 rooms and a kitchen and bathroom. There are so many spiders yikes!

My Bedroom ( my mom wanted to see where I live)

Desk/Closet

Kitchen

 Okay, meals. We are on our own for breakfast and dinner but the members feed us lunch everyday. But they don't really eat dinner here they have ¨once¨ at like 8 or 9.  I haven't eaten anything that I hate yet but, they LOVE rice and chicken and soup. It's so freaking hot here and they serve us SOUP!  How crazy.  It is so weird that it's hot in December, it doesn't even feel like Christmas and in a way that is a good thing because then I'm not as homesick.  

We had a Zone Conference in Rancagua with President and Hermana Harris and 6 other zones . It was good but a really long day because we have to take the bus and then walk to the church and it is just kind of a long process and a long day.

Then oh, my word did I get sunburnt!  It had been kind of overcast and cooler this week and then bam! It was so hot and I got to burnt!  hahah

The doll Marta made me.

Okay, we have an investigator and her name is Irma she is like 78 years old and has a smoking problem and just a lot of other problems but, we were teaching her with her sister who is a member.  Her sister had to go inside for a second and Irma said " Look, that plant over there is marijuana.  Hermana Lyons and I look at each other like- well, there goes the spirit!  hahah. But she's a great lady and I think she has great potential if she can stop smoking and just change her life which is so much to ask. 

There is the cutest recent convert named Marta and she sews for her job and she made me and my companion the cutest little dolls! She is like a grandma. She also gave us the best watermelon in the world. Paine is known for their watermelons. So I'm sure I'll be eating more soon cause it's watermelon season! 

For the most part this week was great, obviously a few things here and there sucked but thats life! I hope everyone has a great week! 

Love and Miss everyone! 

Love Hermana Jepsen

First week in Paine

President and Sister Harris

My new companion and trainer Hermana Lyons 

Well, Hola!

Let me just start off by saying that these were the CRAZIEST two weeks I have had in my mission yet. 

We had Thanksgiving in the CCM and that was super special, they had cute decorations and all of the '"American" food they could make.

We are all leaving the CCM today.  

Then on Tuesday morning I had to say goodbye to my new family I had made in the CCM. It was really hard I'm not going to lie. Then we headed for Rancagua!! It was about an hour and a half drive in a sketchy bus that was so hot. But we finally made it and President Harris and everyone was waving at us and welcomed us with open arms which was really nice. We met all of the trainers and the assistants and had a couple classes and our interviews with President. Then we got our companions. My Companion is Hermana Lyons, she is really really nice and helps me a lot with my spanish and anything else I need. Then we went to our house and it was so stressful trying to unpack and get all settled and it was hard to accept that for the next 12 weeks this is where I will be living. 

Saying Goodbye to President and Sister Brady.

The days here feel like years, but its okay. 

We met some of our investigators and that has been fun, we also have met almost everyone in the branch which is not that many. It is a really small branch. Everyone is really nice and welcoming. I can understand basically everything everyone says to me but I can not really respond which is really difficult for me.

We had many lessons and also some family home evenings with some amazing families. I have eaten some pretty weird things, like for a dessert they like to have a dried peach and some wheat and soak it in peach juice and drink it. Literally the grossest thing I have eaten since being here. 

We have an investigator named Jaqueline and she is so hippy! She is all about peace and love and so we asked her what she learned from the folleto about Joseph Smith and she was like "oh he felt a lot of peace" and my companion was like "well yes but what about the fact that Heavenly Father and Jesus came down from the Sky and appeared to him?" and she was just like "yeah that happened too" she is really hard to teach  because her mind is everywhere haha. But she has great potential. 

Our Christmas decorations!

On Friday night we were running late to get home we were really far away from home so Hermana Lyons started running so I followed and since they have a lot of earthquakes here the ground is really uneven and well, I FELL, it was terrible. This man tried to help me and I just stood up and kept walking really fast and I started to cry and Hermana Lyons asked "what hurts the most?" and I said "my pride" haha well really I just have a bruise on my hip and scraped my hand but hopefully that was my crazy fall for the mission. 

Have a great week!

Love Hermana Jepsen

Happy Thanksgiving

This week has just flown by!! When I look back on this week I honestly don't feel like we did anything ¨share worthy¨ we just had classes and lessons. 

But I am so excited to go to Rancagua on Tuesday! I cannot wait to see how things are there, because I know it will be completely different from the CCM. I am just a little nervous because my Spanish is not great.  However, I know with my whole heart that the gift of tongues is real. Every day here in the CCM we witness miracles, it is a miracle that I can say a grammatically correct prayer, or bare my testimony in Spanish. I know that the Spanish will come and I need to humble myself and know that it will come in Gods time and not mine. No one has ever come home not knowing their mission language!

Just a few spiritual things I loved from this week-

- Become like Christ and always Turn Out! Do not be like the cookie monster.

-The church never changes even when the world does. God is the same Ayer, Hoy, Para Siempre

-Missionaries are like invitation cards and we need to personally invite ourselves into others hearts.

So, this week is Thanksgiving and I have thought a lot about all of the small things I am grateful for. There are so many! I hope each of you take a moment to think about all the great things we have been given. Sister Brady told all of the North Americans to explain to the Latinos what Thanksgiving is all about because we are going to celebrate it here in the CCM tomorrow. As we were explaining it I realized how little Spanish I know and also how little I actually know about the real reason we celebrate Thanksgiving haha. Eventually we got our point across to them and they were able to understand and really liked that we have a day to just eat food and be with family! 

I hope you all have a great thanksgiving and remember all the small things we should be thankful for daily! 

These are the Hermanas going to Rancagua with me, minus Hermana Collins

Love Hermana Jepsen

I don't like speaking in English, let alone in Spanish!

Hola,

This week went by so fast! It was a really good week though. We got new missionaries here in the CCM and they are really nice and full of energy haha.

On p-day we went to the temple in the morning and then went shopping after lunch. We went to this huge mall called Paris and they have so many stores! Like Nike, who knew?!

On Thursday evening we got to go contacting out in a park. I was so nervous because my spanish is a little rough, but it went really well. We talked to this guy and he seemed really interested. We gave him a Book of Mormon and got his contact information so the missionaries in that area could visit him. Then we met a lady who spoke better english than spanish and she said she doesn't go to church because she can't understand anything but we got her information for the missionaries. Then everyone else we talked to didn't seem interested but it was a good time and gave us a taste of how it will be in the field.

On Friday we got  to go proselyting on splits with the sisters from the east mission. I was with  Hermana Flory and she had just gotten out of the MTC 4 days before so we only went contacting and door knocking.  They don't knock because there are gates so they just say ¨Hola¨ and the people come outside. Most people weren't home but we talked to this lady who was outside and she seemed interested so we got her information and they were going to go back and have a lesson with her. We also talked to this man who said he only believed in the Old Testament which was weird, but it was still fun and So Hot!  Haha

On Sunday, I had to give a talk in sacrament!! Every week we get a topic and we all have to prepare a talk and President randomly picks people so I had to talk on baptism. It was rough, not gonna lie,  but everyone was saying how good my spanish was after so I guess I'm going somewhere. Then my whole district sang in sacrament ¨I know my redeemer lives¨ verses 1,4 in english and 2,3 in spanish. The spirit was so strong and some of the latinas were crying!

Funny story from sunday:

We were in a pretty serious discussion with President Brady and all of the Americans talking about the temple and what we can say to our investigators about the temple and stuff and then one of the new American Elders raises his hand and says 

¨I'm sorry to interrupt, but I really have to go to the bathroom¨

President says, very seriously, ¨Thanks for letting us all know, but that is probably something you should do before a meeting¨

Sister Brady says calmly¨It's okay your bodies are adjusting to the food¨

So then his companions all had to go to the bathroom with him.

Then in the same meeting, a little later, President was talking about how he met a lady and this was her last time coming to the temple because she lives in Concepcion, which is far away, and he asked us why it would be her last and one of the new American Sisters said ¨Because she's dying!¨

President says ¨Oh you met her too?"

she says ¨No....¨

We all start laughing so hard because the reason it's the ladies last time is because they are building a temple in Concepcion and the next time she would have the chance to come back it will already be built.  Crazy times here in the CCM.

Hope you all have a good week! 

Love Hermana Jepsen

You Win Some, You Lose Some

My testimony in spanish 

Hermana Sandall, Stanley, DJ, Hancock, Annie, Hermana brady, Pugmire, Collins, Ricks, me

Yo sé que Jesucristo es el salvador. Yo sé que mediante la fe podemos regresar a Dios. Yo testifico que a causa de jesucristo puedo tener vida eterna. Yo sé que el libro de mormón es verdadero. Yo testifico que la expiación de jesucristo es muy importante en mi vida. Yo sé que el evangelio ha sido una bendición para mí. Yo sé que a causa del evangelio podemos sentir felicidad. En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amen.

Pday last week was great!! I'll just drop some bullet points of what we did.

- Went to lider (like walmart) to get some candy because it was halloween of course!

- Went to an art store to get some notebooks and a pencil.  It was super awesome

-We went to a mall to get some stamps for H. Ricks and it was rather stressful because we couldn't understand the lady.  BUT a gift from God rained down upon us and the lady behind us spoke english!! What a sweet assurance that the Lord is always providing for us in times of need.

-There is the cutest little outside truck restaurant we went to to get waffles and icecream. It was very delicious! The guy who worked there spoke english and said he learned from the movies! Crazy, but he said that If we could convince him to follow God he would go to the states, not really sure what he meant but it was kind of funny!

-We went to the temple which is always amazing!

We then went to the store with our roommates H. Bustos H.  Villegas and then 2 other Hermanas H. Oliva, and H Megellen. We got coke and chips and oreos and sat in what they call the weed park because it smells like weed and that is where everyone goes to smoke. Haha good times had by all..

- We had a devotional where we watched a broadcast from the Provo MTC and Elder Gary E. Stevenson talked about how lucky we are to have preach my gospel to teach with. It is such a blessing.

On Wednesday we ran into a girl on the temple grounds who told us that she was coming the next week to the CCM because she is serving in Rancagua and now it is the next week and the old missionaries left and the new ones came and guess what? She is in our room!! The same girl!! She is so nice we got to talk to her a little bit today.

Thursday morning we talked about how we cant describe the feelings of the holy ghost its just so amazing and that is so true. it is so hard to describe to an investigator how they will feel it is just amazing

Our District's motto is  You Win Some You Lose Some. Being on a mission is SO hard and learning a new language just adds to the struggles we have. So sometimes we are going to lose and that is OKAY because in the end we are going to win. 

SUNDAYS ARE FOR ENGLISH

I love sundays they are the best. We are all together not just with our districts and we feel the spirit so much.  My favorite things from sunday 

1. No force in the world can stop the word of God

2. Look through Missionary Purpose glasses

3. In order to recive the gift of tongues we must be patient and be humble. 

All of the north americans and latinos left Tuesday to go to their missions and it was a very very sad day having to say goodbye to our roomies.  It was also a good day because there was only the 8 girls in my district here all day, it was quiet and peaceful.  Saying goodbye to them was hard because I will probably never see them again.

Until Next Week!! Party hard my friends! 

Mucho Amor!!! 

Love Hermana Jepsen

Kind of like a Fire Hydrant

¡¡HOLA!! Happy Halloween!

Pday got changed to today because tomorrow is a big holiday here and everything will be closed. 

So they CCM is kind of like drinking out of a fire hydrant, you get a little bit of water but mostly it just hurts your face.

Honestly this is the realist thing ever! My head hurts so much by the end of the day  I feel like I haven't even gained any knowledge even though I probably have, it's just slow.

Last wednesday, on pday, we got to go exploring. We went to stores and different places. It was fun to be outside of the gates for a while and be able to talk to people who spoke "normal paced" spanish. Everyone in the CCM will talk slower for us so we can understand and it's really nice. 

We got to go to the temple, it was so beautiful! It was like a reboot for the rest of the week getting that spiritual high. Later at night we had a devotional where we watched a broadcast from the Provo MTC and that was awesome. Elder Christofferson and his wife talked about the Book of Mormon.

The rest of the week days are basically the same. We have class and eat meals and then have more classes. We teach mock investigators which is so stressful because I know what I want to say I just can't say it.

We have exercise time everyday and my companion recently had ACL surgery so she can do a lot so we walk and do situps and pushups.

The latinas in our room are so funny and nice. They always sing songs but they all listen to American music so they sing in english even though they don't know what they are saying.

On Saturday Elder Mark Bragg an Area Seventy and his wife came to speak to us and they talked about missionary work and how we can become better missionaries by loving the people and talking to everyone.

Sundays are for English!!!! We get to have all of our lessons in english except for sacrament and the night devotional but it's so nice because  we don't have to worry about how to say something or what they said we can just feel the spirit!

Sorry its so short we dont have a lot of time!

Till next week! Have a great week! 

Love Hermana Jepsen

One Week Down!

This Week has been good! The flight was long but not too bad. When we got here we unpacked and then went straight to classes. Basically we sit in classes all day. We learn spanish and we also learn about the gospel. Its frustrating for me because I know what I want to say but I can't say it in spanish, but I know it will get better! Pray for me.

My companion is Hermana Ricks. She is so nice and we get along really well. She is also the oldest in her family so we have that, along with many other things, in common. We share a room with 4 latinas and it can be difficult at times because we don't know what they are saying but it also helps a lot because then we have to practice our spanish.

Our district is only girls which is not normal but it's really nice because we can stay on task easier.

The food here is pretty good but they basically only eat carbs. Every meal is like chicken and rice or other kinds of meat and pasta. For breakfast they don't have regular milk they eat cereal with chocolate milk, strawberry milk and vanilla yogurt. The bread is really really good here too. 

 My spanish is not very good but it will continue to progress every day. There are so many things they make us memorize and that is so difficult at times. 

Sunday was a really good day where we felt the spirit a lot. All of our meetings were in english and that was nice. 

We haven't really done a lot of different things basically the same every day so I'll try not to be too repetitive. 

ONE WEEK DOWN.

Sorry it's so short, Hopefully more will happen next week. LOVE YOU ALL!!

Hermana Jepsen

(I was hoping for some pictures, but Ally said they can only take pictures on P-day so hopefully next week!)

Made It, Safe and Sound!

Allyson left on Wednesday for the MTC in Santiago, Chile.  We received a short email on Thursday letting us know she made it there safely!   Her P-days are on Wednesdays.  I will be posting her letters here if you are interested in hearing about her adventures in Rancagua.  

Cute Hermanas, all traveling to the MTC in Santiago.