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