Nog Bros

Hvadså! Well its been like 7 days and I'm sure youre all wondering what happened to the Jeppson kidd, well let me tell you:

Progress:

So as far as our teaching... this week went a little bit slower for sure. We are in the slow part of the dance right now because we are in sensitive positions with those we are working with. With C*, she really still just needs to read and pray every day. It seems so simple but it will be the key to knowing. She has been a bit dodgy with us this week but we almost have a day where she can meet for this week, but I'm a little sketched if she will pull through. (can you tell I've been around a British guy? haha) But I'm not super worried:) 

With M*, same thing. He just needs to TRY praying. He slipped back to smoking real cigs but that isn't something I'm worried about. He really seems to want to stop so we just give him our love and support. If anything, it could be what makes him pray so he can get extra strength so we will see. The main thing with him is that he knows the voice of the spirit, because schizophrenia kinda makes that hard.

Vo Long.... passes the sacrament like a champ. HE walks to church unless it snows haha so he is my hero. We are starting to help him with family history because he wants badly to be baptized for his dad who died rather violently and sadly when he was 3 years old. He really is such a stud!

Ill get to some exciting stuff in a sec....

Mandag:

I bought a bike!! That's right a real one. It is kinda funny, but there was such peace of mind riding out to Thanksgiving dinner at the senior couple's house. That thing glides! Silently too :) And I don't think I'll be losing 12ish spokes anytime soon so that's a bonus;) But yea we had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner/Family home evening at the Turpins! Way fun. All of the missionaries on Fyn together for the last time before transfers.

Tirsdag:

Fun story with Vo Long... so we had a lesson on missionary work and why it is important to be a member missionary. So at the end I tried to give him an invitation that went like this... "So Long, we would like to invite you to help others in the ways we just spoke of and be a member missionary" 

He said, "I think im too old, but where am I going? " 

SO then it took 15 minutes of confusion to try and explain through the language barrier that we just wanted him to be a good example and help others... not to go to Fuji or Brazil to be a missionary hahaha. But it was really sweet though because he said, " If i was young like you guys, i would go. But no, I am too old now" And then he busted up laughing haha.

Also, we made Homemade eggnog and it was probably the best thing since Chik-fil-a sauce:) Man it was awesome. We got way into it and made our own logo and stuff for a possible future in the Nog industry:)

Onsdag:

Highlight of the day was that we got to teach the young men about why its cool to be a missionary. It was basically a pump up talk but it was way fun! It was super crazy though because it was like I was looking at myself 7 months ago before i left..... I felt like i was still one of them and not just "the ward missionaries" haha. But it was a great time and they all thought my mission call opening video was pretty funny.

Torsdag:

This was the most legit day! We has a Zone conference Thanksgiving special:) We started with the conference part on Lifting where you stand. It still amazes me how 18 to 21 year old people can be so solid! The Copenhagen Denmark mission is definitely the best one out there;)  We had a thanksgiving lunch with turkey and potatoes after that so we did get a little piece of home:) Then we had a talent show and a turkey bowl to close the day. We did the Haka again for the talent show... totally killed it:) Same deal with the turkey bowl.  We went undefeated;)*

Fredag:

We are doing a Living Christmas card for this next month as missionaries! That basically means that people in the ward can deliver us to their friends and we sing to them and read some scriptures:) But somehow I got in charge of arranging the music and stuff so that's dangerous;)

Made some more liquid gold today.... got even better;) We gave some to the Sisters as our first customer and they say its "two thumbs up" and "five gold stars" . haha

Lørdag: This was the day that I was saying was exciting. So today we tried something new for finding. We pulled out our area book and our past investigators and potentials book... and called everyone:) And these records go back to like 2005 so we were having a good time. It was funny because they probably thought they escaped "those mormons".... nope. But it ended up going for two hours and guess what the results were... 8 new friends that are interested again!! And one of them is coming to pizza night so we are way stoked!! :) So that day deserved some more nog but too bad it was too late to make it haha. But dang.... that was such a pick me up because I was afraid I wasn't doing enough and that our area was slowing down..... but the Lord doesn't want it to slow down so I'm fine with listening to Him :)

Søndag:

Totally killed the Living Christmas card in front of the ward. We performed it for them and hey.... we didn't sound bad! ;) 

Also, that night was a wayyy bad storm and we had to ride in it to an eating appointment... good stuff haha. The wind was strong enough to almost blow your wheels out from under you in two sections of the path.... it was nuts!!

My quote of the week:

"Doubt you doubts before you doubt your faith"

Also, watch "The Will of God"

https://youtu.be/Rr8xvw0cgw0

Its such a good mormon message. Favorite spiritual thing of the week:)

Oh yea I forgot this part, transfers were today and it turns out our whole district is the same!! Whooo haha. So I get to spend Christmas in Odense:)))

Well, I hope you all have a killer first week of Christmas!! Don't try frying expired shrimp! It doesn't work out;)

MKH,

Ældste Jeppson

--

Ældste  Jeppson

Nog Bros

Christmas!

Rocklin California Represent! Elder Murphy and Elder Jeppson

Elder Jeppson and Elder Lee: A swell Bro

My bike: Black Magic

Adventure is Out There!

Welll..... Life is good:) Hope you all feel the same:)

Here is my week in a giant, busy, awesome nutshell:

Progress:

So with C*..... She is still awesome! The main thing now is really just helping her to commit and feel comfortable with the newness and awesomeness of the gospel. She is very sincere but I think the main thing that will make a world of difference is if she commits to reading the scriptures and praying every day. Like.... Every single day! She is at the point where she really just needs to take that leap of faith but we are excited to see what happens this week!  We will meet Tuesday so we are crossing everything that can be crossed and more.

With M*. We had a killer lesson with him this week on the power of prayer and a guy form the ward came with us! It was such an awesome lesson and I think we are really maing a difference to him now. The hard thing is, that because he is skitzophrenic, he has a hard time distinguishing the Spirit so we are trying to help him know what that is like as he listens to the gospel and tries to do whats best. We invitied him to pray and ask God what he should do with his faith so we are excited to see what happens.

So we found this guy named J* last week and we gave him a call last night and guess what.... he basically invited himself to church!! It was so awesome:) I could hear him talking with Elder Jensen and when he asked what time church was and stuff I got way hyped:) Thats the stuff that lets me know I'm here for a reason. I can't really explain the feeling but I would say hyped on happiness suffices.;)

There is a guy named F* who is super cool. He is actually the friend of a recent convert who is super good about inviting allll of his friends. I'm sure he could convince a rock in Croatian to come with him hahaha he is awesome. But anyways, F* Comes to all of the cookie nights we have for investigators and recent converts and we are getting pretty close with him. Its cool to just be "those young guys who I met at the cookie night that have a tag on":) Makes us feel like friendshippers and missionaries so we will feel out what we should do. But exciting stuff!

Language:

Well I think I can say that I'm almost decently fluent. I can have conversations no problem now and I hit that point where i can say what i want, and if i can't say it, I just ask and then incorporate that into the Danish storage department of my brain and then keep moving. It's way awesome! I definitley get help from Heavenly Father because some lessons or appointments I just go off and its so great:)

My epiphany:

So on Wednesday I was riding through the freezing, POURING rain. Absolutely coming down like no other storm I've been in i think. But as i was riding this big blue womans bike through the Danish streets , I just got this strange feeling of "Oh yea, this is what I like."  Well, i thought about that, and it was comforting to think how much Heavenly Father appreciates this weak, 18 year old guy from Warm, sunny California, riding in less than ideal conditions for a fish and smiling about it.  It was just an awesome feeling of satisfaction, even though there was probably no dry spots left on my person. Good stuff:) 

This week:

So Elder Jensen and Elder Howe were in København for three days for 1 month training, so me and Elder Amos were on splits for 3 days. So that meant we were super busy! Covering two areas is no small chore haha. But it was super satisfying! We didnt actually have a full lunch or dinner hour for those three days and it was a blast! We just had lesson after appointment after service project after lesson! Here are some highlights:

We walked 15km because both of our bikes broke hahahaha. Again.

We biked in water up to our knees because the bike path flooded and we were late to give someone a blessing.... So we followed Dora the explorers advice and went through the windy river haha. We also made a remake of the "Prince of Egypt" and "Ephraims Rescue" on the way back so hopefully i can send those videos:)

Made an entire turkey. Ate it for breakfast:)

Many more things did come to pass, but there is not sufficient space in the records so I end my witness (Or I'm running out of time;) )

Snow!:

Well it snowed for the first time for this winter and we woke up to a tonnn of snow blowing around. It was super behagligt to look out of our warm apartment and see! It is actually the first time I've ever lived in snow so there have been a lot of firsts such as,

*Frostbite from biking

*Sliding everywhere (controlled and safe ;) )

*Wearing Eskimo Jackets because it necessary, not just stylish haha

But needless to say, we had a good time:) 

Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week!! Eat some pumpkin pie for me and thank your pilgrim ancestors!

Do good things well:)

MKH,

Ældste Jeppson

Extra Credit: whoever sends me a homemade, non acoholic eggnog recipe gets 10 points to Gryffindor

✌ out

--

Ældste  Jeppson

So....the bike path floode! 

Elder Amos

Cookie night at the Church= One dope turtle

Me and Elder Howe....Dusting Co. since 1997

It Snowed!!! #firsttimelivinginthesnow

Companionship Inventory with THE Ældste Jensen

Manna Would Be Better with Chick-fil-a Sauce

Yea so you can probably tell I got a package this week... And yea it did have Chickfila sauce so #letsgo!

But yea... I'll cut to the chase:) 

Progress: 

So really the main thing that happened this week was that C* is back on track! She doesn't have a baptismal date as of now but she still wants to be baptised. We met with her and gently laid down the law about how her Heavenly Father loves her and how his grace is sufficient (Which is also a STELLAR talk! Its called His Grace is Sufficient by Brad Wilcox) But we basically had a great talk and at the end we decided to do things at her speed because she felt a little pressured by members and stuff. But we are way pumped that shes still on ship! 

Vo Long: I just love talking  about him haha but he is the man! He passes the sacrament now as a regular and does it like a champ:) 

Well we got dropped by 3 really positive people which blows my mind as to why they did that but we are now in the process of finding new friends:) So we are doing lots of contacting! Its hard sometimes, not gonna lie, but it is worth it for sure:)

Family History:

So our mission is going through a Family History movement right now. Its way exciting! We had a zone training on it and basically it is going to be a major part of what we do here as missionaries. The purpose is to open peoples hearts to what the church does and take up the promises found in the Bible in Malachi 4 :4-5. So it is really exciting! 

Guess what that means, we are legit family history consultants:) (well not yet because we need to be certified and trained but we will be:) )

So we are all very excited to try it all out!

Splits:

Me and Elder Howe were on splits this Friday and Saturday. It was a way fun time to get to know him! He is an awesome guy from Utah and we had a good time talking to people on the streets and we had 4 great convos about family history:) So we had a good time!

Oh yea... so Saturday morning I was getting ready and suddenly as I turned my neck it cracked loudly and started to hurt haha. Not really sure what the final call is on what happened but I've had to turn my whole body to look right haha. So my district let their inner child come out when they saw me and all mimmicked me haha. Don't worry though its just a little stiff now so I'll live:)

Well thats really all i have time for today but my spiritual thought /invite is to read Ether 12:27 - 

"And if me come unto me I will show unto them their weakness.  I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."  Very good scripture! 

Do good things well:)

MKH,

Ældste Jeppson

Picture for Stella 

Me and my boy Elder Howe - Hipster Pic part 1 (me and Elder How took these on splits :))

Pic for Chloe and Lucy

Picture for Mckay :)

Hipster Pic Part 2

I found a basketball hoop :) 

A very old Bible

Ballet of Emotions

Pretty accurate title to this last week! This week decided to be like last week but then times 100 so let me enlighten you on the ongoings of another week, in the life of Ældste Jeppson and co. :

Progress:

Well you know how last time i said missionary is very hard to  capture in an accurate explanation... i think im getting a bit closer. What i mean when i say ballet of emotions is that you usually can experience a good range of them every week. Its like somethines the mood of the whole scene changes from a dejlight, happy scene to a scene where your dancing on the wire, and then back to stable ground again.... well thats what happened this week...

So with C*, Still and awesome girl, but she decided to give us a scare by saying she wasnt sure if wanted anything to do with the church. She delivered it in the form of a long, two part text which are usually the bane of missionaries existence when it comes to getting dropped. Especially for me, because there is really no closure to it and you never really know what their actual reasons are. So that was the part where i kinda was tired of being tired of being permissive in the sense that it was time to exercise my calling and my missionary and be a little bit more bold ( As encouraged my Elder Holland ;) ) . But basically a long, long conversation ensued over the course of the day and it really boiled down to this:

She wasnt very certain anymore because she had talked with some friends who haven't been very positive in supporting her and that she said she didn't think she could do it because no one else really lives the standards we do. So we replied that, hey! We know exactly how you feel! We have had opposition for sure (referring to all church members). So we had a great talk:)  It was funny because she was thinking it was too complicated to talk about and Elder Jensen said "just tell her that we have two years in Denmark anyways" haha. So i did, and apparently she takes pity on missionary humor because she agreed to meet at least one more time:) So we will see about that.

We also got blasted by K* so i dont think she wants to meet...... trælse.

So we got this referal from Slagelse (I think i mentioned him) but his name is N* and he is an awesome guy! He met us on the gå gade and we just talked about God and the Holy Ghost and what they mean to us. He was wayyy sincere and said " Im in the time of my life, where i just want to make sure i have a direction" (I think someone just staged this whole thing and he is just quoting Preach my Gospel, but i havent found a direct quote yet ;) )  But he asked how he can know that all this is true.... well, good question N*:) You see we have this book, called Mormons Bog......... and he ended up reading the whole intro and and took it all in stride like a champ! So i have a lot of hope for N*! My favorite part was that he said "OH, you mean you just invite people to find out for themselves? Neat!" So i hope he would truly like to know if its true or not:) 

Vo Long....... If anything, Long is the reason i came on a mission! He is my homie:)! We got to pass the sacrament with him for the first time and it was super neat! Man he is so awesome. We called him and said, Hey Long (last name Vo, first name Long,  thats how they do) can we meet you at the church on saturday and practice the sacrament routes with you? And he was all for it:) It was a ton of fun and we just chilled with him for like 45 minutes and showed him how to pass the sacrament. It was really sweet, because he said " Out of the 46 Elders that have visited me over 9 years, i will remember 5 people. Elder Pitcher, Elder "Jep-sohn" , Elder Pitchers parents and a man in our ward. But it was pretty moving:) And he tells his conversion story in every conversation so he is the man!

Knocking fun:) :

So Elder Jensens first contact was quite memorable:) We knocked and some lady came and said " NO!" ............SLAM. Well one thing ive learned is that you might as well just laugh at them than get mad so we start busting up as we walk away. Well.... she didnt like that and starts faoming at the mouth (almost literally) ;) She was so mad! Like the kind of mad a bear would get if you poked him with a tank :) So we just said okay, and left her to curse the servants of God under the cold Danish night sky. Quality:)

Next one... Me and Elder Howe (Elder Amos's trainee) were on splitz and we were doing some knocking and we found the male version of the lady because he was insaanne. He looked me in the face and started smoking out the ears and telling me i got a couple seconds to start running and to get the heck back to America and all that garbage. So i looked him right back and said "Okay" . It was golden because Elder Howe in his way good new missionary danish just smiled and kept on talking which made him more mad haha. 

So he didnt take a Book of Mormon;)

Misc:

I got in an argument with a 8 year old danish girl about whether Frozen or Tangled is Better..... She had some convincing points but  I think i won with Tangled;)

Ate some røde grøde med flode at a family who makes it every time i come because i love it so much and they think its so funny that an american is as passionate as some danes are about it:) 

I'd encourage you to click this link: 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/10/be-not-afraid-only-believe?lang=eng#watch=video

Its a way good talk by Elder Ucthdorf called Be not afraid, only believe. It became my talk of the week:) It has some way good points that make you evaluate:)

Have a great week! Herren velsignet dem som har lyst at være ydmygt og følge Jesus Kristi eksempel! Mens du prøve at blive bedre, altid omfatte Gud i dit forandring:)

MKH,

Ældste Jeppson:) 

Don't be alarmed but I made Flame Throwers :) 

Elder Jensen

My Frozen Christmas Calendar and Elder Jensens Angry birds Calendar :) 

we found this wayyy nice black leather couch on the street for our apartment!

Slightly Wet!

Epic Autumn Rides

I have a vendetta against Bikes! 

Me, Æ. Howe, Æ Amos, Æ reber (zone leader), Æ Jensen and Æ Brady (zone leader) on our way to 1.50 dollar all you can eat breakfast!!

 

There's No Bike Lanes On The Freeway

Haha yea I'll get to that.... But needless to say, it was a good week to be alive as a missionary in Denmark!! So here is the scuttlebutt (there is you english vocab for the week :) )

Progress!!:

Man sometimes you get so happy when things work out that you just really, truly cannot explain the feeling inside. It is like a firework made of everything that makes you happy goes off inside you and and then multiplies by infinity. That is not to say that big let downs can happen, because they do. One gets, at times, some disapointment, followed by a tinge of hurt and a quick dash of betrayal, followed by a bit of anger which drives one to resolve to do more... but the process sometimes cycles through again. But this, on the contrary, makes the sucess that much sweeter! Thus let me explain the rapture of our souls here in Odense (not sure where the poeticness of the ladder came from but im in some sort of literary mood haha.)

But C* finally nailed down a date on the 14th of november! She is doing way good and there isnt really any questions to in regards to her faith and her testimony. The main thing for her now is to leave the summer cottage in babylon and look to her primary residence in zion (see "remember Lots wife" by elder Jeffery R. Holland). Meaning, she needs to fully embrace the life centered on the gospel. Thats not to say she hasnt, but that is really the only potential obstacle because some of her friends from babylon are making it a little hard on her. But thats usually how it is with anyone who wants to change and actually commits to it. The rest cant seem to committ so they just sit back and try and bring them back to their level. Its sad the amount of peer pressure there is here sometimes as we contact and teach but thats how it goes. But we are super excited to prep with her for that date! To the best we can, we really want to make her feel comfortable so we have kind of given her some room to figure things out for herself. Which seemed to have been the best thing because she picked her own baptismal date:) Super awesome!!

Next we got K*. She is a cool story because she was the final contact of the former Elder Gifford as we made the last walk of nyborgvej together as companions out contacting. Now we got her info and stuff and i invited her to:

church..... didnt come

CUV (the young single adults activity)...... didnt come

A Pizza night at the church...... didnt come

So i basically thought she was following the footsteps of T* and I* and A*, who have all been SO positive and now have gone totally silent to us (this is probably where that bit of more poetic passion above stemmed from.... haha. But it does kinda hurt when that happens) But hey that is a real thing!)

Sorry for the sidetracking.... seems a bit radical but thats seems to be the only way to explain the growth on a mission:)

But back to the sucesses, so we totally scored an appointment with K* tonight and she was pretty happy to agree when i called! So there is blessing 2 from this week! All of this already offsets that negative stuff so dont worry im pretty happy;)

Blessing three came rather unexpectantly but it came nonetheless. We got a referal for a guy named N* who just moved from Slagelse and was contacted on the street there right before he moved. He wasnt really someone that youd think would go further with it because he said he is atheist or agnostic but we gave him a call and he didnt answer.... So we tried again two days later.... didnt answer. The last time he picked up and we talked and casually agreed to meet this week! Super random how casual it felt but the Lord prepares everyone at some point so hopefully that will go good!!

So yea we have been pretty busy:)

The Nougat Bit Challenge:

So i did something pretty dang crazy this week, and i dont recommend it because it is not for the faint of heart or stomach... But here is what it is:

So there is a cereal over her called nougat bits. These are the equivalent of a corn type cereal and come in squares a little bigger that a quarter. The middle of them are filled with nougat stuff that pretty much is just nutella. So take a box of them, empty them into a bowl big enough for a bag of popcorn (or two bags) and then add a whole liter of milk. The challenge is that you must eat it in less than an hour and that ytou have to hold it all down for thirty minutes after that. We did it as a district "lunch" hahaha. But guess who completed it in 38 minutes... this guy;) Elder Amos was the only other one to do it but he is an animal so he did it in 12 minutes (Absolutley the most amazing and disgusting thing to witness)

But in all..... 750 grams is 1.7 pounds

guess how much a liter weighs? 2.2 pounds

then add a peice of toast and a bowl of cereal and the rest of Elder Jensens first pastry buy ( i forgot we were doing the challenge so i ate breakfast....MISTAKE)

But i held it down and live to say..... I, completed the NOUGAT BIT CHALLENGE! 

One more fun story for ya:

Do you all remember Edith? The 91 year old lady who is infamous for very large amounts of food? Well we went back and i had round three with her food. The thing is this time, that she forgot to write on the eating calendar that the other elders were invited too and they couldnt come anyways because Elder Amos was sick. So i also had rounds 4, 5, and 6 there as well. She said "well looks like there is more for you!" in a very happy old danish lady sort of way. So we probably ate more than i ever have in my life!! Here is the damage:

10 white potatoes (a bit bigger than a golf ball)

10 brown potatoes (about golfball size)

7pieces of flæskesteg (basically just special cuts of pork)

Half of a vanilla creme cake (and i mean legit cream. Like if you thaw ice cream a little and whip it with milk... then put extra cream on top)

So yea it was the most full/in pain ive been in from food.... then to make things more fun, the fates decided to not smile upon us and let s get lost. I eventually found us a main road that had a sign pointing to the city.  I then said these words that were the climax of the night "Hey.... lets cut to that road."

Well.... "that road" was a freeway. And "that road" had cars flying by at high speed. And "that road" had about a half foot of extra space on the side of the road...

So we did what anyone would do... stop under the next bridge, climb it with our bikes up a steep concrete hill, hop some fences and take off on a dark forest trail that somehow spit us out at a place i knew. So we had a fun hour long adventure :)

Well thats as much as i got right now:) If you want to learn more about what my life is like, feel free to put some mission papers in! Because it is too hard to put in words how awesome and hard and fun missions are! 

But in the words of  L Tom Perry, "What is your mission? Discover it, and fufill it!"

So whatever your mission is right now, discovery it fully and then conquer it!

Ill close with a quote from the OG Elder Knudsen: "Courage is fear that has said its prayers"

Then ill take it further : "Insane Courage is the leap off the ledge after the prayer is done"

Have a great week! The Lord will qualify who he call so have the courage to do what is right amidst the wrong!

MKH,

Ældste Jeppson

Fun with the Pic Stick- They have Beautiful Autumn here! 

Found a huge nerd shop :) #actuallyprettylegit

The new Fam

Found a playground rockwall :)))))))

The Nougat Bit Challenge

The Champs!! 

Sister Landsvatter, Elder Jeppson, Elder Amos, Elder Jensen, Elder Howe, Sister Ackerman

A fun Danish Street

"The District"- (side note from Mom- as the kids were getting ready to leave for school i heard my email ding.  I checked and Brandon was online.  We got to send him a video hello from all of the kids and he sent us this picture back!  It was great to email back and forth for a minute!!  Made my week :)