10-29-12 Hurricane Sandy is Coming! Thanks for Gifts!

DAD MOM RYAN RACHELLE LIZA EMMA DONG and my incredible friends

Hello! I cannot even begin to describe just how loved I have felt - especially this past week. I have received so many packages and letters my entire mission without fail, and it brings such a great assurance to know that Heavenly Father has blessed me with family and friends that care about me and think of me, when really I deserve none of your love. How grateful I am for each of you! Thank you for the blanket, the McDonald's gift card, the candy and mints, the food, the vitamins, the pictures, the letters of love and encouragement, the updates and jokes, the stories and miracles. Thank you thank you thank you, each and every one of you! Melissa, Lexi, my dear sweet ward, brother Givens, my beloved mother and family, my dear friends. All of you. Thank you. And I never cease to be amazed of God's great mercy and love, for He still continues to place His incredible, selfless, and valiant children along my path. The members and investigators here treat me as if I were their own and they show deep and genuine concern and love for us. I am in awe. For Christ's love is evident by each of your actions and I am humbled to be the recipient of such charity. I know that I will never be able to make up for all the sacrifices you have made for me, but I hope I will be able to show just how much I appreciate and love each of you one day - tho I am aware it will take the eternities to do it. 

Ok, now the latest weather update here in Northern Virginia. HURRICANE!!  Its about to hit.   Hurricane Sandy/Frankenstorm. It is going to be Crazy! We've had a dozen phone calls from our dear ward members concerned about our well being - making sure we have food storage, 72 hour packs, coats, equipment, radios, and all the survival necessities. I love the members here. They are so fantastic. I am not kidding, we've had a gabilllion phone calls from different members making sure we're all prepared and safe. They really are such incredible people, especially the Starks. We're so blessed to know them.  We are in our apartment and are all prepared.  We will let you know how it goes!!  We pray everyone will be safe!  

So Arnold is a super hero. He went from smoking 30 cigs and drinking 5 cups a coffee a day to smoking 4 cigs and 1 cup of coffee a day in just 2 weeks. But, Sister Carter and I realized that in order to be baptized the 7th, he has to be completely clean a week before - which happens to be this Wednesday. We called our dear friend Arnold and told him the situation, and he said "Ok. I will do it." When he came to church the next day, he told us he threw out all his cigarettes and coffee and committed himself to being perfectly clean, and perfectly obedient :) Oh, he is so great! His poor head pounding with a headache, he never once complained. His smile was as big as ever for he was so excited to be living the Word of Wisdom in its fullness. We had a lesson with him after church where he had a priesthood blessing. While watching the Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration movie with him a few weeks earlier, he was most powerfully struck by the Spirit when he witnessed Joseph Smith healing the sick by the power of God. I love our Father in Heaven. As soon as Brother Zeledon placed his hands on his head, his headache stopped, his body no longer aching in withdrawal. In awe and great gratitude, Arnold was able to testify that he knew that this church does in deed have the power and authority our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He lives and He loves us. How honored I am to witness His power, I will forever praise and glorify Him.

Guess what! For halloween we get to watch a disney movie!!!!!! :D Hazah!

LOVE SISTER JULIA JEPPSEN

10-22-12 Thank you for being "His" hands, freshman volleyball girls!!!

DAD MOM RY RACHELLE LIZA EMMA and fellow friends that I love so dearly

Emma, I cannot even begin to describe how amazed I am by you and your team. For not only looking outward and recognizing our sweet and most beloved and precious friend Aubrey, but for reaching out to her and making her feel just how loved and important she is. Thank you for being like our Savior. Thank you for being His hands! I am in awe and I truly am honored to be your sister. And how great is our Heavenly Father - when we follow His example, we are so very blessed! FRESHMAN CHAMPIONS!!! OODALLALEY!! And someone tell Aubrey I love her and miss her and that she's the greatest volleyball coach/player/inspiration in the whole wide world. 

So lots of parties this week! Well this entire month actually. The Emords, this wonderful family in our ward, basically threw down a couple grand on this giant Halloween party where the whole ward came along with all their non member friends. It was great! We met lots of great people and potential investigators. Then the Saturday was Centreville Day - where different businesses and churches open little booths and everyone walks around. Kinda like Art in the Park... but less artsy. Brother and Sister Stark are wonderful. And so are the Nantos. We had our little booth set up where we offered free family pictures (of which we will gladly deliver to their homes) and candy and tons of flyers and things for our church. Heavenly Father is so wonderful, a few especially prepared people were sent to us and we were able to talk with them. God is great!

We love Binh so much. He took us out to some fancy restaurant - of which we are certain that was extremely expensive and we felt very bad and grateful all at the same time. Then the next day we went to the temple with him and the Elders of the singles ward. We feel at peace passing him, tho its hard to let him go. But Heavenly Father knows what he needs and we're excited to do His will. The temple was marvelous. He couldn't stop saying just how incredible he felt. The spirit was so powerful and he felt it. Something really cool that Sister Carter's dad told her is that if you are feeling the spirit, point it out to them. And if they aren't feeling it, then command them to feel it - for you have the authority to do so. It's been incredible to be able to experience this power of our dear Father several times this week. How great is our God!

Zone conference was incredible. President Riggs so boldly and lovingly told us, "I have had a vision of us teaching by the Spirit. Without a doubt, I have had a vision." As his sons and daughters, as his Elders and Sisters, it is our opportunity to receive the same vision as he - just as Nephi did with his father's vision. 1 Nephi 10:17-19; 11:1. Nephi desired that he might see, hear and know the things which his father saw. He believed that the Lord was able to make it known unto him by the power of the Holy Ghost, so he sought diligently, reading the scriptures, remembering the Lord's dealings with those that had gone before him, earnestly praying, pondering. How wonderful it is that we can see, hear, and know, that we can understand the interpretation of his vision, that we can know how we can help our members seek and receive revelation from God, to help them in their efforts to bless the lives of those that they know and love. And how wondrous it has been! 

So one of the members we've been visiting is our dear stake president, President Hilton is so wonderful. I am in awe of his great love for each of us and for the Lord. Each week we come, they have more revelation to give us. Its wonderful to see them so excited about this work and to see their great faith in God's promise that when we ask, we will receive. They expect and know that they will have revelation for us each week. Well, they felt like they should have us visit the McIntyre family. We had been trying to catch them, and finally were able to this week. And surely it was revelation from God that President and Sister Hilton had received to refer them to us, for they were so prepared! Jim had actually read some of the Book of Mormon this month while staying at the Marriot and both him and his wife were eager (and when I say eager and mean really eager) to meet with us. They are going to be out of town for a while, Jim will be back the 15th but Maureen - who will be returning the 30th of this month asked if she could see us even before Jim returns! How glorious! I will never cease to be amazed by the great goodness and love of our God. 

I love you each so very much. My dear 

LOVE SISTER JULIA

APs Elder Mackwenkwe and Westover

The Temple

Temple visit with Binh

Bear Grills

10-15-12 Luis/ Live as if everything is a miracle!

DAD MOM RYAN RACHELLE LIZA DONG and friends

Hello again my fellow loved ones :) LUIS WAS BAPTIZED!! OODALALLEY!!! I love Luis So much! It really has been such a privilege to be able to witness his conversion, to watch his countenance change completely. There were countless miracles God performed every step of the way. And it was really amazing to see him change. When we first started seeing him, he was into a lot anti-mormon literature and caught up in different things of the world. We could tell when he had spent his time on the internet, for his eyes were dark, they appeared cloudy even. But how great is our Father in Heaven! The power of the Holy Ghost is so incredible, it is penetrating and transforming. As he cleaved to the Book of Mormon, as he cried unto the Father for forgiveness and for strength, as he opened his heart and his mind, letting go of every doubt and gratification, his eyes became brighter and brighter, and this weekend, as he came out of the waters, his entire countenance seemed to be radiating light! He is so happy, so grateful, so excited and eager to serve, to help, to lift, and to love. Our ward is fantastic. I love them so much. I really am so grateful to our Father in Heaven to have been so graciously welcomed into their arms. And not only me, but Luis and Arnold, and Sue, and Binh. They are so kind, so loving, so giving - and surely they have opened their eyes to observe, then serve, offering everything they can to help. I love them. And I love Luis.

Miracle lesson with Sue - our wonderful Chinese friend!! Its been a real struggle teaching her, for reasons that need not be explained. But oh how we love her! She is so great. She is always so excited and eager to come to any and every activity we invite her to. We felt prompted to watch Joseph: Prophet of the Restoration with her (thanks to you Momma for sending it to us via the Starks) and afterward, we taught the Restoration again - but this time using paper and pen, drawing out the things we were teaching her. And she got it!! She didn't get distracted once!!! It really was such a miracle!! She's been very afraid and confused about baptism, but she's getting it and she said in church after watching Luis both be baptized then confirmed - "I need to prepare myself for this!!" haha Heavenly Father knows and loves His children!! 

Oh, and I love Arnold. SOOO much! 

I wanted to share with you a thought inspired by my former AP, Elder Johnson. When we consider our bodies, our movement, our speech, our minds, our eyes, our hearts - though they appear to function effortlessly and with ease, its marvelous to consider just how complex and incredible they are! Every heart beat is a miracle, and yet so easily overlooked and forgotten. But just because people aren't anxiously awaiting in eager anticipation for the next move a heart will make, is it any less of a miracle? Albert Einstein once said "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." How often do we treat our days like a heartbeat? How often do we overlook the miracles around us because we aren't humble enough to open our eyes and see? 

In chapter 29, Alma cries out, saying "O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto EVERY people! Yea, I would declare unto EVERY soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth. But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me." Elder Johnson said, "I sin in my wish to do more than I am able; to expect over bearing miracles at every corner. I have come to realize that every person I talk to and every door I knock is a heartbeat; easily forgotten, but a miracle that keeps me going."

Its sad, that people don't seem to appreciate the quiet, but steady beat their heart makes until it beats no more. One day, my mission will end. One day, Liza, you'll no longer be at home, with the family we love so dearly. One day, Emma, you won't have a wonderful piano teacher - patiently working with you, shaping you into the incredible pianist you have become. One day Ryan, Shelly, you'll no longer be in dental school, no longer with the family. Dad, Mom, one day your house will be empty and your children grown. This doesn't mean we should look to the future with lamenting, but rather the opposite! We should look forward with excitement and with hope, for how great are the miracles and the blessings we have now, how great are the miracles and the blessings to come!

President Riggs is having us rely heavily on the members. With our new and marvelous commandment given us by President from our Father in Heaven, we are sacrificing much of our tracting time in order to visit the members of our ward, following up with them every week to see what revelation they have received as to how we can help them in their efforts to bless the lives of their friends and family with this incredible gospel. Fear and doubt are definitely big factors that keep us from doing the Lord's work. But if you love our Father in Heaven, if you truly appreciate all that our Savior has done for us, we won't hesitate, we won't return to our comfortable and original ways, but we will pray for revelation and go about, doing good and inviting others to learn. We can't let Satan keep us back, we can't let him lull us into a sense of security. Seek for revelation, and act on it! Heavenly Father can't trust us with the eternal salvation of His precious children if we have not the faith or the willingness to act. And its ok if you are rejected, Christ was too. Our beloved Apostle, Elder Holland said, "Don't you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until heaven. But for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ they come. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in the good things to come..." "So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can't quit and we can't go back. After and encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before... Having set our hand to the plough, we will never look back until this work is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world." This work, missionary work, is the MOST IMPORTANT work we can be doing. Members and missionaries work hand in hand. Cast in your lines everyone as Elder Heffrie Dunn said. And together we will do the work of our Father, bringing in thousands through the net we have formed.

I love you. With all my heart. 

LOVE, SISTER JULIA JEPPSEN

 Its beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!!! ok.. maybe just an extremely cold Halloween

Luis :)

Sister Nanto - the sweetest most wonderful Japanese member :) Her house is basically Japan. She's got the most incredible garden in all of Virginia! Oh and she brings us endless supplies of grapes cuz she's great

 Starks and Luis

10-8-12 Conference is Equivalent to Christmas!

DAD MOM RYAN RACHELLE LIZA EMMA DONG and friends

Why hello my lovely fambly! General Conference was INCREDIBLE!!! Conference is equivalent to Christmas as a missionary. Its so wonderful to watch the prophet, to experience the authority and power of God with these wonderful people who you have been teaching about the priesthood and about Christ's restored church. Its marvelous. And oh my goodness gracious! Liza!!! You can serve a mission in ONE YEAR!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!! I am so excited to see what Heavenly Father has in store for you! He may call you to serve, He may not. Either way - His plan will be the very best for you :) I'll start praying that you'll know what He would have you do.

So - the Starks came by!!! I LOVE the Starks :) They are so wonderful. We love them so very much. I'm so glad you were able to meet them and that they were able to meet you! I felt so close to you as she realyed the splendid time she shared with you. She even mentioned Emma's bed/living room hut hahaha. 

Elder Holland's talk was incredible. I never want to be the person I once was. I love our Father in Heaven and I never want to go back. And how grateful I am for our Savior! Because of Him, we never have to.

Lexi and Melissa and Jimmy have all gone through the temple!! How wonderful :) I look forward to the day when we can all go through together! 

There have been so many incredible miracles!! Luis is getting baptized on Saturday - the 13th. And Satan is working extra hard on him. But Heavenly Father is aware and He has provided miracle after miracle to keep him strong, to strengthen his faith! This is His work, His glory. And how blessed an opportunity it is to witness His hand in our lives.

Have I told you about Arnold? Oh my word. I absolutely LOVE Arnold. He is this older man, half Pakistan, half European. And He is the jolliest, happiest, most positive man in the world. He works on the AutoTrain - that runs all the way to Florida so he works 3 days on, then has 2 days off. But God is so great and knew that Arnold needed to come to conference with us - so of course, God gets him Sunday work off! And the first thing Arnold does is call us :) Gosh, I adore him. How great is our Father in Heaven, how merciful and how kind! He loves us and wants the best for us. Arnold says that never before has he thought so much about God, and never before has he felt so full, so loved and so right.

Everyone - have you been praying for revelation as to what you can have the missionaries do to help bless the lives of your family, your loved ones, your neighbors, and friends? Pray, seek, observe, serve, act, do, baptize! Be the hands for our Savior in bringing His precious children home to our Father in Heaven! 

Please oh please send church music! If you could send CD's that wound be wonderful. Does David Archeletta have a CD of church hymns? or just Christmas music.

LOVE SISTER JULIA JEPPSEN

Pat was baptized!!! I love him!!!

 I love Sister Carter.

 I love Arnold

Trip To DC with Elder Gronning and Cluff