Sister Julia Jeppsen: 1-7-13 I Love the Book of Mormon

DAD MOM RYCHIN RACHELLE LIZA EMMDONG and my beloved friends

Rachelle!! You're a nurse/FULL TIME dental hygienist!! How great and kind and generous is our Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son. I thank Him for His love. And Liza, you are so cool. Riding your scooter to school!??!!!? I love you! You're great. ASHBOYS TURNED IN HER PAPERS!???! YAY!! WOOHOO! I'm so excited.

Ok. Here's the plan friends. I'm going to do my hardest to find a happy medium. Sermon + parable. In effort to be more like our dear Savior, I will find a balance!! Though I will fall short many a time. Thank you for your patience. You all are wonderful.

Have you guys watched any of the Bible Life of Jesus Christ videos on mormon.org yet? Elder Gronning is so inspired and put them all on a DVD, in chronological order and so generously made us a copy. We all watched it together for companionship study at our apartment office building movie theater. It was AWESOME!! These videos are so beautiful. I love our dear Savior. Jesus Christ surely is the Son of God. He created the heavens and the earth. He is the author of our salvation. I love Him and am so honored and privileged to be His servant, to represent the Creator, the Savior, the Redeemer of all mankind. "How great is our calling!" (Missionary Handbook). It truly is so humbling to think that He is trusting me with His greatest work, that by allowing me to be His instrument - He is changing and refining me, even as He. Its marvelous, its remarkable, that He has so mercifully left this earth, that we might have the opportunity to live in faith, that we might have the opportunity to take part in His work, bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of others, and in doing so, we are allowing Him to do the very same for ourselves. "I thank him who did everything perfectly for sharing his precious work with those of us who then do it so imperfectly" (Elder Neal A Maxwell)

So President Riggs asked that we make the effort to go on full exchanges (aka splits) each week with the members. Which means, Sister Evans goes with a member and I go with another and we divide and conquer. So, we did just that on Saturday - and it was MIRACULOUS!! As we prayed who should go with which member, I felt strongly that I needed to be with Sister Heiner, and Sister Evans with Sister Garfield. Both of our planned appointments fell through, but Sister Garfield felt inspired to check on a member where they had a powerful experience, allowing the mother to bare her testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Savior to her wavering son. Sister Heiner had been prayerfully considering her neighbors (MaryJane and Ron) for the last few weeks and as we prayed to Father, she felt we should knock on their door. We did.. but no one answered. So we kinda went around the block, but no one was home. Then we saw that someone was outside MaryJane's house, walking the dog. It was their son, Kyle, who is in college. Dear Sister Heiner, the cutest most sweet and tender and loving grandmotherly woman with the softest and gentlest voice, invited him to learn more of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. He said he was atheist and that studying at this science university convinced him that there couldn't be a God. We had an in incredible talk with him, the Spirit was so powerful. We read different scriptures (Alma 22,32) with him and encouraged him to kneel down and pray to Him, to ask Him if He was there. We ended up setting up a time to return, and just as we were returning to the car, Mary Jane and Ron pulled up and were absolutely delightful. She was excited for us to come back and wrote our appointment in her planner! I love our dear Father in Heaven. This is His work and His glory.

I love the Book of Mormon. It surely does testify of our Savior Jesus Christ and through living as it teaches, one can truly become as He, and enjoy all the blessings and everlasting joy our Father in Heaven so dearly wants us to behold. Said in one of the boldest testimonies of this precious record, Elder Holland said, "I testify that one cannot come to full faith in this latter-day work—and thereby find the fullest measure of peace and comfort in these, our times—until he or she embraces the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it testifies." It means nothing unless it becomes apart of us. Lawrence E Corbridge said "None of this makes much difference unless it gets inside of you. All of this is only marks on pieces of paper bound together in leather; It has no intrinsic value, unless it BECOMES you. The purpose and essential blessing of life is to be changed, to become more like the Lord, to realize the full measure of your divine potential." And there is NO better way than through the Book of Mormon, through the restored gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Part of my resolutions for this year is to know, love, live, and utilize the Book of Mormon in every teaching opportunity I am blessed with. I've already grown so much!

With all my heart, I love each and every one of you. Thank you for your love, support, and example.

LOVE SISTER JULIA JEPPSEN