2-18-13 I Love This Work!!! - "Love Her Mother"

DAD MOM RYAN RACHELLEY LIZA EMMA and my dear friends

Hello! I love this work. And I love TO work. How forever grateful I am that Heavenly Father has permitted me to represent His Son, my greatest Friend. I feel as Mormon did when he said "And now I, Mormon, speak unto you, my beloved brethren; and it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and his holy will, because of the gift of his calling unto me, that I am permitted to speak unto you at this time." This calling that I am so priviledged to bear is a true gift from the Lord. I do not deserve it! But how I rejoice and praise Him for allowing me to be here. I am so grateful to be companions with Sister Smith, I love her so much. And I am so grateful for the Restoration of His gospel. We have the fulness. We have living prophets and apostles! I love our dear prophet, Thomas S Monson.  

Todd, my dear friend, is so great! He's away on a work trip this week but keeps in contact through the divine gift of cellular communication. With his righteous concerns regarding his family, he's having to stand alone in his decision. But how wonderful it is to know that we are never alone.

The gospel of Jesus Christ blesses our families. Heavenly Father, so graciously and so mercifully placed us here in our families. I was reading Elaine S. Dalton's talk "Love Her Mother" this week as I prayerfully considered the needs of my dear friends here in Warrenton. She says, "The most important thing a father can do for his daughter is to love her mother." Fathers are to love and respect their wives. To cherish and protect her and their children is of greatest importance. And the way to do so is through guiding them to a celestial and eternal, temple marriage. The Family: A Proclamation to the World says, "Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally." It is in the temple where we can be sealed together forever. Sister Dalton says "Love her mother so much that your marriage is celestial. A temple marriage for time and all eternity is worthy of your GREATEST efforts and HIGHEST priority." The greatest way to love, guide, and protect the family is by following our Savior and guiding them to the temple. For some, their families may not follow right away. They may have to stand alone in taking the first steps toward the fulness of His gospel. But really, they are never alone. "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 good things to come." -Elder Holland

To my dearly beloved family, I love you. I could not imagine life without you, and how glorious it is that there really is no need to imagine such a lonely and empty life. Because of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of His and our Father's perfect and all encompassing love for us, we can and we WILL be together forever. We have been sealed in His holy temple, by His holy priesthood. Forever. For ALL time and eternity.

How magnificent is our Father!

LOVE SISTER JULIA JEPPSEN

2-11-13 Trials.. that we gain the education that we come here to acquire!

DAD MOM RYAN RACHELLE LIZA EMMA and my dear friends

What a tender mercy of our Lord! Lexi was able to escort Melissa into the MTC?! Heavenly Father is so good. That warms my heart. And Chloe and Ashboy are great!

This week has been hard but incredible. I don't even know really where to begin except that I am so grateful. I love our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for this precious opportunity to grow and to love, to endure and to become. I love trials. I am so grateful for them! Elder Orson F Whitney said "No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted... All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable... it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire." I am so very blessed, far more than I ever will deserve. I have felt angels round about me, I have felt my Savior walking beside me, and I have felt the love of our Father in Heaven.  

Through the grace of our Savior, our Father has performed miracles in this area. Warrenton 1st is incredible! I love the members here, I love the people. This land is beautiful, even with the dead of winter. From 1 new investigator in 4 weeks, to 6 new in 1 week, Heavenly Father is so graciously allowing Sister Smith and I to find and teach some of His remarkable and perfectly prepared children. It has been marvelous to witness, to experience, and to be a part of. 

Steven is this incredible 17 year old boy, who has endured through many awful and devastating trials. He has lost his brother, father, and uncle to death in 3 months time and has struggled with many other heartbreaks and tragedies. I am in awe of his strength and his faith. When he heard about early morning seminary, he decided to take the initiative and showed up on his own. For 4 weeks, he has attended every day. And not only does he attend, but he is actively involved in the lessons. The Whitesides, this incredible family, have taken him into their arms and we've had the privilege to meet him and to share with him the precious and merciful plan of our loving Father in Heaven. What a privilege it is to know him and to grow with him.

I love you dearly!

SISTER JULIA JEPPSEN

Sister Smith

Todd is incredible. He's the man we found my first day, walking down the long dirt road

Marshall :) Guess where we found him - MACOODODONALDOS!!! Eating our most delcious ice cream cones

Storybook chairs + my inheritance from Sister Rozsa, the dictionary of life

Steven and the Whitesides! 

2-4-13 Transferred to Warrenton 1st... the Country!!!

DAD MOM RYAN RACHELLE LIZA DONG and my beloved friends

 

President Riggs reads to us from Alma 22, verse 4 every transfer meeting. The king is asking Aaron why Ammon is not the one to come teach him. Aaron's response: "Behold the Spirit of the Lord has called [Sister Jeppsen] another way; she has gone to the land of [WARRENTON 1st] to teach the people [there with her newest companion SISTER SMITH]."

 

Oh how excited I am!! I praise and honor my Lord and King and I thank and rejoice in my God and Father! I absolutely love my new ward, Warrenton 1st. Warrenton is all sorts of country. The area ranges from the most rural to the most wealthy and it covers a HUGE amount of land. While our area is ginormous, our car miles are few, so I'm happy to report that there is a need to bike every so often. The ward was only recently opened to proselyting missionaries and Sister Smith has been serving here for the past 6 months. She claims to be the designated "assessment and preparatory missionary." I love her. We are opposite in so many ways. She is practical, I am hopeful. She has mastered the mechanics, I run on faith. She's sarcastic, I'm cheerful. We balance one another and I am very excited and grateful to learn from her. I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father knew I would struggle with the very limited amount of miles we are alotted, and I am so very blessed to have Sister Smith who is master at it. President has informed us that the area will be divided next transfer and we will be bringing Elders in so I will not have to worry about miles when she leaves.

 

I thought I would be training this transfer (which is only 5 weeks due to the shortened length of MTC training time), but I am so grateful that I am not! I only want to do what the Lord would have me do. And I trust Him with all my heart. At the pulpit, President told me though that I would be training next transfer. But we'll see if God thinks so when next transfer rolls around haha.

 

I have prayed and fasted to know how I can help this ward.  For in the entire month of January, only one new investigator was found and in the entire year of 2013, only one was converted and baptized. And oh how Father in Heaven has truly opened the eyes of my understanding!

 

In my first day here, we found an incredible man named Todd. As we only had enough time to knock on one door after walking down a long dirt road, we prayed and asked Father whether to go to the house on the right or the left. We both felt the left so we went to house on the left. Todd answered the door, and because of our rule of having another woman in the home, he stood outside in the 20 degree weather with us. He has been so prepared! We taught him at his doorstep and left him with the Restoration pamphlet and the Book of Mormon. That evening he informed us that he had read through the entire pamphlet and was working on the Book of Mormon. I know, with every fiber of my being, with all the energy of my soul, that God will direct us to find his children who are ready to receive the fulness of the gospel at this time. Though Sister Smith and our ward mission leader, Brother Howard are skeptical, I know in whom I trust. God has blessed Centreville 2nd ward with an abundance of new people, searching for the truth and with an increased involvement of the ward members becoming anxiously engaged in His work. I know that God will do the same in the Warrenton 1st ward.

 

Its interesting to see that both Centreville 2nd and Warrenton 1st started in very similar states when I first arrived. The missionaries before me have truly been instruments in preparing the members and the area, then it seems as though Father uses me to ignite the fire. My first Sunday here, Bishop had the Relief Society and Priesthood meetings combine to discuss the vision he had received for missionary work in our ward. How incredible!! And through me, the Spirit opened with them to 1 Nephi 10:17, exhorting them with all the energy and love of my heart to do as Nephi did and to desire to see, hear, and know of the vision their Bishop, their stake president, their mission president, their apostles, their prophet, and their God have of what they can become. We must each diligently seek to gain His vision. "One progresses only as fast as he gains knowledge" (Bible Dictionary, 721). May we all progress towards life eternal, even to know Him, our Lord and our God.

 

As David stood before Goliath, trusting that the God who delivered him in times past would deliver him even now, I stand before Warrenton, trusting that the God who transformed Centreville 2nd in times past would do so even now for Warrenton 1st. I love Him. And I will trust in Him forever

 

LOVE SISTER JEPPSEN