Week #18

A "White" Christmas

man what a dope week! hahahha this week was filled with lots of fun adventures especically during the christmas season. i have to admit i was a little sad going into the christmas season cause its about 2824728374 degrees here and everyone is telling me its DUMPING snow back home. but then this whole week i decided i was going to finish the 270 pages i had left in my book, Jesus The Christ. All week i was puttin in work reading it at every moment i could and on christmas eve i finished it! i was to simply say that that book has changed my life. so powerful and sooo spiritual fed i have been as i read the life of the savior. it really kept my focus on the savior this xmas season. hahahah i have to admit though my brain is fried!!! SOOOO MUCH READING! 

so many festive activities we attended and the way i spent money on food this week ayyyyyye its not easy oooooo. hahahahhahahah so my stake president, president foku had both zones of missionaries over to his house for dinner... now i dont know about you guys but how many stake presidents back home feed 2 zones of missionaries, almost 40 elders and sisters at his own house, 3 days before xmas and allll out of his own pocket....... i cant think of any one whos done that hahahah man i love that man soooo much and the fufu we had was tooooooo good to be true! president foku is the perfect example of a selfless person. a man who wants all to feel happy and loved. Foku has been a stake president in Assin Fosu for almost 12 years now...... hahahah WOWZERS. after the dinner we went to the stake center for the christmas carols night in which the whole stake came to. Man the Ghanaians really do love to sing there hymns!! it was a great night!

this saturday was a RM in my last areas wedding. sister lillian! man ghanain weddings to say the least are....interesting hahah but man soooo much fun. i feel bad for lilians dad, man fed about 500 people the best of the best food and had such a beautiful wedding, that mans wallet has got to be suffering hahahah. we missionaries helped pass out the drinks and mannnnnnn the way ghanians come from all over for free food, like even the less actives weve been trying to reactivate for months wont come on sunday but now that there is food. they are the first ones there! hahah ohhhhhhhh GHANA! 

Christmas day. Holy cow was it sooooooo nice to see the family! miss those squirts soooooo much but they still are the same ole jeppson family i left hahah. made sure i had a little xmas breakfast as yesterday i spend 50 cedis on a niiiice box of CHEERIOS!! lololo at church we had a white chrismas! sister elizebeth was baptized by her newly wedded husband on Christmas day. it was a tender moment as husband baptized wife. the church is too true, familys can be together forever, i know it and i will never doubt it. the rest of christmas day we was just eatin food with members and enjoying eachothers company. mission is tooooo sweet! elder jeppson has now been out 4 months... ayyye time has flown!

love you all thanks for the letters and emails! i love you alll! AFEHCIA PA!

elder jeppson

1 and 2: us as fokus party!

3. big j and I doing our wash late at night

4. Lillians wedding

5 and 6. Xmas dinner and my CHEERIOS for xmas breakfast!

7: our white xmas, sister Elizebeth

Week #17

Afehiapa!!

(Merry Christmas)!! hahahah man i hope everyone is having a great holiday! these week has been filled with lots of contacting! so many people travel back to there home town during the holidays so we have lots to teach! We are baptizing sister Elizebeth next sunday, CHRISTMAS! elder Adu-Gyamfi and i are so stoked. have a few referals we met this week that were given by those RM's that came home for the holidays so this next week is going to be goooood!

when we had our lesson with elizebeth she wanted to know about the temple and the things we do. I had almost forgoten how much i love the temple. we had a powerful lesson. but what makes it sooo cool is all week i really missed the temple and i kept thinking about it. but this friday we went to our zone xmas party at the mission home in Cape Coast. and guess what president instructed on..... THE TEMPLES! man it was such a great discussion and i learned sooo much. even more then from working in the temple! hahah president stevenson express his understand and wishes we could as a mission go to the Accra temple but its out of the mission boundary so the area presidency wont allow. its all good but i miss that place sooo much! lovvvvvve president and his wife, they are called by God and i know they are truely inspired. we all a great dinner and then president put on a xmas tradition of theirs. we did the nativity and then watch A Christmas Carol! hahah it was great time.

went on exchange with elder Johnson the Zone Leader on saturday. man we had a good time. that guy is just about to go home so hes ready to leave yet he is finishing sooooo strong! he got pissed at some of our investagators and me cause i was speaking better twi apparently and know more twi then him and ive only been out 4 months. hahahha he wasnt too happy and didnt talk for a while. i felt bad but he says its all good its not your fault. love Big J! we taught lots and has some realllllly really goood Fufu and ground nut soup! Sunday we had an investagator show up at church 2 hours early!! who does that?!?!? isnt 3 hours enough?!?! ahhahah jk but it was a suprise for sure!

i just want to talk about the savior for this last email before xmas. ive been reading sooo much about Christ these last 4 months. i love that man sooo much. but the thing i want to talk about is something that was in this months ensign, the gift of Grace. grace is defined as somthing that allows us to do more then he or she can do and connot do on his or her own well being.  Grace is a strength that helps us get through anything and helps us accieve higher succcess. Jesus Christ gave us grace, and because he did we have potential to become great, even though we will fall short. just as peter lost his faith as he was walking on the water with Christ. Christ will always grab us a pull us our of despair, trails, tribulation, and any sorrows we may face, BUT we have to have our hand stretched out as well, reaching to our savior and our redeemer. Let us rememeber this Christmas season that through Christ anything can happen but with our Christ, we are all lost in the sins we have made. I love my savior and am sooo grateful for him. Christ lives, i know it and i feel his love everyday as i teach these wonderful people.

Merry Christmas! Elder Jeppson loves you more then you know!

elder Jeppson!

(sorry the internet and power fell yesterday hhaha)

1. my boiled plantain and cantumbra

2. Me and Elder Adu-Gyamfi

3. my homie always getting me some Coconut

4.ugliest baby in Ghana hahahah

5-8. us at zone conference looking fressshhhhhhhhh

9. Assin Fosu Zone

Week #16

New area...kind of

man this week was sweet! went a lot better then i thought it would! So my new companion elder Adu-Gyamfi, a ghanaian, a sweet guy. and has taught me a lot already about the culture and his style of teaching. so ive already said my new area is across the street but man is it soooo different from my old area. so its about 2-3 square miles so very small. but a lot of population, about 60 percent are muslim and the rest less actives hahah not really. but there are sooo many less actives in this area and when we ask them why they are not coming they say they will come back when the bishop gets released..... hah...... WHAT!? i was shocked. turns out the bishop isnt the nicest guy so were working on him and trying to move the work forward. i see a lot of my old members so thats always dope! hahah so my new apartments is one of the oldest in the mission. the compound is soooo nice. but the apartment its self is like 3 of my bedrooms back home, one bathroom and a kitchen that has an ironing board in it....glad im somehow skinny. hahah 

NANA WON!!! WAHOOOOOO! the first time in the country of ghana that a president who is in power has not won his second term. man the streets this whole week have just been filled with people decked out in NPP stuff and are sooo drunk hahah. man it was hard to sleep cause they were up alll night! cool story though, during the march down the main road, thousands of people we were walking the other way to our apartment, we had a young boy about 19 come to us and say he wants to know the truth and he wants to come to our church! so for a ghana missionary...... this means they are usually not serious and just want a free panflet book hahah. so we gave him one and our number and let him continuing to march. the next morning sunday, he calls us sooooo early and asks, "has church started?!?!" i was like paul.... its 6;20 am. hahah we start at 10:00 hahah and guess what?!?! he actually came!!! man sweet guy and we cant wait to teach him this week.

so this week ive been focusing on the life of the savior (its christmas time and i thought id show a little spirit. hahah) so im reading the new testement. man Jesus was one powerful guy ha, the words he used and the way he spoke. is something i strive to be. teach with siplicity and youll be a succesfull missionary. christ was perfect yet he goes through the same temptations i go through. but as it promised in matthew chapter 21 verse 22. "and all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing , ye shall receive". temptations and obstacles can be over come simply through prayer and faith. man i love the scriptures! love my personal study time! love you all! have a great christmas season! 

elder jeppson

1-4. nothing like NPP parting allllll day and alllll night hahahahah

5-9. my new comp and the appartment haahhaha (west side cause my comp thinks im from cali)

10. nothing like living in 1920. man i miss a freaking dryer hahahah

Week #15

shift... not a transfer hahah

This week was filled with some great adventures! we had zone conference on tuesday so we had a great instruction given by president stevenson and the assistance's. it was about how to begin teaching, something  i needed really bad. cause sometimes i feel that the investigator just thinks were there to pass off a lesson with him. so this helped me a ton with getting to know your investagators and to be there friends and it will help the lessons go sooo much better. also elder divver and i had to do a role play infront of the whole zone so that kind of sucked but we did really good hahah

IM DONE WITH TRAINING!!! WAHOOOOO. always a good time to celbrate. so we bought another box of pizza and got it sent up from cape coast man we enjoyed!!! i was in the hospital a lot this week cause elder divver is the district leader and a few of the sisters got sick so i had to spend alll day at the hospital! wasnt the funnest but we made it somehow fun! also im getting transfered!! hahah funny thing is, imagine a road and on the right is my zone/area and on the left is another zone/area. hahahahahhaha im literately going across the street! lol everyone was dying when we got the news. it should be good! im receiving a Ghanaian named elder Adujunfi. seems like a great guy! cant wait! funny that ill still be in Assin Fosu cause ill still see my old members and stuff but it will be a good change. love elder divver, most hard working guy ive ever met. so grateful for his example to me and to help me start my missionary service.

i was asked to bear my testimony on sunday cause im leaving the ward. man im gonna miss my first ghanaian family i bore it on something i learned this week. in the pearl of great price chapter 7 verse 18 it talks about a people called Zion, and they are one heart and one mind. as missionaries between companionship and missionaries and the wards of this church. they have to work together to establish Zion. if they are not on the same page, it wont work. i love the promise god gives us all as we establish zion on this earth. its not always easy and its not always fun but its worth it. one of my investigators names sister florence is going to be baptized next sunday. even though i wont be able to see her be baptized i know that elder divver and i are the lords instruments in helping sister florence come closer towards christ. And hopefully through her the work of the lord in establishing zion will continue. shes 16 and she loves the idea of missionary work so maybe someday she will also continue help the work of the lord. kind of cool if ya think about it.

went to farm on saturday, man im so dang good at weeding its unreal. just incase anyone is curious, yes its still BLAZZIN HOT in ghana! also election are this week and so its gonna be crazyyy! haha were asked to come in way early on wednesday cause it might get a little to crazy hahah we will see. we went to adiembra with president Foku to look for a building for the new branch coming to adiembra! it was cool and everyone in fosu knows foku so people came from all over the village to see him. love that guy soooo much! XMAS IS COMING!!!

love you all have a happy filled week!

elder jeppson!!!

1. Last hair cut by elder Talaini

2 and 3. reppin that BYU-I shirt someone had haha also tryin to smoke out a grass cutter the local guy wanted to eat hahah ( its like a big rat) 

4 and 5. at the hospital just chillin

6.elder divver and i and president stevenson

7.Telecom Zone

Week #14

HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEK

lol man this week has been filled with me getting creative with the food. tired of the same 3 things everyday! hahahahahah good week! found some serious/hecka not serious people this week. and thats the work though! sometimes its nice and other times its litterly you and your compainion walking around in the hot sun and then in the rain storm for 7 hours a day talking to anything from a 2 year old baby to a 100 year old grandma that the only english word she knows is "yes" hahahah one of my fav quotes, "sweet is the work". 

so when elder divver and i when we first got here to telecom we were not loved by the ward cause of past missionaries but now they love us! the sister are complaining to them and they just gave them fire saying we always see the elders out walking all day! they know all the members and there names and you dont even know where i live (bishop talking)?! hahah man i felt good cause i felt appreciated as a missionary in my ward. for them just seeing us makes them happy knowing we are out all day helping there ward. back home i never really appreciated the missionaries in my ward. these people are the Christlike examples to me everyday. i love this ward sooo much!

well elder talaini went to Capecoast this week on thanksgiving so when he came back that night he had 2 BOXES OF PIZZA!!! i cant even begin to tell you how short the blessing on that food was hahahahhahah. so it was a great FIRST thanksgiving feast! heheh then the guy said he bought some nice appunciea (goat) in cape and said i could have some....... my first mistake was believing him... my second was eating it..... well i can now say ive eaten RAT!! all i can say is that it tasted like POOP! man Talaini was dying laughing! i asked, "why did you waste 10 cedis on that?!?!" he told me he just wanted to try it..... forget that guy hahah. 

today was niiiiiice!!! ate alllllllll american food to REALLY celebrate our thanksgiving! had ground beef, BBQ sauce, and most importantly CHEESE sent from takarati. man we feasted.... sooo glad no sisters were there cause we ate like straight animals who havent eaten in 2 years.... rented a nice grill, cooked some chicken, burgers and hot dogs! so it was a great day! love this time of the year to celebrate, always remember how you thank someone, its by your actions not your words. divver always tells the people to say the 3 M's to each other. Me dough (i love you), maffu (i miss you), and medacy (thank you). hahahahh loving twi love you!!!!

hope you all had a great holiday. sorry for nothing to spiritual this week. next week ill have good scripture hahahah love you all!

elder jeppson (jeppdaddy, the boy, shaka bro, the legend, freshman, ect. hehe)

1. the pizza from Capecoast

2.me getting creative with the egg sandwhich i have everyday...

3. me and my G elder divver 

4.me washing my clothes by hand every sunday night. 

5. elder talaini and i went out and did some shoping to celebrate man we are fresh

6-9. THE FEAST (so glad all Samoans can cook meat good!) 

Week #13

THANKSGIVING

im a white guy from idaho so obviously ive been sunburnt before but this last saturday....oooooh challay i was a fried lobster!!!! all because we went to farm for this investagator who has a dope pineapple farm! so like obviously we were all stoked to go! we woke up wayyy early and took the other 4 elders in the zone with us. so the 6 of us were at our investagators house and they said okay lets go. its 6:45. we walked DEEEEP deeep into the bush. like soooo far i felt as if we were too far to go back. we walked for 2 HOURS hahahah we were all dead just getting to the farm! hahah we rested for a bit and ate some nicccce Ghanaian pineapple (really is the best ive ever had!) i bought my first cuttalas so daddi sharpened it while we all ate. and then we went to work, weeding away under the coco trees. it was a good time but we were sweating like noooo other. just drenched in our own sweat lol ohhh ghana is tooo hottt! the only water they had for us was the well water..... the water that everyone back home thinks about, gross color and even worse taste. but man we were gonna die if we didnt drink it. soooo we did. it was DISTCUSTING! but we were thankful. we worked for a long time. then we saw a black mamba so we decided its about time to go back heheh (i was terrified tbh).  but we had to walk the 2 hours back out. litterly the longest walk of my life. and i swear it was close to 1000000 degrees. we made it back and i paid for the entire bag of water sashes and we downed them alllll hahah we were all sooooo thirsty. told the fam thanks and i was grateful to see them allll at church the next day so it was all worth it in the end. like a wise man once said, "sacrifice brings forth blessings"

man we had the area of west africa conference broadcast so that was sweeeet! president stevenson of the quorum of the 12 apostles spoke it was truely inspired. so ill share what he said. he spoke about the Sabbath day, something the church has really focused on. he was admiring about how when he went to west africa the markets are soooo busy during the week its honestly unreal. but on sunday, the markets are abandoned to say the least. no one is there. the people that work in the markets fear god more then man. they keep the Sabbath day holy and know that sunday is the day of rest. i love what he said about fearing god. know that god if you do what he says and give him his day. the rest of the week your life will be more meaningfull and more successful. i love this talk so much. i hope you all remember to keep the sabbath day holy and remember that it is his day, our heavenly fathers day. 

have a good week!!! i love you all and dont forget to feast this thursday and always be grateful for god truley is a god of love. love you all!!!

elder jeppson

1 and 2: i love palm farms they are too cool. 

3: jokes on you guys im in mexico

4:the lonnnnnng walk deep in the BUSH

5:my egg mommi, endless eggs hahahahah(in ghana, when we address mr and mrs, we say mommi and daddi)

Week #12

challay im tired hahah

mannnn sweet week. elder divver and i were able to contact a lot more people this week and had 7 investagators at church! we have been walking a lot cause its the last week before we get to pull again so were all out of travel money haha and hamatan is kicking my butt, i thought it was hot before. forgettttt!!! its blazin now. i dont remember a time in my life i have ever felt sooo exausted. and my stomach is having problems again sooooo i pray close to 3902394829048 times durring each lesson that i dont throw up hahah ohhhhh learning to live in ghana, i love it!!

so weve been teaching the plan of salvation a lot this week and my grandma before i left made these really nice lamanated plan of salvation kits and man not only are they useful but soooo powerful when we teach. when the investagator sees what theyre learning about it clicks and the lessons become soo much more interactive! grandma i love you, thanks for the kits!

Elder divver hahahah man the guy has dealt with toooooo many taxi drivers and this week he gave a driver FIRE! i love watching him give fire. and to be honest im sure i would of been giving fire too but i was tooo tired and i just wanted to sleep on the ride to adiembra. the reason elder divver was giving fire cause new record for people in the taxi, 11...... yes 11 people in a taxi. wasnt the most comfy thats for sure i had 2 kids on my lap in a hot steamy car for about 40 minutes on the worst road in ghana hahha but like i said i was too tired to complain. 

well trump did it hahhahahah everyone is ghana is ticked about him winning and ask us about it. we just talk about ghana elections coming up december 6th and they get all happy! hahah

spiritual thought for the week: Cdogs favorite scriputure i read this week and i really liked it sooo everyone go read it and really dig into it and find its true meaning. Doctrine and Covenants 50:24, "that which is of god is light: and he that receiveth light, and continueth in god, receiveth more light, and that light growth brighter and brighter until the perfect day!" powerful scripture. now dig deep all of you and find the meaning.

have a good week!!! love 

elder jeppson

1. divv is going home in 6 months and is fat so hes trying to get in shape, as for me i like to save my energy hahahahah

2. this kid spoils every lesson with a investagator we have 

3 and 4. this guys hand is messed up hahahah not sure why though

5 and 6. showin the Ghanaians how to work hhahaha