Feliz día de acción de gracias!!

I wish Thanksgiving was as hype here as it is in America! One thing I'm absolutely the most grateful for, outside of my family and the gospel, is being a Texas-American mostly American. What a privilege it is.

My Spanish is getting better slowly. I'm just trying to learn a few words a day! It's hard having time to put in actual language study because I would rather read the LdM but I should make time.
There were actually some pretty interesting things that happened this week. I had my first lesson actually in a jungle this week. We taught a man that didn't have space in his house for a visit so we met out back behind his house and he chopped some banana tree leaves down and put our bags on them. He is just the best little abuelito he has like 5 dogs and he lives with his brother who is 72 but they do everything for themselves. We are sitting in the lesson and the 74 year old man stands up and cuts a trash bag down that was hanging in a tree and all his dogs run over. He pulls out of the trash bag a huge, legit horse leg with a hoof on it and everything. He just starts chopping it up with an axe and all the dogs are trying to steal it from him. I asked if I could help him and he said no- he can do it himself. It was the grossest thing ever. lol. I'm just trying to soak everything in.
Make sure to sit back and take advantage of the time we have in the places we are. I love sitting back and just keeping my head up when I walk because it reminds me of how blessed we are to live in such a beautiful planet.
Stay away from pochitoque, it's so gross it's basically a cooked turtle with some green sauce on it.

The Tabasco mud turtle, commonly known as pochitoque here, is a small turtle that can be found in Veracruz, Tabasco, northern Guatemala and Belize. It is found in small streams, marshes and ponds.
Honestly, the food here, in general, is getting really good. I'm starting to settle in!
We have transfers next week and I'm nervous, I hope I get to go somewhere in the city by a Walmart! I got all my housemates into 'golf.' We swing metal poles, working on our swing. It's so funny. I was talking to my mission president and he says we are going to try and golf before he leaves and after the rainy season.
I miss y'all so much. I'm just trying to do my best but I feel like alot of things go wrong. I just finished reading the book Jesus, The Christ. It is so great, I wish I would have read it before my mission. 
I also found some puppies playing in a sandpit and just some pictures of 4 caminos which is the area where we live.
Hope all is well, love ya-

Living in Luxury-Bucket Showers Can't Be Any Better

This week was so rainy. Water everywhere! That means there are bazillions of mosquitoes. What's good about the rain is that everyone is HOME! but they just say the weather is too bad to let us in... really doesn't make sense but its okay. 
Let me just say Elder Sorensen and I made ourselves the best set up this week. When it rains the water gets really cold and in the morning its stinks to bucket shower. The water is always filled with rust so its like we shower with cold rust water. We set up some ripped strips of t-shirt over our faucet to act as a filter against the rust and we bought a heating rod. We wake up, fill our buckets, and start heating the water, it's the best.

Sunday we had two of our progressing investigators come to church and honestly, it was the best. Our branch isn't big enough to be a ward and sometimes its a little nerve-wracking because it doesn't always run as smooth as it does in the states and the missionaries have to help the branch president from the congregation sometimes. This last Sunday ran perfectly though! Our visitors loved it and said they want to come back every week! Elder Sorensen and I taught Gospel Principles and it was good! The people here help me with my Spanish and they're very nice!
There are so many mangoes everywhere!!!! They fill the streets. There is this one road when all the best mangoes fall but the street gets super slippery. I totally slipped and some people saw and it was funny they laughed.

We had zone conference this week. Something that President Haws and the mission in general stresses so much is the importance of Power, Dignity, and Purpose. Everything we do as missionaries revolves around those three things. I love the emphasis upon hard work and diligence as everything you do and say must have a purpose, through dignity, done with power.

Love you all so much

Week of Miracles

WOW!
Everything at home is moving 100mph! 
I just want to say that I think I have the prettiest mission in the whole world. This really is the land of many waters and everything is green. So much vegetation and bugs, unfortunately. It rains so much here but it brings the temperature down a little! 

We still walk everywhere, I wish we had bikes here. Okay, I think I am starting to like the food a lot. I pretty much eat everything! If my mom saw everything I was eating she would be so proud of me! lol. There are a lot of weird bugs here and so many lizards everywhere. I was walking through some tall grass next to a dirt road because it was flooded from all the rain and I just had to stop and take a picture. I really should do better at taking more pictures but I can't even capture all the jungle so I just gave up.I've never been bitten by so many mosquitoes in my life but I think i can start to feel them now its insane my senses are improving! I think this is the happiest I've been in a very long time.
There is so much green but there is also so much trash along the roads so Elder Sorensen and I took a pic at the tree of trash it's kinda just where everyone throws their trash and there is so many random things there.

The beginning of this week was a little harder. We had, what looked like, a ton of good progressing people genuinely interested. After Tuesday and Wednesday, everything looked like it just started to fall. Everyone started to cancel and things just always seemed to not work out. 
It seems that once something doesn't work out or we feel an impression to try a new way to a certain place that the Lord places people in our path that needed to be there. We had three people contact US and want to learn more when we were supposed to be at other appointments but they cancelled. We walked ages to one of the furthest neighborhoods in our area and when we were about half a mile away we got a text saying something came up. We turned around and got stopped by a man on a moto saying he had been looking for missionaries he met with them in Ohio and had been through the discussions and that the Book of Mormon was true. There are so many experiences that come from the Lord micromanaging his work its so cool.
I met a woman named ?¡¡??¡ shes so cute shes a little abuela that lives in a small tin house through a road in the middle of the jungle. We contacted her on the side of the street and asked if there was a time we could come back and she said yes. turns out she gave us the wrong address lol. We are meeting with a member and she tells us she has a reference and it turns out it is that same woman her aunt. She gave us the real address and we went. We had two lessons with her. After the second lesson, she says "I'm gonna be honest with you sweet jovens" she said she wasn't interested in changing churches or hearing from us when we met her on the street but she read the Book of Mormon and couldn't deny it. The Power of the book of Mormon is especially powerful here. This is the foundation of it and it really is something that cannot be described. The Book of Mormon is true and I have seen it bring Happiness to my life and others.
I love all of y'all so much!
Estoy aprendiendo español lentamente!
Love Y'all!

Las Choapas Zone Elders- District Conference for the Las Choapas District. 

Los Días de los Muertos!!

BUENAS!!

This week was incredible! I'm just trying to keep taking it in! The beginning of this week was fun, the elders and I and the hermana we live with painted our faces for the first day of Día de los Muertos! There are so many festivities going on its once again so much like the movie COCO! 

After 8 o´clock it's nothing like the movies and it gets scary, but oh well. This time of year is like the perfect time to talk about the plan of salvation and it's the best. 

I'm still trying my best to learn Spanish and it's just coming so slow but I am getting better! We live in such and blessed and beautiful country in The United States of America, let us not take that for granted. 

WE WALK EVERYWHERE! I walk so much in the heat but it's nice to get into the next little puebla because the trees are sooo tall and there are streams everywhere, it is so pretty! The people, it seems just set up shop and live wherever they want. I don't even know if they have to buy land here or if anyone cares. LOL. The mosquitos are getting really bad at night I have to cover everything or I'll get eaten alive. The wall next to my bed is covered in blood from all the moscos I kill on it hahahha.

I'm really getting sick of washing my clothes by hand thank you for whoever invented the washer and dryer!! 

I have met so many awesome people this week! I know I'm supposed to be here and it's so cool just to see myself changing! 

Elder Sorensen and I were crossing a little river when we saw a bunch of mangoes that had fallen and what we thought were flies on them but it turns out they were bees, I almost fell in the river because there were so many but I didn't! 

I feel once I can get my Spanish down I'm gonna be able to communicate the importance of our message we are sharing. I love being a missionary! I get to see people's faces change everyday because of the spirit they feel. I was thinking that Christ really doesn't need missionaries to spread his Gospel. He doesn't REALLY need me. If he wants everyone to hear and know perfectly of his message he would do so by himself, but he has given me the opportunity to witness it first hand in other people's lives. 

To strengthen my knowledge I have been studying a lot in the scriptures and I love the example of Christ´s first apostles. Shortly after Christ was baptized he begins to make his trek from Judea to Galilee. Andrew, John and John the Baptist follow Jesus. I love the question the Jesus poses Andrew and John, when he says "what seek ye?"  They respond hastily by saying "Where dwellest thou?" His response has been something I've been pondering a little bit about. Instead of the direct response Jesus could have given about His purpose, and role as The Son of God, he says "Come and See". I love that. The invitation from Jesus to the sincere Andrew and John is the same given to all of us. We must follow, hear, see, and feel of the happiness given to us through Jesus Christ. As a missionary we can bring hope, service, and a message, but the response has to be individual. Are you in doubt of what that message means, or how to feel his peace? Then come and see for yourself. Do you know where Christ is to be found? Come and see.

Mexico is wild and I'm slowly adjusting and doing my best! I love all of you sooo much keep emailing me!! I love to hear from everyone!

Elder Jeppesen

PS- I GOT YOUR BOX!! We had a district conference and Hermana Haws brought it to me! She's so nice, I ate all the Gushers lol! I'm doing good, my companion is freaking hilarious! We mesh well, he likes working hard too which is a plus! Will you send me a pick of the FJ I miss her so much haha That mail system was good but I can only get packages at zone or district conference which is like once a transfer, so like two times every 6 weeks! It's over a 4 hour drive to the mission home. Every one is envious of how much my mom loves me heart heart. Also- I AM IN THE WARD CHOIR!!! And no one cares or must be tone deaf. I told you everyone here is really nice.
love youuu