First off, here is a picture I got this week. SO PRETTY!!!! I WISH I COULD SNORKEL IN IT SO BAD!!!!! That's Buccoo reef off to the top left out there, which is by pigeon point beach. All very beautiful.
Other great things from this week, I made Trinidad Stewed Chicken for the first time in my life out of my recipe book and it turned out DELICOUS. It tasted just like a local had made it. Its fun cooking fun things, and its even more fun eating those things after.
Let me get all the temporal stories out of the way first. Halloween was this week. Most people don't celebrate it down here, but we are not "most" people. So since me and E. Horsley had to grab something from the Senior Couples apartment, we trick or treated the door as we knocked. The Goddard's even gave us candy! It also worked out because we were even in costume for that one moment. We switched our name tags, It was pretty extravagant!
Moving more towards spiritual things, we did a service project for the International day of service on Saturday with the branch. We did some grounds work and beautifying for a really cool organization called "healing with horses" (Alex, my sister is going to get REALLY jealous at this part). They have gotten and rehabilitated some older/injured horses and then use them to provide a nice experience for special needs kids/people. Its pretty special and the kids love it. Part of our work was cleaning up a lot of boulders around and putting them to line the paths. This picture above is actually taken off the cliff right by their property. They also do offer some horse riding along the beach for tourists to make a bit of money to support them financially. That's a next thing I will need to do when I come back post-mission. For those interested to learn more, I'm sure a google search of "healing with horses Tobago" will yield positive results.
Getting into solidly spiritual matters, Its been quite the experience over here. We are working so very hard, and we even managed to get 37 lessons this week and a lot of people talked too. We still have several people progressing towards baptism, and my favorite is the James family. they came to church again, and are still progressing towards the 22nd. My favorite part about them is seeing the gospel bless their lives as they allow it. Their family has grown so much closer and they are just... happier, and they're not even baptized yet!
My testimony has been strengthened this week, not so much by any great new experiences, but just pondering and appreciating past revelatory experiences. Its so important that we remember, for without that we will lose all anchoring. I caught myself forgetting/not applying past spiritual experiences, and it was leading me to be less sure. then I thought back on all that stuff and I realized "wow, I really do know that this is true" and all my doubts left. I need to remember to do this more often...
Too many problems we allow into our lives because we choose to forget things that we need to cherish and remember.
Plenty pictures this week! Here is a next one of some Mangroves we went through after emailing last week. They were so quiet and peaceful, and had this really nice boardwalk through them. It even went out to the ocean. Such a cool environment!
Let me get all the temporal stories out of the way first. Halloween was this week. Most people don't celebrate it down here, but we are not "most" people. So since me and E. Horsley had to grab something from the Senior Couples apartment, we trick or treated the door as we knocked. The Goddard's even gave us candy! It also worked out because we were even in costume for that one moment. We switched our name tags, It was pretty extravagant!
Moving more towards spiritual things, we did a service project for the International day of service on Saturday with the branch. We did some grounds work and beautifying for a really cool organization called "healing with horses" (Alex, my sister is going to get REALLY jealous at this part). They have gotten and rehabilitated some older/injured horses and then use them to provide a nice experience for special needs kids/people. Its pretty special and the kids love it. Part of our work was cleaning up a lot of boulders around and putting them to line the paths. This picture above is actually taken off the cliff right by their property. They also do offer some horse riding along the beach for tourists to make a bit of money to support them financially. That's a next thing I will need to do when I come back post-mission. For those interested to learn more, I'm sure a google search of "healing with horses Tobago" will yield positive results.
Getting into solidly spiritual matters, Its been quite the experience over here. We are working so very hard, and we even managed to get 37 lessons this week and a lot of people talked too. We still have several people progressing towards baptism, and my favorite is the James family. they came to church again, and are still progressing towards the 22nd. My favorite part about them is seeing the gospel bless their lives as they allow it. Their family has grown so much closer and they are just... happier, and they're not even baptized yet!
My testimony has been strengthened this week, not so much by any great new experiences, but just pondering and appreciating past revelatory experiences. Its so important that we remember, for without that we will lose all anchoring. I caught myself forgetting/not applying past spiritual experiences, and it was leading me to be less sure. then I thought back on all that stuff and I realized "wow, I really do know that this is true" and all my doubts left. I need to remember to do this more often...
Too many problems we allow into our lives because we choose to forget things that we need to cherish and remember.
Plenty pictures this week! Here is a next one of some Mangroves we went through after emailing last week. They were so quiet and peaceful, and had this really nice boardwalk through them. It even went out to the ocean. Such a cool environment!
One last funny story I could tell before signing out this week would be about us giving some Books of Mormon. Some school kids asked us what we teach about (they had just gotten out of school) and the conversation eventually turned toward the Book of Mormon, we showed them one, and they wanted it. My companion gave his one to them, and then they of course ALL wanted one, so we gave them the 3 total that we had on us, and said we would grab more from the car. We came back with 9 more from the car and they grabbed all of them. We gave out 12 total, and they didn't even all get one. We told them to give them to their families. the funny thing is when they all went down the street into an open bible church! They had an after school bible study and they all went in there, armed with this new book... I would love to have seen what happened in there and what the teacher said. I hope some of the books made it into their homes to bless their lives and families!
But that's about all for this week. Man my emails have been long lately, and lots of pictures. Enjoy!
-Elder Jeppson
P.S. This work is most definitely true, I can not deny that. I would rather die than deny what I know!
But that's about all for this week. Man my emails have been long lately, and lots of pictures. Enjoy!
-Elder Jeppson
P.S. This work is most definitely true, I can not deny that. I would rather die than deny what I know!
liming over the ocean at the end of the mangroves