tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13684620019523509312024-02-06T23:36:07.849-08:00Sister Jilyn HepworthIowa, Des Moines, Spanish speaking mission.Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-49219882966148100172011-12-06T01:20:00.001-08:002011-12-06T01:20:48.315-08:00If you want to write me a letter, DO IT NOW.....I don't have much time left.The coolest thing that happened this week was we gave Tami and Mat a tour of the church. We do this in order to help people feel more comfortable coming to church. In Tami's case she says she is nervous being around a lot of people. So for her coming to the church when there's nobody in it helped because now the building is no longer unfamiliar, just the people are. But we've been taking members to her home so she already knows some of them. Basically we teach them the message of the Restoration (found in Preach my Gospel) while giving a tour of the building. The Spirit was SOOOOO strong, their 7 year old son Michael was there and he was so stinkin cute!!! We showed them the baptismal font at the end and Michael said, "I wish I would get baptized!" Mat also said that he wants to get baptized! Another miracle is Tami quit her job (which was a roadblock for her coming to church) and Mat didn't have to work so they were able to come to church for the first time the next day! So Mat is praying about a baptismal date in January. <br />
And of course the First Presidency Christmas Devotional was great. If you missed it you can still check it our on lds.org I'm sure! :D<br />
If you want to know when my homecoming is just ask my mom, for she'll know before I do...<br />
Love,Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-30484134292152073982011-12-06T01:18:00.001-08:002011-12-06T01:18:57.350-08:00Late Happy ThanksgivingIt's been a long time since I've written, the time that we have on the computer just seems to slip away from me...<br />
Any who, we have taught Dr. Shull a couple of times, he has a great attitude about life. He says, "People ask me, 'Do you ever have a bad day?' and I say 'Yep, but you'll never know it.'" <br />
We've been busy visiting our less actives that live in New London...or I should say former less actives because when I got to Mt Pleasant they weren't really coming to church at all, but they did have strong testimonies about the truthfulness of the gospel. Now they both are pretty regular fixtures at church and they both have callings, it's amazing! We've also been teaching this woman named Shirley, her heart is definately softening. When we first started to visit her she said she could not be part of a church that has 12 men calling the shots. Since then she has come to General Conference and since then she hasn't said anything against the leaders of the church. She comes to all of our church activities too. <br />
Probably the most amazing thing that has happened this transfer has been a series of events rewinding back to about a month ago. We were walking outside and I gave a card with our phone number on it to a man talking on his phone and took it and went on his way. Well to our surprise he called us that night (that doesn't usually ever happen to us :O) So he told us he didn't know that much about Mormons and if we could explain it to him, it was late so we couldn't really talk to him then but he said he'd call us the next day. He didn't, but the amazing thing is that 2 weeks later I tried to give him another card. He said, "I think you already did" Well oops, we didn't recognize him. We asked him if he'd ever wondered where we came from, where we're going after this life and why we're here. He laughed at us...he said that he wasn't trying to be disrespectful by laughing but those were questions that he wonders all of the time. He didn't want to set an appt though because he was really busy with school and work. About a week after that I was thinking about him when we were in the car and about how it wasn't by accident that we ran into him twice and I told Sis Hancock that and she said "We should call him" So I did, but I really didn't think he would answer because he had told us the time before that his phone was shut off. Well, surprise surprise, he answered! He said that he had a little bit of time right then to talk so I taught him for about 20 min on the phone and asked him if we could just come to his house and teach him and he said yes. The next miracle is that we saw a less active member ride by on her bike and we yelled out her name and she said she's come with us to Nicks house (since we can't go into the home of a single man without the presence of another woman.) So we were able to go inside and teach him. We taught so much, he has SOOOOOO many questions and is a really deep thinker. He has a hard time believeing in God, he said he really wants to believe but sometimes when he prays he just feels like he's wasting his time and nobody hears him. He told us that he almost wants us to convice him that there's a God. That really reminded me of what it says in Alma 32:27. "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than adesire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words." We talked about his faith being a seed and the things he needs to do to help it to grow. He's a great guy with tons of potential!!!! <br />
We had a really great Thanksgiving at the Akers, very more traditional than the Thanksgiving we had last year. <br />
Yesterday we were teaching a lesson to a less active woman and her kids. The little 5 year old girl said this, "If you be nice to God and Jesus, they'll give you stuff that's really expensive." We talking about Nephi getting the brass plates and we said, we don't have to go get brass plates though right? And she said "No, but we get paper plates or plates from the kitchen." <br />
Well, until next week,Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-71515374473006668152011-11-07T16:56:00.000-08:002011-11-07T16:56:38.291-08:00We were able to teach Diana's (less active) daughter, Becka, this week. It was good, we talked about the Tree of Life. <br />
We don't have very many investigators now because we had to drop them. It's sad when that happens, but when they're not keeping their committments you have to. That's what's starting to happen with the Mangolds. :(<br />
He says he wants to know if what we're teaching is true or not, but his actions don't really match that. They used to be really good at keeping the committments we left them but now they're starting to stop doing that and they're not coming to church as much. <br />
It's also been hard to talk to people on the street because they're all inside because it's cold now and it's getting darker later. But through it all we are keeping a positive attitude. I love talking to people about the gospel!!!<br />
We were teaching a less active member, Sister Frank, and her 8 year old daughter Kassie who just recently got baptized. We asked them if they would think about the baptismal covenants they made at baptism during the Sacrament and Sister Frank said yes but Kassie said, I don't know. Her mom said, "What do you mean you don't know." Kassie: "It's not like I know the future."<br />
We had interviews with President Jergensen this week and something really funny happened during the interviews. We were all just talking and I said "Hey, you should put on a skit or something." So they actually did! They started acting out Pres and Sis Jergensen dating and their proposal. And then they started acting out Book of Mormon stories. Nephi and his brothers going to get the brass plates from Laban. It was so funny, I played Lehi and the Elder that played Nephi started singing, I guess he wanted to turn it into a musical. I wish I would've recorded it and then you all would be rolling around laughing!!! <br />
Well...I must go now, love you!<br />
-- <br />
<br />
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth<br />
8515 Douglas Avenue #19<br />
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322<br />
<br />Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-51299193947269319082011-11-07T16:55:00.001-08:002011-11-07T16:55:50.151-08:00Living Without Jesus"Living without Jesus is like dribbling a football." ~This was on a church marquee.<br />
Since it hasn't been too long since my last pday not too much has happened, here are the highlights:<br />
So, this week I cut a woman named Debbie's hair. It's funny how we met her, she's the mother-in-law of an inactive woman. Her daughter, Krista, has no idea that we're teaching her mom, so it's pretty funny. She saw us walking on the street a couple of months ago and told us to come over for dinner and she's been feeding us every other week since then. She's also going to make us hats and scarves...she's an awesome lady full of lots of energy! <br />
We also met this less active, Wade, who has never been to church before. We met him a couple of weeks ago and invited him to church and guess what? He came!<br />
I read Pres Monson's talk from Nov 2010 General Conference, I believe. "The Divide Gift of Gratitude", here is an except that I loved, <br />"Who was this “man of sorrows, … acquainted with grief”? “Who is this King of glory,” this Lord of lords? He is our Master. He is our Savior. He is the Son of God. He is the Author of Our Salvation. He beckons, “Follow me.” He instructs, “Go, and do thou likewise." He pleads, “Keep my commandments.” Let us follow Him. Let us emulate His example. Let us obey His words. By so doing, we give to Him the divine gift of gratitude."<br />
Love you all! <br />-- <br />
<br />Hermana Jilyn Hepworth<br />
8515 Douglas Avenue #19<br />
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-12904329268584339892011-11-07T16:54:00.000-08:002011-11-07T16:54:48.579-08:00Halloween<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Well, much has happened since I last wrote. We've been able to teach Mat (investigator) and Tami (less active) a couple of times. It's amazing to see how much growth Mat has made since we've started teaching him. When we first met him he only believed in God when things were going good in his life. He never prayed or read in the scriptures. But now he is praying everyday and he says that he feels better after he prays and he knows that there is a God. The scriptures in Alma 30:44 is perfect evidence that there is a God. "All things denote there is a God; yea, even the bearth, and call things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its dmotion, yea, and also all the eplanets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." So now that his faith is growing the next step is repentence and so we invited him to repent in preparation for baptism and he said he would. :)</div>
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We had a lesson with Diana (less active) and Becka (investigator). We talked about the people of Ammon and how they repented (much like we did with Kami and Seth.) But instead of making big sword we just made little paper swords and wrote things we wanted to repent of on them and then tore them up in little pieces and "buried" them in the garbage. When we first told Becka about it she acted aprehensive about it and for a while she just sat there and didn't do anything so I was thinking in my mind that she just wasn't going to do it. But then she started writing things down and she was really getting into it and taking it seriously. </div>
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We went over an article in the October Ensign "How to study the Book of Mormon" by Elder Christofferson with some people this week and this is a part that I really liked in it. <br />"The Book of Mormon authors wrote with future generations in mind, specifically the latter days. In abridging the Nephite records, Mormon said he could not include “even a hundredth part” (see 3 Nephi 5:8; see also Words of Mormon 1:5). Moroni commented, “I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing” (Mormon 8:35). These two authors and others, acting under inspiration, wrote what would be of greatest benefit to us in these latter days.</div>
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We should therefore study with these questions in mind: “Why was this included? How does this apply today and to me?” President Benson observed, for example, that in the Book of Mormon we find a pattern for preparing for the Savior’s Second Coming. We learn how disciples of Christ live in times of war, deal with persecution and apostasy, do missionary work, and respond to the dangers of materialism.2 As Nephi did, when we study, we should “liken” the scriptures to ourselves—that is, try to discover how to apply what we find in the Book of Mormon (see 1 Nephi 19:23)."</div>
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We had a branch Halloween activity and I put on my haircutting apron and went as a hairstylist and Sister Hancock didn't dress up as anything but I told everyone that she was a teacher. (Which she actually is in real life :D) On Halloween we had to come in at 6 and so we carved a pumpkin and played speed scrabble, it was super duper fun. :D.</div>
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LOVE YOU ALL!</div>
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Hermana Jilyn Hepworth</div>
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8515 Douglas Avenue #19</div>
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Urbandale, Iowa, 50322</div>Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-63293860107607980612011-10-18T01:28:00.001-07:002011-10-18T01:28:53.321-07:00October 17, 2011<br />
Wow, the weeks seem to just be flying by! We've been teaching this cool woman from Guatemala, Marina. We haven't been teaching much in Spanish here so I can definitely see that I am forgetting it as I've been trying to teach Marina...it's SOOOOO sad! :( But I'm so happy that we've been finding more hispanics to teach so that I can get it back! <br />
I've talked about a less active, Stacy, in the past. (She's the one who was drinking to numb the pain) We got in contact with her again and she's so super busy we were having a hard time coming up with a time we could come visit her until I was blessed with the amazing idea to make her dinner. So we did, we made her tacos and she's on her way to the right path again. She was telling us about her friend that was really religious and really happy and she just wanted to be really happy like that. Then wham, it hit me, The Tree of Life. The fruit "was desirable to make one chappy...., most sweet, above all...and white, to exceed all the bwhiteness....And the fruit thereof it filled [Lehi's] soul with exceedingly great ajoy." 1 Nephi 8: 10-11. The fruit is what she's after in order to obtain that happiness. Later on in the lesson Sister Hancock was telling Stacy how she didn't want to go on a mission and was resisting what God wanted for her and Stacy was like "Whoa whoa whoa, I just had an epiphany! I've been resisting what God wants me to do because you girls keep coming over here wanting me to come to church but I just keep thinking, no not yet, I'm not ready. But I need to do what God wants me to do. Whoa" It was a definate break through. :)<br />
We drove up to Cedar Falls (2 1/2 hour drive) to do exchanges with the Sisters up there. I had a lot of fun I really like the sisters up there, Sisters Whitaker and Cuny. On Friday night I was walking around the college campus with Sister Whitaker talking to people and there was nobody and Sister Whitaker almost started quoting Little Mermaid on accident "I want to be where the people are..." We were also talking about finding joy in the work. An Elder said in a meeting, "If you're not having fun doing missionary work then you're doing it wrong." I liked that so much. Since I know that all of you reading this are not full time missionaries you could apply it to yourselves by saying: If I'm not having fun in life then I'm doing it wrong. <br />
I must go, love you!<br />
<br />
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth<br />
8515 Douglas Avenue #19<br />
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-65943157112118325652011-10-16T14:27:00.002-07:002011-10-16T14:27:31.005-07:00October 10, 2011<br />
<br />
Some of our members are starting to get excited about sharing the Gospel...it's exciting!!! Full-time missionaries and member-missionaries working hand in hand! Some new potential people are coming out of the wood work. We've tried the last 6 months to teach a less active's (Diana) daughter, her name is Becka. But Becka has been super busy and has never been home when we come over. But this week we went to see Diana after being there 5 min she got a phone call from Becka saying that she ran out of gas at Walmart...so we told Diana we could come back in a couple of hours. As sad as it sounds it actually turned out being a blessing that Becka ran out of gas and that we came back later because that made it so that Becka was there for our appointment. Her adoptive grandparents were members and so she knows quite a bit about the church. She told us that she's actually afraid to recieve an answer about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon because if it's not she'll be disappointed. She looked up to her grandparents so much and that will mean that everything they stood for and believed in was false and she doesn't want that to happen. It's funny, I've never had somebody be afraid to get an answer before. But she's so awesome and she's got lots of potential, we'll keep teaching her. <br />
A sad thing happened. Ian told us that he doesn't want to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it to know if it's true. He read the chapters we gave him to read last time and he feels like it's just saying the same thing that the Bible says and he even thinks that the Bible says it better. :( (I knew at that moment how committed I was to the Book of Mormon because I felt very defensive about it.) I used the example that was given in General Conference, if there's one dot (the Bible) and infinate number of lines can be drawn through it. But when there are 2 (the Bible and the Book of Mormon) How many can be drawn through them both? Only one. He didn't want to accept that. He just wants somebody to talk about religion with and that's not our purpose. It's to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel. So I was pretty sad about that because we found him in a super cool way. (see past emails)<br />
We've been able to find a lot more Hispanics which makes me super happy because I'm so afraid I'm going to forget my Spanish. Plus I just love the Hispanics people so much. They are so loving and welcoming! We found this lady Marina and I said "Somos Las Misioneras de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias" and she said "pasale" which means Come in! We talked to this guy from guatemala. "Do you believe in Jesus Christ?" "Yes, see I have a tattoo of Him." :) In Spanish naturally. <br />Something cool happened on Sunday! We haven't been able to teach Santos for a long long time, about 3 months. She was progressing really well, she was coming to church a lot and the Arguetas (members) even took her to Nauvoo and Carthage and she said she knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet. But then....Satan got her and all of these trials started coming her way all at once and so she stopped coming and got super busy. We had tried to see Santos on Sun afternoon but she wasn't home. Flash foreward to that night, we were going to see Stacy but then I started thinking about Santos. I said something about her and Sis Hancock said, should we see her now or later. Now. I know it was an impression from the Lord because she was home and we had a really great lesson with her. I had the distinct impression to ask her if she was happy. And she said no, I was definately directed by the Spirit in that lesson because I felt like I was on a mission, I knew exactly what I needed to say and I knew I needed to say it. We talked about how Jesus Christ knows exactly how she feels because He's felt it before. And Sis Hancock was inspired to share Helaman 5:12 with her. I feel so sad for her. <br />
Although I don't like feeling sad for these people, especially when they don't want to accept the gospel. I'm glad that I do because it shows me that I really care about them. I'm so grateful for the chance to come and love these people and to see them as God sees them, and to feel the LOVE that he has for them. <br />
LOVE YOU<br />-- <br />
<br />Hermana Jilyn Hepworth<br />
8515 Douglas Avenue #19<br />
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-52339545692884899952011-10-16T14:27:00.000-07:002011-10-16T14:27:05.169-07:00October 3, 2011<br />
<br />
Seth got baptized, Yay!!! The Spirit was there so strongly! It was also his birthday. In the baptism talk they talked about how it was his birthday and today he was going to have another "birthday". Today he was going to be spiritually reborn. In the Holy Ghost talk they talked about how today he was going to recieve a gift on his birthday, the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I reflected on that and had an spiritual insight. The Holy Ghost is a gift given to us for our spiritual "birthday". I thought that was so cool and something I would never have thought about had Seth not been baptized on his birthday. <br />
Another thing I could feel the Spirit strongly General Conference! I've said it before and I'll say it again, I always took conference for granted growing up. Watching it now as a missionary has opened my eyes and I have a greater appreciation for it. After it's over I feel sad because I have to wait 6 whole months before the next one. We watched it Saturday, my favorite was Elder Carl B. Cooks experience on the elevator after being called as a General Authority. He was looking down because he could feel the weight of his calling and didn't know how he would be able to do it. Pres Monson comes in and asks what he's looking at. "Oh, nothing" Pres Monson's reply "It's better to look up." I loved that. It shows us that when there are things we are called to do that we feel we cannot, we must remember to who we should turn to, and look up. Another thing I loved that he said, "Most of what we worry about is not of eternal signifigance, and if it is, the Lord will help us. " So true!!!<br />
We taught a lesson to a woman named Shirley on Saturday night. Shirley does not like men, and she told us she has a problem with "12 men running the show." I had the distinct impression to invite her to come to Conference the next day. At first she said she couldn't but I told her that there were women who spoke as well (and I hoped and prayed there would be another woman speaker on Sunday...luckily there was :D) She came to the Sunday morning session and it was interesting to watch conference through her perspective. I hope she was able to see that these are humble men called of God, because that's what I saw as I watched them speak. I know that they are Special Witnesses of Jesus Christ. <br />
Until next week,<br />-- <br />
<br />Hermana Jilyn Hepworth<br />
- Show quoted text -epworth<br />
8515 Douglas Avenue #19<br />
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322<br />
<br />
Another funny thing from conference: We pray for patience, and we want it now. :)<br />
- Show quoted text -Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-40580336840799752572011-10-16T14:23:00.000-07:002011-10-16T14:23:15.503-07:00September 26, 2011<br />
<br />
My new companion is, (drumroll)............................................Sister Christy Hancock!!!!!!!<br />
She's pretty cool, she was my companion my first 2 transfers I was in Des Moines. She was being trained then. <br />
Since Hermana Hancock arrived on Thursday we've been having a pretty great week! We took birthday cards to Tami (a less active) and Diana (also a less active) It was a great way to stop by and see them cause we're teaching Tami's fiance Matt and Dianas daughter Becka so they were happy we remembered their birthday and it gave us an opportunity to teach them. <br />
Last week we ate with this woman named Debby, her daughter and son-in-law are members. They're actually inactive and have never shared anything about the gospel with Debby so we decided to stop by and see her on Thursday and we started talking about the Plan of Salvation with her. We have an appt to see her again tonight, we're going to show her how to listen to the Book of Mormon on lds.org because her eyesight isn't very good. We also had an appt with the Orrs that night and he also had his baptismal interview this Sunday and he passed which means he's ready for baptism this Saturday right after conference. YAY!!!<br />
On Wednesday we taught Paula and Scott, we taught read from the talk about revelation from Elder Bednar, April 2011 General Conference. I think that I've mentioned using that talk before with investigators but it's only because I love it so much! I love the analogy of the light. We were teaching them that most likely their answer will come slowly over time. They don't feel like they've recieved an answer yet and so I'm having a hard time knowing what we need to do for them. We've come to the conclusion that we just need to help them recognize the Spirit at every lesson. That's what we did at this lesson. The Spirit was there really strong, especially at the end and so we asked if he could feel it and he said yes. We taught them again on Sunday and they said they felt good....the Spirit!<br />
We taught Ian and Danielle, which was an interesting lesson. Mostly because we feel like he just wants to compare what we believe and he also told us that by us coming over it's helped him to have a desire to become stronger in his church. But they still want us to come over and talk to them about the scriptures. So we're going to teach them at least one more time and establish our expectations. <br />
Saturday night was fun because we got to see the Relief Society General Conference. I loved listening especially to Pres Uchtdorfts talk. I felt (as I'm sure many others did) that he was talking to me. If any Relief Society sisters haven't seen it yet, you still can and I would strongly encourage that you do because it was simply amazing!<br />
Well, this has been an Hermana Hepworth missionary report. I hope you enjoyed. :)<br />
Love,<br />-- <br />
<br />Hermana Jilyn Hepworth<br />
8515 Douglas Avenue #19<br />
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-1432723230402953072011-10-16T14:22:00.000-07:002011-10-16T14:22:13.455-07:00 September 21, 2011<br />
<br />
Transfer News: I'm staying in Mt. Pleasant again. Wooohoooo, now I won't miss Seth's baptism. All we have to do now is prepare the Mangolds (who have been coming to church!!!) and Dr. Shull to be baptized! And when I say "we" I mean my new companion and I because Sister Dalton is being transfered. Whoever she is, she's been my companion before, I've already served with the other 4 Spanish speaking sisters before. <br />
It's been a good week! Well, actually, it didn't start out all that great. Monday night we had some investigators drop us :( (Which I'm not all that used to working with the Hispanics and they never drop you. They keep letting you come back but never keep any of the commitments and you eventually drop them. But in Mt. Pleasant we are teaching a lot in English...too much. We hardly have any Hispanic investigators and that makes me sad.) But then we both started feeling sick that night. I ended up throwing up all night and all the next day I was in pain!!!!!!!!! That day (Tuesday) was an awful, horrible, terrible, bad, bad, bad day! Something cool that happened was we got a Priesthood blessing in Spanish and before and after the blessing I was in a lot of pain, but during the blessing I could not feel any pain at all! And in spite of the pain I'm actually glad I got sick because the next day I didn't feel sick, I felt amazing and revitalized. I told Sister Dalton I wanted to yell from the rooftops how good I felt. So I'm glad because I had a new appreciation for my health. Like the scripture in 2 Nephi 2:11, "It must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things." Anyways, we are both healthy now, we don't know what it was that made us sick...I guess we'll never know.<br />
We've had some fun lessons with Kamrai and Seth. The funnest being on repentance. We read Alma 24: 10-19 and Helaman 15: 7-10 about the people of Ammon who buried their weapons of war. We made swords out of cardboard and tin foil and we wrote on them things we need to repent of and then we buried our swords in their backyard. :) It was really fun!!!<br />
OH, we made calzones with the Akers and they loved them! <br />
Also, we were sitting in the park last week planning and Lorenzo came walking by and started talking to us. We had an appt to get to so we set up an appt and invited him to church and something amazing happened...He actually came to church. Which I don't know if I've mentioned much about Lorenzo but he's in his 20's from Guatemala. We taught him about 3 months ago but he just really wasn't acting (see above description of Hispanics) so we had to drop him. Also a couple of months ago he was only calling us when he was drunk. Not good. So anyways, this time he seems more serious about it, he told us he wants to be baptized and he actually remembered our appt with him. <br />
Annnnnyways, friends and family,<br />
I love you and until next week, <br />
<br />
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth<br />
8515 Douglas Avenue #19<br />
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-17747236563537076422011-10-16T14:20:00.000-07:002011-10-16T14:20:21.848-07:00This is Jilyn's mother. I have not posted for her for a long time because of computer problems. I am going to post her blogs for the last month. I hope you read and enjoy.<br />
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September 12, 2011<br />
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This week got really interesting when we decided to stop by and visit a less active girl who was progressing so nicely. She really had expressed desire to change...and she was. And then she started avoiding us, we went by for several weeks and we knew she was home and was just ignoring us but we kept going by anyway because we don't want to give up on her. We decided to stop by on Friday and she actually opened the door. She was really tipsy and was telling us that she was drunk and to come in and come in and see the real Stacy. She was doing so great and she seemed so happy when she was trying to follow God but I guess Satan just got ahold of her because she told us she was drinking to numb the pain. She told us all about the awful things that have happened in her life. It was so sad, to see somebody in that much pain who thinks the only place they have to turn is alcohol. It was so sad to be around her and to see what alcohol does to people. We set an appt for the following day but she wasn't home so we stopped by on Sunday night and she was drunk again. We want to help her so much, but was can't make her do anything and that's the frusterating part. <br />
On a happier note...We did service for the Mangold family on Friday. We painted their barn with them and then we had a BBQ afterwards. They're 2 year old grandson was there and he was hilarious! He loves cows! He kept singing this song "I am cow, here me moo...." They didn't come to church on Sunday but they're making progress because they got up early and thought about coming, that blasted Satan just got in the way so they didn't. Speaking of Satan, Sister Dalton and I decided to make a sign that says "Live today so that Satan says: Oh no, she's awake!" We put it up in our room.<br />
We also had some great lessons with Kamrai and Seth this week. To help him gain a testimony of President Monson we decided to watch a talk by him. "Priesthood Power" from April 2011 Priesthood Session. We taught them at a members home, the Lance's, and afterwards we each shared our testimony of when we came to know that Pres Monson is the Prophet. I reflected on when Pres Hinckley died it seemed that nobody would be able to take his place. As I thought of Pres Monson being the prophet it just didn't seem to fit. But then the following General Conference when he stood up to speak and we all sustained him as the Prophet I knew that he was the Prophet. <br />Love,<br />-- <br />
<br />Hermana Jilyn Hepworth<br />
8515 Douglas Avenue #19<br />
Urbandale, Iowa, 50322<br />
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Forward She wasJoyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-82310098025869640362011-09-06T19:22:00.000-07:002011-09-06T19:22:12.467-07:00WARNING<strong>WARNING" YOU'RE GONNA WANT TO GET OUT YOUR SCRIPTURES</strong>. I haven't been able to teach our recent convert Skylar for a very long time. 2 months in fact. So we've had this super awesome lesson planned for him and we were actually able to teach it. There's a cool story in <strong>ALMA 47:1-19</strong> about a man named Lehonti. We read those scriptures with the Crossetts and talked about what Lehonti's downfall was. I invite you all to read those scriptures and ponder what Lehonti's downfall was. He should've not come down the mountain at all but stuck with what he first said in <strong>verse 6</strong> because by coming down the mountain it is eventually <strong>"ministered poison by degrees" verse 18 and dies</strong>. We compared that to how Satan tempts us. He doesn't tempt us to go out and rob a bank but he gets us with small things and gradually works up to the bigger things. We compared that to how Amalickiah (the bad guy) killed in <strong>ALMA 51:34.</strong> Teanum puts "a javelin to his heart". I think I scared sister Crassett to death when I pulled out a mini nerf gun and shot her with it. This is how we should kill Satan. We should get him out before he has any power over us. Then came the fun part of the lesson, we acted it out. Everybody was reluctant to do it and we heard some groans, "I don't want to act it out" But they did it anyway and it was REALLY fun! Everyone was laughing and they all had a great time. We asked them to read <strong>ALMA 47-51</strong> as a family thoughout the week. Sometimes as you read the war chapters it can be hard. I know for me I've thought "When are these wars ever going to end?" But in reality there are a lot of really cool things in the war chapters. A lot of great comparisons between the wicked people and Satan. I especially love <strong>ALMA 48: 8-9.</strong> This is how we should prepare ourselves against Satan.<br />
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The rest of this week was kinda hard, mostly because from September 2-5 there's something in Mt Pleasant called the "Old Thresher Reunion". Everyone has been at that this week. We were able to do some service there this week taking tickets. We met some interesting characters....<br />
We were able to teach Tami and Matt this week. We also have been plugging away teaching Kami and Seth. We've taught him all of the commandments now and he doesn't seem to really have a problem with any of them. WooHoo! We had a super fun lesson on following the prophet/apostles about commandments we've taught them found in the last conference Ensign, April 2011. After we heard the Prophet's council Sister Lance read a scenario where Kami and Seth would have to decide whether they would choose to follow the Prophets's council or not. They made the right choice everytime. Even when I was "Satan" and tried to entice them with candy. I asked Seth if he liked chocolate and he said no, he likes carmel. I told him that's what I had (even though it wasn't) because believe it or not Satan lies sometimes. If they went against the council they had to go to the right of the chair we had set up and we had lots of obstacles. But if they followed the council the pathway was clear. I forgot to mention they were blindfolded. As their reward for Following the Prophet they got a great big candy bar. We've been working with another parmember family. The Mangolds, last Sunday we taught them and invited them to church and they actually came this week. Paula is a less active member and her husband Scott is a nonmember and he needs to gain a testimony of Joseph Smith being a prophet. He says when he prays about it he doesn't feel any different afterwards.<br />
It's time for me to sign off now friends and family.<br />
I welcome your questions and comments with open arms! :)<br />
Love<br />
Hermana Jilyn Hepsworth<br />
8515 Douglas Avenue #19<br />
Urbandale, Iowa 50322<br />
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PS Here are some picturesSister Rippenkroeger and I teaching Dr. Shulls a lesson about faith.Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-91676647888562389452011-09-06T18:44:00.000-07:002011-09-06T18:44:39.161-07:00August 22, 2011We have had the most amazing lesson planned for Dr. Shull....the problem is our appointments keep getting cnacelled. We think it's Satan. He does not want us to teach this lesson to Dr. Shull.<br />
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We taught Danielle and Ian last Monday. Ian still hasn't read from the Book of Mormon so we had him pull it out and he said, "Alright, so how do you operate this bad boy?" We taught them the Plan of Salvation. I don't want to go into too many details...but he's got a lot of INTERESTING ideas. We had Family Home Evening with the Rippenkroegers (returning to activity in the church!) It was really interesting because they have a fella named Raz living with them. He's had a hard life, ran into a lot of problems with the law and we think he has some mental problems as well. I don't think I've ever had a lesson with so many cuss words in it before. He was telling us how when he was 19 he was traveling from California to Wisconsis and on his way he was walking on a highway in Utah. A man picked him up and took him through all the buildings on Temple Square and they spent the whole day doing things there. At the end of the day the man offered for him to live with him and take care of him and he would help him change his life or he could take $100 and get out of the car and keep walking. Raz decided to take the money and he never made it to Wisconsin. He ended up committing a crime that landed him 25 years in prison. Talk about a decision that could have changed his life. He kept telling me he had a feeling I was related to this man that could have changed his life. He doesn't know his name so I guess we'll never know.<br />
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We had an awesome lesson with Kami and Seth on the Word of Wisdom. The best part was that before the appointment we had a meeting with our Branch mission leader, we had a little misunderstanding with his wife last week and she has been mad at us so we were hoping the Lord would touch her heart. Well it turns out he did because she was a lot friendlier to us and Sister Dalton even had the impression to invite her to come to the appointment with Kami and Seth, which turned out to be amazing because Seth has no issues with the Word of Wisdom. It's actually Kami, who is the member that has a problem with coffee and tea. Sister Larose was able to relate SO well to Kami because those were the hardest things for her to give up whe she joined the church. She still craves coffee but her desire is stronger to live the Word of Wisdom. Another amazing thing is that Seth received an answer that he needs to be baptized!!!!! It's so exciting, we've been praying so hard for that! He wants to be baptized on his birthday. October 1st. That's conference weekend so we';ll probably do it in between sessions.<br />
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We helped Sister Sanchez teach her lesson to the Young Women on scripture study, she told a personal story and I'd like to share it with you. "When do we have to read the scriptures everyday?" I would answer their questions with another question. "Do you have to eat everyday?" "Yes, if we don't eat we'll die." Well that's how it is with the scriptures. We need to feel ourselves physically AND spiritually. I really enjoyed that story, so I thought you would too!<br />
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Be sure and write and keep me in touch with you.<br />
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Love you all<br />
Hermana Jilyn Hepworth<br />
8515 Douglas Avenue #19<br />
Urbandale, Iowa 50322Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-78504279105460760992011-09-06T17:46:00.000-07:002011-09-06T17:46:46.977-07:00Lots of WeedsAugust 10, 2011<br />
We still haven't been able to contact David and Stacy and I'm pretty upset about that because Stacy was starting to change her life and you could just tell she was happier and now she's avoiding us. I've grown to love her so much so it makes me very sad!<br />
Probably the coolest things that have happened this week...<br />
We started talking to this Hispanic lady in the park but it soon became apparent that she only wanted to bash. Well bashing never brings the Spirit (who is the REAL teacher) so there's no point in it. I wanted to tell her that we didn't want to argue with her, we could only invite her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and decide for herselp if it was true or not. Well, I didn't know the word for "argue" so I asked Sister Dalton but she didn't kinow either and so I just started saying it even though I didn't know how. The most amazing thing happened. I said the right work for "argue" in Spanish and I didn't know it. It was pretty much a miracle. That woman was very aggressive, she was up in our faces talking very, very loud. <br />
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We have been teaching Kami and Seth for the past couple of weeks and it's been going pretty great! At first we thought he was learning for Kami's sake, but we now think he's felt the Spirit in our lessons. (I know I have) This last lesson we had with them I had the overwhelming feeling towards the end that he would be baptized and after the lesson, I found out that Sister Dalton had the same feeling at about the same time.<br />
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Probably the coolest thing that happened was our experience with Dr. Shull. We have not been ablt to contact him for forever but it so happened that in the middle of last week we were driving to an appointment but Hermana Dalton had taken the wrong road so she had to turn and go down another one. Well it so happened that we drive past Dr. Shull and he stopped and talked to us. It turns out his daughter has been having chest pains so that's why we haven't been able to catch him. We set an appointment and it was an AMAZING lesson. We went by his Chiropractic office to teach him during his lunch break and we have been teaching him these past 4 months but had yet to invite him to be baptized. I think it's because he has so much potential. He's got great values and he's basically like a dry mormon so we didn't want to scare him off. Well, the tim had come that we had to establish expectations and find out WHY he wants to learn from us. The lesson was very spirit guided and we finally invited him to be baptized. It went like this. "IOf you found out the Book of Mormon was true and this church was true would you be baptized? ME "Well I'd have to be! Yeah" We haven't met his wife yet so we told him we want to and he said he didn't know if she'd accept it and so we are praying really hard that he reads and prays and finds out that the Book of Mormon is true and talks to his wife about it and she has a soft heart.<br />
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I saw these sayings on churches around here and I thought they were funny. "Friends, don't let frineds die without know Jesus." "Forgive your enemies, it will mess with their minds."<br />
Gotta go!<br />
PS We pulled a LOT of weeds this week FYI. I'm an expert at it now.Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-56216757717376786282011-07-25T10:30:00.000-07:002011-07-25T10:46:12.582-07:00Hi Everyone,<br />Oh my goodness it is so hot and humid here! But I really don't mind. It's better than the bone chilling cold that makes you lose the feeling in your toes. I'd rather feel like I'm melting any day! And it does feel like you're melting!<br />We were able to meet with a less active girl, Stacy. She is so different. She's been changing so much...and for the better. She wants to come back to church and have God in her life. It's so amazing to see somebody go through that change. We talk to people all of the time and see the potential that they have, but so few live up to that potential because they don't want to change. So to actually see somebody making those changes brings such great joy to my life!<br />We had some lessons with Santos. She's been going through a lot of hard tings in her life right now. She told us that it seems like whenever she's trying to get closer to God it is when life seems to get harder. Is it any wonder why, when to get closer to our Heavenly Father is the last thing that Satan wants. He doesn't want us to be happy. Santos is making lots of progress, she just lost her job and so she told us she wasn't going to be able to make it to church this week because she had to make tamales to sell so she would have money. She had to make them on Sunday because she wouldn't have enough money to buy the meat for the tamales until then. So we thought she wouldn't be there...but something miraculous happened. She came to church! All on her own too, usually we call her in the morning to wake her up and she has to get a ride from the Arguetas but none of that happened and she just showed up! We were happy, she wants to get baptized but she's marred to a man in Guatemala and living with her not husband but she can't get a divorce for a couple of months.<br />We've been working with a less active, Sister Rippenkroeger and her daughter Debi. I love them so much!!! They're starting to return to activity and they just gave Sister Rippenkroeger a calling. It's like wha I was talking about before with Stacy. It's so awesome to see people take those steps to come back.<br />When we've been going to Nauvoo, we offer the people we talk to the opportunity to send the soundtrack of the music from the pageant to their nonmenber friends or if they themselves are nonmemberw we offer to have missionaries bring it to them. So we carry around forms for people to fill out for that and because it's so hot we've been fanning people with papers. It's fun, they like it! We were finally able to actually see the pageant this Saturday. The Parkers (members) drove up down to Nauvoo and we spent the night with them. It was really fun!!!<br />I told you about Mariah last week. Well...she dropped us :( It's really sad and it hasn't happened to me that much on my mission because the Hispanics are so nice they never drop you. You have to drop them if they're not progressing.<br />Kamrai (LA) brought her nonmember husband to a lesson again at the Lance's yesterday and they came with us to the Pioneer Day Broadcast from Salt Lake (even though it really wasn't about the pioneers like we had thought it was.)<br />Well, I love and miss you all! Write me a letter, it's my only line to the outside world:)<br />Plus it's my birthday next week.Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-34539115928536641922011-07-19T03:04:00.000-07:002011-07-19T03:38:50.726-07:00Looking for the hand of the LordWe had a really cool week! Remember the video I told you about last time by President Eyring? Well we've been asking the question each night to ourselves. "HOW DID WE SEE THE LORDS HAND IN THE WORK TODAY? " And we've been able to see lots of miracles. It's amazing, when we recognize the Lords hand in our lives it's almost as if He blesses us with even more. I was talking about it with Sister Dalton and she said, "Its like He's saying "Good job!" Here's some more." :) Here are some examples: We had an appointment with a less active girl named Stacy. She's awesome and super nice, really we love her to death...but she's never home for the appointments we make with her. Well, last MONDAY we had an appointment and she and her nonmember boyfriend (David) were actually home! They're actually the ones I talked about last week who we ran into at the gas station.<br />Okay, there's more: <br />TUESDAY: We've been working with another less active girl, Danielle. She's so awesome too but she's been offended at church and is apprehensive to come back. Well I don't rememeber if you remember me writing about an experience I had a couple of months ago about her and her non member boyfriend (Ian) I'll give a summary of it just to refresh your memory. We found Danielle's informantion and we decided to stop by and see her one day but her parents told us she had moved and gave us her new address. We didn't feel like we should see her at that moment (even though we had time) We had the impression later that night to go see her. What happened was she was at home and invited us in and 2 minutes later her boyfriend came home and we ended up teaching them. He told us that he was looking for a church to go to. End of that story. So months pass and we're able to visit with Danielle but not Ian...he's always working. The miracle on Tuesday was that they were both there that day and we watched the Restoration movie with them. (If you haven't seen it it's basically Joseph Smith's story searching for the true church.) Something cool that happened afterwards was we started talking about prophets and Ian told us he didn't like that word, "but you never know, something could change...I just watched that movie and something just changed", he said he hadn't read in the Book of Mormon before that but he said after watching the movie he felt "a stronger desire to read it." The Spirit was there really strong for that lesson.<br />WEDNESDAY was a day of finding people at home that I've been trying to meet for the past 3 months and was finally able to! The Mitchels: a less active family with an interesting story (I'll save that for another time" and a woman named Mariah the other Sisters had tracted into before I got here. It was just about time to go home that night but Sister Dalton said, "Who else can we go see?" I felt an impression that we needed to see this woman. We tried her and she was home and invited us back the next day!<br />THURSDAY I titled in my planner as "MIRACLE DAY" We taught a hispanic woman named Tomasa. We've been teaching her for a couple of weeks. We met her while doing service at a restaurant in town called Little Mexico. She told us that she's already been baptized before in another church and if that was okay. We taught her about the Priesthood and invited her to be baptized and she said yes :) She also invited herself to church (I hate it when that happens:)<br />Miriah was home for our appointment with her and she's got lots of potential! The Spririt was strong at the lesson, we have another appointment with her for Wednesday. I'll have to let you know what happens with that. When we went down to the pageant on FRIDAY, we got to talk to some Hispanics and they gave us a referral...amazing!<br />SATURDAY something interesting happened, we had some time at 6 pm and decided to see a referral the Lances (members) had given us. But when we got there it just didn't feel right. (even thought we knew she was home) So we went to dinner with a less active (Todd, the same one that told us to make pigs of ourselves) and he also finally admitted to us that he had been praying, when before he always told us "that's for me to know". We've been sending him texts morning and night to remind him to pray for the past 4 months. After that we decided to try the referral again. Susana is her name, but the Lnaces were outside (they're her neighbors) and they told us she wasn't home. They invited us in and as we were talking to them Sister Dalton and I both received revelation at the same time that the Lances's were the ones wo needed to invite Susana to learn.<br />We had a lesson with a less active named Kamrai on SUNDAY who has just moved into the area with her husband...who is a nonmember. We were supposed to meet with her at the Lances house and we did. What ended up being really cool was she unexpectedly brought her husband. We made an appointment with her for next week and he's going to come to that as well.<br />So many other amazing things happened to us this week and I'm so glad that we took the time each night to recognize how much the Lord has truly blessed us!<br />Love you All!!!!!!!Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-22519180328118491412011-07-12T18:07:00.000-07:002011-07-12T18:22:28.288-07:00Nauvoo PageantJuly 11, 2011<br /><br />Hi Everyone,<br /><br />This week has gone by so fast!!!!!! A lot of it has been in the car, driving back and forth to Nauvoo to help with the pageant. We actually haven't seen the pageant yet. We talk to people who are playng 1840's games in the County Fair nearby the pageant grounds and then we leave right before the pageant starts. We'll be able to see it at least one time though :) The Arguetas (members) took Santos and Orlando (Investigators) to Nauvoo this last Saturday. They also went spontaneously to Carthage and miraculously made it in the nick of time for the last tour. They said they could feel the Spirit really strongly there and they had a really great experience. They want to go back again in a couple of weeks.<br /><br />I watched an awesome video on Mormon messages. It's called "O Remember, Remember." by President Eyring. I encourage you all to watch it! He talks about when his children were small he would take time at the end of each day to review it and see how God had blessed him. He encouraged all of us to ask this question, "Did God send a message that was just for me?" As I've done this I have been able to recognize more fully how much God's hand is in our lives and in this work!<br /><br />One of those miracles being that we drove up to a gas station and whose car happens to be on the other side but a family we've been trying for forever to get in contact with. Coincidence? I think not!<br /><br />Funny things:<br />We were in the car talking about an investigator, I said "I don't know what to do about Lorenzo?" and then we heard a voice saying "Hello" (Hispanic accent) It was Lorenzo. I had pocket dialed him and he probably heard me..It's a good thing he doesn't speak English. Ooops!<br />"What do you think of when you hear the word prophet?" said Sister Dalton Brittney responded with "Money"<br />Hope you all have a great week!<br />Love<br />Hermana HepworthJoyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-90164122478811429262011-07-12T17:59:00.000-07:002011-07-12T18:06:32.129-07:00Happy 45h of JulyJuly 5, 2011<br /><br />Hi Everyone,<br />For the past month I was companions with Hermana Draney and Sister Whitbeck and we were going back and forth between carthage and Mt. Pleasant. Sister Whitbeck is English speaking only. We had our transfer meeting on Thursday and now Hermana Dalton is my companion in Mt. Pleasant and we're no longer going back and forth. But we sort of will be because we're helping out with the Nauvoo Pageant this month. We'll be going down there Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. That means we're going down there today. It's the first night of the pageant tonight :) It goes until July 30th.<br />Hope you all had a fun and safe 4th of July. Love all of you!<br /><br />Hermana HepworthJoyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-60020979743248562772011-06-20T10:34:00.000-07:002011-06-20T10:46:09.926-07:00SOOOOO Busy!We have been SOOOOOOOO busy!!! We are splitting our time between 2 areas, Mt. Pleasant and Carthage. We stay in Mt. Pleasant Mon-Wed and Carthage Thurs-Sat, alternating Sundays. It's mostly been fun but it feels like we never stay in one area for very long. In Mt. Pleasant we are trying to teach Brother Arguetas' nephew Lorenzo but it has been very hard to get an appointment with him. He's been coming to church pretty regularly which is awesome! We ask him if he reads The Book of Mormon and he says "si". We say "What did you lear?" and he says. "Muchas cosas" translation: many things. We've been teaching a chiropractor named Dr. Shull, we taught him about the Doctrine of Christ and basically the history of the Book of Mormon until Joseph Smith receied the plates. He was blown away that Jesus Christ had come to the Americas. You should have been there to see. He was like "Wow, wow, wait! Are you telling me that Nephi knew about Jesus coming 600 years before he actually came? Wow! Are you telling me that Christ actually came to the Americas as a resurrected being?" He was so funny but it was really cool to witness. It was fun to see it through a different light though, since I've grown up in the church, it's not new information to me. But Dr. Shull had never heard of it before and he was so excited.<br />In Carthage we snuck attack taught Erin, she's the nanny of a member. The parents went to Italy and they told us to stop in while they were gone and tell her that we wanted to come and watch a movie with the kids. We watched the Testaments with her. We have been teaching the 11 year old named Chris, he's being adopted by a member and they just found out the adoption will go through the end of July so that's when he'll be able to be baptized! We were able to go watch the BYU folkdancers in Nauvoo with some of our investigators as well. It was super fun!!! I'm about out of time.<br />Until next week<br /><br />Hermana Hepworth<br />8515 Douglas Avenue #19<br />Urbandale, Iowa, 50322<br />Please write to me I love letters or email me at<br /><a href="mailto:jilyn.hepworth@myldsmail.net">jilyn.hepworth@myldsmail.net</a>Joyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-62352419203749098292011-06-19T02:33:00.000-07:002011-06-19T02:37:37.868-07:00No SubjectJune 13, 2011<br />There are some really cool things that happened this week. We had our district meetin in Nauvoo and at the end we watched the end of the Joseph Smith movie where he goes to Carthage. It was really cool that we were right in the place where it was taking place. It's really awesome to be here, we went to church in Nauvoo as well and they have some performing groups coming here and we get to go to them with investigators. So this Thursday we're going to watch thi folk dance ensemble with some investigators. Also we can tour the Carthage Jail with investigators.<br />I Love you All<br />Hermana HepworthJoyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-32762780581594266112011-06-19T02:22:00.000-07:002011-06-19T02:33:36.319-07:00UpdatesJune 10, 2011<br />Hey it's me again! I wanted to tell you a little about some of the experiences we've been having. We usually go eat at this restaurant for lunch on Wednesday called Little Mexico and it's owned by a less active member. Usually we do service afterwards, we've usually grated a giant mountain of cheese. We want to teach all of the workers there!!! But this last Wednesday she didn't want us to help but that was okay because on the way walking back to our apartment we met this guy sitting in the park named Edgar and we sat down and taught him right there. Hispanics are just cool like that! I read this quote in conference in Elder Nelson's talk. He quotes President Monson "Fear not. Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith." I really liked that!!! <br />Gabriel is a 9 year old we are teaching in Carthage. He remembers a lot that we teach him! His parents are members but less active and he's at his grandpas house every weekend so we teach him there. His grandpa is active. His grandpa reminds me a lot of Clarence. We tried to sneak attack mow the lawn of a less active but they caught us and the mower died yesterday. <br />We had fast and testimony meeting and the spirit was realy stron there! Sister Sanchez (whom I love with all my heart!!!) tried to bear her testimony in English and I didn't really understand most of it. All I remember is that the spirit was so strong and she crossed the language barriers for those who couldn't understand. <br />Oh, I forgot to tell you that when we were teaching Gabriel we asked him what lawyers did and he said "Make millions!" It was pretty funny. On that note I gotta go<br />Love Ya<br />Hermana HepworthJoyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-5792082800509869882011-06-19T02:10:00.000-07:002011-06-19T02:22:20.290-07:00No SubjectMay 31, 2011<br />A Whole lot has changed this week just by one little phone call. President Jergensen called on Saturday morning with some news. One of the Sister's who was in Carthage went home early for health reasons and so now the other Sister is here with us in Mt. Pleasant and we will be spending half of the week in Carthage, Illinois and the other half in Mr. Pleasant, Iowa. So it's gonna be pretty interesting for these next 5 weeks splitting our time between the two areas. Nauvoo is in Carthage's area but we can't proselyte there, we can visit members who live there and referrals and we'll go to church there too every other week. Sister Whitbeck is the name of the Sister who is now here with us. She was called to speak in English. When they put a Spanish and English together we call it a "zebra" since there's 3 of us (2 Spanish and 1 English) we're calling it an "Oreo")<br />Oh I don't remember how much I've told you about our investigators here. The main ones are Kat, she just got married to a member who's been off from his mission for about 2 years and he's now less active. It's pretty sad, we have a lot of RM's here who are less active. Kat brings up baptism every time we go and teach her but we think she wants to wait for Adam (her husband) to baptize her. He can't for now. We're teaching Santos (Spanish yay) she's not married to the man she's living with and her husband lives in Guatemala. Lorenzo is Hermano Arguetas "nephew" that we're teaching. He's in his 20s and is from Guatemala. <br />Other exciting news! I hit my year mark on May 26th, Thursday. It was pretty exciting. I felt like it was my birthday!!! The time has flown by so fast!<br />Love Hermana HepworthJoyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-32954619774726625222011-06-19T01:52:00.000-07:002011-06-19T02:10:12.156-07:00This is an email about food :)May 23, 2011<br />I honestly can't believe it but I have almost reached my year mark! May 26 marks the day, ooh, I feel like it's my birthday or something! We have been eating at this restaurant owned by a less active woman every week. It's called Little Mexico and it's so good!!! She's actually NOT from Mexico but Guatemala. We went to her house afterwards and were about to help her with her garden. The Laroses took us out to a restaurant to eat and we had fried pickles..it sounds weird but SOOOOOO good!!! They're from North Carolina and so they LOVE fried foods. They have fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before. They said they'd make us some one day. Sister Larose also made this dip called Chicken Lip Dip. Sounds weird but it is so tasty! We also went to see this Vietnamese lady and she gave us eggrolls. She wrapped them in lettuce and we dipped them in this sauce. I've learned from past experiences NOT to ask what things are, Just eat it, if you like it you can ask what it is so you can eat it again, that that's the rule. I think after we had eaten the eggrolls her daughter told us the soup stuff was fish oil. Yep, I wouldn't have eaten that if I knew what it was! Her name is NAHN! and she doesn't speak any English, her daughter Anh translates for us. We invited her to church and a miracle happened..she came!!! Lots of people tell you they will but they never actually do. We heard somebody in the hall during the Sacrament speaking Vietamese and we got so excited! NAHN! She didn't bring her oldest daughter so she didn't understand anything. We were praying the whole time for her to please feel the Spirit!<br />Hermana Rojas' husband has been living in Peru for the past 5 years waiting for him to be living in the US legally. He finally arrived last week and we taught them the Doctrine of Christ. The Spirit was so strong in their home and we're so happy that they can finally live together as a family!<br />Not much new. I'm starting to really love Mt. Pleasant! The people (especially the Hispanics!) the member, and investigators, I have the best job in the world!!!<br />Hermana HepworthJoyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-2974081306409757792011-06-19T01:50:00.000-07:002011-06-19T01:52:09.468-07:00HAPPY MOTHER'S DAYMay 9, 2011<br />I've never been so grateful for Mothers Day in my life!!!! I'm grateful for my family and the opportunity I had to speak with my mommy! :) HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all mothers!<br />Love Hermana HepworthJoyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1368462001952350931.post-75502924443059589302011-06-19T01:39:00.000-07:002011-06-19T01:49:47.333-07:00HelloMay 2, 2011<br />We've been confined to our apartment for most of this week due to a severe back pain I've been having. We had a couple of interesting lessons this week though on the days we were able to work. One with a girl named Kat who just married an RM. We had a lesson with a cool guy named Eric. I went to the chiropractor and we taught him a little bit, his name is Dr. Shull. We ate lunch at a restaurant named Little Mexico and the owner is a less active member. We wanted to do service for her and so we grated a giant mountain of cheese. We helped a little with the yard sale the branch was doing this weekend. I've had a lot of time to read this week. I read in Jesus the Christ about The Restoration and The 2nd Coming. I'm just about done with that book...well kind of, I didn't exactly start in the beginning. I like it a lot! I read about Ammon and King Lamoni. I love reading that from a missionary perspective. I get so many insights. We got a referal from Hermano Argueta yesterday, his nephew (Lorenzo) has come to church a couple of times and we've asked Hermano Argueta if there was a time we could teach him at his house and so while we were eating our usual Sunday lunch at the Arguetas Hermana Argueta tells us that Lorenzo called him that morning and wanted to know if he'd pick him up for church and he also said "I was waiting for you last week, where were you?" He said it is Spanish of course though, he's from Guatamala. So Lorenzo agreed for us to come over to the Arguetas and teach hime there Sunday night. It went really well, our branch mission leader came too. The amazing part was mty back didn't hurt very much while we were teaching him but after the lesson it hurt SO bad! It was a miracle. We hopefully get to go to the Nauvoo temple tomorrow.<br />Love you all<br />Hermana HepworthJoyce's Jib Jab'shttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14541981267081991545noreply@blogger.com0