"Fall"ing back to our routine and lovin' it!

“Fall”ing back to our routine and lovin it!   Yes, autumn has arrived here in the state of New Jersey and what a fall it is.  The leaves are turning and the colors are gorgeous.  They say it will be spectacular.  The trees are already beautiful and they haven’t completely turned.  I am grateful we still get to enjoy the seasons.  We love fall with the crisp air, pumpkins, leaves, Halloween and such.  It is a great time of year.  We have had a wild month. We finished helping the flood victims for the most part so the missionaries were very anxious and happy to get back to doing what they know best and loving it. We are getting back into our routine. September was a wash almost for missionary service, but having zone conferences at the beginning of the month has helped get everyone focused and finding once again.  Jon and the assistants taught great lessons on the apostasy and the restoration while I gave a short talk on handling stress.  Quite funny, I know, from someone who is quite STRESSED herself.  The Lord has really blessed me in handling the pressures.  I know I could not have done this without His help.  The Relief Societies of the wards put on great feasts for the missionaries and then we celebrate birthdays, have a Way To Be contest, play a game then go back to instructions where we role play.  I am amazed at the abilities of these missionaries role playing.  It is too bad the members of the church don’t role play more because as hard as it is, it is a great teaching tool.  I am STRESSED when I role play.  It is way hard!  Jon is a master.

We attended an International Night of Celebration.  The district that Jon is over has a night where they prepare food from many different countries.  There were dishes from Greece, China, Columbia, Peru, Ecuador, Guatemala and America of course and others.  Then talent from those countries entertained us.  They asked Jon to do the talent from America.  He did the “Auctioneer” and they went crazy.  The MC came up and bowed down in front of him. It was hilarious.  They are so respectful of our positions!  They made us eat first.  I felt terrible because there were starving children!  They made us sit on the front row while people were standing who needed to sit down.  They insisted!!! I stopped looking at the people because I felt so bad.  I was STRESSED!  These people can not do enough for you!

We had an interesting experience this past month.  We have an Elder who is being followed by a company making a documentary of missionary life.  This elder was made a trainer for one of our new missionaries.  They asked if they could come to the home where we train them, fed them, help them etc. and watch, observe and film all that was going on.  I was ok with that as long as I didn’t have to be in the line of fire!  Wrong.  I was asked to play the piano at the last minute! There was fear and trembling fingers for I have not played in quite some time.  I am sure my faced expressions were hilarious as I struggled through.  They interviewed Jon with all the lights and he was amazing again! 
Then asked to interview the “mission mom”!  I froze.  They had me in the kitchen (of course..I was June Cleaver again.) All these bright lights which were so hot I thought I would pass out and I looked like a deer in headlights!  I can’t remember anything I said except Jon started laughing when I said, “We feed them a “yummy” dinner when they come!”  AHHHH! I do not remember anything I said or did.  I was in shock!  STRESSED!  The camera crew followed us all around that day at just filmed everything.  It was something to watch.  One of the crew men were given a Book of Mormon and was impressed by all that he saw.  The other camera man was a little confused. It was a day to remember for sure.  We all had a good laugh when they were gone.

We attended the baptism of a little nine year old girl that our assistants baptized.  She was the cutest little thing.  She made me homesick because she looked like Adanna.  She was full of the spirit and glowing!  What a special little girl. Her mother was from Haiti. The next day we attended the baptism of a husband and wife who had a baby.  You don’t see many families get baptized in Utah. It was beautiful.  The congregations are so diverse.  We have learned so much and continue to have wonderful experiences.

Family came out to visit and we so enjoyed having them.  It was nice to have a little break and see some of the sights of the metropolitan area. We loved seeing them and express our love for the efforts made to come.   We will attend a Mission President’s seminar this coming week, have interviews with missionaries, have more training and more meetings!  STRESS! Yes, but we are lovin it!  Love, Dad and Mom, Jon and Bonnie, President and Sister Jeppson