Bring out those lazy, hazy, crazy
days of summer! An old 60’s song
sung by Nat King Cole that we oldies enjoyed hearing during the summer. But it is a song that certainly does
not describe New Jersey missionary work!
Oh wait, maybe hazy and crazy, but certainly not lazy! No way! We have the hardest working missionaries in the church. It may be hot, humid and hazy right
now, and of course always a little crazy in Jersey, but we are loving the work
in the summer because we find more people who are out and about enjoying the
season. We have had 29 baptisms so
far this month. Watching soon to
be members enter the waters of baptism never gets old. It is very heart warming and
tender. Last week we watched a
husband get baptized followed by his wife and then her husband returned to the
water and hugged her. Then they
embraced the missionary! He was
sandwiched in between the two. Not
a dry eye in the place! Another
favorite of mine was just as the prayer began to be pronounced to immerse this
mother of twins into the water, the sun passed the skylight above the font and
a beam of light came down upon her and the missionary baptizing her. Every week we have this marvelous
opportunity to witness the work go forward. It is exciting.
We had our zone conferences the
first week of July. President
Jeppson gave great instruction on the MUST KNOW areas of the gospel from the
rings of knowledge. We must know
that Heavenly Father and the Savior are real and that they appeared to Joseph
Smith. Then the NEED TO KNOW area
is the Book of Mormon is true, the priesthood is restored, a living prophet is
upon the earth today and the church is true. Next is the NICE TO KNOW…The Articles of Faith, Church
History, the Names of the Apostles etc, and then the STUPID TO KNOW (even
though we don’t say stupid) as in where is Kolob, where is the Garden of Eden,
where the dinosaurs fit in, etc.
Hey, did you know they just found more dinosaur bones in Jersey!!! Go
figure! They probably got sucked
into the marshlands! Ha! Anyway, Sister Jeppson dressed as a pirate waved a
flag that said, “Mind Ye Manners” and discussed the importance of being polite,
courteous and well behaved! We had
a lot of fun with this topic. We
always love zone conferences because it brings us all together.
Big changes in the New Jersey
Morristown Mission!! We greeted 19 new missionaries and a senior couple Monday,
had the biggest transfer conference ever and sent off 18 missionaries on
Wednesday. President Jeppson and I
stayed up with the departing missionaries telling stories, laughing, enjoying
testimonies and experiences and finally went to bed at 2 am then up at 4:30 am
to get them off to the airport. It
was crazy, but so great. We continue to be amazed at how every time a great
missionary leaves, another steps into his or her place and the work goes on.
Well, we are off to Utah, AGAIN, to
get President’s back taken care of finally! He has been amazing!
He continues to do the work even though he has been in a lot of
pain. He is very brave and is the
best example these wonderful missionaries could ever have. We feel of their love and support
everyday. They are the best!
I’ll finish up with a couple of
stories: “We contacted this lady
on the street and we started to introduce ourselves and tell her who we were
and she said, ‘I know exactly who you are’. It turned out she was a member who came to America from the
Dominican Republic 1 year ago and could not find the church. She said she saw us around but was
scared to talk to us because she thought we did not speak Spanish. We were guided to that area to find
her. She was so happy.” Another: “We were called to go teach the “Mormon” unit in a Religions
class at Pascack Valley High School. We stood in front of 90 high school juniors
and seniors and taught the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in dual
companionship unity. It was
AMAZING. After they asked us
questions about Mitt Romney, the Word of Wisdom, polygamy, daily life of a
missionary, prophets, and one of them asked an elder if he had to take a vow of
celibacy to become and Elder. It
was the greatest opportunity.
Through the course of this class, these kids have had visits form
Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholic Priests, Born Again Christians, etc. and we were
the final speakers. These kids
were from all religions and this is probably the only opportunity that we could
have had to teach them. One of the
girls asked us how she could know if the things we taught were true!!! We
weren’t restrained at all. We even
did the full first vision.” Our
missionaries are fantastic. They are asked daily about this “Mormon Moment” we
are in. We hope you all have the
correct answers when you are approached.
It is a good time to know your religion to help others know the truth. It is a fun, exciting and a CRAZY time
to be a Mormon! It’s simple the
Best! Love to All, Dad and Mom,
Jon and Bonnie, President and Sister Jeppson
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