tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63586957616546536802024-02-19T08:03:07.802-08:00Elder Caleb RipleyTaiwan Taichung mission
January 2012 - January 2014Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-15935604731091268842014-02-10T09:08:00.004-08:002014-02-10T09:08:39.444-08:00February 9, 2014<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Hey Mother Dearest!! Sounds like the temple has been so busy!! It really amazes me how big this whole event is! This last week was another week full of miracles for us. One of which being Lu. He is an investigator that just walked in the church last week while we were having our zone training meeting. We asked him if he could come back after the meeting was over and meet with us and he was cool with it! Afterwards we met with him and he is so prepared!! This weekend he went to gaoxiong to see his mom and we called him to see if he could attend church in gaoxiong, but before I even had a chance to say anything about church he said "Hey I looked at that flyer you gave me and found the church in gaoxiong by my house and I am going on sunday!" So awesome! He is such a stud.<br />Other than that our zone did fantastic this last week. Everyone was so pumped from zone training meeting and interviews/ planner checks with President. The was a pretty big increase of morale and we saw tons of miracles and had a blast together! Hope you have a fantastic week!! Miss and love you!!!<br />-Elder Ripley<br /><br />Hey Dad! I really can't believe how huge this whole new temple thing is!! I am excited to see it! I am definitely giving it my all this week and am going to cross the finish line at full speed. Email time is a little short this week but thank you so much for all the support and encouragement you have given me Dad, it has been invaluable to me on my mission. I am so excited to see you soon. Love you!<br />-Elder Ripley</span>Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-61887492743549416012014-02-10T09:07:00.003-08:002014-02-10T09:07:47.859-08:00February 2, 2014<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Hey momma! Kevin and Corrin are getting so big!! I was so surprised when I saw their pictures! This last week was a pretty crazy week for us! We went to taizhong for a meeting on tuesday which moved our district training meeting to thursday and then for the rest of the week we had aton of members that fed us lunch and dinner because it is the chinese new year!!! So during chinese new year what happens is everything shuts do for about a week and everyone gets together with their family and celebrates the new year! They have lots of cool traditions and customs they do on the new year one of which is handing out red envelopes! They are pretty much just fancy red envelopes with money inside that are usually given to the children or younger people in the family. We should start doing that :) Anyways we ate ATON of food and had a great time! We also had a really huge blessing yesterday at church. We had three investigators come! Aton of our investigators went out of town or were busy last weekend so we were scared we wouldn't have alot of lessons or people that would be able to attend church with us this last sunday, but we had one that confirmed with us that he could go, one that just showed up with his family, and another one that we thought had dissapeared because his cell phone wasn't working but he showed up too! Super cool! They all loved the meeting and had a great experience at church!<br />We also met with a really great family this week. They are the family we met with a few weeks ago in one of our secondary areas. They have lots of questions and are really interested! They had to go out of town this week but we will definitely be meeting with them next week.<br />Hope you had a great week mom!! Love and miss you! -Elder Ripley</span>Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-37368393425503560812014-02-05T15:26:00.002-08:002014-02-05T15:26:21.525-08:00January 26, 2014<div>
Hey mom don't worry about the pictures, you sent me all of the ones I needed! Thanks aton! And I have been taking lots of others lately as well. No I did not put a memory card in that box so no need to worry about that either, that was just abunch of stuff I wanted to send back. Thank you for those ideas as well! We are definitely going to use them! Ushering at the temple sounds like a blast!! There are so many people going in that is crazy! I am so excited to go see it. This week I had to write a miracle story and send it in to the office for them to put in a book or something. All of the misisonaries going home have to write one so I will just share with you what I Wrote. I was trying to make it sound really so I hope it worked. It was really intense though :D</div>
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Miracle Story- It was the end of the week. Time to report our work for that week. Knowing that the companionships in our district were strong missionaries with lots of faith, and that they were working with some great investigators. We came back the next week with a fire in us. We talked about it together every day and encouraged and inspired each other to be better. Through our faith the Lord made up for that. We pondered our efforts of the last week in an attitude of happiness and appreciation for the blessings and miracles we had seen, yet dissapointment and confusion at why we had come so close to hitting the goal but fell short when we had so much faith that we could do it. Sunday night, 10:20pm, the phone rings and it is the sisters in our district. A sister of one of their recent converts just moved back home from another area and had been meeting with the missionaries there. With 10 minutes on the clock we did it!!! With all of the miracles that occured and the effort that we put in to hitting that goal, we realized most importantly of all, that the happiness came not from hitting the number itself, but in seeing lives changed because of the faith and effort we put into becoming tools in the Lord's hand. When missionaries come together in faith, they can accomplish anything.</div>
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We had another super huge miracle this week. Brother chen progressed smoothly through all of the lessons and had a few really cool testimonies that God loved him throughout the teaching process. Last week he was baptized! He is going to be such a great recent convert because of his great sense of responsibility and his resolve to follow Jesus Christ. We are so blessed to have been a part of the proccess of him starting his new life in the Gospel!</div>
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Have a great week mom, love and miss you bunches. THank you so much for taking care of all that school stuff for me!! You are the best!!</div>
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Being an usher must have been awesome! I am sure you had a really great experience seeing all of these people gathering to see the temple.</div>
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That is a bummer that you missed niks, I should have told you he was heading back!</div>
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I will be sure and tell them happy birthday, thanks for the reminder dad. Love and miss you! have a great week!</div>
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Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-11008925774050334372014-01-27T17:51:00.002-08:002014-01-28T15:12:28.658-08:00January 19, 2014<blockquote type="cite">
HEY.This is the end of another movecall, and the start of a new one! Last move call was pretty sweet. Elder Chia and I saw alot of success and most importantly were blessed with so many opportunities to serve the missionaries around us and share our testimonys with so many people. We have some great goals and plans for the coming move call and are going to work hard at them! One of these goals is to continue to help all of the Elders in our zone to reach their full potential as missionaries. Last movecall we saw aton of miracles on exchanges and realized that we don't help them reach their full potential by being amazing or a really skilled missionary, but rather by first having a desire to help them and then praying for Heavenly Father to allow us to see what they are doing really good and then helping them build on that. We were able to have some really inspiring exchanges and plan to have even more! Another goal we have is to help some of our investigators be baptized. </blockquote>
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I am really excited to see the temple dedication coming up! It sounds huge!! Thanks for working on that school stuff for me mom. Please wish Hannah and Gage Happy birthday for me this week! I have two other favors to ask you of you if you get the chance- 1. I need some ideas of activities that you can use in the home to help familys apply Gospel principles. For example those service bells we used to use, where you serve someone secretly and then leave the bells on their bed. Any creative or fun ideas? 2. I need some pictures to send in to the mission office but I sent alot of them home already, so I was wondering if you could send me as many baptismal pictures as you can (at least 7) and then at least 7 other pictures. Maybe a few funny ones or cool ones whatever works. Thank you so much mom!! You are the best! Love and miss you, -Elder Ripley</blockquote>
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Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-32773951665635267112014-01-27T17:50:00.007-08:002014-01-27T17:50:53.941-08:00January 12, 2014<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">I am super excited to see the dedication! What day is it on? So is Grandma Velma moving in with Aunt Alice now? School started up last week right? Sounds like you are really keeping busy!<br />This last week we saw plenty of miracles. Two of which happened in our secondary area.<br />Things are going! Love and miss you mom!<br />-Elder Ripley<br />Let me know if I need to do anything for school registration! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Hey Dad if you are there please answer as quick as you can! A member wants to know what the recipe is for those pizzelles because she absolutely loves them! Also, she wants to know what kind of machine you use to make them. Oh and I told her you make really good cherry pie as well so if you have any pie recipes you send over as well she would love that. Thanks so much! </span>Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-28640710248855916762014-01-27T17:50:00.003-08:002014-01-27T17:50:17.704-08:00January 5, 2014<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">This week was another fantastic one! </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; line-height: 16px;">Sounds like everyone is keeping busy and working hard! Miss and love you all so much! If there is anything I need to do to take care of school stuff just let me know. Loves, Elder Ripley</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; line-height: normal;">Hey Dad, Sounds like you are doing pretty good at keeping busy over there. Can't wait to be there to help you out! Things are going great over here still. Lots of miracles, lots of great experiences that are helping me become the person the Lord would have me be. Hope you have another fantastic week! Love you, Elder Ripley</span></span></div>
Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-11004801932568171602014-01-27T17:49:00.000-08:002014-01-27T17:49:27.161-08:00December 29, 2013<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">I hope everyone had a very merry christmas!! <span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">It didn't hit me in the moment, but afterwards I was thinking about Christmas day and I realized how memorable it really was. What an amazing opportunity it is to have a Christmas here in Taiwan serving the Taiwanese people. Everyone keeps asking what we did on Christmas and I think back and say.. "we taught English!" I believe we captured the true spirit of Christmas in devoting our entire Christmas day to service and sharing the Gospel without once thinking about ourselves. It really was a special Christmas! I am so grateful for the time I have spent here and how much I have changed and grown. Christmas really made me realize that life has been so much different and has allowed me to change and grow in ways I never would have been able to if I wasn't here. I have also developed an even greater appreciation for what an awesome family I have and have realized from a new perspective how much I love you all! </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: small; line-height: normal;">Last weeks miracle was ANOTHER family just walked into the church! On saturday night we were here for a lesson and this family of 3 (mom dad and their son) walked right on into the church and said "hey we used to know some missionaries and we want to start coming to church!" How cool is that? The Lord is preparing so many people here I don't know if we can handle it! They came to church yesterday and on their way out the mom says to us "We chose the right place to come to today!" So SWEET! Oh man I am loving it so much here. </span><div style="color: black; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;">
Hope you have another fantastic week next week momma. Love and miss you! <3 Elder Ripley</div>
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Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-69311097777928354652014-01-27T14:47:00.004-08:002014-01-27T14:47:35.325-08:00December 16, 2013<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">This week was super awesome!!! Lots more miracles and cool experiences. Our investigators and the members we are working with all all doing great! We don't have a ton of time right now because we are working on some christmas cards for the ward leaders here right now and need to go help out but I will share a few experiences real quick. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #e7e6e2; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">I'll share quickly one little experience that made a big difference for me this last week. -We were teaching a referral that had just recently started meeting with us and we were sharing the restoration. It was getting near the end of the lesson and my companion had just finished sharing testimony of the restoration and for a split second I kind of sat back and thought my companion had shared enough and we could go on to the end of the lesson, and then I scratched my side and my hand touched my badge and it just hit me right then, I am representing Christ and I need to take advantage of all of the time that I have to bear testimony of Him to all of my brothers and sisters in taiwan. The spirit prompted me strongly and I bore my testimony of Him right there! We invited him to be baptized and he accepted, and told us that he believes the first vision is true. Small miracle that meant the world to me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">Funny story- This last week I was contacting this guy at a park and there were a few little kids running around us playing that were his nephews. As we were talking one of the kids tries to snot rocket the boogers out of his nose but it just turned into two super long strings of snot hanging down from his nose, and he starts walking towards us bending over with his snot hanging down and yelling for his uncle to help him out. The uncle and I are just cracking up and he pulls out his phone and says dont move dont move I am going to take a picture! Yeah pretty disgusting but I was laughing so hard. Well hope you all had a great week and have an even better one this week! Love and miss you. -Elder Ripley</span></span></div>
Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-63088055487015590062014-01-27T14:47:00.000-08:002014-01-27T14:47:03.100-08:00December 9, 2013<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">I totally remember saying that..haha I remember why too! I feel like I remember saying something about how movies are wrong because they always say I have two words for you- shut, up! But really shutup is just one word. Oh man I was a spaz for sure :D Thanks for putting up with me mom!<br />This past week was another exciting week for Elder Chia and I. While we were having a lesson with one of those families we are teaching, we had just finished teaching them about baptism and the son pipes up "can I be baptized?" So awesome! He even came to the baptism in jiayi last saturday too! We are making some really great progress with them. They are such a cute family and really willing to learn about the Gospel! We had movecall this last week but I will be staying here with Elder Chia! I was so relieved/ excited when move call came out, I was kind of scared I might move! I mean of course I was ready to go where the Lord wanted me to go but I was secretly praying to stay here. I am loving it! Well we need to get going because we are going to go to an aboriginee village place today, I will be sure and send some cool pics next week! Love and miss you mom! hope you have a great week! -Elder Ripley<br /><br />You put up lights! Oh man I missed it! I will definitely have to help you throw some up next year as well. Take some good pictures for me! These last few weeks have been full of tons of miracles. I have noticed as I grow closer to the end of my mission how perfect the Lords plan for all of us is. He allows us to have the experiences we need in order to become the person He wants us to be. All we have to do is give it all to Him. If He is the center of all that we do than everything else will fall in place and we will live the life He wants us to live. I have learned so much on my mission and I know it will change my future so much!<br />Sounds like you guys are still havin aton of fun at home with that cat! I feel like she has gotten so much bigger! Sad to hear ASU got whooped...Who is going to take the national championship?<br />Well I hope you have a great week Dad! Love and miss you!</span>Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-31546694168415100882013-12-07T20:11:00.004-08:002013-12-07T20:11:38.819-08:00December 2, 2013<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Hey mom! This week was once again full of miracles! We found another two super awesome families! They are full of potential and are the most prepared families I have seen!<br />Other than that we also had a mission tour this last week and Elder Funk came to taiwan! (He spoke in the last general conference) I was really grateful that he was able to come teach us, I learned aton! We talked alot about working with members, receiving spiritual power as a missionary, and about the plan of salvation! We had a really spiritually filling week! Lots of miracles. I am so grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary in taiwan. It has been the best thing of my life! Besides you mom :) Love and miss you, hope you have a wonderful week! Love, Elder Ripley<br /><br />Dad, I got the huge package this week!! Thank you so much!!!!! The pizzelles are super delicious and we are enjoying the pleasure of eating cereal every day for breakfast once again :D Seriously thank you so much dad, you are the best!! There is nothing special I am wanting for christmas, I will probably just use the money mom gave me and buy a few cool things from taiwan. We will see. Things are going so great here. We are seeing miracles everyday and feeling the Lords love and kindness. I love being here. Hope you have a great week dad! -Elder Ripley</span>Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-89762178227820799282013-12-07T20:11:00.001-08:002013-12-07T20:11:10.168-08:00November 25, 2013<br />
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Hey mom! This past week was another super amazing week! Tons of fun and lots of miracles! I am sorry this weeks email is going to be super short because we almost have no time, but I hope everything is going great back home! Miss and love you! As for my clothes they are all doing fine and should last me until the end of my mission, my shoes too! It is starting to cool off here but it isn't super cold. I can still wear short sleeves most of the time. I definitely had a great birthday! thanks mom! I know I haven't bought anything yet...we will see! Hope you have a great weeeek!! -Elder Ripley</div>
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Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-58478606083166084112013-11-20T08:42:00.002-08:002013-11-20T08:42:41.396-08:00November 18, 2013<blockquote type="cite">
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Hey momma! How was your week!? That is super cool you got to go to the missionaries zone conference! Was it fun? I am super curious as to how they do their zone conferences! When does the open house for the temple start? I can definitely bring some friends as well If I get the chance! Holy smokes That mission is huge!!! They almost have as many missionaries as we do here in our mission! Dang Becki and Stacy were lookin good for that 80s event! I want to see them bust out their 80s dance moves now!</div>
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This last week was an awesome week for us! First of all we had Brother Kings baptism!!!! He is doing so great. He has taught me so much about being a christlike person. He is so willing to sacrafice time, money, and whatever he has to help is family or friends that are in need. Such an awesome guy. He bore a pretty simple yet powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon after he was baptized. I felt the spirit so strong and was so grateful for such a special opportunity to attend his baptism. Their really is a special spirit at baptismal services! We also had our jiayi district conference yesterday and saturday which was so great, the members here are so pumped for jiayi to become a stake! They are all such great missionaries and dedicated members. The saturday night talks were all based completely on missionary work. They blew me away! Talk after talk, they were all so powerful! One member told a story that I think should be in the liahona!-He gave his friend a book of Mormon and his friend just put it next to his bed and never touched it again but one day the friends little brother snuck into is room and took the book, read it, and noticing the member had written his number in it he called the number telling the member he wanted to be baptized!! So awesome!! Missionary work is no doubt the most exciting and most rewarding work there is. I love doing it so much, it has become part of me! I love sharing my testimony and trying to help others feel the spirit, I find as many opportunites as I can every day to share how much the Gospel has blessed me and my family and how much it can bless others.</div>
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Thanks for all of your support and love mom, miss and love you bunches!</div>
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Oh yeah and be expecting a card in the mail soon, I know it is a little late, I put it in my bag and forgot to put it in the mail! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! -Elder Ripley</div>
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Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-3566142016071779382013-11-20T08:40:00.003-08:002013-11-20T08:40:50.218-08:00November 11, 2013<br />
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I know Anthea is coming to Taizhong!! So awesome!!! She emailed me right after she got her call!! It is such a bummer though, she moved her report date back to feb 4th so she will get here right after I leave! She is a friend I met in hawaii if you were wondering. Yes we are taking all of the opportunites we can to go do fun stuff! The only hard part is I served in this zone for over a year over all already so I have been to alot of the nearby places for sight seeing and what not. My new companion has never served down here before though so we are going to be taking him around to some places. We are going to an amusement park today!! Woo! Oh by the way, the card you sent back to me for my camera was empty! There was nothing on it..weird! </div>
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Elder Chia and I are doing so great. Last week was full of some crazy miracles! As for Bro King his baptism is this saturday! (You may not be seeing them because I have been really bad about sending them into the mission office :D) We found so many new investigators last week it was rediculous! It was the most new investigators I have found in a week on my entire mission! The Lord blessed us so much! We have been praying every single day to find families to meet with, and talking to everyone we meet about families and asking everyone if we can meet with their families. Elder Chia and I have alot of fun contacting people and getting to know people so we have been able to work together to find quite a few new people who want to learn about the Gospel. As for jiayi becoming a stake..it is getting there! We are working so hard! The zone is so excited about it. The district president came to our zone training meeting and spoke to the missionaries last week too which was super awesome! The branches here love the missionaries and the missionaries love the members. Well we gotta eat a quick lunch and get going to our roller coaster rides but I will send some cool pics soon! Love and miss you mom! Thank you so much for your love and prayers. They lift me up every single day. Have a wonderful week! </div>
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Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-80238324204077078452013-11-08T15:41:00.000-08:002013-11-08T15:42:16.643-08:00November 4, 2013<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"></span><br />
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Hey Mom! Carson is married!! I am so sad I could not be there..I seriously have been so bummed about it! But I know Carson is probably the happiest man on earth right now so I am super happy for him as well! Mckenna sent me some pictures and it looks like everyone had a great time and Carson and Emma look GOOD! This last week was a pretty great week. Elder Chia and I have similiar thoughts on alot of things so it makes it easy to work together, plan and set goals. We had a really fun week last week and worked hard! We found the coolest family ever that we are going to start teaching! A mom dad and two kids. Elder Chia and I are so excited to be working here in jiayi and helping this district become a stake! We are going to see some huge miracles here in the future! We love to be missionaries! Love and miss you mom, have a great week! -Elder Ripley</div>
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Hey daddio! Sounds like church was really awesome this week! I know Chuck Smith's lessons are always great! My new companion Elder Chia is super awesome! We are working pretty well together and are seeing a lot of success already! We are loving it here in Jiayi and are enjoying getting everyone really excited to have Jiayi become a stake. This really is such a great place. We are going to see miracles Dad. I know the Lord has special experiences in store for us here and we have some really amazing plans for these next few months. I am loving it so much and cant believe how quickly time goes. Hope you have another fantastic week Dad, love you! -Elder Ripley </blockquote>
</span>Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-28670793362083021502013-11-08T15:38:00.003-08:002013-11-08T15:39:58.960-08:00October 28, 2013<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Karson is home!?! Holy smokes this is crazy! I can't believe how fast time is flying. He looks pretty good!<br />We found another pretty awesome family this last week as well! A few weeks ago after the saturday afternoon session of conference we went to get some burgers at a nearby place and this guy just walked up to me and started asking about english class saying he wanted to take his kids.<br />So crazy news, We were not expecting it at all but my companion moved! Elder Furner took off to taizhong and my new companion is Elder Chia! I am definitely going to miss Elder Furner and the spirit he brings to the work. Elder Chia just got off the train a few hours ago but I can already feel that he is a very Christlike missionary and we are going to see alot of success together! He is from singapore!<br />Well I hope you have a great week this week! Miss and love you so much! Thank you so much for your prayers and support mom, I seriously feel them everyday. Just the other day while we were teaching that family about prayer I shared with them how I feel when my parents pray for me, and that their kids will feel the same way as they pray for them. Have an awesome week!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Can't believe Karson is home! And Carson is almost married! This is just too crazy! Whos next!? The fall festival was definitely alot of fun. Did you cook up some hot dogs for everyone? I am sure everyone loved it. Did they do dunk the bishop again too?<br />The work is going great Dad. Our zone just gets stronger every move call. President is really building it up over here. It is really awesome because alot of the people from my same generation are here right now. President really wants jiayi to become a stake. We are really going to see miracles these next few move calls. President is really pushing to have us work with the wards closer and closer as well which is easy because he is technically the stake president here, so he comes and visits often. Exciting times in jiayi! I am loving missionary work so much Dad, I didn't even know what to expect when I first came out but now I am finally realizing how much this has changed my life. Thank you so much for all the advice you have given to me I use it everday! Love you dad, have an awesome week!</span>Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-21583373851660722082013-11-08T15:38:00.000-08:002013-11-08T15:38:04.580-08:00October 21, 2013<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">10/21/13<br />Hey mom!! How was your week? Dad was said at the game he was close to calling the police to get you settled down! Sounds like you really had fun! Haha. That is so crazy seeing a picture of you guys with Robby! Tell him to hurry up and email me!<br />This last week was pretty awesome! We saw tons of miracles! We found quite a few people who are interested in learning about the Gospel! The coolest one was probably yesterday. We had a referral from the other elders that live here in jiayi who they found from accidentally going to the wrong area and tracting. (It was in one of our secondary areas that is a little bit further away, so just finding the place was a miracle in and of itself) A brother in our ward offered to help us out on sunday night like go to lessons with us and what not and we told him we were going to that area abit further out and he offered to drive us! Sweet!<br />Well I miss and love you mom. Hope you have a fantastic week this week! </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Love your favorite child :) -Elder Ripley</span>Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-55889047391936002942013-10-20T19:47:00.001-07:002013-10-20T19:47:03.210-07:00October 14, 2013<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">That is so crazy Robby is home!!! I am super bumbed I never got to see him in taiwan! I have been in the south forever and we don't get to go on the temple trips! Is he lookin pretty good? He looks like he got skinnier! Tell him to email me with his email that he is going to use now.<br /><br />Sounds like fall break was pretty relaxing! Haha I thought it was pretty funny that Dustin couldn't even put his pants on, I was half expecting to scroll down and the picture be Dustin trying to move stuff with one arm and no pants on hahaha.<br /><br />This week we had a super great general conference! I loved it!! It is amazing how much direction the words of the Prophet and Apostles give our lives. I am so grateful for how much Heavenly Father loves, so much that he gave us a Prophet! I spent some time preparing for conference and decided what I wanted to learn and I got alot of inspiration! Some of the things I learned-put your hand to the plow and never look back! I decided I want to be fit for the kingdom of God, so I will never doubt or look back. Faith is always pointing forward! I was also once again impressed with how amazing the restored Gospel truly is, which added some oil to my already burning fire for missionary work! I also found quite a few talks that addressed concerns that our investigators and recent converts have here in jaiyi. I love conference, it is like Heavenly Father is directly talking to us!<br /><br />We had a bit of a bummer this last week, which was one of our investigators kind of dissapeared. Brother wang. We were super sad cause he is so awesome!<br /><br />Love and miss you mom!! About the music, I am pretty much cool with whatever. I can't think of anything specific right now either.<br /><br />Hey Dad!<br /><br />We are working really hard to find the one! That is a really good way of thinking, thank you for the encouragement Dad, it really does motivate me and help me to be a better and better missionary.<br /><br />Sounds like Dusty and Heather had quite the adventure getting all of their stuff over to Texas. Not quite as good as your adventure with Celeste to missourri though!<br /><br />How is Robby doing? I can't believe he is already home, time is flying by! I am really excited to speak chinese with him when I get back to haha that is going to be so awesome!<br />Sounds like the Cardinals are still struggling, and ASU is pretty rockin as always! I am also excited to go to the games with you again!<br /><br />Miss and love you Dad. Just gave a member the last few pizzelles because she made aton of stuff for us and she was super excited! Everyone loves them and is so impressed at your cooking skills!<br /><br />Your best friend Elder Ripley</span>Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-22276164734561004562013-10-13T17:09:00.003-07:002013-10-13T17:09:26.732-07:00October 7, 2013<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"></span><br />
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Hey mom! Yes I extended to february 18th. After some prayer, talking with President Blickenstaff, and thinking about what you said I decided to extend! Can you look into enrolling me for hawaii for the summer semester that starts in april next year? I am not really sure how exactly to do it..its been too long, but you can start by checking out <a href="http://byu.edu/">byu.edu</a> I guess. Thanks momma! As far as the trip, I would obviously love to come back to taiwan, but I realize that it would be hard for everyone to do. Soo..California? Or we can go to hawaii a few weeks early and hang out before I start school? I don't know what do you think?</div>
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About the music, I am using my usb now so I can listen to music again! We cant use hand held electric devices besides our cell phones, so I guess translators was something that President Bishop made an exception for. Right now the rule is we can't use them, so we just don't use them!</div>
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This last week Elder Furner and I struggled a little bit trying to find new investigators and meet with the ones that we have right now, but we did pretty good at keeping each other excited about the work and lifting each other up. We work really well together and are having a blast. We have some really big plans this week for our area and our excited to really see things fire up! Our zone is doing absolutely amazing! We are all loving being missionaries and are giving it all to the Lord. </div>
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The week is going great Dad. President said it is up to me and is completely fine with me extending so I am doing it! We are working hard here in jiayi and are seeing miracles! President Blickenstaff just came to our area this last week and met with all of the district/ branch leaders (because mission presidents are also district presidents for the districts in their mission). President really knows how to get us going I guess :D We never do forget why we work so hard though, our love for the Lord and for the people here. There is nothing more rewarding than missionary work.</div>
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Yes I did get my package, thank you dad!! Just ate cereal this morning and loved it. Also shared some of those pizzelles with the members and my companion and they all loved them! Thanks abunch dad!! We are loving it! I also got a big bag of krusteaz pancake mix from costco recently and have been making delicious papa Ripley style pancakes for my companion and I. MMM delicious! Love you dad, hope you have an awesome week! </div>
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Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-89341131594190531252013-10-13T17:08:00.002-07:002013-10-13T17:08:53.052-07:00September 30, 2013<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">I am loving it here in jiayi, it is such a great place! Nice city with lots of prepared people! This last week was a little crazy because of all of the meetings and what not. We had our regular District meeting on tuesday but then on thursday we had missionary leadership council which we had to go to taizhong for, and then we had zone conference on friday! It was a little busy, but we saw alot of miracles as we made the best out of the proselying time we did have.<br />Love you dad, Your son ELder Ripley</span>Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-61166560174473352362013-09-25T11:22:00.002-07:002013-09-25T11:22:22.653-07:00September 23, 2013<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">You got stung by a scorpion! Where was it? It really isn't as bad as you thought it was right? I just remember it felt like getting pricked by a little thorn or something and then it just tingled for awhile.<br />My new area is super awesome! My first week here I went on exchanges to xinying, my old area, and I got to see alot of my old friends there!<br />As for my responsibilities here in jiayi, we are pretty much in charge of just making sure the missionaries in our area are healthy and happy! We do alot of exchanging companions and helping them out in their areas with basic misisonary skills, investigators and relations with the ward. We help others feel the fire of missionary work and inspire them! It is a really awesome opportunity to develop relationships with the missionaries around us and serve them, we are loving it! I have already grown and learned so much from the interactions I have had with the missionaries here.<br />I got to meet the ward yesterday which was super cool! We have such an awesome branch here. Our president is so great. We went to visit a member in the hospital yesterday and administer the sacrament to him, so I had a pretty good chance to get to know president a little bit. We also talked to a few people at the hospital with president and invited them to learn about the Gospel, it was pretty sweet to do some contacting with our branch president! He also has the fire for missionary work, I am super exctied to be here and be able to work with him!<br />We are going to go eat lunch now but tell dad I will email him after. Love you mom! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Hey Dad! Just had a real good burger for lunch. Double patty with peanut butter and the other was fried chicken with some sort of orange glazing..wow delicious! They have some pretty weird flavors here in taiwan and they are super good! I will have to take you to eat one.<br /><br />Things are going great here in jiayi. My companion and I are really working hard to help everyone in our zone feel the fire of missionary work and inspire them. President has a really big vision for this area right now because it is the only district in our whole mission, every where else are stakes! He really wants this district to become a stake because it is getting really close! Every single one of our key indicators increased last week and the baptismal goals are higher than they have been in 6 months in this zone! And new investigators more than doubled! That is just crazy! We are really seeing success! I am really enjoying being here in jiayi, and I know I am going to love it even more as time goes on. I could have never been a hard working enthusiastic missionary if it wasn't for your example dad! I am still looking forward to the day we go tracting together :D<br /><br />It is good to hear you are getting better quickly! Keep excersizing and getting good rest and I know you will be in great shape.<br /><br />I am pretty excited to see the present you sent! I can't even guess what it would be! Love you dad! Hope you have a great week! -Elder Ripley</span>Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-74939062485961389132013-09-22T20:05:00.005-07:002013-09-22T20:05:58.551-07:00Zone Leader<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"></span><br />
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Dear Mr. and Mrs. Steven Paul Ripley Sr. and family,<o:p></o:p></div>
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I am pleased to inform you that your son, Elder Caleb Alan Ripley, has been called to serve as Zone Leader in the Taiwan Taichung Mission.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Only the most experienced, obedient and energetic Elders are called to be Zone Leaders. Zone Leaders not only must set an unwavering example, but also spend much of their time training and motivating other missionaries in their zone. He will supervise several districts and be a source of counsel and advice for the missionaries in his zone. I am confident your son will fulfill these duties with the utmost diligence.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Please continue to encourage your son to reach out in excellence as he serves the Lord in this new calling. You can be proud of him and his efforts. He is certainly living up to the trust the Lord has placed in him as he serves here in the Taiwan Taichung Mission.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">President Kurt L. Blickenstaff</span></div>
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Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-78579829627917519862013-09-22T20:05:00.002-07:002013-09-22T20:05:12.170-07:00September 16, 2013<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Hey mom! I am super excited to get to see the pictures you send! Thanks abunch! Brook is married!! That is so cool! Really crazy-One of Brookes recent converts is in the ward that I was just in in tainan and I had the opportunity of doing her little sisters baptismal interview last saturday! So cool! Those technology classes sound really cool! I am sure you are having a fun time with that figuring everything out. Looks like stacy was really hurtin in that picture! I am sure he got back up and running pretty quick.<br /><br />Well transfers came this week and...I moved! It is really sad to be leaving tainan because there are so many people that I love there, and I had aton of really awesome experiences there! I am going to miss that place so much!! I am pretty excited to be in my new area though, I am now in jiayi! It is just right above tainan. Two of the places I preiviously served in (taibao and xinying) are both in this zone which is pretty cool! My new companion is Elder Furner. He is from farmington Utah! Really humble and nice guy! I am excited to be here with him, we are going to see alot of succes in this area and learn alot from each other. It is sad to be leaving Elder Washburn too, he is such a stud. We have zone conference in a few weeks though so I will be able to see him then! Well I hope you had a great week and are still having fun at school. Miss and love you mom! -Elder Ripley</span>Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-67143528180423901522013-09-15T16:26:00.001-07:002013-09-15T16:26:14.764-07:00September 9, 2013<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;"></span><br />
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Hey momma! How goes it? Dad is really lookin pretty sick these days! You better tell him to get feelin' better soon, otherwise I will whip his butt in our wrestling match when I get home no problem! I am sure you are keeping busy at school, seeing as though everything is just getting started up again! Hope everything is going smooth with work and everything. Where is dad working at these days?</div>
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Life is going pretty good here in tainan! Transfers are not until next monday so I have no idea whats going to happen yet! I am still with Elder Washburn right now. We are doing really fantastic, finding lots of new investigators and keeping really good relations with the ward. I love this place too much. We are still workin with John. We are also still meeting with our friend from swaziland! He is doing really great. We are going to have an english class party this wednesday and he is going to participate by teaching everyone about swaziland and teaching us some games they play there as well as giving us a little taste of their traditional food! We have another investigator from Haiti that will be sharing as well and his friend from panama might come as well! And one of the sister companionships in our district have an investigator from indonesia who will also be sharing. Super cool! But anyways our bud from swaziland is doing really well.</div>
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Hope everything is going well back home and everyone is healthy and happy! Miss and love you!! Have a fantastic week! -Elder Ripley</div>
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Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-20058936460558860872013-09-15T16:25:00.002-07:002013-09-15T16:25:24.345-07:00September 2, 2013<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">Dad is lookin pretty good cruisin around in the stang with his new glasses. Haha I got a pretty good laugh out of the story about him not being able to tell which car was his! Sounds like school is going pretty well, I bet alot has changed since I was in elementary school! What is your favorite thing about working at the school?<br /><br />We had a great week this last week! I think that the biggest miracle we saw this last week was hitting a goal in our district. WE DID IT!! We were all so excited that we hit the goal, because we had faith that it would happen and it did! We know that Heavenly Father allowed us to see this miracle because of our love for His children and our effort in helping them know of His love for them. WE LOVE MISSIONARY WORK! There is a sentence we often say in chinese in the taiwan mission, 有信心有辦法! (you3 xin4xin1, you2 ban4fa3) I think the closest translation would be "where there's a will, there's a way" but change "a will" to faith I guess..Where there's faith, there's a way! we really saw this prove true last week as we worked with faith to hit our goal!<br />Hope everything is going well momma. Sure miss you! Keep working hard at school and having a good time! Love you bunches. -Elder Ripley<br /><br />Sounds like everyone is moving out now that they know I will be back soon! They are probably scared that being a returned missionary I will start dragging them to church with me :D<br />You were looking pretty good cruisin in the stang with your new glasses on by the way. I am sure the neighbors heads were turning as you drove by.<br />That picture of the chapel is so awesome! The one ray of light shining on it and the rainbow behind it. It truly is the Lord's house!<br />This week our district really worked with faith and worked hard, I am sure you will read the story in the email I sent to mom. I am loving it here in tainan too much! I don't want to leave! I am scared I will be transfered in the next move call which is in two weeks, but I have already made up my mind if I do leave I will trust that the Lord is sending me where I need to be and face change with a good attitude.<br />Sounds like everything is going pretty smooth back home. Hope all is well, love and miss you Dad. -Elder Ripley<br />PS- is that Brooks Johnson in the background of the picture of you and mom and the Laws house?</span>Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6358695761654653680.post-33652721960447298382013-09-04T12:35:00.002-07:002013-09-04T12:35:13.824-07:00August 26, 2013<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Helvetica;">I am glad to hear you got that card! There should be a few more on the way!<br />Brother Wu is doing so great. The primary teacher had my companion and I go into primary this last sunday and share an experience about a time where we followed the Spirit's guidance and he was having a such a great time listening to our stories. It was pretty cool! Bishop didn't have him stand up during sacrament and introduce himself I was bummed!<br />Yes Elder Washburn is still my companion! We are loving it here in tainan and are just tearin it up. It is not often you teach people with christian backgrounds here in taiwan so it is abit of a switch up for us! We just went into the lesson with faith and followed the spirit during planning as well as the lesson and saw miracles!<br />Hey mom can you help me get some email addresses of friends? Kelsey Dagupan and Nik Huff! That would be fantastic, thanks abunch! Have an amazing week! Love you bunches!<br /><br />THAT PACKAGE IS HUGE!!!!!!! Thank you so much Dad!!! Were are just pigging out!! I was so surprised how much stuff you managed to fit in there too! Holy smokes! I am pretty sure this one could last me until the end of my mission! Hahaha. It worked out just right because a few days after I got it president Blickenstaff and his wife came to tainan for an activity and they came and inspected all of the apartments of the missionaries in my district so we had some treats out for them when they came. Haha I am sure they enjoyed it.<br />How was your week!? We are doing pretty awesome over here. Still just following the spirit and working to become better missionaries!<br />I cant believe Kellen and Kelsey are both leaving right now! That is so awesome! I am sure they are both going to be amazing missionaries! Wish I could have been there to hear their farewell talks! I love them!<br />Thanks again for taking such good care of my baby while I am gone. I am sure she will be running better when I get back than when I left!<br /><br />Well I hope everything is going well back home! Love and miss you! Talk to you next week! -Elder Ripley</span>Juliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01687261362022294234noreply@blogger.com0