A Missionary Christmas

TEN REASONS WHY A MISSIONARY CHRISTMAS IS DIFFERENT-Written by Sally Tielemans, Henderson, Nevada -Missionary mom to
Elder Tielemans-Japan Sendai (Now an RM)
1. Last Christmas we were counting our money; this Christmas we are
counting our blessings.

2. Last Christmas we were giving thanks for gifts from stores; this
Christmas we are giving thanks for gifts from God.

3. Last Christmas we valued things that were costly; this Christmas
we value things that are holy.

4. Last Christmas we were wrapping gifts; this Christmas we are
wrapped up in the work.

5. Last Christmas we looked into people's eyes when we spoke; this
Christmas we look into their hearts.

6. Last Christmas we prayed to obtain a testimony; this Christmas we
pray to share our testimony with others.

7. Last Christmas we were impatient with the weaknesses of others;
this Christmas we are working on our own.

8. Last Christmas we read the scriptures as a duty; this Christmas
we read them as a joy.

9. Last Christmas we thought it was enough to celebrate the
holidays; this Christmas we are finding ways to consecrate them.

10. Last Christmas, SAN DIEGO was just a place on a map; this Christmas,
it is a place in our hearts.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!

Thank you all for your Love, Support

And Especially for the many Prayers on behalf of Cory

these past 19 months !

Love The Ipsen Family

Elder Ipsen Update.....

Hello Everyone ! 
This post is from Cory's Family... sorry is has been awhile since our last post. We have been hoping and waiting for these baptisms to take place !  And , we were hoping to receive pictures soon so we could post them !  Cory is doing great !  He is still in Lemon Grove. He has been there for 6 1/2 months now.  It was transfers this past week, and he just got his fourth new greenie right from the MTC !  We tell him he must be doing an awesome job at training these new missionaries!  Elder Ipsen has just over six months to fulfill his mission !  He says it is going by too fast !  Funny how time here doesn't feel the same !  =/       We are all so proud of Cory and his example to his family !  We are excited that these are the last holidays that we have to spend away from each other !  We are looking so forward to being together again as a family !!!  But.... Cory is where he should be, doing what he should be doing !!!  And great blessing have been showered upon our family !!!! 

Part of an e-mail from Oct 26.
The more in tune with the spirit you are.. the greater impact the spirit has on your life. Its been cool as a missionary.. thats all i have to worry about 24/7.. i dont really have to worry about the outside world and all of the busy things that get in the way, so the spirit has more of an impact, and your sensitivity to the spirit is greater. I've also noticed with investigators that when they start to obey the commandments, and do what they need to do, they become more in-tune to the spirit and its promptings as well.

God Provides A Way

"I too believe that God will always make a way where there is no way. I believe that if we will walk in obedience to the commandments of God, if we will follow the counsel of the priesthood, he will open a way even where there appears to be no way."

--Gordon B. Hinckley, "If Ye Be Willing and Obedient", Ensign, Jul 1995

July 2010

Awesome couple !

Elder Ipsen with his district

Rescued a Kitten

Lemon Grove Pictures =)

Elder Ipsen & Elder Callejas

Cory & Calvin - A Riverton High Friend on the same mission

San Diego Hall of Champions Visitor Center

Boys will be boys   =)

June 15 Part of E-mail

hello my family hahaha,



Yeah this past week was really good though! especially yesterday. We biked SO much yesterday, im guessing 10-15 miles. and it was pissin hot, so my shirt was all sweaty and we were dead tired the whole day but..... we had an appointment with a black guy named elisha who went to the gladys knight fireside. We brought a member named Allen peichart(he's the guy who is marrying Joan the lady we're teaching) and it was an awesome lesson. we went through 2 to 31 where it talks about how christ was baptized and how he set the example for each of us, and then we invited him to be baptized and he accepted. Woo! we set the date for him to be baptized on july 3. So make sure to keep him in your prayers so he'll be ready for the baptism. Then earlier in the day we had a sweet appt with a less active guy whose had a lot of questions about joseph smith. Its just fun helping people out. So those two appts made up for the hours we spent biking ha. It reminded me of football. Sweating hard core in the sun for hours and hours. i twas fun. And then please keep Joan in your prayers. WE're really working with her and trying to develop her testimont in the book of mormon. she's awesome i know she'll be baptized its just when.

ok for you're other question... church is a few miles away from our apartment, but our ward mission leader gives us a ride to church every week so that helps a lot!

What fun stuff have i found to buy? haha you know... you just have to check my account! Lol, i just buy a shirt here, a hat there. got to stock up for when i get home ya know?

Sharing one bathroom isnt bad... we're guys we make it work .

Sounds like you guys are gonna have a pretty busy summer.... you said both of the girls showers? I dont remember if you told me or not, but who else is having a shower?

Thats awesome what you guys are doing with reading from the book of mormon. really, home is the place to learn about gospel principles and about the book of mormon. I think that the more prepared alex and aut feel for going on a mission, the more excited they will be for it. Yeah im sure al is nervous or maybe feels inadequate to go on a mission.. but look at me! i dont know how to teach haha. but as long as we do our part the lord fills in the rest. But yeah if i were you id start talking to him more about a mission are really the benefits from it. I like how you dont push it onto us, but the more you talk about it and get his thoughts the less nervous he'll be and i think it will prepare him better! Al will be an awesome missionary though! same with aut!


Oh we saved a kitten the other day too. It was wandering around the trolley station and it was reall skinny so we hunted it down, caught it, and ate it. Just kiddin we fed it and gave it to our neighbors haha.

But how is the riverton 18th ward doing. And hows the aunts and uncles? grandpas?

Thanks for the e-mails every week! love you all, have a good week!

' OVER THE HUMP'

YAHOO !!!!  JUMPING FOR JOY !!!  It is not last May 20th !!
Cory has been gone a year today, and we are so excited to finally be looking at the down side !!

WE LOVE AND MISS YOU CORY  =)

Time to dust off the Cob Webs , Elder Ipsen is finally on his Bike !!!

After 7 months Elder Ipsen is Transfered to.....Lemon Grove
Part of May 18th E-mail

hello family! how is everything going!? I'm emailing you from lemon grove! which is the ghetto of ghetto's in san diego. lol jk its not super ghetto but it is pretty ghetto. Theres this intersection in our area that is called the "four corners". and its called that because that is the area where 4 gangs border each other so theres a lot of battling that goes on there. just wanted to tell you that to put you at ease.... :) lol its really not that bad though.
This week has probably been one of the longest weeks so far. It was kind of tough cause me and elder callejas(who just got out of the mtc) pretty much got thrown into a new area without a car and not knowing anything. But things have definitely been picking up. We're starting to learn the area and learn how to use the trolley ha. We started in this area with just 3 investigators last week. We're up to 8 now. Mainly from referalls from the gladys Knight thingy. so things are going good! Just pretty stressful at times!
Um,i had to cancel the appt with the doctor though.... we didn't have time and didn't have a car...lol so im gonna have to reschedule it. sorry!
k to answer your questions... im like 20-30 minutes from clairemont. and its funny right now...i have guy sitting next to me who is giving me change, offering to give me his glasses and asking me if i need drugs.... hmm..... no joke either.
im to the east and to the south of clairemont.
my new companion elder callejas is originally from el salvador but he lives in utah now. He's a good guy, really happy and he has a strong testimony. white wash means you and a companion go into an area that neither of you had gone to before. so you both have to learn it together.
yeah like i said earlier im on bike and trolley. . lol, its fun though it makes you feel more like a real missionary being out in the world all day rather than being in a car. yeah im still district leader! this week we get to go coach other missionaries in other zones for our zone conference.the address for sending stuff will stay the same my whole mission :) and p-days are still weekly and on tuesdays.
The weather here is good! and the stress level is doing better :) it was just hard being thrown into an area with a greeny that has no idea what he's doing and with no car and pretty much no investigators, and then finding out that im still district leader. But...... without challenges and trials i wouldnt be able to grow! and im having more fun than ive had on my misison! haha its fun the work is good.
I do know the elders in my new appt. One of them was in the mtc with me and the other one ive seen around quite a bit.
But yeah, that was a lot of stuff about me..... what is going on with all of you guys??? i want to know! Thank you all for everything! love you guys!!!

Elder Ipsen with his District

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COR !

Cory said it was a good birthday!  It was also another Elder's birthday, so they had a zone party at

Mission Bay. They played soccer and had sandwiches ( they were a bit plain...someone forgot to bring the condiments ) and the sister Missionaries bought them a cake !

Teaching and Friendships

Ist Baptism in Clairemont March 21 2010

hello!

I guess ill start with daniel's baptism... it was awesome! It was a double whammy baptism too, cheryl roberts got baptized too. The sisters taught her though. But the spirit was strong, its hard to give too in depth details cause... i have a bad memory. But i wrote in all in my journal so its ok! we were kinda nervous at the start of the baptism cause we didnt have a jumpsuit that fit daniel cause he's a big guy ya know? So we ended up telling him to wear the jumpsuit around your legs and put a white shirt on for your top. Haha it was pretty ghetto but it worked! But after that everything went awesome. during the intermission when they were getting changed back into their regular clothes.. me and elder williams taught the restoration.. so yeah we got to talk at it! I think it was good cause ashley was there(without sean) so it was good for her to feel the spirit that was there. But yeah everything was perfect. Oh, and this other lady, malie, she was a referral that me and elder williams contacted, she got baptized on saturday! everyones getting baptized !  ha.

Transfers come all too soon !

Best day in my Mission so far

hello! hows everyone doing?
So yeah.. with the tsunami... i really didnt hear too much about it except from a couple of members so it wasnt too big of a deal here! Was there a tsunami that hit anywhere? I'm sure i would have seen it cause im pretty close to the bay and the ocean. What else did you hear about it?
This past week was awesome. Yesterday was the best day in my mission so far. The spirit was just strong the whole day and everything just seemed to work out. A lot happened so ill just try and give you an overview of the day. We went to church and had 5 investigators show up that day. Harmando came. Ashley daniel peter and elizabeth. I was the most excited about elizabeth coming.I dont know if ive talked much about her. Ill have to tell you her full story when i get home. But... a couple months ago we met her and her boyfriend who is a member. He was going into re-hab for alcohol. So we gave them a blessing. When he was in re-hab we went over to see elizabeth every now and then just to see how she was doing. Bryce(her boyfriend) got out of rehab two weeks ago and we stopped by again to see them. But their roommates told us they moved so we were like what the crap? so we called them and called them but couldnt get a hold of them until they called us this past friday. It ends up that they moved, but they place they moved to is still barely in our area. so we went and saw them and got them to come to church yesterday then after church had the first discussion with them. Best discussion ever. it was awesome. bryce is excited about getting back into the church and elizabeth is just awesome. their only hang-up is problems with the word of wisdom. But they said that wont be a problem. So yeah we have another appointment with them on thursday. Oh and the talks in sacrament meeting were perfect for them. It was on overcoming temptation so it fit in with them perfectly. And then aftter the appointment with them we went to a meeting where recent converts tell about their conversion. And we got ashley to go to that. And that was perfect for her. They talked about taking a leap of faith, and looking at things with more spiritual eyes than anything.. the same things that she has had a problem with. so yeah! and we have another appt with harmando too. he said he really liked church.a lot of that probably doesnt even make sense so if you have any questions just ask lol.

Merry Christmas Family Elder Ipsen Loves YOU !

New Pictures !

Elder Williams and Elder Ipsen

( A Bingham and A Riverton )

Who would have thought