True Police
Stories
"Courage is the ability to move;
when all around you are frozen in fear
and no one would blame you if you did nothing at all."
Capt. Click. Phx. PD
My Name is Julie Jeppsen
Taken from the book Think
About it... for your reading convenience
I am the wife of Officer Sam Jeppsen. Though, I’m not sure if the words husband
and wife really
describe what we are to each other. In Genesis, Adam is speaking of Eve and he
says, “This is now
bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” The Lord then instructs Adam,
“Therefore shall a man
leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be
one flesh.”
After twenty-seven years of marriage and lots of ups and downs, I think we are
finally beginning to
realize what the Lord means when He tells us to become one. We really are each
other’s best friend.
We would rather be with each other than anyone else. We have gotten to the point
where we really
guard our time together and try not to let anything else interfere. Our time
together is precious. I
really feel that it takes Sam to make me complete and he feels that way about
me. When he walks into
the room, my heart still flutters. I get excited going on dates with him and his
jokes still make me
giggle. I love him more now than ever before and I know I’ll love him even more
tomorrow. I can’t
imagine spending my life without him much less my eternity. I am so thankful for
the gospel in my
life. I am so thankful for my temple marriage that gives me my eternity with
Sam. Do you think that
is what Adam means by, “Bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh?” Do you think
that is what
Heavenly Father means when He says, “They shall be one flesh?”
To our Father in Heaven, life is eternal. Why wouldn’t His commandments be?
I haven’t always been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. I grew up in the
Baptist Church. My parents have always loved the Lord. I remember going to
church every Sunday
when I was a little girl and we never ate a meal without first blessing our
food. As children, we were
taught to say our prayers every night before we climbed into bed.
When I was a baby, my dad was called to serve in the Navy during the Korean War.
While he was
away, my mother and I stayed with my mother’s family in Lehi, Arizona. During
this time, some dear
friends of my grandparents came over and taught them about The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints. I think the teachings would have required them to make too many
changes in their lives.
For that or whatever reason, they passed it by. My mother though, was very
interested and started
writing to my dad about the gospel. My dad has always been a very religious man.
On October 23,
1954, in one of his letters to my mother, he wrote, “...Most of these guys use
the argument, ‘Heck,
your wife will never know.’ But your sins will always catch up with you for God
knows.”
On Thanksgiving Day, November 25th, 1954, from a ship named the USS Gardners
Bay, stationed
off the Korean coast line, again my dad wrote, “Even though I have so many
things to be thankful
for, Darling, there were still many things lacking this Thanksgiving Day. Most
of all the absence of
you and Julie hurt me the most. And secondly, we had no church services on this
ship. And that was
the original purpose of Thanksgiving Day, to give thanks to God for all the many
blessings of the past
year. The day was hardly observed at all here on board ship. I made up for the
lack of church services
today by reading the book of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament. Boy if ever
a preacher was
needed anywhere on earth, they need one on this ship. Before I came on here, I
thought everyone
believed in God...”
During that time my mother sent my dad a Book of Mormon. He read it from cover
to cover and said
it sounded like the truth, but that they didn’t need to change religions. Like
so many good Christian
men, my dad didn’t think Christ would have one true church. My dad wrote mother
in a letter, saying
that it didn’t matter what religion you were, as long as you did what was right
and loved the Lord.
In a letter dated Tuesday, November 30th, 1954, he said, “It doesn’t make one
particle of difference
which church you belong to anyway, which makes arguing between beliefs mighty
silly. All churches
believe in and worship the same God and teach the same Ten Commandments, so I
myself, do not
see any point for an argument. They also use the same Bible, so I don’t get it.”
Mother didn’t feel that way at all. She was sure there was one true church and
she was sure this was
it. In a letter dated Sunday, November 7th, 1954 he replied, “Please don’t call
me a hardshell Baptist,
honey, it’s just that I don’t think one’s religious denomination has a thing to
do with his chances of
eternal life. I believe God will choose only the just, faithful and deserving
from each denomination
which will definitely be a very few. I believe also that a person can learn just
as much about God and
His works through one religion as another. All he needs is the will and the
interest to learn. But like
you say, we’ll discuss it when I get home.”
My father is one of the finest men I have ever known. He is full of integrity
and honesty. There isn’t
a man who loves his family more than my father. He truly does love the Lord and
he always does
what he believes is right. But at the time, he thought all the religions were
pretty much the same and
it really didn’t matter which one you belonged to as long as you worshiped the
Lord. So for years my
mother went along with this.
But somewhere in her heart, the truths that she had heard
about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints kept coming back to her.
We lived in Chandler, Arizona, on a farm when I was growing up. I remember when
I was in grade
school, many of my friends would go to primary once a week after school. I
remember thinking this
was so cool. I asked one little girl if I could go too and she said, “Only
Mormons go to Primary.”
When I asked my mom, I guess this started things up all over again with my dad.
When I got into
junior high, all my friends were going to the school dances. When I asked my
parents if I could go,
they said they would ask our preacher if it was all right. He said, “No,
absolutely not! Dancing is a
wicked and evil practice and leads to all kinds of sin and heartache.!” Well he
was right about one
thing. It did lead to heartache. Mine, for not being allowed to go to the dances
with my friends. One
of the friends that I made during that time was a dear, sweet, little, Mormon
girl by the name of
Danawn. Her dad was my science teacher. I have six little sisters and two of
them were also best
friends with two of Danawn’s little sisters. We spent a lot of time at Danawn’s
house.
Even though my home was filled with love and caring,
there was something different at Danawn’s.
Every morning they knelt in family prayer. Once a week they had family home
evening, where they
spent time together as a family. I could feel the spirit so strongly when I was
there, so I loved
spending time at Danawn’s. One Monday night for family home evening, her parents
invited our
whole family over. My mom and dad were so impressed with the spirit that they
had felt there, that
when Danawn’s parents asked them if they would like to have the missionary
lessons, they said yes.
This was a new beginning in my life. I will forever be grateful to my mother for
following the
prompting she felt from the Holy Ghost to join the Church. She felt so strongly
that it was true and
that it would be the best thing for our family. At the time, my dad didn’t quite
accept all the teachings.
But seeing how strongly my mother felt, knowing how much it meant to her and how
for all these
years she had believed in the gospel and had wanted to join the Church, he
finally accepted her desire
to be baptized.
On her birthday, September 24th, 1966 she was baptized and so was I and two of
my sisters. After
another year of studying and praying about the gospel, my dad developed his own
strong testimony
of the truthfulness of the gospel and he too was baptized. My parents have
raised all of us girls in The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They have led through example and
their testimony of
the Church is strong. Since that day, between my family and extended family,
there are over fifty
members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
All because of my mother who followed the prompting in her heart
and who wanted a more complete life
and who wanted her family not for only now, but for eternity.
Now, I cannot imagine my life without the gospel. On a ride-along one night, I
watched my husband
in an all-out fight with a suspect and I watched as his partner got his skull
crushed by a heavy glass
bottle. I listened to the sirens and I watched as the police cars and ambulances
came. I watched as
other officers came running, ready to risk their lives for someone else. I
cannot imagine sending my
husband out the door to the kind of work he does without having the assurance of
knowing we will
be together forever. That same peace of mind comes when I send my family out the
door. I cannot
imagine raising my family in today’s world without the help of the gospel
teachings.
We have four wonderful, strong children who have faith in the Lord and who have
chosen mates for
themselves who are also wonderful, strong and have faith in the Lord. They are
raising their families
in the ways of righteousness and to love the Lord. One night last year, my son
Clay and his girlfriend
had driven down to Tombstone in southern Arizona. On the way home, on that long,
lonely, dark
stretch of road, about twenty miles out of Tucson, their car broke down. It was
late at night and in
a bad area. Before they did anything, Clay said a prayer that they would be
protected and that they
would be able to find help. Then they got out of the car and started to walk.
They had gotten no more
than fifty feet, when a large semi-truck with two men, pulled over. The men
asked them where they
were going. Clay told them that they needed to get back to Mesa. The men said
that they were
headed that way so to jump in. They got in and then the driver began to back up
his truck. Clay
asked, “What are you doing?” The driver said, “That’s your car back there isn’t
it?” Clay replied that
it was. Then the driver said, “Well, this is a car hauler so we’ll just pull
your car up and take it back
with us.” Then the two men drove them home. The men didn’t want anything for
their help, but Clay
gave them all he had on him at the time, which was twenty dollars. When Clay
told me this story, I
was horrified thinking of all the terrible things that could have happened to
them. I asked him,
“Weren’t you afraid when the truck pulled over with two men?” He said, “Why mom?
The Lord had
sent them to us in an answer to our prayer.”
What kind of a boy is this that has this kind of faith? Right now, this same boy
is on a mission to teach
the gospel in Poland. He is sacrificing two years of his life, setting his own
life on hold. He’s learning
a new language, getting yelled at, called names, getting punched out, having
rocks thrown at him, hit
with a brick, chased off at knife point and he’s even been arrested. He is away
from family and friends
for two years. He’s on the other side of the world in a foreign country, with
some other mother’s
missionary who’s getting pelted with rocks and bricks as well. All this, for the
Lord. He says that
maybe in some small way this helps to repay the Lord for all the blessings He
has showered on him.
He loves his mission and he loves his Lord.
My family is a mother’s dream. I don’t think we realize, until we are older, how
really precious our
families are. And how really short our time together here on this earth is. I
pray for my family
constantly and as a mother I wish I could prevent every mother’s child from
having to suffer but I
can’t. Many times I have asked the question, “Why do bad things happen to good
people?”
In praying to know the answer, I have come to realize that in Heavenly Father’s
eyes, this life is but
a short twinkling of a moment. One of our purposes on earth is to prove
ourselves to determine
where we’ll spend our eternity. In order to do this, Heavenly Father has given
us the precious gift of
free agency. A gift so precious to Him that He will not even take it away from
the bad people.
Look at the suffering the righteous have suffered throughout time. Look at the
prophets of old. Look
at Joseph Smith, the first modern day prophet. Look at the holocaust victims.
Look at Christ,
Heavenly Father’s Only Begotten Son. He didn’t even come down and stop His
suffering. Even when
Christ asked, “O Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me...” Look
at the millions who
endure incredible sufferings today. Why doesn’t Heavenly Father come down and
stop it? Doesn’t
He love us? Did we do something wrong? Are we undeserving of His love and
protection? The
answer is no! Sometimes we are just the victim of other’s evil free agency. A
free agency that He will
not stop yet. But the time is coming when He will stop the free agency of the
evil and they will reap
the reward they deserve ...forever ...and ever.
I know that Heavenly Father loves each of us individually and answers each of
our prayers. He gave
us families for our happiness. He gave us the commandments for our happiness.
The only way we can
be truly happy is to follow those commandments and to stay on that path of
righteousness that leads
back to our Father in Heaven. I am thankful to Jesus Christ for the atoning
sacrifice He made for me
so that when I do get weak and slip off that path, I can be forgiven and get
back on. I am so thankful
that my Heavenly Father loved me so much that He provided such a beautiful plan
of salvation for
me. One that would bring such joy and happiness to my life.
I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true Church
of our Savior, Jesus
Christ. The more I study and the more I learn, the more I realize that the
teachings of this Church
make perfect sense. It makes everything taught in the scriptures fall into
perfect place. As a convert
to this church, I was able to see the fullness and the completeness of it’s
teachings.
I say these things humbly, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Julie Jeppsen, Mrs. Badge #3751
If you are or were a police officer,
soldier, fireman
or wife, mother, father of such or some other branch of emergency
personnel
and would like to share an unusual testimony building experience with
others,
please contact us for details at
Samuel@ldscops.com
or use the link on the front page of this site at
www.LDSCOPS.com
Thank you and God bless,