Steady Doing the Work!

A few questions and Carson's Answers:

How's the new companion?  Do you still have the same other two living with you & your Companion?

He is way good! and yes, we have 2 more living with us. Their names are Elders Nascimento and Santana.

Santana is from Manaus so he was super pumped about the Temple.

Did Chris (the Facebook friend mom) tell you I sent her a message?  She said her family adores you and that you cook when you are over there.  Do you cook there?  What do you cook?

Yep! I cook different stuff! Pizza, hamburgers all sorts of stuff, haha.

Are you still eating Frosted Flakes and Top Ramen?  

Yep, my favorite!

I loved the story about the blind man & deaf woman you are teaching.  Amazing story.  How is their teaching coming along?

They´re coming along. They´re super catholic, so it´s difficult.

Hey Family!

     This week was really good! Today will be short, sorry. Lot´s of stuff to do before 6PM. 

      So yes, our focus right now is on activating people! It´s so hard! So we have a lot of great families that we´re teaching right now, but no one is grasping the concept of COMING TO CHURCH! We´re really trying to press the importance of that in the first lesson now cuz they just don´t get it! It´s also hard cuz it´s freezing here right now and no one has a car. So it´s a long ways to go at 9 in the morning. But we´ll get it. Try and include my families here in your prayers! Sounds like Phelps farewell went well! That´s good! I wrote Cole and Tate and Grandma letters today! So they´ll get them hopefully before Cole´s baptism. Thanks for sending the care package...I should be getting it in like 4 weeks, haha. 

     Time is flying here, it really is. I feel like I just emailed you yesterday. The trick is just to get engaged in the work. Church is really fun here, cuz half the time it´s us 4 missionaries doing everything except for conducting sacrament meeting haha. 

     This is the deal.... the prophet said that every young man should PREPARE to serve a mission, but it´s also true that a mission isn´t for everyone. That´s my take on it. but a mission is definitely for me! I think we have a baptism next Saturday, little girl who´s mom asked us to do it. She´s only 9, and comes to church every week with her mom. So not a difficult convert. 

No interesting stories from this past week, just a lot of hard work! I love it here, the people are great. We play a lot of HORSE on p days and some random soccer games to avoid physical contact. 

     Crazy how Nance and Phelps are going off on their adventures in 2 days!!! They will do great. Mission life is just great, it´s definitely going to be the best, hardest, most fun and difficult time of my life! It truly is hard work. And without a work ethic missionaries struggle. It´s all about the work. I love it! The more I just speak the language and work, the faster the time goes by. Tay has a great work ethic with swim and all, so he will be great! Hailey´s softball sounds like it went well, for the one game that didn´t get rained out. And Tay´s email about sports was well needed. I miss my sports haha! Well, sorry this email is short, I hope there is more exciting stuff this week!

I love you!

Elder Shepherd