POWERFUL Testimony

How are your families doing? 

Really good. We have a baptism for our family of 3 next Saturday.

Who else are you teaching?

A couple of families and some random singles, but no one else really firm. 

Besides walking are you exercising?

Nope haha. I need to but I quit drinking pop a little over a week ago and ask for water always now. 

What is your daily routine, what does it look like?  ( I want to share with Priests)

Wake up at 6:30, sit on our little couch we got this week ‘til like 7AM, then eat, shower and ready for personal study by 8AM. Study solo for an hour and have companion study ‘til 10. From 10-10;30 work on the language. then we leave.  We tract ‘til lunch, have lunch for an hour, then we´re in the streets teaching ‘til 9 every night. 

Any other advice? We're reading Preach My Gospel Section 3 as a family right now for family home evenings.  

Just have Tay really practice chapter 6 in Preach My Gospel. It will help him so much. Not much other than that. Have daily family and personal prayer, and try to read at least one little verse of scripture every night. 

Are you freezing?

No this week was SOOOOO hot. So nope, now just burning up.

Are you still with Elder Sa?

Yes I didn´t get transferred today. So 6 more weeks here probably. 

Did you get letters and packages today?

No I´ll get them all tomorrow when the next missionary gets here. Elder Nascimento is transferring and Elder Santana is getting a new companion. So the new companion will be bringing everything. 

Hi Family!

     So, like I said above, I didn´t get transferred, so that´s good. I´m really accustomed to the people and the area here, so it´ll be hard to leave when I go.  I´ve emailed Bryan – haha. He said that they left the airport and were walking the streets in London; so that´s pretty funny.

     Cole´s baptism sounds like it went really well. He´s a great kid.  Did they get my letter I sent for the baptism? I sent it like a month ago. But tell him I´m way proud of him. And sounds like Tay did a really good job with the baptism. Now practice doing it in Portuguese with someone who has a name that´s got 10 names in it haha.

     Haha sounds like Tate´s all growing up. I can totally see him getting ticked off cuz he can´t go on the big rides [on his recent trip to Lagoon].

    We had 5 investigators in church yesterday, so we are definitely making progress. I´m really excited for this family next Saturday. They will be amazing. They love the gospel and notice a significant difference in their marriage with the gospel as a cornerstone. So they are going to be a great family. That´s really cool Josh [Staples] is going to Salvador - Brazil! It´s super hot there haha.  Right now it´s hotter than anything here! I don´t get this wacky weather. I’m sweating like crazy right now cuz we just went to play a soccer game at the chapel with some other Elders. It´s way fun, and President let´s us play cuz there isn´t any physical contact. It´s like a shooting game. Good thing it´s not dribbling or Ii´d lose every single time. 

     This week went by slower than normal cuz I´m still sick. I think I´ve got a sinus infection so we´re going to go to the doc tomorrow for a pill. Normally the “gripe” [cold] here lasts like 5 days and I´ve had this for almost 2 weeks, so time for the docs. We did a lot of walking and sweating this week, and sleeping doesn´t work when I´m sweating. I slept with 2 fans on me all week haha. My companion is used to it cuz he lives in the middle of Brazil. 

     We have some good investigators right now.  Only our family of 3 is amazing. We have been teaching close to 30 lessons a week Now, we´re trying to testify and leave. Trying to leave the Spirit really high in the homes, so that when we leave, they notice a difference. So a lot more lessons, and each lesson is a lot less time.

     I´ve still been emailing Phelps haha - sounds like the MTC there is really slow. That was definitely hard work,  but the field comes really fast;  and it truly is ready to harvest. God´s Kingdom is growing, and we are his representatives for only 2 years. The power of missionary world is infinite. Through this mission I know that I´m not just going to baptize people, I am bringing them home. and I am creating opportunities of eternity. The vision of eternity is amazing. That´s what drives me. I know that 95 percent of the people we talk to are going to say no, but I am just opening the door for them. The other 5 percent are going to walk through that door. The church is true, and truly does bring happiness into families. I have seen it firsthand here with our family we´re baptizing. One minute they´re close to divorce, the next minute they stop fighting and haven´t for over a month. God´s power is limitless, and we are here to spread his gospel. I have a feeling that their son is going to go on a mission, It´s a strange feeling but I feel it. In reality I´m not just baptizing him, I´m baptizing his baptisms, and so on and so forth. We are an army, and this army will always press on. I love this gospel; I love the words of the prophets. Christ truly is the light.

I love all of you! The church is true.

Elder Shepherd