Loved My First Area

 How was your week?

It was a really good week. We taught about 30 lessons and found some new families.

Are you staying there or getting transferred?

I´m being transferred to a city called Rosario do Sul. It´s about 6 hours from here, So I´ll be traveling all day tomorrow haha. I´ll tell you more about my new companion next week. 

Did you pay her or FedEx for getting the package?

Yeah it was like $50 bucks haha. So we´ll need to think of some new ideas for that. 

What did you think of the stuff in the package?  Did you share anything with your companion? 

I LOVE the socks. That will help a ton. I´m good on Oreos for now. I REALLY WANT THOSE DVDs THAT I SENT LAST WEEK. And I want like more gummy stuff. Fruit snacks and Dots and stuff like that! Thanks!  And yes I shared with my companion. 

Hello Family!

     Like I said above, I´m being transferred tomorrow morning. So all day today I´ll be passing houses of people here and saying goodbye, haha.  I will probably end up crying at some of the homes.

     This week went by so darn fast. It was pouring rain almost all week so I loved that. I´m going to attach a photo of where we slept this past week. We had to go to a city that is really close to here to do a baptismal interview. The interview went really late and we missed our bus, and the missionaries [there] are sisters there so we couldn´t sleep at their place. We ended up sleeping the night on the benches in the chapel. That was really exciting. Talk about the most comfortable bed I´ve slept in Brazil haha. So the transfer will be interesting. I don´t know anything about my companion, but I know that this is where the Lord needs me at this time. Elder Sa will be a trainer of an American again. It´ll be sad leaving here cuz these people have helped me so much with learning the language and they´ve been so warm and welcoming. I have really learned a lot about how to have patience from these people. We´re going to pass by Chris Klein’s last tonight cuz we´re going to have a little food party and say our goodbyes.

     Tay sounds like he´s getting going on college classes in school. Dude focus a lot for those classes, cuz they will pay off once you go up to college. We need to go together to the U after my mission. I´ll be your swimming coach there! haha. We will definitely have to do that all-night softball tournament with our family when I get home. We´ll get Katie involved.

The Chapel Benches where Elder Sa and I slept last week.

     Hailey that is so good that your Arthritis is doing better! Make sure you are always praying to Heavenly Father and asking him for continued progress. If you have the faith for it, He will bless you to be rid of it altogether. I know that the power of prayer is so real. My companion and I have been praying specifically for things, and every time we ask to find a family or a person it seems like within an hour we always find what we asked for. If we have the faith and are keeping the commandments, God will always answer. So make sure you are continually obeying the commandments, then, when you ask for strength He will give it to you. 

     Nothing super exciting happened this week, so this email is rather boring. No investigators came to church, so there really isn´t anyone progressing to talk to you about. What dad said about the people [members] not obeying the commandments;: we have been really looking into that because I know that can be a major hold back. One thing we´ve been doing is really trying to get the Ward involved. It´s been working, but really slowly. I feel like when I leave and after some time this ward will get BOOMING! My companion and I have several dates marked for baptisms, so he will be baptizing them with his next companion. I know I didn´t have a lot of baptisms here, but I re-activated 5 families. So I feel like that was my calling here. I am trying to always be looking for what the Lord wants me to do. The more I try and tune in to the spirit, the more I can really feel him talking to me. I know He´s listening and He´s always there, It´s just people have to do their parts. When we humble down and really do our best to be on the Lord´s errand, He will be there for us. It´s like asking your boss for money without working. It doesn´t work like that. We need to do our parts and I have found that out. The days that I really try to lock and load during study time, I feel like I have so much more energy during the day. And I feel ready to respond to the questions that we encounter throughout the day.

     I´ll take a lot of pictures with people today and I´ll send a card home next week. I´ll make sure to describe everyone and everything in the pictures for you before I send it. Sorry this email is boring! It´ll be way more interesting next week and I´ll tell you all about my new companion and my new area. I love all of you! Talk to you next week! Happy Birthday Sunday mom! I sent you a letter this morning so I hope you get it soon!

Love,

Elder Shepherd