A Huge Family Night at the Bishops!!

 

Family Home Evening

Did you have baptisms this week? 

No they fell through for this next Saturday. 

What is your favorite treat down there? 

They make a really good treat with like crackers and pudding. It´s really hard to describe in English but dad can help. It´s called a Torta in Portuguese. 

Do you drink Guarana? 

Not really, I´m basically off of the soda now.

How about doce de leite?

I always eat it with bananas and make sandwiches with it. It´s like Brazilian Nutella. 

And do you like suco de caju?

I HATE it. I´ve only had it like once. Water even has a better taste. 

How was your week?

Really good and really effective.

How's the companionship?  

We´re doing well. He´s a lot happier with the mission now, and part of it is due to the success we´re having together. He´s seeing the miracles of the gospel in people´s lives. 

How are the guys in your apartment?

They´re good. Elder Law is going home soon. We´re all good though and we all get along just fine. 

Hello Family!

We had another productive week this week. Our numbers dipped down a little bit, but we had a lot more effectiveness in helping our teaching group progress. I love reading the emails you send me.

Our baptisms all fell through this coming Saturday except for maybe 2. We´ve got one for sure. The family that I Skype'd you from, we´ll be baptizing her mom this next Saturday. It has been such a spiritual experience. She´s been involved with the church for 21 years, but never was baptized. We have left a string of spiritual messages with her and the spirit finally touched her heart.

We will for sure visit this family when you guys come pick me up. They are so awesome. The other awesome family that we´re teaching, Anderson e Angelica, is finally getting their papers ready to marry. They´re already basically members, they just hadn´t completely committed until yesterday. We have a family night with them on Thursday, since it´s a catholic holiday (Corpus Cristis) and no one works that day. They also invited us over for a CHURRASCO next Sunday for lunch. They love us! She gets a big smile on her face every time we come over, and I always play soccer out front with the little boy and girl. He is 8 and she is 10. Gustavo and Bruna. The missionaries originally were only teaching Bruna. When I got here we started to teach the whole family and we did a special fast just for them. Now they are seeing the miracles. It has truly been amazing teaching them. 

The first picture I attached is of a HUGE family night we did at the bishop´s house on Thursday. All of the families in the ward were there, plus we had 12 investigators and all of our recent converts come! It was so awesome. My companion and I shared the message of the Restoration, but we focused specifically on Joseph Smith and the importance of praying and receiving an answer and not believing in our words. We had 7 young women at church with us this week. All of them are really integrated with the young women´s president and all of the young women in the ward.  .   It has been awesome challenging all of them and watching all of them receive their personal testimonies. We always bring the young women´s president with us. Her name is Elaine. She´s from Sao Paulo, and has a daughter that lives in salt lake who´s married with an American. Elaine visits her every year and sometimes stays there for months, so she speaks English. They´ve got a son on a mission in Atlanta as well. So they are a really active family in the church. Her husband, Laurindo, is the first counselor in the bishopric. They help us a lot! 

Saturday night we had a ward talent show. It was perfect! So many people came and we were able to invite tons of investigators. A lot of ward members came and shared their talents. Elder Cuadra and I did a little act where we showed people the funny situations that happen with missionaries. We sat behind a bench and put socks on our hands and held them above the bench as little puppets. We shared a mic and did funny contacts and funny responses when we knock doors. The members loved it. I played the piano, but got too nervous to play the guitar. I don´t even know why because no one would have even understood what i was singing, so I could have sung whatever words I´d have liked. Elaine made fun of me a little because the whole ward was chanting for me to do it and I wussed out. It was a great activity though. I also got the pleasure of talking in church again yesterday! I talked for 15 minutes on LOVE. It´s such a simple word, yet so powerful. And when we really mean it when we say it, we SHOW it through our actions. Some people don´t understand that. I have come to a full on knowledge of that principle, and I have given it all to the Lord. 

The church is true. I love being a part of this gospel and seeing the miracles occur in people´s lives. I am grateful for all the love and support that you have shown me. I know that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ, and that this is His church. Read the Book of Mormon every day, and share it at every opportunity. We should make it a goal to place books of Mormon everywhere we go when you guys come pick me up. I love all of you very much. Have a great week! Keep working hard Tay and Hailey! You´re all in my prayers.

Love

Elder Shepherd