Helena Gets Baptized

How are your other families that you are teaching doing?
Really really well, we´re going to finally get the wedding papers in for one of the families this week, maybe two of them.

Did you have other baptisms?
YES!  We baptized Helena, the mother of Sandra (whose house I Skyped you all at)

Family Barcellos,  Helena's Baptism June 1

 Tell us all about the baptism you had Saturday?
It was incredible. About everything that could go wrong went wrong. The water heater wasn´t working and she was super worried about being baptized in cold water. We prayed and prayed for it to all work out. We heated up tons and tons of boiling water on the stove in the chapel and mixed it all with the water that was already in the font. By 430 (the baptism was marked for 4) the water was good to go. That was only in the matter of 2 hours. Satan did everything he could this week to make this baptism not happen and it DID! It was an amazing week. The Ward is so happy. I had the privilege to baptize her. It was just super spiritual.

Did you find some more shoes?
I haven´t really looked yet. I´m going to get everything I can out of the ones I have so that I don´t have to use my money haha.

How was your week?
The week was really effective, but not tons of exciting things other than the Baptism. We ate Churrasco at Angelica and Anderson´s after church yesterday. They love us. They are going to get their marriage stuff and hopefully turned in this week. The marriage doesn´t happen for 20 days, so Elder Lopes probably won´t be able to be here for their baptism. They are super integrated with the ward though, so basically already members. We have 3 young women who will be baptized next week. They have really good testimonies and are participating in seminary every night and going to all of the activities. They watched the baptism on Saturday and loved it.

Is the weather cooling off a lot?

Some days yes, some days no. It´s like Utah weather.

Did you get your package yet?

YES! Thank you so much for all of the pictures! That was the best package ever! Hailey, thanks for the chocolate pretzels! My companion and I shared them and loved them. I loved everything else in the package as well.

I put in a picture of the baptism.  It went by really well. There´s also a picture of me playing the piano at church.   

Playing the Piano at the Ward Talent Show

 I still don´t play for sacrament meeting, but that was at the talent show. The week went well but was for sure highlighted by the baptism.  Angelica´s nephew, Antonio, finally came to church with us; he´s 21, and very, very interested in the church. He works most Sundays, but it was awesome that he was finally able to come with us. Silvio came again. That was great. His daughter, Ane, will be baptized the day he accepts. She just doesn´t want to do it alone. We´re having a lot of success designating families to hold family home evenings in their homes and inviting neighbors and friends to come. It´s allowing the investigators to be a lot more integrated with the members. I have a feeling that this week will be another successful week. Our goal is to baptize every single Saturday in the month of June. I think we´ll get it. We´ve got people ready, we just need to help them take that next step and accept a date.

I love all of you very much! Have another great week!   

Elder Shepherd