We've Got Our Work Cut Out

How was your week?

Really.... different haha. Lots of hard work. 

How is your new area?

It´s going to be a workout.  

What is your new apartment like?

It´s a NICE apartment. Like really nice. The best one that I´ve passed through. 

What is your new companion like?

He´s awesome. We´re going to get along really well. I hope he ends up being my last comp cuz I´ve only got 4 transfers left. His name is Elder Bruno Dias de Araujo Souza. He´s from Joao Pessoa, Paraíba. He is SO COOL! We´re going to do some WORK here. The members are already getting excited. They´re ´´catching the wave.´´

 

New Companion in Sao Gabriel

Did you take a bus ride to your new area?  Do you ride alone on the bus to your new area or did you get your companion in Santa Maria and ride together?

I waited at the bus station for my comp to get there from his last city, then we came here together. There is another companionship that lives with us, Elder Christensen, from Orem, and Elder Santana, from the northwest in Brazil. 

Hello Family!

So, like I said above, we´ve got our work cut out. It´s going to be fun seeing how we can get the people here animated. The city is a lot like Rosario. The Elders in Rosario are part of our zone, so we talk to them frequently. I´m going to go there on a division this week to see if we can help them out, cuz basically none of them have a teaching group. Sao Gabriel has a population of about 65,000 people. It´s an older city, so all of the members are older. Our branch president, Rodrigo, is a young guy though. He´s really excited. Our branch hasn´t baptized in 8 months. The last baptismal record is from January of this year. We have 2 people that will be baptized on October 12th already. We can´t baptize in the next 2 weeks because next week is District Conference for Distrito Sao Gabriel/Rosario, and then the following week is General Conference. I´m really pumped for that! The last General Conference of my mission.... lots of mixed feelings about that :( I don´t really know what to say today.

This last week was just lots and lots of meetings. We met with President one day, we met with the District President another, and we spent the rest of the week with a map in our hands with just a list of names and addresses. We found this awesome woman to teach. Her name is Nilza. We were walking in the road and we knocked the wrong door. We got a good laugh and then she came out and invited us to come in. She had been praying to God for him to send someone to talk to her about the Plan of Happiness that he has for all of us. We visited with her and let her know that God loves her. That he really cares about her. She came to church yesterday and will for sure be baptized on the 12th. God is already establishing his kingdom here.    

I will send a camera card today and a letter to mom and Hailey for their birthdays, so I spent my time today naming the pictures on the card. You´ll love the pictures though. We had a zone meeting on Friday and established all of our goals until the end of the year. We´re looking at things on more of a weekly basis now and not a monthly basis. Then our missionaries can focus more on baptizing weekly and not just monthly. 

I love all of you very much!

Love,

Elder Shepherd