How was your week?
It was really good! I had a really
good division with the zone leaders in Sao Borja and we ended up marking 3
baptismal dates with the members there. I also finally got to see monkeys while
I was there. I´m WORN OUT from riding buses. I spent more time on a bus than in
the field.
How
was the 12 hour bus ride to get to your destination for this week?
LONG. I felt like I was on the
airplane coming to Brasil again. It was worth it though, because it was a
really effective division.
Is
your church participation growing?
Yes! A lot! Here and Rosario are
going crazy! I feel really confident that the stake will be formed at the end
of the year.
Hello
family!
So we had a SWEET week! I did my
division in Sao Borja and got home Friday afternoon. Friday night there was a
Gaucho Dance at a place here in Sao Gabriel. We had 25 investigator COUPLES
there, along with the sisters. It was soooo cool! The District President,
Evandro, gave us 10 minutes to talk at the microphone to everyone. It was so productive.
There was a dance group that came and put on a show, and the president of the
dance group got up all teary eyed after we talked and said that he never
imagined the Mormons to be what we showed them we are. He loved it and we all
signed a Book of Mormon and gave it to him after. All of the member couples
from Rosario came too! It was a dance just for adults. Our teaching group is
now massive! My comp and I have to divide to do 2 family nights tonight at the
same time cuz of the amount of people who came. I´ll be going with a young man
who´s preparing for a mission, Lucas. The members are so excited about the
missionary work here now, they invited literally all of their friends for the dance.
It was a really nice dance, so everyone came all dressed up like a high school
prom. I´ll let you know how these people progress as we teach them.
So, the next highlight of the week
was that I went on a division to Rosario do Sul with President Evandro. We
watched the first branches meetings, then ate at a member´s home... who I love!
Then we did some visits to less-active families. We were able to re-activate a
man who was a Patriarch for the stake 15 years ago. He´s been in-active since
the stake fell through 15 years ago. He came to church and was already called
to be the Branch mission leader, just like Alcino who we re-activated in Sao
Gabriel. That way the missionaries will be responsible for him and always be at
his home. His name is Delci. He was so ready to come back to church, he just
needed a little push. All we told him was that Christ is calling him back to
church, back to the work. We left the Work of Salvation DVD at his house for
him to watch until Wednesday, when the missionaries have their first meeting
with him. He said that he has a whole group who said they´d come back to church
the day he came back. How cool! Some of the members cried when they saw him
walk into the chapel with us in the afternoon branch. We have now found the 2
missing puzzle pieces in Sao Gabriel, Alcino, and Rosario, Delci. The work is
going to get BOOMING now! It really does look like everything is on track for
the stake to be formed at the New Year!
Tomorrow I´ll be going back to Cruz
Alta, on a division with the Zone Leaders there. That city is full of huge
hills, so I´m not excited for that. It´ll be cool to be back in another city
where I´ve already served though.
Well, I only have 3 and a half more
weeks of my braces! I have a check-up this weekend, then their taking them off
in a few weeks and I´ll get a permanent retainer on the bottom and a removable
one on top. The mission made me a beautiful man (or at least let me think that)
haha. Sounds like everything is going well at home in the sports world....NOT!
My teams are losin man! It´s time for me to come home and help em out haha.
Lemme know when you send my package so I can time how long it takes to get here.
Thank you! Have a great week! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Shepherd
