Tuesday, November 19, 2013

We Were Able To Reactivate a Man who was a Patriarch










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

Monday, November 4, 2013

Our Zone Re-Activated 26 Members






How was your week?
Good, and really busy. Again. I think that´s all I´m going to be writing til the end of my mission haha. 

How much did you have to travel this week?
I just went to Santa Maria for two days to train the mission leaders. 

Has the president told you anymore about if they will be able to get you extended?
I WILL NOT be extended. The visa issue won´t workout

Is the weather getting hot?
It´s not extremely hot yet, but you could say that it´s warming up.

Hello Family!
This week was an effective week. I taught a huge training about member missionary work for the zone leaders, the other assistants, and President and Sister Parrela on Wednesday basically all day. It was awesome! The missionaries in the entire mission are focusing more and more on working with the members each day. Our creative ideas are working here! Our zone re-activated 26 people in the month of October, with only 12 missionaries. With this focus, I feel that we will be able to create this Stake by the 31st of December (cuz that´s our goal!).

We´re going on the radio again tonight... it´ll be at 4:00 your time! www.radiobatovi.com.br.... On the page there is a little icon on the right that says OUÇA AGORA. Click on that and you can listen to us. Today´s email is going to be really weak again because I have been more of an administrator than a minister lately. It´ll probably be like this until the end of my mission, but if I can influence the rest of the missionaries to baptize weekly, mission complete!  

 We have been running the activities in the chapel all day every day still, so I´m feeling more like an evangelical preacher than a missionary since we´re always in the chapel, but it´s been a success til now.  

We finally found an incredible family from the soccer idea. We went to one of the young men´s homes yesterday night and were able to teach his mom and his aunt with him. It was a great lesson, and it turns out that she has a brother who was baptized years ago! Her mom used to rent out a house to the missionaries about 20 years ago so she had a lot of knowledge about the church. Her name is Claudia, the young man´s name is Felipe. He´s a little stud. He loves coming to soccer and Claudia loved it even more when he told her that we pray every day before they begin playing. We´ll be passing them to the other dupla to teach soon and we´ll continue to find new people. This method of working is a lot more effective. We are having success and I feel like the Stake will happen on the 31st!  

I´m sorry for the weak emails lately! This week I think I´ll be traveling tomorrow, I´ll let you know next week about the new traveling experiences. I love you all very much! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Shepherd