Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Valmir Prayed for Help the Night Before...


How was your week?
Good! But I am completely dead today. We worked hard this week. We walked and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked...........etc..............

When is the next transfer?
Next Monday. So I´ll let you know if I´m going to stay here or get transferred next week.

Do you have Christmas decorations up in the city you are in?
Yeah here in the center there are decorations up. It´s really weird though because they have decorations as if it´s cold and snowy here. Like they want to make it seem like an American Christmas that you see in the movies, even though it´s 1000 degrees outside. It´s cool though. We´ve got a choir presentation all set up to sing in the central park on the 21st. It´ll be so sweet. The other Americans and I are going to sing some English music, then we´ve got the members ready to sing several hymns with us. 

Where did you travel to this week?
I stayed here this week and a zone leader from Alegrete came here, Elder Freires. This was his first area in his mission and he´s going home next week, so he wanted to visit people that he´d baptized and taught here. It was cool cuz he also helped us find some people that had been taught almost 2 years ago. 

Do you still go over and play soccer with the teenagers that come to seminary?
Sometimes. We´re leaving that more for the members to organize and take care of now.

Hello family!

So, like I said above, I am completely worn out this morning. We had a tiring week. My area has a neighborhood called Bom Fim. It´s a giant neighborhood with lots of farms, so lots of spacing between houses. We walked to the END of that neighborhood twice this week. I think I´m in need of some knee replacements.

The reason why we went there twice is because the first time we had lunch there, then the next time we went there to teach a man that we´d met the first time. We were walking down the street after lunch when a man called out to us from his home. His name is Valmir. Turns out that he´d come to church several years ago, but was never baptized. He told us he was in a bad depression and had prayed for help the night before. We are NEVER close to his home, so it was God who´d put us in the situation. He took it as his answer and listened to the message.

We´re teaching another couple, Vanessa and William. They´re a reference from a couple in our branch. We had another sweet family night with them this last week and they´ve already both received their answers that the church is true. Vanessa dreamed about seeing the First Vision. It was really cool teaching them that lesson. I sure hope that we can get their marriage papers turned in soon. I´ll be in division with the Zone Leaders in Santa Maria this week. I leave tonight and won´t be back here til Friday.

Thank you for all of your help with that! The number of baptisms is going up throughout the entire mission as well as the attendance in the majority of the wards and branches. We are really seeing the difference and it looks like our trainings are really working out. I´ve been so blessed to help the missionaries learn to work with the members. The secret of success is with the members. The Elders in Rosario are going to baptize two men next Saturday because of the man that we re-activated there. The blessings of re-activations are FIRM Baptisms.

It is getting really hot here. Like smoking hot. I think I sweat off all of my fat by now. I´ve lost 7 kilos since I got to this area. I TAKE MY BRACES OFF A WEEK FROM WEDNESDAY!!! That´s just a great feeling. Got my teeth all fixed up as a missionary haha.
I love you all very much! Have a great week! Be safe!

Love,

Elder Shepherd

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