Strong Spirit During First Vision Lesson

FINALLY a chance to eat at McDonalds.  On  4 Real  about $2.50 Dollars for a burger!

In front of a a store in Santa Maria

 How was your week?

Really, really good.

Did you read the book we sent you?

Yes I´m studying it. It´s really good for quick references to difficult questions. 

How are your investigators coming along?

We have 3 that will be baptized on Saturday.

Hi Family!

So we had a great week this week. We have a baptism marked next Saturday for 3 young men (the 3 soccer players!). They´re all 12 years old. Yesterday, in fast and testimony meeting, one of them got up and bore his testimony. All he said was that he is being baptized next Saturday because he knows this church is true. The ward loved it. Then last night we went over to his house to teach his family. We´ve taught all three of their families now. Their names are Douglas, James, and Antony.

We had a really powerful lesson with James´ mom last night.  We taught her the restoration, but something about the lesson just was so awesome. The spirit was so strong. I taught the first vision to her, and then asked her how she felt after. She told me she just had a super warm feeling in her heart and that she felt the message was true. We challenged her to be baptized and she accepted for the 30th because she needs to be legally married. That still might be one of the biggest challenges we face. I think that James´ little brother, Mateus, will be baptized with his mom on the same day.  It was amazing how strong the spirit was in there. I don´t recall a clearer feeling during my whole mission, and my companion said the same thing. It was so different teaching the first vision to her. I wrote about it, but it just felt like there was something different about it. It really was an awesome experience. 

On a sad note, Noemia and her daughter won´t be baptized this week. We were walking there to teach her on Saturday night when and ambulance flew passed us. I just knew it was heading for her house the second it went by. She´s got cancer, and she wasn´t feeling well at all this week. Everything was set in stone for the baptism, then just crushed. We haven´t heard anything since, but we´ve been trying to make contact with her neighbors and family to try and help out. We´ll keep her in our prayers and hope for the best. Hopefully we can get her all ready to go for next week. On Thursday we did a HUGE family night at one of the member´s homes (Deliane). We invited the whole lower part of our ward.There was tons of food and we did a really spiritual message. We´re for sure continuing to see growth in the ward. Next Sunday is Ward Conference.

We went to McDonald´s for lunch today. You´ll be able to tell by the photos. It was the greatest lunch of the whole mission I think. It´s super expensive here, so we for sure won´t be going very often. Just a simple hamburger is 4 reals.  

Well family, have an awesome week!

The church is true! I love you all.

Elder Shepherd

It is so Awesome out Here! I can't even Describe it.

How was your week?

Super good.

Will your companion play any sports with you?

Yeah he is actually the one who makes me get up to go play sometimes - early mornings. 

Have you been playing any basketball or other sports?

we´re going to start playing again tomorrow every morning. 

Are you getting transferred?

Nope. So I´ll be doing 3 transfers with Gula. We work really well together.

Did you hear that 54 new missions were formed (7 in Brazil)?

I just read that when i got on here today. but that is so awesome!

Are you still teaching anyone tracked during the fire?

Not really. Most of the references were outside of my area. We re-activated a giant family because of it though.

Is it hard to find families to teach, Dad, Mom and children?

This is the HARDEST part of the work.There are a lot of single mom´s with their children here, and when they are married the father of the family usually works until night time. And we have to be inside by 9:30PM at the absolute latest. So yes, it´s difficult. 

Do you eat "vitamina's"? The original smoothie!  

Sometimes; I just get so lazy that I hate to make food. If it´s not able to be made quickly, then I just have to pray that my companion wants to cook and then I just pay him for the materials and he cooks for me haha. 

Hello Family!

So we had a pretty good week. It was back to the basics of finding new people to teach because the majority of our teaching group wasn´t progressing. Those lessons make me super sad when we have to stop[teaching] people. We usually just leave our number and a challenge to come to church and read the Book of Mormon. We had 3 12-year old soccer young men come to church with us yesterday.   We taught one of their families, but they didn´t want anything to do with us. Then we have yet to contact the other two families of the other two boys. We get on an old, rickety onibus to go pick people up for church. Maybe a lot of them don´t want to come because of the bus! Haha.

 We also finally had a baptism on Saturday! We re-activated the mom, and baptized her daughter, Juana. Elder Gula baptized her. We combined with a family in the ward that was going to be baptizing their daughter.  It was a good day. It was the longest I´ve been without a baptism in my whole mission. so it was definitely a trial of faith and patience. It was a lesson well learned though. 

Baptism in Santa Maria

Awesome day with Baptisms in Santa Maria

It is so awesome out here. I can´t even describe it. Sorry today´s going to be short because not a lot is going on. Transfers were today. I´m going to be here again, so not a lot of changes. There will be a new assistant. Elder Morrison is going to a different area to train for his last two transfers, so we got Elder Nelson today. He´s from Washington state. right on the other side of the river from Portland, Oregon. He played college football at Snow College, and will go to play at BYU after. He´s a line backer, so he´s just a massive guy. So elder Gula was all happy because he gets to live with 3 Americans again. He said he likes it because it´s helping him a lot with his English.

President didn´t make a lot of changes, so the mission stayed at where it´s at. We had 95 baptisms this month, so I think he likes where things are and doesn´t want to make any sudden changes. The next group going home is HUGE, so there will be a lot of changes here in 6 weeks. The ward I´m in is so big that they have a caravan for the Temple once a month. They all went there on Saturday. 

I´ll be hitting my one-year mark this transfer! that is so crazy to me. It´s been flying by. I honestly feel so much closer to the Savior than I have ever felt, and I truly have a testimony of the Gospel now. It´s one thing to believe and it´s another thing to know. We believe in many things, but knowledge only develops as we study, ponder and pray about things. God doesn´t ask a lot of us. Just those three simple steps have given me all the testimony that I have gained. The Church is true, and I am a TRUE convert now. We all need to hit that mark. 

Tay that is so cool you´ll be captain on the swim team next year! You will just tear it up! The banquet sounds like it went really well. I am happy you´re all doing well! I´m also super jealous of all of the snow. Have a great week!

Love

Elder Shepherd

Not Enough time in the Day!

Elder Shepherd celebrating his birthday with Pizza!

How was your week?

Very productive. I really enjoyed this week and we are seeing success. 

Did the weather cool off this week? 

Some of the days yes, some of the days no. This week it´s supposed to rain ‘til Thursday though, so that´s good. Then it will start to cool down as fall time begins. 

Did you have any new investigators at church?

Yes, we had 4 investigators at church. 

Did you get your package with the book?

Nope. hopefully next week. I´ll let you know next email.

Can you buy everything there in Santa Maria?

Basically yes. American products are crazy expensive though.

I understand you will only have your mission president till summer(here).  When do they change?

The change will be in June, so I´ll have had two mission Presidents. I don´t even know what the new president´s name is or where he´s from. Has it come out there yet? I think it comes out in the March Liahona so we´re a couple weeks away. Not too sure though. 

Hi Family!

What a great week! I was in a division with one of the zone leaders for 2.5 days,   It was some really good work. I went with an Elder from Sao Paulo. His name is Elder Bargas. We took some pictures because we decided to treat ourselves to some pizza and cookies during the division too. I attached a picture of it. My buddy Cristian, from Rosario, is here today for my birthday. He took me out to lunch at the food court at the mall here. He´s a good guy. He´s going to go on a mission in December when he finishes this year of schooling. We had 4 investigators at church yesterday.   We are having a lot of success reactivating families. 

 When I was in the zone leaders area I was in the same house as Elder Pole´o. He´s a way cool guy, he´s a Tongan from Alaska. I will for sure be friends with him after the mission. He goes to a tongan ward there, and he said that there are 3 Samoan wards. He´s dying of the heat here cuz in Anchorage he said it´s never even close to this hot. I hope we have a great week this week, especially if it´s my last week in the area. I have a feeling that it might be, and it´s gone by super fast. Next transfer I will hit my one year mark. Dang that was fast! I feel like I need to work harder and harder, and half the time I don´t feel like there´s enough time in the day to do everything that I wanted to do. The whole prospective of time just changes during the mission. Like before it seemed like time went by so so slow, and now the days just fly by. The church is true. The mission is so awesome! I love all of you, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Shepherd