Some People are Baptized because of the Examples They Have Seen

 

Tracting Pic from back in Rosario

How was your week? Really good!

Did you celebrate Easter there?

We had a huge BBQ for lunch yesterday, but nothing really other than that. 

Any baptisms in the works?

Yes we´ve got 2 dates marked for the 13th of April. 

Any guess of where you will go next transfer?

I honestly have no idea. Hopefully somewhere in the city again but I have no clue

Hello family!

What a great week. We had 5 investigators at church with us yesterday. We´ve got a date marked with Vera and a date marked with Darci, he´s the father of a member in the ward.

Vera was just the golden investigator from the moment we found her. She came to church last week and yesterday and is already just pumped to be baptized.   It´s been a great time teaching her, and she´s super smart. She had so many questions, and we answered them all by the Spirit. She´s a widow.

Darci is an ex military sargent. He is a way solid guy. We had a family night at their home this week. We invited the Bishop, Elders quorum president, and one of the High Priests to come with us. They all helped us teach him about the importance of baptism and then we invited him.   He wasn´t able to make it to church yesterday because of Easter (they had some visits come), but he´s already been in the past, and he´ll for sure come to at least one session of conference next week.  

The other 4 we had at church are all young men and one young woman. They´re all really good, we´re just having a difficult time trying to teach them with their parents. We´ve been trying to teach in the apartments again now. We taught the people that live right below us this week! They moved in about a month and a half ago and we´d never really thought about trying to teach there. We went there this week and they are such an awesome family. The father did the last prayer and everyone felt the spirit. They all said they felt something different.  It was a great lesson though and unfortunately they weren´t able to come to church yesterday. We have a lesson planned out with a member family on Wednesday to go teach them, so hopefully they can come to at least one session of conference. We have worked off and on in an apartment complex called Videiras.  So they´re inexpensive apartments. They´re really nice though. We have some less-active members in there and one active family. Yesterday we received 2 references who live in there and we went there again for like the first time in a month. The people were all really receptive because of Easter.   Yesterday was a really good teaching day. We taught like 10 lessons because everyone was a lot more receptive.

It´s a good time to remember what the Easter time is really about. We tend to think a lot about the Resurrection of Christ, but we also need to think a lot about the Atonement. Christ gave his life for us, and we have the opportunities that we do because of him. It would be impossible to return to heaven together with our families without that sacrifice. It´s really an infinite atonement. It makes it all possible. Maybe I haven´t had a lot of outward success here, but my testimony has grown so much. I truly know that Christ died for me, and through him I´m able to become clean and feel the spirit as fully as possible. Sometimes it´s just almost unbearable how strong the spirit is in our messages.   I know for sure that if my companion and I have felt it, so did our investigators.  Some feel it AND invite us to come back. It´s frustrating, but I know that the Lord is preparing people for us to find. It´s just a trial of my faith and my patience for what I´ve been going through this past little while. We did have a giant BBQ for lunch yesterday though, and that helped a ton with the frustrations haha! The lunch lasted forever though because they just kept bringing out more and more food. I felt like we were at Tucano´s again. 

 I got a letter from Kyle today, but i´ll be writing him back to his house! It´s crazy how fast that went by. It´s still going by way too fast out here. I´ll be onto my next area already in a week!  . We´ll have to see. I am so dang excited for conference next week! Actually, all of us missionaries are. It´s like Christmas!!! Elder mason and I already have plans for the foods and goodies we´re gonna be buying. All of the American missionaries will be in a different room watching it in English. I am pretty sure that there´s like 15 americans.

I didn´t take really any pictures this week so sorry for no attachments. I´ll attach some next week.  It´s been a cool time to be out here. We sweat all day sometimes to teach just one lesson, but that one lesson is worth it. If they choose not to accept again, at least we´ve planted the seed. Alma 32 talks about the seed, and there´s another scripture in the bible that refers to it as well. It´s really true though. Sometime the first set of missionaries just goes there to plant the seed, and in a few months/years those people will choose to accept because of the time they´d spoken to the missionaries in the past. That´s why it´s important to always show that we live our faith. Not just for missionaries but for all of us. Some people that we baptize are baptized just because of the examples that they´ve seen others leave. 

Well, I hope you all have a great spring break! Be safe! Have fun watching conference.

I love all of you. 

Elder Shepherd

The Lord Puts Us into Situations for Us to Learn Things

Do you have lots of fruit in season (I know how much you love fruit)?

Yes, it´s always in season for all fruits here! (Except for watermelon, that´s from December to April)

Do you know why the visas are taking so long for Brazil right now?

I have no idea. There are supposed to be 14 Americans entering our mission on the 8th, but only 2 of them have visas and are in Sao Paulo. The rest of them are all in Provo waiting. 

How are the braces?  Can you tell if they are moving?

Yes they´re moving a ton. Hopefully they put the over-bite device on in a couple months. They said that the teeth all have to be into the right place before they do the device.

Do they do the same things there with your braces as they did here with them?

Yes, just tightenings and they put on new elastics and new wires. I think elder Mason is looking into it. I go eat lunch with him every p-day. 

Hello!

We had a really great week. We found some less actives that we went and visited who have a little 10 year old nephew, Kaiki, who lives with them who was never baptized. He´d been to church a million times and loves it there, but his mom doesn´t let him go alone. He came with us yesterday and he´ll be baptized on Saturday. His two aunts are also just totally stoked about coming back to church. The two that we baptized at the start of the month, James and Douglas, both were ordained deacons and the Ward is helping them out a ton. Hopefully they´ll pass the sacrament next week.  They love coming to church and always make their moms call us to come over.  Hopefully we can get their families to come to church with us one of these days. We had an older woman, Vera, come to church with us too. She´s way way interested and has already read to 2 Nephi in a week. She committed to a date for the 13th of April because of General Conference on the 6th.    

The Lord always puts us into situations for us to learn things. Something I´ve really learned during my mission is the gift of patience and the gift of understanding. I get so frustrated when I feel like I´m doing everything I can, and we just aren´t teaching things the way I want to teach them. But I´ve really been working on focusing on the Spirit, that the Lord´s will is what we need to be doing, not my will. We´ve built some really good teaching patterns though, and it´s helped us a lot. If I have one true convert out of being in this area, it´ll be me!

My testimony has grown a lot here, and I´m sure that´s why the Lord sent me to this area.  We´ve knocked just about every door possible in the area, so now we just go for references and use the members as much as possible. I´ll be shipping out in 2 weeks so that´ll be a good, refreshing experience.

Really not a lot of new stuff to say. Just a lot of tracting and teaching. Not a lot of people really progressing. We´re just taking what the lord is giving us and we´re baptizing and helping those who are ready.    The majority of our contacts have already spoken to missionaries, so now the question is what went wrong the last time they talked to us. What were their difficulties with our doctrine. We have been making lots of fliers and passing them around and just trying to get people to accept a 5 minute lesson. We´re teaching a lot, but I feel like a lot of the time it´s just because people don´t have an excuse to not listen. There are several that do invite us back, so the problem here, like other areas, is getting people to come to church. It´s not going to be as difficult to leave this area as it was my other two areas because this area already has tons and tons of members. In my other areas we baptized families and a lot more adults, here it´s been a lot of youth. I know that these youth will be the future of the church here though, especially if the ward continues to integrate them as they´re doing now. 

I got a letter from Elder Matt Grayston today. I sent President Morris a letter finally too. I never have any time for writing so I never think about it. Hopefully he gets that in the next few week.  If anything interesting happens this next week I´ll for sure let you all know.   All the missionaries are now allowed to email friends. it was a letter that the Presidency just sent out to all the mission presidents, so you can tell people to email me!

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Shepherd

I Burned a Shirt on the 14th

Carson celebrating the one year mark and burning a shirt!

Another angle on the shirt burning

Part of the area the missionaries are working!

 

How was your week?
Great! it cooled down quite a bit so now it´s more bearable.

When are the next transfers?
We´ve got 3 weeks left. I will know when I email you on April 8th. We had our monthly interviews with President on Tuesday and he said he was gonna be moving me to an area that needs help. 


The baptism of your soccer junkies looked like it was good.  Is the other boy still taking discussions?
Yes he is. We´re trying to talk to his parents now because they´re the only reason he´s not baptized. 

How is it with those boys you baptized?  Do they do regular weekly young men activities?
It´s really good. The ward is helping them a lot. They´re making really good friends with the other young men at the weekly soccer nights as well.

Do you rest quite a bit on Pday? 
Yeah we go back home after we email and we sleep.

Do you have a washer and dryer still? 
No, dryers basically don´t exist here. All the apartments have a washer though.


Hi Family!

Well we just had a fantastic week this week. We had 6 people in sacrament meeting! The painter that dad wrote to, he came yesterday with his wife finally. We also had 2 young men and a young woman and her mom there. Those 4 are all new investigators. We focused this week on getting and contacting a lot of references and it for sure paid off. Adalberto, the painter, just needs to make a good friend or two in the ward. We are meeting with a young couple, early 20´s right now. They both have smoked for a few years, but are super open to the idea of stopping when they feel that the church is true. The spirit has been really strong the 3 times that we´ve met with them and they both comprehend the messages entirely. We´re meeting with them tomorrow [along] with a couple in our ward.  What´s good about this couple is that they already have the desire to get married. That helps the process quite a bit.

I also burnt a shirt on the 14th!  [Annual missionary ritual celebrating their one year mark] That was fun. We did it at a less-active family´s home. They loved it! I just found an old shirt in our house and burnt it. Those are the first 2 pics. The third is of a favella area that we work. Our area is like half rich, and half super poor. 

So yeah, sorry this week isn´t very long. We´re working really hard and seeing success. Hopefully I´ll be able to baptize again during these three weeks. I feel like we will!.Sorry today isn´t super exciting. I hope all of you have a great week!
Keep up the hard work in school and sports! and not dance!!! ;) I love you!

Love,
Elder Shepherd