We Ran All Over the Place to get the Marriages in Order

 

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How was your week?

So so good! Very effective and the weather cooled off, as an added bonus. 

How was playing soccer?  Is your companion way better than you or can you keep up with him?

I can keep up with him. It was really fun, I just got worn out really fast. my legs were sore all week, so we´re not gonna play today. We´re just going to sleep all day after we go to the market. 

Has your mission president let you get on Facebook since the announcement?

No. I don´t think Brazil will start doing that project until the end of the year. And on Facebook the missionaries will make separate pages, in which they can only add investigators, the mission presidents, and members of the wards. I will probably only take part in it for a short time before I come home. Taylor will take part in a lot of technological advances in the work though. 

You said you really liked your new Mission President.  How is he handling the mission & missionaries?

Really well. he did interviews and zone conferences all this last week. Looks like there hasn´t been anything too exciting or different up until now. 

Did you have baptisms?

Yes we had 2 on Saturday!

Did your investigators you talked about last week get their marriage papers filed?

Yes, two families!!!

Did you baptize the rest of that family?  Almost!!

Are you mid winter now, how’s the temperature? 

It´s cold one day, hot the next. It´s like Utah weather here. 

Do you use the overbite correctors that we sent? 

Yes. they´re permanent so I can´t take them out, they´re already changing my whole mouth. It looks better now though. 

What is your favorite scripture study lately?

I´ve been studying a lot of the missions of Paul. although his conversion was a miracle, his missions were even more incredible. He helped a lot of people, and baptized thousands... ALONE, and he didn´t even have the Book of Mormon, just a testimony and he was filled with the spirit. 

Hey Family!

What a great week we just had. We got the marriage papers in for Angelica and Anderson, and for Luciana and Cristiano. We literally had to run at times to get the papers all sorted out and signed by the right people. Angelica, Anderson, Bruna, and Gustavo will all be baptized on the 3rd of August after they get married. Luciana will be baptized the same time. Hopefully Cristiano. They have the cutest little daughter, Darla. She talks about church every day with him and got him out of bed to go to church yesterday. We baptized her other daughter, Dienifer, who turned 8 this past week. It was an awesome baptism. We baptized a young man named Maicon as well. We reactivated his whole family, then baptized him. It was an awesome baptism. Tons of people came out.

The other dupla [pair] baptized a man named Flavio. He is the one crouched down in the picture. The other picture is of Luciana and Cristiano in front of the cartorio after we put the papers in. I am so excited for them. Overall not a lot of other exciting things happened during the week. We ran all over the place to get the marriages in order, and had an awesome baptism. Last night at ward counsel we organized the wedding for the 3rd. Bishop Fabiano is going to marry them in the chapel, then we´re going to have the baptism right after, then a huge lunch with everyone! It will be so cool. 

The members gave us a ton of references again, but the majority of the references this week were for inactive families who didn´t even let us in to talk to them. Maicon´s parents, Daniela and Jonas, talked with the members and said it was just a miracle that God sent the two missionaries when he did. When we got there they were just ready to come back to church. She bore her testimony in relief society and told how she never imagined she´d be back at church, and that this time she is there to stay. We´re putting a lot of our focus into finding less-active families lately, and trying to bring them back to church. We had 113 people at church yesterday!!! It was so full that there was no room in the classrooms. That´s a good thing though. If we can keep the attendance up like this for a while, they´ll put the papers in to get a new chapel here. That´d be sweet

Not a lot more than that to say this week. I´m so grateful for all that you have given me. I know that through your prayers I receive extra boosts of energy throughout the days.  How´s Sammie doing? Still fat and happy?  

I love you all very much! Have a great week! Have fun at EFY Hailey! and Tay, keep working hard in Swim and you´ll get it!

Thank you all for the love and support! The church is true!

Love,

Elder Shepherd