Yes I'm Fluent I Understand it All

How is Elder Mason doing with his burns?  He did tell his parents that he is doing better. We had to take turns taking care of him all week at home while 2 others went out and worked. I think his foot will be good to go this week sometime. 

Your new area - do you feel safe during the day or just at night?

Other way around; during the day is the only time we feel safe. Night time is crazy here. There isn´t really a police force in this city. So it´s basically the idea of anything goes. 

Have you gotten anymore letters or packages?

I get letters at random. No new packages. Today I got the October soccer letter. I always get those. 

What is the temperature there now?

Hot Hot Hot. When it rains it just feels hotter because it gets so humid. You sweat sleeping, walking, in the shower, just non-stop sweating. 

Do you do anything for Thanksgiving there (probably not because it is a holiday here)?

We work, because thanksgiving doesn´t exist here. Well, not on the same day at least. 

Are you understanding everything everyone says now in Portuguese?

Yes I´m fluent. I understand all of it. 

Hello family!

Today will be short because not a lot of things happened this week. I spent a lot of time working in both areas and my companion would stay with Elder Mason at home.  He´s getting better though, I think he´ll start working again sometime this week. He tried to work one day last week and his foot got way worse. All of the skin started to come off. My companion is coming along much better. He is becoming more and more comfortable with the lessons. We have 2 baptisms this Saturday already!!! I´m really excited for those. They both had dreams as their answers. That right there is an undeniable testimony from the Holy Ghost. I just have taught my companion that he needs to think less and less about what he´s going to say next. Just listen to what I´m saying, then the Holy Spirit will guide him

to testify of what I´ve said and then to continue with the lesson in a manner that it is adapted to the investigator´s mind. 

We had 7 investigators in church yesterday. I was very grateful for that. I have fasted and prayed many times for these people. The only thing that is faulting with many of them is that they aren´t legally married yet. This past week we started the marriage papers for two couples, and this week we will be starting one more set. So in the month of December we should have quite a few people coming unto Christ. I had to give a 30 minute talk in church yesterday. It went a lot better than I planned on. I gave the restoration lesson, but before hand I asked everyone to think about their feelings they had on the first time that they received that message.

Afterwards, I asked a question if people were feeling the spirit. I knew they all were after the first vision. Then I asked them if it was fair that only they knew about that message, if God only loves us in the church and no one outside of it? I told them that all of us are missionaries in one way or another. And that we have an obligation to invite our friends and neighbors to come unto the same happiness that we have. It isn´t fair that only we have it. A lot of people were crying during the message. It had a spirit really strong. This Saturday we will be baptizing Jessica and Marcelo. They are both part of an incomplete family. Very active in the church already and very excited to be baptized.

The couples we are teaching that will be married are Rogerio and Loriane, Vanderlei and Mari, and Maria and Adao. I´m very excited for all of them. They have all committed to baptism. We cannot mark a specific date yet though, because the marriage papers never go through in a consistent timing. So right now it´s just a waiting game. I´ve been teaching an English class the last few Saturdays and we are getting a really good turn out with investigators. It´s just really hard because they´re all at different stages of learning. We´ve been able to teach the people the messages at their homes because of them coming to our classes, so I look forward to having more and more investigators there each week. We also usually have a good turnout in members as well. I think I have a large purpose in this area to re-activate people. 

Good work in swimming Tay! You gotta keep working hard. It´ll pay off I promise.. Remember how in 7th and 8th grade I didn´t make the basketball team? Then that summer I was in the gym all day every day and finally made it in 9th grade? The work pays off buddy! Keep workin’ your tail off and you will for sure see the results that you want! And Hailey keep doing good in school and with softball and dance. Remember, in whatever you do your goal should be to be the best!

It sounds like Thanksgiving will be a little more calm at home this time around. That should be easier for preparations. Tell everyone I said hello!

Thank you for all of the prayers and support. I feel them most on the days that I am exhausted, I always get a second wind. I know that is because of the prayers I am receiving from home. I love all of you! Have an awesome week!

Love,

Elder Shepherd

Working Hard in Rosario

Jose and Ionara, and of course - Me

Parade of Gauchos  (Cowboys)

Eliane and her whole family! I love them!

Pedro, Vanisa and their family

Dad and I have been wondering about letters.  Have you been getting our letters?  

Yes - but I randomly get them. I got the package that you sent here today. It took 31 days. So a lot longer for things to get to here than to the other areas

How is your new area?

Very good. The branch is really weak though. We´ve been talking about things with the mission President. I like it a lot because there aren´t a lot of hills.

How is you companion doing?

He´s doing well.  

Obama is going to be president for another 4 years.  Did you hear this?  If so, what do you and the people of Brazil think of this?

Yeah we heard about it the next morning. For me it´s fine because no one even knows what´s going on down here.   

How are your clothes & shoes holding up?

Everything is really good. I´ve repaired some seams in the pants at times and the backs of some ties. Everything else is just dandy. 

Where should we send your Christmas package (in the next couple of weeks)?

Here to Rosario. Remember the address:

Elder Carson Shepherd

Caixa Postal 40, Centro

Rosario do Sul - RS

97590-000

Brasil

What have you been eating there in Rosario?

Just lots of fried things and sandwiches and crackers at home on our low budget. With the members the meals are just typical. We eat usually a plate of beans and rice and a couple pieces of thin beef; nothing to special, but it´s way better than nothing. 

How is your new companion coming along.. are you getting along? : )  And that new area, are you finding it dangerous or just have to watch what you are doing?

Good, and yes we get along just great. We won´t have any problems, just a lot of encouraging him right now. The new area is for sure a lot more dangerous than what I´ve been in my life. Before opening the door people make sure we aren´t police. We are always careful though, and I have now memorized what neighborhoods to not go into at night.

Are you enjoying the package that mom and I sent out with Sister Taylor?

It is awesome.

Have you received letters there in Rosario do Sul?

Yes I have just received a couple from you guys. I think that maybe the letters are getting held up somehow because I for sure haven´t gotten all of the letters you´ve sent me either. 

How are your lessons/ Preach my Gospel coming?   Are you getting them down?

I have all of them memorized with all of the scriptures as well. It´s not too bad, just had to get the language down first. 

Hello!

This transfer has been crazy so far.  

This week we did a lot of running around. I was still trying to meet a lot of the members and the inactives so that I can see the needs of the branch and who needs visits and what not. We will be having a baptism for a young woman in the branch in these next few weeks. Her parents didn´t want to sign the papers and wanted her to wait ‘til she turned 18, but I gave a message about procrastination and they said they will sign it now. She is at church every week, so I´m positive she´ll make an instant contribution to the branch.   

We practice teaching for 2 hours every morning, but it is very different teaching me than teaching an investigator. I made a rule for him last night that from now on he has to teach the restoration every day when we give the message after lunch. Then he will practice with other people. I told him that all I´m going to do is bare testimony and help him when he´s lost. I told him that people will understand if he messes up, and that they will help him as well. This city has terrific people that are always willing to help us out. They are warm and always understanding. The only pain here is that we don´t have bikes. So sometimes we literally have to run from one appointment to another. 

We taught about 31 lessons this past week, and worked very hard. I was also doing part time divisions during the days with Elder Mason´s companion. I´d guess that I taught almost 50 lessons this past week. We will see some success and some baptisms coming out of my area here in these next couple of week, I´m confidant of that.  Sorry today is short. We just did a lot of sweating and teaching this week. We had 3 investigators at church, but next week there will for sure be more. Our branch has an attendance of about 40 people. So not super weak, but there really isn´t a lot of priesthood.  

I love you all!

Elder Shepherd

Senior Companion, Cowboy Hats and Uruguay

Baptisms in Rosario Do Sul with Elder Ferreira

One foot in Brazil one foot in Uruguay

Are you now a senior companion?

Yes I am a senior companion and training a new missionary.

How is your new companion?  Tell us all about him

His name is Ailton Duarte de Avelar. He is from the state of Sao Paulo, a little city there called, Iguape. He is coming along really well.

How was your trip to the mission home?

So boring. We went on Tuesday morning and got there about noon. Then we just slept ‘til 5 when all of the new missionaries came. Then we walked to President´s house with all of the new guys and had pizza and met our new companions. The next day we had training all day. It was a great experience, and as a trainer we are taught that we really do have a lot of responsibilities. Our teaching can affect the mission of the other missionary completely. 

How many packages did you get from us?  1 was sent with Sister Taylor, 1 was sent to the Mission home and 1 was sent to the Rosario box.

The only one I got from you was the one that Sister Taylor brought. Katie´s mom also sent me a package that I pulled out of the Rosario Box today. And I got two packages from Katie in Santa Maria. 

What is your new apartment compared to your old apartment like?

Way worse haha. It is really little, especially for 4 missionaries, and it just bakes in the sun all day long. So it is a lot hotter. It´s fine though. We only sleep there. The rest of the time we are in the streets. 

How was Zone conference? 

Way good. We learned a lot of new approaches to teaching. I love those conferences! 

Hello Family!

This week went really well. This new area I think was prepared by God for my companion and I. We had a really successful week, with 3 investigators in church. One of them started their marriage papers today with his wife, who is a member. So he has a date marked for the first week of December already. The other 2 are an older couple. They will be getting legally married and baptized at about the same time. My companion is really a cool guy.  The city where we had our zone conference borders Uruguay, So I attached a photo being in both countries. I bought some remembrance tokens from there as well. The weeks are just getting hotter and hotter. It´s at about 40 degrees Celsius during the days here now [i.e. -104 degrees Fahrenheit] so that´s not super fun. I´m using a ton of sun block, and good news, we can now use cowboy’s hats in the streets. So I am totally going to buy one and use it now. I swear my face feels like it´s burning off no matter how much sun block I am using. I basically didn´t do anything Monday through Wednesday this past week so sorry this email is boring. I´ll make sure to talk to you a lot more about our investigators and things next week. The goal is to have a teaching pool of about 15 people by the end of this week. Being senior companion makes things a lot more interesting. I feel a lot more obligations and responsibilities being a trainer as well; which is really good because it influences me to work so much harder. 

We had a really cool experience with one of the investigators this week, the one that will be getting baptized. He is an ex addict who almost died because of the drugs. I think I bore the strongest testimony to him this past week then I have ever born in my life. I bore a testimony of service. Katie sent me a quote that has stuck in my mind that I said to him, “When no one else believes that you can... you have to.”  I don´t know who said it but it made me tear up quite a bit in the lesson. Then he showed me a scripture, from the Book of Mormon that we´d given him a day earlier that really hit him in the chest. He just opened it up the first night right to Alma 38, the whole chapter isn´t very big, but the message is awesome. At the top he wrote,  “Nosso Pai me deu a resposta.” [trans..."Our Father gave me the answer".] (dad can translate) and at the end of the chapter he wrote, “obrigado Pai.” [trans. "thank you Father." The message came across crystal clear to him. 

I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that EVERY person in this whole world can find answers inside of it for any question that they have. This man´s whole world is changing because of this book. If that isn´t a testimony then I don´t know what is. It was by far the best lesson I´ve taught on my mission, and I know God sent us there for a reason. This church is true.

I hope that you all have a great week! Work hard!

Love,

Elder Shepherd