Memorial Day Weekend‏

5/31/11

So all the libraries were closed on Memorial Day, so I couldn't email yesterday. In fact, it was as if the entire city of Hartford was closed yesterday. It was weird. There was no one in the streets, all the stores were closed, and it was the most quiet that I've ever heard it here. We just met in the church for our P-Day and watched movies. I finally got to see Toy Story 3! I was very pleased! After we finished watching it, I watched the whole movie again in Spanish. It was awesome!

I attached 3 pictures to this week's email. 

The first is of me sleeping on my knees. I fell asleep while praying on my bed at night and my companion took a picture of me an hour later. I woke up early that morning on my knees... I was kind of sore. 

The other is just a random action shot that I took of myself while walking past this tall building with orange, reflective windows in downtown Hartford. 

The third one might not be as funny unless you've served a mission and had to do weekly planning. We were a little past hafway done with a weekly planning session where we set goals and plan for our next week when we got interrupted and had go help someone. When we came back, I was looking at my companion's planner and noticed that my weekly plans looked very very different from his weekly plans... My planner is the one on the top and his is on bottom. Somewhere along the line we must not have been communicating very well... We figured that Elder Downs had just gotten bored and stopped participating in our discussion and decided to act like he was listening and draw pictures instead. We've got to work on our communication skills... Either that or we need to make weekly planning for 2-3 hours more fun...

This last week was jam-packed with awesome experiences! I wish I had time to write all of them down and share them with you but I'll have to just share a few select stories for this past week. Last Tuesday we were eating dinner with a nice Peruvian family, Sister Cornejo and her husband. Sister Cornejo is very active in the church but her husband hasn't gone to church in 10 years. He was really quiet the whole time until we sat down for a lesson. I asked him a couple of questions about his background and got to know that he hadn't been to church in forever and proceeded to ask him about his baptism and his conversion experience. It was as if a light turned on inside of him as I asked him about the Book of Mormon and he began to talk about his favorite stories and how he knew it was true. He loved the Book of Mormon and had a strong testimony of it, and we were able to have a delightful conversation with him in which he actively participated after that. I was also impressed by his enthusiasm about the Book of Mormon. Even though he had other issues that had kept him from coming to church and fully embracing the gospel he had never forgotten nor could deny his testimony regarding the Book of Mormon. Another testimony to me that one doesn't simply 'forget' a witness from the Holy Ghost as to God's truth, but they allow other influences to darken their vision and blur their discernment. It was also a testimony as to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The spirit was really strong and gave me promptings and certain questions that I needed to ask him. I felt that sensation that Joseph Smith spoke about being 'pure knowledge flowing through you... giving you sudden strokes of ideas..." throughout the lesson we had with him. I learned a lot from what we spoke about. It was really cool! There were several lessons this week where I felt the same way, where I explained things to investigators in ways that I had never thought of before and I found that I was learning a lot from what was coming out of my mouth. The spirit is an amazing influence that can guide our very emotions and thoughts. Another such special instance was this morning as I taught a sister who is struggling with depression about prayer, and I began to make connections and explain things in a way that I'd never thought of before but explanations that made perfect sense to her. The spirit bore witness to our hearts collectively, to missionary and investigator, of the truthfulness of what was taught. I suppose that that is what the scripture means that says, "Seek not to preach my word but first seek to obtain my word and then shall your tongue be loosed..." or another scripture that says, "Teach ye diligently and ye (the person teaching) shall be taught from on high..."

The same spirit inspired us in another lesson this last week to ask a question and delve into a subject that was completely off topic of what we had just been talking about. Come to find out that it was exactly what this investigator needed and it brought to our attention something that we wouldn't have expected.

We have several investigators now in a nearby city, Manchester, which is about 15 miles east of Hartford, so we dedicated a day this week to take the 1 hour bus trip there by taking 2 busses and working there all day. We set up appointments with our contacts there and had a good day worked out. The sister missionaries in Manchester gave us the names of streets and places we could go to find the most Spanish people, and they even had a couple of referrals for us. The Spanish population there isn't as high as Hartford of course, and they were a bit more scattered, but we found some really great people there who are willing to take the bus to church in Hartford so that they can go to church in their native language. It's impressive because there is an LDS church there in Manchester, but the services are in English and they WANT to go to church in spanish. It'll be cool to see what happens there in the coming weeks. We might need to coordinate more with the members there to see if there are any Spanish speaking members there or people who could help with rides. It's kind of fun hitting 'new' territory.

On a random but cool note I helped a couple from our branch move last friday from East Hartford to Marlborough, CT, a small-city about 15 miles to the south-east of Hartford. As we were driving a load of their stuff to their new home and we drove through the trees and the beautiful scenery of Connecticut I thought to myself, "Wow, I really do love this place." Several people have asked me if I would ever consider living here. I really do love Connecticut. I love the trees and the nature. I love being able to get lost in the woods easily. I love the unbelievable snowfall here that just buried us this last winter and caused all kinds of problems. That may sound weird but I really feel drawn to this place. At least for 2 years I've been able to call New England 'home'. Utah will always be HOME, but now New England is a special place for me.

It was a good week, and I love being a missionary!

    with much love from your favorite elder,

            -Elder Shepherd

The Last Fireside‏

5/16/11
I met my new mission president, President Evans, this last Tuesday at a mission transfer meeting. He was visiting so that he would be able to get to know all of us here in Connecticut before the missions officially combine on July 1st. He and his wife both spoke and shook hands with every single elder and sister after the meeting. He seems like a pretty nice guy. The difference between his leadership and President Pehrson is almost like night and day. President Evans is short and looks really pleasant and seems to be very nice and sensitive. President Pehrson, while very loving and kind, seems much more authoritative and has a very intimidating persona standing at 6 foot 3 or 4 and has a deep bass voice. Both are great men who love the Lord and love the missionaries that they serve. President and Sister Pehrson also spoke to all of us in the meeting. They expressed their love for all of us and their love for the mission. It still hasn't hit me yet that they're really going home. They've always been here and it will be strange for them to be gone all of the sudden. They promised to come to my homecoming though, so that's pretty cool.
Yesterday we had a multi-stake conference involving several stakes throughout the New England area and was broadcast from Utah. President Eyring, Elder Russell M Nelson, Ann M Dibb, and Elder W Craig Zwick of the seventy (who just recently visited our mission last month) all addressed us in the conference. All of them had special connections to the New England area, whether they were born here, lived here for an extended period, had lots of family here, or all of the above. They spoke about the growth of the church in this area and what they've seen happen here in their lifetime. President Eyring spoke of visiting small branches out here in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey of only about 10-15 members each while he presided in this area in the 1950's. Today, there are over 14,000 members of the church in Connecticut alone, 2 stakes, and 50% of the members are first generation members of the church. I think there is a good reason why they are going to build a temple here in Hartford, and I think that with the erection of a temple here that the missionary work in this area will pick up enormously. The temple has a profound effect on people, especially those within close proximity to it. It made me feel good to know that even though I may not think that I've had tons of outward success here during the course of my mission that I have had a more profound unseen effect than I now realize working to prepare people for this temple, and someday I may learn and know more of it. The conference was inspired, and I thought it very significant as well that someone spoke as representing the first presidency, quorom of the 12, the quorom of the seventy, and the general auxiliary presidencies of the church to the saints in New England. The field here is white, and we're taking a role in the harvest.
After the conference we went over to the mission home to eat lunch with the Pehrsons before driving with them to the fireside. It was fun to get to spend the afternoon with them again, and it reminded me of how exactly a year ago that day I went over to his house after Stake Conference and ate lunch with him before performing at the musical fireside in Bloomfield. It was after that fireside a year ago that I got terribly lost on my way home and my companions and I almost hit Vermont by the time we realized we had no idea where we were or how to get home to Providence, RI. I had to call my mission president at 10:35 PM (past our curfew...) to wake him up and tell him that we were in a pickle. President Pehrson brought up that story again yesterday as we drove to the fireside with him in his car and we had a good laugh about it. We laughed at how worried and unnerved I was and how he had chewed us out. Good times...
We performed the last musical fireside of the Connecticut mission yesterday in Woodbridge, CT. One of the elders who was going to sing called me up last minute and told me that he had lost his voice and wouldn't be able to sing, so I was able to pressure President Pehrson into singing a duet with me in the fireside of "A Child's Prayer" in place of the elder who couldn't sing. It was a fun addition and it went really well. It felt really special to be able to sing it with him as well. The spirit was very powerful throughout the whole program and everyone in attendance was blessed. It marked the end of a long tradition here in our mission and it was both happy and sad. I got to see members in New Haven who I haven't seen since the beginning of my mission when I first served there and see how their children had grown and how they had grown and how I had grown... It was an emotional experience. After the fireside I drove home again in President and Sister Pehrson's car and had a great talk with them about the mission and about the future. Sister Pehrson wants me to bring over my future wife, once I have found her, to their home in Kaysville, UT so that they can meet her and approve of her. I LOVE the Pehrsons. They have changed my life and I hope to continue our association after the mission.
This week is gonna bring great new experiences and trials, and I'm so stoked for it all!
  with much love from your favorite elder,
             -Elder Shepherd

Hazel street-2 strikes then a home-run!‏

Elder Downs and I we're knocking on Hazel street this week in Hartford because we felt strongly that that's where we needed to tract. We met a couple of nice people but no one was really interested in our message. That was that. Several days later we still felt that we really needed to tract on Hazel street, so we went to the area again and talked to some more people but still no luck. Why are we here on Hazel street? Oh well. The very next day, one of our members called us and said that she had just spoken with a woman at her work who needed help and gave us her phone number. We called this referral right away. She introduced herself as Mercedez and was more than happy to have us over that next day. I was kind of floored when she told us that she lived on Hazel street. I was even more impressed when I realized that we had knocked on her door and rang her doorbell that week tracting Hazel street, but she hadn't answered the door because she is an old lady who lives on the 3rd floor of a 3 family home and doesn't come down 3 flights of stairs to answer the door to strangers. We had an amazing appointment with her in which she shared with us some of the difficulties she has been going through recently with an injury at her job and other problems she'd been having. She told us how she used to be a very active Catholic and would take her family to church every week but that had all fallen apart with her divorce years ago. She expressed her yearning to be close to God again and said that she had been praying that He would send her some help that whole week. Well, that whole week we felt the impression to tract her street. Eventually we were able make contact with her through someone else! It was nothing short of miraculous. She loved our lessons, came to church, loved it, wants to be baptized, and has invited all her family and friends to come over to her home and listen to us as well. I'm so grateful that God loves us and is aware of our needs. He still works miracles in His work today.
Last night we had our second performance of the musical fireside I've been organizing in Bloomfield, Connecticut. We had a really good turnout among members and non-members. All the members from the Spanish branch who were there told me after that it was really weird for them to hear me speak in English. It was weird for me to be speaking in English over the pulpit because I haven't done so in so long. I'm very comfortable speaking Spanish in church now, probably more so now in Spanish than English. The spirit bears a very powerful witness through music. I feel like I can express my feelings so much better through music than I can through words. It was a powerful program. I included a picture of me with my Uncle Alan and Aunt Shirlene who were in attendance at the fireside again!

It's fun having family in the mission. It's even more fun knowing that if their next-door neighbor spoke Spanish that I would be the elder who gets to teach them. I urged them to do some missionary work and find some Spanish people out there so that we can have dinner and a lesson in their home.
Tomorrow we get to meet our new mission president, President Evans, in anticipation of July 1st when our mission will officially combine with the Boston, Mass mission. It's kind of weird to me that my mission president is going home in a little over a month. It's weird to me that I'm now the oldest elder in my mission and I still have 12 weeks left! I'm getting old.
I love life in Hartford! The work is moving forward and we'll see a lot of success here as we continue to work hard and trust in the Lord.
   with much love from your favorite elder,
          -Elder Shepherd

Mother's Day

5/9/11
I loved calling home on Mother's Day and talking with all my family. It's always weird calling home in the mission but really good at the same time. It was my LAST TIME calling home from the mission field because I'm going home come August. Nothing could make me 'trunky' so don't worry about that, but I do honestly miss my family and am excited to go home. Now I'm gonna finish strong!
I baptized Jose Bayon this last Saturday! The baptismal service itself was slightly comical because not a lot of members showed up, including our assigned speakers and prayers... At the same time the members who were there filled in and the baptism was still a really good experience. I don't know if Jose understood my instructions about plugging his nose before I dunked him in the water because, after I said the prayer, he put his hand over his face with his palm squishing his nose and his fingers poking his eyes. "Plug your nose! Plug your nose!" I whispered anxiously to him. He still didn't plug his nose and was submerged with his hand in 'starfish formation' over his face. The important thing is that he was submerged, the baptism was performed correctly and by the authority of Jesus Christ, and he has now made a covenant with God. His confirmation was a sweet experience. I felt the spirit really strongly as we laid our hands on his head. Jose is going to be a really great member of the church. His non-member mother was present at the baptism and we now have the opportunity to follow up with her this week and help her understand that 'strong feeling' that she had at Jose's baptism.

The first picture I attached is of us at Jose's baptism. 

The second is a picture from inside our mail box. In case you didn't notice it was empty--not even junk mail. We were sad and decided that the moment needed to be captured.

 The third is another one of me falling asleep in a weird position. I can fall asleep anywhere, anytime, and really quickly. It's both a gift and a curse.
I'm sorry this email is short this week, but none of the other elders are emailing home today because they all spoke to their families yesterday and they're waiting on me.
I'm doing really well and the work in Hartford is great! This gospel is true and it changes lives. It's changed mine forever.
  with much love from your favorite elder,
              -Elder Shepherd

Missionary fire

5/2/11
Hartford is beginning to look really pretty as the weather warms up.

 I included a picture of my companion and a pretty blossoming tree

as well as an artistic picture of me looking contemplatively into the distance gripping one of the most powerful missionary instruments we have: the Book of Mormon. The mission is so epic. I'm on pills again for my daytime sleepiness stuff and they really get me going. I don't think you'll get anymore pictures of me falling asleep on the bus and on the floor anymore, but you may get some pictures next week of me doing crazy things due to the amphetamines.  
There is a really wonderful Peruvian family here that moved here from Lima, Peru about 5 years ago, the Munoz family. They have 2 sons and 2 daughters, all of which have served missions except the youngest girl who just got her mission call this week to Pocatello, Idaho. Awesome! Anyway, the kids are all in Utah going to school at BYU or LDS business college, but they're back in Hartford for vacations. One of the girls just came back from her mission in St. George Utah last week and spoke in church on Sunday. This family is so awesome! The 2 girls wanted to do a missionary activity while they were here and called me up on Thursday with ideas to do a fireside on Sunday. We worked out the details quickly and set it all up. We met at the church Sunday evening and my companion and I demonstrated to all the members how to introduce the Book of Mormon to people at the door or on the street. Then we gave everyone several copies and we split up into 2's and hit the streets. I was coupled with one of the Munoz sons who had served his mission in Idaho about 3 years ago. We were a dynamite duo. These first 2 kids that we spoke too seemed to have been doing a lot of research on the internet and had heard a lot of strange theories. When I asked him where he thought he could find not just answers and theories but the 'truth' he responded, "The internet!"... You can definitely find answers on the internet if that's all you want, but I would suggest that as awesome as the internet is it is not the source of all truth and wisdom...  We talked to one family in particular on the porch that seemed pretty promising. When we first approached them the dad said he was Pentecostal and wasn't interested. We asked him a couple questions about his faith in Christ and got him talking. His wife jumped into the conversation and we ended up friends 30 minutes later. They were intrigued as we talked about the doctrine of eternal families and they thought of what that might mean for them and their 4 children.
The person we spoke to just before them had felt guilty for the past 5 years about the death of his mother due to cancer and how he blamed himself. We talked about eternal families again and focused on the opportunity he has to reunite with his mother and 2 deceased brothers again. He took comfort in knowing that there indeed was life after death. We spoke to another man on that same street who had been really involved in a baptist church earlier in his life but had since strayed from the path and mentioned how empty his life feels now and how he wishes he could have those feelings back again. We talked about repentance and the peace that the gospel brings to our lives. He got excited as we talked about it and exclaimed, "this is what I have been looking for!". I was impressed that night as I realized that every single person we spoke to had different needs and circumstances but how the gospel had all the answers.
That night brought a lot of cool experiences, and the excitement of the Munoz family was contagious and everyone who attended the event seemed to catch fire from it. We met back at the church after 2 hours of this and had a testimony meeting. The spirit of missionary work was alive in them as they shared the experiences they had that evening. I found that my own zeal and energy for this work increased significantly from the activity and I learned a lot from the examples of the great missionaries that the Munoz family produced. We have many return appointments for this week and a lot of work to do.
Just in case you were wondering, Daysi finally went to the temple and had an amazing experience. She also came to the missionary activity and is demanding from us that we order her a missionary name tag with her name on it. We told her she has to be a missionary and she just retorted, "EVERY MEMBER A MISSIONARY!". We may be small in numbers right now in the Hartford Spanish branch but you just wait... I have a feeling that this summer will be an extraordinary one.
I'm living the dream in Hartford!
  with much love from your favorite elder,
         -Elder Shepherd

Easter and Chastity

4/25/11
Happy Easter! I was really excited at church on Sunday, and I was expecting talks about Jesus Christ and His atonement, the miracle of the universal resurrection, etc. I'll admit that I was kind of disappointed when the topic covered by the speaker in sacrament meeting was the Law of Chastity. It was a good talk; it just wasn't what I expected to hear about on Easter Sunday. It was OK though, because I spent all week studying the last week of Jesus' life from the New Testament and "Jesus the Christ." I reflected on the eternal significance of what was done this time of year roughly 1,977 years ago. I was particularly moved as I read about Jesus' suffering in Gethsemane and the cruel treatment he received at the hands of the Jews and Romans, ultimately leading to His death on the cross. Most of all, I know that that suffering was for me, and I am so grateful for it.
I don't know what my issue was, but I was really tired this last week and several times I fell asleep suddenly. My companion took the opportunity to snap pictures of me and mock me for my exhaustion. I've included 2 such pictures. The first is when I fell asleep in the doorway of our bedroom after coming into our house for lunch. I just dropped my stuff on the ground and fell right asleep on the floor.

 

The next one is when I sat down for just a second and was reading something in a Spanish grammar book and I was asleep within seconds. I guess I just kind of slumped off the couch and onto the floor with the book still glued to my face, and I fell asleep nestled snugly in-between the couch and the table.

The 3rd picture that I included was just a random craving that I had this week for 'peanut-butter oatmeal no-bake cookies'. Amazingly, I still remembered the recipe by heart and whipped out a batch in no time. They were delicious.

I've developed my cooking skills a lot in the mission field and I have been getting more creative. My favorite dish this last week was a 'Chicken Alfredo pasta' that I made. It was great! I can also whip out various Mexican dishes (they're authentic recipes from REAL Mexicans. Granted that all Mexican food is exactly the same ingredients just put into a tortilla in different ways and combinations.)
The more and more that I'm engaged in this work and happier and happier it makes me. I've developed an enthusiasm and desire to serve. As we put our shoulders to the wheel God blesses us for our obedience and expounds on our talents and abilities. I've recently been trying to focus on one 'virtue' or 'attribute' at a time, trying to develop in a particular area or weakness, instead of trying all at once to just be everything I'm supposed to be. Progression and overcoming our weaknesses can seem like a really daunting task if we lack perspective, but if we view overcoming our weaknesses as successive stepping stones and tackle one thing at a time, probably the weakness that we have the most trouble with, we will see growth and change over time which increases our faith and hope and desire to act again and tackle the next hurdle.
There is a member here who was baptized by my last companion, Elder Urrutia, a year ago who is awesome! Her name is Daysi, and she has her own barbershop on a very busy street in Hartford. She never lets a single person come in or out of her shop without hearing about the gospel and at least leaving with a pass-along card if not a copy of the Book of Mormon. She brings someone new to church with her every single week. She was baptized April 18th of last year, and had a temple trip planned for this last saturday, the 23rd of April, to receive her endowment in the Boston Temple. She was SO excited to go and talked our ears off about the temple all week. Then she got a call from the temple on thursday telling her that while she was baptized on the 18th, she wasn't confirmed until the 25th, and so she would have to wait a couple more days before she could receive her endowment to complete the 1 year waiting period. She was DEVASTATED. She called us in tears saying, "Elders, I can't go to the temple yet! They said I had to wait! I need to talk to you now!" We rushed over there to explain to her that it wasn't the end of the world and that she could just go to the temple next week. Understandably, she was really really really really really excited about going to the temple, so we were sensitive to that. We watched 'Between Heaven and Earth' with her, one of the movies produced by the church about temples, to calm her down and keep her spirits up. It was funny because that next day she called me to tell me that she got her patriarchal blessing in the mail and she wanted to read it but it was in English (she is Dominican and her English skills are very limited). We went to visit her and she asked me to read her patriarchal blessing to her. I at first hesitated and told her that it was something very personal and special and that only she should read it, but she had already called the mission president and got 'permission' for me to translate it for her. So I read her patriarchal blessing to her and translated it into Spanish as I went along. I was amazed at how far I've come in the past two years and how I was blessed with the ability to be able to translate from English to Spanish, seemingly without effort, as I read to her the blessing in Spanish. What was even more cool was how she lit up like a little kid in a candy store and was so excited after every single line. "Did you hear that!? Read that line again!" Her enthusiasm and her excitement wasn't something to be mocked or laughed at, but rather, I greatly admired the zeal and love she has for the restored gospel. In a way, it renewed my own enthusiasm and excitement for this work and it was a great example to me of how happy and joyful this work really is. It reminded me of the reaction that the people had to Alma's invitation to be baptized at the waters of Mormon: "And now when the people had heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed: This is the desire of our hearts." (Mosiah 18:11) I have prayed long and hard that the honest desires of my heart will conform to what God wants for me, and that my will can be swallowed up in His so that I can honestly experience true joy in this work. I have felt that joy. I have an earnest desire to share these things with others. Most of all, I pray for charity and try to exhibit it in my thoughts, feelings, and actions. I love people!
Have a good day, and love people!
      with much love from your favorite elder,
              -Elder Shepherd

The ultimatum‏

4/18/11
I attached a picture of the dinner that I made for Elder Downs and I last night. I fried mini tortillas in butter, spread refried beans and cheese on them, and closed them into burritos. It was delicious. I just thought you might want to know that.

So we tracted into this 16 year old young man named Jean this week. He was really interested in everything we shared about Christ's gospel and repentance and he accepted the restoration. We invited him to come to church with us on Sunday and offered to walk with him to church to which he readily accepted. We showed up on his doorstep at 8:15 on the dot and rang his doorbell. It was apparent that everyone inside had been sleeping because his mother answered the door slightly flustered and not fully conscious. She went and woke Jean up, and we waited in his living room for about 15 minutes while he got ready really quickly. On our walk to and from church we had a really good talk with him and I found out a lot about his tough situation in life. So he's been with his 19 year old girlfriend living in his parents home for about a year now. She's 7 months pregnant with their baby. He's 16 year old! We talked to him about his plans for the future and how he plans on being a father. He's still a sophomore in high school, but he has some job prospects lined up for when he graduates. We talked about marriage with him and he agrees that it's the right thing to do. We're hoping to be able to help him and his girlfriend get married. I can't imagine what that is going to be like to be a 16 year old father still a sophomore in high school. He NEEDS the gospel, and the gospel will help him out more than anything else. The cool thing is that he has a pretty open mind and a soft heart and he's willing to make some changes and learn.
I had my last quarterly interview with my mission president on Wednesday. He goes home on July 1st, and by that time we will officially be the Boston, Massachusetts mission. It was weird to me that my mission president is going home. We had a good talk about the mission. I'm gonna miss President Pehrson a lot, but it's cool that he committed to be there at my homecoming in August.
We volunteered to do service at the Hartford Hospital. They assigned us to be the 'fall prevention team'. We walk around looking really official in our blue jackets and clipboards and check all the equipment for the patients who are on 'fall alert' because they've fallen in the past or at high risk of falling. I got my orientation this week. I felt pretty cool doing my 'rounds' and asking the patients questions and checking off the boxes on my clipboard and evaluation sheet. Beyond that it actually turned out to be a very profitable missionary tool. We're not allowed to give out anything or proselyte at the hospital, but people see us and know who we are and sometimes come up and ask us questions. I got to meet some really cool people in the hospital, and hopefully from what little we do we can help someone else out on their search for answers and happiness.
I ran into some weird people tracting and street contacting yesterday. Arthur, an old homeless man, was really drunk and followed us around a bit and kept asking us," How do you know that I know that I know that I know?" Yeah, it was strange. He kind of ruined a contact we made with this other couple in the street because he walked in-between us and the couple while we were talking and started shaking our hands. "I KNOW! But how do you know that I know that I know that I know?..." After we finally were able to shake off Arthur, we ran into these 2 U-CONN girls in the street. U-CONN threw a big party yesterday to celebrate their NCAA championship and had a parade in downtown Hartford. While we didn't join in the festivities we did see lots of people in the streets who were talking about it. These 2 girls actually approached my companion and I and told us how 2 missionaries had helped her move out of her apartment once and she thought that that was really nice but was very curious as to why those 2 missionaries would leave everything behind to serve missions. Her friend, who pulled out a cigarette and started smoking while we were talking, said, "That's nothing. They don't smoke, drink alcohol, and they don't even drink coffee! What's the matter? Don't you like coffee?" I could have told her, "No, I've tried coffee before, and it was disgusting," but I decided that that wasn't really at the heart of the issue.  So I decided to answer all their questions with the ultimatum of our message: the Book of Mormon. "Well, the easiest way to answer that question would be to explain to you that we believe in modern day revelation and that God speaks to us today and calls prophets. If this book (the Book of Mormon) is true that means that Joseph Smith really was a prophet receiving revelation from God, and the commandment given to us to abstain from tobacco, alcohol, even coffee and tea, really came from God. If this book is true it means that God has commanded us not to drink coffee." I similarly explained that the personal witness I've received from God that the Book of Mormon is indeed true was a major factor in why I was serving a mission, as well as was probably the reason why those 2 missionaries who helped her move out of her apartment served. "You see, your real question isn't 'Why do you go to church on Sunday?' or 'Why don't you drink coffee?' or 'Why are you serving a mission?' Your real question and the one you want the answer to is 'Is the Book of Mormon true?" They brought up other questions and got a little frustrated when I kept answering their questions by referring back to the Book of Mormon. "Don't you think that at this point it would be more prudent to actually read the book!?" I asked them. The ultimatum of our conversation rested on the Book of Mormon and there it remains. Those who claim that answering questions this way is a 'cop-out' obviously don't understand the importance of the Book of Mormon in the message of the Restoration nor will they be able to comprehend why it is that Jesus Christ himself put such great emphasis on the Book of Mormon, even to the point that he said that the saints would "remain under condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon." (D&C 84:57)
The Book of Mormon is true. I can't deny it. I spend a good deal of my time and energy on getting people to sincerely read and pray about it. When people actually do so, a spiritual witness of it's truthfulness always follows, and answers as to what they should do and where they should go from here are simultaneously answered. Sound advice: read it, study it, ponder it, pray about it, live it's teachings. I know that the Book of Mormon is true.
I love missionary work! Life is great, and the weather is smiling upon us today in Hartford with sunny skies and highs in the 60's (it's good because a huge rain storm dropped 4 inches of rain on us this weekend.)
    
            with much love from your favorite elder,
                  -Elder Shepherd