Miracles and mercies‏

email dated 2/8/10
I was really worried as transfer calls came last night that I would get transferred to a new area, but I'm gonna stick around in New Haven with Elder Beals-I really love New Haven, and I still have so much work to do here. This week was a pretty amazing week-I see daily miracles out here-several stick out in my mind from this last week. We've been teaching an older woman who hated the church-her daughter was baptized a year ago, but was inactive for a while, and she just ripped on the church hardcore. She refused to even talk to the missionaries when they used to go over to her home a year ago, but 2 weeks ago, she told us that she wanted us to teach her everything from the beginning. Last Thursday, I was reading through her old teaching record of when missionaries tried to teach her a year ago, and the missionaries talked about her being a mean, grouchy woman who only argued with them and had no desire to learn or change. That evening, I taught her and she testified to me that she knew that the Mormon church is the only true church on the earth today, that the Book of Mormon is true, and that she finally found the strength she needs to quit smoking. She thanked me later, and said that the thing the finally clicked with her was the 'virtue in my face'. She said, "I look into your eyes and I see your conviction. I can see Jesus Christ in your countenance, and the virtue in your face convinces me that this is true." I have been praying for a long time that God would use me as an instrument in His hands, insomuch that others would be able to see Him through my example, and He answered my prayers in that woman's testimony. She will be baptized in coming weeks.

I am also teaching a couple right now with 2 daughters, ages 4 and 5. The parents both want to be baptized, and understand the doctrine very clearly-everything except the law of chastity. They're not married legally, and I told them that they had to be married to each other before they can be baptized. The husband still didn't want to, but the wife said, "I'm getting baptized, with our without my husband. So if I have to move out to convince him that I'm serious, I will." Her faith surprised me, and I couldn't help but chuckle at her husbands nervous and desperate response after that. "W-We-We'll get married! Just give me some time, woman!" They're getting married soon and will be baptized in coming weeks as well.

There are some amazing things happening, and I justly attribute them to the mercy and goodness of God. I have been so touched by the tender mercies of the Lord, in my life and in the lives of those whom I serve every day. He is preparing His children all over the world hear and accept the gospel, and He is working miracles in their lives as they come unto Him with broken hearts and contrite spirits. I eagerly anticipate the coming months, the miracles, and the personal growth I will have through my trials and struggles in His service.

I finished the Book of Mormon this week from start to finish in Spanish. Due the promise of an apostle that if I would read the Book of Mormon in it's entirety in Spanish that I would be fluent by the time I finished, my companion said,"It's official, you're fluent!" I still have a lot to learn, but I have definitely seen how I've been richly blessed in this righteous endeavor, and how, just through studying the Book of Mormon, I have grown in so many different ways. The Book of Mormon is a true book, and it has an amazing power to change us, help us, guide us, and strengthen us, in whatever endeavor we pursue. Read it-please! Just read it! There isn't a single person on the earth who won't benefit enormously, spiritually and temporally, from reading and abiding by it's precepts.

I love you all very much, and I pray continually for your welfare. I pray continually that God will bless and keep you.

With much love from your favorite Elder Shepherd,
-Elder Shepherd