Mothers Day‏

email 5/10/10
So it was nice to call home on Mothers Day. As a missionary, it's kind of weird to call home and talk to everyone-it seems so foreign, even though it still hits so close to home for us. It was really cool to be able to talk with Matt and Andy in Spanish-that was a blast! I can't wait to come home and talk exclusively in Spanish with them so that no one will be able to understand us. It sounds like that family back home is doing really well.
Everything is going really well in Providence, Rhode Island as well. It's not nearly as ghetto here as it was in New Haven, but there is still TONS of hispanics to talk to. Providence is a HUGE city, and it's normally covered by 2 different companionships: we have a Providence North area and a Providence South area. I'm in North, but the elder in South, Elder Russell, was supposed to be training an incoming greenie, but his greenie broke his knee in the MTC just before coming out, and so Elder Russell was landed in a threesome with Elder Cohen and I. So now, I have 2 huge areas with a huge teaching pool to look after. The other 2 Elders were companions in the MTC together, and they're both 3 months younger than me in the mission, so I have to be the senior companion and work it all out. It's been an interesting situation this past week, but my companions are both really good elders, and we're getting along just fine. We're still waiting to see if Elder Russell's greenie might come out in 2 weeks or so, but they're not sure if they're going to send him home or not. We just have to wait and see.
Elder Russell is pretty cool. He's from Spanish Fork, UT, and comes from a really great family. We instantly clicked-we're both really similar. He plays piano and sings just like me, and he plays saxophone-he even played tennis in High School. We both like the same music and get along great.
Elder Cohen is from Sacremento, CA, and he's a convert of about 2 years to the church. He's jewish, and, of course, everyone in his family for generations is jewish. His parents are currently being taught by missionaries in California, and he told us this last night as he spoke to them on mothers day that they're both reading from the Book of Mormon and they love it. Elder Cohen is awesome, and he and I will work really well together. He wants to work really hard and he knows why he is here.
The work here is progressing really rapidly, and it's awesome to be a part of a spanish branch. We always had to translate in New Haven, because we had a mixed english and spanish ward, but here we have a spanish branch. It was awesome to go to church in spanish for the first time! I'm so stoked to be here!
I couldn't be more sure of what I know to be true. I know that this church is the only church on the face of the earth that is guided by Jesus Christ Himself through a living prophet. This church was restored to the earth through Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon is the crystal clear evidence that we can hold in our hands and examine. The Book of Mormon is a true book, a volume of holy scripture, written by ancient prophets upon the American continents. As we come to know that the Book of Mormon is true for ourselves, we become convinced of every other truth that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ has to offer. Every single revelation and act of the church ever since has been guided by that same Authority, even Jesus Christ, and the whole of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the truth. It is the reign of God established anew upon the face of the earth. We hold all the priesthood keys and authority necessary to run God's affairs on the face of the earth, and we do so justly in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Of these divine truths, not only do I have no doubt, but there is no room for doubt in a world of shifting values and moral relativism. To God we must be true and consecrate our all, including our time, talents, and lives. This is the testimony of God that is in me, revealed through the power of His Holy Spirit, and I echo the testimonies of all those who have gone before in defiance of the very powers of Satan rearing his ugly head in the rhetoric and wisdom of the world. I witness of the divinity of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and I testify that He fulfilled the sacred mission of taking upon Himself the burdens of sin heaped upon all of mankind. Only in and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ do we even have the slightest speck of hope or happiness in this life, and in the life to come. To this I have consecrated my life, and to this I will be true.
I love you all so much, and I pray to our loving Father in Heaven for your health and support.
                 -Elder Shepherd