A new elder!‏

This week brought a whole lot of changes. Elder Cohen got transferred to Bridgeport, CT, and I'm training a brand new Spanish elder called Elder Hansen. He's from Arizona and comes from a family of 4 kids. He's a pretty smart elder, and I can tell that he worked really hard before and during the MTC because he's coming out here very prepared. He and I are going to get along so well! I've got a picture of the 2 of us yesterday at the Mission President's home.

The other picture I attached is a picture of me at the lighthouse in Newport. Life is so good.
We continue to be very very busy here in Providence. The ward is doing really well, our investigators are doing really well, and we have tons of people to teach. We had an amazing fast and testimony meeting this Sunday at church! One of our investigators who is going to be baptized in 2 weeks got up to bear her testimony in church. She bore a simple, sweet testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and talked about how she's been 'church-hopping' her entire life in search of the true church of Jesus Christ. She said that she knows that God answers her prayers because when she prayed most earnestly for help and direction 2 'angels in white shirts and ties' knocked on her door'. She thanked us for being 'sweet young men' and the members for helping her come unto Christ. Another less-active member that we'd been teaching bore her testimony as well and thanked us for 'bringing her back'. I baptized her son several weeks back, and she wanted to thank me for that over the pulpit, but couldn't remember my last name, but, for some reason, remembered my first name... I promised her son a week ago that if he read his scriptures every day and said his prayers, I would tell him my first name. He did, and I told him my name and made him promise not to tell the other youth. The youth in this ward have been trying to figure out my name for the past 4 months, and then she just blurted it out over the pulpit! "I want to thank the elder for baptizing my son-um, I can't remember his last name right now but I know his first name is Luke-so thank you elder!" The whole congregation turned to look at me. It was kind of funny, but slightly irreverent as whispers were heard among the youth,"We finally got him!". *sigh*

I love teaching people about eternal families. The parents eyes light up as they realize that they truly can be 'together forever', and that they can be reunited with loved ones who have passed on. We taught a man this week whose mother passed away a week ago. He was grieving the loss, and he was angry at God for not letting her live longer. We taught about the Plan of Salvation, and we gradually watched as the anger and the bitterness turned to tears of gratitude and understanding. The gospel changes lives, and I see it happen everyday. I get a front-row seat to God's miraculous modern-day work of gathering together His children. I see the spirit work on people and change their hearts. Some people change quickly, and other experience that change over longer periods of time, but all of them enjoy the sweetness of forgiveness and their new-found closeness with their Eternal Father in Heaven. How grateful I am to be a witness of these truths, and to be a messenger of the Gospel of Peace and Salvation.
I couldn't be happier.
             With much love from your favorite Elder Shepherd in the Hartford, CT mission,
                                          -Elder Shepherd