email 4/11/11
So this week was a busy one with my rush to make sure that all of the arrangements for the Musical Fireside I've been planning were set for our first performance yesterday. I chose the theme "We Witness of Christ" for our fireside. All of the performers were missionaries. It was more or less me at the piano accompanying 8 other elders and sisters as each sang a solo and bore their own personal testimony of Christ. I had to make changes to our program at the last minute, and the elder who was going to accompany me for the song I was singing called to let me know that he wasn't able to play it with 3 days notice. So I called tons of people until I finally found a woman out in Rhode Island who could accompany me last minute. Despite all my stressing everything went really well; in fact, it went much better than I had expected. All of the soloists did a really good job, and it was really cool to couple that with their own spoken testimony. The spirit in the meeting was REALLY strong in the finale as I accompanied at the organ a missionary choir of about 35-40 missionaries that sang the first 3 verses "I Believe in Christ" with the congregation joining us on the 4th and final verse. I loved seeing the tears flow freely from missionaries and those in the audience alike as the spirit overwhelmed us. There were many non-members present, and at least one of which I was able to speak to after the fireside that said that he felt the spirit so strongly as we sang that he was 'drawn to us' and he wants now to be baptized. It made all the hard work I'd put in to organizing and rehearsing with the other missionaries worth it to see the spiritual feast that it provided and the fruits of the spirit. Last night in Warwick, Rhode Island was the first of 3 performances of our fireside that we're doing. We'll perform again on May 15th in Hartford, CT and then May 22nd in Woodbridge, CT.
Hartford is great! We have a small Spanish branch here that meets in what used to be part of a post office but has now been renovated into a very small chapel and several classrooms. The members here have all been baptized within recent years with one or two exceptions. The branch was only organized just recently. I just love the hispanic culture! Everyone is friendly and crazy! (In a good way) I got a warm welcome when I got a phone call on Thursday from the 1st counselor in the branch presidency. "Hey, I'm looking for Elder Russel," he said. "Um, Elder Russell actually got transferred 2 days ago. I'm Elder Shepherd, the new missionary in your branch," I replied. "Oh! Ok, well... can you speak in sacrament meeting on sunday?" "I would love to!" I got to speak about fasting and fast offerings and share a cool experience that Elder Urrutia and I had in Waterbury when we were fasting. It was a good talk because I got them all laughing at one point and crying at the end. They LOVED that I was able to play piano for their meetings. They hadn't had piano accompaniment since they started the branch because they'd been using CD's. That combination worked to my advantage to get integrated into the ward really easily. I have a feeling that we're gonna see a lot of success here. The members have big hearts and lots of faith, and they have missionaries that will work their butts off . :)
My new companion, Elder Downs, is from a small farming community in Arizona with a population of about 2,000, 75% of which are members of the church. He's only been in the mission for about 3 months and is still struggling with Spanish. I love seeing the new Spanish elders struggle through learning Spanish because it always reminds me of how frustrated I was and how hard I worked at Spanish as a young elder. I see myself in them, how I spent hours on my knees every day pleading with God to help me learn Spanish and understand what people were saying. I cried my eyes out many times in earnest prayer in tears of desperation, humility, and ultimately, gratitude. It humbles me again and again. I'm so grateful that I was able to go through all that because it made me depend more on God and I was compelled to call upon Him more earnestly and more often in prayer. Isn't it weird how we can be so grateful for the challenges we face?
Cool tracting experience of the week: So we were walking up this really ghetto street and knocking on several doors. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining, and it was kind of hot. We walked by one porch where a girl was just standing there as if she was waiting for someone. We walked by and said 'Hi', she said 'Hi' back, and we kept walking. I couldn't have taken more than 2 or 3 steps before I felt a strong spiritual impression to turn back around and talk to that girl. I've learned that when you get those promptings you better act on them and you better act fast. I turned around abruptly on the spot and yelled back at her, "Hey, can we talk to you for a minute?" She agreed happily and we proceeded to introduce ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ. I asked her a lot of questions about her beliefs to find out that she used to be active in a Christian church but had left organized religion in general because her pastor had slept with a 14 year old girl in their congregation. As we talked more I felt another prompting to talk to her about repentance. "Jesus Christ promises us that if we repent of our sins that we can be cleansed from sin and have those feelings of guilt and shame alleviated. I feel impressed that this is something you're looking for." She looked at me intently in the eyes for about 10 seconds as if she was testing my sincerity and I maintained a strong gaze back at her. Her eyes began to well up as she replied, "That's exactly what I'm looking for. What do I have to do?" I testified of repentance and baptism and committed her to be baptized on the spot. She accepted. "Do you think that you talking to me now was a coincidence?" She asked me. I was quick to reply, "I don't believe in coincidence, I think God placed us here. When I walked past you the first time we just passed you by and kept walking, but I felt impressed to come back and talk to you. I didn't know why at the time but I do now." She said that she'd been talking with some friends of hers the previous night about God and that they had convinced her that God doesn't answer prayers, but that she knew for herself now because she had 'prayed us there'.
The mission is great! I LOVE serving and I love my new area! I love my new companion and I couldn't be happier!
with much love from your favorite elder,
-Elder Shepherd
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