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