The best laid plans of mice and men...‏

Harley was baptized on Saturday! WOO!! His baptismal service, despite all of our prior planning, turned out really unorganized and comical. My reflections on the baptism go a little something like this:

The baptismal service was to begin by 2 PM on Saturday. My companion and I went to the church that morning to fill up the font (It is a BIG font that takes 3 hours to fill) to make sure that we would have warm, clean water for the baptism. We'd given our ward mission leader all the info he needed to make the program, and he was in charge of making the program and conducting the service. Harley and all his family start showing up about 15 minutes before 2. We get Harley into his jumpsuit, take some pictures, and are ready to go. He has a lot of family show up, so we can't fit in the relief society room like we normally do, so we migrate to the chapel for the service. Harley's uncle Nick comes and asks us,"Why don't we do the confirmation today instead of tommorow in church?" Following the guidelines in the new manual, we explain that our bishop had already decided that it should be done in church and not at the Saturday service and we follow the bishop's orders. "Well, I'm the ward mission leader in my ward and I know how things should be done," and "It doesn't say anything in any manual that you have to do it on Sunday..." etc... he begins throwing a fit. Our bishop isn't here and so the first counselor in the bishopric just sits there listening to his whining. 2:15 rolls around, they're stalling for us in the chapel, and our ward mission leader finally shows up in jeans and a t-shirt with just 1 program and TONS of typos (Harley's first name is Shane and our WML spelt it "Shame", my name was spelled wrong along with several others, prophet was spelt with an 'f' instead of 'ph', etc..) We scramble around to get everything set up while trying to ignore Harley's uncle's whining and complaining. We run downstairs to check the font just to make sure that nothing else has gone wrong to find to our great consternation that there is a leak somewhere in the font and that it has been slowly draining and the font was almost empty... I almost let out a scream at this point. We turned the pipes on to full blast and we began blasting ice cold water into the font in an effort to have it filled up again in time for the baptism. We run back upstairs, and our WML has already started the service without us, they sang the children's hymn "Follow the Prophet" as an opening song and NO ONE knew the words... Harley's grandmother just HAD to speak at the baptism (I guess it's a tradition) and she rambled on about something that made absolutely no sense. I'm trying so hard at this point not to bust out laughing... Our ward mission leader looks so out of place in his dirty jeans... poor guy, he feels really embarassed. We finally migrate down to the font and luckily it was sufficiently full for Harley's uncle Will to baptize him in freezing cold water. Both of them come out of the font breathing heavy and shivering. Uncle Will forgot his change of clothes and is forced to wear his wet shirt on top of his dry suit pants. Whiny Uncle Nick is scrutinizing everything and giving me dirty looks. The baptism ends and our ward mission leader hurries out of the chapel and goes straight home. At least the refreshments were good after. Harley looks so happy now that he stopped shivering from his hypothermic submersion. Who cares if everything else went wrong because Harley has just been baptized and that was the important thing. Everyone is eating and cheerful now. Boy, what a day..." (If you can picture me either laughing the whole way through the story or kind of chill and 'whatever' through the whole thing I think it makes it better.)

Isn't the mission just the greatest? He was confirmed on Sunday and it appeared to me like he was glowing. I got to speak in sacrament meeting and it went really well. He brought a friend with him to the baptism and church the next day who now wants to learn more about the church.

I love being a missionary! With each passing week I feel anxious because I know that my time in the mission field is slowly ticking away. 2 years really doesn't seem like a very long time to me all of the sudden. I will just take advantage of every second that I've been granted here to serve and love others.

        with much love from your favorite elder,

            -Elder Shepherd

Never been kissed.‏

So, monday was Presidents Day, which means that all the libraries were closed... Why are holidays always on mondays? I think it's a conspiracy. I couldn't email yesterday because we had a meeting in Bloomfield with the rest of the mission. We're getting 4 new missionaries in my district here, 2 of which are greenies. They're putting english elders in Waterbury, which means that my companion and I will be strictly Spanish speaking elders again, which is great! It's sad because that means that I have to pass off some of my current investigators to these new elders. :( I love people so much. I want to keep teaching them. *sigh* That's the mission.

Harley is going to be baptized on Saturday! Woo! He has a lot of family and some non-member friends coming. It's going to be a really great service. Harley is really prepared for this. I'll send you some pictures next week of the baptism.

So we met Judy for the first time this sunday. She's a former drug addict, and you can tell that drugs really messed with her mind. She speaks slowly and with a slight slur. She's really old and smells funny. When we were visiting with her this week, we were trying to help her understand the apostasy, so I took out a small pass-along card with a picture of Jesus on it and ripped it into pieces, explaining that with the death of Christ and the apostles many different churches branched out due to the loss of the priesthood and prophetic revelation, . Each piece of the torn picture represented bits of Christ's teachings that men had taken and tried to organize churches with and some pieces of the puzzle were entirely missing. Joseph Smith restored the truth, (and I take out another copy of the same card) and we have the whole picture again. Anyway, she was trying to put together the torn pieces of the card back into it's original frame and was very frustrated that she couldn't do it. I felt bad because the card was only torn in 6 pieces and she still couldn't seem to figure it out. I helped her out with it a bit, and she was so elated at the accomplishment of solving the puzzle that she leaned over to kiss me. She was going for the lips! I turned my head just in time so that she gave me a wet one on the cheek. Yuck! When we were leaving, she walked through my outstretched hand and wrapped her arms around me to give me a hug. She wouldn't let go! After about 20 seconds of the most awkward hug that I've ever gotten in my entire life, I was finally able to escape from her clutches. Needless to say, I'm going to let the new English elders teach her.

If all you knew about my service as a missionary was that I'd drank coffee, gotten kissed and hugged by a girl, driven almost an entire state outside of my mission boundaries, and sent 4 companions home early from their missions, you'd probably think that I was one of the worst missionaries in the world! I think that God has a sense of humor. He must have one.

I don't have too much else to report this week. The snow has been easing up and the warmer weather seems to be thawing out this old city. Missionary work will pick up more and more with the warmer weather. Life is looking up!

      with much love from your favorite elder,

                -Elder Shepherd

Flying Home?‏

email 2/14/11

I attached a picture of me walking on about 3 feet of snow. The freezing rain froze the top layer of snow, and it's thick enough that in some spots you can walk on top of the snow. It was cool. I took a video of it that I'll show you when I get home.

So this week was really unique thanks to my Mexican companion. For those of you who may not remember, he had to fly home to Texas to finish the process for his family to get their residency papers in the US and get his fingerprints taken. We went to the mission home Monday evening and spent the evening talking with our mission president. We then slept at the mission home that night. It was funny being back in the mission home because it brought back memories of my first night here. I was all by myself because I flew out alone and I was both nervous and excited. We slept in this big room they have in the ground floor of the home with about 10 beds and 2 bunk beds in it, all nicely kept with cleen sheets and comforters. My companion's flight Tuesday morning bound for Texas left at 6 AM, so we had to wake up early and he left with the president at 4 AM in the morning. I spent the whole morning with President Pehrson, talking about the mission, and running a few errands. I went to the dentist that morning to check out some tooth pain that I was having. The dentist, a member of the church, thought that it was really cool that my companion for the day was the mission president. Later that afternoon, he dropped me in off in Hartford so that I could spend the rest of the day with the Hartford spanish elders. Elder Russell was in the threesome with me back in Providence, and he's like my best missionary friend, so we were stoked to get to work with each other again. We had a great day, we taught really well together, we found tons of new people to teach, etc... I slept at the Hartford spanish apartment that night, and spent the bulk of Wednesday proselyting with them. President Pehrson came back to pick me up around 5 or 6 PM on Wednesday, and we went back to the mission home. My companions flight was delayed, so instead of arriving in Hartford at 7PM his plane didn't land until about 9PM, so I got to hang out with President Pehrson some more. We sang songs and I played piano and had a jolly ol' time. On the ride home from picking my comp up from the airport he talked about his 2 day 'vacation'. It only took him about 10 minutes to do his fingerprints, and the rest of the time he spent shopping with his parents. They bought him 2 new suits, new ties, new shoes, etc... I was worried that he would get really distracted by it all, but it turns out that his parents urged him really strongly to finish his mission strong and work hard. He actually came back more focused than he was before.

All in all, it was a good experience. I loved getting to know President Pehrson better and working with Elder Russell in Harftord, and my companion loved getting pampered on by his parents and an extra boost of motivation. It was a unique experience that I'm willing to gander most missionaries don't have, but a good one.

Facebook proselyting has been fun but a bit of a challenge. It's not super effective with the hispanic population, but I've seen a lot of success elsewhere. I'm teaching someone over facebook and linking stuff everywhere and it's had a positive influence. I'm still trying to find more ways to make it effective. Any suggestions?

So, my 6 foot 5, pure muscle, gangster investigator, Simon, is doing sooo well. He loves reading the Book of Mormon and he feels like he identifies with Nephi. He was on his way to church on Sunday and his car broke down, and when he got home his wife got so angry that she broke his heart monitor and told him to leave. He called us asking us for advice and help yesterday afternoon. "I'm sorry I couldn't get to church! My car broke down and my wife is the devil and she broke my heart monitor, etc... I'm trying so hard to be good why is everything going wrong?" He really is trying to do what's right, and I feel so bad for him. Simon is one of the coolest investigators I've taught on my mission. He'll pull through strong. I can't wait for his baptism. I'll send you some pictures of us soon.

Life is so sweet as a missionary. I'm living the dream here in CT, and I can't wait to take over the Boston Mission this July.

       With much love from your favorite elder,

            -Elder Shepherd

Lots of news!‏

email 1/31/11
Ok, so my companion, Elder Urrutia, is Mexican and he's not a citizen yet in the country, and his family has been fighting for their residency here for 11 years. Anyway, they finally have a court date for the last step of the process, but the whole family has to appear in person and be fingerprinted to finish everything off. That includes my companion. He has to fly home to Houston, Texas next week for 2 days to show up in court with his family and be fingerprinted, and then fly back out here to Connecticut, otherwise he would lose his case for residency and possibly wait many more years and spend thousands of more dollars... Immigration laws here are so stupid. Anyway, I don't know where I'll be during that time, but it's only for a couple of days. Could you imagine being sent home for just 1 or 2 days with only 8 months left in your mission? That would trunk me out of my mind! He's going to sleep in his own bed, use his own bathroom, chill with is family, and then come back to missionary world. He's already feeling really trunky about it.

So the Hartford, Connecticut mission is being closed to be combined with the Boston, Massachusetts mission. MY MISSION IS BEING CLOSED! (Well, combined with another mission, but we will be dissolved.)  I got the notice this morning from my mission president. The change will officially take effect on July 1st when my mission president and his wife end their mission service. This means that for the last transfer of my mission I'm going to be in a totally new mission with new boundaries and new missionaries and new leadership. I guess I'm kind of excited, but I'm kind of sad at the same time that it's just for my very last transfer. I'm just shocked. I don't know how to feel about it. I know it's the work of the Lord, and I'm pretty sure that I'll get excited about it or find the silver lining, but right now I'm just filled with uncertainty. It's just weird to think that my mission won't even exist in a couple of months.

Well, on the other side of things, our investigator, Harley, is super excited to be baptized in a couple of weeks. His mother has been an inactive member of the church for years, but with her son's enthusiasm she is getting excited. It's cool to watch the spirit work on her in our lessons. She knows what she's needs to do, and she has the gift of the Holy Ghost to help her. They came to church together on Sunday, which was really cool for Harley and a breath of fresh air for his mom. We've been leaving pamphlets about gospel principles with them and committing her to go over the pamphlet with her son before our next visit. She's teaching him the gospel, as it should be, and you can tell that she feels it. The spirit works on people in extraordinary ways.

Well, that was a lot of news for this email. I'm still going strong, and I love the mission! Keep praying for me and writing me!

         with much from your favorite elder,

              -Elder Shepherd

Waterbury and Cyber-Missionary Work‏

email 1/24/11
I'm sorry that I wasn't able to email last week! It was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and we couldn't get into a library. However, I was working on the computer all week, but I didn't want to abuse my computer privileges and email on days other than P-day. Ok, so I'm now doing missionary work on cyberspace. It's kind of weird, but I think it's so AWESOME! I'm 1 of 8 missionaries in our mission who are piloting this program for the church. We created new facebook accounts (I'm Elder Shepherd), and we friend request all the members here in our areas, and we then send them links to church videos and mormon.org, posting things on their wall and giving the church TONS of exposure on the internet. All those people are uplifted, but then all their friends see all these postings and start investigating as well. The cool thing about the internet is that you can do everything at your own pace and interest level. Anyway, we also help all the members to create mormon.org profiles, which are the coolest things ever because then we can connect our investigators to members online who come from the same or a similar background as them, religiously, economically, socially, etc... It can be utilized SO effectively. If you haven't checked out mormon.org yet, do it! It's so COOL! The videos on there are really, really good. Imagine that we're in a lesson, and our investigator has a similar problem or predicament as someone in the videos on mormon.org. We can direct them to the site, or have them go to the site right then and there on the spot, check it out. So I'm facebooking and I'm starting a blog. I'm not allowed to friend request any friends or family from back home, but everyone else in the world is fair game. I'm a blogging amateur, so I'm looking for inspiration. When I get it going, I'll ask all of you to follow my blog so that it can get more exposure. Oh, and check out my mormon.org profile, and then make your own! http://mormon.org/me/394N-eng/Luke    Questions? I'd be glad to answer them.

Waterbury, Connecticut is a very pretty place. It's very hilly here, and all the roads are going up and down hills and have sharp turns. It's kind of fun! Although I get car-sick if I don't watch where I'm going. There are far more trees here than New Haven or Providence. I've always been in the city, so it's fun to be somewhere a bit more tranquil. We call areas like this the "sticks". We have gotten SO MUCH SNOW!! The weather here has been nuts! Last week, a HUGE snow storm hit us, and dropped 2 feet of snow on us overnight. My companion and I had to dig our car out, but we didn't have a snow shovel, so we knocked some doors and asked people if we could borrow their snow shovel. (It was a really great excuse to go tracting in our apartment complex and we took advantage of the approach to talk about the gospel).  I attached 2 photos of me trying to get into our car. It was a dream come true!

We don't have any investigators because the missionaries who were here before us didn't do anything, but we'll turn things around. I love you all!

 

             With much love from your favorite elder,

                  -Elder Shepherd

My dream in Providence is over.‏

Yes, it's true. My dream in Providence has come to an end. I got a call from my mission president, and I'm getting transferred to Waterbury, Connecticut to serve as a zone leader tomorrow. Getting transferred in the mission field can be really bitter-sweet. I've been in Providence for the last 8 months, and it's been a pretty impactful chapter of my life. I've worked my butt off here in the service of the Lord, and I've seen some success and miracles. I've seen a lot of people change and grow closer to God. I baptized several young men here who received the priesthood, bless and pass the sacrament every week, and plan on serving full-time missions in the very near future. What an incredible change I saw in the young men! What an incredible blessing to have been used as an instrument in God's hands to perform such a work! The growth I've seen in myself here has been enormous. It's been hard saying goodbye to all my friends and newfound family here in Providence. I'm happy to be able to leave Providence with no regrets, because I gave it my all here. Elder Hansen and his new companion will see lots of success and baptisms in the upcoming months.
I am super excited to go to Waterbury for several reasons. My companion and I will be the first Spanish-speaking zone leaders in the our mission. I've wanted a native Spanish-speaking companion my whole mission, and my new companion is Mexican! WOO!! His name is Elder Urrutia, and I attached a picture of the 2 of us together.  I'm gonna learn so much Spanish from him! Serving as a zone leader means that I'm going to be part of the church's pilot program for doing missionary work over the internet by using mormon.org and facebook. I'm pretty stoked for it! I don't know all the details yet, but I'll get back to you on it.

The other picture that I attached to the email is me and some graffiti here in Providence. I'm amazed at a lot of the graffiti here in Providence. It's kind of cool.
I hope you all will write to me at my new address in Waterbury!
     with much love from your favorite elder,
                 -Elder Shepherd

2011‏

email 1/3/11

2011!! Woot!  There were many drunks out on the streets here on the 31st, and everyone seemed really depressed on the 1st (because they were hungover). We spent the new year well. I have a lot of things to look forward to this year, and I'm really grateful for all the blessings I recieved this last year. I'm all ready and geared up for the new year! I've made several new year resolutions, some of which I've decided to not worry about until getting home from the mission in August (school, girlfriend, work, etc...) but some of which I can begin working on right now. One of my goals, however cheesy it may seem, is a goal that I'm perpetually working on: keeping my covenants. I've made many covenants with God that I'm continually striving to honor and remember. It's a focus for me this year.

So, the keyboard that I am writing on is missing 4 keys: the f key, y key, l key, and backspace. It's really hard to use them because I have to push a little piece of plastic in the place of where the keys used to be. It's really frustrating!

I attached a picture of me after tracting in the morning. It was ridiculously cold, and my face froze like that. The weather right it now is really nice. I bet it's way colder out in Utah that in it is here. All the snow is melting in our 50 degree weather. It's kind of nice, but I really miss the snow.

I had a great holiday season, but I'm definitely glad that it's over. People were really distracted and unreceptive to us during the holiday season, and as a missionary it's a really hard to focus this time of year as well. I'll be able to better consecrate myself to the work and to the Lord. I bet every missionary goes through this phase, but I'm at the point of my mission where I feel like time is running out. "I only have 7 months left? WHAT!?" is pretty much what is going through my mind. It scares me. I love the mission! I've been blissfully doing my 'missionary thing' here without regard to time, which is a really happy way to live. It still hasn't really hit me that I go home this year, so I'm hoping I'll still be able to live my missionary life without thinking about it. I just want to make the most of my time here.

I had 2 really rough lessons this week. It was the exact same lesson with 2 different investigators. "I haven't been reading the Book of Mormon because I have the Bible." I understand where they are coming from, because the Bible is all they have ever known, and I'd like to believe that they say that out of a sincere love for the word of God they have aready received from the Bible, but I know better. "How do you know that the Bible is true?" I asked them both. "Well-it's-it's, uh, th-the Bible! It's the word of God!" "Yes it is," I would reply,"but how do you know that?" Simply put, these 2 people have never read the Bible, nor the Book of Mormon, nor even put an honest effort into reading parts of it, but have listened to their pastors preach about the Bible. Certainly, I can quote the scripture that faith comes, in part, from hearing the word (Rom. 10:17), but it also says in the same chapter that you must obey the word, and these investigators aren't doing that. (Rom. 10:16) (this chapter, Romans 10, for a lot of reasons, is probably one of the least understood chapters in the Bible by christians in this area...) Anyway, my reply didn't quote these scriptures, nor quoted any other scripture from the Bible, but I answered my own question. "You don't know that the Bible is true because you've never read it, prayed about it, nor lived the principles that it teaches. It's the same with the Book of Mormon, only you are denying that it's the word of God without ever having read it. Your reason for not reading the Book of Mormon isn't because you have the Bible. You're not reading the Book of Mormon because you don't want to change." It sounds pretty harsh right? I was surprised when I said it, but I did it out of love, prompted by the spirit. These 2 people know that I love them. I express and show it often. They also know that it's important to follow through with their commitments. *sigh* I love these people, and I'm really sad and frustrated when they don't do what they need to do. What more can I do for my vineyard!? (Jacob 5) I just need to continue to teach by the spirit, love people, and be patient.

OH no! I'm out of time for this email. I type really slow on this broken keyboard.

         Much love from your favorite elder,

                -Elder Shepherd