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
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
What an insane week... and what a sweet peace.
email 4/4/11
So, I'm getting transferred to Hartford. I'll talk more about it later in the email, but for now here's my new address:
2 Park Place #12h,
Hartford, Connecticut 06106
So this last week in Waterbury has been one of the most insanse of my mission. Let me put it this way: this week I was thrown into the refiner's fire.
So the week began out with both my companion and I coming up with a nasty cold that lasted the duration of the week. I'm pretty much over it now. Being sick always gets in the way of a lot of things. The weather was cold, windy, and rainy with a little bit of snow which further complicated our plight. All of our appointments cancelled. ALL of them. We decided to swing by a less active on the ward list who no one had heard from or seen in several months, only to find the house deserted and kind of creepy. We walked up the steps to the second floor of this house and the door looked like it had been smashed open by something, because it was on the floor and the wall was busted up. There were random articles of clothing and household items everywhere. The couches had been removed, but all the bed frames were still there, along with all the clothes, still hanging in the closets. The calendar hadn't been touched since October. There was junk everywhere... I felt like we had stumbled onto a crime scene! My companion took a quick picture of me and we went quickly on our way. It was just weird.
My bed frame randomly broke in the middle of the night and I had to sleep on the floor. I've been sleeping on the floor for the past several nights now. I got a stressful letter from an old friend that concerned me further. I was stressing about going back to school and finding a job and going home, etc... Then General Conference rolled around. All day Saturday was like a ray of sunshine to my dark and tough week, and all the talks about adversity and facing trials really hit home with me. I felt a strong spiritual impression that said to me Saturday evening, "Forget yourself, and go to work." It was a spiritual feast and with that I was ready to keep going.
Then Sunday morning hit us. We were getting ready to leave to the Southington chapel 10 miles away (because the sattelite dish in our chapel broke...) when we got a phone call from a member that lives just up the road from us. "ELDERS! MY HOUSE IS ON FIRE! HELP! I'M COLD! BRING A COAT!" We threw on our jackets and brought our coats and rushed out of the house to see what was happening. There was a thick cloud of black smoke billowing from up the street outside. We rushed our way up the street with extra coats in hand, fighting our way through the smoke. We were able to find Mary Cruz, the member whose home was in flames, who didn't even have time to put on shoes before she had to flee from her house. Apparently, someone on the 3rd floor of her 3 family home started the fire and Mary, who lives on the 1st floor, didn't have time to grab or preserve anything. The fire completely gutted the house and everything was destroyed.
(I included a picture with the email.) She was in tears and shock as the burning house collapsed in on itself and the remainder of the house burned to embers. She moved from Puerto Rico and has only lived in the United States for 8 months and everything she owned was in that house. She lost everything. It was at this time while we were in the thick smoke trying to console Mary Cruz that I got a call from our Mission President informing me that I'm getting transferred to Hartford. Great timing. We had to leave then and had no time to change so we smelled strongly of smoke and ashes the rest of the day. I wanted to swing by the home of 1 very special investigator to say goodbye before running to the morning session of conference, and did so. After saying a very brief goodbye we rushed out the door. All the commotion had screwed up our schedule, and it was time for us to run to General Conference. I was kind of numb at the time to what had just happened and we were already late for conference. Right before reaching my freeway exit, I was blocked in the middle lane and decided to pass the car in front of me on the left and then merge over into my exit, it was at that EXACT moment that I drove by a highway policeman (mind you, I wasn't speeding the rest of the trip, only for that 1 stupid moment) and he pulled up behind me as I reached my exit and flashed his lights... great. I'd never been pulled over for anything before. NEVER. I'm a good driver, but I made a really dumb decision to speed in the panic. It was kind of the way to put a cherry on top of this whole mess that I'd been in. The cop was rather rude and he yelled at me for not having a Connecticut driver's license (mind you I had my Utah license and it is perfectly legal for me to drive here) and he just kept yelling at me as if he wanted me to get angry and yell back. I just sat there and listened to him with a whole lot of impatience and anger festering inside me, but I held my tongue. He walked back to his car, wrote me a citation, and sent me on my way. Now I was really late for conference. I came into the chapel (which was mostly empty except for 4 other missionaries) smelling like ashes and sweat and in complete shock from what I'd been through that morning. I couldn't focus. I was mad at myself for not focussing because I've been looking forward to General Conference for a long time and praying about it and now that it's here I was completely unnerved. The speaker began talking about adversity again, and I didn't hear much of what he said because I started to cry. My mind was racing, "Poor Mary Cruz just lost everything--I'm leaving Waterbury so soon--what about my investigators--how am I going to pay for this outrageous ticket--my back hurts because I slept on the floor all night--I smell like smoky the bear--how am I going to pay for school when I go home--people are looking at me funny--that cop was such a jerk--I'm really hungry because I didn't eat this morning--President Monson says to make marriage a priority but I'm not ready!--'so and so' is going through a really hard time--my clothes are dirty--I've never been pulled over before!--I've got to call president and tell him--my already congested nose is running like niagara falls with all this crying and sniffling--people are still looking at me--I'm such a wuss--poor Mary Cruz... etc." I think all those thoughts and more crossed my mind simultaneously as the speaker continued to talk about trials and adversity. How appropriate. I hid my face in a handkerchief that I pulled out of my backpack and sobbed. The missionary sitting next to me couldn't help but notice and he grabbed me by the arm and let me out of the chapel. He took me to a room, pulled me to my knees and started offering a prayer. His prayer was beautiful. It was sincere and heartfelt. He prayed that the spirit would calm my troubled heart and that I would be able to return to conference when the time was appropriate. We talked for a brief moment about what a horrendous week I'd just had, and now I was crying again, but this time it wasn't because I was hysterical. I felt the sweetest peace sweep over me. The words that I'd felt the spirit speak to me the night before came back into my mind and heart with another message attached. "Everything will be OK. Forget yourself and go to work."
What a beautiful spirit... what a sweet peace... what a powerful message...
I returned to the conference and thoroughly loved it.
Forgive me for the long, whiny, drawn-out story, but it has a very powerful message and a happy ending. The Atonement heals all hurt, and profound peace and happiness await us if we endure with faith and patience.
I will forever be grateful to my Heavenly Father for the patience, mercy, attention, and love that He has ever offered me. He loves us and knows us. Our Savior Jesus Christ loves us and knows how we feel. He can heal us and penetrate any darkness, no matter how thick. If we can learn to put things in an eternal perspective than we can avoid the mental breakdowns (like I had) and feel the peace that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings. After all is said and done we will be grateful for the adversity in our lives that has shaped us into who we are and helped us to reach our grand potential.
Life is good, and I am happy. No more worries. :)
with much love from your favorite elder,
-Elder Shepherd
email 3/28/11
Some of you requested my current address, so just in case anyone wants to know, this is my address:
Elder Shepherd
440 Meriden Rd. #220
Waterbury, CT 06705
Missionary life is the same. The rest of this week was largely uneventful. We knocked a lot of doors and talked to tons of people. Our teaching pool seems to be very fluid--that is, we find lots of people with potential and, as quickly as they lose interest or reject the message, we find more people to teach. Lots of coming and going.
This last Wednesday was nuts. We had a mission conference with a visiting general authority, Elder Zwick of the seventy. We were in Bloomfield by 9 AM, and seated for prelude at 9:30. Elder Zwick shook everyone's hands before the meeting started. The conference itself was awesome. He talked a lot about the law of sacrifice in regards to missionary work. He hit home with me on a lot of it--I felt like he was speaking directly to me in answer to the prayers and preparations I'd had leading up to it. Elder Zwick speaks fluent English, Spanish, and Portuguese, so I got to speak with him in Spanish a bit. I was lucky to get to talk to him a lot. I picked his brain and learned a lot from him. After our conference ended at about 3:30 PM, we had a leadership meeting with Elder Zwick, the mission president, and the zone leaders. We spoke about how we were working with the wards and how we could better correlate our efforts and be more effective. Immediately following that meeting, I spent the rest of the afternoon working one on one with all of the missionaries who will sing in the musical fireside that I've been organizing for the spring. It was the only chance that I would get to rehearse with each of them before our first performance on April 10th so we had to take advantage of the time. I rehearsed all the way until 7:30 PM when we had 1 more meeting for the day, a meeting for all the ward councils from the 2 stakes in our area and the missionaries. I was in the back translating for the meeting. After the meeting I was able to talk to members I hadn't seen in a while and friends from the mission. In particular, my uncle Alan was in attendance at the meeting so I took advantage of the opportunity to talk to him. The last time that I'd seen him was 1 year earlier at the musical fireside last year in Bloomfield, and it caused me to reflect on the last year of my mission. I've changed a lot. I've learned a lot. I'm a better person than I was 1 year ago. I've had to struggle through a lot of things in the last year, but at every step of the way I've been strengthened. God has blessed me abundantly and I have great reason to rejoice. Through the challenges and struggles I face I know that God is molding me into the person that I'm capable of becoming. I'll be eternally grateful for it.
Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. I rely on them on a lot. May God bless all of you.
with much love from your favorite elder,
-Elder Shepherd
A Tender Mercy and Dentistry. God answers prayers.
email 3/21/11
So I was scheduled to see a Dr. Zell on Friday who is an endodontist and was anticipating giving me a root canal. I've been dealing with tooth pain for almost 2 months now and have been in and out of the dentist 3 times. The whole week leading up to it I'd been praying, "Please, if it be Thy will, let us work this out so that I don't have to have a root canal." When I saw the endodontist on Friday he told me that I did indeed have a cracked tooth, but that a root canal would not be necessary. He sent me back to see Dr. Posner, a member of the ward here, who said that we could put a band around the tooth that would fix the problem until I can get home and see if further action would be necessary. He put little metal spacers in my mouth between my last two teeth on the top left to make a little bit more space so that he could put the band around my tooth. It kind of stunk because I haven't been able to chew all weekend and the spacers are kind of painful, but I'm scheduled to see the dentist in about 2 hours to remove the spacers and place the band on. That was a prayer answered and a tender mercy of the Lord. Besides, I got to talk to a couple different dentists about dentistry and learn more about the field. It kind of tickles my fancy and I might look into it more seriously when I come back home. (Not that I'm thinking about what I'm going to do when I come back home all the time...)
On Wednesday last week we knocked on a door (yes, we knock on doors sometimes) and a little kid yelled out the window, "My mom says that she's not home now." We chuckled and said that we would come back another time. On Friday, we were walking in that same neighborhood and we felt an impression that told us to knock on that door again. Following the impression, we went and knocked on the door. A large man answered the door. We asked him if he had a faith in Christ and he just stood there. A woman in the background was saying, "Tell them YES! Tell them that you have faith!" He just stood confused and the woman pushed him out of the doorway to be able to talk to us. Her name was Barbara. "You knocked on my door 2 days ago but I wasn't able to talk to you then. Since then I've been praying that God would send you back! He answers prayers!" Our conversation led us to find out that she'd been reading the Bible a lot and was really confused why there are so many different churches and why people argue about religion. "I know that there has to be a true church, and I've been looking for it, but I haven't found it yet," she said. We shared the Book of Mormon with her and she cried as she read the last 2 paragraphs of the introduction with us. "I feel the spirit right now," she sobbed. "I know this is true." We were completely blown away by the whole experience. She agreed to follow that spirit that she felt and be baptized into God's true church. We'll teach her again this week. It was a testimony to me that this is truly God's work. Elder Urrutia and I didn't really do anything. We just showed up. The spirit is what testified to this woman's heart and let her know the truth. God has prepared her for a long time and He used us as instruments to reach out to her.
I love my mission. I LOVE being a missionary. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ.
with much love from your favorite elder,
-Elder Shepherd
Technology, nature, service...
email 3/14/11
Technology never ceases to amaze me. Yesterday, Elder Urrutia and I did a fireside for the youth of another ward that borders ours. They had a big group and we met in a member's home (their home was more like a mansion--it was huge!) We met in their 'theatre room' and hooked up a laptop to their projector and started teaching the youth how to use mormon.org and facebook to share the gospel. "Who has a facebook?" I asked them. All of them raised their hands. I looked one of them up on the spot and friend requested them. She pulled out her iphone and 2 seconds later accepted my friend request. It was a fun demonstration! I posted a mormon.org link on her page and she started commenting on it through her iphone. In about 20 seconds all the youth in the room had their phones out and commented on my link. Technology is so cool. The internet proselyting thing that we've been doing proves to be REALLY effective with the younger generation. Some of the 'old fogies' of the church are still very apprehensive about embracing it. The way I figure is that the youth of the church are going to be on facebook and youtube anyway, so you can either tell them 'don't do bad things' or you can be proactive and give them a solution or good things to utilize these new methods of communication. The internet is the 'town-square' of today's world. Hasn't that always kind of been our approach to missionary work? It's cool to see that as we develop new ways to share the gospel we embrace them and use them to fulfill the measure of their creation. Gospel principles and doctrine hasn't ever changed but the methods we employ to share them have evolved to this ever progressing world. God's work is progressive--it is never at a standstill--thus our need for continued revelation to move this progressive work along and thus our need to embrace these new methods of communication to share these eternal and unchanging principles in an advanced and progressing way.
The weather has opened up a lot of doors for us. It appears that the warmer the weather gets the warmer people are to our message. Most of the snow has melted here in Waterbury. I'm eagerly awaiting this next week as we welcome the arrival of spring! It's a wonderful time to be a missionary! I got to go on an exchange with the elders in Bridgeport, CT this weekend and go running on the beach in the morning. It was nice to breathe in the fresh, cool morning air and watch the waves crash against the rocks. God is a masterful creator. It was a tender mercy.
This week I did a lot of service. In Bridgeport, we helped a family move some furniture and 2 other families to move. I had another exchange with the elders in Meriden, CT, during which I got to go to the soup kitchen there to help prepare and serve the food. Working with people is so much fun. We helped another man unload his truck and taught him a lesson. After that we went to a members home to help her with her yard. She lives in beautiful Wallingford, CT. Wallingford is heavily wooded and the trees are huge. This woman lived in a cute little house surrounded by big, beautiful trees, some of which had large branches that had broken during the winter because of the weight of the snow. I was grateful to have had so much experience with hedging equipment with the hedges that we would regularly have to trim at our home because I put it to good use here. I love serving people. Connecticut really is a beautful place. I've fallen in love with the rural areas of Connecticut, covered in trees and nature.
Soak up the sun and live the dream!
with much love from your favorite elder,
-Elder Shepherd
Roller Coaster week
email 3/7/11
So what happens when your companion gets a "Dear John" letter? I found out this week. Look at the photos I attached...
The other photo is of Harleys' Baptism! What a great kid! He's a for-sure future missionary.
I knocked on a lot of doors this week. Knocking on doors has become a lot of fun for me. My companion and I try to switch up our approach every single time, and recently we've been going with an 'inspired question' approach. The first thing we do when they open the door is ask them a question like, "Why does God give us commandments?" or, "Do you think that God answers prayers?" It's so much fun to see how the people respond to these questions. It can be frustrating sometimes, like if you knock on Amanda's door like we did this week. "Do you believe God exists?"-"Uh- I don't really care."-"What do you think your purpose is?" "I don't know, I just like to party and get laid." After a few more questions and answers like that I got really bold with her. "Someday you are going to wind up alone and miserable and you will have no one to blame but yourself because of all the bad decisions you make. You have to repent and change your life. Repent, Amanda." She was kind of caught off guard by that and took a card from us before we left her doorstep. On another grumpy man's porch we asked, "What do you think God expects of us?" He abruptly replied, "There is no God! GROW UP!" and slammed the door. What a sad life that man must live. I felt bad for him.
At the same time, you can have really cool conversations with people as you help them search their souls and lives for something deeper... One man was ecstatic to hear about the idea that God still speaks to us today. "It makes sense! He spoke to us before why not anymore?"-"Would you like to hear what God is saying through His prophet today?"-"Absolutely!"
The mission is a roller-coaster ride experience. I think that there are a lot of parellels between the two. You have some 'ups' and 'downs'. Then you have some REALLY 'UPS' and REALLY 'DOWNS'. There are turns that catch you off guard and give you severe whiplash. There are those seemingly neverending hills that just go dreadfully slow up and up and the anticipation is just killing you. It will knock your socks off, and you'll end up loving the experience. All too soon, the ride is over, and that incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience jammed into 2 extreme minutes (or years) is over. If you just hold your hands over your eyes the whole time and curl up in a ball you won't get the full experience nor will take out of it what you otherwise could have. Soak it up and live the dream while it lasts! That's kind of how I feel right now. I'm not even blinking anymore; rather, I'll just let my eyes dry out with the exposure to the high-speed winds and put my hands in the air.
Um, I don't know if that makes a lot of sense to you, but it sure seemed to make sense in my head.
I LOVE being a missionary, and I am having life-changing experiences that have impacted me for the better. I love my Savior and I know that He heals us if we turn our lives over to Him. He has healed me and brought me out of a darkness that I could never have escaped otherwise. I love Him.
with much love from your favorite elder,
-Elder Shepherd
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
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