Thanks for the letter and it was amazing to talk with you guys this week.

I would like to share an experiencia that happened this week. With one of our families that we are teaching she has been praying for an answer and she said in her dream that she saw her mother and sister who have passed away dressed in white and they hugged her. She said she felt a warm feeling and woke up with an emense joy. She told us the next visit she knows that these things are true and she came to us to church with her two kids Milagros and Jesus who are the cutest kids. Milagros is 11 but she has so much responsibility in the house and is just so cute! I´ll have pictures next week

It´s just amazing to be here working HARD but being able to see the miracles first hand. Thank you for all the suport you guys give me and I can´t wait to see you guys when I get home!

Have a great time in Newport for new years. I´ll be passing through another world war 3 here with all the fireworks hah

Hey!

Well right now I am changed to the zone of Lujan in Franciso Alvarez as Zone Leader. I´ll have more time to write next week and this sunday!

We are planning to call at 7:00pm here so it would be around 4:00 there!

Love you guys! Can´t wait to talk.

Hey Family!

First this keyboard is pretty bad so I´ll have a hard time writing fast but at least I can write! Well this has been a full week with many new things happening in the mission. This wednesday we had a conferencia with the president and he is changing a lot of the work ethics of this mission. We are now focusing on using the members a lot more because really the work will advance a lot stronger if we use the members. I am really excited for the new changes and it really will make us a better mission because the Lord is having us change and work even harder because he knows we are able to do it. I´m thankful to be in the best mission in the world.

So lets see what happened this week. First it´s getting constantly hotter and hotter and I love sweating like Niagra Falls here because it´s so humid but on the other fact if there is wind is isn´t that bad. The dogs are still everywhere and they bathe themselves in the ditches with dirty water just to cool them off. I met about 4 talking parots today and the all know how to say the bad words here. I had to give a talk this sunday about missionary work but I only had like 10 minutos so I just bore my testimony and that was about it. The people said it was a really good testimony and asked me a lot of questions after because I shared some stories about the mission to help animate the youth. Ranging from Dogs chasing you, having drunk people try to explain their dreams with a huge machette and finding the most amazing people.

This week we worked hard but we only had 2 people come to church this week but these two people made me feel something even more special. It was a family that we brought to church with three of their kids. In Argentina it is hard to find families because the dads or either working or they do not want anything to do with religion but this family is special. They are super poor right now and in a bad situation but we have been teaching them about the blessings of our Heavenly Father and about the gospel and they tested their faith and showed up to church. Even the dad came in a white shirt. He´s a stud! Even though we didn´t bring the people we wanted to church seeing this family come was amazing and special to me. There is something about bringing families to church that you cannot explain. The mission is hard. I will not lie. It´s the hardest thing I have done in every aspect but you recieve the best joy and the purest joy along with the love of your family. I am so grateful to be here in the Mission.

Ps I cut my hair but while I was cutting it in the bathroom I was talking on the phone so I forgot to put the attachment back on and I cut a chunk out of the side of my head.. I look like a Argentina street kid now haha. So I´ve learned not to talk with other missionaries and cut your hair at the same time. :)

Love you guys and it´s weird that it is Christmas so soon. It doesn´t feel anything like Christmas here but being able to testify of Christ 24/7 makes Christmas even more special. I can´t wait for Christmas and this time to bring many people unto Christ.

Thanks for the pictures. I wan´t to see more!

Love you guys

Sorry I don´t have much time to write today we are really busy but the week wen´t really well. We are tearing up the area and are finding new people! Probably the highlight of the week was our english class. We had 35 people come and most of them where teenagers and kids. So there is a house behind the chapel and while we were playing basketball with our investigators all these kids started yelling at us and wondering if they could come play. Like 11 kids hoped over this fence Sandlot style and started playing with us. They were super stoked and wanted to come to the ingles class the next day so we had all these people for the ingles class! Crazy stuff.

We have a lot of baptisms planned out for this month and we are super excited to keep working hard. It´s getting pretty hot but you just have to keep working! You are constantly sweating though so it´s pretty gross lol. Today I bought the hair machine so I´ll be getting a pretty gnarly haircut by myself if a member can´t do it. I´ve already done it before so it shouldn´t be that hard.

That´s about it. My mind is really blank right now because I´m super tired from working a lot this week. Random things start popping into my head lol. Don´t worry I write in my journal every night so I´m not loosing anything :)

Love you guys and hope you have a great time leading up to Chirstmas. Here I´ll just be dying from the heat, hearing loud music and fireworks.

PS. Boca won last night!

Love,
Bret

I can´t believe that Thanksgiving passed by beause really the time flies by here in the Mission. I hope you all had a great day and next year we will have thanksgiving together!

Well this week was a solid week with a lot of hard work. We topped the charts in stats and the hard worked payed off. It was sooo hot this week it was crazy. Just walking and sweating all day and even at night. Even in the pench it´s hot and lucky us.. we have a pretty lame fan that doesn´t throw air worth anything hah. The joys of the mission. Besides that the week went great with the hard work paying off. We´ll I should probably go over the highlights of the week right? Well we have English Classes every saturday for two hours and like 12 random people came hah. It was sweet and they all want to come back next week. One of the students came to church this week so this is a great tool to help the mission work. We found an amazing family this week. We were passing by like any other day but we left a folleto with her last week and we decided to pass by this week. She said she was catholic and didn´t want anything but she accepted it and we went on our way. The second time we passes by the kids were playing BASEBALL?! yeah it´s crazy.. Argentines playing baseball? So I had to start playing with them and that opened the door to their house and we talked with the mom and shared the plan of salvation. At first she was a bit hard but at the end she softened up and realized that these things are true. We made plans to have all of the come to church and they were all stoked. Ends up the husband doesn´t want anything to do with us and said they cannot go to church. Heart Breaker! That killed me because this family is sooo dope. We just have to work and get to know the father. We passed by saturday night to see how there plans were to come to church and the mom ( Graciela) was like.. I talked with my husband and he said no..

The standard goal for the mission is to have 5 people in church. We had three people right before sacrament meeting and we were pretty let down because we were working so hard and reached all of our goals for the week. We offered a prayer in one of the empty class rooms and we had a miracle. Two random people showed up that went to the church in another area two weeks ago came here this sunday. The mother of 22 with 3 kids loved the church and her mother in law said it was beautiful as well. Wow.. I´m still stunned on how this happened and I´m thankful so much for our Heavnly Father for giving us this blessing. We worked hard and it payed off.

So after a long, HOT week we reached all our goals. Had success in the area and felt the blessings of our Heavly Father. It´s crazy how we are almost in Decemeber. I´m greatful to be in the mission!

Love,
Bret

Well this week has been a pretty good week. The time seems all the same in the mission and everything just seems to fly. We are having progress with our investigators. Elizabet came to church so we are super stoked on her progress. I do not have to much time to write today just to tell you guys that the week went well. It was super hot this week but it finally rained. The new shoes are amazing.. I can finally walk!

Besides that everything is going fine here in the area of Rivadavia. Hope you guys have a great week and eat a lot of turkey and I cannot believe that Christmas is only 5 weeks away. We can talk on the phone!

Love you guys
Bret

Well it´s been a solid week here in Rivadavia. We killed the boards this week and had a lot of success finding new people! We had a confirmation of a baptized that we had this last weekend so the work is going really well. I have a strong testimony that the members are the best way to find new people. We were on divisions with one of the members and we passed by one of his moms friends and she let us in like she already knew us. We talked and shared the message and they were stoked on it. The kids came and played basketball with us on Friday night and she loves us! They were not able to come to church this sunday because they went out to another area to visit family but this week we are planning a Noche de Hogar with this family with there friends who are members. It´s going to so rad!

We played soccer today for Pday with some elders from the zone. It´s weird being so old on the mission and I officialy have recieved my Trunky papers to have me fill out how I am going to go home.. Weird thinking about that.. I still have a long time to go. So I´m just stoked on this week to come. The weather is warming up and more people are outside so thats a plus. I´m enjoying my time with Elder Kezerian from SLC.. he´s a great missionary and a great guy. He´s a hard worker and we are going to tear it up this week again.

Thanks for the package! The shoes were very much needed. I can actually walk now hah! Thanks for the love and support. I liked the van stickers and everything hah. I miss you guys a lot but I´ll be able to call home in 5 weeks! Time sure goes by fast. Next thing you know it i´ll be home.

Make sure to tell Gary that I say hi and that I wish him a happy birthday. Tell him we need to go to some futbol games and watch them on TV too!

Well I have left San Antonio de Padua.. I´m sad like always when leaving an area beacuse you become to attached to the investigators and members. I felt like I did what I was ment to accomplish and I love every single person that I have met there. The converts are amazing and the members are super awesome. I will always be in contact with them and always have a place in my heart for the people of Padua as well as my previous areas.

So we ended the transfer early on Thursday and I was able to visit families during the week. We had a dinner with a family that is investigating and it was delicious. They aren´t able to be baptized yet because they are working on Sundays but I´ll try my hardest from over here in my area to have them reach the waters of baptism. We were the first elders to enter in their house and they love us now! On Wednesday we finished the day off at Pablos house with his kids that were baptized. We ate humburgers and just spent the night together as a family. I love them so much.. they are so close to me and just super amazing people. I´m so glad I was able to share the gospel with them and to see their two sons be baptized and to see the future baptism of Pablo when all the paper work goes through for divorsement. Those kids are so dope. They love hiphop and skateboarding and want to go on missions! What more can you ask from anyone in Argentina hah. So I´m pretty sad leaving the area but I´ll be able to visit in 3 months before I head home! We need to come back and visit!

Right now I am in an area called Rivadavia! It isn´t to far away from S.A de Padua only about 40 minutes in bus. I´m companions with Elder Kezerian who was 1 month in the mission. I´ll be finishing out his training. I´ll be running the district here in in Castelar so I´m stoked to do that again. Should be fun and we tore it up this week. We got to the area on thursday with basically nothing so we started working super hard and we reached all our goals! It was a miracle and thanks to members that came with us on divisions we made it. The members are super cool here. The are is poorer so the people are more humble and open to the message. It´s all dirt roads again so I´m not that pumped on walking haha but I´m stoked to be here in the area. This saturday we held an english class and put up invitations all over the place and we had a good turn out of like 15 people with 4 new investigators! They loved it and said I was a rad teacher! We split the group up into two classes and I taught the other one. There was this little girl names Agustina that is adorable,who has 10 years, and went home and told all her friends and family members that she has a cool teacher named ¨Bret¨ haha. She really wanted to know my name so I told her and we ran into her in the street with her aunt and we started talking and she was like ¨Oh so you´re Bret the teacher.. Agustina always talks about you. So she is going to come to class Saturday and she wants to come to church on Sunday! I can´t wait to work with her and her family so the join the church. What a solid way to find new people!

The weather is heating up. It reached 30º C this week and it was super hot and we are one month away from Summer soo I´m not ready for that.. but at least it rained so it cooled off the area for a bit. Besides that I´m loving it. Elder Kezerian is a great companion and a hard worker so I´m down to give it my all for my last 3 transfers and probably my last area. He is from SLC Utah.

Thats about it. Had a great week. Tired.. worked hard and ready to baptize here! We have a ton of potencial and I´m stoked!

Whats up everyone! Thank you for the email fam. You guys are the best and sounds like everyone is doing good back home.

Well this week has been a crazy workful week leading up to the baptism we had yesterday. Damian and Matias were baptized this Sunday and it was soo great! These kids are like my family and this whole family is just amazing. We´ve been working with them for about 3 months and finally everything worked out. After working so hard in the area we are having success and it is a great feeling. I´ll send some pictures over of the baptism. I can´t wait to see this family go through the temple! So today we had an asado with the district and we bought like 60 pesos worth of meat which could feed any hungry missionary. It was heaven like always then after we played some futbol. Americans vs. Latinos... yeah you can guess who won on that one haha.

This week we have a sweet schedule. It looks like I´ll be heading out from the area so some families want to do some farewell things. Tomorrow we have another ASADO (boss) and Wednesday night we are going to have an American BBQ (with hamburgers) at the home of Pablo and his family. I seriously love the people here and will always carry them close to my heart like everyone else in the zones I have been in. It´s amazing to receive letters from converts that have made it to one year as a member and tell you how much their live has been blessed and they are going strong in the church with callings. It just makes the hard work seem like nothing because the happiness you feel is beyond measure.

We ordered a huge pizza this week and with other random orders when we are starving at the pench. Elder Nesbit is hilarious and we already have a lot of inside jokes. We always have trouble falling asleep at night because we always talk, even if we are dead serious about falling asleep... I´ll miss him alot!

4 months left in the mish... all the elders that have my same time are all telling me how it flys by. I remember I came into the mission with Reese having like 3 months left... it´s just a weird feeling! I don´t want it to end yet.. so I´ll be working hard til the end.

That's about it. Just a super gnarly week and on top of that two baptisms of the two coolest kids.

Instead of writing about the week I should be writing about the day haha. Well we started the day off playing futbol here in Padua so it´s been a good day from the start then we ate some very chewy milanesas. After that we got back to the pench and ran off to do internet right now and we realized we don´t have money haha. Good thing we have a good realation with the owner of the cyber and he said we can pay him back later. He´s dope

Well this past week has been a full week! It´s hard to think right now becuase I have a killer headache and I´ve been sick the last couple of days but I got some good medication from an investigator that is in the medicine field. Good stuff! They are going to have a baby in 2 months so we were able to see the video in 4D from the ultrasound and they are stoked that I will be here in Argentina to see it! I can´t wait to come back and visit this family. We are going to be baptising their two sons this weekend and eventually the father after the paper work getings all worked out with his wife. I´m not a fan of 3 year divorce waiting periods...

So this is probably my last week here in Padua because the transfer is going to be over on the 3rd of Noviembre.. don´t know why but the bumped it up a few days so can´t do anything about that. I have a good interview with President too! Right off the bat he said ¨What has gotten into you Elder Shepherd¨... I sat there stunned like... what did I do wrong?! but he said you have torn it up in the last 4 months and has seen a growth as an Elder... Dope! He says he has plans for me so we will see what we are going to do.

Elder Nesbit is doing great. He´s probably one of my best friends now he´s a stud. Reminds me a lot of the relationship Cage and I have. We got some good things going for the future...

Well thats about it! Just another week in the mission. It´s starting to heat up so I´m down but when it´s dead summer it´s going be horrible!

Love you guys,
Bret

Well, thanks for the letter. I appreciate hearing from you guys every week! It has been a busy week here in San Antonio de Padua and all the work we have been doing has paid off! We were the only zone out of four to complete with all the goals of the mision for the week. We were able to have 5 people come to church and we have 6 people that have dates to be baptized. I´m super excited but I know during this time we need to work even harder to make sure these people reach the waters of baptism.

We meet a super awesome lady called Mirian through a reference from a member. We had some trouble finding her but everything worked out and we had a lesson in her house and she really got emocional and loved the message. She even came to church yesterday and she took it all in and I can´t wait to pass by this week. A couple members are studs and welcomed her really well and made her feel welcomed. It was pretty cringing because in our two classes we had the topics of Tithing and Patriarcal Blessings.. lol.. super awesome classes for a new investigator. I know everything will work out and the most important thing is that she will feel the spirit. It´ll all be good.

We have some pretty funny pictures to show you guys hah just a busy week with funny things. I really believe Argetinos are afriand of rain. We were walking passed a school and with the mist everyone was running to their cares and the kids were putting the hands up like the ¨mist¨ would kill them. It was super funny and one of those moments you just had to be there to experience the glory of it. Elder Nesbit and I already have some super funny inside jokes and I´m sure he will be one of my good friends for life. He´s a stud and growing everyday and his spanish is improving really well. It´s crazy to think I was there 15 months ago... time flys!

I hope I get some letters next week. We have interviews with President and I´m always stoked to meet with him and to see how I can improve. I think this is my last transfer here but we will see. I only have 3 transfers left after this transfer! Stoked and Bumbed at the same time. This mission is the best.

Well I don´t have to much time to write today sorry!! But it´s been an awesome and also let down week. I had planes for so many people to come to the conference but it seems like everyone found themselves in a situation and were not able to come. Besides that we found an amazing man who loves church!! His name is Carlos and when we were on division with Elder Barrios from Columbia we found him in the patio and just started talking and he let us in his house. We started talking about lesson two and he was stoked to come to church this weekend. The next time we passed by with a member his house was super clean and he had the table set with the folleto of lesson 2 on the table. He was ready to hear more! He has a fetcha for the 23rd of October. We have 5 people planned to be baptized this month so we are working hard with them. The division with Elder Barrios was super fun and hilarious. I love that guy and he told me that I need to come to Bogota and visit him. He´s planning to study in the states too. On friday night we brought 7 investigators to the activity and played football, made pizza and everyone got to know eachother. It was sweet! Conference weekend was the best. I really got a lot out of this conference and I am pretty sad to thing how this will be my last conference as a missionary. Understanding spanish seems perfectly normal now and I felt I got more out of conference watching it in spanish than ingles. Funny stuff. For me this conference was ment for us to become better people with our morals and decision. We need to step up and not become in the world. I have many talks that I can apply to investigators.

Today we played some football with about 9 other elders here in Padua. I need to buy some new shoes. My vans don´t hold up anymore and I almost broke my big toe nail again. So I´ll probably have to buy some new shoes. We found some kittens in front of the church while leaving. Two super cute guys and of coarse with my soft side we had to take them to the pench and we are looking to see if a member can take them because we cannot have pets lol. Besides that it has been a great week. I´m still stressing about our investigators.. I love them so much that it hurts to not see them progress and accept the gospel. Sometimes we have to realize it is in the lords time and not ours but we have to keep loving and doing all we can. We have a family that came about a month ago but ever since they have been busy but sometimes they are able to come to mutual with us. They fit in perfectly but the mother is sick and that complicates a lot of things. We just have to keep working harder... and be guided by the spirit.

Many investigators are progressing and we are really being blessed. Elder Nesbit is a stud and I love serving with him. He´ll be one of my best friends after the mission for sure.

Love you guys,
Bret

I can´t believe it is another week in the mission. Time goes by way to fast. So looking back at the week I was really happy at the progress of the people that we have in the area. We had a miracle at church this weekend. Having a super workfilled day this saturday we found some amazing people and with one of them they were really stoked to come to church. It ends up that her cousin is a member in another ward pretty close to here and she came with him. The funny thing she is a Megadeth and Iron Maiden fan, it was pretty funny haha. We passed by her store and taught her a quick lesson and she loved it and came to church. Sweet.

The family that we are working with are still having troubles coming to church but the kids are coming to the activities like Futbol. They are super awesome and just sundays are really hard for them so we are going to be working super hard with them to help them come to church. They were going to get baptized over 4 years ago but something just came up and now I know we found them again to have them be in the church.

One of our investigators still comes to church but doesn´t see the need to be baptized. She´s 17 so I wouldn´t really understand it either but the mom says it too so it convinces the daughter even more. The mom has really opened up with us. We met her about 2 months ago and now we are having our second family night in her house tomorrow! She loves us now and she has a kiosco and everytime we pass by she gives us food and stuff. They always wait for us to pass by haha. The only bad thing they are starting to work on sundays but we are working things out so another family member can watch the store!! It´s pretty gnarly hah the daughter plays Call of Duty on the computer sometimes so that was a kick.

So yeah we have a lot of Progress in the area. We have an interview with President Wednesday with an investigator that needs to wait 3 years to get divorced so I hope everything works out. I´m sure President is going to put goals with him but I am praying he will be able to help speed up the process of the paper work. It´s pretty crazy how it takes so long to get divorced so I understand more how people don´t want to get married!

Well Love you guys and have a great conference.

Well it´s been a normal week in the mission hah. Probably the highlight of these week was how Elder Aidukaitis came and visited the mission. We had a conference with him this week and it was really good. I remember how last year he came and gave the mission a little shake up and make us want to do better if you catch my drift hah. I only had 3 weeks in the mission field back then but now I had the same opporunity when I have 18 months. I really took it in a lot more and he gave us great counsil and we felt the spirit imensly. He just makes you want to work harder and harder. He still wants us to baptize every week and we said we will do it!

We worked really hard to bring our investigators to church this week but it was one of those weeks that everything just didn´t work out at the end. You can only give your best and let everything else work out the way it should. Sometimes as missionaries we don´t put ourselves in the shoes of our investigators but we just have to keep on giving our love to them. I seriously love these people!!

This saturday we had a service project in Merlo at a hospital and it ended up being with the two stakes of Merlo and Marcos Paz so guess what I was able to see the members from Mariano Acosta! I saw the bishop´s family, Familia Diaz and more! When I walked in I came across Eli the daughter of the Bishops family waving at me and ran down and gave me a hug. I was so stoked to see them and I miss them so much! I realized how much they loved me and all the missionaries say the family always talk about me there.

This week we are just going to go nuts and talk with everyone hah. We are stoked to just find new people and work hard with the people we have. I´m enjoying the weather before it gets redic hot down here but I´m ready for another summer!

Just another week in the mission. We found the soccer ball that I accidently kicked over the fence of the church.. we were contemplating hoping the fence of the house to get it but then Heavenly Father didn´t want us to be stupid and sent a huge German Shepherd. We decided not to jump. Elder Nesbit is rad, one of my favorite comps for sure and he´s doing great. He´s from West Jordan Utah so you know mom.

Love you guys, keep it real
Chau

Well it´s been a good week. I´m pretty much looking forward to the week right now because we are both stoked to work hard and to do our best. This last week seemed like everything has happened so that our investigators do not come to church but they are still super excited and animados to come to church this next week. Everything is going great here in Padua and it´s starting to heat up too. I´m looking forward to the summer time but at the same time as a missionary it´s pretty gnarly hot.

Our investigators are still studs and we will be working hard in order for them to be members in the church. Having the new program of the mission is amazing and it´s teaching me more than anything on how to be a better missionary too. I´m really excited for what is all to come.

We had to clean our pench really well today because Elder Audukietes is going to make some suprise inspections and we actually have a conference with him this week here in San Antonio de Padua. Today on P-day we played futbol with our district and that´s about it. I´m ready to go out and work and have a great week. One of my good friends from the mission here is in the zone. He´s from Bogata Columbia so Dad has to give me some slang to talk with him. I always call him a Lampara. He´s a super chill funny elder with a hard columbian accent.

We´ve ordered ice cream a lot lately and eating pretty well. I´m preparing myself for a hot summer when you drop a ton of weight hah.

That´s about it. Just ready for a new week and to tear it up.

Love you guys

Just another great week in the mission. We´ve probably eaten more meat in one week than even in my mission. I have a awesome kid so I have to enjoy it. Actually this Saturday we had an asado with a person we met last week just talking with him in the street and he invited us over to have an asado. That´s how cool Argetinos are. We finished up eating and we invited him to the read the Book of Mormon. It was more of a eat and talk session and he loved that. At first he was pretty hard to get to but at the end he really opened up and wants to read the book of mormon. Aparently his best friend from La Plata served a mission in Córdoba, so he already has a good connection with the Mormons. He gave us a lot of praise to be on the mission. So we ate really well! I love asados hah. For mutual we had two investigators come and they loved it and already have friends at the church. The family we are teaching weren´t able to come to church due to a birthday party but they are excited to come next week and to the activities of the church. We had a great lesson with all the family during the week and we challenged all of them to be baptized together and they all accepted! You could feel the spirit so much during that lesson. It´s an amazing family.

During church we had a miracle with an investigator coming by herself to church with a member friend. It was a shock and now she wants us to come by this Tuesday to have a Family Night and she really wants a change in her life. So the work is going great and my companion and I are really having a great time together. He reminds me a lot of cage with his personality and we pretty much enjoy the same stuff and music so I´m stoked about that. We are working hard together and I love being able to teach him and he´s really enjoying the mission and says that I´m a awesome Dad. So I´m happy.

Just looking forward to this week, I can´t wait to see the end results of all the hard work and I can´t believe I only have 6 months left in the mission. I´m stressin! I don´t want it to end. Also I´m not ready for the heat to come, even though right now it is perfect!

Love you guys!
Bret

Another week in the country of Argentina! The weather is starting to warm up so it´s getting really nice and it feels too much like California so I´m stoked hah. I can´t beleive this mes is reaching an end. It really goes by too fast and I feel like it will only go by faster. So I´ll just start from the top of the week and finish with a Miracle that we had this week!

Basically we worked really hard this week and I love President Carter. He´s such a great man and President. First before jumping ahead my companion and I had to go down to Captial again so he could start on his paper work to be legal in the country. Again we were able to take the subway downtown and it was awesome like always! I love downtown and it was crazy going down there with the new missionaries and having to translate for them. It makes me realize how far I have come in the language and the mission. After doing the paperwork we went it eat some lunch at Subway and the lady workers behind the counter were laughing at us because we haven´t seen bacon in like 17 months so it was pretty funny. I can´t wait to go back and show you down town, it is amazing! I´ll show you guys some pictures. The mall felt like America 100% but with Argentina European people.. jaja. After that we headed back on the subway, train and back to Padua. In the night we had a great lesson with our investigators and his kids. Then Friday came, the conference of Zone so we had to wake up at 5:30 and take colds showers because our stupid water heated is sketchy but we made it on a over stuffed train. I´ll paint a picture for you guys how crazy it is. Just think of the down stairs bathroom but with 30 people in it. You literally have to fight to get out at your stop hah. It´s craazzy. So we made it to conference and we had a great time! I love the counsle that president has for us and he is changing the mission and I love it. We are focused on talking with more people and relying more on the Lord and working hard! There is a lot of focuses and I like it. I recieved a super awesome birthday gift from the President and his Wife. They are studs!

Friday night was awesome! So right now we are able to play futbol with our investigators and we had 5 investigators come to the activity. So as long as there are investigatores we are set. They all loved it! Saturday we had an activity with the Qoroun of the Elderes and we ate chorripan and they played futbol! It was rad. I love how everyone is really good a futbol here and they really know how to cook meat hah! Overall a super day but it gets even better.

During the week we talked with a lady on the street with her daugther. It wasn´t anything special but we were able to write down their direccion and we ended up passing by Saturday. They let us in like they already knew us and we sat down in the house with the Mom and the daughter of 12 years. It ends up she said when she talked to us in the street she knew we weren´t send from God for her and her family. She talked with the missionaries over 16 years ago but even since nothing has happened. So talking with her was so spiritual. She is going through a really hard time with her health and family. They are a family of 8 children. The lesson was super spiritual and I could feel the spirit so strongly in the lesson. I had the impression to promise her if she came to church she would recieve blessings from our Heavenly Father. It just came to my mind during the time and she told us she will try. We told them we would pass by in the morning and she said we will see but I told her, if you have the faith it will work out. We passed by in the morning and the mother and daughter both came out ready to go to church! They are such studs and I knew she wasn´t feeling good but she came anyways. We headed to church in a remis and at the end of church we gave her a blessing. She was super impressed on how everyone cared for her and the daughter is stoked to come to mutual this friday to play some soccer! The 18 year old daugther wasn´t able to come but she want´s to come next week! I really have a testimony that heavenly father puts people in our path so we can be instruments in his hands. It is one of the many miracles that I have seen on my mission. It´s the best feeling ever. I want to help this family so much.

I´ve found to be obedient to the Lord, Work hard and be real. Its the truth!

At church we were able to bring 7 investigators and we had the confirmation of Rodrigo!

Today we went to Merlo to buy some stuff and I bought some Jerseys for super cheep and I am ready to play some futbol this week. I´m getting a lot better. I can´t wait to come back and be an addict to Futbol and Baseball. I can imagen Uncle Gary and I going crazy over Futbol! Aguante Boca!

This keyboard is so sketchy but I do what I can. Tonight we have a Family Night and we are going to make some brownies! I´m stoked

Off to another hard working week

Love you Fam!
Keep it real!

What a week what a week! We´ll yeah it is true that I am training Elder Nesbit from South Jordan Utah! I am stoked and he´s pretty much a great elder with a great personality, new of coarse but he is learning everyday. The program we have to work with is really inspired and it helps the two of us a lot! So starting off this week was super crazy because we went to pickup our new missionaries and we had a super awesome conference with President. He told us how he picked the best missionaries to train the new missionaries and how we will play a huge impact on their mission and their lives. So I am super excited to help my new companion out with everything. We didn´t get to work on Monday or Tuesday but we had a super great week. We led the zone in eficacia points and we had a Baptism this weekend of Rodrigo! He is a stud and I´m sure the story of him leading up to him are in the older emails but he came to church with a suit and everything and was ready to have a great baptism. We had a bunch of members support the baptism and the bishop said he was amazed on how great of a baptism it was. I am super stoked for this family because you can see how they are changing so much. There are more people in the family that are able to be baptized so we are working with the whole family! 5 investigators came to church this week including Pablo by himself. He came without his girlfriend Juliana because she is sick but he came anyways! He showed his faith and now we see that he really wants to join the church. So something awesome happened in Gospel Principles class when Pablo said ¨I come from a Catholic background but I don´t agree with the stand points but I know that this is the true church and I want to be a member.¨ He gave his testimony like a stud and I loved it. He is really progressing so stronly. The only thing that is stopping him joining the church is getting married. Stupid divorce papers! People don´t want to get married because the whole divorce thing is redic so whats the purpose of getting married when you have the same benefits and a married couple here? That is the problem we run into all the time!

We had a goal from President to talk with 140 people during the week and we comlepted it and I really did see the blessings from our Heavenly Father. We found amazing people and just everything is working out. Don´t get me wrong, 90% of the people are like, ¨Nahh it´s all good, I have my religion¨, but through all the hard contacts we find great people and I can´t wait to see them Progress.

I´m so pumped on the missionary work right now and I can´t wait to have a great full week ahead in San Antonio de Padua. Today on P-day we played futbol with investigators and members and last night we found a super tiny dog that started to follow us and we almost took it to the pench because it was so cute but we left it at a members house lol. We forgot it at the house but it worked out because they want it.

Off to another week!

Love you guys,
Bret

How is everything in the Family?

Well to update you guys I´ve had a crazy week but everything ended up fine. This friday there was a huge storm and it hailed. Basically the whole provincia got hit pretty hard. I was in Captial doing paperwork but there was times where it was pitch black outside in the middle of the day. Crazy stuff!

Looking back at the week we had some awesome Family Nights with families and everything was working out that we would bring 8 people to church but we completly forgot that it was the day to Vote in the country. Here it is Obligtory so everyone had inconviences and only a couple people arrived to church. Even though it was a bit disspointing I am super excited for the week ahead because we have so much potential here in the Area. We met a family of 7 people and one of the daughters is baptized but everyone else are non members. We went by to see them and the let us in and we talked with the mom and the youngest daughter that has three years. Super awesome family and I can´t wait to pass by this week to have a Family Night and invited them all to come unto Christ. Also, I´ll be training a new missionary. Tomorrow I have to go back to Ramos Mejia to pick him up and everything. 20 new missionaries are coming into the mission and President said he picked the 20 best missionaries to train. I´m humbled to be one of them. I don´t think I´m that great at all but I´m excited for this oportunity because it´s a great experience and the area is about to explode. I love when President speaks. We had a meeting with him this morning and he feels like a President. Just a straight up awesome and man of God. He´s giving me a huge oportunity and I´m going to do my best to make things work and train this missionary. We have a new program to teach missionaries so this is the first test run in the mission!

Besides that we will be having a baptism this weekend for Rodrigo and two more on the 18th of September. We have a lot more people to work with that are ready to be baptized. I love these people so much and especially the Family Diaz. They were able to come eat lunch with me on the 10th for my Birthday. I love them so much, words cant describe it. It even makes me teary eyed writing this hah. But I´m grateful for everyone that I know here. Also when we were heading back from Capital I ran into an old investigator from Mariano Acosta and it was amazing! They were going to get married and baptized but the paper work is taking forever. I talked with her and told her to get married hah so we will see. I wrote them a letter and we will see how things work out. Speaking about letters. Thanks for the letter from the family, I still haven´t opened it yet. I haven´t had time. Give thanks to the Hambrects and the Hamiltons too! Also Ragey and Soda :)

Well a crazy week but right now it will only get crazier because I´ll be training a new missionary. Not sure if he will be American or Latin. There are 15 Americans and 4 latins so the chances are in favor of an American.

Love you guys, Keep me update on how things are at home. Thanks for all the Birthday emails from everyone!

Well what a week here in Padua. It was great hearing all the birthday wishes from everyone. Thank you for your kindness. I really don´t feel any older but according to my age I am 21 now hah. It´s crazy but we got some good things planned for the week and at the end of the week some baptisms. Your age in the mission really isn´t your age in real life, it´s your age in the mission life. I´m getting old but I still have some time to work magic here in the mission. It´s the best place to be!

Well looking back at this week we had a pretty busy week. Pablo and his kids loved coming to mutual but unfortunanetly they were not able to come to church this weekend. We recieved a text message saturday night and it said they can´t come due to complications. They said next week si o si! They said they have something planned for my birthday and it includes eggs... I´m pretty worried about passing by tomorrow night.

Rodrigo is going to get baptized this weekend. We are seeing if it is the right weekend to do it because here on the 14th it is voting! So everyone is required to vote and we are looking to see if we will have a good attendance for the baptism but I am sure everything will workout. He´s a stud and I´m amazed how awesome he is. Comes to church with his brother Gonzalo who is only 13. They come in Shirt and Tie and everything. Studs. Luciano is still set for this weekend but he´s not sure. He´s that type of person who doesn´t like commitments but I have faith when the weekend comes he will show up for the baptism. On the other hand his girlfriend will have to give him the frank talk.. haha. I told her that she needs to get married in the temple and she wants to. Just one problem.. your boyfriend is so close to being a member so help him! Luciano is a stud and comes to church by himself. We just need to have him jump in the water!

Besides that everything is going well in Padua. We are seeing blessing in many forms. Old investigators without interes are telling us they have interes again. One investigator named Tamara has been coming to church and we are planning a family night with her and her family. The parents havent listened to the missionaries before but now the mom wants us to come over and she came to church for a little.

Thursday we went to Capital and Palermo to do some dentist stuff for my companion and I had to go to get my DNI renewed.. unfortunantly it closed at 3:00 and I arrived at 3:15.. So it looks like I am going back Thursday! We had a great time walking around Capital and taking the subway. We ate at Burger King too! It was great having a burger after 17 months of not having one hah. It was weird seeing all the kids in uniforms and running into a Legit Addidas store and finding a Kobe Bryant Jersey that was legit. (Go Lakers)

So yeah I am exciting for my birthday that is coming up tomorrow. We have great plans, a lot of food and a lot of people to teach and bring to Christ.

I love going to church on Sunday because you have the chance to renew your convenants that you have made with our Heavenly Father. You get your batteries recharged for the week and that was just what I needed! I´m looking forward to this week and it might be that I am training the next tranfer. We will see!

Well what a week here in Padua. It was great hearing all the birthday wishes from everyone. Thank you for your kindness. I really don´t feel any older but according to my age I am 21 now hah. It´s crazy but we got some good things planned for the week and at the end of the week some baptisms. Your age in the mission really isn´t your age in real life, it´s your age in the mission life. I´m getting old but I still have some time to work magic here in the mission. It´s the best place to be!

Well looking back at this week we had a pretty busy week. Pablo and his kids loved coming to mutual but unfortunanetly they were not able to come to church this weekend. We recieved a text message saturday night and it said they can´t come due to complications. They said next week si o si! They said they have something planned for my birthday and it includes eggs... I´m pretty worried about passing by tomorrow night.

Rodrigo is going to get baptized this weekend. We are seeing if it is the right weekend to do it because here on the 14th it is voting! So everyone is required to vote and we are looking to see if we will have a good attendance for the baptism but I am sure everything will workout. He´s a stud and I´m amazed how awesome he is. Comes to church with his brother Gonzalo who is only 13. They come in Shirt and Tie and everything. Studs. Luciano is still set for this weekend but he´s not sure. He´s that type of person who doesn´t like commitments but I have faith when the weekend comes he will show up for the baptism. On the other hand his girlfriend will have to give him the frank talk.. haha. I told her that she needs to get married in the temple and she wants to. Just one problem.. your boyfriend is so close to being a member so help him! Luciano is a stud and comes to church by himself. We just need to have him jump in the water!

Besides that everything is going well in Padua. We are seeing blessing in many forms. Old investigators without interes are telling us they have interes again. One investigator named Tamara has been coming to church and we are planning a family night with her and her family. The parents havent listened to the missionaries before but now the mom wants us to come over and she came to church for a little.

Thursday we went to Capital and Palermo to do some dentist stuff for my companion and I had to go to get my DNI renewed.. unfortunantly it closed at 3:00 and I arrived at 3:15.. So it looks like I am going back Thursday! We had a great time walking around Capital and taking the subway. We ate at Burger King too! It was great having a burger after 17 months of not having one hah. It was weird seeing all the kids in uniforms and running into a Legit Addidas store and finding a Kobe Bryant Jersey that was legit. (Go Lakers)

So yeah I am exciting for my birthday that is coming up tomorrow. We have great plans, a lot of food and a lot of people to teach and bring to Christ.

I love going to church on Sunday because you have the chance to renew your convenants that you have made with our Heavenly Father. You get your batteries recharged for the week and that was just what I needed! I´m looking forward to this week and it might be that I am training the next tranfer. We will see!

Looking back on the week everything went really well. I was sick for a couple of days but that didn´t stop us from working. We had some great lessons with our investigators. Everyone is progressing and we are looking for some baptisms in two weeks! We had a Family Night with Pablo and his kids. We made tacos again because they loved it and we had a great lesson. They were so excited to come to church but on Sunday morning they had to go to their grandpas house to help him with his yard.. but they are coming next week for sure and to all the activities.

We headed to captial this last wednesday for my companion so it was cool to see captial again. We passed through Palermo. I remember Drew telling me he was in Palermo for a little bit.

Today the mission made a video. I was in it. So I´ll have to send it to you guys when it is done. It will probably be on youtube later or on the mission blog ( buenosaireswest.blogspot.com)

Thats about it. Just another week in the mission.

Love you guys

Well what a week! The mission is going by in a blur seriously. I cannot believe that is already the end of July and my birthday is around the corner. I am pretty stoked haha. But everything is going well here in Padua. Right now I am a little sick but you just have to work through it. Today for P-day we played some soccer and then we back to the pench to eat some chicken noddle soup because it started to rain so it was one of those chicken noddle soup days while it was raining. Fortunately it stopped and now we are sending out the emails and ready to have a great Noche de Hogar.

So we are actually doing really well in the area right now. We have two baptized planned for the end of the transfer and we are planning to have 3 more. Everyone said this area is super hard but we are having success and I know this success comes from our Heavenly Father. People are showing up out of no where at church and it looks like next week we will have 8 people in church. Haha a funny story. We have an investigator who just never wanted to get baptized. So after church I was talking with him ( He´s 13) and I asked him so whats going on and why don´t you want to be baptized.. he told me.. well do I have to do anything more.. I told him ¨Dude you are ready bro just go for it¨ and he said ¨You know what, yeah I am ready. I want to get baptized ¨ Super rad experience.

We are going to have a noche de hogar tonight with Luciano, one of our fetchas, and also a friend of theirs named Tamara. They both come to church yesterday and really liked it so we are going to keep working with them two. Thursday we have a great day planned because we are making tacos with a family and we are going to meet two of their kids. The father Pablo isn´t able to get baptized yet because they are waiting on their paper work for a divorcement from earlier but once that gets done, marriage and baptism and then Temple! They are a solid family and the kids are awesome and want to come to the activities and church.

Yeah so everything is going great! We are eating well due to my companion who cooks really well hah and we are getting along really well. I can´t wait for the week ahead. I am actually going to capital for the 3rd time in 3 weeks to get my paper work done so I won´t be illegal! It´s awesome going down there. It will be fun to head there after the mission.

Love you guys,
Elder Shepherd

Well this has been a cool week in Padua. Nothing to exciting happened besides that we had interviews with president this friday. He´s a stud and I can´t wait to serve with him for the next 7 months. In my interview with him we got to know eachother and we started talking about Newport Beach and Corona del Mar ward. He said ¨Are you the son of Shannon Shepherd?¨ and he told me I look like you mom hah. Small world. But he really is a great guy and really easy to talk to. He´s a dodgers fan so at least he isn´t a Yankees fan. His wife is really sweet and funny too. We talked about how you know her brothers.

We had a family come to church this week. Actually Friday night we made tacos with the Family Guerrero and they were stoked to come to church this Sunday. They arrived at 8:55 sharp and they loved it. It´s great seeing families at church. Their 3 year old kid was crazy in sacrament meeting. Running all over the place but everyone knows how kids are and it was great! I´ll send some fotos over too after this emial.

Also on saturady morning we had a service project at a school here. All the missionaries from the zone came and we had a great time. Basically we painted and knocked down a huge wall with sludge hammers. It was great swinging a sludge hammer again. I still have a good swing and knocked down a huge wall. The argentines were impressed haha. But that was sweet.

Right now it is raining slightly and it´s a cold day. We have a family night tonight with an awesome family and he are working with a boyfriend of one of the members. Hope everything goes well!

I don´t know what else to say but I´m enjoying every moment of the mission. I can´t believe I have 7 months left.

Well sorry for the late letter home. We went to capital to do some paper work for my new companion so that took all day because it´s crazzzyy down there. It was awesome seeing capital. The European influence and vibe is definitely felt down town and in all of the country. So after spending a whole P-day we got back right at 6 and went out to work. I´ll save what happened for the next letter home to keep you guys in the anticipation jaja.

Basically we had a really good week. According to the missionaries here before and the whole scene of the area, it is a hard place to work. There is commercial areas, rich areas and the poor area. The area has been down for about two years so everyone is in the mind set that they cannot progress and the missionary work is being done but with all the effort nothing really comes to pass. I see so much potential here we just have to be diligent and do work. This last week we found so many new people, so after starting from 0.. we have a pool of investigators and we will continute to find new people. I have such a craving right now to talk with everyone and to work! It is an awesome feeling. So basically this week will be the week to see the hard work pay off and to see those who will progress and those who unfortunantly will not.

We ran into this one drug addict that lived in San Diego. He had a Hunington Beach shirt and right now is pretty messed up. He told us we came to him at the right time. I want to help him so badly but we still have to be careful because Drugs are gnarly and you never know what can happen. Also with the Family Guerrero, the boyfriend went to New York so it´s so funny to see him with a Yankees hat and gear from the United States. It´s also pretty weird to see a house with an Xbox 360 and Iphones. It´s rare to run into a family like that because usually the wealthy people are the hardest to let us in but he is soo rad and has so much desire to really know if the church is true. His wife is inactive right now but she still has a strong testimony and wants to return back. We are working with them to come to church, take the steps to baptism and to be sealed in the temple when it opens! I have faith everything will work out but Ójo, satan will do whatever it takes so we will just have to out do him because we got Heavenly Father on our side. It´s nice to have him on our side, everything works out. Pablo really is interested how the Church is based on the Family and also how the Catholic church is pretty corrupt. He´s a Psycologist so he understands things really well. I really hope them come to church this week. They said they will! On the way back from a lesson in their house. He took us home in his 2010 Golf and it was super nice. He is a big fan of Hip Hop and he gave me a CD and told me to pick what I liked because I mentioned I like Hip Hop. I recommended A Tribe Called Quest for him so he listed to that on the way back to the house after dropping us off.

It´s been weird to be involved so much in American stuff lately and running into people with connections to the states. Its weiiirrdd.

But the week went great, we worked hard and its stressful training but you lead by example and be obedient! The Mission is awesome and something funny is that I ran into the brother of Sis. Minor. He is serving in the South Mission.

Love you guys, thank you for the pictures and the birthday package!

A few questions. What is my background? I get a lot of questions if I am Brazilian or from Argentina.

Well I have some big news. I am not in 9 de Julio anymore. I actually have been transfered to the Zone of Merlo! I am in S.A. de Padua with a new companion named Elder Lazaro from Peru. He has about 2 months in the mission so I am practically training him.

I really cant believe that I am not in 9 de Julio anymore. I really thought I would be there until the 15th of August but apprenently President make a lot of changes this Transfer, especially in Campo. When I recieved the call I thought Elder Paxman was joking but it turned out in was really true! It felt so weird to go through the day knowing that I would be leaving. We had so many things planned for the next transfer ahead with activities and to have my birthday with the branch. It ends up things have changed hah. I had the chance to visit the families and to say my good byes. I was not able to say good bye to the family borges because they were in Jujuy. I was able to call them and say my good byes. They were planning a huge thing for me when I left for my Birthday but it will be for another day. I will be able to visit in 8 months and after the mission.

So after leaving the area I am waiting for that time to adjust. I still miss 9 de Julio like crazy and the area I am in now is so much different. I am definently back in Capital with the hustle and bustle of the City Life. I am excited to be here though but sad at the same time. My companion is cool, chill and tells me how the area is hard. But everyone says that but President said he put me in here for a reason to get the area and zone elevated. He said he put in the studs to rebound the area. We do not have any investigators so we are basically starting from nothing. I guess that is good though because it is a clean slate and we just gotta work hard. After a week I will be able to give more details on everything!

So last night we had dinner at the Familia Jaurez and passed by some other families. Ends up that my bus left at 3:00 in the morning so I basically packed at 1 am and just headed straight to the Terminal and went off to Ramos Mejia! Abigail a joven came to the terminal to say good bye ( usually the familia borges and her come to say good bye to the missionaries). She is a stud.I am super tired but I want to meet the people here.

This last weekend in 9 de Julio was awesome. We found a ton of new people and I feel like I left the area better than I found it. It was hard to leave it because we are getting so many new people to teach but that is the life of the mission. These people will always have a special place in my heart. I cannot wait to go back and visit. I am sooo grateful for all the blessings I recieved there and for just being in the houses of the members and the people. To be involved in their lives, to be a counselor in the branch and to give your all for these people. I really do love them.

Well time to get to work, I met President Carter today. He seems super cool and a great man. I brought up the fact that mom knows his wife and he was like No way! I will have to look into that!

Well I love you guys. I cannot believe this is already my 4th area. I will make the best of it!

Well we have been searching for a internet cafe all day. Today is the Day of the Flag so no one is open! We find this one place but we will be leaving pretty soon.

Well we had a great week this week. We have been doing really well with having lessons and finding new people. We have made some goals to challenge everyone to be baptized and to come to church when we meet them. It´s pretty bold but we are here to find the people who are ready to hear the gospel. After that car crashed into me, my bike is finally fixed. It feels good to be on a stable bike ready to contact people with some awesome braking accion hah. We are really doing stuff different here because `people think when you ride on bikes you cannot talk with people but we do it and we have found some great people.

This weekend we had district meeting with all the Branches here in the campo of Bs. As. We rented a Combi or a mini van to head out to Chivilcoy! It´s stressful when you have to make sure everything works out, we made calls and got everything organized and thanks to Hna. Borges we got everything done. It ended up that 17 of us went to Chivilcoy to see Elder Zivic, Anderson and Packer talk to the people of Argentina. The main focus in the broadcast was Future Missionaries and Tithing.

So the week went well, we had an awesome pizza today for lunch and now we are doing our stuff and getting ready to go back out and work tonight!

Hope everyone at home is doing great. I love hearing from you guys

Oh yeah I got hit by a car this weekend haha

I was riding my bike and someone opened their door and I crashed into it. But it wasn´t as serious as it sounded. My arm hurts but it´s just bruised and we talked with the guy and gave him an invitation to the church hah

Well, it's just me and Elder Paxman here in 9 de Julio running the town. With a new mission president coming in July we have some great ideas to help the branch progress in missionary work. It's been a pretty great week!

We were pretty stoked last week because we were about to have another baptism over the past weekend, but it didn´t follow through. Here's what happened. A week ago Sunday after a baptism an investigator told us that she wanted to be baptized, so we planned all week to teach her. We passed by on Tuesday but she couldn´t let us in because her parents weren´t home so we left her with a Book of Mormon with a passage to read and challenged her to pray about it. The next day we passed by again but she wasn´t home! Thursday we had a great lesson at her cousin's house next door and she definitely felt the Spirit and told us that the Book of Mormon is true and she feels tranquilo. So we ran through the pre-baptismal interview and she was ready and knew about everything. I actually made some brownies for the family and they loved them. They turned out really delicious and I think helped with the lesson, hah! So everything was working out and the only thing we needed was the signed permission from the parents. That´s when things stopped going perfect. So basically we were waiting for the parents to sign, they weren´t home all week during the day and we got a text message from her saying she didn´t know if she wanted to be baptized. So on Saturday night we were riding our bikes home feeling pretty down, but as we were riding we got a text message from her cousin who is a member saying that they are heading to the Capilla (church) right away. So we rushed over there and met them outside and she had the signature of her mother and told us she wants to be baptized!

So this week we have to set up the interview with our District Leader and we are planning to have the baptism this weekend. Hope everything works out.

Besides that, the weather is freezing and humid. The branch is doing great and I´m teaching everyone how to make brownies this Friday night for an activity. Things are going great! I´m getting along with my companion Elder Paxman, we have a lot in common.

That's about it, my hands are freezing so it´s hard to write everything hah.

Love you guys
Elder Shepherd

I´ll be emailing in 45 minutes but can you guys send me a recipe to make some taco sauce. We are making tacos tonight and I need to know how to make some sauce or the meat.

I can´t email today we are way to busy right now.. I´ll try and send an email this week but I don´t know we are super busy haha

This week went by great though! We had two baptisms and one planned for this weekend. I´ll let you guys know everything in the next email. Igot the rings and a package from soda and claudia .. tell them thanks!!

love you guys !!

I"m at the offices right now because I had to go to Capital to help some new missionaries out. It looks like we will be having to do email tomorrow when I have time. I'm staying at the office tonight until 8.00 and we'll be back in 9 de Julio tomorrow. I had a great week so I'll let you guys know how it went tomorrow!

Sounds great back home. It was amazing to hear and talk to you guys! I miss you guys so much but I´ll be back home soon and I need to keep enjoying my time here in the Mission. Well the transfer is ending and with a new president coming here to 9 de Julio we recieved him today! He needs a week to get things under his belt and some training in. His name is Paxman from Texas with Mexican blood in him but he looks a lot like Leanardo DeCaprio hah. I´ve done divisions with him before so we already know eachother so I am looking forward to the next two transfers here. It was good to work with Elder Gutierrez we got a long really well and sometimes no hah but thats the life of a companion for 24/7.

Well this week was pretty good we actually have a baptism this weekend of a woman named Elsa. We found her through a family here in 9 de Julio but we havent been able to contact her for a while. She has actually been coming to church regularly but when we go and try to teach her in her house she is never there. Plus the family doesn´t really like us. So we have a lesson in a house of a member and it went so well. She cried and told us how she has been praying and she knows that her havenly father loves her. She will be getting baptized this weekend! We are planning for two more but we will know how things are going tonight when we pass by!

But yeah everything is great here. I´ve been missing home this week haha but it´s normal just though mission experiences but I´m loving every minute here.

Hope all is well with you guys at home. Glad to hear McKenna´s Birthday is going to be awesome. I cant believe she is going in to young womens! Crazy.. and girls camp! Tell Matt next time you run into him Hi for me! and Jordon too.

Love you guys!

1. Do you drink bottled water? Yes
2. If not, are you drinking safe boiled water? (I guess Chris Hart has had really bad stomach cramps and diarrhea, so bad his mom called the mission president) Ouch but yeah we have safe water her from water stations
3. Are you taking the gummy vitamins I sent you for Valentine's Day? Yes
4. I'm going to send you some gatorade drink packets OK :)

Well I´ve been thinking and to send my birthday package.. we need to start getting stuff ready right now so it will get to Argetina before the middle of July. I´ll be thinking this week of the stuff I need but I´ll be thinking about things I want to give some people here. Will you guys be going to disneyland soon?

We´ll be in touch!

Well I get to call home today! We got a call from President and he told us that we can use Skype!

We are planning to be on at 8:00 here so at 4:00 for you guys

Hope to see you guys on and if not I´ll call you guys anyways to let you know then we will Skype!


Can´t wait to talk to you family! Love you, see you in a bit!

Email!

Well the week went really well and at the same time it wasn´t the best week. We are working hard during the last few weeks of the transfer and we have about three people that are able to be baptized. I´m stoked to invite them to be baptized because they are ready. We had the chance to have Zone Conference with President Benton and we traveled to Moreno. Since we are out in the country side, we woke up at 3 am and traveled till 7am and had the meeting at 8am till 5 pm then caught the bus back and got home at 1am in the morning. Pretty long day right but it was worth it hearing President and all the great advice he has for us.

Its starting to get really cold here! Down in the 7º at night and when you wake up you don´t want to get out of bed. Thats how cold it is haha. Besides that everything is going great down here. Today we had the Elders from General Villegas visit us. Elder Baudón and Leavitt. It´s nice to kick it for a Pday wth them. We are planning to go to an all you can eat place tonight! I´m stoked, ready to eat some Argetine Beef!

Let´s think, yeah nothing crazy happened this week we got soaking wet on friday. Drenched but enjoyed it because when you are on the mission it´s fun to go through tuff times I guess hah. Everyday is a blessing here and I´m looking forward to our investigators getting baptized. Should I write more about them? I write a lot in my journal but maybe you guys want to know more.

Love you guys! Next week I´ll call you and be able to talk! Time is flying!

this keyboard is broken so there is no shift button

We had a great week! all I can think about right now is our investigators haha. there is one that is 11 years old just like mckenna and she reminds me so much of her. i miss my little sis! we have a baptism coming up this weekend . besides that we are just working hard and doing our thing out here in the mission. this sunday we had one of the best reunions. we did the bishop lish technique of calling people out of the congregation for their testimony and favorite scriture. haha i laughed because i remember when I had to do that too. family jaurez made it back from chile. they have a light around them and wow it is amazing to see a family sealed.

well thats about it. this keyboard is horrible so i dont have the desire to write much more hah.

love you guys1

Hola Bishop how are you doing? First before I send my testimony I want to say thank you for everything you have done for the young men and for me. The mission really is a bench mark and a lot of us have reached it due to great leaders and influences in our lives como you. Muchisimo Gracias :) Espero que todo este bien con la Familia y usted.

It´s hard to bear your testimony on your mission. There are so many ways to express it or there are not enough words to describe it. Right now after 14 months in the mission I would like to focus my testimony on the Love of our Heavenly Father and how wonderful the mission is. Looking back I can testify of the love of our Heavnly Father. Everything just works out, even if we don´t see what is ahead. I know he is a father because he has guided me in my life to be where I am now.. at a point where I have never felt happiness like this before. He lets us grow through challenges but never abandons us The love for the Family and The Mission are two of the greatest things ever.. even better than a Twin Turbo Lexus IS-F hah. I am sincerely grateful for my parents.. my dear parents who are everything for me. For their guidance, love and focus in the Evangelio. They have in view the important things in life which is the Salvation and to have our Family to be Eternal. ( Thank you Mom and Dad, I love guys so much) I´m grateful for my young men liders, bishops, stake presidents, coaches, and individuals who have helped me. From great activities to the little things like the down to earth talks about the important things in life have guided me to be here right now and to be stronger in the Church. I know I have a Father in Heaven because I can see his hands through other people. It´s hard to explain right now but haha he really is a Father and loves us dearly.

I´m thankful for the mission. The best part are the people. I love these people. I am thankful for the hard times .. those first weeks of not knowing a lick of Castellano and coming back to the pench ready to give up to the days which you see someone cry because they have found the gospel in their life. The mission is the best thing in my life along with my family. I wouldn´t give it up even if I could win a World Series. I still can´t believe I am here in Argentina with these wonderful people serving my Heavenly Father. I love it... I´m stoked to leave the pench everyday to visit and teach the people. I´m grateful for blessings I have recieved because it´s so hard to see people struggling. Not so much economically but more as spiritually blunted. I can head into the Villa and find the happiest family because they have the Gospel in their lives.

The church is true and I want to make sure every young man in the congregation to know the mission will be the best part of your life. Even more imporantant than your Girlfriend right now hah.

Bishop Lish, I have to go right now I´m actually just about to teach a Temple Class.. in SPANISH! Wish me luck. Hope this email helps and I wish I have more time to write and I feel like I rushed my testimony but I want to get this email to you before Sunday.

Thank you and tell Elder Lish I say Hola!

Gracias

What a week and what a translado here in Buenos Aires Oeste. Well again we broke the record of 200 baptisms as a mision. Our area Chivilcoy had the most baptisms in the mision and we broke the record for the zone. The area here is really taking off as well as the mission. I´m sure we are going to break 200 again next transfer!

We had a great finish to the transfer here in 9 de Julio. At first we didn´t have a baptism planned for the end of the week! We were hoping find someone but it didn´t look promising. But we had a miracle. As we were teaching in a recent converts house of Joanna, her uncle showed a lot of interest in the church. Well actually the week before he went to the Temple Class, Institute and more. I´ve never seen someone that has that much excitement for classes such as those. He´s been reading the Book of Mormon as well as the Bible. He even marked scriptures for us to help him with. It ends up as we challenged him to be baptized he accepted it 100% and comprehended everything about it. He entered the waters of baptism this weekend and now is going to be a great member of the church. During the week we had division with Elder Latorre ( who is flying home to Chile right now) and Elder Edwards from 25 de Mayo. We tore it up with 5 lessons in one hour. When we were walking home I wanted to check out this little alley way that looked like an alley in Balboa Island. I was like ¨Hey why not lets go check it out, it looks familiar to me.¨ I chose a blue house to clap and ends up this lady came out. She told us that we have come by before but 10 years ago. She has been reading the book of mormon every now and then and always wondered why the kids in shirt and ties never came back. We have an appointment with her this week! I can´t wait to go and see how she is and to get back in the flow of the Gospel in her life and get baptized! She´s married to!! Haha It´s rare to find a couple married here

So it´s the end of the transfer, I´m sure I´ll be here for 3 more but I love this area. I love every area that I am in. The people really do make life the best that it is. Family, Friends and the Gospel. When you are serving others you really are happy. I hope you guys are helping the missionaries back home and give them references to your friends who aren´t members!! Giving references are the best! We have most of our investigators right now because of references from members.

Love you guys, I´ll send another email with extra stuff too like pictures.

Elder Shepherd

Hey everyone! How great was conference right? Well I´m here at the cyber writing to you guys and like always my mind goes blank on what to do!? Well first I´ll inform you guys on how the work is going. Well this week hasn´t been the best week ever but we have found people that want to hear the gospel. We have about 4 strong investigators right now but within the 4 there are family members and friends. So we are focusing ourselves on these 4 people this week to have a baptism this weekend! In the zone right now we are about to break the record.. it´s pretty amazing for our zone because everyone says that ¨El Campo¨is an area with few baptisms... well we proved them wrong! I´m excited to work this week because it is the last week of the transfer.

Well this week I was thinking how blessed I am and how I need to work harder to help people know this gospel. During the mission you always do your little self evaluations and this week was one of them. While coming home from a inactive members house( we ride bikes) it felt like a flash back of Balboa Island. The tempurature, humidity, the style of houses are all the same so I was getting so homesick hah. Not homesick but like... wow I feel like I´m at home. But I was realizing how my life has been blessed. It´s the best feeling to see the lives of others change too. Especially when it comes to the Gospel. It´s the best thing we have. It really is the truth. I wouldn´t be doing this for 2 years going through the hard times without knowing for certain that the church is true. I love the mission! Thank you for all your prayers and support.

Love you guys!

Hey thanks for the new pictures? I haven´t seen you guys for one year and McKenna is getting so much older?

Well we had a great week here in 9 de Julio. The best news would be that we had two baptisms. Roman and Yoanna! The two have great stories. Roman has been an investigator for a while that was found through an inactive family. The last couple of weeks we have been working with him and he wanted to be baptized two weeks ago. The last couple of times it didn´t work out because he was sick or went out of town.. we found out why because he was scared of the water ha. So we explained everything perfectly to him and he was baptized this weekend along with Joanna. Joanna was going to be baptized over 2 years ago but something happened but ahora she is baptized and a member of the church. I have found lately how you really have to rely on the Spirit to know the people better and to help them. The only way you can really help people is through the Holy Ghost because the feelings are from our Heavenly Father.

This friday we had a dance for the branch. It was great! As a missionary you can´t do anything so I was supervising how everything was going and from what I saw, everyone enjoyed it! I´ll send some pictures over too! We had a meeting yesterday and I found out that the kids here never have had Mutual. So we are planning to have mutual every two weeks now for the Rama. The kids are stoked and I´m looking forward to start it out for them. I´m glad I had great liders and fun times in mutual so I´ll def be looking back on my personal experiences to have great mutuales here in 9 de Julio. It´s crazy to think I am in charge of the jovenes here. I always say to myself. wow you are only 20.. you´re still a kid hah.

We are excited for this week to come. We have been blessed with a lot of people to teach lately. We usually find people through people and now it´s time to keep moving forward and giving them the oportunity to experience the gospel!

Love you guys!


I have some requests too!
I need mas SD cards
I really like those litle clogne smaples, so collect as much as you can and send it in every package hah
I actually would like a CTR ring.

1. Did you get your hump day package? I´ll be getting it on Wednesday
2. Did you those michael jordan b-ball shorts? Yep
3. What is the address of your apartment? (I want to google it) I don´t remember but next week I´ll let you know
4. How many elders are in your apartment? Just us 2
4. Do you have laundry facilities? I wash by hand hah
6. Where do you shop for food? At a grocery store
7. What are you doing for p-day today.. I want to sleep!
8. How is it going being a branch leader? It´s good. I directed sacrament meeting yesterday and gave a talk. It´s going smooth!

Well another week down here in Argentina. The weather is starting to warm up so I´m happy hah. I think I have adjusted to the weather here because when it droped down to 22º I was freezing! I think this winter will be a really cold winter for me here in Argetina. I don´t want the heat to go away haha. Sounds like everything is normal back home. Here in the mission the time is flying by really fast. After hitting a year time really does start to pass by. In the branch right now, being the YM leader, I´m looking forward to planning some activies. The youth told me they don´t do anything so I want to change that hah. Actually this Friday we have a Capilla Abierta and we are having a branch dance. We will see how it goes hah. But yeah here in 9 de Julio, everything is going good. The work is picking up and we have a good pool of investigators to teach. We found a woman from Paraguay who asked us right when we talked to her.. ¨ Do I need to be baptized si o si in your church when I go¨ hah hah a little upfront but we told her the process of finding out for yourself. She has some relation with the church because her uncle was baptized over in Paraguay. We have about 4 baptisms planned for the rest of the tranfer. Our goal is one baptism every week here in 9 de Julio so far we are hitting the mark besides this weekend but we had it rescheduled for the following saturday due to a kid named Roman being sick. So the work is going a ful out here. Our zone is at the top in the mission right now which is a surprise because everyone says Campo is a hard area to work in. We are working hard out here and for the 3 week straight our zone has been at the top! It´s crazy.. the zone out here has never been like this before since I have been here but we seriously have some studs out here in the zone.

The best way to work out here is through the members. It´s hard doing contacts on a bicycle because it would be a sketchy for 2 guys in a white shirt and tie to approach you from a distance and stop right in front of you haha. But we have found a different way to work out here and it is working! we are having success. It´s awesome working in the branch. I get to see the back side of the church and all the doctrine and business of how to run and do tithing etc etc. Hold meetings and interviews etc. It´s a great learning experience. I´m pretty stoked too because I gave a talk for 20 minutes without any notes. Shows how much the Lord blesses you on the mission with the gift of toungues!

BYU is in the sweet 16??!?! what thats crazy hah. Never would I have thought that.. Hope they make a good run in the NCAA.

Thanks for all the support and love back home. I love you guys. Out here in Campo we don´t get mail every week so I´m hoping for some good mail this wednesday when we have interviews as a zone! hah.

Love you guys,
Les Amo

Hello everyone

So we had a great week here in 9 de Julio and ended it off with a baptism! Leandro was baptized this Sunday and confirmed a member of the church! It´s a crazy story because we woke up at 3 am to fill up the font for him and we held the baptism at 8:30 then church started and after that we had meetings until 8 in the night and then we visited a investigator who has her own radio station. It was a really busy sunday! I am super tired too! I heard about the earthquake in Japan.. its all over the news here because it changed the climate from blazzing hot to a super freezing rainy windy day here in 9 de Julio. It affected Argetina badly too with the weather. Floods etc in Capital but not as bad as it sounds. I´m glad that Riley is safe in Japan. Must of been crazy. I dont have much time to email today we have something to do at the church right now so I want to let you guys know everything is great here in 9 de Julio. My thing to send photos broke so I have to buy a new one this weekend. Hopeully I´ll be able to send some thursday or no.. next week!

I need new photos! Can you guys send photos of the family, me in newport or stuff like that to show my members here and investigators. You can attach the file here in the email and send them to the email. It would be easier because I can just download them and print them off here!

Thanks

Love you guys

I´m able to email now!

So yeah I am now here in 9 de Julio in the Campo of the mission field. First off bad news because this keyboard is horrible so I dont have much patience in writing right now hah. But yeah it´s beautiful here and I have already visited here for a weekend so I pretty much know everyone here. It´s crazy to think 3 months have passed by so fast! Now I am one day away from hitting one year!! Last year at this time I was driving up to Utah to head off to the MTC. It passes by so fast and I´m scared to know how fast it will pass by in the future. I have no time!!

The members here are really cool and we are in a Branch so there are about 60 active members with 45 in assistance for average. I´m the first conselor and supposivly I am in charge of the young men here haha. We only have two young men soo we´ll see how it goes hah. It is weird to work on the church side instead of being a missionary 24/7. We are still working hard as missionaries though and we had a baptism this weekend! Gonzalo and his father were baptized and we have about 4 - 6 baptisms coming up within two months here in the area. Everyone says that the areas in campo are hard but when you dont think that way and work hard you really do see miracles. We have an investigator named Javier that is 15 years old and smokes so he wants to quit to get baptized.. so we use this technique where we make tea out of ciggaretes. Usually the person feels horrible after drinking it and the body rejects the ciggaretes if the person wants to smoke. So we will see how this goes! He told us he feels horrible hah so It´s working.. so there are a lot of people here in the area that are ready to be baptized. I can´t wait to work hard here and see the fruits. When you put your trust in Heavly Father things just work out. I dont know how they do but everything works out when we have our priorities straight and do the things the right way.

Love you guys and thanks for all the half way mark congrats!! I´ll send pictures next week because the compu USB drives aren´t working hah. But next time!!!

Elder Shepherd!

I can´t email a letter today because all the Internet cafes are closed because today and tomorrow are holidays! Crazy right. We are in the capilla right now but I´ll be able to email longer on wednesday!

Take care everyone

Well the transfer has ended and I am leaving Mariano Acosta. These last 3 months have been the best months in my mission. It killed me to know that I was leaving the area, worse than any other feeling. I was able to visit the families and converts back in Mariano Acosta on Sunday night. It was great seeing them and spending time before I was leaving. The last visit was with Flia Diaz and we had dinner together and spend time. The hardest thing to do was to say good bye to this family. I love them beyond words. During the night when I was packing my bags, it hit me hard that I was actually leaving the area. It brings comfort to me that I will be back in one year to visit but wow.. leaving was hard. Mariano Acosta has a great future though, we have 4 planned baptisms for this upcoming transfer so the Elders are in good hands over there in Mariano Acosta. I hope the people that I was able to find and teach will aventually be baptized!

Gabriela was baptized this weekend. She is one of the strongest baptism that I have seen. She already is a member and she was super excited for her baptism. Then we have 5 investigators in the church too. They will all be baptized for sure. Especially one of our investigators that is 60 years old and her sister is having a lot of problems. She hasnt been able to sleep normally for a long time because her kids dont visit her and she lives a life that is stressful and very matierialistic. She came to see the baptism of Gabriela and we gave her a blessing afterwards and the next day she came to church telling us how she feels so much better and wants to buy a book of mormon hah. Her eyes can tell everything. She told us how she has never slept that good for over 3 years. I have a true testimony of the power of the Priesthood and how it will bless the lives of people.

The latest news is that I am going to Campo. 9 de Julio, where I was for a week before! I am super surprised that I am going out to campo. Especially to an area that I was at before, well a Week hah. So out in 9 de Julio, it is a rama... So the President is an Elder and I will be his counselor, so from what it seems like I will end up being the new President? I dont know... I dont want to lead a branch! To be honest I am not super excited to go.. I dont know we will see how it turns out. I am going to miss Mariano Acosta really bad. My new companion is from Chile and is really educated. I hope to learn a lot from him and to enjoy my time out there in 9 de Julio. Right now I am in Ramos in the offices for the day and tomorrow we are going to take a Bus out to 9 de Julio.

Thats about it right now, Im excited but more sad that I am leaving and yeahh. I love you guys so much and I hope to do well out there in Campo. We will see how it goes.

Well I dont have much to say this week but we are working hard here in Mariano Acosta. We had the opprotunity to have the asistents here working with us for a couple of days. Elder Aquirre and Elder Palacios from Chile came and we did division. Elder Aquirre served here in Mariano Acosta 2 years ago and also in Villa Celina. We joke around that I am following him in the areas that he has served in. So it was great working with the Asistentes for a little but then we got back to work. This sunday wasn´t so great. We only have 2 people come to church. We went out early to look for our investigators. It rained the night before so usually when it rains everyone wants to stay inside. It wasn´t fun going out in the streets of dirt looking for people. My suit got pretty muddy on the pants.. but the family we went to look for( a family of 8 ) weren´t home to. We had an amazing lesson with the and watched the Restoration with the whole family. They were all excited to come to church but there is always that has to come inbetween. Satanas! So this week was a little down but we are excited to go into this week with our strongest investigators getting ready to be baptized. I can´t wait to see them and help them progress in the Gospel. We finally had one of our investigators come to church. A 12 year old boy that is in a part member family. We activated the family a little over a month ago and he ¨wanted¨to come but always wants to play futbol. We got to church, looked around and saw a couple of investigators and I said to my companion. ¨where is thomas?¨ I keep looking around then 5 minutes later I spotted him with one of his next door neighboors who is a member. I was stoked!

So the week was alright, always ways to improve and to be better. I can´t belive I am almost hitting one year in the mission. It´s crazy to think too that Elder Brooks goes home in 13 days! Crazy. Hope everything is going fine at home, thank you for your prayers, I always feel the love from home. Flia Diaz is taking good care of me! They are my family here in Argentina!

Love you guys,
Elder Shepherd

We had a pretty good week here in Mariano Acosta. It is weird here with 4 elders in the ward but we are getting a lot of work done here in Mariano Acosta. We are on the side that is a brand new area so it´s a bit hard. All our past investigators are on the side of the other area but it´s a great opprotunity to find new people to teach. These last two weeks we have been working hard to find the people to teach and we have found them through In active families, members and seeing miracles in the street. Right now we have two in active families that are coming back to church and working on their goals to go to the temple. There are people that are able to be baptized in these families and we are excited to work with them! One family has been inactive for about 14 years and we saw how happy they are now in the church. It is amazing how the gospel really does bring blessings into your life because it´s the truth. Our two investigators were baptized this last Saturady. Well after the division they are not really our investigators but Elder Millard and I taught them for a long time. Sandra was in our area but she moved a couple days before her baptism so according to the limits, it is counted for the other area.. it doesn´t matter because the baptism was amazing with 75 people in attendance to see the baptism! She said she entered scared but when she left out of the waters she felt forgiven..

It is crazy to think that, all this started from one family in our ward who wanted to give a Ensign to a neighboor that just moved in. They invited her over for Family Night and it ended up being her daughter that came that was ready to hear this message. She is now baptized and enjoying the blessings of the church!

So the week has been good. I was sick for the first two days and pretty much the whole week. I was taken care of by my family here(Flia Diaz) so I am in good hands. We are ready to work with the people we have right now to come to church and to get baptized. We have a new family that we are teaching from Uruguay, the father is a member but inactive for a long time but has a family of 6 and he wants them to come back into the church and to have the blessings of church in their lives. We are excited to work with them! Well it is off to a great week ahead. Thanks for all the prayers and support back home.

Love you guys!

How is everything back home?

We had our transfer meeting today and they split the area into two....Division A and Division B. Well me and Elder Millard are split up and I recieved my new companion Elder Gonzalez from Chile. He has about 6 months into the mission and is a pretty funny guy. So far it is going well. Elder Millard received a new companion, Elder Steele from Utah. We have three Yankees in the pench and one Chilean hah. I am still not sure what area I will be in but I am down for changes. Although this change I wish it could stay like it used to be. Spliting an area into two is hard because you loose half of an area with Members and Investigators. It´s like taking away some of your famil because I really do love all the people that we teach and especially the members! We have the best of both in the two areas so we will see... So off to a new transfer and I am ready to be the Senior Companion and lead our area to the top! During this last transfer Elder Millard and I did the best in our Zone so we got a special tie from President. (The best companionship stats-wise gets a Special tie from President at Transfer meeting). It was really cool and we were in the Top 10 for the Mission. A lot of my friends in the mission that entered with me are now moving to senior companion, trainer or district leaders, even one jumped up to zone leader, Elder Weiss, he´s a stud. I talked with Elder Bush too and we laugh at the fact that Mom and The Mom of Elder Bush are chatting it up on Email. It´s funny because we lived together for a couple of months. Small world right?!

Well this last week in Mariano Acosta was a good week. We had some killer lessons especially with Sandra. Everytime we teach her we are teaching at a member's house and she just wants to be baptized and believes that the Church is true. We teach her the Word of Wisdom and she has stopped drinking coffee and tea. She had the will power to do it too so I am stoked for that. She has her baptism date for next week. She even brought her niece to church too and she loved it! She has 11 years and we haven´t dropped the baptism question yet but she is so adorable and I am sure she would have the desires to baptize herself. She is starting to make friends in the church too! With other investigators we are just working hard to set dates for their baptism and to challenge them. We have an investigator named Angelica who wants to get baptized but guess what. Right when we had a killer lesson with a family, the next day she found work and she is working the end of the week right now!! Ahhh Satan is trying so hard it is annoying. We will try our hardest and keep praying hard. We have the same situation with another family that has the father working on Sundays but the wife is going to the church. Aldo and Milagros se llaman. She wants to get married in the Temple and have a family forever. The same with Aldo but he wants to learn more and first come to the church. We are working on trying to find new work for him or give him ideas to try to ask the Boss to give him Sunday off at least! It is so hard seeing people be ready to be baptized but having work stopping them from reaching this point in their life. We also have a 17 year old coming to church with us. We are teaching him the gospel and he loves Chess hah so sometimes we play with him. He came to church by himself this week. Haha a funny story we actualy went to look for him in a remis or ¨taxi¨ and we arrived at his house and found out that he already left to go to church. Right when we got there we saw him there in Sacrament Meeting! Funny thing was in the Remis, they either play Cumbia or American music. I heard a bit of Led Zep, some beatles and some new music in the states which killed me because it was the stuff I listen to right before the mission haha.

Well right now I am excited to be back in Mariano Acosta, still pretty bummed on the situation but you gotta go forward. We will see how it goes! Right now in the mission it's funny how you change from focusing on Castellano to start focusing on the planes and the area more. It is nice to have a solid base of Castellano and be able to talk to people without thinking. I remember those first few weeks of the mission... wow haha crazzzyy. I love you guys a lot! Until next week!

Love,
Elder Shepherd