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