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!