Rain Rain Rain and a Wave

Hey family, how is it going in the states?  Life sounds really exciting and I love hearing about what is going on. I have some great news. I saw Reese at zone conference this week and that was super awesome. He went on transfers last week after conference and I actually got to track with him for an hour on the way home. It was really awesome to do missionary work with him. It's crazy to think two guys from Vegas were able to track together in Argentina. We eventually came back to the house and he spent the night. I updated him on what has gone on in the world of Summerlin, but not too much, he still has a couple of more weeks. I´m super jealous that he gets to go to the beach though.  Tell Cage congratulations for me, that is so cool and crazy he is graduated from college, especially from Berkeley! Seems like yesterday he was starting his first semester. Time really does fly.  Please let him know I'm proud of him, 4,000 miles away...haha.  Matt P. got his mission call? Awesome, spanish speaking too! The Phillips brothers are taking over the east coast! hah, give him a congrats from me too.  Ah tell McKenna I'm proud of her and great job keeping the Great American Award tradition going. Seems like yesterday she was practicing the states.

Alright now to the mission stuff...

Well this week was still an adjustment period. You still feel like your just following your companion and just walking all day but I´m adjusting now and things feel better. The first two weeks are really the hardest ones. I've never gone through something like that before but I am glad that I did. I've learned you just have to go through it. The best news is, we had a baptism this week! We baptized a single mom this Sunday and it was amazing. She bore her testimony on how much the gospel has brought peace to her life and it was really spiritual. I can't believe I had a baptism in my first two weeks. Their family is so cool and the daughter (19) is coming to church and hopefully we can baptize the whole family. We had pizza with them last night and it's awesome to just be with their family.

The members are opening up to me, I still feel like I´m out of place with my limited spanish.  But the ward feels like home now and it's always great to see them at church and especially the kids. They always come up and shake my hand and call me Elder Chefard. There is a return missionary in the ward and he barely knows english but he talks to me a bit and says "I know how you feel these first couple of weeks. Going to church is one of the highlights of your week oh and especially Pday". Today is so nice and relaxing. Apparently it's Argentina's 200th anniversary celebration.  Everyone will go crazy tonight and tomorrow so it's going to be a hard start to the week. We met a guy who was a ex-boxer from Argentina and he had to show us pictures of his glory days and how he met Don King. Hah it was really funny. 

Well I can't believe it has been two weeks. The work here is hard, really hard but you get used to it. I´m doing more everyday and getting into the flow. You are dead tired at the end of the day and just want to crash. I´m lucky I have an American elder in the pench because we can actually relate and talk. It´s a really nice comfort to have someone with your same style and personality to come home to after a long day with your companion hah.  Yesterday was the craziest day of my mission probably.  We had our baptism!  Then afterwards we went home and got some food and it started to rain so we put on our rain gear. Next thing you know it we are out tracking and it's pouring rain. Like flash flood Vegas style. In our part of the zone it's a valley so all the rain ends up there.  So basically all night we were trudging in water up to our waist.  I actually had some fun, reminded me of being at the beach somehow so I took it as an adventure. We actually had found some people to teach and to talk to and met our goals for contacting even when every Argentine seems to think rain will kill them. Oh I was walking on the side walk and totally got drenched by a passing bus. Like a 10 foot wave of water totally killed me. I was almost swept off my feet hah. It´s funny to look back on now, but at the time I was soo mad.

Well the work is going well, we are working really hard and the people here are nice enough to listen but most of them say ¨otra dia.. or ocupdo but we do teach a lot and have active investigators. It´s hard to see people though reject the message but I know we tried. Time is still going slow but fast at the same time. It's hard not to get distracted but I´m ready to lose myself in the work. You always think about what you will be in two years and how the outcome will be but you always have to go through everyday to reach that lasting goal. The mission is hard, really hard. Everyday feels like a week and you get down but you just keep going and somehow the day turns around because of one person or the time you spend back at the pench

Love you all and I´ll talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Shepherd