Merry Christmas!

HELLOOOO! Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a great time. I got to talk to my family so that was fun. I may have cried a little.

This morning at about one in the morning I woke up to a lizzard biting my arm. I always laughed when people said they were afraid of them. but IT HURTS. I was on the verge of crying.   Holy cow. 

We went to the Gardens today. It was gorgeous. I want to go back. I could have spent hours there. We also contacted a guy who was visiting the gardens and wants to know more about the church and was so happy when we testified to him and said that we answered one of his life questions. We are sending the missionaries to him!

Everyone invited us to eat which was AWESOME. I opened all my presents!

Thank you to all who sent me things  :)

We had the chirstmas party for the misson. it was very funny. My mom sent in some of my baby pictures and they showed them on the big screen.... thanks mom.... haha. 

I sent my mom a ton of pictures so I hope she will put them up for all of you to see. I hope you all had a good christmas! love you all bye!

 At the gardens

 This is Fany and her husband, they are investigators that has us over for Christmas, they are such great people.

 Mission Christmas party!

 Me and my comp Hermana Villamar

 The mission Christmas party

 Me and my old comp Hermana Jackson

At the gardens

Sorry it's sideways, I am not sure how to fix it.

Enjoying the fruits of our labors

Hello all,

It's been a great week. I have a new companion, Hermana Villamar.  She is from Peru.  She is alot of fun and we get along great!  I am very excited about this transfer.  The past two transfers have been pretty hard because we have really struggled in finding people to teach.  But now I can say that we have 6 people preparing for baptism on Dec 23rd.  We are finally seeing the fruits of our labors over the last few months.  It is so exciting!  On date for baptism are : Roberta and her mom, they are Hatian.  Melvin who is the son of a less active member.  Then we have Fany and her daughter and son.  On top of that we two more people who are potentials and two others we just met who came with us to a conference we had yesterday.  I am so excited!!    Also we met a Hatian couple the other day that we are going to walk to church on Sunday :) 

 I feel so blessed to be able to teach so many people.

On Wednesday we had new leader training meeting with the Mission President.  It was amazing!  We started by defining the word prophecy.  In every calling we have we are called by prophecy.  This means that before the world was even created we were called to the callings that we have.  Most importantly we have been prepared in the life before this, and we are being prepared everyday in our lives until we receive the call on earth.  So when we receive callings we can have the faith that we are ready for them.

As Christmas approaches let us all remember that we each have great worth.  As leaders and members and children of god, everyone around us has the same potential that we do.  Let's help them see it!   

Love and miss you all!  Can't wait to skype with you soon!

Hermana Shepherd

Me opening one of the scripture presents my mom sent.

Transfers

In the August 2016 Liahona there is a talk by David A Bednar called "The lords will and timing."   This is something that I have been focusing on a ton this transfer.   The talk tells of a newly married couple that  after only 3 weeks of marriage the groom finds out he has cancer with only a 30% chance of survival.  Elder Bednar went to visit this man and before giving him a blessing asked him a few questions.  One being "John, do you have the faith not to be healed?"   "Do you have the faith to submit to his will?"

The talk goes on to say that certainly Heavenly Father can heal him, but maybe that's not what needs to be done.  John decided that he didn't want to die, but if it was the will of the father then he would accept it.   John commented after the blessing that he thought because Elder Bednar was an apostle the blessing would be different, but it wasn't.    He used the exact words that all the others did when giving a blessing.  God's power and will is the same, always!

I have been working a lot lately on following Gods will whether or not it be what I want. Transfers are this week and President came to me and extended the call for me to be a Hermana leader.  He went on to say, sorry it's long awaited.  I would have extended the call a long time ago, you have enough wisdom, you are diligent, obedient, and a great missionary.   I just didn't want to push you more than you could handle with the health problems you have been experiencing.  

I am thankful to him and I know that I am now ready to handle the calling of Hermana leader, it's all in the lords time.  I am staying in Los Frailles with a new companion Hermana Villamas from Peru.  I am very excited about this new adventure, but sad to not be companions with Hermana Castillo anymore.

Great news - we had 6 investigators at church on Sunday.  We have struggled to find new investigators in this area so that was awesome.  Again in the lords time.  We just have to put in the hard work and the lord will do the rest.

We are working with a woman named Roberta. We found her on the street and she is golden :)  She is very excited to become part of our religion. 

Everything else is good here, I am feeling better and it's only 20 days until I get  to skype for Christmas.  Yah!!!

Love you all,

Hermana Shepherd

I am enough!

This transfer has probably been one of the hardest of my mission, but also very helpful.  I have found while studying in Luke 22 that Jesus had an angel with him and I know that I have had angels with me boosting me up and helping me.  I know that I am enough.  That when I am not perfect he will make up for my shortcomings.  I  am doing the work of the lord and bringing more light into the world day by day.

I was planning to fast on Thursday night to Friday afternoon and then finish in the temple but I felt too sick.  We had to come home early from proselyting on Thursday because I was sick. I woke up feeling a little better on Friday and we were able to go to the temple.  The temple was wonderful!  As we were going to eat in the cafeteria I saw my mission president and asked him to give me a blessing.  He of course said yes.  He gave me the most amazing blessing ever.  It has changed my life.  He gave me peace of mind.

 I went to the doc of Friday after my blessing she changed my medication and my dosage again.  Yesterday was the first time in 3 months that I did not have nausea in the morning. YAHOO!!!  They will do another test in January to see of my nodule has grown and see if this dosage is working.

My health problems have been getting me down, so with all the studying I have been doing and with the wonderful blessing from President Corbitt I have come to believe 3 important things:

1. I can choose happiness

2. I can use his grace to make me a better person and a better missionary

3. I am enough

I hope your Thanksgiving was good.  We celebrated ours with hot chocolate!  It was yummy!

Love you all,

Hermana Shepherd

1 YEAR!!!

So, I hit one year!   My time here is going by so fast.  I feel like just yesterday was Monday.

For my one year my roommates surprised me with cake! Yummy!

We are working hard in our area and have found several new people who are progressing really well!   We are really excited.   It's so amazing to be able to see the change that people go through when they find and accept the gospel into their lives.

As some of you might know, I've been having some health issues.   My thyroid has been freaking out and it's been really messing with my body.  I have another appointment with a doctor this week try to figure out what is going on. We'll see!  I will be fasting in hopes that we can get some answers as to what is going on and how to fix it. I'm still working hard though, not going to let Satan win this battle!

I am so excited for this week. It's going to be awesome!   We will be going to the temple on Friday. My favorite thing to do!  I will  keep you all updated with pictures the best I can!

Love you all,

Hermana Shepherd

Happy Halloween!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!  My favorite holiday!!
I hope you all have a great time and amazing costumes! This morning I dressed up as an average Dominican woman.  Pretty good.  I couldn't wear it outside, but that's fine.  This computer does not send pictures so I will send them next week.

We had two baptisms yesterday. Two brothers, Cristoffer and Jose Antonio.  They are so cute and the baptism went well. They were both so nervous. They are 9 and 13.

I woke up yesterday to find a great surprise of more than 200 magots on the kitchen floor (GAG!)  Its fine.

We own a lot of bleach. 

On Saturday we cleaned the font for the baptisms.  The font doesn't drain on its own anymore so when we got there it still had a foot of water in it.  We had to bail the water into the toilet in the girls bathroom using a garbage bin.  I put water in it and carried it up the stairs and my comp dumped it into the toilet. I could barely walk yesterday my body hurt so bad. But it was worth it since everything went perfectly for the baptisms

I don't think I have anymore to report.  Send me pictures of your halloween costumes!   I'll send the pictures that I have next week!

Have a good week!

Love,

Hermana Shepherd

Baptism of Cristofer and Jose

The two zones that participated in the Noche Blanca

Noche Blanca ( baptisms at the beach)  41 people were baptized this day.

Happy Fall

I would like to start off by saying HAPPY FALL!!!
I can't tell it's Fall because its burning hot summer all the time here, but that's okay. I took out my Christmas music and reindeer leggings sooooo CHRISTMAS IS ALMOST HERE!   The time is going by very very fast.  I am going to hit an entire YEAR soon.  I am beginning transfer 9 out of 13. I am going to be staying with the lovely Hermana Castillo in our area.   We are both super pumped because we will be having a few baptisms and we didn't want to miss them!

We did have our Noche Blana. We had 41 baptisms at the beach of Bocachica. It was such a great experience. We sang hymns on the sand while all the people got in the water in complete white and were baptized. I don't have any good pictures because it was at night and you can't see anything with the camera but it was fun and very spiritual!

Everything else is good here. Everyone wants to feed us so that's a struggle for my waistline. :)

I have seen more dead animals on the side of the road than I ever have in my life. We did find some super duper cute adorable puppies that were left in a box on the side of the road. I wanted to take them home so bad. There are thousands of homeless dogs here.   It's really sad.

Also, there is a small child here that we are teaching. His name is Giovanni. I have never wanted to adopt a kid more in my entire life!   We are working on getting him baptized this next week! 

Everything has been pretty normal for the past few weeks! 

Love you all!

Hermana Shepherd

Hurricanes and spiders and more...oh my.

This week has been crazy

1. I found a tarantula the size of my head behind the washer and we spent an hour killing it. I will attach a picture. Literally terrifying. I have a video but it's too big to send. I'll show y'all later. I was washing my clothes and every time I got close to the side of the washer I could feel the spirit saying "be careful", I didn't think anything of it and moved. Then I went to sweep and I looked behind the washer to sweep there and I saw a HUGE thing with 8 legs.  At first I thought it was a toy to scare me, but then I realized it was alive and I screamed and ran as fast as I could. I  grabbed my camera while screaming.  My comp was confused so she followed me back and I showed her. HUGE. Literally the biggest spider I have seen in or out of captivity. My comp finally killed it by hitting it with the broom. So that was an adventure.

2. We had General Conference. Loved it!!!  Most of it was in Spanish, but I did get to watch one session in English so that was good.

Oh, isn't the Prophet  the cutest thing ever.  Did you see him do a thumbs up as he walked out? I cried.

Also, Elder Nelsons talk was my favorite, The end is near guys...

3. So there is a hurricane here. I walked in knee deep water to get here to email. It's been a blast. It's been threatening to come for a few days now but last night we got a text from the government  saying that we might need to be evacuated so to be ready. Then a few hours later we had a conference call with our zone. They gave us instructions to have our 72 hour kits ready and also to have a backpack ready to leave. So we did that and were running around putting our books in plastic bags and up on high shelves. Any way, we woke up this morning and almost didn't get permissionn to go buy food. We didnt have ANY food in the house to eat except for 72 hour kit stuff. Sooooo right now we are fine. It's raining a ton and hard with a lot of wind, but we are fine.

(Side note from mom)  the news says they at supposed to get 15 to 25 inches of rain due to this Hurricane.  I cannot even imagine that much rain falling.

Okay thats all for right now.  Love you all.  I'll talk to yall next week. Wish me luck here. lol

Love,

Hermana Shepherd

The Spider that almost ate me!

Austria's baptism

So this week was good. Hermana Castillo my companion is so cute. We have a lot of fun. Also, I'm getting pretty brown. We are right next to the beach where the sun is the strongest and when I went back to my old area yesterday everyone commented on how much tanner I was :)

I got to go see Austria (one of my investigators in Villa Verde) get baptized. IT WAS SO CUTE. I may have cried. :)There is a picture of us attached. I also got to visit some of my recent converts there. I miss them so much!

We are Preparing for October 22nd when we will have 100 people baptized in the beach of Bocachica (two zones combined) It's going to be way cool. I'm super excited.

My area is good! Trying to find more people to teach. No worries. They will come if we are obedient and working hard :)

Ten months, new area, new companion

Transfers were last week. The week before I got transferred we got robbed.  Someone came during the night and reached into the open windows and took everything within reach.  They took my quad that I got for my baptism when I was eight with my patriarchal blessing and a few other things inside it and my camera cord, so that is a bummer.   Lesson learned, don't leave things by the open windows.

I am now in Los Frailes 2A with Hermana Castillo. She is super cute. She is from Panama. I am training her and she is doing great.  She speaks no English so I am sure I will lose even more of my English since I will have no opportunity to speak it.  She has the pink shirt in the pictures.  We live with two other Hermanas, they are great. 

This area is good.  It needs a lot of work.  We don't have a ton of investagators right now, but we will find some people!

For my ten months the other sisters surprised me with a cake thing. They were hiding in the bedroom and scared me super bad. 

One thing I studied this week. Moses chapter 7. I loved it. It shows how much our Heavenly Father loves us. You all need to read it.

Today we went to Tres Ojos. It's some caves that are very cool and  IT'S IN MY AREA.  I put the pictures and a video of it at the bottom.  Also, the ocean is in my area. Pretty cool. We can't go but I can see it when we proselyte.

Video from Tres Ojos Caves

Bueno

Bueno, this week was fantastic.

Tuesday we went to the capital. TACO TUESDAY IN TACOBELL and also KRISPY KREMES.  Then I did have to get a shot in my other hip. On the brightside, I feel awesome now.

This week was crazy. There were so many frecos, which means guys who catcall you from the street. Hermana Jackson gets them like crazzzy. It's hilarious. 

We are making juice everyday and I love it.  I feel so great!   FITNESSSS. We are still working on actually doing physical activity in the mornings but we end up just stretching.

We are going to complete two families in our area this month :) The familia de Jose Juan. Which is him, his wife (who we have to marry) and his three children. We are so pumped. We also have a husband and wife Jesus y Austria. I am so excited for them, but this is week six in this transfer and I'm feeling like I will leave this area. We will see if I will be here to actually see the baptism :(

It seems like all the new people that we have found only speak Creol, so teaching is really interesting. I am learning a bit of Creol. 

Great week with Hermana Jackson. We will know about transfers on Saturday. We are hoping that we will stay together again.

Love you all,

Hermana Shepherd

HALFWAY,SHOTS,BAPTISMS,INTERVIEWS

It's my halfway mark CHEVERE :) It's gone by super fast!

Also, this week was CRAZY!!!

Tuesday: We went to the capital to see why my hip was hurting so bad. It turns out that I have some sort of bursitis or tendonitis in both of my hips. SOOO, I had to get shots of something on my one side to see if it would help (it does.) Now I will have to go and get it on the other side. PARTY!!

Wednesday: We had interviews with president! They were great!

I love interview days

Thursday: NINE MONTHS IN THE MISSION (HALFWAY). It was a very trunky day for me, also completely fantastic. Now I am on the downhill.

Friday: We put another baptism date for a 20 year old named Johnfrey. He found us on the street and asked us how he can become a member.  Love it when that happens!

Saturday: THREE BAPTISMS :)))))) YIMI,YIRI, YEREMY WERE BAPTIZED. I'M AM SO HAPPY! IT WAS BEAUTIFUL AND ALSO HILARIOUS BECAUSE AFTER THEY CAME OUT OF THE WATER THEY SWAM OUT OF THE FONT BECAUSE THEY HAD NEVER BEEN IN A SWIMMING POOL BEFORE AND THE BAPTISMAL FONT WAS THE FIRST "POOL" THEY HAD EVER BEEN IN!  :)

Sunday: Four confirmations. Also, we ate Sancocho at a members house (so yummy)

Also, hermana Jackson and I are being super fitness now and I have found a new love for ginger. We make homemade juice with a lot of ginger.

Love it here and love you all!

Hermana Shepherd