Monday, February 27, 2017

Hammocks and miracles

George was baptized! His story is truly a miracle. He received the missionary lessons through skype with his girlfriend from Texas. The elders taught them the lessons, we just placed the baptismal date. His baptism was the easiest I have ever had, the service was the most organized. He was literally a gift. He has a stutter and doesn't like to read or speak in public, so we had him share his testimony. A cool little miracle happened, as he shared his testimony his stutter disappeared! His girlfriend and six elders watched the service through skype. It was a pretty great moment. After the service, the elders, through George, sent us a message thanking us for our team work and for pushing them to baptism. I was super impressed with their humility, it's amazing how the Lord is doing His work all over the world.

Transfers!!! duh duh duh... Surprise! I'm staying here with Hna Birch. We were surprised that we aren't receiving other sisters, our area now includes three areas, Nuevo Amanecer a, b, and Amalia. Wahoo! With the thousands of people here, that means hundreds have to be prepared to hear the gospel. We are going to have a blast. Our ward switched stakes so we are no longer in Las Americas, now we belong to Almirante. We are still the Hna Leaders, just serving a bigger area now.

To top off the week, last Monday Hna Birch and I went to the Conde and bought... HAMMOCKS. We strung them up in our bedroom. They're great but really cold because we tied them to the bars of our windows. (Here in the DR every window and door is barred, instead of prisons to keep bad people in, everywhere looks like a prison to keep bad people out.)

Our theme of the week has been Ester 4:14-16. I love this scripture. Each of us has divine potential to be the change in the lives of others. Who knows if we have been called at this time? The Lord knows! and He is the one who calls us. He places us in the lives of others in the moments when they most need us, because we have what they are searching for. The truth. The gospel. So share it! Share your testimony this fast Sunday. Share a mormon message online, invite a friend to church. Look for small ways to make a big difference and share the gospel this week. I love you all so much! Thanks for all the prayers! Have a great week!

Love you all,
Hna Shepherd







Monday, February 6, 2017

Playing catch up

We have been so busy that I am behind on posting for a couple of weeks so I am trying to catch up :)

Jan 23-27 Letter

This week was great.  On Saturday we had two baptisms.  The first was Giovanni.  I have been working with him since I got to this area 5 months ago, and finally on Saturday he was baptized.   He was sooo happy and I was surprised because his mom even came to the baptism.  He doesn't have very good circumstances in his home.  His mom works all the time and always seemed very uninterested and his step dad is not nice to him.  Giovanni has wanted to be baptized since the first time we talked to him and his mom finally gave him permission.  She was very happy at the baptism, I know the spirit touched her while she was there.  After the baptism Giovanni, his mom and his little brother were playing basketball together when we walked by.  It was the cutest thing ever!

The other baptism was for Roberta.  She is great, and her mom also is working toward baptism so I am excited for that. 

We received transfers on Saturday night though.  So I will be leaving this area, but not to far.  I will be in an area that borders this one called Nuevo Amanacer.  I will be comps with Hermana Birch.  She is also a sister training leader so it will be nice to be comps with her and not have to make phone calls to each other to get our work done.  I am super excited about this new area.  I have already done intercombios in this area and I love it!

Jan 30 - Feb 6 Letter

My first week in Nuevo Amanacer was awesome.  Things are going well.  We have alot of people to teach here.  We have a goal to find and baptize three families this month.  We found one family already, well the other sisters did before I got here.   The story of how they found them is very cool.  They were looking for an old investigator in an apartment building but he wasn't there, so they decided to contact the entire building.   Nobody wanted to let them in until they got to the fourth floor last door (just like in Elder Uchtdorfs talk)  and they found the S. family.  They are a wonderful young couple.  They have a baptismal date for the 25th and we are working on their papers to get them married before then.  They are so ready and already have such big testimonies of this gospel.  

We have also found a few other families who have potential.  Things are going good. I am so happy to be in the service of my heavenly father!
Have a wonderful week everyone.

Love Hermana Shepherd