Happy June!

Hello all!   The time is flying by!

My companion sprained her ankle this last week, so we were in the house a lot and we got to do a lot of studying and listening to talks. It was good. 

Ive noticed... I am a morning person now. If you knew me before the mission you know that I didn't talk to anyone before 10am, but this morning we were on a bus to the capitol at 7 in the morning and I could not stop talking.  I am probably annoying my companion a ton. 

Another thing,  I have perfected the technique of making Dominican rice and beans aka Modo.  Even a Dominican ate it and said it was good. I am basically a professional cook now. PARTY.

I have been studying the book of mormon a lot lot lot this week.  I was also listening to a talk and the speaker said something that I like a lot. He asked "do you believe in the book of Mormon?" Anybody can say yes, but you don't really believe until you "see the teardrops on the plates" Until you can see the agony and the time that went into translating and that every single word in the book of mormon was written for a reason and we need to find that reason. Always we need to search for ways to liken the scriptures unto ourselves and find the meaning in them. Then when we find it, we have to apply it. 

So yeah, this week was really great. I am excited for another one. Les quiero!

Love,

Hermana Shepherd

A man we found today walking on stilts in the middle of the road.

Halo :)

This week has been super great. We had  a mission tour which was an amazingly spiritual experience. We talked a lot about having faith and being completely obedient. We are trying to make the mission the most saint like that we can, but with everyone being more saint like that means that satan will work harder and harder with us to try to stop the work.

This week I had an amazing experience with the Priesthood and the power that men have to serve others with. How amazing is it that we have the restored power of the priesthood to bring about miracles. Miracles  heal people and cast out spirits. It's the same power that Christ used during his dispensation. What a blessing!

Anyway, this week was awesome. Still learning a ton everyday. Talking to everyone. Finding  lots of prepared people. :) The mission is the best decision that I have ever made. It is so hard sometimes but every second is worth it.

Love you guys! Have an awesome week!

Hermana Shepherd

pictures from a couple transfers ago.

6 Months :)

Hello all, I will have six months in the mission... WOW.   I can't believe how fast it has gone by.   

I am now in Villa Verde with Hermana Jackson. She is from Idaho and this is her last transfer before she goes home.  She is awesome!  We have been working so hard these past few days and have met a ton of people ready to be baptized. I am super excited for this transfer.   It will be so fun.   This area is perfect.  It's a ward so here so there are tons of people to help us.

Fun fact: I got my first sunburn this week (which is weird)  also super exciting because that means all the other times it just went straight to being a tan. I am very tan, or I mean tanner.  I dont know that I have ever been actually tan... :)

WE FOUND A FAMILY THIS WEEK. They are a husband and wife (not married) and their 5 kids. They are ready to follow what Heavenly Father wants for them!   We are extending a date for baptism the next appointment so I will keep y'all posted. 

Love you all,

Have a good week! Bye!

Hermana Shepherd

Serving a mission in paradise!

Happy Mothers Day!

Hello!  Sorry I haven't written for a couple weeks. It's been crazy and I have had no time. 

First of all, this transfer has been the hardest of my mission yet, but I have learned so much from it.  Mostly, I have learned to have more faith in the promises that we are given. 

Last Saturday we were supposed to have a baptism for Joven.   We woke up and had one tiny lesson and then cleaned the chapel. Then we went to eat really fast and came back to the chapel and Joven wasn't there.  We looked for him for a long time and he never showed up.

Pres Corbitt had given us a promise that everyone would have a baptism and we didn't. We were out until 10;30 that night with the ASSISTANTS (who came all the way from Santo Domingo) to help us find a person to baptize. We found one, but she didn't want to get baptized. I have never cried more in my life, but I'm over it now because if we wouldn't have gone through that then she wouldn't be getting baptized this next Saturday.

We had a long phone call with our mission President  that night until like 11:30.  He said that we did everything we could and the promise was completed.  It's just that people have their agency. I believe him and it makes sense. It was just hard.  Then I was reading in 3rd Nephi  where God introduces Jesus Christ to the people saying,  (this is my son, in whom I am well pleased.) I felt like that was about me. If god were to introduce me in that moment he would say the same thing, because I did everything that I could. I could feel that it was true. He is proud of me and the work that I am doing here. 

I am now being transferred to VillaVerde. Which is in La Romana. It is southeast of where I have been serving. 

 I will be with Hermana Jackson. I have met her and she is super sweet, but I am a little worried because she is from the states so I hope I can continue learning Spanish really fast. I am super excited for this next transfer.

Something super cool that happened yesterday is that I talked to my family through skype. It was very nice to see them and that they are doing well.  I had been a little homesick and seeing them really helped with that. I got to skype with my family in Washington and also family in Utah.  I loved it!

I am super tired still. I think I will be for the rest of my mission. YAY. But hey, I am almost at six months in the mission. It has gone by so fast. I will try to put some more pictures on from Monte Plata which is where I was in this last transfer.

Hey! also, we had a tarantula in the house. It was as big as my hand. I died. We had a lot of random bugs lately that are big .  I took some pictures of what it looks like in the CAMPO, or country.

Other than that, not too much new. I have learned a ton. I am still loving it here!

Oh, one other thing, I dont remember if I have told you this before but so far on my mission I have had Zika virus, and Ameabas. WOOOOO! hahaa. 

Have a good week guys love you!

Hermana Shepherd

The beautiful countryside

Lots of spiders.  This one is poisonous so we sprayed it with bleach and then hit it with a broom!

5 Months!

Heyyy, I have five months in the mission today. Time is going by so fast.

We have been teaching a lot and having a lot of activities. We have had three cosechas in the past two weeks. Usually our branch has like 20 people, but yesterday we had 56!!!!   A RECORD.  It was so great.  We also sang in the meeting.   Hermana Pereira and I are doing good.  We will have a baptism on the 30th with a joven, Joselito. He is very prepared for it. 

Not much has happened. I'm doing good, working hard. Traveling to lots of meetings and stuff. They give out Halls cough drops like candy here. It's very weird.   I used to not like them, but now I do. 

I ate Chicharon this week, and EWWW. It's basically chunks of pig with the fat and skin deep fried. (with the hair still on it). It was not good. 

I don't really have more to say.  The weeks are going by so fast that it has all blurred together. I was able to download a few pictures but most of them are on my other card and I didn't want to bring it with me today since we are 3 hours away from home and risk it getting stolen.  I am hoping to download them next week!

Love you guys!

Have a good week!

Hermana Shepherd

Me and Hermana Pereira

Lots of big bugs here.

It's not uncommon to see maggots here, they don't even bother me anymore.

Another week in Monte Plata

Hola!   This week was good. I had intercombios (exchanges) in Bayaguana with Hermana Taylor. Holy cow she is so fun. I love intercombios.  They help me see how other people teach and improve myself. 

We had a mini cosecha (harvest) yesterday. I went on intercombio with the Relief Society President.   She showed me where a bunch of less actives live and we were able to teach three lessons together. We had 20 people in church yesterday which is the average here. We are working really hard to reactivate people. 

We have no money!!!  We have to travel a lot to the other cities for meetings and such and we recently ran out of money, and we have to make it to Hainamosa on Thursday which is about 300 pesos. Yesterday, I made some homemade pancakes with some flour and coconut milk. They tasted like donuts. 

We are teaching a sister here, her name is Yuli. Her daughter died one month ago today. She was hit by a car. Very sad and very hard. 

We had to come in early a lot this week because the power was out and it was too dark. There are a lot of politics here which can get dangerous. We are very careful and very safe. 

love you all!!

Hermana Shepherd

I am working on getting pictures to upload with this computer so hopefully I can post some next week :)

Transfer #4

I am now in Monte Plata with Hermana Pereira, She is from Brazil and does not speak any English, so that's challenging. This area is huge and we have a lot of work to do. We had like no lessons this week because we had meetings and General Conference.

By the way, General Conference was amazing!   I got to watch it in English which is way cool. I wish every week was General Conference week. I love hearing from the apostles and having my testimony strengthened.  My favorite talk was by Elder Duncan (I think that is what his name was). I am going to print it out the first chance I get.

It is very, very hot in the DR and it will get hotter. woohoo...  We are so  far out in the country it takes like three hours in a guagua (bus) to get to our zone meeting. which is like 330 pesos total, which isn't much, but we dont get very much money.   There is a small branch here (like 20 people) so we are mostly working with the  inactive members trying to reactivate them.

I am doing great in the mission and receiving a lot of much needed strength from the Lord. I went to take a short nap earlier today and I was out for two hours. yayy!!!

Love you guys, hope all is going great.

Ps. I would love to get  letters in the mail from everyone so I can read them during the week to help build me up on those hard days.  Thanks!  My address is the same as it shows on the side of the blog.

Hermana Shepherd

Note from mom - the computer that is available for emailing on P-day will not let her upload her pictures so hopefully they can get it figured out so she can send some pics.  I attached a few of the area that I have found online just to give everyone and idea of where she is serving.

The yellow area is Monte Plata.