Silent Night in Harlem...... haha yea right

Hey hey hey everybody
I love you all and I want to wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I hope everything is going well back home and everybody is in the Christmas spirit. I heard that it is snowing like crazy in Utah and I miss it so much!! It has snowed once here and it was only a little bit so it was all gone the next day, so its just cold here, no snow, just cold. We are all happy though because Its Christmas time!!!!! HORRAY!!!! Things have been going really well here in Harlem and I have learned a lot of new things. Postivitey is key to happiness, in fact I think being positive is a form of having hope and faith which we all know is very important. Alma 41: 14-15 talks about living a good life and following the example of Christ and good things will be restored unto you. I took as if you have faith in something, Heavenly Father will help you to accomplish that purpose, as long as it is a righteous purpose of course. So if we are positive in good things Heavenly Father will most likely help us to see fruits and be able to bless us with those things things we are working towards. Never give up the positive attitude or the faith, it makes things a lot harder when you lose that and re-finding the faith is a lot harder then just hanging on to it. This past week I have been trying to have a postive attitude in the work and in being able to find new investigators. Then a wonderful thing happened and we began to teach this lady named Sharon Grant. Sharon was recently told by her Grandmothers church folk that she needs to be baptized to be allowed into heaven. I think this was a week or two before she met with us and it set up the scene perfectly for the message we had to share. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and asked her to read it and pray about it. She read it and felt a warm feeling as she read. She didn't get a chance to pray about it before the last time we met but she believes it to be true and is willing to be baptized on jan. 22!!! Now here is the wonderful news!!! She lives in Pennsylvania on the weekends!!!! Which means that we won't be the ones that will baptize her, it will be the Elders in the ward that she lives in on the weekends so she can go to church on Sunday. We will be able to teach her because she lives here during the week cause she works in the city. Its a wonderful experience to be able to help another set of Elders have the experience of baptizing someone. :) Its their Christmas present hahahaha. Well I know that this is a short e-mail but I don't have a lot of time because I have a busy day set up, we are helping this lady from the ward do a childrens toy thing and we have to sing at it so yay. I get to sing. I hope everyone is doing well and I love you all, I am sorry if I have not replied to your letters yet but I will get caught up one day I hope. Just bear with me and if I don't reply I will in 2 years :) haha just kidding I will work on replying to everybody because I really appreciate the letters that everyone sends me. Thank you for being you.
I love you.
Love
Elder Shepherd

It's Christmas time in the city!!!!

Hey everybody its really cold here in New York, its about 25 degrees today plus the humidity it feels like 10 degrees. Despite the cold we have been able to keep up on our work and already this week we have 8 lessons WOOHOO!! We have also had the pleasure of recieving many referrels for other missionaries and even getting 2 New investigators for the 2 other companionships in our district. We haven't found any news for us yet but we have high hopes that the Lord will bless us for working hard and doing our best. I have felt a little under the weather today but we slept for a while today so hopefully that helped, I really don't want to be sick for Christmas so please pray for me. Nothing super exciting has happened this last week or this wee so far except for the things I have already talked about. Elder Exilus and I met this really smart guy and talked to him for like 20 minutes about the bible and the need for the Book of Mormon. He was saying to us how the bible explains everything we need and by abiding to its precepts we will enter into Gods presence. I explained to him about needing a prophet and the fullness of truth which is contained in the Book of Mormon. He argued the point by saying that God would not let man take the truths from the bible therefore we need no other book. The whole time the guy kept trying to convert us to his point even after I told him we were not there to argue, all we wanted to do was to help bring others unto Christ. He didn't like that because he said that the only way you can truly become close to Christ is by reading the bible and following its precepts, and we were decieved in thinking that anything else could do that. It was actually very nice in what he was trying to do, he was trying to help us have the truth that he had and thats definitley a good thing. Unfortunately he was blinded to the fact that we also had truth. When all was said and done I bore my testimony told him he was doing a good thing in his own ministry and that I hoped he had a good day, then I walked away. Its definitley not worth it to sit and argue with someone about who is right and who is wrong, the best thing we can do is love them and try our hardest to help them in anyway. Its up to them wether they choose to accept the help that we offer. This gospel brings a wonderful change into peoples hearts when they allow it too. I remember the story of Alma the younger and how he and the sons of mosiah and been persecuting the church. Heavenly Father saw this and did His best to help them recieve the life changing gospel into their hearts. As we know an angel of the Lord came to all of them and spoke to them "with a voice like thunder" and told them if they did not stop persecuting the church they would perish. They all had their agency in what they were to choose to do, they could have stopped persecuting the church and just lived a normal everyday life not believing but letting others believe. Fortunately for us they allowed the gospel to change them and bring them to repentance through Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that He would make in the near future. I hope during this time of giving and recieving, helping and loving, we will all allow the gospel to come into our hearts just a little bit more and help us to change and bring us more happiness. Many of my wonderful family and friends have already let this gospel into their lives, but I know from personal experience that we can always let it in a little more. I love all of you and wish you a happy holidays, I am starting to miss home just a little bit, but I know I am where I am supposed to be :) Stay warm everybody and send me letters, I am greedy for letters, Ill admit it. I love you all and miss you. MERRY CHRISTMAS.
Love
Elder Shepherd

Christmas Packages

If anyone would like to send Keldon a Christmas Package it needs to be there by Dec 10th... Sorry I didn't post this sooner. Anyway, please send it to the Scarsdale address and write CHRISTMAS on the box :) Merry Christmas everyone! :)

Thanksgiving soul style!!!!

Hola!!!
I hope everyone enjoyed their thanksgivings and had lots of Turkey and other food that makes you want to fall into a small coma. Here in Harlem for Thanksgiving we got invited to lunch at a members house named Bro. Keitt. He is a really good man and feeds us lunch every thursday so for last thursday he had is home attendant (Estelle) make us a Thanksgiving feast. It was all so good I went back for seconds but that mistake cost me dearly throughout the day. Later that night we got invited to a feast at another members house (The Silvera's) and the food was so so so so good that once again I ate way too much. Then we went to Sister Watson's house who is a really good cook and she fed us once again. This time though instead of the normal Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, cranberries, thanksgiving food items she cooked Soul Food!!! Now I don't know how many of you have had soul food but if you have you know what I'm talking about, Its so weird!!! We had fish and curried goat, shrimp, collard greens, oxtail, macaroni and cheese, fried turkey, and a few other things I can't remember. All the food was delicious and cooked to perfection it was just weird to have different stuff on Thanksgiving, it was definitley an adventure to eat at her house though. Then after Sister Watson's house we went to the Gilmore's house and had pie which was unique and delicious, I have never had cranberry pie before but now its one of my favorites. After that I was done, I couldn't eat anymore and just wanted to sleep for 3 days. Unfortunately I could only sleep 8 hours and then back to hitting the pavement.
I love serving a mission and would never take back the choice to serve, it has been a huge blessing in my life to help me to come closer to Christ and understand the plan of Salvation just a little bit more. Every morning I get a couple hours to study the scriptures and make sure I am ready to help the people resolve concerns in their life and bring them closer to Christ. Yesterday I was reading in Alma 26 where it talks about how mission work is only accomplished through the power of God. Missionaries may be persecuted, spit on, yelled at, cursed at, and many other unpleasant things. They may even be put into unpleasant situations that they must learn from. As long as they have God behind them though they will always be ok and nothing can stop the work.
I love all of you and truly desire that all my friends and family continue striving towards Christ. This is the only way that we can receive eternal happiness and its the only way we can be with our families for time and all eternity. I know this church is true I know Christ is our Savior and I know Heavenly Father loves all of His children.
My new missionary ( Elder Excilus) who I will be training still is not here yet so please pray that he will get better so we can accomplish miracles here in Harlem.
Love you all and best wishes to everybody.
Love
Elder Shepherd

An Explosion of Craziness!!!!!!

Hey Everybody!!!!!
I have a lot to write and a very short amount of time to do it, but I will try to get it all in. So transfer calls came on Sunday night and 2 of the people in my apartment left out of the 4 of us that were their. Elder Palu got sent to Newburgh and is called to be zone leader, which is really crazy because he has only been out 6 months. He is a great Elder though and I see why the Lord needs him to be a zone leader. Then we found out that Elder Craig was going to be in New Pultz which is way upstate right by Newburgh so they will both be in the same zone. Then came the most shocking new of all, Elder Lawerence got called to be a trainer... its super crazy because he has only been out 3 months!!!! Then came another shocking update on what would be happening.... Elder Shepherd (me) got called to Train!!!!!! oh man when I heard the news I did not know what to think and I felt all sorts of emotions all at once.
So then on tuesday we all went to the kingsbridge chapel which is in the Bronx and we all waited for the new missionaries and the mission president. When they all arrived we lined up the trainers and the new missionaries and started pairing everybody off. Then is when I found out that the missionary that I am supposed to train is still at the MTC getting tests done because he was sick. He won't arrive in New York for the next couple weeks, so everybody pray for him that he will get better. So basiclly I am in a limbo just chillen with Elder Lawrence and Elder Goode, waiting for Elder Excilus to get here. hmmmm It kind of stinks but oh well I will definitly learn somthing. Woohoo Im excited to train but I know its a huge responsibilty so I will definitly stay close to the Lord and try my hardest to help him learn the best way to be a missionary.
Well I love you all and hope everything is going well. Please send letters. or packages :) i love you all and miss you!!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!!
Sincerely
Elder Shepherd

O Harlem!!!!

Hey Everybody!!!!
I'm just here in Harlem having a good ole time talking to people and doing the Lords work. Its really awesome how important love is in this work and how important it is in life. Love keeps everything going, if Heavenly Father did'nt love us we wouldn't even exist let alone have a beautiful plan of salvation laid out before us. If people didn't love we would have destroyed oursleves a long time ago, however we could all do a little better at loving one another. Jesus told us that Love is the greatest commandment (Matt 22:37-40) so we should all try our hardest to love more and make this world a better place.
Nothing is really happening here in Harlem, we were teaching this great lady named Peggy who was going to come to church and continue to meet with us, but at the last minute she decided to go to her own church. Yesterday we were supposed to teach her but she wasn't home and wouldn't answer her door, we don't know if something happened but we are praying for her. We have a few other people that may progress but mostly our efforts are focused on finding. One of the Elders in my apartment said that when he first came out he had to come to terms that he was just going to be finding is whole mission, but he is getting baptisms every other week or atleast once a month. So far for me though it has been the exact oppisite, finding all the time everytime. Its good though and I know that as long as I am being obedient and desiring to build the kingdom of God, the Lord will bless me as He sees fit. Its really hard being 2 new missionaries together without an experience missionary but we have been learning a lot faster and doing a lot of trial by errors. Transfers are coming up thought and we know at least one of us is leaving if not both of us, we are really excited and a little bit nervous to see what going to happen.
This last week I learned the power of the Book of Mormon, not only by reading it but by just having it around it gives us a stronger spiritual force against evil. As we are walking through Harlem I try to always have a copy in my hand. I use it to show people how it is needed and they can feel the spirit as I bear testimony that it is true. Its made a huge effect in how the work goes and we have handed out a lot more copies of the Book of Mormon. I encourage all of you to read the Book of Mormon regularly and try to apply the principle into your daily life. Sorry if i don't have that many cool stories but it is really hard to remember everything that we did throughtout the week. I hope you are all doing great and I hope you all have happiness in your life.
Love
Elder Shepherd

Pivotal Moment!!!!!‏

Dear Friends and Family!!!!
I love thinking of the things to put on the subject line of the e-mail. That line has to capture the readers attention so that they desire to read the rest of the e-mail, and not to be prideful or anything but I think the ones I use are pretty darn good :) So this week was fun, I have learned a lot and become a better missionary, I think... anyway I hope everything is going well back home, I miss you all very much, but I'm sure you are all getting the point where you have forgotten about me :(. Just kidding. I love being a missionary even though sometimes it is really hard, I try my hardest to focus all my time on serving the Lord but occasionally I will get caught up in thinking about home or people back home, or random stuff.
This week I realized something really important, it really changed the way I looked at steet contacting and tracting and everything else pertaining to missionary work. The thing I realized this week is the importance of us all being chilren of our Heavenly Father. We ALL lived with Heavenly Father before this life and we ALL chose to come down to this earth to experience mortality and to be tested. This puts all of us on the same page when it comes to this life, we all forgot who we are and where we came from and we are all experiencing a test from Heavenly Father. So here is a few questions that I ask myself sometimes: If this man is my brother why should I be afraid to ask him if he wants to learn about God's plan of Salvation? How can I help these people understand who they are? How can I become more of who I truly am and not who my natural man is?
Those are just a few questions I came up with to help me along my path of being a missionary and a child of God. We truly are brothers and sisters, and for those of us who have recieved the truth of our divine heirship, we have a sacred calling. We must step up and tell the world who they are and what they can become. We must awake our brothers and sisters who haven't recieved this knowledge, to the fact that they have a loving Heavenly Father who wants whats best for them. If we won't do this, who will?
On monday Elder Craig and I had a great experience in being able to teach a lady named Peggy. She is a fantastic lady who really does know Heavenly Father and wants to become closer to Him. We taught her from the scriptures and helped her to understand the true nature of God's plan for His children and the importance and need of a restoration and a living Prophet. Throughout the lesson her countenance seemed to grow brighter and brighter as we spoke of God's love and how He has shown us His love. She got very excited about the Book of Mormon and will definitley pray about it and ask if its true. She is a member of another church and told us that she doesn't want to change because she has been a member for 16 years, but we told her that if she read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it, she would learn it was true and where Heavenly Father truly wants her to be. It was a great lesson and the spirit was so strong, even if she doesn't get baptized atleast we helped her along the way just a little bit more. :)
I love all of you and am praying for all of you to learn more about the gospel of Jesus Christ and become more aware of who you truly are. We can all become stronger and closer to God if we just trust in the Lord and walk in His path.
Its really cold here in New York and its a bitter cold. Just to let all of you know I don't have an accent yet, and I don't plan on getting one. People in Harlem talk really funny and most of them have bad pronunciation so yea...
Love you all and hope things are good.
Love
Elder Shepherd