Aloha Everybody!!!
I am sitting next to a sister from Hawaii so I was insprired to start my letter a little bit tropical, even though their is nothing tropical about the weather here in Harlem. The days are gray and rainy, and the ground is covered in slushy snow and puddles are literally everywhere. The only good thing about this kind of weather is that last Preperation day our zone went to central park and had a huge snowball fight. It was insanely fun and I even got buried in the snow. We left central park wet and cold but very happy, then we got to warm up by preaching the gospel that night. Marvelous things have been happening this week, for example we found 1 new investigator and have 3 or 4 appointments set up with potential investigators. So basically I am really happy with the way things are going here in Harlem. Elder Irvine and I have been working hard and putting our best foot foward, haha last night we even got into an apartment while tracting, which has never happened!!!! The lady who let us in is named Betty and she was so happy that the Lord had blessed her with a new church to go to, because of her knee she can't go to the baptist church that she used to go to. Hopefully we will be able to meet with her more and I'm sure we will see her at church. We have been meeting a lot of great people as we have been walking the streets of Harlem, they are super cool!!! The other day some random guy was walking past us and said Jesus loves you, so I backtracted and talked to him. He talked about how we are all children of God and we need to love each other, if we don't truly love each other then people won't be able to see us as servants of Jesus Christ. We must let Christs image become part of our countenance. Through these past couple weeks I have been working on having more charity, which ultimately is the pure love of Christ. It was kind of cool to have a random guy teach us for a change and I truly felt the spirit as he spoke to us and encouraged us to be more like Christ. He wasn't interested in hearing our message but I was pretty happy with the message that he shared with us. Throughout these weeks of doing my best to become more Christ like I have seen a huge difference in how the work goes and every other aspect of my life. We have been able to find a lot more people and the lessons that we have are much more spiritual. Last night I was teaching a lesson on the Book of Mormon to a member and her daughter-in-law and grand-daugther, and I felt the spirit testify to me that the words in Moroni 10:3-5 were truly inspired by God. I felt the sincereity that Moroni had when he wrote those words and how truly amazing they were. I know that if we try our hardest to become more Christ like then we will see blessing in our lives and miracles will happen. This probably isn't the first or last e-mail that I have or will write about becoming Christ like but sometimes we need to learn things a lot more times then just once.
Sharon Grant probably won't be getting baptized this weekend because we lost contact with her, she won't answer her phone calls and won't return our calls. The Pennsylvania Elders said that she wants to be baptized into the Harlem ward but has not expressed that to us at all so we don't know whats going on. Please keep her in your prayers because she progressed so much that we would hate to lose her. Please forgive me if some of you write me letters and i don't respond for sometime it is really hard to respond to all the letters that I get but I am trying. When your living in New York City often times you get really side tracked and unorganized so please understand if you don't recieve a letter from me super soon.
I love all of you and hope you are all doing wonderfully, I love to hear how your all doing and whats new in your lives. Please if any of you are going on a vacation to somewhere tropical please take pictures and send them to me, I need to see the sun soon or I might go crazy, in fact I may have already gone crazy..... who knows muhahahhahahah.
Seriously though please keep me updated on whats going on.
Love
Elder Shepherd
P.s.
Here is a list of things that I have learned in Harlem
1. Jesus loves everybody
2. We are very blessed to have all the things we have, some people don't have anything.
3. If you are not black DO NOT go into a store called african paradise, especially if your a mormon missionary.
4. If you choose to randomly talk to random people on the street about God and Jesus, be prepared for anything... literally anything.
5. After a long time Ambulance sirens, car alarms, and gangster rap music become soothing sounds that help you fall asleep.
6. Roaches are tough, but not as tough as a shoe. Atleast not anyones that I have met
7. Mice are smarter then you think
8. The Book of Mormon is true, no matter what anybody says.
9. The Harlem 1st ward is probably one of the most diverse wards in the world, not even joking.
10. Fire escapes should not be used as balconys
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Harlem nights and Harlem days.
Hello family and friends!!!
I hope everyone is been doing fantastic lately. I have been getting some awesome letters from a lot of people and I would like to thank all of you who have been sending letters and stuff. When missionaries get letters it really motivates us and helps us to know that our loved ones know where we are and love and support us. So thank you everyone and yes I hope you are all having a super great week.
Things are interesting here in Harlem, my new companion is named Elder Irvine and he goes home in about 3 months. Its awesome to be able to get a perspective on missionary work from someone who know so much, then again when your about to go home in 3 months sometimes its hard to stay motivated. We are working hard though and this week we have found a few people who may be interested in hearing the message. Also the lady who we have been working with has not been able to meet with us in a while and their may be a few complications with her and her daughters getting baptized. If everyone could please pray for them that would be super awesome, we need as much help as we can get. Not many spiritually uplifting experiences have happened this week, but hopefully this next week we will see a miracle and have an awesome burst of spiritual awesomeness!!! Something awesome and cool that we did see this week is a Hawk!!! One night we were walking through a project on our way to look up a fromer investigator and suddenly we saw a hawk sitting on a fence just staring at everyone who walked by. We walked right up to it (after a few minutes of standing there in shock) and we took a bunch of pictures. Then we went into the apartment and did the look up. After we got rejected and walked out of the project their was a bunch of guys standing around freaking out about the hawk. They all seemed really gangster and were all afraid of the hawk. We started walking toward the hawk and they all were like " Do you see that thing!? it will tear you apart!" So we told them it wouldn't bother them if they didn't bother it and so they followed us as we walked past. As we were walking past they were saying that they were going to punch it if it came after them, haha it was super hilarious and really showed us how truly gangster Harlem gangster are. They don't even dare go near a little bird with sharp claws, but the little missionaries from Utah and Cali dare to be wild and stand up close and personal with the dangerous bird of prey. Shows how much strength the Lord gives us haha. Anyway though this e-mail is going to be really short but I love all of you and hope to hear more from you guys. Love you.
-Elder Shepherd
I hope everyone is been doing fantastic lately. I have been getting some awesome letters from a lot of people and I would like to thank all of you who have been sending letters and stuff. When missionaries get letters it really motivates us and helps us to know that our loved ones know where we are and love and support us. So thank you everyone and yes I hope you are all having a super great week.
Things are interesting here in Harlem, my new companion is named Elder Irvine and he goes home in about 3 months. Its awesome to be able to get a perspective on missionary work from someone who know so much, then again when your about to go home in 3 months sometimes its hard to stay motivated. We are working hard though and this week we have found a few people who may be interested in hearing the message. Also the lady who we have been working with has not been able to meet with us in a while and their may be a few complications with her and her daughters getting baptized. If everyone could please pray for them that would be super awesome, we need as much help as we can get. Not many spiritually uplifting experiences have happened this week, but hopefully this next week we will see a miracle and have an awesome burst of spiritual awesomeness!!! Something awesome and cool that we did see this week is a Hawk!!! One night we were walking through a project on our way to look up a fromer investigator and suddenly we saw a hawk sitting on a fence just staring at everyone who walked by. We walked right up to it (after a few minutes of standing there in shock) and we took a bunch of pictures. Then we went into the apartment and did the look up. After we got rejected and walked out of the project their was a bunch of guys standing around freaking out about the hawk. They all seemed really gangster and were all afraid of the hawk. We started walking toward the hawk and they all were like " Do you see that thing!? it will tear you apart!" So we told them it wouldn't bother them if they didn't bother it and so they followed us as we walked past. As we were walking past they were saying that they were going to punch it if it came after them, haha it was super hilarious and really showed us how truly gangster Harlem gangster are. They don't even dare go near a little bird with sharp claws, but the little missionaries from Utah and Cali dare to be wild and stand up close and personal with the dangerous bird of prey. Shows how much strength the Lord gives us haha. Anyway though this e-mail is going to be really short but I love all of you and hope to hear more from you guys. Love you.
-Elder Shepherd
2011!!!
Hello Everybody!!!
I hope everyone is having a fantastic 2011 thus far into it. I know that mine has been some what exciting and will continue to be different. Last night we got transfer calls and I am staying in Harlem. My companion will be going up to pigskill which is near conneticut, the reason he is leaving after only one cycle is because before the mission he had hernia surgery and all the walking is not good for it. So my new companion is Elder Irvine who seems to have mixed feelings about me, lets just say whenever we have been near each other he hasn't enjoyed it. I am way excited and I have a feeling Elder Irvine will be one of my most favorite companions on my mission, hahaha even if he doesn't know it yet. Anyway Elder Lawrence who came into the mission with me, and who also trained after only 2 cycles, his companion also has a problem with all the walking that is done in Harlem and is also going upstate. His new companion is Elder Garvin who also came into the mission with us and is currently Elder Irvines companion. So basically they are splitting up their companionship and putting them with us. They have been serving in South Manhattan which is SO much different then Harlem that they will most likely have shell shock. Elder Lawrence has also been called to be the new district leader which is really awesome because their are going to be 2 older missionaries in the district. He is a great Elder and will do a fantastic job. Thats really all thats going on here, no new investigators this last week for us anyway. We did get a baptismal date for another companionship and plenty of other refferalls for other missionaries but very few for ourselves. Its ok though because this gospel is not a selfish thing and so its good to help others out in their work and give them people to teach. Sharon Grant is still on date for the 22nd and is still a golden investigator, the PA elders are really happy that a miracle just fell into their laps hahaha. Christ is probably not going to be baptized because he didn't come to church on Sunday and just doesn't seem to commited, but I have still have hope in my heart that he will one day take that step into the water.
I think the thing that I have been learning most these past couple weeks is humility and faith. Humility because lately I have been being a tad bit prideful and been putting myself above others. The Lord has seen this and has given me humbling experiences that will last me a lifetime. Its so important to be humble and willing to learn from one another. We are all children of God, none of us are perfect, we all have different strengths and weaknesses, why not learn from each other and better ourselves through the things that other people can teach us. I know that if we will just open our hearts, eyes, and ears we will be able to recognize different things in our lives in which we can gain knowledge from. It could be the most simplest thing too, and you never would have expected to learn from it but the Lord has a deeper understanding and teaches us when and from things that we least expect. Also I have been learning faith in Jesus Christ, and to trust Him no matter what. This whole cycle has been a really tough one full of an empty teaching pool and a planner full of names and numbers for other missionaries. This has been one of the most humbling and faithbuilding experiences in my life. The reason it has given me a boost of strength is because I have had to put my trust in the Lord and just go to work. Without the Lord I would have given up and handed in the tag by now, but day after day I must go out on the streets of Harlem and raise my voice to the people, the only way I could do this is with strength from the Lord. Many people reject this glad message, and many people are afraid of or not ready to change their life. So many people tell us that they are willing to meet with us and then just disappear, but this is still the Lords work. The Lord is here with us and helping us day after day and I must have faith and truly trust that He is. As long as we are improving even in the slightest and continueing to obey and show Him our faith through our works, He will guide this work, He will help us in our needs, and He will bless us with the things that our best. I truly love all of you and desire for all of you to more fully put your faith in the Lord and just move foward with your hands in His hands. I hope you are all doing well and staying out of trouble. Love you and miss you all.
Love
Elder Shepherd
I hope everyone is having a fantastic 2011 thus far into it. I know that mine has been some what exciting and will continue to be different. Last night we got transfer calls and I am staying in Harlem. My companion will be going up to pigskill which is near conneticut, the reason he is leaving after only one cycle is because before the mission he had hernia surgery and all the walking is not good for it. So my new companion is Elder Irvine who seems to have mixed feelings about me, lets just say whenever we have been near each other he hasn't enjoyed it. I am way excited and I have a feeling Elder Irvine will be one of my most favorite companions on my mission, hahaha even if he doesn't know it yet. Anyway Elder Lawrence who came into the mission with me, and who also trained after only 2 cycles, his companion also has a problem with all the walking that is done in Harlem and is also going upstate. His new companion is Elder Garvin who also came into the mission with us and is currently Elder Irvines companion. So basically they are splitting up their companionship and putting them with us. They have been serving in South Manhattan which is SO much different then Harlem that they will most likely have shell shock. Elder Lawrence has also been called to be the new district leader which is really awesome because their are going to be 2 older missionaries in the district. He is a great Elder and will do a fantastic job. Thats really all thats going on here, no new investigators this last week for us anyway. We did get a baptismal date for another companionship and plenty of other refferalls for other missionaries but very few for ourselves. Its ok though because this gospel is not a selfish thing and so its good to help others out in their work and give them people to teach. Sharon Grant is still on date for the 22nd and is still a golden investigator, the PA elders are really happy that a miracle just fell into their laps hahaha. Christ is probably not going to be baptized because he didn't come to church on Sunday and just doesn't seem to commited, but I have still have hope in my heart that he will one day take that step into the water.
I think the thing that I have been learning most these past couple weeks is humility and faith. Humility because lately I have been being a tad bit prideful and been putting myself above others. The Lord has seen this and has given me humbling experiences that will last me a lifetime. Its so important to be humble and willing to learn from one another. We are all children of God, none of us are perfect, we all have different strengths and weaknesses, why not learn from each other and better ourselves through the things that other people can teach us. I know that if we will just open our hearts, eyes, and ears we will be able to recognize different things in our lives in which we can gain knowledge from. It could be the most simplest thing too, and you never would have expected to learn from it but the Lord has a deeper understanding and teaches us when and from things that we least expect. Also I have been learning faith in Jesus Christ, and to trust Him no matter what. This whole cycle has been a really tough one full of an empty teaching pool and a planner full of names and numbers for other missionaries. This has been one of the most humbling and faithbuilding experiences in my life. The reason it has given me a boost of strength is because I have had to put my trust in the Lord and just go to work. Without the Lord I would have given up and handed in the tag by now, but day after day I must go out on the streets of Harlem and raise my voice to the people, the only way I could do this is with strength from the Lord. Many people reject this glad message, and many people are afraid of or not ready to change their life. So many people tell us that they are willing to meet with us and then just disappear, but this is still the Lords work. The Lord is here with us and helping us day after day and I must have faith and truly trust that He is. As long as we are improving even in the slightest and continueing to obey and show Him our faith through our works, He will guide this work, He will help us in our needs, and He will bless us with the things that our best. I truly love all of you and desire for all of you to more fully put your faith in the Lord and just move foward with your hands in His hands. I hope you are all doing well and staying out of trouble. Love you and miss you all.
Love
Elder Shepherd
Happy New Year!!!
Sorry if this e-mail is a little late, President decided to move our Preperation Day from wednesday to saturday because everyone in NY would be recovering from partying last night. I hope everyone was able to have a wonderful time bringing in the New Year, and I hope everybody has awesome resolutions to help them have a better year this next year. I also hope everyone had a great Christmas and got to spend time with their families and loved ones. I know that this Christmas I really learned how important my family and loved ones are to me in my life, I guess the saying is true that absence makes the heart grow stronger. I had a great Christmas though and got to spend most of the day with all the missionaries from the NY NY North Mission and it was awesome. President Smith read us an awesome story called the Little Shepherd (yes the story was entirally about me :) jk) It was about this little boy that was crippled and the son of one of the shepherds who had witnessed the Saviors birth. The little boy wished desperately that he could witness such a miracle but in reality he was just a crippled young shepherd. Then a man showed up and the young shepherd invited him to share his food with him. Throughout the story the young boy learns more about the man and soon finds out that tonight is the mans birthday, strangely the man is not to excited about this and says that his journey must soon end. The boy then shares the cake his mother had baked for him and the man is deeply touched, as the man goes to leave he lays his hand on the boys shoulder and smiles then he walks away. After that moment the boy was no longer crippled. It was such an awesome story and really made me think of what it would be like to meet the Savior. I then realized that we will all get the chance to meet Him and its important on to know what we will be able to tell Him. Ether we will be able to tell Him that we did our best in this life to follow Him, or we might say that we didn't do enough. At this New Year I think it would be awesome if everybody in the whole wide world thought about what it will be like to see and talk to the Savior. I think a lot of New years resolutions would be focused around following Him more, not just in words but in actions also. We must learn and grow to be more like the Savior in all things. Alma 42 talks about this time being a time a probation and we should all be preparing to meet God. Lets all prepare ourselves YAY!!!!!!
Well some news about people we are teaching: Sharon Grant an awesome lady who lives in PA on the weekends is getting baptized on the 22nd in PA. We are teaching her during the week and the Elders in PA are teaching her on the weekends. She is a solid investigator and is super cool, everything we ask her to read she reads and is so so so solid. Her daughters might be getting baptized too so pray for them that they will gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon like their mother did and they will commit to being baptized. So yea Sharon is awesome but their is also another investigator is pretty awesome. His name is Christ....thats right his name is Christ. He is hopefully going to be baptized on the 29th and his girlfriend (hopefully soon to be wife) may also be baptized. Thats pretty much all that we are teaching but we are doing some fun things to find new people. Yesterday we made a 5-foot tall Book of Mormon and did some street contacting around it, Mom you would be proud of your son because it was my idea and I put my artistic side to use. Also a couple days ago we used to snow to write on the wall of this abandoned house "READ THE BOOK OF MORMON" hahah I hope people heed the advice of the wall and search us out and ask us for a free Book of Mormon. Oh and I also made dog out of snow that looked like it was peeing on the fire hydrant. hahaha that last one didn't really invite others to come unto Christ but it was pretty funny. Well I am running out of time and I have a lot to do today. So I love you all and I hope you are having a great day.
Love
Elder Shepherd
Well some news about people we are teaching: Sharon Grant an awesome lady who lives in PA on the weekends is getting baptized on the 22nd in PA. We are teaching her during the week and the Elders in PA are teaching her on the weekends. She is a solid investigator and is super cool, everything we ask her to read she reads and is so so so solid. Her daughters might be getting baptized too so pray for them that they will gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon like their mother did and they will commit to being baptized. So yea Sharon is awesome but their is also another investigator is pretty awesome. His name is Christ....thats right his name is Christ. He is hopefully going to be baptized on the 29th and his girlfriend (hopefully soon to be wife) may also be baptized. Thats pretty much all that we are teaching but we are doing some fun things to find new people. Yesterday we made a 5-foot tall Book of Mormon and did some street contacting around it, Mom you would be proud of your son because it was my idea and I put my artistic side to use. Also a couple days ago we used to snow to write on the wall of this abandoned house "READ THE BOOK OF MORMON" hahah I hope people heed the advice of the wall and search us out and ask us for a free Book of Mormon. Oh and I also made dog out of snow that looked like it was peeing on the fire hydrant. hahaha that last one didn't really invite others to come unto Christ but it was pretty funny. Well I am running out of time and I have a lot to do today. So I love you all and I hope you are having a great day.
Love
Elder Shepherd
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
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
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
Thursday, December 16, 2010
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
Love
Elder Shepherd
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
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! :)
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