The Fiery Darts

This week started out perfectly. Elder Limón, a missionary who served out here a year or so ago, came down to visit and went out with us to try and find some of the people he had taught. During that day we tried to talk to everyone we could, we even followed someone into what we thought could've been someone's basement (luckily it was just the laundry room), and we ended knocking on one lady's door he had taught. While we waited at the door, she pulled up and got home, it was too perfect of timing. We ended up coming back later in the week, learned a lot about the huge trials she's had to work through, and helped her to feel better. She even came to church! She's got two cute little kids and she's just the sweetest lady. Her name is Marisol and we really want to help her and her family to find true happiness. The best day of the week was Wednesday.  We'd worked really hard for a while, and we just hadn't seen the results we were expecting from all we were putting in, so that morning during one of our prayers we specifically asked for miracles because of the work we'd put in. Later that afternoon we just started knocking. In just an hour or so, we'd talked to and set appointments with about three people, which is really pretty good and seemed like a miracle. We had intended to do more, but I felt prompted to go visit some of the families nearby. Again, more miracles: We met a mom with 4 boys who'd been in a fairly recent divorce who told us that she'd really been wanting to come back to church. She said it was the only day and time it would've worked and that we were lucky to have caught her, so we really look forward to meeting with her. Even more after that: we tried to stop by one of the ward missionaries who we'd never been able to contact, and when we pulled up he was outside! He was an awesome guy. His wife had passed away a year before from cancer and it pushed him back into church. Anyways, a whole bunch of little things all worked together to make an awesome night full of miracles that really encouraged us and got us even more excited for the work.

Zone Conference

We also had zone conference this week as well which was great as always. The primary lesson we received was on cleaning ourselves up spiritually and physically so that we can be more effective as missionaries. We got some good ideas to improve our work. Sometimes I think I struggle to realize that even as a missionary I make mistakes and am not always who I want to be, and that really got to me a couple of days. After all the good days, things just kind of came crashing down a bit. I was having some self-doubt and frustration coupled with some days that weren't super successful as well and I'm good at blaming myself for those struggles. Luckily, Elder Berry has had similar experiences, so we were able to stop and just think over the situation for a while so I could get some frustration out and get back to being myself. If there's one solid takeaway from this week, it's been that Satan will work really hard to tear you down the closer you grow towards Christ, and we've got to keep doing the simple things in order to keep his temptations and the self-condemnation at bay. The last few days have been really improving, so no worries! That's about all for me this week, and if you're looking for an interesting study, I'm currently studying the law of sacrifice in the books of Moses to try and understand repentance even more. It's fairly in depth, but it has led me to a lot of good insight so far. See you next week!

Elder Shepherd

Lenexa & Olathe Zones Service Project today at Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead. The missionaries prepared the Farmstead for the season opening by raking leaves, putting down mulch, caring for farm animals, and cleaning buildings. #JustServe

"Consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments" Mosiah 2:41

Right away I will apologize for the relatively short email, but I just want to focus on a simple message. My week has been relatively normal, full of a lot of hard work, miracles, and laughs. Elder Berry has been incredibly helpful in pushing me out of my comfort zone, as well as showing me more ways of being loving and thoughtful. He hugs everyone we teach and meet, I love it. President Priday, one of the members of the Mission Presidency who's in our ward, gave us some ideas for how to improve our work while we ate dinner at Jack Stacks. All in all, this week has been extremely spiritual, edifying, and uplifting. When you are able to be filled by the spirit while studying and learning about the gospel and the scriptures, there is almost no greater joy. I get so excited and emotional when the spirit hits. The more and more I learn, the more everything fits together and makes sense. When the Spirit testifies of truth, we may have questions, but will not have doubts. Study, ponder, and pray, and live in a way that will allow the spirit to always be with you. I always want to build my faith in Jesus Christ to the point that I don't need that faith, but will know the truth. Always try and learn and understand more, please don't be content with where you are, but earnestly seek to improve. Nothing will bring you more peace and joy than being close to your Savior Jesus Christ.

If you haven't seen it already, I would ask everyone to watch the virtual tour of the newly dedicated Rome Temple and focus on the spirit that comes with it.

That's all for this week, I love you all and I'm grateful for all the progress and learning I've made, as well as all of your examples to me. 

Elder Shepherd

Stand Forever

What an incredible week!

Although the temperature has been on the up and up, earlier this week there was one super freezing day, and as you may guess, we biked! There was still a ton of snow and ice on the ground but it was the only way we could get everything we'd planned accomplished, so we set out on our really poor, rickety bikes which continually broke during our trip. 

Learn and grow by study and by faith.

We crashed a few times but made it and we were able to teach a guy who's a traveling, paid preacher at Bible colleges and other functions. He's had some contact with missionaries as well as members of the Church and has seen, heard, and learned a lot of great things. When we met he made the point that many people when they hear something new, or something contradicts the beliefs they have, they don't want anything to do with it. He acknowledged that we have to be humble and always be seeking diligently for the truth, and put in our efforts to try and learn. I really appreciated him recognizing that and being willing to learn more. In complete honesty, learning and teaching are hard, and I've had experiences before and during my time here where people have contradicted me, wanted something different for me, and tried to get me to believe in what they believe. I try to not take those occurrences simply as hard times, but I try and learn from them. I have dived deeper into the Bible than ever before to study out what people tell me because I want to find the pure truth. Settling for the knowledge and position we have isn't enough, and isn't enough for me. I want to learn and grow in the knowledge of God and His plan continuously, however I can. 

Bathroom selfies? - Look at that belly!

Last Thursday was transfers, and though a little unexpected, Elder Roberts got transferred out of the area. That means I'm now being follow-up trained by Elder Berry. Goodness gracious we get along well, teach together well, and just work together well. We have similar stances and perspectives on how we should share the gospel and Christ's love for us, and I really just trust him to have my back in all we do. Our first night out together we ran into a really crazy European man. He came to the door and he was pissed! He asked where our licenses were, took Elder Berry's ministerial certificate, and yelled at us that he would keep our stuff and call the cops. After tearing us up, we moved on to continue working and he followed us and continued to yell at us. We left the building and he followed us out, watching us until we were out of sight. There truly is opposition in all things. So far I've found a few things that I need to focus on and improve, as do we all.

1. Faith: Before anything and everything at all in this life, we must solidify our faith in Jesus Christ. We need to know Him, what He has done for us, and what He has asked us to do. Without Him, we are nothing, but through Him, we can be everything.

2. Hope: In the midst of the darkness and despair that is every growing around us, we must have hope in the Light of Christ, and to know that there'll be a better tomorrow. We must maintain hope that our examples will be a light to others and that they can see Christ reflected in us.

3. Charity: Charity is a rather simple subject, yet can be difficult to apply. Simply though, without charity, we are nothing. Please read 1 Corinthians 13 & Moroni 7.

4. Love: Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great



commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

 Love is hard. We have to first learn, love, and have faith in God. With all the many blessing we have, and our ability to constantly see His hand in our lives, that can be fairly easy. Next come the hardest two, loving others like ourselves. That doesn't just mean others, it means ourselves as well. It's easy to get frustrated with ourselves and others, but we always have to strive to follow Christ's example and love everyone. It's also hard to know where to focus that love, and that's something I'm still working on.

I'll leave you one talk to listen to. It's seriously a killer.

Stand Forever by Lawrence E. Corbridge (it's a BYU devotional)

The Original Apostles of Jesus Christ
and the current twelve apostles and presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
-Rome, Italy Temple Visitor's Center

Again, thank you for all you do, and I hope that we can all continue to strive to grow closer to Jesus Christ every day through word and deed. Talk to you next week!

Elder Shepherd

Minus 11?!

Hey everyone!

This week has gone faster than any week before. It seems like just last night I was realizing it was Monday night and I had a whole week until the next P-Day, but here I am! I had another exchange this week with Elder White, one of the zone leaders. I really look up to and enjoy the leaders in our district so much and have been really blessed to be able to work with them so much. Both of the zone leaders are really solid in their Spanish as well which really motivates me and gives me faith that I'll be able to accomplish a lot with the language despite not being totally immersed in it. I have a lot of faith that if I put the work in, I'll be blessed with the promised gift of tongues. It's slow and requires a lot of trust, but I really am working hard at it. 

Work wise this week has been fairly slow with a lot of tracting and fallen through appointments. I think I have a curse for making appointments fall through, it always happens when I go on exchanges and there are "solid" lessons set up. Great news though! We had a lesson with this couple, Susan and Jamie, and Susan is so excited to learn about the Gospel. We read Mosiah 18 with her and she tore it apart. We just talked to her about what stood out to her, and it's incredible to hear her explain the importance of baptism under the proper priesthood authority. She also loved my quad set of scriptures and my marking system, so that's good too. That night we asked her to be baptized and she readily accepted! The spirit was so strong as we drove into the scriptures. We're truly blessed to have God's word so readily at hand to always guide and direct us. 

Other than that exciting night... ohhhhh... after dinner last night I had such a funny experience. We were driving along the zone leaders and realized they still had our keys, so I rolled down the window and yelled "NECESSITO NUESTROS LLAVES!!!" They whipped those babies out and Elder White (also driving) reaches them out the window towards my outstretched arm. We tried for like thirty seconds before we finally made the exchange! It was almost a perfect handoff, but I did lose my knife that was on the keychain. We were dying it was so funny! Anyways. We had some solid dinner appointments this week, one of which included the KFC Buffet! I stuffed myself, and as we were wrapping up, the other three elders piled a plate of pudding, jello, and good ole biscuit pudding on a plate for me. I think Elder Clayton us trying to kill me. Oh, and as for the title, down here there's a really cheap store called Aldi's, and they have a gallon of Hawaiian punch for like two bucks and let me tell you, that stuff is GOOD! I'll probably have one of those in my fridge for the rest of my life. 

A few study suggestions this week: I've been reading more talks, but try listening or reading the last talks each of the prophets gave. Lots of those are very powerful and have great messages. Also, Moroni 7 basically sets up the simple yet powerful ways we should live our lives. This week we had testimony meeting as well, and though it was freezing outside, the spirit was so strong. I want everyone to know how essential the spirit is in our lives. It's easy to recognize the difference when he is and isn't near us, but I know how much our Heavenly Father wants to bless us with his presence. I know that as we strove to live like His Son, Jesus Christ, we will be exponentially blessed in all aspects of our life!

Elder Shepherd

P.S. The attached picture is the temp while tracting