Service

Hello everyone,

Hope you all had a great Easter.

I had a pretty full week this week. I had a total of 17 service hours and then a bunch of driving hours so we didn't have a bunch of teaching. I went to Bentonville for an exchange. It was all service but i ended the day with a member that fed us some homegrown steak and then banana boats for dessert. One of the best steaks ive ever had. The next day while we were getting the flat on our truck fixed I got to stop at little Caesars. And that pizza was worth all 13$. We also got to do some service getting the stake girls camp ready and that was a ton of fun with all the missionaries there. And I actually got a good tan while doing that, the weather is getting pretty nice out here. So for the most part we had a lot of good work and a lot of good food this week.

Besides that we had some good lessons. and I guess one downer for the week was that our baptism for Easter rescheduled because his parents weren't going to be able to make it. It is a good reason but still a bummer that we had to postpone his baptism. 

Well I'm not sure what else to say. Not to much excitement this week. I hope everyone takes advantage of the great opportunity we have to hear from our prophet this weekend. 

Love you all,

Rachel

Elder Thomas

The Grove

Good Morning everybody,

Hope you all had a good week.

We had a bit of a slower week here in Grove but had some good things happen. 

We've had a couple of campfire dinners so my suit smells pretty smoky. And I have really started to build some good relationships here in the ward. We had dinner with one family 3 days in a row and they sent us home with a bunch of leftovers because Elder Thomas doesn't do to well budgeting his money.

 Another exciting story. We got a flat tire this week. Like a day after we went mudding. So changing a tire on the side of the road in a suit was kind of a blast. My blue suit was very brown.

On Friday we had a joint zone conference down in Bentonville. About one third of the mission was there. It was one of the best that I have been to and we learned a lot. President Loveland is really starting to take control of the mission. Brother Hemmingway, the head of the church department of proselyting, came to the mission and we were able to learn a lot from him.  

We saw our investigator family about 4 days this week. The ward members really love them and are super supportive. They decided on a baptismal date. We were so excited! Only problem is that it is 2 days after transfers so we are praying that we get to stay here.

Well there are a lot of other good things going on here that I cant remember but I am really enjoying it. We finally figured out when Daylight doughnut is open so we have been there a few times but they are always out of the 99 cent biscuit and gravy special.

Love and miss you all and hope you have a great Easter Week

PS if anyone can hook me up with a Little Caesar's Bacon Wrapped Pizza I would be forever grateful. I cover a huge area but no Little Caesar's anywhere!  

Happy Pie Day Every One

Well we have had a pretty good week here in Grove. It rained a lot so we got to play in the mud. The truck is pretty dirty but we were able to see a lot of people and had some good progress. We have been visiting a less active named Ferral Johnston. He is a super nice guy and loves having us over. He lives in a little wood mobile home in the middle of nowhere. And he dresses like a hobo. But he is LOADED like crazy. He showed us his gun collection has about 10 rifles. A couple sniper and some military grade assault. He also has an original Screemin' Eagle 02 Vrod. Pretty sweet. 

We helped some members burn a bunch of stuff on Saturday. We had a big fire and it was fun to play with.

The new family that we are teaching is doing really well. We had a lesson at the church on Saturday and then they came on Sunday. They really liked it and were already asking about baptism. It is so cool to see how prepared they are for the gospel.

I have kinda of taken the lead in the area so it has been difficult but good for me. I have also spent a lot of time cleaning the apartment. It was a mess and pretty nasty.  I scrubbed the bathroom floor for 2 hours this morning.  Feels good to be clean though. "Cleanliness is next to Godliness"  and we had a member take us to lunch just a bit ago at the Lazy Parrot.  It was really good and it is right on the water. We'll have to go there again sometime.

Well that about does it for this week.

If anyone wants to send me a pie feel free!

With Love,

Elder Shepherd

5 and Fish

5 months today!

It is crazy to think that i have been out that long. I still feel like i just got out. But all is going well and I have been having a lot of fun here in the Grove.

We just had the Bassmaster's Classic come to town so there was a ton of traffic and boats everywhere. I guess the fishing out here is pretty good. We'll probably end up going sometime It is way different out here from Tulsa. We have a huge area so sometimes we will have to drive an hour to our dinners or to an appointment so it is hard to get a lot of teaching in. There are a ton of gravel roads out here so we have a lot of fun in Rachel (our red Nissan truck).

Last week we had a lady call us and ask for a Book of Mormon. So we went out there and ended up teaching the first lesson and her family looks super promising. Kind of every missionaries dream for people to come to us looking for the gospel. 

Some of the missionaries here before didn't do a great job of teaching or finding so I have got a lot of work to do to get this area rolling again. It is pretty frustrating when lazy missionaries leave an area a mess.

But overall i am enjoying myself out here. we are really far away from other missionaries so preparation day is pretty laid back and relaxing and it is good to get a break.

Hope you all are doing well

Love,

Elder Shepherd