If I had to wake up every morning to your face . . .

Not to much different from last week

Tuesday we had a pretty solid day. We kept a time log of everything that we did.  We had 4 hours of tracting, 2 hours of teaching apts, 2 hours for meals, 1 hour for service and 1 hour of driving.   

So that right there is a day in the life haha!

I went on an exchange on Wednesday after District Meeting and met a family that had just moved from Washington near Redmond. The dad had just quit his job at Microsoft to come and farm chickens for Tyson's. I always enjoy getting out and seeing new areas to mix things up a bit. It is also a good learning experience to see how other missionaries teach and run an area.

Thursday service in the morning and exchange back to Monett, planning and then double dinners. Then we went out with the EQP to see the Rans and Ronnie.  So somewhere in the lesson I said that I would cry if I didn't see them at church that week.  Elder Belnap said "It's ok,he'll cry anyways."  Then the oldest Ran said "If I had to wake up every morning to your face, I'd cry too." We had a good laugh. Friday we had a lot of plans but they mostly fell through so we tracted a lot. We had one appointment that we brought two youth with us to. One is a struggling 16 year old boy and the other was the Stake president's daughter.  It was a pretty solid lesson. Saturday we had a bunch of stuff planned as well but then everything fell through including dinner.  And it was super blazing hot and muggy so we were wet and nasty all day.  We made steaks for dinner and watched fast and furious 6 (it was on at a place they visited :))   

Sunday was a pretty good day though. We had a youth come out with us again and had a few good lessons. Then met with members.

Now it is today and we are emailing and then moving a piano and then have a few BBQs to go to and we will see how that goes.

This next week we will be going to Bentonville on Tuesday and then the TEMPLE on Thursday. Sounds like a great week. Transfers are the next week so my next time emailing will be on the 7th of June.

Hope y'all enjoy Memorial day

Go to bed and try again tomorrow

Not a whole lot happened this week. 

We spent a day in Bentonville, did a lot of tracting this week and not a lot of teaching. So I don't know . . . 

We had to walk up a driveway because it was so washed out and muddy. There was a really big puddle that we jumped over.  Elder Belnap made it but when I landed  my feet slid out from under me and I landed in the mud.   I got pretty messy.  Then the next day we helped with an Eagle project digging a hole for a playground foundation,  and that was super muddy.

 Guess it has just been a muddy week

Hop y'all had a cleaner week than I did, not much else to report on.

We are going to the temple June 1st and transfers will be June 8th

so yay!

Also made fried chicken and Cupcakes this week

Love yall

Elder Shepherd

Happy Mothers Day

Hello everyone!
   
It's been a great week. Hope everyone remembered their mothers yesterday.

This week we had two days that were pretty much just meetings.  We had MLC in Bentonville on Tuesday.   Focused a lot of the need to find daily. The General Authorities told us that we needed to double our efforts and baptisms, which is a pretty lofty goal. So we worked on being better at tracting and teaching with the scriptures.

Wednesday we had exchanges. I also locked our keys in the car so I got to bike the whole day. It was a good day though.  We taught a few lessons and then tracted a bunch. Found a few people that the Spanish elders are now teaching.  Thursday we had interviews with President Loveland. Had a good interview and district meeting as well. Don't remember what happened Friday:  probably tracting.  That night we had the ward fiesta. I made cupcakes and almost won the contest!   It was a fun activity.  Saturday we knocked doors. And had Exchanges with President Leavitt.   Sunday we had a slow day at church but good lessons. We got to call home and had some more tracting in between calls.

So overall, we did a lot of knocking doors this week and not a whole lot of exciting things.  Good dinners, I suppose and member lessons.

Love you all and have a great week.

19 Month Miracle

I had a pretty amazing experience this weekend...

I ran a 5K and didn't die!  

Besides that though we had a great week. We had zone conferences on Thursday and learned a lot there. We talked about how the Battle is the Lord's as well as teaching with the scriptures. 

Also this week we have been doing a lot of finding: We found a few new people to teach and so far, so good.   One is a young family with 5 girls under 7. The parents both believe in a higher power but that is about it. We taught them that God is our Father in Heaven and they have really enjoyed meeting with us and even asked for a Book of Mormon as well as a Bible without us even asking.  Another guy that we tracted into who a good friend of some members. We had seen him at activities but thought he was just a less active member.  We are now teaching him too.  Everything is just going dandy!   

And I suppose this shouldn't be the highlight but it is:  Elder Belnap bought a baby grand piano and we are working on restoring it. Have done a bit of cosmetics the last few days and it is already starting to look great. It is pretty fun taking it apart and cleaning things out and figuring out how it works.  Our main tools as of now are a leatherman, cut up towels and vinegar.   

I am loving the work here  and all of the fun that we are having as well.

I know that we have a loving father in heaven that is intimately aware of all that we are going through and is here to support us in our trials.

We watched this video at zone conferece and it was pretty powerful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM3ccY55KLs

Love yall

Rain

Well, the past few days have been fairly exciting, mostly just because of the weather.  Had a lot of major flooding in the area so bad that lots of people even canceled church, which was pretty crazy.  We haven't done a whole lot of teaching since all of our investigators have pretty much petered out.  They have either dropped us or aren't making any progress. So, we set a goal to tract more every day and it has been pretty fun.  On Friday we tracted ourselves a return appointment to a steak dinner.  Then on Saturday we had a lot of fun.. that's when the rain came. We had no appointments so we got to go walk around in the rain for a few hours.  
Fun story: We knocked on a door and when they answered we could see that the water was up to the back door and they were kind of just watching it waiting for it to come in the house.  So we asked if we could help.  They had a few broken sand bags that they asked us to move.  Their back porch was built into the hill so it was basically a nice swimming pool, but we jumped in. We put the sandbags up to the door and then moved a few things so that the water could drain. And the house didn't flood!  By now we were completely soaked so we asked if we could come back on Sunday.   We did and had a great lesson with them.  They have a lot of challenges right now but I am so glad that we met them.

Anyway we have found a lot of new people this week and will hopefully find a lot more new people.

Also this week I sent a letter to a false prophet.  One of our recent converts keeps getting mail from a "Prophet Peter Popoff"   and he says that if she pays him $X that she will receive blessings. So I used the return envelope and roasted him with many much scriptures!  It was really fun - haha

Another fun thing is that all the members have been talking us up a lot lately. It feels like they all talk about us behind our backs but I guess its good things! Bishop said they had a conversation about the missionaries during ward council (which we missed) so who knows?!  Its good to feel the support and I feel like the members are becoming better missionaries as well.

Loving the work here.  

Have a great week!