Here is an email from elder Shepard:
Dear Mom and Dad,
Merry Christmas! The language is going great. I still have a few words to learn but I don´t have any problems comunicating. I still listen better then I talk. I read the Scriptures in English and Portugues, butusually in English. I still need to get betteron my use of Portugues in my studies. I have only dreamed once in Portugese.
I´ll call before Christmas to tell how it´s going to happen but there are a few members with web cams here. Some members are pretty well off.
I´ll fast for Dad. Iknowhow everybody likes to quote Job but I know that we allpass through our specific problems: some with jobs, others with sickness, others with people who don´t want to hear about the gospel. And just as job said we pass through the refiners fire to come out like gold. Jesus taught thatwe have sicknesses or problems so that theof God could be done. I know that Dad will be alright, and I know that we all have a blessed rest waiting for us. I pray for all of you for health and happiness, and I that God will keep his promises.
We had a good sacrement meeting too. A lot ofpeople are coming to church. We have this investigator called Katarina that´s going to be baptized next Saturday. We did have 14 people planned to be baptized but we took a beating and lost about 13 of them. We are still teaching about half of them but a lot of people suddenly lost interest because of some reason. Even though a lot of things didn´t work out, some miracles happened to give us hope for the future.
Man I only have one picture of me. Maybe I should get more since they´re getting popular. Bad joke, but I´ll send some christmas pictures soon. Some dust got into the camera so I´m cleaning it. Also, everything has been going great with my companion. He speaks english pretty well too. We are doing are best to work, butwewere more concentrated on teaching those people we hadthen finding new people. We learned our leason and are getting better.
Merry Christmas and I love you.
Jacob Shepard
