First Weekly Report from Brazil

Hello everybody!

It´s me, a distant, as in distance, relative of yours. I´m here in Brazil in a LAN House writing my first email like this that I will be writing weekly to all of you. I might not have all of the contact information of might that might want to hear me, but if you know someone who does, send me a list and I add them to the names of people I´m writing too. (might have been a run on sentence)

 

I´m in a city called Camocim, which is a place known for fishing and it´s beaches. It is as hot as anywhere else in my mission but it´s luckily windy. The down side is that it rains like a monsoon every once in a while. It´s funny because when it rains, all the Brazilians hide in their houses. A saying here is that when it rains ,all the Brazilians melt.

 

The people here are very nice and humble. Many times they do not have a great education, because those that do, usually leave Camocim for a bigger city. They are very serious about the education of kids, though. It´s a different kind of place here. Many people will invite us in and give us juice or cookies or something want us to feel at home.

 

Religion is a big deal down here, and everyone seems to think that they just have to pick on that sound nice. If you see something about Jesus or God on every block, you know your in Brazil. Since we´re missionaries, I think that´s why many of them want to be nice to us, because we are talking about Jesus.

 

It´s been really great here since I can actually see the difference of the peoples lives when we help them. To see a person give up drinking and partying, so that can be with their family, to see a young man get off the streets, away from drugs and gangs, or a women that has gained respect for herself and realize that their is more to life then her body is rewarding and really why I´m here. We talk about what we believe in and try to get them to improve their lives even if they don´t want to do anything with our church.

 

To have them improve their lives in anyway has made my time here worth it and I know I´ll get better at finding and helping anyone from the rich person trying to find purpose to the poor family trying to bring a broken relationship together. And as we talk about these things, I can tell I´m a better person then I was before. At least I know how to clean my own mess, clothes, buy food and live somewhere where I have to take care of things. You´d be surprised at some of the crazy things I´ve seen here, but Life is good.

 

If you have any questions send me a line and I´ll answer as best I can. I´m at the point where I´m mixing my English with Portuguese, so we´ll see how my grammar is. I write emails on Mondays around 10 o´clock to 4. I love all of you and hope that everything is going great in the States.

Your (Something or Other) in the Service,

 

Elder Jacob Shepard

Camocim, 5-3-13

(Elders Morris and Shepard) 

 

 

Camocim, 5-19-13
(Elders J. Santos, Morris, Shepard, and Portela; Sister Felix)

 

Camocim, 5-19-13
(Elders Shepard and Morris

 

5/13/13

Mon, May 13, 2013 at 10:46 AM

The weather here is Hot and humid. We already had the Skype confernce call, and thank you all for he love and support. The lady that picked up is named Matilde and she is married to an American. She was nice enough to let us use her computer for talk with everyone.  Elder Morris is from Utah originally, but lived in Seattle before. I will now be responding to all emails, though some might just tell you that I ran out of time on my hour to read and respond, and that´ll say more next week. Before the Terezina mission was formed, it was part of other missions. So when they split it up, the other missions took all of the good missionaries and sent ones that were less so. Camocim had some lazy missionaries before and was then closed down for about two years. Then some sister missionaries
opened it back up. The Members love the missionaries, but depend on them too much for some things; but won´t listen to us for others. But all in all, it is growing and expanding. The missionaries who have served here recently have worked a tone and Elder Morris and I are working everyday to find elect investigators and help the ward to function better. This last week I had an interview with the Mission President and I told him how Elder Morris and I are working to get another set of missionaries here in Camocim. We just got a call asking how much room we have in our apartment, so some time soon, this area will have more people to work with. I have only 4 weeks more with Elder Morris, but I hope that by the time he leaves, we will have people prepared to be baptized for the next missionaries.
All of my love, Sincerely, Your Son in the Service,
                                                                      Elder Shepard  

Jacob's Email Response to Claire

Dear Claire,

This is the song that never ends! It just goes on and on my friends! Eu lembro or I remember.

Everything is going great here in Brazil except for the fact that our stake center is 3 hours away and we have to travel to it each week. But everything else is going great. I showed up at a good time in the mission. We´ve had about 4 baptisms already and we are working for more. My companion, Elder Morris is pretty cool and he´s from around Seattle. I am doing great other than sunburn and sweating bullets. I´m lucky to have been called to an area by the sea where it´s windy. Brazil has two seasons here: the rainy season and dry season. Right now it´s rainy and it´s been pretty cloudy lately. It´s nice to settle into the heat a little more before it gets really hot.

I´m in a city called Camocim. It´s on the coast. It´s got a lot of people, but I think from what I´ve heard, I won´t be in a city that´s smaller than 40 thousand or so people. The places up in the north are not as advanced as the states or in southern Brazil. It´s still has a lot of the modern necessities, except for air conditioning, but it still has a very humble feeling to it. I´ll send more pictures of what it looks like down here, but it´s very different. I walk about everywhere, and only take a bus or taxi to other cities. The people here are pretty awesome. It´s hard to understand everything but I´m able to understand and speak somewhat.

Being here in Brazil is funny, because the church is pretty new here and only has about 40 active members. Everyone here is willing to let us talk with them and everyone has a belief in God. But a lot of people have problems coming to church and keeping the law of chastity. A lot of times, it´s just because they´re lazy and don´t want to come on Sunday. But in the Teresina mission, a lot of people are humble and want to learn more. Being American and wearing missionary clothes gets a lot of attention.

The bugs in my city aren´t bad and I only have to worry about them at night. We get a fan to keep us cool as we sleep and to keep mosquitoes away. I really only spray bug spray on my legs and it´s seems that after I am here for a while, my tasty American blood is not as appealing anymore. I blame it on how everyone eats rice every meal. I think every meal a member has cooked for us has had rice and beans in it. Rice is very filling and the people think that we have to stuff ourselves every meal so it´s better to eat somewhat slowly and talk a lot. Every other person that lets us into their house usually wants to give us juice or some kind of food they have.

The members here think a lot of us, so it´s pretty nice down here. I have a talk in Portuguese this following Sunday, so I have to study up on phrases. I am happy here, not dying of any diseases, and the people aren´t trying to kill us. It´s all good in the neighborhood. We are trying to get enough strong members in the branch so that it will become a ward and that the mission will send more missionaries to our city. I love you, miss you, and I know that you will be married someday. The time is now for all things, even if we do have to take things one step at a time.

With all of my love, Your Brother in the Service,

Elder Jacob Shepard

 

Family Home Evening, Camocim, 4-9-13
(Sister Felix; Elders Shepard and Morris)

 

 

Baptism, Camocim, 4-13-13
(Sister Felix; Elder Shepard)

 

 

Sister Maria Felix's birthday (I think), Camocim, 4-13-13

(Elders Morris and Shepard)

Some Photos from Camocim

Reading a letter, Camocim, 3-31-13

(Elders Morris and Shepard)

 

Baptism of Sister Cicleide's family, Camocim, 3-30-13 

(Sister Cicleide; Elder Shepard)

 

 Camocim, 3-30-13

(Sisters Felix and Cicleide; Elders Morris and Shepard) 

 

Lunch, Camocim, 3-30-13

(Elder Shepard; Sister Felix)

 

3-20-13

Great news!!! Love, Mom and Dad

---

From: "Washington Spokane Mission"
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2013 1:56:41 PM
Subject: Travel Itinerary for Brazil

Elder Jacob Shepard and Elder Jeffrey Stahura’s visas have been received and they will be leaving Monday, March 25, 2013 for Brazil.  We wanted you to be aware of your their itinerary (if you’re like me you’ll be tracking the flights until he’s landed in Brazil!).  I believe they will have permission to call you from the airport.

 

We have enjoyed having these Elders here for the last six weeks and have gotten attached to them – wish we could keep them here!  You have great sons and they are wonderful, strong missionaries.  You can be very pleased with the work they have done in the Washington Spokane Mission.

 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call the mission office.

 

 

Sister Dean

WASHINGTON SPOKANE MISSION

 

Visa Received – passport and visa will arrive to the mission office via FedEx this week.  Missionary has been booked on the itinerary below to coordinate with their International Mission’s transfer dates.

3/5/13

Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 2:03 PM

 

Thanks for the quote, Dad. I love you and I'm thankful for the advice you give me. Thanks for the Portugese quotes too, because I don't know all the words and it helps me find things that aren't gospel related. We have been doing so many things this and last week that I haven't been able to write as much. We had to have P-day on tuesday because we had interviews with President Mullen yesterday. There sre a lot of people who are ready to progress here but caught on little things that stop them from being baptized, or keeping their commitments. My companion calls them the low hanging fruit. Since we cover two wards, and since a lot of the people are spaced out from each other, we have a hard time getting to every one. Some are far away because they live in back roads by the mountains or forests. A lot of the people are talkers, so we are trying to be better at have short appointments. They love to talk about anything, a lot of times about how Obama is running the country into the ground. We bring members to lessons and they sometimes like to get distracted, instead of helping us keep the lesson fixed on the gospel and with the Spirit of God. We try to keep the casualness at the beginning and have the Spirit as we teach up until we leave, so that the remember how they felt and wanting more. I still have a lot to work on, bu everything is going great. I'm getting better at teaching simply and applying it to the investigators lives.

Eu gosto deste trabalho. How is everything at home? I just got the package you sent me with the clothes and soap. Thank you again. I'm gonna make sure to right every P-day home at least, so feel free to ask any questions you like. I love you all and wish the best for everyone. 

2/25/13

On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 11:28 AM, Jacob Shepard <jacob.shepard@myldsmail.net>wrote:

    I'm now a part of the Priest River and New Port wards. My companion is Elder Craghead, from Lehi, Utah. He has been out here for quite a while and will leave in May. He's pretty awesome and knows everthing about these two areas. He was transfered here about a year ago and was sent here to serve again. Hee's been in this area for about  months or so. Which sorta makes him the ward missionary. I really like it out here. The people are really nice, though there do seem to be a few extra crazies. Everything here is pretty spread apart, so we get to drive a 4x4 truck to get by the rugged roads and slippery snow. It's pretty cold out here, but It's not so bad. Only when you get your socks wet. Could send me a wool pair of socks? Mine are a bit then. My coat is fine, since it's a heavier winter jacket. Being out in the field has me pretty busy, though in just a different way from the MTC. It's good that Elder Craghead knows the area and people really well, because I would be so lost. I guess that might be the start of every transfer, but It'll be ok. Both wards are really nice to us and the members seem pretty helpful. Everyone thinks its funny that I'm from Chicago, since that's where Obama's from. Since I'm a missionary, I think they let it slide. Funny how I was born in Columbus, but Chicago is where I'm from now. We are in Priest River, which is about an hour away from the mission home I think. My P-day is on mondays. It feels like even less of a P-day then in the MTC, since we only really change out of our suits to play Basketball. We get to go to the temple every 3 months, from what I hear. So, we'll see if I'll be out here that long.It's cool that Dad is teaching in Sunday School. I always liked his insights on the gospel.  

I keep you in my prayers. It gets really snowy out here, but I'm fine with my coat. I think it'll last the whole time that I'm in North Idaho. I love everyone and hope everything is alright.