Good afternoon!
It´s Memorial Day here too, I think, because a lot of people are walking around on the streets. If it´s a holiday or some kind of reason, people like to take the day off here. I miss having a good choir to sing with. Since we only have a branch here in Camocim, we don´t have a piano, and a lot of people can´t really sing. I think my voice will probably be bad at the end of these two years.
It´s awesome how John is getting so big. He looked bigger than James on Skype. Are Trey and Ashley working right now or looking for jobs for summer? Ashley´s trip sounds great. I wish I had been a little more active in band and saved up for one of those trips, but band had it´s moments.
Here in the mission you have a lot of people here who are friendly and willing to talk, and agree to commitments, but they keep on falling through. We´ve had quite a few people who we wanted to get baptized here these past 2 months (soon to be 3), but they just aren´t ready to make the covenant of baptism when they won´t go to church. It´s just like the parable of the bridegroom. Those who were the original guests or elites were invited but did not come. So those who were in the street and not as good were welcomed in. So we´ve started working a ton on finding new people who are ready to be humble and keep their word.
Which reminds me, that recently we had an interview with the mission president and I said one of our goals was to get another set of missionaries here. So that was about 1 week ago and now we have another pair of Brazilian missionaries living in our tiny apartment. We had to go bed and desk shopping. We split our area and have been working with them in our old area and gave them all our old investigators, and basically everything. We have started working on a place that has not had lot of work done, though it was close to the church. We got them familiar with the area and now the numbers in Camocim will be doubling shortly.
I hope to leave this place a full ward and with plans to build a new chapel since we are working out of a casapella (a church made from a house). It´s been very challenging, but as a missionary once said, "If things are going rough, it means that Satan is trying his best to stop you. Because you are a danger to him. If things are easy going, then you might not be doing much." I think that all the trouble you´ve gone through for your students, Mom, is helping them be better.
It´s crazy how Matt was called to serve in Utah. I don´t know if that would have been the right place for me, but who knows? It could be perfect to him. I wish him the best of luck and success. If you happen to see Brother Chappell, Matt's dad, could you tell him: "Como esta? Espero que tudo é bom com a familia de te. Eu sei que sua familia é um luz para todo mundo e são bençoado. Vai com Deus sempre. Elder Pastor."
It´s great to hear that Trey and Ashley are doing so great in the church. It sounded like their talks and the whole meeting was great. I hope that they know that knowing about these things from a young age will bless their lives more then they can imagine. I´ve seen the difference of the youth here who have kept the standards of the church and the ones who have left for the things of the world. I can tell from these people that Trey and Ashley are doing the right things.
I love you all and miss you a lot. I love being here and know that the time is already flying by. It´s already been 5 months. Only 2 more calls home and who knows how many more days, but I hope to come home with work the Lord would be proud of.
Love,
Elder Shepard
