HOLA FAMILIA!

Alright, another week, another email. This transfer I`ve just felt like time has been going by SO FAST. In a week, I`ll have been out here 17 months. how crazy is that? Everyone keeps telling me "Oh, you`re already out the door Elder." haha, it`s so funny... but kinda scary at the same time.

This week, I`ve been thinking a ton about leaving the past behind. an Elder in my district and I were talking on the phone one night about how we can fix the problems in our areas, and we came to the same conclusion: We have to help them stop living in the past. As members of the church, and even outside of the church, we make the fatal mistake of judging a WHOLE group based on 2 or three people who are associated with it, then we live with that bitterness, judging an entire group for the rest of our lives based on a mistake that one or two people made. Then, we end up sacrificing our progress just to "Get back at" that person by not going to church, or not keeping the same friends because they`re friends with him/her. I`ve come to realize that we, as human beings, walk through life a lot of the time thinking that everyone`s just thinking about us. whether it be about attacking us, or waiting to cater to our every whim. but the world isn`t like that. there`s a quote that I`ve really come to appreciate this week:

"Be kind, for everyone you know is fighting a battle." and another one:

"The past is to be learned from, not lived in."

I just wanna invite everyone, the next time they get offended by someone else, to just think about, first of all, If the person even REALIZES they`ve offended you, and second, think about if the offense really even matters in the grand scheme of your existence. that`ll change things for ya.

Well, I`m outie. Be happy, Be Mormon.

Elder Stormy Sheppard

James Sheppard	3:23 PM (3 hours ago)
to me, Natalie, Natalie

HOLA FAMILIA!!

Hey, sorry I didn´t write last week, the truth is... I completely forgot, haha :p but it´s cool, cause I´m writing now.

So, did anyone else catch the General Conference messages? did anyone realize the fact that we live in the times fortold by Paul as being "perilous"?

Everything that´s been profesied (or however you spell it in English :p) since Adam about the second coming of Christ is all coming true. the first talk in conference talked about how we´re headed toward the same amount of persecution as the early church members, and soon, we´ll all need our testimonies of Jesus Christ. I feel like here in Mexico, God´s already "Shaking the tree" so to speak, to see which of his children will stay loyal no matter what temptations beset them. I read a verse in Helaman that says not everyone will be saved. it,s the sad truth, but We´re even seeing the proof here in the mission.

Our mission president has had to go dictator on us. 3 elders went home this past week for some type of grave sin. our president´s words to us after this incident were, "You guys didn´t wanna carry the yoke of Christ, now you´ll tremble under the yoke of Caesar." which was a really cool quote, even though it scared me. then he proceeded to tell us that these new rules are to "DESTROY the traitors." yeah. the mission just got real. those are the only updates for this week, but I hope everyone´s well, and I´ll see you all in 7 months.

Elder Stormy Sheppard :)

September 23, 2013:

HOLA FAMILIA!!!!!

Alright, this is just getting ridiculous. right when I think the mission can`t get any more difficult, Heavenly Father throws me another curveball, and I have no choice but to look up and say, "touché...".

This week has been probably my hardest one yet. you all remember how they recently made me district leader? well, that`s still going about the same amount of difficult. And now, they just put some more on my plate, A BRAND NEW ELDER. He`s straight out of Bolivia, and he literally NEVER talks. not even in the lessons. sometimes, I stop talking in a lesson and wait for him the folllow my lead, and he just looks at me and says, "Can we leave now?" and I just sit there feeling awkward because after 2 seconds in a house, he`s already wanting to leave without having said anything... it`s bad, but I`m not complaining. If he was put with me, it`s obviously a trial I can`t handle. I`ve tried the stern trainer approach, and he just rebelled more and told me he hated me and stormed off into the room. I literally live with a 6 year old trapped in a 19 year old body. but it`s cool, I don`t dislike him or anything, it`s just always been hard for me to teach people with a learning disability THIS STRONG. But all of you there are probably saying, "that`s exactly why he`s with you, Stormy, that`s what you have to change about yourself in this companionship", But if ANYONE has ANY advice, PLEASE let me know, because I`m all out of ideas and nothing`s changed. I`ve tried to explain rules to him, and he says "I`m not gonna follow that rule, cause in my house I didn`t have to do that", And I just wanna say, "Well, have President transfer you to your house so you can sleep all day then..." but I dont, haha.

ANYWAY, on a completely seperate note, I heard a lesson that really impacted me in church yesterday:

Inactivating yourself from the church is like freezing to death. at first, you feel the spirit leave just like one feels the cold setting in. but with more time outside, the numbness sets in, and we stop feeling anything at all. we don`t feel the spirit, but we come accustomed to it, just like the freezing cold turns to numbness, and even an eerie sense of warmth, right before we close our eyes and die. 

So, being inactive, and feeling okay with it, is really just another symptom of spiritual death, not God`s approval of your absence from the church or anything similar. but someone with hypothermia or frostbite, stops realizing they`re dying until someone comes from the outside to save them.

We`re those people. so let`s remember that.

Sincerely,

Elder Sheppard

September 30, 2013:

Hola Familia!!!!!

Okay, so this week I´ve seen a LITTLE bit of improvement in the unity between my companion and I. I feel like he talks a LITTLE more, but there´s still the problem of his refusal to learn and my own pride. I never realized until the mission how hard it is to lose an argument on purpose. But then I just think of how hard it was for Jesus to do it and I realize that my own difficulty is really nothing in comparison. I´ve decided to make a conscious effort to not complain about others and, instead, take responsibility for the situation.

So, anyway, updates this week. first of all, I got KISSED BY A GUY. it was probably one of the most traumatizing (however you spell that) experiences in my life. we were just walking down the street and a guy came up and was like, "I´m a member of your church and I need you to lend me $20". so my comp was just like, alright, and gave it to him. and the guy was like, "thank you so much!" and came over and kissed ME. he didn´t even kiss my companion, who was the one that gave him the money, he kissed ME. I´m pretty sure he just wanted an excuse to kiss a black guy.... Anyway, in other news, my favorite tie in the world disappeared, so I´m about to go "TAKEN" on all of Mexico until I find it >:(.

We haven´t had baptisms yet. or even really prospects for baptism, so we{ve been focusing on the less active members and getting them to come back to the church. because how can we expect to get new people up in here when we can´t even retain the members we do have? exactly. so we´re on OPERATION: MENOS ACTIVO now.

Today, we went with two other missionaries in my district (since there are only 4 of us anyway), and we went to climb a mountain. I´ll put some pictures in here cuz we found some pretty awesome stuff :) haha some weird ruins that I guess have been there since the foundation of the world or something. there´s a little town at the bottom of the mountain with a population of like, 20, and everyone started going into their houses and closing the doors when they saw us coming, then they would just stare at us from the windows... creepy... and there was just ONE little pink church. I´ll send that picture too. and we contacted a guy and asked if he had ever heard of the mormons. he said he´d never heard of any church other than that little pink one.... even weirder... but it´s cool, no one killed us or anything. but those are my stories for the week. hopefully there are more next week! maybe we´ll find out what´s up with that creepy town...

One more thought before I part:

If we´re not making sacrifices in our lives, we´re not following Christ.

Stay in school! don´t lick frozen poles!

Elder (Stormy) Sheppard

This is Stormy's Blog for September 16 2013

BLOG:

HOLA FAMILIA!!!!!!!!

Okay, so I promised I`d catch you guys up on the past 2 weeks today. here it is:

We finally found a new house because the sister that was renting us our last one kicked us out for good. she`s kind of.... special, but whatever, we found a new one, and it`s actually better because we have more privacy and stuff.

In our search for that new house, I realized that I`m not gonna marry a lawyer. women lawyers and I don`t get along too well. Who knows why :p haha, I guess there`s still that part of me inside that defends itself when people treat me like I`m dumb.

I`ve realized something as I`ve been here in this new area: There are people in the world who honestly believe that they have problems that God can`t help them with... we met a girl named Monse, who "believes in God" supposedly, and is having family problems, but doesn`t think the gospel can help her to improve her family life. she says that she prefers a psychologist to God, because psychologists have "Studied" this type of thing. the whole time she talked, I just sat there thinking, "God INVENTED the family! AND psychology!" but she really didn`t want to understand any of it... oh well...

Okay, this week, a sister told me she wants me to marry her daughter, haha. it was like, 10 times more awkward because her daughter was in the room at the time :p and the sister kept asking me if I would marry her daughter. luckily, my companion Elder López saved me from the situation by speaking on my behalf :p then the sister told me that if she were like, 20 years younger, she`d ask me to date her instead of her daughter. Yeah. we got out of there so fast.

We`ve kind of been vagabonds for the past couple of weeks. we haven`t had a place to stay, so we were kind of "house jumping" until we could find a new place, and we always walked around looking like homeless business men with our blankets and backpacks and all that. haha, I laugh about it now, but being constantly outside in the rain was nothing to laugh about at the time.

A sister told me the other day that she had a dream that, after I get home from my mission, I`m gonna come back and introduce her to one of my uncles, and she`s gonna marry him, so that`s new too :p we`ll see how that prophecy goes.

Okay, so I`m still district leader in this same district, but now they`ve added more responsibility to the list: I`m gonna be training a new Elder =0! Who knows if he`ll be from the United States or not, but I really hope not, because they never speak spanish well and I don`t want that to rub off on me :/ but yeah. my companion Elder López already left this morning, and I get my new companion tomorrow :) and right now I have to stay with the zone leaders, which is awesome, because The new ZL is Elder Flórez, my old companion from Columbia that I got along with better than any other, so this next tranfer is gonna be crazy. everything`s changing, folks, even me :p haha. but I`m pretty sure all of these changes are for the better.

Stay I`n school! don`t do drugs! tip`your waitresses!

Elder (Stormy) Sheppard

Stormy's newest blog for September 2, 2013

September 2, 2013

HOLA FAMILIAAAAAA,

Okay, so before I forget, last week, when I heard those gunshots in the night, it turns out that a man really was shot and killed outside of our house! yeah, it`s that safe over here. they never found the guys  that committed the drive by, so yeah, I feel even safer. did I write about the earthquake already?? well that`s another story for another day. that`s really the only real update this week, the rest has just been one huge test for both me and my companion. which I don`t understand, because everything was going so well, and now everything´s kind of going downhill. the only thing I ask is that you guys can pray for me, nothing else. I don`t have any other updates other than that this area is pretty much all I`ve been asking for since I got my mission call, And now I`m a living example of the phrase, "be careful what you wish for..."

Hey! I´m gonna attach some pics to this email so you can all see my sexiability >:) until next week,

"So you`re DUMPING me?! to marry a vaccuum cleaner?!?!"- The RM

Elder (Stormy) Sheppard

BLOG:

August 26 2013

¡Hola Familiaaaaaa!!!

Alright, what´s crackin'? so I´m gonna have to update you all on last week as weel as this one, so get prepared >:)

Aright, first thing´s first, we´re being kicked out of our house. why? because the sister that rents us the house is COMPLETELY insane. and obviously bi-polar. so yeah. we gotta go. but that's alright. it's better to find a new house than fear for my well-being every day, right? hahaha.

Anyway, did you guys know I'm a master at pool? I didn't either until I played. I'm gonna have some good money making skills when I get home, haha ;) So, this just in, the family from Querétaro that was gonna get baptized before I left, Jose and Sofia, they got baptized :) so I´m happy even though I wasn´t there to see it :p

I´ve realized something very important out here in the mission feild: GOD DOESN'T MAKE MISTAKES. If we get transferred from one area to another, it's always for a reason. I've realized that because I've learned a TON in every area and from every companion I've been assigned to. I`m gonna come back a spiritual giant :p hahaha.

ANYWAY, this week has been pretty crazy too. this week, someone`s testimony was almost destroyed because some of the teenage girls in the church started to spread rumors about her. My companion and I were so distraught. lucky for us, her testimony is stronger than that. or maybe just her resolve to marry the missionary that baptized her..... whatever, she stayed in the church, that`s all I know. I don`t get into all that, "love in the mission" stuff. but I strongly dislike when someone blames the whole entire church for something that a few members do. they don`t do it with any other church but the "mormons". If the girls spreading the rumors had been catholics, she wouldn`t have blamed the catholic church, just the girls. but they`re mormons so suddenly it`s everyone in the whole orginization`s fault. sad, sad people...

Okay, so I`m pretty sure someone was murdered last night outside of our house. haha, 5 gunshots went off in the middle of the night and I felt like I was in my mom`s hometown for a minute ;p. but we`re safe.

Yesterday, we met a taxi driver who asked where I was from. I told him, Utah. and He told us that he lived there for a while. like ten years, and still doesn`t speak english (big surprise). But he told us that he got so mad over there because a guy called him a racist name, so he killed him, and came back to Mexico without getting caught. he told us he didn`t feel bad at all and didn`t want to repent bacause when he gets mad, he kills. it`s what he does..... that was probably the safest I`ve ever felt on a 20 minute taxi ride...

All in all, I feel super safe here! :D haha, don`t worry, I`m Elder Sheppard, so nothing`s gonna happen to me. but I hope you`re all well :) stay afe and get to know your taxi drivers!