My Time in California

I am Marcus Keith Shepherd. I am serving in the California San Fernando Spanish-Speaking Mission. My family will be updating this blog weekly (hopefully) with information and pictures about what goes on out here. Tune in regularly to see what my life is like out there.



Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Last week of transfer two

Hey everyone.

I'm just about out of time for this email, so I'm gonna have to be quick.As far as investigators, we've found a high school grad kid thatmy companion thinks could easily be baptized. That's a rarity, becausehe said that he never says that about anyone unless he's sure, andhe's been out about a year, so I trust his judgement. As for ourother investigators, nothing really. We've been working on them, butit's going a bit slower than we'd like.As for my apartment life, a funny experience happened to ourpraying mantis, Max. We stuck a snail in there, and, like always, hetried to take him out. However, his claw got stuck in the snail, thesnail retracted, pulling the claw in, and then proceeding to spray Maxwith slime bubbles. We had to spray him with water because we thoughtthat he'd suffocate. He's still alive, but I think his pride got hurta bit with that snail. It was funny, but I'm coming to be kindaattached to Max. It's weird. Also, I got a new board game calledPandemic recently. It's a fun game. Also, whenever I have time atnights after proselyting time, and on P-days, I'm making a board gameof my own. I know it sounds weird, but having something like that tolook forward to working on keeps me somewhat sane. I'll let you knowhow things are going with it soon.I don't have much more time, so I gotta go. I'll talk to you alllater, and please...PLEASE stay cool, y'all.

Con Mucho Fuerte Amor

Elder Shepherd

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Another Week, I guess

Man, hombres

Things are kinda sluggin' along here. This transfer has really been somewhat slow for me. It's still only the second, but it's been a bit slow. We haven't really found anything different ever since last week. So, I guess that I don't have much to add. Except that our pet praying mantis fully devoured a bee one day, and I watched the whole thing. It was the most intriguing thing I've ever seen. He literally tore pieces from it. Nothing was left, no legs, no stinger, no nothing. It was cool.
That's about it, I guess. Watch for next week, where I'll try to post some pictures from my SD card. Stay tuned

Con amor

Elder Shepherd

Monday, October 18, 2010

4 months already?!

Hola mis amigos.

Like the title to the email says, I have already been away from home for four months. I really can't believe that. The time is going by way too fast. I got to the MTC thinking that two years would be forever, but I blink and I'm a sixth of the way through. Man, time is so unforgiving sometimes. Well, that's enough of my time spiel.
I've got the wonderful news that we have a baptism date at last. We've been working with an awesome investigator from our now-defunct English classes, and we challenged her to be baptized. She said she still has to learn, but we know that she'll be ready when the time comes. I'm really very excited for this. We also got a new investigator who has a ton of questions about life. He has been going through some really tough times in his life, and we think that the Gospel is just what he needs, especially since he has the question of which church would be the best for him. We're going to keep working with him, and see if we can get his questions answered.
As for me, I've got a cool story. On Sunday night, my companion was outside doing jump rope, and we say a preying mantis walking by. We caught it, and stuck it in an empty pretzel jar. His name is Max, and he's awesome. Yesterday, we put a moth and a pill bug in the jar, and when we came back, only the wings and the pill bug's shell were left. I even got video of when he caught the moth in his scythes. It was cool. Maybe you'll get to see it when I said my SD card back. But, I've still got a ton of pictures that need to be taken, so we'll see.
Well, that's my update. I hope all is well with all of you, and I look forward to more great weeks here in the SF Mission.

Les amo

Elder Shepherd

Saturday, October 9, 2010

One more week gone, three more investigators

Hey everyone,
 
     So conference this weekend was awesome. I actually found it easier to listen in on it this time than I ever had in the past. Let's face it, if you are able to sit in on over four hours of class in the MTC every day, you are able to withstand practically anything. That, however, didn't stop me from getting a little heavy-eyed. I tried so hard not to fall asleep, but sometimes, the body does what the body does. I didn't fall all the way asleep though. And I did get some great messages out of the apostles and First Presidency. It really was awesome, and hopefully I won't fall asleep, I mean, shut my eyes the next conference.
     As for the area, we have just finished our English classes, and two of the regular students asked us to keep teaching them privately. Naturally, we're going to be teaching them English, but we're also using it as prime time to teach them the gospel. One of them had actually come in contact with missionaries before, and had a Book of Mormon. It was from forever ago, though, so we don't know whether she got dropped or not. We'll find out. As for the third, we were passing by a street one night, and she was out playing soccer with her son. We passed by, said hi, and found out she was actually being evicted from her house. She was housing a few friends, and they had agreed to pay their portion of the rent. But, she woke up one morning, and they were gone, and she couldn't pay, so she got evicted. We helped her move the next day, with the help of an awesome member, and she actually called us this morning to ask if we could stop by. If you ask me, that sounds pretty golden. I'm hoping that we pass by her soon and teach her more. As for our other investigators, it's becoming really hard to keep in contact with them, especially since Elder Houghton's bike got stolen. We've been forced to going on foot, which slows us down tremendously. We're just going to have to be a bit more careful with our planning. We're thinking about buying Razor Scooters, because they are cheap, you can take them into the house with you, and they're faster than walking. The other companionship in my apartment actually already have scooters, so we're thinking of copying them. But, we'll see. I still have my bike, so I may not have to buy one.
     That's about it for things going on around here. We are still working, and loving it. I really think that the mission is the greatest thing to ever happen to me. It's definitely the hardest thing ever, but it's the most rewarding ever.  Well, that's my opus.
 
Elder Shepherd.