Andy, Ferrari & Susan

Hey All!

First off, Details have been a bit sparse from me concerning the field, so I'll try and cover everything I can remember. When I got here, I was taken directly from the airport to the mission home. It's a nice house about a half hour from here. While there, I met President and Sister Martin. They are both pretty cool. Sister Martin has a funny running joke among everyone about eating fiber. Just to say I am, I've bought double fiber bread. Won't she be proud? I've never been so regular before. (TMI, yo se) We went through (boring) orientations, and I met my companion/trainer, Elder Houghton. Later that day, we came back to the apartment, had dinner, and went to English classes. Those were very fun, and still are. That's pretty much it for my first day.

Now, about Elder Houghton. He's from Dallas, Texas. He grew up a Mormon, but attended a Jewish private school. He has a strong testimony, and a strong work ethic. He's been pushing me out of my comfort zone to train me, and although I'll hate him in the moment, it's all for my benefit, so he and I are cool. He's become one of my best friends, and I know I'll keep in contact with him after the mish. Also, we have two other elders living in our apartment. One is Elder Ball, and the other is Elder McElderry. Elder Ball actually lives in Farmington, and we went to Farmington Jr. and Viewmont together. He remembers me from Jr. High, but I didn't :P He acts a bit immaturely, but he's a hard worker. Elder McElderry is from Arkansas. I don't know a lot about him, but he's an excellent card magician. He knows tons of card tricks, and performs them to us routinely. I know what you're thinking "52 card decks aren't supposed to be owned by Elders." President Martin has no problem with it, so it's okay. He has a trick where he tells you to fan out an invisible deck of cards, pick out a card invisibly, "turn" it face up amongst the face down cards, put them back in the invisible box, and give it to him. You tell him your card, and he takes the invisible box, turns it visible (by turning up the box of cards he hides in his hand), pulls out the cards, fans them out face up, and notices one card face down among the pack, and oh my gosh, it's the card you "Picked" and "turned upside down." I have no idea how he does it, but it's freaky! And cool. I'll video it sometime, and send it to you guys. That's basically it for the Elders I live with.

Now for the apartment, and it's funny little quirks. It's a nice little apartment complex, and our apartment is actually pretty big. I don't want to guess in case I'm wrong. When you walk in, the kitchen is on the left, and the never-used table on the right. Just past those to the right is Elder Ball & McElderry's room and bathroom. To the left is the main living room. It's got two sofas, a weight set, a desk and a supplies cabinet. Left of that is our room. We clearly got the master bedroom because our bathroom is bigger, and the bedroom, and we have a huge walk-in closet. So I'm happy about that. Now some unique things... On the table is a bottle/pretzel jar that live black widow spiders in it. (With a lid on of course) There were originally 3 in it, and their names were Andy, Ferrari, and Susan. We caught a 4th one recently, and, because it's so huge, we names it Viagra, LOL! Anyways, we woke up one morning, and Viagra was eating Susan. So yeah, it's now Andy Ferrari and Viagra. So yeah, he's a little monster. Also, there was a hamster named James Lively here. Since he was escaping from his box a lot, and we didn't want or have time to take care of him, we gave him to another companionship. Also, my room's window is broken. I don't know how, but it is. It kinda sucks, but life goes on. That's basically my apartment in a nutshell.

My daily schedule is usually different every day, so I can't give a solid outline for what I do, but here it is. We wake up at 6:30pm, have breakfast, and just get ready for the day. At 8-11, studies. After that we go work. We usually return home around 1 or 2 for lunch. Then, we work some more until dinner around 6-7. Then, at 7:20, we go to the church for English classes. We've been doing them Monday thru Friday, and they're free. We're hoping to get them switched to investigator status soon, but I'm not seeing much progress with that. But, my comp says it's the right thing, so I can wait. Also I don't know who said I'd have a on of referrals, and that I wouldn't be tracting a whole lot, but we've got O referrals, and whenever we don't have appointments (Which usually they fall through, anyway) we're tracting. Not the vision I had, but it's ok. Just another day in paradise. Oh by the way, the members feed us every so often. A popular dish of theirs is called mole (pronounced mo-lay) DON'T EAT IT! It's their crappy spin-off of barbecue chicken. The sauce tastes like burnt chocolate mixed with some incredibly bitter food. It's terrible. But since we don't want to offend them, we eat it all, say it was awesome, and get out before they notice we start gagging. Also, we had dinner with a family last night (awesome members, BTW) and after I had eaten, I thought that the meat they used was odd in taste. Then, my companion leaned over, and said in a whisper, "Who did that DOG meat taste?" I acted calmly, and said, "I thought it tasted weird." So yes, I've eaten a puppy :'( I don't know IF it was a puppy, but it was dog! So that's my basic schedule.

As far as memorable experiences, here's three. First, on my second night here, we were leaving from dinner, and a priest walks by. Not knowing that fact, my comp goes up to contact him. Then, we get into a 10-minute bash about stuff Joseph Smith "prophesied" about that he said never came to pass, telling that all prophecies from prophets in the Bible came to pass. That's not true, but those guys never listen.
Second, we passed a minister on the street, started a contact, he said he didn't agree with points in the Book of Mormon. and how Joseph Smith told the saints to leave out west. About the Book of Mormon, Elder Houghton tried to get him to say what he didn't agree with, and he kept saying "It's personal." He just didn't have anything to say on that matter. As for the immigration, Elder Houghten explained that if they hadn't, they'd have been killed. He tried to re butt, but his argument was a shot. The last is the funniest! I started a contact with this guy passing by, while Elder Houghton was talking with someone else. He kept telling me to stop going around confusing people. After about 5 minutes, Elder Houghton joins in and I was very happy to give him the reins. I'd have probably been destroyed if I did it all alone. Anyway, this guy was saying how everyone gets the chance to hear the Gospel, or Christ, as he put it. Elder Houghton, who's actually been to Africa and Asia, said that there are tons of people who die over there without even knowing, "what a Christ is," and he tried to say that they never got the chance in this life. He tried to explain the Spirit World, but this guy wouldn't let us talk. He simply said, "No, No, they had their chance." We asked how. First, he said that since their parents had the chance, but rejected it, their children had the chance through them. What?? Then, he said that people went over to preach Christ to them. Elder Houghton reaffirmed the above point, and he just kept saying no. After about 15minutes of mostly him saying no, he said "Be quiet, Be quiet. I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ." We shut up, all right. It was all we could do to keep from laughing. He said something, Elder Houghton tried to follow up, but we both saw he was a lost cause, and left him. The first thing I said was, "When he gets to the Spirit World, his reaction I would pay money to see." Ah, good times.

Well, Love all of dang y'all.

Elder Shepherd

1st letter & picture with mission president!

Click on letter to enlarge

Video to Home

He's a goof :) But we love him!

MTC Pictures!

Here they are! The long awaited pictures! Sorry it took so long! Marcus left for California on wednesday. We haven't heard from him. We are waiting for a new address to write him emails and letters. Enjoy these photos!Elder Shepherd and his companion, Elder Grandy.

Drinks that other elders left behind his mirror.

Marcus loves homestar runner. We're assuming he did this in class while he was bored haha

Marcus and Blaine. A great friend from our ward who left a week before him to Texas (Spanish Speaking)

Their impression of Abbey Road (Beatles cover album)

Marcus & Blaine

This elder has his bear praying with him. That bear is 19 years old and he can't sleep without it! Marcus said they did a lot of stuff to the bear to tease the elder!

Apparently they like Cactus Cooler!

Headed to California

Hey everyone. So, this is the last thing I'm writing in the MTC. I leave on Wednesday, and I'm ready to leave. I'm so done with 4+ hours of class daily, a lack of different activities, and BYU hamsters (the chicken cordon-bleu). Also, I am ready for a new companion. I love Elder Grandy, but I'm ready for someone new. As for the last week here, here's how it goes:

Monday: Just a typical P-day. But, we went to the temple for the 6am session. There was NO ONE there, practically. So we got through that quickly.
Tuesday: The devotional was awesome. The speakers gave the great advice of, "No recuerdo!" (Google translate that one, you'll LOL!)
Wednesday: I hosted new elders again. I got one going to Sweden, I believe, and one from Australia. So, I'm not even sure what else new I can say.
Thursday: My final TRC. I thought it was our best. Mainly because we used Starbursts to explain the law of tithing :)
Friday: a typical Friday, but the LGM was nothing new.
Saturday: I realized I was ready to leave. Crazy.
Sunday: Some elders were leaving on Monday. We spent the whole day with each other. It's amazing how much you can bond with someone in just two months.

So, nothing too much is happening ahorita(right now). I'm just packing, and I'll next be writing home from California. Until next time, see ya, and HAZ LO JUSTO (just do it!).

*Side Note: I spoke with Marcus on the phone this morning. It was great to hear from him. He was at the airport, boarding his plane within the hour. He said he was excited to go to California but a little nervous. He said he would just use the words "No Recuerdo!" until he could understand or talk in Spanish. He is a little nervous about the language, but feels that he will be lead by the spirit. I asked him if he was nervous about the food, he said "If it's any better than the food at the MTC, I'm sure I will live!" Haha he did mention that he loved the BYU creamery ice cream every sunday and Wednesday. So he is well. We're proud of him!*

Last week at the MTC!

So, I’ve gotten the unfortunate news that my blog hasn’t been getting a lot of attention, but that’s because I haven’t been supplying any material. I stopped doing it by email because 30 minutes of computer time seemed like a long time, but really it isn’t. I’ve been getting quite a few emails lately, so I haven’t had much time to write a blog one. Hopefully, when my dad reads this, he’ll compose and email, forward it to everyone who wants to read it, then post it on the blog. You’d better, dad!

So, my last week began today, the 2nd, and I’m super pumped to get out of the MTC/Spiritual Prison! LOL! Anyways, P-day on the 26th was, meh. Just a regular day. But an unexpected letter from a good friend made it so much better. That made my day, especially when I stayed up till 11:15pm just to respond to it. Tuesday was meh too. The devotional was good though. I always enjoy those. Wednesday, I hosted new elders for the first (of two) times. I hosted an elder going to Sweden, and a Tongan elder going to Peru. It was fun because I watched them go through all the stuff I went through my first day, and I felt very senior. My Thursday, TRC was cut very short, and thankfully so! We were teaching the Plan of Salvation in Spanish. Neither me nor my companion were really ready. So it could’ve been worse  Friday was hard for me. I’ve been having problems staying awake again. Not good at all! Saturday was too long, too. 7 hours of teachers, and nothing to distinguish the day. (Monday: P-day, Tuesday: Devotional, Wednesday: Service, Thursday: TRC, Friday: Large Group Meeting, Sunday: Fireside and Film, Saturday: NADA!!) Sunday was long too! Fast Sundays in the MTC are hard. But, I’m alive so I can’t complain. This P-day has so far been typical: Endowment Session at the temple, 1 ½ hours of laundry, and many more hours writing letters.

All right, my Aunt and Uncle want to know how I am doing, so I’d like to respond to them specifically and thank them for following my blog. “I’m doing fine. And no, I don’t know anyone here from Ephraim. If we meet, I’ll make sure I mention it. Besides, how do you know him is my question to you.”

So that’s about it. I’ll try to write an entry every week. Until next week, adios mis amigos!

Elder Marcus Shepherd

Pictures coming soon!

All is well.

Hello Everyone,

I've had some people ask about how Elder Shepherd is doing. He's doing fine. I have heard that the computer that he is using has been down so that might be why we aren't getting emails. But also, he's just out of things to write to put on his blog. I've been getting weekly letters and know that he is doing well, he is just busy learning!

So, I want to ask the readers to leave comments or email me the questions you have for Elder Shepherd. I think he'd really like to have a Question and Answer, or just a little quote or hello to him! I'll forward the comments and emails on to him! Email me at lil_m33@hotmail.com so we can get a letter on here from Marcus!

Thanks everyone who has been reading! We appreciate all the love and support!