Sheppert, Samuel

It’s been a good week! We get transfer news real soon so everything is up in the air. But of course, Seguimos adelante! We are teaching people on all corners of the area right now, so we are doing a little bit of walking.  As a ward we made a mission plan to help everyone be involved in the missionary work and grow as a ward. A real hit in the ideas was a linger longer. This had apparently never been done before here. Shout out to the Goated Vancouver 1st ward and their linger longers. We have now established a “quedese más” activity that will be coming soon!  It has been really amazing to watch Veronica and her family grow in the gospel. She has been shooting down all the haters with her testimony. We ended up going to her house one day and she was with her friends. We sat down with all of them and they started asking all these random questions but we didn't even need to talk because Veronica was answering all the questions! Now we have time to meet with all of them this Tues...

It's been a good week in the recess (El Recreo)! This week it really started to dry up, but as soon as I say that, I know the flood will come. We continue the wearysome battle against Mosquitos. I don't know how many I have killed, but they still choose not to learn from history. The good news is with all the floods and mosquitos, I have never seen so many frogs in my life. In one little pond full of black water that I had to walk through it to get to an appointment, there must have been a million tadpoles (what was the actual blackness in the water), baby frogs, and frogs. I feel like I'm actually seeing everything that my seventh grade life science teacher said would come to pass. So at least the frogs are on our side vs mosquitos.  The hymns have been very inspiring as of late. "Press Forward Saints," I've come to realize is more than just an “opening of general conference” type of hymn. It was based off of an amazing scripture 2 Nephi 31:20. The hymn reall...

So in every town here there is a garbage truck and they all have a different trash song. I found out that the garbage song here in Duran is the “Friends” theme song. It’s something else to walk down the road all day listening to that song on repeat. So I know many people could appreciate that, and I have listened to that song more than anyone reading this.  Something pretty incredible that comes with the rain dumping is the THUNDER! I feel as if I’m Batman walking in Gotham on a rainy night. Imagine going over to contact someone and the whole entire sky lights up brightly and you don’t know if it's the second coming but really it's the lightning that goes off every 5 minutes, but you can’t hear the thunder for a minute cause it’s so far away. It's pretty cool you could say.  I think it’s pretty much the same with the gospel. When it rains in our lives, that’s also when the best things come about! The classic Ether 12:27 or Johnny English Reborn. Christ changes our Weaknesse...

 A very quick week to say the least. It’s a great day to be a missionary. All sorts of things are going on here in Durán! One thing that was big was this “Canciones de Esperanza” put on by the tabernacle choir that went to Lima to do a massive concert. And they were going to project it at all the stake centers, so we had to pass out A TON of invitations. It was really cool to watch and I was a fan for sure. It started to rain halfway through the concert. We had to leave at 9 as missionaries so we went outside and I forgot my umbrella. Not a bad thing at all, it's refreshing! The street was well flooded above the side curve and the river that was next to the church flooded and the water was past my knees so that was a rare missionary privilegio to unintentionally almost go swimming. I thought I was in Halo for a second with all the flood. It was chevere.  On the topic of big storms, one analogy that I really like to think about. We all have hurricanes in our lives, but there is...

Wow, look how the days go by. It’s been pretty wet over here, not going to lie. It’s a strange feeling right before it rains. The humidity seems to dramatically rise and you just feel it coming. I’m finally glad to say I know what thick air feels like. Reading the weather report in the morning said 87° but feels like 101°, and that was at 9 am. That was a hot day. I’ve got some boots that usually get the job done, but this ain't Curtis no more, that's for sure.  We have a pretty, gated sector in our area called the 5th Etapa. Very hard to contact over there. So we don’t spend much time there. We went over there to talk to a member that needed our help and we got in. The first people we contacted wanted to hear the message and came to church! They are very cool. Hermana Anita and Richard. We are definitely going to find some more ways to get in the gated communities now. It’s exactly your idea of a gated community in the states, but there is work to be done. I'm excited. It ...

Another day, another dollar. This week consisted of lots of finding, contacting everyone that we can. There were presidential elections all across the country on Sunday which put a damper on plans but no matter. It was crazy to see helicopters flying overhead close to the ground in Durán, and the masses leaving to go to Guayaquil to vote over a big bridge. I thought I was in an evacuation for a second. It felt like World War Z had just begun or something was gonna happen. I’ve actually taken an interest in bread here. Pan de dulce es buenísimo. We usually run to another Elder’s apartment that has a lot of weights every morning. It appears that leg day doesn’t exist on the mission but on the way back I now stop at one of the 30 bakeries near the house that only sells pan de dulce.  We have continued to teach the Espinoza family! They are really enjoying the gospel and what it is. Nothing is nicer than sitting with them and reading some good scripture, and maybe answering a question ...