Sheppert, Samuel

It hasn't rained in Ecuador for a bit so now there are tons of outages which makes things real interesting. Shout out the September b-days especially the Madre on the 28th. On the 21st we were singing Earth Wind and Fire “September”, an important musical day to commemorate disco. Shout out to T-Church for that Mr&Ms "September" performance, never will forget that one. This was an interesting week no doubt. Once again we were put in a trio and split our time in half so we had to be super efficient and diligent with our time. Not running but really speed walking everywhere the whole time we were out of the house. I'm loving the Spanish right now, may even be able to answer questions of the soul. Facílito. In the trio with Elder Lopez and Anderson we try to meg each other with rocks while we walk on the dirt roads. There are an abundance of rocks these days to play with because they are breaking up all the roads and repairing the sewers. It smells fresh, real fresh. ...

I don't know what to say at all. Our phone stopped charging last week so we got one of the Zone leader's phones. "Thank goodness," we thought, but we were planning for the week like a diligent missionary may do when the new phone just blacked out and stopped working. I tried all methods of CPR, put it on a ventilator, and even followed my father's footsteps in giving it phone surgery but nothing worked. So now my companion and I are down 2 phones, money and communication ability.  I had the opportunity to go to the Guayaquil Temple on Friday. Wow. Everything about that trip was and still is great. This temple is particularly interesting because of its large Nephi-like stature. That temple is the house of the Lord if I ever saw it. I am so grateful for the temple and the peace, revelation, guidance, and spirit that I can be a part of inside and even outside too! My favorite message to share is how families can be together forever. Para siempre. I'm so grateful ...

A very fun week no doubt. We went all over the place all the time, everyday, with no breaks. That's the grind you asked for and the grind you enjoy. I will say the Spanish is coming along quite nicely. It feels better weekly, not daily. Some days I just can't understand a thing it feels like, and other days I'm just really feelin myself with the Spanish.  Two exchanges this week. One with Elder López and one with Elder Alvarado. Chileno and Colombiano so pure Spanish. Elder Alvarado has a thick Colombian accent and is crazy at fútbol. We walked the streets of Catarama and ate all sorts of foods at different lessons. I did definitely get sick after that day but no regrets, no regerts! He wanted to contact by playing basketball with a big group of people and so we did. Oh man! I missed playing that sport. It was really fun and they weren't actually that bad but we took the W. A crowd gathered and we broke a few ankles. I called one guy "Wemby" and he started run...

Another week for the books. The coolest part of the week no doubt was going down to Guayaquil to hear the words of an apostle. It was basically a 3 hour question and answer with Elder Bednar. The thing that impressed me the most was how he never ever thought twice about what he said. Hence the title, he could answer any kind of question flawlessy with exactly what I needed to learn. Somebody would ask a hard question in Spanish and he did not know very much Spanish. But within 3 seconds he'd say “That's a good question” and go on to give a 10 minute answer that is super clear and better than any talk I've prepared. His message was very clear to me. Agency is the ability to choose whether to act or be acted upon. In the gospel building faith, repentance, baptism, using the holy ghost, and keeping the commandments all take action. Many times people would ask a question and he would say “As soon as you quit worrying about it” or “Don't be an object.” If we take control in ...

This was a very strange week on all accounts. We had transfers, and Catarama, the one area far away, lost both Elders and one of them left back for the USA 4 days before transfers. So one of the zone leaders split to Catarama and the other stayed with me and my companion for the week. That was such a great learning experience. Elder Anderson and I got to learn from the master, Elder López. He's from the South of Chile so he talks at a million miles an hour in Spanish. Towards the end of that exchange, I started to understand everything he said, which made me very happy.  Because we have been watching Elder Bednar talks in both Spanish and English, we have had a ton of fun reciting talks. Elder Bednar has an interpreter who translates from English to Spanish after each sentence, so we pretend to do that too. There is one talk where Elder Bednar speaks on agency. An amazing talk to missionaries. He explains that Lucifer never had a plan of his own and that we need to understand ...

Interviews, preparations and aprendation. One friend, Orlando, we keep coming across only really says one word: Positivo. You could ask “Como esta?,” receive a "Positivo" and then ask "Have you been doing something bad?" and he'll say “Positivo” and then process the question and switch to “Negativo!” But it is really fun to find him in the streets because he is always Positive. Now us four Elders can't stop saying "Positivo" for all of our answers too.  Another one of our friends, Anderson, who is 20 never ceases to amaze us. Not in the way that he does anything crazy, but he just seems to be everywhere. I remember one day we walked to a lesson and he joined in. It wasn't that far from his house so it was normal. Later that day, we are on the opposite side of Sibimbe and what do you know, Anderson is just walking along out of the endless banana trees singing gibberish and joins in the lesson for another 5 minutes and walks off. Third time we ar...

There really is no break in the work. It is hard to be believe all that has came to pass in the last week. I got to go on a super cool intercambio-exchange with an Elder 1 hour away in the most isolated place in the mission. There is a massive bridge over the river and lots of huts and people. Probably the most interesting aspect of it all was that the other Elder knew no English. I was surprised how well things went that day. I would often try my best to say something and it would come out as nonsense to them. My companion luckily understood me enough to re-explain and that is how the day went. Super Chevere!! I caught one Elder singing “Can't take my eyes off of you” and pulled out the guitar and we had a good session of singing after hours. One guy we went contacting with from the ward really likes George Michael for some reason. I got to sing “Careless Whisper" with him in the streets and got a really cool contact from it. We recently contacted a guy who is actually amazin...