#WHITEOUT

It's still so crazy to me that time can fly by so fast and at the same time every Monday have no idea what we did during the week.... Haha someday it'll all make sense right?

The snow though.. INSANE. On Wednesday we got hit with this HUGE snow storm turned white out. We were driving and sliding all over the place! President Jacobsen actually told us that the snow was so bad that we all needed to park our cars and do the best we could from our apartments. . He didn't do that once last winter I guess. But being the crazy sisters we are, sister Viehweg and I decided to go door knocking while everyone else sat inside like normal people. We walked and ran and walked and made snow angels. It was so much fun! Once we actually made it to an area where we could door knock, we were able to see the blessings of our efforts right away as we started to meet people who were interested to learning why on earth we were out in the storm. So totally worth it. 

What else... Oh! On Thursday we door knocked into an entire family that has been looking for a church and they want to learn more! We are so excited to start teaching them, and the coolest thing is he is coworkers with our other investigator Lupita and said that he had heard her talking about us in the store! Missionary work is just the coolest thing ever. 

We've also just started teaching Sarita and Josh. She is a member and he is not. Neither go to church though. They have actually taken the lessons from the missionaries a couple of times and when we went over to teach the first lesson, he was getting really frustrated because he felt like it knew it already from previous times. As we kept teaching it was so cool to see how as we listened to the spirit, we taught the lesson to him using some information that we hadn't ever brought up in lessons before that we had learned about just earlier in the week. As we started to talk about those things he became really interested and would participate. It was SO AWESOME!!!

Anyways, I hope you all have a fantastic week, I love you!

Sister Sheppard

Katie's Baptism

Alrighty, what happened this week? SO MUCH!!! okay, but I don't necessarily remember since everything was centered around the baptism:)

Katie was Baptized on Saturday! Funniest thing though. We showed up a couple hours early to fill the font and it wasn't filling up! It got to like 30 minutes before the baptism and still wasn't even half way. We thought we would have to postpone the baptism at least an hour in order to fill the font all the way. Luckily though, by 6:45 by some miracle, the font was completely full! Hallelujah! Then when She was being baptized Brother Saymn (her Boyfriend) held her under the water for so long! Oh my goodness it was so funny and scary at the same time. In the end all that matters it that she was able to be baptized and confirmed and is SO SO SO happy!  

Also, When she came out of the water, the first thing she did was clap her hands and say"Wow!" Katie is amazing and will do wonderful things for the work here in Michigan.

Anyways... I'm not exactly sure what else we did this week. Everyone in Michigan seems to be sick so we've been doing our best to stay healthy and so far it's working:)

I hope you all have another Fantastic week in the warm CA weather! Haha Love ya!

Sister Sheppard

So... Remember how I said it was warming up?

So... Remember how I said last week that the weather was really warm for the beginning of February? Not anymore! That Monday night after we fell asleep it started snowing and didn't stop until Tuesday Morning! It literally just kept snowing and every time we went outside it would start snowing a little harder. Anyways, now we're back into the negatives and it's great. We knew it was coming since whenever we're on foot it's always super cold! Good thing we're tough! And people take more pity on girls standing outside in the cold than boys. So it's great. 

On Tuesday though, we had lunch with members and after we finished eating they asked if we could help them shovel the driveway. I've never shoveled snow before so of course I said, Yeah, we would love to! Fifteen minutes in I was seriously debating whether or not I still thought this was a good idea. Ha ha, their driveway is over a fourth of a mile long and it took the four of us 2 hours to finish. Wow were we tired! We got back in the car, sat there for a minute and the first thing either one of us said was, "I think I'm gonna need a few days to recuperate" HAHAHA so now we know first hand why no one ever seems to ask the sisters for help shoveling their driveway.

Also, here in Michigan they have this thing called Fat Tuesday since Ash Wednesday is the next day. Basically it's just justification to eat these HUGE donuts called Paczci's. They are each between 500-1000 calories. You eat one and you're full for the entire day! (we didn't actually eat them though, too many calories for us!)

And as for the last couple of weeks, we are still working on Pita's house. And She let us start teaching her two boys Carlito(8) and Javier(10)! Her two little girls Lupita(6) and Aalayia(6) both love to come and listen in as well. If the girls aren't there during the lessons then the boys will go and teach the girls everything after we leave. It's the cutest thing! Love love love their family! 

I did speak on Sunday as well. Not nearly as scary when you're constantly meeting new people through knocking on their doors. But it went really well, everyone loved the kids input. Here's a short little quote from my talk:)

"What the restored gospel brings to the discussion on marriage and family is so large and so relevant that it cannot be overstated: we make the subject eternal! We take the commitment and the sanctity of marriage to a greater level because of our belief and understanding that families go back to before this earth was and that they can go forward into eternity." - L. Tom Perry

Families are so important! We not only want to be a part of a family, We NEED to be. There are things that we learn within our families that we cannot learn anywhere else. I have become a million times more grateful for my own family and the things they have each taught me, as I have been away from them for these short two (almost 3) months. I am so glad to have this knowledge that Families can be together forever, so how can I not share this wonderful message with everyone that I can? I love you all, and miss you all so much. Yet, I know this is where I need be! Have a fantastic week!

Love you all! 

Sister Sheppard

Missionaries helped paint this store 15 years ago!

                                    Cute little Suckers the owner of the tummy ache gave us

It's warming up a little...

So first off, Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Neilsons, and Brashers for the packages. I absolutely loved them both! The homemade caramels and pictures from Christmas were amazing! And BABY ELLIE. Holy cuteness! Basically everyone in Bay City has heard and seen how cute a baby she is!  Christmas at Grandma's looked like so much fun!

Anyways.. This week the weather got so warm. Instead of wearing 4 pairs of tights and 3 jackets, we walk around with a light jacket and no tights now, it's fantastic. 

Last Monday, we went to this cute little town called Frankenmuth with our district. They have the biggest Christmas store in the US, I guess. Super fun. We went through this mirror maze while there and got stuck inside for what seemed like hours! When we finally made it out, the worker was in tears he was laughing so hard while watching us through the monitors try and figure it out.

Also, Trade Off's were this past week, so I went to Midland for the day with Sister Watts and door knocked all day. This was a first, but super funny! One guy opened his door and said Come in!! and when we went and sat down.  His wife heard who we were and immediately said, GET OUT! and then turned to her husband and said, WHY DID YOU LET THEM IN?!?! HAha we laughed so hard when he finally shut the door.

We were also able to finally start on Pita's house. We're in the process of painting her kitchen while the Elders helped finish the other rooms.  When we had a lesson with her afterwards she said that she really wanted us to start teaching her kids, and we were able to put her on date to be baptized on June 11! We are so so so excited for her and her family and the progress they are making. 

So yeah this week has been really great! We have been able to start making real progress with a few of our investigators and I can't wait to see how things progress in this coming week.

Love you all! 

Sister Sheppard

Hola! 

Can you believe it's almost been 2 months?! I can't! Time flies while on a mission that's for sure, and hello, it's amazing how much can really happen in just 7 days.

One of our Investigators, Pita, is living in this huge house that hasn't been finished yet. They've been living there for 5 years out of the kitchen and their bedrooms. How crazy is that? So we (the elders and us) Got a group of people together to help finish her house. When we asked if it would be okay, she broke down into tears, she was so surprised and grateful. We are so excited! She hasn't really been progressing as of late, but we've noticed that as we've been cleaning and organizing her house in preparation, she has really opened up and let us in so that we can really help her see the good the gospel will do for her and her kids lives. We plan to start painting and all that fun stuff at the end of this next week. 

Also, We hold a Book of Mormon study on Wednesday every week and this past week I taught for the first time!! Super scary but really fun as well. 

Sorry This isn't long! The time is just flying by too fast!

Love ya!

Sister Sheppard