Week 79 - 2017!

 Jeffrey and Oscar

 Again!

 Jeffrey, Elder Lopez, Mara and Oscar on their Baptism day.

 At the house of Laho and Gabi on New Years.

 Jeffrey, Elder Holmes and Elder Lopez at the President's house on New Years.

The wonderful family that feeds the missionaries every first Sunday of the month.

Sick on the couch.  I didn't post the outside picture!

Dear Family and Friends,

We had a wonderful baptism last week on New Year's Eve to finish 2016 and have so far had a great few days of 2017! 

I am going to talk about my week in reverse order, starting with today and finishing with last Saturday. Today we had a pretty exciting P-Day! We went bowling, grabbed hamburgers, and cleaned our house. I have gone bowling more times than I care to admit over the past few months here in the office.... but I think I am going to be pretty good when I get home... we also had two Elders in our house last night until 11pm and then they left on a 9 hour bus ride to Acuna. At the same time two Elders from Monclova arrived at our house to sleep around midnight so it seemed like the sleepover never ended... it just kept going but with different people! 

On Thursday we had the leadership council with the the zone leaders from the mission and it was pretty calm. It's always exciting to see other missionaries from all over the mission! On Wednesday afternoon, I got sick all of a sudden and slept for a couple hours on the office couch. Around 7pm, an Elder brought me a glass of water because I was thirsty. I drank it, and then ran outside to the grass outside the office and threw up! I felt way better afterward. 

The best part of this past week was the baptism of Mara and Oscar this past Saturday! It was so special to see them both make a promise with our Heavenly Father that they are going to keep his commandments and be faithful to him in order to receive such incredible blessings! Mara is super excited to go to the temple to do the work for her mom that passed away that met the missionaries for the first time almost 20 years ago but couldn't get baptized. Her testimony is so strong and she is helping the rest of her kids and her husband to feel the same love and receive the same blessings that she is currently enjoying! It is an absolute pleasure to visit her family and share the gospel with them. We never want to leave her house because we always feel the spirit and the love of our Heavenly Father and Savior when we teach there. 

Have a great week! All love, 

Elder Shipley