Week 56

 A set of twins in Jeffrey's branch.  One is getting married.

 Jeffrey petting a horse. "It's a huge petting zoo here," he says.

Another "sick" ride.  A horse drawn buggy on the highway!

Dear family and friends, 

This update will be fairly short because somehow I accidentally erased everything I had just been writing for the last 15 minutes and the draft didn’t save and my time here to write home is quickly coming to an end. 

Elder Johnson and I had a good second week here together! This past week, I didn’t have the rare experience of being able to give a funeral talk or the incredible privilege of seeing two mission presidents at the airport, but I did have a wonderful chance to find, teach, and invite families to come unto Christ and receive the blessings of the temple.

Something I have really enjoyed about Nueva Rosita, that I didn’t find quite as common in Saltillo or in Piedras Negras, was the frequency that we find, teach, and help complete families. As missionaries, we are encouraged to focus on finding, teaching, and baptizing complete families because the gospel was designed to be enjoyed as a family! I was able to testify, from personal experience, about the peace, joy, and love that the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ has brought my family.

The best experiences that I had this week was explaining what a temple is and the blessings that one can receive there. Many of the discussions with these new families that we have found were focused and centered on the promise that they can have eternal families through the sealing power of the priesthood of God! They were so excited to learn about the steps to take in order to go to the temple together to be sealed for time and all eternity. 

Temples was such an important topic this week that the primary president here in my branch asked my companion and I to give a lesson to the primary kids about the sacrifices the early saints made to be able to construct temples in Kirtland and Nauvoo. I was very impressed and very grateful to read the incredible stories of the saints sacrificing everything to make it possible so that we can enjoy the blessings of the temple. 

Thank you for all of your love and support,

Elder Shipley