My Freckles are Getting Tan

Hola Hola everyone!

I went to the zoo today with my district. I didnt remember until we were walking toward the entrance that I had only brought £20 with me. Phew! Only £1 which is equivalent to almost 50¢. Lol! Thatś about how good it was too. Lots of birds and the animals looked really ill. and most of the cages were empty but we had a good time.

Burr! Im still cold here! Its dificult for me to want to shower in the morning cause the water doesnt heat up so well. But I used to take cold cold cold showerrs. Absolutely no heat. At all. I hated life. My companion always took like 25 minute showers so I figured she was used to this and that I was being a pansy. Then one day I decided I would shower before my companion. The water was warm!!!! My companion had been using all of the warm waater for her shower and then getting out when it got cold...hmmm... So now I always shower first and she gets the left-over. Lol! So her shower time has cut down cause the water goes cold sooner and I get me warm shower!

The language is coming good. I love listening to my companion talk with people cause it gives me good practice to be able to pick up the accent and the pronunciation of everything. I catch alot of words sometimes enough to know what they are talking about but usually it just makes my head hurt. Most days I go to bed mentally exhausted cause I have to strain to understand anything. Usually when I listen to people i catch phrases like, "Oh, she doesnt understand huh?" Then Ill reply to that so it keeps them from talking about me I think... One day after lunch they were talking and I kept hearing "osmosis." All I could think of was that I hope that I can learn this language through osmosis. Later that night it hit me that the had been talking about the young women in the ward! "As Maças." I fealt like an idiot. Not the first time and not the last.

The tally for jumping spiders that I have killed is up to 4 which isnt to many but is more than I want. Ive killed more than that but not all of them have jumped at me when I go to put my foot on them. That was a shock the first time that happened.

I had to talk in church this week. Just introduce myself and give my testimony. It would have been alright except as I was looking around the audience I saw my compaions face and it looked pained like I was butchering her beloved language. I sat down pretty quick after that. Lol! But everyone said that I did good. I think they just like hearing a "gringo" talk with a funny accent. If there is a choice for who is giving the prayer I am always it. They think its funny to hear me struggle. But I get them back by teaching the English and especially the word "world." Most of them cant say that for the life of them. But there is one guy that served his mission in California that knows what Im going through with this language barrier and he sympathizes with me.

I saw my old companions yesterday at a meeting and it was great to laugh and swap stories about how humbling this expirience is. Sometimes I feel like I cant communicate in English either. Lol! We get soo mixed up in what were saying that most of the time at least one person is confused.

I love this work even though Ive contemplated "tripping" in front of a bus to get out of it but no worries Mom, I promise you I wont. Im learning so much and Im very appreciative of the fact that I grew up where I did. Were watching General Conference this weekend and a kid mimicked the voice of the translator for the sessions and it hit me that when they hear the words of the prophet that is who they hear. It really is a privelegde for us to be able to hear what President Monsen says and to know his voice instead of the translators voice. Dont take it for granted. I love you all lots and I hope you are all well! I pray for you daily!

Lots of love!
Shelle

Calves the Size of Texas...Pure Muscle

Hello!

So for all those wondering out there...I gained 7.5 lbs in the CTM. The food was not even that good! O-well...

I am now in the mission field. Got here yesterday. Things are not so hectic as I would have thought, or hoped. We have only taught one lesson and that was last night. But good news, we have 3 to teach tonight. My area is Parque Piscaçina or something like that. It is a city area. No jungle for me yet...Lol!

My companion is Sister Wasnjuk pernouced Woss-new-key. She is fun when I understand her. I am surprised by how much we do communicate. She is from Brasil in Goiava or something like that. I still do not understad alot of the names down here. But I am sure it will come with time and with exposure to the people talking. I try to listen to everyone. I have turned into the worlds biggest eavesdropper. The good thing about that (bad for me though) is that I still do not understand what they are saying. Lol!

We were walking to our area yesterday and about to cross the street a motocyclist tried to get around a car and hit the curb and slid on the sidewalk. This was maybe 10 ft from me. Kinda crazy. These mortocyclist are crazy!! They break all traffic laws. But so do most of the cars so what can ya do?

The first day of spring was on Monday and in Celebration it has been raining since! What does this mean? I am back to being a freezing little girl... But at least our shower is heated. I have a little box by where the water comes out that tries to get as much of the water warm as it can before it comes out. It warms it up enough that I dont go into hypothermia but otherwise I miss being warm. Lol! My poor little Elders in my district are in Cuiba wishing that they could get a cold shower because it is so hot. Man I miss them!! And one of the Elders stayed behind and the CTM for another week to go with his group to Bella Horizonte. He came a week early. That was one of the saddest things i witnessed since coming to the CTM was when we were leaving. His twin was coming to my mission so they had to say goodbye. I am telling you Hollywood could not have made a sadder scene. Their dad is an institute teacher at Snow. Brother Fife. Trish may know him.

It was not so hard to say good bye to my old companions though. We definately had no time to think about it so we kind of didnt get to say goodbye. I miss them lots but I will see them in a couple weeks for General Conference so that is good. Man those girls and I got along really great. I still do not know my new companion well. For one we have only been together one day and for another we do not comunicate well. Lol! It is like we are speaking two different languages or something...

My address for my mission is:
Rua Euqeio de Souqa, 121
Jd. Londrina São Paulo-SP
05638-100 BRAZIL

This is the mission office and I will get the mail once every 2 weeks probably. I love letters for sure but I can recieve emails from anyone and then I can write letters back to them through snailmail. I can send letters off any time but I just get them every other week. And if you are sending a package I hear it helps to put a picture of Christ or something on it so that supersticious people leave it alone.

I can get pictures through email. I can send them too but I need something to be able to upload them from my camera. I will work on that.

I love you all so much! Thanks for all the support and know that I miss you all and hope you are all doing super great!!

Peace and Love!

Shelle

P.S. I may have gained that weight in the CTM but from how much I have walked since I got out here and the chance of me getting a worm hereś to me coming home super-model-skinny! JK. I will be de-wormed occasionally. No worries.

Spirit Prision?!:

Hello!

Hope every one is well! Love you all lots! We went prosylyting last friday in the big bad city. It wasn´t so bad except I didn´t understand as much as I wish I did. These people just talk so fast that I can´t keep up with them when I´m trying to translate in my head and understand what they are talking about! But we met some people that took the BOM from us and said they would read it so that´s good.

Don´t send letters to me at the CTM anymore. I will be gone next week so you will have to send them to the mission home. I don´t have that address on me right now but I will either send it next week or else mom can attach it to this email for me. Either way. I´m way excited to get out there and see where I´ll be going! My next email will have my first area in it and I don´t know if I´ll have much time to talk about the area and my comp but I will try to get that to you sooner than later.

I know I´ve gotten emails from people and I haven´t responded but it´s not because I don´t love you it is because I have no time to email. If you send me your home address then I will handwrite you a letter and send it off. It takes 2 or more weeks to get there but you´ve got a better chance of hearing from me through that than you do through email. There is just no time!!

I´m still trying really really hard to learn the language and understand the gospel more. I don´t know which is harder to deal with. The fact that Portuguese can only come so fast or that I know close to nothing about this gospel. Lol! But I realize I know more than most of the people in this world so my little knowledge can go along way.

I went to the temple for the last time in the CTM today. It was lovely. I had a good time and saw a friend that I knew in the CTM before she left for her mission. It´s going to be crazy leaving everyone hear and going our seperate ways next week but I´m sure it´s all for the best and I´m excited to see what´s out there. Wish me luck!

I tried climbing a tree a couple days ago. It was about as big around as a basketball and no limbs so you can image that wasn´t easy. I ended up maybe 3 feet in up the tree before I slid and recieve a lovely wound. Okay just a little scratch on my forearm but it´s enough that my companions make fun of me. It has fro the most part healed up.

I love you all and hope that everything is going great! Keep me updated and take care!

Love,
Shelle
XOXO

A Day in the Life of Shelle

My typical day...

6:00-6:15---listen to my companion´s alarm go off every four minutes and try to get my last few moments of precious sleep in.
6:15--- get up, shower and dress for the day.
7:00---head to breakfast. Eat breakfast and listen to the Elders in my district and the district next to us argue over shich hair color is better, blonde or brunette. This always ends with someone saying "Thomas S. Monson-BRUNETTE- Boom, Head Shot!! What are ya gonna do now?" Then the rest of the table choruses, "Trump card. Can´t say anything to that. Give up now, no matter how much you like Owen Wilson and Hannah Montana, you can´t win." Random conversations like this are what we have resorted to after 7 weeks of being in this place...(;
7:30---Personal Study. Read BoM and LdM and try to understand LdM with the help of my BoM. Try my dangdest to stay awake. From now until after lunch I am no longer allowed to speak Portuguese. Try starting you day off with someone making you do push-ups every time you speak your native language. Take it one step farther and try to keep good thoughts in your head when that certain someone tells you to do push-ups for speaking your native language...jk
8:30---Instruction with Irmão Borges-my instructor talks about his dating life like heps trying to cimmit someone for baptism. We usually teach a few lessons in Portuguese in this class. We also work on a computer program for the language called TALL. TALL never works. I got on my computer yesterday and to prove this some bored Elder (probably not being able to use the program) had set the desktop as the TALL login screen tiled across the back with "TALL: the program the never works. GOOD LUCK ELDER!!" written under each picture. Lol! Very true.
1:27---Elder Chrisney says, "Only 33 minutes until lunch guys!!"
1:52---Elder Chrisney again, "Down to 8 minutes..."
12:00---Lunch. Beans, rice, salad and an apple. Usually if they have the right dressing I can make a delicious cafe rio salad. No tortilla howerver. Yummy right? Not after having it 2 times a day for 1 1/2 months. All I want is a grilled cheese or PB & J. I always rejoice when the have mango, cry when they don´t have any fruit and then bribe one of the elders to try the questionable desert before I do. After lunch, "Eureka!! I can speak English!!!"
12:30---Gym time. Always stop on the way to gym to see if the scale is broken. Yep...still is. It tells me I´m 10 lbs too heavy... We go to gym early to play volleyball because we can. Usually when it gets to my trum to serve we throw down plus or minus 20 points befoer the other team gets the ball back. Chrisney misses the ball, gets angry, does his "Super Kick" which will make everyone duck for cover because you never know where it´s going and you know you don´t want it to go for your head. I move to the front middle against a kid like Jaron Jeffry (which has happened more than once with the kid himself) and everyone points out the unfairness of size and how I might as well be 2 feet tall next to him.
2:00 Leave gym and shower an ddress for class.
2:30 Wait outside the classroom for the elders in our district to get back from gym and unlock the door. Usually we sit with another district in their room until they get here. 3 sisters that have to share 1 shower can beat 6 elders that all shower at the same time. Some reason this math doesn´t add up...
2:40--Companion study/chat to releave tension and stress that has built up.
4:30---Dinner. Beans, rice, salad, meat and sometimes pineapple. Again bribe someone to try the dessert. Dread the next few hours where you will again not be able to speak English...
5:30--- Class is basically like the earlier one. Sometimes we even repeat the same lessons. Usually were more rowdy this class cause it´s been a long day. Elder Chrisney is still trying to convince his com Elder Boweles that he is on his team so he should back him up in all his words. we play a gam--Palmeiras vs Anão Rebelde(rebel dwarfs) The score is pretty even with wins vrs losses.
6:44---Elder Chrisney, "2 hours and 16 minutes left..."
----This is the longest class or my life. Really... It goes on forever.
9:00---Planning and goof off for the last half hour of class. We can now speak English again...
9:30---Cake and chocolate milk. Delicious!
10:00---quiet time/me and Sister Yorgason goof off time.
10:30---be in bed. not necasarily asleep but laying in bed.
Next day---wake and repeat..

It´s good but that´s really not far from accurate. Ya gotta love it!! Anyways...Love you all and miss you lots!

Love,
Shelle