4 months and 1 umbrella later...‏

Sent:	Wed 11/25/09 7:53 AM

Dearest Family and Friends,

At this lovely time of the year I thought
I would share with you a few things that
I am grateful for. Here they are.

Warm showers, Toilets you can flush the
paper down, sweatpants, umbrellas,
sunblock, ENGLISH, peanut butter,
deodorant, electric fans, my calves that
are the size of Utah now (They will be
the size of Texas soon,) Email, Bananas,
Ice Cream, Washing machine and dryer,
snow, P-DAY, Benedryl, ibuprofen,
patience, family, friends, the gospel,
prayer, scriptures, and the sugar cane
with cashew that I'm drinking right now...

This list definitely isn't in order of
importance but these are things that I am
very grateful for in my life. Especially
my family cause they are the best ever
and they write me and send me goodies
and I love them muito, muito, muito, muito!

We had another really good rainstorm
yesterday. The lower roads turned into
rivers for a bit. We were a long ways
from our house this time but made it
back before it got too bad. But my
umbrella didn't survive the storm. I
need to buy a new one. Poor thing was
beat until I felt like I only had a
strainer over my head to keep the rain
off. So another thing I'm grateful for,
the waterproof camera case that EJ
bought me before I left. My camera did
make it through the storm. Thanks!

Well, I am in a trio. Yeah, I know.
Lol! Shes on her second mission and
she goes around with random groups of
sisters to help train them and shes
with us for a couple days this week.
Shes way smart and an great missionary
and incredibly intimidating. She is
Brazilian and I can hardly understand
what she is saying cause she talks so
blasted fast but that's okay cause it's
nice to have someone around that
understands everything. Me and Sister
Hyatt were lost for a while i think.
But other than that not a lot is new.

Everything is great and I hope that
everyone is having a blast for
Thanksgiving. Travel to your
destinations safely and this is the
last plea I can make for this
Holiday so please, please, please,
please! take lots of pictures for me
to enjoy! I love you all sooo much
and I think about you lots! But only
when I should,...and sometimes when I
shouldn't but not excessively. I promise
when I get home from the mission I will
relearn to spell but for now please
just forgive me. Love you and be safe
and have fun!!

Peace out
Love,
Shelle

Tap tap tap tapioca!‏

Bom Dia!
I'm still in Brasil. Its still hot. I have a tan line.
I don't know what more is new. Everything is
pretty monotonous. My English is getting worse.
My Portuguese is getting better. My umbrella
broke and because I am my dadś daughter I
wouldn't buy a new one and figured out a way
to fix it. Lol! But otherwise, yeah... We are
suppose to talk with 20 people every day on
the street about the Gospel. Ive normally been
able to do this easily but I think that the world
has become scared of the two sister missionaries
from America. No one is outside. Its a little bit
ridiculous. And then if we have appointments to
meet with people they wont be home at that
time. Even if we talk with them earlier that day.
We had an appointment with a guy that has been
attending church regularly for 3 months and we
saw him 5 min before our appt and said wed be
right back and then 5 min later he was nowhere
to be found. Kinda funny.

Ive discovered something. They call it tapioca.
Its delicious. I'm not sure what it is. It isn't like
our pudding but its white and they make a tortilla
shell out of it and put sweet and condensed milk
or some fruit paste on it and then coconut shreds
and then fold it over. Quite delicious. That and
sugar cane with lime. I could get fat off of that.
Good thing the only have tapioca on Wednesdays
here. Lol!

Nothing else is new. Sorry to disappoint. Hope you
like the pictures. Its me about 80 yrds from my
house on the way to a house of an investigator.
I love going to their house! Its the adventurous
path! Lol

Love you all lots and lots and Hope everyone travels
safe to their destinations for Thanksgiving. Be safe
and have fun! Love you all soooo much!
Love,
Shelle

ps from Shelle's mom: I guess she forgot to attach
the pictures or else they got lost on the way.
Anyway, they weren't in the email.'

Trico is over-rated. (Knitting)‏

Hello.

This week was another week in the life of my
mission. Lots of preaching, lots of eating,
lots of walking, lots of...i dunno. But the
time is picking up and not waiting for
anything. My days are blurring together and
I have felt like this past week was 3 really
long days with 2 really short nights. Its
good though. I like being busy rather than
not having anything to do.

Usually when we talk to people they always
ask why there is always one American with
one Brasilian. No worries, with 2 Americans
they still do that. I haven't ever been
mistaken for the Brasileira though. However,
someone thought that I was Japanese...That
was a little depressing. I speak English,
I'm trying to speak Portuguese, and the
people think I'm speaking Japanese....
What the heck?!?! Life goes on and on bad
days i buy ice cream so I'm good. My Wallet
is emptying though...Jk I'm a stingy sister.
lol

They fixed the bridge that I had to walk
over every day. After the flood it was really
bad. There was a part where you had to walk
on a thin board cause the rest of the boards
were loose but it has been repaired. I have
mixed feelings about that cause I thought it
would be a good break out of the monotony to
fall through a bridge. Its only like 15 feet
above water so it wouldn't have been anything
serious. Just a change;)

I'm pretty close to a professional weather
forecaster now. You're almost guaranteed to
have rain if I walk out of the house without
my umbrella and if I do have it there will
not be rain. I really don't mind except that
when it rains really good the sunblock that
I put on runs into my eyes and so everyone in
Parque Pinheiros gets to see one pathetic
Sister Missionary trudging through the rain,
squinting into the wind, and tears flying
from her eyes from the stupid sunscreen she
didn't need to wear that day... Bah!

I tried getting pictures on the computer to
send through email but the café I use doesn't
work so well and so Im sending them home
through snail-mail. Sorry bout that. Love
you guys lots and lots and lots! and thanks
for all the emails!

Love,
Shelle

Sister Nova

Hey People.

This week was good. I have a new companion and her name is Sister Hyatt from Wisconsin...ENGLISH BABY!! I can comunicate again! And it feels great! We still speak alot of Portuguese but I got my personality back and I can joke again which my attempts at this for the past 1 1/2 months have failed miserably with most people giving me pathetic, pitty laughs. Its all good though. My Companion Sister Yorgason from the CTM now has Sister Wosnjuk as a compaion so thats kinda funny. She was asking me for warnings and so I warned Sister Wosnjuk that S. Yorgason has a jump rope that she practiced whipping me in to shape during gym time...literally...so shed better watch out. And S. Wosnjuk poured pink dye all over my foot and my the time I got to wash it off it stuck enough to look like a bad sunburn. Otherwise all is good and I shall see how they handle each other soon. Lol!

The language is continuing to come. Im needing to work on my English about as much as my Portuguese now. I havent used english much this past transfer and I was even thinking in Portuguese and incredible how much of a language youve spoken for 21 years that you can forget. Its a good thing I have an American companion now.

The heat here is getting pretty hot. I sweat everyday like im running a marathon in a sauna. K, maybe not that bad but it isnt fun when youve got to dress nice and sweat in your nice clothes. It just doesnt feel right. The up-side, every house you go into they offer you cold yummy juice! My favorite is either Cashew or Passion Fruit. But they come in all sorts of flavors so I love it!

I promise that I will send pictures next week of my comps and my area and all that. Ive got to get them on a cd first cause this computer doesnt have a port for the camera card so it makes it a bit dificult. But they will come. Promise.

I love you all sooo much! I love hearing from home and its great to know that Im not forgotten. I havent forgotten you guys and I hope that everything is going good and your all getting ready for yummy Thanksgiving that I wont get this year. And Im glad everyone had fun for Halloween! Tchau, tchau! Love ya lots!

Love,
Shelle

Oh! I almost forgot! I ate a chicken foot! They lady that cooked for us said the soup was chicken and i dipped in and thats what came out so i said, what the heck and I ate it. For some of you this may not be a big deal but Im proud of myself. And it was delicious but not worth the effort I think. Lol