FELIZ NATAL!!!!!!!!

This week is Christmas!! How this year flew. I´m doing well. I´m getting to the point where emails don´t have such great valor anymore. I just want a cell phone...I never thought I would say that again. Lol! But I´m great. I´m happy. I´m fat. I´m cooking in the sun. I´m alive. I´m still American. I´m still trying to act like a Brasilian. I´m content.

This week we were walking in the street and a white three-legged dog started to chase us. What an expirience that was. I decided that I didn´t want that so a got my umbrella ready and my companion (who was thinking better) throw me in the way. I got out of it with only 6 stitches. Just kidding. When the dog saw my umbrella he backed off. It was good. I was worried but it all turned out okay. I´ve been having fun this week scaring my companion by grabbing here calf or ankle and making angry dog sounds. Lol! She always jumps. It´s great.

So we had transfers. I´m officially going to finish my mission in Campo de Fora and Sister Fonseca will be my last companion. We are both very excited about that and I´m sure that this will be something incredible. We´ve got big plans for this transfer and I´m stoked.

With the transfers, the other two sisters in our house have left. They closed that area and now it is just us here in this apartment. I miss them but I love the space. We are much more organized and much more on top of the hour. It was a little difficult before with 4 sisters and one bathroom. But life continued. Life is better now though. Lol!

We had our Mission Christmas Party. It was great because everyone was there. Our who mission with more or less 180 missionaries. It was incredible. President had a great message planed and then we ate and had a talent show and played around then we had transfers and got presents and went home to work. What a good day... I´ll miss this next year I think. But not enough to send out my papers again any time soon. Lol!

Well, I´m stoked for the telephone call this week. It´s gonna be awesome. My last important telephone call in the mission. That is a trunky thought. Lol! Alright, I need to go before I think on that too much. Thanks for all of your support and love and prayers. You guys are awesome and I hope you all have an excellent week and that Christmas is full of fun and laughing and playing around. Take care. Be safe during the holidays!!!

Love,
Shelle

Hey there!

So, another week has come and gone. I played soccer today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow, it has been a long time. And I used sunblock so I didn´t even get sunburnt. Wahoo! It was a blast. We now have a group of kids in our complex that know we will be playing every Monday 10 am. There is a bunch of young hooligans that we can baptise. Lol! At least we will make memories for them about the missionaries from the Mormon Church that played soccer with them. One day maybe this will help in the conversion process.

We have now given up on our shower. We still use it but the water is icy. We´ve traded it out 3 times now and it always breaks. Looks like I will be taking cold showers for the rest of my mission. It just a good thing that it isn´t winter here. That would be painful.

The rain is picking up here. It rains almost everyday. Sister Fonseca forgot her umbrella one day and we shared. We had fun. We kept pulling pranks on one another and after getting completely wet we gave up on the umbrella and took off running for the house. This was the first time that we ran home without the excuse that we were almost 9:30pm. We got home wet and panting and the other two sisters in our house just looked at us and asked, "Would you guys like some milk?" Lol!

One of the sister that I´m living with is very trunky and she likes to sleep in late and not stick to any sort of schedule. Now, Sister Fonseca and I run yelling, and screaming (occasionaly with pots and pans) into their room to wake them up and make them exercise with us. Usually exercises turn into laying on the floor with our feet in the air and talking. But at least they are doing something outside of their beds now. Lol! Poor things.

Well, this week was good. Probably this next week will be good too. I´m loving life, loving the mission, loving everything.

I love you guys lots and lots and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Shelle

I´m still alive, and you?

Lol! This week was good. We got a lot of rain and with alot of luck and blessings we were always in someone´s house when it started and it always finished before we left. Yesterday wasn´t that type of day. We went to lunch and afterwards gave a message and then the rain started. Alright...bring it on... I was in my shoes that are almost completely broken. Ya know how when you have closed-toes shoes that you shouldn´t be able to see your toes? That isn´t the case with these anymore. Dansko was a good idea and it lasted for over a year but I´m thinking that it is almost time to retire them. The only problem is that I have 3 other pairs of shoes. One is falling apart at the heel, another on the side, which leaves only one pair of good shoes. I´m trying to save them for special occasions so that I don´t look completely gruffy. Lol! Oh well, I will throw them all out here in a couple months all the same. It´s sad when you are coming to the end of your mission. People seem to forget about you and just start calling your belongings. "I get this!" "I want that!" "Sister McCollaum, when you die in the mission will you give me your -----?" Hmmm....

Wahoo! An Irmâ in my ward made pumpkin pie! Oh how life was good. I got to celebrate a little of Thanksgiving yesterday. I´m looking forward to the day when I can taste pecan pie again. And thinking of food during the holidays, if you guys would buy eggnog and put it in the freezer for me when I get home I would be happy. It´s been almost 2 years since I´ve tasted that delicious flavor. Lol! My companions want me to make an American dish for them to eat. I asked them if we could just go to McDonald´s. But it looks like I will be making pizza or something. I don´t know what to make. Hmm... maybe meatloaf. Lol!

Yeah....So I can´t think of anything else to say. Things are happeneing but they are things like teaching, proseliting, contacts...things normal for a mission. I´m writing in English but in my head I am speaking Portugues. Because this I´m taking forever to write. I think that if you want to talk to me after the mission you will have to practice alot, alot, alot of patience or else learn Portugues. I would suggest the second as it is a beautiful language and you will be ahead of the crowd knowing 2 languages. As for this telephone call at Christmas, I will have my companion translate because even though she is Brazilian she speaks better English than I do.

Maybe I can convice Mom and Dad that they should move to Brazil. I saw a house for sell the other day. I was pretty close to the church too. Maybe 10 minutes walking. Brazil has high humididty and lots and lots of fruits and the people are really accepting and they love anyone that has blue eyes. I also know a member that will be selling his apartment really soon. Just say the word and I´m on it. I have complete confidence that he would hold out until February to sell to us. That way we can be one happy family in Brazil!!

Love you all lots and lots and I hope you have a great week and stay safe in the snow. Play lots and take care.

Love,
Shelle

Fotos!

The most beautiful house in

South America

Me, Sister Fonesca (companion),

Sister Alcantara, Sister Almancio

in front of temple

My kids. I trained them and now we all

live together. Lol!

Sister Fonesca, Me, Sister Amancio

Me and 6 live scrambling crabs.

We cooked them up and ate them later that night.

Thanksgiving dinner with my companion.

Yum Yum!

Hey there!
So I am sending pictures!! Wow! Finally! I know that it has been a really long time because the last ones I sent were when I was in the CTM... So at this rate, these will be the last that you get until you can see my pretty little face again! Lol!
Life is good. I´m cooking here in Brasil. The tempurature has really gotten hot. But with that there is always more people on the street to talk to. Wahoo! And with that there is more alcohol in the people so we don´t like to talk to them. Hmmm... But, we are still talking with lots and lots of people. I like this place during the summer. Everyone comes to life again. And I think that the sun help to get everyone out of their winter depression. That helps us becuase they are willing to stop and listen to 2 girls in the street. We did divisions with an Irmã in the ward and we had such great luck with her when we did contacts. It was fun because she served a mission a few years ago (almost 10) and I challenged her to make a street contact and she was so funny! She stuttered through the whole thing and in the end I teased her about how I should be the one having problems with speaking the language not her. By the end of the night she making contacts like a pro. It was fun and she laughed alot. Hopefully not she will let us teach her friends. Lol!
This is a new technique we are using. We will ask to teach the members friends and when they say now we ask them to make visits with us. Then they realize that if we don´t have anyone to teach we walk around trying to find people to teach. They have pity for us and then they take us to someones house to get to know them. I´m hoping that this will be somthing to help us out alot.
So thanksgiving can and passed by. Oh how TG is so much better in the US. Our lunch appointment had forgotten that we would be eating with her and she had only made ramen noodles. Lol! But she through stuff together real quick and our lunch wasn´t too bad. So we decided to make TG dinner in our apartment that night. As you can see we are poor and without time or patience. We only had onion rings, cake-bread, cheesecake, and maracujá juice. Woo Woo! Life couldn´t be better! Lol! So we had fun, took pictures, ate and went to bed to get up and work the next day. Ha! Oh, how holidays have changed here in the mission.
Every Sunday night we have a FHE night at church. Last night there weren´t too many people that showed up so Bishop said that we could use his office as it is the only room in the chapel with AC. (this room is half the size of the Bishop´s office in our ward) We all entered in there and took more chairs so that everyone could sit down. When we all got situated and were closing the door another family of 4 showed up. We got more chairs and piled them in also. It was a really great lesson and we ate popcorn afterwards. It was great. Our ward is really growing with the Mission work. We still have a few families that need to increase the spirit but all in all this ward is growing incredibly. I love it!
I don´t have much more to talk about. I hope everyone is great. I now my emails are short lately but a picture is worth 1,000 words. And now you have 5! Lol! I love you! Take Care!
Love,
Shelle

Hey

I bought crabs this week! There was a man in the street selling a bunch of crabs and Sister Fonseca said that she new how to cook them and we decided to buy them. Six crabs and two Sisters walking in the street. Try talking to the people now... It was more difficult than before. Lol! The crabs were still alive so it looked like we had a string of nasty football-sized spiders. I was happy to see that people are more willing to talk to missionaries than to men selling crabs. But the long-run is that I won´t try to invite people to go to church when I have crab in my hand. They pay more attention to the crab than the message. But that night we cooked up the crab (not before we startled our roomates with crab in the sink) and ate it. Sister Amancio is a professional crab eater. She could clean those things out in less than a minute. Lol!
I got really sick this week.
Not alot has happened this week because I just wrote Wednesday. But life continues. I´m working hard. Got my first sunburn but it wasn´t bad. I just missed a spot on my upper-arm when I passed sundblock. It was already gone the next day. But the sun in getting really got. There is still one more month until Summer starts. As for today it looks like rain.
I love the work and I love life and I love my companion and I love this mission! I don´t have alot to say. I love you all like the daisies love the sunshine! Take care and have a great week! Sorry about the short email...
Love,
Shelle

Hmmm....

Wahoo!!! I went to the Temple today! Wahoo! It was great and the first time that I got to go in 6 months. It was about time. But as it is I had a lovely, lovely time and I saw the Area Presidency for Brasil. That was pretty cool. And we got a tour of the temple because I happened to know one of the ladies working there. It was my companion in the CTM´s Stake President´s wife. Lol! But because I remembered her she remembered me and we asked if she could give us a tour and she got permision and it was lovely. I love the temple and I will never let it take so long for me to go back. Lol! It was also fun because I was with Sister Amancio and Sister Fonseca my 2 trainees in the mission. So we got to take pictures for memories. Ahhh, good ol´ times...
So I´m training again and this Sister is incredible. I don´t have to train her as a missionary only here in the area. She already is a natural missionary and so it makes my job really easy. She already has the lessons down and she knows the scriptures and isn´t shy to teach so it was good. She had a really great first expirience for her first week in the mission field. I lost my voice. For 3 days. Lol! Poor thing. She was completely scared to death when I told her that she would have to teach most of the lessons. Lol! She did awesome. I wasn´t even worried because I already saw her teach and it was excellent so I trusted that she could do the job. And she did.
Like I said, I lost my voice this last week. It was horrible. I couldn´t talk and I was sick with body-aches, chills, head-ache, cough, runny nose, stuffy nose, fever, nausea, and I think food poisoning. Lol! I don´t know about the last but after I threw up Sunday´s lasagna I fealt better from the nausea. Glad to report that all is better today and I am full of energy to work really, really hard. We have lots of plans for this week. The members in this ward are really great and they love to help the missionaries and they are all really excited about the missionary work right now and I know that they will be blessed because of this. It´s good to work in an area like this.
The other day Sister Fonseca and I were teaching a lady. We started with singing a song. After the first verse of "Love at Home" we both started laughing. I´m telling you we full out broke into a fit of giggles. The poor lady. At least she was someone that knew me more or less so she didn´t get offended. She just thought it was really funny. I don´t know why that happened, but it did and I hope it never happens again...Lol!
Alright. I have to go. I love you all lots and lots and I hope you have an excellent week. I will be writing on Monday next week. This was just a wierd two weeks because of transfers and Temple. But starting next week it will all be back to normal.
Love you all. Take care and have fun.
Love,
Shelle

Transfers

So it is the week of transfers and with luck and blessings I am staying in Campo de Fora! I was hoping that I wouldn´t get yanked out of another area again. Sorry to say, for Sister Machado, she got yanked. The poor thing. She´s been ready for more than a month to have a new area but that didn´t keep her from crying. She couldn´t hardly think strait. This is her first transfer and she just isn´t used to it yet. After 6 transfers I´ve become accostumed. That probable means that I won´t have to pass that trial again. Wahoo! Lol!

This week was good. We are working with a family that is completely made of Gold. Manuel, Regiane and their two kids Luis -16 and Layani- 10. We taught them this week with Bishop on Tuesday and it was really great. They became friends with Bishop and his wife and we laughed and learned and ate and all in all I was content with how is turned out. Then we marked to go back on Thursday. Thursday came around and we got to their house and Regiane let us in and she was a little different. Not in a bad way. She was nervous or something. We made the normal small talk at the begining of every conversation and then Regiane said, " Tenho notícias ruis para vocês." (I´ve got bad news for you guys.) Blink, blink... Okay, so what is it?!?! It turns out that she called her mother and talked to her about how she was having lessons about the Mormon Church and that she was thinking of accepting baptism. Her mother told her that she should never step foot in that church again and that she had to stop recieving our visits and that she should repent quick and never look back. She saidn not to have anything to do with that church again. Go back to the Catholic church and put her kids in Cetasism (youth program in the Catholic Church). Again, blink, blink... I asked Regiane what she thought and she said she was thinking to listen to what her mother said. Eliza, Regiane´s niece, was there and she also was hearning the messages and she said that she was done and that she wouldn´t ever go back to church again and she would stop saying normal prayers and recite the memorized prayers again. Wow! Stop righ there. I started teaching about prayers. It was good. Regiane agreed completely with what we said. Everyone in the end decided that they would continue praying normally. Onto going to church... We talked with them alot. I don´t even remember exactly what was said but in the end Regiane said that she would pray and decide what to do. Layani was all for going to church. She was totally lost because she was at school when her Grandma called. I love the inocense of children!

We passed their house again on Saturday. Everyone was home. Even Manuel! We talked with them about eternal families and the temple and many, many things. Again, alot of which I don´t remember exactly. In the end, everyone decided they would continue. Wahoo!

We have a few people in our ward that are alot to swallow. If you don´t get to know them then you would think that they had completley lost is. Our Patriarch is one of them. Lol! He sat with some of our investigators during the Sacrament Meeting. He talked with them about how he and Selson (another Irmão in the ward) were making bets to see who would die first. uh... Then he should them a picture of the temple. (He was telling us this afterwards) When he showed this picture he talked about how this was the most beautiful house in all of South America. He talked it up alot and then he looked at them and said, "I can go in there but you can´t. But don´t worry it isn´t only you, the Governer or São Paulo can´t go in too." When he told me this I began thinking, "Man, I have to monitor the members in this ward. I can´t even let some of them close to the investigators. How many do we have in this ward already. 4? 5? 12? What am I going to say to them when we visit tonight....ah geeze..." Then he said, "Those sisteres that are sitting over there can enter this house also. Their purpose is to help you prepare so that you can enter in this house also. You guys will have an oppurtunity to enter in the most beautiful house ever if you will listen and apply what those girls are teaching you." Opa! Thank you Patriach! We now have a very intrigued, maybe confused, married couple that loved church and want to learn more and prepare for baptism. This ward is full of nuts but I love all sorts of nuts so this is the place for me.

I´m loving life and I´m working hard. I know that this work is His and He´s trusting me to be where He wants me to be when He wants me there, saying what He wants me to say. I love it!

Thanks for everything and take care and have a great week. Love you lots!

Love,

Shelle

Halloween!

So this year for Halloween my companion and I decided that we would be vampires and knock on all the doors trying to teach the Gospel. The first door, no luck... The next door, no luck... The third door, Yes!!! We got in. It was a little different because there was a few witches in costume and a few that I think maybe practice magic in real life.... Just kidding. We didn´t do anything for Halloween. Brasil does nothing in the way of celebrating Halloween. Last year there were a few kids that toilet papered some houses but this year it came and passed by like any other Sunday. Just so that you know, there are actually quite a few people here that practice dark magic. It is a religion known as macumba (spelling?) and there are a surprising number of members. It would be one of my worst nightmares to enter into a house where one of those people live. But with luck they don´t let in members of our church until we remove our "protection." I thought it was just our name badge but I was wrong... Anyways... The most recent encounter I´ve had with macumba is to see some plates of food on the side of the road. They do this so that you will put money in it and not be cursed. All in all a wierd religion but you can´t deny that there is a bad side here in the world.

I had the opportunity this last week to shake hands with Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the quorum of the twelve Apostles. Opa! That was a pretty incredible conference. I loved it! Learned alot. He was pretty witty and was always cracking jokes to keep us entertained. After 2 1/2 hours with him, his wife, President and Sister Jackson, and the area president Elder Soares, he opened up the remainder of the time to questions. Blink, blink... My mind went blank. Actually no. I had a few questions that I wanted to ask him but he also gave a few rules that we had to follow with these questions so I decided that these questions had to wait for another time. But all in all Thursday was really, really awesome and our entire mission was there and we all got to be in the same place at the same time with is the first time that this has happened in all of my mission. It was undescribable the feeling in that Chapel. I want it to happen every Thursday! Lol!

I ate cow stomach this week. Talk about a nasty meat. The texture is somewhere in between a balloon and fat. You chew and chew and chew and finally have to swallow. The only thing that saved me was the flavor. The Irmã that made it is an excellent cook so the flavor was delicious but the actually meat...blegh! They are already talking about cow hoof for the next time. I´ve already had an expirience with pig hoof on my plate and it didn´t end happily. I don´t know what I will do. Probably eat it but I don´t know how much I will be able to work after that...

The work is great. I love this area and I love the leadership in the ward! They are way excited about the work with makes it way easy for us to be excited and work hard all day everyday even when everything falls through and no one wants to talk to you. You keep going until you find someone and that´s why it is great because you will always find at least one person. They are ready and waiting but you just have to show that you are ready and willing to do your best and realize that your best is being ignored and then leave the rest to the Lord and you will find His elects. You just have to be His elect first.

I´m happy and working hard. I´m learning lots and growing lots. (Luckily I´m not growing in dress size anymore. Lol!) I love you guys lots and lots and I hope you had a great Halloween and will have a great week with lots of fun time and work and good things like that. Don´t forget to read the scriptures daily and pray always. Take care.

Love,

Shelle

Hey

Hey. This week will be really really short. Sorry. I had an activity with Sister Jackson today and we made cinamin rolls. They were delicious! But because of this I only have the total of 15 minutes to use internet today because of other appointments that couldn´t be moved.

This week was interesting. I hope that the blessings come after the trials. Lol! So in only one day....I hit my head on a tree branch, an iron pole, Sister Machado tripped and almost face-planted it, cut her finger open, we passed the hospital, 5 of our appointments fell through, lunch was late, my head was hurting, and we were fasting and couldn´t even buy icecream. Lol! It was a great day and we spent most of it laughing and were still laughing at the end of it. Life is good on the mission.

I´m sorry I don´t have much time but really I have to go now. I love you all lots and hope you have an excellent week.!

Love,

Shelle

This week.

I just got back from a shopping trip with my companion and another 2 sisters. I wanted to shoot my own leg off. Lol! Just kidding. But it was...long.

This week was pretty excellent. We had a new idea for how to accopmlish the mission work here in Campo de Fora. We showed the idea to our Bishop and he liked it quite a bit and we´ve made plans to put everything into action. This included our first Family Home Evening night in the ward. Everyone acted pretty excited about this activity and the change that there would be one every Sunday. Woo Woo! We were sure with how many people were talking about it that there would be a bunch of people. It should have started at 7 pm. but when only Sister Machado and I were the only ones there we decided to push it back a bit. 7:40 pm. We had 5 people show up and 5 minutes later 1 more person. I guess everyone got lost on day-light-savings time. Lol! But in the end it was really fun and we showed them a trick with some hymn books and bribed them that if they brought a non-member with them the next time we would reveal the secret. We barely got out of there alive. Imagine a bunch of nervous, curious, agressive Brasilian against two little sister missionaries.

The work is going really well here. We are working really hard and loving every minute. Even when we have 3-4 or 5 days in the week where everything falls through we still laugh and keep going. That might be a different story if one of the things that fell through was lunch but this ward is great and we always have enough to eat...more than enough.

My feet are starting to look like ugly sister misionary feet. I think that has something to do with that my shoes are all torn up and falling apart. I will buy some more in the fair this Wednesday. I figure that should last me.

We have interviews with President tomorrow. They should be good. I always like to have interviews.

Next week we have Elder Oaks coming to our mission. That also will be really good. I excited to hear what he´s got to say.

I love everyone lots and lots and I hope that you all have a great week.

Love,
Shelle

Hey Hey we´re the monkeys!

I don´t know why that song is in my head but alas...I saw a monkey the other day. It was on a leash and about the size of a large rat. I got to pet him and I didn´t even suffer a bite or monkey poop being thrown on me!!

This week was really great. I love working! We got lost a couple times but in the time that we were lost we found alot of people that are looking for the Gospel. It just goes to show that when you let the Spirit guide you even when you don´t know what you are doing or where you are going that you will find yourself in the right place at the right time. You just have to open your mouth to find out wherre you are and why you are there. I love it!

Woo Woo! Last week I had all sorts of plans to make cinamin rolls or orange rolls but then I heard that we would have a pday where Sister Jackson would teach us out to make cinamon rolls. Woo Woo! I don´t have to try to teach myself but I can just go and have all the ingridients at my fingertips and throw it all together and know that the end product will be something very yummy because I will have the teacher there making sure I do everything right. Much better than one American and 3 Brasilians making a mess in the kitchen apartment to eat a sticky-gooey mess. Lol!

We are teaching a family that is incredible. I´m very excited for them. They are liking the doctrine and we taught them Word of Wisdom and they´ve made goals to obey it. They have 2 birthdays that are coming up and they already made plans to have a bbq and Manuel (the dad) will tell everyone that this will be a party without alcohol! He said he won´t buy any and if someone offers he won´t drink it. Yeah! They are really great but we have a small problem with them. They don´t want to go to church. They aren´t lazy, no, no. They went one time already but we didn´t see them. We have to wards that frequent our Chapel and the other one has members that are a little strange. The problem is that when they got there Sister Machado and I were already in the Sacrament and they wanted to enter and someone from the other ward saw them and wanted them to stay in their ward. He started to talk about how we were steeling the missionaries sheep in his ward and how we shouldn´t have been teaching that family and that they lived in his area...yada yada yada....Long story short, they are having difficulties wanted to go back. Uh...What do you say to them when they say they didn´t like church? Answer: Take the Bishop´s 1st counselor and his wife to meet them. Bishop works during the week so he is a little more tricky but luckily we have a ready and willing couple to fellowship them and keep Irmão Roni (the greeter at church) a good distance from them. Lol!

I read in 1 Cor 9: 19-22 (or something like that) that we have to move ourselves to teach our investidators. This generally works. I found, however, a situation where it doesn´t work at all. When someone is hard-headed and deaf. It doesn´t work to turn yourself into someone heard-headed and deaf also. Much more tricky than that. Chapter 13 talks about Charity. That´s where the real secret is found.

I love this work and I love change. This is something incredible that I can never describe everything that is happening and how I´m changing and learning more to love my neighbor and in turn love the Lord. I´m incredible grateful and in debt to Him and to all the people in my life that have helped me to move. You may never realize it but everyone that I know has helped to shape me into who I am today. Thanks.

Love you all!

love,

shelle

Conference

Conference was incredible!! As always. I enjoyed actually getting to watch it this time! I didn´t even complain in the slightest that it was all in another language except for the closing prayer in the 4th session, woops! Fortunately I have enough expirience with the language that I understood completely everything they were saying unlike poor Elder Halloway that in very new in the mission and left every session with a headache and high hopes for one session to be completely in English. It was only hopes though as he had to watch all in Portuguese. He´ll be blesses for his efforts. Lol! But I´m telling ya right now...Mom, Dad, I want tickets to the next Conference as close to the front as I can get them. You can talk to Bishop now to get him on that. One of the days I want to be at home eating 7-layer-bean-dip with my family and the other I want to be sitting on the nice cushy seats in the Conference Center soaking it all in. But if all else fails, two days sitting at home eating bean dip with the family isn´t a bad trade. Lol!

The rain is keeping up a steady pattern. When I leave the house without an umbrella the rain starts. When I have an umbrella I just carry it with me all day. Jk. I´ve bought a big umbrella that folds up real small so I always have it with me because it´s convinient and even more convinient when it starts to rain. My companion is more afraid of lightening and thunder than Sophie and one of the Sisters I live with almost all-out decided not to work one day when the thunder was exceptionally loud. Sister Amancio and I on the other hand are loving this time of the year. I think it´s alot better to sleep when you have rain and thunder---only to a certain extent. I guess it is alot more common for people to die here because of lightening because they don´t have the nifty lightening-suckers on the tops of the houses. No worries, my apartment has one. The bad news is that if I get transfered any house probably wont have one. Good thing we´re in the street most of the time anyway. Lol!

My shoes have taken a long run but they are to the breaking point. I´ve through out one pair already. Another is getting close. Another is talking to me with a wide-gaping mouth. Another, after sending her to the doctor two times already, have split open across the balls of my feet. And the flimsy gelly shoes that I bought here for ~$6 are top of the line and whole. My feet just get completely dirty when I use them. I look like a little kid without a home when I use them. Lol! But with all of these infirmaties that my shoes have I am using them all untill they turn to dust. Literally.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks is coming to our mission October 28th. Wahoo!! My companion told me that I had to finally do something about my hair because I couldn´t say hi to an Apostle looking like this. Lol! The other two sisters agreed and so we bought crap to put in my hair. I used it today. Wow! I don´t know if that is the effect they wanted but I´m happy! My hair is twice the size it used to be. I´ve got a fro again. Lol!

That´s all that I can think of for now. I hope that everyone enjoyed Conference like I did. I´m excited to take President Monson´s advice and apply all this to my life. I´ve already started and I already and seeing a difference. Love you all more than I love eggnog! Take care.

Love,

Shelle

This Week

Well...I got really sick this weekend. I thought I would die. No, I wasn´t that bad but I think that I got food poisoning. Everything that I ate sat up high in my stomach and I fealt the constant need to throw up. All I could eat was water. Then after 3 days my system decided to reject everything and flush out any type of bacteria or poison that I had eaten. But no worries. I still managed to work hard. I just couldn´t eat anything if I wanted to work and so that is what I did. Lol! Just a little rice and beans at lunch and praying hard that I´d last. Lol! And I´m here now. I think that my immune syster fell because now I have a cold but at least I´m alive and working and happy and getting healthy. Life of a missionary in Brasil is incredible!!
We had an activity on Saturday. It was to help our investigators get to know everyone better. It turned out really well. Everyone played around alot and laughed and had a good ol´ time. I really like this ward alot. They are very involved in the missionary work and it makes my life alot more pleasant. It is hard to be a missionary in a place where the members just expect the missionaries to do everything. We work alot but I know that a ward is blessed so much when they are involved in the work.
We had transfers this week and Sister Machado and I will be here for at least another transfer. Which is awesome because we have a lot of fun plans for this transfer and we are teaching some amazing families. It also appears that we will have an Apostle comping to our mission this next month. I have no idea who it is but I´m still excited!
I´m so thankful for all of the good examples that I have in my life. I am blessed to have incredible people in my path that teach me and inspire me to always try to do better. I love this work and I love what I´m doing. I know that the Lord is in the work so much and I know that when we try to do the work alone he will let us and we will fail with flying colors but when we work our butts off and pray until our knees are sending shooting pains through our legs and just trust with all we´ve got and more that He will do His work then we can see the miracles in our lives. I don´t understand it at all. But one day I will and I just have to work until that day arrives. Thanks for everything. Trust in the Lord always. Love you guys!
Love,
Shelle

Cold weather

Hey. I am super happy about life. I don´t know exactly why. Don´t have a reason imparticular to be in such a good mood today other than that I am in São Paulo Brasil in the best mission in the world and loving working and playing and everything crazy that happens to missionaries. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just life.
I really don´t know why I´m so happy today. This week was completely normal. Okay, maybe not. I had a couple people that told me to get out of Brasil because this was their home and they didn´t think that I belong here. Lol! 2 different situations in one day. I´ll tell you, I was ready to go home. Lol! But like any other day if you continue working everything will sooner or later be worth it. We even had a couple that we were planning on being in church this week that weren´t. Everything this week was a little crappy now that I think of it...I don´t know how it happens. I know that our blessings are strong and powerful and that someone must be praying alot to help me stay happy. ha. I am very excited for this week. We have lots of plans and lots of hopes for this week and so I´m way excited even though our money for the next two weeks for some reason didn´t work so all we have to eat is 3 oranges. (there are 4 of us...)
I know that the Lord blesses us and that when everything seems very difficult he will carry us. I´m grateful for all the prayers and thoughts and letters and support and everything that I recieve all the time. I love you guys and I love this work and I love life. Sorry it´s short this week but like I said...this week was full of nothing... Love you all. Have a great week.
Love,
Shelle

Full view | Vida é uma luta.

This week was pretty good. My companion ended up getting sick so I put her on the brat diet. With a little effort and alot of complaints she is now over her sickness and onto a rash that has developed in the crease of her elbows and her neck. I told her that the cure for this one was in a diet also. This diet included shutting your mouth. The weather has turned for sunny recently and that means that we sweat like horses on the ranch. I love the warm weather. It feels great but now I am begining to realize that an umbrella my be the way to go to avoid cancer. Lol!

We did have a little bit of rain this last week. Thank heavens because the polution was getting ridiculous. After the rain I realized it had been a while since I had actually seen the color of the sky. That lasted for 2 days and then it was back to a brownish-greenish-yellowish cloud. But as long as I eat right I know that He will bless me with protection against lung cancer. I don´t know if alimention has anything to do with avoiding lung cancer but I´m doing what I can and He will work the miracles.

I´m in the same house as the Sister that I trained (I´m not her companion right now) and it is her Birthday today. We stayed up late to decorate and woke up early this morning to finish so that we could surprise her bright and early. It was perfect because today is pday so we didn´t have to worry about being late to leave the house. The cake is delicious which is surprising as I am the one that made it.

I made a contact on the street last week and he was a drunk guy (I didn´t know until after I said hello). We just invited him to church and left it at that. Yesterday when we were going to church he was on the street completely drunk and trying to make us stop to talk to him. I didn´t have a good feeling about it so we started walking faster to get to the church soon. Well he started to follow us calling out "Sister! Sister!" He had three dogs with him including a pit bull without a mouth guard and he followed us all the way to the church with us almost running to stay in fron of him. He just hung out in front of the church asking for the Sisters and trying to get our attention. Then after church all the Brothers in the ward came up to us and asked about him and when they heard the story they got very defensive and as a result Sister Machado and I have gained 5 new body-guards. Lol!

I love this work and I love the Lord. I know that He guides us and protects us and our families when we are worthy and obedient to His comands. Thanks for all your support. I love you lots and lots and lots. Take care.

Love,
Shelle

What a week.

So, I had my farewell to the warm weather for now. It´s gone and the only outlook for this week is cold and wet. But there is so much polution in this city that I can´t complain about the weather. It will help to take out the smog. All I have to do is pull out the cold-weather-clothes.

It was my companions birthday this week. We surprised her with a party after working hard and almost completely ignoring her birthday. Lol! She is so sweet she wouldn´t say a thing about how we weren´t doing anything special for her on her birthday but she cried when we threw a party for her. Lol! Needless to say, after this last week, my skirts are still a little bit tight on me. Lol! But the great news is that of the 3 other people that I live with, I´ve talked them in to at least one of them running with me every morning! Man, I´m out of shape! My lungs feel like they will explode every morning which has something to do with the fact that I´ve not run since I left the MTC and alot to do with the fact that I live in São Paulo and I breath this air. Everyone that is born here has asthma or some type of respiratory problem just because of the air.

Tomorrow, September 7, is Independence day here in Brasil. Man, I miss the good ol´ USA. No one here has pride for thier country unless there is a soccer game involved. Every one love being Brasilian but they don´t do anything out of the ordinary for Independence day. I will be wearing a green or yellow shirt. As a missionary I have to stay on the down-low so I can´t paint my cheeks or anything like that. Ah-well, life goes on.

I know that this work is totally run and inspired by the Lord. He´s amazing and He will always bless those who are obedient. Satan tries to take away the influence of the Holy Ghost by tempting us to be disobedient and that´s how is all starts. I know that it is very, very, very important to stay happy and work hard and always try to have the spirit with us. If we are doing things that are good and trying to be worthy of the spirit I know that we can trust in our thoughts and actions because they will be in line with the will of our Heavenly Father.

I love you all lots and lots and hope that you have an excellent week!

Love,

Shelle

Brasil

So this area is turning out to be really great. Even though it´s like any other area where many, many, many appointments fall through, I´m still very excited for everything. I don´t even know what everthing is but I know that I´m excited for it. This week we bought around 4 churros, 2 ice creams and 2 hot dogs because of appointments that fell through. When 3 in a row fall through we bought something to eat. We don´t buy anything on Sunday so that left 6 days with 8 things that we bought. But looking back at the week we were still laughing and working and finding someone to teach. The life of a missionary can be pretty miserable when there is no one to teach so the recipe to stay happy is find someone and teach them something that will help them. I´ve changed my way to talk to people from "Should I talk to this person or no?" to "I will talk to this person. What do they need to hear today?" Sometimes inspiration doesn´t come and you walk away thinking "Well that was different," but many times you end up teaching something that you will learn from also. The secret is to open your mouth.

I´ve been in this area for 2 weeks now and I haven´t even seen Bishop yet. He is a very difficult man to find. Even on the phone. I asked his wife if it would be possible that I could call and talk to him about our goals for Baptism this month and she said, "Good Luck, if you can talk to him I´ll buy ya dinner." She isn´t buying me dinner this week. Lol!

The weather has been lovely and hot these last few days. I´ve been using Sunblock and being smart and just soaking in the lovely hot sun. But as all good things do, it´s coming to an end. The wind is picking up and I have to use a sweater today. My companion is happy. I work better in the heat. The cold weather hurts all the way to the bone. The heat just leaves me sweaty. Maybe the members will complain about me but I like the heat! So I will have this cold spell for a while but spring is coming up. Wahoo!

So my ward talked about the mission fund this Sunday. It was really good. I wanted to help and almost gave my mesada to my companion to help in the work. Good thing I didn´t cause I had to buy food today. But now the ward is really wanting to help out and give great big lunches to us. I won´t complain but my skirts will. The good thing about skirts is that you can wear them a little higher and they still fit. As long as they cover my knees I´m still abiding by the rules. Lol! One thing that I am sick of is chicken. I have only had one meal without chicken in the last 2 weeks. That was yesterday and I prayed that it wouldn´t be. I know He hears and answers the prayers of His missionaries. I don´t even like chicken anymore. I´m also getting a little worried about any type of meat that I eat. I think that I will have to raise all the food that I eat because after some of the stories that I´ve heard here I will never know exactly what I will eat when I buy it in the supermarket. Shudder.

I hope that everyone is likeing being back so school and working hard. I love you all alot and hope you have an excellent week. Take care.

Love,
Shelle

Hey

Best area in the Mission! Casa Grande! This was the member family that I lived with. Ivone is great and an exemplar crazy Brazilian Grandma. Luana and I became great friends. About 3 minutes after this photo, we were all bawling because it was the morning of transfers and I was leaving the area. Man, I miss them!

Me, Ivone, Luana

In the good ol' mission office. This is pretty accurate for my weight gain as it is only a coupole weeks old. One year and 17 lbs. later...urgh....lol!

Sister Pradeira (mother of the mission who is going home in August. Sniff. lol!), Elder Almeida (Mom and Dad and Family talked with him at Christmas), Sister DaSilva (record holder for the longest time as my companion--4 1/2 mos.), and me (looks like I've been eating cupcakes for every time I miss you guys.)

Closest thing to a monkey I've seen in Brasil!

P-day with members

Carine (back)

Me, Irma Carleine, Sister Amancio

This was my jungle area. I never saw them, but they said that sometimes you could see monkey's in this neighborhood.

Cartoon.

Me and Sister DaSilva

Festa Junina--June Party

Midsommer. He was awesome!

Go Brasil!

First game of BBrasil during the cup. We were stuck in our apartment so we put on all our things of Brasil to feel a little better. It worked for a minute or so, but depression kicked in when we decided what we were doing with the clothes was pathetic compared to watching the game. lol!

Sister DaSilva & Me

(Butanta)

(No caption)

(No caption)

Some of the sisters in the mission and Sister Jackson (far right).

Multi-Zone in Casa Grande, March 2010

Sister Macedo, Sister Viera, Sister Amancio, Sister Helse, Me, Sister Wasnjuk, Sister Assuncao, Sister Rolland, Sister Sales, Sister Jackson

I've already been companions with the ones underlined.

This week was great. New area, new companion, new roomates... My companion is Sister Machado from the Bahia. We are in Campo de Fora and we live with another companionship. Sister Macedo and Sister Amancio. We have fun. Our apartment is big wich is awesome. It´s been a while since I´ve had a good apartment to live in. And the best thing about this apartment is that we have a member next door and she washes our clothes for us!!!!!! She´s already washed one batch and they came back clean! I´d forgotten that my clothes had such color! It´s amazing what a washing machine does. I´ve just been using a big bucket that spins the clothes in the water for a little bit. I love washing machines!!!

Sister Machado and I are teaching like crazy. I love it. We are finding so many people that are soo acceptive. We´ve even had a couple that invite us to their house before we can invite ourselves. That´s something that really doesn´t happen ofter in missionary work. There are still the people that don´t want to let you in or don´t have time. I tried one of them one time. She said she didn´t have time at the moment so I asked if I could just use her bathroom real quick. She let me and one hour later we left the house. I wasn´t my fault that we stayed so long. Turns out she was quite the chatter box. She hasn´t gone to church yet but she´s reading the Book of Mormon at least. I know becuase we´ve passed by again to read it with her. Lol! One problem is that she believes in reincarnation not ressurection...we´ll work on that...

So in the mission field we are couneled to talk to at least 10 different people every day. The more the merrier. Saturday night we were getting to the house (We live in an apartment complex) and there was a great party going on. Someones birthday or something. Lots of people and free cake. If were weren´t running late it would have been a great opportunity. Sister Machado says that there is a party every weekend there. Hmmm....New plans to find people to teach. We will always hit up the party saturday night to eat cake and find people in the condominium to teach. Good side: We will be neighbors with all of our investigators and we can construct a chapel in the condominium. Bad side: We won´t ever have to walk very far and we´ll be eating cake every weekend so we´ll fatten up like the turkey at Thanksgiving. I think I need to find balance in my life...Lol

It´s usually pretty easy to ignore the music here because it´s Brazilian or Shakira which I can ignore pretty easily. The new internet place is only playing Lifehouse, Creed, and some others that I´ve already forgotten their names...wow...It will be more of a challenge to ingnore but bring it on...

Love you guys lots. Have a great week.
Love,
Shelle

Mudanças

Hey Everyone! This week has been really good. Its been freezing cold weather!! I don´t even know what to do with myself. I found only one thing that helps...We were walking down the street, I was on the sidewalk (Not a smart idea in São Paulo) and my companions were by my side but closer to the street than me. We were all hunched over to block the wind and next thing I know I smacked my head pretty good on a metal box that holds trash. Ouch! Dang sidwalks! But after that I really didn´t feel the cold so strongly. Had I known that that was all I had to do I would have bang my head against something much earlier. Lol! Jk.

We had a meeting with President and Sister Jackson this week. It was really great. It was just for the sisters in the mission and it was 2 days. I loved it! There are alot of changes in the mission happening and it was a meeting to get us up to date on all the things that should be obvious but I really learned alot. It was great. And I also got to see 2 of my companions before they took off. They are leaving the mission today. Man, how I learned alot from them and I´ve got so much respect and love for them. Maybe you remember when I mentioned them earlier. Sister Pradera and Sister Viera. They were my companions when we were in a quartet. The Fantastic Four! Ha! I appreciate how much you can learn from each of your campions here on the mission. It is an expirience that you can never get in any other place. I love it!!

Let´s see...what else...Life is good. Sorry that this email is shorter than usual. Pday is shorter also because we have a lot to do. I hope everyone has a great week. Love you all alot!

Love,
Shelle

It´s Me

Hello there. This week was really good. I´m loving my new area and my companions. We are working really hard and playing the same way. This is a great way to do mission work. Playing alot but actually doing the work. Everything is better. We´ve got a problem though...We are getting incredibly tired. We are going to bed at 10:30 and waking up at 6:30 but we are almost dying of drowsiness. It might have something to do with the fact that we live across the street from a park where the kids stay up playing around until all hours of the morning. We´re sleeping but not feeling well-rested. But we are trying things to make it better and I feel pretty good today so I think that it´s working. Wahoo!

We´re teaching lots of people and finding lots of people too. It´s pretty great. I love teaching people and helping them to understand about the restored gospel. It´s even better when they listen! Lol! We´re teaching a few people that are exactly like that. We teach, they listen, they read, they pray, they apply what they learn, we smile. One of the women we are teaching really has a hunger to know what else she can do to follow Christ. We will teach her about something and usually it is something that she has a problem with and the next time that we pass by she has gotten rid of that problem and is ready to know what else she can do. The only problem is that she isn´t married. That would be alright but she´s living with the father of her kids. Can´t leave him but he doesn´t want to get married. Many people in Brasil think that it´s a bad omen to get married. They think that you have a higher liklihood to seperate after marriage. We also have another couple that we are teaching that is incredible. They apply everything we teach also. (They are working on getting married) The study the lessons for church and Davidson (the husband) says that he would like to have a chance to teach a lesson also. And they have a little baby that they are all excited about raising him in the church and going to the Temple to get sealed. They are really great. And another that is working on leaving a life of Alcohol and smoking behind. It´s very difficult for these people but so satisfying to see them progressing in the gospel.

I´m realizing that I´m not writing in English anymore...I´m translating to English. If I was writing what I am thinking you guys wouldn´t understand a thing. Maybe occasionally.

The weather was really cold this week. But I think that it´s warming up a little bit. That´s a good thing. I like the hot weather better.

I´m learning alot about the scriptures. I love the stories and the princliples that they have in them. It´s amazing how every story has a principle that will apply to your situation in the moment that you read it. As a missionary it´s even better cause it doesn´t only apply to your situation but it apllies to how you can help your investigators and companions in the difficulties that they are having. The scriptures are an ocean of knowlege and I´ve only begun to water skit on the surface. I need to get certified to do some deep-sea-diving! Lol!

Love you guys lots and lots.

Have a great week.

Love,
Shelle

It´s me.

Hello Hello!

Nothing like the rain that doesn´t fall from the sky but just hits you in the face when you´re walking. Lol! São Paulo is famous for this type of rain. I love it!!

This week has been interesting. I´m in a new area and I´m in a trio!! It´s really good actually. We are getting twice the work done as any other companionship. Jk. But we are really working hard and I´m my companions are incredilbe and love to work just as much as I do and we are all excited about the work and the ward is excited and this area has a feeling that is so incredible. I know that when the ward is excited and so are the missionaries that Heavenly Father will pour out His spirit in the area preparing it for His gospel. This area is incredible!!!

My companions are Sister Santos from the Bahia!! Finally!!! I´ve always wanted a companion from the Bahia. I´ll start working on my Bahiain accent now. Wahoo! She is really great and we laugh alot. She is really a great missionary and I´m excited to work with her and learn from her.

My other companion is Sister Hulse from Kayesville Utah. She is also really amazing! It´s fun having another American companion and it helps with the language a bit. She doesn´t have much more time than me but we help each other with the language cause I know words she doesn´t and she knows words and verbs that I don´t so together we can speak the language. Lol!

As for me in the companionship, I keep them laughing and we have a good ol´ time.

We celebrated Pioneer day last week with an activity with Pres. and Sis. Jackson. It was great! BBQ with hamburgers and hot dogs and root beer floats for dessert!! And with luck this transfer has placed me in another area that will have this activity again today! Woo Woo!!

There are so many things in the mission that are amazing! I love to be a missionary! But with the happy things there is opposition in all things. There are things that are difficult to hear about the people you know. There are many emotions that you expirience in the mission. Complete happiness when you watch a family that has been waithing soo long to enter into a covenant with our Heavenly Father by being baptised and preparing to go to the Temple, someone overcomeing addiction, depression, and death. But there is nothing more difficult to expirience than someone that has given up and the devil has gotten ahold of them so strong that they don´t even want to try to find a desire to follow Christ. This mission is wonderful but it´s so hard to share somthing that is so precious and have some people reject all the happiness you want to give them. I still love this work even though there are many hard-hearted people out there. I´ve already met the used-to-be-hard-hearted people that have eventually changed their minds and found that desire. The only thing that we can do until they are ready is pray, pray, pray. I love my Heavenly Father. He is amazing! And I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!

I love you guys bunches!

Love,
Shelle

Life in Brasil

Zone Conference 07/16/2010

Well. I´ve now complete one year of many things... I´ll make a list...

One year of washing my clothes by hand. Washing the dishes in cold water. Throughing the toilet paper in the trash, not the toilet. Speaking another language every day. Studying the scriptures at least one time everyday. Eating rice and beans (and missing them badly when I skip a day). Wearing a packpack at all times. Walking at least 5 miles everyday. Meeting at least 10 new people everyday. Waking up at 6:30 or earlier. Without a person cellphone, laptop, car, or bedroom....ummm...I can´t think of much else now...

I had a great expirience to celebrate my 1-year aniversary in the missionfield with a spectacular baptism. This girl has ben waiting for more than one year to be baptised but everytime the day arrives her mother would never sign the paper. July 22 was her 18th birthday and my 1-year aniversary and so we got to celebrate with a baptism!! Wahoo! Almost everyone in the ward was there. After one year of active church service she knew everybody and their dog and invited them all. Lol! The Sacrament room was full for the meeting and not everybody could fit in the baptismal room. It was awesome! Just some of the blessings that He will give us. I couldn´t think of a better way to celebrate 1 year.

I´m getting better at my accent. There is a place in Brasil that I have wanted to visit almost since the day I got here. It´s called the Bahia. It´s one of the more poor states of Brasil but I´ve met lots of amazing people from there. Generally they are dark skinned and black hair. When people ask me where I am from I say "The Bahia" and generally I get funny looks cause my appearance in anything but the Bahia and my accent is bad enough that they know I´m not from Brasil. (generally they think Germany, Italy, or Holland, occasionally USA) Recently however they have been accepting that answer. Maybe I´m getting bronzed by the sun or maybe my accent is getting weaker...I rooting for my accent. Lol!

We had a man talk in church this week and it was like a flash back into my childhood. Lol! Here in Brasil it is not uncommon for the people to let their children run screaming in the isles during the sacrament meeting. Reverence is one thing that Brasil has not gotten a grasp of. "Lovour" or singing praises, they´ve got that down. This man talked a bit about reverence. He said that in the begining usually the kids won´t want to stay in the Sacrament Meeting because it´s boring. He talked about how he had to take his kids out and sit in a room with them and they had to sit in his lap and wait for the meeting to finish or else return and behave. He did this with his oldest child, a son, and he didn´t have much trouble with him. Maybe 2 or 3 times they had to leave and withing 5 minutes they could go back in. Then he said with his daughter it was a different story. Many times and after 15 minutes of screaming, squirming, kicking, and punching, and 5 minutes of tired surrender they could enter the Sacrament Room again. Now imagine my parents with 7 daughters... I remember taking my turns leaving the meeting. But I learned a good lesson from it. Thanks Mom and Dad. Now-a-days you will never catch me running up and down the aisles screaming during the Sacrament Meeting.

I´m so greatful for this opportunity to serve a mission and to face trials in my life that will help me to be a better person and disciple of Christ. I know that God never forgets us and that we have the best support system ever when we will turn to the Lord and do Hiss will. Thanks for your support that you give me and I love you all bunches and bunches!

Love,
Shelle

Ups and Downs of Taboão‏

The other day I was going to the mission office with my companion. We were walking along one of the busier highways of the city. I looked in front and I noticed a group of missionaries. 2 elders and 4 sisters. I looked and Sister Pradiera (old companion on her last transfer) was with them. A huge smile split on my face and then she noticed me and the same thing happened. Then automatically we started running at each other in the slow-motion-dramatic-reunion type of run. When we got to each other we hugged and just laughed because we were ridiculous. It couldn´t have been better had we planned it. Then when we remembered we were on a busy highway we got embarassed and left real quick. Lol!

I found my family but in reverse...almost. I have a family in my ward that has 7 kids. 6 boys and 1 girl. The girl is the youngest. Okay. So for those of you that thought that my family was alot of people in a little space I´ll fill you in on this family. One kitchen, one living room/dining room (small) 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom. When Sister Sales and I got to their door we knocked and I heard alot of noise and I thought maybe we had the wrong house (I didn´t know the size of thier family). It sounded like a soccer game was being played on the other side of the door. The door opened and there were 3 boys and Tania, their mother. We went in and sat down. Eventually all of the boys were there. Ah, it was awesome! I loved seeing all of them together. I will take a picture one day and send it home. We have stairs in our family with girls and they have it with boys. It´s great. Lol!

My companion and I are leaving the house early now. Around 9:30 we finish up and head out. We´re getting lots of time proselyting and I´m loving it!! The happiest time for a missionary is when they are working, no doubt about it. So, now when we get home I´m more tired than normal and for the first time in my mission my body is actually feeling worked. I can´t say that my body is more tired than my mind but I hope that one day it will be. Lol

When you ask for humility in your prayers you will be blessed with trial to try your humility. I thought I would be smart and try this out. I asked for humility. I thought we would be blessed with 20 or so baptisms and I could practice my humility by not getting big-headed with this. Turns out Humility also is trusting completely and totally in the Lord. Realizing that you are nothing and that He still requires work from you but in order to perform this work you have to give up your everything to Him. Boy was I fooled. I know for a fact that prayers are answered and the we never are forgotten. You have to rely on Him with every fiber of your being or you will fall. Maybe not into a pit but you will fall back in your progress on the strait and narrow. I´m learning to trust in Him.

I´m fat and happy and these hills aren´t so much taking away from my waist line as they are adding bulk to my legs. Sure they are muscely but imagine Hulk´s legs on a girl...not to pretty. Jk. At least I can scale these mountains with more ease. Now I just need to get my spiritual legs like the Hulk...

Love you guys like a fat kid loves cupcakes and hope you are all doing fine.

Love,
Shelle

Taboão da Serra

So I got rid of Sister Da Silva finally. Just kidding. I really loved having her as a companion. Probably the only sister missionary that I could spend 3 transfers with and not go completely crazy...only a little. jk. I am in a new area for the sisters. 10 years worth of elders and anybody would be really excited to see the sisters. lol! That´s great for me! I am now with Sister Sales from Brasilia who was trained by Sister Wosnjuk as was I and so we´re excited about this transfer. It´s funny to come to this area because of the long time that sisters haven´t been here. The investigators that haven´t known the church for much time all want to know what the girl version of elders looks like. I feel almost like a show dog. But when the feed me who am I to complain?

So this area...I think I know why it has only had elders for so much time. This is one of the areas of the mission that has the most hills. And they aren´t nice hills. When I climb these monsters my skirt bruches the road in the front. That´s just how steep they are... Jk. Not quite that bad. But they are inclined enough that if I fall I will tumble right down to the bottom. Luckily they aren´t forever long. Just 30-45 yards or so. I haven´t been haveing a problem with them. I think that they are fun and give variety to walking. Lol! My companion on the other hand thinks that President Jackson doesn´t like her and that´s why she´s got the hills. I´m just happy. This area is really little too. It´s smack in the city again so all of the areas close to here are little. I can walk from one side to the other in 30 min. Even though it is really little, I think that this area could make me pay for all of the sins I´ll ever have in my life. Taboão da Serra (name of the city) is translated to Devil´s Hills. Jk.

We´ve also moved into the elders old house. Wahoo! Needless to say, we spent all morning today cleaning. The elders, poor things, thought they cleaned it up real good. I´m just glad they made an effort. Really when I got to this house I was shocked and ready to laugh or cry, I didn´t know which. We live in an area with one garage and 3 houses. I was told our house was the last. Ok. Lets go! With our suitcases in hand we went down, down, down. The smell was getting worse with every footstep. I tried the key in the door and it didn´t turn but the door opened. I looked in and there were desk and chairs stacked up. There were also dead worms on the ground. Uh.....I thought that this was a joke. Well, thank heavens it wasn´t real. The woman had made a mistake. We were the next house up. The key worked and we have a sofa! No dead worms, no stacked desks and chairs, just the ones that we would use for study. And they left cake and beans and rice in the fridge ready to eat! The house really is a little sad but after what I saw below I was ready to kiss the floor.

I´m really liking this area. The ward is great and it seems entertaining enough here.

I´m already learning alot this transfer. I know for a fact the God hears and answers our prayers. And you´d better be specific when you ask cause He´s specific with His answers. I´m learning that responsability is difficult but necesary to grow and that when God blesses you with an opportunity you have to take it and struggle through it to the end. He knows what is best for you and we have a promise that He will never throw something at us that we can´t handle. So there is always a way to overcome our difficulties. All of our problems in life with go away if we are faithful, obedient and trust. I love my Savior and I´m so grateful for the opportunity to serve Him on my mission.

Thanks for everything. Love you.

Love,

Shelle

Hello Hello

I´m getting Transfrered. Again... This area is closing but the Elders will open it tomorrow. Lucky us! We stayed just long enough to move for them and clean everything up. Lol! But It was good. We had 6 elders helping and so within 1 hour everything was at least in the house. Now, for the organizing... I´m debating leaving it for the Elders when they get in the area. There will be four of them to clean up. Jk. I will try my dangdest to get everything in order.

Yes, yes... Brasil is out of the cup. But let´s not give up on Germany!! Lol! Our lunch fell through on Saturday which wasn´t the greatest thing. The last meal before you start your fast... But then I decided that we could eat at a an all you can eat resaurant. So we went there and with luck the game started and the tv was in front of us. We couldn´t ask them to trun it off, so we ate and very reservadly cheered for Germany. Unlike the rest of the crowd. After Germany´s first goal the chef asked who we were rooting for. Germany of coarse. Then he said, "Of coarse, you have a face of a German." Yes, most people here think that the Americans are Germans but maybe I´ll just let them think that and when Germany wins the cup I´ll have fans. Lol! Just kidding. I´m all USA. Didn´t forget that yesterday was the good ol´ 4th. I celebrated with icecream.

I´m teaching a family that I´m sad I´ve got to leave here. They´re 7th day Adventists. They agree with lots of our doctrine. Okay, almost all of it. In their church the people who speak on Saturday are people with schooling about the bible. Can´t just be someone that has a testimony. He doesn´t agree with this. Hasn´t come out blatently to say it but I know that they will gain a testimony about the restored gospel. They already have about the Book of Mormon. I´m just sad that I have to leave them to the Elders that will get here tomorrow. Ah, the life of a missionary. You make relationships to leave them behind. But the knowledge that you are bringing something so important to their lives makes it all worth it. I know that this Gospel changes lives. I´ve already seen the changes in so many people. All of this is worth it.

My companion almost got bit by a dog. Wow, I laughed for like 10 minutes. It was bad. I wouldn´t have laughed had she actually gotten biten but as it was a heard her yell. (Never heard that before) I looked and there was a dog the size of a cat biting at her heels and she was dancing around and then he ran off. Wow, how I laughed. She was laughing also but now it´s difficult to work cause she has a phobia of dogs. Argh! Sister Da Silva: "Sister McCollaum, the beast is coming at us!" Me: "Yeah but the owner has him on a leash." I´ve had some pretty good laughes at her expense. But she can say the same about me. I just don´t tell you guys all the embarrasing things that I go through. What good would that do?

Thanks for everything you guys do for me and all your prayers and support. Love you guys!

Love,

Shelle

Missionary Work

First of all, pudding here in Brasil is much, much better than in the US. The other stuff just doesn´t have a chance.

As some of you may have heard, United States lost in their recent match with Ghana this past Saturday. 2-1. Even the overtime didn´t do it for them. Don´t misunderstand me...I did not watch the game. I had my informers. This means that US is out and I don´t have a chance to watch the final game for the Cup. But what can ya do, when there is souls to save a silly game of soccer doesn´t mean anything. Like Brasilian pudding and American Pudding, there´s no question to what´s better! (Even if the World cup only happens every 4 years...)

One of my favorite things about missionary work is when you just get accostumed to passing peoples houses and no one is ever in their house and no one will ever give you the time of day and then you go to that one house that unexpectedly someone answers the door. Okay, not incredible abnormal but then after you say who you are and why you are there and ask if you can go in the say, "yes." This happened the other day to Sister Da Silva and I only better!! We were knocking doors and a lady opened the door and before we could even say who we were she told us to come in. As the lady turned her back to us and started entering the house Sister Da Silva turned to me and mouthed "E agora?" (What now) It was so unexpected that we almost forgot to enter the house. We ran up the steps and entered her house. It was good. We talked with her and got to know her and taught her about the Restoration. We marked another day to go back and teach some more and when we went back she wasn´t there. We passed her house several times and never saw her again. Lol! Moral of the story, I know that God is in this work and that he wants to keep us on our toes because when we least expect it someone elate could be in our front. Everything in our lives is a preperation for what we are going to have to face next. You can bet that Sister Da Silva and I are a heck-of-alot better prepared for anything that could happen. Bring it on!! (Said very humble and relying completely on the Lord)

Maybe you have noticed with the pictures that I´ve sent home but I´m only doing my hair curly. It´s getting some pretty rockin´ curls going on. Friday I decided to give it a trim so when it´s a little shorter it is a little curlier and a little more like a fro. We had a ward party Saturday and there was a guy there drawing cartoons of families. Sister Da Silva and I took our turn to have our family portrait done (Just us) Lol! You could tell what he was drawing by where he was looking, right? Ex: looking at your ears when he draws your ears, nose when it´s your nose´s turn, etc... I was laughing and throughing out coments like, "Don´t make me too fat!", "Remember the mole on Sister Da Silva´s chin!", "Cut out a few of my wrinkles, please!" Then I noticed that he had moved to my hair. Holy crap I never saw a hand moving all over a paper like his hand was doing. All I had pictured in my head was Mad-Madam-Mim. It turned out really cool though. Lol! I´ll send photos soon.

The work is great and I love my life. I´m soo happy and I´m learning soo much. I love it!!!

Love you guys lots and thanks for the support.

Love,

Shelle