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

PHTOTOS

Our last soccer game in the mission. Area presidency

decided it was a contact sport & would affect our work

for the rest of the week in a Negative way. As it turns

out, he was right. I hobbled around like a wounded

soldier all week.

But is was FUN!!

A wall of a school building in Casa Grande.

Conference

New e-mail is posted below.

Miracles

I don´t know if I mentioned already or not. I´m in the city again. I´m only 20 minutes from the cheapest stores to buy clothing in Brasil and I can´t visit cause it is about 15 minutes outside of the mission barriers. That´s alright with me but it means that I am completely and totally submerged in city...or so I thought. The other day we were walking along headed to a recent convert´s house. We saw a girl crying on the side of the road so we stopped and started to talk to her. I didn´t know what to say, all I knew is that I wanted her to stop crying (I´m not real good with tears). I was looking around for any type of hint for what I could talk about. Desperately looking at the stop light and city traffic, BAM, there it was. My miracle to make her laugh. A cow was walking down the street. He was headed for the church and so I took the opportunity to invite her to the church. Just head in the same direction as the cow and you will eventually run into the church. She laughed, we laughed, we all went home happy.

Sister Da Silva made eggs for breakfast one day. She said that we would need to buy more eggs because one of them was broken so we only had one more. I was cleaning up after we ate and I saw the egg and that it was broken. I even tried to move it and it was stuck to the sides like they do when the break in the crate. Ok. I just put it back in the fridge. The next day we wanted crepes. I was mixing the items together and I remember that we only had one egg. I went to get the eggs and poof! she was healed!!! There was a slight crack like a scar but the egg was whose and wasn´t even sticking to the sides of the crate. I called Da Silva to come and look. We took a picture of it that we will print to put on our desk and help us remember that miracles are real. God blesses His poor missionaries. I know!

Poor missionaries that aren´t being fed properly by the ward. Having to buy food to keep in the house which is a first expirience for me. Our fridge has food in it which never happens (crappy food, but all the same, food). But now our wallets are empty which should never happen also. After visiting the same recent convert with the event of the cow (but a different day) we were walking on the street that was completely empty and late at night. Sister Da Silva suddenly stopped and I thought she died cause she almost collapsed to the grounds. When she came back up she had two 20 reis in her hand. Wahoo! We looked around to see if anyone was there, waited for a little bit and then after decided that there was no other choice than to leave the money on the ground and continue we counted our blessings and bought groceries for the week.

Now that I´ve given a few examples of miracles I would remind you that miracles do not proceed the faith. You have to have faith and act continually. The miracles will come in God´s time. When he knows that you need it for a righteous desire He will bless you with what you need, not what you want. I´m still waiting for this miracle of the World Cup. USA vs. Brasil in the championship. I don´t know if I need it or want it. I guess we´ll find out here in a few weeks. Lol!

Brasil is completely crazy with the World Cup. Half an hour before the game started there were 3 kids that drove there motorcylces all over the town with flags tied around their necks and noise makers in their mouths to alert everyone of the game starting up soon. Fireworks in every neighorhood, Parties at every bar, Flags painted on cars, streets, faces, yellow and green streamed across all the streets, missionaries in their houses trying to study, and a big screen tv was upstairs with and invatation for popcorn and soccer. Oh tempations... But will power defeated. I still have yet to watch a game of the world cup.

I love you guys lots and lots! Have a great week!

Love,

Shelle

It´s me.

This week was good. The world cup started and I haven´t watched one game yet. The first match for Brasil is tomorrow and my world will be on hold... We actually have a district activity planned cause President knew that we wouldn´t get anything done that day. I hope Brasil wins. I want everyone in a good mood. Lol! (I heard USA tied with England the first game!! Wahoo!!)

I almost had one of those moments when you get seperated from your companion. We were one a bus that was crowded to the max and we had a big box of boms with us. I was behind Sister Da Silva but I moved faster or something cause I got in front of her after a little. Our stop came and I had gotten her attention to let her know so she could come back the get off. He opened the doors and I got out. There was a guy at the bus stop that said "Hello Sister, where´s your companion?" I turned around and the driver had closed the doors and was begining to pull away. I saw Sister Da Silva´s shocked face with the box of book on the other side of the glass. Lol! Uh... I waved... Then thanks to the set of lungs Sister Da Silva was blessed with, the driver heard her plea and opened the door to let her out. Whew. Close one.

The weather is getting colder and colder everyday. But I´m getting smarter and smarter. I have fashionable woolen tights now that get all baggy around my ankles before the end of the day. I won´t get frost bite from them though!

We had interviews with President Jackson this week which is always great.

My health is great today. I almost died last week due to Brasilian food and reactions to an American stomach. All is better now and I don´t think the weight loss will last too long.

Life is good and life as a missionary is even better. I love this work. I love this area. I love the Lord. I love this opportunity and I´m so grateful that the Lord is forgiving and hasn´t given up on me. It makes me want to work harder to not give up on His children...even the ones that really are difficult...just need a little momentum. ha

Thanks for all the support and love. You guys are awesome!

Love,

Shelle

Butantã

This week was pretty good. I had my first hard fall in the mission. We were walking downhill also so it made it even better. A little bit farther to fall than normal. I´ve had Sister Da Silva as a companion before and she was always falling and so when I fell she had her turn to laugh. With luck she was really needing to use the bathroom so she couldn´t laugh to much. But I laughed enough for the both of us I think.

We had a multi-zone last Friday. It was really great. Learned lots. Sister Jackson always gives little messages, "Things your Mother would say..." Well this time she talked about pets...no pets at all in the house. It´s a rule in the white bible. She said that bugs, rats, cockroaches, dogs, cats nada! That´s all fine and good cause we didn´t have problems with that in our house. Other news, we can´t watch the World Cup this year. The only way that we can have a chance to watch one of the games is if it is USA and Brasil battle it off for the cup in the last game. This is my plea to pray for miracles that the USA can get that far. Otherwise I will be sitting in my apartment with Sister Da Silva with our soccer ball alone while Brasil completely shuts down to watch the cup.

Saturday morning we were studying and I heard a noise close to our door. I looked over and close to Sister Da Silva´s suitcase there is a rat. Bah!!! "Sister Da Silva, quick, get my camera!!" Half an our later the rat is out of our house after running into our closet, kitchen, laundry area and bedroom...Well that´s crap...literally. Sister Da Silva found rat crap and so we spent the rest of the day cleaning and washing clothes. Aperantly it isn´t uncommon for people to die from touching rat pee even after it has dried. Only after Sister Jackson talked about animals did we have this problem. Cockroach the night of the Multi-Zona and a rat the next morning. What is this? But all is good now because we have the cleanest apartment in the mission I think...

I love you guys alot and alot. I´m thankful for all the support and letters that are coming. Love you guys demais!!

Love,

Shelle

Wahoo!!

I have Sister Da Silva as a companion again!!! Wahoo!! This transfer will be 4 1/2 months of my mission with her. Lol! It´s a good thing that she´s been my favorite so far. They were announcing the transfers and they called her name and then mine and we yelled and hollard and laughed and hugged and then the Assistent said in the microphone, "Sisters, can I continue now?" Lol! Needless to say, I am more than happy that I have her again and with something that I thought was impossible to happen (Being put with Sister Da Silva) I´ve seen alot more miracles happen and prayers being answered in the last week.

I´m in the big, bad city now. 10 minutes from the temple and 3 minutes from a gigantic mall. Too bad I can´t enter that mall...or maybe it´s a good thing. I don´t like shopping anyways. My area is Butantã and Rio Pequeno. Two wards but the sisters left Rio Pequeno so we´re taking care of the 2 areas. It should be interesting. You´d think that with 2 lists for lunch we´d always have somewhere to eat. Our lunch fell through 5 times in the last week. Lol! Life goes on and I still manage to gain weight. But with the city the lunches are a little bit fancier but with less food. Hopefully this is good news for my waiste line.

Winter weather is arriving. Still. In one day you will wake up to small rain that doesn´t fall, just hits you in the face when you walk and by noon the sun is out and shining hot. 5:30 pm the sun disappears and the wind kicks in to chill you to the bones and by the time you are arriving in the house you get to your street and the rain pours on you until you´re dripping wet even thought it was one 1/10 of a mile to walk in the rain. 1 minute of rain is not worth 12 hours of packing around an umbrella. So I just live with the future of knowing that I will have hot chocolate when I get to my house. I´m trying to get the Irmã that lives above us to make milk pudding for us one of these nights. I hope tonight is the night.

We live below 70-year-old catholic. Lol! Our house is really little and the bathroom is enough to scare of the grim reaper. Talk about aroma... It´s not to bad if you don´t really have to go cause you can hold your breath the whole time. But image when you really gotta go and you have to stay in that smell for a little bit. I almost passed out. Sorry. Maybe that was more info than you need. And they water flushes funny here too. It doesn´t spin like it does in the states. Just kinda drops. Maybe I´ll video it to show you guys someday. Don´t worry, I´ll video it before I use it...sheesh.

The Cup is coming up next week. BRASIL, BRASIL, BRASIL! I won´t be able to work a bit. I´ll get to somebody´s house to give a lesson and the game will be on. What other option do I have but to wait it out to give the lesson. If they offer popcorn or barbeque who am I to say "no." I may draw the line if they want to paint my hair green and yellow. I´ll send pictures of that too.

I love you all lots and lots! I love the updates of everything that you are doing and what´s going on in good ol´ Delta. Enjoy the Summer weather and have lots of fun! Never forget why you have all that you have and remember that prayer is the simplest way to give thanks for everything you´ve got. Lots of love!

Love,
Shelle