The Adventures of Shelle McCollaum: 2011

Hello Again! I know that it has been a long time since I have written...But I apologize. I want to let my friends and family know what has been going on in my life since my mission. For starters, I've been traveling almost non-stop since I've gotten home. If it hasn't been one relatives house, it has been another...lol! I've loved it!

I went with my parents and my Grandma McCollaum to go see EJ graduate from the Airforce in Texas which was a fun experience. My blood had definitely become accostumed to the Brasilian Summer because I froze my hiney off there! But I was great to see EJ and I'm so happy for her cause she sounds like she is loving life and working hard!

Then I went for Spring Break over to California with Trish and Bonnie. We stopped by Grandma and Aunt Janie's house for a night which was fun seeing all of them again. Then headed on over to spend time with MJ and HE and Gwen, who contrary to the convincing act she puts up really does love me!

After that I went home and got to enjoy life, relaxing, learning how to cook, giving up on piano lessons for the billionth time, playing house-keeper and taking advantage of lots of extra time to study my scriptures! We had a quick dinner with Uncle Pete and his family which was fun to see all of them again and I just chilled at home.

Then also in June my Aunt Amy and her girls came to visit and that was lots of fun learning more yummy recipes catching up. Then I headed back over to Cali, stopping in Vegas to visit again, seeing EJ and kidnapping Gwen to pass by Becky's in 118 degree weather in Arizona and heading on back home. That week with Gwen was interesting...like I said before, I know she loves me. lol!

My Mission President and his wife came home at the beginning of this month so I also got to go up to their report and see a bunch of the old returned-missionaries for the Sao Paulo Interlagos Mission.

So during all of this there has been another story happening in my life. It didn't take long for me to reconnect with my Brazil friends. Members, investigators, missionaries, companions, and family members of companions. Among these is Elder Almeida aka Lindo. We began to talk on skype and msn and soon we were talking everyday. After much time I decided to go back to Brazil already on vacation. Lindo arranged for me to stay with his cousin and at the beginning of May I was on my way to Recife!

I got to spend 6 weeks living the life of a Brazilian citizen and not an American Missionary. It was a great experience! My family almost disowned me when I called to tell them that I would be staying another two weeks before I came home. Many of them don't know this...I didn't feel very homesick during my stay but the day that I told them I wasn't coming home yet I was terribly homesick and even cried a little which shows how much I love them and missed them! But in those two weeks that I stayed I got accepted to study fashion design and got a few more precious days to stay with my honey.

The main reason for me posting this blog is to let everyone know that I'm engaged to the love of my life! We have set a date for September 24, 2011 in the Manti Utah Temple. After much deliberation, we've put the reception the night before on Friday the 23rd in Delta.

I am incredible happy and anxious and excited and stressed and loving life and all these fun moments and ridiculous worries that are coming do me. Someday I will try to share our fun story in full but as for today I'm pretty fed-up with blogspot.com so I'm calling it a night...

I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Okay, so this has a funny story behind it. I went to Brasil and I was getting a bit of pressure from family members that I hadn't taken any pictures yet. Finally one night I sat Lindo down and I said, "We need pictures or my family will kill me! Hang tight and we'll get a few." We set the timer up on the couch and I clicked it and ran to give him a kiss in the picture. This is how it turned out so I turned of the camera and said maybe we would try another time. lol!