Hello, my name is Sister Shell and.....

... And this week I taught a former atheist, and convinced a 6 year old that I'm perfect. Successful week? I think so.
I do have some sad news though. My camera is broken... And I'm not quite sure how. I can look at pictures and everything, but when I go to take a picture, it says there is a lens error and it can't open and it shuts down. So I'm guessing the lens is somehow broken. I've looked at it and I can't figure out what it is, and we can't go in town this week to have somebody look at it.... yeah, I'm pretty bummed. I love my camera! Especially since its a pretty awesome blue one. And how am I supposed to take pictures and document my mission without it? I cannot. Sad day :(

Tuesday: So, we weren't able to go to Sean's house (our referral) but we did call him and set up an appointment for Friday, when we'd be in Somerville anyway. He seemed pretty stoked when we talked with him on the phone!
We were supposed to do service at Dan and Margaret's, but Dan didn't feel like it... so we ended up just reading scriptures with them and eating dinner.

Wednesday: We had a member present lesson with Marsha!! Can I just say that member present lessons are the best??? Because they are. Its so much easier to teach with members there. Anyways, we still don't have a baptismal date for her. It just didn't feel right. But we taught her the commandments, and everything made sense to her. She does have a bit of an issue with tithing though. Not that she doesn't understand it but... She already pays about 12% of what she makes to two charities that mean a lot to her- the Wounded Warrior Project and Still Creek. She doesn't want to have to give that up, but she can't afford to pay 22% of what she makes. She said that she'll pray about it and see what God tells her to do. I'm confident that Heavenly Father will help her figure it out.
After that, we stopped by Jenn's house so Sister Rainsdon could do some laundry that desperately needed to do. Then, we headed to Mary's for dinner. That was yummy as always. Mary read us a few things out of a book that she's already read twice. I think its called Everyday Missionary or something like that. Anyways, I loved it because its all about how you can be a missionary... without having the nametag. What she read was pretty inspiring. So, I'm recommending it to all of y'all without having actually read it first myself. Pretty gutsy, I know.
We were going to try and heart attack Whitney's door, but when we drove by all the lights were on and everybody was up. And its no fun heart attacking someone's door if you're just gonna get caught. So we're gonna try and catch her unawares this week! Mwa ha ha ha!

Thursday: Weekly planning! It was a good and productive planning session for us. After that, we did some mormon.org time. Then, we visited Whitney. She seemed to be doing pretty well, and I think she appreciated that we were able to stop by. We talked with her for a while, and asked her if she'd be willing to sit in on lessons with Bill. She agreed, and seemed pretty excited about it. I'm just glad that she's so willing to help out! She's awesome.
After that, we went to the Mitchell's for dinner. We got in a pretty good object lesson with them, and the kids actually paid attention! Halleluyer! It was about individual worth, and about how each of us is like a piece of the puzzle. Without even just one of us, the puzzle isn't complete. We put together a small puzzle, all except for one piece. Then we started talking about how each of us is special. Then Thomas said "Hey, um, missionaries.. you're missing a piece!" Then all the other kids chimed in and pointed it out and we asked why missing a piece was such a big deal. "Because it isn't finished!!" So then we put in the piece, and I think they all understood. They really liked it anyway.
Then, we left the Mitchell's early because it was super cold and freezing, and sleeting on the roads. We drove very carefully home and called it a night because the roads were slick, and they hadn't salted everything yet. We called our District Leader and asked him to move back our District Meeting by an hour the next day so that we could get there safely, and he agreed.

Friday: We woke up and got a text from President Pingree saying that everything, all meetings, were cancelled for the day, and to only go out if we absolutely had to. So apparently missionaries get snow days too! So, we studied as usual, got everything done. Sister Paddock tried to skate around on the ice that was outside. And there was snow covering the rooftops and our stairs and parts of the grass and it was glorious! Miracles happen, people.

Despite President's advice, we had to go out because we had an appointment with Sean that we just couldn't miss! So, in the afternoon when everything was melted and safer, we headed out. We pulled up to this strange yellow house where the paint was peeling off, the windows were all covered up and things were in the yard. So, we prayed and got out of the car. We got up to the porch and didn't even have to knock- he opened the door, smiled and told us to come in. Nice guy, mid thirties, beard starting to grow. He, Sean, told us that he's known mormons for years in Arizona and something on the history channel sparked his memory the other day- they were discussing how Native American Indians are probably descendants of Jews. He remembered that his mormon friends believed that, and got on mormon.org and referred himself. Then we called him the next day! He told us that up until about three weeks ago, he'd been an atheist but had recently started believing. We taught him the Restoration lesson, and he just ate it up. He really loved what I said about God being our loving Heavenly Father, especially the scripture I shared with him in Proverbs 8, I believe. I shared the scripture and talked about how Heavenly Father knows who we are as individuals, and loves us as individuals. How Heavenly Father knows us personally. Sean really liked that, and told us that. He got a little teary eyed even. It was just a really great lesson, and he committed to reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. We also invited him to church. Sean doesn't have a car though, so we told him we'd find him a ride.
We had dinner with Bill, and read the Book of Mormon with him at the restaurant. That was pretty awesome :)

Saturday: There was a Sheri Dew broadcast for the stakes here in Houston, so we went to that at 10 in the morning. That was fabulous. She spoke about many things, including how to receive revelation and how to share what we know. It was really good. I just loved it. I wish I had my notes with me, but I don't right now. One thing she pointed out, that she also pointed out when she spoke to us at the CTM, is that we should ask Heavenly Father to teach us how we hear the Spirit. To teach us the language of the Spirit, if that makes sense. It was really good.
After that, Sister Rainsdon was feeling pretty sick and wanted to take a nap. So we went back to the apartment. But before she did that, I felt like we should check our air filter thingy. So we did, and it was nasty. Thats probably why we've been getting sick so easily. So, we ran to Walmart and got a new filter and some things to clean it. Sister Paddock cleaned it out, because Sister Rainsdon and I didn't know what to do. Thank goodness for Sister Paddock! Well, it took her three hours and I'm sure we all looked hilarious with our scarves tied around our faces to keep the fumes out of our lungs.

Sunday: We went to church, and taught the youth a pretty good lesson about how to share what we know about Heavenly Father with people. It went pretty well I think. Oh, and...
SEAN CAME TO CHURCH! We got the Binghams on it, and they didn't hesitate. They agreed immediately and picked him up! AND Sean loved church. He fit right in and liked everything we talked about.
HALLELUYER!!!
Then, we got home, ate lunch and finished our studies. After that, we went to Paige Mitchell's "Its Great to Be 8!" thing. That was cute. Sister Foster was talking about how on the day Paige gets baptized, she'll be the most perfect person in our branch- even more perfect than (branch) President Foster! Then, Paige's sister Allie piped up and said, "Yeah, like Sister Shell!" That was pretty funny. I don't know where she got the idea that I'm perfect, but it made me feel good. Even if it isn't true. It was sweet. Later, Jenn asked Allie "Is Sister Shell perfect?" and Allie nodded and said, "Yes!!" So, clearly I have a lot of work to do to not let that adorable little 6 year old down.
After that, we went and visited Conny. (And I thought she spelled it Connie but apparently not..) That was fun. We had a nice visit, a good prayer, and went to drop stuff off at the Crawford's before we went home. They got an adorable puppy! Their oldest son got it free at Walmart and brought it home. She currently chews on everything, and they named her Otis... ? Not quite sure what's going on there, but she's really cute. Then we went home and reported numbers.

This upcoming week is going to be busy because we've got training/interviews and temple! I'm super excited.

Moral of the story for this week is no matter how weird or messed up you think you are, somewhere out there is a six year old who thinks you're perfect, and you better not let her down!

Miracles happen daily people. When you learn to recognize them, that's when life truly becomes joyful.

com amor,
Sister Shell

So, every time we go to Somerville, we pass Mater!! Its like "Ta-mater, but without da 'ta'!"

There's still Hope!!

Hee hee, I think I'm so clever. I say that because I was feeling kinda down the other day about my visa, but then lo and behold, I found out that my CTM companion finally made it to Brazil!! And so have Elder Lewis and Elder Morgan, apparently. But My CTM companion's first name is Hope, so I thought it was quite clever of me to say that there's still hope... Meh, just laugh and at least pretend that you think I'm funny.

Monday: Went all the way down to Houston so I could get fingerprinted for my background check thing that I have to do now. But, Sister Goimarac said that she got her visa about a month after she turned in her fingerprints. So hopefully this'll help speed things up! We stayed down in Houston for emailing, hence the sloppy email last week... Sorry!

Tuesday: I was adventurous. Ready? My hair had been constantly falling in my face (my side bangs had gotten too long again) so I cut them myself! Sister Rainsdon demonstrated how, because she cuts her own too, so I decided "Hey, why not?" So I did! It doesn't look bad and they're easy to deal with. I must say that I'm quite pleased with myself.

We did some service at Jenn's house. The usual, moving around tree branches and stuff. Sister Rainsdon and Jenn had a few run-ins with some rather large spiders, so after a while we called it quits. Then we went to Dan and Margaret's for dinner. For some reason, I was starting to feel sick. We got home and I had a little fever, so I zonked out. I guess my body really needed rest because by the time I was able to wake myself up it was 3 in the afternoon. (I didn't even hear my alarm, and I feel bad that I didn't get up at 6:30 ...) And my throat kinda felt like someone had taken a cheese grater to it. And I sounded like Miley Cyrus. No bueno. My companions, bless their souls, decided to let me sleep so that I could get better faster. They even called Mary and cancelled dinner so that I could rest some more. Mary was understanding and said she hoped that I felt better soon. And I'm sure she appreciated that I wasn't going to go contaminate her house either.

Thursday: We did weekly planning and Sister Rainsdon made spinach and carrot brownies for a Relief Society gardening activity that was that night. They were actually really good brownies. A bit thicker than usual though. Then, we went on County Road 220 and found a few houses that we want to tract into later this week.
After that we went to the Gardening Activity! It was pretty cool. President Foster and Brother Crawford taught, and it was pretty cool. Some of it was too complex for me right now, and so I decided I'd worry about it after my mission. The cool part was that some less actives that I've never met before in my life came to the activity! Apparently they haven't come to any activity for over a year. But, Jesse (Jenn's husband) is their home teacher and sees them quite frequently, and invited them, and they came! Halleluyer!

Friday: Sister Kyles, as our Sister Training Leader, was asked by President Pingree to go around to each companionship of sisters in the zone and roleplay teaching the "First Powerful Lesson." So she and her companions came and while her companions studied, we taught her as our investigator. She also had us each practice trying to give a super fast, tiny rundown of the Restoration Lesson in a minute as a door approach practice. Lemme just tell you, I was pretty good and did mine in a minute thirty. Booyah! I think it made pretty good sense too. After that, we had District Meeting in Caldwell!! That was fun. Everybody loved our building. It was on the Plan of Salvation and how to better teach it. The Navasota elders had us play a cool Plan of Salvation game. I'm not really sure how to explain it, but I'll sure remember it and I'll play it with y'all when I get back. That's right, folks. I'll actually play a game.
After that, we all went over to the Gambles to do some service- demolition on their nasty old trailer that the previous owners left on their property. The elders had a little too much fun smashing through things. Elder Hill tried to run through a wall. He did manage to knock it out of place, but it didn't crumble like he wanted it to. He also punched through several cabinets and doors and walls and things. As a result, he sort of cut up his hands and the knuckle of one of his pinkies started swelling up and he couldn't really grab things... But he says its doing much better now. Moral of the story is, you don't have to punch through walls to prove you're a man. That took forever, but it felt good to help them with it. We got most of it taken down, and caved in most of the roof. Sister Paddock has some pictures. I'll try and get her to send me some. I was concerned for the safety of my camera around all the demolition, so I left it in Antonio. That night, we ate dinner with Bill and guess what!!! He agreed to take the lessons from us! We're pretty stoked about that. We're hoping to set up a time to meet for a lesson soon. WOOHOO!! :D

Saturday: We had such trouble while planning Saturday, trying to figure out what we needed to do with our day. Well, that morning we got a call from Sister Farmer. She left a message because we didn't answer quickly enough and said that her son was asking her questions, and she doesn't know how to answer them anymore, so could we come over? Woot woot! We went over around two o'clock and talked with Mark. Sister Farmer listened in as well, because she felt like she needed to relearn everything. His questions were:
1. What will people think of me if I come to church and I have tattoos?
2. Can we still come to church if we don't have nice clothes?
3. I was baptized and I have the Priesthood... what do I do with it?
4. Why am I still here? (on earth, alive)
5. Why do you have to have a temple recommend to go inside the temple?
We were pretty thrilled. We answered the first two questions immediately, told him that we could figure out the "Priesthood thing" if he was able to come to church on Sunday, and taught the Plan of Salvation. He was really receptive, and he loved everything we taught. I think it made sense to him. We left him with a pamphlet and a promise to pray about what we'd taught him. Mark and Sister Farmer both said they'd try their hardest to come to church the next day.
We were supposed to eat dinner with Whitney, but she wasn't able to feed us so we ate with Bill again. He was happy to feed us again, and we decided we'd help him move some stuff from shed to shed when he gets his new, big shop finished. He seemed keen on that idea!

Sunday: Well, taught Samara and that was entertaining. We talked about Heavenly Father's Plan for us, colored a sheet of paper about the Plan of Salvation and did Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes while talking about our bodies and our spirits. Hopefully she got something out of it!
Mark and Sister Farmer were unable to make it to church :( So we're going to visit them later this week and talk with them some more. After church, we had a branch lunch/teacher development thing. That was pretty fun! We had yummy food, and a good lesson by Jesse. It was also outside because it was sunny and 75 here in Caldwell! It made me pretty happy. When we finally got back to the apartment, we finished studying and then left for the Gambles. We tried to stop by and read to Margaret, but she was asleep. So we decided that we'd just read to her the next time we saw her. We had yummy enchiladas with the Gambles and were thoroughly entertained by their close to two year old Henry. Although it wasn't as entertaining when he through things at me. He lost interest in that after a little while, and decided to just run around their home. We shared a nice thought with them and then left so we could tally up the week and report numbers. We had 11 less active/active member lessons and I believe... 2 other lessons! Not too bad, eh?

Monday: As in yesterday... We went to College Station to go shopping. Ran into an RM at JC Penney who was super excited to see missionaries. He served in Portugal and wished me luck with my visa.
I was disappointed with the selection of stuff there and at Target. Nothing really caught my eye. Sad day. Then, we met up with the Zone and while I dozed/wrote in my journal, Sister Rainsdon played volleyball with the elders and Sister Paddock wrote her Grandma.But here's the coolest part! We got a referral from mormon.org!! His name is Sean, and he told them that he'd like missionaries to stop by, that he's been researching our church and likes everything he's learned so far, and that he wishes there was one of our churches in his area!! So I'm pretty stoked about that. We're going to stop by later today, so I'll tell you how that goes next week.

Well, I hope all is well with y'all!! Eu amo voces muito!

Oh, and Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!! (Belated)

com amor,
Sister Kirsten Shell

Sister Shell, Grace, and Sister Rainsdon were matching so of course they had to take a picture!

One of the tires on Antonio (the truck) got a screw in it

Sister Shell at the Bluebell Ice Cream Factory

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Birthday!

Man, y'all, this Christmas was awesome!!!! And before I forget... Happy birthday to the best sister I've ever had!! Look out everyone- she's getting her permit, and will be roaming the roads!

Monday: We had our Christmas Mission Conference, with half the mission. Our mission is so big now that we had to split it into two!! We have 280 missionaries, 130 of which are SISTER missionaries!

We also learned that this year, we had over 1,000 baptisms and reactivations combined. We had about 332 baptisms. Halleluyer! We focused on the Savior, His birth, His life, His ministry, and His atonement for the Conference. It really brought the Christmas Spirit.
That night, we went caroling with President Fosters family! My camera had died, though, so I didn't get any pictures... We went to a few neighbors houses, and they LOVED it. They thought we sounded very nice, and were excited to meet us. Now President Foster wants to invite his musical siblings over as well as some neighbors and us, so we can sing for them some more.

Tuesday: Our P-Day got moved to Tuesday so we could go to the Christmas Conference. We had a little Christmas miracle!! Walmart had a few real Christmas trees left over, and was GIVING THEM AWAY for FREE! So, naturally, we grabbed one. I was so beyond excited. I put lights on it, grabbed all the ornaments we had, put the small white tree on the top of the big one, put a Santa hat on it because we didn't have a star or an angel, and put a picture of Christ at the top too. All in all, it looks like a very... missionary Christmas tree!

This was decorating the tree outfit.  Very Texas like!

We went over to Dan and Margaret's for dinner. Dan wasn't feeling too good- he's still recovering from a surgery he had about two weeks ago. But, we read the nativity story with them in Luke, and then hopped over to 3 Nephi to read the Nephites perspective. They really liked that and thought it was really neat.
When we got home, I continued the tradition and constructed a fort for us to sleep in on Christmas Eve, with the help of my companions. I was thinking about it this year, and to me, the silly tradition I have of making a fort to sleep in on Christmas Eve reminds me of the Savior, and how he had to sleep somewhere different too. It makes me feel like I'm in the stable, or visiting Mary and Christ. Silly, I know, but its true.

Wednesday: CHRISTMAS!!!! Woke up and opened my presents, all of which I loved! I got some awesome clothes, cards, Harry Potter lego things, a puzzle, a curl thingy, cards, etc from relatives and friends. Thank you to all of you! It meant so much to me!
We went over to Jenn's house and had Christmas cinnamon rolls- that's right, folks, I ate a cinnamon roll for Jenn- and helped her kids figure out their new Karaoke machine.
Then, we went over to the Crawford's house to skype/call our families! That was probably the highlight of my day. We got to talk for a long time, and there was never a dull moment. Everybody looked so happy, and it was so much fun to joke around with my siblings again. It was also really fun to see y'all open the presents I sent. Hope you like them for reals, and weren't just faking it because you were on camera! ;)
After that, we went home for a minute because Sister Paddock had a bit of a headache and wasn't feeling too well. This enabled me to try the curler thing that Grammy sent. It works well, by the way.
Around 5:30 we went to Mary's house for Christmas dinner! I think it meant a lot to her that we could be there, since her son wasn't able to come up, and her sister already had plans. It was a wonderful evening, and we had a lot of fun.

Thursday: Sister Paddock woke up with a fever of 102.5. I got her some medicine from my supplies and she went back to bed. She was coughing up a lot of nasty phlegm and felt all around awful. Sister Rainsdon and I felt so bad for her. She basically slept the whole day. This left us to ourselves. So, I read a lot of scriptures, including the Nativity story again. I studied some Portuguese, wrote letters, studied more scriptures, cleaned the apartment, glitter-fied my Princess Puzzle, ate food, studied, played Connect4 with Sister Rainsdon who had NEVER played it before or even heard of it, and watched The Testaments with Sis Rainsdon. We also figured out how to make the sound on our dvd player higher pitched, so everyone sounded like a chipmunk. Which was pretty entertaining.
Sister Paddock also got a blessing, and Bro Jesse Mitchell and Pres Foster told us to call if she needed anything else.

Friday: Sister Paddock woke up with a fever of 100.4, and still felt awful, which consigned us to another day inside. Sister Rainsdon and I continued to play nurse throughout the day. Thank goodness for Sis Rainsdon because she actually WAS a nurse in her past life... We weren't able to go to District Meeting, so we called in and listened to announcements and gave our area report. They all said they'd pray for Sister Paddock, and to call if we needed anything.
Jenn came and brought over some more church movies for us to watch, like 17 Miracles, the Best Two Years, the RM, the Singles Ward, etc. Then she took me out to get my police letter form notarized. Splits are great! We went to City Hall, went to almost every room in the building trying to find a notary, went to two banks before we came back to City Hall and finally found the notary. Phew! Got that sent off and Mom got the stuff on Saturday! Halleluyer!
When I got back to the apartment, Sis Rainsdon and I watched a few of the church movies. A lot of them were on a USB and the sound refused to work. So we naturally made up the dialogue. Can I just say that I think the Best Two Years is even funnier without sound?? We also watched 17 Miracles, which was a dvd so the sound worked. That movie is so touching. Everyone should watch it! Did some more studying, ate some more food.

Saturday: Sister Paddock was well enough for us to do comp study! Halleluyer! But she still wasn't well enough to leave the apartment for too long. We continued to make up dialogue for the church movies on the flash drive. Studied, wrote some in my journal, ate food, studied. Sister Rainsdon planned her whole wedding out, so thats... good.... We did go a little stir crazy I'll admit.

Sunday: Sister Paddock felt TONS better! Halleluyer! We went to church, and it was great. I learned how to use the copier and made some copies for Sister Foster for primary. Whitney asked us to come over to talk with Felipe (aka Phillip, apparently thats how its spelled) because he's been having a rough time.
So, after church we ate lunch and studied some scriptures that might help Felipe. Then we went over. He explained to us whats been going on and we mostly just listened. After a while, I shared D&C 121:7-10. He liked the scripture, but then had to jet off to work. While he was getting ready  to leave, I felt like I should write some things down on a sticky note and have Whitney put it somewhere for him to find. I wrote (and I'm paraphrasing because I can't remember exactly) "Some people see Christ and the gospel as the light at the end of the tunnel, but in truth, Christ and the gospel are the lights we hold to get us through the tunnel, step by step." I can't remember who said that, but I read it during our mormon.org time one day. Then I wrote that he should read His Grace is Sufficient by Brad Wilcox. We stuck it on his laptop in his bag that he was taking with him. I'm not sure if it will help him, but I think it was of the Spirit so it can't hurt him.
Then, we went and ate dinner with Rex and Diane Mitchell, which was hilarious! We heard some really funny jokes, and discussed some missionary stuff.
After that, we went home and waited for transfer calls.
OH! I almost forgot! At Whitney's while we were waiting for Felipe to come out, President Pingree called for me. GULP. Not that I was nervous, but I was curious what that would mean. I talked with him, and he told me that every transfer there are a few people the Lord tells him that he needs to call and check on, to help him finalize transfers. He asked me some questions about the area, about me and about my companionship, thanked me, told me that I'm a wonderful missionary and told me to tell my companions that they are wonderful missionaries as well.
Fast forward to transfer calls- we're all staying in Caldwell!! Phew. I'm gonna miss this place when I leave! However, Elder Anderson in Brenham is being transferred. Finally leaving his first area. He came out here in July, when I did. That kid is a really good missionary, and just a really good person. I'm gonna miss him. He kinda reminds me of Brayden. We also have two more missionaries being transferred away from our Zone, and then 3 more are finishing their missions. So we'll get a new Zone Leader and a new Sister Training Leader in the 6 new people in our zone! Eep! Lots of changes are happening. Its exciting :)

Well, thats basically my week. It was simple, but it was wonderful. Today I made some New Years Resolutions, and I now have a New Years Resolutions Theory- you cannot make more than 12 NYRs because then you will overwhelm yourself. There are only 12 months in the year, so to give yourself an easy task, make sure you only have one thing per month. Savvy? (please say that in a Captain Jack Sparrow voice)

Have a Happy New Year!! Eu amo voces muito!

love,
Sister Shell