Coincidences do not exist!

Life is bueno.

Monday: So, Sister King and I were feeling pretty victorious. We took a picture with the Assistants and held up two pieces of paper that said "Thank" and "You" on them and made a little card so we could thank everybody who helped with the fireside, because it was such a huge success! Then, to celebrate some more, we headed over to one of my favorite places- Chili's. We ate some yummy pasta, and then Sister King drew a funny picture of us on her to-go box. Our waiter said that she should go into animation or something. I do have a pretty talented companion. Maybe I'll have her illustrate some of my books!

Tuesday: We volunteered in downtown Houston at a Citizenship workshop. Basically, we met with people who are in the process of becoming citizens of the United States and helped them fill out applications. Its the first time that I'd ever been to downtown Houston, so it was a pretty big deal for me.

Plus, it was at the YMCA and there was this really cool cornerstone that read "Jesus Christ Himself being the Chief Cornerstone" so we had to take a picture with it!

Then, we did the citizenship workshop. I helped two ladies, because the process is super long! The first woman was born in Morocco, so that was neat. She was such a nice woman.
Then, we had a miracle. I was helping a girl with her application, and mentioned as we were chatting that I was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She said, "Oh yeah, some missionaries from your church used to come by my house all the time and read the Book of Mormon with me, but they don't anymore." In my head I was like, "NO WAY!!" and did a little dance inside. However, we were right in the middle of the application and couldn't really talk about it! Inside, I prayed that we'd have time at the end. So, we finished her application and before we both left, I said, "So, you said that some missionaries like me used to come to your house?"
"Yeah, they used to come read that book with me all the time. But then I moved, and I lost my phone, and I got a new phone, and a new number, so I don't have their number and they don't have mine... And then I moved back, but they don't come over any more and I don't really know why."
"Oh wow," I replied. "Well, would you like for them to come over again?"
"Yeah, I would!"
"Well, if you write down your name, phone number and address for me, we could get in contact with them and send them over. If thats alright with you, I mean."
"Oh, sure! That would be cool. Here."
She wrote down her information, thanked me profusely for helping her, and left. Sister King and I left shaking our heads.
Only Heavenly Father could work out a miracle like that! Seriously, of the 25+ helpers that she could have sat down with, she sat down with 1 of the 4 missionaries who were volunteering. That, my friends, was no coincidence. Of course, she isn't in our mission, but we called in the referral, and the Houston East Mission now has a great referral to go check out!
Then, on our way back, we were trying to find somebody on our list that we didn't recognize named Afton. We went to the address listed and it was her grandma, Betty! Betty isn't a member of the church, but we had a really good religious discussion with her. We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and committed her to reading it and studying it with the Bible, and praying about it. She told us that she would, of course, love to study it, but to not expect her to change her faith.
That was another miracle, not a coincidence.

Wednesday: We had an appointment with Che (shay) who is  a recent convert who moved here from San Antonio. We read Enos with her, and got to know her better. She seems really sweet. I can't wait to get to know her better!
Then, we went to "The Mission" like we always do- that Christian group that meets at Lonestar campus. Before, we had a lesson with Evan, a guy who goes to the group that came to our fireside and is interested! We answered some of his questions about our basic beliefs, and he liked and agreed with everything we told him. He told us that he is very interested and wants to be part of something bigger. He loves the organization of the church and wants to learn some more! Halleluyer! Then, we listened to the sermon. It was pretty good, and the sermon was all about the lost sheep and the prodigal son. It was pretty neat. Afterwards, we talked with a lot of people. While Sister King and I were talking with somebody, this guy named Joe was walking by and looked at me and stopped. He interrupted our conversation by saying, "Excuse me, but I feel like God really wants to bless you two today, especially you," pointing to me. "Is it alright if I bless you both right now?" And Sister King and I looked at each other and had a silent conversation. We both know that Joe doesn't have the Priesthood, but that his intentions were good and that he has faith and is genuine. We really didn't want to offend him, so we turned back.
"Uh.. sure," we answered.
Then Joe began. "Dad, I just want to thank you for this day, Lord, and for these missionaries, Holy Spirit, and thank you, Lord Jesus, for all that you've given us, and please bless that... yeah. Um, please, uh... yeah. Yeah! Yeah...... yeah.... yeah." And I peeked at this point and noticed that his arms were stretched out towards us, like he wanted to put his hands on our shoulders or our heads like they usually do when they heal people. But he wasn't doing that. Joe laughed, then said, "Sorry." Sister King and I looked up. "I just really feel like God wants to bless you specifically," meaning me, "so I'm gonna just focus on you if that's alright."
"Go ahead." I didn't feel bad about it. We bowed our heads again.
"Uh, yeah." Was basically what he said. Joe was really stumbling over his words. After a minute, he gave up and told me what he thought. He said, "You know, I feel like God just really wants to use you to bring other people to Jesus!" Which I already knew because I'm a missionary. He went on his way, and I thanked him for his kindness. Because Joe really was trying to do a good thing, and he really is trying to do what God wants him to do. I don't want anybody to think that I'm making fun of Joe, or that I'm discrediting his honest and genuine efforts.
But, that was a really cool experience for me. I knew that he didn't have the Priesthood, and that he had no authority to bless me. Therefore, he couldn't. And maybe it made him wonder why he couldn't do that, and maybe Joe will ask us some questions soon, and maybe one day Joe will have the real Priesthood and will be able to truly bless people.
After that, we visited a  girl named Tasha, and had to trade out Sheldon for a car that is red that we have dubbed "Doofenshmirtz" or "Doof" for short. Sheldon had a scrape that needed to get fixed. So we have Doof while we wait for Sheldon.
Then, we had dinner with Elishann and had some seriously delicious fajitas. Mmm-mm. Good! Then, we tried to find people and were a bit unsuccessful.

Thursday: We went to the temple, and had a really good lesson in the visitors area with Frank. We answered his questions and kind of went everywhere. From Priesthood to friends, we pretty much covered it all. Frank felt a lot of peace, and a lot of the Spirit.
Then, I happened to run into someone I knew from back home- Jason Thomson! I took a picture with him and his cute family and he sent it back home to y'all. Hope that was a nice surprise!
Then, Sister King and I got a call from one of the other sisters who was having a hard time, so we went over to their apartment and talked with her. Even though I'm technically not a Sister Training Leader, I sometimes feel like one because I'm Sister King's companion and I get to help her out with all of that stuff. Anyways, I think it was good that I was there because I was able to help too. Well, I think I helped. Hopefully.
After that, we had an AMAZING lesson with Sandra! She told us that she never goes anywhere without her Book of Mormon! Then, she told us an experience she had last week. She was very upset and didn't know what to do, and everyone in the house was asleep. She saw her Book of Mormon next to her, and picked it up, opening it to a random page. This was the first verse she read.
"Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go unto thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success." Alma 26:27
Sandra said, "I don't know if this is right, but I took that to be God speaking to me and it really comforted me and helped me." We told her that she'd understood that right, and talked with her about how God answers prayers. We also gave her a "letter" from Heavenly Father, which she loved.
We ate dinner with Alissha, and then went to get milkshakes at "Chill..." with Ashley, a recent convert. That's where I saw the awesome and hilarious quote about the unicorn. Had to get a picture with that!
Then, we ate-slurped?- our milkshakes, and had a good discussion about temples and Patriarchal blessings.

Friday: We had a very good district meeting. One thing that stuck out to me was "Fasting is giving up something we need for something we need more." We also talked about putting off the natural man, and praying for the strengthening and enabling power of the Atonement.
After that, we came home, ate lunch, and called some people. We had another interesting conversation with Betty, only this time it was over the phone. Then, we had to go to the mission office and drop off a bill from the apartment people.
We had dinner at Genghis Grill with Colten, someone I actually know from Montgomery. It was some good Mongolian food! Yum! Then, we came home and planned.

Saturday: We went over and visited with the amazing Janae! She is so funny, always making us laugh. We went upstairs to see some new outfits she has, and there was a nasty roach in her room. She said, "I sprayed it with febreeze to kill it, so I think its dead." But neither Janae nor I wanted to touch it, so Sister King was left to get it out of the room.
IT WAS NOT DEAD. It started Zombie crawling around the floor, super slowly. I didn't even see it start to move, but Sister King screamed, so I screamed and so did Janae, and I protected Janae out in the hall by hiding behind her. Sister King trapped the foul beast with a cup and flushed it down the toilet. Janae started singing, "Hail to the conqueror!..." or something like that. We were talking with her about styles, and Sister King said, "Janae, what do you think my style was before my mission?"
And Janae just got this super confused and troubled look on her face and said, "Uh.. Gangam?!" And we just about died laughing. The funniest part? Janae doesn't even know what Gangam style is! It was SO funny.
Then we were driving to another appointment, and saw something. One of our members was walking down the side of the road, in the opposite direction of their house and did not look okay. We flipped a u-turn and pulled over in front of her. We asked her if she was okay and she got in the car. After talking with her for a while, and calming her down, we took her to the church building. We sat in the chapel, and we had to go by the Spirit a lot to know how we could really and truly help her. I kept getting the prompting to go play the piano, and I kept saying, "But I don't even play the piano well!" But, we should never ignore the spirit. So what did Sister Shell do? She went and plunked on the piano. The first thing I felt like I should play was "Go the Distance" from Hercules. That made her smile, and think of another song that really helped her. Then, we all gathered around the piano and we sang "Lead Kindly Light" as I played the top hand. And folks, I have never been able to sing and play the piano at the same time. But Saturday, I could. Then, we sang "Be Still, My Soul" and "Nearer, My God, To Thee" and took her home.
That was a miracle filled with the Spirit. It was no coincidence that we happened to be driving down that road. It is no accident that I was able to play the piano a bit. I know the Lord was helping us help that member.
Then, we had a lesson with Frank, who brought his friend Antonion because Antonio was bored. We read a war story from the Book of Mormon, at Frank's request, and then, had a really good discussion and read a few other things we felt that we should share with Antonio. It went really well.

Sister Shell, Frank, and Sister King

Then, we ate some quick dinner and made it to the first ever General Women's Meeting. And if you are a woman, whether you are a member or not, if you are young or if you are not-so-young, you NEED to watch it.
It was so amazing to be part of that historic event, and know that my own mom and sister were watching it right along with me. It is amazing to be part of this church and be so united with my sisters.

Sunday: Well, Frank brought Antonio to church and another investigator, Bryce, brought his roommate Diego! So that was pretty neat. Testimony was pretty great. Then, the third hour, the stake patriarch came and talked. THAT was so cool. He focused a lot on lineage and its importance, and our responsibilities.
Then, we had dinner with AJ's family, and tried to stop by some people. Not a whole lot of luck, but it was fun to try.

Overall, it was a good week, and it was full of coincidences that were not coincidences. I suppose I should say that it was a week full of miracles. As always.

com amor,
Sister Shell

Funny saying at "Chill" that is so appropriate for Sister Shell

“These are days never to be forgotten.”

That quote comes from the footnote of JSH 1:71, and I thought it very appropriate for my email this week because it has truly been an amazing week!

St. Patrick's Day P-Day

Monday: We had an AWESOME P-Day activity for St. Patrick's day, in which I may or may not have injured my pinky during an intense game of "spoons." It still hurts sometimes when I use it haha :P But I guess that's how you know it was a good game! I also had a nice conversation with Elder McGill, one of our ASL elders who is mostly deaf. He has a hearing aid so he can partially hear. Anyways, he was off sitting by himself so Sister King and I went over and communicated through the little sign language we know, playing charades, and speaking loudly and clearly. It was pretty fun :)
That night, we had a meeting about the booths for the fireside, and it really stressed out Sister King and Elder Frandsen. So we made a rather long to-do list of stuff that had to be done for the fireside. Elder Hillebrant relieved his stress by playing beautiful songs on the piano, which helped everyone de-stress a little bit. Especially because our list was rather long and intimidating, and Sister King and I knew we'd have to take care of the majority of it... because it was the week before transfers, and the elders in our ward are the Assistants to the President... so their week was pretty busy.

Sister King and Sister Shell being overwhelmed!!

We were also supposed to read scriptures with Frank, but by the time we were done going over things for the fireside it was pretty late. Frank understood and joined us and the elders for a kneeling prayer for help. The Spirit was very strong and helped everyone, and I think it was really good that Frank participated in it.
Then, we went on exchanges.

Tuesday: I was with Sister Flanery in my area! We got to go to the temple with our district that morning, which was amazing. We (Sister King and I) went through for some ancestors for our District Leader Elder Duvall. That was really special. Sister King and I felt very strongly that those two women had been waiting a while for that to be done, and were very receptive and grateful. After that, we had to drive an hour to go pick up our missing A-Frame for the fireside. So we had a fun little journey, and it was a beautiful day, so we went with the windows partially rolled down.
Then, we went to see Jenn. (Not the one in Caldwell, the one here who has some severe medical problems.) Sister King and I both felt very strongly that Sister Flanery and I absolutely had to go visit her on exchanges. So we went, and had a lovely chat with lots of laughter. Then, towards the end, Jenn asked if we had a spiritual message for her. "Of course!" I answered as I pulled out my scriptures. I was already in the process of opening them when I stopped and asked Jenn, "Actually, is there something you would like us to discuss? Like, any topic that you've been thinking about that you want to understand more that we could help you with?" So Jenn looked at me and said, "Um, yes, actually. Could we talk about hope? Because I've been kind of struggling with that lately." Sister Flanery had the perfect scripture- Ether 12:4 I believe- and we talked about that for a minute. Then Jenn told us that she doesn't understand what she should have hope in because she knows that her condition really won't get better. Thank goodness Sister Flanery was there, because she said everything perfectly. Sister Flanery told Jenn that her mom has terminal cancer, and that she used to feel the same way because she knows that her mom won't get better, and knows that eventually her mom is going to pass on. Then she said that after reading that scripture and praying she understood that she should hope for a reason and a purpose behind it, and not hurt herself by hoping that her mom would get better. She acknowledged that God can, of course, work any miracle but that realistically, that was the only thing she could truly have hope in. Jenn really liked that and the Spirit was so strong. She said, "I've never thought of it that way before." So we encouraged her to hope for a purpose and a reason behind all of her medical conditions, and that she'll one day know what those reasons are. We had a prayer with her and left, and I know we made a difference that day, and I'm so glad Sister Flanery was there to help her. Sister Flanery is amazing- both her and one of her sisters are on a mission, knowing that they may not see their mom again when they get home. And Sister Flanery is one of the most amazing sister missionaries I have ever met.
After that, we headed over to dinner with a guy named Taylor and a few other people in the ward, including Taylor's sister Ashley. We had a really good spiritual thought with them, and I felt like I should commit them to read Alma 36 this past week. So we're gonna follow up with them and see how that went soon!
Then, we still had some time, so Sister Flanery and I got some of our stuff from our To-Do list done so that Sister King wouldn't be so stressed when she got home.
Sister King was pretty happy :) And, she had a cd from Mercy River waiting for her at home, so that was pretty exciting!

After exchanges

Wednesday: Yeah, we're only on Wednesday and my email is already ten years long. Deal with it!! Haha
We visited a member named Erica, and let me tell you, Whinnie (our GPS) could not find her house and we had to call Erica like 5 thousand times for directions! It was slightly ridiculous. But! We made it there and got to know her pretty well, and were able to have a nice discussion about the sacrament and the Atonement with her.
After that, we went to The Mission- that Christian group at one of the Lonestar College campuses. It was pretty good. We invited tons of people there to the fireside. At the end, though, they told anybody that wanted healing to come up and be healed by some of their leaders. I saw one girl praying with her hand on some guy's head and... well, it just made me so grateful that we have the true authority of God on the earth today in our church. I am so grateful for the Priesthood and that we have it, and that all the worthy men in our church hold it. I know that it is real and that it can work true miracles.
After, we went to the Mission Office to meet up with the Elders and do some things for the fireside.
Then, we went and visited with Janae. She is so wonderful and beautiful and amazing!! I love her. She was sorting through all of her music, so it was fun to help out with that and look through it.

Thursday: We taught Frank the Law of Chastity! It went really well, so thats good. Not awkward at all either. Halleluyer! He's just progressing so well. I remember that we were talking to him about some people we know that are learning tons about the church and reading everything and really like it, but they just don't believe it. And Frank said, "What?! Why?! Ugh. It just makes sense!" So, in the words of Frank, people... IT JUST MAKES SENSE! :D
Then, we met up at the Mission Office with the elders again to type up the program. We brought the elders some Chick Fil A and we all ate lunch while we were talking about the logistics of the fireside. Let me tell you, it was pretty hilarious to drive around with this GIGANTIC Chick Fil A bag on my lap and only two tiny girls inside a tiny car. Also, Elder Hillebrant ate all of the fries and I promise I wasn't mad at all... but I did want some fries. So I hope he enjoyed them for me!

After, we had an amazing lesson with Sandra. It was a joint lesson with the sister missionaries in Windrose, her home ward. It was the official "We're passing you off to the YSA sister missionaries" lesson, and it was really beautiful. Sandra is currently reading the Book of Mormon little by little. We read the story of Enos with her and talked with her about prayer and about how she can receive answers. She explained that she was having difficulty understanding which thoughts were hers and which thoughts came from God. We discussed that and gave her some tips for how she can know and understand. It was amazing, and she is just so prepared.
Then, on the way home, something scary happened. We were just driving along, minding our own business, when a white four door truck pulled out in front of everybody, and we had to slam, and I mean SLAM, on our brakes. We almost hit the car in front of us, who got in a three car fender bender with the other two cars in front of her. They pulled off into a parking lot, and we turned around and went over to them. One was a guy, and he took some pictures and drove off because his car wasn't damaged. The other two were teenage girls on their way to work, one of them who's from London and has only been here for a year. They were so shaken up and were on the phone with parents. We pulled up, parked and walked up. We asked if they were okay, and told them we had witnessed what had happened. Their cars weren't damaged, so after exchanging numbers and taking some pictures, they got our number in case they needed a witness for anything later. The truck that caused the accident was long gone though. The girls were shaken up, so I followed a prompting and said, "I know this is weird, but we're missionaries for our church... would it be alright if we pray with you? I know it will help." They immediately agreed, so I said a prayer from my heart and from the Spirit. They thanked us a lot and then got in their cars and drove away, and I know that they traveled in safety for the rest of the day. It was amazing to be part of that. I'm so glad we were there to help them!
Then, we did some things for the fireside and had an awesome conversation on the phone with Frank. He was helping us decide what to do with our other investigator, Erick. He told us, "Y'all should just teach him a lesson on faith. I mean, that won't fix everything immediately, but it will get him thinking and it will help him realize he needs more faith."
IT WAS SO AWESOME!! Look at our little investigator missionary!! It was such an amazing moment.
After that, we visited Ashley M, a recent convert, and talked to her about getting her temple recommend and going to the temple this week. Hopefully that all works out!
AND!!! The amazing cd I ordered about missionary work came!!! It is so inspiring and good and we've been enjoying it non-stop ever since.
Then, we went on exchanges.

Friday: Sister Andreason came here with me, to my area! That was fun. She loved all of our music, so that was pretty fun.
We were supposed to give Branden, a potential investigator from The Mission, a church tour but he had to cancel on us. Sad day :/ So we went and visited Misti and Kaylan and had a good discussion with them. Misti took some flyers to invite some people to the fireside, so that was exciting!
There was some HORRIBLE traffic that day, by the way. Tons.
Anyways. We went and volunteered at NAM and then exchanged back. Then, Sister King and I went over to Andrea's house and helped bake around 100 cupcakes for the fireside. So fun!

Saturday: We picked up some table cloths for the fireside, and all I could think was... "One day more!!" Haha, anyways..
Then, we did some planning. And realized that the transfer was ending and that we needed new planners. Whaaaaat??
Then, we visited with Jennifer. That was fun. We had another good discussion on the sacrament. She did a neon run (a 5K) that night, and it sounds like it was so super fun.
Then, we went to dinner with Kevin at Shogun. And Sister King and Kevin ate tons of nasty sushi and I enjoyed my tepanyaki chicken, veggies, and rice. Blech.
After that, we went to Kristin's house and brought her some ice cream, and had a really good talk with her. I love her a ton.

Sunday: It was finally the big day! It was surreal that it was finally here. Sister King and I fasted again, because we really needed the Lord's help on this.
We had ward council and got super pumped about the fireside all over again.
Then, church was good.
During Relief Society, we noticed that Angelica was not okay. So we asked if she wanted to talk out in the hallway and she started just crying and nodded yes. So we quickly and quietly left the room and started talking to her in the hallway. As she started talking to us, who should walk around the corner and immediately give her a hug than Kaylan- Angelica's visiting teacher! Miracle. We talked with her for a while as we walked around the church building. We suggested that Angelica get a blessing of comfort before church was over. She told us that she wasn't sure, and so we had a good discussion on faith. After, she thought, and said, "I think I should get a blessing." So, we went in and got called the elders and Johnny out of Priesthood to give her a blessing. I think Angelica was really comforted by it, and it was such a neat experience for all of us.
The cool part? The lesson in Priesthood was all about ministering and being ready to give blessings, and the lesson in Relief Society was all about the blessings of the Priesthood and receiving blessings.
SO COOL. I love Angelica, and I'm glad we were able to help her out.
Then, we went over to Andrea's house to eat some sandwiches for dinner and booked it over to the church. We started cleaning and setting up the gym, then the elders called and gave us the address for us to pick up the programs, and so we ran and grabbed those. Sister King and I were freaking out because there was a member there who was actually in a YSA branch that is in the HOUSTON EAST MISSION. WHAT?! Yeah, somehow they'd found out about it too. We were so pumped and freaking out and just excited. We were nervous because we weren't there to help set up because we had to go get the flyers. But then, we came back. And everything was set up! It looked beautiful! We just had to do some last minute things, and then suddenly... it was here!!!! We sat with Frank and his sister Daisy. We'd never met two of the speakers and were sort of nervous, we'd never heard the musical numbers rehearsed. It was flawless. The Spirit was so strong. Everyone spoke by the Spirit and said things so perfectly. And then, President Pingree summed it up by talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ- faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost were the parts he focused on. He said everything so perfectly and the Spirit almost felt like it was heavy because it was so prominent in that room. It was amazing. Frank and his sister Daisy were there. Sandra was there. Tons of other missionaries brought investigators. Tons of members brought friends. And here's the cool part.
Some leaders from The Mission came! Because they decided that we always support them and come to their stuff, so they can support us and come to something that we were doing! How cool huh? And you could tell, they were impressed, they felt the Spirit, and they liked it. Stewart, one of the leaders, talked with President Pingree for about 20 minutes. He was very subdued and didn't want to leave the chapel. And, when he found out that we had temples, he was very impressed and liked that fact a lot. At the end, right before we left, he walked up to President Pingree and said, "Sir, would it be alright if I go play the piano in the chapel?" Of course, President told him that that would be just perfect.
IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!
I have no idea how we pulled it off, but maybe its because WE didn't pull it off. Heavenly Father did.  Alma 17:3 says, "But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer,and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God." That's what happened with our fireside. We gave ourselves to much prayer and fasting, and so did the elders, and our whole ward gave themselves to much prayer. And it worked out because of the faith of all those who helped with the fireside. It was just beautiful and amazing. Sister King and I are still in shock.

Booth about Temples at the Fireside

Booth about Primary at the Fireside

We have at least 4 new investigators. One girl named Suzanne talked with our Bishop for 10 minutes, and Bishop Parker bore his testimony on the Book of Mormon to her and read Moroni's promise with her. When they were done talking, Suzanne told Bishop Parker that she was so happy that she'd met him. Sister King and I talked to so many nonmembers, and I gave Daisy a "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlet and she loved it. It was just a big success. President Pingree talked with a lot of the visitors too, and there were tons of missionaries, and people loved the booths and all of the information available. And, dad, we used the "Introduction to Mormonism" dvd that you sent me forever ago, and people liked that. I may need another one, because Sister King felt prompted to give it to Stewart, so of course we did.
Y'all.
This whole fireside was a complete and total miracle. It was so completely amazing, and I'm so grateful I was able to be a part of it.
Shall we not go on in so great a cause?

Also, I'm gonna send y'all a picture of the program ASAP so that if y'all want to have one, you already have the layout of what we did to work on :) While it was a lot of hard work it really paid off and was so worth it.
I love the gospel and I love y'all!!!

com amor,
Sister Shell

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!!! I love you and I look up to you so much :) You are amazing, and you are one of my heroes. Eu amo voce MUITO

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Hope everyone is wearing green and not getting pinched today!!
Oh, and just a preface. It WAS spring break last week so our week was a bit harder to fill up.

Monday night: FHE was fun. We played some pictionary/telephone game that was pretty hilarious. It was where you wrote down a sentence on a piece of paper and then passed it to the next person, who drew out the sentence with pictures, and then folded the paper so you couldn't see the sentence, and then passed it. The next person had to write the sentence based on the picture, then folded the paper over the picture and passed it and the next person had to draw pictures and so on. It was pretty funny. Frank, our investigator, came and had tons of fun. Afterwards, he wanted to read 1 Nephi chapter 8 with us, about Lehi's dream, so of course we said yes! Our ward mission leader Ivan jumped in and it was a really awesome lesson!

Tuesday: We had lunch with Alissha and ate some yummy pizza.
Then, we went to the mission office and printed off a new ward list and went through all of the guys in our ward with the elders. Then, we did some genealogy stuff. We printed off our fan charts and a few cool quotes about genealogy, and we're going to try and use that as a contacting technique this week. So if you have any cool family history stories please email me so I can use them!! (Hint hint, family!!)
Then, we had a lesson at with Frank at Kristin's house. She shared a super awesome quote that I took a picture of, so I'll send that to y'all asap! Frank really liked it, and thought she was crazy. But the good kind of crazy. I think it really helped Frank out.
Then, we met up with the Memorial Springs sisters for exchanges! Sister Bonner came here with me, and that was pretty fun! Sister Bonner has a cousin, Sister Bonner, in this mission too who is actually serving in Montgomery!!

Wednesday: Anyways. I helped Sister Bonner learn some stuff about family history, and then we visited an amazing member named Britni. She is so on top of life!!
We stopped by a new move-in's house but no one was home :( So we tried to go contacting at Kohl's but everyone avoided us... so we just left some flyers for the Why I Believe fireside.
Then we exchanged back and had dinner at CiCi's with Sandra who is an investigator who just moved here from Venezuela (against all odds) and is living with her aunt who is a member, and Michelle and Jessica (who is also Venezuelan) and Courtney. Man, that was so cool!
So, Sandra. She just SHOWED UP at FHE on Monday!! We had a good talk with her, and found out she had just gotten here and is living with her aunt, and the sister missionaries in her aunt's ward were teaching her! So we arranged to have dinner with her on Thursday with some girls we thought she'd connect well with. Flash forward back to Thursday. We had a really good dinner, and then Courtney had to leave. So, Sister King and I decided to have Michelle and Jessica bear their testimonies on the Book of Mormon. They did, and then Sandra jumped in and said, "Yeah, this morning I was really nervous for my first job interview in English. I remembered what the other missionaries said and felt like I should read that book, so I did. It brought me so much comfort and peace, and I didn't feel so nervous anymore! It was amazing!"
Sister King and I were grinning like idiots. It was seriously so amazing to hear that! She feels that it is true, and really connected with Michelle and Jessica. They've been helping her so much with adjusting to everything, and they even went dancing with her on Friday night! She's so amazing and beautiful and wonderful and just fabulous. I love her!
She is a miracle.

Thursday: Weekly planning!! It was super effective. Like, one of the best planning sessions any missionaries have had ever.
After that, we went to AJ's house. The one who has the cat named Ernie ( WHO HAS THUMBS). That was pretty fun. We read in the Book of Mormon with her, the Book of Enos. We had a really good discussion about what we read and about prayer, and it just pumped me up for the rest of the day. I love AJ! I'll be sad when she has to go back to BYU-I for school :(
After AJ's we went and visited a girl named Emily. We shared that "letter" from Heavenly Father with her and invited her to our fireside that we're having.
After that we tried to contact some people but we didn't really have any luck.
Then, we had a GREAT lesson with Frank. We read about the 2,000 stripling warriors and he LOVED it. Then, the elders came in at the end because they were finalizing some things for a baptism they were having on Saturday. So Frank said, and I quote, "Man, I've got all the missionaries on me! Its like Jesus Christ is saying 'Okay, I need EVERYBODY on this guy!'" It pretty much made our night. It was soo hilarious!!! Then, the elders are like, "Hey sisters!! You gotta come see what we did today!!"
So we walk down the hall, all of us together, and there it is. Possibly the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. A HUGE A-Frame of the flyer I designed for our fireside!!! Its like 4 ft tall by 2 ft wide! At least! Sister King was so happy to see it that she almost cried. It was kinda cool to see something that I designed blown up so big and ready to be used to advertise our fireside. It was pretty legit. We took about 5 gazillion picture with it, but I'm only gonna send my favorite.

Friday: We had an AWESOME district meeting about the Word of Wisdom. Seriously, our District Leader Elder Duvall is so awesome. He has some really good spiritual insights.
After that, we ran by the mission office to get some more copies of the Book of Mormon and to get a large jumpsuit for DERRICK!!!! :D Both are really good thing to need to get.
Then, we tried to stop by an old investigator's house but no luck :( So we left a flyer for the fireside with her, and gave another flyer to these two guys playing football outside. They tried to flirt with us, which is always awkward. #missionaryproblems
Then, we went and called people about the fireside and personally invited 30 more people.
And after that, we went and helped Sister Deaver (the mom of one of the lovely sisters in our ward) move into their new house. That was actually pretty fun, and I feel like we got a lot done!
Then, we went and ate dinner with Jacque and Andrea who are amazing. Jacque has a little hair salon in her house, so I may be getting a trim and dying my hair black soon. Haha, just kidding. I won't get my hair cut on my mission! Haha, just kidding again. I'm so funny sometimes :P I promise, y'all, I will not dye my hair black. I like it the way it is. Don't have a panic attack!
Also, whilst eating dinner, we talked with Jacque and Andrea about the table they're in charge of for the fireside. There' apparently been a lot of mis-communication about the tables so we cleared things up for them, and then proceeded to leave after a good spiritual thought and have a bit of a panic attack about the fireside in the car.
After that, we went and "heart attacked" a girl named Sol (soul) and were super sneaky, and then we put hearts on our noses and took some pictures.

Then, we went to the church building because we were supposed to (possibly) meet up with Erick there. I wasn't really in the best mood, so Sister King and I had a good talk while we were waiting for Erick to show up. But he never did. So we went and got some ice cream at DQ.

Saturday: DERRICK GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it was the most rewarding moments on my mission so far! It was like a big reunion. Sister Kyles, Sister Elliott and I were all there and got to be part of the baptism. Derrick was so happy that he could finally get baptized. It was just amazing. He told me, "Thank you so much for getting me here!" So I reminded him that it was Heavenly Father was the one who actually got him there, but he said, "Yeah, but YOU really helped." So that was really good to hear.

I wasn't going to share this, but I think I will. After the baptism, because I'd been having a hard time, I got a blessing from one of the people I knew back in Montgomery. It was amazing. It comforted me about the stuff with Brasil and my visa, and gave me some peace of mind about the fireside as well. So moral of the story is: GET A BLESSING! They help, and that's what the Priesthood is for. It was seriously the best decision I made this past weekend.
After that, we went out and ate lunch at Golden Corral with Amanda and Patrice. That was super fun, and Amanda told us a bit about the Phillipines. Amanda also said that she would help us with the tables for the fireside, so that was a big relief.
When we got back, we called a bunch of people about the fireside again. Then...
WE GOT TO GO TO ANOTHER BAPTISM!! A girl named Jessica (not the one we ate dinner with) got baptized on Saturday night. It was beautiful.
TWO baptisms in one day!!! I felt truly blessed.

Sunday: We met before church about the fireside, which just made Sister King and I panic a little more about it. So we found a room and prayed before church. We were also fasting that day for the fireside, for Erick, for more people to teach, and a few other things. But we just felt pretty discouraged.
BUT! Sandra came to church! And so did Frank!! And he brought his little sister Daisy again. Super cute. He wants us to teach her the Plan of Salvation this week :)
Sister King and I were wondering what to do about dinner since we'd been fasting and as we were getting in our car to leave, Britni texted us and invited us over for dinner!! Miracle!!! So that lifted our spirits up a lot.
Then, we had some craziness to take care of. At church, the elders came up to us and told us that the magnificent A-Frame was missing! We'd left it at the church building over night, and when the Elders stopped by that building, it WASN'T THERE. It was nowhere to be found, and nobody had seen it. So, we were pretty mad. We hadn't even gotten the chance to use it at the college yet because of Spring Break!!! So, we met up with the Elders at the building to search for it. The ASL elders happened to be there too doing family history, so they offered some ideas. Elder Hillebrant (one of the elders in our ward) suggested we call the Bishops/Auxiliary leaders/missionaries in all of the wards that met in that building. When that didn't help, his companion Elder Frandsen suggested we call the top- aka the stake president. Then, Elder Frandsen rethought and said, "WAIT, why don't we pray? That's calling the top!" So we all knelt in prayer, including the ASL elders. After we looked in the dumpster and under the stage but had no luck. We called one of the counselors to the stake president. Turn out they talked about it and thought it might be too dangerous for the children so they took it down, and he put it in his truck and now its down in Magnolia forever away from us. But we found it and we were super relieved!! And one of the ASL elders signed a "thank you" prayer before we all left the church building. Miracles happen people!!! ALL THE TIME! We should be getting the A-Frame back today. Phew!

And now its St Patrick's Day!! We're having a little zone party for it, so that should be fun :)

Love y'all!!

Sister Shell

Over HALFWAY there!! Also, I am hilarious. :)

First off, a BIG, HUGE, GIGANTIC thank you to everyone who helped make my "midway day" so special!!! I got the package and loved it, and have since looked through all the pictures and read all the notes about 1,899,473,543,543.57693 times. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!! OBRIGADA MUITO!!!

Monday: "It was a fabulous day!" says my journal. We got our caricatures drawn by Angelica, which was SUPER fun and now we have them up on our wall in our apartment.

Then, something tragic happened (and by tragic, I'm just being overly dramatic). FHE was country swing dancing!!!! Why would they do that to me??? It was super rude, because I love dancing, but I couldn't, it made me Brayden (my swing dance partner and brother who's going to CHILE), they made US (the missionaries) DJ, and had us play country music. Is  that even allowed? I dunno. I pretty much just bemoaned my fate the whole time. RUDE.
Oh well, I'll just dance all I want in 9 months.
Ew. That's not too far away. Yuck.

Tuesday: Sister King had MLC so I had another Sister Training Leader's companion as my temporary companion for the day. It was fun because she's an Hermana, and she's training, so I got to do some training (for the first time ever!) and we had a good hour for language study!! Halleluyer! We were supposed to have an appointment with a member, but she had to cancel, so we drove around trying to find some new move ins. No luck, it was cold, and we ended up at the church because the new sister was kind of struggling (in general, not because of me) so I could give her a pep talk. Which I did, and hopefully it was what she needed, and hopefully it was awesome!
Then I got Sister King back! Halleluyer! We prepped for our lessons, and headed out the door to dinner at Francisco's. Delicious! We had a really good discussion about repentance, and the Spirit. Before we left he wanted us all to sing "I Am a Child of God" together so his parents (who aren't members) and his sister (who is a member but is really struggling) could feel the Spirit in their home more.
And it worked. The Spirit was super strong when we left. :)
After that, we had an AWESOME lesson with Erick!! He's progressing towards baptism really well :) He is really starting to understand repentance, the Atonement, and the importance of baptism. And his prayer was so amazing and good and I was just super happy when we left. :D
That night, we exchanged with the Magnolia First sister missionaries, and Sister Schellhous (shell-house) was my temporary companion in my area! Meaning, I was left in charge of the area for a day. That was pretty fun.

Wednesday: We went to "The Mission" again at Lonestar, and Sister Schellhous thought it was pretty fun. We handed out a bunch of flyers for our fireside, and everyone seemed pretty excited about it. One of the leaders, Stewart, prayed for us. We all put our hands on each others shoulders (me, Sister Schellhous and Stewart) and then he prayed for us. It was very sincere and nice, and we definitely appreciated that sincerity.
After that, we visited a member named Victoria, who is pretty fun and sweet :) We had a good lesson with her and her siblings, and then had to jet out.
We then had a frustrating lesson with Frank. He told us that we're too repetitive, and that we talk about Jesus Christ too much. However, we ended on a good note, and he committed to stopping coffee and alcohol altogether. So that was good!
We were supposed to have a dinner appointment, but it didn't work out, so we grabbed some Chick Fil A and headed back to Magnolia 1st area to exchange back.
Back with Sister king, we met up with a recent convert named Luis at the church building, and gave a quick, mini church tour, gave him a few flyers for the fireside, and asked Luis if he knew anybody that would like to have a church tour like the one we'd just given him. He said he'd think about it and get back to us, and that he has a few people he'd like to hand out the flyers to. Halleluyer!
After that, we got some ice cream at DQ to celebrate because...
IT WAS MY HALFWAY MARK!!!
Now Sister King and I can both say that we're halfway through our missions. Its kind of a bittersweet feeling. She and I will go home at the same time, which is super weird to think about.

Thursday: My journal entry went something like this;
"Dear neighbor who decided to shower at four am,
NO. Just no.
Sincerely,
Sister Shell

I dunno why our neighbor did that, or why it woke me up, but it did. Oh well. What's done is done."

Yeah, I was kind of annoyed about that.
Anyways.
We were supposed to do another member church tour with Jacque,  Jacob and Dallin, but Jacque couldn't come because she was in the middle of cutting people's hair, so we ended up just having a lesson with Dallin and Jacob outside about the sacrament, and they committed to inviting some friends to the fireside. Halleluyer!
Oh wait. Back up. Before all that, we went and visited Jen's sister Alison, who has some of the same medical issues as Jen but on a smaller scale. Alison told us she was giving a talk on Sunday, about Joseph Smith the Prophet, and asked if our investigators had any concerns about him that she should address in her talk.
I almost lamoni-d. Seriously, nobody ever does that! I've never even thought of doing that! But if every member does that, it would make missionaries happy. Like, super happy. So, I've decided that that's what I'll do for my homecoming talk. I'm gonna get my topic and ask the missionaries that same question that she asked us. Alison is going to the Celestial Kingdom for sure!!
Okay. Fast forward again.  We visited Angelica (the member who drew our caricatures) and had a really good lesson about "Deep Beauty" (see the talk by Elaine S. Dalton or watch the Mormon Message) and it was fabulous.
After that, we had dinner with Becca, who served her mission in Russia. We had a fun time talking about missions, and committed her to inviting people to the fireside. She's so awesome!!!
After that, a miracle happened. Well, they happen all the time. But a big one happened! We stopped by a recent convert's house, who we haven't been able to get in contact with for a while, and she opened the door, saw us and said, "I'm so glad y'all stopped by! I thought you guys forgot about me!! My phone broke and I just got a new one!"
So that was a pretty neat miracle. Now she has our number again, and we're setting up a ride for her so she can come to church when she comes back in town after spring break.
Then, we stopped by another girl's house who is YSA age. Their twins, actually, named Destiny and Faith, and they have an awesome little sister named Hope. They are pretty much pros at meeting celebrities. Seriously, they've met like 56 people (like Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez, and Demi Lovato like 6 times, and a bunch of other people that I don't remember but that are awesomely famous like One Direction). Serious, they are PROFESSIONALS. Its almost scary how good they are at meeting them at hotels, airports, or gas stations. Yeah, not just at the meet and greet things. We're talking about "randomly" meeting them in public. Its almost like they stalk them.
Then, they told me this thing.
Hunter Hayes is going to be at the rodeo next week.
And I almost lamoni-d again.
HUNTER HAYES, y'all.
They told me they'd meet him, and get a signed picture for me. I almost died. And then they said they'd try and get him to sign a Book of Mormon for me, but I was like "NO! Just give him the Book of Mormon!! I'll take the picture!" They also said they'd help me meet him after the mission. Is it bad that I really just want to give him a church tour while he drops into town? Gosh, I'm such a missionary. #yoso
#lamoni
.....
Okay, I've recovered. On with missionary life!

OH YEAH. Here's what happened next. So we set up an appointment with the elders for Erick, and there was a bunch of mis-communication, and next thing you know, Erick thought the elders weren't gonna show up at the church for the lesson and left. AHHH. And we texted and called him and heard nothing back. We felt pretty crummy, and thought maybe we'd ruined it for him.

Friday: We had Zone Meeting which was pretty fun. Elder Wible may have gotten his visa!! (He came out to Texas with me) to my mission! I asked him because his status online (last I'd heard) said that it was ready to send out. So I asked him, and he was like, "Uhh, I'm not supposed to talk about it..." So I'm taking that as confirmation that he got his visa. I'm super stoked for him, if that is the case!!
Then, we were supposed to go volunteer at NAM, but Sister King and I were feeling very overwhelmed. We made a list of why, and then did things to prevent us from getting even more overwhelmed. Hence, we called about 40 people to tell them about the "Why I Believe" fireside because somehow NO ONE in our ward seems to know about it, despite us announcing it in sacrament, it being posted on the Ward Facebook page and it having its own event page on facebook! So we were telling everyone about it on the phone, and committing them to inviting their friends.
Then, we went to a burger place called "The Counter" with Kevin. It was possibly the fanciest, yummiest burger place ever! It was so good.

Saturday: We went to the temple grounds cleanup service project! Sister King and I were both wearing our college t-shirts so we thought that was pretty funny.

We shoveled some dirt- excuse me, I mean soil- and cut up grass, moved it, and then moved it back again, and yanked up some tulips that looked perfectly good to me but were apparently going to die in the next week.
Then, we had lunch with Patrice, Michelle and Jessica at some Greek place and it was reallllly good. Especially after that long service project!! We needed it.
Then, WE GOT PACKAGES!!!
I got my "midway day" package, and loved it. I read through all the little notes from everyone with the dorkiest, happiest grin on my face that stayed while I looked through all the pictures. Thank you sooooo much, everybody!! I loved it!!! Thank you, obrigada, thank you! I won't ever be able to say it enough.

Also, I got some yummy cookies, some Hershey's kisses, and some Kit-Kats. So now we have a lot of food, because that is ALL that was in Sister King's package. Thanks for taking such good care of us y'all! :D
Then, we called everyone and their mom, and their mom's dog's cousin's sister's fiance's owner's brother's niece about the fireside again.
We also got in touch with all the Bishops in the stake, the stake publicity people, each ward mission leader, and each ward bulletin coordinator about the fireside. Yeah, we pretty much run the show here. We felt pretty accomplished and awesome.
Then, we visited Kristin and watched part of the talk "His Grace is Sufficient" which was amazing, just like every other time I've listened to/read that talk. It truly is amazing.

Sunday: I woke up SUPER tired because we all lost an hour of sleep, and SUPER sore because of the temple service project and because I'm out of shape. There, I said it. I'm out of shape. Ugh.
Then, during personal study, I found this quote that I absolutely love. Here it is;
"Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father in Heaven and how familiar His face is to us!"
-President and Prophet Ezra Taft Benson (emphasis added by me)

Then, we went to part of PEC because we're missionaries, and they needed our input. We talked a lot about the fireside and how we can pull that off, and I had a bit of revelation that I shared with Sister King. Here it is: as our stress level rises (depending on how we deal with it) our capability level also rises. So, there you have it folks. So when you're stressed, rise above it, and next time, you'll be capable of so much more.
Then, Frank came to church! And so did our other investigator Lauren! And it was PERFECT because Alison did an AMAZING job on her talk, and it was just awesome. Member missionaries are the best!! But we still hadn't heard anything from Erick and were sort of freaking out.
But, Frank came to our mission council meeting thing after church and gave us some more ideas for the fireside (from a nonmember perspective) and our ward mission leader (who knew we were struggling with Frank) helped us set a baptismal date for him! Since he's waiting for his friend to come back from BYU, it'll be on May 3. FRANK HAS AN OFFICIAL BAPTISM DATE, Y'ALL!!
Then, we were discussing Erick and what we should do, and lo and behold, there was a Christmas miracle, and he texted us!!! :D He said that he's been super busy working but asked if we could meet up this week. Halleluyer, of course we can meet with you this week, Erick!!! :D
Then, we went back and quickly ate some dinner and headed out to watch the Joseph Smith  movie with Lauren. After the movie, we were able to powerfully testify to the truthfulness of the gospel, that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, and that she can come to know this herself.
Then, we went home and called in our numbers. They've temporarily gone a little down because we've had to do a lot of the grunt work for the fireside, but it will really pay off in the long run.

Fun little spiritual thought in case anyone is having a hard time today. Psalm 30 verse 5 says, "...Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."
Just remember that even though its rough right now, it will get better! It has to, and Heavenly Father will make it happen for each of us.

Eu amo voces muito!! Tchau for now!!

com amor,
Sister Shell

Chile, Chile,Chile!! Also, Family History.

Parabens para Brayden!! Chile Santiago North Mission is gonna get one of the best elders in the whole world!!! Halleluyer!! I'm super stoked!

Phew. Now that I got that off of my chest, I'll start my weekly run through.

Monday: We emailed and found out that my FBI Clearance was in SLC! Halleluyer! Then we did shopping and chilled at the apartment for a few hours. After that, we went to FHE, and then went on exchanges. Sister King is the Sister Training Leader, so we basically do exchanges each week.

Tuesday: I read a talk during studies from a BYU devotional in 2006 called "The Very Root of Christian Doctrine" by Thomas B. Griffeth, and it was suuuuuuuuper good. I want everybody to read it!! Its amazing. It talks about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Then, Sister Harrison and I went to an "Old Folks Home" that she and her companion Sister Christensen volunteer at each week. We played Chicken Foot, which was hilarious and reminds me of Mexican Train a bit.
After that, we had lunch at a pong and fed TONS of fish. I mean, swarms. It was pretty awesome. We finished planning some lessons for the day, got the bikes off the rack of the car and headed over to a lady named Autumn's house. We read in the Book of Mormon with her and talked about how she could get her nonmember boyfriend to be interested in the church without being too pushy.
Then, we taught some boys in their ward, and the boys' friend, about Captain Moroni, and how they can be like Captain Moroni! That was pretty cool. Then, we had some yummy Taco Bell for dinner, and went tracting before our appointment.
Here's where it gets cool. We didn't have any success tracting, but just before we went in to our appointment, we got a phone call from a "Mr. McCloud." He'd called over the weekend, saying that he'd found a Family History pamphlet with their number on it, and would like to learn more about how to research his family. They called him back, but he never got back with them. Well, Mr. McCloud happened to call right then and asked if we could meet him at the Family History Center that night! The FHC was open, so of course we said yes and set up an appointment.
Then, we taught a lesson to two adorable little girls named Mia and Aleena (who looks like a little kid version of Sister Kyles) and that was adorable. They both prayed super cute little prayers and loved the Plan of Salvation.
After the lesson, we booked it over to the FHC and there met Mr. McCloud- and his wife, AND his teenage son! Because I took a Family History class, I was able to really help them out. We started his family tree on familysearch.org (which is a free website for members and nonmembers) and we helped him find some members and names that he'd never even heard. It was amazing. I know that I was on that exchange to help Mr. McCloud and his family. Towards the end, they all got emotional and told us that they loved us and thanked us for our help. The Spirit was so strong. Sister Harrison shared a thought about families and how God puts our families together, and then invited them to church. At first Mr. McCloud just said, "We have our own church." But then, his wife suggested that they could visit, so he continued and said,"But for you, we will visit. For you." I talked with his wife about how in our church, families are forever, and she loved that. We also told them the layout of church, and how none of the leaders or teachers are paid, and that there is member participation. They also loved that idea! It was amazing, and I was supposed to be there.
Then, we exchanged back :)

Wednesday: It was kind of a slow day. We printed flyers and emailed our ward email person so that she could send out the information on our Why I Believe fireside. That took FOREVER. Then we went to a place called Chill... which is a Milkshake Bar owned by a member. Its pretty much AWESOME, and I have a feeling Brayden would LOVE it. There's a kid thats a member that works there, and is about his age, and is working on his mission papers. He reminds me a lot of Brayden too, so thats nice. He's pretty excited to hear where Brayden is going. Anyways, so we went to Chill... and put up some of the flyers for our Why I Believe fireside.
After that, we went and visited AJ, an awesome girl in our ward. We talked about grace and the Atonement, and our part. We assigned her to read the talk His Grace is Sufficient by Brad Wilcox. Which EVERYONE should read, by the way. Its amazing. We also listened to part of a Michael S. Wilcox cd on temples. The part we listened to with her is something I call "The Parable of the Keys and the Locks." Its amazing, beautiful, and really stresses the importance of family history. Its about a girl and a boy... Well, its just too long. I'll try and find it to email it to y'all. Its beautiful.
Then, we visited this lady who is in her 40's and has breast cancer. Her name is Kristin. There used to not be sisters in her ward, but now there are, so we all visited her together. That was fun! We shared the same "parable" with her, and she loved it. Family History is SO important.
Then....
BRAYDEN GOT HIS MISSION CALL!

Okay, here's how it went on my side of things. It was 9:30 and I hadn't heard anything from President Pingree yet. I had texted him a little earlier, asking if he'd heard anything from my family, but nothing. I was getting sort of upset and freaking out on the inside, so I prayed. Because that's what you do when you don't know what else to do. You pray, sing some hymns, and eat some chocolate. So I was frantically eating and writing in my journal, when we got a text on the phone. Sister King looked at it, grinned and handed the phone to me. It was a text from President Pingree that Brayden had gotten his mission call to the Chile Santiago North Mission!! I smiled super big, celebrated on the inside, asked Sister King to text President Pingree a "Thank You!" and promptly took up half a page in my journal to write in huge, capital letters, where Brayden was going on his mission. Then I had to go into the other room because I was just so happy, excited and proud of my little brother that my eyes started sweating a little. When I was done writing in my journal, and ready for bed, I was walking back into the room to sleep and Sister King asked if I was okay. I just said, "Yeah, I'm just so proud of the kid!" And my eyes started sweating a little bit more. It must have been pretty hot in our apartment.
Congrats, Brady-Boy!!!

Thursday: We had Zone Conference, and here's the cool part- it was ALL about Family History! Which is what the Spirit led us to focus on with people all week long! That is a miracle. #TCIT (the church is true!)

After that, we visited Jen. No, not the Jen in Caldwell, but a different one who is also awesome. She has EDS (I think thats it..) and MS. Basically, her joints don't stay together very well and so her knees often dislocate, her fingers pop out of place, her shoulder dislocate, etc. She's a pro at keeping herself together though- physically and spiritually, and emotionally. She's amazing. She's only 26 I believe, and she's a hero in my eyes. I love her. It must be something with all these "Jen" people that I meet, because they are all so wonderful. Anyways, we shared that "parable" with her, which she loved, and then left.
We had dinner at some Mexican restaurant called Gringo's with Michele who will probably be a famous singer soon, and her mom. Fun!!!!

Friday: We did weekly planning since we couldn't on Thursday. We erased our whole mirror- we have a huge mirror on the wall of our eating area where we write out the names of our investigators and members who need some extra love- and rewrote everything. Now it looks much more organized, clean, and manageable.
We were supposed to volunteer at NAM but ended up not having time. We were busy doing a lot of stuff for the fireside, and for visiting teaching.
People! Just do your visiting teaching!
And that's all I'll say about that.
We also ate some more yummy stew that we made for dinner! YUM!

Saturday: We ate some yummy Chick Fil A sandwiches for lunch. I, myself, had the number 2 deluxe chicken sandwich without any tomatoes or pickles, and I loved it. A lot.
Then, we went over to Kaylan's and had her help us find some people that we don't know on the ward list. Also, she has a gong in her house, so of course I hit it. I guess I was too timid about it because Kaylan had to wind up and show me how to properly hit the gong. My bad!
Then, we went to "The Waterway" and talked to a cute old man named Pete about family history, and some other dude in his 40s/50s that had been in charge of a marathon earlier that day! Anyways, he told us to "follow your heart" which I already do anyways, so he totally stole my saying... And he told us that Mormons are "exceptional." So there you have it, folks! We are exceptional! The guy also told us to take a stack of posters that say "You're doing great!" that they used for the marathon. So now we have a ton of motivational posters.
After that, we visited Ashley and helped her do some family history. Hooray! That was fun, and we found a lot of stuff. She's only been a member since January, so its been fun to literally start from scratch. From nothing and build up. So cool! We gave her and her little sister each one of those marathon posters.
Then, we went to a cupcake place called "Treat" where I bought the chocolate lovers cupcake, and to "Fuzzy Peach" for some fro-yo with Kaylan and with Janae. I saved the cupcake and just ate my fro-yo (red vevet and chocolate fro-yo covered with crushed oreos and chocolate chips) which was delicious. They also had a huge game of Connect4 in the middle of the place, so we had fun with that. Then we went home and ate dinner. Yeah, late dinner, but we needed it.

Sunday: I bore my testimony in testimony meeting, which was fun. Its kind of weird to be up at a podium and to be in front of more than 20-30 people. But it was nice.
One of our investigators, Frank, brought his sister Daisy and their cousin Fatima to church. They're both 12. That was hilarious, and adorable. They LOVED it, and want us to come over for dinner. Cute huh?
We also ate with AJ and her family for dinner. It kinda reminds me of Sunday dinners at Grammy's house. Nice :)
Then, we visited Jennifer (another one) and had an AWESOME discussion about the Second Coming.
Which made me TOTALLY PUMPED for life.

And today, I get to email y'all! Halleluyer!
Also, sorry if any "L's" are missing... this key is kinda stuck.

Alright. Now everybody, go read the talks "The Very Root of Christian Doctrine", "His Grace is Sufficient", do your visiting/home teaching, do your family history, and prepare for the Second Coming.

love y'all!!

com amor,
Sister Shell

Um, also. Hold the phone.
I hit my HALFWAY mark this week.
As in I've been out here for 9 months. And I only have 9 more to go.
I don't know how to process this.
Gah.
I may "lamoni."
LAMONI (vb)-  to be so overcome and exhausted by the spirit or a strong emotion that one collapses to the ground, unconscious. See Alma 18:40-43 and Alma 19:13-14

OH GOODNESS!!! I almost forgot something else that's important!!!
The sister missionaries in Montgomery texted us and told us that...
DERRICK IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON MARCH 15!!!! For sure!!!!!
And I am so super excited.
:D

Oh dear, I forgot something else that was hilarious.
I have an announcement.
I am now officially and totally a missionary.
Why am I saying this now?
Because the other night, Sister King heard me teaching people in my sleep.
Yupp, I'm a missionary "at all times, in all things, and in all places."

#YOSO (you only serve once)

Sister Shell ringing a gong because "Gongs are sooo cool!"