Milagres!!

Sister Shell and one of Hamiliton's Dollhouses

Well, this week was another interesting week. But, we did have several miracles as always!!!

Monday: Good P-Day, and after our district meeting, we had a Family Night with Fabio and Natara!! It was pretty good. Fabio is still struggling with smoking, but I have faith that he will be able to stop completely, soon, and be baptized!

Tuesday: We ate lunch with Irmã Alice, and shared a spiritual thought with her and her son, who hasn't been to church in a while and usually doesn't listen to our spiritual thought. So that was cool!
Our appointment after lunch didn't work out, and Sister Duncan wasn't feeling too well. So we decided to go back to our house for a minute, grab some more copies of the Book of Mormon to give to a member who wanted them, and then head back out.
This is not what happened.
What happened is that Sister Duncan basically ran up stairs and threw up a lot. We stayed in our house until that night, when Irmã Carmen wanted us to come over so she could give Sister Duncan that doesn't have gluten. Because Sister Duncan has a gluten allergy.
But! Sister Green was in our area for the day and it was our 14 month mark! So we basically had a party together.

A cute puppy Sister Shell got to play with on her 14th month mark!

Wednesday: We taught Andrea the Restauration- the sister of Fabio. That went super well, and she is super excited to read the Book of Mormon!
Then, we went to teach Vitor. If you remember from last week, he promised that in our next visit, he would pray. Well, after we finished teaching, we asked if he would pray. He started talking about how he likes listening, and feels more comfortable listening, but we reminded him that he promised and asked again. And he just looked at us and I thought "Man, he's not gonna do it..."
AND THEN.
Then he said, "Well, I'll try."
AND HE PRAYED!!!!! It was so cute and sincere. And I was smiling like an idiot through it all, and when we all said "amen" I looked up and shed a tear or two because I was just so darn happy! Seriously, it was one of my favorite moments here in  Brasil so far.
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Then, everything else fell through that day. But I didn't even care because I was just so happy about Vitor. Plus, we saw more than half the moon at 3:45 and it was super bright. What the heck??

Thursday: We were finally able to teach Maria again- the grandmother of Irmão João. We read in the Book of Mormon with her. She still isn't sure about everything, but she liked what we read and felt the Spirit.

Then, after literally everything was falling through and it was kind of a miserable day, we decided to try James and Patricia for the millionth time, and see if they were home. Well guess what!!! They were! And we had a really good discussion with them. We taught them about Joseph Smith and how the gospel is restored. They seemed to understand everything and accepted baptism!
Never give up! Never surrendur! (I am still not sure if thats how you spell it... I stared at that word for a good thirty seconds. Is it surrendur or surrender? Someone please tell me... this computer speaks and writes Portuguese so it highlights everything in red...)

Friday: Sexta festa! We went by to thank Jani for the beautiful scarves that she gave us (see the picture of us with Vitor) and had a really good lesson with her. It was all about prayer and the Resurrection. She doesn't believe that families can actually be together forever, and believes that we will forget our families after this life. That just makes me so sad, and so grateful for the knowledge and testimony I have that my family really is eternal.
Then, we taught Andrea again! This time it was the Plan of Salvation. She paid so much attention and loved it all. You could tell that everything really hit home for her. It was incredible.
Then, we did a quick follow up with Fabio and headed off to a bunch of other people who weren't home. Until we stopped by Hamilton's house!! His whole family was coming over, so we had a quick lesson with his daughter.

We tried to include Hamilton in the lesson and the prayer, but as he put it, "Sou ateu, graças a Deus! I'm an atheist, thanks to God!" Yupp. But we testified that God loved him and that he is God's son and he couldn't argue with that. I mean, when you tell people that someone loves them, what can they do? Its not a bad thing. I mean, God loves everyone. So I just kept telling him that, and that his family only talks to him about God because they love him too. Love, love, love! That really is what its all about.

Saturday: We finally were able to contact Lucas! He was a referral from the other sisters in our ward. He looks kind of like a Brazilian Spock. Live long and prosper, my friends. And goodness, is he prepared!!! We taught part of the Restoration on the doorstep, gave him a pamphlet and the Book of Mormon and invited him to church the next day. He told us he would come, which is what everyone says. We marked an appointment with him for this Wednesday and then as we were leaving, said, "Tchau! Até quarta!" And he corrected us and said "Até a manha!" Oh snap! That was pretty cool.
After we visited Janaina, and taught the Plan of Salvation. She is coming back to church and it was such a good lesson. She remembered tons of things and she is just adorable. I love her so much!
Then, we went to have pão de queijo with Vitor!!! He even gave us the recipe. We are going to try and do it ourselves today. I'll tell you how that goes! I wanna make it for y'all when I get back. Perhaps for Thanksgiving for everybody. Because it is just so good. Then, after our lesson with him, we asked if he would pray. He explained again that he would rather listen and that he prayed the other day. But then!! Our superhero members jumped in and helped...
AND VITOR PRAYED AGAIN!!!! I was so happy, I grinned like an idiot again, and I nearly cried again. SO much happiness. I just can't explain it.
Then, we had our auction!! For the past while, we've had a missionary competition in the ward. For everything the members in our ward to to help us our with missionary work, they gain "ontis" the money that the Nephites use in the Book of Mormon. At the auction, we all got together and they bought things with their ontis. Irmã Deborah was pretty hilarious. "Marido! Cumpre, por favor! POR FAVOR!! MARIDO!!!" Because they had 50 ontis, the mosst anyone had, and she wanted lots of things. So she would grab him, or his shirt, and yank him and yell out "5 ontis! 5! Ah! 7! 7 ontis!"
It was pretty funny. And the celebrations were hilarious too.

Sunday: Lo and behold, Brasil Spock- aka Lucas- showed up at church!! We got there a few minutes late and peeked into Priesthood through the window but didn't see anyone. But then! Irmã Deborah said that he was here and that two brothers of the ward were helping him out. Woot woot!
When we got to Gospel Principles, my happiness level nearly exploded. He brought his Bible, he brought the Book of Mormon, he brought the pamphlet, and he took notes! I about died. MILAGRES!
During sacrament, he asked a few really good questions that I was able to help answer, and he continued to take notes. He really liked church and is excited for us to teach him this week. Woot-woot! #livelongandprosper
Are hashtags even a thing anymore??
Then, we stopped by to wish Vitor a feliz dia dos pais- because it was Father's Day here, happy Father's day to everyone again!- and met his whole family. That was fun.
Then, we had a really good lesson with Carolina and Paulo. And their little girl saw that I looked like Anna from Frozen, went and put on her "Anna" dress and put on music from Frozen and started singing right along- in English.
I'm not trunky, I promise, but I am pretty stoked to see what all the hype is about.

Ah! No time left!! I love you all!! Thank you for everything!!!

com amor,
Sister Shell

14 Months, Y'all!

Can you believe that time can pass by so quickly?? I can't. I just can't. So I just won't. Ha there!!!

Tuesday: Well, lots of stuff fell through like usual. But! All is well! We had a really good lesson with João, cousin to Irmão João. We taught him the Restoration, and goodness. He is prepared. He told us that he is always searching, and never seems to find what he is looking for. We testified that he has found what he is looking for, and invited him to baptism. He accepted, but didn't accept a date because he wants to come to church first. Unfortunately he wasn't able to come this week because his daughter was robbed at gunpoint towards the end of the week, and he basically spent the rest of the week helping her out.
That night, we went over to Irmã Carmens! That was fun!! She pulled out her phone and who did she call? Sister Rojas!! Oops. I mean Divina. Sister Barraza was the first sister that she trained, so Divina got to talk to her first and last "daughters" in the mission. It was so weird but so good to talk to her.

Wednesday: We taught a guy named Marcos. Well, we listened for the majority of the time. He was so grateful that we took time to try and help him, and was immensely grateful for the present we gave him- the Book of Mormon. It was a spiritually filled lesson, and when we finally got out we were shocked to see that 2 hours went by!
Then, we went to visit Fabiana. Only her parents were there, so we taught them the Plan of Salvation. They loved it! They still aren't sure about baptism, but they told us that they would pray about it.
Then, we had a Noite Familiar with Fabio and Natara. That was so fun! We discussed faith, and had them do the faith part of the Developing Christlike Attributes section of PMG. Fabio seems pretty animated, and told us he would study the parts we marked in True to the Faith.
We also got to see Irmã Dirci. We got to teach her, and her husband who isn't a member! It was awesome. And, she made us tapeoka. I don't know how to explain it, but its delicious and I had two.

hn Thursday: I was on exchanges with Sister Barraza! Naturally, everything fell through. But! We did get to teach Vitor! He is just so cute. I think he understands more and more each time we teach him, and he reassured us that he is still thinking and praying about baptism.
That night, we went to Marcelo. It was especially hard for him because soon it will be Father's Day here in Brasil, and his father passed away within this last year. We listened to him, and were able to testify to him. Sister Barraza has an amazing voice, so we sang Onde Encontrar a Paz? for him. The Spirit was so strong, and the moment was beautiful.
On our way back, we passed the dollhouses that Hamilton builds. I was pointing them out to Sister Barraza when suddenly, I almost died. Okay, a little dramatic. I'm not sure what happened, but I rolled my ankle pretty bad.

Thankfully we were only 15 minutes away from our house, so we got home fine. It was kind of crazy to see how swollen it was when we finally got to the house. I put it up and iced it for planning, and then went to sleep.

Friday: When I woke up, my ankle hurt like crazy. It was so stiff! I limped around getting ready for Zone Conference and took some Ibuprofen. Thankfully there were lots of open seats on the Knight Bus so I didn't have to stand!
Zone Conference was amazing!!!

Presidente Broadbent is truly an inspired servant of the Lord. I left more motivated than ever to prepare my investigators to be "born again" and not just baptized.
While there, I asked our Zone Leaders Elders Anfuso (de Argentina) and Lago (de Manaus) to give me a blessing of health for my ankle. Before we left, we put some natural oil on my ankle that Sister Duncan had in her purse. It smelled weird. When we got back to our house to put the materials away, it was about 6:30 at night. My ankle was hurting a lot, so I asked Sister Duncan if we could stay inside so I could take care of my ankle, and not lose any more proselyting time during ther rest of the week. We called our District Leader and got permission, and so ice it was! I even went to bed early.

Saturday: Woke up and my ankle wasn't nearly as swollen or stiff! I was worried when we left for lunch, but I didn't feel any pain in my ankle. The power of Priesthood is real. The only times during the day when I felt any pain in my ankle were when I was sitting down at members houses. And even then, it wasn't that much. Crazy huh? Miracles are real.
We taught Vitor, and MIRACLE OF MIRACLES!!! He promised to pray with us in the next lesson! He has never prayed in front of us before, so I am pretty stoked!!! :D He is also going to make pão de queijo for us this Saturday! Woot woot!
We also were finally able to teach Santa again. We sang for her and read a little in the Book of Mormon with her, and marked another appointment for this week.
Then, we went to see if Fabio was fasting like he said he would but found him playing pool at the bar in the street... He wasn't drinking, just playing the game, but it made us nervous and a little... okay, a lot sad.
We had a good lesson after with Dirci and her son Diogo, who is also a member, and then went to the activity! We played the game Gato e Rato. I will play that with y'all when I get home eventually.

Sunday: Fast Sunday! It was amazing! We were finally able to teach Maria Helia again! Halleluyer! And then we were able to mark an appointment with Marco and Alessandra.
Then, that night, we had a really good spiritual discussion with Natara, her mom, and Fabio's sister Andrea. It was awesome. Plus, they fed us some of their leftover churrasco.

Update on Portuguese: At the Zone Conference, I talked to Sister Broadbent in English, and man! That was difficult! For about 20 seconds, I couldn't remember the word "always" in English and repeated "sempre" about 12 times in Portugese before I remembered it. SUCCESS!

I love you all! The church is true! Pray for missionary opportunities, and then use every chance you get to share your testimonies!

com amor,
Sister Shell