Jardim Climax!!

Hello everyone!! Long time, huh? My new area is Jardim Climax, and my companion is the lovely Sister Rice from Missouri. She is awesome. I just love her. She's got almost 14 months on the mission.

Monday: Well, I was in my pajamas for the majority of the day, which is always a way awesome thing on P-Day. Found out I was getting transferred.
We had an FHE with Nathara and Fabio and Mateus, and Nathara's sister Barbara. When I told Nathara I got transferred, she just gave me a huge hug and was like "NOOOO." It was kind of sad. I really am going to miss that family.

When I left, everyone was a bit teary eyed. But, I know I'm going to see them again. It will be alright :) We also stopped by to say goodbye to Vitor. That was pretty sad for me, and I had such a tough time not crying because he is just so darn adorable. Mom, dad, y'all have to meet him one day.

Tuesday: We had no ride to transfers, so we lugged my two suitcases and carryone, and Sister Carazas' suitcase and a thousand bags and backpacks all the way to the Knight Bus stop.

We got on the Knight Bus fine and met up with some people from our zone at the train station. We made it through the train and metro and various line changes just fine. Sister Carazas almost fell down the escalator, but luckily my suitcase stopped her. Transfers! Super fun, as always.

Sister Duncan, Sister Rice, and Sister Shell

Goodbye Sister Duncan!!

I had to wait until almost the very end when my picture popped up with Sister Rice's in Jardim Climax! Our area is super super tiny. We rode an onibus here and through my suitcases in the house. When she found out that I have 15 months on the mission, she got super excited and blurted out "I am so excited to kill you!!! Nossa. I really hope I get to kill you. Don't be scared."
Yupp. Thats my companion.

Our first almoço was with Carol, and her kid Guilherme. AKA Gui. He is five years old and his energy is limitless. I told him to guess how old I was, and his first guess?
"99!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
I told him to guess lower.
"98!!!!!!!!!!!!97!!!!! 96!!!!! 95!!!!!!!" His mom finally said, "She is younger than dad and I!"
"10!!!!!!!! 11!!!!! 12?!?!?!?!?!" After about ten minutes he finally guessed 20. When I told him he was right, he yelled at the top of his lungs "SABIA!!!!!!!!! I KNEW IT!!!!!!" It was just too funny.
We visited Rita, the mom of a less active who we are teaching. She is cute. She has been taking the lessons for about 13 years and is somewhat of an eternigator. But all is well! She is super nice and likes all of the stuff we share with her. We just need to let the Spirit really work with her.

Wednesday: We had a lesson with an investigator named Janete who told us she doesn't feel like getting baptized. Its really sad when that happens. Because I just know how much is here waiting for them and they are just like "thanks, but no thanks."
Rita made tapioca for us. It was pretty great. I ate a lot and then was like UGH.
Met Bispo!!! His daughter Pamela just got back from her mission like 2 weeks ago and so they are all super pumped about missionary work. We had a really good meeting, and Bispo during it asked if we'd seen somebody's life change on the mission. I answered automically and said, "Com certeza. Minha. Minha vida." That really touched them, and they somehow felt the Spirit a lot through that tiny, sincere response. I shared my favorite scripture with them Alma 36:24-25 and told them that we are here to baptize and rescue. We are going to have miracles.
Then, we taught our investigator Ana Cristina! She is awesome. Her husband is a pastor of another church, so she is a bit timid about getting baptized. But she is living everything we are teaching her and its so awesome. Her best friend is a member of the ward, and so everything is going really well with her.

Thursday: I started studying the Christlike attribute of humility. And thats where our week turned sour. Literally EVERYTHING fell through, we walked for forever, no one wanted to talk to us. Sister Rice and I were still pretty determined though. At night, she said, "Go big or go home!!! And we CAN'T go home, so...." It was pretty funny. We had a random impromptu lesson with Dina that went pretty well, so thats good. The highlight of my day was this- someone in the street asked if I was Gauchá. (From some place in Brasil where lots of people are more white). And it made my day. I don't even care if maybe she was on drugs. Thank you, Fabiana. We are going to visit her sometime this week!

Friday: We ate with Irmã Texeira for lunch and man, she gobbed the food on our plate. I was seriously so ridiculously full. Then, everything fell through. Literally. I've said that before, I know. But seriously, everything. It was bad. We were on our feet for EVER.

Saturday: AGAIN, everything fell through. But we helped clean the chapel with the ward and we had churrasco. So that was pretty fun.

Sunday: Church was awesome. After the sacrament was done being passed, Bishop called me up to the front to introduce myself and to start off testimony meeting. It was a really powerful testimony meeting and our investigator, Ana Cristina, loved it! We are teaching her tomorrow, so I can't wait to talk to her more about it. One again, everything fell through and we ended up walking around and trying to talk to people who really didn't want to listen. We ended up visiting some members who haven't been able to make it out to church the past few weeks.

And here we are!! This week is going to be awesome! I am super excited. I love you all!
Do me a favor. Pick a Christlike attribute this week and have the courage to pray to develop it more this week. PMG chapter 6.

Tchau!!!

com amor,
Sister Shell

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