Sister Shelby Lynn Dana: It is a Good Thing My Companion is a Champ.

Otherwise, she would probably kill me. This week, we decided to go hard on the diet and exercise stuff! It is super hard over here, but Sister Rodrigues was having a few knee problems and decided that losing some weight is the best way to get rid of them. So, this week and for always we are waking up at 6 to go run and basically eating the exact opposite of the Brazilian diet...vegetables...fruits...things completely foreign. But she is such a good sport! Mom, remember when we used to go running and you would be like, "Come on, you can do it!!" and I would want to bop you in the nose? Now I am doing the same thing to Sister Rodrigues, but she is a real champ and a Christlike person and so much better than me...she just glares. But it has been a good week!

We are healthyyyyy (I don't know why I have half a picture - it shows up full in some places and half in another - She's holding the vegetables in the half you can't see.)

We are healthyyyyy

We had a few cool lessons this week. One was with Cristiano, who is a friend of a member that we taught at the church on Tuesday. We gave him a tour of the chapel before the lesson and he goes, "Yeah, I would like to get baptized here..." Ok. That is definitely ok with us. The hard thing is that he works allll day on Sunday, so if ya´ll could pray that he gets a shift change or something, we would appreciate it! We also met a really cool guy named José Luis!! He is 21 and the son of one of our investigators, but we had never met him before. We went over to have a lesson with Lindalva, his mom, but she wasn´t home. He goes, "Oh! My mom told me about you guys! Come in, teach me!" Wow. How often does that happen?? Like never. Unfortunately his mom wasn´t there so we couldn´t come in, but we taught him in the doorway and he said that he felt a peace he had been looking for for a long time. Oh I am super happy to hear that! He accepted baptism too, so we will be working hard for that the next few weeks.

I also did a division with my pal Sister Fortes! It does NOT seem like she has only been out for 2 transfers. She is an incredible missionary and literally, I didn´t have ANYTHING to correct. Her area is super hard...so hard, in fact, that she and Sister Hicken have to make Plans A, B, and C for every hour of the day. Well, all three of the plans fell through around 4pm, and I could tell that she was getting nervous not knowing what to do. So we sat down and decided to say a prayer and asked that someone would let us in the door. When we finished up, this lady opens her door and goes, "What are you guys doing? Do you want to come in?" I love how Heavenly Father listens to prayers.

We had a scary experience this week too. We were walking down the street in one of the poorer parts of our area and this lady just fell on the ground and started screaming. She had an epileptic attack and hit her head on a rock, and no one even stopped to help her! Sister Rodrigues and I ran over to help, and we called over a few of the other people that were just standing around watching, not doing anything! I got so ticked off! No one called anyone, they just sat there and let her go! Finally she calmed down and got back to normal, but we were pretty shaken up. This made me really sad, not just because she got hurt and it was scary, but because no one even did a thing. Ridiculous.

In better news, Conference is basically the best thing ever. Right up there with Christmas these days in my book! I love love loved Elder Ballard´s talk! How´s the Preach My Gospel study coming, my friends?? We will definitely be using that one a lot! Another that I loved was President Uchtdorf. I will try a lot harder to be grateful for the things that I have in my life and I have a new goal not to complain or whine about ANYTHING for the rest of my mission. It seemed to me that this Conference was full of warnings, telling us to be ready because things are going to be getting a lot harder. We are ready though. And obedience--exact obedience-- is the only thing that will save our families.

Last bit of info...today is transfer day! Sister Rodrigues and I are staying together again, but Sister Hicken was transferred. I am so sad! She has been a wonderful pal with me for the last 3 months and I know that we will keep being friends after the mish too! But....Sister Fortes is going to train! So we will be having a greenie in our house! It´s gonna be great:)

Shoutout to my cuzzy Kyle who is heading out to Japan! That is super cool and he will LOVE being a missionary. It is the best job in the whole wide world! Good to know that Cooper is doing well...mom. Please stop embarrassing him. It is not funny, nor will it be. You are not the one who will have to suffer the shame of a crazy mom. Highschool is hard enough already...the poor kid. I appreciate the efforts though;) Just be a tad more discreet.

Love you guys all so much, have a great week!

Love,

Sister Dana