Carta Semanal!

That means weekly letter.  I am running out of creative titles for these things.  Welp, it is super good to hear that all of you guys are still alive and kicking!  I am too...barely.  This week was killer!  Started out with a pday from...heck.  Seriously, last week after we sent out the emails, we attacked the house of Gravatá.  Holy cow. It looked like Elders were living there.  I spent a solid 3 hours in the shower with steel wool and straight bleach.  Nasty nast!  Also there is a fun little attribute of our house where you have to use a bucket to use the bathroom and the washing machine.  That´s been pretty great.  Lies, it is disgusting.  Anyway...

We had a good week, as far as teaching goes.  Tarcisio is progressing well, and a recent convert´s brother came to church with them and wants to be baptized!  Happy to help you there, sir!  Unfortunately, we got some sad news about Luis and Maria, our lovely family.  They are not married, and have little or no desire to change that facebook status.  BUT I have faith.  And the way we found out is kind of hilarious, so I will tell that story.

We get to their house, and I am super sly about finding out if people are married or not.  So we started talking about all the stuff that you can do in the church, like dances and soccer and...marriages....And this is how it went down.

Sister Dana (S): Maria!  How was your wedding?!?  What was it like!?  I looooveee weddings....

Maria(M):  Oh, we never got married.  

(S): Ah.  Well, how did you meet Luis??

(M): We are cousins!

(S): ........Really!  Wow!

(M):  Yep, our dads are brothers!

(S): ....Oh my! Cute!

(M): Yes, we´re very lucky!  None of the kids have any defects, so that is a blessing.  Oh, just this.  Tiago, Tatie, show the sisters your feet!

 *Tiago and Tatie stick their feet on the table*

(S):Wow!  Six toes!  How fun!

(M): Yeah!  It´s so cute, right?!

(S): .....uh-huh!

And this is where we had to change the subject real fast or I would lose it.  So the moral of the story is....Uncle Tyler was wrong.  You can never ever kiss your cousins.  Because there is a reason these things are illegal.  But the best part was Elder Woodland, my ZL´s reaction when I called him to ask if we could marry them and told him the story.  He said no way, then asked his Brazilian companion, and found out that we can! So...if you ever want to marry your cousin, you can come here!

This week, Sister Rodrigues passed the 9 month mark!  We had a party and she did the whole belly thing and it was reals cute!  Then I woke up this morning and saw that they decorated the house for my 10 month mark too!  How adorable!  I really do love the girls in here.  We have a blast!

10 Months!

Oh, another story.  I was asked to play the violin this week for a Primary presentation, so I did and it was fun!  But before that, I had to do some serious work on the violin because it was in bad shape.  Then we got to the program, and they turned the A/C up so high!  It was sososo cold!  So of course I had to run out of the room every 10 minutes to keep tuning the darn thing!  But it was really good, so that is all that matters!

Today we climbed a giant mountain in our dresses and took some cool pictures, so I´ll send some of those.  Oh, I also got to go on a division with Sister Seidmann on Tuesday and be her companion for the day!  It was so great to be back with her!  That girl inspires me and is an incredible missionary.  It was even better than before because the language barrier is non-existent.  She is really one of my best friends and I want to be like her!  So glad that I got to meet her and be her companion!

Today at the top of the cruzeiro

Found Jesus!

Division with Seidmann

One last story.  So this week I was reading about charity in 1 Corinthians 13, and decided that I needed to be more charitable.  So I prayed and asked the Lord to help me out with that and give me opportunities to be charitable.  Ohhhh how He did!  That day was literally the hardest of my mission, physically speaking.  Every single muscle in my body was crying, I was hurting so bad!  And no one wanted to talk to us...it was just a rough day.  Then I got home and looked at the scripture...."Charity suffereth long...." Good grief.  Ask and ye shall receive.

Oh, one more thing.  Here, I only get letters about once a month.  Or every six weeks.  So...it stinks. But send them anyway!

Love love love you all!  Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Dana

This is what happens when I try to hammer in a nail with...a straightener.  Mission houses have no tools.

My companions!  Sister Rodrigues, Butler, and Seidmann!  Same zone!

We are Pretty:)

With Sister Butler (MTC companion)

With Sister Perez

Dearest Darlingest Momsie and Popsicle...

That is from Wicked.  I am rejoicing because I am finally living with an American who understands me up in here!  Sister Hicken is darling and from Michigan.  She likes to sing, and so do I!  And we sound pretty good together, if I do say so myself.  So we talk about stuff that is American too, which I love. And we teach English class together on Wednesdays!  So that´s fun.

I love Gravatá!  I love it a lot!  The people here are so cute...literally, this place is the Brazil version of Snowflake.  It is super clean and it´s really touristy, so all the houses are painted beautifully.  That was definitely a change from Jaboatao!  But everyone knows everyone and really...I just keep expecting to see Steve Reel popping up around a corner or something.  It is THAT similar!  So I do feel right at home!

Sister Rodrigues is wonderful!  She takes care of me well, like she does my nails and my eyebrows and we share clothes, and she is super funny.  She tries to say random things in English that make me laugh.  We are pretty much ridiculous together and it is a daily miracle that we get any work done!  But we do!

I like her!

Oh we are pretty...

Sister Rodrigues on our way to district meeting

Matching shoes and feet, gross!

Sister Hicken is training Sister Fortes, who is fresh from the MTC in Sao Paulo.  She is a crack up, because she is so smart and really witty!  But she is super stoked to be here, and she just turned 19 in October.  She´s darling from her hipster glasses to her socks with her name stitched in them.  Oh it is going to be a good transfer!  It is really weird to be the person with the most time on the mission here though!  Sister Rodrigues will hit the halfway mark this week, and I´m almost at 10...so I am finally starting to feel old!

Sister Fortes, Hicken and Rodrigues

The sisters of our house

Oh we are pretty

This week was great.  We are basically starting from the ground up with our teaching pool, so we got 21 new investigators this week.  One of them is a beautiful family with 3 kids (19, 17, 11).  They are perfect!  Their daughters both had a lesson with us before we met their parents, and the two of them said that they receive an answer that the message is true!  The family came to church with us yesterday and loved it.  They will come again, and I can´t wait to teach them the Plan of Salvation this week.  Hopefully we´ll mark them for baptism this week too!  

We also had  great lesson with Tarcisio;  He has 2 brothers that both served missions and has received the missionaries many times, but never was super interested.  As soon as we walked in his house on Saturday, I got the feeling to just ask him when he wants to be baptized and to the interview questions;  He goes, "Yeah, I´ve been wanting this for a while;  I´m going to Sao Paulo next week to watch my brother get sealed in the temple...can I get baptized when I come back?"  Yes.  Yes you can.  He was at church too and is such a cool guy!

We went over to visit a family that Sister Rodrigues and Sister Remy were starting to teach too.  Holy cow, this lesson was the bomb.  We started off thinking we would teach the Book of Mormon, but ended up teaching temples and forever families.  I told them about when my family was sealed and how I can remember it, and Sister Rodrigues told about her family being sealed too.  Everyone was crying, and it was really, really cool!  Hopefully we can help them get to church so that they can be baptized too!

I love our zone here.  Why? Because I am with Sister Seidmann!  AND Sister Butler!  It is really awesome to get to see and hang out with them every week for district meeting!  They are doing well and are beautiful as always. :)  

Welp it is super good to here from you guys!  Mom...those pictures.  I died.  Not because they are so funny, but because I have about 50 of the exact same faces on my camera and the other sisters´ cameras.  Sister Rodrigues couldn´t believe it..I think we might be related.

Good to know that everything is going well there.  Tell Cooper that I say hi and a few of my investigators want to add him on facebook after I showed them his picture.  No way José, at least not til you´re baptized, sweetheart.  And HAPPY ONE YEAR ON THE MISSION TO MY BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD SYSTER CLOUSE!!!!!!!!

Love love love you all!

Sister Dana

Just doing some laundry

Óla de Gravatá!

So! I am currently serving in Gravatá!  This is the interior of Pernambuco, and we just got here about 2 hours ago.   My new companion is Sister Rodrigues and she is adorable.  I can tell we are going to be bff´s real quick!  It was super hard to leave Sister Patino, but guess what!  She is going to train!  AND Sister Souza is going to open up Candelária 2! All of my dreams for that area are coming true...it is a good day!

Basically this was one of the best weeks ever.  We went to Olinda last Pday, and it is beautiful there!  Olinda is one of the cultural cities of Pernambuco, and it is right on the beach.  They have this super cool elevator that takes you really high and you can see out forever!  I´ll send some pictures...it was so much fun!

Sisters in Olinda

Sister Souza, Sister Dana, Sister Patino

Olinda

Olinda

Olinda

Olinda

Olinda

Shelby in Olinda

"sweet church" in Olinda

Olinda

So anyway, basically everyone knew that I was going to bail hard this week.  Brazilians...they like to go out in style.  It was party and cake and crying allllll week! Whyyyy  do they do this...but I am lying, I loved it.  This ward really is my family and I love them!  It is incredible how things are different now.  They are working a ton with us and people are just appearing that want to be baptized and it is super fun!  I know that the sisters there are going to be way busy and that is a good thing, because you know...everyone needs to be baptized!

Familia Bonfin

Last day at the Candelaria ward

I have GOT to tell you guys what happened with Mariangela this week.  She is amazing.  Mariangela is a psychologist that Georges introduced to us and she has a daughter with Down´s Syndrome who is basically the sweetest little thing in the world!  Anyway, Mariangela is incredibly intelligent.  We met her about 3 weeks ago, and she was baptized this week.  Why?  Because the gospel is logical. It makes sense!  And she just knew that it was true!  Oh she is so cool though.  She knows how to analyze handwriting, right??  So of course we all brought stuff for her to analyze.  It was sweet!  She said that I am a leader but impatient, that I don´t like to change my mind, but that my spirituality is really well developed and I was nervous about something that would happen soon (transfers....) Cool, right??!  It is like having a psychic that we are allowed to believe in.  anyway, we baptized her yesterday and it was soooo special.  The WHOLE ENTIRE WARD was there!  Really, when I think of how different things were for my first baptism here...this place has changed a lot.  They had a cake and I played Sister Souza´s violin (haven´t lost anything yet! Miracle..) and it was so so perfect!  Then at the end, Cinthia and Felipe and all the other youth brought out this cake that said my name on it and everything....good grief, I have never felt so much love in my whole life!  I know that this church is true, if only by the love that people have for each other in that ward!  Oh it was so hard to say goodbye!  Transfers are terrible....seriously.

Shelby with Mariangela

Mariangele and Sofia

Shelby with Mariangelina

Mariangela's Baptism

It was way rough to say goodbye to Messias and Fatima and her family, all the people that I love so much and had the privilege to help find the gospel.  Oh how I hope that they will stay strong!  I know that sister  Patino will be incredible there though.  she is a wonderful example to me and I was able to learn so much from her.  She is patient and humble and really dedicated to the work.  That is exactly what the ward needs!

Saying Goodbye

Saying Goodbye

Sad Sisters

Thank you so much for the letters!  It is great to know that everyone is doing so well!  Also, guess what I got this week!  A Christmas package from Leslie from Sweden!!!!!  Do I have the best bestest friend in the world or what?!  Seriously....

Anyways, have a great week and HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA FLAKE!  Say your prayers and read your scriptures!

Love,

Sister Dana

Candelaria ZL's Elder Baldwin and Elder Maia

Sister Dana and Sister Martins

Zone Conference

I love Brazil!

First Week of 2014!

Hope your new year was a happy one!  Mom, thank you for the proof that you have friends.  But now I want more pictures with new faces, because you always hang out with them.  It is time to expand your circle.  (Do you like how I stick this in the letters so that maybe the people who read them will talk to you more and invite you guys to do fun things?)  Really, make good use of our house.  It is excellent for parties.  Anyway, I can´t wait to try out the Maverick when I get home!  Will you let me drive it??  Yes.  This is because I have to brush up on my skills and be all impressive if I want to get married.  But, we don´t have to worry about that for like, another 5 years, right?? ;)

So, this week!  New Years´ was pretty funny.  EVERYONE goes to the beach on New Year´s Eve, and the beach happens to be right in front of our house.  So we taught all day on New Year´s Eve, then had to be home by 6 because that is when the partying begins.  Holy smokes.  Brazil knows how to party.  ALL NIGHT LONG.  They had a singer, Claudia Leite, come and do a performance there, and basically 3 cities worth of people were there to watch that and the fireworks.  Sister Patty and I, on the other hand, had a rollicking good time watching the fireworks from our balcony at midnight and doing our nails and catching up on all the million letters that I had to write.  Also, we did this one Colombian tradition where you have to eat 12 grapes in the first minute of the year, and every grape is a wish, and if you do, it will come true!  I did it!  So let´s just say that this year, we will be having many baptisms, and when I come home, I will lose all my mission weight and get a new car.  All because of some grapes!  Good grief, I should have done this sooner!  :)

Well, like Sister Patino said, I discovered that January 1st only exists in South America because they have to stick it in there or the calendar would be off.  Forget New Year´s resolutions...everyone is basically passed out the whole entire day.  Really, it is the day that no one plans on doing ANYTHING because they partied so hard the night before.  It was pretty rough trying to teach, that is for sure!  But we managed to get  a few lessons in there!

This week, we also had an AWESOME surprise!  President called, and told us to head over to the office on Friday, where we picked up Sister Souza, and now we are in trio! Sister Souza is learning the area for after transfers next week, when she and Sister Patino will receive new companions and open up Candelaria 2!!! Oh you have no idea how excited I am!  This was definitely one of my goals from the beginning, to get enough investigators and baptisms in here that President agrees we can send in 2 companionships in this area!  And here it is!  The ward is super happy too.  I just know that this will help them divide the ward and be really great for all the reactivations we are trying to do.  The only sad thing...this means that I will be bailing hard out of my first area in Brazil next Monday!  That is SUPER sad for me, because I love love love this ward so much!  The people here are my family and they have taken care of me so well...good grief, it´ll be so weird to be teaching somewhere else!  But I am excited too, because maybe I will get to know more of Brazil for the next 9 months of my mission!

We are praying hardcore for Olanda this week.  Sister Souza is SO perfect for her.  She was exactly what we were missing, and I know that she was sent here to help the work.  She will do really amazing things here with my people, and it´s a good thing I trust her to work hard!  Anyway, OIanda is having a lot of doubts about baptism still, and we have her marked for Saturday, so we are going to be praying hardcore and visiting her like, every day to help her feel the spirit better and recognize the answers when they come.  She is SO special and really smart, and I know that she would be an incredible missionary one day too!  We just have to help her recognize it!  

Well, we will be working super hard this week because I am determined to go out of Jab. Litoral in style!  We´re gonna get a huge teaching pool too, to help the other sisters start off well, and it will be super great!  Have  a great week, and I love you guys a ton!  Shout out to Leslie b/c she reads my letters and likes seeing her name in them. Love that girl!

Loveeee,

Sister Dana

Feliz Ano Novo!

Oh my goodness, it was so dang fun to talk to you guys!  Really, that was the absolute best part of Christmas!  You are all so very pretty. Did you know that?  Really though, my family is beautiful.  AND WHY IS COOPER HUGE?! I was still freaking out about his voice for like 3 hours after I signed off of Skype!  Completely ridiculous!  And Tiago, foi muito bom para te conhecer!  Espero que esta natal era uma que você não vai esquecer!  Também, espero que um dia posso realmente falar contigo!  Sounds like the dunes were great and you guys had a lot of fun, and I loved the pictures!  Thank you thank you thank you!

Skyping at Alana Canha's house - Alana, Shelby, Sister Patino

Alana's mom Leleu

Well, I told you a lot about what went on this year, but not all of it!  So on Tuesday, we had a Secret Santa/Deathday Party for Elder Firouzi, my LZ from Pittsburgh that went home this week.  It was super fun!  We had a like, $5 limit, so the presents were pretty dinky, but it was a really good Zone Meeting!  Then after, there was absolutely no one to teach, because it was Christmas Eve, and everyone stays out partying.  So we just went around to our members and investigators and sang Christmas songs to them.  That is about the extent of my music here in Brazil.  I never play the piano because we never need it, but now I sure sing a lot more than I ever did at home, and I am way more comfortable with it!  Oh how I miss playing the viola though!  Anyway, that night, we got a special invite from the Bonfin family to come over for a family home evening.  It was really, really special to be with them, because this is the first Christmas that they had without their son, Izac, who passed away last July, if you guys remember.  Yeah...I will never, ever forget this Christmas Eve.  We had a great dinner with them after, and I was truly touched how they did their best to make this year so special for us, being so far from home.  I really don´t know how to describe it...yeah, it was great.

Dinner with the Bonfin family - Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve dinner

Christmas Eve dinner

On Christmas morning, me and Pat woke up and opened our prezzys under the Christmas tree that we made out of a cardboard box!  Ok, I didn´t make it, Pat did.  But it was really cute!  Thanks so much again for the clothes and such Mom!  Me and Pat sure love them!   We went to lunch at Luzia´s, our Relief Society Presdent´s house, and then stayed there for a while because really, we had no where else to go.  She is awesome, we totally had a feast.  The people here take care of us SO WELL!!!!! I am totally going to do that for the missionaries when I´m home.  Anyway, we went to Leleu´s house at night to Skype.  Sister Pat is SO FUNNY when she gets excited...she has this really loud laugh and just is like a little kid!  It is so cute!  I could understand everything that her family was saying in Spanish, which is a cool trick I didn´t know I had, but they couldn´t understand me very well.  It was way good to talk to you guys though, and it is super weird to think that it´s like...5 months til Mother´s Day...then 4 til casa.  

Christmas Mornin:)

Speaking of, I hit the nine month mark this week!  Pictures included:) I can´t believe how fast everything has gone...ok, not thinking about this.  End of commentary.

9 months - as a missionary?

On Saturday, we had a ward pool party that Sister Patino and I watched!  Yayyyy:)  But really, it was super fun.  All the kids in our ward are so cute, and the members are awesome and we always have a blast with them.  It was kinda weird to have a pool party three days after Christmas though.  Year round summer baby!  After that, we had a lesson with Olanda.  She was all ready set go for baptism this Wednesday, but when we got to her house, she explained that she wasn´t ready and didn´t want to be baptized anymore.  I almost freaked out inside, but then remembered that this is what happens when the Catholic cuzzys come for Christmas.  So we asked her the questions for the baptismal interview, and she has a really strong testimony about all of it.  We  made her a deal that she will get baptized on the 11th of January if she reads the Book of Mormon and prays every single day and feels like it is what the Lord wants for her.  So if you guys could keep her in your prayers, that would really be appreciated.

Welp, I hope that you guys have a great New Year!  What are you going to do to celebrate?  What goals do you have?! Me and Pat are going to work on those this week when we have to be in our house at 6pm tomorrow before Brazil gets crazy...but I hope that you guys start off 2014 super well!  Wasn´t 2013 a blast?  

Love love love you!

Love,

Sister Dana

Sister's Dana and Patino "Aren't we cute?:)

Sister Dana and Elder Woodland - her DL

Sister Dana, Alexandra and Sister Patino

The walk to lunch

Random car left on the street on the walk to lunch

Feliz Natal!

I think that Mom is a little excited this year for Christmas!  But holy cow, I am too!  I am way stoked to talk to you guys, especially to see your faces!  Oh my lanta, it will be the best.  Especially since EVERYONE has been telling me how Coop is huge....yeah, that´ll be great!  First things first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!  I am so lucky to have the best dad in the world, not even kidding.  I hope that you have a great day tomorrow and that you get a new bike and a baptism.  Because those are some of the best things in the world.  Ahh it is way weird to know that Christmas is going on as usual back at home!  But you know what, the members are taking such good care of us down here.  Really, I am in the best area in the world.  Candelária really has become my family here in Brazil and I love them!!!  Mom, here is the info for Skype.  Please delete it out of my email for privacy stuff, ok? ….. deleted content….  [Seeeee…. I’m deleting it.  Now you’re probably all curious about what she says!] I am SO FREAKING STOKED TO TALK TO YOU GUYS!

Ok, so this week....I don´t even know where to start.  The Lord has been incredibly good to us.  Sister Patino and I tried an experiment where we are completely obedient.  Like, down to the letter.  Every night, we are in bed by 10:30, which has been super hard to do, but we are doing it!  And the blessings are coming like nobody´s business!  But I am getting ahead of myself....I have  a million stories to tell this week!

So last week for Pday, Sister Pat and I did a watercolor painting that turned out pretty dang cool!  I´ll send a pic of it.  But yeah, look at Shel gettin artsy!  Who knew, right?  The creativity only continues. One of our investigators, Olanda, had a super snazzy graduation party this week, so she let me do her hair!  Oh how I have missed that!  It turned out super pretty because she has hair that is wayyyy long and pretty, and I was just happy as a clam to help out!  Don´t worry, we turned it into a lesson because we watched "Mundo Feliz"  while we were there:)  I forgot my camera though...dangit!

Shelby and Sister Patino gettin artsy!

We were out contacting later in the day and found these guys that are SO COOL!  Ok, they weren´t super into the message, but they work for this foundation called Shores of Grace and they were from the US!  So we talked in English, which was fun and hard, and then they told me about the foundation.  Basically they rescue kids from the streets and the girls that get into prostitution.  They find homes for them and families and everything, and teach them how to have self respect and that there is more to life than what has happened in the past.  It is so awesome, and I would absolutely LOVE to get involved with a foundation like that when I come home.  It´s really necessary here too.  There are so many kids without families...they really make a difference!  Super, super cool:)

Ok, here is the funny story for the week.  So Sis Pat and I went over to this family´s apartment this week to invite them  to come to a lesson with us.  They live on the sixth floor, so we get in the elevator to go on up there.  As soon as the doors shut, Sis Pat proceeds to tell me about this movie she watched where 8 people get stuck on an elevator and then they start dying one by one.  Cool story, Pat.  But then we realize that the elevator isn´t moving.  Uh-oh.  So I start almost hyperventilating because it is HOT and tiny and no one knows we are there!  We start pounding the alarm...nada.  15 minutes later, some guy finally heard us yelling and saved our lives.  Que horror!  But Sis Pat got a kick out of it.  Yay for her.

This week, we have been obedient, right?  So here are the blessings.  The members have been handing out referrals like it is Halloween and we are the trick-or-treaters.  When we contact them, they are PERFECT!   For example, we met this one guy named Dedo that is a friend of Messias.  He started talking to us and saying phrases that missionaries love to hear, such as, "Sure, there has to be a Spirit world.  Where else would everyone wait until the Resurrection?"  "Yes, I believe that the Church needs a prophet.  After the Apostasy though, I don´t know where he is!"  "You know, I had the feeling today that I need to get married.  So I called my mom and had her send over my birth certificate.  After I get married, can I get baptized?"  Do you know how much I love being a missionary in Brazil?  A wholeeee lot!  We found another woman who is awesome too!  Her name is Deise, and her phrases were a little different, but I smiled just as big when I heard them.  Here is what she said to us:  "You know, I had the feeling that I need to get baptized again.  Weird, right?  I was baptized when I was twelve, but I just had that the feeling that it didn´t mean anything.  I don´t think it was the baptism that was wrong, I just think it was the wrong church!  How can I know which is right?"  Oh my goodness.  The Lord is sending us Christmas presents.  And really, every day that we are obedient, things like this happen.  I almost don´t believe it!

Last night, we went to the Cantata de Natal, or the Stake Primary Christmas Program.  They did an AWESOME job.  All of the little kids were adorable and sang really well!  At the end, they did this super cool slideshow and tied everything in with The Living Christ and the Restoration.  I was super impressed, and really happy because we had a lot of recent-converts there.  It has really got me thinking about the message of Christmas and the Living Christ too.  I know that Jesus Christ lives and that He is our Savior, and that He will come again!  His true Church is here on the earth today, and we are privileged to be part of it.  As part of that church, we have the responsibility to open our mouths and talk about it with other people.  I am amazed by the desire that our recent converts have to share the gospel, especially Messias and Georges, but I really shouldn´t be.  We all should have the same excitement!  

Merry Christmas, gente!  I love you all and can´t wait to see you on Wednesday!

Love,

Sister Dana