Pictures with Julieta Naves de Andrade - who was baptized by Shelby's dad while serving his mission in Brazil over 25 years ago

Hey Fam!!

Oh my heavens, I just got the letter from the beach today and it was the cutest thing EVER!!!!  Thank you thank you thank you for your letters!  Did I cry? Uhh....maybe.  But it was the best.  Don´t you worry, I am not getting trunky or anything!

 

I am so glad that Reggie is a missionary now!  Ah he will be the best and convert the world because that guy is SOLID.  I am so lucky to have a family strong in the gospel!  Also, before I forget...my companions are very single and like Americans.  I was told to ask if I have any cousins interested in writing a  Brazilian missionary.  Is Ray still available?  I told Sister Seidmann a little bit about him and she is pretty open to the opportunity, you know, if he wants!  I like her a lot:)  So....yeah, just throwing that out there.

Ummm ok so is Mima ok??  Sister Seidmann and I fasted for her a couple times this week and do you want to know something crazy?? On Tuesday we were walking down the streets and I just got the feeling that I needed to say a prayer for her!  So we stopped, and we prayed, and that was that!  I don´t know if the timing was right or anything, but she has def been in the thoughts of a few missionaries in Brazil!  And she will be still!

Aww, Dad will go to the Campout without me...que triste!  I hope that he can forgive me and find someone else to be his daughter for a little bit.  Maybe Tiago, since he´s using my phone number and everything.

This week was nuts!  We taught a ton and found a lot of new investigators.  Finally!  I am speaking more in the lessons now because Sister Seidmann is prepping me to train in a couple weeks....GAH yeah that is scary!  But we had a couple funny experiences.  We were teaching this girl, Gislaine, who is hardcore Baptist and knows absolutely nothing about her religion.  I think that she listens to us solely because I am American.  But you know, that is normal around her to be honest.  Anyway, we left her house a little frustrated because it wasn´t a very effective lesson, and then later that night we passed by the Baptist church and I saw her in there doing this interpretive dance..  Oh my lanta, I know that we aren´t supposed to stay outside of churches, but I did and watched her, and it was the BEST.  So funny!  I like the other religions here...they provide some prime entertainment!

We had 2 baptisms this week , but only one was ours.  Sidney and cute little Clarise!  They are 8 and 9 years old, so Sidney was the ward´s baptism.  Both of them have less active families, but we are activating them so that was really cool!  Que fofa...oh I love them!

Another thing that was AWESOME.  I got a call this week...from Julietta!  My daddy baptized her manyyyy years ago and now I am going to meet her when we go to the temple on Wednesday!  Oh I am wayy excited!  She said, "Sister Dana, your dad changed my life.  If he wasn´t there at the exact right time, I don´t know where I would be right now.  And when you got your call to Brazil, I was very, very emotional!  I have been waiting for a long time to give you a hug!"  Basically I started to cry right there in the padaria in front of everyone..  But I can´t wait until Wednesday!  I have quite a legacy to carry on here in Brazil. I hope that I can be a missionary like my dad was!...is...

I love you all to death!  Have a great week and what the heck...happy Five Months to me tomorrow!  I love Syster Clouse and her letters...just throwing that out there.  AND I taught Sister Seidmann how to pun in English.  She is getting really good at it and now we have a jolly old time in the streets every day!

Love love love,

Sister Dana

Relatorio Semanal

Querida Familia,

Eu AMO emails de vocês!!! Muitos muitos muitos!  E, bem-vindo Tiago!  Você vai amar minha família ;)  It sounds like things are so great back at home, and wicked crazy with football and a Brazilian hanging around!  Ah man, I can´t even imagine...that´s so weird that someone else is living there...hanging out with my brother...using my phone number....what the strange!  But I want to meet this guy!  Let´s go to Fortaleza after my mission, ok?  

 

Mom, I´ll send my memory card home this week.  This will be my first card because it got a virus and now I can´t open photos on the computer...that´s why I couldn´t send any pictures home.  But if you could clean it out...that would be great :)  It´ll also have descriptions, so don´t worry about that either!  And a bunch of pictures of our apartment too, so just have a little patience!

 

Ah man, I wish that I could say that this week was just as good as the last one, but it was definitely one of the hardest ones I have had.  You know how there is opposition in all things?  Def truth right there.  One of our investigators with a marriage date bailed on his fiance for his other wife in Sao Paulo, Then Manuel, one of our baptisms from last week, decided that he didn´t like the peace that he was feeling after the baptism.  He told us that he didn´t want to be confirmed a member of the church on Sunday and he was afraid to get the Holy Ghost.  So we tried to calm him down and everything, but he wanted to return to his old life and sealed the deal by breaking the Word of Wisdom in a major way on Saturday night.  So...that was really hard. 

 

 Then Glau, our precious Glau...she had her interview for baptism on Saturday afternoon and when we got there with the Elders, she said that she didn´t want to be baptized because she wasn´t ready.  She is...she knows everything and wants to keep the commandments and has a testimony like I have never seen before.  She had an hour and a half long interview, then Elder Rodrigues came out of it saying that the enemy is working on her like crazy because she has so much potential.  We tried to do all that we could...Sister Seidmann has some serious guts too.  She actually left Glau´s house, grabbed Glau´s dad out of the bar and said, "Excuse me, I need to talk to you about the salvation of your daughter."  I was basically just following her with my mouth hanging open.  So we went back to Glau´s house with them and then her dad and step mom started yelling at each other and Glau was super scared and the Spirit bailed real quickly.  It was horrible.  Needless to say, Glau´s baptism fell through.  Talk about a heartbreak.

 

Sister Seidmann was really sick this week too.  I felt horrible because neither of us had a desire to work and that has never happened before!  But I know that the Lord was preparing me for this week because I found a ton of answers to my prayers in the scriptures and found peace even when it was awful.  I think a lot of that video that we watched a few nights before I left, remember?  Like, why should I think that this work will be easy for me, when it was never, never easy for my Savior?  Salvation is not a cheap experience.  

 

You´d better believe that we´ll be working our Brazilian bootys off this week to atone for all the garbage that happened last week!  Thank heavens for repentance:)  I love you all and I will definitely keep Mima in my prayers!  Like she isn´t already!  Congrats to Reggie...I need to email that boy!  Have fun with Tiago and good luck keeping the boys fed!  I wish so bad that I could be there for the football games and everything with you all!  I love you, have a great week!

Shelby and Sister Seidmann

Prettiest Missionaries in the Field!

Love,

Sister Dana

Letter Time!

MOM.  This WEEK!!! I have to tell you about all of the miracles that went down!  And I can´t even wait, I am so excited!  First off, have I mentioned that I love being a missionary?  Like...I think I don´t want to get married.  I just want to stay in Brazil and baptize for my whole life because it is the most amazingly fun thing ever. Ok so here is why this week was so great.

We worked HARD.  We were praying and praying and fasting for our baptisms this week and were at their houses every single day! So I will explain a little bit about each one of them.

Vanessa...my precious Vanessa.  She is friends with Fatima´s family and started coming to church with them and listening to our lessons and she just felt the Spirit super strong!  She is only 13 and is super shy, so she´s always afraid to talk. Once during a lesson, I asked her if she got a confirmation that the gospel was true, etc., and she was too embarrassed to reply. So we changed the subject and then a few minutes later when everyone was busy talking, I sat with her and she described her experience with the Livro de Mormon and the Spirit and I seriously almost started crying.  Then we sat together and I explained all of the pictures in the front of the Livro and it was so precious!!  Her baptism was beautiful <3

My precious José, Manuel, and Vanessa! Profile pic please Mom?

Glau.  Ok this girl is fantastic.  She wants to be a missionary in Paris, you know?  So we had a lesson with her this week like, 2 days before her baptism was scheduled, and she was sooooo excited, because she had to work really hard to convince her parents to let her be baptized.  But anyways, we asked her all of the interview questions and she basically had verbal diarrhea about every single aspect of the gospel we had ever mentioned.  I think she was def prepared!  After the lesson, she took my tag and pinned it to her rather scandalous dress and started dancing around the room yelling "Sister Glau, I´m Sister Glau, here to baptize the world!  When it is hot, and when it is cold, I will always be like this <huge cheesy grin with her tag held up to her face> and all the world will know Sister Glau!"  And then all of her 37 brothers and sisters (not really) started running after her yelling "Praise Jesus!  Gloria, Gloria!"  Oh my gosh...I love her so much!!!  But alas...we went to fetch her for church on Sunday morning, and she was sick as death.  So she shall be baptized next Sunday :)

José.  He is seriously...perfect.  He knows everything and, bless his heart, he can´t wait to serve his mission!  He was baptized by Filipe, one of the rapazes in our ward.  Filipe is amazing too.  He´s only 16, and he comes to all of our lessons with us to help us teach.  He is a huge example for me, especially because he doesn´t have a very supportive home...like, at all...But he´s awesome.  Anyway, he baptized José and it was so precious that I almost started crying!  Gah, I love my job!

Filipe baptized José!

Manuel was a MIRACLE.  He had some serious problems with the Word of Wisdom, but he stopped EVERYTHING in one week and was baptized yesterday.  We worked so hard with him!  We were at his house every day with his member friend, Daniel, and we def made sure that he didn´t even have the opportunity to slip up!  Which he didn´t :)  But when I saw him in white, all baptized...there is no feeling in the world to describe it.

Our members are amazing.  Almost the whole ward shows up for our baptisms.  The make cakes, help set up chairs, sing...basically do everything.  It wasn´t always like this.  We were talking to one of them last night, and he said that things really changed with Sister Seidmann, and then a lot when I came too.  So that was cool!  Sister Seidmann is an amazing example to me.  She works so hard and she is always thinking about how we can improve and help more people.  I love her to pieces!

People at our baptism :)

Anyways, hooray for Tiago! Tell him that I say Bem-vindo! Espero que ele vai amar minha familia...eles são otimo, e ele tem muito sorte ;)  Also, you know who I haven´t heard from in like a million years?  Cooper.  You know who should tell him to write me a letter?  Everyone.  I want to know about his life dadgumit!  I don´t know if I have any good stories this week...mostly we just goof off all the time in our house and I scare my poor Brazilians to death and they are terrified that all Americans are like me.  But guess what!  I got a ton of letters today!  From Page Nelson, Jake Flake, Mima, my pal Patty, and LESLIE!! And I will def write them back...thank you!

Ok I love you all so much! Have a great time with a Brazilian!  They are lots of fun! 

Love,
Sister Dana 

Our Conference from this week!  Look! It´s Sister Orr!!!!

Me and the Sisters :)

Us with Elder Millward and Elder Rodrigues

Elder Bassaco, Elder Millward, and Elder Rodrigues

Me and Sister Gomes!

Happy Birthday Sister Clarke!

Our Area

Our Area 

Brazilbrazilbrazilbrazil

So I have been here another week!  Hooray!  I can´t believe that you guys are done with the beach...ahhh I was thinking about it all week!  I missed the ocean and the cheesy Belmont rides and waking up all sunburned...well, kind of.  Because I have the ocean here, and we swim to lessons every day, so that´s pretty close, and the buses are definitely similar to rollercoasters and about seven times as scary!  And I do wake up sunburned everyday actually....so I guess it is basically the same, right??  

Ahhh I´m so glad that you had such a good time!  And ohmygosh Cooper will start HIGHSCHOOL next week and I will be replaced by some Brazilian rapaz...oh man.  Well, Parabéns!  Ok Mom, here are some answers to your questions.  We go to a little shop place to email every week and we have to pay for it, but it´s pretty cheap so that´s no big deal.  Plus they sell these chocolate things here too that Sister Seidmann loves and she is eating one right now next to me.  The food here...we eat a lot of rice and beans.  A LOT.  And a ton of pasta.  The members feed us every week for lunch, and for some reason all of the irmas decided that the American needed to try "paqueca" ...which are crepes.  But I pretend that it´s the first time every time, so they still get all excited.  I really like basically everything that Irma Fatima cooks.  That´s my favorite food.  She uses a lot of butter and I´m not sure what I´m eating most of the time. But it tastes amazing, so I really don´t ask!  

We speak about half and half English and Portuguese here now because I´m pretty comfortable with the language.  Sister Seidmann thinks that I´ll certainly train next transfer, so I think that´s a good sign that I´m improving!  She really wants to improve her English, so we speak more English in the house now.  Holyyyy goodness I have to tell you a funny story.  So we were doing a comp inventory after weekly planning and Sister Seidmann was trying to do it in English.  She is SO CUTE when she tries!  Anyway, I told her that she can´t be so snarky with the investigators or something like that and she goes (her exact words)... "I don´t...I don´t mean to...It is just...sometimes I say something bad...and then after I think...that was not good....damn it!"  Mom, you can edit out this story if you want, but I just have to tell you because I about pee my pants every time I think of it.  You can tell when Brazilians learn their English from the movies!

I have met with President Lanius likeee three times so far here, but we never go to the mission home because NO missionaries here drive.  It´s way too dangerous. I love all the missionaries in my district and zone, but to be honest, the elders need to work harder.  For the most part, they are good, but sometimes I think that they are wasting the Lord´s time!  We have an awesome zone though, and our leaders push us to baptize like crazy...so we do!

Ok here is this week!  We had so many miracles!  Remember Valesca?  

Well, we went to her house for dinner on Tuesday, and she had this guy over named José to work on a project.  Welp, Sister Seidmann and I don´t waste any time, so we taught it up right then and there and his little Baptist heart was softened!  He is freaking perfect...except for the fact that he tried to plant one on Valesca after he walked her and Sister Seidmann and I to the bus for a meeting!  Oh you should have seen her face...she is so innocent and cute!  She goes "Beijo Sister! BEIJO!!!" But now they are dating, so I guess it wasn´t that surprising.  Anyway, we taught him all the lessons this week and he will be baptized this week!  Hooray!

Glau...oh my precious Glau.  She is 13 and has such a testimony!  She wants to be a missionary when she grows up and serve in Paris.  I thought to myself...hey...I know peeps in Paris!  So I emailed one of my USU pals and he is sending a letter to her!  How cute is that!  But we are fairly certain that she will be baptized this week as well!  Cool, right?

We have like, 3 other people that we are hoping will be baptized this week, but I don´t have enough time to write about all of them. I will later.  The Lord is blessing us like CRAZY!!! We had an amazing sacrament meeting yesterday...NINE of our investigators showed up at church, which is basically unheard of.  We also had this guy, Fernando, show up too. Sister Seidmann introduced herself to him after the meetings, then we showed him the baptismal font and explained baptism to him, and then he started to cry and said that he needed to be baptized.  So we shall baptize him next week! That was crazy awesome, but honestly...not SUPER surprising.  I live in the land of miracles!

Ahh things are so good here!  I have the best tanline EVER and apparently it will only get worse, because "winter" is over now!  But I am so happy and so blessed!  I am praying for ya´ll out there...and what the heck, Tanner has a girlfriend??? Crap. If he gets married, I owe him El Charro.  Anyways, I love love love you!!  Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Dana

Stellar Week

So you guys are at the beach...well SO AM I! Every day. So there.  Except we aren´t allowed to go near it so I guess it isn´t really the same, but oh well.  I´m so glad that you guys had fun at the 24th and believe me, I was thinking about it!  Every time I saw a horse...which is a lot, since they are as common as stray dogs around here, I thought of the rodeo and I missed it a lot!  And the fireworks and everything...aw man.  But I´m really glad that Coop had a good time at the dance and that you all had fun with the family and now you are at the beach and where the heck has the summer gone?!  It´s super weird not to be there, and to think that I am on the other side of the world!  But I know that you guys are going to have a blast and just enjoy the heck out of this week for me, ok??

Thank you so much for your prayers this week.  Our ward pulled through in an amazing way.  These people are so strong and they absolutely love each other...and miracles are happening too.  I have never seen youth so motivated to serve the Lord.  Seriously, Heavenly Father has saved these spirits!!  They come out and spend the whole day teaching with us and are always, always doing something with the church.  I guess that´s probably because the lines are clearly drawn here between the good and the bad.  But they are amazing.  

We had a stellar week.  Seriously.  Thirty lessons, and a baptism that we didn´t think would happen!  This is a cool story.  So Maisa is 11 and remember Isabella?  She was the one that we had to convince her mom to allow baptism?  Anyway, when my zone leaders were at her house, Elder King pointed out a little girl to me and said, "This girl has never heard of the gospel before.  You need to talk to her!"  So I did, and we began to teach her and she started to come to church.  She never progressed very quickly, because she is super shy and doesn´t like to talk much.  We taught her everything, and we planned to have the baptism this week, but when we went over the baptismal questions with her on Friday night, she didn´t know anything and it was like she had never heard of the gospel before.  We were disappointed when we left, but decided it wasn´t a big deal and that we would just do the baptism next week after we taught her everything again.  But when we returned on Saturday to tell her this, she was really sad.  She had studied all day and read every pamphlet that we gave her and knew all the lessons by heart!  And she said that she had a testimony and really wanted to be baptized, so we through a baptism together last night and she was!  Oh mom, it was perfect.  The Spirit was so strong, and all the youth in the ward were in charge and a ton of people came...it was the best feeling!

I have another story that is kind of hilarious from this week too.  So Sister Seidmann and I visit this guy that is super old, and his mom that is even older. He doesn´t pay attention to a word we say, but he likes to have someone to talk at, so we continue to go over there.  Well the "lesson" was super long and boring and Sister Seidmann was FINALLY saying the closing prayer, when he began to pray along with her.  This is not unusual.  So she was just continuing on and started praying for his mom and I just couldn´t resist.... I said "Amen Sister" right along with him and Sister Seidmann stopped dead and started busting up.  Then she handled it like a true champion and pretended that she was crying instead.  I´m talking head in her lap, shoulders shaking, loud, noisy tears.  José thought that she was crying because she missed her own mother, so he began to pray for us and our mothers!  Sister Seidmann continued on in this manner for about 2 solid minutes, and I was dying, and then she finally finished the prayer and we bailed hard.  José was thrilled.  He said that the Spirit was so strong and that he wanted us to come back soon...I guess the Lord works in mysterious ways!

Well, I love you all a ton.  Things are going really well here and I can´t believe that I´ve already been in Brazil for a full transfer!  I love it here.  It is super hard because Sister Olivera was transferred, and she lives with us and has been a great example.  Sister Alancar, her companion, will train, so we´re getting a baby in here and I won´t be the noob anymore!  I am seriously praying for one of my MTC friends. That would be amazing.  But Brazil is fabulous and the Lord will always, always strengthen us in our trials.  I pray for you guys every single day...so be happy!  Loveee youuuu!

Love,

Sister Dana

Sister Alancar, Sister Seidmann, Sister Olivera, e Sister Dana

A Difficult Week

Mom!  Happy happy happy happy birthday!!  I told all of my sisters that it was your birthday on Saturday and we celebrated together.  I hope that your package made it to Celia!  Also, please don´t buy Crocs.  I may be a missionary, but I still have principles.  If you could make the shoes black, I´d appreciate it:)  But the stuff that works best is just rubber things....oh I don´t know, I will be happy with anything.  Use the Spirit!  

I got a couple letters from Mima and Jacque´s kids this week, and I spent the morning writing them letters back, so expect those soon!  I don´t know the address of our apartment...but I am in the Candelaria area, right next to the beach.  The area that we do the most work in is called Sovaco da Cobra.  Ask Sister DePaula what that means.  It´s the place that I sent pictures of.  I wish that you could see it.  In fact, I´m already planning all the places that I will take you when ya´ll come down here at the end of my mission because it´s unreal!  Also, I want to meet this Tiago kid!  We can stop by Fortaleza, right?  

 It sounds like Coop had a blast at football camp.  That´s a lie, football camp sounds horrible.  He´s just going to be all big and beastly when I get home, isn´t he?  Well crap.  Tell him that he´d better be the best of the best because that is basically what is expected in our family;)  Oh how humble I have become! bahahah.

 This week was really, really rough.  We barely taught at all...only 18 lessons the whole week.  But for good reason.  Sister Seidmann was sick on Tuesday and we had to stay in all day.  Then I got sick the rest of the week, but it was just a cold and wasn´t too bad so we went out and worked anyway.  But on Saturday....oh man.

 We called up Cinthia, a young woman in our ward to come team up with us that morning and she answered the phone just bawling.  She told us that her younger brother, Isaac, who is 15, was at an activity for the young men and there was an accident.  We headed over to her house and met them on the way over to another member´s house.  Cinthia and her two little sisters were crying and when we got to the house, the member came out and told Cinthia that Isaac had been under the water for 40 minutes and was gone.  She dropped to her knees and started screaming and crying and oh my goodness...I will never, ever forget that image.  

I guess here is what happened.  The young men were out on an island and Isaac went to go swimming and got caught in a whirlpool.  The bishop went in after him and got sucked in too, but was able to raise Isaac to the surface 3 times.  The last time he held Isaac up, the lifeguards grabbed the bishop and pulled him out and he lost his grip on Isaac.  The water was so dirty that they couldn´t find him...and it´s been three days.

 Church yesterday was really, really hard.  The look on the bishop´s face...it was like he had died inside.  He got up and asked forgiveness from the family and apologized that he wasn´t stronger.  My heart just broke...our youth are all super tight and they were devastated.  Sister Seidmann and I have spent the last few days visiting families in the ward and trying to comfort them. 

 I´ve been thinking a lot about you guys lately because of this, and especially about how Dad would feel if it was in our ward...oh geez.  And Isaac was about the same age as Cooper...I just want to give my family a hug so bad!  Please be careful and know that I love you SO MUCH.  Families are eternal...I know this for a fact. I pray for you guys every single night and I plead with Heavenly Father to keep you safe for me.  

 Sorry this letter is rough...it was a pretty difficult week. I love you all:)

Love,

Sister Dana