The year without a Thanksgiving…

Hello!!

How are you all?! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and are enjoying the beginning of the Christmas season!!

It was kind of weird waking up on Thursday and realizing that it was Thanksgiving. If I hadn't written it in my planner, I would've forgotten about it all together! But, it was still a really great day, and even if I didn't have a "holiday" to express my gratitude, I'm still incredibly grateful for the opportunity I have to be serving a mission in Brasil, and for the experiences and opportunities that I'm having. But, I also received a tender mercy this week, because our lunch on Thursday was with 6 missionaries (due to a baptismal interview of the other sisters), and it was at the house of a member that cooks REALLY well, and made tons of food. Including a dessert that was an awful lot like pie. So in reality, I guess I did have a Thanksgiving, because there were lots of people, and lots of food! :)

Update on Zuleide: she's progressing really well, and her testimony of the gospel is SO strong! She has such a strong desire to be baptized! But she's also still stuck on 2 or 3 cigarettes a day, and can't seem to stop smoking. But, we're working everyday with her, and I know she'll be baptized soon! We're planning an "alcoholics anonymous" activity for this week, (but for all addictions) to hopefully help her find the drive and support she needs to quit smoking for good. I'm super excited for it, and hope that it'll do a lot of good for Zuleide, and for the other people we've invited to participate. Keep Zuleide in your prayers this week!!

Also, another update, I found out this week that the wonderful Elaine, my investigator in Rio Doce, was baptized this week!!! I love her so much, and even though I couldn't be there for her baptism, I'm so grateful to see the change the gospel made in her life!!

This week I was studying the part in the Book of Mormon when Christ appears to the people in the Americas, and one verse really stuck out to me. It's 3 Nephi 11:5 "And again the third time they did hear the voice, and did open their ears to hear it; and their eyes were toward the sound thereof; and they did look steadfastly towards Heaven, from whence the sound came." I love that the people had to open their ears and their eyes in order to understand. We need to do our part to be spiritually in tune with the spirit, and to "steadfastly" look for answers. If we do this, we will receive guidance and direction in our lives.

I love you all, and I'm so grateful for all your love and support! Have a wonderful week!!!

Love,

Sister Shelton

 Giant avocado!!!!

The baptism of Josefa! (an investigator of the other sisters)

(picture I took of a picture) Elaine's baptism!!!

Lunch with a General Authority

Hello!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!  It's weird not to celebrate Thanksgiving- I almost forgot that it was this week! Eat lots and lots of food for me!! :)

 This has been a really great week here in the beautiful Boa Vista! I'm starting to get comfortable in this area, and getting to know all of the members, and it's been so good! I'll try to keep the email short though, so I have time to send pictures!

First things first, the subject line. We arrived at the house of a young couple in the ward this week for lunch, and when we walked in, there was Elder Campos, a member of the seventy, sitting on the couch! Turns out, he's the father of the girl we were having lunch with, and he and his wife had just arrived from Recife. It was a super cool to get to talk to him, and hear about some of his experiences. It was pretty intimidating though when it came time to give the spiritual thought. Haha!

This week was also great, because we worked tons with the wonderful Zuleide! I can't remember if I talked about her in last week's email, but she's this amazing woman that has been meeting with the missionaries a little over a month. She's super converted to the gospel, and has a real desire to follow Christ. She just needs a little more help with overcoming a smoking addiction. We've tried SO many things to help her, but after going from 30 to 3 cigarettes, she's stuck on 3, and can't seem to overcome this small barrier. If you could remember her in your prayers this week, that would be awesome. Her baptism is set for Saturday, and we're going to do everything possible to make sure she can be baptized!

And finally, I'm really learning tons about how to love other people, and how to serve the people I love. There's a great scripture I read in Mosiah this week that I wanted to share with you all. It's Mosiah 23:15 "Thus did Alma teach his people, that every man should love his neighbor as himself, that there should be no contention among them." The more we strive to love and serve the people around us, the more peace, joy, and love we will have in our own lives.

Thanks for all the love, support, and prayers in my behalf. I love you all, and I hope you have an incredible week! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Love,

Sister Shelton

Jess and her companion, Sis. Gomes

Lunch with Elder Campos!

We went to Marco Zero again for my last P-Day in Rio Doce!

Casa da Cultura (Marco Zero)

 My last Family Night in Rio Doce

 Emmanuelly- my recent convert

Members in Rio Doce!

Members in Rio Doce!

Members in Rio Doce!

 Elaine and Rodrigo, our Golden Investigator of Rio Doce!

Marcia (recent convert)

More members in the ward!

Sister Trindade and I's last meal together.

My companion, Sister Gomes, and the Sisters we live with,
 made a cake to welcome me to the area!

We had money for lunch one day, so we made hamburgers and 

had lunch in our living room on top of the ironing board!

All of the missionaries at Stake Conference!

My New Home!

Hello Everyone!!!

Wow, this has been quite the week of change!! It's been super good though! I left the wonderful Rio Doce Wednesday bright and early in the morning, and after 5 hours on the bus, arrived in the equally wonderful Boa Vista, Guaranhuns! My new companion is Sister Gomes. She's amazing, and we're having a great time getting to know each other and learning how the other works! Also, fun fact! Guess who's place I took here in Boa Vista 2!... Sister J. Silva- my trainer!!!!! It's been fun getting to know all these people here that love and know Sister J. Silva!

My new area is way different than Rio Doce. Rio Doce was the middle of the city, right by the ocean, and it was insanely hot ALL the time. And now I'm in an area with lots and lots of open space, and it's actually COLD at night. WHAT? I never thought I'd be cold in Brazil, but here I am. It's a really nice change though, and I'm enjoying it!

Here in Boa Vista we're teaching an incredible woman named Zuleide. Sister Gomes and Sister J. Silva have been working with her for a long time, and she's accepted everything! The only difficulty is, when she met the missionaries, she was smoking about 32 cigarettes a day. She said that even when she was washing the dishes she had a cigarrete in her hand. But now, after about a month of working with her, Zuleide is only smoking 1 or 2 a day, and there are lots of days that she doesn't smoke at all. Her baptism is this coming week, and I'm so excited for her! It's incredible to see what the gospel can do for someone!

I hope you're all doing well, and know how much I love you! There's a cool scripture we shared this week with Zuleide in Alma 2:28- "Nevertheless, the Nephites being strengthened by the hand of the Lord, having prayed mightily to him that he would deliver them out of the hands of their enemies, therefore the Lord did hear their cries, and did strengthen them..." Nothing is impossible with the help of the Lord!

Love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Shelton

(p.s. I have TONS of pictures, but no time to send them. Sorry!! I'll send them next week!)

TRANSFERS!!!

Hello again!!!

Well, this has been kind of a crazy week/morning here in Recife! I found out this morning when I opened my email that I'm going to be leaving my beautiful first area of Rio Doce, for Boa Vista! It's super interior, and going to be way different, but I'm way excited!! It'll be an adventure for sure! I'll tell you more about it all next week when I'm there!

The other crazy thing of this week was Halloween... well, it wasn't exactly Halloween, but we did go to a cemetery for day of the dead on Thursday! All of the missionaries in the stake went to sing/comfort the people that were there. Before going, I thought it was going to be super calm, and a few people here and there- NOPE. The cemetery was literally packed with people, some sobbing, some selling water, some yelling, others running around offering to clean tombs for money. Definitely not what I was expecting. But it was really cool! We sang lots of hymns, and we sat with lots of people and shared the message of the plan of Salvation with them. We had lots of spiritual experiences in that crazy cemetery! Oh, and one more thing, cemeteries here are not like cemeteries back home. It's crazy- tombs are stacked on top of each other, each tomb has little sanctuary places to remember the people, and there's not a whole lot of organization to it all. There were even a couple of tombs that were broken open, and we could see the bodies inside (or what was left of them). :0

One more quick thing I want to share with you all. We had a literal miracle this week. As we were in the bus heading to the cemetery, Sister Trindade told us that she couldn't remember turning her hair straightener off. Well, it was too late to turn back- we were already super behind schedule- but we didn't want to risk the straightener being on and catching fire to the entire apartment building. So, the sisters of Jardin Atlantico called some members in their ward, and the members went to the apartment to see if the portero (the "doorman"/gaurd) had an extra key. Well, he didn't, so what they did instead, is they turned off all of the energy in the apartment. Perfect- no problem! It wasn't until we stopped by the apartment after the cemetery that we realized how inspired of an idea it was to turn off the energy in our apartment. The straightener wasn't a problem. It had been turned off. But someone had left the sandwich maker plugged in, and had the energy not been cut, it would've started a fire. Ah, miracles are real gente!

I hope you all have an incredible week this week, and you remember that your Savior loves you! Always remember "And lo, he cometh unto his own, that Salvation might come unto the Children of men even through faith on his name..." (Mosiah 3:9) 

Love you!

Love, 

Sister Shelton

Photo-

For Halloween my companion and I bought these toucas, and I painted on some gnarly eyebrows, and we were "women from the Nordeste" (north east Brazil)! Literally, everyone here uses these, and has super fake eyebrows- Hahaha!

We also switched name tags, and used flags of the other person's country. Like they do in Salt Lake. :)

Don't worry- this never left the apartment- only at night after we got home. Hahaha!