Stories from a Sunburned Sister: Temple, Drunks and Libras, oh my!

Hello!!!

Happy New Year’s everyone! I can hardly believe that it's 2018! Especially because it didn't really feel like New Year’s here, it was kind of just a regular day. Although, we were awoken at midnight to what sounded like bombs exploding in our living room! There were so many fireworks!!! And thankfully, we live at the top of a hill, so we at least got to see and enjoy the fireworks for a couple of minutes. :)

But honestly, wow, this was such a crazy week! It started on Wednesday with the Christmas party at the mission home! We rode 4 hours in a van with all of the other missionaries here in Garanhuns to get to Recife. It was a little bit long, but it was super fun being with everyone in the van! And then, at the mission home, we ate breakfast, had a devotional, and then went to the temple!!! Ah, it was so great to be in the temple again! I forget how much I miss it, until I get to go inside. Take advantage of all the opportunities you have to go to the temple! I also experienced a little tender mercy while we were there! I had prayed beforehand that I might see someone from Rio Doce at the temple. And well, guess who was sitting outside the temple when I walked out... just about all of the youth from the Rio Doce ward!!! I was so insanely happy to see them all!!! They really are some incredible people, and I just love them all so much! It was literally an immediate answer to my prayer, and I was so so grateful!

Another "exciting" thing from this week was all of the drunk people in the streets. I really don't understand why Christ's birth is a reason to drink alcohol, but apparently lots of people think it makes perfect sense to do so. We were at the house of one of our investigators, and her son was there visiting. He. was. very. drunk. (And it was very ironic, because we went with the intention to teach The Word of Wisdom. haha!) But we ended up just talking to our investigator quickly and inviting her to church, because her son, fascinated by my blue eyes, kept interrupting to ask if I was married. When I told him I was not, he leaped out of his chair and cheered. I quickly informed him that it didn't matter though, because I'm a missionary. Hahaha. There was also a drunk lesbian woman there, that professed her interest in my companion, so overall, it was just a super interesting lesson. hahahahaha!

And finally, I found out one of my purposes for coming to Brasil this week! So many people were surprised when I got my call to Brasil, including me, because they thought I would serve a Sign Lanugage mission. Well, here in the ward, there's a deaf member, and he's been teaching me some Brasilian Sign Language (Libras). It's super similar to ASL, but it's also definitely its own language. This week, I was able to use my limited knowledge of Libras to teach a family of Deaf people. It was literally just such a great feeling to be able to do something like that! In Portuguese, the gift of tongues is called, O Dom de Linguas. And so, we're calling this, O Dom de Dedos. (The gift of fingers) Hahaha. But I really am just so grateful to know that I have a purpose for being here in Brasil. I love this country.

Overall, it was a wonderful week, and I'm so very excited to see what this year of 2018 brings! Lots of love and prayers for all of you!

Love,

Sister Shelton

Mosiah 1:6 "O my sons, I would that ye should remember that these sayings are true, and also that these records are true... and we can know of their surety because we have them before our eyes."

We can know the scriptures are true, because we have them before our eyes, and can read them to find the answer.