Crazy Bus Ride!

Hello Everyone :)

Well this, like every other week, went by so fast! 

At the beginning of this week Sister Manchego and I went to Aquidauanna to do divisions with our Sisters there. The trip there was uneventful and we were able to sleep a little bit so that was nice! Aquidauanna is such a fun little town and the members there are so fun to work with. Everyone is so happy and loves the sister missionaries! It was really fun to see Sister Viera and Sister Barrett again! I was able to do my division with Sister Barrett and it was so nice to catch up and to work and learn from her again. All in all we had a great time while we were there. However the trip home was a bit of an adventure! about 20 minuets out of Aquidauanna our bus broke down. we sat there for probably 30 waiting for the bus driver to fix the problem. Another bus pulled up behind us and offered to take the passengers to the post ( a little place with a restaurant and gas station) to wait until the bus could be fixed. So we all hopped aboard the other bus and went to the post to wait. While we were getting off the bus I heard a lady yell in a very thick accent in English ``anybody speaks English?!`` So I yelled back ``I speak English!`` and we waited for her to get off the bus. She came off and apparently didn't know what was going on. She was from Switzerland or something like that and her and her husband were traveling through south America. They knew a little bit of Spanish, a little bit of English but no Portuguese. How courageous! As we were waiting Sister Manchego also found a couple who were from Equador and also didn't speak Portuguese so she spoke to them in Spanish and it was really fun to be able to understand what they were saying, I just couldn't speak anything.... kind of funny how that works out. They were traveling gathering musical instruments for a store that they owned. 

Then our bus came but the bus driver said that the bus was still broken but that another bus would be taking us to campo grande. The only catch was the other bus was completely full and so we all had to pile in. Sister Manchego and I stood in the aisle for a little bit but then a man offered his seat to us. So we sat down, and guess who was in the seat next to us? A lady from France who spoke English,and Spanish! She also didn't know a word of Portuguese but she was traveling through south America by herself. She talked to Sister Manchego and I the whole ride home. We learned some new words in french and we taught her a little bit of Portuguese. Ha ha :) When we got off the bus we were so tired! but we were able to say goodbye to all of them in English, Spanish, french, Portuguese and sister Manchego threw in goodbye in Japanese just to sweeten the deal :) It was a fun trip :)

The rest of the week went by fast and without anything super special. We are working with a less active named Ana Paula and her daughter Nadielly. They came to church this Sunday!  I'm so happy to be on my mission. I know Heavenly Father protects me and loves me. I know that Heavenly Father has a wonderful plan for each of us. I know that most of the time he has things planned that we wouldn't normally choose for ourselves but I know that he has a perfect knowledge of all things and all we need to do is trust him :) Thank you all so much for your prayers and emails. I love you all! 

Love,

 Shelby 

Hello family!

Hello Everyone :)

How are y´all doing? I'm doing so good :) This week was super fun :) and great. Nothing super big happened but I have just been marveling at all the wonderful blessings Heavenly Father has blessed me with. I cant describe the feeling that I have in my heart but its something like peaceful gratitude. Really when we stop and think about all that we have in our lives its hard not to feel that way. Its so easy to feel sorry for ourselves and feel like everything is against you. The adversary wants us to feel that constant pressure, he wants us to feel like we cant do it, he wants us to feel like failures and that God is displeased or even angry with us but I just wanted to testify that its not like that. God Loves Us. Despite all the trials that we face, all the sadness and disappointment's that get put in our way we are supposed to be a happy people. That is our purpose here on this earth, to get closer to God. And God is everything that is good, He is peace, he is love he is HAPPINESS. 

I have learned that Satan really will try to do anything to tear us down but I know that when we build our lives upon the rock which is our Savior Jesus Christ, NOTHING can tear us down. The winds will come, the rains will pour, Hell itself can rage against us but we will stand tall. We will stand tall because we are Gods people and He stands with us. And with this light, which is Jesus Christ in our eyes and souls, Satan will flee from us. I wish everyone could understand the power that they hold inside of them. We are Gods Children and we have the power to cast satan away. we hold the power to be happy. We are all the masters of our lives, we have the power to choose. How wonderful is that?! 

Sister Manchego and I are doing wonderfully :) Missionary work sure is hard, especially since you deal with people who all have their free will but I guess that just gives us a taste of what Heavenly Father goes through in dealing with us! I love what I'm doing! I love feeling Gods hand in my work every single day. I love being here. I testify that God lives, Jesus Christ is our savior and redeemer and This is his true church. I know its true. I love all of you! thank you so much for all of your prayers! 

Love Always,

 Shelby

Time is flying by!

Hello everyone,

I just have to say this again.... time is going by so fast! I cant believe this transfer is already half over! I guess it goes by fast when your working hard and having fun :) 

Sister Manchego and I are doing so good :) We are seeing SO MANY miracles! we have three new families that were teaching that are so amazing, we love them so much :)

First is Simone and Wellington. Simone was a contact that we spoke to in the street in front of her house. She told us that we could come back anytime. A week later we felt like we should take her up on her offer so we went to visit her and her husband let us right in. He told us that they had been reading the pamphlet of the plan of salvation that we gave them and that they really wanted to visit the church. Simone was washing clothes when we came in but as soon as she saw us she dropped everything and sat and wanted us to explain everything :) so cool! We taught her the restoration and when we asked her how she felt about after we explained about Joseph Smith and the first vision. With tears in her eyes she told us that while we were speaking she felt like she was there in the sacred grove with Joseph Smith seeing God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. The spirit was so strong and she wanted so much to learn more and go to Church. Were so excited to teach her more:)

Next is Marcia. She was a referral from a member. She has two sons and a daughter who were baptised but are less active but she was never baptised like she wanted to be. When we went to visit her she cried and told us that she wanted to follow the gospel of Jesus Christ but just didn't know how. She said that she wanted to teach her children good values to combat the teachings of the world. We told her we could help her with that ;) We were going to have a family home evening with them yesterday. but we ended up having to go home and staying home because of the protests that are going on right now. (don't worry were safe ;)) but were hoping that she went anyway. 

and last is Debora and Vinicius. Debora stopped us in the street a few weeks ago and asked if we were Jehovah's witnesses. (we get that a lot) and we told her that no we were missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. and she said REALLY? My Husband was baptised into your church when he was little but he never went back and we said REALLY?? :) ha ha. she told us that she was very curious as to what we believe because she is looking for a religion. She said that her and her son had never been baptised before. So we went back to teach her this week and she is incredible. She told us about her life. She is a very strong and courageous woman let me just say that! and her son Vinicuis is 10 years old but he acts like hes 30. Hes learning english and speaks very well. We invited them to come to church and they invited us to come back and teach them more. 

All in all sister Manchego and I are feeling very blessed for the opportunity to teach these three wonderful families. We kind of had a sad incident with our investigators Luisa and Isadora. They have stopped answering our phone calls and we talked to the couple that gave us their referral to see if they were able to talk to them and they said that Luisa (the mom) probably received some negative information about the church and that shes not interested anymore. They said that Isadora is still interested but were going to have to wait a little bit to see if we can gain their trust back again to see if we can teach her. Other than that our week has been wonderful :) 

We had divisions with two other sets of sisters this week so it was super busy but fun! I had my division with sister Lloyd (shes from Utah :)) and is a new missionary. She is INCREDIBLE! I wish I could go back to the beginning of my mission and be more like her. Well I should probably go. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and thoughts :) I love you all! 

Love,

 Shelby

Mission Trainer's Conference

Shelby and her companion won for submitting their house photo 1st!

Missionary Life in Brazil

Only Three More Months!

Hello Everyone :) 

Well this week has been actually pretty uneventful. We've seen some small miracles so that was cool! :) A lady in our ward is the neighborhood seminary teacher (that's literally her calling title, the other seminary teacher teaches at the church in the city and she teaches here in the neighborhood). She has been visiting all the less actives in the neighborhood that have kids in the seminary age and she's been giving us a bunch of referrals of all these families that shes been visiting. Its awesome! We visited one yesterday. it was a family where the sons were baptised but the parents weren't because they weren't able to get married. We shared a message with them and the mom cried because she said that she wanted to find a way to teach and love her kids and keep them away from the darkness of the world. We shared a scripture about Jesus´ invitation to come unto him. We invited them to come to seminary and church so well see how it goes... i hope that they go!

Luisa and Isadora are doing great but they are so busy its hard to mark a lesson with them! We ended up having to move their baptismal date but The Lord is in charge and he knows what's best for them! We are hoping we can see them this week and hopefully they can be baptised this Saturday. Keep them in your prayers please :) 

This week Sister Manchego and I are starting our divisions with the other sisters. This week we already have two planned out. On Tuesday ill be going with Sister Lloyd, a new American sister from Utah and we will be staying in my area. then we'll do divisions with Sister Andrade and Huallpa (the two sisters that live with us) it should be a fun and busy week. Sister Manchego and I will hardly see each other but it will be OK. President Reber said he might release me after this transfer so I can just be a normal missionary for my last two transfers. I love being a sister training leader and serving the sisters but I know that whatever he asks me to do will be what Heavenly Father wants me to do :) 

I know that the work I'm doing is his work and I know that he has everything under control. I have learned so much to follow the promptings of the spirit and to put Heavenly Father first. Sometimes you can't see the meaning behind something at first or you don't understand a prompting but just by following it you can know everything will turn out alright. I've learned to let Him lead my life instead of trying to take over for myself. I know that he has the grand picture and knows what's going to happen, I know that He loves us beyond measure and understands us completely. I'm so grateful for his patience with me and the love he has for my small insignificant life. I love all of you and miss you! 

Love,

 shelby

Hello Everyone!

Hello Everyone,

Well this week we've been adjusting to a new transfer with new companions and new sisters to take care of . The week flew by! We sent Sister Barrett off to Aquidauanna Monday Night. Her original bus was for 5:30 but we were late and missed it! So she had to catch the 11 pm bus. We were a little irritated until the Elders told us that there were some sketchy guys that were bothering a lot of women that got on the 5:30 bus so they said us being late for the bus was probably Heavenly Father protecting Sister Barrett, so in the end we were pretty grateful.

My new companion, Sister Manchego arrived the next morning around 8 am. Another sister waiting for her new companion and I went and picked them up together. And now were here working together! Sister Manchego is a very sweet missionary from Peru. Shes a hard worker plus we've been having fun together. I appreciated all the hard work shes putting into getting to know our investigators and the members in our ward. They all already love her since shes so up beat and out going. 

Our investigators Luisa and Isadora are doing fantastic! They are preparing for their baptism this Saturday and their super excited! we taught them about the word of wisdom and we were a little nervous about how they would take it since we know they both drink coffee. So we prayed that their hearts would be opened and that they would accept it. When we taught it we asked them if they had any problems with any of the substances on the list and they said ``we drink coffee, but its not a problem, we can stop`` We were a little speechless. It just goes to show how really special they are. Everything that we've taught them so far they have accepted with an open heart and applied it to their lives. Its such a privilege to be able to see their testimonies grow and to be able to help them follow Christ. 

Also this Sunday our stake had stake conference, so all the wards came together in a big meeting were we got to listen to uplifting music and listen to an elder from the quorum of the 70 speak to us. (I cant remember his name, its something long and Brazilian). It was really nice to be able to listen to inspired talks and not only be able to understand them but also to get something out of them. We were also able to see a lot of people we know from other wards. Plus President and Sister Reber came down from Cuiabá to speak in the conference and to do interviews with the missionaries. This was my last interview with president Reber before I go home! Next time ill be interviewed by him it will be my exit interview. How weird is that! Anyway, I really enjoyed my interview, President Reber is always so inspired and always helps me to know that Heavenly Father is proud of me and loves me. He also said that this might be my last transfer as a sister training leader. and that ill probably be transferred to a new area to finish off the last two transfers of my mission. I told him that he knows whats best but that I love being a sister training leader and I love helping and being with the other sisters. But I guess we´ll  see what happens! Well I just want to say that I testify that Christ lives. He lives and he loves us. I know that the crowning characteristic of love is loyalty and if we love God we have to be loyal to him and his commandments. We have to give up our lives to follow him. and when we loose our lives for his sake, that's when well find ourselves, encircled in the arms of his love.  Well I love you all!  Thank you so much for your prayers and love!

Love,

 Shelby