Sept. 14th

Hey everyone!

So it´s been a while since I´ve sent an email to everyone. Time here just seems to be falling out of my hands. I can´t believe that i´ll be finishing here in 3 months. It´s amazing the things that I experience and learn on the mission. Who knew that spending 2 years in another country with people I don´t know speaking a language that´s different and doing the Lord´s work would change so much. There have been lots of ups and downs but I´m greatfull for my time here. There is so much that is different here. The weather these last days has been freezing cold. Never thought that I´d have to sleep with a hoody on.

I just want to encourage all of you to always be great member missionaries and do your best to help others serve missions. I love you all and I´ll be seeing yall in 3 months.

love

elder Shannon

July 6th

Hey everyone

So if you´re wondering why i didn´t send any email last week you can call the church headquarters and ask them why the site didn´t let me on. But at least i´m on today. 

This past week was the coldest week that I´ve had here in brazil. I never thought it´d get this cold but I had to use my winter coat! I think it got down to 11 degress cel. I don´t know how much that is in the states. So it´s been a fight to get out of bed each morning and get ready. And if i´m reacting this strong to the cold you can imagine how the people here are reacting. But I guess it´s good to have some cold ever now and again. On another note I´m starting to gain weight again. I think I´m at almost 80 kilos. Which is good.

My comp and I are doing great. He´s a bit of a wierd kid but it´s that type of wierd that ya just love. He and I have the same amount of time on the mission and so we´ll die on the same day but we probably won´t be together. There´s another american that lives in the house. Elder Carena is his name and he´s from virginia. He´s cool.

Also we´ve been teaching a woman called margarida but we call her Meg, and her two sons Lorran and Raul. They´re a family very specail and they´ll be baptized next sunday!!! They´re like a miracle family because the Lord prepared them and put us in the right place at the right time. The sons went to church 3 times already and the mom just went yesterday. She decided to leave her work just so she could go to church and also to keep the sabbath day. It´s been a blessing to teach this family. Meg also has two older kids but they don´t live here but who knows, maybe they´ll have a chance to go too.

I´m enjoying my area a lot even though it´s like 3 times bigger than upper arlington and we have to walk everywhere(lazy american missionaries who have cars and bikes) but I´m enjoying the cold and the little crime that exists.

I love you all and hope you´re doing great.

Love

Elder Shannon

April 27

Mom and dad!

yesterday and today have been crazy! We had two baptisms yesterday. Matheus and Ana. They´re brother and sister. They are super cool. We´re going to baptize the mom next month I think. She´s already ready to be Baptized but she has to get married with the guy she´s engaged with. He just happens to be a member and he´s finishing a divorce.....hopefully he´ll finish it all quickly. Then today we went to a place called Pico de Jaraguá. It´s the highest poin in Sao paulo. It was really cool! We were able to see about half of sao paulo. I think we´d have to be almost in space to see all of sao paulol. I´ll try and send photos soon. But man it was a hike. I haven´t walked and climbed so much since high adventure! We got to the top completely covered in sweat! I took pics of this animal that looks like an ant eater. They got real close to us. Oh and we also saw monkies. And I got pics of the first squirrel that i´ve seen in brazil! haha. We got back and ate lunch in 20 min then we took a shower and changed clothes. We´re emailing now and we´ve got an hour before we have to get to a meeting. So much for a day of rest! Oh and this friday we have a meeting with our mission and the sao paulo interlagos mission with one of the members of the presiding bishopbric. I think he´s french. This past week went by fast and right now we´re just trying to find new people to teach. We spent saturday morning knocking down walls inside a house of a member. that meant slude hammers and mini jack hammers. I don´t know why but it´s always so cool to knock down walls. 

So I can´t believe that the move is actually happening. It´ll make me sad that we won´t be in ohio anymore. But i hope everything goes well with the move. I love you all and stay safe!

April 6th

Hey Everyone! 

So it´s been a while since I´ve sent an email to you all. The mission has been going good! We got really close to baptizing a woman but in the end she wasn´t able to keep a few commandments. We got hope that she´ll be able to change her life. We´re working with another family that is part member and they are really cool. I really like my area but sometimes i miss being in rio grande da serra because it´s so much more peacefull there. I´m in the city and there´s just so many people and traffic and music. But it´s cool.

So General conference was pretty darn cool! The saturday sessions were spent a lot on families and marriage. The sunday sessions more on principles of the gospel. I really liked the talk by Wilford W. Andersen about the music of the gospel. These men and women really are inspired. Dallin H oaks burned about half the church when he talked about having cellphones out during the sacrement and how many members don´t give lots of attention to things of the gospel. There´s some great lessons to be learned.

      So we had a cool experience the other day. We passed by the house of a recent convert who´s about 60 years old. Everyone calls her bela (this means ´´beautiful´´ in english) She had been sick for the past few days and this day she was really really bad. Massice headache, high fever, vomiting, lots of body pain and a very dry mouth. We talked with her for a bit and then we gave her a blessing. I annoited her and did the first part of the blessing. But right before I did, I told her to think about the most beautiful place that she´d seen. My comp put his hands on her head and then I (becuase of there wasn´t a lot of space on the bed) put one hand on her head and one on my comps shoulder. And for a few min the noise of the world faded out. As my comp was talking (and I confirmed that he felt it too) we began to get really hot. We had sweat going down our cheaks. We finished the blessing and Bela sat their for a second. She opened her eyes and began to cry out in joy. She said that she no longer felt pain in her stomach, the moisture was coming back to her mouth, her fever was going down and she was able to sit up. She then said ´´you know what place I was thinking about in my head?´´ ´´what place´´ I asked. ´´The temple.´´ 

It´s amazing what happens when we put the power of God together with the strong faith of one of his children. Always remember that this is the True Church Of God. And even when we feel helpless and lost or sad or confused, there is comfort to be found in our Savior. I love you all and hope the best of everything for you guys.

Love 

Elder Shannon

March 2

Hey everyone!

 So I´ve had some crazy 2 weeks. I had that mess of transfers 2 weeks ago. Well last monday we were returning back home and we got a call from the office. They told us that I along with another Elder in our trio were being transfered again. I was getting use to that área where i was and now I was being sent to another área. I think presidente wants to send me to every zone in our mission. So we had 3 elders to carry 4 suitcases and backpacks and side bags. We had to a bus and then the subway. But now im in a new área here in são Paulo. It´s called saúde. It´s a cool área. But since it´s in a thick part of the city, there´s not a lot of Peace. I´m with Elder s. carasai. He´s from the South parts of brazil. Rio grande do sul to be specific. He´s only got 3 months on the mission but he´s a cool guy. It´s a good área here and there´s some cool people. We also got a ton of rain the other day. There was a part of the road so full of water that when cars passed, the water was almost at the top of the wheels. We got pretty darn wet and im feeling the aftereffects of cold rain. Oh and i´m in the only área on the mission where we have a member who washes our clothes for us!!!! I can finally take a break from having to wash clothes. Time seems to be passing by quickly and I´m learning a lot every day. I love you all and hope that God continues to bless you all.

Elder Shannon

January 5th

Hey pessoal!

I cant believe the buckeyes made it so far! I thought they would lose to alabama! How did they pull that off? It sucks that the year that they begin to do so well, Im not there to see it. Hopefully they win the championship. Anyways, I hope new years eve was enjoyable. There were lots of fireworks here and lots of bombs all over the place. Or at least it sounded like bombs. We spent our new years eve at home. We had to be home at 8 bc it gets a bit dangerous at night. the next day we spent the entire morning cleaning our house. Good stuff. Well we got a new year. I know each year people talk about goals. And it never works out. I encourage you guys to make realistic goals for this next year that you really want to accomplish. When you make these goals you gotta begin with a Vision. Where do you want to be by the end of the year? Then you make the Goals to achieve it. Then you make the Plans to make the goals happen. Plans that will help you get to the end step by step. The last thing is Action. You gotta do the things that will get you to your Vision. Just some good thoughts. I was never good at goals so I will be trying too. Other than that we are returning to normal work. We have transfers tomorrow and my comp elder Madeux is leaving and Im staying. Im excited to see who will come. Hopefully someone good! Haha. I hope that everyone has a great 2015 and looks to the front.

December 29th

Hey everyone!

So I hope christmas was good for you guys. Excuse the font that i´m using. The computer is a little crazy. I just wanted to leave a few words with you guys. First things first. Did any of you see the movie Meet The Mormons? Well at our christmas party for the mission we watched a lot of videos and at the end we got to watch this movie. In portuguese. We were the first people in the world to see it in portugeuse. Our president was able to get a copy and his daughter brought it when she came down to visit. I loved the movie and I thought it was very inspirational. I hope that we are all able to be examples to our non-member friends like that. Another thing I´ve been learning on the mission is something interesting. Sometimes on the mission(or in life) we get into the habit of arriving to a level in life where we feel comfortable and we just kinda sit back and watch things pass by. One thing to realize is that we should always be working to change our lives and improve our lives. Seeing as we are not perfect there is always much more to change and to improve. Even after we die and we recieve exaltation, we still can learn and rise to new levels of exaltation. We need to look at our lives and see where do we want to improve and where we need to improve. And we must begin the process of changing. It´s a hard things, and being huaman we don´t want to change. I know though, that if I can do this, you all for sure can do it. Lets use this time at the end of the year to reflect on what was good and bad, and how we can use this new year to achieve a new level of happiness. I love you all and I´m so greatful for your support. Stay safe.

Love Elder Shannon