Week 12 ( no email for week 11)

Hey everyone!

It´s been a crazy week, as always. For the past two weeks we haven´t had any rain and Brazil survives off of the rain. So the water was going to be turned off on friday to conserve it but come thursday night a miracle happened. It began to rain and rain and pour and pour. It was one of the worst rain storms Ive ever been in. And my comp and I got caught in it on the way back to our house. We didn´t bother using our umbrellas because of how bad it was. It was much needed and it felt sooo good.

Anyways this past week was a bit rough. I got a new comp for this transfer but he´s not the greatest missionary. He´s from here in Brazil and speaks very very little english. We had a talk with the mission president after a few days and tonight he´s being switched to another area. So I´ll be getting another comp. We lost some good investigators this past week because of my comp but hopefully we can find some new ones this next week. We did talk to a man who sounded like Jabba the Hut from star wars. I didn´t understand anything he said. Despite that though I am making some progress on the language. Hopefully I´ll get it down soon. It´s always nice being able to understand people.

This next week should be good.

Con Amor

Elder Shannon

Elder Shannon saves the day!

Oi!

Not a lot of time this week but I will write what I can. So quick story. Here in brazil they have something similar to the sewer holes in the states. It´s a rectangle hole 4 feet by 3 feet. And so I was in the car of a member and we were trying to back the car up to a parking spot. My comp got out of the car to spot. I looked out the back window and all of a sudden he just dissapeared. He had walked over one of the man holes and this one was covered by a wooden board. It was a bit too weak. SO I got out of the car, walked over, grabbed him under the arms and pulled him out. I´m pretty awesome. It made my day.

Anyways I gotta tell you. The cereal here is super expensive. A box is about $5. It´s thievery. Though fruit here is cheaper than anything in the states. So our breakfast and dinner consist of some fruit, bread, butter and maybe an egg. OH! and we have these packets of fruit powder that you can mix with water. Their called Tang. And often we like to buy Nestle Chocolate milk mix. Lunch is our main meal. It´s a little wierd having to get use to eating a huge meal for lunch and then just little bits in the morning and night. The food is awesome though. Plus every week they have massive street markets with fruits and vegetables. We like to indulge ourselves often.

I love you all and I especially love all the emails!

 

Con Amor Elder Shannon

Week 9 and lots of pictures!

Oi!

Well the mission continues. We´ve been making good progress with some investigators this past week. We have one woman who loves to cook food for us so after every lesson with her she feeds us. She´s really wanting to change her life around and be a better person! This past sunday we invited her and 6 other peopl to church. Only one showed up. It was an old man who we love and are teaching. He actually showed up at 8 instead of 8:30 for church, haha. But yeah, we´re working hard.

So i´ve been introduced to some new food here. And it´s AWESOME! For those of you who thought I was a picky eater.....well lets just say, you don´t know me. Brazilians love to eat and always have some food laying around to give us. It´s a shame the States don´t have some of the fruit that´s here.

The music here is interesting. Brazilians like something called Funk. It´s not exactly like Funk in the States. But everyone just rides around blasting something that they call music. And they also like to have Funk parties in the street.

Anyways, being here and the time I spend studying the scriptures I´ve found things that i have never noticed before. Its awesome what you can learn when you take time to study the scriptures. Also i´ve learned here that life is hard and sucks sometimes but in the States we have it so much better. We´re teaching a man who has diabetes and other health problems. He has trouble walking and he´s like 60. He was the man that showed up to church early. We have another man who has to have heart surgery next week. There are many more. These people live in conditions that most Americans wouldn´t be able to stand but they have families that they love and they go to work everyday and quite a few of them don´t have cars and so they have to walk. Heavenly Father knows our lives are hard but we neet to show our faith just like some of the Brazilians here. Christ paid the ultimate price, the least we can do is persevere a bit.

    Well there is my spiel for the week. I love you all and hope things are going good in the north.

Love

Elder Shannon

Week 8

Todo Bom!

As of today I have been on a mission for 2 months! I´m about half way done with my transfer in my first area. Brazil is an awesome place!

So I´ve recieved a few emails concerning weather. Contrary to what it says online, it is blistering hot here everyday. Add that to the hills that we walk up each day and I wish I could have some freezing cold weather! I got a bit of a tan mark because of the watch I wear so I spent this entire past week not wearing my watch just to even it all out.

Cool story: My companion and I were leaving a lesson one day and we found a huge crowd of people in the street. We saw that two girls were arguing with eachother and the crowd was holding them back from eachother. Then the two girls were let go and they ran at eachother and began fighting like dogs. This went on for a bit. My comp and I ran into a store to use the bathroom and when we came out we saw that their moms were fighting eachother. One of them had a large stick and was chasing the other up and down the streets! It was really funny. I guess that´s their form of civil justice here.

Missionary work continues to be good but difficult. We talk to lots of people each day and make appointments but some of them usually give us a wrong address. But we actually found these 3 women who are super interested. They were references from a previous family we taught who moved to another area. They are a bit crazy because they love that I am an american and I can hardly speak the language. But if that´s how we get into their house then so be it. Hahaha. Anyways, I want you to remember that life gets hard sometimes. But you need to trust in the Lord. He has a plan and even if you can´t see it, it´s there. Try not to doubt and stay positive! I love you all!

Con Amor

Elder Shannon