November 10th

Hey everyone.

I thinik it´s been a while since I sent a letter to you all. The weeks have been flying by. As most of you know by now, I´m in an area that is the beginning part of the country area of brazil. It´s pretty cool here. We got good weather here. It´ll usually be hot until about 3 or 4 then cools down and stays cold until the next morning. We also get lots of fog. These past few weeks have been difficult because the work has been very slow. We´ve been doing our best to work hard and in the last few days we´ve been able to get some success. I have a thought that was brought to my mind recently. We talk a lot about having faith in God and trusting in Him. However, one of my leaders here on the mission asked us more or less, Have you gained God´s trust? I never thought much about God trusting in us. I don´t think that ever registered in my mind. As missionaries it´s something vital. For example, we talke to lots of people everyday. This is one of the most improtant things we do. But if we´re slacking and not talking to the number of people that we should, then how can god trust us enought to put the people who are ready in our path. If God doesn´t trust us to talk to the person that He puts in our path then he won´t. And so a thought for all of you, are you doing your part each day so that Heavenly Father turst you? This applies in all situations. How can we gain the trust of Heavenly Father? I hear from many people that topics from the prophet and apotles is about hastening the work. That means people that we are getting closer and closer. The best thing we can do these days is to keep our covenants and talk to people about the church.

Anyways the work continues and I continue to be tired but what´s new? Haha. I love you all and hope the best for everyone.

Love Elder Shannon

September 15

Hey Everyone!!!

What a week! It was a good but really slow week. It´s nice to have a day off and relax. This was one of the more tiring weeks of my mission. I fell asleep a little during church, I felt bad. Oh well. So earlier this week we were walking the roads at night and got stopped by 3 young guys. They asked us a bit about what we do. We were excited to explain to them but after a few min into the conversation they asked us if we wanted a job. They offered us a job to work for their company which goes door to door trying to sell a new type of clean water. Though we were tempted to accept a job from 3 guys who were most likely drug addicts, we had to deny. We did invite them to church the next week.

We found a lot of cool people this week too. We found some families that are just so accepting of the things we teach and the best part is they always give us food when we pass by. Haha, obviously it´s not why we continue going over but it´s a good incentive. We just gotta get them to church now. Always the hardest part with brazilians. They´re all so lazy! Haha but I love them. The weather is getting hotter. It´s getting to the point where we walk outside of the house and begin to sweat. The nights are still staying a bit cool but that´s not going to last forever.

Tudo está bem comigo. O portuguese está melhorando e estou aprendendo novas coisas todos os dias. Eu sou muito grato por tudo de vocês e as coisas que vocês fazem para mim. Obrigado.

Com muito amor,

Elder Shannon

September 1st

HEYO!!!!

It´s been a while since i´ve written for the blog. My bad. Things have been quite busy these last few months. We got a new mission president who´s making some good changes. The weather has been a consistent cold one week and hot the next with a little bit of rain mixed in. But summer is coming and it´s going to be a hot one. A few weeks ago I went to this really big park that São Paulo has. It´s called Parke Ibirapuera. Or something like that. It is really really cool. Think about a park you´ve gone to then mulitply it by 6. It´s got basketball courts, fields, workout and playground areas, a big lake with fountians and you can rent bikes and go on bike rides. It´s pretty cool. Then they have restaurants in like the more forsesty parts of the park. We had a lot of fun there.

The work is going well. I´m in an area called Ubirijara, Piratininga still. There are a lot of people in this area. I feel like i´ve talked to a million people in my area yet there is another million to talk to. We´ve found some really cool people but they´ve all got little problems that we are working with. It´s not easy trying to change people´s lives. It´s hard when we know that we´ve got something that will make them more happy but they don´t understand. It´s a hard work. But we just gotta keep going.

Oh and I got awesome news. I found real milk here. Like milk in the states kind of milk. I was so happy when I found it. I thought it would be 2 years without milk. NOT ANYMORE. Just wait until I get hold of some oreos! Haha anyways, I love you all and stay safe.

Elder Shannon

July 28th

Como Vai!?!?

Well I´m finally settled down in an area called Ubirajara, Piritininga. I´ll give someone 100 dollars if they can say that right! Haha but I like this area. It´s actually a bit close to my old area in Apurá. So just to clear up any questions about my one week stay in São Bernardo, I was there to help out a missionary and also to get it ready for two sisters who were going to take over the area. It was fun there. But I´m in this new area with my first american comp! It´s awesome. I love having an american comp. It doesn´t exactly help us with the language because we talk a lot of english but it´s whatever. We do study the language a bit. I´m not sure if the Ralphs from cincinnati are reading this but if the kids remember a Nick Bryant from their ward....well he´s my comp now. We were talking about you guys the other day. We couldn´t believe the chances. And then we were talking about EFY and we realized that we went to the same one. I was actually in the same group as some of his best friends. So it´s been pretty cool getting to know him.

We´ve been working a lot. It´s been pretty cold these past few days so things suck a bit but we continue. We´ve been teaching a lot of people and we´ve got two people ready for baptism the next week. So we are super excited. Oh and one of the guys getting baptized got married on saturday and we went to that and it was super cool!

Anyways we had a good week and we´re super excited for this next week. I love you all!!!!

Elder Shannon