Braganca Paulista

First off, please tell Ty Bailey he’s in my prayers, and thank him for all the lessons he gave me, my Sunday School Class and Eric. He’s gonna beat this!

So much has happened this week. First off, remember how I talked about the family of Ana? Well...Ana said she’ll get married and we baptized her older daughters Bella and Gabi on Saturday. We then baptized Karoline's sister Inara. It was really special. Karoline and Inara´s mom and Dad came and cried when we showed the “Come thou Font” pictures of Christ slideshow. It was really great. I was a tiny bit sad though...here’s why. Karoline and Inara have a cousin named Julia who’s been taking the discussions with Inara, and she was going to get baptized on Saturday as well, but when the Elders came and gave her her interview, her Mother came out and started screaming at all of us...Karoline, Inara, Julia, me, my companion, the two elders and Karoline’s mom...saying that she didn’t want her daughter baptized. She said that Julia has to attend church for a year first. By the time she was done shouting, Julia, Karoline and Karoline’s mom was crying. It was really really hard. We talked to Julia about having faith, and Julia says that if she has to wait a year she will, because she knows the church is true. So, we’re all hoping for the best.

In Brazil we have what we call “Snakes” and “Scorpions”. Snakes are girls who only listen to the elders because they think they are cute and scorpions are men who are well...insert word of choice here. For the most part, we haven’t had that many, but that changed! Remember Inez, the first woman we baptized? Well, she has a sister named Maria and we went to teach her the first lesson. Her two sons were there. But one of them left the room after the lesson. Maria’s older son, Marcus, who was either drunk when we taught the lesson or had taken too many drugs in the past, was very loud. Whenever Sister Monterio spoke, he said he wanted me to speak...which was awkward. He asked when I was returning home, and I said in a year and a half. He then said if I married a Brazilian, I could stay in Brazil. I quickly told him that I had a boyfriend (white lie, I know), and Marcus said he didn’t care. He then grabbed my wrist. Now at this moment, I was pretty much ready to punch him in the face, but Sister Monterio defused the situation, and we smiled and left. Yeah...you can all laugh now, but I am not excited to return to Maria’s house.

A new woman investigator came to church on Sunday, her name is Ana Paula, and she wanted us to give her the lessons. But, she lived very very far away. We had a family drive us to the appointment...and we drove to the boonies, think rural Idaho, only less houses. Dirt roads, trees, corn and lots of nothingness. After an hour and a half we realized that we were lost! We were laughing though, anyway, we finally found her house at 9:45 pm only to have her not be at the house! So we got home at 10:15, a grand adventure!

Last P-day, we went fishing! A member of the ward has a pond in her backyard. I caught a fish...I’m very happy!

This Saturday we’re preparing a boy named Gene for baptism. He’s 13, but he wants to get baptized so we’re working with him and his grandparents.

Transfers were yesterday, and thankfully I am SAFE!!! WOOT WOOT!

Everyone is laughing at me, because I’m either really white or really red. Lots of water and ice cream help with the heat!

Love you all. We have conference in a week so “fingers crossed” I’ll get the package.

Sister Shannon Stapley