Sumare

Wow, first off, Mom's on a painting and DI spree?!...Meg make sure all of my stuff is hidden! Oh, and if you guys wanted to be nice and mail me a new journal with my camera it would be highly appreciated. Oh, hair ties too.

I am not allowing myself to think that Eric is going home in 10 weeks. Nope, not going to happen.

Meg-you look so grown up in the picture. You´re so pretty.

To recount on the life of Sister Shannon Stapley-

1. Is back in Nova Veneza (30 mins from Campinas) where she served with S.Wagner
2. Is working with a Brasilera, Sister Monaco
3. Is eating a TON, and will probably gain some weight
4. Has read Jesus the Christ AGAIN, because her companion was sick for a week.

And now, miracles happen!!! I pretty much spent all of last week on divisions with some women who are getting ready to serve missions. S.Monaco had lost her voice and has allergies and was unable to work. Then on Sunday, we went to church and had 5 investigators there. One young man, Diego, (Meg, he´s 16, very very very faithful, cute and plays soccer) and his friend, Nailson, (Erynn, he´s 19, practically perfect and leaving for a mission the day he's been a member for 1 yr.) brought their friend, Edwardo, to church. We taught him and he is super Elect. He accepted baptism for this week!!! While we were teaching him the first lesson, after Diego, Nailson and one of our young women, Camilla, bore their testimonies, I looked around...and to my surprise, I realized that I was the only one out of all 6 of us (including my companion) that was born in the church. Mom-it was amazing, I saw you in all of them. I got to bear my testimony about how amazing this gospel is, and how their choices, the choices they made to be baptised (all of them have less than 1 year) will change their lives and the lives of their children and grandchildren. This gospel rocks!!! Truly, where else do you see these teenagers growing and becoming the heart and the lifeblood of a church? All of my brazilian comps are converts or are the children of converts. How awesome is that!!! And, I am as well, thank you Mom!!!

We´ve taught Edwardo the word of wisdom and we´re going to teach him about the Sabbath tonight. Should be good!!! We´ve also been working with his mom and truly it works!!! This gospel rocks. His mom was a little hesitant about the church (you know, we have devil horns and all that jazz) but after we explained about the church and taught the WOW/first lesson, she was okay with it. After we left, Nailson went to visit. He just talked about the church and now Edwardo´s mom is going to feel good with him being baptised!!! Awesome!!! The next day, all she could talk about was how much Nailson´s changed and how amazing and wonderful he is...yeah, I´m proud of him!

We´ve also been helping other investigators. Most of them need to get married, but truly this week has shown me the importance of members. When they help, family nights, references, testimonies...it´s perfect. Invite anybody reading this to help, to seriously think of the joy that we have because of this gospel, how God moves through small things, not through huge events to bring people to him...one testimony could change the world, look at Joseph Smith. Make the difference. Be the difference. I love each and every one of you guys (and it would be awesome to receive letters, packages, cards, you know, any signs of affection that you remember the skinny white girl who is trying to serve the Lord!) I pray for you.

Oh, one more thing. Yesterday after lunch we were at a members house because it was raining cats and dogs...and so we started helping the member with laundry. She had a bucket of socks and asked that we match them. Immediately, I sorted them into whites and colors and designs and began matching and folding them with speed and efficiency and my companion just stared at me like I had grown two heads..."what?" I asked. She said, "How do you do that?" I said, "what do you mean?" She said she had never folded socks (she´s the youngest of four.) I had to explain to her and to this dear Sister that I'm the oldest of 6 and so we had 8 people in the house which equalled a minimum of 56 pr of socks a week. This was a normal job. I finished in 5 mins. It took Sister Monaco 20minutes...so I helped her. Good to know that my years of cleaning and helping to take care of kids taught me something!

Love ya-

Sister Stapley