Jau

And, while you are all snowed in, I am sweating....it is very very very hot here. Whoever invented ice cream needs to go straight to the celestial kingdom.

Mom, I got the package and love you with all my heart (will be wearing the blue cardi for conference in the morning) and Sister Forsyth loves you, too.

As well, happiness and miracles! This last Sunday I got a phone call from Sister Tanner (President's wife) and she says that someone wants to talk to me. Then I hear a ``Hello`` and I think, I know that voice. ``Mom Monterio?!!`` It was my dear Sister Monterio who was visiting Campinas for the day. We got to talk for 20 mins, and oh, how I have missed her. She´s doing wonderful, still looking for work and a boyfriend, but oh, it was great. Wow, I am so thankful for cellphones, facebook and skype.

So, again...bit of a dry spell but we´ve been teaching a ton and finding lots of people. People who the Lord will prepare for us. But, we´re loosing more sister missionaries. We´re down to twelve in the whole mission, with three more leaving in the next 2 weeks. No one in Provo is getting their visas so we may be down to 9 sisters. If we don´t baptize, they will close areas and I´ve already closed one. I cannot let them close it here. We need a miracle, and not just a baptism, but lots of baptisms.

This week has been all about humility. It´s been studying our roles as sons and daughters of God and trying to understand our purpose here on the earth. It is amazing how wonderful the atonement is in our lives, how Christ with all of his perfection came to the world and redeemed us, even when we don´t feel like we deserve it. As I work here in Jau, I truly have seen how wonderful the gospel is in our lives, how it all makes sense, how this is the one church of the Father. What a great blessing it is to recieve the miracles of the Lord, to trust him and to let him be a part of our lives. Truly, this is the Lord´s work and his glory.

So that´s it. Remember to pray for me tomorrow because I am terrified.
Love to all!
Sister Shannon

Jau

GUESS WHAT?!!! You guys are going to totally be jealous of me...why? Because next Thursday, I will be getting to shake the hands of....

ELDER GADOY-of the 70
PRESIDENT SNOW-of the Presidency of the 70
and...
THE APOSTLE RUSSEL M. NELSON

They are going to be giving us a training with all the missionaries in Campinas! I´ll also get to see my friends and fellow missionaries from the mission!

We saw a car crash into a wall...the guy was drunk. He then got out and smoked a cigarette, silly people.

In other news, can I just say how proud I am of my four sisters and my brother and for the two of you, Mom and Dad. As Elders and Sisters, we spend the time teaching and then we spend the time talking about our families. Since I have been here in Jau, I have come to realize how darn lucky I am.

My parents honor their temple covenants, my father is a worthy priesthood holder, my mother is a freaking rock star who can do anything. My brother is a worthy priesthood holder who is serving an honorable mission. My sister who is 18 is going to BYU and not dating a loser. While I´m sure driving with Megan could give Dad a heart attack, she is staying strong, not being rebellious or running away at 3 am. Brynn and Callen are developing new skills and talents. I am so proud of every one of you guys.

Life is life here in Jau. I absolutely adore Sister Forsyth, we are laughing so much. You gotta be able to laugh. We´re still in our dry streak, no one wants to come to church, so we´re gonna fast and pray and ask the Lord to show us where we should be working because truly the field is white ready to harvest.

We did something a little different yesterday in District Meeting. After we teach about Joseph Smith, we invite the investigator to be baptised. Well, yesterday Elder Joseph told us to try something else, that the moment after you finish the First Vision to bear testimony and then to say a prayer with your investigator, and in that prayer ask that the Spirit testify that our message is true and to put feelings of peace.

As missionaries we know that we being called of God and having the authority of Christ, we can promise and ask for anything and it will be given to us. We practiced and I received a testimony again of the truthfulness of our message, the feelings of peace and of tranquility, the knowledge that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, that he saw God and Jesus Christ, that we have a living Prophet who directs this church and how the authority of God is here again. People can say all sorts of things but they can´t deny the feelings in their hearts. The Gospel of Christ is on the Earth. The Power of Forever Families is here, we can have it, if we endure to the end.

And when enduring to the end is too much, when we are trying just to make it through the day, our Father will help us. Our Savior will save us. He´ll jump in the hole with us and pull us out.

Well, guess that´s it. Family, you´re in my prayers.
Take care-
S.Stapley

Jau

I absolutely love Sister Forsyth! She´s from Utah and is engaged to get married in December. She pretty much rocks. We´ve been working hard and I´ve been showing her the area. We´ve seem to hit a dry streak right now. The people we're teaching don´t want to come to church or to keep commitments, but we keep working and hopefully soon the Lord will show us miracles.

So, something really embarrassing happened on Sunday. Most of our ward members live in another city and so they usually give us money for lunch rather than host us in their homes. In every other city, the members give 20 Reais, which is enough to either go to a restaurant or buy food to cook. Here we get 10 Reais and we only get to eat at members' houses 2 times a week. Just to let you know, it´s an unspoken rule to NEVER complain about lunch to ANYONE. It is better to starve than to offend the members, who are pretty poor. But- our zone leader found out and complained to the branch president, who then reprimanded the women in the ward for not taking care of us. It was really embarrassing. I was apologizing to the women and telling them that we were grateful.

I´ve been studying a ton about repentance and about the sacrament. I´ve been reading about sacrifices and how the Lord expects us to do our part. We´re asked to take a broken heart and a contrite spirit to truly be humble and willing to accept the will of God in our lives. We keep teaching about the simple steps- prayer, reading the scriptures, going to church. It is through these simple things that we learn what the Lord expects of us. Then when we know what it is He wants, we need to do it, even if it isn´t our own will and/or desire. The sacrament is a way to remember those covenants, the promises that we made to always remember our God and our Savior Jesus Christ.

I have a ton of stuff that I need to do, alot of things to do better, and there is no redo. It´s like the Lion King says, "you can take it and learn from it". This whirlwind of an adventure in Brasil has shown me who I want to be. I don´t want to go back to being Pre-Mission Shannon. I want to be the missionary Shannon, the one who's put the Savior Jesus Christ first in my heart. I know that He will stay there. I´ve changed and I´m still changing. I´m getting my life together, applying the attributes of Christ in my life and just trying to be better. Eu quero ser como Cristo...I´m trying to be like Jesus, what a wonderful song.

So, yeah, that´s me. It´s my thought process right now. I got a ton of work to do, but this is something right...this is my Father´s work. I get to be a part of that, how wonderful is that?! So yeah, I love you guys. You´re all in my prayers. To my sisters, keep being wonderful. One more thing, as I have been dealing with many elders and sisters, the topics of families always comes up. I'm proud to say that I am the only one who is not worried sick about my two teenage sisters. Megan and Erynn, thanks for not doing anything stupid. It's nice to not have to worry. Love you all and have a great week!

Sister Stapley

Jau

Family-

Well, everything must change. I am still here in Jau but my dear Sister Poast got transferred. President Tanner called and told Sister Poast what was going to happen. She is the most powerful sister missionary in the mission and she will be opening an area and helping a problem missionary. I´m so proud of her but I'll miss her so much!

We left here at 5:30 in the morning and got to Campinas around 10am. There I found out that I will be working with Sister Forthsyth. I'm excited to be with her! We had to stay in the bus station for 8 hours! The next bus back to Botucatu didn't leave until 6pm. We arrived in Botucatu at 10 pm and were going to have to walk about an hour to get to a house where we could sleep. (Not our house- because we were still another 2 hr bus ride from Jau!) Sister Forsyth asked the elders if a member could drive us. They initially said no, that they didn't want to bother anyone. But after another elder offered to pay for a taxi for us, the others decided to try and find us a ride. A nice member took us and they are just lovely-and even bought us McDonalds.

Caught in the rain!

I prayed, when I was going to be transferred after my last companion, that I could have a true friend and God answered my prayer in the most amazing way possible. I love Sister Poast and we became the best of friends. These last twelve weeks have been wonderful and I would not have traded them for the world. I was laying down a few night s ago and the thought just came to me that I was so absolutely and totally happy. There is no where else I would rather be right now and I know that I still have a ton to learn and to do before I am done. But I am so happy here!

Elder Nelson is coming for a mission conference on the 24th. That will be really fun!

And that´s what happened this week in Botucatu.

I love you all, take care,
S.Stapley

Jau

On Thursday, we'd pretty much finished the work for the week in our area and decided to help out on the other side of town. We spent 6 hours helping contact the investigators and less active members in another area. We set up some lessons and even did some teaching! We helped get the other missionaries their numbers and set up some appointments for them. They were grateful for our help.

WOOT, WE BAPTISED A FAMILY! Paulo, Silvana and Gabriele...Moises will be baptised in a year when he turns eight. It was wonderful and they were all so happy. The whole branch stayed after church to attend and it was great. I was in baptism high- knowing that we're helping someone return to the presence of our Heavenly Father, the promise of Eternal life, of being with their family forever and being happy. I love that verse in Revelations that talks about how there will be no more tears and everything will be okay. Truly, this is a gospel of good news, of knowing why we are here, that the purpose of life is more than just to sit around and eat, drink and be merry...although, you need to learn how to have fun. Joy is important, too!


And now we move to the weather...it feels like home because we are in the rainy, flood seasons. Many roads have been blocked, turtles have died and some of the houses near the river are in bad shape. We´re in an apartment so we´re okay. The floods always recede after 5 hours or so, but it felt like home for a tiny bit...good thing Sister Poast and I have umbrellas.

As well, I had the most interesting thing to eat...it was this tough meat. After we both had a tiny bit, we asked, "what is it?" To which they answered that it was some sort of bird...and then they said, "Pomba" ...pigeon. Yep, it was horrible and we were both got sick afterwards. The elders brought us stomach meds, but we were hurting for a few days.


So, I love you all. Keep up the good work. Do the small things, pray, read your scriptures, do home and visiting teaching, stay true to the faith, remember that it is the greatest of all gifts-- joy and peace. It is through the atonement of our Lord and Savior that we can do anything, but we have to endure to the end. (I have to talk in the other branch this Sunday for 15 mins, that is enduring to the end, say a prayer for me!) But the thing is that it's the small choices we make every day that will define our lives.

"Don´t do anything stupid"- as Mom always says, you guys are rock stars, know that you are all in my prayers. Take care. Erynn, I want photos of the black eye!

S.Stapley

Jau

This week was totally awesome! We had sushi, yes sushi, although it was not as good as in Seattle. For New Years, we traveled to a town right next to the river and had barbecue with some of the members. I felt so full after eating, but it was fun. We got some pics by the river!

Okay, miracles of miracles! We have a family that is totally and wonderfully elect! They have three kids, Moses and Gabriell who are 7 and 9 and a son that's a drag queen and won´t talk to us. The four of them came to church and we´ll baptise them in two weeks. But the miracle is that the first day we went there, we explained that we don´t smoke or drink (two things they had problems with) but we had yet to teach them the word of wisdom...but when we went Monday, and after a totally awesome lesson, we had a conversation that went like this...

``So how many cigarettes do you smoke a day?``

``We smoke three packs a day``

``And how many have you smoked today?``

``Oh, we haven´t bought cigarettes since the first day you girls passed by.``

....BREATHE. So then we said,

``And Paulo how about acholl?`` (alcohol)

``Oh, I haven´t bought any since the first day you visited.``

So, yeah, they rock, and we´re going to baptise them. Then we went and visited another person who came to church on Sunday, his name is Ricardo and he´s 17. When we visited him he told us that he had a problem with drugs...okay, we asked him when the last time he used was and he said (drum roll) two weeks ago, and that he´s trying to change his life....UM PERFECT! We watched Faith in Christ and the spirit was very strong.

As a companionship we´ve made it a goal to go visit all of the menos active people in the branch and try to get them to come to church, but it would be so much easier if everyone did their home and visiting teaching. Here in Brasil, where only three people have cars, I can understand why it's hard, but back home- everyone has a car! I hope that the ward and the stake have 98% or higher on home and visiting teaching, it´s not that hard when you have a car! Yes, seriously, our job is to baptise them, the ward has to keep them active. Seriously, home and visiting teaching are easy, just take them cookies and ask if they are okay....come on, and it takes less than two hours. So, please just do it!!

As for me, I´m good, learning a ton and trying to be more confident. Thanks, hope you guys are doing well.

Love,
S.Stapley

Jau

Well, not much has happened since I spoke with you on Christmas day....well other than I am very sunburned. We´re in Sao Maunel for p-day and instead of playing football with the elders, I opted to write letters to my recent converts and fell asleep in the sun...for about an hour. I should be in a ton of pain in the morning. Working hard, nothing new. I'm really grateful for Christmas and the opportunity I had to talk to you guys. Take care, Shan