news from shelly shellita

i've said it before, i'll say it again, i'm the worst sister in the world. here's an update from your favorite hermana. she's been with a gringa which has been a nice change! i hope you understand spanglish.












HOLA

I am now in Santo Domingo! After a 4 hour long bus ride through the jungle, we changed locations. We are here for Zone Conference tomorrow. On the bus this seller man got on and tried to sell us this miracle seed that would literally cure everything, taste good, AND give you good breath. He sat in the back of the bus and it was disgusting every time I got up he would do this little flirty wave and smile at me. I was like, hey, back off mister. Ew. Luckily I was with the Gigantic Elder Rose, this really big white haired senior missionary (I was with all the Senior Missionaries, actually). But Elder Rose always protects me.

What can I tell you about this week? We had new Hermanas coming in, staying at our house on Tuesday night with their trainers, and it was a CRAZY day. Maybe I´ll tell the Top 5 things that happened (since I don´t have time for 10).

1 - We got to teach one of my old investigators from Iñaquito because she lives right around the corner from the Sloans and we were going by their house. She is a referral from Hermana Sloan and she is named Sara Molina. She is the cutest single mom ever, and she had accepted a baptismal date back in March but then talked to a Catholic lady and decided she felt she should focus and learn about what her own religion even is. (She is catholic, and like most catholics here has no idea what they really believe, but just follow it because of tradition). Anyway, in the lesson she committed to read the Book of Mormon again and go to Church. She said, you know, what you have taught me has really helped me, and if nothing else I really feel a lot closer to Christ. She is now praying to see if the Book of Mormon is true. I was so happy. Maybe not seeing her for a while helped her to reflect.

2- We ate re-heated on the stove pizza all week from the Sloan´s house. The best part also was that Hermano Saddler smuggled us some root beer from the embssy and we ate ROOT BEER FLOATS with our pizza! Awesome.

3- We had some awesome appointments with the Changos (recent convert family that is amazing) and Hugo and Cecilia´s two kids who haven´t really wanted to listen to us. We really had a good lesson with them, plus we laughed really hard together with the Changos. The Changos got baptized in December, and they are on fire with the work. They are my age, and have a 9 year old and 7 year old kid. That´s how things roll here. But now they are married, baptized and waiting to go to the temple.

4- These health interviews are so awesome! I really feel like I am able to do some benefit here on this traveling trip instead of feeling like I´m kinda just dead weight and then do some random presentation on stress. We are tracking common problems, and come to find out most of them who have problems with insects, stomach problems, etc. are doing NOTHING about it. One of them even told me he has rats in his apartment! I feel like I can help them in this way so much better. I am learning everything there is to know about how to get rid of bugs. I´m finally starting to feel like I am useful to the missionaries, and can make a difference for them!

5- Found a really awesome investigator named Gabriel. He is a 25 year old guy that has had cancer. He is the son of the single dad I was telling you about before. He came to the Church for his first lesson and we taught it with a member, showed him around the church, and he was like, wow. This might be what I have been looking for. It was such a spiritually powerful lesson, and he could really see what we were talking about because we were in the Church and he could feel the spirit of it. It was great.

Ok that´s it for now. Next week I will send you pics of the coast! I don´t have my cable with me right now.

Loves and hugs,
Sister G