Week 4 Letter

3/18/11
Hi everyone!
Thank you for all of your letters and the package! I loved it! I will be sending a letter to you in the mail today with my sd card with pics, so you can look for that. As for me, not a lot is new, other than the fact that I am learning more and more Portugues. I am speaking in the language all of the time! It is sooo cool! The Lord is helping me sooo much, and there is no doubt in my mind that I am being helped everyday. There is no way that I could do what I am doing by myself, I know because of how my Spanish class went :) Shiloh knows what I am talking about. So, Let me see if I can catch you up. First of all, to answer some questions. You say Grandma and Grandpa by saying Avó and Avô. They sound really similar, but they are slightly different. I am still district leader, although I think that it is time to be released on Sunday. Life is going well here. I am staying really busy, and working hard every moment of the day. I cannot wait to get out to Brazil and start teaching people in their language. Also, I decided that I might as well tell you mom, I did roll - sprain my ankle, although no worries, no big deal, but I thought that I would tell you because there are pics on the sd card that I will be sending. The pics are from 2, 3, and 4 days later (I did it on Sat), and it is still swollen now, but I can walk and everything, so you can relax mom. Everything is good. I was playing volleyball in Gym (yeah, pretty girly way to get hurt) and I jumped up, spiked the ball, and came down as my shoe was falling off, so I rolled it to the inside, but I did score the point, although right away I knew that I was done for the day. I iced it for 2 sets of 20 minutes and wrapped it up, but it still swelled up to the size of a baseball (that boney bump thing on the outside). It was crazy. Anyway, I cannot express how excited I am to teach people. We teach role play investigators here who are always in character. At the beginning of the week, we were teaching this guy named Merilho in Portugues, and after the first lesson, I do not think that he liked us very much. We struggled through the lesson in portugues, and he seemed very uncommitted. We were preparing to teach him about the plan of salvation, and prayed soooo hard. i wanted him to be baptized sooo bad, and so I studied and prayed. When the lesson came, we struggled through it again, but this time he seemed a little more interested. I started teaching about baptism a little bit, and had him read Alma 7 verse 15. While he was reading the Holy Ghost came over me, and I knew that he was going to be baptized. After the scripture, I began to talk more about baptism. Soon, I was saying all kinds of things in Portugues that I had no idea I could say, although I know that it was correct Portugues. The holy Ghost was guiding me sooo much, it felt completely unreal. I honestly do not remember everything that I said, but I do remember that I commanded him (in command form, I later found out) to be baptized for him, his God, and his family. The Spirit was sooo storng, I cannot even describe. It felt like a cloud of power in the room. After I said whatever I said, I told him again to be baptized, and he said that he would. It was incredible. When we left, my companions said that they understood parts of what I said, but that I was talking like our Portuguese teachers. It was amazing. It really strengthened my faith in both the gift of tounges and the power of the Holy Ghost. It was incredible. I cannot wait to do it out in the field. I have always known that the Holy Ghost is an incredible gift from a loving Heavenly Father, but now I know that I cannot and will never comprhend how miraculous this gift really is. I would like to bear my testimony. God is our father, and we are his literal children (Romans 8 16-18), and we, through the grace of our savior Jesus Christ, can live with him again, clothed with glory. I know that Jesus Christ's atonement is enough and more for all of the children of God. I know that God has prepared a plan of happiness for his children, that we might return to his presence with our familes. Families are an enternal principal. Were it not so, everything would be utterly wasted. Family is a gift from God on this Earth life, that is intended to be eternal. I know that through the prophet Joseph Smith, the true church of Jesus Christ has been restored on the Earth again, with all of the authority and power that we find and read about in the Holy Bible. I know that the Book of Mormon is an anceint record of scripture translated by God's prohpet Joseph Smith, and is the convincing evidence that Joseph Smith truly is a prophet of God, and that this book can bring us closer to Christ and to our families than any other book if we read it and apply its teachings into our lives. I know that there is a true prohpet today, and his name is Thomas S Monson. I know that I am not wasting my time here, but that I am the means of bringing people to Christ and to eternal salvation with thier families. i am involved in a real and true work, and I know that with every fiber of my being. Let me delcare to every soul, man, woman, and child that I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he loves every one of us, and that he is mighty to save. I have found this out for myself, and I know that you can too.

Your friend, son, and brother,
Elder Shane B. Lee
PS I met John Kennedy's (th guy with the hook) nephew JT Emerson. Pretty awesome! Tchau