Elder Shane B Lee

Elder Shane B Lee
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This is the Mission Home address.
Elder Shane Burnham Lee
Brazil Cuiaba Mission
Av. Hist. Rubens de Mendonca, 1731
Sala 10, Bairro: Consil
CSP: 78050-975 Cuiaba - MT
Brazil

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Monday, February 13, 2012

Week 51 Letter

Monday, February 13, 2012
Hello my family!
How are all of you doing?!  So, I have a new companion, Elder Alves.  I do not know if you knew this yet, but they sent another two missionaries here so Ji-Parana has 4 missionaries.  I am excited to get to work and find new people to teach.  We are teaching a lot of people.  Once again though, we are running into the problem of finding people who are legally married.  The process of marriage here in Rondonia and Matto Gross is such a headache that people stopped trying to get married and everybody just gets together.  It is a little hard on the missionaries, but we are doing well.  I am going to try and plan a couple of weddings this week.  I feel more like a match maker sometimes, but maybe I will be able to use this new found talent later on in life.  This week we worked really hard.  I am pushing Elder Alves.  He is the senior, but he is really relaxed and just follows so we have been running this week.  We taught 30 lessons this week and found 12 more investigators that we will teach this week.  It is good.  I am really hoping that we will be blessed with a lot of fruits because the branch could use it.  I am kind of out of stuff to say, so I will tell you about a lesson that we taught Saturday to José.  Well, first I will tell you about the little miracle that I saw Friday.  I wanted to teach him, but he was not home and Djeniffer, his daughter, told us that he would not be home at all that day.  I was really disappointed because I really felt that we needed to teach him, but what can you do.  So, we went with Djeniffer to teach some of her friends.  So, in between teaching her friends I had a huge urge to eat ice-cream, so we stopped at the ice-cream place and I bought an ice-cream for everybody.  When I sat down with my ice-cream, I saw José passing by on his motorcycle so I waved him down.  I told him that I would pay for his ice-cream so he sat down with us and we had the chance to converse and teach him.  It was a little miracle that made my day.  Anyways, Saturday we taught him again with his two daughters present.  We taught the plan of salvation.  Towards the end, I had a distinct prompting that I needed to ask him to do something.  It was a little weird because I knew more or less what I wanted him to do, but I did not know how to ask him to do it.  So, I told him that I was feeling that I needed him to do something, but I apologized for not really knowing in the moment exactly what it was.  I sat there for about a minute trying to listen to what the Holy Ghost was trying to tell me, and then I knew.  I asked him to look into the eyes of his daughters, one at a time tell them that he loved them.  He accepted the invitation and did so, and he began to cry.  His daughters went to him to hug him and in this moment something really special happened.  He talked to them, and promised them that he would be baptized and that he would grow in the church and help them grow in the church and that he would be their dad forever.  It was awesome.  One of the coolest moments on my mission.  He worked Sunday so he was not baptized but we will try to baptize him during the week.  He is so prepared.  He is living all of the commandments and has so much faith, but he still does not feel prepared.  We will try to help him see that baptism is something serious and important, but also something that is simple and a start, not an end.  It was a great lesson, and he is doing well.  He loves to read the Book of Mormon and loves what the gospel has done and is doing for his daughters.  I am excited to see him be baptized and see this little family on their way to being an eternal family.  So, that is my week, and I am excited to continue and even increase the pace for this next week.  I love you and wish you a great week.  
Love Elder Lee

PS Mom, I did eat the chicken and it turned out pretty good, although Val was feeling bad when she ate it.  It was funny.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Week 50 Letter

Monday, February 6, 2012
Alright, so we had a change of plans.  I did not leave Ji-parana because my companion arrived before Elder Santana left, which was nice because we could keep working.  I do miss Elder Santana a ton.  He was a great companion.  My new companion is Elder Ivo.  He was assistant to the president for 2 weeks and then got sent to Ji-parana because I think that he missed something up.  Anyways, he is good and excited to work, although he is just a temporary companion because in a few days we will receive 2 more missionaries.  An American who is just arriving and Elder Alves who will be my companion.  He has a year and 8 months and I think that this will be his first as a senior companion.  I here that he is going through a hard part in the mission, kind of destroyed and tired.  I was kind of hoping to be a senior, but I am finding that a large part of my mission is helping the future leaders of the church in Brasil, my companions.  I will serve in whatever position and place the Lord wants.  I know that I am where he wants me to be.  So, I am excited to get to work.  This Sunday we marked a baptism for this next Sunday of an 18 year old guy named Adailton.  He is great.  He came to church with Artur, a young man that I reactivated, so I marked an appointment to teach him yesterday and he accepted our invitation of baptism.  It was awesome.  Also, we are teaching a woman named Sicera who came to church and wants to baptize but is not married legally and the husband is in Rio, so it is complicated.  I will try to teach her 18 and 15 year old daughters.  José is still progressing, but he is wanted more time so I will help him through the process and into the waters of baptism.  He is an awesome guy, but it is a little complicated because of his ex-wife.  Anyways, all is well and it is going to get better.  I also did a service project for Val today killing her chicken.  It was crazy.  I broke its neck and then cut its head of and blood went everywhere and the chicken started running around crazy without its head spraying blood all over me.  I am washing my shorts and shirt right now hoping that the blood comes out.  It was cool though.  It made a great video.  I will try to send it but I cannot today because I forgot my cable to my camera.  Yeah, I helped clean it.  You put it in boiling water and it cleans pretty easy and then you cut out the meat, heart, neck, etc.  Good stuff to know, huh?  So, there you have my week. 
I’m sorry Joshua’s hamster died.  I cannot believe that it has already been three years.  It seems like yesterday that we bought them.  I still remember the conference when I ran over to big r to buy a shot for the hamster before.  Time flies.  In Ji-parana there are birds and monkeys but I have not seen a monkey yet because I stay in the city.  Also, the river is full of alligator, although I have not explored a lot.  We are basically in amazon.  This is the area furthest north in our mission.  It is pretty cool.  I sure like it here, although it is hot and the rain is crazy.  The water is literally hot when it rains.  It is crazy.
On p-days we spend the day with Val helping her out.  Today I killed the chicken and trimmed her mango tree.  We also go to a park that is close by to play some soccer.  Tony sounds like the busy man.  That is good.  It is good that he is going out with missionaries.  He will be an awesome missionary.  Well, I love you all!!!
Elder Lee