2021- Week 34(Aug 23- Aug 29)

We invited Mike over for dinner on Monday. He seems to be doing well and trying to keep busy so he doesn't get too down about Cheri. 

 I was the conductor one day this week and boy was it hot. I felt so so sick by 3 o'clock. I've decided I am not going to work there next year unless field trips start back up. 

It's just too hot for me in the summer. 

I am going to throw my old neighbor Scarlett a baby shower in September so I have been working on her invitations. Marta one of the supervisors at work through a shower for Scarlett this week. We held it in the Fairbanks home where Scarlett works a lot. They served a delicious punch and donuts and cookies. It was quaint and she got a lot of nice things.

Melinda and I helped my mom paint part of her fence. We will do the other half next week.

Our neighborhood did a service project for the refugees. We made women's kits. I went and helped.

I just realized that my tv is synched with our Apple playlist- WHAT?? I know I am the last person on earth to know about this but it is revolutionary for me. I love listening to music through my tv because you can hear it all over the house. I usually just cast YouTube to it but then I have to listen to commercials. 

Whitney and I watched the sweetest movie this weekend called Dumplin- It has all my favorite things in it: bees, southern accents, beauty pageants, Dolly Parton music and drag queens. 

2021- Week 33(Aug 16- Aug 22)

Monday was the first day of school for Ethan. He is a senior this year. It was a boring and uneventful day because the school is being renovated and so they will be doing school online for two weeks. He got up at about 7:25 and school starts at 7:30 ha ha. He had a good first week and likes all of his classes. His law enforcement teacher refuses to teach on Zoom so they won't be having class until the 30th. That allows him to sleep in an extra hour on B days. He is taking three college credit classes this year. It occurred to me that this is my official last first day ever. I can still vividly remember when Ashtyn started Kindergarten and now here we are and my baby is starting his senior year. 

We couldn't buy our traditional caramel apple for our anniversary in St. George because it was too hot and we had no where to keep it so I bought us one this week. They didn't have the kind we have gotten before so I bought a Snickers one and it wasn't nearly as good.

I had a dentist appointment this week and I have a darn cavity- ugh. After the dentist I picked up my friend Nicolle and we went to breakfast at IHOP. She got french toast and I got banana pancakes. Nicolle has autism. Her life hasn't been easy. I don't think I was always the best friend I could be to her. She's told me before how she felt like I forgot about her as a friend sometimes in high school. It made me feel really sad but I have also learned to not take everything she says personally because she does struggle with relationships. We are trying to hang out more.

 

It's been a little bit since we did a Shaw ladies lunch so we met at Zupas in Draper on Friday. Ruby and Jen came too. It's always so fun to be with them. Ruby and Jen did lacing cards. I loved those as a child. After lunch we went to the Quilted Bear because it was in the same parking lot. My stomach felt horrible so I spent half the time in the bathroom ha ha- It's so hard to know what will make me feel sick or if it's because of my IBS or lack of gall bladder or both, but really frustrating to me to have to deal with it so often. Luckily it calmed down afterwards so Sharon and I could go and visit Julia. We brought her some lemon bread and she said she would eat that for her dinner instead of what they might bring ha ha.

Jeff got me flowers for our anniversary this week. He didn't want to get them in St. George. He got me hydrangeas and they were so beautiful all week. I love that he remembered to get me flowers.

Jeff and I took a trip to Ikea. We are looking for an accent chair and maybe a new set of couches. It was so busy and nothing we looked at was in stock. Then we went to Ashley furniture. We didn't find furniture but we did find white placemats that I have been looking for for months.

After Furniture Row we stopped at Home Depot to look for new light fixtures and even though I have looked there several times with no luck we actually found some we both liked. When we got home Jeff installed the chandelier and we will do the ones above the island next week.

We invited our parents over for dinner on Sunday. I made shepherd's pie and Ethan made chocolate cake. The cake was a recipe from Cake by Courtney who I have followed forever online but have never actually made any of her cakes and this one was so so so so good! After dinner we played Crazy Bridge and that was a hoot with everyone. 

Ashtyn's Letter

Olá todos! Uau what a week! It was hotter than ever here in Faro but it was so good! It is so amazing to experience a new culture and country, you grow to love it so much! 

But getting right into it, on Tuesday we had a lesson with our friend Manuela. She is this amazing lady who has been taught for a little bit now. We were able to go over the baptismal interview questions and unfortunately concerns regarding Joseph smith came up. We tried to clarify and testify the best we could and ended up inviting her to pray about Joseph Smith and if he restored the church. She seemed super down and willing to do it which was awesome! I even went up to her at the end of the lesson and told her to do it for herself, not for us, not for Matt (her boyfriend who is a member) but for herself. We left happy and filled with lots of hope! Well a couple days later her boyfriend calls us and tells us that she doesn't want us reaching out anymore:(

Our hearts were broken! One of the hardest things about being a missionary is watching people reject something you know could bless them so much! But it also allows you to put your trust in God and understand that he has a plan for each person. 

This week we did have an awesome lesson with our friend Sete! He has been in Spain the last little bit dealing with a knee injury, but he finally came back! He is so spiritually strong and has a great desire to come closer to Christ. It was awesome because on Sunday one of the members in our ward took Sete into a room and was like "yo when are you getting baptized?" and basically put him on date for Saturday! Speaking of baptisms, we had one for our friend Hugo on Saturday! He is the 12 year old son of a less active and it was awesome to watch him make this promise with our Heavenly Father! It was also really cool because a majority of the people that attended were non members! 

Other than that this week we did a few english classes, lots of street contacting, I ate some of the spiciest Indian food ever and we celebrated Sister William's golden birthday! Super cool miracle, we went and got sushi from her favorite place and two of the workers took interest in what we do as missionaries and wanted to meet again! We are meeting with them tonight at our church building! Oh we also talked in church yesterday and it was terrifying! But we just prayed that the spirit would carry our message and I think it went well:)

Portugal is good. God is good. And I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve and declare the good news of the gospel! Also real quick I want to invite everyone to read their patriarchal blessings this week. There is power and guidance in those things! 

Have an amazing week!

Tchau tchau

☆quick little explanation about the email title: multiple times when I have introduced myself, people hear my last name and say "oh like Shawn Mendes" haha.

-Sister Shaw 

Pictures:

1-2. The cutest comps!

3. Futebol com os jovens

4. Hugos baptism!

5. Ponte de Piedade 

6. The district!

2021- Week 32(Aug 9- Aug 15)

 Cheri's funeral was on Monday. They held it at the mortuary in Cottonwood Heights. They asked me to be the chorister. She looked so good. It was good to meet a lot of her family that I hadn't met. Her son Matt ended up getting covid so he couldn't come and that made me sad for her. Her family thanked me in the obituary which was such an honor. Mike and her kids all spoke and then her three oldest granddaughters also shared memories of her. It was so fun to hear. She was such a beautiful person. Her son Chad mentioned me in his talk and how they use to tell her to stop bothering me and that there was no way someone half her age wanted to be friends with her but that he was wrong and that I was his moms best friend. Of course I was bawling through the whole thing. She was a very very special friend to me. At the graveside they had all the grandchildren release blue balloons while the Neil Diamond song Forever in Blue Jeans played. Then we all went to Chad's house and had lunch. I wrote a tribute to her on FB and shared how I made her promise to come back to visit me as a bird or a butterfly but she told me she would come back as a fly- ha ha. Every day since she died a hummingbird has been visiting Chad's house. They have never seen a hummingbird before that. I don't know if it is really her but it is a lovely thought. Her family insisted I take home one of the flower arrangements. 

I plan to still keep in touch with Mike. 

Mike and his sisters Lynn and Kay

I worked three days this week. It was so hot. 

Jeff and I went to St. George to celebrate our 23rd anniversary for the weekend. We drove in the blazing heat ha ha. We have had car trouble in the hot heat of summer on this drive before so we didn't run the air conditioning more than we needed which made me a bit sick but this stretch of road is no place to break down. I bought us matching shirts from Nature Backs. They come with free bracelets that Jeff loves. I also gave Jeff a blind date book. We met on a blind date so this was fitting. How it works is the book is wrapped in white paper and a small synopsis is written on the outside- so you aren't really sure about what you are going to get. I thought this was so fun and the book we got ended up being about the authors time working at Arches and we love Arches. We went to the play The Count of Monte Cristo at Tuacahn that night. It was so good. Some of the other fun things we did were we hiked the Petrified Dunes/Butterfly loop trail in Snow Canyon. It was stunning. The drive to it was also stunning. We went early to try and beat the crowds and the heat and the clouds were the most beautiful pink color. It was quiet and the air was refreshing and cool. The last bit of the hike was all out in the open and I was dying from the heat. It is also not a well marked trail but we used the All Trails app and it kept us on course. After the hike we met Blake and Jill for lunch at Durango. They live in St. George now. Jill shared a little bit about the experiences they have had with racism. Both their kids are biracial and since moving to St. George they have experienced a lot of hate for the color of their skin. It broke my heart. Why this is still an issue in 2021 is beyond me- but as long as there are humans there will be hate unfortunately. It was so good to see them. We miss hanging out with them. We did a little shopping at the outlets and then went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. We almost missed our meal because they are so short staffed and it was so busy and we needed to leave by 7:45 to make it to our movie we wanted to see. We waited over an hour to get our food. We went to see the new Jungle Cruise movie. I was so tired that I fell asleep for more than half of it ha ha. What I did see was pretty good and so funny. We listened to a couple of gospel podcasts, went and saw the new temple site and also went and walked around the St. George temple. It is being renovated. We went to the Red Hills Desert Garden. This is a free garden that is similar to Red Butte in Salt Lake. It was so pretty. The heat was stifling all weekend. The kind where you get in your car and suffocate until the air conditioning kicks in. We were glad to get home where the temperatures were a little cooler. I adore Jeff. He still makes me weak in the knees when I look into his eyes even after all this time. He is a calm to my ever present anxious storm. He gives me confidence to do things I would otherwise not try. He is a spiritual giant and we have the best discussions about life, religion and God. He is such a hard worker. He will never know how grateful I am that he gets up day after day and goes to work to provide us with a beautiful life. He never ever complains about that. He also never complains about me to anyone. He is patient when he needs to be. His hugs renew my body and soul. He is exactly the right one for me and this is manifested almost daily. Sure we disagree from time to time- but rarely. He is quick to go along with my hair brained ideas and quick to keep his mouth shut when he can tell something is really important to me- I wish I was the same. I love him with all my heart and I am lucky to have had 23 years with him by my side. 

You can't see it in this picture but I am crying. We are on a very high ledge and I hate heights. The older I get the more scared I am of them which is why Jeff is perfect for me- there is nothing he is afraid of and he pushes me to go beyond my fears so I don't miss out on amazing vistas like this. 

Whitney went hammock camping with her friends and played in the reservoir up American Fork Canyon. Ethan had fun with his friends. It was the first time we have ever just left them home without having someone check on them. It was a weird feeling but also so nice. 

We finally got an email from Ashtyn since she has been in Portugal.

Olá! Tudo Bem! Wow esta semana foi loca! Saw lots of pretty things, ate lots or pasteries, and met lots of new people! We started the week off in Setúbal on exhanges with our STL (sister training leader)! It was so fun! There were 6 of us sisters in one apartment working our tails off. Our zone only has one STL currently and she is a powerhouse! It was so cool to learn from her for the day. The next day we had zone conference and it was so good! Low key my brain was kinda fried after hearing non stop Portuguese but it was so good! President and Sister Barcellos are God sent and I'm so excited to continue learning and working with them! 

The rest of the week was hard but it was good. The language is hard! But it is good and Its causing me to practice lots of patience haha. We also walk a ton here so not only am I mentally exhausted, but physically as well! But to be honest there is no place I would rather be. The people here continue to be amazing and so kind! As far as the people we are teaching, we've had a lot of lessons fall through! But we were able to meet with our friends Edite and Madelana this week! They are these cute older ladies, and we taught them all about temples! Edite had lots of questions and concerns about some things but we all felt like we should invite her to be baptized. It was so funny because after we invited her she put her hand up and said "calma calma"! She feels like there is so much she still needs to learn but she isn't opposed to the idea! Keep her in your prayers! 

I also hit my one year mark this week! No way have I been a missionary for a year! It has been the best decision for my life and I'm so glad I get to represent my savior and his love every single day. Don't forget that you can also represent our savior everyday! Anyway this email isn't super interesting, so I'll just leave some pictures. Tchau tchau!!