Let the mission begin! Santana--Aracatuba

Hey Fam,

Everything is going great. My first area is Santana. It is a really cool place. My new companion is Elder Laxton, he is from North Carolina. I am so excited to finally be out in the mission field. Hey guess what, I baptized for the first time. I helped some guys in our area, Elder Knowles and Elder Barbosa. It was cool to baptize. I had to have help from one of the Elders but it was awesome. The mission is awesome. I am contacting people and teaching lessons. It is really cool, the spirit is strong in each meeting and when we contact. I am really loving it out here. Yesterday we ate at Mel´s mothers house. Mel is one of the ladies in the ward that helps out the missionaries.

Hey just the other day when we were teaching a lesson I was having the people read in James 1:5 and I said the chapter right but instead of saying cinco I said five, it was the first time I messed up on the number, but everything went very well. I am really liking the area and the other missionaries. Last night we had a sleep over at Elder Knowles and Barbosa´s house and we slept outside and about 1 in the morning it started to rain so we had to go inside. But I am really liking the area and the people that I meet. The bus ride from Rib. to Santana was about six hours by bus. I slept most of the way.

Hey Matt congrats on you mission call. I hope you enjoy it. Hey thanks again for all of the sports updates. Hey when does Carsten leave? Tell him congrats.

Hey mom for a package just put in whatever, I don´t know what I need. Whatever you want to put in. Hey by the way it was a good thing dad packed that extra bag because the night I was packing I needed that bag, it was hard to get the bags to weigh the max but I am glad we packed all the things because my area is on the other side. All of the guys in my MTC district are close to each other and I am the outcast. Hey well I hope that you guys have a good week.

Hey I forgot to get the card reader so this week I don't have pics. But next week I will get some. Hey my P-days are on Monday.

Hope everything is going well.

Elder Shelley
(Greg emailed Layne and explained that Santana is in the city of Aracatuba and the area is Santana if you want to use google map. He had only a 30 minute plane ride to Ribeirao Preto but then rode a bus to Aracatuba for about 6 hours.)