News on 9/30/09

Hello! So this past week was awesome! It rained a lot and we were super busy but it was sweet!On Monday I went on my first division or (spits). So I spent the day in Sorocaba with a Brazilian Elder named Elder Lopes as my companion. It was way fun, but I realized how much I love São Roque, and how much i like serving in a small town. So i finally figured out what São Roque remindes me of: It feels a lot like Sedona, AZ... its kinda a tourist town, but only for locals... its like a get away, so there is always more people here on the weekends, but its really European feeling. Its sweet cause like every other weekend there is some kinda festival going on. In two weeks they are having the Artichoke festival, which I guess is really big here. Its so fun!

We are seeing alot of success here! Its so awesome! The area has been exploding and so many people are accepting baptismal dates! The Lord is just pouring out more blessings that we can handle! So we have a family that has baptism dates for the 10th of October, but the mom and dad aren´t married, so we gave the option to get married or move out, and the mom and kids are going to move out. So we are going to help with that this week, and we have zone conference and General Conference so its a busy next couple of days. Then on Tuesday we are going to take this family of 3 to the Sao Paulo temple for the day and teach them about temples, because they lost a 17 year old son a couple months ago. We are really excited, it should be a really good experience for them! Other than that, the work is going well. We are just super busy and I am loving it!!!

Today we went to a member's house at like 10am and she taught us how to make Brazilian Stroganoff. It was so good!

We made some brownies... they didn't turn out so good. Our oven is really weak and so for like 30 minutes it wasn't nearly hot enough and so then we finally figured that out and turned the heat up, then they baked. We still ate them, but they werent the best tasting. We will try it again tho.

Other than that, nothing else is really going on. Im still alive and haven´t gotten sick yet (knock on wood) But everything is going great and Im loving every minute of it.Thanks for all the love and support! Elder Schoen

Elder Briggs has a blog www.elderbriggs.blogspot.com

It's fun to hear the story from a different perspective!!

Elder Briggs in brown pants, Elder Schoen in black pants

Standing on the balcony of my apartment

Hello Family and Friends,
I can not believe that Ive already finished my second week in the field. The first week went so slow! I thought it would never end! But this past week absolutely flew!My companion is so awesome and we are getting along really well! We are seeing alot of success here and the people are awesome! They are really good at just smiling and nodding when I am talking, cause im pretty sure they dont understand anything I say! Haha but its funny cause it goes the other way too. Im really good and smiling and nodding, and knowing when to laugh and when to sigh. Its quite funny actually. I acutally find myself spacing out alot when people are talking. Its really bad. Its also really frustrating. But hopefully one day I will be able to speak Portuguese!
But other than the laguage, the mission is going great. I think im starting to get into the routine and kinda learning how things work.The food here is so good! Some of the members really know how to cook!
Things that happend this week...So one night we came home and our living room was full of water. The room is tile so it was just a giant puddle. Not like someone spilled a drink, it was like 2 or 3 gallons of water on the floor. But it is so wierd. We cant figure out how it got there. There was no water by any of the doors or walls or anything. We couldnt find a leak anywhere. Its like someone just walked in a poured a ton of water in the middle of the floor. Its definatly a mystery and its safe to say that we will never find out how it got there! haha
Yesterday we were walking down the street and a drunk guy came up to us and started talking to us. (apparently drunks love the missionaries) He asked us for some money for food, but we offered to walk with him to a food place down the road and buy him something to eat. He was so happy and so we walked with him. During the 100 yard walk to the store he managed to almost get hit by 3 cars and he was holding 2 eggs in a paper bag and he accidently dropped them and they broke. So we got to the food shop and bought him a Esfiha (which is like a meat pastery) He was so funny! But when we left he shook our hands and kissed them! It was so weird! haha but so funny!
Today we went to the towne center and bought pirated watches. I got a knock off Emporio Armani watch for only 25 reals! Which is like 15 american dollars.
It has been raining a ton here! Its pretty crazy. But while is raining its so cold and then it stops and the sun comes out and its instantly hot!
Tomorrow we have interviews with the president so I should get my package that you sent. Im really excited to have a rain jacket!!!
I think thats about everything for now!Its going great out here and I love it!
Thank you for all the love and support!
Love,Elder Schoen

Hey Family and Friends!
So this past week has been crazy! Ive never been so tired before in my life! It usually has taken me about a half hour to fall asleep every night of my life, but this past week as soon as I hit the pillow, I'm out! My area is beautiful! Its consists of 4 little towns, Sao Roque, Mairinque, Aluminio, and Araçariguama. It is so green and beautiful! I will try and send some pictures again, but the computers are being weird.So to answer dads question (how much money do you get to live on?), we get 140 reais every two weeks, with is about 80 american dollars. The unfortunate thing is that we end us spending 100 of it on transportation. We have to take a bus to the other towns everyday. So we work in Mairinque almost everyday, its kinda a poorer town so the people are more receptive. But we are on the bus for about 1hr and a half everyday. Then we have to go to some peoples houses that live like a half hour walk down a dirt road out of the town. Its really cool! Its just like the adventure that I wanted. But it sure is hard work.
The thing in Sao Roque that looks like a slide is actually an artificiall ski hill! Can you bellive that its like the only place to ski in the country and I can see it out my window. But the rules say we aren't aloud to do extreem sports... Heavenly father definatley has a sense of humor! haha So ya, thanks for refilling my Wells fargo account. I think I am going to be using that account more than I thought. But i will try to keep it to necessity purchases.
So things that happened in my first week... I found out that Im terrible at Portugese. I can only talk about the gospel. So I usually have no idea whats going on. Its a big test of my patience. I had to bear my testimony in Church. No big deal. I gave the first half of a priesthood blessing. (the anointing of the oil) We got 2 more baptism dates, and there are 3 people with dates, so thats a total of 5 scheduled for October. But i doubt that they will work out that soon... One of the guys is on crack and other drugs and he and his wife need to get married before they can get baptized. But its exciting. We were teaching a lesson and the lady just wipped it out and started nursing her baby right there. Kinda weird, but I guess it happens alot. But this place is awesome! Its just frustrating because I feel like we have alot of wasted time during the day because we are traveling so much. We walk about 10 miles a day, which takes up about 3 hours during the day and then we are on busses for 1-2 hours everyday. But I guess thats just how this area is. My companion, Elder Briggs, and I are going to start teaching an English class once a week. And we are going to start doing a ward FHE thing every saturday night, and we will teach an american sport after. I think that this will really be great missionary tools.The food here is really good. And the members make us eat like 3 or 4 helpings everyday. One guy got mad at me the other day because I took the small piece of meat. It was rude I guess! haha but whatever!Even though I exercize alot by walking I think I am still going to gain weight! haha the food is just so fatty and we eat so much of it. But today I bought a jump rope so that should be a good cardio workout in the mornings. One thing that makes me happy is that Ice crem exists here... and its good! So thats something that we get to treat ourselves to every once in a while. Its going to be weird not using a dryer for the next two years. But thats just how it is here. No one has a dryer. There is this recent convert family. Its a single mom, and she is 3 kids, and boy thats 15, a girl thats, 12, and a boy that is 4. We go and visit them twice a week and I love it. I love playing with João. He is the 4 year old. Its like a little home away from home. They are great people.But I really like this place, the mission is hard work, but completely worth it. I see little Miricales every day that make the work so worth it!Thank you for all your love and support.
Love,Elder Schoen

things we have learned about sending stuff

I mailed a box to JD on 8/26 and it was delivered on 9/15. That's 3 weeks. Letters take 2 weeks. The things we send now sit at the mission home for a period of time until he can get them. Rumor has it it may be as long as 2 1/2 weeks. So plan on a month for JD to get a letter you mail and 5 to 6 weeks for a package. His "P" day is Wednesday. For those of you who may not know what a "P" day is - it stands for preparation. It is kind of like a day off. They still have to abide by the mission rules and have a schedule to follow, but it is a day of errands and chores. They are also allowed to be tourist a little bit. That is why he only checks his email on Wed. They can do shopping and laundry. It is a day to blow off some steam. Missionaries still spend the whole day with their companion. It happens to be my favorite day of the week!!

Love to all,
Kaelene

Hey!Ok, so i dont even know where to start! Its been crazy!This past week in the CTM was pretty relaxed, we just reviewed stuff.Yesterday, at 10:00 we left the CTM and went to the mission home. It is right next to the São Paulo Temple... so its about a 30 min drive from the CTM. When we arrrived we dropped off our bags and then went to the Presidents house, which was about 10 minutes away. He lives in a really tall building of condos. We had so many people coming to the mission from the CTM that he had to reserve a banquate hall at the bottom of the building. There were 19 new missionaries. It was my district of 12 elders, and a brazilian district of 7. So we met the president and had a training, then we ate lunch... Which was sooo good! and i was like "holy cow! This is so good!" and the AP said "IF you think this is good, then you are in for a treat." Appearently the members take really good care of us. So I will probably get fat. But i hope not! Then we had more traning while the president pulled each of us aside to talk to us. President Cooley and his wife are so awesome! They are from Mesa, AZ. He is really really wealthy. So all the land next to the ASU east campus is his. He used to be a farmer. But he is develpíng it into something called Cooley Station. But anyways. He is way nice. Then we got to go up into his house really quick to check it out and take a picture with him and his wife. After that we went back to the mission home were we teamed up with either a sectretary, AP, or Zone Leader and we went on splits. But because there was so many of us it was in groups of 4. 3 Elders that had no idea what was going on (I was one of those) and then 1 Elder that was an AP, ZL, or Secratary. So we went to this ladies house and taught her. It was so neat! I cant believe the situations that people live in tho! Its insane. Everyone living back in America... Count your many blessings! But we taught her about apostacy and why we needed the restoration. Then we proselyted for a while and then at 9 we returned to the mission home. There we had 20 pizzas waiting for us. It was awesome. Then we had 19 people trying to sleep in a room the size of our living room, just stuffed with bunk beds. Lets just say, it wasnt the best sleep ive ever gotten.We woke up this morning and threw on some clothes and ate some breakfast. There was so many people that I didnt get to take a shower. Then we went to the chappel where we had transfers. They called my name and my new companions name and we both stood up. He was american! So that relieved alot of stress. But I still wanted to find our where in the world I was going. Once the meeting was over, my new companion explaned to me where our area is. In the countryside!!! I was ecstatic! So we got on a bus. We drove 2 hours to this one city, that I cant remember the name of, Then we waited there for 30 minutes to catch another bus. We rode that bus for 45 minutes and then we arrived in our area. Its called São Roque (pronounced: São Hockey) It is the coolest place ever!!! Its beautiful! I lucked out. The presidents wife said that my new area is her favorite place in the whole mission, because it is so beautiful. I will try and send some pictures, so hopefully it works.So we arrived at our apartment, my copmpanion said it was nice. I was shocked. If this is nice, I dont want to see what the unnice missionary housing looks like. But, we have a washer! We are one of the only houses in the mission that have a washer! Pretty exciting! Something weird, is that you are not aloud to flush toilet paper down the toilet. So you just have to wipe and then throw it in the trash! haha! I am most definantly in a different country now! Its so awesome! Im at an internet cafe right now, and after this we are going to go teach some families and my companion, Elder Briggs, is going to introduce me to a couple families in the ward. Im excited! My companion seems really cool. I only met him a couple of hours ago. But I like him. He is from Seattle Washington, and has been our for 1 year. He has been in this area for 4 and a half months now. He is the district leader. He is a good guy and I think we will be able to have some success. The only thing is... Our mission is the lowest baptising mission in all of Brazil. (But we have the highest retention rate) My companion has been out for a year and has 6 baptisms. So I guess the average is about 15 during the entire mission. Im going to change that.The town is way cool. Its really green and its litterally a jungle on the outskirts of the town. I guess they have some crazy spinders here. So if I get the chance I will take a pícture and send it.I think I will be happy in this area, they said generally you are in an area for 3-6 months.When I was at the mission home they had the envelope that you sent with all the talks. Thank you so much. I enjoyed the letters. Ryans story about football is really funny. I liked it! Tell Ryan I say Happy Birthday!So I hope the package you sent should get here soonly. I think the next time i will get to recieve mail from the mission home is in like 2 and a half weeks. So hopefully i will get it then. Because it is starting to Rain...Alot!If you wouldn´t mind sending a package asap. Apearlently anti-persperant deorderant doesnt exist in Brazil. and the stuff im having to use now does not work at all. haha so, for the sake of everyone I come in contact with, some good deorderant is much needed. Just some white stick, anti-persirant Old spice would be awesome! and Alot of it. Thank you so much!just being here for 2 hours I realized that I cant speak portugues! haha but I will figure it our sooner or later.Some of the mission rules-We can recieve emails from family and friends, but we are only aloud to respond to Family. (mom, dad, and brothers, and sisters.) sorry everyone, but if you email me, I will be able to send a letter. Just make sure you let me know your address. This will be the best way to communicate the fastest.... But letters are still awesome!-We can listen to MoTab, EFY, and Classical music Thats pretty much the only things that are different.I love you so much! and Thank you everyone for your suppport!Love, Elder Schoen

Silence....

Well, Elder Schoen left the CTM yesterday for the Mission Home. I hope to hear from him soon. I would think the mission president would send some sort of email letting us know where his first assignment is.

I received this wonderful email from JD's CTM companion's mom:

Dear Sister Schoen,
I am the mother of Elder Andraszczyk, who served as your son's companion in the CTM. I just wanted to express my appreciation to you for your wonderful son and the great impact he had on Michael during his time in the CTM. Michael was a little overwhelmed initially with the whole culture shock and just being away from home in general. It was so comforting to hear each week as Michael talked about what a positive and uplifting companion he had and how grateful he was for him. I just wanted you to know how grateful we are to you and your family for raising such an amazing young man and for the blessing he has not only been to Michael, but to our family as well. We know Elder Schoen will continue to bless the lives of many people on his mission as well as throughout his life. I hope that Michael will have the privilege of serving with him again one day in the field. Again, we express our love and appreciation for you and your fine son and wish you all the best.
With love,
Cathy Andraszczyk

Little does she know it took a "village" to get JD where he is now. I extend my gratitude to everyone who helped raise JD to be the wonderful man that he is.

Love,
Kaelene Schoen

last p day at CTM

Hey! Thank you so much mom. I got your letter you sent with my favorite recepies. I have a feeling it will come in handy when Im out in the field and have a really bad sweet tooth. I think I should be able to find all the ingredients I will need.
So Today is my last P-Day in the CTM. Im starting to freak out, because I only have 6 days left! Im so excited to get out of here, but Im so scared because Im not ready at all! But I dont think I will ever be ready, its just something that has to happen. Everyone says that for the first 2 months in the field you are just completely useless. So I really hope it doesnt take me that long to figure out what Im doind, because if not... Its going to be a really really long 2 months!
Today we got to do something so awesome! So as of yesterday I thought we werent going to get to go to the temple again, because they are cleaning the São Paulo temple. But they made arrangements for us to go to the Campinas temple. We just got back! It was so beautiful! The temple is about an hour and a half away. So, it turns out that the city of São Paulo does end. Haha it was so cool, cause all of the sudden the city just ended and we drove through a jungle for about 20 minutes untill we got to Campinas. It was so cool. The temple is beautfiul! Its up on a hill overlooking the city of Campinas... which is also a huge huge city. But apperantly you can see the temple from anywhere in the city. It was such a cool expereince.
On sunday our district did a musical number in sacrament meeting. We sang A Childs Prayer, which is one of my favorite songs. All the guys in my district are such good singers, so it sounded really good. The third verse where we do the round, we did the high part in portugese and the low part in English. It was crazy to do the round in two different languages. It was awesome!
On Friday we went proselyting again. They drove us into the deep of the city and dropped us off infront of the biggest Catholic churches I have ever seen. It was kinda intimidating. It was alot harder to get people to stop and talk to us this time, because everyone was in such a hurry! But we had more success with the people that were sitting down. We talked to this girl that was standing outside of a building on a break. And we were talking to here for about 5 minutes and then she said I have to go inside now, but you can come in a we can keep talking. So we went in the building and guess what the building was?? It was a school to learn enlish! Pretty funny! So we asked her if she spoke English, and of course she did! So we talked to her for a while in English and then gave here a pass along card. Then later on we talked to this guy that was working for vallet parking. It was a really cool experience. We would teach him for about 5 minutes and then he would run and park a car real quick. But everytime he told us to wait there. This happened about 4 times. But we taught him a bunch of stuff and ended up giving him a Book of Mormon. He was so excited that he put the number to call to get missionaries at your house into his cell phone! We talked to many more people and at the end of the day we passed out 2 Book of Mormons and passed out 6 pass along cards.It was alot easier this time because we were alot better at the language. We could actuall understand about 30 percent of what people were saying. It was just enough to kinda almost get the gist of what they were saying. It was nice because we could actually understand what they were saying when they were rejecting us. Instead of like last time, when we knew we were going rejected, we just didnt know what they were saying.
Im so excited to get into the field! But im scared that I will get a Brazilian Missionary that doesnt speak a lick of english and is a complete slacker. This is a complete possibility seeing as how I got the best companion ever during the CTM, so its only fair now that I get a bad companion. But I can only hope that I dont end up getting shafted.So the next email you get from me, I will be in the field. Im so excited to find out where I will go. I will keep you updated tho. I heard that our P-Days will be on Wednesdays in the field too. So hopefully I will get to send na email next week. But if not, dont worry... I probably wont be dead. I probably just didnt get a chance to email.
Thank you everyone for you love a support! I love you Family!Love,Elder Schoen