7/28/2010

Hey Y'all!

This week was AWESOME!

This was the baptism saturday night! Lucas, Me, Giovana, and Elder Barroso

So to start off on Saturday Lucas and Giovana were baptized. It was a way cool experience. Lucas picked me to baptize him and Giovana picked my companion Elder Barroso. There were a lot of members that went to support them. They were both miracles that they were baptized! Its awesome to see how the Lord is blessing us!

Us with Giovana and her little sister

Friday night the bishop's son Ricardo was baptized. Friday was his birthday and he turned 8. Last week the family of the bishop (Dad, Mom and Brother) from American Fork, UT came into town for the baptism. So this week was way cool to able able to talk to people that are Americans that were like 5 miles away from my house last week! haha I feel so bad for them because none of them speak a lick of Portuguese... they are suffering. But its fun to be able to practice my English with them!

Just having fun!

This morning we got a phone call from the bishop. He was like "Hey Elders, what do you have planned today for your pday?" and we said "Nothing" cause we literally had nothing to do. So he invited us to his house to eat BBQ with his family for lunch and then go fishing with them! It was awesome! Pretty much the coolest thing happened... I was the only one to get a fish!!!! It happened like this... So my companion got a nibble and he started reeling in the fish but the line broke and the fish got away... My line was already out and I decided to reel it in to go to a different spot and I felt something. I was like NO way! I caught a fish and at that point my companion took a picture of me reeling it in. It was a fight cause he was way big! But when I reeled it all the way in, I discovered that it wasn't my hook that was in the fishes mouth... My hook had somehow caught on to my companions broken line and I reeled in the fish that he almost caught just 2 minutes earlier! It was soooo Crazy! I'm a PRO!
 

But I will just let all of you know that the fact that I caught a huge fish today doesn't change anything... I still hate fishing! haha its just sooo boring sitting there all day waiting for something to happen!
 
It was way fun to get to do something different today, and I hope you enjoy the pictures!!!
That's it for this week. Next Wednesday are transfers. Probably me and my companion will stay. But I'll let you guys know next week.

Thanks for everything!
Elder J.D. Schoen

7/21/2010

Hello!
1st things 1st! Friday was zone conference and I received 2 packages!!!! So we have been eating Oreos, Mac and Cheese and Cereal every day since then!

On friday I got 2 Packages!!! One from Mom and one from Kirstin Gunn (Chads Cousin) So we are having a blast eating well!!!

This Saturday we are going to have 2 baptisms which I'm extremely excited about!!! The first is a guy named Lucas. He is 15. We found him like 3 weeks ago on the street. He was sitting on the sidewalk with his friends and we sat down next to him and started talking to them and teaching them. We invited all them to baptism and Lucas and his cousin William accepted. We have been teaching the two of them but unfortunately William isn't really interested. But they have gone to church the past two Sundays and last week they went to a stake activity (super Saturday).

He is way excited!

This is me and Lucas. He is going to be baptized on Saturday!!!

The other person is a 12 year old girl named Geovana. With her it was a miracle. She has been going to church for some time now, and she has always really wanted to be baptized but her mom doesn't let her. So we talked with Geovana and told her that if she has faith her mom will let her, but she has to pray every day asking Heavenly Father and then every day ask her mom (I figured God would do a miracle or the mom would get annoyed after enough time and just let her be baptized! haha) So it didn't even take 3 days and Geovana ran up to us in the street yelling "Elder Elder! I'm going to be baptized! My mom wants to talk to you guys tomorrow night!" So we talked to her mom and she signed the baptismal form to be baptized and this Saturday night will be her baptism! Miracle!!!

That's just about everything new in my life here!
Thanks for all the love and support!
Elder J.D. Schoen

7/14/2010

This is me sitting on the entrance sign of the city.

Holy Cow!!! Time flys!


It seems like yesterday that i was here emailing the last email. Its amazingly true what they say that time flys when your having fun!

So today was an awesome P-day! So our bishop here likes us ALOT! which is awesome! Like I said he is American and is from American Fork, UT. I found out that he played on the drum line in high school and at BYU. So we have had alot to talk about! haha

This past week my companion decided that he wants to learn how to play football. (or futbol americano) <-- Thats what the Brazilians call it. So we asked the bishop where we can buy one and he said the only place is at the mall in Sorocaba, which is the closest big city to where we are... its about 45 minutes away. And so he offered to take us there on p-day and then take us to McDonalds and buy us lunch. Of course we accepted! haha So thats what we did today!
We are already planning to start a little football league here to play on our P-Days. There are a ton of people interested (members and investigators) so this next wednesday we are going to play! Im so excited! Ill be sure to send pictures in the next email.

Funny Story: This sunday a drunk wandered into the church. I got to talking to him and he told me that before he entered he was sitting on a bench in front of the church and felt that he needed to enter, but then the devil started talking to him and told him that he is not aloud to enter and that he needed to go to the bar instead! But he was like i just knew I had to enter this church, so now im here! And I was like well good! We are glad that you are here. So when he entered to sacrament meeting he stopped in the doorway and look at the bishop, who was sitting up at the pulpit and said to me " That man right there is the Judge of God... Im going to go talk to him!" Then he practically ran up to the front and started talking to the bishop. It was so funny the way that he said it. After talking to him a little more he told us that we could pass by at his house and leave a message with him, But we discovered that he lives in a town called Capâo Bonito, its like 100 kilometers away. (Not part of our area)

The work here is going really well, we have a ton of people that we are teaching and if everything goes right we should start having a couple baptisms! :)

But thats about it for now! Thanks for all the love and support!
Elder J.D. Schoen

7/7/2010

Hey Everyone!

This week was a great week of work! The last week we were struggling finding people to teach and we were fasting and praying alot to find people to teach and baptize. When I got here in this area they only had one family that they were teaching and they have to get married before getting baptized, so its going to take a while. And the first week here it was super hard to find people, but this week Heavenly Father really blessed us. We were able to find a couple awesome families and other people that have accepted baptism dates. We are super happy and super busy now with a ton of people to work with!

On Sunday we got to the church and the sacrament meeting was about to start and the bishop stood up holding the microfone and the cord in his hand. The cord was cut in half. He was like " If any of your kids were loose in the church with scissors I think one of them cut the mic cord. But if it wasn't one of your kids then it was someone that entered into the church and cut it, and it was vandalism." So we discovered that it wasn't anyone's kids. Someone had broken into the church and cut the mic cord. How ridiculous huh!? So it was fast and testimony meeting and everyone had to practicallly yell at the pulpit to be heard.

Other than that nothing really exciting happened. But I did discover something... Now that ive been walking around this town for 2 weeks I discovered something interesting... This town doesn't have a single street light! haha its a small town!

But im loving it here! and tomorrow I will hit 1 YEAR ON THE MISSION!!!!!
Elder J.D. Schoen

6/30/2010

I would just like to start off by saying that exactly one year from today I will be arriving at the SLC airport! YES!!!!!


Ok so this week was pretty cool! But i feel like ive entered an episode of the twilight zone... Elder Schoen was sent back in time like 100 years to a cowboy village in Brazil! This weeked there was a Rodeo here and so everyone was just riding horses around. Like the whole week i didn't see one single car, just horse drawn carriges. I saw the funnist thing ever! I saw a horse drawn carriage with a sound system, like huge speakers and subwoofers! ...Ok so back to explaining about this little town. This place is lacking technology, its kinda cool, but kinda rough. For example... Our house doesnt have a washing machine... Thats right! I have the privilege of washing my clothes by hand... its awesome! haha NOt! But im liking it alot here. The people are sooo cool. So laid back and relaxed, its so different of the craziness of the city!

So here in Brazil there is a church that is really strong, its called the Christian Congregation. They are super weird and the women cant cut their hair and can only wear skirts and have the wear veils when praying. Well anyways this town is like 80 percent Christian Congregation! So this week me and my companion decided to knock on a door and the lady opened up the door and was like oh good! Enter! We were just about to pray, pray with us! So I got all excited and just stormed in... when I turned the corner I saw something I wasnt expecting, in the living room were 10 people from the Christian Congregation, all the women with their veils on and in the middle was a big black man, he reminded me of the guy from the Green Mile! Ya I was scared! So we entered and there was a thick tension in the room, like everyone was thinking "Oh great! The freakin Mormons are here!" So we just stood there against the wall and the big black man started praying it was so weird. I wanted to laugh, I was doing everything possible to not laugh, so I started praying to not laugh, then the desire to laugh passed and I started to get really scared, I felt gross inside, so I started to pray that We would be protected ( just to give you guys an idea what it was like it wasnt so much of a prayer, but everyone together talking in creepy voices and chanting weird stuff, and it lasted like 15 minutes) So then i started praying that we would have an opportunity to teach them, thats when the big black man stopped and looked at us for like 10 seconds and asked us to say something. So we started teaching about Jesus Christ, you know, stuff that everyone would agree on. Then the Big black man was like "Thank you, I know that you were sent here by the Lord to talk to us today" Then he looked at me in the eyes for a good 15 seconds, it was super awkward and he said right know I have something to say and I know that you will understand me, and I was like " Ok go ahead" and he started speaking in Italian, i dont know what he was saying but i know it was italian, then he switched to French, and then to spanish, when he was speaking in spanish I was understanding him, he wasnt even saying anything, he said something about an angel behind us and tears and that we need to catch the carpool to europe to teach the people there! It was super funny, I was just trying not to laugh the whole time. And he was like did everyone understand, and Everyone said ya, but i know that no one understood, they just all wanted to make it seem like he had the gift of toungs, and I replied No. I was like "Sorry, but i honestly didnt understand a word you just said" and then it got super awkward, and he was like well anyways thanks for your time and told us that we could come back anytime. So we left and we just looked at each other and were like What the Heck just happened! It was so weird and funny! I love the mission, the funniest things happen!

But other than that things here are going super well! I really like this area and the people and ward members are sweet!

Thanks for all the love!
Elder Schoen


 

This is from the Roof of our house... Salto de Pirapora, its big isn´t it! haha

Me infront of a little lake near the center of the town

This is a funny story... So one night this week, tuesday night to be exact, we stopped by the church to use the bathroom and what did we find in the bathroom... this dog that had been trapped in there since sunday. The poor thing had just been curled up in a ball in the dark bathroom for 2 days. We tried to get him to leave and he just sat there shaking and wouldnt move. Then we saw that it had a collar and realized that it belonged to one of the members in the ward... The member brought their dog to church and forgot it and it got trapped in the bathroom! haha