9/27/2010

Hey Everyone!

This past Saturday was awesome! This past week me and my companion were thinking of something we could do to get the work going here. So we planned an exhibition. We went to the entrance of the subway which is always packed with people and put up a table with a bunch of books and DVDs, we also made some posters advertising General Conference and Free English class that we are gong to start doing here. Then we just talked to everyone that walked by and got their addresses to bring them a DVD. This was an activity that we did with the entire zone, We did this in 2 locations and in our location it was me and my companion and 3 other companionships. One of the companionships even brought a guitar and played and sang church hymns. It was sooo fun! And we were able to get 49 addresses! So this should give our zone a good group of investigators to start teaching, and hopefully we will be able to see alot of baptisms!

This week I saw my dream car in the street! It was a Black Subaru STi! It pretty much made my day!

We are teaching this awesome guy named Clebson! He has gone to church two times now, and wants to be baptized! but he has an addiction with Cocaine and Cigarettes. But we are helping him out and he is going to be able to stop!

We got a referral this week from a recent convert of this guy that plays the drums professionally and is the manager of a bank! I'm so excited to go there, I hope that everything will work out with him!

But other than that, things are going well. Me and my companion are going to go to Burger King for lunch then we are going to the center of the city to by Harmonicas. We are wanting to learn how to play!

That's it for now!
Thanks for all the love and support!
Elder J.D. Schoen

ps- I Love letters! IF your not busy, write me!

9/20/2010

Saying goodbye to the Old Zone. This was a tribute to Elder Lew

Saying goodbye to Bishop Tyler and his family

Hey Everyone!
So I'm now here in Santana, Sao Paulo! Its crazy here! Its literally the complete opposite of where I was. So this area has like 50 billion apartment buildings, its super rich here and I love it! I've seen more BMW and Mercedes in the past 4 days than I've seen in my life! Its Nuts! Comparing this area to Vila Sonia, This area is more of the "New Money" and Vila Sonia is more of the "Old Money". The Ward here is awesome! It has an average of 100-120 people that go to church every week! This area is really big, we do alot of walking and there is always a ton of traffic! But in our area we have pretty much everything you can imagine. So I decided to make a list of awesome/random things and places they have here...

-Like at least 10 McDonalds

-A Huge Mall

-Bowling Alley

-Small Airport

-A Women's Prison

-Mexican Food Restaurant (which I'm so excited to eat at!)

-Tons of Chinese and Japanese Food

-Carrefour (The French Wal-Mart)

-Sambodromo (The place where carnival happens here in São Paulo)

-Pizza Hut

-Subway

-Burger King

And there has to be many many more things that I haven't found yet! But I'm loving it!

Also I got here on Wednesday, and there was already this older lady that was ready for baptism! Her name is Lucilene and she is like 65 or something and has knee problems, so it took the both of us to baptize her. Which was an interesting experience. We had her sit on a little stool in the water and my companion and I laid her back in the water. It was way awesome, then on Sunday I confirmed her. She is such an awesome lady! So strong!

Baptism of Lucilene

Ok so speaking of companions, my companion is named Elder Viana, he is from Baiha. He is super tall and skinny and eats so much! Its amazing! But he is such an awesome guy! He speaks English like fluently, but with a really funny accent! But we are getting along really well so far!
 
Other than that, life is really good! I'm loving being here! This area and ward is perfect for me!
 
Thanks for all the Love!
Elder Schoen

9/13/2010 a few minutes later I pooped a little

So I Just got a call from President Cooley. I am being transferred. Its not normal that the president calls to let people know about transfers, usually its the zone leader. He said Elder Schoen you are being transferred. And you will go to Sao Paulo North Stake to be the Zone Leader there. Do you accept this calling? (That's when I pooped a little) and then I said Yes. So I'm not sure exactly what the name of the ward and neighborhood is, but Ill let you know next week. I just know that its the zone in the mission that baptizes the least! So this will be an adventure!

9/13/2010

Me, Samira, and Elder Calvert

From Left to Right: Bishop Tyler, Samira, Me, Elder Calvert

Hey everyone!

This week was sweet! On Saturday night Samira was baptized! Everything went perfect! There were a ton of people from the ward there! The Young Womens president made a giant cake for her! And her family was there, and they all got really emotional during the baptism! It was an awesome experience!
On Friday we went to this town called Pilar do Sul that's like an hour away to help the Elders out there. That town has a super small branch and the area had been closed for a couple months, and 2 weeks ago it opened again and the Elders that were sent there were having trouble getting started there. So we took a day to go there and work with 4 Elders in the area. It was so awesome! The Elders that are there are a Brazilian and a brand new American. So I decided to go with the Brazilian and put the two new Americans together for the day! I figured it would help out their confidence alot for them to see that they can actually do it on their own. Looking back on it I had alot of faith! haha But it actually turned out to be so good! They ended up finding an awesome family and marked a baptism date with one of the family members! and Me and Elder Andrade (the Brazilian) ended up finding an awesome couple that is already married (miracle) and they accepted a baptism date too! So now they have some good investigators to start working with. It was really a day of miracles! I'm so proud of Elder Calvert! He is such a stud! We have been trying really hard to just speak Portuguese when we are outside of the house and its going great! He is light-years ahead of where I was with the language when I had as much time as he does!

But that's about it for now. I'm just waiting for the call that were going to get today about transfers. Transfers are going to be on Wednesday! I hope I stay!

Love,
Elder Schoen

9/6/2010

Hello Everyone!!!
This past week was super tiring! Every day this week we had the leadership training in Sorocaba, so every day we woke up early and got on a packed bus to Sorocaba and then came back to Salto every night. But despite having a limited amount of time to work in our area this week, we ended up having a very productive week! One of the days after the training Elder Briggs came with us to our area to work the night with us and then sleep at our apartment! It was so fun! That was probably the last time I will get to see him because he is going home on the 15th! So unless I get transferred on the 15th I'm not going to see him again! Its crazy how fast the time goes, that he is already going home. Before I know it, its going to be me!!!

Generations, Elder Briggs came to our area for a day to do a division with us

We also found out that at the End of October Elder David A. Bednar is going to come talk to our mission! I'm so excited because he is my favorite apostle!
Our investigator Samira is super strong, she has been reading the Book of Mormon and is in 2 Nephi 9 right now, and she is going to be baptized on Saturday, everyone is super excited! Especially all the young men of the ward! haha because she is a cute girl and this ward is very lacking in young women, let alone pretty young women!
So Naiara, the 17 year old girl of the big family, that was supposed to get baptized is going to have to wait a while, a couple months ago she had a problem with the law, and so she is waiting for the court to make a decision then after the make a final verdict she can be baptized. She just cant be baptized before because if she gets baptized and then gets convicted she will have to a excommunicated. And we don't want that. But she is super strong, its been like 2 weeks since she has smoked and she is going to church every week!
We are also teaching a couple named Luis and Efginia, they have gone to church a ton of times he is just waiting to get enough money so that they can get married. He just finished the book of Mormon this past week and yesterday he finished the book "Our Legacy" he is pretty much the strongest investigator I've had on the mission so far! I'm excited for him, its just taking forever! I hate it when people have to get married!

Me and Elder Calvert at lunch this sunday. Brazilian Lasagna

Other than that things are going great! I'm loving being with Elder Calvert! He is such a stud! I've never seen someone that is such a hard worker in my life, he is going to be the best missionary ever! ... If he isn't careful he is going to be translated soon and I'm going to be left without a companion!
Thanks for all the love and support,
Elder J.D. Schoen

Sunset