Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
3/21/2011
Hey!
This week was amazing! We had so many miracles happen! So here in our zone, the record of baptisms in one month is 12. As of right now we have 14! and the crazier thing is that this weekend there are 10 more people preparing to be baptized! We are all at a loss for words, just extremely grateful for the miracles that Heavenly Father is doing. It is such a great feeling to know that because we are exercising our faith so many other people are being able to be blessed!
Sorry I'm not writing much, but next week I will fill you in on exactly what happened!
Love
Elder Schoen
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| We went exploring to find a shortcut, but we ran into a creek that we had to cross using this pipe. I almost fell in! |
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| This is Luis Gustavo. He was baptized on Sunday. His parents are getting ready to get married and they will be baptized next month! |
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| This is Luis Gustavo and his parents, Edival and Ana Claudia. |
This week was amazing! We had so many miracles happen! So here in our zone, the record of baptisms in one month is 12. As of right now we have 14! and the crazier thing is that this weekend there are 10 more people preparing to be baptized! We are all at a loss for words, just extremely grateful for the miracles that Heavenly Father is doing. It is such a great feeling to know that because we are exercising our faith so many other people are being able to be blessed!
Sorry I'm not writing much, but next week I will fill you in on exactly what happened!
Love
Elder Schoen
Monday, March 14, 2011
3/14/2011
Hey Everyone!
This week was awesome! So many miracles happened, it will be impossible to tell all of them, but I will try to tell the best ones. So as you know, we have a goal of 40 baptism in our zone in this month of March, which the record of baptisms in the zone is 12. So this past weekend we had 4 huge miracles happened, and 4 people were able to be baptized in the Zone. There were alot of spiritual experiences and people getting answers to their prayers for these 4 miracles to happen. Including our miracle in our area, Gabriel. So he has been going to church for a month now, and he wanted to get baptized. He is 15 years old. But his mom wouldn't let him, because she felt it was too soon. But we knew that heavenly father would help her so that her son could be baptized. So after alot of praying, fasting and preparation, it got to be Friday (the day before the baptism) and Gabriel had passed the interview, the entire ward was already invited to the baptism, he had already picked out his baptism jumpsuit that he would use, but his mom still hadn't authorized the baptism. But surprisingly when we got there on Friday, we said a pray and then entered and talked to his mom one more time, but I'm don't remember what was said exactly but she changed her mind! What a miracle! So Gabriel was baptized and it was awesome!
Its amazing how much Satan trying to interfere with the work here. On Saturday morning we got a call from 3 different Elders that were all sick, 2 with Pink Eye, and on doctors orders couldn't leave the house, and the other had the flu. This was a huge problem seeing as how they all had baptisms that night. So me and my companion prayed to know what we should do. The answer came clearly. So we called everyone in the zone and asked them to start praying for these 3 Elders, and we asked for the companions of these Elders to give them a blessing of health and everyone would be cured. After calling everyone me and my companions kneeled down and started praying, during the prayer we both felt comforted like everything was going to be alright. Then about 20 minutes later I got a call from the 1st Elder, "Hey man, ummm, I'm all better!" Then the Second " Hey you will never believe this but I feel way better and my eye is back to normal, its like nothing was ever wrong with it!" Then the third "Whooo! I'm healed!!!!" It was one of the coolest experiences of the mission so far. Everyone was cured so that the work could go forward! I have such a strong testimony, that is grower stronger every day of faith. Its such a simple principle that makes ALL the difference. I'm so grateful for all the miracles that are happing and that I can be a part of all of this!
I love you all! Thanks for all the love and support!
Elder Schoen
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| We found a dead possum in the street. |
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| This was Gabriel at his baptism. He was baptized by djalma (young mens president) |
This week was awesome! So many miracles happened, it will be impossible to tell all of them, but I will try to tell the best ones. So as you know, we have a goal of 40 baptism in our zone in this month of March, which the record of baptisms in the zone is 12. So this past weekend we had 4 huge miracles happened, and 4 people were able to be baptized in the Zone. There were alot of spiritual experiences and people getting answers to their prayers for these 4 miracles to happen. Including our miracle in our area, Gabriel. So he has been going to church for a month now, and he wanted to get baptized. He is 15 years old. But his mom wouldn't let him, because she felt it was too soon. But we knew that heavenly father would help her so that her son could be baptized. So after alot of praying, fasting and preparation, it got to be Friday (the day before the baptism) and Gabriel had passed the interview, the entire ward was already invited to the baptism, he had already picked out his baptism jumpsuit that he would use, but his mom still hadn't authorized the baptism. But surprisingly when we got there on Friday, we said a pray and then entered and talked to his mom one more time, but I'm don't remember what was said exactly but she changed her mind! What a miracle! So Gabriel was baptized and it was awesome!
Its amazing how much Satan trying to interfere with the work here. On Saturday morning we got a call from 3 different Elders that were all sick, 2 with Pink Eye, and on doctors orders couldn't leave the house, and the other had the flu. This was a huge problem seeing as how they all had baptisms that night. So me and my companion prayed to know what we should do. The answer came clearly. So we called everyone in the zone and asked them to start praying for these 3 Elders, and we asked for the companions of these Elders to give them a blessing of health and everyone would be cured. After calling everyone me and my companions kneeled down and started praying, during the prayer we both felt comforted like everything was going to be alright. Then about 20 minutes later I got a call from the 1st Elder, "Hey man, ummm, I'm all better!" Then the Second " Hey you will never believe this but I feel way better and my eye is back to normal, its like nothing was ever wrong with it!" Then the third "Whooo! I'm healed!!!!" It was one of the coolest experiences of the mission so far. Everyone was cured so that the work could go forward! I have such a strong testimony, that is grower stronger every day of faith. Its such a simple principle that makes ALL the difference. I'm so grateful for all the miracles that are happing and that I can be a part of all of this!
I love you all! Thanks for all the love and support!
Elder Schoen
3/7/2011
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| This is where we study, and these are our two poasters! 10!!! |
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| Can you say TEN!!! |
So this week was sweet! Me and my companion set a goal this month to baptize 10 people! Which is kinda crazy because that's more that is normally baptized during a year. But its totally going to happen. There is a book called calling on the powers of heaven, and it gives 17 steps that you have to do to be able to call on the powers of heaven or (have a huge miracle happen) So we made 2 posters and put them on our wall. one of the is the 17 steps, and the other is our plan of how we are going to achieve our goal. One of the things we are doing is like is says in alma 26:22 praying always without ceasing. So me and my companion are trying to be praying all day long, either out loud as we are walking in the street, or in our minds, or we are singing hymns. Its an amazingly spiritual experience. Its been about 6 days now that we have been doing this and I've never felt the spirit so strongly with me in my life! So one of the things that we put into our plan is that we would involve our family, friends, and the members here in this goal. So I am asking everyone that reads this blog to please pray for us that this miracle can happen. That we can find 10 elects and help them be baptized in March. There are also alot of other things we are doing to exercise our faith and show the lord that we have faith and we really believe that this will happen. One of these things is that we decided that we would fast once for every one of the people that will be baptized. So we are going to do 10 fasts during this month. We are so excited! This Weekend a young man that we are teaching named Gabriel is going to be baptized! He is 15, and we found him knocking doors about a month ago. He is really integrated with the youth in this ward. And everyone is super excited for him to be baptized!!!
Story: So we are teaching a man named Gilson. Its safe to say that he is a drunk. He´s been drunk every day of his life for about the past 10 years. But he is such a good guy! He went to church this Sunday, which was awesome! But when we were at church my companion had a super strong urge to give him food, he felt like Gilson was needing food. Weird huh! So during church we went looking for food, and we were asking some members if they had food, but we only ended up finding some bread. So we told him to follow us to the kitchen and we asked him when the last time he ate was, he said that it had been over 3 days!!!! So we offered him some bread and he was so happy. It was way cool to see my companion receive inspiration like that...
So this week we were teaching Gilson and he had 4 friends over, which were all completely drunk. So it was kinda hard to teach, but when we were talking to them one of them got mad at the other and he grabbed him by the shirt and held his fist up like he was going to punch him, but he was so drunk I think that if he would have tried he would have missed! haha And he was like do want me to hit you now? or later? now or later? And we were like whoa whoa whoa stop! You cant hit him! and re looked at us and was like "Really? Why? is it a law of god?" and we were like ''"YES" And then he said oh ''Ok sorry" and let him go. But it was so funny, it was just one of those things you had to be there to see.
Anyways that's about it!
Love you all!
Elder Schoen
2/28/2011
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| The final product of everyone. |
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| This is the T-shirt that i made. |
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| These were some of the Elders paiting their t-shirts |
Today we had an Zone activity where we painted T-Shirts. Usually the missionaries put their money together to order a Zone t-shirt, but we decided to do it a little different this time, we made our own. It was alot of fun, cause everyone could make their T-shirt exactly how they wanted it! (Pictures included)
This week was really good. We found a couple new families that went to church with us on Saturday! It was awesome!!!
As of tomorrow its just 4 more months till ill be home! WOW!
Sorry I didn't write alot today, but at least there are lots of pictures!
Love
Elder Schoen
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| We found a Broken toilet in the street, so I just couldnt pass up the opportunity. But I had to take the picture fast before the people that lived there saw me, they were leaving the house right when I was taking the picture! haha |
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| Sportin´ my new tie that my mom sent me! This was at the end of a division that I did with Elder Otterstrom from Provo, UT. |
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| Underneath a convering waiting for the rain to stop. |
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| So an awesome thing happened today! We got a call from a sister in the ward. She was like " Hey Elders are you guys at home? Casue I need to drop something off for you guys" She brought us 2 huge boxes... |
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| ...Full of food!!!! WE ARE SO HAPPY!!! |
2/21/2011
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| The baptism of Sabrina. Me, my companion (Elder da Silva) and Sabrina. |
This week was awesome! We finally had a baptism! The baptismal service was really good. There were alot of people there to watch, and a couple of our investigators were there. Which helped alot, so they could see what "Mormon baptism" is like. Sabrina asked me to confirm her, which I did. I always get a little nervous giving the holy ghost in front of so many people! But everything went swimmingly.
On Friday I had a severe case of Diarrhea.....But it was all day long and it was violent!... I'm sure you all wanted to know that. haha but it was one of the highlights of my week.
That's about it for this week.
Love,
Elder Schoen
2/14/2011
Hey!
This was the most exhausting week of my mission so far. We walked sooo much, and slept so little, but it was all completely worth it!
So we have been praying and fasting for miracles and for baptisms. But these two areas where we are are kinda difficult... Cerrado hasn't baptized in 5 months, and Simus hasn't baptized in almost a year. So its kinda hard here. But we have been really optimistic and working really hard, and this week it paid off! We have a couple families that we are teaching, and the members are starting to give a ton of references! Like I said last week we had 12 investigators at church, and only one of them we brought with us. And so this week we decided that we needed to do at least the same or better. We planned for a different member to go and pick up each one of our investigators, and we were inviting the members to bring friends to church all week. So when Sunday morning arrived, the most wonderful thing happened. We showed up at the church, without having to run and pick up a single investigator. We waited there and watched all of our investigators show up with members! We had 12 investigators at church again!!! And there was a couple new people that the members had brought that we will start teaching this week! Its crazy how much the two wards are helping us out!
Ok so now to the huge miracle that happened on Saturday! Saturday was a very very hot day. And we were fasting. All of our appointments fell, and we felt like we were dying of tiredness and dehydration. At 7:00 we went to the house of one of the families that we are teaching that needs to get married before getting baptized. The parents names are Marcos and Margarette. Margarette is a member that was less active, and Marcos wants to be baptized, he just has to get married first. They have 3 kids, ages 18, 14, and 9. The 9 year old Sabrina isn't baptized yet. But we wanted to wait to baptize her at the same time as her dad seeing as how it was going to be soon. But when we got there they told us that there was a couple complications with some stuff and they were going to have to wait 3 months to be able to be married, but they don't want to wait that long to baptize Sabrina!!! So this Saturday (Feb 19th) Sabrina will be baptized!!! And Simus will have its first baptism in almost a year!!!! WHOOO!!! We are so excited, and so are the members! Its amazing how miracles happen when we fast!
I love serving a mission, and Its going by way to fast... I never thought that I would say this, but I wish that time would pass by slower.
Love
Elder Schoen
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| On Friday night we got stuck in the rain and got completly SOAKED!!! |
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| And just as we were getting home it started hailing. I didnt know that hail hurt so bad! |
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| Look at all the water that was in my shoe!!! |
This was the most exhausting week of my mission so far. We walked sooo much, and slept so little, but it was all completely worth it!
So we have been praying and fasting for miracles and for baptisms. But these two areas where we are are kinda difficult... Cerrado hasn't baptized in 5 months, and Simus hasn't baptized in almost a year. So its kinda hard here. But we have been really optimistic and working really hard, and this week it paid off! We have a couple families that we are teaching, and the members are starting to give a ton of references! Like I said last week we had 12 investigators at church, and only one of them we brought with us. And so this week we decided that we needed to do at least the same or better. We planned for a different member to go and pick up each one of our investigators, and we were inviting the members to bring friends to church all week. So when Sunday morning arrived, the most wonderful thing happened. We showed up at the church, without having to run and pick up a single investigator. We waited there and watched all of our investigators show up with members! We had 12 investigators at church again!!! And there was a couple new people that the members had brought that we will start teaching this week! Its crazy how much the two wards are helping us out!
Ok so now to the huge miracle that happened on Saturday! Saturday was a very very hot day. And we were fasting. All of our appointments fell, and we felt like we were dying of tiredness and dehydration. At 7:00 we went to the house of one of the families that we are teaching that needs to get married before getting baptized. The parents names are Marcos and Margarette. Margarette is a member that was less active, and Marcos wants to be baptized, he just has to get married first. They have 3 kids, ages 18, 14, and 9. The 9 year old Sabrina isn't baptized yet. But we wanted to wait to baptize her at the same time as her dad seeing as how it was going to be soon. But when we got there they told us that there was a couple complications with some stuff and they were going to have to wait 3 months to be able to be married, but they don't want to wait that long to baptize Sabrina!!! So this Saturday (Feb 19th) Sabrina will be baptized!!! And Simus will have its first baptism in almost a year!!!! WHOOO!!! We are so excited, and so are the members! Its amazing how miracles happen when we fast!
I love serving a mission, and Its going by way to fast... I never thought that I would say this, but I wish that time would pass by slower.
Love
Elder Schoen
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