Note to All***
Elder Schoen will be 20 years old on June 22nd. You can email him if you like at james.schoen@myldsmail.net but please do not be offended that he can not reply. Also, actual mail is always appreciated.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
6/9/2010
I ate alot and was regretting it!
This is my favorite chocolate in the world!
Yesterday I successfully completed 11 Months on the mission!!!! Whoooo!
Well this week nothing super exciting or interesting happened, except for the part that I found out that my companion's home town is incredibly small. I already knew that he lived in a small town but this week we were talking and I discovered that his town only has 2 street signals! WOW!
Today we went to a mall thats like 20 minutes away from our area. Its called Shopping Eldorado. Its like the Nicest Mall in South America! We ate lunch there... BURGER KING!!!
It was so good... lets just say right now im having Double Whopper w/cheese burps! haha Its awesome!
The work here is going well, nothing super amazing happened this week. It was just a normal week of work, but things are still going really well. This Sunday that girl Paula will be baptized. She just has to stop smoking, but as of today its been 4 days since she stopped, so we are just praying that she will be able to stop for good. Because if she smokes again before Sunday we will have to cancel the baptism!
But I think thats about it for now.
Thanks for Everything!
Elder J.D. Schoen
6/2/2010
We went to the center again today, and this was at the top of the tallest building in Brazil.
This is a picture of my area. Ive been here for almost 4 months and its about time I sent of picture.
Just having fun!
This desert is called Brigadeiro. Its the best ever! And its super easy to make. So when I get home and make some and you can be as happy as I was in that moment!
Hello!
So this week was really good and went by extremely fast! I can't believe that its already June!!! WOW!!!!
Ok so I have a funny story... I need to start off explaining about the Brazilian sense of humor. They love jokes about mother inlaws. There is like 10 billion jokes about how mother inlaws are so terrible. ... So anyways back to the story... This week I did a division and in the other area that I went to we went to teach a lady that they have been teaching for along time. Her husband hates mormons and never ever ever talks to the missionaries. So when I got there he was there in the living room so I decided to try and start a conversation with him, we started talking because he has visited Las Vegas and he loves the place. So we talked about Vegas for a little while, then he left the room and we taught his wife. (Just to discribe this man, he is fat and angry and has white hair, and a beard, he looks like a member of hells angels just without tattoos.) Ok so anyways after the lesson with his wife, she made us dinner and we were sitted eating dinner and her husband sat down at the table and looked at us and said..." So I heard that your church practices Polygamy...I read it on the internet" And so we explained to him really well about how the church used to but doesn't anymore. Then he looked at us really seriously and said "Do you know what the condemnation that awaits people that practice polygamy is?" And at that moment i wanted to pee my pants, cause he is a really scary man. Then i said " No, what is it?" and he relpied " They have to have multiple mother inlaws!" It was so funny cause it was the absolute last thing I was expecting him to say!!!
Also this week while knocking doors we came across two teenage boys sitting in their driveway with a 3 foot tall bong. And we told them how we are representatives of Jesus Christ and asked if we could enter and leave a message with them. And one of them just looked at me and blew out smoke and was like "i dont know, we´re kinda busy right now, do you think you could come back another day" ...It was pretty funny, and something that you dont see everyday! haha
Other than that things are going well, we are teaching alot and seeing success! Im lovin' life!
Well thats about it! Thanks for all the support from everyone!
Elder Schoen
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
5/26/2010
Hello!
So this week was AWESOME! They family that we have been teaching forever (Rodinei and Maria) got married!!!! (Pictures included) that was on Friday then on Saturday they were BAPTIZED! IT was way awesome, we were able to get a ton of members from the ward to go, and we even got Rodinei to make a super good friendship with the Elders Quorem president his name is Moroni and Moroni baptized Rodinei. And Elder Duarte baptized Maria, which was awesome becasue it was his first time baptizing a person! He did great!
Also I cant remember if Ive already told you about our investigator Paula. She is 21, and one of the members invited her to go to an activity last friday night, it was like a play that the ward did. So she went to that and liked it alot and went to church the next day. Which she also loved and ended up going to a young single adult activity that they had that night at the stake center. Then we taught her for the first time on thursday. It was amazing. We taught her the 1st lesson ( about the restoration) and we invited her to be baptized, she accepted! infact we didnt even get to ask her to be baptized, tward the end of the lesson she just asked " so how does this whole baptism thing work? What do I have to do to be baptized?" It was sweet! So we explained to her about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity and the only problem that she has is with coffee and smoking...Well as of right now she already stopped coffee and yesterday she only smoked 1 ciggerette! whooooo!!!! So then we asked to say a pray to end the lesson and she was like what! already?!? I want too learn more (at this point we had already been teaching her for over an hour) So we taught her about the Plan of Salvation. She loved it. She is going to be baptized on June 13th! We are so excited!
Anyways, I think thats about it!
Thanks for all the love and support!
Elder J.D. Schoen
So this week was AWESOME! They family that we have been teaching forever (Rodinei and Maria) got married!!!! (Pictures included) that was on Friday then on Saturday they were BAPTIZED! IT was way awesome, we were able to get a ton of members from the ward to go, and we even got Rodinei to make a super good friendship with the Elders Quorem president his name is Moroni and Moroni baptized Rodinei. And Elder Duarte baptized Maria, which was awesome becasue it was his first time baptizing a person! He did great!
Also I cant remember if Ive already told you about our investigator Paula. She is 21, and one of the members invited her to go to an activity last friday night, it was like a play that the ward did. So she went to that and liked it alot and went to church the next day. Which she also loved and ended up going to a young single adult activity that they had that night at the stake center. Then we taught her for the first time on thursday. It was amazing. We taught her the 1st lesson ( about the restoration) and we invited her to be baptized, she accepted! infact we didnt even get to ask her to be baptized, tward the end of the lesson she just asked " so how does this whole baptism thing work? What do I have to do to be baptized?" It was sweet! So we explained to her about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity and the only problem that she has is with coffee and smoking...Well as of right now she already stopped coffee and yesterday she only smoked 1 ciggerette! whooooo!!!! So then we asked to say a pray to end the lesson and she was like what! already?!? I want too learn more (at this point we had already been teaching her for over an hour) So we taught her about the Plan of Salvation. She loved it. She is going to be baptized on June 13th! We are so excited!
Anyways, I think thats about it!
Thanks for all the love and support!
Elder J.D. Schoen
We taught this little girl before being baptized. Her name is Ariel. Her family are members, her dad wanted her to have the missionaries teach her before being baptized
Ariel again, she was baptized on Friday, her 8 yer old birthday
Rodinei and Maria at the wedding
Me and Elder Duarte with the Bride and Groom at the wedding
Baptism! Elder Duarte´s first time baptizing!
Friday, May 14, 2010
This weekend we painted the house of a member. They gave me purple paint and told me to do something creative with this wall... It turned out pretty good!
This sister missionary is almost as old as my mom! haha
Me and Elder Hayes. He got to the mission the same day as me and we were roomates in the CTM
Me and the Zone Leaders
My District at the last district meeting before transfers
Hey!This week was super awesome! Sunday was mothers day, so I got to call home and talk with the family. It was alot easier this time. I remember when I called home during Christmas it was so hard, the rest of the day I was just extremely homesick and cried alot. But this time, it just made me happy. After the phone call I was back to normal and happy as ever!
So on the 21st of May the couple that we have been teaching, Maria and Rodinie will get married! We are so excited! So the 21st will be a friday and then on Saturday the 22nd the ward is going to have a little wedding reception thing for them and they will be baptized! Whoo!!! Pray that everything will go well and that they can be baptized!
This week we also found 2 other awesome families that are super intersted, the only problem is... They have to get married! What else is new. This is seriously the most frustrating thing ever here in Brazil. Its the culture. No one is married. People think that marrige is like selling your soul to the devil. its the hardest thing ever to get people to marry! But we will see what we can do with these families. I think that there is hope. Its just going to take a while.
Other than that things are going super well. Me and my son (elder Duarte) are going to stay together for at least 6 more weeks. But I think that this next transfers I will get transfered. But we will just have to see!
Thanks everyone for your love and support!
Elder J.D. Schoen
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