WEEK #10 - JARAGUA DO SUL - Episode #3 - Sniping With The Spirit

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!! No one celebrates Halloween here which is kind of depressing but it´s all good. I hope everyone is having a great time celebrating the existence of the great State of Nevada as well.

This week was a very successful and an incredible week to say the least. To start off: Sniping with the Spirit. Elder Reis taught me this phenomenal way to find people to teach haha. To do this we take turns saying what house we want to knock next but in a different way. For example one of us could say; first left, second right, and the fourth house on the right. Sounds pretty dumb but it works. On Wednesday we found 3 new investigators in about 30 minutes and then taught 2 of them the Plan of Salvation the same day! It was a really cool experience. The other guy we visited the day after at work and taught a little bit about the Restoration. He said he needed to get back to work but wanted us to teach him and his wife at his house. On Saturday we visited the 2 that we taught first (who are sisters and are neighbors). Only one of the sisters was there but she had her kids and grandchildren there as well! We got to know them and taught a short Family Home Evening type lesson about the love that our Heavenly Father has for us. Through Sniping with the Spirit we found an entire family and a married couple!! The Lord has truly prepared this area for us.

On Tuesday we made the long trip to a small city in our area called Schroeder. All the roads are dirt and all the houses are more shack like. We visited a couple there and got to know them better and left a message. Behind their house are a ton of banana trees. They sent us home with a huge bag of bananas! hahaha so that was a pretty cool experience.

On Thursday we had our District Leader and his companion with us for a baptismal interview. Afterwards we went to dinner at a Rodizio de Pizza. At a rodizio de pizza they keep bringing around different kinds of pizza just like a Brazilian steak house but with pizza. And they have dessert pizzas that are soooooo good. I ate way too much and my stomach hurt all Friday.

But on Friday we had Mari´s baptism and it went super well! We had a good amount of people show up for it being on a Friday. We met a partial member family there as well. The mom is a member but has been inactive for a while and the husband and 13 year old son aren´t members. We made plans to visit them Sunday evening. When we got to their house I was so suprised. My companion is almost done with his mission and said it is the nicest house he´s been in. They have a huge garden with everything you can imagine and have goats and chickens. I got to try some new fruits/plants which was pretty cool and feed some goats lol. They are such a cool family. We ate and had some cake and then told them about what we have to offer as missionaries. The husband and son seemed pretty interested so we will have the opportunity to teach them more.

Welp that´s all for this week! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Scheer

Bananas! Bananas!

Subway with Elder R.

My boy Alex

Waiting for the bus

Elder R - Best Trainer Ever!

WEEK #9 - JANAGUA DO SUL - Episode #2

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great week!

I´d like to start by sharing my first funny story with the language. So we were in a partial member house visiting and we were all sitting at the table. Everyone was talking and like usual, I was just trying to understand everything they were saying haha. There is a decent amount of Germans in this area and the family was saying something about Germans. The father looked at me and said something. I thought he asked me if I was German so I said yes, but he really asked me if I was a racist. Everyone just kind of looked at me hahahaha pretty awkward.

Anyway it´s been a great week here in Brasil. It´s been pretty rainy and I got soaked last P-day. But cloudy and rainy is so much better than sunny because it is so hot and humid when the sun is out. I´m not looking forward to summer haha. 

Today we got to move into a new apartment and it´s way nicer than our last one. It has a small gym on the top floor which will be helpful to keep the pounds off haha. We have lunch at a member's house everyday and it is always so good, but very heavy. Beans, rice, and chicken/sausage every day.

This week we were able to teach a lot more. Sadly Mari´s baptism got delayed but it is scheduled for this week. We had a really good lesson with a new investigator, Josi. We taught the restoration and at the end Elder Reis invited her to pray about what we taught her and then I invited her to be baptized. She said yes! I told her that she was making just a great decision and the gospel will be such a huge blessing in her life. She started to cry and the Spirit was really strong. Moments like these truly make the mission amazing.

The language is still tough and frustrating at times but I am always speaking and understanding more everyday.

I invite everyone to read Mosiah 14. It is such a profound chapter about what our Savior did for us. The Atonement was truly an act of pure love for everyone and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be made clean every day through the Atonement. Thank you all for the support and prayers! Love you all!

Elder Scheer

Week #8 - JANAGUA DO SUL - Pilot Episode

Hellooooo everyone! It´s been a minute haha. I´m finally in the field and I am loving it! The CTM was great and taught me a lot.

So I headed out for Flo early Tuesday morning. It was a short plane ride and flying into Florianopolis was soooo beautiful. The pictures on google does it way more justice than mine haha.

After we went to the mission office I met some missionaries that were going home that day. One was Elder Powell Naylor's cousin so that was cool. We had a short interview with Presidente Silva and he is a super nice loving guy who doesn´t speak English, but it´s all good. We headed to lunch which was super good and after had an orientation with Presidente and learned more about the mish. Also I met my trainer. My trainer is Elder R. He is from São Paulo and is seriously the man. He´s been out for a year and 9 months so he likes to rub it in sometimes haha. He is the most loving guy I´ve ever met and loves singing One Direction and Justin Bieber haha. He has a pretty large English vocab which is way helpful as well.

So we headed to our area, Jaraguá do Sul which is about 5 hours north by bus of Florianopolis and a little bit inland. I love this area. I´ve been told that I got really lucky. It´s a super clean and organized town and consists of one ward. The members are awesome and are super involved with missionary work which will help so much. The people are also really nice and open to talking with us.

The first day of the mish was slightly rough because we spent about 6 hours cleaning our apartment because it was disgusting. But luckily my comp is awesome and loves singing so it wasn´t too bad. Since that day we´ve been walking a ton, getting to know the area, and making contacts. The past missionaries didn´t leave a ton of info for us in the area book so we are learning about our investigators through the members. We have only had one lesson thus far but we have a bunch of people to teach this week so that will be fun. We had a baptism on Saturday for someone that the last missionaries taught and will have another this Saturday. Chegamos chegando. Elder R. and I got to share our testimonies at the baptism and during Sacrament meeting. I´m getting used to stepping out of my comfort zone and just speaking Portuguese, but this week has been pretty difficult language wise. 

I´m learning so much every day. I have quickly noticed many of my weaknesses. In Ether 12:27 we learn that we can make our weaknesses our strengths when we put our faith and trust in our Heavenly Father. I know that He is helping me through every step. Sometimes I just begin to think negatively and feel discouraged when I can understand almost nothing but it´s so much better to just smile and choose to be happy.

I love you all and hope you have an incredible week!

Love,

Elder Scheer 

CTM District

1st Companion in Jaraguá do Sul

Approaching Florianopolis!

Nothing Better than ACAI Bowls! 

Week #6 - Florianopolis Bound!

Óla! This past weekend was incredible because we got to go proselyting again and watch general conference. Proselyting for the second time was much easier because we are much more comfortable with the language. We are actually able to answer questions and have more of a conversation haha. At one point I saw an Asian couple walking and flipping through a Book of Mormon that another missionary had given them, so I went up to them and asked if they had any questions. We started talking and I was trying to ask what the other missionary had told them about the Book of Mormon. I wasn´t able to get it through in Portuguese. But then the wife said, We speak English, and I got pretty hyped. Then she said she thought that Mormon was kind of the same as Jesus Christ or something so I´m really glad I asked and was able to clarify. They were very interested and even asked if there was a church nearby and luckily I knew where one was. It´s so awesome how so many Brazilians already believe in Jesus Christ. It makes it so much easier to talk about the Book of Mormon.

General Conference was phenomenal and Elder Mann getting TV time made it even better. I really like Elder Uchtdorf´s talk about missionary work. He counseled that we should never take what we have for granted and have the desire to share the truth we have with others. My favorite talk was Russell M. Nelson´s. All true joy comes from Christ. Even if we are going through challenges, if we turn to Christ we will find joy. I´m so thankful for the joy that He has brought me. There were many more incredible messages and I hope you all were able to learn something.

My time at the CTM is coming to an end and its been great, but I´m so excited to get to Florianópolis. I can´t wait to tell you all about the first week! Até mais!

Love, 

Elder Scheer