Week 35 - Florianópolis - Episode #4 - É verdadeiro ou não é? Então o que mais importa??

What´s up everyone!!?

This has been another extremely fast week! I´ll try to remember a little of what happened...

So Tuesday we had Zone Conference with President. We didn´t have to give a training because the Assistants and President gave the trainings and they were both way good. The Assistants gave a super good training about the scripture 1 Kings 18:21 which says ´´And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.´´ Basically in this chapter Elijah was sent to Samaria because the people there were worshiping the prophets of Baal. In this scripture he told them to stop being wishy washy and follow God or follow Baal. They applied this to us as missionaries because we need to be 100% dedicated to this work. We can´t be wishy washy missionaries that want to work sometimes or want to be obedient when it is convenient. This can also apply to our lives as members of the church!

This week we had a lot of our appointments fall through but we have an investigator on date for May 13! He is 13 and his parents go to church too but they can´t get baptized yet because they aren´t married legally. 

Also on Sunday we went out with some members and they took us to meet a family. The husband is an inactive member and his wife is not a member. They loved our visit and they said they want to receive our messages and he wants to start going to church again! It was way cool! Also a ton of their family lives around them too so we hope to teach them too! At the end of the lesson Elder Montero was talking about soccer with him and he went into his room and came out with 2 soccer jerseys for us! What a guy! But I´m pretty hyped to help this family out.

This week I was studying in Mosiah 18 and verse 9 always hits me hard. It says ´´Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at ALL times and in ALL things, and in ALL places...´´ As a missionary I have a plaque that says I am a representative of Christ but also as members, when we were baptized, we promised to take His name upon us. To become more like Christ through these things, and also the characteristics of charity in Moroni 7:45, should be one of our greatest focuses in life! We were sent here to progress!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Sempre fica firme, forte e feliz!

This kind member gifted these Elders some awesome soccer jerseys!

Companions for now, friends for life

Zone Conference!

Elder Scheer 

Week 34 - Florianópolis - Episode #3 - Feliz Páscoa!

I hope everyone had an incredible spring break and Easter weekend!! Here in Brasil it was pretty normal except that we got a bunch of chocolate from the members.

The weather is finally starting to cool down which is way nice because I have been living in summer for about a year now haha.

Anyway the work this week was pretty good! Our investigators still aren´t progressing how we would like them to, but I know with time they will gain a testimony!

We got an awesome referral from the Americans that are here. It is a guy that they do crossfit with and he is so ready for the gospel! His name is Tiago and he was basically raised in the favelas and has had a pretty tough life. He has searched for the truth in many churches but feels that he has never been able to find it. I am super hyped to teach him and help him out.

Cool experience of the week... A couple weeks ago we were trying to find an address and a lady and kids pulled up in their car and asked us if we needed a ride. We accepted and they started talking and the daughter told us that she has a friend serving a mission and has already read the Book of Mormon and really liked it but that she is atheist. She said that she almost got baptized and served a mission because of it. When we got to our destination, we said thank you and got out of the car. After we both got out and they drove away, Elder Montero was like ´´Why didn´t you get their address?´´ and I said ´´Why didn´t you get their address?´´ And we just thought about how stupid we were for a minute but then we decided to say a prayer that we could find them again. On Tuesday we found them!! I didn´t even recognize the mom but she came up to me! It was super awesome haha. I know that the power of prayer is real!

Lastly our surfista investigator offered to let us borrow some surf boards... man life is rough sometimes haha. 

Also early Birthday to the best mom in the world!!! I know that I would be nothing without my mommy! haha I love you all and have a great week!

Sempre fica firme, forte e feliz!

Elder Scheer

Week 33 - Florianópolis - Episode #2 - Mais Perto Quero Estar

Oiiiiiiiii!

This week was great! We have been able to find some new children of our Heavenly Father to teach and our group is now a little bigger! And some of these people have some real potential so we are pretty excited.

Last Monday we had a lesson set up with someone we contacted and they ended up not being home. But thanks to the list of members, we knew that it was one of the American kid´s birthdays and that there would be food and cake at their house so we headed over there hahaha. Well we got some dinner and cake  But they were telling us how they have a friend that they really want to introduce to us and when we were talking about him he showed up at their house! It was awesome, so we just started teaching him right then. He is a surf guy and makes surf boards and the next day we accidentally found his shop and it is so cool! I never imagined surf boards were made how they are. 

We taught them again on Wednesday and it went really well. We could tell they felt the Spirit. 

We are also received a super great referral from another member. It is a women named Rosangela and her two kids. She has had a tough life and she is very open to receive the gospel right now.

Elder Montero likes to always end lessons with a hymn. He asks everyone to close their eyes and think of Heavenly Father and how they can grow closer and then sings Nearer My God to Thee. It is sooooo beautiful and the Spirit is always super strong. So far he is at about a 70% bringing someone to tears rate. 

On Friday we had a Zone Training and it went really well. Our President has really been emphasizing that we need to teach families and not individuals. So during our training we taught a little more about that. We used an object lesson with eggs and how that one egg can break pretty easily but you can stand on a bunch of eggs. Who knew you could stand on eggs? haha but it was pretty cool. When families join the gospel together, they really have the support they need even when they go through trials.

Lastly, this morning a member took us to tour a little more of our area. Seriously the most beautiful place I have ever been! I love Floripa!

Thank you all for the support! Have a great week and don´t forget to send Elder Hutchison a happy birthday!!

Sempre fica firme, forte e felizzzzzz

Elder Scheer

Week 32 - Florianópolis - Episode #1 - Só Alegria

´Twas a good first week on the island. Especially since there is always an ocean breeze so the weather is soooo much better than in my last area. Very blessed. But to start off last monday after emailing we went down by the beach and it is super beautiful. I have never wanted to boogie oogie so bad but I guess it will have to wait.

When P-day ended, we headed over to a house where 3 american Lds families from Utah recently moved in. They moved to Floripa because they are going to start up DoTerra oils here. It´s pretty funny because they don´t speak Portuguese but they will be alright. When we were at there house they told us how they really wanted to help with the missionary work here so that´s´pretty hype. They said they can give us rides whenever because they aren´t working yet so that´s very clutch. Just waiting for them to get a Brasilian phone number so we can call them haha. Also they are renting a wakeboard boat and going out on the Lake here a ton. They are super sick on the air chair so I feel super at home in there house haha.

Anyway... The work here in Rio Tavares is pretty slow as of right now. We have a few investigators, one that should be getting baptized here pretty soon. We clapped a ton of doors this week to try to find some new people that would be interested in hearing our message but not much success. It is really sad to see so many decline a message that they may never come to know that is the only true source of joy in this life. We did find 3 families that said we could come back and one of them we will visit today so I´m pretty excited about that.

The other day a man came up to me and said I was Donald Trump and told Elder Montero he was Indian so that was cool. 

Elder Montero is a super great guy. He is an incredible singer and slaps on the ukelele. Our time together should be a great time. 

I hope everyone had the opportunity to watch conference! Luckily I got to watch it in English with our bishop. One of my favorite talks was by Elder Rasband. He talked about promptings of the Holy Ghost. As a missionary, I am always recieving promptings about what I should say, who I should talk to and where I should go. Sadly, many times I doubt the promptings and think that they just may be my own thoughts. Elder Rasband taught me that I must not doubt the promptings. That true humbleness is submitting to the promptings we feel and following them. As we pray to recieve more and more promptings and we follow them, we will find ourselves on the Lord´s errand. How incredible! I know that the Lord knows everyone of His children perfectly and following His promptings is something I will improve on. 

I am so thankful for the testimonies of Christ that we heard this weekend. I also have a testimony of Christ, that He is always with us and that He loves us. His love is truly incomprehensible.

Lastly, I recieved great news from Elder Castagneto that Wager was baptized on Saturday!

I love you all! Have a great week!

Sempre fica firme, forte e feliz!

Elder Scheer