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

WEEK 31 - JARAGUA DO SUL - Episode #23 - Somewhere on a Beach

Hello everyoneeeeee!! So to just start off with the good ´ol transfer news. I´m in Florianópolis!!! Super dope. I have been called to serve as Zone Leader in the area Rio Tavares. If you want to check out my area put Campeche Florianópolis in Google maps. It is absolutely beautiful. When President Silva called this week to tell us on Wednesday I really got so nervous haha. I´m hyped to be in Florianópolis, but not about the responsibilities haha. But I´ll do what the Lord wants me to do!!

Special family in Jaragua

The people of Jaragua took special care of Elder Scheer! They will be missed!

Florianopolis!

Never goodbye, only so long for now - friends for life!! Amazing companions during service in Jaragua.

My companion is Elder Montero and he is Columbian. He speaks Portuguese with a Spanish accent haha.  Also Elder Castagneto is going to train which means I´m going to be a grandpa!! hahaha. 

Anyway, leaving Jaraguá was #supertriste. (very sad)  It was really my first home away from home. I met so many incredible people there.. but I´m excited to meet and help even more people!

Yesterday in Jaraguá the ward split! We have been working towards this for a long time! The missionaries and the members were able to work together and had 35 people visiting yesterday! I´m so excited to hear about Jaraguá in the future. The work is exploding there!

That´s pretty much it for this week! I´m excited to tell you all about my first week here on the island and I hope you are all stoked to hear the words of our Prophets  this weekend during General Conference!!! Love you all!

Sempre fica firme, forte e feliz!!

Elder Scheer

WEEK 30 - JARAGUA DO SUL - Episode #22 - Rainy Dayzzzzzz

This was a pretty great week especially because the weather was like 100000x cooler than it has been lately. Really nice to get a break from the heat. It´s really funny here because we always ask people when it starts to cool down and everyone says something different. Some people say that winter doesn´t exist here and others say it gets real nippy, so we are just waiting to see what happens. 

But first off a big bday shoutout to my sister Lauren! Happy Birthday LoLo, thanks for being the best sister everrrrrrr!!!! 

The highlight of this week was for sure the trip we had to Florianópolis which took up all of Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday we left to Joiniville after lunch and slept there with our zone leaders and then got up at 4am on Thursday to take a bus to Floripa. The whole mission went, even the peeps all the way in Chapeco, which is like 15 hours by bus from Floripa. When we got there, we had a super incredible training with Elder Aidukaitis and President Lynn G. Robbins of the Seventy. One of the biggest things I took away from the training was that we are exactly where we are supposed to be. There have been certain people prepared for each missionary and our mission presidents our inspired to send us to certain areas. In 1 Nephi 9:6 Nephi tells us how the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning. He has a perfect plan for everyone of us. Another thing I learned is that the field really is white all ready to harvest. Along with how the Lord put us where we are, he prepared people for us to find and teach the Gospel. Elder Castagneto and I have really been focusing more on finding these people that have been prepared for us to find. 

Besides that, it was super good to see my buds that I haven´t seen in a while. My boy Elder Simonsen who was my comp in the CTM and Sister Townsend who came out with us too! Also Elder Oliveira from Spain is really the man.

When we got back from Floripa to Joinville we had to wait a little to catch our bus to Jaraguá. When we were walking back to the zone leaders house, the sky was completely dark an then turned a little green. We could see the wind approaching throwing leaves out of the trees. Next thing we know we were getting pounded on. Hahaha it was a good time to be in a tropical storm. 5 stars, highly recommend! 

This Saturday Wagner asked us to have his baptism on the 1st which is kind of sad because I might not be here because of transfers but we will see. After the lesson he told us, ´´I really want to serve a mission, actually I will serve a mission.´´ Super duper awesome. He has already read 1st and 2nd Nephi, hahaha. Crazykid.net

I want you all to know that I know the Book of Mormon is true. It strengthens my testimony every day and is a powerful witness of Jesus Christ. Please listen to this testimony of an apostle of the Lord.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/safety-for-the-soul?lang=eng

Love you all, have a great week! Stay tuned for transfer news

Sempre fica firme, forte e feliz!!

Elder Scheer 

Reunion at Mission Conference

Received this picture from a member on Lauren's bday....sending HBD wishes!

WEEK 29 - JARAGUA DO SUL - Episode #21

Hello everyone!

This week was a little slow but still some highlights as always!!

On Tuesday we continued teaching the rest of A's family. His dad wasn´t there but we had the opportunity to teach his brother for the first time. The lesson was going super well and the Spirit was really strong when A got home. He was seriously so gone this man could barely walk. The Spirit left so fast and we felt very uncomfortable. It was really sad. We hope to be able to teach them some more this week and help him out with the Word of Wisdom. We want so badly to this whole family in the gospel.

Wednesday we had lunch pretty far away so we had to take about a 40 minute bus ride. When we were on our way the bus stopped to picked someone up. It was this guy Luis that we talked to on the street a long time ago. He is a super sad guy who has literally gone through everything. His dad and brother were killed and he has lupus. We were able to schedule with him to visit him after lunch. We went to his house with barely any time before we had to catch our bus to go back but we explained a little about our message for him and he smiled! It made me so happy that he smiled! He also went to church on Sunday and he liked it. I am so excited to help Luis find purpose and happiness in life.

Thursday we got to go to Joinville for a parade which was pretty cool. It was Joinville´s birthday and the Church had a group marching in it so they invited the missionaries to be in it. Peep me in the Liahona some time coming soon. Jk.

Our best investigator right now is W. He is 19 and his brother left recently to serve a mission. When we met with him on Saturday, he told us that he read 1 Nephi in a day and read all of the pamphlets. We just started laughing hahaha. But our lesson ended being 2 hours because he had questions about everything but we ended up marking his baptism for March 25! He also had a dream that he was putting on a mission plaque. So awesome.

This Thursday the entire mission will be meeting in Florianopolis for the first time ever. We will have a member from the presidency of the seventy visit us and I am super stoked. Should be a good time.

I´m out of time but I love you all!!

Peep the pic of the coolest graffiti art ever. In English: ´´And this is how I saved the world..´´

Sempre fica firme, forte, e feliz!

Elder Scheer

A story from Elder Scheer's companion this week:

We are also teaching this awesome, awesome guy named B that truly is like the only person who speaks English here and last night he had us over for dinner.  In the middle of dinner, he stopped, got up, and brought us this giant butcher knife with the inscription of a cow with the different types of cuts and stuff and he said ´´I want you to have this, so you have something with which to remember me by´´.So we had the opportunity to walk home at night holding an 8 inch steak knife!  Man it was so awesome!

They also saw some Capivaras (50 lb. rodents) swimming across the river (see pic below).

´´And this is how I saved the world..´´

Joinville Parade

WEEK 28 - JARAGUA DO SUL - Episode #20 - Tower of Babel

What´s up ya´ll???? I hit 6 months this week which is super crazy!!

This week was pretty great but I don´t have much time so I have to keep it short.

On Tuesday we had a Zone training with President and it was super good. One of the training was about how we need to focus on families. President said even if there is a kid that wants to be baptized, we should really have patience and try to wait until the parents want to as well. When we were told that, Elder C and I thought about A who is 15 and we baptized about a month ago without his parents. His parents like church but they can´t get baptized because they aren´t legally married. Sadly that is a huge problem here in Brazil. Anyway when we got back to Jaraguá from Joinville, we went straight to their house while A was at FSY (which is like EFY in Brazil) to teach his parents. We found out that his mom had been reading some of the Book of Mormon every day and wants to be baptized. We talked to them about the importance of family and marriage but as always Adão just said they will get married eventually. We were just thinking dude you have been waiting 18 years what in the world is the difference. But we left and then went back to visit them again 2 days later. We shared a similar message the time before but this time we were able to convince A to get married! We were so happy! I really hope I´m still here in Jaraguá to see them get baptized.

So my subject is called Tower of Babel because we met back up with that Haitian this week and had a lesson in 4 different languages😂😂😂 Portuguese, English, French, and Creole. It was pretty ridiculous. Like I said Elder C speaks a little French and the Haitian (Claudalson) speaks a little English. His sister speaks more Portuguese than him but mainly speaks Creole so yeah it´s pretty tough. It´s hard for him to understand Portuguese but he went to church again on Sunday! We are hoping to set up a skype lesson with him or something with a French speaker because there really is no other way haha.

I´m pretty sure I saw more rain in 2 days of this week than I had in my whole life added up hahaha. I have finally gotten used to the humidity though. I´m just worried that when I go home and step off the plane that I will turn into a raisin haha.

Eu sei que esta é a única igreja verdadeira. Jesus Cristo é meu salvador e meu melhor amigo. Qualquer momento que você está precisando a ajuda dele, ele está em seu lado. Ele nos conhece perfeitamente. Podemos orar e ele vai responder! Não existe uma mensagem melhor do que disso. Eu amo este trabalho e eu amo o povo de Brasil!

Até próximo semana! Te amo muito!

Sempre fica firme, forte e feliz!!😁

Elder Scheer