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

WEEK 27 - JARAGUA DO SUL - Episode #19 - Carnival: tudo mundo festejando

Welp right now in the good ´ol Brasil it´s what they call Carnival which basically means that everyone goes to the beach (great and spacious building meaning worldly) and has a good time being iniquitous. Ha-ha but Jaraguá isn´t super festive so nothing is going on here, but everyone went to the beach, so it´s been a ghost town the last few days.

This week wasn´t the best yet but they all can´t be incredible. We had a bunch of appointments fall through but at the same time there is always some good parts.

One of our investigators, Felipe is a 19 year old whose lives with his girlfriend (who is a member) and she is prego. He works his tail off to be able to pay for their apartment and food. I have seriously grown to love this man so much. When we first started teaching him, he was drinking and smoking a lot. We taught him so much about Christ and His atonement. We want so badly for him to have a better life and to be able to have a family in the gospel. Last week we met him and he told us how he had stopped drinking and smoking and how they are trying to get legally married so he can get baptized. We were seriously so hyped. Straight into a group hug ha-ha. This week when we visited him he didn´t really seem himself. He told us he had gone back to smoking and he just isn´t really sure about everything. The other elders living with us saw they saw him drunk last night. Writing this brings tears to my eyes. I have been praying so much to develop charity, the pure love of Christ and this is the most I have felt it thus far. I want so so badly for him to obtain the joy that comes with the gospel. I really just want to choose for him but I know he has his freedom to choose. Through this experience I have been able to realize how much my love has grown for these people. I have also gotten to feel a sliver of what Heavenly Father feels when we disobey his commandments. I know that He literally cries when we cry and rejoices in our success. 

A way cool experience: One day we were walking to an appointment and this guy was wearing a chargers jersey so we stopped to talk with him. He is from Haiti and talks a little Portuguese and a little English but he mainly speaks French and creole. We were trying to talk to him but not much was really getting through. So Elder Castagneto starts to speak French with him. Ha ha ha ha I was just standing there like what the heck is going on. This manz really just pulled some French out of nowhere to contact this guy. #savage. Eventually he said that he wanted to go to church with us so we told him we would pick him up at 8:30 at a bus stop nearby. Sunday morning we go by and he wasn´t there. We were pretty bummed. But then about 30 minutes into church he walks in with his sister and her son! They walked so far to get to church! He said he was waiting for us but we never saw him. We were so happy.

This week was pretty rainy which was super nice. One day we walked about an hour and a half in the rain without an umbrella and it was a great time. But the down side is that with walking in rain comes chafing... my boys know all about that life from boogie ooging til we can´t boogie no more.

Also living with 2 Brazilians from the northeast is one heck of an experience. They are so funny. The way they mess around reminds me of the squad.

I love you all!!!

Sempre fica firme, forte, e feliz!

Elder Scheer

WEEK #25 - JARAGUA DO SUL - Episode #18 - BOILINGGGGGGGG!!!!

Yoooooo!!!! This week was super great. I think it was the hottest week of my life. If you have ever jumped into a pot when it´s boiling I think that´s what it feels like haha. I have never had such a huge desire to be completely immersed in water hahaha.

Anyway this first week with 4 missionaries in Jaragua was way cool. The other two missionaries are really cool guys and make things a little more fun in our apartment. Brasilians from the northeast are always super funny. They are already having success and have a lady on date to be baptized for March 4th. So awesome!

We pretty much spent this week finishing teaching Lenon and Marcos before their baptisms saturday. It was such an amazing experience to teach them and see them change. Their desire to follow Christ grew so quickly.

So Saturday was their baptisms and everything went very well. It was high key spiritual and I about shed a tear watching my brothers enter the waters of baptism. On Sunday I had the opportunity to confirm Lenon. I was way nervous to confirm someone in Portuguese but it went really well and it was an incredible experience.

This week should be pretty hype trying to get the rest of our investigators progressing!

I love you all! Have an incredible week!!

Sempre fica firme, forte e feliz!

Elder Scheer

WEEK #24 - JARAGUA DO SUL - Episode #17 - Rely on the Lord in All Things

I hope everyone had a great week!! I know I did besides getting Zika last P-day. Nah, it was a classic air borne virus and I´m all good now. But thsi past Saturday was 5 years since I was baptized! Crazy how time flies! I still remember that moment like it was yesterday. Easily the best decision of my life. Also big shout out to my boy Elder Hoogland who had his birthday Saturday as well!

So best for first as they say... 

Two Sundays ago Elder C and I were sitting at a bus stop after doing some visits. This lady named Leoci walked over, sat down, and just started talking to us. Eventually we got to the subject of how we are missionaries and stuff and she said how her family would love to have us over. So we took down her address and number and told her we would pass by the following Sunday. The following Sunday we try to call but the number doesn´t exist so we just go to her house but she wasn´t home. We were pretty bummed but we just went about our day with the other things we had planned. We were heading back to that same bus stop that night when Elder C said that we should pray that we can find Leoci again. So we prayed and continued walking. When we got to the bus stop we just sat down and nothing happened. After a few minutes of just sitting in silence looking around we saw a lady in the distance just standing on the sidewalk. We just kind of thought that she was another random lady but we decided to go talk to her. It was Leoci!!!!! It turned out that we had written down her phone number wrong! So we told her that we would call to mark for the next Sunday. Yesterday we were able to call her and pass by her house. When we got there she started walking to the houses next to her calling out everyone. We ended up in her mom´s house with 12 people (all family) that were excited to meet us and hear our message. Elder C and I just looked at each other like 'holy cow this is incredible!' haha. We pretty much just got to know them and explained to all of them what we do as missionaries and they are super interested and wanting to receive the lessons! We are seriously so hyped.

This story really helped my testimony grow about how we need to rely on the Lord in all things. Especially as missionaries....we are doing His work and we can´t expect to be able to do it on our own. I am learning to truly recognize the Lord´s hand in every aspect of life.

This week on Friday we also had interviews with President. President is so incredible. I love every chance that I get to talk to him.

Lastly, we have two more investigators that should be baptized this month! We moved Marcos to the 18th since he was hit by a car and is still recovering a little and a 19 year old stud named Lenon will be baptized on the 25th.

I love this work so much!! Of course there are times when I wish I was up at Park City shredding it up right now, but there is really no place I would rather be. Time is flying by so fast it almost make me sad to think of how quickly my time as a missionary will be up.

Thank you all so much for the support and prayers. I love you all and hope you have an incredible week!!

Sempre fica firme, forte e feliz!

Elder Scheer