Sapiranga - Week 13

March 28, 2016

It´s a serious question in which i would love a serious response!!

Moroni is always seriously legit!!

Sorry i haven´t been sending emails these past two weeks! i´ve beed loaded with emails tosend to President and to mummy! so i´ve been lacking time to send. mom and President come first! :P

But know i love you guys and i´ll always send an email in the future! sometimes waaaaay in the future, but it shall be sent!!

This week was really great teaching! i´ve had some pretty incredible experiences teaching from the book of mormon and about the atonement of Christ. the two most important peicese of our religion! Christ and his Atonement as our center and the Book of Mormon as the Cornerstone of the church, people really start to see the joy and peace that the Latter Day Saints enjoy through these two huge parts of our faith!

I can´t really give much deatil about this week, but it sufficeth me to invite you guys to study more about the Atonement and Saving Sacrifice of Christ, especially through that amazing book of scripture called the Book of Mormon. I can echo and testify of the promises found in the introduction to this wonderful book. read it, live it, love it.!

Love you all!

Stay Legit like Moroni!

Tudo Bem em Brazil!

ELDER Scarlett

Sapiranga - Week 11

March 14, 2016

Holy Goodness!!!!!

this past week was flippin amazing!!!

I cant write it all but i want to share with you what happened this last sunday! 

These past weeks we´ve been learning how we can better use the spirit in teaching and we encountered a scripture in Doctrine & Covenants that talks about how you can know if you´re teaching with the spirit. is says that you and the other person will rejoice together in feeling and teaching through the holy spirit! I´ve been striving to have experiences like that these past two weeks, the best and biggest experience i´ve had yet was this sunday!

First off, last week i was asked to give a talk on the following sunday, or this week, being busy as missionaries are, i prepared minimally. 

In the first class about the restoration and Joseph Smith, my spiritual eyes opened a lot and i received a lot of strength to my testimony of the restoration! 

The second class i was able to learn more through the spirit about the Book of Mormon and some of it´s teachings. I even gave a small commentary that shocked me and the teacher! Totally prompted by the spirit. he told me what to say and it was confirmed through the tears brought to both the teacher and my own eyes, it was simple too, only about the significance of the phrase baptism by fire! Wont forget it!

But the highest moments this sunday were in sacrament meeting. I was preparing a bit more about the talk and listening to the talks of the other members. my mind was opened and drawn to many scriptures which the spirit said would be of great strength the the ward! 

i was third speaker and they only left 25 minutes for me. i´ve never been so prepared to give a talk, never been so animated! i opened my mouth and the spirit told me exactly what to say! i was in tears within the first 5 minutes and so were many of the members, including my best member friend! i spoke on missionary work and how each member should be engaged. i´ll forever be surprised and moved at this talk. there isn´t much more i can say to describe it, but i can really say that i know i was an instrument in the hands of the lord yesterday in uniting a ward in bringing the blessings of the gospel into the lives of all his children! 

Elder Scarlett

Sapiranga - Week 10

March 7, 2016

This week was pretty great! one of the struggles we´ve been having here is that lessons with member we far and in between. but yesterday we made some visits with some of the young men, and they are looking for opportunities to go out more with us! the leaders are starting to show more interest in helping us out with visits and with new pesquisadores! it´s a real blessing and an answer to a lot of prayer and fasting on out part!

Yesterday we visited a less active lady with two of the young men. on of the young men is good friends with her and wanted to pass by and talk with her. shes 50 years old and has problems walking long distances, but she said shes never stopped reading the Book of Mormon and has always had a desire to go back to church! okay! we can work with that! we´´l be visiting her for a bit and looking for members that can help her with regular rides to church! she is a real jewel! thank you Washington for being a great young man!

We´ve had tons of expériences fining new families and investigators who are really exemplary! but here is the spiritual nugget i´ve been neglecting for so long! Enjoy!

I´ve always loved the story of Lehonti (Leônti) and his firm resolution! and i always love the warning given by his example. He fell to the temptations of Amalekia to leave his firm resolution just a little, and for this he lost his life, and the lives of many of his lamanite bretheren.

On a brighter not we have the example of Moroni who put his "firm resolution" on a stick. his firm resolution was centered not in a physical fort or mountain, but on the mountain of our Lord God. his example of faith unshaking led to the salvation of thousands of his bretheren and worked even unto the saving of their very liberty to Worship. 

I love how these two examples are given in stark contrast, Leônti falling into the satanic grasps of Amalequias only a few chapters after Captain Moroni saved his bretheren from the same trap laid by the same satanic hands.

I know when we are centered with a "Firm Resolution" to follow our savior, centering our lives on his mount, we´ll save our lives and our liberty! 

Today me and my companion made our own "Firm Resolution" to follow the rules of the mission and to succeed in fulfilling the pattern of excellence this next week. We´ve been working hard, but GOd asked for more than we were giving. so now we´re cantering on the mount and preparing to the battle we´re about to fight. it´s going to be a lot of hard tiring work, but we´re going to do it in the  best ways possible. with our eyes and hand centered and working on and with the lord!

Elder Scarlett

Sapiranga - Week 9

March 2, 2016

This week was pretty great! one of the struggles we´ve been havinghere is that lessons with member we far and in between. but yesterday we made some visits with some of the young men, and they are looking for opportunities to go out more with us! the leaders are starting to show more interest in helping us out with visits and with new pesquisadores! it´s a real blessing and an answer to a lot of prayer and fasting on out part!

Yesterday we visited a less active lady with two of the young men. on of the young men is good friends with her and wanted to pass by and talk with her. shes 50 years old and has problems walking long distances, but she said shes never stopped reading the Book of Mormon and has always had a desire to go back to church! okay! we can work with that! we´´l be visiting her for a bit and looking for members that canhelp her with regular rides to church! she is a real jewel! thank you Washington for being a great young man!

We´ve had tons of expériences fining new families and investigators who are really exeplarary! but here is the spiritual nuget i´ve been neglectig for so long! Enjoy!

I´ve always loved the story of Lehonti (Leônti) and his firm resolution! and i always love the warning given by his example. He fell to the temptations of Amalekia to leave his firm resolution just a little, and for this he lost his life, and the lives of many of his lamanite bretheren.

On a brigter not we have the example of Moroni who put his "firm resolution" on a stick. his firm resolution was centered not in a phisical fort or mountain, but on the mountain of our Lord God. his example of faith unshaking led to the salvation of thousands of his bretheren and worked even unto the saving of their very liberty to Worship. 

I love how these two examples are given in stark contrast, Leônti falling into the satanic grasps of Amalequias only a few chapters after Captain Moroni saved his bretheren from the same trap laid by the same saatanic hands.

I know when we are centered with a "Firm Resolution" to follow our savior, centering our lives on his mount, we´ll save our lives and our liberty! 

Elder Scarlett

Sapiranga - Week 8

February 22, 2016

This week was the first week of training for me and my new companion! My New companion, Elder Rocha Neto, is from Recife, Pernambuco. He´s an amazing missionary already and is learning really quick!!

The first week of training generally starts like this:

 - Trainers arrive at the "escritorio" tuesday morning (I arrived monday night! :P)

 - President and the Assistants to the President pick up the New missionaries at the airport 

 - Everyone Eats lunch, Nobody knows who will be who´s companion yet.

 - Afterwards, president has a meeting with the trainers while the new missionaries rest.

 - Meeting with everyone, Discover who is companion with who!

 - Dinner! (This time was an all you can eat pizza buffet, i ate 22, other ex football playing american beat me with 23...)

 - Sleep!!! (Trainers sleep in Escritorio and new missionaries in hotel!)

 - Wednesday, wake up, prepare, wait for van.

 - Van takes us to morning meeting.

 - Lunch at Buffet Livre Bem-Chique!

 - Afternoon Meeting

 - New missionaries interview with President

 - Everyone leaves for the field! (We got to our house at about 8:30 at night, little time to work)

Elder Rocha Neto and I have worked our Butts off this week and had some pretty incredible experiences! We´ve been learning alot about the Scriptures and the way the Lord wants this missionary work done! it´s been pretty incredible and i can´t wait to send you guys some stories about this upcoming week!

Love Reading All your emails!!

Stay Awesome!

ELDER Scarlett

MISSÃO BRASIL PORTO ALEGRE NORTE

AV. VISCONDE DE MACAÉ, 245 –CRISTO REDENTOR

PORTO ALEGRE, RS, BRASIL – CEP: 91350-290

(51)9334.1484/3348.5268

Sapiranga - Week 7

February 15, 2016

It´s all going crazy here! i didn´t know missions could be like what i´m experiencing! sometimes when i look at all of what is going on it just seems like a big mess of random parts moving in random directions doing who knows what! i found a scripture in Corinthians chapter 1 that talked about how the foolishness of God is Wiser than the wisdom of men, and the weakest things of God are stronger than the strength of men. i´m starting to understand it now!

so to let you in on the craziness, i´ll be training this next transfer. i don´t know who it´ll be yet, but in any case i´m training! holy goodness!

When president called to tell u,s i found a lot of comfort in those scriptures in 1 Corinthians, i´m a pretty weak tool for Heavenly Father to use, but i know it´s wisdom in the lord. i´ll be saying a lot of prayers this next transfer! :)

Elder Scarlett

Sapiranga - Week 6

February 8, 2016

How great is it to live one more day in the life of a missionary!

How great is it to have one more p-day to hear from all my friends!

So we´ve been working hard this past week, meeting with new promising investigators, eating plenty of churrasco! 

If you´ve read my emails, you´ll remember that i talked about a couple who contacted us on the street and invited us over for dinner! we had that appointment this week! they are an amazing family! They´ve received a lot of the missionaries who have passed through this area and always love the visits and messages we leave with them! we have another dinner appointment with them, they want me to make them american pancakes! 

Yesterday had an experience that taught me a good lesson. Sunday was going a bit slow, not getting many visits with investigators, and nobody is on the streets. i was a little bummed. the week before sunday we had a good good run with visiting and helping investigators but Sunday was super slow. Just wanted to get in one good visit before day´s end. we were walking to the house of a less active member for a visit and a drunk man started walking towards us. no idea where this would lead so i just braced for impact. he started talking to us and said he was going for another drink. we asked if he liked drinking or if he wanted to stop. he totally opened up and told us how he wanted to change, but just didn´t know where to start. he ended up inviting us to his house where we shared a message with him and his wife who doesn´t believe he can change. after the lesson and closing prayer they understood that we were there to help them, they both had a light in their eyes, i think it was the light of a new hope in Christ.

As missionaries we preach the Gospel of Christ, that it exists in its fullness today and has power to help anyone who receives it. A missionaries hope is to encounter those who really want to come closer to Christ, just as this couple. This is why i love the life of a missionary. this is why i love hearing from my missionary friends on p-days. We are given the opportunity to witness the miracles wrought through this wonderful gospel every day! 

love you guys!

Tudo Bem em Brazil!

ELDER Scarlett

MISSÃO BRASIL PORTO ALEGRE NORTE

AV. VISCONDE DE MACAÉ, 245 –CRISTO REDENTOR

PORTO ALEGRE, RS, BRASIL – CEP: 91350-290

(51)9334.1484/3348.5268

Sapiranga - Week 3

January 18, 2016

Ola meus amados amigos!

como vocês estão?

It´s not quite spanish yet but i´m still working on it!

This week was pretty great, had some great experiences, some humerous experiences, and some sadder experiences. 

One great experience happened just last night! we were walking home on the street to our appartment and a couple stopped us and pretty much said "Elders, come have dinner with us and teach us!" What??? Someone inviting US to eat and teach!!!! Where can we sign up?!?!

super excited for that appointment!

Another thing happen on the walk home list night, we passed a missionary on the street! white shirt tie, bible in the armpit, and nametag too! he is definitely not from our church seeing that he was over 60 and without a companion, so i was a bit confused. my companion and i still don´t know exactly what is going on but lets see what happens with this!

We are meeting really great and interesting people, a lot of JDubs lately too! 

have to close up, but know that everything is going great here! 

Tudo Bem em Brazil!

ELDER Scarlett

MISSÃO BRASIL PORTO ALEGRE NORTE

AV. VISCONDE DE MACAÉ, 245 –CRISTO REDENTOR

PORTO ALEGRE, RS, BRASIL – CEP: 91350-290

(51)9334.1484/3348.5268

Sapiranga - Week 2

January 11, 2016

Ola meus amados amigos! 

i´ve passed the mark, Portuguese is officially easier to speak than english!

So i didn´t send a general out last week. sorry about that...

but i think it sufficeth me to say that it was a great week! if i´m right this week marks my second week here in Sapiranga! Sapiranga is a "small city" on the outskirts of Novo Hamburgo. for some reason Heavenly Father loves putting me in rural areas! and i can´t complain, i love it here! 

There are "hills" (more like small mountains) surrounding the city, it makes for some beautiful veiws! on one of the "hills" there is a platform that people jump off of.... WITH PARAGLIDERS!!! 

how fun is that! no way president is going to authorize us to paraglide on p-days, but it´s still fun to watch them jumping from a distance!

So i was thinking the other day about the food here and realized that there is something a little stange here that we eat. CHICKEN HEARTS! people here love cooked chicken hearts! they eat them on pizza, hamburgers, lasagna! Its like their bacon! it´s not that bad, just a little chewey!

the week before this past week was new year, wasn´t it. we passed new years in the house of Joel, a member here who love the missionaries! his son it a total pyromaniac! he bought two boxes full of fireworks and was lighting them of the moment we arrived until the moment we left. it made for a colorful and noisey New Years! 

Here in Sapiranga, not many people are in to fireworks, and i think the fireworks ar a bit weaker here too beacause whenmidnight hit there was a lot of fireworks but mostly just the ones that make all the noise! it was a bunch of fun seeing all the people lighting of fireworks running around with their ears plugged and dodging the mini fireballs of falling used fireworks!

This week was more normal, i can remember a ton, but we visited a good bit of the mambers here. they are all characters! it´s allways an experience to visit and talk with them. 

oh yeah, i almost forgot! my companion, Elder Sacramento! He is one of the best examples of how small the world is when you´re mormon! he was baptized up in the northeastern part of Brazil by an Elder Rogers. Who just hapens to be a member back home in York SC. pur very same stake! he already visited Charlotte too! look at that, my companion on the mission already visited my home city and was baptized by someone i already know! what are the chances! plus, something i thought was funny, he´s already visited more places in the US than i have... 

Anyways, this is whats happening out here in Brazil!

Love you guys a ton!

Tudo Bem em Brasil!

Elder John D. Scarlett

MISSÃO BRASIL PORTO ALEGRE NORTE

AV. VISCONDE DE MACAÉ, 245 –CRISTO REDENTOR

PORTO ALEGRE, RS, BRASIL – CEP: 91350-290

(51)9334.1484/3348.5268

View out of window of my new apartment

Sao Francisco de Paula - Week 17

December 28, 2014

Feliz Natal de Brasil!!!

I remember a saying I heard a while back which really is the epitome of this last week.

It went something like this:

      "Every seven days, a week passes."

That just really touches me. I couldn´t think of better words to descride this week even if i tried!

Haha, but really this week was amazing! and how could it not be? it was CHRISTMAS!!!

The week started good on monday when we bought a blender! i started making smoothies! So good!

We worked with all the strength our bodies would permit! i can´t think of any good stories about this past week for now, so i pass to the next great event!

Christmas is a holiday everyone here loves! and who couldn´t?! It´s Christms!! Here we start the celebrations of with a belly-busting dinner on Christmas-eve. Cleumar, a local member, invited us over and we ate Churrasco, the cowboy barbeque of Brazil!! nuf said.

Christmas day we had another big meal for lunch in the hous of the Church members. we stayed with them for a bit and played some games and had a blast!

Then we headed to Cleumars house again for our Skype home! It was great to talk with family again, i´ll always be greatful for the strength they give me!!!

We had our first English Class on Saturday! i´ll have to include that next week because i don´t have time this week! foi ligal!

Love all you guys!

Keep being Great!

Tudo Bem em Brasil!

Elder John D._

Scarlett

Because I love my sister, Allison :)

MISSÃO BRASIL PORTO ALEGRE NORTE

AV. VISCONDE DE MACAÉ, 245 –CRISTO REDENTOR

PORTO ALEGRE, RS, BRASIL – CEP: 91350-290

(51)9334.1484/3348.5268

Sao Francisco de Paula - Week 16

December 21, 2014

This week flew by fast!

This week was a pretty interesting week. we had a big Christmas conference for all the missionaries in the mission on wednesday in Porto Alegre! it was a two day conference where half the mission attended one day, and the other half the next day, so our day was wednesday! it was super fun and very interesting. every zone put on a presentation about christmas for the rest of the mission. a lot of them very very... interesting... it was super fun and very enjoyable to say the least. 

working after the we returned from the conference was an amazing experience! the conference really filled us with the spirit and when we started working it showed!

another interesting thing that is happening out here is that the mission is changing. the Mission President is working hard to help the missionaries start working in a way which is more directed by the spirit. I´ve only seen the changes in my area so far, but it´s amazing to see. 

for example, yesterday was a really slow day. no appointments, not many people on the streets to talk to, nobody in their houses. Elder Fávaro and I were trying to figure out something to do, find at least one person to visit. we sat down on a bench and he said, 

"you need to choose the next visit." 

"okay, it´ve done that before! let´s think who can we visit, hmmmm...."

nobody. 

there is nobody i can think of to visit...

"okay, lets look at the contacts and see if anthing stands out!" 

nothing.

i sat there for another 15 minute just thinking, then a little thought poped into my head that i need to find someone in Rincão, a neighborhood in our area. 

okay.

so i pulled out the map and looked at the streets in that neighborhood. 

again just little thouhts popping into my head, like "no, not that street, nope, not that one either." 

but when i hit the right street i recieve a very small peacfull feeling like 

"that´s the one" 

"okay, we´ve been there before. Who lives there?"

i ended up finding a person we talked to one of the past weeks in the list of contacts in my companions planner, his name was Lucas. so we decided that we were going to visit Lucas. 

the whole family was there and the visit was filled with the spirit! the message was exactly what they needed and they were happy to set an appointment for us to visit with them again. 

this is exacly what president Campos told up he wanted of us. he wanted us to be able to listen to the whisperings of the spirit as it tells us exactly where to go and what to do. i have no doubt in my mine that Heavenly Father wanted us to visit with that family in that hour of yesterday afternoon. 

Heavenly Father knows what he wantsfor each of his children, we just need to listen. 

love you guys a lot! 

talk to you guys next week!

Tudo Bem em Brasil!

Elder John D. Scarlett

MISSÃO BRASIL PORTO ALEGRE NORTE

AV. VISCONDE DE MACAÉ, 245 –CRISTO REDENTOR

PORTO ALEGRE, RS, BRASIL – CEP: 91350-290

(51)9334.1484/3348.5268

Sao Francisco de Paula - Week 15

December 14, 2014

Holy Goodnes! Oh My Days! Flip Me!!!! It´s so close!!!

This week was super interesting. thing have and are changing like i never thought they would! it´s super cool and super strange!

First change that has happened so far. two less missionaries in São Francisco de Paula! What?! how did that happen?! all i have to say about that is: Kids, don´t gossip. 

But it was super sad to watch them leave, it was the first time i´ve cried out here on the mission (sorry mom! :) love you!). they were super great, but now it´s just me and Elder Fávaro working here for the entire city of São Francisco de Paula.

Second change, we have two areas to work in now, our old area, and the area of the Elders who got transfered. 

Third change, i´m becoming more assertive! Mom would be proud if she saw me now! missionaries can be super indecisive! if i asked right or left they would stop and ponder which road has a higher chance of encountering a dime on the road. but i´ve started taking more of the decision making into my own hands.

Fourth change! 

CHRRRRRRIIIIIIIISSSSSSTTTTTTMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! 

I am STOKED for Christmas! Haha in reality, there is´t much to do on Christmas day for us, but the season is incredible out here on the mission! So many people are ten times more receptive just because Christmas is coming around! and is there anything better than being able to share the gift Jesus Christ gave for us in this season of Charity Love and Giving? 

I think we´re going to start charoling too it´s going to be soooo cool! 

So the branch here already had a huge christmas party! they´re awesome! there had to be at the very least 80 people at the party! that´s huge here! like ginormous!!!! 

and i made Chocolate Chip Cookies!!! 

So now everyone here thinks i´m a talented baker! (i just used the pre-prepared cookie dough mix )  but the party was super fun. president gave a great message about Christmas and remembering Christ through our actions, we watched the video the Church released for Christmas, and ate! What made it super awesome was that a lot of the less active member we are working with were there and even a few friends of theirs showed up!

but there is more in store for this season! i´m super excited for all that´s coming!

Love you all!

Have a good Christmas Season! 

Tudo Bem em Brazil!

Elder John D. Scarlett

MISSÃO BRASIL PORTO ALEGRE NORTE

AV. VISCONDE DE MACAÉ, 245 –CRISTO REDENTOR

PORTO ALEGRE, RS, BRASIL – CEP: 91350-290

(51)9334.1484/3348.5268