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

Sao Francisco de Paula - Week 14

December 7, 2015

FELIZ NATAL (Merry Christmas!)

Sorry i have to rush today, the internet houses were all closed for the greater part of the day and Time for emailing is about to end! 

But this week was great! the pesquisador i talked about last week is doing really good! she asks a ton of questions and we get to talk with her a lot. there is always room for the spirit in her house.  here is some news! she told us she wants to get baptized! the problem is she lives in the same house as her boyfriend and because of this she has to be legally married before she gets baptized. but that is no problem for her! she has a super open heart and is willing to do everything we invite her to. but i think the best moment teaching her was when she started to understand that Heavenly Father loves her, shes starting to really rely on prayer to receive help and answers in her life. the change is both exciting and wonderful to see in her! i can´t wait to continue teaching her!

i´m really starting to get portuguese under my feet. i understand almost everything everyone is saying, with the lack of a few words. but my problem for now is being more certain with conjugations. if you don´t know about conjugations, just leave them be, they´re really hard for us english speakers...

but i really love portuguese! i´t´s really beautiful! 

i´m also really excited for christmas but i´ll talk more about that in my next email

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 13

November 30, 2015

This week was my first week with my new comp. Elder Fávaro. it was totally awesome. 

My new companion is pretty cool. He´s from a state in Brazil called Mato Grosso do Sul. he learned a lot of english through video games (who knew video games could b good for something?) and is a real channel for the Holy Ghost at times. 

My Zone

We had a few really cool experiences this wee, but i only have time for one. I wrote it in Portuguese first, then channeled it through google translate to english (google translate is really bad...) and edited a few things so it would make more sense in english. but here it is!

a primeiro dia dessa transferência foi bem-ligal, nos visitamos quase todas as pessoas nos conhecemos em uma bajo. na fim do dia nos passamos a casa do irma Silvia. ela tem basicamente 5 filhos em a casa dela. com uma filha, ela teve uma experiencia mal com a igreja e as missionários, mas ela gostou de nos e deixa nos entrar. nos começamos falando com eles e logo depois ela começo falando sobre a experiencia dela com as missionários e a família dela. ela falou sobre essa experiencia, também que ela esta pensando sobre a igreja, o que A Igreja de Cristo deve ser, e tudo foi coisas certas. nos só escutou. uma filha dela começo falando sobre algumas dessas coisas e também falou sobre algumas experiencias mal na vida dele e preguntou sobre algumas coisas como assim. nos damos elas escrituras e explicou um poco, mas muito do tempo la, fomos escutando para entender a situação delas. nos ficamos la para mais ou menos 2:30 até 3 horas, só escutando. eu nunca sentiu sentimento como eu sentiu naquela casa. O Espirito foi tão forte, ele falou conosco exatamente que eles precisam. nos sabemos exatamente que nos precisamos compartilhar com eles. foi tão ligal. mas para mim, o coisa que foi o mais especial para mim foi que O Espirito fez em minha coração. ele testificou para mim que essas pessoas foi amado filhos e filhas do nosso Pai Celestial. eu nunca sentiu uma amor para uma pessoa como assim! foi tão forte e sem descrição dos palavras.

essa experiencia deixa mim com uma testemunho bem-fortalecido que eu sei todos nos são filhos de Deus, e que ele amo todos nos mais do que nos podemos pensar.

Branch Service Project

Making Pudin (pronounced poo-geen)

the first day of this transfer was pretty cool, we visited almost every person we know in a neighborhood. the end of the day we spent in the home of sister Silvia. she basically has 5 children in her home. one of her daughters had a bad experience with the church and the missionaries, but she liked us and let us in. we began talking to them and soon after she started talking about her experience with the missionaries and her family and also about the church - what Christ's Church should be, and everything she said was correct. we just listened. one of her daughters started talking about some of these things and also talked about some bad experiences in her life and asked about some things as well. we shared some scriptures with them and explained some things a little, but much of the time, we were just listening to understand their situation. we stayed there for about 2:30 to 3 hours, just listening. I never felt a feeling like I felt in that house. The Spirit was so strong, he told us exactly what they need. we knew exactly what we needed to share with them. It was so cool. but for me, the thing that was the most special was what the Spirit did in my heart. he testified to me that these people were beloved sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. I never felt a love for a person as was this love! It was so strong, and indescribable.

this experience left me with a well-fortified testimony, that I know all of us are children of God, and that he love all of us more than we can even imagine.

Don´t have much time for more, but i love you guys!

hope a good week for ya´ll!

thanksgiving stories would be appreciated!

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

CHRISTMAS PACKAGES FOR ME!!!!!

Mate - herbal drink in special mate mug

Sao Francisco de Paula - Week 12

November 23, 2015

How great is the work of a missionary!

this is the last week of the transfer and it felt super long! but what miracles we´ve witnessed here in São Chico!

First off, last week and the start of this week were both slow and filled to the brim with work to do. As missionaries we often have to take inventories about the people we´re teaching and decide if they´re progressing or not. at the beginning of this week. I´ll be honest in saying i was losing  little bit of hope, but in this work, you don´t dwell on feelings like that, you just work with the knowledge that after all your work, Heavenly Father will make sure the rest is taken care of, and that is what gives you hope to continue working! 

How great a hope is that!

After that slow period at the beginning of this week, thinks picked up, and people were place in our way like i never thought was possible!

for example. we visited one of our pesquisadores who is the mom of a recent convert. she has a lot of faith and belief, but she struggles to keep the commandments. we set a goal with her the previous visit to help her keep the word of wisdom by asking her to smoke about an 1/8 less than she usually did. she accepted the goal and really had a desire to meet the goal when we left on the previous visit. this visit we followed up with her and she cut back her smoking by a factor of 1/2! i was blown away and super excited! yeah, she was still smoking, but she took it upon herself to meet our goal and then some!

I love seeing people progress!

Another miracle happened Sunday. after the first two hours of classes, we were waiting to start up the sacrament meeting and one of the sisters started talking with Elder Goulart while we were talking with Presidente Nunes. Turns our this Sister wasn´t a member like we had always thought. she always came to church and participated in the meetings, but she wasn´t baptized. so she ended up talking with all of us and she said she wanted to talk with the missionaries again and be baptized. Holy Goodness, things like that don´t happen in my dreams! This Sister was practically already a member. we were super excited to hear she wanted to take the next step and be baptized! i´m still marveling over this!

These are just two of the miracles we´ve witnessed this week. the Branch is really starting to mobilized and work with the missionaries. families are coming back to church. people are witnessing honest to goodness miracles in their lives!  How great is the work of a missionary!  The lesson from this is simple. This isn´t my work. it´s not the work of a missionary. we´re just the witnesses. This is the work of our Heavenly Father. his hand is in every part, whether those parts are slow and seemingly hopeless or filled with miracles arriving one after another. 

I´m extremely grateful and happy to be able to put my hands and heart into this work, but more than that i´m humbled by the opportunity i have to really see the Lord at work, changing the hearts of men in even this smallest part of the globe.

I love you guys a ton

Keep an eye out for the miracles!

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