Moo-soo-doo-nga

August 25, 2014

SO MUCH CHANGE!

I finally got the t-call at 6 30 on monday. I then I packed my bags and said goodbyes Tuesday, rode an overnight bus, and here I am in Mussurunga (moo-soo-doo-nga) with my new comp Sister Palma- I finally got a black companion!!!! Sister Brimley was training her for the last 6 weeks and now Im gonna finish training her for the next 6 weeks. Now Sister Brimley and I have 2 daughters! HA 

Mussurunga is awesome. First of all it is HUGE! and a city! Wayyy different. There is a ward here! We have a bishop and a ward mission leader and almoço! And our apartment is chique de mais! que felicidades. We live like 10 steps from the "chapel" really its an old school thats white and yellow and orange tile, with a huge sign of the church it is so funny. Also the baptismal font is like built into the side of where we have sacrament meeting, soooo funny. We share the ward with the Zone Leaders which is a little intimidating but also awesome because they help us a lot! 

Ok the only thing about a Mussurunga that is a little unfortunate is that it is HILL CITY. Like death hills. Everyone walks in zig zags to get up these hills that are EVERYWHERE. But at least it will help me not get too much fatter with these almoços. 

We have this investigator that the Sisters had only been teaching for about a week named Afonso. He's gonna get baptized this Saturday, he is sooo funny! Like the funniest old man I've ever met. We always have to say, "aqui Afonso! agoro eu vou falar Afonso, preste atenção Afonso!" When the bread for sacrament was passed he said-- and next comes the feijoada é? and then the water-- they dont have soda é? Yiiiiikes but he is golden nonetheless. 

I have more peeps here to help stop smoking. MAN it's a hard one. One is a recent converts grandson, some idiot told him that to stop doing drugs it was best to start smoking so that he could have something else to do for a feel good and stay occupied. This was after he took two bullets to the head by some dealers... But he cried this week when we committed him, he really does want it.

We did a lot of door knocking in Buerarema to find people to teach but here its alllll street contacts, so different! Everything is! I feel like Im learning to do missionary work all over again... again. But I am just so happy to be here and part of the work and that the Lord had this in the plan for me.

EU AMO VOCES, ATÉ SEMANA QUE VEM! 

Seester Scheevens

ps also I taught my first English class on Wednesday too! It was way fun! 

Priesthood Power

August 18, 2014

Oiiii famiiilia. 

Eu finalmente tem uma resposta sobre a data que vou voltar. A Primeira Presidência disse que não posso ter mais tempo, nem um dia mais! :( Então minha data oficial para voar a casa é dia 9 de Novembro. 

This week was good, I remember that I didnt agradecer very much for the package I got, so again THANK YOU. My ears are happy with the motab, my feet are happy with the chacos, and my face is finally clean again thanks to the face wash!

Good news, that lady Carla was out of bed all week! When we visited her this week it felt so much better entering the house than before. She has been normal ever since the Elders did the blessing there. AND her Mom was so grateful and impressed that she came to church yesterday! (we've been inviting her forever.) GO PRIESTHOOD.

Speaking of Priesthood, Diego got a blessing yesterday, he has been having a reeaal hard time putting it down for good. Everyday I tell him- Go, Diego go! haha. We caught him smoking in the street this week and he was reeeaaal embarrassed. But he needed it. The next day we had an awesome come unto Jesus lesson and I made him imagine that it was us that found him smoking in the street but Christ who found him smoking. We read Mosiah 3:19 and he said it scared him, but it was in a good way. He hasn't smoked since. 

We're really hoping he can make it to Saturday so he can finally be baptized. The problem here is that we have a bunch of people that need to get married or have a Word of Wisdom problem that want to be baptized but cant. But at the same time a bunch of people that dont have any problems now but dont want to get baptized! I wish it was possible to give them that desire but its not... so we're doing all we can. Praying, and trying to teach them about God's love for them. They just dont get the Atonement! 

Speaking of the atonement, yesterday at church the Bishop asked me to talk a few minutes before sacrament meeting started.... I put together a talk about 3 blessing Heavenly Father has given us, the plan of salvation, gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Restauration. I connected each one to the atonement. How it is central in God's plan, and in our lives, how we apply it through the gospel, and how it is only thanks to the restauration that we can apply it fully. I held up a pic of Michelles wedding with the whooole fam as I talked about how thanks to the atonement and restauration- as familias poderão ser eternas. Got a liiittle choked up, congrats, only you guys can make me choke up. I was glad I got to talk because I think it was probs my last Sunday here. just 5 more hours till we get our t-call.... 

This morning was the best because one of the investigators of the other Sisters used to teach Capoeira and every morning this past week Sister Goodwin and I have been running to his house to help him stop smoking maconha because he always used to do it first thing in the morning. We pass by and make sure he's reading the Book of Mormon and that he's already prayed. But this morning he met us all at a field and gave us a Capoeira lesson! (Like fight dancing) It was the best! He said, "Raaaapaaaz esta menina tem sangue de negro!" So that was the best compliment ever. I attached a pic of us.

Love you all a lot, and really love this work, dont forget to be a part of it too. 

Seester Scheevens

Doida Beurarema

August 11, 2014

Well I dont have much time so Im just gonna start right off. On Wednesday the most ridiculous thing happened. We were on our way to our district meeting and our onibus just stopped... and like 15 minutes later people started getting agitated, theres never traffic on the highway... but finally someone passed by and said there was a protest up the road, so about half the people left the bus and started to walk to Itabuna! It was a good 3 miles to the chapel and we had to pass the protest, they were burning a bunch of tires in the middle of the road. We had to run and jump when we got close to it(or add a bunch of distance walking around). It was reeeaaal warm on the side of my body of the fire but I was needing the adventure. We walked around the crowds of people and finally got to our meeting. 

This week has been kinda rough because everyone has been anti-ing our members and investigators. Whyyyy is it so easy to convince people that we are a cult? Or that we still practice polygamy? Or thatSaturday is really still the Sabbath. We lost some investigators and a member but I think they'll want the spirit back in their lives with time. 

Everyone we are teaching right now smokes, first we found everyone in Buerarema that needs to get married and then everyone who needs to quit smoking. Addictions are the worst! 

This week an Elder asked me if I was gaining weight recently. The answer is yes. I dont know how that works because we dont even get fed here! 

We have a member here who got a blessing from the Elders last Sunday for her health because when we saw her she was curled up on her bed crying and her mom said she had been like that for days. She was skinny to start out with but she was like skin and bone, it looked like there was nothing under the blanket! We have been having to pass by to help her eat, she only takes milk or mingau from her mom and so we go and make her eat beans and rice and stuff. It is a struggle getting her out of bed and to eat but we somehow convince her every time. We finally found out she had some macumba done on her a few years back and there's a spirit that follows her and tells her she's going to die and not to eat and not to sleep. After that it made sense why she would only talk and eat when we were there. So we sent the elders again to bless the house this time and I think it will be good now. 

Thats pretty much it in doida Beurarema, gotta love every minute, it's real bittersweet that transfers are next week... gonna be interesting! 

Obrigada por tudo familia! Te amo! 

Seester Scheevens 

PS finally got my bday package!!! the bad news is my feet are full of blisters. 

That's our church!

August 4, 2014

I dont have annnny time this week because I have to write my letter to the first presidency to get 4 more days my day to come home is either the 10th or 14th of November. We'll see! 

 This week we saw a ton of miracles, it was so cool! Everyday we were just amazed at everything that happened.
Here's one. We decided to follow up with a potential investigator we had and she is awesome! and was finally home! and was thinking about us! After that I was like lets knock a few doors on this street. There's like 5 on the street ive never knocked. (yes im getting that desperate) after the first door my comp was like- lets go this street is better to knock at night. So I was like- fine, but theres two men over there lets just talk to them first. We talked to them and one was like well I have my church but wouldnt tell us what church it was or anything so we were like ooook. We kept talking and he was like wait here I have a pamphlet that shows my church and went to get it. When he came back he pulled out the oldest, most tattered- Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet Ive ever seen and was like- this church! I believe in everything that is says  here, its all true. We were shocked! Thats our church! We carry that pamphlet! and he was like wow! I think I need to get baptized in this church!  Then later we found out he's the Dad of that less active member we found who has the Melchezidek Priesthood! It was crazy!! He was working and wasnt at church Sunday but  we're reeeaally praying to start teaching him and get him baptized and his son active! 

We had a lot of experiences like that that were just amazing. I love those experiences because they show that we are being led by the spirit in everything we do. At the beginning of my mission I thought that we had to be led by promptings in everything, and that the promptings needed to be clear, but as time has gone on I have learned more and more how we have to just trust sometimes that we ARE being led  by the Spirit, and the Lord will place people in our path and make sure we are in the right place at the right time, and send more obvious promptings when he needs to. I always try to remember- the more hesitation, the less inspiration. and that when we are humble adn meek he wont need to send any obvious prompting, he will just guide our steps. 

There were 60 people in church Sunday! Wooooo! There were a good amount of visitors from Sao Caetano but still. It was like the size of a ward! 

Today we are passing pday in Ilheus it is the beeeeeest! pics next week

love you familyyyyyy!

Tchau tchau!

Seester Scheevens

Missionary work is life

July 28, 2014

This week didnt have anything tooooo exctiting happen but Saturday was beautiful. We went to Itabuna for the baptism of Senhor José Jaconias. The man who moved half way through teaching him. It was maybe the best baptismal service of the mission. We have a professional violin player and a really good piano player who did all the music, and we had the meeting in the chapel, and the Bishop was there! It was just so spiritual! Such a shame we couldnt get ANY of his family there, but it was awesome. Theres really not anything else I can say about it. I sat by him on the onibus home and he talked about his first baptism as a baby in the Catholic church and various other baptisms he had since but how he finally found, "o plenitude do evangelho e o batismo certo." 

I attached a pic of out cacau! I know I talk a lot about it but it is literally like peoples lives here, they come out the womb growing and collecting and preparing the cacau for the chocolate factories. Someone gave us some seeds this week and we are going to make our own chocolate! I cant wait! But we have to let it ferment in the sun like a whole week. 

We have a whoooole lot of potential here but lately no progress. It is really frustrating. Like so many people who want it and are learning but not doing anything with it! 

We had a big scare with Ivan and Lucia this week. It was soooo weird, all of the sudden they are just like really cold and doubting. They werent at church and we thought it was because Lucia was sick so we went to the rescue with the Elders but turns out they were just not feeling it. I almost started crying, and they could see it. It was a really tense meeting but in the end all three of them got a Priesthood blessing of comfort and counsel and the spirit was SO STRONG! Thank goodness. I literally have been so stressed out ever since they started acting like that, and yesterday was the worst and I was like- they probably think Im crazy for almost crying for them just because they didnt go to church today and dont want to pray about a baptismal date anymore but then I realized.. I dont have anything else to occupy my heart and thoughts. Like I wish I could explain to them... I love my family- but you are my family! and I love sports- but missionary work is my only game! and I usually have college to worry about- but when we study together IS my college. É bom perder si mesmo no trabalho. Being in a place like Beurarema where the world doesnt exist, its wayyy easier to lose yourself in the work. Im so grateful to be serving right now. I love missioary work! Do it! Dont be scared to invite people to come to Christ, theres no other place or way to really be happy, and who doesnt want that?

Love you family! 

tchaaaauuuuu ate proxima semana! 

Sister Stevinha