Many are Called, but Few are Chosen

Many are Called, but Few are Chosen

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

1st Week In Brazil

Whats up y’all!

After flying for a whole day, I arrived in Brazil! But it was defiantly worth it. When I arrived to the airport they were blasting Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus and i knew i was going to love it here. The Mission pres. speaks absolutely zero English. Along with every single other person! Needless to say, I have gotten pretty dang good at the language here. My companion is seriously so awesome. He is this white boy from Ohio and he’s the District Leader so we get a lot done. He is the only one I can communicate with fluently at the moment so I am hoping that our companionship does not go downhill or else I am absolutely screwed because then I can’t talk to anybody.

1st day here.

I was held up by a drunk man. Like straight up! After a looooooooooooonnnnnnnggggg flight, I had to go out with my companion and find people to teach and it is like 8 o’clock, so it is started to get dark, but it is still like 89 degrees outside. So we are just sweating our butts off and I feel something on my back so I go to turn around and this man screams at me!! I almost needed a change of clothing I was so scared! So instinct kicks in and I start taking off running. Then I remember I had a companion so I turn around and the fool is talking to the drunk man and I just remember thinking, are you kidding me? This white boy is going to get shot. So,I have to turn around for him and we starts talking to him.

The guy is calmed down by now and my companion starts sharing a message about Jesus Christ and in my head I am just like DUDE! You are not even serious right now! He just tried to kill me! But long story short, we ended up visiting him throughout the week and he has a date set for baptism. The Lord works in mysterious ways!

I am in the straight up ghetttttoooooooo like not even north Omaha is this ghetto. in the mission presidents broken English he told me this was the most dangerous mission so be careful. Thanks pres. but it’s also super beautiful! The land is and the people! And when you see and old dude walking around you just think wow i want to be like that.

The food is to die for!!!!!

Members of the church feed us every meal but breakfast and they FEED you! I am pretty sure I have gained like 8 pounds this week. They have awesome drinks here and some of them I do not think should be legal. There is this place on the corner of our apartment that grows sugarcane. They put the sugarcane through this smasher thing to get all the juice out and then add lime to it! IT IS SOO DELICIOUS! I believed in miracles after that.

Everybody here bumps to either Zomba, reggae, Miley Cyrus, or my boy Nelly. Like the music is so awesome its crazy. I don’t miss the US of A one single bit. No offense to any of you! But my area is right on the beach and everybody lives in wood huts. So it’s pretty awesome. I’ll send some pictures!

My future wife is going to have to move to Brazil with me! That is if she doesn’t already live here because I now know what true happiness is! I am seriously debating about coming home in two years!

I literally work my butt off every single day! But it still feels like a vacation. The missionaries in the area before us sucked terribly. The president said that they have not had a good set of missionaries in this area ever. So I’m about to change that! In the week my comp and I have been here we have two people set for baptism and we talk to 30 people a day. And surprisingly I talk to a lot of people also! The lord has truly blessed me with the gift of tongues, because I can understand Portuguese and speak it a lot better than I could 6 weeks ago.

I love you all so much!!!

Friday, December 26, 2014

Called To Serve

The purpose of this blog is to share the experiences of our son on his mission and hopefully to share his and our testimony of Jesus Christ. Jared Shakespaere was called to serve as a representative of Jesus Christ. On December 17, 2014. He will be serving in the Brazil Florianopolis Mission for 2 years. The first 7 weeks will be spent in the Provo Utah Mission Training Center. There he will be learning the Portuguese language and the discussions or lessons that he will teach others. He has only been out a week, but he is learning so much already. We were able to talk to him on Christmas Day, which as a mom I was so excited.

Spiritual Experience: My companion (as a missionary there are always pairs of two together) and I taught an investigator today. At first, things didn't go well, but then i talked to him about our common interest, basketball, football, sports in general. Then we shared Moroni's Promise (Moroni 10:3-5) in the Book of Mormon, https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/moro/10?lang=eng and then I shared my testimony of faith and how our Heavenly Father will always answer our prayers if we ask. I then asked if he would exercise his faith and be baptized. He said yes! Wow the power of the Holy Ghost is real.