E aí todo mundo! Que está acontecendo lá nos Estados Unidos? Espero
que vocês estejam bom demais! This week shot by super fast as usual. I brought
my journal to the lan house with me today so that I could remember the
highlights of what went on during the week. Not the greatest week ever but we
worked hard and The Good Lord blessed us. I found a quote last week that I
wanted to share with you. It was given by President Boyd K Packer at the last
conference April 2013 this is his quote" I
have come to know that faith is a real power, not just an expression of belief."
This is something that I really need to work on. One of the things I learned in
New York is when we have faith great things happen. And thats something I am
trying to apply now in Brazil. Faith is more than just a belief, it as an
actual power. Some of my favorite scriptures on faith are found in Ether chapter
12 verses 12-16. This illustrates exactly what happens when we don't have faith
and when we do haev faith. When we have no faith nothing happens. But as well we
must act on our faith and work. Faith without works is dead. I copied these
scriptures down for you guys because they have a much stronger significance to
me now. 12 For
if there be no afaith among
the children of men God can do no bmiracle among
them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.
14 Behold,
it was the faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought theachange upon
the Lamanites, that they were baptized with fire and with the bHoly
Ghost.
15 Behold,
it was the faith of aAmmon and
his brethren whichbwrought so
great a miracle among the Lamanites.
16 Yea,
and even all they who wrought amiracles wrought
them by bfaith,
even those who were before Christ and also those who were after.
These are powerful scriptures especially for
missionaries.
When
we go out and work we must go out with faith believing that miracles will happen
and when we press forward in faith amazing things happen. So anyway on with the
week, we got haircuts again this week which felt really good even though my hair
didnt need to get cut super bad everyone else needed theirs cut so I had mine
done too. We taught a family this week the restoration but it was kinda weird
cause the mom was just breast feeding her baby the whole time. Elder Reed said
you just get used to it and we are lucky to have not had it happen to much these
last few transfers. Just another reminder that Im not in the states anymore. We
had some graham cracker and marshamallows in the house that one of the Elders
hadrecieved from home and so we bought some chocolate and then that night we had
family home evening with a less active family in the branch and so we showed
them how to makes smores. It was a hit among the Brazilians. It brought back
good times of camping back at home. I think thats one of the things I miss most
is camping and going on family reunions with the family. I went on splits with
Elder Combs this Wednesday, he is from California and only has two transfers
left on this mission. He is one of the Elders that only works with the less
actives and so we went and met with alot of less actives. Its cool working with
different Elders and being able to see the different ways they teach and
interact with people. We also visited the parents of an active member that
night, they are not members but they say they know the church and book of mormon
is true, they jsut say they are waiting for the right time to arrive to be
baptized, I think they have been saying that for years by the sound of things.
Ww think alot of people dont want to commit to be baptized because being a
member of the church is a lifetime commitment and is not easy and I think alot
of people realize this and would rather not become a member cause it means that
they actually have to do stuff. But wow they are missing out on so many
blessings! funny thing on thursday we had all of our appointments fall through
so we were just out trying to teach people lessons but no one was accepting for
some reason, which is a little odd cause usually we can get into most peoples
homes and teach them, so we are just going along knocking doors and making
contacts and we get to this house and I made the contact with this old lady and
I just said we are the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ, and before
I could finish she was like a hey me to I'm a Catholic, but the way she said it
kinda was rude but we were just like whatever but her daughter was right behind
her who is in her twenties and we were talking to her and she commented on my
tie bar and shes like "oh I havent ever seen one like that before with the Angel
Moroni and stuff" and we were like what!? you know who The Angel Moroni is and
then she explained that she was an inactive member. So we talked to her for an
hour or so and she explained all the problems and harships she had gone through.
She hadnt been to church in about 5 years and at that times the branch was quite
a bit weaker here but she said that in her hard times nobody from the church
came and helped her. So we spent time explaining that the church is a perfect
church, but the members are not. We talked about the scriptures and challenged
her to open her Book of Mormon back up and start reading again. She accepted. Im
glad we ran into her because we feel that we will be able to reactivate her back
into the church. Im glad that the Lord didnt let us teach in people before her
because then we wouldnt have found her that night. Funny how the Lord knows
whats in front of us and what will and can happen. Heavenly Father sure knows
alot more than we do. I have to repent every night for ever questioning the Lord
why he allows certain things to happen to us, because I am always reminded that
he is the one that is in charge. He is the Master Gardener here not us. So we
have been working on several of our streets that we used the "inspired tracting"
to find and we found several good potencials. We found a family that when the
mom came out after we knocked on the door she was just like "flip" when she saw
us, but we inroduced ourselves and shes like hmmmm I dont have time right now
but I have some questions about and doubts about your church that I would like
to have answered. We just said hey we can answer them right now really fast and
so she asked us why are Church says that we are the Church of Jesus Christ but
that we really just worship some other guy whou she forgot the name, haha it was
funny cause we knew exactly who she was talking, we said Joseph Smith and she
said yeah! him, so we explained that he was the Prophet who helped restore the
church through the Power of Jesus Christ. After that she said that she was
concerned about her son who she said had read some books and said that he was an
athiest now. He is only 13 years old, we said that we could help them with that
problem. So we went back the next day and taught the restoration and introduced
the Book of Mormon and challenged them to read it, the mom accepted but the 13
year old son was like naw I dont really want to, we just said dude you dont have
to read the whole thing just a chapter that we will leave with you. Then he was
like alright I will do it. So we left them with that. They really warmed up to
us though her son showed us his room and his videogames and stuff. We decided
that he really isnt an athiest but that hes just a normal 13 year old kid that
didnt want to go to church one sunday so he used the excuse that he doesnt
believe in God. But THey were cool, and were going to go to church the next day
but she texted us the next morning and said that her kids had gotten a fever
during the night and wouldnt be able to make it but she said that that we could
come over whenever we want cause her son would like to play videogames with us.
We thought that was pretty cool even though we cant accept the invitation and
play videogames. That would be cool though. So we will keep meeting with them
and hopefully they are willing to accept the Gospel and see its importance,
beacuse they are active baptists. Also on Sunday we had bad luck with
investigators coming to church. In fact there was alot of members that didnt go
to church yesterday. We think alot were sick cause it was pretty cold saturday
night and sunday morning was actually kinda foggy here, I was surprised cause I
didnt know it could get foggy. But we actually went to some of our investigators
houses that live nearby the church to see if they were going to make it to
church, we ran to their houses during the first class but they all had the
excuse of being sick and stuff. Oh well though. We worked alot this week and
made alot of contacts with people. In one day we made 14 contacts with people,
which means we talk to them get all of their address and phone information, and
their name. This is a pretty easy way to figure if it would be worth going back
to these peoples homes because you can usually tell if they are going to be
interested or not, and usually we listen really close to the spirit, causue
usually if we are in tune with the spirit we can know wether or not to spend
alot of time trying to teach them. But thats about it for this week. I think we
might go try and play some soccer with some today we will have to see. It is
super hot today, well actually thats everyday. Anyway I love you guys. God bless
you all, keep your prayers strong, study the scriptures everyday The Book of
Mormon has power to help anyone overcome any tempatation or hardship. Eu Sei que
A Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Últimos Dias é verdadeira. Jesus Cristo
vive, ele é nosso Irmão e Salvador. Ele nos ama, e Ele nos conhece. Ele quer que
nós sejamos felizes em nossas vidas. Eu testifico que José Smith foi e é um
Profeta de Deus. Eu sou grato por ele. O Livro de Mórmon é verdadeiro. Eu amo
esse livro. Convido todos, para ler, ponderar, e orar parar saber se ele
realmente é verdadeiro. Porque como Moroni disse "pelo poder do Espirito Santo,
podemos saber a verdade de todas as coisas." Eu amo minha família, meus amigos,e
acima de tudo, amo meu Salvador. Love you guys all so much. Until next
week!
-Elder
Kennington
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