Cuiaba Brazil Weather

Monday, July 29, 2013

Brazil Week #32

Good morning everyone! Glad to hear from your emails that everyone is doing well. I enjoyed the pictures from the family reunion. Luckily I didn't think too much about what you guys were doing at the family reunion. Its always one of my favorite parts of the year. Looks like you guys had fun with the dunking booth and everything. Strange to think that the next time you guys are emailing me about the family reunion I will have about 4 months left on the mission. Its a good thought but at the same time I think that I will be very sad when my mission comes to an end. The mission isn´t easy and not exactly fun at times but there is something indescribable about serving a mission that you cant put into words. Its going by super quick. This week was a really good week. It went by super quick again. The days seem to pass slow sometimes, but the weeks go by super quick.



 
So,Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty cold for here in Brazil. It was about 60 degrees. People were bundling in their thickest jackets and blankets, it seems that I have become accustomed to the Brazil heat because I was pretty cold as well. Tuesday and Wednesday were the first days in 4 months that I had used my long sleeved shirts. This last Friday marked my 4 month mark here in Brazil. So I know for sure now that the majority of my time on the mission has been spent her in Brazil. I was blessed that my visa came after only one transfer in the states. I know that there are quite a few Americans in our mission that are starting their 3rd transfer in the states, they still haven't received their visas. We pray everyday that they will arrive. I heard that in total there are about 600 Americans waiting on visas to Brazil. I found out today that Jesse Jorgensen that is supposed to be going to the Recife mission was reassigned to the California Riverside mission where Robby is serving. Keep praying for visas. We went to Lucas again on Wednesday to have district meeting with the Sisters, then we went back again on Friday to interview 3 people for baptism there. That was a hot day, we left the house in a rush at about 7 in the morning and I forgot ot put on sunscreen, I didn't really burn but my skin got really red. We estimated the amount of kilometers that we walked that day and we figured that we walked about 28 kilometers, which is a little more than 17 miles. We walked a ton that day, but it was worth it because yesterday our zone of 12 missionaries had 7 baptisms. 3 in Lucas, 3 in Sinop, and 1 here in Sorriso. Elder Cordeiro and I were blessed to baptize Miques that we found last week. We taught him over the week and worked with him a lot and it all worked out to baptize him yesterday. We asked a priest here to baptize him and he accepted. It was a super cool thing. Miques was a little scared because he thought that if he got baptized then his "friends" wouldn't like him anymore. We explained very clearly and Frankly that he will be blessed abundantly for being baptized and staying firm, and that if his friends don't want to be his friend anymore than they weren't really his friends in the first place. He overcame his fears and it worked out great. He lives with his mom and step dad and uncle. His parents aren't legally married and have a lot of problems with the word of wisdom but the supported Miques in being baptized and even attended Church with him yesterday and attended his Baptismal Service. That was a blessing to have his parents there for Miqueses special day. I was thinking a lot about when we met Miques on the sidewalk and how it was a miracle that Heavenly Father had put him in our path the moment we walked out of the church house. We had just gotten done cleaning and trying to fix the baptismal font. Because it had a leak, and the next day they were going to shut off the power and water in that part of the city for some reason, and so we were working to fix the leak so that we could fill the font early and not worry about it the next day. We finally did all that we could do and after we offered a prayer that the Lord would bless us and the baptismal font and everything at church the next day that everything would work out according to the will of The Lord. After that Elder Cordeiro said that its in the hands of The Lord now. And we walked out of the Church and met Miques. The next day our baptism fell through because our investigators called us early and said they had gotten really sick during the night. We will still work with them to baptize them but Our Heavenly Father knew that there would be a young man walking in front of the church at the exact time that we would be messing with the font. The Lord knew that the baptism would fall through but he also knew that there was someone else even more prepared to be baptized and that we would only find them if we were at the church cleaning the font at that exact time. The Lord sure know a lot more than we do. It made me think of Ricardo as well we had an appointment fall through and were just walking through the street not really knowing what we were doing when we found Ricardo. A little over a month ago he was just another man sitting on a bench on the sidewalk. But now he is a faithful Priesthood holder who has a strong desire to help others come unto the Gospel. I will include a picture that I took of me and him last night. We had a ward council meeting that he is a part of now. That's one of the greatest things is seeing the Gospel change people. Sometimes appointments or other things fall through and don't work out, but it could very well be because the Lord is preparing someone else who is ready for the Gospel. That's why we always have to be ready and sensitive to the whisperings of the Spirit, and he will guide us. I'm happy to know that the Lord trusts his missionaries, we are never alone out here in the field. The Savior walks with us as well. The other picture of the baptism is Samuel and Miques. Samuel is the really tall one. Miques is 15 years old but he is still a pretty small kid, I also included a picture of the font, which is located outside of the church, I think its pretty neat. We are starting to organize things a little better here in the branch. Every wednesday night we have a division with a ward member and we go visit less actives and investigators. The ward has a plan to reactivate one family every transfer as well. less than 3 years ago there was 100 people coming to church that were active, now the average is only 50. We are going to help change that. That's about it for this week not a whole ton to write, I hope Jordan and Kaden have a good time in Wyoming. That will be fun for them. I just want to leave my love for all of you and I am always praying for everyone back at home. I know this is the work of Our Heavenly Father, he is the one guiding all of it. Love you all until next week. Uma Boa Semana Pra Todo Mundo! -Elder Kennington

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Brazil Week #31 Skyler Finds Worm in FOOD.

Hey everyone! Sheesh this week flew by it seems like yesterday that I was emailing you guys. We had a good week this week nothing too special but we were able to see the hand of the Lord. Not a whole ton to write though this week. SO we had transfer calls last night and surprisingly everyone is staying. We only had one change in our zone and Elder that has been in the same area for 6 months is being transferred, but other than him everything else is staying the same. Nothing changed with the Sisters and nothing with us in our house. This was surprising because Elder Chaves who already had 4 and a half months here will be staying another transfer. We were positive that he was going to be transferred but he will be staying. I feel bad for him cause I know he is ready to leave this area. He only has two more transfers left on the mission and then he goes home. He is getting pretty tired. I think it will be a long transfer for him. I'm glad to be staying one more transfer here with Elder Cordeiro. He is by far one of the best missionaries in the mission and I think President Reber wants me to learn all that I can from him. The only drawback is that since I'm staying here this transfer it looks like I will probably be here the next transfer too and possibly the next after that. I have a feeling that I might be staying here in Sorriso for 4 transfers or 6 months! We will see though. I just have to remember that I am here to fulfill the will of the Lord and not my own. That's something that is pretty important to know if you want to be a good missionary. We aren't here to do what we want to do. We are here to do what our Heavenly Father wants. Unfortunately alot of times what we want isn't what The Lord wants. Alot of times what the Lord wants is difficult. But He always promises us a way to fulfill his will. I like that quote that says "I never said it would be easy, but I said it would be worth it" Those are true words from our Savior that always sound in my mind when I ask him why it´s so difficult sometimes. It would be pretty easy to complain to our Heavenly Father about our difficulties and always ask him why missionary work is so hard. To often we forget that all the hardships we face in life are given to us to build us up and give us experience. We should be grateful for every hard thing that we have to face in this life. Because we face these things and then we are stronger after. This week we worked alot with the couple we are preparing for baptism. They know it is all true and are ready and willing to be baptized. But the sneeky serpant satan has put it into their heads that they need to wait and get to know the people in the branch and go to church more. We explained that baptism is the entryway to so many blessings. We were actually pretty set on having their baptism yesterday, they were planning on having their baptismal interviews but we got a call in the morning that Fernando the husband had gotten really sick during the night and that they wouldn't be able to make it to church this week. We were bummed I was especially bummed cause I was thinking that I was going to be transferred and that I wouldn't get the chance to see them get baptized but now that I will be staying another 6 weeks with Elder Cordeiro we should be able to baptize them with no problems. Saturday we had a ward activity that turned out really good. We had a spiritual message and then everyone ate and talked and had a good time there was music and decorations and tons of food and drink. It was at the church. It was tough cause I was fasting that day and there was sooooo much good food there. But I was able to stay true to the fast and didn't eat or drink anything. There was a ton of rice pudding there though and so I took a lot of that back to the house and so I will eat that over the week. It was cool seeing several less actives that we had been working with at the activity as well. Saturday we were at the church cleaning the baptismal font and when we walked out Elder Cordeiro paused. He said we need to wait here for a second and talk to this kid that is walking towards us. Sure enough there was a young man walking in our direction so we waited a second until he walked passed us and then we made a contact with him. He is a young man named Miques. He is 15 years old. We talked to him for a bit and invited him to the activity that we were having later that night. He said he would go if his mom let him. So later that night he showed up to the activity and he enjoyed it alot. I talked to him for a while that night. He said dude your Portuguese is different but really cool. I said that's cause I'm from the united states. After this he got excited and asked me tons of questions, it was really neat. The next day he showed up to church 30 minutes early. We taught him a lesson before church started and he accepted to be baptized. We will keep working with him during the week and hopefully be able to baptize him next Sunday. We went to the neighboring city of Lucas where the Sisters are. We spent all day there again because lunch was really far and by the time we got back to the bus station it was almost dark. Lunch there was interesting, I found a full sized worm in my food. The kind that we use to fish with night crawler is the word. I didn't say anything though to anybody, I didn't want to embarrass the member who had mad us lunch, but I can say that after I found the worm in my food I lost most of my appetite. This week we were asked if we were anti-Christs. We explained that we are the complete opposite, the lady wasn't very interested in hearing our messages though. We kinda got the vibe that she was hoping we were anti-Christs cause she is into that kinda stuff. Some people are strange, we also saw a man that we had taught in the street that lives close to the church but said he cant go because he cant walk. But we saw him the other day riding his bike around like it was nothing. He is one of those people that when you tell them about the restoration and book of Mormon they are like, just so you know I will be comparing what you have said with the bible and that I will be looking for faults in your religion and Prophets. There isn't very many people like that here but there is a few. And I'm not a huge fan of those people. Im including a picture of me and E Cordeiro in Lucas when we went there this week, there is a really pretty lake there that we got some pictures of. Well that's about it for this week. Im feeling better I still have a little cough but I have more strength and am feeling good. I'm glad to here that Jordan is doing better. Oh I almost forgot I did remember moms birthday, I have that calendar that mom made hung up in the house and I remembered at the first of the week and throughout the week moms birthday, I forgot about last p-day though so sorry that I didn't wish you a happy Birthday. I enjoyed the pictures though and it looks like it was alot of fun. So happy BIrthdy mom! I hope everyone has a good time at the family reunion I'm a little jealous but let everyone know I said hi and that I love them. Take care everyone! -Elder Kennington

Monday, July 15, 2013

Brazil Week #30

Bom Dia minha querida família! I hope you are all doing well this week, from your emails it sound like all is good back at home. This week was alot better, We still had many disappointments but I was able to keep my mind on the work and not back at home. This week I felt like the pioneers ha we walked ALOT! But what do you expect I guess our area is really big and we have no car. Not a whole ton happened this week. Last p-day I was laying on my bed resting and my throat randomly started hurting and my head started hurting. It was really uncomfortable so I just laid in bed the rest of the night and when I woke up in the morning it was worse. My headache had gotten better but my throat was hurting really bad so I went and looked and yt throat was really red and my tonsils were swollen but there wasn't any of those white blister things, i don't remember the name. So I have been dealing with that the entire week. As of now my throat isn't really hurting anymore but I still have alot of mucus in my sinuses and in my lungs. I have been coughing alot too. Its that type of cough where when you breathe something in your chest tickles and so you have to cough. Its a pain but I have been taking my one a day vitamins and I still have some emergen-c that mom sent me while I was in the mtc. I have also been gargling with salt water. But luckily we didn't lose any work time over the week because of it, I did get out of bed late all this week I'm pretty drained in the mornings and this cold that I have or whatever has made it super hard in the mornings. I'm committed this week though to get out of bed on time  even if I'm still feeling a little sick. This week we have been teaching that couple that I have been talking about alot. We taught the plan of Salvation this week to them which is one of my favorite lessons. Their mom sat in this time and by the end of the lesson she was shedding a few tears because the spirit touched her heart so much. After the lesson she said that she was going to start frequenting our church now. We invited her to baptism and she accepted with com certeza! (for sure!) She said that she wants to quite smoking first and that she had smoked for over 30 years. She smokes about 40 cigarettes a day and we committed her to cut down. So we came back the next day and she had smoked only 5 cigarrettes that day. She has alot of faith. And we are working with her alot. This couple finally made it to church. They had a ride set up with one of their friends but it fell through. Our phone wasn't connecting with theirs for some reason so we left the house early and basically ran to their house at the end of our area. Its usually about a 35-40 minute walk but this time we got there in just over 20 mins. Its a good thing too we talked to them and we said we would get someone to take them, so we called our branch president and he came and picked them up and took them to church. Then we ran to  a less active and asked if he was going to church, he said that he was expecting visitors soon at his house but he offered us a ride back up to the church. It was a lifesaver that he did cause we only missed the first 2 minutes of church. President Reber and his wife and son were at our ward on Sunday. They came the day before to give a training to the ward leadership. Preident Rebers son just got back from his mission like 2 weeks ago from Chile. He hasn't been released yet and so he is basically in a trio with his parents. Its really cool, it was cool talking with him in Portuguese and then he would respond in Spanish and we could understand and have a conversation. He is going back to the states pretty soon I think within the next 2 weeks. President Reber and his family didn't get to stay long because the training that they are giving they are giving to the entire mission and so they are super rushed. All I know is that I want to be like President Reber one day, he is a man of great humility and love. Him and his wife and son all spoke during sacrament meeting. It was powerful his son spoke in Spanish and everybody was able to understand fine. Our investigator couple loved it. We had a zone meeting on Wednesday here in Sorriso. We only have 12 people in our zone but they are all great. After the meeting we all went to a place called the Acai cabin. Its supposed to be the best place in the entire mission to get acai berry drinks and smoothies. What we got was a sort of creamed acai with granola and strawberries. I took a picture of it that I will include. It was great and felt really good on my throat that had been hurting. So Friday I got my hair cut and and made some contacts with some really neat people and taught some really great lessons. We got back to the house that night and we noticed the window to our room was open. Our house has two windows in the front one in the room where we sleep and the other in our study room area. both have iron bars over them so nobody can get in but the bars a spread apart quite a ways so its pretty easy to get you hand in. We always shut the windows before we leave and so we knew that someone had been dinking around with the window. I looked in and saw that my electric shaver was still on my bed so I thought o good nobody took anything. But later that night I was looking for a little speaker that I had bought last p-day. here ipods and things like that are super expensive so alot of people use little speakers that have ports for usb drives and sd cards. They are relatively cheap about 40 or 50 reais and are really handy. I bought one last week and used it to listen to all my Portuguese talks. I bought a pen drive the week before and put a ton of talks and scriptures on it. That night I was looking for it and couldn't find it I thought hard and I was pretty sure that I had left in on my bed before we left for they day. I went and hunted around some more and discovered that I was missing my pendrive, soundbox, ipod, and a portable dvd player that each house has. Somebody hit the jackpot, I still cant figure out why I had my ipod, speakers usb drive and a mini dvd player all sitting on my bed at the same time. But someone had come during the daytime and taken all of them through my window. Luckily I still have my camera and shaver though which are really what is valuable to me. I still cant figure out why they didn't take my shaver though, a shaver like the on I have would be super expensive here. I was pretty mad at first, but mostly at myself. Whoever took my stuff must have know who we were though and that we had nice stuff. A few weeks ago we got back from our zone conference in cuiabá and the same thing happened my window was wide open. So we know that someone had been there before and we talked to a member last night who said that several week ago she saw some tall guy with a backpack come into our yard and open our window and look around. I don't know why she didn't tell us sooner though. Our windows have locks but they are a pain to deal with but as of now we will take the pain of always locking our windows. But I would rather have that happen then be robbed at gunpoint or something. I wonder if the Lord has a purpose in letting things like this happen. I know that I learned to not leave valuable stuff by the window. But its alright All these things can be replaced, I'm just glad I still have my camera with all the pictures, I would have cried if they took my pictures. But no worries I forgive whoever did it. We had a baptism scheduled for yesterday but it fell through it was a young women 14 years old that we contacted in the street. She wants to be baptized but she is afraid to make commitments I think, She doesn't understand why we cant drink coffee and things like that. We already filled out her baptismal form and gotten her mom signature and all that but the day before she said that she didn't know if she was ready yet. We were bummed but these things happen she said she would go to church but she didn't show up this week. It is what it is, though. Yesterday we had our the branch mission leader take us around to less active that he wanted to work with. Most of them weren't home so we just taught the people that were home that weren't members. We walked a bunch yesterday. I almost felt like we were breaking the Sabbath cause we walked so much haha. But I'm happy for p-day. Next week is transfers. We think that either I or Elder Cordeiro will be transferred along with Elder Chaves who already has 4 and half months here. He only has 3 months left on the mission and he is super excited to go home. We will see what happens just please keep transfers in your prayers so that everything goes smoothly and so  that President Reber can be inspired to know what to do. I think that's about it though thanks for your emails I love you guys all so much. Also We heard that there is a rumor going around that missionaries can use facebook now but President Reber said that its just a rumor. I don't know if anyone has heard about it in the states or just here in Brazil. Anyways love you guys so much thanks for all the prayers and thoughts! 
Com Amor 
-Elder Kennington

Monday, July 8, 2013

Brazil Week #29

Hey everyone! I was super happy to see that you guys had a sweet 4th of July! I almost forgot but me and Elder Cordeiro traveled to the Sisters area that day and Sister Grimes the American wished me happy 4th of July I had forgetten. Last P-day me and Elder Cordeiro cooked some hot links over a fire pit that we have at the house, I bought some cheap brazilian bbq sauce and we had us a somewhat American Churrasco! (BBQ)  This week went by pretty quick and pretty slow at the same time. I knew that Jordan was doing fine because I prayed and asked if he was well and I had a powerful feeling of comfort and consolation come over me and I knew that Jordan was doing just fine. But still I worried about him over the week. One of the bad things about thinking about family and home during the day is that at night you usually dream about home as well. I think I dreamt about home every single night this week. In the Brazil Cuiabá mission we have a word we use for anything that isnt good. The word is Caidaço. We can have a day thats caidaço or a lesson or street contact that is caidaço. Pretty much it can mean anything that didnt work out or that isnt cool. English doesnt really have a equivilant and its just a made up word that we use in our mission. No one else uses it. But to be honest this week was kinda caidaço. The enemy was working hard this week. Against us, our investigators, the members, basically everything. We spent 2 entire days this week in Lucas which is where the Sisters are. We went thursday to give a training to the Sisters, we had problems with our bus again and we got their late so we went straight to lunch with them and then came back and gave the training. We left and arrived back in Sorriso at the bus station then we had to walk another 40 minutes to an investigators house that we had met last week when we taught those people when they were having their own family home evening that were from a different church. by the end of that it was time to go home, we went again on Saturday to interview 2 people that were being baptized in Lucas, Elder Cordeiro is over the Sisters so he interviews all of their baptisms. We walked miles and miles and miles that day. There was a big accident on the highway and our bus was delayed two hours. So by the time we arrived at the bus station we didn't have time to go to our appointments that we had set up with our key investigators. Ever more none of our phones were working  randomly and so we didn't have a way to call our investigators that night or in the morning. It was strange cause as soon as church got out and we went to lunch our phones magically started working again. Elder Cordeiro looked at me and said I blame the devil. We kinda laughed but we do wonder if Satan really is doing all these things to trip up the work here. We are also looking for another house, President Reber wants us to get a house that is located more into our area, so we spent some time looking for a house as well but turned out fruitless. There isn't very many houses here that our in the price range that the church asks. I also think that eventually President plans on putting 2 more missionaries here so we will need a house with 4 missionaries and another with 2. We only have 2 weeks left in the transfer it shot by pretty quick. I'm interested to see what will happen. I heard that President Reber usually keeps missionaries in Sorriso for a while. I like Sorriso alot but I honestly don't want to stay here for 6 months  but whatever happens, happens. It's weird that on Friday I will hit 7 months on the mission. Its just going by super quick, it really is probably the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life, but when we get back home at night tired and ready to die of exhaustion, that is when I can smile and say to myself that I served the Lord well today. Since we spent so much time looking for houses and traveling, and walking, there was alot of good work time that was lost. I can definitely tell the difference. I'm not happy when I'm not working but at the same time the thought of working isn't a happy thought. But once we go out and actually work and fulfill our commission has representatives of the Lord this is when we are happy and the time flies by. Funny how things work. A challenge of mine that I still need to overcome is contacting people in the street. I don't mind clapping hands at someones door and making a contact that way but I have never been one the liked to interrupt people when they are doing stuff, and I have a fear of stopping people in the street to talk to them about religion. This is something I need to repent of, this shows that I fear man more than God. Luckily Brazil isn't the United States and people actually like talking about Religion. Its something that I fear and need to overcome, luckily Elder Cordeiro is the man with that kind of stuff and he helps me out alot. We had like a 20 minute conversation in the street the other day with these two guys that are training to be catholic padres. They were cool but they were very wrong about their history and facts. They believed that the Bible was the only thing that we can have today and that there can be no other scriptures. We talked about Prophets and Apostles a little bit and they said in an almost bragging way that our Church still has the scent of the apostles. I thought that was a funny way to put it. We were a little tempted to burn them on a few of their points of view and beliefs but we knew that that isn't was Christ would do. I laughed a little when he said that thought that our Church still has the scent of the apostles. Its nice to know that we don't have just a hint of a smell of apostles but that we do in truth have Apostles and  Prophets that help guide our church today. I can sleep good at night with that knowledge. Well not a whole lot this week we are working really hard with a couple to be baptized but Satan has thrown so many obstacles in their way to get to church, that's all they need is to go to church and they can be baptized. It appears that I need to pray more for my investigators and for the powers of Satan to be weak over them. Thanks for the letters from everyone, I always enjoy them so much. I feel that this week will be alot better. Everyone take care love you all!!!
-Elder Kennington


Monday, July 1, 2013

Brazil Week #28

On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 12:43 PM
Peoples good morning! Not a whole ton this week. We were really busy but Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, were eaten up by p-day, traveling and zone conference. Last Monday we just bummed out me and Cordeiro, we went to a members business cause they had wifi and I wanted to update and add a bunch of Portuguese stuff to my gospel library on my ipod. I now have all general conferences back to 1994 in Portuguese. Tuesday we had lunch and then we went straight to the bus station, the bus was delayed again and we didn't get out until about 5. we arrived in Cuiabá about 3 in the morning. we had 8 Elders with us and so we just set up a bunch of chairs at one of the chapels there in Cuiabá and then tried to sleep for a few hours more. The bus ride was super bumpy and hard to sleep. So during the zone meeting the assistants gave talks and trainings and President and Sister Reber gave talks. It was great the Spirit was strong and I learned a bunch. I was a little sad cause I didn't get to see anyone that I  arrived with in Brazil, they are all in different zones. But I got to meet and make friends with alot of the missionaries there. We combined the sorriso and Cuiabá zones so there was probably 40 or fifty missionaries there. I enjoyed it alot. I will share some pictures that I took there. we left Cuiabá and arrived in Sorriso at about 2 in the morning. We called a taxi and went home and slept. Thursday we went and met with Ricardo our baptism from last Sunday. We taught him more about the gift of the Holy Ghost and also the Priesthood. He was super excited about church and he had already talked to his friends about the church and so we  taught a couple that lives right next to him. It was pretty hard cause the husband couldn't stop grinning the entire lesson cause I was American. He thought it was cool hearing an American speaking Portuguese. They accepted the invitation to be baptized but they aren't legally married which stinks. We will keep working with them and if they really want to be baptized we will help them get married and baptized. The next day we Ricardo took us to another of his friends house and we taught that family who also accepted to be baptized but who also need to be married. We met with our golden investigators Fernando and Raiani. They were set on coming to church on Sunday. Saturday we taught some more lessons to some investigators, met with some less actives and visited a less active member who had gotten in an accident on his motorcycle. His face was pretty bruised up, we were going to give him a blessing but we decided against it because they had him in a room full of other patients and doctors. It was pretty hectic. But we offered some comfort and let him know that everything would be fine. Saturday night we were heading to teach a lesson to some people we had contacted in the street and we get there and they were started a meeting for their church. Basically it was a family home evening for them. They were from one of the churches here with a crazy long name that I cant even remember. They lady that was doing the meeting thing seemed kinda mad at us when we showed up but her heart soon softened when she saw that we had respect for what they were doing and that we weren't going to try and preach to them. This lady gave a pretty cool lesson. She taught about how Satan tempts us and lures us into his trap until there is no way out, and we don't even realize it. We started talking about the teachings of Christ and Elder Cordeiro carefully took out his Book of Mormon and gave them a little lesson of his own that was super good that went along perfectly with everything that was already being said. It was funny cause they just thought we were reading out of the bible. He mentioned that the words came from the prophet Ether but they didn't even realize it wasn't a name from the bible. We had a good time and they gave us snacks and coke it was cool. They started asking us more about our church and we said we would return and teach them another day because it was getting late and we were still 30 mins from the house. We said we would be there the next morning at 8:30 cause half of them said they wanted to come to our church on Sunday. So Sunday morning we got ready extra fast and went to their house. And guess what, everyone was sleeping!  we called our other investigators and they were sleeping too! What the heck we thought! We decided that we need to pray for our investigators more so that the temptations and powers of Satan would be weak upon them. So we ran to church and arrived just as it was starting. Our faithful Ricardo had arrived 20 minutes early. He goes to church on foot a 30 minute walk each way. Our Branch President confirmed him a member of the Church and conferred the Holy Ghost to him. It was way cool! next week he will receive the Aaronic Priesthood and be ordained a Priest. The whole ward is excited for him and we are making sure that he is being supported by the ward. Also yesterday was a little different. The world soccer cup was last night between Brazil and Spain. And so everyone was watching. My companion and I visited with some members and when the game started we watched some of it with them. Every time Brazil scored a goal the whole neighborhood would scream and there was a guy that would go out and rev his motorcycle up all the way for like a minute straight. Brazil won 3 to 0.  I asked my companion what would have happened if we had gone and tried talking to people during the game, he said that there would have been alot of mad Brazilians at us for disturbing them during the game. Next year the world cup will be held in Cuiabá. They are building a stadium there right now. It will be interesting what happens  next year. So I was surprised to here that Jordan busted his femur, but then again no. Friday night as I kneeled down to pray I remembered distinctly that the next day was Saturday which meant my brothers would probably be out having fun, and I had the distinct impression to pray for my family and friends safety over the weekend. I thought it was funny that Mom asked if my spidey sense let me know of anything. I'm glad that it was just Jordans femur that broke. That's a pretty important bone but I'm glad that it wasn't worse. I'm sure the Lord allowed JOrdans accident for a reason. Who knows why but The Lord knows alot more than we do. Well that's about it for now. I will keep Jordan in my prayers but I know that he will be ok. Btw I didn't explain the drink tereré very well. It is very popular but only here in western Brazil. It is originally from Paraguay and since we are close to Paraguay this region of Brazil likes to drink it alot.. I don't think other parts of Brazil have it. So I hope everyone has a good week thanks for writing me, my health is good and I'm feeling good. I have been jump roping in the mornings to try and burn off all the rice that I eat. Love you all and may the Good Lord bless you!
-Elder Kennington


                        
oh btw the picture is of me and Cordeiro and the sisters in the sorriso zone. and also president Reber just happened to walk by in the back.