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.
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