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Monday, February 24, 2014

Brazil Week #62 Ponta Pora

Olá my family good morning, Well this week was pretty interesting with transfers and everything, I left Campo Grande last monday at 5 o clock, and I arrived in Ponta Porã at about 10:30 at night. It was a good ride, I didn't really sleep much but the ride seemed to go by quick, I waited for a minute at the bus station in Ponta Porã until I got picked up my new Companion Elder B Souza. He was with our ward mission leader and another Elder named Elder W Santos. Elder W Santos is a good friend of mine and he was one of my zone leaders when I was in Cáceres my first area. He was going to be training an American but would have to stay with us in a trio until his companion arrived from the states which didn't end up being until Friday. Elder B Souza is a big funny dude from a state here called Rondonia, he actually was serving in São Paulo but his girlfriend got called to the same mission and so he was recalled to this mission when he had about 10 months on the mission. We get along great and we are both super excited to be working together. He is an excellent hard working missionary that knows his purpose on the mission, he is a convert since he was 17 but was inactive several years, but he cleaned up his life and came on a mission. We are more or less opening a new area here which is a super tough area because our area is the city center and half of our area is just stores, its just a bunch of super rich people, I have never seen such big and nice houses in Brazil and they are all in my area, its messed up we knock a door and people don't even want to know what we are doing, I feel like I'm in New york again with how the people are acting, we are stuck with what we want to do because we have to set the example for the zone and baptize but the way our area is looking it seems like we will never be able to baptize. Its never been so hard to find just one good person to teach. We will pray about it though. There has to be something we can do to have success here. The rest of Ponta Porã is super humble though. We worked alot in Elder W Santos area because we were in a trio and he actually has alot of good people to teach. The area that he works in is the poorest area I have ever seen on my mission. He is working in a place that doesn't even show up on the map and it doesn't have streets cause really all it is just a bunch of shacks that have been built from scrap wood that people have found. people don't have running water they just have wells  and candles. The people are super amazing and humble though even though none of them are married legally. Its humbling though because these people just have outhouses and they use tarps to separate their rooms and they are still happy people its hard to understand, they offer all that they have as well they aren't greedy or selfish, they offer all that they have even if its just a little. SO we have been staying in Elder W Santos house for most of last week just because me and Elder B Souzas house is super super tiny, its only one room, it doesn't even have room for desks. Its a nice place just super duper small. We got to know alot of members and we have a great ward here that is very strong. there was 120 people at church yesterday and there was a ton of people that were traveling. We have the strongest ward in Ponta Porã, we just have the worst area haha, there is 6 elders in just our ward so that is good. Friday we had to go to Campo Grande for a meeting for all the zone leaders in the south, we had a pretty open conversation on what we would like to see change in the mission and what we should do to help change it, we had a good discussion about the needs in our zones and we talked about alot of other stuff and had some trainings it was good. we left at 6 that night and got back at about midnight a member picked us up and took us back home. We got a call from President Reber on Saturday saying that he got some calls from some members saying that there is a missionary that isn't working in his area and is spending alot of time at his house, his companion is an American with 6 weeks in Brazil and has also been complaining that the missionary hasn't been doing anything and has been being disobedient and stuff. So Tomorrow we are going to have our zone meeting and training and then I will be going on a three day split with this Elder in his area, hopefully we can discover what his problems are and fix them. That will be interesting, we will be talking alot about the importance of working tomorrow, the numbers have been pretty low in our zone so we want to get everybody working hard and excited, there was only 4 baptisms in the entire zone last transfer so we have a lot to work on. The week just kinda feels like a blur but there wasn't nothing really crazy that went on. It was good though. Today we are going to play soccer at the church house and then we are going to to ice cream. Elder Payne is in our zone so it was cool seeing him this week, his Portuguese has improved alot he is already district leader. There has been 2 new Americans that arrived that will be in our zone so that will be cool with them sounds like they are already speaking well, there is one named Elder Richards that is with elder w Santos, we always have lunches together because we work in the same ward so that's cool being able to help. So I got a card yesterday from mom and dad for valentines day I think it was cool and also I got another postcard from grandma Dale, thanks for the cards. I'm blessed to have a wonderful family and I'm so grateful for your support. Looks like everyone had a good time at boondocks wish I was there haha. Sounds like Corbin is probably home by now hope he is well and I was saddened to hear that he had to go home, but I'm sure he will be able to help others at home. I'm out of time and I still have a bunch of stuff and numbers that I have to send and pictures to upload so I will talk to you all next week and will try to fill in some more details of Ponta Porã and stuff this week was pretty wild. But know how much I love you all and am grateful for all of you! Take  care and have a great week!
-Elder Kennington

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