Bom dia Querida família, espero que vocês estejam bem hoje! I´m
grateful for another p-day here in Brazil and another day here on the earth that
Heavenly Father has given me. I love my Heavenly Father and have felt close to
him this week. I know that he is aware of me and all of us. I´m grateful for
fast and testimony meeting and for that opportunity that I had to thank The Lord
and bear my testimony of the Gospel. I know the Gospel is true and that families
can be together forever. And I know that this is the only true and living church
here on the face of the earth. And I know that we are never truly alone and the
Father in Heaven is always holding us by the hand. That I know. We were blessed
with a good week here in Campo Grande. We spent alot of time looking for houses
for rent but we didn't have any success, but we were able to make alot of
contacts with people which was good. Me and Elder Tibbitts are trying to teach
more when we find and find when we teach as it teaches in Preach My Gospel. We
worked hard this week and met some good people, Max was was visiting his family
the entire week in another city but he got back late Friday night. We visited
him Saturday with a member and he said that he was excited to go to church on
Sunday and he was still excited for his baptism this Saturday. That was a relief
to me because I was really worried that he would have something happen to him
during the week. Last week I had already told him that there would be people
that would dissuade him from being baptized and Saturday he said that people had
talked bad about the church and baptism and stuff, he said "Elder Kennington, you
are right they said the exact same things that you said they would say to me." But he was still excited to go to church and be baptized. He said that he feels
good in church and the Holy Spirit has already testified the truth to him. I know
that your prayers and fast help protect him. We have prayed and fasted alot this
week and I know that Heavenly Father recognized our efforts and blessed us. This
week we were really busy and it passed by super quick, nothing super noteworthy
happened. We made alot of contacts and talked to and taught alot of new people.
We met a man who had been baptized 15 years ago but hadn't been to church for a
long time. He was married and now had a new born girl. He played the guitar and
sang for us which was cool, They were going to go to church with a member, but
something happened and they had to travel on Sunday, but it sounds like next
week they will be able to go. His name is Ricardo and his wifes name is
Michelle. Tuesday I went on a division with Elder Miguel one of our zone leaders
here, I stayed in my area with him. We visited several people and visited a
while with a family that he knew already and had helped alot in the past. Elder
Miguel is from Rio de Janeiro and is a really good friend of mine. I lived with
him for a transfer in Sorriso and did a few splits with him there. We had our
ward family home evening that night which was nice and we had a good time. We
visited with the people that went to church this last week, Adrielly which was
one of investigators said she thought church was a little bit boring, she is
used to people shouting hallelujah and banging on drums and stuff at church, but
I know that deep down she liked church and felt the Spirit, her husband Junior,
on the other hand loved it and wanted to go back but he had to work this
Sunday so they couldn't go yesterday. Hopefully this week they don't have to work
and will have the desire to go. Josíe also had to work yesterday and couldn't go
it was only max that went. It was good though. During the week we were looking
for some houses and making contacts and I made a contact with I guy that was
with his friend, after a minute of me talking to him his friend cut in and said
that he had heard from a reliable source that missionaries receive 1000 reais
(about 500 dollars) per month from our church. I explained that the opposite
was true then he started interrogating us asking us a whole bunch of retarded
questions about us and our church. That's one thing that I don't have a whole lot
of patient for but I answered all of his questions. He then asked how we are
supposed to know which of all the churches on the earth is right since they all
say they are right. We just told him that that is something that only the Holy
Ghost can tell us. Then we testified that we knew that the church was true
because the spirit told us it was. After that the man completely changed almost
like a light came into his eyes. We testified more and left him with the
pamphlets with our number and the church address and times. That experience
reminded me of the importance of a simple testimony. Almost always people don't
grasp the importance of what we are saying but they always feel the peace of the
spirit. The Spirit is super important in missionary work, without the spirit we
are nothing He is the one that teaches. We went down some sketchy trail roads to
finds some investigators houses but it worked out good. Elder Tibbitts is doing
great and is learning alot, I think he is teaching me more than I am teaching
him, he is a great example of dedication and obedience and I have been reminded
that I have alot to improve as a missionary, but I know that the Lord is
blessing us and His arm is strong. last p-day fell through we got to the center
and the zone leaders said that the sisters were still doing emails and weren't
gong to make it in time or something so nobody even went to the trail thing we
were going to visit. I was kinda bummed out because of that. Today we didn't do
much either we already went to the center I bought some hot sauce and then we
drank alot of sugarcane juice that they were selling in the street and now I'm
really sleepy and hungry. Also this week my companion was wearing some bug spray
that smelled exactly like some bug spray that Grandma Dale had used before. Its
weird how smells remind us of things and how quick it brings back memories. I
just kept thinking of getting firewood with Grandma and Grandpa Kennington
every time I smelled the bug spray he had on. Weird how little things like that
leave deep effects sometimes. Also yesterday we marked a baptismal date with a
man named Valderi, I had already known Valderi for a while and he had known the
missionaries for over 4 years. We were finally able to meet with him yesterday
and he demonstrated a huge desire to change and be forgiven of his sins and
start over. He said he will set aside Sundays just so he can go to church. I
think he probably drinks so he will have to overcome this problem but I really
hope he has enough Faith to act and to go church and be baptized. Please pray
for him and Max. This week we will teach the commandments to Max like the word
of wisdom and law of chastity, I doubt he has any problems but nobody can ever
know so tomorrow we will teach him the commandments, please pray for us and him
so that he can accept everything and live it. Sunday he told us that from now on
he will never mark anything for Sunday mornings he will always set the time
aside so that he can go to church on Sunday, he even bore kind of a testimony in
elders chorum saying how good he felt and how he knew that he was in the right
place. That was great to see. Thanks so much for your fasting and prayers I
prayed and fasted much this last week as well. I know the Lord is with us and
that he will let everything work out fine. I want to thank mom for the pictures
of my baptism that she found and sent to me, I never imagined that she would
have to go through so much digging to find it, if I had know that it would be so
hard I wouldn't have asked but I thank mom for putting in the time and effort and
doing that for me that meant alot to me and the picture brought back many good
memories and a few tears of happiness. I will never forget my baptism and the
feelings that I had afterwards, I know that God accepted my baptism because my
dad was the one that baptized me and I know he had the Priesthood authority
needed to perform my baptism. I'm grateful to know that dad is a worthy holder of
the Priesthood of God. Well I am really excited for this week, I'm a little
nervous but it should go fine, also we had our district meeting this week which
went great I gave a training on prayer and the importance of praying for our
investigators by name it went well and also I will be doing interviews this week
as well for a baptism for our zone leaders I think we will go on splits and we
will do the interviews at the same time a zone leader will interview max in our
area and i will go to the other area and interview there. We will be doing our
baptisms on the same day at the same time so there should be alot of people
there. I think it will be around 5 o clock just please pray so that everything
can work out fine. Well yeah so that's about it, please pray for us and our ward
here, thanks for your love and prayers and letters, I am always praying for you
all, Have a great week and I love you guys so much!
-Elder Kennington
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