Campo Grande Week #88

Its always hard to start my letters because I gets kind of boring just saying hey everybody or good morning or bom dia, so Ill start like this I guess.  Anyways its been another quick week, I don't have much time to write today cause I have to leave here because today we are going to have a dual zone activity here in Campo Grande, we are going to go to a members  "farm"  its a little place that's good for making barbecue and playing games guess, we are expecting 33 missionaries so we will be meeting them in one of the bus terminals here and then going to the mini farm, it is located at the end of our area and is about 40 minutes from our house, it should be a good time and I look forward to it. Last p-day we went to the center and bought some stuff we were with the zone leaders and they got permission to go to the campo grande shopping center to buy white shirts so we went there, it was super americany and it reminded me alot of the gateway and the mall in Provo. It was nice but things were super expensive there and it was just all rich people that go there anyway, while we were there i ate some subway and then after we went to one of the chapels in the center where there was lot f missionaries playing soccer and hanging out, I got to see alot  of good friends that i hadn't seen in many many months and also meet alot of new missionaries, everyone is so young now on the mission, they all had these astonished looks on their faces when they asked how much time we had on the mission. I still feel young though, I aint no old missionary! anyway we took a picture there which I will upload right now. So also to of my old companions will be getting on the plane back home today, Elder Geisler and Elder Piñon finshed up their missions today, they are in a group that is going home 2 weeks before the transfer because of school or something. That means that there are only 6 missionaries in the mission older than my group. That's so weird, but 3 months is still so much time and there is still so much to do. Well this week was pretty good I guess we walked alot in the blazing sun and I got pretty red. We marked a date with that guy José, but I think he was traveling or something the end of the week cause we went by his house like 3 times but his house was locked up, we even went by Sunday morning but it was still locked up. We did take a les active member to church that hadn't been in years, she is wheel chair ridden and has never been able to walk. Luckily though she lives super close to the church so we just went there in the morning and pushed her to church, she had a great reception at church because there were lots of members that remembered her I know she really enjoyed going back. I did get a little irked with one brother there who has a reputation of being a little "louco" we pushed her in and he looked at her and yelled "Sumida" which means pretty much disappeared then he yelled "fugida" which means like ran off, it doesn't really make much sense in English. But pretty much he meant to say  well look who ran of and disappeared and came back!  But the way he said it was not at all pleasing and its the last thing  people want to hear when returning to church. That grinded my gears pretty good, and I told him after that that's not the kind of reception people deserve when returning to church, i just hope it doesn't happen again. We ate alot of food this week and we had one day where we didn't have lunch and so a sister from the ward Marechal Deadoro where I had served before invited us to eat with them. It was nice being in my old area again and being able to enjoy the company of old friends. My shoes are officially hole ridden and everyday I get back home with my socks full of dirt and dust. It is what it is though, anyway so we are going to have to leave here now but next I will give a better account of whats going on. O also this week the president of the area of Brasil President Claudio M. Costa will be here in our mission on Saturday and Sunday, he will be presiding our stake conference that will be cool but I heard that he can be pretty rough on he missionaries at times, but I guess that's a good thing, I tell you about it next week.I love you all and hope you all have a great week, I hope school goes great for the brothers and I was thrilled to see that everything went great at grandma and grandpas anniversary party, which I had been there but thanks mom for the pictures. Well take care and have a great week!

 -Elder Kennington

Campo Grande Week #87

Bom dia  meus queridos, so its been another quick week, I'm glad that it went by quick and didn't drag on. We worked alot we had really high numbers this week, and we were blessed to have an investigator at church yesterday. We met alot of new people this week which was cool. we went after all the members in the neighborhood of the church. There was alot of members there, alot of them had moved though, some of the people that had moved in were open but there were alot of kinda closed off people so we didn't even offer to come back, everyone was polite though some people are dingbats with the missionaries but this week was good, we taught alot of new people alot of people that we call mole, which means soft. Just alot of soft people that didn't really want to agree or make any commitments, so we cut alot of them in the first lesson. Our investigator that went to church is called José, he had recently moved into a little house where a member had formerly lived, he was open and let us right in he lives close to the church and so it was easy to walk he actually got lost cause Sunday morning we stopped by an investigators house that wanted us to stop by and walk with him to church, on the way there we passed José on his way to church, I told him there would be other missionaries there and that we would be about ten minutes behind him, he got to church but there was nobody he knew and the chapel is super big and he didn't know what to do so he got cold feet and walked back home, the investigator that we went to walk with wasn't at home,( he was probably off at some bar drunk as a skunk) so we walked back to church but José wasn't there so we called him and he said that he went back home but that he was leaving again and would meet us half way so we met with him and he went to church, he said he enjoyed it and there were alot of people who talked to him and got to know him. José is probably about 50, he drinks and smokes quite a bit but he said he was looking for a church that could help him stop with his addictions, we will work with him he lives by himself and cant read very well but who knows lets see where it goes. That investigator was some guy that stopped us in front of his house and was like hey you guys need to help me stop drinking, but is sounded more like ei sedpwesdiasdfiasodmkdfsnsduiabsdjkfgsd. It was so hard to understand him haha, he was super drunk, his name is antonio and he's like 60, and that is his life is just drinking, he said that he wanted to go to church we didn't even invite him and he already wanted to go, we stopped by his house again later in the week and his mom was there, we talked to her and shes like you need to help my son stop drinking, we were like alright by he will definitely have to put in his fare share of effort, I said a prayer there and I had a hard time not laughing cause his mom is one of those old ladies that we call Crentes, which means like Believer, but they are old and annoying and are usually that ones that have all the crazy ideas about mormons and missionaries and that think that we are all the devil and are going to hell, but she was actually pretty cool, still really weird but better then most, so alot of time when we pray these "Crentes" have the habit of praying at the same time or at least saying "words of praise during the prayers"  It happens alot on the mission but she was defiantly one of the most distracting during the prayer. everytime I said something in the prayer she would yell hallelujiah! or amen brother! or glory to Jesus! and a bunch of other stuff, it was anooying and hard to concentrate but mostly I just wanted to laugh. I want to visit these churches because they do the craziest stuff sometimes, its ridiculous to us but I guess to alot of these people its just normal. anyway anotonio wasn't at home sunday morning for whatever reason his mom said he left the night before and hasn't come back yet. Sad how alcohol controls the lives of so many people I have seen so many times on the mission the destruction of alcohol and drugs on families, inside and outside of the church. Satan really does play dirty and has no mercy. No wonder the Lord has counseled us and blessed us with the word of wisdom. Funny how every little thing in the church even the smallest commandments can have huge effects in our lives and are there to bless and benefit us. Last week we went to walmart again cause elder Heidt and never been to a walmart in brasil, it ended up making us kinda trunky because there are alot of things that are exactly like the walmarts in the states. I bought some peanut butter as well that I found at a store, it was 20 reais so it was probably like 8 bucks or so, it was that peter pan brand, I think its about twice the price here than in the states, I have been eating alot of pb&j sandwiches this week, I had forgotten how much I loved eating peanut butter and jelly. yesterday we went on splits with some brothers and we went to visit alot of less actives, we got ten lessons with members between the two of us, I went with Irmão Marcos who is the man, we walked a ton, we are trying to update the ward member list, we went to a house that had a family that had been baptized about 30 years ago and had been moved our for years and years and no one had updated the list even the the new owners said the missionaries had already past by many many times. it was a good week though we walked alot and my left shoe has a whole in it, but i will try and go another 3 months with the same pare of shoes, I gave my other shoes away o I only have these ones, but if worse comes to worse I will just by some new ones but i will try and make it by with these shoes. I remember on Friday that It was august 15, 2 years from the day that I had received my mission call, it seems like yesterday that I got it. My how the time flies. Sounds like everyone is having a hard time in the mission, the zone here hasn't baptized yet but hopefully things will get better, its usually pretty slow the first few weeks of the transfer. But yeah so that's about it for this week, we had a cool family home evening at a less actives home that we found, they said it had been about two years that that the missionaries hadn't gone there, they said they want us to eat dinner there every week. But yeah life is good there is still plenty  of work to do in the Lords vineyard.  i love you all and thanks for your emails and for letting me know how you all are I hope the brothers are having fun and grandma and grandpas and hope all will go well for grandma and grandpas anniversiary, I will pray for you all. 

Abraço,

-Elder Kennington

Campo Grande Week #86

Hello again everybody, another Monday haha this week has gone by super quick for me, We worked like crazy, but sadly Sunday arrived and we didn't see any fruits, it is what it is though not much we can do about it, we did our weekly planning this yesterday and we got an updated list of our ward and so this week we are going to work in a different neighborhood that's closest to the church house, I feel that we will find success there, pray for us to be able to find these people who are waiting for us. This week I was able to understand how immense our area actually is, we walked so much just to get to lunch, then we usually just stayed in the area where lunch was, everyday at the end of the day I remember walking back up the stairs to our apartment and my feet and legs just felt like jelly. We have been going after our list of members that we have, its organized by neighborhood so its easy to concentrate on just one neighborhood at a time. We have been using a list that's about 4 years old though so it was missing alot of new members and the addresses weren't all up to date. We went to alot of houses where the house had been demolished or didn't exist, its really frustrating walking for nothing, we made alot of contacts and talked to alot of people, we taught alot of lessons as well. But out of all these people that we taught none went to church and none are really elects. They are great people but I know that The Lord has others that he is preparing for us. The hard part is just finding them now. Its sure hot here though and it has made me miss Ponta alot but still Im am very happy to be here, this entire week though I have been having dreams about being at home or going home, I hate trunky dreams, me and Elder Heidt have been keeping focused though and we are working hard. Just kind of a dull week though, it went by quick but there's not much to comment on, last Monday we went to the city center, and I bought several souvenirs to take home, I have been keeping my eyes open lately for neat stuff to take home to be able to always remember the mission. If I had to guess I would say that this will be my last area and that I will finish my mission here, I guess we´ll see though, I would like that very much, this week we got a call from the executive Secretary in the mission and he asked what was the closest international airport to my house, that means that before long I will be receiving my itinerary in the email and I will know when exactly i will leave and get back home. That was an exciting moment. Also I got another postcard from Grandma Dale at the beginning of the transfer, it was a picture of Old faithful I remember well the time they took us there several years ago, I think I was 15 or 16 I'm not quite sure. That sounds fun that JOrdan and Kaden will be going and spending some time in Logan an then at Grandma and Grandpa Kenningtons, that will be fun for them, I guess summer break is almost over already, that seemed to go by pretty quickly. Just tell them to be safe and to not do anything dumb. Wish I could be with them though. I'm hearing about alot of good friends that are finishing up their missions, I'm still not sure how I feel about finishing my mission, it seems like all of the sudden it was like bam! You and have 4 months left! Tomorrow I will have 1 year and 8 months, that is what we call an old missionary. There are three missionaries from my group here in our zone, me my companion and Elder Duncan who is in another ward, and what do you know we are the oldest missionaries in our zone, we had our zone meeting this week and me and my companion were the last ones to introduce ourselves in front of the zone, its funny cause everyone was like HI I'm elder or sister so and so I I have 5 months on the mission,  and then its like Hi I'm Elder Kennington and I have a year and 8 months on the mission, and everyones like oooooooh  their so old, haha it was really funny the reaction we have a really young zone. I will send a picture of our zone meeting, me and the other two from my group were flashing a 4  for four months haha.  Also I included a picture of our room, of course my bed is the green one if are there are any doubts.  So yeah The days and weeks are going by quickly, next week when I email you guys again the transfer will already be half over. I really appreciated your emails this week thanks for always taking the time to write me, thanks for you thoughts and prayers as well. So this email is really short hopefully next week there are some better stories and more stuff to share with you guys. But know how much I love you all and I know that I love this great Gospel and church, I love being a missionary and know that these really have been and are being the best two years so far in my life.  It truly makes me happy being a missionary and I hope to be able to have many missionary moments through out my life. I love you all and wish you all a wonderful week!

-Elder Kennington

Campo Grande Zone and all the missionaries that have 4 months left.

Week #85 Campo Grande

Olá pessoal, good morning to everyone, I'm tired again as usual, I'm really starting to feel that complete physical and mental exhaustion everyday, I think my body knows that the mission is coming to a close and is kinda shutting down, its weird but We just have to get out and work and it wakes back up again, but usually during lunch and at night when we get home I am just super exhausted and tired, but that's normal I guess. I'm super happy to be back here In Campo Grande i missed this place alot and I'm grateful to be back. It brings back alot of fond memories here and also alot of not so fond memories of tough times that I went through here, but I'm glad to be in the Bandeirantes ward here i feel at home already and would not mind ending my mission here which there is a high possibility that that will happen. We i'm with the zone leaders here and one of them who is new was an office elder the last 8 months, he told me that it was very likely that I will be training because he said the president is releasing all of the leaders on the mission so they can train at the end of their mission so he said that is probably what I will be doing. I have been enjoying it here though in this area and have been able to get to know alot of people that I knew before by sight, but now I am really getting to know them, it was great being able to see alot of people from my last ward in campo grande, since we share the same chapel we get to see them in between classes that was great being able to see them. Everyone still recognized me and alot of them told me to switch wards and come back to their ward again. So I forgot how hard it was to reopen a stinking area, its a pain in the butt! our area is huge and all we have is an old list of members and a map, so we ended up walking alot and talking to a bunch of people and trying to get to know our area, so far we only got turned around once. not much luck this week we met some nice people that were really wishy washy and didn't want to change many things in their life, whatever though just pray for us to be  able to find those hidden elects that are always there. Yesterday was fast Sunday so we fasted and I bore my testimony during sacrament meeting. I told them that I had 4 months left but I told them that I'm not dead yet and plan on working my buns off with them. Its weird now telling people that I have 4 months left and everyone is just like wheeeew good luck for you then I bet your super trunky, but I'm not, which I'm proud to tell people. My homeboy Elder Heidt is my companion he is from my group we were in the mtc together, we have always been good friends and we work well together. He is from Marcing Idaho, is 22 and wants to be a body builder one day. We are in a co senior companionship. So yeah I forgot what the heat is, I had spent so long in the south of the mission that I got used to the nice chill weather, I have to carry my white handkerchiefs (how do you spell that) with me cause no I'm sweating alot more again, sad thing is that its still winter here, just wait till November rolls around, the last month of my mission is going to fry me. Oh so I will put in a picture of 4 missionaries my companion Elder Heidt is to my left, we were in the same ward in Ponta Porã, he looks like he is always mad because of the way his eyes are set in his face, plus he has bad eyesight so he always squints and people think hes angry but he super chill and patient, he lost about 70 pounds on the mission, he was chunkier when he entered the mtc. So I am so happy to not be zone leader any more, I was watching the zone leaders have to deal with the exact same problems that we dealt with in Ponta, I just gave them a few pointers but mostly just sat back and chuckled to myself. I feel free and like a bunch of chains have been broken. Its was great being a zone leader and learning tons of stuff, but its so much easier just worrying about yourself and your companion and investigators. Also another picture I took is of me and a new shirt that a member made for, he gave it to me as a present, and his brother wanted to give me his skateboard cause he said he didn't want me to ever forget him, I was just like bro! I will never forget about you guys no matter what, plus we cant skateboard on the mission ahaha, the member had my name embroidered even though he killed it, he wrote the the way that they same my name which is  more or less  when people say my name for the first time Kenigheeton, its cool though and i took some sweet pictures of the shirt cause it make me look all ripped and tough like dad. But yeah so we are going to the center here soon to go by some stuff, also  I found out this week that we will still be able to have 2 suitcases of about 70 punds each, cause before we though it was alot less, but its actually only for the hispanic missionaries, so I will be able to bring home alot more souvenirs and stuff that made me happy. But there are some great members here in Bandeirantes and we have been eating well and having alot of dinners, we are going to start running though in the morning, my companion gained about ten pounds in Ponta and I gained about a and a half haha, but it will be good to run and get in good shape, s yeah we are going to leave soon But I love you guys so much and hope you have a great week!!!  With much love.

-Elder Kennington

Week #84 Leaving Ponta Para & returning to Campo Grande

Hey everyone  thanks again for the emails and the pictures that you sent and for your accounts of the weeks, I always enjoy hearing about whats going on back at home so that I'm not completely lost. Well we got transfers last night finally haha it took forever they assistants didnt call us until almost 11 at night, well I'm leaving my beloved city of Ponta Porã!  Its such a bitter sweet thing I loved everything here but I know that it was time to move on, also I'm free!! haha I was released as a zone leader which made me happy, during this week I thought about it a lot and came to the conclusion that it would be more likely that I would be released, I looked at who was currently Zone leader and looked at who would probably be leaving and who would be called, and it was pretty easy to see that it would be much easier just released, that made me happy there was an area of zone leaders in campo grande that I wanted to go to before but then I thought well I will be getting released so my chances are gone of going there, but then I we got the transfer and they are putting a new companionship in the ward there, and guess what I'm going there to reopen part of the area there! whoohoo, that made me super happy, I will actually be going there with Elder Heidt who is from my group and is actually living with us right now in Ponta we were in the same ward he was our district leader. We will be in a co senhor companionship, it looks like it will be a short term companionship though, maximum it will be a transfer, or not who knows, he needs a little help and was a little bummed out with his area so hopefully we can get him hyped up again for the work. Elder Heidt is from Idaho we are great friends so this should be a good transfer.  SO this week was great we had a lot of family home evenings and I was able to take pictures and visit and say goodbye to most of the members, this really is being hard on me though leaving this area I love this city and I love the members so much. I'm leaving behind family, it feels like I'm going to the mtc again knowing that I'm leaving so much behind, friends and family, its hard and I'm having to fight back some tears cause I don't know if I will ever be able to come back during my lifetime. I know if I come back to the mission this will be the first place I visit for sure. This week we took a ton of pictures, Tuesday one of my favorite families here made tacos for us, that was the first time I had eaten real tacos on the mission, it almost brought tears to my eyes when I took the first bite, it tasted just like the tacos mom makes, the only thing it needs was la vitoria hot sauce, we did alot of visits with members and the young men, we did several divisions as well, all in all it was a good week, it was a dang cold week probably the coldest so far but it was good, it feels so much like Halloween time here, its cold but the sun is still out, Friday we had our July party  its called festa julina I guess there was tons of people there but it didn't get started till late and we had to leave early to get back home on time that night so we didn't get to enjoy it too much but there was alot of food and dessert so I took my fair share of cake, they also made some sort of wassail cider which was super strong but I actually liked it. Saturday we had another division and I took some pictures on the boarder of Paraguay with the Brasil and Paraguay divider we were with the young men, then on Sunday we went on visits with the young men presidents Train on wheels and visited a ton of less active and recent convert young men, then we had to family home evenings, the last one was at Irmã Cynthias, al beloved sister here in the ward she made us a huge bbq, it was wonderful, I will miss them so much. Theres too many pictures that I took this week so I guess I will just have to put them all on facebook after the mission. That's sure nice that we have the Internet and facebook to keep in touch after the mission that makes things alot nicer. well I'm excited to be able to go to the new ward in campo Grande, its called Bandeirantes, it shares the same chapel as my last area Marechal Deadoro so I will be able to see the members on Sundays and hopefully I will be able to go on a division there in my old area and visit the people there, that makes me excited and makes me feel more excited about leaving. Well we have little time I have everything packed up already to go, but still we need to stop by a few places, I withdrew some money today I will by a few souvenirs hear from Ponta. Well pray for me I am going to miss this place, it was great being with Elder Yezzi this transfer it shot by super quick and he taught me many things, I'm going to miss him. Thanks for your prayers back at home, these last for months of the mission I will need them, well I am closing a huge chapter of my mission and will be opening up what may be the last. Whatever it may be we will make it the best. I love you all so much sorry I cant write more thanks for the pictures mom it looks like the reunion was fantastic wish I could have been there but luckily I can say that this will be the last reunion that I will miss. Before we know it next summer will be here already the time shoots by like nobodies business. Well again I love you much and will fill you all in the next week.  Amo Vocês Muito!!!!! 

Com Amor - Elder Kennington