Week #71 Ponta Pora. Brazil

Hey Everyone, I'm pretty tired today, cause we had a zone activity this morning and we played some water balloon games and soccer and stuff, it was fun, we took some pictures, we did that thing where each companionship had a towel and we had to toss the water balloons to each other over and imaginary volleyball net, which was fun and we got some fun pictures, and then we had alot of water balloons left over so we just had a water balloon dodgeball game at the end which was fun. It tired us all out but everyone in our zone came, which was cool. Its important to have a united zone. The zone has been working well and has been baptizing every week, so we have been happy with that, but next week is transfers already, this transfer was only a transfer of 5 weeks instead of 6 weeks so it has been extra quick and short. We will see what happens with transfers I am really interested. Its probably because there will be a ton of changes, I think that about half of the zone will get transferred, I'm pretty sure that I will be staying but nobody knows, transfers are always a shot in the dark, I have been liking this area alot though even though it has been one of the most challenging areas that I have had, the members here have been really good and I have made alot of good friends and have had alot of good experiences here. We had some splits again this week so I spent them in my area it was good, we just looked for new people to teach we went after alot of names on our members list but most of the addresses didn't even exist, it was kinda frustrating and we got called to do a random service project which kinda blew cause our day was already planned out so we had to switch stuff around but it ended up getting a good reference from a member so that's good, I guess. We started teaching some new people and we also found some elect people that wasn't planned, we went to a road looking for some houses that didn't exist anymore so we just decided to knock a door, so we knocked the door and it was a lady without much interest, but we asked if she knew someone that might be interested in hearing the Gospel and she said that maybe her neighbors on the corner so she gave us her name and we went there and taught a lesson to a lady named rita and her grandaughter bruna, it was good and we ended up just talking alot about baptism, we went back later the next day and nobody was home so I went back again the next day after during the division, and they weren't there again, but they said that bruna might be in an office that was located next to the house so we went there and found brunas mom there, she looked familiar and I asked if she had already talked with the missionaries before and she was like yeah you actually came to my house last month and talked to us, then I remembered about a division when I knocked on their door, they were out front cleaning but they said we could come back another day, we never got the chance to go back even though that family crossed my mind every once in a while, so The Lord gave us a second chance to find this family again and teach them, so we went to their house Saturday night and taught bruna again and marked her baptismal date for the middle of may, then she went to church on Sunday and she seemed to like it alot, I think she has 18 years or so, she is really cool and I really think we will be able to baptize her, and hopefully her family as well, another cool thing is that she lives on the same road as Israel and Gabrielle who were our last two baptisms, they are both staying firm and our integrating well with all of the members in the ward. So this week passed by quick and it was good, I will be sad because one of my best friends from the mission Elder W. Santos will be going home next week, he is finishing his mission. I will miss him alot, when I got to Brazil, he was my first zone leader and I did my first division with him, he taught me alot of things and is an excellent example of diligence and service, even though he is almost going home he has still given his all and has been baptizing alot in his area, I want to be like him when I get close to finishing my mission, I want to keep working strong and giving my best effort, his attitude his he came to work for 2 years on a mission, not 1 year or 1 year and 11 months, but 2 years. He was my first zone leader and I have the privilege to be his last zone leader, that was something cool for me. So it sounds like it was pretty chilly for you guys at home, this week was actually alot hotter than the week before but still it sounds like its going to keep cooling down, I would kinda like to see the really cold side of Ponta Porã. So as you can see are zone is a bunch of goofs as you can see in the attached photo, but I love them and have gotten to know them all very well, that's one thing that is cool about being a zone leader is you get to know missionaries alot better then you would normally, dad talked about how after he was a zone leader he really appreciated his time as a trainer, I can say I feel the same way, I know that's how I want to end my mission is training if I can. We will see though. So yeah mission is going by quick I have found myself thinking about the great things at home, after I hit a year and 4 months I was just like whoa, I don't have much time left. By the end of next transfer I will have more than a year and six months, that's crazy stuff.  But so yeah the church is true and I love my friends and family. Thanks so much for your letters and for the time you guys spend to write them. pray for us so we can have a week of courage and success! Hugs for all.

-Elder Kennington

                                                                   Zone Water Balloon Activity

Brazil, Ponta Para. Week #70

Whaaaaat week 70? Tu é doido!  Wow what a quick week! Sorry I didn't write yesterday, it was a holiday here and almost the entire city was shut down which meant that there weren't any lan houses open to do emails, but today everything is open again so we are in to write emails real quick and to send in numbers and stuff. So yeah this week went by really fast, cause we had our zone conference here, and so the neighboring zone which is in the city of Dourados also came here and we had our zone conference, it was really good and we learned alot of things and we learned about the importance teaching more about repentance and helping people to have the desire to repent and to be baptized I thought it was really neat and me and Elder Piñon have already started applying what we learned and we have already seen a difference in our investigators and in our lessons. The conference was on Friday and on Thursday the assistants arrived early with the President and Sister Reber, so we did and unexpected division with them in our area which was actually pretty good and we found some new investigators. Then we ate a hamburgers that night together and we had a good time,  we had a bunch of stuff to do to help prepare for the conference, they kinda just threw it all on us the last minute, but we got everything taken care of and everything went smoothly. I'm glad to know that even in the little things like preparing for a conference Heavenly Father always has his eye on us and helps us even in the littlest of things. We also had our zone meeting during the conference where we did our zone training that also went well and I was grateful for that. We have been looking for new people to teach and baptize this week which is tough, but we found some cool people and so hopefully this week we will be able to help them and I hope they will progress, thank you for always praying and thinking about our investigators, I know that The Lord hears your prayers. So our house has been giving us problems, there is a wall full of water and the house is super small, there is no room to study, and know room to study or hang clothes, and it always has mold growing, the house just blows, so President came and gave us permission to find another house and move out, hopefully that will work out. I forgot to mention that when it rains alot water come into our house, and so yesterday it rained like crazy and what do you know half of our house got flooded, so we spent forever yesterday getting water out of our house, the owner is in the stake presidency so we will need to talk to him and get this house taken care of, because I don't want to stay in our house any longer. But whatever at least we have a house to live in. Its been cooling down quite a bit I have been using my sweater quite a bit I'm using it right now, its been rainy as well it rained all last night and its still has alot of overcast, I'm not complaining though, most of my  mission up until now I have been out in the 100 degree sun, I will take this weather any day. So Happy Easter again It sounds like it was good for you guys, it was cool here as well, we got a huge chocolate egg from our recent convert Gabrielys family, they are really generous to us and our always offering us dinner or lunch and stuff, they really like us. Our Bishop gave a really nice talk on Sunday that reminded me of the love that The Savior has for us, indeed I am grateful for the life and resurrection of the Savior, I know he loves us, and I know he lives, because I have felt His sweet spirit, I know He always watches over us. I am forever grateful to be a member of His church. And I know its true. This work is hard but it is worth it, we have good days and not so good days, but I know that I will look back at these 2 years and they will be memories of joy and happiness, I hope the Lord will give me the opportunity to work in his vineyard again, after the mission and maybe after this mortal life. But I know this work is good, and that it is true. The Savior is our Master, our Captain and Chief. As members of His church we follow Him. I know that He cares about us. I don't really have much more to write but thanks so much for the emails and letters and love and thoughts and prayers, I love you all so much! Have an awesome week!

-Elder Kennington 

Brazil Week #69 Ponta Para

mmmmm p-day what a glorious day for a missionary, nossa, its been a tiring week. My thought have been back at home alot this week, its been a week of challenges and stresses, but in the end as usual everything turned out ok. We have been trying to work alot with members and less actives so we have been trying to go after our list of members but almost all of the houses we go to there is no one there or  they moved or the address doesn't exist, as I have said before our area is super difficult because it is the center and its is where the richest people in the city live, so most of the houses are mansions and its rather depressing, but we did what we could even though we didn't have much success, but  so Wednesday we went back to Gabrieles and we talked to her dad which is the one that wanted her to wait to get baptized, but he was like no if she wants she can baptized so we were like yay! haha so this week I went on splits again and stayed in my area and we went after some more names of peoples and also we taught Gabriele a little more and we did her interview on Saturday that went fine.  Gabriel told me that she wanted me to baptize her i told her that I thought it would be better for her uncle to baptize her since he was the less active member that was returning to church but she insisted on having me baptize her, but on Thursday there was a baptism of a man that had been going to church for a while with his wife who was already a member, they just weren't married and so they scheduled the marriage date over a month ago and on Thursday they finally got married, and that night he got baptized, his name was Josiel, I did his baptismal interview last week during general conference and was impressed to see how prepared he was and how ready he was to take upon him the name of The Savior and follow Him. He was baptized on Thursday night, and then Saturday we had another baptism in our ward accept this one was alot more hectic, the other missionaries had asked for us to get to the church early to turn on the water cause the others weren't going to be able to get their on time and its just us that have the keys to the church but we turned on the water and we saw that instead of the water going into the font the water was spilling shooting out of a pipe in the bathroom, so we turned off the water and found that the pipe was missing a huge joint piece and so water would just spew back out into the bathroom, we didn't have any idea why the pipe piece had been pulled out, so we had a mad rush of filling up the baptismal font by hand with buckets, that was a pain, it took about an hour and a half but we got the font filled up, that was the first time i had to do that on the mission and I hoped it would be the last. So the very next day we were going to have our baptism for Gabriel, so we got to church and what do you know someone had pulled the plug on the font! And it was empty again, so during sacrament meeting me and Elder Piñon starting filling the font up by hand again, but the problem was that the font must have a leak or something because it was slowly losing water so at the end of church there was very barely enough water in the font to do a baptism, luckily Gabriel is fairly short, but it seems like Satan did everything to try and prevent these baptisms from happening but they happened! Our mission ward leader was traveling which complicated alot of things as well and so we had to put everything together on the agenda and notify everyone, but it worked out. When we got in the water it was really cold haha, because yesterday was a super cold day the coldest i had ever had since new york on the mission, but it was interesting because during the baptismal prayer the water all of the sudden went from cold to lukewarm, it happened in a split second, I don't think the water itself became warm but I know that it actually became o water of healing, capable of washing away sins because the Lord had authorized that baptism because it was done by someone having His authority. The water was so low that it was just a little above my knees but even after her baptism I could feel that warm sensation in my body where the water had been touching, and I knew that Gabriel had that exact same feeling in all of her body and being, she felt the spirit strongly and was crying after her baptism. That made all of the difficulties and challenges worth it. Also Israel was confirmed on Sunday and he is doing well and going to seminary and church. Also this week we will be having zone conference here in Ponta Porã, where our zone and the Dourados zone which is a neighboring city and zone will be coming here and we will have a training from President Reber, and then after we will have our own zone conference of just our zone, that was kinda dropped on us this week because before we were going to have the conference in Dourados but now they randomly switched it to our zone, so now we have to get someone to prepare a lunch for all the missionaries and also we have to prepare the chapel and get everything ready for them. This week will probably be pretty wild as well, pray for us so that it will all work out. So mom wanted to know more about my companion, he does not have a blogspot unfortunately, but he lives in Virginia, but is from Miami, he is almost 22 I think and wants to do a career in music after his mission, he also like skateboarding alot before the mission and he will be finishing his mission in august. His dad is from Cuba and his mom is from Illinois I think. We get along really well and I am glad to have him as my companion. Well yeah I have to get going but thanks for your letters and I hope you all have a wonderful Easter. Tell the brothers thanks for their letters and I was glad to have gotten them and read them they made me really happy. oh yeah so Saturday I hit 16 months and I don't feel in different then I did when I had 15 months and 30 days, the mission is going by quick and I need your prayers so that we can continue having success in our area. its cooling down here, last night I was super cold and we wore sweaters these last two days. Its getting chilly it reminds me of home!! Thanks so much for the prayers and thoughts, I know they help. Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Kennington

Brazil Week #68 Ponta Para.

Boa tarde gente, sorry I'm emailing so late, we played soccer this morning and then we went to a birthday party for a member today and then we went home and cleaned up the house and stuff. So I'm hear with bro man Elder Pinõn, its been a kind of wild week, we havent been hardly able to work cause we have been running around so much with traveling and doing baptismal interviews and stuff, I'm excited though this week to start fresh and have a free week ahead of us, so yeah my companion is Elder Christopher Pinõn, from Miami Florida, but his family is currently living in Virigina, we get along great which is normal, Ive never had any problems with a companion. He is at a year and almost 7 months I think. Who is a super focused and strong missionary and he will help our zone and me alot. So he arrived on Tuesday so I just stayed in a trio for a little bit with elder w santos and his companion. We were going to have a baptism this week of Gabriele, we went to her house on Wednesday and talked with her and her mom and got her signature and it was like the easiest thing in the world, but Thursday we had to leave to go to campo grande right after lunch, cause we had a meeting for all the zone leaders in the south, the reunion was great and we learned alot, president was very pleased with our zone because we had helped triple the baptisms that the zone has been having the last several months, we were the zone that had the most number of baptisms in the south. But that's enough being prideful but the mission now has a new plan that all the zone leaders will do weekly divisions with the district leaders, hopefully it will help the entire mission as much as it has helped us. we didn't get back to Ponta Porã until about 11 Friday night, so we stayed the night at the house of the missionaries that live really close to the bus station, because the next morning we had to do baptismal interviews for them, so we did that and then we went straight to the church so we could watch general conference, we were blessed and they sent up a separate room for the Americans because there are 9 of us in the zone here, so that was nice being able to watch the talks in English, its nice to be able to actually hear their own voices, nothing against Portuguese at all but its just nice hearing the actual voice of the Prophet, Priesthood session we watched in Portuguese though. General conference was great and as I said before I appreciate it alot more now that I am here on the mission. I felt the strength and the power of the words of the speakers and I look forward to being able to study the talks more I plan on downloading them and listening to them. It was strange to think that its been a year since uncle tom passed away, I still miss him and he was in my thoughts, my thoughts were back at home with you guys as well, conference made all the Americans trunky, haha, next conference though will be my last on the mission, and then I will be going home probably. Weird to think that in 6 more months I will be entering into my last transfer of the mission. gosh tu é doido. Lets not think about those things, this week I will hit a year and 4 months, sad thing about missions is they all come to an end whether we like it or not. Oh yeah, so we were going to baptize Gabriele on Sunday but we called her mom to confirm things and she said it would be better for Gabriele to wait to be baptized, I was pretty shocked to hear that but I just told them that we would be coming by to visit them this week, so I don't know what happened but tomorrow we will find out, I hope we can still baptize her, pray for her and us so that everything can go fine so that we can baptize her still. So yeah, I'm really tired cause we were playing alot of  soccer which really tired me out, but I'm stoked up for this transfer Elder Pinõn is the man, he is 22 and we are already really good friends this transfer will be really good, it will only be a transfer of 5 weeks instead of 6 weeks though, I was excited to hear that you guys enjoyed conference and that dads companion was called as an area authority, that's cool. But I know the church is true and that Thomas S. Monson really is Gods chosen Prophet, that I know. Families can be together forever, and the mission goes by too fast. Well not much to say today sorry but pray for us so that we can find the Lords elects and baptize them, love you guys and also I hope Keeton gets feeling better, I'm miss my little cousins they have probably changed so much! take care and have a good week!

-Elder Kennington

Week #67 Elder B. Souza gets transferred.

Good morning family and friends, I´m a little sad today cause my companion Elder B Souza is being transferred. That's something that neither of us were expecting. We were expecting to stay at least one more together but I guess that The Lord has other plans in mind. This was only his second transfer here but I guess that's how life is, full of surprises, bumps in the road, rivers to cross, barriers to jump, and burdens to be carried. But that's ok. All I know is that I'm grateful to be able to have had many companions on the mission to teach me many different things. Including the mtc Elder B Souza has been my 12th companion. This last transfer has gone by super fast for me and I have learned many many things, I´ve learned how to deal with and help dissobeident and problematic missionaries and I have been strengthened my the many burdens and stresses and tasks of being a zone leader. And I still have a lot more to learn. So I know that my companion will be Elder Piñon. I don't know much about him because I only met him once and talked with him for about 5 minutes at the Christmas mission conference. I know that he is American but has a Spanish name and that he is from the same group as my companion that I had in Sorriso Elder Geisler. So I think he has about a  year and six months. He was a zone leader in the north in a city called Rondonopolis, which is where Elder B Souza will be going to be zone leader. But everybody says he is a great missionary that works hard and is fun to be around. So I think it will be good. There were relatively few changes in the zone, I know that there will be two Americans from my group that will be coming here to our zone so hopefully they are good. I was super on edge yesterday because everyone was convinced that Elder B Souza was going to be called as an assistant to the presidente, and so I didn't want him to be assistant because that would mean he would leave, usually the president calls beforehand during the day of transfer calls to ask if the except the call, but the president never called so at night I was alot more relaxed and then we got transfer calls and he got transferred anyway! Flip haha, so yeah but the Lord blessed us this week and we baptized Israel yesterday so we were happy to end the transfer on a good note. Heavenly Father has been so good to us, this week I was away from my area doing divisions with the district leaders, it was good and resulted in a baptism that was unexpected  for them I did 2 more baptismal interviews for them of some young men that were baptized on Saturday. I remember on Tuesday we went to Israels house because his dad was home which is rare because he lives in campo grande and it is rare that he is here, so we prayed and went to get his signature so that Israel could be baptized, which was actually super easy we talked a bunch about how much baptism will bless Israel and he will even be a better young man that he already is, then we just said hey but he needs your signature so that he can get baptized and he was like well that I can do and he just signed it with no problems, it was cool and we weren't able to visit gabriele and get her moms signature but she was excited and was at church yesterday and saw israels baptism and was super happy and excited to be baptized I just hope her parents wont have any objections. So we just found out that elder b souzas bus leaves at 2:30 today and he still has to pack and take care of a bunch of stuff so I think this email will be cut short but I will try and get some pictures to you guys, but yeah so this week was good and tiring but we were blessed with a baptism, also mom asked who was in the picture of the baptism of last week, I was with Elder Payne that missionary that I trained in Cuiabá, he had his first baptism in Brazil last week. But yeah so I am excited for this transfer I hope everything goes fine with transfers its going to be a pain having to find rides for everyone to pick them up from the bus station but it will work out fine, I'm glad that Jordan had a good time at prom this week and last week as well, I enjoyed the pictures and thanks for sending them to me. So yeah pray for us so that everything can be fine and dandy this transfer and I look forward to emailing you this next week. But know how much I love you guys and hope you all have a wonderful general conference weekend!

-Elder Kennington

Israels Baptism

Brazil Ponta Para Week #66

E aí gente, man I am super tired today we worked super hard this week. The week went by in a blur. We knocked lots of doors taught lots of people met alot of great people and alot of not so great people. Contacted some good references and had 6 investigators at church. The Lord was good to us this week and he poured out his blessings upon us. So as a result of our work this week we have two baptismal dates set for next Sunday on the 30th. We set another date with Israel who is 15 and his neighbor who is the niece of a less active that is returning to church, her name is Gabriele she is 11 years old. Then we worked alot with them this week. It was my turn this week to stay in the area and Elder B Souza went to the district leaders areas and did divisions with them. So Yeah we spent alot of time knocking doors this week but we actually met some cool people, we are working in a different area than before. It is actually the area of another pair of missionaries, but they said we could work in it because it is right on the division of our areas. So yeah we just went crazy knocking doors spreading the fire of the Gospel. We taught Gabriele for the first time and her aunt, Gabriele went to church, but her aunt is only 17 slept in, yesterday at church My first son on the mission Elder Payne had his first baptism in Brazil, Gabriele saw the baptism and I asked her if she wanted to be baptized the same way next week, she said yes but she wasn't sure if her parents would let her. SO this week we will talk to them and I hope that we don't have any problems getting their signature, its the same thing with Israel his dad is in town  which is good, because he really likes the church and even expressed that he thinks it would be cool if his son served a mission in the united states. So this week we had a great lesson with Israel, because he was kinda wishy washy and didn't go to church last week but we had a great lesson where we watched the restoration then we bore our testimonies and just told him that he needs to be baptized and that he knows and feels that he also needs to be baptized, we then gave him two dates, this week the 23rd or march 30th, he said the 30th. Yesterday he was at church and he had been going to all the seminaries. So tonight we are going to his house and we will pray and hope that his father will give his signature so that he can be baptized. I hope that all will go fine and that he wont have any problems with him getting baptized and also with Gabrieles parents so please pray for us so that these two baptisms happen this week. We have worked a ton this transfer and I just want to see some of these fruits. So also we got a reference from a member of a couple that they had met in the hospital so we contacted this couple during this week and they are super cool people and were super stoked about going to church, the only problems is that they are engaged about not yet married, they are on parole haha, and they are addicted to marijuana. They confessed this all in my first visit there, I thought it was kinda funny but it was cool how they were open about it and they expressed their great desire to stop so we will help them, their names are Anna and Marcelo. They went to church yesterday and loved i I think it might take a while to baptize them though because they have a history of crimes and drug trafficking which they also admitted. But there a super chic family and I look forward to working more with them. It rained quite a bit this week as well but it wasn't as bad as the weeks before. I went on another split with Elder Payne on Friday that was cool, and Saturday we had a family home evening with a member here name Cynthia, she is from Paraguay, but lives in Brazil she is helping relearn and learn more Spanish, she has a car store in Paraguay that she owns and so she is a very wealthy lady, but has a heart of gold and they have a huge tv that is bigger than my bed. But we had a fun family night and we played some games with them and gave a message and we had some investigators there and then we ate pizza there, they had some Mexican pizza there that had calebresa peppers and bacon that I thought was perfect, but everyone thought it was too hot, I've gained quite a taste for spicy food on the mission. Also on Thursday I had a family home evening at a members home that was about the armor of God, we had a good time and ate popcorn and stuff, we also have been running early in the morning to help get our bodies in shape, we walk all day but it doesn't seem to do much for our bodies it just puts calluses on our feet so it was good to run and sweat out some fat cells and toxins and stuff haha. We have been having to resolve some problems in the zone this week there are some members that like calling us for every little thing that happens that doesn't seem right to them, but its alright though we are helping our zone to be more obedient and to not do stupid things, we ha vent had any major problems but transfers is next week and there will be a few missionaries that will efinatly have to leave the zone, because the members are complaning alot about them. Me and Elder B Souza always joke and say that we´re not the zone leaders because we are the best missionaries in the mission or the smartest or the missionaries the baptize the most or work the hardest, but we are the zone leaders because we don't do stupid things! Me and Elder B Souza and getting along great and working great together, yesterday when we were reporting the zone numbers to the assistants we told the assistants to tell president that we want to stay 5 transfers together haha, it is possible that we will stay together 3 but 2 is most likely, also like I said transfers is next week and I hope we stay together but who knows what can happen at transfers, yesterday was cold and I decided to where a sweater that I bought from Elder Almeida before he went home back in November, so I took some sweet pictures but after lunch I got hot and so I took it off. But yeah please pray for these baptisms to happen, we are worried but we have faith. Im Grateful for the Gospel and the sacrament and the Book of Mormon. There is no greater peace than that that comes from living the principles of the Gospel. We´ve been tired this week our bodies and minds have been heavy with exhaustion but it is good because I know that we are serving the Lord well. The Church is true, the Book is blue, and Moroni is on the ball. Paz e amor seja com vocês. 

-Elder Kennington

Elder B Souza & Elder Skyler Kennington

Week #65 Ponta Pora, Brazil

Hey everyone! Happy Saint Patrick's day, I had completely forgotten until today because mom reminded me that it was today. You all know how much I love green and know that as usual I am using a green tie. I forgot to put on my green suspenders that uncle Ryan got me though haha. Well this week seemed to go by quick. It was a good week that was full of triumphs for our zone, but in me and Elder B Souzas area we experienced many disappointments. we are still stuck in a hole here with almost no people to teach. There are plenty of wonderful members in our area but just no investigators. I think I have already explained much about our area, it is very small and half of this small area is just stores and shops, the other half is the where the richest people in the city live. Which makes it almost impossible to get inside any ones house and teach it. Our area is newly opened because before no one ever wanted to work in it, and now I can see why. It has been hard to try and keep the faith and move on in the work. We had our investigator Israel but this week he gave alot of excuses and it sounds like his mom has been putting alot of thoughts into his mind. He didn't go to church yesterday and every time we brought up the subject of church or baptism he tried changing the subject. That kinda bummed us out cause he is our only hope for a baptism this transfer, this is elder B souzas second transfer in the area and his second without a baptism, that's tough for him because before he was serving in São Paulo where they baptize alot, the church is like in Utah there and they baptize almost every week there, so it has been teaching us both patience and reminding us that we need to rely on the Lord and that we need to do what He want and not always what we want. That's hard to accept sometimes, maybe our purpose here is to strengthen our zone and help them to baptize, but maybe at this time its not our turn to be the ones baptizing. I don't know all I know is that this area has been one of the greatest challenges for me and Elder B Souza. But there has to be something we can do to find the Lords Elect, we got a reference from a member yesterday so hopefully that will work out. This week we had a regular divisions again, this time it was my turn to leave the area, Wednesday though the assistants came and did a division with us, I went with Elder Hancock who is a great friend of mine, I lived with him for 2 months when I was in Campo Grande but the last time I did a split with him I was in Sorriso over 6 months ago. We had a good day we just tried to find new people to teach, we made some contacts and there was a few people that said we could come back, we went back later in the week though and they weren't home. Thursday I went and did a split with Elder De Melo, they had an eternal investigator that in the last division Elder souza went there and got her excited for baptism and did here baptismal interview and they marked her date for the 15th, during that week this investigator who is a young woman that's 15 years old had one of her old young womens leader from the Catholic church come and told her and her mom that if she was baptized her family would be cursed and that nothing would go good in their lives and that it was the worst decision they could ever make, and a load of other junk she told them, this scared the girl alot and it sounds like she was very shaken and didn't know what she wanted to do. This happened on a Tuesday, I went there with Elder De Melo on Thursday and we talked a bunch and we showed them a video called I am a son of God that is on the Mormon channel that shows when Moses went to the mount and had a great vision from the Lord and saw Him and talked to Him, and then after this great revelation and manifestation of the Spirit, Satan came and tried to show his power and say that he was God. But Moses wasn't deceived and cast Satan out. The point of the lesson and the video was that many times after we receive an answer or revelation from the Lord Satan comes in many times to try and scare us or negate what just happened. After we showed the video the Spirit was super strong and her mom said now I understand, we had them explain their feelings and they felt that it really was Satan that had tried to scare them and dissuade her from being baptized. We then asked that Saturday at 6 o'clock would be what, and the girl said my baptism and smiled. And indeed she was baptized on Saturday along with 3 other people in other wards. That made us happy and the divisions have helped the elders to have these baptisms. Now we just need to baptize in our area, please pray so that we can come in contact with the elect in our area, pray that the Lord can provide away so that we can meet them and teach them. Friday was cool I went and did a division with my first son Elder Payne! that was cool his area is super humble and has wonderful humble people, they just live super far from the church and have no means of transportation. We visited some good people, they have a lady named Martina that wants to be baptized but she just has to stop smoking first, we talked with her and set some goals. Hopefully she will do her part and also rely on the Lord. Saturday and Sunday were uneventful we visited with some members and tried to visit with investigators. We did our weekly planning on Saturday and this week we plan on trying some new things, there is a part of our ward that is technically the area of the other missionaries and they said we could work there, it just a few streets but we plan on trying to knock on every door and make a contact with everyone. I hope that goes well and I again ask for your prayers so that we kind find success. Supposedly we will also be going to a school and giving a 40 minute presentation on health or something like that, I'm still not sure exactly what we will be doing but I hope it goes fine. So funny things this week Elder B Souza told me that I talk in my sleep and that I talk in Portuguese, and also  his bed broke haha, but we got it fixed but we had to sleep on the ground for about a week. I also decided this week that I am addicted to ice cream and cake. But both of these things are expensive here. But yeah so that's about it not much this week. I was excited to here that Cassidy Jarman got her visa, sounds like she will get to Brazil 1 year to the day after I got the Brazil, also I was excited to here of aunt Sids call, I hope all is well with her and that she can get recuperated quickly. Looks like you guys had a good week and I was happy to see that stake conference must have been great.  I love my family and I love my friends, the mission is the best and hardest thing that I have ever experienced, there are many ups and downs many good times and hard times. It teaches us many things and there are many hard lessons to be learned, I need to be better, I need to apply myself and dedicate myself more to the work of the Lord, but I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow and to be better everyday. I hope you all have a great week and take good care! com amor

-Elder Kennington