Brazil Week #29

Hey everyone! I was super happy to see that you guys had a sweet 4th of July! I almost forgot but me and Elder Cordeiro traveled to the Sisters area that day and Sister Grimes the American wished me happy 4th of July I had forgetten. Last P-day me and Elder Cordeiro cooked some hot links over a fire pit that we have at the house, I bought some cheap brazilian bbq sauce and we had us a somewhat American Churrasco! (BBQ)  This week went by pretty quick and pretty slow at the same time. I knew that Jordan was doing fine because I prayed and asked if he was well and I had a powerful feeling of comfort and consolation come over me and I knew that Jordan was doing just fine. But still I worried about him over the week. One of the bad things about thinking about family and home during the day is that at night you usually dream about home as well. I think I dreamt about home every single night this week. In the Brazil Cuiabá mission we have a word we use for anything that isnt good. The word is Caidaço. We can have a day thats caidaço or a lesson or street contact that is caidaço. Pretty much it can mean anything that didnt work out or that isnt cool. English doesnt really have a equivilant and its just a made up word that we use in our mission. No one else uses it. But to be honest this week was kinda caidaço. The enemy was working hard this week. Against us, our investigators, the members, basically everything. We spent 2 entire days this week in Lucas which is where the Sisters are. We went thursday to give a training to the Sisters, we had problems with our bus again and we got their late so we went straight to lunch with them and then came back and gave the training. We left and arrived back in Sorriso at the bus station then we had to walk another 40 minutes to an investigators house that we had met last week when we taught those people when they were having their own family home evening that were from a different church. by the end of that it was time to go home, we went again on Saturday to interview 2 people that were being baptized in Lucas, Elder Cordeiro is over the Sisters so he interviews all of their baptisms. We walked miles and miles and miles that day. There was a big accident on the highway and our bus was delayed two hours. So by the time we arrived at the bus station we didn't have time to go to our appointments that we had set up with our key investigators. Ever more none of our phones were working  randomly and so we didn't have a way to call our investigators that night or in the morning. It was strange cause as soon as church got out and we went to lunch our phones magically started working again. Elder Cordeiro looked at me and said I blame the devil. We kinda laughed but we do wonder if Satan really is doing all these things to trip up the work here. We are also looking for another house, President Reber wants us to get a house that is located more into our area, so we spent some time looking for a house as well but turned out fruitless. There isn't very many houses here that our in the price range that the church asks. I also think that eventually President plans on putting 2 more missionaries here so we will need a house with 4 missionaries and another with 2. We only have 2 weeks left in the transfer it shot by pretty quick. I'm interested to see what will happen. I heard that President Reber usually keeps missionaries in Sorriso for a while. I like Sorriso alot but I honestly don't want to stay here for 6 months  but whatever happens, happens. It's weird that on Friday I will hit 7 months on the mission. Its just going by super quick, it really is probably the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life, but when we get back home at night tired and ready to die of exhaustion, that is when I can smile and say to myself that I served the Lord well today. Since we spent so much time looking for houses and traveling, and walking, there was alot of good work time that was lost. I can definitely tell the difference. I'm not happy when I'm not working but at the same time the thought of working isn't a happy thought. But once we go out and actually work and fulfill our commission has representatives of the Lord this is when we are happy and the time flies by. Funny how things work. A challenge of mine that I still need to overcome is contacting people in the street. I don't mind clapping hands at someones door and making a contact that way but I have never been one the liked to interrupt people when they are doing stuff, and I have a fear of stopping people in the street to talk to them about religion. This is something I need to repent of, this shows that I fear man more than God. Luckily Brazil isn't the United States and people actually like talking about Religion. Its something that I fear and need to overcome, luckily Elder Cordeiro is the man with that kind of stuff and he helps me out alot. We had like a 20 minute conversation in the street the other day with these two guys that are training to be catholic padres. They were cool but they were very wrong about their history and facts. They believed that the Bible was the only thing that we can have today and that there can be no other scriptures. We talked about Prophets and Apostles a little bit and they said in an almost bragging way that our Church still has the scent of the apostles. I thought that was a funny way to put it. We were a little tempted to burn them on a few of their points of view and beliefs but we knew that that isn't was Christ would do. I laughed a little when he said that thought that our Church still has the scent of the apostles. Its nice to know that we don't have just a hint of a smell of apostles but that we do in truth have Apostles and  Prophets that help guide our church today. I can sleep good at night with that knowledge. Well not a whole lot this week we are working really hard with a couple to be baptized but Satan has thrown so many obstacles in their way to get to church, that's all they need is to go to church and they can be baptized. It appears that I need to pray more for my investigators and for the powers of Satan to be weak over them. Thanks for the letters from everyone, I always enjoy them so much. I feel that this week will be alot better. Everyone take care love you all!!!

-Elder Kennington