Hey family! Another week has come and gone. Strange how the time
passes so quick on the mission. We has a busy week this last week. We opened up
a new neighborhood this last week. Here in Brasil all the cities are separated
into Bairros. Which I think the equivalent is neighborhood in English. So there
is probably a 15 or so bairros in our part of Sorriso. We have been working in
the same 4 or 5 bairros for the last 2 months and we have been getting very
little results. There are tons of less actives in those areas and alot of people
to teach but they all make the excuse that church is too far from their house.
Most people still don't have cars just bikes and motorcycles. So this week we
decided to open up a new neighborhood that is alot closer to our house and the
church house. This week we searched for some of the less actives in this new
neighborhood and made contacts with about everyone we came in contact with,
while we were searching for these people. Unfortunately alot of the less actives
had already moved but we met alot of cool people and some not so cool people as
well haha. We taught a lot of lessons this week and made alot of contacts with
people. Some of the more memorable lessons was we had one with a man that is
missing his right eye, we made a contact at his house cause we were looking for
some less actives and he came out and before we even said anything he was like
whoooo! I sure like when people come to talk with me and talk about God and
stuff. He was obviously a little bit drunk cause we could smell it on him. We
talked to him a bit and said we would come back the next day to teach him. SO we
came back and taught him the next day. He was sitting out in front of his house
and said I've been waiting for you guys! I knew you would come! This time he
wasn't drunk but he had a rotting pile of garbage and beer cans behind him that
wreaked. We had like a 50 minute lesson and I was holding my breath the entire
time. It was kinda annoying cause we would talk for 10 seconds teaching the
lesson and then he would stop us and go off on some tangent that didn't make
sense. It was almost comical sometimes cause he was cutting us off so much. I
got a little distracted during the lesson when he was talking cause he had bugs
and flies crawling all over his feet. I kept thinking to myself "man this guy
needs to take a bath" eventually we were able to finish the lesson. He said that
he would be baptized but he wasn't legally married and obviously had word of
wisdom issues. He said he would go to church on Sunday. We convinced him to
offer the closing prayer. I had a hard time not cracking up during the prayer.
In the middle of the prayer he stopped and was like "hey God are you listening?
I'm here talking are you listening? Then he paused for a second then said oh yeah
of course your listening. The way he said it was comical though. I took a peak
at elder Cordeiro and he was having a hard time not laughing as well. Funny the
things that people do sometimes. As missionaries we experience alot of things
that would put alot of people into depression and discourage them. But in The
Lords infinite Love and mercy he allows us to find much happiness and laughter
in his work. We are away from our families, friends, toys cars, regular music,
games, t.v, just the normal things of the world. Most people would go crazy. But
the Lord blesses his missionaries and supports and strengthens us. We are never
alone in the Lords work. The other day Elder Cordeiro was saying that he has
never laughed so much in a transfer. I'm glad that the Lord gave me a family with
a sense of humor and that I was able to learn from them. Another funny thing
happened we were at the home of a member family talking to them, they had the
radio on and there was a random part where the radio was playing some random
thing in English it wasn't even a song, but it randomly dropped the f-word. No
one understood it except me and my companion. I just muttered to myself
Caidaço, which is that word we use when something bad or not cool happened. My
companion just looked at me and we started laughing. The members were like why
are they laughing, we explained what happened and they thought it was funny too.
Luckily they turned the radio off after this. The radio stations here play alot of
songs in English and most of them are unedited. Not many people understand the
swear words except for me. There is alot of cars that just drive through the
city and neighborhoods blasting music and radio adds. It sure doesn't help the
spirit when we are teaching a lesson and a car with speakers strapped to the top
of it is blasting music and drives by right in the middle of the lesson. It is
what is though. We taught several more great families that accepted to be
baptized but they aren't legally married! What a curse! This week I we had over
a dozen people accept to be baptized. And Yesterday we had about 15 people that
said they would be to church. But you know how it goes. We had 2 investigators
show. A lady who isn't legally married and her nephew. We will keep working with
them but it was kind of a disappointment yesterday at church. But that's
missionary work for ya. Miques was confirmed yesterday and that was cool. He is
making friends with the young men in the ward so hopefully he will be able to
build a strong relationship with them and stay active. The picture that I added
was taken at a members home that just moved into the ward. We had lunch at their
house, and they have this really sweet motorcycle there. One of the things I
miss is riding motorcycles back at home. Here there are tons and tons of
motorcycles and so its a little hard to not day dream about motorcycles
sometimes. So today we are going to go fishing with a member. I am super excited
for that. The last time we planned to go fishing on the mission I was emergency
transferred the day before, so I was glad that I didn't receive any calls last
night saying I was being transferred. We bought these bamboo rods that they sell
here and we will fish with them, they only cost like 3 bucks. It should be cool
and I will get some pictures to you next week. well not really a whole ton this
week, we will be working our tails off this next week probably so it should be
good, the time passes quick when we are staying busy. It sounded like the
Brothers had a good time at Grandma and Grandpa Kenningtons over the week, wish
I could have been there. Anyway love you guys all very much and hope you are all
well. Thanks for all the prayers and everything. Until next week!
-Elder Kennington
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