Geeeze, I´m pretty sure I was sitting here yesterday emailing you
guys, this week passed by super quick...again. Sadly it wasn't a super
productive week. We have good weeks where we feel like alot has been
accomplished and then we have weeks where we look back and think "man did I
accomplish anything this week?" This feels like one of those weeks for me. At
least it went by quick. So last p-day we went fishing! The first time on the
mission! I think its probably been about a year since I last went fishing so I
enjoyed it alot. Fishing here is a little different, we just have these bamboo
poles with about 7 or 8 feet of line on the end, and a little bitty hook. When
we arrived at the members house to go fishing he was in his front yard digging
for worms to use as bait. So we got down and started digging for worms. Our work
proved to be quite fruitful and we got a good 60 or so worms. SO then we went to
a river are that was about 20 minutes from the members house. Its located right
by the road and is basically just a place of where the water out from under the
road and makes a good hole for fishing. So we just bummed out there for 4 hours
and stuck our lines into the water and pulled out little fishes. Most of the
fish are just these little guys maybe 3 inches long. But still it was alot of
fun. We went with the member and his son so there was 4 of us altogether.
Between the 4 of us we caught 65 fish. They kept all of them because they like
to eat fish alot. I didn't understand why they would take the time even with
these little fishes. It would take forever to gut and clean them, but they said
to keep all of them so we just stuck them in some pop bottles with the top cut
off. Ill include a few pictures for you guys. About 30 minutes after we arrived
about 6 kids showed up and started swimming in our hole where we were fishing,
whatever though we kept fishing. Kids are funny here in Brazil, they have no
fear and just talk to whoever and like to show off, I love the kids here.
Another funny thing here in the Brazil is that the kids call anyone older than
them that they don't know uncle or aunt. So while I was fishing they kept yelling
Tio! tio! look at me! and then they would do a cannonball or something. I talked
to them for a little bit and they asked me where I was from and so I talked to
them about the United states for a little while. I get asked pretty interesting
questions alot. The kids were asking me if the united states had rivers, or if
it had fish. Questions like that, I love the kids here though and I enjoy
talking to them alot. We had a good time fishing, we left when it got dark when
I got home I made chocolate cake, then I put some cream and condensed milk in
the blender and mixed it up and poured it on top of the cake and the cake
absorbed all of it. So I made Bolo de três leches! (Tres leches cake) It was
good! but it was super strong I used to much sweetened condensed milk. But still
it was awesome. It reminded me of one time when I made it back at home. So
Tuesday we went back to the members home that we had fished with the day before,
we sat down and they brought out all the fish that we had caught the day before.
From a ways it looked pretty good but when I got my plate I was a little
surprised to see that the fish and only been thrown and cooked in oil, they still
had all the scaled and bones, they had just been squeezed until the guts shot
out of the fishes bum. I thought "geeze, are you serious?" nevertheless I sat
down and ate, it actually wasn't too bad at all. Luckily we ate the fish with
bread so it was a little better. The strangest part was feeling the head crush
in between my teeth, I could just imagine brain splattering in my mouth haha.
Luckily it wasn't like that though. I did get some bones stuck in my teeth
though. The next day on Wednesday we went to Lucas again and had district
meeting with the sisters. It was good and we didn't have any problems with the
buses this time. We got back and went to some investigators homes and taught, we
met a man from Haiti. Its pretty easy to recognize people from Haiti here in
brazil, they are usually alot darker and have a special glow about them. There
is quite a few here in sorriso. I know that they had alot of problems in their
country and so they left and Brazil was about the only country that would accept
them. None of the speak portuguese very well, whenever we see someone that looks
like they are from Haiti we always stop and make a contact with them in the
street. This man that we met from Haiti is named Jacque. He lives here with his
wife. He has about 8 months here in Brazil and he speaks ok Portuguese. We got
his address and phone number and said we would come back and teach him the next
day. So we went back the next day and met his wife who has been here about a
month, she doesn't speak hardly anything. She speaks French and creole, and he
speaks, creole and Spanish, and Portuguese. So We got there and explained a
little bit of what we do. And then we taught them the first lesson. Luckily
Elder Cordeiro knows quite a bit of Spanish cause we taught them in Spanish for
most of the lesson cause the husband understood better that way. Good grief I
forgot all my Spanish so I mainly just stuck to teaching in Portuguese but with
very simple words. Elder Cordeiro taught about Joseph Smith and the first
vision. He had read the first vision like twice but somehow he quoted it almost
perfectly in Spanish. When it got to the part where it says "This is my Beloved
Son, hear him!" The power of the Spirit was like a wave that rolled over us. It
brought a few tears to my eyes. It is times like that when my testimony is
strengthened of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I don't know how much of the lesson the
couple understood, but one thing I do know is that they understood the language
of the Holy Ghost. That was a cool experience for me. We will go back and teach
them this week, they had to work this Sunday but they said they would go to
church this upcoming Sunday here in a week. It was a pretty normal week, we had
ALOT of appointments fall through, we would arrive at the house and there would
be no one there or our investigators would have just left, it was kind of a
disappointment. We went to a birthday part of a part member family and ate some
peach cake and visited with them for a bit. It was kinda funny when we left their
house we were walking by a home with 2 big dogs, when we walked by I was pretty
tired and kinda out of it, and Elder Cordeiro said the dogs are coming, luckily
the dogs are gated in but I looked up and the dogs were running at us really
fast, I yelped and jumped off the sidewalk and ran halfway into the street
before I realized that the dogs were gated in as usual. Elder Cordeiro almost
died laughing. It was pretty funny but for a second my brain though that I was
about to get trampled by two great big dogs. Saturday on our way to lunch I
commented on how I really like the beans that the sister makes. This sister is
married to a member but she is super catholic and doesn't want to change, but
usually she makes these really good red beans to put on the rice. I shouldn't
have said anything cause when we arrived I saw that she had added something to
the beans that I was hoping I would never have to eat again. She added thick
fatty chunks of pig skin to the beans, the last time I ate it was in Cáceres
with Elder Reed. This skin is really fatty and chewy and sticks to your teeth
when you chew it. Luckily it doesn't have much taste but I find the texture
horrible. I tried hard to not scoop up too much of the fatty blobs, but still I
had quite a few on my plate, I ate most of them and I threw the rest to their
dog who was more than happy to eat them. I like Brazilian food alot though. Sure
its rice and beans every singe day but usually the members have hot sauce and I
like to add that to my meals. We visited with some families on Saturday and our
branch mission leader, we went to visit some people with him but we got a call
from the branch president saying that he was at the church all alone cleaning,
so we went to the church and helped clean, which was good cause the president
would have been there all night long cleaning. Church the next day was a little
disappointing. It was cold that morning and I think alot of people weren't in the
mood to go to church. We only had one investigator to church and he left early
for some reason. But still it was nice partaking the sacrament and remembering
my own baptism. Well that's about it for this week, it should be good week this
week, we are going to work and try and get a baptism this next Sunday. Thanks
for your letters from everyone, I thought it was super cool seeing that clip
from the newspaper about Jordan and Kaden. It makes me proud to have two
excellent brothers. O yeah today marks 8 months since Mom and Dad and the
Brothers dropped me off at the MTC in Provo, Weird it´s passing so quick. Before
I know it I will be back at home again. I think I will cry when that day comes.
Of course I will be happy to see everyone again but I think I will miss my
mission alot. Nothing compares to a mission, we learn more everyday, more about
ourselves, more about others, and more about The Savior. It´s cool being on a
mission cause we get to see how much The Savior really loves us. I know our
Savior lives, and I know He loves us. He is my Master and my Captain. And I am
grateful that he has given me so much. May we never forget all that Our Savior
has done for us. Oh btw yesterday was fathers day here in Brazil, so happy Brazilian fathers day dad! Have a good week everyone! I love you all very, very,
much!
Com todo meu amor
-Elder Kennington
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