Hey my wonderful family! Sounds like everyone had a good, but busy
week. This has been a tough week for me, I won't lie. Not much has gone right.
But I am grateful that My Father in Heaven gives us these difficult weeks at
times. Because it reminds us of how blessed we are, and also we are humbled and
reminded of how much we rely on the Lord. So this week kinda stunk a little. But
I'm grateful that I had it, because its been a while since I experienced a
spiritually tough week. Every week of the mission is hard, there is no doubt
about that, but some weeks nothing seems to go right, and that Satan works
extra hard on us and our investigators. Last p-day we just kinda bummed in the
house, one of the Elders in the house has that movie called "courageous". I
remember I watched it a while ago with mom. Its not made by the church but it is
a really good uplifting movie and I enjoyed it alot. The movie was in Portuguese
but it wasn't really too much of a problem. I was able to understand about 85% of
the movie. We were pretty excited for this week because we were preparing a boy
named David to be baptized. He is 11 years old and will be 12 soon. He came to
church with one of our investigators 2 weeks ago. I'm not sure why he came to
church but we met him at church and instantly felt something different in him.
He is only 11 but he has an air of maturity and responsibility about him. We
taught him once the week before, about the restoration, his mom was there with
him too. It was a really good lesson and after we asked his mom if she would
support her son in being baptized if he wanted. She said, "Oh of course I will
support him in being baptized!" So we asked him if he wanted to be baptized, he
said that yes he wanted to be. So we were excited for that. But we went back on
Tuesday this week to teach him more. We got to his house but he was still at
school so we waited at a members house that lives right across the street.
Before long David arrived at his house on his bike, we called him over to us and
started talking to him. Something seemed a little off about him he seemed a
little down, so we asked him if he was excited for church this Sunday. He said
oh, kind of. We asked why is was only kind of excited? He paused for a minute and
said that his parents weren't going to let him get baptized anymore. We were just
kind of like "what?" So went over to his house to talk to his mom, we waited
outside for a minute and she came out and said in a kinda snappy tone, "what do
you guys want?" It was kinda funny cause Elder Cordeiro was like we are here to
see how you guys are doing, what's new this week? We talked for a minute then
suddenly the mom said we have decided that David wont get baptized. We are from
the assembly of God and he will baptize in that church as well. We were kinda
shocked, both Elder Cordeiro and me had the desire to ask her when the last time
was that she took her family to church. But whatever. We left a powerful message
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and of the importance of being baptized by one who
has authority given from God. I think the Spirit burned her pretty good. But at
the end she still said she wouldn't let her son be baptized. So we said thanks
for your time, closed with a prayer and left. I was pretty bummed during the
week because of this. I know that satan was working hard to discourage me. I
feel that Satan has robbed us of so many baptisms, I get sick if I think of it
too much. But I know that Heavenly Father is still testing me. I just wish we
didn't face so much opposition sometimes. But I know that as I face these
obstacles in the path I will gain knowledge and strength. And that by facing
these obstacles I will grow and be able to be made strong. the next day on
Wednesday we had district meeting here on Sorriso, then we went and tried to
find some less actives in a part of our area that we don't usually work in,
everyone had moved so on the way back to our other area we passed through a park
and made a contact with a guy. He seemed pretty open and I felt good about this
guy, he started asking us about the "founder" of our church and about the Book
of Mormon and stuff. I guess he already knew someone that had given him a Book
of Mormon a while back and he had "searched" about our church on the internet as
well. We sat down in the park to teach they guy and everything went down the
drain from that point on. He didn't want us to give an opening prayer and he
didnt accept the baptismal invitation either. So I started teaching about the
importance of families and prophets and then he started asking questions and
blabbing on about non-sensical stuff. We didnt really bible bash but for an hour
we sat there trying to explain prophets and the priesthood and stuff. But the
dude was a fool, he dug a pretty big hole for himself with his words and trying
to find scriptures to prove us wrong but he was searching for scriptures that
don't exist. We got pretty sick of listening to him talk apostasy to us. We
stood up and said "sir, we are wasting our time here arguing with you". But we both
bore simple testimonies that today God does call prophets and that the
Priesthood has been restored on the earth. At this point the guy almost
desperately said no, no there are no prophets! There is no more Priesthood. It
was kinda cool, at the same time me and Elder Cordeiro said, "No, there is!" Then we
shook his hand and left, and the guy just stood there with his mouth open but
with nothing coming out. It was kinda a joke after that in the house because
this guy was saying there are no more prophets, but then he would say that we al
are prophets. It was funny during the so called "lesson" because the guys was
like there are no more prophets, but then he pointed and me and was like but you
are a prophet. I just looked and Elder Cordeiro gave him a look of this guy is
crazy! So the rest of the week Elder Cordeiro called me Elder Kennington the
prophet. it was our joke. I don't think I have ever heard so many lies thrown at
me before, by anyone. Oh well I hope that guy changes one day before its too late.
Thursday we didn't have much to do, so we went to a park near the church and just
made contacts with people, me and E. Cordeiro split up but stayed within about
50 feet of each other and we made a grundle of contacts. We found one elect lady
but she lives in a city about 50 miles from sorriso that doesnt have the church
there. We gave her a Book of Mormon and all the lesson pamphlets. We both felt
strongly that she will baptize on day. Friday President Reber and Sister Reber
came to Sorriso and held interviews with all the Elders, we had a good
conversation, he said that there is almost 30 Americans waiting to recieve visas
that will be coming to this mission, and so he said to be ready. That's all he
said but pretty much that was code for you will probably be training when the
visas arrive. The next day we had to go to Lucas to give a baptismal interview
for the Sisters, we got lucky and President Reber gave us a ride there because
he was going back to Cuiabá. We spent a long time at the interview the lady had
alot of fears and questions. I think Elder Cordeiro was with her for over an
hour interviewing her. That bad part it that she didnt even show up to church
the next day, so we spent all that time there for nothing, hopefully will still
get baptized in the upcoming weeks. Sunday was normal, I always enjoy Sundays I
think I like Sundays even more than p-days. Like I said though it was a tough
week, but It good to know that we are never alone. Well I need to start on my
next letter to you guys, I had to write 2 letters today since I didn't finish
this letter last week. Any way love you guys so much and thanks for the
letters!
-Elder Kennington
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