A quick Hello at Transferes with his New Companion Elder Payne

Whats up mom I'm here with my son cause he is sending an email to his family cause the president said he could, and so im sending a picture of us when he got to the mission office, he is the tallest one standing up, hes the man and is already speaking pretty good even though he cant understand anything. I'm stoked and i should be really good this transfer, sorry I didn't send any pics to you last week it was pretty hectic with time since it was transfer day. But everyone got here safely and all is good in the hood, my companion is Kyle Payne and he also has a blog too, he said that he had already seen mine even before he got here and I had already seen his too. We are bros though  and are like best friends already. Love ya mom and dad have a good week and thanksgiving

-Elder Sky

Brazil Week #49

Hey everybody good morning, and happy thanksgiving this week. Brazil doesn't celebrate thanksgiving so maybe i will get lucky and we will have chicken during lunch on Wednesday, I think that's the closest Ill get to turkey. haha So it was a good week this week, I was disappointed with our investigators who are ready to be baptized but Satan is doing what he always does and puts fear and doubts in their  hearts. Our investigators say they want to wait until they can be sure that they are ready for baptism and they can know that they will stay firm after the baptism. We explain explain and explain, about how they will be waiting for a long long time if they want to have a certainty like that, baptism is an act of faith that is something that the Lord has always required, he always requires faith he will guide and point to the correct path but he will never force or push anyone to do anything. That's what Satan tries to do, he tries to push and shove and convince with his lies and force people to do things, that's not how Heavenly Father is, He shows us the path and whats right and then he lets us make the choice for ourselves. He gave us our agency which is one of the greatest gifts that he has given us, Satan wanted to take away our agency in the premortal world and he still wants to do it today. Its a pain that most people want to have God walk up to them and tell them what to do, when he can do the same thing through the whisperings of the Holy Ghost. Stinks that alot of people want more answers from god even after the Spirit had born witness of the truth to them. We made sure that Elder Almeida got in a good last week of work, I think we did well. We found some new investigators that I look forward to working with the next transfer. Speaking of transfers here's the what's new, Elder Almeida is being transferred to his home in the state of Santa Catarina, and I will be training my new companion who is coming fresh out of the states after serving their for more than 6 months haha, I will be training Elder Payne. I'm not sure where he is from but I'm pretty sure he has been serving in Montana for the last 6 months while waiting for his visa, he is from the same group as Elder Mayolo who is a good friend of mine here on this mission, I remember that Elder Mayolo mentioned that there was an Elder Payne in his group and was serving in Montana, I know that Elder Mayolo entered the mtc back in march when I was still in New York, so that means Alder Payne has 8 months on the mission now. Sounds like it wont be much of a training for him I'm sure he knows everything, the assistants said as well when they called with the transfer that he has already been district leader and was serving as a zone leader. geeze, I think it should be him that should be training me. I think he will probably just need help with the language which I am excited about, I think it will be fun having language study with my companion again. That has to stink though having 8 months on the mission and already having been district leader and zone leader and then having to go back down to being trained again. But I'm sure he is a humble guy and will learn quick and we will work hard together. I'm pretty stoked to be able to just give it my all now it should be a great transfer. Went on splits again this week elder Linton came again and we had a good day, Elder Linton is a good friend from my group. He was with a Bolivian but now he will be with his first American companion named Elder John, I think he has a year 5 months on the mission he will be our district leader, I had already met him before at mission conferences. One of our zone leaders Elder Moura that arrived in the area with me was transferred to the south again he will train a Chilean and open an area, We were surprised that he was transferred after only one transfer here but he said that he had asked president in an interview to be released from being a zone leader cause he had already spent more than  a year as a zone leader and he asked president if he could train. I'm glad that president is letting him do that. I'm excited to train as well. Ill never forget my trainer here in Brazil Elder Reed, he is in the south so I haven't seen him in almost 7 months. He is doing well though and is a zone leader down in the south. I got my hair cut this week, I had them cut it pretty short its probably the shortest I have ever had my hair before, its alright though I like, my hair is a lot lighter in color, bleached from the sun, its also alot thinner so I think it makes the color seem lighter as well. Ill just do what dad does when i get back home and cut it super short, hopefully I can look good and tough like dad does without hair haha. Saturday we taught this girl that works at the ice cream shop here. She had a load of questions that had a load of nothing to do with nothing. She said that she believed in the bible but not in the Prophets or apostles and stuff cause she had never seen them before. She had a pretty weird theory on alot of things, but we taught her the first lesson in the ice cream shop in between customers, we promised that she would received an answer if she prayed. She was like how do you guys have such certainty that these things are true, and how do you have so much certainty that I can receive an answer. She had alot of questions like that, We just told that that we had already prayed and felt that it was true. The next day we went back and said that she had prayed and that she had felt good after the prayer, she said she believed it was a answer from God. She lives in the area of the Elder Linton and his companion, so they will have to teach her, she wanted it to be us that taught her but we explained that we would have to take the bus to go to her house but that there are Elders that live close and they will teach her. So Sunday was good, I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, I was the last speaker and I had alot more prepared but there wasn't a whole lot of time, but it was really good. We also had two investigators randomly show up that we had cut a long time ago, they enjoyed church so hopeful we can get them baptized. Yesterday we made some last minute visits and Elder Almeida  said goodbye to the members. We had dinner and we received transfer calls. I'm pretty excited right now, I don't think my companion will arrive till Wednesday or Thursday, I was thinking about all the crazy problems we had when we came to Brazil, but we finally made it. We got to the mission home at about 2 in the afternoon on Tuesday, and our plane had left at about 5 in the evening the day before, so it was about 24 hours till we got to the mission, and then after that we had all the stuff with president where he told us where our areas would be and who would be our trainers, then we bummed at the mission home for the rest of the day and rested then the next day we had to do all our passport visa identity stuff to get us legalized in the country. I didn't arrive in my area until late Thursday night. Crazy times but I will never forget those first few days here in Brazil. So that's about all I have to write this week, so I will send some sweet pics to you guys. I love you all and thanks for all your prayers and thoughts, know how much I love all of you and am so grateful to have such a wonderful family and friends.  I  am grateful to be a member of the Lord´s true and living church here on the earth, and I'm grateful to be a missionary here in the Brazil Cuiabá Mission, the greatest mission in the world. But above all I'm grateful for my Brother and Savior Jesus Christ, He is my Master and I will always worship him and he will always be my King, and I know that it is only through him and his Atonement that I will be able to be happy and live with my family forever. I hope everyone has a great week and that you all have a wonderful thanksgiving. 

Com Amor

-Elder Kennington

Brazil Week #48 Skylers 20th Birthday & BBQ's

The BBQ (Look at All that Meat!)

Skylers Green Tie Selection/Collection



20th Birthday, Sipping Colada

 Boa tarde pessoal, so its about 5:30 in the evening right now, I am writing pretty late, cause we had another bbq, we got a bunch of meat again and started our fire at about 10 in the morning and by 1 we were ready to eat, we invited the assistants to the president and they came down and hung with us, so we had a sweet bbq and then after we went to the church and played soccer, I almost died cause its so dang hot but we had a good time, and now I am writing you guys about our week. So it was a pretty good normal week, it passed by super fast. I cant even remember what happened during the week, last week we just ended up hanging out and having another bbq that was really big, we did it at the old bishops house that lives straight across from us, we invited several members, we did it partly to celebrate my birthday as well, it was pretty good we had a ton of meat and everyone ate well. So not alot to write this week, Wednesday was just like any other day, I woke up and forgot it was my birthday until I went to sit at my desk to study and saw that my zone leader Elder Moira had given a green tie and a card that said happy birthday, that was really cool of him. Later that night we went to teach Leticia and got there and they had a surprise dinner party for me, that was cool we had a great dinner and then a super good chocolate cake and the sister there got me a present that was a hot chocolate mug of the Brazilian soccer team that I like call the palmeiras. We took some pictures and stuff too. One of our zone leaders Elder Moraes has been having alot of pains in his knee this week and has been pretty cooped up doing nothing cause he cant hardly walk, and also Elder Almeida has been kinda burnt out this week too, but still we got out and taught alot of lessons. We have been working alot with Leticia alot still and we are trying to get her baptized this Sunday and also we are preparing a lady here who wants to be baptized but her husband is a jerk, they are separated now but he is still giving her and their kids a hard time, all their kids are firm members and she couldn't be baptized cause she wasn't married legally but now she's separated from him but he is all mad at the church and the missionaries  cause he said its our fault that his wife wanted to separate from him and stuff. But the dudes a stooge, he drinks and smokes and has even beat his family, and he wasn't willing to change and so the family is trying to get away from his influence. But she was going to get baptized yesterday, but something didn't work out and so now its scheduled for this week I think, so pray that all will work out for us. I went on splits with Elder Moura this week and we went and looked for some less actives but no body was home and so we just ended up making contacts with people, The sun goes down at 7 o clock now and so its easier to get more lessons in and make contacts during the day, because before, the sun went down at 6 everyday. So on Friday we had a sweet activity where all the wards in the stake got together and we went to a place nearby that's kinda like fabrizios park place, where you rent it for the day and do what you want, they had a pool there and a big pavilion and a soccer field and stuff, we got permission from President Reber to go and eat because we were going to have investigators there and also all the families in the ward were going too and so we wouldn't have a way to eat if we didn't go, so we went and had a good time and ate, and played cards and that's about it, we couldn't swim and we couldn't play soccer cause we were in proselyting clothes, but it was good but that was a dang hot day and sweat kept getting in my  eyes when I was walking in the street, it was supposed to rain this week but it only rained Saturday. Saturday was an adventure we walked forever to get to lunch and when we got there we went in and drank some coconut juice from some coconuts that we pulled out of their tree and then after a while the members were like so what are you guys doing here and we were like lunch isn't with you guys and they said no and so we found out that it was with another family with the same name that live right next to our house so we walked a ton again in the blazing sun and got to lunch 2 hours late, but luckily the sister was cool and we still had a good lunch, that night our district leader came to do an interview with the sister that we are going to baptize and so I went on splits with Elder Linton again, we didn't have anything to do so we just went and made contacts, we passed some dudes from Haite that I spoke Spanish so I stopped and talked to them and taught them a little bit, I talked to a guy for a while about the church he spoke a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish pretty well and we were able to communicate fine but I was explaining about the holy ghost and how it is received by the laying on of hands but, he pretended like he didn't understand but I know he did, we invited him to church but made the usual excuse of Oh ill go if it works out.  That's what most people say. Oh I forgot to mention that we had a zone meeting on Thursday that was good I will include a picture for you, we have 7 American elders and 2 American sister in our zone, one Bolivian, one Argentinian and the rest are Brazilians. We have a sweet zone and Ill include a picture for you guys. That day it got up to 45 degrees celcius which is 113 degrees I think, it was warm that's for sure. But I think that's about it for this week. I got your letters this week from you guys for my birthday and thanksgiving thanks for the letters I really enjoyed them. My birthday was good , most of the members here wished me happy birthday and most of them new about it. Happy birthday today to Jetson and to dad on Thursday I hope its good. Sunday was good yesterday too I forgot, I will be giving a talk next week in sacrament meeting so that will be cool, first time on the mission. So Sunday we went and taught with the ward missionaries it was good but when we were returning home I stepped in a pile of dog crap and then a little weiner dog took a whiz on my recently polished shoes and on my pants as well. What luck. Its alright though it happens. It was a good week though and i felt close to all of you during my birthday. Next week is transfers so the next time I talk to you you will know who my know companion will be, it sounds like Elder Almeida will leave to go to the mission  Sunday evening. Its his last week, but he's still hanging in there. Yeah so that's about it all is well here thanks for the letters from everyone. But keep it real everyone and know how much I love you all!

-Elder Kennington

Brazil Week #47 (3) Shared Baptisms



Enrique

CIDA

 

Evandro

What's up my family! Good morning Dad informed today that I'm a now 4 hours ahead of you, which I was surprised to hear. So I feel really lazy today and I don't really want to write alot today but I will write instead of sleep haha, I'm tired. So we had an excellent week this week, we worked with several of our investigators, we have one named Leticia that we taught alot this week, she has been to church several times with her aunt who is a member, she has already received an answer that the church is true and stuff and she knows the book of Mormon is true, but I think she just lacks a little desire to get on the right path and stay on it. We taught her alot and were pretty straight forward with her, but she was just like idk just give it some time I'm not ready yet, so we busted out some Book of Mormon Scriptures, and showed that she's ready and that she has nothing to wait for and that the longer she waits the more time Satan will have to work against her. Sometimes it gets a little frustrating when people just don't get it. You explain in the most simple straightforward method possible. But people are still just like blah blah blah blah, everyone says that God is number 1 in their lives but really, He´s in the last place. Its like what Christ said to the prophet Joseph, that they draw near unto me with the words and their lips but their hearts are far from me. Lots of people like that in the world today. Its sad but that's how it is. This life is the time to prepare to meet God, if only everyone understood that principle of truth. So Wednesday I had a pretty sweet Division with Elder Linton a good friend of mine who entered the mtc the same day as me. He came here to Industrário, we didn´t have a whole tone of lessons already planned so we just went and knocked doors and made street contacts. We taught these two ladies who are here because their husbands(with whom they aren´t legally married) are in jail here. SO we taught them and they accepted to be baptized and it was cool and all one of them had a load of questions about the people that preach on t.v. She wanted to know if they were teaching the truth. I just said that normally they are and it is alot better to watch than most of the trash that is on t.v now days, she wondered about the preachers that preach to crowds of thousands and in the crowd there is always people going crazy that have "demons" and they are expelled by the other preacher dudes in the crowd. I told her that those things that they show on the tv is a load of rubbish and is almost always made and is just for show. The other week there was the founder of the universal church of God that was preaching in the north of Brazil to a huge crowd and he's like all who have demons i expel you! and then there's a bunch of people going crazy and acting like they are expelling spirits and stuff its a load of garbage honestly that people use the name of the Lord to get money and to lie and stuff, makes me mad sometimes. We went back to invite the ladies to church and they said they would go if the could but they had to visit their husbands in jail during church time. But we had a good day on splits we worked hard even though it was super, super hot. The next day I went on a division again with one of our zone leaders Elder Moraes, he's like my Brazilian Brother and I had already gone on splits with him back in Cáceres. It was interesting because he was supposed to go on splits with another Elder that is going home at the end of this transfer as well but this Elder is a flipping bum, he went to lunch with Moraes and got back and went and laid down and went to sleep, also my companion had a killer headache and was laying down as well. So me and Elder Moraes sat on the couch waiting for our companions. We waited and waited and waited, and finally Elder Moraes was like lets get out of here Elder Kennington we have people to visit, so we switched the division and I went with Moraes and My companion and the bum Elder stayed together. So we went and taught some of my investigators and then we took the bus and taught some of Elder Moraeses investigators that live super far away. It was good and we got back and they theother guys, were still at the house and had never left. My companion still had a headache but the other Elder just slept the whole stinking time. Good thing he's going home in 2 weeks. Elder Moraes was pretty mad cause he had gone on this division with him to make him work but the dude just slept, Moraes woke him up, but he didn't want to get up and work. I hope that Ill never be like that, it made me appreciate my companion who is going home the same day who still does a ton more. Taught some more people that were being prepared for baptism this Sunday that we were having some problems with the zone leaders, because they were also teaching as well. But the good thing is that they were all baptized on Sunday. We had 3 baptisms on Sunday. Elder Almeida called the President to see what he should do as far as numbers with how we should count the numbers when we report them, he just said to work it out with the Zone leaders,  it's kinda different having baptisms that are also the other guys baptisms as well. Whatever though, the baptisms were great and everyone was really excited. So this week has been super hot, I got burnt pretty good this week even with sunblock, it was supposed to rain but we didn't get anything which kinda stunk. I also learned today that Sorriso had a baptism from a contact that me and Elder Geisler made at a house during my last week there. It was one of those things where  you walk down the road and you see a house and you say to yourself we are going there, I remember we got to a road with a bunch of houses, I saw one house and I knew that we had to go there, so we went made a contact with a humble dude named Laerté he accepted to be baptized and after that I didn't know what happened, but I just found out that he was baptized yesterday. That made me super happy. So The baptisms from yesterday were, Cida, Enrique, and Evandro. 3 wonderful that everyone had been teaching, like I said we had that confusion but they are all great people and had already been very prepared by the Lord. It didn't take much work at all with them. Enrique is the young man and he plans on serving a mission in a few years when he is 18. We were able to get a house for that member from Haiti and the members were able to help him get a fridge and stove and stuff like that, they found him a job as well. So that's about it for this week, I'm pressed for time cause we are leaving already, but thanks for all the birthday wishes. I'm not sure if my cards have arrived at the mission office yet but I think somebody will go there this week that can maybe bring them back. It doesn't feel anything like I'm 20, I haven't thought about my birthday hardly at al.l To me its just another day. I feel and look the same as my last birthday accept now my skin is a little darker and I have even less hair. But to me this year has shot by. That is a good thing i guess haha. Mom wondered how I was doing with the Brazilian food. I'm still doing fine, I still haven't gotten sick here just a headache ever now and again but I don't even get diarrhea here. The Brazilians get sick more often than I do and have worse reactions to the food sometimes. But my body is pretty solid and I haven't missed a day of work yet. I've gained 2 pounds since I started the mission, I don't know where I gained the weight though, probably em minha bunda haha. funny joke haha. So I'm going to go now but I love you guys and hope you all have a week that is sweet! love you guys and am so grateful for you all. Take good care and be good.

-Elder Kennington

Brazil Week #46

Olá  peoples bom dia. Today its rainy and cloudy, which is kinda stinky. Its been like that alot during this week. Not much at all this week. I went on splits a few times and caught a fair amount of rain. Its kinda hard working in the rain here. cause no one is in the streets and it seems like everyone just goes to sleep when its cloudy and raining. But I guess rain does that, it kinda puts you in that relaxed sleep mode. But we were able to get some good lessons in this week. Tuesday Elder Cardona came here to Industário and we had splits and Elder Almeida went to the area next to ours called Pedra 90. SO it was kind of a bum day because it was raining and pretty junky weather. We went and tried to contact a referral, but the lady wasn't home so we went to member in the ward that is less active sort of and is from Bolivia, Elder Cardona is from Bolivia so we spent a while there listening them talk about Bolivia and stuff in Spanish. IT was fine though I understood what they were saying. We were getting ready to leave after this and then the sisters daughter arrived and so we started talking more again. Her daughter just turned 17 but she has a baby of about 2 months. We talked for a little bit and she related about how alot of members and turned their back on her cause she had made a mistake and got pregnant and stuff. But it was good we were able to help them and strengthen them. They went to church yesterday which was good. So we had a confusion this week with the Elders this week that has kinda put Elder Almeida in a bad mood with them. We had two investigators that are pretty solid one is a young woman of 17 and the other a young man of 16. So the girl Elder Almeida had already taught several times but she was traveling for almost 2 months and so he didn't get to teach her for a while, but he called on Tuesday and she had just arrived back at home so we sent up an appointment to go there, but the other Elders went there as well for some reason and started teaching her and marked a baptismal date with her and there was also another investigator of ours there that is the young man who we had also marked an appointment with him to teach him, but by chance he was there too and they taught him as well and marked a baptism date with him as well. We were kinda like what the, cause the other Elders are teaching our investigators that live in our area that we had already been teaching and had already marked visits with them and now all of the sudden the others are teaching them and marking baptisms with them. So it has kinda been confusing this week. Ive been chill cause as long as the people get baptized by someone I'm happy, but there's always that missionary pride of no my baptism its mine I want the credit! Stuff like that but Elder Almeida is in his last 3 weeks and would like to go home baptizing so he's a little more fired up about it than me. Its been pretty tense with him and the zone leaders but its better now after church. Its kind of a complicated situation. I'm keeping my mouth shut though, I have a super good relationship with the zone leaders and the missionaries in our mission and I'm not going to do anything to complicate that or put hard feelings between anyone. So I'm just gonna ride the waves and let Almeida take care of it haha. So also we haven't been able to teach mayara that other young women cause she has been traveling with her family this week. We are working with a family of a lady that was baptized last transfer but started living with a guy like 2 weeks after her baptism, so we are working to get them married and then get her husband baptized cause he has already gone to church several times. We had several family home evenings this week which was nice. Something interesting My first Sunday here we were at church greeting the members as they came in and we saw some really dark skinned guys walking in the streets walking they passed by and I thought man we should have waved at them to come to church. But then a few seconds later another one walked by, I guess me and the other missionary had the same prompting cause we both waved him over at the same time. He came into the church and we talked to him for a bit, he was like yo hablo espanhol, it said that like 5 times. So I talked to him a little bit in spanish and explained what was up. But that was hard cause I don't remember spanish very good, the guy was from Haiti. He watched all the classes even though he said he didn't really understand anything. The next week he came to church again which surprised me. We also found out the he was already a member of the church and him and all of his family were baptized back in Haiti. So the church is helping him find a job and a place to live because he has to leave his house tomorrow and find somewhere cheaper to live and a job as well. We got some food for him as well that a family put together, they found his records and stuff and now the church is helping. It sounds like he spent 4,000 dollars just to come to Brazil and get all his documents in order and stuff. And now he's here and doesn't even have a secure job or place to live. So I thought that it was cool that we were able to help him recognize the church and get help, he's gone to church 3 times in a row now here even though he doesn't understand very much he knows that he is in the same church the he was baptized in back in Haiti. Well a whole lot of not much this week I hope weather is better this week, Last p-day we didnt do much either we just went to a members home and ate lunch and bummed there for a while. we also had family home evening that night and had Brazilian hots dogs which is French bread with chopped up hot dogs in a tomato mixture thing Its really good and we eat a ton of it here in Brazil and is one of my favorite foods I will send you a picture of it. Today we wanted to go to the Chapada which is a major tourist attraction here in mato grasso. Its like an hour and a half from cuiabá I think, a brother was going to take us but today the weather is looking bad so maybe we will save it for another pday. I know that the assistants are taking a bus with a bunch of other missionaries today to go to the chapada but we were just going to go with the member, because it would be cheaper and faster and we would get to see more as well. Maybe next week though. Today I want to make sweet rice, ill see if there is time or not. oh yeah mom asked about my companion in the picture that's him laying down. He's pretty much as white as I am. He from the south of Brazil which has lots of immigrants from Germany and Europe, and so there is alot of white people there. So usually people ask if I'm from the south of Brazil because there is alot of white people down there. Also this week I went to pedra 90 which is the area next to ours and went on a division with Elder Linton who is from my group and is a good friend of mine. We visited a few people and taught a lady there. That couldn't understand the role of prophets and was convinced that we were all prophets spreading the word of God. I explained several times but she couldn't understand but still she was like oh yeah Ill go to church on Sunday. I forgot my bible back at the house and I regretted it cause I needed to use it several times during the lesson. I want to go to the mission office so that I can buy a smaller bible tat doesn't weigh so much, it gets tiring sometimes carrying around the bible and books of Mormon all day in the pack. We stayed the night there in pedra 90 with the missionaries, Elder Almeida was in pedra 90 as well and did a division with Elder  Cardona. They have a big house that used to have 4 missionaries, but now only has 2. So they only had 2 mattresses so we put them both together and all four of us slept on the same mattress, it was weird but worked out ok. So happy birthday to Uncle Randy last week and happy birthday to Jordan on Wednesday. And happy birthday to everyone else. I left my calendar that mom made me in sorriso that had all of the birthdays of everyone. I am trying to get it back but we will see. Also congrats to Kaden for making the basketball team again. That's really cool and I know that he will do well, to bad I didn't have the skills like him to make the basketball team haha good for him though. Also if you do decide to send a little package or something I am in need of more good socks, and stick deodorant cause here they don't have stick deodorant and the spray deodorant that they have is really expensive. But I know mail is expensive so don't worry to much. Also more green ties would be good. haha But i think that's about it this week I've tried to stretch this letter out for you guys so that you have something to read. Also I got another postcard from Grandma Dale this week that was really cool. I put it in my photo album to show people. I included a picture of us and a family on pday when they took us out to eat, this is a really neat family of Gustavo and Fabiani that are members here, at this place we bought like a 100 little meat pastries that they bake and they bring them out and we just eat it was really good. SO I guess that's about it I love you guys thanks for the letters and the advice, things are good here and we have some lofty goals this week so we are going to be working hard. Thanks again for everything and for all your prayers and thoughts. Also we had the time change 2 weeks ago so I'm not sure what time it is for you guys now. Right now its almost noon here. But love you guys so much and hope you all have a great week! Abração! 

-Elder Kennington