Ponta Para Brazil Week #83

Hey everyone, again I´m really tired today we worked like crazy again this week. I feel more tired mentally and spiritually than physically. That's good though Its good being able to get home at night tired in the head and not the body. That means that we worked effectively and with our brains instead of just working with our feet. Thanks for your letters I enjoyed them sounds like mom had a great birthday, I was thinking about her alot on Friday and I was happy to see that mom had a great day, so yeah this week was good we were blessed to have one more baptism yesterday. We finally baptized Jennifer yesterday, after almost 4 months of working with her. She is only 8 but is very smart and has been going to church every week for the last 4 months. Me and Elder Piñon baptized her brother Mateus last transfer and we were finally able to baptize her. Her mom let her and she felt that she was ready to be baptized. I know she had alot of neighbors that told her that our church only taught bad things and stuff like that so she was kinda scared for a while, but finally she said she prayed and she said that Heavenly Father told her that she had to get baptized, so that was cool. The water was super cold though yesterday more than normal. I know it would be cold though and I just asked Heavenly Father that she wouldn't feel the coldness of the water and that I could take her part of the coldness and that she wouldn't feel i,t because that was a concern she had always had since day one she always asked "but what if the water is cold?" And yes the water was indeed cold, it only went up to just a few inches above my knees but it went up to her chest. She didn't complain though and after the baptism she said that the water wasn't cold and that she felt warm. That made me happy hearing that. So this week I think I dreamt that I was at home or heading home almost every night, I'm not thinking very much about home, but I think every night my mind just starts thinking about home and my dreams are filled with friends and family and stuff and then I wake up and think "well that dream stunk"   It made me remember mom when she said that on her mission she dreamt alot about home and it tormented her alot. Life is good though here, its hot during the day and it cools down like crazy at night. Me and Elder Yezzi are doing well though here, this transfer has been the fastest so far only one week left in the transfer I'm excited to see what happens. Ive been taking pictures with alot of my friends who are the members here I included a picture of some of my good friends that I have made here the older balding one I just call grandpa they are great friends and I have many many more that I have made here that i will miss, its hard knowing that my time with them is short and that in a week I will be saying good bye to Ponta Porã, perhaps for the last time.  Who knows for sure if I come back to my mission one day I will visit Ponta.  Anyway this week I forgot to say that we have been doing a service project the entire week, so basically what we are doing is digging a septic tank, its pretty much a whole that's about 5 feet wide and about 10 feet deep. We are digging for a member that we have been helping reactivate here. All we have are a couple of shovels and hoes so it takes a while, we are about half way done now, and soon we will have to start using buckets to take out the dirt because its too much to throw dirt out of a ten foot hole, also we will have to start using a ladder to get out. I will get some picture to you guys when we get done. Its been good though and I have enjoyed the exercise. The other week I forgot to mention that I went two weeks where almost everyday I stepped in dog poop, it was really ticking me off and my shoes were getting really smelly and my patience was getting thin. But this week was better except for the fact that I got bit by a flipping dog of an inactive member as I left there house, it was a Dalmatian that always barks at me and that i have never liked, as I was leaving their house it ran behind me and bit me on the calf  veeesh that made me mad I was lucky though because my skin was untouched but it put several good sized holes in my pants that I had just gotten re tailored and fitted the day before, that's what really made me mad. Its alright though the holes are mendable and I will see what i can do to sew them up, because they were one of the pairs of pants that I planned on taking back home with me. I was with the Uruguayin Elder on a division, so I joked with him and told him that he brought bad luck upon me, he is funny though we were walking in an area that is extremely poor in my area where people live in houses made out of garbage bags and pieces of wood and there was a stuffed bear on the ground which was obviously some kids toy, he picked it up and dusted it off. Then he said a new stuffed bear for me and put it in his backpack and took it with him, I thought that was kinda funny haha I told him that there was going to be some kid that will cry because you took his stuffed bear, he just said "nope, its mine now". I think he is kind of a hoarder because he has a big collection and a random rock collection that he is making I guess that's cool though. Funny how everyone has little things that we do that are kind of odd, we all have them though. So yeah transfers next week im anxious to see what will happen, like I have said, I will probably be leaving here, I'm not sure if I will go one more as a zone leader or if I will be released, I kinda hinted to President that I would like to be released, so that I can train at the end of my mission, but  I still have another 3 transfers after this one and that assistants said its very possible that I will stay zone leader for one more in another area. We will see what happens though and I will inform you next week. I would like to go back to Campo Grande if I could that would be my choice if I could choose, so yeah tell Jordan to get his rear into gear with his scout stuff so that he can get his eagle, that would be very embarrassing for him if he didn't get it after all the work he has already put into scouts. Well, I love you guys and I will talk to you all next week but pray for President to know what to do for transfers so that he can be inspired by the Holy Ghost.  Have a great week and be careful!

-Elder Kennington

Jennifer Age 8 and her Baptism.

Ponta Para Brazil Week #82

Good Morning again everyone, I'm pretty tired right now but all is well, this week passed by quick but there's not really too much to write,  It rained alot for a few days this week the roads were really muddy and it was pretty cold, but it was good we did our division with the Assistants on Wednesday which was the day that it rained the most, it was good, but it was a chilly day and the area that we went to was really muddy but it was good and we were able to help the companionship's in our zone that were having problems, we worked our buns off this week and now I'm really feeling it today, So haha on Tuesday was the game between Brasil and Germany and Brazil got pounded,  it was 7 to 1   that's terrible, everyone here is pretty ticked about how bad they lost. I think there was some crazy stuff that happened in Rio and São Paulo but it was pretty chill here I guess. Whatever though I was kinda disappointed that Brazil lost but it was kind of expected already especially since they had lost their best player because of injuries. Anyway, so we have been working with the nephew of a member here named Gabriel I think I already talked about him already he is 9. So anyway we baptized him on Saturday, it went well the day was clear and the sun was out but it was still pretty cold we heated up a huge pot of water on the stove and we threw it in the font but it didn't make much difference with the water, it was still pretty chilly. It was nice though the baptism and his family was their to support him, we let his uncle baptize him it was the first baptism that he did but he did it perfectly and he was way excited afterwards, he goes on a mission next year so that helped him to get even more excited. I put a picture in he wasn't smiling in the picture so I was giving him an up shag and so that why his face is like that and I have that menacing up to no good look haha, he pretty funny though Gabriel, on Saturday we went by before the baptism to make sure that he had everything ready, it was funny cause he asked me   ei Elder Kennington você vai pra meu "batisamento?"  which was funny cause he called baptism batisamento when it should be just batismo.  That would be like  a kid say hey are you going to my baptisment. haha I thought it was pretty funny, hes a good kid with a great heart and who will make a fine missionary one day. So Jennifer is the sister of our recent convert mateus who decided she wanted to be baptised now, she has been going to church every week for the last 3 months now, but she has been traveling with her family for these last 2 weeks so no one has been home there, but if all goes well we plan on having her baptism this Saturday or Sunday.  But yeah not much new here I'm grateful for the blessings of Heavenly Father and I know that he is leading and protecting us and that any success we have here on the mission is because of Him and He teaches all things and every difficulty that we have is to strengthen us and to give us experience, I'm grateful for that I'm grateful for all of you my family and friends and want you to all know that i love you all and miss you all but these last 4 and a half months will roll by, also I wanted to wish Mom a very happy birthday this week on Friday I put a reminder in the phone a few weeks ago so that I wouldn't forget about moms birthday, I hope its great and know mom how much I love you and look forward to seeing your shining face here in a few months, so eat some cake for me on your birthday. There are only 2 more weeks left in this transfer and then I will be probably leaving Ponta Porã :(  that will be hard for me because I love everyone so much here, this is my home and I love everything here. But anyway I got to get going we have lunch at a recent converts house right now so we are going to run there, love you all so much and have an awesome week!

-Elder Kennington

Week #81 Ponta Para Brazil

Good morning everyone, hope you are all well today, today its chilllllllly, its foggy and its got that like mist in the air that gets everything wet its kind of annoying and cold but I'm getting used to it. So we will actually be doing the division with the assistants on Wednesday, they were going to come last week but they got to the bus station in Camp Grande and they found out they there weren't any more seats left and so they will be coming this week, so we did several divisions this week trying to put some life back into some of these dying missionaries, sad thing is that these elders have the same time as me on the mission but they have just kinda given up the fight to stay strong the last part of their mission. Me and Elder Yezzi has been working like crazy these last few weeks, our numbers have been high and we have a couple people we are trying to get ready for baptism. We were going to baptize Jennifer this week but she and her family traveled this week to another city and we don't know when she will be getting back, hopefully this week so we can baptize her, also we have been working with some recent converts and we are working with their family to help baptize them. Times is flying by though, the transfer is already half over as  of yesterday. So I took the opportunity to bear my last testimony here in Ponta Porã, since there wont be anymore  testimony meetings this transfer, it was good I just told the ward that I loved them and them even they they would probably forget about me eventually I would never forget them. I kept my emotions under control luckily because beforehand I was feeling a little choked up thinking about how I only had 3 weeks left in the area. But i guess all good things must come to an end. So this week we did alot of divisions with the young men in the ward it helped us to get alot of lessons in with members which is always important, we are trying to be an example for the zone and working, always when numbers are high they will put the companionship's name in the weekly letter from the president these last two weeks me and Elder Yezzi´s name have been in the letter so that has been a boost for our zone to see that, our zone has some baptismal dates so pray for them so they can stay firm. So we will have another game tomorrow so we will have to stay at home, I think this might be brazils last game because I guess on Friday the best player for Brazil named Neymar got kneed in the back and it broke a vertebrae so hes out for the season and I think Brazil is probably toast now. Hopefully it doesn't put everybody into depression here, I'm a little worried about the side effects of Brazil losing. Whatever though I guess So not a whole lot to write this week I will go get my hair cut today so hopefully it turns out nice. Mom wanted me to say more about my companion, well hes from the northeast of Brazil where all the famous beaches are, his city is called Maceio, he is 19 and has 9 months now on the mission. He is a great missionary and will be an assistant one day he is very smart and wants to be a physics teacher one day. He is a great friend of mine already and we work great together too bad I will probably only be with him for 3 more weeks. All of his family are members and he has two older brothers that also served missions in Fortaleza, one actually trained the other. Hmm, so someone is making bbq across the street and its making me really hungry, so thanks for the pictures that mom sent me of the 4th of July and of Uncle Johns funeral I'm glad the weather was nice for you guys. So yeah about the 4th of July i completely forgot about it, it wasn't until fellow American Elder Heidt said you know what today is? And I had no idea then he was like 4 of July bro and then it totally hit me. So then I played some Mormon tabernacle choir music that I have that has a cd of USA music. It seems like yesterday when the same thing happened but it was a sister that said happy 4th of July, that was a year ago! it seems so recent.   The days are running by this week was super quick for me, I think I forgot to comment last week that I ran into an American and Australian last week while emailing, there is a big hotel in front of the lan house here and so I guess there is always alot of foreigners there, my companion pointed them out to me he said they look like Americans, i looked over and saw two blonde haired blue eyed people, that were obviously not speaking Portuguese, so I went over and asked where they were from (in Portuguese) and they just gave me a blank looking stare like most of the American greenies have when they get to Brazil and you talk to them in Portuguese so then I asked them where they were from again but this time in English and then they opened up. They said they had been in Cuiabá to watch the cup because Australia played there, and they wanted to come down to check things out at Paraguay, they live in New York and were heading back that day, but the way they talked it sounded like they were pretty excited to go back to the states. That was weird the talking to English speaking people that weren't Americans. Yeah so thanks for all your prayers and thoughts I know they are heard and I can feel the strength that comes from your prayers. I will try and send one more picture, this picture is of when we did the final move out of our last house we went back and got the fridge and stove and a bunch of other stuff that was still there we got the keys handed over to the owner and the contract it closed I took I final picture of me leaving that house actually its more of a hole cause it was so small and musty, Glad that I can leave that headache behind. I sent a picture of me eating that delicious chicken taco that I made last week. I still have one more tortilla shell so today I will by a hamburger patty and cook it and that chop it up and make a real taco, all I need is cheese... cheese is super expensive here sadly. But yeah things are going good still just trying to keep our zone going, this next transfer will be good because there will be alot of people being transferred and hopefully they will be replaced by fresh excited missionaries. That will help alot, yeah so hope you all have a great week. Don't get trunky and don't count the days haha Love you guys take good care.

-Elder Kennington

Ponta Para Brazil Week #80

Whooooa    week 80   I'm getting old on the mission, doesn't feel like it though, plenty of time left still.  5 months from tomorrow I will be getting on a plane home,  Seems like so little time but at the same time 5 months is a long time, I guess it will go by quick enough though I'm not sure it will be faster for you guys or for me, I was looking back at the pictures I have been taking over the mission, I was amazed by how fast time has gone by look at the date on the pictures surprised me because many were from almost a year ago but I feel like they were taken yesterday. Funny thing how times passes, for some it passes by slowly but for others it passes by quickly, but whether its fast or slow time passes.  At least for me its going by quick, for me its more the days seems to go by slowly, but the weeks and months go by quickly.  I was talking to Tj Olsen last week and he will be going home at the end of September, and Jetsons sister Ariell will be getting home in about 2 weeks.  This is just a weird part of my life thinking about how this wonderful phase of my life is almost over. Sometimes I think about it when we are walking to appointments or going home for the night, it chokes me up and brings tears to my eyes, because I know I will never be able to be a single missionary again. Of course I'm excited to see my family and friends and home when I get back but I will be leaving so much behind, I will be leaving a part of me here in Brazil. But lets not talk to much about time and home, there's still so much to do!  anyways so this week was a good week, we had interviews last Monday night, it was good and we had a good discussion about or zone and about me. He asked me if I had any questions or anything that I wanted to say at the end I told him that I wanted to finish my mission training, he said that he thinks that would be a great idea. So hopefully I get to train, I'm not sure what will happen after this transfer though I wouldn't mind being released as a zone leader but that might not happen we will see though, its kind of annoying taking care of an entire zone its a great learning experience but right now we are dealing with 2 companionship's that are just not working very much, their numbers are terrible and they aren't a very good influence on their wards, their wards attendance have dropped a little  bit, we have been doing divisions and trying to help them but they are kind of set in their ways. But tomorrow will be cool because the assistants will be coming here and will be doing divisions with the missionaries here. Usually when we do divisions its the zone leaders with the assistants but this time they wanted to do something a little different, they will come and each one of us will go into a trio with other elders in the zone so we will be in division with pretty much the entire zone, so hopefully we will be able to help animate our zone with these division tomorrow. So this week we worked alot we found new people to teach and we have a baptismal date marked for this week, its the sister of our last baptism mateus. Her name is Jennifer we already talked about her before, she has been going every week for the last 3 months so we got her moms permission and we marked a date for her this week, she seems pretty excited but I know that she has some friends and neighbors that have talked bad about the church and baptism but pray for her so that all can go well for her baptism and also that the weather will be good. Yesterday and Saturday were terribly cold I had to wear a sweater and a jacket and still I was cold, I feel like Christmas is coming and I want to listen to Christmas music but that's still a way off though. I want on some divisions I was with ELder Goodrich from North Caroline, he just got here to Brasil a few months ago but he is already speaking the language very well and he interacts and talks to the members and investigators this was something that I really liked seeing in a young missionary. Me and ELder Yezzi worked hard with less actives and recent converts and through them we found some new people to teach, nobody super special but we got a couple of good references. I had another division with a greenie from Uruguay. I practice some Spanish with him, its cool getting to know people from other countries, people really are different depending on the state or country its cool seeing how unique people are. I know that there is a missionary from the Dominican Republic in this mission, I have never met him though. There's quite a bit of diversity in the mission, I love the friendships that we make on the mission. We have been working alot more with the members recently and it has been great getting to know them, some of the greatest people that I have ever met live here in Ponta Porã, its going to break my heart when I leave here because this has definitely been my favorite area. I have nothing to complain about here. I have less then a month left here and then I will leave, I will definitely try and make the most of the last bit of time here. So we are still continuing to try and find more people to teach, we have been teaching a man named Mario who was a reference from a member he seems like a good guy and has a real desire to know if these things are true and to know if this is really the Church of Jesus Christ, pray for him so that he can receive this answer and so that we can baptize him. And keep praying for our zone we are still stuck in a hole, I just hope that there can be some miracles happening, these last 3 transfers the zone was doing great and was one of the highest baptizing zones in the mission, but with the switch up of some elders and some older elders in the zone some of the companionships have gotten a little relaxed with their work. But everything has a purpose and we all need to learn humility and learn that we are nothing compared to the glory and power of God. Oh btw yesterday we ate lamb for our lunch after church, it was great and I told them I would put it in my letter home, alsoI made a "taco" last night I found some tortillas at a bakery and I cooked a chicken patty and cut it up and then but some hot sauce and some leafy greens on it. I turned out alright, I have been really craving tacos lately. but thanks for the pictures and the updates, sounds like you guys had a great time at the family reunion, I was saddened to here about Uncle Johns passing, I didn't realize that he was 87 he didn't look that old at all. But he was a righteous man and is happy for sure. Well I love you all and I miss you all, I am having alot of dreams about home almost every night now, but its not too tormenting but its not really welcome either. But times goes on and December approaches, I would ask for an extension if I could though, but they don't give them to Americans in Brazil, :(   it is what it is though, my companion is great. We moved some stuff this week from our old house, it still had the fridge and stove and bunk beds and stuff so we got the rest of it moved to our current residence. but there sure isn't enough room for all of it. Oh well though. Here is a picture of me and some members. Have a great week love you guys so much!

-Elder Kennington