Hey everyone, its good to know that its starting to cool down a bit
back at home, cause its soooooooooooo hot here. I think I spent way too much
time in the south of the mission cause its way hotter here in the north. The sun
is so hot here, currently its 99 degrees and its not even noon yet, the hottest
part of the day is usually from about 1 to 3 in the afternoon, we have been
sweating like crazy here and its pretty humid as well. But I just have to get
used to it again, I'm happy though and its been an interesting week I guess. Last
p-day I left at 8 that night so we had the chance to go to the center and do
some last minute shopping and sight seeing, we went with a good member friend
named Morgana, she got her mission call this week but I think she plans on
opening it today. I got all suitcases taken care and we went to one more
families house before we went to the bus station, we were talking there for a
bit and I commented and thanked the sister for all the dinners she made for us
and I told here how her macarrão, which is like a homemade Brazilian hamburger
helper was some of the best I had eaten on the mission, then she said you know
what I'm going to make some for you right now, so she made us a last supper super
quick, which was like 20 minutes because in thirty minutes we were getting
picked up to go to the bus station, she made it and it was delicious and we took
pictures and then she gave me and Elder Fuentes presents because we were both
going home, she gave us both super nice hammocks, because its a super popular
thing in brazil alot of houses have hammocks, they got me a nice green one,
which was exactly what I wanted. Man that really bummed me out leaving
Bandeirantes, I really loved the area and the members there, I think if I could
have chosen, that's where I would have finished my mission, but The Lord has other
plans and now I'm here way way way up in the north. I traveled just under 900
miles to get here from Campo Grande. That's even more than going from Roosevelt
to the California coast. Flip it took forever, it was interesting being in
Cuiabá again, I forgot how ugly of a city it is, I love Cuiabá to death but man, what an ugly city haha, campo Grande is much cleaner and greener and more
organized, everybody says that the north and the south are two completely
different missions as far as looks, and I can testify that that is true haha. So, I left Monday night at 8 and got to Cuiabá at 8:10 in the morning, and sadly
the next bus that I was supposed to get left at 8, so we arrived ten minutes
late, and so I had to reschedule my bus to alta floresta for noon, so I waited in
Cuiabá another 4 hours and then got on the bus, I eventually arrived in Alta
Floresta at 3 in the morning, where i was received by my new companion Elder
Moraes and the other companionship here as well Elder Andrade and Elder V Alves.
I'm the only American in the house this transfer, so it will be good to keep up
on the Portuguese. Its weird knowing that this is where I will finish my
mission, or as in missionary terms we say this is where I will die. Our house
is an old house, probably built in the seventies, its made of wood, and is
super hot inside during the day, but its a good house and is very large there is
plenty of room and there is a huge front yard. The house reminds me alot of
grandma and grandpa kenningtons house back in the day, I think its mostly the
smell that reminds me of their house. I leave the fan blowing full blast the
entire night, some nights it cools down a bit but most nights its just hot hot
hot, I usually wake up sweating, its been a fun week though, there are few
members here there's only about 30 active or so, and maybe 40 members all
together, the city is a nice city it reminds me a ton of my first area here which
was Cáceres, its about the same size and has many things that remind me of that
cáceres. So its been about 6 months since there has been missionaries here, but
still nobody knows who we are, people always stare at us as we pass by, I'm not
sure why but people think we are pilots, that's the most common, the second most
common is bank representatives. Its cool though we almost don't have to make
contacts because people just make contacts with us. We live on the same road as
the group leader, he owns a huge farm here and is loaded with moneys, him and
his wife both served missions and then moved here years ago, their sons were
baptized just a few months ago, the oldest is 18 and the youngest is 15. We met
some really neat people this week, we taught a special family Saturday night,
that had alot of really good questions, they said that already had something to
do this Sunday but they want to visit church, I really wanted to find
families because that's what the group needs here is families, we have an
investigator named Fabiola thats 18, I think, she went to church yesterday so we
are going to try and mark her date for here in 2 Sundays. Church here is held in
the auditorium of a school here, its strange because we are only doing sacrament
meeting here, from 9 until 10:15 in the morning, there was only 24 people at
church yesterday, so hopefully we can see that increase. I gave a talk on the
importance of having challenges and difficulties in life, it was supposed to
only be about 10 or 15 minutes but the other elder who also gave a talk went for
only 7 minutes, I was the last speaker so I had to try and stretch my talk out
otherwise we were going to end super early it was good though and ended up being
20 minutes, and church ended right on time. the area is divided here we have
the area of the center, the others have an area super far away from the center
but there is alot of good people in their area, our area also has great people
in it. There are quite a few little stores here I always like the city center
feel and it also reminds me of Ponta Porã, because my area was also the center
there. Also lunches here are the exact same every week, tuesday its in the group
leaders house Wednesday its in a recent converts house, Thursday its in a
members house who moved recently from Cuiabá, I actually had eaten lunch at her house several times when I was in Industriário, she was a member there and now
she is here and I'm eating lunch at her house again, Friday we don't have lunch so
we have to eat at home, Saturday its in a family of recent converts home, and
Sunday NO lunch! woohoo, haha but luckily we are alotted more moneys here, we
get 215 reais instead of the normal 170 in the mission. Things are alot more
expensive here, food that cost 2 reais in the south is 4.50 here, things are
more expensive. I'm about 7 hours from my old area of Sorriso here but here it
looks quite a bit different, we are surrounded by a jungle here, there are tons
and tons of macaws here, its will be a good place to take pictures, its been
just laughs here with Elder Moraes, we go way back it feels like and we have
alot of great memories together. Pray for us to be able to find those who are
ready to accept and to follow here, we have an important work to do here and we
need all the help we can get. pray for us, and for all the members here. We will
be traveling again this week to go to our zone meeting and it sounds like the
assistants will be spending 3 days here this week as well. That will be
interesting, I guess. Well I love you guys all and hope you have a great week.
And I will fill you guys in well next week this this weeks happenings.
-Elder Kennington
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