Brazil Week #96 Last Transfer

Good morning everyone, I'm glad to be back on the computers emailing you guys, this has been an eventful week, and we have been very blessed. I thank you for your prayers and thoughts during this week, we felt them, and we felt the help from our Heavenly Father. As i said last week we were going to be working alot with the family of Marcelo and Aparecida. This week we visited them every week and taught them all the lessons, we knew they had problems with coffee, and Sunday we explained just a little bit about it, and Monday as we returned we found that Aparecida had already tried to abstain from coffee, we hadn't even taught her yet, we taught them that day and they accepted to live it, we taught them about something called cevada, which is that imitation coffee that used to be postum, they bought it the next day and started drinking it, We taught them everything else, they started living the commandments right away, we went there every night. 2 of their daughter Bruna and Steffanie go to school at night so we were only able to teach the parents and the youngest daughter Eduarda. I wont lie I had serious doubts that they would be baptized on Saturday, I kept thinking of all the things that could go wrong. I remember kneeling down one morning early in the week and asking The Lord to bless them, i asked Him to protect them to comfort their hearts and minds and to let them feel peace and know that this is the right path and the path that they must choose. After I pray, I usually pause for at least 10 seconds before opening my eyes and getting up. That morning as I paused and listened I heard clearly in my mind the voice of the Spirit, he said 4 simple words which are found in the scriptures -Doubt not, fear not. In that moment I knew that I had been doubting to much and that I hadn't been putting my faith and trust in the Lord I also felt that all would work out fine in the end. I prayed much during the week and I continued feeling the same things, I also felt that the Lord would protect them and allow everything to work out fine, being as they were his elects and he had prepared them and he would not allow them to be tempted above what they were able. Saturday we had a good conversation with them and they decided that they were ready and that this really was the path they wanted to follow. They were interviewed and that night we baptized them. It was such a simple baptismal service, there was only us the group leaders wife and Marcelo and Cida and their youngest daughter, their oldest daughters had traveled to Cuiabá. But the Spirit was very powerful and we all felt the comfort of the spirit and him testifying that what was done was right and that it was done by those having the proper authority of God. I'm grateful that the  Lord allowed us to find and baptize these wonderful people, they truly are His chosen elects. We will work with their daughters to baptize them this transfer, I'm not sure if it will be difficult as 2 of them are rather attached to the catholic church, but nothing the  Lord cant take care of. So anyway with this transfer I will be training! I have no idea who my companion is though, President will wait to meet the new missionaries first before assigning them to their trainer. he probably wont get here until Wednesday, so until them I will be in a trio with the others here, So,  Yesterday was a very good yet difficult day for me. Church was nice we confirmed Marcelo and Cida, I both baptized Aparecida and confirmed her, and Elder Moraes the same with Marcelo. Fabiola who was baptized 3 weeks ago gave her first talk, it was excellent and was about eternal families she did an excellent job and I was proud of how much she and her sister are learning in the Gospel. We had a good lunch with the Group Leaders family it was kinda rushed cause E Moraes was throwing the last of his stuff into his suitcase, Marcelo took us to the Airport and we were accompanied by the group leaders family. He took a plane to Cuiabá, cause its a 1 hour plane ride instead of 15 hours on a bus. Elder Moraes was commenting how he never cried, but as he was giving hugs and saying good bye he got to me and gave me a hug and I guess he couldn't hold it in cause he started crying, that made me cry too, I was saying goodbye to one of my best friends on the mission, not knowing when I would ever see him again. But without doubts when I come back to Brazil he will be the first one I visit, and we already have plans to do a tour of the mission and Brazil. Who knows when that will be, but its definitely on my to do list. Well, I am now officially in my last transfer. I honestly cant believe that it is here already. 6 weeks, that's no time at all,  before on the mission the transfers were like barriers separating us from the end of the mission, but I have jumped that last barrier and there is officially nothing left in front of me, just 6 more weeks of hard work. Time goes by quickly when we are lost in the service of The Lord, I am so excited to be able to train and be able to give all that I have back to The Lord. That's my desire this transfer is to give all that I have to The Lord, he has already given me so much, and I feel that I still have so much that I owe him. I have been examining our map of the city and have selected several areas that have never been worked, I ask for your prayers as I enter into this last transfer, I want to work the way the Lord wants me to work, and I want to be guided by Him. I know we will be richly blessed this transfer. I will probably be training a Brazilian this transfer because it sounds like there are no Americans arriving, that's good cause I didn't really want to have to spend time training with the language, but there will probably be some Hispanics arriving as well so maybe I will train a hispanic, we shall see I guess, pray for president to know with whom he should place me with. Well I'm excited to start this my last transfer and chapter of my wonderful mission. I'm grateful for Our Savior and it is my testimony that He lives and loves us. I wish you all a wonderful week! I love you all so much!

-Elder Kennington

Marcelo and Aparecida Baptism

Saying Good bye to Elder Moraes.

Week # 94

Hey everyone, thanks for your emails and pictures, it was nice seeing that you had a good General Conference, I also enjoyed it, we ended up watching it here in Alta Floresta at the group leaders home. It was just us there, because this weekend they had elections here and so they used the school where we hold church meetings, so there was no church this week here. Saturday,  the morning session started here at noon so we were at lunch with some recent converts here. We were able to watch the first session on the computer at their house, the Internet kept cutting out so it was kinda tough, but it worked out fine in the end I guess. We watched the afternoon session at the group leaders home, they have the byu channel here, so we were able to watch it clearly, we also watched that night priesthood session there, it was wonderful being able to hear the words of the Prophet and apostles, of course it was all voiced over by the Portuguese translator, but the Spirit of their words was still the same. Saturday afternoon I think, spoke Elder Gavarret, spoke. He came to our mission last December, it was neat seeing him again giving a talk in his native language. Sunday morning was the only session that we didn't get to see. The group leader and his family were invited to eat lunch somewhere, so we didn't get to see it in the morning The afternoon session was great though and I enjoyed it very much, as everyone has been saying its neat seeing the people give talks in their native language, it was neat her Elder Carlos Godoy speak in Portuguese, that will be neat for people to finally here a talk in their native language instead of just a translation. I think they must have dubbed it in English for you guys to understand or maybe there was subtitles, idk, but that was definitely neat, ad I'm sure the Brazilans appreciated and the people that speak Spanish as well since their was 2 talks in Spanish I think. One thing that brought bitter sweet feelings was knowing that this will be my last conference on the mission, next April I will watch it at home with you guys, what a thought! But then again there is something special about being a missionary and hearing the talks, they seem more personal almost, its a wonderful thing and I will miss being able to here the words of the Prophet in Brasil. This week was very uneventful I guess, my companion was a little sick during the week, he was having alot of stomach pains and head aches this week, but I think he is doing better now, We met some new people who were some of the flakiest people I have ever met, It was kinda funny we taught a guy that when we asked him if he would pray later on to know if our message was true he said, aww, but its tough for me to pray, I don't have much time during the day to do stuff like that. Sometimes I have the desire to stand up and yell well good luck for you when God asks you why you didn't pray or follow him and you tell him that you were busy and didn't have enough time to serve him or even say a little 30 second prayer. People are sad sometimes with how far their hearts are from The Lord, but they will always say that God is the number one most important thing in their lives and that he is everything and that they would do anything for God. Then we challenge them to pray or read or go to church, and then all of the sudden it becomes the hardest thing in the world and God all of the sudden takes the back seat in their lives. I guess that how the world has always been and will always be until the second coming. But yeah we ran into the usual drunks asking for money, this week was a good one a guy that was drunk as a skunk came up to us and said, ei, ei, ei ,ei , ei ,ei, and we were like what say something, than he said everyone in the street is trying to beat me up, its tense out there, so we said yeah your right you have to be careful, then he was like ei, ei ,ei ,ei, ei , then he leaned in an whispered, give me some shoes, i was using my beat up shoes that day and I showed him and said what these? he looked and said, ei, ei ,ei ,ei ,ei ,ei, and we were like speak! and he said ei buy me some shoes, and my companion said what color, and hes like doesn't  matter to me any color, and Moraes said I don't got any money, then he turned back to me and said ei, ei ,ei e,ei, ei, ei then he whispered by me some shoes, and I said i cant, those people that are tying to beat you up took my wallet yesterday so I don't have anymore money, then he realized that e wasn't going to have any luck with us and went to some other guy that was passing and asked him for his shoes. I like drunk people because usually they are the people that treat us good and wave to us and smile and say hey, I'm going to miss some of the drunk homeless people of Brazil. Anyway we are still working with this family we a family home evening last night there and we will go back today. Pray for us and them and for all the people here. So I am going to send you some pictures from last transfer when we were laying down grass for the members there, they sent me some pictures finally so I will send them to you. they were 2 different days, I was using a pole with a paint bucket full of cement to pack down the grass. Last p-day we didn't really do much of anything, we tried visiting some people at night but most were already getting ready for bed, something different is that people go to bed super early here, at 7 at night you see alot of houses completely dark, everyone is sleeping already, it makes it kinda hard sometimes. We marked a date with some other investigators as well that went to church last week, their names are Guilherme and Carol. Well Transfers are in two weeks, I want to finish this transfer strong so that I can already have a head start for my last transfer, I want to train and I asked President again in my card, so we will see he may have other plans in mind, I told him that I would do whatever he needs me to do. So yeah, I cut my hair today again, I think it will be my second to last haircut before going home. Time is short on the mission and I have to make the most out of the last 8 weeks. I love you all so much and wish you all a wonderful week!

-Elder Kennington