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
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| Marcelo and Aparecida Baptism |
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| Saying Good bye to Elder Moraes. |
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