Brazil Week #99

Bom dia querida família, im tired today. haha well thankfully this week passed by quickly for me. It was filled with work, my new shoes that I bought on sale are falling apart already, the sole keeps coming unglued. I don't have much to write this week it was pretty normal. It rained, it was hot I got sun burned but nothing out of the ordinary. we did a division on Wednesday and I went to the area of the other elders, we walked alot that day but we got to visit some cool people, the main reason for going on the division was to do 2 more interviews of two boys that were being baptized, there mom had been baptized a few months ago and they were finally baptized, they were funny little guys who didn't really remember anything of what they had learned so I reminded them of the lessons and commandments and stuff, their family is kinda complicated the mom is a member but still drinks coffee so I had to be pretty straightforward with them and told them that they cant drink any more coffee, everything went fine though and they were baptized on Sunday, they didn't show up at church though for some reason so they will be confirmed next week I think. At the end of the day I was pretty dead and my feet were killing but that's normal here. We taught alot of new people but not really anybody with much potential. I'm finding a pattern here in Alta Floresta, its something I have seen my entire mission but something that I have seen more here in Alta Floresta. There are lots of churches here, the baptist church is big here and people have alot of weird theories about God and Religion, as we teach people and make contacts and talk to people about the Gospel I have found hundreds of people if not thousands that think that to God, Religion is not important and that a church wont save anybody which is partially true, just cause I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and because I'm active does not mean I'm going to be saved. It depends on my heart and who I am in church and outside of it. It depends on the covenants and promises we make with God and the Ordinances that we do in the Holy Temple. But many people here think that if you have God in your heart it doesn't matter where you go as long as you go to a church. Its hard to make this people understand the importance of Gods Doctrine, but many people like living an easy life free of rules or standards. Good luck for them I guess. There are so many people that say that religion doesn't exist to God, and that as long as you accept him your all set. I wish it were that easy. I'm so grateful though for the principles of the Gospel, I have learned so much on the mission and my understanding has increased so much about the church and the Gospel, there is nothing that brings me more happiness than knowing that I'm am doing what the Lords wants me to do and that He is happy with my choices and actions. So I wanted to share an interesting experience that happened this transfer, 3 weeks ago we went a neighborhood that is located outside of town, I felt that we should go there to at least explore and see if it would be good working there, we went there and I had the thought several times to stop at the first road we came to, we got there and were surprised that the name of the road was Paulo Freire, I said "look Elder Freire it's almost your name" because his name is Sauo, but he said his dads name was Paulo and he had never seen a road with this name. We starting knocking doors, but many people were not at home. We taught some kinda flaky people and we left. on the way back Elder Freire commented that he had had an experience that he had never had before in his life, he said that on the way to that far off neighborhood he had heard my footsteps and he heard his footsteps, but he said that several times he heard an extra set of footsteps walking with us, he asked me if I had noticed, but I hadn't noticed anything different or out of the ordinary. He then said that when we had gotten to the street where I had felt to stop he said that he heard someone snap their fingers right next to his ear the moment we stopped and looked at the road name, but there was no one around us. I had never experienced anything like that,  the week after this event we taught a large group of people and one of the ladies there had some questions about family history because she had heard that our church does alot of genealogy work, she lived in the same neighborhood that we had visited a few days before. So this week we decided to go back to the neighborhood to visit her, and to knock all the doors on the road that we had been on the week before because we felt that there was something special on that road. We visited the lady who is a very neat lady we taught the Plan of Salvation to her, she enjoyed and said she would try and visit our church. We went back to the road Paulo Freire and started knocking the doors that we hadn't knocked before, its a small road with few houses so it was easy to knock all the doors, but almost nobody was home and the people that were home showed little interest, I decided last of all to knock on a lot where there is one building but several houses, its called a kit net here, it had a gate and so I said well Ill knock here and whoever comes out of one of the 5 different houses will be the person that we will contact, there came out a young woman who was tending to her sister who had just had a baby, we got her address but there was no one else home in the 4 other apartments. We left and I thought well, we did our best but maybe there is nobody on the road that wants to here us. But then yesterday we were walking to an appointment after church and I security guard on a motorcycle stopped in the middle of the road and took of his helmet to talk to us, he said he always saw us in the street and wondered what we did and what religion we belonged to, he asked when we had church and he said that next week he would pay a visit to our church, we told him that our job was to visit people and to share messages about Jesus Christ, we asked him if we could visit him during the week he said of course, but that he lived in a neighborhood far away, we said no problem he said that it was the neighborhood Universitário which is the same neighborhood that we had been working in that first week and 2 days before, but to me that wasn't much of a coincidence, because its a pretty big neighborhood with hundreds of houses, I then asked him which road he lived on he said Paulo Freire, and I was like what? we were there the other day, like 2 days ago knocking every house! he said he lived in the lot that has 5 houses stuck together and that he lived in the second house, the same house that I knocked before leaving that street! Who knows but from what I have learned on the mission things like that don't just happen, we marked to go there Friday to teach him, maybe he's an elect maybe not, but one thing I know is that it was The Lord The brought us the that street and it was The Lord that made that man stop his motorcycle in the street to talk to us. I guess we will see what will come from it. Anyway church was good, but sadly not one of our investigators went to church, we had some less actives that went though so that was good. We went to Marcelos after church, him and his wife were at church but his daughters and sister were sick it sounded  I guess, we taught Bruna and Eduarda the law of chastity and the word of wisdom, they accepted to live it but Bruna had doubts about baptisms and said she doesn't feel prepared or ready, she said she thinks she needs more faith. I explained things to her and helped her I guess. THey are still with dates to be baptized this week on Saturday, we still need to teach some things like keeping the Sabbath day holy and tithing, we will have to move marcelos sister Cassias baptisms back a week since she didn't make it to church, yesterday. I just plead that you will pray for them and us. I have had so much on my mind lately and have been feeling very uptight and stressed, but I've been fasting alot this transfer and I really know that fast brings miracles, we are working so hard and I really want to end my mission with success, pray for our investigators and pray for us. But I know that The Lord will take care of us as he always does, I'm here to obey and do his will and so that is what I will indeed do, I know I need to relax a bit, but I guess its a blessing to be a little uptight with this stuff cause it doesn't leave much room to think about home and get homesick, I'm doing well so far and these 3 weeks seem like an eternity to me so I'm not even feeling or comprehending that its really coming to an end here in 21 days. I guess that's good I need to keep focused on the work. Please pray for us though and our investigators, Satan will do everything he can to throw a wrench in the work here. I was pleased to find out last week that Me and ELder Moraes were the companionship with highest numbers in the mission and that we were also the companionship that had the most baptisms in the mission. I guess that's something prideful and I shouldn't be prideful but I was happy to know that we had really done our best and worked hard, up to now me and Elder Freire are working even harder than last transfer and our numbers are even higher than before, but in all honesty numbers don't really mean much and even baptisms don't matter, what matters is that The Lord is happy with our efforts, I hope that he is pleased with me and that I can continue doing my best and giving my all. Well I don't have much more to say I said too much today, I think the assistants will be coming this week to do a division here, that will be cool I guess. Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers I love you all so much and I feel your love and prayers. Also thanks so much for the Birthday wishes and was happy to see that Jordan had a nice birthday. I wish you all a wonderful week take good care! here's a picture of me and a recent convert pedro, we baptized his sister Fabiola and Aline, he is a great friend of mine. Abração pra Todo Mundo!

-Elder Kennington