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

Ponta Para Brazil. Week #79

Good day  everyone,  how goes it?  haha yeah so this week went by pretty quick, we got my companion picked up fine, Elder Yezzi he is a young missionary with only 8 months on the mission, he is a great missionary though. I guess you have to be though when get called as a zone leader with only 8 months, I think he will be an assistant here in a couple months when they call another one.  We only had a few days to work this week because on, Tuesday there was the game so we jsut had to stay inside the entire day. Wednesday we had a full days of work we went after a bunch of recent converts and less actives, people that weren't going to church. The day seemed to drag on a bunch though, it was hot during the day but then it cooled down dramatically during the night, and it made me a little sick or something because all of the sudden I just got a huge headache and I wanted to throw up so when we got home I took some medicine that Elder Yezzi had and then I went straight to bed it knocked me out pretty good. I woke up the next morning and I was feeling alot better, that was good because we had a zone activity that morning that we had been invited to by a member and we had gotten President Rebers permission and he wanted us to be there. I don't really know how to explain it be Thursday was a catholic holiday and so alot of cities do this celebration where they make like designs and stuff in the street, so they had like a huge rug that went down the entire main street here In Ponta, we took like chalk to make a design and then they had like a bunch of bags full of like saw dust that was colored and so we used that as like a filler to make our designs. So we winded up with two squares to make designs we made one that said CTR, and the other one we made was a design of the Angel Moroni, and under it it had M B C for Missão Brasil Cuiabá, and next to it was the symbol for baptism.  It definitely turned out the best. The member had a bunch of squares reserved for him because he is a teacher at his school and he was put in charge to help so he got permission to have the missionaries go and help to show that whatever the religion may be we can all work together and we are all children of God. We were on the local news and the member gave an interview talking about us, it even was posted on the Brasil LDS church news I think their facebook page is    https://pt-br.facebook.com/noticiassud/photos/a.642360359126256.1073741826.167812703247693/853235528038737/?type=1&theater        it was cool and I'm glad we could do it I saw that there was some people complaining on the page because they didn't like the fact the the church participated in a catholic tradition, but alot of members are kind of ignorant with these kind of these overall it was a good experience for everyone. I will send you some pictures , so then we had to go that same day to Campo Grande, we got the bus at 2:30 and we got there at about 9:00 at night, we stayed with the assistants and we had a great meeting the next day, we learned alot and we had an open discussion about what the difficulties were in the zones and the mission. I always like these counsels that we have once a transfer. But I wont lie hopefully this will be my last haha. Tonight we will be having interviews with President Reber he will be here so hopefully we will talk about what will be happening with my last couple transfers. So Saturday we also had a full day of work, visiting alot of people and finding some new investigators, it was good we had a wonderful turnout yesterday at church. We had tons of less actives, recent converts and several members brought some friends that aren't members, unfortunately they don't live in our area but that made us happy. Our ward hit a new attendance record yesterday with 140 people at sacrament and that was still with at least 20 other active members that were absent. The last record was 136 that made everyone super excited at church. The other wards saw a jump in activity as well, but still no baptisms with the zone, please pray for our zone so that we can still have many baptisms here this transfer, we are going to need some miracles, we also stopped by brunas house this week she was leaving but was super excited to see us and went to give me a hug I kinda had to shoot my hand out pretty fast to show that it was a no no haha, I think she learned in the moment that missionaries cant hug. She said she knows she needs to go to church she has just been really busy and working alot of Sundays, she said that they were probably going to travel on Sunday. I still don't want to give up on her I think we can still baptize her. So after church our lunch was super far so we took the treinzinho (little train) to our area. The treinzinho is a parade train that a member has her that he uses to pick up members and investigators on Sunday and he drops them off, it has a capacity of about 40 people it is great and is helping get a alot of less actives and recent converts that couldn't go to church before because of the long distance and who didn't have a car or motorcycle, it was fun going back that way. So yeah, today there's a game so I think I will go buy some stuff and we will go home and that's all. Thanks for the emails from you guys and the pictures I hope all goes well with the stuff this week with the reunion and such it should be a great time for everyone. Know that I love you all and miss you but there is still plenty of time from now till I get home so I will make the best of it and give all that I have to The Lord.  Take good care and be safe and have an awesome week!

-Elder Kennington

Brazil Ponta Para Week #78

Good morning everyone, sorry I didn't write yesterday, we had transfers and Elder Piñon was transferred and so it didn't give us much time in the lan house, I just had barely enough time to get the zone numbers sent and the letter to the president sent. We have to go to lunch here really soon so I wanted to run to the lan house before lunch because after lunch, I will have to go pick up my companion with a member here and then we have to go straight back home and stay in the house for the rest of the day because of the game today. It sounds like Brasil will be playing against Mexico, it should be an interesting game. There really isn't much to say for this week at all, Thursday we had to stay in the house the entire day because of the game, we went to lunch and then we just went back home. IT was really boring I just rested and studied a little bit. I hate being inside the house during the day, I don't understand how so many Elders can stay in the house instead of working. It kills me, we knew every time Brasil made a goal during the game because the whole neighborhood would start yelling and cheering and people would light off fireworks and go outside and rev up their motorcycles and cars and stuff. Its kind of funny actually. It was neat seeing all of the patriotism, there were people all over in the streets selling Brasil shirts and flags and horns and stuff like that.  I wish it could be like that everyday. I sent some pictures yesterday of a huge flag that had in front of the city hall. Well so I was kind of bummed out to see Elder Piñon go, I already knew that he would be leaving but its sad seeing a good friend leave. He is a great missionary and friend and has been one of my best companions. My new companions name is Elder Yezzi, he is a Brasilian from the northeast of Brazil. I know that he only has 8 months on the mission so he is definitely one of the youngest zone leaders ever in this mission, everyone says he is terrific though and that he will probably be assistant one day. SO I really was happy to stay here one more transfer here in Ponta, I really didn't want to leave quite yet, the members are marvelous here and I wasn't ready to leave them behind yet. But its a for sure that this will be my last transfer here so there wont be any guessing as to whether or not I will stay or go so that will give me proper time to get pictures with everyone and also to buy some souvenirs (how do you spell that?) things are alot cheaper here in Ponta and I can get members to go to Paraguay to get stuff for even cheaper. We had 3 dinners this week with families including two barbecues it was great I'm just glad I'm still here, because I honestly would be super bummed out if I had stayed. I was happy with the zone too because every companionship had at least one baptism this transfer, that was our goal because there were a few that hadn't had any baptisms for a long long time and they finally baptized. There was one that when I was in a division we knocked the door of a less active family and found them and the last day of the transfer they baptized their 15 year old son, that was a miracle, I think I commented about it one one of my former letters, that was definitely a miracle from our Father in Heaven. So we have been working alot with less actives and recent converts lately and we have soon a huge turnout at church almost 1/3 of the people at church on Sunday were less actives and recent converts, that made us super happy. Things have kinda stopped with Bruna, she is working and going to school everyday and so it has been impossible to find her a home. Plus it sounds like she is working on Sundays which really complicates things, pray for us to be able to  find the Lords Elects so that we can baptize them, pray for our zone as well it seems that we will be hitting a dry patch, this transfer the zone had baptisms every week, but I'm scared that this transfer wont be the same, pray for the people and the missionaries please. Well I'm so glad that I'm here in Ponta Porã and am grateful to only have 4 transfers left on the mission, it sad  and I'm not ready to go home yet but I think after these next 6 months I think I will be spent, but for now I'm am still well and full of gas, all of the sisters from my group are at home and have sent us emails of them getting home and stuff that was kinda trunky seeing that. Its all good though I'm happy and am grateful for your prayers and thoughts. I hope and pray that this last transfer here in Ponta will be one of the best of my mission. I'm will include one more picture that I forgot to send a while ago, this was my last picture together of My family, Elder Payne (My son) and Elder Ellis (My grandson) who was trained by Elder Payne. We were all wearing green ties as well haha. But yeah I'm am in  a trio until we get my companion but we will be heading to get my companion. But I love you all so much and I love the Gospel so much, there is no greater peace than that which comes from being a worthy member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I know that He is our Savior and I love Him, and I know that all of you love Him as well. That's why I am so grateful to have you all as my family. Everyone take good care and have a great week I think we have to go to Campo Grande on Thursday...again so that should be fun. Love you guys! Take good care! oh and also happy Fathers day to dad! I had forgotten because its a completely different day here in Brasil.  Abraço,

-Elder Kennington

Brazil World Cup going on.

Elder Kennington, Elder Ellis and Elder Payne~All wearing Green Ties.

Brazil Ponta Para Week #77

Hey everybody, thanks for the emails from you guys they were much appreciated, so yeah not a whole lot at all this week, we spent alot of time in Campo Grande this week the assistants wanted to do a division there so we had to travel there this week, it was good though and we had a good time, it was just terrible staying on the bus for so long, these buses are built for short people and not tall people, and my legs are always cramped and achy. We had some good laughs though and it was good going back to the house that I lived in in Campo Grande, its kinda weird cause that area I had alot of stress because of the difficulty of the work and the little success that we were having, and so being in that house brought back alot of memories and I started getting feelings of stress again while I was there just because of the smell and memories of the house, weird huh. But we had a good time even though I didn't see a huge point to the division other than it being something to be marked off the checklist for the assistants. It didn't give us much time to visit our own investigators this week, Bruna had to work on Sunday unfortunately but she is still doing good, I think her baptism will have to wait for next transfer, keep praying for her though and for us to be able to find the Lords elects. So this week on Thursday the opening of the World Cup will start we will be required to stay in our house after 3 in the afternoon and we wont be able to leave, there will be 2 more games in the following weeks where we will be required to stay inside, it wont be too crazy here though we are in a more relaxed part of Brasil. But that will kinda blow having to stay in all day the day that I finish my sisters mission! That's right Thursday I will hit a year and 6 months.  Its weird cause I'm getting emails from the sisters that were in my district from the mtc and they are all going home today, some went home last week and another that served here in Cuiabá went home several weeks ago. Right now its just the Elders, man that's super weird to think about. after this transfer I will only have 4 more transfers remaining. So yeah this Sunday we will be having transfers, its like a 95% probability that Elder Piñon will be being transferred and I will be staying. Normally I would be the one leaving since I have the most time in the area but he will only have 2 transfers left after this transfer and so its most likely that he will be released as a zone leader. But who knows transfers are always super random, its possible that I could be the one to leave or we could both leave, but that's very unlikely. We will see, just pray so that president can be inspired to know what to do with this transfer. I'm excited to stay one more here in Ponta, its honestly the only area that I would be fine staying 6 months in, the members here are wonderful. But yeah that's about it we have to get running to go open up the church house for soccer but I might come back later cause I still need to send some more emails. But I love you guys and also I got a card from mom for Easter thanks for the lovely card haha have a great week I hope you enjoyed the pictures, this is of Matheus´s baptism his good friend Jackson baptized him. Paz e amor.

-Elder Kennington

The Noahs Ark Brazilian Hamburger.

Elder Kennington & Elder Pinon with Matheus and his friend Jackson who baptized him

Week #76 Mattheus gets Baptized

Hey Everybody, I'm pretty cut on time today we went to a bbq to celebrate a missionaries birthday here in the zone Elder Geisler who was my companion for a transfer in Sorriso, we marked to play soccer at the church at later this evening, I'm not even going to play though, I rarely do I really don't like soccer that much whatever though. So yeah, this week was good the weather was alot better and it was warm enough so that we could baptize Mattheus, we were also going to baptize Bruna but she texted us Sunday morning and said that she had gotten sick the night before and that she wouldn't be able to make it to church, so I guess we will have to baptize her next week she has been keeping all of her commitments and doesn't have any problems with the commandments, but all went well with the baptism yesterday and the other elders in our ward also had two baptisms, the water was super cold but they said after they were in the water it felt warm to them, Mattheus said he didn't even feel the water when he was submerged, I was worried that the water would be too cold but the weather was actually reasonable yesterday even though it was supposed to be alot colder, but The Lord blessed us and was mindful. The Lord has been very good to us there has been alot of problems with us trying to teach our investigators and we were really scared that the  lack of us being able to follow up with them would cause alot of problems, but the lord has helped us much and has preserved and protected them, so like I said, the weather was alot nicer this week it was still fairly chilly, but it wasn't raining or blowing alot so that made it better, we did divisions as well and I went to another area and we marked some baptismal dates for their investigators there, so hopefully they stay firm for this week, so last p-day we bought a hamburger called arca de Noé, which means Noah´s arc, which is a huge burger that I have alot of pictures of but I forgot my camera and so I will have to come back later today or maybe tomorrow or next week to get you the pictures of the baptism and of the burger, it  was 30 reais which is about 15 bucks or so but it contains, 10 hamburger patties, 10 hot weiners, 10 slices of ham, ten slices of cheese, and a bunch of bacon and sausage and lettuce and corn and peas, it had a load of stuff and we all ate ( us 4 missionaries) and we were filled it was really good and I was pleased with it, so we have been working alot with some amazing less actives in our ward to reactivate them, we have been having some success and have so far we have been able to get 2 families coming back to church, which has made us happy we were working alot with our feet before and now we are trying to focus more on helping take care of the Lords fold of sheep, and the Lord has blessed us with some baptisms and the satisfaction of seeing alot of reactivations. I always love the feeling of when we are guided by the Spirit, we visited a young man that had been to church several times but had gotten wishy-washy and didn't really want to be baptized any more even though his family all supported him getting baptized we went in and we had a very spiritual lesson, and after that,  he accepted to be baptized this week so hopefully he will stay firm. I always know when I was being led by the spirit during lessons because afterwords I can never remember what I said after the lesson, sometimes we leave lessons and I have no recollection of what I said during the entire lesson, its interesting how the Spirit works he brings things to our minds, but alot of time when we are under his experience we have no idea what we are doing and we are just being an instrument in the Lords hands. So I forgot to comment last week that we had finally moved out of our old house and we are now living with the other missionaries, so now its 4 of us again, its not the best house in the world but at least its free of mold and we have room to hang up our clothes, Ive been trying  to practice my Spanish with Elder Garay who is a greenie from Chile, he is helping me out and I try to learn as much with him as I can. Dad was wondering about when transfers are going to be so they will be on the 16th I think, of this month, 2 more weeks is all, whats mostly likely going to happen is that Elder Piñon will leave since he only will have 2 transfers left after this transfer and usually zone leaders are released in their last 2  or 3 transfers, I will most likely be staying one more here in Ponta Porã which is fine with me that will give me a total of almost 6 months here. Then hopefully I will be released and I can go train somewhere i guess we will see though. I wanted to thank mom for the pictures it looks like you guys had a nice memorial day.  I'm glad the weather was decent for you guys, but everyone says its just going to get colder here, its normal here for this part of Brazil because we are so far south, its like the basin kindof its hot in the summer and cold in the winter, Cuiabá on the other hand is just hot all year round cause its close to the equator, But I'm 18 hours south of Cuiabá, so that's why its so cold here I'm alot closer to the south poles. We are doing fine though and we are in good health, pray for Bruna so that we can still baptize her this week, she is very elect and I don't want her to fall through, I'm grateful that we were blessed to baptized Matheus this  week that was a blessing from our Heavenly Father. I love the Lord and am so grateful to be a a missionary at this time, its so hard sometimes and I know that I fall short alot but I am grateful for the Lords mercy and wish to please him, I know he is blessing you all at home as he is indeed blessing me. So yesterday will probably be 6 months to the day of when I go home, as far as we know we will be catching our plane back to the states the 1st of December, so its definitely coming up. Btw please do some spell check on this the computer is junk and I have been typing super fast, I love you all and wish you all a wonderful week!!!

-Elder Kennington