Thanksgiving

Aló happy thanksgiving, feliz dia de peru (turkey)

Então, esta semana foi massa! Hey so this week was cool. We taught a lot, and miracles started happening. An old investigator that I helped teach from Guabiraba finally decided to be baptized! His name is Thiago and he told me I had to be at his baptism cause we are buddies! He is super awesome and like the funniest Brazilian I have met yet (which is saying a lot)! Then we had a baptism of a moça de 9 anos, Erica, Eu e Elder Santana taught her and marked her baptism, the only problem is she will be a member of the Beberibe ward because she lives with her grandma on the weekends and will go to church with her! Anyway my companion and I went to beberibe to baptize her! I had the wonderful privilege of baptizing Erica. She is super spiritual and strong in living the gospel. I know she is going to serve a mission and get married in the temple and endure to the end.

Then Sunday night we had another baptism in our ward of another moça named Erica! Kkkkkk. She is 14 and legit. The only problem is she is going to turn her back on the Macaxeira ward and go to the casa forte ward, because she has really strong friendships there, but technically you’re not supposed to be able to go to a ward outside of where you live so it has caused a little frustration but hey, we still have time to convince Erica to stay in the ward.

This week was awesome! We had 5 investigators at church and we marked Edvanho’s baptism for this Sunday, but due to new mission rules we will have to see if we can baptize him this Sunday. Anyway Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Eu sou muito grato pela minha família! e pelo meu salvador Jesus Cristo! eu amo vocês!!!!

boa semana por todos!

com amor e alegria

Elder Kennedy

One year mark!

Olá família! estou muito bem obrigado!

Hump day was cool! I burned a shirt. I’m doing well and happy that I’m on the downhill part of the mission. I am feeling much better than last week and I’m back and ready to do missionary work all day everyday! I am not sure what I had, I believe it was some virus that had its way with me and left. It’s possible it was dengue fever, at least a few of the members here think so because they caught dengue and believe I had the symptoms for it. Anyway I am back to normal and enjoying my time serving here in Recife. It is incredible how fast this year has gone by. I still LOVE Brasil. I am definitely paying a lot of attention to the music culture here. I have found many artists and genres of music that I have just fallen in love with.

Not a whole lot happened this week. But we did receive a miracle. We have a baptism marked for this Sunday!!! Yeah, her name is Erica and she is 13 almost 14. Her Aunt is a member from a different ward. We have some investigators that are awesome and are super close to baptismo! One even knows the message is true she just feels obligated to stay with her church.  I love the ward here so much the members are super awesome. On Sunday’s all the returned missionaries go out to visit less actives and family members that aren’t members or just talk with people in the street. They have such dedication to missionary work. Joe and Renee- You guys are doing awesome with that 16 yr. old! Dylan is his name right? Keep it up!

Also, on Tuesday there were a bunch of U.S. Air Force pilots and we helped them with a clothing donation. It was super sick; only one of them spoke Portuguese because he happened to be a member and served in Brasil 10 years ago. During our zone meeting at the stake center, I talked to this one African American dude from south Carolina hahaha he is legit. He loves the Panthers and Cam Newton and I told him that my bro loves Cam Newton and is from North Carolina. hahaha his accent was super heavy and hill billy. hahah I’ll send some pics next week 

That’s super sad about Kirk Passmore. My condolences to his family. That’s crazy that Gracie and Matt are both on missions and two tragedies happened in their families. Wow, it’s incredible how strong they are for staying on the mission. I know Matt, I had surf P.E. with him at LCC and we surfed with Jacob Canady a few times. Nuts how these things happen.

Thanksgiving is coming up huh? Cool! I remember Thanksgiving at the MTC in Provo. Elder Holland spoke. It was epic!

Thank you for all the love and support. 

Deus te abençoe! Boa semana!

Elder Kennedy

Sick as a dog

Hey All, 

Thank you for updating me on what's going on there. So sad to hear about Brother Platt. Im sending my love and prayers to their family.. I know they moved a while ago. To Arizona was it? Gracie is on a mission right? 

Another one of my old investigators died last week....last sunday, he was the boyfriend of a member 20 years old and he was wet or something and touched a fuse and got electricuted! I only taught him about 2 times but he was pretty cool. It seems like everyone is dying again. We went to an investigators house on sunday morning to bring them to church and their neighbor was shot in the head by his "friend" around 5 a.m. and we arrived at their house around 8 a.m. Nuts how crazy this world is. 

Anyway back to happier things, everyday life is waking up, studying the gospel and Portuguese. Then going out to teach or knock doors from 10:30 until lunch. We eat at a members house and share a message with them. Then go to our appointments and just talk to people all the time. We do service projects too. Right now on Saturday's we are restoring a pool at a members house. I so want to baptize in it! But it's a long ways away. We dont really eat dinner until 9:30 p.m. when we return home from working all day spreading the gospel. 

I was sick like this whole week...even now i'm sick. Tuesday I had a super bad headache and didn't feel comfortable working so I stayed home. Then Wednesday I felt a little better and took some medicine and went to work. Thursday came around, I worked the first half of the day but I had tons of head and body pain and I felt sick to my stomach. We came home around 3-4 in the afternoon and I laid down on my bed and was overtaken by a fever. I was shivering like crazy and it's 85 degrees in our apartment. Anyway, I was super weak and didn't want to move because of the pain and weakness. Friday was a little like that but I threw up. Now i'm just weak with a headache and stomach issues, so its all good. I am through with the worst of it. I feel much better actually. I drank tons of juice and water. Vitamin C is good. 

Yeah that was my week. We still had 2 investigators at church so thats awesome. I'm praying Rinaldo will be baptized this week!!! He is ready and wants to be baptized it's só áqua para ele! 

How is everyone? I miss you guys like crazy!!! Christmas ta chegando! Thanksgiving is around the corner. Well, Go Chargers! kkkk

Love,

Elder Kennedy (the one that rarely writes)  :)

Pics!!!

 P.S. I was able to celebrate halloween.

Pic of the electrical fire in the church building

We stomped the fire out with our feet.

We are on fire!

Hey! This week was super legit! I love my companion, he is exactly like Patrick! He talks the same way and has the same mannerisms!!!! It's crazy haha. So anyway, we are getting along just great! Since we are opening this area we have asked for a lot of help from the members of this ward and they are so awesome. Man it just feels right being here. The members are so helpful and loving and seriously have the missionary work spirit. 

Crazy story- One day after lunch my companion and I had to use the restroom so we decided to use the church bathroom because it was closest. When we went inside the church we could smell a bit of smoke, so I looked at the doors to the sacrament hall and I saw an orange glow on the ground and through the window of the door it was really black and dark. My comp and I realized there was a fire in the sacrament hall!!! When we entered there was a tiny fire on the ground. I stomped it out real fast and opened the windows to let out the smoke. All was well. It was an electrical fire from a light and it caught fire and also burned down the clock above it which then melted and fell on the ground and caught fire to the door and the ground. 

Anyway we brought two investigators to church and they loved it! One's name is Caroline (17) and her grandma Gilvanice, they will totally be baptized!!!! Please pray for them!!!! The lord is blessing us a ton!!! Everyday the first door we knock on has been a new awesome investigator!!!!!

lots of love,

Elder kennedy

Pictures (11 months in)

My Zone

Re-opening an area

Hello!

Joe and Renee, that’s sick you had an amazing unforgettable cruise! Jealous, but not too jealous. I’m taking advantage of this wonderful full time mission. It is the best thing ever!!!! Então, novidades? Changes! Lets see… I was transferred!!!! Hahhakkkk. Yeah that’s right, I was separated from my son, but I have visiting privileges because I am in the same zone (casa amarela).

I was in Jenipapo but I was transferred to Macaxeira (the bordering area). I’m stoked because I am opening this area!!! I got my new companion Elder Santana from São Paulo. Wooohooo my first “Paulista” companion! He is so sick. Anyway as I was saying, we are opening this area because the President closed it because of apostasia, just kidding. But the last groups of missionaries really did nothing here and lost the confidence of the ward. So Elder Santana and I are here to gain the confidence and get some people into the waters of baptism! Opening an area is super hard. Neither of us knows where any of the members live, and most importantly where our lunch appointments are and who they are with hahah j/k.

The apartment was a complete mess so we had to clean it up and unpack. Oh yeah, this house is notorious as the house of scorpions! Yeah, so I have only seen 2 scorpions so far during my time here in Pernambuco but now I have the wonderful opportunity of making friends with our venomous roomates hahaha. The Elders that have lived here in the past have found about 3 scorpions a week, yes!!!! I haven’t seen one yet since we cleaned the place, but I’m keeping my eyes peeled. My son Elder Gonzales stayed in Jenipapo. He is all trained and knows the area better than me, because he is such a stud. His Portuguese has improved exponentially and continues to improve everyday. Just his accent is heavy and it rubbed off on me, when I answered the phone and spoke to Elders from the district, they said I have the Peruvian accent. Haha its all good, I’m going to lose it real fast with my Paulista companion. 

Hope everyone is just stoked to be alive and enjoying the blessings from God. 

Com amor, 

Élder Kennedy