My own version of 4th of July

You are all awesome! Renee and Joe- keep rockin the member missionary stuff. Oh also, I got the package about 2 weeks ago, sorry I forgot to tell you. It’s awesome! Thanks so much!

Brazil won the confederations cup of soccer! So yesterday was insane! Brazil stopped. Like literally everyone was watching the game, and when Brazil scored (3 times) everyone yelled and screamed in the street! Then they launched fire works all day, so I am getting my own 4th of July celebration/ brazilan style.

I heard about the Supreme Court ruling on Gay Marriage. That’s crazy. I think the laws are similar down here in Brazil. Brazilians love Americans for the most part. Well definitely American culture. Wvery girl here wants to be an American. I’ve been proposed to by two women. Both were about 30-40 years old. Mother’s will introduce their daughters to me and say “Oh my daughter loves America and she wants to go there”..like im going to take here home with me or something NOPE sorry. It’s such a different culture down here! But I am really respectful, because everyone asks what it’s like in the USA compared to here and I always say its really different but that I love it here in Brasil. Everyday it’s a party here, brazilian culture is super relaxed and chill/ living in the moment.

For P-day, we’re just chillin, going to get my volleyball and ping-pong on! We baptized again! I know you guys are probably getting sick of hearing about all these baptisms hahaha we baptized a João Vitor (13 year old boy) and his uncle Luis and Luciana a woman/ mom of a member and she finally separated from her horrible husband/ that didn’t want anything to do with the church and he was really harmful to their family. But anyway our mission reached our goal of 200 baptisms in one month!!! We had 215. I think Elder Quinteros and I baptized more than any other companionship this month, not trying to brag, but the president is really happy with us haha its always nice to be on the good side of the President. Our zone is super awesome, and Tuesday/ zone meeting President Lanius is coming and bringing breakfast! So stoked!!!!!

This week has been really hard but the lord is blessing us like crazy. Miracles are occurring that i never thought possible! It’s amazing what the lord will do when we ask and put in a little work!

love,

E. Kennedy

Officially winter and lots of protests

Hey everyone!

I’m doing fine! Brazil is a little crazy right now but I definitely feel safe. All of Brazil is in a state of protest because of a lot of things. Mostly because of the cost of transportation, and the money the government is spending for the world cup/ Olympics. Naturally when a few big issues like this arrive and people protest, more problems are brought up. This week was also crazy because it was a huge week of fiestas/ holidays. São João. Everyone eats foods made from corn and there are tons and tons of fogeiros/ bonfires in the streets. I saw one about 2 stories high. We baptized 3 more people this weekend. That was really awesome. 

There have been a bunch of protests in Recife of about 150,000 people. One day my comp and I were on the bus heading to our zone meeting at the Stake Center and the bus stopped and there was a wall/line of fire across the street. No one could pass there was a line of busses that were stopped. My comp and I were about 2 and 1/2 miles from the Stake Center so we decided to run through the fire and walk the rest of the way. I took a few pics hahaha for the most part its really peaceful in Ponte. President Lanius, our Mission President will aid if our area gets too rowdy near our house. For the most part I agree with the protest but its stupid when people get all crazy and break stuff like busses because the money it costs to repair or to buy new stuff all comes from the people.

Anyway the Lord is truly blessing us and I am feeling awesome!

Love,

Elder Kennedy

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father´s Day Dad! Sorry I didn’t send something last week. I hope it was a good one. How is beach patrol? I keep forgetting it's summer there. Weird.

Renee and Joe, that’s so sick about your new car. It looks suppperr nice! Hyundai! People here go crazy for Hyundai but not many people have them because it’s like a chic car to have.

What happened to Shelly/Subaru? She still hangin out? And the bikes? Oooohhh and my snake MAYNARD? Getting big? Do you guys still have my rosy boa? If not I wont be mad, but I like my boa. Hahaha Love you guys! Joe, it’ll be sick when you sell longboards! What’s this I hear about maybe working for a solar company?

Nothing much is new with me, we had transfers but I am still hanging out in Ponte dos Carvalhos. I think my mission call should have said Mission Brasil, Ponte Dos Carv.!! After this transfer (6 more weeks) I will have 6 and a half months in Ponte. I am hoping after this transfer I will leave. That’ really neat Ian is on the coast in La Costa! hahaha His mission sounds super cool! HE SAID HE GOT TO GO TO THE BEACH WITH HIS ZONE!  My mission pres. would never let this happen, I am super jealous. I want to baptize in the ocean before I leave.

Stinks we can’t do much on our P-days but its chill. I’ve been playing a lot of ping-pong on p-days. It’s been pretty crazy here because of the fifa soccer confederations cup. Spain and Uruguay played yesterday here in Pernambuco. And Brasil played Japan and spanked ‘em 3-0! Everyone was watching the game. It’s pretty insane. I cant wait to see how it is for the world cup because they say when Brasil plays everything stops, commerce, travel, & life. Everyone goes home to watch the game.

Wooohooo we baptized an entire family! This week was epic de mais! The first week of June we baptized 1, second week 2, this week 3, and this Sunday we are going to baptize 4! So on and so forth! The lord is really blessing us and helping us reach our goals. I have a bunch of baptismal fotos to send I’m just a noob at sending them. The field is white here that is for sure!

Love you! Take care, abraço

E. Kennedy

The field is white and ready to harvest

Hey!

Mom, Renee and J.F.- Glad conferencia da estaca foi legal. We had a ward conference here. It was awesome. We had 9 investigators there and like 40 visiting non-members. I am doing super well. My companion is from Argentina so he has a bit of an accent but speaks perfect Portuguese. My language skills are progressing a lot. I’m giving a lesson sozinha (alone) for family home evening! We had two more baptisms on Sunday!!! So´agua! Fabio and Mateus. Fabio is super funny and lives with his grandparents because he doesn’t have any parents but now he has the Gospel! Mateus is the younger brother of Lucas who was baptized last Saturday! Now this Sunday we are going to baptize their mother and younger sister! That’s right, a whole family is gonna be baptized!!!!!!! oyoyoyoyoy so happy for them! 

Anyway, yeah family home evening is gonna be with them and the bishops family. I am going to the temple with my zone on Wednesday!!!! Amara is an older lady who we have been teaching and invited to be baptized. She accepted and was at the ward conference. Also another young man named William accepted the baptismal challenge so he will most likely be baptized Saturday. Luciana and Beatriz (mom and little sister of Lucas and Mateus_ will be baptized Sunday, and Amara hopefully will be baptized not this Sunday but next because she needs one more Sunday at church. So´batiza! It’s crazy we are just teaching and baptizing. The field here is really white and ready to harvest!

Love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!          

Elder Kennedy / batizador! hahaha

Stoked there is going to be a Kennedy/Wotherspoon takeover on Xana! Epic.


Here are some pictures of Elder Kennedy. 

Setting the bar high for Baptisms.

Hey All!

I am stoked Mom, Renee and JF are all moving back to Brookfield! Good ol’ Xana. I’m sure it’s going be a bit stressful to move, but I think it will end up being a blessing. JF- what’s up bro? Feeling better from your cold? I hope so. Working hard! Sounds like you are more exhausted than me these days.

My comp and I had another baptism this week and we have two more marked for this Sunday! Woohoo batizador! This week we had a mini transfer. Well, it wasn’t really “mini” there were a bunch of Elders and Sisters. Anyway, I’m still in Ponte but I received a new companion. His name is Elder Quinteros from Argentina. He is such a great missionary and we are definitely going to baptize a lot. I’m really cranking out my language study now, so hopefully I will be pretty fluent before I get to my second area. I have been teaching half or more of the lessons. My new comp has been out for a year and 7 months. He was a zone leader and I am learning a lot with him. He is such a great missionary and we are definitely going to baptize a lot. We had a baptism on Saturday (Lucas) it was sweet and we marked like 4 others so there are more to come. It has really been a spiritual week! We had the mission tour and a seventy came and spoke to us. I also get to go to the temple again on the 15th, 3 days before Moms b-day!

I love the people here but I wouldn’t mind being transferred. I bet I’ll stay one more transfer and then they’ll move me. So, you are probably wondering why we had a mini transfer? Well this month there are five weeks that the mission can have baptisms and our goal is 200. So in two weeks when transfers happen, our Mission President likes to transfer less people because less baptisms fall when missionaries get transferred. So he had a mini transfer at the end of May. It still rains like every other day but it’s a good thing. I am enjoying the mission and working hard. I am stoked about the package coming soon!

I am not in need of anything else. Just staying away from sunburns and mosquito bites. I’m only in 2nd Nephi in Portuguese, but that’s because I’m reading other books in Portuguese like, “Our search for happiness”. Anyway, happy birthday month Mom! Your B-day is on the 18th! Hopefully I will get a letter in before the 18th. Love you so much! I pray for you all everyday. 

paz e amor!

Abeija,

Elder Kennedy