Hope all is well!

Hey, how are you guys? I'm sure you are all fine and working hard. I hope the fires have died down. Praying for some serious rain. 

This week consisted of hard work, sun, and business as usual. I forgot to say last week that the police here in Pernambuco went on strike for 2 days!  Seriously. So we didn't go out much and some stores got robbed. Anyway we are safe and sound. I got Aunt Jeanine's package! Thanks so much! I haven't gotten the one mom and Renee sent yet. But I should get it tomorrow during our District Meeting. 

Hmmm what else? This week was awesome especially when we went to Pirituba. It's a tiny town in our area that is super far and up in the hills. We take this "bus" which is a pickup and sit in the back of it loaded with about 9 people. Super funny but not really. Anyway, the view going up is so nice. There are so many banana farms and green hillsides. We went there to visit a recent convert Rodrigo and his sister Karina who is now an investigator. She totally felt the spirit our first lesson with her and started crying with joy. She wants to join the church and she has a bakery (where we teach her) and she will try to close it on Sunday's! So awesome! Please pray for her so that she can start going to church and be baptized!! 

I love you all so much and I am so thankful to be here serving the Lord and his people. The mission is seriously the best experience I could ever have imagined and there will always be struggles and exhaustion but I have learned that when we focus on the the good motives to do something, it makes the world of difference.  

<3 Elder Kennedy

Craziness in SD

Well, I hope you guys are all right and the fires are dying down. That is super scary. I really hope it wasn't arsonist's that started this madness. 

Anyway, yeah so my companion is super cool from Brasilia. He has one year left on the mission and I saw him be "born" on the mission. He was in my first district. We are good buddies and ready to do work here in Maués! We are trying to work with a few investigators that have a ton of potential. Please pray for Leninha and Fernanda!!! We are going all out trying to work with the members and have regular meetings with the Branch President. 

This week was hard. I had to remember where all the investigators and members lived and had deal with the hot hot sun. It was a gnarly week but we are being super blessed with success and great investigators. It was super awesome to Skype you all and i'm working my butt off to get those blessings when I come home and spend time with the family. 

There is a recent convert here, Antonio; he is hilarious I think he has some social disorder. Anyway we were helping him gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. He has been a bit depressed because he wants to have a good solid job and he wants a wife haha, so we were reading some parts in the Book of Mormon for him to be corajoso courageous? We read Ether 12:27 and Alma 17 & 18, with Amon slaying the flocks and gaining the King's confidence. Everything he did was to the amazement of King Lamoni. Anyway, Antonio loved it and blurted out some complimentary bad words. We are working on that ;-) But he reads the Book of Mormon everyday and says it's helping him be more confident and find a good job.

I love you all so much! The Lord is truly hastening his work and it's so awesome to hear the stories of missionary work in our home stake.

Love you, 

Elder Kennedy

Get to see you soon!

All right family. So here is the problem: I don't know what time i'll be able to skype or even where my companion and I are going to skype from (both of us are super new in the area). But, I will skype you guys on Mothers day if it's the last thing I do. It's also complicated because all of you guys have different things going on at different times. I'll probably have to skype like muito tarde, late afternoonish. But it'll work out.

Maués - Yeah my branch is super sick! And this area is totally ripe for the plucking! We have some amazing investigators and I am stoked to continue teaching them the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Please pray for Sergio, Erika, Bete, Eurildes, Betánia, and Luana. Gente boa!

So this week I am getting to know my area better, it's been a tad bit hard because of all the rain. It seriously rained 5/6 days that i've been here. But i'm digging the cold weather. This week we went to a nice rodígio grill, ate some dank meat! The city here is pretty well organized, especially the center. It is super old and pleasant. You can tell where the city started and then kept expanding leaving the center. The only thing that stinks is everything is super far from our house. We have to walk 45 min to get to the church building, and about the same to get to our almoço. Anyway, so stoked I get to talk to everyone on Mothers day and I hope you guys have a great week. Awesome that Joe's mom is there and that she had a nice b-day.

Keep up the good missionary work, I know the Lord will ALWAYS bless us with missionary opportunities. We just have to open our eyes!

Love ya,

Elder Kennedy

Vitória de Santo Antão (inland)

Guess what?

So I was just transferred. Now I am in a new awesome area with a new and awesome companion. It was super sad leaving behind my beloved branch of Coqueiral, but bright things are in store for me here in Vitória. My companion is Elder Ribeiro from São Paulo. He arrived in the mission field with me and I’ve known him for a while. Pense num missionario bom! We are here to baptize baby! Só alegria, só água! I’m still in the same zone but different district even though my area is like 1.5 hours from the stake center. Anyway, I just got here like a couple hours ago because yesterday night we slept in Coqueiral and went to our District meeting today. Then arrived in Vitoria agora. Anyway, I’m super excited to be here and ready to work até o pó!

Hey! If I was a Sister missionary I’d already be home by now......legal hahaha. Time is totally out of whack! That is how fast it’s going. Winter here is on its way. It’s starting to rain a lot more and it’s wanting to stay instead of blow away. I am thankful to be here on the mission and see people’s lives change for the better! I’m so grateful for the wonderful loving people that I have met, taught, learned from, and befriended.

Much love and happiness. 

Elder Kennedy

Feliz Páscoa

Oi family! 

Easter was super! We went to church, I gave the lesson in Principles of the Gospel, and for the second week in a row I played piano for Sacrament meeting, kkkkk, yeah they are really desperate to ask me to play piano! Anyway, after that we had a yummy lunch with an awesome family and went to work. 

Thanks so much for sending me a birthday package! Bummer about no Beef Jerky.

Happy Birthday Renee! 26 years old this Saturday! That's like old hahah. Nah, but it is golden! 

Awesome Joe's mom is coming to town. She will for sure love San Diego.

Parabens! Love you all to death.

Thanks for being the best people ever!

V's sois a luz do mundo!

Love,

Elder Kennedy

A day late but not a dollar short

Hey, so yesterday the internet cafe was closed due to power outages. So we got the permission to write a little something today (Tuesday). 

Well the mission is going great. We are having some success finding new people to teach and soaking up this sun. Some crazy things have happened in our branch, but i'll have to explain it all when I get back. I love the members here so much! I totally feel like they are family. We are teaching this man named Mark hahaha (kinda) his name is Marcus and he is digging our message but has a lot of preconceito/things he has heard about our Church. But he is learning and praying so... #winning. I feel like this is my last transfer here in Coqueiral so i'm going all out! Making contacts with people is just the best. Sometimes it's super funny and sometimes it's sad how ignorant people can be. "You guys are Evangelists eh?" "No, they belong to the church of Joseph Smith!" "They drink blood and worship Satan and kill babies"......o negócio tá sério. But anyway, I love taking away peoples doubts and inviting them to learn more about Christ and His church. 

Glad to hear that you guys are well and that Mom is getting over her cough. I am thankful to be on my mission and serving the Lord. Anyway, I hope you guys continue being blessed and enjoy every minute of living in Paradise. Brasil /Pernambuco would be paradise but there is too much trash everywhere.

Tchau tchau 

Abraço,

Elder Kennedy

P.S. Go Padres! Totally going to make it to the World Series because the Chargers blew their chance for glory. S.D. has to rep something one of these days.