The good and bad of the World Cup

Hey! So Beau Barton is going to Sao Paulo? He is going to love it there! This month of June is flying by. So guess what? I was transferred. It was the last transfer of President Lanius and he transferred everyone, (well half of the mission). Now i am in Curado. My companion is Elder Ferreira, again.. so stoked. He "dies" this transfer, so he is out of his mind. 

We did have investigators that went to church in Vítoria and we marked the baptism of Sara. It was pretty sad to be transferred after marking a baptism but it's all good. We are all on the same team here. Here in Curado there is an investigator with a desire to be baptized, or so my companion tells me. I am stoked to get to know Curado and the members/investigators here. Our apartment is cool because it is literally next to the chapel. in Vítoria I had to walk 45 min to get to church. So this is an upgrade, Curado is a blessing. 

So USA blew the game at the end vs. Portugal. Brasil plays today and they have to win. 

My area is only a few miles from the stadium. So on p-day we are totally going to the stadium (I think the stadium is part of our area). So I'm preparing myself for even more world cup madness. There is also the sad but real side to the Cup and many are protesting and vandalizing several cities. I am not sure if I agree with the World Cup here. I certainly don't agree with everything, but corruption exists everywhere. Protesting is not a bad thing but protesting in the form of violence and vandalism is completely wrong! People need to learn from the example of Jesus Christ.

I love you all and I'm sending pernambuco happiness your way.

Elder Kennedy

Eventful week

Hello Family!

Recife is pretty excited about the world cup. I really respect the love that these people have for their team. It’s pretty patriotic. The roads here are all decorated with green and yellow ribbons and almost every other car has a Brasil flag on it! It has been a week of fire works and partying. Especially when Brasil opened up the 2014 world cup with a win. I saw the lame penalty but I feel Brasil still deserved the win. Today the US plays against Ghana. I’m nervous.

The opening day of the World Cup was basically a P-day. We went out to work at 9 in the morning but as you can imagine it was a bit hard. We visited some old investigators and got some decent lessons in. Then we had lunch with some awesome members and watched the game!!! After that we went home and watched the fireworks that our neighbors were letting loose in front of their house. They were all partying in front of the house listening to music and celebrating the win. I have to send pics, I’m just slow. Everywhere I look someone has a Brasil jersey on. kkkk

The temple was awesome! It was such a great session with my zone. We had Burger King before the session, which was nice. The temple was sweet. It’s been about 3.5 months since the last time our zone went. Summing up this week: it was super awesome but a bit difficult to focus on the work when the subject for everyone is Futebol. We did have a successful day of knocking doors and found two investigators with a lot of potential. Unfortunately no new investigators went to church on Sunday hahaha and I doubt any of the members would go if Brasil were playing during a church meeting.

It’s crazy how big the OLIVENHAIN WARD IS. What is the frequency of the Olivenhain ward????

Joe and Renee- sick you guys got to do a La Jolla paddle out!!! Jealous. I want the beach right now and futebol. BUT all in good time. Right now I am perfectly happy where I am. Missionary work is the best subject for any meeting, it never ends!!!! You mentioned Tony Gwynn died! Noo way! That’s super sad. Also, thank you for the package you sent.

The world cup has actually helped with making street contacts. When people see me in the street they have a new interest in talking to foreigners so everywhere I go people ask where I’m from and if I am enjoying the World Cup. It’s been a real good missionary opportunity to share with people exactly what I do, which is helping others come unto Christ.

I love you all so much and am praying for you all.

Boa copa pra todos!!!!!

Love,

Elder Kennedy

Joe: That’s cool you like Aston Villa. I really like them too!! Arsenal is the best of course, but respect homey!!! Renee is a barn for liking Chelsea, worst team ever behind Man U!!! hahah

World Cup

Hey! So my new Mission President comes in on the 24th of June. Yeah, so the World Cup is going to start up this week. Pretty crazy. But 50% of the people are excited and the other 50% don’t even care because of all the politics that went into it.

So, this past week was cool. But we didn’t have much success/time to work in our area. I went to Recife three times (Thursday-Saturday). Thursday was a Zone Conference with President Lanius and the other two days I was in a division with Elder Hatch who has a gnarly toe infection. The foot doctor is in Recife. The good news is that we still had two investigators come to church. Leninha and Ángela. One needs to be married first in order to be baptized. So we are working on that. Angela is gaining a testimony still. Wednesday we will go to the Temple as a Zone and the next day is the first game of the world cup! They are recommending that missionaries not be out working during the games or after because there will be craziness in the streets like fireworks being thrown around. The streets here are all decorated and full of Brasil banners and colors. It’s super awesome!!!! Sao Joao is around the corner.

The coolest thing that happened this week was at the conference with the President. I feel like I know my Pres. better and have more faith and trust in him. It’s sad he will be leaving soon. He opened the last two hours of Zone Conference up for questions in relation to doctrine or his personal life and it was super epic!

I love you all so much. These next five months are going to go by too fast. Next week I’ll try and write more ;)

Love,

Elder Kennedy

9 days until the World Cup

Dear Awesome people,

This computer is super slow. Also, there is a USA game that will be played in Recife. Super cool! I got the package Mom and Renee sent- well not yet, I will get it tomorrow during our District meeting. But they called to tell me that it arrived haha. I love you all so much!

This week was a super spiritual one. We had a ton of awesome lessons and some crazy special activities to spark peoples interest in the Book of Mormon. Here in the center of Vitoria there is a big park between two really old and nice Catholic Church's. So this week the Elders from the Vitoria branch and eu e meu companheiro had a Book of Mormon stand with a big old poster of Christ visiting the americas and information about the Book of Mormon. At night on the weekends this park is full of people and tons walked by interested and wanted to know more because the majority of people have never heard of the Book of Mormon. It was such a great activity and I am sure it will continue every weekend. 

We have tons of fresh people to teach. Also this Saturday or next I will begin teaching English for free at 7:00 pm at the church if any of you would care to join me and sharpen your English skills hahaha. I can't wait and I know the Lord will bless us with even more opportunities to open our mouths and share the Gospel. I know this is Christ's church and that his love is infinite. Keep up the good work and be a light unto the world. I only have a few months left on my mission and I am trying to finish strong!

All of my love,

Elder Kennedy

P.S. Tell Uncle Steve Happy Birthday for me.

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