Week 31

e ai família!!

i dont even remember how many weeks i'm at, but i made 7 months this week! time is flying by sooo fast. its crazy. i also found out that my buddy jeff returned from brasil this last week too!!! it will feel like 3 weeks and i will arrive there too. i'm glad to hear that everything worked out with nat and all that exciting stuff that has been going on. the portuguese is really going! i can pretty much say whatever i want to say now. some people still have problems understanding me, but that wont change much :) in the apartment we speak mostly port. but at times english. my companion knows a few words and phrases in english that he will say every once in a while, its really funny to hear him speak english. seminary here is at night tues-fri. they get one extra day off... going to seminary again makes me want to do it all over again. i wish i had paid attention a little more..... some other random things about brasil: when i get home i will have a very very strong desire to buy a motorcycle and put a huge sound system in my car. all the people who have come here to brasil will understand. rosángela and  charles are still ready to be baptized, but wont accept for some reason. still we are trying to figure out their needs. bruno still is going to church and loving it! here in brasil, almost the whole ward are members, but inactive. the other ward got a report that they have 500 something members, but only 18% are going to church still.... i think bruno will stay, he was a good baptism. also, we met some good people this week that i am excited to work with!

monday-we visited rosángela in her house this time and she loved it. she got really excited to see us. we got to talk to her daughter also because she was there.

tuesday-i bought a DVD to transfer all my photos to and send home! BUT i got a bad computer that wont recognize my camera, so my family will have to wait one more week for me to send the disc. we went to somebodies house to dedicate it because lots of weird stuff has been happening there. he and his family have been seeing spirits and all sorts of things (also, this is normal here). rosángela oficially knows the church/book of mormon are true, but for some reason doesnt have a desire. she understands very well the influence it would have on her and the blessings she would recieve, but she has no desire. i dont know how... we brought Lucas to seminary and he really liked it, but sadly we havent been able to contact him during the week. i dont really know what happened to him... some of the youth from our ward went to go visit bruno. i was really excited when i found out, but he wasnt home :(

wednesday-today was a bit rougher. we had lunch and found out that a woman in our ward fell off her motorcycle, so we went there to give her a blessing. all of our plans failed and we were walking around trying to find something to do and we found someone really cool. we will stop by her house this week. i also almost got hit by a motorycle because i fell asleep while walking in the road. ALSO, i found a tarantula! it was super ugly and i kicked it and it crawled into somebody´s house... oops.

thursday-we made a small journey to a neighborhood on the other side of the world and made it this time! it was super super hot and i was just day dreaming about water the whole time. again, all of our plans failed, but it was still really fun to go there. we were on a mission to find someone to give us water, but nobody was in the street. there was also a plot of land that had a big sign posted that said ``VENDE-SE ESTA MERDA.´´ for the people who speak portuguese, they will understand, but in english it said ``SELLING THIS CRAP.´´ we contacted a reference with a member and it went well. he is a youth named fellipe. he had a really cool dream of him being baptized with his family, maybe it was a revelation! we taught the law of chastity to charles and it was a little difficult for him to accept, but he understood really well and i think he will change.

friday-we played a really funny joke on elder black, again, and he bought it. i think this is the third time that we have played a joke that he is being transfered because of an emergency. everytime the joke is getting better and better so he is still believing it. this time was midnight and he started packing his bags and everything. it was pretty funny :) he loves us alot. 

saturday-i made 7 months! we met a youth (emanuel) whose parents were sealed in the temple and separated and fell away from the church. he knew very little about the church but recieved us very well. his mom wasnt there, but i hope that through him we can reactivate her. he is looking for the right religion and has been accepting the JW´s for a while. he went to church with us and loved it. our ward gave us more food again which was awesome! i really really like the members in this ward, they love us so much too :)

sunday-one of the members brought emanuel to church and he really liked it. he agreed with everything and he knows alot of doctine stuff. he will go to seminary tuesday and we will plan another visit with him then. also we have a less active woman who is returning to church and she brought her non-member husband. he loved it alot and im really excited to work with him. maybe we will be able to complete the family and baptize him! sadly, rosángela and charles didnt go :( BUT a guy who we are helping with an alcohol problem still has not had a drink in 3 weeks! also this was his third sunday in a row going :) at night, we had some meetings and after we met a really cool girl named lucilene. she really liked our message and she was really interested. we will return tomorrow to talk to her. she said that she wants to go to church.

alot of this fell through this week, but we are teaching alot with members and helping alot of less active people. i have a feeling that this week will be a very very good week for us :) the church is true and the mission is great :) congratulations for the return of jeff and matt, and good luck for the people leaving!

com amor,

Elder Lambert

Week 30

ola meus amados amigos e minha família!

area: Sobral    Companion: elder albuquerque

so this week was interesting. our numbers for the week were numbers that you could get in one day if you worked hard. BUT, i am not discouraged because we baptized! i will talk more about this later. tune in to the day saturday to hear more. but all the lessons, though few, were very very good. this was a very exciting week with lots and lots of adventures. and my mother asked about the address of the mission changing. the new address and the old address go to the same place, but they dont want us using the other address for letters, just to mail stuff to the secretaries (baptismal forms, receipts, etc.) so they will still accept stuff for a while, but its best to change :) next week i will make 7 months in the mission!!!! it is so crazy to hear that my friends are starting to return, and still some of my friends are leaving....

our day without power

zone conferece!!

monday- this day had some bad news. elder albuquerque found out his dog died with 12 years and it was really hard for him. i was so sad for him. luckily he is better now and we are back to working hard :) also, our power got cut at 4 PM and everything turned off. we were really confused and called the power company and they said that we never paid the bill. we checked with the secretaries and they said that they paid. we called the company again and they realized they duplicated our bills... we stayed 24 hours without power and it was probably the worst night of my life. i never realized how valuable a fan is here. i was sweating the whole night and was getting attacked by bugs. usually the fan blows them away or sucks them up and kills them. i only slept from 4:30-5:30 then woke up again. it was horrible because i was super tired, but couldnt sleep. during the day, bruno passed his interview to be baptized saturday!!

photos- baptism of bruno!! he isnt smiling, but he loved it.

 tuesday- we have been passing by a recent convert who has had big problems with alcohol everyday and still he is good! he is trying so hard and loves the progress that he is making. he is so happy that we stop by and it makes me so happy also. we taught Charles and finally discovered the question/doubt that he had that has been bothering him. he didnt really understand the whole part about joseph smith. we will plan really well to better inform him. also, we started planning the baptism of bruno and i think that it will work out really well!

wednesday-we cleaned the WHOLE house. seriously everything. it took the whole morning but it is super clean. we cleaned every tile, wall, shelf, shoe, dish. we passed by bruno and he is really excited for his baptism. also, we passed by charles and explained about joseph smith a little better. we just need to clear his questions little by little.

elder albuquerque´s birthday!

thursday- we had a zone conferece! it was way good and very fun to see every body :) the zone leaders and the president gave some really good training and the practices were fun. this night, we brought bruno to seminary, but left him alone in the class with the other people. a school payed to practice soccer at the church, so we went out to talk to the kids. we met some really cool kids that we will visit in their houses. we met a kid named lucas that i am really excited to teach. we gave him a book of mormon and he is way excited to read it. also, the girls did a very good job of taking care of bruno - they talked to him alot and made sure he felt included. 

friday-we had a great lesson with rosángela. she feels that the book of mormon is true and that the church is true also. we just need to work a little more with her because she knows these things, but she wont act with her knowledge... we taught lucas and it was way way good. he loved our message and was asking if he can go to seminary and all sorts of things. i think he will be baptized in not too much time. we also went to the baptism of a girl with 8 years and it was super cool. we brought 2 investigators to watch also.

BBQ with the master :)

saturday- saturday was a perfect day! we made a small journey with some girls in the ward to visit a friend of theirs. it was way good and her mom asked TONS of really funny questions. we will definitely schedule alot more time for the next lesson. we were almost late to the church to meet Bruno for his baptism. the baptism was super super good. there were lots of people/youth there and he loved it. the program worked out really well that we put together. it was also elder albuquerque´s birthday so we returned after and ate a huge maracujá cake :) it was so so good and really fun. he turned 19. 

 BBQ and trying to lift huge cement weights...

sunday-another perfect day! we went to get lucas to bring him to church, but he was sleeping and said he would meet us there. always this means they wont go, but he showed up! he loved it so so much, he is so cool. bruno went also and was confirmed and received the holy ghost. also, charles went, but after he told a friend that he didnt want to be baptized anymore, so we will have to figure that out... rosángela didnt go :( there was also a meeting for the birthday of president monson that was super good. there was alot of music that was fun to hear in english. they sang the song ´lillies of the field´ and it made me think of mom. also, a family invited us to eat dinner at their house. it was really good and they love us so much :) we have such an awesome ward! ALSO, during church, a member who is running for a political position was giving out propaganda in the church... it was a very stupid thing to do and he got in big trouble...

monday-we went to a big BBQ at somebodies house that was super tasty. i ate sooo much meat and drank soo much coke. it was perfect - this ward is seriously the best!

thanks for all the love and support. i love you all so very much and keep you in my thoughts and prayers!

-Elder Lambert

Week 29

Area: sobral      Companion: elder Albuquerque

so this week was just a normal, typical week in the mission, which means it had some random adventures!! some important things is that my address switched! right now if you want to send me a letter (and you should want to) send it to:

Missão Brasil Teresina A/C Elder Derek Romney Lambert

CPX:2321

Teresina-PI

CEP:64001-973

they will accept letters to the old address for only a little while, so it is important that you switch! so if my dearest mother and sister could change it on the blog and church program it would be fantastic. also, tell some people too :) also, it seems like everyone keeps moving houses, especially family, so you might lose some cards! i sent some to family, but they are always moving houses. i sure hope that nothing was lost! it seems like everyone is doing well, i hope it stays this way!!!

monday- we went to subway which was awesome, but also my money is disappearing... when we got home we built card towers to see who could built it the highest! i was kinda sick all throughout the day, so that was a bummer :(

tuesday- lunch this day was the craziest thing ever. i think this was the most dangerous moment of my mission which is pretty sad because it was lunch in the house of members. they have this child (6 years old) who was having some temper problems and he kept leaving the table and throwing food and other things, ripping stuff apart, and all sorts of stuff. he left for a while and came back frowning like crazy, grabbed a knife from the table, yelled TOMA (translates to TAKE THIS), and threw the knife with all his might at his dad. luckily it hit a plate and not his dad and also that it didnt bounce off and kill somebody. my heart stopped for a couple seconds. it was pretty crazy...during the night we played a really funny joke on elder G. Silva. i wish i had recorded it, but sadly i didnt.

pudding and jello!!! thanks mom!

wednesday- we taught rosángela and she accepted a baptismal date for the 25th! she is so great and i really hope that everything will work out. we brought Bruno to seminary again and he really liked it. he has never done anything religious before, but he really likes our messages and learning about the Bible. he is starting to progress alot!

thursday-we spent alot of time looking for new families to teach. the focus is really big with families right now. sadly, this just resulted in us walking around for alot of time finding nobody. nobody here lives as a couple, everyone is separated. we brought bruno to seminary and he liked it yet again. it was really funny because secretly, the night before he studied the chapters that they would read, so he knew all the answers :) he is a funny guy. im really starting to believe that he will be baptized the 18th! Charles regonized an answer from god that what we have been saying to him is all true. it was so relieving, but still he is having a difficulty adjusting to the differences between our church and the catholic church. we will try to get him ready for the 18th!

friday- we tried to make the journey to a really far away neighborhood to contact a couple of references, but halfway there something very bad happened to me. it was one of those experiences where you have to use the bathroom right then. To make it worse, we were in the middle of nowhere... we turned around and started walking really fast back to the house about three different times. then we passed a members house and he had served a mission so i knew he would understand :) i used the bathroom there which was quite an experience... their toilet didnt have water in it which was kind of gross, but i got everything fixed. it was very close to being a very very bad situation. On a lighter note, Rosángela agreed to live the word of wisdom and stop drinking coffee!! also, a church member gave me a watch :)

a dog named peach loves to press against my legs and leave tons and tons of hair

i started making lots of hamburgers with lots of grilled peppers, onions, and black pepper. it is very delicious :)

saturday- we worked during the morning which was way awesome. the guys we contacted were really funny. they are music teachers and they played some music for us. one played the recorder and one played the guitar. we finished all the lessons with bruno and he agreed to live all the standards of the church! we set up an interview for him to be baptized monday!

sunday-we didnt have to bring anyone to church which was really nice. we had some members inactive come back that we worked with through the week which was really good! we will continue working with them to help them stay. Bruno came also, but charles and rosángela didnt still. i dont know what happened with rosángela... during church i scored a pen for almost being a father! it was fathers day here in brasil, was it in the US too? also the primary sang some songs that were super duper cute in portuguese for the dads. i also had a very strange dream during the night that i was home again. it was really wierd and super real. i was so confused when i woke up in brasil..

i love you all and i hope all is well. i am praying for everyone in my 134 prayers a day! i would love some addresses to mail cards, so send me your address, or better yet send me a card! 

-Elder Lambert

a little friend who snuck in our house..

Week 28

minha amada família e meus amados amigos!

area: Sobral      Companion: Elder Albuquerque!

so i think the pictures will work to send this week!! woooohooo! BUT i have so so many that i downsized them so i can send more and send them faster. i hope it will work. this week was a pretty darn good week. it is getting hotter and hotter every day and i am suffering more than slightly, but hey, more blessings for me :) its not too humid so im getting really dried up, i will come back home looking like a raisin (black and wrinkely). also, we received letters!!! i also recieved a package from my dear parents which was like the coolest thing ever. it included a pepper grinder, pudding, jello, koolaid, a mitt romney poster, washington state flag, and some other goodies. everyone loved it, especially me. my companion received 11 cards because it is his birthday soon, he got really happy also. to respond to some questions... the people here are both blacks and brasilias, and some random people who look white... what i eat normally: in the house, lots and lots of hamburgers and ramen and oranges. i have developed a deep love for oranges. in members houses: soda, rice, beans, noodles, and some kind of meat :) the tie that i burned was from jobe, so it isnt that important. the silk ties are starting to fall apart. where it has stitching, the holes have swollen so they are coming undone. 

monday-we didnt end up teaching any lessons after p-day, but we developed a new game plan and charles (good investigator) called for us to visit the next day. also, a bird pooped on my head :)

6 months pizza

 6 months cake

burning my tie

BBQ

tuesday- today i felt really happy which was awesome :) we also had our first distrct meeting of the new transfer and we met some of the new guys. i like all of them and i think we have a really powerful zone right now. we taught another really good investigator (Bruno) and he said he believes the book of mormon is true. he hasnt prayed yet but just from reading and the fact that we are very far from our houses to tell people - this touched his heart. he accepted a baptismal date for the 18th and his mom gave us juice and cookies! i hope that this baptism will work out because it has been a while since my last and i want elder albuquerque to get one. 

wednesday- lunch fell through for the last three days, so it has been a couple days of ramen :) we taught charles and it was way good. he asked alot of really good questions. he really likes the lessons, but also has a strong desire to KNOW for himself that the things we are teaching are true. he has alot of faith, so i hope he will recieve the answer he is awaiting! we also had a family night in the house of a family that has 1 year as members. we taught the plan of salvation and how families can be forever through the ordinances of the temple. they really loved it and are preparing. it was such a fun lesson and i really really love working with the families of the church.

1 counselor of the mission president (president Barros)

Family Night

Sunset in Sobral

PINK Ties!!! (thanks anne!)

thursday-we watched the restoration with rosanglea and she really liked it. she is also reading the liahona alot and loves it. she agrees with all the teachings and stuff. we brought bruno to seminary and he seemed to like it too, i hope that he will integrate with the members. he has a difficulty of talking to lots of people. and the most important thing, we will receive letters tomorrow because the zone leaders went to teresina!

friday-i went to a training with the zone leaders and it was really good. it was all about families and how we can serve the families of the church and outside the church. i received letters from my family, tanner pax, and kember! its so fun getting letters :) also my mother and father mailed me a wonderous package! we watched the restoration with charles and it cleared up some questions, but still he is seeking an answer. he accepted a date for the 18th if he feels ready then.

saturday- we stayed really busy today which was nice because it means less time in the sun. we contacted a boy who is less active and he is really cool. he knows charles and we will help him prepare to baptize him. we prepared for our fast and i dont think i have ever eaten so much.. i ate four hamburgers, ramen, and some oranges :) it was delicious!

sunday-church was really great. we had 4 really important investigators come to church, and some guy from another area brought his extended family who arent members (15 people). the chapel had alot of people this day :) the testimonies were really good for our investigators to hear.

monday- we went and played ping pong with the boys of the church which was way fun. after this, i will cut my hair and we will go to subway again :)

i love you all and i hope you are all in good health!! i will keep you in my prayers :)

 com amor

-Elder Lambert

SUNSCREEN!

the stuff in the package i recieved :)

ping pong!