Week 44

hello my wonderful, dear family!

so to respond to the email. thats so cool that mackenzie is going to brasil! she has a temple in her mission! im so jealous. send me her address please. i understand everything now pretty much except for the super weird words. but i can always understand what the person is saying. the word i learned this week is 'mamar'. it means to breast feed... i do dream in portuguese and its super weird, i was talking to elder davis in my sleep the other day. i dream alot that i am teaching people so i will say the lessons while i am sleeping. when i got here i could barely speak english because it would automatically transform into portuguese just by habit. now i always speak english with my comps so its easy again. our house is actually getting reformed right now! i took a video of it but i cant send videos sadly. it was super super ugly before. it will look so nice when the reform is done! i got one package that had the christmas decorations and apple cider and stuff. thanks so much! everything is already set up :) i also got one that says that i have to wait until christmas - can i open it early?! i also got a letter you sent for my birthday, but it was missent to barbados, so it just got here... i laughed when i heard about jobe :)

this week was the last week here in the transfer. we will find out later today about what will happen! i think everything will stay the same here. 

monday-we had an awesome family night with a member family and with the family of valdinar and ivaneide. it was about eternal families and i think it helped them out a bunch. all the kids are great, but the parents have really closed hearts... we will keep working with them though!

tuesday-i did a division with elder souza from são paulo. it was good. we were able to teach a lot of lessons and meet some new families which is ALWAYS a good thing :) 

wednesday-today i worked with elder spackman and we had a really hard day. every single appointment fell through so we ended up walking until 6. at 6 we took a coke break and said a prayer to find a miracle family. as we were walking at about 7 we passed a house and elder spackman felt prompted to stop and knock on the door. they answered and they are a super cool family! they are wealthy and would be great leaders in the church. we talked a lot with them and they said some really cool stuff. we found out that they are willing to follow responses from god which is a really important thing with investigators. they also recognized that we were a response from god in their lives. we told them about the prayer we had and they said that they are never home at the time we passed, but they were doing everything really slow that night so they didnt leave on time to buy groceries. they said it was a miracle and know that god sent us to them. sadly i have not been able to go back there yet, but we will go tomorrow! after we had a really good family night with a family who has some rebellious teenagers and we taught about the importance of building your foundation while you are young and the importance of listening to your parents. everyone liked it and the parents were really happy.

thursday-we worked in elder davis area so i didnt really record what happend...

friday-we worked in elder davis' area again, but we taught maxwell. he is ready to be baptized, but we will still wait a little longer to try to baptize his whole family. we taught the word of wisdom and he said that he already stopped drinking coffee because he heard it in the church one time. nobody told him to or explained it to him, but he did it anyways!

saturday- we baptized acelino! it was sooooo awesome and he loved it. he was so so happy and he said he felt so so good. i had the privilege of baptizing him which was a challenge because he is humongous. it was such a spiritual moment for me and for him. 

sunday-acelino was confirmed and recieved the spirit! he is so happy and i am so happy for him :) he is a great guy. i included some pictures of him, his wife, and his son.

the baptism was so great this week and i was so happy to baptize him. he is a great man and will be a strong leader in the church. i love all of you!

-Elder Lambert

Week 43

hello my dearest family!

i am pretty sure that i am on the worst computer ever... the mouse doesnt work which makes things really really hard... BUT i am oh so happy here in brasil. this week was very good and i am very pleased with my numbers and the people i am teaching. i was able to watch the video you sent me, but sadly this computer doesnt have sound. they look sooo cute together and it made me a little homesick. this week we have been working so much with families that i have really been thinking about you guys. i will try and send you guys a HUGE letter telling you how much i love you :) some good news is that we will baptize acelino this saturday! after a long time of teaching them, he is more than ready. we were hoping to baptize him and his wife together, but she is just not wanting it right now. we are working hard to plan a really special baptismal ceremony for him; we know that if we do everything right she will feel the spirit telling her to do the same thing. acelino is super excited and is inviting all his friends and stuff :) we have also started to do alot more street contacts to try to meet new families. elder spackman has been teaching me alot of things that i am really liking.  thats so cool also that ally will serve soooo close to me! i am so excited for her! she will have to send me a letter or give me her address so i can send one to her. 

monday-we had an awesome familiy night with acelino and leidimar in the house of an awesome member family. the lesson was really good and it really helped integrate them with some of the ward. 

tuesday-we taught one couple about the importance of marriage and they really liked it and said that they would talk to figure out what they will do. we also started to make alot more street contacts. we have a goal to get 50 addresses every week. this is really good for me because it is something that i have never liked/felt all the way comfortable doing. i am learning alot and we are starting to meet some more families because of this. 

wednesday-i didnt really work in my side of the area, so there isnt much that is exciting to report. but we were able to help a couple people.

thursday-today we visited some less active members trying to help them. that was kind of fun to meet some new people. i love talking to the people. i am still amazed that i can talk to people in a different language. it just baffles me!

friday-the couple that we taught a couple days ago about marriage decided that they dont want to get married. i dont really understand why because they already have alot of time living together and understand that it is a commandment. so we cut them.... we were also able to mark a baptismal date with maxwell. he has been to church 3 times already and wants to be baptized right now, but we are trying to baptize more of his family with him so we are waiting a little. i'm so happy that i have the right vision of baptism here and not just baptizing all the kids who dont understand and will fall away. i really want to only baptize family and if i find a kid, i really want to make sure he understands and has a testimony of everything.
 
saturday-we talked a bunch with acelino about his baptism and he is super excited. he started inviting everyone in the street. i am sooooo excited for his baptism. this is definitely my most important baptism yet. we also went to search for families the last couple hours of the day. we prayed to be guided and just started walking and making contacts and knocking doors and found 2 really cool families that we will return to teach!

sunday-we had a very successful day and taught lots of lessons which was awesome. i am sooooo happy right now in the mission and am loving it :) the transfer is coming up here next tuesday, but i know that i will stay here. 

i hope all of you are well! i love you all and you are alll the best :) i love you!
-Elder Derek Romney Lambert!

Week 42

hello my beloved family :)

i am 100% better this week which is awesome. i am learning so much working with elder spackman. i really like the way that he works and we have so much stuff to do! we were able to recieve 20 references throughout the week and we are working our tails off to try to contact all of them. we were also able to meet some new families that are super duper cool. the water only disappeared one time i think, so that was really good and we went the whole week with electicity! God is really blessing us now. its funny that christian said this is one of the hottest places in the world, because i'm pretty sure it is. everyone here talks about how you can take a bus to arrive in Hell :) also that the devil came here one time and said it was too hot and he wanted to return back to his place. its so wierd hearing about all those missionaries getting home and giving homecomings! before i know it, it will be me also. this transfer is going by super super fast. That is also sooooo awesome about the mission calls! its nuts that it was just announced that girls can leave sooner and already people are getting their calls. im so excited for megan, kember, and mcKenzie! Tereré is a kind of drink here. you put this stuff in a cup that looks like grass clippings and you put water on top and drink it through a straw. it looks like something that should be illegal... elder spackman said that he wanted a little surprise for a christmas present :) i was thinking also; i have given away all my shorts and i  would love another pair. here its funny because everyone wears swimsuits as shorts. can you send my my coolest looking swimsuit for me :) one thats crazy, or my DC one. you are the best! 

monday-at night after pday we went to a less active members house to have a little snack with him and talk. he loves to talk about very deep doctrine stuff and its super awesome. one thing the mission has really taught me is how cool the scriptures are. i LOVE studying the scriptures. it is so much fun to look at all the notes and search for stuff.

tuesday-we went to a different less actives house and helped her out alot. she was so happy that we are helping her. we planned a goal to help her get to the temple :) at night we met a new family. they are a married couple that have 4 kids. it is soooo much fun when you can teach a real family. the spirit was there so strong and we taught about eternal families. it was cool because we were able to bring a member lady who lives down the dirt road and they liked her alot. the families names are; Valdinar and ivaneide (parents), mariana, maxwell, mariaclara, and monica.

wednesday- we passed the day teaching today and at night we got to go to the house of the cool family in elder davis' area (conceção and domingos). they gave us dinner which was super good. we spent the night laughing and talking. i have a super strong love for the family and am sad i wont be able to work with them much because they dont live in my area. 

thursday- we did a service project for someone who is unable to work. he had a mini jungle behind his house and we cut everything down and stacked it in a huge pile for him to burn. it was really fun working with machettis and destroying a bunch of stuff. he got super happy and was overwhelmed. i love service :) 

friday-we had another service project this day which was fun also. we helped someone cement their walls so they could paint it. we helped making all the cement and carrying it around and stuff. once again this family got super happy and gave us lunch :) we also had a very successful day. nothing fell through and we met some new people! we were able to meet one couple who accepted to be baptized on christmas and we talked alot with acelino about his baptism. he is ready to be baptized but his wife isnt progressing. we marked a date for his baptism the 24th of this month. we are thinking it will help speed her up and motivate her. acelino is really excited. 

saturday- we were able to mark a date with the lady who went to church the last sunday (maria de jesus) and she accepted to prepare to be baptized on the 8th of december. its really cool to start seeing all the results of our work. we were working super hard, but nothing was realy happening, but this week was filled with awesome stuff.

sunday-we had two families go to church! acelino and leidimar went and loved it. i got so so excited. also, maxwell and mariana, and some other people. our ward has been at about 120/130 as the attendance, but this week was 154! we were able to get lots of inactives there and investigators. i was so happy :) we recieved an enormous amount of references yesterday and everyone got so happy that there were alot of people there. we had a super cool family night with about 30 people  there.

all in all, this week was fantastic! i will work to have every week be like this. i know the lord is blessing me so much in this work and my prayers and your prayers are being answered. thanks for all the love and support! i love you!

-Elder Lambert

Week 41

heeellllo my dearest friends and family!

so this week was a week of lots and lots of work and few results sadly, but it was great all the same. i am just kinda coming over the sickness that i have had for over a week now :( and i got my package mom and loved it! i love the books, they are perfect, and everything else in it! the music also works great! thats so exciting you went shooting! that is an utter nigtmare imagining you and nat shooting guns, but i was happy to hear you are still living and well. so the elections are tomorrow huh? you will have to send me the results next week! the pictures were super cute that amy sent me of halloween. anne and will are so cute together :) i also recognized that jeremy was wearing my clothes, im glad somebody still loves them.

monday-we had a really great p-day with a family where the dad is strugglin a little bit in the church and the mom's sister who is not a member and her husband. the movie was super awesome that we watched. its called fire proof and talks about a marriage that is ending but through effort and god they were able to save their marriage and make it all the better. it had a great message :) and this week at church the whole family was there!

elder davis burning his 1 year mark shirt

tuesday- the district meeting was great and i taught a really funny lesson that all the people loved :) one thing that i have learned alot is how to public speak and teach about anything on the spot. we had a very productive day which was great and at night we had a super awesome family night with our friends who help us out and their family. everyone is kind of inactive or not members and we gave a lesson on agency from a conference talk. they really liked it and i think it went really well.

wednesday-today all of our plans fell through, like EVERYTHING. that was kind of a bummer so we visited members all day to help them out with things and to see how they are doing. they get really happy because none of the old misisonaries would ever visit them, so they like our visits. 

thursday- this was another day where lots of plans fell through, but we had a great lesson with a family at night. their names are domingos and conceição and they have three kids. they were super happy that we came back to visit them and they were all waiting for us. they all have great hearts and i love to talk with them.

friday-today we decided to contact all the old investigators from the old missionaries because we are short on investigators... this was a great idea, but didnt work out. we just walked the whole day and contacted a ton of them with no good results. BUT i know we will be blessed in some way :) at night we contacted a reference that went really well. im not really sure how this family works, but there were four members (i dont know their relation). we also were able to find a less active home that we have been trying to find for a while. he has a drinking problem so we talked about that and happily he came to church this sunday! the power went out again which kinda stunk. here, the power is always going out and the water is always running out too...

saturday-today we also passed by lots of members and some less actives. it went really well and we were inviting all of them to church. at night we went back to domingos and conceição which was great again. i felt a little bad though because they wanted to give us dinner, but we were fasting so we had to decline :( i had a desire though! 

sunday-we had our early morning meetings that went well and church went well too. we had some investigators and some less actives there. at night we taught some lessons, did another family night, and went home to sleep. 

monday-our companions returned this morning! i have only worked 2 days with my companion... we also went to a shopping center to buy something called tereré. its super good :) we have a couple lessons planned tonight that will be super awesome i think :)

the mission is great, and i am happy! i am glad to hear that everything is going great with all of you also! keeop me posted on how you are doing. i wrote some letters, but there is no post office here... i dont know when i can sent them out,,, i hope soon!

i love you all and thanks for the love and support :)

-Elder Lambert