Week 49

hello my dearest family!

 

oh how great it was to talk to y'all on tuesday. you are all so very great and we have such a darn good looking family :) so first i would love to thank you all for the wonderful letters and presents. it was super awesome opening presents with my buddies and feeling just a little bit like we were back in america. christmas makes me a little sad here because nobody does anything! thats why it was awesome to be with americans :) we uprooted a tree in our back yard and put it in our house with some lights on it and put all our presents under. christmas day we woke up and we all took turns opening them up and showing to the other what we got. its funny how child like you can be on the mission, but it was super fun. the night before, we sung christmas carols to people who were out on the street, but in brasil, the only people on the street at night are drunk, so that means we sung to a lot of drunk people! it was super funny and they all loved it :) we ended christmas eve night with a big dinner with the zone and the president and his wife. the food was great and it was fun to see everybody. 

sadly this computer wont send attachments.. i tried :( for christmas lunch, we went over to our buddy's house, welton, and we ate lunch there. it was really fun and he loved it too because he just lives with his dad and we wanted some extra company. i brought my pepper grinder to eat with him because he loves stuff like that. he loved it so much that i decided to give it to him as a christmas present and he got super happy :) i love making people happy! later that night we went to talk to our families!! it was super awesome and everyone was there! i didnt know that the entire family would be there, so that was a nice little surprise. later at night, we just talked to one of the members, and then went home. it was a great christmas :)

wednesday was kind of a miracle day for us. we just kinda felt like knocking on doors on this one street just in hope to find some new families. we ended up staying the entire day on one block. we met 4 families that are really cool and lots of people! i dont know if any of them will progress, but we got the important step: finding them! it was a very needed day because we had cut everyone the day before...

friday night, we were working in a different area and some lady gave us some water that tasted nasty... that night i spent the whole night throwing up which kinda stunk and i also had to stay in bed saturday. it was nice to rest, but it stinks when you feel like crap the whole time... i'm better now, but every once in a while i feel like i'm going to throw up.

sunday was really good, but sadly we still havent been able to get our families to go to church! i don't know why they won't go, we have done everything. we will keep working though and try different things.

today is new years eve, so everyone will be drunk, so we will go to members houses to do family nights. i love doing family nights. we still have to go to bed at 10:30, but everyone says that it will be impossible to sleep because of the noise. we will just have to wait to see what will happen...

sorry this email isnt that exciting, but we had to do a bunch of stuff on the computers, so i didnt have much time to write to you guys :(

i totally got denied in the center again today! i went to send my 8 letters that i have written, but the mail center was closed because its new years eve! i still havent been able to send this huge stack of letters!!!

i love you all!

-Elder Lambert

Week 48

hello my dearest family! 

so today is christmas eve and i am super excited! i absolutely love christmas. i had elder davis open my packages to see if stuff was wrapped so we could put it under our tree so don't worry mom, i didn't peak. i saw the picture of dad in italy at christmas time with the snow, so i decided to take some pictures showing where i am at christmas time. i think you will be able to tell from the pictures that i am in a very hot, dusty, and not very christmas looking place. i just know that when i see a cactus, i dont think of christmas. i'm super excited for tomorrow because we all have presents that we will open and it will be awesome! tonight we will gather as a zone to sing christmas carols to inactive members and then have a zone dinner at one of the chaples. we can also stay awake until midnight!!!  my life is getting so crazy now :)
 

this week i braved brasil and took my camera for a day. here are some funny pictures of the things i saw. they include a dog that tried to kill us, i funny metal man (notice we put a book in his hand), a dog skull on the ground, i bench on a cliff, and also i guy who was chopping up and cooking a pig! it was really funny because he owns a bar and there were tons of drunk people there and we asked if we could take a picture and they all got super excited that there were americans taking pictures. i love brasil. they drink beer for breakfast lunch and dinner.

december 21st was also the predicted 'end of the world'. we got a LOT of questions that day. we decided to celebrate it also by buying a pizza! the pizza here is not quite the same, but its good to fill yourself up :) 

something that you guys don't know is that there is a prophet here that has also predicted the end of the world two other times and nothing happened. i'll attach a video. http://globotv.globo.com/globo-news/jornal-das-dez/v/falso-profeta-pode-responder-por-estelionato-e-homicidio/2188643/ at about 1 minute is the best. its when they started shooting gas bombs after nothing happened and everyone was trying to kill him...

 

this week was a little interesting. we were able to teach alot, but all of our good families stopped progressing :( that means we will cut all of them! we will go back to knocking on a bunch of doors this week just in the search of new families. i worked with elder davis the last two weeks and will stay with him probably for the rest of the transfer. elder spackman is now better, but is really busy with problems in the mission. 
 

some news that is really exciting is that we get to go to a post office today! i have a couple letters i will send. i just hope that some of my friends didn't move addresses lately or they wont get them! we will also go to the center to look around. still i havent been there yet. i will look for cool things. i'm super excited to call tomorrow night! thats really all that i can think about right now, so this email probably won't be very long...

 

i am trying to be the best missionary that i can be and make the most out of these two years! i am so grateful for all your love and support. i hope i show it enough sometimes! i love you all and wish you a very merry christmas!
 

Elder Lambert

Week 47

hello my dearest frieds and family!

area: satélite      companion:elder spackman

so now i will respond to all of my mothers questions. and i'm also curious, did you like the format letter of the last email in groups about families and activities, or the day to day things?

So last p-day we had to go to the hospital because elder spackman's eye got worse. we found out his body is too tired to fight off viruses and stuff, so he started to get sick. he was ordered to rest for a week so he has been sleeping at the president's house for the last week just catching up on sleep. he is better now and i think he will get to work with me again wednesday! my legs are also better now thankfully! some great news is that we went to a grocery store in the center that has some items from walmart! i bought 4 boxes of mac and cheese :) i also found a box of pretzels with my name on it!

The baptism of maxwell was awesome! everything almost went according to plan and his whole family went and some friends! it was great to see his family there. he was successfully baptized by elder davis and was confirmed the next day in sacrament meeting. he's a really great guy, and i'm really happy for him :) we will keep working with his parents little by little to baptize them too. 

elder spackman made 1 and a half years on the mission but has sadly never burned anything at the 1/2 year marks, so he caught up with everything this time. we burned a shirt, pants, and a tie all at once. it was a pretty big fire and a cool moment :)

we had an awesome meeting this morning! we had to wake up at 5 to get ready sadly, but it was worth it. elder mazzagardi and his wife came here to our mission (area presidency) and spoke to 3 of the zones here. it was really cool and super powerful to be with one of the 70. it was really fun seeing some of my buddies from a while back. 

sadly, our progressing families weren't progressing too much this week. we still haven't been able to teach aglésio and simone. they are never home when we mark with them. josé and raimunda we were able to teach once, but they didn't take the restoration too well. we need to pass by again to see how their prayers were and clear up some doubts and questions. paulo and sebastiana took the restoration better and with them we still need to follow up also. sadly none of these families went to church :( its so hard when they don't go to church because that makes it so we can't baptize them and it really helps with the conversion!

so with the phone call, i am wanting to do it 6:30 here. i think its a 5 hour difference, but you guys should check. sadly, there is no internet house with skype, so i wont be able to use that. we will use the phone in the church, and you guys will have to buy an international phone card. i heard its really cheap, so it shouldnt be too big of a problem. i dont know how to do it, but my companion at the moment (elder davis) his mom knows. i sent moms cell number to her and she will call sometime to explain it. i still have our phone card if i need to use it as an emergency.

thats so exciting that some missionaries farewells are coming up! thats so so great :) i received a package today at the meeting from you guys that has my swimsuit. i still havent opened it, but thanks! also i received the envelope from amy and jeremy :) im so excited for christmas! with americans it will be super fun! 

this week was really good, but was a little tougher. we were able to teach alot, but our people stopped progressing, and we weren't able to find many new people. it was fun though working part time in elder davis' area though and getting to know some more people. its always interesting here because people are always changing companions, this next week will maybe be an adventure! i love all of you, and am super excited to talk on christmas with you guys! if you have anymore questions, just let me know!

-Elder Lambert

Week 46

hello my wondrous family!

i was very surprised as the first email that i received was a picture of mom and dad in some BEAUTIFUL sweaters. i remember wearing dads sweater to school :) everybody loved it. this was a very very challenging, yet great week. it was very challenging because nothing really worked out too well... and we are both kind of destroyed right now. i had this really weird thing happen to me starting on wednesday. my legs started to kind of hurt randomly, but it wasn't a very big deal so we just kept working. starting friday, they started to hurt really bad and i had no idea what the problem was; it hurt to sit, sleep, and walk. i got a blessing friday night. we continued working the whole week though and they got better today! they still hurt while i sleep a little, but walking is better now. the weird thing is that i have no idea what it is, it feels like they are being super stretched constantly, but a little different. also, on friday, elder spackman woke up with his eye a little bit swollen, it continued to swell a little bit but got better last night. BUT, when he woke up this morning, it was swollen all the way shut. he looks super funny :) we went to the hospital and he had to get a shot in his butt and now he cant walk normally. after this we will go to the hospital in the center to get it better evaluated. and here is a huge spider that was in our house!

sadly, i left my planner and journal at home, so i will tell the week as an overview and not day by day. 

the last p-day, i felt like such a mom. i passed the whole day sewing. my pants were kinda short, so i unstitched them, and did them again. it was a gutsy move, but turned out alright! for sure its not the way its supposed to be done, but its working out fine so far! we were able to teach sebastiana and paulo at night. its such an awesome family because its two families in one. their son is living with his wife in the same house! neither him or his parents are legally married, but after our lesson about families and the importance of marriage, they agreed and got really excited to get married! we just have to settle the moms divorce from her first marriage. a couple days later, we brought a recently married and sealed in the temple couple to share their experiences. it was such an awesome lesson and got them even more excited. this family is the owner of a restaurant and they make us super good snacks when we go over there :) this sunday we had stake conference at the huge church in the center that is two stories, its oh so beautiful. they said they would go, but they never showed up :( we will go back to visit them very soon!

we had a zone meeting on tuesday that was really cool. it was a normal meeting with trainings and stuff, but was a meeting to analyse our numbers. i really like doing this kind of thing and putting everything into numbers. our zone was a little weak but it was cool to see that our numbers were a big contributor to the zones totals. it was the first time meeting as the whole zone so it was way cool talking to everyone. in our zone we have 4 sisters and probably 20 elders. i attached a picture

me and my companion (elder spackman) get along super well. i love working with him and we are such good friends. the work is so great when you can find someone who works well with you, but also someone who is your best friend. we are always talking, joking, and doing really funny stuff. this makes working so much more fun and powerful too. all of our investigators really like our visits. for sure i want to do stuff with him after the mission, i hope we stay together for a while. here is a picture of me and him at the zone meeting.

sadly, we havent been able to teach simone and aglésio all week, the times we marked with them and passed by, they werent home. we were able to find them last night, but they were in front of another house drinking :( we willl get them during the week when they are sober and continue to help them.

we taught josé and raimunda the other day and it was really great. we taught about the power to seal families forever and how it was lost but restored. the lesson was going super great until we tried to play the restoration video and their DVD player didnt work. they were pretty bummed and said they would get it fixed before the next visit. its really hard with them because they are soo great and they have already stopped drinking coffee, but they dont have time to go to church. this is a major problem that we are trying to work out. they are awesome though! they said they would invite some families the next visit :)

the reform is done in our house and it looks sooo much better! i will take some pictures of it next week. sorry i dont have many pictures, this area is just super dangerous and the missionaries were already robbed a bunch of times so im kinda scared to bring it with me. i attached a picture of the before and after of the walls. they were a pretty ugly color...

my room is getting super christmasy for the holidays! its got to be the prettiest room in the misison. i already got the package of the decorations, two that i have to wait for, and mels envelope. i love the present mel gave me :) i laugh every day i open something new. the sheep with jobe's face on it was today and i almost died laughing :) i have written some more letters, but sadly i still cant send them! there isnt a post office here.

we will baptize a young man (maxwell) this saturday. this is somethign that we are trying to avoid now because people were baptizing youth really fast and they were falling away from the church, but this youth has already gone to church more than 5 times, has an active family who is his neighbor, has been to seminary, and actually has a testimony of the church. i know he will stay active and im really excited for him. we will continue to work with his parents (ivaneide and valdinar).

we will keep working super hard this week even with trials. this week was hard, but i felt good because i know i tried my absolute hardest. i lost count on how many doors we knocked on searching for families. i really feel like a missionary right now and i love it :) 

i love you all and wish you the best in everything! enjoy the ski season for me :) 

-Elder Lambert

Week 45

hello my dearest dearest wonderful family!

i bore my testimony about how great you are mother and father :)

this week was an interesting week, not because bad things happened, but because it was just straight up interesting. i have never been so happy working here in the mission. i have finally mastered the vision of how the mission should be, and i'm living it. it is the greatest thing ever! i am not baptizing every day, but i am oh so happy :) i did stay here for the transfer and nothing changed in the area.

monday-for pday i wrote a bunch of letters, but sadly there is no post office here, so i still havent been able to send them... have patience with me people! the assistants werent here, so i worked in elder davis´ area at night. we are starting to get our house reformed THANKFULLY! it is so ugly. after 20 years with missionaries living there, it is not very attactive.. two elders named elder abreu and elder colby showed up to be our companions for a week while the assistants are traveling

tuesday-my day with elder abreu was super awesome! we taught alot and were able to find new families who are pretty good. he taught me a new way of planning that i really liked too that is really effective. a new elite family that we met are named aglésio and simone, sadly they arent married, but they are willing to do anything to have an eternal family :) we went back to the other elect family (josé and raimunda) and shared another lesson with them. she said that she had talked to her friends about how much she loved our visit so we challenged her to invite these families to listen in on our lessons the next visit. 

wednesday-we were able to teach lots of lessons during the day again and help leidimar integrate with a really cool lady who lives close to her. nothing super exciting happened though, 

thursday-we tried to teach aglésio and simone again, but they werent home :( however, we did meet another elect family (paulo and sebastiana). they are way cool and want to be baptized to start a new life. sadly again, they are not married. we have alot of weddings to plan! you can call me the wedding planner :) we had a great meeting with our ward mission leader and made some really good designations and planned an activity for this friday (7th).

friday-we just had a pretty normal day here. some thing very interesting is that we went to the old man's (luís) ex wife so we can settle his divorce so we can marry him! she was like a 75 year old woman who is super cranky and it was so hard for me to restrain myself from grabbing her by the throat. they have been out of communication for over 15 years but she will not sign the divorce papers because she is mad at him because he left her. she just has a grudge, so she wont let him be happy... its really good that she is old or otherwise i would have fought with her. we passed by acelino's house and discovered a miracle had happened! he had worked every other sunday in the morning, so he couldnt go to church every week, but on his new schedule he only works every other sunday in the afternoon! now he can go pretty much every sunday! he was so excited because he was about to talk to  his boss about this, but the lord blessed him greatly for his good desires to obey the commandments. it is so cool how that works. at night i worked with a different elder named elder howe and we were able to go to josé and raimunda's house. they had invited two families to learn with them, but they both traveled :( but it was so cool that they actually invited people! we taught them about the standards of the church along with the word of wisdom and they agreed to stop drinking coffee. they also said that they would go to church 

saturday- saturday we set up a huge map of our area to help us plan more. since this area is super poor and kinda run down, alot of the streets are sand so they arent registered. we had to draw all these streets in by hand, but its beautiful now! also there was an emergency and me and elder spackman had to get a taxi to go to the center to resolve a problem with some other elders. its kind cool being the companion of the assistant. at night we were able to get a couple of lessons in when we got back. 

sunday-we were able to help a less active man who is returning to church right now that was really awesome, also we were able to teach aglésio and simone! they agreed to be baptized and married! we will start working on their marriage plans right now. im so so happy for them!

this week was super great and full of great things. i heard that i got some letters and a package that i will get tomorow. im not sure who its from though!

i lvoe you all!!!

-Elder Lambert