week 53

hello friends and family!

it seems like almost every week i say that i am on the worst computer ever, but this week it is very true. already 35 minutes of my 1 hour has passed and i have only sent one email of 4 lines... i hope i can get this one off! i'm sorry to make you guys wait yet again to get pictures. there is no way this computer can send anything other than a basic email. there were a couple exciting things that happened this week that i am excited to report!

first of all, maria de deus is getting back from her trip soon and we will get the baptism all planned out! she has been in teresina and she even went to church there this sunday! i'm so excited for her and she is also :) 

on sunday i gave a church talk about missionary work. it was a very easy topic for me to prepare for. i absolutely love this topic! i taught about how cool it is that we can help god bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man and how it is our privilege. i also talked about member missionary work and everyone loved it. 

we almost had a really cool baptism, but sadly it wont work out. there was a cousin of a recent convert visiting and she has been to church 4 times here and we have already taught her everything and she really wants to be baptized. sadly her mom wont let her :( she has such a strong testimony of the book of mormon and prayer.

we ate at somebodies house who has a lime tree in their yard and i picked some limes. later when we had coca cola, i put them in my coke! it was super good and it reminded me of dad. he loves coke with lime. also one day, our neighbors were having chicken fights. they were all standing in a ring and betting on chickens. they would put spikes on their necks and legs and set them against each other. it was very interesting to watch and im guessing its something ilegal...

on thursday, we had a meeting with the president and two zones here. it was fun to travel a bit to get there and he taught about some pretty cool things. afterwards, we had interviews. i really really liked my interview because i was able to ask lots of questions about stuff. he also said that he was very impressed with the work that i am doing.

i made a year in the mission this last week so that was pretty cool! i miss home alot and a year is still a long time to go, but the time has gone by sooo fast until now! i imagine the time will fly by and i'll be home before i know it! i burned one of my shirts which was fun and took some pictures and a video. some member also made us some really good juice :) just one year until i return home!

sadly my time is already out with this tiny email!

just know that i love you all and you are always in my prayers!]

-Elder Lambert

Week 52

hello my dearest family!!

so this was another great week here in campo maior! i am liking this area alot alot. the members of the branch are sooo cool and i already have so many friends. i hope that i will work here for a long time!

so this week me and my companion will both make a year on the mission! we will for sure throw a mini party in our house. he is from new mexico by the way mother. i'm super excited to burn a shirt and will be sure to take some pictures and video. sadly i forgot my SD card with my pictures today.

some great news is that maria de deus was interviewed to be baptized! she will be traveling this saturday, so we will baptize her on the 2nd. the zone leaders came to do the interview so it was really fun to talk to them for a bit, and they also brought letters! i had some letters from christmas still and some others from friends that were oh so great :) i will try to write back as fast as possible! i now have a post office so that will help alot. 

me and elder benally are working really hard to get some solid families to teach. we are working hard all day and getting some great numbers. there was one lesson that we taught to a recent convert and her cousin who we have ready to be baptized pretty much, but she lives in a different state and will be returning soon. she was here to visit for a couple weeks and has already been to church 3 times. we started teaching her and she loves it. maybe we can get her to stay longer or she can come back to be baptized later. the only problem is that we dont have enough time to do the interview. 

the lunches here are funny. we have to walk so far to get to lunch when i get there i devour everything. i have never experienced such hunger in my life. lately i have been eating 3 plates of food every lunch (big plates too). all the chicken runs out, but i continue with just rice and pasta. sometimes i pack a snack with me just to eat on the way to lunch. 

on thursday we have a meeting in teresina and interviews with the president. it will be fun to travel back to my homeland and see some of the missionaries there. i love hearing the president speak becasue he is such an inspired man! hopefully i will get some more letters :) 

i'm super happy because i am working hard and i am really excited. the mission is so great and its sooo cool hearing about everyone who is leaving out for missions! its also nuts that andy is returning!!! i feel like he left yesterday! before you know it, i will be home too... skiing :) the mission has got me really motivated to work and study really hard. i dont know why, but i'm super excited for both of those. i'm so happy to be a servant of god and help him in his gorious work 'to bring to pass the imortality and eternal life of man'

i love you all!

-Elder Lambert

Week 51

hello my dear family!!!

area: Campo Maior       Companion: Elder Benally

so as you can probably tell by the statement above, i was transfered! i am now in an area called campo maior which in english means 'bigger field'... i am loving the area super alot but it is also humongous! we dont have a ward here yet, its still a branch which is even cooler. i have always wanted to work in a branch because i feel like they need alot more help. our house here is super funny because its about 10 meters by 3, but two stories. its really small and just goes up :) we dont have a church here yet either, so we meet in a house that they kinda turned into a church. i will send a photo of the inside. so my companion's name is elder benally. i dont know if that sounds familiar to you, but if you remember, he was in the same group as me in the CTM! what are the chances huh? i am the district leader here and i manage 3 areas. i live here with elder benally and elder giordano (argentina) and elder silveira (brasilian who also came in my group).
i attached some pictures of happenings before i left

that was fun hearing about the seahawks and how they are doing! its so hard to hear about all this skiing stuff! i want to ski sooo bad! but on the bright side, i'm sure there are some people in the US who are wanting more sun also. lets just say that i have plenty of that...

just some random things mother that would be very nice is that new pair of insoles, just to remind you, and also deodorant. i'm on my last stick.... i would prefer old spice or degree or something like that if possible! you are the best!

so now the info about the week.

so the transfer happened. it was super hard saying goodbye to some of the people, especially m****'s family. they finally all went to church and they were starting to really progress and now i left :( his mom was so sad when i told her and she started to cry and gave me a huge hug. it was really funny because it was such a surprise hug i didnt know what to do about it. i really feel like if i had a couple more weeks, i could have baptized them. it was funny on the bus coming to campo maior because for some reason i was assigned the seat for the handicapped people... it was in the front by itself. everyone was looking at me weird, but hey, i had alot of leg room :) when i got here in campo maior, i got off the bus and went to sit down on the bench to wait for everyone. after about an hour with nobody showing up i started to get a little worried because i had no cell phone and had no idea where i was. when it got to about 2 hours of just waiting by myself, i was starting to get a little more antsy, but then they showed up. i love our house because its so funny looking. i'll send pictures next week.

i dont know if just a miracle happened or if i was really born here in campo maior because everyone thinks im brasilian. its so funny because they get confused when i talk because they say i look nothing like a brasilian, but i speak perfectly, without accent. there is almost nothing that makes me feel better than to hear people say that. it keeps happening too! everyone says i speak without accent here...

we have been working super hard and i'm really excited to light up this area. the president said that we have to work hard to get the branch really going and that gave me alot of motivation. its cool because the president has so much confidence in me right now. we are preparing a super old lady to be baptized that is really awesome. she went to church and said she will never miss a day. we found her through a man who was reactivated. we also managed to get her less active granddaughter to church. they are the ones in the photo. her name is maria de deus (mary of god).

on saturday we traveled to a city called altos to do some baptismal interviews. it was a fun little journey and i got to explore the area.

I need to go now - but I love you all!

-Elder Lambert

Week 50

heellllooo!!!

today is transfer day. we still do not know what will happen with us this transfer, but we should find out very soon! this week was very eventful and i am excited to tell you about some of the things. 

 

first, new years! happy 2013! i got to experience it before any of you :) sadly for us, we had to return to our house still at 930, but we had a cool family night and a mini BBQ after. when we got home, we built a huge fire in the rain and ordered a pizza. we used the glow sticks that i got for christmas and did a glow stick dance in the dark. later, we had the greatest idea ever of cutting them in half and shoving them into the fan! it was really cool because it coated the walls, the beds, ceiling, and us with glowing spots. it was really cool looking with all the lights off and a fun little activity. there werent too many drunk people because it was raining super hard, so they couldnt be outside. midnight was a little disappointing as there werent very many fireworks. there were some, but not as many as i was hoping.

the day after new years was great because we ate at an old lady's house who really likes us and we really like her. after lunch a miracle happened, her son went and put a pink floyd concert on the TV! it was sooooo awesome hearing their music for the first time in about a year. we listened to the album dark side of the moon while eating lunch :) i bet dad is really proud of me right now. he raised me right in the music world!

another cool experience was with maxwell, our recent convert. we were able to get him sunday clothes because his family cant really pay for that. also, he passed the sacrament on sunday! he looked so happy when he gave it to me and he is super excited about all his responsibilities. we also had a really cool lesson with his family and we were able to get them all to go to church on sunday! sunday was such a miracle. we were able to get 2 families to church and 10 investigators in total! the attendance was really high which got all the members happy. one old guy showed up that was super funny. it was just some random guy who passed us on the street the week before and we gave him an invitation and he came! he has got to be about 80 years old. also the gospel principles teacher didnt show up, so i was assigned to give the class. i taught the first lesson in the book which is about our heavenly father. i just did everything on the fly, but it turned out to be really cool. everyone was super excited and loved it.

we were able to meet some new families this week again which was really cool. the families we met with last week we are still teaching, but havent made much progress yet. hopefully we will be able to decide who will progress and just work with them. one family that we are excited about is alfredo and graça. they are a family that almost has 1 year going to church, but has never wanted to get married so they could never be baptized. they decided finally that they want to get married! we are starting some of the plans with them and they will get married as fast as possible, then baptized.

thats so cool that josh will be going to the MTC! when he gets in the field, you will have to send me his address. i want to write him a letter. i STILL havent been able to get to the post office.... its driving me nuts. im hooping that if i do go somewhere i will still stay close to teresina. here i get letters alot, if i go far away, it will be once every two months about. im excited to get the missionties letters with all the updates. updates are always nice :)

WELL, I LOVE YOU ALL and you are in my thoughts and prayers. Thanks for being such a marvelous family. 

-Elder Lambert