Week 65

hello my dearest family!

so this week was another great one. i will have lots of things to say! first of all. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOTHER! i didnt send a happy birthday last week because i was hoping to use the computer during the week to send the bills to the secretary and wish you a happy birthday on the right day, but i didnt have to send the bills in the end. so to answer your question about the sports. i dont know why they banned them. it makes me sad :( i bet too many people were getting hurt or something. i can buy a sheet here, so dont worry about sending one, its just if i ever get the urge to spend money on something like that. it might take a while. i got the mansell's letters during the week! i thought they were so funny. i laughed my head off. i'm glad that tyler mansell has been liking my suit!  i also got a letter from grandma lambert and two MT.

this picture is me and elder spackman. he will go home in a week :( i will miss him ALOT

 so tuesday i started to do a division with the zone leader. i really liked working with him, his name is elder king. its cool because his sister is also serving a mission in salvador. it would have been the same situation as me and nat! tuesday was a good day because almost all of our plans worked out. also, we taught one lesson at night with the branch president and his wife. it was a spiritual lesson. we are trying to marry and reactivate a couple. on wednesday, we didnt have the same luck in the afternoon. everything fell through so we did contacts. it was fun because we were playing around alot while doing them. we went to the rich places where they have intercoms and whenever they would ask who was there, i would say elder lambert and they would get really confused. we tried to teach the plan of salvation to one lady entirely through the intercom :) at night we were able to contact some member references which was super good. on thursday, we were able to mark another baptismal date. also, me and elder king didnt have much luck at night,,,, and the next day, we had to be in teresina at 6 am, but there isnt a bus here in campo maior that leaves that early. so, we had to leave thursday night and sleep in teresina. the problem is that we taught until the last minute possible and had to rush to the bus station to get the last bus. the minute we left the last lesson, it started to rain SO hard! i have never seen so much rain and wind yet here in brasil. we were in the middle of nowhere sprinting down the highway :) we got to the bus station TOTALLY wet. there was not one dry part. we then had to travel to teresina soaking wet. the next day, we had the meeting with elder godoy!
my stuff didnt really dry all the way during the night. so i continued the next day with wet socks and shoes :)

we woke up early to get the stake center. we had a meeting early with just the leadership of the mission and elder godoy. it was really great to personally get to know an  apostle! the meeting was super cool and i learned lots of interesting things. after, we had the general meeting. it was way cool because it was almost all of the zones of the mission. there were 82 missionaries there. thats why i got to see elder benally and elder spackman. the general meeting was really good too. we got to learn lots of new tips. he is a really powerful man. another cool part was that we had a huge lunch at the end with everyone. elder godoy ate with me! 

when we returned at night, elder waltenberg and i gave a training to the leadership of the the young men. its really cool being able to help the church grow. the church is still new here more or less, so there is alot of stuff that they dont know. it was cool helping out with this. i have really loved working alot with the branch presidency.

saturday morning, we had a big young mens activity that we helped plan. we went to a little place that has a soccer field and a pool and a place to make food. we passed the morning watching the kids do all the fun stuff. it was cool because there were more investigators than members there! we will start to visit these people during the week. in the afternoon we helped out with a service project. we helped a couple start to build their house. we mostly watched while the others worked, there wasnt much work that lots of people could do. i made the cement for the people though! that is something that i have mastered here. 

sunday was a normal day of meetings. i really like meetings though. its fun to talk to all the people and make plans. 

im really sad because this is the last week of the transfer, i think i will be transfered :( i have 7 more days!

i love all of you and wish you all the best!

-Elder Lambert

Week 64

hello family! 

it was great to hear that all y'all are doing great! thats really exciting that nat will start teaching! it was also cool hearing about the new mission calls. its so crazy how many girls are leaving on missions! its so great :) you asked about sports being banned here.... so the area presidency a while ago banned soccer and basketball. it was the area presidency, so i just think its here in brasil. its been like this though for about 6 months already. and about transfers; transfers will happen on the 30th of this month. there is a good chance that i will leave :( i get really sad wheni think about transfers because i want to stay here so bad! i have made a bunch of super good friends. i am wanting to come back to visit after the mission. maybe we can take a trip together :) one thing that i found out that is funny is that elder waltenberg's dad translates my emails and reads them! i will include a message for him.
"olá irmão Waltenberg! fiquei feliz em saber que alguém lê meus emails! espero que tudo está muito bem contigo. seu filho fala MUITO bem de você e ele é um missionário muito bom. estou muito feliz pela oportunidade que tenho de trabalhar com ele."

another fun thing that i did this week was i went to altos to do divisions! i feel like i am always there... the division was really fun with elder correia and i even got to watch a wedding! the woman who was getting married is named marta. i returned to altos saturday to do her baptismal interview. while i was there, i got to do something that i have always wanted to do. i held a monkey! he was really small, but super soft and cute. the funny part was that he didnt like any of the brasilian missionaries. he would always run away from them, but he really liked me! he sat on my head and back and shoulders and he would let me pet him all i wanted :) it was an experience that for sure i wont forget! the whole time i was thinking about the monkey that bit nat... hahaha

so for sure the most exciting part of the week was the baptism that happened friday! Fabrício was baptized and it was so cool! there were lots of people there including two investigators! he was really happy to be baptized and said that he liked it alot! elder waltenberg baptized him which was cool because it was the first person on the mission for whom he did the ordinance. on sunday i was able to confirm him a member and give the holy ghost which was also cool because i had never done that! it was cool all around. at the baptismal service, his grandmother bore testimony about how he has changed and how we have been an answer to her prayer. ever since she was a member she has been praying that other family members will join the church and this is the first one that has joined! her dream was accomplished after 15 years.

so another random/exciting/funny story is that i ate cow heart! me and elder waltenberg paid to eat at a fancy restaurant place that has lots of meat. when the plate of meat came out, i wanted to eat all of them! i got to one piece of meat that was really weird looking, i was cutting it up looking at it strangely and decided to give it a go. it was pretty good actually, it wasnt until after though that i discovered it was cow heart! cow heart isnt something that i eat every day :) another funny thing is that in the morning, somebody gave us corn to cook and eat later when we are at home. the funny part is that she gave it to us at 10:30 in the morning. we had to walk around with a bag full of corn all day. the corn traveled to altos and back to do an interview. i was thinking about replacing flat stanley and inventing a corn stanley and take pictures with him in all of my adventures. the worst part was that we were fasting, so when we got home we still couldnt eat it!

i found out that i will do divisions with the zone leaders this week! after the district meeting tuesday, i will stay with one here and my comp will go to teresina. i will stay with him until thursday night! it will be a long fun division! thursday night we will both go to teresina to sleep there because friday morning i have a meeting with elder godoy! he is in the area presidency of brasil and i will get to talk with him! its for all the district leaders. i'm super excited because i wont just see a member of the 70, but i will talk to him personally, maybe even be interviewed by him! he will select 3 district leaders to interview. it would be pretty intense to be interviewed by a member of the 70.

im excited for this next week because we made some REALLY good plans. we should be able to work with the members a bunch. 

photo- my bed sheet is dying :( this was one that i snagged from somebody going home a while ago. as youcan see, i might have to buy a new one soon. it doesnt really stay on the bed very well

i love the mission, i love my life, and i love campo maior!
-Elder Lambert

Week 63

hello family!

this week was filled with adventures which is always good :) apparently, this computer doesnt like to upload photos, so i have to do them one by one which is kind of a pain... 

we had a family night the last monday which was really fun and cool. we had a bunch of games and the message was about prophets and we invited everyone to watch conference with us! the people really liked the message, but sadly, just the members went. 

tuesday we had our first district meeting after the transfer, so i got to meet the new missionary that arrived! he is brand new in the field, so he is pretty shy. i liked talking with him and he seems like he is willing to work hard. tomorrow i will start to do divisions with them.

photo- my new district!

wednesday was an awesome day because we worked a bunch with the members! we contacted three references from the members and were able to teach two of those lessons with the members who gave the references. there are some people who we met that are really cool. im excited to see what will come of it! i hope one will end up in a baptism. 

on friday we had a zone meeting in teresina! it was cool to meet all the new people who came into the district. it was also cool because we recieved letters and packages! i recieved some MT letters and one from grandma lambert. also, the packages came! i loved all the things that were inside them. the pens were sent just in time because my favorite pen died a couple days ago. i also REALLY liked the tie from Grandpa john; i wore it to conference. i have been using that towel thing always when i am home. i have been sleeping with it too :) thanks for all the stuff!! i also recieved my quad in portuguese. its really cool because its hard cover and a cool material. i really like it :) 

photo- my quad that i bought! its super fancy and cool :)

photo- zone meeting

during the zone meeting they announced that the district leaders will have a meeting with elder Godoy! this meeting will happen on the 19th. he is part of the area presidency. it will be super awesome talking with him, but also kind of scary. it will be cool to get to know personally a general authority. elder mazzagardi already talked to us before, but it was a huge group. this time will be a first meeting just with the DL's and after a meeting with everybody. 

photo- a cool jeep at the car wash

so conference was awesome! i woke up and had a great american breakfast of apple jacks and frosted flakes :) it made me think about how everyone at home was eating coffee cake... sadly, i didnt get to watch in english because there were no other americans with me. i couldnt stay in another room by myself. it wasnt quite the same with the translators, they cant translate emotion which takes alot away from the talks. i was freaking out when it looked like jeffrey R holland was screaming with power in his talk but in portuguese it was monotone. i already saved it to a USB and will listen to it today :) the priesthood session didnt work here, so i also downloaded it too. i was able to get lots of notes written and everybody is super excited about the temple that will be built in rio de janeiro. 

i got a little sick the other day and am still a bit. i think i have a sun allergy because almost every day im a little sick. my nose is like running water and i sneeze a bunch. i will try to find a medicine that can help me. 

mirismar traveled, and we dont know when she will get back. she is helping her sister who is sick. she gave permission for her son (fabrício) to be baptized. he was interviewed friday and will be baptized this friday. when mirismar comes back, we will baptize her and her other son who is younger. i'll let you know how the baptism goes!

i love you all! after all is said and done, this week was a great one ;)

-Elder lambert

 i gave my buddy the american flag tie because he speaks english well

Week 62

helllllo family!

wow, this week i heard some great news! my sister is engaged! i was so happy to find that out!  the only bummer is that they planned the wedding date while im STILL in the mission! now i will never be able to see the wedding of a family member :( but, im still happy! they are such a cute couple and will be great together!

so some interesting things about the week. so easter was sunday which was way cool, kinda. in brasil, everyone is catholic and they celebrate something called semana santa (holy week). on friday, people who are catholic cant do anything related with money. this would mean that they dont work, and dont buy stuff. EVERYONE here is catholic, so everything was closed. this was a serious problem because we were ALL sick that day. the toilet paper ran out after the first person.. we had to ask neighbors and members to bring us toilet paper :) easter is interesting here because the people focus more on the betrayal of christ by judus more than the resurrection. everyone here makes scarecrow judus' and set them on fire. its a very interesting way to celebrate the resurrection. 

the group of young men here is REALLY small, so we decided to help out a little. the branch president re-called the young mens presidency and we planned an activity. there are about 3 young men who will go to church on sunday. sometimes 2. for this activity me and my companion were able to bring 10 young men just from our area (less actives and non members). we taught them how to play a game called ninja that they all loved! they thought it was really cool that we played with them. as you can see in the pictures, we had a good time. the president was super happy :) 

this week we also went after some less active couples, with three couples we were able to establish a goal for them to go to the temple and be sealed in september! this was a really cool experience and something that is SO important in our lives. 

i have really been loving my work here because we have been able to strengthen the branch so much! its cool when we can do alot more than just teach people. its so much fun working with the president and helping him plan stuff for the branch and trainings and things. its also great to have the confidence of the members too - they all love us. the day that i have to leave will be super hard because i have so much love for all of these people!

it has started to rain super hard lately, and every day. we get home soaked almost every night. yesterday returning home we had to wade through a river that had formed in the street, there was one part of it where the water got up to my knees almost! these are usually the days that i miss my car a little bit :) i will be super grateful to just have a bike again! 

my companion and i are still doing great. we get along well and have been teaching well together. i've been enjoying the opportunity to train again. 

i'm so happy with all the good things that are happening in the family! keep sending me good updates!

i love you all!!

-Elder Lambert