Week 83

hellllo family!

this week had its up´s and downs. happily it was more ups than downs though :) 

so i guess the biggest down was that we were robbed.... i was coming home from a family night one day and two men passed by us on a motorcycle and the guy in back got off and pointed a gun at me and took my cell phone. luckily that was the only thing they took and i didnt lose my camera or anything else. little robberies like this are very common here. i think the police found the people because they had been doing lots of assaults.

a fun thing  that we did was divisions with the zone leaders! it was fun to work with my  "dad" again and joke around with them. we have a pretty fun district here in araguaína. at the end of divisions we bought a HUGE pizza. it was one of the biggest pizzas i have ever seen.

we will have a zone meeting tomorrow so we will have to travel to imperatriz and the president will be there. 

a cool thing that happened this week was that we visited a less active father and son and the kid went to church! it was awesome to see him there in his white shirt and tie with the other boys. we will keep working with his dad to see what we can do to help him out too. 

we had a cool FHE with the president and his wife. it was for other members to show up at, but it just ended up being them and the missionaries! it was cool though because it was very spiritual. the games were pretty funny at the end as you can see in the picture. i definitely won this one. we also had a weekly activity that was fun.  elder lott and i played around alot with the motorcycle helmet of one of the members. he looked like an astronaut. 

With elder Lott

the best thing of all this week was a BAPTISM!!! we had the baptism of imrã lizete and her daughter emily. it was soo cool and such a great experience for me. i am so happy because i got to see the whole process; finding, teaching, converting, and baptizing. they both chose me to do the baptisms which was such an honor. its so cool how much imrã lizete has progressed in the gospel; she absolutely loves the church and is sharing her testimony with a bunch of people. i feel like she is kind of my mom here. i always make juice with her and we talk a bunch. saldy i dont have the pictures of the baptisms with me right now, so i will have to send them next week.

so exciting news! i found out about my return date! it is officially marked for the 30th of december! sadly i will not be home for christmas, but it will be a pretty awesome new years eve party! we will have to delay nat's birthday by a day. im glad that everything was arranged so that i will get back home in time for school, but it will be kinda hard just to be with you guys for a week. at least you guys have lots of time to prepare a kicking party for me :) 

i hope that everything is going great with the family. everything is going great here! its so weird to think that two years is already winding down to the end. it passes by so fast! im so thankful for all the things that i have learned. it has been sooo much!  i love the mission, i love the church, and i love my life!

-Elder Lambert

Week 82

 hello my family!

random question. my buddy elder lott has a cousin who is serving in the tacoma mission. thats ours right? her name is sister esplin. yet again my mission was full of memorable moments! just some fun moments were:

one morning we decided to go hunting for little birds and lizards with slinghots in our front little area. sadly we didnt get any birds, but we were able to get a lizard! it was even running which made it more impressive!

there is a branch member here who has a friend who is doing a surgery tomorrow and needs O- blood. this morning i went to the blood donating place and gave blood for her! it was a fun thing to do because i haven't donated blood for a while and it was for a really good cause. he was really really happy when i got there to donate for her. probably everyone thinks i am a drug using missionary because i have a hole in my arm now. 

last monday we had a cool family night and were able to bring the less active member and his three kids. they really liked it which was good. sadly they didnt go to church though

so today we also went to a huge jesus statue! jonatas gave us a ride and we hung out with him for a bit. it was fun to take some pictures with the giant statue. hopefully i will be able to see the real one some day in rio de janeiro!  

this week also was a record for me throwing up! one day this lady made lemon juice for us that was made with the peel and everything. it was so horrible but so from her heart so i had to drink alot. walking back home i threw up in the street...

we had a really cool activity also again this week. ever since we started doing activities, more people have showed up every week. i hope that it keeps happening like this so our branch can get really strong! the sunday attendance was the highest its been since i got here this last week! we had 8 investigators at church!

it was my buddy's birthday this week (Thays) and i made a cool pudding thing for her! i hope she liked my present! it was also the birthday of an old man at the old folks home. we all chipped in to by him a t-shirt and went there on his b-day. he absolutely loved it :) its so awesome making people happy! 

now just some random questions... when will be our trip? which dates will we travel? im really excited to relax with all everyone! i still have no word about the release date. i called the secretaries this week but no response. i will try again.

i love you all sooo much!

-Elder lambert

Week 81

hello my dearest family!

this week was very good :) we were able to work really hard, and do alot of work with the members. every day i am loving this place more and more. i will never want to leave here :( its crazy thinking that my mission time is slowly winding down and that before i know it i will already be home. its a very sad but happy thought at the same time!

its so nice to hear that everyone was able to pass through all the crazy moments with weddings and travels and adventrues! im excited to get back into the busy life as a normal person.

some crazy moments happened this week here! one night we were teaching a family and we heard some gun shots, a bit later we saw a man run around the corner with a gun in his hand. luckily he just ran right passed us. 1 minute after, a police guy was running after him with a huge rifle. i dont really know how the story ended, but im sure it wasnt a happy ending for all. 

a really cool thing that happened is that we found an inactive member who moved here from a different state. he has three kids who have the age to be baptized but never were because he wasnt active there. they all went to church sunday and have dates for the end of this month :) we will have a family night with them tonight!

our lunch yesterday was super fun because we had it at our investigators house (lizete and her family)! the food was super good and i have come to love this family soooo much. they have continued to progress and lizete feels better every day about being baptized. im really excited for the day of her baptism :)

another fun adventure we had this week is that i went through the area book and got the addresses of a bunch of less active members. it was fun to go visit them and hear their stories. sadly, it didnt work out too well, but it was fun.

we went to the retirement home again on sunday to visit our best buddies and read the scriptures with them. it was really fun to catch up on their week and see how they were doing. we found out it will be one of their birthdays on saturday so we will buy a present and pass by there. 

i tried to find out my return date and the president told me to ask the secretaries. i will give them a call this week to find out. have you guys heard any updates on anything? 

pretty much i am absolutely loving my life and i love being a missionary. its so awesome to participate in the lords work. i have really seen that D+C 4 is true. the field is white and already to harvest. all i have to do is do my part to help these people come closer to christ! its such a cool and big responsibility that the lord entrusts us with. i will always keep you updated on my adventures here in brasil! 

i love you all and wish you the best in everything!

-Elder Lambert

Church Activity:

Week 80

HELLO FAMILY! 

well this week was awesome, want to know why? because there was a baptism!

so just to start things off on a good note, leandro was baptized and confirmed last week. it was a super awesome experience and i loved helping one more person enter into the lords kingdom. he is a great guy and has a super strong testimony of the church. we will start to work with a couple of his friends. 

one sad thing that happened was that alana went back to her city :( we became really great buddies and im so happy to have had the chance to get to know her. she has a really strong testimony and for sure will make a difference in the world. we made sad faces together when she left :)

so we had a zone meeting in imperatriz on tuesday that was very good. it was fun to see my buddies that i hadnt seen in a while. also, i recieved mail! i got two packages (thanks mom!) and a bunch of letters from mom, 1 from g-ma, sisters, and the wedding invite! i loved the invite! it is so pretty! brodie is a pretty lucky man i must say...coming back from the meeting there were two really cute young girls who were sitting behind me and elder lott and they were fascinated that we are americans. they spoke english with us (the little that they knew) and the older one (10 years old) sung a justin beiber song! it was so funny and cute :)

so on sunday we went to the old folks home again and they loved it. they all remember us and get so excited every time we show up. i got in one of the wheel chairs and they thought it was funny :) it reminded me of when i was 8 and broke my leg. we read a couple chapters from the book of mormon and made comments. they are such fun people and it all reminds me of when i worked as a lifeguard with the old folks water aerobics class. its so great!

photo: me and my comp (elder borges)

we have a good family that is continuing to progress slowly, but surely. we were able to mark one more baptismal date with a member in the family! i really really want to baptise them before i leave here. they have a date marked for the 24th. we will keep working really hard to make sure that it happens. i feel like i am finally getting into the rhythm of things!

i love everyone and wish you all an awesome week!

-Elder Lambert