Homecoming Video

Week 100

i cant believe this is my last email!! its so crazy that this day has come! i didnt even realize that this would be my last until a couple days ago.... i hope everyone is preparing a party for me! two years passed by so fast for me, was it the same for yall?

me and Elder robb

 ''this man is the man!''

so to answer the questions. for food i want terriyaki, mongo grill, outback, sweet and sour chicken, spicy italian chicken, and some surprises. i have forgotten almost everything i used to eat at home. i have been brain washed here from rice beans and meat :) i honestly have no idea what i want for christmas. after being out of the loop for so long i dont know what things i like or will need. maybe ask brodie what things i would like :) i had an i-touch but i thought mom took it. i just remember the headphone jack was broken.

 funny story, so i ran out of Brazilian money here and i still had 60$ with me, but i needed to buy some stuff. my debit card was canceled right so i couldnt use that. i heard there is this gypsie guy here who trades money and i was able to trade with him :) we bargained for a long time, but the trade went alright. i can try using my credit card if the last of my money runs out.

i will wait to mail my knife until the christmas call, i want to ask dad a couple questions first before sending it.

i loved the picture with dad and his ugly sweater, i remember always wearing that to school and loving it :) im a little sad though that there isnt snow in the mountains for skiing yet, i was really looking forward to skiing with everyone. looks like dad will have to do a special trip to utah to ski at snowbird with me!

on tuesday we helped out our branch president in his class. he is an english teacher and also  has some students who will do foreign exchange to the US, Canada, and new zealand. we hung out with his class for a bit and helped excite them for the trip. it was super fun. we made goals to do service everyday for somebody. we showed up by surprise to a less actives little market and cleaned it for him. that was also super fun :)

 the kids who will go the US

  i solved the number puzzle

oh! and so for Skype, i will Skype from here 7 at night. i think it would be 2 in the afternooon there... maybe 3. just be ready! im super excited :) it will be a funny call.

so we were supposed to travel to Parnaíba on Friday, but the trip was canceled last minute. that meant we were able to go to the christmas devotional here though! it was cool, the choir was great and the nativity. i attached some pictures of that too.

a bummer is that the zone conference was changed to this week, but we still dont know the day. i wanted to plan a Family night for the branch before i leave, but i dont know what nights i will be here... i really hope i can say goodbye to everyone., i really love it here :)

because i dont know if i will still be here next sunday i gave a last talk here in the branch. it was a cool talk about all the things i have learned and how everyone needs to serve a mission! i cried a bit at the end. my mission has seriously been so awesome :)

so for christmas we will eat lunch with the branch presidents Family. he has a really big Family and we will all go to his parentes house for a BBQ :) it will be super cool and im super excited!

 

i dont know how i can sum up my mission in this last email. so many things have happened and i have grown in SO many ways. i am excited to get home and put in practice all this things. the major things that i learned is how to pray, the importance of the scriptures, how to work, how to plan, how to serve, how to love, that really the church is necessary in our lives and not just a good thing, and that the mission in a necessary step in our lives. my motto for the mission was Moroni 9:6 and im proud to say that i worked this way during my misison. i have really loved it and i thank you all for all your love and support and prayers! until next week!

-Elder Lambert

Week 99

hello Family!

 

so i got my itinerary this week in my email! thats how you know its time to go home right... so this week was the week that i taught the most lessons in my whole mission! the presidente set new goals for us and we were able to get them. it looks like my district was the only district that did - the presidente really likes me :)

 

the old goals were to teach at least 28 lessons a week and we were able to get it every week these two transfers, but last week he came out with a new goal of 52 lessons. we ended the week with 54 which was by far the most i had ever taught. we were leaving the house at 9 almost everyday to start walking and teaching. it was a really gratifying experience and it makes me happy knowing that my work will not stop!

another cool thing was that we had a surprise opportunity to serve somebody! when we were coming home late one night, we saw that a woman was moving into our building. there were two men helping and there was a ton of stuff. we ran upstairs and changed clothes and went to help. it took quite a long time, but the lady was SUPER happy for our help! we made a contact with her and the other people that were helping and they are all being pretty receptive so far. sadly i busted up my hand though as you can see in the picture. it was well worth it though :)

 

random fact: we saw a cat skull also

 

so, the baptism worked out great! she was super happy about her baptism and the people who were there also loved it. her little brother went to church yesterday and wants to be baptized also. we will see if we can get him ready before i leave! she has already finished Reading 1st nephi and is loving everything in the church. probably next week she will get a calling. we will start to visit some of her friends also.

so this week we will travel to Parnaíba! part of me is excited to travel, but it will hurt our week a bunch, and we will also miss the christmas program here :( they will do a nativity.

 

tonight we will be going to a birthday party of a member and it sounds like there will be lots of pizza and soda :) im getting super excited for it!

there arent many updates for this week. next week i will send the times for christmas skyping. i need to figure out what will go on here exactly! probably will be in the afternoon for you guys and night here.

i love you all and wish y'all the best!

 

-Elder Lambert

Week 98

well Christmas is coming and the pigs are getting fat! here we dont see geese, but we do tend to see LOTS of pigs, donkeys, cows, and horses in the street...

 

on Monday Elder robb and i went christmas shopping for the other two missionaries. it was really funny buying the things. on christmas i will take pictures of their presentes because you will have to see them to understand exactly what it is. lets just say that i am a very clever person :)  another random event this week was that i ate quail eggs! that was kind of an interesting experience. i dont think i had ever seen a quail egg before. they are super small but very tastey. 

also, me and Elder robb made a flame thrower with the brasilian deodorant here. it doesnt even work for its purpose, so we made another purpose for it :)

so i went to Parnaíba during the week for a meeting there. it was super fun and we had some awesome adventures! it was fun seeing the people there agian. i thought it would be my last meeting, but i discovered that we will have a zone conference with presidente on the 23rd. that will be a cool last meeting for me. i got some more mission ties letters also. thanks mom! mom is my faithful letter writer, she endured to the end :)

 

when we got back from Parnaiba, i did divisions with the others and made it a contest to see which group could do the most work. the prize was that the losers would have to make a french toast breakfast for the other group. me and the new missionary ended up winning so we won breakfast :) it was really fun because i used it to excite the other companionship. they were a little upset so this worked out a lot.

 

also this week we saw tons of miracles! me and Elder robb were able to mark baptismal dates with two families and other people also! all the dates we have are for the last weekend of my misison. i hope that one of them works out! its my goal to baptize a complete family before leaving.

 

we will have one baptism this week of a woman named monike. she is a contact we did a while ago and she has progressed alot! she is all ready and her baptism will be saturday afternoon

this saturday that passed had the wedding and baptism of imrão josé and imrã do carmo. it was super cool and a great way to end the week. i have more pictures, but sadly they wont upload... it will be nice when i get home and i can show everything!

Week 97

hello family!

so as you all guessed, i stayed here in piripiri. looks like i will be dying here (finishing)! its so weird to think that it is already december, i will be home this month! i really cannot believe it.

well here in brasil we are all super excited for the christmas holidays, for sure talking to our families is a big part of it, but i also just love christmas spirit. our apartment is pretty snazzy, i will take a picture of our decorations next week. i broke the rules about christmas music and started listening before thanksgiving...

so our p-day was pretty cool. we gave a sort of english class at night. the schools here did a competition to find out who the best students are and the best will be able to do a foreign exchange to the US. we met up with the students to talk a little  bit about what the host families will be like, how they can take advantage of this learning experience, what the schools are like, etc.. it was pretty cool because i was in their shoes not that long ago. they will pass through 2 months of basic training and go there. the first picture are the three girls from this city that will go.

Wednesday we had a family night at irmão manoel's house. he was turning 79 so we threw a party for him. he is a really good example to me because he is old, has health problems, but always is at church and we always see him in front of his house reading the scriptures and other church books. its really cool because sometimes he calls people over in the street to read with him or talk about the gospel. its a bummer he is too old to serve a mission :)

so for thanksgiving we had a feast! well at least as much of a feast as possible. everyone contributed. we had pasta, breaded beef, soda, french fries, and BETTY CROCKER BROWNIES!!!! the brownies were SOOOOO good! i hope you like the design i made in them for you! if you couldnt tell what it is, its a heart with an arrow through it. it was pretty funny because brasilians dont know what thanksgiving is, only if they have seen something in movies. it was super fun though, they liked it. i got sad thinking about all the good football games i was missing, and of course you guys! i miss a good feast with the family every once in a while.

so on saturday we were just doing our visits and we stopped by a members house to see how they were doing, when we got there we noticed that they were painting so we ended up helping! it was super fun. i love painting :) i really love the unexpected service projects that sometimes we can do here. we just threw on a different shirt and spent the rest of the day helping out. i painted the doors.

so i will have a zone meeting on tuesday, so we will go to parnaíba tonight. i wonder if i will still get some letters or if they are done for the rest of my mission...

so now onto Sunday it was fast and testimony meeting, so you know what that means. this was the last testimony i will share in a testimony meeting in my mission... it was really hard to think about that when i was up there. little by little i am starting to realize that really my mission is ending; not just going on pause or leaving for a break, buts its really going to be over. its a really hard thing for me to think about, but i'm super excited to go home. after 2 years i am definitely ready!

well, just know that i love you all and soon enough will be home! is tanner johns home already? soon we will be able to talk on skype! what are your christmas plans? i will be calling on christmas, but i dont knoow what time yet. the people here might throw a party for me :) i love you all and until next week!

-Elder Lambert

Week 96

hello my Family! so this week is transfer week! I still haven't heard about the transfer, but I should be staying here. When I was in teresina I got the transfer with my buddy who is the secretary :) It's good to have friends in powerful places. only if there is an emergency change will something move here. so, the week was great and its super weird to think that i am starting my last transfer and that this transfer will only be 5 weeks for me! im so excited but so sad at the same time! i hope the pictures worked out. i have to make them low quality to be able to send them here, i still have all the originals though!

so for pday we went to this giant man made lake that was pretty cool. it was a good opportunity to take some pictures and play around a bit. sadly i couldnt get in the water which drives me nuts! i miss the water so much and i am so excited to get back in it when i get home.

this week didnt have THAT many adventures because i spent some time in teresina. so i left thursday at midnight and got bak Friday night. i went there because my visa had already been expired for almost a year and a half. the people werent too happy when i went there to get it renewed and they saw that :) i was fun because i stayed a bunch with Elder f Sousa who is my good buddy who got here in my group from são Paulo. he is the secretary and it was im speaking english to yall. he has learned quite a bit! in the secretary office there is also a missionary who is deaf and dumb. we became super good buddies even though he cant talk. i learned a little bit of sign language to talk to him. he Works with the baptismal forms, when they get in the office he puts the information in the computor. he signed to be that i was a good missionary because he always sees baptismal forms with my name on them :) sadly i didnt have my câmera with me, but on my way home ill take a Picture with him in the office!

so on saturday we had two baptisms! we had the baptism of Joelson (19) and Mayra (12). they were both awesome baptisms and mayra's whole Family went to see the baptism also :) i feel really good about these baptisms because even though they are Young, they are both very well integrated in the branch. they have so many awesome friends that will help them out a bunch! Mayra is already giving refrences to us and we give her for the strength of youth pamphlets to hand out at school. she loves to participate! the baptism was super spiritual and all the members were very excited which made it awesome :) i am really loving the people here. on sunday we had a HUGE miracle! we were able to break the record for the attendace in piripiri! yesterday we had 9 investigators from our área and 123 people in total at sacrament meeting. the branch presidente is super happy with our work and said that we will be history in piripiri :) the highest monthly average attendance was about 105, we had a monthly average of 112 in november! we will see if we can get it up to 115 in december. i love the presidente here, he is super cool.

 and yes i got my package in teresina! thanks very much! im excited to start setting up christmas decorations here :) me and Elder robb are pretty excited that we will pass christmas together! we are already in the christmas spirit. we broke the rule of waiting for thanksgiving as i have already listened to Charlie brown christmas a couple times this week :) oops! i still have to send my knives home, that was a good reminder. i took the blades out, so i will probably wrap them in TP and send them and leave the handles in my suitcase. they just look like pieces of metal. im starting to remember random things at home that i had forgotten about and i am curious what our house will look like. i dont remember very well. im interested to see whats still there and whats not! i got super happy when i read that we got big ben from grandma :) until the next week my Family that i love so much!

-Elder Lambert

Week 95

well family, i am great!

we had one of the best weeks of my mission this last week. we had lots of miracles happen! i am really excited to finish my mission here because i am being able to work really hard and focus well.

so some cool things that happened is that i found out that two of my buddies in araguaína were baptized this last saturday! that was super awesome to hear about that and i am super happy for them! i talked to one of them on the phone after her baptism and it was so good to hear the news :)

another cool thing was four baptisms that happened here this saturday also. four kids were baptized and the parents will be baptized soon also, they are just finishing up the process of getting married. its a really special family and they will be awesome in the church. 

so i did two division this week, one was witht he ZL's from parnaíba which was really good. we were able to find some new people to teach and mark a baptismal date! later during the week i did one with elder waltenberg which was fun to work with him again because i havent worked with him since i finished his training.

this week there was nobody to open the church for the early morning seminary, so me and elder robb volunteered ourselves to go over. we had to wake up at 5 every morning. what we would do is bring our hammocks and hang it up in the tree and sleep during seminary and afterwards just come home and get ready for studies. that was a funny experience. 

so this week we will have two more baptisms! one of the girls names is mayra. she had been taught for a while already, but her parents didnt want her to be baptized. her parents are letting her now! this is a great miracle and its cool to see her progression. she is giving out for the strength of youth pamphlets at school to her friends. the other guys name is joelson. he is girls boyfriend here in the branch. we started teaching him not that long ago and elder robb marked a date for this week and he accepted! we got him taught everything and they both already passed the interviews :) im super excited for all the miracles that are happening and that we are really seeing the fruits of our hard work at the beginning of the transfer until now. 

we made a contact with a woman in the street and she also showed up at church this week. she loved it and said it was completely different than anything she had thought. she also knows a lot of people who are members here. her name is monique and is really wanting to start a new life following christ. we marked a date with her also for the 7th of december. we have some good baptisms lined up, we will just have to keep working so that all these things end up happening! 

i got a call this morning from the secretaries saying that this week i will travel to teresina to renew my visa. its about time! i have been here with an expired visa for the last year and finally i am getting it renewed. good thing i was never deported :) 

i love yall so much and love the pictures that yall send me! im excited for the snow! i keep seeing lots of pictures of it :) you all are so awesome and the best family ever! i love you!

-Elder Lambert

Week 94

so this week was rough, but has some really special moments!

so we went to parnaíba for the zone meeting this week. it was really cool to see some of the missionaries i hadnt seen in a REALLY long time. i saw my comp from the CTM for the first time since the beginning of my third transfer. so i got mail! i got lots of letters, my birthday package from gma mimi and mel, and the envelope from amy. i loved all the pictures that i got and the letters! the last package still hasnt gotten here. maybe by now it has. i will find out next month!

on p-day, we got caught in a HUGE rain storm. i think most people would get upset about it, but me and elder robb were dancing and singing in the rain all the way home with our groceries. we look upset in the picture, but it was actually really fun.

on wednesday there was a baptism of a members kid who turned 8. it was a really cool baptism!

so one of the coolest things in my misison happened this last week. so we had one of the worst days ever, and we were praying that something good would happen. while we were walking home we decided to make one last contact in the square. we sat down with a family that looked really poor. we found out that they dont have any money and dont have a home. they are going city to city trying to find a job. it was parents and two kids. they said that they learned about the church in teresina from the missionaries but were never baptized. they had a book of mormon but had lost it. we talked to them alot about their family and what they were trying to do and the difficulties., we gave them another book of mormon and they got super happy about it. we found out that they were going to sleep in the bus station to try to move to the next city and didnt have any food for the day. we felt something super special about that family and we didnt know why. they started heading to the bus station and we raced home. we switched to work clothes and filled backpacks with 2 liters of juice, a loaf of bread, tub of butter, 4 packs of wafers, and some church books. we then made a 30 minute run to the bus station and got there at about the same time as them, when they saw us they were really confused and when we started pulling out food for them they got super happy! i have never felt so appreciated in my life. it was the worst day that became the best day. they were so grateful and calling us their angels. the next morning we scrambled and cooked 14 eggs, made 2 liters of chocolate milk, and bought some fresh bread and ran it to the bus station in the morning to give to them. we couldnt find them so i guess they were able to get a bus! i really hope their family gets blessed by others because they really need it and wherever they turn up they said they would look for the church!

so on saturday morning there was a branch activity that was really good! everyone played around alot and everything got super dirty so it was kinda stressful trying to clean everything to get ready for the baptisms. BUT, both the baptisms worked out great and were both very special/spiritual! im so happy for both the people who were baptized and they were both confirmed yesterday! sunday church was great! it hit the record for the most people in a long time! our branch had 113 in sacrament meeting yesterday :)

 

I tried to upload pictures but it didn't work :(

 

well I am loving my life like always and I love all of you!

 

Elder Lambert

Week 93

hello my family!!!!

here is a picture from last weeks BOM activity

so Halloween was this week! sadly i didnt go trick or treating, but we made watermelon jack o lanterns!! i made a missionary and elder robb carved 'brasil'. i was really fun and we had lots of watermelon guts to eat! it was nice because with pumpkin it all goes to waste, but with watermelon it doesn't :) 

we had another activity this week that was really good! we had ping pong and water balloon volleyball. so far i have been able to plan activities every week and i will keep going until i leave! the members are really liking it and there are always some non members at them. I'm really liking the branch so far.

so the two girls were interviewed and everything is ready for the baptisms on saturday! it will be super cool because we will have to have two separate baptisms. one can only do it in the afternoon, and the other only at night! it will be a very spiritual day!

we also found out that we will have a zone meeting tomorrow. it appears that the strike has ended because they said that i got lots of stuff! im really excited to see what i got :) 

so do you guys already have the itinerary for my flights? if so, send them to me because i want to see everything! 

so just some random activities that happened during the week. we ate goat meat one day for lunch, thats was weird. Me and elder robb have been having lots of interesting adventures.

two weeks ago we talked with a drunk guy in the street and told him we wanted to help him and gave him a word of wisdom pamphlet. on friday this week we passed in front of his house to visit him and he was in front reading it! he said that he really liked it and wants forgiveness of his sins. we marked baptism with him for the 30th. we will have to work hard with him because he smokes and drinks. he went to church also this sunday and love it!

we have a bigger teaching group which is awesome and this week went a little better. little by little miracles are happening because of our efforts! i hope that it will continue like this forever  there were alot of people in church this week which was awesome. members brought alot of friends that we will visit during the week :) 

this is our super nacho lunch we made! it had cheese, chips, meat, onion, pepper, and lots of seasoning!

i miss all yall and am excited to see you soon! we can almost start planning the Christmas call! its coming up. just know that i love my mission and i love all of you!

-Elder Lambert

Week 92

hello my Family!

 

so i still dont know if the mail strike ended, but the ZLs will go to teresina today and bring back stuff if there is anything, so in a week i will know when we have a zone meting. with the ski passes i dont know what is best... maybe a seasons pass for sundance because i will have a car right and can go a lot? but i would like to go to snowbird at least once. dad can visit me and we can have a daddy son day :)

 

so i will start with the book of mórmon activity. it was awesome! the branch presidente sais that it was the best missionary activity he has ever seen here :) all that credit goes to mom! we brought a box of 60 books and all of them were used! there was a lot of people and it was a special activity. now we just need to follow up with the people to see if they gave them out.

 

its a bummer because the pictures aren't working again... :(

 

this week had some super funny adventures with me and Elder Robb. the adventure was with our razors. so i discovered that i left my charger in Araguaína, so this week i had to buy a real razor. i had only used one once before and that was the very first time that i had shaved. so we went to the Market and i bought a razor for me to use, but also they have these super cheap ones here that are only R$1. i wanted to buy it just to see how it would be. i has 1 blade and everything is just plastic. we each bought one to use and went the whole day with razor burn. it was a good adventure! with the normal one i dont have any probem though. i feel more like a man now.

 

so we should have two baptismal interviews this week and two baptisms on the 9th! one is the girl friend of a Young man, and the other is a daughter of an inactive Family. we are really hoping that the parents will see the example of their daughter and want to come back to church. they have been inactive for a long time and she really wants to be baptized!

 

we did two Family nights this week that were both really good. one was with the extended Family of the girl who will be baptized and the other was the house of a recent convert where the rest of her Family aren't members. they were both really awesome and the members are helping us out a bunch here. its a great area!

 

this week we were also able to mark a baptismal date with the mom of a member! the missionaries have already been visiting her for over a year now and she finally accepted! i have really learned that the book of mórmon is the secret to everything! she had never prayed to know if its true and when she did this week, she felt its true and knows that she has to follow the answer!

 

we are working really hard here, but we still have a shortage of investigators. we are having to knock on lots of doors and do lots of contacts, but i am learning a lot! i hope that in these next week we can get a solid teaching group!

 

i hope all is well with everyone and i love you all bunches!