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!

Week 91

Add-On from last week

so stheffane's baptism worked out great! it was very spiritual and a great experience to see someone be baptized after attending church fora year. that was a great moment to happen right before being transferred.

so i had to leave monday morning to be transferred and that's why i am sending email now.

this city seems great, i will like it a lot, but obviously miss lots of people. its close to campo maior and so i might have a chance to see some of my buddies from there!

a random cool experience that happened the other day is that when we were walking in the street a lady randomly pulled over in her car and asked me were the church is. she told me that her daughter and her husband just moved from portugal and are members and didn't know where the church was in the city. they showed up sunday with their two kids. the husband also brought a reference to church that was awesome. he participated a bunch and loved it! its a bummer i was transferred because he said that every sunday he will go. he will probably be baptized really fast.

So when you sign me up for classes, probably sign me up just for the generals and try to sign me up for class times in the morning. I like to study more in the morning than the later afternoon

I still haven’t gotten the packages yet, I will try to enter in contact with the secretaries to see if anything showed up there. Maybe it just took a long time to arrive. Also the internet isn't working here so I don’t know if I will be able to send much of an email this week :( at least I got one part sent!

The internet fell that day so i just completed it today. next week i will send more

Well I love you all and wish you a great week!

This week

well everyone is wondering about my new area, so i will respond to everything here. so this place is a little hotter than the last, but a lot drier which is good; i don't sweat as much :) the apartment here is really nice, it is just missing some simple things that would keep it a little more organized. i will try to take some pictures this week. here it is a branch, and it is awesome. the leadership is super good and the branch president is the man. i have been able to work with him a lot already and he will help us out a bunch. the average attendance here is about 90 which is good for a branch. This city i think is maybe just a little smaller than the last one and has all the necessary things pretty close to the house. there are still some lunches that we have to walk really far to get there... my buddy from campo maior didn't come here because he knows a lot of people and thought it would be better for him to go to a different city. elder waltenberg will train so i have another grandkid here! i really likethe people who I'm living with!

so i figured out why i haven't gotten the other packages yet. it appears as if there has been a post office strike for a little while now. i hope it ends soon because i want to get my things!!

oh i forgot one part. i am still the district leader... i think i will pass my whole mission almost with this calling! i really like it though because i have more responsibility, but doesn't take away my time to do normal missionary work.

i have a request also, i will make a cover for my last planner for the mission and i would love it if everyone can send an updated picture of their family. i don't have an updated picture with all the new happenings (so a picture with nat and brodie, mel dave and kid, amy and jer with kids... ect.) i will make a cool planner with everyone on it!

and mom you will be happy to know that you are the reason for a lot of excitement here! i took your idea with what you did with the book of mormon and presented it to the branch here. we will have a big branch activity on wednesday and all the families will participate. everyone will write their testimonies of the book of mormon and glue it to the cover and we will help them give them out to their best friends of special people that they know. they are all really excited and this should be a way for us to get some good family references! mom is famous!

here the church was without any activities so we planned one for this week that already passed and we will have the book of mormon one this week now. everyone is getting super excited and i have already gotten to know lots of the members. its awesome because they always come up to me and ask me what i will plan for the next activity. i hope this will strengthen the branch a lot. i feel like i have already known all these people for a long time! i also gave a talk in church on sunday about accelerate missionary work! i will really like this area because i already am!

this area didn't have a teaching group when i got here so we knocked on lots of doors and did lots of contacts. its good because its motivating me to work really hard, but it is also really hard work. we taught the same person more then once only one time this week. all the other lessons were knocking on doors doing the first visit or teaching in the streets trying to find people who are worth going back to do a second visit. we will see if we are able to continue finding some good people this week. i hope so!

i love you all very much and wish you a wonderous week!

-Elder Lambert

Week 90

well, transfers struck...

sadly i got transfered from araguaína, but i really felt like i did my work there. i was able witness some awesome miracles and baptize some really special people. i got transferred to a city called piripiri. its in piauí and i will finish the training of an american named elder robb. it will be cool because i will live with elder waltenberg (trained him) and tiago (part time missionary from campo maior!) its funny how that all worked out. im guessing that this was my last transfer change until i get sent home!

Week 89

well hello my wonderful family!

so as you have remembered. this will be the last week of the transfer! im really excietd to finish off one more transfer strong in my mission. i am really happy with my work that i have done so far here in araguaína! im starting to get really sad at the same time though thinking about how much i iwll miss all these people. i have friendships so strong its like they are my family. but the Lord might need me in another place so i will see what will happen! 

so this week we never ended up traveling to imperatriz. i think we will go tomorrow, so i will let you know about the packages. i dont think i got any because thats what elder rais said... how long ago were they sent? 

photo: giant moth!

so conference was awesome! me and elder lott were able to get it set up in the church computer room and watch it in english here. the talks were super good and i loved all of them. one of my favorite quotes was that 'the biggest blessing receive from conference are the blessings that we receive afterwards'. this phrase really hit me because it isn't just listening to the prophets voice that blesses us. we get blessed as we put the things into practice. 

we had quite the set-up in our room. we got an ice cooler and filled the room with snacks :) On saturday (just me and elder lott) we drank 6.6 liters of soda, and on sunday we drank another 5. it was wonderful :) 

we decided to wear matching ties also just to top things off. im gunna miss this kid alot when i leave. we have a really strong relationship that im sure will continue on to after the mission. 

so this week we will baptise someone named stheffane! it will be a very special baptism because she has been waiting a year for this already. she was a reference from amember and has been attending church for a year. sadly her family hasnt let her be baptized and because she is only 17 she cant do it without permission. on friday she will have her 18th birthday! this will be a very special moment for all!

its so wierd thinking just 2 more transfers. it will be a good last two though. i iwll have christmas and also i will be able to talk with yall on the computer right before getting home! it will be such a funny call; 'see ya next week!' where will everyone be? is this the year that everyone has christmas in other places? 

if you havent sent the last package yet, i will probably need one more stick of deodorant. i dont know what else i want really.... are there any things that the fam is wanting specifically from brasil?now would be the time to ask. i dont know what yall would want... and how is my registration going? will nat sign me up for classes. i guess i will just do generals. im excited to get back into the college life! 

today i feel like i am at home. the whole sky is grey with clouds! this is the first time i hve ever seen this here! i was cold in the afternoon. when i was sleeping i had to get a sheet! this will be the first time in over a year and 8 months that i will go through a whole day without sweating :) i think i will suffer in utah...

well sorry fam that this weeks email was a little short i didnt have much to talk about, but i love you all and thats whats most important! i have such a wonderous family!

-Elder Lambert

Week 88

wow i hope this email wont be super short. its hard because i got so many email this week! so i would like to start off thanking everyone for the things they got me! i received the two packages from mom and dad, but not yet the others. i will have a meeting on friday, so maybe they were just later than the others. thanks also for the emails that i got from everyone! i have an awesome family and awesome friends :) 

so my birthday was awesome. on sunday we had a HUGE BBQ at imrã lizetes house. there was lots of meat, soda, and food 

it was really fun to have my birthday with irmã lizete because i love her so much! i feel like she is my mother here in araguaína. it was nice to relax a little bit, eat some cake, and talk with lots of people. i was always curious how birthdays would be in the mission. now i know!

photo: me and imrã lizete!

i love all the people here, they are so kind to me :)

another awesome thing that happened this week is that alana came back! she was a girl that we baptized a couple months ago during her vacation, but she returned to her dads house. now she is back here to stay! it was awesome seeing her again and following up with her. 

so for my schooling, i guess just sign me up for GE's. i will want to talk with dad first before deciding what i want to do exactly with my life. he is a good mentor :) just ask nat what she thinks is best for housing. we have very similar tastes so whatever she liked, i will like!

im excited for this week because it will have lots of exciting things! on friday i think we will travel to inperatriz for a zone meeting (i will get packages!) and saturday and sunday will have general conference! it will be wierd because we will only have 3 full days of work. it is kinda stressing me out because we have lots of things to do and now we dont have much time, but im excited because they will be awesome events :) i think me and elder lott will stay together in the secretary office or something to watch in english. i like to hear the voices of the people.

this week we had divisions with the zone leaders which was fun. i stayed with elder rodgers. he is from south carolina and has an awesome accent. his portuguese is really funny also because of it. he is an awesome person and we will try to set some things up so that we can hang out after the mish. its strange because today is my 3 months to home mark. i dont want it to end so fast! im excited to come home, but at the same time i dont want it to end :(

photo: hat that me and elder lott designed. its the brasilina flag inside of some mountains!

well i love everyone and wish yall and awesome week! thanks so much for all the presents and love!

-Elder Lambert