Mission Letter 14

8-23-11

Hello everyone!

Wow, I am writing this letter at the very end of my first transfer! I passed through day 100 yesterday! Time is just flying!

The highlight of this week was a special meeting for new missionaries called Nova Força-all the missionaries I arrived with and their trainers all met together and had some training. So I had the chance to see Elder Campbell again! It was good seeing him again, couldn´t help but smile when I saw him. He´s doing well, he got trimmer after sweltering in the Baixada heat. We got to hear talks from the Assistants and from President and Sister Tanner. I can not get over how grateful I am for such a great President and wife. They are amazing!

And I was surprised how quickly the second package came! Thank you for all the chocolate and the Reese´s Puffs! I opened it up and shared a bunch with Elder Campbell and Sister Tomlinson, I was happy I could provide them with some good American candy! And I finally got the envelope with the pictures as well! Thank you so much, I will share it with the members and investigators here. Thank you for the package, I think all the other missionaries are getting jealous, even the Sisters! I am a spoiled momma´s boy J.

This week one of our member friends, Júnior, got his mission call to Manaus! All the Brazilians don´t think that is really cool going into the middle of the Amazon where the seasons are summer, and summer with rain, but I think it would be really cool to go there.

In terms of missionary work, it has been a bit of a slow week-many of our appointments fell through, and people didn´t seem to be as open with the cold weather and rain. But yesterday, we had a "Mega Batismo"-a baptism service for the whole Zone. The goal was to have each companionship to baptize one person on this date, but it was hard for us to reach this goal. It was a great service though, 7 people were baptized! It was a really spiritual experience. We had our own baptism before, on Friday. Bruno, a 9 year old boy who never had the chance to get baptized when he was 8, got baptized-so that was our highlight of the week! If only all of our investigators and all the people we talk too have the faith and Christ like attributes he has... :)

As we were walking home, Elder Almeida received a call from President Tanner-He is going to be the zone leader in one of the zones in São Paulo! Nights at the end of transfers are busy, because the leaders are busy making calls to everyone. So finally at around midnight, we got a call-so Elder Almeida is going to São Paulo, and I am staying in the area with Elder Chaves, a missionary that I got to know at the CTM! So he will be finishing my training, and will be the new district leader. The amazing thing is, he probably has less than 6 months, not that much time on the mission-but that was exactly what I wanted. We can have two green missionaries to work hard in our area! I am determined to change the way the missionaries will work here, and I know we will make a big difference. So Elder Almeida is busy packing today, and the changes will take place tomorrow. I´m really thankful that he was patient with me during my transitional time starting out in the field, it was difficult thinking about it-but he was always patient, and did the best he could in the area.

But anyways, I am happy to hear the Utah trip went well-congratulations to the newly-weds! It sounded like fun meeting up with family and friends. Thank you for the movie reviews Mingoo, that just makes me feel THAT much better...hahaha jk. I don´t miss movies out here-probably music, but that´s okay. So Chahngoo, are you going to LDSBC? Let me know what your plans are!

And Mingoo, how is school? Sorry that you don´t have a ton of friends in your schedule, but that was exactly like my sophomore year too! Just work hard, that´s the most important thing. Ingoo, how does it feel to be a senior? Just work hard all the way through, it will be worth it.
So I have been writing letters for the past two weeks, but never had time to send any of them! So there will be a delay, but you will get a fat envelope. Sookmo, Sarah, and Clara, same thing with your letter, sorry about the delay.

Well anyways, as Elder Almeida and I were thinking about the past transfer that FLEW by, I got thinking-It´s very very strange to be here on a mission. I can´t bring myself around to believe I am actually a missionary representing Christ, I am actually living in Brasil, I am actually speaking Portuguese! (or at least I think I am). I still don´t believe it, but I´ll just put my head down and get to work.

This week we had the opportunity to watch the movie about the life of President Monson-I forgot the name, something like running the Lord´s Errand or something like that-but by the end of the movie, an idea really hit me hard-we actually have God´s prophet here in the world today! What a blessing to know that God loves us so much, He gives us prophets, just like in times of old with Moses and Abraham-that we can know the will of Heavenly Father directly through His servants. It was amazing to see what kind of a life President Monson has lived, absolutely full of service to everyone, full of love, and dedicated to the Lord and the members. It was easy to see that his life has been consecrated to serve the Lord. The thing that amazed me the most was his ability to recognize the promptings of the Spirit with amazing clarity, and his humble and obedient nature to follow the promptings. At the end of the film, he recounted a quote that was something like this, don´t remember word for word-that he would dedicate his life to trust the Lord, and wanted to let Him know that whenever the Lord needed him to run an errand, Tom Monson would be ready to do it. There really is no doubt that he is a close friend with Christ-we all need to think about the magnitude of this, and strive harder to follow the Prophet of God!

Also this Sunday, we heard a talk about a talk President Monson gave years before-he said that each of us should realize that we are indeed Children of God-and if we truly understand what that really means, we will feel a profound feeling in our hearts that will inspire us. I know that each of us is a child of our Heavenly Father, with divine potential to become as He is. He never views us in our weaknesses, but views us on whom we will become. We just need to follow Christ, exercise faith in Him, truly repent of our sins and make the changes in our lives that we need to make, be baptized just as Christ was with the proper authority, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and continue to do these things the rest of our lives, Sunday by Sunday, enduring to the end. The plan is simple, but we have to give it our all.

I love you all so much, never forget to pray and read scriptures!

Love, Elder Kahng