Mission Letter 27

December 26, 2011

Hey everyone!

It was so fun and cool to skype with all of you yesterday-I didn´t realize how fast 40 minutes would pass by! It was funny hearing Mingoo´s voice, seemed like Ingoo got even taller, and Chahngoo got chubby cheeks It was good hearing Dad´s goofiness and Mom´s smile. And Uncle Daehyun and Doyoon´s family!

Yes, I did realize my English got pretty bad, hahaha. It was actually even worse before training Elder Clingman, if you can even imagine how that was like hehehe.

Christmas here was different, but it was great! Christmas eve we went to a member´s house to eat a feast. SOOO much food, I wasn´t hungry the next day hahah. It was strange having a warm Christmas-there was just a huge thunderstorm the night before, and then Christmas was dumping rain. Here in Brazil they do Christmas a little different. Right when it turns midnight after Christmas Eve, everyone opens all their presents and stays up talking and spending time with family. So it looked like every one was tired on Sunday morning. But I am eternally grateful for the packages you sent me! The cookies are still fresh, congratulations Dad for your great contribution to society and mankind;) And thank you Uncle Michael and the Khang family for the incredible package! It is nice to have some American snacks and cereal, thank you thank you thank you. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and thank you for thinking about me.

This last week we had the baptism of Rose! She will be a very strong member of the Church. The baptismal service got delayed a little because we could only find baptismal jumpsuits the size of our bishop (he´s very tall), but finally we managed to find one. And she was confirmed on Sunday on Christmas, it was a special day for her. She isn´t the most outgoing of all people, a little timid, but her testimony is confident, solid and full of hope. That´s what really counts.
So to make things even crazier, we had transfers! Got a phone call about midnight, and I will already be leaving São Vicente!

I thought I would at least stay one more with a great ward and Elder Clingman. We were just getting a lot of referrals and found some great families to teach, so I was excited to stay...but that´s okay. I will be going up to São Paulo, in the city! I think it will be a cool experience to serve in one of the biggest cities in the world. I will be finishing Elder Stott´s training, and I will be the District Leader as well. I think the area is called Vila Moraes or something like that, Parque Bristol. I´m not exactly sure, but I will know for sure tomorrow.

Yup, I´m pretty sad to leave Elder Clingman behind. He taught me tons, I learned so much from him. And his sense of humor always kept me in a good mood, and he is one of the hardest working and diligent Elders I have ever seen. Well, at least he will reap the hard work as he stays here! He will be staying here in our house with three other Brazilians, so he will pick up the language even faster.

So anyways, just a busy day packing all my stuff (again...) and saying goodbye to the members and investigators here. But, I trust the Lord knows what He is doing, and just looks like I will have to put my head down and go to work in a new area.

But the thought for this week, of course, will talk about New Years! Yes, and this will sound very familiar and repetitive to many people, but I am sure it is because we all keep hearing the same stuff, but never get around to follow through with them!

So New Years always has resolutions for the upcoming year! It really is a wonderful time to reflect on life, progress, and plan out the road ahead to achieve success, and to improve year by year. Academics, sports, physical, mental, and spiritual progress, and lots of other things to do. But I guess the hardest thing is to follow up and work hard until the end of the next year!
It´s like the fitness center crisis that I always hated. January-February was always jam packed, all the machines, weights, gyms all maxed out to capacity, then after March it´s empty. But you can really tell who were the ones committed to their goals when you see them even after March ends.
What I´m trying to say is this illustrates an important element in the Gospel of Jesus Christ-perseverar até o fim, enduring to the end. I really enjoyed Elder Bednar´s article in the Liahnoa about the Book of Mormon, about the tree of life. Those who were merely “clinging to the rod of iron” fell into forbidden paths and were lost. But those who "secured" the rod and pressed forward in faith were those who were able to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life. I think this is a principle that we can apply to our New Years resolutions for 2012. When you make a goal, be sure to be committed and to follow through until you finish! And I can promise you one of the most important resolutions you can make is to read the Book of Mormon. Even if you have to read it like a story, it will be worth it. What you get out of the Book of Mormon depends on what you take to your study of the Book of Mormon. But I challenge all of you to make a realistic goal that will stretch you, to do your part to read the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon is such a blessing! Mormon didn´t compile a random collection of scriptures to make the Book of Mormon. EVERY word in the Book of Mormon was meant for YOU. He saw you, your time, your difficulties-so just read it! It will strengthen your testimony of Joseph Smith, and his role as the Prophet of the Restoration. But most importantly, you will learn for yourself that Jesus is the Christ, and you can develop a greater love for Him. I can spend all day talking about the Book of Mormon, I love it! But I would like to challenge all of you to put in your effort to read the Book of Mormon, ponder its meaning, and pray to our Father in Heaven if it´s true. There is nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Even if we show our desire and effort to read for five minutes a day, I know each one of you will see great miracles and blessings in your lives.

I love you all, and have a great New Year! I miss you all very much, but we will skype again in no time :)

Com amor,
Elder Kahng

Mission Letter 26

Here is a link to the talk that Elder Kahng mentioned in his email below:

http://lds.org/general-conference/2002/04/consecrate-thy-performance?lang=eng&query=consecrate+thy+performance

11-28-11

Sorry, this one is going to be a short one...but we had a great week! We had Zone Conference, which was great as usual, and I will have a chance to play the violin during the Mission Christmas Conference! I´m super excited. And found out that we are allowed to skype for Christmas, so we will be looking around for members who would be willing to let us use their skype...it will be awesome!

This week was really good. Getting along super well with Elder Clingman. He is so funny, brightens up my days. We had to go up to São Paulo to register him in the Federal Police-so we went up to the office, slept over, and he went with one of the mission secretaries super early in the morning on an exchange to go over...but it took such a long time, so I ended up reading scriptures in the mission office. I felt like such a slacker, but I ended up doing an exchange with another missionary in São Paulo who was also waiting for his companion to register. So at least got something done! But São Paulo is beautiful. I love the big city, and the skyline is pretty cool. And it was cold, and no mosquitoes! Hahaha.

We received a referral the past week, her name is Rose. She is so receptive to the Gospel, she already accepted a baptismal date. She will get married to another member in the Church, and she is just awesome. Teresa, an elderly woman who we taught and was ready for baptism, has to move to a nearby city Guarujá to live closer to her family in a smaller apartment. But I was happy to see her faithfulness in the Gospel. We are also teaching an awesome family, the mother being Lourdes. An amazing family, also ready to be great members of the church.

So the work is going well here. It´s tough, but it´s going, and it´s worth it.

But I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and talk to you more next week! Really take part in the Christmas spirit, and really be focused on what Christmas really means. It is also a great time to look for opportunities to serve others. And I mentioned it briefly last week, but please look up Neal A. Maxwell´s talk, Consecrate Thy Performance. That is my spiritual thought of the week, and I hope each one of you can really read it, think about it, and pray on how you can better take part in consecration.

Eu amo vocês muito, e tenham uma boa semana!

Com muito amor,

Elder Kahng

Mission Letter 25

11-21-11

Querida família,

Wow, Thanksgiving? Already?! The time passes too quick. If it keeps up like this, I will never have enough time to get the things I want to do here on the mission! Right now it´s super hot. I´m sweating like a beast. Sorry about the image, but hey, it´s the truth. But Brasil is awesome, I love it down here.

This week has been really good. Elder Clingman and I are best buds. We get along really well-it´s really hard for me to not have a down day, he cracks me up all day, I´m definitely going to have a nice looking 6 pack soon hehehe. In terms of the work-we found this elderly lady while we were walking the past week (Teresa). I have never seen so much faith in a person probably in my life. During the contact we invited her to baptism, and she accepted. When she got home that day she threw away all her coffee in the trash. She has trouble walking, and has pain in her legs, but she had so much faith that she went to church believing her legs would be healed-and her legs improved A TON after she got home. We are going to baptize her this Sunday, she is really cool. Do you know those old grandmas that are just "cute" (don´t judge me, don´t know how to describe it alright?!)? Yup, that´s her hahaha. We also have Beatriz and Lara who just need a date to get baptized. I love kids, if everyone were more Christ-like and were like children...And we also have the family of Lourdes, Alessandra, Igor, and Eidy. They have definitely been prepared by the Lord, we are going to visit them tonight.

Well don´t have a ton of time, but I hope you have a GREAT Thanksgiving. Is Chahngoo coming up? Will the Young Men pull it off and finally beat the A Little Bit Older Young Men? Haha, but have a great time. I really wanted to share some thing that I am grateful for, but that would literally take years. But first of all, I am grateful for Jesus Christ. I know that He lives, and He is real. He really does love us, enough to atone for our mistakes and sins. I am grateful for His Gospel plan, it´s a perfect and simple plan-if we really exercise faith, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, obey His commandments, and always continue strong, we will have the promise of eternal life. I am grateful for the gift of repentance, and the blessings and peace that it brings in our lives.

I am also grateful for all of you, my family. I love you so much, thank you for everything you do for me. I really know that your prayers blessing the missionaries and myself are being answered, I can see it everyday. I love you all, and I´m so grateful that one day we can all be united again as a family after this life. I am also grateful for my friends, and all the support they give me as well. And I am grateful for just everything, the air we breathe, the blue sky, and our life here so we can be happy. Yes, yet again it sounds a little corny, but if we pause to stop and think, there are just a billion things to be grateful for. I was reading an article by Elder Maxwell about consecration. Yes, there is the physical law of the consecration, but what about the spiritual? We must give ourselves to the Lord as well, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit-or otherwise, be humble and repentant.

So again, have an incredible Thanksgiving, and have an attitude of gratitude. It is great to share food with others, and friendships, but also let us also be grateful to the Lord, and give all we have to Him.

Love you all, see ya next week!

Elder Kahng

Mission Letter 24

11-14-11

Boa tarde gente,

Okay, don´t have too much time, so it will be a quick update. We are starting our new transfer! So we´re just going to work like crazy.

Elder Clingman is awesome. There are few Elders who work as hard as him. He is improving his Portuguese at an extremely fast rate, and he really has an inspiring testimony of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. And he loves scary stories, like the kinds Brother Caldwell tells. What´s up with Utah and creepy stories anyways?! Hahaha.

So we had two awesome conferences this past week. We had a chance to listen to Elder Evans and Elder Godoy. Basically we learned that we know nothing about missionary work, (to be more optimistic, a lot of room to improve) and tithing is a divine law that we as members of the church and especially missionaries, don´t really recognize how significant the law of the tithe is. Basically what it means by the windows of heaven and the blessings we receive from it means we will receive spiritual guidance to improve our situations and know what we should do to be more thrifty and do our part in the church. Interesting, huh?

But the most spiritual part of the conference was when he bore his testimony. There was no doubt that he didn´t need faith anymore-as a special witness of Christ, he knew. So when he bore his testimony, it was so powerful, it is hard to describe. But he said that the General Authorities aren´t necessarily entitled to more spiritual blessings than the members. So...lots of work for me to do! Hahaha.

I guess we really are in the right place and the right time, just have to work and wait to see the miracles that will take place. Just like the one talk at General Conference that said that everything on the mission is inspired and comes from revelation. I think it was Elder Richardson if I remember right.

So yesterday we got to see that! I am not sure if we talked about Claudinei yet, but he and his family has been investigators for a while now. He is super chill, probably around 50 years old and is a super Santos FC fan-not going to lie, he has some pretty cool tattoos. But don´t get tattoos! Anyways, it turns out that his cousin is the counselor in the bishopric. And after a very spiritual lesson that we had with Claudinei, the counselor in the bishopric told us on Sunday that all of a sudden, everything clicked now for Claudinei, everything fell in place and it made sense. Claudinei really has a strong desire to receive forgiveness for his sins and to be baptized. If we all had the desire like he did, the world would be a different place. But it was a miracle that we saw in the week. And he gave us 2 kilos of pão de queijo ;)

Well anyways, I love you all. The Church is true. This is Jesus Christ´s church. There is only one way to heaven and to have eternal families. If it´s hard for you to take this in, why not ask Heavenly Father Himself? He loves you. You are His special Child. He will answer you, you just have to pay attention and really be open to know.

Have a great week, I love you all very much. And I´m not sure if Veteran´s Day is this week or was the past week, but always be grateful for the beautiful country that God has provided for us, the United States. It really has a special place in my heart, and I hope it does for you-really resepect our veterans and servicemen, and all they do to help us in our country. But just know, if the US and Brasil ever play against each other in the world cup, I will be definitely be Brasileiro and Brasil will just destroy them anyways ;)

Abração,

Elder Kahng

Mission Letter 23

10-31-11

Hi Mom!

It really was a challenging week, walking around in circles in the area (thank goodness for our map!), figuring out what to do opening a new area, looking through the Area Book to find out more about the teaching group and our investigators, etc.

Despite these difficulties, this week was quite amazing. First of all, our Bishop is incredible. He knows everything about missionary work, he delegates super well, is well organized and just works so hard to help the work go on. An awesome leader, but also just purely a great guy. All the members trust him so much, no doubting why. He gave us a few minutes to speak at the beginning of sacrament meeting to introduce ourselves and present ourselves to the members. I was like, wow, that´s awesome! Now we can really gain the confidence of the members. But right after he had us stand next to him and told the members how great missionaries we were (not that I think we are), how we didn´t know the language well but were ready to work, and how they should help us in everyway. And after we received like a billion referrals :) This ward is amazing, everyone is so awesome, well organized, and...yeah. I can´t describe it in words. So we are in good hands, and there will be miracles here in São Vicente Ala 2!

I do definitely think about my other area a lot-about the friends I made and how the new members are doing, especially Rodrigo, Victor and Vitória. I miss them a lot, but hopefully I will have the opportunity to serve there near the end of my mission. If not, I will return in 2014 to watch the world cup and go visit all of them again :) But they are in good hands, I know the Lord will help them with the things they need.

Thank you so much for your fast. I know it has helped me, even though I may not know specifically-but I know your concern for me is blessing the area and the work here. But don´t worry too much about me, I am doing fine!

Oh yeah, and I received Ingoo´s mega letter! And a letter from Dongu hyung´s family as well, and your other letter with Grandpa´s letter as well. I hope Grandma and Grandpa are doing well with their new accessibility to the internet :) And thank you so much Uncle and Aunt Khang and family, I really enjoyed the letters. Thank you so much, I will try to respond to all as quickly as possible.

But just wondering about how Chahngoo is doing with school, and Dad. Happy Birthday!!! One day early, but that´s okay. And how is William? How is he doing? And any word on the Elders serving in our ward (ie Sean, Sam, Travis, Jameson, Brock, etc.)

Ok, gotta go, but know that I am doing well. And always remember that God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Remember that when life gets tough, and when life is good as well, we always need to be reliant in Him and do our best to be perfect even as He was, and be witnesses of Christ in all times and places.

Love you so much, until next week!

Elder Kahng

Oh yeah, and Happy Halloween!

Mission Letter 22

10-24-11

Boa tarde!

Yup, some big news this week-five new Americans got their visas this week, so we had an emergency transfer. So about 6:00 pm on Wednesday, we got a call from the President, and got some shocking news-my companion, Elder Meacham, would be receiving a new American to train in Planalto (Elder McCord-from Bellevue, his second cousin-you probably know who he is), and that I would be reactivating a new area and training a new American missionary! Yes, just pure shock. So right now I am in São Vicente Ala 2 in the Baixada Santista! In other words, I thought I was going to die, because of the heat down here, and because I am going to be a father and train a new American while opening up a new area that got shut down...

So we ran around everywhere as quick as we could, visiting recent converts, members, investigators and friends. Didn´t have a whole ton of time, but managed to visit a few. Socorro and Vitória were pretty upset hahaha. But not as bad as Victor, he wouldn´t stop crying. I already miss that kid so much. Then also said goodbye to Antônio and his family. And Rodrigo also. I never knew I would (almost) cry so much. It was difficult to not cry, they were all a part of my family.

So ran home, packed my bags late into the night, then the next morning headed off to transfers, and got Elder Clingman! He is from Salt Lake City, and just a really good kid-very pure, and he´s ready to work! He was working in Tennessee for two weeks. He is great. The area is great as well, it really is beautiful down here next to the beach. But SUPER hot! And the mosquitos ate me alive the first night-got over 80 something, most of them on my face...ugh. Yeah, I´m an ugly sight to see, sunburned and mosquito bites haha. But the members are just AWESOME, and the ward is great. We are going to get a lot of good work done down here.

Yeah so anyways, I´m pretty stressed out. Figuring out who everyone is, finding my way around town with this tiny map, getting lost, helping my new companion, and just insanity. I am not going to lie, it´s hard. And I felt like questioning why me of all people would start training so soon.

But I thought about General Conference, and one of the 70 said that everything in the mission is inspired. So the President and the Lord know what they are doing, and hopefully I can do my best here in the area and help out my companion. I would really appreciate prayers haha.

So we are going to head home to make lunch and clean the house-it´s pretty dirty, and we have inspections and interviews tomorrow. The cleanest house in the zone will get pizza! But too bad, I cleaned up my last apartment SO WELL for 2.5 transfers...but at least Elder Meacham and Elder McCord will get a pizza haha.

So I love you all, I hope you know that. I am telling just about everyone down here that my brother is coming down to Brasil super close! Super proud of you Chahngoo, and I hope that Mom, Dad, Ingoo and Mingoo are preparing well. Jesus Christ lives, and it is only through Him that we can truly be happy in life. Until next week!

Love,

Elder Kahng

Mission Letter 21

10-17-11

Hello dearest Mãe (e o resto da família ;),

No problems! Everything is going quite smoothly out here in Brasil. Thank you for your prayers, they help us incredibly. Don´t worry about the BoM Cd, I forgot that they have the audio online. And the strike ended! I will be getting a ton of letters on Friday hehehe. And did you already send the package yet? If you didn´t, please make sure there is a drybag in there. If you just sent that to me, I would be super happy. These days it´s been POURING rain-I like it a lot, it´s just I freak out all the time that my scriptures and all my other stuff in my backpack would get soaked.

Today we had an awesome P-Day! We went to central São Paulo, in the middle of the city to a street called 25 de Março. Which is a famous place with small shops where you can buy a bunch of small things like shirts, electronics, etc. It was really fun. And we also stopped by the biggest market place in Brasil! I already forgot the name, but we had an awesome lunch there, and apparently they have every single kind of fruit you could ever imagine. I love big cities-São Paulo definitely is one of the biggest in the world, and it was cool walking around in a huge city with a bunch of people everywhere. But while we were passing by in the bus, we passed by the São Paulo Zoo and it looks AWESOME! I am definitely going to visit there one of these p-days.
My companion is awesome-Elder Meacham (or as the Brazilians call him, Elder Weasely). He has a very kind heart and a caring disposition for all people-not in a creepy way, but he is a specialist in baptizing children. Really no wonder why, he is a very pure guy. He is incredible.

I think that´s awesome Grandpa got a laptop! I can imagine him getting tech savvy hahaha. Can´t wait to get e-mails from him!

So just wanna let you all know I am surviving quite well out here in Brasil. Working our...legs and our mouths off hahaha from all the walking and talking everyday. And definitely working our hearts off for the people here, I feel so much love for the people we serve. Antônio, Vitória and Victor were all confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints yesterday. They really are heroes in my mind! They are just full of the Spirit of God, it really inspires me to try to be a better person. I got the chance to confirm Antônio and Victor, my first priesthood blessings in Portuguese! At first I was a little nervous, but it went smoothly! This week we found a great family that I hope will get baptized. They really are receptive, and Neide, the wife of José Carlos (the family) reminds me a lot of Cristina Miola. Which definitely is a good thing hahaha. Let her know I am doing well, want to know how the Miola family is doing.

I still can´t believe Chahngoo got his call super close to me! I doubt we will have the chance to serve together, but maybe by freak chance we will see each other at the temple. That would be mind blowing.

So I guess I could talk forever about what´s going on here, but I also wanna know how life is back home! Ingoo Mingoo, dying to hear from you! How is school? XC? Dad, how is work? How is the Flash? I miss that dog hahaha. And how is College Football?!?!??! Haven´t heard anything!

So the spiritual thought of the week. We had an awesome Elders Quorum lesson last week about signs of the Second Coming. Guess what? Just because China and the Middle East still didn´t have the opportunity to receive missionaries does NOT mean the Second Coming is far away. The manual says that missionary work will CONTINUE during the Millennium. So, not everyone has to hear about the Gospel before the Second Coming. Food for thought! And if this is wrong, it is probably because my Portuguese needs to improve and I heard wrong hahaha. But speaking about this, we must remember never to procrastinate repentance. Many times repentance sounds like a harsh process that people don´t want to hear about. Many people become offended if you were to call them to repentance. Yes, it can be painful, but in reality it is a wonderful opportunity to turn worldly and sinful ways, and leave a heavy, loaded, and dark past forever, and really change your life to follow Christ with all your heart, might, mind and strength. How can we follow Christ with all our hearts if we are carrying secret guilts and burdens in ourselves? That is why Christ always tells us that His burden is light, and His yoke is easy-not only will He help you carry your burden, He will take ALL of it for you if you just let Him. So why wait?! There is no reason to wait! Repentance is only hard if you have pride. If you worry more about what the world and men think, not what God thinks. So, I invite everyone, including myself, to repent! None of us will ever be perfect, maybe except the first few seconds after baptism. We all have to make our lives in accordance to our Heavenly Father´s will. So there is no reason to wait to repent and ask for forgiveness from God and from whoever we may have hurt. I can promise all of you, as a representative of Jesus Christ, that you can never find a relief more soothing and calming than for asking forgiveness and abandoning an old life full of sin. No reason to wait! Especially when we know that we are living in the last dispensation of times, in the twilight before the morning of the Second Coming. Remember that in Moroni 8 that the first fruit of repentance is BAPTISM. So, for those who are members of the church-prepare weekly to take part of the sacrament worthily and renew your baptismal covenants weekly. I know that great blessings and strength comes from partaking of the sacrament. And for those who aren´t members of the Church, there is no reason for you to not follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by one holding the only priesthood authority of God. Ephesians 4:5 says that there is only one faith, one Lord and one baptism. I know that this Church is the only true church on the face of the earth-what Church can be more correct than Jesus Christ´s OWN church? There just can´t. I know Jesus Christ lives, and only through His merits and grace can we live forever with Heavenly Father and our families for time and all eternity.

Whew, long email, but I hope you are all doing well, and can´t wait to talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Kahng

Mission Letter 20-1

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Mission Letter 20

10-10-11

BOA TARDE!
I am so excited about Chahngoo´s mission call-that is so exciting! He is going to serve really close to where I am, my mind is just blown away. Yet another Kahng in Brasil!
We had transfers this past week, and Elder Chaves got transferred-but now I am with Elder Meacham, from Logan UT! He has 1 year 8 months, and looks a lot like Ron Weasely. It´s pretty funny. But he has a pure heart, and really loves all people. He is an awesome guy, I´ll let you know more about him as the weeks go by.
But this week, we had 3 baptisms! Antônio, our eternal investigator, and Vitória and Victor, children of our investigator Socorro. It was really an incredible experience, never felt so good in my life.
Today I spent a lot of time cleaning up the house. We are having house inspections next week, and the cleanest house in the zone will get pizza from the President! But more than the desire for pizza, I want to make my family proud! It is going to be awesome.
Ooops, running out of time-always hard to keep track haha. But just wanted to let you all know I am doing awesome, just sorta mad at the mail system here going on strike. At least I will have a mountain of letters when it´s over! I can´t wait to hear how you are all doing.
The mission really is an incredible experience, it is just awesome that my whole family is preparing to serve missions!
Other than that, everything is going tudo certo, just so happy about the good news!
Know that I love you all very much, (yes, YOU) and always remember how gracious Heavenly Father has been in our lives! Always have an attitude of gratitude, count your many blessings, and you will be surprised at how happy we should all be! Life is a time to be happy! Enjoy it while it lasts!
Love,
Elder Kahng

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Mission Letter 19

Hi Mom! (and rest of family)

The mail service here in Brasil has been on strike for a few weeks now, so it might be a while until I get your letters :( hahaha, but no problems, it will just be that much better when I get a huge stack of envelopes!

Elder Staples was only on an exchange with me, so I´m not training him-but he is in my zone so I get to see him once in a while.

How was conference everyone?! It was incredible for me, I definitely learned so much! All 15-20 questions I prepared for conference were all answered. Certainly the Lord speaks to us through prophets. I loved Elder Bednar´s talk about Family History Work, the overall focus on the Book of Mormon, mission preparation, and everything. Incredible that there will be two temples in Provo, huh? That is great!

I heard a lot of emphasis on young men preparing to serve missions, and couple missionaries as well-I thought of all of you! Please take the time to read and annotate the addresses the following month, and I promise that it will help you in so many ways.

ELDER CHAVES IS BEING TRANSFERRED! Just as we were starting to baptize a lot of people...he is being transferred to the highest baptizing zone in the mission, and is going to be the Zone Leader there. He is awesome, I will definitely miss him and his hard work as a missionary. So don´t worry about the shoes anymore hahaha. My next companion will be an American, not sure how much time he has in the field or what his name is, I forgot. But transfers are tomorrow, looking forward to it.

This week we baptized our investigator Rafael, 18 years old. He will be an incredible member of the church. We just need to push him to serve a mission now hehehe ;)

I haven´t heard from Chahngoo-how is his studying going? I hope it´s because he is studying hard.

Ok, if you could make the Plan of Salvation...things...for me, that would be great! Like the kind of things they would use in primary, with pictures and arrows. Laminated would be even better, thank you hahaha.

Vida Pré-mortal

Véu de Esquecimento

Nascimento

Terra

Morte Física

Mundo Espiritual (Paraíso/Prisão)

Ressurreição

Julgamento

Reino Celestial

Reino Terrestre

Reino Telestial

Expiação (the base of the whole plan of Salvation)

Also, do we have any dry bags at home? The kind that you can take to river rafting? If we have one that could fit in my backpack, that would be incredibly awesome. Last summer it rained for 62 days straight-and I found out that my backpack is NOT waterproof. I am making do with zip lock bags, but if there is something like that lying around the house, I would love to have it.

So that´s the update from here for now. It´s starting to get pretty hot, I never realized I could sweat so much. Haha, sorry if that was a little graphic. But more than likely I will stop by again to send another email, but if not, have a great week, know that I love you! And pray that the strike with the mail service will end soon ;)

Love,

Elder Kahng

Mission Letter 18

9-19-11

Boa tarde!

Tons to catch up on, I doubt I will have time to tell you all about what has been going on!

FYI, if this all sounds familiar, it´s probably because I forgot that I already wrote about it, so sorry in advance ;)

So in terms of our investigators-we have Socorro, Vitória (12) and Victor (10). I love this family so much, they really were prepared to receive the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. We have been working with them for about 3 weeks now, and all of them will be baptized next Sunday! The only problem is that Socorro has difficulty stopping smoking. Other then that, she is ready! She told us that she was holding a cigarette when she was born-so she has been smoking a LONG time. Anyone have any suggestions or advice we could use to help her? If she smokes again this week, she will have to wait another week to get baptized... :/ Other then that, they really are good friends to us, and I am excited for the upcoming Sunday.

We also have Rafael (18) marked for next week as well! He marked his own baptism date for next week, so he is continuing strong. It also helps that his girlfriend is a member of the church. He reads 3 chapters of the Book of Mormon every night, attends institute, says his prayers, and is just awesome. He just needs water (só água!)

And we also have Valesca (14) and her step dad Alexandre-they are extremely receptive and faithful. We taught them the first time on a Saturday night, and both of them came to church the following morning at 9:00. That´s dedication! And lots of faith. They love church, we will continue to teach them more lessons.

And one of our "eternal investigators", Antônio marked his own baptism for the 9th of October! The other date that we gave him fell through, but I am sure that he is more dedicated with his own decision.

And Rodrigo is doing well. The only thing is that he suffers from a lot of health problems, and his medications are just way too strong, so it is extremely difficult for him to go to church. Please pray for him too! And Rose, his mother, is doing much better too. Thank you for your prayers, she is defintely benefitting from your prayers.

And...our area is improving a LOT. I respect Elder Chaves so much, because he just works and works and always has an amazing vision and optimism for the future. We are working much better with the members, and the once slow area is starting to pick up the pace. We are still trying to help our district have this vision as well, and become more excited for the future.

And all of this is happening because of our fasting. We decided to fast every week to help our work, and it really is a miracle. First of all, when I fast, I have more energy than when I eat. Hard to belive, huh? And I am less hungry when I am fasting than when I am eating regularly. Even harder to believe! And we are tons more receptive to the Spirit and we see many miracles throughout the day. And I speak better Portuguese. And I get a chance to slim down a little haha. Nothing to lose with fasting!

So just remember that "Gospel" means good tidings, good news-so all the missionaries (don´t forget that every member is a missionary) are messengers of good news! That the true Gospel of Christ has been restored today. Sometimes it is easy to be a little ashamed or embarassed to talk about Joseph Smith or Gold Plates and the Book of Mormon, but we shouldn´t! It´s good news! What´s cool is that everyone on the face of the earth has already heard the first lesson before this life! In PMG Chapter 4, it talks about the light of Christ. There is a quote by President Packer that says everything that we "teach" people is NOT foreign, or even new-but has a familiar ring to it. It´s because everyone knows, just forgot. So never be afraid to open your mouth!

And the other part of the good news is that the Gospel of Christ is on the earth-if we exercise our faith, truly repent and change our lives, be baptized and renew our covenants each week through the sacrament, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (and remain worthy of it and follow its directions) and endure to the end (continue doing all of the previously mentioned steps), we will have eternal life.

So that´s the best I can do for now, hahaha. I hope everything is going well back at the home front, I will probably send another email later today.

Tchau, e tenha uma boa semana!

Com muito amor,

Elder Kahng