Nobody Beat Me Up

August 6, 2012

This week was another crazy week; I’m starting to get worn out. . . .

This week I did splits for 5 days in a row with different missionaries and different areas to help those who haven’t baptized in a while. on Tuesday i was in G(a small city about 40 minutes away), Wednesday in P (another ward in the city), Thursday in the ward in the center of the city, Friday back in P to work with the other  missionary there, and then Saturday I spent a total of 6 hours on a bus going back and forth to do a  baptismal interview in the city of O. Crazy.

To top all that off Saturday night I got bit like 5 times by a mosquito, but there is one certain species that I’m like allergic two so when it bites my I swell up really bad.  Sunday I spent the whole day with my right eye swollen shut. Oh the wonders of Brasil. The most annoying part is that the people here love the missionaries so much that I had to explain to everyone in the ward that I was fine and didn’t need any more Meds and nobody beat me up.

Anyway, I’m excited for this week to get a good week of work done in my own area, we have been teaching a woman that was going to get baptized this week but a pastor started visiting her and telling her a bunch of lies about the Book of Mórmon. So we gotta clean that up this week.

I’m glad that you all are melting in the heat over there; you can feel how I felt at Christmastime hahaha.

The mission is great, I’m learning so much about how to deal with all kinds of people and all kinds of situations, and above all about simply that the Church is true, there is no other explanation. I’ve seen too many people receive answers to prayers, it´s just not possible that it´s not true.

Love you all!
Stay healthy and happy!

-Elder Leete

Too Many Miracles to not Believe.

this week was really spectacular! me and elder c baptized 5 people this week!!!

Al told us that he was waiting for the missionaries to find him again, the sisters had taught him three years ago but he didnt want to be baptized because he wasnt able to stop smoking. but about four or five months ago he read exodus 23:20-23 and recognized the missionaries as the angels and with prayed really hard and finally stopped smoking! he was just waiting for us to come baptize him! on wednesday we taught him and his wife, Qui, was in house (usually she works all day) we taught her about the restauration and challenged her to pray RIGHT THEN to ask God if Joseph Smith was a prophet. so we all kneeled down and she prayed and asked. after a few moments she looked up at us and said that it felt like the weight of the world dissappeared and was floating, really light and happy.  she accepted that as a response from the Holy Spirit and accepted the invitation to be baptized THAT SATURDAY!!!

the other 3 people was another family that we have been working with for about a month, a family of 4.a couple and 2 kids. the wife is scared of choosing the wrong church and hasnt been receiving answers to her prayers, but last week we discovered that se was smoking, which blocks the spirit. we gave her a blessing, and after that she said that she didn't get any pleasure out of smoking. she even tried smoking a couple of times after that just to see if the addict´s pleasure would return but it didn't. God straight up took the pleasure out of smoking from her, so she stopped and was baptized with her husband and daughter! (her son is being a little rebellious so we are going to have to teach him more so he can gain a testimony)

crazy, crazy week, i´ve never felt the spirit so strong in my life as i had this past week, because even with this miraculous show of priesthood power she STILL was scared of making the covenant of baptism, so we taught her every day with members and even brought Al to bear  his testimony to her, She could not deny the power of the Spirit of the witnesses of so many things and got baptized!!!!

Love you all, i Know that this church is true, i´ve seen too many miracles to not believe

-Elder Leete

Pray for everything to go well this week

Monday, April 16, 2012 7:58 AM

This week was a good week, we have been working with B and R, they are a young couple with a little baby boy, J. They, with B´s brother, A are family that wants to get baptized but the husband is having a little bit of trouble with the word of wisdom, they were scheduled to get baptized yesterday but we will have to wait for next week since everyone wants to get baptized together. Pray for everything to go well this week.

Other than that the mission is preparing to receive an apostle, Elder Quentin L. Cook, next week along with the president and another seventy too. We are all really excited to hear the words of the apostles about missionary work. When I was in the CTM it was lame, we didn’t get any apostles to speak to us.

Transfers are next week, I’ll probably get moved to another area since I’ve been in this one for 3 transfers, but who knows, me and Elder P are doing really well here so maybe we will stay one more.

Love you all! Hope you are all well! I feel bad because I’ve been way busy to write hardly anything on p-days but you guys will just have to be patient. Sewing all the holes in my pants and shirts and washing the sweat stain on the collars by hand are more important than writing right now.

Love you all!

tchau!
-Elder Leete

My District:
left to right
Elders G, Leete, T, R, B, & P

Elders T and B are the zone leaders

 G and R work in the ward right next to mine and Elder P´s

General Conference- Spectacular!

Mon 4/2/2012 8:16 AM

Hello family!

Conference weekend was spectacular for me! Along with learning that everything is all well at home (thanks for the picture dad, that’s the best smile I’ve seen on R in months) The conference talks really were spectacular.

I don’t know if I’m getting more spiritual or if our general authorities are, because I really enjoyed this conference. I got to watch all four normal sessions and will download the priesthood session today to listen to it. I’m learning more and more that really General conference when used correctly is really just one more channel (super powerful one) to receive personal revelation.

As missionaries we try to help our investigators receive personal revelation, they receive through
-Missionary Lessons
-Prayer
-reading the Book of Mormon
-Going to church

when they have a desire, a broken heart, contrite spirit and real intent they receive and answer. Every single one of them.

I’ve found that these same principles apply to us.  Just trade "missionary lessons" with "Family Lessons".

We receive personal revelation through spiritual promptings: they can be testifying of the basic truth (God exists, he calls prophets, Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon, etc.) or enlightens our understanding (gives us "light bulb" moments) or comforts us with the holy ghost to know that everything is okay, or he simply tells us he loves us, and fills us with love to do good to others.

When we learn to seek out these opportunities and record and remember personal revelation is when we become better people and really apply the gospel of Jesus Christ and become happy.

I know this is true in the name of Jesus Christ, amém.

I’m all out of time again! I love you all! Send me the memory card so I can get you guys more pictures, but not to this address where I’m at, it won’t get here in time for the transfers probably.

Love you all!
-Elder Leete

Same Address

This marks the end of another transfer and I’m going to stay here for more area to finish off training Elder P, then I’ll definitely be moved out. This will be the first time I have stayed in an area for more than two transfers, but I’m seeing the area and ward grow so I think that me and Elder P can do really well here and I won’t get too bored of the place. That means too that you all should feel free to send me packages to this address!

 All letters should be sent normally to the mission office.

Yes they have daylight savings, its turning into fall here so a couple of weeks back we "fell" back an hour. It still is really summer weather here though, everyone is holding out for the rain to start up again to cool us down

We have a ward here with a frequency of about 100 people, the meetings are exactly the same as over there, I just miss having a nice big chapel with carpet and padded pews. The chapel here is really small and has nice hard ones to keep us awake during sacrament.

I just miss carpet in general, and being able to walk around your house barefoot.  Our floor in this house we´re in is straight cement with a layer of paint over it.

I haven’t had to speak here yet, but every once in a while I will give the lesson in principles of the gospel.

Our Young Women’s program in this ward is really strong, they have been really great about integrating our recent convert from last week. She even brought her friend to church this week who wants to get baptized too! Our baptisms are multiplying!

That’s about it for now, we area teaching a really cool family but that needs to get married before they can get baptized, but they have to wait for a previous divorcement paper to go through. In the meantime, pray for the parent´s hearts to be softened to let the kids be baptized. Two  girls, one 10 and one 8. R and A C. The parents are S and D.

Love you all! Remember to send me more peanut butter! (Feel free to send that as often as you want, if I have too much I can pawn it off to others for a lot!)

tchau!

Familia

This week was yet another tiring week, but one that ended once again with. . . . . .

BATISMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me and Elder P did a contact knocking on doors with a lady named A the first day that he got here, and we finally got around to visiting her two weeks ago. We taught her once and she showed up for church!! But then last week we stayed in the hospital so we didn’t visit her but that Saturday she went to a Relief Society activity and then last Sunday went to church again and brought her daughter N! We didn’t even teach her or anything that whole week! Then this week we taught her and invited her to be baptized and they BOTH accepted!! They were baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday!!! They really are some of the ELECT!!!

For other random matters, has anybody sent me any more packages? The last one I got was the Christmas one.

But it is the last week of the transfer so i don’t know if I will stay here for much longer if you want to send me a package wait for next week for me to say if I’m staying here or moving. Has anyone sent anything to this address?

 All letters go to the mission office, all packages to the house where i´m living

Mission office:
Elder Kevin Leete
Missão Brasil Londrina
1100 Higienópolis sala 61
Centro
Londrina - Paraná
86020-911
BRASIL

Love you all!

-Elder Leete

Lots of Pictures!

We received a sd card full of pictures from Kevin this week.  About 400 of them neatly organized into files for each of his areas.  We are in the process of figuring out the best way of sharing them so stay tuned.  For now, here is a picture of Kevin and his companion in their Christmas PJs we sent them.

Sweating in the City

life in the big city is good! its basically the same just we waste a bunch of time of our p-day when we want to go downtown to buy stuff

Congrats Jessica! that's way awesome! i knew you would do really well at BYU, its really a great experience and if you apply yourself you will definitely reap the rewards. you should try to get a job working in the math lab or something, BYU pays well and its a pretty simple job. i spent a lot of my free time there. . .

i miss the cold. i miss the snow. i miss going a whole day without sweating.

but im getting used to it here. i´ve already been in brazil for 8 whole months. thats 1/3 of the mission. the time is going by really fast. i´ve learned a ton, and going to learn a lot more, but now the hard work is to apply all the principles that i'm learning every day to actually improve my teaching.

i loved the package the shirt and shorts were well received by me and elder p as well as the American candy and peanut butter. now i just have to find a decent jam to go with  it. right now im just eating it with syrup on bread. bom de mais! (good of more!)

i got 3 letters from Rebecca yesterday that were sent January 3rd! that's only two weeks! i really love being here near the mission office! now i just got to take advantage of it and write you guys letters. . .if i don't nap through p day again (which isn´t very likely)

its funny to see the couch rotation always happening, but as of yet the green couches in the front room are still there. those were a good investment.
we´ve got a couch in our apartment, but its really terrible so its only good use is for holding heaps of dirty clothes.

that's it for this week, if you were wondering we had interviews with the president yesterday so our p day was switched for today

Love you all!


o i also sent the sd card of all my pictures so it should arrive in a couple of weeks.

Transfer for Christmas

I just got the news that I will be transferred tomorrow to Londrina! I'm excited to get to know a new city!  I will also be able to email you guys this Thursday to tell you if the skype time changes, but I'm excited for 7pm on Sunday!


I haven't gotten the package yet, but im excited because this next transfer I will be in L so I will get packages and letters way faster!

Christmas in Brazil is similar, everybody gives presents and stuff, but it really is just an excuse to drink and have a big party and barbeque. It's also interesting that they don't do stockings, because no houses here have chimneys.

We had our zone conference de Natal (Christmas) on Friday, it was really great, I really love my mission president, Presidente Tavares, I have a really strong testimony that he was called of God to be the mission president here now.

I'm sad to leave P, I really have learned a lot from being in a small little branch, especially from the branch president. He is an excellent example of how to be a leader in the church.

I'm learning a lot about the organization of the church, and a lot about the program MLS that the church uses. I bet dad is really familiar with it by now being the secretary (or clerk, i forget which. its the same word in portuguese).

I love you all! Feliz Natal! I gotta  pack all my bags for tomorrow!

-Elder Leete

My District: elder G, Elder C, and Elder E
Yeah its just the four of us.

The church in P, it's a rented house with a big room in the back for Sacrament meetings

Transfer and New Companion

Great to hear that everyone is alive and well and enjoyed conference!

i´ve been really busy this week with transfers, i´ve been transfered to open a new city that has been closed for almost a year called P, a small town about 40 minutes outside the big city of Bauru in the countryside of the state of São Paulo.

i have a new companion as well, his name is Elder C he is really great and im really excited to get this city up and running again with missionary work

the countryside of the state of são paulo reminds me a lot of the countryside of California, really hot dirt but with the occasional grove of trees,  the state of paraná where i was for the first two transfers was a lot like Oregon a little more south than where we live, less green and hotter but with a good amount of trees

this week we didn't really do a lot of proselyting, we have been combing the city for house to live in. right now we are living in B with other missionaries and are commuting 40 minutes by bus every day to p. but even though we didn't do much we have been visiting people who have been taught by the members of the branch here and we are going to baptize four of them this Saturday! a a couple and one of their kids (they  have 3 more kids but they aren't old enough to be baptized yet) and a mother of a recently converted member

the work will go really well here, the members are excited and like to help us and give us a lot of references

I loved conference as well, I got to watch the priesthood session in Portuguese (understood 90% of it) and the two on Sunday in English (they gathered all the English missionaries in the zone and had another room set aside for us to watch). in português they are dubbed over by live translators.

i Loved the spirit of conference this time around, there were so many powerful testimonies. I liked the one by Jefferey R Holland, the one by Tad Callister about the book of Mormon, and the one by the guy in the presidency of the Sunday school about teaching by the spirit. the book of Mormon and teaching by the spirit are the two most important things for me right now to learn about

I love you all so much, Parabéns Rachel no aniversário!  

i got the letters from the family reunion, the package with the pictures in it, and the letters for my birthday. (dont worry i have not opened any of those letters yet) thanks Everybody! i really appreciate all the letters and support!

it keeps on getting harder and harder to speak in English, i hope that my grammar isnt getting too terrible. . . today i tried to bear my testimony in English and i straight up couldnt do it until after i started talking in english for a while.

Love you all! i will try to send more pictures!

-Elder Leete

August 15, 2011

another week gone by, everything's going good, we found some more people who really appear like they are ready to hear the gospel.

I would be really jealous but right now I can't even think about going on rollercoasters, I spent last night throwing up and today I'm really happy it is p day so I can sleep. don't worry, its probably just a combination of eating weird things yesterday and not drinking enough water. The weather here really stinks, its winter and its like 90 degrees all the time. walking around all day every day in this heat really gets you. but when it rains here it gets really cold, last week it got down to 30 because it rained for like three days straight, and houses in brazil are built to have just about as much protection from the heat and cold as a cardboard box. last week I was under my one blanket that I have wearing two pairs of pants and my winter coat shivering , and this week I've been sleeping with the fan on full blast with maybe a sheet.

but that's the life here, ill get used to the heat eventually, hopefully before summer rolls around. . .

this week was the last week of the transfer and tomorrow I'm getting a new Brazilian companion, Elder P. I'm staying here in M  and Elder F is getting sent to F  to be a zone leader

that's about it for me, i'm going to go back to the house and sleep now

-Elder Leete

fotos dessa semana

me and elder f in flamengo (meu time de futebol) jerseys. I look ridiculously skinny in this picture I don't know why

a puppy that wandered into our house Saturday night, we found him sleeping on elder f´s backpack in our study room. we named him Poopinho, the old guy that owns the house took him, I hope he´s not dead

August 8, 2011

this week makes six weeks in the field, wow that went fast

 

since I arrived one week early for transfers this means that this week is the last week of the transfer, so me and Elder F have to work really hard to get another baptism before he gets transferred out of the area (this was his third transfer here so he is probably going to get moved)

 

this past week we saw some crazy stuff, people praying for an answer if they should listen to us then immediately opening up the bible and opening to a random scripture and having it fit exactly with our message and responding to their question. this happened with two different people this past week, and now we just got to get them to pray and have faith to follow their response. but the absolute hardest thing is to get people to go to church! everybody has an excuse! its really frustrating

 

my testimony is strengthened every day, I absolutely know that this church is true. there is no other explanation for, well, EVERYTHING!

love you all!

-Elder Leete

 

photos for today:

 Elder F in his snazzy white baptism outfit. he found the pants in the house we live in and he sewed them to fit him. beware my sisters: he is finishing the mission in November and i gave him permission already to go to the states and try to marry one of you

 

Me and Elder F and L who we baptized last week

 

our "mesa de estudo" i bet you can guess which part is mine

 

weekly letter 25 de julho

hey all! p day again, I can´t believe how fast this is going, it seems like I blink and the week is gone. on p days we wake up and do our normal schedule of study then go to the super mufato (equivalent of Safeway) and buy food for the week. today I bought bread, bologna, and cheese for breakfast and dinner sandwiches along with milk, bananas, and crackers for snacks. I'm really glad we eat in members´ homes every day for a big lunch, otherwise I have no idea what I would eat. after shopping we head to a lan house to use the computers, its something like 1.50 USD to use the computer for an hour. 

this week has been a week of miracles in my zone, we had something like 7 baptisms yesterday and Saturday. I had my first zone conference this past Thursday which was really great, I really love my mission president, he is truly inspired.

 the lesson that we have really heard is that there are lots of people that are prepared to be baptized, who have already gone to church a few times but just nobody invited them to be baptized. these people are family members of less active members and recent converts and old investigators in the area book.

 the field is truly ready to harvest, the hard part is finding those people that are ready. because when you find a person that is ready they will accept the gospel and get baptized in a few weeks.

 me and my comp made the mistake of trying to teach people that really don't have the will to change, they like the lessons and talking about God and we have great spiritual lessons, but they don't read and they don't pray to know if these things are true, we found that if these people don't accept our challenges to read or pray, then they simply won´t progress and its a better idea just to stop visiting them.

 I'm glad I'm learning these things now early in the mission, I see a lot of people that have 10 months or a year and have very little baptisms because they made this mistake to waste time on people who don't have the will to change.

 well, that's about it for this week, have fun at the reunion everyone, you should guilt all the cousins into writing me or something :)

 tchau

-Elder Leete

June 8, 2011

The pictures are coming through just fine, it's great to see everyone ending shool well and stuff. I'm kind of detached from time here, I know what the date is but iI don't know how it actually applies to what people are doing. The days here turn into weeks and the weeks turn into days, I can't believe I've already been on my mission for a full month, it feels really weird.

I'm doing really well with the language, tomorrow I'm going to be switched into an all brasileiro district so im going to be forced to eat breath and think portuguese. give me a couple months and I think I'll be fluent. I have three weeks with the brazilian elders and then I'm off to Londrina. If I added my dates right that means I'm out like a week earlier than usual.

I don't really know what else there is to say, I sit in class all day learning the language and the lessons and that's about it. I enjoy teaching my Brazilian roommates how to speak English, they have such a desire to learn it they pick up the basics in like a week. I think the hardest thing at the CTM here is to stay awake after lunch, it's the biggest meal of the day and its nice and warm you just want to pass out in class. but I'm doing okay, you can't really sleep in class if there is only two people in your district.

O say thank you to Sister Chirdon for me I got her letter yesterday. Its cool to see the whole ward family is supporting me back home, I really know that I'm in the right place. I've grown a lot here at the CTM, I know that for sure.

I'm kind of jealous of your and dads generation where you just had to memorize all the discussions, seriously I think we have spent 50% of the last month just learnning how to get to know people and try to teach a lesson on what you think would help them the most. but I guess this method really emphasizes the importance of the individual and how they specifically need the gospel to be as happy as they can be. I truely have a testimony of this, the Gospel of Jesus Cristo really exists to make us happy in this life and for the eternities to come.

I love you all! Since last Monday was Labor Day I didn't get any letters today but I bet I'll get them tomorrow (unless you didnt send any, then you can just accept this guilt trip haha)       see you all later! love you!              

Kevin is now a Missionary!

On December 8, 2010  Kevin received his mission call to serve in the Brazil Londrina Mission where he would teach in Portuguese.  We were all excited as he opened and read his call while we watched on skype (he was attending BYU at the time).  His only disappointment was that he would need to wait until May 4th to go.   So he signed up for another semester of college which included a couple of block classes of Portuguese. When he came home for Christmas break, we got busy with all his passport and visa paperwork.  We were all excited when his passport and visa showed up on our doorstep the day he returned from school on April 20th. (This was a blessing, for we had been hearing stories of other missionaries to Brazil not getting them in time to go.) It was a busy 12 days before he left.  Grandparents and friends came to visit; we went to  CTR Clothing to purchase shoes, socks, suits and pants; and we hunted around for all the other needed things on his missionary list. He spoke in church on Easter Sunday where he impressed us all by ending his talk by sharing his testimony in Portuguese!  On May 2 he was set a part as a missionary by President Bair (the same man that delivered him as a newborn), and on May 3rd he flew to Brazil as a full time missionary.

I've created this blog so that I can post his letters and pictures as we receive them for all to see and enjoy.