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

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!

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.

New Companion, Pray for Luciana

(Dad wants to go thru and edit some of the pictures before I post them for the world to see.)

Hahah what pictures does dad want to edit? My companions are just that ugly?

Just kidding.

Yeah you should definitely print them all up and put them in a scrapbook or something. Haha I know that you probably will love showing everybody that comes to the house how wonderful of a missionary I am.

Sounds like everybody is having fun! I’m jealous that you guys can go to the symphony.

My new companion is Elder P, he´s from Arizona. He´s a really chill, tall, white guy.  He speaks well already but just really slowly so we are working on that.

This week was a little annoying, I got pink eye in both of my eyes so they were all swollen up and my face felt like somebody hit it with a baseball bat. But that’s okay, it’s just now that my throat is really swollen up. ..  I think it’s an allergic reaction to the eye drops I’m taking or something.

But other than that we're going great! We have a woman named L that wants to be baptized this Sunday but she is having a hard time stopping smoking. If you guys could pray for her that would be great.

I’m out of time again! Had to show the newbie how to send in reports and stuff.

até mais!
-Elder Leete

Me and Elder P, one of our investigators named her puppies after us.

Me and Elder P

Going Senior

The package i sent was just copies of all my pictures so don't worry, and those pictures i emailed last week were just the only ones that i took that wont be on the memory card that i sent and i felt bad for not sending pictures in a while.

The Easterner is going good, but today is my last day with him because transfers are tomorrow.

That leads me to some announcements. . . .

BATISMO ESSA SEMANA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we were walking around in a new neighborhood that we were trying out after praying all week for a baptism because we haven't baptized anyone this transfer.  An inactive member that we never met stopped us on the street and invited us to her house saying that she has been thinking about returning to church. we taught her family and discovered that one of her kids wasn´t baptized yet! We invited her to return to activity in the church and invited her daughter to read and pray about the Book of Mormon to see if she wanted to be baptized this week!! She accepted and we baptized her Yesterday! her name is J

Also, on Sunday i got a call from the assistants to the president and they told me that I will train this new transfer! i will pick up my Greenie on Tuesday morning! i´m really excited. it will be my first time as a senior companion too, i´m a little nervous but i know that the Lord will help my complete this new assignment. i wont know until tomorrow who will be my new comp, but it could be a Brazilian, an American, or a Chilean.(yes, we are getting missionaries from Chile this transfer!)

That's about it for me, i forgot to figure out what my address is here, but ill try to get it to you guys soon. Just send packages to my house address that i will get, letters go to the mission office like normal.

Good luck to everyone in the new semester at school!  I love you all and keep you ALL in my prayers.

Tchau!
-Elder Leete

Reaction to Life at Home

Wow what crazy stuff! everybody getting married. when i get back everybody will be all scattered around in their own little world. weird, but thats the way life is, and im not saying that im not excited to take part too, but thats talk for a year and 4 months from now.

Parabéns Jessica! keep on showing me up! im proud of you!

and Rachel: if you want to fill up your mia maid class, just give all your friend´s addresses to the missionaries!!! it will be the best present you could ever give!! to the missionaries and your friends!

never heard of this seminary broadcast, send me a transcript

there has been a change in the mission rules: if you send a package you should send it to my address where i´m living, not the mission office. if you already sent stuff dont worry it will be taken care of like normal but next week ill send you guys my address (i will have to try and find it out first)

life is going all normal here. . . its just been a while since we´ve had a baptism, none of our investigators want to progress. . . gotta go crazy and find a miracle to baptize this week since its the last week of the transfer.

love you all!
-Elder leete

Elder P's baseball cap
(he's from New York and a big yankee fan)

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

one more week for me, dont know where time is going

mais uma semana para mim, não sei onde o tempo está indo

me and elder p have been working hard this week trying to reactivate some of the less active members in our ward, there is a lot of them that live in our area.

other than that we have a couple of people that could get baptized, but it seems that whenever someone gets close they get a fear of commitment and back out.

we have been working more with the book of mormon though, and i hope that our investigators will have the will to read and pray about it, but i think all of like two people on my mission so far actually did this, and me and elder f baptized those people.

im out of stuff to say . . . you guys should send me questions that you want answered.

tchau for now,

elder leete

ps

did i ever tell you guys that my name in portuguese is pronounced leech? the 'te' makes the 'ch' sound. or oftentimes is pronounced laych which is spelt 'leite' which means 'milk'

random comment for the day

Ok question:    What does “mais uma semana para mim, não sei onde o tempo está indo” mean?

Answer:    one more week for me, dont know where time is going

September 5, 2011- Fried Brain

sounds like everything is going well with you all, I'm happy that everything is turning out and settling in well.

i still cant believe how fast the time is flying by, this week was a little slower for us because we are having a hard time finding people who are really interested in the gospel. we can teach a bunch of people one or two lessons, but to nobody wants to actually change their life or even accept little compromissos (i cant remember the word in English) like reading the scriptures or visiting church

my brain is really fried, i can understand most everything in Portuguese (and of course in English) as long as they are talking about a subject with which im familiar with the vocabulary. but if i try to talk in English the stuff that i know really well in Portuguese (missionary stuff)  its really hard. but then again if we are talking about stuff with vocab i don't know then I'm completely lost in Portuguese. i think i can communicate best with the one other American elder in our house, because i can speak half and half.

your new ward plan sounds exactly like something bishop young would do, i bet he has some really cool graphics on a fancy poster board to go with it too.

i love you all! im gonna try to upload some more pictures now

-Élder leete

Some Questions from Mom:

So do you have 4 in your apartment?

Where are they from?

Whatever happened to the little black dog?

Instant Answers (it's nice to be on the computer at the same time!)

6 in my house.

Elders

L, C           zone leaders

F, M          district leader and new greenie

P, Leete     me and my comp

 everyone is Brazilian except me and f

the house is rented and the owners live in another house in the back, he said he gave the dog to his grandson.

first pot of feijão (beans) i made last p-day

Zone

District

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

July 18, 2011

looks like my email from last week didn't get sent, sorry everybody just sent it now.

the time here is really weird, it feels like I just had a p day yesterday and here I am sending another email. I still haven't quite come to realize that I'm going to be here for another 22 months, I guess that's just kind of how it goes with me, I wont get really excited until like my last transfer, then I will blink and I will be home again.

this week has been a little frustrating, we taught a lot of people and had high hopes for this past Sunday to bring a lot of people to church. it was ´domingo do amigo´ so everyone in the ward was supposed to bring a friend, but just about nobody did and of the 10ish investigators that we invited and said for sure they would come only one showed up. we even had a big ward party the night before and there were lots of investigators there, but nobody went to church. its pretty easy to get discouraged after something like this happens but right after we just went back to work and went to a baptism because my comp had to do the interview (he is the district leader). baptisms are really great, you can always feel the spirit there really strongly.

everything is going well with me, a little jealous of you guys because you get to relax and stuff. the two biggest things i miss are the ability to drive a car everywhere instead of walk and being able to just be lazy and sit around. cant really do either here. everything's all good though, it makes the time fly by.

hope everyone is enjoying their summer vacation! Love you all!

 -Elder Leete

2 pictures at the ward party (was a traditional caipira -cowboy- theme). one of me and my comp Elder F and one of the zone leaders elder f and elder l





July 11, 2011

hi everybody! seems like everyone is doing all right, enjoying the summer. 

the weather here is the most annoying thing ever here, last week was freezing and rainy but the last few days have been incredibly hot and sunny. I'm not excited for when the summer comes and it will be even hotter and more humid than this. 

other than that everything is good with me, we have a couple of families we are teaching that seem really excited about the gospel who we are hopeful to baptize. I've learned that the hardest thing is to get people to come to church! you can really tell between the investigators that are really interested or not by who goes to church.

I don't know what else to say, was cool to hear your missionary story, here we get lunch every day from a member, and barely enough allowance from the mission to buy stuff for breakfast and dinner, but i never am hungry really, because the lunches are quite substantial. I love the food here, I probably will get tired of rice and beans in a year or so, but as of now I'm loving it.

I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting yesterday, was a little scary but was good.

gonna attach some more fotos (oops i meant photos)

love you all

Elder Leete

Being in a Braizilian District is really Great

On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 4:43 PM, Kevin Leete  wrote:

Its really weird to think that jessica is off and graduated! even weirder to think she will be ahead of me in school by the time i get back. . .  being in a brazilian district is really great, i can understand almost all of class, the hard part is talking with my new companion and people in my district. none of them speak english, so its frustrating sometimes, but its not bad. today was a crazy p day (my P day is now thursday) because two out of the five people in my district (yes another really small district for me) went through the temple for the fist time so we spent two or three extra hours there. i just got back from running outside to buy soap and now my P day ends in half an hour, so sorry to everybody (eXpecially you Rebecca) i cant write any letters this week.  i got jennifers letters yesterday and mom and melissa´s on monday, i love hearing from you guys and promise to get you all next week. also, next week is my last full week at the CTM so start sending stuff to my mission address, i think mom has it. Also, im almost out of cash so i was wondering if my card is set up to work with me in brazil, i will only use it if i have to, but i dont know if it will even work down here.  whew, im out of stuff to say, i need to sleep, my brain is fried from going to the temple entirely in portuguese. Oh yeah, the weirdest thing ever, the  sister in my district looks EXACTLY like melissa, except with dark skin and hair. its weird, same exact size, body type, face shape, and hairstyle. i keep having to remind myself that its not her. i love you all, my 30 minutes is up again, if mom is not going to send one next week then the next time i will hear from you guys is when in in the field. that is both scary and really exciting to think abouit. i love you all! sorry i couldnt write this week! -Elder Leete ( i still havnt figured out how to make a new paragraph on these stupid CTM computers)

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!              

June 1, 2011

hey all! say congrats to Kailey (dont know if this is spelled right) for me.i really appreciate all the letters you guys send, there is about a ten day delay unill i get them from home. i dont know if any of my letters other than the fist one made it home. im slow writing today so i got 5 minutes left and i dont know what to say, im working hard and getting stuff done. for now im leaving at my normal time in 4 more weeks, but im going to see if i can get transferred into an all brazilian district for the last 2 and a half. i can understand anything as long as the people talk slowy enough, but when i go out on p day to the real world i dont get much. give me a few more months and i think ill be fluent. i lve you all so much, Keep working hard! see you next week! ill try to write you some but i never have time n p day! bye ! i loove you alL!

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.