immigrant status...

bom dia minha familia! How are you all doing!? Sounds like you all are having an awesome time! pretty jealous of all that food.. Right now I'm sitting in a lan house writing you guys here in Brazil! It´s been a crazy week that's for sure. I flew in on tuesday got in around 8:30 local time in Rio. The flight was good, super long haha I actually slept during it for about 4 hours which really helped out. went through customs and all the junk got my bags and went outside where some random guy smoking a cigarrette grabbed my arm and said "juiz de fora"? I said yes and off we went, he took my stuff and got in a car and we were off to Juiz de fora. It was so weird. It was like a three hour drive because this area is honestly straight mountains. \made it to the mission home and had dinner with the President did a little house keeping things, went to the office and then off I was with my new companion to my area. My area is actually in Juiz De Fora called Grájau. We walked for about 40 minutes to my apartment that night. My companion is Elder Ramos he is from Salvador Brazil, speaks a little bit of english but not much, if people know english its from video games and movies.. so not too much haha.

My area is pretty much a mountain.. my apartment is on a mountain. We don't have any cars or bikes so its just walking, taxis, or bus. Mostly walking though. There literally is no flat ground in my area and the hills are as steep as can be. I have gotten such a workout being here plus its blazin hot too. The language is really rough haha I am improving quite a bit though, I participate in lessons and give spiritual thoughts but listening and understanding people is literally impossible haha its terrible! members and people who find out that I'm american and cant speak good portuguese love to make fun of me because I don't understand it.. lots of people think I'm german because of the hair haha.. so weird. My apartment is this tiny three room thing with 4 elders living in it. the kitchen is funnny looking with pretty much a house out of the wall into a sink and the bathrooms hot water heater is broken so I've only had cold showers everyday. we do have a washer though! its okay but everyone uses a washer board instead and then air drys the clothes outside. its quite an adventure! my area is crazy though its the armpit of juiz de fora or the ghetto part haha super rundown and lots of shacks and stuff like that. Its so crazy how different it is then america. I like it though. I am getting used to it.

Church yesterday was nuts, because i didn't understand any of the lessons or anything like that. its pretty frustrating not being able to understand anything to be honest but i am working on it. I am learning how to do things here, i feel like every step I've made on my mission  I have gone back all those steps if not more and am starting completely over. Its definitely not an easy thing but then again missionary work is never easy! Its definitely worth it though. Well I don't have much time today to do much because I'm on a time constraint to get a lot of things done today. On mothers day Ill be able to skype I'm pretty sure. I need your skype address and i will let you know a time a bit later. I'm super excited to skype! It'll be awesome to see you guys. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all! Keep me updated!

Love Elder Kenning

Spiritual thought- I'm sorry I forgot my scriptures.

part of my area in the background, thats more of the city in the background.