Letter From The Mission President (Week 6)

This week Kevin had to travel to Belem and will not be emailing us this Wednesday. Kevin will most likely have preparation day on Monday, but we did get a message from President Stasevskas letting us know that Kevin has arrived safely along with a few pictures. Here it is:

Dear  Family Arevalo,

With great pleasure we inform you that Elder Arevalo arrived here in the Brazil Belem Mission on October 27, and is currently serving in Altamira city area, with his trainer Elder Numbers.

Sister Stasevskas and I, along with the rest of the mission, are very excited to have your son serving here with us.

He has a great missionary spirit, with faith to do whatever the Lord commands. We would hope that you would, whenever possible, write letters to strengthen him and to encourage him in his missionary service. We give our sincere gratitude, and hope to keep in touch.

Yours truly,

Sister and President Stasevskas 

Elder Kevin Arevalo with Sister and President Stasevskas

Elder Kevin with group that all arrived in Belem with him

Kevin at the airport. Can you see him?

One Last Week in The CTM (Week 5)

Hi Everyone,

This is officially my last email I will be sending from the CTM/MTC here in Sao Paulo.
There is nothing much to say this week except for the fact that I cannot wait to travel up to Belem! I am finally going to get to go out into the field in 6 days and I couldn't be happier. I do love the CTM, but I now feel very ready to step out and work for the Lord. Do you know know what else that means? I now can send pictures to all of you! I have been waiting to send pictures for the last couple of weeks now! 

I can feel the studying paying off with the language, and pray that the lord will help and guide me become the missionary he wants me to be. Well, that's all for this week! Sorry its so short. 
-Love Elder Arevalo

Drunk Man Thought I Was His Son (Week 4)

Hey Everyone!

It's officially been one month since I left North America! Things this week were a bit more vibrant. I thankfully have not felt sick, and I thank my Guatemalan immune system for it haha. I am also happy to mention that I have not gained any weight for the month that I have been out here. I constantly have to walk/run up 6 flights of stairs about 4 times a day so I have been staying in good shape. 

This week I got to go out with my companion to place Book of Mormons to anyone willing to listen and read. One of the Elders gave a homeless man a Book of Mormon, but out teacher said that they just use the pages in the book to smoke! Not cool! At one point we had some native people ask us for directions. Thankfully, we managed to get them to where they needed to go. We also ended up speaking to this one man who was drunk. He somehow thought I was his son and constantly kept calling me his son and then shortly after fell over. We also had one homeless man randomly ask us if we had a gun. Never a dull moment out here!

I also have made lots of native Brazilian missionary friends. One of my friends, Elder American can rap and sing in Portuguese, which is awesome! I think my favorite part of my entire week was helping give a blessing of health to Elder Case. He hasn't been feelings his best, so prayers out to him! 

In other news, I was just made District Leader. I made some people cry during my first devotional so I think I am doing a good job. They cried because they felt the spirit! That makes me so happy. Elder Mercado is my favorite person in my district. He conducts our meetings very well, and is a funny funny guy. 

I am also trying to avoid women. I don't want them to think I am flirting with them so no talking to women unless they are going to get baptized!! That is all. haha

Well, I love you all! Thank you for your emails! Gracias! Obrigado! 
-Elder Arevalo 

General Conference (Week 3)

Hi Everyone, 

Conference Week!

This week was a good week especially since it was conference week! I loved conference so much. There were so many great messages about how we can all become better people. We just have to make sure to not forget the messages we have been given and go back to what we were doing before. I got to listen to conference in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. I surprisingly understood a lot and I loved every second of it. 

I am constantly loving the people here, and just really focusing on the language. I am learning a lot on how to live on my own, and I am realizing what is most important in life. Family for sure is one that I know is one of the most important things in my life. I am also constantly learning the importance of giving my all today and everyday so that I can try to do better tomorrow. 

There still is never a dull moment with my new native, non native, Spanish, and English speaking friends! Thankfully I can basically talk to everyone here since English, Spanish, and Portuguese are the only three languages spoken here at the MTC.

I thought that during preparation days I wouldn't have as much time to write, but I am glad I get a good 45 minutes every week to write. I also love that I am getting way more sleep here in the mission field than I did at home! Everyone here is saying they are always tired, but I am so happy to be getting 8 hours of sleep every night! It's so nice haha. Also, I was a bit worried that somehow my clothes would turn out to be in a different color, but so far laundry has been a success! haha.

I also just want to mention the talk that was given during conference about mothers for a bit. The talk was definitely one that gave me a bigger appreciation for all my mother does for me. She means so much to me and she has helped me so much that I couldn't have had a better mother in my life. I honestly, have no idea if life was really tough for me before my mission because I feel better....no...I feel AMAZING out here in the mission field. I feel so spiritual and I feel like I can do anything. I love being out here with one purpose and that is to grow daily, and teach, love, and serve those here in Brasil. The gospel life couldn't be any more simpler and more fun! I don't mind studying Portuguese, teaching, eating, sleeping, and making friends for the next two years haha! Love you all. 

-Elder Arevalo 

General Conference Center -Salt Lake City, UT-

4 Companions in 2 weeks! (Week 2)

Hey Everyone, 

It is so good to hear from all of you, and that everything is going so good! I think it is so cool that Nathan got called to serve in Anaheim, California! I am so excited for him. Tell him that I wish him the best of luck, and that I am jealous of everyone who will get the awesome chance to be his companion. 

So my whole district is going to Belem with me, and I am very good friends with all of them! I am staying at the MTC for another four weeks mainly because I am not fluent in the language, but I am talking to natives and they understand me very well so I am just doing my best to practice as much as possible. If the natives ever have a hard time understanding me I just throw in some Spanish and they can usually figure it out haha! It is a little hard to write, and speak it but that's normal. 

Some sad news that I have is that my companion Elder Peterson went home. He was just not feeling the best, and was really homesick, but I loved that guy! We really got along very well. He asked for moms email so that he could send some pictures over so you can all see a few pictures we have together! I hope you guys get those, but I wish him the best, and ask that all of you keep him in your prayers. Since my companion left on Thursday last week I was put into a trio with Elder Wizbock and Elder Drake and they are awesome! Unfortunately, Elder Drake will not be going to Belem with Elder Wizbock and I. Instead he will be going to Tedazina! Now, I officially have have another companion and his name is Elder Jensen. He is from Wyoming, USA.  
-Love, Elder Arevalo

Email from Elder Peterson:

"Hi Kevin's mom! This is Elder Peterson. Kevin and I were companions and I loved that kid to death. What a funny and awesome first companion. Here are some pictures that I have of us in the MTC".

-Elder Peterson