Hello everybody,

I’ll just start out with the really good stuff. I had my first baptism! I baptized a 15 year old kid named Waldemir. He’s really shy but he’s really cool, he is really excited about the church and he loves reading scriptures. We also baptized a 14 year old boy named Lucas. He is part of a family we are working on baptizing. Both baptisms were awesome; I performed the ordinance for Waldemir´s baptism and everything went well, I remembered his four names and everything went well. It’s was really good because baptizing for the first time just made me want to baptize more. We have a lot of potential baptisms right now so it looks like I will be doing more baptizing next week.

Here’s some crazy stuff that happened this week. We were in the house of a recent convert and one of her friends there asked me if it is illegal in the U.S. for children to kiss each other. After pondering on the ridiculocity (invented word, not Portuguese) of the question, I said of course! Isn’t it the same in Brazil?

Another thing, I ate the grossest thing in the world. It was basically beans, intestines, and other hairy animal parts. The wife of the brother in the ward who made it didn’t even like it so I didn’t feel bad not eating the gross looking parts- which was most of it.

What else, a crazy man with a tattoo on his forehead interrupted one of our lessons yelling that he wanted to hear the good word. There was something seriously wrong with that guy, I’m pretty sure he was possessed. But anyway, I won’t go into detail with that.

Well, this and many other exciting things happened this week. Everything here is great, I’m loving life. No problems.

-Elder Jenson

1. Did you get your package?
Not yet, we get mail tomorrow. Did you get the letter and the memory card I sent?

2. I'm thinking about sending your Christmas package in the next week or so is that to early?
No I think that would be good timing. By the way...I like tropical flavored starburst and black gold toe socks. Whatever you send me is totally fine.

3. What can we get you for Christmas?
I already said, recipes for some really quick snacks would be cool. I have a lot of recipes for meals but none for quick snacks.

4. Have you lost any weight?
Yeah, I lost my MTC weight, about 5 pounds.

5. What did you do for service this week?
Hmmm...We wheeled and old man in a wheel chair down a dirt road to his house. We don’t get a lot of time for things like this because we are teaching lessons all of the time, that’s the best kind of service.

6. What did you do for fun?
Baptized, played ping pong, watched the ward musical.


7. How many people attend the ward? Is it mostly families?
I’d say about 50 to 70; quite a few families and a lot of youth.

Have a great week!

Love ya a lot
Trav

Travis's Letter October 20

I´m a little bummed because we didn´t baptize this week. We had two lined up but both fell through. With one, Ana Carla, we had a run in with her heavily intoxicated and angry step-dad who made it clear that he doesn´t want her being baptized or us anywhere near her. Our other baptism is going to happen for sure next week, we we’re just needing authorization from the boy´s mom and we got it.

So religion here is big business, there are tons of church´s in my area, mostly evangelical churches. In fact there´s one right across the street from the church that likes to set up speakers outside and blast their sermons at our church during our meetings; it´s actually very funny.

Most of the people here are very `religious` but not really religious at all. They have a lot of faith but no works. So because of this, a ton of people will listen to our message but it´s hard to get them to follow through with their commitments. We are working hard to find people that will be firm. Yesterday me and my companion did a division so we could bring more people to church and it was a little nerve-racking because I still don´t know the area very well but it turned out ok.

Here´s some funny stuff that happened: I saw a pig the size of a cow in the street; I wish I could have taken a picture. We taught this lady who when asked to give the closing prayer obliged and then proceeded to give the longest prayer I have ever heard in my life. It was 15 minutes long and it got progressively louder. It was hard for me not to laugh.

It looks like I´m out of time. Things are good here, we have 7 baptisms marked for next week and we have a really good family who I think all will be baptized. The language is good, I learn more and more each day and the people here appreciate my effort when teaching.

Love you guys.

-Elder Travis Jenson

P.S. Above is a pic of my area and a guy named Israel who claims he´s a prophet.

Questions we asked Travis this week...

Hi Trav,

1. What was the worst thing that happened this week?
We didn´t baptize. We ran into a very angry step-dad of the girl we were going to baptize and she has been forbidden from talking to us. We had another baptism of a 14year old boy that didn´t happen because we couldn´t get permission from his mom but we have it now and we´re baptizing him next week.

2. What have you been eating?
Rice and beans, duh! Ha-ha just kidding we eat other stuff and my companion is actually a really good cook and we have a blender so we make a lot of smoothies. At the members houses though it´s basically the same thing every time, rice, beans, noodles and juice.

3. Do you make your own food and if so what are you cooking?
We are fed lunch every day and then breakfast and lunch we make something small. My comp usually makes dinner and I make breakfast-French toast, eggs, that sort of stuff.

4. What are the stores like there? (Grocery stores)
They have pretty much all you need but the meat doesn´t even approach sanitary.

5. Is it safe to drink the water?
Nope, we have to buy filtered water and it´s tricky because in investigator´s houses when we are offered something to drink we basically can´t refuse. So I´m ok so far....haha

6. What do you like most about your companion?
He cooks good food, he works hard, and he´s patient with me. When I butcher a lesson he´s willing to help me out and explain it to the investigators.

7. Are all missionary apartments as large as yours? Will you have other missionaries stay with you sometimes?
I don´t think so. No we aren´t going to have any other missionaries staying with us as far as I know.

8. Did you get your package yet?
No, we get mail tomorrow. Hey I sent you an SD card with pictures so you can expect that within a week.

Love ya
Love ya a lot
Mom

Travis Has Resurfaced!! HURRAY!!! Here's his latest email...

Hi!
I made it to my area alive, not that there ever was a doubt... Well so much stuff happened this week; I would need 3 hours of email time to write all about it. Well I arrived at the mission home a week ago, ate with the president and his wife, then slept in one room with 14 other missionaries, yes it smelled bad, and then the next day I traveled to my area. My area isn’t that far from the mission home. I’m in the city of João Pessoa in an area called Jardim Veneza. My trainer is Elder Sanchez, although his name looks Mexican, he is from São Paulo. He’s the man and he is teaching me well and working me hard. Did I mention I’m extremely tired? It’s ok though, it’s the best possible kind of tired. Let me describe the area a little bit, it’s like the part of Forrest Gump when he first arrives in Vietnam, mixed with Jamaica and Africa, if that makes any sense at all. My area is one of the poorest areas in the mission. It’s hot but its nice is the shade, I don’t think I’ve ever drank so much water. There are a lot of people around on the dirt streets or in front of their houses. We basically walk up to them; tell them we would like to share a message with them and then they let us in their house. We taught 26 lessons this week and I almost had my first baptism. Unfortunately 14 yr. old Ana Carla decided she wants to be baptized next week. This week was good, I’m eating well enough, working really hard, and I’m out of Email time. Sorry I can’t tell you more about it.

Questions we asked Travis and his responses...

1. Do all the areas in your mission have e-mail? (Is there e-mail in the jungle?)
Response: No we have to travel outside of the area to email. Pffft it’s not jungle, it’s very green but it’s not jungle.

2. How far from the mission home is your area?
Response: About 20 min, I’m still in the city of João Pessoa. My area is called Jardim Veneza.

3. Are you allowed to go to other web sites, such as our family blog? I know other missionaries might go to other sites but what's the rule? I know one district in your mission got there e-mail privileges taken away.
Response: I don’t believe so.

4. Do you keep your apartment clean? Buy cleaning supplies with your own money if you need to.
Response: It’s clean, we have cleaning supplies.

5. What is the most common form of transportation in your area?
Response: Bus or walking; a lot of people have motorcycles.

6. Try to learn as much Portuguese vocabulary as you can, not just church words. Is the language coming pretty easily still?
Response: I think learning other words is inevitable because my companion doesn’t speak English and because the people here like to shoot the breeze. The language coming along fine but the accent here is hard to understand.

7. What was your favorite conf. talk and why?
Response: I should have brought my conference notes. I really liked president Eyring´s talk in priesthood about serving in priesthood office. He really told it like it is and basically said it gets progressively harder but that’s a good thing. Pres. Monson´s last one rocked. Live life!

8. Tell us about the mission home?
Response: Pres. Fernandes and his wife live in a palace. Ok maybe it’s an apartment but it is way nice and they have chefs and a butler. It was very nice but the whole experience at the mission home was a little weird because it felt like president and his wife expected us to show up speaking fluent Portuguese. It was good though, they are really nice.

9. What did the mission Pres. ask you in your interview?
Response: Do you have any health problems? Do you have any sins that you haven’t repented of? Are you tired? That was it.

10. What is your apartment like?
Response: Huge and empty. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a living room area, and no furniture besides the beds, a dresser, and 2 tables.

11. Do we mail letter to the mission home or to another address?
Response: I’m thinking mission home but I don’t know.

12. Do you ride bikes in your area?
Response: Nope, I don’t think any of the areas do. We walk very fast in our area.

Travis is Incognito this week

Actually Travis is out of the MTC and in his first assigned area so we have not heard from him this week (sigh!). Not sure when we will receive his next email but I will post it as soon as we do.

Travis's Letter October 1, 2008

Hello everyone,

This is an exciting week for me; I leave the CTM next Tuesday! By far, the most exciting thing to happen this week was proselyting. We went to this place in downtown São Paulo which is known as ´the park.´ I found that a little ironic because I saw like 20 trees and no grass the whole time I was there. It was basically this open square, with a bunch of street performers, some vendors, and an abundance of homeless people. The area was surrounded by cathedrals and historic buildings and going over the square was a giant pedestrian foot bridge, it was really cool. However, a lot of the people we ran into or rather got swarmed by weren’t that cool. I think the adversary was trying to stop our work because we got approached by several cranky old men who felt the need to lecture us on why the U.S. is evil and apparently we’re evil for having been born there. All attempts to turn the conversation into how the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way we can solve all the problems of evil and war was quickly shot down. It was definitely a challenge to find people who were seeking the truth but I think we managed to do it a few times. There was a young couple that we ran into who spoke fluent English and it was really cool to be able to fully express myself when teaching them about the restoration. Everything is great here in Brazil, I can’t wait to get in the field and teach people every day. I’ll let you know how it goes!

-Elder Travis Jenson

Questions we asked Travis to respond to this week…

1. Do you have your travel plans to Joao Pessoa? If so what are they? Nope I don’t have them yet. I haven’t received anything from the mission president either, hopefully he’s expecting me :)

2. Will we get an e-mail next week from you? You should, but right now I honestly have no idea.

3. What are you most nervous about in leaving the MTC? Getting a fubeca (slacker) trainer. That and the possibility of my insides getting cooked in the heat. Its hot today in São Paulo I can’t imagine what João Pessoa is like. Really I’m not worried at this point.

4. How many missionaries will be traveling to your mission with you? None and I have to fly the plane myself! Just kidding, there will be 5 other missionaries.

5. What will you miss most about the MTC? Not having to cook my own food, my district, my instructors, Tuesday night devotionals, and that’s about it. I definitely won’t miss the pizza.

6. What funny thing happened this week? This week was quite boring unfortunately. Oh, here’s one. One of the instructors here, Brother Lopez, told us a hilarious story that involves an American companion with horrible diarrhea and an investigator’s house that had their toilet in their living room. The only thing separating the toilet and brother Lopez teaching a lesson was a sheet. For your sake mom, I won’t go into details.

Love you a lot,
Mom
Love you more,
Trav