Hey mom,
They don’t really eat potatoes or yams here but they eat this root that looks like wood a lot.

Here’s what I’m grateful for; family that supports me in serving a mission, answers to prayers, the fan in our apartment that keeps me cool at night, and people who have open hearts who are willing to listen to our message.

Hello Everyone,

This week was awesome. As you already know, I received a new companion this week. He didn’t know anything about the area when he arrived so I was basically the senior companion for a week. It was stressful at the beginning because I am still getting to know the area and I’m still learning about the the mission but I really learned to rely on the Lord this week and everything turned out good. First of all, Elder Sanchez and I had given a man a blessing on Sunday because he was really sick with kidney stones. I saw him later on Tuesday and he looked like a different man, he had passed the stones (which looked more like rocks, he showed us) and he was 100 percent better. It was awesome. Also, we were running behind schedule and weren’t going to have time to teach some of the young men we were trying to baptize because they live far away. After some silent prayers they came to us. We were in the chapel trying to call them and tell them we couldn’t teach them that day, but when we called they said they were on their way to the chapel. We were able to teach them and because of this small miracle 3 young men were able to be baptized this week. There were many other miracles like this that happened this week and because of these miracles we were able to baptize 4 people- 3 boys and a girl. Unfortunately, the girl we baptized got in a fist fight in the street with another girl the same day as her baptism. Crazy, I know. I mean, you know the people you baptize are going to sin after their baptism but assaulting someone the same day was unexpected. Things are going good with my new companion despite the differences we have. He is completely the opposite of my last companion, for example the first day he told me, “I don’t cook”. It’s ok; it’s an opportunity to serve my companion. Everything is going good here, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

-Elder Jenson

Questions we asked Travis this week:
What's the best thing about your new companion?
To put it simply, he gets the job done
Do the people in Brazil celebrate something similar to Thanksgiving?
No, the do have a holiday called day of the children where people give candy to kids. kind of like Halloween where the kids just get straight to the point.
How often so you have zone conf. and will you see Stewart Hamblin there?
Stewart is in my zone now, we have conferences every week and I also see him P-days like today when we are emailing in the internet cafe.
Are you still living in the same apartment?
Yeah
What was the best thing that happened this week?
I saw miracles; I’ll tell you more about it in the main email.
What was your favorite scripture this last week?
Ezekiel 33:9-10. There aren’t many scriptures where the Lord is pleading for the people to repent.
So you get the Ensign?

Yeah but way late, I probably won’t get the conference issue for a month.

Hello Everyone,

Things are a little crazy right now. We are in the middle of transfers; my companion is leaving and I’m staying in the same area. I guess Elder Hamblin is getting transferred into my Zone that’s pretty exciting. I’m sad to see my companion go, we got along really well and he made way good food. Luckily, he taught me some of his secrets. Well I just met my new companion, he said like two words to me so I’m not sure if he just doesn’t know I’m his new companion or he’s not too excited about being released from his calling as a zone leader and being put with me. Oh well. He seems to have a very strong type-A personality-meaning he is the kind of guy that likes to do things his way. I’m going to keep a positive attitude but it looks like this transfer will be a little tough. Our area is very big and I’m still figuring out where everything is but I think I’ll be alright. Lets see, this week me and my companion spent a considerable amount of time organizing things for a wedding that we had in the ward. So I know a little bit about what you’re going through mom. It went well and then Sunday we baptized the wife- which made it so all members of the family are members and they can work towards getting sealed in the temple. I’m kind of blanking on what happened this week. It was pretty normal, we are teaching a lot of young men that just need to show up to church so we can baptize them because an investigator has to attend two sacrament meetings before being baptized. Here’s a funny story for you guys. A 14 year old girl that we were teaching asked me if I wanted to date her after my mission and I just very simple said I don’t think so. She just said, oh I didn’t want to anyway and lately when we teach her she acts all annoyed with me. I’m not really worried about it, as long as we baptize her. I’m out of time. We will have to see how things go with my companion, talk to you guys later!

-Elder Jenson

Questions we asked Travis:

Hi Trav,

1. Are transfers this week?

yes

2. What will you miss most about your companion?

cooking

3. How do you feel about staying in the same area?

good, I like this area a lot, it has a good bishop and good people.

4. How is the language coming? Any embarrassing moments with that?

It´s good, not really any embarrassing moments.

5. How hot has it been?

I think upper 90´s

6. Did you score when you played soccer (football) with the guys in the ward?

Once

7. How does it make you feel when you hear about girls you know getting married?

It´s weird but i´m not really worried about it.

Family Blog Stuff

Certain people claimed our Blog isn't a family Blog. We won't name them but they might be pictured above. One of them even made up a song that goes Travis Blog, Travis Blog, it's a Blog about Travis and such...

Halloween fun Benson, Joe, Grant & Isaac

Benson was a Triple Bee (Inside Family Joke), Joe was a scaarry vampire, Grant was a ... well he was a... ok, I don't know what he was but he looked funny, and Isaac was a cowboy who likes to have his picture taken.

Travis's email Nov 10

Hello Everybody,
It was a good week even though we didn’t have any baptisms :( We had some scheduled but they all caiu(fell through).

Hey fam, I forgot to tell you that I ran into Stewart Hamblin last week, he was renewing his visa here. He’s doing well, he’s healthy and such.

So we just finished playing some soccer on the field/court behind the church with some of the young men in the ward. It was way fun, the Brazilian kids are way good of course, I don’t know how they do it every day in the heat. It was cool, they were surprised that an American can play futbol kind of.

We taught a lot of lessons this week and had a lot of people who said they would attend church but not that many showed up unfortunately. We also invited a lot of people who said, I’ll go if God touches my heart. Or, it looks like it might rain tomorrow; I’ll go if it doesn’t rain. Stuff like that just makes me laugh. In the mission João Pessoa here we are focusing on working with men and families and we have two or three families that are almost all baptized. But unfortunately we are teaching some people that don’t fully understand the importance of keeping the commandments. We try to get the message through to them more clearly. For example, the happiest people in the world are people who keep the commandments, as you keep the commandments you will have more happiness in your life and in your family than you have ever before experienced.

So Obama won huh? Yeah the Brazilians like that, mainly because he’s black. A lot of the people here think there is a war going on in the U.S. right now, I try to explain that there isn’t but they just say, I’m pretty sure there is. What else, there’s so much stuff that I don’t get into the emails. Luckily, we can talk about it over the phone in about a month! I’m excited for Christmas.

Oh, transfers are next week, I’m pretty sure my comp. will be transferred (he has been here for 4 months) and I will stay here. That’s about it, please continue to pray for me. Pray that we will find Men and Families to teach.

See ya.
-Elder Jenson

Questions we asked Travis this week:
1. How do you do laundry?
In the washing machine in our house; it actually does a pretty good job.

2. Do you iron your own shirts? (They looked good in the pictures)
Why yes I do. (Thank you very much)

3. What is your favorite thing to eat?
Pineapple

4. What was the funniest thing that happened this week?
We were at an investigators house when the mom of the girl we were teaching walked in. As my comp was standing up to shake her hand she went in for the kiss (a normal custom here) my comp was caught off guard and said, oh we can’t do that. It was very funny. Also, we were riding on the bus one day I turned to talk to the woman next to me without realizing that she was very publicly breast feeding her baby. That was not fun.

5. Have you gotten sick at all?
Nope

6. Is there a city in the mission that everyone wants to go too? If so why?
Kind of; Natal is a big city that has a lot of fast food restaurants and other fun stuff.

Have a great week!
Love ya alot
Mom

Hello World,

Everything here is beautiful. We had 4 baptisms yesterday, I performed three of the ordinances and it was wonderful. Every week that has baptisms is a good week. We are working hard and things are going good. I’m way short on time this week so I’ll have to be short, sorry.

So a lot of people we teach tell us their married but they aren’t legally married, that makes it tough. We baptized the son of a man who has 4 wives and ten children, he is a really nice guy and wants to be baptized but the whole polygamy thing is a bit of a problem. There are a lot of messed up relationships like that one here in the Northeast. We were teaching the cousin of a recent convert when he happened to mention that he has a wife and a kid. He’s 18 and he’s been married for a year but they have a very open relationship.

On a different note, I’m pretty sure the adversary is sending drunken people in our path to impede our work. It’s getting out of control. But despite all of this, there are many good people here who want to be good and change their lives.

A lot of people here have a lot of difficulty in their lives and wonder why. I was wondering how I could answer this question and I found the answer in 4 Nephi 1:2, 16-17. These verses have the answer to the world’s problems, take a look. They also helped me a lot to understand the importance of missionary work.

Well I’m out of time, I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Travis Jenson

Questions we asked Travis...
1. Did you get your package yet?
Got it, thanks a lot for doing that mom, everything arrived safe and I’ll be able to use it all. I feel a little guilty though because the shipping costs so much. I don’t think I’ll be asking for many more packages.

2. Who is your favorite person in the ward and why?
This one guy named Paulo. He speaks Portuguese really clearly, he’s a way good artist, he’s does really cool leather work and he’s funny.

3. How are you handling the humidity and hot weather?
Fine, you just get used to it and there’s always a breeze blowing in from the ocean which is about 30 min away.

4. Is there AC in your apartment?
Ha-ha, no. the only place I have been in that has AC in my area is the chapel.

5. How are your shoes holding up and your feet ?
I think I came well prepared, so far all my stuff is working out good.

6. How many more weeks until transfers?
Not sure, I think 2?

7. The funniest thing that happened this week?
We started counting the number of contacts we make with drunken guys, or rather the number of contacts they make with us. We had 5 one day last week.