Hi Mom,
I just got off of the phone with you guys and it turns
out that we get to send emails today too. It was great
to hear from everybody I hope you guys are having a
great Christmas!!!! We are so blessed to have such a
happy family where everybody is really close.
Hi,
Christmas here in the mission is really different. It's
a blessing because here where I'm serving the Lord,
my thoughts are focused more on the blessings that come
to us because of the life of our Savior. I have been
thinking about Mosiah chapter 3 these last few days.
It is wonderful to know that the Son of God was willing
to descend below everything to take upon himself the
sorrow, cruelty, and pain of this world to purify us.
Now he has set the requirements for our eternal
happiness and freedoms from the pain of this world.
These requirements have always been transmitted to us
by the mouth of the prophets and they are written in
the scriptures. They are always within our reach! We
have a living prophet today who has a vision of the
truth and protects us from the changing attacks of
Satan and the sorrows of sin. Every day that passes I
gain a greater understanding of the importance of the
Atonement and the decision we have to choose salvation
and eternal life or eternal condemnation. My hope for
Christmas is that we can all seek to have a better
vision of life through our study of the scriptures and
our prayers that express the true desires of our heart.
Throughout my mission there has been a scripture that
doesn't leave my mind its Alma 37:45-47. I hope that
I can live better and not forget to appreciate the
sacred things that God has given me.
The Church is true, I love you guys, have a great
Christmas!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Travis's Email December 14, 2009
HEY,
Today me and my companion were going to go to the beach so we call up the mission pres. and ask for permission to leave our area and go to the beach and he said, ok elders you can go but you just get to step in the sand. We were all excited and then as we were waiting at the bus stop we received a phone call. It was the president saying that we couldn't go because his wife said we need to stay at home and clean our house. I'm trying hard to get over the devastation. Just kidding. That's the way it goes, we´ll have to go to the beach another day. This week was a good one but of course it wasn't problem free. Miraculously, we baptized a young man yesterday. We were teaching this guy and everytime was went to his house to teach him shortly after we left someone went to his house to talk bad about us. They told him that we don't believe in God and that after his baptism we would lock him in a room for a month. He got all worried and decided that he didn't want to be baptized. He, like a lot of people, just needed a push in the right direction. Sunday at about 6:00pm we went to his house sat him down and read a few scriptures with him that talk about baptism and then said, "Eduardo God will not permit that you return to his presence if you aren´t baptized." In that very moment we left his house went to the church and then baptized him. The scriptures always help the people to see the truth. We also had some other people that stopped progressing because someone talked bad about us, including a family that we were teaching. Unfortunately there isn't much we can do if the person is afraid of what everyone will think because there will always be someone who talks bad about the church and if you can't deal with that then being a faithful member of the church is impossible. Last night after church we were talking to Claudio the Ward Mission Leader and I almost died because I was laughing so hard. Claudio has a disease that harms his vision and he´s going blind (thats not the funny part). It´s funny because he doesn't even worry about it, he tries to keep on doing his normal activities like bike riding and it always goes wrong. The other day he told us that he almost ran over a man in a wheel chair in front of the hospital and ended up suffering a `beautiful fall` as he called it. Okay maybe it doesn't sound that funny but if you could here him talk and laugh about it you would laugh. Things are good here, clearly my companion is counting the days until he goes home but that's not going to stop the work from going forth. Have a great week everyone!!!!! Só Batiza!!!!!!!
Elder Jenson
Today me and my companion were going to go to the beach so we call up the mission pres. and ask for permission to leave our area and go to the beach and he said, ok elders you can go but you just get to step in the sand. We were all excited and then as we were waiting at the bus stop we received a phone call. It was the president saying that we couldn't go because his wife said we need to stay at home and clean our house. I'm trying hard to get over the devastation. Just kidding. That's the way it goes, we´ll have to go to the beach another day. This week was a good one but of course it wasn't problem free. Miraculously, we baptized a young man yesterday. We were teaching this guy and everytime was went to his house to teach him shortly after we left someone went to his house to talk bad about us. They told him that we don't believe in God and that after his baptism we would lock him in a room for a month. He got all worried and decided that he didn't want to be baptized. He, like a lot of people, just needed a push in the right direction. Sunday at about 6:00pm we went to his house sat him down and read a few scriptures with him that talk about baptism and then said, "Eduardo God will not permit that you return to his presence if you aren´t baptized." In that very moment we left his house went to the church and then baptized him. The scriptures always help the people to see the truth. We also had some other people that stopped progressing because someone talked bad about us, including a family that we were teaching. Unfortunately there isn't much we can do if the person is afraid of what everyone will think because there will always be someone who talks bad about the church and if you can't deal with that then being a faithful member of the church is impossible. Last night after church we were talking to Claudio the Ward Mission Leader and I almost died because I was laughing so hard. Claudio has a disease that harms his vision and he´s going blind (thats not the funny part). It´s funny because he doesn't even worry about it, he tries to keep on doing his normal activities like bike riding and it always goes wrong. The other day he told us that he almost ran over a man in a wheel chair in front of the hospital and ended up suffering a `beautiful fall` as he called it. Okay maybe it doesn't sound that funny but if you could here him talk and laugh about it you would laugh. Things are good here, clearly my companion is counting the days until he goes home but that's not going to stop the work from going forth. Have a great week everyone!!!!! Só Batiza!!!!!!!
Elder Jenson
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Travis's Email December 7, 2009
Hey Mom, how´s it goin? Everything's great here. I have very little time to write today because I had to send a bunch of pictures and info to the mission office. I hope everybody is way excited for Christmas because I know I am. I'm here close to Natal which means Christmas in Portuguese so I'm hoping the people have the Christmas Spirit. Unfortunately December is usually a tough time for missionary work.
Hello,
This week we had a meeting with the zone leaders and Pres. Fernandes and it was pretty intense. The Pres. talked about our responsibility to help the missionaries who aren't baptizing and I knew that I needed to do a better job helping the missionaries in our zone. A lot of them are having problems so we are going to see what we can do to help them. That was probably the highlight of the week. We ate lunch at the mission home and we ate açaí so it was pretty cool. I´m getting along really well with my companion Elder Paim. Even in tough moments when it would be easy to get depressed we find something happy to think about and then we go on. In a little bit we are going to have the Christmas Mission Conference which should be pretty awesome. I`m out of time people. have fun in cold places because I dont remeber anymore what it's like to get cold!
Elder Jenson
Questions:
1. did you get your package yet?
No
2. When will you send us the phone information for the Christmas call?
Probably 2 weeks from now
3. What are some of the traditions for Christmas in Brazil?
The people here celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and then sleep all day on Christmas day. The people like to party.
4. Did you find a house yet? If so describe it.
Yeah we found a house. It's a simple apartment but it was constructed recently so it's pretty nice.
5. When is your companion going home again?
In a month.
Hello,
This week we had a meeting with the zone leaders and Pres. Fernandes and it was pretty intense. The Pres. talked about our responsibility to help the missionaries who aren't baptizing and I knew that I needed to do a better job helping the missionaries in our zone. A lot of them are having problems so we are going to see what we can do to help them. That was probably the highlight of the week. We ate lunch at the mission home and we ate açaí so it was pretty cool. I´m getting along really well with my companion Elder Paim. Even in tough moments when it would be easy to get depressed we find something happy to think about and then we go on. In a little bit we are going to have the Christmas Mission Conference which should be pretty awesome. I`m out of time people. have fun in cold places because I dont remeber anymore what it's like to get cold!
Elder Jenson
Questions:
1. did you get your package yet?
No
2. When will you send us the phone information for the Christmas call?
Probably 2 weeks from now
3. What are some of the traditions for Christmas in Brazil?
The people here celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and then sleep all day on Christmas day. The people like to party.
4. Did you find a house yet? If so describe it.
Yeah we found a house. It's a simple apartment but it was constructed recently so it's pretty nice.
5. When is your companion going home again?
In a month.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)