Travis's Email March 31, 2010

Hey guys what up?

Last week was cool. We baptized a man who when I talked to him on the street for the first time I thought he didn’t want anything to do with the church but i felt that we should teach him anyway. When we left a Book of Mormon with him I thought that he wouldn’t even read. He ended up being really easy to teach and baptize. He accepted everything we taught him and asked very few questions, he stopped smoking in a week and was baptized. It was awesome.

Last week we also traveled with President Fernandez to do interviews with the missionaries. It was fun because President Fernandez is hilarious, the whole way he sang old fashioned songs that are from his state. When we travel I usually sleep in a hammock because almost all of the houses here have hooks for hammocks. It’s cool because there’s usually a cool breeze at night.

We spent the weekend in a city called Souza. Currently there are 2 missionaries from Arizona working there including Devan Fletcher’s brother. It was cool to see them and see the culture in that city. It’s a city different from any other city in Brazil and frequently the people there asked the missionaries if they can be baptized.

Yesterday we received some new missionaries and it was transfers. It looks like I will spend one more transfer as assistant to the president and then I’ll end my mission working in another area. So much happened in these last couple weeks that it’s hard to put it all into an email. I’m excited to watch general conference this week.

Unfortunately I’m starting to feel like my mission is coming to an end. I see the new missionaries arriving in the field and I see that as a missionary and as a person I have changed.

I hope you all have a great week; I’m going to eat some rice and beans and then renew my visa in downtown Joao Pessoa.

I love you guys.

See the pics I sent below...

Photos from Travis March 31, 2010

From Drop Box

From Drop Box From Drop Box From Drop Box

 

Travis's Email March 9, 2010

Hey guys,

I would like for you guys that think about this message because what it talks about happens in all of our lives to a certain degree.

However, “it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. … The Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other” (2 Nephi 2:11, 16). And so it is with faith. It can be enticing to choose doubt and disbelief over faith.

As Jesus returned from the transcendent spiritual experience on the Mount of Transfiguration, He was approached by a desperate father whose son needed help. The father pleaded, “If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.”

Jesus replied, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

“And straightway the father … cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” (Mark 9:22–24).

Faith and fear cannot coexist. One gives way to the other. The simple fact is we all need to constantly build faith and overcome sources of destructive disbelief. The Savior’s teaching comparing faith to a grain of mustard seed recognizes this reality (see Matthew 13:31–32). Consider it this way: our net usable faith is what we have left to exercise after we subtract our sources of doubt and disbelief. You might ask yourself this question: “Is my own net faith positive or negative?” If your faith exceeds your doubt and disbelief, the answer is likely positive. If you allow doubt and disbelief to control you, the answer might be negative.

We do have a choice. We get what we focus on consistently. Because there is an opposition in all things, there are forces that erode our faith. Some are the result of Satan’s direct influence. But for others, we have no one but ourselves to blame. These stem from personal tendencies, attitudes, and habits we can learn to change. I will refer to these influences as the “Six Destructive Ds.” As I do, consider their influence on you or your children.

First is doubt. Doubt is not a principle of the gospel. It does not come from the Light of Christ or the influence of the Holy Ghost. Doubt is a negative emotion related to fear. It comes from a lack of confidence in one’s self or abilities. It is inconsistent with our divine identity as children of God.

Doubt leads to discouragement. Discouragement comes from missed expectations. Chronic discouragement leads to lower expectations, decreased effort, weakened desire, and greater difficulty feeling and following the Spirit (see Preach My Gospel [2004], 10). Discouragement and despair are the very antithesis of faith.

Discouragement leads to distraction, a lack of focus. Distraction eliminates the very focus the eye of faith requires. Discouragement and distraction are two of Satan’s most effective tools, but they are also bad habits.

Distraction leads to a lack of diligence, a reduced commitment to remain true and faithful and to carry on through despite hardship and disappointment. Disappointment is an inevitable part of life, but it need not lead to doubt, discouragement, distraction, or lack of diligence.

If not reversed, this path ultimately leads to disobedience, which undermines the very basis of faith. So often the result is disbelief, the conscious or unconscious refusal to believe.

The scriptures describe disbelief as the state of having chosen to harden one’s heart. It is to be past feeling.

These Six Destructive Ds—doubt, discouragement, distraction, lack of diligence, disobedience, and disbelief—all erode and destroy our faith. We can choose to avoid and overcome them.

Challenging times require greater spiritual power. Consider carefully the Savior’s promise: “If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me” (Moroni 7:33).

I want to tell you guys that the work I do is sacred. I see miracles every day because I choose to see them. I am tempted by the adversary to think that these miracles are coincidences or results of my own strength but I CHOOSE to believe they are miracles because the Holy Spirit, who testifies of all truth, makes me feel that they are miracles. I hope we can all choose to believe and not doubt because doubts do not come from God. I love you guys

Elder Jenson

Travis Video March 1, 2010