Travis's email June 28, 2010

Hey,
This week was intense. I had my last zone conference, and I bore my testimony along with the other missionaries that will be leaving the mission at the end of this transfer. That was surreal. It was also Pres. and Sister Fernandes´ last conference. At the end of the week we had the dedication of the new church in Sousa that Pres. Fernandes performed. Afterward, there was a cultural party where we ate some local specialties. It was really cool being there to see the dedication of the new church and sad hearing the president say that it might be the last time that he gets to dedicate a church.

It was also a crazy week. Sunday a man that we are teaching showed up to church drunk and slept during sacrament meeting. Later that night he said he´s tired of his life. He´s tired of getting drunk, he´s tired of not being able to do his work as a sketch artist because of his sickness. He told us that he decided once and for all that he´s going to stop and he´s going to be baptized.

This morning we heard on knock on our door and some members told us that someone needed help and told us to run over to a member’s house. There we found a woman who was having a nervous breakdown and was hearing voices in her head. We tried to talk her down but she kept yelling at someone imaginary, get away from me Satan! We gave her a blessing and luckily she wasn’t possessed or anything like that.

Uh oh, my times up. Well this week was really eventful and the city here is starting to throw a bunch of parties, which should make our work interesting.
Have a good week everyone!

Elder Jenson

Questions:
1. Do you write in your journal?
Yeah, while I was assistant I didn't have time so I'm missing a few months in my journal but yes, I'm writing in my journal.
2. Has the new mission pres. arrived and have you had an interview with him? Tell us about him?
No, he will arrive on Thursday.
3. How much do you weigh?
It's been a couple weeks since I weighed myself but the last time I weighed myself I weighed 178 lbs.
4. What food will you miss and which ones will you not miss?
I think I'm going to miss all of the food, even the gross food. I´ll miss eating goat meat with sweet potatoes, spaghetti with cut up hot dogs, all that good stuff.
5. The funniest thing that happened this week?
One of our investigators showed up to church drunk and slept laying down during sacrament meeting. I loved it, it was one of the funniest moments of my mission.

Travis's return home flight info

Here is Travis's itinerary for his return home.

Delta Airlines Flt 2915 arrives in Phoenix at 9:44am on July 30, 2010 - Terminal 3.

Travis's Email June 21, 2010

Hi mom,
Dad sent me a pic of the new house, it looks great! The stone looks really good.
Does the time go by fast or slow? Good question....it goes by extremely fast but at the same time it seems like I’ve been here in Brazil for a really long time. I don’t want it to end; life is so good here in the mission. It’s really simple and since I’ve always been a creature of habit it might be a little hard to change back to regular life. I feel like I’m going to go through culture shock when I get home because I’m so used to the culture here. It will be weird when I show up at the airport and I’ll be surrounded by Americans, I think that will be a little hard for me at first but being with the family will make it a lot easier. You got my flight plans? Yeah it looks like I’ll be spending a few hours on the plane but I don’t think sleeping will be a problem.

I hope you guys have a good beach trip! I had forgotten that it’s that time of year because the seasons here don’t change very much so I don’t really have an idea of what time of the year it is up there.
Love Ya Mom!

Hey,
Good week. For the first time in a while I’m living with just my companion. In a lot of ways it’s easier. This morning we ate pancake, eggs, and bacon. I realized this week that the U.S. is weird. Let me explain why. You Americans for some reason have to eat something different every day. Here in Brazil we eat basically the same thing every day and there´s no problem with that. Rice, beans, pasta, and beef or chicken every day for lunch is fine. You guys are always eating new stuff from other countries; but sometimes it’s fun to eat new things. For example a few weeks ago i ate a dish called coalhada which is partially curdled milk with cuscuz which is a type of corn meal. It tasted like sour cream. MMM! My companion hated it.

This week was pretty good in terms of work. I starting doing something that I call a prayer follow-up chart. I started writing down the things that me and my companion are asking God, the things we are doing to receive the blessings, and the way that God answers our prayers. The scriptures say that if we ask it will be given to us so I want some personal tangible proof of that. So far God hasn't let us down. This week we asked God to bless a family that we´re teaching with a desire to go to church and they went. We also asked for at least one man to take to church and 3 went. So far, I don’t have any reason to believe that that promise in the scriptures isn’t true.

Also this week I fulfilled one of my mission milestones. For the first time in my mission I fell down. Last night we were walking really fast so we could arrive in our apartment before 9:30 and I tripped and fell down. Don’t worry I didn’t suffer any major injuries, just a lot of embarrassment.

This week we´re gonna have an open house at a brand new chapel that was built in a neighboring city. I´ll have to send some pictures.
Have a great week everybody!

Elder Jenson

Travis's Email June 16, 2010

Hey mom,
I loved the good news. Nate is going to study at ASU? Which campus? If it’s at the main campus tell him to take institute with me so he can park for free. He´s 31, When did he get so old?

That‘s awesome that you used preach my gospel. It’s cool hearing that Greg got home. Cameron sent me an email but unfortunately I can’t read or respond. Yeah, I hope the guy Annie’s gonna marry is a good guy.
It sounds like you guys are really busy with parties and beach trips. Sounds tough. :)

Hey world,

I’m way short on time to write, the emails I received were blowing my mind and I had to take a deep breath.

This week we had transfers. My companion was transferred and I will be staying here in Pombal for my last transfer. My last transfer, that’s hard for me to say. This week Elder Lew, a missionary that lived with us ended his mission and I felt a little bit of the longing/sadness I will feel when I end my mission. For me right now it’s hard to imagine another life other than missionary life. I´m going to have to deal with the sadness of leaving these people that I love. But it has to end someday doesn’t it?

My new companion is Elder Kittell. He has 2 transfers left in his mission.
The world cup officially started and we´re trying to deal with the craziness. Uh oh times up, gotta go.

I love you guys!

Travis's Email June 7, 2010

Hey guys,

This week was gooood. It rained this week and got really cold. On Thursday I woke up so cold that I had to put on some jeans. It was the first time that I’ve used jeans here. They’re finished remodeling the church and it’s starting to look pretty good. We baptized for the first time in the new baptismal font yesterday. It will be nice have the font instead of an above ground pool that has a bunch of holes in it.

This weekend in Pombal an evangelical minister came and did ´miracles´. The people said that he made the deaf hear and the lame walk. That made our work a little interesting. Everybody thought that it was us that did the so called miracles and that was good because it sparked some interest. The people on the street told us that they loved our show.

3 people from the English class that we´re teaching went to church yesterday, that was cool.

We are trying to prepare ourselves for the world cup that will go on this month, it’s going to make our work a little tougher.

I’m actually in Joao Pessoa today for the zone leader´s council. It was president Fernandes´ last council. He told us that a lot of missionaries have problems and suffer after their mission because they weren’t honest while they were in the mission field. He taught us that we need to be more honest and when necessary repent without reluctance.

So I’ll be spending my P-day here in Joao Pessoa and tomorrow I’ll go back to Pombal.

The Church is true.

That’s what’s going on for now..........

Elder Travis Jenson

Questions…

1. The funniest thing this week was?

Um.....it’s hard to think about a single funny thing. Yesterday my companion slipped when he was baptizing yesterday and almost didn’t lift the guy out of the water. That was kind of funny.

2, Do you know the exact date you'll be coming home?

I will be home on Friday the 30th of July at probably about 12:00pm.

3. What is the bug situation like?

There are hardly any bugs here. There were just a bunch of moths this week because it rained.

4. When do you get a new mission pres.?

He will arrive on the first of July.

5. What did the pres. say in your blessing?

He just blessed me with health to end my mission and some other stuff.