Hello Everybody,

So towards the beginning of last week my companion and I were studying and I was sharing with him a scripture I read that goes something like this, ´so thus we see that the Lord sees it convenient to try his people, testing their faith and their patience.´ And I said to my companion, its always been that way with God’s covenant people. Just look at the Jews when they wandered in the desert or the early saints. It’s always been this way with God’s covenant people, why would it be any different today and why would it be any different in the mission field? I would be worried that God didn’t love me if he didn’t test me. ...I’m sure you guys can guess how the past couple of weeks have been. The Lord is testing our faith and our patience. But it’s a good thing right? At least I know that God still loves me.

This Sunday was the third Sunday in a row that we didn’t have any investigators in our Sacrament meeting. We taught a lot of lessons this week and had people to bring to church with us, people we thought were really excited to visit the church, but when we passed by their houses Sunday morning it was a different story. But I’m not sad or upset. I’m still working hard and doing all that I can do but I’m still trying to figure what’s going on here. A scripture close after that other one says that the people were freed from captivity and great was there joy so I can guess what’s coming next.

On the brighter side, I found out that I can buy 40 bananas for 50 cents American money at the market close to our apartment. I don’t even know what I would do with that many bananas but its a good feeling to know that if I ever need to battle in the real life simulation of super Mario kart I would be prepared to battle at a reasonable price. It’s also good to know that my imagination still works...

Well guys, sometimes you have to struggle so you can appreciate the joy afterwards. All in all, everything is wonderful here. I’m having missionary experiences that every missionary should have. The other day we gave a priesthood blessing to a boy who hadn’t slept in days because of his chicken pox and he slept like a baby later that day.
So everything is great here, I hope everything is going great with you guys!

-Elder Travis Jenson

Questions:

1. What was the funniest thing that happened this week? ( by the way, I loved the man walking the pig picture)
I found out that we can buy 40 bananas for 50 cents at the market close to our house. I don’t know why, but my companion and I found that news hilarious. You could feed a family of monkeys for a month with 2 dollars worth of bananas!

2. How are all your clothes and shoes holding up? Do you need anything?
Everything is working out good for now, I don’t need anything. Ill probably ask
for some stuff when my birthday rolls around.

3. Are there a lot of stray dogs?
You better believe it. I don’t even know why Michael Vick did all the illegal dog fighting when he could have come here and watched dogs fight in the street for free.

4. How are the bugs?
There really aren’t very many bugs. It’s not a problem at all.

5. Do you use the powder and the insect spray that you took with you?
Not very much, maybe I will need it more in other areas.

6. When are transfers?
2 weeks from today

Love ya a lot

Scott & Jenny are Mr. & Mrs. Jenson

Isn't Jenny Beautiful?

Travis's email Jan 12, 2009

Hello World,

First of all, I’d like to say congrats to Jenny and Scott on the marriage. Sorry I couldn’t be there, I was pretty busy. I hope you’ll forgive me. Good luck with the marriage you guys!

This week was good, it could have been a lot better but it was good. We are working really hard to find people to teach, we're doing a bunch of street contacts, knocking doors, trying to get references from the members, etc. but the majority of the people we are teaching aren’t fulfilling the commitments or going to church. It’s tough because the majority of the people wont say that they aren’t interested, they’ll say yes when you invite them to do something and then they just wont do it. But we are trying to change some things and develop more faith so we can find more people and baptize more.

Speaking of baptisms, we baptized a 17 yr. old boy yesterday. He has a twin that we were going to baptize but when we showed up in their house Saturday for them to be interviewed he left to pick fruit.

Speaking of fruit, that reminds me of the other day when we entered into the jungle part of our area to find a recent convert. The boy was about 50 feet up in a mango tree dropping down mangos to another boy and I almost got mango´d to death. While we were in the junglish area I saw one of those giant ants that you see on the discovery channel. It was about the size of my index finger. By then I got scared of a giant ant attack so we left.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah the baptism. It was good; we had a good turn out from the ward so that was cool. It seems like I have been in this area forever, oh wait, I have been in this area forever. There is one neighborhood in our area where I think I have talked with everyone twice. We see the same people in the street everyday and it’s gotten to the point where I recognize the stray dogs. But this is a good area, we had lunch at the bishop’s house yesterday and the bishop here is a really good guy. I attached some pictures. One I took from our balcony, it’s a man walking a pig. The other picture is from the baptism.

Dear Trav,
1. Did you get the package from the scouts yet?
Nope
2. What was the craziest thing that happened this week?
Oh I don’t know....a man walking a giant pig in the street.
3. What marriage advice do you have for Scott? (Remember these questions and answers go on the blog each week)
These go on the blog eh? Scott, you will determine the rest of her life-where you live, your quality of life, etc.- she took a big risk on you, make it good.
4. Who has been the most fun to teach and why?
We are teaching a 14 yr old boy right now who is really excited about everything, his little sisters who are like 7 and 9, listen attentively to every lesson.
5. What was the best thing you ate this week?
Last Sunday we broke our fast in the house of the Relief Society president. She made breaded chicken, French fries, rice and beans, and a bunch of other good stuff.
6. Do you have a fan in your apartment?
Yes, all the houses of the missionaries here have fans.

Travis's email Jan 5, 2009

Oi Tudo Bem?

Hello everyone. Its only been a few days since I wrote my last email and ill be honest, not much has happened. Unfortunately we didn’t have a baptism this week but we did manage to confirm a young man that had been out of town and we brought some investigators to church.

The work in this area is getting a little tough. 3 organizations in the ward just aren’t functioning, home teachers, ward missionaries, and visiting teachers. It’s tough to keep recent converts strong in the church when they aren’t being visited. I’ve got a feeling this is going to be the case in a lot of my areas so I’ll have to invent a way to make sure my baptisms stay strong in the church.

We are preparing ourselves for the visit of Elder Cook this month. I’m not sure when it’s going to be but I’m way excited.

Today for P-day we were thinking about entering into the patch of jungle that we have in our area to hunt down some monkeys and take pictures but we got a call from our district leader this morning and he needs help moving apartments so the monkeys will have to wait. It’s been a while since we had a real p-day; the past couple of p-days have been really busy.

So everything is good here. I’m really enjoying my study time lately, it seems like every day I learn something in the morning and then apply it in my teaching later in the day. It’s cool to be able to vary the teaching like that and make things more exciting. Our zone leader asked us to do more street contacts so I did about 15 per day this week. We didn’t find a lot of people to teach this way but I followed to counsel of my leader so I know things will work out.

We were teaching a family and they were really excited about everything but one day this week when we showed up they were acting really weird. The husband answered the door and said that his wife had left and then he changed the story a few times and ended up saying that she is sick in the hospital. It’s pretty obvious that someone talked bad about the church to them and they got afraid.

This happens a lot, right after we teach an investigator; someone will come by and talk bad about the church and the investigator gets worried. That’s why we always tell them that they have to listen to the answer they will get from God when they read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately it seems like they forget that too easily.

Everything is good with my companion and me. We’re working hard and trying to help the ward here grow. That’s all I got, hopefully some more exciting stuff will happen this week.

Have a great week everyone!

Questions we asked Travis this week…

1. What do you do to try and stay cool?
I was born cool and I’ll die cool, there’s no trying involved. Umm...sometimes we put our mattresses in the kitchen and sleep there because it has a window.

2. Are there certain kinds of fabric that keep you cooler and can I send you clothes made from that fabric?
No, I don’t think there is any way of avoiding it. Don’t worry its not that bad.

3. What have you spent money on?
Food, bus, food

4. Did you get the package from the scouts? Also, Annie sent you a Christmas package.
I got the package from Annie but I haven’t received the package from the scouts yet

5. Is there something you would like us to send?
I think I’m good for now. Investigators have requested pictures of me with my family so if you have any of those on the computer you could print them out and send them to me but it’s not a big deal.

6. How often do you meet with the mission president? Do you send him a letter each week? What do you talk about in your interviews?
Since I’m in Joao Pessoa I get to here him speak about twice a month. Yeah I send him a letter each week. In the interviews he says, how are you? How is your family? How is your health? Are you having any problems with the mission rules or commandments? And I say, good, good, good, no. That’s about it.

7. What is your favorite scripture this week?
Alma 31:5

Travis's 1st email of 2009

Happy Holidays Everyone!

It’s New Years Day and we have P-day so I get to write to you guys real quick. Christmas here in Joao Pessoa was good, talking to the family was short and sweet. Honestly, Christmas didn’t seem much like Christmas at all. I mean I love the people here but they just don’t know how to celebrate Christmas. The people just spent the day in the street drinking and playing Forro music. But we managed to celebrate a little bit and it was still a good Christmas, I really enjoyed it.

We had transfers and I’m still here in my first area with my companion Elder Roca. Things are good and we’re working hard despite some clashing of egos that is going on between my companion and the second counselor in the bishopric. Both of them are trying to direct of the ward missionaries at the same time and a few umm disagreements have happened. I’m becoming the mediator in between my companion and the ward. But that’s enough of our small issues that are happening here. I’m working hard, being obedient, and doing my part so I know the Lord will His.

The Holidays are going well, everything is good here. Oh, I forgot to mention that Elder Cook of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles is going to come and speak to us! I’m way excited for that.

I would like to give a special thanks to the Williams and Heninger families for their generosity and for making my Christmas that much better. You guys are awesome!

Some funny stuff that happened lately: Misery here is a Portuguese swear word. When I said I was miserably hot in front of one of the members she looked at me really weird and then my companion explained that its a swear word here. I was quickly forgiven on account of my American-ness.

We baptized the Brazilian version of Cathy Bates (pic included)

1. When are transfers?
They were Monday

2. What will you do for New Years?
We didn’t do much. We had dinner in the house of one of the members and then we went home. We were allowed to stay up until midnight but I didn’t make it, I fell asleep around 11.

3. Do they have stake activities for the youth for new years?
There was a dance or something, I’m not sure what went down.

4. How many youth are in your ward?
A lot, probably half of the ward so about 40 or 50

5. Do you have to pay for your packages that we send? If so, how much do you pay?
Thankfully I don’t have to pay anything.

6. Have any of your packages been opened?
No, only by me...

7. Did you find the memory card in the package from Lolette? I think I taped it to the paper that we all signed.
I got it. It was cool but I was expecting more pictures I think there was only 5 or 6 on there.

Christmas Fun

Hello Everyone,

Its way close to Christmas but trust me, it doesn’t feel like it here. I’m sweating in an internet cafe in downtown Joao Pessoa right now. My dreams of a white Christmas have been rekindled because we are going to try and have a baptism on Christmas Day. We found out that Christmas for us will be a regular P day-meaning we have to go out and work after 6:00 pm. So, with the white baptismal clothing, I’m hoping for a white Christmas. I’m really looking forward to talking to the family; hopefully I will remember how to speak English because it’s been a long time since i had a conversation with anyone in English. This week was really good, I don’t have much time to write about it because my time is being cut short due to some confusion with the internet cafe and the district leader scheduling. Anyway, here are some details about the week. We baptized 2 young men, Leonardo who is hilarious and break dances and Yurie who hopefully won’t start smoking again... We had the baptism of a 27 year old man, Alexsandro, scheduled but it fell through because of his dad not allowing him to be baptized. Um....Alexsandro, you’re 27 I think you can make decisions for yourself. We are going to have to have a talk with him. He was already interviewed and everything so I don’t doubt that he will be baptized. Unfortunately I don’t have time to write more. I want to wish everyone a very
Feliz Natal! Remember that the happiest people in the world are those that love our Heavenly Father and love others as themselves.

Christmasly,

Elder Travis Jenson

Questions & Responses:

1. Most important question; How do we call you on Christmas? Do you know the time we call? How long do we get to talk?
Here is what you need to do. I don’t know how you call internationally to Brazil so you will have to look that up, if all else fails you can call information. You need to call at 10:30am Christmas Day and we get to talk for 50 minutes. I don’t know all of the codes and stuff to call internationally but that is the number of the house where you need to call. That number includes the area code 83. I hope that works out, unfortunately I’m not allowed to call before and give you more info. I will be waiting to receive your call!

2. Did you get the package from Lolette? Not yet.

3. What are you doing for p-day today?
We wasted the majority of our P-day looking for an open internet cafe so looks like we will be cleaning the house and shopping for groceries.

4. Best thing you cooked this week was? Pancakes.

5. What’s your favorite time of the day and why? It’s at about 4 o’ clock. Sunsets here are awesome.

Hello Everyone,

This week was really good. We started working more in a part of the area that has a lot of people that haven’t hear our message. Unlike the part of the area close to the chapel where nearly everyone has already been baptized and gone inactive. Me and my comp. have a little joke about that area, instead of O Jerusalem, its O Novaes. and then we make up silly things like ye who love to spend time in the church except on Sundays.´ Anyway, the part of the area where we are working is pretty far from our house and we have to walk a lot but we are having success there. We managed to bring a man and two young men to Stake Conference yesterday so that was really good.

Things are going pretty good with my companion. He admittedly doesn’t have a lot of patience but overall our companionship is good. It’s important that we don’t pass judgment on people because, for example, I found out yesterday something about my companion. 2 months into his mission he received news that his parents had separated and were getting a divorce. There are a lot of factors that contribute to the personality of a person so who are we to judge? I have been extremely blessed to have grown up in a nearly ideal family where the biggest difficulty I had was my dad constantly asking me ´hey what are you doin!?´. Ha-ha just kidding dad, love ya. Here’s a bit of a funny story. A girl in the ward asking me if I had 25 centavos that I could lend her and I jokingly asked, ´what are you, a beggar? ´ But instead of using the word beggar I accidentally used a word very close to beggar that means male prostitute. Woops. Ha-ha. Its ok I get away with it because I’m American. Oh, and last night we had a bandit break into our house. He made a mess in our kitchen and worst of all he got into our room climbed onto my bed and made it into a restroom. I’m in the process of dusting for paw-prints and interrogating the local stray cats for suspects. Ha-ha it looks like a cat snuck into our house through an open window during the day. So this week is going good so far, we are going to baptize a man, which is kind of a big deal because he can receive the priesthood and serve in higher callings in the church. The language is improving; I’m going to buy a Portuguese grammar book so I can learn to write better. Christmas is coming up and even though there is not even a shadow of a chance of having a white Christmas, I’m excited.

-Elder Travis Jenson

Questions:

1. Do people go running for exercise? Yes, but not here in João Pessoa.
2. Did you open your Christmas presents? No way, I don’t want to kill the surprise.
3. Are the Santa hats to small? You didn't have one on in the picture. No, they fit but I thought they looked better in the display. I’ll make sure to take pics with them on Christmas Day.
4. Are people more willing to listen because its Christmas time? No, a lot of people are traveling. Also, when people there in the U.S. think more about the Savior during Christmas, people here think about partying. It’s just the culture.
5. Can you print off the letters that we send you? I wanted to send a Christmas story but you would want to print it off so you don't spend all your time reading it. Awesome, i love Christmas stories. Yeah I can print stuff off.
6. How are things going with your companion? They’re going; my patience skills are getting a workout. Things are good right now because we have baptisms for this Sunday. Have a great week!

Hello Everyone!

First before I forget, friends that have sent me letters, sorry I haven’t responded yet. Sometimes it takes about a month for the letter to arrive. For example, I just received a letter that was sent at the beginning of October. I’ll definitely get back to you guys, I’ll write you a new year’s letter or predict what’s going to happen next month because that’s probably when you’ll receive it. :)

Well everyone, this week was a little difficult. We didn’t have baptisms and all our investigators who said they would come to church were not there when we passed by their houses in the morning. I really wish they would save us the trouble and say they don’t want to go to church but they people are so nice here they hardly ever say no when you invite them to church. So because of this my companion got pretty upset, I wasn’t too happy either but my comp. was blowing it out of proportion. But don’t worry things are good now.

I don’t really have that much to write about this week. Last night, I got a 30 minute lecture from an older brother in the ward about Brazilian history, American history (which was not at all accurate), and he told me all about the problems with kids these days. The members here are awesome. If you stop by any one of their houses at any time of day they will feed you and give you snacks even though they don’t have much to give. When the sisters in the ward cook a meal for us they go all out because they have faith that they are receiving blessings when they cook a meal for us.

I don’t know what else there is to say, we are working on finding the best place to work right now and trying to find more people to teach but its a little difficult. Overall, things are good right now,

Happy Holidays Everyone!

-Elder Travis Jenson

Questions:
What is your favorite thing to eat?
They have a thing here called tapioca which is hard to describe. It’s like a sweet taco with coconut and fruit inside. I’ll have to send you a picture because I learned how to make it.

1. Where is your companion from? Is he a convert? How many are in his family?
He’s from São Paulo, he was born into the church, he has 2 brothers I believe and everyone in his family is a member of the church.

2. The funniest thing that happened this week was?
Oh I don’t know. One time this week we were walking past a group of guys when my companion said, ´make a serious face, they have to respect you, so of course I started laughing and my companion got mad. I told him I don’t think making a serious face is going to gain the respect of anyone.

3. Have you had your suits cleaned yet? If not maybe you should think about doing that?
Suits plural? I only have one and I cleaned it before I left the CTM. I’ve used it twice since I’ve been in the mission field.

4. Are they starting to decorate for Christmas yet?
More or less, honestly most of the people are too poor to buy Christmas decorations.

5. What are some of the customs for Christmas in Brazil?
Party in the streets, that’s what they do for most holidays. Have a good week! Love ya a lot

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.

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