2/13/14

Hey Mom,

Things are going really well here. This area is an arid climate like Utah just no snow at all. The record low temperature here is like fifty degrees. Here is a very agricultural area so there are a lot of farm boys. The ward is very good. They are the most reverent people i have yet seen here in Bahia. Which is actually saying a lot. My companion is great. He will be the next Assistant. He just doesnt know it. He is a really good worker.

I have been getting a little homesick as well. Everybody asks me how much time i have left. Even people on the street that i talk to. It is like the Devil is trying to get me trunky.

The Elder that has a short fuse we have really worked with and he actually really likes all the people in the house. He really is a good missionary and has a really big heart. He is just super sensitive. He takes meds for his anger issues. We have really worked with him to improve his techniques and working abilities and so far they have baptized two weeks in a row and look like they will get another one this week. We unfortunately have not had this success. We have many people that are so close and just need to take the step. We are constantly trying to find new people yet are not able to find them.

Please pray that we can find more men in Santa Barbara. We have a group there and really need men to make it a branch. Also pray for Juarez to accept the Gospel and be baptized. He is the one that has the house that we use for meetings on sunday. His wife is baptized and his daughter too. He knows the church is true ,we think, yet is to proud to humble himself and ask God. He is a really good man. He just needs to accept the fullness and not content himself with a part truth.

You know what is funny? Wrestleing was the only sport that i really loved. It was such a challenge that made me push myself. That and i was in charge and did not depend on others for success. I really regret not continuing it. That is just a difference in opionion however.

Well any way I really love you mom. Have a good week :)

02/03/14

Dear Mom,

Things are going well here. I dont have a lot of time today. Since i am a ZL I have to send in the numbers by email and it took forever today. You can go ahead and give her the address there is no problem in that.

That is a really cool story about Colby and his Book of Mormon giving. I am realy glad that he has done so well. Before he went on his mission i was constantly encouraging him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He would tell me about his progress of where he was at and everything. It was fun to see him doing it.

For one thing I am pretty sure that i have a pre paid phone card since i left the US so I should be ok there. I dont think they sell them down here. If they did I dont think that it would work in the US. Oh well. Sorry the email is short today. I will write more next week

Love

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1/27/14

Hey Mom,

Well that sounds like an absoloute nightmare. I hope that i never get vertigo. Glad you are feeling well though.

My new area is great  :) It is a city called Feira de Santana. I am the ZL and my companion is about five foot three. Haha its funny to see us walking down the street. I dont know why but President decided to put two elders that take meds together and they are living in the house with us. So far so good but i am afraid that the one that has anger issues will explode at some point.

I have a funny story. So on Friday the Bishop asked me to give a talk on Sunday. I asked him how long i should plan for and he said well five to fifteen minutes and we will see how long on Sunday. So Saturday night i get together something that would go on for about ten minutes. Sunday arrived and we went to church. I saw the bishop and he didnt say anything to me. I figured that he forgot or that i would be the first speaker. Sacrament meeting for me was trying to get a little six year old girl to be quiet since her Grandmother didnt come. Bishop annouced the first two speakers and it wasnt my turn. I relaxed and continued to play with the little girl. The intermediate hymn ends and i wasnt paying the least amount of attention to the bishop because the little girl decided that she wanted to go home and i was trying to get her to stay for another twenty minutes. All of a sudden I hear "Elder!" from my companion. I look up and everyone in the congregation is staring at me expectatnly. I was selected to be the last speaker... Needless to say that was rather awkward. I went up and gave my talk a little bit improvised and we ended the meeting without a hitch. Bishop thanked me and then asked "Did you forget?" I said no and that i figured that he forgot because he didnt say anything to me.

Well you know me. I am prone to have these things happen.

I loved those moose pictures hahaha they are awesome.

Dont worry about the email thing. I really dont care that much. It is just nice to hear from people once in a while.

Sorry about the birthday wish to dad. I forgot to punctuate it correctly.

The souveniers that i will buy will be the same ones as anywhere else it will just be cheaper here. That is the nice part about it.

Joe is going to be a dad!!! Dude...

Love your goofy son

01/11/14

Dear Mom,

I was just giving you a hard time about the trunky thing :)

It looks like i will go to Feira de Santana. It is the second largest city in Bahia and is a major agricultural capitol of Brazil. People come from all over the country to buy and sell there. Almost all the missionaries love the areas in Feira de Santana and have a very good time there. It appears that i will be a Zone leader for my last two transfers. It should be an adventure. My zone new zone has more sisters than any other zone. That should be interesting.

The baptisms that we had lined up didnt go through. One of them decided to extend his vacation till the twentieth and the other two just dissapeared. We did find another young lady though that has been to church several times and seems to be very excited to be baptized and better her life. Her mother "signed" her baptismal form yesterday. She couldnt actually sign her name so she just put an x there. We will visit her tonight again and see how she is doing.

It is a very good feeling to see somebody come out of the waters with just a happy look on their face. Knowing that they have made a choice that makes the Lord happy and their lives better is a very cool feeling. I am extremely grateful to be a part of this wonderful work.

Today was my second to last pday on saturday. Next week i will send an email on saturday and then you wont get one till the following monday. We went to an old castle today with President and Sister Hart. We took lots of pictures and videos to show when i get home. It was way cool. Traffic was terrible though so that is why the email is so late today.

I was already reeimbursed of that payment. I have the cash with me and am saving it until later in case i need it again or if there is something that i really want to buy. There will be a lot of cheep stuff in Feira so that should be a really good opportunity to get cheap souveniers.

Any way I love you mom :)

Have a great week.

Love 

01/06/14

Happy birthday!!! Feliz aniversario! Senhor velho ;)

Happy birthday Dad. I dont know how old you are nor what day your birthday is really on. However I do love you and wish you success and happiness on your special day :)

Love

--

Elder Jensen

01/13/14

That sounds like a rough adventure on the sled.  The work is going well although not as well as it could be. We have about four people that should have been baptized already but havent because of the end of the year nonsense that goes on. We were supposed to baptize them all yesterday but that didnt happen. We will visit them and try and get them to go in the water on wednesday before their gas runs out. We are very limited on our time here in the office which makes it rather hard to get a large group going. However this week we are going to do a division with the ZLs on wednesday ,which is our day in the field, so we should be able to find more people. If you could put in a prayer or two for Miller, Cristiane, Gildete, and Stefanie that would be appreciated. They need all the help they can get to maintain there focus.

I will leave to my last area next week. If all goes according to plan i will be a zone leader. That should be fun. They are putting me in the zone that has the most sisters in it. That could be...interesting.

Congratulations on becoming a High Priest! What are the requirements to be made one? I have never found out what the requirements are.

Any way have a good week :)

01/04/14

Dear Mother,

They will send you a travel itinerary about a month and a half before i go home. The first thing that they do after a transfer is start buying tickets for who is going home.

I have not forgotten that  I only have three months left mom. We should baptize tomorow and the next week as well. I just have a lot of time in the office to do nothing so instead of hitting my head on the wall i have been making a few plans that is all. I will find out where my last area is going to be on monday. I am a little anxious. It will be good though.

You are going through what we call trunkiness mom :) Ask dad what that is.

The work has been good. The Lord knows that we have a hard time working in the field so he makes it a little easier on us. We are still able to find people that are seeking the truth. Granted it is still hard work.

We did a service project today. I loved to work my muscles again. Working out is one thing but actual work with a shovel and pick is another. We helped clean up a stairway that had fallen in the rain and then we went and got cocunuts from a tree. It was good to eat a coconut right from the tree. :)

It has been super hot here! Summer has officially arrived and has arrived with force. It hasn't even thought about raining in a couple of weeks. Blue skies and sweltering sun all day long.

I got worried when i saw Emma behind the wheel as well. I am glad that everyone is doing well though. It sounds like there has been way less adventure lately. Any plans to do something cool? How is work?

Mom my birthday is next month not next week...

I dont know if you saw but i took money out of my account to pay for medicine for an Elder. There was a problem on the mission card and it got blocked. It was the only way to do it. I will get reimbursed though so it is not a big deal.

I have been talking to my friends that are going to be in the Utah area in the summer. They say that provo in the summer is pretty much a ghost town so there should be no problem finding work or an apartment.

Anyway I love you :) have a good week.

12/28/13

Dear Mom,

I was really happy to see you all and to talk to you. I am very glad that i will be home and able to give you all a big hug soon. We have a young man that we are going to baptize on the fifth of January. I am really trying to help Elder Briggs get to know everything here in the office so that there will be no problems with the transition. It will all be ok. 

I think now is the time to start thinking about college and the application thereof. How is it going to work? When are the application due dates? Can you look some stuff up for me please?

Thanks love you mom :)

12/14/13

Dear Mom,

That was so funny. :) Coincidence? I think not.

This week has been super hot. It has also been really hectic. We had a transfer which we had to go to the airport three days in a row. Now we have a mission tour with a seventy and he informed us today that it will be one day earlier than planned for. To make things worse we dont have any more money to buy tickets... It is going to be interesting. My new companion is great. He is a really funny guy. The other companion the brazilian one i have lived with him already. At the end of these next five weeks i will have spent seven and a half months with the guy. It is a good thing that i like him.

We have hardly been able to work in our area this week so we are really hoping that we have people feel the spirit and go to church this week. It is going to be a really hard couple of weeks.

As far as what i need there is nothing. My needs are taken care of here. I will use the money in my last area to buy gifts for people. I will buy one for every member of the immeadiate family and my grandparents. Is there anyone else that i really should buy for? 

Thank you for getting me up to date on my tithing. I will be better about that when i get home.

What is Frozen?

I am so excited to go and see the Hobbit. How was the Hunger games? People here tell me that it was better than the first one.

Btw on tuesday i will have exactly four more months till i get home. Its coming on fast. I better get back to work. Love you mom :)

December 9,2013

Dear Mom,

Just to make things clear. I opened the box because of the ants. It was not opened by anybody else. I am however saving the stuff for Christmas. We did not have Thanksgiving with President Hart but on Saturday we had lunch with him at Outback. :) It was so good to eat a real t bone steak again. I could have died.

There is a funny story to tell though. Brody ,President Hart's son, was talking to me on Sunday after church and asked me where i was from. After I responded he said "Oh i have a cousin that is serving in Alaska. Her name is Madison." I said "Oh that is cool I will have to say hi to her." 

"Yeah you should do that. She would make a great wife but don't get to know her too well on her mission!" hahaha

I thought it was funny. I saw a picture of her in President's house a while ago. She is a cute girl. If i am not mistaken she is serving in Anchorage right now. Anyways i thought that his comment was really funny. His little girls love the missionaries. Tuesday night they took us to a fifties style hamburger restaurant and we talked for a long time. Brody is part of the Tabernacle Choir and his wife Corrine is  part of the Orchestra. Their three little girls all play the violin and did a musical presentation. It was a good evening full of laughter and good eating :)

I don't like São Paulo. No space, no greenery, and way too many people. It is not clean and the roads suck. It is very suffocating. Salvador is only worse because it is even more dirty and the roads are crappier. Yet there are parts of the city that look like they could be from a first world country. It really is fascinating. 

How was the Batman movie? People tell me that it is good. I am excited to get back and to watch all these movies. That cat is useless but she is so FLUFFY! 

Well it is transfers week. I will get a trainee tomorrow and then it will be the start of my third to last transfer. The end is upon us.

Love you mom have a great week :)