Another baptism!

Hello Everyone

Hmmm so something’s that happened this week....I went to Pombal and it was pretty good. I got to do a lot of lessons with an Elder named Elder Filbert who is from São Paulo, except he just got emergency transferred to João Pessoa on Sunday. So his companion is with us for now. His companion is named Elder Marston from Illinois and he has only 6 months left. It’s kind of sad that everyone in my apartment has less than 8 months left.

The girl went very well. I baptized her yesterday. During church her Mom kept telling everyone that I am going to marry her daughter. Why do I have to be American and a missionary who happens to look good in the missionary attire! oh well, I just shrug it off and laugh and don’t say anything when the Mom starts talking about marriage and how missionaries can’t have girlfriends for two years. Other than that the mom I think was more spiritually happier than the daughter. She was crying the whole time during the baptism. The girls name is Iamanda if I forgot to say this. Oh and with the guy with the car, we still haven’t seen him, It kind of sucks but I know we will eventually see him.
We just focused so much time on Iamanda´s family this week.

I most likely will receive all of your letters because we are now receiving the letters on the 5th of June. We are receiving them later because of the date of the huge training meeting for zone leaders was changed to that day it was changed because they just had one last week.

I am happy all of you guys are doing so well. I am doing pretty good as well, and my health is good, no issues here. Oh except on Wednesday I was walking in missionary speed, and walked straight into a metal box thing that covers the air conditioning unit outside. It did not feel good, and I had an egg on my forehead for like 3 days. it’s obviously gone now, and I am happy about that.

Well, I am super excited for the 5th because I get to receive so many cool things!!!! ahh I really can’t wait. Mail day and allowance days are the best. Oh, and p-days are much better. I know now how to distract myself enough to where I don’t think of home or feel homesick. P-days are pretty good now actually. I am enjoying them a lot. President Hall helped me a lot with that. P-day is not a personal day it is a preparation day.

From what I now know, all of the Mission is about the same unless you have Natal north or the area right next to where the President lives. Those two areas are the only two rich areas that are in the mission, but the good things about those two is that they have more stores with more things that Americans are used to, like barbeque sauce! Oh how I miss this delicious Heavenly sauce. Elder Marston the other missionary won’t be here long maybe another two days or today, I don’t really know. I did forget to tell you that no one on the mission has cars, except for the Mission President, so it is always walking everywhere, but my feet are used to it now. I think my body too, because I am not seeing weight coming off, so I guess that means I need to eat a little better as well. not a problem... eating better is easy!

ok well I have to go now, and go eat lunch with the Senior Couple here. They feed us so well, and spoil us every time we go over there. I love you so much, and I am so excited for the packages. I hope the video will be there along with everything, it will be like skyping, but not lol. I do miss you, and I am so happy to hear the blessings you all receive. I am so happy I have such a loving family.

love

elder adam jensen

p.s. oh and the only things that I have made so far in the apt are pancakes, French toast and sandwiches. oh and I made syrup for the pancakes and French toast.

Oh, but could you find out for me, what the recipe for Sister Woolbert's syrup is. I know she never gives it up, but I just want to see if I can make it down here due to ingredients not so readily available. but it would be an awesome treat to me to make some of that syrup. Anyways

love you again

tchau elder adam jensen

A different kind of Seminary

May 21, 2012

Well, I am sorry I missed you this week. The rest of the guys decided to do email later because the missionary newspaper came later today instead of in the morning.

We also never ended up seeing that guy last week, but I know we will this week. This week is a little different because tomorrow there is a training meeting in João Pessoa only for zone leaders, district leaders and trainers. So I will be going to a little city with other missionaries called Pombao while my roommates are in João Pessoa.

Something good did happen this week. My companion and I received a reference, or well they came to us. A mom really wants her daughter to be in the church, so she brought her to the ridiculous seminary class, but the daughter liked it. Her name is iamanda. Like eeeee amanda. kind of different, especially in Sousa. Iamanda is 16 and seems to be enjoying everything we have been saying and likes the church. She has not prayed by herself yet, but I know she will because she seemed to react well to the promise I gave her last time we met with her. I told her that if she prays she will feel the Spirit so strong that she will for sure know this is true. Anyway, that is what happened this week.

Thank you so much for sending all the things that I need or want. I can see how hard you are trying and I am so appreciate of this. I love you so much. and thank Nic for me because I know the music must have taken a while.

Dad sent me a pretty nice email. I very much enjoyed reading it. I can tell that with me on my mission it is making him think of the wonderful things he had on his own mission. From things he has told me, I know that those things will for sure help me as well.

So, so far, I think we will have one baptism this week, but hopefully two, because we are also trying to get iamanda´s father to come to church, but he works way too much, so we will see. One bad thing about this girl is that the mom really wants a missionary to marry her...of course....!! When iamanda came to church she asked another YW if people are able to marry missionaries, but the funny thing is that the YW said that we only can after our mission. THANK GOODNESS!! Kind of silly I know but it freaks me out because both of them are looking for husbands!!.

Oh, and before when I said the ridiculous seminary....I said this because the class is of 6 people who are ages 12 to 19. Most of them are 12, 13 and 14 years old. The teacher is a girl who just recently turned 19, but she was gone for the last seminary, so she asked a boy who is part of seminary to teach. He is only 14 years old. This class happens once a week and it’s for like a half an hour. This class actually frustrated me, but I just have to live with it and just move on. I don’t know, when I am out here I get frustrated with these branches, but I just shrug it all off each time like it is nothing. Things are a little different, but the sacrament, the most important part is always the same, which is good!

Well I will try to explain this week a little more on the next p-day. The next p-day I know will be at normal time. Sorry for this time, and the last time this happened. Anyways, I love you a lot and I miss everyone.

love,

elder adam jensen

A VERY Happy Mother's Day

May 16, 2012

Hello Everyone!!

It was really nice to Skype on Sunday. I like the fact that here we are able to Skype plus seeing home and the family was a really nice pick me up for the day and week. This week has been interesting because today is transfer day, but when it is transfer week, it seems to me that no one really works until Wednesday night, after p-day ends. I guess for missionaries that have been here for a long time they just find this to be normal, it makes the day go by slower, so I don’t like that part about these 3 days, but other than that, it hasn’t been bad at all.

I went to a small sort of market restaurant place recently and I spoke by myself for everything I wanted and what they had all in Portuguese. I felt pretty good about it actually. I think I am coming along with the language at the right pace. My companion and I are going to start to try and just speak in Portuguese outside of the house after p-day ends, unless we talk about girls, then it will be in English because the girls won’t know what we say just girls walking on the street, like hmmm she was cute, and then we just keep walking. it just lets the walking pass by quicker, because if there is no talking then the walk sucks.  (just kidding!) It’s kind of funny because here I can speak English so people won’t know what I say, but when I go home I can speak in Portuguese when I don’t want people to know what I am saying.

So today I think I am going to get my companion to agree to see this really cool guy. When we talked to him before earlier he said a lot of things that are truths in our religion, like revelation and things like that and we never even said anything about revelation. He just started going off about how there has to be revelation because we wouldn’t have e received the Bible. He started to talk bad about other churches, but he seems like a person that will be easy to teach. I am excited for this guy, and a positive, he has a family and a car. My companion and I want to start a new goal, of finding investigators to start filling the parking lot. If the parking lot doesn’t fill up, then the members will keep asking the senior couple here for a ride. People here tend to be kind of lazy and I am pretty sure that if you take out the senior couple, a lot of people who originally received a ride would not come to church, it’s sad, but true. I just wish that here the church was more stable than now. Maybe my companion and I can do it......lol!!!

I really hope Nic decides to go on a mission as well. I know it will do him a lot of good and yeah Ammon emailed me and it was nice to hear from him again. Howard emailed me as well, but all he said was "I am going to Brazil....suck it" I laughed at this, but I know he will love Brazil. and he will probably meet people who can speak English. Also, if you want the video to get to me by June, then you have to send it soon, because letters normally take 2-3 weeks.

I am super happy about the music. I am actually excited for it. Oh and that is super nice of the Willard’s, thank them for me. Oh and we got the washing machine. it’s amazing and I am happy we got it.

That is very good and it’s kind of cool for Brother Powell, and Emily better be getting ready (to be my wife) hahaha. I found my new favorite scripture. 3 Nephi 5:13 I think it is 13. it says.... "behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the son of god......I don’t remember the rest in English. I memorized it in Portuguese though. It’s crazy. from the day I got into the field until now, I have gone from the beginning of Mosiah to 3 Nephi ch.6 today. How far have you got? I do miss a few things, but when we teach, none of that matters anymore and the Lord takes care of us.  I actually like having the two meetings on Sunday’s, because it’s kind of a relaxing day and we don’t really go to all of the classes, but meet with other people too.

I love you a lot and I am sorry about how quick the Skyping was, only 40 minutes each time, but still it goes by so fast,  it’s kind of surprising how quick it does go. Ok well I love you a lot and I miss the family, oh, and you will probably receive a letter from me either this week or next.

love

elder adam jensen

Zone P-Day

Hello Everyone,

OK well I am finally here lol. We had to email later today because today was zone p-day. We had everyone from our zone today, so we had 12 out of the 14 people show up. For fun today we played water balloon baseball. I had to teach them how to play, it ended up being a huge water fight, but it didn’t matter. we're in Sousa, so we wore our clothes for 2 hours soaking wet, and after the time passed, completely dry!!

Things that have happened since I last talked....p-day after emailing we went to the senior Elders house, which is right above from where we email, and she made fry-bread, it was so good, you know I love fry-bread!! Last Sunday I talked and forgot to tell you all, I spoke in church and it was about prayer. All in Portuguese of course and surprise surprise people seemed to like it. Nobody said how bad my Portuguese was when I spoke which was a major plus! We actually got 7 people to commit to baptism this next Sunday, but none of them showed up to church, so only two of them will be baptized this upcoming Sunday...I hope!

Oh and this week, we all had interviews with the President of the Mission. My interview went very well, but I think that is because it wasn’t an interview, it was a conversation about how we are both doing lol. I like my Mission President a lot, he is so loving towards all missionaries.

We have not received our new washer yet, but we will soon, because we chose one and got it approved by Sister Hall. We really love Sister Hall!! Our goal for this month as a Zone is 24 baptisms, 7 of them being men and 3 of them being families. I hope we reach this goal, but I think we can do it for sure, just need Faith. We got 7 people to commit to baptism this next Sunday and I hope this other family will come to church because the dad seemed to really believe and his parayer was amazing. I mean like the way he asked for the truth and how he wants his family to know this is true as well. But instead last Sunday, he decided to go to his regular church, maybe he just can't let go of a long commitment to a church. I don't really know because he would say this in Portuguese and I would never know what he is saying. This past week was kind of a whatever week and I actually kind of hated it. The teaching and success was terrible, and we didn't do as we planned, but anyway, this week was good in some ways, but none of them showed up to church, so only two of them will be baptized this upcoming Sunday...I hope.

Some even better news, was that I found out was that this past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Sousa it was a little different because there was an out-of-season carnival where the first day, the men dress like women, and the women dress like men for a huge dance party, Sister Petre, (senior couple) said it is like Sodom and Gomorrah. So during Sodom and Gomorrah in Sousa, we didn’t have any successes during those days. They actually sucked alot. This party was the reason why we didn’t have anybody come to church or be baptized like they were supposed to. It was an out of season carnival. This party certainly put everything back a week. We didn't teach anyone and came home early, no one came to church or be baptized like they said they would, so instead they will be baptized this coming Sunday on Mother’s day. I am happy that on my mission I will only be going through one carnival. My companion said you stay inside for 5 days!!! He also said that if you go outside you have a chance of getting hit by a water balloon filled with paint! Sounds kind of cool and of course horrible at that same time, of course horrible because I am on a mission, and these clothes should not have paint on them lol!!.

Something else....one of the Zone leaders found out I have an ipód at home and now he won’t stop bothering me about how much he wants to buy it. I don’t want to sell it to him. So something instead of selling mine, I would like to know if there is an extra iPod or mp3 player no one is using at home, and that the owner would be fine being sold, so that you can have something cool from Brazil when I return...in 2014! iPods here are so expensive, for the one that I have it costs around 600 reals, which is converted to a good 300 bucks back home, pretty horrible.

I am so excited for this Sunday, and the first of June. This Sunday I get to speak to you, but I don’t know what time probably around 2:00pm and most likely over Skype, but that is only if the computer works. If so then yes it will be Skype. You'll be able to see my tan.

Well anyway, I love you all so much, and Mom I hope that you are feeling ok, and don’t worry about things you can’t control. Things always eventually work themselves out, whether it is in this life or the next.

I love you alot

with love

elder adam jensen