No Baptisms and sick...!

July 23rd, 2012

Hey everyone!

Well this past week was not that good. We met with everyone and taught them and got new people to teach, but when Sunday came around no one came to church. So no one is truly progressing. Oh and we were supposed to have a baptism this past Sunday, his name is Caio, it’s like Kyle, but he said he didn't want to be baptized this past Sunday anymore because his grandma who is already baptized gave him doubts about baptism. I don't know why she did that considering she wants him to be baptized. Anyways, he did come to church though and I think he will be baptized next Sunday. I truly hope he does. The grandma did tell us that she talked to him about baptism and that he won’t be baptized because of what she said. We'll see!

Other things that has happened this past week, on Saturday night I started to not feel that good, and really weak. I thought it might have been some food, and I would be alright the next day. Man I was wrong. Next day on Sunday I woke up with a horrible migraine and still weak and a fever. I had the fever all day and the migraine. It was basically horrible. So I took medicine all day and went to bed like usual at 9:30 at night. I woke up today and I still had the migraine, but my fever I think went down. I don't feel as hot as yesterday. But I am keeping up with meds and I think it will go away soon. I don’t need to go to a doctor and there is no doctor’s office like back home here, only the hospital. and if I needed to go to the hospital then I would need to call Sister Hall first and what not, but I am doing much better today!! I also have all the medicine I need for this situation lol.


I am happy you got in touch with Sister Petrie. It’s actually awesome that my first area is with the them. So the Petries are in their 70´s I think or late 60´s but they are so nice, and I do hope that I get to stay here another transfer so I will be able to see them. Oh and a lot of people still went to church even though they couldn’t get a ride from Elder and Sister Petrie. If I do get transferred then they will bring all of the stuff to João Pessoa. I won’t receive mail until the 2 of August, but all is good and I am looking forward to August 2nd!!

Well I love you

elder adam Jensen

Praying for baptisms

Monday July 16th, 2012


Hello Everyone


Well this past week....

The other Elders here, Elder Rodrigues and Elder Cossarotti had 5 baptisms this past Sunday. It was awesome for them to have those baptisms, but at the same time it was a drag because I didn’t have any. We were supposed to baptize José, but he just couldn’t quit smoking, and on Sunday he said he gave up and doesn’t want anything from us anymore. It was weird for him to say this because he was the only one progressing out of the family, but he said it and now he will be cut off. But each week, we have about 15-18 new people and 8 or 9 of them are men. Each week is good with finding people though it truly is a blessing finding new people!!

This past week, Elder Rinaldi and I got trapped in a bible bash. It was totally ridiculous and I hated it. I don’t know why people like to tear down other peoples’ religion. Well the bible bash didn’t really do anything except take the spirit away and we walked away feeling horrible. Also this week we met with José’s sister Maria and she will be cut off because she is not progressing and when we would talk about something that we said the day before she wouldn’t remember or she would say things that don’t make sense. We ended up having 6 different Marias this past week - ridiculous! None of them came to church, it really sucked; don’t come to church means no baptisms. Hmm…!
We had a really cool reference this past week, but they couldn’t come to church because the husband is very week because he just recently got out of a 20 day coma, and the wife is super pregnant. She should have the baby near the end of this month. They said they really want to learn more and are very motivated to be a part of this gospel. It was sweet. I’s just this past week was good with finding people, but none of them think church is really that important, so we have to teach that one again lol.

Ok so the Brother and sister Petrie the senior couple, are leaving for 6 weeks. They will return in August. Sister Petrie needs a surgery on her hand because she can’t grip anything anymore. They are leaving this Thursday. Anyway, I asked them if you could send the clothes to their house in Arizona and they could bring it back for me when they return. They obviously said yes lol. I asked because the mail here is kind of ridiculous, she said just to email her and she will give you her home address.
Yeah the patch kit for my pants will actually be awesome. I honestly have no idea if they have those patch things here. I have actually been thinking about asking for some. But oh well. I should or may have them in August which will be awesome. Thank you :) I was relieved too when she said I would love to bring the clothes back for you. It was very nice of her. Let’s just hope I don’t get transferred then lol, if I do then I would have to wait until September for the new clothes which is not really that big of a deal.

The interviews with our Mission President were this past Friday and they went very well and President Hall was pretty happy with everything. He did teach us something that we should do, and that is to write down what we promise to do for our mission and what we are promised because of the mission. This is all on the call letter. Oh and they did bring more mail. I received a small letter and the business cards to hand out with my information and the church music. Except on the music every song except for seven songs are mpeg-4 so I can’t play them out loud on anything. So instead today I am putting all the music on my iPod. This means I will be able to listen to it - just next time a thumb drive gets sent the songs cannot be mpeg-4.

So I learned some new things this week about repentance and love. I learned in simple terms that if you can forgive yourself of the things you have done and this also means not blaming others to get rid of what you have done, but truly forgiving yourself, then forgiving others becomes so much easier. Once repented, then the only thing you can truly feel in your heart is love. When giving undying love it always creates a whole new and better atmosphere for everything around you. The love I mean isn’t trying to tell people what to do, or make them do what you want them to do but just loving them for who they are. With this simple truth it may still be a hard thing, but the world is a great place to build and become stronger.

Anyways, I have to go now. I love you so much and thank you for all the inspirational things. I like them a lot. It makes me think about why I am here.

I'm looking forward to hearing from all of the people back home.

My address is:

Elder Adam D. Jensen
Missao Brasil Joao Pessoa
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Rua Deputado Jose Mariz, #515
Tambarzinho
Joao Pessoa
P.B 58042-020
BRAZIL

love

elder adam jensen

Baptisms, Baptisms and more Baptisms

July 10^th, 2012

Well hey everyone,

Ok so this past week...

I have learned some things that pertain to my work. I learned that you cannot go totally by faith. I say this because if you only have faith for your goals or that you will have a baptism this week or things like that, you really just won’t work harder. I know the scripture that says faith plus works, but the thing is that something has to drive you to do those works. That is why I have learned that having desire is probably the most important thing to have on the mission. With desire you have more faith, more works, more goals, and a real strong motivation for more things than you would have before without desire. I am doing very good. I am excited for a lot of things right now and for the future as well. My time is still going super-fast. pretty crazy. I love you all and I am happy truly happy that I made this decision.

We met a new investigator named Bruna and she has a one or two year old baby. I think 2 years old. Anyways the funniest thing happened while we were teaching her a lesson. So, while we were teaching the baby was on her lap, and that baby was only wearing a diaper. Anyways, while the baby was sitting there he put his hand down her shirt and started touching her. So at this point it is already funny, but while he was touching her, the baby started to put his other hand inside of his diaper. Oh it was so funny, and we all started to laugh during the lesson. But it was a highlight of one day during the week.

So you know how you said about giving a blessing. Well I didn’t give one, but I did anoint the oil. Even though it wasn’t an actual long blessing, it still felt good to at least be able to do that all in Portuguese!

Hmm… another thing is that, do you remember when I talked about Iamand´s mom? Her name is Irani. Well, I got her to finally commit to a date on the 15th. It was only me who got her to commit. No-one else, not even my companion. It felt awesome, especially because we have asked her in the past like 3 other times and she always said no. I am VERY excited!  Also, Irani´s neighbor also said yes to baptism. I forgot how to spell her name, so I just won’t try - lol. The neighbor had doubts actually a lot of doubts in the beginning, but by the end she said yes to baptism. The lesson went very well and we have two baptisms!

The woman that didn’t come to church was Maria. Her brother José came and he said he liked it a lot and wants to come back. We also asked him to be baptized on the 15th as well. I think he will, but we have to teach him a lot this week.  The 15^th is going to be a very busy day.  Everything about this week was good, and I am happy with how we all worked. It was just awesome and very spiritual.

Anyways, that’s about it. I think we have to go now, but I can email a little bit later because the other elders were too slow getting to the LAN house again! I don’t know how it’s so hard for them to just get up and go. Oh well.

Thank you so much for everything, I know if you were to send me some new clothes, it would be amazing, because I actually do kind of need them. I now have three pairs of pants that have holes in the same areas. In these types of pants they just have a poorly made crotch area. Either that or I just have fat legs. But anyways, I was wondering if you could go to like Ross or JCP and buy very thin, very dark slacks. 34/32. I think 34/32 might be a little too big, but I have a belt, so its ok. My shirts are now way too big for me - lol. My neck is not 17 1/2. It is either a 16 1/2 or 17. I am trying not to even wear my other pants because I want them to last a long time. So instead I put other pants other than the three pairs with holes in them inside the suitcase, staying there until I truly need them. I did find some black material inside the house, so I covered one of the pants holes with that material. I have tried sewing them and it didn’t work. the stitch broke, on all of the pants!!!

I am happy with how everything is back home just try to keep all the spirits up and focus on everything good. I do miss everyone, but my mission will still be over before you know it. I have already been out four months, but according to when I will go home and when I was supposed to leave, it has been 5 months woo lol. I love you a lot and hopefully next week the other missionaries are not slow again.

I am excited for this week as well because it means that we can do it all over again, but the negative side is that when doing everything right your legs seem to be much more tired at the end of the day.

Looking forward to hearing from you all;

Elder Adam D. Jensen

Missao Joao Pessoa

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Rua Deputardo Jose Mariz #515

Tambauzinho

Joao Pessoa

P.B 58042-020

BRAZIL

love

elder adam jensen

Back on track...

2nd July, 2012

Hi Everyone

So the great things that happened this past week....or since last Wednesday as we were later emailing due to transfers.

The new Elder is Elder Cassorotti (which is pronounced kassa roachy) and he is a very good elder. I am very happy that he is in our apartment here in Sousa. I say this because for the past...don’t know 3 weeks everyone in the house was starting to become very lazy, like not getting up on time and not leaving on time. I am to blame as well. But when Elder Cassorotti came he basically put us all back on track. Anyway, everything now is being done the correct way. Getting up on time, leaving on time, just everything is really perfect! I am happy everything is being done the right way, because in just a half a week I have really noticed how much better the work is and how much better you can feel the spirit. At the same time I can see that we end up having a lot more fun.  Also, my Portuguese improved, pretty crazy I know!!

Also this week, we met some new investigators and one of them came to church. Her name is also Maria. When we first met her she was yelling at her husband because of three reasons....the first was because he was smoking and he wants to quit, secondly he was drunk and the third was because he locked them both out of the house!! It was actually hilarious listening to them argue, but we invited her to come to church during the argument and she accepted! She then actually came! It was fast Sunday and she said she really enjoyed it. I think this week we will definitely ask her to be baptized!!

So, in the morning of Sunday, (Norisah – this is weird, don’t we say Sunday morning in English???) we went to Maria’s house, (the one that does not have a drunk husband) we were going to her house to bring her to church, but when we showed up we also talked to her about how she was going to be baptized yesterday, but when we mentioned it again she said she never heard us say this and she refused to be baptized. So we said ok we will do it next week. After we said next week she said ok, but then we said ok let’s go to church and then she got all weird and said she didn’t want to go to church in the morning. So we ended up having to talk to her about the importance of church but during this time Elder Petrie (senior couple elder) is waiting outside with his car to bring us all to church, she didn’t go in the morning, but she promised she would go in the evening...at 4 p.m. So we left and when we went to the next meeting at 4 p.m. Maria was there as she promised, but she was still saying no to baptism until a member came up to her and asked her why she didn’t want to be baptized and she didn’t have an answer to give to him, so she told us that she will be baptized! After she said that we all got ecstatic and rushed to get the baptismal font ready so she can be baptized right after sacrament, and we still had to do the interview. Well she passed the interview and she was finally baptized yesterday at 7:30 pm!!! It was all worth it and I know the Lord was helping her with this decision!

Also what happened Sunday....after the baptism of Maria, the senior couple were doing something for the YSA in his house and we heard they were having cookies, so we decided we should try and see if we can go. We basically invited ourselves but it was ok. We went and had desserts but during the eating of the desserts girls kept trying to speak English to me and one of them actually speaks a lot of English. Her name is Vivani so she was telling another girl to say "when you go back home, give me a chance." I don’t really know who actually wants this chance - but it was pretty funny. I couldn’t stop laughing, as I understood what they were saying and I don’t think that they realized. The great story is that I found out that Vivani and her brother were searching the internet one day and found the church through the internet. They came to the church randomly wanting to be baptized and they have been members for two years now and very active. I like them both a lot, which is very cool and helpful if I don’t know a word in Portuguese!!

The next transfer is the 8th of August. They are every 6 weeks. Oh here on the 4th we are having a zone district meeting and then afterwards we are having a big lunch at the senior couples house (the Petries) we will have hot dogs and hamburgers and fruit and desserts. I am excited for Wednesday! The 4th of July for me is still the same no matter where I am.

Always remember that we are all saints in this gospel, so this also signifies that we are disciples of Jesus Christ. We are here and called to pronounce his word to the people and I know this is true. All of us are tools in the Lord’s hands, but only certain people are missionaries, but not just for two years but for a lifetime. It is possible for a missionary to go on the mission and return but never truly became a missionary. I don’t want to become this. I am working hard and I know that hard work will never end.

Oh, and one more thing is that I am enjoying reading everything, I am like Nic now. LOL - enjoying reading things!! That’s pretty good that Nic is already leaving for college. I know that he will like it a lot.
Well that’s about all the happened...oh and Tiago didn’t come again!
I love you

elder adam jensen