Week 18 - Thanksgiving/Birthday

Happy thanksgiving 

Well this week was great, different but great!

On Tuesday we did splitz with 2 recent converts all day long. I went with Dalcio who was my first baptism, it was so tight and my comp went with Patrick who is Dalcio’s friend it was like one of the coolest days ever. We taught some really good lessons but it was mostly just really cool to be with a guy that I taught and baptized and then got to watch him testify and teach about the gospel, it was soooooo cool, the best feeling in the world to see that I have actually help some one change and grow in the gospel. I know that Dalcio will be a great missionary and he is super amped to go and serve.  I’m pumped for him. 

Thursday was Thanksgiving and man was it a great day!  We woke up and unfortunately our lunch appointment fell though so we went all out and made a super dope Thanksgiving lunch.  It consisted of potatoes, they were really good,  2 rotisserie chickens,  really classy fine grape juice,  Brazilian bread,  cake, oranges, and a lime pie. It was sooooo good.  It might not sound very good but it was.  Guess you just had to be there but it was really fun. We made way too much food of course and ended up not eating all of the chickens, so we decided to give it to a bum.  It was so awesome, we just walked up to this dude and asked him if he was hungry he was like claro! (yes).  Then we gave him a whole chicken and said Happy Thanksgiving.  It was tight he was like stunned and was just said “god bless you.”  I swear the bums are like the best part of the mission, they are so funny hahah. So the rest of the day on Thanksgiving was pretty normal but we made sure to tell every person that it was Thanksgiving and all of them were like umm ok cool.  Its definitely not a Brazilian holiday but we made it one. 

On Friday we had a really good lesson with Ricardo who is on of our investigators who smokes like 2 packs a day.  Its nasty but yeah we watched the restoration video and then all of a sudden Elder Payne just started teaching the word of wisdom.  It was not planed but it ended up being really good and he admitted that he knew smoking was bad for his body and that he was destroying his temple and that he wanted to stop.  So it was actually really great. He still is really molly or soft with the baptism idea but we are still working on him. 

Saturday was my birthday and I made 20 years as the Brazilians say it.  It was a really good day, I woke up and made myself the first real breakfast I have had in brazil hahaha.  It was dope. I made a fat omelet with  4 eggs and it was sooo good.  I also made like a peanut butter banana toast sandwiches which was really good and had apple juice to drink it was a good way to start off my Bday. Pretty much like every 20 mins someone would call me and sing Happy Birthday to me which was sooo cool.  I think in total 18 people called me to wish me happy birthday. Including President and Sister Ferrin which was really nice of them. So don’t worry about me, I got a lot of birthday love even though I was here in Brazil.  I even got a couple presents,  some new ties, always appreciated!  I also bought a sick tie at a bracho, which is like a thrift store,  Yes they have them in brazil too, for 2 reals or like 1 dollar. Its dooppee. For lunch we went to a members house and they made this really good chicken and then they also made me a cake.  That night we had a huge fire side at the stake center which was really cool.  It was a play of the BOM.  The assistants came up from the mission office for the play and they brought my letters with them. So yeah I got to open up letters on the night of my birthday it was perfect!  After the activity we went and got açai drinks, it was delicious so it turned out to be a really good birthday. 

To top of the great week yesterday for sacrament meeting was the primary program and yes its still awesome even in Portuguese, soooo funny. I was like the only one in the whole congregation who thought it was funny though, so as I was laughing my head off like the whole time.  I was just getting eye balled by all these moms.  I am sure they were just thinking what the heck is this dumb Americano laughing at my daughter for?  it was just so funny I couldn’t help it.  One of the sunbeams is this super fat kid, his dad works for Mars bars so he just eats chocolate all day long.  He was being so crazy the whole time just like yelling all the songs so loud!  it was so funny I almost died. 

So yea it was like a really tight Sunday cuz  we had 7 people show up to church so that was also really super cool and all of them of course really liked it. The best part of Sunday though was when we were picking up our investigator  before church.  He lives in this like shared house thing with 20 other dudes that are all drunks and stuff.  Its crazy cuz he is this super focused African guy who studies and works all day long but he lives with these total loosers.  So when we got there to his house he wasn’t ready so we asked another guy if he could call him but he was drunk on Sunday morning at 8:30 in the morning.  Really classy, but yea he was like o yea sure and then he just  yells at the top of his lungs, “Hey Dunian the Americans are here!”  but I guess he didn’t hear us right and instead of saying Dunian he just yelled, “Hey donuts the Americans are here!”  It was so funny I almost peed my pants.  I laughed so hard but  it ended up all being fine and he came to church.  

Last night we went to a member’s home-the Marcizos-for a family night with Patrick and Dalcio. It was fun and yes they also made me a cake hahaha soooo much cake and tonight we are going to another members house for another birthday party.  Its going to be tight.  The members in our ward are sooo awesome.  Its all good hear in Brazil, glad to hear the snow was bad. Stinks to be you guys! hahah just messing with you.  I wish I could have been there this week to spend time with the whole family but thanks for all the emails and all the love. 

LOVE ELDER JENSEN 

Pictures are sharing our thanksgiving feast and me shaving our 80 year old friend.

Elder Jensen's Address!

Elder Aaron Jensen

Brazil Sao Paolo East Mission Office

Rua Caa-Acu 229

03171-020

Sao Paulo SP

Brazil 

PHOTOS!

Week 17 - Thanksgiving Thoughts

Dear Family

Well its that time of year again where we settle down and get together with our families and think about what we are thankful for.  Being away from my family this week will probably stink. hahah but I can still spend time thinking of what I am thankful for.  This year the first on the list is my family.  I’m so thankful for everyone of you guys, for your support and love for your letters and emails and for your prayers.  It may not seem like you guys do that much but I want you to know that your support makes a big difference.   I know without a doubt that I am getting blessed from all your prayers because every day I can see miracles in my life here in Brasil. ‘im thankful for all my cousins and my brother who served missions before me and set such a great example for me.  I am also very thankful for the opportunity to be on a missionary in Brasil!!!!!! the best place in the world to be a missionary. I love waking up every morning and just serving all day ever day!  Its great. I am all so thankful for the gift of tongues because I know that without it there would be no way I could have learned Portuguese hahaha Really I cant even speak English so how would I be able to speak Portuguese.  I am thankful to live in America where we have so many luxuries such as huge new big screen tvs and beds and cars and food and clothes.  I have seen some pretty sad things here in Brasil and it has just made me really think about how lucky we are to be born in to a great family in America in a land of plenty.  Honestly I could list like 1,000,000 more things but I dont have time. 

This week has been great. We had 2 people come to church with us that we are teaching.  One of them is this African guy named Dunion, he is sooo cool. I hope he will get baptized next Sunday that would be tight.  The other guy is named Ricardo who has a lady friend in our ward. Hes 30 and is way dope but its going to be hard for him to get baptized because he smokes a ton, its gross like his house is just like a smoke house nasty.  We are also teaching this guy named Alex who is 19 and is a MMA fighter!  He hasnt come to church yet because he has a girlfriend who lives in Rio so he goes there every weekend but since he travels so much he has a lot of spare time to do nothing.  So he has already read the whole Book of mormon !!!!!!  He read it in 10 days. Like what the heck!  Who does that?  haha we just got to get him to come to church so we can baptize him.

So this week on Friday we had a really cool experience with Jose Almir, he is about 80 years old and lives by himself, kinda sad.  He is a member that has gone inactive so on Friday we were walking in the street like normal and he starting talking to us and told us that he was a member of our church and that he wanted us to come by his house and visit him so of course we said “ok how about right now!” hahah  So we went to his little humble home and talked to him for about 40 mins or so.  Turns out his mom died like 30 years ago and  with her death he stopped going to church.  It was a pretty sad visit honestly and made me really not want to get any old.  But when we were leaving we invited him to come to church with us on Sunday.  He accepted but he didnt want to go to church with a beard.  So we were like well shave it. But apparently he is like 40 percent blind and cant shave by himself any more so we asked him if we could help him.   He accepted and YES I shaved this old dudes beard. hahaha  It was amazing. I had my electric razor in my backpack so it was really easy.  After we shaved his beard we cleaned up his house.  It was great he was so happy for the help and for the visit.  It made me realize how much just a little service can effect people.  On Sunday we had a member go and pick him up and at church he looked soo happy.  He just keep saying “tudo bein”  (its all good) like over and over again when ever I would look at him.  It was so great.  We talked to the elders quorum pres and got him some home teaches so he can keep coming to church. 

On Saturday night we celebrated my birthday with the Wissali family because it was also Lorascas birthday and another member of our Ward named Drica.  It was fun we had a ton of cake and food. It was also the last night the Wissalis family was here in Brasil.  They moved to the states which stinks for us but its cool for them to be in Utah.

Well I hope you have a great thanksgiving 

Love

Elder Jensen

Week 16

Dear Family,

Today I am doing splits with the ZL and he didn’t have email time yesterday so I get to email today.  Dope. Since I didn’t get to EMail yesterday.

This week was pretty cool.  To start it off we went to this town in our area called Sao Francisco Xaviar which is 1 hour and a half away up in the mountains or hills haha.  But our ward has 3 families who live way up there and they are inactive because its really hard for them to get all the way down to Sao Jose every Sunday. It would be really hard to travel for 3 hours just to go to church and pay 20 bucks for the bus.  But we went up there and had lunch with this super tight family, the food was pretty good haha and we left a message on how important the sacrament was for us and how without the sacrament we really cant feel the spirit in our lives.  It made me think alot about how important the sacrament is in my life and how many faults I have that can be passed away because of the sacrament.

But this town was soooo cool, reminded me a lot of like Morrison or Evergreen  Just this little mountain town away from all the worries of the world, felt really good up there maybe because it wasn’t so freaking hot. But honestly this week it has been raining alot more and I am definitely grateful for my umbrella (thanks Mom) or my rain guard as they call it here.  But its fine I like the rain because as my past Elder de Olivera taught me, the more it rains on your mission the better looking your wife will be, so its all good.  Apparently its a direct relation.  I miss de Olivera tons. He was an awesome trainer. but elder Payne and I are getting a long really well and I am learning alot of little things about being a missionary.  For example this week I had my first real weekly planning session.  This week we had an investigator named Rafial, he is a 17 year old kid who lives right across the street from the chapel and is really smart.  He really likes to learn about everything so he came to church with us but unfortunately, he is an atheist and doubts everything. Its really hard to teach people that are so quick to find fault in things.  We taught him like 3 times this week but he didnt make any progress,  It makes me want to be more open-minded about life and just try to try more things. Last night at district meeting the assistants were here and they gave us a really sick training on humility.  They talked about how our zone is suffering because we are lacking unity and humility.  It was really good they told the story of Ammon in Alma 26 and how he was able to have pure joy because he accepted that he is nothing in his own strength but through the help of God he was able to do everything.  It was a really good training and really made me want to try to be more humble.  He also shared a scripture in Mosiah 4 where King Benjamin said that one can never be too humble and that it is a attribute that we always need to be working on.  It was a really dope training. We had our last family night with Wissiles’ family last night because on Saturday they are moving to Utah because Valenet, the mom is getting married to some guy that lives there.  I am really going to miss this family, they are the best family in our ward and they are all so firm in their faith and are just so nice to the elders. I hope that you guys in the states are generous with the elders and are always looking for ways to serve them. 

Well I know that the church is true and love you all. 

ELDER JENSEN 

 That’s so cool about Bryce and Karina, that’s awesome for them! 

For Christmas I really just want super sick ties and some maple syrup 

Week 15

Hello

This week was pretty cool. (Except for the fact that it was so hot!! the attached picture of Aaron shows the thermometer at 40  degrees Celsius which is 104 degrees Fahrenheit) 

I had one of the coolest experiences on my mission so far.  On Wednesday we were walking in the street going to this kids house we are teaching and a middle age dude came up to us and asked us what our work was and what do we do?  We explained to him that we are missionaries.  He said that he needed our prayers because he had to decided to kill himself  and that there was nothing we could do to change his mind. It was intense!  Luckily we where like right next to the chapel so we asked him if he had a little bit of time to talk.  We walked into the chapel and it was just walking into a wall of the spirit right as I opened the front door and stepped in.  We sat down in the chapel and just talked about God and how God views the soul of every person equally and how God loves every one.  We ended up finding out that his wife just left him with his 5 year old daughter because he was a really big drinker  He was living out on the streets for about a week with no money or no way to get back to Sao Paulo where he had a brother. After about like 30 minutes of talking to him he was already 100 percent different and he decided to stop drinking,  it was soo cool.  We decided to get him a bus ticket back to Sao Paulo so we walked to the bus staition and he was just so happy,  it was so cool.   He was laughing and joking and he accepted to take the lessons back in Sao Paulo so we gave his information to some elders in his area.  Over all I gained a huge testimony on how powerful the spirit really is and how it can change peoples lives.   it was soo cool.  Honestly if we would not have been there this dude might have tired to kill himself. 

This week we have been teaching alot of people and it has been really good.  We baptized a young man named José who is 17 years and is like super smart.  He was a referral from a sister in our stake that  knows him though school.   Since Jose is only 17 he had to get permission from his mom to be baptized and she has to sign this fixa,  don't remember the world in English (signature).  When he asked her, she said no way! never ask me again about it no way!  So he went  into his room and said a prayer that his mom would allow him to be baptized and apparently his mom saw him kneeing down in his room and it just made her change her mind.  It was great, so he was baptized yesterday and he chose me to baptize him as well.   Being down in the font is like the best feeling in the world, first of all because the water is freezzzing and its always super hot here and second because the spirit is just like wicked strong.   It is also really terrifying because there are like 30 people watching and Brazilians have some really long names haha. But I said it all right the first time again so its all good. 

My comp and I are getting along really well and we teach really well together, its tight.  We made some really good goals this week and I think we are going to be really successful this transfer as long as we depend on the Lord and just work super hard. 

Every thing is good and I am loving life here in Brasil. 

love 

ELDER JENSAN (really slowly) thats how Brazilians say it 

Week 14

Yeah Aya!   I knew she would serve a mission, that makes me so happy I can’t even stand it. I miss and love her tons. I cant wait to her that she is coming to Brazil, the best mission in the world where the people are nice and the spirit is strong!

This week has been awesome.  On Monday night we had our last district meeting with de Olivera, it was really good.  I got up and talked about how much he taught me and how I was going to miss him tons, he was a really good trainer. I might have cried haha but it was cool.  Afterward I got kind of trunky and was talking to my ZL about how long I still have and how it’s never going to end.  Then I had one of the best experiences on the mission yet.  He asked me one question that really changed how I think it was great.  He asked, “But elder think of how many people you will change and how many people you will save.”  It really made me want to be a better missionary and made me glad to still have a lot of time on the mission.  Then on Wednesday, I got my new comp, Elder Payne, who is  super cool from Cali, he’s kind of like Andrew but with a really big head.  He is excited and really happy about every thing, we work well together and I already love him tons.

On Sunday we had 2 baptisms.  The first was Dalcio who I baptized, it was soooo cool. I was super nervous because he has like 5 names just like all Brazilians. But I did the prayer and got him under the water the first time.  When we got into the bathroom he said “Elder fui awesome” It WAS awesome! It was really great when I was in the fount the spirit was super strong and I know that he will be a great member and in about a year a killer missionary. so cool! 

We also had a surprise baptism.  Her name is Terisa,  she is the 47 year old Mom of a really strong family in the church.  I think her husband the high Priest leader.  She has been investigating the church for 25 years, been coming to church on and off and taking the lessons every once and a while. On Friday we got a call form the ward missionaries who are apparently awesome, saying that they need us to come interview her so she can be baptized it was really cool. Her husband baptized her and it was such a cool experience.  About half of the ward showed up for the service and it was just really spiritual.  Tonight is the last night that de Oliviera will be here with his parents so it should be fun but sad to say good bye to him.  I’m going to miss him tons. But all is well here in Brazi,l loving the work and missing everyone in the states. 

Sorry for my short letter.   

Elder Jensen 

Dad, that is awesome about your investigator.   There is nothing like finding teaching and baptizing people I love it!  Good luck with every thing. Also yeeessssssss Gangnam style is like the best song ever, we hear it like 10 times a day here and we all know the dance haha.  Every time we ride the bus we just start doing the dance.  I love it  but Elder de Olivera says that garoto, the little boy is totally future Benu.  Haha.  I cant believe this song is popular in the states, that makes me so happy 

Also I found my camera so its all cool, don’t fret.  Thanks for the birthday money idk when I will use it.  I did not get the Halloween package maybe some one will grab it for me from the mission office  this week during transfers.  For Christmas I really just need a thin pair of flat front pants 32 30 also ties I love ties haha. I don’t know what else.  Thanks for every thing.