September 2009 - September 2011

The Journey from Beginning to End

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Week #40: 06.22.2010: Early P-Day/Short Email

So, this week we have p-day early due to interviews and zone conference, so today is the day. Cool beans, eh? Not much really happened this week. All I can say is... I got my love in a box!
 
"Love in a Box" (Mailed May 11, 2010 - Received June 21!!!)

"Love in a Box" - 21 June 2010
 
Goodies & Essentials of Love in a Box - 21 June 2010

Thank you thank you thank you! It was so spectaculistically amazing!

"9 Months" (This is so wrong!!:)
16 June 2010

Oh, I hit nine months this last week, too. Sorry it's not much this week, but I will be sure to send lots of pictures!
 
So, I took some pictures for my "Nine Months". They turned out pretty funny.

My nine months picture while I was drinking water looked like a beer belly:P
16 June 2010

"Wait a minute..."
16 June 2010
   
Tereré is a lemonade herbal drink. It's really tasty.
18 June 2010
 
"Horns and Feet"
20 June 2010
 
The arena is the Soccer Stadium of Acre.
22 June 2010
 
Again, thanks for the box. Send Blake's bus if he isn't going to keep it. I will gladly use it to pick up investigators for church. Even though it is 2.90 a liter for gas, so that's like almost 12 for a gallon. (About $6)

"Giant Tree"
21 June 2010
 
 (That's it for this week...Elder Tenney also mentioned that he is excited to see his friend Elder Poulton when his visa clears and he finally gets to Brazil!)

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Week #39: 06.16.2010: 9 Months!

Elder 10-e's intro:  "Warning: Details included this week not for the weak stomach"

So, let's just get down to business (To defeat the Huns) here. Today I make 9 months on the mission. YAY!

"Time flies on wings of lightning"....
(10 June 2010)
 
Elder 10-e: "There and back again. A hobbit's adventure...
Me in the CTM... me a few days ago. My what a change."
(September-November 2009 & 10 June 2010)
 
Elder 10-e: "A pic of me we took the other day.
 I got a form called the RM-107 that I have to fill out
and return with a recent photo. Just a quick snap, really." (10 June 2010)
 
Today in Acre (16 June 2010)

It is seriously going by so darn fast I just want to stay in this area forever. This is seriously the coolest area in the mission. Coolest as in coldest and most awesome for all of you who don’t speak the lingo.

P-Day..not at "Bob's Burgers"... (09 June 2010)

So, last week after going to email all y’all, we went to the new restaurant that just opened up in Rio Branco (Or so we thought):  Bob´s Burgers. What a wonderful Brazilian flair they put on that name. So we were walking all across Rio Branco…ok, it was only about 10 – 15 blocks away, but anyway, we were all walking and we finally got there and… it was still closed. What is this??? P-day hours are very precious to us, and we can’t waste them like that. So we went to the oriental restaurant next door, kind of. Ok, that was like 7.5 blocks back the way we came. I will send pictures.

Elders Fox, A. Oliveira, Smith & Tenney (09 June 2010)
 
Chinese Feast on P-Day (09 June 2010)
 
So after we got home, or, on the bus ride back that is, Elder Fox decides to get sick with a huge headache and fever and the whole 9 yards. Well, it wasn’t really his choice, but still. So I cleaned the house from top to bottom for a few hours then that was our day.

Elder 10-e: "World cup, Wold cup.
  It all sounds the same with a Portuguese accent."
(12 June 2010)

President Jayme has allowed the missionaries to watch USA and Brazil games. I think I already sent the criteria for being able to. Practically impossible. But we got our numbers in last week and they were spectacularly in the right area for qualification to the watching of the games. I hope we are understanding how he declared the rules, but still, the games are awesome. Brazil shuts down during the Brazil game, and barely anyone here in this area watches the other games. Elder Fox and I were cheering for North Korea for fun and it was super awesome when they made the goal. We got up and yelled GÔL!!! And they all looked at us like traitors. Pretty cool.

Elder 10-e: "A street. They painted most of the streets
and decorated EVERYTHING for the World Cup."
(16 June 2010)
 
Please send more Cortaid. (He doesn't mention the bites on his feet from last week...this request says it all, I guess).
  
Elder 10-e: "Tenney's Foot" (Translation from Portuguese??)
(13 June 2010)
 
Elder 10-e: "Us at Lidiane´s house, with less than half of the family there at the time..."
(14 June 2010)

So we have 2 recent converts Adriana and Lidiane (sisters) and their sister-in-law Rosangela doing a competition to see who can finish the Book of Mormon first. Whoever gets it wins a prize. A SurPrise. Why so? We don’t know what we are going to get yet. Maybe a small box of chocolate or something.
 
Bull Horn...aka Brazilian microphone?? ;)
(09 June 2010)

Every 2nd week in the Acre ward the missionaries have to give talks in Sacrament meeting, so I spoke on Patience this last Sunday. It was pretty cool. I have decided I have a phobia of microphones. I just absolutely cannot talk into microphones. I hate it. I don’t like hearing my voice going out and filling up a room. I only did men's choir because I wasn’t the only one singing. Yes, I admit it. I am terrified of microphones. I will get over it, though. Maybe.

Chocolate goodness Elder 10-e style.
(12 June 2010)

I MADE NO-BAKE COOKIES!!! THEY WERE DELICIOUS!!! I changed the recipe, and it turned out awesome. I couldn’t find most of the stuff, so I substituted ¼ cup of sugar with chocolate milk mix. It was good. Really good. So good, I made it again!!! And a 3rd time!!!

So, Lidiane’s mom, Enedina, smokes and drinks coffee. We bought the stuff called Cevada which tastes like coffee and smells like coffee but has none of the harmful stuff in it, and we took it to them. She thought we were joking when we said we were taking the coffee. She let it go. So we left with the coffee. We went back the next day and she was smoking twice as much as usual and ready to rip off our heads, but she likes us too much so she cooled down after 2 seconds.

Lauene, Gelcilene, Lavigne
Elder 10-e: "A family we are going to do a wedding for
 in July or August. It's a long story."
(14 June 2010)

This last Sunday we were looking for a house that a member had showed us a few weeks ago and we were walking up and down the roads at night looking for it. There was a fire burning on one of the roads and Elder Fox said, “It's not that road, I remember it being further down that way.” I said, "Where are we going?” Fox:  "Following the spirit.” So I started singing Hymn #2 – The Spirit of God like a fire is burning… (Yeah, I still remember the first verse in English, and yes, I sang it).  After checking the other roads we came back and went up the one with the fire and… We found the house. Lol

(Readers - Remember Elder 10-e's warning introduction....I apologize in advance - but this is so typically his personality, I had to include it.  I am still laughing at his descriptive imagery....;)

So, last tidbit of news for this week that I wrote down, we went out to a farm this week of Marcos e Vânia. They are members that live like Cedar City distance from town. It's nice to make visits. But today, of all days, is the first day I did something I thought I would go 2 years without doing. I finally threw up. And it wasn’t your everyday *bleugh*, it was shooting-everything-out-the-mouth-and-rice-shooting-out-the-nose-burning-in-the-throat-explosion-action. Thankfully I had felt it coming for like 10 minutes before so I was already well positioned outside the house just waiting for it to come.

Hopefully I get the Luv-in-a-Box next Monday if it was in Manaus. If not, I will have another chance the next week I think.

I hope you all like the details this week. As you can see, I lead an interesting life.

I am in 3rd Néfi 11. I will finish in a couple of weeks and then start Jesus the Christ in Português.

Beijo.  (Kiss)

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Week #38: Transfer news...& World Cup!

THE WORLD CUP STARTS TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!

SAVE US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kidding.

Oi Família!

So, let's start with the big stuff! Transfers were yesterday, and the big news is… I stayed in Senador Guiomard with Elder Fox! Now he is in his last transfer like Elder Gannon was, so that means I will probably stay here another 12 weeks or so with another companion afterwards.

The work is going to be difficult. Starting tomorrow. The Soccer World Cup in South Africa starts tomorrow, and basically all of Brasil shuts down. If USA wins against Brazil anywhere in there, we will have to stay in our apartment for a while, being the only Americans for quite a large distance. If Brasil wins, they drink because they are happy. If Brasil loses, they drink because they are sad. Nobody is going to accept visits or anything during the games. President Jayme has allowed the missionaries to watch the games with a few conditions. We have to have better than normal weeks, meaning more than 30 lessons and lots of other stuff, we can only watch games where Brasil is playing, can't watch on Sunday, and we have to watch it at the Bishop’s house, the Ward Mission Leaders, or the Elders Quorum President’s house. Also, we have to bring at least one investigator with us during the game to watch, too. Go England!

I am very very sorry. I still have a stack of letters to send off that I wrote the other day. I just keep forgetting about them, and the price to mail international letters just went up. It was R$1.80, but now it is R$2. Thankfully, we got our allowance today and I got all of my reimbursements from the electric bills.

The bus drivers are starting to come out of the strike now. They raised the price of buses so that they could pay the employees more.

Lidiane’s family is doing very well. I think they worked out all the problems from the other week. The last bit of the puzzle is getting the guy who shot. They know who it was, but he fled to another state, or he could be in Bolivia now. They seem to be doing fine. We marked a baptism for Lidiane’s sister, Karoline, on the 20th.

Next week I may take a while to get to a LAN house. We are going out to a farm way out in the boonies again.

Thank you so much for the no bake cookie recipe! I think the only thing that is going to be hard to come across is vanilla. I think I have seen it, though. Coconut shouldn’t be a problem, but I think I´ll skip it anyway. Can you send a chocolate chip cookie recipe?  Just a basic cookie. Nothing fancy. They don’t even have chocolate chips here, but the cookie dough in and of itself is delicious to the taste.

∞INFINITELY GOOD!∞

Anyways, as you can probably tell, I really am missing cookie dough right now. It will pass. I think the Box of Love should get here next week. Hopefully.

I think that’s about it. You are very fortunate indeed to have touched snow. Some people here have never even seen it, including on tv! (Editor:  We sent him a picture of this tiny snowman we made on Cedar Mountain last Saturday).

Snow...for any Brazilians who may read this blog:)
 
All I am going to say is don´t ask how, because I don´t know. Day 3 is this morning. Pretty cool, huh?

Day 1 (07 June 2010)
 
This morning... (09 June 2010)

...according to a member, it's a mix of mosquito bites with some sort of allergic reaction, so I dunno. It just started itching in the middle of the day on Sunday, so I think it was when we were walking through an area and some bugs got in my shoes or something and were stuck in my socks and started biting. Not really sure. It's getting better, though. I have anti-itch cream, so we are all good here.  

"Cooling them off" (07 June 2010)

Good week to all y'all.

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Week #37: It's June Already!!!

Dear Fam,

"Lord of the Flies" (05.31.2010)

What an insane week!  It went by like a blur! I finally finished Alma in Portuguese and I am almost done with Helemãn.

So, Brasil has your basic ingredients, so can somebody send me some recipes for stuff like no bake cookies, bread, cake, pancakes and stuff like that?

"These Are Rare!" (05.27.2010)
 
So last Friday, we found ourselves with 3 appointments in a row falling after lunch, so we went and bought ice cream cones! We each ate one, then just sat there, and it was like, that was really good! So… we bought another one! That one was really good, too! So… We bought another one!

Elder Tenney, Boy in Acre, & Elder Fox

Boy and Goat in Acre
 
Elder Tenney & Little Piggy in Acre
 
Elder Tenney & Huge Turtle in Acre

We met this one 16 year old kid who is a Mason. He is pretty excited about the Book of Mormon and all the stuff, and said he was excited to read the entire book! When we went back the second time a few days later, he was like, “Whoa! You guys actually came back! I didn’t think you would. I never got around to reading that part you left.” So we came back the next day, and he wasn’t even there. We will try to go back later. He has some pretty good standards because of the Masonry stuff.

Elder Tenney & Friend Holding Baby Crocodile In Acre
(05.30.2010)

Baby Crocodile in Acre (05.30.2010)
 
So yeah, basically that was it. We got a lot of references this week! Suddenly we are scheduling full days! More to come next week. We will see who makes the cut.
 
Elder Tenney's Sock - Workin' Hard...;)
(05.29.2010)

Transfers already next week, too. . .

I almost forgot. In Rio Branco there has been a bus strike, so now all the buses are stopped and it is extremely difficult to get into Rio Branco these days. We got a taxi today. I think it will end soon, but we haven't been able to get to a district meeting in a couple of weeks now. We hope it will end before transfers.

Elder Tenney holding Baby Croc in Acre
 
Elder Tenney & Baby Croc....

Actually, the croc was dead. Don't tell mom. ;)

Dirty Beach in the Amazon
(03.27.2010)