September 2009 - September 2011

The Journey from Beginning to End

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Week #49: Pit Bull

Hey everyone!

So, this week was another normal week. Taught a bit, walked a bit, ate a lot of ramen noodles, drank lots of water, that sort of stuff. This transfer has gone by extremely fast. I don't know why. It feels like Elder Fox was just here. As of a few days ago, I think Elder Seastrand has also arrived home to get off to college. This means that half of my companions are already home. Weird stuff. I think I have Seastrand's address in a planner I left in Manaus, so I don´t know where he is. Just Holladay, Utah. That's as much as I can remember.

Transfers are next week. We get the phone call this Saturday about if anything happens. I have mixed emotions about this one. I want to stay here because the ward members are super awesome most of the time and it's a fun area, no rain, flat, etc. But there are no people here. I want to go back to Manaus to get back in the middle of things and be surrounded by people to work with.

Seems like Livy and Ike are growing up fast. I don´t even know the little booger and he is already standing up! Has he seriously not cried once since he was born? I haven't heard of a single time that he has cried yet.

So, big story of the week. We were leaving the house of a member the other night and there were a bunch of little kids playing in the street. This guy comes up the road walking his dog. Pit Bull. It had a mask on so it couldn't bite or anything. He goes walking past the member's house, then he gets to the next house. Three dogs come running out to bark at the pit bull. The owner tries a little to pull the bull back, but then when he pulls it back, he takes the mask off the dog. The pit bull grabbed one of the other dogs by the neck and shook it like a rag doll. After a couple minutes of this, the owner kicks the little dog out of the mouth of the pb and then puts the mask back on and starts talking about how the little dogs were attacking him and he kept walking away. One of the young men in the ward called the police and the police car went by a few minutes later to go get the guy. Don't know if they got him.

Hope you are all doing awesome! Love you all tons!

-Elder Tenney

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Week #48: Zone Conference & Baptism!

Dear Everyone!

How has life been for you all this week? Mine is going pretty fine, thanks for asking! I´m just going to get straight to it, I ate cow tongue two times this week! It was all right. Really squishy and not much flavor, and still had little tongue hairs sticking out of it, but other than that, it was pretty good. Almost ate the chicken feet, too, but I think I´ll just take it one thing at a time.

So, Acre is covered in smoke right now. There is a lot of stuff burning in Peru, Bolivia and Roraima (state to the side of Acre) and it is all falling here. Yay. Elder Trage and I have been a little sick the past week or so. Stuffy nose and that sort of stuff.

We had zone conference this last week. No interviews, though. At least, Elder Trage and I didn't have them. Just the missionaries that were having problems. So, conference. When I was in the CTM, they had a DVD called, "The District" that helps to understand how to use PMG and do missionary stuff. This last month, the First Presidency and The Quorum of the 12 came out with the latest sequel, "The District 2." Yay!!!!!!

We had ward conference this last Sunday, also. We taught the Gospel Principles class this week on Missionary Work.  It turned out all right.

I officially have 11 months on the mission now. Getting to the mountain top. I can almost see the valley on the other side! Yes, I will say it again as I say it every month: The mission is going by extremely fast.                                

Baptism of 12-year-old Raiara by her brother
14 August 2010

Elder Trage, Raiara, & Elder Tenney
14 August 2010
(She is really really short I know, but believe me, she is 12.
She looks 6, but she is 12. Birth certificate and everything.)

We had a baptism of a 12-year-old young woman who is the sister of one of the few still active returned missionaries here. It was pretty cool because her brother baptised and confirmed her. Touching, I know.

Haven't got the package yet. I think it might be in holding in Manaus at the post office. Maybe there was some inspection it didn't pass. I hope you didn't put treat as abandoned when you sent it. They steal those and say it was impossible to deliver. Kidding. Well... maybe it's true... maybe............

That was basically my week this week. I´ll try to upload a foto or two.

Love all of you tons!

Elder Mitch Tenney

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Week #47: Early P-Day!

(We were so happy to hear from Elder Tenney a day early this week!  He sent us this quick email to let us know why, then the longer email with his news)

Hey! We have zone conference and interviews this week, so p-day is today instead of tomorrow! WRITE QUICK!

Hey Família!
 
So this last week was pretty good. The work is steadily increasing. We have been doing lots of service projects lately, and my hands are covered in blisters and callouses and what-not. There´s your proof. So, anyways, we have been teaching a guy named Rolfe. Don´t know if I told you about him, but he is wanting to marry the bishop's daughter and get baptized. He has about 26 years or so. We made a goal with him to stop smoking by the end of the month, but it seems that as he takes away cigarettes, he drinks more. NOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooo........................................

So yeah.

We are also having a meeting with the ward every Thursday. I call it ROMA. Reunião da Obra Missionária na Ala. Ward Missionary Work Meeting. WMWM? It's more of a correlation meeting. The ward members are getting more excited about missionary work after every meeting. Pretty cool stuff.

We are also teaching a girl with 12 years. Her name is Raiara and she is a little sister of one of the few returned missionaries in the ward. She wants to get baptized now, so we went and taught basically every day and she is already ready to get baptized this week. Yay! We are also finding some other people who are in a similar position of wanting to get baptized. Hopefully they all can be as easy as teaching Raiara, who had no problem with any of the commandments, and is already paying tithing because her brother taught her. Whoa...

How was Father´s Day out in Sunny Saint George? It was a little cold here the last week, but the cold front already passed and it hits about 80 by 7:30 ish or so now. Warming up again.  (We aren't sure why he thinks Father's Day was last week...:)

It was Sister Jayme´s birthday yesterday, and the whole mission sent in an email to the assistants to make a giant bday card for her with a message from all of us. Hope she likes it. She is awesome +1 billion awesome points. President Jayme, too, but his birthday isn't until after Christmas, so I´ll wait to give him the awesome points later.

I got a few letters the other day. Basically everything from July 27 and before. Pretty fast. After tomorrow, I won't get anything until September, so... yeah...

That´s about it this week. I´ll put a Christmas wish list to let you know what I'm wanting from Santa Claus and all that fun stuff.

Com amor,
Elder Tenney

Christmas Wish List-
Lanyard(sp?) of BYU
Journal Refill with cover
Real American Toothpaste giant tube
2G Memory Card
A Giant American Flag
Black Socks - 5 pairs
BYU Course Catalog 2011

Friday, August 06, 2010

Week #46: Aug 4 Email: Service & Zoo

Hey everybody!
 
So, this week was a really awesome week! We didn't have very much stuff marked to do, so we dedicated a lot of time to service projects at our neighbor's house who is a member, Irmão Costa. Last Saturday, we helped him rip out part of his fence to put in a new gate. Yesterday, we helped clean out the back yard and fix the gate up and stuff. I cut down a tree with a machete yesterday! It was so awesome! I have a giant blister at the bottom of my right thumb, but other than that, it was super awesome! 

Rio Branco - Flag of Acre
02 August 2010

Also, another ward member´s daughter was in an accident, and we went on Monday to go donate blood at the Hemoacre (that´s the name of the place in Rio Branco) for her. It was pretty cool. I didn´t think I would ever donate blood here on the mission. Sadly, on Tuesday, the member's daughter died. We are going to go visit there later. I think we are going to start teaching the brothers, too.
 
Chico Mendes
04 August 2010

Monkey!
Chico Mendes - 04 August 2010
 
We got up nice and early this morning to go back to the Zoo: Chico Mendes. This time I brought my camera. Right now, I am actually making a DVD of all my photos because my memory cards are full up. I am going to delete one of them. I am making two copies of the DVD, and will send one home one of these days. I seem to be missing a few photos that I think were only on my pen drive that died.

We are teaching a guy named Rolfe right now. He wants to marry the bishop´s daughter and get baptized. Only problem is that he has a few commandment problems. The biggest one is the cigarettes. He smokes 2-3 packs a day. 20 cigs a pack. We put him on a goal of 40 today, then take 2 away each day until 0. Should stop smoking in about 3 weeks on this schedule. Pray for him.

Music
27 July 2010

We are starting to get some references these days. The members see us doing the service projects and we bug them to death for references, so it's starting to pick up. Pray for us.

"Do I have enough stamps?"
25 July 2010

Hope you are all doing well! Happy Father´s Day this Sunday! I am a bit sad that we can´t call home for this one. Oh, well... Coming up on 10.5 months already! Going by way too fast now.

Love you all!

PS- DVD burn a success! Coming soon, photos from CTM-7th transfer, and yes, I organized it a bit.