September 2009 - September 2011

The Journey from Beginning to End

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Week #79: Transfer by Plane!

{Email from Wednesday, 23 March 2011}
Dear Family,

Gerdson's Family with Elders Tenney and Johnson
20 March 2011

Atila's Family
21 March 2011
 
Hey, how you all doing? I´m doing just fantastic.. I got a really bad cold on Friday and I´ve still got it. Stuffy nose, sore throat, I went deaf in my right ear for a while, the usual stuff. Nothing too big. It was the worst when we were coming in on the airplane and my ears wouldn´t pop. Oh! Surprise! I got transferred! I left Lagoa Verde and now I am in the Porto Velho Ward in Porto Velho, Rondônia. My ward is the city center, so it's a lot of commercial and not so much residential. I am with Elder Amorim from Maceió. He started his mission when I was with Elder Seastrand, so we already know each other. I am super excited, as well as he is. I left Lagoa Verde with a baptism for this Saturday, so I will get back to you all if it went through next week. {Porto Velho is 550 miles from Manaus, and has a population of just over 300,000).

Yesterday I got to the staff at 5:30 because Irmão Atila had to get back to Lagoa to work, so I had been up since 4:30 to get a ride. Then I found out that our plane wouldn´t leave until 8:15 that night, so I didn´t get to my new house until around 11:15 and I couldn´t get to sleep because my ears wouldn´t pop until about 1 in the morning. I am absolutely wasted right now. I am so happy that today is P-Day.

Kitchen
Porto Velho, Rondonia
23 March 2011

Sink
Porto Velho, Rondonia
23 March 2011
 
Study
Porto Velho, Rondonia
23 March 2011

New Room
Porto Velho, Rondonia
23 March 2011

I think this house is the smallest house I have been in so far. It even has a low ceiling. Let´s just say I have to bend over to get underneath the showerhead it´s so low. Actually, they just put the showerhead in low is all.
 
Mission Plaque
22 March 2011

This area is huge! I saw the map and it has 23 neighborhoods in it. It has a giant main road to the east until the Rio Madeira on the west side. Pretty big! There are a total of 10 missionaries in this entire state. As I think about it, I think it is either 2-3 Brazilians and the rest are Americans. {Elder Tenney has been serving till this transfer in the Brazilian state of Amazonas - Rondonia is an entirely different state. He has also served in the state of Acre}.

Elder Mordechai's Tree of Life
22 March 2011

I haven´t taken a picture of Elder Amorim and me yet, but I think maybe there is an old one somewhere that I sent a long time ago when I was with Elder Martins or Elder Seastrand.

I got a letter from the Mail Office saying they are holding my box because it may contain drugs or something. It´s being held by the sanitary department. I have to go clear up what's in it or something. Was there anything important in it that I will need to get? Or if I can´t manage to get the box it wouldn´t be a complete disaster other than I will be completely devastated on not getting the super awesome contents?

Missionary Trauma Checklist completed by Elder Tenney :p
23 March 2011

Tell Sister Andersen to tell Nick to get better and that he is brave to get a needle stuck in him in a foreign country! I just got that letter the other day. I actually got a huge wad of letters yesterday because nobody was going in for the last little while to deliver them to us. Now I am even further from staff so I will get things once a month out here. Yay. . . oh well.

Hope you are all doing good! Don´t worry. I´ll drink lots of water and rest up so I can get better soon! Love y´all!

-Elder Tenney