September 2009 - September 2011

The Journey from Beginning to End

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Week #84: "19"

Dear Family,

How are all you doing? I am doing just great. It´s a little hot these days, but I´m living with it. As usual. This week is the last week of the transfer and I am really wanting to stay here with Elder Amorim. We have a whole lot of work lined up for these next few weeks. I am super excited to see how it all goes down.

We had our baptismal meeting last weekend and it was amazing.

Baptisms of
Fernando, Thacila, Geovana, Pedro,  and Michele
23 April 2011

One Big Family
23 April 2011

There were so many people there, including many family members! One of our baptisms for this week fell because he didn´t go to church this week, but we re-marked him for next week. It has been a long time since I have had a teaching group this big. I think when I was with Elder Seastrand we had one about the same size. It´s nice to have so much to keep us busy. We seem to keep finding new people, too, during our appointments so it´s an ever growing process. The Lord is truly blessing us here in this area.

Easter was cool. Lots of the members gave us chocolate Easter Eggs. I will take a picture of one and send it next week. In all, we have one wedding planned for the 21st this next month, and we are hoping to have some more for the end of the month or beginning of June. Wow... it´s already June. Happy bday, Livvy. :) Ok, maybe it's still a little too early for that. Well, all in all, we are doing just fantastic, and I hope you all are too!

Love,

Mitch

ps- Tell all the ward member folks I said "hi".

{Editor:  "Hi" to all our wonderful ward members! :)  Thanks for reading.  In case you are wondering what the "19" title to this blog entry means....it means only "19 weeks" until Elder Tenney returns home! The countdown has begun - only 3 more transfers! Hurrah!}

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Week #83: Water Water Water everywhere

Hey all yous peoples at home! How be you? I be good. I no take pictures for long time. Sorry. Will make pictures with machine today and send week that come. Being blessed in this area. We have 5 baptisms marked for this week and 4 more the week that comes, and another 3 for next month after a couple weddings and whatnot. I think I already explained Mario coming back to church last week, and how they were inactive when his kids reached 8 and continued. Now they are 14 and 12, and as we were teaching, all their cousins and aunts and uncles that live around the house also started listening in and most want to be baptized now! What a gold mine. Hard work paying off.

House flooded again. Happens when there is a hard rainstorm. We are moving sometime in June once the contract ends and we find a new place. We have an awesome location right now in the middle of the area near the chapel, so it will be hard to leave.
 
Dad asked some questions:

Do you and the mission have any plans for a going away party for Pres. Jayme? Has he said what he plans to do when he returns to the states? Is the mission responding well to his goal setting some months back? Did he have to send any missionaries home that didn't comply and didn't want to be there and work? How are the plans for building the 4 stakes the church asked for to get the temple built? How is the retention there in your mission? What differences are you seeing in your new ward where there is a good number of stake and general leaders who live in the area? How is the Seventy to work with? Have you had any interaction with him since he got back from conference?

As far as I know, no party yet. Pres. still has one more transfer. They are planning on moving to Las Vegas maybe because they have kids there. The mission responded very well. Nobody was sent home as far as I know. It kind of scared everyone into place. The 4 stakes are coming, but I think the temple will be first. Retention is around 60-70 percent I think. I am being blessed in this area with members who understand the importance of missionary work. I haven´t really interacted with the seventy all that much. He is a hyper guy, though.

Elder Amorim and I are really wanting to stay together for next transfer. We are getting along extremely well and having lots of success together. Never a dull moment. Pray for our investigators, so that they can overcome their addictions (for those that have) and that the hearts of their friends and relatives will be softened to listen to our message, too! But, as we know, faith without works is dead, so go give the missionaries in the ward a few references, too. Help teach with them and all that jazz.

Hope you are all having a great time!

Love you!

-Elder Tenney

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Week #82: Porto Velho - Old Port

Well, it´s another week down. We have been doing a lot of walking recently. We got a golden reference the other day. A man named Mario and his wife Auxiliadora went inactive a few years ago. They up and decided to come back to church this Sunday. Thing is, their two children were not baptized as they were inactive. Now they are 13 and 14 and have a desire, so we may have a couple more baptisms here in a week or two. One of our good investigators, Edisom, asked us to stop coming by. He read, prayed, is still reading the Book of Mormon and praying, but he couldn´t handle the pressure of all the other people from other churches bugging him so he asked us to stop coming by so his head can get a rest. This wasn´t the first time he asked, but last time we helped him, but after another week of non-stop opposition, he gave in. It was really sad to see it happen, but I know one day in the hopefully near future he will come to see the light. We have a woman named Taiane who is set to be baptized along with another woman on May 7. Taiane is preparing to get married, too, so hopefully we´ll have a bit of a party here in the near future. Interviews with President Jayme are this Friday. If I have all my information straight, this will be my final interview with President Jayme before he leaves. I am truly going to miss him. I am so grateful for the influence he has made in my life through his example. We started to look for a new house the other day, as our house has flooded 2 times since last week due to heavy rainstorms. My bed was a small sailboat in our room, so... yeah, time to upgrade. I am super excited for the conference magazine to come out soon! Conference was filled with so many goodies! Love you all and hope you are all doing just fantastic!

com abraço,

elder tenney

ps- Mother's day call - 8th of May, (Sunday) - 45 minutes, still finding phone, probably bishop's office phone again, new rule from pres - only immediate family members and mom gets the most talking time. Love y'all!

Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Week #81: Amos 3:7 The Lord Calls Prophets

And so ends another wonderful conference. There were some tech problems and I had to watch the Saturday afternoon and priesthood sessions in Portuguese, but it wasn´t much of a setback. Still the amazing messages, just with different words.

General Conference Sunday
03 April 2011
Elder Tenney (middle row, far right)

It was really funny for all of us missionaries to hear all the messages that basically said, "Get on with your life, get married." I would like to have the Ensign sent to me in English if possible. Don´t send your only copy, though.
 
Larissa's Baptism
01 April 2011
 
This last week we had a baptism of a girl whose family was baptized a few months ago, but she didn't want to.  Seems she was just scared that she couldn't dance or something, so everything got straightened out and she was baptized last Friday. (Larissa)
 
Basically it's the same stuff for every week. I am feeling a lot better now. We got some rain today, but the last few days have been sun sun sunny. (And hot, in case you didn´t get the message.)

Bug Zapper
01 April 2011

One fun thing, we bought a bug zapper to kill mosquitos. It looks like a tennis raquet and gives an extremely strong zap. Made in Japan, of course. This sort of thing would be a menace in the US. I must say that I think the mosquitos are scared of our house now because we haven´t had all that many recently.

Still working with a large group of investigators. Basically, if they all get baptized, we will be doing about 7-8 weddings here in a month or so. Problem is getting papers together. Pray for us.

Hope you are all doing extremely awesomely well, and that you can manage to stay away from toxic radiation from nuclear reactors.

-Elder Tenney