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| Elder Tenney transferred last week from the state of Acre back to the Amazonas state. This photo must have been his goodbye to his bishop in the Senador Guiomard ward in Acre. 29 August 2010 |
Hey!
So this week was pretty awesome. Let me get out my handy dandy notebook and we will start with day one and see how this week was.
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| Elder Arruda on first P-day in apartment in Mauazinho 31 August 2010 |
Let´s start with the comp. So, Elder Arruda has a funny story. He is from the state of Roraima. This is right next to the Amazonas. In fact, it is in the mission. Why is he in this one then you may ask? The fact is, he was called to Rio de Janerio North, but the mission closed and all the missionaries from there were scattered through Brazil. He ended up coming here. And he doesn't go home until he has 2 years and 4 months. Seems they reset the mission clock for him, too. Poor guy. He's pretty cool. He actually likes to work. Wow. Heaven.
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Are these stairs up to code?!?
Elder Tenney's house in Mauazinho31 August 2010 |
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| View of the "Meeting of the Waters" of the Amazon from
Elder Tenney's apartment in Mauazinho
06 September 2010 |
Ok, on to the house. It is a two-story complex made with your normal Manaus quality bricks that break easy and cement. Like all other buildings, it is destined to fall over within the next couple of decades due to mold and decay. I love it. We go up on the roof and have a perfect view of the river, except that some nerd decided to build his house right in front of where the two rivers come together. I tried to take pix. I really tried. Didn't work out all that great.
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| Kitchen in Mauazinho as left by the previous occupant 31 August 2010 |
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And the bathroom in Mauazinho
31 August 2010
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There are two bathrooms, a bunk bed and two regular frames, but only 3 mattresses and one fan. Actually, we got a fan from another house because the other missionaries got air conditioning from a member. Luckys.....
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| Bedroom in Mauazinho the week Elder Tenney moved in before the big clean-up! 31 August 2010 |
Ok, the Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarea. (Imagine that in like a big NBA loudspeaker or something...) So, our Bishop and all his family and neighbors are from Peru. Only the bishop, his wife, and one daughter speak and understand Portuguese. We are now learning Spanish as a 2nd/3rd language tambien. There are over 1000 members baptized in this ward. That is enough for one stake all on it's own. It is really sad because we make contacts in the road and about 5-10% of them are with inactive members. Another thing is the active ones don't really even talk to us. All I know is that missionaries in the last six months have been super sick, fighting, having problems, etc., so maybe they just aren't into the whole missionary mode anymore. We were having such a shock with the members attitude that we called President Jayme just to ask if something had happened. I already stated what he said. He also told us he wasn't planning on opening this area yet, but he felt strongly right before transfers that it should be opened again. Then when he was going to decide who would do it, he didn't even have Elder Arruda or me as companions here. He was completely directed by the Spirit to put us here during this time. I am super excited to see what is going to happen during these six weeks.
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| Study time: Duty to God (Portuguese) 26 August 2010 |
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| For the Strength of Youth in Portuguese 26 August 2010 |
The struggles: It is hot. Hot. HoT. HOT. With a nice lunch and a river breeze, I am really sleepy these days. I am doing all I can, but the other day we came home after lunch to do a bit of study rest time, and I fell asleep reading Jesus the Christ (Portuguese, of course). Elder Arruda didn't have the heart to wake me, and we didn't know much about the area and we have a guy in our ward that showed us around the day after, so he let me rest. For a few hours. I still was a bit sleepy, but I guess reading about Ancient Jewish customs with big James E. Talmage words wasn't the best combo for that afternoon. We have more appointments now, so not going to happen again soon.
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Pacu: "It's what's for dinner".
04 September 2010
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| But what is this, Elder Tenney? Amazonian salsa?? 26 August 2010 |
Fun thing I ate this week: (Three times actually) So there is a fish called Pacu. It is like the cousin to the Piranha. Yeah, I ate it and it was gooOOood. O_o Mr. Jensen from 8th grade science had a huge one of these, but it died. He should have grilled it. It is amazing.
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| Elder Tenney @ center far end of table Preparation Day 08 September 2010 |
So, yeah, that’s my week. Hope you all are having a good one! Love you all tons! Halloween: Lots of mini-chocolates like what Allison sent! The fridge works!
-Elder Mitchell Tenney
