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

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

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

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.

Week #45: 28 July 2010 Email: What REALLY Hurts?

Dear everybody,

You know what really hurts? Losing two toenails in the same day on different feet. You know what really hurts? Getting bit by a mini cobra in the road. You know what really hurts? Getting that same foot that lost a toenail get run over by a car the next day. You know what really hurts? Not getting any letters from your family and friends. You know what really hurts? Sitting on a wooden stool that breaks under your sudden weight increase over the last year. You know what really hurts? Getting smacked in the face by your companion. You know what really hurts? Stubbing that same toe that got run over by a car AND lost a toenail a couple days ago. You know what really hurts? Trying to climb up a really tall tree and then slip and fall a few meters. You know what really hurts? Getting shocked by the electric shower head when you try to fix it. You know what really hurts? Waking up in the morning to find a bunch of red ants all over you biting and pinching.

These are ten things that really hurt. Thankfully, none of them happened to me! :) (Except the letter one... that really hurts...)

So, yeah, another week down. It was one of the longest weeks of my life, but I´ll just leave it at I got a lot of study time in this last week. I´m in 2 Nephi again and about 1/7 of the way done with Jesus the Christ in Portuguese.

I learned from the scriptures how to tell the difference between a visitor and a thief. I don´t know if it translates, but it's John 10:1.

Happy Birthday to my dear sweet sister who I love so much and loves me to the point where words in a letter can´t describe it, so she doesn´t bother to send them! Hahaha kidding, Ally! I love you a ton! Happy B-day! And yes, I got your last letter.

Wards here are really funny. Situation: One elder in the area for a long time. (Elder Fox for example) and a new guy shows up. Everyone talks with the one that's been there forever. All questions are made to them, every statement. If the new guy wants in on the conversation, has to butt in. Old guy leaves after a while, newer guy stays, after having a few months in the area. Suddenly the newer guy is the old one, and the one that just arrived is shunned. Everyone is asking me questions now, like where we are going next, to read in the Gospel Principles class, whereas not a single question is made to my comp except the hi get to know you where are you from questions. It's just so weird...

Funny thing: Brazil is already advertising for the 2014 World Cup. The moment they lost, it was all 2014 in Brazil. So sad...

We had lunch with another family on Monday. The sister is running for some political office, and I learned that this ward is full of Communists! I think I am going to die. I just want to take all their little red flags with sickle and hammer stuff and burn it, but being a messenger of the Lord, I am learning to forgive and forget.

So, yeah, basically that was our week. We went to a farm of a member in a different ward with the zone today. That was pretty fun. We caught a chicken, killed it and cleaned it and ate it. The only sad part was it's death. They strung it up, one held the wings, and another held the head out. We kept saying just cut the head off, but the elder with the machete just started doing a sawing motion to cut the head. Poor thing had a long and painful death until another elder grabbed the machete and whacked it off.

We also had cow meat to grill, so that was good.

I´m thinking about sending the chicken pictures. Anyone who has a weak stomach don´t look. ;)

Love you all!

Elder Tenney
 

25 July 2010
Elder Fox's Homecoming Talk in Las Vegas, NV
Elder Tenney's brother and parents
 with Elder Tenney's last companion, Elder Trevor Fox

PS- That's so awesome that you got to see Elder Fox! Sweet sassy boto! (boto = dolphin)

Hahaha, yeah, it was just a slow week because we aren't doing much teaching. I was joking about the letters, too. I got like 7 of them last week and I will probably get more on Monday.