Segunda Transferencia no Brasil!‏ January 19, 2015

Hey there my beloved family and friends!

Yesterday I officially completed my third transfer in the mission, second in the field, and first in Brasil! Que legal! Look at that! I even spelled Brazil in portuguese without even thinking about it. Funny how those little things are exciting. Oh, and last saturday, the 17th, was four months on the mission! WOOHOOO I still get to spend 14 more months here in Brazil! Nossa! I am loving it, but I seriously wish that it was a little bit cooler during the afternoons, and at night. No joke, inside our apartment, it reached 94 degrees. I'm not even kidding. It was kind of crazy, and super hard to sleep at night. We are all doing well though.

News on the transfer...We are all staying! All four of us in our apartment are staying for another transfer here in Irajá! I love this area--the ward is wonderful, like seriously. But as far as areas go in the mission, it is pretty darn hard. If anyone has advice on how to find people to teach in a rich area with no one in the streets (because everyone is working), and those that are in the streets only work here, the advice would be super cool. It is really hard to find people here, and the people we find usually fall through, so we WALK every day, all day. That is not fun, but oh well. You do what you have to do and do it with a smile. That's the good thing. Sister Beserra and I still smile and laugh about everything even though we both know that this area is super hard. Seriously. Try working in the richest area in the mission, with hardly any member referrals, no inactive list, and have it be the mission president's ward. And super hot. We love it so much though. We are always up for the challenge!

Sad news of the week, Marcos wasn't baptized on Saturday. His mom said he was working, and he didn't answer his phone. We waited an hour and a half for him to get home from work, but that didn't happen. We even tried to pick him up for church the next day like normal, but he either wasn't there, was sleeping, or didn't want to come. We are going to go try and see him tomorrow though. The baptism was still great! Each of the other companionships serving in our ward had a baptism, and the Spirit was super strong at the baptismal service! Despite the challenges, this was still a great week!

Love you all so much!

Sister Jensen

ps. did my family ever get the postcard that I sent from New Jersey?

pps. the picture is of my absolutely amazing district-by the way, Elder Lloyd (my district leader) visa waited in the spokane mission, one of his areas was Chewelah, (he knows Barry and Avery), and he is friends with one of my zone leaders from New Jersey! Crazy right!

Karina (the recent convert that we skyped you from) made us these cute little dolls. 

Can you tell who is who? There is one of each of us.

Here is Sister Beserra and I

Look how ridiculously hot it was! I took a picture of the clock to prove it. We also took a 

video of Sister Andersen in the fridge as a joke because it was so hot.

Última Semana na Primeira Transferéncia no Brasil!‏ January 12, 2015

Oí família e amigos!

This week has been super crazy. Like really. We walked more than I ever thought possible, and it has been super hot here. We had on average, one appointment per day. All the rest fell through. That is why we walked so much, And, my area is pure hills. 

Our one appointment each day is always super great though. It is with our investigator Marcos. He is getting baptized...Saturday! Saturday will be great! We have three baptisms in our ward (one from each companionship) and it is my four months in the mission day. Crazy! Sister Beserra found Marcos just over a week ago when we were working with our Sister Training Leaders. He is a simple, humble man that has just in the past week, seen his life become so much better because of the gospel. I didn't even meet him the first day when he was feeling super down, but I can already see a huge difference. By the way, three baptisms in this ward is unheard of. They are lucky if they get one every few months. The work really is hastening!

My family asked questions about laundry and groceries here in Brazil. We have a washing machine in our apartment, and a rack thing that hangs from the ceiling to dry our clothes on, so laundry isn't too abnormal so far. Grocery shopping is pretty normal too. The somewhat annoying thing though, is that they don't have stores like walmart here. If you want to get a list of different things, you have to go to lots of different stores to find it. It's all good though.

So I decided that I am going to make a list of things that mean you are in Brazil. I have a few things of the list already. but I will continue to add more with time. So far I have this.

You know you are in Brazil when:

Your apartment feels cool at 91.5 degrees

You make mango juice for breakfast almost daily

Your hair is ALWAYS up in a bun

Water, wind, clouds, and rain are your best friends

Lunch isn't lunch without rice

That's just a few of the things that I have learned and loved about Brazil. Love you all too and miss your wonderful faces!

Com Amor,

Sister Jensen

We had a fun little sleep over in our living room Friday night with all four of us in the apartment. It was lots of fun! I really love all these sisters!

Uma outra semana muita boa aqui no Brasil!‏ January 5, 2015

Hey there everyone!

So I realize that my emails that I send are super wimpy. I really am sorry. I just can't really ever think of anything to say or remember the cool stuff that happened that week. 'ta bom. I will remember better with time I think. Anyway...here we go.

This week we had New Years! We didn't do anything special, but let me tell you. At midnight, EVERYONE does fireworks and they are obnoxiously loud. We couldn't see them the way our apartment is situated, but we could certainly hear them, which was super-duper annoying. Oh well. Here for New Years, everyone wears white. Like all white. Just for the midnight party stuff. I'm not sure if there is a particular reason for it, but if not, we can pretend that they do it to symbolize a fresh, pure start at the beginning of the year. I don't know, but whatever. We told them about the American New Year's traditions, and they thought we were crazy. They thought that times square was cool, but that the midnight kiss was a little strange. Lots of fun though sharing cultural traditions back and forth. 

We finally have an investigator with a baptismal date! Nossa! I'm so excited! He came to church yesterday and everything. Foi muito legal. I feel like we can really change this area. The ward feels huge, but I found out yesterday the truth. We have about 140 people there on average, which isn't bad. The ward has about 800 people though, so we are trying to get a list of less active members to help with that. They are trying to get enough people there regularly to get the ward split so they can build another chapel. Pretty cool. We will have to see though. I know we can do it!

I love you all and hope you have had an absolutely wonderful week!

Com todo meu amor,

Síster Jensen

Feliz Ano Novo!‏ December 29, 2014

Oí todos!

This week has been super crazy, but absolutely amazing at the same time. Christmas didn't feel like Christmas, but it was still super-duper amazing. I guess I'm just not used to a hot and humid Christmas. All is well though. We spent Christmas with a super amazing family in the ward here. We planned on having lunch and then skyping with our families from there, but we ended up staying quite a bit longer because of difficulties reaching our families through skype. Sister Beserra and Sister Anderson didn't have any problems, but It took me a while to connect, and Sister Sena had a hard time at first. Then, her family went to the chappel by their house for better internet connection, and it all worked out. We ended up taking so much time trying to skype that we had dinner there too. They are seriously the best family ever. Their testimonies are so strong, and they have so much desire to help all those around them. 

I had a super cool experience this week.  I'm pretty sure I wrote about it when I was in the MTC, but incase I didn't, here is a quick re-cap. One time for our skype TRC in the MTC, we got to talk to an amazing lady. She has a super strong testimony, and was super excited when she found out where Sister Bunch and I were serving because she has a brother serving in João Pessoa and a sister serving in Ribeirão Preto. We were super excited, and hoped that we would get to meet her siblings in our missions. It was also super cool because she knew Irmão Gray. Fast forward to last week. Sister Beserra and I were studying one day when...we made an incredible discovery. Sister Beserra is the sister of the lady that I did TRC with that day! Super cool! We couldn't believe it for a while, but it was super exciting. 

Love you all and happy new year this week!

Com amor,

Sister Jensen

Merry Christmas from Brazil!

Our little Christmas tree with our presents to each other

Our American Christmas breakfast.

Us at Christmas Eve dinner, with the same family that we spent Christmas with

A view of part of our area from the apartment we skyped you from

From the same apartment at night

Some store or something here. 

Literally translates to "on the mission" and is Brazilian colors

Beautiful Brazil!

Segunda Semana aqui no Brasil!‏ December 22, 2014

December 22,2014

Oí família e amigos!

I am loving Brazil so much! My feet are still a little swollen, the humidity is still not my favorite thing, but the people are. Everyone here is really the best. Our apartment is now much cleaner than it was last week because we bought bleach. Sorry, that seemed a little random in that train of thought, but I thought it was important. It is nice to even feel a little cleaner. 

I guess I forgot last week to send a little travel-log of my adventure getting here from the states. I left for Atlanta, Georgia around two in the afternoon from New Jersey. I kid you not, I almost missed my flight. If I would have been two minutes later, they wouldn't have checked me in. Crazy right?! Anyway, I flew to Atlanta, where I waited for an hour or two to catch a red eye flight to Brasília. That flight was forever long, especially because I can't really sleep on planes. It's all good though. Once I got to Brasília, I waited all day in the Airport in Brasília for my flight. Literally like 12 hours or so. It was crazy. And, on top of that, I was the only missionary traveling in my group. Yikes! In Brasília, my plane was delayed for maintainance for about another hour and a half. I finally made it into Ribeirão Preto around 9:30 at night here. I was absolutely exhausted. I almost cried tears of joy when I saw President and Sister Brum and Sister Beserra. I made it safe and sound, but man. That day was not too fun.

I honestly can't believe that it's Christmas this week! It certainly doesn't feel like it at all. I am super excited to have my first Christmas here in Brazil. Love you all!

Sister Jensen