Letter from January 30th, 2012

You wanted to know how things are going here in my new area, if it's good or bad?  Do you think that I would ever talk bad about my comp or area - come on (haha).  Here in this area we have  a bunch of little cities that we are always visiting that we have to take a taxi to. Our chapel is in a different city as well, so we have to take a bus there with all of the members every Sunday.  Usually we have about 30 people in sacrament meeting.

 

My new companion is pretty much the opposite of me.  It's funny because he always asks me if I have seen
such and such a movie or know such and such music,  and I tell him no.  And then I ask him the same thing and he says no (haha).   But, he is a good kid and a hard worker which is nice. Our district is way chill.  We got together today and played soccer which was super fun. It had been a while since I had played. But, that's about it for here.  I will try to send some pics next week because this computer is really slow.

 

We have a big group of people that we are working with right now. A lot of the people that we are teaching need to get married before we can baptize them, and most of them don't want to get married.  So, that's probably the toughest thing here.  I will send a longer email next week for sure.  I'm back for sure now (ha ha).  Love ya so much!!

Letter from January 18th, 2012

So, I finally got  my email back!!!!!  I don't know what's better - talking to you guys for a little bit longer at Christmas or being able to email you every week (ha ha).   Well, there sure has been a lot of things that have happened in the last couple of weeks since I was able to email you.  The one kid who got sick Christmas Day did get baptized a couple of days later and then confirmed the following Sunday.  We also had 2 miracles happen.  First was with J.  He is the husband to a lady in our ward. Everybody was a member of the Church except him - his wife, kids, in-laws - everyone was members and have been for 9 years.  So we were trying to work with him and everything, but he wasn't really wanting to talk to us much.   I even told my comp "this guy will for sure be baptized, but I just don't think I will be able to see it".  Well, a miracle happened and the Lord opened up his heart and he came to Church the next Sunday and told us that he wanted to be baptized!!  So we put it all together and baptized him. Now everybody  in that family is members. The next week he was confirmed and another miracle happened. Another guy who has  known the Church for 3 years now came to us and told us that he wanted to be baptized as well.  Really - 2 miracle in 2 weeks.  This is really something that I have never seen or even heard of.

 

Another cool experience was my comp had an earache/infection.  It was really hurting him a lot. So, he asked me to give him a blessing.  In the blessing  I felt the prompting to say  that he would have no more pain. He said a couple of minutes later his ear wasn't even hurting. It's experiences like these that really show the power of the Lord and the priesthood. I have truly been really blessed. 

 

As you said it is transfers today as well. I got transfered to Rio Tinto.  It's a pretty small branch here, but it should be cool.  My new comp is Elder H.  He is from Washington. I was really sad to leave my last area because the members were great and we were starting to have success. But what can I do??  It is what it is I guess.  I was sad to leave my comp especially.  He is a great kid and I really enjoyed training him. Well, that's pretty much it for now.  I'll email you here on Monday again and let you in on more deatils about the new area.  Love you all.  It's good to be back!!

Christmas Letter

Chace's Christmas update - December 26th, 2011

 

Merry Christmas!!!! First things first - sadly we didn't have the baptism that was scheduled for Christmas Day.  The young man got pretty sick yesterday and wasn't able to go. So we will be doing it on Tuesday I believe. Yesterday was a pretty awesome day. We started it off picking up one of the members from my first area who decided to come and visit me for Christmas which was really cool. Then we went to lunch and had a delicious lunch. Then we had a Church meeting which went well. The 2 bishops ended up speaking and it was good. Then we went to a members house to do "Christmas" which was cool.  They even were nice enough to get me and my comp a gift.  They gave me a nice tie and belt which was really nice of them. Then we gave them some pics and a letter and a card game, so I hope that they liked it.   Afterwards we had a huge dinner with them that was awesome.  Then we ended up having to run home to get in on time. All in all it was a really good day.  We also even had a couple of our investigators that visited the Church which made it that much better. My comp was  nice enough to get me a gift as well.   He bought me a soccer shirt and an air pump to pump up my soccer ball, and then I had bought him a hammock, which I think he likes.   I love the gifts that you guys got me!  I have already listened to that missionary CD and the whole talk from Chad Lewis which I liked a lot - it was awesome!  Of course I love the BYU Cougar shirt that I got too, even though my comp doesn't like it very much (ha ha). 

 

It was awesome being able to talk to everybody and see the new nephews and brother-in-law and everyone else.  I am for sure gonna use Skype the next time as well. For now I don't think that I will lose my emailing privileges, but who knows (ha ha). Hey, I'm gonna jet,  but I'm hoping I'll get to send you an email here in a week.  Hope all is well and that you have a great New Year as well.  Great Big Hug!!  Elder Tenney

December 12th and 19th, 2011

December 12th, 2011

 

These past couple of days have gone pretty well.  My comp has what we call "greenie fire" (ha ha).  He just wants to work like mad, which is really good.  The only thing is that he doesn't speak hardly anything.   So I have to talk to everyone all day long AND translate for my comp into English at the same time.  So, I get a little tired sometimes because it's a lot of work.  But, my English is getting better.  I should be speaking pretty good English by the time that Christmas comes along.   But, things are going pretty good. We had a Stake Conference yesterday that was a satelite transmission from Salt Lake City.  We had a Seventy, a sister from the Relief Society, Elder Cook, and Pres. Henry B. Eyring talk.  It was really good.  It was funny listening to the Relief Society lady because she was talking in Portuguese, but you could tell that her native language was Spanish.  I felt a little bad for my comp because he wasn't understanding anything that they were saying.  But, even in this  short amount of time his Portuguese is already getting better.

 

I forgot to tell you a joke last week - I had a healthy young boy.  He weighs 250 lbs and is 6ft 3in (ha ha).  But that's about if for these past couple of days.  This coming week we will have our Christmas conference with the other missionaries. I think that I will get to see my trainer, so I will send you our 3 generation pic (ha ha). Love you and hope you all have a great week.

 

 

 

 

December 19th, 2011

 

Last week we had our Christmas conference with all of the missionaries from this state. It was pretty cool. We had a great spiritual part in the morning with lunch and then we played games all afternoon.  It was a whole lot of fun. I'm trying to send some pics, but this computer is being dumb so I'll have to send them later. Then last Thursday as you know was my official year mark. It's tradition when you hit your one year that you burn a shirt. So I found an old missionary's shirt and lit it on fire. We got some pretty cool pics too. Then we went home and went to bed. All in all Thursday was a great day.  Then I got a little sick that night and had to go to the bathroom a couple of times during the night. Turns out when I woke up that everyone in the house was sick. Then I got a call from the Zone Leaders and they said that almost everyone was sick. I don't know what it was but something that we ate at the conference was bad and pretty much all of the missionaries got sick. Even President Hall was sick. But, after that day I got feeling better again and now it's all good.

 

My new comp is speaking the language better and better everyday. Here in a little bit he will be fluent. I really like him a lot.  He is way funny and always makes me laugh with his comments. I am learning more and more everyday being with him. He is a great guy.  Maybe you will even see him this Saturday when we Skype for Christmas.  I am also learning how to play the recorder now. It's cool!!  Would you have ever thought that I would know what a flat and sharp is? Well, I do now (ha ha)!!  You just gotta love the things you do in the mish. Well hey, I'm gonna wrap this thing up. I hope you are all well and cold (ha ha) - and excited for this Saturday to talk.  Much love - daqui em pouco.

Letter from November 28th, 2011

This week was really good. We had a surprise meeting on  Thursday and Pres. and Sister Hall came to our Zone and talked to us and gave us a training and everything.  The Assistants to the President were there as well and both gave really good trainings as well.

 

Thanksgiving here doesn't have the same meaning - it was just another day in the mission, with bread and sausage for dinner. A real feast, I know (ha ha).  The more part of our week was spent teaching a lot of people which was great.  We also got a lot of help from the members this week.  We had a couple of baptisms on Sunday, too.  It's been a while since we last baptized, but we baptized 4 young men which was awesome!!

These kids are really funny and we always have a good time with them. They are all really firm in the Church too, so that was really awesome.

Today was P-day, and we had P-day with our whole Zone which was great. We all went to a Chapel in Natal(which means Christmas ha ha) and we played soccer and volleyball.  It was super fun!!  It was pretty hot and everyone was just sweating like crazy, but it was a lot of fun.  Then afterwards we went to a restaurant and ate to finish it off.  It was a whole lot of fun. I hope everything goes well with the wedding and all. Tell Kim that I will be there in spirit.   Have a great week!!

 

Letter from November 14th and November 21st, 2011

NOVEMBER 14TH

This week was pretty good.   I took the birthday money and I bought myself some things. I ended up buying ice cream that was 17 reias (over 10 American $$'s), but it was way delicious!!  I bought some Adidas shorts because now I only had my Under Armour shorts. I also had a member buy me Our Search for Happiness, Our Legacy and True to the Faith, but I bought them all in Port.  But, that's about it .  Birthday's in the mish are a little different.  It was a pretty normal day, just that the other Elders made a cake and sang to me and we ate ice cream which was cool.   Then we had pizza for dinner which was delicious. But, it was pretty cool.  I am no longer a teenager anymore.  I'm starting to get old!

Things are going pretty good here.  It's still as hot as ever, but we have been getting a little bit of rain, which reminds me - I have a mission for you.  I need you to try and find an umbrella that is really sturdy (because of the wind) and that is compact.  All of the umbrellas here are a bunch of crap!  But, I am needing one because of all the rain, and I don't like to get wet.  So, if you could get me one and send it in the next package, I would greatly  appreciate it.  Other than that, it's just the same ol' same ol' - working hard and doin' work!

One funny thing from this week was Elder Jensen - he came to me one night and said "I'll let you tickle my feet for 10 minutes and if I don't pee my pants or tell you to stop, then you have to give me 5 reias".  So, I was like "you're on".  (Elder Jensen's feet are super ticklish).  So, we did it (ha ha).  I think he lasted like 5 min and then told us to stop.  But, it was hillarious!!  He was like screaming and squirming - it was so funny.  I was laughing my head off.

One other story - there was one day we were walking in the street and this big ol' tree got taken by the wind and almost hit us.  We were all screaming and and running away from this tree.  It was hillarious. But, that's about it.  I hope that all is well.  I will talk to you again in a week.  Much love!!

NOVEMBER 21ST

Things have really been improving in our area. A new convert introduced us to a young man who is really interested in the Church and in finding him, we also found his litttle brother who has been going to Church with the Bishop's son.  AND in finding them, we also found alot of other young kids who are their friends.  All of them went and visited the Church yesterday and they liked it a lot, so that is way awesome.  It's really an eye- opener on references.  We have just been trying to find people to teach with our own work and everything, but it hasn't been working out very well.  All of a sudden we get some references from some members and everything changes in the blink of an eye.  This week I think was probably one of the best weeks that I have had in a long time. We really had a lot of success this week.  So I am truly grateful that things are finally starting to get better. Really makes me sad that I never helped the missionaries before the mission with references.  Who knows how things would have worked out??  But, at the same time, it makes me super happy to hear that you guys are helping the missionaries there in Heber with Rebecca.   I don't know if you realize how awesome it is as a missionary to have a family that gives a reference and then offers their home as a place to teach and you already have a friend in the Church as well.  This is really the ideal situation as a missionary. So, that makes me really happy that you guys are helping them.

About Thanksgiving - that pretty much doesn't exist here. It's more of a Holiday there in the states.   But, I live with 4 Americans, so maybe we will get together and have a nice meal of ramen noodles or something like that (ha ha - just kidding) But, we will see.

Other than that, it's going good. Heavenly Father has really been blessing me a lot lately, of which I am truly grateful!!  I hope that you have a great week and that all goes well.  Much love!!

Letter From October 26th and October 31st 2011

October 26th 2011

So, I have pretty much come to the conclusion that President doesn't want me to stay with my comps for very long.   I am staying in my area with my new comp, Elder Barnes.  He has 6 months in the mission and is from Washington. I was working in 2 areas because one was closed, but it opened up again so I will just be working in the one area.  Also, we have 2 more elders that are living with us and working the other area and you will never guess who they are.....Elder Jensen (my comp from the MTC) and Elder Marston, who was in my District at the MTC.  So, it will be us 4 Americans living in the same house.  It should be pretty crazy!!  I was really wanting to stay one more transfer with my other comp, but that didn't work out. I truly believe that President Hall recieves revelation about these things, so I guess that this is how it's just supposed to be. 

Hey, tell some people to write me some letters.  It's been more than 3 months since I got my last letter in the mail.  Have a great week!!

October 31, 2011

These past couple of days have been pretty good. It has been cool to get to know my new comp a little better and all.  I am really getting along with him well.   It's also been way cool being able to live with some Elders from my group. I didn't even realize how much that I like Elder Jensen until now (haha).  He is really funny!!  It's really funny to listen to him talk slang in Portuguese. Funny experience - we have a hot water shower head in our house, but you have to flip this switch for it to work.  So, before he got in there to take a shower I turned it off so that no hot water came out. He isn't tall enough to turn the switch back on (haha). So, he ended up taking a shower with cold water!!  He got pretty mad at me afterwards, but it was hilarious. Then last night he wanted to play chess against me. I haven't played chess in years. I think Dad taught me to play when I was like 13 years old.  Elder Jensen was talking all this mad trash about how he was gonna beat me and everything. But somehow I pulled off the miracle win, and ended up walking away with the "W". I  was so excited and I started yelling and everything - it was hilarious.

I think today we are going to get together and play soccer with some Elders from our District which should be fun. It's gonna be how we celebrate Halloween today.  Email me next week to let me know how much you put in my accout for my birthday.  Maybe next week I will be able to buy some ice cream to spoil myself!!  A container of ice cream here is like 17 reias (over $10 American dollars).  It's straight ridiculous!!

We should be helping another family get married this week. They moved into our area recently and they have been frequenting our church for a while now. They are really firm and have really strong testimony's, so I am really excited for that. I am sending some pics of me and my old comp.  Also me and a member when we got to take some pics close to the beach. But, hey - I'm gonna get going.   I hope that all is well with everyone and that you have a great week. Much love.  Until next Monday. . .