Jed's First Area - Sao Gabriel, RS

This was taken just outside of Sao Gabriel.

Looks a bit like Wyoming in the spring to me!!

I found this picture on the net.

Sao Gabriel is southwest of Santa Maria its population is approx. 68,000 people. The main source of income is cattle ranching and rice farming. Here are some great excerpts from Jeds

e-mail today, Monday is P-day and I get to talk to him next Sunday for Mothers Day! YEA! He sent all the information for our call next Sunday 3:00 p.m our time. 153 hours and 43 minutes but who's counting? ;o)

"Hello family...this is your in the brazil santa maria mission son...IT IS AWESOME! ok i will answer some questions then tell you about my week so far...btw p-days are on monday....
How was it meeting President and Sister Myrrha? Awesome...President Myrrha doesn´t speak alot of english...like none...but the food was good...spirit better...english none...
How do you like it? SÃO GABRIEL...AWESOME...three companionshps...2 of sisters...and us...everyone here is brazillian...all the missionaries...except for me...that is good for my language i guess. Tell us all about your companion? Elder Cordeiro....is brazillian...very...a tiny bit of english....good elder. Your apartment? suprisingly big... The weather? suprisingly cold...I'm going to look for a coat today.

Ok so it turns out i really am in the Wyoming of the south...after i got out of Porto Alegre there was nothing...FOR FOUR HOURS....then after i left santa maria THERE WAS NOTHING FOR FOUR HOURS....its crazy...but são gabriel is good...google earth it...smaller...but our area is huge...my feet are really sore alot....my portugese is getting better cause i have to speak it all the time....but its good...teaching lots...so its good...im not in the ctm anymore...by any stretch of the imagination....life is good...i tried to send pictures but at the internet place we are at...i cant do anything...stuff is so blocked up and i dont understand portugese.

I HAVE PRAYER CALUSES...patches of dry skin on my knees where i kneel...is everybody sending things to the mission now? i hope so because that is the fastest way...i think we are going to eat chiausciria soon...rodizio...but like native...they are every where down here....RICE AND BEANS ARE GOOD...at the ctm the were not as good...so much to tell you so little time....i dont know...have fun in wyoming...your getting warm im getting cold...but its good..."

Cordially...future dwight(that was for you abi)
ELDER JED BREINHOLT!

Welcome to Santa Maria!

I found these pictures on TrekEarth.com they all come from

Santa Maria, Brazil. Enjoy!!

Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul BRAZIL
Roping Guacho Style

We teased Jed that he was going to the Wyoming of Brazil.

I don't think we were too far off !

Cattle Drive!

This is called Two Men in Black and Green I think it looks like two Elders!

When it is larger you can tell they definately have suits & white shirts on.
Jed officially spent last night and today in Santa Maria. He will likely have been assigned his first area and companion today. I was pretty sure we wouldn't hear from him this week and not knowing what day is p-day is I'm not sure when we'll hear from him. Keep him in your prayers. If it comes true like all foreign speaking missionaries have said, I'm sure by now he's wondering what language it was that they taught him in the MTC! Mola Feliz!

Happy Spring! Although spring is a cruel joke in Wyoming. We are in a winter storm adivsory until Friday. We could have as much as 12 inches of snow by Friday! YIKES!

Chocolate Shampoo! You've got to be kidding!

Our latest e-mail from Jed. He is very ready to leave the CTM next Tuesday and go to Santa Maria. I hope we hear from him next Wednesday but with him moving I'm just not sure.

"i will tell you about my favorite food...cause i ate them today...pastel...let me explain it to you...basically like a handmade hot pocket...its made in a pot sticker like shell or something...but you can basically put anything you want inside it, deepfry it and you eat...delicious...what you get with it is sugar cane juice...with lemon...so good...and i still love fruit...yes.

last night it rained really hard...after dinner we went up to the room and we had had the blinds closed(really it´s more of like a metal cover with slits for ventilation in it)and when we came in the floor had about a 1/4 of an inch of water on it in front of the window...but yeah it rains...stops...rains...stops alot.

turns out...president muir is the mission president for the cuiába mission...i knew he was down here but i didnt know where...anyway...they have CHOCOLATE SHAMPOO!!!! down here we showered with it on monday....i smelled like a tootsie pop!it was awesome...
(President Muir was in our ward in Layton)

willardson left tuesday...its weird...other than that the week has been pretty plain...i am so ready to be out of here... quick story from proselyting...turns out i got "watchtowered" i will explain...we were walking and talking to people when all of the sudden this lady came up to us...we started the conversation in portugese but she imediatly said "i want to talk to you in english"...so she opens up her binder and i see the watchtower...my JW sense was tingling...it was weird...so we told her that we would take the watchtower if she would take the book of mormon...she said she already had one...so thats where the conversation ended...

I love you all...be safe...have fun in the Sequoia."
(Tracy is in SLC and bought a new Toyota Sequoia last night.)

ELDER BREINHOLT!

My Heart is Breaking...

My heart is breaking tonight for a Mom in Park City, Utah. Elder Matthew Knoop was killed in Catu, Brazil by a hit-and-run driver. My tears are for this Elder and his ultimate sacrifice in serving his Heavenly Father. I pray for this family and all who knew him. I would be lying if I said I haven't shed tears for the safety of my own son in Brazil. It is so hard to understand why bad things happen to good people!

o evangelho é verdadeiro - The Church is True!

District 9A

Top - Harris, Ralphs, Barlow, Jed, Gardner

Bottom - Willardson (Jed's Companion), Maruji, King

The view of São Paulo from Jeds MTC Window

"i am having an awesome time here in brazil...the letter this week...not alot of things to say...but alot of pictures to add...nothing good happened this week really...i am doing a ton better with the language...i can have a simple conversation with a native....GO ME! this week we got 2 new roomates...one from são paulo the other from cabo verde...cape verde for you english speakers...that is a group of islands of the coast of africa...they send them to brazil because we have an mtc and temple...they will then serve their missions in cape verde.. 2 weeks left...super excited..."

Jed leaves the MTC for Santa Maria on Tuesday April 29. His companion Elder Willardson leaves next week so he will be in a threesome for a week with Elders King & Gardner.

Another week down! Thanks for the visit :0)

The Best Two Years!

You know the part in this movie when Elder Calhoun starts talking to a guy in Dutch and the guy doesn't speak Dutch because he's an American? Well Jed had that experience last Friday in Sao Paulo, only the guy was an Aussie...read on...

"when we were proselyting on friday we were trying to talk to everyone...but you gotta understand there is alot of people, anyway... we went up to this one guy and he started to wave us off and said "i don´t speek any portugese" and i said sweet neither do we...so we started talking to this guy and it turns out he´s an aussie...start talking to him about why he´s in brazil and things like that and ask him if we can share a message...he says yeah whatever...so we start sharing the restoration...then this brazilian guy comes up and asks us if we are religious missionaries...i tell him yeah...and he says "do you mind if i share a different view?" i told him yeah sure...and goes off on this peter was the real betrayer kick...something about peter having people pay to see jesus...weird things like that...anyway so he then goes off on jesus was not the son of god...and i testified to him that i know jesus was the son of god...anyway then i gave him a book of mormon...and he told me to write my e-mail in it so he could e-mail me what he thought...one problem...i wrote down the wrong e-mail...the e-mail i wrote down for him was jed_breinholt@gmail.com to bad you can´t even create an e-mail address for that...anyway but he told me that he would read it...we kept talking and then this lady walked up...and she started screaming at us in portugese...the aussie asked the brazi what she was saying...he said she was saying something about in order to accept jesus into our hearts we have to have a house and cars and nice things...the brazi started yelling at her about how she was crazy...things like that...its was total craziness...i didnt even know what to think. but it was a good experience and im glad it was all in english...one day i´ll be able to converse in portugese...there was alot of crazy stuff two missionaries got "monked" basicly a monk in full monk get-up yelled at them and told them something about the church of satan...i dont know...it was in portugese. "

your favorite missionary
Elder Jed Breinholt...3 weeks to go!
ps...i do want pictures of the crash!

I guess I'll send him the pictures of the totaled Durango :(

Thanks for coming by the Jed Blog!

Sao Paulo Temple

São Paulo Temple

"hello...
well this last week has been crazy go nuts...we went proselyting on friday...i was scared out of my mind, willardson did everything...we do it again on friday...hopefully i´ll be ok...today we went to the são paulo temple...it was beautiful...really it was. mail was on strike yesterday and this morning...its weird...i haven´t got my package yet but i might soon..."

Many of you have heard about our little accident coming home from Utah last Sunday. This was Jed's response to that:
"HOLY CRAP! THAT IS SO CRAZY!!! i´m glad that everyone is alright...i want you to know that i prayed for your safety like crazy...i´m so thankful to the Lord for His protection of my loved ones..."

Jed answers our questions. He is really good at it. He just cuts & pastes our questions to his e-mail then answers them. However, that is mostly what his e-mail is. If we didn't ask questions his e-mail would be less than a paragraph! I think next week I won't ask any questions and see how long it is. Here are some of the answers to our questions:
"What are you doing for exercise in the CTM? running...spinning...some stuff like that
What are your Sundays like both in schedule and feelings of the day? sundays are a very nice day...we have sacrament meeting and regular like church. then alot of freetime...its nice we also get to see a "film" mostly they are old devotionals from the provo mtc...but they're good.
What will you do for General Conference? Will they broadcast it in the CTM for you? yes they will...we get everything in english...priesthood will be on sunday morning...i am so excited! "

Thanks for stopping by the Jed Blog!