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!

The German just might come in handy.

I got a message from a Mom on the Missionary Mom e-mail group and this is what she said about her son and the German Immigrants in the South of Brazil.

"One of the cities he served in was Panambi. It is mostly German immigrants. They all speak Portuguese but they must also speak German. My son struggled with the language a little and one day they were teaching a lady there and she could not understand him and asked him if he spoke German. So I think your sons German will come in handy. "

Wouldn't it be great if Jed came home fluent in Portuguese and German!

Fingerprinted...just in case!

Jed went to the policia federal (police station) to get fingerprinted today just in case he commits a crime in Brazil. Last Wednesday myldsmail was down and that is why no e-mail last week. He got the package I sent to him on Saturday and asked for more fruit snacks. I told you all that fruit snacks are on the bottom of the food pyramid for him! Here is a paragraph from his e-mail:

ok... now on to my life...this last week i have been thinking "i wish i would have gone state-side or at least english speaking" cause seriously...i just want to go to work...the mtc is not where it´s at...the languge is not coming as easy as i would have hoped...it kills me...every day. other than that things are going pretty good...i´m seriously tired all the time...all of it! comp is great...were working really well together. last week we got brazillian roomates...thats a blast...one is from santa maria and the other one listens to punk music...the one from santa maria doesnt speak a lick of english...but he´s really smart with the gospel...the other one...we just constantly brawl...he calls me nerd and i call him feio...these things happen...anyway...i have been here a month...it really has flown by...i really want to be out in the field...not here...any way...funny story...the other night i did dream in portugese...couldn´t understand a word of it...nothing...whatever...

Feio is ugly in Portugese. Thank goodness for Babel Fish! He's been in the MTC 1 month today. Again today we were able to e-mail back and forth a bit this morning and he said that the homesickness comes and goes but overall he is not homesick which was good to hear. It's good to hear that he is so ready to be out in the field teaching.

Thanks for stopping by...

No E-mail This week! What's with that?

We did not get an e-mail from Jed last Wednesday. My only guess is that he knew we were in Utah all week. With no internet service at Mom's house in SLC it took me until I was in Layton on Thursday afternoon to check it. Thanks Nanette! I was really sad! I did get notice from the Post Office that the package I sent him arrived on Saturday. It was quite pricey to send. $42.00 to send $20.00 in stuff! But worth it he needed a light windbreaker jacket so I went to the local Wal-mart (because it's between that and K-mart here in Gillette!) and picked him up one. I also sent Girl Scout Cookies (Thin Mints of course), Fruit snacks (bottom of the food pyramid according to Jed) and Starburst Jelly Beans (his favorite jelly beans for easter).

March 12, 2008

Campinas Brazil Temple

Campinas is a suburb north of Sao Paulo. This is

the Temple they go to each Wednesday.

Happy Birthday Grandma and Cameron!

We received an e-mail from Jed this afternoon. Tracy asked him some questions so I'm just going to post the answers to those questions.

Who is your companion? elder willardson
Where is he from? concord california (bay area)
Is he going to your same mission? no
Who are the members of your district? elder maruji. elder harris. elder barlow. elder ralphs. elder king. elder gardner and me and willardson. Are you all going to different missions? (My district in the MTC all went to my mission.)yes...our district is How is the food treating your belly? it hurts sometimes...guanana is good though How is it not being able to live on candy and such (ha)? nutella on everything. Do you have the top bunk (memory of trying to make that decision before my comp came to our room)? bottom by the window. How are your teachers? super What are there names? irmã erika and irmão barreto (pronounced like bahato) Where are they from? são paulo What missions did they serve in? minous(in the amazon) and são paulo How are you feeling about the language so far? muito bonito What have you learned new about the culture in your mission? germans are rich. gouchos too. temple session...english or portugese? usualy english...today we had to go to a later session and it ended up being in portugese so we had to wear headphones.

doing the lords work and loving it...
your son...brother and favorite missionary...
ELDER JED BREINHOLT.

Jed's First E-mail

We received our first e-mail from Jed this morning. While in the CTM in Sao Paulo he can receive e-mail from us and send e-mail to us only. It was great to literally hear his voice and feel his excitement as we read it. Yes it made us cry! Here are a few excerpts:

dear family...I AM IN BRAZIL! it is great...i love the ctm. today was our first p-day. it was awesome...we went to the campinas temple that was so cool. i miss you all so much. i have not had any mail at all...there is so much fruit...its everywhere. i eat guava every meal its my new favorite fruit. everything is so green here...lots of vegitation. portugese is a difficult language to learn but he lord is helping me. anyway...i miss you all so much and i will talk to you soon.

your favorite servant of the lord,
Elder Jed Breinholt

I only cut out some information about mailing stuff to him the rest is word for word letter for letter and misspellings and grammatical errors exactly from his e-mail. I found out today that the road that the Campinas Temple is on is named after Elder Faust. Many of you will know that Elder Faust served his mission in Brazil and lived in Sao Paulo for many years as a General Authority. He held the honorary title of "Citizen of Sao Paulo" granted him by the City Council. Pretty cool!

We have mailed him several letters he hopefully will get them in the next day or so. We also signed up for a service that lets us e-mail letters to them and they print them and mail them to the CTM. They have an office right across the street from the CTM so hopefully he'll get a letter tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

They say, "A picture is worth a thousand words". I agree!

Last night I was going through all the pictures I snapped at the airport and came across this one. Being only 17 months apart they don't remember being without each other! I just thought this was a pretty great picture.