Feliz Navidad y Año Nuevo!!!

Lets start with christmas eve... twas the night before christmas, when, under a shady street light in buenaventura, two good little boys who believed in santa clause, and in Jesus Christ, had the christmas spirit tell them they should go to a distant land, half way to the north pole, to visit a man who recently started believing in santa again, and in Jesus Christ.  They did not have any reindeer, oh no sir, they walked.

 

They walked through the candicane forest, and past the sea or swirly whirly gum drops, and through the lincoln tunnel, but as they walked, it started to rain, a rain storm most dreadful, undeserved by such good little boys.  After miles and miles of putting one little foot infront of the other, the whiter and taller of the two said to the other, ``sorry for saying we should come out this far, maybe christmas eve will be better next year`` but, to the young boys surprise, his littel boy friend simply replied ``be of good cheer, im cold, im tired, but happy as could be``

 

The two little boys realized that christmas, and the work of Christ, arent about being warm by the fire or getting presents, but by giving one to another, the best thing anyone can give, the message of Jesus Christ, who gave us everything, even his life.

 

Alright im tired of talking/typing poetically... but ya it was a cool experience haha becuase we walked sooooo far and then the recent convert wasnt even home, and we were like ``dang seriously?`` and i told my comp ``shoot dude sorry for dragging you out here`` but he told me ``dude you know what, im cold, im tired, but im happy, not sure why`` and we both realized that here in the mission field we had had one of teh best and happiest christmas eves of our lives!!!

 

Alright next story for the week, ohhhhh thats right, call me Alma, BATPIZING IN A RIVER!!!!!!!!!!   We had another baptism this week, and this time the investigator asked me to do the honors!!!  pics on the way

 

Third neat thing from the week.  The elders quorum president got really sick this week (thats not the cool thing), and so everyone showed up to the priesthood meeting and realized nobody had the lesson prepared, so i ran to the other room and grabbed a bunch of liahona magazines and flipped to elder Jorg (weird russian last name i dont remember) talk, i think in english its ``approaching the throne of The Lord with confidence`` or some sweet title like that, and with no time to prepare i just taught the lesson on his talk... and i did it in SPANISH!!!!  Like holy cow, it used to take me two hours to prepare the lessons for elders quorum last year at BYU, and that was in english, and now i just last minute warning got up and did it in spanish!!!  So ya, as you know its an incredible talk, ive been studying it in english as well (they gave the liahona in english to the girngos this week, so ya dad ive got reeds talk and will give it a look!!!), and ya it was awesome!!!  Interesting to see how as missionaries try to forget themselves and help others grow, and edify The Lord`s church, He edifies and strengthens the missonaries!!!

 

Entonces vi un ejemplo perfecto de esa idea esta semana en mi propia vida!  La decisiòn de servir la misiòn es la mejor decisiòn que he tomado en la vida preterrenal, y he visto las bendiciones!  Fue un privilegio recordar un poco màs que normal a Jesucristo esta semana mientras celebràbamos su nacimiento.  Les testifico que Èl realmente nos dio todo.  Como Èlder Nelson (i think it was him who said this) nos dijo, Jesucristo dio cosas tal que nunca se habrìa podido devolver de su valor.  Dio perdòn para el arrepentido, vista para el ciego, oido para el sordo, fuerza para el dèbil, y màs que todo, nos dio su vida.  Lo sè porque he visto tales bendiciones no solamente en mi vida, sino en la vida de los colombianos aquì tambièn, y se lo tesifico en el nombre sagrado del mejor dador del mundo, Jesucristo, amen.

 

les amo

 

nos vemos

 

Èlder Tenney

not sure what to put here

WHATTTSSUPPPP?!?!?!?!  I sweat i was just in the little internet cafe yestyerday writing you guys, and now a whoooole nother weeks gone down....  wow time is flying!!!!

Alright, the report!!!  First life lesson i learned this week, latinos dont know the difference between sun burnt and tan... im not sure if its becuase they are already a darker tone than us, or actually im just not sure they know what ``tanning`` is at all... they just seem to think every gringo is completely white, regardless of how much time he spends in the sun... 

so i learned because everybodies been telling me im burnt, but dont worry mom, im not.  But ya they all say ``oyyy Èlder Tenis, estàs reee quemado!!!``  and i tell them, ``no im not, i put sunscreen on everyday, and my skins not even red at all, nor is it peeling, nor does it hurt...`` and then they proceed to tell me im not as white as i was when i arrived and i have to expalin to them that im not ``quemado`` but that im ``bronceado`` ya they dont really buy it, but oh well...  if it makes them happier to think that gringos come in all shapes and sizes, but only one color, completely and totally white, so be it, im sure i can incorporate that somehow in the first vision and all other descriptions of celestial beings...

Ohhh k one other thing i just remembered, next monday we have a zone conference in Cali, so i have pday tuesday and will be writing tuesday, so mom, when i dont write to you guys on monday, im ok, im safe, do not get on a plane to colombia and come looking for me

Alright haha so Colombias not the most sober place on the planet in christmas time, as im sure you can imagine ive seen a number of funny things this week, allow me to share a few...

We went to an investigators house the other week, a guy who was really getting a lot of interest, who says he wants to change his life and get baptized and all, but hes not married and living with another women and they have a family and all, and shes scared to get married... we are working on that... but ya so ironically enough, we were headed there to teach the word of wisdom, and we were with a couple from the ward who got married to get baptized as well and they were gonna help us with that, when we got to their street and saw evberybody on the block was out infront with empty beer bottles all over the ground... so ya our friend came up to us and sort of said a slurred version of somethying like ``im really happy, well happy your here but just really happy in general... (with a weird smile)  come in and sit down, lets talk about God....`` so ya we told him wed come back later....

K que pena, tenas, ya se me acabò el tiempo, pero les voy a hablar por skype en algunos dias!!!!  Como siempre, quiero dejarles con mi testimonio, que sè que estamos en la iglesia verdadera, la misma iglesia que Jesucristo estableciò, cada dia de mi vida es evidencia del poder divino y restaurado que tenemos, sè que la decisiòn màs difìcil que alguien ha tenido que tomar era ella de proveernos un Salvador, y sè que solamente un Dios, no solo todopoderoso, sino tambièn todo amoroso a causa de su papel como nuestro papa, sè que solamente un ser perfecto asì serìa capaz de tomar la decisiòn de enviar a su hijo unigenito acà al mundo, para morir por nosotros.  Sì, afortunadamente tenemos la pelìcula ``he is the gift`` aquì, la he llevado a casi todas las personas aquì porque se siente el Espìritu navideño tan fuerte al verla, y ese es mi testimonio en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo 

nos vemos

Èlder Tenney

Pictures

ya i got nothing

Whaaatttupppp peeeeps in teh big United States?!?!  another week down here in Colombia!!!  Man i started wondering if maybe, being closer to the equator here in Colombia, we travel faster (cover a larger distance) with the Earth`s rotation, and for that time goes by faster (it makes sense if you dont think about it) but ya anyways, my point, TIME IS FLYYYYING!!!!

the week was normal without anything overly exciting, i mean cars always honking, sweating like crazy, nonestop sounds of frogs croacking and other animals in this tropical costal jungle (ya, not sure if ive emphasized that yet about Buenaventura, but remember how cool it was to wake up in the youngs old house in Australia when we were there, how cool it was to wake up to the sound of soooo many different animals and stuff???  ya thats EXACTLY how it is here, SOOO COOL!!!!), salsa music coming out of everysingle inanimate jungle, but ya other than that, just normal until wednesday when we went to Cali for the leadership meeting with all the zone leaders and office missionaries!

So wednesday we headed out for the big and famous Cali again and got there in the night and stayed with some good friends there in Cali Elder Dean and Elder Tolentino, from Provo and Peru.  Then the next day i had my first leadership meeting!!!  Haha honestly it wasnt anythign overly amazing but really fun to catch up with other missionaries!  We jsut talked a ton about how we are going to use the ``Èl es la Dàdiva`` iniciation during Christmas time (im sure you guys have seen that video the churh made right?  ``He is the gift``?) and we talked a lot too about how many new missionaries there are, over half teh missionares here now have less than 3 months here in teh mission!  So they want us leaders to do more divisions and stuff with them... 

Ahhhh but then back to Cali..... we got stuck in sooooo much traffic, not sure why, but we were stuck in this little shuttle van with limited leg room for even a latino, so for a gringo it was rough, but finally got home a little after midnight... (dont worry mom the shuttle dropped us off directly in front of the house, so no we were not out on the street after midnight in Buenaventura...)

so ya we set some really high goals with everyone here in teh zone in the zone meeting while we relayed all the announcements and all from the leadership meeting and we are all suuuuper pumped and working hard in the zone!!!  K one small probem though thats been a bit tough is one of teh elders in our house has gotten super lazy and his comp isnt great about whipping him in shape, so ive been trying to help him get up on time and get dressed and all and actually study, but he jsut wants to sleep in always and hates studying and has been getting pretty annoyed with me, the younger guy, getting on him, but its alrgith im learning a lot about being a leader

alight so we had another baptism this week!!!  The guy who said he saw me in a dream sure enough got baptized and confirmed!!!  K it was sweet and all, but a small bummer haha i thought i was gonna be able to perform the baptism but he asked another guy in teh ward to do it, but its all good, ill have my chance in teh river soon enough

Alright few funny things from the week:  First off, so with the ``He is the gift`` video, they gave us missionaries a disk with a few other christmas videos as well to wath with the members and investigators and all, and we were watching one of teh other videos in our house one night when, i realize, amongst a group of people carroling are THE OLSENS!!!  Hahahaha i jumped and was like ``NO WAY`` cuz all the olsen`s daughters are in it and i explained to the other guys that they are my good friends and all and it was pretty cool...

Alright another random little thing about Buenaventura, the stairs here, are NEVER even!!!!  like, every single group of stairs, every staircase, big or small, has completely uneven steps!!!  There will be one big step with a big drop and then the next step will be like half the size, so IM ALWAYS FALLING!!!  I trip and fall ALL THE TIME on the dang stairs here hahaha so youve got to look straight down and really focus directly on the stairs while ascending or descending them, and even when you are going up and down them without falling, it just feels awkward usually to be taking big steps and then small steps and ya... there have been a good number of moments when latinos looked down and laughed at the gringo lying on the stairs holding his knee... but its ok, we are working through it...

Alright so one really neat but humbling experience this week.  I did divisions with the other gringo Elder Nail from texas in my house one day and he took me to the area called ``los puentes`` or ``the bridges`` which are houses built directly over the water of one of the inlets of the bay, and WOOOWWW im pretty sure you dont get much more poverty than this.... it was sad..... you can find all sorts of pictures online im sure, not a great place to take out a camera, but i sneaked mine out real quick to snap a picture that i will attach, but ya so they are just a few logs stuck into the shallow and absolutely disgusting water, with houses built around them and two by eights connecting them all, little bridges you walk along to get to each house... ya the houses dont have bathrooms, just holes in teh floor... and ya... ill let you use your imagination from there...

hahaha ohhh i knew i was still in Colombia though because some of these little houses, just a few, STILL HAD GIANT SPEAKERS!!!!!  I have no idea how, but yes, some of these houses were still blasting slasa music, and honestly, im not sure where the power comes from, nor how the houses dont break and fall, being rattled by the loud vibrating speakers, but ya its nuts....  So there is one family of members who live there, the poor people are sooo lazy, never come to church for teh dumbest excuses, but they have one son bless his heart who is suuuch a great kid, always goes to church, and is filling out his mission papers!!!!  Hes gonna be pretty soon the first missionary from Buenaventura, and everyone is soooo excited for him cuz the missionaries are who have constructed everything here and chyanged the peoples lives sooo much, and ya its neat!!!

Entonces, la verdad, no sè còmo puedo contarles mejor acerca de mis pensamientos de tal pobreza acà, pero me hace humillarme por lo menos, y me pone pensar en mis bendiciones primero, y despuès en la belleza de mi trabajo de traer este mensaje a toda la gente aqui en Colombia, el mensaje que salva a todas clases de personas!  Sè que un mensaje tan hermoso, solamente puede venir de un Dios no solo todopoderoso, sino todo amoroso tambièn.  Se me llena de Su amor cuando pienso en Su hijo tambièn, Jesucristo, a quien Dios enviò al mundo para darnos la senda a seguir, y sè que el Espìritu navideño que disfrutamos durante las celebraciones de Su nacimiento es el Espìritu Santo, el mismo que siempre me testifica de la verdad de este mensaje, y que testificarà de la veracidad a todo el mundo!  Sè que Èl vive, que me ama, que me dio su vida, que es mi Redentor, y mi Salvador, y lo digo en Su nombre, aun Jesucristo, amen.

les amo 

nos vemos  

Èlder Tenney

6 MONTHS!!!!

Alllllllright im starting this email the same way i think ive started every single other one, by saying how INCREDIBLY FAST the time is absolutely FLYYYIIINNGGG!!!!!!!   MY MISSION IS A QUARTER OF THE WAY OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1   ahhhhh man just makes me wanna work sooooo much harder which im really not sure is possible but i will find a way!!!!!

Wait wait wati hold on a minute though, rewind, tell me i havent just waken up from a coma, ive been out six months???  And mark is as tall as dad and will?  And will is turning in his BYU app???  Will was in what third grade when i left???  and seems like just the other day you told me you bought a boat (had to type bought like 3 times before i got it write, dang my enlish is draining down the go) and now its already winter and you are skiing?!?!

Wow, well all is ``suuuuuper fine`` here in Buenaventura!!!!  i say ``suuuper fine`` because thats what everyone says to me here.  I dont know why, but all the english teaching books and classes and all here teach that the word ``fine`` means ``good`` when really it just kinda means ``not bad...`` so when people try to talk in english a bit with me and i say very slowly ``how are you?`` or ``hows it going?`` the say with a big smile ``fine`` or ``really really fine`` or ``suuuper fine`` and ya its kinda funny...

Ahhhh man though it is soooooooo dannnngggggg hot here!!!!!   So i started, haha no joke, wearing a littel hand towel under my belt that im always wiping myself with and which i keep on my lap during lessons and stuff to wipe the sweat, becuase im seriously always, always covered in sweat from 11 in teh morning to like 8 or 9 at night when it finally starts to cool off just enough to sleep... haha my comp actually started doing it too, keeping a little towel on him too to wipe the sweat and all, hes been here 2 months now and is still sweating just as much so im just gonna have to get used to it... the people alwyas feel bad for us too though, the natives dont really sweat and are used to it, but they like apologize and stuff as they see us sweating sooo much haha its.. ummm.. great

Holy cow though besides the heat I LOOOVVEE It here!!!!!  We had another incredible week!!!!  So we had a baptism planned with an investigator whos awesome, a friend of the one really good family in teh ward who actually moved in with them for some time, planned for next saturday, but they planned to leave this week for their vacation, so we moved up the batpismal date and did it yesterday!!!  OHHHHHH and ok perhaps the coolest thing about Buenaventura, and one of the reasons i wanted to come here, theres no baptismal font in teh little chapel so we go to A RIVER TO BAPTIZE!!!!!!   Yup, thats right, call us the sons of Mosiah, pics on teh way...!!!

So ya her baptism was swweeeeettt yesterday and shes already getting a strong testimony and even thinking about the mission!!!  (shes 17)  Alright now though, for maybe one of teh COOLEST EXPERIENCES ON MY MISSION!!!!!!   We went to visit a guy whos a friend of a member and who already went to church with this member a few times, the elders never visited him before cuz he lives really far, but i felt like we should visit him, so ya we go and sit down with him and get to know him a bit and start teaching him and share a lesson and all... and at the end of teh lesson he told us the most incredible thing!!!!  He said ``you now what, i was sleeping right before you guys knocked on the door, and in my dream when i was sleeping i saw a gringo with bright blond hair, and when i answered the door i was a bit shocked cuz i realized you, Èlder Tenney, were the gringo i saw, so i invited you guys in a know you guys have something very special for me...``!!!!!!!

take a moment 

im still taking a moment

WHHHHAATTTTTT?!?!?!?!   HOW INCREDIBLE IS THAT?!?!?!?!?!   Ahhhh man ok ya so you dont really get much of a better example than that that The Lord is indeed preparing people to hear this message!!!  so ya weve kept teaching him since then and now weve got his baptism planned for this saturday!!!

Alright so a random little funny thing about Buenaventura, so just the architecture in general in Colombia isnt anywhere as good as what weve got there in the states, and its even worse here in Buenaventura, so the steps on every stair case are super uneven, so you have to be looking attently at your feet anytime you go up or down a few stairs... so ya i had some pretty good falls this week haha, some aweosme moments when everyones jsut laughing at the dang gringo in colombia whos on teh ground holding his knee not knowing wether to laugh or cry...

Alright well ya thats about it for this week!!!  Todavìa no puedo explicarles acerca de quì tan bonito esta ciudad es!!!  Es increìble!!!  Creo que la Caìda tocò algunas partes de la tierra màs que otras partes, y Buenaventura aquì casi no se tocò, que quiere decir que la naturaleza aquì es casi iqual que lo que se nos describe de la gardìn de Edèn!!  Les envio algunas fotos muy buenas que saquè esta semana!  Otra evidencia de la divinidad de Nuestro Padre Celestial y Su Higo Jesucristo que crearon toda esta belleza para nosotros!  Es mi testimonio en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Èlder Tenney

ya boy in BUENAVENTURA

Hahaha so i started typing in all caps with lots of exclamation points like usual about how crazy this place is, but i thought it would scare mom too much... so ya im safe mom dont worry haha, but seriously, THIS PLACE IS NUTS!!!!  sorry mom, i like typing in caps, i had to a litle bit haha...

k shoot i hope you guys heard though, we had a huge conference with the whole mission yesterday and had to travel back to Cali and were there all day, so we have p-day today instead!  I asked them if i could use the internet for just 5 minutes on sunday to send you an email saying i would be online tuesday instead of monday (so that mom wouldnt hop on a plane to colombia looking for me when she didnt hear from me monday) but they told me they were gonna send an email to all the parents of all the missionaries informing them... so if you didnt get it, please dont come down here mom im safe dont worry, just having p-day a day late...

k now that we know im safe though, HOLLLYY COWWW THIS PLACE IS INSANE!!!!!   haha BUT I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!   k so ya this place has some rough parts yes, but we dont go anywhere near them dont worry!  So im in an area called Independencia, which is the second safest part of town, after the part called Marina, where the sister missionaries are, but we also live in marina and just take a little bus to our area everyday to work there...

K how do i even begin to describe Buenaventura though, man hhaaha, its soooooo hot!!!!  And worse yet, SOOO HUMID!!!  Ahhhh man, we are always, the other missionaries and i, always, drenched in sweat haha, like absolutely covered, but the bad part is is that you walk into the shade or into someones house and its nooo better, teh humidity carries the heat into every part of town and theres no escaping it haha!!  K so the city is a bit dirty yes, but my areas not to bad (its ``la isla`` thats reeeaaalll dirty, if youve seen bad picks online mom, theyre from the isla, not my area, dont worry), but aside from the dirty and worn down buildings our house is actually really nice, and the land here is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!  It is sooooo dang tropical i cant even believe it!!!!!  So the pictures really dont show it either darn it, but ive got some coming anyways, but it serisouly is just soooooooooooo green its unreal!!!!!  Its pretty hilly (is that a word?) but that makes it cool cuz we can see all the other parts of the city and stuff, theres a big ridge we always walk along at the edge of the city and from there, on the other side its seriouly just rain forest, sooooo green glazed with trees, and rivers all over the place too, and you can barely see the ocean on the horizon, and then the ridge heads along the city and towards the big mountains in between us and Cali, sweeeet mountains (you guys know i love good mountains huh, they make me feel ``safe`` huh mom haha...) and its gorgious!!!  There little streams that just run all over the place, and ya its a really neat place!! 

K so our house is awesome!!  Its really big for a missionary house, and there are four of us living there which is fun!  My comp is aweosme!  Elder Pèrez from Peru, haha hes a super funny guy, everyones best friend here, and we are already loving working together here (ive been sooo blessed with good comps here haha but im scared im swimming in deep water, just building up the bad luck that will hit me hard one day with a rough comp, but oh well)!  Hes been out almost a year, and its only his second transfer as zone leadr but he knows what hes doing with the job and is training me well with that... also the other elders in our house are cool guys too!  Elder hernandez from honduras and his comp eldr Nail from texas who also studied at byu living in helaman halls for a year, the year before i did!  Hes a way smart guy and has learned so much in the mish that hes teaching me, especially with the languag, he speaks really well and has been really working on his accent too and is helping me tons with mine which is sweet!!  And ya our house is on the third floor of a building and has a cool little balcony infront with a cool view of teh little costal valley here, cant see the ocean, but the mountians yes, and i sit out there all the time reading the book of mormon outloud working on the language and all... I LOVE IT!!!

So the church is really interesting here.  Theres not a chapel, just what they call a house chapel in spanish, but its really cool!!  The church just bought a normal house, two story decent sized house in a normal alley, jsut across the main road from our house, and no one lives there and they just turned it into a chapel!  Its got like an ``L`` chaped cultural hall across the first floor, with the podium and all at the bend, seats like 80, and then theyve got a bunch of class rooms and an office upstairs with another room downstairs and the garage setup as a classroom, but like its really well done!!  Its all wired up with, well first off tons of fans and little Air conditioning machines haha, and then with cameras and TVs (sometimes we have more than 80 attend so we put them in other rooms and they watch the sacrament meeting) and theyve put nice molding in and all and its really cool!!  And wooow the people here!!!  So there is one family of people who were members in Cali, but then moved here like 10 years ago and went inactive, but missionaries came here for the first time 2 years ago, found them, and then that family reactivated and th missionaries baptized the whole family who are their good friends, and both families are endowed and sealed and like most of the leaders in the branch and all, and awesome people!!  Soooo nice to us missionaires, and both have their walls seriously filled with pictures of all the missionaries whove been here haha, and the cool thing is that thats really how all the people are here!!  They dont know much about the church maybe (well those two families do), many have learned the doctrine well now, but they just dont know a lot about how to fulfill callings and all, but are learning sooooo fast, and its just sooooo cooool to see how a bunch of 19 and 20 year olds, half of them gringos, come into this somewhat dirt town yes, but find the good people there and change their lives, and bring happiness into their lives that they never thought existed, and then with these young missionaries they learn how to make the church grow here, and it is seriously growing soooo fast yesss!!!!

Sooooo ya, this place is a littel bit nuts, but im totally safe dont worry and i love it!!!!  Its seriously every missionaries favorite place in the mission!!!  It was a bit sad leaving my other area, i had 4 baptisms of real converted people set up in my last area that i missed though which was hard, but i love it here too!!  I couldnt be happier here and i hope you guys get a decent idea from this sporatic email and my pictures of how incredible of a place it is!!!

So one interesting story, one of the really good families here, we were at their house the other day cuz a friend of one of the daughters moved in with them and is investigating now, the mom of teh family asked me ``and what did your mom think when you got your call to come here to a messy place like Colombia?``  and it really hit me pretty hard the question (excuse my english, i realize that sentence was like reversed haha the way they normally are in spanish, and im sure that wasnt the first one like that, just the first i noticed) and i was way humbled, and it made me think (not for the first time, but made me think deeper than before) about how interesting it is that there are such great people here, but honestly are stuck in a bit of a rough place, but how happy they are regardless with the gospel!  Ya, colombias sweet, especially this city, i love it to death and it will always have a special place in my heart (dont worry im coming straight back to the states in a year and a half and will live in good clean areas there) but it is a pretty rough place, but there are still a few blessed people here who bless their hearts know its a rough place but for some reason or another cant really make it to anywhere better, but who are eternally greatful for this message we bring them.  I didnt know what to say to the mom in teh family when she asked me that, i just tried to say ``nah colombias great i love it!`` but ya its just really interesting, humbles me, and makes me love my job and this gospel even more!!!

Bueno entonces eso es todo lo que cabe en una sola carta semanal, pero sè que seguirè teniendo experiencias muy interesantes para compartir!  Oh y tambièn, mi habilidad de entender el español, que antes era me debilidad, està mejorando bastante acà!  Las personas acà hablan como aqua que està herviendo, como ese señor de tu misiòn dad jaja, pero a pesar de eso casi siempre puedo entenderles!  Es increìble!  Hablan rrrreee ràpido, y despues normalmente me pregunto a mì mismo, ``còmo es que ententì eso???`` y sè que màs que todo es el don de lenguas, y es muy chevere y muy especial, y muy real, tal como el sacrificio de Jesucristo!  En la conferencia ayer hablamos de maneras en que vamos a enseñar especificamente acerca de Jesucristo como nuestro dàdivo durante la navidad, y les testifico que sì Èl es!  En su nombre dejo mi testimonio, el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Èlder Tenney

wooooowwwww

HOOOLLLYYYY COOOWWWW!!!!    WOOWWWW!!!   AHHHH MANNNN!!!!  WUUUHHHHHWWOWWW!!!

SHOOOTTT!!!!  DANGGG!!!!!

WOW have i had a week hahaha k ive got sooooooooo mcuh to type darn it and i know im not gonna get it all but ill do my best!!

Alright so i gotta start with the important first!!!  IM GETTING TRANSFERED!!!  not gonna finish my comps training darn it, hes seriously been a great friend of mine here and weve torn it up together!!!  I really wanted to stay one more transfer with him darn it, but ya there moving me this week.........  AHHHH and weve got sooooo many INCREDIBLE investigators on the verge of getting baptized, and im gonna miss it all darn it, and the sister missionaries in my district have been working really well and have an investigator they wanted me to baptize this week but im leaving....  Ahhh but alright here it is, im going to BUENAVENTURA!!!!!!!!!!!!!   HOOOLLYYY COWWW and even more IM GONNA BE ZONE LEADER THERE!!!!!!  AHhhh man this is nuts, im telling you stop reading my email right now haha and look up buenaventura on youtube, so its such an interesting place, ive heard its really pretty, extremely tropical, but really hot and waaaayyyy humid, and parts of it are nice but most of it is suuuuuper poor.... it will probably be even more of a culture shock again, but so everyone there is african too and they talk sooooo dang fast hahaha shoooot im not gonna understand a single thing anyone says for the first few months probably!!!  I was finally getting pretty good at understanding the natives here but now im going back into the world of the newb gringo who doesnt understand anyone, but worse yet ive got to be the zone leader while i do it!!!

Ahhh ya well theres that haha i should have a pretty interesting email next week after my first week there, but im stoooked too!!!  Nobody ever wants to leave that zone and most people whove served there and in a lot of other areas, my trainer included, have said its the sweetest zone here!!! 

Alright, moving on, some good stories haha from the week!  First off, our good friend member here who always gives us a ride to the church in his truck which we ride in the back of bought a new car this week, a suuuper old little thing, almost like a mini cooper, and ya you can sure bet that thing broke down on us haha... we were driving to ward council wednesday night darn it when the car was kind enough to get us over the first of two bridges coming into cali, but crumbled in fear and shut off on us upon seeing the second bridge.  So ya we had a. hmm, whats the word, ``blast`` pushing that little yet surprisingly heavy car over the big hill which is the second bridge coming into cali right before the chapel haha... no so it actually was way funny though, hard but enjoyable haha i filmed a sweet video of it but unfortunatley we cant send videos, so youll have to enjoy it in a year and a half, but ive got some sweet fotos on the way!!!  So ya haha it was fun having all the people drive by with the weirdest looks on their face as they saw two guys, one a bright glowing gringo, with white shirts and ties pushing this little car in the middle of teh highway haha!!!  And then it coasted down finally over the other side, and the sister missionaries happened to pass by in a bus and saw us, so when they went and got to the chapel they sent all the members out to help us and it was all good...

alright moving on, friday we put on a sweeeet activity!!!  Each missionary made food from their own country and we brought it all to the chapel to have an activity where the members could bring friends, new investigators, and try all the diferent cultural food.. so i haha dad youll love this, i made 120 pancakes in 2 hours!!!!!  HOLLY COOWWW  hahaha maybe as productive as ive ever been in my life!!!  In our tiny tiny little kitchen, with a plastic table and two stoves on top like the ones we use on camp'outs, i flipped pancakes for 2 hours strait haha and made 120!!!!  Ahhh man was i sweating and sore after haha but it was fun!!  The activity went great too!!!!  But it went late and we didnt have time to travel back to our area here so we stayed with the elders there in cali in their apartment, and most of the houses of the missonaries have alteast 3 beds if not 4, but theirs only has the 2, so my comp and i had to sleep on the hard tile floor haha darn it i didnt sleep much that night but its all good...

alright shoot im already out of time, but as always thanks soooo much for the emails i love them always!!!  I miss you but am loooving my job here and really happy here!!!!!  Tuve una experiencia muy especial esta semana tambièn, bueno pues tuve muchos jaja pero no me sobra tiempo para contarles todos, pero tenemos una investigadora nueva que es muy buena, muy educada, pero muy ocupada con sus estudios, pero leìmos el libro de mormon con ella y solamente le pedimos que orara para preguntar si es verdad, y para pedir ayuda con algo que necesite de Dios, y ella lo hizo y ayer nos digo que funcionò!!!  Ella no podìa creer la respuesta que tuvo y ahora quiere aprender muchisimo màs y nos dijo que siemre traemos una paz muy especial cuando le visitamos!  Era muy especial para mi compañero y para mì escuchar eso, y es por eso que estoy tan contento aquì!  Sè que lo que ella ha sentido es el Espìritu Santo, y que lo sentimos porque nuestro Padre en el Cielo nos ama, en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen. 

les amo

nos vemos

Èlder Tenney

woooooooo holllyyyyy coowwwww im 20!!!!!!!!

Whhhatttuupppp family?!?!?!

K first things first, mom i am soooooooo sorry, soooooooo sorry i realized as soon as i took my first step out of the internet cafe last week that i didnt even wish you happy birthday, and ahhhh ive been mad at myslef all week for that haha please forgive me and i hope you had a great day!!!   A

As always thanks for the letters!!!  NOOOO WAYYY did mark run 3.2 miles in 20 minutes there in utah with that air?!?!  THATS CRAZY!!!!!!   And dang i cant believe grandma and grandpa already finished 3 years there!!!  Im gonna miss being able to say here that my grandparents live in spain, i used to tell ebveryone here that and they always thought it was cool.... And wow tell me more with Jared!!!  Really do you think youre seeing a light at the end of the tunnel?!?!?!?!?!   Thants INCREDIBLE if so!!!!!!

Alright the weekly report!!!  So tuesday i was leading the district meeting and we were discussing some problems with investigators and sharing ideas and all when one of the elders in our district whos working there in cali where the chapel is said hes had an investigator with the same problem that one of ours has, so he came here to Villa Gorgona the ext day and i went there to Cali, doing divisions, from wednesday to thursday morning, which was pretty fun to change things up a bit for a day!   So hes training a greeny gringo there in Cali and it was fun to walk all around Cali talking in english haha, Elder Jeffreys his name and we had a good time and got some good work done there too!!!  They have the sweeeeetest house there too there in Cali!!!  Its not quite in the downtown part of cali which is really pretty, but its up on the fifth floor of a big building and has a sweeeeet view of the whole city and valley and mountains all around it which is really neat!!  And ive learned im a total city boy, i slept like a baby with the sound of busy cars on teh street all night, reminded me of new york...

So ya thursday, my birthday, was great!!!!   First off, interesting, all the misioanries in the mission had to go to the internet cafes to watch a broadcast from the president and office missionaries, they announced that we are going to establish what are called ´´pensionistas´´ in the mission, which are ladys who cook our lunch... they are going to call one lady in each area to make the lunch for the missionaries every day, and to be our guide for buying and preparing our food for dinner and breakfast evberyday since there have been so many sick missionaries, so ya presidnet pricolis really a smart guy and taking good care of us, dont need to worry about my health any more mom the mish is taking good care of me!  Also, on regard of the mish taking good care of me, i did manage to get a little birthday celevbration in!!!  The sister missionaries in our district asked us to go to their area tohelp them with a family night with a bunch of investigators and when we got there, they had decorations up for me and a cake for my birthday!!!!  So that was really cool and suuuper thoughtful of them!!!  To be honest haha i had just kept my expectations low and didnt think my birthday would be anything special here but nah that totally made my day!!  i wrote them a note yesterday thanking them and telling them that youd be thrilled to know that the members are taking good care of me here!!!

Alright so CRAAAZZZY story from yesterday!!!  Last night the missionary in cali calls me and tells me his comp is a little worried and needs to talk to someone in english,so im like ´´uhhh shoot whats happened?!?!?!´´ so turns out they had a busy night and were doing splits with members, so this new gringo was with a member and not his comp, and they knocked ont he door of some investigators who live on the second floor abov e a restaurant, and one of their sons is up on teh balcony on the third floor and he hops the railing and is standing out on the edge, holding onto the railing on the third floor, which aparently is something he always did before, but the railing breaks, and he falls!!!!!!!  HES UPSIDE DOWN IN THE AIR, going to land ON HIS HEAD, when he hits the telephone lines, does a flip, and lands RIGHT ON HIS FEET!!!!!!!!!!!!   i mean HOLY COWWWW!!!!!!!   Wooooow what a miracle hahaha, he still fell over from landing on his feet so hard and broke his wrist, but other than that hes just fine, the phone lines totally saved his life!!!!!  So ya just another typical day in Cali Colombia for ya....

Alright so really neat experiene this week!  Dani and Lucho, who we put the wedding on for a little while ago and baptized, went with us to an appointment with another investigator the other day, and he was telling us he wouldnt be able to go to church with us cuz he had to keep working there in his little store he owns, when Dani, one of my converts, explains ´´dont you trust that The Lord will bless you with even more blessings and help you have even more success with your job, or give you blessings in some other way, if you can just exercize a little faith now and go to church???´´ So that made me sooo impressed with how much she has learned!!!  Lucho her husband stepped up then too and the both of them started explaining perfectly the way The Lord works with us with commandments and all and it was soooooooo neat for me to see two of my converts now explaining the doctrine of Christ that has changed their life to other people as well!!!  I cant even describe how neat it is to see, not that ive done anything, but just to know that through my efforts, perhaps we can say, theyve been able to feel the spirit and be changed and invite the light of Christ more into their lives, and, as Bednar says, even have desire then to put on the character of Christ and turn out...!!!!  so ya that was suuuper neat for me!!!!

Entonces aquí tenemos la última semana y todo lo que me pasó en Cali, Colombia!   Les dejo mi testimonio que, en las palabras de Niel A Maxwell, las que el Elder Bednar usó en un otro discurso, si no fuera por la característica de Cristo, la expiación no habría sido posible... somos todos nosotros evidencia de ese principio, ya que tenemos el deseo de compartir lo que nos ha impactado!  Sé que no hay algo mejor de ese ´´fruto´´, digamos, que hace que uno sea feliz!  Es mi testimonio, y se lo dejo en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

Les amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

WOWOWOWOW another weeeeek down!!! And month!!!! and almost half year!!!!

HOOOOLLLYYYY COOOWWW times flying!!!!  And i can honestly say its starting to scare me, literaly, that times going so fast!!!!  IM TURNING 20 THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!  WOOOWWW it felt weird typing that..... i seriously cant believe it haha, so to answer your question dad yes time is going as fast for me too, if not faster, im hitting my 5 month mark today yes!!!  Almost a quarter of teh way done with my mission and i seriously feel like ive been here maybe 2 months at the longest!!!  Dang though haha to be honest this week it hit me, that before i know it the mission will be over, and man did that make me reeeallly wanna work hard this week!!  So ya its been a productive week thats for sure!!  Haha not that we werent already working really hard before, but im doing all i can to make sure the mission doesnt fly by without making the most of it!!!

K as always thanks a ton for the emails!!!  They are always sooooo fun to read!!!  Glad to hear youre all doing so well!!!  And winning so much hahaha hooollllyyyy cooowwwww did you seriously make 96 free throws mark????   And mark told me hes 6´2 in his last email, somebody please log on RIGHT NOW and tell me thats not true hahaha..... and NO WAAAYYYYYY dad did you seriously hit 4 of 5 half court shots hahahaha THATS INSAAAANE!!!!  Everybody in this little internet cafe thinks im a weirdo hahaha cuz ive been gasping and yelling ``no way!!!!`` while reading your emails hahaha but oh well, just helps me fit in here in Colombia to be honest.....  Dang though i was all proud walking into the interntet cafe today because as we played soccer at the chapel today for pday, i threw down some windmill and 360 dunks on the 10 foot hoop!!!!  haha pics on the way, but wow have i actually been seriously outdone this week basketball wise, mega congragulations!!!!  And NNOOO WAAAYYY mom did you seriusly win 2 of your maatches already in the advanced league?!?!?!  WAY TO GO!!!!!!  Will, tu español es rreee bueno tambièn segùn lo que me has escrito!!!  Me imagino que tu nota no solo en tu clase de español, pero en todos tus clases, son muuuyy buenos!!  Byu te espera!!  Y la misiòn te espera tambièn!!!   And as always im soooo glad to hear Jareds doing so well!!!  That stud is such a trooper he deserves the good progress it sounds like hes having!!!

Alright shoot im gonna throw it out honest here real quick and admit ive got a waaayyyy boring email this week... im afraid im just getting used to living in this insane country, and stuff thats crazy for anyone with a sound mind not from Colombia dont even make me blink twice haha..... but luckily i did get a lot better about pictures this week so ive got lots coming!!  But one story kind of funny real quick: The mission president called me the other day and told me that apparently there was a huuuge fight infront of the house of the sister misionaries in my district, and he told me that he had been calling them all morning but unable to get ahold of them and wasnt sure if they were safe.... shoot so he calls me and verifies that hes got the right number for them, i confirmed that it was the right number yes, and after a few moments of shared panic i remembered they told me the night before that they had a meeting with all the sister missionaries in all the zones here in cali that day, and when i told the president that, and that they werent answering the phone because they were in the meeting, there was a moment of silence and then just the most hilarious ``ooohhhhhh`` ive ever heard as he realized that all is well and that ya there was the big meeting for the sister missionaries that morning.... oh man so everyone loves that kid in class who subconciously blurts out ``ohhhh`` in school when they finally come to understand just slower enough than everyone else that its hilarious, well my very own mission president, who as ive said is a really smart guy, gave me the absolute best ``oohhhh`` over teh phone that im sure i will ever hear in my life hahaha so ya to make it even better his wife was in the meeting with the sister missionaries too and he told me hed call her to then talk to the sister missionaries, and to answer your question mom no the sister missionaries were just fine, it wasnt even anything that bad that happened infront of their house, and no nothing ever happens in front of my house im perfectly safe...

So ya like i said the email is waayyyy boring this week, sorry, but ive got a lot of good pictures on the way.  Tambièn algo muy interesante esta semana de lo que me he dado cuenta es que las personas, de verdad, aprecian mucho lo que hacemos los misioneros, que quiere decir que (``que quiere decir`` is a colombian way of saying ``which means`` incase there are any problems understanding that...) las personas reconocen bien la esfuerza de este mensaje que tenemos... Permìtanme explicar un poco màs.  El mensaje que tenemos les impactùa mucho a todas las personas aquì, y creo que de pronto es porque son pobres y humildes... todas las personas, aunque no asistan a la iglesia con frequencia, siempre quieren que compartamos algo con ellos, un ejemplo es que el otro dìa estàbamos andando a una cita, pero sin prisa, y algunos de los hombres jòvenes en el Barrio, miembros algunos pero no muy activos, nos pararon y nos dijeron que compartièramos algo, y al empezar a detenernos y sacar las escrituras, allì mismo en la calle, nos dijeron que nuestros mensajes siempre son fuertes y les hacen sentir bien, y me dije a mì mismo, que bueno que algunos jovencitos de verdad reconocen el poder de este mensaje y a pesar de que tal vez no estèn haciendo todo lo correcto, todavìa quieren escucharnos, y por què, porque las enseñanzas de Jesucristo por lo menos nos hacen sentir bien.  Les testifico que es asì porque este mensaje que tenemos viene directamente de Dios y es para nuestra bienestar porque Èl nos ama!  Lo sè hace 20 años esta semana, y lo digo en el nombre sagrado del Señor Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Èlder Tenney

the week!!!

Qué más familia?!?!   Cómo han estado todos?!?!   Me alegro muchísimo de leer sus cartas esta semana como siempre!!!   Seriously it always makes my week to read your letters, even if you guys think they are boring or not too great or that you havent done anything fun in the week, they always mean a ton to me!!

Alright so im gonna jump to it real quick, ive had an INCREDIBLE week and know im not gonna have time to type up all of this, but here goes my best try! 

So i gotta start with the spiritual experiences:  K so first of all, tuesday i got sick again and had to stay in the house all day, it was rough, trhowing up all day, finally in the afternoon though i fell asleep and slept all through the night and was good to go wednesday!  But anyways so wednesday i was feeling a bit down about having missed all day tuesday to work, we had some important appointments that day, so i just asked The Lord for a little help of feeling better, i asked for the spirit a little more strongly than usual that day, to kinda help me get back into it, and so during my personal study i was studying my patriarchal blessing and i just started to feel incredible!!!  I felt the spirit sooooo strongly, was just completely filled all the way through!!  Thats something ive noticed to really be unique about the feelings of the spirit too, is that its not just a nice cool fan on a hot day, with makes us cool on the surface, but no its a suuuper good almost burning feeling all the way through!!  So ya i felt so much closer to The Lord that morning, and it got even better when i looked at the name on my scriptures with an idea.  I looked at the name Richards and thought to myself if that was the only place there on my scriptures where that name appears, and sure enough, its not!  There are a few scriptures that talk about Willard Richards in D&C and it was amazing for me to think that on the cover is not the only place on my scriptures where my name appears!! 

So then thursday i was studying the 12 week program with my comp in the morning that we study for an hour every day to train him, and ive really been trying to be the best trainer i can be and help my comp learn as much as he can.  Ive been praying lots, looking for opportunities to teach him with examples in the streets, and ive been studying the 12 week program a little bit ahead to highlight the most important parts, writing down questions to ask him to train him and all... and so ya we were reading in abraham 3 where it talks about the great and noble spirits whoo would be the leaders here on earth and i testified to him that i knew it was true.  I testified that i knew we are both here on the mission becuase we understood this plan there in the pre earth life and sustained our savior at its center, and that we agreed to give our whole lives, leaving our families for 2 years, to testify of this divine plan to the other sheep who have gone astray, and whether i actually taught important doctrine or anything i dont know, but one thing i do know for sure is that i felt the spirit suuuuper strong again in that moment and i know he did to, and thats the best thing i can offer as a trainer!

Alright so also one thing weve been studying in the 12 week program is listening to the spirit to know what questions to ask the investigators in order for them to really speak up and share their needs and stories, and wooowww did my comp do a miraculous job of that or what this week!!  A few days ago we went to contact a reference from one of the members here, the reference was a man who owns a bread shop here... so when we walked in he told us quite honestly that hes catholic and doesnt want to change his religion... so we told him we believe in Christ too as he does and that we just wanted to share ideas and talk casually a little bit... so we start with a prayer and begin talking when after a few minutes, a little boy, only 5 years old he told us, with suuper dirty clothes and without shoes, walks into the bread shop.  The man then told us that this poor little kids parents are beggars here on the street too, homeless, and that even though they are in this same town, they have abandoned this kid.  He lives on the streets, alone, and is 5 years old, with nothing but a pair of shorts and a t shirt.  He had walked into the bread shop because this guy always gives him some bread to eat for free, and the man told us that he does so because he too lived alone on the streets as a kid.  I was heart broken.  I was sitting here with my nicely ironed clothes, one outfit of many, well fed and from a nice home and plentiful environment my whole life, and looking at two poor innocent people just like me, one old and one young, who have had absolutely nothing.  nothing.  But i knew with all my heart that the one most important thing that i could give them, that can save the lives of people who have either everything or nothing, was this gospel, and that is exaclty why im here on a mission.  So the man began to tell us his whole story that his parents abandoned him when he was little and he ended up somehow riding on a bus to ecuador where the bus driver dropped him off at a school.  The school took him in full time and fed him and all and he grew up there, and believe it or not this school is fairly close to where my comp is from in quito ecuador.  so he begins to tell us that as soon as he learned to read, he began reading the bible because he wanted to learn about the God who had delivered him to this nice school that has taken him in.  So the guy really does know the bible well, and my comp did then an incredible job of asking him questions to steer his understanding of the bible to the realitly of the restored gospel today that only makes sense... it was AMAZING!!!  I know that no matter how good of a missionary my new comp might be, hes not good enough to have been asking these questions on his own, nobody is good enough to have done this, he was being guided by the spirit!  So we show some scriptures about how Chrsit said i have other sheep not of this fold and all, and he agreed that it means that there were other people in other parts of the world in Christs time.  Then we asked him that if Christ really loves all of us, he would have visited these other people too right?  he agreed, and then we gave him a book of mormon and explained it and all and he told us he was excited to read it!!  so ya we have another appointment with him tonight and it will be interesting to see how he progresses!  Ive come to learn that every investigator always has some big problem to overcome first, so im scared of what might come up since everythings gone so perfect so far, but we will see!  Buy anyways, ive learned that The Lord truly does love all of us, and for that he sends those who have been sooooo blessed their whole lives such as myslef to those who havent been as blessed such as this poor man, and im sooooo honored and greatful for this opportunity that i have to be The Lords full time servant to take this blessed message with the spirit to those who need it!

alright now that i got the good spiritual experiences down from the week, i do have a few funny stories too!  So remember how last week i said i would remember my other funny story right as i walked out, ya thats exactly what happened... haha anyways heres the story from last week!!!  My comp, darn it haha, told one of the members that hes a bit tired of eating chicken, cuz thats all that the members give us here for lunch, but for me chickens good, and more importantly, its safe haha.... its hard to go wrong with chicken, and as long as we are eating chicken it means we arent eating anything crazy, so im happy... alright well ya so she said she would cook something else for us then, and oh man did i miss understand how bad of news that would turn out to be....... so ya she brings out some weird looking brown mush, somewhat solid and like curvey... ugh like little brown bars of soap that people have carved roundish chunks out of... and then with a off green kind of sauce over it.... oh man!  It was bad!  So ya i said my own personal prayer, one of the most heart felt prayers ive done in a while, in my head, while the dad blessed the food... so ya i take my first bite to see if it really tasted as bad as it looked and smelled, and to my surprise it wasnt too bad, but then i realized after a few seconds i was only tasting the sauce, which wasnt too bad, but then it quickly disinegrated in my mouth and i was just left with the mystery meat... so ya not only did it taste awful, but it was like a mix between a sponge and a towel too because it like dried up my whole mouth as i chewed... AHHHH disgusting!!!!  Worst textured food ive ever had!!!  So ya luckily the dad of this family loves the tabernacle choir and always puts on music from them while we have lunch with them, and oh man ill tell ya the choir was cheering me on hard to finish that plate of what i guess they call food here... so ya i didnt ask what it was, but finally when i finished and looked up and smiled i realized for the first time my comp had finished before me, he ate it super fast and to my disgrace told the lady he absolutely loved it.... talk about one of the few things you never want your comp to say... so ya then she asked me what i thought and dont worry mom, i maintained a good honest, k well maybe not honest, but a good and necessary smile none the less and told her it was really good... she laughed, which scared me, and asked if i knew what it was.  I innocently said no and she told me some word i didnt know.  Realizing i didnt understand that word she then said it was ´´this part of a cow´´ pointing to the side of her stomach... so ya im still not sure what i ate that day, not sure i want to, and worse yet my comp really did like it and asked that she keep giving us stuff thats not chicken.... so ya on the bright side i should have a good new story every week now from eating lunch with them!!  oh also, it was a good few days later that i got sick, just enough to not be able to say that it was that meat that made me sick darn it, i would have loved that excuse to tell her i cant eat that stuff any more...

Alright the other funny story real fast is that last night we were in our weekly meeting with the ward missionaries planning some activities, when one of them offered to bring a refreshment.  knowing that i had recently been sick, she askeed me if i could eat... and then she said the name of some food i didnt know in spanish... so then they all start trying to describe it to me, asking me if ive had it, and they are all saying its yellow, you eat it with salt and butter, and that it EXPLODES!!!  So they are all making explosive motions with their hands and im like what kind of food is this that explodes!!!  What on earth!!!  Ya no duh im sure they put tooons of salt and butter on it, probably have to to make anything that explodes reasonable etible... so then after a few minutes of confusion and laughter one of them is finally smart enough to tell me that its what people always eat at the movie theater.... WORLD CLASS ´´OOHHHHHH´´ FROM ELDER TENNEY as i realize POPCORN!!!!   Hahahaha ahh ya we laughed way heard for a long time after that!!

Listo entonces eso es todo lo que tengo para compartir esta semana!  como siempre muchas gracias por las cartas y el apoyo, y si mom estoy leyendo mis notas de ese discurso de Jorg (i dont remember his last name) casi diariamente para aplicar lo que aprendí de él aun más y más todos los días!  También espero que se anote muy rápido que he aprendido por fin a escribir con acentos en estes teclados jaja!  Listo entonces quisiera dejarles con mi testimonio.  Sé que vive mi Señor.  Sé que Él nos dio Su vida, y además que resucitó y que según y gracias a ese sacrificio haremos lo mismo nosotros mismos.  Él nos ama, no me cabe duda, y lo digo en el nombre sagrado de Él, Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

El Rrrrreeeee Tesssoooooo ha regresado!!!

Ayyyyy familia cómo están todos?!?!?!   Bueno entonces ya que han pasado el fin de semana allí en Miami han aprendido el español cierto???  Ahhhh bueno eso es lo que yo pensaba!!  Así que voy a escribirles en español completamente hoy día, listo?!?!  

Bueno entonces primeramente quisiera agradecerles por las cartas que me enviaron esta semana!!!  Como siempre me encantaron bastante!!!  Y sí jaja no estoy sorprendido, los que tienen para viajar fuera de este país (los cuales son poco aquí en esta triste pobreza) siempre van a Miami debido a que muchas hablan el español allí... alright haha i cant type in spanish fast enough, nor do you want the google translation that lets be honest cant quite capture the style of Élder Tenney...

alright but ya dang that sounds awesome your trip there!!!!   We gotta go back then when i get home!!!  And ahhhhh thats awesome that you got to spend the sunday night with Jared, honestly sunday nights with the family are the nigths i miss most... but dang also has mark seeeerrriiouuuussllyyy grown that much?!?!  He looks just as tall as Will and Dad in that pic dad sent me:::!!!!!

alright well amidst a sweet storm here in Villa Gorgona, Valle Cauca, Colombia, i come in with some good stories this week for the blog and thw world!!!  First, so the other day we were walking to a family night (the missionaries are famous for coming to peoples houses to hold family night, any day of the week, not just monday cuz they love them so much) with some other member friends and the members offered us mangos to eat on the way over!!  So it was believe it or not the first time i had eaten mango before, because normally i just drink it in juice... but ya so i was eating and felt it starting to get stuck in my teeth, like bad... the mango is suuuuper tough here haha and after just a few bites it felt like i had a big old piece of dried out yarn in between every single tooth... and ya so i tried to pluck it out before we got to their house but didnt do such a good job... so the first thing i do when we get to the house is go to the bathroom to try with the mirror, but man was that stuff stuck in there good or what, you can tell steve wynn he did a good job of getting my teeth nice and snug together... so ya but even worse than that was when i got to the bathroom i saw that, k wait pause, HOLY COW I JUST HEARD THE LOUDEST THUNDER OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!   haha sorry random side note, this is by faaaarrrrr the craziest storm ive been in hahaha going on just outside this little window of the internet cafe... k but back to the story, i got to the bathroom and saw that there was mango juice alllll  oooover my shirt haha....  ahhhh it was dark as we walked over so i didnt see and/or realize that i was squirting the juice all over my shirt with every bite... so ya i just gave up and decided to laugh about it at that point, the family night being the last appointment of the day, and i just went out and told everyone to laugh at me for it and ya we had some good laughs together...

Alright so now im totally going blank and cant remember what the other really funny story was from this week, it will probably come to me right as the times up... but anyways a cool spiritual story from the week:  We were in a lesson the other day with a lady who was receiving us well until the first time she came to church with us, after which she told us she really didnt love anything about the sunday meetings at church... so ya we are teaching her again on saturday and i, towards the end, sat forward and quite firmly promised her, boldly, that if she would try just one more time, and come to church with us one more time, that she would hear something there that will be an answer to a question she has had deep down, that has bothered her, but that she hasnt confessed to anyone, and that the answer would be so clear she would be shocked... so ya haha it was really neat for me though, i felt the spirit real strong in the moment and remembered an mtc address from Elder Bednar where he taught that as long as we are good boys and good girls, honoring our covenants and keeping our commandments, all we have to do is open our mouth... he goes on to teach that often we wont know what the heck we are saying, where we are going, or why, nor will we have a visionary spiritual impression, but that the spirit will indeed be guiding us... and i know thats what the spirit was doing with me in that lesson.  So it was real powerful and neat for me to experience that promise from Elder Bednar, but for my comp on the other hand... ya i think he got a bit scared with how clear of an anwer i promised haha but oh well...

alright so now to fast forward one day to church with this same investigator, she came, adn after sacrament meeting walked into the next class with us, and whats the topic written on the board. yup.  Chastity.   at first im thinking oh shoot, what on earth did i promise this poor lady, but then i kept my faith firm and realized shoot, she probably really does have something shes worried about with this topic, adn thats why shes kept it secret, but ya so teh lesson was actually really well taught and i will have either a really good report next week, or a really bad one, but either way interesting haha, based on how the next appointment goes with this investigator this week...

Entonces como siempre muchisimas gracias!!!  Les amo con todo mi corazón, pero sé que con este mensaje estaré con las personas a las que amo para siempre, y las personas acá en Colombia merecen saber ese mensaje glorioso también, y tengo el honor y gran privilegio de traérselo.  Les prometo que es verdad, en el nombre sagrado de JESUCRISTO, amen.

Les amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Boooooom heeeees back!!!

Whatsuuuuupppp?!?!?!?!

The BIG SENIOR COMPs coming in!!!!   Hahahaha ahhhh man its been quite a week!!!   So ya it was a bit rough seeing my trainer go i have to admit, he was pretty good ya and we had a lot of good times together... but ive got some sweet new times to be had ahead of me i know too!!!

As always thanks a ton for the emails!!!  And for keeping the boat!!!   I seriously loooove hearing how well you guys are doing, and about how well the boat is doing...  haha no but even though im happy here and all its nice to finish up the weekend every week and know ill have some fun stories and motivating emails waiting for me from you guys!!!  Dad i cant believe how well youve got that missionary work going there too!!!  That is seriusly incredible!!!  quite honestly it makes me a bit sad haha cuz our poor ward mission leader isnt very educated or capable of helping us and organizing the work and all the way you do, but hes awesome none the less and The Lord needs you there where the missionary work is definitely a lot harder... And as always im glad to hear Jared is doing so well!!

so wednesday i felt like the big dude on campus haha have to admit it was pretty cool... I was a bit nervous but waaay stoked for it from sunday night when i got the news!!!  Soooo first we went to the big bus terminal in Cali where all the missionaries always meet up on the day of transfers, and it was sweeeet haha cuz we pulled up and this one spót of the big terminal was just PACKED with missionaries hahahaha it was seeeeet to see!!!   So i saw just about all my friends in the mission there that day, including a lot of latino friends from my MTC group, and they were all laughing pretty hard cuz i could totally talk to them now!!!  They all told me my spanish is incredible, that its really gotten good, and i could actually understand all them now too haha, even my comp who talked soooo dang fast to me in the mtc... so ya that was neat to see all them!!!

Then we headed into the office, had a training meeting for all the trainers and went into the conference room to meet our ´´sons´´ haha and it was sweeeeet to be on the flip side of this!!!  I seriously cant believe i was already being one of the gringos to walk in and pick up a latino to train, it was sweet!!!  But i also know theres noooo way im the most qualified one for this job haha no question about that, but i know The Lord doesnt call on the most capable people, but on people who will have potential to learn and grow from their callings, so im sooo greatful for this opportunity!!!!   So i ran into a bunch of friends too who just got here from the mtc!!!   Kyle Darby is here haha, Will and I´s tennis friend from San Clemente, another kid whos the younger brother of a friend from BYU, and an Elder Sanders who says he knows you Will, and hes a good friend of the Daltons from Yorba Linda!!!  So ya it was sweet to run into all of them and tell them all about the mission and wish them luck in their first areas!!!

Elder Winchester, my good friend and the only other gringo from my mtc group got transfered back up here to Cali from down south, but all my other buddies told me i just missed him at the terminal, but i will be seeing him around every once and a while now at zone confrences and stuff which will be fun!  Also kinda funny is a good friend who was the zone leader here in my zone just got called to my district, and even though he was my zone leader im now his district leader and tell him what to do haha but hes a peruvian and training a gringo whos come to be a good friend too!  So weve got us 4 and 2 hermanas in the district and ward here who we do a lot together with and its really fun!!  We see each other every sunday, pday, tuesday in district meetings, and often travel to each others areas to help teach lessons and all and its a sweet district to be in!!!

Alright so my comp is awesome too!!!  Believe it or not hes almost as tall as me, Elder Altamirano, another Ecuadorian, from Quito, and ya hes awesome we are doing real well together!  So hes almost done with his college degree, only has two semesters left to finish after the mish, but hes 26 years old haha so even though he looks a bit younger, its a bit weird to think im this 19 year old gringo whos only been out a few months training a 26 year old latino in his native language... but its going well so far!!  Hes a smart guy and really excited to be out here!

Alright a few funny things from the week!!!  So something GLORIOUS happened!!!!  i found in a store this sweeeeeeet little thing to plug into the wall that gets rid of mosquitos, oh man has that transformed my life or what, i was seriously a dang super market for these mosquitos before, but best of all, I CAN SLEEP WITHOUT SOCKS NOW!!!!  Ahhhhhh it feels soooo good to get a little air between the toes in the night haha im sleeping like a baby now!!! 

Also, we got this shower head put in that has some electrical wires that run into it and warm the water up a bit before it comes out, so im not showering in cold water anymore!!!  buuuut the first day i tried it i was washing my hair, with my hands ontop of my head, and something totally shocked me.   i was wondering what on earth that could have been, so i proceeded rinsing my hair a few mometns until i felt the shock again.  I looked up at the shower head again with a puzzled look, and then, as dumb as those flies that fly into a light that shocks and kills them, i decided to touch it, and ahhhh the dang thing shocked me good!!!!   Like i jumped a bit and it actually really hurt hahah so i guess that electric current its got going in there is really strong, or its radioactive or something or who knows... but so now its not just when im using the mirror to brush my hair that i have to hold a good half squat, but also in the shower...

Alright thats about it for the stories, just the same old crazy colombia other than that, one way sweet spiritual experience yesterday though!  i had been studying my notes from conference all week, expecially those pertaining to the sacrament, many of which say it should really be a strong spiritual renewal each week, and as i partook of it I just felt incredible!!!  i seriously dont know why, but i just could not have felt more peaceful and content about everything, absolutely everything, about our family being eternal, about my life and how i do indeed need to be here in Colombia right now, about how safe all of us will always be, about how our ancestors are proud of us and helping us from the other side, about how before i know it i will be back there with you guys and finishing school and everything, and then i realized it was all possilbe because of this action i was doing in the moment, partaking of teh sacrament... and well ya lots put short i felt amazing and had to put my head down to hide my tears from the whole congregation (sitting on the stand since i play teh piano) and i know that everything good in our lives is possilbe because of Christ´s atonement!  I know that even more everything bad is because of God´s love for us too, that He puts us out of our comfort zone now that we may learn and grow and be more happy in the future than we could have been had we not had the hardships, para dar solo un ejemplo de este principio, les cuento de mi experiencia con el idioma... Han habido muchos momentos cuando temo las reacciones que las personas van a tener cuando les hablo en español, o aún más incómodo para mí, cómo yo les voy a responder cuando me hablen y yo no les entienda, pero sé que a causa de estes momentos incómodos que El Señor me ha dado, he aprendido un otro idioma, un don que me servirá por el resto de mi vida!  Y les prometo con todo mi corazón que así trabaja nuestro Padre en el Cielo con nosotros, y lo dejo en el nombre Sagrado de Su higo, aún Jesucristo, amen!

Les amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

A whole new future

Hahahaha oh booooyyyyy do i have news!!!!  BIG NEWS!!!!!   LISTEN UP!!!!!   Nah jk imma tell you guys at the end, make you read everything else first and wait haha...

So the week started out pretty good!  Ok jk im giving the big news now!   So we´ve got transfers this weekend, and the zone leaders called us with the news last night, and now that ive finished my training (it takes up the first two transfers in the field), my comp who trained me is headed down south to Ipiales to be a zone leader, and IM TRAINING A NEWB!!!!!  AND, if thats not enough, IM THE NEW DISTRICT LEADER!!!!!!  Ahhhhh i cant believe it, so my spanish has gotten pretty good ya, but i definitely still dont understand a reasonable amount of what the natives say, and now ive got to train a new elder and be the senior companion, the one to do most of the talking, at least at first, and im the disctric leader so i have to call all the other missionaries in the district every night and total all the numbers and give them advice when their feeling down, and hold district meetings every week, and report it all evbery night to the zone leaders too, and thats all over the phone!!!!  hahahah and its soooo much harder to understand spanish over the phone!!!!  Ahhhh dang, haha didnt sleep too well last night, but even though im a bit nervous, im waaaaaayyyyy excited!!!!  I know its an opportunity to feel even closer to The Lord, which I already feel, and to learn and grow myslef tons!!!   Just since last night ive prayed a lot about this and studied the scriptures a bunch and found some really neat stuff to help me and have felt really good about this being The Lord´s will.  I testify now stronger than ever, that The Lord does not always call the most capable to serve in callings, no doubt there haha, but He instead calls people that they may learn and grow as they struggle to manage new greater responsibilities!!  So ya, wow, thats been big for me, but its already and will contintue to be a great spiritual experience!!  haha ive been thinking tons about my first day here in the field, when all the trainers came into the mission office and met us, and as i saw a bunch of big dog gringos whove been out for a while and speak way good spanish, good enough to train these native speakers, and thinking ´´wow how cool that my spanish will be good enough to do that some day´´  and im not sure my spanish is quite there yet haha but its sweet to now see a bit of how far I really have come already and how much I´ve learned and discovered myself as ive tried to forget myself and help others learn instead!  But ya, im gonna have to drag some newb missionary across a few different bus routes through Cali and across the valley to our little area all on my own, and i carry the keys to the house now and will be the one to iniciate most of the talking and what we do, haha crazy, but im stoked!!!  I seriously love this mission soooo much and am now with this opportunity beginning to love it even more!!!


K so we had a sweeeeet gig work out this week!  After coordinating lots with the members we got ahold of a bus that the ward budget could pay for to bring everyone from our little town in the middle of nowhere into Cali to the stake center for conference!  So my comp and i went crazy inviting the whole world to come see a live prophet and all, especially since the bus tickets are such a problem for the people here and this bus would be free for them, and we set a goal to bring 30 people to conference!!!  Well, we did our best, and we were thinking 30 investigators, but im not sure we specified that in our goal we set, we only managed to bring 10 (which is still good right?), but we did bring 33 from our area!  It was sweet!!   and man was conference good or what?!?!?!  Dad you are exactly right, conference has been special for me before yes, but ive never loved it so much and gotten so much out of it as i did this weekend!  i could go all day sharing my thoughts from it, but just a few real quick are Esplin´s talk on teh sacrament, wow, Callisters, loved that story he used to start to open up a reallyimportant point he had, the dude who i think is russian, Jorg with two dots over the ´´o´´, Christoffersons, Hollands of course, the guy who talked about ocean currents, really neat way to teach those points, and what a better way to end than with BEDNAR!!!!  Ahhhh man his was great!!!  OH and the other one I really loved too was the guy who gave it in portuguese too!!  And how interesting that they are letting them give in their native languages now!!  That was reallly reaaallyyy speceial for a lot of people here to hear some talks in spanish!!  So ya i and the two other gringos in my zone got to watch in english which was nice, but we watched the ones from the native spanish speakers in spanish cuz i think its a lot more meaningful coming directly from the person and not a translator...  So ya conference was amazing!!!

Ohhhhh and the wedding!!!!  Friday the wedding went great!!!  They married in the morning, pics on the way, we baptized them that afternoon, and had a sweeeet party that night!!!!  They are soooo happy and i love seeing what this gospel has already done for them!!!!  So colombians are soooo late, to everything, i fit in great, no but honestly it really bugs me sometimes haha and has made me get a lot better about being on time, funny how that works, but ya so the party was gonna start at 8 so we could enjoy it a bit, my comp and i, before going home, but people didnt start showing up till like 9 as we had to leave, but we heard from all the members that it went pretty late hahah till like 1 in the morning, but that everyone loved it, and im glad because they deserved a good party and support of the ward, the party was in the chapel and with mostly the ward members there!!!


alright, THE BIG NEWS!!!!!   nah jk haha incase you skipped to the bottom to read the big news first, nice try, its actually up at the top!Alright shoot im already out of time, pero estoy disfrutando todo aquí lo más posible!  Me encanta tener un papel en esta obra maravillosa en estes últimos días!  Sé con todo mi corazón que José Smith restauró la iglesia de Jesucristo, tal como la cual que Jesucristo, el Hijo Unigénito del Padre, estableció cuando vivió aquí en la tierra!  Sé que tenemos un profeta vivo hoy en día y otros líderes llamados por Dios porque siento que Dios me habla cuando ellos me hablan, y al aplicar lo que aprendo, vivo muy feliz con Su amor en mi corazón todo el tiempo!  Éste es mi testimonio, y lo dejo en el nombre sagrado del Señor Jesucristo, amén!

Les amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney