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
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