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
