Feliz Navidad y Ano Nuevo!

Whattsuppp family!!!  Hows it going?!?!?!

Daaaaang alright well skyping was AWESOME the other day!!!!  Im SOOO glad to hear things are going well up there!!!  and WOOOWWW Will´s spanish is WAYYYY better than mine was when i had 6 months in the mission and honestly is probably better than mine now....  haha it was a blast talking to everyone!!!  

alright well the only thing really since we talked is an AMAZING experience my comp and i had on saturday!!  On saturday we had gone to allllll of the planned lessons all afternoon but NO ONE was home....  So after walking all over the place for a few hours and talking to lots of people in the street, we saw a family sitting out on the front porch close to one of our invesigators house (who wasnt home of course haha), so we went over and presented ourselves!  They immediately invited us in and said theyd been wanting to know what those two young men in white shirts and ties preached.... 

So we went in and shared part of the first lesson and invited them to go to church, and we where SHOCKED when they said ´´Ya of course!  Lets go!!´´ haha its rare to get people to go to chruch when you invite them on saturday afternoon.... and so we passed by sunday morningand sure enough they went to all 3 hours with us and LOVED IT!!!!  so..... it was an incredible experience and made every other long tiring effort worth it earlier in the week when we had a hard time trying to find people to teach during the holidays!!

Bueno me perdonan la carta cortica esta semana pero quería compartir con ustedes esa experiencia tan maravillosa que tuvimos este fin de semana!  Sé que El Señor realmente está pendiente de cada uno de nuestros esfuerzos, lo vimos de una forma literal esta semana!  También quiero aprovechar este tiempo para compartir mi testimonio de que, tal como lo celebramos esta semana, un Salvador nació en Belén.  Sé que nació para ayudarnos a vencer todo lo que se nos presenta en esta vida que no nos deja acercarnos al Padre.  Sé que Él realmente es el medio por el cual nuestras familias pueden llegar a ser perfectas y eternas, y lo comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo. amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Feliz Navidad!!

Whattsssuppp family?!?!?!  Tenaz que tan rápido se nos acerca la navidad sí o no?!?!?!  Hope the seasons been full of christmas cheer up north, hope youve stuck to the four main food groups: candy, candy corn, candy cain, syrup...!!!!  Im doing alright with the syrup here but thats about it....

Alright well i spent my first half hour of internet time trying to find a computer to work, sorry, so i dont have too much time to write right now.... menos mal nos veremos el viernes por skype!!!

K one AWESOME story from the week real quick!!  On saturday my comp and i were trying to find the house of a reference that we got, and in the process we knocked on a door and a lady answered.  even though it wasnt the house we were looking for, we told her we wanted to share a message real quick.  She said she was busy, but in that moment my comp and i both felt something different, we both felt strongly, a different feeling than that which we normally feel as we knock on doors, we felt that we had arrived just in time and that she needed to hear the message.  We told her that, and she was really surprised to hear it.  The expression on her face changed completely, and she told us to come back in half an hour.  

We swung by a few other houses and then went back half an hour later and taught the first lesson to her and her husband, one of the BEST first lessons i think ive taught in my whole mission!!  we felt the spirit SO STRONG!!!  And then at the end, we asked if we could come back the next day.  The wife said the husband wastn going to be in town, and then suddently she burst into tears.... Through her tears she said they had made the decision to get divorced, and he was leaving the next day, was alredy packing up, but that our visit was just what they needed.... She said that that was why she was so shocked when we knocked on the door, she was looking for an answer from The Lord!!!  

So from there my comp and i commited them to pray together at night and ask The Lord to help them feel and know that He wanted them together, and we went back yesterday and HOLY COW they have made a HUGE change!!!  They looked wayyyyy better yesterday and it looks like theyre really going to progress now as investigators!!!

Así que con eso concluyo con mi testimonio de que el Espíritu realmente nos guía a las personas que necesitan este mensaje!  Sé que esa guía del espíritu solamente se reconoce si un misionero está siendo perfectamente obediente, y sé que por eso somo apartados, para que, según nuestra obediencia y diligencia, podamos recibir esa guía que lleva a cabo la obra del Señor.  Testifico de eso en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos (on FRIDAY!!!)

Élder Tenney

The Best Way To Spread Christmas Cheer

Whattsuuppp family?!?!?!  Hows everything up north?!?!  Its been another good week in Colombia, even more christmas decorations have gone up and I LOVE IT!!!  So in my part of northern Cali here in between all the main roads are thin little passages where cars dont fit and the people just walk to all the houses, and a lot of these thin streets have been covered with tarp and a TON of christmas lights so walking around at night here is SOO COOL!!!  Dang well i tried to get some pictures this week, didnt do a very good job sorry, but the pics are on their way!!!  

Alright so with some decent time here in Colombia (im not even gonna say how long ive been here it scares me) i had gone on a good streak without any big noticable mistake with the spanish until the other day we contacted a family in the street, they gave us their address, i saw that they lived in the sister missionaries area, and i told them that two little peruvians will pass by their house with the same black ties that we have, i said ties instead of name tag, they looked at me weird and i pointed to my name tag and said ´´ya these black ties with our names on them´´ and i didnt realize what i was saying till we walked away... a veces me equivocarme aún...

We had a killer ward party on friday, a mini talent show, the sister missionaries, my comp and I, and our ward mission leader sang an unorganized mix of hymns that really didnt turn out well at all haha but oh well, we had cool santa hats and thats what matters right??  But i love ward parties in colombia, every single one ends with super loud salsa music and then all the members get up and dance and us missionaries stand and watch them surprised to see that even the 96 year old lady in the ward is dancing haha, then us missionaries go home at 9 and rumors say the parties usually go till at least midnight haha, gotta love the colombians!!  Más que todo los caleños!!

So as i said a bit last week we had a handful of really good investigators stop progressing, and ended up having to stop visiting everyone of them, which was tough, but we are in high spirits, but now the tough thing is that its happening in some other areas in the zone as well and so my comp and i are doing all we can to help keep the zone animated (theres no substitute word for ´´animado´´ that satisfies me in english, it means like ´´encouraged´´ or ´´pumped up´´) weve been planning all kinds of fun things to do in zone meetings this week, and one of the most interesting things weve been doing is studying faith vs. discouragement.  Our leaders in the south american northwest area have promised us lots of results if we work a certain way, mainly working with the recent converts and less actives to find more investigators, but a lot of missionaries have done it, and arent seeing the results promised, yet, (key word ´´yet´´ there) so its easy to get discouraged a bit, but im learning, as preach my gospel mentions briefly in the first chapter, that discouragement damages faith.. this week i learned that it works vice versa as well!!!  So my comp and i have some fun stuff planned to up the work a bit and spread the christmas cheer, the best way being of course singing loud for all to hear!!!  But ya that and  i plan on making the motto prhase of the missionaries here ´´only fools get discouraged´´ haha AWESOME!!!  So ya next week ill have some good stories about how it goes!!!

Sé que, como Moroni nos enseña mientras que analiza la historia del hermano de Jared, que no debemos contender simplemente porque no vemos, porque no recibimos ningún testimonio sino hasta después de la prueba de nuestra fe... entonces la pregunta es, ¿hasta cuándo mantendremos esa fe?  Sé que con tal de que no la perdamos, no nos desanimaremos, sino que nos volveremos aun más firmes en nuestras creencias y llegaremos a ser más como Nuestro Padre y Nuestro Hermano mayor, Jesucristo.  Siento privilegiado por poder testificar de Él en este tiempo navideño, y lo comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Familia!

Alright well i have to say, Cali Colombia beats most parts of the states with christmas lights, HOLY COW the whole city GLOWS like a space ship at night, i think Budd the Elf himself must have decorated the whole city, I LOVE IT!!!  k sorry my pictures are lame this week but i promise tons of good christmas pictures next week!!

K to answer your questions mom, yes i got my package!!!  AHHHH ive NEVER been so happy to get new socks, thanks a ton!!  The ties and pants are SWEEEET too!!!  with all that i should be set for the whole next year, im good on shirts and everything else... My comp comes from a really nice family yes, he has a twin sister whos on the mission in mexico, he came on teh mission at age 18 right after highschool but is really smart yes and will do really well in college after the mission!  He didnt speak hardly any english at all at the beginning of the mission but hes learning pretty well now, he says a killer prayer in english with ´´thee´´ and ´´thy´´ and ´´thou´´ and all...!!  And ya even here in a decent part of Cali, most people are educated but theres still a handful who dont even know how to read, pretty sad, but its incredible to see how they still recognize tons of blessings from The Lord even when they have so little, its taught me a lot

K well today is actually my comps birthday, so i had secretly been talking with the district leaders all week last week (english comes in handy in Colombia) a surprise party for him today, and it was A BLAST!!!  The whole zone (16 missionaries) was in the chapel at noon and ordered pizza and decorated the chapel and then hid on the stage behind the curtain and then when he and i got there they all jumped out and yelled happy birthday and we hung out and ate dominoes pizza (yup, Cali has dominoes, its a bit expensive but it actually is just like the dominoes in the states, at least to me it is, and it was awesome).  So that was fun!!

This weeks been interesting, a lot of really really good investigators have fallen a bit and after learning soooo much, and after having sooooo many spiritual experiences with them, theyve all hit a wall with one thing or another and no matter how hard we try we just cant quite help them learn to trust in The Lord a bit more and depend more on the gospel, so weve had to stop visiting them... but i love the part of Preach My Gospel that says that not a single effort is lost, and i know that true... I know other missionaries will get there some day and that then they will be ready to progress, even though i wish i could see it in my time, i know The Lord will send the missionaries when the times right, and for now we are looking for new investigators. 

La busqueda, sin embargo, es REEE edificante!!  Weve had a lot of neat experiences talking to all the families we see in the street and taking advantage of the christmas season to talk about Christ!!!  i know that the more we show people that christmas is all about Him, the more we will find people who eally are prepared to accept the gospel!!!

Testifico de Cristo como nuestro Salvador y Redentor.  Sé que Él murió por nosotros, me encanta reflejar en eso durante los momentos en que se reparte la santa cena, porque cada vez me doy cuenta de algo diferente acerca de la expiación de Cristo y su importancia.  Lo comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Thanksgiving???

Whatssupp family?!?!?!  Hows everything up in the states?!?!?!  Dang i had honestly forgot it was thanksgiving... but wow sounds like you had a great week!!  NO WAY did grandpa seriously ride 75 miles at that age!!!  HOLY COW!!!  WOW!!!  k and im not sure if there were other people at the dinner with grandma and grandpa or if my cousins have just grown so much that i dont even recognize half of them... alright well its been another great week here in Colombia!!

So the big news...

I did not..

not...

not get tansfered... (that means i didnt get transfered mark).  Transfers were this morning yes but to my surprise and excitment im staying a fourth transfer here in northern Cali, which isnt too common to stay so long in an area in this mission but honestly im glad, i love this area and all the people here!!!  And im STOKED to stay with my comp for another transfer, Élder Molinari, hes awesome!!  

Yes mom they told me early this past week that my package got here!!  I have a meeting in the office this week and should get my package then!! Thanks!!!  And yes one of the things i love about this area is the chapel is really big and nice here, and it has a really nice piano!!  there are pianists who play in sacrament meeting on sunday but i play on pday lots and before district and zone meetings and stuff i get to play every once in a while...

So they expanded the zone im in right now and my comp and i had to go look for a new apartment this week.  After walking all over the part of town where we had to find one in the blazing hot sun, we found a SWEET apartment on the fifth floor of a building  with huge windows all around and an incredible view of Cali and the whole valley here... we snagged a pretty good deal on it, cant believe im learning to do stuff like look for apartments haha its incredible how much you learn on the mission!  

We had a really cool lesson the other day with an investigator whos progressing really well, but has an injured shoulder that doesnt let her work too well and shes not earning as much money as she needs and all... her shoulder isnt getting better, and honestly its affecting everything else, even her spiritual progress... So i shared the story of how i dislocated my shoulder and how with that my grades fell, i couldnt do much living alone, and was maybe going to have to postpone the mission, untill i put all that aside, exercized more faith, and made a covenant with The Lord in the Temple, and then suddenly EVERYTHING got better... my grades went up, i went back to the physical therapy and they were shocked with how much better my shoulder was, and i did indeed recover in time to report to the MTC... sharing this story made me realize SO MUCH.  I thought about it all night and realized even more the purpose that that experience keeps having now in not just my life, but in the life of others here as well, and i realized that this is seriously why people are able to live such successful, happy lives with the gospel.  It makes me reflect on so many times, not just in the example of my shoulder injury, but so many times in which as everything started to fall, the gospel helped everything work itself out again, everything ends up better than it was before, and on top of all of that, i end up realizing even more that our Heavenly Father really does love us and watch after us in every moment.

Testifico de ese amor que Él tiene por nosotros, yo siento ese amor, que me infunde calma, y lo comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo. amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Possibly the last week in Northern Cali

Whattsuppp family?!?!?!  Hows it going?!?!?!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!  46 no?!?!  tenaz espero que los haya cumplido con bien!!!  Dang sounds like it really was one good birthday though!!

Alright so all is good here in Cali, Colombia!!  Its rained a lot recently (but is still blazing hot at the same time, not sure how that works...) but the rivers have pretty much refilled and all of Cali is good on water again!!  K so this is the last week of my 3rd transfer here in the northern zone of Cali and missioanries rarely stay a 4th transfer in one area in this mission, so next week ill probably be writing from another part of the mission, but theres a lot of good work to get done still in this area and i know this will be my best week yet here!!!

K one funny thing from the week, a family of investigators has a dog that they dont really like and just kinda let run stray all over the neighborhood, and the dog seems to really like my comp and i cuz he follows us ALL OVER the place haha!  I have no idea how he finds us everyday, sometimes we dont even pass by their house, but this dog finds us in the street walking from lesson to lesson practically everyday and then follows us to EVERY LESSON!!!  and this thing is magical too cuz when we close the gates to the houses where we have lessons and leave him outside, he always slips throught the bars or something when we arent looking and just magically appears in the middle of the lesson!!  hahaha we have one recent convert who has 5 cats and in the middle of a lesson the dog came running in and started chasing them all over the whole house and the poor old lady just about had a heart attack as we chased the dog trying to grab him before he ate any of the cats... 

Alright so our golden investigator who planned a small celebration with my comp for my birthday a few weeks ago is having some difficulties unfortunately... So my comp and i, as we headed to the lesson, changed the lesson plan a bit trying to think about what we could share to help her calmdown a bit and be happy despite the challenges we all always have in life... So we were in the lesson, she wasnt doing too well, the plan had kind of fallen through, and then my comp and i felt the need to share something interesting... We told her she could feel more peace and be happier if she exercises a bit more faith, and that that faith has to be demonstrated with actions... then we gave her an interesting invitation that i dont think she really liked, we invited her to take a step of faith and ask The Lord for more challenges.  We probably should have shown a bit more support first and tried to show her we understand her difficulties, she got frustrated saying things like ´´how can you expect me to ask for even more trials when i already have too many???´´ and we will show more support the next time, but i know the invitation we gave her that day is a key to being happy.  Anybody can ask The Lord for patience, anybody can fall to their knees and plead for help when they most desperately need it, but if we have the faith to humbly ask The Lord for even more difficulties that we already have, then were really putting our faith in Him, showing that we know that we can be happy despite everything were passing through.  We did it with her, its something i done a few times here in the mission, and its part of how i know that The Lord really does love us.  When things really do get hard ive realized im still just as happy as always, worried and tired as well most of the time, but in the end happy, and i can always feel The Lords love as i pray and talk to Him about everything that goes on.

Sé que Él Señor siempre está pendiente de nosotros y que espera nuestras oraciones con ansiedad.  Sé que nuestro salvador Jesucristo comprende todo también por lo que sufrió por nosotros como se enseña en Alma 7.  De esto testifico en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

The birthday week!

Whatsssuppp family?!?!  Daaaaang you went to a clippers game without me???  Alright well i hope you enjoyed your birthday mom as much as i did!!  Its been another good week here in Colombia!!!

Alright so on my birthday we worked just like we always do haha, but it was cool our pesnionist (the lady who makes our lunch every day) decorated her house a bit and made hamburgers!!!  haha that was awesome and they were really good!!!  then we had 5 lessons with a member present in every one and found a bunch of new investigators!!  And my comp surprised me in the night, we have one investigator right now whos AWESOME, a middle aged single lady and now her sons starting to take the lessons too, and my comp told her to pretend like she didnt want to take the lessons anymore, so we got there at her house, our last lesson in teh day, she immediately said there were a number of problems and she didnt want to keep having lessons any more... i was stunned... haha so trying to talk about it i told her that we should just talk a little bit real quick if shed let us in, she did, and they had the whole house decorated and a bunch of members there and they threw a mini surprise party for me!!!  It was awesome!!!  So we ate patacones, which are giant bananas that they smash into discs and deep fry, haha theyre SUUPER good, and we covered them in a guacamole type sauce she made, im not much of a guac guy in the states buts its pretty darn good here!!!  So yes i had a great birthday!!!

Alright well last night we had an incredible lesson that i wanted to talk about a bit real quick!!  Our leaders have been training us to work with the recent converts and less actives who are starting to come back to church in order to find new investigators throught them, and a recent convrt lady took us to visit one of her friends the other day.... so we visited her, seh came to church yesterday, and told us lots about how she and her husband dont get along at all about religious matters, she said he hates all the churches... So last night we swung by and found him infront of the house!!!  We talked a bit across the front gate, and managed to buy ourselves what we said would be just 5 minutes talking with him inside... WOW!!!  this guy TRANSFORMED within the 40 minutes or so that we were there!!!!!  First off he started talking about how he despised priestcraft... he said leadership in a church should be sacrifice and that people should have jobs apart from that... so con mucho gusto we taught a little bit about tithing... side note:  i love teaching tithing, surprisingly, it makes SOOO much sense to people here since its the only church that doesnt give the money right to the leaders... then we had barely started talking about how the church of Christ was lost when the apostles and peter the prophet at the time were killed, and he finished the story and explained the whole apostasy perfectly!!!  but, he said we were still in apostasy, we shared the story of Joseph Smith and he immediately said ´´you mean the church of Jesus Christ exists again on the earth with a living prophet??´´ and he got suuuuper happy and commited to pray about it, and his wife haha at the end of the lesson was looking at us shocked, giving us thumbs up like ´´wow, you guys are the first ones to satisfy him´´ and it was INCREDIBLE!!!  The spirit we felt there more than anything was suuuper strong!!!

I dont know if you guys have seen The Other Side of Heaven recently, theres a part that shows Colypoci teaching on several different islands, just teaching teaching and teaching while it has cool calm music in the backround, showing all the incredible proselyting he was doing, thats how my companion and i have felt laterly!!!  I plain and simply love teaching!!!  I love the challenge of explaining things as clearly as i can, i love showing how this gospel has helpted me so much and i LOVE the relieved, brightened look on peoples faces as they feel the spirit and realize we are teaching the truth and that its going to change their lives!!!  

Que pena pero ya se me está acabando el tiempo pero estoy muy contento y siento sumamente privilegiado por esta oportunidad de servir como siervo del Señor!!  Espero que ustedes también sientan tanta felicidad como yo al aplicar este evangelio no solamente a sus propias vidas, sino a las de los que nos rodean también!  lo comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo. amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Triki Triki Halloween dame dulces para mí

Whatsssuppp family?!?!?!  ¡Cómo me les fue halloween pues?!?!  Aquí es una LOCURA!!!  dang the trunk or treat looked sweeeeet, nice costumes mom and dad!  Mark, 16 points?!?!  DAAANGGG boy, good work!!  Jared, im sure you had the best costume of all, and are you still studying spanish??

Alright well halloween was pretty crazy here!!  The day before, day of, and every day since halloween all the teenagers around here dress up with their scariest costumes and walk all around town playing drums suuuuper loud, from like 2 in teh afternoon and on there are drum rolls heard on every corner, other than that there was a TON of music, k theres always music, TONS here in Cali, but SOOO MUCH loud music on halloween night, ughhh we couldnt find anyone to teach that night and nobody stopped to talk in the street but oh well, it was fun to see all the cool costumes here, other than the teenagers with drums they celebrate halloween here like in the states...

So something interesting my comp and i have been talking about lots lately and analyzing:  Colombians consider themselves extremely, extremely free and independent people... this is a good thing in many ways, but it makes missionary work interesting.  The way in which this is most commonly seen as a missionary is when we try to get them to try new things in the lessons, haha ohhhhh its always interesting...  for example:  Most people are willing to say the last prayer in the first lesson (we never leave until they pray, we get on our knees and stay there for half an hour often times till they pray) but those who arent, when we ask them to do so, and then get on our knees and wait for them, they always say we are ´´insisting´´ and that they dont like people to insist on them... they think theyre free and that nobody can make them do anything... So we wait their on our knees haha while they sort of throw a fit... Some of the members, when they go with us to the lessons, have said ´´elders maybe we should wait a few lessons for them to say the first prayer, let them get comfortable first´´ but we simply explain to them that until the investigators keep a commitment we give them, usually the first one is simply a prayer, they are the ones in control of the lesson, not us.  But, when we invite them to pray, and show that we arent going to leave till we do so, we take control of the lesson, and then we see who is really willing to change, improve their lives, make and keep commitments, and who isnt willing to do so but simply wants to hear pretty messages about Christ and families without leaving their comfort zone or changing their lives...

Eso es lo que más he aprendido esta semana, a manejar las lecciones como El Señor necesita que lo hagamos, no simplemente someternos a las bajas expectativas de algunos investigadores.  Lo interesante es que al aprender esto, veo mucho la forma en que El Señor hace lo mismo con nosotros.  Normalmente cuando nos frustramos, es porque Él está tomando en control un poquito más e invitándonos a salir de nuestro estado de comodidad y tratar algo nuevo.  Sé que así es cómo llegaremos a la perfección, en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

The week

k im soo soo soooo sorry, but im out of time....

ahhh i had a toooonnn of things i had to scan and send to the aps from our zone here, and tht took like 35 minutes of my hour... then will asked me a bunch of questions, so i spent all my time writin to him and giving my weekly report to the president. but im GREAT, im LOVING the mission, i have water in my house now yes dont worry mom, the water is totally fine now, and i seriously have had the best week of my mission this week., my comp is AMAZING andwe had a great week together, ill give detalis next week, but heres the lettr i wrote to my president if you can google translate it, its the only quick summary of the week i have... im glad you guys are all good, keep up the good work, dad that is SOO awesoem everything with oyor company!!

catch you next week!!

Stephen

my letter:

Estimado Presidente!

Presidente creo que he tenido la mejor semana de mi misión!  Ha sido una semana llena de experiencias increíbles!!!  En pocas palabras, Élder Molinari y yo pasamos muchísimo tiempo de rodillas con los investigadores y menos activos, tratando de que oraran, invitándoles con el corazón a hacerlo como Presidente Uceda nos enseñó.  De pronto la mejor experiencia de la semana fue con una investigadora que encontramos en una actividad hogareña el lunes.  Ella está progresando muy bien pero ha estado muy preocupado por su hijo que es rebelde.  Logramos enseñar al hijo, pero él no quiso hacer la oración al final.  Nos pusimos de rodillas y nos quedamos allí por lo que parecía mucho tiempo, con la investigadora de rodillas y conversos recientes todo el tiempo, y funcionó!!  Finalmente él hizo la oración, y pidió perdón a Dios por no tratarla bien a su mamá, y ya vemos que por ello ella logró un testimonio y El Señor está fortaleciendo su familia!

Como zona estamos encontrando, mucho por CR y MA ahora, pero falta que esos nuevos asistan.  Para ello tenemos planes y esperamos ver los frutos este domingo que viene.  Estoy aprendiendo mucho de Élder Molinari y siento privilegiado de ser compañero de él.

Gracias por todo Presidente!  

Élder Tenney

Gringo with Gringo?

Whatttsupppp family?!?!?!  Hows it going?!?!?!  Dang times flying, looks like the Bday part with the Callisters was awesome!!!  but hey how old is their youngest son???  He looks HUGE and he was a tiny, tiny baby fresh out of the oven when i left... how long have i been out??  dont answer that last question haha

alright well heres some of the big news from the week.  There were transfers this morning, and i got a new companion!!!  Haha now youve got to take a look at the picture at the bottom and guess where hes from.

Did you all look at the picture and guess?

Alrlight, your all wrong haha he looks like a gringo and makes funny jokes about it but hes actually from Paraguay.  Haha thats right two companions back to back from paraguay, but thats a good thing there arent many missionaries from paraguay in my mission but all of them are really really good missionaries.  So his names Elder Molinari, from the capital, Asunción, been a member his whole life, fun guy, and hes a suuuuper good missionary.  Wow.  Hes powerful when he teaches, hes been a zone leader for a while now as well and im stoked to be with him!!  It was sad to see my old comp elder Romero go, we did lots and learned a ton together, but it should be a good transfer or two ahead as well!

K other cool news from the week, k so you guys remember me talking a lot about my friend from the mtc elder winchester right?  the only other gringo in my mission who was in the mtc with me, just him and me who didnt speak spanish and a whole bunch of latinos when we came here, the one who i had the KILLER prank battle with in the mtc, good man elder winchester, so as i and many others predicted he got called as the AP, the asistant to the president this week and im stoked to be working lots with him now!!  And of course, i have to play a huge prank on him, if you have any ideas let me know...

A quote i absolutely love from Elder Richard G Scott says something like ´´all of God´s children here on the earth chose the right, chose God´s plan before this life.  Trust that, given the opportunity to do so, they will choose whats right again.´´  k not word for word, it sounds better coming from him haha but ive learned a lot from this this week.  The first and biggest example: We have an investigator, an older lady, whose getting baptized tuesday, and we invited her to fast.  We taught her tithing this past week, and she explained that she doesnt have income, shes been really sick and cant work right now, her family supports her, and we felt that she needed a testimony on tithing, but then we directed our thoughts to fast offerings instead.  Despite the fact that shes been sick, she thought shed be able to fast yes, and really had some special blessings she wanted to ask for, so even though we thought a fast would be really really tough for her with her difficult health situations, we remembered this phrase from elder Scott, thinking that children of God are more capable than we sometimes think and need to be pushed to those high expectations... we invited her to fast, and she did it.  When we asked her how it went the next day she said she hardly slept, she was in pain most of the night, and that it was really hard, but she did indeed do it and realized more how much the Lord really does make us capable of doing such things.  Its incredible how hard of decisions people will make correctly if they simply remember this phrase, and understand the depth of its meaning: ´´I am a child of God´´.

Speaking of those words, another really really neat expereince from the week, Elder Carlos Godoy shared an incredible story in his general conference talk last october in which he said ´´I am a child of God´´,  and Elder Godoy came to our chapel yesterday to release and call a new stake president here!! WOWW it was powerful the talk he gave!!!  And so remember how i talked a little about the bishop here whose INCREDIBLE!!!  So he got called as stake presidnet, which im kind of bummed because we wont work as closely to him anymore but oh well...

Esa frase de Elder Scott también se aplica muchísimo al liderazgo.  He aprendido muchísimo que si tan sólo hago que otros misioneros sepan que son capaces de hacer grandes cosas, lo hacen.  A menudo ellos ya saben qué es lo que tienen que hacer, no necesitan que alguien más se lo diga, sino que necesitan que alguien les recuerde estas palabras, sin importar cuánto lo han escuchado: ´´Soy un Hijo de Dios, y Él me envió aquí´´.  De eso testifico, en el nombre de Jesucristo. amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Hey family!

Hey family?!?!  Hows it going?!?!?!  K please sign me up to take the ACT again when i get home now that mark beat my score darn it haha, congrats mark!!  If only there were a spanish section on the ACT, i would do alright there now but ive forgotten just about everything else i ever learned in school before the mission...

And no way marks going off in basketball too huh???  Daaaang dude good work!!!  Dad the office looks good!!  

Alright well I completely understand what Will says haha when he talks about lame excuses people come up with to not listen to the missionaries... in colombia its often the same... allow me to share a story from the week.  We got a reference from members in another ward, an older lady, went and taught her, her daughter, and her daughters husband, and it went well but her daughters really uninterested... so we went back the next day late in the afternoon when it was already getting dark out and they had the lights on inside the house, so the gate was closed and the daughter came out to talk to us.  We asked if her mom was there to teach them a lesson and she said no, that she was alone. Little did she know the blinds were open and we could easily, clear as broad daylight, see her mom right there inside the house watching tv, and so i told her of course haha ´´uh, and that lady right here watching tv, whos she?´´  she said ´´oh, a friend...´´ and we said ´´oh, so your not alone... hmm... well, isnt that your mom right there watching tv?´´ and digging herself deeper in a hole she said ´´no its a friend who looks a lot like my mom´´ hahaha ahhh that was great.  

So our leaders have been training us a lot about being bolder missionaries.  Its a bit tricky because we cant completely insist on people and be overbearing, but we have to be bold and more persuasive with our ways of getting in the door, teaching, and helping people not just listen, but keep commitments and really change their lives.  I love the scripture in Alma 38:12 and understand from it that the difference between boldness and overbearance is the amount of love we express for the people... the more we are kind and love them, the more we can pressure them into doing whats right without it being overbearing... We had a sweeet experience with that this week.  On thursday there was a huuuge soccer game, all you could hear walking through the street were the tv commentators yelling and all, not a single person in the street unless their eyes were glued to a tv outside, and we managed to get a lesson during that hour!!!  We went into a ladys house and her husband was watching the game... We explained to her the importance of having him listen to the lesson as well, and tried to help her invite him to turn off the tv and come listen... she didnt, so we proceeded to do so oursleves.  We told him what a cool pretty house he has and all, and how good colombias soccer team is and how we love the colombian people, but then firmly told him to turn of the tv for just 5 minutes and listen. He did so, we used more than 5 minutes (haha the 5 minute trick works every time), we shared the story ´´He took my lickin for me´´ connected it to the Atonement with Alma 7:11-13 and he loved it!!!  We felt the spirit a lot in that lesson, and walked out with stronger testimonies of the power and authority by which we really are set apart to preach this gospel!

La osadía viene con la dignidad puesta con el hecho de ser apartado, y con el amor que expresamos por la gente.  Mi compañero y yo aprendimos eso esta semana por experiencia propia.  Sé que además de eso, entre más comprendemos la autoridad que tenemos como misioneros apartados, aun más probable es que la gente nos escuche y haga caso al mensaje que tenemos, y aun más se siente el Espíritu también.  Lo comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Heeeees back

Whattsuuppp family?!?!?!  Hows it going?!?!?!  daaaaang i still cant believe Dads new company or that INCREDIBLE new office!!!!!!  WOOOWWWW thats neat!!!!!  Well im glad youve all had a good week, things are going great here in colombia as well!!!  i hoped you enjoyed general conference as much as i did!!!

Alright well nothings that new this week, sorry, boring i know, but first off what did you guys think of general conference?!?!  woooooowwww good stuff!!!!!  Sooooo after Elder Juan Uceda came to visit our mission we were all secretly hoping hed move up to the quorum of the 12 hahaha but even though he didnt those were 3 suuuuper powerful talks and i know the 3 new apostles are called of God!  Alright well i could talk all day about the talks i loved, in fact thats all i do haha is talk about what i learned from them teaching others, but some of my favorites were both from President Eyring (in the priesthood session and on sunday), the story of the potters clay that had to be centered perfectly, the one from Elder Hales, that of Elder Holland of course, the one from Elder Nelson didnt seem too directed to us men at first haha but woooowww that story is incredible, and of course both from President Monson (dang did he look sick though poor guy at the end of his talk on sunday morning, do you guys know anything about that?)  

Arlihgt well mom asked more about my area.  My area is divided in an interesting way, almost all the members live in a part of Cali callled ´´la Floralia´´ and that is split between us and the missionaries.  Thats were we do most of our work.  Its nice, its normal for colombia, the houses are small, 2 to 4 stories but each floor belongs to a different family and they are long and skinny houses, there are a few cool parks and at the end of our area is a big dirt ridge that serves as a dam cuz on the other side is the river cauca, on that dam theres a dam dangerous neighbor hood (haha sorry) were we cant go in, but other than that our area is safe.  The interesting part though is that if we cross the sister misionaries side of la floralia there are more neiborhoods, some of them ours, and they are really wealthy, but we dont spend as much time cuz its further from the chapel and there arent many members and we are discouraged to knock on doors here, but rather find new investigagors with the members... what i LOVe about our area though is that it has a SWEEET view of the mountains (they arent quite as big or pretty as those of utah but theyre cool!!) and there are houses and streets that go all the way up parts of them, and belive it or not ´parts are part of our ward and this week were gonna go up there for the first time to visit some less actives, so ill have pictures next week!

Bueno pues les prometo una carta más interesante la siguiente semana.  Espero que por lo menos sepan que estoy muy bien, muy contento, con miedo porque el tiempo se me está volando, pero aprendo tanto cada día y siento honrado por poder predicar esta palabra todos los días.  Sé que sostuvimos este fin de semana que pasó a tres nuevos apostoles llamados por Dios, y a los demás líderes y al profeta, Sé que esta es la iglesia de Jesucristo restaurada en su perfecta forma, y lo digo en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

ps sorry ive been lame about pictures, heres one from pday today playing games in teh chapel, and one from a big fun family night we had

Drought!

Qué más familiaaaaa?!?!?!  Cómo me les ha ido puesss?!?!?!  Woooooowwww congrats on the big move dad!!!!  and DAANNNGGGG that office looks SWEEEEEET!!!!  Wooowww well ive been praying for everything to go well with that, sounds like it is and i know it will keep gonig well!!!!  Glad to hear its been a good week there!!!  and now, the other big congrats:

WILLLLLl!!!!!  WOOOOWWWWWW NOOO WAYYYYY are you really training a NEWBBBB!!!!  DAAANNGGGG congrats Élder Tenney!!!!!  Will training is AWESOME (usually, depends on who you train haha) you are gong to LOVE IT!!!! 

Alright so as the subject says Cali is in a bit of a drought right now.  It hasnt rained in like 4 months here which is really rare, eeven thought its always burning hot here it normally rains almost every week... but ya so Cali has one big river and 6 little ones that provide all the water here, and they are drying up and its actually starting to really worry people... 

But ya so half the time we dont have water in our house (the most depressing sound in the world, more depressing than the sound at the bottom of a straw as you finish of a oreo milk shake, is the sound of the fossit of the sink as you turn it on and it just sort of makes a gag sound and nothing comes out...) they cut the water every once in a while so that the rivers dont dry up even faster, and even when we do have water it comes out suuuper slow, practically dripping... so ya haha my comp and i turn on all the sinks and the showers in the morning as we study and fill buckets and to shower we scoop water out of the buckets and pour it on ourselves and then make sure to put on extra deodorant afterwards... so ya weve been showering like this for almost 3 weeks now haha and not gonna lie im getting pretty good at it, i can make a small cup of water go a long ways...  on the bright side at least our water bills going to be really low this month!!  Haha ya all is good, it honestly just feels lik part of the adventure living this way haha!!

OOOOOO the other sweeeeet news from the week!!!!  So everybodies always talking about Tanner Mangum whos on fire and im feeling left out here without anything to say about him... NOPE!!  NOT ANYMORE!!!  I sat next to one of his mission companions yesterday in church!!!!  Hahaha an rm who just got back a few months ago from Chile asked me if im a byu fan and i said heck yes and he asked if ive heard of tanner mangum and told me they were companions!!  small world

So ya thats the biggest news around here, other than that im stooooked for general conference this week!!!  My poor companion is always tired, he even says so in the lessons.  When we meet new investigators and they ask us how long weve been here serving a mission he says ´´18 months without rest and i am soooo tired´´ (not exactly what i recommend saying in lessons but oh well haha) poor guy, its tough at times but when even i get frustrated i just try to take a step back and put myself in his shoes.  Something really cool thats helped me a lot, we hear a lot about James 1:5 but not so much about James 1:2-4, i realize more and more everyday the importance of patience and im convinved well become perfect not so much when we gain a knowledge about everything but rather when we develop the patience, because patience really does work perfectly as these scriptures say... Ive learned its true what youve told me my whole life mom and dad haha that it takes two to fight, its hard sometimes but no matter how tired my companion is, if i just exercize the patience necessary we can avoid fighting and keep the spirit thats sooooo important in a companionship...

Así que esta semana testifico del poder de paciencia.  En muchas formas también se conecta mucho con la caridad, que ha sido otro tema interesante en mis estudios acá en la misión.  Sé que es sólo porque Él tenía paciencia y caridad perfeca que Cristo pudo cumplir con la expiación.  Testifico de ello en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Replay: Meet The Mormons

Qué más familia?!?!?!?!  Cómo me les ha ido pues?!?!?!  Sounds like youve all had a good week, meeeegggaaa congrats to Sydney woooowwww estaremos hablando en español pues!!!!  CHILE!!!  Dangggg would have been sweeeet if byu had beat ucla.

Alright so the meet the mormons activity was sooooo sweet last week that were doing it in every chapel and ward here in our zone, and we already did another one this week!!!!  It was AWESOME!!!  just like last time haha we were all running aorund, standing infront of cars and motorcycles yelling ´´la película la película LA PELÍCULA!!!´´ and they were like ´´what movie?´´ and we were like ´´GO GO GO!!!´´ haha and a lot came in from the street without even planning on it like last week, so we did it on saturday and a whole bunch of them actually went to all 3 hours of church yesterday as well!!!  The members did a SUUUPPER good job this time too, they had a cotton candy and popcorn machine adn the chapel decorated suuuper well, k you guys are going to be mad at me though i didnt take my camera sorry and dont have pictures... sorry 

Alright well as cool as it was to do that again, the highlight of this week was actually something else... President Uceda from the 70, prez of our area, came and visited the whole mission and had a huge conference with us and WOOOWWWW it BLEW MY MIND!!!!  wooooowwww i swear every word that came out of that mans mouth was GOLD!!!!  He answered all my questions, gave suuuper good advice that we all needed that i wasnt even looking for as well, and WOOWWWW everynight since the conference ive just been rereading my notes trying to set goals to apply everything i learned... one of the most impressive things as well was the motivation he gave for all the latinos to learn english, and he talked a bit about the gringos making our spanish even better, although quite honestly i should be worrying about my english as well, i think im still decent with a keyboard but it is honestly quite poor when i try to speak out loud... oh well... but ya so he, presidente Uceda, speaks INCREDIBLE english, he said he stopped reading the scriptures in spanish over 30 years ago cuz some little things, even thought the translation is as good as it can be to spanish, some little things are lost in translation, and its true, ive seen it in a few cases...

Alright so i could talk all day about what i learned from him, but two of the most interesting things were first the way we should study the scriptures, and second the baptismal invitation... Talking about scripture study, he simply drew a checkered board on the white board, like 8 by 8, and asked how many squares we saw.  Most of us said 64 at first, and he just told us to keep looking.  Then someone shouted out ´´no the whole thing is another square, theres 65...´´ then we all started to count out all the bigger squares composed of 4 smaller squares and ya youve got the idea... and he simply said ´´studying the doctrine of the missionary lessons is like counting these squares, if you brush over it fast youll only see 64, but when you take time to carefully look and adjust each lesson to the needs of the investigators, youll find more and more hidden squares in the same scriptures youve already read several times in your life, and those little differences, those hidden squares, will make a HUGE difference in teh progress of your investigators...´´ it was AMAZING!!!  he spoke with so much power...

The other thing he explained is the importance of inviting every investigator to be baptized in the first lesson.  Thats what they taught me in the mtc, and i thought it was crazy at first, but i did it anyways like the first 3 or 4 months of my mission then sort of got over it... i thought the told us to do it just because there are indeed some people out there suuuper prepared to recieve the gospel that they need to be invited to be baptized, and its true, but Prez Uceda explained a whole another importance:  he said if we invite them to get baptized, the worst they can do is say no, but its not about trying to just baptize them at all, but rather all about giving them an idea of the commitment we expect with the lessons.... and is sooooo true.  If we do so, the people who think ´´oh cool two foreigners who come teach us about God and help us feel good as we read the scriptures´´ who love listening but who never actually commit or progress, but are just ´´friends´´ to the missionaries, those people wont waste our time, but everyone will know we are there teaching them in order for them to make commitments with The Lord and change their lives, then, having changed their lives and gained a testimony, they can get baptized...

Entonces así me ha pasado esta semana llena de aprendizaje... Con esto también he estado utilizando muchísimo una frase de Predicad Mi Evangelio que dice que si no nos ponemos metas, es muy probable que terminemos esta vida sólo habiendo alcanzado una pequeña parte de nuestro potencial... teniendo eso en cuenta he estado tratando de no estar contento con mi manera de enseñar, aunque sea buena, sino de mejorarla aun más cada día con metas, y me aseguro de incluir a mi Padre Celestial al hacerlo.  Sé que Él ve potencial infinito en cada uno de nosotros Sus hijos, y testifico del amor que sentimos al orarle a Él en el nombre de Jesucristo. amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Meet the Mormons

¿¿¿Qué Másssss familia?!?!?!  Còmo me les ha ido pues?!?!?  Daaaaanngggg another big week for BYU WOOOOOO!!!!  Alright well sounds like youve all had another good week!!  Thats awesome!!!

Alright so i realized one thing this week, why is that type of play called ``Hail Mary``???  Did a Colombian come up with that name???  cuz a ton of christian colombians, more than anything the catholics, worship virgin mary, its awful they have statues of her all over town that they pray to with lit candles at night... but ya haha so i just made the connection this week, is that the same mary that ``Hail Mary`` refers to?

K so you heard correctly dad, we had the activity ``Meet the Mormons`` this week and it was a BLAST!!!!!  My comp and i dedicated a ton of time to that this week, spent all night thursday setting up tons of chairs in the cultural hall of the chapel, and all day saturday cleaning, testing the sound and video and everything, getting the popcorn machine setup (THATS RIGHT!!!) and setting up the entrance booths and all... it was AWESOME!!!!   

So we had 600 seats setup in the chapel and cultural hall, and that was the goal, have 600 people there, in the end there were only 250 but still that was a huuuuuuge number!!!!   At least half of them were investigators!!!  So all week we had been passing by the members houses commiting them to take friends and all to the activity, which they did more or less, but the best part was also the worst part of the activity:  we didnt get to see a single minute of the movie... but that was also the best part cuz of the 24 of us missionaries there, like 10 were handing out popcorn and soda and taking roll and all, and the rest of us were running, literally RUNNING, allll oooovverrr the place around the chapel yelling to everyone who walked by ``THE MOVIE THE MOVIE!!!!  LETS GO LETS GO YOURE GOING TO BE LATE IT JUST STARTED!!!``  hahaha the people looked at us like we were so crazy and were like ``movie?  what movie?``  and we just said ``GO GO GO THERES FREE POPCORN AND SODA HURRY ITS GOING TO RUN OUT!!!!`` Theres a big main road by the chapel where a ton of people were walking by, and we`d yell to the missionaries there at the entrance ``HOW MANY SEATS LEFT UP FRONT???`` and theyd yell ``ONLY · THEYRE FILLING FAST11`` and then the people were like ``oh shoot quick lets go check it out!``  hahaha and it was a blast i was shocked by the result, just by simply doing that with all the energy in the world a TON of people actually went in without knowing a single thing about the church and absollutely loved it!!!!  There were some incredible comments afterwards from people who were simply walking to the grocery store or something when we insisted they went in and they saw it and loved it, afterwards one man said ``wow, i needed to see that, The Lord put that movie on just for me`` and ya and we wrote down the names and addresses and all of every investigator who went in and will be visiting them now to teach more!!!!  So tell that incredible family at the end who are your friends now that it was a huuuuge success!!!  Wooooow its incredible how The Lord is hastening His work with this!!!  I didnt get a great picture with all the people cuz i was running around the street haha but i got one at the end after some people had arelady left, pics on the way!!!

Alright well other than that all is good!!!  President Uceda, proz of this area of the 70 is coming this week to have a conference with our mission thursday and friday he has a leadership meeting with us as well, should be sweeeeet!!!!

Entonces es inreíble la manera en que el Señor realmente está apresurando Su obra, evidencia de que estamos en los últimos días.  Las experiencias espirituales acá en la misión se nos aumentan cada semana, lo más chevere de esta actividad ``Conozca a los Mormones`` enserio que fue el espíritu misional que se sintió al promoverla a la gente.  Se sentía que había personas guiadas por el Señor, caminando por los alrededores de la capilla esa noche, y se veía a medida que entraban.  Se puede comparar bien con el sueño de Lehi, y siento muy privilegiado de tener parte en esta gran obra.  Testifico de Jesucristo, el centro de todo esto, que lo hizo posible, en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Èlder Tenney

The wee.. uh,, no time to finish!!!

Hey whatsssuppp family_!_!_!

Alrihgth sorry suuuuuper lame, the APs just called us like 10 minutes ago and told us we have to go to the mission office for a meeting real quick, even though theres still and hour and a half left on pday, so ive only got like 10 minutes to write... but oh well, im pretty sure the meeting is to plan out well the activity this weekend with the ´´meet the mormons´´ movie, its this week, and should be SWEET!!!!

Alright so shout out to my man Will for an INCREDIBLE letter this week!!!   Wooowww ive never heard from such a young missionary learning as fast as him and with as much determination and even more potential as him!!!  alrihgt so it sounds like every one else had a good week too, except dad, who lost to mark in tennis haha sorry, but i wanna see that one go to three sets...

K well im good, we had another leadership meeting this last week with all the zone leaders, it went well, Elder Darby just got transfered back up to Cali from down south and is still zone leader as well, in the biggest zone in the mission poor guys got a lot under his belt, my comp and i survived transfers, we are both staying, which is good i like my area, sometimes the mission isnt quite as important to my comp as it is to me and as i try to help speed things up he gets grumpy, but nothing more than the usual, all is good!  They announced that Elder Uceda from the 70 is coming next week to our mission, so with the Meet the Mormons and that conference with him it will be a suuuuper fun month and then general conference after that!!!  AWESOME!!!

pues que pena por no poderles escribir más... igual quiero dejarles con mi testimonio que un joven se arrodilló en una arboleda hace casi dos cientos anos y tuvo una visión.  Él restauró la iglesia de Jesucristo, haciendo posible que pudiéramos disfrutar de todas las bendiciones de la expiación de Jesucristo y el plan de felicidad que nos presentó el Padre, testifico de ello en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Mhmm it's hot here

Whatupppp people?!?!  Hows the week been?!?!  Is it starting to cool off there now that summers ending?!?!  Not here haha its been BLAZING hot these past few days but all is good!!!  Well other than the fact that schools starting up it sounds like youve all had a good week as well!!!  Im glad!!  

K wait a minute is Alex Henderson seriously going to japan???  HOLY COW!!!!  And is Jeff Flores seriously home from his mission already?!?!  WHAT ON EARTH!!!  wowwww.....  alright im up to speed now, i think

Alright sorry but ive been boring with the crazy and exciting stories lately, and this week i remain so... but i have learned a lot that i want to share!  K but really the only sort of crazy funny colombian type thing thats happened this week is that we have an investigator with a prosthetic leg that doesnt fit her very well so its hard for her to leave the house, she didnt make it to church last week, so we went to pick her up yesterday morning with a wheelchair haha and she kind of got offended as she saw that we had brought it and were seriusly considering it hahaha but we just laughed it off and she did end up going with us, and my comp pushed me in the wheelchair...

Alright well anybody whose read preach my gospel knows theres a part of the fifth chapter that talks about how the Book of Mormon answers questions of the soul (ps shout out to my man Elder Tenney in chile tearing up the tenth chapter in PME, good stuff!!!) well ive had soooo many cool experiences with that this week and besides the listof questions there ive added some of my own questions of the soul that the book of mormon answers!

A question of the soul:  Will i really have my leg again?  So as i mentioned we have an investigator with a prosthetic leg, shes a single adult mom with teenage kids who are members but super inactive (somewhat coming back to the church thoughnow luckily!!) and we taught her the plan of salvation this week!  As I shared Alma 40:23 with her, i felt impressed to share my experience of really coming to know the truthfulness of that and the relief and happiness that the knowledge of the resurection brings... I shared the story of how i dislocated my shoulder at byu playing basketball and all and how in that time i really realized the reality of that promise, even if my shoulder didnt completely recover or delayed in the process, its just a part of life with an immortal body, but that it didnt matter, id have a perfect one some day, and i think upon sharing that, the most impressive thing was not the knowledge she gained, but rather the knowledge i gained.  In that moment, i realized that my whole experience with my shoulder had soooo much more purpose and importance, it had all happened to me so that i could then testify to this poor lady without the blessing of a leg with more strength of the plan of salvation and the blessings it promises us, better known as the plan of happiness in my opinion.

Another question of the soul: If we lived with The Lord in the premortal life, why does He allow so many of His innocent children to be born into such horrible circumstances where they only live a few years or are even sometimes aborted?  haha so that was the question this same investigator asked us the next day after teaching the plan of salvation.  So what did we do to answer this qeusiton of the soul?  Thats right, the Book of Mormon.  We flipped to Moroni 8 with her and taught how children (below the age of 8), being innocent, dont have need of repentance, and therefore dont need the cleansing of baptism either, and those that die within that age range are automatically saved in the celestial kingdom!!

Other question of the soul  If my son passed away, where is he now?  A different investigator was really unsure where her son was who had passed away when we found her.  We took advantage of the opportunity and showed her the Book of Mormon.  We showed her that having just the Bible is like having one dot on a sheet of paper (youve probably heard this example).  We can draw infinite lines throuht one dot, and the Bible, being incomplete, can be interpreted in infinite ways, just look at how many versions of it there are and how many different churches.  We then showed her that woith two dots on a sheet of paper, we can only draw one line, and with the Book of Mormon complementing the Bible, there is only one way to interpret the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I love teaching this idea with exampes specific to the peoples needs, so we opened up to Alma 40:11 and taught her that all souls, good or bad, are carried back to the presence of God after this life (later we explained more fully all of that after this life before and after judgement..)

Pues quisiera testificar de este plan de felicidad. Sé que es perfecto.  Sé que Jesucristo lo hizo posible.  otra cosa que nos encanta hacer a mi compañero y a mí es cantar himnos de la primaria en las lecciones, invita tanto al espíritu es increíble!  Me encanta uno de esos himnos que dice ´´Dios requería que un hijo capaz de amar, diera su vida y a todos quisiera salvar´´ Sé, por el Libro de Mormón y por la oración, que Jesucristo fue escogido desde el principio para ser nuestro salvador, y lo dejo en Su sagrado nombre, amen.

les amo

nos vemos 

Élder Tenney