touch down in Zarzal!!!

Alrigth heres the weekly report:  

I made it to my new area this week!!  Im in a little town called ``Zarzal`` now, like 3 hours north of Cali, the northern most part of the mission, almost to the city ``Pereira`` and its pretty cool here!!  Its a lot like my first area, but not nearly as poor and it has a super nice little chapel and lots of really cool members!!!  K to be honest its a bit of a bummer to not be climbing through the jungle of the coast anymore in Buenaventura, theres really no other area in the mission like that, but its still pretty cool here!!  Its completely,l completely flat, but there are some cool mountains around the horizon... OUr house is suuuuper cool too!!!!!  Its wayyyy nice inside, like a cabin kind of with a nice polished wooden roof, its fairly big, has a little outdoor loft ontop for doing laundry, and we really like it!!  And, wait for it, it has AIR CONDITIONING!!!! 

So my new comp is Èlder Tolentino, from Peru.  hes from a southern part, not sure where exactly, but moved a few years ago to Lima where his family lives now, haha and there are so many dang missionaries from Peru here the joke is that you can lift up a rock and find a peruvian missionary under it...  But ya so my comp is AWEOSME!!!  Haha we arleady knew each other before and were stocked when we found out wed be comps!!  The funny thing is though is that right now we are doing whats called opening an area, which means both the missionaries who were here before got transferred and we arrived here with nothing, absolutely nothing... we had the cell phone of the missionaries before, the house keys and a house address and nothing else haha were starting from scratch here, but its pretty cool working like this!!!  

So luckily the sister missionaries who were already here and who work in the other half of the area got us the number of our pensionist (not sure if thats the exact work in english, but its like our ``chef`` who makes us lunch everyday, int he whole mission we have members who make our lunch, except in buenaventura since there arent many members there) so we went to lunch and then she and her family helped us start going on splits and meet with the branch president and ya other than that weve just been knicking on doors and talking with everybody in the street to find investigators haha!!

Not sure if you guys have seen the new video of the church for easter about Christ and how he still lives, but ya so its like the one from Christmas, the ``He is the Gift`` and weve just been going around all day with the video walking up to houses with the front door open and telling the people were going to put on a quick video of Christ haha, and just by doing that were finding tons of good investigators (south america, gotta love it haha bet it didnt quite work like that in finland huh dad)!!  and typical Colombia, the houses here always have holes in the roof and tiny little TV screens, but ALWAYS have HHUUUGGGEEE speakers hooked up, hahaha and i LOVE it right now cuz we put on the video and it has a sweet sound track that sounds wayyyy good with the big speakers here!!  Hey Preach my Gospel says we have to learn the culture of the poeple and use it to the best of our advantages to preach...!!

So now to answer some questions mom yes the food is excellent here!!  OUr pensionist is a suuper good cook, normally gives us rice with chicken or just normal meat, not really steak here but just ``carne`` which is the meet from a cow, and she always makes really goo soup and juice from teh good fruit here, and today she made banana bread that was wayyyy good!!  Nice and guey/gooey/goohie.. (not sure how to spell that word...)  And transportation, well we live in our area so we just go everywher on foot, like ten minutes from the chapel and we can walk across the city on foot in like half an hour... and there are buses that come in and out to the neighboring cities... this week my comp and i are going back to Cali for the leadership meeting (oh ya to answer your question dad yes i am still zone leader, normally in this mission the missionares, once theyre called as zone leaders, they keep that calling until they get to their last two or three transfers or unless they get called to the office, so im probably stuck as zone leader for a while haha but its all good, the zone here is small and all the missionaries in it are really cool!!)

Entonces eso es todo para esta semana.  No mamà para contestar su pregunta no hay ninguna otra persona aquì en este pueblito que hable el inglès, allì estoy solito, pero mi español sigue mejorando!  Se me dice que ya poco a poco el acento norteamericano que me pegaba ya se me va, pero todavìa me falta mucho aùn... Pues lo importante entonces es que sigamos haciendo cuanto podamos para llevar a cabo la obra misional.  Me encanta proclamar al mundo de Cristo y Su iglesia restaurada hoy en dìa, con un profeta viviente!  Estoy rreeee animado por escuchar la voz de èl, por escuchar las palabras de Nuestro Padre Celestial, por que si es por Su boca, o por la boca de Sus siervos los profetas, es lo mismo.  Doy testimonio de ello en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Êlder Tenney

my comp and i in our house here in the two pics

La Buena Ventura ya se termina

Alright first things first, the big news got here last night about the transfers this week, and well, as the title of this article says, im out...... Im taking off and making my great depart from Buenaventura tomorrow night and headed to Zarzal, a few hours north of Cali!!  So that will be a bummer to leave this area ive loved so much... Ive really fallen in love with all these people here, with the crazy adventure that this city is, and more than anything, its been sooooo neat, life changing, to see such a young, extremely young branch grow fast with soooo much energy as this branch is here!!!  I cant even begin to explain how much ive leanred here and how special of a place in my heart this city will always have!!

 

Alright so i dont know much about Zarzal where im headed, just that it has a sweet name and that its still killer hot there haha darn it, i was kinda hoping for a break from the heat but all good all good... i like sweating anyways... especially in my sleep... But actually elder darby came from zarzal when he got here to buenaventura so hes filled me in a bit, its a smaller city in a little valley thats really calm apparently, nothing dangerous mom haha dont worry... and apparently the foods super cheep there, and lets be honest thats all that really matters...

 

Alright well honestly i dont have much other than that this week sorry, but i did finally get some better pictures, and mom i took some of how the food more importantly the juice is here in buenaventura, and most of Colombia!  The first pic attached is of whats called ``Salchipapa`` its french fries and a number of different meats chopped up with melted cheese poured over it, and a number of salsas, way good!!!  Well, let me rephrase that, you never want to look at one again after eating it, and jim gaffigan would have some fun talking about it, but none the less theres nothing better for a bunch of missionaries to order in the night and mess aorund with after a long day of a lot of walking and preaching!

 

K the second picture here is me holding a fruit called ``guayaba``.  You cut it up nice and easily and then chuck it in the blender with a bit of water, milk, and sugar, and its awesome!!!  Tastes a tad bit like strawberry, but milder and sweeter, and ya its good stuff!!!  

 

Alright well of a good number of really interesting and spiritual lessons this week id like to talk a bit just about one in particular.  Ayer fuimos a la casa de un amigo de un miembro, y èl es discapacitado (hes in a wheelchari).  Al escuchar su historia, nos dimos cuenta mucho màs de que tan bendecidos realmente somos, y me di cuenta un poquito màs de pòr que quiero servir la misiòn.  Sentimos mal por èl, mas sin embargo fuimos aprendiendo que èl ha aprendido muchìsimo de sus experiencias, y por ellas realmente està preparado para escuchar el evangelio!  Sentì alegrìa en la lecciòn, mas no sabìa còmo deberìa relatar el evangelio a su vida, porque no he tenido experienceas muy semejantes a las de èl.  Por lo consiguiente, hice lo que siempre hago, una oraciòn.  Despuès sentì muy giado por el Espìritu, la verdad, ni siquiera sentì como fui yo hablando, las palabras simplemente se me estaban saliendo, y ese señor reconociò el espìritu, el cual mi compañero y yo identificamos como el tercer miembro de la trinidad que nos testifica de la verdad.  Tambièn quiero dar mi testimonio que estamos en la iglesia verdadera y restaurada de Jesucristo, y lo digo en Su nombre, amen.

 

los amo

 

nos vemos

 

Èlder Tenney

Asuntos de la Semana

So our biggest goal has been a bit different this week, but really really cool!!!!!  WE didnt get as much time, actually hardly any time at all, to teach lessons to the investigators and less actives and recent converts and all like we normally do, but we worked A TON this week with an aweosme member whos about to serve his mission as well!!!!!   So most of the week we were running errands all over town from one health clinic to another to get all his helath paperwork done and pick up all the results as fast as possible!!!  Its been awesome to see how excited he is and all though and kinda re-live the life of filling out the papers haha, feels like just yesterday i was in that process as well, even though its been over a year now!!!!!  So one day was really interesting though in this whole process with him.  One day after lunch my comp didnt feel to good, came donw pretty sick and had to go rest all afternoon and night in the house.  Luckily the other missionareis who live with us were able to go on splits with us, so i went with one of them and the member and the other missionary stayed with my comp, but there was just one small problme here.... it is a WHoLE new world, whole new language entirely the spanish you have to know to be able to fill out medical papers and all...... long story short i struggled big time haha trying to figure out what tests we still had to do and how we could get the results and what the results meant and all in spanish, but i learned a ton!  My good friend Graham from BYU always says ``theres no growth in the comfort zone, and theres no comfort in the growing zone`` haha well i learned that this week, it was tough having medics blurt out all sorts of big words in spanish to me, even worse over the phone some of them, but i leanred a lot!!!

A quick funny story from the week.  Most of my pants are a bit too short now, they barely touch my shoes when im standing, and when im sitting... ya its bad... but dont worry mom im getting that fixed.... but ya so i thougth i was just growing, got stocked, until i had a member lend me a tape measure and realized im still the same height.  I asked the member why my pants are too short then and she showed how my pockets always hang open too and explained that im not getting taller, but rather just that my legs are getting fatter... fatter or stronger, not sure which of the two, i prefer the latter, but ya just kinda funny to see how the mission changes you... i also floss my teeth now almost every day...

Alright i had a really neat afternoon yesterday on some visits with a recent convert to the church.  After a few visits he just started to tell us how much he loves his life now in the church.  He explained us a bit about his past, and how much he and his family have changed now (all of them a recent converts), and long story short, a man who had quite a rough life in Buenaventura Colombia a year ago, we walked him back to his house at the end of the day and there was his wife making food with one of the sons, both super happy, and at the same time the other son and a daughter arrived who were out doing visits with the other missionaries, and its hard to put it into words, but its just absolutely incredible for me to see how happy the families here are now when they accept and adopt the gospel in their lives!!  Every single member here in Colombia is such an incredible example of how blessed each and every one of us can be thanks to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and His father`s plan which He made possilbe!

Doy mi testimonio que este plan se creò desde la fundaciòn del mundo por Nuestro Padre Celestial, y que sostuvimos a Cristo como nuestro Redentor y Salvador.  Sè que gracias a ello, las familias pueden ser felices y eternas, en el nobmre de Jesucristo, amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Èlder TEnney

Chile!

k wait first off, thanks a toooonnnnn for the letters, and no dad hahaha lectures, belive it or not, are the emails ive been wanting lately hahaha seriously ive been studying the awesome emails in personal study with the scriptures youve given and stuff and applying it and all your advice and support, and that from mom and will and mark and jared have been suuuuper helpful, THANKS A TON!!!  And mark joseph in egypt has beeen suuuuper fun for me to sutdy lately!!!!  and thats soooo awesome that Jared made it in time for wIlls call!!!!!!!  and mom keep resting the head, im praying for you!

 

alright a bit of a shorter, less exciting letter this week, but here it goes

 

First off, ive gotten pretty into making juice with the INCREDIBLE fruit here, my favorite is mango with milk and sugar, and im getting waaayyyy good at cutting mangoes really fast jaja, but earlier this week i made a huge batch for all the guys in our house, but the first guy who drank it just about gagged and i was like shoot the milk must be rotten or something, and now hes gonna be sick, but the milk was fine, and then i realized i poured in salt instead of sugar....  ya the gringo side of me is still young and alive, not quite colombian yet....

 

Thougth i was getting pretty good at soccer too, until last pday we went to play and almost the whole branch was there, and i ran out on the court first and tried a new move i had learned, and then made a rather incredibel trip... the outside of my foot rolled over the ball, but then the ball some how rolled under my legs and my whole back, kind of cushioning my fall, but just making my fall look absolutely hilaaarious hahahaha my whole body rolled over the ball and then i just hit the ground pretty hard with like a ``huhhhh`` thud hahahaha infront of EVERYONE and we all laughed together and it wa sgreat!!!

 

ya well thats about all the funny stories from the week... we had a super neat day one day this week though!  In the whole mission weve got a new goal to put baptismal dates with everyone, absolutely everyone, even just contacting people in the street, our goal is to just, before anything, just testify boldly of Christ and then ask people if they want to follow His example and get baptized, and its been suuuuper neat!!!!  I used to think we had to explain everything first, explain the restored authority and all, that people had to know what they were doing before itd be apropriate to inviten them to be baptized, but ive seen now that its not about understanding at all, thats the power of the Spirit, we just have to testify, and they ALWAYS feel the Spirit when we testify of Christ, and then even if they dont know what theyre getting into, they often accept the invitation just because they want more of what they are feeling.  And then after we put the date for their baptism and all, they act wayyy more commited to everything we teach them and invite them to do, which is awesome because a lot of people here have lacked a bit of commitment...

 

But ya so i went on splits with elder Darby yesterday as well to help him and his comp start doing this goal with the baptismal dates and it was AWESOME!!!! In just two hours we found four new investigators and put a baptismal date with three of them in a big family!!!  

 

Entonces, sè que la fuerza de esas fechas bautismales que estamos poniendo con la gente es gracias a la veracidad de todo lo que ha hecho nuestro hermano mayor, Jesucristo.  Sè que Èl expiò por nuestros pecados, pero que aun en ese momento, cuando estaba sufriendo, Èl estaba feliz, porque no estaba pensando en sì mismo, sino en cada uno de nosotros.  Dejo mi testimonio en Su nombre sagrado, Jesucristo, amen.

 

los amo

 

nos vemos

 

Èlder Tenney

The Week

whatttttttupppp family?!?!  

Alright well we went straight from playing soccer to this internet cafe, and i remembered my camera, so pics will be on the way, but i left my agenda in the house which has all my stories i was going to tell darn it... but i will do my best to remember what the highlights of the week were!

first off, just as typical day in Colombia, we saw a guy the other day riding on his bike backwards, sitting forwards but the bike was going backwards and his head turned around, and he was yelling out ´´EL MUNDO ESTÁ LOCO!!!  EL MUNDO ESTÁ LOCO!!!´´  

whoops, hahaha not sure what happened, but i pressed a wrong button trying to turn caps lock off and the letter got sent... alright so continue, haha ya the guy was shouting out saying the worlds crazy and all... the irony is obvious enough there haha... not sure how he didnt crash though, impressive enough, especially with the super bumpy roads here...

Another funny little thing, we had a way fun family night with some awesome members visiting a less active, and we were playing a game similar to musical chairs, when another member and i ran after the same plastic chair, the last one open, and i grabbed it and pulled it away as he sat down, so he totally fell haha but made an incredible recovery and grabbed the leg of the chair from the ground befor i could sit down, and then as he started yanking the chair my fingers got trapped in the super slim little holes in the back of the chair, and everybody was laughing as we ran in circles playing tug of war with the chair until everybody realized that i wasnt laughing, but actually almost crying, and just trying to get my fingers out, not even trying to get the chair anymore, so he realized and finally stopped and i broke my fingers free and they were bleeding a bit, but it was honestly so funny te chase and all that i dint even care we all just laughed together!  whatever it takes to get the less actives back to church right haha

but then even better that same night was we quickly left to get home on time and as i opened the gate to leave their balcony, i wasnt looking and totally nailed myself in the head with the gate, hahaha ahhhh it was just not my night, but oh well...

K so we had a suuuuper awesome day yesterday with a bunch of neat lessons and super good recent converts going to visit the investigators with us yesterday!!!  One of them is my own convert too!!!  It was absolutely incredible to see these young teenagers, three of them, who with just a few months in the church have increeeedible testimonies and understand the doctrine suuuper well!!!  Just goes to show what a special thing it is to serve in a plae where the church is soooo young and see how The Lord prepares the people and makes them strong!  It had been a tough week before because the people here in Buenaventura NEVER stop enjoying their weekends to go to bed, and as a result we have a really hard time getting them to church, but it was incredible to see yesterday my own convert teaching so well, had DC the worth of one soul ringing in my head all day and it was awesome!!

Entonces con eso concluyo la resumen de esta semana!  Las semanas están volando, como tenaz, mañana cumplo nueve meses en la misión!  La verdad pasa demasiado rápido y hay que aprovechar cada minuto aquí!  Siento la mano del Señor ayudándome en todo momento aquí, es increíble, y estoy tan agradecido por la confianza que mi Padre Celestial ha puesto en mi para que sirva la misión entre la gente colombiana!  Sé que aunque se nos ataca tanto por la muerte espiritual en esta vida como por la muerte física, Jesucristo conquistó las dos, y gracias a eso, según nuestra obedencia, seremos salvos!  Se lo prometo en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney