The Big 30

Another great week down here in Zarzal Colombia, and heres the scoop:

So my whole mission ive had the goal of teachiing 20 lessons in a week with a member present, and id come sooo close sooo many times... i had taugh 19 a number of times and 17 or 18 several atimes... and finally we struck big this week!!!  Well, actually, i still havent taught a20 lessons, but this week we managed to pull off 30!!!!!!  So ya that was cool, we taught 30 lessons with a member!!!  so please do me a favor and celebrate and all while you can, before will goes on his mission and breaks my record on his second day in teh field...

Alright so one awesome thing about the mission, besides the many typical awesome things about the maission, is that im getting waaaayyy good at cooking!!!  Every sunday the missin presidente doesnt want the members to have to make lunch for us so they can spend the day with their families, so we make our own lunches, and im learaning alotsa!!!!  (sorrya the ´´a´´ button on this keyaboard ais messed up and im sick of correcting it everytime it spits in an extra ´´aaa´´ so i hope you can just manage to understand with a few extra letter ´´a´´s haha.a..) So yesterday we fried steak and chopped it up with a spicy ´´ají´´ sauce, fried beans, made rice and chopped lettuce to throw it all together and make aaburritos!!!  So we realized we didnt have tortillas aaopps, they practically dont exist in Coloambia, but ya so i just made crapes haha but tried to make them with more flour and use them as tortillas and they actually turned out really good!!!  Pics are on the way!!

So in case you were wondering, there is now one more spice girl-singing latino in the world... We gringos are supposed to teach our latino comps english, so my comp and i walk around the house singing ´´if you wanna be my lova, you gotta get with my friends´´ hahaha and he loves it!!!  hey abut seriously its got good application... i mean ato learning english, ive taught him how its actually ´´want toaa´´ buat how we say ´´wanna´´ and ´´you have got to´´ but we cut it down to ´´gotta´´ and ya its helping him learn!!  Plus its got missionary application right??  Weve got to introduce the investigators to lots of members and make sure they have friends and a calling and all ato help make sure they stay active...

Alright aa super neat story from the week.  On saturday we had our lesson aa´plan A and plan B fall through, so we decided to tract a bit... almost immediatenly my comp said he really felt like we should knock on a specific door, and then pointed across this little meadow area where we were... i aahad no idea to which house he was pointing but shrugged and said alreight lets go, and trying to follow the spirit we went, knocked on the door, and a young lady answered.  After talking a bit with her at the door, i saw throughaaa athe door way ianside the house a picture of a man in a military uniform, and asked who it was.  She said it was her husband and we were like ´´oh cool hes working in teh military huh?´´ when she hesitated a bit and said ´´ya lo mataron´´ (they aalready killed him).  As is always the case in Colombia, the neighbors had the salsa maausic acranked all the way up, and we werent sure if we heard her right.  Emberrased, we asked her to repeat herself, and she said ythat yes three months ago her husband passed away aafighting at war, and she aburst out in tears... aaheartbroken, humbled, and reminded of the importance of our job and the incredible blessings of the plan of salvacion, we aquickly atried to comfort her a bit and said wed be right back... we went to a members house close by so that he would go visit her with us and then we could enter the house and all... turns out that was inspired by the Spirit as well because the amember who went with us to teach her aaaknew her husband and was a huge help in comforting her, and she really shaped up a lot when he bore his testimony aabout how families can bae eternala... so the poor woman has two little sons as well, but we took them to church yesterday and it was INCREDIBLE to see how much the members embraced this young lady and her kids and all, she told us after that she felt something very special and peaceful foar the first time in a while, anad ya ajust proof that no matter what happens to us in life, the gospel will help us tahrough!

Sé que Jesucristo es nuestro Redentor, y ya que Él hizo un sacrificio infinito y eterno, logró romper las ligaduras de la justicia.  Por eso, seremos redimidos por el dolor que sentimos, si no en esta vida, en la próxima con nuestras familias y nuestro Padre Celestial!  aaEstoy infinitamente agradecido por esa promesa que Él Señor nos ha dado, y por la oportunidad que tengo de testificar de ello todos los días!  Dejo este conocimiento mio en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Whatttttt's Uuuuppp Family?!

Alright heres the week for ya!

 

So first off, we met a new lady this week and started teaching her, a friend of a member, who has a big family (always awesome to teach big families!)  and ya so we just met with her, the family wasnt home, but ya as nice as she was, the poor lady struggled to answer the easiest of questions... We asked her just the basics right like how is her relationship with God and what role have religion and Christ played in her life, and she just sat there with the blankest face saying she didnt understand... we were like, ``uh, its a pretty easy question... just what do you think?`` and ya but then the best part is that in the middle of the lesson, this little bird comes walking out from the other room, tiny little bright green bird, walking super fast with its wings clipped so it cant fly... so we tell her and she explains its their pet and all and she goes and puts it back in its cage... Then after talking a bit more with her, out of no where we see the bird CLIMB UP ONTOP OF HER HEAD from her back hahaha!!!!  The little thing came from nowhere, escaped from its cage again, climbed up the back of the chair and up ontop of the ladys head!!!1  So there we were, sitting with a poor lady with the blankest, most clueless expression on her face, poor thing unable to put 2 and 2 together, and with a bird sitting ontop of her head... Ya so she just let it sit there while we taught her a bit more, but it was pretty tough to not just laugh a little bit, the image in our head of this poor lesser intelligent woman, ignorant to everything, with a bright green bird sitting ontop of her head...

 

Alright so heres a good story from a few weeks ago, but that i think i forgot to tell you guys... we went back to Cali for our monthly leadership meeting, and for the meeting all the zone leaders had to prepare a funny and interactive way to train the district leaders on a number of things... my comp and i got assigned to train district leaders on the nightly phone call reports we do where we talk about the investigators in the areas of all the other missionaries, how they are doing, and how we can help and all...  So my comp and i put together a little presentation we called ``the insecure boyfriend``, and we got up infront of all the leaders, the mission president included, and taught them that as district leaders, they have to act like insecure boyfriends... we taught them that an insecure boyfriend is always calling his girlfriend and has to know whats going on with every single other boy in her life right...???  haha so ya we taught them to be like that as distritc leadrs, to call the other missionaries and talk to them all about the investigator showing lots of concern and all... the President liked it haha

 

K one other funny thing about a gringo in south america is that latinos, since they have more colored skin, nobody notices when they blush... they dont even know what blushing is... its something totally strange, weird, unheard of, and even unearthly to them... and its the funniest thing in the world to them... so i dont know why its taken me ten months here to finally bring this up in an email, but ya theres at least one good story every week of a time when i blush and the whole world here laughs at me haha... its seriously kind of scary how funny it is for them, they just start yelling ```hahahaha se puso rojo, uhh pero rojìsimo... ahhh miren que tan rojo està ohhh que pecado hahaha`` and its kind of annoying but also pretty funny haha...

 

aRlight so now ive got a story moms gonna like, a big ``alright mom, you were right, thank you, there i said it``... kinda story haha.  So mom always tried so hard to teach us manners right, and still does, and does it well, so mom be proud, your boy here always stands up and gives his seat to the women who are standing on the buses when the seats are full... not too many people do it here either unfortunately... but ya so it finally really payed off this week!!!  My comp and i were headed to a batpismal interview an hour away in a bus and we stood up to give our seat to a few ladies who got on since the bus was full, and turns out one of the ladies we gave the seat to lives in our area, and HER HUSBANDS A MEMBER!!!!!  So HOLY COW what a coincidence that definitely wasnt a coincidence right???  Ya so her husband and one son got on the bus too and we talked to them and all... the husband has been a member for years, but has gone a bit inactive recently, but we inmediately gained their confidence, address and all, and went and visited them yesterday and are having big progress on getting him back to church and teaching the rest of the people in the family too!!!  So thanks mom for teaching me how to always be polite!!

 

Alright one other really cool story i wanted to share this weekis from one of our good lessons we had with a big family!  The family has tons of little kids, a bunch of cousins who live together, and ya i find them super fun and all but they are indeed loud and make it a bit hard to teach... but its fun haha we give them our notebooks and colored pencils to draw while we teach the parents and all... but ya so we kind of hit a wall in the lesson... the lesson plan had fallen through and we didnt really know where to go with the lesson, wht to teach, how to address a situation they had... until an idea came to my head... i explained to them that probably my favorite question to ask my parents, to ask you mom and dad, is the question ``this is how i feel... have you guys ever felt like this?  or has this ever happened to you?¨´´ and as i explained they said that thats what they love about their family too, that they can always relate one to another that way, and then i explained that thats why i love to pray, because Christ can answer that question better than anyone... He suffered there on the cross to be able to say with perfect exactness, ``yes, yes ive felt that way, i understand perfectly´´... and then give us comfort, help, guidance, forgiveness, power, and a perfect example from there

 

Les testifico que es asì.  Yo sè que Jesucristo ha entendido Su papel que desempeñarìa en el plan de Salvaciòn desde la creaciòn del mundo.  Sè que Èl sabìa que alguien tendrìa que sufrir asì para podernos dar ese consuelo de entendimiento, y sè que Èl lo hizo en Su infinito amor por nosotros.  Sè que gracias a eso podemos orar a Èl y ser edificados por Èl, y ùltimamente volver a vivier con Èl y con nuestras familias para siempre jamàs.  Lo comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

 

los amo

 

nos vemos

 

Èlder Tenney

 

ps sorry sorry sorry i left my camera in teh house and dont have pictures this week.... sorry haha i promise ill have good ones next week!!!

Click Here to See the Weekly Report

First things first (not as powerful of a phrase in spanish dad, sorry, ive tried to use it with investigators and they just kinda look at me weird like ``uh, ya, and...???`` jaja) a good story from the week.  We went to eat lunch with the members one day and my comp and i went into the bathroom to wash our hands... When my comp finished rubbng his hands with the bar of soap, he went to set it back down next to the sing and he squeezed it too hard... the bar of soap made a miraculous flight from his hand and bounced, TOTALLY BOUNCED onto a little planter/decoration thing ontop of the back part of the toilet, then landed on the toilet seat, started to slide around the toilet seat like an in-n-out shot in basketball, and then, as we are watching absolutely stunned, it takes a dip right into the toilet... oh gosh we started laughing soooo hard at the amazing trip that eager little bar of soap made that for some reason, not thinking at all, just being dumb and laughing, my comp and i both thought the exact same thing and reached forward and flushed the toilet and laughed as we saw the bar of soap get flushed down...  the lesson to be learned, dont leave the seat up right?

Alright well other than that its been a really normal and cool week in the full time mission field!  First off, on monday, we went to the area of the sister missionaries to help them find some new people to teach, and we just hit it up in apark talking to as many people as wel could... And ya i dont really have anything specific to say about it, just that its sooooo cool to preach just on the spot like that in the street.  Ive been trying more than anñything to try to listen to the Spirit and ask inspired questions that make the people talk, and not just talk myself, so that they then talk about what it really is that they need in their life, and then when ivegot that opened door into their lives i try to relate it to the gospel, and its soooocool how well it works!!  Even when the people turn their shoulder and tell us they dont want to hear anything about our message, i walked away from every little mini conversation with a stronger testimony because each and every time i felt inspiredto ask a question that then opened them up and help me put myslef in their shoes and relate the gospel to their lives.  Perhaps what i like most is that doing missionary work this way is that i feel good, i just plain and simply feel good, this way even if the people reject us i always walk away knowing i felt the Spirit, i did my part, i know with more surety what im doing is right, and i know the other person knows it too, even if they havent chosen to believe it yet.  Elder Claytons talk mentoined that a bit, choosing to believe.  when missionaries work with the Spirit, people always, always know its true, there are countless examples of that in the scriptures, its just a matter of whether thepeople are going to face reality, humble themselves, and accept what they know is true, or whether they are going to lie to themsleves and keep living in ignorance and fake happiness.  So ya monday night was especially a fun night cuz i went to bed knowing id done my best to testify of Christ and His Father`s plan for us, madeknown by the restored church!

Alright so general conference, what i saw was awesome!!!  The only problem is, i didnt see much unfortunately... Saturday it was just a buffering bar almost the whole day... I did get to see it in english luckily, even though im the only gringo and/or english speaker within miles, the branch presidente here brought his laptop to thechapel and i watched in english, saw most of the saturday mornign session, but almost nothing of the afternoon or priesthood session. Sunday didnt have too much problems though and it was sweet!!!

Alright well thats about all ive got for now, this area, Zarzal, is really cool!!  The branch here is small but has some great people!!  The only interesting thing is that its been a branch for years, like ten or twenty i think, and there are super good leaders, most of them returned missionaries, and tons of missionareis from the branch in toher countries right now, but for some reason the branch justistn grwoing...so my comp and i are doing our best to energize everyone here and give them hope in a sense... 

Oh pues la ùltima cosa que les tengo que decir hoy es que, desafortunadamente, hay mucha gente aquì que no sabe leer... Y despues de haber conocido a algunas personas asì, mi compañero y yo decidimos empezar clases en la capilla a fin de enseñarles a leer, màs que todo, para que puedan leer el Libro deMormòn.  Sè que el Libro de Mormòn tiene poder para ayudarles a aprender a leer porque pues es asì que he aprendido mi español, asì que estaremos enseñando clases de leer y debe ser chevere!  Doy mi testimonio que el Libro de Mormòn es otro testamento de Jesucristo.  Sè que contiene la plenitud de Su evangelio, en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

los amo

nos vemos

elder Tenney