Transfers...

Alright the big news

I got transferred...

notice i said ´´got´´ past tense, before they always announced the transfers sunday nights and then wednesdays we traveled, tuesdays if we had a big distance to travel, which gave us all pday to pack and say good bye, but last night my comp and i printed of the transfers for the zone and it said that me and one other missionary from the zone were getting transfered and that we had to be IN CALI AT 8>00 in the morning THE NEXT DAY!!!!  we seriously had 11 hours is all to pack, sleep a little bit, not say good bye to anyone, and hop on a bus at 4 in the morning headed to cali..... not sure why they did it this way, but alright...

So ya not gonna lie, i was wayyyy sad at first, i absolutely loved zarzal, there were some people there who seriously changed my life, it just touched my heart to see people there who really dont have any of the material blessings even th poorest of people in the states have, nor who have the chance to go to general conference personally, yet people who besides all that are the absolute happiest people i know, simply because they know its true.  Zarzal and its people will forever have a special place in my heart

´´Ill go where you want me to go dear Lord´´ is all my comp and i sang last night as i packed, my comp elder Tolentino from peru was half the reason i loved zarzal so much as well, he will seriously be one of my best friends for the rest of my life.  Its wayyyy interesting though, at first i didnt see any advantage in doing the transfers immediately the next day, i didnt see any logic, and felt wayyy bad that i wouldnt even get to properly say good bye to everyone, but as i did my best to keep my mind off that and just exercise faith, The Lord has already opened my eyes to see how these transfers are really a blessing in disguise>

So with that, the news, i got transfered back to the ZONE WHERE I STARTED THE MISSION!!!!  im in a different area, in downtown Cali, like half an hour away from villa gorgona where i started the mission, and im  in a neighboring ward, the same stake, and im the zone leader of the missionaries in villa gorgona where i started the mission!!!  Furthr more, we ran into some members from that ward today and they told me alllll about a lot of th people i taught, those that i baptized are still strong, one of them elders quorum president, and a family i found and taught for the longest time but that didnt quite progress, their kids just got baptized and the missionaries need me to help them plan the wedding with the parents so they can get baptized!!!  So that answers your question about the wedding business mom, oh ya, im still the love doctor out here, ill be helping the elders with that wedding and my new comp has been planning a wedding in our own area!!!  So wooowwww, long story short, even though it wasnt easy leaving my last area so fast, its been a blessing in disguise.  Im not sad its over in zarzal, just glad it happened, and now i know The Lord has opportunities for me elsewhere!!!

So ya often times when surprising and not inicially positive news comes, our immediate thoughts are to think ´´why´´ and unfortunately even to blame The Lord sometimes, but really every one of those is just a blessing in disguise that The Lord is able to give us, even though it hurts Him to see us in hard situations for a moment, becuase there are even greater blessings down the road.  How selfish and incorrect of us it is then to get discouraged when bad news comes, and that discouragement can be completely overcome if w just simply humble ourselves and have more faith.

Alirght enough of my preaching, more of the basic details, im already loving my new area, im still zone leader, my new comp is Elder Romero from paraguay, cool guy, so far we are getting along well and ive heard hes a good hard worker, hes a convert and the first misionary from his family which always impresses me tons, my house is small but nice on the fourth floor, our area has cool views of the lit up city Cali, but our house has simply the view of a brick wall of the apartment builidng next to ours but its all good...

Im FINALLY IN A WARD WITH A PIANO!!!  something im excited about, all the chapels ive been in have just had small keyboards without a damper pedal and that are missing like two octaves on each side, this chapel has a nice real piano!!!

And ya...

Well i often feel bad that i dont have time to share everything im learning, i usually stick to th fun stories and try to squeeze in as much as i can of all im learning but just cant in an hour, but in short words two things ive learned tons in the mish is to not get discouraged, the keys are to sacrifice which means work without expecting any prize at the end and faith, and the other thing ive learned is the first part of ether 12>7, if men come unto me, i will show unto them their weaknesses... ive seen in soooo many instances in the mission that things that i thought were strengths before the mission have become my weaknesses, but not i get happy when i see my weaknesses cuz it means ive successfully come unto The Lord

Entonces con eso les dejo.  Que estos saludos desde Los Guaduales, Calima, Cali, Colombia les lleguen bien.  Agradezco al Senor cada momento que tengo acá en la misión, por que en cada momento me doy cuenta aun más de qué tanto Él nos ama.  TEstifico de Su infinito amor en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Snow, hah!

Alright its been an interesting week, dont have a lot of time but heres the scoop

So someone passed us in the street on a bike, probably 50 years old, black hair like most latinos but dyed redish... when the person passed i asked myt comp if it was a boy or a girl... still not sure, so well say ``it`` to refer to the person right now... i had barely asked my comp the question when ``it`` turned around and came back to us,  it then asked my comp what shoe size i am, not sure why it asked my comp. ii gues it supposed i dont speak spanish, cuz it got surprised when i answered the question... i said im size 44 and it said ``ah darn. a friend gave me some shoes size 41 and they dont fit meand i dont know what to do with them...`` i told them that they wouldnt fit but thanks anyways... kinda surprised that it had offered me free shoes just because im tall...

other story real quick. almost everyday we knock on a door to contact a new reference or something when the kids come and anwer the door.  We dont even ask if the parents are there, cuz they know to say no, so we just ask them to go tell their parents to come to the door... pretty often they come back to the door after talking to their parents and say ``my mommy says shes not here``haha, but there was a MAJOR case of this this week.  A little girl did this, and i asked ``oh really, who did you talk to just now then?´´  and she said `` to my mom``  then we asked again if she was home and she said ``well yes but shes hiding``... haha good stuff

Alright well thereve been a lot of interesting things in the work this week, but there was one super neat story i want to share realy quick.  we went to a lesson with some sister missionaries in the zone to help them out a bit and they invited some recent converts to go with us too to visit a lady whos baptismal date fell through becuase she hasnt been able to give up coffee, and WOW it was a powerful lesson!!!  Even though there are always tough moments in the mission, there are always just enough where you are reassured that The Lord is working miracles and the work will keep going forward!!  Perhaps the most impressive were the testimonioes of these recent converts who honestly had a lot of difficulties themselves and werent so sure about everything before their baptism, but have been completely changed now.  you can see the change that there has been in their heart and that they really have the gift of the holy ghost and have relied on The Lord to change their lives, it was incredible!!

Entonces les dejo por motivo del tiempo.  Sè que la obra y gloria del Señor es ésta, llevar a cabo la inmortalidad y vida eterna del hombre!  Siento honrado por poder participar en esta obra, sè que nuestro padre tiene un plan perfecto para nosotros, el cual hizo posible su hijo, en el nombre de Jesucristo. amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Èlder Tenney

Hot y Sweaty

Alright heres the week!!

Funny story first of course.  We had a big family night with a whole bunch of people in the chapel and played some fun games with water balloons!!  So not many people got wet actaully, the water balloons idnt break very well (never assign the sister missionaries to buy the water balloons... oops) but all ended well when my comp and i pulled of the sweeeetest thing!!!  

Alright so theres always that one youth right who, well, finds ways to win the games even if it meanshe doesnt follow all therules right??   So ya she didnt really realize that she wasnt helping it be as fun for everyone else, but at least she felt good right??? Lets let her feel good in her ignorance, and lets get her wet whilewe are at it so that everybody else feels abit better too. That was thementality of my comp and I. completely unplanned, just totally natural, she walked right inbetween my comp and i witha big waterballoon in her hands, and i reached over and squeezed the waterballoon as hard as i could and my comp pushed her a little bit from behind, PERFECTLY, so that the waterballoon broke, with ahuge explosion, andthen she sort of fell on top of it (didnt trip completely though) but it just exploded right in her face as she fell forward a bit, andit completely soaked her hahahaha!!!!   

Ahhhh mycomp and i were soooo proud.  It couldnt have been more perfectly executed!!  So ya luckily she was a good sport and laughed about it but it was pretty great!!!  

So my comp and i had quite aday yesterday.  We got to church right at 9 oclock after speed walking around the WHOLE town trying to wake up our investigators and get them to go,  the sun came up nice andearly yesterday and we were sweating bullets all of sacrament meetingsittingthere in our suit coats, thenn the teacher of the gospel principles class wasnt there so with out any time to prepare before hand, we hadto whip up an hour lesson for that class in thesecond hour, then the primary counselor came and found us in thethird hour andsaid she needed a lesson for the whole primary the thirdhour.... so ya my comp and i taught that class as well... that was actaully a blast though!!!  

So this weeks been interesting.  As zone leaders were told we haveto have thebest area, thatour proseyting area should be an example to all the others in the zone, and we taught more lessons in the week than any other companionship in the missionfor like the third week in arow,but we unfortunately have notbeen able to get the people to come to church... Ahhh so we finished this week with aton of lessons taught, almost all with members as well, but with all our other dats lower than the rest of the zone.... So at least the zone as a whole is doing well, but my comp and i are taking a completely different aproach this week... It should be interesting to see, we arent even going toteach much, just visit A TON of people, visit theneighbors of all the members, help them feel the spirit and then invite them to church and have the members help us to get them to go, weve tried just about everything else...  The members here are awesome though so i think it should work pretty well!!!

Entonces asì finalizo mireporte semanal.  Me esfuerzo lo màs posible por aprovechar cadamomento acà en la misiòn, el tiempo es demasiado valoroso.  Pero tambièn, aunque siempre tienen que haber dificultades, el gozo que se siente al hacer esta obra es demasiado dulce!  Sè que cuando la vida nosparece demasiado difìcil, y vemos nuestras debilidades, es porque hemos llegado a Dios, como se explica en Èter 12... Dejo mi testimonio del sacrificio expiatorio del Hijo, en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Èlder Tenney

cumplo meses en la misiòn como una mujer se cambia la ropa

Whattuppppp family?!?!?!  Hows the week been?!?!?!  Shoot i didnt even realize it was the 4th of july haha but colombia did, there were parties and tons of music all over the place!!1  oh wait, thats everyday here in Colombia...

WOW WOW WOW k so first off CONGRATS TO WILL!!!!!  HITTING it up in the field now!!!!  And as i mentioned, im almost COMPLETELY SURE HIS COMP IS TYLER MUIRS COUSIN!!!!   If so i totally met him a few times and have heard TONS about him, super good guy!!!  WOWWWW!!!!!  And i cant believe hes with a gringo!!!  Hahahaha that NEVER happens in my mission, but is suuuuper sweet!!!  And wooow they are opening up the area as well, meaning they both got there as fresh newbies, thats pretty cool, ive only done that once in the mission in the area im in now...!!!!

Alright well its been another good week here in the heat in Zarzal Colombia!  I hit my 13 month mark the other day, CRAZY!!!!  We went back to Cali this week for our monthly leadership meeting, last pday we played soccer and basketball with the branch, im actually getting somewhat decent at soccer, still havent met anyone who knows how to play basketball without bouncing the ball off of their toes as they dribble, i taught everyone the phrase ``breaking ankles``, and ya thats about all thats happened. 

My comp and i in our very very little free time in the night time and on pdays practice juggling, haha and we are actaully getting REALLY GOOD!!!  I can now jugle perfectly with 3 limes, throwing in a number of fancy tricks, and can almost do four, still working on it there...

Ya so thats really about all ive got this week...  We have a ``Noche Blanca`` this week which means a whole bunch of people are getting baptized in a number of cities around here and we are all gonna meet up in one chapel to have a HUGE baptismal service, should be pretty sweet!!!  My comp and i will have one baptism there and the sister missionaries here in our district with us have been on fire and in a perfect world are going to have 4!!!

Si pues que pena por no tener màs por contarles, la pròxima semana les prometo una carta màs entretenida.  Algo interesante que hemos estado haciendo es tratar de corregir la tradiciòn acà de adorar a la virgen marìa.  Es una apostacìa ridìcula, aquì por allì 70% dirìa yo de la gente adora a la virgen Marìa, que quiere decir que van a imàgines de ella y estatuas y la oran y todo... Tan solo tenemos que mostrarles el segundo mandamiento y ellos se sorprenden, diciendo ``ve, ese es el segundo mandamiento?  Enserio?  Nunca nos han mostrado eso en la iglesia...`` y ya... a veces parece que hay demasiado que hacer, pero la escritura en Alma 37:5 me consuela y me asegura que la obra se seguirà llevando a cabo.  Sè que vivimos en los ùltimos dìas predichos por los profetas de la antiguedad, sè que la iglesia se ha restaurado en su plenitud, y lo comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Èlder Tenney

The Week!!!

heres the

 quick report.  

So we were talking to some investigators the other day, just passed by their house to say hi, theyve been investigating for a short time now, weve bonded a good friendship and all, including a good friendship with the dog as well, believe it or not thats important, but can be deceiving, and well thats where our story comes from today...

We knocked on the door to say hi, they opened it and their dog came running out, Toby.  I said hi to him as always, a chocolate lab, and bent over to pet him, when he turned a bit as if he wanted me to hug him... i thought oh how cute and was about to do so when suddenly he lifted one leg up, the back leg closer to me... and did his thing...  Ive never been so offended since Will called me a democrat...  

So ya thats really the only story i have this week.  Pday was awesome today, the branch had a sport day since its a holiday here and we played tons of soccer in the chapel, im actually getting somewhat decent at soccer... 

Alirght well thereve been tons of super neat spiritual experiences this week.  One incredible thing was that i got to baptize one of the sister missionaries investigators!   Another that i want to share real quick was what my comp and i taught a lady here... She talked about how her daughter comes homefrom every church activity complaining about the other young women in the branch and how they bug her...  My comp and i taught her what mom and dad always taught me, that instead of saying ``ugh this person is bugging me, why do they always do this and that```... we have to think, ``well, whats not right in their life, what trouble do they have at home that makes them act that way in church...´´ then we connected it with the preearth life that all of us chose to come here, and that The Lord doesnt look at where we are now, but at our potential, He sees all of us clothed in white reaching our potential, which is to be perfect, even as He is perfect, and she said we changed her perspective completely... So thanks mom and dad for always teaching me perfectly my whole life, and connecting all your teachings with the doctrine of Christ-

Les dejo mi testimonio que la iglesia y su doctrina son perfectas, aunque las personas en la iglesia no lo somos... Sè que el sacrificio expiatorio de Jesucristo es infinito y eterno como enseñó Amulek, y que nos sana a todos, nos cambia, y nos salva, y se lo hago llegar en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Èlder Tenney