The Week!

Heyyyy family hows the life up north?!?!?!  Hope youve had a good week!!!  I hope it hasnt been as hot there as it has here!!!  All is good though its been another great week here in Cali Colombia!!!

 

The good news is i finally have a lot of good pictures this week!!

Alright well again nothing too special has gone on this week, but I have learned a lot!  First off, we had a zone conference and they put my comp and i in charge of getting the chapel all set up.  We ordered dominos pizza for 40 missionaries and setup all the tables, set them with plates and napkins and all and got all the projector and computer and everything hooked up and cleaned up afterwards and had a super successful zone conference!!!  Being a zone leader and having jobs like this has helped me become a lot more like mom, super good at organizing huge events!!!

Alright well the mission president and the APs taught us something really really interesting a little while ago that weve been putting in practice and its been neat.  Apparently the apostles and prophet have devised a new way of teaching the gospel, and theyve only given us a small part of it right now, and that small part is just one simple question.  They taught us to ask the question towards the end of lessons ´´whats something youve learned right now but that we havent taught?´´  and when we ask that question it makes them focus on not just our words, but on what the Spirit has really taught them in their heart, and its INCREDIBLE the results weve seen so far!!!  I used it in a baptismal interview the other day and had an AMAZING experience, the ladys progress turned around completely!!!  So we did a lot more practices with that in the zone conference and its been neat!!

We have a HUGE event coming up in the stake here where we ae going to put on MEET the MORMONS in teh stake center here and all the members are to invite the whole world and all... should be sweeeeet!!!  So ya the APs put us in charge today of teh invitations, told us to look for a popcorn machine and proyecter and to prepare an intro lesson and way to follow up with references and all, should be really neat!!  its not for like another two weeks though so youll get the story a bit later on...

Alright well im afraid thats about all ive got today.  Que pena por no tener nada más interesante.  por lo menos hoy les mando fotos interestantes, más que esta carta, pero espero con todo el corazón que comprendan aunque sea un poquito que tanto la misión significa para mí.  A veces me canso un poquito pero nunca es más que un breve momento hasta que tenemos una experiencia tan espiritual que me olvido de mí mismo y recuerdo que esta realmente es la obra del Señor y veo que Su mano estás obrando milagros!  Me siento tan privilegiado por poder tener parte de ello, y sé que entre más trato de edificar a otras personas, aun más Él me edifica a mí.  Encontré muchas escrituras interesantes esta semana en D&C 9 que explican que cuando no nos llegan las respuestas que buscamos inmediatamente, es porque el Señor simplemente necesita que ejerzamos paciencia y que es por nuestro bien.  Testifico de esto en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Asunto

Alright well all is good here in Colombia!!  

A pretty cool story from this week>  My comp and i showed up to one of the lessons and the people hadnt gotten home yet, so we had a few minutes to spare...  they have a short little brick ledge just outside of their house perfect for sitting on, we could have easily just sat and waited 5 minutes for them to get there, but we decided to take advantage of the time and knock on a few doors.  We said a prayer, walked over to the other street where we still hadnt tracted, the first few people didnt let us in but after knocking on a few doors we knocked on one where a really shy, nice but depressed looking lady anwered.  We said hi, presented ourselves, and we noticed through the doorway a big picture of a young man on the wall on her house... we felt like we should ask her who it was, she said her son, we asked if he was home and older than 18 to go in and teach a lesson when she explained he had recently passed away and tears began to fill her eyes... We quickly pulled out some pamphlets of the plan of salvation, tried to comfort her with our testimonies real quick, and then promised to return later on and teach more... 

so ya long story short the next day we went back to visit her and taught a lot more and she seemed soooo much more happy and cheerful, she presented us to her daughter and like 7 granddaughters and most of them went to church with us yesterday and loved it and are coming to the realization of the fact that The Lord really does love them and has a plan for them!!!  nothing makes me happier than to see a family come to understand the reality of this plan.  its perfect.  Every aspect of it makes sense, and every part of it is made possible by Christ!  We went back the other day and shared the story ´´he took my lickin for me´´ to teach the part of the atonement in the plan of salvation!

Other suuuper exciting news around here is that the stake president is working tons with us to have the ward Ceibas split and have Villa Gorgona get its own chapel!!!  Villa Gorgona is where i started the mission, a small little town just outside of Cali, and the members there have to pay a fair deal of money to take a bus half an hour into cali, but pretty soon now it looks like there going to get their own chapel!!!

Entonces eso es todo lo que tengo por contar esta semana!  He estado estudiando muchísimo la caridad.  Me llama mucho la atención la definición que se da en el diccionario de la biblia que dice que la caridad es el amor más fuerte, más que solo cariño, y me esfuerzo cada día más por entender cómo puedo desarrollar este atributo y utilizarlo más para buscar oportunidades de servir a los demás, a fin de estarle sirviendo al Señor.  Sé que es el amor puro de Él, el cual hizo que Él pudiera sufrir tanto por nosotros y hacer posible este plan de felicidad.  Testifico de la realidad de este plan en el nombre sagrado de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Here I Am

Alright well nothing out of the normal has happened here in Guaduales, Cali, Colombia, everythings good!!!  

If you want a good laugh you can ask me how many times ive changed a light bulb here in Colombia....  Everybody just sees me in the street and thinks ´´oh perfect, hey, tall guy, come here real quick!  could you do us a favor´´   and then i always ask them if it is indeed turned off, they say yes, but every single time as im screwing in the bulb in the ceiling i get temporarily blinded once screwed in enough as it immediately lights up..... 

So things are good.  My companion and i get along really well.  Its been a bit of a change since my last comp and i had over four months together we got along suuuper well, were perfect teaching together, and really helped each other to work even more diligently... so i kinda gotta rebuild up to that level with this comp but hes awesome and we are getting there.

The ward is still huge here.  Its weird.  The ward threw a part on saturday and we didnt even do anything... in the other little branches ive been in the missionaries had to do everything, here, nothing, we simply colored a few banners with markers and the members did everything else... The bishop here is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!  First off, dad, i realize more and more everyday how hard your job was as bishop haha as i see all the bishops do here, and more and more i realize how ignorant i was to all you did, i applaud you, but of course, its only with The Lords help that anyone fulfills their callings *side note DC 12134;37ish is one of my FAVORITE passages of scriptures that i study more and more everyday and has helped me A TON with magnifying my callings on the mish.,. 

 But ya the bishop here is super young, probably 32ish, his wife as well, they have a few little kids, and hes the bishop of what im pretty sure is the biggest ward in the whole mission.  Furthermore, the bishop has a prosthetic leg, from just below his waist, and he walks with those arm crutch things and its amazing how much he gets done despite his disability.  He served a complete mission as well with just one leg.  Super neat leader, i hope to learn lots from him, hes one of many amazing leaders in the church here in Colombia...

Alright well sorry thats about all ive got for now, im glad to hear everythings good up there, all is good here as well, still cant even begin to describe how perfect The Lords plan of happiness is.  No creo que se vea tanto en los estados unidos, pero por acá que hay más necesidades, se anota bastante que el evangelio realmente cambia vidas y ilumina totalmente lo que era una vida triste y deprimente antes... Me encanta y he estado estudiando mucho una parte de Predicad mi Evangelio que explica que ninguna fuerza se pierde en la obra misional, y es verdad.  Aunque las personas que enseno no acepten el evangelio en mi tiempo, sé que sus hogares cambian y mejoran igual, y que queda más probable que lo acepten más adelante.  Testifico de Cristo, que hizo este plan posible, en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen,

los amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

ya boy en Guaduales, Cali, Colombia!!!

Whattssupppp family_!_!_!  Sounds like youvbe had another good week!!!  Im suuuuper glad to hear it!!!!!  And wow hahaha some misison impossible movie huh, everybodies written about it...

My first week in Guaduales here in the great city of Cali has been awesome!!!  So the transfrs worked ihn my favor cuz theres a couple here that had already been taught all the lessons and was working on their plans to get married... So i did my job haha and completed my fourth wedding in the mission!!!  They got married friday, we threw a party that night with the ward, and saturday they got married!!!

Alright church was interesting yesterday, heres the scoop!!

K so this ward im in now is apparently the biggest ward in the whole misison, I WAS SHOCKED!!!!  Hahahaha the chapel is huge yes, but more surprising was that it GOT FILLED!!!  wooowww hahaha i felt a little bit like i was back in the states, and even so in a huge ward!!!  So after being in two really small branches for 9 months, this has been a change, the missionaries dont do anything on sundays here haha, the people are all endowed and know how to magnify their callings, the high priests and elders quorums have their own separate meetings and are both full of like 30 returned missionaries each quorum... WOWWW!!!  So its really cool!!!!  The only problem is that the people, as strong and experienced of members as they are, are real busy with their work and family responsabilities during the week and feel like they already served their missions and arent as excited to go out to the lessons with us... But i accepted the challenge!!  i made my biggest goal yesterday to meet as many members as i could and schedule activities in their houses and set days to have them to go visits with us, and most sort of half hesitantly agreed for a few hours here and there, but i know that what my comp and i do, even though we are the young unexperienced ones in this ward, i know what we do is the most important work and that these members will be reminded of that as they feel the spirit in the lessons with us!!!  My comp and i are WAYYY STOKKKED to get these members more pumped up about the misisonary work!!!!

Alright, SWEEEEETEST thing EVER this past saturday!!!!   The elders in villa gorgona, my first area in the mission, asked for a bit of help the other day, so even though we had very very little time, we caught a but out there for an hour on saturday and i went with one of them to visit a famly that I FOUND A YEAR AGO!!!!  my trainer and i were the first missionaries to visit them, and i saw that all their kids have gotten baptized!!!!  Hollly COWWWW this family has changed sooooo much!!!!  They have a beautiful family, and they are all reading the scriptures every day and praying everyday and even doing family night every monday!!!  The kids have suuuper strong testimonies, and guess who baptized them a few months ago... ÉLDER DARBY!!!!  so ya it was increeeedibel to go back!!!  So the only thing is the parents, as usual in colombia, arent married, and are a bit discouraged and havent been fully attending church, so we were able to motivat them a bit more with our tiestimonies and we put the marriage date anhd baptismal date with them and are just working on getting the paperwork for marriage!!!

 Entonces si, ha sido una semana llena de bendiciones, y todo eso porque estamos trabajando en la obra más importante, la de la iglesia verdadera de Jesucristo, en los últimos días.  Testifico de ello en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

élder Tenney