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