Feliz Navidad y Ano Nuevo!

Whattsuppp family!!!  Hows it going?!?!?!

Daaaaang alright well skyping was AWESOME the other day!!!!  Im SOOO glad to hear things are going well up there!!!  and WOOOWWW Will´s spanish is WAYYYY better than mine was when i had 6 months in the mission and honestly is probably better than mine now....  haha it was a blast talking to everyone!!!  

alright well the only thing really since we talked is an AMAZING experience my comp and i had on saturday!!  On saturday we had gone to allllll of the planned lessons all afternoon but NO ONE was home....  So after walking all over the place for a few hours and talking to lots of people in the street, we saw a family sitting out on the front porch close to one of our invesigators house (who wasnt home of course haha), so we went over and presented ourselves!  They immediately invited us in and said theyd been wanting to know what those two young men in white shirts and ties preached.... 

So we went in and shared part of the first lesson and invited them to go to church, and we where SHOCKED when they said ´´Ya of course!  Lets go!!´´ haha its rare to get people to go to chruch when you invite them on saturday afternoon.... and so we passed by sunday morningand sure enough they went to all 3 hours with us and LOVED IT!!!!  so..... it was an incredible experience and made every other long tiring effort worth it earlier in the week when we had a hard time trying to find people to teach during the holidays!!

Bueno me perdonan la carta cortica esta semana pero quería compartir con ustedes esa experiencia tan maravillosa que tuvimos este fin de semana!  Sé que El Señor realmente está pendiente de cada uno de nuestros esfuerzos, lo vimos de una forma literal esta semana!  También quiero aprovechar este tiempo para compartir mi testimonio de que, tal como lo celebramos esta semana, un Salvador nació en Belén.  Sé que nació para ayudarnos a vencer todo lo que se nos presenta en esta vida que no nos deja acercarnos al Padre.  Sé que Él realmente es el medio por el cual nuestras familias pueden llegar a ser perfectas y eternas, y lo comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo. amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Feliz Navidad!!

Whattsssuppp family?!?!?!  Tenaz que tan rápido se nos acerca la navidad sí o no?!?!?!  Hope the seasons been full of christmas cheer up north, hope youve stuck to the four main food groups: candy, candy corn, candy cain, syrup...!!!!  Im doing alright with the syrup here but thats about it....

Alright well i spent my first half hour of internet time trying to find a computer to work, sorry, so i dont have too much time to write right now.... menos mal nos veremos el viernes por skype!!!

K one AWESOME story from the week real quick!!  On saturday my comp and i were trying to find the house of a reference that we got, and in the process we knocked on a door and a lady answered.  even though it wasnt the house we were looking for, we told her we wanted to share a message real quick.  She said she was busy, but in that moment my comp and i both felt something different, we both felt strongly, a different feeling than that which we normally feel as we knock on doors, we felt that we had arrived just in time and that she needed to hear the message.  We told her that, and she was really surprised to hear it.  The expression on her face changed completely, and she told us to come back in half an hour.  

We swung by a few other houses and then went back half an hour later and taught the first lesson to her and her husband, one of the BEST first lessons i think ive taught in my whole mission!!  we felt the spirit SO STRONG!!!  And then at the end, we asked if we could come back the next day.  The wife said the husband wastn going to be in town, and then suddently she burst into tears.... Through her tears she said they had made the decision to get divorced, and he was leaving the next day, was alredy packing up, but that our visit was just what they needed.... She said that that was why she was so shocked when we knocked on the door, she was looking for an answer from The Lord!!!  

So from there my comp and i commited them to pray together at night and ask The Lord to help them feel and know that He wanted them together, and we went back yesterday and HOLY COW they have made a HUGE change!!!  They looked wayyyyy better yesterday and it looks like theyre really going to progress now as investigators!!!

Así que con eso concluyo con mi testimonio de que el Espíritu realmente nos guía a las personas que necesitan este mensaje!  Sé que esa guía del espíritu solamente se reconoce si un misionero está siendo perfectamente obediente, y sé que por eso somo apartados, para que, según nuestra obediencia y diligencia, podamos recibir esa guía que lleva a cabo la obra del Señor.  Testifico de eso en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos (on FRIDAY!!!)

Élder Tenney

The Best Way To Spread Christmas Cheer

Whattsuuppp family?!?!?!  Hows everything up north?!?!  Its been another good week in Colombia, even more christmas decorations have gone up and I LOVE IT!!!  So in my part of northern Cali here in between all the main roads are thin little passages where cars dont fit and the people just walk to all the houses, and a lot of these thin streets have been covered with tarp and a TON of christmas lights so walking around at night here is SOO COOL!!!  Dang well i tried to get some pictures this week, didnt do a very good job sorry, but the pics are on their way!!!  

Alright so with some decent time here in Colombia (im not even gonna say how long ive been here it scares me) i had gone on a good streak without any big noticable mistake with the spanish until the other day we contacted a family in the street, they gave us their address, i saw that they lived in the sister missionaries area, and i told them that two little peruvians will pass by their house with the same black ties that we have, i said ties instead of name tag, they looked at me weird and i pointed to my name tag and said ´´ya these black ties with our names on them´´ and i didnt realize what i was saying till we walked away... a veces me equivocarme aún...

We had a killer ward party on friday, a mini talent show, the sister missionaries, my comp and I, and our ward mission leader sang an unorganized mix of hymns that really didnt turn out well at all haha but oh well, we had cool santa hats and thats what matters right??  But i love ward parties in colombia, every single one ends with super loud salsa music and then all the members get up and dance and us missionaries stand and watch them surprised to see that even the 96 year old lady in the ward is dancing haha, then us missionaries go home at 9 and rumors say the parties usually go till at least midnight haha, gotta love the colombians!!  Más que todo los caleños!!

So as i said a bit last week we had a handful of really good investigators stop progressing, and ended up having to stop visiting everyone of them, which was tough, but we are in high spirits, but now the tough thing is that its happening in some other areas in the zone as well and so my comp and i are doing all we can to help keep the zone animated (theres no substitute word for ´´animado´´ that satisfies me in english, it means like ´´encouraged´´ or ´´pumped up´´) weve been planning all kinds of fun things to do in zone meetings this week, and one of the most interesting things weve been doing is studying faith vs. discouragement.  Our leaders in the south american northwest area have promised us lots of results if we work a certain way, mainly working with the recent converts and less actives to find more investigators, but a lot of missionaries have done it, and arent seeing the results promised, yet, (key word ´´yet´´ there) so its easy to get discouraged a bit, but im learning, as preach my gospel mentions briefly in the first chapter, that discouragement damages faith.. this week i learned that it works vice versa as well!!!  So my comp and i have some fun stuff planned to up the work a bit and spread the christmas cheer, the best way being of course singing loud for all to hear!!!  But ya that and  i plan on making the motto prhase of the missionaries here ´´only fools get discouraged´´ haha AWESOME!!!  So ya next week ill have some good stories about how it goes!!!

Sé que, como Moroni nos enseña mientras que analiza la historia del hermano de Jared, que no debemos contender simplemente porque no vemos, porque no recibimos ningún testimonio sino hasta después de la prueba de nuestra fe... entonces la pregunta es, ¿hasta cuándo mantendremos esa fe?  Sé que con tal de que no la perdamos, no nos desanimaremos, sino que nos volveremos aun más firmes en nuestras creencias y llegaremos a ser más como Nuestro Padre y Nuestro Hermano mayor, Jesucristo.  Siento privilegiado por poder testificar de Él en este tiempo navideño, y lo comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Familia!

Alright well i have to say, Cali Colombia beats most parts of the states with christmas lights, HOLY COW the whole city GLOWS like a space ship at night, i think Budd the Elf himself must have decorated the whole city, I LOVE IT!!!  k sorry my pictures are lame this week but i promise tons of good christmas pictures next week!!

K to answer your questions mom, yes i got my package!!!  AHHHH ive NEVER been so happy to get new socks, thanks a ton!!  The ties and pants are SWEEEET too!!!  with all that i should be set for the whole next year, im good on shirts and everything else... My comp comes from a really nice family yes, he has a twin sister whos on the mission in mexico, he came on teh mission at age 18 right after highschool but is really smart yes and will do really well in college after the mission!  He didnt speak hardly any english at all at the beginning of the mission but hes learning pretty well now, he says a killer prayer in english with ´´thee´´ and ´´thy´´ and ´´thou´´ and all...!!  And ya even here in a decent part of Cali, most people are educated but theres still a handful who dont even know how to read, pretty sad, but its incredible to see how they still recognize tons of blessings from The Lord even when they have so little, its taught me a lot

K well today is actually my comps birthday, so i had secretly been talking with the district leaders all week last week (english comes in handy in Colombia) a surprise party for him today, and it was A BLAST!!!  The whole zone (16 missionaries) was in the chapel at noon and ordered pizza and decorated the chapel and then hid on the stage behind the curtain and then when he and i got there they all jumped out and yelled happy birthday and we hung out and ate dominoes pizza (yup, Cali has dominoes, its a bit expensive but it actually is just like the dominoes in the states, at least to me it is, and it was awesome).  So that was fun!!

This weeks been interesting, a lot of really really good investigators have fallen a bit and after learning soooo much, and after having sooooo many spiritual experiences with them, theyve all hit a wall with one thing or another and no matter how hard we try we just cant quite help them learn to trust in The Lord a bit more and depend more on the gospel, so weve had to stop visiting them... but i love the part of Preach My Gospel that says that not a single effort is lost, and i know that true... I know other missionaries will get there some day and that then they will be ready to progress, even though i wish i could see it in my time, i know The Lord will send the missionaries when the times right, and for now we are looking for new investigators. 

La busqueda, sin embargo, es REEE edificante!!  Weve had a lot of neat experiences talking to all the families we see in the street and taking advantage of the christmas season to talk about Christ!!!  i know that the more we show people that christmas is all about Him, the more we will find people who eally are prepared to accept the gospel!!!

Testifico de Cristo como nuestro Salvador y Redentor.  Sé que Él murió por nosotros, me encanta reflejar en eso durante los momentos en que se reparte la santa cena, porque cada vez me doy cuenta de algo diferente acerca de la expiación de Cristo y su importancia.  Lo comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney

Thanksgiving???

Whatssupp family?!?!?!  Hows everything up in the states?!?!?!  Dang i had honestly forgot it was thanksgiving... but wow sounds like you had a great week!!  NO WAY did grandpa seriously ride 75 miles at that age!!!  HOLY COW!!!  WOW!!!  k and im not sure if there were other people at the dinner with grandma and grandpa or if my cousins have just grown so much that i dont even recognize half of them... alright well its been another great week here in Colombia!!

So the big news...

I did not..

not...

not get tansfered... (that means i didnt get transfered mark).  Transfers were this morning yes but to my surprise and excitment im staying a fourth transfer here in northern Cali, which isnt too common to stay so long in an area in this mission but honestly im glad, i love this area and all the people here!!!  And im STOKED to stay with my comp for another transfer, Élder Molinari, hes awesome!!  

Yes mom they told me early this past week that my package got here!!  I have a meeting in the office this week and should get my package then!! Thanks!!!  And yes one of the things i love about this area is the chapel is really big and nice here, and it has a really nice piano!!  there are pianists who play in sacrament meeting on sunday but i play on pday lots and before district and zone meetings and stuff i get to play every once in a while...

So they expanded the zone im in right now and my comp and i had to go look for a new apartment this week.  After walking all over the part of town where we had to find one in the blazing hot sun, we found a SWEET apartment on the fifth floor of a building  with huge windows all around and an incredible view of Cali and the whole valley here... we snagged a pretty good deal on it, cant believe im learning to do stuff like look for apartments haha its incredible how much you learn on the mission!  

We had a really cool lesson the other day with an investigator whos progressing really well, but has an injured shoulder that doesnt let her work too well and shes not earning as much money as she needs and all... her shoulder isnt getting better, and honestly its affecting everything else, even her spiritual progress... So i shared the story of how i dislocated my shoulder and how with that my grades fell, i couldnt do much living alone, and was maybe going to have to postpone the mission, untill i put all that aside, exercized more faith, and made a covenant with The Lord in the Temple, and then suddenly EVERYTHING got better... my grades went up, i went back to the physical therapy and they were shocked with how much better my shoulder was, and i did indeed recover in time to report to the MTC... sharing this story made me realize SO MUCH.  I thought about it all night and realized even more the purpose that that experience keeps having now in not just my life, but in the life of others here as well, and i realized that this is seriously why people are able to live such successful, happy lives with the gospel.  It makes me reflect on so many times, not just in the example of my shoulder injury, but so many times in which as everything started to fall, the gospel helped everything work itself out again, everything ends up better than it was before, and on top of all of that, i end up realizing even more that our Heavenly Father really does love us and watch after us in every moment.

Testifico de ese amor que Él tiene por nosotros, yo siento ese amor, que me infunde calma, y lo comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo. amen.

los amo

nos vemos

Élder Tenney