What!!! Transfers!!!

Whattsupp family?!?!?!  Alright well, as the title says, you can probably guess, ya, IM GETTING TRANSFERED!!  So this was a surprise cuz i had only been in my last area for one transfer, and before they had always left me in every area for 3 or 4 transfers, but my new area should be WAY COOL so im excited!!!  Soooo... im getting sent to, GUESS WHERE WILL, thats right, TULUÀ!!!  Haha im going to the chapel of Wills companion, and maybe even the same branch (im not sure, there are two branches there)!!  the other big news, IM TRAINING A GREENIE!!!  haha so for today and tomorrow im in Pradera, a tiny little town just out side of palmira with anotehr missonary whos going to train and wednesday mornign we go together to Cali to pick up our greenies, and then wednesday afternoon ill go to the new area in Tuluà!!  Should be GREAT!!!

I dont know anything about my new comp yet, just that his names Èlder Zeballos!

alirght so after that news, heres the week!  First off, we had an interesting lesson on tuesday, we were teaching the restauration to a guy and his sister, all was going well, then their grandpa came and started listening too.  After a short while, he started to share an experience he had, and as he did, got waaayy into it, and stood up and was almost shouting as he told the story... and by the way these people have two parrots in cages towards the back of their house, so as he raises his voice, the parrots started making SO MUCH NOISE hahaha they started yelling and stuff, i didnt know parrots could make such loud noise, so somehow our spiritual lesson turned into a yelling fest of an old man and green parrots.... it was weird, i didnt know what to think or do, but ya he calmed down, we left a commitment for them to read the Book of Mormon and pray, and finished with a prayer... the family went to church yesterday though so all is good!!

K, another funny thing about Colombia, so our old house was on the fourth floor and had an elevator (a good sturdy one that i trusted), but so in colombia the people on the first floor always, ALWAYS get into the elevator to go up before letting the people already in the elevator out... no matter how full the elevator is, we get to the first floor, the doors open, and are about to step out when people come flooding in and cram us, and then we try to work our way out... doesnt make sense, its like tying your shoes first then trying to put them on...

Something ive realized im not too good at but have been getting better at, i often worry about the lesson we have scheduled at a certain time and we only have like 10 minutes to quickly finish the lesson were in and run over to the other one, and ive learned that that my anxiousness to get to the next lesson doesnt let my comp and i follow the spirit as much... We had a cool experience with that this week, a young couple we contacted was finally home, so we went in to share something realy quick, but they were asking really really good questions and we wanted more time to explain everyting but had another suuuper importnt lesson in like 15 minutes, so instead of worrying about time, i tried to trust in The Lords timing a bit more, and follow what i felt we should do, not what my logic told me we should do... so my comp and i looked at each other, and nodded in agreement that we shoudl postpone the next lesson a bit and teach the whole first lesson... we did so, and WOW it was a spiritual lesson, and commited the couple to read the book of mormon and pray about its truthfulness, and they commited and all... then we went and arrived to the next leson like an hour late, but, the dad of the family there had just barely gotten home... had we gone when we had inicially scheduled the lesson, we wouldnt have even been able to enter the house... pretty cool how The Lord makes things work out, even cooler how we feel when we try to listen more closely to that guidance!

Espero que una de las cosas que màs aprendo en la misiòn sea eso, el poder escuchar al Espìritu y reconocer de verdad sus susurros.  Sè que de esa manera, no se cumplirà lo que nos parece ser lo mejor en el momento, sino lo que serà lo mejor para todos de largo plazo, y sòlo El Señor ve eso... Sè que podemos ser dignos de esa guìa del espìritu gracias a la expiaciòn, y lo comparto en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Èlder Tenney

The Heat of Palmira

Whattssuppp family?!?!?!  Dang picture evidence of a good time you guys are having right now on the slopes, haha thats good im glad!!  Its ok i like the burning hot sun, right Will???  

haha k first off, JARED!!!  WOOWWW!!!!  MAJOR AIR on that jump!!!  AWESOME DUDE!!!!!  hahaha i realized the amount of air caught on a jump can better be measured by the expression on his face, particularly in the mouth, rather than the distance between his skis and the ground haha

Will i hear you man, haha ive learned though that on the mission its necessary to have weeks like that para que nos hagan ver què màs podemos hacer aun mejor para ayudar a las personas.... si tuvièramos mucha asistencia a la iglesia en primer lugar nunca tendrìamos que buscar maneras de mejorar tal como planear mejor y hacer mucho seguimiento como vos estàs haciendo con tu compa... asì que seguilo haciendo con esa buena actitud!!

Dang mom 3 miles!!!  WOWWW!!!  im glad the hip is doing better, and WAIT WHAT???  Vanessa and Jorge have another kid??  k im WAYYY behind on the family/cousin count...

Alright well its been another good week in Palmira, Colombia!!!  My companion and i keep doing something that Elder Grow from the 70 invited us to do a little over a year ago, and that is talk to every single couple we see in the street, and now it has payed off BIG TIME!!!  We have a family that is AWESOME that is progressing super well, seriously every time we go to visit them we walk out with the biggest smiles on our face, its AWESOME to see this family learn about their eternal potential that theyll reach with the guidance and council of a Latter Day Prophet and the Book of Mormon and restored priesthood!!  And now this week we met the sister of the dad of this family, and were SHOCKED when we found out shes married to the brother of the mom of this family haha, and they live in our area and were going to start teaching their family TOO!!!!  There really is nothing better than seeing an entire family as a whole accept the gospel!!

K so a really interesting experience this week.  Yesterday the mission leader in the branch got released, and he normally taught the gospel principles class.  but since he got released he didnt go to the class and they asked me to teach it, right then and there, like 2 minutes before the class started haha uh oh....  So i opened the book up to see what chapter we were to learn this week, and of course, well obvious, it had to be, i mean what other class would be harder to teach with two minutes of prep than, yup, the Fall of Adam and Eve....

hahaha so with the help of the other missionaries we started teaching the class, and the dad of this family were teaching had a lot of questions... we tried answering them, but werent having too much luck... then i realized we were going about it all wrong, trying to answer ourselves, and felt that we should simply go to the Book of Mormon... we read a few verses from 2 Nephi 2, testified, and the dad of this family literally BLURTED out ``WOOWW!!  I GET IT NOW!!!`` and then he practically taught the rest of the class himself and explained the entire lesson perfectly!!!  hahah we were AMAZED!!!  So ust goes to show, that the Spirit really does testify to our hearts and help us understand as we read and study the Book of Mormon, i cant even begin to explain how ive seen that time after time on the mission, and it still amazes me every time!!!

Alright well other than that all is good!!  We have transfers next week, but ill probably stay in this area.  We ate banana splits with the other missionaries today for pday and slept, it was nice, mom dont worry i put on bug repelant with DEET like 4 times a day and am eating TONS of garlic which the instructions you sent me last week say helps prevent SIKA, and no i dont no anybody with it here in this city actaully but well keep doing all we can to protect ourselves, all is good!!!

Me he dado cuenta aquì en la misiòn que el gozo que se siente al compartir el evangelio y tener experiencias espirituales es el ùnico gozo cuyo placer no se acaba con el tiempo... muchas otras cosas del mundo, que nos asombran al principio, ya con tiempo disminuyen en emocionarnos, pero el gozo que tenemos al compartir el evangelio, al aprender màs de èl, y al leer el Libro de Mormòn se puede aumentar cada vez màs.  Sè que es por ese gozo que nuestro Salvador, Jesucristo, pudo hacer lo que hizo por nosotros, y que tambièn fue por eso que Nuestro Padre Celestial pudo aguantar ver a su Hijo morir.  Testifico de que Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador, en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Èlder Tenney

Sorry Sorry Sorry!!!

WHattsuup family!!!?!?!?!

IM SUUPPER GLAD youve all had a good week!!!

k so long story short, we walked around all over looking for innternet cafes ut all were full, so he got here late without much time and i spend just about all my time writing to Will who asked me a question about the misson and writing to Mark forhis birthday, so im suuuuper sorry i dont hve a good letter this week....

but im all good, im SUPER healthy mom dont worry, last week i simply had a small fever, the mission here is REALY responsible about Zika, we sleep with nets over our beds and walk with but repelant we put on several times a day, ill be as careful as possilbe, thanks!!!!

k well talk to ya more next week, love you guys TONS!"!!!

`Stephen

3 Weeks Down in Palmira

Whatssupp family?!?!  TIME IS FLYING!!!  haha wow i cant believe im already half way through the transfer here, and i only have two left after this one!!!  (there, i said it, it scares me, but i said it).  But alright im stocked to hear youve all had a good week!!  Mark, WAYY TO GO in BBALL!!!  Jared, igual que William, quiero ver videos de trukos allì con tu yoyo!!!  Mom and dad im glad all is well, yes dad the hawk looks HUUGGEE in the picture here haha WOW!!!

Alright mom so im going to be honest and not keep secrets, i woke up pretty sick this morning, with a fever, i dont think its the virus you asked about though, ive rested all day and am already feeling a lot better, all should be good tomorrow or wednesday!!

K the recap real quick!!  Saturday morning we had an AWESOME baptism (k not us darn it, the other elders in the branch with us) but it was really cool because the house chapel here has a portable baptismal font!!!  yeah THATS RIGHT!!!  haha cool no??  So we set it up in teh primary room, a bunch of metal bars and tarp, and did the baptism there, it was a small service but one of the more spiritual ones ive been in in the mission, really cool!!!

K to answer more of your questions mom, and they were good ones this week haha, no the meat is honestly pretty weird here.... dont tell any colombian i said that, but its still pretty good, but everything else is REALLY GOOD!!  The chicken especially is really good quality and affordable, i grilled chicken for lunch yesterday!!

yes we do exercise every morning, for half an hour, and ive gotten pretty good at pull ups, i just do pull up ands push ups and plyometrics sometimes, and sometimes we leave the house and jog around the neighborhood...

On pdays, well they banned basketball and soccer a few months ago, thats been rough, but we have a fun game we usually play in teh chapel with the zone with a hacky sack where we have to kick it three times and then we can peg people and eliminate them!  its WAY FUN HAHA!!!

yes i almost entirely use the book of mormon, i LOVE explaining it to people briefly and then showing them trhoughout the lesson how it is that it answers questions that people still have after reading the Bible... My favorite scripture is easily Ether 12:27, ive found SOOO many different ways to interpret it and apply it to life.... There really is no other book that moves us closer to The Lord than the Book of Mormon!!

Entonces con eso dejo mi testimonio de que el Libro de Mormòn realmente contiene la plenitud del evangelio eterno!  Me encanta la luz que se ve en los ojos de los investigadores cuando sienten el Espìritu y se dan cuenta que su familia puede ser eterna, que pueden llegar a ser como Dios, que Jesucristo comprende todo lo que experimentamos, y muchas otras bendiciones!  Comparto este testimonio en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

les amo

nos vemos

Èlder Tenney