Hola familia!
Thank you all for your e-mails and letters this week. Special shoutout to my boy Jake O'Donnell! 219 <3 forever. Thanks Sister Boehm for your e-mail as well, it was cool to get a letter in Spanish. Thank you to the Brunson's as well for your update! Missionaries love mail more than...well, everything. So thank you all so much for thinking of me, it means a lot!
Definitely been a busy week. Time seriously goes by so fast. Well, weeks do. The days seem like they take forever sometimes, but then you look back and realize, WHOA! Its already been 5 weeks. Thats kind of insane. But, I'm happy and I'm learning a ton so thats really all that matters at this point.
Anyway, Elder Watt and I got called as Zone Leaders this past week. Haha everyone makes it such a big deal here, but it really isn't. I already know that I will be released in 3 weeks when I leave, so its kind of funny. Basically, our old zone leaders leave this week, and we are the next "oldest" district, so it just became our districts turn! We are excited though. We get to help out all the new districts that come in every week and basically tell them whats up. I still feel way too young to be doing that, but I guess its our turn! I am excited though, because we get to have fake "companionship inventories", which are basically just little meetings with your companion where you talk about stuff that you can do to better the companionship. Its where you bring up issues and other stuff. But, since the new districts obviously don't know what that is, we get to show them by doing a fake one. Haha my old zone leader said during his, "Elder Jarvis, I don't know what you guys did at your house, but basically I get really weirded out when you keep trying to hold my hand when we pray. It's weird, man. Way weird." Haha the whole class was cracking up, but the Zone Leaders had to not laugh because its supposed to be serious! So I am super excited to make up some fake stuff for Elder Watt, and then not tell him before. I'll definitely come up with something funny and tell you all next week! We also get to lead a tour around the MTC, and there is this one tree we all call "Cream Tree." I don't know HOW, but it smells like Cream Soda. Weirdest thing ever. When you smell the bark, you totally can smell it! Haha its hilarious. So the new elders never want to do it, because they think they look stupid putting their nose up to a tree. We'll see how the newbies react to that one...
Other funny stuff...every couple days or so our teachers will do a little demonstration to help get a point across. So, this week one of our teachers, Hermano Tidwell, was doing one about helping investigators overcome fears to coming to church. Naturally, I volunteered to be the "investigator," and I quickly came up with a pretty valid doubt (in my opinion). Haha I started giggling a little bit, and so did everyone in the class, so he was super worried about what was coming. After he asked me why I didn't want to come to church, and why I didn't feel I would "fit in" there...I told him this: "Well, Elder, you told me I have to take the sacrament, right? Little problem...I don't have any hands." this probably isn't that funny reading, but it was hilarious being there. He was trying so hard to keep teaching but just couldn't get anything more out. my class got a kick out of that one.
Also, in a different demonstration, one of the teachers was talking about the traditional world view of Hell and said, in spanish, "Llamas y fuego". Which, apparently means flames and fire. BUT - llamas also directly translates to llamas, the spitting animal. Our whole class didn't know there was this second translation, so I sat there imagining a whole bunch of flames and then just these loud, noisy, llamas spitting on you. Haha it was hilarious. I feel like every week I give these same stupid stories about words I say, and they aren't even funny anymore. But, also told someone this week, "You can have the influenza of the spirit". They were like "AH! NO! I don't want that!". Hahaha "influenza" and "influencia" are way too close! Haha one of these days I am going to say something seriously wrong...oh well.
I have learned a ton this week spiritually. I have seriously grown so much in the past 5 weeks. Even just my love for the gospel has grown. Every day, my favorite part of the day is Personal Study Time. Its an hour straight of uninterrupted scripture reading! Haha I don't know when in my life have i EVER been able to read for an hour straight, but I have truly grown to love it. My goal is to finish the Book of Mormon again before I leave the MTC, and since I started two weeks ago I am over 1/2 way done. So thats cool! I just really love it though. This week, I was so touched by the miraculous change of the Lamanites in Alma. Seriously, what a conversion!! As Ammon and his brethren leave, in Alma 17: 14-15 it talks about the nature of the lamanites: blood-thirsty, wicked, idolatrous, murderous, lazy. Just awful. The people mock Ammon for thinking that they could change them! And I love that. I love that the people mocked Ammon, because their words are 100% true. WE, as missionaries, can't change them. There is no WAY a 19 year old boy like me could go down to a village in Chile, tell some guy to get off his butt, stop wasting his life away doing drugs, and start to love his family and children. Absolutely not. But then again, we aren't asked to do it. We are asked to invite these men, these people who are seemingly SO far off the path, to let God change them. I know for a FACT that any success I have out in this mission will not be my own. As I followed the story more in Alma, it ends in Alma 24:18-19 with the new converts completely burying their weapons of war. They would rather DIE than sin again. They had such a miraculous change of heart, had felt the spirit so much, and had no more desire to ever be stained again, that they would rather die than sin again. So cool. I hope one day I can witness God work a miracle like that. I love the quote where it says, "Two people together can do anything, as long as one of them is God." I am so excited to see Him work those miracles in people, and be so blessed to witness it first-hand as one of his servants. I'm awfully lucky!
I have so much more to say, but literally no more time. I really do love it here. Its hard, and some days I just want to go hike Y-Mountain or go get in-n-out. But, then I go and teach one of our fake investigators about the plan of salvation, and realize that there is no greater joy than this gospel. There is no greater joy, for me, than being able to teach someone about the best part about my life. Every day, for the next 2 years, I get to share the happiest thing I know! I truly am so blesed. Thank you all for your letters and your examples, I am so touched by the love I receive out here in the field. Just know that even if I can't respond super fast or get a letter back to you individually, I am thinking of you and have been touched by your support.
I love you all!
Con Amor,
Elder Tengberg
No comments:
Post a Comment