Slapping Cows Like It's Nothing- Email 9/24/2012

Hey family! So I got an email from Matt this week but no one else...hope everything is okay at home! Thank you for your email matt, you touched on something very interesting at the end. It is interesting changing worlds completely and can be frustrating at times, but there is a satisfaction that isnt found anywhere else. So true. Maybe you all thought my p day was tuesday or something? It was just tuesday last week because of the holidays, usually my p days will always be on monday. Always. So hopefully we can get that figured out before next week so i dont feel all lonely again! Haha this isnt enjoyable so lets get this figured out.

Anyway! Another week in Chile! It has been so awesome everyone. Seriously, this week has been just spiritual experience after spiritual experience. It is so great being able to share my testimony every day, and blend my personal testimony of the gospel and the experiences I have had with the doctrine of the lessons. Its incredible to see that God has shaped me and prepared me for a lot of the people here. I have had experiences in my life that have helped my investigators and helped them see what they need to do to come closer to christ. I just consider myself so lucky that i get to witness God working some of these miracles to bring people to happiness.

SO. First things first, i have such a testimony of hard work and faith. This week, i had one of the hardest days ever on Wednesday. It started raining at about 11 am and didnt stop til 9 at night...haha and when you are using a girls bright green umbrella that an investigator lends you, its a little difficult to keep the spirits up and body dry. I was soaked. My shoes and socks were absolutely soaked, my pants were drenched, and ill be honest...kind of wasn´t feeling it. Haha I had a pretty negative attitude. To make it worse, some kids started laughing at me in one of the lessons because I sound different than them, and i just about flipped out. My ¨Tengberg patience¨ kicked in and i was just so mad. Haha i was like I HAVE BEEN SPEAKING THIS LANGUAGE FOR A WEEK, GIVE ME A BREAK. So i refused to speak the rest of the lesson and then walked out so upset at everything. Guess i have a little more to learn about patience? Anyway, that day I just was praying all day to be happy and to not be a grumpy gills missionary. Finally at about 9 pm it stopped raining. We work until 10, then sleep at 11 (we work an hour later than most missions, then we get a half hour less for planning, not sure why. We get up at 7 though, which is different too. But still, its late and difficult haha). I felt like that was a little answer to my prayer, and i started to fix my attitude. At around 9;30, we were like "well we could go back in, we have been working all day and are soaking wet and freezing" but then we decided we wanted one more new investigator, and were going to work until the last minute. So we prayed, then decided to visit a contact that Ramirez had made a few weeks before. It was the biggest answer to a prayer ever. This lady was SO prepared for the gospel, and literally couldn´t get enough of what we said. She came to church sunday and in the class, was telling other kids to be quiet because she wanted to learn and pay attention. Her name is Karina, and she has a 10 year old daughter Reinata. They are being baptized on the 7th of October! As of now we have 6 people with dates for the 7th of october. I think 4 will follow through. Anyway, it was just such a testimony to me that when we dont doubt heavenly father, and when we give him everything we have, he will bless us so much.

I saw elder white and elder watt today! We had to go to concepcion today to work on my permanent visa papers, and i saw them both. it was SO fun to see them. Seriously, it felt like a whole different mission that we were together. It was so awesome, and i hope that we get to serve together in the future. They are in the same district, how crazy is that? we all just laughed at how stupid we all are and how little spanish we know...great guys. The city of Concepcion is AWESOME too. It seriously is so cool. I was so freaked out and nervous before that i didnt even notice it that much, but today was a great chance to see more. Love it.

 Umm other stuff...oh another cool experience was with a mom, Zayra. Her son Tatan is investigating the church, and so is she. He has been coming to "jugar la pelota", which is their word for futbol or soccer, on Friday nights at 8. We do an activity every friday at 8 and we had about 9 non members last friday, 4 of which came to church sunday, and 3 of which now have baptismal dates! So thats been sweet to see it work and get people involved. Anyway they both know its true, but for some reason the mom doesnt want to come to church. like at ALL. haha she has something against church and we cant figure out what it is. So last night, i had one of those experiences where i realized i had been prepared long before to help her. I talked about the role of mothers in a son´s life, and how a mother is seriously everything. I told her how much i loved my mom, and how when you are young, the testimony of your mom is what keeps you going, because there are a lot more important things to a 14 year old boy than whether or not Alma 32;2 is the scripture on faith or repentance. I told her about the stripling warriors, and how their mothers faith is what kept them safe from the lamanites - that not ONE died because of their faith, and the faith of their mothers. I told her she had more power than she realized with her son. Mom, i quoted what you said to me in that last testimony meeting, and it really struck home with her. She was in tears and I was just so glad that heavenly father was able to use my experience to touch her in an unusual way. She admitted she should go to church, and will be there this week. We have a FHE with them tonight, and hope to put a baptismal date this week with them! So cool!!!

Our other baptisms fell through again for some problems with smoking and drinking...but we will keep working with them. those are big changes to make for 2 17 year old boys, and they just need a little more time.

Other stuff...this has been such a funny week. So much more happened, but i dont have time! I slapped a cow though. There are cows here in Arauco, especailly out in the more rural parts away from the city. I found one, and snuck up behind it and slapped it as hard as i could on the back leg/butt region. It made this funniest moo/yelp sound, and this chilean family was watching and was cracking up so much. Haha it ran away, and i ran away even faster. But yeah, all in a days work. It sure "moo-ved" fast though...eh? Dad? How was that one? hahah love you all!!

I attached a few pictures. One is of the beach, one is of Elder Ramirez and I at the "desfile" or the parade for dieciocho, and the last is the victim cow.

I love you all so much. I am so happy and so grateful to be out here. The spanish is coming, and my testimony is coming even faster. This church is so true, and if we open up the door to christ, he floods us with so much love that it is seriously difficult to comprehend. I love you all!

Elder Tengberg

I Don't Speak Spanish- Email 9/18/2012

So first off sorry if i spell a whole lot of things wrong, my computer has no buttons on the "s a m" so if those letters are missing thats why. haha super frustrating. 

ANYWAY. Haha wow what a week!!! seriously, it has been so crazy everyone. I wish i could explain everything that is going on but i know i am going to forget some stuff. so, like i said, i am in the city of arauco and its super close to the beach, but we still have yet to go to it. i see it all the time, but i think this week we are going to actually run to it for exercise time. that will be so cool! 

I dont even know where to start! haha the flight to chile was just ridiculous. seriously. we landed in lima, peru first, but our flight out was delayed a whole bunch so then we were late geting to chile. so then we were in the chilean airport and our flight to concepcion left before we even got there. so we have nothing. we ended up waiting in the airport for about 7 hours, trying to figure out how we were going t get to concepcion. finally we made a big enough fuss that they got us to the front of the 3-hour line and got us ticket out of there. So that was an adventure in its own! We then had lunch with the mission president and his wife, and that was nice. after about an hour there, they took us to a chapel where we got our trainers and then went to our areas! Arauco is about 2 hours by bus (i have never ridden in so many buses in my entire life. they are SO crazy and just pass whenever they want to. i think i might die by bus one day).

The first night was crazy. we visited a few families, i had not one, but TWO completos. The first was okay, but the second...oh man. Lets just say it wasnt hebrew national, and dad would not have approved. plus this old man that we live with likes his super soft, so he boiled them forEVER. hahaha throw on some mayo and mmmm! delicious. haha there have been a few of those, where i am just like "what in the WORLD am i eating???" but for the most part the food has been really good.  they eat a lot of meat - chicken, fish, beef, sausage. lots of rice and ´potatoes too. its not bad! i have had more than my fair share of empanadas too. those are usually pretty good. and yes, we have coca cola at every meal. i have had water ONCE. everything else is coke, fanta, peach juice, pepsi. haha they drink so much soda here. i am totally going to get fat. Sorry mary! #YOLO. But we have lunch with members every day, then we dont eat dinner. IM SO HUNGRY. haha its just not their culture. they eat a meal called "once (own-say)" later at night but we work through it every day. we work so hard out here. I think we taught like 42 lessons this week, had a 150 contacts, and walked probably a full marathon. i just come home and pass out! haha i am seriously so tired every day. its insane.

So our baptism didnt go through. The kids Luis and Cristofer didnt show up, and we spent all day looking for them. they both should be baptized this sunday though! it was insane. sunday itself was probably the strngest day of my life. we went on splits so we could each bring different investigators to the branch for church, but Ramirez didnt show up forever. i was in this church alone with all these chileans speaking a MILLION miles an hour at me. I dont even know what happened, but all the sudden i was up on the stand speaking. i was SPEAKING. haha the branch president said my name at one point (in and of itself a miracle, NO ONE can say our name here. hahahaha its hilarious) and then was looking at me...so i spoke. I told some joke in spanish that no one laughed it, talked about my family, shared a scripture and bore my testimony. hopefully thats what i was supposed to do? i dont even know....hahaha it was an interesting day. 

Other funny stuff...we helped a drunk man sunday night too! He was laying in this puddle so we tried to take him back to his house, but his freaking litte dog Jimmy was a little butt-head and kept nipping at our heels. Finally we just gave him to the police and he said goodbye. but honetly, sometimes i find myself doing things and i just laugh. like why am i talking to a drunk man in spanish?!? haha its hilarious sometimes.

Our member we live with is super cool. Our house is pretty small, actually its tiny. my head and feet touch the bars on my bed, and the distance from my bed to the closet is approximately a foot and a half. haha our room where we sleep is about a third the size of my byu dorm room. but its comfy and im so tired that it hasnt even been noticable since that first night where i was so confused. Oh, my face touches the wall in front of me when im in the bathroom...so thats just a little evidence of how small it is haha. I really do love it thogh. we have hot water for showers most of the time, which is such a blessing. a lot of people here dont have hot water for showers, so that really is a blessing. haha it is quite the shock when it turns off though! but i am super grateful for that.

 Teaching has been so awesome this week. We taught some really cool families, and found some really cool people. its hard because we do so much visiting with less-active that its sometimes difficult to find time to actually visit everyone we want to. We have a lot of work to do with less active though. There are about 600 on our ward list, but only about 50 show up every week. Its just hard down here and a different lifestyle, so it isnt the custom to attend church every week. I love the people though, eveyrone is so nice and welcoming and really are helpful. We had an activity yesterday and a ton of people were there, which was really good. haha they all are so funny around me, because they try and speak their english or ask me to dunk the basketball or whatever else. I have heard "hello hello" and "one two three, what you doing?" SO many times. hahaha its super funny. either way, i love it. I already love our little branch so much, and i know it will just be easier when i can actually understand what they are saying. it only gets better from this point of my mission!

Today is Dieciocho here and its their independence day, so that is exciting. People are super patriotic here. you actually HAVE to have a flag on your house today or else you get a fine. but either way, every house has a gint chilean flag nd its so cool! It looks super pretty. I have been learning to dance the "cueca - kwehkuh", their national dance. Its not hard but HEY im a tengberg and i cant dance. Everyone keeps asking me what our national dance is...do we have one? I told some people it was the dougie...it was all i could do at the moment. So now this poor family just thinks all americans do the dougie. Hahahaha im teaching so many great things to people out here. I taught RAMIREZ how to say "SWAG" and steezy, so he should be just fine when he comes to the states to study after the mission. 

Anyway, i need to go. This took longer to type than normal because of this keyboard, so i wil write more next week. I love you all so much! Thanks for your emails and your love. CHI CHI CHI, LE LE LE, VIVA CHILE!!!

Elder Tengberg

I'M IN CHILE!!!! Email 9/13/12

Hola familia!!!

Oh, I am so happy to be here. I have been trying to email you the past few days, but we have been working our butts off and we havent had time. It still isnt our p-day, normally we will have it on mondays. But i wanted to talk to you fast because i figured you (AKA Dad) might be a little upset if i wait any longer. Anyway, I am safe and sound. I will email on Tuesday this week because tuesday is dieciocho de septiembre and it is a huge crazy holiday here. people literally have the whole week off....haha its insane. So expect a LONG letter on tuesday that explains everything I am up to and all the success we are already having.

I LOVE my companion. He is Elder Ramirez from Honduras but speaks enough english that we can communicate just fine when i cant figure out how to say something in spanish. He is such a stud. He is such a hard working missionary and we are super similar. He loves his family, loves the gospel, loves to joke around, and loves to work. He is almost a little too excited at times, such that after my first full day (i would say we walked about 7 miles) i literally laid down in bed in full clothes and fell asleep. I have fallen asleep on every bus ride so far (we have had an unusual amount because we had to go to concepción a few times to visit the president and Lota for a district meeting) because i am so freaking tired! Haha but i wouldnt have it any other way. Obviously this isnt anything i did because he has been teaching these people for about a month, but we have two baptisms this saturday. two! Then yesterday we met some GOLDEN investigators that we are super excited to keep teaching. Our goal is 7 baptisms this transfer, and i am super confident that we can do it. The people here need love. They just need a personal relationship with Heavenly Father, and thats what we are here to do - show them how to individually come to know heavenly father. It is going to be a great 6 weeks with him, and I think I will actually have 12 because of this new program the church is doing, oh random side note, but he had an offer to play pro soccer in Honduras and he turned it down because they played on sundays, and he wanted to serve a mission. such a stud. Seriously, i love him so much.

Oh and our area is ARAUCO! We are right on the beach, about 2 hours south of concepción. Literally, our house is 5 blocks from the beach. Whenever we take the bus, we pass by the coast. It is such a pretty place, and the people are so great (when i can understand). Anyway, look up arauco on the internet or something, its super pretty. Love you all so much!

And for those of you who want to send me letters (so...Mary ;) ), send them to the mission home. I don´t know exactly when i will get them, but i should be able to get them every week or so. We don´t have a mailbox at our house....hahaha. So i think Shardae has the mission home address, so just put that on the blog. Packages and letters just go there. Thank you so much everyone! You all can email me as well, but i cant email back. I will write letters though!!

I love you all so much. You are the best, and I love being out here teachinjg about what this gospel has given me - all of you. Ciao!

Elder Tengberg

Voy a Chile! Email 9/8/12

Hola familia! 

This has been a crazy week, and sorry this e-mail is a day late. They changed our schedules around and put our P-day on saturday, but I had no way of telling you. So sorry about that. Anyway, hopefully I can get everything in here that I have been wanting to, its kind of hard to remember it all! 

Anyway, I leave for Chile in less than 48 hours!!! Holy COW am I ready. Haha honestly, I am so excited. I love the MTC and it has been a great experience, but I really am excited to be a real missionary. Sometimes we say that this kind of feels like missionary camp - like I am just here for awhile, learning how to be a missionary, then I'll go back home and resume normal life. But I finally get to go to the big leagues now!!! Haha I am honestly so excited. I know its going to be crazy hard, I'm probably going to cry, I'm not going to know what anyone is saying, and I'm going to want to be home...but that will pass. I just can't wait to be down there and have every waking moment to dedicate to helping real people. Here, it has been a great experience teaching and helping my companions, but its going to be REAL. Like when I talk to people in the street, they have real problems, real families, real doubts, and really want to know if God exists. This message that we share is THE most happy thing on the earth, and the only thing that can bring true joy. And i get to share it, every day, for the next 22 months, with REAL people. Man i can't wait. 

Before I talk about this past week, thank you everyone who sent me letters! If you sent dearElders or something different since yesterday after noon, I won't get them here. I think they forward them to my mission eventually, but I won't get them for awhile. Anyway, Grandpa, Sister Moody, Emilee, Catherine, Alex Inman, Bishop Konold, you all are so awesome!! Haha I am seriously so spoiled out here, I don't deserve it. Thank you so much. Mary finally reversed my fattening trend and sent me some bananas and apples, so thanks for that too. I have had a "free" box outside of our door all day because i just have SO much food left that I can't take with me. Haha my desk has been overrun the past week with food and stuff. You all are so supportive and just know that it makes me so happy out here! 

My week has been awesome. I am pretty sure my spanish has gotten worse in the past week, but maybe thats just because I'm realizing I'm leaving. its a super scary thought that in 2 days I will be speaking ONLY spanish. I have no idea who my companion will be, and I am dreading having to leave Elder Watt and Elder Long. I love them so much! Anyway my new companion...he could be a native Chilean and not know a word of English, or some kid from utah. NO idea! Either way, I am just excited to start actually using my spanish. We haven't used in like 3 days because they keep having us doing all these pre-departure activities and all of it is in English. I am just so excited to be thrown into the culture. Which reminds me! "Dieciocho de Septiembre" or Sep. 18 is the Chilean independence day apparently. So i am literally getting there in the most exciting week of the entire year. Haha there is people dancing in the streets, fireworks, mayonnaise on mayonnaise on mayonnaise, empenadas, parades, and more. I don't think its quite like Carnival down in Brazil, but I know they love it in Chile. Seriously, how cool is that?!? I get to go in the coolest week of the year and just be thrown into their culture. It might be a little weird trying to understand drunk Chileans (I can't understand spanish from coherent people), but HEY what of it it, I'll figure it out. 

I don't think I'll be able to call before my flight to LAX. So, I don't know when that would end up at, but I'll call you from LAX. My guess would be around 11? I know my flight leaves SLC at 9:30 Utah Time, so I don't know when that puts me in LAX. Either way, I'll call then. Haha mom and dad, please don't drive up to LAX. I will already be trunky enough from calling you and talking to you, I couldn't handle much more! I appreciate the thought, but I think I would be happier just being able to talk to you on the phone. I bought a phone card here Mom, so I'll use that one for my US flight. Then I'll use that international one you bought me for Tuesday when I get to Chile. I get in at 6:40 AM chilean time (i think, our paper doesn't say what time zone everything is in) to Santiago, and then I also get to Concepcion at around 9:30. I will call home then, but I'm pretty sure thats like 3:30 or 4:00 your time in San diego? I have no idea. I'll still call, then you can set it up and I'll call back again a few minutes later. Knowing how dad worries....I'm sure you still want me to haha.Things I learned this week.... 

The Book of Mormon is seriously the most incredible book we have on earth. I finished it this past week and have been transferring in my notes from English to Spanish. I read the entire thing in the MTC because I felt so inadequate in my BoM knowledge (really easy when you have like 2 hours a day to read). Honestly, I have never had so much personal revelation and personal information from Heavenly Father as when i read it this last time. So many times, I would catch little phrases or verses that I have read a hundred times, but for ME, right now in this moment, they were absolutely necessary. I can't even explain enough how grateful I am for the Book of Mormon. It answers so many questions of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just little things that have been changed or affected over the hundreds of translations and re-translations of the Bible. People get awfully caught up about the "new book" that Mormons have, but why? Just because we have the Old testament, does that make the new testament any less true? I can see the trepidation people might have, but when you READ the book itself, it is impossible not to feel the spirit. If you honestly read it, seeking to know Christ better and learn what we should do, you WILL receive an answer. I feel so blessed to be sharing this with people all over Chile, especially because it has blessed my life on countless occasions. Every time I am homesick, struggling, or doubting, I read chapters that apply to me SO directly. I love how Elder Bednar says that every member of the church should read from the Book of Mormon every day, because it is impossible not to grow when we read it with real intent. 

Something I heard this week was from President Monson, and it said something like this (don't remember exact phrasing) - "When faith replaces doubt, God has power to do His will." I just love how true FAITH has no room for doubt. Its easy to say you have faith in something, but its a lot harder to show it in action. If our actions show doubts, or we are scared to pray because we don't think we will receive an answer, then those doubts still exist. But if we truly give ourselves up to Heavenly Father, then he can work miracles. I think of the Brother of Jared in Ether, and how he literally had NO room for doubts. His faith was so perfect that he couldn't have anything withheld from him. What an example to me! 

I hope you all don't feel like I'm preaching to you...I just love sharing the insight that I get personally! We are so blessed to be on missions, and sometimes I feel selfish in not sharing what I learned. So take what you want out of this, and throw out the rest :) Haha I love you all, more than you know. I am so lucky to have family, friends, and a dog (miss you Harley) like you all, and ultimately to have this gospel in my life. It is the single most important thing in my life, and defines who I am. 

Yo sé que esta iglesia es verdadera, y por medio de las enseñanzas de la iglesia y las cosas que el Libro de mormon enseña, podemos acercarnos a Dios y aprender de él. Estoy agradecido cada día por mi Salvador y que él murió para mi. no puedo esperar para Lunes cuando pueda enseñar esto a los Chilenos! Adios, familia. Y gracias por todo. 

For those of you who speak spanish...I know I still am awful. Don't make fun of me! 

Love you all. Elder Tengberg

** This is Shardae now. And here are some super secret stalker photos that one of my friends took of Brady in the MTC. 

God Loves Everyone SO Much!! Email 8/31/12

Hello hello!

 

WE GOT OUR TRAVEL PLANS!! I am honestly the happiest missionary in the whole entire world. We leave on Monday, September 10th, our flight leaves SLC at like 9:30 or something like that. We fly into LAX then have a 3 hour layover, then a 14 hour flight to Santiago. 14 hours....sitting...in a suit....I'm seriously done for. Haha so that flight is like 1:30 in the afternoon and then we land at 6:30 AM chilean time (which is NYC time as well actually). Then a quick flight over to Conce and I'm in my mission. Isn't that ridiculous? I am almost in the field. Its honestly the coolest feeling in the world. I have loved the MTC and I have grown a ton, but its definitely time for me to move on. I am just so excited to have REAL people to teach. Real problems, real families, real food (no matter how much mayonnaise) and just the real gospel. The gospel in action, when it is changing people's lives, is one of the best experiences in the world. I am so excited to share it.

It is definitely weird though. We are starting to realize how little Spanish we know. And to make it worse, a Chilean kid came this week to our zone and he is in the advanced district. So, we start talking to him, and HOLY SHMOLEY the kid talks fast. I instantly felt so incompetent. Another sister in our zone said, a couple weeks ago, that "You won't say anything that you learned here. Chilenos have their own language practically." OH GREAT well I'm glad I have been learning this then haha. I am sure its like any language, where now that I know the fundamentals I can begin to learn how to be a Chileno. Not like anyone learning english can understand the meaning of "I'm just pulling your leg" by just knowing definitions and stuff, right? I'll learn all that goofy stuff in a couple of months hopefully, but for now....it'll be rough.

As far as other things go, thank you so much to everyone who wrote me this week and sent packages as well! Kim, thanks for your letter, and Shannen and Auntie Gin, thank you for your packages! Mary, I had 13 of those stupid Reese's cookies in ONE NIGHT. 13. And then you sent me another batch of homemade cookies! You're killing me. But i love all the treats, brownies, M &M's, cookies, everything! Thank you all. There's a reason I'm getting fat everyone....and there's the reason. Haha to everyone, I will try to get letters out soon, but I am just so beyond busy here that I don't know what time I will be able to. Hopefully soon.

BRYCE, tell me when you get here on Wednesday! I got to host this past week, and it was super fun. I got to host Alec Anderson, who I knew from BYU, so it was nice to see him. He told me all about Provo and everything else, so that was fun to see a friendly face. I can definitely host you this week Bryce, so just tell me when you come in so I know when to look for you. Can't believe your time is here! Youre going to love it.

As far as other things this week...guess who i saw at the temple, driving around? Haha just some of my best friends from BYU....Ryan, Cristina, Anna, and MARY too. Haha it was so weird. They were driving by right as I crossed the street, so I just talked really fast and shook hands and the whole shenanigans, then said goodbye. Super odd. In the MTC you are in your own little bubble, and forget the outside world exists or even forget you are in Provo. Then, all the sudden your two worlds collide and it is the weirdest feeling ever. It was super fun seeing my friends though and getting to talk to you all. Last night during the BYU football game we tried to listen at the back fence of the MTC (along with about 100 other missionaries "studying"), but we couldn't hear too much. Every now and then we would hear a roar of people, which was exciting, but nothing specific. Its just weird being in Provo where I have lived for the past year but just being in this little bubble.

Anyway, as far as other things go, this week I have learned how specifically and individually Heavenly Father loves each of his children. I was kind of going through some inadequacy problems this week and just wondering if I was really cut out for this, just wondering if I was really a good missionary. I was having a really hard time, and I just prayed so hard that Heavenly Father could comfort me and help me. Throughout this whole week, he has blessed me more than I could ever imagine. My favorite scripture from the week has to be 3 Nephi 10:22. It just hit me so hard this week, among a few other quotes and things. I don't have my scriptures on me right now because I'm in the lab typing, but it says I think, "The mountains shall depart and the hills shall be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed". No matter WHAT happens in this life, whether it is because of sin, disobedience, lack of focus, feelings of inadequacy, lost loved ones, or ANY other myriad of trials we may go through, the kindness and mercy of God will NEVER, ever, depart from us. Never. Isn't that the coolest promise ever? it just gave me so much comfort. I know he loves me so much because he has put so many things in my life to get me to where I am today. Even moreso, when I was down, doubting myself and in need of a spiritual hug, he came and enveloped me in his arms. He came and told me that he loved me, and comforted me so much. I know that through prayer and earnest desires, we can all experience God's love. I am so excited to share that with the people of chile, because it is a feeling that can't come from anywhere else. It can't come from Hollywood themed dances at BYU, from beating Chapman in double overtime in lacrosse, from snowboarding in fresh powder (is it obvious some of the things I've been missing?), but can ONLY come from experiencing God's love. There is no other feeling better than the spirit. I am so lucky to have been blessed to have this gospel in my life - to have Scriptures I can read every day and apply to myself, to have a brother, Jesus Christ, die for me, and to have a God that loves me unconditionally. Missions aren't easy. Sharing the gospel with friends isn't easy either. But as I have begun to realize how important this message is, and how incredibly personal it is to my life, I have no choice but to share it. I am so grateful for this opportunity and love the work. One more week...and then I'll be in Chile! Can't wait.

Adios, amigos.

Elder Tengberg