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
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