Familia -
SO many things to write.....
Well first things first, im not pregnant. I know youre all sad. The ultrasound came back negative for whatever it was supposed to find and i am feeling better, just normal cold now. So all is well!
Second thing, mom i forgot to thank you for how amazing that thanksgiving package was! That was honestly so nice of you. I have made the biscuits and the cheesecake and they were SO good. I am making the pumpkin bars today and i am even making my own homemade cheesecake frosting that i bought the ingredients for today (ill do anything for sugar, lets be real). I loved it all so much and especially the pictures of the family! I have been showing everyone and everyone loves them. Im a happy missionary and so blessed. It was definitely a thanksgiving with lots to be thankful for!
Okay so last monday. I totally forgot to tell you guys this! Hector and Cecilia are progressing so well and their wedding is firm for end of january or beginning of february. I really hope I will be here still. Anyway, this past monday we went to concepcion with them and picked out stuff for the wedding! Haha it was SO cool. LIke i am pretty sure that is every missionarys dream. We were walking through the suits, pulling out suits and having Hector try them on. He hates suits and just wants to wear his zapatillas all the time (soccer shoes) so it was hilarious. He had no idea how a suit should fit him so Elder Ramirez and I were just having a blast teaching him about slim fit suits and i was adjusting the sleeves and pulling the back up and adjusting the pants. All those trips to Macys for my suit sure helped mom! Haha but then we got rings for him and her (they just bought fake ones for now since its all a lot of money at once) and shoes for her. It was seriously so much fun. I forgot to take pictures of all this but i will definitely take pics at the wedding itself. I was just so happy for them. I still cant believe they are getting married. Like two 19 year old kids show up and say "Hey, you guys should get married" and next thing you know we are in Concepción buying shoes and dropping bills on fresh new ties. I was in paradise. But anyway they are doing awesome! Today we made bread with them today too because hector is a really good chef but thats coming below.
Hahaha this is so funny. So the little viejito (means little old man) we live with is Hermano Ricardo Temer. He is just a riot. Seriously i cant even describe him in enough words. He has fake teeth, is about 5 feet tall, constanly is playing becah boys on the guitar or the beatles, is quite obsessed with cheese, and constantly messing up english words to make weird phrases like "You eat the cheese in my bed?" Umm...no? Hahaha so every day elder ramirez and i have so much fun. he leaves for work when we are studying, and since there are 2 windows upstairs that face the street (one in our bedroom/harry potter closet) and the other in our study room, so we each take a window every morning and SHOUT as he leaves. "HERMANO TEMER!!! HERMANO! CIAO! HAVE A GOOD DAY AT WORK! HERMANO TEMER! LOOK UP HERE! IN THE SECOND STORY! SELL LOTS OF THINGS!" and he tries to run away because he gets so embarrassed by us. So he is like waving and half hobbling away and we are just SCREAMING goodbye at him every morning. hahahhaa it is seriously so funny. And the latest development in the Hermano Temer chronicles is that he likes to critique the way we brush our teeth. Elder Ramirez brushes his teeth for a real long time because he wants to be a dentist and has a teeth obsession, and apparently that bothers our viejito ricardo. So my personal favorite today was Hermano Temer saying "Elder Ramirez youre going to end up without any plaque!" trying to say "youre going to end up without any enamel!" on the teeth....and elder ramirez was like "Uhhh yeah thats kind of the POINT hermano temer!" hahaha and then he whispered to me in english "What is he freaking talking about? He doesnt even have any teeth? Why would i take advice from him?" hahaha i died. I love ramirez and i love hermano temer. We have quite the little house here in arauco!
Elder Ramirez is leaving this week. I figured it would happen and its good for him. He is heading to Temuco to be a zone leader. Definitely where he should be. I am getting someone from the south in temuco who WAS a zone leader down there though! His name is Elder Wray and i will get him tomorrow. Im excited to work with him, ive heard great things. No one will ever be a comp like elder ramirez, but we will have a new friendship and im stoked for it. Ramirez and i are definitely going to miss each other thouh. He is going to be a lifelong friend and when he plays soccer at BYU after his mission we will definitely hang out. he is entering in spring semester a few months before i get back so i will definitely be hanging out with him again! Sad seeing him go though.
Carlos couldnt get baptized. He went 5 days without smoking and we were SO SO SO proud of him. Seriously, i have never prayed so hard for someone in my life. I prayed so dang hard for the kid and he was doing awesome. but he went to conce one day with his friends and some girl offered him a cigarrete. The litttle she-devil stole our baptismal date! Haha but its probably for the better so he can prepare some more. Hopefully this month some time! He is a great kid and will make a great member of the church, but just needs a LITTLE bit more.
Last things last....i love being a missionary. I truly love it. It is so hard, so lonely at times, so frustrating, and so tiring. But last night as i thought back on these last 2 and a half months with elder ramirez, i have been so blessed. it kind of felt like a break up (and lets just say certain circumstances this summer leaving a little blonde girl named Mary have left me a LITTLE sensitive to goodbyes) and was so weird. but as i looked back on the moments, the converts, the tears, the studies, the laundry bag wars, the found puppies, the crying-laughing moments, the incredibly horrible smells that occupied our room, and the growth we both experienced, i realized there is nothing like a mission. I am a different person than i was 5 months ago. I truly am. Heavenly Father has allowed me to experience a life that I never thought I would get to. he has taken me from a selfish teenager to a slightly selfish teenager who spends a little bit of time bringing poeple the happiest message in the world. I have a long way to go, but i am so grateful for the growth he has let me see so far. I am grateful for the trials, the tears, the sadness, the love, the baptisms, the joy, the experience. I love the mission so much. If anyone is debating going, please. Please go. You will never do anything better for your life, and never do anything better for someone ELSE´s life than serve. I love being a missionary and so honored to wear the name Elder Tengberg for 2 years of my life.
I love you all so much. Last thing i have learned i wanted to share. A lot of times people complain about why hard things happen to good people. I have learned so clearly on the mission that it wouldnt make sense if they didnt. We HAVE to be tested. Some of the hardest things in history have happened to the most righteous people. In Mosiah 25 i think(maybe later, not sure) it talks about the burdens placed on alma´s people after they left. They had SUCh hard trials placed upon them, and it says that the Lord saw convenient to try the faith and patience of his people. Convenient! But those who trust in him, who dont say "why me?", who dont doubt Gods love for them, and who are grateful for the trust the lord has placed in their growth, THEY will have their burdens eased. THe scriptures show SO many times that the prophets never prayed to have their trials eased. They prayed to have the strength to get through the trials they KNEW would come. Heck they hadnt even come yet! But they understood the purpose of trials. Lastly, Christ himself was tried. In Mosiah 14, i think verse 10 or 12, it says that it pleased the lord to bruise him and break him (or something like that, translating here). It pleased Heavenly Father to test his son. Pleased him! The most righteous person ever had to be tested too. Thats the only way that he could prove he deserved the amazing gifts and blessings that awaited him after this life. It is SO hard in practice and i have so much work to do, but when we have patience in our trials, and look for the good, we will be so much happier. People who do the right things WILL have problems. Its a simple fact. Probably more than the wicked. but that just means God loves us, trusts us, and knows we can be a little bit better. Lets embrace it then :)
I love you all. Have a great week and a great christmas season. P.s. here is my going away pics from my last district and my last zone! Honormex because Hon-duras Nor-thamericans and Mex-ican. And my zone took a prom pic. And these are our bread pics with Hector!! Such good bread. Im a real chilean now. Seriously i made such good bread. How did i do it? its a secret. I even wrote all the recipe in spanish so no one could ever steal it from me. Also, they dont use recipes. I kept trying to ask HOW MUCH DANG FLOUR and he just kept saying "throw more, no throw more water". Well hey GENIUS maybe if you told me 1.4 teaspoons of agua i could figure this out. my math mind wasnt helping. But it turned out either way!!
Elder Tengberg
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