Well first
off, congrats Mary on giving an amazing farewell talk! I seriously have heard
it about it from like 6 people (and considering i hear from about 6 people that
actually means a lot) and they all said you just absolutely nailed it. You are
the master of those bullet-point talks so i bet you just absolutely killed it.
I am so so proud of you for serving and although this will be a hard week as
you get ready to leave, you are way more prepared than i ever was and are going
to be such a good missionary. So congrats and enjoy your last week of sunday
naps, normal food and relaxing!
Okay so about
my week. I could not have possibly imagined how hard it would be to leave
Arauco. Seriously, it shocked me. I found it so so so hard to leave there, and
that last night just broke my heart. Haha it was really hard. I went on monday
night to visit my mamita in arauco, valentin and juliana, hector and cecilia,
camila, estefania, and thats it. And hermano temer obviously. It was just so
sad to realize that my time in the lives of these people is over! Valentin and
Juliana were really sweet. they gave me some photos of them to keep, a little
stuffed animal, and a chilean apron that they all signed stuff on and said
"nunca te olvidaremos" or we will never forget you. It just melted me
so much! I would say that was the hardest one. Ill try and send some photos but
i dont know how good this internet is here so we will see if they go throuhg.
Later we said goodbye to hector and cecilia, and that wasnt too hard because i
think ill be going back for their wedding in about two weeks. i am not quite
sure whats going on there but i think i will be able to go back for it! Saying
goodbye to estefania and her family was hard too becaus eshe cries like a baby.
When elder ramirez left she bawled, but this time she was more prepared (or
maybe she just had a crush on him, im more convinced of that) and didnt cry too
much. They had a little party for me and we had lemon pie, grilled cheese
sandwiches, and mint tea. You know, the usual party food.
Lastly saying
goodbye to camila was probably the hardest one. I was kind of surprised by
that, but i had just put SO much of myself into teaching her. She knows
everything about my life. Every hard time i have had, every difficulty, every
time i missed mary, every thing i could possibly use to help her, i used. So it
was just so hard because i watched her progress to the point where i literally
WATCHED her get an answer to a prayer, and it still didnt get to the final
result. I dont know how she is doing because i havent been able to talk to her
all week, but as i said goodbye to her and her daughter Mati, she started
crying and just said thank you so much for blessing my life. She is an awesome
investigator and will be a great member of the churhc one day. I dont know
when, but i know she will. And i sure am glad that i had the opportunity to be
a part of her story and be able to help her in a little way! The good thing is
we know the lord is always in charge and the new elder that comes in wil likely
be able to help her in a way that i couldnt. Its not so hard when you know he
is in charge, and know he is taking care of you, because then you just know
that every trial or challenge is just a secret blessing! Its not like a
heavenly father who loves us is going to punish us. So we just have to really
look inside change or trials and find that good.
But as i left
that night, i got up to my room and just broke down. Haha most embarrassing
thing ever. But i seriously broke down because i never imagined my life like
this. I never imagined having this connection to chilean people so deeply, or
imagined being so deeply moved and affected in the gospel, or being so happy
being millions of miles away from every person that i love. I never thought my
life would be this blessed. As i look back and see how selfish and self-centered
my life used to be, and how unbelievably blessed i am now, i just broke down
because i coudlnt believe heavenly father had let me take part in a work so
special. I truly am grateful for my time in arauco.
NOW! For
Coronel. So we are in Coronel 2, and i dont konw if i told you last week but we
are opening up a new sector. So with that being said, we literally had 0
investigators. We talked to the other elder who worked in part of this sector
before it got divided and he was like "find new ones, they all dont attend
church." Hahaha so we literally had no one to teach this week. my first
day, we contacted doors from the lovely hours of 3:00-10:00pm. Haha seven hours
straight of knocking doors. But it has actually been surprisingly fun because
there are no expectations, so we just are doing the best we can. We had a
really good week though! Because we were knocking so much we obviously had a
ton of success. We found like 17 new investigators this week, and we have 3
fechas for february now! one of them, julio, is super awesome. We taught him 4
times in 5 days, he came to play soccer with us, and he came to church. He is
going through a really hard time right now. He separated form his wife about a
year ago, gets to see his 6 year old son once a week for like 4 hours, and got
fired from his job recently. When he heard about the gospel and the spirit, it
touched him so deeply. Any person that believes god doesnt prepare people LONG
before the missionaries get there is crazy. I am so excited to keep working
with him. His fecha is for the 9th along with Joshua, and the 23rd for
Antonella. They are two other people we found this week and are going to be
working with! They are super great and i cant wait to see the work progress
here in coronel.
It has been
crazy in some aspects though. We havent had ANYTHING. We have no phone to call
members or investigators, no desks to study, no beds (we slept on couches and
sofa chairs in the house), no utensils, no area book. Hahaha they just
completely forgot about us here! Its been fun though because we have just made
the most out of what we could and are really trying to do everything we can. I
love the sector though and i love my companion. He is Elder Salazar from Peru.
He doesnt speak a lick of english (minus "I have to take a tinkle...the
things other missionaries teach each other!) so we just talk in spanish all day
long. Occasionally its frustrating because i want to talk in english, but for
the most part its really good. We get along really well so thats good too! Its
always different getting with a new companion because people have different
tastes and teach different ways, but he is a good guy and we are having some
good success together so far. Things are good!
Anyway, i love
you all so much. Mom i got your valentine day package today! It came awfully
fast. Haha i also got christmas cards from you all, the westerlunds, the
browns, the clarks, the davis´s. Thank you all for your love and your cards!
Hope all is going well and that the lord keeps blessing you.
Love you all.
Que nuestro Padre Celestial les cuide y les proteja siempre!
Les amo y les
quiero
Elder Tengberg
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