My House is Infested with Termites- Email 3/11/13

Well hey there family! Thanks every single one of you for reminding me that today is, in fact, my 8 month mark. Haha sheeesh i cant believe its going by so fast. I hate hitting milestones, even month ones, because then its just like FREAK I HAVENT DONE ANYTHING IN THESE PAST 8 MONTHS AND I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO DO! But yeah, wooo 8 months. 

But one thing we HAVE done is found the termites in our house. We have been havign a lot of fun breaking down things and then having termites fall on us, or using tannex to torture the termites. Between that and the flea collection i have in my journal, things are going great. haha crazy...

Anyway, its been a pretty good week. Rather quiet and not too much going on, but i guess thats a good thing in comparison as to what has happened before. My companion and I are finally starting to get along. We had a hilarious moment the other day that we were both just dying laughing at. So the lady that was supposed to give us lunch forgot (not the funny part) and we went to a restaurant to eat. The lady waiter (what are they called?) gave us the specials for the day, which i understood NOTHING of. Haha like i have 8 months speaking this language, what is wrong with me?! but it was names of foods so obviously i wouldnt know those. Anyway my companion gets this smug loook on his face because he knows what the foods are, and then he tells me. Well i didnt want "Pollo de la Oya" so i chose chicken and french fries. he chose "Estufado" and was like "sure you dont want estufado? its super good man! Just try it elder t, youll love it!" welll NO i dont want it haha. And when the foood came out....i died laughing. He thought that it was like a plate of rice and pork, but turns out it was casuela, this soup that i truly dont like. Boiled potatoes, vegetables, and beef. He was MISERABLE. So i was just cracking up as i had delicious chicken and french fires and he had to eat this soup. But we were just laughing so hard because he had acted all arrogant about knowing what it meant. But then we ended up changing halfway through because he really hated it. but it was a good laugh so thats all that really matters.

The work is still going well! We have 2 baptisms this week, which is exciting. Marcelo and Paola are completely re-activated. Amazing...18 years of being inactive (for no reason, just stopped going) and now after a few visits from some 19 year old kids, they are right back on track. Sometimes people just need a little love! But they are doign so well. I am actually at their hosue right now, they invited us over to make pancakes. So ill be teaching them how to make pancakes very shortly! Also, i dont know how to make pancakes. why did i not learn how to cookANYTHING? im so useless. Haha oh well. After that we have a few people who are goign to get baptized on the 30th if they can find the desire. They both have the church attendance and everything, but just lack the desire to do it. Desire is a tough thing because its the one thing you cant teach. But either way, one is Antonellas grandma so thats cool! She is being a good missionaruy adn inviting everyone to church. The grandma name is Doris so keep her in your prayers. Thanks all of you!

I really am so happy here in Coronel. Ive grown to love my savior so much and have grown a ton. I know some of you think its all been terrible and everything with my companion and i but everything is good now. Which sucks because cambios are in 2 weeks and one of us will leave because we already ahve 2 together. but I have also gotten SO close to Elder Page. he is from Idaho and we are just best friends. Every night we have story time and dance parties to the church music we have on our phones, trade ties all the time, and we are constantly shooting each other with nerf guns. hahaha its just the little joys...that hour after working is PRECIOUS! But we love it. He goes home in June so he is dying soon. But yeah, sure do love COronel. Its a really good sector!

Lastly. I finished the book of mormon in spanish last sunday and i started reading it again this week, but in english now. much better idea. I get alot more out of it hahaha. Weird, cant imagine why? Anyway, this time im using a different highlighter (#ZebraHighlighersThanksMar) and marking anything i see about blessings of obedience. holy COW. it is seriously insane. EVERY page has at least ONE thing. its so insnae. Ive never seen it before but its just FULL of stuff about obedience. my favorite has been seeing the spiritual blessings, of testimonies, not the physical blessings. Today in 1 nephi 17 i read v.13, which says "Ye shall know that by me ye are led". Its a blessing ive never really thought of before, but what better blessing for a missionary. To KNOW, with a surety, that God is leading you. Thats something i struggle with a lot, knowing if im doing what im supposed to in every situation, but i just have to keep being obedient because in that way ill gain that testimony. I love the scriptures so much. Its crazy how much i treasure that time now to study them. Crazy how much ive changed from falling asleep reading them....last year....oops?

Anyway, love youa ll so much. Hope things are well there back in the states! Im so happy down here. Also, its changing down to winter down here and im dying...Its so cold. 

LOVE YOU ALL! Hope things are good and that the lord keeps blessing you. Keep your faith in him and he will show you miracles. 

Les quiero mucho

Elder Tengberg

Here are some pictures from the mission activity. Brady is on the top right, under the guy standing with the black shirt. 

2 Weeks of Stuff and not Nearly Enough Time- Email 3/4/13

Wow. so this email might be a little scatterbrained because i have SO SO SO much to write about and not nearly enough time! Seriously, these two weeks have been so crazy. We are teaching so many people right now and have two more baptisms coming up in a week and a half, and probably 3 more on either the 23rd or 30th if they can come to church this week. We are just having so much success here in coronel and i dont understand why. haha i dont feel like we deserve it, and it has nothing to do with what we are doing, because it isnt like we are doing anyhting special. the lord is just preparing these people in such a special way and allowing them to feel the spirit so quickly. Anyway....starting from the furthest back.

Angie and antonella got baptized! I obviously dont have enough time to talk about their whole stories, but both got baptized about a month after findig them. they both accepted the gospel so quick in their lives, and have made such amazing changes. they both come from really hard lives. antonella is 16 and angie is 28, and their lives are different, but they both just come from hard circumstances. but thats the beauty of the gospel...it makes EVERYTHING unjust in the world okay. Their has been a signicant change in their countenance and happiness this last month, and ive loved witnessing it. Antonella this week has been reading the book of mormon like crazy and as we were asking her about it, she was like "well i have to know a lot if im going to serve a mission in 3 years, dont i??" ahaha umm YES that is so awesome! She would be a great missionary. she has a big heart and has really taken the gospel into her life. 

Julio also got the priesthood last week! That was really exciting....what else. haha sorry there is just somuch that i want to talk about and no time to do it all!

We had a really cool conference this past week. It was a special conference for the south of chile, and president monson, sister burton of the relief society presidency, elder corbridge (area of sur america president) and neil anderson spoke. it was SO cool. They talked about some interesting stuff. most people thought it would be about the temple here in conce, but it wasnt. Well, so they think. but it 100% was. Basically according to what i know, they have delayed the temple building not so much because of the site, but because the members of chile (here in the south) arent doing enough to deserve it. The talks were ALL directed at the things required to have a temple - choosing most important things over good, love for the people, tithing, blessings of eternal families, how the home can be a temple. it was 100% a "if you want your temple, get your butts into shape" conference. They almost never do regional conferences like that, but it was transmitted from slc and it was so incredible. We had 6 investigators in church (and it was a conference in another city, pretty incredible) and they LOVED it. I was so proud of them all for coming and we are about ready to see SO much success here in coronel. Like the branch is about to take off. It just needs a LITTL ebit more of a push and it will shoot off to being a ward and stuff. Anyway, we are working really hard with that. I am just so happy because some of the members are starting to thank us for the work we are doing, which is something that has never happened before to me. Last week there were 10 menos activo people in church, 6 investigators...and considering only 40 attend every week thats substantial haha. 

We also had a really cool activity on thursday. as missionaries we got sick of how the ward wasnt doing any activities, so WE did them. We put on one, bought all of the food and everything, and we had about 40 people show up! Granted about 20 of them were fleites who wanted to play ping pong, but HEY they came! And they all sat and listened during the mormon message and it was so cool to see. AFterwards the ward got SO excited and was like "Wow that was so cool to see the church full like that! That was awesome!" because usually about 5 people show up for the activities. Its really bad haha. But it just needed a little push and now its starting to take off. 

Elder Page and i (he lives in the house with me and is one of my new best friends. i seriously love that kid. he goes home in june which is scary because i cant imagine being not in the mission anymore. like what did i DO with my time there? Why didnt i go visit poeple? is it normal just to go visit people? im going to be so weird when i come back....ugh #sorrymary) are modifying this idea that elder ramirez gave me (he came to stay at our house one night! we talked for SO long. we just were saying how much we miss serving toether and that was the best time of our missions. we were so unified and just had a blast. anyway, so good to see him again. he is training YET AGAIN, and is a zone leader. the kids a machine). anyway so we talked to the branch president and we are doing an activity for the branc called "SUper Sunday" and basically we are just going to have EVERY single member bring someone to churhc. every sinle one. We invited president martinez of the mission to come and speak, and he was more than willing to do it. that will be on the 24th of this month, so we have time to get the members excited. our goal is to fill the chapel so we will see how it goes! We are just so excited about coronel and really trying to keep up the animo. Its hard because as a companionship we still really arent where we should be at this point, but within the house the animo is super good. Me and elder page are stoked to see how it works. another branch in the mission did it and brought 30 non members to church, but we want 50. we´ll see!

Also, in the last two packages i have gotten a total of 24 individual reese´s...YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST: i love it so much. haha im so blessed. seriously you all do way too much. thanks mom for the st patricks day pacakge and the moodys for the valentines day one a few weeks ago! letters going out soon!

Also ryan and cristina, i know you guys are scared and its coming up fast. dont worry. ryan you will grow so much (like at least 2 inches, what, would that make you 4´11?) and cristina, there wont be anyhting better than seeing him grow. Its going to be okay. Being on your side ryan i know youre freaking out, and cristina i know you are too...but just lose yourself as fast as you can in the work, and itll be okay. talk to mary when you get to the mtc, she will tell you all of the stuff i told her. Youll see miracles in your two lives for what you are doing! I know heavenly father is proud of you two. Love you guys.

Anyway, love you all. this letter was scatterbrained and not good, i know. I love you all so much though. Its been a hard week. I am having to learn to be so humble, and accepting so much of my own faults. I love the gospel though. I know my natural self, and im not anymore.  I truly have been changed and become such a better person. I see people critique me and accuse me of things i 1)didnt do and 2) wouldnt even BE offensive to most people, and instead of retaliating with logic or throwing back their faults, i just suck it up, apologize, and tell them i love them. like no part of that is brady tengberg. i have realized that i have truly been changed so much being a missionary. its so cool and i dont deserve it. I know my natural self is arrogant, prideful, egoistic and a lot of other stupid impatient prideful traits, and just being out here, heavenly father has blessed me so much. i feel so grateful to be a missionary, to be a messenger of christ, and to get to bring these precious souls back to heavenly father. being a missionary...theres nothing like it.

Les quiero mucho!

Elder Tengberg

here are some of the pictures from today and from the past few weeks. We had a big whole-mission activity today and that was a blast. i got to see all my friends from the the mtc and that was the best. i love elder white so much, and i really hope one day we are together. i saw ramirez, wray, watt, long, townsend. all my good buddies. and freaking elder townsend got made assistant! hahaha so crazy. he has the same time as us in the mission but came here one cambio early because he already knew spanish. apparently he´s doing somethign right....

anyway, heres the fotos!

I have no idea what order they are in, but ill do my best to get it right.

these things on the lines are all FISH. my sector smells like pure fish. no joke. ugh.

This is me and elder white and townsend and watt! THese are our zone shirts too. im in coronel, townsend in the office, watt in Lebu, white in Talcuahano sur.

This is all of my zone with president!! Hahahaha our shirts say "Ai Guant Yu" or "I want you". he was laughing SO hard when he saw them. we won...by far. hahaha so awesome. Im definitely keeping this one!

Me and elder white!

me being stupid. mary IM NOT AS FUNNY AS YOU BUT IM STILL FUNNY SO DONT MARRY YOUR ZONE LEADER K? love you :)

dont remember the others, but eating berries is one of them that i found in the forest (hunger games THAT mary, i ate nightwalkers or whatever the crap theyre called), my BAPTISM!!!! angie is on the right with elder salazar, antonella with me on the left. more of them monday! and then me playing ping pong with dino, marcelo, juan pablo y diego. diego is the youngest one, marcelo is on my left standing up straight. they get baptized in two weeks!

This Mission is Taking Off- Email 2/18/13

Well hey there family! I cant believe another week already went by. Seriously, time in the mission FLYS by. every single day has its own little attributes and things to look forward to. all the sudden youre rushing to get people to church on sunday and then its a sudden wooooosh of tranquilo, and its monday again. haha its just crazy. But i love it and im scared at how fast the time is going by! My great-grandpa in the mission (my trainer´s trainer´s trainer) goes home this cambio, then next cambio is the assistant that picked me up at the airport, then elder page (who is fine, he isnt gonig home. he just wears a sling on his shoulders that he calls his cia gun-hiding belt, its hilarious) and elder wray go home in a few cambios. Like what is going on??? im supposed to be a newbie in the mission still! But all of my friends are starting to go home. obviously im still crazy young in the mission but im starting to realize how fast the time goes by because it seems like i just got here yesterday. Anyway, even in this fast week there has been some cool stuff.

We had a mission conference on Tuesday and it was insane. I dont know what other missions are like, but my president is just a straight up stud. Like he is incredible. 1, he doesnt take disobedience from ANYBODY. our mission used to be super disobedient. Like the president before us would give computers to elders who wanted to go home, or let people who were disobedient stay because it was better than sending them home with embarrassment, or just coddle elders. But president now is like no. no more. And i can tell its hard for him too because apparently the mission used to baptize more, but we are really starting to take off now. The missionaries have all bought into the program, and the ones from the old president are all gone, and even the ones who were affected by the old group of more disobedient elders. Like our mission is so awesome now. We have some guys here who i just look up to SO much and feel so inadecuate. But hey, its great to learn from them so i feel super lucky. Anyway, president now is basically like, "I dont care what you do. If you are disobedient in ANY aspect, whether it be waking up late to bad music (not church or disney) to using other sites on the internet, you have one interview with me. if it happens again, you have another interview, but the second is with your stake president because you will go home." haha pretty cool. I love it though because its the only way for some of the elders to take the next step and really consecrate themselves to the work. We are going to see the mission baptisms go up like crazy, i just know it. The goal for the mission this year is 2013 baptisms, so itll take a heroic effort. But we´ll see! Ayway, lovemy mission president. I look up to him so much and know we will be close for a long time.

My companion and i are finally starting to take some good steps together. it sucks because i think this is our last week together. I dont konw whats going to happen but i just have a feeling one of us is going to leave coronel. But we have really tried hard just to work more together. Its difficult because there are always more personal issues under teh skin of people that arent obvious at first, and its hard to work towards a higher goal when people arent fit to do it. Like its hard to convince someone to run a marathon, no matter how hard they try, if they have a sprained ankle. no matter how much you encourage and pray and everything, theyre hurt. They cant. So its been a cool experience for me to grow to learn and love people more. I really do love  him. We have disagreeances and its not easy, but we are getting along a lot better.

Angie and antonella are getting baptized this friday, i think i may have explained that incorrectly? They are both beyond excited so that should be great! Ill tell more of their stories next week so the context is clearer.

We have a cool new family we are teaching, named Marcelo, Paola, Diego y Juan Pablo. The two parents got baptized like 18 years ago but never attended after that. The two kids arent members. Anyway, we just LOVE this family. he is absolutely hilarious and we get along super well. he always tells me his american conspiracy theories and i just laugh at him and tell him thats the dumbest thing ive ever heard. Its so fun. They came back to church this week for the first time in 10 years and our goal is to get marcelo the priesthood so he can baptize his two kids. Wouldnt that be so cool? I would just absolutely love to see that. Anyway, they are really awesome. Also, they refuse to let us come over unless they give us food. Haha we cant have "once" which is own-say here in chile, like a nighttime dinner, but they claim that it isnt and they wont let us come unless we eat. THeyre sneaky little boogers but i love them.

Andrew, i could not stop laughing reading your letter you sent me. Im sending you one back as soon as i can, itll be good. I will tell you all the missionary stories that i dont tell mom and dad. Hahaha youll laugh so hard. Just know that youre going to love your mission. its crazy how much we have grown. We used to play nba jam and do the stupidest stuff...and now we still do the stupidest stuff but we love the book of mormon a little bit more. haha jk we are way different, and youre going to be a stud missionary. play endless pranks on your companions and be stupid. youll love it. youre going to be a stud of a missionary man! Also, i will steal every single thing of clothes i can find. Also, im going to beat nba jam by myself.

Thanks sister moody for the package! I havent opened it yet, but that was very very very nice of you to send me one. Ill open it as soon as i get back to my house!

I love you all so much. You are all amazing in how much you support me and i cant thank you enough. I know this church is true. I am grateful for everything that this church is, for the blessing that i have to serve, and the miracles i see every day. Our leaders talked about the miracles we see from obedience...but not once did they mention the sector. We are changed SO much individually as we are obedient to the lord. 100% obedience brings forth 100% blessings, anything less brings forth just a portion of what the lord wants to give us - of how he wants to bless us and change us and make us happy. I love the gospel and love all of you so much! 

Les amo y les quiero!

Elder Tengberg