My Golden Family- Email 8/12/13

WOW. such a crazy week. I'm just going to get straight to it because there was way more success this week than i knew was possible! We have 7 people with baptismal dates right now, and one of those is the familia Sanchez!!!! the best little family ever. 

This week, we had the whole week of activities because we had the idea that before conferencia de branch we would do a thing every single day. so we did. monday was FHE with games and everything, tuesday was yoga night as a branch led by P90x (I'm still so fat, I'm 197 pounds. like can any of you imagine me that fat? i was 180 max all of high school and college....like thats really fat. its passed the point where its funny and now its just sad. but the bread here IS JUST SO GOOD I CANT STOP. i feel like chris Farley when he says "lay off me, I'm starving". so yeah, yoga doesn't help. I'm just flexible and fat now). wednesday was a devotional that so many investigators came to, and thursday was noche de sports where we had a whole bunch of things going and a futbol game of like 40 people including women and little children. friday was a night of sopaipillas (like little scones that you put aji and pebre on. thats like salsa stuff and theres no way to translate it. or you put mayo on it....what, doesn't sound good? fried bread with mayo? c'mon guys its delicious! its probably super healthy too. but for real i had like 10 they are so delicious) with mensajes mormones, and then saturday was movie night with popcorn and everything. Friday night i ended up convincing one of our investigators to come and make the sopaipillas, and he ended up making like 200. and wow they were so good. and then on saturday night we had Major Medina come and he brought his personal popcorn MACHINE. if that just isn't the coolest thing ever. our investigator supplied ALL the popcorn and people were just thrilled. he is progressing like crazy but that will come in a second. so that was the week of activities, then Presidente Martinez came down yesterday and spoke and met all of them and it was fantastic. 

BUT. The update on the actual people!

Nicole is kind of lost this week because her grandpa still continues in a coma, so he is kind of bad. so we haven't been able to teach her but the girl just wants to get baptized. she has to travel every day to see him so as soon as this all calms down.

Bruno and kati are getting married tuesday! they are doing as good as ever. they couldn't go sunday to church because not one but BOTH of their daughters were in the hospital with severe bronchitis, like on oxygen and everything. so sad. but we got to give them both blessings and they are doing  ton better, so we hope that the 24th they'll be able to complete with their baptism and everything.

Familia Sanchez. on wednesday, i got to go buy with a joven from the church, Esteban who got baptized a month ago. anyway we taught the gospel of jesus christ VERY simply because we were on divisions and he obviously doesn't know how to teach super well because he is 15 and been baptize for a month, but WOW it was amazing. we gave them the challenge for the 7th of september and they accepted! they went to the activities all week, and the girls are so so so happy. Bernardo was just saying how even THIS week he has already felt like a better man. less angry, less temper-ish, everything. the mom was saying " i don't feel like i have  an answer yet but i feel genuinely happy and for the first time in my life i feel like I'm doing the right thing." YEAH okay thats good enough. they went to church and loved it. it took me awhile to explain why we raise our hands to sustain people but beyond that, it was so simple. They just get it and love it. So we are so happy for them because they are a FAMILY who already wants to go to the temple and the daughters just want to be little mujeres jovenes and everything. like its adorable. Im just so grateful to heavenly father for preparing them for us. they really are so special and i know that we have done NOTHING to deserve success like this. but heck we will take it and we are working them in with the members so much. the great thing about victoria is the members. They are SO loving. like they have just taken this family under their wing and some key families are not letting them go. its so relieving to have HELP as a missionary because we know we don't do this on our own. I am just so thrilled. They are a golden family and i truly do love them. I feel like an older brother to the little girls and i just love being with them. the picture is of me with Bernardo and Josefina, the daughter of 11! the other three were eating popcorn and didn't want to get up.....

And Marcelo. The best joven EVER. We found him contacting, invited him to play football, and he hasn't let go of us since. he is seriously like a brother to me. he is 14 and his dad is a major in the military here, like way high up there. everyone knows him. and he is also the most deseoso investigator I've ever had. like all they want to do is know more. Marcelo sang in the CHOIR with us yesterday. they came to every activity. his dad, who is also named marcelo, is the one who brought the popcorn machine. and its just been amazing to see how much they love the gospel already. marcelo's dad passed through a divorce about 5 years ago and is now with another lady name andrea who is with me in the foto, and they are so special. he said all he realized through all of that is that his kids needed HIM a lot more than they needed money or things. like isn't that amazing? he talked more than anyone in sunday school yesterday which president martinez was teaching, and has told me things like "The book of mormon is just so joyful to read. it makes me so peaceful." "Hey can i borrow that principles of the gospel book? i would like to learn everything about the gospel" "Whats the atonement? I want to learn more about it because it seems really important?" umm.....really? this dad is the best, and says that if marcelo jr wants to go on a  mission he would support him 100%. We actually haven't even TAUGHT them yet because we found them last saturday, they came to church the next day, came to all the activities, came to church AGAIN yesterday. so its super backwards because they are doing everything and we haven't even taught. So we just love this family. They have 2 14 year old boys who are studs and are going to strengthen the church so much. And president martinez said "Marcelo...he is incredible. How did you find him?" well president...this really crazy tactic called playing futbol. Cool, right?

Anyway, I'm thrilled. I truly love victoria. I love these people, every convert and every member, i get sad when i don't see them every couple days, i genuinely care about their kids and relatives. i just love being a missionary so much and I'm so genuinely happy. This place is amazing. Anyway, thanks for all your support, its helping a ton out here. I love you all so much.

Keep them all in your prayers please! We need miracles. and more, the lord needs these children to come to him. 

besitos,

Elder Tengberg

Despiertense- Email 8/5/13

Well....interesting week. Im in this period where you start to realize that there is so much that we do but that there is so much more that we need to do. I know most of you wont understand what I'm trying to say but its just all in my head and I'm trying to get it on paper so have patience. Haha my sector is doing pretty well but we still have some work to do. But real fast we will just start there!

Nicole Elegida has just disappeared off the planet...elder miyasaki saw her the other day and apparently she still wants to get baptized this saturday the 10th and is super excited but we have not been able to find her so i have no idea whats going on there. her grandpa is sick so I'm sure thats why, but its just frustrating when there is lack of contact with people because you cant help them come closer to christ! But i would be surprised if she doesn't get baptized this week or this next week the 17th. And that would be with....

Bruno and Kati! Bruno and Kati are just about the most faithful couple ever now. So cool. On wednesday we passed by and taught the law of chastity because they aren't married. And they were like..."well, your right, we are living in sin and we don't want to do that anymore." So we asked them to give us their carnets (chilean ID) and we went to the municipalidad and we took out an hour for them to get married. So now they're getting married tuesday at 9 in the morning because they let two 20 year old boys choose it. haha no thats just the only time available, BUT WE ARE HAVING A WEDDING! Haha isn't that so cool? And we will be here for it too. We are going to marry them and then they will get baptized on august 17th. We are just so excited and cant wait for them to be a part of that. They have a ton of faith and are so sweet. So thats bruno and kati. Bruno worked all night saturday night and came to church sunday too so its just ridiculous..they really want to follow the savior. There are some people here that are just so faithful and really have such strong desires to do the right thing. For all the crap we go through, there is some really special stuff that happens too.

Oh, I'm with Elder Rico right now too! he is from Colombia so we are super happy together. He served in coronel too so we talk about there, we are cruising right now in victoria and we have already become good friends. He does the insanity workouts every morning and i tried ONE morning to do it with him and then i was like NOPE and went back to eating pan amasado and getting fat. He goes home in less than 3 months so he has to get skinny, but I'm just living the high life still. Woooo! Anyway, all things are good here in victoria. I really really love it, love our converts, love the branch. We actually have branch conference this week and our goal is 100 people, like double the normal, so its going to be really cool. We have activities every night, and are trying to just flood the branch with animo. Anyway, thats victoria.

And then there is consejo. Thats like council i think, but its the meeting all the leaders of the mission have with president every month. basically it was just like "You guys are all an embarrassment." haha and i wish i was kidding. The mission baptized 93 in june and 46 in july... a huge drop. our zone baptized most in the entire mission which is great but it was still sad. He started to ask about our goals for august, and what we are going to do, and then he snapped. Well it was all planned but it freaked us out. He asked one of the zone leaders (actually the coronel ZL) what their goal was, and they said 15, and he said "No lo va a lograr". "you aren't going to reach it." And we all were just like uhhhh...what? And he proceeded to ask every zone, and said "I promise you, right now, that none of you will reach your goals. I promise you. In fact, ill sign it. Ill SIGN it. Give me a piece of paper and i will sign it and promise you that this month, none of you will reach your goals." We were all just like WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON??? But if anyone has seen MIracle, the movie about the hockey team and the part where the coach says there a bunch of losers and they don't deserve to wear the us jersey, they can imagine what the response of is a bunch of 20 year old testosterone missionaries...one missionary who served in the military said "President, with all due respect, you're just a man. I have faith in my god, not you. I looked in the eyes of multiple captains who said i would never make it back alive, who said i would never live again. And i will never forget the look in their eyes when i walked away with my rifle on my shoulder. And i will never forget yours when i come back here with 2 baptisms as a zone." it was SO powerful. It inspired us so much, so i guess it worked. The idea was just "i promise you will never reach your goals if you KEEP living like this. You aren't being good enough missionaries and aren't obedient enough. We cant keep doing the same thing and expecting different results." it was really good actually because it really made us wake up and realize that those results are truly terrible. 

We have 238 missionaries in the mission...and 46 baptisms? I know numbers aren't everything, but sometimes we let ourselves be complacent in life because its the normal, and we forget that we are really here for a heavenly father who NEEDS his kids to come back to him. I realize finally that every person i see needs to hear this message, because if they don't hear it from me they may never hear it again. like they have a father in heaven who wants them back and unless they follow this plan they aren't getting there. But it just really inspired me so much I love the work, and love the gospel.

Les quiero mucho,

Elder Tengberg

Chauito Elder Girsberger- Email 7/29/13

FAMILIA!!!

Aw man such a good week. Seriously, i feel like this week was a turning point in my mission. I really do. Its been a hard week to start out but then it just had some spiritual experiences that affected me so personally and left me so so happy. First off...sorry for not writing last week! I know I'm awful. Haha but this week I'm sending lots of pictures (or at least I'm trying, this computer isn't working so well so I'm kind of disappointed). And lastly, I'm writing. so...yeah

Haha well Elder Girsberger headed out this morning. He is going to be a traveling assistant for his last 4 weeks before he goes home, which is so weird. He freaking goes home soon! But we had a fantastic last week together. I really think this has been one of my favorite cambios because we have just been so stupid and have done so many fun things in addition to having incredible success. Right now he is leaving at a bad time too because we are having SO much going on. Like its fantastic. So anyway, we are just thrilled.

First things first...

1. One Direction 2.0 Haha we danced to another one direction song last week, choreographed by yours truly. It was fun. Haha we had a talent show in the other rama here in victoria and they asked us to come, so we did. It was fantastic too, they all loved it. We had Bernardo and Lourde there and their kids, and i don't remember what I've talked about since last time i emailed but they are progressing so well. Bernardo, Lourde, Josefina, Emilia, and Reinata. They are reading, love FHE, asked us when they can have another FHE, and are just being so amazing. We have another FHE this saturday with the district president and his adorable little family who happen to have kids the same age, and its just perfect. We are getting them for sure. But we really are so excited. I love that little family and know they will be a great family in the church. The lord sure loves them, i can 100% feel it. So we still haven't had a chance to give them the desafio but they should be getting it any day now, so we are thinking baptism end of august or early september! so cool.

2. Nicole! She is a 23 year old mom we are teaching and she is just so nice. She actually met elder girsberger awhile back and him and i have been teaching her for the past cambio. She actually would be getting baptized this week but we want her to be a little more prepared so we postponed it until the10th. she and her little girl Marti are just so adorable. They have already been to church 3 times and have all the lessons, so we just need to finish up a few more things. She is so so so smart and will be a great member.

3. Bruno and Kati! They are our other golden family. They aren't married technically but they will be soon. they just don't know we already are planning their wedding but HEY thats okay. Its a surprise wedding. That works right? Is that allowed? But they really are amazing. he is the one who stopped me in the supermarket 2 months ago (wow so long ago) and said "hey you are missionaries right? can you come to my house and teach my wife and me?" Well bruno...we are really busy. we will see if we can find time. Maybe another day. But we actually took a really long time to find them again and now that we are teaching them full time, they are progressing so much. We actually have a FHE with them tonight and they are just so cute. They have a little girl Monse who is 2 and ill send pictures of her soon. Her name is Monseraut but she goes by moan-say. Also maite their little 5 month old. My-tay is how you say it but she is precious. They actually want to get baptized the 17th of this month but we will probably put it back so we can get a decent wedding planned.

4. Elder Girsberger....everyone loved him. Oh one of the pictures is of the SECOND fridge and microwave he brought up to our study room. We made sandwiches about every hour.  We ended up with two fridges in the house, and he was like well i want one next to me. The single cause of me being like 195 pounds right now...really though. Its not even funny anymore, I'm just actually fat. Oh well.

The other pictures are when Camila and Esteban and carolina took us to temuco, bowling in temuco with Esteban, me with the little girl is Almendrita, the cutest little girl of this young family in our ward. She is obsessed with me because i taught her how to play this turtle game that was in english...haha whatever gets them to like me i guess! The french fry plate thing is called a Chorillana...or basically a heart attack on a giant plate that we all add mayo to. Love it. My heaven.

I LOVE YOU ALL! Have a great week. Ill keep doing my part here and building the lords kingdom because he needs it. Thanks for all you do to support me. You're the best.

Les quiero mucho

Elder Tengberg