Another crazy
week. This email wont be too long either because i honestly just dont have that
much to write about. I feel like my letters have gotten progressively more
boring as my mission has gone along. in the beginning it was these crazy cool
new experiences but im boring now i think. Haha ill try to make this fun
though!
So anyway,
this week we took off to the south of the mission. Since we are four of us
together, we divided up. Remember how I was with Elder Dominguez in Victoria?
He is a Mexican from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuaha. Literally from Chihuahua mexico,
isnt that sweet? Anyway i got along really really well with him at the end
there in Victoria and he and elder Medina (that small Chilean that i was just
recently with in Angol) are the two other ones with Elder White and I. Kind of
cool that these are all my old companions! Actually of the 6 of us that live
together i have been with all of them at one point in my district or my zone so
i feel really at home. Its super nice because its just all friends around me!
Anyway Elder White and Elder Dominguez stayed up in the north, so Elder Medina
and I took the south and we did a whole bunch of exchanges with missionaries.
It was honestly a crazy week. Its kind of fun just traveling and sleeping on
the floor and not sleeping and everything, because it just makes the desire for
the lords help so much more. Seriously, every time in our life that we get
close to floods (theres a point to this story) or extreme points, the Lord is
so much closer. This week I was with some elders and actually sisters teaching
as well, and most of them that i chose to go with are going through some really
hard personal times. But the best secret or recipe for being happy is just
losing yourself in the work, so i did my best Elder Tengberg and just had as
much fun as i could. Like Wednesday arguably should have been one of the most
frustrating and depressing as a missionary. I got to Pitrufquen, just south of
Temuco on the map, and i hadnt slept because its 6 hours from Concepcion in
bus, and i got there in a short sleeve white shirt and pants because its hot in
conce. Turns out its cold in the south still haha. So we get there and it
POURED rain from Wednesday afternoon all the way until Thursday morning.
Without stopping. I went out, with a jacket and sweater and then just got
soaked all the way to the bone. Literally everything....tie, shirt, pants,
shoes, socks. Everything completely soaked. But as i was walking around with
this elder, i realized it was honestly one of the happiest days of my life. We
were soaking wet, but we were in the Lords work. For about a half a second i
wondered "Why the heck am i doing this? Literally there are a million
other things i could be doing right now in the rain." and then i just
imagined how in a very short time, i will look back and long to be
out contacting in the rain. Ill be driving maybe, ill be studying or watching a
movie at BYU or some other thing, but i wont be doing what i am right now. And
i know for a fact i am going to miss it forever. Its just crazy because the
mission creates such a big part of who you are that i know for a fact that a
day will never go by in my life without me thinking of this. Everytime it
rains, ill remember the day that Elder Flitton and i contacted all day and
found this most incredibly perfect family who want to get baptized now in
Pitrufquen, who let us in and told us that their nephew is a missionary in
argentina and that they dont know what else they have to do in their life so
that god can bless them more, who gave us hot chocolate and thanked us for
coming to their house, who told us that the only reason they were
home is because it WAS in fact pouring rain and they couldn't open up their
fruit business. They said if we hadnt gone in the rain, we never EVER would
have found the four of them together waiting to hear the message. Now the
hermanas of that sector are teaching that awesome family and it just brought
tears of gratitude to my eyes that night for being where i am. One of my goals
for 2014 was to become a man - to become patient, selfless and happy. At least
those are the attributes of dad and my brothers and other leaders from the
church that i want to be most like. And i realized that happiness is such a
contextual thing for people, but it doesn't have to be. This past week all i
have been praying for is to be happy. Im not sleeping, I'm eating the WORST food
because we are traveling every day and its like gas station hot dogs and
cheeseburgers at all times of the day, and i shouldnt be happy. Its not
logical. But in my prayers i have just been saying, "I know Heavenly
Father that the situation wont change, and i dont want it to, but I don't care
what happens. Just help me to have a smile on my face." and WOW has it
worked. Its been so cool to have such a happy week and just to truly enjoy what
im doing.
SO anyway,
that was kind of a big old ramble on sentence to a short story, but im so
grateful to be here. Its crazy how that the miracles come after the flood
happens...Heavenly Father might send a lot of trials, but i think when we learn
to front every one with a smile on our face, the help is a lot faster to come
and the miracles are there. Im really grateful to be a missionary and to be
where i am right now, because its just like a crazy way to focus in on
miracles. Love being a missionary! So grateful that i have 5 months left still, because I'm going to truly miss this when its not here anymore. Gotta take
advantage 100%!
Elder Tengberg
me and Elder
Medina driving the truck, and im seeing Elder Heyman from BYU lax all the time!
Our offices are together. Cool stuff.
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