His Testimony

"I would just like to end with my testimony of this work. It's true. If there is one thing I've gotten out of it, I have a firm, unbreakable and immovable testimony that Christ is my Savior, that he died for my sins, and that through the very gospel that he taught, I can convert the sadness and sorrow of my life to a bright burning light of hope and love. I know that God is my father in heaven - not a mysterious being, but a father who loves and guides me. I know that he loves me so much that he sent to me, today in OUR modern day, prophets who give us modern direction. I know, from personal experience, that when we follow the commandments that God communicates through his prophets, our lives are richly, unbelievably blessed. There is no greater joy than following them, having the companionship of the Spirit of God, and having the confidence of being worthy to receive blessings from God. I know the Book of Mormon is evidence of everything I just said  - a book that has singlehandedly changed my life. It has taught me more about how I can personally apply the teachings of Christ and has been a blessing in many dark occasions. I know God loves me, and I know that one day, I can be with my family forever if i keep following this plan through good or bad."

-Elder Tengberg

June 14, 2014

He's Coming Home

Well Elder Tengberg has officially boarded the plane in Chile and his on his way back home to us. While we are beyond excited to hug him, we know he will miss Chile. He grew so close to so many people, and he is dearly loved by many down there. Brady is the type of person who makes your life better just by being in it, and the people of Chile came to realize that as well. We are so proud of him and cannot wait to have our family back together again.

If you are in town this Sunday, please consider joining us for his Homecoming. He will be speaking at our ward building at 9:00 AM and then we will have an open house luncheon at our home later that afternoon. Everyone is welcome to both church and the luncheon! I know that he would love to see everyone. 

Lastly, a big thank you for keeping Brady in your thoughts and prayers these past two years, and for supporting him via emails, letters, packages, etc. It is sincerely appreciated.

Sincerely,

Shardae

Chao Chao- Email 6/14/14

Well i guess that's all then! Haha I feel really weird right now. I can't believe its over. Anyway I'm not going to write much about that because that, in fact, would be rather boring to write about. Because in the end you'll all just hear me in a couple of days saying the same things so it really won't make too much of a difference. But I'm very, very happy. Not because its over, but because I'm happy that I have been a missionary and been able to be out here. It's been an amazing experience and I am honestly 100x more blessed than I ever imagined. It's crazy how I came out here trying to give something back to God for all that he has given me, and in the end...I'm just more in debt. I'm like the worst client ever I think. haha oh well.

Anyway, what a week! It was awfully fun. We had yesterday our farewell for President Martinez since he will be ending his tenure as a Mission President later this month. It was a hectic experience because we had to organize it all, make sure everyone gets there, make sure everything happens. We had 240 missionaries there! We did it in Angol, my old sector, so I actually got to see a couple of people while I was there as well. Anyway the conference was really special. We made the title "Gracias a Ustedes" which is basically a translation to "thanks to you" but the real meaning is "because of you". its just because doesn't sound good so we had to make it thanks. We basically modeled it after the Easter thing about Christ that the church put out, if anyone hasn't seen it its here

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng

Anyway we even used the same song, but we made a really cool video. Basically we just thought "what would president be feeling right now?" and we thought "the same as us!" haha so we knew very well what would make him feel like he did a good job. What we did is made a book and every missionary put in it "Gracias a ustedes..." and then what they have learned/done/become BECAUSE or THANKS to what President and Hermana Martinez have done. It was so special. Then we made a video as well of the entire mission, each missionary saying little one or two word phrases. Then as you put all the little clips together, it makes a giant phrase and talks about how their influence has changed our life. Honestly, we were all in tears. It was so cool to see on presidents face that expression of sadness for leaving us, but satisfaction that he could tell that he touched our lives. Besides my own father, I look up to my mission president as one of the top men that I know. He interviews us, helps us, gives us advice, teaches us, invites us to become better, and is just an amazing, incredible man. I wish I could talk about him forever but I can't. Anyway, from little things that he does and says I have learned so much from him. The video was incredible, so was the book, so was the entire conference. Dad remember that "profile of a prophet" activity you did? How at the very end you had one kid stand up and start singing? We did the very same thing. #ideastealer. We had one sister who sings amazing stand up and just start singing super soft right as Pres Martinez was leaving the chapel, "God be with you til we meet again" in Spanish. Then 2 stood up, then 10, then 20, then everyone.  Incredible. I am going to miss them an awful lot. It made me feel a lot better this week because it distracted me and made me think THEY were going home and not ME. Haha kind of funny.

Also, Elder White and I one day took the minivan from the office elders and used that instead of the truck. And we took the seats out of it and slept in it. Haha we really wanted to try it one night. When else will i be able to say that i slept in a minivan in chile? Can anyone else say that? 10 points for Elder Tengberg.

Anyway....i love you all. You're my heroes, my best friends, my family. I love you so much, I'm so eternally grateful for the constant love and friendship you've offered me these past 2 years, I'm so grateful for everything. I'll see you soon!

I would just like to end with my testimony of this work. It's true. If there is one thing I've gotten out of it, I have a firm, unbreakable and immovable testimony that Christ is my Savior, that he died for my sins, and that through the very gospel that he taught, I can convert the sadness and sorrow of my life to a bright burning light of hope and love. I know that God is my father in heaven - not a mysterious being, but a father who loves and guides me. I know that he loves me so much that he sent to me, today in OUR modern day, prophets who give us modern direction. I know, from personal experience, that when we follow the commandments that God communicates through his prophets, our lives are richly, unbelievably blessed. There is no greater joy than following them, having the companionship of the Spirit of God, and having the confidence of being worthy to receive blessings from God. I know the Book of Mormon is evidence of everything I just said  - a book that has singlehandedly changed my life. It has taught me more about how I can personally apply the teachings of Christ and has been a blessing in many dark occasions. I know God loves me, and I know that one day, I can be with my family forever if i keep following this plan through good or bad.

I love you all. You're the best! Also I'm getting In n Out on Wednesday, right? Like that's not an option!

Elder Tengberg

#MiniVanMan #dontgetanyideasmomanddad!

You Mean We Can't Drink Green Tea???? -Email 6/7/14

Well, you're all going to hate me because this email is going to be very short because I only have 6 minutes left! Haha oops! I started writing a lot of my friends and I got real distracted. Sorry about that.

But it's been an awesome week. I have been praying so so much to maintain my focus and it's been an awesome week all around. I just didn't want to lose enthusiasm and I don't feel like i have at all! Like obviously a lot of little things start creeping into your mind but I feel for the most part the Lord has protected me and kept me pretty focused on missionary work still. This week it was really cool because i went with a missionary on an exchange to a sector called Curacautin, a place where it SNOWED! haha i worked in the snow! Mary talked about crazy hot weather and here i am with my feet soaking wet and my hands purple because I gave all my winter clothes away last winter. It was so funny though and the missionary I worked with gave me one of the best compliments. I was actually his zone leader last year when i was in Angol, and he said "You seem more excited to work than you did last year! I thought you would be all trunky and ready to go home" so I was so touched to hear that. There is nothing more fun for me still than being in the street and just talking to everyone and their brother. It was a super fun week, I learned a lot, we had some awesome miracles, and I am awfully grateful.

Minus the fact that my companion Elder Paris keeps calling me and telling me at random points of the day "Hey Elder Tengberg! You have 240 hours left" I'm doing very well and happy. This we took the whole mission and did a training with them. I was with Elder Anderson, and Elder White and Elder Paris were in the north while we took the south. It was s super fun week. We got to teach a  lot of missionaries, and had some scares as well. We went to Angol, my old zone, and one of the hermanas informed us that the 250 juice boxes that we had bought for the ENTIRE mission were, in fact, filled with extracts of green tea. Well they all started freaking out and I have a little revolution on my hands because no one wants to drink the dang juice! I try explaining to them that 1) I didn't know, and that 2) its EXTRACTS of ANTIOXIDANTS of green tea, and not actual tea. Finally they still don't believe me and I called Hermana Martinez, the presidents wife, and she laughed and was like Elder obviously just drink it! It's fine! So they all got a little less rebellious but it was funny. I almost lost control of the mission. That would have been good huh? We also had forgotten the ethernet cable for the internet so we had a internet presentation with no internet, so we had to go run during the opening of the thing and go buy one, and then we also had no suits on because I had in fact told ALL of the zone not to come in suits because I wanted the training to have a more informal participative and fun feel and not a serious typical "we are training you" formal feel. Turns out my idea of creating that new atmosphere was NOT in fact okay, president asked me afterwards (he happened to show up to that training we were doing, he wasn't going to be in any of them) why we had no suits on! I thought of being funny and asking him why he HAD one on if I had specifically told everyone to come without suits, but I chose to be humble and say sorry. Haha I thought that would have been funny. Anyways....life is good. It was a rather disastrous training in Angol, but the rest of the week was smooth as water! Is that a phrase? Whats really smooth? Isn't there a phrase for something like that? 

Anyway, i love you all! The mission has changed my life. Crazy to think that all that remains is a week and a half....it's gone by too fast and I'll miss it more than anything. But I'm also excited for the next chapter of life! It'll be interesting, that's for sure. Love you all!

Cuídense mucho! 

Elder Tengberg

Bernardo Sanchez and an old futures list- Email 5/31/14

Well....hello again! I don't have too much to write about today, but I'm here. Anyway, I sure love all you. Thanks for your emails. OH and happy anniversary to mom and dad today! hope it has been a wonderful anniversary! 

Such a fun week! This week started off with our leadership council. It was weird having this one be my last one! It was really fun though. Elder White and I got to teach again together and it was so good. We talked a lot about the natural man and the spiritual man and the reason why God wants us to overcome the natural man. Also we talked about what the blessings are of doing it, just stuff like that, but all applied to the mission. Always fun. 

The next day president asked us to be in the office again because he was going to be interviewing some missionaries, so we stayed there and helped out and stuff. Then out of nowhere he is like "hey who wants to come to lunch!" and he took us out to a Peruvian restaurant. I had never actually had Peruvian food at a restaurant before, only from my comps here in the mission who had made it for me. It was really, really good. Here in Chile (at least where i have been since i left my first sector) I haven't had any seafood, so having cebiche (which is basically raw squid, octopus, mussels, and fish) was kind of new, but i loved it. I honestly don't know why before the mission i didn't try any new food. I eat mushrooms now, i live off of tomatoes and onions, i love octopus and fish and soups and beans (crazy, right dad? BEANS!). i don't know whether its desperation or actually liking it, but i love everything of food. Haha maybe not quite to Hong Kong´s level but pretty much anything.

The week was awesome. I worked in Victoria again and actually had an amazing experience there. There was one day last year where i worked with elder Townsend (the old assistant and actually a kid who lived in my dorm freshman year at BYU, a good friend of mine) in victoria, and i remember distinctly that we knocked doors for FOUR hours in the rain and nothing happened. It was one of the most disappointing days because we were so happy but nothing came! Or so we thought. Later on, some of the contacts we found that day got baptized (the Sanchez family! Who are now looking to get sealed in the temple this December. so cool. he is ward mission leader and i actually got to teach with him on wednesday. His testimony is so powerful! He has the Melchizedek Priesthood and is just an absolute stud.) so anyway months after we realized we had found Bernardo's wife that day when i was with elder Townsend. And Wednesday with them, the missionary there who i did the exchange with told me that this great new family they have that is so awesome and stuff and are married and have two little girls and are getting baptized june 14th, they are people that they found on the old "future investigators" list that i had written. Guess what day it was from? The day elder Townsend and i knocked for four hours in the rain. Two families baptized from one day when we thought no one cared and saw no fruits from our efforts. It made me so happy and was such a confirmation of my faith. if we trust in the Lord, he always, ALWAYS will come through. I love my mission for teaching me to trust less in myself and more in my Heavenly Father. It's a blessing being out here.

Elder Tengberg

Chiflón del Diablo- Email 5/24/14

Well hello there everyone! I bet you probably weren't expecting my email today so...sorry about that. I'll be writing saturdays til I get back just to clear up the confusion. I hope things are going well there!

Anyway, this week was awesome! It was really, really good being back up here again. I was wondering why the Lord had taken me back up here and why I couldn't have just stayed in Pitrufquen, but this week was fantastic and I could totally see why. We worked really hard, had a ton of fun, and just did everything we could. I was in Los Angeles this week, then over to Lebu for a day, then back in Lota where I started my mission actually, so it was awfully fun. I definitely needed to be back and have this experience again of just doing exchanges every day. One of my favorite things to do are exchanges with other missionaries because you don't really know each other too well before, but you both want to work hard so there are always really cool miracles happening. I'm a fan.

I'm also a fan of tourism. And tour guides. And making jokes to try and make them less boring. Haha today we took our p-day down to Lota to a place called "Chiflón del Diablo" which basically means "draft (or like a whistle or a wind....don't know how to explain it) of the Devil" because it's a MINE! Haha we got a tour into a coal mine. It was so awesome. It literally goes under the ocean and stuff, and we just had to sign this little waiver form and put our email address to get in (and money). I mean that sounds super safe right? They gave us coal miner helmets, lamps, everything. I don't know what I mean by everything because that's all they gave us in fact, but you know what I mean. 

We got to take the makeshift elevator down the mineshaft where it's pitch dark, dreary, wet, supported by Eucalyptus beams (the man asked where eucalyptus trees are from, because they are all they have in Chile and they aren't native here, and I was the only one who knew they were from Australia. Not sure how i know that but thats what we have in Scripps Ranch right? eucalyptus trees? I won myself a piece of coal for that one). Anyway it was so fun. We made jokes the entire time, I made the well-needed "I think I'm getting the black lung" quote from Zoolander, and we had a blast. It was crazy to see the conditions that they lived in though. Then later on we got to tour this place called Parque Lota which is like a giant park on a coast. Park doesn't do it justice because its basically like a mini ecological reserve. It belonged to a really rich family that actually founded the city 150 years ago, but 15 years ago they donated it to the government for tours and stuff. So fun. We took quite a few pictures and enjoyed ourselves way too much for looking at some black coal.

The cool part of it though was seeing all the history behind something that seems so natural and common. Modern day electricity and stuff like that seems so easy, but those people literally were exposed to methane gas, constant explosions and mine cave-ins, they barely made enough money to buy back their food from the same company, just awful stuff. But it prepared the way for today. In the same setting, so much in my life (gospelly-speaking) (gospelly isn't a word huh?) has been prepared for me by those who have had it so much worse. I read a poem this week about a missionary who complains for wearing a bike helmet, hands hurting from knocking doors, for being alone from his family, etc, then has a vision where he sees the Savior and the Savior tells him "i know how you feel. people made fun of me too when i was wearing an uncomfortable crown on my head. My hands hurt too when they put nails in mine. I knew what it was like being alone when I said "Father, why hast thou forsaken me?" and I was just like WOW I'M A TERRIBLE PERSON FOR EVER COMPLAINING. so it was actually really cool to see that again today, to see that so many people in my past, from our pioneer ancestors to even my very family who sacrificed so I could have the luxury of giving up 2 years to serve, has made my life so much easier. We are awfully blessed that many, including the Savior Himself, have gone before to prepare the way. I love the gospel, love the change that it brings in my life, and eternally grateful for the ease with which I have been able to live it. I love you all! Hope you have a great week!

Elder Tengberg

hey dad you wouldn't have gotten claustrophobic in a 4 foot tall mine thats pitch black and wet and held up by wood beams with no insurance waiver, right? I didn't think so either!