2nd Email! Dated 7/20/2012

Brady and his friend Taylor Lythgoe outside the Provo Temple!

Hola familia! I am doing great here in the MTC. Its crazy in some ways that it has already been a week and a half, and then in other ways it feels like I've been here forever. But I am happy and I am learning a ton! So that's all that really matters I guess.

First - quick shoutout to Grandma and Grandpa for Birthdays this month! I wish I had cards to send but I don't. All I have is Spanish Book of Mormons and Spanish pamphlets on Chastity. Haha happy birthday though! hope the new house is treating you guys well. You'll have to have my mom teach you how to use DearElder because I want to hear about the house and everything!

Also, I feel like I am working the least out of anyone in the family still. STOP WORKING SO HARD! I am supposed to be the hardest worker of the family while I am on a mission, but between Blake studying for the bar exam, Jennae for the Boards, Shardae in Boston, Brett in controlling the stock markets....I am slacking. C'mon guys.

Anyway, my week has been good here. I should probably explain this whole "investigator" thing with Adan because Jennae told me I was less than perfect in my explanation. So they have teachers here at the MTC be actors so that we, as brand new missionaries, can teach people. They are not real investigators into the church. They are just actors so that we can practice teaching without potentially insulting or offending a real investigator with our pathetic Spanish. This guy, Adan, we just finished our 5th lesson with him. He has a wicked sense of humor I think. Well - he laughs a lot. I can't really understand what he is saying so I don't know what exactly he is so funny about, but hey he seems funny. He actually becomes our teacher tonight. They do that so that the teachers for the rest of the time in the MTC know how to help us and know where we need improvement. They don't break character at all though! He was going to kick one of the other companionships out because they were trying to pressure him to move his "baptism date" up closer. He didn't like it. But anyway we got him to commit to being baptized, taught him repentance, baptism, law of chastity, law of tithing, Sabbath day, word of wisdom....pretty incredible since its all in Spanish! But I definitely think its smart they do that, because it encourages us to focus our studies on what our "investigators" need. That way, our studies are focused on the lessons, and that's ultimately what we need help with the most. Hopefully he is a good teacher as well!

Gym time is definitely the highlight of the days here. We play sand volleyball out on the fields next to the temple. I wish I could say we are all just happy and congratulate each other on crappy shots, but we don't. Its pretty intense. Haha its fun though! Our district is pretty good, so it makes it fun to play. Then we all have to sprint back to the dorms to try and get a shower, so I'm sure it looks ridiculous seeing about 100 missionaries sprint back to the dorms at once across the street.

We realized something the other day...we are basically robots here. We get up. Shower. Wear a uniform. Eat. Study. Eat lunch. Outdoors time. Shower. Study. Eat dinner. Study. Teach. Study. Shower. Sleep. hahaha its the same thing every single day. WHO THE HECK SHOWERS 3 TIMES A DAY?!? Everyone does here, its the weirdest thing ever. I've never felt so clean in my entire life. Get it? Clean? Spiritual? Dad, you know you liked that one.

That's basically my day every single day. Sundays are a bit more studying since we don't have classes. Sunday night and Tuesday night we have devotionals, so that's fun too!

Some spiritual stuff I've learned so far....I guess that's important too. My favorite thing was from a talk we watched by Jeffrey R. Holland. It was all about spiritual power and stuff. He said, "Miracles don't happen because we don't take ourselves, spiritually, to the point where miracles do. You can boil water forever at 210 degrees and you will NEVER get steam. Its the 2 degrees that make a difference." it was all about having to put a ton of work into this and going past where we are comfortable in order to have the Lord truly be able to work through us. I don't think I fully comprehend the quote yet. its probably much deeper than I think. But either way, its cool. The best part was when he said "Man's extremity is God's opportunity." Only when we are willing to get out of the boat will we be able to walk on water. Cool! Definitely makes me want to work harder and push myself further than i think I can.

Speaking of that, my Spanish is coming along pretty well! Its not great. But its getting better. We pray only in Spanish now. And our lessons are about 45 minutes long, so I am talking to people for that long only in Spanish. Its definitely hard, but I am getting so much better. Its cool when you can hear someone talk and be able to know what they are saying. Hopefully by our Christmas call I'll be close to fluent! They usually say its around 6 months that missionaries are super comfortable with the language. I'm hoping so.

Oh this is funny. So in Spanish you say "Como estas?" to say "How's it going?". There are probably a ton of answers, but the only one i can think of is "Estoy bien", which means "I'm good". So i say it all the time. People must think I'm the happiest person in the world, because all I have is the same response that I'm good and happy. I mean i am most of the time...but some variety would be nice. Hopefully I'll pick up some more vocab haha.

Anyway, I am happy out here. The Lord definitely blesses his missionaries! We are feeling the spirit constantly. Its easy to sometimes think you are doing things on your own, but I am being humbled constantly and reminded that we need the Lord in all things. We may be able to be okay on our own, but we always need Him. He stands there, waiting to bless us. We just need to humble ourselves, recognize that we need him, and ask. I have learned that so much already, and I know that the people of Chile are waiting to hear the same message. The gospel is so happy, peaceful, and perfect. I can't wait til I can see a real investigator accept Christ in their life!

I love you guys so so much! You guys are the best. Keep up the good work at home, and I'll do my part out here.
Con Amor,
Elder Brady Tengberg