Moroni=Boss Email 8/24/12 & Some Pictures!

Mis amigos -

Hola! Its been another great week in the MTC. Kind of a boring one actually, but still really good. The most exciting parts were definitely getting 3 packages this week! Mom, your "Gold Medal Missionary" package was so fun to get. I loved it. I loved all the pictures and everything, so thank you so much for that! Shardae, you did not need to send a package all the way from Boston! That was so nice of you. Seriously, you're an amazing sister and I appreciate that so much. I know how busy you are trying to win us an election. so that means a lot to me that you would be kind enough to think of me. And Bryce...you're awesome. You know my love for that cheese popcorn stuff, so thanks. I am hosting this week for new missionaries so I assume I will be next week as well when you come in! Tell me what time you are coming and what car you will be in, and I'll try to be waiting for you. That would be sweet, I would show you all the wrong spots on campus and definitely drop your luggage. Sound good? Sweet.

Anyway, not the most funny week. I feel like I'm a let-down this week because nothing hilarious happened, but there were still a few good things. My favorite was the other day when Elder Watt was studying Jacob 5 about the allegory of the olive tree vineyard. He studied it for quite a long time which was really impressive, and then after he came up to me and was like "Hey can I ask you a question?" So of course I said yes. Haha his question..."Why in the world would anyone want an entire vineyard to OLIVES?! Thats disgusting!" Hahaha I started laughing so hard. Our companionship (me, Watt, and Long) are doing awesome. Mom, they loved the Pez dispensers this week! I have been sharing all my candy and stuff, so they're happy. Speaking of candy, I appreciate all the food so much, but I have SO much junk food! I took a picture of all the candy/food I have, and it literally took up my entire bed. Granted, the beds are tiny and my feet hang off, but still...thats a lot of food. Not saying I want celery and cabbage in the mail, but I am always good with granola bars or powerbars or anything that won't make me look like Chris Farley by the time I leave the MTC.

Sadly, we didn't get a new district in our Zone this week, so Elder Watt and I didn't get to do a fake comp inventory with the new people. I think we will get one this week though, so I'll be sure to let you know what ridiculous thing I come up with this week.

The most hilarious word in spanish is "Fregadero", because you can say "FRIIIGGGGGGADERO" and its super funny. People may be a little confused why we keep going around saying the word for "kitchen sink", but nonetheless, we enjoy it.

Okay, onto spiritual stuff. I have seriously had the most incredible week. My testimony has grown so much, and I just am so blessed to have so much time to study and learn here. We had Elder Andersen of the Quorum of the 12 this week for Tuesday Devotional, and he did awesome. He basically just told stories of President Monson, because it was Monson's birthday on Tuesday. My favorite part, though, was when he talked about our attitudes on the mission. He said, and I don't have my notes on me so this isn't exact wording, "When you remember the atonement and Christ's sacrifice, you will NEVER have a 'bad day' on the mission. Because, every day is another opportunity to talk about the most incredible thing that has ever happened to mankind." I agree with that so much. Its really hard to stay focused all the time, I'll be the first one to admit that. But, when we actively try and remember the REAL reason we do things, we are so much happier. I had an experience where we got to have a 45 minute lesson with another Elder in english, and we just taught each other. I loved it so much because we just got to talk about Christ. It was an incredible lesson, and the first time that I really felt like I just taught about Christ. It was so incredible. Throughout the week, I have been really holding on to that and it has been a huge blessing. One thing I loved this week about the atonement is how infinitely personal it is. In a talk from Brother Bateman (I think he is a general authority) in 2005 conference, he talked about the atonement not being a "massive pile of sin" that just fell on the savior. But, rather, it was more like a line of each of us. A line, where we all stood, waited, got to the front, gave our sins to Christ, and watched him suffer. Watched him suffer for EVERYTHING we have ever done, for every guilt, pain, sadness. That was insane to me, because I realized how personal that really is. Christ doesn't just know how to comfort his children in "inadequacy", he knows how to comfort the inadequacy Elder Tengberg felt, because he felt it. That's so powerful! Then, Elder White and I were talking about it, and he mentioned that he imagines Christ turning towards us after the sacrifice, and handing us a gift - perfectly wrapped, tied up with a bow, our name inscribed in it, the most desirable gift ever. The gift is eternal life with God. Christ suffered everything so we woulnd't have to. Its all paid for. The sad thing is, how many people in the world look the savior right in the eye, look at the gift, and then walk away? It breaks my heart. It makes me so sad to think that there are and forever will be people who don't accept Christ's suffering - who don't accept the free gift. He is so merciful and kind to do that for us and I am so excited to talk to the people of Chile and tell them how they can find that gift.

I don't know whether its the amount of time we spend reading or the mantle of a missionary, but I LOVE the scriptures so much right now. My favorite part of the day is personal study. I wish I could say everything I have learned this week but I just don't have time. Anyway, my favorite has been the War chapters this week in Alma. First off, how boss is it that Moroni and Teancum are just the sickest warriors ever? They sneak everywhere and just are incredible leaders. But the real point is that I finally learned to apply it to me. To me, this entire section of the Book of Mormon is some of the MOST applicable stuff. To me, the Lamanites are temptation/sin. We constantly need to prepare, build fortifications, and be ready for temptation to come. The Nephites were SO ready. But, temptation still comes. Battles still rage. People still get wounded. No matter how righteous you are, the battles are still going to come. The sons of Helaman, the most righteous people ever, still had 300 people faint from loss of blood. It's okay to be knocked down a few times. With God, however, we never fall. Never. We will never lose if we trust in him. My absolute FAVORITE part this week though (and if you're still reading all the way down here you're incredible) was in Alma 60:20 (I think) where they ask if they remember how many times they have been delivered out of captivity. Now, this is said probably 100 times in the BoM and I always just thought it was physical captivity, like being under someone else's power. But, with the War Chapters, I realized it was SO MUCH MORE. We have been delivered out of the hands of our enemies (temptation, sin) SO many times. We have been cleansed from the hands of temptation through repentance more times than I can imagine. And the reason we need to remember that is because it helps us to constantly be grateful to God. The reason the prophets in the BoM preach remembrance so much is because God has done so much for us! Each time we receive forgiveness of sins is one of the most incredible experiences ever. We have to remember those times, and remember that He is on our side.

I am sorry this is so rambled, but hopefully that made some sense. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for all of you! Thank you thank you!

Elder Tengberg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Llama's In The Inferno? Email 8/1712

Hola familia!
Thank you all for your e-mails and letters this week. Special shoutout to my boy Jake O'Donnell! 219 <3 forever. Thanks Sister Boehm for your e-mail as well, it was cool to get a letter in Spanish. Thank you to the Brunson's as well for your update! Missionaries love mail more than...well, everything. So thank you all so much for thinking of me, it means a lot!

Definitely been a busy week. Time seriously goes by so fast. Well, weeks do. The days seem like they take forever sometimes, but then you look back and realize, WHOA! Its already been 5 weeks. Thats kind of insane. But, I'm happy and I'm learning a ton so thats really all that matters at this point.

Anyway, Elder Watt and I got called as Zone Leaders this past week. Haha everyone makes it such a big deal here, but it really isn't. I already know that I will be released in 3 weeks when I leave, so its kind of funny. Basically, our old zone leaders leave this week, and we are the next "oldest" district, so it just became our districts turn! We are excited though. We get to help out all the new districts that come in every week and basically tell them whats up. I still feel way too young to be doing that, but I guess its our turn! I am excited though, because we get to have fake "companionship inventories", which are basically just little meetings with your companion where you talk about stuff that you can do to better the companionship. Its where you bring up issues and other stuff. But, since the new districts obviously don't know what that is, we get to show them by doing a fake one. Haha my old zone leader said during his, "Elder Jarvis, I don't know what you guys did at your house, but basically I get really weirded out when you keep trying to hold my hand when we pray. It's weird, man. Way weird." Haha the whole class was cracking up, but the Zone Leaders had to not laugh because its supposed to be serious! So I am super excited to make up some fake stuff for Elder Watt, and then not tell him before. I'll definitely come up with something funny and tell you all next week! We also get to lead a tour around the MTC, and there is this one tree we all call "Cream Tree." I don't know HOW, but it smells like Cream Soda. Weirdest thing ever. When you smell the bark, you totally can smell it! Haha its hilarious. So the new elders never want to do it, because they think they look stupid  putting their nose up to a tree. We'll see how the newbies react to that one...

Other funny stuff...every couple days or so our teachers will do a little demonstration to help get a point across. So, this week one of our teachers, Hermano Tidwell, was doing one about helping investigators overcome fears to coming to church. Naturally, I volunteered to be the "investigator," and I quickly came up with a pretty valid doubt (in my opinion). Haha I started giggling a little bit, and so did everyone in the class, so he was super worried about what was coming. After he asked me why I didn't want to come to church, and why I didn't feel I would "fit in" there...I told him this: "Well, Elder, you told me I have to take the sacrament, right? Little problem...I don't have any hands." this probably isn't that funny reading, but it was hilarious being there. He was trying so hard to keep teaching but just couldn't get anything more out. my class got a kick out of that one.

Also, in a different demonstration, one of the teachers was talking about the traditional world view of Hell and said, in spanish, "Llamas y fuego". Which, apparently means flames and fire. BUT - llamas also directly translates to llamas, the spitting animal. Our whole class didn't know there was this second translation, so I sat there imagining a whole bunch of flames and then just these loud, noisy, llamas spitting on you. Haha it was hilarious. I feel like every week I give these same stupid stories about words I say, and they aren't even funny anymore. But, also told someone this week, "You can have the influenza of the spirit". They were like "AH! NO! I don't want that!". Hahaha "influenza" and "influencia" are way too close! Haha one of these days I am going to say something seriously wrong...oh well.

I have learned a ton this week spiritually. I have seriously grown so much in the past 5 weeks. Even just my love for the gospel has grown. Every day, my favorite part of the day is Personal Study Time. Its an hour straight of uninterrupted scripture reading! Haha I don't know when in my life have i EVER been able to read for an hour straight, but I have truly grown to love it. My goal is to finish the Book of Mormon again before I leave the MTC, and since I started two weeks ago I am over 1/2 way done. So thats cool! I just really love it though. This week, I was so touched by the miraculous change of the Lamanites in Alma. Seriously, what a conversion!! As Ammon and his brethren leave, in Alma 17: 14-15 it talks about the nature of the lamanites: blood-thirsty, wicked, idolatrous, murderous, lazy. Just awful. The people mock Ammon for thinking that they could change them! And I love that. I love that the people mocked Ammon, because their words are 100% true. WE, as missionaries, can't change them. There is no WAY a 19 year old boy like me could go down to a village in Chile, tell some guy to get off his butt, stop wasting his life away doing drugs, and start to love his family and children. Absolutely not. But then again, we aren't asked to do it. We are asked to invite these men, these people who are seemingly SO far off the path, to let God change them. I know for a FACT that any success I have out in this mission will not be my own. As I followed the story more in Alma, it ends in Alma 24:18-19 with the new converts completely burying their weapons of war. They would rather DIE than sin again. They had such a miraculous change of heart, had felt the spirit so much, and had no more desire to ever be stained again, that they would rather die than sin again. So cool. I hope one day I can witness God work a miracle like that. I love the quote where it says, "Two people together can do anything, as long as one of them is God." I am so excited to see Him work those miracles in people, and be so blessed to witness it first-hand as one of his servants. I'm awfully lucky!

I have so much more to say, but literally no more time. I really do love it here. Its hard, and some days I just want to go hike Y-Mountain or go get in-n-out. But, then I go and teach one of our fake investigators about the plan of salvation, and realize that there is no greater joy than this gospel. There is no greater joy, for me, than being able to teach someone about the best part about my life. Every day, for the next 2 years, I get to share the happiest thing I know! I truly am so blesed. Thank you all for your letters and your examples, I am so touched by the love I receive out here in the field. Just know that even if I can't respond super fast or get a letter back to you individually, I am thinking of you and have been touched by your support.

I love you all!

Con Amor,
Elder Tengberg

"Wait, I'm Not Korean?" Email 8/10/12

¿Que pasa?
Ah, so glad its P-day again. I have just had an awesome week. I have felt the spirit so strongly this week, really focused on making and achieving daily goals, and praying non-stop! I have just learned a ton.

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPS! What are you now, 38? 23? I am sorry I couldn't be there to hug you in person and give you a present, but just know that I am thinking about you and that you should get a letter on Tuesday. Also, I think its Savannah's birthday this upcoming week too! Happy birthday! She should be expecting a letter this week too for her birthday, dinosaur pictures obviously included. Don't worry, definitely looked up dinosaur in spanish today...."dinosaurio". Where do they think of names like that?! Anyway, thank you so much everyone for your letters1 I love hearing about things in your life. Mom, I didn't get a chance to send pictures this week but I will try to get it out today when I drop off my letters!

Okay, so my week. Funny stuff first! So every Sunday, there is a "temple walk" where basically everyone gets to go spend an hour walking around the temple and being outside. Usually people take pictures and stuff, because its the highlight of the week. There was this group of Korean elders taking pictures together, and there were probably about 20 of them. So....Elder Schmidt and I went and joined in. Hahaha it was SO funny. There were like 20 Korean kids and then these two stark white kids on the far side. They had NO idea what to do! Haha we took jumping pictures, funny faces (context clues, they're super helpful when understanding Korean) and all this stuff. I can imagine some pretty confused parents in Korea when they get these pictures haha.  Anyway, I got a few pictures on my camera too, so hopefully someone beyond me thinks thats hilarious.

Oh! So in spanish, to say things are cool, you can say like "Es lo mejor" which is like its the best, or "Es lo maximo" is also common. It just means like "Ahh thats the best!" But for some reason our entire district thinks its the funniest thing ever to say the equivalent in English. So whenever something is really funny or even just in stupid situations, we will say in English "Ahh thats the MAXIMUM!" in our best Brian Regan voices (his voice just makes anything funnier). Hahaha so last night we were about to fall asleep, and I was like "Going to sleep is the MAXIMUM!" and we all started cracking up. Hahaha it probably isn't that funny reading this, but trust me! Its funny. Also, loving the easiness of Spanish sometimes. Half the times I can make up words and they're right! Apparently they're called "cognates", so the words in spanish and english sound the same. There are also "false cognates" as well, which have words that sound the same in english but are TOTALLY different. For example...
occupacion - occupation
real - real
restauracion - restoration
testimonio - testimony
emberazado - pregnant?
Hahaha so luckily I haven't used "emberazado" yet but apparently quite a few missionaries have fallen into the trap....too funny.

Last thing, yesterday we watched this video (there is this whole series where they filmed missionaries teaching lessons in the mission field) and these two missionaries teach the Law of Chastity to this investigator, Jerman. They were awful at explaining it, because they refused to say ANYTHING specific. So when they ask him to explain it in his own words, he says, almost word for word "Yeah you know the holy ghost, and you can't deny it, but the marriage is man and woman".....WHAT??? haha the poor guy was so confused and just had no idea what they were talking about. he looked really disturbed by it too. Hahaha but the elder was like "Perfect! Will you live the law of chastity?" So he commits to it, and then a few days later he meets with them again, and tells them this story of how he is living the law of chastity. I'm paraphrasing, but here: "Yeah so I'm trying real hard to live the law of chastity man, i'm doing a real good job. The other night,  I was at that party, you know? I saw my sisters roommate, and you know we never had a relationship but there was always some attraction there. So in my past life I totally would have like asked her out on a date or something, but I did a really good job this time and didn't even say nothin to her. I'm trying so hard to live the law of chastity. I really want to show God I am trying my best, im doing everything you guys say". hahahahaha the poor guy thought that you couldn't even DATE girls! It was SO funny. He has this little hispanic accent but he is speaking english, so it just was hilarious seeing him say that. Anyway, missionary humor probably isn't as funny to everyone else, but oh well. I thought it was hilarious.

Okay now for spiritual stuff. We are so lucky here in the MTC to get to study so much. Honestly, when else in my life will I have a solid hour and a half of personal study, hour of comp study, hour of spanish, and then classes and devotionals? I've just learned so much. A few things that I really liked this week during scripture study relate to serving God by serving his children. In a very literal sense, that's what I'm preparing to do in Chile. I loved a thought that I had on Sunday during someone's testimony. Essentially, we should think of ourselves like a pitcher of water. We ask God to fill us up with his love, so that when we go around throughout our day we can pour that water/love out to anyone who needs it. Its great feeling the spirit, but when we actively seek the spirit to bless others, thats when we really grow. And through that service, thats how we can come to know God too! I loved Mosiah 5:13 this week, where it says "For how can a man know a master whom he has not served?" Or something to that extent. Can I truly "know" Christ and God if I don't serve his children? It made this mission way more real for me. I know its something I have been taught before, but I'm a little stubborn and take awhile to learn things. It's interesting, because it totally corresponds to my thoughts earlier in the week. As i finished up 2nd nephi this past weekend, I loved when Nephi says in 33:6, just in passing, "MY jesus", How incredible is that? HIS jesus. Nephi had obviously been so close to the spirit and served SO diligently that Christ wasn't only Christ to him...he was HIS christ. His relationship with the savior was so intimate and personal, and thats something I want. Right now, I think of Christ as the savior of the world, but I don't know if my personal relationship is quite at that point yet. I hope that through these next 2 years of losing myself in serving, I can learn to know my Savior like that - that I can learn to know my master. I just love reading the scriptures right now, I have learned so much!

Anyway, this letter is way too long, I'm sorry. Chad Etch told me my letters were essays....#sorrynotsorry. I just learn so much and want to share funny stories! So if you're reading this, thanks for reading all of it. You're awesome. Love you all, family and friends! Until next week...
Con Amor,
Elder Brady Tengberg




*Here are a few pictures that I pulled off Brady's facebook. His friend Taylor Lythgoe, who is also in the MTC, took these pictures. I will upload more pictures of Brady once he send them home! Many of the guys pictured below are people he lived in the dorms with. How fun that they all get to be together one last time before going all over the world!

MIA Compananeros- Email 8/3/12

Buenas dias!

Well, another week has gone by. Thank you so much for all of your letters! I really have been so blessed this week. Every day I had at least 2 letters, I got 3 packages...you are all the best! Just know I am so happy out here and I appreciate it so much. Special shout-out to Alex Inman, Chad Etchison for letters and Bryce for a package! I saw a box of cupcakes and I was like "Oh, Mary sent me cupcakes!" No....just my college roommate. Love you man. I will get letters out to you guys today, so expect some next week. Duddy, Burt, RYAN SANTORE, talk to me you losers. I want to know what's going on in your lives!

So, I am on my 4th week! And its august! Haha that was such a big day when it hit the next month. The days all kind of blur together here, but it is nice when you look back and realize that it has almost been a month on your mission already.

So...things for this past week. I got made District Leader! So....I get everyone's mail. That's about my only responsibility. Haha I obviously do a little bit more than that, I teach a little bit on Sunday and other stuff, but basically I get mail. Its pretty sweet. We have a district only of 5 now, because 3 of the 8 left for the Guatemala MTC for the remainder of their MTC stay. Which means that I am now in a trio, so Elder Long from Las Vegas, Elder Watt, and I are always together. It has definitely taken a bit to get used to so far. Its like trying to get all the tengbergs to church on time - one person is always ready, one always has to go to the bathroom, the other is talking. Its a disaster. We are late everywhere, we usually forget one of us somewhere...but its hilarious. Elder Long is super funny, so he has just added more of a dynamic to our companionship. Its great stuff! The worst one so far was during our Service time (oh THAT will be later on in this letter, this is so ridiculous), Elder Watt and i were assigned one thing and Elder long was assigned another. So, we finished an hour and a half later, went back to the room, changed, went up to gym time....and realized we didn't have Elder Long. Hahaha so we ran all the way back to the building, this cleaning lady said that he had waited for a bit but he just left. So we should have gone to find him. but, gym time started soon. Gym time is PRECIOUS here. Its 50 minutes of freedom. We kind of just figured he would find someone (he found our other district members) so we just left. We're terrible. Hahaha it was hilarious though!

So Service here. Every week we have an hour and a half of "service" time. That's what they call it. ITS FREE LABOR. Elder Watt and I cleaned bathrooms last week, while the people who actually get paid to work at the MTC assigned us out to do the tasks and supervised us. how does that work?!? They make us clean the bathrooms and call it service?!? There is not enough Purell in the WORLD to justify that in my head. I'm still trying to figure that one out. Needless to say, we finished very quickly, quality definitely lacked, and we moved on. Our next task was to unpack the toilet paper from boxes in this basement, so we spent an hour doing that. We created a full-on two-tiered castle out of this toilet paper. It was about 10 rolls high, had different spires on each side, and was beautiful. Just working my hardest wherever its needed. All in a days work.

I MISS THE OLYMPICS SO MUCH. haha we hear little bits and pieces of what happens every now and then, but I am dying. I live for the Olympics. So PLEASE, give me updates on that through DearElder! Keep me in the loop! I heard the basketball DreamTeam like doubled someone's score last week? And the women gymnastics won? Such great stuff. USA first....Chile second.

This week has also been really great spiritually. I have grown so much. I have started to truly appreciate the blessing it is to be here and grow. We get so much time every single day to just study the gospel, in whatever way we want. I have been reading the Book of Mormon straight through, and it is a HUGE blessing. Since I have so much time to study and its impossible NOT to feel the spirit here, my understanding of the scriptures has shot up so much. One really cool thing I read this week was in 1 Nephi 20, and also in D&C 1:34. 1 Nephi talked about the Lord not teaching in secret, and i had no idea what it meant. So I followed it to D&C, and it talked about the Lord being willing to make things known unto ALL flesh. How incredible is that? He is not a secretive person, it isn't like he is playing hide and seek and hiding in the dryer like I always did. He is standing in the dead center of the hallway, WAVING his arms, trying to get us to find him. But, how often do we not even try to look? We just need to show him that we truly want to learn, grow more, and increase our ability to help others, and That's when he can bless us. He can answer any prayer, any problem, any decision. Its such a blessing, that I think we (and I mean ME for all my life) don't use enough. Cool, huh? Just a little something I got from personal study this week!

There wasn't much else that happened this week. I am learning a ton, have really changed my attitude to be positive all the time and view this as an opportunity, and its helping so much. The less we think about ourselves and the more we serve others, the happier we are. Its so weird, but its so true. Even here in the MTC, people struggle, and there are opportunities to serve. Mary said something in her letter this week that was great and inspired me a ton, so I'll pass it on. "Heavenly Father will never forget about me. he will take care of me. Its time I worry about taking care of others!" So true.

I am grateful for this chance to think less of myself. I love you all so much family and friends! You are honestly the best. I think about you all the time, and am grateful for your influence. Love you.

Con Amor,
Elder Tengberg