Ricardo Ate My Cookies - Email 12/17/12

Okay first things first i havent read any of your emails yet because i dont have a lot of time, so i will print them off and read them today and respond next week on my phone call! About that, i Know that i am calling home on Monday the 24th. I dont know for how long or when, but i know its the 24th. They dont want us to be losing our tuesday since we already have pday monday, so thats that! But i will be skyping and stuff so thats awesome. Last year president said talk for as long as you want, so hopefully that happens again. Haha if not i will enjoy the hour! I dont konw what he will say, but we will find out. I have conference with him and the whole mission tomorrow (i will get all of the packages tomorrow) and i am sure he will tell us the rules. But either way, be ready on the 24th! I am really excited to talk to you all. I am starting to write down some funny stuff to tell you abotu but ask lots of questions! I will forget most everything i planned out cause ill be so excited.

Anyway, kind of a rough week. It was actually a really good week but the results were a little bit hard at the end. Last week i was SO excited and we had SO much potential, and this week we were EXACTLY obedient, prayed for those people every day, put our whole hearts into serving them, prepared every day special lessons, fasted, prayed more, and then none of our 3 fechas showed up for church. It absolutely broke my heart. This cambio has been different because i have felt a much more personal responsibility for the people. Because i have to prepare more and teach more, because i know them better and for longer, i feel so close to them and responsible for their success. When none of them showed up, i just about wanted to cry. Haha it made me so sad that we could have SUCH powerful lessons, they could feel the spirit so strongly, have the desire to get baptized, and then fall. But its helped me to learn some really cool lessons this week and i am grateful for that. One of those is that it must be REALLY hard being a parent. I am sorry mom and dad for all the stupid mistakes i fell into. It must have been so hard to pray and fast for your kids success and KNOW what was best for them, but have to watch me make dumb mistakes. You must have just wanted to slap me across the face and call me an idiot! It is so hard when agency of other people is in play. No matter what you guys did as parents, it was still my choice to act on the principles you taught me and apply them. No matter how much you tried, how much you prayed, fasted, encouraged, ANYTHING, it didnt matter. It was my choice. Its a really hard concept to grasp and frankly it kind of sucks. Hahaha i felt so bad this week when these people who i had done SO much for still turned around and fell back into their old ways. But i realized that it is so important to be patient and help and love and not just abandon them. But thank you for your patience in raising me. I know it wasnt easy and i am sorry if i ever put you through that kind of pain, but i am finally starting to get a little glimpse of what that might be like and its not easy. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart! 

That has been the biggest challenge of the week. Trying to stay happy when you put your whole heart into something and it doesnt pan out. We kind of went through a little "why me?" pity party on sunday for awhile after all of our baptismal dates fell, but then i learned something really cool. Its really easy to be obedient and fast and pray if its guaranteed to work every time. Every missionary would do it and there would be NO disobedient missionaries if it was guaranteed success! But we have to suffer through the hard times even when we are being obedient because thats where faith really comes in. Faith isnt expecting perfect results if we act the right way. That woudlnt be faith....it would just be simple logic. I thought of Aaron and the 2 other sons of mosiah who were thrown into prison from the lamanites as they went to try and teach. They werent being disobedient - i guarantee they were the most obedient and most righteous missionaries ever. But they had to be tested! It is NEVER guaranteed success if we are obedient and obey the commandments. I am excited to keep doing my part and keep doing everything i can to progress the work. That way, i know if it doesnt happen it was just the lords will and not because i didnt try hard enough. I guess thats all i can really ask for as a missionary. Freaking agency....cmon people!

OH! Latst story in the Ricardo Temer chronicles. We made those cookies last week that you sent me mom (the mint chocolate chip ones. SPEAKING OF PACKAGES: I love my christmas one so much! I love opening the little gifts every day. You spoil me way too much and are way too nice. Also, elder wray walked in on me licking the inside of the reeses peanut butter cup wrapper....embarrassing? I would not be sad if i got a package of pure reese´s. No joke." Anyway i made the mint chocolate chip cookies and we left to go to Lota for a meeting, then when we came back 4 were gone. 4! Hahaha so i was like HERMANO TEMER! BAJE INMEDIATEMENTE! Which is just like get down here right now. And he started laughing because he KNEW i wasnt going to be happy! hahaha the guy ate 4 cookies! Well he ate 2 and then took 2 to work to keep there so he could eat them the NEXT day! Hahaha i could not stop laughing. I was like "Hermano Temer those were our cookies! Why did you eat 4 cookies! That is so many!" and he was like "Yeah well they were really good!" "i KNOW they were good thats why i was saving them! CMON hermano temer!!" and he just kept saying "well its okay because they were really good. seriously, like they were incredible." hahaha i about killed him. its okay i eat his bread every day so were even. And also, i made the pumpkin bars and homemade cream cheese frosting and he tried cream cheese for the first time. I was dying laughing. he had one tiny pinky-full and was like "oh dang this stuff is good. what IS this stuff?" and ended up using his pinky to scoop EVERY left over drop out of the jar. Love the guy. I am sure going to miss him when i leave Arauco. 

Thats basically all i have time for. I love being a missionary so much and ams o excited to continue to work hard. I get now why it is mentally and emotionally hard too and not just physically tiring. it reallyis hard putting your whole heart into the people and then having them disappoint you over and over again. but i wouldnt have it any other way. I love how jeffrey r holland says "Salvation isnt cheap. It wasnt easy for Him (christ), it wont be easy for you, and it will never be easy for your investigators." Its not an easy process! but BOY is it worth it. I am excited to keep working and i know the results will come int he lords time.

I love you all! Merry Christmas!

Elder Tengberg

this ciber place sucks and i cant send pictures. sorry!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas- Email 12/10/12

Hellloooo familia! 

So this has been a crazy week like always. I know I start the same way every week but its because it really is! Missionary life doesnt change much - its just consistently odd, bizarre experiences and crazy spiritual ones too. 

But first things first -  i LOVE my new companion. Elder Wray is from Salt Lake city, Utah, and is about 6´5. He is huge. He is super skinny and tall, and can dunk, and is just awesome. Its crazy how different our companionship is from Elder Ramirez and me, but its so good! Its just completely different haha. Elder Wray is a bit quieter and thus our teaching style is a lot different. Elder Ramirez was a straight up clown half the time, and we always just messed around and joked with investigators and stuff. But even with him I just kind of held back alot because it was my job to support him since he was senior companion and had more time and spoke more spanish and everything. but because i am the one who has more time in the sector, i have had to do a lot of the talking this week and updating Elder Wray on the investigators and calling people and setting up appointments and lessons and planning lessons. Its actually been really cool. I have learned how much I love Arauco and how much I love these people, and definitely have grown a TON in the last 3 months. Elder Wray was a zone leader in Temuco for about 7 months and he is only at 17 months right now, so he is obviously just a stud. He has already managed to get to know everyone and is taking over nicely again so i appreciate that. But it has been cool to see that when it was necessary for me to take over a little bit, Heavenly Father could help me out and put some of the words in my mouth to get things going! I have just been really happy though this week. We have had a ton of success and really laid the groundwork for a great cambio. 

We have 4 fechas right now (fechas are dates...so baptismal dates i guess. But ill probably forget and just say fechas so just get used to it haha sorry). 2 are hector and cecilia for February 2nd after their marriae on the 1st, and then we have Zayra for the 29th and Camila for the 29th. Idont know if anyone remembers Zayra? We have worked with her about my whole time in Arauco. But we had just been focusing solely on trying to get her to church or resolving her doubts and hadnt really been focusing on baptism that much. but when Elder Wray came we read a talk called "The vision to baptize" and it kind of lit a fire in us a little bit. Haha so we focused really hard with her on that and at the end she was like, when i asked her why she wanted to get baptized, "If I want to find peace in my life i need to get baptized". Haha umm YES that would be the perfect answer. SO i really hope that she can keep progressing. Camila is a girl who is like 28 who is Karina´s sister, dont know if you all remember Karina. Karina was Reinata´s mom, my first baptism? So we have been teaching her and she is just so incredible too. She has some problems to work through, but i know that Heavenly Father wants to help her and we are going to be prayig really hard for her to keep going.

We are praying for 3 baptisms for December, so thats why im dreaming of a white christmas. We have some other people who we are going to put December 29th fechas with this week, so there is a really good chance it could happen. it will take a TON of work and a ton of fasting and prayer, but i know that the Lord wants to bless these people so I dont doubt what is supposed to happen for them will happen. 

Other people you might be hearing about soon....

Ana Del Rio. She is a lady we have been teaching for about a month and also will have a date for the 29th! She is doing great and she has 2 kids who are of baptism age, Anita and Chupete (Sebastian is real name haha). Chupete means lollipop by the way? So not sure why they call him that but the kids name is lollipop. Then we also have Marcela and her son Diego, who live right across the street from Valentin and Juliana, the two little ones who got baptized a few weeks ago! Haha in a matter of 20 feet on both sides of the street, we have Marcela and her kids, Paolina and Freddy and Valentin and Juliana, and then Hector and Cecilia are their next door neigbors. Lets just do a neighborhood pool party in the baptismal font, yeah? K cool.

So thats our main people for right now! We also have another family, Miguel y Andrea, that we are working with. They have 3 kids and all came to church this week. It was so cool to see them all there. Im tired of the people in our branch not taking interest in our investigators, so this week as we walked in I brought them ALL the way to the front pew, making a not-so-quiet effort to sit them down, get them a hymn book, and then sit by them. Haha after church EVERYONE was asking us who the new couple was, so it was about time! A lot of times we just have them sit in the back so they dont feel uncomfortable but i hate how a ton of members are just in their own little world and dont even notice people new or different or sitting alone. So never again will my branch not know that i am bringing people! Haha they´re going to know.

This week has just been so incredible. We have had a ton of success, really involved the members more in the work, and are starting to see the fruits of our efforts. We have a family home evening with Freddy and Paolina and Vale and Juli, with the primary president and her husband and 4 kids, so we are trying to get these people integrated! OH! Speaking of primary. Coolest thing ever. This week was the primary program!!!!! If you think the primary christmas program is cool or cute in english, come to Arauco. It was about the coolest thing i have ever seen in my entire life. First of all, all of the kids are just the cutest thing ever and gave the best talks and sung so obnoxiously loud and off key. Chileans LOVE to sing but arent really the best singers, so i fit in perfectly hahaha. I am just as bad. But the kids were just the cutest thing ever and they all had the best talks. Valentin and Juliana gave talks too! I was so proud of them and was just smiling ear to ear the entire time. Paolina came and was so proud of her little ones too. Valentin talked about how we are happier when we follow Christ. Are there any happier things for a missionary to see? Seriously, so blessed.

Lastly, Estefania has been incredilbe. SHe got baptized a few weeks ago and has already been helping us a ton. She went on visits with us this week (that visit with Zayra) and was so crucial. She shared her testimony, invited Zayra (without us even telling her this) to church and said she would pass by for her, and invited another one of her friends to take the missionary discussions in her house. She invited her mom to church, did a contact at a door, and is starting to think about going on a mission when she turns 19 in about a year and a half. Haha seriously, SO COOL. I am just so blessed as a missionary to have seen the great change that the gospel can bring in peoples lives, and know that I will continue to see miracles this week. 

Sorry there arent many funny stories this week. I have just been so focused on these people and how I can be a better missionary and it has been such an awesome week. But there is ONE story that is worth mentioning....this lady we talked to. I think she might have been like 85 or 90, and was completely gone mentally. Hahaha i dont even know why we stayed and talked to her for more than 30 seconds but it was just so hilarious that i couldnt stop! We walk in and she is like "Yes...yes....come in, please." So thats just weird because no one says that. But then she proceeds on, and im obviously paraphrasing, and says "You´re here to mock me, arent you! They sent you here to mock me because they killed my son. You can pass by, but you cant dance. They used to come every day and dance with my daughter, and I hated it. They danced with my daughter!" She claims that missionaries came by every day and danced with her daughter?! I was SO confused but it was just hilarious and i was trying so hard not to laugh. So we very happily assured her that we would NOT be passing by every day and very likely not at all. So...sorry Rosa. We dont want to dance with your daughter.

I Love you all! I hope you are having a great christmas. Thanks all for the letters, emails, and love. Thanks sister Brunson for your letter and the Westerlunds as well! I will be sending out letters soon when i get some more free time. I got your pre-christmas package mom and will be getting other packages/letters the 18th. So hopefully it all gets there by then and if not we will make a trip up to conce before christmas on the 24th to check again. Thank you all for your love! 

And happy birthday to Mary this week on Saturday!!! Turning 19 what what. Remember when you turned 18 and Ryan wrote that beautiful poem? Hahaha hope its a great one. I hope you really enjoy it in the convent of nuns that you´ve been in for the past 6 months.

Feliz Navidad! 

Elder Tengberg

I'm A Baker - Email 12/3/12

Familia -

SO many things to write.....

Well first things first, im not pregnant. I know youre all sad. The ultrasound came back negative for whatever it was supposed to find and i am feeling better, just normal cold now. So all is well!

Second thing, mom i forgot to thank you for how amazing that thanksgiving package was! That was honestly so nice of you. I have made the biscuits and the cheesecake and they were SO good. I am making the pumpkin bars today and i am even making my own homemade cheesecake frosting that i bought the ingredients for today (ill do anything for sugar, lets be real). I loved it all so much and especially the pictures of the family! I have been showing everyone and everyone loves them. Im a happy missionary and so blessed. It was definitely a thanksgiving with lots to be thankful for!

Okay so last monday. I totally forgot to tell you guys this! Hector and Cecilia are progressing so well and their wedding is firm for end of january or beginning of february. I really hope I will be here still. Anyway, this past monday we went to concepcion with them and picked out stuff for the wedding! Haha it was SO cool. LIke i am pretty sure that is every missionarys dream. We were walking through the suits, pulling out suits and having Hector try them on. He hates suits and just wants to wear his zapatillas all the time (soccer shoes) so it was hilarious. He had no idea how a suit should fit him so Elder Ramirez and I were just having a blast teaching him about slim fit suits and i was adjusting the sleeves and pulling the back up and adjusting the pants. All those trips to Macys for my suit sure helped mom! Haha but then we got rings for him and her (they just bought fake ones for now since its all a lot of money at once) and shoes for her. It was seriously so much fun. I forgot to take pictures of all this but i will definitely take pics at the wedding itself. I was just so happy for them. I still cant believe they are getting married. Like two 19 year old kids show up and say "Hey, you guys should get married" and next thing you know we are in Concepción buying shoes and dropping bills on fresh new ties. I was in paradise. But anyway they are doing awesome! Today we made bread with them today too because hector is a really good chef but thats coming below.

Hahaha this is so funny. So the little viejito (means little old man) we live with is Hermano Ricardo Temer. He is just a riot. Seriously i cant even describe him in enough words. He has fake teeth, is about 5 feet tall, constanly is playing becah boys on the guitar or the beatles, is quite obsessed with cheese, and constantly messing up english words to make weird phrases like "You eat the cheese in my bed?" Umm...no? Hahaha so every day elder ramirez and i have so much fun. he leaves for work when we are studying, and since there are 2 windows upstairs that face the street (one in our bedroom/harry potter closet) and the other in our study room, so we each take a window every morning and SHOUT as he leaves. "HERMANO TEMER!!! HERMANO! CIAO! HAVE A GOOD DAY AT WORK! HERMANO TEMER! LOOK UP HERE! IN THE SECOND STORY! SELL LOTS OF THINGS!" and he tries to run away because he gets so embarrassed by us. So he is like waving and half hobbling away and we are just SCREAMING goodbye at him every morning. hahahhaa it is seriously so funny. And the latest development in the Hermano Temer chronicles is that he likes to critique the way we brush our teeth. Elder Ramirez brushes his teeth for a real long time because he wants to be a dentist and has a teeth obsession, and apparently that bothers our viejito ricardo. So my personal favorite today was Hermano Temer saying "Elder Ramirez youre going to end up without any plaque!" trying to say "youre going to end up without any enamel!" on the teeth....and elder ramirez was like "Uhhh yeah thats kind of the POINT hermano temer!" hahaha and then he whispered to me in english "What is he freaking talking about? He doesnt even have any teeth? Why would i take advice from him?" hahaha i died. I love ramirez and i love hermano temer. We have quite the little house here in arauco!

Elder Ramirez is leaving this week. I figured it would happen and its good for him. He is heading to Temuco to be a zone leader. Definitely where he should be. I am getting someone from the south in temuco who WAS a zone leader down there though! His name is Elder Wray and i will get him tomorrow. Im excited to work with him, ive heard great things. No one will ever be a comp like elder ramirez, but we will have a new friendship and im stoked for it. Ramirez and i are definitely going to miss each other thouh. He is going to be a lifelong friend and when he plays soccer at BYU after his mission we will definitely hang out. he is entering in spring semester a few months before i get back so i will definitely be hanging out with him again! Sad seeing him go though.

Carlos couldnt get baptized. He went 5 days without smoking and we were SO SO SO proud of him. Seriously, i have never prayed so hard for someone in my life. I prayed so dang hard for the kid and he was doing awesome. but he went to conce one day with his friends and some girl offered him a cigarrete. The litttle she-devil stole our baptismal date! Haha but its probably for the better so he can prepare some more. Hopefully this month some time! He is a great kid and will make a great member of the church, but just needs a LITTLE bit more.

Last things last....i love being a missionary. I truly love it. It is so hard, so lonely at times, so frustrating, and so tiring. But last night as i thought back on these last 2 and a half months with elder ramirez, i have been so blessed. it kind of felt like a break up (and lets just say certain circumstances this summer leaving a little blonde girl named Mary have left me a LITTLE sensitive to goodbyes) and was so weird. but as i looked back on the moments, the converts, the tears, the studies, the laundry bag wars, the found puppies, the crying-laughing moments, the incredibly horrible smells that occupied our room, and the growth we both experienced, i realized there is nothing like a mission. I am a different person than i was 5 months ago. I truly am. Heavenly Father has allowed me to experience a life that I never thought I would get to. he has taken me from a selfish teenager to a slightly selfish teenager who spends a little bit of time bringing poeple the happiest message in the world. I have a long way to go, but i am so grateful for the growth he has let me see so far. I am grateful for the trials, the tears, the sadness, the love, the baptisms, the joy, the experience. I love the mission so much. If anyone is debating going, please. Please go. You will never do anything better for your life, and never do anything better for someone ELSE´s life than serve. I love being a missionary and so honored to wear the name Elder Tengberg for 2 years of my life.

I love you all so much. Last thing i have learned i wanted to share. A lot of times people complain about why hard things happen to good people. I have learned so clearly on the mission that it wouldnt make sense if they didnt. We HAVE to be tested. Some of the hardest things in history have happened to the most righteous people. In Mosiah 25 i think(maybe later, not sure) it talks about the burdens placed on alma´s people after they left. They had SUCh hard trials placed upon them, and it says that the Lord saw convenient to try the faith and patience of his people. Convenient! But those who trust in him, who dont say "why me?", who dont doubt Gods love for them, and who are grateful for the trust the lord has placed in their growth, THEY will have their burdens eased. THe scriptures show SO many times that the prophets never prayed to have their trials eased. They prayed to have the strength to get through the trials they KNEW would come. Heck they hadnt even come yet! But they understood the purpose of trials. Lastly, Christ himself was tried. In Mosiah 14, i think verse 10 or 12, it says that it pleased the lord to bruise him and break him (or something like that, translating here). It pleased Heavenly Father to test his son. Pleased him! The most righteous person ever had to be tested too. Thats the only way that he could prove he deserved the amazing gifts and blessings that awaited him after this life. It is SO hard in practice and i have so much work to do, but when we have patience in our trials, and look for the good, we will be so much happier. People who do the right things WILL have problems. Its a simple fact. Probably more than the wicked. but that just means God loves us, trusts us, and knows we can be a little bit better. Lets embrace it then :)

I love you all. Have a great week and a great christmas season. P.s. here is my going away pics from my last district and my last zone! Honormex because Hon-duras Nor-thamericans and Mex-ican. And my zone took a prom pic. And these are our bread pics with Hector!! Such good bread. Im a real chilean now. Seriously i made such good bread. How did i do it? its a secret. I even wrote all the recipe in spanish so no one could ever steal it from me. Also, they dont use recipes. I kept trying to ask HOW MUCH DANG FLOUR and he just kept saying "throw more, no throw more water". Well hey GENIUS maybe if you told me 1.4 teaspoons of agua i could figure this out. my math mind wasnt helping. But it turned out either way!!

Elder Tengberg

Is it a Boy or a Girl? - Email 11/26/12

Well WOW. What a week. Haha first things first,somehow i am still a little bit sick. I had a random crazy relapse tuesday and i just threw up straight for like an hour, but then i was good and we went out to work and had a great lesson with Estefania, and all was good. Haha but then our mission mom called us and had a little panic attack, so she made me go back to the doctor again. Where i then proceeded to have blood tests, urine tests, and an ULTRASOUND! Needless to say i was just cracking jokes the entire time. I was laughing so hard, and the stupid guy taking the ultrasound was laughing and kept shaking the little machine. I kept saying "I feel it kicking doc! Is it a boy or a girl!?" and he was just like "can you PLEASE just breathe in and hold still?" So needless to say i am enjoying it, especially because i dont feel sick anymore. But we will be going back to concepcion thursday to see the results of my baby-check and then we will know what kind of baby im holding in my extremely angry stomach.

Estefania got baptized this sunday! We had an awesome baptismal service, and she just had an incredible week. Even last week we were really doubting whether or not she was going to get baptized, but she took some huge steps forward in faith and the answers started coming as soon as she did that. We found her at church one day because she came with some other girls, and then we started teaching her! So its not like we really did too much which is why you havent heard too much about her as of yet. But she is 17 years old and is really eager to learn. her parents arent members and her mom was the reason why she hadnt had the missionaries over before, but the mom seemed to have a change of heart lately because some stuff happened in the family. SO anyway we finally got to go teach her in her house and it just went off like crazy from there. But yeah i got to baptize her and it was really cool! It was my first time baptizing someone a little bit older, so it was cool being able to relate a little bit more to how they would feel. As we left the font, I made sure to ask her how she felt, and it was just so cool to see the tears in her eyes as she told me she felt so clean. Its crazy the changes that the gospel can make in our life. Sometimes we are scared to take steps, and sometimes we dont always see the need, and other times we just plain dont want to, but heavenly father is never going to let us do something that will HURT our life if our intentions are trying to follow him. I know for a fact that any time we take a step forward, with that step being guided first by prayer, heavenly father will carry us 100x further than we ever could become on our own.We all have different steps, we all are in different situations, but the gospel is the only universal help. It doesnt matter what your problems are, the gospel helps in EVERY single way. And thats why i love beng a missionary! Because my life is seriously just helping other peopls lives become better. Its so incredible and i really hope she continues to make some great changes and choices in her life. She is already really ingrained in the young womens program so hopefully that helps to keep her strong.

Something else I learned this week, and gained a testimony of when i applied it. Last week Mary sent me a quote in a letter that said something along the lines of, "I am learnign not to stress the little things because God will ALWAYS take care of me when i am being 100% obedient." I think that is the most perfect, deep insight on faith and obedience. Thats the whole reason that we are obedient and do the little things that God asks us to do. Thats why these Chileans want to get baptized, want to show god their faith, want to obey the commandments. Because when we do EVERYTHING we can, we have no reason to doubt that god is protecting us and guiding us. The scary times are when we KNOW that we are lacking something, because then we know that we cant legitimately ask Heavenly Father for help. Its a terrible feeling. But when we are 100% obedient and 100% dedicated to him, we have absolutely nothing to fear. he has no reason not to bless us. I have loved seeing this week the reality of that. SO many investigators have grown to understand that our obedience in life allows us to deserve gods help, and its really cool to see the blessings that do come from it.

Also, last week i was person number 59 on a bus of 28 seats. That, my friends, is the Chilean transit system.

Lastly, Happy thanksgiving to all! I had an awesome thanksgiving. I made reeses peanut butter cup cheesecake with another elder (oh mom i got your package on tuesday! Thank you so so so much! It was so awesome. reeses lasted a whole 2 days!), then we had thanksgiving dinner at an AMERICAN ladys house on sunday. how lucky is that? From american fork, utah. We had turkey, biscuits, stuffing, apple pie that was SO good but not quite as good as dudleys danish apple nut (cmon we´re danish, who can beat that?), and ate WAY too much to be humanly healthy.The one picture is of Guillermo and Fabiola Brand (the younger couple who are both chilean, same age as matt and jennae and same age kids! haha i feel at home) and also Jeri and Nivaldo Lepillan-Tucker, with little andrew at their feet. We all had to make pregnant bellies....well i told them all to, because thats how my stomach actually looked, and i didnt want to be the only fat one. Haha but it was so awesome.

I think thats all for this week! We have another baptismal date for this next saturday that we are praying SO hard for. Its a 20 year old kid named Carlos who has been meeting with missionaries for about 8 months, but has never been able to quit smoking. but we had a really powerful lesson with him the other day and he committed to stop. Then the next day he called and said he relapsed, but it made him sick and he never wanted to again. and he hasnt since then! so we are really hoping it goes through.

The work is going quite well in Arauco! this very well could be my last week with elder ramirez, because cambios are this upcoming tuesday. But we will find out saturday so ill let you know next p day. I will be very sad if it is. He is a great friend and we are so excited to stay in touch for a long time. He is such a stud missionary and i dont know what ill do without him in Arauco! But the lord knows what is best for all of us, so i cant worry.

Love you all so much.

Elder Tengberg

Laundry Bag Battles - Email 11/19/12

Hola familia!

This was a good week. Definitely a bit stressful and a bit tiring, but it was definitely good. Ill write as much as i can...

So first things first we have a baptism scheduled for next week! The girls name is Estefanìa. She is about 18 years old and has been investigating the church for awhile but her mom hasnt really been all for her joining. but we have been working really hard with her and she is ready to take the step. So that will be this next saturday. We had some other people too but they couldnt come to church because of some family problems, so we are moving them to sometime in december. So we will end up with 3 this month, which is short of our goal of 5 baptisms. But still way good! We really wanted 5 because we knew it was possible, but we have a ton of potential for December so we will jsut be working extra hard to get that.

OH FREAKING CONGRATS TO RYAN SANTORE!!!! Dude barcelona spain? I mean it sucks you arent going to the only celestial mission Chile Concepcion Sur but that is so tight! My boy alexis sanchez plays for Barcelona, so keep a good eye on him, k? If you baptize him I will give you a million dollars, because that means the entire population of chile would get baptized. He is worshipped down here. So theres your new goal. Baptize the greatest soccer player in chilean history. But for real congrats man! Cant wait to speak spanish together after the mish and confuse Mary and Cristina like no other. Maybe not cristina because she knows spanish but mary for sure...#SpanishbetterthanCantonese AND CONGRATS TO KIM MONROE who is going to Osorno Chile mission reporting in Jan. Osorno is south of me.  FREAKING that is so cool! Congrats!!  Ahhh, Kim, you will love love love chile.Its so sweet. and the penguins are legit down there. Literally, there are penguins down there. Haha how crazy is that? 

I had to give another talk in church this week. haha this time went a lot better. I spoke for about 15 minutes which rreally surprised me! We found out saturday night (better than sunday morning, could be worse) and then i prepared it sunday morning before church. It was a really easy topic, the life of christ, so i just talked about some of my favorite stories from the bible. Since i have been reading the new testament to try and finish before christmas, it was super easy to prepare. But i realized how much better my spanish has gotten. I wrote down two scriptures and a few notes on a piece of paper, then just went up and freelanced it! I mean obviously heavenly father put the words in my mouth that the people needed, but i was still shocked that i didnt have that hard of a time thinking of the words. I have gotten a lot better. I still have a long way to go but i really dont find it that big of a struggle anymore, so that makes me really happy. Hopefully by our skype call on christmas you guys can hear me and ill sound like a real latino! But seriously Chilean spanish is not spanish. My favorite word here is "question" which they say like "quest-y-own" which is literally translated to "that little thing that has no name". hahaha like that is NOT spanish people. I know that for a fact. So hopefully i can still pass those spanish classes when i get back at byu, because right now i dont know spanish. i know chilean.

I will actually get thanksgiving this week! One of the families in our ward is an american women. She is from American Fork, Utah if you would believe that. She served a mission here and then ended up coming back and marrying a Mapuche indian man who is super nice. A little strange the whole situation, but they are an awesome family and i just love them. Anyway she is making us thanksgiving dinner! I think i am the luckiest missionary ever. haha i have a woman who speaks english (the whole family does actually) and i will have thanksgiving dinner with turkey, rolls, apple pies, and everything. She is a really good cook so i am definitely excited for this sunday when she makes it. Haha SWEEEET!

Last little thing. Randomly Elder Ramirez and i have been making EVERYTHING into a competition. Like we are having so much fun together because its really likely that when this transfer ends in 14 days that he will be leaving. We are such good friends now. So the other day we were carrying our laundry bags to our mamita and we randomly just had this HUGE battle for a good 5 minutes (not even exaggerating, it lasted for so long) trying to hit each other with our laundry bags. Mine was a bit more agile and swingable, but he definitely had the upper hand with the sledgehammer of a bag he was carrying. I got his legs a few times and the head a few times, but he clocked me in the head so hard. Hahaha we just looked absolutely ridiculous like pacing around in circles and trying to get position. At the end we both had footprints on our black pants and our clothes were all dusty...it was so funny. Last night I took the center part out of his bed frame so he crashed through the bed when he went to sit down. We are just having a blast and i love him so much. 

thats all for this week! Hope you are all loving life and feeling closer to the savior every day! he sure loves us. Each and every one of us, and he knows us perfectly. he knows what will help us, and every trial brings us closer to him. his only purpose is to make us better, so never forget that.

Les amo

Elder Tengberg

pictures are from the Hill Colo-colo that is behind our house! We climbed it today for p'day. Definitely sweet.