First off, a
few shout outs! i heard matt had a birthday today so thats awesome. what, like
50? something like that? love you man. thanks for all the help youve given me
and how much yuo have helped me through my mission. youre a big example to me.
Also happy birthday to auntie gin!
Mission stuff,
i heard grant hawkes got called speaking spanish in florida? thats so sweet! me
and him and andrew all speaking spanish....people already hated us enough and
now we will have ANOTHER language to talk in. score. good luck man!
also if i
remember correctly, ryan santore goes in wednesday to the mtc! good luck man!
youre going to kill it.keep focused on why youre there and youll be great. cant
wait to hear from you.
Mom i got your
easter package today! ill open it on easter. tuerns out i actually DONT know
when easter is and ill have to ask around. i know its end of march early april,
but im super confused. when is it? why do they not teach us these things? Haha
i feel really dumb.
Well this has
been a huge week of growth for me. I cant even describe how crazy every single
week is. So many things happen, so many things change, and overall i just am so
amazed at the hand of the lord in our work. This week i had some really neat
spiritual experiences, both personal and with investigators.
First off, i
realized this week that i have been so selfish this cambio. I have been so
focused on myself and my own problems and how thngs were affecting me that i
missed out on a ton of things thati could have helped people with. Basically, i
realized that as missionaries we oftentimes dont REALLY use our time that
effectively. How often do missionaries come through a ward, teach a few people,
maybe bring back a few less actives, maybe baptizea few. those are all great
things,but what happens after? Is the branch really changed? I realized i have
been so selfish and im really repenting of that. For example, Coronel has 2
active families. 2. 2 couples where a man and a woman attend church. EVERY
other single person that attends is single or the spouse is inactive. Like how
sad is that? Its a huge thing that i saw before but didnt realize how much that
affected. And i realized that i havent been doing my part to really make that difference.
This week we have been focusing alot more on reactivation. It isnt a really fun
work because everyone loves to bring new people to church and baptize and see
the incredible changes, but its a huge thing that needs to change. So yeah, we
did a little bit of that. But then i realized, we are not working that
effectively. Like before i came tothe mission - they taught us in the mtc. They
didnt say "aw they dont get it, lets go back to chile and do it
ourselves." No! Obviously we didnt get how to be good missionaries, so
they had to TEACH us. The reactivation efforts are really slow here. Home
teaching is about 0-5%, and its just hard to bring people back. But rather than
sit on my butt and say "well its sure a shame that members dont work too hard
here. they really need to change" and go back to my work of finding
news, i have to go TEACH them how to reactivate. I have been focusing all my
efforts on the external results and not on fixing the roots of the problem. So
i am really excited for that change and we as the 4 missionaries here are
really going to start drilling the families here so that they can get back
together. ANd we saw some miracles with that.
Right now, we
are teaching one family that i am just in love with. His name is Joaquin, she
is Claudia, and they have two kids, Leyre and Asuncion. They are like 29 or 30
or something, and are so cool. He is an inactive member but didnt really leave
for a reason...just was inactive. But we had gotten the same reference from two
different members so we decided to just go find them and not wait for the
members to find them and invite them (which is what they encourage us to do
with references). it was such an incredible lesson. We were all crying as we
talked about eternal families, the temple, the gospel, and the blessings of
obedience. They are reading, came to a church activity last week, and loved it.
I am really excited for them because the wife isnt a member and neither is the
daughter, and the daughter is just dying to get baptized. We are going to work
real hard with joaquin though because he can do it (since they are married). he
just needs to get active! But keep them in your prayers. We are visiting them
tonight and we are goingt o put a baptismal date for april with them. Should be
good!
Other things
this week...oh our pancake experience went well with marcelo and paola! That
was really fun. I caught Juan Pablo the next day eating maple syrup with a
spoon hahaha. Marcelo is like one of my best friends here in chile now. I love
that guy so much. Haha we are always joking around and he says he wants to do a
business in the states selling chilean artesania....not sure how it will work
but HEY we´ll give it a try marcelo. But in all seriousness i really want to
make an empanada business right in the middle of the cougareat...ill be famous.
#AdiosTacoBell. See what i did there? im so funny.
Also we did a
real bad thing this week. I found out the number for a delivery guy here in
coronel who delivers completos and french fires and mechados to the house, and
its SO cheap. Guys im obsessed. IM GOING TO GET SO FAT HERE. Mary is never
going to love me again....but for real its a problem. I love completos so much!
Its just oversized hot dogs in freshest bun, overflowing with avocado and
tomato and mayo...MMMM so delicious. Nothing like it. But yeah. Every day we
say "OUR DIET STARTS TOMORROW" like the harvard sailing team video,
but it never does. Well actually i say that because my companion speaks spanish
but yeah, you get the point. We´re fat and happy.
Big thing this
week was my acting career. Guys...little did youknow that i am actually NOT
teaching as a missionary and am currently winning grammy awards. We had a
pioneer performance this week and i had to play the part of an apostle (we
looked like vampires, not apostels....this was pre-change to my grammy actor
performance). Turns out i was undercasted. I took upon myself the need to do
a quick costume change (took off the coat, they never saw it coming), and
play the part of an overly dramatic cripple. The crowd was wild. All 14 people
in the audience were shouting my name in the streets. The mayor came. HUGE
deal. In fact the parade just ended a couple of hours ago. Anyway i have an
awesome video that marcelo took and ill get it to you all somehow. Hahaha its
so bad...seriously the funniest thing ever. #FRESHman performance round 3? Also
that same day i ran in a marathon. There was a marathon outside the church so
right before church started, i jumped in in my suit and started running with
people haha. It was super fun. Also, i am so out of shape. i ran like 30 yards
and was like YEP im going to go sit down. haha #Maryhatesme
Ill end with
my experience this week from the baptism of Juan Pablo and Diego. It was one of
my favorite baptisms of my mission so far. Ithink it was just because it was so
cool to see the change in this family. We already have another baptismal date
with their cousin Oscar who felt the spirit so strong there and are going to
put one more with their abuela Domitila, and this family is just cruising
strong.We had a setback because they technically arent married....TINY detail.
But we got the chance to teach all about temple marriage and we are going to
start putting some goals this week for them. but during the service i was just
so touched. I looked back and saw paola crying as she watched her kids sing
(they sang the "earth right after rain" song witht he primary) and it
just hit me so hard. I am so lucky to be on a mission. this is a family that i
love SO much. I seriously love them like crazy and would do anything to help
them. We gave them that book you sent me mom about temples to read, and watched
a few videos about listening to the spirit by changing our lives, not by giving
up. They are so amazing and he will be a great leader in the church in the
future. I sure do love them. Its just remarkable as a missionary the
experiences you get to have. It almost becomes mundane (does that mean what i
think it means? like common? normal? i sure hope so....) which is sad, but the
second yo take a step back and look you see miracles every day, every
hour.
i love it. i
love you all so much, and am so grateful for this work. im not a very good
missionary, but luckily the spirit is there to always guide us and help us to
get better. Thats why were here, isnt it? To get better. Love you all.
Les quiero
mucho
Elder Tengberg
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