Miracles Always Come After the Flood- Email 1/25/14

Another crazy week. This email wont be too long either because i honestly just dont have that much to write about. I feel like my letters have gotten progressively more boring as my mission has gone along. in the beginning it was these crazy cool new experiences but im boring now i think. Haha ill try to make this fun though!

So anyway, this week we took off to the south of the mission. Since we are four of us together, we divided up. Remember how I was with Elder Dominguez in Victoria? He is a Mexican from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuaha. Literally from Chihuahua mexico, isnt that sweet? Anyway i got along really really well with him at the end there in Victoria and he and elder Medina (that small Chilean that i was just recently with in Angol) are the two other ones with Elder White and I. Kind of cool that these are all my old companions! Actually of the 6 of us that live together i have been with all of them at one point in my district or my zone so i feel really at home. Its super nice because its just all friends around me! Anyway Elder White and Elder Dominguez stayed up in the north, so Elder Medina and I took the south and we did a whole bunch of exchanges with missionaries. It was honestly a crazy week. Its kind of fun just traveling and sleeping on the floor and not sleeping and everything, because it just makes the desire for the lords help so much more. Seriously, every time in our life that we get close to floods (theres a point to this story) or extreme points, the Lord is so much closer. This week I was with some elders and actually sisters teaching as well, and most of them that i chose to go with are going through some really hard personal times. But the best secret or recipe for being happy is just losing yourself in the work, so i did my best Elder Tengberg and just had as much fun as i could. Like Wednesday arguably should have been one of the most frustrating and depressing as a missionary. I got to Pitrufquen, just south of Temuco on the map, and i hadnt slept because its 6 hours from Concepcion in bus, and i got there in a short sleeve white shirt and pants because its hot in conce. Turns out its cold in the south still haha. So we get there and it POURED rain from Wednesday afternoon all the way until Thursday morning. Without stopping. I went out, with a jacket and sweater and then just got soaked all the way to the bone. Literally everything....tie, shirt, pants, shoes, socks. Everything completely soaked. But as i was walking around with this elder, i realized it was honestly one of the happiest days of my life. We were soaking wet, but we were in the Lords work. For about a half a second i wondered "Why the heck am i doing this? Literally there are a million other things i could be doing right now in the rain." and then i just imagined how in a very short time, i will look back and long to be out contacting in the rain. Ill be driving maybe, ill be studying or watching a movie at BYU or some other thing, but i wont be doing what i am right now. And i know for a fact i am going to miss it forever. Its just crazy because the mission creates such a big part of who you are that i know for a fact that a day will never go by in my life without me thinking of this. Everytime it rains, ill remember the day that Elder Flitton and i contacted all day and found this most incredibly perfect family who want to get baptized now in Pitrufquen, who let us in and told us that their nephew is a missionary in argentina and that they dont know what else they have to do in their life so that god can bless them more, who gave us hot chocolate and thanked us for coming to their house, who told us that the only reason they were home is because it WAS in fact pouring rain and they couldn't open up their fruit business. They said if we hadnt gone in the rain, we never EVER would have found the four of them together waiting to hear the message. Now the hermanas of that sector are teaching that awesome family and it just brought tears of gratitude to my eyes that night for being where i am. One of my goals for 2014 was to become a man - to become patient, selfless and happy. At least those are the attributes of dad and my brothers and other leaders from the church that i want to be most like. And i realized that happiness is such a contextual thing for people, but it doesn't have to be. This past week all i have been praying for is to be happy. Im not sleeping, I'm eating the WORST food because we are traveling every day and its like gas station hot dogs and cheeseburgers at all times of the day, and i shouldnt be happy. Its not logical. But in my prayers i have just been saying, "I know Heavenly Father that the situation wont change, and i dont want it to, but I don't care what happens. Just help me to have a smile on my face." and WOW has it worked. Its been so cool to have such a happy week and just to truly enjoy what im doing. 

SO anyway, that was kind of a big old ramble on sentence to a short story, but im so grateful to be here. Its crazy how that the miracles come after the flood happens...Heavenly Father might send a lot of trials, but i think when we learn to front every one with a smile on our face, the help is a lot faster to come and the miracles are there. Im really grateful to be a missionary and to be where i am right now, because its just like a crazy way to focus in on miracles. Love being a missionary! So grateful that i have 5 months left still, because I'm going to truly miss this when its not here anymore. Gotta take advantage 100%!

Elder Tengberg

me and Elder Medina driving the truck, and im seeing Elder Heyman from BYU lax all the time! Our offices are together. Cool stuff.

San Pedro Week 1- Email 1/18/14

Crazy week! Well this was my first week here in San Pedro and its been kind of crazy. Im exhausted, having more fun than ever, and I am so beyond grateful for this new challenge. I am learning a ton, progressing a lot spiritualy, and growing from talking to a lot more missionaries and working with them. And BEYOND that I learned how to drive stick shift! Haha remember those classes you gave me dad and Blake? When you let me drive the mustang? Yeah it came in handy. Except for now i am driving a HUGE truck thats a LITTLE bigger than the mustang. Its awesome though. So yeah im driving stick shift on the chilean freeways and yelling at the bus drivers who cut me off. All in a days work, right? 

So i will be writing on Saturdays from now on like i said, so just be expecting that from now on! I sure love you guys. I hope you are all doing well. I dont have too much to write about this week, but just a few lessons i learned on some intercambios with some missionaries this week!

Maribel...Maribel is a lady that actually is in Coronel, i went there this week to talk with her and the missionaries and it was such an incredible experience. She is an amazing lady who has passed through SO much, but her attitude towards the future just showed me reallly what the gospel can do for us. She was so unbelievably positive. SHe had two children pass away from cystic fibrosis, her husband left her when she was 20 because he saw the kids were disabled and wanted out, and she just moved away from her family in Chillan because of problems there. She gets here to Coronel about 5 months ago...and the missionaries find her. She said she couldnt thank God enouhg. WHen she was about to commit suicide, they came and found her, and she said that the gospel has just healed her. It was incredible to see someone, who has so much reason to have darkness, with so much light. With so much hope! It was honestly a huge spiritual experience and made me so happy to be a part of it. Of course it made me wish she was MY investigator and that i had been able to participate in the change, but still cool to see the end and to do the baptismal interview for her! Very cool experience.

Another day this week, i was with Elder Hansen. he is actually from the same group as me, so he goes home in june as well, and i actually knew him at BYU because he was in my book of mormon class and my mision prep class. It was our first time working together though! He is a zone leader in the south of the mission and he is such a quality person. From him i learned this amazing lesson about attitude. It was his 2nd day in the sector, and his companion who had been there for longer went with elder white my companion to do some visits with some other sectors, so me and him were together. how easily he could have made excuses..."Its my 2nd day here, i dont know where to go, i dont konw the members." But no. He brought a member along with us, and we just knocked doors the entire day. And i have never had such a happy day. Haha its crazy. Like missionaries normally hate those days where there arent any appointments but we just were all smiles and said "we are DEFINITELY going to find a family today." we prayed in the morning to find a family of 4, with mom and dad that were already married and kids that can go on missions one day, so we just worked so hard all day knowing that we could find it. And we did! Haha we found an awesome family that they are going to be working with now. But what i learned was about attitude...Laman and Lemuel did the same things as their brother. Literally the exact same actions. but how sad that the results were so drastically different! The only difference was their attitude. Pretty sure its 1 nefi 3:6 but it says "blessed art thou nefi because thou hasnt murmured." Not becaus he went - but because he didnt murmur. SO many missionaries and PEOPLE every day go out to work, go to school, expecting life to be bad. Go to church EXPECTING it to be a drag and expecting it to take forever. And how sad that their solo attitude is the thing that impedes them from being happy. Even being on a mission means nothing if one murmurs. Missionaries go outside every day and find no one because they murmur and let their pride get in the way. I loved working with that elder and together we just had such a fun day because we both had a good desire. 

Like i said...where i am now is a much different experience. A lot less sleep, a lot more stress, but a lot more spiritual experiences as well. Im grateful to be where i am...Its a blessing gigante. 

I love you all! Ill talk to you next week!

Elder Tengberg

Chaito Angol!- Email 1/13/14

Well....I'm out of Angol. haha I leave in about 3 hours and I'm just biding my time before I head out. It wasn't that sad of a goodbye to be honest because I've kind of gotten use to this. In the beginning it was all sad with every transfer but now its just kind of like "well this is life!" and say goodbye: Haha kind of lame. But It was very very hard saying goodbye to the familia. They are just awesome....Seriously they have been prepared far before I ever got here to hear the gospel. They are buying dresses for church, white shirts and ties, buying stuff on the church website, the grandma is getting baptized february 1st now, they want to send the kids on missions and have plans to go the temple in Concepcion once its open to start their eternal family....like its just ridiculous. A family that was made for the gospel. All I did was tell them to pray and TIHS happens....haha kind of cool. Makes me realize how little we really are in this work. So much change happens because some people had the courage to truly pray and ask God if they should get baptized, and they did. Honestly incredible.

The baptismal service was awesome. As you can see they all look great! Priscila was the heart behind it all. We asked/forced her to bear her testimony during the baptism and that was the coolest experience, she started to cry and thank the ward for their kindness and their example, and that she was so excited to start this path of the gospel on her way to an eternal family. She teared up and said that she loves her family, and loves seeing the peace the church has brought to their home. Pretty incredible stuff. I just kind of sat there like a big baby to be honest and didn't say too much. Haha it was actually really cool because ElderKelly and i were the only ones who didn't participate in the service. We had Elder Salazar baptize Priscila (and yesterday in church she told us that she had like a vision/dream/something where when he pulled her down into the font, she distinctly remembered that at one point either before or during this life, she had seen that moment. She knew it had to be him). It was awesome because he and his comp got to participate. Elder Ochoa played the clarinet as a special musical number, other families spoke. The ex stake president and his son baptized (familia Lopez) and they are best friends of the family now. It was so cool to just kind of watch and not actually be a part of it. Like I realized how little I am in the gospel again. We did SO little, then I leave right after it happens, and now this family is left with a WHOLE branch of love and support and Elder Salazar got to baptize his last weekend in the mission (he went home yesterday night). It was just a really cool experience. I love the family and there is so much more at play here than just us. Any missionary who starts to get a little prideful and thinks he is anything special is just plain dumb, because its so obvious that we do so little. WE just go out and walk around and tell members to say hi to people in church and the spirit does the rest. Thats truly how I feel. but it was an honor being a part of their life and I know I will be a part of it for years to come. It wasn't sad at all because i know i will see them again now before I leave and then when I come back after the mission to visit. Anyway....wonderful experience. Love that family so much. And Odi is a yellow lab so really...what more could i ask for?

That's all for this week. Tough seeing Elder Salazar go home....Elder Ramirez too. Two of my VERY good mission friends. Elder Salazar and I reminisced about our Coronel times, when we literally hated each other and let so much pride get in the way of a potentially great companionship, then our miraculous change from the familia of Marcelo and Paola there in Coronel, then how we became best friends and literally cried when we got separated. Then how we got to be housemates at least here in Angol, and how that was such an inspired thing for the both of us. Right before he got on the bus we made a little pact  that neither of us would EVER leave the church, pase lo que pase, and it was just a really cool experience. I sure do love that guy. Crazy to think that a little bit of pride made that so rough....and what to me was the hardest time of my mission (if you read my emails from that time you'll remember!) has now become one of the closest and most life-changing friends I have ever had. I would give my life for that kid. Anyway...hope he gets home and finds a wife soon! haha best of luck to you bud. And Elder Ramirez! my papi. I still have this week with him because I'll be heading up north and his mom comes in tuesday so I'll see him again. but for real...sucks seeing your friends go home. Makes the time seem a lot more short!

As far as photos, there is me with all the familia Romero Espinoza, me with the familia Lopez (Carlitos was acting like an idiot and put on the camo), me with my bishop and his family (Obispo Torres, Lydia, Carlos and Camilo, Martin and Vicente are the two little boys who were in the pool and didn't want to come -_-), la mamita (left to right Camila, Sofia, Pabla, Coni) and her family, and then thats it i think. if I forget one it's probably just the baptism fotos and thats self explanatory. Also my companion thought he had fungus on his fingertips so he has been soaking them in BLEACH...hahaha i was like ELDER YOU CANNOT DO THAT! and this what happens. His feet are worse. All peeling and he is kind of losing his fingerprints #missionprobz

I love you all. Gods work done in Gods way never lacks Gods supply...we just need to align our will with his and he will change our lives for the better!

Elder Tengberg

Happy New Years!! - Email 1/6/13

Crazy week. absolutely insane. haha I have SO much to say but i literally have no time to say it all. This will just be turbo mode and you'll get the idea from all the pictures! 

So, new years eve. We got invited to the Lopez family, this awesome family who are probably (outside of my converts) my favorite family in chile. They are just hilarious. The kids are the same age as our family too so it makes me feel super at home. Anyway, we had an amazing barbecue with them, some of the most soft meat that i have ever had in chile. like it was absolutely amazing. Elder Bonnett (one of my good friends, he goes home this next week actually) was serving as traveling assistant and he got to be with us for NYE, and was like "yup, I chose the best family in the mission." haha it was amazing. 

So we had a super fun time there until 10:30 when we had to be back at our house, but when we went back home the fun really started. We made a FORT! hahaa i had the bright idea to make a fort out of blankets and bring all the mattresses down and put it all down there. Super fun. We made those pumpkin pie bars that i received a long time ago, and that was sweet. We also were allowed to watch a Disney movie so we watched Mulan to let the new year come in. I'm basically half chinese too so its not big deal. Anyway that was sweet. We stayed up late, swapped man stories, and made waffles/pumpkin pie bars. Haha great new years though. Definitely a memorable experience! My favorite was Elder Ochoa kept wanting to play his stupid guitar or clarinet and we literally got SO mad at him. haha we finally just took it away and locked in the other room so we could all watch the movie. Super fun.

New years day was with the familia Romero Espinoza! They are getting baptized this week on saturday: they are so excited. We are too haha. I found out that I am actually leaving Angol next Sunday night so that will be a fun last thing to end on. Really cool. We went over there on New Years Day (that was our p-day) and made peruvian food, chocolate chip cookies, played football and hung out with the kids. Theres pictures of them all! Marcelo, Elder Salazar is in green long sleeves, Franco is the 12 year old boy, Gaspar is the little rascal with the bowl cut, Priscila the mom. They are so perfect. And if they weren't perfect enough they now have a little yellow lab puppy....just adorable. haha i was made for this family, i swear!

All of my city is on fire. Because its so hot and dry here there were a ton of fires lately. Crazy fotos huh? It burned the entire hill next to the city and it got close to the houses. Brought back a lot of weird memories and made me feel so weird seeing all the ash in the air and everything. But anyway we were curious so this morning for pday we climbed up the hill to the cross at 4:30 a.m. to see the sunrise and then to see the damage from the fire. Ended up taking like a million pictures and it was super fun. So theres my city of Angol and a beautiful chilean sunrise! It burned a lot though. you can totally see the line of the burn on the hill and everything. 

Anyway. I am super happy. like i said i have cambios now so ill write next Monday from here probably, or maybe from my new sector. I'm not so sure yet. I'm headed up right next to Concepcion! Its called San Pedro. Saint Peter. I'm gong to Saint Peter. Anyway I'm going to be with Elder White, one of my best friends in the mission, so i am just so excited. Haha we have literally been calling each other since we found out and just been so stoked. Workout plan, plans for the mission, we are planning on taking karate classes from someone in the ward on pdays. like we are going to have SO much fun together. Cool stuff. 

Loving the mission more than ever. It's a great time to serve the Lord. Nothing more peaceful than serving him and knowing that he has SO much in store for us if we just follow him and trust in him!

Love you all. You're the best and thanks so much for writing so much every week! You're awesome about it.

Les quiero mucho! Feliz año nuevo y que lo pasen super bien!

Elder Tengberg