"His Grace is Sufficient" and "The practical approach to the atonement"- Email 3/22/14

Well, what a fantastic week. First off, if anyone has never heard or read these 2 talks, please read them. So good.

http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=1966

http://speeches.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=489

Anyway, that just kind of describes my week. I've just felt so spiritually edified this week and i really feel like I'm growing in so many ways. I've grown to like having to drive the truck around a lot and make huge long trips, because i've grown to have such a strong appreciation for having modern prophets and apostles. Every church, Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, Methodist, Jehovah´s Witness, Mormons, we all believe in prophets. We all believe in the Bible, that it was written by prophets. But the difference between our church is we believe that God still calls them. I can't count the number of times i have taught people that and thought, "Its obvious! They HAVE to be there! If God loves all of his children equally, why would he NOT call a prophet today and talk to his children? is it because he cared more about the children in Jerusalem or that we suddenly are so perfect today that we no longer need God?" and i've always had a strong testimony that they existed. But i get it now. I get why that matters to me. I feel like a lot of my life has been based on logical assumptions and analytical looking at the gospel. It makes sense - if i do what God says, he blesses me. If i want more blessings, I just do what he says! But it's so much more. Having a modern prophet and apostles means that when I have questions (as I have had almost my entire mission) I can listen to a talk or a speech, and receive the simple answers that God would have me listen to. The words they say might not be the exact thing that I need - but my act of opening my heart to the appointed representative of the Savior allows Him to send to me the Spirit, which will give me the exact thing I need. I have been praying for so long to know how I can be good enough, how I can be worthy enough, how I can be better. I have been praying for so long to know how to be happier and to have a truly good life. And now I get it and have the desire to constantly surround myself with positive influences like talks and music because it has changed me so much. Incredible stuff! 

Another thing this week too was my interview with President. Elder White and i FINALLY got our interviews! When he did interviews with the whole mission, he never got around to the two of us, so we were praying that he would talk to us soon. It was so needed. I just wish I had the ability he does to make people feel comfortable in opening up and sharing their desires. He helped me out a ton - gave me some great ideas to finish strong, to keep my mind 100% here and not let it wander back to BYU or home or whatever else might call it, and to just give it everything. He also shared with me an email that a missionary wrote to him in which the missionary had said "Thanks for sending Elder Tengberg to my sector on Tuesday. It helped me so much and gave me so much more desire to be better and work harder." It was something I needed so much. Anyway, I'm just beyond happy. I have less than three months left now, and I'm just happy. I'm content, but not satisfied. I want to finish like I did every race, sprinting. I know that the Lord is happy with me, that he wants me to get better, and that he is going to help me do it. Like "His grace is sufficient" says, he isn't waiting at the finish line to receive us in - he is there with us every step of the way. I especially liked that one! But for real, listen to those talks if you can. So powerful hearing how they describe them. 

On that same note, i had an interesting idea this past couple months. Elder Dominguez, my old companion, had inspired me to look for "my biggest weakness". We have a lot. All of us do. but what is the root? What is it that we REALLY lack? What do we need to do? And I found mine. After about 2 weeks of praying and studying,  I found it! That doesn't mean I've fixed mine yet, but I'm so happy to know that I have the ability to change it. After seeing my pride, my egoism, my need for approval, and so many other problems over the past however many months I have left, I'm peaceful to see there is a root problem I can pray about, work on, and change. The gospel is a pretty amazing thing. Thanks mom and dad for having the courage to live it and help me live it too.

Les quiero mucho! El evangelio es verdadero. Dios vive, nos ama, y nos ayudará cuando hacemos nuestro mejor esfuerzo. Que tengan una linda semana y que estén muy bien!

Elder Tengberg

also, chileans use their hazard lights so much. It's honestly hilarious. We don't use them in the states, do we? They use them for everything. Stop light and you are going to brake? HAZARD! Elder white and i make so much fun of them. WHOA THERE IS A STOP SIGN! NO ONE FREAK OUT, iTS JUST A HAZARD! Good thing I have these handy LIGHTS here so that everyone else can see what I'M seeing!

¿Eres pollo o aguila?- Email 3/15/14

First off...Happy Birthday to Matt and Auntie Gin this week! I didn't even know what month it was right now, but mom informed me that it was your birthdays and I'm very happy for you. You're both turning 28 - so exciting.

Anyway...another great week. This email will have to be a pretty short one because i already wrote to a lot of you, but it'll be good either way. This week we just are working on helping out the different zones of the mission. Well that's what we do every week actually, but things are going really well. Or so i thought! We had a meeting with president on Monday morning and he informed us otherwise. So we all had to get our butts into gear and get back to a more diligent work. We called emergency meetings in the north, center and south of the mission, and that was our week. Emergency meetings where Elder White and I spoke and president spoke, and then we went out with the different zone leaders to work with them for the day and help them out in their sectors. Anyway, i just wanted to share a story that president shared in his part of conference!

The story is a lot better in Spanish in my opinion, but none of you speak Spanish so my hands are tied. Minus dad, he would probably get it all! 

The eagle who thought he was a chicken 

Once a farmer found an eagle's egg in an abandoned nest. He took it 

home and slipped it in amongst his chickens under a brooding hen. 

When the egg hatched the mother hen reared the eagle chick as if it 

were her own child. And so that eagle chick grew up thinking that he 

was a chicken. He pecked like a chicken, he scratched like a chicken he 

even walked like a chicken. But in time, he grew bigger and it became 

clear to the other birds that this chick was an eagle. They would swoop 

down and say, "You are an eagle, you and king of the birds. Come and 

fly with us." 

"I'm not an eagle, I'm a chicken," he'd tell them. "My mother's a 

chicken. I live like a chicken. I am a chicken. Now go away!" 

But that young eagle chick continued to grow. One day an owl swooped 

down. 

"Get on my back" he said, "I've got something to show you." 

The young eagle hopped onto the owl's back and the owl flew high into 

the sky. 

"Put me down. Put me down. I don't like it up here," the young eagle 

squawked. 

"You'll be fine," said the owl. "Trust me." Soaring higher and higher, 

the owl finally flipped himself over and the eagle fell, plummeting fast 

towards the ground. 

"Why?" screeched the eagle. "I'm going to die." 

"Just open your wings," called the owl. 

The eagle opened his wings and was caught by the wind. Soon he was 

soaring above the farm and the chickens bellow. "You're right," cried 

the eagle. "I am an eagle. I can fly." 

We are who we are. Wherever we live and whoever we live with.

so....that's the story. Anyway president shared it a little different because in Spanish its a little different, but i just love the story. President said "Many of you are here right now but you are acting like chickens. Are you really chickens? Are you really people that only talk to 30 people a week? Or are you eagles? Is this really what you came here to do?" It obviously wasn't the same words but thats the same idea. I just loved it because so many of us are conditional based on our circumstances. If we go to a calling, or a new university, or a new job, we often think that our potential is the same as what is already being done. but how dumb of us! We have a Heavenly Father who loves us, and if we let him, he will take us to abilities that we had never thought we had. I am awfully grateful that president taught about that, because so much of what i do is precedented stuff, and I'm guilty of conforming myself to those past results. But we aren't chickens. We aren't people who keep our head down, just eating for ourselves and taking the meager things the Lord sends down. We have divine potential and can fly if someone helps us to get there. 

I love you all! Things are going well here. I'm happy, healthy, and loving my mission more than i ever had before. Rodrigo and Lorena and Natali y Raul are progressing so well. Church tomorrow for sure! The other family is kind of done because of some problems, but we are stoked about Rodrigo. Keep up the prayers for the bread-maker!

¡Que Dios les bendiga mi queridas águilas!

Elder Tengberg

Only Time Will Tell- Email 3/8/14

WOW am i tired! It seems like i just wrote you all yesterday but at the same time it seems like its been forever. I guess thats just time in the mission, it just doesn't exist! Days seem like years, and weeks seem like minutes. Crazy stuff.

Anyway, this week had a lot of traveling because it was the mission conference! It was my first time since i have been here in San Pedro, so it was weird having to put it on and stuff. Anyway that was really fun though. It was definitely intimidating having to teach and train 125 missionaries in each conference but it was exciting! Good stuff. We talked a lot about working with members and made it really fun and stupid, so that was nice. President thought we did a really good job so i was happy with that. It kind of made me feel stupid though because we go up there and give this little cheesy presentation, and then president just comes in and gives the best discourse I've heard him give since I've been here. it was just incredible. haha like seriously?! it had to be the one where elder white and i have to teach too. But here's what he talked about...

President was baptized at age 18. Elder Barton and Elder Galvez were opening up the area, the Chileno training the little American kid. They found Osvaldo (my mission president) and he took 6 months to get baptized. In the beginning, he would run away and sneak out the back window to avoid them, but they kept persisting and persisting a ton and eventually it worked. President had talked a lot to his Chilean missionary but had never talked to or seen Elder Barton again since his baptism. Anyway, a couple months back president invited the two of them to come for a mission conference - so they did! They both flew in for the two conferences, and the whole mission knew people were coming but they didn't know who. So we made up a bunch of lies and just said "prepare yourselves" to everyone - everyone thought it was either Holland or Monson haha. BUT it was an amazing experience. As president talked about his conversion experience, showing the baptismal photo he had (that he had actually never seen until Tuesday morning when the American showed it to him) and then his mission photo, temple photo, and setting apart. It was so cool to see the change that he took in his life and the steps that he took to come to where he is now. It was so powerful to talk to the American missionary, because he said when he got off the plane, he had the task of looking for this man who he baptized 28 years earlier (president martinez is only 46, isn't that insane?!). he said that when he saw him, he knew he was a man of God and just felt this incredible joy come over him. As i talked to him personally afterward, he said its what he imagines the celestial kingdom being like - all of us recognizing those we helped and rejoicing that we have made it. ANYWAY, as president presented them, he broke into tears, and there was honestly not a dry eye in the audience. It was so emotional. Just crazy to see the fruits of ones labors so far in the future. He said, "These men changed my life. They saw in me what i never saw in myself, and wouldn't let me go until i started working toward it". It was so cool. Basically his whole message was about working and seeing beyond the moment. As missionaries we don't always see success instantaneously, but we often work hard. People make their decisions and choose not to accept, a lot of seeds are planted. but every person we see has a divine potential and can become great things in the future. We are often wrong to judge people or write them off too soon. Anyway, for many of us it was a life-changing moment. How we all wish that many years later the people we taught and knew will thank us for everything! Anyway, that was a cool experience.

In other news...the two families are doing great! Elder White and I actually decided we wanted to share them with the two other elders who work here in the office, so last night we scheduled them at the same time and asked for their help. It went so well. Lili has a ton of questions like usual, but is progressing so fast. Haha i felt like i hadn't taught so poorly in such a long time, but she somehow managed to learn still with her two kids and they said they are going to go to church tomorrow. Elder White went with Elder Jones, the person who is in charge of all the mission equipment and tables and name tags and books, etc. to Rodrigo (the bread-maker) and Lorena. Elder White and i were thinking all day and we came up with a fun lesson for the two families based on chocolate chip cookies. Sounds like a very Elder Tengberg thing to do, huh? Anyway it was awesome. We made some ones that were full of salt and then some good ones, and the idea was that God has a recipe for his church and for success. It includes prophets, apostles, the authority, revelation, etc. and it has to be exact. If one thing isn't there, then it wont work. We gave them the bad ones first and they obviously hated it (the sweet mom said "These are so good! Thanks elders!" and we were like hermana, we know they suck, its a joke." and then she spit it out and literally ran from the room to go get juice. haha so funny) and told them that after Christ died, many people started to "change the recipe", doing things that weren't right, and because there were no apostles to maintain the doctrine pure, those unwarranted changes resulted in false churches and false teachings. Or really salty cookies. Haha anyway it was really fun and both families loved it. Rodrigo and his family said that they are going to go to church next week, so that is a miracle. Missionaries have literally been working on them for years and just finally are things starting to turn around. It's amazing how the Lord prepares people for certain moments. Things are just right in the kids lives and the parents are seeing changes they don't want to see in their teenage daughter, and there comes the need for the gospel. We are very blessed to be teaching two families! Anyway, that's all for this week. I'm so grateful for being out here and seeing all these miracles every week. Sometimes i feel like there is so much more to be done that we don't do, but i just remember what President Martinez said and be patient that time will show us what we really have done. I love you all!

Elder Tengberg

Nutella, Peanut Butter, and a future eternal family- Email 3/1/14

Familia! ¿Como les va?

This week was fun. We had a ton of stuff to do that wasn't normal proselyting stuff so that was kind of frustrating, but the Lord is honestly blessing us so much and we are just in shock about it. I'm low on time though so I'll just get right to the chase!

So a couple weeks ago i had bought Nutella for some reason and it had just been sitting on my desk forever, and then this week we ran out of food. So all i had left was Nutella and Peanut Butter. Haha WOW did that blow my mind. Like some days i wonder "How in the world have i gotten so fat on the mission?" and then other days i realize "How in the world have i not gotten fatter on the mission?" That thought may have crossed my mind as Elder White and I ate the entire jar of nutella with peanut butter in 2 nights. Sad, but true. I'm not ashamed! But seriously that was so good. I think I've just been here in Chile for so long that i forget there are other flavors. Food here is pretty bland because they just use salt to season stuff, like they don't ever use pepper or anything. it's seasoned with salt, lemon, oil or mayonesa, those are kind of the only options. So throwing a little nutella on a spoon is about the most exotic and surprising thing that has happened in quite a long time. Also, sorry for dedicating an entire paragraph about nutella in my letter, this is probably not what you want to hear about, is it?

Other than THAT exciting news though, we are teaching a new family! Lili, Mauricio, Sebastian (14) and the other son who is 10 who i haven't met yet. We are so excited about them. They will be a very slow process but we are honestly stoked to see how this goes. Our 1st counselor in the bishopric works with her and she has always been super interested in the fact that he talks about eternal families and life after death, stuff like that. She is religious but just feels so many questions and knows there has to be more answers. Anyway she invited us over on Thursday night and after we taught almost all of the plan of salvation, her husband walked in! We were teaching with that member of the church so it was just us 4. But when her husband walked in she got super scared and we found out that she hadn't told him! 

Haha so i start freaking out trying to figure out how to make a joke and loosen the situation so he doesn't freak out when he sees a whole bunch of Mormons in his living room. Anyway turns out he is a super nice guy and sat down and started telling us how much he has always wondered what we believe in and has always had a ton of questions and stuff. So perfect! And in her closing prayer she thanked Heavenly Father for sending him there right at that moment and for having her family together. We didn't even get to teach him that much, but they will read the Book of Mormon and we are going to see them again next Friday and she said she wants her kids to listen, si o si. So thats going to be awesome! We are really excited about them.

Other than that, not much else is new. We had transfers this week and it always blows my mind how inspired President is. It makes me see a little bit into what God sees in us i think. We saw some new kids come in who are very, very talented. Who have a ton of potential. But i just loved how he said "They can sure do a lot. We will see if they choose to get there though!" and it just made me realize that God wants us all to succeed. Its not like we are preordained for failure! He just lets us choose if we want to become what we are destined to become or not - if we want an eternal family or not, it's all within our grasp. As children of God, we have no limitations. We ourselves put them! I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father who took a chance on me and is letting me grow little by little. I know i have made so many mistakes but I'm grateful that he lets me keep going to try and get to that final piece one day. And I'm so grateful that I can be a missionary to try and help other people see their potential too!

Love you all. Hope you have a great week. And remember - hastening the work doesn't just mean working faster. It means working with more people! God called about 20,000 more missionaries, but he called all of us members. He wants more of his kids saved - and its our responsibility to help them get there.

Les quiero mucho!

Elder Tengberg

and also....elder white and i found these incredible driving gloves. HAha every time people get into the car with us we put them on and act serious about it, glasses and gloves. He kind of looks like the guy from the Transporter, huh?