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.

My Stomach Hates Me- Email 11/12/12

Hola familia!

Well i wont be writing a ton this week because not really a ton happened. BUT the stuff that did happen was pretty darn cool!

OH something kind of big...MARY IS GOING TO FREAKING HONG KONG???? WHAT???? hahaha what the heck?! Mar i am so so so proud of you! I cant even imagine the craziness that you are going to go through speaking cantonese. I mean i dont know how its different than mandarin but either way it all just sounds so crazy to me. I mean my language at least has the same letters and really difficult translations like "jesus christ - jesucristo". I cant even imagine. Does this mean you will learn to make orange chicken? SCORE. Haha i am so proud of you and you will be an awesome missionary. The lord is going to use you do work some incredible miracles in China, and you will be so great. They are going to be even more obsessed with your blonde hair than people here are! I want to make lots of other jokes about panda express or my interpretation of what chinese will sound like....but in fears of coming off weird, ill refrain. Hahaha youre going to kill it!

First things first, i went to the doctors today finally. Turns out i have an infection in my intestines...how awesome does that sound? Thats why i havent gotten better this past week and my stomach still hurts like no other. Haha so i have been given some disinfectants that apparently i take and kill ALL of the bacteria in my stomach. Now i MAY not be a scientist but if i am putting this together correctly, killing all of that stuff has to come out somehow. Not excited for that. But then i take another one that replenishes good bacteria in my body again. So yayyyy im taking chilean medicine that i dont trust from a doctor that checked me out for approximately 30 seconds and rightly concluded that i have an infection. No but she was actually a good doctor and works with all the missionaries and is a member of the church. she mentioned there was a SLIGHT chance that it could have been from all the food that i ate last saturday (elder ramirez shouldnt be surprised if i sneak a little laxitives in his food....its only fair) but more than likely its because i ate something bad. BUT the good news is that i had that package from mom this past week of halloween candy so i am sure pop tarts and goldfish have been real good for my stomach. Haha anyway. All is getting better and I should be getting back into the swing of things this week! I have been working the past couple of days but its just been really tough to walk around because i had so little energy (what, eating 4 bites of soup for the entire day doesnt keep me satisfied?) and my stomach hurt so bad. But once again, getting better and this should be a great week!

I actually have learned a ton through this trial though. I had a few rough days where my mind was just not in the work that much, and it made me sad to realize that. I mean maybe i had an excuse to feel a little self-pity but it made me sad to listen to myself say some of the things i did. I realized that the lord needs a lot more of me, and that i will never be happy if i keep focusing on home or myself or other things. I realized i can give a little bit more of my heart, might, mind and strength, and it has been a really neat learning experience. I knew that every trial has a reason, and i definitely know that this is the reason. i have grown a ton and oddly enough, im grateful for the trial and chance to grow.

Other than that little setback, the work has been great here in arauco. Valentine and Juliana got baptized Saturday!!!!!! AND FREDDY CAME! Oh my goodness it was just the sweetest baptism in the whole wide world. Valentine asked me to baptize him, so we took pictures before making funny faces and just were acting stupid, then we got to go in the font. Turns out we filled it up a LITTLE too high and he basicaly was SWIMMING to the center to get baptized. Haha no joke he was using his arms to paddle. #oops #wewerealittleexcited But anyway, he loved it. He is honestly such a smart kid, so in love with the church, and has been a miracle since day 1 with that whole family. Paolina has come every week with her two little kids, and is constantly amazed at the answers he gives and the growth he has. Who couldnt be?! Without ever explaining how he would feel instantly after receiving the gift of the holy ghost, he said "I felt good after being baptized, but after the confirmation i just felt warm all over." Umm....yeah i guess thats the most perfect response a 10 year old could ever give? He and juliana both want to be missionaries, and I am just so happy. And the best thing ever is that Freddy came to church the next day too! He came to watch them get confirmed and stayed for the entire thing. We had 102 members at church that day, which broke our  record by so much and was just an answer to prayers. It was ward conference as well and the lessons were incredible. Priesthood session talked about how men have a responsibility to be righteous for their families. Righteousness is happiness, and if the men arent acting the right way, then their FAMILIES are missing out on blessings for their inability to act up to the calling god has given them. Holy cow, can you pick a more perfect first lesson for a man who is struggling with addictions and struggling with being a dad? Seriously, after church when we visited them, valentine was so excited to tell us that his dad is going to continue going to church and loved being there. In the confirmation, elder ramirez blessed vale that he would be the light that would bring his whole family to the gospel, and i know its true. It reminds me so much of Rodrigo and the light that he brought to Carmen and David and the Morales family. I have so much love for Vale and Freddy will come around. This was SUCH a big step today and it made me so happy to be a part of this work. From day 1 when we entered that house, it has been pure miracles. I feel so blessed that I have been a part of that and that Heavenly Father has used us as instruments to bless this family. The gospel is so dang cool.

Thats all i have time for. Hopefully you all like the pictures! This may be a surprise but im still 19 and cant treat anything too serious. So what if i love making funny faces? I think i am a 5 year old stuck in a 19 year old body.

I love you all! Keep up the good work and dont ever forget that YOU are the lords hands in your own cities, in your own classes, and your own families. You are the lights, the angels, and the relief for millions that look to you every single day. Dont ever let something hold you back from being the light that heavenly father needs you to be. There is no joy like realizing that heavenly father has used you to bless another life.

Les amo.

Elder Tengberg

PAINTBALL!!!- Email 11/5/12

FAMILY! Oh my goodness i am such a happy camper this week. Sorry this letter wont be overly spiritual but i just have so many funny things to talk about and i cant help but tell them all. 

First things first, Elder Arnold of the 70 was at our mission conference this week! For those of you who remember, he gave the cow and the fence talk a few years ago at conference, about how the cows go outside the fence and eat the other grass and then bloat up and die, and how fences and rules allow us to thrive. He also gave one like 8 years ago about a church leader who followed him into the ocean to take him to church one time, suit and all. anyway, he is a stud. He gave such good talks to us and just inspired us so much to be obedient. he threw obedience out like CRAZY. my personal favorite..."If you arent studying the book of mormon EVERY day, many of you will be INACTIVE at the end of your missions". hahaha UHHHH okay! Ill get right on that. mi malo. Presidente Martinez also spoke and i am just obsessed with him. I loved elder arnold but something about my own mission president is just incredible. He speaks so directly to us and he is so incredibly smart. I know for a fact he will be a GA one day (if he can ever learn english, his english is terrible and only speaks spanish). He just talked about how obedience builds up the foundations for a great work - but it isnt the Lords work. its our own lives. He read from d & c 66 (i think v. 38 or something) and talked about how the foundations of the great work that we build us all ourselves. No one comes home with us on the plane, and we wont be able to take the testimonies of our investigators when we go to the final judgment. Our obedience here and our work here on a mission sets the stage for EVERYTHING for our lives - the kind of men, fathers, husbands, future church leaders, and just about every other aspect of our lives. I dont know what it is about him, but i just love him so much. Even when we say goodbye to him, i just feel like he looks right into my soul and knows everything. its scary almost. He was a lawyer too so he can just talk directly to your heart and says words that dig so deep, kind of like dad when he gets mad. Never angry or frustrated..just words that sting right in the heart. Hahaha i love it though, he is a great president.

Other things. We played paintball today!!! Haha i have NO idea how that is allowed under mission rules, but it was so cool. It cost 10 dollars to play for 2 hours, so super cheap. And this was about the coolest place you could imagine. its in Lota (otro sector) and it was right on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. There are 3 abandoned fisheries/canneries and there are just hideouts everywhere and giant tanks and shattered windows and abandoned houses. About the coolest place i could imagine to play. So we all played as a zone and just had a blast. I got BLASTED in the back one time like 7 times from an Elder and kind of freaked out. Funny how naturally we revert back to english? i was like SWEET MERCY WOW THAT FREAKING HURTS! and almost turned aroud and shot him. luckily he is from paraguay and didnt understand me....little blessings. But either way i have 7 welts on my back and they hurt. But it was a blast! Definitely an experience i will remember. And dad, they didnt have any insurance waivers to sign. I asked is the sad and embarrassing thing....its almost like i was playing on a random, unapproved and unsanctioned chilean field? 

I have been kind of sick this week, and i learned that every single chilean has their own recipe for health things. I think i have had about 50 different little concoctions that may or may not have made me worse. My personal favorites: a spoonful of honey (how in the WORLD would that help?), whole milk, lemons and hot water, herbal tea, and...more honey. 

My favorite part of the week though was lunch on Saturday. It was my first funny eating experience so forgive me if this is a little long. Haha so we went to our Mamita´s house and she always cooks well, so we were really excited, especially since it was fasting that day after lunch too. We started off with a tomato soup that was pretty scrumptious, then had a MOUNTAIN of rigatoni casserole (dont worry mom, nothing compared to yours). Where i also found out that the word "casserole" doesnt exist in spanish and felt like an idiot. Anyway, i was really struggling to finish this plate because there was just so much. Finally i finish it and i seriously dont know how. But then the mamita takes my plate and i thought she said "did you like it?" so i anxiously responded yes yes!! Turns out she said do you want more. So as i realize my mistake, i start saying no no no! But Elder Ramirez gets this sheepish grin on his face and starts telling the mamita "Oh elder tengberg dont be humble! mamita he always has hunger in the evening, he wants another plate but is just being modest. Give him some more." I about killed elder ramirez. Seriously, when she left the room i got SO mad at him. Haha i could not finish this food for the life of me. I am quite the eater usually and can eat almost anything, but it was just so much. So when she was gone i put my pasta on her plate....is that bad? none of the windows were open! It was the only option!! So as she started eating it we both start cracking up to which Elder Ramirez responds that we were "laughing about one of our investigators..." Anyway, naturally i had to get him back so then i made this huge big scene about how we were so grateful for our mamita and how she washes our clothes and then proceeded to pay her right there for our laundry and made this huge big scene (i knew Elder Ramirez hadnt brought any money). Hahaha so she was so happy and then when elder ramirez was like "uhhh" she got kind of sad. Take that, Ramirez. USA - 1, Honduras - 1. Until next week.

Other things - i thought this week that someone gave me the nicest compliment ever. After a lesson which i shared a personal experience and thought it was pretty powerful, this man told me "Su corazòn està abierto". or at least thats what i thought he said. That would mean "your heart is open" or like a really open heart. So i looked him in the eyes and was just like "wow thank you so much. thank you. Thats so nice of you to say!" and was super excited. Turns out he said "Su bolsòn està abierto". which is "your backpack is open". Thanks chile...thanks for crushing my last bit of hope.

Valentin and Juliana couldnt get baptized because Juli was in the hospital all week with Bronchitis, but she got out yesterday so we will be working with them this week for this saturday. We also put two more fechas this week with other people, so our goal of 5 for the month might be attainable! The work is going well. Hector and Cecilia are getting married January 16th and baptized on the 17th. Excited for them too! They chose to keep the house. Sad, but we are going to be working with them either way for that date. I assume ill be here in Arauco for two transfers more, which would be like march haha. Anyway, we will see. Elder Ramirez is stoked because the year later when they get sealed (they already have plans to get sealed in the temple) he will be just finishing his mission on the 20th and will get to go to the temple with them! So thats awesome.

Anyway, i love you all so much! Thanks for the support and everything.

Happy birthday shout out to brett and blake! What are you, 40? you guys are old.

Ciao familia!

Elder Tengberg

Marriage Counselor- Email 10/29/12

What a week. Seriously, i say that every week, but every week just gets better and better and crazier and crazier.

So first off i just want to say that I think I might need to change my major at BYU to being a marriage counselor. Literally, this week I have had four SEPARATE investigators have problems with either law of chastity, marriage, whether they SHOULD marry or not, or any myriad of ridiculous problems. And heaven knows that i dont know squat about marriage, so it was cool to see the spirit work through me in some ways that i couldnt have done myself.

Update...we baptized cristian! The water was around 50 degrees. Needless to say, I let elder ramirez take that one haha. we had some problems with the little thing that heats up the water for the font, so after about an hour of trying to fix it, we just turned on the cold water and let it fill up. Haha i felt so bad for Cristian. But HEY im sure the spirit warmed him up so it all evens out, right? I attached a picture of his baptism. Thats his brother Johan with him that we baptized last week. They are such studs and we are going to be asking them to come with lessons with us. We are planning on making missionary name tags for them both today haha. They both want to serve missions and are just some of the craziest smartest kids in the whole world. When we ask them questions like "What is the purpose of baptism? why do you want to get baptized?" we get answers like "for the remission of my sins. I want to be clean". hahaha umm yeah thats the reason but what freaking 10 year old understands that? it shocks us every time.

Speaking of other 10 year olds (im noticing a trend among my first few baptisms....) Valentin and Juliana couldnt get baptized this week. Juliana had bronchitis and with the water as it was, we decided it was best to wait until this next saturday to have baptisms for them. our zone leaders were kind of mad at us because our numbers were way down as a zone (we in Arauco had 3 of the 5 baptisms of the zone of 9 companionships). But it was definitely best for that sweet little family, and thats the only reason we are out here. Numbers dont mean squat, thats for sure haha. As far as their parents go, Paolina is so ready to be baptized. We are working with her to try and get her to take baby steps to help Freddy progress too. I got Valentin to ask his dad, "Will you go to church with me dad? i dont want to go alone" and it worked, but then the next morning freddy bailed and his mom went with him instead. Either way, that was one of the days where i became a marriage counselor and talked about the importance of praying together as a couple and looking for the best in the other one. We find what we look for, so when we look for good things, we find good things. And as we thank our significant others for things, their desire to do those things grows. So we committed them to praying together every night as a couple and hopèfully that helps.

Cecilia and hector are struggling. They want to get baptized but dont think they can do this so fast. In Chile, single mothers get help from the government (they get a house) so if they get married before January or this next year they lose the house. First of all, way to go chile in screwing yourselves other with the marriage epidemic haha. But we are really working hard with them. its a hard thing to ask, but i know that heavenly father doesnt put material things in our path so that we can choose THEM over him. Thats for sure! So we are focusing with them on the blessings they can receive if they take that big leap of faith and get married. That it will define their future as a couple and definetheir love for the lord forever. I really hope it works out!

Other news...its becoming spring here. I am popping claritins like they are tic-tacs. Can someone please send the white kid some more allergy medications?

Haha one other funny thing before I go. So there are a ton of crazy evangelical people here that literally understand NOTHIGN about the real aspects of the bible but instead just chooose to rant about Jehovah and go on crazy rants. Its odd. There are some really great people too of that faith, but a large majority are just more into outward expressions of a lack of inward faith. So the other day, with some guy named Ruben, we were trying to pray and he ended up praying OVER us and praying an additional minute after us. His prayer consisted of about 300 "Si señor, muchas gracias señor, si si si padre, muchas gracias". so naturally i threw in some amens at the endof his prayer. If you cant beat them, join them, right?! I found it hilarious and so did elder ramirez, so i guess it wasnt all that bad. Oops.

Lastly, i am loving readig the new testament. My goal is to finish it before Christmas which in spanish is like 8 pages a day. I figured as cristmas might be a little difficult, i need to be even more focused on the real purpose of it and christ. I love it so much. Luke 9:61-62 stuck out to me alot this week, which basically was when a disciple asked if he could go take care of somehting first before following christ. Christ said something to the sort that anyone that can put his hand to the wheel and look back is not fit for my kingdom. Well heaven knows i had a change of attitude this week! But i realized that he calls us when he needs us, not when its convenient. He doesnt want us when we have taken care of everything, have free time, and are conveniently ready. He needs us NOW, and he needs us forever. When we try to give a little bit more effort and look back a little less, miracles happen. We are seeing it in Arauco as he just hands people to us on silver platters. We found 16 new investigators this week and taught over 40 lessons....crazy, huh? Im just loving it here. These people are awesome and I oculdnt be happier!

I am finally starting to really enjoy my mission. The spanish is improving, and i am starting to love people more. I love you all the most still though! Haha have a good week.

Ciao familia!

Elder Tengberg