"Her name is "MELOVE"

hello my dear dear loved ones,

YES! its my birthday this week. I'm really proud of myself. last year on my birthday, I celebrated ALL TRANSFER LONG! a little bit embarrassing... haha and like no one really knows this time. EXCEPT of course the important people. like of course, Soeur Maria, recent convert we're teaching her daughter, who throws great family nights, or as I like to call them soiree familiales, so tuesday because some missionaries are leaving shes throwing a soiree familiale with everyone (basically meaning all the members and some of our investigators) for the leaving missionaries and my birthday :) YAY!! thursdays gonna be the best day ever!!!! i think? OF COURSE!! i remember how aweosme my birthday was last year. im gonna ask for so many miracles!! and they will all come! 

ANYWAYS! so i feel like i just talked to you cuz it was Wednesday when i emailed last, but ill give you a little update. haha so Richard is still sick and couldn't make it to church ;( but no worries he will get baptized before i leave! ill keep you all updated! im gonna try and update you on my investigators! so we've been teaching the Monazah family :) thats the family that made me cry they're so humble and haitian and love God and the church. anyways so hes come to church and hes preparing for baptism but were trying to get the WHOLE FAMILY INVOLVED! because theyre actually married! (im about 80 percent sure ill confirm next week, not sure if they understood the question, the creole french barrier is a little hard) ANWAYS little 16 year old MICHELINE came to church and her smile just melts my heart! because Monazah only has a scooter. He can only bring one person in his beautiful family of 5 kids (like my family) to church :) ANYWAYS so i love this family! and all the members love this family! they are progressing so beautifully, and I know we'll see some baptisms really soon from them :)

Fernando hasn't been to church in a while :( but we're focusing on teaching his whole family and his dad has crazy work. He said he's coming to church in July, so we'll try and see where it'll go from there!

and i want to tell you a cool miracle from this week :) so our appointment fell through, of course! I"m a missionary what do you expect! and we had aimee with us my mini misionary :) who is awesome! and the neighbor was painting! so we asked to help and they said 'come on in!!' so fun! so we came in and painted and i was wearing this cute hawaiian dress aimee got me. anyways! details! so we painted and then there was this girl there, MELOVE! thats her name so cute! shes 20! and she was SO INTERESTED! she told me (while painting of course) that she stopped going to church and shes SO CLOSE to not believing in God, and so i told her, i went through a phase like the too. but the BOOK OF MORMON helped me! so we're gonna go see her this week (hopefully on my birthday) and i just reall like her! She's so prepared! and shes such a miracle! before we left she said, 'your pretty and i dont think your crazy, so i think theres gotta be a God.' just makes me feel good you know. 

and i know i always tell really cool stories like that, cuz im kinda a really sparatic and crazy missionary! but i really felt it with melove! so we'll see where she goes! im EXCITED! for  this week!!

MISIOINARY WORK IS THE BEST. I love the gospel so much. The gospel is so so wonderful. The gospel is in magic. The gospel helps me! The gospel is me! I love it! 

I love you all too! and ill see you all soon! but for now! im gonna go SERVE THE LORD ALL DAY EVERYDAY!

Love,

Soeur Tenney

 

 

                        Monazah family!

                             

                               Sisters in Suriname

I LOVE Teaching!!

ohhhh my beautiful family,

I dont even know where to start! A longggg beautiful week! so wonderful!! So my mom sent me an old email from tressa as a missionary and it was so great! She was reflecting on her mission so maybe I'll do the same! haha but first I'll talk about my week.

Richard. A miracle handed to us from God. haha I LOVE RICHARD!! this guy just showed up the first sunday after his trip to Suriname! the sisters had found him before me and i taught him like once then he left to suriname; well he came back and came to church! so we thought, LETS GET HIM BAPTIZED!!  He came a couple times and this week he was dodging us and was like 'im sick'  so on the phone I said 'RICHARD WE'll BRING YOU SOUP!!' (throwback to those goyave patrick days abby eyre :) anyways so that night we made him chicken noodle soup cuz its fun and we love serving people and these people are PEOPLE and need a little love and nurturing. so THEN! we also like to call it baptismal soup! because after he accepted a baptismal date! and its for this saturday! but because we were gone were gonna have to change him to help him get there.... but ANYWAYS he WANTS to be baptized! miracle( fun soup :) haha

So the week before, Suriname was great, but then saturday we get in the car with the elders and hop the border to SURINAME!! long trip on the BOAT to suriname :) we got plenty snacks and stamps at borders and lots of weird new languages. a straight ROAD TRIP on the mission so fun!! haha then we get to the sisters apartment and they were so excited! their place was so cute!! we went to church in dutch and i learned many things! 1; i do NOT like feeling useless! PUT ME TO WORK! and 2: i have become an extremely effective tool in the Lord's hands preaching His gospel in the language I have been called! haha SO GREAT! great lessons! i did a lot of life reflecting this trip because our phones didnt work so its not like i even could call my investigators if i wanted to. a FORCED vacation for me and soeur winter but i guess it was nice :) i'll take it. SURINAME WAS BEAUTIFUL! the sisters got us bikes so we went out with them and rode all around and it was amazing!! we ended up teaching a guy in french for them that was so sweet!!

So then was zone conference/ man that was rough! last zone conference of the west indies mission! wow. soeur Mehr and President Mehr are just 2 people I really really look up to. I have learned so much from both of them. I really really enjoyed watching them teach. oh ya that was another thing i learned this week. I LOVE TEACHING!! anyways so i watched them teach. they both have very different ways of teaching and I want to master them both!! haha and when president mehr is teaching he just puts you in the nemo stream, he says: when dory and marlin cross the sea on that current. The Lord's truth is like that. Jospeh Smith, with the education of a 3rd grader, was able to tap into the nemo stream. and then when we were doing a role play in front of EVERYONE (scary.. haha jk not really) and when president mehr totally corrected me and taught me how i should have taught him, he looked me with his eyes in the nemo stream of truth and knowledge. ok i may not be explaining this right, you might not get it but President mehr is just an amazing teacher. so when he was bearing his testimony about how he wasted and wore out his life here on his mission, it was super hard to hear and i was just really sad! but happy! i just love them so much! and we had a comp study with soeur mehr after. and she is amazing. so i was sad but also excited to meet the new presdeint! WHAT AN OPPORTUNITY!! wooowwww zone conference was so good. so worth it.

so yes i was in suriname and another country and it was crazy and a cool experience but feeling that nemo stream and feeling lost in time when president mehr taught eternal truths made it all worth it. 

So i learned this week that i LOVE teaching. which is why ive decided im gonna be a teacher. I LOVE TEACHING!! it is so fun! im so grateful for all the people i do get to teach! Soeur Winter and I have such a desire to teach people these true saving doctrines! man i am so blessed! 

I learn something new everyday! now and for the rest of my mission i am going to write down how i followed the spirit everyday and how i feel as i teach. these are feelings to never forget!!

Love,

Soeur Tenney

This church is built on FAITH

ma famille!

Wow. Its just amazing how much i CONTINUE to learn on my mission! Every day every week! It's insane! I think the biggest thing I've learned is following the Spirit. Man literally I have spiritual experiences everyday and it's hard to decide what I should talk about!!

So  this week i was praying and pondering before going to bed right.? and even though Im training (ya right shes so awesome) im still just trying to push myself and keep myself growing, while at the same time really helping out Soeur Winter get missionary work and french.. its very busy! but i like it :) so i was just  trying to think how i could be better and i knew the next day for comp study, we had to study- teaching people the lesson, so i had the idea to let soeur winter teach ME! ( shes a master at that) so obviously that idea came from the spirit and in comp study she taught me,so I was DONE! who cares about the lesson plans anymore lets just teach poeple! so we go to the guy Monazah's house and he mostly speaks creole, and we didnt have a member so i knew it was gonna be rough, but i was just really trying to teach them, and it was so awesome! He was so awesome! He was just so humble and he say's 'ya i have a quesion, so whats the book of mormon' and so we were able to teach him and help him understand and he accepted it!  He has a scooter so he comes to church but his family of I think 5 all really want to go too, and theyre all girls and so cute! (one boy!) Anyways so at the end, we said a kneeling praying in their humble little home, and i just couldnt hold it together. We said 'thank you for letting us come over' and Monazah in his broken french was just like 'no thank you! church is so important for us' and they just have nothing! man it really just broke me! he was  talking about how its hard but he knows that this is important. I dont know if you even got that story but i was just really humbled! all the girls just feel the spirit so well and just cant wait to study with us! i really just felt like what the heck am i doing here! but theyre awesome :) so humble and will all be in the temple one day :) monazah is s cool!!!! haha

ok so that was a random story funny story. so saturday i became blues clues and just wooped out my handy dandy notebook to do some GETTIING PEOPLE TO CHURCH! all our investigators (not many came;. thats ok! we'll do better next week!) haha but I to start wierd random traditions with soeur winter. she thinks im funny! haha but we always pray for no rain on sunday because all our peeps have scooters and then they cant come to church if it rains!! haha

so sunday roles around and not many people went? but it was fast and testimony meeting and these people i tell you are so faithful! all of us members of the church are so extremely faithful! this work this church is all built on faith! i love it! recent convert Leno talked about paying tithing and how its helping him prosper and its like every story ive heard in every chruch manual but just coming from leno was just so cool! were teaching his daughter :) she was there and she has a hearing problem. I love he,r and friday we had just taught her about the dime. tithing sorry. I love her!

so im still full of ideas and being led by the spirit! and this week i go to suriname and will get even more ideas from the lord!! yippee!!!!! this work is so fun! soeur winter is such a good hard worker!

love you all soeur tenney

Teaching is just SO FUN!

family!!!!

 

little bit overwhelmed by all the fun everyone had at MY BEST FRIENDS HOMECOMING!! shout out to the home girl abby eyre!! see you soon babe! but NOT REALLY I HAVE SO MUCH WORK TO DO!! i tell you this training this is just the best thing ever! it just helps me be so focused, and we have so much success just at our fingertips!!!!

where to start?? literally all i can tell you is that the Lord loves us a lot. and the sisters have done some GREAT work here and soeur winter and I are just purifying and bringing everyone to baptism! its amazing!! I think one of the greatest things ive learned this week is FINDING by the SPirit. Sometimes, missionaries get sad when things fall through and then they just have to go 'contact' and they hate it but a problem soeur winter and i have found is that we get a little sad at the end of the day because we didnt have time to go finding because we were teaching so many investiagtors!!! haha its insane! so literally we have had to really pray and seek inspiration about WHO to go see because theres a lot of people the Lord is expecting us to bring unto Him. its the best :)

so we had a soiree familial with fernando and his family and that was AWESOME! that family is so humble and just cannot wait to feel the Spirit as we pass! 

theres also this recent convert (as in like 2 weeks) Valdir. His wife was baptized first, Maria, who reminds me so much of YOU momma!! and were teaching their  daughter right now! shes 19 her names Lorena and she is SO CUTE! anyways monday night we had a soiree familial and these boys kept coming in and they speak like half portguese and french and it was just hilarious; and they were yelling at the ants, and theyre always yelling at their dog 'POOKA' who always reminds me of Bells. hahah anyways so were working with that family and its SO AWESOME!! OH YA!!

and the Soeur Virgile! Her boyfriend (that shes living with) was home and she wasnt so we just offered to iron his clothes for him and ending up doing that for like an hour and he was just so defensive! but then we came by the next.. OH WAIT! no! aimee came with us and she just like testified about how the gospel will change you! and Virgile is so gonna get baptize soon! Just gonna be a crazy changin her life battle! and the boyfriend was there saturday and we taught the plan of salvation and she LOVED IT!!

i just love how much ive learned. How I can just tell when the Spirit touches someones life. I am so blessed! THat the Lord helps me see this! Man! Teaching is just so FUN!! im so blessed to be serving here and I love the Lord and the work so much! Soeur Winter is the best! she is so pushing me and helping me just finish strong! and she loves hearing me talk about missionary work and i just couldnt ask for anything better cuz thats all i ever wanna talk about :) ITS THE BEST! 

the gospel is clear and makes perfect sense. i love it!

Soeur Tenney

So many COOL investigators

 Family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So yes it is true, I am training, and her name is Soeur winter! like frozen! I just think of frozen when i think of her name!! ah!! so monday and tuesday consisted of parties (soiree familials/fhes) for soeur vance and all the departing missionaries and then wednesday i had a temp who was a recent convert of about 1 month!!! that was awesome! I just really tried to help her feel the spirit and have a good time on the mini-mission. She loved it, her life has completely changed since her baptism. that was soeur Aimee. I LOVE HER SO MUCH!! so that was awesome! and then thursday in come SOEUR WINTER!!! ahhh she gets in and its always awkward the first second like 'woah wheres soeur vance' but then we go get food and then we come home and eat and study and right away we just go to work! SHE wanted to do that! I didnt even have to make it happen! We started planning and talking about our amis and of course fernando calls so we say  'lets go teach him!!' so then we teach him! and also taught this recent convert family's daughter that just moved to our area. THAT was a wonderful thing, i think it was a great first day for her :)

 Then the next day was just as awesome! We took soeur aimee with us and went and taught ASHLEY, a members daughter! shes 12 and my best friend! Her and I walked arm and arm into church on sunday, a very precious moment in my life :) and then we taught VIRGILE! she is such a miracle! that lesson was so awesome. The Lord really qualifies us. Virgile loves to talk and she says really really inpsired thing like 'i know that you didnt knock on my door for nothing' and its amazing! so the spirit was so strong and soeur winter felt that and invited her to be baptized in 4 weeks and she said yes!! and the next day she told us she knows that she would have to move out and change her life to keep Gods commandments. she is so prepared!!!!!!!!!!!!!! man but soeur winter just knows how to follow the spirit! she is such a natural leader and is not scared of anything!! Her and I started a 40 day fast together, getting rid of all the things that would not let the Spirit help us be effective tools in the Lords hands. We're both getting rid of our doubts and fears. AHHHH TRAINING IS AWESOME!! soeur winter is just so good at following the spirit and being obedient and also listening to me :) we both decided we couldnt have had a better start or end to our missions its literally amazing! i know how mindful the Lord is of me in sending me Soeur Winter. hhahahaa its hilarious because it wasnt until last night that we really started getting to know each other. but even though before that we were already best friends just talking about the gospel and our investigators and missionary work together. we are both such missionary work geeks!!! hahaha its so fun! literally. i cant think of a better way to end my mission! or for her to start! haha best of both worlds!! 

so its fun. because i still get so excited about missionary work and shes so fresh so its all new and exciting for her. I just told her lets just pretend like were opening up the area together but we have a little head start because we have SO MANY COOL INVESTIGATORS; but were starting over today. like for example this guy richard that we taught  3 or 4 weeks ago just shows up at church and we've been praying for people with cars in that area! oh ya! this work is the best it all works on faith!  soeur winter and I got a lot of it!

so I'm happy! and so capable! the Lord has so much success in store for us i know it! soirre familiale with fernando and his whole family tonight! yahuh!!!! so stoked!

this work is so important and true

Love,

soeur tenney

 

"Kill the cow people"

Hello everybody!!!!!

wow what a week! this place is nuts so much to do so much to learn so many people to teach and help and invite to come unto Christ!! its nuts! so probably the best part of the week was when we were teaching fernando of course and in walks one of his friends as usual and just starts listening to the lesson but he doesnt really speak french just spanish so fernando is like' keep teaching!!' so we do then we read a scripture and his friend is like 'mormon??' and were like ya!! and hes like 'i was baptized mormon in santo domingo! (dominican republic)' WHAT!!! ive only been praying for that my whole mission! to run into a member of the church! just like par hasard! just like out of no where! and he was like YA FERNANDO GET BAPTIZED!! so hes getting baptized the 30 of may. stoked stoked! he is so awesome fernando! another miracle was we were oging to teacfh him last night after he came to church :) and as were driving up hes walking to his house next to a lady and he offers to help her with the coconuts she was holding. he offerred her service! i dont know but it was precious to me!! so then we talked about service and callings and acted out the good samaritan with him. its fun to be a missionary :)

oh my gosh theres some stories i just dont want to tell you. haha like how we have a truck right. ya well its INFESTED with cockroaches! it is SO DUSGUSTING! hahaha me and my comp had to kill a bunch monday night because relief society gave us some cookies to give to a family. that was crazy!!

man so the members here just like LOVE the missionaries! ewpeically Leno who is basically our coahc the one who trains us in soccer.. haha because some missionaries are leaving like my comp and the missionary who baptized Leno, he had us all over for munch after church :) it was so nice! and he was like 'ALL OF YOU ARE INVITED TOMORROW NIGHT FOR AN FHE' haha even though someone had already invited us all and then he shut the door and was like 'NO IM LOCKING YOU IN TIL TOMORROW NIGHT THEN' hahahahaha he loves the missionaries! it is so nice to feel loved! then you can really just like magnify your calling!!!!!!!

oh also were teaching leno's daughter who has kinda of a hearing problem. her name is ashley shes the other girl in the pic. she is SO CUTE! i love teaching her! shes like dying to be baptized so we just need to talk to her mom.. shes so awesome..

so guyane is the best. and these last few months of my mission i will be TRAINGIN!!!! i get a new girl! let me tell you a story that elder cornish told me. ( of the 70) its called that there was this boy who earned a living for him and his mom through his cow right? but he asks the wise man who comes to town how he can make more money because he wanted more money, like everyohne! so the wise man looks at his property and his house and his cow and walks over and pushes the cow off the cliff and the cow dies and the boys like WHAT!! and the wise man is like 'youll thank me later' so the wise man comes back a couple years later and theres this huge house in the town and he asks 'whos house is that' and the poieple are like'the boy that you killed his cow!!' so basically. KILL THE COW PEOPLE. theres things were doing because were used to it and its NOT WORKING. or not producing our potential. so thats why im excited to traing because thsi new missionary will have NO COWS! and im not letting any cows come up in my life!!!!

so life rocks! i love being a missionary and ready for my new comp!

SOeur Tenney

family reunion

People!

 

I"m a little thrown off because i feel like i just had a family reunion with my huge awesome family of 9 yesterday!! that was the best thing ever! i liked when we all just talked on the phone together for the first little bit :) that was the best!

anyways! this week was another awesome! first of all my companion finishes her mission this next week but she is just GOING HARD TO THE END! she is the one that's giving out all the book of mormons! I'll just walk up to peole and she'll finish em with a book of Mormon, haha its the best!

so monday night we had a family night with leno's  niece named ashley and it was so fun! thats something i learned here. family nights are the best part of the week for these people! im definitely taking that tradition home with me! FAMILY NIGHTS ARE AWESOME (i used to strongly dislike them... haha) but anyways so we went by cute ashley later that week and she has a hearing impairment, but she was so cute! we watched resto vieo with her and she saw the baptism and said, I WANT THAT! so we'll get her there! shes the best!

and then of course theres fernando! we were able to teach his dad this week and he works a LOT but he is all in support of fernando and his kids coming to church and learning the gospel. fernando LOVES learning! he was supposed to come to church this week and he asked his neighbor to take him! because hes awesome and self reliant! but then his neighbor didnt take him :( so that was sad! but hes still awesome, and sunday when we went by (right before i talked to my family) i took a pic and his mom who speaks mostly creole got super excited and ran and put on lip stick and came out all excited for the picture! were gonna print her some today :)

who else?? theres so many cool people here were teaching! we just like run by teaching people and then to sports and to family home evenings its like every missionaries dream down here!

Well i just would like to bear my testimony that I know this church is true! And that you can't put a limit on God! That when we are obedient to the prophets and our leaders it works! the gospel makes us happy! I'm so grateful for the knowledge and testimony I've gained on my mission and I'm so grateful to serve Him so hard everyday! 

This church is the best! 

Love Soeur Tenney 

 

 

 

Fernando

 Young women in her branch

 

soiree familial chez leno.

family night at lenos!!