we TESTIFIED

Family and friends :)
Before I begin my story I want to notify you all that this email is
not meant to bash those of the Jehova's Witness' faith. It's just my
experience that I've had here. Understand? Thanks :)
So last week we were leaving the apartment of a member when we ran
into a friendly JW in the elevator. We talked religion for a bit and
then she gave us her number. We met with her this last friday night.
For those of you who are familiar with this "religion", they are quite
dilligent and passionate in what they believe. I think besides us
Mormons, they are the most passionate and faithful church to their
beliefs. They usually know the bible inside and out and man it can be
tough talking with them. We started our meeting with a prayer and
before we could start our lesson she began asking us soooo many
questions about our beliefs. She loved listening to our answer and
then telling us what she believed and then proving that her belief was
right becasue she had "biblical proof". She did this very kindly
actually which I appreciated, but still it wasn't exactly fun. But I
was actually very surpirsed with how I felt throughout the entire
meeting. You see before my mission I was always so nervous when people
asked me questions about my beliefs becasue I wanted to make sure to
give the right answers and also make sure they didnt think I was
weird, etc. But this time it was different. While this lady tried to
prove her points with us, we were able to calmy explain what we
believe, and most importantly, we TESTIFIED. We told her what we knew,
we tried our best to avoid "bible-bashing" and we simple declared what
we knew, and that we knew it becasue of the Bible AND the Book of
Mormon.
Have I told you how much I love the Book of Mormon???? ;) Seriously,
if you want to strengthen your testimony of ANYTHING in the gospel, or
if you have a question. The Book of Mormon will solve everything.
Think about it. If you truly KNOW the Book of Mormon is true, then you
already KNOW: 1- Jospeh Smith was a prophet 2- Joseph Smith restored
God's true church 3- Christ is our Savior and redeemer and our way
back to our Heavenly home. 4- That our church is establised on living
prophets and what they ask us to do is revelation and direction from
GOD 5- We have the priesthood power on earth that allow us to make the
covenants we must make to return to God. AND SO FORTH. I could go on
and on. By you knowing the Book of Mormon is true, you essentially
have a solid testimony of every single gospel principle.
So don't worry. All you need to do is read the Book of Mormon.
Everyday. And I promise you everything in life will work out. And The
JW's wont even scare you one bit ;)
I love you all! Thank you for your love and support. Keep me in your
prayers always :) LOVE Sister Tenney

THANK YOU!

FAMILY!
oh my gosh the wedding sounded like the best thing ever. THANK YOU to
everyone who emailed me and told me all about it. And "I am honored!"
(pink panther) to have had "Swing Swing" dedicated to me!! Even though
I wasn't there I feel like I was a part.
So I was super nervous this week I would just be sad all week, but I
wasn't! God blessed me with a deep sense of peace and assurasnce. As I
thought about Britt and everything I was missing I smiled and was
happy for her. It was a miracle! I was also blessed becasue I hardly
had time to think about anything besides Angela, my favorite
investigator. She's 19, writes music, and is planning to study writing
music in Vienna. She is amazing and inspiring and just listen to this.
Yesterday I texted her and told her to read Moroni 10. 5 minutes later
she texted me back. "I'm reading it right now and I believe it is
true!"
I couldn't help but cry. It may seem small but I know this is the
beginning of a new life for her. I have never been so happy.
SO this week right as I thought I was beggining to be able to speak
Russian, at our district meeting I went to say that we as
missionaries need to develop. "Develop" in Russian is razVEEvatsya,
but I made the mistake of saying razDEEvatsya. As I said this everyone
just started laughing and I tried to ignore it and finally just yelled
"WHAT DID I SAY!" haha instead of saying we need to develop I said we
need to undress. HAHAHAHAHA. The difference a tiny mistake can make.
Hilar.
Anyways I love you all! Jack good luck with your tooth ;)
have a great week everyone, love sister Tenney

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! i love you

Family and friends!
For all of my family and friends who will be at Britt's wedding this
week PLEASE do me a HUGE favor and EMAIL me. ALLLL ABOUT IT. I want
pics, and I want details, and i want similes :) haha.
So this mission stuff is SUCH a rollar coaster. We had SUCH an amazing
week. 4 new investigators! and more new ones will be coming :) I
seriously couldn't have been happier. But also this week we called our
best investigator and she told us she doesnt want to see us again and
doesn't want us to call her and then she hung up. I just forced it out
of my mind so i wouldn't be sad, but then the next day my favorite
investigator, an older man who is SOOOO kind (he owns a hospital here
in St. petes for kids who don't have money), when I called him he said
so kindly "Tenney, I love you and your goodness and your church but I
know its not for me". My heart broke and I just started crying right
there. (secretly.....well I hope he didn't know I was crying on the
phone haha). I dont know where I'm going with this email, I just want
you all to know that life is always up and down. It's never what you
expect it to be and its often not what you thought you wanted. But
there's always a reason for everything, and at the end of the day
somehow I always go to bed with a smile. Sometimes its annoying cuz I
had a bad day and I feel I have the right to be mopey and sad! but
somehow God always gives me a reason to smile as I go to bed. SO
unfair! ;)
And I hope you can go to bed with a smile each night too!
I love you all! and EVERYONE, don't forget to give me a report on the
wedding, and Britt and Jarman: I'm totes excited for you! Dont forget
to "party hardy and boogy oogy!"
love, sis Tenney

He has a plan

Family and friends,
Again this week I was reminded of how little I know and how God really
does have a better plan than me. He just is sooo tricky sometimes
haha.
So on saturday I was pumped. 3 investigators were gonna come to church
on sunday! We had made plans with each of them so they were all ready
to come. And we even called almost the whole ward to tell them we were
having investigators come and that we needed their help. I prayed ALL
week and just knew sunday was gonna be awesome.
SO then sunday morning..... not ONE of them answered their phones. And
NOT one of them came.
I could have cried.
.....
BUT then we had to meet the elders investigator at the metro and walk
her to chruch. SHE is amazing. She is golden. My comp and I were SOOOO
SAD but as we walked with her to church our spirits quickly rose.
Church was PERFECT for her. I thought all the work I had put into
getting my investigators to church was a waste, but on the contrary!
Because of our hard work they ward welcomed the elder's investigator
with loving arms. SHE LOVED IT. I sat next to her every hour and here
are a few of her comments (just so you know shes only met with the
elders 2 times and this was her very 1st sunday at chruch)
"I've prayed my whole life to find support and friends and I know God
has lead me here and know I've found it"
"I want to know ALL of the commandments so I can keep them all"
"When can I get baptized?"
OH MY GOSH SUCH A MIRACLE! God really is a so tricky sometimes. Right
when we want to throw our hands up and yelll " i give up!" He opens
our eyes and helps us to see that HE has a plan. And HE has a reason.
Gosh I've learned this over and over and yet I always forget! So don't
be like me. ALways remember God is the master planner. He knows us.
And He loves us. And He has a reason for everything.
i love you all! Thank you for your love and support! peace out, sister Tenney

Photos from St. Pete's!

 Well this one's just not very cute haha but I think it's meant to be funny

 How cute! and awesome!

 Her companion

 little doggies!

Beautiful.

Seek for Change

friends and fam!
So this week I just was feeling so, I dont know, boring, and like
normal. I just felt like I keep doing the same old things, like
nothing was happening, and just I was starting to go with the flow. I
thought about this a lot and decided, "imma find little things I can do
to change it up". And so thats my goal right now. Yesterday I did so
by using a different "pass along card" than I normally use. instead of
handing out ones with info about our church I decided to hand out ones
to give them a free book of mormon. I knew this would give me the
oppurtunity to right away talk with people about the Book of Mormon.
And oh what a difference it made!!! Instead of saying the same things
I've gotten into saying as a routine, I was able to simply talk and
testify about my favorite thing in the world, the book of mormon! And
people started to listen! haha. Yesterday I started talking with a man
and gave him the invitation and he asked, what is this book??? And BAM
I was able to begin to testify right away. It was powerful, and best
of all it was natural. I was able to give him a Book of Mormon RIGHT
THEN AND THERE. And OH how I love to talk about the Book of Mormon and
then watch people's reaction as I give it to them. His eyes widened
when I went to hand it to him and as he held it for the 1st time He
just looked at it in amazement. He gave us his number and he wants to
meet with us and his family this weekend. Now that is what I call a
miracle. And you know why it came about? Becasue I sought for change.
Just a small little thing made the biggest difference. I know you all
know what I'm talking about when I said i was getting stuck in
routine. SO all of you, think right now, and find a mini thing you can
do TODAY. A small little thing to change. Step by step miracles are
made, mountains are moved and the sun rises. I have faith in you! I
love all of you and thank you for your prayers. They are small, but
together they strengthen me and help us missionaries everyday. Don't
you dare forget to read your scriptures today!
oh, and ps. my comp the other day read an article in the ensign about
a missionary who was struggling with the language and got a blessing
to help him. She turns to me an says, "sis Tenney! You should get a
blessing to help you speak russian!": hahahahha. Now you know you need
to improve your language skills when your native companion tells you
you need a blessing haha. Dont worry I'm not worried about it. I think
its hilrious and its only helped me try to study harder! Love you
all! - love Sistra tenney

God Really is the Master Planner

Family friends and admire-ers ;)
haha. So this week was what i like to call my week of mini miracles. So
to start of we met with our investigator this week and taught her the
Plan of Salvation if you dont know what this is go to lds.org and
find out cuz its awesome!). We approached this meeting very cautiously
cuz our investigator told us very admontly in previous meeting she
doesnt want to hear anything about life after death. Haha. SO me and
my comp we studied very hard, we prapared alot, and practiced. Somehow
the meeting went very smoothly, she accpeted all of it, and seemed to
forget her hatred of the after life haha. Wow it was soooo cool.
Whats even cooler though is that after this meeting through the week
as we talked to ppl on the street, many ppl needed to ear about the
plan of salvation! It was like God had prepared us this week so we
could be ready for these ppl, 2 diff women specifically. One of them,
it was late at night, freezing, and dark and we were almost home when
for some reason I started talking to some lady. The first miracle is
that she stopped and listened. I know right away my russian was pretty
terrible as I was talking to her, but she kept listening! We started to
ask her questions, and after a minute she broke down to us and
starting crying. Her mother had just died. But we were ready! We
powerfully testified of God's plan for us. Somehow, in a dark street,
late one cold russian night we were able to have such a great
converstaion, and get her number. We all cried as we talked together
and we all left hugging and feeling better. Is that not crazy?? And
what's crazy is another similiar thing like this happened about 2 days
later. We have no idea, but God really is the master planner. And He
needs each of us to be ready and worthy to help Him make His plans
"come to pass". Wow.... so cool.
I'd like to give a few shoutouts to a few awesome ppl. first of all,
thank you DJ girls! I got your big letter full of all ur mini letters!
Im soooo happy and proud of all of you keep it up! Thank you cousins and
aunts and uncles. Thank you everyone for your emails, letters, dear
elders, and most of all prayers! I need them!
Last fun little story. We sang at our last meeting with our
investigator and after the song she just sat and stared at me in
amazement. I loked at her and she said "you sing without a hint of an
accent!! When you talk you have one, but not when you sing".... Yay!!!
Maybe I'll just spend the rest of my mission singing :)
love you all! Love, Sistra Tenney