RiverHOOD 8/25/14

Monday


Monday I made brownies for the first time, and they weren't even bad. We took them to a recent convert named Elizabeth and it's a good thing we did because it was the only thing she got besides flowers from a member of the branch. Her family are all Muslim. (Her daughter is the one who fell off a bike in my first lesson).
Tuesday, we went with the elders to take a tree off of a hoarders house. We weren't much help there, and it smelled weird, so we visited a member who lives around the block. Her name is J...". She's my favorite member in Riverhead. she is also our branch chorister.

On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we visited some members, proselyted, sang happy birthday to Brother Blom, taught some members how to use Facebook, taught a few people, normal missionary stuff.

Saturday, I groomed a horse! I was kind of scared my teeth were going to get knocked in because you have to take their feet off of the ground and pick at their hoof. If my parents would've made me do all that when I was little, I would've never wanted a horse. Haha

I never thought I would've learned that when I got my mission call to New York, New York!

Sunday was good! I love church. Sister Snow and I taught the relief lesson and I don't think that's my calling. It went well though. I mean, there's only like four women.. Haha

Today is my mom's birthday! So shout out to her. She's the best!

This week has been way good but I don't have any cool or funny stories I could tell you. Pretty much all of our lessons fell through this week, so that was a bummer.

We are still teaching Daniele and he is progressing.. Slowly.

The mish is still awesome!

Love you all!

Sister Tenney

                                                                 "I met a princess!"

Polish Town Fair in the middle of Polish Town, USA 8/18/14

August 18th

This week has been a little bit rocky for Sister Snow and I. We have
just been trying to get back on our feet. But miracles have happened!

For the past few weeks we have basically been stalking this lady named
"S"... She has been home and straight up ignored us, hung up on us,
pretended like she couldn't hear us, acted like she was busy, etc
etc...

Yesterday evening we drove by her house and saw her outside so we
decided to stop and say hi. She OBVIOUSLY saw us, pretended like she
didn't, and walked into her backyard.. with her massive English
Bulldog named Brooklyn. We just acted normal and went and knocked on
the door, even though we totally saw her bail on us.. Then we walked
around her yard for a little bit.. I even yelled into her backyard
"her nameeeeee" - no answer.

So, I had.. Actually the spirit put into my mind, the brilliant idea
of being a totally creep/stalker and driving away, doing a u-turn down
the road a little ways..  and rolling back to my home girl "S's"
house. It worked! She assumed we left and came back into the front of
her yard. We slammed on our breaks and got out of the car real quick
so she wouldn't escape again, and basically ran to her. Haha it was
real awkward, but we just acted completely normal.

We started talking with her and she told us kind of what was going on
in her life and some things she was struggling with. We had been
talking for about ten minutes when I had the impression to share a
Mormon Message. While sister Snow and Sharlene were chatting I whipped
out my iPad and started scrolling through the videos to see if I had
even 1 that was downloaded. I found one that had been downloaded, but
I had NO idea what it was, I'd never seen it before, and I didn't even
remember downloading it. I said a quick prayer in my head that it
wouldn't be some weird random video.. And asked her if she'd like to
watch it.

It was "Good Things to Come" by Jeffrey R. Holland.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-05-12-good-things-to-come?lang=eng

The Spirit was SO strong. After the video ended, "S" was a little
choked up and said "I have such a weird feeling. I can't even really
describe it, but it is putting a smile on my face. What is this
feeling?"
It was so awesome to introduce somebody to the Holy Ghost, and to
testify along with Elder Holland about our Savior Jesus Christ. Who's
church this is.

I really love missionary work. It's the best thing I've ever done in my life.

The people here are amazing, sometimes difficult to contact, but really great.

The Polish Town fair in PolishTown, USA was this last weekend, so here
is some of my testimony in Polish.


Jestem wdzięczny być członkiem prawdziwego Kościoła Chrystusowego.
Uwielbiam służenia Panu i nie chciałbym być cokolwiek innego. Wiem, że
przez moje posłuszeństwo, cuda się nie stanie. Są ludzie, którzy są
przygotowani na przyjęcie Ewangelii, a ja jestem tutaj, aby zaprosić
innych do budowy są one wiarę w Jezusa Chrystusa. Kocham go. Wiem, że
on żyje, i wiem, że tylko dzięki nim możemy żyć z Ojcem Niebieskim
ponownie. Kocham was tak bardzo. Kocham moją rodzinę. Jestem wdzięczna
moim rodzicom, którzy wychowali mnie w sprawiedliwym domu. Ja również
jestem wdzięczny za mój najlepszy przyjaciel Derek Ammon Jennings,
który pomaga mi być lepszym misjonarzem, przyjacielem i człowiekiem.

Mają wielki tydzień. Kochać zawsze, siostra Samantha Tenney

Trying to teach my E.R. nurse the Restoration 8/11/14

I'll be straight up with you all. This probably has been the hardest week of my life. 

Bad thing is, I probably have harder days in my future. So, come what may. 

Last Saturday or Sunday night I woke up with a super bad pain in my side. I took some Advil and went back to bed. For the next couple of days I just ignored it and didn't say anything. But on Tuesday Sister Snow and I thought it would be a good idea to call the Mission Medical (a senior couple who is in-charge of all of the missionaries' health problems). They were concerned it was an appendicitis, so at 10:30 pm on Tuesday night Sister Snow and I, our district leader and his companion, and Elder Jorgensen (senior) all went to the emergency room. 

Well, if you asked me what I thought hell was.. I'd most likely tell you to sit in a E.R waiting room, in New York at midnight. #FreaksEverywhere 

It took almost two hours for me to get a room. When they finally got me a room they kept asking me questions that I didn't know the answer to. I felt like a little kid lost in Dillards or something. 

Then they did every test possible on me throughout the night. They took my blood to check for the white blood cell count and it was a "high normal" which means there was 'almost' something wrong haha. 

The doctor was convinced it was my appendix but before they did a cat-scan the elders came in and gave me a blessing. They couldn't see anything. 

They kept me there for observation until like 9 in the morning. But they gave me morphine at like 8:30 so I can't even remember who took me home from the hospital. . . For the next two days I stayed at a Senior couple's home (the Jorgensen's) and they took care of me. I was violently ill for a few days. And I am pretty sure I threw up on their drive-way and yelled "I want to go home. I want my mom" But I was high, so I don't claim it. 

Anyway, today is the first day I have eaten solid food since last Tuesday at 2:30 pm. So I am getting better. 

I still need to go back into the Doctor's office to get a blood test if I start to get a fever. But, I don't think I am dying anymore. 

This week I have really seen that we are blessed after the trial of our faith. 

We all go through hard times, but God is aware of us. Christ knows his sheep, and they are numbered. 

Don't let this email scare you. I am doing good and am back at it. #baptizingLongIsland 

Love you all so much. 

The power of prayer is real. 

Pray for the people of Riverhead cause they need it. 

Oh, basically health care here is really bad and I thought I was going to die in the hospital. So my advice to you all is don't get sick in NY. 

LOVE always, 

Sister Samantha Tenney 

#1transferDown 

 Sister Snow and Sister Tenney and their cute yellow house!

 I cannot believe she ate shrimp!!!

"Mom, I like her yellow hair" August 4, 2014

Hey Everybody! 

This past week in Riverhead has been awesome!  I have come to realize that I am in a complete different
 country than Pleasant View,Utah. I love the Spanish people so much! 

The Leon's are a less active/recent convert family. They have a 2 year old little girl, and a 6 year old boy
 named Jared that is seriously in love with me. (Because of my yellow hair) Last Monday we went to their 
house to eat dinner and he was hiding behind the couch taking pictures of me on his Nintendo DS the entire
 time. Kind of cute, kind of creepy. 

The Spanish people in our area love to feed us. (Yesterday I ate a steak at 9:00 pm because I was forced to
 by hermana Leon). But don't worry, I don't think I will get fat because I usually get sick from the food.
 It's just part of being white I guess. 

They also like to make fun of me.. haha ALL the time. The Leons love to talk about my dating life back at
home and how I better leave my mission 6 months early... And then they all talk really fast in Spanish and
laugh a lot.. and I don't understand anything. It is the best. . 

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Update on the spiders: Still huge, and still infesting our house. 

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Daniel is committed to baptism on August 30th! So that's cool.. But he also said he would be at church
 yesterday.. and wasn't.. so, I'm not completely confident that it will happen that date. But it is really
 awesome because Sister Snow has been here for awhile and hasn't had any baptismal commits/baptisms..
 So #1 for Riverhead! :) #hasteningthework

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We had to go into the city this past week for a meeting and everyone was buying the $1 hotdogs, I just
couldn't get myself to try one. It was too sketchy and I already am sick from foreign food. 

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Anyway, I don't have anything really cool to say.. just that I see miracles happen every single day. I just
have to do my part in being obedient, studying, and opening up my mouth. I know that God prepares his
people and I hate the thought of letting someone pass by me on the street, in the store, or from door to 
door without giving them the opportunity to access "the good news". Which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

I love you all and I hope you have a great week! 

The church is true, or I wouldn't put up with being spit on by shirtless, fat, white,Polish men. 

I LOVE YA! 

- Sister Tenney