Hello Partiers!

September 30, 2013

September 30, 2013

Well hello my beloved super cool awesome family! wow! that took me a

long time to get through all those emails and pictures. because the

internet is slow as tar!!! but i appreciated them thank you very much!

first off. Happy birthday to my Babes! Brynlee i love you so much and

miss you like crazy! i cant believe you’re 12. shoot girl! so grown up

and beautiful! i have beautiful sisters people. get over it. ah

babesy! have a great birthday! and know that i love you a ton!

but wow. you guys had a fun weekend! first off way to go mom! im proud

of you for pulling off that party! seriously it looks like there were

hundreds of people there! great success! well my sister deserves it! i

hope you had a great party!

dad it looks like your party was a huge success as well! thats a good

thing. make sure you hire some good employees! im excited for that and

i cant wait to go!

darin way to beast all day everyday!

k whats the deal with my siblings just being so poplular and getting

over 200 likes on fb for everything!

ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! im trunky.... hahaha jk.

so my week: was good. a lot better than last week. it wasnt crazy full

of lessons but they were good solid lessons. we got a lot acomplished

this week. set some baptisimal dates got all of our investigators

progressing agian. we have 12 progressing investigators. That’s an

excellent number. we had 11 investigators at church so that was really

good.

on wed we had zone conference which was excellent! best one we’ve had!

haha i love the mission presidency so much. they are awesome!

so last monday we had an fhe with maria da silva. old member here. and

president came and we had a big dinner and all that jazz. but while we

were waiting i set siri on presidents phone to always call him mr

president! hahahahahaha so funny! well he doesnt even know how to use

siri so he thought it was halarious!

then the rest of the week we taught lessons... hmm oh yeah so marcia

our camp investigator that is getting baptized in oct. shes 23 and

anyway so we were teaching the law

of chastity. and she giggles and im just like oh my gosh girl get a

grip! and like i was kind of explaining it with pretty words and then

im just like forget this. and i said I’m just going to give it to you

frank. Don’t have sex until your married!!! She got a grip after that

thankfully.  Don/t beat around the bush people. Doesnt work.

so i guess that’s my funny story for the week.

i got two letters this week. one from troy and one from g and g

stoker. thank you guys!

troy i am flippen in love with your family. they are sooo dang cute! i

love the pictures! camping bike riding! american dream is it not! oh i

love america. soo much better than africa. movies have made africa a

lot cooler than it is. dont get me wrong it is cool. but... not that

cool. lots of not cool things about it.

cool story actually. we were going to dinner at the wegglands. the

awesome american family that i love with my whole heart and sister

weggland has the EXACT same personalitly as grandma stoker. so. anyway

we are going to there house and then BOOM! all the power goes out in

the whole city! and we were just in the dark driving through this huge

city! really creepy. cause thats the opertune time for banditos. and i

just sat there thinking to my self... this is what hell is going to be

like. huge city that is soo dirty and hasnt had any maintanance since

the 70s! and completely dark with bandits and rapers running about..

creepy thought eh? soo..... that was about my week. angola kinda got

on my nerves this week. theyre stuck in the 70s and it shows bad. and

the people know it. but you know you gotta love it. well i love you

guys! hope your week is good and pay attention in general conference!

Love

Elder Tingey

A New Milestone

September 23, 2013

So guys, thanks for all the birthday wishes. i really am older believe it or not. on my birthday i woke up with a full beard! it was kinda freaky but tudo bem now. hahaha But wow what a week!

so elder yeanoplos got in a 430 in the morning on tuesday. haha i wasnt ready for that. the aps told me like 8 or 9. but then all the sudden im sleeping on the couch and doors start flying open light are switching on its dark out side and then boom, the dust clears and there is elder yeanoplos standing there with all the light shining on him with a superman suit on. crazy huh? hahaha yeah it went something like that.. i dont really remember it was 430 in the freaking morning!

But he is a great Elder. yep from tucson but doesnt know the sharps. hes from the south side if you know what i mean. haha  jk just southern side of tucson.

so then on thursday.. my birthday.. probably my most boring birthday ever but whateves. my 22 is going to rock! but we had lunch and the valdez s house. theyre portuguese and awesome. and then... i dont remember what we did for dinner. i think we just ate at home. but yeah kinda boring. but elder montG called me and the zone leaders and president and all wished me a happy birthday. so that was nice. and elder brown sent me a text.

the next day was Ima Lassolet’s birthday so i called her and wished her happy birthday. what a great woman. and then we had an integration night that night where we watched joseph smith the prophet of the restoration. it went well besides that fact that it started on angolan standard time... an hour late. which stressed me out but all said and done it was good.

then saturday we had the first part of district conference. its like stake conference. and that was really good.  then we had the second half of it on sunday. and that was way fun. because i got to see a bunch of people from Benfica. ah i love Benfica so much. you know when you just put so much work into something and then just a few gems come out of it but oh how you love those gems that do come out of it. yeah thats how i am with Benfica. i got to see Daneilson’s family again. they are preparing for baptism and Ritas family i saw them. and lucas!! my man. i love that kid. and then amarildo! the guy that looks like usher he came and talked with me for a little while.. ah! and then all the older members! i love them all. i love working in little branches like that because then you get to know and love everyone. but it also can get annoying when theres not enough people to do everything. but yeah. so i had to translate for sister merrill during the conference. i sat behind her and whispered it all in english in her ear. going from portuguese to english is a lot more dificult than english to portuguese! so that was a good expeirence. but translating for the portuguese people was harder than the angolans. portuguese people can talk so fast and i cant keep up with the translating! i can understand everything fine but then i have to translate and then... ai yai yai. fica complicado.

so then last night at our dinner with the wegglands i got to have a quick hands on with ios 7. ooooooo baby. its purty. im glad you all downloaded it.  and im happy mom got an iphone 5 yahoo!

darin congrats on getting asked. but thats still a little weird to me. geez it was just homecoming and they are already asking.  marissa you looked great in your photos! was paintballing a blast? probably one of my favorite dates that i ever did!

mom i havent recieved your package yet. but it should get here this week. thanks for it!

Dad the place is sooo close! geez im anxious! this has been such a long process! i cant wait for it!

Hannah, hahaha sometimes i have dreams that i come home and it scares me! im like wait i didnt do my two years yet! noo! thats one of my worst fears. is to get hurt or something and have to come home. ajgdro adtha. nao quero. but i miss you too. a lot.

babes you hanging in there is all this homecoming winter formal stuff?! love you girl!

hmm what else.... its getting more difficult to keep girls off of me ;) you know being 20 and all. they must know. hahaha jk jk. well i love you guys!

peace out! paz fora yall.

com amor

Elder Tingey

ps. dont tell me im almost at my year mark. until im at my year mark. itll make go by so slow...

This is what my comp did for my Birthday!

 District Conference

 Lucas!

 Lucas, My Man!

Rita's Family

Bday week Pics and Safari

Stressed!!!

Hello everybody! 

well first and foremost happy birthday zach and grandma stoker! and thank you everyone for the birthday wishes. speacial shoutout to my man Austin Turley for sending a letter from Brazil! i cant believe im turning 20... crazy. well idk what im going to do now.. because we had TRANSFERS  early! again! geez. 

so Elder Montgomery and i get back from teaching on wed night and go over to the other elders house to get something and president calls us and tells us that transfers are happening the next day! so we went home and i didnt sleep because elder montgomery was packing because he got transfered to my old area in benfica! so my new comp is elder yeonopolis and he is from tucson az. hes coming up from lubango on tuesday. so ive been in a three some and i had to live in the other elders house this whole week. and well lets just say... im done sleeping on the couch. i want my own bed and my own house. but yeah elder yeonopolis is 2 transfers behind me i think. soo this is the first time ill be senior comp.... its a little stressful. i  miss elder MontG already. President only let me have 5 weeks with him. not fair. whateves. OH! and elder brown got transfered to lubango which i was super sad about which mean i wont see him again till like the end of his mission! i miss him. he is the best. he got me a sick sun devils hat for my birthday! i love that guy! he is the greatest. but im way excited for this new phase in my mission. 

so in all this ruckess we managed to have a baptism this week! Marisa is here name. and she was definitley ready. shes 33 and was way excited. i was very happy for here. her family is almost all members now. and her brother is on a mission in campo verde. haha baptisms are kinda funny... because well this is angola. so to fill up the font we have to bucket water from a tank 50 yards away and fill up a 1200 liter batismal font. oh and the baptismal font has a leak.... yeah so we bucket all the water in, in the morning, have the baptism... and then bucket all the water out to save it... (sigh)... it takes a long time... but hey its a baptism and the there is no price on the work of the Lord! 

soo.. you all know me. big apple fan boy. and well i heard and i saw what apple came out with this week.... HOLY FREAK!! guys... when this angolan was showing me these things on his ipad... i got so trunky. guys i kidd you not when it was the first time i really felt like i wanted to go home... hahaha its soo beautiful. well ill get the 6 when i come home. oh well that feeling only lasted like 3 hours.. i had iphone fever. ahhh! well that about it for this week. 

marissa: youre looking good as always and having way to much fun. 

darin: stop being such a stud. youre going to make me look bad when i get home!

Babes: you are so popular and so dang smart. keep it up!

Hannha: when you are a pilot will you fly me places? like the ranch? 

Mom and Dad: i love you guys! 

well this is the last email youll get from me.. besides pics, of the 19th year of my life. crazy. 

tchau! 

com muito amor

Elder Tingey

Oh What A Week!!!

September 9, 2013

Well, hello family! First and foremost, thank you all for writing me such amazing emails this week. I really do appreciate it. Makes me happy and helps me not get mad on pdays. haha But today I could not possibly get mad. Wanna know why? Because I just got back from and African SAFARI! Checked off the Bucketlist! So I hope that answers your question mom. Although, disclaimer: not as good as one in like South Africa but I don’t care I was satisfied! K, Flippen love President Merrill. He took us to the safari and then, on the way back we stop at a cool place called Mihadoro da Lua. (I’ve already been there) and then all of a sudden we’re driving and he just pulls off the road, turns around, and takes us to the beach! And it was a sick beach with awesome waves! I loved it! I love the Merrills! 

Okay so about my week... hahaha Oh this week was long. So our house was under construction/maintenance the WHOLE WEEK. And guess what? We had to supervise THE WHOLE WEEK! So, terrible week for numbers but a great week for our house! We got a new water pump! And a huge hot water heater! yes yes yes!!! And lights in all the rooms and all the acs fixed! ahhh I can live normally again and wash my clothes in the washing machine and take long hot showers... life is good. hmm what else. Oh emergency transfers. Elder Chandler and Elder Hobbs came to Cassequel so that’s cool, but threw off everyone’s week. 

On Friday night I was sitting in bed watching a church movie ( cause the workers were working still!) and I get a call and Elder Brown is like, “Elder Tingey, I’m sitting here with Leonel and he wants you to baptize him tomorrow can you do it? And I was like heck yeah, I can do it! So Leonel is an 8 year old kid. Sweetest humblest family I’ve ever taught. They are all members except the mom. They lack marriage. Anyway, Leonel lives in Benfica and was apparently really preoccupied that it had to be me who baptized him! It made me feel so good and I felt that I had set a good example and that he looked up to me. Greatest feeling ever! 

Oh so this week, Elder MontG and I were a little bored. We decided to do some in house surgery... on me; my wart on my arm. Yeah, it was intense. We had a surgery table, sterilizing material, all the tools, knives we were going to use and numbing stuff. Well, short story short I don’t have a wart on my arm anymore, it’s healing very well, there was a lot of blood :) and we have it all on video! hahahahaa Great stuff. I’ll send you all the pictures from this week, next week. 

Okay I love that story about Hannah reading scary stories to herself in the truck on Daddy/daughter! hahah so funny! I love you Hannah! 

So to answer some of mom’s billion questions: 

They have one train that carries people. Doesn’t do much though. It has two destinations: to the city and out of the city. And yes, they have buses but they are packed!!! Like crazy! So we take taxis. Yes, only 3 cities the missionaries are in and we won’t be expanding for a long, long time. Angolans have dogs and cats for pets; occasionally monkeys or parrots. Crime... tons of it. Stores get robbed all the time. But the crime is way under the radar because the police don’t do anything. This country is corrupt from top to bottom in more ways than I can explain. It really is basically a dictatorship and the Pres has a monopoly on EVERYTHING. When Elder C got robbed, it happened right under there apartment. if he didn’t fight back he probably wouldn’t have been stabbed but he would have lost lots of money money money; like $500 worth.

Well, I love you all so much! I can’t believe I turn 20 in 10 days. And I can’t believe the transfer is almost over! I just got here! And Elder MontG is all but confirmed to be transferred! NOOO! and ps we don’t stay up talking that late anymore. We go to bed. But, we think so much alike it’s funny! Well, I love you all so dang much! tchau! 

Elder Tingey

Hello!!!!!!!!!!

September 2, 2013

Hello family. Glad y’all got over your hangover from your Sunday night

parties! So this week was interesting. A full week. Robberies,

stabbings, you know the good stuff. So yeah.

Well, we started off the week good. We are working really hard. It’s

good. We’re busy. Ummm, so yeah we had lessons.

So Elder C and Elder G got robbed this week. Elder C

got stabbed a few times cause he resisted and fought them. So he had

to get stitches. I had a division the next day and went and walked in

the area that it happened in... sketchy area. So they got a curfew of

6 o’clock for the rest of the week. They are fine though. But Elder

C’s stab wounds are pretty gross, but that was a pretty interesting day.

Angola won the basketball championship for Africa. They are pretty

good. I watched a few parts of the games outside the bars with all the

Angolans. It was way fun. We were all getting into the game and all

cheering. Haha good times.

So we have a special needs girl in our branch named Julia. Her

grandmother was a member of the church who took care of her and

brought her to church every week. But her grandmother died, like, a year

ago. Julia is like 30 years old, but you know

still looks like she’s twenty. Anyway, she still comes to church every

week and she is so sweet and we all love her. But this week she had a

pretty bad seizure, she has epilepsy and she went unconscious and

everything so Elder Montgomery and I carried her home and gave her a

blessing. That was a pretty cool experience. It really is one of those

rare opportunities where I feel like I get a sneak peak through God’s

eyes and see how much love He has for all of us; especially his

special ones like Julia.

Grandpa Tingey, I got your package with the shirt! Thanks so much guys! It’s way cool and I love it! Troy, I got your letters and the pictures from

the ranch. Oh those were good pictures from the ranch! I liked the big

family picture, although I was a little bit upset that I wasn’t able to

be in it. Oh well.  Sorry Troy, I don’t think we have a pouch address.

If we ever get one... it will be a long time, cause you gotta

remember. T.I.A. (This Is Africa, or more specifically This Is Angola!)

Nothing moves quickly here, and when I say nothing, I mean NOTHING!

So I have a birthday wish list; if you guys will let me have

one. I want a handwritten, GOOD, letter from each one of my siblings

and my parents. At least one page per person. AT LEAST! Also some

F-301 BP zebra pens. I love them to death and they don’t have them

here. Blue ink preferably. A letter from the Tingeys (next door)

wouldn’t hurt either. So that’s it.

So did Mountain View win this week? How’s school for everyone?

Well, sorry its not much. I really wasn’t in the mood, but love you all!

Elder Tingey

P.S. Super Awkward. Yesterday, in testimony meeting, Irma Lasolet, who is a senator here and a big player for the church here and one of the

first ones here, Anyway, she made me stand up during her testimony to

show everyone that “we are so lucky and it is such a blessing to have

Elder Earl Tingeys "grandson" here in Angola.” Yeah... it was pretty

awkward. And then after, all the members were like, “Why didn’t you tell

us?!”psh idk(I don’t know) I don’t want to make it look like I’m special or that I’m the "Chosen one" or something. Well you know.... people do think I look like Anakin Skywalker...... maybe I am the chosen. Obione Kanobi : "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THE CHOSEN ONE!" haha I miss Star Wars!