I FREAKING LOVE AFRICA!!

January 21, 2013

Bom Dia!!

Guys what is up!

Ok this week has been pretty awesome not gonna lie! So my companion is Elder Walker and I freaking LOVE him. He's so chill and will help me with anything and we get along really well. It's great. Ha the only down side to him is that he doesn't like country music but that's not biggie out here! I live with 3 other companionships in a house. My companionship and another are going to be moving into a new apartment hopefully this week. It was supposed to be when I got here but the guy who has the keys went to Dubai or something and doesn't get back till today. But our house is nice! well..haha nice for here. The house is really great when we have energy. But when we don't, it just becomes like any old shack. It really stinks not to have energy. We can't purify our water, the water pump doesn't work, no lights. mainly just the water not being purified really stinks. So we have to go stock up on bottled water which is a pain. BTW everything is really expensive here! We take taxis or walk everywhere. It's fun actually.

Just trying to get from point a to b is quite the thrill. The taxi drives

are always fun. I feel like I am on a roller coaster. Oh and the taxis are

basically VW buses CRAMMED with people! The people are pretty sweet here though. Everyone wears flip flops and I mean EVERYONE - even me. I had to get some because there's parasites apparently that are on the floor that can get through your skin.

Soo... yeah. hmm what else. Oh everyone carries stuff on their head! It's

quite a skill! Like a TON of stuff on their head! There's lots of poor

people but lots (well I don't know lots..) of rich people as well. It's

funny to see the REALLY nice cars everywhere. Oh and all the rich people

drive Range Rovers or Porsches or something. Mostly Range Rovers which I think is sweet. We walk on the side of the road which is basically a freeway sometimes haha and the cars just get soo close to us I'm surprised I haven't been hit yet!. Luanda drivers are horrible.

Elder Walker and I opened up a brand new area of Luanda. It's called

Futungo. sooo we are basically starting from the ground up. Lots of

contacting.  But we already had an investigator come to church on Sunday

which was exciting! Her name is Rita. I'm just so excited!

Yesterday Elder Walker and I went to the neighborhood in our area that is

like super rich and it was weird. We went tracting which was new for both of us and we had this one guy pray with us and whoa he prayed weird. Clapping and muttering weird things hand signals. Elder Walker and I were trying sooo hard not to laugh! Oh it was funny! The poor people are really humble and friendly. There are lots of drunk people - like lots - and half the time I don't know it when they're talking to me.  I just think they are really friendly! haha! But beer is cheaper than water here soo yeah.

Oh man I am so glad to be out of the MTC. Soo glad. This is a million times better! My language skills are bad. But I can understand a lot if we’re actually having a conversation.

Okay some info. packages... well it costs money to get them.. and president is thinking about just banning packages altogether - so that stinks. Letters... I don't know the address but send them to president's house.

Elder Yarbourogh was my ZL (Zone Leader)before I became ZL. Ha Elder Megettigan is hilarious. I miss him. Darin... haha your such a stud. Oh btw I'm 8 hours ahead of utah time. I think you too then. Oh and everyone has a phone –like everyone - unless your super poor.  But it was funny to go to the grocery store by president’s house (it’s really a nice store it has a mall conected to it) and you see like super nice smartphones. It was just weird!

Oh it's freaking hot here! Like dang hot. Ha-ha going from freezing my butt

off to burning it off! Money is super inflated here and everything is really expensive. Basically add to zeros to any american dollar. So US$1.00 is 100 kwanzas. Everything is expensive. It's annoying. we get 500 dollars a month. We're probably the most expensive mission in the world my ZL says. Hmm what else... idk. But I love you all! You are amazing! Keep choosing the right, reading your scriptures, praying and going to church and basically you do those things your going straight to the celestial kingdom! haaha and if I die here(which is totally likely ahaha!) I'll see you there!

With much African Love,

Elder Tingey

PS  I'll send address information when I have it.  I don't know the President's address either.