The Week! Jan 27, 2014

January 27, 2014

hey family,

thank you for your letters this week. they were nice to hear. mom you get better okay?! Dad glad things are going well. hahaha i know what you mean about the common sense thing. we call it common sense but its really just "american sense" haha. America is the best! Darin, stinks that you guys lost against Brophy. oh well. Marissa good job at cheer. wish i could have been there! Babes thanks for the pics! i hear you still have trouble waking up in the morning ? haha somethings never change i guess.

well this week started out great. we worked hard and our numbers were really good for here but one set back after another and the week just didnt give the results we were expecting.

but the work is always the hardest right before good results come. its much easier to destroy something than to build something.

this week was actually pretty sad. so first off all our investigator giovania wanted to postpone her baptism. dang it. but tudo bem. she told us a sad sad story about the way she was raised (that unfortunately i cant repeat over email because of mission rules) but it just reflected how african culture is.... so not the Lords culture.

then we went to an appointment with a sweet lady we contacted a few days earlier. she wasn’t home yet but her son let us inside. and then she got home with her husband. so we were like okay sweet perfect, now we can teach them together! well... he talked with us a little bit. and you could tell he really didnt want anything to do with us. then he like well sorry im going to leave you to do your thing and im going to go eat. well okay. soo he goes off. so we start talking to the lady. and then he comes busting back in and is like " im sorry im going to have to interrupt this!" she didnt make me any food and i dont have anything to eat! who do you think your are woman?! do you want me to die?! go make me something to eat!

anyway he continued like that for a good while. i was really upset. then he told us that he already told her taht she couldnt switch churches. anyway long story short the lesson didnt happen but i kept my cool. we left, i was very very upset. i dont know how many times i told elder whitaker that i wanted to deck the guy in the face and he cannot treat women like that and oh man i was really fired up.

then to top it all off none of our investigators showed up to church and that was just like the final punch of the week. disheartening is what it was.

so were hitting the pavement even harder this week. the zone leaders are coming up to do divisions from lubango. that will be fun.

in other news elder tilley and i are on a push up work out thats going very well ;). results are coming there so thats good news. ummm hahaa what else.

oh i had a dream last night that darin was an actor and he had his own show on the disney channel. and his characters name was hayden. that was funny. oh it rained like crazy this week. everyday. all day.

well thats about it! i hope you all have a great week! i love you all!

Elder Tingey

It's Christmas All Over Again!!!

Jan 20, 2014

well hello everybody. como é? ta tudo fixe? its funny because i write austin (turley) and he has a hard time understanding me. mostly because i write slang to him that doesnt exitst in brazil.

but anyway things are going well here.

well to start off the week elder mccune got transfered to Luanda. so he left tuesday morning. so we were in a tripla for 4 days basically. triplas are horrible for the work.  so numbers were wayyyyyyyy down this week but tudo bem. i like the guys in my tripla so its fun. just not ideal missionary work group. oh and dont go tracting like that! its like the us goverment is coming to arrest you!

but on thursday we recieved a package from luanda....  a very sacred package.... ALL OF OUR CHRISTMAS PACKAGES AND LETTERS!!!!!!!!! oh it was a great day! MAIL! so i got all those. thank you everyone. thanks to my family and extended family. also the young women in the ward. you girls are awesome! and also thanks to the Tingeys next door. flip when i got your card i was whoa... i forgot how much i miss them. i miss you guys a lot! also thank you to the kerrs and turleys and Macdonalds for your christmas cards! and if i missed anyone thank you!

well this week before elder mccune left we had been playing a game called the great dalmuti. its basically like scum but a little bit better. anyway we had this running tournament going up to 20 wins. elder mccune was at 19 wins and well basically i came back from 13 wins to beat him to 20. it was quite epic. and im writing this and it doesnt even sound cool. i guess you had to be there.

what else... oh i taught the lesson in priesthood this week... um...   we didnt have that many lessons this week so not to many spiritual experiences. but yesterday we were contacting! haha fun huh? but anyway these guys were like oh yeah come in have a seat and then the neighbor lady was satanic or something and was like no dont give them chairs to sit down they want to brain wash you. blah blah blah. their jws. and i said we werent and then she got sassy with me and told me that we just wanted to swindle them out of there money. hahaha and then i was like actually we are representatives of Jesus Christ. and well i dont know if she didnt believe me or what but she got offeded at me. and turned up her nose. i felt bad. then another lady didnt accept anything but the bible ( classic) so i was okay explained further and she want anything to do with us. so i offered a pamphlet. she reminded me that she doesnt accept anything but the bible. okay lady its a dang pamphlet. then i offered our card with our number with a picture of Jesus Christ! i dont know how much more bibley i could get than that (uh do you want my bible with my number on the inside? haha jk ) and she rejected the card hard core.

so thats when i learned that my charity and love for this people is growing. because i usually would have been frustrated and annoyed but i just walked away really sad because i knew she was missing out on so much.

well thats about the week. i love you all!  keep ctring

até logo

Elder Tingey

I am eating a fruit called maracuja. It’s a passion fruit. It’s PACKED  with vitamin c; more than an orange and its sooooooo sour. So you pour a bunch of sugar in it, mix it up, and then you have dessert!

Back in the Groove of Things!

1-13-14

Well hello family! Glad things are going well.

flip i dont know what to expect next week. you guys are just pulling all kinds of suprises on me! and no one EVER answers my questions! look at my last email before you write me please. i ask a lot of questions. answer them.

but holy cow i cant believe you got a brand new truck marissa..... its pretty. what happened to mine? do you still have it? whats the new truck like? when did uninta get pregnant? are the puppies pure breed?

Dad sounds like the place is falling apart without you! geez have fun dealing with all that great stuff.

well this week was finally a normal week! no more holidays! getting back into rotation and groove. gettin my rythm going if you know what i mean! we did a lot of contatcting. as usual. Huambo is a place where we contact contact contact! because the church is very new year. just over a year old. and it had lots of problems at first..... so basically when elder tilley came to be branch president we kinda restarted. And its so much better now. we are close to getting an angolan branch president. we are working closely with president merrill to make it happen. so soon hopefully. Elder Tilley came down to huambo to be branch president in september. yes dad we basically split the city in half

we had some great lessons this week. we are teaching this lady named xana. (haha xuxa, xana). anyway, she is really cool. she asks great questions. we ve taught really just about the restoration so far and the book of mormon. she is really intrested though. she asked us if she could come to church. haha duh! and she asked great questions about the priesthood and the apostasy. oh man its just really really nice teaching people who are actually intressed and really want to understand and comprehend everything!

another highlight of the week was a lesson we had with amilcar. he is way cool. he will be baptized soon. he just has had a slow start. anyway on friday we watched the restorartion film with him. which if you didnt know is one of the best things the church has ever made. if you put that on the spirit is instantly there! which is really nice. so we were watching that and then afterword we talked about it. and he was really impressed. he was like wow i was getting emotional at times! so we also had a member with us. Adolfo is his name. 17 year stud is what he is actually. I asked him to bear his testimony and describe how the spirit gave him an answer that the book of mormon was true. so he started bearing his testimony and describing the feelings and then amilcar spoke up and said those are the same feelings that ive had! so that was really cool that they could make that connection and amilcar could recognize the spirit.

also we are now teaching a wonderful christian family who are married! (yeah for marriage in africa!) and im really excited about them. the father, abel, is really cool. he comes to our elders quorem activity of basketball every week. and he is just a really good guy. so i just hope everything goes well there.

also we are teaching giovania and jorge. they are both super cool. giovania, she will be baptized feb 1. we set that date like a week ago. and then jorge is her boyfriend who is just as cool in the gospel. he bore his testimony about the book of mormon last week in testimony meeting which was really cool. jorge is one of those guys you just look at and say, dang he s cool. Tall, hansom, educated, full of class with just a drop of swagger. Yeah all the missionaries say that he is my african equal ;) (haha you laugh but thats a true story!)

now to answer some of moms questions. unfortunately all the questions investigators asked me this week were pretty surface level questions e.g. "which day of the week should we worship on?" (7th day advantist run rampant here!)

i guess some of the coolest things to explain to people that understand and comprehend is about the fall of adam and the atonement of Jesus Christ. and how both were sooooooooooooooooooo absolutely necessary for the plan of salvation. i never really understood the fall before my mission and therefore never fully comprehended the atonement (not that i do now!).

i guess some of the coolest things ive learned on my mission is how real the gospel is. before it just felt like yeah church gospel its all great! and i kind of understood why it was necessary. obviously it makes you a good person. but being out here and actually LIVING the gospel has changed everything. you can see the difference between the members who really live the gospel and who dont. They are just happy jolly people! just a smile! the gospel of jesus christ is so unselfish. another thing that is amazing to me that ive learned out here is how merciful God is. however he still demands perfection. he cant not demand it. He is God. and thats where the miracle of the atonement and forgivness comes in. even when we screw up big time as long as we are willing to repent, he will forgive. but we have to be humble enough and mature enough to admit to ourselfs to God and to others that we have screwed up. and if we do that and have faith the rest will be better. first and second principles of the gospel. faith, repentance (and the third, repeat ;) )

another really cool thing that is great that ive learned. is the holy ghost. as a missionary ive gotten really in tune with it. where before i kinda mixed it up with emotional stuff. ive learned that the spirit can bring strong emotions, but for the most part, it doesnt. its just a soft, quiet, peaceful compaion that "whispers" or puts thoughts from God into your head or feelings into your heart. as a missionary ive kind of gotten used to it at times. its just always with me, so i may not pay much attention after a while. then i do something stupid and drive it away. the spirit is so delicate and is easily offended. guys Godliness is such Perfection! its a good thing we have a whole lifetime to practice. and then eternity after that!

well i hope you like my little discourse :)

and i hope you have a great week! dont stress peeps. tudo vai dar certo. malembi (haha thats an african word)

Love you all!

Elder Tingey

Happy New Year!!!

1-6-14

well record number of emails this week. well not really. but the number went up! thank you everyone.  i hope you all had a good new year. i did. haha i was at home all day. haha we werent allowed to go out. good reason too. it was crazy here!

wow so much fun stuff happened at home! Marissa is fun when she is stress free, Darin had a fun new years haha, Babes is going to parties like crazy (slow it down girl!) and Hannah is the cool girl who goes driving in the jeep and goes to bass pro shop! hahaha i miss you guys a ton!

well my time is short this week... unfortunately. but we had a good week. actually you could also say it was a horrible week. but we finished it well. so in the middle of the week. the 3 days around new years we had 0 lessons. THats bad! but we made up for it in the end.

the beginning of the week was pretty funny actually. one of the elders in my house (i cant say names) had the funniest medical problem! long story short he had to call sister merrill and describe it. and at one point he couldnt explain it any other way and so he just had to say "well sister merrill.... its in the ____hole" bahahahaha we alll busted up laughing!!!!!!!! hahaha so funny. just a hemeroid though.

then saturday was horrible. everything dropped. so we decided to go contacting. so we hit up some apartment building and knocked on the top door. and this girl answered and i was like hey were missionaries blah blah blah message blah blah and she said well im washing dishes but i can make time for you guys. WOW AMAZING lesson. she had great questions! at first she was like yeah i was catholic but then i found out that that church doesnt bring people to salvation. so now im looking for the true church. wow okay. well we can work with taht! and then later she was like yesterday i wondered if some things could have been lost from the bible because it was translated so many times. and im like OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!!!!! she asked if there could be other scriptures. boom immediately explain the restoration and book of mormon. long story short she was very amazed and excited to read the book of mormon. and she was amazed that God sent us one day after she had her question. such a cool experience!

then sunday was great. record number of people at church 52. our little branch is coming along! we had 3 investigators which is also another record. so im very happy about that. baptisms will be coming! and then we had a great lesson that afternoon as well.

so we finished off the week well. we have early transfers this time because we are finally getting missionaries! im excited! but i dont want to train. noooo . but if i do i wont be sad.

yesterday we saw the coolest thing ever! a motorcycle race in a parking lot! it was just random and amature but people just flocked to it and it became this big event! way fun to watch! also i saw a lot of nba highlights yesterday... when the members tv is on during dinner its a bad situation. elder tilley and i are like oh shoot basketball! but..... the nba is so awesome. i cant wait to come back to it.

welll that about it! im probably forgetting things but oh well! i love you all! be good choose the right!

love Elder Tingey

Tundavala!!! Awesome!!

Me and Elder Money on top of Tundavala!  Buds for life!

Hello Family!

12-30-13

hey again!

it was really fun to talk to you guys on skype!

Hannah i just want you to know that i love you and i will talk to you more!

okay first of all wowzers. what a christmas you guys had! flip! i

thought the world would end before i saw the day my family would get

cable! make sure we get dvr too! and then all the other cool presents

you guys got. geez i hope next years is pretty good too (chevy truck

with a lift kit, ahem) ;)

but there really isnt much to say this week. i made a recording.

marissa you have to make sure the file is in mp3 not m4a. otherwise i

wont be able to listen to it. so i didnt get to listen to the one you

sent.

well christmas was fun. our trip to lubango was tons of fun. being

with other elders. making a fun music video. going to tundavala was

sooooo cool! so cool! youll see the pics. then we got back to huambo

after a long 8 hour bus ride. its smelt too.. kids with dirty

diapers... yuck. but we finally made it back.

on sunday i gave a talk on patience which went well. its easier to

give a talk to people who are new to the gospel than to people who

have know it since they were born. aka back at home. and it helps when

there are only 30 people too. btw how is our new chapel? that will be

weird to come back to.

then after church and lunch all of our lessons fell through and my

will to work was about at zero. and this is one of those times where

you take a lesson from jason aldean and "dig a little deeper when you

think you cant dig no more". so i was like well lets go tell some

people about the gospel! so we went door contacting. met some funny

people. a prophet apparently. and utlimately yesterdays work went

well. we contacted for 2 hours got 3 lessons from it 6 contacts and 1

new investigator. not bad for going from a horrible day to a pretty

good day.

and thats about the week!

to answer your questions mom, huambo has a lot higher standard of

living. people actually have legitamate houses or apartments. but

there are still some areas that have the mud/cement huts. the work is

a lot harder here. but i like it better here. feels more like home and

im not stressed at all. i decided i hate big bustling cities. i like

calmness and the suberbs or even better.... the ranch :)

well i hope you all have a great new years! darin..... dont waste  the

first one! ;) hope you guys can listen to the tape that elder chandler

sent!

well love you guys!

Elder Tingey

December 2013 Pics

The first is of elder mccune being funny.

second is me with some awesome african members

the third is of my new crush. bia. she is the cutest ever

and then us missionaries. elder mccune is santa

the sunset yesterday.

'Tis the Season!!

12-23-13

Well family. Merry Chritmas! i cant believe its already christmas. wow. im comming home soon.... hahaha jk. i still have lots of work to do! we gotta get this city of Huambo strong! Ether 12 27.

glad you all made it to california safely. although why am i just hearing about uinta having puppies now? 

well i tell you about the week quickly. we did a lot of contacting. some of it was successful. (OH MY GOSH TAYLOR SWIFT IS PLAYING IN THIS CYBER CAFE AND I CANT CONSENTRATE!)

my comp is funny when it comes to contacting. social skills are out the window. Luckily God blessed me with a gift of smiling and easily talking to people. so i make it fun. the best is when you get them smiling and laughing. then you know youre friends. anyway so we had some random lessons with contacting.

oh last week when president and sister were still here. i was talking to sister merrill and telling her the story of the ten claws of when i was little and dad read it to me and then he had this freaky laugh (remember dad?) and i got scared out of my mind. and so know im scared of old ladies at night. so then i went down to have my interview with president which went well. and i was coming back up the stairs when sister merrill scared the living daylights out of me and i almost punched her! she was laughing sooo hard. l was legitimatly scared! then the next day she said she was sorry but then she said she wasnt really. so i told her to watch her back because im going to get her!

we had a christmas party this week as a branch. it was really fun and good. Africans dont really celebrate christmas that well.  but it was still fun. we (the elders) sang at the end and we rocked of course and then elder mccune dressed up as santa or pai natal. which is really funny because he is the skinniest one.

then yesterday we were doing some visits to less actives and we ran into brother benito and his family (they are members). they were making visits to the less actives as well! i was like whoa! these people know what the gospel is about! it made me so happy to see them doing that. more people in the states need to do that.

well did jase get his call yet?

i cant wait to skype you guys! i hope everything works good. have lots of fun without me! the first pic is of me and nefi (nephi literally) as is the second. the third is with sister lasolete and sister maria da silva. Both some of my favorite old ladies who love me. both members that were here at the begginning. and the last one is of marcia. my champ new convert.

well i love you guys we will talk more on christmas! its going to be awesome!

Geeez! Family!

12-16-13

Geeez!

okay family. everyone take a chill pill and try not to die on me!!!!! goodness gracious! holy cow! dad im glad youre okay. you look cool. darin im glad youre safe. although i would being lying if i said that i did not have a tear welled up in my eye for my truck. seriously im actually really sad about that. but wow! how eventful!

okay now time for my stories. first of all huambo is awesome!!!!!!!! its beautiful! its real africa. Luanda is..... a dump. it really is so beautiful here. it rains everday and its clean, the roads are paved and the weather is fantastic!

huambo has a lot of history too. it was going to be nova lisboa or new lisbon. for the portuguese. and the capital of angola was going to be here. and then the war broke out. and most of it was fought here. and there are lots of remains. in fact our house has a few bullets holes. but its cool to see all the stuff that was destroyed. be high rise apartment buildings with massive holes in them from cannons. other buildings which have just been blown up. random tanks hanging around from the war. there are bullet holes in EVERYTHING. so ya its pretty cool.

our branch is very small. yesterday we had a record attendance of about 50. we only have 20 members. and elder tilley is the branch president. with elder mccune as the first counselor. my comp is elder whittaker from florida. very to the book kinda guy. haha if its not in the rule book he cant function. but he is good. he is also going to byu studying electrical engineering so thats cool.

the work here is slow. but we are getting the ball rolling again. doing lots of contacting. and branch activities such as caroling and branch basketball every saturday which we also bring investigators to.

marcia my rc from cassequel was actually here this week so that was cool. she came to church which was good. she is such an awesome member that the branch in cassequel wants to give her 3 callings already. primary teacher, chorister, and 2nd counselor in the relief society. yeah shes very responsible and the branch can see that.

but i really love huambo. there are actual houses beautiful houses that the portugese built. actually in my opionion i wish angola was still a portuguese colony. haha. but yeah all the houses have a 70s look which is fun.

next week we are going down to the other province lubango to spend christmas with those elders. so that will be fun. president is here in huambo this weekend and tonight sister is going to cook a christmas dinner for us. there are 4 elders here.

huambo kinda reminds me of flagstaff. especally since our house has a cabiny feeling to it. and its HUGE! its 2 stories! way fun too. also huambo is really calm. its sooo nice. im stress free and its awesome. okay well i love you! cant wait to talk to you guys next week! be ready! and dad you better be there this time!!!!!!!!!!!! got that!

i love you guys lots!

Elder Tingey

I'm going to Huambo!

12-9-13

well hello family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

im extra excited! i got transfered to huambo!!!!!!!! thats a province! yes yes yes! theres like 15 people in the branch. and there is lots of scenery and rain and im sooo excited! my new comp is elder wittaker. hes from florida.

but anyway this week was good. we had our conference with elder Hamilton which was really good. i loved what he did. he didnt chastise at all. he just inspired. thats the best way to get missionaries to better. but it was really good. then we walked with president on friday morning to a few of our lessons. so we took president in a táxi. and it was his first táxi here! and the táxis are really crazy here and play crazy music and i was so excited for president to expirence it! so we get in and were driving and....... mórmon tabernacle choir comes on! in the táxi! i was like what?! what the heck! where is that comming from?! the driver had a cd and was playing it! i was like what?! president you must have the spirit with you because this is nuts! and he was like no you set this up! you guys paid him to play this! no we didnt! it was really funny.

so then we had na awesome lesson with jamba and president was there. jamba was getting baptized the next day. and after the lesson president was like good job elders you taught him well. yeah thats right we taught him well! haha but really jamba was soo prepared.

so yeah then on saturday we had 5 baptisms in our branch. all men. 5 more priesthood holders yeah yeah.

we had two investigators jamba and kito get baptised. so that was really awesome. jamba asked me to baptize him and kito asked me to confirm him which is always an honuor.

yesterday at brother wegglands house he made us hamburgers and we had chips and salsa. it was sooo good. and then for desert we made homemade rootbeer and had rootbeer floats! sooo good. brother weggland is so awesome.

wow i felt like so much happened this week... but i dont have that much to write about. still a little bit sick.. but im getting over it. ill be happy to make my own food in huambo and not have to eat at members houses everyday. at first i thought it was a blessing... but its also a curse... hahaha. but guys im soo excited to go to huambo! i prayed for this :) the lord loves me. and its the perfect time to go because now is the hot season and its burning here in luanda. huambo will be so much cooler.

well skype in two weeks. i still need to talk with president about that. but president laid down the law today and he told us all that its 40 min on skype. ugggg. but okay. so yall be ready for that. well i gots to go! the cyber cafés in huambo arent as good as here so you might not be able to get as many pics... sorry.

i love you all!

darin and marissa you guys looked great! haha so cool that you had dance offs. i miss you.  marissa all the elders want to date you. haha.

love you again!

Elder Tingey

December 2013 Pics

Thanksgiving competitions!!

12-2-13

hahaha hello family. my family is the coolest. that music video was soo legit!

well this letter might be a little short. because i am not feeling

good. ive been sick all night. i was better all this week but i think

i ate something bad yesterday and it just wrecked me again. uggg.

but this week was a good week.

we had thanksgiving at presidents which was super fun. he rented out

the clubhouse at their apartment complex. the club house is super

super nice. anyway we all went there for the day and we had a soccer

tournament. that was really fun. the teams were by districts. we

called our selves the cassequel combras. haha we tried to intimidate

everyone. we would do the we will rock you think but we would go. bum

bum sssssss. hahaha it was funny. also to pysch people out sick

combras dont have legs we all shaved one leg. haha stupid. but fun.

unfortunately we lost in the first round in a heart breaker last

second shot that our goalie missed. oh well. so then the championship

was lubango vs benfica. benfica was stacked and so i wanted the

underdog lubango to win. i took it upon myself to be their number one

fan/coach and the heckler for the other team. it was great. i felt

like i was right at home yelling at the team and the refs ;). but hey

lubango won! victory! then we had a massive meal that was really

really good. and then we had skits. our skit was pretty funny i guess.

i had a major yelling part in it. go figure. i had to say the speech

from remember the titans were he’s like we blitz all night! so

thanksgiving was good.

then the next day we had kito and milocas wedding. finally! so the

wedding was at 15. but.... the bride didnt show up... awkward. typical

angolan she was late and she was still getting hair and make up done!

so the person that was doing the wedding had to leave so they

rescheduled for 18 that night. well long story short the wedding didnt

start till 2030. or 830 for you guys. frustrating... but progression

was made. they are married! and kito is getting baptized next week. as

well as our investigator jamba. so two baptisms next week.

jamba was really a miracle. he was sent straight from God. so

prepared. he is just ready to do everything for the lord. and he is a

very punctual smart angolan. hes going places.

oh all the way to kito and milocas wedding there was a shooting that

happened right in front of us. that was cool. probably about a total

of 5 gunshots. they were chasing each other and the guy behind pulls

out a gun and just starts shooting at him. it cause a huge traffic jam

cause they were in the street and yeah. not good. but a cool story.

also on saturday there were more baptisms. two of my investigators

from my first area got baptized. gizella and guilherme. that was

awesome because i worked a lot with both of them. in their testimonies

after words they both gave me a shoutout. that made me feel special.

but then i was kinda sad because i learned that they had both wanted

me to confirm them but i couldnt because i was in another branch. oh

well.

well that was about the week. next week elder hamilton of the seventy

is coming to our mission and were having mission conference. haha also

elder hamilton and president are coming to our house on friday. elder

hamilton is having comp study with elder money and cafferty and then

he will walk with them for 2 hours. and president will do the same

thing with us. im excited. elder money on the other hand is freaking

out. haha its funny. i told him that they should try and quote elder

hamiltons conference talk as much as possible throughout the day.

hahaha see if he notices. and then next week we find out about

transfers. i pray i leave.

also yeah im fine with skyping on the 23rd. i still need to talk to

president about it. but im sure he will be fine with it. I could be in

a province for christmas.... i kinda hope so. also i dont want to

skype at presidents. so yeah ill get back to you next week. especially

since i will know transfers then. well i love you guys!

paige i got your letter this week. and tommy i got yours as well!

sister larsen thanks for the updates on the other missionaries.

guys, try not to have to much fun without me ;) haha my family is so

fun. love you lots!

Elder Tingey