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