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

Willard! My second Pet!

11-25-13

well hello family and friends!

i got a new pet this week named willard! yeah but president wouldnt let me keep him and quite honestly i was way tired of feeding him and he always reacted badly to the food i gave him. soo. we put him down. yeah him and jim were very similar. you guys remember my other parasite named jim right?! yeah...  well willard was my second. not fun. it was a terrible week for us. because i was in and out of my office constantly! we got a total of 6 lessons. booo! but we were able to go to a few lessons. and every one of them the person we were teaching got made at me that we came and taught them because i was sick! i was like hey this is important! haha testimony builder for them ;)

our rc marcia threatened me that if i didnt go to the hospital by today she was going to get the second counselour in the relief society and they were going to tie me up and take me to the hospital. haha i was like okay deal! hahaha angolans are so funny. because they dont have good health care here they go to the hospital for everything!!!! oh you have a head ache? go to the hospital! and the hospital is pointless to go to because every time there just like oh you have malaria. oh your foot hurts? yeah you have malaria. no i dont!!! so its pointless to go. pluss expensive. so yeah. what else.

so you guys apparently dont pay that much attention to the news. because angola made it on the news for the riots that they were going to have on saturday. i could have died people!! haha jk. i found out about it and then told president and hes like well just be smart. and then he called back 5 min later and was like yeah i just got a notice from the church about it. you guys arent leaving the house tomorrow. so on saturday all the missionaries in luanda stayed home! it was brutal actually.

well sorry i dont have much else to write about my week except that it hurt in the stomach.

aunt fawn i got your dear elder. thank you! troy i got your letter from the 1st of nov. hahaha nice halloween costumes. i got a good kick out of that. just a little bit slyer than a plug and a socket.

well im going to have a good thanksgiving. everyone is going to presidents house for the whole day!

well love you all!

Elder Tingey

ps marissa will you update my blog please? pretty please? i love you soooo much!

Pics November 2013

Happy Bday Mom! And My 1 year mark!

11-18-13

well first and foremost happy birthday to my wonderful and beautiful mother! i love you so much! you really are the greatest! 

second! im officially on the mission a year! hahaha and i was sick on my year mark. kinda  bummer. im still sick actually. not fun. at the beginning of the week i had a cold. it was bad. and then i must have eaten some bad food. because now.... well lets just leave it at bad food. but yeah. 

this week. went by fast. probably because i was sick and would try to sleep whenever i had a chance so i didnt have to skip a day of work. 

we have had lots of good things happen this week in missionary work. new people comming out of the woodworks. its nice. little miracles. we have this investigator his name was jamba and i swear he is just heaven sent. i kid you not like he is soo prepared! he comes to church on time and last week he wore a purple shirt but he saw taht everyone was wearing white. so in our next lesson he asked us about the church culture because he wants to to everything right. he has such a geniune desire to follow God its amazing. haha sometimes i wish i could be like that. but anyway this week he came to church just looking so fly with a white shirt and a purple tie and i was just like man youre a champ. he might give marcia a run for her money for my most prepared investigator. 

speaking of marcia. my recent convert. she gave a talk yesterday! haha on the law of chastity! i was so excited for her. and she did an amazing job i was so happy! thats just the best feeling when your recent converts just grow so strong right before your very eyes! so that was such a blessing.  

on saturday we had baptisms. daneilsa from a family i taught in benfica, got baptized. i baptized her brother two weeks ago. but it was so good to go to her baptism. she was the first one to gain a testimony. haha she wispered in my ear that she knew our church was true after our second lesson. she is such a great little girl. 

but while we were at the baptism so many people from the benfica branch came. like a ton of my recent converts. because they were going to practice for the primary program. lucas came up from behind me and gave me such a big hug! i love that kid so much! i swear we knew each other in the preexistence;)!  but then the last him was "i like to look for rainbows" which is like my favorite church song. and they were all singing it and ritas family and lucas sitting right next to me and they were all singing at it was so beautiful and the spirit was so strong i just had to fight back tears! i love that little branch soo much and they are so strong now! oh the miracles! the best miracles come after a long of diligence and patience. 

so good week. 

it sounds like the costa rica trip was a blast! i plan on going at the begining of december when i get home. got that dad ;)? love the picture of you mom and dad in the garden place. im printing it out. 

congrats jase! i hope you come here but i also hope you dont! hahaha visa problems are bad! and i dont want that to screw up your attitude about your mission! although it will humble you! haha

well i love you all! soo dang much! 

Elder Tingey

estao a falhar

11-11-13

estao a falhar

hello brothers and sisters and extended family. according to my email account i dont have parents.

but hello

this week was a good week i guess. we worked hard and were blessed. we got lots of lessons in saw a few miracles. they may not be to some but they are miracles if you really look. even me. i have to look for them other wise i dont see them. small but they are there. um well not to much to say. about lessons or investigators. except marcia. she is a champ. she got baptized like 3 weeks ago now. anyway she just got a calling to be a primary teacher and she is speaking in church about the law of chastity next week. hahaha so thats gonna be fun. she is really straight up in lessons with her questions. and our last lesson we had to clear up some missconseptions that some mormons have and the way they have some crazy doctrine thats false. haha like birth control. first she asked us if mormons are supposed to have lots and lots of kids. because thats what someone told her. so we pulled out true to the faith (the best book ever) and showed her the part where the number of kids you have and when to have them is between you your spouse and the lord. haha and then shes like so is birth control not allowed? well lets go to that topic in the book. (although the church leaves that part very vague) eventually i just had to say it straight up. YeS you can! funny girl. she just turned 23 and well she is hot on the mormon angolan market.

and we have a marraige in two weeks. our investigators kito and miloca. they are champs and have been waiting on marriage for about a year. they invited us to there marraige so that should be fun. then they are getting baptized the next week.

okay some things that i wrote down from the week. mom... yes i am failing at taking my vitamins.... i used to but they taste horrid and they messed with my faxes. you know what im saying? i like sending faxes to be simple and easy. when they get complicated... aiaiaiai.

but so grandpa actually we get fed by the members about everyday here in my branch. they love us. and we get a lot of food. haha so funny story. whenever we got to lunch, elder money in my district always likes to ask some funny questions to the little girls or even teenage girls and every time is the same answer and he dies! anyway the questions are always who will marry the prettiest girl? and they always choose me out of everyone in the district (obviously its because they know i work the hardest ;) ) and then he asks okay who is smartest? and that answer always varies. but then at the end he always asked which of us is the best looking or the handsomest. hahahaha and it kills him that they point at me everytime! haha its way funny. so then he says okay excluding elder tingey who is it? and then they always pick him. haha way funny.

so i had a dream this week. africans are big on dreams so ill tell you guys this one. in my dream i finished my mission and went home and everyone was like yay you finished blah blah blah. and i thought to myself is this real? did i really? and then in the dream i almost convinced my self that it was real. and then i started thinking i was like wow they are really right when they say taht it flys by! and then i thought wow my mission was small and i was never dl or zl or anything. hmm weird. then it clicked that elder y was my last comp and that i was at my year mark when i was with him. and then it clicked and i knew i was dreaming and i woke up screaming "NOOO!!" hahaha and it woke up elder y and he was way confused. hahaha i hate those dreams.

so i was wondering if on the christmas list i could ask for a new family calendar and a head lamp. mine broke. that would be wonderful.

so some crazy things ive seen in the past 24 hours. a crazy big fat guy who thought he was a wizard walked infront of a bunch of girls at the bus stop yesterday, opened up his robe and flashed all the girls and they all screamed and ran away and he just walked off like nothing happend. hahahah it was pretty funny.

and then today there was a knife fight at the big bus stop. this little guy had the knife and he was trying to get this really big guy who didnt have anything. and all the angolans are crowding around and when the fight moves toward them they all run screaming but then they all come back to see it. and then oh this is what makes me mad. there were like 5 police officers all around and then were all just watching with furoed brows. like hmmm i wonder what we should do. ahaha geez. thats how the police are here. its bad.

well thats about the rap. we are teaching lots of people who choose to use their agency to be lazy! and it kills me. you know its really not that hard to understand satans point of view with taking away everyones agency. hahaha but obviously thats not a good thing.

troy i got your letter with all the other family letters in it. thank you soooo much. i really appreciated that and gave me a big boost. and i really liked your letter. it was good to hear. gave me some inspiration. ah the life of a missionary. work hard come home, humble yourself, be obedient,  plead with the lord, and then go out and do it all again. and thats the recipe for success. we have a couple of motivational speeches in our house that i like to listen to. there is a quote that i think really applies to everything including missionary work. it goes when you are willing to sacrifice what you are for what you will become, then you will be successful. sacfice your pride and all that stuff to be what you want to become. which is more like the savior. as will smith says just decide. just decide and then take that first step.

well love you all. even you parents who dont write me.

Elder Tingey

8th Transfer-More Baptisms

11-4-13

my computer just conked out on me! haha okay well this week was good. sabe por que? because we got roommates! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! The first time i saw presidnt this week i just went up and gave him a hug and said "thank you president!" so elder money and elder cafferty are living with us. its sooo nice to have other people in the house. so im happy :) real happy :) so that was the big thing that happened this week. and transfers. so what else. ..  well this letter will probably be short. 

we taught lessons this week. ha big suprise there. umm. i baptized two people this week. so that was cool. Toni from benfica. he is deneilsons son. that family elder brown and i found. they are all getting baptized. the parents are working on marraige. but the two boys got baptized on saturday and then toni asked me to baptized him. i was honored! and then we were there and some other girl there getting baptized asked me to baptize her. so that was good. what else. 

well although the last transfer was pretty tough Heavenly father is still blessing our area and we are finding people who seem prepared to recieve the gospel so thats good. 

dad must be pretty darn busy! hasnt written me in two weeks. well i guess its good that hes that busy. guys sorry this is real short! but nothing really happened this week. nothing too spiritual. besides all the answers to my prayers about roommates. oh and marcia, our recent convert got proposed to after her baptism! hahahaha! so funny. and apparently she might be comming to the us. 

oh yeah halloween. yeah they dont have any short of thing like that hear. angolans are VERY supersitious. like extremely. haha soo they stay away from witches and magic and creepy things like that. 

Well love you all! 

Elder Tingey

Leak in our house-conference with a beat!

10-28-13

hello family. whats up. nothing much on this side. same old same old.

just working and teaching and baptizing. im kind of apathetic to

writing right now.. sorry. hope everyones week at home went well. well

ill just get write to my notes that ive written for this week

so weve had a bad leak in the front of our house. like so bad that it

becomes a lake between our gate and our front door. a full on lake. so

we finally got these guys to fix it. (it was a problem with the

neighbors) so they dug a huge hole and fixed the problem and then they

put cement over it again. Elder Y and i wrote our names in the wet

cement :) hahahaha im forever in that house now.

the other night we were at the other elders house (they live a street

over from us. they are the rest of our district and then elder y and i

live alone. i hate being  alone) anyway so we were over there and then

the power went out in like the whole city! and its all black and you

cant see. and were all like well looks like the bandits will be out

tonight! haha and then we realized that we still had to walk home.

shoot. so we hurried and left so that we wouldnt give more time for

the bandits to come out so we wouldnt get jumped. and well we made it

barely. i mean i had to fight off a few guys but that was about it.

just a few scrapes and bruises nothing major. ;)

we had interviews at the office this week and i got some letters. i

got my bday letters from shannons family. thank you! you are

wonderful! and then i got a letter from the beehives or something that

was sent in april for easter... sluuu ow. and then i got some dear

elders from sister larsen. haha thanks sister larsen!

we were walking to the chapel one day and i got a wiff of a good

smell. and i thought to my self where in the world is that coming

from. luanda NEVER smells good. literally it smells bad. like youre at

the dump all the time. black water which is sewage and grows monsters

is everywhere! anyway i looked up and this random tree next to the

side walk was blossoming! it reminded me how good az smells when the

orange trees blossom.

so this week we had lots of activities. we had an integration night

and watched the movie the testiments. way good. it went well. then we

had a baptism on saturday that i was in charge of. little stressful.

but yeah that was good. i baptized marcia and she got confirmed on the

same day because we had conference this weekend. so that was cool. she

was soo prepared it was insane. and then i got worried when she didnt

show up to the first session of general conference. but she went to

another building to watch it. and then she came to our building for

the afternoon session.

speaking of which. the mormon tab choir had a BEAT this conference.

... yeah we had a party going on next door. and angolans like their

music as LOUD as it can go! yeah... so that was super annoying.

literally my chair would shake everytime the bass hit. you couldnt

hear the speakers at all. although this time the conference was

translated in a portuguese accent instead of a brazilian which made it

soooo much easier for me to understand. amazing how that is.

and we had transfers this week and nothing is happening to me. its

bittersweet. although elder wilhelm is going down to lubango. uhhhhh

all my favorite people are down there now. i want to goooo!

yes mom i was able to withdraw cash with the card. thank you. it

works! as for everything else...... the missionary life... is so

repeditive some times. i need to do something out of the ordinary to

make it fun. im reading teaching of the prophet lorenzo snow in

portuguese. thats way fun. haha because i can read it and understand

it all. oh i forgot i finished the book of mormon this week. that 4

times now that ive read it on my mission. and ill finish it again soon

in portuguese. portuguese is awesome. well thats the wrap folks. 2

more weeks and ill hit a year. che wei. bem, ate logo. o proximo vez

que vamos falar. tenho saudades de voces. oh btw if your going to the

cabin for christmas how are you going to skype me?

well love ya all. peace out. paz fora. haha that doesnt translate.

ficam fixe. stay cool.

amo-vos

Elder tingey