My Pet Parasite Named Jim!

My Pet Parasite named Jim!!!

February 18, 2013

Oh today is a good day. Hello family! and friends, and fans :)

So this week.... bleh!!

As you can probably tell from the subject (which is to be the title of the entry on the blog please) I have a pet! His name is Jim and I take care of him and feed him everyday. He likes to play around a lot, but honestly, it’s just not that fun when he wants to play... he is a parasite! He lives inside of me! hahahahaha So yeah, I got sick this week. (...(fetal position) don’t kill me mom!) It was pretty bad. ( freaking chato the power just went out! and I lost like half of this email!) Anyway, yeah it was bad. On vday (Valentine’s day) I was fine, we had some awesome lessons then we went over to president’s to get some supplies and they had us eat dinner there and I asked Sister Thompson what the symptoms were for parasites and when she told me I was like shay! (shay is an Angolan word used for like "what the!" or just a surprised moment, and its awesome because it’s not even bad and it’s so fun to say!)  and then boom! Right after we left their house I got chills and a fever and before we made it back to our apartment I had lost my dinner and lunch and breakfast and I was sitting of the side of the road. Talk about gross. Then I threw up 4 more times that night, and the runs for forever yatayatayata basically I’ve been in bed from Thurs night till this morning. yeah it sucked. I think I had something other than the parasite too. But, I killed Jim with a pill... he o.d.ed if you know what I mean... Ha! So this week wasn’t exactly the best. But man I’ll tell you what, getting sick here trunks you out of your mind! You’re just like ooohhh this sucks, I miss my mom.. I want my mom.. my mom was so nice to me when I was sick. She did so many things for me.. owwww...I miss clean water... I miss air conditioning... I miss electricity...I miss American food that is safe to eat..... yeah, you get the point. So mom Thank you sooooo much for all your years of loving service to me. I love you so much! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we’ve been without energy for the past week. Kill me. I think if I had energy, and clean water... I would be happy for the rest of my life. If that’s all I had I would be happy. Ha I sound pathetic Haha. Anyway, I still got the runs. yeah Dad I know what you mean when you say “Carry tp with you! Good thing I took that advice! The other day my planner almost became tp! Yep, I’m having quite the experiences! 

Oh, so you know how I’ve been trunky, like the whole week when I was sick, because you know there’s only so much studying you can do before you go nuts. Anyway, I was really really really missing country music. Like really missing it. I miss it sooo much! But! God gave me a blessing! Our neighbors were having a wedding party (which was insanely loud and I didn’t sleep that night) and they played a Shania Twain song and I was like, wait a second...! This is country! And I got up and like started running and screaming with joy and singing to it! And just relishing it! Oh, it felt sooo good! It was sooo great and then when the song was over I went back and lay in bed because I felt like crap after doing all that. But man I was sooo excited!  Oh, and then last night I couldn’t sleep and I had a serious trunkfest about the ranch. Oh I miss the ranch! Seriously, Grandpa Tingey, I think I can seriously say that I love the ranch the most out of all the grandkids. Seriously, tears came because I was thinking how I would miss two summers there.. Oh, that was sad. And horses. I want to ride a horse so bad. So Grandpa.. you can never sell the ranch! Except to me if you want. I decided that I’ll probably have to live in Utah because I want to be really close to the ranch. sooo yeah. 

Oh and since I couldn’t sleep last night, I created like 5 companies in my head... I got some seriously good ideas. Do-able ideas too. I got a notebook to write them down in. But enough of being trunky! I got work to do! (Whenever you want to get pumped to do missionary work just watch the district, works every time!)

So Grandpa Stoker, Happy Birthday! You rock! Seriously, I love you, thanks for all you’ve done for me. Jase, it’s your bday today! Dude, I was thinking.. I probably won’t see you for a long time. Sooo have a freaking awesome birthday! 

Yes, Mom, I can get milk and eggs and vegetables and fruit. Different ones come in periodically. I made hashbrowns the other day out of a potato... unfortunately, I didn’t get to digest them. But yep, I can get tomato sauce and all that good stuff. I stay away from the meat because its just sketchy sometimes...  but yeah send those things. President hasn’t nixed the packages yet! So send them while you can! Just know to put some money into my account because it costs a little bit to receive them sometimes. And Mom, no one sent me recipes, I was being sarcastic!

Oh yeah, that zone conference we had last week was in Hotel Talatona. Holy freaking nice!!! Like there were Ferraries outside in the parking lot.. Yeah. I got a pic. Um, yes, I have a twin size bed. It’s nice. Not a bunkbed. Yes, I got Elder Montgomry his stuff when he came to the conference. 

K whoa. No, I sent a suit home. Did you never get the stuff I had sent to Tyler?! Nooo! I love that suit! Find out! Clothing is working out good. I use 5 shirts and 3 pants. When the energy is on, with all the phases … I can take a warm shower, but mostly, it’s cold bucket showers. Btws, (text language for “by the way”) I made a shower in my head for when I get home.. It’s sooo legit. It’s hot at night. It’s not bad if you open the windows but then the mosquitos come in and we don’t have nets. Yes, there are bugs. Big and small. I keep our place pretty clean so we don’t get them. But, our water tank has some serious roaches in it. It’s gross when you pull up a bucket of water and they are all there to greet you! No snakes yet! 

Dad,on an average pday (missionary language for prep day, the day off) get up, pray (ha! duh) clean the place, go play futbol, do internet, go shopping, play bang or monopoly deal; then have FHE (Family Home Evening) at the end of the day. But, President is trying to put together a Safari and I’m stoked! 

Hannah, I have been eating rice and beans and pasta. I’m sick of it! And we don’t have members do meals for us except sometimes on Mondays or Sundays, because we have no members in our area! 

Sounds like Marissa had quite the Vday. Made up for my horrid one! Dad, ha! That would be crazy if I saw you here in Angola! Do the interview! But after this sickness, I decided I’m living in the states! You know what’s weird. Marissa will be in college when I get back! Shay! Ah, so weird. Well, I love you guys. Missed you a lot this week! Babes, shout out to my girl! Darin, I love you bro! Be a stud in the gospel! Hannah, don’t grow up! You’re too cute! Marissa, I just miss you like crazy. Ah! Love you guys! Mas tudo bem! Tudo bem!

With love (African and Black of course!)

Elder Tingey

(And Jim...except I think he died!)

P.S. Dad when did you learn Portuguese??

It's A Party In Africa!!

Hello Hello!

How’s my biggest fan base doing? Good obviously! I love you guys. Well this week was interesting! But, first things first. Dad idk (I don’t know) if you meant to write your email in Portuguese, but don’t. I’m not that good at Portuguese to read it that fast! So I translated it with Google... and got the jist of it.

Hannah! My cute baby girl! Happy Birthday! Oh my goodness you’re so old, I was remembering last night when you were just little! Like holy cow I feel like a parent. Where did the time go? Gosh you’re so cute! I want you to meet my little black bro. His name is Lucas. He’s Rita’s son and he is 6. He is so awesome! I love that cute kid. I’m going to take a picture with him he is so cute.  And he has a little motor mouth! He puts me to shame it’s sad! But Rita is progressing really well! She comes to church every week with her daughter and she reads every time. Ah! She is just a solid investigator. I just get so excited when investigators keep their commitments. It’s so awesome! I just can’t wipe the smile off my face!

This week the Kretlys, (the actual mission president and his wife) came to town from Mozambique with Elder Cook, from the Quorum of Seventy, for a mission tour and district conference. It was really good. We had a zone conference with Elder Cook on Friday and Elder Cook was just teaching us all this solid stuff and he just randomly was like “Elder Tingey, I need your help; come up here and let’s be companions and were going to do a role play of this and that.” Holy freak! I was scared out of my mind! I’m new! Like, I’m going to mess up! I was sweating and praying so hard! Haha! But it went good. Haha and then at the end of our literally 30 min role play he asked who all the new elders were and I raised my hand and he laughed and was like wow, you did good! But he is just such a stud. He talked to the wards and basically chastised them for not working better with the elders. But then on Sunday he just threw down some solid meat. He talked about how important it was that the husbands spend time with their families. It’s soo important that they do that. And then he talked about how important it was that the husbands love their wives and how the husbands need to be way better with treating their wives better. He shared a story about how President Packard told all the 70 that they need to treat their wives better and that they weren’t doing good enough. He told that to the 70! Like that is just sooo important to treat women with respect. Not just here in Africa, but everywhere. He shared a story about how he noticed some things his Dad did that weren’t bad but just didn’t make his mother the top priority. Anyway, his dad ended up leaving the family. It was a sad story, but it showed the power and the importance of how husbands need to treat their wives and how the husbands need to initiate it. Not the wives. Oh man, Elder cook is just so awesome!

Speaking of district conference a bunch of people want to contact Uncle Earl through email and they keep asking me. So if you want to give me that (you don’t have to but) it would be nice.

Oh, btw,(by the way) it’s a party in Africa. This week is the start of Carnival. Yeah, I’m getting no sleep. Seriously, on Saturday, the neighbors partied ALL freaking night until 630! Gosh. gotta love ‘em.  I forgot my planner and I’m mad! I had stuff written down that I wanted to write! Oh well. Oh, Dad, about that KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) article. I didn’t read it but KFC is like the ONLY American restaurant here. Like, I almost can’t believe it. I’ve only seen two in Luanda. Actually, I think there are only two anyway. But it’s expensive. Ugh, just like everything. It’s really annoying. Let me just kinda show you how expensive stuff is here compared to Mozambique. We get more than twice as much money per month than them.

Oh, but Dad, there are soooooooo many taxis here and it hit me; Taxi Top advertising here! Boom! Big money! Oh, and I was talking to this guy, John yesterday, he’s from Portugal, and speaks English. Holy cow so many people speak English. But anyway, he had a sweet suit and he said it was only 70 bucks in Portugal! So basically, on my way home, I want to go to Portugal and get some suits. Like they have nice suits here but they’re up the wazzu expensive! And they’re all imported anyway. Actually, when I come back, my suitcases will have nothing but African stuff in them!

K, one thing here that is just nuts and I’m really sick of it, is just the porn everywhere. It’s just annoying! Freaking chato.! But its strange, I feel safer here in Africa. Haha, like I’m away from the "world" when in fact I’m more in it. But I’m a missionary so I’m protected! Whaaaat! Take that Satan! Yeah, try having another African slut throw herself at me and see what happens! (happens all the time btw) yeah Nothing!

Anyway, now that I’ve rattled on about that....

Austin! You’re finally going to the MTC! Haha ‘bout time! Thanks for the shout out bro! I miss you! We would be awesome comps and I’m glad your speaking Portuguese!

Well, peeps, I’m almost out of time and I gotta go shopping. Thanks for the recipes btw.

Oh wait! Haha! when the Kretlys came they gave me a bunch of Dear Elders from G and G Stoker! Haha they sent them to me while I was in the MTC but the pressed the wrong button and it went to the mission home in Mozambique. Haha, but it was nice to read them and hear from them. Thank goodness for having grandparents! (that aren’t too tech savy haha!)

Alright love you all!

Elder Tingey

P.S.  If you want to send a letter, use an international airmail stamp. It will get here faster. And PLEASE send them! haha

What a Week!!

2-4-13

Wow, so much has happened this week! Hello everyone!

Tudo Bem?!

So.. wow.. so many emails this week and so little time!

First off you actually can send letters! I actually got one this week on the 30th and it was postmarked for the 27th. I was dumfounded. So thank you Berges for that letter!

Darin, Bra. Freak man I wish I could have been at that Red Mountain game! You’re a freaking stud! Oh man I’m just getting so excited sitting here reading about it! Oh sounds so fun. That’s the first thing I’m doing when I get home; going to one of Darin’s games. ahh!

haha I’m still laughing about my email last week. haha epic, but this week was crazy kinda. We moved into our new apartment! And it’s really nice. ahem "really nice" meaning that there are\were some huge kinks. So we’re the only ones in the whole building. There’s 5 floors. So some times we go to the "penthouse" at the top and its like a party house. haha. But, the Chinese who built it (they build everything here) wired it soo wrong. So anyway, Elder Walker and I did some serious jimmy- rigging and got our ac unit to work and the lights. I’ll try to send some pics of the place. Oh and the showers are like party showers but w\o water its pointless. Correction: without good water pressure. Oh, and our water in our water tank was filthy. Literally smelled like /&$%$ crap. So we got that cleaned out which took two days then the water guy said he was coming and didn’t show up till the next day and the whole time we had to wait for him because we can’t leave the place unlocked. Ugh, such a waste of time. Oh well though, it’s done now. Today, I cleaned the floors’ swept and mopped. The place is beautiful now. haha.

So as far as missionary work went this week, it was slow. Our investigators.. some are progressing.. others say they are but they’re not and well, there’s just lots of problems haha. And, the work is getting tougher! which is good because it’ll stretch me. And when the work gets tougher, it just makes the success that much sweeter!

Oh, okay, Elder Walker and I were walking; finding the borders of our area and wow, our area has nothing. haha We found a jungle. It was awesome. Like, legit African jungle in Luanda. So crazy! We gotta go back a take pics. You guys are going to love them! Like it’s amazing! There’s one I’m going to send and I’m on a cliff with jungle and beach and the ocean behind me. Like soo legit!

Yes Dad, I cook for myself. I need recipes. I’ve been living off of pasta, and rice and beans, and sandwhiches. Haha, but I’m experimenting with things! Sister Thompson is putting a recipe book together for us, so that will be sweet, but sometimes we get dinner invitations. Yeah, Grandpa, about what Uncle Earl said. Yeah, we don’t eat stuff from street vendors, but when someone offers us food in a lesson, whether it’s an investigator or a member, you gotta eat it. Usually, it’s not bad except funge. bleh.. gross. But don’t worry! I pray really hard over my food! A few times actually. Man, I’ll tell you, it’s the cleanest food around cause I bless it so much!

And Dad, we have a washer in our apartment. We jimmy rigged that too haha. Seriously, we had the thing like in pieces. And when we don’t have electricity we flush the toilet with water that we get from our tank (which is under the building.) We throw a bucket on a rope down there and bring up the water! haha It’s kinda fun doing that actually.

I love the pics! Darin is a stud in his jersey. Like oh my gosh, he is so legit! And Marissa, dang girl! Looking good! haha Guess what happened this week. I walk into our room and Elder Walker is like, “Hey, Elder Tingey... wanna be brother in laws?” Hahaha I busted up. All my comps love you! Well, I gotta run! Dad, sorry I didn’t answer that one question. idk. But there’s no where to play basketball. And they want us to focus on familyies more than anything. The mission here is about establishing the church more than anything. I love you all! Hopefully, I’ll have a little more time next week. I love hearing from you!

With lots of Black African love,

Elder Tingey

WHOA!! January 28, 2013

Elder Nathan Tingey 

Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos S.U.D.

Caixa Postal 18404

Luanda, Angola

BOOBS. That’s all I have to say. hahahahaha jk. So funny though because seriously, I have never seen so many in my life as I have here. It’s ridiculous. Like, multiple times during lessons they'll just wip it out and start feeding their baby and your like well hello. haha I just laugh in my head. Oh, but funny story. So we’re teaching this woman and I totally thought she didn’t have any kids! Because she told us she didn’t ( she doesnt speak good english or portuguese she speaks clicky language.) Anyway, this kid just walks up to her while were teaching her and she holds him and then BAM there it is! Everything is out on the table! Me and Elder Walker just look at each other and I almost cannot hold it together and just about bust up laughing. Then she said that it was her kid and we’re like “oh, okay.” But we totally thought it was just a random kid on the street! Okay, anyway, on with the email.

Hello everyone! haha. So another week here in Africa. In HOT Angola! So it’s a little hard to teach because we have no copies of the Book of Mormon to give out. It’s horrible! We ordered 800 months ago and they’re still not here! But we do the best with what we have. Rita came to church again this week with her daughter. Booya! ha it was sweet. She finally understood the importance of being baptized by the correct authority. So she is gonna pray about it and then we'll go from there. Obviously she's gonna feel good when she prays about it, so basically, she'll be getting baptized soon and probably her whole family which would be SICK! Last Sunday we split the branch and made another. It was soooo needed. We had like 260 people in this building and it was just way too small. We have a few other investigators: Victor, Evandro and a few more but not enough time to write about all of them! 

So some stuff about Angola: There is trash everywhere, like everywhere. It’s gross! The people just have no respect for the land. Sad, really. Somebody could make some serious dough here if they set up a legit trash business. Especially because gas, especially diesel, is sooo dirt cheap! They love American music here. Mostly rap, r and b and hip hop. ha A lot of the taxies we get into have music playing and American swear words and the Angolan people have no idea what they mean and they just say them because they think they’re cool speaking English. haha Sad really. It’s amazing actually how many people here can speak English and they want to learn English too. So here is the deal with the whole power situation here. Angola only gets their power from this one dam. ONE! So basically it can’t sustain everyone. Sooo EVERYONE has a generator and runs their house off of that when the power goes out because gas is super cheap. I mean if any country should run off of generators it’s Angola! They have the means to do so! The nice houses have huge generators. Like, really big! 

So this week army dudes just started showing up everywhere. It was kinda freaky but it just means that the president is here in our specific area for something. Man, I’ll tell you it’s pretty legit when the president drives by. ALL traffic stops and these black cars with army trucks all in between them drive by and then they have a helicopter flying over them and there is just this guy hanging out the helicopter just chillin’ there with an ak47. haha it’s legit! 

So apparently, I talk in my sleep…. in Portuguese!!! Yes! haha and I remember the other night I had a dream in Portuguese, which does not mean that my Portuguese is good because it is horrible.  

So there is a member here, Irma Lasolet (idk how to spell it) but she knew Uncle Earl when he came here and she saw him in the DC temple when she went there. She was excited to see me it was cool. 

So to answer some questions: they have internet cafes that we go to so that we can email. To be honest, they’re not very good or fast. Like slow as tar! So today we’re at president’s house emailing because Elder Walker had to sign up for classes at BYU Idaho. Elder walker goes home at like the beginning of May. I think.  Ya, and the new investigators in our new area, we just invite them to the existing branches already in the city. 

We are with out power... mmm probably 30-40 percent of the time. You learn to take advantage when the power is on though. Fill up your water bottles with the purified water, take showers then, stand in front of the ac unit while you read your scrips. haha jk about the last one, we don’t have air conditioning! Yes, Mom, I’m taking my meds. Well, two of them and my Malaria medicine. Well I take them when I remember, which is about every other day. ahahah. I’ll do better!  I promise! All mail goes to president’s house. Sister Thompson said she would send it. Oh, and to answer your question about the people, rich people….well, the wealth varies I guess. A small house like about 1900 sq ft. would be millions of dollars here. Like a lot. A condo is in the millions as well, which is why all the senior couples that serve here are absolutely loaded! They’re from Brazil. umm what else….. 

Okay, There’s two games you guys need to get! They’re so fun. Bang and Monopoly Deal. They’re awesome. Oh did I mention that there’s now 9 elders in our house? Yeah it’s nuts. Oh and the air here is horrible. I feel like I’m in China there is so much smog! So I’m praying to the Lord that I don’t have lung cancer in a few years. hmm anything else? Oh yeah, Darin, way to go in bball. Grandma thank you for your email. I hope the trip is good! Grandma Tingey get better! AND my love and condolences go out to the Perkins family. I love you guys. Josh your a stud. Keep CTRing (choosing the right!) and the best is yet to come.

Mom, please give Mr. Hansen my blog info! That amazing math teacher needs to hear about what I’m doing here in Africa! Oh, speaking of which, Sister Thompson went on my blog the other day and I saw it and I was like whoa this is weird!!! haha I felt like I was at home reading about my own mission! Well family and friends, I love you all. You’re the best! Keep me posted about Paige please Carol!!! geez (2nd) mom!! haha. 

With much African love,

Elder Tingey

P.S. In the church choir we’re learning this African song. It’s sweet! 

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.

Hello From Africa!!!!!

Hello from Africa!!!!!                                                      Jan.16, 2013

I’m here! and I’m like crying tears of joy! I seriously cannot stop smiling. like it’s hard. The flights were lonnnnnnng let me tell you. and they had like super nice TVs and stuff. man it was hard to refrain. They had music on them and everything and they had some quality country music and it took everything I had not to listen to it! but it was sooo nice to finally listen to Jericho road. man those are my home boys! Dad I think you’re going to be disappointed. My apartment from what it sounds like is going to be pretty nice. and there are 2 companionships per apartment which I am very happy about! I haven’t met my new comp yet but I know he’s from Utah. West Jordan I think. idk his name I forgot. Marissa thanks for the pics! Paige is set apart and probably leaving to the MTC soon. Sister Thompson said we're 8 hours ahead of Utah. sooo yeah.. we met these elders in the London airport coming home from France and they were just studs. like I better be that bold and awesome and just so full of charity when I come home! Oh it’s VERY humid here. It’s like a mix between what Rocky Point looks like and how Costa Rica feels. Little bit greener than rocky point though. But just the buildings and stuff.. all very similar. well tudo bem! Love you all! 

Elder Tingey

Last pics of Provo and the MTC! Here I come Africa!

last week! halafreakingluha!

January 12,2013

Last week! Halafreakingluha!

hello everyone!

my final week is over! im so excited! not gonna lie it was a little bit of a rough week because the mtc is changing schedules with everything so yeah. very frustrating. i was a little dissappointed, anyway. yeah i have a cold and im ticked about it. i didnt not want to leave to africa the least bit sick but oh well!

at the beginning of the week it was like 25 degrees. oh my i never thought i would love what 25 degrees felt like but it was just so nice and warm compared to -8. but now its cold again and it has been blizzards the past few days. oh this morning i hiked up to the temple, through the snow, freezing cold(!), in a blizzard. oh and i was uphill both ways. haha but yeah i felt like a pioneer. k im going to have tyler pick up my stuff. he should recieve a call from me or from the mtc this week. Mom thank you for the package oh and before i forget, grandma and grandpa stoker thank you so much for the christmas package! and the other package of stories you sent me. Grandma and Grandpa Tingey thank you for the tools! haha so awesome that you sent me a picture. Megan thank you for your package and the SWEET tie. everyone was jealous of it. speaking of packages the one with the family calendar in it. qualidade. serio. like good job (aunt tiff?) for putting that together. you know what i realized? we have a dang good looking family. seriously. and mom you are soo pretty! im just like yep thats my mom! thats why im beautiful! haha jk you look good too dad. People tell me all the time that i look like different celebraties. i get told that i look like anakin skywalker ALL the time. Probably 3 times a week. haha its always the sisters too. and someone told me i looked like a kid from newsies. i took that as a compliment because newsies is awesome.

speaking of the sisters here... the quality (of how good they look) is skyrocketing.. its quite scary. i feel bad for all the elders coming in cause they have to deal with these beautiful sisters and theyre on missions so it just makes them 10 times more attractive. sad day for them haha.

Mom. Thank you for singing. Thank you for always singing to me as a little kid and just always singing. you have such a pretty voice. i might make you sing to me when i call you. speaking of which im calling on monday from dallas proably around 12 your time. if everyone was home that would be sweet but if not thats fine. but back to the singing. my district is abosolutely terrible at singing. i am not even exaggerating. Like i cringe. i mean the good old elders try so valiantly but..... well ha enough said.

Girls. ALL girls. Long hair is the key to marriage. haha i had this talk with irma wells my teacher. she was thinking about cutting her hair and i was like heck to the no youre not! haha needless to say shes not cutting her hair anymore, she’ll be married soon because of it, she'll thank me and my work here is done. your welcome. hahaahahahahahaha.

Change is hard. but possible. The Lord is trying to humble me this week and im not taking it well haha. but im working on it. quick quote from elder mccune the other night: " i hate that we have christ like attributes... i'd rather just sit here angry." hahahaha amen brotha! IT is very hard sometimes but possible. wow the time flies on the computer here. gotta go but i get to call you soon! heck yes!!!  by love you all soo much!

Elder Tingey

P.s. i saw larry mecham on a missionary poster here in in-field orientation yesterday.

p.s. tell Bro stringfellow i love him and am praying for him. ill write him today.

What's up?!

January 4, 2012
Whats up Family!

so this week has been FREAKING cold! like 0 degrees cold! it was -8 this morning. Gosh im dying. But 1 more week and i will feel right at home in the nice hot sun! Also this week a serious institnal virus went on a mad rampage and destroyed half the missionaries! seriously we were dropping like flies. in my zone we have 12 go down in 1 hour. 1 hour! it was nuts! its still ongoing but the mtc has taken serious measures to stop it. Like serious. no handshaking. theyre cleaning the bathrooms and what not every hour! its crazy! speaking of my zone, i now have 81 missionaries in my zone. Crazy i know. Im so glad im leaving before this place becomes seriously packed! oh ! okay so on wednesday we got our second dos of the 19 year old sisters and whoa it was weird... they all looked so little! like just out of high school! haha weird! every one here thinks im like 20 something. i think its just cause im a zone leader though. Cause i thought my zone leaders were old. Elder dredge, well everyone thinks hes 15 haha jk but kinda. oh and funny thing they all think he has kissed like 30 girls! which is halarious because he wont tell them how many he's kissed! K so mom i need you to send back my memory card please and the ipod. thank you sooooooooo soooo sooo much for putting all that awesome gospel music on there! Oh and i need you to go through my ties and send me all the ones that are 100 percent poly! because i learned the silk one kinda "leak" in the humidity. Speaking of humidity i got my travel plans! im sooooo pumped! i mean you all know how excited i get when i get really excited, yeah it was like that! but im flying to dallas and then to london then to south africa then to maputo. Idk how long ill be in maputo before i go to angola. but im super stoked. But my total travel time is like 2 days and 5 hours or something like that. Yeah brutal i know. Oh! president emailed us all and said that elder cook is coming to tour our mission in feb! im so excited! he's coming to angola (luanda and lambongo) and were all going to get to meet and and he's going to interview some of us. Ill be sure to mention you Grandpa Stoker!

Hey marissa, so i saw r.j. haha but i also saw will barker! i talked to him for a little while. he's in the other portugues branch. I thought it was halarious how i came into the mtc before him by like a month and a half and he had his call WAY longer than i did. He's a cool dude. i like him a lot.

man i cant even think i just want to get out of here and go to angola! i feel good about the language but i know im not going to understand anyone when i get there. oh well ill learn.

Oh i forgot.. today is also a sad day. Another Elder from my district went home today. Man it was really sad. we had a district prayer last night in our dorms after class because the one elder was going home (dishonorably) and he asked me to say the prayer. so i was saying the prayer and wow i almost lost it at the begining of every sentance. its just so hard for me to see them go home cause i love them so much! so were down to 8 in our district.

Oh heres another thing, i spoke on sunday. In portuguese. yeah what up. haha it was good. i said everything i wanted to so that was good! haha i hadnt prepared because basically zone leaders never speak in sacrament meeting cause we do so much other stuff. and ususally they only have 2 missionary speakers but last sunday they decided to do 3. yep i was the 3rd. but it went good. One of the sisters asked me to give her a blessing tonight so that should be a good experience. Ill tell you this though. So nice to be able to say yes and be completely worthly to give a blessing when someone asks you. Just remember that every one.

I dont have enough time to write but i had a really special experience in the temple today. it was awesome.

well i have to go but write me dear elders and send me everything you want to because basically itll be the last time for 22 months! love you all! the gospel is true!

Elder Nathan Tingey

Ps mom update my blog

Hey Everyone

December 28, 2012

Hey everyone!

how's it goin? hope everyone had a good christmas! the ended to our christmas was pretty good we had greg olsen come talk to us and that was pretty sweet. Then we got to watch "its a wonderful life" awesome movie! idk if you guys watched it this christmas season but just do it anyway cause its awesome! dad im gonna answer your questions. On average.. i get about 5 week? yeah, but the basically all come at once. but have the time its grandma and grandpa stoker sending me inspirational stories ;) soo i dont really count those ones. and Yes i got a letter from the Burtons! it was awesome! i wrote them back. Oh and i got the picture of the truck. Dang i love that truck. And yes all my teachers are fluent in portuguese and the speak it to me all the time and i speak it to them. Most of the time the whole lesson is in portuguese that they give us. it helps a lot.

Megan! Holy cow Paris France that is sooo legit! im sooo excited for you! all my companions were like dang thats a sweet mission to get called to!

So you guys might find this funny, Brother Radabaugh is the first counselor in our branch presidency. He's super cool and he speaks portuguese was a mission president there and everything and he teaches at byu international business. Anyway he told a story about how there family goes out in the woods and cuts down a christmas tree every year. I was like no way! thats what my family does! oh! and his son is in singles ward and singles second ward. i knew i recognized the son when i saw him! he's in those because Bro R's nephew is the guys who makes them. pretty cool eh?

So we just got finished cleaning the temple which was pretty cool. They gave us a tour of the 4th floor and the brides room. Those were pretty cool.

Guys only two more weeks left. holy cow. im soo close! i want to get out of here! 9 weeks is too long. im jealous of all the new missionaries. so i only got 10 min to write you so sorry this is so short. But one thing i wanted to tell you is look up 3 Nephi 27:16. Read it and imagine your self in front of God's throne being judged and then imagine Christ standing right next to you as you being judged and taking the pain and the guilt for the sins you've commited. It gives the Atonement a more visual aspect. anyway I love you all. Send me lots of Dear Elders these last two weeks because its the last time youre going to get to talk to me and ill get it the next day! after that its all email homies. well i gotta go.. grr. Please write me lots! Mom i havent decided whether to call you from provo on the 14 or in Dallas. Probably in dallas since i have a 4 hour layover there. Oh i cant wait to get out of here. Eu desjo que posso estar com voces a vezes, mas Eu gosto de aqui. The spelling of that was probably terrible. Darin write me about basketball and something else in your life. babes and hannah i want letters from you too! marissa thanks for the letter this week sorry i couldnt write back. but youre awesome. Te amo muito!

Elder Tingey