Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Rivalry Week - And I'm in Provo.

I realized that i don't have any Utah gear to wear this week to represent! If you are planning on sending a package, put a utah shirt in there. If not, don't worry about it. 

jaiyou!!!!

GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who am i sir? a Utah man am i! a utah man sir and will be till i die! Ki'ai! We're up to snuff we never bluff we're game for any fuss. No other band of college men dare meet us in the muss! So fill your lungs and sing it out and shout it to the sky, We'll fight for dear old crimson for a U-TAH-MAN-AM-IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII   

GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I really need some choclate milk my cheerios don't taste the same, i really need some chocolate milk but that dang milkman never came! I could go to the store, but i'll just wait til mom buys more. I'll just live on wheat thins and beer, if i get sick, THE TOILETS NEAR!!!! 
THEIR MOTHERS WILL PAY

MOVE THE CHAINS, MOVE THE CHAINS, MOVE THE CHAINS WOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

May your hammer be mighty. (hot rod anyone?)


love ya. Go UTES!

Week 6

Nimen Hao!

Can't believe how fast things are going right now. It's scary because i know that no matter how much i learn here, i will still not be able to understand people when i get to Australia  One of the elders that left a couple weeks ago emailed elder ward and told him that they don't knock doors, but they sit in the park and go "asian hunting". I guess they just wait for a Chinese person to walk by and then they pounce. The kid is in Brisbane, but i feel like that can't be much different from Sydney. One of my teachers, Meng Laoshi, went to California on his mission and he told us he taught about fifty percent english lessons. I feel like I will be more immersed than he was in the language, but I wouldn't be surprised if we teach a couple english lessons. I feel like everyone is out in the field already. It's me and Sam here on campus now. The last two. Sam is in my dorm building and in my class building so i see him all the time. I was looking for nolan all day on Wednesday but i couldn't find him. I was a host so i would've helped him too! Hope he's alright. He's probably on West campus now because thats where all the russians go. I will look for him and get a picture at the devotional on tuesday. If you could send me his email that would be awesome. Connor comes in on Wednesday and that's about the last of them. Then its just a matter of who is leaving. Sam and i leave on the same day so maybe we will be on the same flight to California... I can hope. 

I'm doing well, except i've had a headache for the past couple days now. Not sure what it's from but i think it has something to do with Chinese .. I found the Advil in my bag, but i couldn't find the Ibuprofen  Mom, do you remember where you put it? Also when should i be looking to go get that shot? they never asked for my immunizations record so i don't know if they know i need it. I'm exercising and trying to stay active. I usually do push-ups and squats every night before bed. 

I'm kindof starting to get bugged by people here. I think when you're forced to be with people for so long, you are inevitably going to be bothered by them. Strange thing is, Hixson is one of the few that doesn't bug me. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? Oh well. Maybe its because of the headache. i need to be more patient with people, and the Lord knows that. Gotta love it. Lets just hope i don't snap on any of them. 

The language is the language. Last night they played The Testaments in Mandarin and so our district decided to go see it. I couldn't understand like anything. I can pick out words i know sometimes, but i can't tell what's going on ever. I just know that when i get out into the field i wont be able to understand anyone. They speak way too fast!! We've been watching some "I'm a mormon" videos and there are three in mandarin so we keep watching them without subtitles and i still can't understand them. I've almost got the first vision memorized in Chinese  but im not sure how my tones sound. I feel like my rising tone sucks. sometimes i can't tell the difference between that and the dip tone. Things get frustrating and when you think your Chinese is improving, you realize how much you need to improve on just as a missionary and you are humbled again. Sometimes its frustrating but then you have an experience that makes everything worth it. For example, on saturday me and hixson had a lesson with "Song Dixiong" who is a "doctor" and "doesn't believe in God". it was like our fourth lesson with him and he was already starting to develop a little bit of faith, but so we decided to teach him the plan of salvation. We went through the lesson and planned really well. We got in there and everything seemed to fall into place. The spirit was there and we could understand enough of what he was saying that we could answer his questions. We got all the way through the plan and we talked about how we have to be perfect in order to dwell with god. And since we are all imperfect, we all fail God's test. And that's when we talked about the Atonement. We had an awesome scripture that fit perfectly with our lesson. it was just awesome. So we go back to class and at the end of every class we do coaching time where you can get time with the teachers. We asked him to give us some feedback on the lesson just to see how he felt about it. When he was talking about it he teared up a bit and told us that it was the simplest, yet most powerful depiction of the plan of salvation he had ever heard. As soon as he said that, the spirit hit me like a rock. like a punch to the heart. Its experiences like those that make this amazing. It's extremely taxing and often exhausting, but it is totally worth it. 

Funny story, i was in line for lunch and the guy serving said, "elder tingey, where are you headed?" I was confused because i wasn't exactly at the front of the line, but i said "sydney, Australia." the kid infront of me looked back all confused and i realized that he had answered at the same time..... THERES TWO ELDER TINGEYS IN THE MTC!!!!!!!! He's from somewhere in utah like Juab or something but i'm sure we're related somehow. He's going to Argentina if you were wondering. 

Before i leave i will probably send a package home with stuff i don't want and like letters and stuff so if you guys could keep a box with all my letters and things to keep until i get home that would be awesome. I feel bad because hanna Thatcher wrote me a letter and then moved down to BYU and never gave me her address so i cant write her back. If you could get that i would appreciate it. 

Life is good here at the MTC. This church is true. Joseph Smith was a Prophet. Jesus is the Christ. I know these things are true. I think it was Elder McKonkie that said something like, "In a coming day i will meet the savior. I will fall at his feet and feel the marks in his hands. But i will not know then any more than i know now that he lived, and that he died for me and my sins." That is not exact and i'm not sure if it was even Elder McKonkie, but I love that quote and i could say the same thing. 

Love you guys! I loved the Powell pictures. All the elders in the computer lab told me it was messed up that you guys would send those... but i liked them. That boat is a beauty on the water and with Jeremy at the helm, man the potential is amazing. hahahah Wo ai nimen!!!

Love,
Spencer


ps sorry no pictures this week.... Next time.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Week 5


Family,

I am officially more than halfway out of provo!!! The sad thing is... I'm starting to enjoy it here. The lady that cut my hair told me when she was here she felt like she was living in the celestial room.... I can't say i feel the same.....at all. But it is nice here. The spirit is really strong. Plus i am completely terrified of having to talk to someone for real in chinese. We do TRC every week where we go teach actual people, and i swear its a total different language than we are learning in class. So i don't really mind that i still have four weeks here. Well, three and a half actually. But yes, I got a haircut today. I've been putting it off because i've been hearing horror stories about elders that come back looking like what our bushes look like in the back yard after dad "trims" them down. hahaha just kidding:) but it got to the point that i really needed it and i was worried that people were going to start getting mad at me for it so i set up an appointment and went in. It was definitely not as good as sports clips, but it looks okay. If you don't look behind my ears where she pretty much shaved my head bald. Oh well. It will grow out soon enough. We are losing another generation of chinese elders tomorrow so we will be the oldest in the zone from here on out. that means someone from our generation will have to give a talk every week so pray for me that i don't have to! Although its just this week and next week and then its fast sunday and then general conference and then i'm gone. I was hoping that they would do a missionary choir for general conference because its a year since the missionary announcement, but they are just doing a sisters choir... Darn. Oh well. They'll be really good and the fact that there are enough sisters to even do a choir is cool.
We were asked by one of the speakers in one of our devotionals to start reading hymns before we go to bed every night.(i think it was a sister) So I pulled out the little hymnbook that Grandma Tingey gave me for my baptism (ps if you can find a small mandarin hymn book i'd love one. They run out of them in the book store about ten minutes after they get them so i havent had the chance to get one yet) and i opened it to find a hymn to read and i noticed some writing on the inside. It was Grandma's testimony and a note telling me that i was making the right decision to be baptized. I've probably read it before, but it's been a VERY long time. It made me so happy. I realized how blessed i am to have the family i have. Every single one of you guys makes my life easier and better. Love you guys! 
One night we were walking to class for study time and we were stopped by a portuguese elder that asked us if he could teach us the first lesson. We said yes and he taught us about prophets and the restoration and then he asked us if he could meet with us again. Elder Barlow, thinking quickly, responded in Chinese and said, "yes. you are fat. you can help Elder Hixson." I died. And then barlow said, in english, as if to translate, "yes. Tomorrow at 3:00 works best for me." The kid bought it, thanked us and walked away, a little confused as to why we were laughing so hard. I was crying all the way to class. Such a good time. 
Im trying to think of other things that happened this week but really nothing happened. I don't really know what you guys want to hear about so email me and tell me what you want to know. I bought an SD card reader at the book store for 10 bucks because i've been using hixson's for the past few weeks. The cord only works for charging or something i think. So i'll send some pictures. I also don't know what kind of pictures you guys want so tell me that too. As far as companionship drama goes, I'm doing great. me and hixson get along amazingly. Same with Barlow and Ward. It's lucky that our room gets along so well because the other room in our district has major issues. Both the companionships hate each other and they have to do daily companionship interventions. I know they're called inventories, but we call theirs interventions because they both just sit and tell the other what they are doing wrong. It never really does anything and we have nightly visitors to our room so that they can rag on their companions to us. We just listen and tell them its something they need to work out with their companion. Elder ward is such that he isn't afraid to tell someone EXACTLY what he feels, which i don't do very easily. And then we have weekly lectures on the importance of companionship unity. I know I can still improve as a missionary but i can't help but feel like their issues are holding our district back. I guess i need to humble myself a little more, as always, and focus on MY weaknesses. If there's one thing i'm learning how to do, its finding out what i'm weak at. I feel like i'm trying to clean a pool with a skimmer. Every time i think i've got all the crap out, i notice that a bunch more leaves are at the other end. It's frustrating really. But every once in a while i look over at the pile of leaves and junk and see how much i've cleaned out so far and i feel a little bit better. DANG THAT WAS A GOOD ANALOGY. Am i a missionary or what???? Holy cow. 
I'm having a blast down here in Zoobieville. Hearing the crowd at LaVelle Edwards when BYU beat Texas made things a bit rough, but It's still great. I go to bed exhausted every night, and i wake up not quite refreshed enough, but somehow i make it through the day. Long days, Short weeks. I'm going to be home before you know it. I want to be able to get on that plane in Sydney headed for america and know that i've done what the Lord needed me to do. So i will put in the effort necessary. I love you guys. I Miss you guys. and I love hearing from you more than about anything in this world right now. 
Love,
Elder Tingey
Ps. i need everyone's emails so that i can send this to everyone!
PPS I keep thinking how weird it is that Chinese no longer sounds like the ching chong ping pong that it used to and it never will sound like that again. I feel like I'm not really learning Chinese. ITS STARTING TO SOUND NORMAL!!!!!!!

 
Birthday party and chinese peace signs... 

Next door left their door open so we left them a present.


Monday, September 2, 2013

Week 4

Famiree!

How are things? I'm assuming that seeing as today is labor day you guys went up the canyon or something with the Woodburys. As i ate my plastic eggs and nasty tater tots and soft sausages i was imagining the breakfast caseroles and mom's sweet rolls. It was bu hao. I miss all of you a ton, but i would DIE for a home-cooked meal right now. It's bad. I have yet to leave the cafeteria and feel like my day was improved, and isn't that what food is supposed to do??? Even the ice cream is sub-par. Everyone raves about the BYU creamery, and maybe it's just my bias against BYU, but it just isn't that great. (i just want some of mom's raspberry ice cream) But that is enough complaining from me. I'm not supposed to find fault with the MTC anymore. On the bright side, Friday is hump day! Its my thirty day mark and i have thirty days after that until im SUPPOSED to leave! The elders that were supposed to leave last week are still not going to australia. Some got reassigned to San Antonio, and some are staying here another week, and none of them are very happy about it. I hope i don't get reassigned, cuz the san Antonio mission they're going to isn't like a Mandarin speaking mission so i feel like if i get reassigned to somewhere english speaking i will lose what little language i already have. But its all good. The Lord knows a lot more than i do and if there is someone i need to talk to in somewhere other than sydney for a while then i will go. (but i'm praying that isn't the case)

Yesterday was Fast sunday and i've never had a longer fast sunday in my life. It's probably because we were just sitting in the classroom all day studying and i fell asleep like ten times and Elder Lunt would wake me up every time. I almost punched him in the face. But i made it through til dinner and it all turned out okay. For testimony meeting, it is all in chinese, but i liked it because testifying is one thing that i can do and mostly understand when others do it. Every single person got up and said the same thing. "Dui bu qi, wo de Zhongwen bu hao" I'm sorry, my chinese is very bad. And then they proceeded to bear testimony that i could only understand a little bit of. I almost stood up just because no one from our district bore their testimony, but i decided not to. It's funny because our branch presidency cant speak chinese (except for one of them) so they get up there and fall asleep within five minutes of the meeting starting and then President Dunn will kindof jump and he somehow pulls it off as like a nod of agreement. I don't know how he does it, but i MUST learn to. President Woofindun Spoke and he told us that we need to be writing home and telling our family about the spiritual experiences we've been having so here are a couple spiritual experiences from the life of Elder Tingey:

One kid bore his testimony and shared a quote that i Love. He said, "when you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." I've reached the end of my rope a couple times in here, and i've had to have the savior show me how to tie that knot and hold on and then i look around and realize that the knot he has tied has added more rope. Hopefully you understand my random analogy there but i just know that i've been sustained and i can feel the prayers from back home. 

We watched a previous talk that Elder Holland gave at the MTC last night for our movie night after the devotional. I always go to his when they show anything by him. He speaks with so much power. He was talking and he said, Its called missions are forever or something like that. But he was talking about why missions are hard and he said something that really hit me. He said, "why should it be easy for us when it was NEVER easy for the savior. The road to salvation goes through Gethsemane, and along it, we must carry our cross to the top of Calvary." I loved that. He also brought up Moses 1:39, "For behold, this is my work and my glory: to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." and then he talked about how this needs to be a scripture that we can say for ourselves. It IS God's work and glory, but it needs to become MY work and glory. So that is what i'm going to focus on for the next little while. 

Other than that stuff its mostly just little inspiration moments here and there. I'm into 3rd Nephi in my book of Mormon reading. and I wish i had more time to read every day, but i have to study my chinese. 

I was expecting a dear elder on friday night telling me how the game went but i had to find out through the grapevine. GO UTES!!!! and the Cougs lost! i want details on the game. Also i want to know about my Titans. How are they doing? I heard they won their first game but i'm not sure. If you didn't know, dear elders dont come on saturday. If you send them saturday i get them monday. and today is labor day so no mail at all. so hopefully i'll get something tomorrow:) I lost that paper that has all the email addresses on it so i could only do mom dad and sarah's on this email so send me everyone else's emails. I finished off my thank you notes today and they are in the mail. I will send my bedding through that same day service sometime this week maybe wednesday or something. Does it notify you? I guess we'll see. It's Elder ward's birthday today and he got like 9 packages over the past week. it was every day at least two packages. I got the package you sent, but i got the note too late to go pick it up and the mail room was closed so i had to wait over night to get it and when i saw the subway sandwich i almost cried. I ate it anyways. I picked off the soggy tomatoes and tossed it in the microwave and it was amazing. I kindof felt like my stomach was going to explode for a while after, but it went away and i ended up okay. Thank you!!!!!! I love packages. Things are kindof boring here so there really isn't much to tell you. We are going to be inheriting a mini fridge when the generation right above us leaves, which is a week from tomorrow. So im excited about that. And then we are the oldest in the zone!!! They called new zone leaders yesterday that will be in until we leave and it looks like me and Hixson will be Sacrament coordinators for the extent of our MTC stay. Such an honor. (at least this way we wont have to say the sacrament prayers because i am completely retarded at reading Chinese) I hope things are going well. I feel like i have a ton to tell you guys and then i sit down and nothing comes to mind. The church is true. OH YEAH! 

Dad i need some sort of way to learn characters out in the field so if you could look up some good books or flash cards or something that would be awesome. BYU's semester has started and there were a bunch of girls at our temple walk that came to see the missionaries yesterday. You'd think that they would at least TRY to be modest.... GEEZE. hahaha well played, Satan. Just kidding. Becca was the guy with the cross that protests the missionaries every sunday there when you were there? He always yells that he's "been doing this for 35 years!" Its funny because he is yelling at us about christ and how he died for our sins and i want to tell him that he is preaching the same thing we are. He's just mad that we don't use the cross. It's whatever. I guess he doesn't care that Christ rose from the grave and that is what really matters. 

This church is true. I know it is. I pray for you guys all the time. I hope the Lord is blessing you. I love how close i am to him right now. There have been times where i've been bearing testimony and all of the sudden my palms get all sweaty and my knees shake and my chinese flows smoother than normal and I know that it is the spirit testifying through me. I've decided that if you ranked missionaries it would go 1. the spirit 2.the book of mormon 3.Elder Tingey. I'm so thankful for this missionary opportunity. I know that the lord would have me nowhere else right now and he has something in store for me. i just need to submit to his will so that i can live up to all his plans. It's amazing. I really can't explain how happy i am right now, despite how badly i miss my family, i love it. 

Sincerely,

Spencer


 Happy Labor Day


Are you sick of map pictures yet??