Week 22

ALRIGHTY THEN! 

Hello everyone i hope you are all having an amazing fast sunday and I don't know if you are back from disneyland yet, but if not then you better have gone to church today... hahaha I went to church on senior trip so no excuses! We had a great fast and testimony meeting yesterday. A family that just moved into the ward got up and bore their testimonies and one of the daughters shared a quote that i really liked. "good, better, best. Never let it rest. Til your good becomes better and your better becomes best." I liked it because i think that's what my attitude toward missionary work needs to be. There are some things I am better at than others, but i need to constantly be striving to become better in all areas of the work. Then a YSA sister got up and bore testimony and talked about how she's been waiting for a visa to Brazil so she can serve her mission for 9 months and how it has tested her faith, but she knows that a mission is what the Lord wants her to do. Then a sister who has a daughter serving a mission stood up and talked about how proud she is of her, and when one missionary mom stands up, they all stand up, but the spirit was so strong in the meeting and I was once again amazed at the faith of our members. It takes a lot to be a member of the church and especially when you are not surrounded by members.

I forgot to write about this last week, but last sunday i was asked to be one of the witnesses for a member that was baptizing his daughter, and when i stood up there, the thought came to mind, "i dont think there's enough water in there." the man went to baptize his daughter and her dress bubbled up out of the water so we (me and Bishop Apulu) had him do it again. He did it again. same thing happened. try one more time. same result. It was a polynesian family so by now you have three women at the side of the font telling him and his daughter what to do. they tucked the dress between the girl's knees and tried again. It came up.  I think if there had been more water it wouldn't have been a problem, but there just wasnt enough and the dress kept foating up. After the fifth try and the dress still came up bishop looked at me and said "good enough." I figured he's got the Keys for baptism so it's his call. The poor little girl looked really concerned so after the baptism i went up and talked to her and told her how awesome it was to see her get baptised. Haha some experiences can only happen on a mission.

We still havent' been able to get in contact with Jimmy yet, but we are still praying and trying. We were able to visit a different investigator on saturday, though. I don't know if you all remember Ken but his wife was a referral from church headquarters. she wanted a blessing on the house and on her daughter who is going through a pretty nasty divorce so elder Grant and i went over there and gave the blesings and she told us she's a non-denominational Christian, but she goes to the orthodox church if she ever goes and she didnt' show much interest in us. Her husband (ken) however, called himself an atheist but was interested in what we had to say. we taught him about the book of mormon and invited him to read it. Then every time we came back he hadn't read  and didn't seem like he was going to read, but on saturday we went over and he showed us a book that he read. It was like a "bible for dummies" type of book and it summarized the new testament stories. He said we had started something with him and even though he still calls himself a non-believer, he wants to learn more. So i testified to him of my faith in christ and in the book of mormon which is another testament of Christ. It was awesome and i'm really excited for the future with him. I'm Praying hard!  

Apparently next week we are doing something called a "Mini mission" its where priests and laurels get to come with the missionaries for a week. It starts saturday and ends the next saturday.

Okay well that is all i have to say for today. Hope you all enjoyed the happiest place on earth without me. Love you all heaps and heaps!

Love,

Elder Tingey

ps I'll let you know what happens with transfers next week. I have a feeling the Macarthur Zone is going to have some big changes.

pps one of the members in our ward is in the great gatsby. It's the part where gatsby says "the next world champion!" and then claps someone on the shoulder. the guy he claps on the shoulder is in my ward. his name is john Maumau. He's a way cool guy. Really quiet, but awesome when you talk to him. go watch the movie and tell me if you see him. He's tongan or samoan. not sure which.

We've been getting desperate to find new investigators.