Week 68

This week was another slow one. i think i'm still trying to transition from the city to the bush. i'm all thrown off because you can't just go contact people at the bus stop if you have open time because there's one bus that runs through the town like 3 times a day and nobody rides it. So we have to try other things. We are going to try the basketball courts after school this week. hopefully we can rope some aussie kids into a game. haha that's the easy part. i just wish i was any good at basketball! hahaha we'll see. I think the most valuable skills to take on a mission (outside of spiritual things of course) are playing the piano, basketball, skateboarding, and cooking. if you can do those things, you'll smash it. haha its really true. my comp is a firm believer that we should be able to play video games as a finding tool. haha thank you, mum for not letting me play video games as a child. 

We met with our new friend Greg last monday. We were expecting it to be a short visit, but we were there for like 2 1/2 hours because he took us around his farm (600 acres) and showed us his purebred rottweiler litter that are like 2 weeks old. haha they are so cute and the father is massive and terrifying looking, but the nicest dog ever. Everybody has dogs out here, it's awesome, but i am so sick of getting dog hair off my clothes. haha all goods, though. Greg is the man. we talked about the gospel of jesus christ and he really liked that we believe in enduring to the end and that you can't just continue to sin and repent and sin again. He's the owner of the local rugby union team. and he works a lot with troubled youth and helps them turn things around. it's pretty cool. he's a good guy. works almost 24/7 though so it's hard to find time to meet with him. but that's alright. 

We met with nigel and read from the Book of Mormon. One thing that is really interesting about mudgee is that everyone pretty much is christian. mostly catholic and baptist, but pretty much everyone goes to church every week! its weird. haha i guess i'm so used to talking to people who never go to church that it surprises me. but nigel is a cool guy. he knows the bible really well and we have some really deep conversations about doctrine like grace. it is really interesting and my understanding of the gospel has really grown from it. We had another lesson that was really similar with a guy named Justin. hes not new, we just haven't been able to meet up since i've been here but it was a really interesting lesson and i'm growing a lot from it. 

I found out that this area just got missionaries a year ago. there were missionaries a long time ago, but they closed it because there weren't enough missionaries in the mission, but now with the wave there were enough, but there hasn't been a convert baptism here since the missionaries got here. SO it's gonna take some faith prayers and work, but i know there are people out there that are prepared. 

We had zone conference on friday and it was really good. The assistants had good trainings and president and sister back smashed it. really what most of our zone needs is a good beating, but they did really great without using violence. haha just kidding. but then we had lunch and played a game with everyone. it was like a huge game of foursquare, but with paddles and a tennis ball. it was cool. and then we had a testimony meeting which was really good. gave us that spiritual upliftment we needed to go out and do the work. and then we took our 3 hour drive and got home right before 9. haha it was great though. 

Love you all! hope you have a great week. The past couple weeks i've learned a lot about myself and my relationship with our saviour. He is truly amazing. There's times when you feel alone and you feel like there's more laid on your shoulders than you can bear. I know i have had divine help on my mission. and i am so grateful for it. I love being on the winning team! even when it seems like we are behind on the scoreboard. 

Love,

Elder Tingey