Week 81

Alright what a week, what a week. 

I've got some pics for yous from last p-day. we went on this hike to this big rock called castle rock. It's like in the midst of this big forest, and this rock just juts up and you climb it and can see above the trees. it's pretty cool so i'll send some of those pictures in a bit. Pretty sweet view. Elder Stewart hit the nail right on the head with a comment he made once. He said that "Australia has a strange beauty that involves lots of rocks." it's very true. We had trade-offs with the zone leaders and i was still in the area so me and elder Macarthur smashed it out and i was exhausted by the end of the day. Which was a problem because it was an hour each way to drive to trade back and i was knackered. But we made it home okay. man, lots of driving this week. The conference was on saturday so we drove down to bathurst on friday night where elder stewart gave his first baptismal interview for the sisters there and we slept there for the night with the dubbo and cowra elders in the senior couple's house. then we drove down to Baulkham hills saturday morning and didn't get back to bathurst again until 9:30 so we slept there and got up early and drove back to mudgee. It was a lot of driving, but i got elder Smith to drive from sydney to bathurst saturday night for me. haha i kindof conned him into it but it worked out alright. It was pretty cool to see everyone again. It was pretty frustrating, though, because the way they had it scheduled was that there was a meeting in the morning/afternoon that was supposed to end at 1 and then they would leave and we were meant to meet in a parking lot up the street at 1 and then when they left we would move our cars in, but for some reason they went over and so we ended up having to leave our cars in the parking lot up the street and walk down and then whoever was in the front of all of us started walking the wrong way so then they were calling us back and they got most of us, but some people were too far ahead and like around the corner or something so they just kept walking and they were heaps late... plus it was like 32 degrees outside and ridiculously humid and i was sweatin like a toasted cheeser! haha but it worked out in the end. but we didnt get to shake elder bednar's hand, and i think it's because those people were late... and i'm sure the north mission will forever blame us...haha oh well. i'd probably rather have 20 minutes more of elder bednar speaking to us than get 2 seconds of a hand shake... Elder Bednar was awesome, by the way. haha it was crack-up because before he started he asked one of the sisters in our mission to come up to the front because apparently her mom works in the salt lake temple and serves the apostles lunch on thursdays so she gave elder bednar some candy to give to her and he gave it to her and sister bednar stood up and told how it originally had come in a really cute little bag with a pink ribbon and she was worried it would get messed up on the flight so she told him to put it in a ziploc bag and he thought she meant to take the candy out of the original bag and put it in a ziploc so he threw the first bag away... hahaha and then he said, "the difference between men and women is that men only care the candy gets there!" hahaha it was pretty funny, i thought. Its so cool to see the apostles in a setting other than general conference because though they're still dignified and collected and servants of the lord, they are a bit less formal. it was cool. He talked about how in the church we play a game called "guess what's in my head" when we ask questions that have a specific answer we're looking for and for the rest of the conference he had hand-held microphones going around the audience and he would ask questions and he never once was fishing for an answer. It was cool. He's the man. He had us read a couple of his talks before we went and i think i'll try to send yous one because it's awesome. But we discussed things we learned from those talks and he answered any questions people had and then he just opened it up to questions and i was excited because i heard that he doesn't take people's stupid deep-doctrine questions and he's not afraid to rebuke people right then and there... but nobody asked any dumb questions. so that was a bit disappointing, but that's okay. There were some really good questions that i liked. One elder asked what elder bednar was hoping we would do as a result of this conference and his answer was really interesting. He pretty much said that he wanted us to become spiritually self reliant and to be better at helping others become spiritually self-reliant. One of the things he said was that apostles aren't here to answer all of our questions so he doesn't want to have to go visit our stake in a few years and have to help us because we've been reading anti-mormon literature or something. it was pretty cool. Another sister from the north mission asked how she can know her service is accepted of the lord and he gave D&C 97:7-8 as an answer. it was cool. he told us to memorize it so i'm going to do that. It was cool, too, because there were 4 seventies there as well and Elder Robbins, who gave one of my favorite general conference talks from october was there and as people asked questions he would invite the seventies and their wives to give an answer and then he would add his two-bits. It was just the epitome of all being uplifted and edified. I had two really stand-out experiences while i was there. I had gone into the conference with a few questions written down and i wanted an answer to one really bad so i was even raising my hand to ask it! but i was pretty far back and there were a bunch of elders in front of me with hands up and a few people around me had already made comments so it was looking really bleak that i would be picked and then this kid stood up and asked almost word for word the question i was wanting to ask. It was a weird feeling. Of all the people there and of all the questions people had in the room, almost the exact one i had got asked. pretty cool. and then near the end of the conference Elder Bednar was wrapping it up and he began to testify of the saviour and his mission and ministry and it was like the room was filled with the spirit as if  the roof had been pulled off and it had been poured in with a giant bucket. He is an apostle of God. I know it. Just like it was said of Christ, the same applied to him, that "he taught as one having authority, not as the scribes." I'm grateful to know that we are led by those who hold the authority and they are led by the Lord. i think that's a big stress-reliever. 

Love you all. Hope you're all having a great week. whether you're in Holladay, south jordan, or Ireland. and that you're praying for missionary opportunities! Elder Bednar said that missionaries are meant to be full-time teachers and members are full-time finders! 

Love,

Elder Tingey

Castle Rock

Pretty good view... oh and there's a cool forest back there too!

Gettin pretty artsy up in here.

Happy valentine's day! Thank you for the package! didn't help much with my diet, but it was still good. I only had the patience to form one heart-shaped cookie and then we used the cookie cutter. we made them at the senior couple's house on friday night. 

right after the conference.