Week 87

Alright another great week, and sorry i don't have too much time to email this week. We're having p-day on tuesday this week because it's easter holiday so nothing was open yesterday. and i begged and pleaded with president back to let me and my companion go to the temple and he agreed! So we got to go to the temple this morning and it was awesome. It's been over a year since the last time i went and i forgot how awesome the feeling is in there.

This week was invitation sunday for the easter program and everyone did a really good job of inviting people. we had about 70 people show up to church which was actually a lot. it brought our branch president to tears over the pulpit. It was an awesome sacrament meeting. so cool to have a whole day of church focused just on the saviour and his mission and resurrection.

We gave Joy a tour of the chapel on saturday afternoon and she really liked it. she came to church and told us she loved it. It was great because it was her first time coming to church and it was such a powerful meeting. it was interesting because half the program was in mandarin and half of it was in cantonese, and one of the musical items was in english, but the spirit was the same the whole time. President and sister back even came in for a bit because one of the senior couple sisters was playing the violin for the musical number. it was all around a great day of church. Joy agreed to be baptised on may 10 if she doesn't have school stuff that day so we are excited for her.

One of our recent converts in the branch that got baptised about 7 months ago told us he was bringing a friend to church! so we were really pumped to meet him because referrals seem to be few and far between. But he showed up to church with this guy and we were talking afterwards and he said he really enjoyed it. The crazy thing is, i introduced myself to him and told him that my chinese is not very good and i only speak a little. and he got this funny look on his face and said, in chinese, "I know you." haha so i was a bit creeped out and then he pulled out his phone and showed me a contact in it that said 田长老 (which means Elder Tingey) and had my old canberra phone number. haha so then i was REALLY freaked out. and he asked if i remembered him and i told him i was sorry but i didn't remember meeting him. So i asked about how it was we met and i finally realized what it was! Elder Bryce and i were walking down the main street in canberra one night and this chinese guy stopped us and asked how to get to woolworths so i tried to explain in chinese how to get there and then asked if he would be interested in meeting up with missionaries to learn about jesus christ. he told me that he was moving to griffiths, which is way out in the middle of nowhere down by Victoria. so i gave him our number and told him to call us if he ever was interested. and that was it. never called. and then he moved up to sydney where he worked with our recent convert and got invited to church! Crazy how that one all worked out...  but apparently elder ward was talking to him later after church and he said he wants to be baptised. so we are now teaching him. had our first lesson with him yesterday and it went really well. he bought us lunch too! his name is Liu. (Lio)

Bro. Xu got the holy ghost on sunday so all is well with that. and now we are on left to focus on finding some more investigators. all goods, though. the lord always provides someone. Whether it's just someone to brighten your day, or someone that's ready for the message, there's always someone.

 

Love you all. I really do. I realized just exactly how much i miss all of you as i sat in the temple today. I realized how badly i want to stand with my whole family in the celestial kingdom one day. i feel like that reunion will be even cooler than the one we'll have in august. Today marks 20 months in the mission field. It's strange to me how much i've grown over the time i've been here. I firmly believe that who we are is a direct result of our experiences and reactions to those experiences and i'm so greatful for the decision i made so long ago that put me in this position. I know God has a plan for us. I know he loves us. I know he knows us and is aware of us. That knowledge is what helps me when i'm frustrated. Whether it's frustration with myself or with those around me, i always know there's someone who knows the bigger picture. have a great week! love you all! i'm soooo excited for conference! president back called it "the mormon superbowl sunday" haha gotta love it:)

 

love,

Elder Tingey

i'm pretty sure this is the bay just south of sydney harbour. I think it's called Botany bay or something like that. and its me and elder ward.