Week 89

Alright sorry this is coming a bit later than usual. the past couple days have been a bit crazy... We got transfer information on saturday and they told elder ward and i that we were both packing! but then they told us that we are still in the same branch, but we're moving flats. and we both got new companions! My new companion is elder Bowcut! we lived together in canberra for 6 months and i'm way excited for this next transfer. But they moved us to a place called Revesby... its about a half hour drive from hurstville and it's definitely not in china town like our last flat. But it's a pretty nice area and it's right next to the train station and Woolworths is across the street. but the problem has been that it hasn't been lived in for the past couple months so it has nothing. not even toilet paper... so we've been trying to figure all that out but i think we've finally got it all sorted. its been a big pain, though and the worst part is that we had to split the area and that's never any fun. so i'll keep you updated on everyone but im not working with all of them anymore. 

as for last week we had some good stuff happen. This guy named Chen just rocked up to church on sunday and told us he wants to learn about our church. he said he went running one morning and ran past it and decided to come on sunday so he showed up and our ward clerk introduced him to me and i was confused as to whether he's a member or not so i just asked him, "are you a member of our church?" and he said "not yet. how to become a member?" haha so i explained to him how baptism works and he was pretty interested but he had already scheduled something during the day so he couldn't stay for all of church so i got his phone number and we'll be meeting with him on saturday hopefully. 

Joy is doing really good. she came to church and really liked it again. She's reading her book of mormon regularly and really enjoying it. she's on date for the 10th of May but we might push it back a bit just to make sure shes really ready. 

Nicole we met with during the week up at Sydney University and she told us she got online and watched conference and really liked elder pearson's talk. i also really liked his talk but she was a bit confused about what temples are and what the difference between a temple and a chapel was so we talked about that for a bit. she's really good. asks good questions and it helps me to make sure i understand the doctrines well enough to explain them clearly. 

matt and Bro. Xu are both doing really good. They have strong testimonies and strong desire so follow the saviour. Elder ward and his companion elder knighton will be working with matt and me and elder bowcut with be working with Bro. Xu. Bro xu is up to 2 Nephi 10 now with his book of mormon reading and i can tell he's really trying to understand it because he asks questions like, "is the jacob that its talking about Nephi's brother Jacob, or a different jacob?" haha i was so proud of him. His english is still pretty rubbish, but we might start teaching him english when we go over for the new member lessons. He's working on bringing some friends to church so that could be really good. he's the man.

Other than that it was a pretty normal week. Elder Lam is on the plane to hong Kong now and it was sad to watch him die. and now this is elder bowcut's last transfer so i get to watch another one go in 6 weeks. it's so sad! i hate watching people go home. on saturday all the YSA threw elder lam a party and it was kindof depressing being there so me and elder ward left early. We have good YSA in this branch. It makes things a bit more fun when there's people your age there. 

on sunday the other elders had a baptism, which was cool because it was elder Lam's last sunday and this guy is awesome. His name is Yohann and after he was baptised, he gave his testimony and it was the most powerful recent convert testimony i've ever heard. So cool. and Elder Bowcut and I will be working with him in the future so i'm really excited. 

Life is pretty good. time is going too fast for comfort and its really sad to say goodbye to people that i've met and made friends with while i've been here. It's going to be hard to come home. But that's okay. i've still got 4 months to enjoy! This morning i was studying in the book of mormon alma chapter 34. its such an awesome chapter. i love the teachings it has about the atonement. It's such an incredible thing to study. and the more i study, the more i realize i don't fully comprehend what it really meant. i'm so greatful for our saviour. He has made everything possible for us. i have come to love wearing his name on my chest and its going to be a sad day when i have to take it off. But today is not that day! haha it's going to be a good transfer. lets hope my chinese continues to improve. the big test will be on mothers' day i guess! haha Love you all! Have a great week!

love,

Elder Tingey

ps. prayers going out to Elder Murphy and his family! i got an email from him so he sounds like he's healing up alright.

okay, you tell me, have i gained or lost weight? or stayed the same?