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.

Week 21

To the people in Disney Land:

Good morning from Beautiful Camden! I hope you all had a wonderful New Years. I definitely did. We had to be back in the flat by 5:00 New years eve, but we got permission to sleep over at the Zone leader's flat and do another Hot pot with them. It was awesome. And then we celebrated with a sparkling grape juice fight at about 9:00. Some people got it on film and i want it because it's hilarious. it's five seconds of us screaming like little girls and shooting grape juice at each other. And then we went to bed like good missionaries. One of the missionaries kindof put a damper on the mood when he pointed out that it was officially the year that he was going home. Haha it's crazy how fast time goes here. I look back and can't believe how long i've been here. it seems like last week i was getting off the plane and meeting President Lew and just the week before that i was saying goodbye to all of you in Provo! It's nuts.

The past few weeks have been pretty uneventful. Once school got out people started leaving town on Holiday and by the time christmas rolled around, Camden was a ghost town. Literally no one was there. We spent hours knocking doors that wouldn't open and then we would go to the park to contact peole and there would be no one there. The reason i'm emailing today is because the library was closed from christmas until today. all the shops on the street we live on were closed and a car would drive past every like 10 min. Everyone goes up to Queensland apparently. We got to visit a couple less actives though, which was good. we are Trying to get people to come back to church. There are too many people that know the church is true, but they are just too lazy and are out of the habit of going to church and living the gospel. It makes me sad.

The Christmas presents have been awesome. Nothing beats American Junk food. The Ice Cream may be better here and they may have better all around deserts, but when it comes to being a slob and eating unhealthy food, america can't be beat. Haha Thank you so much. I got heaps of compliments at church when i wore my tie. It's so awesome. I save it for special occasions because i don't want to ruin it. (i'm not going to tell you how many ties i've ruined so far. )

Things are as good as they can be. sometimes i feel like we are doing a lot of sowing and not much reaping, but i'm trying to leave the area better than i found it. People need the gospel, they just dont' know that they need it. I pray to find someone prepared every day, and i have faith that someday soon we will find that one.

Thanks again for the christmas presents. and Talking to all of you was awesome.It Was great to talk to all of you and i can't wait for mother's day! Love you all! Miss you! CHurch is true!

Love,

Elder Tingey

Christmas Eve Hot Pot

Annual Christmas Morning on the Stairs Picture 

My Bed with my presents. Keeping traditions alive Mom

New Years Eve. Yes, that is a Lava Lava

Week 20

Where's Waldo?

Okay this week's will be short because i'm talking to you in two days. Can't flippin wait, by the way. It was a good week this week. Dean got baptized! It was awesome. Bishop baptized her and Elder Grant confirmed her in Sacrament meeting on sunday. That was definitely one of the coolest experiences i've had on my mission. Yesterday was mission conference so that's why i didn't get to email. We had everyone from the whole mission in mortdale and our zone did a samoan dance and the Hakka and it was awesome. I was so mad though because my camera ran out of battery just as we started to dance so i will get the video off someone else and send it to you guys. It was sweet as. Everyone was screamin and goin crazy.

I will plan to skype you guys at 12:30 My time so that should be 6:30 your time. Can't wait to see you all! Okay love you see you in two days!

Elder Tingey

Week 19

Well okay family, here we are. It's a week before Christmas and all through the flat.... just kidding i don't know what to rhyme with that. OH SNAP THAT WAS ACCIDENTAL. hahahaha wow, that was amazing. 

Okay so this week was an interesting one. Curious. very curious. Just kidding but so on sunday of last week i went back to the flat after church with stomach pain and a fever and wicked diharea (however you spell that) so i didn't do much that day, then on monday i was feeling a lot better so we went to the chapel and played basketball.

Because i was sick we didn't get to do a ton of work this week, which stunk. I've decided i hate being in a car. I never get to talk to people when i'm driving around. Yesterday we decided to walk instead of drive and we talked to HEAPS of people! We met a chinese family on the street but they only spoke cantonese and they weren't interested in speaking english to us... I was so gutted. The one chinese family in camden and they don't speak mandarin and they gave us the cold shoulder! haha oh well. Another will come along.

Our car is supposed to be coming this week and our flat should be ready before christmas. I'm getting sick of being in that tiny flat with four elders. If you took our front room, dining room, and Kitchen, you would have an area bigger than our flat. It's tiny.

We got a referral from Bishop for a part-member family that he married a couple months ago that moved into the outskirts of our area. Since we have the car we will drive out and see them. I'm praying it turns into something because we could really use an investigator right now. Part member families are the best because it's automatic fellowship for them.

My chinese is getting better. I've learned all the things i've been saying wrong and having a native speaker as a companion is nice because i'm learning how to sound like a native. That doesn't mean i do okay. When you talk to me on christmas i will probably sound about like i did when i was leaving the MTC but it will get there. i'm still working on it.

How are we wanting to do the recorder? do i just send you the memory chip in the mail? or should i email the files? I don't have very much, but there is a little bit i could send you guys. I will figure out what time i'm going to skype you guys sometime this week and let you know next p-day. although, i'm not sure how we are doing email because it's our mission christmas conference next week.

We were told that we would be going to the temple this week, but then at the last minute they canceled on us and told us that it was a mistake of the APs. I was so bummed. but we are going to Flip out today for zone P-day. it's like airborne or jump on it. I'm so flippin excited.

K love you guys. Hope your days are being merry and bright. Lots of Love.

-Elder Tingey

This is Christmas in Camden (our ward christmas party). Hope you are having fun shoveling the driveway! Maybe not having me there will get you to buy a snowblower(i look weird because we had just been playing touch rugby so i'm out of breath and my shirt is untucked)

Someone tied one of those creepy troll dolls in a tree. Only in camden.

Week 18

New Companion!

Good morning from The Land Down Unda!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week and not missing elder Tingey too much. This week was very eventful with picking up the new missionaries. My new companion is......(drumroll please)........ Elder Cheng! Mom wants full name so it's Cheng Zi Hao. If you haven't guessed yet, he is from China itself! A city called Cheng Du. President Lew kept his promise that my next companion will be a Chinese speaker! He's 20 years old and got baptised 2 years ago. It's cool because people in China that want to be baptised have to go to Hong Kong and usually they get all the missionary lessons in one day and get baptised that night. Elder Cheng started with the missionaries at 10:00 AM and then got baptised at 8:00 PM. amazing story. He is a great elder and we laugh all the time. He is learning english and he has a great attitude about it and i have loved the past week even though i feel completely overwhelmed with the whole training thing. Elder Grant's companion is from Hong Kong, which is great for Elder Cheng because he has someone to talk to in the flat. We laugh a lot because my chinese is so bad. Oh well. Hahaha it's the only way i'm going to learn the language.

I was excited to see elder randall at the new missionary meeting, but he wasnt' there!:( he didnt' get his visa and now he's in portland Oregon. hopefully he gets here before the 23rd so that i can see him at our christmas conference. If no, i guess i will just have to see him when i see him.

Because we had to split the area my teaching pool was drasticaly reduced. Elder Grant and Elder Wu are teaching dean, but we are teaching Jimmy still. Jimmy is doing well. he's hard to catch, but he wants to get baptised, but he wants to talk to his parents first and make sure they are okay with it. that might be a problem, though because his parents are strong efakasar members (not sure if that's spelled right, but its the samoan cultural religion)  we are praying they are okay with it. We have to do a lot more finding of new investigators so if anyone can remember good ideas that worked from their mission i would love to hear them.

This week I read through section 84 of the Doctrine and covenants and verse 119 really jumped out at me. There are times when I feel like I'm doing this work alone and that nobody cares about Camden, but if i just hold on a little while longer, i see the Lord's hand in this work. I love being able to be a part of the work at this time. Things are accellerating and everyone can feel it. I just need to take care of my part of the vineyard.

Love you all and can't wait to talk to yous at Christmas! By the way, I found a member's home to Skype at so what time do you want to do it? They said they will be home pretty much all day so whenever you want to should be fine. Sorry if this is too short, ask me questions if you want to know anything else.

Love,

Elder tingey

Week 17

So here we are. 

P-day is here again. ya know how usually i say nothing really happened this week? Ya, that's not the case for this week...

Friday we went over to the Croft's for dinner because it was thanksgiving in America and they thought i would want to celebrate it. haha so while you were probably looking through newspapers for adds for black friday i was having my thanksgiving feast. That was super nice of them and since costco just opened like 20 min away, sister croft bought me a container of those peanut butter pretzel things! oh i was so excited. MEMBER LOVE. That is why missionaries are told to work closely with the members! hahaha Gotta love it.

SO. transfers were this week. On saturday we got a call from our district leader telling us that we both were not getting transfered, which wasn't much of a surprise since President had already told us that. So we go to lunch (Charcoal chicken right under our flat. ITs delicious and the lady there knows what i'm going to order since we go there so often) and Elder grant pulls out the phone and goes a little bit pale. He tells me we have a missed call from president. We go back to the flat and return the call and he asks elder grant to put it on speaker phone and then proceeded to ask both of us to train this next transfer. 

WHAT????????? I just started laughing. hahaha so I'm training next transfer! We pick them up tomorrow and Camden will have four elders now instead of two. And until we get a new flat we are shoving into the one we've got. but yeah, so that's big news. I've been out 8 weeks and now i have to train a new missionary. Good luck to me! hahaha it's going to be fun. but ill get to go see elder Randall come in! and maybe even train him! hahaha That would be awesome. so i guess just pray for me to not stuff up too bad and ruin this kid's mission.... 

Also, we received word that we will be able to Skype for Christmas! Not sure if that's a good thing cuz you'll be able to see how chubby i've gotten... hahah just kidding. i still havent' gained weight just so you know. But yeah. skype for christmas for an hour. So i'll do it on the day after christmas for me so that it will be christmas for you guys. Not sure of what time yet, but i will let you know as soon as i find out details.

We went on trade-offs again this week and i was with elder Arbado, elder fiu's companion. He's a funny guy from the phillippeans. He knocked on a door that he said was a member's, but then looked at me all horrified and said, "wait, wrong house, wrong house!" but he kept knocking and i was trying to walk away but he was laughing and then made me do a door approach to this kid. Turns out it really WAS the member's home and he was just messing with me. hahahaha i was so mad. 

I met Scott Tingey's companion on Sunday. Can't remember the name, but it was Scott's last companion and i think scott trained him. He told me they called scott the prophet because he was so diligent. Said Scott never once showed any sign of trunkyness even though it was is last two transfers. Elder Agrippa or something was his name, maybe. It was obvious that he thought really highly of elder Tingey

We are getting the new car when we pick up the new misisonaries and the new car will have a USB port so i can play music from my USB so if anyone wants to figure out how to send music over email i would love some religious christmas music and if we have any mission appropriate instrumental music that would also be appreciated. Thank you!:)

Hope all is well with everyone! Can't wait to see you on Christmas! I love getting your letters even if it's like every couple weeks and i get like three at a time. hahaha all good though. The work is good. Dean is lined up for her baptism on the 21st, but I will probably not be teaching her once the new missionaries get here because we will have to split the area and Elder Grant will probably be taking her.  Jimmy is keen for baptism too and he would probably be in my area! very excited, nervous, overwhelmed, and happy. There you go. those are my feelings right now. hahaha love you all!

love,

Elder Tingey

The very mature elders of our district.

Sister Imamori captured true beauty with this one, i think. (those are not easy to get off of)

The Campbelltown 1st District-artsy style. actually it just accidentally focused on the grass instead of us. Story of our lives...

Week 16

Dear family,

I have been kidnapped by the russian mafia and they are making a movie about me and my companion. just kidding. sorry mum, not funny? Happy birthday to my dearest mother. Thank you for being so amazing. You are the best. Can't believe you're 43 already!

This week was an exciting one! Haha well, for missionary standards at least. Monday, for P-day we played sport at the CHapel. I jumped in with the tongans for a game of Volleyball, and man, it is a totally different sport with them. They brought this drink that i can't pronounce the name of but it was incredible, and Tongan pancakes which are soooooo delicious. on tuesday we had Zone conference so we slept at the Samoan Elders' flat monday night because it woud save us some K's and because we needed to get haircuts and elder Fuataga is the designated Zone barber. Zone conference was great. Heaps of things I can improve on and it was great to see all the elders from the MTC. Elder Ward is in Mittagong, Barlow is in Wollongong, and Hixson is in Liverpool. They've all spoken a little chinese, but only a couple conversations. But that's a couple conversations more than i've spoken! Hahaha We had interviews with President on Wednesday, which was awesome. I love President lew. He's cool as. (that's an aussie term. It's like they're letting you do the comparison. First time i heard someone say "sweet as" i thought they were saying something a little different.haha) He told me that He knew He was sending me to an area that has no chinese people, but there were other reasons he wanted me to come to Camden. I'm trying to figure those reasons out. He told me I will probably be staying here for another transfer because (spoiler allert) Dean is cleared for baptism and has a date for the 21st of December! So excited about that. President interviewed her and said that her intent is there and there's nothing she can do to get out of her living situation and baptism is the best thing for her right now. Can't wait for it. But President told me that my next companion will be a chinese speaker so that means i will most likely be leaving Camden after next transfer. That made me happy because it will be much easier to learn the language when i can at least speak it with my companion. Sister Lew gave me an oreo when i talked to her. She is so awesome. Best mission mom ever. You don't have to worry about my health or anything because she is on top of it. The first thing she asked me was, "do you excercise every morning" .... I DO, mom. Hahaha she is great. In case, you were wondering, I am healthy, and nothing "seems to be the problem." (I hope someone gets that quote)

On thursday we had tradeoffs with the district leader. I went with elder Fiu. He's our district leader and the coolest guy ever. For the fist time since the MTC, i went to bed after 10:00. We were just laying there talking til like 11. I know, REBEL. We taught 4 lessons that day, which is the highest number i've gotten so far. We got to talk to Jimmy and invited him to be baptised and he said he wanted to! he's grown up going to the Samoan church. I can't remember what it's called, but he said it's mostly just about culture and he likes how the mormons do it. He told us he doesn't want to set a date until he tells his parents so we are waiting for that to happen. The trouble with jimmy is just getting in contact with him. He doesnt' have a phone so we just have to stop in and see if he's home. It's all good though. The lord wants him to be baptised and will prepare a way for it to happen. Hopefully its before i get transferred. We tracted into a family from south africa and we are going to see them tonight. It was cool because we only planned to knock four doors at that time, but after we got yelled at once and the other three weren't home, elder Fiu wanted to hit one more and that's when we found them. hahaha It's always the last one!  Hopefully they will be receptive. And that is about it for the week.

Transfers are next week so i will be emailing a day later than usual so don't be freaking out, thinking i've been kidnapped or something. Hahaha But I'll let you all know what happens with that. Like i said, i think i'm staying here for another transfer, but the new car gets here this week so we are going down to mortdale to pick it up. Thank you for all the support and amazing-ness! Love you heaps!

Zai jian!

(that's right, i still speak chinese)

-Elder Tingey

Ps: sorry, no pictures this week. please don't be mad.

PPS: hint for the quote if you didn't get it yet: "it SEEMS my INSIDES want to be on my OUTSIDE"