Week 26

Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone!!! 

I know you're all enjoying yourself. Hope the Hanks havent caught on to the fact that we use them for their cable yet... Not sure who i want to win between the seahawks and the Broncos. Both good teams. I think i'm going to have to go with the Seahawks though. Blame elder Hixson, but he got me to start following them and even though i love zane Beadles, i'm going for Seattle. But if Denver wins, then thats' okay, cuz denver's a favorite anyway. Seattle's just a little bit more favorite. but they're both good. THEY'RE BOTH GOOD. Hahaha Yes. 

THings have been pretty good here in Camden. I went on two trade-offs this week and i still have 5 more before the end of the transfer. We usually teach a lot more lessons when we go on trade-offs. I went with Elder Perkins on Saturday and we went to visit Ken, but he wasn't there and we talked to his daughter for a while. She's going through a rough time, so i asked if i could share a scripture with her from the Bible. She was hesitant and said she's more of a spiritual person and not like scriptures and religion, but she said okay so I shared with her Matthew 26:41. It's an awesome scripture that I had just read that morning. I testified to her that God lives and that he loves her and that he is waiting to give us strength for us to ask him for it. The spirit was really strong and it was just one of those moments that make all the other less-happy moments worth it. 

So yesterday i woke up and went about my sunday morning routine. (except it was fast sunday so i didn't put rice in the cooker before i showered) I went into the bathroom and put shaving cream on to shave, but when i tried to turn on the faucet nothing came out. I turned on the shower...same thing. No water! Hahaha I walked out of the bathroom to ask the other elders what was going on and they had no idea. we were calling people all morning and trying to figure out what was going on and why we had no water, but no one was answering. Luckily we have 12:30 church or else we would have been late. We even tried calling the other missionaries, but they were all in church or meetings or something so they didn't answer. Then i remembered that one of the flats they don't have a key so they leave the garage door unlocked and so anyone can get in so we took our towels and stuff and drove down to their flat and showered and then went to church. When we got back to the flat last night the water was back on and all is well now so no worries! hahaha it was great. 

On Saturday we went and played footy (football (not american football. it's touch rugby)) with the macarthur elders and some less actives and non-members.  It was awesome. I couldn't walk the next day, but It was fun. I still don't understand the game fully, but when i come home i will and i will teach you guys how to play. 

I can't remember if i told you, but on the 19, Russel M. Nelson is coming and we are having a joint North and South Sydney mission conference. It's going to be awesome. I'm so excited. 

This week for chinese New Year Elder Cheng's family sent him a package. It had heaps of chinese food. I ate Duck's tongue and it was pretty good! I thought it was weird that there was like a bone in it, but it tasted good and the meat was nice. not as chewy as i thought it would be. Hahaha GOod stuff. 

Okay i'm done. Love you all Heaps and heaps! THe church is the true church of God on the Earth. and that''s pretty cool, i think.

Love,

Elder Tingey

Ps i got the video of us doing the Hakka at the Christmas conference but it's way too big to send over email, so if dad ever figures out the drop box, maybe it will work through that...

Week 25

Happy Australia day everyone!!!!!

That's the reason i'm emailing today. Because all the libraries were closed yesterday because it was a public holiday. The real thing was on sunday, but Australians love their three-day weekends just like Americans so everyone had work off on monday so that's when all the mormons celebrate it. 

Sunday morning there was a parade down the main street of Camden so we watched it. On monday our ward had a barbecue. Then we went to a park in campbelltown to play some volleyball with the other missionaries. It was great. 

Mom wants to know how we get to the temple so i will say that we take the train and it takes about an hour or so. I've only gone once and i can't really remember. 

Vicky the chinese girl we met canceled on us last minute on friday and we haven't been able to get in contact with her since. Probably not a good thing but we'll keep trying. We're going to go visit Ken tomorrow and ask him about the stuff we gave him to read and see if he has any questions. Right now we have a ton of potential investigators, but it's just a matter of getting to see them because no one seems to be home, like, ever. Someone who looks like they have a lot of potential is a kid named Lachlan Mackenzie. He's in 10th grade and he visited Mormon.org and asked for missionaries to be sent to him and he said he wants to learn more. Hopefully he is one of those prepared people to hear the gospel!

This week I decided to start studying the Life of Christ a little bit more so i started reading the New testament. Matthew chapter 10 was really cool to read. It's Christ talking to his apostles, but it really is talking to missionaries too. Go have a read. 

I feel like i'm getting into the swing of being a district leader. almost. well, not really. hahaha struggle buddy. We have a district leader training meeting on thursday which i'm hoping helps me get a little bit better idea of what i'm doing. 

I feel like there is more to tell you but i just can't remember it all. Maybe i will take mom's advise and write stuff in my planner that i want to tell you... we'll see. 

Love you all! Be good! Do member missionary work!

love,

Elder tingey

We all got Lava lavas. yes, i'm one of those missionaries that because i've lived with a samoan i think i'm samoan. 

But i don't care.

The parade sunday morning.

Week 24

Hello everyone.

What a week. it's been crazy. I gave my first district meeting training this week. it was on the book of mormon. I think it went okay but no one will tell you straight to your face that it was horrible so i don't know if i can trust anyone... hahaha it's okay though. I have five more weeks to improve before they kick me out. It was really intimidating to stand up in front of my district and try to give a training to missionaries that are almost all more experienced than me. They're all great and i think i will be able to learn a lot from them. 

On Friday we were driving in a suburb called Currans Hill and there was a girl walking with an umbrella because it was like 38 degrees outside which is really hot. But usually people don't carry umbrellas so we kept watching her and elder Cheng said, "she's chinese." So i pulled the car around the corner and we jumped out and contacted her when she came around the corner. Hahaha i started talking to here and then i asked her where she was from and she said taiwan so i asked her what part of Taiwan in mandarin and she was so shocked. hahaha her face was priceless. So we explained who we are and what we do and she said she'd be fine with talking to us so we are going to meet with her on friday! and they said we couldn't find a chinese person in Camden! HAH. Then later that day we got a call from the APs they said that they had a present for us! We finally got our new car! It's a white Holden Cruize. It had 65 kilometers on it when they dropped it off. It smells new. and it has voice control. So nice. The blessing comes after much tribulation. hahaha

I got a haircut this week from a sister in our ward that is a professional barber. She actually won a competition a few years back for the best barber in Australia. It looks good. i'll take a selfie and send it to you so you can see it. hahaha it looks like a missionary haircut. that's it.

Things are going well in Camden. We were able to get in contact with Jimmy! It was cool because in weekly planning we were discussing how if we couldn't see him by the end of this week we would drop him, and then like five minutes later the other elders called us and said they were visiting a member and he was at their house! So they got his phone number and gave it to us and i called him and set up an appointment for tomorrow. Hopefully he remembers and isn't sleeping. Hahaha

So turns out elder Randal didn't come in this transfer. Not sure if he didn't get his visa or if he's in the north mission or something, but we'll figure it out. haha i hope it's just that he didn't get his visa.

Other than that, there's not much to tell. Did i ever tell you guys about the time i ate horse? I was thinking and i can';t remember if i told you or not... if i didn't... then i did now. Tongans eat horse all the time. It was pretty good too! tasted like beef but just a bit different. not sure how to explain it. you'll just have to try it for yourself sometime.

K love you guys. THis church is true. There's a quote in PMG that says "every man is eventually backed up to the wall of faith, and there he must make his stand" I think it's by Ezra taft benson. i'll let you guys go find it! (ch. 5) I love that quote because being a missionary, I have to "make my stand" every time i talk to people. It's just comforting to know that my "wall of faith" is rooted in something that cannot, and will not give way. Love you heaps, everyone!

-ELder Tingey

Oh yeah, This past week the bishopric of the Camden ward got reorganized. Bishop Apulu is moving to the states and i'm really sad because he is such a cool guy. He would always come out teaching with us and was an awesome bishop. The new bishop is bishop Croft. He will be awesome and i can't wait to work with him. He and his wife love missionaries and have us over all the time for dinner. They were the first people i met from the Camden ward. It was cool to hear him speak after it was announced. He has a strong testimony and will be an amazing leader for this ward. He talked about being overwhelmed, but knowing that He is not alone in the work and that the Lord will strengthen him. I couldn't help but apply his comments to my recent calling. even though it's a heck of a lot less responsibility than being bishop, i still feel a little bit of what he was expressing and hearing him speak made me feel better. Just thought i'd share that with yous. k love you bye.

Week 23

Nimen Hao!

Okay now i know you are all dying to hear about transfers, but i will get to that later. I want to start with a sweet as miracle we had this week. We were going around visiting people on Tuesday and At one point our plans fell through, and then our backup plan fell through. and even our backup to the backup fell through and i'm pretty sure if we had had one more backup plan it would've fallen through also. But we didnt' really know what to do so we decided to call one of the people on our former investigators list. Her name is Julie. It's always dodgy to do former investigator work because sometimes they are nice to you and want to talk to you and sometimes there is a reason they stopped investigating the church and they want nothing to do with you. But we decided to call. She answered the phone and as soon as we said this is the missionaries she said, "I haven't seen you in a while! Come over right now!" I told her she hadn't seen us before ever because we are new to the area but we will be over soon. When we got there she invited us in. (her father lives with her so we were all goods) we talked about her history with the missionaries and she invited us back for dinner tonight so we are praying she picks us back up and starts progressing.

This week we went on trade-offs with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Phillips, from New Zealand, and elder Cheng went with Elder Whiting. I decided i wanted to have an experienced missionary show me how to tract and stuff because my trainer never really showed me and i've been trying to figure it out on my own and it's not really working, hahah. SO we went to this pretty wealthy area and started knocking. I kindof thought we wouldn't have any success, but it ended up being awesome! It's amazing how much more comfortable i feel on a doorstep when i'm not the senior companion. haha but i will say that tracting in australia is very unique. Not many other places in the world can you knock on 10 doors and talk to people from 10 different countries. We met a muslim man from south Africa, an aussie, a chilean, a samoan and tongan, a man from switzerland, a woman from hong kong (cantonese. i was heartbroken) its just amazing how much diversity there is.

Tomorrow the new misisonaries come in and I'm pretty sure elder Randle got his visa so he should be arriving with them! One of the elders in my district is training, i think, so there is a chance he could be in my district! that would be so flippin awesome. But that brings me to transfers. Elder Grant got transferred to Canberra, Elder Fiu (our district leader and probably my best friend for the past 12 weeks) is now a zone leader in Ingleburn which is not very far away at all! Elder whiting went up to fairfield i think. Not sure. Elder grant's replacement is Elder Peleuale from Samoa. Elder Fiu didn't get replaced because he was in a tri-panionship and elder whiting was replaced by elder Katene from New Zealand. Our district got switched up so we aren't with campbeltown 1st anymore. It's camden(4) Macarthur(6) and Campbeltown 3rd the samoan ward(2) I got to go to transfer meeting because i had the car and it was so awesome. It made me want to work harder, hearing all the departing misionaries bear their testimonies. But then after it was done, the APs handed out the travel plans for how we were getting back to our areas and each zone had a travel leader, and seeing as i was the only one that went to transfer meeting and didnt get transferred from our zone, guess who was the travel leader for the macarthur zone? That's right. I had to make sure all 9 of us got back to our areas and into our flats safely. On the paper the APs wrote "we're counting on you, elder Tingey. Don't fail us." hahaha it was stressful, but we all made it back okay. The new sisters are hectic. (that means cool in Australia, by the way) Sister Vos and sister pea and sister Perez. The elders are just as cool. Elder peleuale, elder katene, elder coats, and elder something that i can't remember how to spell. He's samoan. Hahaha okay i'll wrap this long as letter up, but i probably should mention that i got a call from president lew on saturday and he asked me to serve as District Leader. Ya, i'm just a bit overwhelmed right now but all will be well. Hahaha good luck to me. and to our district. This should be an exciting 6 weeks.

Love you all. God lives, Jesus is the CHrist, God has a prophet on the Earth today, and that is why we can change the world. I'm just happy to be a part of it. Til next week!

-Elder Tingey

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