Week 39

Holy cow I don't really even know where to start....

As far as people we're meeting with go, we weren't able to meet with trish this week because she's had some big tests for school so we are seeing her tomorrow. Hoping to invite her to church. We met with Gong last week and invited him to be baptized, but he told us his parents didn't want him to. He said he's talked to them a few times about it and it's always been the same answer. I felt like we needed a little more help from the Lord so we taught him about The law of the Fast (remember this is all in chinese) and invited him to fast and pray and then call his parents again. He really could use all the prayers he can get. He's such a cool guy. He's from Henan province, I don't think I told you that before. Bruce Li hasn't answered our calls or texted us back in a couple weeks now so we are probably dropping him. Darnit. Other than that we are going to be doing a lot of finding this next week (seems like a common thread among every week....) haha

Wednesday night we received a call from the zone leaders and they told us that President Lew had just been released as mission president.... He is still recovering, but the Area presidency decided it would be better for him to be back in Utah getting treatment so he was flown back sometime between Thursday night and today I think. the new mission president is President Palmer. He's from New Zealand, Christchurch and he has been a mission president in Washington State before. We've got a Zone conference this Thursday down in Canberra. I think i'll be in denial until I actually meet him, but it's definitely official. I think I've told you all how much I love the Lews before so it's been a rough couple weeks. Keep them in your prayers because President Lew's fight isn't over yet. It's going to be interesting to see what the Lord has in store for the Australia Sydney South Mission. It's just a good thing he knows what he's doing....(:

This weekend was Stake conference so we had to go back up to Macarthur. They wanted all the missionaries to attend all sessions so we went up Saturday and slept over and drove back sunday. We got to sleep over in the Camden flat! They got a new flat!!!! It's soooooo nice. And it was so cool to drive through my old area and I got to talk to a bunch of people from Camden ward while I was there. hahaha good to see they still remember me. Sunday was a really good meeting. we've got a solid stake presidency. Then after the meeting I was able to ordain tracy to the melchizedek Priesthood. That was really cool. I was so nervous. and while we were waiting, it came to another prospective elder from our ward's turn and elder Wang and I were the only people from Wollongong ward there so he looked at me and asked me to come do it! haha definitely wasn't ready for that, but it was a really good experience. I'll put some pictures from it on the drop box. Tracy is the short Maori, and Bach is the name of the other. He's from Vietnam. It made me look at my line of authority and realize that from now on, I am part of someone else's line. that's pretty sweet.

Zone P-day was pretty cool there's a sweet beach down in Dapto that we went to. Our zone (the South Coast Zone) is pretty much the most beautiful zone in the mission. Now if we can just get the numbers that the other zones are getting, that would be great... hahaha it's possible, we just need to work harder. I'll send some pictures of that as well and there's a pretty good vid that i'll try to get on the drop box.

Love you all, can't wait for next Monday! I sent a package with some of my mail and a gift for mom for mothers' day. and there IS a letter for you guys in there somewhere so find it! and don't open the package until mothers day! (but open it before we Skype because I actually don't like being there when people open my gifts....Is that weird? I dunno, it's just one of those things I guess... hahahah)

Have an awesome week! Know that I love you all, and I pray for all of you often! Cheers!

-Elder Tingey

Week 38

Good evening to my wonderful family,

Hope everyone is having an amazing Sabbath and judging by the pictures becca sent me you are all having a wonderful home-cooked meal. Had I seen those pictures while I ate my rice and Tuna last night, I might have been brought to tears.... hahaha just kidding. I'm actually lucky because elder wang knows how to cook! Its just when its my turn to cook that we suffer.... hahahaha any simple recipes would be loved!

This week has been an awesome one. They're always awesome, just for different reasons. One of our Chinese members' wife came from china and she's been meeting with the sisters and we're hoping she is interested. They're planning to stay in Australia, and if we want a Chinese branch here someday, we really need families. So that was exciting. We Had trade offs with the Zone leaders on Wednesday. haha they called us Tuesday afternoon and were like, "we forgot to tell you but we need to do trade offs this Wednesday." hahahaha which stressed me out hard core because usually we plan for trade offs and try to have as many appointments as possible on that day, so we texted Trish to see what day we could come by this week and she said Wednesday! hahaha bam, tender mercy. So elder Tito came up to Wollongong and elder wang went down to dapto. Elder Tito is from Melbourne, but  is Samoan. He's been out just over a year now and it was the first time on my mission that I was with a missionary that has been out that much longer than me. It was really good and I learned a lot from him. We Visited with Trish and had an awesome lesson. She's doing really good and has that sincere desire to know if its true and I just know she will get an answer. It was cool though, because like 20 minutes before our appointment, we had nothing to do because a few people hadn't been home, and it's always the worst right before the appointment because you don't want to be way early, and you don't want to be late, so its always a tough decision, but we decided to go knock some doors. We knocked one and they said "Who is it?" through the door. I yelled back "missionaries!" and I heard them talking to each other in a different language, and then I heard "Shenma?" and I got all giddy and excited because I knew EXACTLY what language that was.... they opened the door and we started talking in English, which is what I like to do before the whole shock and awe technique. hahahaha they were very surprised when I asked them what part of china they were from in mandarin. But I had forgotten one very important thing... I didn't have my native companion for backup... hahahaha so I dove in head first! It was a guy and a girl and she straight off the bat was asking about the bible and I told her about it and about the book of Mormon. I asked if they had interest in religion and they said they did, but they didn't have any religious beliefs at the time. We talked for a bit about church and when we have it and what it's for, and then I gave them a plan of salvation pamphlet and set up an appointment for next week. Hahaha I was probably stuttering and stammering and I had to chinglish a little bit of it, but I was on cloud 9 when we walked out of there. So awesome.

The Rest of the week was pretty slow, we met with Gong and had a good lesson. He has a real desire to be baptized, but his parents are worried that if he gets baptized he won't be able to join the communist party back in china and if he doesn't join, it will be tough for him to get a job. So we're working on that a bit. He's really cool and for the most part I can understand his accent. hahaha I love it when I can understand the accent!

Saturday we had a funny experience. We Were walking to meet someone at the mall downtown and we were standing at a crosswalk and some guy walks up to us and starts staring at us. I said, "hows it going?" and he says "Mormon, right?" I said yes. then he goes, "you LOOK so NORMAL... but on the inside.....(and he twirled his finger around his ear)" I laughed and said, "why do you say that?" and he asked if we went to normal school, and studied normal subjects like chemistry and physics to which I replied in the affirmative. Then he said, "and you STILL believe that God created the earth 6,000 years ago?" I told him I did and he went off on how big of idiots we were. Hahaha I laugh about it now, but I was steaming at the time and if he had kept following us to the appointment I don't know what would have happened, but he let us go with a few choice words and we told him to have a nice day. hahaha but it got me thinking. I guess it's part of living in the world but not of the world. We LOOK normal, but it's what's on the inside that sets us apart. Some people may count it as foolishness, but to me, it's knowledge that others don't understand. We are a peculiar people, but we've got it right. and that's what matters to me. The way I see it, is if he is right, and God doesn't exist, then when we all die that will be the end of it and I will have been wrong my whole life, but he gets no more benefit than I do for being right, but if I'm right, and The plan of salvation is a real thing, then when we die, I'm the one who gets to do the "I told you so" dance. (which of course I won't do:)) hahaha but that's just how I feel about atheism. #gothope?

Love you all! Cant wait for mothers day! we're allowed to Skype and I think i'll do it on Monday for me which will be sunday for Yous. If church ends at 4:00 then i'll  do it after that sometime. Probably around 6 or 7 or 8? it all depends on where I do it and how many missionaries are doing it on Monday. remember, we have 11 missionaries in our ward so we have to find a few people to help us out with computers. Plan on that and i'll try to figure it out solid by next week and let you know. Lov eyou all heaps and heaps! Thank you for letting me be out here! It's the best thing ive ever done, and that includes all the frustration and stress! hahaha I really love it.

Love,

Elder 田

ps. special s/o to my boy John Hanks. Congrats on the calling! You're gonna smash it! love you pal, someday i'll get a letter from you.... hahahaha

Week 37

Okay here we go. Here is what happened this week:

We went to the beach on Monday with all the elders and tossed the footy ball around and did all the fun activities you can do at the beach except swimming. It's fun to just watch the surfers sometimes. Someday I will go surfing on an Australian beach. Someday.... hahahaha ANYWAYS that was heaps of fun and we ended up going back again yesterday. haha "man, I'm bored and it's P-day, I guess we'll have to just go to the beach again..." #southcoastzoneprobs

Tuesday we received a text from the APs that President Lew was in the Hospital. I'm not sure of all the details, but he's been in and out of surgeries this week so he could really use your prayers. Last I heard he was recovering slowly but surely. 

Nothing else too eventful happened for the rest of the week. We had district meeting on Friday, and once again, I remembered that I used to LIKE going to district meeting when I didn't have to stress about giving a training... haha it's good though, because I always learn a lot when I study for a training. this week I did it on the missionary purpose. I feel like that's something that people look over because it is one of the basics, but I really like studying it. There's a reason why they're considered the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel. It starts with faith, which leads us to repent because we believe in what Christ did for us, which allows us to participate in saving ordinances like baptism, which qualifies us for heavenly gifts like the Holy Ghost, and if we endure to the end, Then we are able to receive the big reward for the other four. I always love church on easter sunday because its always a really good sacrament meeting. Our ward mission leader spoke about how our spiritual health and our physical health are similar. he said something that I really liked. he said "we are not physical beings in search of spiritual experiences, rather we are spiritual beings immersed in a physical experience." haha pretty deep, but really cool at the same time. Then elder wang taught our Chinese gospel principles class and made me tell the story of Noah in Chinese! hahaha I had to chinglish it a bit, but I did it! I'm very pleased with how much my Chinese has improved while I've been in Wollongong. I'm not to the point where I can hold a normal conversation, not even close really, but I'm getting there!

Today we are going to meet a guy from Vietnam who elder Barlow contacted before I got here and had him in the area book under potentials and it said "English not very good, text instead of call" so I texted him and set up an appointment for today. Hopefully it goes well. We've got a member who speaks Vietnamese coming so hopefully we can bridge the language gap. I've learned the trick to teaching the gospel in a language you don't know is to use the pamphlets and book of Mormon and stuff that they can read in their own language. We've got some investigators that we want to set baptismal dates with this week so we'll see how that goes. I'll let you know next week.

Sunday night we went to visit Tracy. He's from New Zealand and we've been going over there every sunday since I got here. he just started coming back to church and in a couple weeks he's getting the Melchizedek priesthood. I'm really excited for him and we were talking about it sunday night and he asked if I would still be here and I said yes, transfers are a couple weeks after stake conference. Then he asked if I would ordain him! I was so surprised! I told him I'd love to and I've been memorizing how to do it ever since! hahah really happy for him, and really nervous at the same time...

Yesterday we went on a hike up mount Kembla. it was pretty cool, and a really good view. I WOULD upload pictures to show you, but I can't find my SD card reader so I'm kinda sad about that... hopefully I find it.

for those who are following along with the book of Mormon reading, isn't it cool that we got the part of Christ's visit to the Americas right at easter time?? man that was cool. I love this time of year. I know that Christ laid down his life and took it up again. I'm so thankfull that he did. Without his sacrifice, there would be no point to anything we do. but he did, and because of him we can receive all the blessings our Heavenly father has in store for us if we will just follow the savior. Love you all, happy Easter. I got your package! thank you sooo much! I'm disappointed that I couldn't be there to give Jessica some competition in the candy hunt. i'll give her one more year, and then I'm comin with a vengeance. hahaha

Love,

Elder Tingey

Week 36

Hola mi familia estabamos un pokito pollo loco.

What a week, what a week. As you can see, I've been brushing up on my Spanish skills. The other elders had a less active come to church this week and he speaks Spanish and his English isn't very good, so I was trying to speak some of the Spanish I learned in school, and I realized that I didn't learn very much at all.... hahaha and it didn't help that every time I tried to say Yo, I would say Wo. hahaha it was a struggle and a half and I ended up just pointing to myself and saying "Gringo" and then speaking English... hahaha I guess the gift of tongues is only in Chinese for me...

This week was a lot of figuring out what's going on with our newly formed area. I don't know how we did it, but elder Wang and I got the best possible area we could have out of this whole situation. The area that elder Barlow and I were in has almost all of the less actives in the ward, and the area Elder Hixson and Elder Wang had covers the highest Chinese population in the whole city. hahaha it's like the best of both worlds, but it's weird because we've got downtown Wollongong and the University, and that's just a weird little island that we take care of, and then it jumps up to the far north suburbs and I looks really weird on our map we made, but I'm okay with it. I got to meet the people that Elder Wang was working with and it was really awesome. There's Trish, a uni student from Zimbabwe; Gong, a Uni student from China and Bruce Li, another uni student from China. They're all awesome people and I'm so excited to talk to them more about the gospel.

This week was Elder Wang's 20th birthday on Saturday. Friday night after basketball we surprised him at the other elders' flat with some hot pot and cake, then Saturday between sessions of conference the sisters surprised him with a cake, and in the afternoon, the Zone leaders came up and surprised him at our flat with cake and pizza. We probably should have coordinated better, but I will say, he definitely didn't see the triple-threat surprise party coming and he was definitely the most scared on the last one. hahahaha it was great, except we had just come from a Tongan feed for lunch and we couldn't eat any more food so the cake is still in our fridge. But there's nothing wrong with that.

General conference was FLIPPIN AMAZING. They didn't talk about missionaries very much which was kindof disappointing, but I really enjoyed what was said. They started it off strong, too with two of my favorite hymns and Elder Holland speaking. hahaha I was lovin it. I loved what he said about enduring tribulation. I enjoyed Elder Oaks talk in the priesthood session as well. I can't remember exactly what it was about, but I remember putting a star next to it in my notes so i'll have to go study over that one again. I heard that there were going to be members of the church protesting on temple square during priesthood. Did that happen? or was it just a rumor? President Monson's Talk on love was also inspiring. he talked about the commandment to love God and to love your neighbor. In 1 John 4:10 it talks about how God first loved us, so it's like a cycle of Love goin on down here. God loves every one of his children and we are first expected to Love God, then to love others, and when we love others, we will do things to help them feel the love God has for them which will help them develop a love for God. And then it just get's paid forward. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

Hope you all had an awesome conference. I'd love to hear your insights on the talks so feel free to email me those!!! I was able to testify of the reality of a living prophet on the earth this week and watching him speak gave me another confirmation that he is called of God to lead and guide us in these days. I am so thankful that God doesn't expect us to make it back on our own, because I'm pretty sure I'd be very lost without people here to help me. Love you all! Have a great week! Thank you for the prayers! I can feel it for sure!

Love,

田长老

Week 35

Alright well here we are at the beginning of another 6 weeks in paradise. 

On Saturday we got the call from the zone leaders and they told me that Elder Barlow was getting transferred! DANGIT! but they wouldn't tell me anyone else because they weren't in my district. Dumb, I know. So we get a call from Elder Hall about five minutes later and he tells us that Elder Hixson is getting transferred too! DOUBLE DANGIT! But here's the kicker: They told us right then and there that there would be nobody replacing those two and elder Wang and I are now companions! Hahaha I couldn't believe it! hahaha so I ended up going out with Elder Wang because they had an appointment with an investigator on Saturday. His name is Bruce Li. hahahaha he's hilarious. It was in total native Chinese and I couldn't understand most of it, but we taught the whole plan of Salvation. And then on Saturday night We were sitting there, and they had taken a break from packing their stuff, and Elder Hixson said, "This is kindof awkward because its like we (he and I) used to be together, and now you (me and Barlow) are together, and you (me and wang) WILL be together, so it's like Tingey is living with his past, present, and future girlfriends...." hahahahaha it was pretty much the funniest thing ever. and you DIDN'T have to be there. hahaha 

Elder Barlow went up to Oatlands, up near Paramatta, and Hixson went down to Narooma, which is way down the coast. It's beautiful, but there are about 0 Chinese people... poor guy. Everyone was hoping for Bankstown 3rd Chinese branch, but nothing going for them. Perhaps someday I will reach the promised land where there is milk and honey and hot pots every week after church. hahaha I think the best thing about transfers is the transfer meeting. It's always so awesome to hear the departing missionaries testimonies and words of wisdom. This transfer, one of our APs went home and his final testimony was so powerful. His name is elder Purriri and he's someone I've really looked up to on my mission. Then, as is tradition when highly respected missionaries go home, We did the haka in the gym. I had elder Barlow film it for me and i'll try to put it on the drop box, but it was cool because we did the first part to him, then he did one back to us, and then we finished. It was intense. Hahaha I just wish I didn't look so shrimpy compared to all the huge Polynesians..... but that was really cool.

It's been crazy because we combined the Wollongong B and Wollongong F areas so we're trying to figure out what to do. We doubled our investigators and most of Wollongong F's investigators were Chinese so I'm really excited about that. My Chinese is slowly improving. I just need to learn more words. and get more comfortable with the grammar. In our Chinese gospel principles class on sunday, I was asked to read a scripture, and when class was over, elder Hixson's (now my) investigator, Gong, told me I sound like a Chinese person. That made me so happy. hahaha but that doesn't matter too much if I can't understand what people are saying to me... hahaha. But I'm excited for what will happen with my Chinese this transfer.

General conference is coming up this week and I just can't wait. I remember last general conference was my first week in the field. It was also the time I met Bernadine. Crazy how much has happened in those 6 months. Hahaha still feel like I don't know what I'm doing... but I think the difference is, I'm less worried. I've come to know that God has a pattern of using the improbable to accomplish his work so that there is no question of who is behind it. (that's pretty much a direct quote from when elder nelson came and spoke so I'm not claiming it) and I definitely feel like an improbable one. hahaha I was watching all these departing missionaries bear their testimonies yesterday and I thought, man, I've got a ways to go to become as strong as them, but looking back on where I was 8 months ago, I think I'm definitely making progress toward where I want to be in 2015.

Love you all. The Church is true. We've got a prophet on the earth today and I can't wait to hear him speak on sunday! The lord has his hand in each of our lives a lot more than we realize. I know that to be true. You are all the best, I pray for you all and I feel your prayers daily.

Love,

Elder Tingey

Week 34

Well here we go. 

What a week. What a week. I'll try to remember everything that happened this week. Monday after email and shopping we went back to the flat because it was pouring rain and played chess. I am by far the worst in our flat. Elder Wang is Chinese and Elder Hixson and Barlow both did chess club in high school. I was embarrassed over and over and so we came up with a new form of chess. One person gets all the pieces, and the other person only gets a pawn and their king, BUT that person can do two moves each turn. Go try it. it's pretty nuts. Ya, we got pretty bored.... hahaha Then we had dinner at the stewarts like we do every Monday night. They have 12 missionaries over for dinner every week! They are so awesome. But it kept raining all night and on Tuesday when we woke up we got a call that bishops yard had flooded so we went and shoveled mud out of his driveway and grass for a good 6 hours. hahaha I was sooo sore after it. And then we all had dinner at his house that night so we spent pretty much all day there! 

Then on Tuesday we took the train (we are running low on Kilometers for the month) up to a place called Stanwell Park. It's really pretty up there. We walked around and talked to people and tried to get some potentials so we had a reason to come back in the future, but nothing doin. All goods, though, cuz we saw dolphins. it was cool because up there it goes from rainforest to beach in a couple meters. So then we came back to Wollongong and visited some less actives. 

Thursday I was on Trade-offs with elder Quass (oh yeah, I'm district leader...hahaha but I've only had to give 2 trainings this transfer because of zone training meetings and conferences) He is Chinese, but raised in Minnesota. It was a good day, but I think having a car has made me soft... We were on foot and I was sooo tired by the end of the day. We took the bus at one point and I sat down next to a Chinese guy (as usual) and started speaking some Chinese with him. He talked really fast and the bus was loud so I couldn't understand much of what he was saying, but he told me my Chinese is very clear and easy to understand for him. hahahaha but he had to say it in English cuz I couldn't understand what he was saying.... awkward... hahaha but I think he was speaking partially the dialect of where he's from(can't remember which province it is) but then he got off before I could bring up the gospel. That's the trouble with busses. You have literally no time to introduce them to the gospel, but I decided this week that I need to study basketball terms because Chinese people love talking about the NBA. So Ive been learning teams in my free time and star players. hahaha gotta love that lanqiu.

 Friday the whole zone had interviews with president lew. It was really good. He gave both me and elder Barlow some really good advice. And sister lew told me to make sure I was excercising so I don't gain too much weight, and then gave me a tim tam. (ps: tim tams are the best thing in this world) Saturday we did heaps of less active work because our ward list got messed up and names of students that got baptized here, and moved back to china have been coming back onto our system so they have had the missionaries visiting all the addresses to see if it's really them and where they are if it's not. It results in a lot of exciting experiences, and a bunch of extremely awkward ones as well.... hahahaha its great though. and then we went back to the flat and called potential investigators because we found in our area book that potentials from like a year ago hadn't been contacted yet. Barlow called one named anna and the first thing we hear when she answers is "wei" so barlow just dove in head first with the Chinese and it was awesome. If you didn't know, phone Chinese is about 10 times harder than regular Chinese because all you hear is faoaifls;jkgal;jkasl;jasl;jajcuelx,eposmdfas;iowfmaf and you just say hao, hao. hahahahahaha it was awesome. but eventually we had to revert to English so we could actually communicate with her and she asked us to text her the address of our chapel and the meeting times so hopefully she comes this week to church!

 Then sunday we had church, visited some less actives, then had dinner. all in all, a great week. And going into the last week of the transfer, we're gonna have an even better one. love you all! Remember to pray for missionary opportunites! The church is true! For those that are following along in the book of Mormon reading, how awesome are the war chapters of alma??? Moroni and Heleman just are the coolest guys ever.

Take luck!

-Elder 田

Week 33

Just another beautiful week in the GONG! Things are going great. I'm not sick and guess who's back down to 95 kilos?!?!?!?! I think the diet is working!! Hahaha but we were miserable last week, so we decided to throw the diet out the window, and try a new workout routine. I'm pretty confident that will work. Plus it's hard to keep a diet when members feed you...

This week we met some cool as people that we helped move into their new flat. They're from CHINA!!! Frank and Shelly are their American names. we spent most of Saturday with Frank and he is such a solid guy. He said shelly might want to study the bible with us and that would be awesome.

We started a new tradition of Wednesday night hot pot with all the Chinese speakers. One of the Chinese recent converts of the other elders was moving to Adelaide and so he gave them a hot pot stove. So now on Wednesday nights we go over and have some hot pot. spicy food doesnt' really bother me anymore. You could say I'm a Sichuan 的 人. It's funny because we'll go to white people's houses for dinner and they'll say, "it's pretty spicy. Sorry, I hope you're okay with that.." and then I can't even tell it's spicy at all! I just pound lao gan ma and rice all day.

I don't know if I've told you this, but our ward choir is like legit. We don't mess around. We're called the Wollongong Pipes. And the reason I'm telling you this is because yesterday I made the switch from bass to tenor. I know, I know, I'm crazy. But we've only got one other tenor so it doesnt' sound very good. We'll see how it goes, but judging from yesterday, we're gonna smash it. We're singing a song called "because he lives" for easter sunday.

I found a cool scripture in Corinthians that I figured I'd share with all yall. It's 1 Corinthians 15:10, I believe. if not, then its 10:15. But it is paul speaking. he talks in the verses before about how he felt unworthy because of the things he'd done in the past, and all the problems he caused the church. But then in that verse he says something that I really liked. He says "by the grace of God I am what I am." I loved that because It truly is the grace of God that brings each of us the point we are at right now. Everyone may be at different points on the journey, but Everyone has the same opportunity to progress and become something better tomorrow than they were today. We need to just look forward with faith, and then get going!

I'm really worried because transfers are only two weeks away, and elder barlow has been in Wollongong since we all got to Australia so he is most likely going to be transferred! Dangit! We've been having a party these last 4 weeks! hahaha it's funny how quick you can go from praying for change, to praying for things not to change! But it's okay. Whatever happens will just mean I need to learn something else.

This morning we were getting ready to leave and all of the sudden I heard elder barlow yelling from the other room. I go running in, and he is staring at the wall right above my head. I looked and there was a big old huntsman about the size of my palm right above my head. Hahaha we were all screaming. I tried to get a picture, but my camera was dead, so i'll have to try to get one of the other elders pictures. But next thing I know, barlow has the vacuum and is trying to suck the thing up, but it's running away and he is chasing it and knocking stuff over, and when he finally got it we all gave a victory cry. But then we were all scared it was going to crawl back up the hose so we started sucking up other stuff to make sure it died. We worked up enough courage to open it up, and found the carcass so we're pretty much sure he's dead.

Hope you're all having an amazing time watching all the basketball games without me. We have to do things to cheer ourselves up or else we would all fall into a deep depression over missing march madness. hahhaa kai wan Xiao. Lov eyou all! peace and blessings! Take luck!

Love,

Elder Tingey

Oh yeah, I was going to say this as well, but I forgot. We have Bats here! Heaps of them!! Every night they fly overhead. I think they live in the cliffs, and then they go out to the water for food every night. It's so cool. I thought they were birds when I first got here because they're about as big as cockatoos. It's nuts.