ARGENTINA & Mudial

Happy Father´s Day, Dad!!!!!!!

Thanks for the cartas! I got mail from Alex Evans, Bennett Myres, the Jarvis Family, Janae, etc. Thanks SO much! Getting mail is is like receiving presents! ;)

ARGENTINA!!!!! Si, el Mundial is going on and Argentina won last week!!! WOOHOO!!! They are playing South Korea tomorrow - good thing we have our planning on Thursdays and won´t be contacting, because NO ONE will be in the streets! All of the casas have Argentina and Messi on the television. All of the talk is Argentina Argentina Argentina! Woohoo!!! GO EEUU! haha Nah, I want Argentina to win all the way! But my comp wants Chile... uh oh! haha
Well, that´s not ENTIRELY true that no one will be in the streets because when we were contacting the last game, we ran into a lot of Jehovahs Witnesses and a couple people who were on their way to the watch the game. Haha. But after that; NO ONE! haha One of the Jehovah´s Witnesses was a a younger man, maybe 25, and it was amazing because he was so close to being open to the gospel. He said he´d like to know why we believe in Joseph Smith, but he refused the BOM. Then he said he just couldn´t change and was really nice in saying no, unlike many other people here, haha. But as he walked away, Hermana Abarzua and I both looked at each other and said, ¨¨He would make a great YM´s leader!¨¨

After the game, I had a real Argentine Asado - HOLY COW (hehe), SOOO GOOD! ¨¨La Vaca es espectacular!¨¨ It was with a menos activo familia - la Familia Herrera, the cousins of the Flia Herrera in Villa Mitre II. They are SO great, I love them ALL, but they were drinking and yelling at each other.. it was quite the experience! haha The Father and the uncle are ex-bishps who are inactive. All of the 7 or 8 children are inactive except for the youngest, Enzo, who is a capo! La Hermana Herrera is the only active one, and we have a fecha with her grandaughter Nahir, the daughter of Soledad. It´s so sad to see that there are SO many inactivos that are ex-bishiops, ex-missionaries, ex-presidentes de quoruoms, etc. The majority were really active for a while or their parents are really active and they are not. There are so many families that do not have active children or grandchildren.

We had a new family in the capilla on Sunday!!! Ariel y Eva and Ariel´s 12 year old son and their 2 sons. They LOVED it! Eva came to an actividad con la Sociedad de Soccoro on Saturday, so she knew lots of women in the church. And Ariel had a friend a long time ago who he played soccer with who joined the church and went on a mission. This friend came home and then left to live in the States. Ariel had always wondered how this huge change occurred with his friend. Apparently he had a lot of GREAT questions in Sunday School and was very assertive. I am really excited - I think they can definitely progress!

We also had la Familia Herrera in Villa Mitre II come again!!!! Ohhh wow, this is the second time they came to church in years!!! Martin and Pomela are SO amazing. They have their doubts and sins, but don´t we all? The Church is a hospital to grow and progress and change, week by week, year by year. The members here are very catty, they LOVE gossip, and getting into other´s business, so it´s hard for menos activos to feel accepted when everyone knows what happened. The church is perfect and the members are not - I always try to allow everyone feel the Savior´s love in the capilla (church building). We are going to have a family home evening with them tomorrow.
Another menos activo is Claudia - a returned sister missionary. She came last week and again this last week with three of her children. Her husband isn´t a member, and I think her 9 year old isn´t baptized, so we´re trying to work with them. Hna Abarzua del Canto and I went over yesterday and she brought out her mission pictures. It´s amazing that here she served the Lord for a year and half and had a TON of baptisms, and she now is inactive. She told us that she just started coming back because one of her converts called her up a few weeks ago and said, ¨¨Why aren´t you going to church? Go to church, Claudia!¨¨ So, she did! I love her and her children - her children always give me BIG hugs and all their drawings and stickers they have. I LOVE these people!

I am trying to figure out why I am here in this ward. What can I, Hermana Tingey, do for these people in THIS area? How can I help change their lives? I can´t do it alone and I constantly pray for help from the Lord, for guidance, for the Spirit. I am praying for gifts of the Spirit - I am praying for the gift of tongues to say what I need to say in their language, the gift of interpretation of tongues to know what they are saying and also what they need in their heart, and the gift to do miracles in this area as a missionary. If you all could pray for me to recieve these gifts to help these people, I would appreicate it. Oh, I appreciate all of your prayers so much! thanks sooo much! I hope and pray I can be a good instrument in the Lord´s hands.

I LOVE this gospel! I hope and pray I can do something for these people - that I can help my companion, that I can help the menos activos, that I can help bring SOMEONE unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism, and the Holy Ghost. I hope the baptisms will come soon!

I love you all!
Animo y Adelante!! Handshakes and Hugs!

La Hermana Tingey

P.S. I am still not used to the COLD here in JUNE! haha It´s so weird!