La Falda (Week 2)

7/7/10
FAMILIA!!!!!!
Como estan, todos? I´ve been thinking about all of you a lot lately - about Mom with Camp and moving, about Dad being released and the email about his Diabetes, about Jack and Abby with all the changes, about Elizabeth en la Capital and her decisions, about Ben and Jackie and their wonderful and crazy life ahora - know that I love all of you and pray for you every night. I am so grateful for your ejemplos, for your amor, and for your prayers en my behalf. I am also grateful for all my ¨supporters¨ :) I am not sure who is still interested in my mission, but thanks to Grandma and Grandad Hales who also write and Aunt Charlene, my main cheerleader! MUCHAS GRACIAS A TODOS!!!!

Mom, gracias por fasting for me and everything, for CHEERING FOR ARGENTINA!!!!!! Wow, I did NOT know devastated until I saw la gente after the game - frowns, todo el dia.. and the dias depues... Everyone was upset, everyone was devastated! But still the flags are flying in Bahia Blanca - there´s still patriotism because Argentina is still the best! :)

We had some horrible news... Nahir got burned by chemicals she and her tio (whose her age) were playing with and now she can´t get bapitzed for at least a month!!!!! Por lo menos, she still wants to get baptized! We taught her the Plan of Salvacion and after we asked her to teach us the Plan back to us - she did it PERFECTLY! She´s wonderful, I´m going to miss her! We went back to say goodbye and I wrote in her Book of Mormon - I love that girl!

I´ve been really struggling to figure out why I haven´t had baptisms or fechas that work. I´ve had 3 baptisms that didn´t happen. WHY haven´t I had success? It kills me to see these people that I love SO much get down or Satan get in the way - Oh Satan is so cruel! But in the end they have their agency and I tried my best. That´s what matters. I can´t do anything more. I still pray for them and I will probably pray for them for a long time... they have changed my life and I love them to death!
As a mission we are studying the Preguntas del Alma (Questions of the Soul) in Preach My Gospel. (In ch. 5, BOM) I love them - todos have these questions, ¨Does God answer my prayers? How can I balance my career and family? How can i have peace in this life? Is there life after death? Why is there suffering in this world?¨ I´ve been loving learning the answers because SOOO many contacts in the streets, SO many people ask these questions, but it´s so hard because ususally these people don´t want to know the answer. ¨¨No, NO estoy ocupado... NO tengo interes... respecto tu religion, pero por ahora NO....¨ But the answer is in the scriptures! It´s in the Book of Mormon! In my personal study the other day I decided to write down some of MY personal preguntas del Alma (questions of the soul). Many of mine right now are related to missionary work, ¨How can I bring more people unto Christ?¨ ¨How can I better my relationship con mi companiera?¨ ¨How can I be MORE obediente?¨ etc. I wrote them down and as I´m studying in Jacob, I´m looking for the answers. It´s been AMAZING!!! Honestly my personal study in the mornings are my favorite part of my morning! I LOVE reading the Book of Mormon and finding these answers - I LOVE the profetas en the Book of the Mormon. I can relate to them when Jacob talks about his calling and office to preach repentance and baptism and how he feels like he has the sin on his head if he doesn´t proclaim the gospel with all of his soul. I had a testimony of the Book of Mormon from seminary and my personal scripture reading, but it´s grown exponentially on the mission. It´s tangible evidence of the difference of our religion - because EVERYONE says, ¨But God is the same in all religions, no? We all worship the same God?¨ And then they walk away. Yes, God is the same God but we have personal access to the Atonement through THIS church, and we have it through the Restauracion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through Joseph Smith, and this book is evidence to his work here on earth . The Book of Mormon testifies of Christ! It is a record of a fallen people who were once a thriving people as they followed the commandments of the Lord (well, on and off). It contains the fullness of the Gospel - as well as the D y C and Pearl of Great Price. I feel so blessed to have this knowledge!!!

**I challenge all of you to write down your questions of the soul NOW: Why did the Lord want us to live in Montreal? What will happen in the future for me? How can I strengthen my relationship with my family? What can I do now to serve the Lord? etc. I promise you that you will find answers because I have and the Lord always blesses us when we follow his commandments and when we are faithful.

Ok, quickly I want to tell you about a miracle in the street... we contacted 83 people on Monday - WOOHOOOO!!! (That´s really good here! ;) haha) It was a blessing after a few weeks of Hna. Abarzua not working hard. Now she has more animo to work hard! She´s been struggling with first the two areas and now all of the changes, but I have faith and continue to pray for her and try to cheer her up and get her going! Anyway, as we were contacting on Monday a girl yelled at us, ¨Misioneras misioneras!¨She stopped her bike and said, ¨¨I´m SO glad to see there are hermanas en La Falda now! I am an inactive member and my husband is not a member. I want to come back to the church with my daughter (who´s 4) and maybe you can teach my husband. Would you like ot come over?¨¨ (My mouth about fell open!!!!) YES YES YES!!! Her name is Elisabet and we went over the other day. We have a cita for tomorrow to meet her husband, I HOPE he´ll open to us! I know the miracle happened because we worked HARD that day - it was the first day in a LONG time that la Hermana finally worked her ¨little tushy off¨ (as Mom would say! hahaha). I was so grateful for Elisabet! And I was so grateful to the Lord because he helped us see that yes, La Falda is one of the hardest areas in our Estaka, but this is HIS work and He has plans for La Falda!!!

Will you all say hi to everyone in Park City and BYU for me? I´ve been thinking about SO many people lately - all the boys my age from PC Hunter, Jake McClaws, Scott and Dave, etc., my friends from BYU who are coming back from their missions, etc. I can not wait to greet them again. I am so proud of ALL of them and I can´t want to hear of their experiencias! Let me know when I need to write to the Jeremy Ranch Ward - I´m stoked to do so! ;) Let me know when you guys are all moved in back to Park City. Oh, and I LOVE letters! :) I´ll write you back if you write me! I PROMISE!

ANIMO Y ADELANTE!!!
La Hermana Tingey