ROBBERY!!!

6/23/10
Gracias por su apoyo y amor! I did not know how difficult my first area would be - apparently it´s one of the most difficult areas right now! But wow, I know that the Lord trusts me and that I am going through the refiners fire for a reason, or hopefully for many reasons.

ROBBERY - bueno, yesterday La Hermana Abarzua del Canto and I were walking home from the church. On Tuesday nights we have FHE in the capilla for people who don´t have family. We taught the lesson , played games, and left the capilla at 9:25ish (because we can leave late with the permission of the Zone Leaders). As we were walking home, we felt different all day. Many of our areas are VERY PELIGROSO (very... unsafe), but we use caution and we are protected. However, as we were walking home, a moto passed by, grabbed La Hermana´s bag, and sped off. It was a harmless burglery, but a robbery nonetheless. La Hermana had many precious things inside, two cameras, her scriptures, money, etc. Pobrecita! It was really scary though because they had been watching us and planning it - they know how faces, AND they had our keys. We didn´t know if they knew where our pension was or not. We quickly called the Zone Leaders (who were leaving the capilla at the same time as us) and they rushed to us in the auto of the obispo in the other ward. We then walked away to a members house and on the way, we SAW THEM again! I told the ZL´s - ¨ Estos chicos!¨ I pointed them out and they saw me and sped off. But we couldn´t call the policia without the permission of the President. We then had to wait at a members house and then talk to the police. We went to a different member´s house to sleep and this morning, they changed the locks on our door to our pension. It was really scary at first, but after a while we calmed down. La Hermana del Canto couldn´t sleep very well last night and as we´re walking now in the street tonight, my heart was pounding. The assistants have been calling us to see if we feel unsafe and need to change areas. WOW! Crazy, huh? I keep saying, ¨This will be such a good ¨mission story¨to tell after the mish!¨ haha But now it´s really crazy. I´ve prayed about changing areas - I feel peace about staying here. Honestly, I would prefer to change areas for security´s sake, but I can NOT give up Harding Green right now. There are SO many wonderful people in Harding Green. Harding Green is worse in segurity, but we are very very careful and always leave at 6-6:30 when the Sun´s going down. But I´ve had some really special experiences in Harding Green ward area and I can not imagine leaving now! But Villa Mitre is crazy - it needs so much help right now! I don´t know if switching and having Elders here is what is best or no, all I know is that I will follow the will of the Lord and I will follow Spirit with this decision. I think we´ll probably stay. So, animo y adelate en esta obra maravillosa! The Lord will protect us - this is our area and we are in it the time directed by the Profets. We are going to take special precautions, but I don´t want Satanas to get the best of us now. We will we conquer because we are on the Lord´s side of the battle!

VAMOS ARGENTINA! Woohoo - we are doing GREAT in la Mundial! Messi is the favorite player - they are ALWAYS talking about Messi, so keep an eye out for him. We try to work during the games, but honestly it´s SO difficult! We get invited in and ¨Sit down, we´re up 1 - 0! ¨ and it´s so hard not to watch! I must confess, I have watched a bit of the games because of these situations and Argentina looks great! WOOHOOO!!! VAMOS ARGENTINA! The team is a lot like Argentina - con many different skin colors of people. Futbol is everything here - chicos play in the street, everyone has banderas (flags) de Argentina in their windows, EVERYONE watches the games, everyone loves their country and their team. It´s AWESOME! But it is difficult for our mission. We haven´t had much work during these days.
Esta semana es la SEMANA PERFECTA! (This week is the ¨Perfect Week¨) for our mission! We are having 100% Obedencia and 215 contacts semalamente (weekly). It´s HARD to contact a lot in our area because we have basically 6 areas that are far away from each other. We also have investigadores to teach and it´s hard to contact, BUT we are trying our best to reach this goal with the mission! El Presidente Detlefsen is amazing - he believes in miracles and in us - I KNOW that he receives revelation for our mission and for us as missionaries, with what we need to do. I will follow his guidance and Semana Perfecta with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength, because I want to bring many souls unto Christ through baptism and also bring back these menos activos familias.

Many of my investigators are struggling - Cristian doesn´t believe anymore. Romina is second guessing everything. Ariel and his wife separated for now - she moved to Buenos Aires. Rodrigo won´t let his wife Natalia learn more from us until he understands (but he doesn´t want to understand). BUT Nahir (in HG) is progressing! woohoo! Ariel y Eva y su familia are great and want to keep learning and progressing. Mary y Maira want to learn more and are reading the Book of Mormon - woohoo!!! La Familia Herrera are mejorando y cambiando. I have to have faith in them and I do - I am learning SO much from La Hna Abarzua about trusting and believing in our investigadores and believing in the Lord. She doesn´t show how much she loves them or how badly she wants baptisms, but she always trust in the Lord and says to me, ¨Everything will work out in the Lord´s time. Hna Tingey, we need to believe in our investigators! Believe that they will change!¨ I DO believe and I know that what will happen in my mission will be the Lord´s voluntad (will). So, animo y adelante!

HUGS!!!! Gracias por TODO!!!! I love you all and pray for you daily. Thanks for your examples and service in the church - Mom, Dad, Ben, Jackie, Elizabeth, Abby, Jack, and the rest of the clan - I love you and thank for you for your love!

Con amor,
La Hermana Tingey