I Ran Faster Than My Companion

Familia! Wow, another wonderful week en La Falda! (8/11/10)

Sounds like you guys are B-U-S-Y! I hope all´s well, though! Mom - thanks for always writing me! Sorry about your birthday weekend, but it sounded like everything happened for a reason. And thanks for going to Shelby´s wedding for me- we always said we´d go to each other´s weddings... well, I wasn´t sure where I would be at the time. And Elizabeth Rennie too! I can´t believe it - we were just little girls in Young Women´s together and now, they´re MARRIED! AHHH! Nope, not going to think about it... not going to think about it... haha! :)

Ok, so I know everyone is sooo busy, but you all are NOT going to believe what happened this week... We got chased by a crazy dog!!! YOu know those mission stories where it´s important to run faster than your companion... yeaaaahhhh... it REALLY is a good thing I´m faster!! :) haha We were walking down an alleyway that was dark, so we were walkikng in the middle of the road when suddenly a dog charges us. I yelled at it, ¨Sali, che! Basta!¨ with my Argentine accento, but it was coming at us full blast with big bulgy red eyes and I bolted! My companion too- pobrecita - she was panicking and panicking! I´ve never seen her run so fast, haha! We booked it for about 15 seconds and finally the dog went away after we got the other street. Now Hermana Abarzua refuses to walk down that street.

David - Un contacto en the street. We started talking about the Apostacia with him and I testified that the plentitud de evangelio fue perdido - that we didn´t have all of the authority, etc. on the earth after the apostles died and he looked at me and said, ¨Que raro!¨ (How weird!) ¨I´ve never heard of this before!¨ He said thank you and left,but I sat there and thought, ¨Wow, it IS weird to people because it´s different AND they feel that it´s right, but it´s new.¨ I thought it was wonderful that he said that. These doctrines are peculiar to them, because they recognize it inside with the Holy Spirit but they can´t pinpoint why. I want to help them find this wonderful truth we take for granted!

I had another experience that was really special to me. When we go to centro for P-day to get our money from the bank or buy things that we can´t buy in our area, there are often beggars or homeless people selling things. Often I´m in a hurry or I think, well they´ll probably just go and spend money on drugs, but as a missionary, I´ve looked at them differently. I want to help them MORE. I´m a servant of the Lord and I souldn´t walk by these people for any reason. We were standing in line for the bank and a lady who was having a bad day and took it out on me said, ¨You´re with the church, aren´t you? Why don´t you help this man?¨ She was honry, but her words stung me. I started to talk about Bishops and the importance of the humanitarian aid and she just said, ¨Um hmm,¨ and stormed off. My comp said, ¨It´s ok Hermana, she´s just mean. And our money is for us to us... etc. etc. ¨ But I couldn´t let it go. As we left the bank (my comp took out money), all I had in my bag was 2 pesos and a piece of candy. So, I leaned down to the man and said, ¨Here. This is all I have. God loves you.¨ I gave him the 2 pesos and candy and walked away. As I left, the Spirit filled me and I felt more like a disciple of Jesus Christ than I have my whole mission. It wasn´t hardly anything, but I was to give my ALL. If that means sacrificing 2 pesos and a piece of candy to help someone in need, I want to serve the Lord. Everyday I see people who live from paycheck to paycheck - people who don´t have anything. I want to help them more than anything. I want to bring them unto Christ!

Another experience with a hombre malo. My comp and I started contacting a man who said he believed in the Bible, but then she started telling lies and said, ¨Jesus Christ was not resurrected. It´s something they made up and put in the Bible for people to believe...¨ or ¨We don´t need to pray, God knows our soul and our words don´t mean anything to him...¨ All kinds of false and foolish doctrines of men. ANd worse he started getting angry and had dark, black eyes... my comp started getting frustrated and started arguing with him... and I had an incredible spiritual experience. When he said, ¨Christ wasn´t resurrected...¨ in my heart I was filled with the Holy Ghost. ¨YES, He was and He LIVES!¨ My testimony was strengthened and in the midst of adversity I felt peace and strength. I said, ¨I´m sorry, Sir. But Christ lives! HE LIVES! And you can know by the power of prayer...¨ He woudln´t listen and so we left, but I am so grateful that in this moment of adversity and lies, I was able to have a testimony building experience. There are so many people lost, like this man. They don´t understand, they are using their agency to do wrong, or for whatever reason and I want to show them the light! The gospel is light- it´s truth- it´s life eternal! It´s LA VIDA ETERNA! We offer joy and happiness!
I was talking about the happiness the gospel brings with a new investigator, Beatriz, and she said, ¨What I would give for some peace and happiness!¨ She put a smile on her face as we talked to her about families... I am really hopeful that she´ll keep listening and progressing. Happiness and peace is what we offer as servants of the Lord! This is the plan of happiness, the plan of redemption... and I am so grateful for this opportunity to testify of this happiness in my broken Spanish to these wonderful Argentine people!

I love you all SOOO much!!!

Animo y Adelante!

Hermana Tingey

I am PUMPED!!!

-----------I am PUMPED!!!!! -----------We have some GREAT investigadores and I am sooo excited to work with them! I´ve also had some humbling experiences this week that I would love to share, so hold on because you all are in for a tour of la Mision Bahia Blanca in the eyes and thoughts of la Hermana Tingey!

Milagros (28) and Camila (9) - We contacted someone in the street and fijamos una cita. We weren´t sure if she had lied about her dirrection, we thought it might not exist, so we went dirrectly to it to verify. We couldn´t find it and as we were turning to leave the street, I saw a door. At the time I didn´t know it, but the Spirit was guiding me to knock on this door. I am so grateful that I was listening to my feelings because we knocked on the door and una mujer, Milagros, let us in!!! (Doesn´t happen everyday, let me tell you.) We talked for a bit and she told us that she has a enfermedad, but the doctors don´t know what exactly yet. We listened and I analyzed in my mind what I should teach her... Plan of Salvacion. I can´t remember everything I said, but I remember that my companera and I talked about the Plan of Salvation and I talked about Bunny, my mom´s cousin who recently passed away, and the importancia of knowing God´s plan for us. After we testified, she told us that she knew someone who had a hard time in his life and right when he needed God, the Elders showed up. She said she really needed someone right now and just when she needed someone, we came knocking at the door. Milagros is VERY VERY Catholic, but I have faith that she will progress. Por lo menos, I will be forever grateful that I listened to the Spirit and knocked on her door. She will always remember that we were there when she needed us. We have sinced passed by twice and taught leccion 1...which was tough because she is VERY VERY Catholic, but I am constantly pleading with my Father to help her feel the Spirit and to help her see the importance of the Restauracion and the Book of Mormon... of THIS gospel! Camila is adorable, if Milagros progresses, so will Camila. Please pray for Milagros!!!!

Veronica (30) and Sofia (8) - My companera listened to the Spirit as we passed by a contact that we made probably 4 weeks ago that we had forgotten. She said, ¨Recuerda Veronica, Hermana Tingey?¨ I had NO idea who she was, but I´m always up for visiting old contacts because they recognize us. We knocked on the door and fijamos una cita for the next day. We went back and Sofia (8) came to the door. ¨Are you Testigos de Jehovah?¨ ¨No, we´re Mormonas. Can we talk to your Mom?¨ ¨...Are you sure you´re not testigos de Jehovah?¨ Haha... Eventually her mom Veronica let us in. We talked to them and Sofia told us that boys at school were talking about the end of the world. She started crying because she was scared of the end of the world. My companera was blessed with the Spirit and with authority as she taught the Plan of Salvation to Sofia. Sofia is very very intelligente. She understood everything and even had questions for us! She´s 8 years old!! I talked to Sofia and gave her a folleto. I told her about church and the Book of Mormon - she said she wants to go this Sunday and she thanked me for the Book of Mormon, ¨I´m going to read it all!!!¨ Veronica, her mom, said, ¨She really will, you know.¨ Veronica is kinda evangelica, but is open to learn about our religion. Sofia is golden! She´s the type of the girl who will learn and understand the doctrine of Jesus Christ. She´s also the type of girl who will help her mom go to the church and keep her covenants - I have really high hopes for these two women, PLEASE pray that they will go to church this Sunday!!

Mari - Una menos activa. We walked in and it was like the Villa all over again (the Villa - pronounced Vi-sha en Argentina - is like the ghetto). The house had a dirt floor, it wasn´t heated, all of their food was on the table (and there wasn´t much... mate, milk for the baby, and pan o algo), they were dirty... it was so heartbreaking. Mari talked to us for a while. She was baptized 5 years ago and has a child that´s 7 months old. Her boyfriend isn´t supporting her because she moved out. He hit Mari´s daughter whose 20 years old and Mari said enough´s enough and moved out. She doesn´t have anything and her daughter barely has a job. The Spirit was so strong as we testified of the blessings she will receive as she keeps the commandments of the Lord. (Mosiah 2:41) We atlked about the leyes (laws) in heaven that were decreed before the world was organized and I felt prompted to promise her blessings if she goes to church this Sunday. Everything I´ve seen here in Argentina is changing me - I´m being humbled and my eyes are opening to the poor and suffering, the hungry and desolate. I have faith that Mari will come back and partake of the love of the gospel - I saw the faith she has in her eyes. She´s very special. (Ben - you can tell your missionaries that we are working with Menos Activos here in Bahia Blanca mission. There are SO many members that are not coming to church and the church is small as it is... it´s part of our obra right now.)


IDLENESS - oohhhh, I HATE that word! But I learned about that word this week. We had one of those days that I still feel horrible about... La Hna Abarzua and I felt LOST at the end of the day, ¨What did we do with our time today?¨ We felt so guilty, we had idiled much of the day, our plans fell through and we weren´t very assertive in contacting or finding someone else better to do... at the end of the day I felt HORRIBLE! We prayed for forgiveness and wrote a ¨Constitucion de las Hermana de La Falda¨ with all of our goals and ideas to change for this week. We signed it and everything - We will NOT waste the Lord´s time for ANYTHING this week!!!! I am very excited because I´ve been trying to help my comp have more animo for the past 2 months - it´s been tiring for me, and I lost vision for a while. But now, I am back on track and FIRED UP!!!!!!

I LOVE this gospel! I know that Christ is at the head of this Church and that He leads and guides us through a profeta on the earth today, just like He has done in all the dispensaciones. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it ¨¨aclara la Biblia¨¨ and convinces all men to come unto Christ and be perfected in him. I LOVE to testify of this Book and of this Church!!! I have such a strong testimony of these principles!

LOVE YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH!!!!!! Animo y adelante!

Hermana Tingey

P.S. Please tell Greg Livingston I am so proud of him for returning home with honor! And Jason Brown - he´s going to be SUCH a good missionary! Where is he serving? And I am SOOO excited to see the Park City house when it´s finished!!!

One year left!!! How time flies!

July 26th 2011... apparantly that´s when I´m going home next year! I´ve already had 5 months on the mission- ¡que loco che!

Moving, again?! We just can´t sit still! :) Mom, I´m praying for your sanity - haha - but really, I am praying that you are ok with everything, that the move is going smoothly and that you and Dad and the kids will be alright leaving Montreal.

SHELBY CLAWSON - please tell her I love her and am SOOO excited for her! (And we ALL knew Shelby would go first... :) haha)

Abby cut her HAIR!!! I am sure she looks B-E-A-UTIFUL! Knock ém dead at EFY Abby Cakes!

Jack - How are you doing with the changes, buddy? I hope you´re doing alright without la Tele y the computer right now! haha

Biffy - TLC Cupcakes? ¡Que riquisimo! And a half marathon?? What wonderful memories we have with our half marathon with Daddy, no? I´ll be praying that the last mile you´ll think of me and SPRINT to the finish line! :)

Jackie - I started to tear up as I read your email about your brother - what wonderful blessings from your faithfulness and example! Your brother is a stud for reading the Book of Mormon every day and he went to CHURCH!!!!!! What a WONDERFUL demonstration of his faith! This gospel is all about change. Repentance is change change change! What a wonderful opportunity to know Jesus Christ and His Atonement through repentance and re-dedication to His gospel!

Ben - 4 misioneros a Bahia?? BUENO!!! Get ém ready, Benji! They are going to have a lot of Evangelicos y Catolicos. They will probably have a native comp to start out (but maybe don´t tell ém that or they´ll freak! haha). If they have any questions, have them write it down and I can answer them. I know I wanted to hear about my mission specifically in the MTC... I can even give them some things to study! I taught Hno. Zivic one time - he won´t remember, but I was SOO excited to speak in Castellano! (´Sho´ se que Jesucristo vive... es musica a mis oidos! :-D)

Daddy - I have been praying that you´ll be alright with the transition with work and callings and everything.., but I know how much you love Park City, so I´m sure you´re already psyched to go biking... can´t wait to go skiing with you in 2011!

Mom - I was freezing before but the Office Elders helped us fix the calefactor and the gas... and now the weather´s getting better! Yeah don´t worry, everything I have works great! I wasn´t exercising - just abs and stretching - because my comp doesn´t like to, but now she has more ganas to exercise, so we´re trying to do aerobics together every other day. It´s fun! :) I think I want to take Kick Boxing when I get home. No surprise, eh?!

Typical Mission Story - I killed a spider half the size of my palm!!! La Hna Abarzua freaked out and screamed, ¨Hermana Tingey!!!!!!¨ I turned around and there was a HUGE spider crawling towards her. I took a shoe and killed it...Princess Storm style. I hope that´s not a sin to kill an innocent animal, but my comp was freaking out... what was I supposed to do? :)

On a spiritual note, we had divisiones this last week and it was SO fun! I went with the relief society president Natalia Perez. She served in Bahia Blanca about 6 years ago!!! She´s from Cordoba and met her husband in Cordoba and then they moved to Bahia! ¡Que loco che! She´s SO great! She´s been such a great friend to me - and she has a powerful testimony, being a convert for only 8 years or so. We taught a woman named Sylvia (40 plus) and her nephew Guillermo (15). Sylvia is evangelica and a saint - she visits the sick and afflicted everyweek. She listened intently and said she´d read the Book of Mormon. Guillermo has interest in all things spiritual - I pray and plead to the Lord that they will come to church and progress!!!

I had a really spiritual experience with a menos activos named Juan. He hasn´t been to church in years - YEARS! He was one of the first baptisms in La Falda - more than 20 years ago. Back when they had to travel more than 40 minutes to get to church. Something happened with the leadership and he stopped going to church. He knows the Book of Mormon is true - he LOVES it and is so grateful for the missionaries because they taught him how to read using the Book of Mormon. La Hna Abarzua del Canto and I testified so boldly and with power (that is only given in certain lessons) that he needs to come back to church. When I looked into his eyes it was different than others menos activos - usually menos activos have all sorts of excuses and you can see it in their eyes that they are uncomfortable and don´t want to come back to church. But with Juan, his eyes were eyes of many years of pain. I testified of the life of Joseph Smith - how many trials and tribulations he endured with faith in the Lord and with hope. I testified of the atonement and of my Savior Jesus Christ who endured everything - I felt a connection to this man Juan. I was supposed to bear testimony to him. I have had a few experiences like that here - every time it hits me SO hard. I was bawling after we left. The spirit hit my chest so hard and filled my whole body. I haven´t seen baptisms, I haven´t seen many lives change dramatically, but I have planted a few seeds... I always pray that these seeds will be watered and fed one day. I try to do as much as I can, but they always have the choice themselves. But one day, I know it!

I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!!!!! I am learning SO much! I hope and pray that all of you are happy and doing fine! I know that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh. That He lived a perfect life and suffered, died, and was resurrected, fufilling the will of the Father completamente. He is my older brother - He is the Lamb of God. I know that Heavenly Father loves us SO much! He lives and has a perfected, glorified body. I testified of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to a man named Cristian the other day who would not belive in God. I talked about the scripture in Alma - the earth and the planets and their perfect forms... how could someone not believe in God? I told him one day He will want to know and I gave him a Book of Mormon with that scripture to read.

Well, this one´s a little shorter because I´m trying to be more and more and more obediente and I don´t have time today to write more... but I know that this is the work of the Lord and I look forward to the day when I can see the change in these people´s lives!

Animo y adelante!

Les quiero UN MONTON!

Hermana Tingey

Prayer Role
Rocio y Sebastian - That they´ll go to church on Sunday!
Sylvia y Guillermo - that they´ll read the BOM and pray!
Ana y Mario - that they´ll read and pray
Gaston - that he´ll read the BOM and pray
Menos Activos - Juan, Fabiana, Mikaela, Ayelen, etc. that they will come back to church!
La Hermana Abarzua Del Canto - that we can become best friends!
El Barrio de La Falda - that we will have 2 baptisms soon!!!

A week of Growth

I was so sad to hear about Bunny´s passing. I was sitting here crying because I can feel the sadness from everyone´s email and I agree with Ben, I think our family has a connection , across the many miles that we are apart, we still have a special connection. I am so grateful for the Plan of Salvacion - it´s times like these that test our faith in the Lord and His will for us. I am so grateful for the knowledge we have of eternal families! I have often contemplated how hard it would be to lose a parent or sibling or loved one, but I know that everyone happens for a reason. I am certain Bunny misses her family, but she is in a place so wonderful that we all should hope to go - a paradise to wait for the wonderful day when Jesus Christ comes again. And when He does, oh what wonderful things will happen! But for now, I will pray for Luke and the girls. Oh, I hope they will feel of Heavenly Father´s love for them right now!

This has been a Week of Growth! I feel like I´ve grown up a lot - I´ve heard about the horrible things of this world. I have seen a lot of suffering in the streets here lately. There are people who have nothing, NOTHING! They look at me with my clothes and bag ¨full of stuff¨ (with scriptures and folletos really) and they ask for help. Oh, my heart cries! I have talked to so many other people who have so many problems. We visited a menos activo family and talked to a 12 year old girl. Her mom left her dad to be ¨ a lady of the night¨ and this poor girl is ignored by her father and family. She´s 12 and smokes and I don´t think she gets to eat very much.

I don´t know if you all heard, but Argentina just passes a law that Gays can get married and that they can adopt children. Our investigator Rocio told us and started crying, ¨What has happened to the family?¨ she said. The Relief Society president also told us and started crying. These women understand the significance of this decision. Rocio is a lot like Mom - more than just the significance, she was calculating the cost of the government for this decision and the impact it will have on other laws... Aunt Adrienne heard about it too. Yes, it´s horrible! Rocio is sure there will be demonstrations because, ¨We´re Argentines, we demonstrate when we don´t like something!¨

Many people have told us lately that the law is very relaxed for chicos under 18 - they can´t get put in jail for hardly any crimes. That´s why there are so many gangs of chicos in this area - they all want to steal as much as they can before they turn 18. It´s their ¨job¨ so they can provide for their future family. There are have chicos watching us and even coming to the house. We are taking so many precautions lately. But don´t worry, they can´t mess with Princess Storm! :) Plus, we have the Lord on our side. And sometimes I pray for angels to accompany us - I trust in the Lord.

And after all of these horribles things, after I have learned much of the world, STILL I trust in the Lord! The more I learn, the more grateful I am for my family and background in this gospel! The more I see, the more I look for answers in the scriptures and in prayer. And the more I hear, the more I want to proclaim to the people here the PEACE and JOY this gospel brings!!! With Bunny´s passing, the more I want to testify of the Plan of Salvacion and the importancia de Familias!

We planned an activity for Pioneer Day (for next Martes) and I am REALLY excited! It´s Pioneer themed- we are going to tell Pioneer stories and sing! One of the brethern here plays the violin/fiddle and said he´d play for us! La Hermana Abarzua del Canto and I are going around inviting ALL of the menos activos on the ward list! ALL of them! Many of the addresses don´t exist, but we´ve talked to a few families who are great! And as we are doing so, I took the advice from Ben and Dad, and we´re trying to find the imcomplete familias - members who have family that aren´t members. and we want to teach and baptized THEM ALL!!!! :) Well, that´s MY goal! My comp has a much more realistic goal, but it doesn´t hurt to try and do miracles, right?

I have a quick question for returned missionaries and for those who have felt the Spirit (which I´m sure is all of you! :) ) How do I recognize the elect of the Lord? When I´m contacting and trying to get to know people, I sometimes feel the Spirit, ¨Go talk to Him!¨ and I do and he waves us away. OR, this happens all the time, I always seem to be drawn towards the people who are very religious. La Hermana Abarzua del Canto said, ¨Hermana Tingey, you ALWAYS find the Testigos de Jehovah! How do you do it?¨ haha Maybe it´s because they have the light of Christ shining - and I see it! But I need a little advice or direction with this.

I LOVE ALL OF YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!! Satan is working hard against us, but WE WILL TRIUMPH!!!! There WILL be miracles! And I always pray that there WILL be baptisms!!!! Because I know it will come in the Lord´s time. I just need to try my hardest and FIND THE ELECT!
Please, ALWAYS keep the commandments!!!!!! We will find peace, joy, we will be liberated from the cares and sins of the world. We will have salvacion through Christ´s name when we keep the commandments and we will be forever happy! I hope I can teach the people here in Argentina this principle - oh how they need it! Please pray for them!

Love always,
La Hermana Tingey

Traslado 3 - La Falda otra vez, con la Hermana Abarzua del Canto otra vez!

7/14/10

We´ve been having horrible weather here! Rain, sleet, and we´re expected to have snow! SNOW!!!! They had snow last year for the first time in YEARS! And it´s expected again. I´m smiling, but nobody else is! (Typical Park City girl! :) haha)

La Hermana Abarzua is a great girl. She and I are so different. During a comp inventory the other day, she said, ¨We are completely different, Hermana Tingey.¨ I couldn´t agree more! It´s not easy being a good comp 24-7, and I am learning so much about how to love her more and more. It is so important to have the same goals, to have unity, and to be working together to make things happen. I can´t imagine pulling the whole load by myself. It makes me grateful for the example of my parents, my aunts and uncles, and grandparents. They are such great examples to me of working hard, together as couples. That´s how the Lord´s wants it - and that´s what we´re working towards, having families learn the gospel together. But every day I learn patience and I´ve been learning that perhaps one of the reasons I am here is for Hermana Abarzua del Canto.

ROCIO went to church!!!!!!!!!! And ELISABET went to church with her daughter Solange!!!!! WOOHOOO!!! Rocio is nuestra investigadora. We went to talk to her about church and she really liked it. She has a Catholic background, so she had questions about the Santa Cena (Sacrament) and things like that. The theme in church was Sacerdocio (the Priesthood), so that was good to try and clarify with her. She read Alma 32 from the last time and marked her favorite verses! She´s GOLDEN! The only problem is a BIG problem: she´s living with her boyfriend (and they have a daughter) and it takes over 2 months to get a civil marriage here! Rocio wants to get married to her partner, so that´s good. I don´t think we´ll have a baptism soon with Rocio, but I´m shooting for a wedding date and baptismal fecha in 2-3 meses. And if she can eventually get baptized, I will be THRILLED!

Elisabet is the menos activa (inactive) that we´re working with and she went to church with Solange (4) and Solange loved it! Her husband is NOT interested in talking to us now, but if Elisabet continues to come to church, Marcelo´ll probably eventually come.

We don´t have any more investigators. I´m DYING! I want to teach and find investigators so badly! We are contacting a TON - we got the most contacts last week in the entire mission - but they are not all very successful, so I´ve been trying to be creative and use the ideas that Ben and Dad gave me. I loved the humble people of Harding Green and their willingness to listen, so we went to the poorest part of La Falda to try to find the humble. Everyone has been telling us not to go there: ¨It´s very very very dangerous! Two girls walking alone in that area - Don´t even think about it!¨ But I´m Princess Storm - and although the Hermana got robbed, we felt safe going up there in the morning. We walked up and talked to a few people - and almost every person we talked to was wonderful and loving and said, ¨Sure! Come over whenever and we can chat!¨ So now the challenge is praying and figuring out which one of these people are actually interested! :)

Goto - I contacted a man named Goto from Japan! He said, ¨No hablo espanol, no hablo espanol...¨ and I said, ¨Do you speak english?¨ He put on a HUGE smile on his face and we chatted for a bit. I felt the love of the Lord for this man. I thought about my friends and cousin Nick who served with the Japanese and how hard it must be to teach people of a God and of a Savior. Goto didn´t want us to come over because, ¨No in Cristo, no en Cristo, I believe in Buddha, Buddha!¨ But he told me a man he worked with at the University was Mormon. I hope and pray Goto will one day accept the gospel!

I´ve been trying to rely more on the Spirit with contacting and especially with tocando puertas (knocking doors/clapping doors!). Oh yeah, to knock usually we stand at the gate and clap. It´s AWESOME! :) I´ve felt very grateful because a few of the instances when I just acted on how I felt, I had successful contacts. Now we just need to return and enter the house and preach the word of the Lord!

I gave a talk on Sunday in Church about the Savior - I felt the Spirit so strongly as I testified of the importance o¨f:
1. Knowing Christ (His different names, his life, his sacrifice, his background, his teachings, etc.)
2. Acting on our knowledge (Fe, Arrepentimiento, Bautismo, making and keeping coventants, etc.)
3. Building a relationship with the Savior (Knowing him personally) - this was my favorite part. Because I can honestly testify that I know my Savior loves me because I have a very special personal relationship with Him. I have felt His love, His healing power, His joy when I do what´s right. And I want all to have this - we can only have this personal access to the Atonement through His teachings, through faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, through keeping the commandments, and through the only true church on the earth! I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!!!!!!!

Thank you all SOOO much for your emails and prayers!

ANIMO Y ADELANTE!!!!

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

La Falda

6/30/10

I laughed so hard when you said that Ben was angry with the ladrones. Thankfully nothing of mine was stolen, but boy, now I am extra cautious! And like Mom and Elizabeth said, Ukraine helped me SOOO much to be ready for this!

I CHANGED AREAS!!!!! The assistants and President want us to be safe and a lot of other things have happened around Villa Mitre II lately, so they moved us out in the middle of the transfer! We switched houses with the Elders... our clean house to a dirty dump! haha We cleaned it up, so now it´s a LOT better, but the shower only has hot water for 5 minutes! Gotta love the mish! :)

So, I traded my beautiful dirt streets and humble people to a richer area with haughty people! haha It was REALLY hard saying goodbye to all of my investigators but THANKFULLY we get to continue to teach Nahir until she gets baptized next week. We have to take a taxi from our area, to her house, and back again just to be safe. The assitantes and Zone Leaders have been SO helpful! One of the Assistantes said, ¨Why didn´t Hermana Tingey hurt the theives? She could take ém! ¨ Haha, apparantly I have a rep already here! (it´s just cause I´ve beaten the Elders at Ultimate a few times on P-days... :) haha)

Now we live en LA FALDA! A rich, more ¨normal ¨ area. There are actually cars here! A TON of them! And NOBODY wants anything to do with us! So many people let us in - I had NO idea how blessed I was in Villa Mitre and Harding Green! But we are in the ward of the familia Detlefsen - my mission President! We had lunch with El Presidente and La Hermana Detlefsen el otro dia. It is a blessing to be around them - especially La Hermana Detlefsen. She is a lot like Mom in that she taught seminary and she always smiles. She´s a lot more timid than mom though - but I feel her love for me and for this work. They have a daughter who is 17 (but acts more like 19) who reminds me of Biffy, and she´s going to be helping us with la obra misional! Woohooo!

Los Abuelos - we live in a house behind a house of ¨Los Abuelos¨ of the ward. They are HILARIOUS! They are these old, Chileno people who are SO funny and SO loving! La Abuela always makes sure we´re safe and that we´re happy. And El Abuelo and I get along great - he´s a mix of Grandpa Tingey and Grandad Hales. How blessed we are to have them!

My companion has been having a hard time lately. She won´t always talk to me about her feelings and thoughts - she gets bugged that I can´t understand everything. And she´s VERY stubborn (...reminds me of Biff! ;-) haha I love you Biffy!), but I continue to be patient and I try to learn to understand her. I have been learning patience and love more this transfer with everything that´s happened. And you know, in the end it´s all the will of the Lord. I am supposed to be learning a lot from her. I am supposed to be with her and supposed to be here. The rest of the time, we are amigas and laugh together a ton! Creo que es lo que hay! La mision!

So, we are in a new area and don´t have a lot of investigadores, pero si uds. puedan orar (can pray for): Nahir, Romina, Rocio (nuevos investigadores), Victor y Cristina (nuevos investigadores), La Hermana Abarzua del Canto, That we can FIND people to teach!

LOVE YOU ALL!!!! And where are all the letters?!?! DearElder.com only works half of the time...

Animo y Adelante... en LA FALDA!!!!!
La Hermana Tingey