It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!...ish

12/16/13

Nah, it's still pretty green here haha.

What a week! We began the week with our mission Christmas party! Being a missionary during the Christmas season is the BEST! We had such a good time as a mission and I got to know a lot more amazing missionaries here in the WA-TAC! All of the zones did a skit during the less-spiritual part of the party and our skit was a spoof off of elf and was called "Tingey, the visa waiter" haha. It was all about how I got stuck in the wrong mission and I had to find my real mission but when I got there I called my mission president a fake because he wasn't president weaver. It was good fun! I really love this mission so much! Afterwards my companions and I stayed after to help clean up and we got to have special time with the weavers. Anytime I get with them is such a special time!

This week has definitely been up and down. Sister Phillips has been really sick so we weren't able to work much this week. There were definitely frustrating moments having to be stuck inside the apartment not doing work but I learned so much! I love my companions and they are just as important as our investigators! Needless to say, I got a lot of fun time with Sister Stucki. She is amazing! she has taught me so much! We have a really special bond so it's been wonderful to have this time with her! We even found out that we are cousins!!! Heber C. Kimball is her 4th great grandfather too!!! (gotta love that family history).

Two pretty cool stories for the week: As we sat in the apartment, Sister Stucki and I just prayed that we would be able to work a little bit this one day and that we would have a miracle and can I just say, Heavenly Father answers prayers! Right as we left our apartment to go to our appointment we met this woman named Sky who approached us and asked us about how we baptize people and if we could baptize her baby. We explained to her that children are closer to Christ than anyone and anything so they don't need to be baptized and she really liked that and wants to learn more! Right after that we had a lesson with a woman named Randie who had some LDS friends in southern Utah who were just reactivating. She used to talk with her friend all of the time about the church and she said she could see the blessing that came to her friend's family when they were going to church and living the gospel principles. She told us she wants to be a part of it and would like to get baptized! These two women are incredible! I feel so blessed to have met them! Heavenly Father knows His children and He will lead us to them!

Transfers are this week!!!! (drum roll please.....) I will be moving to STEILACOOM and I will be serving with SISTER STUCKI!!!!!!!! Steilacoom is literally right next to American Lake. Our apartment is just down the hill and we get to stay in the same district! I am so excited! I am devastated to leave my home, American Lake, but I am excited to start working hard with Sister Stucki in Steilacoom! part of our area is also Anderson Island so once a week or so we get to take a ferry across the Puget Sound to Anderson Island! It's going to be a great transfer!

Family, I feel so blessed for this wonderful time of year and for the opportunity I have to be a missionary! Thank you for all of your wonderful notes! You have lifted me up! I love you all so much and am so grateful for all of you and your incredible example! This gospel is so true! The Book of Mormon is powerful! Read it, everyday. Ask if it is true and Heavenly Father will answer that it is! I am so grateful for this season, for the time the world takes to stop and focus on Jesus Christ. Remember what we are celebrating. Remember why this is such a joyous time of year! I love you all!

Thanks for the love! It's been the best birthday ever so far and it will only get better! I get to go to lunch with my zone and tonight we are Christmas caroling as a zone! I am so blessed! I love you!!!!

Scripture that has been on my mind a lot this week: D&C 100: 4-8

Love,

Sister Tingey

"Focus on today, tomorrow will work itself out."

12/9/13

Hello Familia! What a week! I got to meet with our mission president twice this week! What a blessing that was! On Wednesday he came to our district meeting and met with us individually. It was so good to talk to him and council with him. The best advice he gave me was to focus on today and do the best you can and tomorrow will work itself out! I have been focusing on that a lot this week and it has changed everything! I also was able to receive a blessing from President Weaver and it was so powerful and it brought such clarity and peace to my mind and heart! He is such an incredible man! I am convinced that a huge part of why I was reassigned to Tacoma Washington was so I could have the blessing of serving under President Weaver! He has changed my mission and my life!

Our tri-panionship has seen many miracles this week! We are now over three areas and so we spent the ENTIRE day last Thursday planning, which was rough, but it paid off! Friday came and we made a goal to have 8 return appointments but the end of the night and Heavenly Father blessed us with so many people we met while knocking who asked us to come back the next day. Knocking alone was such a special experience! Sister Stucki felt drawn to go to these specific apartment complexes and we did and we found some incredible people who are ready to learn! The same night we met a girl who has been dating a member for a year and wants to learn more and get baptized! After that we were blessed with a really successful lesson with a less-active woman and her non-member husband. The Lord is good, He knows us and He loves us and He will lead us to those who are prepared!

Saturday exploded with all of our return appointments. It is such a blessing to be so busy! We got to sing some Christmas Carols with members at the Steilacoom High School Bizarre. That was a wonderful experience! We basically didn't stop working from 8 p.m. until 9 p.m. it was an incredible day! Sunday was just as busy! We now go to both wards and so we are in church and meetings from 8:30 am until 4 p.m. then dinner and then the First Presidency Christmas Devotional! Sister Stucki and Elder Hansen spoke in Sacrament meeting in the Steilacoom Ward about the Christmas spirit and what Christmas really is, why we celebrate it. Their talks were very powerful and brought the true spirit of Christmas into the room! It reminds me how blessed I am to be a missionary this time of year! Sister Stucki was also asked to bear her testimony in the American Lake ward and as soon as she got up and started talking the power went out! It was kind of funny actually, but we had sacrament meeting in the dark for a while which was another very interesting experience.

Wasn't the Christmas Devotion wonderful?! I love what Sister Wixom (?) said about "What Happens Next?". This is a beautiful time of year and it is so important we remember what we are celebrating. Take the time to study and put your focus on Christ! I would encourage you all to read President Monson's talk "Because He Came". I love this time of year because everyone is more open to the spirit of Christ. We have to remember that we can have this spirit with us all year long!

I am so grateful for my Savior and for what He has done so that I can return to my Heavenly Father. I want to shout for joy every time I think of His birth and what I can receive and give Because He Came! I am so grateful for my wonderful family for always putting a focus on Christ this time of year. For having a family advent that reminds us of what we are all celebrating! I love you all so much and I hope you have a wonderful week! Have a Merry Merry Christmas and remember what the Savior has done for you!

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Sister Tingey

P.S. Mom, thank you for the package! Our apartment is now all cute and decorated! And thank you for the advent calendar and the nativity scene especially! I love you!

P.S. Transfer week this week! We'll see where I'm going next! LOVE YOU!

Splits

Washington is beautiful--ferry ride.

New mission buddies

The highest highs and the lowest lows

12/2/13

Hello family and friends!

It's going to be a short one this week! It's been one of those weeks where you just think about things and ponder on where you are and where you want to be. Tuesday I was on exchanges and I got to serve with two of the most wonderful sisters! We had SO much fun and I learned so much from them! 

This week I have felt Heavenly Father's love for me as well as His love for His children. We have spent the week having the greatest time and helping each other out as we learn and grow. We are now over three areas which keeps us busy and it is so wonderful!

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve the Lord! I am so grateful that Heavenly Father listens to our prayers and he answers them! He has blessed me so much! This church is so true! The Book of Mormon is such a powerful book! Read it, pray about it, it will change your life. You will feel Heavenly Father's love for you as you read and pray.

I testify that everyone one of us is a child of God. He knows and loves us so individually! He has a specific plan for each of us! He is so merciful and loving! Go to Him with questions and He will answer. I love my Heavenly Father with every fiber of my being! I am so grateful that He sent His son to die for us! I have been so blessed to see the lives of so many people change as they come to know this and as they come unto Christ.

I love you all so much! I invite you all to pray and ask Heavenly Father if you are His child, and you will receive His love.

I love you all so much! Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas! What a beautiful time of year it is!

Love,

Sister Tingey

Joyous Baptism!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

11/25/13

Hello Family!

What a wonderful week it has been! The work in American Lake has been picking up and we were blessed with a visit from Elder Neil L. Anderson and Elder Craig C. Christensen this weekend! What a powerful and special weekend it was for me!

Sister Phillips and I braved the big gated apartment complexes in our area and have been blessed with so many new people to teach! The Lord is good and He answers prayers! Also: In our district, there is Sister Phillips and I and Sister Stucki and Sister White. Sister White has been extremely sick and was sent home this morning to get better, so we are in a trio again! Sister Stucki has joined our companionship! I am so excited to have her be with us! It will only be for the next 3 weeks (until the end of the transfer) but it is going to be an amazing 3 weeks!

SO: this weekend! Elder Neil L. Anderson and Elder Christensen came and had a meeting for our mission! Every missionary got to shake their hands. I even got to sing for them! I was in a little group and we sang a really pretty arrangement of "Be Still My Soul". It was such a special experience! The meeting was a spiritual feast! I was exhausted afterwards because it was such a powerful experience! President and Sister Weaver and Elder Christensen all spoke before Elder Anderson and they all basically bore their testimonies on Elder Anderson and the keys he holds as an apostle of the Lord. It was an incredible set up as we prepared to hear the words of this powerful apostle. Elder Anderson spoke to us about "a missionary's understanding of the Atonement". Some things he said that stood out to me were that the best way we can come to understand the atonement is by using it and experiencing it. He stressed the importance of  sealing our testimony of Jesus Christ in our hearts. He talked about how you cannot preach something you do not believe, that you must have a testimony of something before you teach it! He reminded us to not baptize anyone if they have not experienced repentance. He talked about memorizing scriptures and having them in our minds and our hearts! It was such a powerful meeting!

The next day we had a special stake conference and Elder Christensen visited the Lakewood stake! The meeting was all about missionary work! It was exciting to be in the room and to hear some of Elder Christensen's experiences and feel the excitement for missionary work!

WHEW! I am so grateful for these experiences I am having! I feel so blessed everyday! I am so excited for thanksgiving this week to be able to spend some time with the wonderful members in our ward! The Lord is good, He answers prayers, and He knows and loves His children! Something President Weaver said this weekend really struck me, he said "there is not one plan of Salvation, Heavenly Father has a plan of salvation for each one of us individually!"

On top of this weekend, we had zone conference also! This week has just been a spiritual feast! It is a great time to be a missionary in the Tacoma Washington mission, in the Lakewood Stake!

I am so grateful for the time we have this week to focus on things we are grateful for! What a special time of year it is! I love you all so much! I am grateful for all of your wonderful e-mails and notes that lift me up! Tell the Valley View ward 7th Primary thank you for the package! My companion and I put the tree together right away and decorated it!

This weekend is going to be pretty special as well as we anticipate the baptism of 3 wonderful people I love so much!

I love you all! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Love,

Sister Tingey

The Lord is Merciful!

11/18/13

Ola Familia!

This week has been quite a week! Let's just say it's been quite the learning curve! It was really difficult to have Sister Sandau leave. Our first couple of days were really rough especially with some new changes to the missionary rules! Missionaries are not to eat after 5 and sisters and elders can only do an activity together on preparation day once a transfer. 5 to 9 is prime proselyting time, which I completely agree with, but it has been difficult to find houses to be in and people to teach so we didn't have very many appointments this week which made for several nights of knocking on doors. Mas TUDO BEM! The Lord is merciful!

After having a rough couple of days of trying to figure things out I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of things! The Lord is good and he helps his missionaries! He also answers prayer!!! I have been given strength this week that I could not have found on my own! I have been supported in my trials! My heart has been filled with joy as I have turned outward and put all of my focus on loving my companion and loving the people we teach and loving the people we serve in the ward and loving the people we talk to everyday! Missionary work is service and service is the key to being happy! If any of you haven't read or listened to Elder Bednar's talk "Character of Christ" I encourage you to do so!

What a blessing it is to be a missionary at this time! The Lord is certainly hastening His work and I get to be a part of it!!! I am so grateful to be serving! My testimony has grown so unbelievably even in the past week! I don't even have the words to describe the love and support I have felt from the Lord this week.

The work has been a little slower but Sunday, we saw miracles! Several of the less active families we have been working with came to church! Nyggeriah and Karen brought 2 friends to church and Karen has work off on Sundays so she can come to all 3 hours every Sunday!!! We finished the lessons with her last night and she is going to get baptized on the 30th of November! That means we are going to have 3 baptisms on the 30th! Such a tender mercy!

I am just filled with gratitude! I have been so humbled by these experiences I've been having. I am so grateful for this gospel! I am so grateful for this time I have to serve and look forward to enjoying every minute of it! I am determined to work hard and do my best and love the Lord and love the people here in American Lake! This week we are turning our focus to the members of the ward, active and less active, and strengthening them and their testimonies! I know that as we turn to Christ and live the principles of His gospel, we will be supported in our trials and we will be blessed! He is the light and the way! I just want to shout for joy every time I think of what Christ has done for me and what I am able to do because of His sacrifice! I get to be with my family for eternity! I get to return to live with my Heavenly Father! I get to have unimaginable joy for eternity! What a blessing it is to have this knowledge and what a joy it is to share it!

Sorry my letter is so random today! I have so many thoughts and emotions! I am so grateful for all of the prayers and support! The Lord is good. He is mindful of us! I love being a missionary! HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Sister Tingey