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

Transfer 3 in the Great WA-TAC!

11/12/13

Hello Family!

We received transfer calls on Saturday night and......(drum roll please....) I get to stay in American Lake!!! Sister Phillips and I will be staying and my trainer, sister sandau, will be leaving us! She is going to be a sister training leader! I must say I feel a little overwhelmed to be senior companion and to follow-up train sister phillips. However, if the Lord knows I can do it then I know I can do it! I am excited and determined to work hard and do my best and rely on the Lord! I look forward to learning and growing A LOT this transfer!

It has been a kind of slow week again but we were blessed with the wonderful baptism of Imani Evans! It was the sweetest and most powerful baptism! She is such a little miracle! She is ten years old and has the biggest testimony in the entire world! She is the greatest example to everyone around her! I have been so blessed to be a part of her conversion!

For a day Karen got work off for all Sundays but then the next day her boss changed his mind. We are still praying for her to have time!!! We haven't been able to see Gideon lately. He just moved into the other ward so we will try to do a couple more lessons with him but then we are going to turn him over to the elders over there because they have a Tagolog speaker in their ward that would really help him and especially his family! We are going to have another baptism soon with two children from a less-active family! Missionaries have been working with them forever and finally their parents are ready for them to get baptized!

Our mission and our stake is buzzing with excitement as we prepare for a general authority and a member of the twelve apostles to visit!!!! On the 23rd we missionaries get a special meeting with them and then in the Lakewood stake (my stake) we get to have a special stake conference with them! What a blessing it will be to hear from and be in the same room as a general authority and a member of the twelve apostles!

Last week as Remembrance Day was approaching I thought a lot about the men and women who have given their lives for their country! Such brave men and women! It is a very special experience to be serving in a military ward and to see their view of the world.

Today is transfer meeting so the whole mission gets to be together! It is always so powerful and uplifting to be surrounded by so many missionaries and to hear from our wonderful mission president and his wife! I love this work! It is truly the Lord's work! I feel so blessed and privileged to be a missionary at this exciting time! I know this is the only true church on the earth today. We are so blessed to have the Book of Mormon and to have modern day prophets and to have the priesthood on the earth! I love the Lord with my whole heart! I love you all so much! Thank you for your love and support and prayers! They are much needed and I feel them every day! I LOVE YOU ALL!
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Love,
Sister Tingey

P.S. We are writing e-mails at the church this week so I can't send pictures right now but I will next week! LOVE YOU! Oh and I am pretty good on the warm factor. A sweet member in our stake offered to buy me boots so she took me shopping yesterday. Thank you so much for all of the wonderful goodies you sent with my ward mission leader! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

 Mission Fireside

Sister Tanner is from our home ward, though they hadn't met until the mission!

Oi familia!

11/4/13

Hello, hello family!

It's been a kind of a slow week but Halloween was oodles of fun and the weekend exploded with goodness!

We got to stay together as a zone all day for Halloween. Apparently missionaries have been blamed for things on Halloween so we spent all day having zone conference and then dinner and some fun at our Stake President's house. We got to watch a MOVIE! It was so exciting!!! ha-ha We watched Ephraim's Rescue which is a really good one - I'd definitely recommend it! I feel spoiled with all of the incredible missionaries in my zone that I get to be surrounded by!

Saturday night we got such incredible news, it's the big miracle for the week. IMANI IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!! Imani is ten years old and has been taught by the missionaries for 6 months. She has been wanting to get baptized for the longest time but she needed permission from her dad and he wouldn't give it because he didn't feel like she understood the commitment well enough. A miracle happened and Saturday night her dad gave her permission to get baptized!!! We are SO excited!!!! She is the sweetest little girl!

Sunday was just overwhelmingly incredible! We got to make an appearance in primary and answer questions the kids have about mission life and what they can to do be missionaries. I was blown away by these kids who have already shared the gospel with some of their friends! Children are wonderful!

Sunday night was our missionary fireside! The Washington Tacoma mission is a singing mission and we are famous for giving firesides for all of the stakes in our area. Last night was the first one of the season! It was very special and so incredibly powerful! We sang with all of our hearts and some missionaries bore their testimonies. It was a beautiful night. "Amazing Grace" is our mission theme song and it is so powerful every time we sing it together as a mission!

What was even better than the fireside though was probably the opportunity and Sister Phillips, Sister Sandau, and I had to ride to and from the fireside with President and Sister Weaver! On the way there they were a little stressed, but on the way home we had so much personal time with them to talk and laugh and learn! It was such a special experience for me to be with two such powerful people! When we finally got to our car, we were on conference call with the whole mission so we got to stay with president and Sister Weaver for conference call too. It was so different and powerful being in the same car as the weavers as they addressed the whole mission. I just felt like the luckiest girl in the world this weekend!

Scripture for the week: Alma 13: 27-29 SO good!

It has been such a blessing to have mom's scriptures on my mission! As I read I get to read her notes and it puts a whole new, sweet perspective on the scriptures I am reading!

I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week! And a happy, happy birthday to my beautiful sister ALI! I LOVE YOU!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL         

Love,

Sister Tingey      

                             

What a week!

This week was crazy busy but so wonderful! We started the week with exchanges on tuesday and district meeting on wednesday and then friday we got to practice singing a few songs with missionaries! We are preparing for a missionary fireside we will be having next Sunday where a big group of missionaries are singing songs. It's going to be so wonderful and powerful, I am so excited!!! I get to be in a little group that is "Be Still My Soul" and it is such a beautiful arrangement! And Sunday we had the primary program which was SO wonderful! At the end we sang "We'll Bring the World His Truth" and there were many tears! It was the sweetest experience!

So many Miracles this week!!!!

Miracle #1: Sammy is our neighbor and very inactive. When we first met him he was not interested at all in coming back to church but the more we see him the more he softens up. He was determined to come to church this week to see the primary program but didn't end up making it because his brother signed him up for work. SO CLOSE! But he'll be there next week! So the miracle is that on wednesday night we were knocking our apartment complex and we saw him getting out of his car. He grudgingly said "hi sisters". He then explained that he had just been in a really bad mood and was super angry but as soon as he saw us he calmed down. We talked to him for a bit and explained to him that the spirit led us to be here at the right time so we could help calm him down and remind him of what's important. Then we asked if he would pray and he said no. I felt prompted  to tell him something Richard G. Scott told  us in the devotional he gave at the MTC while I was there. He said "pray when you don't feel like praying". So I told Sammy that and he finally agreed to pray and it was one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard! He started crying!! The spirit was so powerful it was such an incredible experience!

Miracle #2: So lots of families in our ward have been asking for the names of our investigators so they can specifically pray for them. Also, a member offered to put our investigators' names on the temple roll. Because of these prayers, time miraculously opened up for Karen! We were able to teach her this week and she was able to come to all 3 hours of church on Sunday! We are hoping to hold her baptism either this Saturday or next Saturday!!! Her client is in the hospital so we kind of feel bad that we are happy he is in the hospital because it is an answer to prayer and it allows us to teach Karen and prepare her for baptism!

Miracle #3: Also related to the prayers our members are saying for our investigators. We taught Gideon last night and he committed to be baptized on the 16th of November!!!!

Heavenly Father answers prayers! He knows us and loves us so much! He is aware of all of His children individually!

GAH! I am so grateful to be a missionary! I am so blessed to see so many miracles and to be able to be an instrument in the Lord's hands! Something that has popped up in my studies this week is when Christ visited Peter and the apostles after he was resurrected and Christ asked Peter if he loved Him 3 times. I want to be able to answer boldy "YES LORD, I LOVE THEE!" I am grateful for the opportunity I have as a missionary to show my love to him and serve his lost sheep!

I love this gospel so much! The church is true! Jesus Christ lives! And he loves us so much and so individually! I love you all so much! I hope you have a fantastic week!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Sister Tingey

Talofa!

10/21/13

Talofa (hello) Family!

This week has been great (as per usual in missionary life)! Not a ton of super exciting things happened but the work continues here in Lakewood, Washington!

This week we miraculously were led to a few less active families that live in our apartment complex! One is Sammy and AZ (brothers) who are Samoan! (Sammy taught us "Talofa") AZ is a little more willing to come back to church than Sammy right now, but that will change soon. AZ even told us "hey there is a non-member living with us, you could come and teach me lessons and maybe she'll sit in"! haha it's great, he's already a missionary. Another miracle was the Richards family! We were just driving out of our apartment complex and there was a giant bag of garbage in the middle of the road, so I immediately thought to jump out and pick it up and take it to the dumpster. So that's what I did, and on the way a minivan pulled up next to me and a man yelled, "hey! What are sisters doing over here?" I went up to the family's car and asked if they were members and he said they "used to be". So immediately I said, "Great, we'll stop by!" and ran back to the car to go visit them. It was a fun experience and they said they're going to come to church this Sunday!

Next Sunday is the primary program in our ward! We got to watch all of the primary kids practice on Sunday because we get to take part in the program! All of the missionaries in our district are going to jump in the program at the end and sing "army of Helaman" with all of the children! I almost cried on Sunday just practicing it! It is going to be so powerful and special when we do it on Sunday!

The American Lake Ward is really getting excited and anxious to help the missionaries! Our wonderful Bishop is really pushing the ward to be a part of the hastening of the work! This week he pushed for the ward to pray for the missionaries and their investigators BY NAME! I invite you all to do the same! We must pray specifically!! I know if you all pray for your missionaries and their investigators by name, miracles will happen! Already so many families have approached us and asked us for the names of our investigators! At the end of the sacrament meeting, the woman saying the closing prayer prayed for us individually and I almost cried. It truly is so powerful to pray specifically for people by their name!

I just love this wonderful ward I am serving in! On Sunday a woman approached me and said her friend is from London and she told her that one of the missionaries in her church lived in London. So now her friend has agreed to meet with us because we have a connection! Just another example of all of the miracles I am blessed to see as a missionary!

The Lord is in the details! He knows and loves us so much!!! I am so grateful to be a missionary at this time! It is so exciting to see the work of God progress so quickly! Family and friends the missionaries need YOU! The members are the means! Do what you can in your ward to help your missionaries and bring your friends and loved ones who are not members or who have not been going to church and help them come back!

I love you all! I love this gospel! I love this work! I love the Lord!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Sister Tingey

 Washington is beautiful!

 We had a flea problem this week....and this is how we felt about it.

This is a wonderful Brazilian friend.  She and her husband have been helped me so much practicing my Portuguese.  They are the sweetest!

Having some fun in WA-TAC!

This week was quite the week! Lots of ups and downs and belly splitting laughter! We are having a blast together as a trio! Thankfully we all get along super well and have so much fun together! We are still trying to figure out teaching and a few things, but it has been such a blessing to have both Sister Sandau and Sister Phillips to serve with!

Elder Holland's talk could not have come at a better time! This week we were blessed to work with a lot of people in our area that are suffering from mental illness. Each visit was such a miracle! We were able to really help these people and share Elder Holland's talk with them! Serving in American Lake with everyone being military, we work with a lot of people with PTSD and depression and all sorts of mental illness. What a blessing it was to hear the comfort and counsel of Elder Holland and pass it along to those who really needed that message this week!

We had a very fun ward activity on Saturday night called the "Choctober Fest". So many of our investigators and less active members came! It was such a successful night and it was so good to see all of them at the church getting to know the ward members. The members truly are the means!

Sunday was a busy, busy day! The three of us spoke in sacrament meeting! I had the opportunity to speak on patience, Sister Phillips spoke on gratitude, and Sister Sandau spoke on Christ like love! It really was such a blessing to study patience this week! Waiting for my visa to Brazil has not been easy! Having doors slammed in my face almost every hour of the day has not been easy! Serving a mission while my cute little nephew was born has not been easy! BUT it has all been worth it! In Alma 26, the Lord promised the sons of Mosiah that if they were patient in their afflictions that he would give unto them SUCCESS! The Lord blesses us when we are patient! When we are patient we put our faith and trust and faith in the Lord and in His timing! We show our willingness to submit to His will (Mosiah 3:19)! Patience is a continual work in progress but it is so important!

I love this work so much! I've been thinking about little Connor all week and how much I love him! Give him hugs and loves and kisses from Aunty Abby! I love you all so much! And I love the Lord so much! He is so good to me! I am so grateful to be serving a mission and to be serving in the American Lake ward in Lakewood, Washington. HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Sister Tingey

10/14/13

 My one and only car on da mish (maybe....ha, ha)!

Me and my crazy companions get to decorate for Halloween!