Happy Pioneer Day....almost!

Oi Familia!!!!

 

This week has been a wonderful week! I am feeling much more comfortable with my new missionary life and time is actually going by a little bit faster than it was last week! I am learning and experiencing so much every day! Being a missionary is so wonderful! This week the poor sisters in my room have been very sick and they all have had to go back to the room and sleep for a while at some point. I have been powering through and making it through the week without getting sick, but I think it's just about to hit me.

 

I love being at the MTC! Everyday I feel the power of thousands and thousands of missionaries! It is also such a blessing that I get to see some of my best friends while here and some old friends I haven't seen in a couple of years, like Elder Quinn! It really is such a blessing when I get to see these wonderful missionaries I love so much!

 

This week our first investigator (Aquilino) became our second teacher! His name is Irmao Duvall and he is AWESOME! He has so much energy and focus and he teaches us so well! I have really felt since I've been here that the teachers are here for so much more than to teach us Portuguese. They are here to uplift us and to teach us how to be the best missionaries we can be and I'm so grateful for that!

 

Last Tuesday I got to go to choir for the first time which was AMAZING! I love the choir director!!!! He is so fun and amazing and he brings the spirit so strongly into every practice. I feel like I am really singing with a choir of angels when I sing in the MTC choir! It is an incredible experience! Because it's pioneer day this week, we are singing Praise to the Man!!!!! I feel so much power when we sing this arrangement, it is so beautiful and overwhelming! The choir director talked to us a little about W.W. Phelps and how he basically caused the prophet to be put into liberty jail because he had so much anger against the church and then a few years later he wrote Praise to the Man! What a powerful song and message!

 

This week we began teaching a new investigator - Francisco - which has been a great experience, and again we are learning so much every time we teach, good lesson or bad lesson. This week the church distributed new leader resource materials to all of the branch presidencies and the district leaders and the zone leaders! This work is moving forward and missionary work and training is changing and hastening! It is so excited! I am so grateful that I am apart of the change! I am apart of the rush of missionaries and the rush of the gospel around the world! This week our zone is getting 2 new districts! 27 NEW MISSIONARIES!!! Crazy!!!!! But so exciting!!!!!!!

 

I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be serving my Father in Heaven. He has given me so much and blesses me everyday. I am grateful for this time to turn outward and serve God's children. This is a very selfish age in most peoples' lives but I get to spend 18 months devoting my time and heart and soul to God and to serving His people! One major lesson I have learned this week is that this work is not about me!!! This is the Lord's work and it's about bringing God's children unto Christ and helping them receive the restored gospel so they can one day return to the Father in Heaven who loves them so much!!! Sister Colvin and I had the opportunity to watch Elder Bednar's talk "The Character of Christ" on Sunday night. I invite all of you to watch or read this talk, it is life changing! It taught me how important it is for me, a representative of Jesus Christ, to strive to have the character of Christ! This means not turning inward but turning OUTWARD! That means serving other people and loving them and not thinking about myself! Christ has given us so much and is the perfect example, I want to strive to be like Him in everything I do!

 

I love this gospel so much! I am so grateful for the countless blessings the Lord blesses me and my family with! The miracles the Lord has provided for our family this past week is such a testimony to me! I am so grateful the Lord is looking out for my family while I am serving Him. As President Phillips said, "I'm ashamed that I'm amazed". The Lord has always and will always look out for us! I know this is where I need to be at this time. I know that this gospel is the only true gospel on this earth and I know that it is the only way we can return to our Heavenly Father. Portuguese has been a struggle this week but I know the Lord would not have called me to Brazil unless He knew I could do it and He is helping me every step of the way!

 

I love you all so much and I always feel like I have so much more to say but not enough time to say it! I love you all so much and I love missionary work!!!!!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Love,

Sister Tingey (Brasiliera)

7/23/13