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

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