Madeira Sisters

He left all, rose up and followed Him. Lucas 5:28

4/29/13

I love this scripture.  It is clear, short and simple.  I like to apply it to my mission in that I am leaving all- leaving the world behind, my old self, my family, to rise up and follow the Savior.  Luckily I will be able to be with my family again, but I don´t want the other things to return in my life.  But it is a great scripture and I know we can all apply it!  Here are some other scriptures that came to my mind this morning, (I would write them out, but I don´t have my English scriptures with me here on the island- sorry!)  John 16:33, Revelations 12:(7-10) 11*, First John 4:19.  Think about them and then tell me some thoughts!  I received a blessing last night form my district leader Elder Richins and he quoted the John 16:33 scripture to me in the blessing.  Revelations- I think I might have shared it already but it is an awesome missionary scripture (I thought about Abby!)  esp. verse 11- that we fight and overcome Satan by the atonement of Christ and that we love others more than ourselves.  President Fluckiger shared with us John 4:19- that we love God because He first loved us.  Powerful and interesting to think about.  I LOVE THE SCRIPTURES!!! I know that we can find answers and comfort and whatever we are looking for in the scriptures!!!  I always feel the spirit so strongly when I read them.  I have had many difficult times on the mission and I have always turned to the scriptures and I have ALWAYS found solace in them.  I know you will too.

President Fluckiger gave us a Book of Mormon challenge a couple of weeks ago.  To take a clean, new copy of the Book of Mormon and highlight in diff. colors where it says Christ’s name or reference to Him- what He did, etc, anything He says, His attributes and His Gospel.  It is truly AMAZING.  Every page is full of color because the Book of Mormon is ALL about Christ!!! I am so grateful for this challenge because it really shows to me what a testament the Book of Mormon is about Christ.  Christ is truly our Savior and through His grace we can become perfect, even as He and his Father are perfect.

There is an investigator named Jacinta who was baptized almost a year ago but never received the Holy Ghost.  We have been working with her but then she went to Porto for a couple of weeks but she just returned this week.  Our first meeting with her this week she told us she had a dream and in the dream someone told her that people can´t see angels in real life- only in dreams or only the voice.  So therefore Joseph Smith couldn´t have seen God and Jesus Christ.  And she said she didn´t want to read the Book of Mormon any more.  She usually writes notes of what she read in the Book of Mormon and her feelings and so we invited her to read what she wrote lately and as she read I took a deep breath and said in my head ´Okay Heavenly Father, this lesson might make it or break it, how can I help her see this dream wasn´t from thee?´ And then it all became clear of what I needed to say.  At the end of her BOM notes she wrote about how happy she feels when she reads the BOM.  So I asked her how she felt when she had that dream- was it full of light? happiness? peace?  No, she said it was full of fear.  And then I asked her how she feels when she reads the BOM and she said she always feels good- she even wrote it is the best book she has ever read!  So we explained to her the fruits of the Spirit- and things of God are always things of happiness, hope, peace, comfort, etc. and that Satan works too and we can tell when things are from him if it is full of fear, anxiety, darkness, etc.  She understood and we felt the spirit and she said she would continue to read the Book of Mormon and we invited her to church and she accepted! (She hasn´t been to church in forever!!!) and she came yesterday!!! woohoo!!!  And to help her be more involved, we invited her to do a special musical number next Sunday! YES!!!  I am so grateful to be helping people come unto Christ.  We had 24 people in church yesterday!!! WOOHOO!!!  FOUR menos ativos that we have been working with and 2 investigators!      And one of the counselors from the District presidency came- so that also helps with the numbers, haha :)  

My huge focus with this area is to involve the members in the work.  I want this to happen so bad!!!  We are praying and working really hard for this.  We had an activity yesterday with our District- with their branch and our branch and we talked all about missionary work and working together!  I talked about Elder Ballards talk on the bees- ´Ocupar-se Zelosamente!´ from the  October conference- and how all of our efforts put together make a big difference!  It was really fun and I think everyone liked it- esp. the games and food at the end. hahaha.  Our Branch Presidency said we can have conselho de ramo next Sunday! WOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!  By small and simple things are great things brought to pass, right?!!!!  

Please Pray for: Jacinta that she will keep coming to church, understand the importance of the Book of Mormon and become a true member, Beto and Lourinda that they will come to church and pray to now for themselves, Mario that we can find him again and that he will continue to progress, Familia Abreu, Familia de Mônica e Manuel, Familia Gouveia, José Correia (MA), Alberto ( forever investigator), Nelio (MA) that he will come to church, Louis (MA), e Manuela, e Maria.  

Thank you for all of your examples!!!  Thank you for all of your prayers.  Thank you for your faith.  I know that Christ suffered for each one of us in the Garden of Gethsemane.  I know the Atonement is real and that we all need to use it every day.  I love Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father.  I am so grateful for their love for me and for you all.  I am so grateful to be here on the mission.  I am so grateful to serve others.  I am working to ingrain these lessons into my nature to become a forever missionary- truly converted to the Lord.  I know you all are too.  Miracles do happen.  LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU!!!!  HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!

com muito amor,

Síster Tingey

Little Miracles Make Big Miracles

April 22, 2013

I forgot to tell ya´ll but an investigator that I was working with in Braga was baptized the week after I left- Amarildo!  woohoo!!!  At one point this week I was again feeling down about my follies- my weaknesses and I was really sad that I can´t just do things right- or be perfect, but I read in Nephi- ´Nephi´s lamentations´ and was surprised that even Nephi felt that way. Nephi- prob. one of the most faithful people ever felt super down about his weaknesses and sins and follies.  I am not happy that Nephi felt bad or had weaknesses, but I am glad to be reminded that I am not the only one that feels that way and that even a Prophet of God felt this way and that this is why we have the Atonement!!!  I can´t be the perfect missionary, but I can do my best every day and rely on the Lord to compensate for my weaknesses.  Isn´t the Atonement awesome?!  Isn´t Christ so merciful?! I gave a talk at church yesterday.  I decided to talk about the Restoration to light the fire of missionary work here.  I am so grateful for the Restoration of the gospel!!  I love In D and C 128 I think it is verse 22- Shall we not go on in so great a cause?  I want to do ALL I can to help this area grow.  Sometimes I feel like I am doing handstands and crazy things with no results but I know that no effort is wasted.  Me and my comp. had a long chat last night about what our plan is going to be.  In my personal prayer I felt to focus on Accompanhemento with the members. Follow up.  We found this young man named Mario this week and we taught him the first lesson and he came to church yesterday!!!  He is really timid and very humble and I am so grateful that he has a desire to learn more.  As we were walking to church we saw him ahead of us.  He walked into the door and then walked out and started walking away- I yelled his name and he stopped and turned back and entered with us. phew.  I know we were there at the right time to help him feel comfortable and enter the church.  On Friday we went to Caniçal- a little town on the other side of the mountains.  All of our compromissos that we had fell through and we were ready to catch a bus back to Machico but I felt like there was a reason that we were there and we needed to find out who needs us.  So we were standing outside of the house that we just knocked- some people from the area book, not knowing where we needed to go so we said a prayer to know who needs us and as we were standing there the door opens and the mom of the family comes out and says she was at a neighbors house and we can come in.  We entered and found a FAMILY!!!  A mom, dad, and 3 kids.  The dad has already gone to church!  I think it was about a year ago.  It was so exciting!!!  I am so glad we listened to the spirit and waited.  It is a bit tough for them getting from Caniçal to the church in Machico, but we will work with them and with lots of prayers comes miracles.  When the dad is on board, it makes a huge difference for the whole family.  Familia Gouveia invited us over for a chicken dinner and I was a bit worried that they were going to kill their own chickens for us, but no, they bought it from the store.  They are so awesome and fun!  We are really helping them be activated and we really want to help the rest of the family be baptized!  Thanks for your prayers in their behalf!  Little steps in the right direction are better than no steps at all, or steps in the opposite direction.  I love these people and I love this area.  I am so grateful to be a missionary.  I am so grateful to be able to focus on others all the time- the more I do that, the happier I am.  I am so grateful for the fullness of the gospel that we have and I want to share it with the whole world!!!  I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real,  I know that this is truly His church.  Continue to read the Book of Mormon every single day.  Say your prayers.  the Little things make the difference.  Be obedient.  Pray for charity.  Love others.  God loves us.  I love you all.  I am so happy to be here.  LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!  HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!

Sister Tingey

The Lord qualifies who He calls

4/16/13

Oh Madeira.  I love you.  This week has been awesome- full of adventures and I am exhausted.  But a good exhausted. :) Yesterday for our P-day we had Zone Conference so we couldn´t e-mail.  The zone conference was incredible.  I was asked to bear my testimony on what I learned from conference and how we can apply it- I talked about obedience and also how the Lord knows each one of us- He knows our investigators and all we have to do is trust in Him and we can know how to help them.  Me and sister Olson gave a little treinamento also about finding people and working with menos ativos to strengthen them and receive references- and help them get more involved with the work.  I know that Christ is working right alongside us- this is His work and He loves us.  I am on a division right now in Funchal with a Sister Nigri.  She is from Brazil and she is so fun and cute!  I am pretty sure I am learning more from her than she is learning from me.  She has so much energy and love.  My first sunday with the branch went pretty well.  For being so small they are pretty self-sufficient.  We teach principios do evangelho but they do the rest- play the piano, direct, etc.  They are so awesome!  I love that about small branches- that everyone can have a calling and a purpose and a means to help and serve.  We are really working on strengthening the members because we know that through them this area can and will explode with growth.  But it takes everyone.  Awesome and interesting things that happened this week:  we met the padrão de excellencia for new investigators and lessons taught to investigators!!! woohooo!!!!  The other week we talked to three people on the side of the road- a woman and her husband and her mother.  They told us we could come back and their house will be full of people.  So we did and it was!!  It was so awesome!!!  We taught a room full of people a simplified lesson of the Restoration and the spirit was so strong!  They have a lot of faith in Christ and I think a couple of them will really progress.  Only problem is they live kind of far away so it is difficult to meet with them often.  But I am so excited to see the gospel bless and change their lives.  There is this awesome family we are trying to teach.  We aren´t sure how interested they are in the gospel and/or changing, but they are such a strong family and we can see them as being the future leaders of the branch.  But we knew that they needed more than just sitting and teaching, so we decided to serve them and they excepted- they took us to their campo (bigger than a garden, but smaller than a farm) and we worked- pulled weeds, watering, etc.  It was a lot of fun and I think it made a big difference- I think they are more apt to listen and try to help their seed of faith grow.  I am really excited for them.  We taught a woman that is convinced that Mary Magdalene wrote the Book of Mormon. yep.  I was praying for the spirit and patience and love the whole time.  Someone walked up to me with a pigeons body missing the head that he had just chopped off moments before.  We see lots of goats and chickens on the side of the road.  The woman that feeds us all of the bread is named Maria and she is just so sweet and as we taught her this week she was so sad about the death of her husband and I just felt this huge love for her and desire for her to be sealed to her husband, so what else could I talk about but baptism?  So I did because she needs to make this first step to receive the other blessings and at first she didn´t really accept it but then she was more interested as we read scriptures and things and I am really happy to see her progression.  I am so grateful to be a missionary and picture everyone in white- like President Monson keeps talking about- to see people as they can be.  In Relief Society the women talked about the pioneers and how much faith they had to up and leave and how they think they wouldn´t have sufficient faith to do that.  And I sat there thinking " well with that attitude!" and Then I told them that I think they would have enough faith because the Lord qualifies those He calls and that they know the church is true and that the Prophet is called of God and so I think they would follow him.  I really felt the spirit and I could see their countenances change.  Our thoughts and attitudes are so important!!!  I know that President Monson is truly a prophet of God and that when we follow His counsels we will be blessed.  When we are almost obedient, we almost receive blessings.  I know this e-mail is very sporadic; hopefully you can get something out of it.  I am so grateful for the experiences I am being blessed with.  The church is true.  I want others to know the same so they can receive the same blessings.  Some major lessons I have learned on the mission are: Trust in the Lord.  Forget yourself and give yourself to Him.  Live, love and learn.  Repent always.  Obediencia and diligencia.  Demand excellence of yourself.  I know Christ lives.  HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!

Sister Tingey

We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet!!!

4-8-13

I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!  FOGO!!  What a spiritual feast!!  I wrote down a couple of questions/concerns and they were answered.  I testify that Heavenly Father answers prayers and truly speaks through His servants.  The Portugal mission scripture of the month is Amos 3:7.  The Lord ALWAYS uses His servants, the prophets, to help us.  Heavenly Father loves us SOO much and if you aren´t feeling his love, get on your knees and ask to feel it because He does and I know that that will help everyone have much more happiness and peace in their lives. Conference is proof of that love.  I loved Elder Ellis´s comment ´you milk the cow when it needs to be milked, not when you want to milk it.´ The Lord has HIS way of doing things and our lives are so much happier and easier when we do things HIS way.  I LOVED the comments about the African people.  I LOVE AFRICANS!!!  I have worked with a ton here on my mission and what a delightful people they are.  So humble.  There is a joke in our mission that if someone is black they are elect.  If someone is Brazilian they are elect.  If someone is brazilin and black they are SUPER elect.  We joke that when we are walking in a crowd of people and see a black person we go running to the black person because we know they will be more likely to accept the gospel.  I guess it isn´t really a joke- because that is really what everyone does. hahahaha.  And with the couple of talks that mentioned the members in Africa one of the Elders said ´It´s official!  It was mentioned in Conference! Africans are elect!!´ I loved all the talks on obedience- when we are obedient, we see miracles.  And of course they had to talk about marriage a bunch.  my last conference before going home.  claro.  i knew it. hahahahaha.  I loved Elder Holland´s talk about being true to the faith you have and then fanning your flame to grow.  ah.  I just love Conference. I was truly really sad when it ended.  But I am SUPER excited to read print out the talks and read and study them more!!! I am SOO grateful that we have a living prophet and 12 apostles.  I know they are truly called of God!  And that they truly have authority.  We got to stay in Funchal (the stake center where we all watched conference) for the last session which here they played from 9-11 and we stayed over with the Sisters in Funchal and then came back to Machico this morning.  I LOVE THE MISSION!!!!

Okay, Madeira!!!!  WOW.  this place is incredible.  The flight was only about 1 hour and 45 minutes.  (side note- I got to go to the mission office before my flight and got to pick up all the Liahona´s we hadn´t received yet and I found Elise Osorio in one of them!  I think it was from January or February! cool! )  Our beautiful area is surrounded by mountains- except for one part is open to the sea.  it is absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!  It is a natural stair master.  The hills are pretty steep- I am pretty sure everyone here must have legs of steel.  There are tropical flowers everywhere with fruit trees and lots of gardens and cute houses painted different colours.  Our apartment has an incredible view of the ocean- we sit in front of the windows during studies and you would think it would distract me from my studies but it actually adds a really nice spirit.  The water is so calming.  Our area is country. country. country. country. chickens and goats along the roads, little streets and paths...I was going through a bit of a cultural shock- leaving the big city of Braga and coming to this country side. But of course I LOVE it.  The people are so wonderful!  And they have an extremely thick accent! Oh my goodness my first day here I felt like it was my first transfer on the mission all over again- I could barely understand.  I actually could only understand 1 sentence out of every 7 sentences.  I couldn´t believe they were speaking Portuguese.  Sometimes it sounds like an Irish accent with the Portuguese, but now I understand a lot better and I like the accent- it is endearing.  We had a lesson with this sweet old woman named Maria and she set a basket full of bread and told us to eat it all.  She also gave us hot chocolate and bananas and then packed us a bag of food to take home.  there goes my diet.  There is a wonderful family that we are working a lot with, with 3 people already baptized but they had become in-active and we are working to activate them again and to help more of their family be baptized and active!  They have TONS of animals- rabbits, pigeons, more birds, lots of dogs and cats and chickens, rats, and lots lots more.  They are HILARIOUS and I LOVE THEM!!!  I love this area so much already. We have a small branch here- about 13 regular members.  My companion is Sister Olson- she is SO cute and fun and has lots of love for the people here.  Her mom is Philippine but Sister Olson is from Utah.  I told the Lord that I will lift where I stand and to send me where He wants me and I know that I am here for a reason.  I am working to continue to demand excellence every day.  I love this work and the Lord deserves the best of me.  I know this church is true.  Let´s continue to fan our faith!  HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!

com muito amor,

Síster Tingey!

MADEIRA

4-2-13

Hey family! I only have a couple of minutes again today to write, sorry!  I arrived in Madeira yesterday and WOW it is absolutely gorgeous!!!  We have a beautiful view out our kitchen and study room windows of the ocean.  We live in the city of Machico and there is a small branch here.  I am SOO excited to tackle the work.  There is a lot to be done and I am super stoked!  This past week in Braga has truly been amazing and one of miracles.  Some of the highlights were teaching that family of 6- LOVE THEM!!!  They are so loud and boisterous and fun and I feel at home.  I love those kids so much.  We walked with three of them to church on Sunday and on the way back- what a beautiful Easter morning it was too!  I was able to read about the Resurrection in each of the four gospels that morning and was filled with the Spirit and lots of joy and peace.  Jesus Christ truly was resurrected.  And because of Him, we will be too!!!  It was really hard saying goodbye to that, but we will keep in contact. :)  It is always so hard saying goodbye to people- Braga is family.  I will miss them a TON but I am excited to get to know and love the people here in Machico.  The longer time I have on the mission the more and more I realize how imperfect I am and how much I need to rely on the Lord.  I am so grateful for this because it is SOOO much better to always rely on the Lord 100%.  One of my district leaders in the past, Elder James, once said that we need to pray to the Lord as if everything depends on Him and then after the prayer we need to act as if everything depends on us.  So true.  I am so humbled to have this blessing of serving the Lord 24/7 in Portugal.  I love this country and its people and I love the Lord and this gospel.  I know that when we live the commandments we are blessed and happier.  I know this is the true church of Christ.  The more I learn the less desire I have to be in any way ´part´ of the world.  If anything takes me away from the Lord I will cut myself off of that thing.  It is just not worth it.  Love you all so much!  Hurrah for Israel!!!

Sister Tingey

I´ll go where you want me to go dear Lord...

4-1-13

Today is transfer day.  And I am sad to be leaving Braga but I am super excited because I am leaving the continent to a sunny paradise- I have been transferred to MADIERA!!!!!  WOOHOOO!!!  I am in the office right now- awaiting my flight to the island, so I don´t have much time- hopefully I will be able to write more later!  I LOVE YOU ALL!!!