11/19/12
Parabéms Benjamin!!!! You are so
awesome!!!! I miss sharing my birthday with you, but I am glad Jackie and Ian
are keeping you company. :) Hope you got my card! LOVE YOU LOVE YOU
LOVE YOU!!!!!
Okay, I haven´t read any of the e-mails yet because I wanted to make sure that I wrote a good letter this week- but I saw all of them and my mouth dropped!!! Thank you for all the e-mails and the cards!!! I have the best family EVER!!!!! So yes, it was my birthday yesterday. And seriously I kind of forgot about it the whole week until Saturday night and then I thought Óh, I turn 22 tomorrow... woohoo!!´ hahaha. But Everyone in church was so sweet- I hadn´t told anyone except one family and my comp. but throughout all of church the word spread like wild fire and everyone wished me a Feliz Anniversario! I felt very loved. For lunch we ate at the ex-Bishops house and we ate cheesecake! yum! And at night we went to Jorge and Carina’s house- our family here- like our older brother and sister and they made me cake and the elders came (we have the zone leaders serving in our ward) And they sang a birthday song which i guess is from the Simpsons and it was hilarious. I opened my presents and they were WONDERFUL!!! I felt sooo loved and I was soooo happy!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!! My birthday was quite a special one that I will never forget!
This week was full of miracles!!! One night me and Irmã Peterson were sitting in the church- our appointment that we were going to meet there had just fallen through and we were really sad and frustrated but then someone called us- Alice- and she asked if she could talk to us. (no one EVER calls us!) And we said how about right now?! And she said tão bem. And so we went over there and she is so ready for the gospel it is insane- she started crying and saying how she wants to have faith. She doesn´t really believe in God, she doesn´t believe in Christ or the Bible and at first I was like uh....where do we start? How do we help her get that testimony?! But the spirit told us what to say. A different day we were walking trying to find someone from the area book and we passed an apartment building with the main door wide open- unusual, and Irmã Peterson said it’s a sign! So we went in, I picked floor number 2 and when we got there we said a prayer to find someone ready for the gospel. Irmã Peterson choose the door and we met Allan. Let’s just say he is golden. The spirit told me EXACTLY what to say to him and it was incredible!!! One thing he asked us was, why a mission? And I explained that we don´t receive any money, we leave our families, school, friends, everything behind, and all this because we know for ourselves that these things are true and we want to share this message of happiness with the whole world!!!! And he said tão bem, I need Jesus and happiness right now in my life. YES!!!!!! Another experience this week was with a member who was having a hard time and a scripture came to my mind and it made the biggest difference for her. I am so grateful to be an instrument in the Lord´s hands!!! It is the best feeling in the world and I am SOOO GRATEFUL to be doing this work. I LOVE being a missionary!!! i love the Lord´s work so much and I am so happy to be here. Something that we are always striving to do is become like Jesus Christ, is it not? And in PMG it has this great section about the attributes of Christ. At the end of the chapter it has a quiz you can take to see how you are doing with each attribute. This time when I did it, I decided to star all the ones where I rated myself as a 3 or lower and I wrote one of those on each day of my planner. I invite you to someone do this- work on one of these steps to gain these attributes everyday and I promise you will see a difference in your life and the Lord will help you and bless you to better in these areas. Another adventure this week- we went to a recent converts house for lunch (she is from Angola) and she fed us chicken and rice. HOLD UP!!!- the rice was cooked in chickens blood and she put a chickens foot on me and Elder Goviers plate- we were the lucky ones. The rice was actually pretty good, but I was totally wigged out with the chicken foot and couldn´t eat more than a little bit. The mission is just full of awesome adventures!!!! We just had a Thanksgiving celebration with our district in our church building- so fun! The cooking was not like mom´s, but we did our best. We also had a ward party on Saturday night- a magusto- a Portugal tradition fiesta where they eat chestnuts. It was a huge success! We had 5 investigators there! I had the impression at the beginning of the party to call one of our investigators (who by the way is AMAZING!!! They will be baptized soon! Cristina is the mom and Catarina is the daughter) and I went on a division with a member and we went and picked them up from their house and brought them to the chapel and the members talked to them a ton and at one point I was talking to Cristina and she asked me the same question as Allan- why a mission? And I told her and she started to cry and told me what a difference we are making for her and her daughter and how she feels so good in the church and how this is the right path. I was all HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!! I was SOOO happy!!! I was just walking on air after that party with all the members that talked to our investigators- everyone I introduced someone too were such great friends to them and now they had such a great support system and people that will help look after them! Members are SOOO important!!! I have really started focusing on working a lot with the members. It is the best way to go.
Well folks, now I am going to read your e-mails and I am so excited!!! I love you all with my whole heart!!! Seriously I do. And I do miss you more esp. around the holidays, but I really love it here on my mission. There is no better place I could be. I fit here. This is what I should be doing. Alice is another one of those special, rare people that I feel like I promised in the pre-existence that I would help her get the gospel in her life. I am so blessed. Jesus Christ LIVES!!! His church has been restored!!!! We have a living prophet!!! This gospel is SOO WONDERFUL!!! The book of Mormon is true. LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU!!! HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!!
Irmã Tingey
Okay, I haven´t read any of the e-mails yet because I wanted to make sure that I wrote a good letter this week- but I saw all of them and my mouth dropped!!! Thank you for all the e-mails and the cards!!! I have the best family EVER!!!!! So yes, it was my birthday yesterday. And seriously I kind of forgot about it the whole week until Saturday night and then I thought Óh, I turn 22 tomorrow... woohoo!!´ hahaha. But Everyone in church was so sweet- I hadn´t told anyone except one family and my comp. but throughout all of church the word spread like wild fire and everyone wished me a Feliz Anniversario! I felt very loved. For lunch we ate at the ex-Bishops house and we ate cheesecake! yum! And at night we went to Jorge and Carina’s house- our family here- like our older brother and sister and they made me cake and the elders came (we have the zone leaders serving in our ward) And they sang a birthday song which i guess is from the Simpsons and it was hilarious. I opened my presents and they were WONDERFUL!!! I felt sooo loved and I was soooo happy!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!! My birthday was quite a special one that I will never forget!
This week was full of miracles!!! One night me and Irmã Peterson were sitting in the church- our appointment that we were going to meet there had just fallen through and we were really sad and frustrated but then someone called us- Alice- and she asked if she could talk to us. (no one EVER calls us!) And we said how about right now?! And she said tão bem. And so we went over there and she is so ready for the gospel it is insane- she started crying and saying how she wants to have faith. She doesn´t really believe in God, she doesn´t believe in Christ or the Bible and at first I was like uh....where do we start? How do we help her get that testimony?! But the spirit told us what to say. A different day we were walking trying to find someone from the area book and we passed an apartment building with the main door wide open- unusual, and Irmã Peterson said it’s a sign! So we went in, I picked floor number 2 and when we got there we said a prayer to find someone ready for the gospel. Irmã Peterson choose the door and we met Allan. Let’s just say he is golden. The spirit told me EXACTLY what to say to him and it was incredible!!! One thing he asked us was, why a mission? And I explained that we don´t receive any money, we leave our families, school, friends, everything behind, and all this because we know for ourselves that these things are true and we want to share this message of happiness with the whole world!!!! And he said tão bem, I need Jesus and happiness right now in my life. YES!!!!!! Another experience this week was with a member who was having a hard time and a scripture came to my mind and it made the biggest difference for her. I am so grateful to be an instrument in the Lord´s hands!!! It is the best feeling in the world and I am SOOO GRATEFUL to be doing this work. I LOVE being a missionary!!! i love the Lord´s work so much and I am so happy to be here. Something that we are always striving to do is become like Jesus Christ, is it not? And in PMG it has this great section about the attributes of Christ. At the end of the chapter it has a quiz you can take to see how you are doing with each attribute. This time when I did it, I decided to star all the ones where I rated myself as a 3 or lower and I wrote one of those on each day of my planner. I invite you to someone do this- work on one of these steps to gain these attributes everyday and I promise you will see a difference in your life and the Lord will help you and bless you to better in these areas. Another adventure this week- we went to a recent converts house for lunch (she is from Angola) and she fed us chicken and rice. HOLD UP!!!- the rice was cooked in chickens blood and she put a chickens foot on me and Elder Goviers plate- we were the lucky ones. The rice was actually pretty good, but I was totally wigged out with the chicken foot and couldn´t eat more than a little bit. The mission is just full of awesome adventures!!!! We just had a Thanksgiving celebration with our district in our church building- so fun! The cooking was not like mom´s, but we did our best. We also had a ward party on Saturday night- a magusto- a Portugal tradition fiesta where they eat chestnuts. It was a huge success! We had 5 investigators there! I had the impression at the beginning of the party to call one of our investigators (who by the way is AMAZING!!! They will be baptized soon! Cristina is the mom and Catarina is the daughter) and I went on a division with a member and we went and picked them up from their house and brought them to the chapel and the members talked to them a ton and at one point I was talking to Cristina and she asked me the same question as Allan- why a mission? And I told her and she started to cry and told me what a difference we are making for her and her daughter and how she feels so good in the church and how this is the right path. I was all HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!! I was SOOO happy!!! I was just walking on air after that party with all the members that talked to our investigators- everyone I introduced someone too were such great friends to them and now they had such a great support system and people that will help look after them! Members are SOOO important!!! I have really started focusing on working a lot with the members. It is the best way to go.
Well folks, now I am going to read your e-mails and I am so excited!!! I love you all with my whole heart!!! Seriously I do. And I do miss you more esp. around the holidays, but I really love it here on my mission. There is no better place I could be. I fit here. This is what I should be doing. Alice is another one of those special, rare people that I feel like I promised in the pre-existence that I would help her get the gospel in her life. I am so blessed. Jesus Christ LIVES!!! His church has been restored!!!! We have a living prophet!!! This gospel is SOO WONDERFUL!!! The book of Mormon is true. LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU!!! HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!!!
Irmã Tingey
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