Coach Tingey

February 27, 2017

What up Fam!!! Friends!!! sorry its been 2 weeks. we were supposed to go on a boat trip but it got canceled (cuz president said no lol) so the senior missionaries went and we didn't get to email.

Sorry i missed some birthdays. Happy late Bday Grandpa Stoker, and maybe Jase. and maybe some others i forgot. please forgive me. 

So a lot has happened. Two saturdays ago i had 3 of my investigators get baptized!! i was so happy. Man you have no idea how happy you get when you see your best friends get baptized and then share their testimony. You just think to yourself "this is why i'm here." And what's even better is right after they get baptized they start doing member missionary work and inviting their friends and family. Akko, the 18 year old guy i just baptized is a stud. He really knows the gospel and now we are studying with his brother and cousin. Hopefully is dad soon. 

The girl that was baptized her name is Nani. and she was the one that her grandma beat her, but prayers were answered and she was allowed to get baptized!! She was so pretty in her white dress. Power of prayer is strong. Then the little kid's name is Andrew and later that night after the baptism I was walking home and he just came running up to me yelling me name and just gave me the biggest hug. Dang i was so happy!! we are now studying with 2 other girls that live in Andrew's house.

Another dope thing that happened was the karoojoj. Its where they like give the crown (flower crown) to the new Irooj (king). All the Iroojlaplap's (kings) from all the islands came and there was a huge celebration and i got to see it all happen! they did a bunch of dances that night after they gave him the crown. The coolest dance was the jabowa. Its a marshallese stick dance that was originated on the Ujae Atoll. its sooo dope!!! they were the old matshallese clothing (kind of like hawains) and do a dope stick dance! I wish i could send the video but it would take years to load.

Last night i was at an FHE where a young divorced woman whos is in her 30's and has 5 kids and has been to the temple, was sharing her testimony on repentance and her testimony was just so strong and the best thing about it was her 2 little girls who are ages 4 and 6 got up and shared their testimonies. they were so cute and their mom didnt make them share their testimonies but they wanted to on their own. Dang i cannot stress how important FHE is. sorry mom for not always wanting to do it. But i invite everyone to do FHE every week and invite neighbors members or non members. love you mom.

LAstly, coach tingey. One of the counselors in one of the wards is apparently a legend in the marshall islands because he played for the marshall islands olympic team in like Guam. anyway he asked me for some full court presses and some zone defenses for his team that is here in EBeye and they are going to Majuro to go play in a tournament. Just call me COACH TINGEY. shout out to coach ernst and palmer for teaching me a ton. thanks coaches!

well love you all! transfers are on thursday and we find out tomorrow Wedensday. classic president. giving out transfers 1 day before. i will try to tell you where i am going. 

Work Work---Rihanna

What up Fam!!! and friends! Happy Valentines Day!! 

Not much happened this week because of the ending of the queens funeral and P-day and one day it rained alllllllllllll day and then it was Kwajalein liberation day aka (4th of July marshallese style) so work was a little slow. 

But that didn't slow me down! well it kinda of did but i still tried hahaha. i moved into my new apartment and i can't get over how good the view is hahah.

 I had my 12 year Aiti get baptized this week! she is the cutest little girl haha. and then this week i should have 3 more baptisms! pray that they will work out! 

I didn't really eat anything crazy this week hahah, i ate something new called Bwiro, its actually pretty good. sorry for the short email, but nothing really happened this week. 

For kwajalein day, they did like track and field stuff for the kids, but they did it on the beach hahahhaa and they also did a cross country race, that was about 5 miles long and they did it in the heat of the day so i wasn’t really down to do that. haha.

If you haven;t heard. President and Sister Larkin are in Hawaii right now because sister Larkin is super sick and the doctors in majuro couldn’t handle it. so we don’t really have a mission president right now, Pray for the AP's haha.

Good luck to Toro bball. #ToroPride

much love,

Elder Tingey

The Queen is DEAD.

February 6, 2017

What up Fam! friends! just another solid week here on the small island of Ebeye. first of all i want to give a Shout out to my cute little sister HANNAH CUZ ITS HER BIRTHDAY!!!!!! this week haha. love you sis! 13? dang thats crazy ur a teenager! 

So this week the Queen (LeRooj) of Ebeye died and the funeral was a whole like 5 day process. Everyone on the island went to the funeral ceremonies. so that was our work for the week haha. They will be having a new Irooj/ King soon crowned or whatever. pretty much it just means you get millions of dollars from the US government every year hahaha. 

So here in Ebeye we dont really eat grosss food. I ate turkey neck the other day, but it was actually pretty good. I feel like the meat here is the left over meat from America that they just send here. but its pretty good. One of the foods i like is sashimeat. which is just raw fish served by itself. sometimes its very bloody, but its not bad at all. and i always tell everyone its my favorite so they will feed it to us partly because my comp hates it LOL. im terrible haha.

Well lots of spiritual experiences this week. I also really have a testimony in the power of fasting. I had several investigators cry in lessons this week and expresses their feelings to me, which is very important in helping them progress. One, Akko (18  yrs old, guy), expressed that he really misses his Mom (she died a little bit ago) and so we helped him really understand the Plan of salvation. he now has a baptismal date for next week!

Then Nani, 12yrs was too scared to ask her grandma if she could get baptized. So i fasted the day before and then went and talked to her grandma. Her grandma said that it was her decision and i was sooo happy! Yesterday though i founnd out some very sad news, that her grandma beat her with a big wood paddle sunday night. i dont totally know the reason why yet, but i thnk it has to do with her getting baptized. I wanted to cry/ go fight her grandma. my heart hurts so much for her. I am trying to help her in every way that I can. please pray for her. Nani's best friend's mom told me this story and that she went in and like saved Nani and Nani was screaming and crying and saying "don't leave me dont leave me." you have no idea how much this hurts my heart. I willl be fasting again tomorrow for her.

One more investigator who i want to talk about is Kenye (30 yrs old woman) we teach her and her husband. It was her birthday on sunday so we went and visited her and she was so happy to see us. we sang happy birthday and then gave her a $1 (marshallese custom). then we sat and talked and she explained that she doesnt throw a party because she thinks she has a curse, because many of her family members (her dad, son, mom,) all died around her birthday. She was telling me this and just crying, and she expressed to me that she thinks if she changes that God will bless her. I took the opportunity to share my testimony and again share a little bit about the Plan of salvation. 

Dang i love these people so much! I see so much potential for them and i want them to progress and sometimes is difficult when they get soooo close and then back slide a little. That is life though. 

Love you all!! my Marshallese is doing very well. Im going to move into my new apartment tomorrow! 

Elder Tingey

Also another Shout out to my boy Salty joe mama aka Joe Costello for his advice to me before my mission "Work hard and leave it all out on the island, just like you leave it all on the court." i think about that all the time. 

pics: me  everyday

i found mug root beer and had a classic Gma stoker rootbeer float 

the truck carrying the body of the Queen

Just Call Me Father or Nacho Libre

January 30, 2017

So my subject line is kinda bad, whatever!  hahaha!  What up Fam! and Friends!!!!! ok so my subject line: this means that you know yah boy is working at the Catholic school!!! hahah I teach 4th grade reading and English every Thursday morning!! hahah so you can call me Father Tingey Lol (that's really bad) or Nacho Libre hahaha.

So not much has happened this week... besides success! hahaha. i never thought bringing people unto Christ would make me so happy. We got like 5 new investigators this week (all member referalls) and I'm going to have like 5 baptisms next Saturday! 3 for sure, and 2 more hopefully. I really need you guys to pray for two of my investigators, one who is scared to get baptized but he is totally ready, hes  20 years old and his name is Akko. And then there is Nani, who is a 12 year old girl, best friends with my last baptism and she really wants to get baptized but she is scared to ask her grandma because she doesn't like the Mormons haha classic. Other than that we have about 15 total investigators. all of but 2 have fellowshippers and have sooooo much potential. we are teaching two families who are progressing slowly but i have so much faith in them.some of their kids are members and i think they will progress well if we can get them to come ot church.

As you know i have a new comp, and lets just say its gonna test my patience, but I'm excited. his Marshallese needs some help, so I'm trying to help him, but he is the senior comp so sometimes its hard to help because he claims leadership, but hes only the transfer ahead, and its my area but he said i could correct him. This is the transfer where i learn to think of others over myself.

THis is to all MVT Varsity Basketball players: Stop sucking and freakin get your act together and win some games!! this is TORO basketball we are talking about, if you aren't playin hard get off the court and sit your...butt on the bench. TORO PRIDE ON 3, 1  2  3  TORO PRIDE!

LOL i miss basketball. seriously though they need to get their act together.

Well not much else happened this week here in Ebeye in the Marshall Islands. Love you all!

these pics are me and my comp, my recent convert and i forgot the other one that i put oh well haahah.

Much Love!

Cowboy Country aka

Elder Tingey

Pics- January 23, 2017

1-pic of my baptism-president wants member baptizing and not elders, that way they hopefully build more relationships with the members

2-the good ole ebeye ocean, 

3-and i forgot what the party with 14yr old girls is called.  

......Aaaaaaaaand we"re back!!

January 23, 2017

What up fam and friends!!!!! sorry about this past month of no emailing. please no one get offended. the internet was down because they were puting an internet line in the ocean from guam to here in kwaj. like fiber something haha. anyway the internet was down for the month! also my P-Day got changed to Tuesdays. so ill be emailing monday nights american time. 

So i guess ill just try to do an overview of the highlights. So Christmas BEAT was probably one of the dopest things ive ever seen. im definetly coming back to the marshall islands for Christmas once. Then like January 14th i had my best investigator ever get baptized! her Name is Rotha Anitak and she is 14 years old and was doing missionary work before she was even baptized! she was bringing her friends to seminary in the mornings as well as bringing her siblings to church and her family to FHE's. And now we are teaching her family and her friends!! i freakin love her! she is the weirdest/funniest girl ever. and she is freaking good at english, like perfect, and she learned from just watching TV! 

QUick story about her, one night at mutual my comp made her mad by saying something that she understood wrong and got all mad and even started crying and we were so confused and all her friends were too. so we decided to make a cake and take it to her. so we did and she was really happy about it and said sorry to everyone haha and then we put candles on the cake and sang like it was her BDay hahha. then everyone started to have a cake fight and put frosting on each others faces and it was soooo fun. hahahha never did you think that having a cake fight with five 14 yr old girls could be fun hahahhah. we took a ton of pics and it was a solid memory made. 

SO i am about to move into a new apartment that is actually in my area. and let me tell you, it is freakin sick. its like right on the ocean and has a huge window that you can watch the sunsets on the ocean on everyone evening and it also has a balcony. and its brand new, they just built it. Im freakin pumped. literally people in amercia would pay millions for my view but we'll be paying only $750 a month. #killinIt 

So volleyball and basketball are like the two sports here.and everynight around 5;00 all the misssionaries and the youth/ members play volleyball right outside the church and its super fun and helps us build relationships with the members and we also bring investigators to come play as well. 

for service one day we also built a sea wall, so that more houses wouldn;t fall into the ocean hahha. one time it was raining super hard at night, and at first me and my comp like hid from it but then we said screw it hahha and just ran down the street in the pouring rain and we were just laughing and just like jumping in puddles and laughing like we were 5 year old kids hahaha. that sounds super gay hahhaa but it was sooooo fun LOL. goood stuff

Transfers: i am staying in Ebeye south (which im pumped about!) and my comp elder ski is going to majuro to be a DL. my new comp is elder robinson who is from the intake above me. (he doesn;t really know marshallese so im going to have to do a lot, and this transfer is going to have to take a lot of patience) we also got a new DL here in Ebeye who is really going to help Ebeye. im excited. 

Well everyone love you all! thats the scoop, for some reason my pics arent working, ill keep trying. PEACE for EBEYE MARSHALL ISLANDS!

January 18, 2016

Dear Families,

Our internet service seems to be "sneaking" back on  intermittently !  Perhaps, and hopefully, by Monday there will be enough band width restored that your missionary can actually email you -- but please don't be alarmed if that doesn't happen...

Update - everyone is doing very well.  Elder Hartvigsen, Sister Iongi and Sister Mati Leifi left last night for home.  Elders Johnson and Kendrick are here in Majuro (President closed Aingilaplap - not enough people there to warrant 2 missionaries full-time), Elders Polson and McFall leave Saturday for Ebeye, Elder Barrow leaves Sunday for Wojte (that is, IF Air Maybe flies!) and Elder Sheffield will come back to Majuro on that same return flight, Elders Theil and Robison come to Majuro from Ebeye on Monday.and our 3 new missionaries arrive from the MTC later this morning.  There are several other transfers within Majuro, but I'll let your missionaries tell you about those.

So all is very well here.  Thank you for your prayers - they certainly are a blessing to all of us.

Komol tata,

Sister Goodsell

December 23, 2016

the wards did little nativity scenes in the church buildings and everyone came for FHE

December 16. 2016

What up fam! and Friends! Merry Christmas!

so this week was something else. first off one of my good mission buddies, Elder Ross, left to an outer island this week. Then my comp finally came back from Majuro, yes im still comps with Elder Ski, we get a long super well hes a stud and i really love working with him. Also the sisters here got white washed so we got one of the brand new sisters and a brand new Elder, so Ebeye continues to get new missionaries. 

Me and my comp are white washing Ebeye South, aka the worst area on Ebeye haha. The protestant church is huge down here and everyone is mean to the missionaries, the rep for us is super low. So im going from an area across  the street that has a ton of investigators and im teaching over 40 lessons a week, to a place that im teaching like 14 lessons a week. my last area i got 14 lessons in a day! its very humbling. But we do have an investigator that is best friends with a youth that we are teaching and she will get baptized soon. 

One goal that me and my comp have is to make the rep for us missionaries get a lot better here in the South. So we first are trying to get a good relationship with the members, so we are visiting all the members and also practicing BEAT everynight with them (which is sooooooo fun i love it!) and we are trying to gain trust with them so they will give us referalls. 

Next we are trying to get the people to like us by talking to everyone, introducing ourselves so they know our names, and making jokes with them. The best though is when we play basketball with them. So down south they have a big out door court that guys ages 16-30 are playing on everynight. like every goes there and plays and so i was like, lets go ball some marshallese people up. So we go and they like wouldnt let me play and i was like no like im good and i whipped out my bball pics and they were all like "Wow" alright let him play so they gave me the ball and said warm up and at this point everyone is watching me and here its always windy so its hard to make a outside shot but i decided to shoot outside shots and i drained them both and everyone autimatically thought i like played in the NBA so then we started the game and of course i played Marshallese style aka barefoot on an outdoor concrete court that is falling apart but i freakin balled ahhaha. My teammates werent expecting a lot of the passes i gave them cuz marshallese people dont really pass, they just drive and throw up crap. But we won both games and then i had to go, otherwise i would have continued to win, cuz thats all i do, WIN, ( as you can see im still very humble). But after the game everyone was like "Elder TIngey come back and play every night" i was like ok ok sounds good. so now everyone knows who i am and everyone asks me if im gonna play that night. the word is spreading, i love it. haha 

anyway, missionary work at its  finest, balling up kids. 

love you all, i dont know yet when i will get to call home but ill tell you guys.

Merry Christmas to all!!

Elder Tingey

1. my bday party at the Bellus

2. me and Elder Ross (going to an outy)

3. classic weekly ocean pic

December 14, 2016

Hey everyone i have like 5 minutes to write this email, sorry i dont have anytime today. So i got transfered to a different area in Ebeye hahah so across the street, but this area me and my comp Elder Ski, are white washing it. ITs the biggest area in Ebeye its half the island. It also is a huge protestant area and the people dont really like the missionaries and the mormons. No worries, i aint scared, i get along with most Marshallese people here, i just play some basketball with them or crack some jokes, or do BEAT with them (marshallese traditional dancing). 

MY birthday was great and terrible haha. I got my package day of my Bday! it was a miracle, thanks mom!! then later that day my best investigator who was supposed to get baptized today dropped us. He said he had to follow his mom and go to the protestant church, smh i was so mad/sad. But then i went to the Bellu's for FHE and they threw a party for me, a cake, dancing, and the best part was they all stood up and played a ukelele and sang Happy Birthday songs in Marshallese and it was so awesome. mama and papa Bellu are like my parents here, if im hungry i just go over there and they will feed us. When Marshallese people sing its soooo cool, just that island sound is soooo dope! Anyways sorry no pics this week and not a longer email, i was given no time. ill answer more emails next week. Love you all! (the pics wouldnt load) sorry.

December 3, 2016

What up fam and friends!! thanks for all the birthday wishes and emails it made me so happy!! heck ya ill be 19 on monday! i use to think 19 was so old and now im here and im like nah im still a kid hahaha. Also a fat shout out to my dad for having the same BDAY as me! Happy Birthday Pops!! you old man! how old 70's? haha jk but the real question is do you have gray hair? love you.

 This week was solid.

Baptized Miko on saturday, in the ocean, probably the coolest thing ever. shes the cutest little girl. Of course my first time baptizing i had to do it twice because her foot came up the first time hahah classic rookie mistake. its all good though, the 2nd times the charm. She bore her testimony after and it was so awesome. 

Then we had thanksgiving dinner that night with a member family. They had a ton of food, a huge turkey and a huge ham. too much food haha. 

That night one of my investigators got married and i got to attend and it was so awesome i was smiling so big! then he brought his family to church the next day without me inviting him. i was so excited! 

Monday night we got to practice BEAT. BEAT is a Marshallese traditional dance that they do for holidays and special occasions. They create a new dance everytime and each religion does one. Its super fun! So everyone is practicing for Christmas. 

Tuesday elder ski and i balled hard! We got 14 lessons on tuesday. 14!!!! thats crazy! hahaha the Lord blessed us. The next day we didnt get that many though hahaha, but me and Elder Ski im pretty sure are leading the mission or at least top 3 in lessons taught per week, and we have one of/ possibly the smallest area in the whole mission. We also got a new investigator after i did some service and helped a lady pull nails from a piece of wood. Service is key my friends! 

Gotta love the island weather of it being super hot and humid and then suddenly it starts pourin rain for one hour and then goes back to being blazing hot! Gotta love it. Also Marshallese people dont want to study if its raining or if its really hot, so you gotta find the right time to catch them haha. 

A little bit about Marshallese culture. When you go to someones house and they are cooking, they say hey come and eat (even if they only have a little bit of food they will give it all to you because you are a missionary) so you have to sit down and eat, even if you are not hungry, you have to eat every piece of food until your plate is cleared, if you dont, it is really disrespectful. THe people will always feed you and if you say " ah im good thank you" its very very rude. you know how in American culture people offer you stuff to be nice but you just so "ah im good thank you" (because the people really dont want to give it to you anyway) ya thats not how it works here.. if some one offers you something, you take it , otherwise its bad manners. 

SO because of this, i have gotten fat, i thought this day would never come but its true my stomach is getting bigger and i dont really have any abbs anymore. but no worries ill change it. 

Its difficult when the classic marshallese meal is Rice (lots of it) chicken, soda, kool aid, and ice cream. Literally i have had more soda on my mission than i have in my whole life. its not good haha. 

Well love you guys!! transfers are today and my comp might go back out to his outer island but idk yet. i should be staying here in Ebeye. My language is getting a lot better, its crazy to think that i have been out in the field for 6 weeks now! 

love life! 

3 Nephi 9:14 is the scripture for today (i hope thats the right one)

Much love,

Elder Tingey

these pics are me and Miko and then me and my comp at one of the wealthiest members house and their "kids" (adopted kids) (no one really lives with their parents its weird)

Finally Updating this BLOG!!

December 2, 2016

Hello fam and friends!! Happy late Thanksgiving! 

A lot happened this week! So monday i was with my temporary companion Elder Ross ( i switched off between him and Elder Thiel) and we went to go teach one of my favorite investigators who is a stud and weve taught him everything so we didnt really know what to teach him. We went and when he my investigator (his name is Melser and is 26 yrs old) said the opening prayer i got this voice in my mind that said "review the Restoration" and it repeated like 5 times. SO when the prayer was done and i turned to my comp and said "Did you get the prompting to review the restoration" and he said "yes i did" so we taught it and half way through the lesson i realized why we were supposed to teach it. Melser's mom (who is a less active) was sitting in on the lesson and she started just crying like a ton. and the Spirit was so strong. It was so cool that we both received the prompting to share the restoration again and find out that it totally wasnt even for him. (we also have a baptism date for him)

My new comp, Elder Kalinowski aka Ski, came on tuesday. Hes been out for about 5 months. hes from San Fran, Hes 21 and did 3 years of BYU-I before coming out. He started his mission here in Ebeye then has been on an outer Island for about 2 months and now hes back here in Ebeye with me. HE is a stud, we really get along and teach well together. He probably wont be my companion for very long because im pretty sure President is gonna send him back to the outer island in about 3 weeks. THis transfer was a transfer within a transfer, so transfers are again in 2 weeks. 

We are celebrating Thanksgiving today and i couldnt be more excited. We are eating thanksgiving lunch at the senior couples apartment and then i am going to a marriage of one of my investigators and then i am Baptizing one of my investigators in the ocean today!! Her name is Miko and she is 9 years old. I will send a pic of me and her. THen after the baptism i am going to another Thanksgiving dinner at a members house!! they feed us good out here. Classic chicken and rice though haha thats it. Also a member is now doing our laundry for us!

also we have a cat that lives outside our door and we let her in and she had kittens in our apartment hahaahah. gotta love it! 

Well love you all!! Love it here on the Island of Ebeye!

Go Toros! Jeramman!

dd

 d

November 11, 2016

Additional info:

Dear Mom,

Thanks for the email!!! try to make it shorter next time please haha. Happy Early Birthday!!!!!! is it 49? or 29? I forget. hahaah so many questions and they will be easier for me to answer rn. 1. elder Joseph is in Majuro

2.tonight I will meet Elder Joseph's family at dinner.

3. I miss vegetables and fruit hahaha and all American food haha

4. yes you should send me candy, but also food like granola bars. you can send a package for my bday! send it like now! and then send the Christmas one in like a week or 2.

5.my comp is from Vanawatu and speaks that language, he has one more transfer so he is super trunky.

6. I don't sleep on a bed, I sleep on a matt on the ground, a woven one, so pretty much just the tile, I really enjoy it actually.

7. we cook for ourselves although a lot of members feed us dinner

8. I live with elder thiel and ross, they came in the transfer before me. they are from Utah

9. I have to shave more often I don't like it

10. power outages rarely, bur they happen when we are sleeping

11.i only wear my jesus snadals, we only wear flip flops here and role up our pants. so ill save my other shoes and bring them home hahha

12. ya you can see about 6 other tiny islands around me. its all part of the KWajelin atoll.