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.

What up Fam! and friends! let me address the fact that Trump beat Hillary!!!!! lets go! hahaha. also Happy earyl Birthday to my Mother!!! her bday is the 17th, every wish her a happy Bday!

This week has been crazy. my comp is being a baby hahaha. He only has 1 transfer left and hes super trunky and he one day just flipped on me because I wanted to go to the lessons that we had planned and he didn't. so now he refuses to work with me or any other elder besides the District leader (mostly because the DL is lazy sometimes too) so everyday I have had a different companion. we go on splits everyday. and the other elders are the ones that came in the transfer ahead of me and my Marshallese is better than theres except for 1 of them. so I taught all the lessons this week and they just bore their testimony. so I haven't even finished my first transfer and im already pretty much the senior companion. I have to rely on the Lord in everything I do. We have been teaching 7-9 lessons a day. about 3 or 4 of those are less actives. My area is tiny but there is a ton of people and I love it!

so we are allowed to wear sunglasses and hats here obviously so you know I found some cheap sunglasses that said "Ferrari" on them hahah (my friends should understand this, Chandler you broke my Porsche glasses so I had to switch to Ferrari) Also we wear flip flops and role up our pants. that's how we do it here in the islands, so sorry mom, I never wear any other shoes. Also the water here is super blue which is surprising because of all the trash. Also the Marshallese music is hilarious. They will take some American song and change the words. So I heard a song that had the same music as "breakin free" from High school musical but it had Marshallese words and it was so funny. Also look up the song Likatu kalulu and Likatu ilo Majel. They are super good Marshallese songs.

Also shout out to Mitchell Jacobson for the church music. Mom could you send me more? and Christmas music? thanks!

Well we'll see if I get a new companion soon. Pray for me that I can have the gift of tongues hahaa because I need it since im teaching all the lessons because my temporary companions don't know a ton haha. Love you all.

Here are some pics of my everyday views and a handful of the billion kids that are here. I should have internet for a while.

Love you all

-- 

Elder Tingey

Second week on the island

Iokwe Iokwe! Ejet ami mour? What up fam!!! im just out here on an island yah know? where to start i dont know hhaah. lets talk a little bit more about the island. here on Ebeye i dont have to go fishing for my food. We have little stores here that sell food, but obviously its super expensive because its all imported. ON the outer islands is where you have to fish for your food everyday. They go spearfishing wish is dope! the 2 most common questions on the islands are "Where are you coming from? and where are you going?" and you just point oh i came from that house over there and im going to that house over there. and they just say oh thats cool. Here everyone works on Kwaj, the American base on the island right next to us. the people either work or just chill and somehow survive.  

Me and my comp did some good work this week, yesterday we taught 8 lessons! we have some solid investigators that im super excited for. One is 9 years old and her name is Miko and shes so cute and smart. She lives with her Grandma who is a very active member. We have a baptism date for her and im so excited for her. 

Here on the island its very hot! like super hot, and there is like no trees because every place is needed for someone to live. It also rains everyday, and when it rains it pours. i love when it rains cuz that means it will cool off. 

If everyone member here in ebeye was active we would probably have a temple super close, but there are soooooo many less actives. Also its pretty sad to see like 10 year old kids smoking cigarretes and gambling. Also there are a ton of dogs and cats here on the island. like there are so many. and also there are Rats. and big rats. one time we were teaching an investigator and i saw a ton of rats just climbing in the junk behind him, it was gross. gottta love it hahaha. i love the people here, especially the kids. 

Btw im mad i didnt get any pics of everyones Halloween costumes!! smh

The spiritual thought for this week is 2Nephi 31:20 i think thats the scripture, it talks about enduring to the end! love you guys! 

-- 

Elder Tingey