Ibwijleplep (Flooding High Tide) and Transfers Nov 6

What up friends and Fam!! 

Happy late Halloween! Halloween in the Marshall Islands consists of a few groups of kids (not dressed up at all) going to the apartments where the white people live, and singing a weird Halloween song that sounds like the tune is a Christmas song, and hopefully getting candy hahaha. I was yet again a missionary for Halloween (the 3rd time in my life, #throwback to 4th Grade, me and Bug haha). good times

So this past week the tide was insanely high and like coming up onto the roads and next to houses. yes it is true, the Marshall Islands are going to be under water in a couple of years ahahaha. Idk why but it didnt seem like Kiribati had this problem. But i want you all to try and say the word "ibwijleplep" its pretty easy but i think it will be funny for you guys to try hahaa.

Also this old man in my ward is literally the Marshallese version of Robin Williams hahahaa hes soooo funny. like i think they were twins in heaven. i will take a video of him so u guys can see when i get home. 

So Transfers are happening this week. I will get yet another companion hahahh. I have never stayed with a comp for more the 2 months thats 1.5 transfers hahah. and my guess is that i will stay with this next comp for just 1 transfer too hahaha. I am still in my area of Long Island, still leading the Kiribati branch, my comp Elder Ross is now getting to go to to hi 3rd outer island. dang im jealous, but i think i will go outie after this transfer. I am trying to go open an outer island called Ebon. look it up, its sooo cool. 

My new comp is a baller. His name is Elder Ntiua, he is half Marshallese half Tuvalu (hes a big boy). He grew up here in the Marshall Islands and he started his mission here and then went to Kiribati, and just came back on Friday. I met him in  when i was in Kiribati, and he came back on Friday and no one even knew that he was coming haha not even the APs. He is going to help my sooo much with both the Kiribati language and the Marshallese language. He also is going to take a big load off my shoulders. Also the sisters in my ward, the STL's, are 3 Kiribati sisters!!! So i am still DL and still Branch President, but now i have a Kiribati team! only 2 missionaries in my District dont speak Kiribati and they are the APs. The Lord is blessing me! 

Also its setting up perfectly for me to hand off this Kiribati Branch this next transfer. (im hoping to go open Ebon and train at the same time ahha we will see).

This week was kind of crazy and this next week will be even crazier due to all the missionaries coming in to main island because there is a mission tour. and also stake conference. I WILL BE HAVING PDAY NEXT WEEK ON TUESDAY!

Work is great!!! picked up a family this week to teach! Also the Kiribati branch this week was sooo awesome. 18 Kiribati people!! thats the best we ever had. Everyone shared their testimonies and it was sooo awesome and powerful. For class i taught about Latter Day Prophets and tried to teach them the song haha. it was rough, but really fun. I told them all that i would quiz them next week. 

Well time is flying. its already November! soon we will be in 2018 and i will be almost done. crazy and also sad haha. I am going to miss not being so famous hahah. what i mean by this is i wont be able to ride my bike down the street and have all the little kids wave and yell my name "Elder Tingey (Tenki) Tenki! Iakwe" or "Mauri" it just wont be the same. HEre you wear a shirt and tie and a name badge and ur famous hahaah. even the adults call my name out as im riding down the street. haha its a good time. thats one thing i will miss soo much. just the Love and kindness in the Islands.

Lets all be less "white" be more "brown" haha meaning to be more sharing, more loving, more kind.

Love you all!!

Elder Tingey

The move-- October 29, 2017

What up fam and friends!!! hows the life in the states?

so not a ton happened this week. 

We got a family to accept a baptismal date!! nov 18! im sooo pumped! this family is sooooo ready. johnny and Pamela! (american names)

Also we had a baptism! she is 11 years old and her mom is a LA so this is helping the fam get stronger. we are now studying with her dad. Gotta work the family tree!! Her name was Mary Smith (talk about the most American name ever hahhaa). 

Church this week was solid. We watched Conference at the church builiding. The translation for Marshallese was sooooo bad it hurt. so i just went with my Kiribati group and watched it in English, they said they didnt really understand it all, but could feel the holy spirit. Conference is sooooo good, i love it! We had 6 inv. come to church and watch conf. after the first session the whole ward ate hotdogs and cake hahaha good stuff. 

One of my favorite talks was about how the Lord gives us hard things to help us grow and develop. If life was just so easy we would never learn. Just like a baby chick has to break out of its shell to grow and be strong, so do we. we have to go through hard things to be able to handle more stuff in life that will come our way. With every trial think "WHAT DOES THE LORD WANT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS?"   

Mother, there is a senior couple in my mission that are pretty new. They are the Seagers. And Brother Seager, i am pretty sure his name is Brian Seager grew up in Clovis and says he knows you and the whole Stoker fam. they have been living in Vegas for the past 20 years though. He also knows Luke Lions dad, idk his first name. Crazy small world.

Father, there is a family in my ward and there son went and lived in america for a while with his relatives and guess where he went to High school, mclintock high in Tempe, AZ!. Crazy!!!!!! such a small world! This guys dad is our Elders Quorum president and is big in Marshall Islands gov. he had dinnre with Bill clinton in th ewhite house! a Marshallese guy!!!!! 

ALso 'the move' consisted of me and my comp moving from our very nice house to a tiny small chapel house that is behind the church and is like 15 feet from the lagoon haha.  The house is smaller than my room at home and has a bathroom and little kitchen (sink and oven and stove) so its pretty crowded. its tiny hahah. but i will be fun, and easier to clean. 

love the mission!

Elder Tingey

What up Fam and Friends!

How I miss you all so much! but its okay, only less than 10months and ill be back in America for a month and then back here in the islands because I love it so much! haha jk mom I will stay for a while.

So this week was good as always. I would like to thank my Father and Mother for teaching me good work ethic because missionaries are dead by the end of the week! But I'm still running, ain't no body got time for resting. Like my President said, "I don't care if on your last day we have to roll you out to the plane on a stretcher with an oxygen mask on, at least you'll know you worked your hardest and gave it everything you got" haha gotta love it! 

So we had a good success at the airport again this week! it was funny because both times we were at the Airport President was either coming in or leaving so i felt like i was his AP sending him off and picking him up, but really I wasn't there for him. There was a ton of Kiribati people and I feel like now I know every Kiribati person on the island. Its cool because whenever Kiriabti people see us they talk to us in Kiribati because they know that we aren't just Marshallese elders but also Kiribati elders.

My work just got a little harder due to the sisters taking our car from us, dang sisters hhaaha. learn to ride a bike! now we have to taxi to get to the far places in Majuro, lets just say it eats a big part of our time. 

This week we had 6 investigators at Church this week!! all of which stayed for class!!!! that is a miracle right there!!!!!! not even members stay for class hahaha. These people are going to be solid converts! they just need to accept a baptism date! But one will get baptized this Saturday! but she is a 10 year old girl hahah, but her mom is  less active and dad is not a member so lets just say, 'bout to get that whole fam being members and active again! 

Kiribati branch this week was a even greater success!! 15 people!!! I sent a pic! One lady came from Kiribati to just visit and she shared her conversion story/life story in church and dang it was powerful! she was a blessing to the members here. We again did hymn practice after sacrament meeting for our class time.

So right now Im teaching a guy from Kili island, which, if you guys didn't know, is where they relocated the Bikini people before they did atomic bomb testing on their island. Its sooo cool to learn the history of all the testing and Bikini people. He gave me a book called "For the Good of Mankind" you guys should read it, its soooo good. The history of the Marshall Islands is sooooo cool. But lets just say America really screwed over the Bikini people. They never talk about it much in American history because America knows they messed up on that one. America still hasn't cleaned up Bikini island. so no one can live on it right now. Look into the history its sooo cool. There is only 8 people left that were originally on Bikini and were there when the Americans moved them off of Bikini. 

love the work! Love you all!

much love,

Elder Tingey

 The nicest apartment on all the islands!!

 Photo Shoot!!

 Dinner with a Kiribati Family

 The Kiribati Branch

 Typical Housing on the Island of Majuro

An investigator

Miracles and Mowing Lawns Oct 15, 2017

What up fam and friends!! 

shout out to my cousin ZACH for heading out on his mission to El Salvador this week! good luck big guy! much love!

Also shoutout to every getting engaged/married! Props! seems like everyone is doing it these days haha.

Busy busy week this week.Non stop work, like im trying to find time for personal study because we are so busy. From now on me and my comp go the the airport every Friday and Sunday morning because thats when the Kiribati flights come and go, so we go to invite people to church. It has been super succesful because i meet new Kiribati people and its just fun. people are very surprised when i start speaking Kiribati to them haha. my comp and i have a car now and are allowed to go all throughout Majuro to teach Kiribati people or even just to find them. so its like im an AP but not, hahha. Its fun. 

Also i am very busy in my own area with the Marshallese people. So many solid investigators. We had 8 investigators come to church! what a blessing! they are so awesome and are all couples, we just need them to get freakin married!! we have invited them all to accept baptismal date but for some reason none have accepted YET. no worries,time and patience. I also gave a talk in the Marshallese ward this week. It was solid! i gave a 10 minute talk on The importance of SundaySchool class and why we need to attend (its a problem here in the islands, they dont go to class) and i talked about how the children of israel had to eat manna for 40 years and everyday they had to get their food and that how us at church we come to get our spiritual food and how class is TakeOut food hahah. it was a really funny but good talk, everyone seemed to like it. and then more people stayed for class (some investigators too!)

Kiribati branch was Great this week!!! we had 12 attend and 3 members gave talks. It was the first week in 6 months that i didnt give a talk in Kiribati church. (But as i said before i gave a talk in the Marshallese ward so my streak still continues haha) It really hit me strong when one of the Kiribati ladies was bearing her testimony and she said as she pointed to me "I know this Elder was sent from God for us Kiribati people here in the Marshall Islands." That right there hit me really hard and made me realized how important this work is and how it affects their lives. It was a very special moment. After sacrament meeting, we had class, but for class we just practiced singing the hymns because thats what they wanted to learn better so that the spirit could be more felt during sacrament meeting. So that was fun. And then after that we gave one of the ladies a blessing because she was having some problems with her Husband. It was the same ladie that said that i was a blessing from God. another special moment. After the blessing she was crying and thanked us for our help. Dang this work is so cool. Sometimes i feel overwhelmed with the Kiribati branch, but i know it is helping these people's lives. 

Well we also picked up 6 new investigators this week. 5 solid ones! one is a family of 4. The man lived in the stated for a while so he is really smart and well educated. We taught the restoration and he said it was like watching a movie it was so cool. he said that wanted to learn more right then! so we taught the Book of Mormon. He immediately wanted a copy so we gave him one, and then he asked for us to get him some mormon movies for him haha. He was so excited! He told us after the lesson that he had been taught by Elders before and he said he didnt really understand. But he said "i think its because the spirit is with us this time" i was like holy freak this guy is so awesome and totally knows! Golden investigator. Please pray for him . 

another new investigator was a lady that walked up to us and asked us to teach her hahaha. so we were like ok, and she said sunday night. so last night we went and taught her and she also is smart and lived in America for 7 years and has seen the temple in Utah. she said she has been to a ton of Churches and never ever wanted to talk to the missionaries but then she said that she for some reason felt that she needed to open her heart and study with us. Wow talk about another golden investigator. 

So many miracles this week its like i cant count them all! The Lord is pouring these blessing on us everyday! 

We got to watch some GC this week, dang i love it!

District meeting was solid! President came to ours and gave me a good compliment on my work as  DL. Its all the Lord, im just the instrument in his hands right?

lastly, yes i mowed a lawn! it has been a while since i did this. We mowed the lawn of a Assembly of God Deacon. he is from Chuke and is just the nicest guy (im determined that he is ready to convert hahaah). We mowed his lawn and then he said that he will now call us his kids and that he will help us with anything we need. Service is key people!!!!!! 

Love the islands! love the work!

Elder Tingey

Island Cowboys Oct 8, 2017

What up Fam and Friends!!!! Iakwe Iakwe, Mauri Mauri!!

what a time to be alive. 

First off a HUUUGE S/O to my cute sis Marissa, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! 22!!!!! its like ur an old lady now hahahahahh jk lol. Marshallese- jerammon nan kwe ilo rainin am. Kiribati- ko na tekaraoi n am bong aio. 

I will let you guys figure out what that says, but just a hint they say the same thing just two different languages.

Mother thank you for the package! im living large now haha PB and J for dayz!

also thank you to everyone who wrote a note on the posters, love you all.

So i love my comp, we are like best friends and we already know each other from serving in the same areas but different comps. its fun because we speak Marshallese when we want or we speak Kiribati. if we dont want a Marshallese person to understand we speak Kiribati (they understand a lot of english) or if there is Kiribati person, we speak in Marshallese. its fun. 

Also so at Zone conference they said what hats were allowed, so me and my comp got some hats hahahaha and we look like Island Cowboys hahahha its soo funny. i will send a pic next week.

Also my comp E.Ross and i talk a lot about hunting and the ranch and all up by Two Bear and whitney resorvoir because he knows that area too hahah it made us both so homesick hhahaahah but it was fun. 

This week was good. We have a car to use now so that we can go visit Kiribati people. We had several FHEs this past week and got too know more Kiribati people. 

At church we had 6 investigators!!!(Marshallese) they are so close to baptism. its just hard for them to really understand that they need to really have a desire to be baptized. also they all need to get married hahh. the struggle is real.

Kiribati branch is kind of struggling. Less and less people each week, but no worries because we will be working extra hard on that this week and so forth. My talk was solid though. I felt like my words flowed so much easier than before,,maybe because i prepared a litttle bit more hhahaha. 

President told me that i would be in charge of the Kiribati branch for a while hahaha so i just put the harness down and put my hands up for the ride. 

My first District meeting was solid! my district is awesome and so fun. basically my district is people that i have served with in other areas before. so i know everyone really well. Combined as a District (6 missionaries all in one ward) we had 14 investigators at church. #work!

Love the work!! the gift of tongues is real! 

i got to watch a little bit of saturday morning GC, meaning the first talk by Uchtdorf but it was sooooawesome!!!! 

love you all, remember that you never know how much of an impact you can make in someone’s life. Always be a good example and show love. Work hard and give it your all! That’s all that matters.

much love,

Elder Tingey