2 months already

Hi everyone!!
It's been 2 months as of today! I can't believe that time has gone by so fast! Today is also the start of a new transfer. 1 down 16 to go. It's going to be a very interesting transfer. Because of my companion's visa he will be leaving a week before transfers. Another elder in the other ward is leaving in 3 weeks. So our district is going to be cut down to nothing soon. :( Oh well, we will survive. So I hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving. I know I did. I ended up getting two wonderful meals from loving members. Not only that but there was non-members at each dinner. So, some more exciting news. I get to drive! Woot. I'm now cleared to drive the mission vehichle. Which has been a dream of mine for the last 6 weeks. The week has been a good one. We ended up street contacting a lot of people, because most of our investigators left for thanksgiving. We also have a baptism this week. On Saturday a recent convert will be baptising his 10 year old son. Super exciting!!!!!! More exciting news is that today I get to go on an 8 mile hike. The funny thing is that we are going to be climbing a hill, yet all the members here call it a mountain. I'm almost tempted to show them a picture of what mountains really look like. They are convinced though that it is a mountain. What can you do though? It is supposed to be a beautiful hike and I'm rather excited for it. On another note I'm currently learning Espanol. The population is mainly spanish here so I called and got permission from the mission president to study it after our morning studies. I can speak it, but can't understand it. My companion can understand it but can't speak a lick of it. So we make A good team. Well I'm off to go climb a "mountain". Hope all is going well.

Love,
Elder Tingey

1 month in the field

It's been a rather strange week in Santa Maria. My companion has some wierd stomach bacteria that stops him from going out. In 3rd ward, one of the missionaries has some head injury that stops him from going out. So for the last week I've been working with Elder Rogers. We have been locking the two sick people up together in our zone leaders appartment while we go out and work. Poor zone leaders. We are eating all of there food, but the sickly elders keep the place spotless. I guess when you have nothing else to do you clean. Even with this set back though the work is progressing. We had a baptism last night. We baptised and confirmed an 8 year old. He is a child of record but still it was cool to be a part of the baptism. We were supposed to have a convert baptism on the 21st but it was pushed back to the 5th of december. Bummer. :( Oh well, I've decided to count it as a November baptism still. We also set 2 more people with a date and will have 2 baptism on December 19th, if all goes as planned. Super excited about that. Don't worry about all the steak and getting fat. I've actually lost about 10 pounds since I left the house almost 2 months ago. Crazy to think I've been gone that long. Cool story of the week. We were headed to our car to drive to a ward correlation when I saw a lady working in her garage. We had parked in front of her house and were a little ways off. Well I got the impression to go and talk to her. As we approached she went through the garage into a door that led to the back yard. Not wanting to ignore the prompting I entered her garage and her back yard. The moment I said "hello, hows your day?" She burst into tears. She was having a horrible day and was ready to just give up. I talked with her a bit and then promised I would be back in about 20 minutes. We still had to go to ward correlation. Luckily ward correlation involved us going on splits with the ward missionaries. So I went to the correlation picked up my new companion for the night and headed back to the ladies house. As we began to talk with her I found out that she was trying to help her father, who was drinking himself to death and it had been a very trying day. She had been praying for God to send help from above, and then we showed up in her back yard. She was super receptive as we taught her about the Restoration. By the end of the lesson she thanked us for bringing such a wonderful spirit into her life and her day. We gave her a book of Mormon and she is reading it and loving it! The work overall is going great. I love it! I love you as well. Take care and I'll write you next week.

Love,
Elder Tingey

Picture of Thomas on his mission

Nov. 2009 while eating at a member's house, Sister Sandy Peterson. The boy in the photo at the left is her son, Chris, then Elder Rodgers (on splits with him) and then Thomas.

Hello from sunny Santa Maria

Nov. 9, 2009

It's been a beautiful and sunny week in Santa Maria. Nights are starting to get cold here though. All the way down to 52 degrees. Brrrr..... ;) Days are getting a little chilly as well. Down to the high 70s. :) So funny story for the week. My companion uses Murry Superior hair Polmade. It's not really hair gel more like hair super glue. So Tuesday he convinced me to try some. So after I got out of the shower I dug my fingers into hair gel from hell and tried to apply it like I would gel, by running my hands through my hair. Well my hands stopped at my bangs. Then I spent the next 15 minutes trying to pull this "hair gel" to the back of my head. I managed to get it half way on my head but that was it. Needless to say my bangs stuck straight out and my hair was frozen in a nice bed head look. When I got out of the bathroom my companion started laughing. Then informed me how your supposed to apply it. Grumble grumble grumble. I informed him that I was going to kill him in his sleep and then got dressed. So the worse part about the story is, I've washed my hair almost 20 times since Tuesday and I still have the stuff in my hair. Morale of the story is: stick to hair gel. Well hope all is well at home. I'll write again next week.

Love,
Elder Tingey

Happy Halloween

Been an exciting week in Santa Maria. Hope you all had a good Halloween. I know I did. Not to mention the nice extra hour of sleep. The work is going great and the people in Santa Maria are amazing! I've never been so well fed. People here just love feeding us and a few times we come to appointments and they have been barbequeing away waiting for us to come. The other day I ended up eating 3 dinners! The weather is great here. We had kind of a cold spell for a few days where we were in the low 70s. Brrrrr... ;) Good thing I had a jacket. There is no snow in Santa Maria and the sun is shining bright and beautiful every day. I love it here and love the people here. Well I've got to go now, but I'll write next week. Love you all back home! Love, Elder Tingey

Hello from Santa Maria

Hello,
Well I finally made it out of the MTC and into the field. I arrived here on Wednesday, October 21,2009. I landed in a tiny airport in Santa Barbara, where I met my mission president and his wife, then an hour drive up to Santa Maria where I was introduced to my companion and my new home. I guess I should back track a little. . .
During my time at the MTC I got a fever on Thursday, October 15. Due to the swine flu scare, they locked me in a room with a roommate for the duration of 5 days. The time wasn't horrible. (I think the only reason I kept my sanity was thanks to the Easter bunny and Elvis being so nice and talkative. :) ) Because I was locked in this room I missed my departure date from the MTC. I was supposed to arrive into the mission on Monday, October 19. So I was delayed and didn't get to leave till later.

Anyway, enough of that. Just wanted to let you know that I am having a wonderful time. I'm in the lovely area of Santa Maria. It is a smaller city, and I love it. The people are great here. I've never been so well fed. Already in the short time I've been here I've seen many miracles and have been blessed. So a quick story before my email time is up. On Friday we were in a suburb of Santa Maria known as Guadalupa. My companion and I were walking to an appointment when we were very strongly told to turn around. We listened and turned around. Not really knowing where to go we headed back down a street we had just come up. While heading down this street we say a boy who had earlier been skateboarding. He was now on the ground crying and crawling to a house. My companion and I rushed over and helped him. My companion carried him and I knocked the door to alert the family. He ended up being just fine, but because we were there at the right time we were able to set up an appointment with the mother. We now will get a chance to teach here. The Lord is watching out for us. I'm very greatful for that and am happy to be here doing this work. Well, I've got to go. Until next week.

-Elder Tingey-

My address for the next two years

My address for the next 2 years:
Elder Thomas Tingey (Please use my full name)
260 Maple court Suite 120
Ventura California, 93003

Write me a letter! Please do not email me. Email is only allowed between my family. So if you would like to get a hold of me you must write me a letter. My address will not change for the next two years. The mission office forwards it to me. Please though, when sending letters or packages use the USPS, and do not send them rushed or parcel post. Thanks. Love ya!

Elder Tingey
P.S My favorite candy is riesens, and anything dark choclate. ;)