Mexico here we come!

Hello!

So, we're leaving tomorrow morning at 6:00 and flying from Salt Lake City to Mexico City, waiting four hours, then flying straight to Culiacán! We're all very excited and currently making preparations to leave. I should be able to call for a while in the airport tomorrow. And I will likely be sending a box home with some things.

The MTC has been really, really great. Yesterday we had the opportunity to "host" new missionaries; we help them with their luggage at the car and then take them to their residence, get their books, take them to their classroom and basically show them around a little bit. As I was helping the missionaries, I had to talk a lot about why the MTC is so great and why they're going to enjoy it for their 3 or 8 weeks, and it helped me realize why I enjoyed it here so much (for my TEN weeks). Also, it was kind of funny to see all of the crying families at the curb. While we have been here, we've had fantastic teachers, and I have learned a lot while I've been here. I'm taken aback by how much I've learned. And it's just been super fun. And now my whole district is leaving together after we lost the first six one by one.

I think one of the reasons that we stayed here for an extra two weeks was for Elder Holland's talk at the devotional on Tuesday night. This was the last devotional for our old MTC presidency, and the first for the new MTC presidency. So basically, we stayed at the MTC so long that we outlasted the Presidency. Elder Holland is awesome. He spoke without a prompter and without notes and went farther overtime than any other speaker has, and it was so great. One of his main points was the importance of loving Christ, because we, especially as missionaries, can't really do anything if we don't love Christ enough to have faith to do His work. He spoke quite a bit about that development of the missionary program in the last century. The result is represented by Preach My Gospel, which is a great, great tool. He said that Preach My Gospel is written to convert the missionary before they preach to and convert others. Through Elder Holland's words, I realized the importance of following the Spirit in teaching. We teach according to the needs of the investigators, and we aren't always capable of knowing what they need, so we must rely on the Spirit.

Apparently Elder Colton Jacobson is here, and I'm trying really hard to find him. I've seen a few others that came in this week (Elder Heath Sanford, Sister Maura Jackson), and it's really fun to see people I know. So hopefully I manage to catch Elder Jacobson before I leave.

I feel very blessed that I'm able to learn Spanish. I know that I'm doing the Lord's work preparing to serve the people in Mexico. I know that the true church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ have been restored in our day through the prophet Joseph Smith, and that we have a living prophet today. I know that Jesus Christ atoned for us so that we can fulfill God's plan and return to live with him. I'm very excited to testify of this, in Spanish, in Mexico, tomorrow.

Thanks for all the beef jerky while I've been here in Provo! I will call tomorrow.

-Elder Tingey