She was deaf.

We've had a dynamic week; because of a zone conference and a few other things, our time was pretty complicated, and we didn't get as much done as we had wanted to. However, as the week drew to a close in the crunch time of Saturday and Sunday, things seemed to start suspiciously going our way. Sister and Elder De Hoyos of the Quorum of the Seventy visited this week, so we spent a morning in Los Mochis for a Zone Conference. There were a lot of helpful and edifiying things that I took from it. Presidente Cantù spoke about how we can never rest from our work because of whom we represent. I need to always be prepared for those I come into contact with: alert, observant, with a smile. "We must pay the price; there is no other manner," said Presidente Cantù. Sister De Hoyos explained the possibility of exact obedience. When looked at as a whole, being 100% obedient seems like a difficult task; we have a lot of rules and a cramped schedule. However, if you look at each rule individually, they're not so hard to follow, and they are certainly possible. For example, getting up on time - 5:30 a.m. here in Angostura - only requires a bit of will and self-organization.

She also mentioned the concept of: “The Kingdom of God or nothing.” Any sin, however minor, that we make is something willingly chosen that can genuinely limit our divine, eventual potential. I don’t want to do anything to limit myself, to stop myself from recieving the greatest consequences that I have the oppotunity to recieve. Elder De Hoyos gave us some interesting tasks to complete, such as rewriting a mission acceptance letter to the First Presidency of the Church, annotating the First Presidency message in Preach My Gospel, and memorizing the Articles of Faith. The message he shared was pretty unique; he was talking about our daily work in very down-to-earth way, giving advice about how to be more efficient in finding references, or how to teach specific principles. Zone Conferences are great, and very difficult to leave because of all the other missionaries that I want to talk with whom there's usually no time.

A lesson that I've had to learn repeatedly (and still don't seem to understand) is the importance of NOT judging, especially from a first impression. In Costa Rica, Elder Merrell and I were eating in a member's house and a woman entered and walked by us. I greeted her with a cordial, "Buenas tardes!" and when I didn't recieve a response, I just thought to myself that she was quite rude. Turns out, she is not rude, just deaf. Elder Merrell ended up teaching her for a while in the best sign language he could muster. I really want to become better a recognizing people's intentions - which are usually good - and understanding their motivations in stead of making conclusions based on unfounded observations of environment, clothing, economic status, or anything else.

In the weekend, we had to make the preparations for the baptismal service of Guadalupe, the mother of a recent convert, Agustin. It seemed like things were going to be extremely complicated because of the over-filled schedule we had, but a lot of little miracles happened and everything went smoothly. Among these little miracles: Elder Monroy and I were the area of the other companionship in our district for a baptismal interview, and needed to make it all the way to Angostura for a lunch appointment - for which we were already a half hour late - and then organize all of the travel for the service in Guamuchilm where there is a baptismal font that would be easier to enter than the one we have a in Angostura, which involes climbing up ladder-staircase rig. Elder Monroy said, "Elder, we need to pray for a ride." He said a quick prayer, and the next truck that came let us hop in, and then went straight to Angostura and nearly to our doorstep; it was by far the most effecient ride I've had in this area. En route, we said another prayer in gratitude for the perfect ride. There were a lot of other things that went really smoothly that day and in the following Sunday in order for Guadalupe to be confirmed as well. It's made me realize that I need to be better at recognizing my spiritual experiences. I think I often get caught up in observing the culture or trying to find experiences that will make for funny stories later on, and I get a bit distracted from what's most important. If I think back on the time I've spent in Mexico so far, few experiences pop out as genuinely miraculous or edifying, just because I'm bad at paying attention and reording those that I know I've had. So, I want to pay more attention to recognize what I'm in the middle of.

Every other week when we go out to Cerro de los Sanchez for the extended Sacrament meeting, we hop in the bed of Hermano Cornelio's truck with Hermano Ambrosio (or Bocho) and shout hymns against the strong winds throughout the small trek. It's really fun everytime; Hermano Bocho is such a jovial, funny character that I can't help but just laugh the whole ride. I'll try to explain the characters and relationship between Hermanos Bocho and Cornelio sometime, but I nearly can't do it justice. They're like a sitcom about two grumbly old guys that seem to argue a lot, but really couldn't be one without the other.

In the first month or so of my mission, I thought everything was pretty easy. I've realized that was because I couldn't speak or teach all that well, and I was very green, so I just followed along behind Elder Davis and Elder Brassard and didn't have much responsibility. As I've gotten further into my mission, the responsibility has been heaped upon me, and with it has come an understanding of why a mission is difficult. Each Sunday, it's like entering the field again a being nearly overwhelmed. I love it. It is so fulfilling to try my hardest each week, sometimes fail, and come out better for it.

Parades

Mexcio Celebrates the Birth of Charles Daniel Schrohowsky! Parades (there's actually a parade of a band and about a hundred guys on horseback passing the cyber right now) and fireworks in the streets throughout the night! Everyone gets baptized!

It's strange to join the ranks of unclehood, especially when I think about how cool all of my uncles are. Charlie looks really good, and slightly Asian. I'm excited to meet him. Congratulations Kate and Daniel!

The Mexicans have their own versions of the hymns. I don't know where they came from, but they're the same in everyone branch I've been to. There's just little differences between the tune that everyone sings and the music. It makes playing piano pretty exciting; sometimes I'm just sitting at the bench trying to hold back laughter and find where I am in the music.

Two separate members of the ward approached us and mentioned that we would need to come by there houses and possibly perform exorcisms this week. So we scheduled some appointments, and we'll see how that goes.

Elder Monroy is the man. He is a really faithful and humble missionary. His love for the people comes through in nearly all of his actions. I'm really enjoying working with him.

I've realized that it's all about the basics with those we teach. The "first lesson" is about the restoration of the Gospel, or how the church and authority that Jesus Christ established were lost, and later restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. If we teach some part of that in our first visit with someone, the whole intent of the lesson is to help the investigators see the importance of reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it to know if it's true. And really, if they are missing that basic understanding, progression is difficult. We're working on simplifying our teaching of the first lesson to really help other's understand that concept. Once they basics are down - a testimony of the Book of Mormon - everything else can fall into place.

We had a really good planning session on Friday that helped me to look at our investigators and see that many of them lacked the basics. Good planning leads to success!

Love,
Elder Tingey

Hitchhiking

The area of Angostura is comprised of many small towns. Some of them are VERY small. This geography means that we spend a lot of time traveling each day. We hitchhike every day to different ranchos in our area. In one of the furthest towns, Cerro de los Sanchez, we have an extension of the sacrament meeting on Sundays. It's under a tree! I'm often reminded of the early missionaries and the beginnings of the church when I'm in little places like this where the church is just beginning to grow. Whenever we go out to Cerro de los Sanchez to teach, we usually only get a ride part of the way there, and then have a long, long walk. On one side, there are endless fields of corn. On the other, there is a canal - where we skip rocks - and then endless fields of corn.

The church building in Angostura is not a chapel, but instead, a house of prayer. It's quite a bit different than other church buildings, because it's just a house that has been converted to be a church. It's pretty nice though; it has everything we need, including a keyboard! I was able to play for the branch on Sunday on that little keyboard.
I remembered that the sun gives you cancer, so I started using sun block.
I'll be teaching the youth's class in church each week. I was called to be the teacher for my Elder's Quorum in my ward at BYU, which was mostly comprised of return missionaries. I didn't do great, but I did learn a bit about how to teach to a class. I really want to gain a love for teaching during my mission; I'm comfortable teaching to investigators, but I was bit nervous to teach this class on Sunday. It ended up going really well, and I have a strong desire to become a better teacher and always be prepared to teach.

Love,
Elder Tingey

Destroying Missionary House with a Scrub Brush

I have left Costa Rica! After four months there, I felt like I knew everyone, and that had been my whole mission thus far; and so, leaving that place was very strange this morning. I think I was able to finish strong with this last weekend that we had.

On Friday night, we had a missionary activity in the chapel: a movie and sports night. We were inviting people all week, and lots of the members were really pumped about it and inviting friends as well. We set up a huge screen and watched "the Testaments." Afterwards, Elder Merrell and our branch mission leader, Hermano Salvador Cervantes, asked trivia questions and threw treats out to those who got them right. Afterwards, we had soccer and volleyball set up. It was really fun, but we didn't have the amount of success that we were expecting and hoping for. I really want to find ways to do missionary work well through activities such as one.

On Saturday, we had a baptismal service for Angelica and her daughter,Julisa, and Silvia and her daughter, Biasne. Silvia ended up being extremely nervous about getting in the water, and decided to wait until next week. But, we baptized the other three. It such an amazing experience everytime. They're so excited! And we're so excited! That was a great service, and we did the confirmations in the sacrament meeting the next day.

Sunday was a very normal, and therefore insane, day. I spoke in both branches and taught in all three hours of my own branch. None of the members of the branch presidency were there, so our ward mission leader was presiding by himself. We taught a few lessons in the afternoon and shared some parting messages with my converts. At night, got to call home for Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day, Mom. Talking to the family was very fun, and verystrange,and I felt like it was only 5 minutes long.

This morning I left early from Costa Rica, and got to spend some time with all of missionaries going through the bus center in Culiacán while waiting for my bus. Elder Brown is doing really good. And now I'm in Angostura, Sinaloa. My companion is Elder Monroy from Mexico City - who was in Costa Rica before, so I've heard lots of good things. I've only been here a few hours, but I know I'm going to love it. Mostly because of the trees. I am going to be destroying the missionaries' house with a scrub brush and some soap very soon.

Young Women of the Church

We had an extremely cool baptism this weekend. Margarita, Amalia's mom, was baptized! She is a tiny woman in a wheelchair who is over seventy years old. A week ago, she did not want to get baptized at all. But something changed. The Holy Ghost helped her out, and she really, really wanted to get baptized. The baptismal service was really intense. At seven o'clock (the planned starting time), no one was there - which was expected - but lots of members came in time for the real starting time. We just picked Margarita up and carried her into the font and baptized her. She was holding her nose the whole time. I don't feel like I can convey why it was so neat very well, but I won't accept any one's lazy excuses for not coming to church anymore, because Margarita makes it every week.

The impact and consequences of every action of a missionary are far-reaching, and more influential than we sometimes recognize. We represent a lot, and because of that, it's necessary to be exemplary at all times. We contacted a house a while ago, and the woman was very angry. She told us that she had once turned away missionaries, and they stole her statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe as they were leaving. Those missionaries probably didn't realize that their actions would affect the work years later, or they just didn't really care. On the other hand, we have been teaching Reynato's family this week. He received us really warmly at first, which was good, but it was a bit mysterious.
He mentioned, "Other missionaries have come by before."
"Did they have a name tag like this?"
" Yep, yep. And skirts."
...sister missionaries! The misioneras who had come by years before had left a really good impression on the family of the church and of the missionaries, and so we have been able to teach the family and they immediately wanted to listen. I'm striving to always maintain the right kind of presence and fulfill the responsibilities I have.

We taught a man named Ricardo this week. When he first came out of his door, he was holding a cigarette, and continued holding it throughout the lesson. So, we challenged him to be baptized and taught him the Word of Wisdom. He said that he really wanted to quit smoking and drinking, so Elder Merrell asked him to give us the cigarette he was holding.
"Naw, this one will be my last one, and then I'm done."
"What if the last one was the last one, and then you never have to smoke again?"
We had him say a prayer and ask for strength to give up smoking, and so he asked to be able to give us the cigarette right then. Right after the prayer, he handed us the cigarette. He'll be praying and reading the Word of Wisdom pamphlet to have strength to quit so he can get baptized next month!

Lose Yourself in the Work

I have learned a lot this week. I was in Culiacán for Seminary for four days. It was so fun. The opportunity to meet and become friends with lots of other Elders in the mission was a really great by-product. During Seminary, we listen to Presidente Cantú and Hermana Cantú from 8 to 12:30, go work in various areas of Culiacán until 5, and then listen to Presidente Cantú and Hermana Cantú until 8. We're able to apply what we learn immediately, and because we have a relatively short time to work in the middle of the day, everyone strives to be really effective during that time. On the second day, we had about half an hour left before we had to return to the chapel. I said to Elder Luna, my companion for the week, "Elder, I really want to see a miracle in these next thirty minutes." And we did. We found a woman, Sophie. We only had about ten minutes left to teach her before we had to leave, and in that time she accepted a baptismal date. She was very prepared to meet us. That strongly testified to me the importance of faith. Presidente Cantú noted a change that had come over the missionaries that week: a stronger desire. Results really come if you begin with true desire to have miracles.

Within the listening portion of Seminary, I would take notes diligently each day, and I had lots of small lessons and epiphanies that came for how I can be better in my work. I realized that sometimes I'm afraid of spiritual intensity; I'll try to make a lesson fun, but sometimes it just becomes lithe and I block the influence of the Spirit. The most spiritual moments I've had that have strengthened my testimony have come from times that were spiritually intense. I want to emulate those. Presidente Cantú doesn't teach lithely. I want to bring the Spirit with fire when I teach. I also don't want to waste any moment that I have with a member. It's all about working through the members in missionary work. The people who are getting baptized are referrals and part-member families whom we teach with members every time we visit. I want to be capable of edifying everyone I meet, including the branch members whom we eat with each day.

As I learned smaller lessons like these, I started to get overwhelmed. I felt like the reason that a mission is hard is just recognizing how much progress I lack. I started out a 1%. But once I progressed to 2%, I realized that I wasn't progressing to 100%, but to 1000%. Each time I make a step, I just gain a better view how far I have to go. In these stressful doldrums, the grander lesson came. Patience. I need to have long-suffering with myself if I'm going to get better. My aspirations are high, and the best way to achieve them is by focusing on each step of the way. So, I'm trying to be more patient with myself in order to augment every other attribute at a pace that I'm a capable of.

We saw the results of our faith and diligence on Saturday in a baptismal service! Amalia finally got married this week, and was able to be baptized. We also baptized Lisbeth, who is a member of a less active family, which is now more active. The preparation of a baptismal service is really intense; everything falls to us: baptismal clothing, inviting members and friends, preparing the font, somehow getting a member of the branch presidency to come. It always works out somehow, and we were able to have a great service. Both Lisbeth and Amalia were very excited.

On Sunday, both of them were able to be confirmed in the Sacrament meeting. Yesterday was one of the most edifiying experiences I've had in church in my life. I had so much responsibility to fulfill, and I loved it. I felt fueled by the Spirit and capable during church and through the rest of the day. I had to sight-read hymns that I've never heard before, confirm Amalia in Spanish, give the priesthood to Fernando - also in Spanish (and those were both first-time experiences for me) - and try to get all of investigators to church among other things. It was such a great day. And I really felt like the blessings of working hard came throughout the day. I try to have no hesitance in following spiritual promptings, and I felt like I was running on such promptings in nearly every action.

A few uncles told me before I left: "Lose yourself in the work." Lose yourself in the work. I think I'm finally beginning to understand what that means.

Van full of kids

A project that has encompassed a good portion of our week has been the
marriage of Amalia and Cándido. We’ve been waist deep in Mexican
bureaucracy in order to get all of the forms they need to get married
– there are lots, and to get certain forms, you need other forms… it’s
been fun. At first, we would tell them: “Okay, here’s what you have to
do. Go do it, and let us know what happens.” And… nothing would
happen. So now, we just bring them along to get everything they need.
They really want to get married so that Amalia can get baptized. She’s
very prepared. Today, their family should come here from Culiacán for
the ceremony, and they should be married by the end of the day. We
hope.

We are teaching a few young girls from different part-member families
who all live on the same street. On Sunday, we came by with a van, and
all of them got in with some friends and family members and we ended
up bringing nine kids to church! We brought the Primary. Poor Hermana
Carmelita’s calling is Primary President, so she had a fun day trying
to just keep them all from killing each other. We taught them a lesson
about reverence afterwards.

I got a package from Aunt Emily’s family! Thanks! That was so cool. I
really liked the drawings, but the other missionaries really liked the
candy.

I’ve been praying a lot for help in strengthening my testimony and
I’ve certainly seen the results; Heavenly Father answers prayers in a
manner that we will listen. For me, it’s never been the manner that I
expect.

Sometimes, we get a bit caught up in teaching someone, and I’ve
realized that there’s one step that cannot be skipped in someone’s
spiritual progression: gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon. It’s
absolutely key. If we return to a house to teach for the second time,
the first thing we should do is ask if they read the Book of Mormon,
and if they prayed about it. When we lose the focus of helping the
investigator progress and instead, get caught up in how we can help
them get baptized, we are unable to help them at all. If they haven’t
read, we read with them right away. It’s honestly a waste of time to
continue teaching someone who doesn’t have a testimony that it’s a
true book. I’ve met a lot of people who were recently baptized, and
now they don’t go to church at all. They were baptized without a
testimony. So I am striving to help those we teach gain a testimony of
their own.

I hope that other missionaries and prospective missionaries read parts
of my letters. My companion, Elder Merrell, has been striving to do
something in our companionship which I advise all missionaries to do:
Kneel to pray with your investigators as often as possible. Even the
first prayer that you give to start the first lesson you teach.

Love,
Elder Tingey