This is how we move.

This is how we move.

Trying to show how excited we are about the new house.

My companion is Egyptian!

Elder Sandoval and I had a really great last week together. We focused

A LOT on teaching to people's needs, and it worked out really well. We
found some great new families. We started teaching Pedro, who is the
brother of a recent convert from when Elder Richins was here,
Fortunato (they're both like 70 or 100 or something). Pedro is blind.
It's been interesting how our teaching changes because of that. I was
hoping he could read Braille so I would finally have an excuse to
order a Braille Book of Mormon, but nope. He's really great and
surprises me with his comprehension.

We moved into a new house! It is about 50 times better than our old
house, and about a sixth of the size (it's just one room). It is
probably the best house I've seen in the mission, with a washer AND
dryer, air conditioning, and bunk bed - much better than our previous
bed (the floor).

Also, I have a new companion. Elder Lopez, from Michoacàn! He was
already in my district, and we've worked together before. Last time I
did divisions with him we jumped off a cliff, and then taught a family
at the bottom of the cliff, who later went to church. So, I'm excited
to work with him.

As for this week, we have some good progressing investigators and
hopes to find many more. We're teaching a girl, Tania, who is from
Kansas! She's cool and reminded me that Americans generally like
reading a lot more than Mexicans. I got her and English Book of
Mormon, and I asked her how her reading was going, and she said, "I'm
only on Chapter 12." Wh-wh-wh-what?

-Elder Tingey

A pumpkin? Young Folks by Bjorn

Picture - ...pumpkin?

I was in divisions with Elder Lopez during the week. We were off in this remote valley, and suddenly, I heard a loud, ghostly melody being whistled. Young Folks by Pete Bjorn and John! We started running around trying to figure out where it was coming from. Turns out it was a truck selling water. So, things are continuing to not make much sense.

Erick was confirmed and is still hilarious. He pulled out my Gospel art book and showed me the picture of Nephi shocking his brothers, "Look, it's Laman, Lemuel and Goku!" We're now teaching his sister's boyfriend, Jesús. He's really cool, and just showed up on his own to church! He plays trumpet in a symphonic band and in a "banda," so we have a lot to talk about.

The ward here is starting to get more pumped with all the baptisms that are going on. We've been trying to really work with the members and continue doing things to get everyone more excited about missionary work. The mission is doing a Valentine's Day activity where we invite all of the members to write cards to friends and family members with their testimony inside, and then the missionaries deliver them. We're also planning an open house for the beginning of March.

I love Mexico. I love that kids have fun by practicing soccer and playing accordian in the street. I don't mind that our neighbors play music so loudly at 2 a.m. I love that the last guy who slammed a door on us took the time to shake our hands first.

Our ward mission leader gave us a bit of really vital advice: the importance of centering our teaching in Christ. A simple, fervent testimony of the Atonement is more powerful than teaching all of the doctrine of all of the mission lessons, and people become converted by gaining a testimony of his divinity.

For this week, we have Santiago's baptism on Saturday. He's a really funny kid. He gets kind of distracted during the lessons - "Hold on, I want to see how many pages the Bible has!" but he's progressing a lot and is super excited.

This was a complicated week.

Tuesday: Divisions. Elder Ames came to Colhuacan with me.

Wednesday: Divisions. Both Elder Sandoval and I went to Mirador for most of the day. I went with Elder Peterson all the way out to a little ranchito outside of Culiacán called Tepuche. It has three streets and one big Catholic church.

Thursday: Yep. Divisions. Elder Lopez came to our area for half of the day, and then we went and got lost for the other half of the day in his area. Mostly I just learned a bunch of Mexican "riddles," like:

En casa de Chi,

Mataron a Ri.

Vino Mo,

y dijo, "Ya." The answer is Chirimoya. My interest in Mexican riddles has declined.

New fruit of the week: Tejocote. Rating: 1/10. With Tony´s: didn´t even bother. It tastes how I imagine erasers taste. Actually, they might make erasers out of tejocotes.

Also, we had Erick's baptismal service after a stake conference on Sunday! Yay! His whole family made it - including future investigator/future brother-in-law of Erick, Jesús). A bunch of members made it out too, and it turned out well.

I learned this week that it's all about attitude. Thursday morning, I didn't feel good. I had just gotten off a nauseating bus, hadn't slept well, wasn't pumped about the complicated day, and generally just had a few things to complain about. But, we had a moment to study, and I just washed up, read some scriptures, said a prayer, and decided to change my attitude. I felt better, and the day turned out really well. It's a simple, but often very difficult action for me to just shift gears and change my expectations for the day, but it goes a long way.

1. Hanukkah came!

2. I lost all of my coins to the draydel game.

3. 4. 5. Erick got baptized!

6. A standard-issue Culiacán stop sign.

7. It's like a little fruit-ball of evil.