Saved a kitten

Picture 1: Elder Sandoval
Picture 2: This is a little kid named Elder! Oh, Mexico.

This week, I had two first-time experiences. I saved a kitten from a
tree (apparently they really do get stuck up there). Also, I was
offered marijuana. After asking a guy for direccions, we were walking
away from his house, and really casually shouted, "¿Ocupan mota?" with
all of his neighbors watching. Nope, thanks.

Transfers. I'm now in Culiacán, at last. My area is called Colhuacan
(and there are a bunch of pictures of my good friend Elder Richins
baptizing people in the house, so apparently he was here too). My new
companion is Elder Sandoval from Puebla! He was actually in my first
zone back in the day. Wish me luck!

Jared, Lucero, Dia de los Reyes

Picture 237: Christmas has doubled my tie collection!

Picture 239: I feel like these ties were sent with a message: "Dear 20-year-old Elder Tingey, no more of that skinny tie business. Here are some man ties."

Picture 256: My double muñecos from the rosca de reyes.

I sent off another packet of letters. Fingers crossed for Mexican postage once again.

Elder Mendoza and I ran into a kid named Jared this week. He is the mini-Mexican Trey Tingey. Our first lesson basically went like this: "I've already gone to church a bunch with my aunt. I even went to the temple in Mexico City. Can I be baptized?" Yes, Jared. Yes you may. He's a super cool little kid, and most of his family members are less active church members. He would be perfectly content if we came by to teach him and his sister every day.

We found a basketball court right by our house, so I bought a basketball and we go practice for a while in the mornings. Maybe that seems kind of out of character for me, but I like improving things I'm terrible at. And I didn't realize how bad I was before because I normally just pass the ball to other people (Elder Pearson). Like, really bad. Like, 10 baskets in a half hour.

I got the Christmas package! Thank you kindly, family. My favorite part was the tiny Bop-it for my companion, because watching him try to figure out what the bop-it guy is saying is hilarious.

We're really focusing this week on an investigator name Lucero. Her brother is on a mission, and most of her family members are recent converts. She's eighteen and has two kids (one who is named Elder, strangely enough). We had a really cool lesson with her. We basically just taught that she's not a kid anymore, she's a mother and needs to set an example. She said, "You two scare me, because you're convincing me." Not us, Lucero, but the Holy Ghost. She came to church on Sunday and loved it.

Each area has some kind of landmark that we use to help people find the chapel. In Costa Rica, it was a water tower, and in los Cabos, it was a giant colorful castle. In Angostura, it was the Apostolic church. But here in los Mochis, it's a huge sugar factory. They just started the factory up again, so now it smells like Willy Wonka's factory inside the church building. Hopefully, people will just wander in looking for candy now.

I never thought my ability to ride a ripstick would help in my missionary efforts, but it's come in handy. Thanks, Mom, for letting us ride inside the house.

There's a holiday here that has to do with the three wise men that visited Jesus as a child. Apparently, it's a really big deal in Mexico City, but here, they mostly just eat a big sweetbread called "rosca de reyes." It has creepy little bare-bummed figurines cooked inside called "muñecos." If your piece of rosca has a muñeco, you have to buy tamales a month later on the day of the Candelabra or something. Unfortunately, I managed to eat the only piece that had a muñeco in it, and I got stuck with two muñecos! Bad, bad luck.

Something I've really been considering this week is what it means for me to "pay the price" like I have been called to do. Sure, as a missionary I have to sacrifice certain things, and maybe I have to walk a whole lot. Those can be things to complain about, but real sacrifice and really paying the price means maintaining my eye single to the glory of god, trying to be the best missionary I can be, trying to improve my area the best I can. Those things are much harder than setting aside music that's not in the hymnbook for a while. So, I shouldn't feel content simply because I've worked a full day or knocked 100 doors, but because I really gave it my all.

Palabra de Sabiduria, Beso

Elder Mendoza is now my third companion whom the Sinaloaenses have tried to greet with a kiss. I don't know what it is about all my companions, but apparently they are irresistable. I only get handshakes.

New Year's was pretty nuts here. And when I say nuts, I mean drunk. There were loads of drunkards who apparently all want to go to church that accosted us during the festivities for 2012 that lasted about 48 hours. A member family gave us turkey and ribs and salad (with croutons and dressing and all that jazz), all things that I don't remember the last time I ate them. Everyone here loves any excuse they can find to throw a party, and the kids love any excuse that can find to play with fireworks. The amount of fireworks is startling, but the fact that five-year-old kids were throwing them at each other is more so. Is it weird that I had to convince one of our investigators (a fourteen-year-old girl) not to drink alcohol at a New Year's Party?

We're working with a good pool of investigators. It's been really difficult to get people to church with all of the holiday craziness and a schedule change for the sacrament meeting. We're working hard, and I'm particularly excited for the New Year.

Christmas time is continuing to be really strange. Our whole zone had an activity last night - Christmas Day - where we all sang in the park. We set up a keyboard and mics and the whole shindig. It turned out pretty cool, and afterwards we had a table set up with a bunch of church materials, so it turned out pretty successful too. I think I've learned a lot this week. I've learned, in part, what it means to take upon myself the name of Christ. From what I understand, that means the my motivations become equal to His. That becomes reflected in my actions, my desires, my prayers, my success as a missionary. I've become completely preoccupied by my investigators, even down to when I'm sleeping. I've woken up a few times during the night and realized that I wasn't having dreams, I was just thinking things like: What should I teach the Juarez family? What members can I bring with Lupita? When I really take upon myself the name of Christ and work my hardest, we see lots of miracles.

This week we found the Ortiz family. One of their kids yelled at us in the street, asking what religion we were from. We put an appointment, and now they're preparing to be baptized. We visited a guy who's been going to church regularly for months with his family who are all members, and he accepted a baptismal date as well. So, we've got a lot of work to do, weve just have to continue working hard. Happy Christmas!

Also, I finished reading the Book of Mormon. We started a daily reading as a mission when I was in my first area, and we finally finished. But, it literally scared me to not be in the middle of the Book of Mormon, so I read Moroni 10 and then read the whole introduction up to 1 Nephi 2 in the same study.

Lemme splain

Lemme splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up:

- Painting the new house of the Hermanas in Macapule. There were only 5 paint brushes for 8 missionaries, so I sat on the couch. That led to being dog piled by four portly Mexicans (and Elder Pearson).

- Stake Christmas Choirs. I got roped into three different choirs. It was really fun. The missionaries all sang Joy to the World, and I directed and yelled the tenor part. Elder Pearson and I sang... Campanas de Navidad, and threw in a bunch of key changes and sang a verse with no melody. I don't think anyone noticed.

- Baptisms. Giovany and Elva were baptized on Saturday. So dang cool. Giovany's sister is a recent convert. He's basically pulled a 180 from when I first met him (very grumpy) to right now (...bashful?). Elva is a woman that Elder Johnson and Elder Rendon contacted last transfer. She brought 5 grandkids (they seemed like 25) to the baptismal service, so it was pretty rowdy.- Recieved a foot rub from a Mexican mortician. ...that is all.

- I'm just super excited for Christmas. Elder Mendoza and I are getting along really well. I like Jardìn a lot. I'm starting to get to know the members pretty well - there's a ton. We're planning on having a lot of success during this transfer.

Hot dogs are okay even if you don't cook them.

Christmas Activity

We had an mission Christmas activity this week. It was great. All of the
missionaries in Sinaloa went to Culiacán for the day on Thursday. We played
dodgeball. I lost every round, except for the round of Mexicans vs.
Foreigners (we sang the national anthem). We also had a testimony meeting.
My favorite part of the activity was just being able to see all of the
missionaries and meet those who I hadn't before. It's important to me to
get to know all of the missionaries that I can; I feel bad whenever
missionaries finish that I never ran into.

We're teaching a family of a less active member, who is actually a return
missionary. He and his wife have two girls, one of which - Carla - is *super
* excited to be baptized. I love their family. We taught the plan of
salvation on Saturday, but we brought materials to color, and we all drew a
"map" with the different parts of the plan, starting in pre-earthly life
and following all of the steps to finish at the celestial kingdom. They're
acually the only people that we planned for in our weekly planning session
that haven't now been dropped, so we're nearly starting from the bottom up
right now in Jardín, but that's okay. We're excited to find new people.

Elder Mendoza is sweet. I'm teaching him English and he's teaching me
Chilango slang.

Piano fiend

Hi, I hardly have any time, but here are some photos. I'm now with Elder Mendoza from Veracruz. He is a piano FIEND, and a great missionary, but he kind of fell off the chart during transfers yesterday, so I didn't manage to write e-mails. Elder Mercado headed back to Culiacán. Love that guy. I should see him this week because the mission is going to Culiacán for a a Christmas activity. Things are going great.