Cloverleaf!

Good Afternoon to the great void, and welcome to CLOVERLEAF! That is right, I've been transferred. After seven quick months in Broadway 2 Central I've now switched zones and everything and I'm working with Hermana Keele in Cloverleaf. And might I add, I couldn't be happier...thank goodness! But seriously. If President had come to me and asked me personally where I would like to go and who I would like to work with...this would have been it. So somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good. Hermana Warner is going to freak out! hahaha the only way this situation could get any better would be if she were here with us. Hermana Keele is from California, and this is her fourth transfer but her first transfer away from her trainer. She's hilarious, and a really good singer. Really sarcastic. pretty blunt too, and of course she's gorgeous. So that's good, because I'll be sitting across from her for hours at a time each morning. The area seems pretty cool but of course i've only been here a couple hours now. I do know that we have a walmart in the area so that's a good sign. We have a cute apartment with actual feminine touches here and there, as opposed to the apartment I flushed into after Elders. So that's a nice change. And it's pouring hot rain right now and I'm dead dog tired from staying up late last night to pack (seven months, you'd be suprised the nooks and crannies your stuff gets stuck in) so I'm sorry if this e-mail is subpar. Oh yeah, mom: it's a bike area. for the most part. Aside from the fact that we drive a malibu. (the first thing Hermana Keele said when I got it was, "tingey - it's just me, you , and the bu." haha) But I think we only have poquito miles. so bikes it is.

As for my last week in Broadway 2: It was a good one. Since it was the fifth sunday of the month, they had the ward missionaries do the program. So our Ward Mission Leader had all the recent converts either speak or give a testimony. Can you say pay day for Hermana Tingey? Oh my word. I was sitting in a little choir seat behind the piano trying desperately not to bawl like a baby. (i succeeded by the way! not one tear hit my cheeks. all in the eyes. So that means I have YET to bawl like a baby on the mission.) Claudia told the cutest story in her testimony of how one day she and her daughter Mariana were getting off the bus and her daughter stopped her and said, "Mom, this is my favorite spot right here." and her mom asked why and she said, "because right here is where we met the misioneras." Claudia isn't really open about her feelings but she was saying how she knew the church was true and that she has gone through so many changes since meeting us and she's so happy now. It was so good to hear it out loud, even though we've seen it in her all along. Then, as if that weren't enough, Noel gets up and gives a talk on the Holy Ghost that made him sound like he's been a member for twenty years! The ward was way impressed. Then, the bishop annouces that I'll be giving my testimony, along with Elder Ferguson, who was also being transferred (we found out sat. night.) So that was exciting! But it was fun to see some of the hermanas out in the congregation getting a little teary-eyed and realizing that they actually DO know who I am. haha no it was really hard to leave that ward. So many good experiences and it feels so unfinished to just get up and leave one day like that. But it was overall a really great experience.

We also had a woman come with us to church who was baptized in honduras but hasn't been in over fifteen years and she was here going through a divorce and feeling really alone and depressed and prayed asking God if he would help her and she opened the newspaper and found an ad for the finding faith in christ dvd, called the number, and the church sent us her information. Here's the catch, her phone got shut off like the day later so by the time we got the number it was disconnected, and she had been living at her friend's house but said not to meet her there because she wasn't a member of the church. So we finally decided to just chance the friend's house and they said she had moved out (the friend's kids opened the door) but that their mom wasn't home and they didn't know where she was. great. Well three weeks later we had gone by about five times and still coulnd't get any more info until FINALLY we found the friend, who gave us her new number and we FOUND her this past week and taught her and she came to church! She said she couldn't believe we had found her...she had been calling her friend and asking if we had come by. I can't believe we didn't give up, since she was a member and all. I thought she was long gone. But it was a really tender experience to meet with her. She said she had been going to her friend's church with her and thought about "accepting Christ" there, only she was worried because she just "didn't feel it in her heart" but when we walked in her apartment she said she felt something she hadn't felt in fifteen years. If that doesn't make the church true I don't know what will.

So I miss Hermana Warner but she's going to be great. spreading those little wings. She sang me all sorts of break up songs this morning. "waht about us, waht about everything we've been through..." haha but she's in a threesome! with my old companion hermana hansen and hermana cannon, who i came out to the field with and would love to serve with some day. So they'll have a party. seriously. This was a crazy transfer for the whole mission: 48 of 53 companionships changed, ten whitewashes. ahhh! We even got a new AP. So that's the thing. This transfer rocked our little missionary worlds. But that's alright. We'll be back at it proselyting by six, right? Anyways, I love you all, write me letters to my new address! take care!

Love Becca

NEW TRANSFER MEANS NEW ADDRESS!

Hi all! For those of you writing Becca, here is her new address! I've also updated it on the right hand side there...

Hermana Tingey
12800 Woodforest #2216
Houston, TX 77015

Birthday!

Hello Family!

So I'm just sittin here in my trendy new brown skirt. That's right, I said brown. Nope, it's not a black skirt from downeast. That's the thing mom, you WROTE about a black skirt but it never made its way into the package. . . guess you decided to give it to Jessica! hahah jk. But that was pretty funny. I was confused. But THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH for the Birthday package! It got here the day BEFORE my birthday but I was really patient and I opened it on my birthday right after our morning run. It was perfect! Everything is so cute and fit well so it was a success. I'm the trendiest sista out here now. haha thank you thank you. (LOVE the shirt. big points!) It was all nice and lightweight...perfect. And so fun to hear from everyone. So here's how the day went down: In the morning, when we got back from our run, there was a Tupperware on our porch with a big bow on it, full of candy and ramen noodles from the elders. They left a message on our phone singing a terribly off-key rendition of happy birthday. Then we opened the box from ya'll and played around for a while taking pictures, etc. We baked the cake during planning so that that night we'd be able to come back and blow out the candles and eat it! I got lots of calls from the other missionaries and lots of letters that day so it was awesome. We took the cake to district meeting the next day and everyone loved it. Hermana Warner was teasing me and she told some of the elders that I was turning 24 but they totally believed her and so then when I told them she had lied they were like, "yeahhh suuuuure Hermana Tingey." hahah so I guess I've got an old (fat) face! Anyways. It was memorabe. Oh yeah, President and Sister M. called and sang as well. Cute.

Speaking of President: We had some serious fire and brimstone from him this week! He called a "specialized training meeting" with the two spanish zones and then called us all to repentance! I've never seen him like that. He basically just said that the numbers in the Spanish areas have never been so low and he accounts it to our slacking off with the language. The rule is that you're supposed to speak only Spanish the second you set foot outside your apartment and any time you're on the phone, which we definitely weren't following. So we were feeling pretty guilty. Not fun. Anyways the moral of the story is that we are now speaking a LOT more Spanish than we were before so hopefully we'll see the numbers go up. We also cracked down on our Spanish study and a few other things that were getting slack. Next time we have a meeting like that I want to be able to sit there and listen, knowing that I'm not the one who needed the talk.

Anyways, next week is transfers so we're all getting nervous. NOBODY in our zone changed last time so we're all going to mix around this time we think. I hope I stay but. . . let's be realistic.

We met a cool kid on the street this past week. His name is Victor and he was just walking down the street that we were knocking so I talked to him and turns out he's totally interested. (he looked like a thug...I really didn't want to contact him because I was judging and profiling him but it just goes to show you not to judge a book by it's cover, or an investigator by his bling) But he asked if he could come to our church! (YES please do) We got him a ride with a family that lives near by that has a kid his age and they were chatting it up all through church yesterday. We love setting people up like that. We';re going to be queens of line- ups when we get back. We like to call it "man dates" because we're trying to line people up with potential friends. haha anyways, he's a cool kid.

We've met a lot of new people this week and knocked just about every door in this area that I haven't already knocked. (not true, there's LOTS more) but we're excited to see who starts to progress. Noel got the Priesthood last week and told us that every day is better and better. He has three names ready to take to the temple. Atta boy. He's amazing.

I'm doing great! really not wanting to leave my little home here on bellfort. Hope everyone is doing okay and loving the new school year! hahahaha i wish you all lots of long hours of homework. I"ve done my share. Love you! thanks again for the birthday stuff. You're the best!

Love,

Becca

I'm baking like a toasted cheeser its so hot here!

Holy cow! can you believe it's already August sixteenth? ahhh that's a little scary for me. haha how's everyone doing? I want to hear all about powell, and i'm assuming I will. So I'm sorry if this email is a little scanty and a little crazy, because i'm way distracted wanting to chat with ya'll. haha disclaimer. So this week Hermana Warner got a package in the mail. She's been asking her mom for a watch since she left the MTC and she just got it. Us poor missionaries are so at your mercy out there in the real world. it's hard for us sometimes. But in true mom flavor, her mom sent not just a watch, but a package full of goodies and cute things and fun stuff and gadgets and gizmos aplenty. So it was like Christmas for us! I never even noticed but I guess she snuck in a little Birthday present for me as well so that Hermana Warner could give me something. Isn't she cute? The best part is, we were doing our nightly planning and I was looking at our calender and noticing that Hermana Case's birthday is coming up on August 24th so I asked Warner what we should do and then I started saying we should sing a Jacks Mannequin concert for her cause she loves them and so I started singing some Jack's and all of a sudden warner throws down her pen and goes "i can't take it anymore!" so I started apologizing and telling her i'd stop singing that worldly stuff and recommit myself to signing mo tab but then she was like, "My mom sent you a birthday present!" and she ran and got it and made me open it! haha but it's really cute earrings. Little diamond studs with this cute design around them. so sweet. haha warner's hilarious. We had a pretty average week. Just dealing with stuff way beyond our maturity level... helping people commit to making changes with eternal significance in their lives. we're kindof a big deal. haha no but it was a good week. We had our temple trip! so that was probably the highlight. After the session, we had a meeting with all of us inside the temple and the temple president spoke to us which was really interesting. we were able to ask whatever we wanted. but at one point, while answering a question about sealings he made this lovely little comment: "for example, there are some sweet sisters who never have an opportunity come along to be sealed to anyone in this life." WHAT?haha warner and I started cracking up because i jsut said "ouch" out loud right then. You just can't say that to a group of sister missionaries - talk about SWEET SISTERS. if anyone qualifies for that group it's us. so I started laughing and then i said, "well it's nice to know we have something to look forward to when we go home." and that made the elders behind me laugh and then everyone started laughing and it was a funny moment. so i'm funny even in the temple. Other than that, i'm chatting now. everything else was boring. We have a baptism this saturday for our sleeping in church friend! i guess we believe in dreams as well as visions healings... etc. haha! but her name is jesenia so pray for her! Sorry this is so lame. hope everyone is doing well and ENJOY the end of your summer! we're counting down the days because we've heard that august is the hottest month. we're on the downhill slope! love Becca