First week as ze District Leader

Hey everyone!

So this was an interesting week!

Tuesday was my 20th birthday! We headed out to the stake center to go do new district leader training. We were right in the middle of the training when Sister Park walked in and dropped off a bunch of goodies for my birthday! It was super sweet. We had a couple of service projects lined up but they all fell through so we went to Mike Meadows and read Mosiah 5 with him. We saw the Heady's and his daughter has the same birthday! It was pretty cool haha. We had dinner at the Nichols before trying to see some less actives and a former investigator but they were not available so we went to the church and organized LDS Tools in a way that would be beneficial to us!

Wednesday was pretty good. We basically tried part member families all day but for the most part either they were not ready to come back to church or they were not home. We were able to talk to Brother Skin*** for a little while so that was pretty good. We were trying to figure out a place to go tracting and we decided to go to a place that I have felt we should go tract for a long time. We didn't have much success until we knocked on this one door about half way through. We met a lady named Cynthia and she took a Book of Mormon and said that we could come by in the next week or so! We are hoping to get into contact with her soon! We had a great dinner at the Pea***'s and then we visited some of the members to end our night.

Thursday we had weekly planning in the morning. We decided to give Jay Par*** a call to see if we could get something set up for that day and he finally answered! We got a lesson set up with him for later that afternoon. After lunch we headed out to the north part of the 'burbs and tried to visit some part-member families out there. While we were doing that, the zone leaders called us and asked us for progress records. Luckily I had the foresight to stick the two for us and Gold Hill in my bag so we biked over to the stake center and gave that to the zone leaders. We dropped our bikes off at the Stam*** and tried once more to visit some part member families. While we trying one part member on Taylor, we knocked on the door and a girl named Anna opened the door and told us the part member wasn't living there. However, she talked to us for a few minutes and she even took a pamphlet and a card with our number on it. We got back over to the Stam*** and we taught an awesome lesson with Jay! He had a lot of questions and we (along with the Stam*** help) were able to help answer his questions. We learned after the lesson that we had stake correlation that night and so I had to get dressed up for dinner and then for stake correlation. We had a great correlation and we were able to discuss a lot about how to help the stake progress. We then had ward correlation and we met Sister Lawrence's trainee for the first time!

Friday was my first ever district meeting! Yay!.... haha! I was super stressed about it but luckily it went well! We grabbed lunch at Subway and then we went over and taught Mike about the Great Apostasy and shared a video with him. We came back to our apartment and changed into service clothes to help Brother Stamps take care of Sister Winter's lawn. We made that lawn look good haha! After we changed back into proselyting clothes we went tracting on a street close by our apartment. We got peepholed a couple of times and we didn't have much luck. We the visited some of the more active members of the ward and also some part member families.

Saturday we tried to see some part member families and former investigators over in the Cherry St. Apartments. All the formers that we tried had moved out or were not home... so that was a major bummer. We decided to go tracting and we ran into a guy named Brandon. He was all tatted up and stuff but he was super open to what we had to say and told us that he was looking for a church for him and his daughter to start going to! We are hoping to start visiting with him starting tonight! As we kept tracting, we talked to a couple of people who said that we could stop by! It was super sweet. We taught Adam about the priesthood after lunch and that went well. We tried some less actives over in the west part of town and one of them opened the door and told us that she was going to the local non-denomination church in town and said that no one from "your church" had been by. So that was a bummer haha. We then saw Ken, a man who has dementia. He had no idea who we were but when we were walking outside, he tried to make an escape! Luckily the attendant was right there and closed the door before he could leave. We then saw another less active with brain issues and we were able to establish a good connection with him. We ended the night with Papa Murphy's pizza and root beer!

Sunday we had ward council in the morning and it went really well. The ward council put some good input into the ward mission plan so that was good. We had a great sacrament meeting but only Angelo and Spencer came. We were hoping for Brandon and his daughter but they did not come. After church we tried to meet up with Angelo and Spencer but they had to cancel last second so we just went home and had lunch. We went tracting after lunch and we had some funny things said to us. This guy accused us of trying to sell stuff to him and said that we don't know what soliciting was haha! Pretty hilarious! We headed back over to the church so I could do my first ever baptismal interview! It was pretty awesome! Nicolas is a kid getting baptized over in Gold Hill and he is dead ready to get baptized! We had a great dinner at the Thurman's and then Brad bailed on us. That stunk. However, we were able to get over to the Crowe's and we were able to share a message of the Atonement so that was awesome!

Well I love all of you! Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! You are the best!

Love y'all! There is no doubt that this church is true!

Love,
Elder Tonini
“Do your duty, that is best. Leave unto the Lord the rest.”
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow