I Love To See the Temple

Hey everyone! To spare all of you from me rambling on about how my week went, let's just talk about it!

Monday was pretty good! We had a zone breakfast at a member's home before heading over to the mall. Thankfully I walked out of there with only a tie that I only spend 8 bucks on. We headed over to Ross and one of the Elders I was with got me a tie! I call it my Southern tie because it is red white and blue but it leans more towards the confederate flag haha. We had dinner with the Higgi***'s before talking about a family mission plan with the Sum***'s. We were able to share a message with the Cro***'s about how faith can overcome fear and it went really well.

Tuesday found us at the temple digging some big holes to plant some trees. It was the biggest hole I have dug in my life haha! It was a lot of fun. We almost busted a buried sprinkler head but luckily we managed to avoid that. After lunch the Hagge***'s picked us up to do some service over at their home. We took out a couple of posts and built a garden box for them! We got back and got cleaned up before tracting a couple of doors. We found a potential investigator for the sisters so that was sweet. On our way to dinner, this guy came up to us and asked us if we were from Utah. When Elder Ellsworth told Ethan that he was, Ethan asked a random lady to take a picture of us and took us back to his house! It was pretty sweet! However, it was making us late for dinner haha! We got a call from the Gor***'s and they informed us that the members we were supposed to have dinner with that night couldn't do it because their grill almost blew up! The Gor***'s offered to take us out and we went to Hawaiian Hut and it was super good! We talked about a family mission plan with the Stebb*** and contacted a few people about family mission plans.

Wednesday we walked out to Central Point East to try and contact a less active but he was dead asleep so we went back to the apartment and took lunch. We got a church key from the sisters for our lesson with Angelo and Spencer only for him to call and cancel the appointment.... So the member who was supposed to go with us to the lesson took us up to Old Military road and we contacted a sweet old lady named Carolyn. On our way down the hill, a member from Central Point 1st Ward stopped and took us to the member who was feeding us that night. This is the same member whose grill almost blew up! They took us out to eat instead of cooking haha. We then had them drop us off for a lesson with a less active named Alisha. She is super nice but at a crossroads with her job and such so it is difficult for her to get to church. We had a pretty solid lesson with her and her non-member husband. After the lesson we updated our lessons and synced our iPads to finish the night. While we were planning, the Sta*** called and told us thank you for the gifts us and the sister's left for them! They do a ton for us so we decided to get them a gift! It made me warm inside:)

Thursday was pretty good. We had weekly planning in the morning for the last week of the transfer. During planning, Jay P. called and told us he had to cancel our lesson for that afternoon. However, he was still able to read so that is awesome! We contacted a less active named Bobby and he is a super nice guy! Hopefully we will be able to help him in anyway that we can! Brother Sta*** picked us up and took us to the temple for our temple trip! I love going to the temple but I learned a lot from this session. We grabbed a bite to eat before doing a family home evening with the Harn***'. We had correlation that night and the Sisters informed me that their car got broken into. Among the things stolen was the GPS I let them borrow for a week.... bummer. At least they are ok though!

An Amazing Burger!

Friday we had district meeting and it went really well despite me only having one day to plan. We had some great role plays and there was a lot of great discussions! After district meeting I went on exchanges with Elder Madsen. We tried contacting a couple of people but no one was around except for a guy named Scott. We shared a lesson on faith with him and he liked it. Elder Madsen and I had some time to talk while we were walking around and it is so weird that he is going home in a week. He was in my first zone and now he is going home to South Jordan! We grabbed dinner at this awesome burger joint in Gold Hill before going to the silent auction that the Gold Hill Ward was throwing. While we were there, the Sisters found us and asked me about the GPS because they were filling out the police report. We headed back into Gold Hill and taught a less active family. At the end of the lesson, the grandson started crying and I couldn't understand why until I saw the wasp come out from underneath him! He got stung by the wasp while in a chair! That was a crazy way to the end the night.

Saturday we headed over to St. Vinny's to do the soup kitchen. It was a ton of fun and I saw a ton of interesting people! The Central Point 1st Ward Elders were there as were the sisters and we had a great time. Afterwards we exchanged back and Elder Ellsworth and I biked over to the more northern part of our area to contact some less actives out there. We had some success but got shut down pretty bad by one lady haha. We finished up out there and came back into town to teach Adam more about the Atonement. It went really well and we cleared up some concerns that he had so that was good. We taught a man named Brandon the first lesson and it went super well! He is looking to get baptized into a church and wants to learn more about what we believe in! I am super stoked to see what happens!

We had a great church meeting on Sunday but none of our investigators came. We hitched a ride from the Stamps back to our apartment and then after lunch we contacted some members near our apartment. Brother Sta*** came back and got us around 3 to contact people up on Old Stage. He took us around to the Tolo road area and when we found this one less-active member's house, he recognized it as a home that was also a pot farm! That could've been a fun experience! We saw a non-member whose wife was a member and we talked with him for a few minutes. He was a super nice guy and I would put his name if I knew how to spell it. He is from the Middle East so that would explain it! After talking to the non-member, we got back to our apartment and contacted people before dinner. We had a great lesson right after dinner with Brad about the Holy Ghost and we read 3 Nephi 11 with him. When we wrapped up there, we took off for a priesthood meeting that was super good! It was a good way to end the week!

I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers and your love! Have a great week!

This church is true! There is no doubt!

Love y'all!
Elder Tonini