Monday, May 25, 2015

The One where Samantha Got Baptized and I Hit My Year Mark

Hey everyone!

This was a good week and the weekend was pretty dang awesome!

Monday was our normal P-Day stuff. We actually ended up spending most of our day shopping haha! We drove around the 1st Ward Elders so they could get some stuff for when they go home. We played some basketball and then we had pizza dropped off to us at our apartment so we got to chill for a little bit. We had a lesson with Nicolas and his family at the end of the night. We finished up the new member lessons and I ended up not having my iPad for most of it because Nicolas' little sister was hogging it haha!

Tuesday morning we picked up the 1st Ward Elders and did some service at the temple. We dug some holes and planted a couple more plants on the backside of the temple. I can't wait to come back and see all these plants grown haha! We grabbed a quick lunch before driving to Sam's Valley to see the Mitch***'s with Brother Med***. It went really well and there was a lot of good insights shared. After we did that, we tried to get in contact with a couple that are potentials in the Area Book but they were not home. We had dinner and then met with the zone leaders at the church to prep them for Samantha's interview. Samantha and Eric came to the church and Eric met with Bishop while Samantha met with Elder Taito. Samantha finished up right after Eric did and she was found worthy to be baptized and Eric was found worthy to baptize her! That was so awesome to be there in that moment!

Wednesday morning we met up with Brother Mad*** and shared a message with him before going to lunch. We then got out of our proselyting clothes and went with Brother Med*** to see Sister Stam***. We shared a message with her and then we got to work on some yard work that she had for us. We got cleaned up and after dinner we had a lesson with Maddi at a member's home. When we asked her about the chapter we left her to read, she pulled out her phone and pulled up a list of scriptures that she liked! It was pretty awesome! We had a pretty good lesson with her about the Plan of Salvation. We are waiting right now to see what she wants to do about her baptismal date. We had set the date on the day that the youth were going to be at youth conference so we left it up to her to pray about what day it should be on. To end our night, we had correlation in Central Point and made the final preparations for Samantha's baptism.

Thursday was a milestone for me. Thursday marked one year of me being a missionary! I cannot believe how fast time has flown and how much I have grown since I walked into the doors of the MTC! We started off the morning doing weekly planning at the church and we ended up doing it with the zone leaders!! After we did weekly planning, we went and did some service at Sister Pa***'s home with the 1st Ward Elders. To celebrate my one year mark, I burned a shirt that I found in my apartment when I first came into Central Point! It was pretty awesome:) While we were building a shelter for Sister Pa***'s pet emu, a huge thunderstorm (for Oregon at least) came rolling through. Luckily we were just putting on the finishing touches when it got really bad. We got back to the apartment and got dressed for stake correlation. It was a pretty good correation meeting! President Thompson has been one of my favorite stake presidents on my mission and I love being in his correlation meetings. Anyways, after stake correlation, we had our Book of Mormon class and the 1st Ward Elders had one person there! It went really well! We talked about the Great Apostasy and such. That was pretty much the end of our night.

Friday morning I had district meeting. It was a bit dry because another district leader decided that he wanted to do a mass zone role play so I didn't have much to cover. I ended up bailing on the role play because Elder Sorensen was SUPER sick. I helped Elder White get some medication and some Saltine's and Sprite for Elder Sorensen. After we did that for them, we contacted a couple of people before having our lesson with Samantha and Eric. It was Samantha's last one before her baptism! We talked about the laws and ordinances of the Gospel and she loved it. We drove into Gold Hill to go print out Samantha's baptismal programs before picking up dinner at the church. I ended my night with Elder Sorensen so Elder White and Elder Best could go and do the youth sports night.

Saturday was the best day of my mission to date! We were at the church at 8 so we could fill the font and get it all ready for Samantha's baptism!! Samantha and Eric got there early enough so we were able to get them dressed and ready. We had a pretty good turn out and President Russell came! When it came time for Samantha to get baptized, she almost had a panic attack haha! She got in the water and Eric said the prayer perfectly but her hand and elbow were out of the water so he had to do it again. Luckily the second time was perfect all the way around and it was pretty dang awesome:) we cleaned up afterwards and then we visited a couple of people before going on splits with the 1st Ward Elders. Elder Sorensen was still not feeling good so I went out with Elder White and we visited some of the people in his area.

Sunday was a pretty close second to being the best day ever. At least for a couple of hours. Samantha asked us to be a part of her confirmation and we gladly accepted! That was pretty awesome as well. But the most awesome part of the day was when Geraldine came. She was a lady that Sister Gree*** had invited to the dinner we had a week and a half ago. She had some questions at that dinner so we left her with a Book of Mormon and a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. Well on Sunday she came to church and said that we changed her life! It was pretty sweet! Other that, church was good and we had a good lesson with the Coleman's.

This was an awesome weekend! Thank you for all your prayers!

Elder Tonini

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