The One Where We Serve All Week!

Hey everyone!

This was a fun week for us! We had a lot going on so let's get going!

Monday was an okay P-Day. The other missionaries that we share the car with didn't show up until 3 o'clock... So we did some quick shopping and such before coming home and eating a pizza that a member dropped off to us for dinner. I did two baptismal interviews that took up the rest of our night!

Tuesday morning saw us out the door early to go to a service project at one of the local parks. We cleared away some weeds and such that had popped up along the banks of the Willamette River. We had some good discussions with the park lady named Vanessa that was working with us. We even managed to work some gospel topics into our conversation! We went back to our area and had lunch with Sister Pope at the local pizza buffet place. She was telling me that Grandpa Ben would come to Grants Pass, Oregon to come pick blackberries to make it into jam! I need to make sure I have these stories recorded before I leave this area! We got cleaned up and then drove into Eugene for some errands at the mission office. We taught Robert Wh*** about humility before dinner. We had correlation and then I went on splits with the Streb***. We managed to contact an investigator that hasn't been taught in forever and then we talked to the De Lu***'s about the investigator and they gave us a referral for a family that has expressed interest in home food storage!

Wednesday morning we went to another service project, this time for the lady that we chopped wood for last week. We had a couple companionships out there and we got a lot of work done. We got back into normal missionary attire and I went with Elder Adams of the 4th Ward to go teach a referral named Georgia. She had called Elder Bowers and I right before the 4th Elders got her information through the Areabook. When we showed up, I recognized her as a lady that Elder Bowers and I had OYM'd at one of the bus stops almost 9 weeks ago! That was a pretty neat experience seeing how just trying to talk to as many people can bring blessings. We talked to her about her thoughts on "Finding Faith in Christ" before diving into the Plan of Salvation. It all made sense for her, which was pretty awesome. She had some questions about Joseph Smith so we will be focusing on the Restoration next time! Outside of that, we didn't have much go for us. We had a couple of lessons cancel so we tried contacting as people as we could.

Thursday started off with us at a tire place getting new tires for our Cruze. Thankfully it didn't take super long so after our lunch at 5 Guys (first time in 18 months!), we were able to get our weekly planning started. We helped set up chairs and tables for a Relief Society activity before meeting up with Jaydaquin. We talked about making the right choices using a new Mormon Message for Youth. He really enjoyed it and we committed him to keep reading the scriptures and praying. We had a lesson with David and Leighanne to wrap up our night. They didn't do the commitment that we left them so after watching the story of Parley P. Pratt on "How Rare a Possession", we recommitted them to read the introduction to the Book of Mormon. Hopefully they do it this time around!

Friday we had zone training meeting. It was probably one of my more favorite ones! We heard a lot from a whole range of missionaries. I learned a lot and it was a good meeting that allowed me to refocus and become even more determined to finish strong. After ZTM and lunch, we bussed over to a lady named Bonnie's house and we pulled weeds for her. This was after she insisted feeding us lunch and telling her caretaker we are her "boys"! Unfortunately that ran us a little late so we were late getting to our lesson with Brother Whi***. He brought it up and mentioned how he thought it would be best if we only met once a week! That made my day! He is a good guy but we could be doing more missionary work if we met with him once a week. We stopped by Jaydaquin's and we ended up going on a walk with him. He has had a rough two weeks and was feeling pretty down. We talked to him about how God is his loving Heavenly Father and that Jesus Christ took upon Himself his sins and his pains. We had a really good talk with him. After dinner we met up with William and talked to him about the talk that he is supposed to be working on and challenged him to get it done!

Saturday morning the zone leaders picked us up to go do a service project at the park in our area. Vanessa was there again so she put us to work immediately! We were weeding but she decided that we were more needed shoveling wet sand out of a water feature. That was fun stuff! Afterwards, we got pizza so that was a bonus. We had a whole day planned for finding but we ended up going to Brian and Paola's baptism because we were asked to say the prayers. We got a ride from the Eugene zone leaders back to our apartment and it was only when we got back that I realized my keys were missing! We had no way to get in our apartment! We ended up going to McDonald's and updating the Areabook on the iPad before going to dinner with the Half***'s. We read scriptures with them and Brother Half*** had some questions that we were able to answer. He took us home afterwards and we did training at the 4th Ward Elders' apartment.

Sunday morning we didn't have any meetings so we walked over to Jaydaquin's and tried to get him to church but his mom grounded him because he didn't ask.. It was weird. Church itself was pretty interesting. We talked about the law of chastity and it seemed to always go back to the new Handbook policy haha! After church we took a short lunch before going out and knocking doors. We didn't have much luck until the last door. I noticed that the car had a zombie stick figure family on the back and it said "My stick figure family ate yours" and so when John opened the door, I asked him, "Is this your car?". He said "Yeah?.." and I mentioned how I liked it and it broke the ice with him. We asked him if he thought he could be with his family for eternity and that opened him up! We left him with a plan of salvation pamphlet and a prayer! It was so cool! After dinner the zone leaders picked us up and we went to Priesthood Preview for the stake. They had asked us to sing "Called to Serve" and so we did! We got a ride home from the Gall***'s and then we updated our lessons at the church before calling it a night.

That was my week! I can't believe that I hit 18 months this week. Time is just starting to fly by and I hope and pray that I can keep moving and keep trucking on! I am so grateful for the time that I have had to be a missionary and as I approach the last six months, I am going to give my all to the Lord. There is no better time than the present!

I love all of y'all! Thank you for your prayers and your love!

Elder Tonini

Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"