Monday, February 29, 2016
We Have Travel Plans!
Elder Jacob Tonini will return on Tuesday, 24 May at 7:20 pm at Minot Airport! He isn't allowed to get trunky, but can we?!?
Greetings from the Dirty Coos!
Hey everyone!
I had a pretty good week out here on the coast! We didn't teach as much as we would've liked to but we are going to make up for it this week! Monday I spent the morning leaving Sutherlin and going up to Eugene to meet up with my new companion Elder Roller. We packed up my stuff into a member's truck and headed out with the member and four Elders crammed into his truck! We got into Coos Bay in time to have a full P-Day. We got our grocery shopping done before going and playing basketball all afternoon. We got cleaned up and then we all pitched in to get some Little Caesars Pizza for dinner. We headed over to the church after dinner for FHE with the YSA group. It was so much fun and a great way to spend a Monday night! We played a different version of Uno and it was super fun. I ended up winning too so that made it even better!
Tuesday morning we were supposed to have service at the Senior Center but there were a ton of volunteers so we headed over to the church and I got my Area Book logged into the North Bend area. We went to go contact an investigator but he was hammered out of his mind before it was even 12 o'clock... We took lunch before going and helping a non-member move some stuff into storage. They were supposed to move to Coquille but their place there was apparently garbage. So we helped them move their stuff into two storage units and man it took forever! We were there for two hours and we could've put all of their stuff into one but the lady wanted us to do it a certain way (which didn't make ANY sense) so we had move the rest into the second unit. After dinner we had to figure out a miscalculation in the numbers reported the last week so we did that before our zone correlation with the STL's. We talked about the activities that we wanted to do and planned accordingly!
Wednesday we spent the morning contacting some of our investigators before heading to the church and making some adjustments to some reports on our iPads. We grabbed Elder Carter and Elder Rawlings and we grabbed some KFC! A member is the general manager there and since she is a single lady, she can't feed us in her home so she feeds us KFC instead. It was super good food. We had our afternoon lessons cancel but we were able to teach an investigator named Angela on the door step about the Atonement. She has been having a rough time but she has been reading her scriptures and the other assignments given to her by Elder Roller and his previous companion. We got picked up for dinner and by the time we got all the way out there, had dinner, and came back we just stayed at the church and organized our Area Book to end the night.
Thursday morning we didn't do our weekly planning! Instead, we volunteered at the Senior Center. It was a lot of fun! We actually got talking with the volunteer supervisor named Loni and we talked to her about tithing and why we go to church. It was a super good conversation. After the senior center we had to take Elder Carter to the bike shop so he could get his bike fixed. I ended up playing the Australian Shepard that was in the shop! It made me miss Yarra! We spent the rest of the afternoon doing weekly planning and then we picked up some pizzas that a member ordered for us and had that for dinner. We had a super good correlation meeting afterwards and we made a lot of progress on the ward mission plan and helping our ward make family mission plans.
Friday was AWESOME! We trained a new missionary and he is pretty awesome! During our district meeting, I got a text from Sister Christensen and she told me that Zowie had come into the world! I was on Cloud 9 the rest of the meeting! After district meeting we helped those nonmembers from earlier in the week move into a home they got in Coos Bay. Once again, the lady took over and we could've gotten in everything into the van but she wasn't having it! That took us another two hours.... Meh.. We got back to our apartment and found out that we got inspected... and our apartment wasn't the cleanest. So we spent the little time we had before dinner cleaning haha! We had a super fun dinner and then we spent the rest of the night trying to contact some of the members so I could get to know them!
Saturday was a bit of a slower day for us. We contacted some investigators and got some lessons set up but other than that we didn't have any success tracting or teaching anyone really. The one good thing that happened was we drove by an investigator's house and we saw that they were home so we turned around and talked to them for a few minutes. We ended up teaching Sue about the Book of Mormon and after we shot down some of her "concerns" (like the statement that Mormon missionaries could not enter a house if there was a cross with an angel that had wings on it...), she took a Book of Mormon and said that she would read it!
Sunday we had ward council in the morning before church and I got to meet some of the members of the ward council so that was good. Church was pretty good, especially the Gospel Principles class! That teacher was pretty awesome! We had a lesson shortly after lunch with a guy named Patrick! He is such a cool guy but has had some tough times as of late. Despite his now ex moving out, he is living the law of chastity and he told us he is going to be able to start coming to Church starting in the middle of March! We were super pumped! We taught him the baptismal interview and we gave him a blessing before booking it over and seeing a YSA member named Crystal! We had a super good discussion with her and another YSA kid before we had to go to dinner. We correlated with the STL's and updated the Area Book to end the night!
I love you all! I'm so grateful for all your support and your love! I know that the Church is true! There is no doubt!
Elder Tonini
Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"
I had a pretty good week out here on the coast! We didn't teach as much as we would've liked to but we are going to make up for it this week! Monday I spent the morning leaving Sutherlin and going up to Eugene to meet up with my new companion Elder Roller. We packed up my stuff into a member's truck and headed out with the member and four Elders crammed into his truck! We got into Coos Bay in time to have a full P-Day. We got our grocery shopping done before going and playing basketball all afternoon. We got cleaned up and then we all pitched in to get some Little Caesars Pizza for dinner. We headed over to the church after dinner for FHE with the YSA group. It was so much fun and a great way to spend a Monday night! We played a different version of Uno and it was super fun. I ended up winning too so that made it even better!
Tuesday morning we were supposed to have service at the Senior Center but there were a ton of volunteers so we headed over to the church and I got my Area Book logged into the North Bend area. We went to go contact an investigator but he was hammered out of his mind before it was even 12 o'clock... We took lunch before going and helping a non-member move some stuff into storage. They were supposed to move to Coquille but their place there was apparently garbage. So we helped them move their stuff into two storage units and man it took forever! We were there for two hours and we could've put all of their stuff into one but the lady wanted us to do it a certain way (which didn't make ANY sense) so we had move the rest into the second unit. After dinner we had to figure out a miscalculation in the numbers reported the last week so we did that before our zone correlation with the STL's. We talked about the activities that we wanted to do and planned accordingly!
Wednesday we spent the morning contacting some of our investigators before heading to the church and making some adjustments to some reports on our iPads. We grabbed Elder Carter and Elder Rawlings and we grabbed some KFC! A member is the general manager there and since she is a single lady, she can't feed us in her home so she feeds us KFC instead. It was super good food. We had our afternoon lessons cancel but we were able to teach an investigator named Angela on the door step about the Atonement. She has been having a rough time but she has been reading her scriptures and the other assignments given to her by Elder Roller and his previous companion. We got picked up for dinner and by the time we got all the way out there, had dinner, and came back we just stayed at the church and organized our Area Book to end the night.
Thursday morning we didn't do our weekly planning! Instead, we volunteered at the Senior Center. It was a lot of fun! We actually got talking with the volunteer supervisor named Loni and we talked to her about tithing and why we go to church. It was a super good conversation. After the senior center we had to take Elder Carter to the bike shop so he could get his bike fixed. I ended up playing the Australian Shepard that was in the shop! It made me miss Yarra! We spent the rest of the afternoon doing weekly planning and then we picked up some pizzas that a member ordered for us and had that for dinner. We had a super good correlation meeting afterwards and we made a lot of progress on the ward mission plan and helping our ward make family mission plans.
Friday was AWESOME! We trained a new missionary and he is pretty awesome! During our district meeting, I got a text from Sister Christensen and she told me that Zowie had come into the world! I was on Cloud 9 the rest of the meeting! After district meeting we helped those nonmembers from earlier in the week move into a home they got in Coos Bay. Once again, the lady took over and we could've gotten in everything into the van but she wasn't having it! That took us another two hours.... Meh.. We got back to our apartment and found out that we got inspected... and our apartment wasn't the cleanest. So we spent the little time we had before dinner cleaning haha! We had a super fun dinner and then we spent the rest of the night trying to contact some of the members so I could get to know them!
Saturday was a bit of a slower day for us. We contacted some investigators and got some lessons set up but other than that we didn't have any success tracting or teaching anyone really. The one good thing that happened was we drove by an investigator's house and we saw that they were home so we turned around and talked to them for a few minutes. We ended up teaching Sue about the Book of Mormon and after we shot down some of her "concerns" (like the statement that Mormon missionaries could not enter a house if there was a cross with an angel that had wings on it...), she took a Book of Mormon and said that she would read it!
Sunday we had ward council in the morning before church and I got to meet some of the members of the ward council so that was good. Church was pretty good, especially the Gospel Principles class! That teacher was pretty awesome! We had a lesson shortly after lunch with a guy named Patrick! He is such a cool guy but has had some tough times as of late. Despite his now ex moving out, he is living the law of chastity and he told us he is going to be able to start coming to Church starting in the middle of March! We were super pumped! We taught him the baptismal interview and we gave him a blessing before booking it over and seeing a YSA member named Crystal! We had a super good discussion with her and another YSA kid before we had to go to dinner. We correlated with the STL's and updated the Area Book to end the night!
I love you all! I'm so grateful for all your support and your love! I know that the Church is true! There is no doubt!
Elder Tonini
Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
ZL Letter
23 February 2016
Dear Elder Jacob Romney Tonini,
Your purpose as a Zone Leader in the Oregon Eugene Mission is to help the missionaries in your zone understand and live the principles described in Preach My Gospel. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit you will lead your missionaries; teaching and providing the example for obedience, diligence, working by the spirit and humility. Specifically you will lead by example in planning, teaching, finding and working with members.
You earn the missionaries respect when you demonstrate effective work in your own area. As you produce and bring people to Christ, building a successful area, missionaries will want to be like you. You are expected to lead the way with your area; you should lead out in all key indicators. Lead by example - look at the sons of Helaman for an example:
"And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold this was not all - they were men who were true at times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.
"Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him." (Alma 53:20-21)
Always be teaching; what you do on exchanges will greatly impact your success. That's when you can demonstrate and develop in them, skills and ability to find, teach and commit. Don't forget the value of teaching your missionaries how to work with members. The most effective training you can do will be on exchanges with other missionaries. That's when you can demonstrate and develop in them skills and ability.
In addition to the above counsel, please see attached specific duties of a Zone Leader.
With profound love and trust!
H. Jeff Russell
Mission President
cc: Parents, Bishop, Stake President
Dear Elder Jacob Romney Tonini,
Your purpose as a Zone Leader in the Oregon Eugene Mission is to help the missionaries in your zone understand and live the principles described in Preach My Gospel. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit you will lead your missionaries; teaching and providing the example for obedience, diligence, working by the spirit and humility. Specifically you will lead by example in planning, teaching, finding and working with members.
You earn the missionaries respect when you demonstrate effective work in your own area. As you produce and bring people to Christ, building a successful area, missionaries will want to be like you. You are expected to lead the way with your area; you should lead out in all key indicators. Lead by example - look at the sons of Helaman for an example:
"And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold this was not all - they were men who were true at times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.
"Yea, they were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him." (Alma 53:20-21)
Always be teaching; what you do on exchanges will greatly impact your success. That's when you can demonstrate and develop in them, skills and ability to find, teach and commit. Don't forget the value of teaching your missionaries how to work with members. The most effective training you can do will be on exchanges with other missionaries. That's when you can demonstrate and develop in them skills and ability.
In addition to the above counsel, please see attached specific duties of a Zone Leader.
With profound love and trust!
H. Jeff Russell
Mission President
cc: Parents, Bishop, Stake President
Monday, February 22, 2016
Out to the Coast I Go! Oh, and I am a Zone Leader Again!
Hey everyone,
This was a decent week. We taught a couple of lessons and they were pretty much all to Loretta. She is doing so awesome! We brought Sister Par***, Brother Caldw***, and Bryson out with us to see her. She has been keeping her commitments to the tee(?) and she came to church. We also taught a girl named Catherine and we put her on date for baptism on May 7th!
So like you can see, I got transferred out to the coast! I am now in North Bend and I got made Zone leader again. I am with Elder Roller (which I am super pumped about; we came out together!) and we are going to do some work this transfer!
I love y'all! I know that the Church is true! Keep the faith and keep on enduring to the end!
Love ya!
Elder Tonini
Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"
This was a decent week. We taught a couple of lessons and they were pretty much all to Loretta. She is doing so awesome! We brought Sister Par***, Brother Caldw***, and Bryson out with us to see her. She has been keeping her commitments to the tee(?) and she came to church. We also taught a girl named Catherine and we put her on date for baptism on May 7th!
So like you can see, I got transferred out to the coast! I am now in North Bend and I got made Zone leader again. I am with Elder Roller (which I am super pumped about; we came out together!) and we are going to do some work this transfer!
I love y'all! I know that the Church is true! Keep the faith and keep on enduring to the end!
Love ya!
Elder Tonini
Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"
Monday, February 15, 2016
"You Say It's Your Birthday!" -The Beatles
Hey everyone,
Monday was a pretty good P-Day. We did our shopping before hanging out at the church all day. We had a Nerf War but I didn't participate much except as cameraman! We headed out to the Hay***'s and after having dinner with them, we helped one of the boys teach family home evening. He was teaching about Joseph Smith and the First vision and he did a really good job! We hardly had to help him. It was a lot of fun!:)
Tuesday morning we did some Facebook messaging after our studies. I'm so grateful that we can message those people in my last areas! After lunch we decided to go stop by Loretta's to see if she was home and to remind her about our lesson on Thursday. We ended up staying for an hour and we talked about her meeting her missionary stepson and the gospel things they talked about. We went tracting after Loretta's and we managed to knock three doors in an hour. Yup. Three doors. The first door took less than a minute. The second door took over 20 minutes! The guy opens the door and starts talking to us and then he asks what church we were representing. We told him and he said "Oh, that non-Christian cult!" Oh boy. He was a born-again Christian and he started saying the normal stuff about how we believe we have to work our way to heaven and stuff like that. He then started to raise his voice at us and man my blood started to boil. I managed to keep calm though and Elder Andersen and I both bore our testimonies about the Restoration before walking away. I had to take a few minutes to unwind before going to the next door, my adrenaline was pumping! We OYM'd the born again' neighbor and man, he and his wife had had some rough times. Ben's wife lost both of her parents to mistakes within the last year. We talked to him about the Plan of Salvation a little bit and left him a pamphlet with our phone number on it. We offered to help him move stuff out of his mother-in-law's place and he seemed really surprised that we would do something like that. That took up our time before dinner! We ate at our apartment and then headed over to Jackie's for a lesson. We talked about Jesus Christ with her out of the Gospel Principles book. It was good, I just wish she will act in what we are teaching her!
Wednesday was my birthday!! I got three packages full of goodies! It was awesome! We volunteered at the food pantry before heading into Roseburg for a birthday lunch at Red Robin and a visit to the chiropractor. After the chiropractor we did a companionship study with Adam. We read out of Preach My Gospel, watched a District video, and then did some role plays. He is going to be a solid missionary one of these days! After the study session, we dropped him off at his house and we volunteered at the soup kitchen, pouring drinks once more! We came back to the Caldwe*** and had birthday dinner with them. Sister Caldwe*** made Mom's meatloaf and she did a pretty dang good job! We headed over to the church to participate in a youth activity before coming back and having Texas Sheetcake for my birthday cake! It was pretty dang good too!!
Thursday started out doing weekly planning before our lesson with Loretta. Sister Parker went with us and Loretta made us a negative calorie soup for lunch. When we followed up with her on her commitment that we left her, she informed us that she had read it 3 times!! We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it went really well. She enjoyed it so much she asked to keep my little Gospel of Jesus Christ thing that I drew out! We committed her to be baptized and she said she will pick a date once she can coordinate with her husband and her step-son about when they could be in Sutherlin to participate in the baptism. Sister Parker was such a huge help during that lesson! She even invited Loretta to go with them to stake conference! It was awesome. We spent the rest of the afternoon contacting before dinner. The member who had signed up didn't realize that 1) his records (along with an address and phone number) aren't in LDS Tools and 2) that there was another man with the same last name who lived 10 miles away in the sticks. Guess where we went to for dinner? Yup, the guy out in the sticks. We are sitting there in the driveway with three massive dogs barking at us and a lady trying to talk to us from the porch when this brother calls and asks us where we were! Turns out, he lives right in the heart of Sutherlin... So we were about 30 minutes late to dinner! We had a fantastic dinner of eggs, pancakes, and bacon before heading out to the Sim***'s for a "birthday bonfire" as they put it. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and talked about the Gospel. We talked to them about letting go of the past mad relying on the Savior to help us through it all.
Friday was probably the longest day but it was one of the best days! We spent our morning getting the car washed in preparation of zone conference. This was an unusual zone conference. The AP's didn't come and it was just our zone so that was unusual. It was a super good zone conference. My favorite segment was President Russell's about the Atonement. He had a couple of the missionaries get up and present a talk about the Atonement before diving into his section. He didn't teach very much; instead, he showed us a video that talks about the Atonement. It depicts the story of the Institute teacher who had a student do ten push ups for each student so they could earn a gift. It was super powerful and he had each of us write three things that we are struggling with. It was a great segment! After dinner we had a portion of our zone conference with the WML and the bishops of each ward. We separated into wards and we discussed what we could do to help the work progress in Sutherlin.
Saturday was slow. We didn't have too much going for us except for our lesson with Chelsea. Her son Gabe sat in and he had some questions that we had answers to, mainly why was he here on this earth. We covered the whole Plan of Salvation and asked them to be baptized. Chelsea told us that she would but because of her Mid Evil wedding that they did (it is called handfasting), the Church will only recognize it if she had the paperwork showing that it happened. So we are in a pickle on this one! We had some lessons cancel but it ended up working for us because a man in Roseburg called us and told us that a part- member family had been living in Sutherlin for a while and he was their home teacher. His companion had bailed on him so he called us to go with him! So we had a good chat with this part member family to end our night. We talked about focusing on the Savior and not being distracted!
Sunday was pretty awesome. We had a broadcast from Salt Lake City for our stake conference and we had some really awesome talks! We came back to Sutherlin and we taught Samantha another new member lesson and then helped her and Sister Caldwell with their family history. The bishop's family dropped dinner off to us and after snarfing that down, we went to the Lea***'s and had pie! It was yummy pie! We didn't have too much happen the rest of the night so we updated our Area Books and synced to end the night!
That was my week! It had a lot of good things happen and I learned a lot this week. This is the last week of the transfer and I have a feeling I will be packing my bags this week. It has been good here in Sutherlin but I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me for the last 13 weeks I have as a full-time missionary! I love this Gospel and I love my Savior Jesus Christ! He lives!
I love y'all and talk to you next week!
Elder Tonini
Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"
Monday was a pretty good P-Day. We did our shopping before hanging out at the church all day. We had a Nerf War but I didn't participate much except as cameraman! We headed out to the Hay***'s and after having dinner with them, we helped one of the boys teach family home evening. He was teaching about Joseph Smith and the First vision and he did a really good job! We hardly had to help him. It was a lot of fun!:)
Tuesday morning we did some Facebook messaging after our studies. I'm so grateful that we can message those people in my last areas! After lunch we decided to go stop by Loretta's to see if she was home and to remind her about our lesson on Thursday. We ended up staying for an hour and we talked about her meeting her missionary stepson and the gospel things they talked about. We went tracting after Loretta's and we managed to knock three doors in an hour. Yup. Three doors. The first door took less than a minute. The second door took over 20 minutes! The guy opens the door and starts talking to us and then he asks what church we were representing. We told him and he said "Oh, that non-Christian cult!" Oh boy. He was a born-again Christian and he started saying the normal stuff about how we believe we have to work our way to heaven and stuff like that. He then started to raise his voice at us and man my blood started to boil. I managed to keep calm though and Elder Andersen and I both bore our testimonies about the Restoration before walking away. I had to take a few minutes to unwind before going to the next door, my adrenaline was pumping! We OYM'd the born again' neighbor and man, he and his wife had had some rough times. Ben's wife lost both of her parents to mistakes within the last year. We talked to him about the Plan of Salvation a little bit and left him a pamphlet with our phone number on it. We offered to help him move stuff out of his mother-in-law's place and he seemed really surprised that we would do something like that. That took up our time before dinner! We ate at our apartment and then headed over to Jackie's for a lesson. We talked about Jesus Christ with her out of the Gospel Principles book. It was good, I just wish she will act in what we are teaching her!
Wednesday was my birthday!! I got three packages full of goodies! It was awesome! We volunteered at the food pantry before heading into Roseburg for a birthday lunch at Red Robin and a visit to the chiropractor. After the chiropractor we did a companionship study with Adam. We read out of Preach My Gospel, watched a District video, and then did some role plays. He is going to be a solid missionary one of these days! After the study session, we dropped him off at his house and we volunteered at the soup kitchen, pouring drinks once more! We came back to the Caldwe*** and had birthday dinner with them. Sister Caldwe*** made Mom's meatloaf and she did a pretty dang good job! We headed over to the church to participate in a youth activity before coming back and having Texas Sheetcake for my birthday cake! It was pretty dang good too!!
Thursday started out doing weekly planning before our lesson with Loretta. Sister Parker went with us and Loretta made us a negative calorie soup for lunch. When we followed up with her on her commitment that we left her, she informed us that she had read it 3 times!! We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it went really well. She enjoyed it so much she asked to keep my little Gospel of Jesus Christ thing that I drew out! We committed her to be baptized and she said she will pick a date once she can coordinate with her husband and her step-son about when they could be in Sutherlin to participate in the baptism. Sister Parker was such a huge help during that lesson! She even invited Loretta to go with them to stake conference! It was awesome. We spent the rest of the afternoon contacting before dinner. The member who had signed up didn't realize that 1) his records (along with an address and phone number) aren't in LDS Tools and 2) that there was another man with the same last name who lived 10 miles away in the sticks. Guess where we went to for dinner? Yup, the guy out in the sticks. We are sitting there in the driveway with three massive dogs barking at us and a lady trying to talk to us from the porch when this brother calls and asks us where we were! Turns out, he lives right in the heart of Sutherlin... So we were about 30 minutes late to dinner! We had a fantastic dinner of eggs, pancakes, and bacon before heading out to the Sim***'s for a "birthday bonfire" as they put it. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and talked about the Gospel. We talked to them about letting go of the past mad relying on the Savior to help us through it all.
Friday was probably the longest day but it was one of the best days! We spent our morning getting the car washed in preparation of zone conference. This was an unusual zone conference. The AP's didn't come and it was just our zone so that was unusual. It was a super good zone conference. My favorite segment was President Russell's about the Atonement. He had a couple of the missionaries get up and present a talk about the Atonement before diving into his section. He didn't teach very much; instead, he showed us a video that talks about the Atonement. It depicts the story of the Institute teacher who had a student do ten push ups for each student so they could earn a gift. It was super powerful and he had each of us write three things that we are struggling with. It was a great segment! After dinner we had a portion of our zone conference with the WML and the bishops of each ward. We separated into wards and we discussed what we could do to help the work progress in Sutherlin.
Saturday was slow. We didn't have too much going for us except for our lesson with Chelsea. Her son Gabe sat in and he had some questions that we had answers to, mainly why was he here on this earth. We covered the whole Plan of Salvation and asked them to be baptized. Chelsea told us that she would but because of her Mid Evil wedding that they did (it is called handfasting), the Church will only recognize it if she had the paperwork showing that it happened. So we are in a pickle on this one! We had some lessons cancel but it ended up working for us because a man in Roseburg called us and told us that a part- member family had been living in Sutherlin for a while and he was their home teacher. His companion had bailed on him so he called us to go with him! So we had a good chat with this part member family to end our night. We talked about focusing on the Savior and not being distracted!
Sunday was pretty awesome. We had a broadcast from Salt Lake City for our stake conference and we had some really awesome talks! We came back to Sutherlin and we taught Samantha another new member lesson and then helped her and Sister Caldwell with their family history. The bishop's family dropped dinner off to us and after snarfing that down, we went to the Lea***'s and had pie! It was yummy pie! We didn't have too much happen the rest of the night so we updated our Area Books and synced to end the night!
That was my week! It had a lot of good things happen and I learned a lot this week. This is the last week of the transfer and I have a feeling I will be packing my bags this week. It has been good here in Sutherlin but I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me for the last 13 weeks I have as a full-time missionary! I love this Gospel and I love my Savior Jesus Christ! He lives!
I love y'all and talk to you next week!
Elder Tonini
Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"
Monday, February 8, 2016
Rough Week
Hey everyone,
So not too much to report this week. We had a lot of cancellations happen this week and we also were unsuccessful in finding.
I'll share a crazy thing from this week and then a spiritual thought in place of this weeks email.
On Friday after ZTM I went with Elder Poston on exchanges and we did a power hour right after ZTM. Basicall a power hour is an hour that the whole zone blitz's an area. So we were going to go tract a street for some of the sisters. We had barely stepped out of our car when an old man waves us over. Turns out, missionaries had talked to him before and he is INSANE. He isn't allowed to step foot in the stake center because of what happened when he came to church. Of course, we didn't know this until afterwards. We walked into his apartment and he proceeds to confuse the heck out of us. He didn't make sense at all. At the end of it all, he ended up calling himself Melchizedek... Yeah... So that was crazy!
My spiritual thought comes from D&C 121
7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.
Tough times are coming! We just need to put our trust in the Lord and stay in the old ship Zion!
I love y'all! Thanks for all the support and the early birthday wishes!
Elder Tonini
So not too much to report this week. We had a lot of cancellations happen this week and we also were unsuccessful in finding.
I'll share a crazy thing from this week and then a spiritual thought in place of this weeks email.
On Friday after ZTM I went with Elder Poston on exchanges and we did a power hour right after ZTM. Basicall a power hour is an hour that the whole zone blitz's an area. So we were going to go tract a street for some of the sisters. We had barely stepped out of our car when an old man waves us over. Turns out, missionaries had talked to him before and he is INSANE. He isn't allowed to step foot in the stake center because of what happened when he came to church. Of course, we didn't know this until afterwards. We walked into his apartment and he proceeds to confuse the heck out of us. He didn't make sense at all. At the end of it all, he ended up calling himself Melchizedek... Yeah... So that was crazy!
My spiritual thought comes from D&C 121
7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.
Tough times are coming! We just need to put our trust in the Lord and stay in the old ship Zion!
I love y'all! Thanks for all the support and the early birthday wishes!
Elder Tonini
Monday, February 1, 2016
The One Where Samantha Gets Baptized!
Hey everyone,
We weren't able to teach as much or find anyone new to teach but that is ok, we got this next week to do so and we also had a baptism this last week!
Let's get to it.
Monday we had P-Day. I also had a chiropractor appointment in Roseburg. My back has been killing me for a little while now and it got the point where I went and saw a chiropractor. He discovered that my hips have been out of alignment and it was actually causing my right leg go shorter than my left! So he adjusted me and sent me on my merry way. After P-Day we had dinner with the Hay***'s before contacting people to end our night.
On Tuesday we had some time in the morning so we went and did some Facebook messaging before our lesson with Loretta. We brought Nephi with us and we had a good lesson with her. We went over the Plan of Salvation with her and despite the many tangents that we went off on, we were still able to commit her to be baptized and she said yes! Unfortunately we won't be able to teach her this week but it's for a good cause; her stepson is getting off his mission and she is meeting him for the first time! Loretta's lesson went pretty long and my whole body ached from being adjusted the day before so we went to the apartment and I took a few minutes to heat up my back. We then had dinner with the Lea***'s and we had some really good fried rice! We spent the rest of the night with the Vinc***'s working on Samantha's baptismal program.
Wednesday we headed over to the food pantry and did our weekly service of handing out the fruits and vegetables for the people. We left Sutherlin for the chiropractors and my hip is starting to hold in there so that is good. I also started to develop a cold which is gone now but it started to get to me on Wednesday. We went from the chiropractor to the soup kitchen and served drinks there. We headed over to the Church and picked up our dinner. We ended up eating there and we got almost all of the stuff that we needed to for the baptism.
Thursday I couldn't function at all. I was nailed bad by my cold and my head felt like a traffic jam in Houston. We didn't get weekly planning done until the early afternoon and we spent a lot of time on the phone contacting people. We had dinner at the Simm*** and then we gave a blessing to Sister Simm***'s husband who hasn't been to church in a long time. It was one of the more unusual blessings I have given. The things that came out of my mouth were not my words! I said everything that he needed from what he told me It was a pretty neat experience.
Friday morning we had district meeting and then after lunch I had another chiropractic appointment. We spent our afternoon contacting people but we didn't have anything go for us. We went over to the Vinc***'s and picked up the programs and do a correlation meeting.
Saturday was awesome! We had a lesson with Chelsea right before going to fill the font and she is doing awesome. She has been getting fed anti-Mormon material but she is holding strong! We talked about our life on earth and the Atonement and it was just a power lesson! We committed her to keep reading and to pick a date for her baptism. We bolted to Roseburg and Samantha was baptized! It was a good short service that was pretty awesome.
Sunday Samantha was confirmed a member of the church and then after church we taught her her first new member lesson. We spent most of our time driving to dinner, eating dinner with the Pop***, and then driving back. We met with Jackie and basically called her to repentance.
That was our week! I love ya and I know the church is true! There is no doubt!
Elder Tonini
Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"
We weren't able to teach as much or find anyone new to teach but that is ok, we got this next week to do so and we also had a baptism this last week!
Let's get to it.
Monday we had P-Day. I also had a chiropractor appointment in Roseburg. My back has been killing me for a little while now and it got the point where I went and saw a chiropractor. He discovered that my hips have been out of alignment and it was actually causing my right leg go shorter than my left! So he adjusted me and sent me on my merry way. After P-Day we had dinner with the Hay***'s before contacting people to end our night.
On Tuesday we had some time in the morning so we went and did some Facebook messaging before our lesson with Loretta. We brought Nephi with us and we had a good lesson with her. We went over the Plan of Salvation with her and despite the many tangents that we went off on, we were still able to commit her to be baptized and she said yes! Unfortunately we won't be able to teach her this week but it's for a good cause; her stepson is getting off his mission and she is meeting him for the first time! Loretta's lesson went pretty long and my whole body ached from being adjusted the day before so we went to the apartment and I took a few minutes to heat up my back. We then had dinner with the Lea***'s and we had some really good fried rice! We spent the rest of the night with the Vinc***'s working on Samantha's baptismal program.
Wednesday we headed over to the food pantry and did our weekly service of handing out the fruits and vegetables for the people. We left Sutherlin for the chiropractors and my hip is starting to hold in there so that is good. I also started to develop a cold which is gone now but it started to get to me on Wednesday. We went from the chiropractor to the soup kitchen and served drinks there. We headed over to the Church and picked up our dinner. We ended up eating there and we got almost all of the stuff that we needed to for the baptism.
Thursday I couldn't function at all. I was nailed bad by my cold and my head felt like a traffic jam in Houston. We didn't get weekly planning done until the early afternoon and we spent a lot of time on the phone contacting people. We had dinner at the Simm*** and then we gave a blessing to Sister Simm***'s husband who hasn't been to church in a long time. It was one of the more unusual blessings I have given. The things that came out of my mouth were not my words! I said everything that he needed from what he told me It was a pretty neat experience.
Friday morning we had district meeting and then after lunch I had another chiropractic appointment. We spent our afternoon contacting people but we didn't have anything go for us. We went over to the Vinc***'s and picked up the programs and do a correlation meeting.
Sunday Samantha was confirmed a member of the church and then after church we taught her her first new member lesson. We spent most of our time driving to dinner, eating dinner with the Pop***, and then driving back. We met with Jackie and basically called her to repentance.
That was our week! I love ya and I know the church is true! There is no doubt!
Elder Tonini
Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"
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