Hey everyone!
So I am sorry for not getting an email sent out last week, I thought I had finished it but I never did! My bad! It was a good week though, especially getting to talk to my family on Christmas!:)
This was a super slow week for us. We had some good things go our way but we also had some rough spots.
Monday was good as always! We did our normal P-Day stuff before going back to Sutherlin for dinner with the Hay***'s. Sister Hay*** wasn't there so it was a guys night out of sorts! We had a ton of fun eating pizza and sharing a New Years message with them.
Tuesday was rough. We had a lesson set up for Savannah and Brian that night and when we texted Savannah that morning to make sure we were on for that, she said she didn't want to take the lessons anymore.... So that really stunk. All of our lessons fell through until the evening when we saw Andrew and Jackie. Andrew is our ward mission leader's son and our WML wanted us to teach his son the lessons so we started with the Restoration. Afterwards, we went and taught Jackie on her porch. We talked to her about putting a stop to her smoking and she said she wanted to do it as part of her New Years resolution! It was a super good lesson with her!
Wednesday we headed on over to the food pantry for some service. It was a slow day for them so it gave us time to talk to some of the other volunteers there. They are mostly older people and it is a ton of fun being able to talk to them and getting to know their life stories! We had a lesson with Chelsea and Daniel in the afternoon and she kept her reading commitment! It brought up the question of why our baptism is the right form of baptism instead of the way she was baptized. We were able to get it cleared up for her and we focused in on the priesthood authority. It was such a good lesson that we almost missed the soup kitchen! We ate a pizza that a member dropped off for us before going and teaching Andrew again. We ended up staying a doing a correlation of sorts afterwards and had some hot chocolate!
Thursday was New Years Eve! We did our weekly planning and then not too much happened the rest of the day. We tried to contact people but we didn't have too much success. We had to be in at 6 so after dinner we headed back to our apartment and played some Battleship before going and talking to the members that own our apartment until bedtime.
Friday morning we woke up to frost everywhere! We almost got to new missionary training late because of how frosted over our car was. Our district meeting consisted of talking about prayer and how it could help our investigators. It went pretty well even though i had to deal with some missionaries goofing off during role plays. It's whatever though hah! We helped the zone leaders get set up to watch Wreck it Ralph before we went grabbed some lunch. By the time the movie and cleanup were done, it was almost 4:30! We headed straight to Oakland for dinner and then afterwards went over to the Simm*** home and talked with them about the things that are going on in their lives. We talked a little bit about fasting with them and Sister Simm*** said she was going to fast on Sunday!
Saturday was a good day for us. We helped Chris build a helicopter because he only had one hand and couldn't put the pieces together very well. We took some time to be with him because he is still on the fence about being baptized and we figured that we could connect with him more so it was a good time all around. We went over to the Od***'s and they went out with us to see Sister Lear*** and Sister Har***. We ended up helping them clean their apartment and taking their trash out... We decided that we weren't going to teach them after that lesson, considering the fact that they listen to a 7th Day Adventist preacher more than us... We went back to the Caldw***s and had dinner with them and then had a short lesson with Chris and Samantha. We talked about what they needed to do for baptism and covered the law of chastity and word of wisdom. Samantha is really gung ho about being baptized but Chris was still on the line. He has a concern about being in the water for the baptism... We are going to help him overcome that one! We then headed over to Jackie's and we talked about charity and how she was doing with her New Year's resolution.
Sunday found us nailed by ice again, this time in the form of frozen rain. This caused the roads to get super icy and in turn, a lot of the ward wasn't able to make it to church! We were still able to get Samantha to come so that was good. We had a lesson with her afterwards and we taught her the plan of salvation. It was pretty solid. She understood it all and was able to stay focused with her brother not being there and not having any distractions. That was really the highlight of the day, besides for the Nerf fight we had at dinner with the family that fed us on Christmas! That was fun!
I love this Gospel! It has been a tough 19 months but it has produced some of the most memorable experiences I've ever had! I know the Church is true! I know that Thomas S. Monson is God's prophet on the earth today! There is no doubt.
Love y'all!
Elder Tonini
Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Monday, January 4, 2016
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
The One Where We Put Three People On Date
Hey everyone!
This is really weird emailing on a Tuesday! Hopefully y'all had a great Monday and that you have a fantastic Christmas planned because I know I do! 😁
Well, we had a super fantastic week that saw some miracles!
P-Day was good as always but ended with an interesting twist. We had a super delicious zone breakfast before P-Day got underway. We played our normal games and emailed before doing our shopping. We had dinner before going and trying to contact a couple of people. We got back to our apartment and on the way to the staircase, we felt prompted to go talk to the Caldw***'s about when trash was to come. We walked in right as Brother Caldw*** was telling Brian and Savannah that they should take the missionary lessons. Pretty good timing eh? Savannah had received some bad news and was in a low place but it brought her to the point where she wanted to take the lessons!
On Tuesday we spent a little bit of our day doing former finding before our lesson with Ron. He was feeling a little frustrated about the way his scripture study was going so we talked to him for a little bit about what he could do to improve his studies. We booked it over to the Hayden's for dinner and then we shared a message about doing scripture study with them. I had fun with it! We had them watch the first little bit of "Scripture Legacy" (if you haven't seen it, you need to!) and we watched it to the point of where Moroni dies (oops, spoiler alert). We then discussed how important it was for us to have the scriptures and that we need to devote the the time and energy to reading it. It was a fun lesson. During dinner, the Hay***'s little girl decided to use me as a jungle gym.. with her fingers covered in pizza sauce! We went to the Caldw***'s for our first real sit down lesson with Savannah and holy cow it was a crazy insane lesson! Someone was a bit tipsy (not going to say who haha), Brother Caldw*** went on a couple of random tangents, the member friend they invited to come and that I had some worry about was actually a huge help, AND a former missionary who served here showed up and ended up sitting in on the lesson. I think it was one of the craziest lessons I have been a part of! The coolest part of the lesson though was when the RM talked about baptism and I felt the urge to ask her to be baptized right then and there. She said yes and Elder Fleming almost fell out of his chair! It was awesome haha!
Wednesday morning we picked up the Newton Creek Elders and drove down to Grant's Pass for Specialized Training. There was snow all over the pass! We talked about all sorts of things, from vehicle safety to locking our hearts (thank goodness for President Kimball's talk haha), to looking at key indicators as people, not numbers. It was a pretty good training and afterwards we got pizza and took a quiz on our gospel knowledge. We also got a Christmas present from President and Sister Russell in the form of an OEM lapel pin that says "Fishers of Men" with the picture of Christ beckoning to Peter, James, and John on the shore. It is pretty awesome. We got back to Sutherlin in time to volunteer at the soup kitchen. Dinner was dropped off at our place and we gobbled it up before helping the ward with the float for the Christmas parade.
Thursday morning we were supposed to do weekly planning but Elder Fleming and I had a long heart-to-heart talk that needed to happen so we moved it to the next day. The zone leaders came up here and I went with Elder Wells on exchanges. We grabbed lunch before visiting a couple of potentials and knocking out a couple of doors in a trailer park. There was one door that we could smell the stench of weed before they even opened the door. What made that door approach fun was after they said no, we walked towards their carport and right as we passed the edge of their trailer, a huge dog let out a huge bark five feet from us! It scared the heck out of us! After we tracted for a little bit and found a couple of potentials, we drove out to Glide for a lesson with a golden internigator (one who has met with the missionaries for a long time). She comes to church each week and knows its true, she just won't get married to her ex who she is dating again. We retaught her the Restoration and it went really well. Elder Wells and I taught pretty well together and bore testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel. It was pretty awesome. The lady's ex-husband turned boyfriend sat in so he heard it all and felt the Spirit. If he didn't then that sucks for him because it was there! We tried contacting a couple of people after eating the dinner that a member dropped off us for us but that didn't work out so we got into service clothes and cleaned out the litter boxes at PetCo! It was a lot of fun.
Friday morning found us helping out the Melrose and Newton Creek Sisters with moving in one of the Melrose sisters into the Newton Creek Sisters' apartment. Sister Sowter, our sister from England, was ET'd to Grants Pass because of something that happened to the sisters down that way. I don't know all the details but that is ok! We took lunch at Taco Bell with Elder Fleming and Elder Earl before exchanging back. We did weekly planning before trying to contact people because all of our lessons fell through. Every single one.
Saturday was interesting. We helped out with the final float preparations before our lesson with Savannah. We thought it wasn't going to happen because after our lesson on Tuesday, a ton of stuff happened and we thought we weren't going to be teaching her but sure enough, she was there waiting for us! We talked about her baptismal date before talking about the Restoration. It made a lot of sense for her and she said she loved the idea of prophets! We also answered a question that she has had for a long time apparently about the relationship between God and Jesus Christ. After lunch, we had a couple of lessons set up but they fell through so we spent some time contacting people before our dinner with a part-member family. He cooked some dang good burgers and made some amazing potato salad! After sharing the "A Savior is Born" video with them, we dropped the car off at the apartment and walked over to the float! We had over 400 baggies filled with candy and pass along cards and we ran out before we got down the home stretch! It was a great time and we even won first place for non-profit organizations!
Sunday we had our Christmas program and Elder Fleming and I sang in the choir. We sang the three verses of Silent Night in English and then switched between Gallic, Portuguese, and German. It was a fun song, especially since I only had one Sunday to practice and I was sick! After church we had a lesson with Samantha and Chris and after talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them, they both committed to be baptized on January 9th by their grandpa! They both are so prepared! We participated in a potluck before stopping by the Griggs and sharing the "A Savior is Born" video with Lonnie, who isn't a member of the church. We had dinner way out in the boonies and after we came back, we talked with Savannah and the rest of the Caldw*** to end the night.
It's weird that I get to report about Monday twice in one email! We had interviews with President Russell in the morning and then we spent our day doing missionary work with little luck. At the request of the second counselor, we took some presents with us to dinner. We talked about having faith in Jesus Christ and watched President Hinckley's testimony of the Savior with the Hayd***. We taught Savannah about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she recommitted herself to be baptized on the 30th of January!
That was our week! We saw a lot of good things happen and we now have three people who are wanting to be baptized with a couple of other people on the horizon. I am so excited for Christmas! I know that Jesus Christ was born so that we could live with Him and Heavenly Father again. I know that Jesus lives!
I love you all and have a merry Christmas!
Elder Tonini
This is really weird emailing on a Tuesday! Hopefully y'all had a great Monday and that you have a fantastic Christmas planned because I know I do! 😁
Well, we had a super fantastic week that saw some miracles!
P-Day was good as always but ended with an interesting twist. We had a super delicious zone breakfast before P-Day got underway. We played our normal games and emailed before doing our shopping. We had dinner before going and trying to contact a couple of people. We got back to our apartment and on the way to the staircase, we felt prompted to go talk to the Caldw***'s about when trash was to come. We walked in right as Brother Caldw*** was telling Brian and Savannah that they should take the missionary lessons. Pretty good timing eh? Savannah had received some bad news and was in a low place but it brought her to the point where she wanted to take the lessons!
On Tuesday we spent a little bit of our day doing former finding before our lesson with Ron. He was feeling a little frustrated about the way his scripture study was going so we talked to him for a little bit about what he could do to improve his studies. We booked it over to the Hayden's for dinner and then we shared a message about doing scripture study with them. I had fun with it! We had them watch the first little bit of "Scripture Legacy" (if you haven't seen it, you need to!) and we watched it to the point of where Moroni dies (oops, spoiler alert). We then discussed how important it was for us to have the scriptures and that we need to devote the the time and energy to reading it. It was a fun lesson. During dinner, the Hay***'s little girl decided to use me as a jungle gym.. with her fingers covered in pizza sauce! We went to the Caldw***'s for our first real sit down lesson with Savannah and holy cow it was a crazy insane lesson! Someone was a bit tipsy (not going to say who haha), Brother Caldw*** went on a couple of random tangents, the member friend they invited to come and that I had some worry about was actually a huge help, AND a former missionary who served here showed up and ended up sitting in on the lesson. I think it was one of the craziest lessons I have been a part of! The coolest part of the lesson though was when the RM talked about baptism and I felt the urge to ask her to be baptized right then and there. She said yes and Elder Fleming almost fell out of his chair! It was awesome haha!
Wednesday morning we picked up the Newton Creek Elders and drove down to Grant's Pass for Specialized Training. There was snow all over the pass! We talked about all sorts of things, from vehicle safety to locking our hearts (thank goodness for President Kimball's talk haha), to looking at key indicators as people, not numbers. It was a pretty good training and afterwards we got pizza and took a quiz on our gospel knowledge. We also got a Christmas present from President and Sister Russell in the form of an OEM lapel pin that says "Fishers of Men" with the picture of Christ beckoning to Peter, James, and John on the shore. It is pretty awesome. We got back to Sutherlin in time to volunteer at the soup kitchen. Dinner was dropped off at our place and we gobbled it up before helping the ward with the float for the Christmas parade.
Thursday morning we were supposed to do weekly planning but Elder Fleming and I had a long heart-to-heart talk that needed to happen so we moved it to the next day. The zone leaders came up here and I went with Elder Wells on exchanges. We grabbed lunch before visiting a couple of potentials and knocking out a couple of doors in a trailer park. There was one door that we could smell the stench of weed before they even opened the door. What made that door approach fun was after they said no, we walked towards their carport and right as we passed the edge of their trailer, a huge dog let out a huge bark five feet from us! It scared the heck out of us! After we tracted for a little bit and found a couple of potentials, we drove out to Glide for a lesson with a golden internigator (one who has met with the missionaries for a long time). She comes to church each week and knows its true, she just won't get married to her ex who she is dating again. We retaught her the Restoration and it went really well. Elder Wells and I taught pretty well together and bore testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel. It was pretty awesome. The lady's ex-husband turned boyfriend sat in so he heard it all and felt the Spirit. If he didn't then that sucks for him because it was there! We tried contacting a couple of people after eating the dinner that a member dropped off us for us but that didn't work out so we got into service clothes and cleaned out the litter boxes at PetCo! It was a lot of fun.
Friday morning found us helping out the Melrose and Newton Creek Sisters with moving in one of the Melrose sisters into the Newton Creek Sisters' apartment. Sister Sowter, our sister from England, was ET'd to Grants Pass because of something that happened to the sisters down that way. I don't know all the details but that is ok! We took lunch at Taco Bell with Elder Fleming and Elder Earl before exchanging back. We did weekly planning before trying to contact people because all of our lessons fell through. Every single one.
Saturday was interesting. We helped out with the final float preparations before our lesson with Savannah. We thought it wasn't going to happen because after our lesson on Tuesday, a ton of stuff happened and we thought we weren't going to be teaching her but sure enough, she was there waiting for us! We talked about her baptismal date before talking about the Restoration. It made a lot of sense for her and she said she loved the idea of prophets! We also answered a question that she has had for a long time apparently about the relationship between God and Jesus Christ. After lunch, we had a couple of lessons set up but they fell through so we spent some time contacting people before our dinner with a part-member family. He cooked some dang good burgers and made some amazing potato salad! After sharing the "A Savior is Born" video with them, we dropped the car off at the apartment and walked over to the float! We had over 400 baggies filled with candy and pass along cards and we ran out before we got down the home stretch! It was a great time and we even won first place for non-profit organizations!
Sunday we had our Christmas program and Elder Fleming and I sang in the choir. We sang the three verses of Silent Night in English and then switched between Gallic, Portuguese, and German. It was a fun song, especially since I only had one Sunday to practice and I was sick! After church we had a lesson with Samantha and Chris and after talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them, they both committed to be baptized on January 9th by their grandpa! They both are so prepared! We participated in a potluck before stopping by the Griggs and sharing the "A Savior is Born" video with Lonnie, who isn't a member of the church. We had dinner way out in the boonies and after we came back, we talked with Savannah and the rest of the Caldw*** to end the night.
It's weird that I get to report about Monday twice in one email! We had interviews with President Russell in the morning and then we spent our day doing missionary work with little luck. At the request of the second counselor, we took some presents with us to dinner. We talked about having faith in Jesus Christ and watched President Hinckley's testimony of the Savior with the Hayd***. We taught Savannah about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she recommitted herself to be baptized on the 30th of January!
That was our week! We saw a lot of good things happen and we now have three people who are wanting to be baptized with a couple of other people on the horizon. I am so excited for Christmas! I know that Jesus Christ was born so that we could live with Him and Heavenly Father again. I know that Jesus lives!
I love you all and have a merry Christmas!
Elder Tonini
Monday, November 2, 2015
The One Where We Talk About Bigfoot....
Hey everyone!
This was a little bit of a rougher week for Elder Bowers and me. We didn't have everything go as planned this week! But we testified and invited people to come to Christ so that is what counts!
Monday was pretty much the usual P-Day. Elder Bowers and I cleaned our apartment and got everything we needed to done at our apartment before we headed out for the day. We got emails done before going over to Walmart and doing some grocery shopping and chilling at the mall. We got back in time for dinner before go I out and contacting people. We talked to Brother Half*** for a little bit. We had a good talk with him, especially about some of the things that he is struggling with right now. We got a lesson set up for later on in the week and then we called it a night.
Tuesday we started it off by going into Eugene to go to the mission office to drop some pants off and to pick up a couple of things for the missionaries in the zone (we did really well on miles this month haha!). We came back into Springfield only to turn around and go help 2nd Ward Elders clean their apartment. They white washed into the area and opened an apartment that was already infested with bedbugs so we lathered up with deet and got the place ready to be taken care of. After throwing our clothes in the wash and getting cleaned up, we had our lesson with Robert Whi***. He went off into his own world but we talked about virtue so hopefully that helped him. The Spanish missionaries met us at the church and we went over to dinner with the Youngers. We had correlation and splits afterwards and I went and taught Tim and Courtney with the Streb***. It went pretty well! I connected with Tim's love for nature and built up on that, talking about coming closer to God. I left them Enos to read (because of Enos being a bow hunter) and set up a time to come back. Elder Bowers and I did training to end the night.
Wednesday morning started off with a text from Shawn, the guy we talked to in the park a couple of weeks ago. He said that he wanted to meet up so we got a lesson set up for later in the day. The zone leaders came over and did companionship study with us before we took off for lunch at the Salg***'s. We went over to the church and waited for Shawn to show up but he never did so we did a car inspection before going on a temporary exchange. One of the 4th Ward Elders was sick so I stayed with the sick missionary and studied Lehi's dream of the tree of life while Elder Bowers and the other missionary went out and tracked and taught JayDaQuin. We drove 2nd Ward Elders around before our dinner over at the Bishop's storehouse. We then talked with David and Leighanne about their experience at church. They had a decent one, they loved the fellowship but they had some difficulty with the fast and testimony meeting. They did say that they would come for a normal church service so that was awesome!
Thursday was rough. We had weekly planning but that dragged on because of some things that kept popping up. We then were told that 4th Ward Elders were going to be borrowing our car so that through our plans for the day out the window! It also didn't help that our lesson with Brother Half*** got pushed back. We had a good visit with Brother Half*** though and we talked a lot about the restoration of the gospel and we left him the blueprint of Christ's true church talk by Elder Callister. We had dinner with a widow and Bishop Bla*** before going to the Gam***'s for a lesson with William. We made it short and to the point. We talked about Daniel in the Lion's den and tied that in with him and how he has to build his faith in Christ and it will help him through the tough times. He actually paid attention which was really nice haha!
I don't even want to talk about Friday haha! District meeting went really well but the lesson we had right after was terrible. We had a good start but then the member we were with started confusing the heck out of our investigators and then he started talking about how Cain is Bigfoot.....Needless to say, we got dropped after the lesson, mainly because we couldn't answer one of the investigator's questions of Noah and Ezekiel. I was pretty furious though and then it didn't help that Brother Whi*** didn't show up either! We had a fantastic time with the Birds***'s though! We had some really awesome spiritual discussions with them and then they gave us a ton of food! We did training to wrap up our day.
Saturday was Halloween! One of the sisters in my district is from the Philippines and never carved a pumpkin before so during lunch we had a pumpkin carving party at the lunch! We had a ton of fun! Brother Half*** came and picked us up for stake conference. We got to meet Elder Echo Hawk of the Seventy and then had an awesome Saturday session! President Lowery of the mission presidency talked about member missionary work and it was so awesome! We then stayed inside all night long. It was a good bonding time for Elder Bowers and I.
Sunday we had stake conference. Brother Ud*** picked us up for that and it was pretty awesome. Elder Echo Hawk gave an awesome talk and afterwards we stood in the circle as Brother Ud*** got ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood! It was super cool. Outside of that, nothing much went our way except for dinner and correlation at Brother Boo***'s
I love y'all! I can't believe it is already November! Thank you for all your support and your prayers! Have a good week and remember, the church is true, the book is blue, and Moroni is always on the ball!
Elder Tonini
Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"
This was a little bit of a rougher week for Elder Bowers and me. We didn't have everything go as planned this week! But we testified and invited people to come to Christ so that is what counts!
Monday was pretty much the usual P-Day. Elder Bowers and I cleaned our apartment and got everything we needed to done at our apartment before we headed out for the day. We got emails done before going over to Walmart and doing some grocery shopping and chilling at the mall. We got back in time for dinner before go I out and contacting people. We talked to Brother Half*** for a little bit. We had a good talk with him, especially about some of the things that he is struggling with right now. We got a lesson set up for later on in the week and then we called it a night.
Tuesday we started it off by going into Eugene to go to the mission office to drop some pants off and to pick up a couple of things for the missionaries in the zone (we did really well on miles this month haha!). We came back into Springfield only to turn around and go help 2nd Ward Elders clean their apartment. They white washed into the area and opened an apartment that was already infested with bedbugs so we lathered up with deet and got the place ready to be taken care of. After throwing our clothes in the wash and getting cleaned up, we had our lesson with Robert Whi***. He went off into his own world but we talked about virtue so hopefully that helped him. The Spanish missionaries met us at the church and we went over to dinner with the Youngers. We had correlation and splits afterwards and I went and taught Tim and Courtney with the Streb***. It went pretty well! I connected with Tim's love for nature and built up on that, talking about coming closer to God. I left them Enos to read (because of Enos being a bow hunter) and set up a time to come back. Elder Bowers and I did training to end the night.
Wednesday morning started off with a text from Shawn, the guy we talked to in the park a couple of weeks ago. He said that he wanted to meet up so we got a lesson set up for later in the day. The zone leaders came over and did companionship study with us before we took off for lunch at the Salg***'s. We went over to the church and waited for Shawn to show up but he never did so we did a car inspection before going on a temporary exchange. One of the 4th Ward Elders was sick so I stayed with the sick missionary and studied Lehi's dream of the tree of life while Elder Bowers and the other missionary went out and tracked and taught JayDaQuin. We drove 2nd Ward Elders around before our dinner over at the Bishop's storehouse. We then talked with David and Leighanne about their experience at church. They had a decent one, they loved the fellowship but they had some difficulty with the fast and testimony meeting. They did say that they would come for a normal church service so that was awesome!
Thursday was rough. We had weekly planning but that dragged on because of some things that kept popping up. We then were told that 4th Ward Elders were going to be borrowing our car so that through our plans for the day out the window! It also didn't help that our lesson with Brother Half*** got pushed back. We had a good visit with Brother Half*** though and we talked a lot about the restoration of the gospel and we left him the blueprint of Christ's true church talk by Elder Callister. We had dinner with a widow and Bishop Bla*** before going to the Gam***'s for a lesson with William. We made it short and to the point. We talked about Daniel in the Lion's den and tied that in with him and how he has to build his faith in Christ and it will help him through the tough times. He actually paid attention which was really nice haha!
I don't even want to talk about Friday haha! District meeting went really well but the lesson we had right after was terrible. We had a good start but then the member we were with started confusing the heck out of our investigators and then he started talking about how Cain is Bigfoot.....Needless to say, we got dropped after the lesson, mainly because we couldn't answer one of the investigator's questions of Noah and Ezekiel. I was pretty furious though and then it didn't help that Brother Whi*** didn't show up either! We had a fantastic time with the Birds***'s though! We had some really awesome spiritual discussions with them and then they gave us a ton of food! We did training to wrap up our day.
Sunday we had stake conference. Brother Ud*** picked us up for that and it was pretty awesome. Elder Echo Hawk gave an awesome talk and afterwards we stood in the circle as Brother Ud*** got ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood! It was super cool. Outside of that, nothing much went our way except for dinner and correlation at Brother Boo***'s
I love y'all! I can't believe it is already November! Thank you for all your support and your prayers! Have a good week and remember, the church is true, the book is blue, and Moroni is always on the ball!
Elder Tonini
Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"
Monday, November 3, 2014
So, you are telling me that my wife will be hotter if I work hard as a missionary? Cool!
Hey everyone!
Holy cow it is already November!? Time is just flying by! It feels like yesterday I was in the MTC! Now I am approaching my six month mark fast!
Ready for my week? I hope so!
Monday after emailing we went to the Danebo stake center to play some
jack o lantern kickball! It's like normal kickball, but you have to
wear a pumpkin on your head. We lost though... I did have an awesome
sliding catch though! :D we got a pizza party despite losing because
we had the cleanest cars in the whole mission! The other Elders did an
exchange with the 3rd ward Elders so we had Elder Fernilius for the
night and the next day. We had an awesome time with the Fra*** at
dinner! They are an awesome family:)
Tuesday we had a lesson with Charlotte. We decided to go over the restoration again by watching the first half of "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the restoration". She really enjoyed it. However, we found out she wasn't doing her scripture studies so we left her another chapter to read in the Book of Mormon. We tried to see some less active members but they weren't available so we took the other Elders back to Santa Clara to exchange back. The Book of Mormon class is struggling at the moment but we are trying to expand our horizons and get more people to it! We then exchanged with Elder Bassett and Elder Enman for the next day. Elder Bassett came with me to my area!
Wednesday morning we went to the church to do a Facebook post and meet up
with the Zone Leaders to give them a HDMI cable for their iPads.
Unfortunately at some point in the morning, I lost one of my name
tags! Oops! I'm glad I can just order another one from the mission
office! Anyways, we decided to focus on the extensive potentials list
we had so we took off walking. We were walking down Prairie Rd when an
F-18 flew over us only a couple thousand feet above us! It happened
twice! We got to talk to some people along the way but for the most
part the address we had were either wrong or we just didn't try hard
enough! We did meet a woman who looked like a Stephen Tyler
look-a-like! That was interesting!
Thursday we had lesson set up right after weekly planning with a potential named Natasha but she went out of town unexpectedly so that didn't happen. The member we were with offered us turkey soup and we said yes. We headed up to Harrisburg to visit less actives before heading over to Gle***. After Gle*** and dinner we headed up to the church to help set up for the Fall Festival!
Friday was Halloween! Before we went to district meeting in the
morning, we had to swing by Walmart to pick up some stuff for district
meeting and we saw someone getting arrested in the parking lot! After
district meeting, the district leaders organized a costume contest to
see who could have the best costume for under 5 dollars. I was going
to go for a tacky tourist kind of deal (socks with flip flops, button
shirt, etc.) but I went with Asian Tourist and got second place! And
then nothing really happened because it was Halloween. We went to the
Fall Festival at 7 for a few minutes before leaving to go home (we had
to be in at 7 but we got special permission from President Russell).
Saturday we helped Brother Thor*** clean the church along with a member family. After that we had lunch and were walking over to the church when we remembered that a sister in the ward told us on Friday that a sister who lives near us needed a blessing. So on our way to the church for a lesson, we stopped and gave a blessing to the sister. After we had done that, we were about to keep going on our journey to the church when an older gentleman stopped us. He asked "who is Jesus Christ" and my first thought was "man, this guy might try to bash with us!" We told him that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and he responded that he hears a lot of stories about the church and wanted to know. He also asked us how many wives we were going to have (only one!) and then told us that he respected what we did as missionaries and the devotion we give. So that was pretty neat!:) We met with Charlotte at the church to finish watching the Restoration movie. She had read the chapter we had given her so we talked about the movie and gave her another chapter to read. Later that day we went and helped Cami, a less active, break down her daughters bed and vanity for their move to Utah. We had basketball that evening with Roscoe!
Sunday was fast and testimony meeting. We had an interesting testimony meeting to say the least! Apparently, the harder I work determines how hot my wife will be and that drugs are bad and should be voted against in the upcoming election. We had a huge turn out for gospel principles! After correlation, we had a lesson with Margret and we shared a Mormon Message about the hope of Gods light. That video has become one of my personal favorites! We had planned to go with the other Elders to a lesson with Roscoe at 6 but they never told Roscoe the time that the member was going to pick him up! Oops! So we talked to the Goodmans for a little bit before Elder Cook and I headed to Brother Thor***'s to share a message with him.
That was my week! I love you all so much and thank you for all your prayers and your love! I know this gospel is true! And to end this email, I am going to use hashtags to honor my companion! If you don't know what hashtags are, ask Corina, Carson, or any other young adult/teen!
#startstrongfinishstronger
#thereisnodoubt
#OEM
#SoCal
#ElderCookMadeMeDoIt
#kidding
#imgoingtostopnow
I love yall! Have an awesome week!
Elder Tonini
Holy cow it is already November!? Time is just flying by! It feels like yesterday I was in the MTC! Now I am approaching my six month mark fast!
Ready for my week? I hope so!
Tuesday we had a lesson with Charlotte. We decided to go over the restoration again by watching the first half of "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the restoration". She really enjoyed it. However, we found out she wasn't doing her scripture studies so we left her another chapter to read in the Book of Mormon. We tried to see some less active members but they weren't available so we took the other Elders back to Santa Clara to exchange back. The Book of Mormon class is struggling at the moment but we are trying to expand our horizons and get more people to it! We then exchanged with Elder Bassett and Elder Enman for the next day. Elder Bassett came with me to my area!
Wednesday morning we went to the church to do a Facebook post and meet up
Thursday we had lesson set up right after weekly planning with a potential named Natasha but she went out of town unexpectedly so that didn't happen. The member we were with offered us turkey soup and we said yes. We headed up to Harrisburg to visit less actives before heading over to Gle***. After Gle*** and dinner we headed up to the church to help set up for the Fall Festival!
Saturday we helped Brother Thor*** clean the church along with a member family. After that we had lunch and were walking over to the church when we remembered that a sister in the ward told us on Friday that a sister who lives near us needed a blessing. So on our way to the church for a lesson, we stopped and gave a blessing to the sister. After we had done that, we were about to keep going on our journey to the church when an older gentleman stopped us. He asked "who is Jesus Christ" and my first thought was "man, this guy might try to bash with us!" We told him that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and he responded that he hears a lot of stories about the church and wanted to know. He also asked us how many wives we were going to have (only one!) and then told us that he respected what we did as missionaries and the devotion we give. So that was pretty neat!:) We met with Charlotte at the church to finish watching the Restoration movie. She had read the chapter we had given her so we talked about the movie and gave her another chapter to read. Later that day we went and helped Cami, a less active, break down her daughters bed and vanity for their move to Utah. We had basketball that evening with Roscoe!
Sunday was fast and testimony meeting. We had an interesting testimony meeting to say the least! Apparently, the harder I work determines how hot my wife will be and that drugs are bad and should be voted against in the upcoming election. We had a huge turn out for gospel principles! After correlation, we had a lesson with Margret and we shared a Mormon Message about the hope of Gods light. That video has become one of my personal favorites! We had planned to go with the other Elders to a lesson with Roscoe at 6 but they never told Roscoe the time that the member was going to pick him up! Oops! So we talked to the Goodmans for a little bit before Elder Cook and I headed to Brother Thor***'s to share a message with him.
That was my week! I love you all so much and thank you for all your prayers and your love! I know this gospel is true! And to end this email, I am going to use hashtags to honor my companion! If you don't know what hashtags are, ask Corina, Carson, or any other young adult/teen!
#startstrongfinishstronger
#thereisnodoubt
#OEM
#SoCal
#ElderCookMadeMeDoIt
#kidding
#imgoingtostopnow
I love yall! Have an awesome week!
Elder Tonini
Monday, July 7, 2014
BOOM! BANG! FIREPOWER!!!!
So for the Fourth of July and the family in DC, I chose a line from "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" :) fireworks and explosions are something that didn't happen here because of Oregon laws about fireworks! Pretty lame.
Anyways. I digress
Monday didn't go as planned! We were supposed to meet President And Sister Russell but they had to cancel it so we ended up doing a puppet show about the Restoration with Elders in our district and it was very interesting to say the least!
Tuesday we had nothing go right for us! Tracting was unsuccessful and we couldn't see some people like we wanted to, but we taught an awesome lesson to Ben and actually set up a time for him to talk to Bishop so that was awesome.
Wednesday was super long but super good. We were excited for our lesson with Mitchell and we brought Robin along because he wanted to come teach with us and we were more than happy to have him. However, we ended up sitting at the church for an hour waiting for our investigator. Turns out his phone broke so that was a bust. Dinner was awesome and not because of the food! Brother Morrison invited Stan over for dinner and we had a load of fun. We taught about the atonement and we think he really enjoyed it so hopefully he keeps meeting with us! Thursday we finally got to meet President and Sister Russell and boy was it awesome! They are such awesome people! They are going to be great:) Elder Flora had to do a baptismal interview for LeAnna so that is how the rest of our day went.
On the Fourth of July all we did was service! We went to one of our investigators home and took care of a junk pile full of weird stuff like a ski pole and car bumpers! We also took care of some wood they had. Their barn fell apart during the winter so we helped figure out what was salvageable or not. We then went to the Bauers to take care of a garden bed that they wanted to be torn out. There was this massive plant that we took out and it weighed enough for me and Elder Flora to struggle a little! We had two dinners and plenty of hamburgers. We had to be in at 7 so we did planning and had some fun in our apartment! No fireworks were set off until like after 11. I also hit my one month mark in the mission field:)
Fun fact: in Oregon you can not buy anything that goes above four feet and explodes! LAME
Saturday we did more service for Birdy, this time taking out some weeds. We taught Ben about the Atonement before dinner and going to LeAnna's baptism! It was a beautiful service and the spirit was so strong there!
Sunday was my first Fast Sunday in Oregon! Me and elder Flora taught the 13 year olds about covenants and talked about family history in Elders quorum. I love this Elders quorum! They have an awesome sense of humors but yet the spirit is always there! We had an early dinner with Brother Lewis and his family. As we talked, I learned that he served his mission Virginia and served in Springfield and Fairfax around '91-'92!! Did either grandparents have bishopric or stake callings or such during that time? It was crazy for me to be having dinner with him when all the family is in VA! We also had a lesson with a kid named RJ. Good kid. We had to drive out to Alsea and on the way there there was a bad wreck! After the lesson we went and taught Mel and learned more about him.
Well I love you all:) you all mean a lot to me and I miss y'all so much but I am so glad that I can be here serving The Lord! Always remember Him in all that you do! And read the Book of Mormon always!! Something that I have started is I am also reading the Doctrine and Covenants. It is modern day revelation. Why not read it??:)
I love you all!
Elder Tonini
Anyways. I digress
Monday didn't go as planned! We were supposed to meet President And Sister Russell but they had to cancel it so we ended up doing a puppet show about the Restoration with Elders in our district and it was very interesting to say the least!
Tuesday we had nothing go right for us! Tracting was unsuccessful and we couldn't see some people like we wanted to, but we taught an awesome lesson to Ben and actually set up a time for him to talk to Bishop so that was awesome.
Wednesday was super long but super good. We were excited for our lesson with Mitchell and we brought Robin along because he wanted to come teach with us and we were more than happy to have him. However, we ended up sitting at the church for an hour waiting for our investigator. Turns out his phone broke so that was a bust. Dinner was awesome and not because of the food! Brother Morrison invited Stan over for dinner and we had a load of fun. We taught about the atonement and we think he really enjoyed it so hopefully he keeps meeting with us! Thursday we finally got to meet President and Sister Russell and boy was it awesome! They are such awesome people! They are going to be great:) Elder Flora had to do a baptismal interview for LeAnna so that is how the rest of our day went.
On the Fourth of July all we did was service! We went to one of our investigators home and took care of a junk pile full of weird stuff like a ski pole and car bumpers! We also took care of some wood they had. Their barn fell apart during the winter so we helped figure out what was salvageable or not. We then went to the Bauers to take care of a garden bed that they wanted to be torn out. There was this massive plant that we took out and it weighed enough for me and Elder Flora to struggle a little! We had two dinners and plenty of hamburgers. We had to be in at 7 so we did planning and had some fun in our apartment! No fireworks were set off until like after 11. I also hit my one month mark in the mission field:)
Fun fact: in Oregon you can not buy anything that goes above four feet and explodes! LAME
Saturday we did more service for Birdy, this time taking out some weeds. We taught Ben about the Atonement before dinner and going to LeAnna's baptism! It was a beautiful service and the spirit was so strong there!
Sunday was my first Fast Sunday in Oregon! Me and elder Flora taught the 13 year olds about covenants and talked about family history in Elders quorum. I love this Elders quorum! They have an awesome sense of humors but yet the spirit is always there! We had an early dinner with Brother Lewis and his family. As we talked, I learned that he served his mission Virginia and served in Springfield and Fairfax around '91-'92!! Did either grandparents have bishopric or stake callings or such during that time? It was crazy for me to be having dinner with him when all the family is in VA! We also had a lesson with a kid named RJ. Good kid. We had to drive out to Alsea and on the way there there was a bad wreck! After the lesson we went and taught Mel and learned more about him.
Well I love you all:) you all mean a lot to me and I miss y'all so much but I am so glad that I can be here serving The Lord! Always remember Him in all that you do! And read the Book of Mormon always!! Something that I have started is I am also reading the Doctrine and Covenants. It is modern day revelation. Why not read it??:)
I love you all!
Elder Tonini
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