Monday, April 27, 2015

The One Where I Went Teaching with President Russell

Hey everyone!

So this was a pretty interesting week for us. We had a ton of service and we were able to get some good lessons in. You ready for this?

Monday after P-Day ended, we had a lesson set up with Brad. We had a good lesson about eternal families and the role as a parent with him, mainly because his daughter just gave birth to his first grandson and he was SUPER pumped about that! That lesson went pretty long, mainly because he was talking a ton and showing us gospel country songs! When we got out of his home, we had just enough time to pull our stuff together to go spend the night in Gold Hill.

Tuesday morning I was waiting for the district leader conference call when I was told there wasn't one that morning! It was one less thing I had to worry about that day! We had a lesson in the morning with Brother Mad*** and that went really well. He had some questions about the Lamanites and about the curse that was put on them at the beginning of the Book of Mormon. It was pretty cool to teach about what happens to us when we lose the presence of God in our lives! After we had lunch with him we tried contacting a couple of potentials with no luck. We were supposed to met up with President Russell to go teach Samantha and Eric at 6 o'clock but dinner was pushed back till 5:30 and then we helped out one of our members move in a couch and a love seat so we didn't get over to the church until 6:40! Luckily, our lesson with Samantha and Eric was at 7 so we got there right on time. It was a pretty awesome lesson! We had Eric, Samantha, Eric's parents who are members, and President Russell all in this lesson! We taught them about the Restoration and Samantha really liked it! She also said the closing prayer and that was just awesome! It was interesting having President Russell there to help us out.

Wednesday we had specialized training in the morning and had interviews right after that. The specialized training was all about obedience and then in my interview, I had a good talk with President Russell! It was good being able to talk to him for a bit. When we got done with that, we attempted to get in contact with a couple of less actives but nothing happened with that. We were able to get a few lessons set up so that was good. For dinner that night, we had it with a former member of the Seventy! It was super cool to be able to talk to him and get to know him a little bit. We had a lesson scheduled with Kevin but he wasn't able to make it because of work.

Thursday we shoveled horse manure for a widow in the Gold Hill ward. It took us a long time because there was a ton! Sister Stam*** is a funny lady and feed us corn dogs and chips outside on her patio afterwards. We got back to the apartment and did some weekly planning before trying some of the people in the Gold Hill area. We were able to talk to a member named Heather and she asked if we could come back and see her later on in the week. She had some interesting thoughts about different aspects of the Church. We went back into Central Point and met up with the Sta*** to talk about a couple of things pertaining to missionary work. After dinner we booked it back to Gold Hill for our lesson with Kevin. It was a super short lesson but we were able to teach about keeping the Sabbath Day holy so that was awesome.

Friday morning we were over at Sister Par***'s home moving some more stuff around. We had a ton of fun moving pipes and throwing old barrels around! When we were finished, Sisters Hagamann and Park met us up at Burger King and feed us lunch! We got cleaned up and went and saw Mike. We watched Elder Holland's talk from this last General Conference and he really enjoyed it. After dinner, we went and saw Samantha and talked to her for a few minutes. She was doing well and is making some awesome progress! We were planning on going to see Heather that night but she had to cancel. We stopped by Brother Reitte***'s house and ended up talking with him and his less active aunt for an hour! It was awesome!


Saturday morning found us at Twin Creeks helping out at a MS Walk! It was a ton of fun and I got a free t-shirt! We helped out on the walking path to make sure that people went the right way! After the MS Walk we helped out with a move in our ward. It was fun, considering the storage unit was a lot smaller than what they had! After we helped there, we went over and shared a message with Adam Barge before going to dinner. I got a speed Rubik's cube from a member! It is super sweet!

Sunday I gave two five minute talks and they both went pretty well! Samantha came to all three hours of church so that was pretty awesome. After church we had dinner with the Idiart's and then we met up with the Cole***'s to finish up the night.

I love all of yall! Thanks for all that you do! This church is true!

Elder Tonini

Monday, April 20, 2015

We Have Someone on Date!

Hey everyone!

So this was an interesting week taking over Gold Hill and Central Point 2nd. It's been pretty decent and we have had some good things happen!

Tuesday morning we went and shared a message with Brother Mad*** over in Gold Hill. We had a good conversation with him and then he took us out to eat afterwards. I had a pretty dang good country fried steak! We came into Central Point and exchanged with the zone leaders. I went with Elder Taito in my area. I actually replaced Elder Taito in Central Point so he knew a couple of people that we had scheduled to go see! We went and saw Adam and that went well. We talked about trials and what we can do to push through the trials. After Adam, we went and visited a man named Masood. His wife was a member and she passed away a couple of months ago. We ended up teaching him a little bit and he said that we could come back the next week! We grabbed dinner and then we saw a couple of members to finish up the night.

Wednesday Elder Taito and I headed over to Sister Par***'s home to help out with some service out there! We pulled up and I got an up close encounter with her pet emu haha! It was super cool to be around it! We helped Sister Par*** move some stuff out of a storage shed and into a trailer. It didn't take us too long and we were able to exchange back right after. We didn't have much go on for us until later on in the evening. We had a lesson with Kevin at the Cop***'s home. Kevin is a pretty sweet dude! We taught him about the law of chastity and word of wisdom and he accepted all of it so that was pretty good. Elder Porter was able to Skype in so that was pretty interesting.

Thursday we had a service project over at Sister Duf***'s home. We pulled out weeds with Elder Pease and Dave and then we pulled a motor block out of her shed so that was fun haha. We did weekly planning and then we drove out to Eagle Point to help out with a move out there. It was a super easy move and we finished a lot quicker than anticipated! We had dinner out there and then came in to teach Samantha only to find out that she wasn't feeling good so we tried seeing a couple of different people before going to correlation. It was an interesting correlation and we had a ton of fun!

Friday morning we had district meeting in the morning. It went alright haha it was tough to get conversation going when you are missing a companionship! Outside of district meeting, I don't remember much what happened that day... I do remember that we saw Mike and a member who just moved into the area. He is inactive and attends another church but says that we are welcomed to stop by so that is good haha! We had a knock out lesson with the Crowes! We taught them the plan of salvation and then Samantha committed to get baptized on the 20th of June! We even have Eric committed to work on being able to baptize her! It was a super solid lesson and I am so excited for the next lesson!

Saturday morning we went over to the church for Dave's baptism! It went really well and the Spirit was so strong there! Afterwards, we had lunch at his house! It was super good haha! Other than that, we weren't able to get much missionary work done... Our Areabook app is acting up and we don't have anyone in our areabook's so we are unsure of who to go visit! We did try our best but it was tough. We had a service project over at Sister Del***'s house. The front and back yards looked like a jungle so we went out there with the sisters, the Thurm***, Brother Sta***, and the Sum***'s to go help cut it all down! We had a ton of fun and we got most of it done! We had to bail though to go to correlation over in Gold Hill.

Sunday we had church all day long! We had Samantha and Kevin come to church so that was pretty dang awesome! We tried contacting a couple of less actives but outside of the people we knew from memory, we weren't able to go see anyone else. However, we were able to get in contact with a couple of investigators and get things set up with them!

That is about it! I love y'all so much! Thank you for your prayers and your love!

Love y'all!

Elder Tonini

Monday, April 13, 2015

So, about my week....

This week has been the hardest week of my mission. Just letting y'all know. However, we did have some stuff go well for us.

Tuesday morning Brother Froe*** came and got us to help out with a service project over at a widow's house. The Gold Hill Elders came also and we cleared away a ton of brush and took it over to a burn pile. While we were doing that, the zone leaders called us and told us that an elder in the zone had to go to the hospital for a possible case of appendicitis so they had to cancel the exchange. However, they wanted to talk to us later on that night so we planned accordingly. We then helped out Gold Hill with a service project that they had. After we cleaned up and had dinner, we headed over to the church and meet up with the zone leaders and they had to talk to Elder S. and they found out about something he and Elder P. did. They took us back to our apartment and we visited with a couple members before coming back to the apartment. That is when my week went downhill fast. Due to Elder S's conversation with the zone leaders, he had to call President and President was pretty mad.... So that is how my night went.

Wednesday morning we walked over to the Central Point 1st Ward apartment to go with them to a service project but there was some miscommunication and we ended up not going. We instead walked over to Brother DeK***'s brother's house and helped him move out. We got free lunch out of it so that was a bonus! We got back to the apartment and got into our proselyting clothes and tried contacting a few people before dinner. After dinner we walked around and tried to contact some of our potential investigators but they were all a no-go. Elder S had to call his stake president that night so we came in early so he could call.

Thursday morning was not my ideal way to have my day start off. Elder S. and Elder P. had to apologize to the whole zone for making the Sisters move because of the prank they did to them. Not fun. We grabbed lunch before going and helping a member in Gold Hill with some stuff. We ended up on top of this huge hill and it was such a beautiful sight that we had to stop and take some pictures before we left. We came back into town and Elder Best and I went to dinner before I had to go to stake correlation. We canceled our ward correlation because of the situation that happened.

Friday morning we had zone training meeting. President Russell came down for that and it went really well. We had a fun role play where we went outside and talked to some "random people" about the gospel. After ZTM, we grabbed some lunch and then Elder Seymour basically spent the rest of the day packing and we helped Elder Porter pack as well.

Saturday morning the AP's came and picked up Elder P. and Elder S. for their new assignments up in Eugene. Elder Best and I are taking over Central Point 2nd Ward and the Gold Hill area for the next couple of weeks. I get to drive a truck around! That is super awesome haha! We had dinner with the Bri**'s family and their daughter brought a non-member friend to dinner as well! We watched the "Because He Lives" video with them and it was just super powerful! It was a great experience. We drove into Gold Hill and taught a less active family about faith. It was a great time with them and we read Ether 12 with them to drive home that principle of the gospel.

Sunday was super long but freaking awesome. We had church from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. It made for a long day, especially without lunch. Both church meetings were great and we even had some investigators come so that was sweet. We had a super cool experience after dinner. I felt like we should go visit a potential part member family and we ended up committing her to be baptized! We have a lesson on Thursday with her and her family so we are super pumped!

I love all of yall and I hope you have a great week!

Elder Tonini

Monday, April 6, 2015

#LDSConf

Hey everyone!

So this was a bit of a slower week for us.

Monday after P-Day was over, we had dinner with the Cro*** and we shared the "Because He lives" video with them. After that, we tried to contact some people but nothing much came from it.

Tuesday we had temple service in the morning. We walked over to the church with the 1st Ward Elders and we worked on digging holes and moving some bushes around. We had to go through a ton of weed block and it was a pain in the rear! We came back to the apartment and changed before walking to our appointment with Don. On the way to his home, a member from the 1st Ward saw us and picked us up! Unfortunately he drove away before we knocked on the door and discovered he was not home! We walked back to the apartment and took lunch. We walked over to Central Point East and met with Mike. Due to a mix up, he wasn't able to come to church this last Sunday so he was pretty bummed about that. We read some chapters out of 1st Nephi with him and it was a good visit. We then tried to contact a couple of the members over in that area that I didn't know before having dinner. When we finished up there, we headed off to go back to our neck of the woods to contact a few people but no one was around.

Wednesday morning we did weekly planning because I was not going to be around on the day we normal did weekly planning. When we finished up with that, we rearranged our apartment for our lunch. One of the members called us and asked us if we could help him with his food run and we said yes. He even took us to McDonald's for lunch haha! We helped him out with that and then helped out the Gold Hill Elders with getting their truck into the shop. When we were done with that, we went to our ward's silent auction for Girl's camp and Scout Camp. Elder Seymour walked away with a board for a skateboard and I got a BYU blanket from a member as well as a back massager haha! It was super fun! We then helped the Sister missionaries get the couch a member got them into their apartment with the help of Brother Thur***.

Thursday I was up at 5:15 to get ready for my first ever missionary leadership council. I went up with the zone leaders and the Medford 3rd Ward Elders and I slept almost the whole way there haha! It was so awesome seeing all of my former companions! We were instructed from some of the people in the Missionary Department about finding and asking for referrals. We didn't get home until about 8ish and then I had ward correlation to end the night.

Friday morning I had district meeting. We talked about our study habits that could be improved and then did some activities, such as biscuits and gravy!:) It was so good! After district meeting, the Sisters did an Easter egg hunt and then did the activity where we had the eggs with different items in it that represented Jesus Christ's last week. It was awesome, considering we did it in front of the temple! After that we and the Gold Hill Elders did some service for one of the Gold Hill members. Elder Porter and I painted, move a washer, and worked on a dam haha! It was a ton of fun! We even had chimichangas! We then saw the Froel*** and got Elder Porters finger fixed up! He dropped a trailer on it a day or so ago and it was swelling bad so Sister Froel*** fixed it up for him!

Saturday was General Conference! I stayed in Gold Hill and watched it with one of Gold Hill's members. We hung out and had lunch before the afternoon session with the Ward Mission Leader (WML) in the Gold Hill ward. The WML was one of the contractors to build some of the temples out here! It was super cool seeing the pictures and stuff! After the afternoon session, we came back into Central Point and went to the Priesthood session. We got pizza with the ward and then I got Sonic to keep up with tradition! It was great!

Sunday was filled with conference. We watched it at the church and then passed out at the Stam***! We then contacted a couple of people and shared an Easter message with Joe and a family history message with Adam. That is pretty much how Sunday went!

That's all I got! I'm grateful for this wonderful conference we just had! I know this church is true! There is no doubt!

Love y'all!

Elder Tonini