Week Dos: A week of learning!

Howdy!

This has definitely been a learning week! I feel more prepared for my mission than anything before! It has been a good week but I am feeling sick with a head cold or allergies or something.

So Tuesday was pretty awesome! We met with Chad, our real-life investigator that afternoon! We spent most of our first lesson talking and getting to know him and he is a cool dude! He has a Book of Mormon but we are going to have a hard time or any other missionary with him because he likes to focus on the beheadings and stuff haha... We also had our Tuesday night devotional and Elder Russell M. Nelson and his wife spoke!

Wednesday was not the best day.. I had a rough time with my companion, just trying to adjust to our styles of teaching and living so we have somewhat worked that out. We meet with the new district and, as zone leaders, we had a guideline to follow but I was the only one who bothered to read the manual so it got crazy.. but the new district is pretty awesome! In fact, they are going to the DC South mission! So they will maybe be near the Romney's.

Thursday was when I started to get sick... fun... It was also the first time that our teacher/"investigator" Brother Cowdin didn't evaluate us. But the best part was when we went to see Chad. He wasn't there but we ended up teaching a woman named Michelle from Arizona who just got there!! She really took a liking to us and we ended up setting up an appointment for Friday!

Friday was our in-field orientation day! We spent almost our entire day learning how to interact with the members, using goals and planning, contacting, basically all the nitty-gritty stuff of missionary work! The MTC employees put on a play for us that was actually pretty entertaining! However, it was the lesson with Michelle that took the cake! She has doubts about being here and feels as though she is wasting her time and our time, mainly because she is struggling with finding out for herself who Christ is. Lots of tears were shed and she is gonna stay and try to find herself! We are meeting with her tonight! I also learned an important lesson about staying focused. Our district was starting to get restless during companion study and after 20 minutes of that our teacher Brother Sebesta (who usually goes outside during comp study) came and took us on a field trip. We walked around for about 5 minutes in silence and wrote down what we heard. After we came in, he started asking us what we heard and then he proceeded to tell us what he heard coming from our classroom. He said that we should take more time with the Spirit than talking about things of the world.

Saturday was a "meh" kind of day. Our teacher wasn't there so we couldn't teach him and our investigator had a family emergency so except for an impromptu door approach, we were in class all day long.

Sunday was Fast Sunday but with me being sick, my branch presidency wanted me to stay hydrated so I did as much as I could. We had leadership training (about being an example) and then went off to mission conference. The MTC presidency and their wives spoke about the worth of souls, being obedient, and working to the fullest. We had an awesome testimony meeting and district meeting! I love my zone and district! I also had my departure interview! After walking around the temple, we ate (about time we did) and went to the departure devotional. The biggest thing that stood out to me was what President Nally said about what we need to do in the mission field. He gave us six pieces of advice

Love your companions 

Write in journal

Missions are HARD

Spirit's job is to convert, not ours

NO REGRETS!!

Increase testimony of Joseph Smith

Pretty good advice I'd say! That night we had our Sunday night devotional. The director of proselyting for the church spent most of his talk talking about how the early church was spread and I was confused until he said that the church was spread through social networking! Pretty cool analogy! The one thing that hit me hard was the video we watched. It was Character of Christ, a talk by Elder Bednar to the MTC. He compared the cookie monster to the natural man (I WANT COOKIE! I WANT BAPTISM NOW!) and how we should turn out instead of in in times of distress. Pretty deep talk.

And this morning was pretty crazy! So we missed a temple session because we were waiting on some elders from our zone and we are sitting in the chapel and Kyle and Christie Christiansen were in my session! She is about to give birth to their fourth child and were visiting Kyle's parents in Utah. Also, Kyle's parents know Elder Provstgaard's family! Small world eh? Also, three of our eight missionaries left this morning for Toronto! 

Well I love you all! I am grateful to be serving my Lord and Savior! There are gonna be pictures so stay tuned!

Love,

Elder Tonini

email: May 26, 2014

Howdy!

Well it has been a long first week at the MTC! I can't believe that on Wednesday I will be considered one of the older missionaries! We have a bunch of missionaries in our district coming in on Wednesday that are going to the DC South mission so I think that is Grandma and Grandpa Romney's mission! As zone leader, me and Elder Provstgaard have to do the new missionary orientation on Wednesday night along with a tour of the campus. I would attach pictures but the computer here won't let me!

On Wednesday me and Aunt Rochelle met up with (my cousin) Colton in Provo and went out to lunch before they dropped me off at the MTC. From there it was unpacking and meeting the zone and eating and just normal crazy first day at the MTC!

On Thursday we met Brother Cowdin, who is one of my teachers and role plays as Jaden, an investigator who went to church with his friend Brett. Turns out, he served in the Lubbock mission and knows Elder DeYoung and all the other missionaries from that time! He also served in the Shadowhills Ward in Lubbock! We had class that evening before we met our branch presidency. We have an awesome branch! As it turns out, my branch president, President Nielson, had a son who served in Houston in the late 90's! That was the last day I had to wear a suit to class because it is warming up here and we can wear short sleeve shorts everyday except for Sunday meetings and Tuesday devotionals.

Friday Elder Provstgaard and I had our first visit with Jaden and boy was it rough! We were not together on what we were talking about and ended up making Jaden frustrated. Although every one else had a good lesson with their investigators, I am grateful that we had a rough first lesson because it taught me what I needed to focus on as a missionary. We also started talking about the fundamentals of the gospel and learning more about the doctrine of Christ, prayer, and how to start teaching.

Saturday was a do-over in sorts for me and Elder Pro (his name gets too long to type!). We went into the second visit with the mindset that we were out in Oregon. We ended up talking about prayer for the entire twenty minutes but Jaden was more open than before! We also received our assignment for our TRC (basically our real investigator). His name is Chad and he is an atheist but loves to study other religions so this will be interesting!

Sunday was really good! I was starting to feel a tad burnt out (just from being stuck in the same room for hours at a time) so it was good to get away from the classroom and focus on the Sabbath! I attended my first branch council and it was awesome feeling the Spirit there. We had priesthood in the morning and we talked about the ordinance of baptism and how to perform it. During Sacrament, we had talks about baptismal covenants and such! We had some personal study time before going to the temple for our Sunday Walk. I had to wear my suit because I was going to the new zone leader training meeting shortly after and I was BURNING UP!!! Luckily we were only there for about 30 minutes before me and Elder Pro headed back to campus to eat and go to our meeting. During our Sunday devotional, Brother Allen, the Area 70 for the Salt Lake/Utah area talked about serving missions. He asked how many elders have been Dear John'd and there were about 5! Ouch! He spoke a lot about loving our companions and being worthy :)

Today we were supposed to go to the temple but it's closed.

I just want to share a few things before signing off and doing laundry. I was reading Moroni's challenge in Moroni 10:3-5 and I realized for the first time what it actually was saying! I thought that Moroni was telling the reader to pray to know if the Church and the Book of Mormon was true. I realized that he is almost daring us to pray asking if it is NOT true! Wish I could be as gutsy as Moroni!

Another thing was from a talk that President Uchtdorf gave to the missionaries back in April. He talked about an elder that was a convert who decided to make his mission count. He would look himself in the mirror every day and tell himself "I fear no man!" This elder also told his companion (who I am presuming shared this story with President Uchtdorf) about 3 Nephi 5:13 and it is my new favorite. It reads

Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.

As a missionary, I have no need to fear what men can do to me. I am on the Lord's errand and I have been blessed to be able to be here. I am here because of the love and support I have received over the years. Yesterday the only thought that kept running through my head as I became zone leader was "Step up brother!" and that is now my new motto of sorts for my mission! I hope and pray that I can be the missionary that can honorable bear the Lords name not only on my chest for two years but for the rest of eternity. I love this Gospel. I bear witness that this church is true and that my Savior and Redeemer lives!!

With all my love,

Elder Tonini

P.S. I fly out on Wednesday June 4th! Crazy!!

Howdy y'all!

Hey Mom and Dad!

So our branch president is allowing us to send a short email home to let y'all know that I am doing well! I have been very busy and just got your letters about 2 hours ago. I have an AWESOME district! My companion's name is Elder Provstgaard and he is from Utah! He really is something else and he is really fun to be around! I was named zone leader last night but my calling won't be in effect until Sunday.

The lessons and the materials are hard but I have total confidence that I can lean on the Lord for help and that I can be a true servant of the Lord and not some kid who is trying to survive without technology or his family and etc! :P

Sorry this was short but that is all I can say for the moment! I sure love you Mom and Dad! Tell the kids I love em and miss 'em and that I know I am where I am needed to be! I can't wait to actually write a full email!

Love,

Elder Tonini

P.S make sure to tell Mandie that I said thank you for the letter and the package! And also let her know I am following what my branch president said and just writing my parents if you post this on ze blog :)

P.S.S MAKE SURE MY LOVELY SIBLINGS EMAIL ME :)

Love you all!

Elder Tonini, Reporting for Duty

Well, it's official.  Elder Tonini has arrived at the MTC and has started this wonderful journey known as a LDS mission.

snail mail: 21 May 2014

Dear Mom and Dad,

I finally did it!  I finally made it into the MTC to start my mission!  It has been a crazy day!  I met my companion Elder Provstgaard and we went and met our district which is mixed with the Toronto Canada Mission eh!  

I think the most humbling thing I experience today was hearing of the investigators talk about his experiences as a war photographer.  Through his stutter, I heard a man that has seen so much that one should not have experienced it.  He couldn't feel God in these war zones and refugee camps so he doesn't think there really is a loving God and that killed me.  I want to be able to love people like him and help them realize that God does truly love them and He cares for them.

Well, it is about 10:30 so I sure do love y'all and I already miss you.  I love this Gospel and I can't wait to share it for the next two years.

Elder Tonini