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"
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
Hey everyone!
This was a pretty jam packed week! We had a lot of fun adventures and we were able to teach a lot! It was great!
Monday was the normal P-day stuff. We went shopping and played some volleyball before P-Day was up. We had dinner up at the pear farm with the Neil***'s. Cameron was up there as well and at one point he ended up sword fighting the Neil***'s daughter with a butter knife in-between his toes! We did a Family Home Evening with the McHat***'s to end the night. It was a ton of fun and we played Monopoly Empire for the activity!
Tuesday was pretty interesting. We were asked by Wade and Pearl to be character witnesses for something to do with their child. We went to the Department of Human Services (DHS) office and sat there while they talked to Wade about his life and the plan for his baby son. We didn't say anything but I think we played a role in how the conversation went! After lunch we went and got some snacks for the movie night we were putting on and then we picked up Brother Roberts for our lesson with Sister Mos***. Unforuntely, she doesn't get off work until 3 and we had our lesson scheduled at 2! We went and met a Samoan lady named Olepa! She is super nice and we were able to teach about the Book of Mormon and what it could mean for her. It went really well! Afterwards, Brother Roberts asked if we could spare some time and go to the airport with him to give a lady there, who was handing out Bibles, a Book of Mormon. Well, we arrive at the airport and it turns out to be a Jehovah's Witness booth! We ended up talking with a lady who was operating the booth and a random guy from New Orleans who walked off the plane and asked us a couple of questions. We were there for so long we almost missed dinner! We visited with the Coom***'s before watching the Testaments at the church with a couple of investigators, members, and less actives.
Wednesday morning we went to a potential investigator named Allison's house and cleaned out a shed that she was giving to her part-member neighbors. We got cleaned up and went to the church to contact some people. We were able to teach Eric and Tracy about the Restoration before going to lunch with Cameron! We were able to talk to him about missions and it was really beneficial for him. He has been struggling with people assuming he is going on a mission and people assuming he isn't going on a mission. We were able to share some of our experiences and thoughts with him. It was a fun time to be with him. We had a lesson with him at the Brum***'s afterwards and he drew out the Plan of Salvation for us and basically taught us! One of the easiest lessons ever haha! We contacted people before dinner and a lesson with Chris. We talked about being equally yoked with the Savior and through the conversations that we had, we were able to figure out what he is struggling with and we now have a game plan for him. It pays off to listen! We had a lesson with Wade and Pearl afterwards and we taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a really good lesson and it is amazing to see their progress. They told us that everything that we have been teaching has made sense and that this is what they want to do!
Thursday morning we were picking pears from 11 till 2. I was on the side with very little shade and in turn I got roasted! We took lunch before heading back over to Allison's to move some heavy stuff for her yard sale.
We got cleaned up and went to dinner before going to the church for Wade and Pearl's wedding! There were a couple of people there and Bishop was able to perform the ceremony. It was awesome to see them get married and hopefully one day they will be sealed in the temple for all eternity!
Friday morning we had new missionary training and district meeting. Halfway through new missionary training, the APs walked in and stayed for the rest of new missionary training and district meeting. We went finding in the 1st Ward area before going to lunch with the AP's. We went back to the Stake center and I did a a baptismal interview for a man that is getting baptized in the 8th Ward. I love doing the baptismal interviews. It is so cool to see these people who haven't had the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives strive to make these covenants! We had a lesson at 4 with Michelle but she accidentally locked herself out of her car so we rescheduled our lesson for the later part of our night. We visited with the McHat***'s and had dinner with them before teaching Michelle the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We were able to recommit her to be baptized on October 17th! It was a Spirit-filled lesson that is for sure!
Saturday we got our AC fixed before going to our morning appointments. The filter had gotten clogged up and in turn our unit kinda froze over! We were enduring 85 degree temperatures at night but it is now back to 70 degrees! We gave a lady a blessing in the hospital in the early afternoon. She isn't a member of the church but she was asking for blessings from EVERY religion. She has a brain tumor the size of a tennis ball so her friend (who hangs out at Brother Roberts house a lot) brought us to her. This same friend ended up giving me and Elder Taito a blessing.... it was super weird. He kept saying he had more authority than us because he was older so that was fun to deal with haha! We visited with Brother Griffe*** and had dinner with the Brumb*** before our lesson with Wade and Pearl. We taught them about the Word of Wisdom and we committed them to live it. When we said that, they said that they have been thinking about doing it for a while now so we are going to help them overcome that!
Sunday was pretty good! We had church in the morning and only two of our investigators came so that was a bummer. We grabbed a quick lunch afterwards before heading over to the Johns***'s for a lesson with Allison. We went over the Restoration and it was awesome to see the Spirit work through us to teach her. We were able to help her see the need for modern day prophets and we cleared up some concerns she had about the Book of Mormon. Although she wouldn't commit to a date, she said she would be baptized if she came to know it was true! We had dinner with a sweet couple and we were there FOREVER! It was really good though! I learned a lot from them and found out about a sweet diet they are going to be doing. Too bad it is freaking expensive to do on a missionary budget! We were going to go visit some people but we ended up talking with a kid named Mark M, who is a less-active member's son. He was locked out of his house so we talked a lot about his life and video games. Because of it, he really opened up to us and we were able to teach him about the Plan of Salvation. He doesn't have much of a religious background but the things we said hit home for him. It was super cool!
Well that was my week! I know that the Book of Mormon is true! I love this Gospel!
Remember, there is NO doubt!
Love y'all!
Elder Tonini
Hey everyone!
This was an interesting week!
Monday was transfer Monday. I got Elder Taito as my new companion! It
is going to be a fun transfer haha! We didn't do much except for
shopping and such. We went out with Brother Schm*** to see Brother
Fau*** and the Poncer***'s. We had a great time at both of them. We
didn't teach Brother Fau*** but we taught the Poncer***'s about Captain
Moroni and how we can overcome the temptations we go through.
Tuesday morning we drove to the stake center to do some stuff on the
computers at the family history center. We then had a new district
leader training with Elder Kelsey, the new district leader in our
zone. We had a good time with him and I hope he was able to learn
something from it all. We had a lesson with Sister Mos*** that went
really well. We started going over the Restoration again with her to
bring the Spirit into her home. She picked up a ton from it so that
was pretty awesome. We contacted people and had dinner before going to
the Book of Mormon class. Sister Mos*** came with her daughter and we
talked about the introduction. A RM who served in the OEM and came
back was there and he helped out a ton! We then went around with him
and he suggested people we could go see and even helped us OYM a guy
named Aaron and got a return appointment with him!
Wednesday we spent the morning organizing our area book and stuff
before grabbing lunch. We then went out and tried to visit some people
but we didn't have much luck. We tried tracting but we had a tough
crowd haha but we had fun while doing it! We had an awesome dinner
with the Beans. While we were there, Sister Bean told us about a
member in Utah who got in contact with the Beans and asked if the Elders could give his sister a blessing. After visiting with the
Coom***'s and waiting on Aaron, we picked up the 3rd Ward Elders and
gave the lady a blessing. It will be interesting to see what happens
with her.
Thursday was pretty slow. Did weekly planning, taught a couple of
lessons, met the new missionaries, and I locked us out of the church
haha!
Friday we had new missionary training followed by district meeting. It
went well and I learned a lot. We did a power hour of tracting but
nothing came from it. We had a lesson with the Poncer***'s and Cameron
before going to dinner. There was a ton of smoke in the valley, almost
to the point where we couldn't breathe! Regardless, we OYM'd two guys
and they both said they
Saturday was Cameron's baptism! It was such an amazing experience to
be able to teach him and see him be baptized! We visited with the
Hea***'s after and then Brother Robe*** called us to give us a
referral. We ended up talking to this referral and he wants to get
baptized! It is super sweet!
Sunday Cameron was confirmed and we had an awesome testimony meeting!
it was so cool! We then tried contacting people after church before
seeing the McHat***'s and doing some baptismal interviews.
Sorry that it got short at the end, I just wanted to get it all in! I
love y'all!
Elder Tonini
Hey everyone!
I hope y'all had a good week!
Tuesday was pretty freaking awesome! We were out the door by 9 to go down to Ashland for my first MLC meeting as a zone leader! On the way to Ashland, we gave Sister Newell a blessing and then we headed down to Ashland. We met up with all the other zone leaders and STL's at the Ashland building and we learned a lot about being like Captain Moroni, how to ask inspired questions, etc. In the very beginning segment, President Russell destroyed a white shirt haha! It was awesome! Afterwards, we drove all the way to the top of Mt. Ashland! It was a fun drive up there! We went off reading in Cruzes and Dodge caravans. At the very top of the mountain, President Russell counseled us to always be watchmen and watch women and it was a perfect time to talk to us about that kind of stuff. We took pictures and then made the drive home in time for dinner. We had a great time with the Chaney's before heading off to the church to go try some potentials. We didn't have much luck and as we were walking home, a storm that was off in the distance started to unleash its full force upon us! We were getting hit by 48 mph gusts! It was super fun walking in the wind and the rain. We got back to the car before it got too bad and picked up progress records to end our night.
We started off our Wednesday morning by going to the Brum***'s and knocking out some cobwebs and some blackberry vines. We had lunch and
then we did some planning with the STL's about what we were going to cover during ZTM. That took a little longer than expected and so we ended up just hanging at the church until our lesson with Cameron. We went over the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. We had a solid lesson and at the end we watched "Spiritual Crocodiles" with him. He is so solid, I don't think I can say that enough! I'm super excited to see where he goes in the Gospel! After our lesson with Cameron, we went with Brother Cha*** to Sister Mos***' home and shared a message about charity with her. We then drove around and got our oil changed and bought some candy for ZTM. We had dinner before grabbing our suits and heading over to the church to do stake correlation to end the night.
We started off Thursday with planning for ZTM and doing weekly planning. We had a couple of interruptions but we were able to finish up all the planning! We took lunch and then spent a good chunk of our afternoon running around and doing errands. We went and got our tires rotated and we were able to OYM a guy after he asked me if I saw a lady walked in who was EXTREMELY manly. He thought we sold food storage out of the temple and some other weird things. After that, we had a lesson with the McHat***'s about prayer and they ended up talking to a point where we were late for dinner and then in turn made us late for our lesson with Sandy! We were still able to meet up with her though and we read through the first half of 2 Nephi 31 with her and she said she would read the rest! We had a lesson with Michelle set up at 7 but she ended up having a job interview set up for the same time so we just hung out at the church until correlation.
So Friday was pretty awesome. My first ZTM as a zone leader was pretty freaking awesome! The DL's taught a great segment, the Sisters kicked butt, I did an object lesson, and we destroyed a pinata! It was so much fun but at the same time I learned a lot, especially from Elder Ludlow. His portion of ZTM was especially powerful and it gave me a lot to think about. After ZTM, we met up with Elder Christensen and his wife at Jaspers for lunch! Afterwards, they picked us up from
our apartment and we drove down to Yreka to move in furniture for the Deal's, the senior couple that is reopening Yreka. I was pretty sweaty and sore afterwards haha! We had dinner with the Gardn*** and then we walk outside to sunshine and rain! It was just one of those days where it just rains even when it seems it shouldn't be! We met up with Nathan at the church and he went with us to visit some potentials and some people that the ward council wanted us to go visit. We didn't have much luck so Elder Hinton and I did a faith walk to end the night. We were able to talk to a guy named Juan. He doesn't live here in Oregon yet but we were able to give him our phone number and a picture of Christ.
Saturday was one of those days that had its ups and downs. I had a super rough morning and I don't know why! We dropped off supplies for some of the missionaries and we met up with Brother Vistau*** at the Juanipero building to obtain church keys for Geraldine's baptism. We came back and took lunch before we went out on spits. I took Landon over to the Griff***'s and shared a message with him and Kelly. They had a lot of basic doctrinal questions so we are going to have a ton to go over the next couple of visits! After our visit, I got back with Elder Hinton and we tracted for a couple of minutes before our lesson with Cameron. We talked to some nice people but no one was interested in our message. Our lesson with Cameron went pretty well. We read through the 10 Commandments found in Mosiah 13 and focused on the Sabbath Day and then we went over obeying and honoring the law. When we were going over the 10 commandments, we ended up talking for a couple of minutes about what justifies killing someone. We had a really good discussion with him. After the lesson we tried to diagnosis what was wrong with LaRee's car but we weren't able to. We drove over to Brother Robert's and talked with him about Michelle for a little bit before driving down to the church to remind them not to drain the font. While we were down there, someone told us that there has to be someone in the building while the font is full... So we recruited the Spanish missionaries to font-sit while Elder Hinton and I grabbed dinner from the member who got us Burger King. We got back to the church and sat there until Geraldine's baptism! While we were waiting, a lady in a wheelchair named Saga rolled up to us in a panic and asked us if we could get her phone out of the family history center. It took a couple of minutes but we succeeded! Geraldine's baptism was awesome! There was a lot of people from Central Point there and it was so awesome to see Geraldine enter
into the waters of baptism!
Sunday was a pretty solid day. We had a good time at church! Tammy, Cameron, and Andrew all came to church! We had some good lessons and then we took lunch. We tracted and went finding for the next hour and a half and we found two prepared part member families and talked to a former investigator who wants to meet up with us again! When we talked to the first part
member family, a little dog came running out and we figured out it was Nala, our less active neighbor's dog! This lady had found the dog and was trying to figure out who she belonged to! Afterwards, we had the YSA Elders come over for dinner and we were able to chat with them for a bit. After dinner, we went and talked to one of the youth about the Youth Conference Book of Mormon challenge thing and when we walked up, we found his dad smoking... Awkward. We tried visiting a couple of people before going to the church and waiting for a member to come with us to see Sandy. She ended up having family over so we tried seeing Juanita but she wasn't home. We went back to the church with the member and we went back to that part member family to confirm it was our neighbor's dog before going out with Kellin and his friend who came back from his mission because of possible back surgery. We had our appointment fall through so we went and saw a less active family that they both know and shared a message about reading the scriptures as a family using a video by Elder Christofferson. When we walked outside, we saw one of our investigators outside of one of the adjacent buildings! His name is Bobby and he had received a new phone so he lost our number! We gave it to him and scheduled a time for us to come teach him! It was a miracle haha. On our walk back to the church, some kids started yelling at us and calling us Satanic and crap like that. One of them even said "I'm telling Jesus on you!" In which Elder Hinton and I responded, "Do it, you won't!". Haha it was really funny. We synced up our area book with the Spanish elders to end the night.
We had a super awesome week. I love being a missionary! I know that this is God's true church and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God! There is no doubt in my mind of that!
Love ya'll!
Elder Tonini
Hey everyone!
This was a solid week of finding for Elder Hinton and me! We had a lot
of good things happen and it left me worn out haha! We have had
multiple days of 100 degrees or more so it has been hot as of late.
Let's get down to business! To defeat, the Huns!
Oh wait... wrong song. Anyways.
Monday was pretty awesome! We did our shopping and then had Costco for
lunch. We were kinda bummed when a lady told us that we couldn't come
through the exit like we have been for the last 7 months haha but we
will find a way around it. I enjoy a good Costco dog every now and
then! After that, we headed over to the Juanaperio building to do some
emailing on the computers. We started playing some basketball when we
get a call from the Sisters. They told us that Cameron, a teenager who
has been coming to church off and on for the last month or so, was
trying to get a hold of us. We called him and he told us that he
wanted to start taking lessons and to get baptized! We cut our P-Day
short to go teach him the Restoration. It was a super solid lesson and
he had a ton of awesome questions! He is a golden investigator! We had
a lesson set up for 6:30 with a new investigator but he wasn't home.
While we were walking through the complex, a lady in a wheelchair
started yelling at us and calling us "bible thumpers". It was funny
haha. We went and saw a couple of less active families with Brother
Schm*** to end the night.
Tuesday morning we drove down to Phoenix to continue our service at
the cemetery down there. We picked up 5th ward and then Phoenix before
heading on over to the cemetery. We did pretty much the same thing
that we did last time. I handled a weed whacker for the most part and
we got a lot done. I got talking to a volunteer at the cemetery and he
put his hand on my shoulder and told me he hoped that I will find the
true Jesus haha! It made me laugh. After the service and eating lunch,
I did my first ever exchange as a zone leader with Elder Garrard and
it was a lot of fun! We found a new investigator and had a tough time
with an extremely less active. He was arguing a ton of doctrine and it
was difficult. We tried visiting people in Medford and Phoenix but no
one was around so I did an iPad check at Jack in the Box. I got a free
drink from a nice cashier dude haha!
Wednesday morning we exchanged back so I could go to Cameron's lesson
and also provide some service for the Brum***'s. I killed a wasps nest
haha and we killed some blackberry bushes! We tracted for a little bit
before double dipping on dinner. We had dinner with a recent convert
and then had dinner with a nonmember family! We had a great discussion
with them and even though they go to an Anti-Mormon church in the
area, they really were interested in what we had to say! We had our
Book of Mormon class and then we ended our night watching a youth open
his mission call to the Ohio Columbus mission!
Thursday was sweet. We went to the temple and had a great session!
Some of the Central Point 2 members were there so that was cool. We challenged
the Ashland Elders to a finding challenge and we found two new
investigators! After that we had dinner up at the Zohar farm before
correlation.
Friday we had district meeting and it was interesting! We had a lady
come in asking for assistance and we were able to help her out a
little bit. After district meeting we had another meeting about what
we could do to find more people to teach and it went okay, some people
just shoot the messengers :). We took a kid named Joe for a lesson
with Sister Moses and we talked about humility with her. We had dinner
and then we went into Central Point to watch Madi get baptized! It was
an awesome service and it was so great being able to see her make that
promise to Heavenly Father.
Saturday we got our bike rack off our mini van! It was stuck on there
so a member was able to get it off for us! We tried visiting members
and less actives all morning and into the afternoon before going back
into Central Point for Sally's baptism! It was good but I had to bail
early because they took forever to get to the church! We taught
Cameron for the third time this week and then tracted for an hour or
so before dinner. We tried to meet with Danny but he wasn't home so we
got to talk to his dad instead!
Sunday we had church and we had two investigators come to church.
Afterwards we tried to tract but we didn't have much luck so we lost
to the Sisters for the finding challenge... Oh well, you win some and
you lose some. We had three lessons bail but it gave us the
opportunity to see a couple of less actives and see another youth open
his mission call to the Salt Lake City East Mission!
We had a great week! It was a ton of fun and two people that I taught
got baptized so that made it all the better:)
Have a great week!
Elder Tonini
Hey everyone!
This was a good week and the weekend was pretty dang awesome!
Monday was our normal P-Day stuff. We actually ended up spending most
of our day shopping haha! We drove around the 1st Ward Elders so they
could get some stuff for when they go home. We played some basketball
and then we had pizza dropped off to us at our apartment so we got to
chill for a little bit. We had a lesson with Nicolas and his family at
the end of the night. We finished up the new member lessons and I
ended up not having my iPad for most of it because Nicolas' little
sister was hogging it haha!
Tuesday morning we picked up the 1st Ward Elders and did some service
at the temple. We dug some holes and planted a couple more plants on
the backside of the temple. I can't wait to come back and see all
these plants grown haha! We grabbed a quick lunch before driving to
Sam's Valley to see the Mitch***'s with Brother Med***. It went really
well and there was a lot of good insights shared. After we did that,
we tried to get in contact with a couple that are potentials in the
Area Book but they were not home. We had dinner and then met with the
zone leaders at the church to prep them for Samantha's interview.
Samantha and Eric came to the church and Eric met with Bishop while
Samantha met with Elder Taito. Samantha finished up right after Eric
did and she was found worthy to be baptized and Eric was found worthy to
baptize her! That was so awesome to be there in that moment!
Wednesday morning we met up with Brother Mad*** and shared a message
with him before going to lunch. We then got out of our proselyting
clothes and went with Brother Med*** to see Sister Stam***. We shared
a message with her and then we got to work on some yard work that she
had for us. We got cleaned up and after dinner we had a lesson with
Maddi at a member's home. When we asked her about the chapter we left
her to read, she pulled out her phone and pulled up a list of
scriptures that she liked! It was pretty awesome! We had a pretty good
lesson with her about the Plan of Salvation. We are waiting right now
to see what she wants to do about her baptismal date. We had set the
date on the day that the youth were going to be at youth conference so
we left it up to her to pray about what day it should be on. To end
our night, we had correlation in Central Point and made the final
preparations for Samantha's baptism.
Thursday was a milestone for me. Thursday marked one year of me being
a missionary! I cannot believe how fast time has flown and how much I
have grown since I walked into the doors of the MTC! We started off
the morning doing weekly planning at the church and we ended up doing
it with the zone leaders!! After we did weekly planning, we went
and did some service at Sister Pa***'s home with the 1st Ward Elders.
To celebrate my one year mark, I burned a shirt that I found in my
apartment when I first came into Central Point! It was pretty
awesome:) While we were building a shelter for Sister Pa***'s pet emu,
a huge thunderstorm (for Oregon at least) came rolling through.
Luckily we were just putting on the finishing touches when it got
really bad. We got back to the apartment and got dressed for stake
correlation. It was a pretty good correation meeting! President
Thompson has been one of my favorite stake presidents on my mission
and I love being in his correlation meetings. Anyways, after stake
correlation, we had our Book of Mormon class and the 1st Ward Elders
had one person there! It went really well! We talked about the Great
Apostasy and such. That was pretty much the end of our night.
Friday morning I had district meeting. It was a bit dry because
another district leader decided that he wanted to do a mass zone
role play so I didn't have much to cover. I ended up bailing on the
role play because Elder Sorensen was SUPER sick. I helped Elder White
get some medication and some Saltine's and Sprite for Elder Sorensen.
After we did that for them, we contacted a couple of people before
having our lesson with Samantha and Eric. It was Samantha's last one
before her baptism! We talked about the laws and ordinances of the
Gospel and she loved it. We drove into Gold Hill to go print out
Samantha's baptismal programs before picking up dinner at the church.
I ended my night with Elder Sorensen so Elder White and Elder Best
could go and do the youth sports night.
Saturday was the best day of my mission to date! We were at the church
at 8 so we could fill the font and get it all ready for Samantha's
baptism!! Samantha and Eric got there early enough so we were able to
get them dressed and ready. We had a pretty good turn out and
President Russell came! When it came time for Samantha to get
baptized, she almost had a panic attack haha! She got in the water and
Eric said the prayer perfectly but her hand and elbow were out of the
water so he had to do it again. Luckily the second time was perfect
all the way around and it was pretty dang awesome:) we cleaned up
afterwards and then we visited a couple of people before going on
splits with the 1st Ward Elders. Elder Sorensen was still not feeling
good so I went out with Elder White and we visited some of the people
in his area.
Sunday was a pretty close second to being the best day ever. At least
for a couple of hours. Samantha asked us to be a part of her
confirmation and we gladly accepted! That was pretty awesome as well.
But the most awesome part of the day was when Geraldine came. She was
a lady that Sister Gree*** had invited to the dinner we had a week
and a half ago. She had some questions at that dinner so we left her
with a Book of Mormon and a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. Well on Sunday
she came to church and said that we changed her life! It was pretty
sweet! Other that, church was good and we had a good lesson with the
Coleman's.
This was an awesome weekend! Thank you for all your prayers!
Elder Tonini
Hey everyone!
So we didn't have a lot go on for us this week so this is going to be a really short email.
Monday night was a disappointment with the Ducks losing! Although they lost, we had a great time with the bishop's family! We were able to do a FHE with their ENTIRE family, almost 20 people! It was pretty awesome!
Tuesday we were able to go do some temple service! We kept pulling out the kinickinick (I have no clue how to spell it) and we finally figured out a good system to get it out! After lunch Elder Galloway and I exchanged with the zone leaders. Elder Simpson came to our area and Elder Galloway went over there. We were out tracting and we knocked on this door and the elderly couple just let us in! We talked to them for over an hour! We eventually found out that they were Jehovah's Witnesses and were not interested in our message but we were able to share some scriptures out of the Book of Mormon with them. We had a FHE to finish out the night.
Wednesday morning we had interviews with President Russell! It was really good to see him and Sister Russell again! After that, we had everything go down the drain. It was pretty bad haha. We struggled to find anyone to even talk to!
Thursday was basically the same as Wednesday.... We had all of our lessons fall through and our back ups and our back up to our back ups... dang it!
Friday was interesting. Elder Galloway had district leader training meeting with all the district leaders in the south so I was stuck in a tri companionship with two other Elders from two different areas! We hung out in Central Point 1st Ward's area because they had a lesson with Sir Jeffery, the man in the pirate hat that came to our ward. Needless to say, after our lesson with him, they will not go back to his house. There were things in that house that were pretty sketchy! We had a lesson with Mike that went super well. We read the First Presidency message with him and he really enjoyed it. We managed to get some appointments set up to finish the day.
Saturday was not fun! We had district meeting and that was about it! The only highlight from Saturday was dinner with Sister Park! She was baptized with Sister Martin in California years ago and showed me some pictures of when Sister Martin and Margo came up to visit her! She then had Elder Galloway and I dress up and dance for the senior couple while she sang a song she made up.... haha. It was fun though!
Sunday was the best day out of the week for one reason and one reason only. Angelo and Spencer agreed to be baptized in March! Spencer is such an amazing kid! He is pretty dang knowledgeable in the Gospel! I am so excited for this opportunity to teach them!
That is all for me... I forgot my journal so I didn't have everything that I wanted to include... I will do better next week!
I love you all! This Church is true! There is no doubt about it!
Elder Tonini
“Do your duty, that is best. Leave unto the Lord the rest.”
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Hey ya'll!
So this was a busy and crazy week, adjusting to a new area and a new
companion! We had a lot of stuff go on! Ya'll ready for this?!
Monday was transfer day. We were up at 6 and out the door at 7 to head
down to the 18th St. building so I could get on a van to go down
south. We were on the van for a long time (2-3 hours) and we ended up
driving through my new area, just like last transfer! When we got to
the transfer spot in Medford, there were actually a ton of
missionaries that I actually recognized and knew! Elder Peas, a senior
missionary, took my stuff back to Central Point and it turns out, he
did a lot of work in North Dakota! After we unloaded my things, we
went grocery shopping at Wal-Mart and then headed to the stake center
to email. After dinner we tried to see a couple of potential
investigators that we have but no one answered the door.
Tuesday we walked down to the temple to go help with the grounds!
On
the way there, the ZL's texted us and told us that Elder Galloway had
district leader training so that delayed us doing service for a little
bit. We pulled out a bush and worked on getting all these annoying
little plants out so the grounds crew could plant some new plants. On
the way back to our apartment, we had two appointments cancel so I
took the time to unpack all my stuff before heading out. We tried to
contact people up until dinner but we didn't quite see the people we
wanted to. We did stumble on a member of the ward who is less-active
while looking for an investigator! After dinner we had a couple of
lessons set up with members so we could really get to know the ward.
We had a blast with the Cop***'s, talking about the gospel and other
things! We shared the "You Never Know" video and they really enjoyed
it. We then ended our night with the Day family. We had a
missionary-specific lesson set up for them and we had some awesome
discussions about missionary work as a member and other things!
Wednesday we got on the bikes and biked to the east side of our area
to try to set up appointments with some potential investigators.
Unfortunately, they either were not interested or had moved out and
not interested haha! We then biked over to a neighborhood closer to
our apartment and tried seeing some members to set up a family home
evening with them but they were not home either! It is almost as if
people work during the day haha! :) After lunch we went on foot to the
west side of our area. On our way there, we walked past a group of
high schoolers and one of them looked at my bag (which I had strapped
around my waist to help my back) and said "nice fanny pack!", thinking
that he would get a reaction or something I don't know! I just laughed
and said thanks! We then talked to an investigator who said she was
too busy at the moment for missionaries to come by. Bummer! As we were
heading to our appointment with a guy named Jay, the sisters pulled up
and gave us a referral! Our lesson with Jay went well! He is a big
dude covered in tattoos but he is an awesome guy! He had some big dogs
too! We read some scriptures with him and invited him to the baptism
the sisters were having on Saturday but his kids have a wrestling
tournament that whole weekend. After we taught Jay, we went to the
Twin Creeks neighborhood to see some members and set up FHE's with
them. We had dinner with an older couple who were actually engaged
when the husband was called to serve a mission! I thought that was
pretty cool! After dinner, Brother Ped*** drove us to another
member's house who let us in but had to get going to Mutual. We had an
appointment with a couple in the ward in an hour so we went and street
contacted on the way to their home. We walked past a basketball court
and there was a guy shooting a basketball in the light drizzle. We
talked to him and shot hoops with him for a couple of minutes.
Although he wasn't interested in our message, we hope that we
nourished a seed that was already planted by missionaries he had met
before! The family home evening we had with the Goe*** family was
awesome! Brother Goe*** was going to the temple for the first time
Thursday and so we were able to talk to him and Sister Goe*** about
their conversions!
Thursday we had weekly planning so that took up our morning. We had an
appointment set up with a member to come over and introduce ourselves
to him so we hopped on the bikes and biked over to his home. Brother
Skin*** was pretty cool! He served in the Vietnam War! Anyways, on our
way back, I noticed my pedal wasn't rotating as it should have. It got
worse as we got closer to the freeway and I noticed that the pedal was
stripping the crank bar! I was praying the whole time that my pedal
would stay in long enough to get over the freeway and we were about
less than a block away when it finally popped off. Luckily, we have an
investigator who works on bikes and has fixed Elder Galloway's bike
before for cheap so we are taking that to him on Saturday. We left our
bikes at the apartment and walked over to see Dana. We watched
President Eyring's talk at the Vatican Summit and talked about how the
world is changing according to the wishes of the people and not the
Lord. We went back to the apartment and got changed into our suits for
preparation for stake correlation. The stake president shared a pretty
cool story about his mission in Scotland and we talked about the work
in the Central Point zone/stake. When Elder Galloway and I walked out,
the member who was going to the temple with the Goe*** and had to
cancel dinner was standing there with a pizza and some root beer! We
did a dry run for the baptism on Saturday and it is going to be
interesting to see how it works out! Nikki, the sister who is getting
dunked, has severe MS and so we are having to take a lot of
precautions and safety measures to ensure her safety. Elder Galloway
was supposed to interview her at 7 but she could not make it so we had
correlation to finish our night.
Friday I hit my six month mark! Holy cow the time has flown by. We had
district meeting in the morning and it was Elder Galloway's first ever
district meeting as a district leader and he knocked it out of the
park! We talked a lot about how we could work better with the members
and also the ward councils. We went to Sonic for lunch! Oh I was SO
excited! We have the only Sonic in our mission if I remember
correctly! After lunch we came back to the apartment and I burned an
old tie that I found in a closet here in Central Point. It didn't burn
very well though but that is ok! I still burned a tie at my six month
mark! After the burning of the tie, we went to Nikki's home for her
baptismal interview. She had quite the collection of country music,
especially George Strait! Afterwards, Elder Peas needed help moving a
couch from a widowed sister's home. It took a little longer than we
expected (we had to take the door and the legs off) and so it took us
right to dinner. While we were there, we got a call from an officer
saying that there were shots fired at the apartment complex across the
street and was asking if we could check for bullet holes in our
apartment! Apparently some lady got into a fight with her boyfriend
and tried killing herself... she missed herself five times! Luckily,
we did not have any bullet holes in our apartment. Dinner took longer
than expected so we only had a short window at the end of the night to
go try talk to people. It got really rainy so we took shelter for a
couple of minutes at the Abby's pizza town. We have an investigator
that we normally see Friday's but we couldn't see him.
Saturday was pretty dang awesome. We went to the Calvary Temple Church
food pantry and helped deliver the food to the people's cars. It was
awesome hearing the members of this church telling us how much they
appreciate us helping them out! While we were there, Elder Peas called
and asked us to help move another couch from the sister's home. We did
it much faster than we did the other night and then had lunch with
Adam B. He got reactivated a while ago and is now looking to
receive the Melchizedek Priesthood! We shared D&C 84 with him, a
couple chapters in the Gospel Principles book, and a Mormon Message!
He got super pumped up to progress in the Church!! We walked back to
our apartment and got dressed for Nikki's baptism! We had a light
dinner with the Sta***'s and while we were there, Brother Sta*** asked
his neighbor, who fixes bikes for St. Vincent de Pauls, if he could
fix my bike and he said yes! We had to leave early to get to Medford
because the font is bigger and better there so we arrived at the stake
center at 5:30 and we were one of the first ones. Elder Galloway and I
got dressed and man I was getting nervous! This was my first time
being in the font for a baptism! Nikki showed up and she got dressed
in no time for pictures. We had meticulously planned out how the
baptism was going to go, especially with getting her in the font.
Well, I witnessed a miracle. Not only did she walk into the font, she
walked out of the font (with help, but we were planning on carrying
her up and down the stairs). In the font, she had this big smile on
her face and I knew she was feeling the Spirit. She is such a sweet
spirit. The Bishop was talking about how she was able to walk and be
able to be baptized and she said something I will probably never
forget. She looked up and said "Yes, I did it. I believe!". It was a
brief testimony but to hear her say that with everything that the MS
is doing to her body was powerful. We came to Central Point and went
to a fireside that was being held at our church building. A young man
named Luis Be*** was talking about his experiences growing up in
Africa and watching his mom, dad, and older brother all die. His
brother was preparing to serve a mission and that made Luis curious.
He got baptized and his brother served until he got sick and ended up
passing away. It was amazing to hear his story and his faith in the
gospel. He had gone through so much yet was adopted by a LDS family in
Arizona, went to BYU (and I swear I had him in a class or saw him at
the Y) and even went on a mission to the California Ventura Mission
(he said it was paradise and the Riverside mission was close to
paradise!). It was an amazing opportunity to hear from him.
Sunday morning Brother Sta*** came to our place and picked up us and
our bikes to get them to his neighbor who fixes bikes. It looked as
though I was going to get out of this without paying a penny but the
crank bar he had didn't fit on my bike. We had lunch and had some time
to get ready for church. When we got to the church, we greeted people
at the door. When we got the programs to hand out, I looked at it and
saw that they had misspelled my name, spelling it with an O at the end
instead of an I! To make it worse, the Bishop pronounced my name the
way it was spelled in the program over the pulpit! It was Invitation
Sunday so all the missionaries got to speak. I spoke about faith and I
thought it was a pretty good talk! After three hours of hearing the
gospel and trying to help people pronounce my last name, church ended
and we went back to the apartment. We walked pretty much the rest of
the day. We tried to see one of our progressing investigators but he
wasn't home but we were able to catch another one of our investigators
and taught them a little bit about prayer and man it was a good time
for it! They had just lost a friend and needed prayers and comfort so
we were able to help them out.
It has been a great first week here in the Central Point 2nd Ward! I
am so grateful to be here! I love being on a mission soo much! It is
blessing my life immensely and I hope I am a blessing to the members
and the bishopric! I know that this church is true! My Savior and
Redeemer lives! There is no doubt!
Love you all! Hope you have a fantastic week!
Elder Tonini
Hey everyone!
I hope Labor Day and the week was good for everyone! We had a good
week and I'm pumped to talk about it!
Monday we had our Labor Day picnic and although we showed up late we
had some great food and I got stung by a yellow jacket! Stan came to
the picnic about the same time that we did and a yellow jacket was
flying around his plate. It landed and he flicked it off. Well I felt
a pain immediately in my arm and I look and somehow this yellow jacket
stung me going end over end! I'm ok though I promise!
Tuesday was super duper slow. We set up some appointments for later in
the week and we tracted some. The biggest highlight of the day though
was what we ate! We were invited over to Jose's house and his mom made
some soup. Well we found out later that it was cow stomach! Yummy!
Wednesday we did some splits and I went with Brother Waite and four
teachers. We had a list of people we were trying to go see but Ben
called and asked if we could come help out put his truck on the ground
so we obliged. We ended up putting all four tires back on and it took
forever but we did it!
Thursday wasn't our most successful day teaching-wise. We had some
less actives shut us down and some potentials told us that they don't
want us to come back so that was a bummer. But we got to help out
Sister C***** pick plums that she couldn't reach so that was great.
Friday we had zone training meeting and it went pretty well! Had some
good insights shared and I am looking to apply them in my teaching! We
did exchanges right after and I went with Elder Romero back to
Philomath. We changed into service clothes and did some grout on a
members neighbor's house for a little while. We had an appointment set
up for John M. But he wasn't home in time. After dinner we got some
items we had requested from the mission office and we taught some
recent converts later in the evening.
Saturday was pretty dang awesome! We traveled all the way out to
Lobster Valley (some 30 or so miles away but took an hour because of
all the twists and turns) and we met Tiffany S. She is living with
some members out there and she and her fiancé wanted to take the
discussions. We went there with Brother Parker and we taught the
Restoration to her and the Bradburys. She had a couple of questions we
were able to answer and at the end of the lesson, we felt prompted to
ask her if she would follow in the example of Jesus Christ and be
baptized and she said yes! We even set a date! It was so great!!:) To
top it off, we biked to our dinner with a member family and we ended
up going at a pretty good Mexican restaurant!
Sunday was just as good as Saturday was! We had a great time at church
and before we knew it the afternoon flew by and it was time to go to
Maxx's baptism! Elder Flora got to come up for that so it was good
seeing him again! So many people came that we had to go into the
chapel!! The Spirit was so strong and it was pretty incredible:) we
spent the rest of our night biking to dinner and to lessons. It was
great:)
I miss all of you so much! You are all such great examples to me! I
love you all and there is no doubt!
Love,
Elder Tonini
