The Week Where I Get Sick...

Hey everyone,

So this is going to be a pretty short weekly email.

Tuesday we canceled our service at the senior center because I felt super sick. We went to the church instead and cleared missionary pictures off of the Family History Center computers. I still felt pretty sick and I sounded like a lung was going to be coughed out! In fact, I sounded so sick that when President Russell called us to talk about some of the people we have had on date, he told me to go take an hour nap! It was super nice but I didn't sleep much... I was coughing the entire time. We went over to the church in the evening and introduced Elder Swiderski to Brother Her*** and then we met Brother Leav*** at his house to end our day.

Wednesday was rough. I got maybe two hours of sleep the night before and I finally decided that I needed to go see a doctor and so after getting permission from Sister Phipps, I went to the Urgent Care and they gave me a prescription for some heavy duty nighttime cough medicine for my upper respiratory infection. We hung out at Walmart for half an hour waiting for my prescription and then I spent the rest of my day indoors! Elder Carter stayed with me while Elder Swiderski went with Elder Rawlings and did some work in our area. He found a new investigator named Cougar (yes, the kid is Native American) so that's good. Elder Swiderski stayed in with me after dinner so not much was accomplished. We tried to get lessons set up on the phone though so that's good.

After taking my meds on Wednesday night, I slept through the whole night and I felt loads better when I woke up on Thursday! We were able to go volunteer at the Senior Center and then we spent the afternoon planning and going through our areabook. We had a short correlation meeting and then Elder Swiderski wasn't feeling super hot so we took the evening lightly.

Friday we had training and district meeting in the morning. Elder Carter's district meeting went really well! We went and helped the Lopez's move some cabinets out and I did most of the grunt work because I was the tallest and the strongest! In return, they fed us lunch! However, all the work reactivated my symptoms so that made the day somewhat difficult. We made some contacts but we weren't able to teach anyone.

Saturday we called the family history center directors in our stake with the STL's and talked with them about what we could do to be better about using the family history centers. Elder Swiderski showed a former investigator some of his trumpeting skills before we took off for Coquille to give some supplies to the Sisters. We made some contacts throughout the evening but nothing was too fruitful.

Sunday was pretty good. We finally got a new bishop and he is one of the members that loves the missionaries so we are pretty excited! Patrick canceled our lesson for the day so we went out and contacted before dinner. We dropped off our laundry and then correlated with the sisters to end the night.

That is all I got for you this week! I love y'all and have a good week!

Elder Tonini
Oregon Eugene Mission 
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"

General Conference Weekend!

Hey everyone!

Don't y'all just love General Conference? Because I do! We had a pretty good week, even with Elder Roller struggling with sickness. We don't know what is going on with him but he is still trying to do missionary work so that's good!

Tuesday was our P-Day! We didn't do anything too exciting, just our normal shopping, playing basketball, and emailing. The lady who normal does our laundry couldn't do it so we asked the Blackw***s if we could do it at their place and they said yes. Elder Roller and I went over there first thing spin the morning and left after putting in our laundry, talking to Brother and Sister Blackw***, and being fed breakfast. I also got an email notification notifying me that I was "enrolled" in the MyPlan course for soon-to-be RM's.... So that was fun!

Wednesday we had some lessons set up but they all fell through so we didn't have too much luck teaching or finding anyone new to teach. One funny highlight of the day though was that after dinner and sharing a message with a member family, we were messing with a cat using a laser pointer. The family's youngest child gets outside to where the cat is and without any warning drops his pants and takes that time to use the restroom! It was pretty funny. All throughout the day, Elder Roller wasn't feeling too good so it was a pretty tough day (and week) for him.

Thursday was pretty awesome! We had our service at the senior center but we had an awesome experience that happened after we got done cleaning up. We got talking with Sonya and Jennifer, sisters who work there and they started asking us questions about why we were on missions and what the Church really believed in. We taught them a very basic Restoration lesson and then we left them the times for the General Conference sessions and they said that they would watch it. It was pretty awesome! We did our weekly planning afterwards and then we had an awesome dinner with the Blackwe***! They are such a cool family!

Friday we didn't have district meeting due to specialized training on Monday so we did accountability and then we were supposed to do training but the Elders had to run and get a prescription so that didn't happen. We had a lesson with Jake and that went super well. We went over the first couple of points in the Plan of Salvation and he is starting to get a hang of what we are trying to teach him. He has some really good questions but because of the time we weren't able to answer them as clearly as we wanted to but he committed to come to the priesthood session of General Conference. We had dinner way out in Hauser with a single sister and her less active son. We had a feast and then we shared the Follow Him video with them. The son was pretty into it and the Spirit was there so maybe he will feel the need to make some changes in his life. We tried to see the Jeron***'s but we just missed them according to the baby sitter who was watching the two kids. We spent the rest of our night out contacting people.

Saturday was jam packed with General Conference! I have come to really love this special time of the year. We showed up at the church for the morning session but to our dismay no one had set up the projector in the chapel. We got it pulled up on the family history computer and we watched it on there until the member who does all the tech stuff showed up and set it up for us and the couple of members that were there. We got lunch from KFC and took our lunch hour before the afternoon session got underway. When that session finished, we drove over to the stake president's house and picked up his son so we could go have an early dinner with Sister Wilma***. She had a ton of soda and pizza for us! We took Dan over to the church and we watched the priesthood session there. Right as we got to the church, Jake texted us and told us he wasn't going to be making it so that was a bummer but hey, there were some pretty good talks at that session! When the priesthood session was over, I kept with tradition and got ice cream! It may have not been Sonic but it was still really good ice cream!

Sunday was just another packed day of conference! I loved the talks that were given, especially Elder Holland's talk to end conference. When conference was over, we had a conversation with the Sisters and it turned into a discussion about why we came on missions. This district has been one of my favorite districts on my mission. We are super tight and it has been a great transfer. We had a conversation with the the stake president before visiting with a less active member for a few minutes. We ended up taking dinner at the other Elders' apartment before taking our laundry over to our laundry lady. We synced up our AreaBooks and correlated with the sisters to end our week.

So with this being General Conference weekend, here were a couple of my thoughts from General Conference. 

• Sometimes we forget that we are Heavenly Father's sons and daughters. When we run into those trials, the first thing that needs to happen is that we need to remind ourselves of hour divine heritage. 
• "You can have what you want, but you can have something better" -Elder Holland 
• Without the proper priesthood keys, we would still be locked out of the vehicle that will take us to eternal life and exaltation. 
• Humility will open the floodgates to a happy marriage, better relationships with those around you, and a happier life. 
• The closer our heart is to the Savior, the more gratitude we feel and we will also feel an increased desire to repent. 
• Not only is Jesus Christ the greatest leader to walk this earth, He is also the greatest follower! 

Just a couple of my thoughts! I love y'all and have a great week! My last transfer call is this week but more than likely I am staying to finish up in North Bend! 

Love y'all! 

Elder Tonini 

Oregon Eugene Mission 
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"

The One Where Samantha Gets Baptized!

Hey everyone,

We weren't able to teach as much or find anyone new to teach but that is ok, we got this next week to do so and we also had a baptism this last week!

Let's get to it.

Monday we had P-Day. I also had a chiropractor appointment in Roseburg. My back has been killing me for a little while now and it got the point where I went and saw a chiropractor. He discovered that my hips have been out of alignment and it was actually causing my right leg go shorter than my left! So he adjusted me and sent me on my merry way. After P-Day we had dinner with the Hay***'s before contacting people to end our night.

On Tuesday we had some time in the morning so we went and did some Facebook messaging before our lesson with Loretta. We brought Nephi with us and we had a good lesson with her. We went over the Plan of Salvation with her and despite the many tangents that we went off on, we were still able to commit her to be baptized and she said yes! Unfortunately we won't be able to teach her this week but it's for a good cause; her stepson is getting off his mission and she is meeting him for the first time! Loretta's lesson went pretty long and my whole body ached from being adjusted the day before so we went to the apartment and I took a few minutes to heat up my back. We then had dinner with the Lea***'s and we had some really good fried rice! We spent the rest of the night with the Vinc***'s working on Samantha's baptismal program.

Wednesday we headed over to the food pantry and did our weekly service of handing out the fruits and vegetables for the people. We left Sutherlin for the chiropractors and my hip is starting to hold in there so that is good. I also started to develop a cold which is gone now but it started to get to me on Wednesday. We went from the chiropractor to the soup kitchen and served drinks there. We headed over to the Church and picked up our dinner. We ended up eating there and we got almost all of the stuff that we needed to for the baptism.

Thursday I couldn't function at all. I was nailed bad by my cold and my head felt like a traffic jam in Houston. We didn't get weekly planning done until the early afternoon and we spent a lot of time on the phone contacting people. We had dinner at the Simm*** and then we gave a blessing to Sister Simm***'s husband who hasn't been to church in a long time. It was one of the more unusual blessings I have given. The things that came out of my mouth were not my words! I said everything that he needed from what he told me It was a pretty neat experience.

Friday morning we had district meeting and then after lunch I had another chiropractic appointment. We spent our afternoon contacting people but we didn't have anything go for us. We went over to the Vinc***'s and picked up the programs and do a correlation meeting.

Saturday was awesome! We had a lesson with Chelsea right before going to fill the font and she is doing awesome. She has been getting fed anti-Mormon material but she is holding strong! We talked about our life on earth and the Atonement and it was just a power lesson! We committed her to keep reading and to pick a date for her baptism. We bolted to Roseburg and Samantha was baptized! It was a good short service that was pretty awesome.

Sunday Samantha was confirmed a member of the church and then after church we taught her her first new member lesson. We spent most of our time driving to dinner, eating dinner with the Pop***, and then driving back. We met with Jackie and basically called her to repentance.

That was our week! I love ya and I know the church is true! There is no doubt!

Elder Tonini

Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"

The One Where I Get Sick!

Hey everyone!

So we had a pretty good week...until the weekend haha!

Monday was transfer day! We had an interesting experience at Walmart... We OYM'd a guy in the store and then as we got to our car, he came up to us and asked us if we could give him a ride home because his roommates ditched him. For those who don't know, we can't give rides to people, not even investigators. We tell him this and he just blows up on us and started saying all this crap about how a true Christian would give him a ride home as he walked away. Nice guy right? We got to the church and emailed before heading into Sutherlin. We had dinner with a super awesome family! They are kinda sorta a part member family so we were able to teach a lesson using the #ASaviorIsBorn video. They have 7 kids so it made for an interesting lesson! We came back and I tried to get my Area book synced up but I wasn't put in the area yet so we came back and I spent some time unpacking.

Tuesday morning started off pretty well! We were just about to do companionship study when we got a phone call from a Utah number. It was a guy whose great aunt or something like that volunteers with us at the soup kitchen. He told us that she knew the Book of Mormon was true but was afraid to change. Hopefully we can start teaching her this week. We spent a good chunk of time going through the Area book and contacting some former investigators. We didn't have much luck but we did it until our lesson with Ronnie. He is a returning less active who is still learning the gospel. We talked about praying for strength and answered some questions that he had from reading Preach My Gospel. After dinner we contacted some investigators that hadn't been seen in awhile before sitting down with the new Bishop. He is super missionary minded and I'm super stoked to be able to work with him. We also talked with the new ward mission leader and he is fired up as well. It was pretty exciting to heard about some of things this ward has planned as far as missionary work goes!

Wednesday we did a lot of service work. We went to the local food pantry to help load up food for the people coming through. We had a fun conversation about the Word of Wisdom with some of the volunteers there. They were arguing about how it's about the caffeine but we cleared up that misconception. We got into our normal clothes and helped out Nephi (yes, that is his actual name) with some blackberry bushes. We got dressed back into our normal proselyting clothes and we drove out to Oakland to go do some finding. We talked to a recent convert and her non-member kids and shared the Christmas video with them and then we talked with a member before coming back into Sutherlin. Other than that, we just organized our area and tried to contact as many people as we could.

Thursday morning we did weekly planning before going back out to Oakland to visit a couple of formers. We got a lesson set up with someone who apparently used to be a member but then got their name removed because she didn't like the church very much I guess! So that will be an interesting lesson. We spent some time finding before going and seeing a semi-less active family out in the boonies. We talked about forgiveness and gave one of the daughters a blessing all the while eating pizza and me sweating up a storm! It was SO HOT yet Elder Fleming just sat there in his jacket all nice and cool. North Dakotans man!

Friday morning we left Sutherlin to go to district meeting. It was a pretty decent first district meeting. I only have one other companionship in my district so I had to make due. We focused on the Book of Mormon and how we can use it more effectively in our teaching. We grabbed lunch in Roseburg before coming back out to Sutherlin to do some missionary work. Nephi picked us up for a lesson with two less active sisters. We had an interesting conversation with them. One of them felt like part of the Book of Mormon was pointless because of all the war chapters and we spent a good chunk of our time trying to help her find ways to study the scriptures. We once again spent a good chunk out of our day finding people and we were able to talk to a former named Dana who knew a lot of members in the ward and said that we could come back. We also went to a part member family and they said that we could come back in the morning the next day! It was a pretty solid night.

Saturday had its ups and downs. I didn't feel too good all morning but we managed to pick up a new investigator in the morning! Nick is rooming at the part members home and we shared the Christmas message with him and he accepted the invitation to learn more about Jesus Christ! Hopefully we can start teaching the actual family who lives in the home haha! We tracted for a little while after lunch and we ran into a less active who had NO idea he was a member. He even told us he didn't belong to a church even though we had his membership records. We didn't have too much luck tracting so we talked to a couple of members and figured out that we can't go door to door in one of the largest suburbs in our area... That sucked. After dinner, we tried to see Raja, an investigator that hasn't been taught in awhile, but he wasn't home. This whole time, my stomach was feeling super queasy and it got to the point where I told Elder Fleming that I couldn't handle being out and about so we went home early. I'm glad we did because I ended up blowing chunks....twice. So much fun. First time I have been sick on the mission! It was a good run haha!

Sunday I woke up feeling like my back was used for a punching bag! I was feeling better though, thanks in part to a blessing that Elder Felming gave me Saturday night. I was able to sit through ward council, choir, and church! I felt super drained though so we didn't get too much done before dinner. Dinner was super fun! We watched part of the Christmas devotional and had dinner before taking part of their giant White Elephant! We had 31 people doing it! I got stuck with Poptarts and Elder Fleming got some IBC Root Beer. It was a jolly good time! We came back to Sutherlin and updated our area book before calling it a night.

Well, that's my week! It was a pretty good first week in Sutherlin and it is only going to pick up from here! I know that the Church is true and that Jesus Christ lives! There is no doubt! #ASaviorIsBorn

Love ya!
Elder Tonini


Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"

Let's Just Go Back and Forth Between Eugene All Week!

Hey everyone!

This was a pretty fun week. Thankfully, no one wrecked their bikes so that was good!

Monday was transfer Monday and like I mentioned last week, I am staying in Springfield 3rd Ward with Elder Bowers! We are in a car share now so we spent the day with the 1st Ward Elders. The zone leaders called us and asked if we could come in and get some luggage from the transfer spot so we drove in and filled our car to the brim with stuff! I also got to see Elder Taito before he left to go home so that was pretty awesome! We got back and unloaded our car just in time to get to dinner. We spent our night trying to contact people but we weren't really successful.

Tuesday was exciting. We started off our morning with our phone being blown up by the AP's and President Russell asking us where the zone leaders were! We ended up doing a mini manhunt for them but it turns out that their phone was left in the car... So that was fun. We went to McDonald's and we ended up teaching a man named Raymond for almost an hour and a half about the Plan of Salvation. It was a super cool experience. We had a lesson with Robert Whi*** and it went ok. We were actually able to get a message across to him so that was good. We did the Christlike attribute activity found in Preach My Gospel and it gives us something to teach him. That was pretty much our day.

Wednesday we didn't have a whole lot happen. The highlight from Wednesday was we got to take out two of the newest missionaries in the OEM! Unfortunately, by the time we got back to our area, we only had 5 minutes so we had them bear their testimony to a less active we are working with before taking back into Eugene. When we got back, my head was pounding so hard I couldn't even think straight so I went to be early!

Thursday we drove all the way into Eugene again, this time to welcome the new missionaries into the mission. We sang a song for them (EFY Medley) and then we unloaded the new missionaries luggage into the church building. By the time we got all that done and got back into Springfield and did our weekly planning, it was almost time for dinner! We had dinner with the Perk*** and they had their non-member neighbors there as well! We shared with them a little bit about what we believe and while Rod is very scientific minded at this time, his wife Kathy seems pretty open! We are looking forward to being able to work with them! We then drove over to David and Leighanne's house and we had a heart to heart with them. We asked them why they thought we invited them to come to church and we had a good discussion about that. We were able to squeeze a commitment out of them to come to church.

Friday we drove back into Eugene ONCE again for a specialized training. It was super good and I learned a lot from it. We talked about obedience and listening to the Holy Ghost so I enjoyed it a lot. I helped the zone leaders with new DL training before our lesson with Robert Whi***. We talked about diligence and we struggled with keeping his attention. We tried contacting people until our lesson with Dwayne and Traci. We went over the Restoration and it went pretty well. Elder Bowers blood sugar levels were wacky though so that made it fun haha! Dwayne is super solid, we just got to get him to come to church.

Saturday we had new missionary training at the church and then we helped the zone leaders with some of their zone leader responsibilities before going back and taking lunch. We were excited to be able to have a Saturday where the Ducks weren't playing so we geared up to go tracting all afternoon but we ended up talking to this lady named Bonnie for almost an hour! We had a good talk with her and we left her with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. We had an awesome dinner but it went a little long and by the time we got to the Half***'s they were getting ready for bed! It was a fun night haha!

Sunday was a day of miracles! David and Leighanne actually came to church! It was so awesome! They even stayed for second hour because our ward mission leader's kid grabbed Chandler by the vest and took him to nursery! After church I had stake correlation to attend and then we spent our night doing training!

I love you all! Have a good week y'all!

Elder Tonini

Time Flies When You Hear The Prophets and Apostles Speak!

Hey everyone!

Yes, it is me. I'm still alive. Barely, but I'm still here. It was a decent week that ended with General Conference so that made it all the more awesome!

Monday was the normal P-Day festivities. We went into Eugene to do some shopping and I got a sweet Columbia rain jacket! We then got dressed in normal people clothing and headed off to Heyward Field for some football with the Eugene zone! It was super fun being able to hang out with some of my mission friends for a little bit! We got home and got redressed in our normal missionary attire and went to a pizza place with a member and his family for dinner. After dinner I just got super sick... I couldn't be away from the toilet for a long period of time so we ended up being home all night. It really stunk.

Tuesday morning I was feeling a lot better (thanks to the mess I had bought the night before) so we headed up to Brother Ud***'s with the ZL's for lunch and some service! He has another house that he rents out and the last renter just wrecked the place so we helped him out! I painted some closet shutter looking things while everyone else either painted or moved dirt around. By the time that we got finished with that, we had to go to the church for our lesson with Brother Wh***. He talked a ton like always but we were still able to share a message about General Conference. After dinner with the Dur***'s (Brother Dur*** served around Hobbs, New Mexico!), we went out and splits and the ward missionary that I went out with and I did work! We got in all the doors that we knocked on and got some lessons set up with a recent convert and an investigator that hasn't been taught in a long time! The investigator even accepted an invitation to watch General Conference with their member neighbors!

Wednesday morning we did some training before heading out to the Salg***'s for lunch with the zone leaders. The zone leaders were running out of miles for the month so I was planning on grabbing our bus passes so we could tract in that area before heading back towards the other side of our area. Well, guess who forgot the bus passes? Yup, me. So we ended up walking home and contacting people on the way back. We were able to OYM a lady smoking outside her house and talked to a guy leaning on a tree for about 20 minutes. It was super fun. We even ran into the zone leaders who were tracting as well and we ended up using Taco Bell for a pitstop. We went over to JaydaQuin's house but he was about to head out the door for football practice so we threw the ball with him and played a punting game! After dinner, we showed up for a lesson with Tim and Courtney and although they forgot, we were still able to share a message about eternal families with them. We then biked over to David and Leighanne's home and shared a message about prophets! We were able to commit them to watch conference with the Dixon's in the ward! We were having such a good conversation that we didn't get home until 9:45..... oops.

Thursday was crazy. We had heard that we were having interviews on Friday and so I was wondering when district meeting was going to be when the zone leaders called us and told us that district meeting was going to be that morning! It ended up being a pretty good district meeting and I got to use a basketball for part of it so that was pretty fun :) We grabbed lunch before going over to a recent convert named David and talking with him for a little bit. He's a super cool guy who has some health issues but that doesn't stop him from fulfilling his calling as an indexing worker! We rode the bus home afterwards and did weekly planning until dinner. We then had a lesson with a 12 year old recent convert. That was a super interesting lesson... He feels like God is interfering with his planning and that he is thinking about quitting the Church... He got baptized two months ago! And he is twelve! Anyways... I felt so frustrated during the lesson so we taught him about prayer and told him to pray and ask if he made the right decision and then afterwards Elder Bowers and I got DQ and updated our area book while eating Blizzards! It was a weird night. On top of that, we heard about the shooting that happened in Roseburg... Thankfully, no missionaries were there!

Friday morning we had interviews with President Russell. We had some specialized training about the Sabbath Day and also iPad usage. President Russell is cracking down hard on stating our purpose when we turn on the iPad because of something that happened that made President Russell's heart heavy with sadness... Sister Russell then went through our Area Book while President did interviews. By the time we were done and out of there, it was almost 1! After lunch, we tried to see JaydaQuin before Brother Wh*** but he wasn't home. We then taught Brother Wh*** about how the new apostles were going to be called and he really liked that. We had dinner at our place before going out and trying to contact people. We weren't doing it for very long before the zone leaders called us and asked to go with them to a blessing. By the time we got it taken care of, the night was over.

Saturday was General Conference! Elder Bowers and I didn't have anyone to watch it with so we watched it in the Relief Society room and we pulled in the comfy foyer chairs for it! I love what was said in those sessions! It was super cool being able to sustain the new apostles as well! I really enjoyed the talks:) The zone leaders picked us up and drove us to the stake center for the priesthood session. I don't have my notes so I can't exactly convey any thoughts that I had but I thoroughly enjoyed it! The members in our ward took us to Denny's afterwards! I wish I could've done our Sonic tradition though!

Sunday was awesome yet stunk. None of our investigators came so we just hung out with some of the members for the two sessions. I was really worried about President Monson during that morning session... I did love the idea of "ponderizing" :) I am doing it right now! We had dinner over at our ward mission leaders house and then we did training to end the night!

That's all I got! I love y'all! I know that the church is true! There is no doubt, especially after this weekend!

Love y'all!

Elder Tonini


Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"

"I am the Master of my Fate and the Captain of my Soul"

Howdy Howdy!

So this week was rough because I was sick all week long! However, Elder Galloway and I were still able to go out and do some stuff!

Monday was good ol' P-Day. We did our shopping in the morning and hung out with other missionaries at the stake center. I also got a hair cut so I am back once again to my short haired self. Throughout the day I was feeling achy and coughing but towards the evening it just worse and worse! We had dinner/FHE with the Hea***'s and I was just coughing a lung up! I ended up taking some meds that ended up just completely knocking me out after we planned and I wrote in my journal!

Tuesday was a little better health wise but not by much! I was still achy but I felt well enough to go to the Medford temple and do our weekly service there. It was probably a bad idea haha! Elder Galloway and I took out some stumps while the other Elders worked on some plants that the Sister who runs the whole thing decided should come up. Elder Johanson was working on one of these plants and when he took it out it looked like Mickey Mouse's head! After service and getting cleaned up, we tried to go out and do stuff but I was attacked by my cold pretty badly. I developed a bad migraine and it felt as though my nose was running the Boston Marathon and my throat was the Sahara! We had dinner and then we headed over to the Steb*** family for a FHE. I was doing pretty bad so Brother Steb*** took Elder Galloway and I over to Walgreens so I could stock up on some cold meds and cough drops.

Wednesday I started feeling a little better compared to the last two days thanks to the medicine I picked up at Walgreens. After studies we headed out in service clothes to help Brother Sta*** take care of Sister Win***'s lawn. Somehow I ended up on the roof holding onto this huge limb that had potential to do some damage to this sister's house while Elder Galloway cut the limb off. I then cleaned out the gutters while Elder Galloway helped Brother Sta*** take care of some old blackberry vines. Afterwards while we were taking lunch and getting cleaned up, we got a call from Sister Cavan*** about helping her and her husband move a mattress and a box spring to someone's home. It was a piece of cake to get the mattress and box spring out of their house and into the truck but it was a totally different ballgame when we got to the house. It was one of those mobile homes that are surrounded by an electric fence and a ghetto sign on a truck that says "No Trespassing"! When Elder Galloway and I stepped into the "house", we got hit by this stench and it made me horribly sick. The state of the house was terrible and it did not help. I got outside after we took in the mattress and I was sweating and woozy and just not doing very hot! Sister Cavan*** (who had no idea it was that bad in the house) is a nurse so she was kinda worried I was going to pass out! She told me to go home and rest for the rest of the afternoon but I couldn't stand being in the apartment asleep for three hours so I took a power nap and we kept going until dinner! We had dinner with an older couple who had actually served in the OEM (Oregon Eugene Mission) and the husband had a sweet OEM tie and pen! Since we were right next to the church, we went into the family history center and I read and printed some talks about the Atonement for a talk that I might have to give in the next zone conference!

Thursday we were out the door pretty early to go down to Medford for a specialized training meeting that was called originally for the missionaries going home in May, June, and July of this year but decided to make it for everyone. It was a great meeting that focused on not wasting this time allotted to us by the Lord to serve a mission and to be obedient. I thought it was well done despite being planned this past Sunday! We came back to the apartment and had lunch before we did weekly planning since we were not able to do it that morning. We tried seeing Gene but he was sick with the flu and we tried seeing a less active named Joe but he was going out the door. We walked around and tried to OYM but nothing much happened. We had an awesome dinner though! The Stan***'s feed us tri tip! Oh man I hadn't had that good of BBQ since Philomath! We walked over to the other side of our area for correlation and it was a really good one! We had some funny moments but we were able to really make plans for those that we are seeing. The funniest part of correlation was when Brother Sta*** got tired of Elder Galloway "mistreating" his pillows and gave him a teddy bear to hold instead! Oh man it made for a good photo!

Friday we had district meeting, our last one of the transfer! The Gold Hill Elders came early so Elder Porter and I could make a pre-district meeting treat! We made some home made biscuits and gravy and MAN it was good stuff! After district meeting and a quick lunch, we went on exchanges with Gold Hill. Elder Porter came to my area and after discussing what we would be sharing with the people that we were trying to meet with, we headed out on foot. We were almost to Mike's house when this little old lady hails us over to her. It was M&M, the 97 year old great great grandmother that works at Calvary Temple food pantry, out on her knees weeding! She talked to us for a full thirty minutes about Paul, the pastor/singer(?) at Calvary temple who died of pancreatitis last week. It was a good conversation and we were able to talk about the Church a little bit with her but she wasn't interested in what we had to say haha but she absolutely loves us missionaries! We finally managed to pry ourselves away from M&M and taught Mike a lesson about dealing with adversity and it went great! I had planned on Elder Porter and I to stop by a member who is a loony bin (I don't know what else to call it) but we were not able to because of my cold... After dinner we had a really weird thing happen to us! Elder Galloway had left some stuff he needed for tomorrow and they were going to the church to pick up a package for Elder Madsen so they asked us to wait at the apartment after dinner. While we were waiting, we both heard a distinct knock on our door. We went downstairs and opened the door expecting to see the other Elders only to see nobody. We thought they were trying to scare us so we locked the door and just sat there for a second. We then heard another knock.... UPSTAIRS!!!! It was so freaky! As soon as Elder Galloway showed up to get his stuff we were out the door! We were able to talk to Sister Cro*** and schedule a time for us to come by and see her and her family so that was how we ended our night. I also managed to fill out my whole journal! I am now on my second journal on my mission!

Saturday was a pretty sweet day! Elder Porter and I had a great study session and then we prayed that there would be people out and about for us to try to talk to about the gospel. We took a different route over to the west side of the area and as we turned up the street dividing the CP1/CP2 wards, there were eight people all walking towards us! Although none of them were interested in our message, it was an awesome experience to see Heavenly Father place people in our path so we could invite them to receive the gospel. After that happened, it was about time to exchange back so we headed back to the apartment to wait for the other two Elders to show up. After we exchanged back, Elder Galloway and I went and shared a message with Adam. He throughly enjoyed it! It was a Mormon Message that used clips from a talk by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin called "Come what may and love it". We walked over to Abby's pizza and had dinner there with a member couple before heading over to stake conference. It was a great stake conference and Elder Bruce A. Carlson of the Seventy (and a retired four star general in the Air Force) spoke to us! I got the opportunity to shake his hand afterwards! It was pretty cool!

Sunday we had stake conference and it was packed! Once again we were able to hear from some members of the stake, youth and adults alike, and then from two of the stake presidency, President Russell, and Elder Carlson. It was just awesome! We then had a lesson with Angelo and Spencer about the Plan of Salvation and that went well. The afternoon was weird though. We did a temporary exchange with the Elders in the 1st ward, mainly because of me and Elder Johanson. The chiropractor in my ward who has been adjusting me said he was only really available sometime this afternoon and would let us know and Elder Johanson was having some tightness issues in his back so we were together for a few hours. We went and taught a lady named Claire who has some memory issues and it makes it difficult for her to remember if she read or not and also to retain the information she had learned. It turned out to be a great lesson despite her memory loss! We then saw some members who were in an assisted living facility on our way to dinner. The facility was under quarantine to protect the residents against a flu outbreak but we were still allowed in. We had to wear the nursing masks and man I do not know how they can wear those all the time! We got back to the apartment to grab a quick bite to eat before heading out again when we realized we had locked ourselves out! The back window was open but Elder Johanson and I are both big guys and there was no way we were getting in until I saw the skate ramps that were in their backyard. Using that, I basically walked right in through the window and let Elder Johanson in! The chiropractor finally told us we could come by and so we walked all the way there in the pouring rain haha! When he popped my neck, my nose just cleared up in an instant! It was great! We exchanged back right after and we put in lessons into the iPad to end the night.

During the specialized training, President Russell shared a clip from the movie "Invictus". It was when Matt Damon, the leader of the South Africa rugby team, went with his team to the jail where Nelson Mandela was held. President Russell read the poem that Morgan Freeman recited during that scene. In it it says "I am the Master of my Fate and the Captain of my Soul". I am grateful that I am the master of my fate. What I do determines who I am today and who I will become. Because of this gospel I am someone that fears the Lord and turns to Him everyday in hopes of becoming someone better. This Gospel is true. There is no doubt!

Love y'all!

Elder Tonini
“Do your duty, that is best. Leave unto the Lord the rest.”
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Howdy!

Hey everyone!

I hope all of you had a great week! This was a super slow week for Elder Galloway and I and we were not able to see many people, investigators and members, so I will probably end up skipping the days where we just walked around and had no success.

Monday was the usual P-Day festivities. We hung out at the church with the other missionaries and emailed and played basketball for a little while. Elder Galloway and I had to cut out our P-Day short because of an FHE we had planned with Brother and Sister Will*** and their family. It went extremely well and we thought the kids loved it! Brother Will*** took us over to our apartment where Brother Froe*** was waiting to pick us up for dinner! After dinner they released the three dogs they had in a back room. The two they have were just normal black labs that want you to scratch their stomach forever. The dog that they were watching over would be described more as a horse. It was a big dog! He wasn't too friendly too strangers though so I wasn't able to play with him or get a picture.

Tuesday we had temple service in the morning. Elder Galloway and I were the first ones to arrive out of the three companionships who work on the temple so we had first pick of what we wanted to do. We volunteered to haul plant debris away while the ladies who were there with us clipped at bushes. I am glad that I brought my gloves because the bushes they were working on were rose bushes! It made for a great analogy about being prepared so you won't get pricked by a thorn! After awhile I helped the other elders pull out weed block and man that stuff is annoying! The weed block had all of the mud on it and if you moved the mud, it would just be somewhere else on the weed block! However, we were able to do it! Unfortunately, that was pretty much the highlight of the day. We did try to see people but nothing came to light.

Wednesday and Thursday morning were the slowest times out of the whole week so I won't bore you with the details of those days! The only highlight that we had was this OYM I had right outside our apartment. It was right after lunch and Elder Galloway and I were standing outside our apartment just talking about what we had planned up until dinner. While we were standing there, one of our neighbors from the complex across the alley walked over to us. He asked me if I could help him out with something. He was planning on proposing to his girlfriend and the mother of his two kids and had bought a sweet get up to do it in. However, he never wears ties and didn't know how to tie one. He tried learning how to tie a tie by watching YouTube tutorials but it was confusing. So he asked us (since we wear ties all the time) and we gladly helped. I yanked off my tie and went through it step by step with him. Hopefully he got it! Anyways, as he was thanking us, I gave him our card with our number on it and he took it! It was pretty neat being in that spot at that time.

Thursday afternoon Elder Galloway and I tried OYMing before dinner but no one was out and about walking. We had dinner with a member who was a pilot that flew private jets. He had some great advice for us and shared his story with us of what he went through just to be able to join the Church as a teenager. He even shared a mission story from his time in Minnesota. He had to open up a previously closed area with a new companion and he shared the hardships that happened. He was also one of the first members I have met where he went home at 18 months because the time of service was changed. After dinner (and a tupperware full of roast and potatoes), we headed out to correlation. We arrived to correlation a little wet and muddy! We were crossing at our usual crossing and in the dark I stepped into a small puddle. Although my shoes were caked with mud, my pants came out almost unscathed! Correlation was pretty good but confusing at times because we would end up with four different conversations in one room! Elder Galloway then got cold halfway through so he was wrapped up in a blanket and then received several more blankets because he was still cold!

Friday morning we had district meeting. It was a good one that helped us remember the importance of commitments and the importance of saying "will you" instead of "can/would you". You wouldn't propose by saying, "Can you marry me? If that is ok?" haha! :) The sisters brought European chocolate that they received from a member and it was pretty tasty! We did an exchange after lunch with the Gold Hill Elders. I went over to Gold Hill with Elder Madsen. We had actually been on exchanges during my time in the Corvallis zone so it was good being able to catch up with him. After we had arrived in Gold Hill and dropped my stuff off, we took off on foot to see some less actives and other people that he had planned on seeing before dinner. We tried but no one was around. On the way to see an excommunicated member in a trailer park, Elder Madsen had to go to the bathroom. Across the street from the trailer park was a gas station so we headed towards that. A man got out of the bathroom when we got there and Elder Madsen went in. Well, the man didn't hop in his truck right away... he just stood there and looked over at me. He finally asked how much water I had in my bag and I told him none. We kept talking about water until Elder Madsen got out. As we walked by him, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of dollars and told us to go buy some water and then he drove away! Tender mercy right there! After trying to contact people, we walked back and got the truck to drive to dinner. Oh man it was a great dinner haha! The food was awesome and halfway through the meal, the member's grandson who lives with them came in. He is a Marine reservist and actually knows one of the return missionaries that lived in Philomath and always shared great insights with us! It was pretty cool to see the Gospel working in the grandson's life despite being in the Marines haha. We got back to the apartment and the Gold Hill ward mission leader came over and picked us up for a lesson with a man named Chris. He is a less active member who knows hardly anything about the Gospel but wants to learn. We shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ missionary discussion with him and the Spirit was just there and it was awesome. I was talking slowly and I knew what to say and how to say it. It was a pretty cool experience! After the lesson, Brother Vit** told us that he was going to buy us pizza for lunch tomorrow just because he wanted to! That was just an awesome way to end the day.

Saturday Elder Madsen and I took off on foot again to contact more people. Just like the day before, no one was home. We knocked on this one door and we could hear the man moving around in the trailer but he wouldn't open the door! Lame sauce! However, we had timed everything perfectly so we could go eat the pizza Brother Vit** had ordered! It was some dang good pizza! We went back to the apartment and I packed up my stuff so we could exchange back. After we exchanged back Elder Galloway and I worked our way towards the church, OYMing and contacting as many people as we could before the Elders Quorum Chili Cook-Off! It was an interesting one to say the least! The chili I had was good but I only had a little bit of chili. As a missionary, sometimes you get a certain meal a ton and recently it had been chili! Luckily, someone started making hot dogs so that filled me up. While we were there, Angelo called and told us they wouldn't be able to make it to church because of a family visit but said he would make it the following week with Spencer. That was a bummer but it is ok! The chili cook off took up the rest of the night, between the eating and cleaning up and working our way back to the apartment.

Sunday we had testimony meeting due to stake conference this coming weekend. Before the members started giving their testimonies, the Primary got up and sang "Savior". It was a beautiful way to start testimony meeting! It was pretty cool to see how our testimony meeting really took on the topic of forever families! After testimony meeting and Sunday school, we had a pretty awesome lesson in Elders Quorum. The brother who was giving the lesson had an awesome presentation and even managed to find a way to throw in a Muppets clip! The lesson was based off the talk about approaching the throne of God with confidence by Elder Jorg Klebingat. It really made me think and ponder. After church we tried seeing some of our less actives but no one was home so we had dinner before our lesson with Jay H. The family we had dinner with had a corn snake (according to Elder Galloway) and they let me hold it! It went through my belt loop and got stuck so Brother Ols** had to get him out of it. After our lesson with Jay H., we went over to Brad's apartment to share a message with them. They were in a down mood because one of the pastors at their church had passed away from pancreitis last week. We were able to share some scriptures with them and then we shared our message of a new year with them.

During the weekend I got a pretty bad cold! I only slept for maybe an hour and a half last night because I was hacking up a lung! Keep me in your prayers!

I love you all! I know that this church is true! There is no doubt!

Elder Tonini
“Do your duty, that is best. Leave unto the Lord the rest.”
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow