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

So I hit my six month mark!

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

Quick! What's the Number for 9-1-1?

Hey everyone,

So this was a pretty jam packed week full of adventure and suspense!

After emailing on Monday, we went down to Eugene to take Elder Bassett's suit to get tailored at Men's Warehouse. We then walked around the mall for a little and got lunch before heading to the River Road building for basketball. Unfortunately no one wanted to play half court so we did nothing. So we drove back to Junction City and looked around a member's antique store. I ended up buying a Rubik's cube for a buck! Elder Cook and I had FHE with the Gambee's and we helped them set up their family search.org accounts! It was so cool seeing them get so pumped for family history!

Tuesday I officially met Renee, a recent convert who had to move back to Junction City from Springfield for a number of reasons and was living in her mobile home. She is staying at the boardinghouse in town so we went over and talked with her before helping Brother Gambee move some furniture... Out of the boardinghouse! We had the idea to ask Brother Gambee if he could help Renee get some stuff from her old place and he agreed. It took us a little while before she got everything she needed and we ran a tad late to our appointment with Charlotte! Oops! It's ok though because the member knew what we were doing for Renee! We watched Woman's Conference with them and talked about covenants. We had our Book of Mormon class that night and we had an awesome discussion about the Tree of Life!

Wednesday we saw Dotti and shared a message with her before heading up to

Camp Alpine, a church-owned camp ground just outside of Monroe. There are two senior couples who live up there and they bring us up to do service and have dinner. It was raining for most of the service (splitting wood using a splitter and then stacking it in a different location) but we were under trees and a roof so we didn't get too wet. We had breakfast for dinner and man it reminded me of home!

Thursday was perhaps the most up and down day I've had. Ever. We got a knock on our door and there stood Elder Kleinman, our vehicle coordinator. Our Ford Fusion had reached the end of its mission life and was being retired so Elder Kleinman came to give us our new car.... A 2014 Subaru Legacy! Oh it is so awesome! The process of switching cars ( Elder Kleinman had to take the TIWI out of the Fusion and put it into the Legacy) took forever so we had an hour for weekly planning! We had a short lesson with Bob and Margaret, mainly because we were going to show them a video cassette movie but their VCR ate it! I played doctor and opened it up to pry it out! We had service at Gleaners and as usual they gave us a bunch of food. With Renee not having a car and not having a lot of food, we felt as though we should go take it to her. As we got back into town, it was getting closer to dinner and the food wasn't going to go bad if we didn't take it to her right away. Yet, we felt like we needed to go see her. She hadn't responded to our texts or our calls so I thought she was sleeping. Elder Cook and I, however, still went up and knocked on her door. We heard her dog bark and she mumbled something about coming to the door. We motioned out the window to Elders Bassett and Enman to bring up food right as Renee said "I think I suffered a stroke". Umm what?! Elder Bassett and I stayed at the door (it was locked) and tried talking to her as Elder Cook and Elder Enman got the manager. As we stood there, straining to hear her, this guy starts cooking a fried egg on the public stove on Renee's floor. We couldn't hear her over the crackling of his egg! Ugh some people... Anyways, they got the manager and she opened the door and when she looked inside she turned back to us and said "call 911 now!" The paramedics came in a couple of minutes later and confirmed she had had a stroke. Heavenly Father used the four of us to save her life... A single middle-aged woman living alone probably wouldn't have very many visitors...because we listened to the promptings of the Holy Ghost to go visit her on that night, just days after moving back to Junction and just a couple of weeks after baptized, she is alive.

Friday was not as exciting as Thursday (thank goodness!). We helped Brother Thorenson clean the church in the morning. The building has almost the exact layout as the one in Houston! The biggest difference is that the gym has wood flooring, not carpet. So I spent most of my time sweeping then mopping the gym! It reminded me of working at MTC-West hah! We had a quick lunch before driving over to Brother Melvil's place. He has a TON of chickens and he loves all of them. We cleaned up poop and battled chickens for their eggs! We had a lesson with Charlotte afterwards and saw Dotti for a little bit.

Saturday we were out the door at 8:45 to end down to Santa Clara to have interviews with President Russell. When we got there, the AP's had a Jeopardy! game set up for us to learn the Online Missionary Work booklet. After we got our butts kicked, we watched Meet the Mormons! It was super good! Unfortunately I missed out on the Candy Bomber segment because I had my interview with President. I love President Russell! I know for a fact he was called to the OEM for a reason! We got back to Junction City and Elder Cook and I helped out Mick with his hedges and ivy. It was so awesome until I accidentally cut the extension cord... Oops!

Sunday we found out we don't have to go to PEC or Ward Council anymore! I get to wake up at 6:30 on Sundays again! President and Sister Russell came to church and sat on the stand. I got to help with the sacrament and I loved it. I miss doing the sacrament! I didn't sleep very well the previous night so I slept through lunch! We tried seeing some people but they weren't home so we shared a message with the Goodwins. We then shared some messages with Brother Thorenson to finish up our night.

So that was my week. It was a full week that showed me that the Lord is using me and the other missionaries as instruments in His hands. I am grateful to be a missionary!! I hit five months tomorrow! It has gone by so fast!

I love you all!

Elder Tonini

Week Dos: A week of learning!

Howdy!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love your companions 

Write in journal

Missions are HARD

Spirit's job is to convert, not ours

NO REGRETS!!

Increase testimony of Joseph Smith

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

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

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

Love,

Elder Tonini

Going to the Temple is Like Going Home

Thank you to the many friends who made Jacob's first time to be temple for himself such a memorable experience.  We arrived a few minutes before our scheduled time which was a good thing since our recommends had not been activated by our home stake.  Fortunately, a member of the temple presidency helped us resolve the issue and we were upstairs at the appointed time.  It was not lost on Jacob that we had been diligent to make sure Jacob has his recommend and then we end up having the problem!

After receiving the Initiatory ordinances, we sat and visited with Doug & Allison Williams until President Devereaux invited Jacob and me into the Temple President's office so that Jacob could receive some additional instructions.  With that done, we returned to the couches to wait for the endowment session to begin. True to form, five minutes before the session started, Uncle Geoff comes racing up the stairs.  Just-in- time is the way he rolls.

One of the tender mercies of our trip was to have Mike & Shellie Lampkin as the witness couple for our session. Shellie is a dear fiend of Aunt Sheryl and the Tonini family so it was as if she was proxy far all of our extended family who wasn't there.  The session was so full that they had extra chairs in the room which caused a little confusion as they sat everybody. Jacob and I had been seated first and it worked out that Drew sat next to me and Uncle Geoff sat on the other side of Jacob, even though they were one of the last ones to come into the room.  Another tender mercy,

I love going to the temple with someone who is going for the fist time because I seem to listen to the instructions from their point of view. I am always amazed at the amount of instruction given and the impact of the covenants we make,  Hopefully it was everything Jacob hoped it would be.  (As a side note, we were surprised when Jacob returned from school to discover that he had not had the Temple Preparation class.  In yet another tender mercy, that allowed Drew, Raena, and me to teach him the first six lessons this weekend.)

After the session, it was a wonderful reunion with our Bear Creek Ward family in the Celestial room.  Warren & Cheri Willis, Judi Chavez, Sue FitzGerald, Lynn Cargo, Julia Sosa, Bethsi Coronado, Coach Mary Brown Moellmer, Kim Baird, and Alissa McClure were all there.

We focus a lot of energy on our youth staying worthy so that they can go to the temple. I told Jacob that the temple is a journey and not a destination so he needs to continue to make it a life-long pursuit.