When Did I End Up Tracting the Insane Asylum?

Hey everyone!

So this is going to be a short email. Honestly, I am getting worn out by typing out long weekly emails and with two more weeks to go, I will give you some of the highlights!

Tuesday was super fun! We had MLC up in Camp Alpine and I felt like I was going back in time! I talked to one of the senior couples that were there when I was serving in Junction City. We were able to be in our service clothes so that was super enjoyable. We did a lot of team building activities and had a super good lunch. Elder Swiderski had to shop for a new suit and so by the time we got that done and got dinner, we didn't get home until 9:40. It made for a very long night.

The only highlight from Wednesday was that Cameron from Medford messaged me on Facebook and I asked him when he was going to BYU-I. He messaged me back and told me that he was going to go on a mission instead!!!!!!!!!! I WAS SO STOKED!!!! He is going to be such a great missionary!

Friday we had my last ZTM and it was my easiest ZTM to teach! It was super fun. We had lunch with most of the zone and then I went on exchanges with Elder Davis in Coquille. He is a super humble kid and he is a super good missionary! We had a good long talk before we did anything though because he has had a super hard time with his companion.

Saturday was interesting! We exchanged back and taught a couple of lessons before we went tracting in the dorms at SWOCC. Everything was going good until door #9. The guy was unusual at first but then it went downhill fast! He offered Elder Swiderski $75,000 to $100,000 a year (plus dental) if he left me. The dude, who I barely talked to, kept calling me stupid and dropping f-bombs all in the while telling me to leave! It was funny at first but then it started getting pretty sketchy. We thought he was going to do something to us so we just ended up bailing.

Sunday was super awesome! We actually found an investigator at church so that was pretty cool. I got to skype my family and man I miss y'all!

That is all that I got!

Love y'all! Have a great week!

Elder Tonini

Greetings from the Dirty Coos!

Hey everyone!

I had a pretty good week out here on the coast! We didn't teach as much as we would've liked to but we are going to make up for it this week! Monday I spent the morning leaving Sutherlin and going up to Eugene to meet up with my new companion Elder Roller. We packed up my stuff into a member's truck and headed out with the member and four Elders crammed into his truck! We got into Coos Bay in time to have a full P-Day. We got our grocery shopping done before going and playing basketball all afternoon. We got cleaned up and then we all pitched in to get some Little Caesars Pizza for dinner. We headed over to the church after dinner for FHE with the YSA group. It was so much fun and a great way to spend a Monday night! We played a different version of Uno and it was super fun. I ended up winning too so that made it even better!

Tuesday morning we were supposed to have service at the Senior Center but there were a ton of volunteers so we headed over to the church and I got my Area Book logged into the North Bend area. We went to go contact an investigator but he was hammered out of his mind before it was even 12 o'clock... We took lunch before going and helping a non-member move some stuff into storage. They were supposed to move to Coquille but their place there was apparently garbage. So we helped them move their stuff into two storage units and man it took forever! We were there for two hours and we could've put all of their stuff into one but the lady wanted us to do it a certain way (which didn't make ANY sense) so we had move the rest into the second unit. After dinner we had to figure out a miscalculation in the numbers reported the last week so we did that before our zone correlation with the STL's. We talked about the activities that we wanted to do and planned accordingly!

Wednesday we spent the morning contacting some of our investigators before heading to the church and making some adjustments to some reports on our iPads. We grabbed Elder Carter and Elder Rawlings and we grabbed some KFC! A member is the general manager there and since she is a single lady, she can't feed us in her home so she feeds us KFC instead. It was super good food. We had our afternoon lessons cancel but we were able to teach an investigator named Angela on the door step about the Atonement. She has been having a rough time but she has been reading her scriptures and the other assignments given to her by Elder Roller and his previous companion. We got picked up for dinner and by the time we got all the way out there, had dinner, and came back we just stayed at the church and organized our Area Book to end the night.

Thursday morning we didn't do our weekly planning! Instead, we volunteered at the Senior Center. It was a lot of fun! We actually got talking with the volunteer supervisor named Loni and we talked to her about tithing and why we go to church. It was a super good conversation. After the senior center we had to take Elder Carter to the bike shop so he could get his bike fixed. I ended up playing the Australian Shepard that was in the shop! It made me miss Yarra! We spent the rest of the afternoon doing weekly planning and then we picked up some pizzas that a member ordered for us and had that for dinner. We had a super good correlation meeting afterwards and we made a lot of progress on the ward mission plan and helping our ward make family mission plans.

Friday was AWESOME! We trained a new missionary and he is pretty awesome! During our district meeting, I got a text from Sister Christensen and she told me that Zowie had come into the world! I was on Cloud 9 the rest of the meeting! After district meeting we helped those nonmembers from earlier in the week move into a home they got in Coos Bay. Once again, the lady took over and we could've gotten in everything into the van but she wasn't having it! That took us another two hours.... Meh.. We got back to our apartment and found out that we got inspected... and our apartment wasn't the cleanest. So we spent the little time we had before dinner cleaning haha! We had a super fun dinner and then we spent the rest of the night trying to contact some of the members so I could get to know them!

Saturday was a bit of a slower day for us. We contacted some investigators and got some lessons set up but other than that we didn't have any success tracting or teaching anyone really. The one good thing that happened was we drove by an investigator's house and we saw that they were home so we turned around and talked to them for a few minutes. We ended up teaching Sue about the Book of Mormon and after we shot down some of her "concerns" (like the statement that Mormon missionaries could not enter a house if there was a cross with an angel that had wings on it...), she took a Book of Mormon and said that she would read it!

Sunday we had ward council in the morning before church and I got to meet some of the members of the ward council so that was good. Church was pretty good, especially the Gospel Principles class! That teacher was pretty awesome! We had a lesson shortly after lunch with a guy named Patrick! He is such a cool guy but has had some tough times as of late. Despite his now ex moving out, he is living the law of chastity and he told us he is going to be able to start coming to Church starting in the middle of March! We were super pumped! We taught him the baptismal interview and we gave him a blessing before booking it over and seeing a YSA member named Crystal! We had a super good discussion with her and another YSA kid before we had to go to dinner. We correlated with the STL's and updated the Area Book to end the night!

I love you all! I'm so grateful for all your support and your love! I know that the Church is true! There is no doubt!

Elder Tonini

Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"

"Coincidences are God's Way of Staying Anonymous"

Hey everyone!

I hope y'all had a good week because I sure did!

Monday was good 'ol P-Day. We did our normal shopping and then balled it up the rest of the day. With it being MLK Day, some teens were playing basketball on the other side and we ended up choosing teams and playing a little tournament. We got back to Sutherlin and then headed out to the Hay***'s for our dinner and lesson with them. We had a fun little object lesson planned! We talked about faith and why we needed faith. We then took a Mason jar and showed how without "faith", the water poured out when we tipped it over. However, after putting a card on the mouth of the Mason jar, the water stayed in the jar, just like how faith will help us through the rough parts of life! It was a great lesson!

Tuesday was our slow day. It's almost not worth mentioning except for the fact we ended up getting two dinners that day! We had dinner over at one members house and when we showed up at another's to talk about coming out to a lesson with us, they gave us more food!

Wednesday was pretty awesome. We headed into Roseburg first thing in the morning and watched the Church-wide missionary training broadcast held in SLC. We heard from the Missionary Committee and watched some training that they did. One of the biggest things that I got from that was from Elder Andersen. He instructed us to "always have the Savior on our lips". That made me think a lot about when I am out and about doing the work. Am I always testifying of Him? It was a really good broadcast. We got home to having lessons cancel on us so we took some time and visited some formers and volunteered at the soup kitchen before our lesson with Jackie. We hammered down on faith with her and talked about ways she could build her faith.

Thursday we had another training, except this time it was in Santa Clara, just north of Eugene. Elder Bowers and Elder Kimber picked us up early and we were actually one of the first missionaries to arrive despite being about an hour away! After eating donuts and talking with old mission friends, we got the specialized training underway. We talked about being firm in our commitments and not being apologetic when we extend those commitments. We also practiced using a door approach in which we introduce ourselves as representatives of Jesus Christ. Thankfully I have been doing that my whole mission thanks to a pretty good RM older brother! President Russell talked about goals and then he hit on pride. As a mission, we have been struggling with pride and I thought everything he and Sister Russell said were right in the money. It made me reflect on what I need to change! After the specialized training, we headed over to the mission office and the South Umpqua Elders got their TIWI fixed. It was fun being able to talk to Sister Christensen and Sister Sutterfield! I miss being around the office staff. By the time we got back to Sutherlin, it was time to go to dinner. The Shoema***'s took us to a Chinese place in town and Brother Shoema*** got the hungry family for four people. Holy cow there was so much food!! As we were leaving, I OYM'd the waitress after hearing her talk about losing a couple of kids and the struggles she was going through. Hopefully she gives us a call! After we got the car, we headed over to the Vincent's and I used some Deep Blue from doterra to help with my back.

Friday we did weekly planning in the morning and then went out and tried to contact people. We knocked on a part member's door but they just ignored us so that was fun. We went over to a less active's house that was nearby and he welcomed us in with open arms. The poor brother's wife was in the local Alzheimer's unit and just wasting away. He told us that they used to be active and even worked in the temple but since her diagnosis, he has struggled with going back without her. It was humbling to have him look me in the eye and tell me that he knew that they were going to be together forever. Right before we left, he asked me if I could leave a blessing on his home and man that was a tough prayer. I felt so much love for this man and I almost cried during the prayer... We continued to contact people until dinner and then afterwards kept on doing so. We decided to go visit a lady who had met with the missionaries a few months ago but told them she was going to be out of town for a little while. Despite what my previous companion said about her contacting us, we decided to contact her. As it turns out, she has been home the whole time! We had a pleasant conversation with her and she started asking us questions about how she could be temple worthy and about the temple! She is golden!

Saturday morning we took some time and did Facebook. I got to talk to Cameron for a couple of minutes. He is such a stud! I hope he goes on a mission someday. We had a lesson with Samantha that afternoon and we went over the baptismal interview questions with her and hit on the commandments again. We left her with a video of Jesus being baptized to watch for next time. We spent the next hour and a half tracting out a street near our apartment but we didn't have much luck. We were only able to hand out a pamphlet but it is better than nothing! We decided to go contact a former that lived in Jackie's trailer park and he was super receptive to us coming back and seeing him again. He LOVES family history and I think he would join the Church if his wife would let him. We will see what happens this next Saturday!

Sunday we didn't have any meetings in the morning so we were able to do our studies that morning! We got to church and Samantha, Chris, and another one of our children investigators were there at church. We had some pretty good talks too! The high priest group leader had his family tree all the way back to Adam and it was so big that the stake presidency member had to jump up and hold it for him! It was a really good talk. After church and choir, we went and saw a guy named Adam. He joined the church a year and a half ago and is getting ready to put in his mission papers. We talked about his conversion and then we discussed what we could do to help him prepare for a mission. He is so pumped and ready to go on a mission! We stopped by the sister who does our dinner calendar so we could get next month's calendar before we headed out to Roseburg with the Caldwe*** for Samantha's baptismal interview! We got to the stake center right on time; the zone leaders, not so much. The missionaries who were supposed to pick them up never showed up and wouldn't pick up their phone. Thankfully a member picked them up so that they were only an half hour late! Samantha passed her baptismal interview with flying colors and we are almost set for her baptism this Saturday!

Thank you so much for all your support over the last 20 months. I do not think I could've done it without all of y'all. I know that the Church is true. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that He is the Savior of the World. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that President Monson is the Lord's prophet on the earth today.

I love y'all! Stay safe and have a good week!

Elder Tonini

Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"

The One Where It Snows!

Hey hey hey! It's me again!

We had a pretty good week! It had some ups and downs but we overcame them and we were still able to teach and find some new people to teach! Monday was P-Day and our normal dinner at the Hay***'s. To spice up our lesson, we went over the Restoration and as we talked about Jesus Christ's earthly ministry, I pulled out my Rubik's cube and used it to explain the apostasy and the restoration. The kids loved it and I think it really helped them understand the Great Apostasy a lot better.

I don't even want to talk about Tuesday haha! Basically, we had over eight lessons scheduled and one by one they all fell through. Even our back up plans fell through! By the end of the night, we had dropped two potentials and had been dropped by our new investigator from the previous week. We decided to go see a guy named George before our lesson with Jackie and MAN that guy has some crazy ideas. He refuses to join any Christian church for two reasons. One is that he believes that the time frame isn't right for Christ to die on the Friday and then be resurrected on Sunday morning. The other reason is he believes that the Sabbath should be on Saturday still. He bashed with us over this the moment he opened his door! He also told us about when he was dragged to hell as a child... So yeah. We shared the video about why we need a Savior with Jackie and committed her to read her scriptures to end the night.

Wednesday morning we were out the door early to go to Roseburg so I could take Elder Flake and myself to Grants Pass for a district leader training meeting there. It was good, nothing much had changed from the last one I went to back in September or so. We grabbed lunch at Sonic before going back to Roseburg to switch back. We went with the Hart's to see a less active woman before spending the next hour contacting people. We volunteered at the soup kitchen that night and we tried to get a lesson set up with Betty but she is stacked all of December. A member brought us dinner at our apartment and then we taught Jackie again. We talked about her scripture reading and committed her to keep reading the Book of Mormon and to come to the ward Christmas party.

Thursday morning we had weekly planning. Towards the end of it, a member called us and asked if we could give her ten copies of the Book of Mormon for her Young Women's class and we gladly did! After lunch, we did a finding challenge with the Roseburg elders and we lost because we taught a former named Dana. We shared the A Savior is Born video and gave him a Book of Mormon. He said he would read it and agreed to a return appointment! We lost though so we had to get them ice cream on Friday. We gave Ron a blessing and taught him about enduring to the end. We spent the rest of the night at the Sim***'s home, eating dinner and sharing a message with them.

Friday morning we had ZTM and it went pretty well. We talked about OYMing and what we could do to be better missionaries. At the end of it, I got a package from Uncle Darren and Aunt Heidi! I don't have their email so you will have to thank them for me! We grabbed lunch before heading back into Sutherlin. We did't have much happen for us on Friday. No one wanted to talk to us and it was rough.

Saturday we helped out with the Christmas party and ate donuts before driving out to Oakland and talking with the Wel***. They are super cool family but have a hard time getting to church. We shared the A Savior is Born video and committed them to share it with their neighbors. We came back into Sutherlin and we went and talked with a non-member couple whose son is a member. They have been married for over 70 years! We had a good talk with them. They know so much about the church but don't want to offend other members of the family. We talked to Sister Learned and Sister Harris before heading off to the Christmas party. We had over 10 non-members there! It was a super good program too!

Sunday we woke up to snow on the ground! We had a super good church service before heading out to Roseburg for stake correlation. We came back and took lunch and then we had dinner shortly after at our apartment. While we were eating dinner, we felt like we needed to go talk to the Caldw***'s twin grandkids and as we were talking to them, they both said that they want to be baptized! I am super excited for Chris and Samantha!

That is how my week went! I love y'all! Oh and by the way, we have interviews next Monday so I will be able to email on Tuesday!

I love y'all!

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"

We Fam!

Monday we had P-Day! We had an awesome dinner and FHE with the first counselor in the ward and his family. We did this flour game where you basically cut sides off a packed thing of flour (like a sand castle) and whoever knocks the penny that is on top off, they have to go after it with their mouth! It was loads of fun!

Tuesday morning we had Elder Parker with us from Oak Ridge while his companion was over at a district leader training meeting. We went and tried to contact some people but no one was around so we came back to take lunch. We were sitting in the car debating on what we wanted to do when a cop pulls in and start walking over to my window! It scared me a little bit but thankfully I was not in trouble. Instead, he just want to know if I knew anything about a stolen car that was left in our parking lot. That was exciting haha. Some other missionaries owed us lunch so they took us to Taco Bell before we took off for a service project. We took the 4th Ward Elders to a less active's home in the 5th Ward area and we chopped wood for her for almost 3 hours. Needless to say, I was sore and tired when we got home and cleaned up! After dinner I was supposed to go see Tim on splits but a friend of his went to the hospital so I went with Elder Strech and Brother De Luna to go see Brayan and Paula, the couple that the Spanish Elders have on date. Paula wasn't feeling good and she need some medicine because of her pregnancy so Brother De Lu*** took us and Brayan to a pharmacy so he could get it filled. By the time we got done with it all, our day was done!

Wednesday morning we drove over to the Salg***'s for lunch before going out and trying to contact as many people as we could. We went over to Brother Half***'s home and read some scriptures with him. He is doing a lot better, especially with the turn around in events that have been happening to him! We drove over to JaydaQuin's home and had a good visit with him. We really focused on going to church and the reason why we go. It was super good, even though we had to bounce a ball between the three of us during most of it. We were able to get him to focus in on Elder Holland's video of always remembering him and we committed him to come to church. That night, we had a good visit with David and Leighanne. We have been struggling with getting them to have a desire to come to church and progressing in the gospel so we are focusing on things that would help them with that. We read a little bit of the introduction to the Book of Mormon and left them the testimony of the Witnesses to read. Hopefully they actually did it this week!

Thursday was slow for us. We had weekly planning that took all morning and then we had a lesson with William in the early afternoon. We found out he didn't do his reading (wasn't hard to figure out; he told us right off the bat) so we acted devastated (like what Elder Holland tells us to do!) and taught him about reading the scriptures. We left him the story of the Stripling warriors to read and both his grandpa and mom took note of the assignment so he should do it this week. After William, we just went out and tried to find people to teach. We tracted for a little bit and went through our potentials list but no one was home or interested. We were able to visit Tim in the evening and talk with him about his friend who was in the hospital before calling it a night.

Friday was pretty awesome! We had zone conference in Eugene and we received instruction from President Russell and Elder Marcus B. Nash and their wives. I learned so much and everything that was talked about was something that I really needed to hear. It was amazing to see those prayers get answered. We talked about enduring to the end with fire, the power of the the Book of Mormon, and about being obedient. It was super good. We also had a great Q&A with him to end it. We got back into Springfield just in time for our lesson with Robert Wh*** and talked to him about being humble. It was an okay lesson, he got off topic a ton again but he got the gist of it. We walked over to dinner and the member's daughter invited her non-member boyfriend over for dinner! We shared President Monson's testimony of the Savior and all four missionaries bore testimony of Jesus Christ and the spirit was super strong! After dinner though I was feeling super sick to my stomach but I managed to push through and teach Traci and Dwayne about following the prophet. He still really wants to be baptized but it's almost to that point where he has to start making some decisions about living some of the commandments!

Saturday morning the zone leaders came and picked us up for training over at the church. It went pretty well. I had some fun role plays for some of the younger missionaries that I based off experiences from my mission. We took lunch before going and telling Jaydaquin that we got him a ride for church and then visiting Brother Half***. I went on a temporary exchange with Elder Adams to go visit a referral that both us and the 4th Ward received haha! We spent 30 minutes wandering around in the rain trying to find this lady's house before we went to one of the members in 3rd Ward and had him look it up on his phone. When we finally found it, the apartment looked dark and no one answered the door. We left a "Finding Faith in Christ" DVD and a note on her door. We took a break at Taco Bell and had a good talk before going back with our companions. Although we didn't have any lessons happen, Saturday was probably one of my best days OYMing! We rode on the bus about six times and I handed out all the pictures of Christ that I had and everyone we talked to either was part of the church, met with missionaries, or had lived in Monahans! It was so awesome!

Sunday was crazy hah! Brother Boo*** texted us and informed us that PEC got moved up to 9 and we needed to do correlation. When we got the text, it was already 8:30! The zone leaders picked us up and we had a short correlation meeting before PEC. Due to the small space, Elder Strech and Elder Bowers went to PEC and Elder Adams (the Spanish one) and I talked for a long while. When they got out of PEC, we went into the chapel and started saying our hellos. I saw Sister Bat*** and went to ask her if she talked to David and Leighanne. There was another sister sitting right next to her and I shook her hand as well. She looked at my name tag and this is the kind of conversation that followed;

Sister: "Elder Tonini?"

Me: "Yes ma'am?"

Sister: "Who is your father?"

Me: "Uhh... Greg Tonini?"

Sister: "Are you related to Daryl (my grandpa)?"

Me: 😳"Yes?..."

Sister: "My mother was your grandpa George's cousin!"

I GOT EXTENDED FAMILY IN THIS WARD!!! It was so awesome! Sister Pope is this good sister's name and she comes from the Nelson side of the Tonini line. She is taking us out to lunch on Tuesday so we can talk more! It was so cool. We skipped priesthood because we got special permission to go march in the Veterans Day parade with a member who had a truck for the Mormon Battalion. We got soaked but it was a ton of fun. We probably would've been able to pass out more cards if we had candy and cards in bags! I was supposed to do a baptismal interview afterwards but it didn't happen. We tried contacting people but it didn't go so well so we did training to end the night!

I love you all! I know that the Church is true! There is no doubt

#returnwithhonor

Elder Tonini

Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"

The One Where We Talk About Bigfoot....

Hey everyone!

This was a little bit of a rougher week for Elder Bowers and me. We didn't have everything go as planned this week! But we testified and invited people to come to Christ so that is what counts!

Monday was pretty much the usual P-Day. Elder Bowers and I cleaned our apartment and got everything we needed to done at our apartment before we headed out for the day. We got emails done before going over to Walmart and doing some grocery shopping and chilling at the mall. We got back in time for dinner before go I out and contacting people. We talked to Brother Half*** for a little bit. We had a good talk with him, especially about some of the things that he is struggling with right now. We got a lesson set up for later on in the week and then we called it a night.

Tuesday we started it off by going into Eugene to go to the mission office to drop some pants off and to pick up a couple of things for the missionaries in the zone (we did really well on miles this month haha!). We came back into Springfield only to turn around and go help 2nd Ward Elders clean their apartment. They white washed into the area and opened an apartment that was already infested with bedbugs so we lathered up with deet and got the place ready to be taken care of. After throwing our clothes in the wash and getting cleaned up, we had our lesson with Robert Whi***. He went off into his own world but we talked about virtue so hopefully that helped him. The Spanish missionaries met us at the church and we went over to dinner with the Youngers. We had correlation and splits afterwards and I went and taught Tim and Courtney with the Streb***. It went pretty well! I connected with Tim's love for nature and built up on that, talking about coming closer to God. I left them Enos to read (because of Enos being a bow hunter) and set up a time to come back. Elder Bowers and I did training to end the night.

Wednesday morning started off with a text from Shawn, the guy we talked to in the park a couple of weeks ago. He said that he wanted to meet up so we got a lesson set up for later in the day. The zone leaders came over and did companionship study with us before we took off for lunch at the Salg***'s. We went over to the church and waited for Shawn to show up but he never did so we did a car inspection before going on a temporary exchange. One of the 4th Ward Elders was sick so I stayed with the sick missionary and studied Lehi's dream of the tree of life while Elder Bowers and the other missionary went out and tracked and taught JayDaQuin. We drove 2nd Ward Elders around before our dinner over at the Bishop's storehouse. We then talked with David and Leighanne about their experience at church. They had a decent one, they loved the fellowship but they had some difficulty with the fast and testimony meeting. They did say that they would come for a normal church service so that was awesome!

Thursday was rough. We had weekly planning but that dragged on because of some things that kept popping up. We then were told that 4th Ward Elders were going to be borrowing our car so that through our plans for the day out the window! It also didn't help that our lesson with Brother Half*** got pushed back. We had a good visit with Brother Half*** though and we talked a lot about the restoration of the gospel and we left him the blueprint of Christ's true church talk by Elder Callister. We had dinner with a widow and Bishop Bla*** before going to the Gam***'s for a lesson with William. We made it short and to the point. We talked about Daniel in the Lion's den and tied that in with him and how he has to build his faith in Christ and it will help him through the tough times. He actually paid attention which was really nice haha!

I don't even want to talk about Friday haha! District meeting went really well but the lesson we had right after was terrible. We had a good start but then the member we were with started confusing the heck out of our investigators and then he started talking about how Cain is Bigfoot.....Needless to say, we got dropped after the lesson, mainly because we couldn't answer one of the investigator's questions of Noah and Ezekiel. I was pretty furious though and then it didn't help that Brother Whi*** didn't show up either! We had a fantastic time with the Birds***'s though! We had some really awesome spiritual discussions with them and then they gave us a ton of food! We did training to wrap up our day.

Saturday was Halloween! One of the sisters in my district is from the Philippines and never carved a pumpkin before so during lunch we had a pumpkin carving party at the lunch! We had a ton of fun! Brother Half*** came and picked us up for stake conference. We got to meet Elder Echo Hawk of the Seventy and then had an awesome Saturday session! President Lowery of the mission presidency talked about member missionary work and it was so awesome! We then stayed inside all night long. It was a good bonding time for Elder Bowers and I.

Sunday we had stake conference. Brother Ud*** picked us up for that and it was pretty awesome. Elder Echo Hawk gave an awesome talk and afterwards we stood in the circle as Brother Ud*** got ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood! It was super cool. Outside of that, nothing much went our way except for dinner and correlation at Brother Boo***'s

I love y'all! I can't believe it is already November! Thank you for all your support and your prayers! Have a good week and remember, the church is true, the book is blue, and Moroni is always on the ball!

Elder Tonini

Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"

Did You Know That Eugene Is Ranked As The Least Religious City In The US?

Hey everyone!

So this was a good week for us! We were able to teach quite a bit so that's awesome!

Monday was P-Day. We weren't able to get much done in the evening because Elder Bower's bike conked out on us.

Tuesday the district leaders were invited to go to MLC so that's where I was! All of MLC was about finding and some new things were introduced during this MLC. I really learned a lot about how I could be a better finder! By the time it was over, it was time for dinner though haha! We headed over to the church to go on splits and our ward mission leader came out with us. We went out and attempted to contact a recent convert who was engaged to a member in the ward. He wasn't at the members home but we talked to her mom and her non-member boyfriend. We had a super good conversation but the boyfriend is going to be interesting to work with!

Wednesday the 4th Ward Elders took us over to the church for a correlation meeting for ZTM. Afterwards, we went over to the Salg***'s for lunch and we were able to provide some service for them. In their convenience store, they don't have any shelves for their number one selling item; alcohol. So, Elder Perrine and I helped Marcus put together a set of shelves to make it easier to move it all and Elder Bowers and Elder Strech went and did missionary work! We watched a talk from General Conference with Marcus and Monica before heading back to our place to do training. We then had a lesson with Brother Whi*** and we talked about the importance of controlling our thoughts and the things we say. We really cracked down on that with him because sometimes the things he says detracts from the Spirit and we have been working hard to help him understand the importance of the Spirit. The zone leaders took us over to the Half***'s for dinner and afterwards we read scriptures with Brother Half***. He took us back to our apartment and we got out bikes to go see David and Leighanne. We shared the talk about ponderizing the scriptures and invited them to do that. The thought had come to us to share that scripture because they are lacking in their spiritual progression and if we could get them to do that, that would be the jumpstart they needed.

Thursday morning was spent in planning for zone training meeting and doing weekly planning. We pretty much spent all day trying to find people but we didn't have success. We had a weird experience that afternoon while trying to find people before dinner. We biked over to a certain street and when we got there, we just didn't feel right but we didn't feel any impressions to go anywhere else... So we just tried to contact the people we had in our areabook before taking dinner. We had a funny experience right before our lesson with Tim and Courtney. We knocked on an inactive's door and a lady started talking to us... through her bathroom window. He wasn't home so we started heading over to Tim and Courtney's apartment complex and as we were walking, a girl yelled out "I love you guys!". That was a nice change compare to most of the nonsense that we get haha! We then tried to contact a potential but his grandmother said he wasn't home. She then asked us how we knew her grandson and we told her that he had talked to missionaries in the past and she told us that he said he was always confused when we came by because he hadn't talked to the Elders ever; he had only talked to the Sister missionaries! We then went to Tim and Courtney's place and as the conversation went on, we started talking about the Roseburg shooting. That lead to a conversation about why bad things happen to good people and we shared a little bit about the Plan of Salvation. It was a super good lesson but they got distracted at the end because of their cat... The 4th Ward Elders picked us up and we finalized our plans for ZTM before calling it a night.

Friday morning we had training and then we dove into ZTM! It was a super good ZTM! Me and Elder Eldridge did a super good job of teaching about teaching when we find people. There was a statistic that we shared that shows that while Provo/Orem are the most religious cities based on church attendance and members living what is taught, Eugene, Oregon is tied with Boulder, Colorado for being the least religious cities! Fun stuff haha! After ZTM, we exchanged with 1st Ward and Elder Huntsman came into my area. After lunch we headed out to go teach Brother Whi***. On the way to the church, we OYM'd a guy named Jesse and he seems pretty interested. We watched Elder Christofferson's talk with Brother Whi*** before taking dinner. We went contacting before our lesson with Traci and Dwayne. It went super well! Dwayne didn't do the reading because of his sight so we read Alma 40 with them. We had a discussion about how Jesus Christ is the only way back to live with our Heavenly Father and we asked him to be baptized when he came to know that the things we were teaching him were true. Without hesitating, he said yes! He just needs to start coming to church and he is golden!

Saturday morning we went to the church to do an iPad check before trying to see Jesse. He turned out not to be home so we went back to the apartment and waited for our companions to show up. After that, we contacted people until about 3 and went home to do training when the Duck game started and also to take dinner right after. Right as we got home, it started pouring buckets! Luckily it was over by the time we finished everything up! Other than that, we just tried contacting people all night!

Sunday we had church, lunch, and then we went out and tried contacting people! We ended up helping a lady move some groceries into her home and we left her with a picture of Christ and our number. We visited Brother Half*** on a hunch and it turned out he need some support! He took us to dinner and afterwards we did training to end the night.

That's all I got! Thanks for all you do for me! I know that this church is true!

Elder Tonini

Oregon Eugene Mission
"Days Never to Be Forgotten"

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"

The One Where I Have Meetings For Days!

Hey everyone!

So, we had a ton of meetings this week. We managed to get some missionary work in though so that is pretty sweet!:)

Monday was the normal P-Day festivities. We went to the mall and window shopped for a little bit before going back to our area. We then spent pretty much all night contacting people in our area book.

Tuesday morning we did some training before going to the church and setting up Elder Bowers' Facebook at the church. The zone leaders picked us up from the church and we had a lesson with a returning, less-active member named Brother Ud***. He fed us lunch and then we read through the Articles of Faith with him. He had some questions that we were able to answer. He is a great guy who wants to get back on the right path! We then spent the rest of our day biking and trying to contact people but with little luck. The members that we were supposed to have dinner with had to cancel but they gave us 20 bucks so we went with the zone leaders to Giant Burger! Elder Perrine and Elder Bowers both got the Inferno burger! It basically has jalapeños and habanero peppers cooked into it! After dinner we went to correlation before going on splits. I went with Gregorio to visit a couple of people that the bishop asked us to visit. We struck out with one lady but we were able to schedule a return appointment with another!

Wednesday we got haircuts and then we weekly planned. Just like in days previous, we just went out and contacted people. We were able to see David and Leighanne at the end of the night. We were able to schedule a church tour with David and Leighanne for Friday.

Thursday was crazy! We got the Springfield stake center set up for zone conference for four different zones and right before it got started, we were told that we got set up at the wrong building! So we pulled everything down and got everything set up at the other building in 30 minutes. It was pretty impressive. Zone conference was pretty awesome! The AP's, President Russell, and President Cropper went over our purpose as missionaries. I really enjoyed President Russell's segment about repentance. We then had a short meeting afterwards for district leaders, zone leaders, and STLs (Sister Training Leaders) before going back to our areas. We gave a blessing after dinner and then we went to the church and contacted some people in our area book to end the night.

Friday we were out early to go to Winston for a district leader training meeting. Elder Workman took me, Elder Perrine, Elder Strech, and Elder Eldridge there. We had so much fun haha! When we got to Winston, we got down to business. The AP's went over our duties as district leaders and we watched some videos that President Russell and the AP's made. It was a good meeting and we set up some new things for the district leaders to do at district meeting. We hung out at the mission office and the Spanish missionaries got a new phone. We got back in Springfield and I found out that our 4 o'clock appointment fell through. We headed back to the apartment so I could change out of my suit and we headed off to dinner. We did a church tour with David and Leighanne and it was AWESOME! The members that came with us basically did the whole thing and the tour brought back memories to Leighanne, who hasn't been back to the church in a long time. We then bolted for our lesson with Traci. Her non-member boyfriend was there and we taught them about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It went really well! We really felt guided in what we said and hopefully the Spirit hit home with them.

Saturday we went to the church and watched the dedication of the Melchizedek Priesthood restoration site. It was super cool to watch and to hear the dedicatory prayer by President Russell M. Nelson. We had training afterwards and then we went off to a barbecue at a recent converts house. It was SO good! We then contacted people pretty much all day. Unfortunately we didn't have much luck once again.

Sunday was the Primary program. It went really well! I just wish that our investigators were there haha! The zone leaders took us home and we tried some hot sauce that Elder Bowers had and MAN it was hot! I have videos of us doing it! We had an early dinner that ended up dragging on. We walked back to our apartment afterwards and grabbed our bikes to do some work on the west side of our mission. We weren't able to contact anyone so we biked over to the east side and ran into Jaydaquin, our 12 year old investigator. We had a fun time with him, racing him on bikes and stuff! We got a lesson set up with him before we went to the church and synced up to end the week!

That is all I got! I love y'all so much! Thank you for all that you do! I know that the Church is true and that the Book of Mormon is true!

Elder Tonini

"Isn't God smarter than Steve Jobs?"

Hey everyone!

So this week went by so dang fast! We were busy all week long but our numbers won't show it haha! It seems to be the sick season! But other than that, it was a good week!

Tuesday was pretty dang awesome! We were out the door headed to Roseburg for a mission-wide conference about technology and being disciples in the digital age with Elder Brent H. Neilson of the Seventy and Brother Heaton from the MTC. When we arrived we were herded outside and took a mission picture! There were a TON of missionaries! It was so awesome seeing all my old companions! There was a ton shared and a lot of good things were taught! We even had a sister say "check yourself before you wreck yourself"! During lunch I talked to Elders Walton and Smith and they told me Maxx (the kid I taught in Philomath) is thinking about a mission! I also heard that my nametag that I lost in Junction City was found on the side of the road! Here is a couple of things that were shared at the conference

• God is behind everything from the invention of the car to the cell phone 
• "Isn't God smarter than Steve Jobs?" 
• We are getting brand new iPads this Wednesday and it will be the one I get to take home! 
• We got to watch the new Easter message and IT IS SO AWESOME! 
• As a member who made covenants at baptism and in the temple, I've invested my agency in Heavenly Father and in doing what He commands. Like a baseball player who is a free agent, we sign with a team and we follow the conditions listed in the contract. 

There was a ton of awesome stuff that was shared but the one thing that I got out of it was that the Lord is hastening His work! After we got back to our area, we tracted for a little bit before heading to dinner. While we were on our way to dinner, we were able to help out a couple move in a couch! Pretty sweet service opportunity. After dinner we tried some people before going over to the local frozen yogurt place and eating frozen yogurt while working on the ward list.

Wednesday morning found me at the Central Point Stake center doing a district leader training meeting with the leadership south of Grant's Pass. President Russell was there and there was additional training for us to do at district meeting. While we were eating lunch (President Russell bought us pizza), Elder Ellsworth found me and told us that him and Elder Berry had found a potential investigator! When the meeting was over we headed over to the high school to try and see some people but we didn't have much luck. We decided to go over to the La ***'s and talk to them about the Stur*** family and on the way over I hit a pole. Yup. I hit a pole. We took a short cut and I didn't hit a turn as sharp as I could have and slammed my handlebar into the pole. It did not feel good. After we talked to Sister La ***, we biked out to the freeway and tried to get in contact with a less active who lives at the far end of our area. We almost biked into White City haha! We contacted a few people before coming back to our neighborhood and tracting. We weren't able to get any return appointments with anyone but we had some interesting conversations with a Buddhist lady and a Methodist man! A member couple took us out to dinner and then took us over to the Huef***'s to do a family home evening with them.

Thursday morning we planned all morning and prepared ourselves for the week ahead. When we headed out for the day, I quickly found out that I was on the struggle bus! I forgot my bag halfway to Central Point East and then I almost wrecked bad! I survived though! We had to endure some rain so we ended up getting soaked by the time we got over to the east side of our area. We were able to talk to a sweet old less-active lady and we had a great conversation with her. While we were talking to her, we checked the time and realized that we would have to go straight to the Sta***'s for our lesson with Jay P. We somehow got there in time and we had a great lesson with him! We had the ward mission leader from when Jay was investigating the Church the first time and he said there was a ton of improvement since two years ago so that was pretty awesome. We had a lesson with Dana that went well and then we tried seeing some prospective elders and such before dinner with the Olf***'s. We had Olive Garden carry out and it was super good! We shared a message about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon mainly because Sister Olf***'s husband isn't a member so that was pretty sweet.

Friday we had district meeting. It was pretty much all reading from the new handbooks that we had received on Tuesday so it was pretty easy haha! We had a lesson with the potential investigator Elder Ellsworth and Elder Berry had found but our member bailed at the last minute and she wasn't home so it worked out. After we got home I did my first ever exchange as district leader! Elder Porter came to my area and we headed out to Central Point East in the rain. We had a good lesson with Mike and tried contacting people but no one was around. We walked back and tried contacting a former investigator over by the high school only to figure out that the previous elders hadn't put down a building number! We decided to knock on every #5 in the complex and we ended up talking to this Jehovah's Witness guy for a few minutes. Brother Idi*** came and took us home along with our dinner! It was super good! After feasting on the food, we walked over to the Sta***'s and did correlation to end the night.

Saturday we were over in Twin Creeks doing a service project for Brother Sta***. We were digging holes so the homeowners association could plant some bushes and such to beautify the area. While we were doing that, we had the opportunity to do another service project within a service project by helping a family move a dryer to the second floor of their home. We got back afterwards and cleaned up for our lesson with Adam only for him to tell us that his wife was sick so we had to cancel that appointment. We made contact with Brandon and that went ok haha! We got back to the apartment and exchanged back before doing more service! We helped a non-member man plant some rosebushes! We tracted for a little while after planting the rose bushes but we didn't have much luck. We headed over to Twin Creeks and tried contacting some formers but they had moved so we just headed to dinner haha! We had a great FHE with the Hu***'s and then helped out Brother Sta*** a little bit before he drove us home.

Sunday we had ward council in the morning. While we were in ward council, Angelo sent us a text and told us he was sick so they didn't come to church and we didn't have a lesson with them. After church we took a break since it was fast Sunday before heading to our lesson with Roxanne. She wasn't home so we tried seeing a couple people with Brother Sta***. We were able to talk to Brother Ro*** in this retirement complex and it went really well! We decided to try Roxanne one more time and she was home! We were able to help her overcome her concerns of Nephi killing Laban and she promised she would read the Book of Mormon! We had dinner with Brother Underw*** before our lesson with Brad. Unfortunately he wasn't home so we tried Joe and a couple of other people but no one was home. We ended our night updating our area books and syncing them up.

I love y'all so much! I know this church is true!

Love ya!
Elder Tonini
Do your duty, that is best. Leave unto the Lord the rest.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

First week as ze District Leader

Hey everyone!

So this was an interesting week!

Tuesday was my 20th birthday! We headed out to the stake center to go do new district leader training. We were right in the middle of the training when Sister Park walked in and dropped off a bunch of goodies for my birthday! It was super sweet. We had a couple of service projects lined up but they all fell through so we went to Mike Meadows and read Mosiah 5 with him. We saw the Heady's and his daughter has the same birthday! It was pretty cool haha. We had dinner at the Nichols before trying to see some less actives and a former investigator but they were not available so we went to the church and organized LDS Tools in a way that would be beneficial to us!

Wednesday was pretty good. We basically tried part member families all day but for the most part either they were not ready to come back to church or they were not home. We were able to talk to Brother Skin*** for a little while so that was pretty good. We were trying to figure out a place to go tracting and we decided to go to a place that I have felt we should go tract for a long time. We didn't have much success until we knocked on this one door about half way through. We met a lady named Cynthia and she took a Book of Mormon and said that we could come by in the next week or so! We are hoping to get into contact with her soon! We had a great dinner at the Pea***'s and then we visited some of the members to end our night.

Thursday we had weekly planning in the morning. We decided to give Jay Par*** a call to see if we could get something set up for that day and he finally answered! We got a lesson set up with him for later that afternoon. After lunch we headed out to the north part of the 'burbs and tried to visit some part-member families out there. While we were doing that, the zone leaders called us and asked us for progress records. Luckily I had the foresight to stick the two for us and Gold Hill in my bag so we biked over to the stake center and gave that to the zone leaders. We dropped our bikes off at the Stam*** and tried once more to visit some part member families. While we trying one part member on Taylor, we knocked on the door and a girl named Anna opened the door and told us the part member wasn't living there. However, she talked to us for a few minutes and she even took a pamphlet and a card with our number on it. We got back over to the Stam*** and we taught an awesome lesson with Jay! He had a lot of questions and we (along with the Stam*** help) were able to help answer his questions. We learned after the lesson that we had stake correlation that night and so I had to get dressed up for dinner and then for stake correlation. We had a great correlation and we were able to discuss a lot about how to help the stake progress. We then had ward correlation and we met Sister Lawrence's trainee for the first time!

Friday was my first ever district meeting! Yay!.... haha! I was super stressed about it but luckily it went well! We grabbed lunch at Subway and then we went over and taught Mike about the Great Apostasy and shared a video with him. We came back to our apartment and changed into service clothes to help Brother Stamps take care of Sister Winter's lawn. We made that lawn look good haha! After we changed back into proselyting clothes we went tracting on a street close by our apartment. We got peepholed a couple of times and we didn't have much luck. We the visited some of the more active members of the ward and also some part member families.

Saturday we tried to see some part member families and former investigators over in the Cherry St. Apartments. All the formers that we tried had moved out or were not home... so that was a major bummer. We decided to go tracting and we ran into a guy named Brandon. He was all tatted up and stuff but he was super open to what we had to say and told us that he was looking for a church for him and his daughter to start going to! We are hoping to start visiting with him starting tonight! As we kept tracting, we talked to a couple of people who said that we could stop by! It was super sweet. We taught Adam about the priesthood after lunch and that went well. We tried some less actives over in the west part of town and one of them opened the door and told us that she was going to the local non-denomination church in town and said that no one from "your church" had been by. So that was a bummer haha. We then saw Ken, a man who has dementia. He had no idea who we were but when we were walking outside, he tried to make an escape! Luckily the attendant was right there and closed the door before he could leave. We then saw another less active with brain issues and we were able to establish a good connection with him. We ended the night with Papa Murphy's pizza and root beer!

Sunday we had ward council in the morning and it went really well. The ward council put some good input into the ward mission plan so that was good. We had a great sacrament meeting but only Angelo and Spencer came. We were hoping for Brandon and his daughter but they did not come. After church we tried to meet up with Angelo and Spencer but they had to cancel last second so we just went home and had lunch. We went tracting after lunch and we had some funny things said to us. This guy accused us of trying to sell stuff to him and said that we don't know what soliciting was haha! Pretty hilarious! We headed back over to the church so I could do my first ever baptismal interview! It was pretty awesome! Nicolas is a kid getting baptized over in Gold Hill and he is dead ready to get baptized! We had a great dinner at the Thurman's and then Brad bailed on us. That stunk. However, we were able to get over to the Crowe's and we were able to share a message of the Atonement so that was awesome!

Well I love all of you! Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! You are the best!

Love y'all! There is no doubt that this church is true!

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

Happy New Years!

Hey everyone!

I hope y'all had a great New Years! This has been a good week for us despite the holidays!

Monday was transfer day. We had a couple of hours in the morning before we were to be at the transfer spot with the other Elders so we helped out the Central Point 1st and Gold Hill Elders get ready for the transfer. Each of those companionships had one Elder leaving! Luckily, Elder Galloway and I were staying together so that was good. After transfers, we did grocery shopping and I finally got my haircut! It was a pretty solid day despite transfers!

Tuesday we tried to do some service tracting but no one was out-and-about due to the cold and when we talked to people they just shut us down. We then tried to contact people all afternoon but we got nothing... That was a huge bummer because we had some high hopes for the day!

Wednesday was New Year's Eve! We had a solid service project lined up with an investigator but he had to cancel because of the cold weather so we went with the Gold Hill Elders to go help them with a service project that was close to our area. After we cleaned up, we tried seeing a couple of people but no one was around to hear our message. We had a great dinner with a couple of members and we played Skip-Bo afterwards! The two ladies that were there just dominated all of us! It was quite embarrassing to say the least! However, I was able to win the last round! Huzzah! I didn't get swept by the two elderly sisters in Skip-Bo! We came back to the apartment and played some games to finish the night. We didn't sleep well that night because our neighbors or the people around us were popping off some big fireworks!

Thursday we were up early to go play some basketball with the zone. It was a great way to start off the New Year! The Gold Hill Elders hung out with us before we went to the stake center and watched "The Lego Movie"! It was funny that this was my third time watching this movie while most of the missionaries hadn't seen it haha! I was quoting from the movie (quietly of course) and it was pretty great haha! Elder Galloway and I couldn't stick around to help clean up because we had an appointment set up with Jay P. I had my doubts that he had remembered the appointment (we had set up the appointment two weeks prior and we had no way to contact him). When we showed up at the complex he is living in, there he was with his Bible and Triple combination opened and ready! We had a pretty awesome lesson! He had a couple of questions about Sabbath day worship and scriptures in the Bible that foretell the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. We were able to answer his questions through scriptures and the knowledge we had and that satisfied him! The best part of the lesson was when he brought up baptism and coming to church! Although we were not able to put him on date to be baptized, we feel that the Spirit is working hard in him and he knows deep down that this was the path for him. We had a lesson with Jay H. before dinner. The family feed us deep fried food! Oh man, it was like being back in Texas!

Friday was an interesting day! We had some tentative appointments set up but they fell through. We had planned on biking over the interstate to the other side of our area so after lunch we geared up and headed out on bikes. It only took a few seconds for things to start going wrong! As we were going, I noticed that my left pedal wasn't as smooth as the right pedal. I pulled over and I realized that my crank bar was coming loose! We were heading over to an area where we had members who could fix the problem so we kept moving. We were approaching the Sonic driveway and Elder Galloway was about seven feet or so in front of me. As he crossed the Sonic driveway, a lady in the turn lane shot the gap...into the same driveway I was in the process of crossing! Luckily, I had enough distance between myself and the car to slam on my brakes and avoid a collision (although I still kinda fell a little!). These two elderly ladies who had been waiting for me to cross in front of them rolled down their window and asked me if I was okay! Thankfully I was and we were able to make our way over to Central Point East. We were able to read an Ensign article with Mike and help him with some things that he couldn't do. He lives in a care home(?) with three other people who aren't able to take care of themselves. We had recently learned that another member of the Church had moved in so after we saw Mike we tried to see her but she was super sick so we couldn't see her. When we left the care home, we went by the member who fixes bikes but he wasn't home! Luckily for us, there was a member family who lived not too far from where we were so we left our bikes there and got a ride from Brother Whit***. We shared a message with Dana before dinner. Since we both still don't know very many members in the ward, we spent our night contacting the members we had no idea who they were!

Saturday Elder Galloway had district leader training in the morning so we spent our morning walking over to the church and talk about how he and the other district leaders can be better district leaders. We had a lesson with Adam about looking forward towards the future over cranberry juice, pineapple, and cheesy bread. We had a lesson set up for 2:00 with a potential investigator but she texted us about an hour before saying she was getting ready to take her daughter to Portland for surgery! Although it was a bummer, the investigator asked us to pray for her daughter so I guess that is a good sign that she recognizes the power of prayer! We had another lesson set up with Larry but he got super busy and never texted us back to tell us he was busy... so we ended up just trying to contact people before dinner! After dinner we were walking around Central Point and a man came up to us and said that he just moved into the ward and wanted to know when church was! It was pretty great timing for us to be there to help this brother out!

Sunday we had ward council bright and early in the morning! Thanks to the new year, our ward meets at 9! I was just starting to get adjusted to afternoon church! We had an awesome ward council! The ward is planning on doing an emergency preparedness fair that involves zombies! It is going to be awesome. Unfortunately, I probably won't be around for it since it won't happen until October. We had a great fast and testimony meeting. Right before Gospel Principles started, a man who comes all the time but isn't a member gave us his phone number and said he has some questions for us! We are pretty excited for the opportunity to help this brother out! After church, we waited and waited for Angelo and Spencer to show but they didn't... Although it was disappointing that we weren't able to teach them, we received news that Angelo is going to do whatever it takes to get baptized so we will see what happens! We had a huge break the fast dinner with Bishop and his whole immediate family! Oh man there was some good food! After stuffing myself with delicious food, we went out and set up some appointments with members for family home evenings. Along the way, we knocked on a couple of doors but no one was interested.

That was our week! Although we had a holiday in the middle of our week, we had a pretty decent week. One thing though that stuck out to me was our lesson with Jay P. Someone told him that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints doesn't believe in the Book of Revelations. I don't know how anyone can say that when Revelation 14:6 says:

"And I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people".

I am forever grateful for this gospel! There is no doubt!

I love y'all! Have a great week!

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

Oh look! I can see Christmas from here!

Hey everyone!

Monday was P-Day! We decided to go window shopping at the mall just to change things up a bit. After we did that and had lunch, we went to the stake center to email and play some basketball. We had dinner around 5:30 and then head off to a FHE we were doing with the Elder Quorum's president and his family. That pretty much finished up our night!

Tuesday was super slow! We had temple service in the morning and this time it did not involve digging out bushes! The sister that guides us had brought a whole bunch of fresh dirt and we unloaded it in the opposite corner of where all the dirt was. It was a pain to do so because the grass was still pretty wet and it made pushing a wheelbarrow a workout! We then loaded the debris from last week into the back of the truck where the dirt was before. We did some Facebook at the church before heading on home to shower and eat lunch. We had a pretty full afternoon set up but we weren't really able to get in and see anybody except for Gene. He was a referral from the sisters that we had talked to once before but only at the doorstep. This time, right as we were about to knock on the door, he opened it up and let us in! Although we were only able to talk to him for a few short minutes, we were able to invite him to the ward Christmas party and get to know to him! We had dinner at the Nad***'s and it was a super fun time! From riding on scooters to Sprite being spilt everywhere, it made for a great dinner! And, as a bonus, we had some AWESOME steak! We went over to the deVill****'s for a Family home evening and that went great! We had a lot of great insight from Adonis, the family's recently returned missionary from Brazil! Elder Galloway did an interview for the Gold Hill elders at the end of the night.

Wednesday wasn't as slow as Tuesday was but was still pretty slow! We tried seeing a couple of our potential investigators in the north part of our area but neither one of them was home. However, we were able to talk to two of the other potential's we had planned on seeing and we were able to give them an invitation to the ward Christmas party. After lunch, pretty much nothing went as planned. No one was home and we had a couple of appointments fall through so we spent most of our afternoon tying to find people to talk to! Right before dinner, Brother Huef*** asked us if we could help him with a blessing for a member in the ward and we gladly accepted. The member has a ton of faith, as he is suffering huge problems resulting from diabetes. It was humbling to be a part of that wonderful blessing. We then tried to share a message with the Cole***'s but we were only able to share an invitation with them about the ward Christmas party.

Thursday we had good ol' weekly planning in the morning. After lunch we had several lessons set up and we were super stoked to teach them! However, Jay H. wasn't really able to talk to us because he was running behind on some errands and other plans so we were only able to talk to him for a few minutes. However, we were able to share a "Joy to The World" DVD with him and he said he would watch it! Since we had a little time before our next lesson, we decided to go try a less-active named John. As we were heading over there, we saw a man holding a garbage can about 30 yards ahead of us. We made eye contact and, just to be polite, we raised our hands in greeting and he yelled "No thank you!"! Haha it was quite a laugh considering we were just waving to him! John wasn't interested in seeing us so we headed over to Jay P.'s retirement home (complex?) for our lesson with him and Brother Stamps. We got there and we waited.... and waited...and waited...and waited. Jay P. was no where to be seen! Finally, we went to the front and found Brother Stamps talking to another member of the Church that lived in that building. As we tried to figure out our plan of action, Jay P. found us! As it turns out, we had our times wrong and he thought we were 30 minutes late while we thought we were right on time! Because of this mishap, we were only able to talk to him a few short minutes about he had read since our last visit. He told us that he had read the whole Restoration pamphlet and he said that he felt like it was true! It was so cool to hear him say that! We read the introduction to the Book of Mormon with him and then left him Joseph Smith's First vision to read. Although he says he won't be baptized anytime soon, I feel that he is a lot closer than he realizes to making those steps! We saw a couple of less active members after Jay and then had a wonderful dinner with the Froelich's. The reason it was so great was that they gave Elder Galloway and I a lot of good information and tips about college and work! It was good to hear these pointers, especially since I have no idea what I want to do when I go back to school! After dinner we tried seeing a couple of people but we didn't have much success so we Facebooked before correlation!

Friday we had district meeting in the morning. We had a great lesson from Elder Galloway about the "Book of Mormon POWER LESSON"! It was a great teaching moment and I took a lot away from it. At the end of our district meeting, some of the members came in and sang "Mary did you know"! It was a beautiful rendition and it was a great way to end district meeting. After a short presentation from the zone leaders and while we were talking with some of the other missionaries in our zone, a man who lived in the Central Point 1st ward boundary came in and said he wanted to be baptized! It took the 1st ward elders by surprise and all of us as well! After lunch we did an exchange and Elder Porter was my companion for a day in my area! With it raining pretty heavily, we decided to walk around. It gave us a chance to talk and really get to know one another so that was pretty awesome. We were able to share a Christmas message with Brother Meadows. It brought a smile to my face seeing him talk about going home to his brother for Christmas! We tried contacting an investigator that I haven't had a chance to meet yet but he was not available. After dinner we had a FHE with the Severson's to get them pumped up about doing missionary work as members! It went really well for the most part haha! We managed to set up a time with Angelo and his son Spencer to talk about taking the missionary lessons, which is a complete miracle since they are always super busy! Afterwards we tried doing some Facebook tracting to end our night.

Saturday we had the opportunity to help out at the Calvary Temple Food Pantry. We exchanged back before lunch so Elder Galloway and I could head over to the Medford pear farm to help out a member in the ward. The pear farm had a new gas line put in and we ended up pulling rocks out of the stickiest clay I have ever been in! At the end of it all, Elder Galloway and I had over 15 pounds of clay stuck to each boot! I hadn't gotten that dirty in a very long time! We helped unload the rocks at Brother Heady's father's home and went back to the apartment to get ready for the ward Christmas party. The meal was unusual for me to have at a ward Christmas party; we had soup and bread in place of ham and potatoes and salad. Despite the meal change, we were able to sit with Angelo and his family and talk to them about the missionary discussions (the mother and 11 year old are already baptized) and see if we could start it with them. Spencer was all for it and wants to be baptized! Sweet! We are so excited to start teaching them in the upcoming weeks!

Sunday was pretty interesting! We thought we were going to have ward council in the morning but as we waited for what felt like forever, we realized that Bishop and most of the ward council were out of town! So we sat there at the church for an hour and a half waiting for our sacrament meeting! Thank goodness for iPad's to read Ensign articles! While we were sitting there, a little kid from the Gold Hill ward climbed up into a chair and pulled the fire alarm! Oh man it was pretty crazy watching people scramble out of the chapel to go outside! Fortunately the bishopric got it figured out and the sacrament resumed. We had an AMAZING Christmas program and we had Angelo and Spencer there for it so that was awesome. After church we headed to dinner on foot and enjoyed the unusual warm weather! We shared a lesson with Brad and although we had a great lesson, he went on a tangent about what is going on with homeless vets and the situations with cops and stuff. All we could do was nod and agree since we do not discuss politics haha!

Alrighty, I love all of y'all so much! I am so grateful for the wonderful Christmas spirit that is in the air and I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ. I can't believe this is my first Christmas on the mission! And I get to Skype home! AH I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Until next week! Next week is transfers week so just be careful of that if you are sending any mail to me via my address instead of the mission office address. More than likely I will be staying but who knows but the Lord!

I love ya! There is no doubt!

Elder Jacob R. Tonini
Sent from my iPad

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

Hey everyone!

We had a pretty solid week that had a lot of good adventures in it!

Week Five of this transfer found us in the shop waiting for our car to be fixed (a recall on one of the axles). It took us three hours to before they pulled it out and told us they fixed it but the check engine light came on so we have to go back in today! We went back to Philomath and set up an appointment with John and then we set out to talk to Stan. We knocked and he was home! After talking for a little bit and watching a spider try to kill a huge fly, we helped him unload wood from his truck and after he let us in and we taught him a little bit. Tears were shed (not by us) and the Spirit was there! We just hope we can get him to come to church!

Tuesday we went tracting some apartments and we ran into a former investigator who wants us to come by again! We also got some referrals from some non-members so that was pretty sweet as well! We also helped Ben move a washer and dryer into his home. That night, we were out walking and we ran into David (or "God" as he calls himself; he isn't quite there) and he was pretty angry at Brad Pitt for marrying his sweetheart, Angelina Jolie! He had a pen in his hand and the smell of alcohol was evident, so I was worried he would snap and do something with that pen on himself!! Haha pretty crazy. We them set up an appointment with a guy named Mike whose wife is a member but he isn't so we hope we can get him on the path!

Wednesday was probably our most slowest day. We went and contacted some less actives and went tracting but we didn't see much success, but we did plant some seeds!

Ok so I fibbed a little bit. Thursday was pretty slow too! We did our weekly planning and then hit the streets for a good chunk of the day! We did go talk to Birdy and catch up with her so that was great!

Friday was awesome! We helped out with setting up tents for the Corvallis Fall Festival before district meeting. After district meeting, we had district lunch before heading back to Philomath. We went tracting on a street that Elder West felt prompted to go on and the first guy opened his door and told us we were wasting our time. Nice. Down the street however we knocked on this lady's door and she took a Book of Mormon and had a lot of questions about youth programs and the Book of Mormon! It was sweet!! We then picked up another potential and met with a less active named JR. We decided to save miles and bike out to JR's. Well, there are several huge hills and we both almost died! But we made it and it made for a sweet ride coming down! We also talked to a guy named Kyle and he had a lot of respect for us and told us we were changing America!

Saturday we went to Lobster Valley and had dinner and a lesson with the Bradburys. Along the way, we talked to some less actives, some who were pretty angry at the church and some who just had to work a ton.

Sunday we drove out to Eugene to see PeeWee get baptized! He was one of Elder Wests investigators and we got permission to go down and see him get baptized. The Spirit was so strong there! He was so happy and his wife was pretty happy to, considering she had been waiting two years for that moment!

I love you all so much. Thank you for all the support you have given me! I feel like David going up against Goliath some days. David went into battle with what he knew to fight Goliath and he came out on top. I might not be the best at scriptures or stuff like that, but I have a testimony of this church and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I love being a missionary!

Love you all!

Elder Tonini