Mom,
Sounds like things are going very well back
home, things are busy and everyone is happy. Happiness is a choice and I am so
glad that y'all are making the choice to be happy. I have had my ups and downs
this week but I am always trying to be happy, no matter how much I have on my
mind. I keep thinking of President Shummway's blessing and the promise he gave
to me. I intend to make that promise become reality and that everything I go
through will be all worth it in the end.
We finally hit 200 miles on the bike this week. We have had a really busy week, from flat tires to inviting people to the waters of baptism, we have done it all. The work is finally starting to come around. We now have ten investigators! We invited Mary to be baptized and she is going to work on achieving that goal on May 6th. She is such a sweetheart, she is my mother away from my own mother. She is going to continue to go to church and learn more so she can be ready for the waters of baptism. We are going to help her as much as we can to get her ready to make that first step.
We got five new investigators this week and they have kept us busy. One of the families that we found has a really cool story behind it. Elder Chambers and I were out tracting when we knocked on this one door and a Hispanic lady answered. She at first said she wasn't interested in what we had to say then she started to open up and told us that her mother and mother-in-law have cancer. We told her we would come back with a Spanish Plan of Salvation pamphlet for her; that was two weeks ago. We went by last Tuesday to drop off the pamphlet but she wasn't there so we gave it to her brother. After dinner, we stopped by to see if she had gotten it. Her husband answered the door. We explained who we are and he invited us in. We ended up teaching the Plan of Salvation to them and gave them a Book of Mormon. On Saturday, we came back to see them and they shocked us; they were reading the Book of Mormon together and really talking about it. What really impressed me was that all week Demitrius (the husband) listened to talk radio on the way to work and all they talked about was how there are things out there that disprove the Book of Mormon. The adversary is working really hard on him and boy does that make me mad! It goes to show that the adversary is really real. Anyways, that didn't faze him and he still kept reading and asked us why people are so hard about the Book of Mormon. We told him it is because the Book of Mormon is they way for people to know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is really Christ's church. Our lesson of the Restoration was a bomb and we invited them to come to church with us. They said they would be there and that they are going to keep on reading. On Sunday, only Demitrius showed up because his wife, Jessica, got sun burnt very badly and wasn't feeling well so she stayed home with her two kids. Demetrius looked so fresh in his suit that he wore! He is a Marine and he cleans up VERY well. We even got him to stay for all three hours of church! After church he told us why he came just by himself even though his family couldn't go. About a week ago, he was thinking and he told himself that he was going to find a church to take his family to. He kept putting it off and putting it off until one day when he was driving home from work, he prayed and promised God that he would go to church that week. He didn't know what church to go to but he is going and then we knocked on his door and we invited him to come to church so he kept his promise and came. NOTHING ever happens by chance. It wasn't by chance that we found the Passmore family or Mary or anyone else who we have found. The Lord truly knows us better than we do, I know that for a fact.
After our lesson with the Passmore's, we came back to teach a family that we tracted into on Friday afternoon. We talked to Andre and he said that he would want us to come back and that his girlfriend would be very interested in hearing what we had to say. So we came back on Saturday but he was leaving when we pulled up. He told us to come back in half an hour and he sound be home from the store. We rode around, talking to people, trying to be effective while we waited for Andre to come back home. At 5 we rode by the house but didn't see his car outside on the driveway. We were about to ride off when his girlfriend's son opened the door and yelled at us to come in. Trya is the mom and she was so so intersted to hear what we have to say. She is good friends with some recent converts and she has been wanting to hear from us for a while. We taught them the Restoration and they asked a lot of questions about the Church. They asked if black people were shunned in the church (they are a black family) and we told them HECK NO! We ended up giving them TWO copies of the Book of Mormon so that they can read as a family. They are an amazing family and they really want to change their lives for the better and turn to Christ. They even have a picture of Him on their wall! I know that they have been prepared to hear the gospel, otherwise they wouldn't be wanting to hear so much about it.
On a funnier note, we came up to this house on Sunday and saw two men outside. One was sitting on the steps and the other one was face flat on the walkway up to the porch. We talked to the man sitting on the steps and asked him if he needs any help. He told us that he needs to get his friend in the house. Come to find out, the guy was passed out drunk! We tried to lift him but lifting 250 pounds of dead weight is impossible. We walked away shaking our heads because it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon and that guy was passed out drunk. I also got a flat tire on Sunday... But thankfully one of the members was able to slime it and fix the flat. I got a thorn from taking a shortcut to get to the other side of our area. Goodness, I love riding my bike every day! Oh and I have fallen in love with a new sport: disk golf! We went last PDay with a less-active member of the church and we are going with him again today. His wife isn't a member and is now opening up to us teaching because we are building a great relationship with that family.
Being a missionary is awesome, I love it! It is so hard but it's the launching pad for the rest of my life as well as the people I have and will meet. I love you and keep me in your thoughts and prayers as we start to have people hopefully coming into the waters of baptism!
Your Missionary Son,
Elder Tonini
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