email: July 30, 2012

Isn't going to teach with the missionaries the best? That means sooooo much to them to have you go out with them to teach. Coming from a missionary, I know how much that means to them! I felt that way and not wanting to go out with them but now I really regret not doing it more often! Let me know how that couple does! I love hearing how much success y'all are seeing out there. Tell those Elders to keep the work going!

This week was a very dull week. Our teaching pool has shrunk and we hardly have anyone to teach. And when we do set something up, it falls through. We are supposed to teaching 20 lessons a week and we are only getting seven to ten... However, we are not letting that get us down. We spend a lot of time tracting and talking to people. On Monday, we went to a regional park with Robert and his family to go play disc golf. We spent all day there with them. After that, we went and taught Victor that night the new member lessons. He is making so much progress. He comes over every morning to workout with me. That is helping me so much to get into the habit of getting up on time.

Tuesday was DDM day and that took FOREVER. We didn't start it until almost noon when it was supposed to start at 10 AM. After that, it was another day filled with tracting. We talked to as many people as we could. We did teach Victor again though and we taught him about Preach My Gospel and how he can use it. He is thirsting for knowledge that we can't keep him fed for long!

Wednesday was another day FILLED with tracting. That is what I feel like we do all the time now. We did have a pretty funny experience while we were out knocking doors. We knocked on this one door and this teenage girl came out and we started to talk to her and invited her to hear out the gospel. She wasn't interested and neither was anyone else in the house so we moved on. That house was on the corner of a circle so we went and knocked the rest of those doors. When we got to the opposite side of that house, these two girls come out of the garage and flag us down. They said they wanted to talk to us so, naturally, we went over there to talk to them. Come to find out, the girl that we talked to at that door step wanted Elder Larson's number and thought that he was super hot! Only problem is that 1) we are missionaries and 2) she has so many piercings all over her face, even some in her gums! We told them that we can't date and they responded with "you guys can't even hook up?!" SUPER AWKWARD! They even asked for our number but we didn't give it to them. We did though explain who we are and what we do. It opened my eyes in knowing that I am apparently not attractive! Oh well :). After that, we taught the M**** family again and the kids taught us the Plan of Salvation. They knew it surprisingly well! After that, we taught Victor again. He is such a stud!

On Thursday, we had Richie come over and we taught him about Preach My Gospel. We went over the first lesson with him and started to get him ready to go on a mission. He is only 17 but it doesn't hurt to starting learning the discussions. That is one thing I did right before my mission. Learning the discussions helped SO much to prepare to go into the mission field. After our lesson, we went and ate lunch with Vic at the Sandwich Stoppe again. We went and tracted after lunch and dinner.

Friday was our weekly planning day. We had some lessons set up but AGAIN they all fell through... We did teach a lesson to the family that we were having dinner with so that helped. After that, we walked around and talked to people. We are trying so hard to find new people to teach. I really hope that the Lord is seeing our efforts and will put someone in our path.

On Saturday, we went to the swap meet here in Beaumont. I was AMAZED at how much stuff was there! We OYMed people and I got a few stuff. I lost Jake's knife when I crashed one day... So I needed to get a new one. I got this super sick black knife for super cheap! I also got a new CD case because I needed one pretty bad. I didn't spend that much at all and got some good stuff! All of our lessons that we had planned fell through... All we did was tract. Tracting is becoming a common theme here now!

Sunday was really good. We had a new family talk at Sacrament meeting and they blew me away! The wife is a convert to the church and she used to be Buddhist! She is Vietnamese and her study was incredible. They have such an awesome family. They actually just moved here from Fort Stockton, Texas! We talked a ton about Texas and all the AWESOME things there. I love my mission and California but nothing matches the standard of Texas! One kind of depressing news, Kim and Karen dropped us... They aren't ready to claim a religion right now. That was super discouraging but I cannot let it affect my work. I will keep on trucking and working my guts out. We then went and talked with Robert and his family. We didn't teach but we set something up to teach them this week!

That's all the news from Beaumont! I love the shirt stays, they work awesomely along with the insoles. They work wonders on my feet. My old ones had NO support so walking is now super comfy. Dad, they are shirt stays and not garters! And that room we painted pink was for someone else in the community, not our own apartment! However, we did give our apartment a SUPER good cleaning. It looks amazing now. If I can learn how to stay clean and not be a slob, I will save my future wife SO much grief!

Sure do love y'all! Have a wonderful week and cannot wait to hear from y'all next week!

Elder Tonini