email: November 5, 2012

Subj: It was a good week!

Corina told me about a missionary experience that she had and I was beaming from ear to ear! I love that sister of mine. I gave her some stuff to read up on so hopefully she will do that. Jacob is so funny, I love how excited he is about college! He is going to do so well there. He really wants one of my extra suits that I have. The only thing I am worried about is him being able to fit it. Speaking of that, I have only put on 9 lbs since I left for my mission! That is pretty exciting. Hard work does pay off. On the topic of hard work, here was my week!

On Monday we had FHE with Carol at her house. The Pratt's came as well and their nephew tagged along. Come to find out, he knows the Romney's in Prosper, Texas! Uncle Kimball was his Priest Quorum adviser when they were in the same ward. He sent a picture of us to Nicole and talked to Aunt Heidi as well. He leaves on his mission in 2 weeks so it was good to see him. Our PDay was filled with the usual.

I was able to get my country fix with Austin on Tuesday when we went and helped him buck some hay for his landlord. We used the hooks and everything. It was fun, I actually felt like I was back home in Seminole! We had to cut that short because we had a lesson with our new investigator, Archie. We found three new investigators this week! Pretty awesome when you work as hard as you can for the Lord. It truly is His work here! Austin then took us out to Tacos and Beer to eat :). We seriously eat there at least once a week. The Carne Asada fries with a Carne Asada quesadilla is the bomb! We had dinner a few hours after that so that was kinda miserable. Janie and Corinna both canceled on us again... So we went home teaching with Victor. We got milkshakes afterwards at Baker's.

We never finished that truckload of hay with Austin so we went back and helped him again on Wednesday. We were machines! It was so much fun, we got dirty and nasty but it was so worth it. After bucking, we went and had lunch with Sister O'Harra and some of her employees. We went to Chili's together and talked a lot about the mission. I also found out some interesting news about Mary! She met one of the Mission Presidency and he was so excited to finally meet her. Apparently, her conversion story has gone viral in the mission. President Crippen wants her to meet with an Ensign writer and get her's and Tammy's (her daughter) story in the Ensign. I am going to be in the ENSIGN! I was so excited, she is awesome. She actually went in to the hospital this past week with super high blood pressure but she is okay now. We then taught the M***** family with their neighbor Ashely there. Hopefully we can get her as a new investigator. It was Halloween so we stopped working at 6 pm and went to the zone activity. I played volleyball with a few Polynesians and they were super good! It was a lot of fun. I got to see Elder Faka'Osi and Bingham!

Thursday we went and helped out Stan D** all morning. We helped him spread shavings in the chicken coop and get his quad up and running. While we were in the coop, he has these white pigeons that decided to do a fly by right over my head as I was trying to spread out the shavings. It was a lot of fun. The quad got up and running but because it had been sitting for a long time, it needed to get the carb cleaned out. Our sink got clogged and so the guy came to fix it. That took all afternoon... but we still talked to 20 people! That night, we went and taught Jacob B**** at his grandmother's house. She is already a member and she has tried to get his father to let him take lessons and he finally said yes! Since his name was Jacob, I felt like I was teaching my own brother. When we first started the lesson, his head was down and didn't seem to be paying attention. However, by the end he was fully engaged and he could really feel the spirit. Afterward, he asked if I could give him a blessing. I grabbed him by the shoulder and said "now, you are going to really feel the power of the priesthood." I had no idea on what was going on in his life but the Spirit gave me the words to say. It really hit him hard and he felt the Spirit so strongly. I gave him a hug and told him that I loved him and everything will be okay. I love being a priesthood holder and having those opportunities!

We had ZDM and went to go teach Janie. Before we went, we stopped in GNC to check things out. I ended up buying a blender that was on sale. It was such a good investment! I used it today and it was awesome. After that, we went to Janie's with Victor. She is SOOOOO ready to get baptized! We taught her the commandments to get baptized. I crushed up her last pack of cigarettes! It felt sooo good to do that. I seeing people make those changes in their life. We then went and taught Sister Ethel M*****. She is awesome! Victor took us up to the W*****'s to get some pre-workout that he ordered. Chris W***** told him to eat an Argentine lemon to get his $25 dollars back. He ate it and he went nuts! It was so funny. But he did get his $25. I ate part of a Naga Ghost Chili. That is the hottest chili in the world! It wasn't full strength but it was good. I ended up eating a full one on Sunday. It was good but super hot!



Well, that's about it from here. Send my love to Romney's and I hope Grandma will get better. That worries me about Mandy... I wish I was there to help her. Stu is awesome! And the Sterzer's are having a baby girl?! That is awesome! Send me their address so I can write them? I love you all and happy birthday Momma! I love you! And happy birthday to Dad and Corina as well. I love y'all!

Elder Tonini