email: February 25, 2013

SUBJ: SMILE BACK!

I am so excited that Jake got accepted into BYU! I seriously could not stop smiling whenever I read that he made it in. I am so proud of him; I am proud of all my siblings! They are such wonderful young men and woman. We wouldn't be the way we are if it wasn't for y'all as parents so I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your two amazing examples and parenting. I am glad to hear that Dad spent the weekend at home; everyone needed to have him home. I miss my Dad... But I have good fatherly figures here in the mission to try and fill that void. Grandpa Baugh is doing a wonderful job, I love that family so much. It was like Grandpa Tonini is still here, living through Brother Baugh to help me through my struggles as a missionary.

We received some exciting news this week: the Church is opening a new mission here in our area and we are going to be losing Redlands. It is all in the Church News, but the details are unclear on what exactly is going to happen. Enough rambling, here was the low down on my week.

On Tuesday, it poured rain again! We worked in the cold rain all day. #WifePoints. We planned to see some people and they all actually went through. We went and dropped in on Karina and got in to teach a lesson to her. She told us that she has been reading the Book of Mormon every night and she has noticed a difference in her life since she has started doing that. It was really cool to see how her countenance has changed just in the few weeks we have known her. She is terrible at keeping appointments but it's okay, we will work through that. We then stopped by a less active that sister told us that we needed to go see. She welcomed us in and we gave her a blessing and talked with her for a while. She talked about her problems and her life and her hardships. Being a missionary, you kind of become a therapist for people haha. We gave her a blessing and then she showed us her smart car. Oh my goodness, it was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. She had it custom done: Lambo doors, dual exhaust, alloy wheels to match the paint job, and a convertible. It was ridiculous but super sick! We handed off Samoan ward to Elder Randall and Coleman so we did that as well. We have really good missionaries here in MoVal, even though we are down a companionship.

Wednesday was a good day for us too. We prayed about who we needed to go see and they actually all went through. We went and saw a less active family and taught them a brief lesson. The mother is actually coming back to church now so that has been a plus. After that, we went and saw a recent convert that is a part member family. Brother C*** was baptized in October of last year and he is the only member of his family. We have his family the harvest blessing and it went super well. His son-in-law opened up right to us and wanted to hear what we had to say. There is very good potential there and we are going to be back there to try and see the family. The St*****'s are always a wonderful family to visit. The husband isn't a member, he's an eternal investigator, but we see a lot of potential in him as well. People in the ward don't think so but we see it.

Oh my goodness, I had the most intimidating experience on Thursday night. We usually go to the stake Missionary Correlation Meeting every 3rd Thursday of the month to talk about the work in the zone. Well, the high councilor over missionary work wasn't going to be there so he asked us to lead the training to the ward mission leaders. So I was already intimidated about trained men Dad's age or older, but then President Smart [the mission president] walks in to the meeting. I gave training with President Smart there. I have honestly never been that nervous on my mission, in regards to speaking in front of people. It went well but dang, it was scary!

We had the funniest experience on Friday at a door. We went to see a referral from the ZL's in Riverside that they had found. It was supposed to be a 17 year old girl that lived in our area. Come to find out, she didn't live in our area but we drove there anyways so we knocked on the door. We talked to this CRAZY guy. He at first, offered to give us $20 then went on to say how someone cast out 38 demons outta him for $35 outside of Disneyland. He kept talking to us and invited us inside we came in to the home and did it stink. It smelt like really bad weed and cat. He went on to say that he tried to commit suicide 12 times but doesn't remember any of it and how he has found this new plant that will save 250,000 people out of the 300,000 in the world. He also told us that he hadn't been the same since he jumped off the interstate overpass. The entire time, he was holding a blunt. There were so many drugs going on that it was super sad. It sure made for a good story! We then handed it off to the other Elders and didn't tell them about what happened. Super funny.

Ever heard of Marvin Goldstein and Vanessa Joy? They came and sang and played for us this weekend. It was super cool to hear them speak and perform. Check them out, they are really good! I actually would like a CD by Sister Joy, it is called By and By (I think). They were so much fun to listen to and to talk to. Sister Joy can sing! Holy cow, it was amazing. We had one of our investigators go with us so we could go and see them perform :). I then burned my shirt for my hump day and some pictures of my past. I have let it go, it is done. It was weird but relieving.

It was a busy week but all is well. I love y'all so much! Thank you for all the support and love. Till next week.

Elder Tonini