email: September 2, 2013

Are you ready for my week? Let's go!

Last P-Day was uneventful. We played some basketball and I played some baseball so that was refreshing. I was pretty tired after that so I came home and went to bed. I love naps so much haha. Our lesson with the S****'s was... Interesting. Ross St****, my recent convert, was over there with Sister S****. She's single and so is he and so it was weird to see them together. However, he made it clear to me that they are just friends and nothing else. Still, it was weird having him there with us. He said the prayer to start the lesson off and he started by saying "Father God" in his prayer. Oh goodness, Elder Child was about to have a fit. Then Ross kept telling stories so that lesson took forever. It was a very interesting lesson to say the least. We got OYMs and then ran home.

We had a good DLC on Tuesday. We talked a lot about what the zone needs and how best we can help them get better. DDM went well, I am getting tired of training though... I am running out of topics to train on. We won't have a DDM this week due to zone meeting on Friday. We had lunch and then went out to find people. We have made a lot of visits this week and we haven't seen much success from it yet. But that's what the work is all about anyways. Dinner was with the Ste***'s and that is always fun to eat with them. The husband is a high councilor and so I tell him all the time that he is going inactive on us haha. We did see the G****'s that night though and it was good to see how well they are doing. All they have done this week is look for apartments so that they don't have to go to Barstow to a homeless shelter up there. But hopefully we can help them out with that. We saw a potential part-member family (PMF) and we talked to the non-member husband and tried to commit him to sit in on our lesson with his wife. He was flaky but we tried.

Wednesday felt very similar to Tuesday. More and more visits... We talked with everyone trying to find people to teach and to baptize. We did see a man by the name of Rex B**** who is one the ward mission process. We had tried to meet with him for forever and we finally did. He's got a few people he is working with but not willing to push them to come meet with us. That is super frustrating. I have come to realize that I am going to be the best member missionary ever. I don't care what people think about me anymore. If they don't want to be a friend of mine because I tried to share the gospel with them then that’s too bad. Something kind of cool happened on the way out to the car from Rex's. There was a woman walking down the God-forsaken road that he lives on and I decided to talk to her. I got talking to her and come to find out, she is originally from Katy, Texas! Small world sometimes. I tried to get over there and to talk to her in her home but she just moved there and didn't know her address so it that was a non-starter... But it was cool to see that happen. Dinner was at the V**** home and it is always a ball when we go over there. Brother and Sister V**** are literally best friends and they give each other a hard time all the time. It is super funny to sit at the table and listen to them tease each other. It's super funny. I want my relationship with my spouse to be like that. Maybe not to the extreme like theirs but it is still super funny. That night, we walked Florida again and talked to some CRAZY people. There's an old school rap song that I heard one time and it says that the freaks come out at night. Very true in Hemet!

Thursday started by going over to Mary's home and tried to get in to teach her non-member husband but come to find out, things are NOT going well for them right now. They are distancing each other and it is not good. So that was kind of a bust... After that, we ran to the Elders’ house in Park Hill to pick them up to go eat some DQ. We had a good talk. Elder Smith is from Farmington New Mexico and so we have a lot of the same ideals and theory's. BFFLs [Best Friends For Life]! Hahaha. Plus I love Elder Tayofa. He is super fun and we have a good time during lunch haha. We continued to look for people but no luck... We had our usual lesson with the G****'s that night and we had some fun before the girls showed up. They had brought a bat, softball, and a Nerf football thingy and we started to hit it around. I couldn't hit the softball as hard as I wanted to but I did get to hit the football. Elder Child hit as well and it was super fun. It has been really humid here lately because of the monsoon season so it's been really sweaty haha. We had a good lesson with them as always. Our dinner was with the P****'s that night and it was super fun. They are in the process of moving houses and so their apartment was a mess. They watched the tail end of the Utah State and Utah game and so we got to hear about the end of the game. Their oldest daughter is super funny. I get along with her really well and we had a good time. All business, of course. We already had our OYMs and so we ran home to get ready for interviews on Friday.

So our interview was supposed to be at 10 am but we had a situation go down. I got a call from the Sisters while I was in the bathroom and they asked where the interviews were. Elder Child told them that it was down in Hemet. The bad thing was that they were in Riverside and their interview was about to start in ten minutes. They wanted us to take their spot and we LIVE ten minutes away from the stake center and I wasn't fully ready to go. So I finished up and got ready super-fast and drove WAY too fast to the interview. We were a little late but still made it. I had a good talk with President; it was much needed. We talked with the Sisters and boy was I not happy. I couldn't help but laugh. We had a weekly planning and had lunch with the Park Hill Elders again. Elder Child and I had a much needed companionship inventory because of something that went down with the Sisters but we cleared that up. We planned and contacted people before dinner with the Clemens and guess who we ate dinner with?! The PARK HILL Elders! They came to the same restaurant we were at so we ate dinner with them. Our lesson again with the G****'s was... Interesting. They told us that they didn't find a home here so they are leaving to Barstow for a shelter. Brother G**** told us that we saved their family. I SAVED THEIR FAMILY. Oh man, that was humbling. It really hit me deep. That was our night and it was a bitter sweet with them.

Our whole Saturday morning was filled with moving the P****'s. The Zone Leaders and Johnson came and that was interesting. But it was good. I was terrified when I got into the big truck with Brother P****. The bishop's truck is a manual and so Brother P**** didn't know how to drive it and we almost rammed the truck into a car and a house! I was terrified. We had a good laugh and I kissed the ground whenever I got out of the truck. We did that all morning and it was good to do that for them. Our dinner was interesting because the head of household was super prideful in his knowledge of the scriptures. Oh well, it was interesting. We taught a less-active member that we found and invited them back to church. That was our night and it was decent. I was so tired it was crazy.

Sunday was interesting as well. Church went well and we had a good sacrament meeting. I enjoyed church even though I was crazy tired. I missed our Elders’ Quorum (EQ) lesson because Elder Child forgot the box with copies of the Book of Mormon at the house so we had to run back down to Winchester to get it. It went well though; it was a good EQ lesson. We saw the G****'s at church today! Come to find out, they didn't get into the shelter and so they had to find a place here. Sure enough, they did and so after church, we helped them move with Brother C****. It was good; I loved it. I was dead tired after that though because I was fasting and I got sick... So I worked while I was sick. Oh well. We had dinner with the N****. We ended up staying for a while and talking with them until we left to go over to Park Hill Elders’ house until it was time to go home. We talked about A LOT of things; even into my romantic life so that was interesting haha.

Now something happened last night that really chaffed my khakis. Our Zone Leaders sent out this text telling us things that we can't do that the handbook says nothing on and THEN drops by the Elders in Park Hill to check up on them right as we are on the way over there. I didn't want to cause a scene so we went to the church to do numbers. Numbers weren't that great because it was a rough week for me. So that didn't help and then on the way over there, Elder J**** stopped by to make sure they weren't being disobedient. Can you say micromanaging? It ticked me off. I do not like when people micromanage others. However, that was the fire I needed to get ready to work my tail off for the next week. But other than that and being sick, I am doing fine.

Well, that is all from here in Hemet. I am doing fine and working through the issues I am dealing with. Don't worry, I will be just fine. Send my regards to the family and the kids. Oh! I almost forgot! Our second counselor in the EQ knows the Romney's in Prosper and Frisco. His name is Brandon V*****; it is such a small world. Well, I am off to go to the driving range so we will talk to y’all soon!

Elder Tonini