email: November 12, 2013

Subject:  Another week in paradise...

… Oh my goodness, 10 degrees is ungodly cold! I am going to die in February... You know what? Instead of sending me stuff for Christmas, just buy me real nice cold gear for when I come home! That's a better idea haha. Well, ready for my week? Let's shake and bake :)

PDay was an okay time. We got to play some basketball and throw the football around in the stake center. I was running a route and I about racked myself on a table and smashed into the wall trying to catch the football. I tweaked my ankle and so I called it good after that haha. My PDays aren't the same without throwing the softball with Sisters Pack and Gambling. I miss throwing with them a lot! You can't take the ball player outta me haha. It was good to be active and workout. PDays are never long enough! Our dinner was good and then got our OYMs for the day after dinner. Nothing too exciting but we still had a good day.

On Tuesday, I went on exchanges with Elder Thurman. I love that kid to death. Although he hasn't been out very long, he already is a super good missionary. Teaching with him was a blast. We saw Richard again and tried to help him progress. We got money for dinner and so we went and helped to finish up with apartment of the member who passed away last week and then took off to dinner at Panda Express :). Some of the members there helping made some really snide comments to me that really irritated me but I got over it. Elder Thurman and I got to bond really well together and so it was a good time with him. He is a really good District Leader and look up to him a lot. Even though he is young, I still can learn from him.

Wednesday started out by helping Ladio do more drywall. It was super fun, I love helping him and getting to know him. We have done a lot of service with him because other missionaries offended him and we wanted to show him that we are legit and want to help him change. We did that all morning and then ran off to the mission office to have our interviews. They were having a sisters gathering and I got to see all of my sisters! Sisters Gambling, Pack, Hall, Anderson and Allison were all there and I got to see how they were doing. Even though I'm not their District Leader anymore, I still feel like I need to make sure they are doing okay! Interviews got backed up because sisters LOVE to talk so we were there all afternoon. Our dinner was super fun! At first, the dad came off as a huge jerk but then we got to know him and it was okay. It was a super fun dinner! I love Elder Anderson because we gave each other a hard time the entire time. It was great companion unity together haha. We didn't have anything set for the evening and since it gets so dark so fast here, we were stuck doing an obedience walk. We ended up finding this pier near our house over this little pond and so we went there. It was a good time! We played with the ducks and everything :).

Oh my goodness, Thursday was terrible. We had our lesson with Ivan and he told us that he didn't feel the Spirit at church and that it was really sad. I seriously despise testimony meeting... Only one adult talked about Christ. One! Everything else was about the sister who passed away; my only beef with that was that the whole testimony meeting was about that! You don't talk about being buried in your temple clothes over the pulpit! It crushed me to hear him say that to us. He feels the Spirit when we teach him but not during the church service. It seriously was heartbreaking... So needless to say, I was not in the best mood for the rest of the day. We did pick up some promising potentials so hopefully that will translate into something good.

Friday was Mom's birthday! I will be honest and say that I realized that half way through personal study but I still remembered it! We did some weekly planning because I was shot the day before to plan so we got some good stuff done. That afternoon, I got a call from a number in Washington. I know a few missionaries that have lived in Washington so I was kinda scared I was gonna get pranked but it was a telemarketer. I OYMed her over the phone and I got into a bash with her! It was super funny, I loved it haha. We then went and saw Carmen and invited her to church. We then were riding to the Cheesecake Factory when we got stopped by the Indian guy that talked to us for almost half an hour. It was stupid! I found it funny though that he used to work at a Circle K convenience store. I'm not racist, I promise! Hahaha but then we went to eat. At the restaurant though, Anita found the B**** family from our ward in Moreno Valley! Sister B**** is from Italy and she loved me when I was in the ward. She gave me a big hug and we caught up on things going on. It was a fun surprise! Plus I got to see Anita, it was a perfect night! That night will always be special to me :).

Saturday was SUPER long. We did drywall with Ladio again and we did it almost all afternoon. We did the ceiling which was super fun! He had this drywall jack that made it superrrrr easy to do. The reason why we went so long was because I made a deal with him that if we helped him finish then he would come to church. He didn't end up coming... But he told me that if I hit a softball further than he could then he would get baptized. Now mind you, he is someone the ward has been trying for YEARS to get baptized and so I jumped on the chance. After drywall, we got cleaned up and went out to contact people before dinner. Dinner was good even though I didn't agree with the husband's view point on a LOT of things. Plus he couldn't control his kids so it was a huge test of patience. He did, though, have a SICK Kawasaki Ninja so that was cool to talk to him about that. We then had an obedience ride and talked to this one guy again that really irritated me one night. As soon as I saw him, my heart dropped because I wasn't in the mood to bash. But he ended up being nice and talking about stuff and apologized for the other night so that was good. We rode to our ward mission leader’s house and he wasn't there... Frustrating.

I was so dead on Sunday though during church. The talks were super good though! Only if Ivan had been to that one then we wouldn't be in this situation with him that we are now. We fasted for some people we have been working with and so I got a huge headache that knocked me out pretty much all afternoon. We did though go to the bishop's house for dinner and had some fun there. I sucked some helium and sang the Star Spangled Banner because I was playing ball on Monday so that was a good time. The bishop's daughter was taking pictures of Elder Anderson and me at dinner so that was kinda weird... But we had a good lesson and got our OYMs for the day. Overall, it wasn't the best week but we made due with what we got thrown. Gotta roll with the punches and this week we took a lot of punches. But all we can do is get up off the floor and keep going. Gotta go through hell in order to appreciate heaven.

So since yesterday was a holiday, we didn't get to email so here is what we did yesterday! We shopped in the morning and then Robert came and picked us up to go disk golf! We went to a course that we got golf carts and it was a fun course. Even though I hadn't played in forever, I still did really well. I've missed Robert a lot so it was good to see him. We then went and played softball with Ladio. I got swing again and learned very quickly that hitting slow pitch is nothing like hitting a baseball. So I adjusted and started hitting bombs. Like over 400 feet; in other words, I'm kind of a big deal haha. Just kidding. But then it was time for the contest. And guess what I did? Popped all three up and I lost... I was not happy for the rest of the day. Plus I strained my hamstring and my ankle again. I came home, worked out and then went back to Ladio's home to eat dinner and for a lesson. He still wants to take the lessons so it wasn't a complete failure. Hopefully we can keep working with him and get him baptized soon.

Well, this email is super long... Sorry about that! I love y'all and I can't wait to see y'all at Christmas. President gave me the okay to call home when Jake opens his call so that will be good. Send my love to the family. I am loving my time here and it is sad to see it almost be done. I love the people I serve and the Spirit I feel everyday. I love y'all and miss everyone terribly. Work hard and open your mouth this week!

Elder Tonini