email: "If God's willin' and the creek don't rise!"

Ready for my week? Let's go!

Monday was a usual Pday. Got some good rest and good emailing in and some good shopping. We got an increase in our monthly allotment so I am going to save as much as I can these next two months. Yeah, it's probably too late but it’s getting into the habit is what counts haha. Trevor, Elder Anderson's recent convert came to the area to serve a mini mission with us for two weeks! It was good to have him here. Our dinner was with our RS president's family and that was good. Dinner wasn't quite ready when we got there and so I found a ukulele and I started to play while Elder Anderson sang and rapped. It was super fun! We then went and saw our people in the hospital. Ms. Louis is getting better and Mr. Swanson is making progress in the ICU! It is super cool to see how much Priesthood blessings work. We finished our OYMs and called it a night.

Tuesday was good because I held an extra DDM after we had a DLC because I got the impression on Monday night that I needed to hold a DDM for the sisters. One certain companionship really needed it but it turned out to be a real good thing for everyone. I trained over how we can relate our missionary planning to the creation and then had them apply it to their own areas. The general feedback was that it was a pretty big help so I am glad I followed that prompting. Jim C. then picked us up some In and Out for lunch and we went over to the M**** family's home to have lunch with them. Vito, the husband, isn't a member so it was good to get to know him and his family. I ended up playing Angry Birds Star Wars with their five-year-old son, Jet. It was super fun! It is the actual game, not the phone version, so it was fun to get to play with Jet. Our bash appointment cancelled on us and told us that he didn't want to meet with us anymore so we dropped him haha. We then went to the hospital to visit Ms. Louis and we got into a bash with another guy at the hospital! We might have ticked him off by telling him the truth but that's okay :). The truth hurts sometimes. After the hospital, we came home to get ready for our ward New Year's Eve party at the Jones' house. The Davis' picked us up and we had a good time there. I had brisket for the first time in ages! It was soooo good! We then went and ding-dong ditched the Bishop's house with the Davis'. It was super fun! We then stayed up till midnight to welcome in the new year. It is crazy that it is 2014 already. That means my mission is almost done... Where did the time go?!

Wednesday we stayed in the morning getting the apartment deep cleaned for the new year. We had kept it pretty clean already so this clean wasn't too bad. We then had the office assistance come and pick up some unused furniture that was in our apartment for someone else to use. I got to see Elder Braithwaite! I love that missionary. We had a good talk and a good catch up. We'll be the only two flying home together in February. Pretty crazy! We then rode to the Davis' for their New Years Day party and had dinner with them. They made some pretty good fried chicken and appetizers! They had football on and so it was hard not to watch but I ended up watching... It’s the natural man in me! We then went and saw Ms. Louis again and she asked if I had a girlfriend back home and I wasn't sure how to respond to her haha! And then we saw Eddy. Our meeting with Eddy was very interesting. I am dead set that he is on meth. He has the creepy laugh, the mannerisms and the smell for it too. He even told us that he saw Elijah come down out of a cloud. He says that Alma is the most High God and crazy stuff like that. He's basically made his own religion and he won't listen to us. The meth has really taken a toll on him... He then gave Anderson two HUGE hugs and it was super weird. Needless to say, I don’t think we are gonna go back anymore. It was an odd way to end the night too.

So I went to pick up my bike on Thursday morning and then went back to see Ms. Louis again. She was going home and so we got to meet her daughter and son. She was a sweet old lady, she was almost 90 years old! We came back and weekly planned for a bit before we went and taught John again with Lyle H. That went well too, it was pretty good. We then had dinner at home then went and saw Cale that night. We taught him about Authority and working with him to understand it. We got our OYMs and called it a night.

We went to go see Ivan in the morning but he wasn't back from Mexico so we came to the library so Trevor could pay a ticket that he got and then went home for lunch. We weekly planned and actually got good things done. We didn't have dinner again but then we went and saw Jean, our Jamaican investigator. She is doing well, she comes to church but it is hard to keep her interested or reading because of a slight language barrier. We saw Mr. Swanson and he was out of ICU! We got to talk to him and see how he was doing.

Saturday was filled with ZDM where I learned a TON that I will have to explain next week and then made our church visits. I beat our bishop in a push-up contest; I did 70! I was pretty impressed with myself haha. We made our visits and then got ready for Sunday. Sunday was good because it was fast and testimony meeting. I got up and bore my testimony about repentance because I have been doing a lot of that lately and I called the congregation to repentance in a nice way. I'll share the scripture that I read that hit me hard with that next week. We then tried to see Ivan and a few other people but without any success. I am doing a two-day fast and so I had no energy but I made it through the day!

Well, I love y’all and hope y’all have a wonderful week. I know that this is the Lords work and that He is the head of it. I love the Atonement and the relief it brings. I love y’all again and hope y’all start the New Year off right!

- Elder Tonini