"No matter how much you polish a terd... It's still a terd!" -Elder Anderson

Ready for my week? Leggo!

Monday was a crazy Pday for us. We emailed for an hour and then ran off to lunch with Dean and Pat C**** and they showed us this super sweet diner that we both love now! They are really a neat couple. We ran back to the library to finish emailing and after I got done emailing, I taught a lesson to these teenage kids in the library that the Foothill Sister's were teaching so that was pretty cool! We than ran home to work out and chill until it was dinner time. We had KFC with the P**** family and had a FHE lesson with them over justice and mercy. The kids were asking about it and so we had a lesson over it. I honestly didn't understand it for the longest time until my mission. I love that those kids were asking those questions! Before we left their house, we contacted their neighbor that was getting home and he actually accepted a blessing from us! More details to come about William and family :). We then got our OYMs on the way home and while we were at the mailroom, I contacted this lesbian couple that were walking by and we had a nice conversation that turned into a brief lesson with them. Teach when you find, find when you teach works! We didn't get a return appointment but we did have a positive impact on them so that was good!

On Tuesday, we finished some weekly planning from the previous week and then we went out to work. We saw Tom for a brief, daily contact lesson and then we ran off to dinner with the J**** family. That was super good! Anyway, we went to go teach Cale but then we got there and Sister Cl*** said that they were at the 12 step addiction recovery program thingy that the Church puts on so that was awesome to hear! We taught Sister C**** at the door and then taught Jimmy and Kyle when they got home. We then booked it to go see William again and left a really good blessing. We tried to invite him to baptism but we kept talking about history and his past and stuff. He even talked about taking a dead body over the border of Mexico and how it was legal to do so. Kinda creepy but he is a good man. He has two daughters, 10 and 7 so that will be good for them! William is from Guatemala and he talked about an oral tradition that his people saw a white man descend out of heaven and talk with them, ascend back up and that now they are waiting for Him to come back. BAM! The Book of Mormon is SO TRUE! It was a great segway into introducing the BoM. It was super cool way to finish our night :) Two new investigators!

Wednesday was when I started to get sick again... I woke up and worked out but then I started to tank. We still taught four lessons but I was not feeling good. We went by and saw Paul R*** to talk with him. He owns his own company reloading ammunition so that was pretty cool to see that process. He can ship ammo now so when I get some of my own firearms I am going buy from him! Before dinner, we went by to see Nick and Allison. We taught them about the pre-earth life and how we can overcome tribulations. We gain patience through going through tribulations! We then had dinner with the Cl**** again and we taught Cale there too. Elder Anderson taught a lady on the street named Tracy and got a return appointment for today that we are hopefully gonna see today so that was good! But my health was not good that day but I just kept truckin' away.

Oh man, Thursday was not good. We weekly planned and then we went out to go see Tom again and when we got back to the house, I took four Benadryl thinking that it would help with my sinus and flu symptoms even though its mainly for allergy. Yes, I know it makes you drowsy but I thought I could fight it. Yup, I was wrong. After dinner with Brother H*** at Amy's Diner, I crashed HARD. I fell asleep at around 6:30pm and I didn't get up until 6:30am the next day. Yup, I was pretty sick and I knocked out. I still don't feel the best but I am working through it. So needless to say, we got behind in our lessons and we had to play catch-up for the rest of the week.

Friday was zone meeting and that went well besides the fact I was still feeling crappy and I got the biggest migraine on the planet. Plus we had a huge scare on the way home. Since we still don't have our phone, the office was trying to get a hold of us because the management at our apartment called and said our apartment was leaking and that we had to get all of our possessions out ASAP. Well, that was the message that got relayed to us by another missionary. We booked it home right as maintenance was walking out of our apartment and the Cle** walked up too. There was a leak in the guest bathroom upstairs that had leaked slowly into the downstairs apartment. It was nothing big, just had to fix the tub real quick and then dry out the bottom apartment. We did have a good talk with the Cle***, which I guess Mom knows because they knew me when they saw me. So that was cool and then Marco, one of the maintenance guys that came to fix the leak, talked to us about the church and we taught him about the Book of Mormon and gave him our info so we can stay in touch. Pretty funny how the Lord works sometimes haha. After that settled down, I have to take care of my migraine so I showered and slept again. We missed dinner but they dropped off money but missed a dessert appointment. However, we did see Allison and Nick to see if we were good for Saturday but Nick has to work... We then ran off to P**** to see him and his family. We taught the kids about Lehi's dream because that's the missionary slang for sleeping during studies haha. I thought it was funny and the kids learned a lot! Even though it was kinda a batched day, we made the best outta it.

Saturday morning, we visited with Sister Sanchez at her salon to see how she is doing. Since we don't have our phone, it's been hard to see her husband because he doesn't like drop by's but we're gonna start doing them anyways. Anyways, we went and saw Ivan again even though we dropped him and invited to come to church. Did he come? No, but we still tried. We were on our way up to Jean's house when Elder Anderson contacted this lady on a bike and we ended up having a lesson with her and bearing testimony of our purpose. We had her in tears, the Spirit was so strong. Even on the street, we can still bring the Spirit! She is up to meet with us again so that will be super cool! Jean wasn't there but we didn't go there to see her, it was for Jody. The cool thing is that I prayed for a miracle to happen because things aren't going how I want them to in the area and now we found her. It was a pretty small but really powerful miracle experience! We went to go see Cale but he was wrapped up in taking care of a sick baby so we taught Jimmy instead. He's wanting to come back to church and I love that about him! Even if I don't baptize Cale, at least I could re-activate a family for life. We then ran back to the apartment to grab my Nerf fun that I promised Allison's son, Ryker, if he was good this week. We had a brief Sabbath Day lesson with Nick and then we had an all out Nerf war with the kids. Yup, I'm still a big kid at heart haha. I modified my gun that I gave Ryker and I forgot how hard it shot until he shot me! Ryker hit his sister from across the room underneath the table through chairs which was a pretty dope shot! Poor girl haha she's only two but she is fearless. Yup, a super fun way to end the night.

Sunday at Church was good, we had Cale come but that's it... We had ward council in the morning and then made church visits until sacrament meeting started. I was actually a good testimony meeting! That was my last testimony meeting as a missionary... Oh man! Crazy! I got up with Noah Tanileu who is fixin' to turn eight on Saturday and be baptized. He was scared to go up and so I told him I would go up there with him and so we did it! He got up to the pulpit and said "brothers and sisters... TALOFA!" and the whole congregation said it back! It was awesome! It was just like being back in Moreno Valley :). I bore my testimony on being missionaries and the Savior. Brother H*** got up and spoke about his missionary experiences and told the whole ward how great of a time it was having us in his home to teach John. It was awesome! That was a basic theme in the whole testimony meeting, it was so sick! Then the fireworks happened... Cale dragged us into a discussion about marijuana and the church's stance on it. Now mind you, Elder Anderson wants to be a narcotics cop and get drugs off the streets and so he has done his research on everything. He told Cale what was up and then he even dragged Dale P*** and David Pu*** into the discussion after gospel principles. Needless to say, Cale is justifying smoking pot even though he has a medicinal card for it. So we gotta help him overcome that. We finished church and then went over to the Cl**** for dinner to break our fast. They had the Super Bowl on and so we watched it with them while we ate. We taught Cale about the Word of Wisdom and the promise of "running and not be weary and walk and not faint". They wanted us to stay but we told them we had to go out and make some more visits. We went to see Rodney but we only taught him briefly. I want him baptized so much! I am make it happen before I leave. Before that though, we got into a bash with their neighbor downstairs about the Book of Mormon but the lady wouldn't listen to us so it was pointless. Plus I didn't want to leave a bad impression by telling her she was wrong so we just left it at that. After that, we rode to Gawry's to see what was up with Melissa. I guess she has gotten kinda scared when we invited her to baptism and when she was feeling that it was true so she kinda back off... That sucks but we won't give up. However, Dalian got into the marshmallows are we starting trying to throw it into each other's mouths which turned into Dalian throwing them everywhere haha. I threw one into Anastasia's mouth on the second throw! Yeah buddy haha. We already got our OYMs and so we rode home for the night. I made calls to the district and zone leaders and we called it a night.

So these last few weeks have really interesting for me. I am frustrated with the area because it always seems to not go our way when we are working has hard as we can... Of course we are working on being obedient, repenting daily and trying to make things work but I keep getting frustrated because I haven't seen it yet... But I am gonna be that closer that comes in the ninth inning with the bases loaded, up by a run to save the game. I think about Lights Out Lidge when he played for the Astro's and how he was clutch all the time. I gotta be clutch now and finish it off. I am trying to keep that mentality as I keep working these next few weeks. Keep me in your prayers and always know that I love the Savior and that He is MY Personal Savior. I love y'all and we will talk soon!

- Elder Tonini

email: I'm The New Relief Society President!

I am super stoked that Jake is going to get his mission application in soon. Is he going to put his availability date after I get home? My release date is February 24th, by the way. I lost a week so that's when I'll be home. Ready for me week? Leggo!

Monday was a usual PDay. We played some sports and then I went home and worked out. I have grown to love working out. It relieves a TON of stress that I've been feeling lately with personal things. We went to dinner and then we were supposed to go to the hospital in our area to give someone a blessing but the room and floor number that was given to us didn't exist and so we finished up our OYMs and then called it a night. Pretty relaxed PDay – we got a lot of stuff done and was able to relax for a bit.

On Tuesday, we had our usual DDM and it went okay. We had to be there early for District Leaders’ Council so I got to chat with Elders Anderson and Passmore during that time so that was fun. We had a good meeting and then came home for lunch. We had our companionship study to get ready for the day with our lessons and then we headed out. Ivan was our first lesson and we had a good one with him. He is starting to soften his heart so that is a plus big time. We made a bunch of stops that afternoon before we got picked up to go out to eat at Olive garden with the J*** family. While we were eating, President Smart called us to talk. I thought he was going to come by and see us again but it was for a referral at the hospital. Remember that appointment we had on Monday night? Yeah, we got the right room number that time haha. At the hospital, we gave a blessing and taught a lesson so that was good. We then ran off to teach Kale and that went well too. We did put him on date for baptism on the 21st so we are gonna keep working with him to make that happen. Slowly but surely, good things are happening here!

On Wednesday, we gave some service with Elders Thurman and Passmore in their ward. It was a good time; I enjoy getting my hands dirty and making an impact on someone. We then cleaned up and went to go see Eddy. On my goodness, it was the craziest lesson ever. First he tells us that he has just taken six narcos (super strong narcotic pain meds) that morning and that he wanted us to burn frankincense with him. We stayed but then he asked us if we wanted to break bread with him. We at first said no but then he got super disappointed so we said why not. Bad idea... Hahah we broke Hawaiian King rolls and he drank wine while we drank cranberry juice. He said the prayer and everything and we had the "sacrament" with him. Super blasphemous but super funny! Whoops. We had a lesson with Tom and he is hopefully going to go somewhere soon in his progression. It was pie night in the stake so we went to that and got to eat pie with my best friend Janea G****! It was a fun way to end the night :). Elders Thurman and Passmore came over and we hung out because it was basically another PDay eve! We played soda pong and almost saw Passmore throw it all up. Good times! It was a ton of fun with them.

Turkey day was on Thursday! Best part about Thanksgiving is football. Our

ward challenged another ward to play and we beat them in style. But oh man, did it get heated and physical. I made a really nice diving catch, SportsCenter worthy, and broke up some passes. I got some pretty cool pictures I'll have to send home, it was a ton of fun. After that, we came home to sleep and then went to Bishop's house to eat. It was okay, nothing too exciting happened. We did have some screaming good pie though from Claim Jumper! The Elders came and picked us up and we headed back to our apartment to play some more pong! Elders Kava and Ete drove up so it was fun to get to see them again. Thanksgiving was a good break and nice to spend it with the other Elders in the mission field :).

Friday was supposed to be exchanges but that was kind of pointless because it was weekly planning... That was kind of a bust so Elder Passmore and I planned and then taught a few lessons. The guy we went to see that night had the craziest story. He is a veteran and he told me the most awesome but humbling story I have ever heard. He has two tattoos on his forearms; an angel on his right arm and an angel of the devil on his left. The symbolism behind what that means is crazy. His right hand is to shake people's hand in a friendly way but he is a left-handed shooter, the bad side of what he does. It gave me chills. Vince is a cool guy, I wish he was my investigator! We then exchanged back and as always, we always have an adventure :).

Saturday was transfer Saturday! It is always bitter sweet to hear what happens. We finished up some weekly planning and then went out to make our church visits. I got SUPER sick overnight and I had to power through it to make the day work. I doped up on cold medicine and powered through it. We pulled a prank on Elder Passmore that we all got called into leadership and we were leaving him there all by himself. He believed us for such a long time, it was great. We didn't have a dinner so we went to In and Out for the last supper together as the four amigos. Our zone leaders came over because Elder Coleman left his scriptures at our place and we found out that Coleman is the new Assistant. Good for him! I did have to have a talk with the other zone leader because I heard he was saying stuff bad about me behind my bad so I had to let him know NICELY that he can't be doing that. It'll save him grief down the road later. We found out that Elder Thurman is going to Elsinore to be a district leader there. We got transfers and I am staying! However, we got moved into the Jurupa zone and I am the new district leader over ALL SISTERS. Joy! Hence the reason I am Relief Society President is because I have all Sisters. But I am excited to work with the new zone leaders and district leader so I am pretty excited about it. I wasn't expecting to be district leader again but I guess I still have a job to get done.

Sunday stunk because I still left like garbage. We went to church but no one showed... We came home and I crashed for four hours to try and get feeling better. I started to before we left for dinner but it got worse as the night went on. I had to keep doped up on cold medicine to keep me going. I guess that's life. We had dinner with the Johnson family and we got our OYMs and called it a night. Overall, it was a fun week for sure. A lot of ups and downs but it was good. Oh! I did wreck again this week and it was a bad one. I can’t remember what day it was but Elder Anderson ran my head over when I ate it right in front of him. Good thing I had a helmet! Hahaha always an adventure with us.

I am excited to get to talk to y’all very soon for Christmas! I can’t wait to talk to the family. I have some news that I want to tell y’all in person so get ready for it :). I love y’all so much. I love my Savior and all that He does for me. I am so grateful for repentance and that I have that chance to be made clean again. I love this work and I am going to get my greenie fire back for these last two transfers! Stay warm up in the great white north and we will talk soon :). I love y’all!

Elder Tonini

email: September 30, 2013

Subj: "The freaks come out at night..."

Ready for my week? Let's go.

We had our P-Day on Tuesday and that was kind of weird to have a P-Day on a day other than Monday but we still had a lot of fun. We played a volleyball game with the Sisters and I creamed Sister Gambling in the face by accident... Whoops. She got me back pretty good so it all worked out. Brother R*** took us out to go play golf at Echo Hills. I played very poorly but it was still awesome. I love that man so much. I fell asleep after we golfed and we were late to dinner... Good thing the S***** family were super cool about it. We then had no set appointments but we stopped by Jennifer's house to see her. We actually had a lesson with her and we told her that we were going to stop by every day to help her. There is huge promise there with her. But it slowly went down hill.... But I will explain that later.

I decided to hold a DDM on Wednesday and it went really well. I trained on the Creation and how we can relate it to planning. It was kind of another deep doctrine DDM but it went well. I am scared that when I do these trainings that people don't understand it... But I think they understood. We had to run to Target to help the Park Hill Elders get more bike stuff. After that, we made visits to get ready for Bishopric Action Night. I went out with President F**** and we rode in his new sports car. It was super sick! It was a Hyundai Genesis coupe. Super fast and a nice red. Meanwhile, Elder Child went and set a baptismal date for Jennifer. It was an awesome experience for him. She is SUPER crazy and I will explain later.

We did teach four lessons on Thursday and got a lot of work done so it was a good day. We also did service for the Hemet theater and that was super fun. We pulled up carpet and took stuff out of the walls.

Friday was spent down in Riverside in a district leader training meeting. I got to see all of my old missionaries that I have served around. It was good to see them all. I learned a lot about what I need to do to improve so it was good. We saw Jennifer that night with Brother L**** and we threw out all her cigarettes and booze down the drain too. She wasn't too happy... But it was a cool experience.

Saturday was crazy. We did service in the morning for the Hemet theater again and then did our studies to get ready for the lessons we had. Our main goal of Saturday was to get people to come to church. Our lesson with Jennifer fell through. It was crazy, she wrote on a paper towel telling us to leave. She's crazy... Denny came with us and it was crazy. We ended up talking to Denny for the rest of the night and getting to know him better. He's been through a lot. I love him though.

Sunday was good, our meetings went well and I had an interesting conversation with the ward council. I stood up and passed around the towel from Jennifer and told the ward council that we need more quality people to teach. Before we went in, someone got up in the morning ward and said, "If you don't do your missionary work, then you are not going to make it into the Celestial Kingdom." Holy heck! It was pretty sick. We had a baptism after church for the Zone Leaders and we had dinner right afterwards. I got sick after dinner and had to sleep it off so I could finish working. We finished up our night by going to another baptism that we had to participate in. It was a good week overall.

Well, that's all from me. Love y'all and talk to y'all later. Love you!

Elder Tonini

email: September 9, 2013

Aye I was raised in that lone star state where we go hard
Can't do it small at all, 'cause big things our state –“New Dreams” by Trip Lee

Sorry, I had to start off with some lyrics I heard from a Christian rapper. He's pretty good and his testimony is strong in his lyrics. I love hearing from all the kids and how things are going! Ready for my week? Let's go.

Monday was spent at the driving range with Elder Smith and other missionaries. It was much needed relief from the normal routine. The only bad part was that I got SUPER sick afterwards. I was not a happy camper at dinner and then we had a meeting afterwards with the zone leaders and I was not in a good place. After that I went home and went straight to bed.

So after Monday, I stayed home to rest. However, I had to do a DDM on Tuesday because I needed it for the new zone plan. I struggled through that... So after that I was sent straight to bed. One of the other missionaries in the Park Hill Ward was sick and so I stayed with him while Elder Child and Elder Smith went out to work. I slept seriously all day and it was much needed. We did pick up a new person to teach and put her on date so that was exciting. Elder Child did that all on his own! He's a good man. Our dinner was with the V****'s and it was just Elder Child and I that went. The other missionaries skipped out to go to Buffalo Wild Wings for 65-cent wings. That irritated me but I got over it. It was a rough day but I survived.

Wednesday was the trainer-trainee meeting and so I got to drive up to Riverside to the mission home. It was good to see all the missionaries there. I sat with Elder Johansen and it was crazy to see all the sister missionaries there. We are in trouble... There are some that are actually some who are really attractive. Or maybe it’s just my mission goggles, I don't know haha. But it was a good meeting and I enjoyed it. 

Afterwards, I went out to lunch with Anita and Spencer.  I loved it, it was a lot of fun to be with Spencer again.

Our lesson that night was with the S****'s and we had a good lesson with them. We are working with them to get them ready for the temple. Our dinner with the St****'s and we got to meet the kid's dad so that was fun. He's a good guy. We got our OYMs and called it a night.

Thursday was weekly planning and we got some good work done. We tried to go see Narida, Sister C***'s granddaughter who accepted Elder Child’s invitation for baptism, but she wasn't there. That was a bummer but we aren't going to give up. We had the R**** for dinner and that is always a fun dinner. I brought up some stuff from home and she went crazy on me. She's seriously like having another mother haha. But Brother R**** gave me a Jerry Garcia tie that is super tight! I love that family so much. We taught the G****'s that night and it was a good way to end the evening. Oh my, Friday morning started with ZDM. It went off well at first but then we got super immature when it came down to the role plays that we did. It really ticked me off; I was not happy. I sat there and didn't say a word. It was painful. We did go out and invite someone to baptism during an OYM and this crazy black guy went nuts on me. It was awesome. We went and saw a member who gave us two referrals for a family in his apartment complex. It was cool to see him be such a good missionary! Our lesson with Stevie went well and they even took us out to dinner. We went to a fast food hotdog place. It was okay; Elder Child loved it haha. We saw the G**** and had a good lesson with them.

We had the craziest service on Saturday morning. We went to clean out an abandoned house and we found some crazy stuff... We found crazy Mormon doctrine books and then we found some crack in the house. It was nuts! I got me super sick again though so that wasn't fun... Saturday was transfer calls and so it was very interesting all day. Our dinner was terrible that night... I hated it. But I ate it so we did the right thing. We got all our stuff done and called it an early night for transfers. I am staying but Elder Smith is leaving... I'm gonna miss him a ton! I love that guy. I did though make the sisters cry when I joked around when I told them that they were getting transferred... Oops. It was fun though haha. Sisters are interesting but they're a blessing too sometimes. Sunday was Stake Conference and we had lunch with Elder Smith for the last time. It was a good Sunday. We got out OYMs and made our visits so it was a pretty quick day. We finished the night picking Park Hill up and we chilled at their house. Being a missionary can be fun at times. I love my mission!

So, that was my week. Nothing too exciting but it was fun. Probably the highlight of the week was saying hi to a down syndrome kid in his car at a stop light. It was seriously awesome to see that. Well, time to help people move for transfers so I will talk to y'all later! Remember RPG: Read, Pray, and Go to church! That is our defensive against the Adversary! Love y'all and talk to y'all soon.

Elder Tonini

email: August 26, 2013

As we speak, I am sitting in the family history center in the Hemet Stake Center dripping in sweat after playing three games of basketball, fielded some ground balls, and caught a brief bullpen. I love having Elder Feist here so I can have someone to throw with again. That is crazy how big the Church is there in Minot! Everyone keeps reminding me that I am 18 months in and is going home soon so home has been on my mind lately. However, it hasn't made me too trunkie so it's all good. It has been a busy PDay already. Ready for my week? Let's go.

Oh my goodness, this last PDay was terrible. I got roped into the pizza challenge. It was a pizza of 2 feet in diameter and weighed 10.5 pounds. I ate it with Elder Ringwood and we couldn’t finish it... It was super gross! It had 13 toppings and was freaking huge. We had to eat it in 40 minutes and we couldn't get up from our seats along with other rules. I got to the point where I started to dry heave. Yeah, it was bad. Ringwood even threw up in his mouth then swallowed it back down. I jumped up out of my seat so we got DQed but I wasn't gonna get barfed on! It was miserable; I've never been in a food coma like that one. I slept for three hours when we got home. I didn't eat dinner or any meals for almost two days. It was GROSS. I love pizza but that took it too far. Our dinner on Monday was with the S**** and it was fun to pick President's brain about being a California Highway Patrol officer. He does hand-to-hand combat training right now for the CHP officers but he's going back out into the field here in about a month so it'll be fun for him. Our lesson with the St****'s went well. We taught the Plan of Salvation and the family really didn't know much. Do the Elders there teach active families for the ward mission process? I think it would be a good idea to have them in our home and then have the kids invite their friends over to teach them! Every member a missionary :). We taught the family a lot about the Plan of Salvation and how important it is to be a member missionary. I still wasn't feeling that great so we came home and I slept. Bad idea with eating so much pizza haha.

Our Tuesday was actually quite productive. We had DDM which went fairly well. I kinda had to improvise because I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to train on but it still went well. I enjoy teaching but I am getting tired of preparing something every week. Oh well. We then had lunch and went out to hit the pavement. We had a follow up appointment with a lady named Janice that we street contacted last Sunday. We went to go see her and we ended up getting into the door. When we were talking with her, she actually wanted us to come in and see some else in the house. We ended up talking to Mrs. M****, an old black lady and is from the deep south. Along with Janice, we gave them a blessing. We had a return appointment set up to come back and teach them but it ended up falling through later during the week but we got their number so we can stay in touch with them. Our dinner was with the R**** family which is always a blast. I love that family so much. Good news! Brother R**** doesn't have cancer in his chest! It was awesome. The dinner always goes well with them and we then ran off to go teach the G**** family. We taught them and then afterwards was throwing the football with Junior until it got dark. Bad news was that I ripped my pants playing ball... My favorite pair! Good thing I have Momma N**** to help sow them back up. After the lesson, we finished our OYMs and then called it a night.

Our Wednesday, sadly to say, wasn't the most productive. We had studies and then had lunch with Park H*** and then came back to their house and talked all afternoon. I know it wasn't the most effective but it was much needed. I can already feel my body and mind getting burnt out. So I called it my mental health day to justify it. Terrible, I know but yeah. Our dinner with the J****'s is always fun. I like having all four of us come to dinners. It makes things interesting. Nick is awesome; I actually knew his family in Yucuipa and his brother took a picture with Austin O'Harra in Guatemala! It was fun to see Austin again. We taught the G****'s again and they are making huge strides with them. The girls are getting comfortable with the ward and so it is a good thing to see. We get to go to the temple on Thursday! We called the R**** and they said that they would love to go with us. It was awesome because we get to ride in his 2012 Ford Raptor! Hmmmm yes! So bad news about the temple... We missed the endowment session :(. We got there and the session was full, super fast. It was insane so we didn't get to see the new movie but we did get to do sealings! That was intense. I loved it. We got a lot of work done in the sealing room. The sealer was the former temple president and he was in my first ward in Beaumont! It was good to see him again. After the session, we went to Cafe Rio and had lunch with the R**** and all the missionaries. Even though Cafe Rio started in Utah, it was still good! He then wanted to go to the Yamaha store to look for something for his bike while we were in Redlands so we made a pit stop at the Yamaha store. Oh my goodness, I was in heaven. I want a bike so bad! I saw a really nice Suzuki GSX 600 for only $3600. Oh yeah! We then went back to the house and he gave me some new slacks and a full suit! Sure love that family. We went and made some visits and then had dinner with them again! They love us. And I love them back haha. Our appointment that night was the G***'s lesson and interview. They passed and so they are good to go! Two baptisms on Sunday!

Since we didn't weekly plan on Thursday, we did that on Friday. That took most of our day and we tried to figure out how we are going to find more people to teach. It was a good weekly planning session. It will be a good next week. Elder Child is singing at the baptism on Sunday so before our early dinner, we went and practiced at the stake center. I can still read music, kind of so we were able to practice. Once again, we had our lesson with the G*** and then we walked up and down Florida, the main street in Hemet. There were some CRAZY people out there! It was sure fun. We really didn't find anyone but we were being obedient so that was the biggest thing.

Funny thing happened during the lesson. Nick J**** called like four times during the lesson. I called him back and finally got to talk to him about why he called. I guess his sister is down visiting family and she is childhood friends with the girl that I have been writing in Utah and she wanted to meet me. It was kind of weird but it made me laugh. Nick didn't know anything about that until she told him. Small world haha. I didn't get to see Nick's sister but it still made me laugh.

We found a pretty awesome Part Member Family on Saturday morning. We had been driving around with no success when I felt prompted to go by and see this lady that I've never met before. We ended up sitting down with her and having her tell us she wants us to help her grandson. So maybe that will be something good. And then today the ZLs got a referral from her to their phone haha. Listening to the Spirit always pays off. We tried to get in to teach Stevie but she wasn't there when we got there so we started to help her mom and grandmother to install a toilet and some tile. Bad idea, we didn't get to finish it but we made a good dent into the project. Our lesson with the Gu*** family went okay, I guess. I love Elder Child but sometimes he ticks me off. He threw me under the bus a couple of times during the lesson with them and it really got to me. But I got over it and we talked it out. Our dinner was with the N**** and that is always a blast. I seriously feel like a part of the family. Their family picture that Hawkins and I are in is their computer screen saver and I'm on the fridge! It's like home away from home. Our lesson with Holly and Bob went okay. They really aren't progressing so I am not sure how we're gonna fix that. After that, we ran over to Park H***'s house to burn my slacks. I hit my 18 month mark on Saturday so I got to burn some slacks. It wasn't as epic as when I burned my shirt and I threw all the pictures into the fire but it still was a good time. We then talked with Park until we went home. Wasn't a bad Saturday!

I love baptism Sunday's because it is always rewarding. Funny story with the baptism. I baptized Natalia and Elder Child did Junior. So I baptized first and mine went off without a hitch. But Junior gets in the water and Junior doesn't know his middle name so he says his sister's! Child baptizes him and we start to get dried off when Elder Wilkinson poked his head in and says that was the wrong name. We were confused because that was the name Junior told Child. Come to find out, he didn't know his middle name! Goofy kid. We then confirmed them right after the baptism so the baptism was complete. Yessir! By the time we came home for lunch, it was almost 4pm. We had lunch and had some studies and then we went off to dinner. Dinner was super funny, it was with the S**** family and they had a ball. At first it was kind of awkward but then we got to know them and then it was fun. We then taught them the Restoration with my Rubik's cube (I love that thing!) and had a good talk with them about the gospel. The mom then says that their daughter up at BYU-I wants to write the both of us! I was kind of taken back with that because that doesn't usually happen. Child was all over it though! The older I get in the mission, the less I care about mail haha but we gave them the address anyways. We got our OYMs for the day and then went back to Park’s house for some deep doctrine discussion. Ohhhh boy, I love me some deep doctrine! The Church is so true, it is insane. And that was my week. Not too bad but it could have been a lot better.

Alright well, I am super nasty and want to go shower so I'm going to close. Something I learned this week was the difference between the milk and the meat of the Gospel. The milk is WHAT gets us into the Celestial Kingdom but the meat is the HOW and WHY. All of the answers are there for us to find, we just have to mine those little nuggets of treasure. The Gospel is so simple that primary children can understand but it keeps scholars like Bruce R. McConkie and James E. Tamlage to keep searching. I am starting my senior year, I am on the last 6 months. Now I really don't have anytime to waste. Talk to Darren and ask him about the poem he sent me. It is super powerful and I can't read it without getting emotional. I love all of y'all and miss the family dearly. Talk to y'all next Monday! Time to be a finisher. Let's go!

Elder Tonini

email: July 15, 2013

Ready for the week? Here we go :)

Monday was super fun! After we emailed and did some running around Elder Everett, Franson, Wood and I went golfing at our favorite course. Everett has never golfed before and he did pretty well! I had a beautiful nine iron drive that landed seven feet from the pin. It felt so good to hit that thing and see where it landed! I shot pretty bad but I still had so much fun. We really have a good group of missionaries here in Hemet. After we golfed, we changed and ran off to dinner. We had dinner at the D****'s and it was fun to teach a FHE with them. Their dad was away on business so we grabbed Sam A**** to come with us. One of our members gave us a scripture bag with little objects in them that can represent any scripture story that has the item in it. We sat outside on the patio because the A/C went out in the house. It was a lot of fun to be with the kids and to teach them. I have gotten close with the oldest boy, Urry. He is my boy! He just turned 13 and I love him to pieces. He is a super sharp kid, along with all the other kids. The youngest, Obie, was super fun to mess with. They have an above ground pool that they play in and I took Obie and threatened to throw him in. I was just playing around but it was super fun. We got OYMs and dropped Sam off and then the Idyllwild Ward missionaries, Elders Everett and Franson, came over to our apartment and we stayed up wayyyyyy too long. We had zone conference the next day so it was interesting.

Oh my goodness was Tuesday super long. First off because I got zero sleep the night before and because we had to be up at the stake center by 7:30 in the morning. The best part was that I got to see Spencer again to catch up with him. But to top the scale, I got to see Victor! He came down from Beaumont to come to zone conference and to share his testimony with us. He stayed the whole time! It was a long six-hour conference. After that we left to go to Beaumont and to get ready for the temple! It was awesome that I got to be there every step of the way with him. it was weird going to the temple at night. I did get to see a whole bunch of people that I knew back in Oak Valley. I love the O'Harra family, they have been such a good family towards Victor. It was awesome to get to see in the temple. I gave him a big hug and told him I love him. That seriously was the best day of my mission. Plus, the missionaries in the ward got to come with him too so there were six missionaries that came to the temple with us. We then made a Denny's run that night to grab something to eat with the O'Harra's and the crew. Victor and I had a really good talk about what's been going on in my life. I tell that man everything and now I won't be able to call him up anymore when he is in Arizona. He is Utah now getting ready to enter into the MTC. I love that man so much! I got to see Anita on Wednesday and took us out to lunch. We went to Mimi's Cafe and then I gave her a blessing at the church. She was much appreciative towards me in giving her a blessing. She sure has grown attached to me but that is okay, she has been through a lot in her life so it is the least I can do. Our lesson with JayR went... Interesting. He had a pretty deep doctrinal question that we tried to answer. He wanted to understand why we believe we can become like God and why the New Jerusalem is going to be in Missouri so we addressed those issues and it ended up in getting into a deep doctrine discussion. But he said he is super close to getting baptized so we are in crunch time because they are leaving to Utah here pretty soon. We had a good rest of the day and got to visit some people.

Thursday was awesome because we did some weekly planning but then John wanted us to come over and have dinner with them! That worked out because our dinner had to cancel. We got to spend some time with the family and build some bonds with them. We have taught John once and now we need to get the whole family involved. He wanted us to come to his son's practice but it was just out of the zone so I decided that we couldn't go. Hawkins was for it but I wasn't going to break that rule. We didn't get to teach him because he left a lot quicker that we had planned on but we are planning on going over there later this week so it will be good.

Friday was exchanges with Park Hill Ward and it was super awesome. We had service with Valle Vista's former investigator out on his ranch. We were around horses and it was awesome. Ever since MoVal, I love being around those animals. There was a paint that you could tell that had been abused and it was super sad to see how it reacts now. It got pretty close to me and followed me around the pen the whole time. We were at the back corner of the pen, shoveling poop with the horse right next to us when a big semi-truck came down the road and scared the paint and she took off away from the fence. We all surrounded her because she walked in between us and we had to get out of the way pretty quick. But there was another horse, Lucky that was super nice. I hugged him and petted him and everything. I love being around those animals. After we finished with that, we ran home to shower and study for the day. We ended up studying a little too long because we got into a deep doctrine discussion again haha. Our dinner was crazy, he is Bolivian and he just loaded my plate up with food and I had to eat it. Oh my goodness it was gross but I did it! Our lesson that night was with a family and we are teaching one of the son's girlfriend's. It was a good lesson and a good way to end the night.

On Saturday we got a call from Ray D*** that he needed helped moving his family. We just baptized his daughter so we thought it would be good to help him move. It went really well, I wore a long sleeve shirt to try and sweat some fat outta myself haha. It was fun to go help his family out. His wife is expecting so it was the least we could do for them. We took studies after that and then went out to proselyte. Our dinner cancelled so the Cole's invited us over to have dinner. I love going over there to eat. Brother Cole always talks baseball with me and it is super fun to talk with him. Their grandson, Blake, has been talking to Corina so it is fun to give him a hard time. I love that family though and they have been a blessing to us here in the ward.

On Sunday, I felt prompted to fast for JayR again. Fasting always gives me the biggest headache so it pretty much killed me the entire day. Sunday's are always long because we have meetings from 8:30am until 3pm. Yay! But the fasting really paid off because we talked with Sara, JayR's wife, told us that we need to invite him on Tuesday. We are taking that comment to invite him to be baptized on Tuesday so we are super excited for that. I may fast again tomorrow too because this has been on my mind a lot lately and I really want this for that family. The biggest thing we are focusing on this week is him. After church, I had to come home and try to kick my headache. I did all that I could but it still wouldn't go away. I even showered for twenty minutes to try and get rid of it. It wouldn't leave so we went to dinner anyways. I got there and just crashed on the couch, my head hurt so bad. Sister V**** got me an ice pack and I crashed on their couch for almost an hour. I felt so much better when I woke up though, it was so nice. I talked with them until it was time to go home because I missed out on talking with them. The V**** family makes me laugh every time I see them. We came home and everyone came over for PDay eve. We played Risk and rubiks cubed it up! I love my mission so much :) it is awesome to be a part of this work.

Thank you for sending the few shirts, I need them badly. I have gotten pretty good at sowing my clothes up and fixing them! I want y'all to know that I love y'all so much and miss the family a lot. Time is flying and it is really starting to scare me.. I'll be home before I know it and that stinks! But I am not going to waste anymore time and work my hardest on the last stretch. Hope y'all have a wonderful week and know that I love you. Thank you for the prayers and the thoughts on behalf of the people we are working with. This transfer is almost over and it scares me to death! I am doing just fine with everything and I am doing the best I can. Love you and have a great week!

Elder Tonini

email: July 8, 2013

This will probably be a short email since I wrote back on Wednesday because of all the things that went down. My headaches have been under control lately and I have been able to function. That was good because it was a "Smile Back" kinda week. I made it through this week and that is all that matters. So rewind to Tuesday..

After we tried emailing at the stake center, I ran off to the urgent care to get checked out. I was feeling like crud and that was the last straw. The mission nurse gave me the okay so I went ahead and saw the urgent care doctor. He was kind of a dweeb when he was diagnosing me because I thought I had a migraine but I didn't and he mocked me for not knowing the difference. That kind of put me in a mood but I got over it. I was diagnosed with bad tension headaches and allergies (GO FIGURE!). He prescribed me with some allergy stuff and some pain medicine to help kick the headaches. We ended up teaching Aaron R**** that night too so it was an okay night. We got our OYMs earlier and so we called it a night after we saw Aaron.

Wednesday we went and finished emailing and saw a referral with one of our Bishop's sons. It was their next-door neighbor. The only problem was that the wife didn't speak any English. Good thing that Nathan M**** could speak it! He basically taught the whole lesson and did the blessing on the home for them. We taught a little bit but there was such a language barrier that Nathan had to teach the entire time. They are semi-interested so we are going to send the Spanish missionaries over to them so hopefully there will be some success in there. It was convenient to teach that lesson because we ran right off to go teach JayR. We taught the big three commandments: Chasity, Word of Wisdom, and Tithing. He understand it all and is basically living the standards already so we just need to get baptized! He is close though, he said he was coming to Ross' baptism so that will hopefully be the turning point. That night was super crazy because we had so much to do and there was only two of us. There was a move that was dropped on us and to go help set up for our dinner's son's birthday party. Luckily some of them fell through but it was stressful. We had to run to dinner and then go to the Cole's home and teach Ross. Our dinner was... Interesting. It was at a recent convert's house and it was the birthday party of her son. One of our members showed up in his blazer and handed out five copies of the Book of Mormon! It was pretty cool and we got a few referrals that we sent in. After the party, we ran to our lesson with Ross and we got him ready and finalized things for his baptism. He is such a funny guy, he thinks I am the strongest guy he has even met haha. It is super funny. He is ready though and is excited to get into the waters of baptism.

This Fourth of July didn't compare to the one I had in Beaumont a year ago but it was still awesome. Our ward and Fruitvale ward did a pancake breakfast together for the Fourth. It was pretty fun, I hung out with Elders Feist and Wood with Hawkins. There were a lot of people there and it was a good time. People were throwing a football around and Feist mentioned we should go get his gloves and go throw so we jumped in my car and we went and got them. It felt so good to throw but man is it hard to throw in pros! I got all sweaty and nasty but it was all worth it. The only bad thing was that I ripped my favorite pants... So I gotta sew them up and get them back in working order.

Hawkins had a district leader training to go to in Riverside so I got to hang with Baltazar and Franson all morning. They came over and we had breakfast and tried to study but that didn't happen... But we did get some work done that morning so it all worked out. We ran off to the K*** home to teach Stevie. In order to teach the Restoration I needed to think up of an object lesson to teach her with so I grabbed my Rubik’s cube to illustrate the Restoration. After the lesson, she ran off to find her cube so I solve it for her haha. Learning how to do that cube has really paid off here in the mission. Our dinner was freaking awesome. We had dinner with the S*****’s and I played on the trampoline for an hour with his boys. I seriously loved every minute of it, I miss that a lot. Plus, it was fun to see their two-year old son run around and be a baby. On top of that, we had ribs so that was the icing on the cake. Our lesson was the Restoration lesson with the Rubik’s cube as the object lesson. We committed them to OYM a friend and share the gospel with them. Overall, it was an awesome night and a much needed one. It makes me excited to one day be a father. I could care less about everything else, as long as I have my wife and kids I will be the happiest man alive.

On Saturday, we weekly planned and part of that was cleaning the car for zone conference on Tuesday because it won't get done on Monday so we did it that morning. Ashley D*** finally got baptized and the best part was that her father did it! It was awesome. Her baptism went smoothly, it was Ross' that we had some trouble. I love my ward mission leader but sometimes he has senior moments and we don't communicate well. We were supposed to have Ross' baptism that morning but we changed it to Sunday afternoon but he was under the impression that it was that morning. Frustrating but we got through it. Our dinner was with the N****'s and JayR. It was super awesome because I love that family. The only one I really connect with is Brother N***** but that's okay. We had burgers and then s'mores! We sat outside, ate s'mores and told stories and talked. It was such a fun night with them. We taught the girls and JayR about the Restoration using the Rubik’s cube again. Yeah! I love that cube of mine haha. It was a good ending to a "Smile Back" day.

Sunday was the big day for Ross and boy was it interesting. Our meetings went well and we got the ward excited about Ross' baptism. It was announced over the pulpit and everything. When Ross walked into the chapel and saw me, he gave a knight’s salute. It was pretty funny to see. He even got up to bear his testimony the day of his baptism in front of everyone! I got a little nervous but it went well. He is truly converted and that is awesome to see. I got up and told my story of baptizing Brenden. Our Gospel Principles class was about repentance. We got the font filled and I got to baptize him. We seriously FILLED the whole entire primary room! It was legit to see. Best part though was that JayR was there. I had a talk with his wife before third hour and so hopefully this will be the turning point. The talks were awesome at the baptism and the baptism itself was awesome. I went into the water with him and I baptized him. When he came up out of the water, he gasped for breath like he was literally born again and he gave me a huge hug in the font. It sure was a memorable baptism. After the baptism, we ran off to Brother C***'s house to get him all set up in using his computer to send things in to the stake. Bless his heart but he is so computer illiterate that he needs a lot of help. We got him squared away and ran off to dinner. That dinner was interesting because we were surrounded by young married couples. Trunky much? Haha nah but it was a fun dinner. Nathan M**** was there because he is engaged to one of the daughters in the family. Overall, it was an interesting week but it was a smile back week.

But overall, I am doing okay. Working as hard as I possibly can to get the work moving forward here. I want to end by sharing my testimony with you two. I know this is the Lord's work and I love doing it. I am grateful for trials; if we didn't have them then how could we grow? We wouldn't. This is the restored gospel and the Church that Christ set up in the primitive days. Most importantly though, I know that my Savior loves me. He knows me and He shed great drops of blood for me. I know I have a Father in Heaven that loves me so much. I love you two and everyone I serve here in California. I am super excited to go to the temple with Vic tomorrow! He is even coming to our zone conference so that will be fun to get to see him all day. I love y’all and I will talk to y’all soon.

Elder Tonini

email: July 3, 2013

Mom and Dad,

Yes, I have a lot of explaining to do... Sorry it is Wednesday and I am just now emailing you for last week. We went fishing on Monday (more details to come) and then I was in the middle of emailing on Tuesday when I had to go run an errand for the Zone Leaders which took up some of my time while Elder Hawkins was in a meeting. After the meeting we went to lunch and came back to the family history center to find that the center was closed and I couldn't finish my email to y'all... I finished everyone else email but the main one to the family. That's my story and I am sticking to it, because it's true! :). I also saw the weather report of Minot and let me tell you, I am jealous of your 80 degree weather! It is over 100 everyday and it is not fun. It is my last summer here so I will suck it up. Ready for my week? It'll be a few extra days so here we go :)

Last Monday was a pretty laid back p-day. We did our usual thing at the stake center and then we played basketball. I just kicked it with a couple of Elders since I am not a big basketball player. After Christmas night, I am not a huge fan of missionary basketball so I tend to stay off the court. After that, we did a little bit of shopping and we ran home and relaxed there. When the other Elders got back, I stayed home with Feist and we worked out in the garage. We did chest and we killed it. I was sore for almost four days. Everyone else went out to go check some stores out and things like that. Our dinner was with the Hartvigson family and guess what we had? BRISKET! They just killed a cow and they have all this meet and so we got to eat the brisket part of the cow. I was super excited because I haven't had brisket in forever! We had a lesson with them and they showed us a video that the young men of the stake did for girls camp. It was pretty cute, it was all about modesty and being a righteous daughter of God. It was super cool. We then got our OYMs and called it good for the night. It was a pretty laid back P-day but it was still a good one.

Tuesday was a pretty full day planned but then Hawkins got sick... He came down with some sort of stomach virus thing that was cleaning his system out. It was bad, he wasn't feeling too good so I told him that we were going to stay in so that he can sleep and get better. We were able to go out that afternoon but he stayed in for the morning. I stayed up and read my scriptures for as long as I could before I went insane so I caught up on a letter until we went to dinner and out to work. We did though get a referral sent out for the missionaries in Perris, CA so we got a little bit done. I did though get set up for my training that I was going to do on Wednesday for all the districts in Hemet so that gave me some time to prepare for that.

We had to end studies early so we could go up to the stake center to get the chapel ready for my training on Wednesday. I can't remember if I mentioned this training before, it was one I did out in Moreno Valley while I was Zone Leader there. It is all about the Atonement; I first gave the Elders instructions and prepared them for what was about to happen. I told them that whatever they put into the training is what they are going to get out of it so that they were in the right frame of mind. I had them blindfold themselves and let Hawkins and I lead them into the dark chapel with light music playing. I sat them down and then put on the part Finding Faith in Christ where Christ preforms the Atonement for all of mankind. All they heard was the audio so they had to picture it in their mind and let their mind focus on what was happening. When that finished, I played DJ with the mic on the pulpit and put more music one while I read Bruce R. McConkie's talk titled "Purifying Powers of Gethsemane." That talk is so powerful! I then had all the Elders open their eyes and remove the blindfolds while I stood at the pulpit and talked more about how we need to apply the Atonement into our lives and also to why every missionary is here in Hemet. I hate that I get so emotional when I do these kind of things but it went well. I blame you two for making me so emotional! But it went really well, it felt like the message really impacted every Elder that was there. There was one thing that really irritated me was when the ZLs walk in LATE and then walk right up to the front of the chapel during the middle of the training. Those two missionaries are trying my patience... But they are my leaders and I sustain them so I have to be patient. After the training, I came down with a super bad migraine which knocked me out for the rest of the day. It was actually a really bad tension headache but that was what I labeled it at the time. I couldn't leave my room or do anything because the light and movement killed my head. But I had to suck it up and go teach J.R. and go to dinner with the Stevenson's. They are an awesome family; the daughter's non-member boyfriend was over and we watched some Mormon Messages with the family. It was a rough dinner and lesson but I sucked it up and dealt with it.

Thursday AND Friday was kind of in the same boat as Wednesday. I still had my really bad headache and I could not kick it. I tried everything: Excedrin, Ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and even two Rock Star energy drinks and it still wouldn't leave. I was running out of ideas and I had so much medicine in me that I was having a hard time falling asleep to try and kick it. The only thing we did those two days was get our OYMs and go teach John P****. Remember John? The huge guy and his family that we tracted into the other week? We had a sit down lesson with him and taught him the Restoration. It was a good visit; it was just him and us. We learned a lot about him and his past in why he was never baptized even though his whole family was. He then showed us a video of him on YouTube doing a backyard brawl and knocking this other guy out. It was to show how rough of a past he had. He is open to hearing our message so maybe we will see some progress. He wants to take us fishing on Monday so we talked a lot about that. That was the only thing that we got done those two days due to my freakin' headache... But I got it checked so hopefully it will get better.

Saturday was my official sick day. I did not leave the apartment all day and it was miserable. I slept all day and didn't leave the house. Elder Spencer did come and see me though so that was nice. He had just been with Anita at lunch in Moreno Valley. Spencer is an Office Assistant so he travels the mission delivering things for other missionaries so he stopped in to have lunch with the MoVal ZLs and with Anita. The only bad thing was that the ZLs were on AP exchanges so Elder Drasbek was there. The reason why that was bad was because he said something to Spencer about being on Anita's iPhone setting up the scriptures for her. He flipped and called Spencer out on things and that set him off. Spencer called me and he said that Drasbek also said something about me talking with her too and that it was "not approved". That didn't set well with me either because I do not see any harm in talking with her but other people see that it is. But I'll make it work.

I was super excited to teach the youth on Sunday, even though I was still not feeling good at all. However, we had something cool happen before sacrament meeting. Ross S***** came up to us and said that he is going to get baptized next Saturday. That was a shocker to us because we weren't even expecting that from him. Best part is that he hasn't smoked since that Tuesday! It was super exciting to hear. We are going to have two baptisms next Saturday: Ashley D**** and Ross S****. It will be a busy Saturday for us but that is okay; that is what we live for as a missionary. Our lesson for the youth went really well. It was a lesson on the Atonement with an awesome object lesson. We had the young men's president do had to do 15 push-ups for every doughnut that the youth ate. Even if the youth declined it, he still did the 15 push-ups. He did almost 100 push-ups in less than 10 minutes. He was the man! We made the connection to how we shouldn't waste what our Savior did for us. I wasn't feeling good so I had zero tolerance for people talking and not paying attention so I would call kids out if they were messing around. I guess that is Dad's side in me ha. Other than that, it went super well. After church, we had our lesson with Ross and we brought Brother Cole with us and Brett his grandson. It went well, we finished up the commandments with Ross and we are preparing him for Saturday. After dinner, we took studies and called it a week. It was kind of a ineffective week but we made it the best we could.

So rewind to Monday and the reason why I missed emailing when I usually do! We got invited by John to go fishing up in Anza. We had saved our miles for the month so we had enough to drive up there and back to stay under! It was awesome but we went up there with his family to a private lake in a neighborhood that his buddy lives in. Since it is private, we didn't need a license :). We fished all day and I got super burnt... I will send pictures but don't laugh at how red I am! But it was a good afternoon, we got to know the family really well and spend time with them. John is an awesome guy, really a good father, husband and role model. There was a single mom that came with us with her two younger children that John and his family has taken watchful eyes over. The father of the family was caught molesting the four year old daughter and then giving his two older sons drugs and money for drugs. The father isn't in the picture anymore but the family is still feeling the effects of it so John invited them to come with us. That really impressed me and how John is with the boys. It was a good day overall and we even went to our Bishop's neighbor to offer to bless his home and family. That was just the icing on the cake.

So an update on my health: I went in to see urgent care and to get my headaches looked at. Come to find out, I was actually having really bad tension headaches and bad allergies that were causing the headaches. So I got a nasal spray and some pain medicine so when the headaches get bad I have something to combat it with. I made sure that the pain medicine were not narcotics so I am good in that regards. So I am going to get back on allergy medicine and see if that helps with anything. Oh and I am almost out of contacts... So I am not sure how we want to work that out. Other than that, I am doing well. I have had my ups and downs, physically and emotionally but I am staying focused on the task at hand. February is coming close... I can't afford to lose anymore time! I love y'all and miss the family dearly.  Again, sorry it took forever to email you back but I am doing okay, I promise! And also, Victor has a date for the temple! We are going July 9th; I am so excited to get to go with him. Going to the temple with him will be the highlight of my mission for sure. It will be hard having him leave to Arizona and losing daily contact with my best friend but it’s okay, that is where he needs to be! So that is the next thing coming up, besides the two baptisms on Saturday. Have a great week and talk to y'all soon.

Elder Tonini

email: June 10, 2013

Alright so, here was my week:

Monday was an awesome Pday. After we emailed and got our stuff done, I went to Ross and picked up some speakers for my new iPod for my study room. I found a 5.1 surround sound for it for pretty cheap! I was super stoked, I love it. I finally have music back in my life! Don't worry, it's all mission approved :). We then ran to the driving range to go hit some balls. The same member that gave me the other set of clubs gave me a $25 gift certificate to the driving range. Seven bucks for 75 balls! It was super fun. I needed it badly after the whole thing last week. I don't know why people don't like me too much here. I guess because I'm not the "robot" missionary. But I got it resolved later this week with President. I will explain more later. We also had our mini missionary with us so that was kind of a struggle this week. By Monday, he was already driving me nuts and we hadn't even had him for two weeks. But it all worked out in the end; it was good to have him there with us.

We gave some service on Tuesday for Sister S*** and her family. They are kind of less active and we don't go over there much. Sister S*** is a pretty cool lady though, she was super appreciative for us coming over and helping to move some rocks in the backyard. After that, we cleaned up and got ready to teach little Miss Stevie K****. We did the hard-boiled egg lesson: where you boil an egg and use rubbing alcohol to create a vacuum to suck the boiled egg into the Gatorade bottle. It was kind of a batched object lesson but it was still good haha. Our lesson with JayR went well too. He is progressing super well. Our dinner with Sister M**** was kind of interesting... She liked to talk and it really wasn't too fun to sit there and listen but I did anyways. Aaron R**** is doing well, we saw him that night. We are working on getting him back to church.

President Smart came down to give our interviews with us and that was super nice to get to talk to him. I brought up the issue with the missionaries backbiting behind my back and my issues with what is going on. I told him that this usually doesn't bother me but I do represent my family as well as the Savior and I don't want to tarnish my family name either. But what he told me gave me some comfort. He told me that I am accountable to him and to the Savior. So I gave him my accountability to him and that really helped me feel better. I am going to do me and work the hardest I have ever worked. I love President a lot; he is the man. Come to find out, I am on special assignment; he didn't send me here to Hemet just because. So that answered a lot of questions and doubts too. After interviews, we went and visited the two high school girl graduates that we picked up. They are hopefully going to start progressing nicely. Besides, one of them is pretty good looking so that is always a plus :). Our dinner was a little weird. It was with a recent convert and her family. Sabrina B**** was just baptized like 6 months ago and she is an interesting lady. She doesn't have any teeth... And her family is super loud and crazy! It was interesting. Our lesson with the B**** family went well too. They are an awesome family!

We did the usual weekly planning on Thursday and we went to seed Matt, he lives with the B****’s, to come teach him and help him gain his testimony. It is coming slowly but surely. Funny story though while we were over there. Our mini saw one of the young women there helping to babysit the son. He goes up there to talk to her and comes to find out that she's only a sophomore! Haha it was super funny; we gave him a hard time about it. Other than that lesson, we weekly planned all day.

Friday was our temple trip! It was a much needed trip to the Redlands Temple. I got some crazy revelation in the temple though that I can't really talk about here in the email. Jake knows about it but that is about it. He knows the story about it. After our session, one of my contacts in Beaumont picked us up and brought us to the Sandwich Stoppe in Beaumont. Victor came and so did the O'Harra's! It was so good to see them. I get to go and see Victor at the temple here in a less than a week! It will be hard to see him go because I won't be able to call him up when I need someone to talk to... But it will all work out. We went and saw Stevie K**** again and taught her to get ready to be baptized. We went tracting and found a very cool potential family to teach! A family of almost 5 people! We had dinner with the Bickmore's and got to talk some more deep doctrine with him. They are former temple president in Mexico so he was very knowledgeable about the temple. It was fun to pick his brain and to get some new knowledge from him.

Saturday was filled with helping a family in the Fruitvale ward move into our ward. The husband has a 2012 Ford Raptor! It was super legit. None of our ward showed up to help so it was good that we showed up. We helped transporting Fruitvale around and even when to their DDM as well. Afterwards, we went to McDonalds and I got two McGangBangs! It’s a McDouble with a McChicken in the middle of it. Super good haha. It was a good day even though it was kind of slow.

Sunday was filled with meetings and going by to see people. We taught Ross again and that went well. One of the member bought him a quad! Very nice. We got our OYMs and had our mini go home. We then took studies and called it a night. We celebrated Elder Albright’s birthday that night and it was a blast. I love my mission and the guys I serve with!

Well, that was my week. I sure do love y'all and miss y’all tons. I am doing well, I think I am going to get my headaches checked out though. They are starting to get bad. I will let you know how that goes. I love you! Have a great week.

Elder Tonini

email: June 3, 2013

Subject: It is moving week for the Tonini Family!

Sounds like yall are going to have a busy week this week. I am excited for the new move and it is crazy how many of my mission friends actually have ties to North Dakota. One of the sisters in my MTC district actually has her non-member family up there in ND. It amazes me every time the company moves us how fast the house gets packed. That is a huge blessing on Mom because then she wouldn't stress out about things. Alright, ready for my week? It was interesting one so here we go:

Our PDay started out by going shopping and getting everything taken care of. It was Memorial Day so there were a lot of people out for the holiday so we talked to a lot of people. Our dinner was with the N***** family and Hawkins thought the dinner was at 6 pm but they actually said 5 pm so we showed up an hour late. We need better communication between each other. However, we did teach JayR again and that lesson went well. He understood it well; he only had a question about Adam and Eve which his mother-in-law resolved for him. He has HUGE potential and I am so excited to be there helping him. That night, we made contacts that night and fulfilled the Ballard promise.

Oh man, Tuesday was rough for me. Hawkins had a district leaders' conference which took THREE HOURS to do. That was our whole morning basically. When I got home, I came down with the biggest headache and my allergies were going insane. I ate lunch super fast and I tried to lay down to kick the headache but it never went away... Elder Albright wasn't feeling good either so I stayed home with him and Hawkins and Kelley went out to work. I tried to get feeling better but the longer I slept, the worse I felt so I just tried to power through it. We did service with the young men and that didn't help at all. Our appointment with Aaron R***** was super fun; he pulled his guns out and we started to talk about emergency preparedness haha. He has two AR-15's and an RPG casing! Super awesome. We went home because I was feeling like garbage... It wasn't fun but I powered through it the best I can.

We had exchanges with the Spaniards on Wednesday and Elder Moyer came into my area for the day. I still wasn't feeling very good so I tried my best to power through it. We made a lot of visits to people, seeing if they live in the ward boundaries and if they live there or not. We drove all the way to Sun City to check out if there was anyone out there. There was but they had moved so it was a waste of time. We exchanged back before our lesson with the B****'s. It went well and then we had Matt, a friend that is living there with him who is actually a member of the Church, came out and we kind of started to bash with each other. But amazingly, he changed around and was willing to sit down with us and talk. So we set something up for Thursday to come and sit down with him. It was kind of a batched day but we made the best out of it.

Our usual weekly planning happened and then we drove out to see Matt all the out in Winchester and he wasn't awake! I was super ticked because we wasted 10 miles driving out there. We got home and then he called us, wanting us to come by. OF COURSE. So we drove out there to go see him and we had a pretty good lesson. We made a lot of head way with him. He still has a long way to go but we are going to make it work. Our dinner was with a single sister so we took Blake M**** with us to go over. He is the same age as Corina and I offered to hook them up haha. We then went on splits with the young men and I took Blake with me to go visit another part-member family (PMF). Even though we only taught two less-active lessons, it still was a productive night regardless.

On Friday, Anita took us out to eat to Marie Callenders. It was pretty good, but way over-priced. After lunch, we ran out to Winchester to go and teach another PMF. It is the W**** family and they have an interesting story, There are two families living there together and only one person is a member. Sister W****'s caretaker comes to church with her almost every week and we wanted to come in and start teaching her but she isn't too interested yet. After the lesson, we had a spur the moment baptism interview.  After that, we had dinner with the Mc******'s. They are a super sweet old couple and it was awesome to get to talk to them. They were such a wonderful couple. We met with out Bishop and went over things for the ward.

We had service on Saturday morning and it felt so good to put the boots and Wranglers back on to go to work. The service was putting up a new fence on a horse ranch so that was fun. Later that morning was our zone conference and it was not a fun experience for me. It started out with me not liking one of the action plans for our focus and people trying to prove me wrong. However, their comments didn't help me at all so I am stuck in a bind. THEN I heard that another elder called me a "bad influence on the other younger elders because I only have 8 months left and blah blah blah". THAT really pissed me off and so I am going to prove everyone wrong and make my area the best area in Hemet. It was the fuel I needed to get my butt working even harder. Our dinner was at the Four Seasons, a super nice retirement community. The R*****'s treated us to eat and it was really good. After that, we taught the G**** family that night with Sam A***. He then took us out to Sonic to have half price shakes :). It was an interesting Saturday but it all worked out. We also got out mini that night too! He is super cool and really gun hoe about being here. We will have him for a week so it will be fun.

PEC went well on Sunday morning and so was Sacrament meeting. I still wasn't feeling very good and it really affected me throughout church. I love my ward though, they are awesome. Our of our investigators showed up at church and he wanted us to teach him. We hadn't seen him in like seven weeks and he randomly showed up to church. So we taught him second hour and he learned a lot. It was awesome to see how much he retained from the last lesson. I invited him to be baptized but he was going to be out of town for the whole summer... But it was still a great lesson. We then got invited to come share our conversion story in Teachers Quorum and that went over well. After church, I went home and slept because I had a HUGE headache and I got really sick to my stomach... I tried to get up and work but I couldn't do it. I slept until dinner but luckily, dinner made me chicken noodle soup and that helped a lot. The S*****'s are a PMF and we taught them that night. It was a good lesson; after that I went home and slept. I still don't feel good but I will be fine.

Well, that is it for me. I have a whole different mindset now and I am going to baptize all of Hemet! Haha but all in all, I am doing well. Thank you for the package, I loved the Cliff bars! I love you all and keep working hard!

Elder Tonini

email: January 15, 2013

Subject: Talofa!

It is good to hear that things are going well there in Texas. I am sure going to miss my Texas... But this move is going to be a wonderful one and going to do so much for the family. It will be good to see how much Dad will grow in his profession and continue in being the man that he is. I want so much to be like him. I strive every day to become the man that my Father in Heaven wants me to be as well as what my own father wants me to be. I do worry about you Mom and how you will do with Dad being gone all week. It really has been on my mind on how you will do but as Ether tells us, by the grace of God our weak things will become strong unto us. Everything will work out!

I have the best siblings in the world, I love reading about their week. Jacob sounds like he is doing well. When will he hear back from BYU? I am hoping he gets in that school. It will do wonders for him. And I love reading Corina's letters every week. I feel like I am part of her life still. She is so beautiful! I have the prettiest sister in the world! Carson cracks me up with his letters but it means so much to me to get to hear from him during the week. He is going to be 13 here in a couple of days! Everyone is growing up so fast... I can only imagine how y'all feel as parents seeing their kids grow up. Look at me, I still can't believe that I am on my mission! Kinda crazy how fast time flies.

So my week has been a down week. I got sick two weeks ago and this last week really hit me hard. I was miserable for a couple of days. I tried to work through it but it got to the point where I was doing more damage to myself that good. I am starting to feel better, I called the mission doctor and he called in a prescription for me. My zone got hit with sickness pretty badly. The flu is hitting this area very hard and a lot of people are getting sick. Plus it has been SUPER cold, like in the high 30's so that hasn't helped. I am going to freeze in North Dakota... Good thing I will get back kinda towards the tail end of winter!

I don't remember if I told y'all but I now cover the Samoan ward along with my original ward. I LOVE the Samoan culture! Sacrament meeting was a lot of fun. They even speak and sing in Samoan. I feel like a dear in the headlights because I understand nothing of what they say. With Spanish, I can understand a little but with Samoan I can't understand a thing! But the members there are amazing. I am not sure how we are going to do two wards on Sunday with them being so close together but we will figure it out.

Blake will be getting baptized on Wednesday for the Mutual activity for the Valley View youth. Jeffery will be the young man that will baptize him. That is going to be so cool to see! That reminds me so much of when I baptized Brendan. I was such an emotional mess when I baptized him so I can defiantly relate to how those two will feel. They will be connected for the rest of their lives. We also have another baptism in the Samoan ward on that Saturday as well. The two people we are teaching in the Samoan ward will be baptized here very soon. Esther, one of the people we are teaching for the Samoan ward, will be baptized on February 9th. Happy early birthday to me :).

Something kind of cool that has been happening is that we have been getting a lot of media referrals from the MTC. We have gotten three in less that a week and that is crazy to me! I think that it is because we are getting our 20 people contacted every day and the Lord is bound when we do what He says. That was a promise to us as missionaries that if we contact 10 people per day per person then we will see double convert baptisms. That promise is defiantly real! Also, my door approach is becoming a lot more bold with people. I am done with people not even giving us the time of day to offer to bless their home and family. So I will get bold with them and help them see that we believe in Christ and in divine authority. Nothing has yet to happen but I feel like I am starting to be the catalyst for those people.

Well, I love y'all and miss y'all tons. Keep up the faith and always remember that your missionary son loves you :).

Elder Tonini

email: September 24, 2012

Subj: It was a "Dust in the Wind" Kind of Week.
Wow, that was a busy week! The weeks fly by when things are busy. I loved the pictures on the huge equipment. There is a Tongan Elder emailing with us and I showed him the pictures and said "This is how we do it in Texas!". Too funny.

Mom, I loved your insight on the Savior and what He went through. I have noticed the patience He had when He was with His disciples. I need that as I train my companion. It has been a rough couple of days with him. We don't have the same outlook on our missions right now and he has said some things to me that I have seriously come SO close to blowing up. I have a hard time dealing with crap from others. I can handle it on the doorstep but from my companion? No bueno. However, I am learning patience and this is a good learning step for me. I hit my knees and pray for the comfort and strength that comes from the Savior. That has really helped me get through this, that constant pleading with my Father in Heaven to help me. The mission is hard but this is something that I have never had to go through so it is taking some time. I think of the lyrics from "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas. There is a line that says "Nothing lasts forever, but the Earth and sky". True words! That has become my motto lately as well as "Don't Tread On Me", I have a flag hanging up in my room that says that. Good learning experiences this week, to say the least.

Goodness, where to start about this week. I got SUPER sick on Monday. We were getting ready to go to dinner and I got this MASSIVE pain in my stomach that went up through my chest into my throat. The pain was constant and I couldn't eat anything. I couldn't sleep at all that night and I felt like I was going to throw up. It was 2 AM, I am laying on my bathroom floor, feeling like death, depressed, and feeling the most alone I have ever felt in my life. As I am laying there, I looked up to my Father in Heaven and started to plea for His help. I broke down, curled up on the floor as I am praying my heart out to my Savior. As I was at the lowest I thought I could ever be, He answered me. I got the impression that I needed to make myself throw up by sticking my toothbrush down my throat to induce vomiting. When I had that thought, I rolled over and looked up and thought "what in the world?! you want me to do WHAT?". But the same thought came to my mind again so I did it. It sucked but it really did help; I felt a lot better afterwards and slept a little bit. I called the Doctor and he told me that I had gastritis: where the lining of my stomach and esophagus is inflamed and there is a lot of acid in there irritating it. I didn't start feeling better until almost Friday. I went out to work on Thursday and it seriously almost killed me. NOT FUN. But Friday came and I started to feel a lot better. I am feeling tons better now. I didn't eat anything solid for almost four days! I lived off of Pepto Bismol for a week.

On Saturday, we spent the day with Robert to give service. We went and helped to fix some plumbing with him at his grandparents house. His grandparents are a riot; straight from England! His grandfather plays golf twice a week and runs an estate business. I hope that I can be that active when I get to be 93! We helped there and then came to help Robert out around the house. There were a lot of projects he needed to get done before he left on Sunday for work. By the way, he got a job! Super exciting now that he isn't unemployed. We helped him and Carol out around the house getting projects done. It meant a lot to Carol, she is coming SO far! Saturday is the day so please keep her in her prayers as she continues to prepare to make this big step.

Sunday was seriously crazy. We went with Victor to get his Patriarchal blessing. It was Elder Johnson, Austin O'Harra and I, that's it. We talked and then he started the blessing. It went super well, and the craziest thing happened. While the patriarch was talking, he paused for a REALLY long time. I thought "what in the world is happening, why did he stop?". I looked up at him and I seriously could feel the presence of His angels talking to the patriarch for Victor. The Spirit was so strong there that it was almost overwhelming. It was such a good experience, it was like watching my own son grow up in the Gospel.

It's temple transfer and I REALLY need it. I need to commune with my Father in depth and figure out some things. I love you all and miss you so much.

Elder Tonini