Nothing really exciting happened on Tuesday except that we did do some Bishop business and made visits. We went out with a recent convert and the young men's president. We actually were pretty productive while we were out making those visits.
We had another lesson with Victor on Wednesday, we started
the new member lessons with him. While we were teaching him, his buddy Chris
came over. We have tried to teach him before but he didn't listen to us and
talked about aliens the whole time he came over last with us. To our amazement,
he actually wanted to listen. We changed the lesson from Victor to Chris. At
the end, he asked us for a Book of Mormon. That surprised the heck out of me!
We marked four chapters for him to read so we could talk about it when we came
over again on Thursday. When we talked to Victor on Thursday before the lesson,
he told us that Chris had read all four chapters before he went to bed that
night and then he read them again when he woke up the next morning. And I was
doubting anything would happen... That was very humbling to me to see how the
Lord can soften someone's heart.
When we came over to Victor's on Thursday, we see his
non-member sister sitting in his living room when we walked in. She wanted to
listen to us while we taught Victor! She usually sits in his room while we
teach him. Her ex-husband was a member and she did not like the things she did
so it gave her a bad impression about members of our Church. But now she sees
the type of man Victor is becoming and she wants to learn more. We watched the
John Tanner story and Only A Stone Cutter with them while we waited for Chris
to get off of work. She was in tears after both movies. We started the lesson
and taught about the Plan of Salvation when Chris came over. We finished the
lesson and we asked Chris if he knew that the Book of Mormon was true and
everything about the Church is true, if he will be get baptized. His answer
kind of surprised me. He said he might but he doesn't want to make the lifestyle
change. But we are not giving up on him, he wants to keep studying with Victor
and start reading from the beginning.
Nothing exciting happened on Friday but some crazy stuff
happened on Saturday. We went over to help Mary and Tammy move to Lake
Elsinore. Their landlord was supposed to wire money to their account so that
they can get a truck to ship all their stuff to the new apartment. We didn't
get the truck until the afternoon so we moved everything into the garage. They
went and got the truck and we came back to help finish. We moved everything
into the truck and we set off a bug bomb in the truck so that their things
could be bug free. Their landlord told them that they could take anything they
need out of their old apartment and put it in the new one. The window A/C unit
in their new place didn't work so they took the smaller one they had in the old
apartment.We took it to the truck and were in the process of loading it up when
their next door neighbor came out and accused us of stealing her A/C unit. Mary
said it wasn't hers and explained the situation. Berta (the next door neighbor)
told another lady in the complex, the so called manager when there actually
isn't one, and they tried to call the landlord. They couldn't get a hold of him so they called the cops on us. The officers
made me open the truck with the bomb going off and I inhaled some of the gas
from the bomb. We weren't involved with what was going on so nothing happened
to us but Mary got a report written up on her about stealing an A/C unit. Super
crazy situation but needless to say, they needed to get out of there. It was
hard to see them leave but it was for the better.
Sunday was probably the highlight of my week. Victor picked us up in his old green truck and took us to church. Come to find out, he was to receive the Aaronic Priesthood after church that day. I had no idea that he was going to get the Priesthood on Sunday! So after church, we all gathered in the Bishop's office to give him the Priesthood. Bishop asked who he wanted to do it and he asked for me to do it. So we laid hands on his head and gave him the Priesthood. That was the coolest thing ever to see my convert, someone I taught the gospel to, to receive that. The only thing that tops that is giving Carson the Priesthood. It was so hard to choke back tears when I was giving the blessing. We rode home with him and the Spirit was still super strong with me. It was insane. It was seriously the coolest thing I have seen while I have been on my mission. This really IS Christ's Church, I know it is. No one can take that away from me! Even though mission life is hard, it is so worth every pain and tear.
That's been my week! Sure do miss you all. How did you like the picture from Robert? Pretty cool huh? :) He considers me to be a son to him. Next step is going to get him back to church and everything like that. Send my love to everyone, y'all are in my prayers.
Elder Tonini
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