email: April 1, 2013

Sounds like y’all had a wonderful Easter. I thought about my last Easter and I realized that last Easter I was in the mission field! That was super crazy to think about; how fast my time is flying by. Before I know it, I will be flying home to North Dakota. I am dreading how fast the time is flying... I know for y’all that the time seems to be going on forever with me not there but boy is it flying for me! We had a wonderful Easter; that I will get to later. It was a crazy week with all the transfers and us moving apartments. So here was my week :)

Monday was filled with getting everyone packed up and transferred in or out. I moved apartments so I spent all day moving. It honestly felt like I moved everything by myself because my comp and Elder Allen didn't do anything but pack up their stuff and worry about them instead of helping Elder Preito and I move stuff to our new place. That was kind of frustrating and it really took a toll on me physically. We made so many trips back and forth from the apartments. Our new apartment is kind of in the ghetto but it is a nicer apartment than our last one. We now have two bathrooms and two closets for each companionship. Elder Coleman and I have a walk in closet! Super sweet; the only downfall is that we lost our washer and dryer. We went to laundry mat today and did laundry. It is going to cost almost 5 dollars a week to do laundry. I have been lazy with budgeting but now I am really going to have to work on it! I pay with cash so I'll have to start the envelope system again. Anyways, after we got most of the stuff moved in we then had to deal with a lost Elder trying to find the right apartment and making sure that everyone was taken care of. That was a huge headache and stress for me but I got through it all. We also went out to McDonalds to get dollar ice cream with the zone. Our old Sister missionaries were still here and it was fun to get to see them for one last time. My new bed felt so nice that night! We upgraded to bunk beds with memory foam pads on our mattresses :). They are super sweet and I sleep so well now!

Tuesday was another logistical day. We had to make a few more trips to get everything moved in officially. We then went to service with the Lasselle elders to help someone move. It was such a painless move, I loved it. Everything was in boxes and made it super easy to move. We cleaned up then went to teach a lesson to a lady that Elder Coleman found in his last area. The Sisters didn't get to the new area until that night so we had to do double duty for a little while. Our drop-ins to investigators didn't go through so we knocked doors for a while. I love being companions with Coleman. I laugh all day with him. Our dinner was with the Rascon family. I love going over there. They have the cutest daughter ever. During the meal, she hopped up on the lap and sat there while I ate the rest of my dinner. We then went and saw Ken and made sure that he was doing well.

On Wednesday we helped the new companionships get settled in and help them get familiar with the area. That afternoon, we stopped by a family in our ward that we felt like we needed to go see. We talked with the husband for almost two hours. He is from Compton with tons of stories. He just needed someone to talk to and he really appreciated our time with him. Anita kept calling us because she was freaking out about stuff for her baptism. She is really starting to stress me out... But it is all good because she is happy and wants to get baptized so I will do everything I can to make her happy. Our evening appointment was with the new sisters to hand off an investigator to them. The Sisters are way better teachers than us Elders! They are going to do well there.

We had our lesson with Gary and his family and it went very well. We had a member come with us and help us teach. It was amazing to me to hear how little the kids understood about Christ. They really didn't know much; all they knew was that he died on the cross for them and that isn't even the whole part of the Atonement! We taught them and helped them to understand. We are hoping to see them learn and progress. Since Thursday is planning day, we went over to Cashman's house to plan. Coleman needed clean clothes so we washed clothes as well. It was super fun to plan with Coleman and Cashman! We then saw the craziest thing coming home from an appointment. We took the exit to get on the 60 freeway and saw this really bad accident so we pulled over. The story was that this car full of men took the on ramp going 90 MPH and hit the median. They totaled the car but the five men took off running! The driver was badly hurt but they pulled him out and took off. Come to find out that they were running from police and crashed the car. Super crazy. That night we went to Ken's and he started asking some deep doctrine stuff! And it was all from his reading too. We answered them the best we could.

Sunday was a good Easter Sunday. I got to give Ken the priesthood and stand in on Cashman getting ordained to an Elder! It was super cool to be a part of that. Our Easter dinner was okay, it was fun to be with the family that we ate with. Overall, it was a good week!

I love y'all and miss everyone terribly. I am actually in need of some new clothes (pants, running shoes, some more shirts) so if y’all could see what you could do to help, that would be wonderful! Love y'all so much :)

Elder Tonini