email: April 15, 2013

My week started out by doing laundry and all the other things on PDay to get ready for the week. We were gonna hike to the M last week but the weather didn't work with us so we are going today. We also had a less active lesson with this girl that we found while tracting. She just moved up here from Murrieta to be with her dad and she hasn't been to Church in a while. She's 20ish so we could really help her get her life back on tract. Plus her father's family isn't members so we could help the whole family!

Tuesday was our AP exchanges. I stayed here in MoVal with Elder Mason and Elder Coleman went to Riverside. The AP's came to our DMM and we had a super cool training by Elder Moss. We took turns testifying to someone but Moss would tap us on the shoulder then we had to cut our companion off and continue with testifying to the person. It was a really cool exercise.  Mason and I then left to visit some non-members in the hospital to share a message with them. The lady already got a blessing from her niece's bishop from the Perris ward so we came and shared a message with them. Then it was off to go knock doors. We talked to some cool people and even left a blessing in someone's garage. We talked to this Christian lady that wasn't interested in our message but talked with us for a while. She told me that I didn't look like a married man but Mason did. That was super funny because Mason goes home in 3 weeks. Then we found this crazy Catholic guy that told us we needed to investigate our Church more and where it came from. HA! He needs to do that with the Catholic Church! We then finished up the night seeing Ken as usual.

We took our Malibu in on Wednesday to get it serviced and that took all day. Yes, we gave up my truck for a Malibu. That hurt my pride but the missionaries who had the Malibu needed the truck more than us so I gave it up. But the nice thing is that when the Church gets new cars, we are gonna get a 2014! So we walked everywhere that day and it was super refreshing to get back on foot with the backpack. We talked to a lot of people while we went to Norma's. We didn't get to talk to Norma but we talked with her husband and he PISSED me off so bad. He basically was using his skin color as a crutch for everything.He was comparing the black's persecution to the Jew's persecution  It was ridiculous. He then started to bash on my state and how racist and crap we are. I was getting so upset that I didn't say a word. When the other missionaries picked us up to take us to our dinner, I finally let it out. I just vented and yelled and crap in the car. I am getting upset just thinking about it! Blah, it was not fun to deal with that. But our night turned out pretty well. Got the car back and we are back in business for tomorrow.

We weekly planned on Thursday and then went to go see a return appointment that we had. It was a born again man that we tracted into. We sat down with him and had a really good lesson with him. He liked the Book of Mormon and is willing to try and read it. Elder Coleman and I were surprised at how well the lesson went. Our dinner fell through so we had to fend for ourselves before we went to Rey's house to print off this new program Coleman and I thought up of. It is the 2 by 2 action plan. Two things daily and two things weekly to help you fight off the Adversary daily. It is our spiritual RPG. Instead of a Rocket Propelled Grenade, it is Read Pray and Go to Church. That is our offensive against the Adversary. We printed it up and laminated it and got a magnet to give to less actives and recent converts. So we will see how it goes. Ken's lesson went well and we also saw LQ again. She is such a funny lady.

Instead of teaching a lot of our own lessons, we helped other missionaries teach because we were handing off other investigators to them. In all, we taught five lessons but only two counted for us. It was interesting to see how the other missionaries teach. Anita had her lesson and she passed her interview! She will be baptized this weekend and it going to be packed. She is having non-member family and member family come in and people from the LA Visitors Center drive up and all sorts of stuff. Plus she is taking everyone out to eat afterwards to a stake house. She is NUTS! She is going to spend over a grand for everyone. Plus she got me something for confirming her so it will be interesting. We taught a lesson to an active family about missionary work and that went well. That family is super fun to eat dinner with.

Saturday was filled with seeing people and inviting them to church. We saw Gary and his family and he kindly dropped us which was super sad... However, we left him with a lesson so hopefully that will sink in. We finally saw Norma and got to talk with her. She in progressing nicely however, I don't think she is going to be baptized this month. She is close though. The only issue is that she doesn't live in our area. So that will be intersting to deal with. We also are teaching our neighbors that we will have to hand over soon as well. Sunday was Fast Sunday and I felt so impressed to get up and bear my testimony. I talked about the Atonement and I couldn't help but get emotional at the pulpit. It just kept coming and I couldn't help it. I have learned so much about His Atonement that it has blown my mind and I had to share it with everyone. A plus too was that a really pretty girl came up and shook my hand to tell me that I have a wonderful testimony and thank you for sharing it with everyone. That sure was a plus :) haha. All of our lessons fell through but we did have a good dinner and a productive night talking to people.

Well, that was my week. I have felt my testimony grow even when I still feel the pain. I know my Savior lives and that He loves me. I cannot deny that this Church is HIS Church. Jesus Christ is my Savior and only through Him can we be healed. Turn to Him and lean on Him. He will help you out through anything! I love yall so much and miss everyone dearly :)

Elder Tonini