email: November 4, 2013

Ready for my week? Leggo :)

Monday was pretty laid back. We had a good PDay and got to relax some. We got our OYMs and then had dinner with our second counselor that is a millionaire. He pick us up in his BIG 7 series BMW and took us out to eat. We got to know him and his family better and then got on the topic of marriage. I swear, the closer I get to the end of my mission, the more it seems like marriage is the hot topic with me. C’mon man! Anyways, it was a good time with him and getting to know him.

Tuesday was our Halloween party so we spent the day riding all over town inviting our investigators to come to church. We talked to Ivan and had a lesson with him even though he was pretty sick. We invited him to the party but he decided to stay home and not get kids sick. We also saw Carmen and her family and invited her to come to the party. Even though she nicely dropped us, we are still gonna keep going over and hopefully get her to come to church. We also talked to the F**** family and invited them. Before we went to the party, we saw Richard and had a lesson with him. We talked some deeper doctrine than usual when I teach but he asked good questions. At the party, we met some non-members and introduced ourselves to them. We are seeing some progress with the ward and I want to be that catalyst to help the ward members. The Bishop's wife asked us to man the bounce house and we gladly accepted :). It was super fun! We were throwing kids and having fun with them. When the trunk or treat got going, we had the bounce house all to ourselves. Yeehaw! I was super fun! Although some of the young women were getting a little too friendly so we had to bail... Hahahah oh man, anyways. It was a good time at the Halloween party.

Wednesday started off like usual with studies and visits and then Anita came to visit. I love that Basque Grandmother of mine! We had lunch and had a good talk with her. We got our OYMs and made more visits when we went out again for dinner! Good thing I'm on bike, otherwise I would be getting super fat! We found out a sister in our ward passed away and she was an organized hoarder... It was sad to hear that but even more of a sad thing was going through her stuff. More details on that project later.

Our Halloween started off by helping a part-member family do some drywall in their house. The husband isn't a member and he is super legit! His wife and kids are active but he isn't a member YET. We helped with that and it was super fun. However, Elder Anderson broke his seat while riding and racked himself pretty bad. It was super funny! But I felt super bad for him... Haha anyways, we ran home and got dressed to go teach Ivan. We committed him to keep reading and come to church with us. That was basically our Thursday because after that, we went and helped clean the apartment of the sister who passed away. Guess what we found? Doctrinal books galore! I have the WHOLE set of Journal of Discourses! I’m going to send them home so I can study it when I get back :). It was such a treasure she left for me, it was awesome. Our Zone Halloween activity was the pits... We couldn't combine with the other zone so we did nothing. It was lame... Oh well. I hung out with Elders Thurman and Anderson the entire time. It was still a good time though!

Friday was ZDM day and again, I really irritated some people. I guess that's just my calling as a missionary, to voice my opinion even if it will offend people. We had a goal of 37 baptisms when we only had ONE. That wasn't going to fly and so I spoke up and stepped on some toes. Oh well, I saw something that I was strongly against and so I spoke up. It was all good though, we worked it out. Lunch was good at Ancho's and then we finished weekly planning. Not too much of a busy day but busy enough to make me super tired.

Saturday was again filled with service. We helped a sister in our ward move and it was only three ward members and us four missionaries. A little disappointing to say the least. Anyways, we did that all morning and then had studies. We listened to the Glenn Beck conversion story. Super good! We then had a route of church visits to make and then had dinner with Brother K***. He is super awesome! We had Subway and then he came with us to make some visits. We didn't have too much success but we did see another recent convert/part member family that we want to start working with. There was the SICKEST motorcycle in the garage. It was super dope! I drooled all over it when I was there haha. The work is starting to pick up, slowly but surely.

Oh my goodness, Sunday was rough. We had Ivan come to church but testimony meeting was terrible! Only three people talked about Christ. Three! And two of those three were under the age of 10! There was a lady sitting with her dog in the chapel, babies crying and people talking about being buried in their temple clothes. SERIOUSLY?! Fetch man! I was not happy. Ivan liked it though and he said he would come back next week so that was a positive. Then the lesson in gospel principles was about marriage AGAIN. That topic won't leave me alone either. And then the Elders Quorum only talked about beating the other ward in football and only had a 20 minute lesson. We expressed our frustrations with the ward mission leader. We had dinner and a lesson with the bishop and then went home. Elder Anderson got super sick and it was pretty bad so we took it easy that night. Anita stopped by again and it was good to see her :). Overall, it was a decent week. Another week in paradise :).

Well, I love y’all and want y’all to know that I do. I am focused and have my motivation back. Nothing is gonna let me get in the way of finishing. I gotta be that closer, to never look back at the wheel. I want y’all to know that I love my Savior and love the people I work with. I love serving just like how the Christ did. I love Him and love learning about His gospel. Love y’all and have a great week!

Elder Tonini