"I love you God... You're the best!" - Ryker G

I was SUPER stoked about Jake getting his mission call! I did get to see it. I randomly check the Justin.tv account and sure enough, there is was! I tell everyone I meet that my brother got his mission call! Sounds like he is doing well, I sure am going to miss him though. We won't get that long to be together either so that kinda stinks... Corina told me the story about her coming home from work twice to see Jake open his call. I am glad that everything worked out! Hopefully by the time the next one leaves, we'll have the video streaming technology figured out. Ready for my week? Leggo!

I had a super fun birthday this year with missionary friends and family. We went to Skyzone, an indoor trampoline park, which was pretty legit. There was a huge foam pit that we started out on and then we went to the hoops to dunk on them! It was a flash back to Slam Ball days. I got my back flip down and I was flying high! It was super fun. There was a volleyball net up with the tramps and so we tried that for a bit. It was quite interesting trying to time your jump to hit the ball. We then played some dodge ball and that was LEGIT. All eight Elders against 15 plus 13 year old kids and we won :) naturally. You can't stop the power of God, even on the dodge ball court! Haha we then had dinner with the P*** family and it was a riot. Brother P*** has a VERY dry sense of humor so that was enjoyable. We then went to the batting cages for my birthday/FHE with Allison and Nick. It was super fun! That was the most physical activity I have had in months and before the day was over, I knew I was gonna hurt for a few days. I even got a wood bat as a birthday present to myself haha I cannot tell you how great it felt to hit again. It was an awesome birthday for sure.

Oh man, Tuesday was rough for me. I woke up that morning to work out and I couldn't move... I was that sore! I was pretty funny. I haven't had my abs or back hurt like that in a long time. That's what I get for not hitting in forever and a day! Dale Pa***'s picked us up because it was temple day so that was cool but the icing on the cake was when I got to see Elder Child and he gave me some awesome news. Remember John Ph***? The football coach that I taught in Hemet? Well, he moved to Menifee and he is getting baptized this Sunday! And he wants me to baptize him! MY LAST SUNDAY AS A MISSIONARY! I was about in tears because that family means a lot to me. We took some pictures and then went to lunch with Dale. I love that guy but he can say some of the oddest things... In and Out was good and then we had dinner with the M***' family where Elder Anderson patched his tire. We stopped to teach Allison and Nick that night so that was good too :)

So we had DLC and DDM on Wednesday due to the temple on Tuesday and that was a good time too. I trained over the priesthood and intelligence and how we need to magnify our calling. Some of the sisters just looked at me with a blank stare but then Sister Jenkins made the connection and that made the icing on the cake. Sister Anderson heard it in Hemet when I first gave this same training and she just rolled her eyes when she heard what I was training on haha. After that, we had lunch and then went out to make visits and contact. We ended up teaching these two guys and we taught them almost to the bus stop. That was a good time because then we had to book it home for the R*** to take us to dinner but they never showed... I went and called them from the payphone and they told me the bad news that Jake's call didn't come so it'll be on Thursday. Before I called them, I got super depressed because I wanted to see the R*** and Jake opening his call. We were supposed to go on a split with our Ward Mission Leader but he got held up at work. It was a crazy day but we made it out alive and that's all that counts.

We had breakfast with the Foothill Elders and then went and saw Sister Sanchez at her salon. We gave her an update on things and on her family. After that was some lunch and then weekly planning. It was weird planning for my "death week" but we made some good goals and got ready for the week. We rode to go see Richard for the first time in forever and had a good lesson with him. He showed up his new car and the "essentials" in his trunk that consisted of a pack of water and boxers... That won't get you anywhere! We then went to dinner with the Ji****'s and Rodney came! We taught him after we had dinner. But before we taught Rodney, I got to watch Jake open his call! It was freaking awesome :). I love that kid to pieces! After that, we saw Allison and Nick again to teach them. Allison’s 21 year old sister wanted to see pictures of us and so that was interesting. She'll even be over on Sunday for a lesson too haha. We exchanged that night and I got to spend some time with Elder Gordon before we crashed.

Friday was busy! We worked out in the morning, studied and then went out. We stopped at the gas station to get some air and I ended up talking to Robert, our favorite homeless man. I ended up teaching him and giving him a Book of Mormon. After that, he asked if I could buy him a drink so I went in and bought him two Gatorade's and gave him the change. It was a small thing but it meant a lot to me to do that. We then rode off to a potential investigator and ended up leaving a blessing on Rick and Karen in their home. It was really good! Karen is looking for something so we are gonna keep working with them. Their house butts up to the church so that is convenient haha. We then went to lunch at Subway and went back out to work. We made more visits and then stopped to see Paul Ry***. We talked to him for a bit and then set something up to teach his mother this week. We then had a bomb lesson with Tom which was super spiritual. We'll get Tom soon! Dinner was with the Morris' family and we had Samoan food! It was super good too. They were a fun family to eat dinner with. We then stopped to see Cale but he was in Orange County with Kim and so we taught Sister Clarke instead. We taught her about helping with Cale and making progress with him. Our last stop was Nick and it was a cool because Nick is gonna let us leave him with commitments to read and pray and so we taught about the Book of Mormon and prayer. Ryker, his son, said the prayer and he said "I love you God, you're the best!" I couldn't help but laugh but that six year old taught me something very important that night. Our prayers should always be like that! It was an eye-opener for me and it made me love that little kid even more. We exchanged back to find out Elder Anderson got super sick and so we are still dealing with that but he will get better soon.

We went to some yard sales on Saturday while we made visits. We saw crazy Eddy again and he was wearing a homemade shirt with a cross on it! Plus he pulled out Church paintings and he prayed with us in the middle of the street. Yup, he still isn't changing... We had lunch and then went back out to make some visits. We rode to see Izzy when I tried to contact a man and he ignored me then cussed me out. He called me profanities and so I kept talking to him haha. I am tired of people doing that to me so I am going to kill them with my charity. I knocked on the door and about got attacked by Izzy. I am pretty sure she has a thing for me because she is CRAZY about me. She can't say my last name and so she calls me "Tohini". Not even close! Haha we then had dinner with the A****'s and had some super good Porterhouse steaks. It was super good! Everything fell through that night so we finished up our OYMs.

Sunday was not a good day because I was up at 4 am and couldn't go back to sleep. I think it is my anxiety of everything starting to kick in. The "dry" council spoke in church and I slept through it all because I didn't sleep very well the night before. I'm glad Dad isn't a boring speaker! I got to teach sharing time in Primary so I spent two hours with the kids. I love the primary kids so much! We then ate lunch and then off to the C****'s to have a mini FHE and read the Book of Mormon together with their family. After that, we ran off to Pu****'s for dinner and that was a ton of fun. I love their kids! Little Christy wanted me to sit next to her and she held my arm the entire time. Yup, I can't wait to be a dad. We told mission stories and then ran off to Allison and Nick. Her sister was there and so we told more stories and taught about patience. I am going to miss that family so much. It’s gonna be way hard to leave...

Well, that's my week. Keep me in your prayers as my anxiety is gonna be out of control this week. But I will be fine. I gotta sprint to the finish and not let the Adversary get to me. I love y'all and I will talk to y'all one more time before I am home!

- 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: 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: August 19, 2013

Subject: Another week in Paradise....

I am glad to hear that everyone is doing well up there in the Great White North! Alright, ready for the week? I was a hard one for me and I will explain why but here we go: Monday was a super good day for me. I got to relax and hangout with some of the Elders back at our place with the Mackie's. We worked out and played ball at the house so it was a good day of relaxation. We taught the S**** family (that is one the ward mission process) and that was a good lesson with them. we asked if they knew anyone that they could bring on our next visit and one of the daughters said that she might invite her friend over! That would be pretty cool if we got to teach the friend. Member missionary work is the best! We then got our OYMs and ran home. Our DDM got changed to Wednesday because the Assistants would be there so they asked if they could change it. So that gave me another day to get ready for the training! I would have one of the APs there so I needed to make it a good one haha.

Tuesday was filled with making visits and going through the ward list to find those part-member families (PMF) that have been hanging low and we haven't harvested them. We went through almost five names and got information on them so it was a good use of morning time. We did the same in the afternoon after lunch and then ran off to a baptism interview for the Sisters. A member OYMed a couple at the ATM and they are now getting baptized three weeks later! Both of them are from Kenya but came to Atlanta before coming to Hemet. It was fun to get to interview them. Both Michael and Jennifer were baptized that Saturday! I love being the one giving the interview because I get to know the people before they are baptized and hear how the gospel has affected them. It's awesome. After that, we ran to the C***'s to have dinner with them. It was boys’ night and so Brother C*** grilled up some burgers. It was super good! It's fun having dinner with all four of us. After dinner, we went to make more visits but then ended up going to the Relief Society President's house to pick up a backpack for Junior for when he starts school. We talked with them about how that family is going and what they would like us to do to help them. The E****'s showed up and I came to find out that they had lived in Corpus Christi for a while! It was fun to get to talk to them about Texas. The longer I am in Cali, the more my Texas Pride grows haha. We already had our OYMs and so we went home for the night and got ready for DDM the next day.

We had a District Leaders’ Council and a DDM with the APs being there with us on Wednesday. My training went well. I wrote up a quote on the board that said, "Faith is the power, Obedience is the price, Love is the motive, the Spirit is the key and Christ is the reason." I applied that to how we can find the elect here in our areas. I had the district practice the sixty-second lesson one overview. It was good to have them work on that and to perfect it. I made a pretty big issue on breaking the culture of pride that we have in the mission right now. We have to break that cycle NOW. It was good because I feel like our APs have some pride issues. But it was good, we got a lot of work done in the DDM. After that, our appointments fell through and so we tried to be productive and we ended up teaching two Hispanic ladies on their driveway. Don't know what's gonna come of it but it was a good lesson. We ended up sitting outside the G***'s house and they ended up coming out so we got to talk with them and set up another appointment. It was inspiration to go and sit outside their house in the car to wait for them. We had dinner with the W**** family again and it was funny to have the AP there with us. It was a good laugh. Even though they don't have much, they try and do their best to feed us. After dinner, we ran to find a potential PMF but we couldn't find it so we ended up calling the Elders’ Quorum president. Before I could even ask him, he told us to come over and help with the home teaching list. It was good and we got a lot of progress done in the ward. We weekly planned on Thursday and then went to visit our potential investigator. We met with Kent, one of our PI's and boy did we have a crazy lesson with him. He is a guy from India but he was born in Kenya. He was pretty colorful when he was talking about the Muslim's and other things that went on in his life. It was crazy! He was swearing up a storm and poor Child was freakin' out because his ears were burning haha. Our dinner was super weird... She is a recent convert but she doesn't have any teeth... She played this weird Anime game on the PS3 and then served dinner. During the dinner, she turns and slaps her kid because he threw food on the floor. It kind of took me by surprise because she slapped her kid! We ran off to our lesson with the G****'s that night and it went well. They kids are progressing nicely and they parents are making it back to church. We finished up our OYMs and then headed home for the night.

We had a lesson with Sam H**** and talked about his non-member fiancée and then talked about family history. The fiancée was watching the Little League World Series and it was fun to get to talk to her about it. We ran off from Winchester back into Hemet to meet Elder Spencer for DQ. I can't believe that he is going home soon. He has become my best friend here out in the mission. Our lesson with Stevie went well and then had dinner with the Bishop and his family. We have such a good ward, it is awesome. Our lesson with the G****'s went well and Shelli H**** came with us and she was a huge help. She is the the RS Presidency and so she was able to connect with Natalia and Anita.

Craziest thing happened though before we left. A Mustang rolled up to talk to Shelli and I felt impressed to get out of the car and talk to them. Come to find out, they were missing their two 12 and 13 year old daughters. Being out like that at 9 pm by yourself in Hemet is a bad idea so we started to help find them. While we were out looking, Elder Child said a prayer to find them and seriously five minutes later, the father gets a call from them that they were back home. Miracles never stop happening. Saturday was filled with visiting people. We stopped by the Go****'s to see them and had a good lesson with them. She even gave us money for lunch! So we ran into Hemet and got pizza with Smith and Tafoya. We had an... Interesting talk with them haha it was fun. We then had our lesson with the Gu*** family and taught the Plan of Salvation. We took Brett M**** and his buddy to come teach with us so it was good. The girls were crazy but that's okay. We then had dinner with Denny H*** and his family and he then drove to pick up the G****'s to go to a baptism at the stake center. The Echo Hills ward was having six convert baptisms at once! Super crazy. They really liked it and they are on for getting baptized on the 25th of this month. Our lesson with Holly and Bob is always fun haha. Bob is the biggest hippie ever! I am not sure where they are progressing to but we are going to keep trying.

Sunday was filled with meetings and church services. The ZLs had a baptism after the block so that was good to attend. We then had dinner with the D*** and talked football and baseball with him. Sister D*** wasn't too happy with me because I didn't call in advance so she had a mother moment with me... It was good because I needed it! Sunday was rough because I am handling a situation with the Sisters and teaching a YSA investigator that has gotten out of control. The Elders are teaching her and we are worried about their safety and making sure that everything happens the way it's supposed to. We also got kicked out of a parking lot too so that was a fun way to end the night. Child and I had a good heart-to-heart last night. We both have been struggling and we talked about it and got it out into the air so we can help each other. It was good way to end a Sunday. Oh, and one of the Sisters went to the ER last night because she had an allergic reaction to walnuts so that was fun too.

Overall, I am doing okay. Just grinding away and trying to stay motivated. It can be hard sometimes but I am learning how to make that happen. I love y’all and miss the family dearly. I'm now off to try and eat five pounds of pizza! Wish me luck! It'll be crazy haha. Good thing I'm a fat kid and can eat a ton. Love y’all and talk to y’all next week.

Elder Tonini

email: July 31, 2013

I realize that it is Wednesday again and I am just now emailing... But that is okay because I have a legit reason! My life gets crazy sometimes haha. I am glad that Momma gets to go and help with Rochelle's kids. Jesse said that Mom is a way good cook too; that made me laugh quite a bit. I love that cousin of mine; I am super excited that I get to talk to her more now with the new email changes. Anyways, is Carson back home from the Jamboree? I got a postcard from him and it seriously melted my heart. He said that there are over 40,000 scouters and none of the scouts in his troop are LDS and so he is going to do missionary work. He is such a good kid! You know, the more and more I am away from home and have time to reflect I have come to realize how blessed I am to have a family like I do. Goodness, I love each and every one of y'all! I know I have said this before but I am so glad that Jake and I have become super close and along with everyone else. My mission has really opened my eyes to who I really am and who God needs me to be. Okay, I'll get off that topic and I will fill y'all in on what had been going on this past week. Let's go!

So on Monday, we had a very AWESOME surprise. We got to the golf course after we emailed and everything and I was fixin' to tee off on the first hole when Elder Hawkins goes crazy! I couldn't understand why he was going nuts until I read the text he had gotten. Sarah had texted us and asked when Jayr could get an interview so he could get baptized on Wednesday! You seriously have no idea how excited I was or even how Hawkins reacted. This was a baptism we both had been fasting and praying for a long time. He had decided he finally wanted to do it. We had to make it quick though because his father-in-law was leaving for Montana on Thursday so we had to do it on Wednesday so we had to speed everything up. Hawkins and I were on cloud nine the entire night; we got our OYMs and then headed home to get everything ready for his baptism.

Tuesday was all focused on getting Jayr ready for his baptism interview. Our DDM went well and then we started off to get Jayr ready. We had it done and he passed; we were good to go for Wednesday! He seemed like this was what he wanted to do. Plus we talked with Sarah and the family and they both said that Jayr wouldn't do this if he didn't want to have that be done. It was super awesome to finally have him be ready to baptized. We got all the info from him and Sarah to get the baptism program set and we got that off to Brother P**** to be printed off at work. He makes some beautiful programs! I will have to send some back home for y'all to see. That night we ran over to the Stake Center to make sure that the baptism font was cleaned and ready to go. We ran off to go see Aaron again and that funniest thing happened. I crashed super hard at his house; I seriously hit a brick wall. I was so tired that my body physically came close to shutting down and making me fall asleep instantly. It was a weird feeling to have that happen so after the lesson Hawkins drove home and I went straight to bed. I didn't mind though because I needed to be alert for Jayr's baptism the next day.

All we did Wednesday was get the baptism ready for that afternoon. Hawkins was the one to baptism him so we was pretty excited to have that opportunity. Even though we had to have the baptism at 4 pm, we had a pretty good turn out. Everett and Franson drove back down to see the baptism and we had a lot of the ward family there and it was awesome to have everyone there. I got the opportunity to talk about the Holy Ghost after Rene N**** talked about baptism. Jayr's baptism was one that as long awaited. Hawkins walked into the water with him and he performed the baptism and it was such a powerful experience. We got permission to confirm at the water's edge and his father-in-law got to confirm him. I have never seen a family that happy than after that baptism. Sarah told me multiple times, “I seriously love you" haha. When I hear things like that, I can't help but make me smile. Even though I was the COMPLETE opposite of the personalities of the N**** daughters and the family, well except for Brother N****, we got a long well haha. But I am connected with that family forever and I am super happy about it. I love them to pieces and is a testimony to me of why I was called here for my mission.

Wednesday night, Thursday and Friday went by with nothing exciting. We don't have anyone else to teach so we are in the process of finding new people. Our dinner with the R**** on Wednesday was awesome. We had pizza and got to know them pretty well. I did my Restoration lesson with my Rubik’s cube and they loved it. Come to find out, they have been working with a family that lives on their street. We committed them to share a Book of Mormon with them and to have them meet with us. We had a baptism and a bomb lesson that night. We then had another similar experience with the P**** family on Thursday night too. I did the same lesson with them and we found a part member family that they had been working with. They gave us her name and address and we committed to them that we were gonna go over there on Friday and we did. When we knocked on Viki B***'s door, we had an awesome experience with her. We couldn't get in because there wasn't a man in the house but she basically quizzed us at the door and we passed! She wants us to come back and see her again. Her daughter went to girls camp and everything. We went to Steer and Stine again with a member and had a great time there. We were much anxious to hear the transfer calls the next day.

Around 7:30 am, I got a call from President that I was to be a trainer again. I was super excited because I didn't have the best experience last time I trained so I wanted to redeem myself and train again. Well, I got that wish and I was super pumped to have that call. The regular transfer calls came that night and they were sooo confusing! So what ended up happening is that the Hemet zone is getting split; there is now a San Jacinto zone along with the Hemet zone. My ward got split and the Zone Leaders are in my ward. Elder Figueroa and Wilkinson are my new zone leaders and I love them to pieces. Elder Figueroa is from El Paso and he trained of my favorite missionaries here in the mission. I was made the district leader and I now have two sets of sisters that I am responsible for. I was excited for that and for everything else.

Sunday was awesome because Ross S***** and Jayr got the priesthood! I ordained Jayr to the priesthood so that was an awesome thing for me to do. They leave on Monday for Provo so I am glad that they were able to have that happen with family there. Jake needs to find them in Provo and go see them! They are awesome. I then found out that I am moving into the guest house on Bishop's property so I got to pack all day Sunday to get ready for that. We drove up to Idyllwild to help Everett and Franson come down the hill and to get Kelley's bike up to Idyllwild to his new area. They spent the night so they didn't have to drive back down the hill for transfers.

Monday was moving day! I packed two cars full of my stuff and drove it over to the new place. The new place is super tight! I am moving into a new house and getting a brand new missionary; couldn't get any better than that. I got almost everything moved over by noon so that was pretty tight. I got my bike and weights over too and everything. We helped Jayr and Sarah get all packed up and moved. It was weird for them to not see me in a shirt and tie; they're our neighbors so they'll be seeing a lot more of that haha. Elder Johansen is also getting a greenie up in Anza so he stayed with me for the day and the rest of the night until we could go pick up our greenies. We had dinner with his branch president and had a lesson with him. We got our OYMs and then headed home for me to get unpacked and ready for tomorrow.

Oh my goodness, Tuesday was a long day. It started out with a District Leaders Council and then we had to run some errands to be ready to go up to Riverside. We are going to have an awesome zone; I get to be a part of starting a new zone so that is pretty humbling. I was at the mission office from 2 pm to almost 9 pm. It was a long day but I got to see a lot of people and to pick up my greenie!

His name is Elder Child and he is from Kaysville Utah. He is an awesome guy and I am excited to get to train him. We got him all moved in and almost settled down. It is going to be a good transfer! Well, that's all from here in Cali. I love y'all and want y'all to know that this is the Lord's work and that I love doing it. Thank you for all that you do for me! Talk to y'all on Monday :)

Elder Tonini

email: July 22, 2013

So the more I hear about Minot, the more I get excited about going back there! I am not getting trunkie, I promise, but people do ask me all the time because I am getting close to the end and people keep reminding me of it. So this was an interesting week. Ready for it?

Let's go.We had a pretty cool PDay last week. We went golfing again and had a pretty good time. The craziest thing was that we looked up at the mountain and we see Idyllwild burning! There was a ton of smoke and we ended up watching the flame from our backyard; we hopped the wall and watched it from there. It was awesome to see the fire from there. It was crazy to watch. We had a good night and got our OYMs so it was good.

On Tuesday we met with JayR and had a sit down with him. We invited him to baptism and he said he is going to really consider it. It was a super spiritual lesson and I felt like we made good headway with it. Now we are waiting for his answer. It has to come quick because he is moving to Provo here at the end of the month. Our evening kind of fell apart but we ended up going to see an awesome family because they needed us to move a table for them because Brother R**** threw his shoulder out and is not getting any better. We stayed a little too long but it was worth going over there.

We helped with a move on Wednesday and it was for the C***** family. The family had some interesting daughters and it actually made me feel kind of uncomfortable to be around them. It is insane how dress and appearance can make an impact. It was good though because he helped them out a ton. Brother C***** then took us out to Steve's burgers and it was awesome. They are such an awesome family. We got out OYMs and after dinner with the M****s we went to Aaron's house again. We played latter ball with the Mackie's and I wrecked! While we were waiting to see Aaron, we got a call from the Idyllwild missionaries and told us that they are getting evacuating the city! They packed up their stuff and the came down to live with us until the evacuation order got lifted. We taught our lesson and we ran home. It has been a blast having the other Elders over. I love Franson and Everett. Franson is my boy! That night, Elder Wood went and bought some Veet to shave our legs. We did it that night and it was super awesome, we had a blast. This will be an interesting week with having them down here!

Our weekly planning session was SUPER DUMB. We had a zone weekly planning and it took ALL DAY LONG. It was super dumb and a waste of time. The ZL's again weren't too happy with us because we came late to the training because we were helping Brother Cole with his computer and stuff with the ward. We got lunch and we ended up getting there an hour late but I didn't feel bad because I thought it was a total waste of time. Our Thursday was pretty shot after that, we had dinner and we got our OYMs basically. That was our day. I wasn't happy but I did it anyways.

Friday was productive with going out with Franson and doing work. It was a normal Friday and we even went to eat pizza with the C*****. We had dinner with the Idyllwild missionaries so that is always fun.

Saturday was filled with talking with people and we went and saw a part-member family (PMF) and had a really good lesson with them. It was super awesome to get to meet them and start teaching them. We then went to the pioneer stake activity. I went with Fiest and got the baseball gloves and we threw for almost two hours. It was awesome but my shoulder is paying the price now. That activity was huge! It was super fun though so it was worth it. I didn't get any food so we had to go make a DQ run so I could go eat something. It was a good night, it has been awesome to have the other missionaries sleep over.

Sunday was super fun and it was funny to see how Franson react being in a real ward. That PMF that we saw on Saturday came to church! It was only the mom but she stayed for the whole church service. We had a really good Sunday and hopefully it made an impact on JayR. I have been really fasting and praying for him so he can come into the gospel. I love that family; he is so close in making that step!

We have a really good ward and I love serving here in Hemet. I will be honest though and say that I am ready for transfers. I love Hawkins but I am ready for a change. I think I know who will be my comp but we will see.I hope y'all have a wonderful week! I rolled my freakin' ankle playing ultimate football so I am in the process of taking care of that. I love you all and hope everything is going well. I got my shirt and I really like them! They are awesome. I haven't gotten my contacts yet but they will be there soon. Thank you for everything!

Love y'all.

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: June 24, 2013

Mom and Dad,

So when I was looking through the pictures, I realized that it is only Corina and Carson left at home now! That is crazy. I saw pictures of Jake in his dorm and at BYU. I love it! He is growing up into such a wonderful young man. I am super grateful for him making the choice to not leave at 18 because I really miss that brother of mine! Sounds like things are going well there in ND. I talk with Feist about it all the time and we came to realize that we are in the same ward. Pretty legit haha.Ready, here comes my week:

So on Monday, we went to the driving range with the boys before people got transferred. I will have to send some pictures, they sure are funny. Transfers are always hard but change is good. Elder Kelley's new comp is pretty cool. Our apartment is still the best apartment in Hemet! After dinner, we went out contacting and we found this potential that had some good promise. It was the P***** family and we set up an appointment to come back on Wednesday.

Our Tuesday was filled with DDM and getting our two candidates for baptism interviewed! This area is finally going to have a solid baptism; they hadn't had one since February. Both Stevie and Ashley got interviewed and passed with flying colors. That was the bulk of the day. We then went off to see Aaron with Brother L****. It was neat to have Brother L***** there with us (he is the second counselor in the bishopric) so it was cool to see him bear testimony and invite Aaron back to church. We then went out and looked at Aaron's Subaru. Oh man, is this thing legit! It basically looked like the rally car edition. It was dope! He even pulled it out of the garage and floored it for us. Mmmmm did it sound beautiful! I'll still take my truck but I loved hearing it.

Oh my, do I hate meetings. We had a zone meeting that went forever. The longer I am on my mission, the more I do not want to teach less-actives. I know that sounds terrible but I am not paying $10,000 to home teach full time! That was what I basically felt like the zone conference was about. Doing the ward mission process and teaching less-actives. There is a time and a place but I haven't seen the fruits of it so I have a hard time doing it. We then went and got my bike fixed. The guy repaired my two broken spokes and trued them for only $15! That was such a blessing too.

So remember the P***** family we met on Monday? Well, we came back to see them on Wednesday and they let us in! We knocked on the door and the husband answered and he said "I know who you guys are, come on in!" It blew me away. We talked for almost two hours about life and his family, guns, motorcycles, football, you name it. They are an awesome family. And come to find out, all his family but him are LDS! So this would be an awesome family to teach the gospel to. We then went off to a Relief Society activity that we invited them to come to. Guess who showed up? THE P***** FAMILY! Oh man, was I excited. I love it, we had such a great time with the whole family. Plus the activity was awesome too. After we did that and came back home and Sam came over for us to talk. Sam was baptized about a year and a half ago and he is going on his mission to Portugal here in about 6 weeks. The thing was that he was having doubts and so I told him I wanted to talk. He came over and we had a big heart to heart. We talked about his struggles with his mission and I talked about my struggles. He helped me through it a lot so that really helped my mindset because it was really bothering me this week. But now, I feel great about it. Overall, it was a pretty good Wednesday.

We had our usual weekly planning session and then ran off to teach JR. The lesson went well but it wasn't until after the lesson that the magic started. I sat down with JR and we had a good heart-to-heart about him getting baptized. He has some concerns but we are going to work through them. He told me that if he was to get baptized, it would be within the next five weeks. That was awesome to hear and see how far he has come! He is really considering it now and he wants to do it. He just has to make sure that he is doing it for the right reasons. I told him to keep reading and praying. He is starting to really pray but not read. So that will be the next step for him. Hawkins and I are going to fast this week for him so I am hoping and praying that this will work. It is finding people like JR that has made my mission awesome! I love it so much. We had dinner with a single lady and we brought a priest with us and then ran off to the Park Hill building to check on the font for our baptism on Saturday. Good things are starting to happen here!

Hawkins had a DLC meeting Friday morning that I had to sit outside and wait for him to finish. It was okay though, I sat with Baltazar and we talked about cars and music haha. We were supposed to go on exchanges that afternoon but the ZLs took forever long to get to our apartment. It really bugs me when people are late and they don't give us a heads up. Drives me nuts. Anyways, the ZLs got there and I went out with Elder Parker to my area. We went and finalized the program with Stevie and made sure she was ready for baptism. After that, we went and visited a former, Glenda, from the area book. We tried to teach her but her ideas were so out there that it wasn't going to progress so we moved on. She has a Hindu philosophy and is not willing to change. We then ran to the O**** to visit them and see how they were doing. They are such an awesome family; very cute old couple haha. We ran home to eat then went over to Brother C***'s house to do the program. We got everything settled and typed up. We didn't print out the master copy because we were already pretty late getting home so we thought to do it the next day. Bad idea. But it was a good exchange overall.

Saturday was filled with getting everything ready for the baptism. However, a baptism for me NEVER goes smoothly. We went to the C***'s home to print off the program but then printer was out of ink. We ran back home to get Hawkin's flash drive to save it but he couldn't find it. So we ran off to the family history center to type up another one. We did that super quick but then the copier in the library didn't work! We only got eight copies printed off in like half an hour. That stunk plus Brother C*** wasn't going to make it to the baptism because he had to work so I was left to conduct. So we get to the building with only an hour and a half to fill the font. Luckily, Stevie is a small girl so it didn't need to be that high. But after we got all that situated, the baptism went well. Stevie's mom took pictures of the baptism (WHOOPS!) so that was the only negative thing that happened. We opened it up for testimonies while Stevie was drying off and the primary president's older son got up to bear his testimony and he had me in tears! I love that kid. JR was supposed to come to the baptism but he couldn't find the building! That was a huge bummer... But we are having another one soon so he can come to that. Our last lesson of the night was with a referral we got from a guy in Wildomar. It is one of his co-workers that lives in Homeland. We met at the DQ and tried to teach him. Greg is from Panama and is super funny. He wasn’t too receptive to what we taught but his fellowshipper is going to work on him. Overall, it was a busy Saturday haha.

Sunday's are always the longest for us. We start meetings at 8:45am all the way to 3pm. Joy. I confirmed Stevie and so it was official! After sacrament meeting, I got to teach gospel doctrine again. That was fun, as always haha. The members sure seem to enjoy it though and I love teaching it. Hawkins taught Elders Quorum while I was in young men’s. We then had that world-wide leadership broadcast to go to. But before that, we ran off to give a blessing to someone and ran back to the broadcast. I guess that we will eventually be getting on Facebook and the Internet more often now with missionary work. After the meeting, we ran to our lesson with Ross and committed him to stop smoking. He really wants to do! He is also someone we are going to fast for this week. It is going to kill my headaches but it will be worth it. Dinner was with the J****'s and that was cool to get to know them. They are a younger couple and super awesome. Our lesson after that was with Matt and that turned into a debate. I was already exhausted so my patience was running thin. It was fun though to get to watch the boys play. All in all, it was a good week and we have a lot of potential next week.

I cannot believe that it is almost July... I get to go to the temple with Victor on the 6th! I am super excited for that. We will hopefully have three baptism in July! One almost every weekend! I am super stoked. Well, that is about it for me. Me and my boring missionary life haha. Love y'all and miss y'all a ton. Don't worry about me, I am going to be fine! Love you and y'all are in my prayers.

Elder Tonini

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

email: March 18, 2013

Subj: Don't Tread on Me

Wow! I love those pictures from Minot! Am I really going to like it? I really hope that I do. It is a year away but still, that is exciting to think about! It looks so cold there... I am going to freeze! But hey, it'll all be worth it in the long run. Minot is going to be the start of my post-mission life and it's going to help me get on my feet when the time comes. It'll be exciting. Jake did so well at his games. I wish I could be there watching him tear it up down there in Seminole. Corina is always full of knowledge and fun stories from her crazy teenage life. I wish my life could be as fun as hers ;). Carson is getting so big! He isn't my little Carbar anymore... I got a set of military scriptures (they're smaller and easier to carry around) and I made a box for them and put our family picture on it. People all the time say what a wonderful looking family we are. And I have to agree with that :).

I had a pretty cool experience on Monday. Well first, we saw a coyote on the side of the street in the middle of town! It was super crazy. It was soooo scary looking too. It probably had every disease known to man and animal in it. But Elder Craig and I got to help set a missionary apart from our ward that night. It was the stake president's son and it was super cool to be a part of it.

We had a baptism on Tuesday! But before the baptism, we went over to a member's home to share with her a message. Come to find out, a year to that day her sister died. The member was struggling with it... We switched our lesson to the Plan of Salvation. During the lesson, I got this impression that we needed to offer her a blessing. So at the end, we offered the blessing to her and she gladly accepted it. I gave her the blessing and I said things that I never thought I knew about her. The Spirit works! After the lesson, we got ready for the baptism. Ken was baptized and he asked me to do it. The whole baptism went really smooth, I was impressed with how well it went. Elder Craig and I preformed the primary song Baptism. I played the piano and he sang. I haven't performed in front of people since Mom's piano recitals we used to do. But we did well and everyone liked it. Anita came to the baptism and she really liked it. Hopefully she will be baptized here in the near future.

We had a super cool experience on Thursday with one of our investigators. That morning, we had an open hour that we hadn't filled and I got the impression that we needed to go see Norma. So we did and I am so thankful that I listened to that prompting. We got to her house and she was so excited to see us. She gave me a big hug and we sat down and talked with her. She talked to us for two and a half hours! She talked and we just listened to her. That was all that she needed, was someone to talk to. We even missed dinner to be there with her. After we said we had to go to another appointment, she told us something that really struck me. She said that this morning, she prayed so hard that God would hear her prayers. She was really struggling that day and was going to throw in the towel and lay down with a sheet over her head for the rest of the afternoon. Well, we came and knocked on her door and it was an answer to prayer. She then gave me a big hug and sobbed on my shoulder. She's like the black grandmother I never had! She is so awesome and I love her to death. It was super cool to be an answer to prayer that day.

We picked up a new family to teach on Friday after we had our lesson with Anita. They are a family of seven with five girls under the age of seven. They are a super cool family and we found them knocking doors. We blessed the house and invited them to be baptized. They gave the generic answer but they agreed to have us come back. After that though, nothing happened this weekend. Everything fell through and it was super depressing... But hey, you gotta press through it and keep working has hard as you can.

I hope y'all have a wonderful week and have a fun one. I love y'all and I will let y'all know if I get transferred or not. We get calls on Saturday so we'll know what happens. Love y'all so much!

Elder Tonini

email: March 4, 2013

Subj: "Pain is temporary but quitting is permanent"

This week was a good one and I am excited to let y'all in on my week

As you know, Ken is on schedule to be baptized on March 12th. We taught him twice this week so on Tuesday we went over and taught him the first part of the commandments. Brother C***** went with us and he was such a help! We taught Ken about the Word of Wisdom and he really didn't have any big issues. He would have the occasional cigarette and cup of coffee so we said that he could give those up. Now, as a missionary we are supposed to leave them with commitments. Brother C***** jumped the gun and started to commit him to quit! He would ask Ken "so do you want to quit smoking and drinking coffee? When do you want to stop?" Ken would say "now, today" and Brother C***** response was "congratulations!" It was so cool to see Ken commit to stop and the help that Brother C***** was to us. We also tried to get him to pray out loud but he still wouldn't so Brother C***** jumped in and committed him to pray out loud on Thursday. We also gave him the baptism questions so he could go over them.

Wednesday was filled with going and seeing people on our ward list that we have no idea who they are. We have started a project that we are going to clean up the ward list and get info on the people that the bishopric has never seen. Even though we really haven't found anyone, we have found more potentials to go bless their home from it. So it is a win-win for us and the ward. Our main stop that night was to the S***** again. I want that family to be eternal family so badly. We asked him to read and to pray about baptism so we will see what happens with him. We set up a time to go and see him again on that Friday.

On Thursday, we went and saw Melissa C, one of my recent converts here in MoVal. We hadn't seen her in a few weeks and we thought it would be good to check up on her and Chris. She is doing well, she is battling sickness with her and the kids so that is why she hadn't been there in a few weeks. Earlier that morning, we got a text asking if we could go and work on the horse ranch again with the Rogers so, of course, we went :). I got to put the boots and Wranglers on and get my hands dirty. We mucked stalls and helped with chores around the ranch. Some of the young men came to help to raise money for camp so that was fun to be there with them. I have grown to love the young men in my ward. Where ever I end up after my mission, I want to be a part of that program. I have come to love it.

We then changed in the truck on the way to Brother P***** house to go to Ken's lesson. Our lesson consisted of finishing up the commandments and talking about the baptism interview questions. He didn't have any issue with paying tithing or keeping the Sabbath Day holy. He has actually seen a difference in going to church every week and feeling the Spirit there. We went over the questions with him and he is having a lot of trouble with the abortion question of the interview. The reason why is because his wife of 30 years had FOUR abortions without telling him. He would have been the father of four children and he has said many times that he wanted to be a father. He feels like he is kind of responsible and feels guilty about what his wife did. So President Crippen is going to interview him, just to make sure that he is okay. Then the greatest thing happened. He said his first audible prayer in front of us! That was seriously one of the proudest moments of my mission. Seeing Ken pray out loud for the first time was incredible. I was on cloud nine for the rest of the night.

We had AP exchanges on Friday so that was super fun. I took Elder Gardner (a really good guy) with me to teach Anita. We taught her about the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Convents and sustaining church officials. We are running out of things to teach her so we are getting creative. We then took her to see the baptismal font stairs. She wanted to see them so we took her there to see it. After her lesson, we went to Chipotle and got a salad. It was über good then we went back to work. We knocked on a lot of doors and talked to a lot of people. We even chased chickens too haha. Our lesson with the S*****'s was hard for me. Brother S***** didn't accept baptism and it seriously broke my heart. It has been such a long hard road with him. I want their family to be an eternal family so badly... So I wasn't in the best mood Friday night.

We picked up a new investigator on Friday and had a funny experience with it. We went to a missionary farewell party for the Stake President's son who is a good friend of ours. He had other young woman come from the other wards where the Sisters are serving. There were all over us like hawks! I was funny, they sure are Elder deprived. But we are going to teach a guy from there so that will be good.

I had a super spiritual experience on Sunday night with our dinner appointment.They were an older couple, just married about 6 months ago. The husband is an amazing man. He went on to tell us a story about this family that really touched me. It is the story of the prodigal son, but in modern times. The parents lost a son who went wayward and never came back. They never hear from him for five years. Well, this couple gets called to a couples mission in Philly. They were on a special proselyting mission so they actually went and knocked doors. They felt prompted to go down this rough looking street and knock. So they did and guess who they found? They found their lost son. They talked with him and brought him back into the fold. He was that prodigal son.

Well, that was my week. A lot of ups and downs. It will be a busy week for me again. Love y’all so much!

Elder Tonini

P.S. Hey Uncle Ross - thanks for the Lance Armstrong quote (above). He may be a cheater but he never quit!

email: January 22, 2013

Subject: Talofa!

The library was close for MLK Day so you get my email today! Let me tell you, I love getting the emails from the kids. I love hearing about how they are doing and their super busy lives. I played basketball yesterday and it seriously destroyed me. My knees and ankles are definitely paying for it today. I did get a pair of Jordans to play in, and they only cost me 7 bucks! So that was nice to play in. I actually felt like I belonged on the court ha-ha. Living there in Seminole has really opened the kids eyes to how my everyday life is in how people talk to us. We hear all SORTS of crazy things and people telling us that we are wrong. I actually had a conversation with a man outside the library that told me that we don't need Priesthood anymore. It has been a great learning and growing opportunity for the entire family!

Our week was filled with baptisms! I know, it's rough to have to have that as a missionary. I have come to realize that running a baptismal service is very stressful at times! Coordinating everything and getting everything set up can be super chaotic. We had a baptism on Wednesday and on Saturday. On Wednesday, we couldn't get into the building to start filling the font! The code we had for the building was no good. Luckily, the old bishop for the Samoan ward lives across the street so his wife was able to let us in. Blake's baptism on Wednesday went SUPER well. His whole family came, even his dad. Since we made it a mutual activity, there was a huge turnout for Blake. Elder Spencer came back from the desert to speak on baptism and I spoke on the Holy Ghost. I tried my hardest to not get emotional in front of everyone. I spoke with just my scriptures and let the Spirit guide me in what I needed to say. The coolest part of the whole experience was seeing Jeff baptize Blake. Right before they got in the water, I went in to make sure that they were good and ready to go. The three of us had a tender moment together right before they got into the water. It has been very humbling for me to see how much the Spirit has worked on these two young men. They were both very emotional before they got into the water together. Jeff did the baptism wonderfully and it was so powerful to watch. After the baptism, our wonderful Bishop decided to confirm Blake right after so that his parents could be there. He asked me to confirm him so I did. That was probably the most powerful blessing I have ever given to anyone. Again, I was trying so hard not to cry but towards the end I couldn't help it. Blake gave me the biggest hug with tears in his eyes after I confirmed him. It has been a crazy road to see how far he has come. Blake's little brother wants to come to church and everything with him but the dad isn't allowing it. The dad did NOT look happy during the entire baptism. So we will have to see how things work out with the rest of the family but right now, Blake is happy and that is all that matters.

Kind of a cool side note: after the baptism we needed a few more OYMs to get our 20 for the day so we went to a parking lot to talk to a few more people. I approached this well-dressed gentlemen and he was a limo driver. He let us in the limo and check it out! I'll send pictures of it next week :)

The baptism for Yaya went well on Saturday. I love the Samoan culture! Everyone there feels like family. The baptism was supposed to start at 7 pm but we had to wait for her uncle to get here from Long Beach so we waited for half an hour for him to get here. That was a good baptism as well, it was cool to see her uncle baptize her. The uncle looked like and talked like he just came from Compton, outside Los Angeles. You could tell he has had a rough past and cleaned up. That was a testament to me that anyone can change and that God looks on the heart and not on outward appearance. Besides the wait for their uncle, everything went smoothly. Well, except when Yaya had to be dunked twice because the first time her forearm was out of the water so she got to do it again ha-ha. She scared us on Sunday because she got there super late when we were going to confirm her but she did make it in time.

Sunday was an awesome day because Blake got the Aaronic Priesthood! Jeff gave it to him and it was so awesome to be a part of that. Those two young men are going to grow into wonderful men. Jeff's mom was about to kill me because we didn't go get her so that she could be there Jeff gave Blake the priesthood! Mom can probably imagine how that would feel to miss that with her sons... I felt so bad but the Bishop didn't go get her and it totally slipped my mind. We then had a super emotional lesson in Priest Quorum as well. It was all about father and sons. I felt for Blake because the relationship he has with his father is broken. The Spirit worked on his during that lesson and he was just as emotional, if not more than I have ever seen him. It made me appreciate Dad and who he is to me. Our priest quorum advisor is a very inspired man. He didn't know why he needed to talk about this subject but he did. That was the lesson that Blake needed. The Spirit can do so many things and it can touch the hearts of so many people. I am so grateful that I had parents who helped me to understand and recognize those feelings. I love y'all!

I hope you have a wonderful week! I love you all and miss y'all so much. I look forward to Monday's in getting to write to you and hear from you. I can't wait to talk to y'all again. Love you!

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: January 7, 2013

I am glad to hear that things went well for y'all for the New Year. Mom, when you go to Virginia to help Aunt Annie, give everyone there a huge hug for me! Especially Drake, Luke, and Mason. Dad mentioned in his letter that y'all's church building is under renovation. That is awesome to hear! Too bad I won't be able to see it when I get back... But needless to say, that is exciting. I am going to FREEZE in North Dakota! I already freeze when it is only 45 degrees outside... But I am excited for the new change and for the great opportunity for Dad to excel in his career.

Well, transfers came and went and I am staying a zone leader here in MoVal. However, Elder Spencer is leaving to the desert. My new companion is currently serving in one of the other wards here in MoVal and lives in my apartment with me. He is a Samoan and he is my new comp and zone leader! It was pretty exciting to hear the news about him being my new comp. We already know each other and get a long very well so it will be a fun time spending it with him. I love this calling as zone leader. Even though I am not perfect whatsoever, I do like serving others. It helps me to get my mind off of things that I am struggling with and reminds me why I am here. Elder Spencer leaves this afternoon. It will be hard to see him go but he is moving on to bigger and better things. Also, one of the other Elders in my zone got called to be the zone leader out in the desert where Elder Spencer is going to. Kind of funny in that they are switching positions. Plus we are getting two new missionaries in the zone so that will be fun. Being a missionary's first zone leader is important, so that means I have to step up my game just a little bit more. Overall, transfers went well and I am excited to see how things are going to progress here in MoVal.

So about my week... It was a pretty good one besides the fact that both Spencer and I battled really bad colds. We taught Blake and Ken; they are both progressing well. Blake should be getting baptized here in the next week or so so that will be exciting to see happen. We also ate very well this week. The Bishop's son took us out to Outback for dinner and then a member took us to the Mission Inn in Riverside! Sister A*****, our primary president, called President Smart to get permission to go and take us down there to eat and to see the lights. It was so much fun! They have six-year old twins so that was quite an experience with them. We got to eat at this super nice stake house. Brother Ashley told us to get whatever we wanted so him, Elder Spencer and I got the buffet. All you can eat prime rib, pork loin, and fish! It was super good :).

I got to go back to see Jacob get baptized on Saturday! President Smart gave me permission to go back and see that happen. That was such an emotional baptism for me. I got emotional talking about baptism to him and then we both cried as I embraced him in my arms after the program. It has been so cool to see him come from rock bottom and start to fly. I also went and saw Carol while I was there in Beaumont. It was a good visit with her and she is doing well. She called me last night and told me that she wished she would have gone to the baptism of Jacob. He got up and bore his testimony to everyone. There wasn't a dry eye in the whole chapel, she said. She got to talk to him and told me that he is such an inspiration to her. She also thanked me for my influence on her family and the impact I have made. It is those kind of things that make me love my mission. I love serving and being with the people here.

Well, I love y'all and miss you so much. I think about y'all everyday and y'all are my inspiration to keep working hard. Till next week :)

Elder Tonini

email: December 17, 2012

I am glad that you are enjoying your new job! You seem to have adjusted very well to it. I love that you love giving back to the community. All Christ did was serve, that is a wonderful way to feel how the Savior felt! And thank you for the Texas blanket! I love it, it is my new favorite! We gave everyone Power Ranger names in the zone and I got the name Texas Ranger. It sure fits, huh? :)

Thank you for not forgetting about me and putting up my stocking! I do feel like I am forgotten sometimes... I do feel a little homesick during the holidays but I have been in fantastic wards that help me feel at home. We ate at the B***'s last night and I felt like I was at home with Grandma and Grandpa Tonini. Sister B**** reminds me SO MUCH of Grandma! She spilled something and said "by golly" and I about lost it laughing! It reminded me so much of Grandma. I loved being at their house. They both gave me big hugs when I left and they even call me part of the family. They both talked so much about Grandpa and Grandma. It made me miss Grandpa a lot... But I know partially why I came to Valley View ward: it was to see the B**** family. There is such a special spirit there and it honestly feels like I have grandparents again that I can turn to.

My week has been a busy one. We played basketball on Monday with the zone and that was good times. I am not much of a basketball player but I did make some good shots so that was promising. We are playing basketball against another zone today so I am REALLY looking forward to that. It has actually rained quite a bit here in MoVal! When it rains, it floods because California is ridiculous and not know how to drain their streets. So we had fun driving through the puddles in the truck :).

We taught quite a few lesson this week and have seen some awesome progress! Our big lesson on Tuesday was Ken and he is a Wicken. Elder Chambers actually taught him when he was here in the ward! He stopped investigating but one day called us up and wanted us to come back and teach him. We have answered all of his questions and has actually said that our beliefs line up very closely to what he believes. We don't know if he went to church or not but hopefully we can put him on date for later this month or early next month.

The craziest lesson we had was when we went back to this return appointment that we got while Harvesting. It was actually a girl that Chambers had taught a year ago. She lives with her sister and we came back to visit her and got into a HUGE discussion of very weird things. The worst part was... they were both attractive. Oh boy... However, it turned out very interesting. Their beliefs were off the wall! They believe in Christianity/Hinduism/Buddhism/Scientology but they attend a Christian church. We were there for over an hour, answering quite personal questions and STUPID "what-if" questions. The Spirit was NOT there and it was very noticeable that it wasn't. Needless to say, we got out of there as fast as we could but we did NOT feel good there. So we will see what will happen with them.

We got a new investigator on Friday from a member in our ward. He is a chiropractor and one of his clients has been investigating the church but has had some real issues with her ward where she lives in Orange County. So she wants to take the lessons here with Doc and with us. She is a fantastic woman, looking for the truth. Her real only issue is that she is VERY sensitive so we have to tread carefully not to offend her. Otherwise, we will lose her trust in us. But she has awesome fellowship with Doctor C***** and us. We taught her about the true meaning of the Atonement and Christ's sacrifice for us. The true meaning of Charity is sacrifice and that was what we taught her and help her apply to her life. On top of having a good lesson, Doc gave me an adjustment and I have been feeling better! I get a free adjustment every time I go over there :) and it is fantastic! I left feeling spiritually uplifted and physically uplifted!

Our baptism that we were going to have got pushed back to Saturday. We are actually having TWO baptisms on Saturday! That will be a first for me on my mission, baptizing two individual people on the same day. Our investigators are progressing well and it is exciting to see them go through that process. Nelly, one of our eternal investigators, said last night that she is going to give us a final decision if she is going to be baptized. She has been reading and praying, seeing the good change that is happening to her. She had something happen to her on Saturday that was a huge wake up call to her so hopefully that was the change for her. We don't know what exactly happened but it was big enough to knock her on her knees and want to change. So there will be some fasting this week for her so she will get her answer!

Other than that, things are going well. I still struggle with a few things but I am learning how to cope with it and to not let it affect me. The holidays will be hard for me but don't worry, I will focus on other things rather that those issues. I have a new found love for Christmas because the true reason has so much for meaning to me. I love this time of year because Christ the reason for the season! I love y'all and miss everyone dearly. Have a wonderful Christmas and send all of our family my love!

Elder Andrew B. Tonini