"If God's willin' and the creek don't rise!" - Elder Anderson

Thank you for the prayers. Elder Anderson and I are just fine after our eventful bike wrecks. It keeps us on our toes haha. We are fine though, nothing a little bit of sleep and dirt can't fix. I am glad Dad got to talk to Bishop G**** this week. We had lunch with them and it was super fun. I will tell the story later. Alright, ready for my week? Let's go!

Monday was super fun because we got to go to the mall to get our haircut by Sister Jimenez! She washed my hair and rinsed it and everything! We went with Rodney, who we are working with to be baptized this next month, and I got to know him a little bit more. He is such a good guy. He is gonna be the best convert ever! So we did that and came home to wait for dinner to be dropped off and then we went off to see Cale and Allisen and Nick. Our lessons went well and we are making slow progress with Cale and Nick but we are gonna get there.

I had a meeting with the Zone Leaders and then had DDM which went really well. I don't exactly remember what I trained over but what was important was what happened after our meeting. Sister Jenkins approached me and asked if I could give her a blessing. I said of course and so I sat down with her and she told us what was going on. So Elder Johansen anointed and I sealed the blessing. Once again, I amaze myself because I say things that are NOT coming from my mouth but from God. She is doing really well now so that blessing really worked :). We then emailed because we couldn't on Monday and then we went and saw Tom again. He is doing well, I actually got to stand in his pool! Haha it was empty but it was still cool because his house was built in the early 1900's. After dinner with the E****, which was super fun to eat with them, we went to Kaiser again to visit Sister Wilma Mackey. When we got there, we found that she wasn't in ICU anymore and we got to see that she was getting better! That was awesome to see because she hadn't talked to us yet because of the breathing tube and everything. It was a fun way to end the end seeing Sister Mackey.

Wednesday morning, we rode to go see the G**** family and talk to them about Melissa. We then also talked to Bishop about our situation with Cale and he gave us some HUGE revelation for us in regards to his family. It was super cool to see actually. The Spirit is such a wonderful tool! We talked with them and that was when Bishop emailed Dad about his brother and then we went out to eat at the Greek Street grill. While we were there, Sister G**** saw one of her old "flings" and Bishop made a huge scene about it. It was super funny! Poor Sister G**** was so embarrassed but she was a good sport; that's why she is so awesome :). After lunch, we saw Tom again and taught him more of the Book of Mormon. He is another person who is making slow but small steps. We just gotta be patient and coach him through it all. We then printed off a talk at the library for Kim and Cale for our lesson that night and then went to Kaiser again to see Sister Mackey. She is getting better! Yeah buddy! Our lesson with Cale went well, it was super spiritual and I hope and pray that he takes it in and really considers the things we say. It was a good way to end the night :).

Thursday started off by seeing Sister Mackey again but her daughter wasn't there so we planned on coming by later that afternoon. We ran to the church to make some copies but the ink was going out so we're gonna have to do it another day. We came home to eat lunch and then headed back out to see Wilma. We walked with her and her daughter and taught another lesson to her about faith. She isn't a member and her daughter has been trying to get her to listen but now she actually is! Sister Jenkins told us that she wished we were the missionaries in her ward! It was very humbling to hear her say that. We got back from Kaiser and waited for Brother Hill to come pick us up for John's lesson. That ran a little long because he kept talking and we ended up dropping him because he said he wasn't willing to change. It'll be a bummer but he wasn't going anywhere so we need to focus on some other people. So we came home to start weekly planning and then went out with Brother M**** to go eat with him. We taught him about missionary work and about his co-worker that he is working on. It is super cool to see members being missionaries! I love it!

This is Sister Mackey before she went home! Sure do love her!

So we had to say goodbye to Sister Wilma Mackey on Friday... That was super hard because we had grown to love her oh so much! We actually gave her a Book of Mormon that had my testimony written in the flyleaf of it. The story behind that is that we kept placing them in the meditation room in the hospital but they kept disappearing. I guess the chaplain kept taking them and so Brother Jenkins asked for one and he gave the copy with my testimony in the front to him, out of all the ones we placed before and after that, he chose that one. It was crazy! And now Wilma is open to reading it and listening now. Her daughter bore such a sweet testimony to her mother that almost had me in tears. It was hard to not get emotional when we left but I kept my composure haha. We made more visits that afternoon and then we had dinner with the Gu**** family and it was super fun! We went to IHOP and it made me think of Grandpa Tonini so that was kinda hard for me at first so I decided to get all-you-can-eat pancakes and eat away my sorrow haha. I ate 10 pancakes and about made myself sick. Their daughter Janea is super funny! She has Downs and is the funniest girl! She kept sneezing and kept saying "piss my nose!" At first I didn't realize what she was saying but then I couldn't help but laugh every time she said it! It was great. We then ran off to see Allison and Nick to confirm Saturday's appointment and we ended up teaching a lesson so that was good! It was a good Friday none the less :).

We had an emergency DLC Saturday morning but the other DL couldn't make it because of "other plans" and that didn't set well with me. Step up brother and magnify your calling! Anyways, we had a good DLC and then helped to clean the church. The Gu****'s took Elder Anderson to go mail some books home for him so that was a blessing for him. After that, we had lunch with Allison and Nick again. Part of lunch was going to the park to get the kids out of the house before we ate and it was super fun! I played on this spinning thingy with Ryker and it was awesome! I about got sick every time but I had fun making him fly off haha. Yes, I still haven't changed, I am the biggest kid still. Anyways, that was super fun and then we taught them about Church and committed them to come but they didn't... Can't give up on them though! We had a correlation meeting the our ward mission leader and then ran off to dinner. Dinner was with a Samoan family and I felt right at home! We told story after story and it was a ton of fun. I love my mission for the super spiritual stories and the crazy ones! It was a fun way to end the night :).

Sunday was unusual because we never go to ward council but we did this Sunday so it kind of threw us off. We went and then left early to make our church visits to Cale and Nick but they didn't come... Neither did Rodney or Melissa so we had no one at church! That stunk :( but it was good none the less. There was some deep doctrine talked about at the pulpit and then the rest of church was good. Anderson got a real bad headache and so we came home for him to rest and kick it so that we could finish the night. We went to dinner with the G**** which is always fun. They know one of my MTC buddies, Oliver Weight, that went home early and he sent me a message through them so that was exciting too! We finished out OYMs and came home to have a beat box and rap session haha. Overall, it was a decent week. I just wish that we could've had people at church!

It's crazy for me to think that my mission is almost over and that these experiences that I have had and will have will be done. It's a testimony to me that this is the Restored Church of Christ and of how much peace the Gospel brings to people. It has changed my life into the man I need to be and that God wants me to be. I love it and I am not ashamed of it! No matter how many times people swear at us or call us gay, it doesn't matter. Christ was ridiculed like that and being His representative so will I. I sure do love this work and I am glad to have been in the service of it. I love y'all and hope y'all stay warm and have a great week! Keep repenting daily and working hard everyday to open your mouth! Love y'all :)

- Elder Tonini

email: I'm The New Relief Society President!

I am super stoked that Jake is going to get his mission application in soon. Is he going to put his availability date after I get home? My release date is February 24th, by the way. I lost a week so that's when I'll be home. Ready for me week? Leggo!

Monday was a usual PDay. We played some sports and then I went home and worked out. I have grown to love working out. It relieves a TON of stress that I've been feeling lately with personal things. We went to dinner and then we were supposed to go to the hospital in our area to give someone a blessing but the room and floor number that was given to us didn't exist and so we finished up our OYMs and then called it a night. Pretty relaxed PDay – we got a lot of stuff done and was able to relax for a bit.

On Tuesday, we had our usual DDM and it went okay. We had to be there early for District Leaders’ Council so I got to chat with Elders Anderson and Passmore during that time so that was fun. We had a good meeting and then came home for lunch. We had our companionship study to get ready for the day with our lessons and then we headed out. Ivan was our first lesson and we had a good one with him. He is starting to soften his heart so that is a plus big time. We made a bunch of stops that afternoon before we got picked up to go out to eat at Olive garden with the J*** family. While we were eating, President Smart called us to talk. I thought he was going to come by and see us again but it was for a referral at the hospital. Remember that appointment we had on Monday night? Yeah, we got the right room number that time haha. At the hospital, we gave a blessing and taught a lesson so that was good. We then ran off to teach Kale and that went well too. We did put him on date for baptism on the 21st so we are gonna keep working with him to make that happen. Slowly but surely, good things are happening here!

On Wednesday, we gave some service with Elders Thurman and Passmore in their ward. It was a good time; I enjoy getting my hands dirty and making an impact on someone. We then cleaned up and went to go see Eddy. On my goodness, it was the craziest lesson ever. First he tells us that he has just taken six narcos (super strong narcotic pain meds) that morning and that he wanted us to burn frankincense with him. We stayed but then he asked us if we wanted to break bread with him. We at first said no but then he got super disappointed so we said why not. Bad idea... Hahah we broke Hawaiian King rolls and he drank wine while we drank cranberry juice. He said the prayer and everything and we had the "sacrament" with him. Super blasphemous but super funny! Whoops. We had a lesson with Tom and he is hopefully going to go somewhere soon in his progression. It was pie night in the stake so we went to that and got to eat pie with my best friend Janea G****! It was a fun way to end the night :). Elders Thurman and Passmore came over and we hung out because it was basically another PDay eve! We played soda pong and almost saw Passmore throw it all up. Good times! It was a ton of fun with them.

Turkey day was on Thursday! Best part about Thanksgiving is football. Our

ward challenged another ward to play and we beat them in style. But oh man, did it get heated and physical. I made a really nice diving catch, SportsCenter worthy, and broke up some passes. I got some pretty cool pictures I'll have to send home, it was a ton of fun. After that, we came home to sleep and then went to Bishop's house to eat. It was okay, nothing too exciting happened. We did have some screaming good pie though from Claim Jumper! The Elders came and picked us up and we headed back to our apartment to play some more pong! Elders Kava and Ete drove up so it was fun to get to see them again. Thanksgiving was a good break and nice to spend it with the other Elders in the mission field :).

Friday was supposed to be exchanges but that was kind of pointless because it was weekly planning... That was kind of a bust so Elder Passmore and I planned and then taught a few lessons. The guy we went to see that night had the craziest story. He is a veteran and he told me the most awesome but humbling story I have ever heard. He has two tattoos on his forearms; an angel on his right arm and an angel of the devil on his left. The symbolism behind what that means is crazy. His right hand is to shake people's hand in a friendly way but he is a left-handed shooter, the bad side of what he does. It gave me chills. Vince is a cool guy, I wish he was my investigator! We then exchanged back and as always, we always have an adventure :).

Saturday was transfer Saturday! It is always bitter sweet to hear what happens. We finished up some weekly planning and then went out to make our church visits. I got SUPER sick overnight and I had to power through it to make the day work. I doped up on cold medicine and powered through it. We pulled a prank on Elder Passmore that we all got called into leadership and we were leaving him there all by himself. He believed us for such a long time, it was great. We didn't have a dinner so we went to In and Out for the last supper together as the four amigos. Our zone leaders came over because Elder Coleman left his scriptures at our place and we found out that Coleman is the new Assistant. Good for him! I did have to have a talk with the other zone leader because I heard he was saying stuff bad about me behind my bad so I had to let him know NICELY that he can't be doing that. It'll save him grief down the road later. We found out that Elder Thurman is going to Elsinore to be a district leader there. We got transfers and I am staying! However, we got moved into the Jurupa zone and I am the new district leader over ALL SISTERS. Joy! Hence the reason I am Relief Society President is because I have all Sisters. But I am excited to work with the new zone leaders and district leader so I am pretty excited about it. I wasn't expecting to be district leader again but I guess I still have a job to get done.

Sunday stunk because I still left like garbage. We went to church but no one showed... We came home and I crashed for four hours to try and get feeling better. I started to before we left for dinner but it got worse as the night went on. I had to keep doped up on cold medicine to keep me going. I guess that's life. We had dinner with the Johnson family and we got our OYMs and called it a night. Overall, it was a fun week for sure. A lot of ups and downs but it was good. Oh! I did wreck again this week and it was a bad one. I can’t remember what day it was but Elder Anderson ran my head over when I ate it right in front of him. Good thing I had a helmet! Hahaha always an adventure with us.

I am excited to get to talk to y’all very soon for Christmas! I can’t wait to talk to the family. I have some news that I want to tell y’all in person so get ready for it :). I love y’all so much. I love my Savior and all that He does for me. I am so grateful for repentance and that I have that chance to be made clean again. I love this work and I am going to get my greenie fire back for these last two transfers! Stay warm up in the great white north and we will talk soon :). I love y’all!

Elder Tonini

email: November 25, 2013

I am glad to hear that everyone had a great week! I can feel for Mom with the headaches, I have been battling one for almost a week that won't go away. Jake told me that he is getting close to getting his papers started! I am super excited and proud of that boy. He is going to be a wayy better missionary than I ever was. Corina told me about her birthday and I am glad she growing up so quickly. Everyone is getting so old except for me! I love that Carson goes and plays in the snow. That'll be my favorite thing to go do with him in February. Hopefully there will still be some snow. Ready for my week? Shake and bake!

I got my haircut on Monday and I was looking fresh! I got a fade from one of the sisters in my ward that does hair and it looked good. I get my haircut every two weeks; I gotta find a girl who can cut hair otherwise I am going to spend some serious money on my hair haha. We actually played football with the other Elders so that was fun. I was sitting with the Elders when one of them pulled me aside and we started talking. He asked me what I thought of him and if I thought he was dorky and geeky, if I would pick on him with we were in high school and stuff like that. I told him of course not; I'm not like that at all. He thought that because he labeled me as a "jock" and he didn't have a good high school experience with kids like that. I reassured him that I wouldn't do that and that I loved him a ton. After that talk, we went and played football with him and on the last play of the game, he caught the winning touchdown pass. It was so awesome to see him get like that, all excited and happy. It made my Pday. After that, we emailed and had lunch. We hung out and I worked out that afternoon until we had dinner with the P**** family. Their kids make me laugh, their youngest is such a sweetheart - she makes me smile every time I see her. We then went to a part-member family (PMF) to give the wife a blessing and taught more about the priesthood. One of the sisters in our ward told us that her husband really likes us and so hopefully we can start teaching their whole family soon. A pretty productive Pday :).

We had our usual meeting on Tuesday but Elder Thurman got pretty sick so he had Elder Coleman train and it was really good. We made goals and set plans to help ourselves become the best missionary we can be. It was super inspiring. I actually miss training every week. I don't think my Sisters do because I tended to talk a little deeper topics than usual district leaders do... Whoops! We then had lunch and finished our studies. As part of our studies, Elder Anderson and I had a really deep companionship inventory. We talked about our weaknesses and what would keep us from baptizing in this area. We wrote it all down and made a system to keep ourselves accountable to each other. It was much needed because we are imperfect but yet we can make those weaknesses become strengths. We are gonna really focus on this this last week of the transfer. We made visits in the afternoon and then had dinner with the J*** family in our ward. It was a fun dinner; their kids are pretty crazy sometimes though. When we were leaving a quick lesson, their one-year old daughter walked up to me and sat next to me and I read her a book while Elder Anderson taught. Goodness, it makes me ready for a family! Time will come though. We then ran off to teach Kale, one of our PMF we are working with. The family loves us - we are actually having Thanksgiving dinner with them so it'll be exciting. We taught the first part of the Plan of Salvation and they understood it really well. The homework we left with them was Alma 40 to get them ready for next week when we come and teach the rest of the plan. Our goal as a companionship was to get five member present lessons this week and we got it! It was awesome to feel that accomplishment. Our goal is to get seven this week so we're gonna have to work pretty hard to make that happen!

We started off our Wednesday with a super big deep clean of the apartment. We are starting fresh and cleanliness is close to godliness so we took that as our fresh start. It was a good thing too because we felt refreshed and ready to make big things happen! We made a visit to a less-active member who is super sick to see how she was doing. We talked with her and made sure she was doing okay and left a brief lesson with her before she left for chemo. The only downfall was that my gastritis was acting up and it was become quite uncomfortable so I didn't eat very much that night at dinner at Farmer boys. We then rode to Dale’s house to have him ride his bike with us to our appointment that night. We taught Richard again and it went well. Dale and I have some conflicting doctrinal views but I put that aside and we taught well together. As we were leaving the house, Elder Anderson went to OYM this guy walking down the street and they almost got into a physical confrontation. The guy said something provocative about his sister and he about freaked. I had to jump in to cool him down before he did something stupid. And that's why we roll together in pairs :). And then to make matters worse, it starts to rain. Not just rain, POUR. And we were 15 minutes plus away from home so it was quite a fun ride. #WifePoints When we got back to the apartment, we were soaked. I showered and then went to bed. I was freezing cold! I am gonna die in Minot for sure...

We had our lesson with Ivan that went really well. We both testified and taught the first half of the Plan of Salvation. It was awesome to see the Spirit prick his heart. He started to ask us questions about our missions and about the purpose of life and everything. He really is a good kid, I love him to pieces. Right as we rolled outside to ride home, it started to rain again! It poured all day and we worked in it all day. Awesome! Our dinner went well and went to go see Kale and check up on his reading. It's not happening yet but hopefully soon.

Friday was temple day! I needed to go to the temple so badly; I have had a lot of things on my mind that I needed to go talk to God about. I got an interesting answer in the temple that I will have to tell y'all about when I call home for Christmas. It has a long back story and is super, super personal to me. After the temple, we had our temple nap for lunch and then went out to make some visits. Pizza was dropped off for us for dinner and then we went and saw Carmen again to try and set something up for us to come and teach her. Her six-year old daughter drew me a picture that I hung up on my wall. It was awesome!

All we do on Saturday is make church visits and try to get people to come to church. We stopped by Ladio's house to try and see if he would come but he's working on getting over being sick and so that might not happen. The afternoon was kind of shot due to the fact that I really rolled my ankle during lunch. Elders Thruman and Passmore came over for lunch and we started dancing and I rolled my ankle when I stepped on one of my dumbbells. Yup, I'm a dork I know. It killed all day and so we didn't go everywhere that I wanted to but we made calls to those people we missed. We saw this referral that we got from another missionary and we could tell he was on meth and so we'll see what happens with him. Anita took us to Claim Jumper for dinner because we didn't have anyone sign up so she took us. It was quite an adventure with her that night, it always is with her :). I love her to pieces!

I was pretty dead on Sunday because I started to come down with a sickness so it was a slow day for us. Both Elder Anderson and I came down with something. It was probably from the cold and rain earlier in the week. I still am sick so it'll be a fun week working through it all. Kale came to church so that was good! Our dinner made Thanksgiving dinner early for us so that was good. The only downfall was that I had gotten progressively worse so I didn't eat too much... We played some Uno and got to know the family. We did however, have two lessons with Eddy and Tom, some new people we picked up this week and last so that was good. Overall, it was a good week besides the physical ailments I am working though.

In closing, I want y'all to know how much I love MY Savior. I am so grateful for daily repentance; it is something all of need to learn and master because that is the only way back to the Father. I have grown to love the scriptures and the doctrine within its pages. I love that we have modern day prophets and the power and love they have for us. This is the most important work we can do. I'm not a full time missionary, only part time. Y'all as members ARE the full-time missionaries because y'all live in the area and make huge impacts. Keep opening your mouth and share the good news of the Gospel! I love y'all and I'm counting down the days until Christmas time!

- Elder Tonini

email: November 18, 2013

Subj: I love SUNNY Southern California :)

TODAY IS CORINA'S BIRTHDAY!!!! I can't believe my baby sister is 16 now. That is crazy! She told me all about her party and how it went. I love that sister of mine! She's one of my sweethearts :). The other one is Mom and then the last one will be my future wife, when that time comes. I watched the video of Carson wrestling and I was basically cheering in the library! I was getting some funny stares from people... I love hearing about how Jake is doing. I am soo stoked Jake is getting ready for his mission! He is gonna be twice the missionary I will ever become. I am so excited for him. I am going to make a call into one of the senior couples who helps with that process of applying for schools. I want to apply to BYU and Utah State and maybe even that school in Bismark Dad told me about. I want a few options so I can be taken care of. Ready for me week? Leggo :)

On Tuesday we emailed in the morning after DDM and that took a big chunk of our day. DDM went well, Elder Passmore trained and it was awesome! I love that missionary so much. He is such a character. I am having issue with one of my Zone Leaders so DDM is kind of hard for me. We then had a bomb lesson with Karmen and finally introduced the Book of Mormon to her. We hadn't had the chance to do it before because sitting down with her has been impossible so we decided to teach her about it on her doorstep. It went well and the scripture I shared hit her deep. Hopefully that will be the spark she needs! We then had dinner with the Jones family and that was fun. They have a one year old that came and sat next to me during the lesson with them and it was awesome. I can't wait to be a dad one day :). Our lesson with a recent convert/part-member family went well too! His name is Cale and we just picked him up. His wife was just baptized and so we are now gonna work with him. It was a good lesson, Elder Anderson and I teach really well together. I have been blessed to have him. We then got our OYMs and called it good for the night!

We had visits to do all Wednesday and we ended up picking up a former investigator and teaching Richard again! He started to dive deep into some deeper doctrine so that was a fun lesson haha. Our dinner with the B*** family went okay. The bad thing was that I voiced my opinion a little too far and kind of made Sister B*** mad.. Whoops. Oh well, she's not going to hold that against me I hope. We then went and saw our ward mission leader to have our correlation meeting. We hadn't seen him in a week and a half because of some family stuff but it was good to see him. We got our OYMs and called it good for the night.

We had our lesson with Ivan on Thursday and it went better than we had thought it was gonna go. He is willing to give us another shot and to keep praying. We came down on him hard but with love so hopefully he really felt that. We had weekly planning and made some visits to people. Our dinner was with the H*** family and that was a good dinner. I had some really good tacos and had a good conversation. Our follow up lesson with Cale went awesome! We brought a receipt convert with us (just baptized four months ago) and he testified so well to Cale! It was awesome. We then went to the church to meet his friend and we are going to hopefully start teaching. The Elders Quorum was practicing some football for Thanksgiving and so we jumped it. It was a fun way to end our night!

Friday was a good day, we gave a blessing to a less active lady in our complex and then had a bomb dinner. However, I wrecked my bike pretty bad before dinner. It was my fault but it still was pretty bad. We were riding a dirt trail doing 180's in the dirt with our bikes. I went a little too hard and I tanked it super bad. I was fine but it was right before dinner and so I showed up all dirty and stuff. Good times! We had some bomb carne asada with the M**** family. Our appointment cancelled and so we went on an obedience ride. I stayed on two tires for the rest of the night haha.

Saturday was rough for us because Elder Anderson came down with a head cold and I had a pounding headache from the night before and so we had a really slow morning. We studied and then got a call from Brother G**** about taking us to go ship our books home we got from the sister who passed away a few weeks ago. He paid to ship almost a 100 lbs of books to North Dakota. It was such a blessing to me. We then did some service for Cale's in-laws and invited them to church. The G*** came back and took us out to eat because we didn't have a dinner. That dinner was so much fun. They have a 27-year-old Down syndrome daughter that is so much fun. She has a "boyfriend" and she talks about him all the time. She told the waitress she wanted "aqua" and that she can speak Spanish. Classic! It was so much fun. We got our OYMs and called it a night.

Sunday was full of ups and downs. I can get really frustrated with our ward but I am learning patience with them though so it’s okay. I was in a pretty bad mood at the end of sacrament meeting when Janae, the G****'s down syndrome daughter, came up to me and showed me her temple book. She talked to me for about five minutes and then called me her pretty boy and then gave me a hug. It was super funny! It made my day. We then had a brief lesson with Ivan and invited him again to church. Our dinner was super cool, it was a young couple and so it made me a little trunkie.. But coming home for the night, both Elder Anderson and I wrecked on our bikes. It was a good time! We were haulin' down the sidewalk and there was this puddle that he decided to try and skid through. He went down on his side and I braked to try and avoid hitting him when my bike skidded and sent me flying over the handle bars. It was a good time haha I loved it! Didn't feel too good but it was quite an experience for me.

Well, that's what's going on with me. I am doing just fine, still trying to figure out who I am. There have been a lot of changes that have happened to me and the Lord is making me into the man He needs me to become and I am so grateful for that. I love y'all and miss y'all so much. I love my Savior and His Atonement for me. It's real and it changes peoples lives. Open your mouth this week and share the gospel!

Elder Tonini

email: November 4, 2013

Ready for my week? Leggo :)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elder Tonini

email: October 21, 2013

Subject: Transfer Monday!

I got a transfer call and I am going to Jurupa! I am pretty excited. It's gonna be a rough four months though. The area is dead, I am getting doubled in with a missionary who is struggling, on a bike, and I have four months left. This is going to be a huge test of my faith. However, Elders Coleman and Moss are gonna be there so it will be a good thing. I am going to miss this area a lot. There have been a LOT of things happen to me here. I have received a lot of revelation about my future, the people here in Hemet and seeing how much of a blessing the gospel can be to people's lives. I am sorry to hear about Mom's headaches. I've got a huge headache because I was fielding ground balls in the gym and I faced planted it into the door frame. Yeah, that didn't feel too good so I can relate haha.

Ready for my week? It's gonna be a quick email because I've gotta go soon. Brother R**** is taking me to Jurupa so I've gotta be mindful of him :).

Monday was fun having dinner with the S**** family. I got to play with the boys and wrestle with them. I seriously can't wait to be a Dad. I’m gonna love it! It was a fun dinner appointment.

Tuesday was the usual DDM and it was weird because I knew that it was going to be my last one. I got Anita to come up and give her testimony. She did so well! I was so proud of her. I have a really hard time when I hear people talk about how good of a guy I am and how amazing I am and stuff. I guess I don't like drawing attention to myself. I do things to not be recognized and when I do get recognized, it's hard on me. She ended up taking a whole group of missionaries out to Red Robin for lunch. She is amazing and I love her to pieces. She also took us out to dinner that night too! I love her so much. We got our OYMs and taught the G**** family that night too.

Wednesday was exchanges and I got to go with Elder Figueroa into the other side of the ward. I did get to bash with a Jehovah's Witness at a doorstep so that was super fun! I shouldn't love bashing but I do. I have gotten really good at making people feel dumb when it comes to religion. What we have to offer is so true that people cannot deny that. They try to do that to me but they can't do that to me :). Okay, I am being a little cocky so I'll stop.

Other than that, things are going well. I am excited for this new adventure and I am going to work as hard as I can. I have found new drive to work and be motivated so I am excited for that. Sorry this is such a short letter. I love y’all so much and hope things are going well there in ND!

Elder Tonini

email: August 5, 2013

I emailed on Wednesday of last week so this may not be the longest email but we had a lot go down this week. Ready for my week? Let’s go!

So after I emailed on Wednesday, we ran off to see the R****' family. Sister R**** got Hawkins and I speed Rubik’s cubes for our Restoration lesson and so we went over to see them. I can't remember if I mentioned that the doctor's found a tumor in Brother R****’ lung so they have been struggling with that recently. They actually called on Tuesday night to have us come over and give him a blessing so we went over there Wednesday afternoon to see him and give him a blessing. I love that family; I have a huge soft spot for them in my heart. After that, we ran to get some OYMs and went to the C***'s for dinner. We ate some awesome chicken and then had correlation with us four elders. It was a long week in regards in getting the area all organized and ready to go. We did though pick up a new part member family. The G**** family has two kids that aren't baptized and have been coming to church every week since they moved in to the ward. Hopefully we can get them baptized this month! Later that night, Sam A*** called me and said he would like a blessing because he's getting anxious about leaving for his mission so I sat down with him and we talked. At the end, I gave him a blessing. It was a good way to end the night.

Thursday was planning day and we seriously planned all day long. We had to go through and split our ward list for the two wards. So we sat down and punched every address into our GPSs and made the decision if it was on the north or the south side of the 74.That took all day to get done basically. I set an appointment to go by and see John P**** again and to introduce his family to the new elders. It went really well, John said that he would be open to being baptized so they are going to keep working with him. Our dinner was good: Chinese food with fried chicken haha. That night, we sat down with the bishopric and went over the ward list again. We discussed names and families and got a lot down for the area. It was Brother P**** that sent the pictures to y’all. Stay in contact with him, his family is awesome! Although we didn't get that much proselyting in, we did get organized so it was a good use of time.

Brother Langston, Brother Porter, ET, Elder Child, and Bishop Mackie

Elder Child and Elder Tonini

Elder Wilkinson, Elder Figueroa, Elder Child, and Elder Tonini

We had our zone meeting Friday morning and it was weird having the zone leaders call me the "patriarch" of the zone. Then Johnson made some smart aleck comment and said "matriarch" under his breath. That kid... Anyways, it was a good meeting and we got a lot done. It is very humbling to have the responsibility over the two sister companionships and being the district leader in starting a new zone. We are going to work! I am super excited. I committed to the zone and to the Lord that we will have two baptisms this month so we gotta get working! After ZDM, we went to Red Robin to eat. We then had dinner with the K**** family and to see them again. Stevie is always fun to be around. We got there a little early and I sat down to play Skip-bo with her. It was super fun! She was talking some smack and it was fun to play. The ZLs didn't like it too much but they'll be okay haha. Our lesson at 7 pm fell through so we checked up on some people and then contacted down the street. We found two potential families that we are going back to see on Saturday. That night, we had a lesson with a family we thought would be a potential part member family. Come to find out, they were. The wife is super less-active and her live-in husband isn't a member. They live in the middle of NO WHERE in Winchester so it was an exciting time trying to find the house at 8 at night. We find it and had a good lesson. They are super funny together and they have 11 dogs living in the house with them! Bob is the biggest hippie and he doesn't have any teeth. It is a riot. I am not sure if anything is going to come of it but we are gonna keep teaching anyways.

Oh goodness, Saturday was busy. We went back to see the two families and got in to both doors! We left a blessing with both of them and invited them to baptism. They didn't accept but they agreed to have us come back. We taught them about the priesthood and a brief thing about the Restoration of the Gospel. We then back to the stake center to work on the ward list again. We got it all split and ready to go. It seriously took almost four hours. We forwent lunch and went straight to dinner at Hometown Buffet with the R*****'s. I stuffed myself and I felt a lot better after that. After dinner, we picked up Denny H and ran off to our two lesson for the night. We saw an elderly lady named Francis W. She has had two strokes and her body is starting to shut down. She is a spiritual giant though! We talked for an hour and got to know her a little bit more. She is almost blind but yet she can still function. I could've talked with her for hours. After her, we ran over to the T**** family to get to know them. They are an active family with eight little kids! I did the Rubik’s cube lesson and they loved it. Every kid wanted to touched the cube and play with it. It was a fun lesson to teach; it was a fun way to end the night.

Sunday is always a long day for us with meetings. We had our correlation meeting with Brother C*** and then had our ward meetings. I struggled with it for a little while because the spotlight was on the ZLs and how they are awesome missionaries and everything. I felt like I wasn't that important; that all they cared about was their work and not mine. But as church started and sacrament meeting came around, I had an interesting thought come into my mind. When Christ was in the pre-existence, He offered to go down and perform the Atonement with no glory for His name. That struck me because that is how I am kind of feeling right now. It gave me strength and gave me a lot of comfort. We all sat on the stand so we could be recognized and bear our testimony's. Being me, I couldn't hold back the tears when I got up to bear my testimony. My heart was so full and that is just came. I have learned so much about the TRUE meaning of charity and that really struck me hard when I got up to speak. After the meeting, Sister V*** pulled me aside and with tears in her eyes told me that she wishes her son could be as good as a missionary as me when he leaves in September. Now THAT was humbling to me; it showed to me that I AM making an impact on the people I meet and come in contact with. The rest of church went well and we ran home to take lunch and do some personal study. We had dinner with the V*** family and then went to get OYMs. I OYM’ed a guy outside of dinner and ended up teaching him of the Restoration. Even though he didn't accept it, we did answer some questions of his. That night, we went to Sam's setting apart for being a missionary in Portugal. I love that guy, I am going to miss him terribly! But yeah, that was my week in a nut shell. Elder Child is doing well and I love living with the Mackie's. I now live with my pet pitbull Porter! I love that dog to pieces; it's like living at home again. It is funny; Elder Child is from the Mormon Bubble so it is taking him some time to get used to everything. He is a good Elder and I love him to pieces already.

I love all of y’all and I hope things are going well. Keep me updated with everything! I want y’all to know that I know my Savior lives and the He loves everyone. He knows me personally and I am glad that I am starting to understand what charity really means. I love being here and I love all of y’all! Have a wonderful week!

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: 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: April 8, 2013

Subj: Conference Weekend

This was such a wonderful week for me. I love General Conference as a missionary. I had one pressing question that I needed to be answered and I got it answered. I love that I get to email friends now as well. Now I get to talk to Jessica too! I finally have a best friend I can tell everything to. I love her to death and I worry about her all the time. I can imagine that Mom is super excited to go to VA. That will be such a wonderful experience for her. Give the family a big hug and let them know that I love them! Wanna hear about my week? Okay, let's go :).

I got a huge surprise on Monday when Victor called me and told me that he was coming up from Beaumont to see me! I got to see my closest friend here in Cali and give him a huge hug. He is almost done with his application to go into the mission field! I am super excited about that for him. We'll get to go to the temple in July together. That will be a huge highlight of my mission! He took us out to a steak house and we talked for hours. I got caught up open what is going on in my old ward and how things are going. He told me something that really struck home to me. When the missionaries there go to people's houses. they always bring up that Elder Chambers and I were the best missionaries that they had ever had. Vic told me that the Elders there are starting to compare themselves to Chambers and me. I had never realized how big of an impact I made in that ward. It really humbled me and gave me that bigger desire to serve even harder. I also bought new dress shoes; they are dress boots, basically. It helps with me ankles SO MUCH. Plus they were only $20! That was sweet too, I love a great bargain. It was a productive PDay for us.

On Tuesday, we went to visit our investigator LQ and see how she was doing. She told us that she was busy but that we could come by and see her. We ended up talking with her for an hour and a half on her door step. Funny how that happens sometimes. We rushed off from LQ to Ken's house to invite him to General Conference. He is doing so well! He is excited for the temple and he is reading his scriptures like crazy. He also is dating a LDS woman as well! That was super cool too. We talked and got into a deep doctrine discussion. Oops haha but he loves talking about the Gospel like that.

We met with Norma on Wednesday and had an awesome lesson! It was another drop-by lesson that turned into a three hour discussion. She would just talk to us about what is going on and things happening in her life. We are making real progress with her. Elder Coleman shared 2 Nephi 31 with her and we read part of it together. During that time, we BOTH received the impression that she needed to get invited to be baptized. So Coleman invited her and she said yes! With tears in her eyes, she said yes. It was super awesome that she felt the Spirit and wanted to come unto Christ. Plus we found out that she has cousin's that are LDS! Small world. We then went to the S*****'s and taught them as well.

Thursday was our monthly meeting in Riverside with all the zone leaders and the mission president. During these meetings, I just sit back and watch the people who talk. I cannot stand leaders who get up and say something to make themselves look better than the others. That is why I sit back and not say anything. I'll only say something if I cannot keep my mouth shut for much longer. But then we weekly planned and got ready for our zone meeting on Friday. We went by and visited Ken again and talked more deep doctrine with him haha. He loves it though and it is fun to teach him. Then I OYMed this guy that I got into a bash with for no reason! He told me that he couldn't talk to me because Joseph Smith wasn't a true prophet. That pissed me off and then I went into defensive mood and told him otherwise. I shouldn't have done that because I ended up me getting more frustrated and getting each other pissed off. He couldn't deny me though so he kept changing the issue and I would answer it every time. People amaze me sometimes.

Friday was our usual meeting with Anita and our zone meeting and it went well. I love speaking in front of people. Crazy huh? Haha but yes, it went well. We learned from Coleman that in two years, we only have 200 days to proselyte. That blew my mind. Put my mission in a different perspective. But it went well and our zone plan is going to work! Saturday was filled with conference. Priesthood session was super good as well. It isn't the same without getting ice cream afterwards so we went and did that :). Plus we got to meet Ken's girlfriend so that was pretty sweet :). Sunday was good with giving one of our neighbors a blessing and teaching them about the restoration. I love bearing my testimony to people! Sunday conference was good and dinner with the Bishop went well. Tri-tip steak is always good eating :)

My testimony is this. Jesus IS the Christ, my Savior and Redeemer. I love the Gospel and the Atonement He gave for me personally. Joseph Smith was and always will be a prophet and NO ONE can take that way from me! The Book of Mormon is the word of God, same with the Bible. I love my Heavenly Father and I am so grateful for challenges that make me stronger. I love you, Mom and Dad. Thank you for your example to me!

Elder Tonini