Week 83 – 22 PSI – Elder Gideon Tonkinson, Washington Everett Mission

Hello!So this week was solid. Lots of teaching and lots of exchanges. We had a decent number of lessons that were pretty good but nothing extraordinary or any lessons that I just thought really changed someone’s perspective which stinks. I really just love the feeling after a lesson feeling like they just had a whole change of perspective. Nothing feels better than just seeing someone change little by little. I guess some good specific lessons were when we had a lesson with our friend Gabriel for the first time in like a month. Another was with Adrian when he after the lesson wanted to read the Book of Mormon. Solid week though, getting weird just thinking about how since yesterday night I’ve started to have my lasts in the mission field. It doesn’t feel quite real yet and I don’t know if it will until the tag comes off or until I’m in the airport. It’s just interesting to be winding down in time, but at the same time I’m trying to look forward with hope and excitement for the next phase of life. Caleb at the beginning of the mission said this to me when I was going through a tough time “Keep up the hard work, embrace the changes, remember fondly and with soft sadness the things whose time have past and relish the things whose time has finally arrived.” I’ve been trying to apply this to my mission and life after and not trying to be so sad to be leaving. At this point I need to stop thinking about impossible what ifs like, “oh man how awesome would it be to extend for a while longer like this and this and this could happen in area and I could see it.” That’s not a possibility though so I’m working on letting go and trying to be ready for this next phase of life. Anyways returning to the missionary work of this week as I mentioned there were lot of exchanges. So the first was on Tuesday with Elder Gabor and it was a solid one. Elder Gabor is an awesome missionary and just a hard worker but also funny. We did a lot of service and then got to have a meeting with their bishop which was solid. The bishop and his family are awesome, just by the feeling of the Spirit in their home and their words you can tell that they’re truly converted. We also had interviews with President Auna and it was good. About half of it was him asking me who I would recommend to replace me as a zone leader here and then he asked me to describe my mission in one sentence so here’s what I said “An experience that has taught me how to be grounded and rooted in the gospel of Jesus Christ and to submit my will to the Lord’s.” He said I could use that to start a talk so I’ll probably do that because it’s a solid idea haha. He then finished off with just a you’ve done well and a prayer… But then after the prayer he was in essence said “also Elder Tonkinson many missionaries in the mission get together after this mission…just a thought.” I then clarified sure President but only AFTER the next two weeks, just to be clear I’m planning on finishing strong. So that was funny but it was also comforting to hear from him that I had done well. Then Thursday I had an exchange with Elder Ciccarelo and it was just a busy day with a couple lesson, some coordination meetings and stuff. Elder Ciccarelo is a very solid missionary, just works hard and understands the gospel and he is very humble. He’s an awesome example. Okay so not too many exchanges its just hard when we really like our area and it’s easier to stay together haha. Luckily this last week we don’t have any so Elder Christensen and I are going to work hard and just do all we can to fill every second with good things. So yeah that’s about it. Oh Sunday we got a flat tire… So we had to switch that. At some point we ran over a screw, not sure when we just did. We saw that one tire was at 22 PSI Sunday morning and we were like nah it’s fine… Probably a fluke… Yeah then it started dropping more… So yeah we changed it in the Church parking lot after church so that was fun. Oh we also got stuff to make bracelets from Hobby Lobby because we had to get stuff for a gift for President and Sister Auna and Elder Christensen also went there before to buy stuff for his bracelet company last year… So yeah we’ve made some of those and that’s been a fun night time activity
Questions -Top five of the past week? –
In no particular order1. Exchanges2. Interviews 3. Lesson with Adrian 4. Personal Studies 5. Bracelets

How has you time as a full-time missionary changed you? – I just feel better. Different. Specifics are hard and I think more easily seen by outside auditors as Elder Maxwell called them. But I feel like I’ve just grown to be better all around
Share a moment you were taught by the Spirit – Hmm good question I think I was taught most when there was a situation I could have gotten mad at and probably would have been furious at in the past and just let it go because it wasn’t worth getting mad. So I think over time it’s taught me charity and patience… Although slowly
How have you been blessed by someone else in the past week? – I was blessed this week by being able to learn from all the exchanges.