Thanksgiving was this week, and it was definetly different than any in the past, but still really good. We went over to the Barrett’s, and they also had there family over. It was a lot of fun to be in a big family setting, but a little sad that is wasn’t my own.
This week we had pretty decent success in finding some new people. There was one girl we met who we think can be a really solid person to teach. She lately has been questioning if she really believes the things that her parents do and if she really believes in God. We shared a couple of our thoughts on her concerns and talked about the Plan of Salvation and then left her with a Book of Mormon which she said she “would read right now as she had nothing better to do.” We’ll see how that goes, but I’m pretty excited for the people we have found lately. Also, we are two weeks from the Chaj’s daughter’s baptism! Everything is going great with her and her cousin has also been sitting in on the lessons and has been coming to church, which is awesome. Other than that not much to report on this week.
Questions-Are you enjoying being able to drive or is it more stressful?- I like it; it gives me control over something when sometimes it feels like I can not control that much. What is your most effective way to do language study?- Read the Book of Mormon and try to speak spanish as much as possible between the two of us.
So, this is Elder Holloway(District Leader) now. Don’t ask about it. All you need to know is that Elder Tonkinson left his phone unattended and so I had to say hi to his family real quick. Just so you know, he really is doing great, we really appreciate him up here. To his family, especially his parents, thanks for lending him to us! And now, back to his message…
Okay so yeah. Mostly just reading things out loud and talking to Elder Durbano in Spanish when we remember. Our goal is if we do not, and we get called out be each other 5 times, the other person has to take a cold shower the next morning. What are you doing for exercise right now?- Resistance bands, sit ups, push ups, stuff like. How has the mission changed you?- That’s a question I feel like I cannot answer. I feel like you all from an outside perspective would have a better idea than I. Probably mostly, how personally responsible I have to be and how much I have to actually act like an adult.
Share a favorite teaching moment or tender mercy that you have experienced recently.- Um teaching moment was probably teaching the Chaj’s because they are just such a humble group of people.
Spiritual- Well so dad sends me daily emails about his scripture study. One thing that stuck out for me was the fact that when Nephi has his vision it says he sees the “Spirit of the Lord” which I always thought as being the personage of the Holy Ghost where as Dad sights evidence that it might the Spirit of Jesus Christ. I just thought that was an intersting difference so I was just wondering what everyone else thought. To read it please see 1 Nephi 11 I believe, but Dad please correct me if I’m wrong.
Love you all and have a good week. So thankful for all of you.
Elder Tonkinson https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/ P.S. Elder Harris is gone to the mall so the P.S. is from Elder Hart this week: Elder Tonkinson is the GOAT volleyball player in the history of missionaries everywhere! Everyone cheers his name when he is up to serve! He is so good!
Happy thankgiving everybody! Hope that everyone can enjoy it. This week was solid. Elder Poncio and I finished strong and had a lot of good last lessons with some people, well last for him. Wednesday, was good and exciting. I was kinda nervous for who I would get assigned with as a comppanion. Elder Slack was getting transfered, and he came in with me, and I was thinking that was a possibility but that would be a crazy one because we both are just out of training. Anyways, so at transfers, our zone leaders give us a tiny slip of paper with our new companion and who is senior or junior companion. So I get it and, drum roll please…, Elder Durbano. Yup, we’re back at it again and I’m senior companion, so I get to drive. Elder Durbano showed up after I got my slip and so I told him and he said, “No way you’re lying. There is no way!” But there is, and we are. It’s kinda crazy, and we both were kinda freaking out about it. Luckily, we talked to President before we left the mission office and he told us to, “Just trust in the Lord and do not fear.” And we also get 30 minutes more of language study as a companionship to work on teaching lessons. Anyways, it’s been good to have someone I already know and that we’re already friends and have companionship unity it just needs to be refined.
Not much more to say this week, many lessons fell through, but the Lord also provided many blessing despite that. Thursday night for instance, we knocked a door and were immediatly let in and able to teach a lesson which was awesome. Also, Saturday night was awesome because we had a Thanksgiving activity with the branch, and they sure know how to cook and have a good time. Next month, we’re having like three potlucks, so I’m excited. But yeah, overall, besides the surprise with being senior comp and having Elder Durbano as my companion again so soon (we figured we would be companions again just not so soon and we hoped for later so we could see how much the other had improved [which we still can see improvement, just lesser]), not much else exciting.
Spiritual thought- Something I really liked this week was from my brother Caleb, maybe he got from someone else and was just telling it to me because it seemed way too put together :P. Anyways he said this, “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 really like this because we need to look forward. We need to enjoy now and be able to look back on it fondly, but not with regret or longing. We, through our agency, our actions and our choices, decide how happy we are and how our life is going to be. Yes, there are always things we cannot control and have to deal with, but our happiness is largely decided by our outlook. This is definitely something I am still working on. The other half I really like is that we can look in anticipation to the future and to what we now have the opportunity to do even if we have to move past some older things. Over all, it was a help to me this week, and I am grateful to have parents and older siblings and one stinking younger one (love you kiddo) who are so smart and helpful and wise. Still question if Caleb actually wrote that though and didn’t just pull it off the internet 😉
Pictures- One of the pictures is about the story of Edaleen’s Ice Cream where Elder Durbano and I went after dinner to celebrate being done with training, took it just for dad cause he loves that stuff. [Editors note: The baby shoe was from Caleb’s mission. They found it in an apartment. When a missionary was transferred, they slipped it in his luggage. The game became trying to slip it in without them noticing, and the shoe got passed around the mission. It came home with Caleb, and Elder Tonkinson took it with him to start the tradition anew.]
Frost on the plants
A baby shoe in Elder Poncio’s luggage
Questions-Tell us about your new companion.- See weeks 1-6 for information, but new note is that he is a lot better at Spanish, and I would say knows more than I do. Also, we are both pretty motivated to change this area from being one of the “dead areas” where there aren’t a lot of lessons or solid friends to teach, into a strong area with members who want to help missionaries because the missionaries love to help them. Yeah I’m excited.
Share a tender mercy of the Lord you have experienced recently.- Thursday when people let us in dispite our broken Spanish and blank looks when anyone spoke anything but about the gospel.
How has the new missionary handbook impacted your mission?- The new handbook is actually more general than the last one and largely says “Just use common sense.” It also has a little more focus on become life long disciples of Jesus Christ. Far too many missionaries go home and fall into inactivity. Next transfer, President will clarify some rules, because it is possible that unless at a meal, we may not need a third member of the same sex, which would be great for us because all of our members are pretty busy.
Christmas things?- I don’t know, just something nice or small that means something. Also some white socks maybe, sunglasses, this nice hair product stuff I got from Elder Weeden called Domintate or something, but it’s like way good. Seriously not much more. Just remember the true meaning of Christmas, serve others and come to closer to Christ, that’s the best gift I could get for this Christmas.
Share a few things you are thankful for.- President Auna, Elder Durbano, Elder Poncio, the zone, family, the gospel, the Book of Mormon, food, sleep, parents, Patriarchal blessings and a lot of other things.
One last thing check out LighttheWorld.org it’s an awesome way to help serve others this Christmas season and remember why we even celebrate. There is also a wonderful new Nativity video (which, not flex, we as missionaries got to see and start using 2 weeks ago…) But seriously it is an awesome program and really keeps in mind who we celebrate and what He did for us. Mucho Amor, Elder Tonkinson https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/ P.S. It’s Elder Harris again, Elder Tonkinson is in need of an ugly sweater.(Note: Yes that would be a good gift too haha)
Hope you all have had an amazing week! Mine was packed with lots of stuff that I’ll just barely have time to get into. So, for starters, it is back to Elder Poncio and I; Elder Davis left for Trinidad on Monday. So, as far as that goes, we’re good, the apartment just feels bigger and is a lot more quiet. Like, a lot more. Also, because it is only two again, our fridge is pretty much empty.
Anyways let’s see this week we continued to knock lots of doors with mixed success. Like on Saturday we met this athiest, he opened the door and told us he didn’t believe in God and then we asked him why, and we shared a little message on how we are God’s children and he loves us each individually, and we lived with Him before this life. He also gave us agency to choose how we would act for ourselves. Anyways, after we did that he asked me, while smoking and blowing it in my face if “my God” could heal him from his stage 4 liver cancer. I looked him dead in the eyes and said “Yes He can.” And then, he just laughed in my face and looked me dead and the eyes and I repeated myself, “Yes He can.” He was about to say more but I said “Clearly we have a difference of opinion let’s agree to disagree,” and we talked a little longer and left. Now that may not have helped him but it helped me because in the face of direct opposition I was able to stand true to what I believe instead of dodging the question or something. So that felt good.
Flying back on Thursday, we had half mission conference and the area authority seventy, Elder Pierson, spoke. From what I hear, we got less chastising than the south half did, but there was a lot to learn. One thing (out of many) that I want to share is what he said about our “Frontier of Faith” and what we need to do to break it to experience miracles. By setting goals that are achievable, measurable, and believable and doing our part to achieve them with faith in the Lord, we can. By doing this, we can break our frontier of faith and have miracles happen in our lives and missions. To tie into this on Friday we got a new handbook called “Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ.” In this new handbook, it expresses the concern of Church leaders that too many missionaries come back and forget all they learned and lose their faith. The mission is a refining process and not something we act out for two years and then stop. We need to become converted to Christ and serve Him through our lives.
Another thing that ties into this is the new youth program. I’m not sure how I feel about a young men’s theme but everything else sounds awesome. It has the same focus as the new missionary standards to help us become converted to Christ and grow in our personal interests. I also love the focus on the temple. Baptism is the gate to Salvation and the Celestial Kingdom and not the end, the temple is just another step and again not the end. The end is to become like Christ and gain those attributes He has and continue to follow Him until we finish our mortal life. Yeah it’s good stuff, also with the app when Elder Gong demonstrated it, he flexed on everyone by showing his Quorum chat with the twelve Apostles. Haha.
Overall, good week, nothing too crazy to report on as far as progress with friends but the Chajs have been coming for three weeks in a row now and their daughter is so excited to be baptized! Also we’re planning on putting Sabrina on date [setting a baptismal date with her] this week so we’ll see how that goes. Sad part this week is Elder Thompson and Elder Lee two of my favorite people in the zone who are great examples both go home today, having finished their missions :(. Also Elder Poncio is leaving me so I’ll get a new companion on Wedensday! Sad, but also excited for a change. Anyways love you all lots and stay safe and warm!
Questions Do you read any books besides scriptures, and would you want any other books besides scripture?–Anything in Gospel library or on the church site is fair game. Only books besides that are “Power of Everyday Missionaries” and “The Infinite Atonement”by Tad R. Callister at 18 months for Elders because otherwise it too deep or something Are you excited for Christmas as a missionary? –Yeah I just found out I’ll be staying here and Elder Poncio will be leaving ,so I’ll be up near Canada for Christmas Do you want us to do anything differently?(like how often we write and stuff)? –Nope, not really. I mean, I can read emails everyday so maybe two times a week if you have time would be nice but not really. JUST REMEMBER TO DO DAILY SCRIPTURE STUDY AND PRAYER!!!
How has it been to go back to two people in a companionship?–Good we still keep up the fire, but I notice again how often we pray and we get to bed earlier now too. Since entering the mission field what is the biggest challenge you have made the most progress in?- -Hmm, at times I can be explosive about things, and I’ve gotten better about expressing my frustration without that so that’s been good. Favorite teaching moment of the week?–Well, just know while I was writing and waiting for Elder Poncio to get his hair cut, a man walked up to me tapped me on the shoulder and motioned for me to stand. He was older so I did thinking maybe he needed me to help him. So I stand up, and he said “I’m a born again Christian for 40 years (something like that) and I went to a Mormon church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church) once and I thought “man, these people have it so wrong, you don’t need to worship this Dave Smith, (what was his name? Joseph Smith) oh, Joseph Smith only pray to Jesus He’s the only one who can save you” Me-“You’re totally right. I agree 100% Jesus is our only Savior and Redeemer. No one else.” Him-“Well you still don’t need to pray to Dave… Joseph Smith. Jesus said He is the Truth, the Way and the Life” Me-“Exactly. We don’t pray to Joseph Smith, we respect and revere him as a prophet of God like Noah or Moses, but we don’t pray to him. We only pray to God”Him – “We could stay here all day arguing but we don’t have time”Me-“We don’t have to, we agree on this. Christ is our Savior, and we only pray to God and through the name of Jesus Christ.” We finished with some pleasantries but it was pretty funny for me. How is the Spanish coming along?–It’s better. Reading and listening to it for language study has helped but it’s still hard to understand people sometimes. We’ll really know later this week. If you could only teach one thing, what truth would you teach?- Well after the half mission conference, it was not only told me but confirmed to me that the most important thing people need to know is this–God is our loving Heavenly Father. He has a perfected body that we can see and hug just as much as our actual parents. You are His literal spirit child, and He knows you individually and loves you and wants what is best for you. We lived with Him before this life, and He sent us here to gain experience and become more like Him and gain a body.
So last week ended or rather started with me, well eating a walnut and swelling up like a balloon. Yeah it wasn’t fun, but using some creativity we changed it into a good memory. So recently, I saw a video starring Elder Lee, who used to be an assistant who leaves next Monday :(, anyways it was an office parody about being in a 3 pack. So we took that idea and as a tribute to Elder Davis’ last week we made a week long sequal. Using the night hours when we were finished with the day, we recorded the videos. Then, I found on Google photos you can edit videos…. It’s no Final Cut Pro X that I used in the past, but it’s pretty solid for making a basic movie. So that’s what we did; we made a new Office parody with a low-key message on companionship unity. It was a lot of fun and was a good way to spend the week. It honestly helped us this week to focus our efforts, and we worked super hard and ended up having 28 lessons this past week. The week before we had seven for context. Granted most were at the door, but many people opened up and let us in or talked for 30 minutes at the door with us, and I attribute it to being more unified so we could bring the Spirit. That basically just sums the whole week. If you want to see the video email me. (Dad do not post it on the blog it’s 25 minutes long) But yeah the video was a great way for me to let go of stress and do something I would been doing before the mission and still be a good missionary.
Questions-So how has mission life this week been for you? – Good way good, we worked hard all week, this next week is the last full one in the transfer and we have lots of meetings, so less work this next week sadly. Did the third companion get out of his mission this week?- Well, Elder Davis actually gets dropped off at 7:15 tonight and because of that we had to cancel our lesson for tonight, but he’s all ready and excited and nervous. Share your favorite teaching moment from this week. – I really like teaching the Chaj family, the one with the daughter getting baptized. Saturday after our lesson, we had an English lesson which was so much fun, they’re really funny people and actually already know a bit of English. In addition, please share your favorite learning moment from this week.- Learning moment, well I learned about editting video on Google Photos, but besides that I learned that if you trust in the Lord, have the Spirit you will be much more successful. Share a list of at least 10 things that you are feeling grateful for during this Thanksgiving season. 1. Good food that my mom would make for me
2. Guidance and direction of the Spirit
3. Family4. The Gospel of Jesus Christ
5. The Restoration and all that comes with it
6. Sleep
7. Kind people
8. Being able to serve a mission
9. My companions
10. My zone
Not in that order
Last thing/Spiritual thoughtYesterday we were doing our last tracting with Elder Davis and the last door that opened up to us as we were leaving, through the window we could hear him, and he said “You could tell they had the truth because of the light in their eyes.” That was awesome.
This week I also read my patriartical blessing and wrote down the impressions. These blessings are such a good guide in our lives and if you already haven’t recieved yours, I invite you to do so. Seriously they are such a guide in our lives and mine has already helped me so much and I can already see the promises of God being fulfilled.
Elder Tonkinson https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/ P.S.Hey it’s Elder Harris again, I’m in need of Stealer’s Merch. Thanks. Also I love Jesus 🙂
Welp now it’s light in the mornings and cold and dark at 5:00, which means people now at 5:45 say “Wow isn’t it a little bit late for you all to be knocking my door?” True story, and that was before the time change.
Anyways, yeah, this week was really good even though from an outside perspective it might not seem that way. We had like seven lessons. So last Monday we met with the Familia Chaj, who we have been working to get them more active in church, so we invited their daughter to be baptized and for their son to recieve the Aaronic Priesthood. Well both of them on Monday were excited and prayed about it and knew that it was something that God wants them to do. So that was awesome to see because they are both so young, 8 and 12, but have had that experience where they know their Heavenly Father answered their prayers. On top of that hermano and hermana Chaj both felt that they should start coming back to Church because their relationship with God is “not a game,” and they want to be an example to their children. On top of that their nephew, who lives with them, is going to start taking lessons with us at his mom’s approval (who also lives with them and is a member but attends a different church). So, yesterday they came to church and that was one of the highlights of the whole mission. We have been working with them since day one back in late August, and they decided that they should do it. And they seemed to really enjoy church and the members were very friendly and welcoming to them and made them feel at home. Overall, just ahhh sooo good. I was so happy.
After Monday though, we kinda had a rough time. Tuesday it was all just studies and tracting, and we didn’t find anyone, and the people we had lessons scheduled with fell through. Wednesday, I had exchanges and went to the district leader’s area. That was good. We had lessons with 2 families, and one of the families had a son named Gideon. NO JOKE. He seems pretty cool, and we were both excited to have a name buddy. The other person we visited is a marketer and game designer for a company based in Blaine. So it was just cool to see all the games and when we got there he had his photoshop setup that he uses to create the boards for games. Yeah, that member is way cool and interesting. Because of the exchange though, I missed the Trunk or Treat that our branch had with the zone leader’s ward. That was a bit of a bummer because it sounded like it was pretty fun. Thursday was Halloween, and we had to be in by 7:00. We had dinner at Red Robin with the other Spanish Elders which toasted my money ($20) so yeah that wasn’t fun, but it was a good time. After, we helped a member set up for her Halloween party and then got to go back to the apartment and call family!
We started our English class on Friday which we have been promoting like crazy. It’s such a good oportunity to be able to serve the people and open their hearts to us and become their friends. But unfortunatly no one came… But there is always next week. Hmm this is turning into a travel log so let’s fix that.
We had some great lessons Saturday and Sunday. One person we have been meeting with has been super open and has awesome questions and loves everything she hears. We have been answering so many questions we hadn’t been able to actually have a lesson. We were able to teach the Restoration, and she was on board with everything. At the end, we asked her to pray about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith as a prophet of God, and she just looked at us and said “I already think it’s true,” which is totally awesome. It has been faith growing to see her testimony grow. It has a way to go still, but she is really excited to learn and to know more. Unfortunatly, she has a complicated situation and couldn’t make it to church this Sunday but hopefully the next.
Last night we did a little bit of tracting and decided to knock on the door of the hunters that we ran into last week, and they, just like last time, let us right in. They are two of the most genuine people ever, and are just full of energy too. They haven’t gone to church yet because they actually lost the church address. We just shared a quick message from Alma 37:37 about prayer and turning to the Lord. After that we gave them a Book of Mormon and a Bible because they didn’t have either, and they said they would read them. They also had some good questions about prophets and child baptism and just like our other friend, they thought that what we taught them makes sense, especially about how God is the same and still communicates with us through prophets. Yeah, we’ll keep working with them for a little and then we’ll have to hand them off to the sisters. Also they invited us to dinner and gave us a friend of theirs to visit… yeah these people are like off the charts.
Pictures: The food is called a “chuccito” or “little dog” in Guatamalan Spanish. They’re pretty good but the name is funny and Chica (one of the members) joked about them actually being chihuahua meat.
Elder Tonkinson contemplates using his Epipen after eating cookies that turned out to have ground walnuts in them.
Questions:Top 2-3 things that you hope to improve in the next couple of months? I’m not referring to, “conjugate the past participle correctly” though that’s certainly good. More things like. “I want to be more patient with respect to x,” “I want to develop a stronger testimony of y”- 1. Trying to not get so frustrated with others little jabs at me that are clearly just to get a reaction. I don’t really have a problem with people I don’t know doing that, but for some reason people who I am friends with or closer to doing it and more importantly doing it more often is something that gets under my skin pretty easily. 2. Kind of an appendage to that is still getting better about not getting so heated and control my temper better. For instance this week for the English class, we had a disagreement about if we should or should not offer to teach a lesson [about the church] at the end. I thought yes we should, partly because the manual for English Connect, the manual from the church for teaching English, says we should and because that’s our purpose as missionaries, and we are full time missionaries and President Auna said to me we should. So for those three reasons, I thought YES we need to teach. The other two disagreed as offering it would scare people off and they would feel they got tricked if we offered it as an optional thing after. Elder Poncio in the past had never done it when he had taught English class. So, in all this I got pretty heated, and maybe it was for good reason but I could still do better. (BTW we ultimatly decided to offer the lesson) 3. Pride. I just am stuck in the ways I do things and the way I think things should be done. I just need to learn to compromise more.
What’s a time this week where you have felt proud of yourself?- Hmm of myself… I don’t really know because everything that I really had joy in this week was because the things that others decided to do. And, I also just said I need to work on pride. I guess have been using my time in the morning and at night better. We have from 6:30-8:30 AM and 9:00-10:30 PM, so a couple hours to prepare in the morning and at night but I don’t have that much to do, but this week I spent my time reading “A Marvelous Work and A Wonder” which I was told was allowed ,and I got from the church library. I got it last Sunday and finished it yesterday morning so that felt good. This week I’m starting “Jesus the Christ” but that will take me a little longer.
What was your favorite teaching moment this week? – Chajs coming to church… yeah that was just such a wonderful thing.
What was your favorite learning moment?- Hmmm I guess this week I learned how we need to focus not on how many lessons we had but the quality of the ones we did have and how we are doing our best to find those new people.
How did you serve your companions this week?- When I take pictures and videos for them because my phone has a better camera. It’s not that big a deal but it is a service.
Tell us about something that made you laugh or smile this week.- Well at the Trunk or Treat there was a ghost pepper chili and my companions ate it and the next day, both we in pain… it was pretty funny.
Do you have Sunday responsibilities in your small branch? Do you have to fill in for things at the last minute? – Last minute. We only do the sacrament if necessary. This week we actually had like 25 people and it felt like normal. It was do awesome, part of it is becuase we got two families from English wards but plus the Chajs came as well as some other families.
What is a principal or doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ that you have gained stronger testimony and understanding of since being on your mission?- Restoration. I knew it was true, but reading “A Marvelous Work and a Wonder” helped to strengthen it this week, plus teaching it so often helps. It’s important to have a testimony of it because that’s what sets our church apart.
What is something personal that you are trying to improve about yourself over the coming weeks? You can answer that one privately if you would rather.- Nah people already know I’m flawed, so I guess besides what I put earlier I want to try to become more naturally just outgoing and talk to everyone. Like I still struggle to stop someone on the street. So yeah, just becoming more enthusiastic and less robotic when talking to someone new.
Share whatever is on your mind.-This week in personal study I read Mormon and Ether 1-5 and Ether 3 is just filled with lots as well as Mormon 7. Mormon 7 is Mormons last testimony. Yes, we have his letters to Moroni letter but in this final testimony he just lays out the doctrine of Christ out and testifies of the divinity of Christ. Ether 3 is when the brother of Jared sees the antemortal Christ. There’s a ton of really interesting thought provoking scripture in these chapters.
Anyways love you all lots and invite you all to study the scriptures 15 minutes a day and take notes. I know that the scriptures will open up more to you and you will be able to apply them better in your life. Please let me know how it goes next week. Love,
Wow, I am 19 and guess what… it doesn’t feel any different than being 18. But that’s okay. This week was a pretty good week overall and wasn’t a bad way to spend a birthday. Nothing too crazy happened this week as far as people but none the less it was good. Highlights would be Wednesday, we went tracting pretty much all night. One of the people we found was super awesome. So, we knocked on the door, and I saw behind him a small deer head and made a comment about it being pretty nice. He then invites us in to show us the 3rd biggest elk that has ever been shot in Washington. It wasn’t even shot by him, it was shot by his wife. Anyways, we got some pictures with it and they told us all about their hunting. Finally, they asked us why we’re there in the first place and we shared about the plan of salvation, which was perfect since the wife was pregnant. The husband suddenly exclaimed, “Babe want to go to church!?” Anyways, they ultimately did not end up going to church but still, it was good, and we’ll visit them later this week maybe.
We also this week discovered that the Ring doorbell is the best thing ever. It has a mic and a camera, and if someone doesn’t answer in 15 seconds, we start giving a little lesson and then leave them with our number. It’s pretty fun. Also, this week I got the gifts that Elder Weeden left me. One is a shirt which he signed, and the other is this awesome hair wax that he used, which he also signed.
Hmm what else. Well, for my birthday we found a 1 candle, and we didn’t have any matches, so my bright companions decide “hey let’s take a paper towel and light it by turning the stove up to high” . . . it worked but was still dumb. This week I also made pizza which was pretty fun and easy, thanks to the dough recipe from Mark. Thanks Mark! [Gideon’s oldest brother]
Friday, we had interviews with President Auna which were good and I enjoyed. After, we had to get our oil changed, and it took an hour and went to Dairy Queen. On the way we found this cool mural.
Saturday night we tracted for 4 hours! After, we had dinner and carved pumpkins which was a pretty good way to spend a Saturday night. The best thing this week is that we invited the daughter of a less active [not coming to church regularly] family to be baptized, and she said yes, and we invited their son to prepare to receive the Aaronic priesthood. That was awesome and the Spirit was so strong. Yeah that’s about it for the week.
Questions-How are things going over there? – Good good. I enjoy the work part of the mission and studying the Gospel every day and the language
Do you like it?- Most of it, it’s not all fun, but that’s life
Do you wish you had taken a different path? – No. Not at all. School would have been good for me now too, but this is the best thing I can be doing right now with my life. Giving my life to God, he can do a lot more with it than I can.
Do you like your mission location? – Yeah, it’s green out here just like VA but a lot cooler and cloudier, but overall it’s pretty over here
Can I send you anything – like something from Lynchburg?? – Hmm not really, just send something you think would remind me of it I guess. Or that I can keep in my apartment. Like, this week my little sister for my birthday gave me a painting she made and it’s one of the best gifts I think I have ever gotten.
How is exercising going? – Good mostly, it’s gotten really cold in the mornings which makes it hard to find motivation to not just sit in the chair in the morning.
Are you getting all you need through reacting or are you doing more? – I am assuming you mean tracting? Uh this Friday we’re going to start an English class which will help bring more people.
How many steps do you average?- Depends on how much tracting but probably 9000 but up to 20000 or as low as 5000 some days.
Is there anything that you wish you had prepared for more before arriving in the mission field?- Hmm I guess just the amount of talking with people you don’t know and just being more comfortable with that.
What is some way your companion has blessed your life in the last week?- Elder Poncio got me ice cream at a local creamery this week which was pretty nice and made my birthday a little bit different than any other day
Favorite teaching moment or interaction? – One night this week in a trailer park we met a woman and she was looking pretty down, smoking outside the trailer and we just stopped to talk to her. We just shared a short message about how God loves each of us individually and personally and is aware of our needs and she started to cry. We invited her to church and she said she wanted to come. So we sent the sisters [female missionaries] over.
This week I have been studying in 3rd Nephi in the Book of Mormon and Christ’s personal ministry to the people in the Americas. It is such a wonderful blessing to have the Book of Mormon as it so clearly teaches of Christ’s divinity and His doctrine. Along with the Bible, the Book of Mormon can guide us how to act and be more like Christ. One of my favorite verses this week was 3 Nephi 27:16 “And it shall come to pass, that whoso repenteth and is baptized in my name shall be filled; and if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold guiltless before my Father at that day when I shall stand to judge the world.” The gospel of Jesus Christ is just that. It’s so simple. We need to have faith, use Christ’s great gift to us in His atonement and repent, be baptized by water and by the Holy Ghost, by receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and Endure to the End. I am so grateful to be able to share that message with others and bring that hope and light to their lives. Love,
Elder Tonkinson https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/ PS: this is Elder Harris speaking, whoever emails Elder Tonkinson will be blessed. Also, he needs ice cream… fyi.
Well this week was all over the place and kinda a rollar coaster with lots of highs and lows. After preperation day, we went over to our new friends house Sabrina (She speaks English), and we taught her and her family for like an hour and fifteen. They had lots of good questions, but it became apparent that Sabrina’s mom was not very interested and just wanted to argue with us. Sabrina on the other hand is straight golden and commited to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. She is awesome, but wait there’s more on that later.
After that fire lesson we went to the branch president’s house and Elder Poncio and Elder Williams burned their shirts (it’s a weird thing) for their one year mark. It was fun but also kinda dumb and left my clothes smelling pretty smokey. Tuesday was mostly just tracting around but we had some fun experiances. Like one guy we knocked the door and he asked Elder Davis, “What are ya pushing?” his wife in the background goes, “They’re pushing Jesus honey!” Then he says, “Well we’re all brothers and sisters here, and I don’t need you peddling on my porch.” another fun experiance was when we knocked a no soliciting door. The man opens it up and reads for us, “NO SOLICITING” and I said “Legally it’s procelyting, and we can knock.” He was like “No it’s soliciting” and shuts the door. All the other doors with no soliciting were nice and knew the difference, oh well. Finally, the last door we knocked that night was good. He opens the door and says, “Are you Mormons or Jehovah’s?” We say “Mormons, but we try to go by the full name of the church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.” Anyways ,he was like we can talk and have a good discussion, but you’ll never convince me the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I was ready to say “alright well have a good day”, but Elder Davis was like, “Well personally I’m not that well versed in the Bible and maybe we can come by and study it with you sometime.” Well that was a good move. We ended up talking to him for teb more minutes and hopefully sometime he’ll call us or we can go back and set up a time to do it.
Wedensday was a fun day. We helped move someone after district council, and they had this nice hill overlooking the mountains ,and we got some pretty good pictures. It was a good mini photo shoot for sure. Later, we went to Jo Fish, the member-owned restaurant to celebrate the actual one year mark of Elder Poncio, then we went to a member’s to bless his house ,and he fed us hot dogs. I was already stuffed. Then we went to another members and had another lesson, and they were eating dinner and fed us pizza. Also with the last members house I kinda messed up and when they opened the door and took a step forward, not into the house but close and then the father of the home moved to the side and let us in… Either way it wasn’t good as I accidently invited us in, but hey who knows if I hadn’t we wouldn’t have had the lesson.
Thursday was… gross. Some of the other Elders enlisted us for service. All they were told was that they needed an army. We get there and what we’re doing and taking their personal dump (pictures included) and putting it in a uhaul (also picture of that). I am not sure how aloud that is to put trash in a uhaul but we did. Elder Lee, who goes home at the end of this transfer, said it was the nastiest service he’s ever done. The nastiness soaked through my shoes and Elder Lee, and I were definetly the two there who despite the nastiness tried to do our best. About half way through they said “This is too gross for you all so, come help with this other stuff.” So we did that and that was better. As soon as we got home though we all put our clothes in the wash and showered. Thursday night was awesome though. We met with Jonathan and invited him to church. We met with a woman named Carmen, and we planned to start studying the Bible with her and gave her a Reina-Valera church Bible complete with footnotes and all that good stuff. She said “Wow this bible is so much easier to read than mine,” and she went crazy over the footnotes and cross references. Finally, we had another lesson with Sabrina. That was good. We went to a coffee shop as she realized her mom was not going to let us get anywhere. We had intended to teach her lesson 1 on the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but just spent that time answering more questions like: Polygamy, temples and church buildings, and the sacrament. After she found out that anyone could attend church, and it wasn’t a closed group she was like, “Well can I come this Sunday?” We were like, “Of course… but ours is in Spanish as we’re Spanish missionaries” and she was said, “Well I speak Spanish and I want to get better.” So we gave her the address. Yeah she’s great, like she invited herself to go to Church!
Friday I spent the day with the Zone Leaders while, Elder Davis and Elder Poncio went to Seattle to training. Most of the day was spent doing Zone Leader stuff, blessings, phone calls and such. On top of that, every Friday, Elder Thompson, who also is leaving at the end of the transfe,r has “My Plan” which is a class for missionaries during their last 6 weeks to help them plan for their future. So, not much got done as far as work goes, just service, studying and them going to the other side of the room for private phone calls, but it was good. After all the people going to training got back, we had dinner together which was fun well until the sad news came up. Elder Weeden, my boy from Australia, the legend, because of circumstances he can’t control, had to go home. That was sad. But we did get some pictures and some stuff of his that he signed. Yes, we had him sign stuff because he’s that awesome. Plus he’s going to go play pro rugby when he gets home so… couple years down the line the signed hair wax might be worth something haha. Or the signed rugby ball, which Elder Davis got. That part of the day was very sad, because he was becoming a great missionary (he came out with me). We finished the night with a branch activity which are always fun. We had tacos and played volleyball. Volleyball is always crazy with the branch cause no one is good but they all talk trash and want to win. It was great.
Saturday we had exchanges, Elder Davis went with the district leader and we worked with Elder Hart. Most of the day was studies and service. At the end of the day we knocked some doors and one opened it up, and I wrongly assumed the language. So this young girl opens the door, probably fourteen or something and I start speaking spanish, because she had darker skin… yeah she wasn’t hispanic…That was embarrasing but Elder Poncio told me that it’s a common mistake, and you just have to wait for them to speak first or start in English. Sunday for the first time we had people come to church. Sabrina and Jonathan both came which was awesome. Sabrina joined us for Sunday school, and she understood more than I did, so her Spanish is not too bad. Still after Sunday school I mentioned to her that she could go to English, she still said no. So yeah, looks like we’ll keep teaching her if she wants to keep going to Spanish. She also was surprised that we didn’t have a Joseph Smith statue that we worshipped and liked church and committed herself to come again, and she wants to bring her sisters. So yeah… but also sad thing, Carmen dropped us. She went to her church and then called us and said, “My church said I can only use my bible. You all shouldn’t come over today (we had a lesson planned at 5)” So that was sad but not unexpected as her husband wasn’t too happy that she agreed to have us back over. We then had dinner with Pablo and Chica, who have us over all the time, because they, as previously mentioned, know Elder Poncio’s family. There they had some good soup and some tiny chillies… the chillies hurt so bad. I had three at once because the first one was kinda not bad and then Elder Davis told me to eat two more and being prideful I did. There’s a video that’s decently entertaining. [a little long, but really quite funny at parts]
Don’t try this at home!
Also when we got there the TV was on, and they were watching the Seahawks game and we didn’t ask for them to turn it off. Well, I learned my lesson from that. For the prayer they muted but during dinner they had it on and while I was engaged in the conversation at times during some moments it was pretty easy to just zone out. During our lesson they just turned it off for those 10 minutes. Either way, after, I felt we definitely should have turned it off as it didn’t invite the spirit and it distracted us. But we have to live, learn and improve.
Over all just an interesting week that felt all over the place.
I know what you might be thinking given it is Washington State, but this is a chile pepper plant
Questions I mailed your jacket before I left last week. It should have arrived by Thursday or Friday. I ordered a few things form Amazon for your b-day. Unfortunately it probably won’t arrive at the mission home until today or tommorow. Sorry about that–Yup got all the packages. It’s alright as far as birthday presents, it doesn’t even feel like anything. Like I don’t feel like I have a birthday this week. As far as presents, I haven’t opened Addie’s gift or the letter and those will be my gifts. Plus we bought steak, ice cream and sparkling juice for my birthday this week.
Share a time you felt guided by the spirit this week.- Hmmm, I guess one time this week was when Sabrina’s mom had all these questions and wanted Bible references for the doctrine and the verses kept coming to my mind on how to answer the questions.
Are you starting to feel you know your way around your area?- Yeah it’s not too bad, but I also don’t drive.
What is something you have learned about yourself over the past few weeks?- I need to teach simply and practice it. In Spanish, I’m forced to as I don’t have a big vocabulary, but for English I tend to say too much.
How have your served your companion this week?- They really like banana bread so I made some for them for their trip down to training.
Happy birthday to Thomas, my new nephew on Oct 14, Whitney my favorite sister-in-law with three children [He also has a favorite sister-in-law with two children]–Oct 22 (expect a letter) and my father dearest–Oct 25 (expect a letter too). Love you all lots, Elder Tonkinson
Well three months have gone by now since I left dear ol’ Virginia. It’s gone by fast. I mean, as many missionaries say, “The days are slow. The weeks are fast.”
So let’s see… well most of this week was spent tracting (knocking doors) most of which were English. But we did hand out probably about thirty pamphlets and twelve Book of Mormons; so that’s good. We did also have twelve pretty good lessons, but we don’t have anyone who is really wanting to change, come to church or any of that, which is a tad frustrating. For example, Saturday we were with a man named Sergio, and we taught the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited him to church. He said he didn’t have a car, because his roommate and him share a car. So we called the service missionary in our ward and asked if he could take Sergio, and we got that all set up for him. Elder Brockett webt to pick him up on Sunday morning and Sergio says “Well, I actually have a car and will drive myself,” but then never comes to church… yah I was not happy. Anyway, back to the rest of the week.
Wedensday, we had transfers and no one in my companionship was moved around, but we did get a new Spanish Elder, and we got one of the Assistants who leaves after this transfer. So to welcome them, our companionship bought some pizzas and met with all the Elders in our zone who could make it and ate dinner together.
Thursday after district council, I had mini exchanges with the zone leaders. From about 12:30-8:30, I was with one of the zone leaders (Elder Harris), and Elder Poncio and Elder Davis were with the other zone leaders (Elder Thompson). So Elder Harris and I went tracting, and we found this guy who was kinda interested and that they’ll meet with later next week. But man, this guy was a pastor and had switched denominations a couple times, and he knew his stuff. Anyway, we just had a nice discussion and he asked some question, and we tried our best as 18/19 year olds to answer them.
Saturday we went to visit a person who missionaries had met with in the past. Yeah that was fun… not really. Basically, we got there, and he was outside already. We got out and he says pretty energetically, “Los Mormones!” So, we thought “hey, that’s good; he seems pretty nice and open to talking.” So, we start talking half in English half in Spanish and then we find out that he’s pretty strong in his faith now and starts to kinda bash a little with us. We listen respectfully, and then tried to say how we fell about certain things and then he’d interupt and then re-iterate what he just said. At one point, he pointed to Elder Davis and said, “When you are judged Jesus is going to come to you and say, ‘Why did you try to lead away (his name) from the truth? Why did you tell him lies?'”–basically telling Elder Davis he was going to Hell if he didn’t convert over to his religion. So, Elder Poncio and I are trying to wrap it up, and then Elder Davis is trying to win this bash… so we ended up being outside in the cold talking to this guy for an hour… not fun at all. But, we now have a plan to get out of these situations and a signal to all of us that, that is what is happening.
Sunday I had to give a talk in sacrament meeting, in Spanish, for 15 minutes, I found out Wednesday. My topic was recognizing and understanding the Spirit. For those of you who are interested and can read Spanish here is the link; and for those of you who want to hear me speak some Spanish, I attached a short audio of me reading part of the talk. It was good, but I just stood up there reading it as stiff as a board and looked up maybe for 2 seconds every 30 seconds. I’ll work on it.
Elder Tonkinson practicing his talk
In the pictures–We got some pizza rolls that some Elders had from member, but they didn’t have freezer room and gave them to us… Yeah, I lost my faith in pizza rolls, but hopefully I can sometime have money and buy some good ones and not be sad.
Fun object lesson. Just remember that if you try this at home, use the side and not either of the ends of the can 🙂
Questions: How are things like laundry, food shopping, and other basics of life going?–Good we have laundry stuff in the apartment which is nice so we’re not all day at a laundry mat, and we recently splurged and got not dollar tree detergent but Tide which is great… Yeah, I’m excited to have gotten Tide; it’s what you do when you don’t normally have money for it. Speaking of not having money… the mission office won’t reload our cards until Wedensday, and we have no money, so we’ll see how this week goes. I think it’ll be fine. We have some food in the apartment that I, with a little streching, can make edible and filling enough. However, now that we have three of us we, go through food like twice as fast, which is weird cause we didn’t double the amount of people. But, yeah, food goes quick.
Share one of your favorite gospel principles to talk with people about–Eternal Families because it is a wonderful belief that we have that families can be for life after death.
Share a time you felt gratitude for something this week.- Opportunity to speak so I could practice thinking, writing and speaking in Spanish.
Are you adjusting to the climate in Washington.- Eh it’s getting colder which is not fun but it’s not too bad.
What is something you appreciate about your companions?- Elder Davis is just super excited about the work and wants to share it with everyone. Elder Poncio is good about trying to not focus too much on the fact that we don’t have that many people to teach or that many Spanish people in the area and just to do our best to help the work even if that means we’re finding a bunch of English people who we won’t get to teach.
When you go door to door with that, how many people talk to you? Like a 50/50? I was always curious as I’ve seen people walk around and do it before–Depends. By 50/50 I am assuming you mean like actually let us talk to them and not just say “not interested.” So as far as that goes 90/10 because most people will let us talk for a little, especially after we figured out how to not be super weird at the door. Our approch at the door about a month ago was to say “Hi we’re missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and our purpose is to share about Jesus Christ and to serve.” That doesn’t go well. We have changed how ever to something like: “Hi how are you?” they respond and usually ask how we’re doing and what we are doing. “I am doing great. We’re just out sharing a message about Jesus Christ because we find joy through Him. So we were just wonder what brings joy in your life?” and usually from there we can talk for about 3 minutes or sometimes longer. Sometimes, we just start after asking how they are doing with our question or we change the question to “what is most important to you?” “Where do you find hope?” Also, usually we try to leave them with a pamphlet about either “The Plan of Salvation“–God’s plan for us in this life which is centered around Jesus Christ, “The Restortation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ“- We believe that there was a Restoration of the Church that Jesus Christ established when he was on the earth which was lost after the Apostles died or finally “The Gospel of Jesus Christ“- Goes over the 5 points of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which are 1. Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement (Matthew 9:22Have to believe his is our Saviour and that His Atonement [sacrifice in Gethsemane and on the cross] was for us), 2. Repentance (Ezekiel 18:30-31 and Acts 17:30 confession to God our mistakes and sins and trying to improve and change ourselves), 3. Baptism (John 3:5 Christ was baptized and we need to be as well by someone who has authority like John the Baptist did), 4. Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost given by the laying on of hands by some one who has Priesthood authority (Acts 8:14-17Everyone can recieve a prompting from the Holy Ghost but the Gift of the Holy Ghost is when we have the Holy Ghost as constant companion) and 5. Enduring to the End (Keep having faith, keep repenting, partake the sacrament [bread and water] to renew the covanent we made with God at baptism and keep being worthy to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost). Sometimes, we also give them a Book of Mormon and ask them to read when Christ came to America after his resurrection and visited His people here (John 10:16 “Other sheep I have that are not of this fold: them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice.”) I used to really hate knocking doors; but having done it almost every day this week, it’s gotten a lot better. Sorry for the long response, but yeah, that’s what we do. For all of you that read through it, I am impressed, and if you have questions just email me.
This week was definitely a memorable one. Well the experiences were at least.
Tuesday was good. We were given more miles for the car, so less walking to keep from going over which is good. We also are working on teaching two new people, one is the sister of a member (Lucy) and another is a man who was found in street contacting in California (Anatolio). So, thank you to those two sisters. We have the first lesson with Anatolio tomorrow and are still working with getting a lesson with Lucy. Also on Tuesday night, we had a lesson with some recent converts, Carlos and Wendy, who are awesome. As with all lessons there was a “snack” that they had made us, which this time were pupusas. So tasty! These one’s had cheese and beans.
The final big event on Tuesday was Elder Poncio’s parents needed some information from him, and we had to call the Assistants to get permission for him to message his parents since it wasn’t p-day [Monday]. So, they said yes and at the end they just asked if they could do anything for us. I jokingly said “Can I get a new companion?” Well Elder Lee replied, “Well, I can’t do that but how about another companion?” Elder Poncio and I look at each other confused and Elder Poncio said, “Wait what!?” “Well we have visa waiters [missionaries assigned to foreign missions that require visas where those visas have not come through by the time they leave the missionary training center] coming in tomorrow, and we’re giving one to you all. I would have actually forgotten to tell you if Elder Tonkinson hadn’t said anything.” They then hung up.
So Wednesday we picked up Elder Davis. He is visa waiting for Trinidad Port of Spain mission and is speaking Dutch, not Spanish. It’s still pretty cool because we get to hear him pray in Dutch and practice in language study. There is a bit of a Dutch population up here, so we just have to find them so he can practice. We went to visit some people that night and found two people who said that we can visit today at like 5:30 PM, so we’ll be ending preperation day a little early. We finished the day meeting with Antonio, the guy who a few weeks ago invited us right in and who we gave a Book of Mormon. He has been wanting to go to church but because he works all around (like last Sunday he was in Oregon) he hasn’t been able to. Anyway, he has read some of the Book of Mormon, but not a lot again because of time. So, we helped him download the app [Android] [Apple] so that he could listen to it when driving. We also showed him a talk from President Nelson and invited him to watch or listen to conference. The talked we talked about the Restoration, Eternal Families and Priesthood power, which was perfect and a miracle because we just selected the first talk that popped up on Youtube. Antonio had questions about all of it. As we told him about it, he was eating it all up; it was amazing. One question he had was about the gift of the Holy Ghost, because it talks about it in the Bible but he said that he had never found a church that believed in it. I got so excited I just started talking about how we believed in it, and we did it by the laying on of hands just like they say they did in Acts. It was crazy becasue the words just started coming out, I doubt that they were perfect Spanish but, like, I didn’t have to think about what I was saying. That was so awesome, because earlier that day I was struggling to say anything, truely a gift from the Spirit to be able to say what I needed to.
Thursday was just an average kinda day, but we did end with a good part-member family lesson and exchanges.
Friday was an adventure. For exchanges, I was Elder Hart, who came out from the MTC with me, and Elder Davis–the three new missionaries all out together, in the Spanish area, with only one novice Spanish speaker. Because it was my area, and I am technically senior to Elder Davis, I got the sim card and the keys to the car. Driving was so weird for the first like 10 minutes, and I had to figure out how to use the brakes again, with out slamming someone’s head into the glass. We spent pretty much all day doing studies and tracting as our two lessons both fell through, but it was good for learning. Every door we knocked unfortunately was English, but I learned a lot about how to actually get people to talk to us from Elder Hart. We knocked about 44 doors and we talked to most people for about 2-3 minutes which is the most I have ever done at a door with English speakers (Spanish will listen to the lesson then say not interested). There were three people who we had about seveb minute conversations with and whose names we sent to the sisters because they said that we could come back. There was also this one woman who I think was trying to bash with us, which was a good time. We kept answering her questions with Bible verses and stuff and eventually she was getting uncomfortable because she realized we knew more about the Bible and scriptures than she did and just ended the conversation. Finally, we re-exchaged at the end of the day.
Elder Poncio drinks a lot of Caprisons (trust me this is related), but during that exchange we had, as a group, gone through a box of them. So in the car, knowing his love for them, we all took one and were drinking them as we stepped out of the car. He was very mad, luckily we brought one with us for him, but he immedialty knew it was from a new box because it wasn’t cold, so he got a little more mad. He then started drinking them and we were okay. During this, border patrol roles up, slows down and stops to talk to us on the side of the road. “What are are you all up to?” Elder Holloway– “We’re missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we’re exchanging back.” Officer- “Exchanging what? Drugs?” Elder Poncio–“NO CAPRISONS!”…. Officer–“Well you all take care and have fun with the caprisons,” and drove off. Funniest thing that could have been a lot worse and ended up with us getting our cars searched.
Saturday and Sunday were conference [two times a year the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has five, two-hour broadcasts over Saturday and Sunday where we hear from the prophet, apostles, and other church leaders. This occurs on the weekend of the first Sundays in April and October. All talks of the conference are available here], which was awesome. What an opportunity to hear from the prophet of the Lord. I really liked the talks about how we can choose joy and how we can share the gospel easily if we just talk to people like their our family, because they are! Just a very good conference and from what President Nelson said at the end, next conference is gonna be crazy. Was a little sad though that they didn’t talk about or announce the new handbook yet for missionaries, which we already know from President Auna is coming out sometime this month.
This week was also full of service. Thursday, we had the food bank and helped an English speaking member move boxes out of her house. Saturday after conference, we helped a non-member move in to a house. Sunday, we helped another English speaking member move out of their old house. That one was gross. There was dog and cat hair everywhere and poop all over the floor. I vow to never let my house ever get so dirty. That’s pretty much it.
Questions- What has been the most interesting food that you have eaten on your mission?–Hmm, I guess so far the oddest thing was these corn and bean tamales. They were all right just really dense and didn’t have much flavor.
Impressions or favorite talks from Conference?–Elder Holland’s was such a good one to start on. As I said I just liked how they talked a lot of choosing to be happy. We can almost never choose what happens to us each day, but we can choose how we react. It’s a legitimate choice.
Share a teaching moment you have had recently (you as the teacher or being taught).–One thing I recently learned from Elder Hart on exchanges was to evaluate how we did at the last door we had knocked and what worked and what didn’t. We’ve found that the cliche “Hi we’re missionaries from the Church of….” doesn’t work well. But what does is, “Hi how are you? I’m doing great, we’re knocking doors and sharing about the joy we find from following Jesus Christ. What brings you joy?” This causes people to think and most answer the question and from there we can share about a truth of the Restored Gospel.
How is the new language coming along?- Better, but it’s still not perfect, and I hate messing up so that makes progress slow as you don’t learn much if you aren’t corrected for your errors.
Something that made you feel joy this week?- the Caprisons
Do you need anything? – No, not really. Some good knives would be nice or a knife sharpener, because the ones we have are so bad haha. Honestly most of what I miss is stuff for cooking.
You have a bday coming [Oct. 23], do you have any suggestions for us?–Books that are church related. “Return and Continue with Honor” by Uncle Brock [Booher] would be good even if it’s a long way out. Also, all the talks from John Bytheway digitally? “A Marvelous Work in a Wonder?” I don’t know what else. Kitchen stuff. Written letters are way nice; I got some from the three younger Ownby children and Sister Ownby this week.
I am a beloved daughter of heavenly parents, with a divine nature and eternal destiny.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ, I strive to become like Him. I seek and act upon personal revelation and minister to others in His holy name.
I will stand as a witness of God at all times and in all things and in all places.
As I strive to qualify for exaltation, I cherish the gift of repentance and seek to improve each day. With faith, I will strengthen my home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, and receive the ordinances and blessings of the holy temple.
I think that’s all. Love y’all lots,
Elder Tonkinson
Pretty mundane week. Nothing too exciting. Wedensday, we had District council with the other district which was fun. Thursday was interviews [I assume with the mission president], and those were good. Yeah, that’s about it nothing too crazy, just mostly knocking doors this week.
No one is really progressing which is frustrating but not much we can do. There where two baptisms this week in the English wards. Elder Poncio and I gave lessons at the baptisms, so that was a pretty good day, and awesome to see people enter the waters of baptism. We also this week have found three new friends for other missionaries to teach because they speak English. That’s annoying in some aspects, but it’s good work and it is helping someone come unto Christ which is fulfilling our purpose. Oh, also I got mail this week and that was awesome. Just getting some hand written letters was great. I plan on writing back. But hey, to all reading ,if you want to surprise me, send me a physical letter, that would mean a lot. Definitly looking forward to General Conference this weekend. [replays here]
Now on to questions Non-family question–What made you finally decide to go on a mission?- Well, I mean, I’ve never been very shy about being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I generally like sharing and talking about. I also have always wanted to since seeing two of my older brothers serve and seeing the positive changes that they experienced, and I wanted that too. Finally, because the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes me happy. Mission life isn’t easy, but so far even if we don’t have lots of success right now it’s fulfilling.
Top 5 things you have learned about yourself since starting your mission? -Alright hmmm
1. Life is better when I try to focus on what I can do.
2. I can have a very low patience tolerance sometimes and at others I can be pretty patient.
3. I am a lot more orderly and clean and OCD now that I pretty much just have to worry about myself.
4. I am not as homesick as I thought I might have been. There are flashes of homesickness but even then it’s not terribly awful even if I do miss everyone lots.
5. I enjoy cooking for the most part, even if clean up is annoying. Cooking feels good, and the results generally are pretty tasty too.
Thoughts on the new children and youth program?- I think it’s awesome! I wish I could have experienced it. I like that they focus on the individual more and they choose their goals. By doing that, they can later know how to do that. Plus, everyone is different so its great. There were some youth in the meeting, whose parents are not super active, so I got to help them. It was weird cause for a moment I felt kinda like a dad, which obviously I’m not. But, it was a cool 4 minutes.
Tell us something that made you laugh this week- The No Soliciting sign we found pictured above.
Nate [Gideon’s next older brother] wants to know if your companion has cooked anything interesting- Not really I cook more for us than he does. One weird thing is he eats cream cheese with everything. From toast to eggs to beans and meat.
Dad asks if it has been a challenge to live with and be around someone 24/7?- just mildly frustrating moments but nothing too bad. Most of the time, if I’m frustrated I think about why I’m actually frustrated, and it’s usually not actually my companion.
Addie wants to know if you have missionary friends?- Like other missionaries? Yeah, the zone. We play games and hang out on preperation day. The other Spanish Elders and Elder Poncio and I see each other the most since we are in the same branch, and that’s a lot of fun.
Have you seen the sun this week?- Yeah, most of the week. Its actually been pretty sunny. Not overly warm though because there is a lot of wind.
Share whatever is on your mind. – Not much, just really tired. Still waking up a lot in the night. Not sure why. The mattress definitely isn’t a Purple but it’s not bad. Plus, I’ve slept well at the MTC. So I don’t know what it is, but that’s not been fun. I woke up at like 4:40 this morning, which definitely wasn’t great. Love you’re youngest brother/son Elder Tonkinson
Elder Gideon Tonkinson, Washington Everett Mission 