Dear family,

Last week I misspoke, it was week 8 not week 9. To be honest its just hard to keep track of everything. What day it is of the week makes almost no difference  except for Sunday and Monday, other than that I’m just lost in a limbo. So father, please correct the title of last week to be “Week 8- Meals and Miracles” Now on to this week, week 9.

Pretty low key week. We found a couple new people this week and tried to visit them yesterday, but they weren’t home. It seems to be a constant issue here, that people just don’t make time, forget we’re coming back and because of that either they are not home, or if they are, they are too busy. It is mildly frustrating. Another frustrating thing is most people work from 6am-9pm, with a short window of time at home mid-day, where they eat and then return to work. So if they do have a day off, then they want to spend it with family and shopping and all those things. So many people are interested, but just have no time. 

Winter started this week. Winter here is rain, constant, slow, wet, cold rain. It rains most of the day here. Currently I am using a rain coat that was left here, it’s a couple sizes to  big, but for now it works. Ugh rain. 

Another thing that happened this week was we had zone conference, and I had an exchange with the district leader. Zone conference was on Friday, we talked about working with your companion in unity and working with the ward mission leader [the person in the local unit called to work with members and missionaries to do missionary work locally] to best serve the area you are working in. We also got driving instruction on how to drive in the fog, in snow, and when we hit an ice patch. The vehicle coordinator also is going to start giving out awards each zone conference to good drivers or whatever he deems worthy. Well Elder Poncio and I got it this time around, you can find it in the pictures. We, for the past two weeks, have been trying to get our car fixed, because when we got it the trunk would not open at all. So we took it in, they said they needed a part and then this week they actually fixed it. So, when they were checking the car out in the shop, they unplugged Tiwi, which is the box that monitors us and says “CHECK YOUR SPEED!” any time that you go 7 mph over the speed limit, and unplugging it can get your driving privileges revoked permanently. So when we got in the car and saw Tiwi was unplugged, we immediately called the vehicle coordinator. He said that he was impressed that we called him before he called us; I was just trying to stay out of trouble, haha. 

Exchanges were good. I enjoyed meeting with English speakers and members, because I could speak what I wanted to, I could contribute and I did not have to think too hard about what I was trying to say. That was wonderful. This week, we have mini exchanges (12:30-6:00) with the zone leaders on Wednesday where I will again be in the English area, as I am not confident enough yet in my Spanish.

Food this week. We went over Friday to some one we teach’s house after zone conference, and they asked if we wanted food. We said no we’re fine, and they still made us carne asada, with home made tortillas. Oh sooo good. Also, last night I made banana bread from left over bananas and then cinnamon rolls, which are now frozen so we can make just like one or two at a time when we want some.  

Finally, last night, we met with one of the English wards. The area seventy has asked that the  area focuses on the getting the Hispanic members active in their wards. So they invited us, the Spanish Elders, and then the Hispanic families. Well the families did not show, but we did get to meet with them on how they are going to work to reach out to the Hispanics in their community and try to create more unity. We worked out that the English ward is going to try to reach out to those Hispanic families in love and become friends with them, not just out of duty and trying to get them to become active, but to let them know they are loved and to become a real friend. We also worked out that we are going to try to start a bilingual church self reliance course. This way, it will unify both the white and hispanic population; and it will allow them all to better themselves, and it is a way we can serve the community. They asked for our opinion a lot. We love this idea, because it will help me with my Spanish, serve the people we are trying to serve, and potentially open people up to hearing our message. Our only big concern is that the people won’t have time. But we will see how this turns out. I am excited either way.

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Questions:

Did your packages arrive?- Probably. The letters they will forward to us, for packages, someone has to go down to the mission office for them and bring them up and distribute them. So it will probably not be until October 9th (next transfer) that I get the packages. 😦

3  Favorite moments from the week.- Okay so we met with members on Tuesday night I believe, and I got laughed at by all of them for saying Utah, weirdly, when I tried to say it with a Spanish accent. Then we were tracting and Elder Poncio says that house is Spanish speaking. I was like how do you know? And he just said look. So above the door it said “Aloha,” but I was like well that must be why he thinks it is Spanish speaking. So I not thinking said “Ahola? What word is that?” Elder Poncio still hasn’t let that go yet. Turns out there was a Mexico flag, and I just missed it. Finally one… hmm. Oh, when were getting the car fixed, it was in the other Spanish Elders half of the zone, so we did studies with them. Well studies finished, and they have a weight set and we starting putting all the weight on it. Elder Poncio said it looked easy, so he tried to curl it… He almost got it, but it was just really funny to watch him struggle.

A challenge you have faced this week- Finding people to teach. We mostly teach when we find. So we usually teach at the door. Of all the new people we have found we have not been invited in yet. We just teach at the door. Also, we now have to do more tracting as we have no more potentials (people who in the past said they are interested), but the issue is finding where there are a lot of Spanish speakers. Usually in a neighborhood there is like one or two, and then five to six in a trailer park. So it is just hard to figure out where we can go, where we are not just knocking doors just to find: a) they are not interest or b) they are English speaking and there are no Spanish speakers

How is the cooking coming along? – It’s alright, just not tons of time to cook for dinners

Budget?- Not too bad. We luckily do service at a food bank and they let us take some fresh produce home. So, we have some good stuff that isn’t just pasta or quesadillas.

How is spanish coming? (I added this one as it is always a question)- It is alright. I can understand most gospel related topics in Spanish. So church I can get most of. Outside of that, when it comes to everyday stuff, it gets a little harder. I am starting to understand more, but it is still tough. The slower the better. Also, there are many different accents which makes it tough to do but I will work through it.

Tell me something you admire about your companion.- He always asks for referrals. I do not remember if I told you all or not, but we tried to go tracting in one area, which was all English, and the first door we opened just started swearing at us and telling us how stupid all of Christianity is. Well after he finished, Elder Poncio, like we are supposed to, asked, “Do you know if anyone of your neighbors speaks Spanish?” He just does what he should be doing with out fear. 

Love,

Elder Tonkinson

So this week was just filled with a lot of good food and a couple miracles. So lets get started

Monday was pretty good, I wrote last week’s email early and then went to the Stake center and played volleyball with the other missionaries. We then got groceries and then went to Coconut Kenny’s which is a pretty good sandwich shop. Oh man that was a good sandwich. 

Tuesday, we had to get the trunk of our car fixed, because since we’ve had it, the trunk has not worked. So we were told it would take about 2 hours to figure out the problem. So we tried to go knock doors. First door we opened, the guy, who seemed high, immediately said, “I don’t want to talk to either of you.” in English. I was ready to leave and then Elder Poncio, says “Do any of your neighbors speak Spanish?” I was ready to hit him right then, but he was doing what he was supposed to and asking for referrals from everyone. This man then started swearing at the both of us about how stupid Christianity is. So, I called the other Spanish Elders, whose area we were in, and for the next two hours we just did studies in their apartment. I know, I know, very lame, but I was just not ready for that. 

Wedensday, we had lunch for free at one of the members restaurants. It’s a seafood place, so I got fish and chips and that was so good. We can go once a week, but it’s so expensive that we decided we would only go on special occasions. Later we went tracting in this apartment building that was on one of the farms and every door was Spanish speaking, except one, which spoke Mexteco (I think that’s how it’s spelled) which is a native language from Mexico. We got four new people who wanted us to return Sunday. That was a miracle, given how I was feeling the previous day about knocking doors. One of the door contacts we taught the “First Vision,” which is one of the few times I can speak Spanish coherently. I could feel the power of the Spirit as I delivered from memory the “First Vision.” It was a testimony of the divinity of this work, and the reality of Joseph Smith being called as a prophet of God.  

Thursday, we had service at a food bank and a soup kitchen. I burned my hand pretty bad when getting some soup. My hand was under the bowl, and I was serving the soup over the pot and the bowl was tilted and soup spilled over my hand. I couldn’t just drop the bowl in the soup, so I quickly moved the bowl to the counter and then shook the boiling soup off my hand (took about 7 seconds). The top of my palm was bright red. I put some cold water over it and the workers had me put my hand on some packaged frozen pork. The miracle is that when we left about 20 minutes later after, my hand which had started to blister in some areas, was normal color and no where did it hurt, even when holding or touching something. It was a legitimate healing and a miracle. Later, we taught one of the people we had found in the apartment, his name is Francisco, he’s about 16, and he seems pretty receptive to our message. I could feel the power of the words of Elder Poncio even without really being able to understand everything he was saying. Later that day we met with two recent converts Wendy and Carlos. We got there to teach and they had plates and food out and drinks ready for us to eat. (We’re only supposed to have dinner appointments on Saturday and Sunday) We thought we were only going to be teaching. The food was good ,and they gave us a cantaloupe agua fresca which was pretty good. 

Friday, we had to go back down to Everett for more training. It was nice to see Elder Durbano and Elder Slack (the two other new Spanish Elders), and see how they were doing. The fun part was on the way back to our area, we had taken the district leader and his companion in our car. We while in some pretty slow traffic, we put copies of the Book of Mormon up to the windows, and we got a lot of thumbs ups and smiles. If they looked Hispanic, we would put up El Libro De Mormon. Overall, it was a good time. Did not get much else done because training took so long.

Saturday was good. There was a baptism for one of the children in the branch. Elder Poncio and I had to give a lesson during the baptism so that was nerve racking. Rather than like in the past at door contacts, we decided we would switch off points. So, yeah, that was tough. Baptism was good though.

Sunday, we went to church and there was actually about 20 people this time, so it felt a lot better and like an actual branch. Branch president mistakenly confused this week with next week and thought it was Branch Conference. It wasn’t, so he called Elder Poncio and I to speak, an hour before the meeting started. Yeah, it was tough; I gave the shortest talk in Sacrament meeting I have ever given. Afterwards, I was told by some of the members that they were impressed by my Spanish given how short I had been out. One of the members even said my accent sounded like I had been serving two years instead of two weeks. So that made me feel good. One of the members also gave us frozen tamales. Oh man were they good! We then after lunch went to the appointments we had in the apartment complex. All but the one with Francisco fell through, which was frustrating. So we took that time to go visit Brad, who was the man we blessed a week and a half earlier. He was doing well. He said he had been going without alcohol for two weeks and didn’t even really crave it either. So, that was a miracle to us, and I was happy to hear he was doing well. In addition to that miracle, the power went out unexpectedly right as he was about to leave for work around 2:30, so he called in and said he was going to not go in so he could get ice and save the food, because the power company said it would probably be 12 hours until the power could get back on. When he got back though from getting ice, the power was back. So rather than working overtime, he decided to stay home, and then we knocked on the door. So, if it weren’t for that power outage we would have missed him. We then had dinner with la Familia Chaj. They made these really good tacos from Guatemala. They had homemade tortillas, pork, and then a lettuce, cilantro, lime slaw. Oh so good.

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Anything you WANT right now that is allowed??? – A good pillow. The pillow we are given is garbage. Oh so bad. I wake up several times a night because my neck hurts from it. Also a hand mixer? I have lots of room right now to take all this stuff in my suit case. But we don’t have hand mixers so that would be great to make some foods easier. Address is in the pictures. 

How is Spanish coming along?- It’s tough but it is getting better. I am starting to understand a little more and speak a little better. Slowly but surely.

If you could only ask three questions to people at home what would they be?- How are you doing? What’s the best thing that happened this week? What’s it like having the sun instead of clouds all day?

What is your favorite song to listen to in the field?- Song… hmmm, BYU Vocal Point. All their songs are good.

If someone could send you anything you wanted what would that ONE thing be?- Reese’s

What are you most proud of doing this week?- Proud, I don’t really know if there is much to be proud of this week. I guess, I am still trying to work out daily, and I haven’t lost motivation yet.

What do you want people to write to you about?- Their life. I just want to know how they’re doing, what’s going on, all that stuff.

If you could go on a vacation to anywhere in the world, where would you go?- Somewhere with the sun and lots of Spanish people to teach, so California maybe?

Tell us about a time your life was blessed this week by your companion.- He blessed me this week by letting me call the other Spanish Elders after that guy cussed us out. I am thankful at that moment he didn’t force me to continue.

Something that you are grateful for?- The ability to cook some foods, so I am eating better than just raman.

Something that made you laugh this week.- Uh, so Monday night, I was taking out the trash, and I hit my name tag into the trash and didn’t notice until we got in the car. Luckily, I have two. So we ordered some more for me, but yeah I was frustrated but now it’s funny. Also Elder Poncio, whenever we pass any female, doesn’t matter who, he says “Lock your heart Elder” it’s pretty funny most of the time.

Tell us about your best teaching or contacting moment?- Fransico, because he seems engaged and doesn’t flake on us.

What significant did you learn in the scriptures?- I am in Alma for personal study and I read Alma 5:14– Need to have a change of heart when we repent, not just a change of behavior. If we have a change of heart a natural consequence will be a change in behavior. Also Alma 5:33 we see as dad likes to point out, Christ is always stretching out His arms of mercy towards us, and we just have to take grip.

Is there something in particular that we can be praying for on your behalf?- Less anxiety of door contacting and speaking the Spanish I do know. Oh, and that we can find people who are ready and willing to listen to our message. Please and thank you. 

Love you all very much thanks for the questions! I have already come to love all the people we teach and all the people in the branch. I already know I may not like some aspects of the area now but it is going to be hard to leave after 12 weeks (that’s how long in field training is).

Love,

Elder Tonkinson

https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/

Hola hola,

Oh man what a week. Where to start…. I think I am going to try to make these a litttle shorter, because it can take so much time to write these haha. 

Sunday, we had a good devotional on what we can learn from Joseph the son of Jacob [starting in Genesis chapter 39]. We can be put in a tough situation and say, “I will do the best I can and be the best I can be.” I think that that is such a wonderful attitude to have, we can not always choose the circumstances we are in, but we just have to roll with the punches.

Monday, Elder Keeler and Elder McQuinn both left in the morning. Sunday night all the Elders stayed in one room which was nice. We didn’t sleep until 1:00 AM because we were talking, and Elder McQuinn had yet to have packed. Monday night I was asking to give a blessing to one of the sisters in my district, which was my first blessing where I was the one actually giving the blessing [acting as voice/saying the words of the blessing]. It was a cool experience, as the words didn’t exactly come to my mind, but rather more of impressions and feelings. I could also feel the power of the priesthood, which was incredible.

Tuesday was pretty good. Elder Boyle and three of the sisters left at like 5:00 in the morning. Then Elder Willis left at 10:00, so then it was just Elder Durbano and I and 2 sisters who wouldn’t leave until Wednesday morning. We got sack lunches and then ate together one last time, and then we were off [they traveled by light rail from Provo to the Salt Lake Airport]. We got to Seattle at like 6:00, and then were greeted by President and Sister Auna, who had the biggest smiles on their faces. We went to the temple which was beautiful and awesome. We then had dinner and interviews and then went to sleep at the assistants [assistants to the president, two missionaries who the president calls to help him train missionaries and help with other oversight functions] apartment. 

Wednesday, we had some training and then met our companions. At the beginning of our meetings, we recite our purpose in all the languages that the missionaries present teach in and our scripture 3 Nephi 5:13 “Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.” So the languages in the mission are English, Russian, Spanish and ASL. It was pretty cool to hear everyone try to speak Spanish just by copying the person was leading. Funny thing was, I knew the missionary purpose in Spanish and didn’t  know it in English.

My companion is Elder Poncio; he is from Guatemala, so he is fluent and can speak English almost fluently. He is going to be such a help to me and my Spanish. Fun fact, his dad was the mission president in Nicaragua and his parents are in one of the safety videos we had to watch. Our area [the geographic boundaries they are restricted to teach in] is Bellingham, which is the biggest and most northern area. Our apartment is two miles from the Canadian border, like we could run to the border and back for a work out. We split the zone with another companionship of Spanish speaking Elders, but still its such a big area. Geographically, we cover about one-fifth of the entire mission with the other Spanish Elders. Yeah, it’s crazy. I got $23 in my card for food before getting in the field, and Elder Poncio had $15. We were white washing the area (both new to the area) [usually, when missionaries are transferred, one will stay in the area so that there is continuity in teaching and contracting. However, sometimes, the mission president feels inspired to move both missionaries out and two new missionaries in, which is commonly termed “white washing” the area], so we had no food and currently are living off cereal, mac and cheese and such. Luckily, we have $90 each for the next 2 weeks now, so hopefully I can make and eat real food this week. But, Wednesday was just spent getting settled in.

Thursday was a day, just did a lot of study, because for the first twelve weeks we have at least 30 minutes more of companionship study, wahoo! We just went around our area and tried to contact interested people from the past. Most weren’t home, but we tried. 

Friday was good. We got to visit with some members and went and tried to knock on some doors of interested people. We stopped by this older members house and turns out she has been sick, so we gave her a blessing. I anointed in Spanish and Elder Poncio gave the blessing. The sisters in our district got a call from a man who had been excommunicated but wanted a blessing, because he was at whit’s end. So because the district leader was too far, we were asked to go over and give the blessing. We visited with him for a little while and got to know him. Hearing his story was powerful. I won’t go into detail, but he through out all this time had kept his testimony, and I could feel the love that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ had for him. Unfortunately because he is English speaking, we will have to give him to the sisters [to work with], but I hope that he can take the steps to return to the Church as he seemed truly repentant. That was very powerful. That night we also stopped by some other members and while we were teaching, they made us some elote, the corn with mayo and cheese. It was pretty good, a little weird but good. Elder Poncio was happy because the members were Guatemalan and actually one of them knew his mom, and so the elote reminded him of home. 

Saturday was long, we knocked out study in the morning and got to work and tracted for 7 hours… yeah long. Most of it was just walking and knocking on doors that never opened. Many of the members we hoped to have visited, were gone or had actually moved. We made some new friends(people who we taught and have a follow up for) and will go back and hopefully teach them on next Saturday. Anyways pretty discouraging to go to around and not even have members who can open the door, because they are actually no longer there. 

Sunday there was no one at church. They do Sunday school first and then sacrament meeting, and for the first 15 minutes it was literally just the Elders. Finally, we had, I think, twelve people show up. So, pretty much everyone got to bear their testimony. I did, in Spanish, and I could not speak, like all the words just would not come. Usually there are more people apparently but, two of the families who normally come, including that of the branch president, were out of town. We had a potluck afterwards, it was good, but all just chicken. No greens or anything else, just 3 different types of chicken. After the potluck we went tracting more. We have one person who said we can return this coming week, so that’s what we’ll do.

So that’s pretty much it here. Few members and little interest in our message. Issue is it’s hard enough to find Spanish speakers and they are all spread out so we spend a bit of time just driving. Most of our people who are “interested” are people who were found by other missionaries and then referred to us because they speak Spanish and couldn’t be understood by the missionaries. Most of the time we go, and they say they are not interested. Hopefully, as we start to get to know the area better, we can find some people to teach. We shall see.

Questions

Tell us about your new companion- Elder Poncio is pretty cool and chill. He has been out for ten months and is going to help bunches with my Spanish. He is from Guatamala city. He’s also funny

Tell us about your area- Huge, giant, the Spanish branch is for any Spanish speakers in the whole zone. From one side to other it is over an hour.

Tell us about the ward(s) or branch(s) to which you are assigned.- Small branch as you read. Most members are not active, and because of this, many have moved with out informing the church and we go to their address and meet new people.

Tell us about the mission president and his wife.  How was training with him?  Did he do a first interview with you?- Really super nice, especially Sister Auna. I finish my food for dinner and she was like, go, eat more, so I did. They’re from Hawaii and super nice. President Auna is pretty laid back, no really weird specific rules–if it’s in the handbook, we follow it. So like with music, as long it brings the Spirit, we are allowed to listen to it, so that means more than just Choir at Temple Square. Training was short, and we have to go back to the mission home (an hour and a half drive) Friday for more training. Yes, he just had 4 questions. Will you be obedient? Are you worthy to hold a temple recommend and to be here? Can the Lord trust you? I answer yes, yes, and I hope He can. 

What was the most discouraging thing this week?- No one to teach, all the friends who have been taught by the last missionaries here, have not been taught in a month, and most we have not been able to get in contact with.

What was the high point of the week?- Giving the two blessings and being able to exercise the Lord’s priesthood

What was something you learned in scripture study?- So I am back in Jacob [in the Book of Mormon] and he talks about how some are hear to hear “the pleasing word of God” but that because they are members of the church and not keeping their commandments he has to use the word of God that enlarges the wounded soul. Just reminded me that the word of God is pleasing most of the time and of love but when need it will call us to repentance and remind us we need to be better.

What was something you learned from Preach My Gospel- Well we started in the section on managing time, and it’s important to set goals to improve, because if you don’t you will decrease in your ability to teach with the Spirit, and if you do you will become the best you can be.

Something you love about Washington- They have really good apples (Sister Auna gave us each one), and I love apples.

A funny moment from the week.- Oh man, I have two. So we were contacting people in this trailer park and this woman stops by us in her car and says “You all are so young and have been taught the wrong way. You need to start to think for yourself.” She then goes on to tell us we have a corrupt bible and that the only true one is the King James Version (the one we use) and then goes on to contradict herself. We wanted to share a scripture form the Bible and then she said no and drove off. It was pretty funny, because she had ended up hurting herself, and it was just funny. I just wanted to say “Ma’am you just contradicted yourself, and I know that this church is true and otherwise I would not be out her serving for two years.” 

The second one is I can not roll my rr’s for the life of me. So we were having me practice as we were driving. I use my throat too much Elder Poncio says and he was just laughing at my pathetic attempts to roll them. I’ll get there he said. He thinks I’ll be able to understand most people and say most things I want to in about 6 months, I hope he is right.

Whatever is on your mind.- Spanish is hard. I thought I was doing pretty well, TRCs I could understand and I could usually get my point across. Yeah, not now. The combination of not knowing the person and not knowing the language kills. Also, with so many accents and the speed, it can be hard to understand people. I would say I can get the main points about 40% of the time. The issue is I will start to zone out after getting lost and then I will have no clue what is going on. 

An answer to a prayer you received this week.- I have been a little more homesick this week and overwhelmed with not knowing the language and being in an area with so little members and stuff. So I have been listening to talks on missionary work this week, and I it’s been helping. Also I spent some time, decluttering from the last missionaries (they left a bunch of clothes) and gave them to a donation center, and then I reorganized some stuff. So, it feels a little better here in the apartment. I am sure in about 2 weeks it will start to feel like home and I won’t be so uptight. 

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Love,

Elder Tonkinson