Hey y’all this week was just a blast. It was so so busy and just a ton of fun. Literally, there really wasn’t ever a dull moment.

Monday night we were pretty busy and then just all week we had a ton, and I mean a ton, of lessons planned. If all of them had happened we would have had about 35. It was really insane. Unfortunately, a decent number canceled on us, so we ended up having 24 lessons. That was still a decent number though. Friday was our craziest day. We had 9 lessons planned. Unfortunately, five of them fell through. But still, it was a really cool thing to see that many lessons. So yeah the work was popping this week.

We didn’t quite make new friends this week but the branch may have four baptisms next week. Elian, Perla’s daughter, is on date for March 6th, the two nieces of Hermana Mora come this week so possible two more and then a woman named Anayeli is on date for March 20th in the Arlington half. But she’s a little tough, as the Arlington Elders haven’t been the ones teaching her, but other Elders who used to serve here who are friends with her are. So yeah interesting.

Tomorrow is transfers so I will be out of here. I actually already know who and where I am going to. I am headed to Everett and will be with Elder K, Elder Durbano’s trainee. It’ll be a shake up for sure. This is my first move since coming back and I will be going from an apartment to a suite in a hotel. That’s right free, breakfast and a gym (gotta look at the bright side). Also, I realized I have now lived in Marysville longer than I lived in Florida or maybe about the same, but unlike Florida I haven’t left ever for a vacation haha.

Fun highlights from this week I guess are we came up with a game for all the Legos we have. So, Lego now has some guns that actually shoot. Yeah, so we used those to shoot some minifigs and came up with some rules for that. Pretty fun.

In person lessons can now happen again, so we went to the Mora’s and well they unavoidably fed us. It was a good time, and they will be missed. I will actually miss this whole branch. This week we also did beachbody 22 minute hard corps work out this week… That was hard. Elder Elison got it from his parents when he first got reassigned here, and it kicked our butts, but it was also a good work out. Hmm, oh, we got to serve at Cascade Park, a church owned park and got to finish some benches that was kinda fun. Oh, also, lots of cooking, like probably the most I have done with my comps and some just good food. We had gyros, cinnamon rolls, steaks (tonight), homemade bread; yeah, lots of fun. Oh, we also almost every night stayed up talking until like midnight haha.

Spiritual thing is this week, we taught the Restoration which is not a frequent thing honestly these days, and it was powerful. We read the Joseph Smith Story again and the spirit just hit me and was like, “Hey remember this? Yeah it’s still true” It was pretty awesome. But yeah so I’ve got some packing to do so let’s get to questions.

Questions-
How is it going to have three Missionaries in the apartment and companionship? – Awesome I love it. Wish it would kinda not end.

Share highlights of your teaching and lessons week. – Just a packed week. I guess Elian filled out most of her baptismal form and stuff so that was good.

What have you learned about yourself during the Past year and do those new insights change your goals for the Future plans? – Hmm I have learned that I can be happy even in a tough situation. Not that I am never not frustrated, but that I overall am happy. Also that there are still things to be done in quarantine life, and it’s not all that bad. Oh and I can adjust a little bit better than I thought

Share something you’ve learned from one of your companions this week. – Elder Elison is a really great teacher and he also has a lot of good ideas on how to lead.

Share a favorite scripture from your study this week and why you chose it. – HMMMMMMMMM – “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:” Genesis 1:26 just a good solid one about how we are all like unto God and that we are His children

Do you have any request for housing in the fall? Are you hoping to room with anyone At this point in time? –
Nope I am fine with anyone I guess. I’ll put down my ideas and I’ll add a number next to them out of 10 of how important they are 1 being low and 10 being high.

Ethernet – 7
Close to campus – 10
Laundry mat in complex – 8
4 people to an apartment – 9
Gym – 5
Generally nice/newish (you know how I am) – 7
2 bathrooms – 6
Idk what else haha… More open layout? – 4

Elder Tonkinson
https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/

Oh P. S. I have extended my mission to August 9th…. Sooo yeah

Hey everyone
Yup, that’s right; I am in a trio again! It’s super exciting. Anyways, I’ll get to that. This week was pretty full of things, especially this weekend. So Tuesday, I went on exchanges with Elder Christensen, which is the last one I have to do for this transfer. It was pretty fun. I went to his area, and we had a good day. He’s on bike, and we had 2 lessons in person. The first was with one of their ward missionaries who met with us outside on his patio which over looks the bay which was pretty cool. He also insisted on feeding us, so we had some pizza which was also pretty good. The craziest thing was that he gave us 21 referals. 21! Our goal as a zone for the month was to get 25 total. Most were part members families but it was still a really cool experience. Then, we biked even further into the reservation about 10 miles in and met with some other members who game us 2 referrals, so 23 in one day.

Elder Mendoza and Elder Castillo came by after that lesson and took us home as it was getting dark, and there we no lights on the reservation. Then we had a quick dinner followed by a lesson and then dropped off some brownies and had to bike another 6 miles or so to do it haha. Good time though.

Wednesday was the normal district council, and then we had some lessons. Thursdays I got to go over a parable with Drew and we had a lesson with Perla and Elian and well… Elian accepted a baptismal date! She is on date to be baptized March 6th. I’m pretty excited about that. Unfortunately, seeing as transfers are next Tuesday I don’t think I’ll be here for it, so I’ll watch it over zoom. Which is tough. But still, it’s not about me, it’s about her and it is exciting to see.

Friday was a little crazy. We got a call from the assistents, Elder Pratt and Elder Herbst and they’re like, “Hey Elders you wouldn’t mind covering all of the branch and getting a 3rd companion would you?” So it turns out Elder Kleven is going back to Mexico February 23rd and was late for his 14 day quarantine by 4 days and they had just found out. So Elder Elison, Elder Kleven, Elder Castillo, and I all went to Mod Pizza to eat together and say goodbye to Elder Kleven.

Funny story when I was paying a member pushed me out of the way and payed for all of us. Like she physically pushed me aside haha. So we ate with them and then the assistants dropped in and took Elder Kleven at 7 from our apt. We found out then that we would probably be together until next transfer even though they had told Elder Elison “a couple days” so he had only bought a couple stuff with him. Well bad news was… Saturday and Sunday we were snowed in. So we couldn’t go get his stuff.

Saturday, we ended up having to walk to Walmart to pick up a headset for Elder Castillo to translate Stake Conference [meeting held twice a year for all members of the Stake. A stake is generally made up of 7 to 12 congregations,] for all 4 sessions (with some other people so not just him). We were luckily able to do it remotely from our apt but yeah that was a 2 hour walk, that we took lunch and our walk times for because it was a needed thing for him to translate. He did a great job though.

Sunday we had Stake Conference from 8-12 because of a special Spanish meeting from 8-9:30. It was fun. Elder Castillo translated and Elder Elison and I turned into Italian pasta-making grandma’s. I had told the district I would make them pasta so while we watched we made some pasta, and it was really good in the end. It took a lot of work and effort but it was also fun. It was surprisingly physically exerting to roll out as much pasta as we did.

After Stake Conference, Elder Glazier, Tolman, Christensen and Mendoza came by and ate it and then left. Elder Hatch and Elder Young were too far away to walk but I dried some pasta and saved a decent bit of the sauce and cheese (some fresh motzerella and riccotta) so we can have them stop by and eat it some day this week. It was a lot of fun and it was crazy to see all that hard work eaten so quick haha. Hand made pasta is worth it in small quantities but maybe not in larger ones, especially when it’s all hand made and you don’t have a roller.

Last night most of our lessons fell through. Though I did have on with Carson on the parable of the talents which was good. Thanks to our lessons falling through though, we did get to make a video to “hype up” the Spanish missionaries. We’re going to be doing a page completion, and so we made a little video that took 2 hours to make that just says how we’re going to beat all other pages, but it’s in a little Lego video. I’ll send it haha. Then today was good we went up to Arlington and got a bit of Elder Elison’s things and then played spikeball and football in the snow. Elder Hatch bought and threw a fish at me for always doing a “dead fish” hit in spikeball. Luckily Elder Elison knows how to filet a fish, and we took it home and cooked it up. It was pretty good. And now I’m siting here typing. Though as soon as I finish I’m gonna get started on cinnamon rolls, because, why not?

Questions –

Any changes on the phases in your mission? Are you still in phase one as a mission. – Unfortunately no

Favorite teaching moment from the week? – Elian being put on date and being excited about it

Share something from your scripture study that you’ve learned this week. – I studied the Pearl of Great Price… Yeah, that was interesting. I definitely have a lot better understanding of why we have it and need it and what it adds, especially in relation to the premortal life.

Last week you dazzled us with pasta homemade cake. Have you tried anything new this week? – I made bread but I forgot to take pictures, and it was gone so quick. It unfortunately was a little more cakey, so this week I bought bread flour, and I have two packets of yeast, so one will go into bread and the other into the cinnamon rolls. We bought steaks, so I’ll probably make it the day we have that.

What’s the latest on you companion possibly going back to Brazil? – Nada

I love you all!
Elder Tonkinson
https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/

Hello there!
This week was pretty good and decently packed full of things which was nice. Monday night, we finished off with a lesson with Katie Ownby which was good. It’s been really awesome to help her to teach her friend by going over the questions she has. And it’s been cool to see Katie’s testimony strengthen, and she’s a beast and will be a great missionary in a couple years when she can go serve. Then, we finished and watched the mission devotional we missed. But seriously it was a good way to end the day.

Tuesday I went on an exchange with Elder Young the new zone leader this transfer. Unfortunately, all the lessons fell through in their area but we still had a good time and a good discussion on what we could do to help the missionaries we are over which was a really good way to use that time I thought. So that was a lot of fun, and we also got an awesome member meal. So there are two companionships in the ward the zone leaders are in so multiply this by two, a whole rotisserie chicken, a bag of avocado toast salad (which was great), Hawaiian rolls, cantaloupe and a lemon cake (which was pretty lemony and I was impressed). So thank you to those members; it was great. We got to eat in seperate rooms with the door open with Elder Stepen and Oakeson the other two elders from Lake Stevens so that was good.

Yeah then Wednesday, we had the usual, service and then district council. District council was good, and we even had it outside which was great. Like awesome, the sun was shining and it was pretty warm. So we loved that. Thursday we had some good lessons, and it was a pretty chill day; and then Friday I had another exchange with Elder Glazier and this time I went to his area. That was good we had 3 lessons and were able to get 2 refferalls of people to teach and that was of course fantastic. Who wouldn’t want to teach more people about what could bring them lasting joy? So that was a good day too.

Saturday was a pretty packed day and I got to have a lesson with my best friends which was also great. Drew, Luke and Carson all were super happy to talk, and we decided we’re going to call every Wednesday and go over a parable and catch up. It’s great. I also had a lesson with my friend Anne-Elaine as well. She’s really come a long way and seems to be a lot more religious than she was before my mission which is really awesome. Oh I guess Elder Castillo on Friday met with Perla and Elian. Perla was good; she got her temple recommend, and Elian said she wants to be baptized which is great.

Sunday we had a good time at church and we started having a 30 minute Sunday school this week which was great. Hermana Mora said we’re going to try to meet with her two nieces from Mexico and help get them read for baptism. They can’t be baptized in Mexico only because there are no missionaries there currently. I am not complaining, and I’m excited to be able to start that. So that was the week. It was good. Oh I guess no word on Elder Castillo leaving but a bunch of missionaries are starting to, so I may not have to be in quarantine with Elder Castillo when he does leave. Then Elder Kleven my first comp when I came back is leaving to Mexico soon. He is actually in SLC today getting his visa figured out. Very cool stuff.

Questions-

What have you learned about yourself in the last few weeks? – Patience is something that is still needing improvement. That’ll be a very good skill for the rest of my life so might as well start learning more of it now right?

In what way have you built up personal resilience during your mission and the pandemic? – Just having to learn how to stay productive especially when it is easier and more enjoyable to sleep or read all day.

Share something that’s made you laugh this week. – Hmm at district council we had a roast/compliment time to help promote district unity. It was funny

Is there something that you’ve learned from your companion or another missionary in the past week or two?- How to correct better from Elder Young. It’s not easy and unfortunately sometimes dispite your best efforts you may not be liked.

What is one of your favorite principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to teach? – Repentance because it brings peace and joy.

This week I tried my hand at Ice Cream Cake Bars (I made my own fo-ice cream from making whipped cream and mixing sweetened condensed milk and mixed it with Texas sheet cake, let that freeze and then cut it and dipped them. [These are a very Tonkinson thing. They are a blend of cake and ice cream, frozen and dipped in chocolate. Most of us love to mix cake and ice cream at birthdays, and this is just a more sophisticated way to do that] The district liked them. And then I also made pasta yesterday which was really good and worth the effort I think haha.

Elder Tonkinson
https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/

Hello hello wonderful family [I think he must have confused us with some other family]

Well let’s just get right into it. Monday night was a fantastic way to end an already good P-day. We had 4 lessons and a Spanish page meeting. It was kinda crazy to fit that in to the last 3 hours of the day but really satisfying to have had that much to do.

Tuesday institute [a college level religion class] was fantastic. We’re still talking about world religions and this week was Buddisma and Hinduism, which I was surprised by how similar some beliefs or principles were. This again kinda reaffirmed that God will reveal light and truth to all men and that just like President Hinckley said, “Come with what you have and let us see if we can add to it.” What a wonderful principle. The Church doesn’t have a monopoly on truth but we do have the largest collection of it. I just love that, because we can really relate to all people because in part what they have has been given them by the exact same God.

Tuesday afternoon, we had Zone Conference which was on focusing on working with the Ward/Branch at this time. Using ministers and members to be able to do what we can’t, like drop by in person, and to fellowship those who have stopped coming back into the branch and making sure that they know they are needed and wanted. I thought it was really good and perfect because as a ZLC [Zone Leadership Council], we decided that our goal this next month will be focused on getting more member lessons and refferals. We had to rush back from Zone Conference to get back for our lessons which again felt so good to be busy.

Wednesday was crazy as always, having service in the morning then a lesson during service and then district council. District council was good. It was focused on comp unity, and we brainstormed ideas on how we can help grow that and the blessings that will come from it. It was really interesting because it was not a district council theme that I thought was super needed; but from what I heard afterwards, Elder Tolman and Mendoza both thought it was perfect. So that was really good to know that the Spirit had lead me to that subject (well and some help from Elder Tolman when I was planning saying he thought it was great). Thursday we had a lesson with Perla and her 15 year old daughter, Elian. It was over the Plan of Salvation. Elian had some really good questions and concerns, and I honestly could say that she seems to have a very strong urge to be spiritual and religious at that age, which I find impressive for someone who is not super religious now. She actually seeks diligently and reads the Book of Mormon and prays. She also said that she wants to be baptized; she’s just not sure if she’s ready or a 100 % sure, so we’re going to keep working with her. She’s awesome though.

Friday, I had an exchange with Elder Mendoza. It was awesome. We had some really good conversations on missionary work online, what he had found that had worked and some other things. It was really good. I learned a lot, and we worked hard. It was nice to have him there as well for some Spanish lessons because well he speaks it well, because his parents are from Peru and because he hopes to be able to go to his original assignment in Chile soon. He was happy to be able to practice in Spanish. Oh, then I was messaging someone who I had friend requested from here in Marysville. So she added me back and said “Do I know you?” I said, “No I’m sorry if that’s a problem” or something like that and she said, “No you’re kinda cute” and I was like no sir! I am a missionary so I quickly got to talking about being one after some small talk. I just asked if it was fine if I asked some religious questions she said yes and then… I saw, “this person is no longer available on messenger [but in Spanish]” and we’ll I was blocked. Hahaha. I freaked out and pushed too quick to religion which does not work in messenger but perfectly at the door. Good learning experience though. So yeah that was fun and a super successful exchange.

Oh Thursday, Elder Castillo got word that he should be going back to Brazil in the next 3-5 weeks! He’s expecting to get an exact date later this week. Depending on when that is, I could be in 2 week hard isolation this week or before the transfer is over. That means no leaving the apt at all. Not for church or walks or anything… I am not looking forward to that, but I am excited for him.

Saturday we had some good lessons and were busy and then finished off with ArMargeddon. We won the zone challenge, so today Elder Hatch who has about $300 in MSF (Missionary Funds) is going to buy us the winning district Chick-fil-A. Note, he has that much because members feed them every day, and they have hotel breakfast. So they just buy snacks and water and eat leftovers for lunch. Super grateful for that though. Then, yesterday was good, not too many at church, and we’re not sure why but we’re going to work on encouraging more people to come to church. Then accounting last night was super fun as always. Easily the best part of being a district leader, just being able to see other missionaries make changes and help with that.

Questions-
Did you finish cutting your hair? – I finished it last week, I just didn’t need to cut any off the top mom 😛

How have you seen the hand of the Lord in your life this week? – Just being able to start messaging more people online and then having a lot of lessons was nice

Something from your personal study share an insight or an aha moment moment you’ve had recently? Or just a favorite verse of Scripture – Um I have been listening to conference talks this week from Oct. 2003 and April 2004 and those have been really good. An insight I guess has been that at Zone Conference we talked about always making sure we face the Lord and how we need to have a high amount of love and high expectations for our companion. It was just good to think how I can work to have those and encourage those around me to be better without being annoying or being self righteous

From last week’s report you indicated that having trouble with participation and following through on assignments for devotionals and other work. has that improved this week? And if so what do you think it should be attribute the improvements from? – Yeah, that has improved by doing a different type of Preassignment where I just asked them to come up with suggestions for how to improve comp unity and then discussing them.

Also from your letter last week you indicated you and your companion struggle with getting distracted easily but we’re working on it. What have you found to help this week.? – Um, just putting the phone down for a bit when I see I’m getting distracted and then reading more in free time.

Pictures- Made some Texas sheet cake this week and Elder Castillo made some bomb green salsa. I also got some free real maple syrup from the food bank (I asked) which was a steal!

Love y’all!
Elder Tonkinson
https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/

As is potentially apparent, I have been fairly tired this week. Just wishing we could go out and knock doors and visit in person really bad this week. However, other than that it was a good week.

Tuesday, we had a pretty packed day and had a couple good lessons, Wednesday was also packed because of service and district council. District council this week was on the importance of studying. I thought it went alright, but there is always room for improvement. I learned a couple new study ideas that may make studying easier when it’s harder to focus. So I would call it a success for me.

After district council, Elder Glazier needed to go to the doctor down in Everett so we dropped him off, and Elder Castillo, Tolman and I got Ray’s fries, burgers and shakes… Well I got a shake, Elder Castillo and I shared a thing of fries, and Elder Tolman got a combo with a burger, fries and drink. It was pretty good. We also took some time to do some calling to ask President Auna for permission to teach Elder Castillos family members, and we also got permission to get the COVID vaccine. Because we work at the food bank, we are eligible to get it, which will be nice. Unfortunately, besides protection, there is no immediate payoff. Despite it, we still won’t be able to visit families in person or take off the mask… But hey it’s a step in the right direction.

Let’s see, Thursday I had an exchange with Elder Tolman. It was pretty fun. We had four lessons if I remember correctly. It was pretty good. We spent our dinner and walk time together and just went out and walked in Jennings Park and talked about all that had changed in the mission, what we could do better to be happier and more productive. I loved it. Moments like that when I just get to know what people actually think and are struggling with and working with them is why I love being a district leader.

Thursday night, Elder Fiske the vehicle Coordinator came and we removed the Tiwi (the little box that tells us if we are speeding or driving too aggressively) because Friday morning, we went down to Everett to get our cracked glass fixed. We weren’t allowed to stay in the building, so we just took an hour and a half walk around Everett which was relaxing as well and good for our mental health. It was cool though. We literally were like 100 ft away from our big loop when they called and said it was done. Then, unfortunately, Elder Fiske met up with us again, and we had to put Tiwi back on. Boo.

Saturday we had to finish our picture post, video post and devotionals for the page. They’ve changed how they run the page. So we have content managers (I’m over the devotional so I assign everything and then put it together), but there is very little talk between us so we got assigned to do story Thursday and send in a video and photo post and the normal devotional all this week. So that was frustrating, but we got it all done. Saturday, we had Elder Elison (other Spanish Elder) and Elder Laird came and helped us shoot a part of the video. Then we spent the rest of the day editing it. Oh I guess we had ZLC and the ArMargeddon that night too which was a lot of fun, and we are still winning between the districts. I will say that it has been a success for the zone to get more unity (we do a zone zoom call after) and stuff so that’s good. People this week really slacked on the devotional parts so dispite announcing who does what every Sunday in the chat (it’s also in a Google doc at the beginning of the month [but I am the only one to have filled it out way before hand]) and then multiple reminders through out the week. So unfortunately, the devotional was not done until 12:30 in the middle of church. So, I finished editing on my phone, but it took 30 minutes to export and then I had to upload it to drive and then they posted it. It was stressful. And on top of that, we had moderating Sunday and no one else, dispite the daily notification that it is there by Elder Mejía, had done it for about 250 people (about 2 weeks) . (We message all the new likes on the page) Well after messaging about 100 people, Facebook jailed me for doing so (because we message from our accounts and not as the page) and as of 4:27 today I can message new people on Facebook. Then Elder Castillo also got jailed. So Elder Zalesny and Elder Boren the two page Admins finished up and they’re going to get on people tonight in a meeting for not moderating. Then last night we accounted and I cut my hair.

Overall pretty good week looking back at it. Just hard at some points to feel motivated to get up and do something after a break time. Today has been good. We played spikeball as a district. Kinda. So we have 2 spikeball nets in the district and the church owns a pretty big field behind the church. So 2 companionships played in one corner and 2 in the diagonal corner. Then we would switch between us, thus not breaking COVID laws by only having 4 people and from only 2 households playing together. I think it really helped with district unity. I am praying this week I can be better about finding motivation. Elder Castillo and I have talked about it and we’re both gonna work on not getting so distracted haha.

Questions
How are things going with your new companion? – Good he cooks some, I cook some, like Wednesday we made burgers together for lunch. It was pretty fun and good. He also is just a fun person. Though we both get distracted easily as mention above so we’re working on it.
How are you working to serve him?- I make him breakfast or I bought (well mom and day technically) us Chick-fil-A this week.
What do you admire about him as a missionary? – He’s a good teacher and is very knowledgeable and he is fluent in Spanish. We’re going to try to speak more Spanish together this week
Are you pooling your funds for food and eating together like you and Elder Ray did? – Yup
What have you learned this week about virtual missionary work? – It’s not easy. So many distractions on Facebook, so easy to get frustrated with it, but there is a lot of satisfaction in getting to talk with someone even if it’s not about religion. Plus it allows us to have more lessons in a shorter amount of time, because well no travel, although we all prefer in person
Is a missionary council functioning in the branch with EQ and RS participation? – Well we join branch council every Sunday, but we rarely are asked more than “What can we do for you?” and sometimes not even that. Then after chruch we have a meeting with President Soto where we talk about how many members we visited and friends that they could help with, that’s where the real work is done. Finally we have a missionary coordination meeting with just the branch mission leader which is just the same thing as the meeting with President Soto
What did you share in your district meeting and what is planned for the next one? – See above, this week is going to be on unity. As a companionship and a district, we also have zone Conference tomorrow which should be fun

Love you all, have a good week
Elder Tonkinson
https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/

Well this week was pretty good. Tuesday, we started out by having a surprise need for us to serve at the food bank with Elder Chapman and Elder Bates. It was a lot of fun and good for Elder Ray because it was his last time to see them, and they’re some of our good friends in the mission. It was a little sad to see Elder Ray take all his stuff, but hey such is missionary life right? Elder Ray is now in Mt. Vernon with Elder Boyce which should be good. Elder Boyce, from what I have heard, is a really good missionary and hopefully fill in any of my various weak points in training Elder Ray.

I am now with Elder Castillo. He’s pretty cool. He is from San Antonio and actually is cousins and from the same ward as Elder Rodríguez was (he was my companion around this time last year). Elder Castillo started his mission in Brazil and natively speaks Spanish, as both his parents know only some English. It’s pretty cool though because he is fluent in 3 languages, Spanish, English and Portuguese. He reminds me a lot of Noah Kitchen, my good friend from Ohio, which is nice and we’re getting along and having a good time. However, I don’t know how long we will be together. This week, he got an email from the mission office asking for some documentation from Brazil. So we’re thinking, given what they wanted, that he may be going back to Brazil before the end of the transfer.

It’s exciting and a lot of missionaries are starting to get started on heading back out. Elder Zalesny, who was serving here and is one of the Venid a Cristo Page admins, is heading back to Santiago, Chile Feb 4th which is crazy. Many other missionaries who served in Mexico are being asked to fill out visa information. I am excited for them because I know that feeling of being so excited to have that chance to go back. But if he did go back before the end of the transfer I would probably be three packing with Elder Kleven and Elison who cover the other half of the branch. It would be a lot of fun, and depending on Visas both of them could leave pretty soon too (but probably not as soon as Elder Castillo). It sure will be interesting to see how things change over the next few months in the mission with people leaving.

Anyway, other than those things, life is pretty good. We’re meeting with more people lately and we’re having more success online through our zone plan of ArMargeddon. [Ar for Arlinton, Mar for Marysville, the two zones] During this we get together as a zone and find at the same time and try to complete challenges. There are 10 points that we can get each ArMargeddon (every Saturday from 8-9) for our district and whichever district has the most points at the end of the month gets some prize and then everyone should be getting a ArMargeddon sticker. It’s fun and effective because the challenges help us to have more focus in our online efforts.

Speaking of ArMargeddon, during that time I started to message some new people who sent me friend requests which has been cool. One is from Mexico, another Bangladesh and another Nigeria. It’s cool to be able to hear about people’s lives from all around the world and see what’s the same and what is different. Life is good overall dispite the hard bits of social distance because of COVID.

Oh one last thing. My new district (Elders Mendoza, Christensen, Tolman, Glazier, Hatch, Young and Castillo) is really awesome. Wednesday, we had a great discussion in district council on being humble and meek. I learned a lot and it has helped me to know how I can keep working on one of my weakest attributes of Christ. I am grateful for them and all that they bring. I am also grateful that Christ showed us the humility and meekness are not weak attributes to have as the world thinks but are powerful.

Questions-

Tell us about your new companion and share at least one thing you admire about him. – Elder Castillo is pretty cool and I really admire the way that he teaches. It’s just very clear and very to the point. It’s not fancy, but it’s not basic either. He teaches in a way that doesn’t overwhelm people but also doesn’t make it feel like he’s dumbing it down or anything

How have you been inspired to meet the challenge of so many new missionaries in your district? – I am just working on trying to get to know them and talk to them.

What is a goal you are currently working on? – Writing in my journal daily. I’ve never been good at that.

Share an unexpected blessing or growth opportunity you have had while serving a mission. – Um to increase my ability to have Christlike love. I too often judge (still), but being a district leader has expanded my ability to love people even with their struggles and not to judge as much. Again, I am nowhere near perfect, but it’s improving.

The one of the cat is when we went to help Elder Mendoza and Elder Christensen with service. The service we were doing was for the neighbor of a member and the members invited us to have soup and we were like we can if it’s outside. They were like what about our cover patio and I was like that’s fine with doors open… Well we sit down distanced and expecting them to eat seperatly given they were an older couple… Well nope… They sat with us, called us around the table, and shut the doors, essentially turning what was acceptable and outside into an inside space. Haha. They did just get their COVID shots though so we should be fine. It was just like… It was fine and then you all just made it not fine… It just reminded me of how much members really hate not being able to have us over for things and wanting us to be able to do things like the past.

Love you all. Stay safe and healthy.

Elder Tonkinson
https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/

Hey y’all

Well this week was a very up and down week. Some pretty good feelings a lot of the week and some lower moments for sure. First off I’m very very tired. We had a lot of lessons set up, but unfortunately about six fell through which was tough. That pretty much describes the first half of the week, which started out pretty high and then pretty low because we had 3/4 lessons fall through on Thursday. However, the best part happened on Friday! We started the day by meeting up with all the other district leaders and filmed a video to hype up the zone for what we are calling ArMargeddon. It’s where we as a zone come together pray and then find for an hour and then come back together and discuss how it went. We’ll be doing that every Saturday from 8:00-9:00. Hopefully it will promote zone unity and get everyone excited about missionary work in these tough times.

Finally, Perla had her interview and she passed! I was so nervous that she would have something come up but it was awesome. She came out happy and ready for Saturday. I guess going back a week we had planned it for noon on Saturday and has asked two of Perla’s friends from the branch to speak, Hermana Esquivel and Hermana Mora, but the branch mission leader somehow thought it was at 2:00 and told everyone in the branch that. Luckily Perla was able to move it to 2:00 and everything was able to work out. So we spend the rest of the night printing the program, and preparing her record to be added which was a little bit stressful but it was still good. We had a little bit of a scare because we couldn’t find a jumpsuit but we were able to go down to Lake Stevens and pick on up Saturday morning. Then we filled the font and were at the church all morning and just waited and Elder Ray practiced piano, and it was a good time.

The baptism itself was great. It went perfectly. Six of the many missionaries that have taught Perla in her 2 years of getting to know the church were able to join in and watch the baptism through Zoom. It was really cool for me to be the one to baptize and it went perfectly. The water was even warm and it was great. Then Sunday, she was confirmed which was also good. Our plan is to help Elian, Perla’s 15 year old daughter to be baptized or be ready to be baptized by the end of February. So that’s exciting.

Then the real low for the week happened Saturday night… Transfer texts came out, and well, half my district is leaving which is very sad. So Elder Ray, Elder Larsen, Elder McGaufin and Elder To’omalatai are all leaving… So that put a real damper on our district call, and we all got off and those who needed to pack started. It has been a very somber last 2 days and we’ve spent all of today together up until now so that’s been good, but still sad. It’ll be weird. I did not expect for me to stay and Elder Ray to leave. It’ll be weird but it’ll be good in the end. Hopefully soon we’ll be able to go into houses as we soon should be able to move into phase 2 here. So that’s hope on the horizon.

Questions –

Any changes with transfers? – See above

What have you learned or found instructive during your personal study this week? – um I finished the Infinite Atonement which was really really good. I also studied in Doctrine and Covanents and it’s been interresting to see the revelations that correspond to church history.

Share something that you are grateful for. – My time spent with Elder Ray.

How is your budget holding up?- It’s alright. Haven’t gone shopping for this week yet so we’ll see haha

What is a challenge you feel you have made progress on recently?- The challenge of feeling satisfaction in the work. Which helps considering we did have the baptism 😁 the first one I’ve ever had, so that was a big for me personally.

Share something that brought you joy recently-My district, probably my favorite district ever, and I honestly feel so close to them and love each of them in spite of their struggles. It does help to be the district leader and be able to call them all.

Oh a rock hit our windshield and it got cracked… So that’ll be replaced this week

Love you all
Elder Tonkinson
https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/

This week besides the eye incident was pretty slow. This week because of holidays, we had a lot of lessons cancel so we only had 6 which is the lowest I have ever had in my mission. It’s just frustrating. Luckily yesterday we worked, and we should have about 13 lessons which will be good. I think we’re going to try and figure out if we can get more consistent lessons with some families. Like every other week or every week if possible.

Let’s see, oh my eye is fine which is good. Nothing to worry about which is good. That was a relief and also frustrating because so much time was spent getting it check out.

Let’s see probably the best thing this week was I had 2 exchanges. One on Tuesday was with Elder Christensen which was pretty good. We spent a lot of the day trying to Facebook finding which was alright nothing too crazy. I learned from him that it is important to work to have companion unity in teaching and to adjust your teaching to the needs of who you are teaching. He just related about how his trainer really would be pretty hard on people and would mostly teach the lessons in a very direct harsh way, when in some cases people needed a message of comfort and empathy. So that was good to learn.

Wednesday we had a good discussion on conceration and that we need to strive to submit our wills to God and that, as Elder Maxwell taught, will actually make us free rather than binding us, which is contrary to our normal way of thinking. So I loved that. This next week we’re going to discuss hope, although I may need to add a part about charity. Most of my district seems pretty down right now, unhappy with leaders and rules. So I am hoping that by discussing hope and focusing on having Charity and softening our hearts towards our leaders and the rules that we can be happier. They seem to feel like the Zone Leaders are disconnected from what is happening in the zone and I feel that too sometimes. I chalk it mostly up to them being busy so my focus may be to try to see how we can be the solution to the perceived problem and try to make opportunities for us to be closer to the zone leaders. Because I know both are very good missionaries who do care about the work and the missionaries, they are also just busy.

Speaking of which I had an exchange with Elder McGaufin on Thursday. He’s probably one of the best teachers I have seen and he really puts thought into what he’s going to say and the planning. He also knows how to adjust his teaching. Like Thursday, we taught Marcus (my cousins son) and he was really good at adjusting to Marcus’ level of understanding and previous knowledge. He also is super generous. Like we got food to end our exchange and he paid for my meal which was unexpected. (Both zone leaders do have like 300 in funds because their members feed them every night and they have hotel breakfast, but still he didn’t have to do that.)

Friday was P-day/New Years day which was fun, we played some football in the rain and called families. It was pretty chill but good. Then we had a lesson with Perla which was good. We finished going over all principles and then gave her a mock baptismal interview. She seems to be ready to for baptism, but we have a lesson on Thursday where we’ll go over everything and double check and then on Friday we should have the interview and on Saturday we’ll have the baptism. I am pretty nervous but also excited for it. It should be good; she feels ready this time which is a big plus and she seems ready to go through with it, so fingers crossed and I guess if you all could pray for her too that would be great. We also had ZLC (Zone leadership council) and we came up with a plan that hopefully will increase the number of new people we have to teach in the zone and increase unity in the zone. Saturday was interviews with President which were good, very short as usual, but he did say if I have questions of need more time we can schedule them for another day with more time. This whole week he is going to be interviewing all 238 missionaries. So lots and lots of time [20 hours at five minutes each] hence why he said we could meet later. This next week is looking good between the increase of lessons and the baptism. So wahoo!!

Questions –
How did you spend your New Year’s Eve? – Inside on Facebook and then I fell asleep at 9:50 haha
What are your plans for the day?- Well we went shopping and then we’re planning on playing football with Harbor View and Jennings Park and then spikeball with the Zone Leaders hopefully. Then just call family and read, because I keep falling asleep when I try to finish the Infinite Atonement because I am always so tired haha.
Are Nerf guns now banned in the mission again?- Not yet
Have you and Elder Ray found some less hands-on ways of blowing off some energy? – We’ve been playing racket ball which is fun.

What have you learned about patience and waiting on the Lord during this pandemic? – Patience is key for sanity. Seriously, if I am not patient I will get more frustrated m so it’s key to my happiness

How do you turn to Him for peace when you get anxious and frustrated? – Prayer and trying to find answers in the scriptures

Can you still play nerf(with eye protection) or was that banned? – Not banned yet but we haven’t played again

How have you served your companion recently? – I make his bed and food a lot. Also Ibtey just to listen sometimes

What gospel book were you hoping to read while in lockdown? – Like here Jesus the Christ

The close ups are my dilated eyes from my eye appointment. Oh I forgot while getting that I got to share a little bit of what we do as missionaries with the nurse who was asking about it all, so that was pretty nice.

Elder Tonkinson
https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/

Yeha so that’s quite the title haha, it’s probably nothing but . . .

So let’s see this week was just a little bit slower than normal. Not a lot of lessons and a lot that we had planned fell through with Christmas and stuff like that. But overall not a bad week. Christmas was really good. I got a lot of food and some things I need or at the very least I am really excited for. One of those is definely The Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Calaster. It’s really good, and I’m already most of the way through reading it. It’s been really good to do have it already. It just kinda opened my mind to how big and how comprehensive the Atonement is. It also has pointed out some of the reasons why we needed the Fall [of Adam and Eve] and those things so yeah really, really good and fun stuff. Highly recommended.

Other than that we just played some football for 2 hours which was a lot of fun. I scored about 6 touch downs and that was super great and a lot of fun. Let’s see… Um Sunday we had no church so we had a district Come Follow Me which was good. We won’t have in person church for the next couple weeks, so until then we’ll keep having that which I’m looking forward too. Okay now to the whole ER title. So last night (Sunday) Elder Ray and I were playing with our new Neft Guns and started tackling each other and shooting each other a lot on the side of the head after we had disabled them. Well I had my blue light glasses on, and he tackled me and accidently shot me in the right eye. So yah. I was like, “I’ll be fine.” Then after about an hour and a half there was a black edge to my vision that blocked some of my periferal vision and later that night about 10 it disappeared. So, I thought “I’m fine no need to stress.” Well, I woke up and it was back and it hurt a bit and was more sensitive to light and the vision was blurry (which I may have only noticed because of getting hit [in other words, his vision may be routinely getting worse]). Either way especially after Grandpa’s accident [his grandfather fell, hit his eye, and permantly and completely lost vision in it] I’ve been more worried I guess and probably a little paranoid. And the eye doctor last time I went said that my eye, because it’s elongated from bad eye sight, is thinner in some areas and more prone to retinal detachment.

So I called the mission nurse just to try to get an eye appointment just to double check. She said sure that’s fine keep us updated. So I called the eye doctor and they said well for an eye injury just call and go to an urgent care. So I set up an appointment there for 1:30 and we’ll they basically said after the story we can’t do anything for you. So I called the mission nurse and she said well I kinda feared that. At this point it’s too late to set up an appointment and the urgent care has told you to get the eye checked today, so go to the ER. So I did and that’s where I am now. All alone because Elder Ray can’t come because of COVID so he and Elder Larsen and Elder Tolman are walking around Everett right now haha. I hope it’s nothing which would just show you how paranoid I can be, and if it is something I’ll sure be grateful I came and got it check out. If it is nothing I’ll also be teased about it by the other Elders for a while, and then it’s possibly deserved haha. We’ll see. It’s definely an interesting day and I’m glad it happened on a day that we didn’t have any lessons that we happening. Still annoying though. Also I may be the reason Nerf guns get banned in the mission… Regardless of if it’s actually damaged. So yeha that’s my week the most exciting interesting thing is happening right now ahah. (Also today is not P-Day but we do get an hour to message family)

Well this is an update to it, I’ve been sitting in the ER for almost 4 hours (which makes sense I should be a relatively low priority given that I’ve overhead people with punctured lungs and some other nasty stuff). So I honestly might be leaving soon and try to set up and appointment for tomorrow. Especially now that the dark spot is gone, I have a little pain and it’s a little blurry which might just be eyesight getting worse that I hadn’t noticed. Definitly is trying my patience and it’s pretty annoying. Especially for the other Elders who are constantly asking and wanting to leave. I get it, but I also just want to leave, but if by slim chance it is something I would like to figure it out now.

Some thoughts while sitting here. I’ve seen a lot of people in pain, much more than I. l have seen lots waiting and worrying for loved ones. This is going to sound sappy but I feel for them. I feel the care for their loved ones and I pray for them, that they may receive the care they need. That they maybe strengthened by Christ in their hour of need. I know that Christ can heal them and knows their pain and the worry that their loved ones feel. He has decended below it all. No pain or feeling has not been felt by the Savior, he has experienced all human experiences (an infinite amount of pain) in a very finite amount of time that being in the Garden of Gethsemane through His death on the cross. It is truly marvelous and I am grateful for this period of time I have had to sit and think and to feel His love for these people.

Final bit. I am fine at least externally. Dispite what I was told they didn’t have the tools to do anything more at the ER than at the Urgent Care… The only thing was the urgent care told me that in 20 minutes as opposed to 8 hours. My phone also died and that was a mess (because I was alone remember and the other Elders had the car together) and we didn’t get home until 10:30. So tomorrow or the next day I should be getting to an optometrist and they should be able to take a look at the retina, which I was told at both ER and Urgent Care was the thing to be most concerned about and that it was best to get checked out. That made me feel good as far as knowing at least I wasn’t too paranoid. Oh also President Auna didn’t like the fact that it was a Nerf accident. So even though they’re allowed now, probably not after this week… Sorry everyone. Overall I’m fine though. Tired and frustrated over the whole ER situation yes. But as above there were things to be learned.

Questions –

Nate ” favorite gift given and favorite gift recieved?”- Addie’s gift that I gave her is pretty good. That I received I don’t know, they were all really good. Maybe… Calendar, Scentsy warmer, cubes, stickers, Book of Mormon study edition and the Infinite Atonement 😛

Addie ” favorite thing about Christmas on a mission? ” – hmmm probably just getting the whole day to relax and call family. It was a much needed break after 10 days with no preperation day

Share whatever is on your mind….- I’m in the ER haha

A funny thing that has happened and favorite bite of the week.- This could be funny if not this, hmmm it was pretty funny during district council with our Secret Santa gift exchange. Some pretty funny and good gifts. Like I got a portable ping pong set. Best bite probably idk. We didn’t make anything new or creative soooo. Maybe the overnight oats I made that I actually liked because it was the consistency of pudding and had chocolate and peanut butter.

Favorite scripture study day and why- I’ve been reading the Doctrine and Covanents lately but the Infinite Atonement is a really good book and helping me a grow my understanding a lot.

Love you all,
Elder Tonkinson
https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/

This week was pretty good, and I know this email will be a surprise to all except mom and dad ahah. It’s a surprise to me too, but at the Mission Devotional they announced we will be able to write our families for an hour today, so here I am. Anyways back to the work.

So the biggest thing that I would say happened this week was that we have started to teach Perla’s daughter. So on Thursday, we got there for our normal lesson and only her daughter was home. So she called her mom asking her mom how long she would be and she said oh only 30 minutes. So we ended up talking to her daughter for about an hour because it took a lot longer for Perla. It was good though, from what we gathered she thought missionaries in the past have been weird and basically we just talked to her about our lives before high school and TV shows and movies and stuff. So when Perla got home she decided to stay out and join in on the lesson with us! This was surprising because she said she was freezing and the lessons are normally 45 minutes or so. But it was great! She also said she’ll join for the next lesson on Saturday so yay! It was a really awesome experience and definely showed how important it is that people know that we’re just people.

Another awesome thing this week was that I was able to feel more effective in online proselyting! That was a blessing for sure. I was able to start to talk to 3 new people in Spanish this week which felt so much more gratifying than nothing. So big A+ in my opinion on that hahah. So, as far as my mood this week, it was a great week. Today was good too. We had a half zone Christmas conference and on the way home it started to snow. Elder Ray has never seen snow fall or any of that, so it was really fun to see and I also love to watch snow fall so it was just a nice blessing. We may even have a potential of a white Christmas! So yeah good week. Oh, one last thing I had exchanges with Elder McEntire, who goes home Wednesday morning, last Tuesday. It was a good time; he’s also going into computer science so we talked about that and I actually got to impart some of my college experience on someone and that was cool, like just to ease his nerves about having to get back into school and all that type of stuff. Granted mine was only a year and not two full years.

Questions-

Highlights from your special Christmas Zone Conference. – There was a cool slideshow where everyone sent in one picture from 2020 that made 2020 great that was pretty well done and cool to see.

Share something that made you smile.- snow

Share how the secret elf nativity project is going.- Well the issue is there is no box to put them in so we’ll just drop of the whole package on Christmas Eve… If we’re allowed to drive that is (we can’t on snowy roads)

How have you stayed focused on what matters most this holiday season?- We have an advent with a family every night which helps a lot.

Are you all on your own again for Christmas like you were for Thanksgiving or do you have a few other options? – About the same, we can hang out with district members but can’t eat with them

What have you learned about yourself during the past few months?- Um I am a lot more resilient than I thought I would be with online proselyting

How can that understanding bless your life in the future? – I have no clue, that I can do hard things I guess. I don’t think that far ahead.

What gift will you give the Savior this week as we celebrate His birth? – We have been asked to memorize the Living Christ or the Restoration Proclamation. I chose the Living Christ and have it all shakely minus the last paragraph in English. After Christmas I am going to atttemt to memorize Spanish.

Spiritual highlight of the week – Um probably just being able to share about temple work with Perla and her daughter. That was pretty good.
Best bite of the week- Either the chocolate biscottii or the French toast I made that was based on Basics with Babish (I watched it on Facebook to see how popular cooking videos were made for our video a couple weeks ago and I finally made it)
Most fun – Huh? Probably the snow
An interesting insight from your personal study – I read section 88 [of the Doctrine & Covenants, a book or modern day revelation] which is just packed with a lot of things. A big take away was probably that we have to live the law of the type of life we want. This applies more than to the eternities, but to little things. Do I want to be a Celestial Student and so on.
The best thing you learned from studying and working with Elder Ray. – Um hmmm probably just how important being yourself is whem talking to people which really helped with Perla’s daughter wanting to stay for the lesson
How much are you getting to speak Spanish? Any recent bloopers with it or smack downs on it? – A bit, we’ve had a lot better studies lately and we are speaking a little bit more together
What are your Christmas Eve and Day plans? Is anyone feeding you?- The Mora’s will be giving us Tamales. Beyond that no plans besides opening presents and emailing and calling.

In explanation of my title this week. Elder Ray and I play magnetic darts and who ever has the lower score per round has to do an excersise. So I was doing squats and well some of my pants ripped…. So yeah sorry mom! And no it’s not because I got too fat I’m actually down 10 pounds in that last month and a half so hahaha 😛 [Note the drawings are by Elder Ray]

Love you all!
Elder Tonkinson
https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/