Alright family how are you all this week? I hope you’re doing great! Alright so this week was pretty packed, and next week is going to be even more packed, but hey that’s good. Tuesday, we had some things to do in preparation for our half-zone councils, the biggest of which was to make videos of a good and bad example of street contacting. It didn’t take a ton of time luckily, and we were able to get that done and uploaded so that the STLs [Sister Training Leaders] could put it in a PowerPoint. Later that day, we had a lesson with Ramon, who was on date to get baptized on the 29th but hadn’t been to church yet and we hadn’t had all the lessons with him so we pushed that date back to well the 6th so this week haha. If we can teach him everything, we should be good to baptize him next Sunday. He’s pretty solid overall, but we haven’t taught tithing or word of wisdom yet so we’ll see how that goes, but I think it’ll be alright.

Then Wednesday was absolutely packed. So we had personal study, comp study, then we joined institute [religion class for those 18 – 30] and ate for 15 minutes and then drove over to the Seattle Stake center to get set for the first half zone council. Then after that one was done, we rushed up north, picked up the Lake Forest Park Elders and then got to the Shoreline Stake center. It was a tight fit but it worked out. As far as the meetings go I’d say they were a success. People seemed to have enjoyed them, and the videos that the district leaders had made with the good and the bad examples were funny. President Auna, Sister Auna and Elder Herbst and Matangi were there too and they all said they liked it so that’s good haha. The best part was our invitation was basically to go try it out, go out and try to hand out some pass a long cards, pamphlets and so on. It was still kinda weird because we can’t immediately bring up that we’re missionaries yet, but we can guide the conversation to missionary work. It’s kinda weird but basically if they choose to have an initial conversation we’re “invited.” President Auna just for COVID still doesn’t want us just stopping people because they may feel uncomfortable with that.

During our time while we waited for Josue, we were able to talk to two people and actually give out a Book of Mormon. It was awesome and felt really good to do that since it’s been over a year since I’ve done anything like that. Then the lesson with Josue was good. He hasn’t been able to come to church yet because of work, but this week he brought up that he’s going to look for another job. Hopefully, he can find one, and then he can be baptized. He just needs to come once in person to take the sacrament, and we want him to be active so we’re really happy that he wants to get a job where he doesn’t have to work on Sundays.

We finished by exchanging with Elliott Bay, which is Elder Olpin and Elder Morris and I went there and stayed with Elder Olpin. Let’s just say that the exchange was pretty awesome. I loved it. Elliott Bay is literally the area that is downtown Seattle, and it’s a walk/bus area. So pretty much all day we just spent walking from lesson to lesson and saying hi to everyone (and we had one awesome contact I’ll talk about in a minute) A cool thing was that one of the lessons took us close to where I know the Qualtrics office is here, so we walked past it. I was thoroughly disappointed that there was no indication that I saw that it was there besides that it was correct on Google Maps. But hey I walked past both buildings that Google said were Qualtrics [Caleb, Gideon’s second oldest brother, works at Qualtrics in Provo, UT]. Anyways so we had a lot of lessons which as fantastic, it was actually the most Elder Olpin had ever had in a day. From after dinner to 9:00 we just had so much going on and a large chunk of walking.

The first lesson was with a man named Guy who had removed his records from the Church because of some questions that he had that he never felt got answered. Now, he wants to be baptized again. So when he brought that up that he had some questions, Elder Olpin said “well hit us with them.” . . . Yeah it was a fun time. It was good though in the end, most of them were not that bad, and all ended up boiling down to whether he had faith in the prophets and stuff like that. We addressed that, and he said that even though he questions he couldn’t deny that every time that he was there he knew it was the right place and that’s why he was getting rebaptized. It was cool. It was also nice because he at the end asked how long I had out, and I told him and he said I knew it had been a while because you teach well. And then he told Elder Olpin to learn from me (he’s only got 4 months). That definitely made my day to see that a complete stranger thought I was good at teaching. Some nice outside validation.

Then after we went to the Space Needle and said hi to everyone and walked around there for a bit, although it was pretty empty still which was kinda sad. Then from there we went to a lesson with some members and got to see Elder Olpin teach really well which was awesome. Then after that, the best part happened. We were walking back from the lesson and we ran across this man. We say hi, and he says hi but turns to look at us as we walk by, so we immediately turn around, and I compliment his suit (I learned this from Sister Auna who is a compliment champion and always does this to start conversation). So, boom conversation started! And he asks about the church, because he’s meet some missionaries before and then he says “Would you all have time to talk to me about it?” which is like asking missionaries if we want a million dollars. So we’re back by the park near the Space Needle and we start walking that way, and he then asks about the Book of Mormon. So right there we stop, and I pull out The Book of Mormon that I had concealed in my back pocket and just talk about it. It was awesome ,and we ended up leaving him, his name was Joshua, with a Book of Mormon, a Plan of Salvation Pamphlet (marking 3 Nephi 11) and a pass along with Elliott Bays number. It was awesome. Unfortunately they have no call yet, and he basically said oh man I have to go right before we could get his number which stinks but hopefully he’ll read and call.

Then on the way home we stopped at Target, and I got Elder Edwards an American 4th of July shirt for his birthday. Then we went to Molly Moon ice cream which someone said was the best ice cream in the Seattle Area if not all of WA… Yeah Mitchell’s Ice Cream [Cleveland, Ohio area, certainly some of the best ice cream in the country] has still got it beat haha. But it wasn’t bad at all. They had this one ice cream called Yeti which was like a sweet cream ice cream base, granola, chocolate chunks and salted caramel. It as probably the best exchange I’ve ever had. It was so much fun and we got a lot done too.

Friday we had MLC which was mostly going over what we will be doing for zone conferences this transfer which will be this Thursday. Most of it is going to be focused on planning and goal setting and making sure we’re are using the Area Book Planner app to it’s fullest potential. Saturday was Elder Edwards birthday and we made sure it was busy, because that’s really the best gift I could give him (though he did like the shirt) we did some moving, stopped by a members who got him a cake and then we had dinner at a members who also made him cake haha. He seemed to enjoy it so that was good. Then yesterday was just our normal Sunday routine. So all around good week.

What is favorite food to make for breakfast? (Addie) – I usually do yogurt and granola still… Pretty boring.

How are your personal goals progressing? – It’s been going alright. Not perfect but good. I’m seeing some slow improvement.

What is something you appreciate in your companion? – He’s really good at teaching simply to people.

Favorite ethnic food you have eaten recently? (Nate) – Hmmm well ethnic foods besides that of Hispanics I don’t get much and I haven’t had anything new recently to be honest. I guess as I mentioned a few weeks ago I had Turkish food which was good.

Is your day different on Memorial Day? – Nope.

How do you “Hear Him?” – For me it’s usually through the scriptures and I’ll be reading and suddenly I’ll just understand or something will click. It’s a really great feeling

Love you all!

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

Hey Family!
This week was pretty good by the end of it. The start was a little slow with us only having 7 lessons by Thursday night. Luckily, we were still super busy because of other responsibilities, but we had about 7 lessons fall through, and it was quite frustrating. Wednesday, we had transfers which was good but also had its frustrating moments. We thought we were going to have a lesson right before we needed to be there to drive some missionaries who were losing their car back, so we drove up early and the lesson fell through. Then we were standing talking and Elder Edwards got the great idea to ask when the Elders would be there (we were assuming noon, because that’s when the other Elders were supposed to be there for their transfer…) yeah no they weren’t set to be there until 1:00 and knowing how transfers go, it would have been until 1:30 until we would be home, but we still had to go back and take a companionship to transfers. So we ultimately called on some other Elders to take the Elders we had been there early for home. We then headed back and picked up the other set of Elders and then went back to the mission office and then didn’t get back until like 4:00. While we were there, we did some contacting and all that stuff, just because we were losing 4 hours due to some miscommunications and just doing what we have to as zone leaders. But hey, it all worked out it was just a little frustrating.

So Thursday night we started our first overnight exchange which was exciting. I went with Elder Linford who is one of the ASL Elders in the zone, and we stayed in the area. It was his first time ever doing an exchange outside his own area. Thursday night was kinda a low point in the week for a number of reasons, one definelty being the lack of lessons we had had. Anyways, Friday ended up being so so busy, we didn’t even have time for lunch or anything more than personal study. So we had personal study, the mission devotional, a lesson with Hunter (Elder Ray), a lesson in English with a member and then 10 minutes to eat then to service. We’ll pause there and talk about the crazy amount of blackberry bushes we cut. We thought we weren’t going to make a dent in it, but we ultimately did do all that they wanted, but oh man that was long. Oh and we were both tired because we had both gotten our second COVID shot and were having mild side effects. Also the lesson with Hunter was good, he’s doing well and we went back over some of the best moments when we were companions, and I laughed a ton.

Okay so after service we went home and got changed and then sped for some Chick-fil-A which ended up taking a minute so we parked in the parking lot and had our next lesson there in the parking lot. That was a tough lesson, just a lot of questions and in full Spanish for an hour…but it was overall good. Then we headed over to the stake center had another lesson, then two English classes… And then it was 8:45 and we had a minute. Then 15 minutes passed so we called the ASL Elders to ask how far they were… There were still in Tacoma (ASL covers 3 missions) so like 45 minutes away… Yeah and we’re supposed to be in by 9:30 at the latest haha. So we waited and explored the stake center since it was an old library at one point and it was kinda creepy being there so late, but fun. The exchange was good though. Elder Linford being in ASL hasn’t ever seen more than 15 lessons in a week, and we just had 6 in a day. So it was a good way to show how things go in other areas even if ASL is generally a lot slower. It was also a good time to get to know Elder Linford and answer some questions he has (he’s got two weeks of training left) that he felt he hadn’t had answered by his companions as well as some concerns and advice. It was awesome and he’s a really great guy. He’s also from Tallahassee and has been to Pensacola many times so that was cool, even though I barely can say I lived there or can even call it home haha (the only thing going for it is you all). I can call Marysville more my home since I lived there for over 6 months.

Then Saturday was also busy and good as well as Sunday, and we ultimately did hit 21 lessons which was a miracle. We also got to go to the temple. So ultimately a good week. Another unfortunate thing was that our two friends who are on date both had something come up so we couldn’t meet. We have so many who really could be baptized soon they just need Sunday off, and they have asked and their bosses haven’t given it to them, ugh! Luckily this week should be good. We are going to be doing two half zone councils (President Auna for this said we can’t do more than a stake, authough zone conference next week will be the full zone) this Wednesday and be training them on how to do door contacting and street contacting, because so many of those who have done it will be going home this transfer and the next.

Question –

When have you seen the Lord’s hand in your work with friends? – Hmm well we were able to have a lesson with Diego Friday and his friend Freddy which got set up when he called us that morning. He’s super open to Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon; it’s almost a weakness because he thinks some other people are also prophets but hey we’ll get it down.

When have you seen His hand as you counsel with other missionaries? – Well with Elder Linford. He definitely gave me the words to say to connect with him and stuff.

How have you felt His love for you? – I spent a lot of time this week praying; and so this morning I was praying and I could really feel His love for me and I could feel peace.

What are your hopes and goals for the coming week? – Hmm, well my personal goal is to pray more specifically. My hope is that we can still have Ramon baptized, but we’ll see and hopefully we can put more people on date and find more people. I want to have the opportunity to see 5 more people baptized in my area as a missionary. It’s possible, and I’ve committed to do everything I can to make it happen. I’m trying to make that the #1 desire of my heart and focus for the next 11 weeks. Nothing else. Everything else will come after that, and I know that if I do that everything else good will come and work on my behalf.

How have you been blessed by somebody else’s actions this week? – We accounted on Saturday and Elder Linford while we were doing that casually asked if I was laying on the bed wrapped up, just because I was exhausted the day before. So it was nice that someone thought of me.

Share something you’ve learned about yourself during your full-time service as a missionary. – Um see I’m not good at these introspective questions. I’ve learned that a lot of the things I thought mattered don’t I guess. Again I don’t know how to answer this.

Have you been able to continue an exercise routine? – Yup.

Have your prayers changed and if so how over the last two years? – Yes they are definelty a lot longer and more meaningful. Like I mentioned I’ve prayed a lot this week and it was actually like personal and a really conversation.

Share something that was funny from your week. – Well on Saturday we went over to a member and she was making sushi and we helped out…. Well I kind forgot how to roll it, and it ended up being like a rectangleish thing, and Elder Edwards called it an amiba which was pretty funny. Also the lesson with Elder Ray was super funny.

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

Hola!
Alright, so today finally marks me spending more time in the mission than the first time round. Kinda crazy to think all that has happened in the last 8 1/2 months, but it’s been incredible. This week has been absolutely insane and crazy. Pretty much most days we didn’t even have time to get a full 30 minute comp study; we were just running around so much or we had so many meetings. As far as highlights this week, we found seven new friends, had four people at church (we think, it’s weird because we sent the Facebook devo, but we have to confirm with them so that’s pending) and two people on date, which hits standard of excellence set in the mission. Yeah it was crazy and such a blessing.

As I said, we had planned to try and have someone baptized this Sunday, but dispute putting in our all and really starting to see the potential that people had, it didn’t come to fruition. But I would say that it definitely helped to push us, and I think that is what largely contributed to the amount of friends we found. We also definitely saw a lot of little miracles this week as we did our best to do this. Half of our friends were made by some good referrals that we had gotten and that was awesome. One of the referrals was from Elder Durbano from the EnglishConnect page for a guy named Élder. Yup that’s his name, he said in Honduras people told him he had a Mormon name, and he was like what’s that? Haha. Anyways so we taught him English (which he already has a good grasp on) and then taught a principle or two. After he wanted to take pictures with us and said that we should hang out and he wants to be friends, so he’s awesome and we’re really excited for him.

Another miracle was we got a video call Tuesday night from a guy we had just dropped from our teaching pool for being kinda frito (just kinda iffy and not keeping commitments). So we pick it up thinking alright maybe he’s interested. So he said, “hey what’s up I’m here with my cousin,” who we also taught, “look who is also here,” and he turns the camera and it’s Julian! The new convert that the Hermanas just baptized last week. Turns out Julian had shown some pictures from the baptism and they recognized us. Julian had invited them to church, and they said they had talked about God and Julian’s baptism all morning. Unfortunately, neither Oscar or Ulisses came, but we did get to see Julian who really wants us all to meet sometime and have them come to church, so woot woot. And Julian is their boss so he can pretty much ensure they are free on Sunday…

Something else that was so kind this week was on Friday. We got back from MLC and my car seat was just filled with cards and food from the zone. I think Elder Edwards or Sister Auna put it together or a combination of both after Grandpa’s passing. It was a really sweet move and helped…so thank you Northshore zone once again. I think that’s pretty much it for this week as far as big things. It was just busy which was good. Also, Elder Edwards will be finishing his mission with me which means that these next 12 weeks are going to be so so busy. He’s gonna finish with everything he’s got, every last drop of energy and then so will I. So I’m excited. Also tomorrow we are going to the temple to do proxy baptisms with a recent convert. So that’ll be awesome. I haven’t been to the temple since December 2019.

Questions
What’s your favorite color? – Royal Blue

Best part of the week? – Hmmm probably Thursday, we were just busy so that was awesome.

Coolest thing you saw? – Um saw maybe isn’t the right word, but I met someone this week who graduated from Glass [E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg, VA, where Elder Tonkinson graduate from] in 2003. We went over to do service for these non-members, and she asked where we were from, and I said VA and she asked where, and I said Lynchburg and she was like no way! So there a picture with her somewhere in there.

Most spiritual experience? – Hmmm. I would say probably during my personal study as I continue to study the references to Christ. It just has been belong to give me a fuller picture.

I love you all very much!

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

Hey wonderful family
First of all yesterday was Mother’s Day. So, I’d just like to thank mom for all she has done for me. Pretty much all things I have learned from her (except for all my faults those are mine alone) and so thank you Mom! I love you!

Alright continuing back to the week it was super busy but good. We had an exchange Tuesday which was a blast. I went with Elder Whited, who actually came out with me and will go home with me. It was good we got to talk about the Mission, plans and fears for home and all that good stuff. He’s a really good teacher and knows how to show his genuine love for those he tesches. We also had bunches of lessons and I’ll only touch on a few of them.

So the first one is Diego, who I think I talked about last week. Anyways so Wednesday he texts us and is like, hey I need you to teach my friend what you taught me about the Spirit world, can you do that? We of course said yes that we’d love to. So that was crazy because I’ve never had anyone I teach invite their friend to be taught too. So we had our lesson with him and his friend Freddy on Friday and Diego wanted us to go back over how our church got here, and so we go right into the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Well during the lesson Freddy has some straight fire questions like, “Where is the Preisthood after the Order of Melchizedek?” and then he asked a question about temples and we explained that. It was awesome. We ultimately didn’t get to tell him about what we know about life after death, but Diego basically was like hey Freddy we need to meet with them again and they can tell you about after death. Then he said this “they have explained it to me and told me things that no one has ever told me or explained to me so clearly” Awe man! That is what makes teaching worth it. It was such an awesome lesson!

Another one that was really good was with Gabriel. We had our normal English class with him and then at the end we kinda talked about the importance of Church attendance if he wants to be baptized (which he does and has been on date). But he’s awesome; he called the church our church and he wants to be a member so bad, he just has to take the steps to not work on Sunday so he can come. Another highlight was yesterday was Julian’s baptism. He’s a friend of one of the sets of sisters in the branch. But it was really good to see him get baptized. He has a really strong testimony, and he’ll be a good member for the branch to have.

Another big this week was MLC [Mission Leadership Conference] on Friday. It was super good. President Auna basically said that we needed to set goals better than we have been and to grow our faith to achieve goals we are not hitting now. So essentially what he told us is that our goals need to reflect our desire, if we want a baptism this week we need to set a goal to do so. Ideally, we should have a name behind it but even if we don’t we can have faith and show the Lord what we are willing to do to get someone baptized this week. So with that in mind we have a goal to baptize someone this coming Sunday. We have 3 friends who all could be if they all resolved one thing, church on Sunday in person. So we’re focusing on that, and I think we can do that. Next week I hope to report that we did it. I’m excited.

Then Saturday we had ZLC [Zone Leadership Conference], and we decided that our zone focus will be increasing faith by studying references to Christ in the topical guide. We didn’t want to say everyone had to study all of them just because of time, but my goal is to study all of them so I started with the Bread of Life title of Christ. It was an awesome study to be able to think about how Christ is the bread of life. It also had a lot of symoblism in relation to the sacrament so that was also fantastic. The next one I’ll study is the title of Cornerstone. It’ll be fantastic!

Questions –

Favorite food from last week? – Hmm probably the bread I baked. It was the first one that actually was fluffy and had some flavor, texture and fluffiness. Other than that my meals are eggs, yogurt or PB&Js

I know you’ve had a lot more opportunities to teach recently. Share a favorite teaching moment from this week. – See Diego account above

And what principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the easiest for you to teach? – Faith becuase it so basic and most people can understand it and it’s importance

Share favorite scripture from your scripture study. – Well I gave a talk on repentance on the Sunday devotional for Facebook and well I really loved Moses 1:39 about how God’s work is us and that the way back is Christ.

What is something that made you laugh out loud this week? – Hmm probably when President told a story about when he was in court once ahha. He had a tie that said “The Best Dad,” and he talked about how in court once the other lawyer objected to him going in as it suggested that he was a better dad than his client. President Auna said he looked at him in the eyes and he said, “Well I am” and walked in and won the divorce case hahaha. It was so unexpected as he’s so nice and patient with everyone haha but super funny.

Pictures – (one of the videos is us heart attacking our branch president and then us getting heart attacked by our district. Also another one is my talk without sound [not posted] and the other is with sound… It was so frustrating to have recorded it and then the next morning see the audio didn’t get captured by the mic ahah. Oh also is eating Krsipy Kreme oreo donuts at the close of exchanges

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

Hello beloved family!
This week went by so quick but was packed. So much stuff happened. We started this week with interviews @ 9:00 on Tuesday. They were good and this time we focused on the temple interview questions and thinking and pondering those. It was good to look at them outside the actual temple interview because I could think about them more than normal and take a minute or two on each to really think what it means to me when I say yes or no to the questions. Then in the afternoon we had service. We went to a service referrals house and weeded their landscape. While doing so my hand slipped into a whole and felt something soft and kinda like jolted back. We look in the hole and at first thought it was a mouse nest, but it turned out to be baby bunnies! It was hard to see how many there were, but we estimate at least 8. But they were so little that their eyes couldn’t even open or anything. It was fun, there are some videos of it in the Google photos album [posted below] (please mute as I do some weird voices).

Wednesday for our Zone Olympics the physical challenge was to do 4000 push-ups as a district. That works out to 500 each. So for morning workout in about an hour and a half we cranked them out. While cooking breakfast every minute 10 pushups, during the workout time we just got to about 350 and then right before personal study I did the last 50. It was pretty satisfying to finish. Then we had district council with Elder White’s district and he asked Elder Edwards and I to instruct on it which went pretty well. He basically just wanted us to give tips on teaching the first lesson. It was good. Elder Edwards went and had us record a voice recording to send to a loved one today. We were given 10 minutes so I recorded one for Addie. Then he asked how long people were able to record for some under a minute and some did the full 10 or so. He then related that our prayers should be longer than even 10 minutes because we love God. It was a great object lesson. Then I talked about how when we talk about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ we need to remember to slow down and explain how we got to the First Vision rather than just rushing to it and that we need to remember to include that this whole thing still revolves around Christ. This is His Church, not Joseph Smith’s.

Thursday and Friday sped by; we had some good lessons. On Thursday we met with Elder Edward’s zone leader in Guatemala for lunch as he lives in Seattle. His name is Russ he’s a really cool guy and was at BYU but is on break. We met him for lunch and had a lesson at a Turkish restaurant called Cafe Turko. It was pretty good. I got a chicken wrap and the chicken was seasoned really well.

Friday we had an awesome lesson with a man named Diego. We told him about the Book of Mormon, and he was like yeah that’s legit. And then we told him about Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he was like “So he got a revelation,” and then he committed himself to read the Book of Mormon and we invited him to church (he ended up forgetting but said he’ll come next week).

Saturday was exchanges. I went with Elder Magoffin who is a district leader down in Seattle and previously my zone leader for 3 transfers. It was a busy day, we had service then three lessons (all in Spanish) so I did most of the lesson, but he would testify or share something and I would translate. Then to start our fast we went to place called Wing Dome and got burgers. Elder Magoffin is an ASL missionary and covers three missions worth of area and he also loves food, so he said that of all burgers he’s tried in the Mission this place and another place in Arlington are tied for #1. It was a good burger, it had bacon, hot sauce, lettuce, tomato and a well cooked burger. It was pretty tasty. Then we had another lesson and then a thing called platicas. During platicas the idea is that our friends or members can ask questions and we can give answers. Sometimes there are some good questions and lots of people sometimes not, this time it was good. There were some good questions but during it I would translate and then we got on a discussion (just us, we were on mute in the zoom meeting) on ASL and Spanish and I learned to sign that I was baptized at 8… Yeah pretty fluent right? And I tried to teach him the basics of Spanish as he has never done any Spanish as he took ASL in high school. So yeah that was our day.

Saturday night we had to have calls until 10:20 to collect stake progressing for the Shoreline stake. Then Sunday was just packed. Like so packed. We had a stake mission coordination meeting at 7:30 then right after branch council, then branch come follow me and then sacrament meeting. So that takes us to about 1:00. Then we gave a blessing to a member, then another member invited us to break our fast with them and so then about 3:00 we finally sit down for personal study which normally happens at 9:00. Then we had a devotional from Elder Stevenson that we watched. Then we went down to Seattle for a lesson, dropped off some things to the sister training leaders to take to the mission office and then at 8:10 we finally got home and had dinner and got to relax. So busy but a great day. Also we get Oreos every week… And recently we started to get a second pack to try some new ones… The Hazelnut ones are alright but the cookie was too hard and then the carrot cake ones we learned today basically kinda smell like cream cheese frosting and carrot cake but just taste like sugar… The frosting is just soooo sweet. The cookie itself is also sweet but you did get some of the spices. Then I guess today Elder Edwards and I had to eat some Blazin Carolina Reaper wings at Buffalo Wild Wings for losing our district referral competition… It wasn’t as bad as when I did it 2 months ago…. Yeah

Questions –
What have you learned about sustaining those called to lead while on your mission? Has your perspective on what it means to sustain changed? – it means that we support them even we don’t fully agree with how they handle a situation. It also means that we follow what they say in word and deed.

How have you been blessed by another person this past week? – Hmm that’s a tough question. Well one way was that Elder Magoffin and I got have a really awesome conversation about the Mission, how it’s changed us, what we’ve learned, and all that. We came to the same conclusion that we have come to not only understand better what we believe and do, but have come to do it with more purpose and love rather than just going through the motions

Five things you are grateful for? – Family, Elder Edwards, President and Sister Auna, The Book of Mormon, the internet (so we can access all the church resources and BYU devotionals)

In your new area do you have many dinner appointments? – 1-2 a week.

Share a goal you are working on and how you are progressing. – I am working on studying miracles and increasing my faith…. Well I’ve learned a bit and I’ve started to recognize some miracles that are all around me that I may have ignored otherwise.

Thank Sister Auna for most of the pictures

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

Sup
So this week has been very short and very long at the same time. I don’t know it just went by super quick but so much happened in the week that it feels like it should have been a lot longer. So Tuesday we went on our first exchange for the transfer, with Elder Brown and Elder Dellamas, I went with Elder Dellamas to their area. Recently the church has updated the protections on our phones that require us to reset our phones, so on exchanges we both ended up doing that. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Luckily because I have all my photos in Google photos and then on top of that I have a micro SD with all my music I was able to preserve all that. The thing is with this update to the protections we can finally get software updates and Chrome instead of Firefox and I was way too excited about that to be honest. But honestly that shouldn’t surprise any of you. So yeah my phone is updated to Android 11 which I’m happy about haha. It also makes my phone feel kinda new again.

Anyways we also served at the DI here in Seattle which was good and then had a lesson. It wasn’t anything crazy but it was fun. Then Wednesday due to our poor planning we had yet another exchange. This time I went down to the very bottom area in the Mission with Elder Morris and his companion Elder Olpin went to my area. So we had district council and institute and then we had a lesson with Anne Elaine. It was awesome we just talked about what we had learned as we studied Joy this week. Then afterwards we were supposed to get a ride back to Elder Morris’ apt in downtown Seattle but well no one responded. We almost took the bus which in some ways I was excited about, but the one problem was both of our phones were almost dead soooo. But ultimately we got a ride and then we had another lesson with Luke (Carson and Drew didn’t show) and we did some mission prep. So yeah overall really good.

Thursday we woke up at 5 worked out and left by 6:45 to get to the mission conference by 8:00 to help set up. The mission conference was awesome though. So good. We talked about the same things we did for MLC but we had to instruct but it was still awesome and incredible to feel the Spirit with the whole mission. I didn’t realize this but it was actually the first full mission conference that has been done since President Auna became the mission president. The instruction went well overall. A lot better than I would have thought and I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be. We got to instruct the Bellingham, Lynnwood and Armar zones which was interesting because I have never instructed over my own zone. Then we finished the conference with President Auna sharing a message about how we need to keep going, keep pressing forward and keep trying our best. It was really good. We then took a mission foto which was tough. We had to like sit on our knees and smash our ankles to get low enough, but we got the picture so it was worth it I guess. Overall it was great. I also enjoyed getting to see several of my missionary friends and past companions, like Elder Ray and Elder Tolman (not past comp but goes home in May so this was probably my last time seeing him). After they also announced that there were several vaccines available up in Camano Island that day at like 2:00 so we booked it to a computer in the family history center, got up there and got the vaccine. We’ll have to go back up in 4 weeks but it was good to get it done with.

Thursday night we had our usual lesson with Marcus which was fun. He’s always a little crazy but that’s expected. Friday and Saturday kinda went by quick. Nothing super crazy to note but good days. I guess one thing is the assistants asked us to address some things that some zone members were doing, which isn’t my favorite thing, but we met with them and got it all straighten out. Then yesterday was fun. After church we all (all 3 companionships) went over to the branch president’s house (Presidente Marquez) and had dinner and a lesson. It was a good time and the food was good too. It was also a fun lesson, we played a game, but I can’t tell you about it because that’s part of the game so… You all will just have to wait and we can play it as a family home evening sometime all together. Then we went over to Esteban and when we got there he asked if we knew and Elder Olpin and Elder Morris and we were like yeah they’re in our zone… So we get up and he’s like they’re coming over soon and shows us the texts and they were supposed to be there in like 3 minutes. So 3 minutes later they call asking to be let in (almost all apartments need a code) and Esteban is learning English and so he tries and Elder Edwards explains that he’ll be down there in a minute and they don’t notice. So we sit down and just wait while Esteban goes and brings them up. They come in and are mildly surprised and we then have a lesson and an English class. Next week we’ll do the same thing but planned haha. So when we drove them home, they said that Esteban (a member) reffered himself and invited them over. He loves loves missionaries but it was pretty funny to us. So yeah that’s the week. Overall good week. Life keeps rolling.

Questions –

Kristl mentioned that you were able to get your first shot this week for Covid, which vaccine did you get? Did you have any side effects? – Moderna, I’m a headache and just tired. So I took a nap and it was all good.

How did the mission conference go last week? – FANTASTIC!

Share something you learned in your scripture study RECENTLY. – I have been studying miracles this week and I read a BYU devotional by Elder Bednar from January this yesr and he said something along the lines of “Don’t discount small miracles because they are small. The size of a miracle does not matter, but it’s source does. Small miracles can be just as impactive and life changing as a big one” and then I reflected on some miracle in the past year. Like coming back out. Literally if the notification had come a week later I wouldn’t be put here right now. So that was a miracle.

Favorite teaching moment of the week? – Probably at the mission conference. I got to sit in on roleplays and give feedback and I remembered something I learned from Elder Magoffin, one of my zone leaders a couple months ago, that we can promise things as authorized servants of Christ. And so I shared that principle with them since it’s kinda super cool

Share something that brought you joy this week. – Updating my phone…. And also when we had 2 street contacts on our walks and we were able to give 2 English refferals

What is a current goal you’re working on and your plan to achieve it? – Current goal is to increase my faith by studying miracles and asking for them. Yup. So I’m studying talks and instances in the scriptures on miracles to try and understand how they are brought about and stuff like that. It’s been good so far.

Alright I love you all bunches!

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

Hey!
So this week was absolutely packed again. It’s tiring but honestly I love having so much to do that there isn’t enough time to do it all. Alright so this week we had a number of lessons fall through, including those with our friends on date, so hopefully this week we can have lessons with them. Unfortunately one of them hasn’t responded, but we know he’s busy with work down in LA and will be until May, hopefully we can get that contact and help him continue to grow.

Other highlights from the week were the training meeting we had for all the new missionaries. It was the first real instruction I’ve had to do as a zone leader so that was interesting. Hopefully with our words and some of the things we covered will help them to start out on the right foot for a full and successful mission. Hmm what else we also are allowed to kinda street contact now. Basically on our daily walks we’re encouraged to say hi to everyone and if they kinda start a conversation we can share what we do. So we have been taking those and contacting some people. The weather has also been so nice this week so they have been very enjoyable. Friday we had a mission devotional where they announced that we’ll be having a full mission conference this Thursday! I’m so excited. Then after that we had MLC where they basically ran through what exactly we’ll be doing at the mission conference. So we as zone leaders and the sister training leaders will be leading one of 3 workshops all centered on faith. Our part will be the role play workshop. MLC was absolutely incredible though. I loved it so much; it just felt so different than the zone conferences. I was talking to Elder Edwards after and he mentioned it was because of the unity that we have because we are all trying to do our best, all are obedient and love President Auna and the mission. So I want to try to get that kind of unity in the zone so everyone can experience that level or that feeling of the Spirit in a meeting. Super cool.

Another spiritual highlight this week was Elder Holland gave a missionary devotional on the importance of the Spirit, and it really made it clear that the Spirit is the key to teaching and to conversion. Without it we do not teach in the Saviors way and ultimately we can teach 100% truth, but if we don’t have the Spirit it is better if we don’t teach. Pretty powerful. I also had a chance through our zone focus activity to read “Beware of Pride” by Ezra Taft Benson again and it was so good. It made it clear to me that basically most sins come down to a manner of pride and that by eliminating it we will sin a lot less and whne we do we will repent a lot quicker. So I am definitely going to focus more on being humble and submissive. In the talk he also asked a questions along the lines of what has your pride cost you? What is it costing you now? And that pride is the great stumbling block to Zion aka a people of one heart and mind (like the Godhead). Yeha such a fire talk. So so so good. Alright that’s it now for the questions.

Questions –

Share something you learned from your personal scripture study this week. – See above, but also I studied President Nelson’s talk on faith for the MLC preassignment and I learn about how I need to work harder to have more faith and be more confident that I can achieve miracles. So I’m going to use less wishy washy words in prayer when asking for prayers and trust I can get what I want as I align my will with His.

This time last year you were adjusting from having to come home early from your mission to due to Covid. As you reflect of the last year what have you learned? – I don’t know exactly. I was refecting on it as I wrote a short version of it in Spanish for the Venid a Cristo en el Noroeste de Washington page, and I still don’t know why I had to go home. But I guess I have learned that ultimately for doing what is hard and taking a step of faith we will be blessed. I have been so blessed for being here. I have met so many people I would not have otherwise so ultimately I am grateful in a way for the pandemic even if I still don’t know why me being at home was part of it. Because I could have stayed out and met potentially even more people. Maybe it’ll never be answered but maybe it will in the coming months, years or decades.

Favorite meal of the week? – Hmmm I don’t know, maybe the chicken and rice I made?

Share a service moment from your week, you serving someone or others serving you? – This week Elder Edwards served me by helping me improve. In comp inventory he told me that I need to focus more on the task at hand and also recognize that not everything needs to be done right then right now, which is hard for me. I am grateful for that because so many people are too afraid to bring anything up.

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

Hello!
This week has been all around awesome and exactly what I needed! Last week as you all know I was bien estresado, but now I am feeling a lot better. I have definitely been able to see and feel my Savior’s love through all those around me. Last Monday, I had an exchange with Elder Steck and Elder Halverson which was great. It was much needed and they did a lot of things to help me to just chill out. We still got a lot done and had a meeting, a lesson and some service but in the in between they really helped me. Tuesday was transfers and exactly what I thought was going to happen happened. I am now in Aurora B Spanish down in Seattle. Like my area is downtown Seattle and the area is awesome.

Anyways Tuesday was crazy there was no really a dull moment. So Elder King and I got there at 11:00 and I got my new companion Elder Edwards. More on him for the questions at the end but he is awesome. Anyways so Elder Edwards and Elder Durbano have been companions for the last 3 transfers and Elder Durbano is going to be training for his last two transfers, but his trainee wouldn’t get to the mission office until 7:00, so we got to three pack until then. It was busy, but fun. We did some yard work for a couple hours, headed back to the mission office and had a lesson and then Elder Durbano got his trainee, Elder Mlaker and will be in Sky Valley A in Snohomish. While we were there the Assistants told us to hang around so we could take some luggage from some of the Elders in our zone. It was good and it was nice to be so busy that I didn’t have time to unpack until 10:00 that night.

Wednesday was good; we got to go to Elder MaGoffin’s district council (he used to be my zone leader) and it was fun to see him. Although it was really really weird to walk in the room and people just go, “The ZL’s are here” and like get more quiet. It’s like “come on I’m just a normal missionary.” But I really can’t talk; I thought the same thing until Tuesday because I always just thought highly of the zone leaders. We then had some lessons and numbers to put in for the rest of the night. Nothing too crazy but good and kept us busy again until later. Also holy cow we can get a lot of phone calls sometimes haha. It’s ridiculous.

Thursday was just straight up awesome! We had 7 lessons and were super busy. We also put one of our friends Ramon on date for May 29th which is super exciting. Friday we were pretty busy, and we had some lessons but I would say the biggest thing was ZLC. We finished hammering out our zone plan to help get missionaries not only to increase the amount of work, but also to get missionaries excited about it. So basically we are trying to find 85 new people to teach this month which comes out to a little less than 22 per district. We are going to be doing 4 daily challenges based on the 4 attributes from the Youth Program so physical, spiritual, social (which is where we put finding activities to find new people) and intellectual. Whoever has the most points (every member of the district completing a challenge gets the district a point) at the end of the month will get lunch. I should be really, really good. I’m excited for it. Like really excited. The only bad thing is we are the ones who made the incentive so have to foot the bill for it. We also are going to make a sticker for it that says Northshore Olympics, and we might give them out to all the zone or just those who complete the “burnout” challenges. I’m super excited for this and I hope it turns out well and that the missionaries in the zone enjoy it. So yeah.

Saturday was another good day. We got packages for the zone and delivered them and we had a lesson with our now new friend Beto. Beto is so prepared to receive the gospel and so humble. He accidently went to a nearby church instead of ours to meet, waited there, then texted us and then we finally had the lesson. Most would leave so quickly. He came to church which was great and then we have a lesson with him this coming Saturday. I think we might invite him to be baptized next week. Also on Sunday we had a lesson with Oscar another new friend and Ulisses his cousin another new friend. We asked them if they knew these thing were true if they would join and they said yes and they invited themselves to church. So yeah a lot is happening here and we could be having a lot of baptisms. Another really cool thing was we prayed to make new friends both Saturday and Sunday and in the morning we didn’t have an easy way to find one, but we prayed with faith and were able to get one. It was fantastic. Oh, then last night we visited a member who goes by Papa Cubano who loves missionaries. We taught him English and he gave us a bunch of food to take home. He is such a sweet man and it was great to meet him. So yeah that’s the week.

Questions

Tell us about the transition to new area, where you are – I am the Aurora Branch in the Aurora B area in Seattle/Shoreline. It is phenomenal here.

Living arrangements – Awesome there is a giant window right where we sit for studying and overall the furniture is nice, matches and is quite minimal

New companion – Elder Edwards! He started his mission in Guatemala and came here last year in May. He is a beast though and an absolute spiritual giant and is a super good leader. He also is a very relaxed person which is good because I can be uptight and can’t sit back and relax when need to sometimes.

The area you serve – As I said great we have a lot of potential people for baptism her and we teach a lot of English.

What is something you admire/appreciate about your new companion? – He is really good at explaining things both in English and Spanish. His words are very deliberate.

Are you feeling more peace this week? – Yes. Absolutely it’s what I fasted for what I have been praying for and has come. I have also seen so much help from those around me and it has been incredible. President Auna came over to me at transfers and put his arm around me and said, “Elder Tonkinson you are going to do great as a zone leader, thank you for being a leader” and it made my day. Also one of my new favorite hymns is “Where Can I Turn For Peace” and I have listened to it quite a bit. Also Elder Edwards and I actually get along which is great and we talk and it’s been nice to have a companion who I can talk to.

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