So this week was transfers which means I now have a new companion! Elder Rodriguez, he has been out for 15 months now and has been all over from Seattle, to Mt. Vernon and Bothell. So yeah, we’re still trying to figure out how to work together and how to do some good work in the area. Speaking of the area I am now in Sky Valley Spanish which covers Monroe, Sultan and Gold Bar, WA in the Snohomish zone. They just split this area so we are covering one half and Hermanas (Spanish sisters) cover the other so one of Monroe, Snohomish and Lake Stevens. So we white washed in [This means that no missionary who was there previously stayed, so they are both new to the area], and so both of us do not know anyone or anything about how it works. It’s a little nerve racking and frustrating at times for me to not know what is going on and stuff like that, but we are slowly getting to know the area. Because of the whitewash though I am kinda stressed and a new companion who I have never met before on top of that doesn’t seem to help me. Besides that the branch seems really awesome, about twice the size maybe more of the one in Bellingham, plenty of people to fill classes and have a bigger discussion than that in Bellingham. Though I still miss Bellingham and this is going to take some adjusting, I think I’ve got it. It’s weird to think that I won’t stay in a place a little because in missionary work you have two constants usually, knowing an area and knowing your companion and when both change it’s a big adjustment. Not much else to say getting settled and working on trying to figure out the best was to teach and work together. Oh I guess I have also been sick and it’s the same thing from the MTC so my ears are filled and I hear everything muffled and my thoat hurts and head is stuffed, but the work must go on.
Questions How is the area you’re serving in? – Bit similar to Bellingham in that we get the outskirts of places.
Did you accumulated way too much stuff while at your first area?- Yes most of it food from Christmas haha a pain to move but luckily I have food to keep eating.
Was it hard to switch companions?- Yes he is very different than Elder Durbano and we’re just very different in style and things, so yeah
How is the branch where you’re serving now? – As I said a lot bigger than Bellingham and very friendly and missionary minded which is also new and nice.
How was the new year? What time did you have to be in? We had to be in by 7:00. Nothing too crazy just kinda came in, ate some food, talked, listened to some BYU devotionals and slept.
Heyo! So not much to report because I wrote on Christmas. Christmas was way good. Also on Saturday, we had a New Years party which was a lot of fun, like tons! Other than that all I know is I’m getting transferred and Elder Durbano is training and staying… it’ll be fun and a little scary.
Questions- How was the rest of your Christmas?-Good just kinda chilled after we played some football and spike ball. We also went to Carlos and Wendy’s and had a great time with them. Super solid first Christmas away from home.
Share a spiritual experience you had over the past week.- Well I felt inspired to go see someone who we hadn’t tried in a while and we had a lesson so that was pretty cool. She was about to leave too, and we caught her and had about a 15 minute lesson with her. If I had second guessed or gone a second too late we could have missed it. So its important to listen to the Spirit immediately.
What are you supposed to do for New Year’s?- Don’t know yet. I know that as the last day for a lot of the Elders before we get transfered from the zone the so called “promised land” we are going to a nice restaurant together.
Have you been able to share messages about Christ over the Christmas holiday?- yes people are a lot more open, plus not as many people said no when you asked if they wanted to serve.(That was for when I was doing a lot of tracting Spanish people are almost always nice) Love you all and happy new year! Elder Tonkinson https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/ P.S. Elder Tonkinson is a G. Thanks for all who helped him be the person he is…. he’ll be a great AP (Elder Durbano)
Hey everybody!Merry Christmas!!!! This is by far my favorite holiday of all the holidays, just because of the traditions, the giving of gifts and remembering the greatest gift in the gift of the Savior. The mission is good. There is no too much to report on this week but it was good. We only had one friend make it to church for the special Christams service which was really frustrating for us as we called all 17 of our friends that we have. But all we can do it keep trying to work with them and help them understand the importance of going to church. Church is a time to renew our covenants that we made at baptism through the sacrament and to learn from the sharing of testimonies. This week we also had exchanges which were good and I learned a new analogy which was pretty cool. Last night for Christmas Eve, I being me, left the keys in our car to our car. Luckily the car is one of the remote start ones, so the car didn’t lcok. Bad news is that we left with the other Spanish Elders, Elder Williams and Elder Meador to our branch president’s for dinner. I realized when we got there I didn’t have the keys, I told the zone leaders and they went there and then called us and said, bad news the car is locked… good news it was unlocked before we got there… So yeah a little stressful for me but all good. This week we also used the 7 inch knife we have in our apartment and played fruit ninja which was a blast! It was pretty fun, we probably, maybe won’t do it again as I know what my parents think about that. Today has been pretty fun we are at the Boyd’s (part of the zone leader’s ward) and we have had breakfast and lunch and then tonight we will go to the Funes for dinner. Also huge shout out to the Drapers, Ownbys, Josie (Elder Kitchen’s girlfriend) and my siblings and family for all the shipped Christmas gifts and to the Barretts, Swensens, Quintanillas and Boyds for the gifts here. I invite all of you to remember the Savior through out the day.
No questions for this week but I do have a question for everyone-What is the best gift you have given or were most excited to give?
So I’m still alive, just had preperation day on Tuesday because I got to go to the temple! What a wonderful experience to go to the House of the Lord and be able to perform ordinances for the dead. Also a big thanks to Brother Luna for driving Elder Holloway, Elder Hart, Elder Whited and I down to Seattle. Also, no preperation day until Christmas, so I will not send a letter next week until Wedensday. Anyways lets just get into the last busy week.
So, this week we have had a bit of success finding new people to teach who seem really open to the gospel and to accepting it now in their lives. We also found some people who would much rather argue with us in Spanish about doctrine and speak at us rather than have a conversation. Those people were annoying and would immediatly deny all things we taught them. On the bright side of things, in the last week we found Alfredo and Lupe, Cristobal, Eva, and Esmeralda. I love teaching, it is the best part of missionary life and work. So far we are just starting to teach these people, but I have a lot of hope for Cristobal and Eva to start progressing soon as they both seem super interested and are accepting all the restored truths and are understanding.
This week we also had a combined ward Christmas party with Laurel ward and our branch, which was so much fun and had some pretty good food too. It was just so fun to be able to see so many people gathered to eat, sing and celebrate the birth of our Savior. The biggest most important thing that has happened in the past week, is that the Chaj’s daughter Emily was baptized! It was such an awesome experiance and her father got to baptize her. She was so happy and excited. Last night ,we got to have a lesson with them for the last time before they go on vacation for the holidays (also maybe the last time I see them because I could be transferred before they return), and she said that she felt like God was standing right next to her as she was baptized and when she was confirmed a member and recieved the gift of the Holy Ghost. Just a wonderful experiance overall.
This week in my scripture study I was reading in 2 Nephi 32:2-3″2 Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of angels? And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost? 3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.” What really stuck out to me was thatNephi says when we recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost, we can speak with the tongue of angels, and that angels speak the words of Christ. So if we speak by the power of the Holy Ghost, we can speak on behalf of the Savior, which I thought was pretty incredible. Other than that there is not much to tell. Life is good, Christmas is almost here, Christ and God live.
Questions How has Elder Durbano blessed your life this week?- He made my bed a couple times. He has taught me some better Spanish too as he studies it a lot more than I as far as grammer and tenses. Where have you had to exercise patience recently?- Well we had branch council and they ended it about 13 minutes late… that was frustrating as we did not know how to properly excuse ourselves to try to double check if a family we had invited was coming, because if they had, they could easily walk in, see all the English members, be confused and leave. Did you get some of your packages? At least the contacts and your medicine–We have zone conference tomorrow so I should get some packages then, but currently I have the contacts and they sit under our tree, which has a box for a base haha. Can you get around your area without using your GPS or do you still need it most of the time?- Nope don’t really need a GPS that much at all, I can get around most of the area with out, just when we go to some of the middle of nowhere places do I need it. Share a favorite teaching or learning moment from your week.- Teaching moment… Well Cristobal we met with Sunday night and man we are now good friends, we just had a good talk to get to know him, and he shared the history of his country. Super nice guy, and he was just loving everything we taught, especially about the Plan of Salvation. Love you all lots, Elder Tonkinson https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/
Hope everyone is doing well in this most wonderful time of the year. This past week overall was pretty successful, dispite not reaching all the goals we wanted to. For starters this week we did a lot of service on Tuesday. We went over to one of the English member’s home, who are an older couple and put up Christmas lights on the roof, well mostly below the room along the edge. So the rules for heights are now different than in the past where it was your head can not be above 10 feet, it is now “Do not work where you could fall from great heights (such as on roofs or in trees).” But it also says to use common sense and the Holy Ghost. I think you can see where this is going, I have to justify what we did. So I got on the roof to put up some lights where Brother Hillman wanted them, because if we couldn’t he said he would. So Elder Durbano and I consulted and decided that based on common sense, it would be better for us to get on the roof that a 80-year-old man. Besides that it was a lot of fun to help set up for Christmas.
Later that day we helped clean out another members house to help them move and then the Hillmans as we left for that next serves gave us a big 16 oz can of soda… so I did what I have done many times with cans of soda. [see video] Enough said. Oh also we did service at the food bank at this week for the first time in like a month, and it was so funny cause the Hispanics are impressed when I speak spanish cause I am white and blonde hair and blue eyes. Elder Durbano was jealous because he got no compliments because he looks kinda Hispanic hahah.
Later that week we had exchanges which were fun. I stayed in Spanish Land and was with Elder Hart. This was different than any other exchange I had. In the past, we would tract because after the first two weeks, Elder Poncio decided that visiting old people was useless. This time, we just visited old people we had taught and had one lesson, so Elder Hart basically just got to come around for the ride all day haha. Oh, also on Tuesday with Elder Durbano, we had such a fun time visiting some new people we had found last week. Their names are Fernando and Andres. So, we were trying to decide between going back and doing language study or continuing seeing people. So we both said a quick prayer and then wrote it down on our phones and then showed each other, not wanting to even influence the other, and we were in agreement with the Spirit to go over there. So we get over there, and right as week knocked on the door, Andres pulls up. He lets us in and Fernando who had been just chilling was putting a shirt on before he answered the door so right as he comes to the door Andres opens it up, that was pretty funny. Anyways, we sit down and try to get to know them before we start the lesson, say a prayer and then start on the Plan of Salvation. As we get started Jesus, Fernando’s brother walks in and listens and then asks, “What was the name of Cain’s wife?” So we look it up dispite it being totally not important and tell him by the scriptures, we do not know. Then during this time Andres was looking it up on line and plays some audio thing, I don’t know and it basically says, well it was probably his sister, given Adam and Eve are our first parents. They freak out about that for a couple minutes. Then Jesus mentions that the word in Mexican slang for handcuffs is esposas and the word for wife is esposa and after that he goes into a bunch of Spanish play on words, which were hard to understand (one of which is the title of this post). Then after that he stated going on about evolution. Either way, it was pretty weird but we could actually understand most of it. We got it the converstation back on Christ and got their phone numbers, and we’re going to come back and teach them the gospel and English. It was a lot of fun though cause there a lot of funny moments where we couldn’t understand cause of language or where they asked about what English phrases meant, and we explained them as direct translations and then what they meant for like Spanish phases. Much better language study than we could have had at home.
Saturday we went over to the Chaj’s for dinner and they made some Guatamalan tacos which are so good. They had like a slaw out of lettuce, onion, cilantro and lime and then some good pork between two tacos fried in the fat of the pork so like a little sandwich… Oh man so good. Also during that time as we were talking while they finished cooking dinner . . . this is embarrasing, but they have a nephew who has been listening in on the lessons, and who we might invite to be baptized soon, and he only speaks Spanish as he just got here three months ago from Guatamala. Anyways, we were just talking, and I roast him and to make things all good I was just like “Oh Brayan te amo” which means I love you but like super deep love… and I immediatly go “wait wait, me cae bien, me cae bien… oh no” They got a good laugh out of it. I on the other hand didn’t.
Last miracle of this week was last night we were driving home after going to a member’s home for the Christmas devotional. We were stopped at this stop light, at a junction to home or to a trailer park if we turn left. So I’m just waiting, and I’m like… hmmm maybe we should just stop by… nah it’s late and we’ve had a packed day and have only gotten personal study in… but… hmm. So there we are sitting at the front with like five cars behind us. Light turns green… I flip on the turn signal and go from the wrong lane, since it is a left hand turn, and go to the trailer park. Elder Durbano was like… what is going on. So we park and right then the person who we wanted to visit pulls up and parks.. Score. So we go in teach some, and then a minute or two in, his son in law pulls up a chair and starts listening in. So we have a return for the father, and then his son in law lives in another area and we got his phone number so boom. Follow the Spirit. Have patience, because we only have had this success for a couple weeks, and trust the Lord. Seriously that is all we need to do. Trust in the Lord and his timing. Miracles can happen and the things we desire will come as put faith in His power and most importantly His timing. It’s frustrating as we want things now, right now, as Elder Bendar says in “The Character of Christ”(MTC Exclusive.. well and YouTube), we are like cookie monster “Give me cookie now!” That for me is one of the most difficult things, to wait for the Lord’s timing. Do all we can do, do not just sit there and be mad. (This next bit is from John Bytheway, which I think he got from someone else… so I am doubly not original with this but good advice none the same.) Get on your knees. Get the help of God (prayer/scripture study). Get up. And Go!
Pictures-–The big machine Elder Durbano and I pass every morning, and we call it the “Zombie Destroyer.” Also the sky is from like 9 at night when there was lots of red in the sky and surprisingly bright, we were pretty sure it was the second coming. Les amo,Elder Tonkinson https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/ P.S. From Elder Harris again. ELDER Tonkinson is the best missionary in the WEM. He needs YOUR support for the best Christmas this year. Please send him gifts. Like money so he can take out his zone leaders to lunch.
Thanksgiving was this week, and it was definetly different than any in the past, but still really good. We went over to the Barrett’s, and they also had there family over. It was a lot of fun to be in a big family setting, but a little sad that is wasn’t my own.
This week we had pretty decent success in finding some new people. There was one girl we met who we think can be a really solid person to teach. She lately has been questioning if she really believes the things that her parents do and if she really believes in God. We shared a couple of our thoughts on her concerns and talked about the Plan of Salvation and then left her with a Book of Mormon which she said she “would read right now as she had nothing better to do.” We’ll see how that goes, but I’m pretty excited for the people we have found lately. Also, we are two weeks from the Chaj’s daughter’s baptism! Everything is going great with her and her cousin has also been sitting in on the lessons and has been coming to church, which is awesome. Other than that not much to report on this week.
Questions-Are you enjoying being able to drive or is it more stressful?- I like it; it gives me control over something when sometimes it feels like I can not control that much. What is your most effective way to do language study?- Read the Book of Mormon and try to speak spanish as much as possible between the two of us.
So, this is Elder Holloway(District Leader) now. Don’t ask about it. All you need to know is that Elder Tonkinson left his phone unattended and so I had to say hi to his family real quick. Just so you know, he really is doing great, we really appreciate him up here. To his family, especially his parents, thanks for lending him to us! And now, back to his message…
Okay so yeah. Mostly just reading things out loud and talking to Elder Durbano in Spanish when we remember. Our goal is if we do not, and we get called out be each other 5 times, the other person has to take a cold shower the next morning. What are you doing for exercise right now?- Resistance bands, sit ups, push ups, stuff like. How has the mission changed you?- That’s a question I feel like I cannot answer. I feel like you all from an outside perspective would have a better idea than I. Probably mostly, how personally responsible I have to be and how much I have to actually act like an adult.
Share a favorite teaching moment or tender mercy that you have experienced recently.- Um teaching moment was probably teaching the Chaj’s because they are just such a humble group of people.
Spiritual- Well so dad sends me daily emails about his scripture study. One thing that stuck out for me was the fact that when Nephi has his vision it says he sees the “Spirit of the Lord” which I always thought as being the personage of the Holy Ghost where as Dad sights evidence that it might the Spirit of Jesus Christ. I just thought that was an intersting difference so I was just wondering what everyone else thought. To read it please see 1 Nephi 11 I believe, but Dad please correct me if I’m wrong.
Love you all and have a good week. So thankful for all of you.
Elder Tonkinson https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/ P.S. Elder Harris is gone to the mall so the P.S. is from Elder Hart this week: Elder Tonkinson is the GOAT volleyball player in the history of missionaries everywhere! Everyone cheers his name when he is up to serve! He is so good!
Happy thankgiving everybody! Hope that everyone can enjoy it. This week was solid. Elder Poncio and I finished strong and had a lot of good last lessons with some people, well last for him. Wednesday, was good and exciting. I was kinda nervous for who I would get assigned with as a comppanion. Elder Slack was getting transfered, and he came in with me, and I was thinking that was a possibility but that would be a crazy one because we both are just out of training. Anyways, so at transfers, our zone leaders give us a tiny slip of paper with our new companion and who is senior or junior companion. So I get it and, drum roll please…, Elder Durbano. Yup, we’re back at it again and I’m senior companion, so I get to drive. Elder Durbano showed up after I got my slip and so I told him and he said, “No way you’re lying. There is no way!” But there is, and we are. It’s kinda crazy, and we both were kinda freaking out about it. Luckily, we talked to President before we left the mission office and he told us to, “Just trust in the Lord and do not fear.” And we also get 30 minutes more of language study as a companionship to work on teaching lessons. Anyways, it’s been good to have someone I already know and that we’re already friends and have companionship unity it just needs to be refined.
Not much more to say this week, many lessons fell through, but the Lord also provided many blessing despite that. Thursday night for instance, we knocked a door and were immediatly let in and able to teach a lesson which was awesome. Also, Saturday night was awesome because we had a Thanksgiving activity with the branch, and they sure know how to cook and have a good time. Next month, we’re having like three potlucks, so I’m excited. But yeah, overall, besides the surprise with being senior comp and having Elder Durbano as my companion again so soon (we figured we would be companions again just not so soon and we hoped for later so we could see how much the other had improved [which we still can see improvement, just lesser]), not much else exciting.
Spiritual thought- Something I really liked this week was from my brother Caleb, maybe he got from someone else and was just telling it to me because it seemed way too put together :P. Anyways he said this, “Keep up the hard work, embrace the changes, remember fondly and with soft sadness the things whose time have past and relish the things whose time has finally arrived.” I really like this because we need to look forward. We need to enjoy now and be able to look back on it fondly, but not with regret or longing. We, through our agency, our actions and our choices, decide how happy we are and how our life is going to be. Yes, there are always things we cannot control and have to deal with, but our happiness is largely decided by our outlook. This is definitely something I am still working on. The other half I really like is that we can look in anticipation to the future and to what we now have the opportunity to do even if we have to move past some older things. Over all, it was a help to me this week, and I am grateful to have parents and older siblings and one stinking younger one (love you kiddo) who are so smart and helpful and wise. Still question if Caleb actually wrote that though and didn’t just pull it off the internet 😉
Pictures- One of the pictures is about the story of Edaleen’s Ice Cream where Elder Durbano and I went after dinner to celebrate being done with training, took it just for dad cause he loves that stuff. [Editors note: The baby shoe was from Caleb’s mission. They found it in an apartment. When a missionary was transferred, they slipped it in his luggage. The game became trying to slip it in without them noticing, and the shoe got passed around the mission. It came home with Caleb, and Elder Tonkinson took it with him to start the tradition anew.]
Frost on the plants
A baby shoe in Elder Poncio’s luggage
Questions-Tell us about your new companion.- See weeks 1-6 for information, but new note is that he is a lot better at Spanish, and I would say knows more than I do. Also, we are both pretty motivated to change this area from being one of the “dead areas” where there aren’t a lot of lessons or solid friends to teach, into a strong area with members who want to help missionaries because the missionaries love to help them. Yeah I’m excited.
Share a tender mercy of the Lord you have experienced recently.- Thursday when people let us in dispite our broken Spanish and blank looks when anyone spoke anything but about the gospel.
How has the new missionary handbook impacted your mission?- The new handbook is actually more general than the last one and largely says “Just use common sense.” It also has a little more focus on become life long disciples of Jesus Christ. Far too many missionaries go home and fall into inactivity. Next transfer, President will clarify some rules, because it is possible that unless at a meal, we may not need a third member of the same sex, which would be great for us because all of our members are pretty busy.
Christmas things?- I don’t know, just something nice or small that means something. Also some white socks maybe, sunglasses, this nice hair product stuff I got from Elder Weeden called Domintate or something, but it’s like way good. Seriously not much more. Just remember the true meaning of Christmas, serve others and come to closer to Christ, that’s the best gift I could get for this Christmas.
Share a few things you are thankful for.- President Auna, Elder Durbano, Elder Poncio, the zone, family, the gospel, the Book of Mormon, food, sleep, parents, Patriarchal blessings and a lot of other things.
One last thing check out LighttheWorld.org it’s an awesome way to help serve others this Christmas season and remember why we even celebrate. There is also a wonderful new Nativity video (which, not flex, we as missionaries got to see and start using 2 weeks ago…) But seriously it is an awesome program and really keeps in mind who we celebrate and what He did for us. Mucho Amor, Elder Tonkinson https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/ P.S. It’s Elder Harris again, Elder Tonkinson is in need of an ugly sweater.(Note: Yes that would be a good gift too haha)
Hope you all have had an amazing week! Mine was packed with lots of stuff that I’ll just barely have time to get into. So, for starters, it is back to Elder Poncio and I; Elder Davis left for Trinidad on Monday. So, as far as that goes, we’re good, the apartment just feels bigger and is a lot more quiet. Like, a lot more. Also, because it is only two again, our fridge is pretty much empty.
Anyways let’s see this week we continued to knock lots of doors with mixed success. Like on Saturday we met this athiest, he opened the door and told us he didn’t believe in God and then we asked him why, and we shared a little message on how we are God’s children and he loves us each individually, and we lived with Him before this life. He also gave us agency to choose how we would act for ourselves. Anyways, after we did that he asked me, while smoking and blowing it in my face if “my God” could heal him from his stage 4 liver cancer. I looked him dead in the eyes and said “Yes He can.” And then, he just laughed in my face and looked me dead and the eyes and I repeated myself, “Yes He can.” He was about to say more but I said “Clearly we have a difference of opinion let’s agree to disagree,” and we talked a little longer and left. Now that may not have helped him but it helped me because in the face of direct opposition I was able to stand true to what I believe instead of dodging the question or something. So that felt good.
Flying back on Thursday, we had half mission conference and the area authority seventy, Elder Pierson, spoke. From what I hear, we got less chastising than the south half did, but there was a lot to learn. One thing (out of many) that I want to share is what he said about our “Frontier of Faith” and what we need to do to break it to experience miracles. By setting goals that are achievable, measurable, and believable and doing our part to achieve them with faith in the Lord, we can. By doing this, we can break our frontier of faith and have miracles happen in our lives and missions. To tie into this on Friday we got a new handbook called “Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ.” In this new handbook, it expresses the concern of Church leaders that too many missionaries come back and forget all they learned and lose their faith. The mission is a refining process and not something we act out for two years and then stop. We need to become converted to Christ and serve Him through our lives.
Another thing that ties into this is the new youth program. I’m not sure how I feel about a young men’s theme but everything else sounds awesome. It has the same focus as the new missionary standards to help us become converted to Christ and grow in our personal interests. I also love the focus on the temple. Baptism is the gate to Salvation and the Celestial Kingdom and not the end, the temple is just another step and again not the end. The end is to become like Christ and gain those attributes He has and continue to follow Him until we finish our mortal life. Yeah it’s good stuff, also with the app when Elder Gong demonstrated it, he flexed on everyone by showing his Quorum chat with the twelve Apostles. Haha.
Overall, good week, nothing too crazy to report on as far as progress with friends but the Chajs have been coming for three weeks in a row now and their daughter is so excited to be baptized! Also we’re planning on putting Sabrina on date [setting a baptismal date with her] this week so we’ll see how that goes. Sad part this week is Elder Thompson and Elder Lee two of my favorite people in the zone who are great examples both go home today, having finished their missions :(. Also Elder Poncio is leaving me so I’ll get a new companion on Wedensday! Sad, but also excited for a change. Anyways love you all lots and stay safe and warm!
Questions Do you read any books besides scriptures, and would you want any other books besides scripture?–Anything in Gospel library or on the church site is fair game. Only books besides that are “Power of Everyday Missionaries” and “The Infinite Atonement”by Tad R. Callister at 18 months for Elders because otherwise it too deep or something Are you excited for Christmas as a missionary? –Yeah I just found out I’ll be staying here and Elder Poncio will be leaving ,so I’ll be up near Canada for Christmas Do you want us to do anything differently?(like how often we write and stuff)? –Nope, not really. I mean, I can read emails everyday so maybe two times a week if you have time would be nice but not really. JUST REMEMBER TO DO DAILY SCRIPTURE STUDY AND PRAYER!!!
How has it been to go back to two people in a companionship?–Good we still keep up the fire, but I notice again how often we pray and we get to bed earlier now too. Since entering the mission field what is the biggest challenge you have made the most progress in?- -Hmm, at times I can be explosive about things, and I’ve gotten better about expressing my frustration without that so that’s been good. Favorite teaching moment of the week?–Well, just know while I was writing and waiting for Elder Poncio to get his hair cut, a man walked up to me tapped me on the shoulder and motioned for me to stand. He was older so I did thinking maybe he needed me to help him. So I stand up, and he said “I’m a born again Christian for 40 years (something like that) and I went to a Mormon church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints church) once and I thought “man, these people have it so wrong, you don’t need to worship this Dave Smith, (what was his name? Joseph Smith) oh, Joseph Smith only pray to Jesus He’s the only one who can save you” Me-“You’re totally right. I agree 100% Jesus is our only Savior and Redeemer. No one else.” Him-“Well you still don’t need to pray to Dave… Joseph Smith. Jesus said He is the Truth, the Way and the Life” Me-“Exactly. We don’t pray to Joseph Smith, we respect and revere him as a prophet of God like Noah or Moses, but we don’t pray to him. We only pray to God”Him – “We could stay here all day arguing but we don’t have time”Me-“We don’t have to, we agree on this. Christ is our Savior, and we only pray to God and through the name of Jesus Christ.” We finished with some pleasantries but it was pretty funny for me. How is the Spanish coming along?–It’s better. Reading and listening to it for language study has helped but it’s still hard to understand people sometimes. We’ll really know later this week. If you could only teach one thing, what truth would you teach?- Well after the half mission conference, it was not only told me but confirmed to me that the most important thing people need to know is this–God is our loving Heavenly Father. He has a perfected body that we can see and hug just as much as our actual parents. You are His literal spirit child, and He knows you individually and loves you and wants what is best for you. We lived with Him before this life, and He sent us here to gain experience and become more like Him and gain a body.
So last week ended or rather started with me, well eating a walnut and swelling up like a balloon. Yeah it wasn’t fun, but using some creativity we changed it into a good memory. So recently, I saw a video starring Elder Lee, who used to be an assistant who leaves next Monday :(, anyways it was an office parody about being in a 3 pack. So we took that idea and as a tribute to Elder Davis’ last week we made a week long sequal. Using the night hours when we were finished with the day, we recorded the videos. Then, I found on Google photos you can edit videos…. It’s no Final Cut Pro X that I used in the past, but it’s pretty solid for making a basic movie. So that’s what we did; we made a new Office parody with a low-key message on companionship unity. It was a lot of fun and was a good way to spend the week. It honestly helped us this week to focus our efforts, and we worked super hard and ended up having 28 lessons this past week. The week before we had seven for context. Granted most were at the door, but many people opened up and let us in or talked for 30 minutes at the door with us, and I attribute it to being more unified so we could bring the Spirit. That basically just sums the whole week. If you want to see the video email me. (Dad do not post it on the blog it’s 25 minutes long) But yeah the video was a great way for me to let go of stress and do something I would been doing before the mission and still be a good missionary.
Questions-So how has mission life this week been for you? – Good way good, we worked hard all week, this next week is the last full one in the transfer and we have lots of meetings, so less work this next week sadly. Did the third companion get out of his mission this week?- Well, Elder Davis actually gets dropped off at 7:15 tonight and because of that we had to cancel our lesson for tonight, but he’s all ready and excited and nervous. Share your favorite teaching moment from this week. – I really like teaching the Chaj family, the one with the daughter getting baptized. Saturday after our lesson, we had an English lesson which was so much fun, they’re really funny people and actually already know a bit of English. In addition, please share your favorite learning moment from this week.- Learning moment, well I learned about editting video on Google Photos, but besides that I learned that if you trust in the Lord, have the Spirit you will be much more successful. Share a list of at least 10 things that you are feeling grateful for during this Thanksgiving season. 1. Good food that my mom would make for me
2. Guidance and direction of the Spirit
3. Family4. The Gospel of Jesus Christ
5. The Restoration and all that comes with it
6. Sleep
7. Kind people
8. Being able to serve a mission
9. My companions
10. My zone
Not in that order
Last thing/Spiritual thoughtYesterday we were doing our last tracting with Elder Davis and the last door that opened up to us as we were leaving, through the window we could hear him, and he said “You could tell they had the truth because of the light in their eyes.” That was awesome.
This week I also read my patriartical blessing and wrote down the impressions. These blessings are such a good guide in our lives and if you already haven’t recieved yours, I invite you to do so. Seriously they are such a guide in our lives and mine has already helped me so much and I can already see the promises of God being fulfilled.
Elder Tonkinson https://eldertonkinson.home.blog/ P.S.Hey it’s Elder Harris again, I’m in need of Stealer’s Merch. Thanks. Also I love Jesus 🙂
Welp now it’s light in the mornings and cold and dark at 5:00, which means people now at 5:45 say “Wow isn’t it a little bit late for you all to be knocking my door?” True story, and that was before the time change.
Anyways, yeah, this week was really good even though from an outside perspective it might not seem that way. We had like seven lessons. So last Monday we met with the Familia Chaj, who we have been working to get them more active in church, so we invited their daughter to be baptized and for their son to recieve the Aaronic Priesthood. Well both of them on Monday were excited and prayed about it and knew that it was something that God wants them to do. So that was awesome to see because they are both so young, 8 and 12, but have had that experience where they know their Heavenly Father answered their prayers. On top of that hermano and hermana Chaj both felt that they should start coming back to Church because their relationship with God is “not a game,” and they want to be an example to their children. On top of that their nephew, who lives with them, is going to start taking lessons with us at his mom’s approval (who also lives with them and is a member but attends a different church). So, yesterday they came to church and that was one of the highlights of the whole mission. We have been working with them since day one back in late August, and they decided that they should do it. And they seemed to really enjoy church and the members were very friendly and welcoming to them and made them feel at home. Overall, just ahhh sooo good. I was so happy.
After Monday though, we kinda had a rough time. Tuesday it was all just studies and tracting, and we didn’t find anyone, and the people we had lessons scheduled with fell through. Wednesday, I had exchanges and went to the district leader’s area. That was good. We had lessons with 2 families, and one of the families had a son named Gideon. NO JOKE. He seems pretty cool, and we were both excited to have a name buddy. The other person we visited is a marketer and game designer for a company based in Blaine. So it was just cool to see all the games and when we got there he had his photoshop setup that he uses to create the boards for games. Yeah, that member is way cool and interesting. Because of the exchange though, I missed the Trunk or Treat that our branch had with the zone leader’s ward. That was a bit of a bummer because it sounded like it was pretty fun. Thursday was Halloween, and we had to be in by 7:00. We had dinner at Red Robin with the other Spanish Elders which toasted my money ($20) so yeah that wasn’t fun, but it was a good time. After, we helped a member set up for her Halloween party and then got to go back to the apartment and call family!
We started our English class on Friday which we have been promoting like crazy. It’s such a good oportunity to be able to serve the people and open their hearts to us and become their friends. But unfortunatly no one came… But there is always next week. Hmm this is turning into a travel log so let’s fix that.
We had some great lessons Saturday and Sunday. One person we have been meeting with has been super open and has awesome questions and loves everything she hears. We have been answering so many questions we hadn’t been able to actually have a lesson. We were able to teach the Restoration, and she was on board with everything. At the end, we asked her to pray about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith as a prophet of God, and she just looked at us and said “I already think it’s true,” which is totally awesome. It has been faith growing to see her testimony grow. It has a way to go still, but she is really excited to learn and to know more. Unfortunatly, she has a complicated situation and couldn’t make it to church this Sunday but hopefully the next.
Last night we did a little bit of tracting and decided to knock on the door of the hunters that we ran into last week, and they, just like last time, let us right in. They are two of the most genuine people ever, and are just full of energy too. They haven’t gone to church yet because they actually lost the church address. We just shared a quick message from Alma 37:37 about prayer and turning to the Lord. After that we gave them a Book of Mormon and a Bible because they didn’t have either, and they said they would read them. They also had some good questions about prophets and child baptism and just like our other friend, they thought that what we taught them makes sense, especially about how God is the same and still communicates with us through prophets. Yeah, we’ll keep working with them for a little and then we’ll have to hand them off to the sisters. Also they invited us to dinner and gave us a friend of theirs to visit… yeah these people are like off the charts.
Pictures: The food is called a “chuccito” or “little dog” in Guatamalan Spanish. They’re pretty good but the name is funny and Chica (one of the members) joked about them actually being chihuahua meat.
Elder Tonkinson contemplates using his Epipen after eating cookies that turned out to have ground walnuts in them.
Questions:Top 2-3 things that you hope to improve in the next couple of months? I’m not referring to, “conjugate the past participle correctly” though that’s certainly good. More things like. “I want to be more patient with respect to x,” “I want to develop a stronger testimony of y”- 1. Trying to not get so frustrated with others little jabs at me that are clearly just to get a reaction. I don’t really have a problem with people I don’t know doing that, but for some reason people who I am friends with or closer to doing it and more importantly doing it more often is something that gets under my skin pretty easily. 2. Kind of an appendage to that is still getting better about not getting so heated and control my temper better. For instance this week for the English class, we had a disagreement about if we should or should not offer to teach a lesson [about the church] at the end. I thought yes we should, partly because the manual for English Connect, the manual from the church for teaching English, says we should and because that’s our purpose as missionaries, and we are full time missionaries and President Auna said to me we should. So for those three reasons, I thought YES we need to teach. The other two disagreed as offering it would scare people off and they would feel they got tricked if we offered it as an optional thing after. Elder Poncio in the past had never done it when he had taught English class. So, in all this I got pretty heated, and maybe it was for good reason but I could still do better. (BTW we ultimatly decided to offer the lesson) 3. Pride. I just am stuck in the ways I do things and the way I think things should be done. I just need to learn to compromise more.
What’s a time this week where you have felt proud of yourself?- Hmm of myself… I don’t really know because everything that I really had joy in this week was because the things that others decided to do. And, I also just said I need to work on pride. I guess have been using my time in the morning and at night better. We have from 6:30-8:30 AM and 9:00-10:30 PM, so a couple hours to prepare in the morning and at night but I don’t have that much to do, but this week I spent my time reading “A Marvelous Work and A Wonder” which I was told was allowed ,and I got from the church library. I got it last Sunday and finished it yesterday morning so that felt good. This week I’m starting “Jesus the Christ” but that will take me a little longer.
What was your favorite teaching moment this week? – Chajs coming to church… yeah that was just such a wonderful thing.
What was your favorite learning moment?- Hmmm I guess this week I learned how we need to focus not on how many lessons we had but the quality of the ones we did have and how we are doing our best to find those new people.
How did you serve your companions this week?- When I take pictures and videos for them because my phone has a better camera. It’s not that big a deal but it is a service.
Tell us about something that made you laugh or smile this week.- Well at the Trunk or Treat there was a ghost pepper chili and my companions ate it and the next day, both we in pain… it was pretty funny.
Do you have Sunday responsibilities in your small branch? Do you have to fill in for things at the last minute? – Last minute. We only do the sacrament if necessary. This week we actually had like 25 people and it felt like normal. It was do awesome, part of it is becuase we got two families from English wards but plus the Chajs came as well as some other families.
What is a principal or doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ that you have gained stronger testimony and understanding of since being on your mission?- Restoration. I knew it was true, but reading “A Marvelous Work and a Wonder” helped to strengthen it this week, plus teaching it so often helps. It’s important to have a testimony of it because that’s what sets our church apart.
What is something personal that you are trying to improve about yourself over the coming weeks? You can answer that one privately if you would rather.- Nah people already know I’m flawed, so I guess besides what I put earlier I want to try to become more naturally just outgoing and talk to everyone. Like I still struggle to stop someone on the street. So yeah, just becoming more enthusiastic and less robotic when talking to someone new.
Share whatever is on your mind.-This week in personal study I read Mormon and Ether 1-5 and Ether 3 is just filled with lots as well as Mormon 7. Mormon 7 is Mormons last testimony. Yes, we have his letters to Moroni letter but in this final testimony he just lays out the doctrine of Christ out and testifies of the divinity of Christ. Ether 3 is when the brother of Jared sees the antemortal Christ. There’s a ton of really interesting thought provoking scripture in these chapters.
Anyways love you all lots and invite you all to study the scriptures 15 minutes a day and take notes. I know that the scriptures will open up more to you and you will be able to apply them better in your life. Please let me know how it goes next week. Love,
Elder Gideon Tonkinson, Washington Everett Mission 