Freezing my .......

Oh my gosh! It's like 45 degrees outside and I think I might die! I am SO not ready for winter here! Skirts are not warm AT ALL.

This week has been pretty exciting. I really really really love it here. The houses are SO cute and the people are SO nice (for the most part.. I mean no one really loves us knocking on their doors, but that's expected) There's a little town here called Sugarloaf and I'm seriously in LOVE with it! You all should google it. They have tons of little shops in old houses and everything is handmade, so naturally I'd love it, right?

Work here is going well! The ward has us doing about a thousand lookups so if we don't have appointments we are venturing into the wilderness to find people who the ward hasn't seen in years! It's been pretty exciting. Some people are really glad to see us and some are not glad at all! We have 2 investigators and we are in the process of getting 2 more. The work here is interesting because we are trying to let the missionaries that fit best with the person teach them. We are working with a bunch of ladies from the elders area because they are single and could use 'sister love'. It's been fun to see the difference sisters make. a lot of them love the elders but they aren't comfortable really opening up to them.

The ward is amazing! I am pretty sure they love us already. We've talked in sacrament meeting the last two weeks, and last week we also taught relief society. The poor ward is probably sick of hearing from me! They love sister Chen because she has tons of fun stories from Taiwan and Temple square :)

Being in Middletown has forced me to grow SO much. I heard a story once about a man who was asked to push against a rock. He pushed his whole life, because that's what he'd been asked to do. One day satan came up to him and told him he'd never be able to move the rock, so why push? Why keep trying? So the man asked the Lord and the Lord told him to look at how much he'd grown. he was so much stronger than he was when he started out. That's how I feel. Middletown has been a big challenge and sometimes I wonder why I am here... but then the Lord shows me how strong I am and how much I've grown. He's shown me how to ask for miracles and how to work hard to make sure I am worthy of them. Last week (I hope I didn't tell you this story already) we were out tracting with the elders and I took a Book of Mormon with me. We were having like NO luck at all so I said a little prayer to tell my Heavenly Father that I was here and willing to give it to someone who was ready and prepared. We knocked a few more doors and then we saw this man out by his car. We went over to talk to him, and long story short, I felt like I should give him the book. We called last week and he'd taken it to his bible study at another church to read it to everyone. He said everyone commented on how beautifully it was written and how much they all liked it.

Yesterday we were out tracting and doing lookups and I thought the same thing. I was getting discouraged because we'd had no luck and then this man stopped us on the street! He didn't speak much english and I don't speak much spanish but we were able to get his phone number and give it to the spanish elders. The man asked ME for a book of Mormon. Things like that don't happen unless you are ready and willing. Heavenly Father blesses us as we show and exercise our faith. I've never felt more 'exercised' in all of my life but I have seen SO many blessings!

Speaking of blessings.. did you all see the video of the plan of salvation at union square? That's my mission! I know those people! Pretty exciting, right?

Okay. I'm out of time. But I love all of you!
-Sister Toone