Hello!!!

Sorry about the lack of email on Wednesday. Talk about a crazy Pday!
We went to transfers and waited over an hour for the new missionaries
to show up. I was practically at my wits end by the time they got
there. After transfers we got lunch. (It was like four pm by then) and
then we drove home. We didn't get to Middletown til 6 and we had
correlation at 6:30 and then we spent the rest of the night delivering
food to people. Sister Orme didn't unpack until Friday... We were just
SUPER busy!

We were "grounded" twice this last week, before sister Chen left. Talk
about boring. I took a nap for th first time in 7 months and I felt
like a waste of a human. I wrote part of this on Wednesday so some of
it is old news... Sorry :)

Wow. This week has been pretty crazy. And amazing. One of the best
experiences of my mission thus far happened on Thursday. Oh wait. I'm
training! I found out Wednesday night. President called and wanted to
talk to both sister Chen and I... I panicked and assumed we would be
training a new missionary in a trio (I'm at the end of my foreign
companion patience... I love sister Chen, but it has been a
challenge.) then president said that she would be going back to China
Town to train in a trio down there. Then president asked me if I would
train in Middletown. I said yes and then he said something like "after
the last two cycles, it should be easy!" I just laughed.

Back to Thursday! So after Angie got baptized, we knew that Miguelina
would be feeling bittersweet about the whole situation (she has been
investigating for over a year and a half, and would be baptized
tomorrow if she could) so it was time for us to have our "come to
Jesus" talk with her. We asked her on a date and she said yes :) after
lunch we asked her where she saw her life in a year and all she could
say was that she didn't think about it and that she didn't want to. To
make a long story short, we threw it down. We helped her realize that
Heavenly Father had a plan for her and for her to reach her real
potential she had to remove some harmful things from her life. There
was even a point where I took my tag off so I could speak to her as a
friend and not as a missionary. We offered her a blessing of courage
and comfort from the elders and she said yes. After the blessing we
asked her when she was getting baptized and she said "soon."
So, I am training. Sister Orme is amazing. She isn't homesick or
anything! It makes me realize how horrible I was as a new
missionary... Oops :) She is barely 19 and has never been away from
home before. She was still in high school while I was on the mish, so
that's weird. I'm old. Whatever. I'm over it. She's super sweet, and a
little sassy. Just my kind of girl :)

This week is CHRISTMAS!!! Yay! Actually it's kind of a bummer because
everyone is busy with their family and no one wants to meet with us,
but whatever. We have been caroling twice, it's pretty fun. On
Saturday we were caroling in Sugarloaf and we talked to some pretty
fun people. There was this guy standing across the street from us and
I saw him watching so I yelled across the street to see if he wanted
some hot chocolate. He got all awkward and kinda just walked away....
Five minutes later he was at our table listening to us sing and
looking at our pamphlets. :) some members drove by and saw us caroling
so they stopped to visit.

It's fun to train because you see how far you have come as a
missionary. You grow so fast, but at the same time you hardly notice
until you can see the contrast.

I'm excited for the next couple of cycles in this area. We have some
awesome potential investies and I just know there are miracles waiting
to happen. :) our less actives are coming to church more frequently,
and after things slow down with the holidays they should be pretty
much active. John even came to church yesterday and we haven't visited
him in a couple of weeks!

Hello!

Wow. Well, another week over and one week closer to Christmas! Can you believe it? Me either :) I don't even know what happened this last week....

Friday was the Christmas devotional for our mission. It was SO nice to see everyone!! I saw sister Dalley and sister Richeson and I almost cried. :) it was fun to see all of the elders that I have served with too. They had some musical numbers that were amazing and then we ate Christmas dinner. Then president just let everyone stay and hang out... It was so nice!! It was kind of crazy though.... All of the missionaries from the city had to get upstate, so they took a train and then all of the upstate missionaries were assigned to pick a companionship up from the train station! It was madness.

Saturday we had a wedding for a ward member.. And then Sunday was church!! JOHN FINALLY CAME TO CHURCH! John is the less active that reminds me of Dad. He is so sweet... He wants to come back but it causes a lot of stress with his wife. I seriously love him though...
He has such a good heart! After church we had the Christmas devotional so our ward did dinner. Everyone brought dishes from their native countries. It was pretty interesting :)

Monday we woke up to a frozen wasteland...seriously. We had a nice storm. We also found out Monday morning that we don't have a window scraper, so that was awesome. Good thing the elders love us and were willing to come and scrape them off for us. Sister Chen and I went on a split Monday and Tuesday. I was with sister Card who is a brand new missionary. She is sweet and super fun. We went to visit Helen who is another person I just love. She is stubborn but she has a good heart.
She's stopped drinking coffee! And I can tell she loves us because she told us that she hopes we come back before Christmas so we can see her Christmas tree :)

Pictures

Hello December

Well... I should have known this week was going to be crazy. It started off before p- day was even over with a trip to the emergency room for elder Hall. He sliced his knee open on the accordion divider of the gym and they wanted to put super glue on it. (He ended up needing 7 stitches) Don't worry. Mama Toone stepped in and set that one straight. After that we went to Bishops house for dinner. I don't mean to toot our own horn but I'm pretty sure bishop loves us. And by us I mean the sister missionaries :)

Thursday was thanksgiving!! We went to Steiner's aunts house. It was pretty fun. She lives in the city but her and her husband built a cabin in the mountains where they spend every weekend. The cabin is right out of Ikea I'm pretty sure. They easily dropped a million on it. It was beautiful though. We planned on going there and to sister Phillips house but we didn't end up making it anywhere else.

Friday a youth from our ward came out with us. She is planning on serving a mission ASAP so she's trying to spend as much time with us as she can. We had some stellar plans and of course every single one of them fell through. Seriously. I felt like an idiot, but what do you do. Our day ended well with a dinner at our favorite Mexican family's house :)

Saturday we did service at sister Phillips and by we I mean the elders
;) just kidding. I raked a few leaves. I also taught sister Chen the woodchuck tongue twister. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.
After that we went to Miguelina's house to teach Angie her final lesson before her baptism on Sunday. The whole district was there and she made us dinner. We all took turns teaching Angie the 10 commandments. I love that little girl. Seriously. And her mom. SO much.

Sunday was the baptism. I felt so bad for Miguelina. Her boyfriend (also the reason she can't get baptized) was being a bum and he just made the day so difficult for her. I think it was okay though. She's starting to realize that she really does deserve better.

Sister Chen and I held the towel for Angie as she came out of the font. She went into the bathroom to change and she just laughed and said "I feel soooo good!!!" I may or may not have cried. That was one of the most rewarding parts of my whole mission, I think. Angie is only 8 but she is going to be such a great example to her family and friends.

Monday was zone meeting which ended up taking most of our day for some reason. Tuesday we met with an investigator named sandy. We taught her the restoration and she prayed with us... It was a lesson right out of The District basically :) things are slow with her because she has a lot of health problems, but I think she has a lot of potential.

We'll my friends.. I think that's everything!!

Love you!
Sister Toone