Easter

So.. Email time this week is pretty short. I love you all but I'm just going to keep this email short. :)

Easter as a missionary is beautiful. Seriously. Words can't even describe it. I think it was better than Christmas. I hadn't taken the sacrament for 2 weeks and I was kind of dying! So I woke up and made sure I was spiritually ready... This is something president Morgan has talked a lot about lately. Investigators study and pray and fast and wait weeks and weeks to be baptized. When we partake of the sacrament we are renewing that covenant. We have the opportunity to be completely clean, just like an investigator at baptism. I think it's easy to discount the sacrament because we take it every week. I know sometimes I feel entitled to the sacrament simply because I woke up that morning and got my butt to church and I haven't even thought of the Savior until I sat in the pew and realized where I was. That's one huge way to live way below your privileges.

On Easter we had an amazing program at church. Liliana and Breena were both there! After church we had a picnic with the amiolemehs and then we went and had Easter dinner with the Lyons. It really was awesome. I felt the spirit and the peace that the resurrection brings... And the joy! If you haven't seen it yet, you need to watch the Because of Him video that is going around.

Saturday we did a chalk APF! But before the APF we went to lilianas for habicuelas con dulce. Sweet beans. It was the weirdest thing I have ever had, but it was pretty good! You juice beans and then cook it with coconut milk and cinnamon and all sorts of spices. Then you put raisins and Dominican sweet potatoes in it. Seriously, it's the most random thing!

The chalk APF was awesome. I talked to a bum that was high as a kite.
His name was Daniel and he wanted to be an artist and a plumber. Then I talked to another girl who was from Israel who participates in the traditions of Passover but has no relationship with God.

Then I taught a pair of sisters and gave them a Book of Mormon. The theme for our chalk APF was faith so we talked about how faith motivates us to act and ways we can strengthen our faith.

Then I taught this Dominican named Jesus. He was awesome. We were talking about what I do as a missionary and he said that he would love to do something like that, but he doesn't have any strong beliefs. I gave him a Book of Mormon and as we were talking, two people came up and asked us if we wanted some ganja. I just sat there in awe haha they are just pedaling their weed in union square! I told Jesus that that had never happened to me and he told me it was because he had a beard. I was dying :) it was so awesome though. We took 2 hours, 16 missionaries and two boxes of chalk and we taught 40 lessons. It was SWEET!!

Monday we had a meeting with president. He talked about focused faith and the power that it brings. I love meetings with president because they are super motivating and inspiring but sometimes they are overwhelming because I already feel like I'm trying my best! He talked about how we should expect to see the fruits of our faith just like we expect to see the light come on when we flip the switch.

Yesterday we had an awesome meeting with Nick. He's our investigator that is a little crazy. We had an active member from Utah (the one who referred him) in the lesson via skype. Nick is so sincere and he wants to know the truth! He is so prepared. He even uses words like "discerning the truth" :) he is great. He has a lot of questions but he is keeping all of his commitments so far which is awesome.

Okay. I think that's all of the exciting things that have happened.
Sorry it's so short. Next week is transfers!! Can you believe it??!
Jeez. Time FLIES!!

Love you all!

-sister Toone

News from the big city!

Hi family. I was going to tell you how crazy my week has been but let's be real... I am a missionary in New York City so when is my life not crazy?

Here is the good news!!

We got a few new investigators!
We taught a lot of lessons!
We had an awesome stake conference!

Here's the not so good news:

My knee is pretty jacked up.
Our new investigators are kind of crazy
This cycle is almost over and it went SO fast We haven't taken the sacrament for two weeks and it's making all the difference.

So here's how our week went:

Thursday: we weekly planned according to president Morgans request. It was AWESOME.... but it took forever. We didn't even finish by the time we were supposed to meet Jensen and Hoyos for interviews. We met them at cold stone and I had cake batter ice cream for the first time in probably a year. It was a beautiful day outside too! So so warm and wonderful.

After that we went to a dinner appointment with a member named Jess!
Her husband isn't a member and she said hopefully we will be able to start teaching him really soon. He loves coming to church, so that's awesome.

Then we had an appointment with the elders. They are over the singles ward and they have a less active who just had a baby with his girlfriend so they are trying to pass them off to us in the family ward. His girlfriend and his mom are our new investigators! They are really sweet and they ask great questions. They are in the projects and sometimes it's hard to motivate people to change and make their life better in that situation.

Friday: we finished planning and then went with Liliana to find long enough skirts for church. We found some good things for her at
forever21 actually! Then a single sister took us out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. She never cooks and always eats out, so she knows all of the best places to go :) after that we went to the church because we got invited to teach activity days. We talked to the girls about going on missions. I am afraid they've all decided to NOT go now... But we tried :) no swimming, no jeans, and no horseback riding was just too much for all of them :) they were cute though. They asked what we do if we don't get along with a companion so I asked them what they did when they didn't get along with their siblings. I was definitely NOT prepared for those answers! Sit on them, lock them in the bathroom, ignore them, etc. it was so funny.

Then we left to meet with Breena, our other investigator. It was an awesome lesson and she ended up moving her baptism up from the 31 to the 10 of May (: she is so excited. And ready.

Saturday: we taught Albert. He's quite the interesting person. He is a security guard at the temple, and a non member. He lives in the Bronx, so the missionaries there really should teach him. But...he doesn't like any of them. When I got here I was really worried that he wouldn't like me and we wouldn't be able to meet with him.. But he does :) so we taught him the plan of salvation. Rewind to Thursday. As we were planning for Albert according to presidents request, we decided that we needed to set a goal for him to be baptized. We set June something or other. Fast forward to Saturday, Edward tells us he wants to be baptized by the end of the year! To my knowledge that's the first time he has talked about it at all :) he has so much faith and desire to know for himself. Oh,interesting note. One Wednesday morning he was working and this tall, white haired man came in to the temple. He talked to Albert for a good 15 minutes about the church and finding answers and all that. Don't worry... It was just L Tom Perry!
NBD! Albert had no idea.

The rest of Saturday was spent doing lookups. It was actually pretty fun to be out doing the dirty work all day. :) we found the first coco helado cart do the year! It's like the best ice cream/slushi stuff.
Ever. So that made our day! Along with some REALLY warm weather. We may or may not have taken a power nap on a bench in the projects. :) don't worry.. It was only 5 minutes.

Saturday night was stake conference. I don't know why I didn't go to more of those at home... It was AWESOME. elder Smith from one of the 70s was there. He shared some awesome stories about missionary work and doing small things that make big differences. He talked about visiting with people in the army. One of the members of a ward where he presided as bishop was there. The soldier told him to tell the first presidency that the Middle East is ready for the gospel... He and some other members had taught and baptized four people over there already :)

He started his next story by saying that one day president Uchtdorf called him. Elder Smith was in the senate at the time. Anyway, Uchtdorf told him that the saints in Italy. He said that they weren't able to enjoy total freedom of religion there and he wanted elder smith to fix it! So some things were pulled and elder smith and president Uchtdorf went to Italy. They talked to someone pretty high up over there about it. They talked about it and one of the assistants to the leader said that he had been to temple square and it was beautiful. He wanted them to build one of those in Italy ;) then they talked some more about alliances between Italy and the United States.
That same assistant said that when he had visited temple square he had been given a tour by two Italian sister missionaries. He said they were amazing women who carried themselves well. He said that if the church raised women like that, he wanted more of them in Italy. So ultimately, it was the influence of these two sister missionaries that fully opened Italy and lead to the temple that is currently being built there.

All throughout stake conference I kept feeling like Heavenly Father has something really special planned for sister missionaries. A unique work that can only be done by us. This probably sounds prideful but that's not what I mean. I don't know if it will be in the mission field or in our homes after... But I do know that Heavenly Father needs women to be stronger than ever before. Why else would our mission be 45% sisters and worldwide be 28% sister missionaries? Those are huge numbers compared to 18 months ago. I think the world is getting crazier and crazier and the church is being attacked by all sides. Even from inside the church.

Sunday: Sunday was kind of rough. I had a really hard time paying attention to stake conference. On a REALLY exciting note, I saw Naomi from the blog rockstar diaries there! She's beautiful in person too, just FYI. Of course I didn't talk to her. I was way too chicken. After conference was over we ended up getting cornered by this crazy lady who is a less active member. She spent at least an hour telling us about her life story and her crazy neighbor that listens to her while she is in the bathroom. She didn't want to listen to anything we had to say... She just wanted to hear herself talk. It was great. :/

After lunch we went to go look up a media referral. He came into contact with the church through a website put up by a member. He watched her podcast about her testimony and was really touched by it.

Anyway.. We showed up to his apartment and it was actually a "facility"... So that was cool. We found out it's a home for the mentally unstable. This guy has gone through A LOT in his lifetime...
Including but not limited to; rape, drugs, male prostitution, stripping, a term in prison, satanic possession... Ect. We heard it all we think. But! The good news is the spirit told both of us that he is really sincere and he wants to change. So.. That's good :) he is really excited to meet with us and has already had good experiences with prayer and reading the Book of Mormon.

Sunday was just the weirdest day. Full of weird things. after dinner we found out there was a fireside for just our ward. They called it something like holding on to faith in troubling times but it was basically a safe environment for people to voice their concerns and doubts about the church. People in manhattan are so interesting. There was a lot of talk about women in the priesthood and Heavenly Mother.
They also made it seem like the church is just one way to be close to God and you can pick and choose "what kind of Mormon" you want to be.
It was so interesting.

I think it's okay to have doubts and to question your testimony...
Everyone does at one point or another. But hold on to the things you DO know and definitely don't dwell on the doubts you have. You KNOW that God loves you and answers your prayers. You KNOW that we need a prophet on the earth to lead and guide us. God has called a prophet from the beginning, so of course we should have one now. Hopefully you KNOW that the Book of Mormon is inspired by God and hopefully you have found peace from it. I think those are the things that truly matter.
The church is run off of revelation and inspiration given to IMPERFECT people, so of course there are going to be faults.

Monday: we had district meeting and then we went on a split with sister Skinner and sister Dunn. I went to Harlem and walked the streets of the hood. It was beautiful :) we almost got hit by a water ballon dropped from the 20th floor of a project building. I'm pretty sure it could have killed someone. They had one scheduled appointment for us to do all day and it fell through... So we did lookups :) it was fun. We walked a TON which wasn't the best for my knees but it's all good. I LOVE Skinner. She is such a beautiful person. We will defs be friends at BYU after the mish :)

Tuesday was pretty blah. I got my Easter package! :D we updated our area book because my knees were kind of... Not feeling too good. Then sister Jensen got sick and they were supposed to teach English class so I went home with her and Campbell went with Hoyos to teach English
:)

Well. That's my week! Love you all :)

YO!

Well. This week was something else. :)

Wednesday we played ultimate frisbee in Central Park. It was SWEET!!
Central Park is awesome. The great lawn isn't open quite yet but hopefully it will be soon. Then we went to dinner at a members house.
Then we had our online event that was basically a FAIL but it's fine.
:)

Thursday we had weekly planning and then interviews with some sisters in our zone. We had plans to meet them at the 15th street chapel (side rant, if you haven't google earthed that chapel, you should. I think it's 104 fifteenth street or something.. I almost miss it EVERY TIME) they were in an appointment with the employment resource center and it ended up taking FOREVER.

After they were done we wanted to go to crumbs to get a cupcake. We ended up walking the wrong way and wound up at the Chelsea Market. If I wasn't a missionary.. Man. I would love that place. It's the coolest mall I've ever seen. Google it. It was too expensive for a cupcake there so we walked toward the real crumbs and on the way we passed Kleinfelds!!! I really about died.

After our interview with them it was practically time for dinner...
And then we did a lookup and went home. So, that was a really productive day. I felt horrible. I've been really struggling with how much work we don't do in our area. I think it's been a challenge in our companionship, too. We're working on it though :)

Friday was my first MLC! That stands for Mission Leadership Council.
For you old timers, it is Zone Leader Council.. But they had to change the name when stls came about :) It was so fun to go and see everyone and learn from president and the APs. President ripped us a new one actually.. But it was so good :)

At first he talked about our roles and responsibilities as leaders. He asked what our first responsibility is. Lots of people said to love or to be an example or to train but he told us it is actually to live worthy of the spirit. Crazy, right? Then he talked about how we also need to teach true doctrine and love the people we serve.

All week I've been praying to know how to find a balance in our area and our companionship and how to deal with doing so much sister training leader work and hardly any missionary work. Revelation is real my friends! The next thing president talked about was how our AREA is our first priority and if our area isn't thriving we are doing it wrong. We are to lead by example. There's my answer! So we have to pretty much do a 180 here in Morningside heights... But the beautiful thing is that the atonement is for everyone :)

As if we weren't feeling chastised enough, president asked for a volunteer to show him their planner and area book. No one wanted to...
Which is a horrible sign. To make a really really long story short, he basically told us we suck at planning and if we want to see success we have to plan for it. He kept asking us how bad we really want it!
Obviously every missionary wants that more than pretty much anything else right now.

Then he went on to talk about his interview before he was called as a mission president. He said he was interviewed by President Eyring.
They talked about everything in president's life. Pres was nervous obviously and president Eyring asked him about it. Then president Eyring said The Lord knows your experiences and your heart and YOUR SINS and you are still being called to this position. There are 1000 of people more qualified than you but you are still in this position.
I needed to hear that. I don't feel qualified at all to be in this position but I know president was called by The Lord.... So... That means this is all by inspiration.

Then he talked about how we are the elite of the mission and we set the pace for the other missionaries. It was good to hear. :) I was just in awe pretty much the whole meeting. I cannot describe the spirit there... It's different than anything I have ever felt! They asked me earlier in the week to say the closing prayer at the end of MLC... And then at the end of the meeting they had testimonies by inspiration/invitation... So... I had to bear my testimony and then give the closing prayer right after!! It was kind of horrible because I still hate hate hate talking in front of lots and lots of people :/ but it was fine.

Oh mom! I need to tell you before I forget that i talked to sister Morgan about my knee because my companion made me. She told me to take ibuprophen and ice it and see how it is in 10 days. I shouldn't have said anything to her because the very next day it was hurting worse than it ever has! :P

Saturday and Sunday were conference. You all better have watched it.
I'm going to go all missionary on you for a second. I hope you realize that I spend every minute of every day trying my HARDEST to get people to come to church, come closer to the Savior, and to prepare to make covenants. If you aren't doing one of those, I hope my serving a mission has at least helped you see the importance of it. Here is your invitation to improve and become better. :)

Liliana came to both Saturday morning and Sunday morning sessions.
Saturday morning we took her shopping for modest clothes for church before conference. And no, that wasn't my idea. :) it was my companion's. Isn't she just the best?

Conference was.. Interesting. I was looking forward to being really uplifted but Saturdays sessions were very... Ominous. I think it's very interesting that no new temples were announced and that a TON of talks were about strengthening your faith and deepening your testimony. Saturday night I couldn't help but feel... Heavy I guess is the right word. From President Morgans council and then general conference... I felt like I had a lot of room to improve and not a lot to look forward to.

Then Sunday came :) I can't remember the name of the lady, but someone spoke and said "the gospel isn't a weight, it's wings." That was exactly what I needed to hear. In this life EVERYONE is here to learn and grow and improve. No one is perfect, but that doesn't mean we should stop trying, I love, and have come to love even more, the scripture in Ether about weaknesses.

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.
(Ether 12:27)

Read the first line carefully.. IF men COME UNTO ME [then] I will show unto them their weakness.

At first that seemed unfair. Coming closer to God should make our life easier. Elder Holland talked about a god that doesn't demand much. I think at one point or another, we've all felt that way. If there is one thing I have gained a testimony of on my mission, it is that very thing the scripture talks about. The closer we get to God, the more we see the flaws and the imperfections. But keep reading. The promise is that if we are humble, the weaknesses we have will eventually become our strengths. The gospel is SO beautiful! The gospel really does give us wings. I've seen it in the lives of so many people here and most importantly, I've seen it in myself. There is NO other way i would have been able to overcome all of the weaknesses I have... And don't worry, I just keep finding more. :)

Monday we had zone meeting. One of our zone leaders was sick... So..
Sister Campbell and I along with the zone leader that wasn't sick taught zone meeting. I hate hate hate talking in front of people, in case you haven't heard. I am getting better at it I think. Or more apathetic. Either way, it's working. :)

After zone meeting I was determined to WORK! So that day we visited an active member who had surgery, two less actives, at least one lookup and we had interviews with the Harlem sisters :) it was a good day. I went to bed feeling accomplished :)

Tuesday we went on splits with our roommates. It was pretty fun. We spent the first two hours contacting. I haven't contacted in forever!
It was so fun. We did it as a district so sister Campbell and I made up this survey for people to take that asked them if they believed in God, how they knew, etc. People were really willing to talk to us! We taught 3-4 people and gave out a Book of Mormon. Then we visited with a member and an investigator and came home! I love splits. It's so fun to be able to learn from other missionaries and to be able to get to know the sisters. I was with sister Barlow. She went to USU and we had a class together! I didn't know her though.

Well. That's my week! It flew by. This cycle is half over today. Where has time gone? This week should be better. We have one interview and that's it! I'm hoping we can do some solid work in our area.

Sorry for the novel email. My journal writing has significantly decreased now that we have roommates again.. So hopefully this makes up for it a little bit :) love you all! What did you learn from conference? Are you reading preach my gospel like they suggested? ;)


Some pictures!

:)

Well, it's pay (p-day?) again. I can't believe it. This week was full of miracles and fun experiences.

Thursday we weekly planned. Pretty much all day. We took a break and went to do interviews with a companionship in Harlem. It was...
Interesting. One of the sisters has only been out like 8 weeks now and she took over the interview. I think her companion is struggling because the greenie is taking over everything. It's interesting to see... I think I was like that a little bit. Don't worry, I've been sufficiently humbled since then :)

We had a really great companionship inventory, too. I really have learned how important communication is as a missionary. Companionships can't function without communicating, even if you get along well. :) sister Campbell and I get along great, but there were still things we needed to talk about. For instance, she was afraid I was going to work her to death when I got here so I've been working on toning it down a little bit :)

After weekly planning we went to see our investigator Liliana. I love her! She is so sweet and sincere and just wants to learn :) then we had a dinner appointment with an amazing family that wanted to know all about the missionary work in this area. I love people like that.
They make you want to work harder so you have more to tell them next time they ask.

Friday we did studies and then we headed to Chinatown for our first split of the cycle. I stayed on the lower east side with Sister Jensen (the one from the picture). I lived with her for my first two cycles so it is SO fun to serve around her again and see how much we really have learned. We had a lunch appointment on Roosevelt island. It's this little strip of land next to the island of manhattan and it's SO quiet. You can ride the train there or the tram. The tram takes you up over the river (the Hudson maybe?) and then back down into the city.
It's SWEET. After that we went to the chapel to organize stuff for this huge Area Proselyting Focus that our whole zone was doing.

After that we had an appointment with a less active who is really great... But she's just missing the point. We were talking about faith and I asked what she does to strengthen and nourish her faith and she said nothing. What?... That's not what it's supposed to be like. She doesn't come to church because of some things that happened a few years ago... But she is really just robbing herself of so much happiness.

Then we went to dinner and you all saw the picture. Sister Jensens real companion is a vegetarian so the members took us to an Indian-vegetarian place. We had paper masalas... They were interesting
:) it was like a big crispy crepe that you dipped in there sauce stuff.

Saturday we were still on a split for part of the day. We did the APF and advertised for Spanish class. It was POURING rain but it was still fun. We had like 30 missionaries within 5 miles or less :) I LOVE splits. Can I just tell you that?? Sister Jensen is awesome.

we found out on Friday that one of our sisters who had only been out a few weeks went home because of anxiety. It breaks my heart to hear about people like that. Anxiety makes you feel like there is no way out but there is. I've been there.

After the APF we Unsplit and sister Campbell and I went to go see Karen. She's just the funniest black lady. I love her to death. She has seen some dark times.. She suffers from depression but you can SEE the difference the gospel has made in her life. It's seriously amazing. Then we went to the women's broadcast. It was SOO good :)

Sunday was great. We went to ward council and met some of the ward leaders. It was fast Sunday and we had TONS of visitors because it's spring break. We had dinner at a members house and then we did FHE at the Gores house :) they are a less active family. They are a little crazy and I love them :)

Monday we had interviews with president. They were good... I really love president Morgan. He's just the best. We spend ALL day at the church. Welcome to leadership, I guess. We had interviews with prez, then a training on how to clean our apartments (don't even get me
started) then a training from the APs and THEN we met with the zone leaders to plan zone meeting for next Monday. We finally left the church at 6:00. Then we did dinner at Lilianas house :)

Monday night we met up with some sisters for another split. I stayed in our area with sister Matthews. I was scared to death because I don't know my way around yet... But we survived :) Tuesday we had district meeting and leadership meeting. The zone leaders played some pretty good pranks on us :/

After district meeting we were still on a split. We visited karen, had dinner at a members house and then went to do a former lookup. We actually had an appointment with him that sister Campbell and I had set up. We left dinner late and the we got lost so we were way late. I tried calling and he didn't answer so I was really bummed and not sure what to do but we found the address. They buzzed us in and when we got to the apartment the WHOLE family was sitting on the couch ready to be taught!! They have 5 kids all over the age of 12 and they want to meet with us twice a week. CRAZZYY!!

anyway. That's our week. President asked me in my interview what he can do to help my mission experience and I said nothing. I seriously LOVE being a missionary and I LOVE being a sister training leader.
I've learned so much in the last two weeks from all of the sisters I have been able to get to know.

I think that's all I have to say. Sorry about the novel. I love you all. Please enjoy conference :) I know I will!!

Love,

Sister Toone