How did 18 months....

Turn into 18 weeks?

This week has been interesting. And hard. But beautiful. I guess that sums up the mission though.

Thursday we weekly planned and then we split with sister Richeson and sister Weyandt. I had to pull a few strings with the Big Man, but I ended up being companions with Richie. We went to dinner with a member and then we got to teach her dad!! It was so cool. I mostly just let her teach the lesson because I'm sure her parents don't actually want to hear from me... :) it was awesome though. We talked about temples and family history. After the lesson they were talking about their plans for this weekend since Richie will be home and her mom told her that she didn't need to worry about going to church... They were just going to have a family service in the mountains. Sister Richeson was just quiet for a minute and then she explained that it wasn't about church so much as it was about the sacrament. They had a lot of excuses and even used the example of the ward mission leader who misses church on occasion to go hunting.

I could tell that Richie was bummed and didn't know what to say.. So I piped up and told her family that they NEED her to keep her covenants.
That it was a commandment for EVERYONE to go to church EVERY SUNDAY, and If they wanted to keep enjoying even a portion of the blessings they were receiving from her as a missionary, they needed to do everything they could to help her. After I was done they said they'd bring an extra car so she could come down and go to church. :)

We got home late and stayed up WAY too late talking. Sister Richeson is probably one of my soul sisters. I love her with my whole heart :) she is exactly what I need when I need it!! Friday morning we woke up and did the usual missionary things. Exercise, breakfast, study, lunch... Missionary work. It was so nice to be her companion again and be able to teach with her again! We Unsplit and then Friday night she called to tell me that her dad decided he needed to be baptized and he was going to pick a date, but he wanted Richie to be there.

Saturday we were at the church eating street tacos (sketch... But
delish) and we got a txt from a random number. It ended up being a media referral we had tried to contact a bunch of times. She said she was interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon, and she could meet with us that night!! Her name is Lucy and she is amazing.
She is so intelligent and she has a desire to know truth and to strengthen her relationship with her Heavenly Father. She was excited to start reading and meet with us again!

Sunday we met with this amazing recent convert names James. The church has recently changed their policy on recent converts, and the missionaries are in charge of making sure they are taught all of the new member lessons. James is from china, and he was baptized in Australia. We hadn't seen him for a while because he is in a graduate program at Columbia for computer programming. He has such a strong testimony of the gospel and he KNOWS the Book of Mormon has changed his life. I wish my testimony was as strong and pure as his. He is just amazing. All day long sister smith and I were talking about how awesome he was. He asked us if we thought that the missionaries and the members here spent too much time talking about worldly things and not enough time talking about the Book of Mormon. I just love him!!

Monday we had our last district meeting of the cycle. It was so sad.
Then we went to teach Norah. Norah is another referral we received.
Her son is a member and he asked us to visit her. She is like 80 something and has lived in manhattan for 50 years. She LOVES the bible and knows it so well. She started reading the Book of Mormon and she loves it because she can connect it all back to the bible. We taught her the restoration and she loved it. She told us we are going to have to feed her milk but she wants to keep learning. She hasn't been to church in 30 years, but I hope one day we will be able to get her there. She is so sweet and so amazing.

Tuesday I woke up sick so sister smith made me sleep. I needed it, as much as I hate it. We had a district lunch as a last hoorah, and then we went to teach Karen. I don't know what else there is to say about Karen. I love her with my whole heart. She told me my glasses were "b&@*#in" and then apologized for shocking us hahaha I LOVE HER!!

Tuesday night we got to teach Lucy again. We had a member come with us and it was awesome. She said that as she read the Book of Mormon she just felt so peaceful. She has been praying and all she feels is peace.she wants to know the truth for herself and this is the only religion that has given her that opportunity to ask questions and find out for herself. We taught her about the priesthood and she explained it to us like a lawyer. You give a lawyer the authority to speak in your behalf. You have to give him that authority, he can't get it from anywhere else.  Then she explained the great apostasy like a five course meal. During the apostasy it was like they just ate dessert for dinner every night. They were happy, but they were missing the benefits of the full meal. I was practically taking notes the whole time!! You know the spirit is in a lesson when all are being edified and uplifted. :)

Today was transfers, and words cannot describe my feelings. People used to tell me that you make your best friends on the mission and I think I laughed at them. I had friends, I didn't need any more. Well..
That's a lie. "What greater gift dost thou bestow, what greater goodness can we know, than Christ like friends whose gentle ways strengthen our faith, enrich our days"

Now family. There is a temple open house in September... For the Ogden temple. Aka mom and dad's temple! If I could ask you all to do one thing for me as a missionary, it would be to go to the open house.
Please please please see what you can do to be able to go. Please :)

I love you all.
Xoxo
Sister Toone.

Herro!!!

I feel like I start all of these emails out the same way. I need more of a variety in my vocabulary I guess.

This week we have been exhausted. That means it must be the end of the cycle. We've been so busy! I went on two splits since last week and I feel like the last seven days flew by!

We had investigators at church!!! Finally!!!! The WHOLE Garcia family came :) it was awesome. We had a lesson with them on Saturday with the elders and it was so cool. They all admitted that prayer and church makes them feel better.

This is going to be so short. I'm really sorry. I have ADHD today I swear. Here is my favorite miracle this week though. But first we have to reminisce. A few weeks ago we were on our way home, we take the train from 125 to 137, so it's a really short ride. I sat by this guy with a Zara's bag so I asked him where it was (just to start a conversation.. We get desperate here) he told me and then he told me that he works at Saks on 5th avenue and I died a little inside. Then the train got to our stop and we got off and went our separate ways.

So Saturday night we were at the same station and we got on the train and there he was! He nodded so I waved and then when we got off the train he was waiting to talk to us. I was pumped. I asked him about his day and then he asked if we do missionary work all the time and I said yes... And then he said "I have to be honest with you.. I was baptized as a Mormon when I was younger" I about died! We went our separate ways before I could say anything else to him... But he lives near to us so hopefully we see him soon!

My next favorite miracle happened on my split with Hazelton. We went to visit Carmen, who is an investigator I found while I was on a split with sister Roberts. When we knocked on her door she was on the phone, and then she told us she didn't know English... So sister Roberts says the one Spanish line she knows and then stands there so I muster up my gift of tongues (which I don't have) and we got her phone number so Spanish missionaries could go back. And now she wants to get baptized!!!!

We walked into her apartment and I told Hazleton to tell her that I knocked on her door the first time and she just said thank you, thank you!! We taught her tithing (and by we I mean Hazleton because I really don't speak Spanish) and then we asked her to pray. She said no and then I asked her to pray so I could see how much she has grown and she prayed the most beautiful prayer! She prayed for the strength to quit smoking and get baptized and she thanked her father in Heaven for the missionaries who knocked on her door. I almost cried! The gospel really does change lives if we let it.

It's amazing how God has all of these amazing gifts for us.. We just have to accept them. As soon as we do we are so much happier, I don't know why it takes us so long to see it. It's so easy to get a little prideful and think we have it all figured out... That's when we stop relying on help from God and start relying on our own knowledge... And then we are miserable. :)

I'm so grateful I was raised with the gospel in my life because I can't imagine the person I'd be without it! I love you all :) see you next week!

-sister Toone

Ps, this is my favorite thing to study lately:

"Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, cleverer, or better-looking than others. If every one else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud:
the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.”

  

 

:)

Well hello there.

This week has been an exciting one. We went to the Yankees game last Wednesday and I found the BEST Yankees hat. Words cannot even describe it. Seriously. Let's just say Harlem is bringing out the best in me :)

We left the game a little early so we could get groceries. We grabbed all the things we needed and we were walking home (it's pretty much the longest walk ever... At least 3 avenues and 10 streets) We started feeling rain drops sporadically and didn't think anything of it...
Next thing we know it is POURING and we have no umbrellas and our arms are full of groceries.. We got SOAKED. Our grocery bags had puddles in the bottom by the time we got home! Everyone thought we were dumb for being out but we just had no choice. It was so gross because it was SO hot at the Yankees game and the we got drenched, so my eyes were burning because the rain was washing the sweat away right into my eyes!! (I know that's gross. But welcome to my life.)

We had dinner with an active member that night. She took us to get Indian food and it was SO good. We got to the restaurant dripping wet and I don't think they loved it. For our lesson we invited Darcee to teach us about the first vision and she rocked it! She was SO good! I was her companion and we taught sister Smith. She also taught sister smith how to pray and did such a good job at bearing her testimony!

The next day was MLC. I was kind of terrified, but it was actually really good. President talked about living to a higher standard as missionaries which is definitely something I need to work on. Harlem has rubbed off on me in the worst ways. My English is terrible!

There are a lot of changes in missionary work that are coming and it's really exciting. He reminded us that we do what we so because we love The Lord and not because somewhere down the line we are going to get "credit" for the things we did. I think that is so true in life. I don't think that at judgment day He will look at us and ask how many times we went to church or how often we read our scriptures, but we do those things because we love Him. And I do think at judgment day he will ask us if we loved Him, and we will be able to show Him by the things we did while we were here on earth.

Friday was the 4th!! We had correlation over skype because our ward mission leader is in Belgium right now. Did I tell you they are both from Belgium? Their little boy is SOOO cute and he laughs at us when we try to speak french. He is very European and always tries to give us hugs and kisses and his parents get REAL mad :)

Then we were supposed to have a ward party but they cancelled it because it was supposed to rain. We visited Lilianna and then we did a bunch of weekly planning. Pretty lame, right? We went to get ice cream with an Elder who was having a hard time that day (did I tell you our zone calls us the Mom Squad?... What a joke) We had an interview with two of the sisters, and then we were headed home for the day. On the way home we decided that we needed something to make this day more exciting so we got stuff for cream-soda floats! We also stopped at every single bodega to find flaming hot Cheetos but no where had them.
That's the only time I have been disappointed by a bodega.

When our roommates came home we quickly planned and then we went on an adventure... To our roof!! We weren't sure we could get on it but the door was open and someone else was up there so we went for it. :) it was sweet!! This was the second time I got to see fireworks over the New York skyline and it's awesome. I don't know if fireworks will ever be the same! :) we got a bunch of pictures but the iPad doesn't have a flash so I took them on my regular camera.

Saturday was pretty uneventful, I can't even remember what happened.
Oh yeah, we had a lesson with Karen who is still probably one of my most favorite people in the whole world. We taught her the restoration over again and she loved it. She asked us why women don't have the priesthood and we just laughed. She has no idea what's going on in the church and she was so sincere. We gave her a very simple answer and she loved it. We were on our way out and she started going on and on like she does but for some reason she was talking about Tommy Hilfiger, but she has a hard time pronouncing it so she kept saying "Tommy Huff-a-nigga" and I was DYING.

 Sunday was not my favorite. No one came to church AGAIN! It's hard to not get tired of trying and inviting again and again for people to come to church and then no one comes. I should know by now but I still am a little heart broken every time someone says they will be there and then they don't show up. Such is life, right? After church we did studies in the park and then went to dinner. After dinner we were doing a look up and I got POOPED ON! By a stinkin pigeon!!! That has been my biggest fear my whole mission... Seriously. I showed sister smith and then I made her run into a bodega to get some napkins. We got it cleaned up and I didn't die like I thought I might. I guess that's a sign of a true missionary or something.

Monday we had zone meeting and then an interview with some sisters.
They found out president is closing their area in a few weeks and I felt so bad for them. It really limits the work they can do and want to do for the next couple of weeks. Then we went to go meet with Nick.
He hasn't been keeping many commitments lately... So we went to have a "come to Jesus" with him. (Most missionaries call it a do or die) turns out he was thinking the same thing about us. He started off by telling us that he doesn't think the Book of Mormon is that important and he finds truth in a lot of places, not just our church. Then he said he has no intention of being baptized. I felt SO BAD! Nick is the miracle of my mission and he just dropped us hard. He was kind about it but the things he said really shook my testimony. That, I think, is the hardest part of being a missionary.  We get our testimonies ROCKED all do the time! We have to stand firm in what we know because there are people everywhere looking to prove us wrong. I am trying to be grateful for those moments because they help me grow so much and they help me know where I need to strengthen my testimony the most. We left him on good terms and he said he would call us if he ever needed anything.. But I'm still pretty bummed about it.

Yesterday we were on a split! I've decided that The Lord will make our splits exactly how they need to be. Yesterday we had a fairly good schedule and then every single thing fell through. The sister said it was exactly what she needed so I'm just trusting that as long as I do everything I can, he'll make of it what he needs to. I think I have been learning that lesson my whole life. He really is in control of things even when I am convinced I "got it"  

yesterday some lady stopped us and asked if we were Jehovah's witnesses and we said no and then she said oh! Cuz I was gonna say you the most stylish Jehovah's witnesses I ever seen! I love this place :)

Well. That's my life. Livin in the ghetto... Rockin the cheetah hat...

Gettin pooped on and dropped like it's nobodies bidness. Talking bout Jesus and loving every horrible minute of it! Love you!!

Hello!

 Well this is halfway for this cycle... I just blinked and it was week three! Today we are going to the Yankees game... It's my second one which means I've done everything there is to do as a missionary in NYC! It's going to be super super hot. I might die.

Before I get into the spiritual stuff, I have a Harlem experience to share. We were walking off the train and this lady was in front of us.
She looked kind of homeless. She was walking and all the sudden she turned and squatted and the next thing I know she lifted her dress up and just let loose right on the sidewalk. I about died. And almost got splashed on.

This week has been awesome. I got to go on a split with sister white!
We both have grown so much in the last year... Living the gospel really does change people so much :)

We also got to go to Lilianna's and talk to her dad, Jose. He was super understanding and honest. He said he was just worried because he didn't want his daughter to be a missionary ;) he was so worried! But we talked about the blessings of coming to church and how it helps us become better people and surrounds us with positive influences.
Missionary work is so much easier when you can honestly testify from your own experiences! I know that young women's helped me so much, even if I didn't always love going. We had the young women's president there, too. Leaders make such a difference!

We also had interviews with president Morgan! It was so awesome. He is a great leader and example. He talked to me about influencing people through love... I think that's really what it all comes down to. No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. He also talked about not underestimating the power of our faith and our covenants. I know I definitely doubt the power of my faith and the covenants I have made. Especially in relation to changing the lives of the people around me.

We also met with a part member family this week. The dad is off and on investigating... So we went to try it out. we talked about the atonement and the member wife cried through the whole thing. The husband answered questions like a member... The spirit was SO strong!
I think I forgot to tell sister smith that they were part members and so at the end of our lesson she asked for a referral. The wife just stared at the husband for a minute and it was really really intense.
They said they'd let us know if they did, and we left. After sister smith was talking about it and I said "she almost gave us her husband as a referral!!!" It took my companion a second but then we were just pumped. We are going to try and visit them a little bit more often and hopefully something comes of it. We all know he felt the spirit because we did and we couldn't deny it.

The gospel is a beautiful thing. I have seen what living the gospel really can do in our lives and the lives of people we associate with.
I know that being active in the gospel and being active in the church are two different things... And I'm grateful that I gained that knowledge before I came on a mission from a loving family and wonderful parents and examples. I love being able to tell people that "I get to talk about Jesus all day" and that I have been blessed with a short amount of time to give back to my Heavenly Father. I love you all!! See you next week :)