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.