Weekly Email

 Gosh guys.. I feel like I never have a chance to email!!!

So I forgot some things last week. Mostly about last Saturday. We started the day off pretty rough...we went to go see Lilianna so we could have the "talk" with her. She isn't coming to church but she wants to be baptized. She can't come to church by herself because her dad won't let her ride the subway. We went in and talked with her and she said she knows she needs to come to church and she knows we are out of things to talk to her about. Her dad is meeting with the Spanish elders so she can keep meeting with them. It was so sad but I know it's not her time right now.

Then later that afternoon Karen called us to tell us she wanted to come to church with us at 9! We were so excited! We told her we would pick her up at 830 for church. Then later that night (at 8:45) she called us like five times! So I called her back and she asked us if we were downstairs! I said no Karen, we are home. Then she told us we were going to be late! I finally caught on to what she was talking about and said Karen, it's 9 PM AT NIGHT! It is still Saturday! She was so mad! She said she had her lipstick on and she was about to walk to the train without us! The bad news is.... By Sunday morning she was too tired to come to church :(

The big things this week... Our miracle Chinese couple finally agreed to meet with us!!!

Remember the guy we found on the train who works at sax who is a member?! Well. We saw him again. And we asked him why he hasn't come to church yet and he said that he actually really wants to! But he is just scared. We talked with him for a little bit and he told us he has tons of questions, but he is looking for answers. He told us he'd try to come to church before we left the mission and I told him I probably only had 2 weeks left (guilt trip? Maybe. I'm not ashamed) long story short, he is coming to church this Sunday! (Hopefully. I have faith!)

The other monumental thing that happened is that my testimony of the Book of Mormon got ROCKED.  By my favorite less active. She doesn't believe it at all and told us all of these stupid reasons why it isn't. When we left we were feeling pretty bummed and then I remembered one of my favorite scripture in Moroni 7... If something invites and entices you to do good and to love god, it is of god. That is the Book of Mormon for me. If there is one lesson I have learned in my mission it's that it's okay to have doubts. It's okay to not know 100% of everything all the time. Those moments of doubts help make our testimonies so much stronger.

I love you all!
I hope your BOM reading is going well. :)

Xoxo

Sister Toone

 

 

Hey!

This is short. Sorry. :)

Thursday we weekly planned and we almost finished all of it. It was beautiful. Then we went to visit the Ford family and they were actually home, which was another miracle. We read from the Book of Mormon with them... Annette was in 3 Nephi 3 which is a war chapter...
It was a little rough at first because sister smith and I barely knew what was going on. :) The spirit knew though, so it turned out okay.
We met these crazy old ladies on the bench in front of her building.
They are picturesque Harlem women. Maybe I'll make a video for you. :)

Then we went to see one of my very favorite less actives. We love visiting her but she likes to talk so sometimes we don't get to teach much. This time we went determined to at least talk about the gospel
:) she has been going to church for a month and she is loving it. Last time we asked her to read the Book of Mormon and she flat out told us no but this time we gave her one and she said she would give it a try.
She knows that God wants her to do these things even if she doesn't want to... So she is willing to try. It is amazing. It's also amazing to see how her whole countenance has changed. She is happier and doing things to make her life better.


We went to dinner at the Egan's house. NBD, Sister Egan just has her own cooking show on food network... Kelsey's Essentials. :) she was on next food network star or whatever that show is. She is so sweet and amazing. The food was delish too :) she talked about having an identity outside of being Mormon and how she wants to be Mormon but she also wants to be an individual. It was a really awesome discussion.

Friday we were on a split!! I was with sister Weyandt and we did a ton of lookups. That's pretty much it. We were in her area and they cover the MSA branch which is a really interesting situation... We have like
1200 less active singles in between the ages of 31-45 on the island!
After the lookups we had an APF in Columbus circle. We were talking about the Book of Mormon and we had a HUGE Book of Mormon replica. It was pretty sweet. We talked to people of all faiths, which was awesome!

I'd love to fill you in on the rest of our week but I am running out of time... And I need to tell you about zone conference on Tuesday. It was awesome. We talked about going back to the basics. At the end, president Morgan had a few invitations for us. He invited us to read PMG every day in our studies. Then he invited the mission to read the Book of Mormon together in 120 days. I was pumped! He talked about the blessings that come from reading and the miracles that will come to our mission if we are faithful and obedient. He said that we are going to start on August 25th and 120 days from then is December 24. We would finish on Christmas Eve! As he said that it hit me that I won't be here for Christmas Eve. I won't here to see the miracles and the power that come from reading together. I started to cry. Seriously.

Leaving home is hard. It's hard to leave but you know you will be back. Leaving the mission is terrible! I haven't felt that kind of dread in a long long time. I can't even think about it. I just want to work work work.

But. I promised myself that I would read with them regardless, and I would finish on my own on December 24th. And I want you to do it too!
Let's read together. There is SO much power and strength in the Book of Mormon. Read it with me :) it's 4.5 pages a day I'm pretty sure. :) if you are willing to try it with me, email me and let me know!

I love you all. Sorry this is short.
-sister Toone

Ps... These are the texts our less actives sent us this week:


Hey ladies! Thanks for making lil Wayne my visiting teacher! We get along great!

Wait a minute, did lil Wayne lie just to get into my house?! Is he not a member of the priesthood???

Seriously though I have an invite to see my sons girlfriends mom in queens, can we reschedule?

 

Carlee's new shoes.  She is pretty excited about them. :)  

Yellow

Well, this week has been unreal... And so full of miracles. God is good, friends.

Wednesday we went to the Bronx zoo and it was insane. There were so many people there!! They told us that we couldn't have a missionary mob, so we walked around the zoo with one other companionship of missionaries and it was really fun :)

Thursday we went to the temple with a recent convert in our ward! It was so awesome to be there with him. I have gained such an appreciation for the temple and the simplicity of it all. He and his wife are getting sealed next month :) we spent pretty much our whole day with them. After the temple we met sister Holdaway and sister Arquero for a split. I went with sister Holdaway to her area. Ps, sister Holdaway is one of my bestest friends so I was pumped to be able to spend the day with her. :)

Our first appointment was a dinner appointment with an active member, and she had invited someone else from the ward. Sister Holdaway whispered to me that the little boy had cancer and my stomach dropped.
When they got to the members house my heart literally broke. I was introduced to Malcolm who is 5. He is from receiving treatment at the Ronald McDonald house so he and his mom are staying here in New York until treatments are over. Malcolm's favorite color is green and he loves Thomas the train. They spend their free time at grand central station and in Central Park. He sat by us and played games with us. He loved my hair, which broke my heart even more. The treatments have taken literally everything from him including his eyelashes.
Treatments have not taken his love of the savior or his sweet spirit from him.

I wish I could explain exactly how I felt, but I know words cannot describe even a portion of it. I was so humbled and amazed. I gained a stronger appreciation for the atonement and I got a glimpse of what true charity looks like. I just wanted to take a portion of that moms burden. Malcolm is the middle of 6 children. His mom hardly ever sees her husband, and can you imagine how his siblings feel? But throughout it all she is still full of gratitude for the tender mercies she has been given. I have never met someone so Christ like. She invited the missionaries back to visit, not because she needs the support, but because she hopes that it will lead to someone to find hope and peace during their refiners fire. They have a Facebook, Malcolm's Miracles.
:) check it out.

Friday sister Holdaway and I just did some good ol' missionary work.
We went to look up a potential investigator who had just had a baby.
We got their right at the baby's dinner time... So that was awkward.
When we left she told us "Sorry you had to see my breast... That wasn't my intentions!" Don't worry lady-friend... Not ours either! We were kind of scarred for life.

We kept talking about the day when we will be companions. I'm praying for it. :) after we unsplit sister smith and I went to dinner and then we went home! I was exhausted. I don't sleep well in strange beds...
Splits are hard for me :) I think my body has reached a whole new level of exhaustion.

Saturday we had an interview with the Harlem sisters and then we finally got around to our weekly planning... Which took days. But it's okay. We planned thoroughly! We had a little heart to heart too, which we really needed. The mission just prepares you so much for life. We were talking about it and I think we both expect marriage to all be peachy and happy all of the time, but it's no different than a companionship. At least that's what we are assuming ;)

Sunday was amazing. One of the best Sundays of my whole mission!!
Friday we got a call from a member in Colorado saying he had some friends he wanted us to meet. They are from Beijing and he's been talking with them about the gospel for years. They aren't members but they want to go through the temple in a year.... :) so we called them Saturday and invited them to church. They came and we found members for them to sit by. During sacrament we texted the relief society president so after they talked to her. In gospel principles we found out he works for the same law firm as the assistant ward mission leader, and half of our ward is in law school so we didn't get to talk to them at all on Sunday! It was beautiful. During sacrament the closing song was Families Can Be Together Forever and they said they felt their baby more during the song. :) they are just so sweet and so prepared.

Monday we did the usual. Had an awesome lesson with Nora who taught us the plan of salvation because she had read the whole pamphlet and ALL of the suggested scriptures in the back. She didn't agree with our views on Adam and Eve, but after a pretty interesting conversation we think she understood. Sister Smith likes to be really bold... This is my favorite memory from the lesson. "They were innocent in the garden, they didn't even know they were naked. They didn't know how to have sex!" poor Nora almost had a heart attack I'm sure. But she got the point across.

After Nora we traveled to the east side of Harlem to meet some sisters. We were walking off the train and Sister Smith pointed at something so I looked just in time to see a HUGE rat running right towards us. Guys. It was huge. Of course I jumped and screamed and almost wetted myself. There was this guy and his daughter that saw the whole thing and he was just laughing at us. I wanted to die.

Tuesday was an alright day. I woke up sick again and sister smith made me sleep for an hour before we went out. We did an APF and then we went to dinner at the Toones house. I loovveeee that family so much!
They are awesome. We spent an hour after dinner talking about less actives and all that jazz. It was awesome. :)

Well. I love all of you. I hope your week is full of miracles :) the church is true. I'm so grateful to be a member of the gospel and have this opportunity to share it with the people here. I am cherishing every single second of this short short short time I have been given to love and serve.

Love you all!!

Ps, guess what I saw today? 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bronx Zoo! Dreams come true!

 Sorry about the tacky subject. I know... I've already been there but I just thought it was more exciting than hey! Like usual. :)

This week has been full of little surprises. Wow. I don't even know where to start.

Thursday was uneventful. Friday was MLC in Queens so we woke up SUPER early to get there on time.. 5:30 to be exact. It was so fun to see everyone! I learned so much, too. President Morgan talked about how there was 70 missionaries in that room, and through those 70 missionaries The Lord was trying to influence 10 million people. No pressure.

Both mission presidents talked about the doctrine of Christ. It was awesome to get president Calderwoods view on things! He talked about repenting in "real time" and how we don't need to wait for Sunday or until our list gets too long. We don't have to carry guilt and shame around with us, that's the whole point of the atonement, right?

After MLC we came back and went to a couple of appointments. Our last one was ward correlation. We were wrapping up at 9 so we could be home by 930. We were exhausted because we had been at MLC all day and our brains were fried... And right before we say the prayer, President Morgan called. :| Sister Smith answered it and to make a long story short he told us there was a companionship that was really struggling and we needed to go on a split with them that night. They live clear on the east side (at least 45 minutes away by train & bus) so we just went straight there. We didn't get there until 9:45 and I was staying there with the one sister... But I had nothing! President asked some elders to escort our companions home so I asked them to bring me a toothbrush and something to sleep in. The sister I was with was exhausted so she went to bed while I waited up. They finally got home at midnight, so I was up for like 20 hours on Friday. I slept on the couch so I didn't wake her up... Needless to say it was a pretty rough night!!

Saturday we went to the church so president could interview the sister I was with. I just sat outside, but I couldn't go too far so I could still hear most of what was going on. I think it was inspired because it was just what I needed to hear. He talked about how we can't have this expectation for ourselves of perfection. He said we weren't intended or expected to be perfect, that's why where is an atonement.
He said that the standard we hold ourselves to is a mirror of the standard we hold others to. I admit that I expect the best from myself, and as a result, those around me are held to the same standard. It's not fair and it's prideful! Everyone struggles with something. EVERYONE. If we think we need to be perfect we are denying the power and blessing of the atonement.


Sunday we had an investigator at church!! WAHOOO! She left after sacrament meeting... But that's alright :) we had dinner at a members house, and their cousin was staying with them. She is 22 and her bishop told her she shouldn't go on a mission, but she has always wanted to, so we took her with us to the rest of our appointments :) she was awesome!

Monday we taught zone meeting with the zone leaders :) it was fun. We always go way over time though... Oops :) we taught Norah after. She is amazing! She has learned so much TRUTH through the bible and the spirit. We have never once had to correct any false doctrine. It's amazing how The Lord prepares people.. Sometimes it takes 80 years.
She still doesn't want to come to church, but she is humble and praying about it. :)

Tuesday I was on a split with a new missionary in her area. She has only been out two weeks, but she rocked it! We went tracting for her first time and we taught three lessons. She said the most she had ever taught in a day was three, so we set a goal for five total lessons. We exercised our faith and by the end of the night we had taught 5!!! It was amazing. I learned a lot from her and I'm excited to see her grow
:)

We had a pretty amazing view at dinner. Here it is along with some other pictures :) I love you all! Be good :)

 

 

:)

Hello all!

This week has been really interesting. We haven't had any splits for the last two weeks so sister smith and I have been together every single day. Good news is we are still friends. :) Thursday was the first day we realized it. We had an apartment check and then weekly planning (that we didn't finish) and then we had a bunch of lookups before dinner. We had done all of the lookups we could think of and then we had nothing to do. I haven't had nothing to do in so long. We have gotten really good at filling our time but we just plum ran out of things to do!

Friday was a better day. We finished weekly planning and then went to the Garcias. I just need to describe this family because I'm not sure I have in the past. They are puerto rican. Jessica is the mom of three boys and one girl. The girls name is Shania (like shania twain) she is 17, has a bunch of piercings in places you don't even want to imagine, and a bunch of tattoos. She started getting them in MIDDLESCHOOL. We are lucky if she is wearing clothes when we go over. Ivan is the oldest son. He is 21 and his girlfriend is living with them. She's also 17 and they have a baby that is 8 months old. Did I mention he is a member? That's how we found the family. Then they have two younger sons that haven't been ruined by the world yet.

We have a hard time teaching them because there is so many and all of them have so many questions. This time we had a member coming and we were only going to talk about the pre earth life. The lesson STILL took over an hour, but it was awesome. They had so many good questions. We talked to each of them about baptism. Shania said that she'd get baptized after she was married... She doesn't want to live the law of chastity. This is what she said to us "I don't think a guy will marry you unless he knows how you are in bed first." She is 17!!!
Luckily we had members their to talk to her. Sister smith and I were dying... That is so sad!! I don't think she is convinced yet but their family is coming to family home evening tonight so we'll see what happens.

Saturday we had a crazy day. We taught crazy people that talk so so so much. I am definitely still working on my patience. :/ then Lilianna called us because she was planning on making us dinner but she needed some ingredients so we had to run to the store for her. We were planning on having the elders come with us so they were waiting and I was really annoyed. In retrospect it's pretty funny. Two white girls at the Bodega trying to buy plantains and queso blanco for frying. We found a Dominican to help us though :) we had a good lesson with Lilianna's dad. Well, I think it was good. It was in Spanish :) then she made us fried salami and fried cheese and mangu which is like mashed potatoes. I kind of wanted to die after I ate.


Sunday was a regular ol' Sunday. We had dinner at the Wrights. They are a new family in the ward and they LOVE missionaries. We had an awesome lesson with them but we felt so bad... They are potty training their daughter and she had THREE accidents while we were there! The parents felt so bad but it was fine :)

After dinner we went to visit an active member who loves missionaries so we visit when we can :) she told us about her life.... Some people experience the HARDEST things. I can't even imagine. She told us she had been raped twice... Once while she was pregnant. I we were just in shock.

Monday was the first district meeting of the transfer. I just love being a missionary, in case you didn't know :) we have some awesome people in our zone. I'm the oldest missionary (mission wise) in the zone so it's nice to get to know all of these younger missionaries that I've never met!

After district meeting we went to Norah's. Norah is this investigator who is in her 80s. Our whole appointment was her asking us questions from her Book of Mormon reading (she's on 1nephi 14) and her telling us her testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. She isn't ready to come to church yet but I invited her to be baptized and she is prayin on it :)

Tuesday was Lilianna's birthday!! We went and picked her up and took her to get ice cream. We gave her a journal with the temple on it that we had written a little note in :) that morning I had tried on like 3 outfits and I just kept coming back to this one outfit (keep reading, there is a spiritual point to this) because it matched the pink ribbon necklace that mom sent me a few weeks ago. We were eating our froyo and Lilianna mentioned her mom. Her mom passed away when she was 8 from breast cancer. As soon as she mentioned her mom I knew why I had to wear that necklace. So I took it off and gave it to her for her birthday. She has such an amazing heart and her family really takes advantage of her. I was super glad we were able to do something with her for her birthday because her dad didn't do anything.

After ice cream we went and did an APF with our district. Sister smith and I were contacting together. We met some real characters. The point of the APF was to collect "kindness kards", a little motivational card written by someone in New York to give to someone else who is having a bad day. We met this gay couple and one of them wrote "if Brittany spears can make it through 2007, you can make it through this". As we were getting ready to leave this guy yelled "Mormons!!" So naturally we had to stop and talk to him. He was a Hare Krishna monk who had met with missionaries a lot previously. He asked what we were up to and before we could answer he said "wait.. First I need you to do something" and then he ran and got a plate of cookies. I don't know how much you have seen of the Hare Krishnas but they are pretty granola, if you know what I Mean. We asked him what were in the cookies and he said "oh, the usual.. Eggs, flour, milk...." Smith took one and started eating and I said "no drugs.. Right?" And he said no so I took one because he wasn't taking no for an answer. Half a bite into the cookie he said oh, you should start to feel it in about 45 minutes. I just stared at him with my mouth open. He laughed and said just kidding so I took another bite and he said "really it should take more like an hour" I was so mad and so scared!! But then he showed us a pamphlet that talked about their word of wisdom basically.. We were safe :)

We visited Karen on Tuesday with brother Thorley. I am pretty sure he thinks we are retarded but we helped him do his home teaching so...
Your welcome. :) Karen kept calling him Dean and making toilet jokes.
It was a pretty successful visit I'd say. :)

That's pretty much our lives. I have never laughed so much in my whole life I am pretty sure. I love being a missionary. I love studying for
2 hours everyday and I LOVE watching people change their lives. It's in the little things that they do each day... Starting your day with a prayer and always making sure to read the word of God. Then taking an extra step and going to church each Sunday to renew the covenants they have made with their father in Heaven. Each of these things are small but one day you'll look back to see who you once were and how the gospel has changed you. Someone called me Carlee the other day and I don't even know that person. Anywyss. I am out of time and I have to email president... But I love you!!

Love,
Sister Toone