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 :)

Heeyyyaa!

Well hello everyone. This week was slightly less eventful than last week. I'd say sorry, but I'm not sorry at all actually.

Here is the highlight! We went to visit Lilianna this week. She said she is still praying about baptism and she knows she needs to be baptized but she isn't sure she has gotten an answer for herself. We read from the Book of Mormon with her and talked about how answers to our prayers can come from the scriptures. She read in 2 Nephi 31 looking for an answer. As she read the verse talking about how Christ was baptized so everyone needs to be baptized she just smiled. She couldn't stop smiling actually. It was awesome. She definitely got her answer!

The rest of this week was crazy busy with nothing and everything.
Church was awesome. We are having a hard time getting people to come to church, though. I never realized how important church attendance really is. As we go to church, we renew the covenants we made when we were baptized. Every week we have the opportunity to feel like we have been baptized again. We can be sanctified by the gift of the Holy Ghost. We cleanse ourself from the things of the world and make more room for the Savior in our lives. Before I went on a mission I never thought I would spend SO much time trying to get people to come to church and experience that joy. Pretty much every single day of my life. If you haven't been to church in a while... Try it out. Here is your official invitation to sacrifice the things of the world for something and someone so much better.

Love you all!

Week 1

What a week.

Let's reminisce for a moment. Remember conference in April? And Holland started conference with that bomb of a talk about discipleship, and how it wasn't going to be easy but it was always going to be worth it? Yeah. I remember it too. And remember that part of the talk where he mentioned the two sister missionaries who had things thrown at them because they were missionaries? Me too. And I am assuming a little but here but I think we all thought some variation of the following "I hope that never happens to sister Toone" or "I am glad that hasn't happened to her yet" or " if that happens to me I'm going home!" (Okay, maybe that was just me)

Well my friends, that moment has come. Let me tell you a story real quick like. Sunday we had an awesome dinner at a members house. I am sure you all got the picture. We had about an hour after dinner so we went to go and look some people up. We were walking through Harlem and I wanted to talk to some people because we hadn't had much of a chance to that day. So I get out my Jesus pass along cards to hand out.

As we are walking, I see a guy sitting on a bench talking to a girl. I get the thought that I should give him a card, but push it away because the girl is there. And then the girl leaves and the thought returns so I heed the prompting and give him a Jesus card. He says thanks and we get about three and a half steps away before he asks us to come back, so we do. He asked us to sit down, so we do. I sat a safe distance away because he was making me kind of nervous.

First he asks us if we are Mormons and then he tells us he was baptized as a Mormon when he was 10. So far, so good. Then he says "you guys believe in the celestial kingdom, right?" Yep, we sure do.
Then his face changes and I get a pit in my stomach. He looks me right in the eye and says "that's bull ****" he ranted for a couple of minutes, but I'll spare you the expletives. Then he tells us to hang on... And I get really nervous.

He walks away and sister smith looks at me and asks me if I'm ready to testify. I guess I am, even if I don't wanna be! He takes a few minutes to rally his crew but all he can get to come back with him is the girl we first saw him with. She walks over and shakes her head and tells us we sat down with the wrong dude. (Yeah, we know.)

He comes over and is now standing in front of us as he starts yelling.
Every other word is the f word and he's talking about how we didn't let black people into our church until the 70s (not true) and how we thought these horrendous things about black people (also, not true) and then he tells us to tell him he is wrong. Which we don't do because he doesn't give us any time. Then he tells us to get the
*blank* out of his face before he throws something at us... So I say "god bless" and we walk away. We get four or five feet away and he chucks his drink at us. Luckily he misses but we get splashed on.
Needless to say, I have been scared to walk through those buildings since then.

In other horrible news, the gates of hell have been opened on our investigators. Literally. Yasmine hasn't made it to church because she has been either really really sick or gone to visit her brother on the ONLY day they let them visit. Lilianna told us that not only does her aunt not want her to get baptized, but her dad also doesn't want her to go to church anymore. Nick cannot stop smoking weed and he hasn't made it to a full 3 hours of church in a long time. We are working SO hard. We are praying SO hard. Something amazing is going to happen soon... I know it.

We have started the madness of splits and interviews. We have done one of each, and so far so good. Hopefully sister Smith has caught on to things! We have had some good adventures this week, including getting caught in a monsoon. (Okay, it probably wasn't a monsoon... But it felt like it)

Ooh. On Wednesday after Pday we went to a legit gospel music worship service with a less active. It was SWEET! Pretty much everything the movies make it out to be. This guy got up to make an announcement and he was like, excuse me... I just need to do this. And then he broke out in song and the whole congregation joined him!!! It was too prime.
Then sister smith got to hail a taxi to take us home because our less active paid for it. HOLLA! Welcome to Harlem. :)


Um. Well. That's really all I have to say. Oh wait! YASMINE HAS A BAP DATE!!! July 5th. :)

Here are some pictures