August 21, 2011

Hola

This week went pretty well, actually really fast. My companions and I worked pretty hard in finding news and finally got some success. We found a really good family, named family Castro, a family of 5 and they all love to listen to us. It was really weird actually. We contacted them and right away they let us in, they gathered the family and got there bibles and were ready to learn. So we taught them about the book of Mormon. The only problem is that they are... I don’t know the name in English, but they believe the Sabbath day is still on Saturday. It was kind of hard to describe to them that there is a need for another book. but in the end they kind of thought it was logical, then they gave us all apples with yogurt :) which was amazing, usually people give us coke (which we have to say no) and then something fried like french fries or bananas. I have a lot of hope for this family. We are thinking of bringing the Bishop and his wife over to meet with them. But we will see what happens.

Yes one of my comps is still being kind of lazy. A little better but it’s still kind of annoying having to push him to do every little thing. Things are better. I just hope he doesn’t get too baggy because it’s the last week of the change. We should find out what is going down on Sunday so I will let you guys know next email.

There is this poor little old lady who is about 80 years old that we go and visit every other day because she is sick and dying and has no body to visit her. So we have to do it. She has these huge cuts on both sides of her left ankle. First of all she is a diabetic, so these huge, pussing, nasty wounds that won’t heel that she has all started because she scratched her ankle from a mosquito bite. Now the doctors are saying she might have to lose her foot because it’ s so infected and it cant heal. Well, we go over there and we have to clean this nasty infected foot and put cream on it and some other stuff. Then my dang companion Elder N thought it was smart to peel of the giant scab off her ankle so he could clean up all the puss. This poor old lady is very fragile, and she told him not too but he is stubborn and did it anyways, the poor lady just started screaming and crying saying she wanted to die because the pain in her foot was so bad. So we just look at each other and decide to run to the pharmacy and we buy like 20 of her pain pills. Then we call her neighbor over and she injects her with some more pain medicine (yes its normal in latino america to inject yourself with medicine) and finally that calmed her down. haha Then when we were all just sitting there all coming down from what just happened, elder M throws up everywhere!, ha ha he told us that he can’t stand feet, and infected feet and crying women just didn’t mix for him. Then the old lady started laughing at him and said not to be a little girl. She went to the doctor and things are doing much better so no worries. haha I love this country and the weird things that happen here. Today for p-day we went to the central market where all the tourists go to buy all the authentic stuff of Guatemala. Its actually really sweet! I bought a jacket and two shirts and two beanies (yep for Utah). I am not into the whole buying statues and stuff like that because I learned with Ryan and Sean that those are super cool for about 2 months after the mission then they are kind of just dumb. But it was really cool to see all the things people make by hand here. It was a lot like Peru just different styles and no butter flies :) then we went and ate some good old McDonalds and bought some donuts! so it was a good day!

I love you all and hope all is well.

Elder Toolson

August 15th, 2011

Hey!

Last week was a really fun week. On Tuesday we had conference and learned a bunch of stuff about being obedient and having faith in the goals that we have as a mission. President Watts is just amazing! When he talked to us, it was just sharing scriptures that every one knows and talking forever. He pulled out 3 stories about missionaries and all the miracles that they had on their mission because they had the faith necessary. Haha and sweet Sister Watts gave a talk about obedience. She did really well...except it was in English so the lats (who really needed to hear it J) didn’t understand much . Next time I will suggest an interpreter. Over all it was amazing and I learned so much.

This Saturday we had another baptism!! it turned out really good, and a lot of people showed up. The little girls name is Angeli and she amazing. She is 10 years old and actually knows so much about the stuff we taught her. Which is like a big deal here because there are so many adults that don’t even understand things yet. Her and I are like best friends now because I always spin her around and she loves that. haha This Sunday she comes running into the priesthood class and asks for me. So I think she has an important question or something, nope, just wanted me to spin her around. I had the chance to give a short little talk during the baptism because Elder Maldonado did the actual baptizing (his first one!) he was super excited, anyway, I talked about the symbolism of the actual font where we are baptized and what that represents. It actually turned out really well, better then I thought it would. Then, after the whole baptism is finished, her uncle who is not a member came up to me and said that he really liked my talk and wanted us to come visit him because he wants to join a church, perfect right? Well darn, he lives outside the area so some other missionaries will get to teach him.

It is always so amazing to see some one enter into the waters of baptism. Every time I see a baptism I want to have more and more because it makes me so happy to see people change there lives.

OK so this Saturday morning was amazing!! We woke up at 5 am to go to the Stake Center and played basketball with all the Office Elders and AP’s and another companionship from the zone. It wasn’t anything special but most of the people could play so it was fun. It still makes me sad that I have like nothing left in my legs! I had to warm up for like an hour to just barely dunk it...yeah I am a loser. It was amazing to play and they said we are going to be doing it every Saturday. So I had Elder Williams buy me a basketball. It’s sick, red white and blue Nike :) They couldn’t buy protein so I am still waiting for that.

Well I don’t know what happened to my comp, but he’s been... "sick" a lot, and it takes everything for me to get him outside of the house. Saturday afternoon we had to leave at 2:00, that is when we start. He started up again, said that he had a headache and couldn’t leave...I am not gonna lie I was a little low on the patience, and he just wouldn’t get dressed, so I literally had to dress him. I put on his pants, buttoned his shirt, tied his tie and shoes and put his books in his bag, haha it kind of reminded me of you mom when I would throw my little tantrums and refuse to get ready so you had to dress me to go to school or football practice, church haha :) so yeah I don’t know what’s up with him, He is a great missionary, he’s just being really lazy and not wanting to do anything. Whatever, as long as he does what I do without too much fuss, we will be fine.

I love you family! I know this church is true and I love my mission so much :)

August 8th, 2011

Family!

This week was crazy! The one thing that kind of sucks about being a ZL is that there is always stuff to do and it some times it takes away from working in the area. But on Tuesday we had concilio and it was amazing! We talked about the "key indicators" and what we need to do personally and as a zone to complete our goals. I love going to concilio because I always learn so much and it pumps me up to go work my hardest. President Watts is one of the most spiritual men that I have ever met. Every time he starts to talk about the mission or us as missionaries he starts to cry and I can just feel his desire and love for this work! He only has like two months and already he has changed so much. His way of thinking ahead is amazing and he has made these charts for every missionary so they can see two months in advance to see and track their progress. Which I really like because now I look two months ahead and if I don’t have a lot of baptism dates then I feel like a tater so it makes me want to work that much harder. After the concilio Sister Watts cooked us lasagna, (however you spell that) and it was amazing!! Surprisingly that was the first time in all my mission that I had it, and let me tell you it was amazing. Then for dessert she made this cinnamon roll cake. not lying here when I say it was the best think that I have ever had here. It was like regular vanilla cake mix with swirls of cinnamon and toped with the frosting!! mom you have to learn how to make it, its my new favorite. On Wednesday we had interviews. haha they were planned for 9:00 to 11:00. Well the interviews went a little longer then usual and they didn’t end until 5 o’clock, and of course as ZL´s we cant leave until every one leaves because we have the keys. The interview went really well and I just keep learning so much from President Watts. Haha and sweet amazing Sister Watts made cinnamon rolls for every one! first time for those as well. All went well and there are no problems in the zone so that’s good. As for the working part, well with those two days and my comp was sick with the flu so we pretty much missed 3 days. But Sunday night on our last visit we had a family night with some members and some investigators. It was amazing and they had a million questions, it was weird because I have never talked about so many themes in one lesson. We touched on about everything in the gospel but in the end we all felt it was good to put a date with them for baptism and they totally accepted it. They still have questions, but they are very very willing to read, pray and find out for them selves. I guess their priest did something bad so they didn’t attend church any more. Over all it was a pretty good week and yep we are still in a trio. which now I like, I guess because Elder Maldonado is very strongly opinioned and that’s actually really good for some of the investigators we have. We work really well together and love just messin around.

I love being a missionary and I know this is the church of Christ. Everyday I work it is a testimony builder for me that god has restored his church for a reason, and that reason is so that we aren’t so dang confused...like so many here in g town.

love you family :)

Elder Toolson

August 1, 2011

Coma Esta Familia!

I’ll just start off with the good news!! Last Wednesday we received a call from the assistance and they told us that we can officially play basketball!!! :) me and my comp just started jumping and screaming when they called us, it was the best news!

This last week we worked super hard and found some good news. we even put a fecha (baptismal date). we are working really hard on this lady named Alba. Her husband is a recent convert and she never wanted to listen to us before but now slowly she is listening a lot. I really think she will be a good. She had her birthday on Thursday and we made come chocolate chip cookies, haha and they loved them. we’ve made them before and every one is like "what is the recipe for these!" haha so I just tell them its a gringo secret and if they come to church I’ll tell them :) Cookies here are all the same and have like no flavor. They are pretty much really hard flat sugar cookies with out frosting. But sadly enough she didn’t come to church. We are going to stop by and see what happened.

Last week I completed 19 MONTHS! haha AND I received the package parents thank you so much!!! and the money too! it was perfect, we went to the church and made the cherry chip cake...oh my dang I have never had a cake that good in years!!!! and the day before Elder Maldonado completed one month and bought us all McDonalds...haha yeah I know right, he’s got a ways to wait. and then Elder Naves completed one year two days before me and he bought us all baliadas, which are these amazing flower tortillas with meet,beans,rice, letuce, and some chili sauce. haha so last week was a good week for eating :)

This p-day we all went to the stake center and played some soccer and basketball. haha it was amazing and I have literally never been this tired in my life. It is so weird to think that literally I have never run around like that for 19 months!!...let’s just say I have a lot to regain when I get back. We played more soccer then basketball, which was kind of a let down because I forget that so many latinos (ok, missionaries in general) are some of the most uncoordinated people on earth don’t play anything except soccer :) haha so playing basketball was kind of a joke. So I just sat on the 3 point line and just practiced my shot. I can still shoot but my legs have lost any thing they ever had. I seriously feel like I am in 10th grade again. I am pretty scared to go back and just get killed, but I have faith the lord will provide for me. Well I love you all and hope you guys had a blast in California and hope you send me pics!!!

Peace out!

Elder Toolson

July 25th 2011

Hey family.

OK, so first things first, thank you so much for the money! Yes, it is way easier to use Western Union then anything else. I just walked in the office and gave them the code number and my i.d. and they gave me all the money right on the spot. No, sorry I didn’t get the package, but I am pretty sure I will get it this Wednesday so that’ll be amazing. This week was a little different. I don’t know why the assistants keep doing this but once again we are in another trio!! there were like 9 missionaries going to Peru that don’t have there visas so they are in our mission for now. when they first assigned them to us they said it would be 2 days...well it turns out it will most likely be a month or longer. I am betting it will be the six weeks of this change. Our new companion is Elder Maldonado. He is from here in Guatemala about 20 minutes away. He is super cool and a dang good missionary. He speaks almost perfect English as well. but I m not gonna lie being in a trio is kinda hard cause you have to share the time, and its even weirder because me and my comp are pretty much training him and so we have to teach him all the basics. haha sometimes we forget he is new and

just assume that he knows what we are talking about or what we are going to do. He is learning really fast and has a huge desire to work his butt off and be a really good missionary. Last week we had a lot of fun because now with 3 people there is always stuff to talk about and laugh about. So we when we were contacting we would just talk about weird stuff and just have fun. It’s cool to see the faith of the new missionaries, because now days I know who really wants to hear the gospel or is just giving us crap or lying or something like that so I just keep going, but Elder Maldonado is very persistent, which is actually something that I realize I am not. For him every person he talks to has to let us in the house, and if they don’t he has to get the reason out of them. I like it though because it gives me more animo and makes me want to have more faith.

The new people in the zone are way cool. I have a new bud, Elder Underwood. He played volleyball at BYU and is pretty good at basketball. He’s about 6’6” and can jump! so we talk sports and good times before the mission.

Sorry this letter is really boring but your in San Diego so I don’t feel bad at all! I love you all and have fun in California.

Elder Toolson