June 27th

June 27^th, 2011

Hola Familia!

OK so last week went pretty well. the only thing that is killing me right now is the RAIN as most of you know I hate the rain. It has been cloudy and rainy for the past week! It used to be sunny in the morning then rainy in the afternoon but now it is dark and dreary allday every day and my "animo" is going downward. haha it kind of stinks to contact for an hour with a tiny umbrella, from the belt down gets soaked every day.

With that said last week went really well.we found some sweet new investigators and made an awesome plan for this week. Ok so to find new people it has been pretty hard. We devised a plan to do a family night with a member family every single night. today we are going to a store and buying cookie mix so we can bring cookies for the refreshments. We are using two videos that talk about and show sharing the gospel. I really have a lot of hope and faith that this will work for us because we have a lot of sweet people in the ward, we just need to use them. Please keep these families in your prayers that they can know who needs to hear the gospel and who we need to stop by and teach.

I got my package, thank you sososososososo much! That is just what I needed for this month! The card is all figured out I just need to go use it :) haha my comp thought the gummy vites where like the funniest thing in the world, needles to say he ate a lot of them!

ok so on Tuesday we had a capacitacion with all the zone leaders. It was just president telling us that we are the motors of the whole mission and how we need to be the example for every one. it was seriously one of the most spiritual and uplifting experiences ever. Although I knew it all, to hear it from president just made me want to work that much harder. Being zone leader has helped me so much as a missionary. Trust me I am really not a good leader, but I think I am here to learn a lot so I can become one in the future. Every meeting we have with President just inspires me to be my best and to step up my game. It was kind of sad because it was the last time I will see President Torres.

Oh, then this Sunday yep I got called on to give another talk again. I still don’t know why every area I am in they always chooses me. I just talked a little about how the young kids need to prepare for the mission and not be little girls. haha I even got them laughing so that was good. We had a lot of investigators in church so that was amazing, especially considering that it was raining and like half the people who usually come showed up !

The new president comes in this Wednesday so next week I will let you know how he is. I am super excited because the assistants are already planning a basketball game for Monday :) so I will be able to play for the first time in 16 months! crazy right?! This Friday we will get to now him.

Well I love you guys. I hope all is well. This church is without a doubt true!

Elder Toolson

June 13th, 2011

Elder Navas and I

New Abode

Yes, those are his Spongebob sheets peeking out :)

June 13^th, 2011

Hola!

O.k. so last week was pretty sweet! I got to go to change conference and

all the missionaries were invited so I got to see so many buddies of

mine that I haven’t seen in like a year. i got to see all my buddies

that are leaving bare their last testimonies! it was seriously, sooo

amazing. I even got to see Elder Fast and we talked to each other the whole time and sat next to each other. Bummer Fast and I did NOT end up being

comps!. but it turns out that

I got one of Elder Fasts old comps. his name is

Elder Navas, he is from

Honduras, and played in the junior Olympics for soccer! He is such a

cool guy, I am really excited for this change. He only has 10 months in

the mission and already a ZL. We have talked a lot about what

we want to do and we are just gonna work like crazy with the members

and I know we are going to see a lot of success! We are getting

up at 5:30 a.m. every day, running, doing sit ups, push ups, and soon to come

jump rope. I was scared I would get a lazy comp that didn’t want to run with me

but he is super cool and is all up for it.

So Friday we had to change the house, luckily the new house was

really close so we just found some dude in the street and asked him to

move all our stuff, haha only in Guatemala. Our new house is so sweet,

it is not as big but its really nice and the duenos seem really cool. we

live on the third level so that kinda stinks that we have to go up and

down all those stairs.

On Saturday we had a baptism!!! it was amazing, this girl is the

sister of the one that got baptized two weeks ago. she is 11 and read

the b.o.m. in one month! she is very quiet but she really loves this

gospel and learning more and more. her and her sisters now both want

to serve missions and are getting jobs so they can save up for their

mission fund, it cant get much better then that. We are taking

Kemberly out (the oldest) with us out to teach!. This girl is amazing!

Well the zone is kind of different now, we just got 4 new sister

missionaries...not excited, and the new elders all seem kind of lazy, but atleast my comp is really cool . We have our work cut out for us. well thats

about all that has happened for last week. i cant believe baby Asher is so

big, Ryan you did some good work. Haha ok you too Jess! and im glad mom and dad could meet elder Fasts parents!!! now we can have like family parties :)

love you all and I know this church is true!

Elder Toolson

Zion Pics

Is it just me or is he SKINNY!

June 6th, 2011

Family

Ok ,so last week went really well! kinda busy because we had concilio

with president and then my comp had his last interview with President

Torres. We worked actually really hard this past week and found some

good new investigators and got some great references from the members.

We had a lady come to church without us even talking to her and she

told us to come over after church and teach her..so we did and when we

went there this lady was completely prepared for the gospel,

a little crazy maybe but she loves what we have to offer. So we put a baptism

date for next month. The only problem of course is she is not

married...yeah I dont think any one in Guate is married. Luckily we

have a member in the ward that works at the place so she can get papers

really fast for us. so hopefully everything goes to plan and she will

be a good person in the church.

This Saturday we had a baptism!!! It was amazing, this girl is

going to be the best memeber in the whole ward. Like I told you

already she read the whole book of moromon in 3 days! at her

baptism she started to cry cause she was so happy! her whole family

showed up and all went well.

We just got our changes, and yep my comp is going home and I am staying.

but hey Elder Fast got a change to the cap, so me and him are praying

that we can become comps, how amazing would that be!? but this

wednesday we will find out what is going on so I will let you know next

monday. we are going to have a weird zone next chage becasue like 3

areas got white washed, which means both missionarys got taken out. so

I am actually getting excited because the zone was going down hill cause

we have a bunch of chambones here!

ok well I love this area Zion that I am in, and I am guesing that I`ll

stay here for two more changes, so I hope I get a cool caompanion

(cross my fingers for Elder Fast) and we can just tear this place apart. We have a baptism

for next week as well so hopefully it goes through. It is the sister of

the girl who just got baptized, yeah they didnt get baptized together

because the younger one couldnt get interviews until this Tuesday but

my comp wanted a baptism his last week so she just did it one week

earlier then her sister...yeah I think that was kinda selfish but what

ever.

keep me updated on the mavs baby! yeah!!! dirk is the man.

Love Always

Elder toolson

May 30th

May 30^th

family!

So last week was pretty cool, but my comp was really really baggy! I

sure hope I’m not that bad when I get to be that close to home. All he

does is talk about how this and that are going to be his last times

doing this or that in Guatemala. I mean I wouldn’t really care if he worked

hard...but he doesn’t do that either, I thought being zl that I would not have

problems like that but I guess not, I have to push this guy every

where, all he wants to do is go back to the house and talk about home.

but the worst part is that he hates Guatemalans, he might be the most

negative person I’ve ever seen!

but any ways, enough complaining about him. Geesh, he’s rubbing off on me! Haha

The week was pretty good .we had some really good lessons and we have secure baptism on Saurday so I am really stoke for that!

me and elder Youngberg went to the doctors and got our warts burnt off. yeah mom I followed your advice

about just letting the wart on my knee go so “ maybe it`ll go away” ...nope didn’t

work! it actually spread like 5 times the size, which if you remember was like the size of a bottle cap, It got so bad that he couldn’t

even burn them all because he said it would cause more problems Like I wouldn’t be able to bend ;my knees and you know I need to pray . but it was fun because

my comp almost passed out when he saw it! , haha I have no

clue why but he threw up and had to lay on the floor for like

30 min. Then on the way home we walked passed this tie store and

it was amazing! I got 12 legit ties for only 55 quetz, that is like 8

dollars. so that made me happy for the rest of the week.

oh and I got a new suit :) it might be the sexiest thing I’ve ever

seen, I’ll send my pics next week !

ok well last week was kinda boring, but this week should be a lot

better, its the last week, and we have a lot of stuff to do!. love you all

and hope all are healthy!

Elder Toolson

May 23rd, 2011

May 23^rd

Family of mine!!!

Last week was pretty good, mainly because I got my sweet PACKAGE on Thursday. that thing made my whole day, I don’t think there was a boy happier here in Guatemala. Thank you so much for the books and all the good candy, guats here love the jelly bellys :)

ok well this week wasn’t the best only because I was sick for like 4 days. it all started Monday and my stomach would hurt every time I ate then I would “lose” it all 2 hours later, then on Wednesday and Thursday it got so bad I couldn’t even leave the house. I would go to the bathroom like every 30 min, so for 2 days i didn’t eat anything because then I wouldn’t go to the bathroom. so I finally called the doctor and she told me I had to take the "bomb" which is the famous pill that just kills everything and anything you have in your stomach, and what do you know, it worked :) she said it would make me feel more sick and maybe throw up or something but I had no side affects at all. the day I took the first pill I started feeling a little better then the second day by the night time I was feeling all better. and now I am fine so don’t worry! but it was pretty boring being in the house all day for two days straight. good thing I got the package because I got the book and read like 200 pages in one day. that thing has so much info it blows the mind. well on Sunday the bishop told us we had talks as he was walking up to the podium to start church, every new area I always think they will not do that but it happens every time. luckily for me I have like 10 talks already prepared so I spoke about how every member is a missionary, it was about 20 min and I think it went pretty well, a lot of people complemented me. haha but when my comp spoke he jusy gave it to them, he straight told them that the ward had too many problems and the members don’t do anything and how they need to step it up and told them that they have ruined investigators that have come...haha it was pretty bad, but amazingly a lot of people came and told us that is true and how they are willing to come and work with us every week. we even had members visit a family we are teaching on there own free will and we got like 10 young men and women to go to the rest of our investigators. so it actually worked out well, we had a couple people call us saying sorry if they ever offended us, so hopefully they get the point and really come out and help us. ok well the week hasn’t been that exciting so I don’t have too much. but i love you mom and dad and thanks so much again for the package. I hope you had fun traveling the world and I wouldn’t mind if you sent me some stuff you learned about Jerusalem, that stuff interests me. well love you all and hope all is good!!

Elder Toolson

May 17, 2011

May 17^th

Family!!!

Well it's good to hear that the parents are doing amazing in Israel. you guys are so lucky because after reading the bible and learning so much I want to go over there and see what it is really like. This week was really wild and a lot happened. Thursday and Friday we had interviews and conference. Interviews were pretty good. haha well actually they are getting more and more boring, because I have nothing to say and niether does he, so i just ask him doctrine questions every time. but it was cool cause we got to watch the elder Holland talk about missionaries and it pumped me up so much! I love that guy, he’s the best speaker in the world. well on Friday we had conference, so the ap`s call us and give us assignments and luckily they don’t give me one so I was happy. When I get there elder Davis tells me that I have to direct the whole dang thing so I about poop my pants. I really wouldn’t have been that scared except it is with 3 zones and as the director I had to sit next to president just in case he had to make corrections. and let me tell you, of all the people I know, president Torres is the most intimidating person in the world!! but no worries all went well and I did ok. we just talked about converting ourselves and learning what we need to hear on the mission to prepare us for after the mission. president even complemented me for how good I did :) which made me happy. then on Saturday we had a baptism, his name is hector fuentes and he is so cool. when i first got here he was having some super doubts about the church. but me and my comp really talked to him about the authority of the church and the restoration and watched a video with him and the spirit was so strong! so he finally decided to get baptized. He is actually really smart and remembers everyhing. when you first look at him he has tattoos and always wears ACDC shirts and stuff and would never think he wanted to hear the missionarys. but hes actually really humble and cool.

On Sunday we had stake conference and it was seriously the best one I have ever seen. I dont know what was so different but the spirit was so so so strong in the chapel. we had 2 families come to church and they loved it. hna and President Torres and a lot of the bishops gave the best talks ever that focused on getting baptized and staying faithful in the church. it really helped a lot with our families that came. I have so much hope for this area and it motivates me to just work my bum off every day. which kind of blows because my comp is super baggy and doesn’t want to contact at all so I have to like force him to do everything. I really gave it to him the other day and I told him that he needs to end his mission better and he cant just give up and be selfish just cause he is leaving in a couple weeks. He took it well and now we have some goals that we are gonna make this week so I am excited. Today we went to the temple again as a zone! once again it was amazing. it was really cool because the entire area presidency of Central America was in there with us and I got to shake there hands and talk to them a little bit. its amazing how you can just tell how spiritual those guys are. it blows my mind. then we went to buy some WENDY`S and it made the whole day so much better! I haven’t had that in 2 years it was amazing.

Love you all and hope all is well

Elder toolson

May, 9th Photos

Karina is going to be a great new member!

President and Sister Torres

May 9^th, 2011

Family!

Last week was amazing!

First things first, we got to go to the temple Tuesday at 6:30 in the morning. It’s been over a year since the last time I went to the temple so it really was an amazing time. it kind of felt like my first time going because I have forgotten a lot of it. All the zl´s went together so it was fun to go with a lot of my buddies. I had a lot of time to think in there and reflect on what i need to do better and different. Tuesday afternoon we had concilio with the president and the ap´s. that is where all the zl´s get together and talk about how the zones are doing and what goals we have and what goals did we meet and all that jazz. it actually was really cool and I learned a lot and me and my companion have some cool goals for the zone that I really think we can do. then after this little meeting, sister Torres cooked us all pork chops imported from the states, some casoral, salad, bread, fruit, and some cake to top it all off!!!!!!!!! made my whole week to eat some home made state side food. I am used to beans and eggs and tortillas. The food really was so amazing. Now I am excited to go to concilio every month :)

It was amazing to talk to you! too bad it was only for a little time though. it made me a little baggy but that’s ok. You should have seen my comp, he only has 4 weeks left so he’s just itching to get home. He is getting kind of lazy but I am gonna kick him back into shape because I don’t want him ruining everything for next change.

Last week we had a baptism!!!! it was a miracle actually. This girl is 16 years old and amazing. She goes to mutual every week, goes to seminary at 5:00 in the morning and helps us all the time. She’s been investigating for 9 months now, the only problem was that her mom wouldn’t give her permission to get baptized. so me and my comp passed by two Sundays ago with our bishop and he talked to the mom for like 2 hours about how it’s an individual choice to get baptized and he had the same thing happen to him but then his mom finally let him get baptized and now he is a bishop. When we finished, the mom was still not letting her. so we left discouraged. The next day we find out that her mom finally let her and she wanted to get baptized that week. so we got it all planned out and president Torrres interviewed her and on Saturday she was baptized. haha the bishop even brought Little Caesars to celebrate!

so that was the week I had. I hope all is going well with everyone and I love you so much!!

Elder Toolson