Training Day July 2015, August 2015 Transfer Meeting, Elder Dube' Conference-October 2015, Gainesville Zone Conference October 2015, Training Days December 2015--FJM BLOG

 Training Days July 2015

August 2015 Transfer Meeting

His first "Son" Elder Smith

Elder Dube Conference--October 2015

Gainesville Zone Meeting October 2015

Elder Caputo and Elder Toolson

Training Days December 2015

His second "son" Elder Flake

Elder Call and Elder Toolson

Sister Tofilau and Elder Toolson

Elder Loder and Elder Toolson

Elder Toolson and Elder Loder

Elder Toolson and Elder O'Bryant

Elder Toolson and Elder Flake

Christmas Craziness

December 28, 2015

Hey Y'all!
     This week has been good, definitely a different one with Christmas and all, but overall it was AWESOME. We had an amazing district meeting and the spirit was WAY strong. I went off of the conventional route a little and we were able to learn a ton. One of the best I've ever had. We all had district lunch (per tradition) after and we went to Steak N' shake for lunch. It was Elder Servoss' birthday on Christmas day and I told the people at Steak N' Shake but they didn't do anything... so take note, if you have a birthday don't go to Steak n' Shake because they don't do anything. But it was good. We had a trade off that day and Elder O'Bryant came here to my area. He is probably the nerdiest kid in the world and I love it so much. We knocked doors in the pouring rain that night. We went over to a member's house that night and shared a spiritual message about prayer that involved kneeling down. So I had him kneel down and he fell on his stomach and kicked a few ornaments off of their tree hahaha! It was priceless! 

Wednesday I was sick (great way to spend the holidays, right?) So I slept A LOT and took plenty of drugs. Christmas Eve I was back to normal. Those were a WEIRD 2 days since you can't really knock doors and a ton of people are busy with family. SO, we did service from about noon to four thirty in the afternoon, and had dinner with our ward mission leader. They gave me some awesome ties for Christmas! And seeing that it was Christmas Eve we decided to have a little bit of fun (as much as possible within missionary standards...) and camped out on our patio and watched Meet the Mormons. One to remember. 

Christmas day was SO FUN. We went over to a member in 1st ward's house at 8 in the morning in our PJ's (per their request) and had the biggest Christmas breakfast ever. We all opened up our Christmas presents and spent the next while playing with them and or eating them (I was doing the latter). One of their kids got one of those hoverboard things for Christmas and I got to try it out, so that was definitely a highlight. We ate a Christmas lunch, which basically was a ton of barbecue and this guy is from Texas, if that tells you how good it was. Super Good. We biked over to the church and I skyped with y'all for the next little while and it was super good to see everyone's faces. Its freaking me out a little bit how much all the nieces and now nephew have grown. 

Saturday was fairly average, we were knocking doors and came to this one that said, "ABSOLUTELY no soliciting!" So we knocked anyways (duh) and this old couple comes to the door. They made it seem like they were about to chew us out for a second but they were SO nice and we taught them the restoration and they gave us soda and even asked for a Book of Mormon!!! Miracle if there ever was one.

Yesterday we had a pretty good church and a good rest of the day. We somehow visited this potential investigator and saw the Cranfords, this AWESOME family that I knew in MacClenny, when I was serving in Starke! I had a 20-30 min. blast from the past with them and we carried about our night.

Elder Loder, Elder Flake, Elder Toolson

My New Life

December 21, 2015

Hey Y'all! This week has been SO good. I feel like so much has happened this week it's crazy. I think the wifi goofed up last week so whoops. (Note:  He wrote a letter but we did not receive it.)

Monday and Tuesday were my last days in the trio with Elder Faber and Elder Dean. It was too much fun being in a trio for a week and I loved it. Tuesday all of the Elders went Golfing for FREE. There was this member that owns a golf course and he let us all golf there. It was awesome and tons of fun. We had a district P-day afterwards and played a bunch of games at the church. We played signs and the missionary version of Mafia. We call it Gadianton Robbers haha. It was super fun. We spent our final night just saying goodbye to people in the 1st ward. I super miss 1st ward already but absolutely LOVE being back in my own ward. It feels like coming home, it's great. 

On Wednesday I picked up my new son (greenie), Elder Flake. He is a pretty cool guy from Sonora, California and actually has social skills so that's a bonus. Training is a little bit different the second time around since I've actually done it before. I'm a lot less stressed and am not nervous whatso-ever. A lot more relaxing than last time for sure (well, as relaxing as missionary works gets I guess). We came back and knocked doors and had dinner with the Waltons (the family that sent you that picture mom) and they are Awesome. They gave us these huge Christmas stockings full of a bunch of food and a McDonald's gift card. They are my favorite people. 

Thursday we did service for a sister in our ward and a recent convert in the first ward. We also had correlation that night. 

Friday we weekly planned. Its always rough the first week since your companion still has no clue what's going on. We went out and talked to this guy Doug for a long long time. He was super funny but definitely hit just about every uncomfortable subject possible--Polygamy, Blacks and the priesthood, etc. etc. We knocked doors for awhile after and nothing happened so we were all depressed BUT right before we got in to our place for dinner we stopped and talked to this guy who was super excited and wants to meet with us again! woo!


Saturday was a crazy day. We had to drop this guy Rex because he is constantly trying to bible bash with us and tell us we are going to hell and stuff, so that was pretty terrible, but we went and did service for a less-active sister in the ward and raked some leaves, so that was super good. She was the NICEST lady. And we made a late night pit stop at a members house to share a quick message with them and tighten my bike seat up. It was pretty good. 

And Yesterday. Yesterday was the BEST. We had an investigator Bill come to church!!!!!! The first time we have had someone at church since I've been here! He LOVED it and said he'd be back next week. I'm so excited. He is probably one of the coolest guys ever. Unfortunately after church both me AND Elder Flake's back tires blew out, so we were on foot all night. We knocked some doors, saw some members and called it a week. 

Merry Christmas and God bless! Email me back if you have any questions about the picture :)

▪️Elder Toolson▪️

Sister Dixon's "funeral"

 Elder Flake and Elder Toolson at the Walton's home

The Walton's for Christmas

A Weird and Uneventful Week

December 7, 2015

Hey Y'all!
This week was definitely weird and uneventful. Elder Hartvigsen has been having some serious health issues and he was sick on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. He is most likely heading home this week due to his deteriorating health, which is sad, but what can you do? 

I went on Tuesday to Fleming Island 1st ward with Elder Dean and had some major nostalgia from the last time I went on a trade off with him about a year ago. We went and saw a couple people and had an awesome night. MY favorite thing was we saw this lady named Valerie, and she was so dang funny. My favortie quote was, " I don't care what the law says, I'm the law up in here!"

Thursday I went on trade offs to Middleburg with Elder Heese and we had SO. MUCH. FUN. It ended up so that we basically did service all day in the freezing cold. We helped this less-active wire some lights and re-do his rain gutter and we mowed this investigators gigantic lawn, but it was great! We also had a crazy fun night. I'll attach the videos that resulted. 

Saturday was long and we worked but no one was home. But yesterday was Great! We took a member out with us and taught two awesome lessons and had dinner with a member that night. So that's my week in a nutshell!

Love y'all!!! Have an awesome week!

▪️Elder Toolson▪️
2285 Marsh Hawk Lane Apt. 16-203
Fleming Island, Fl 32003

Elder Toolson, Elder Dean, Elder Faber, Elder Hartvigsen

50 cent grilled cheese from Sonic

Elder Hartvigsen

I'm Still Alive

November 30, 2015,

Hey family,
     I have been out and about doing stuff all p-day, and I don't have much time. I'm still alive, and love all of you. I'm doing good. Promise I'll email next week.

Fleming Island District Lunch 

Carazay Week

November 28, 2015

Hey y'all!
     This week has been carazay. Tuesday I had a tradeoff with Elder Stoker in my area! If that name sounds familiar, me and him totally used to go on tradeoffs back when I was in Starke and he was in Lake Butler! But now he's my zone leader! We had a super good day and found some new people. We also found a gigantic frog. 

Elder Stoker with a frog on his foot

Wednesday we had zone conference and I got to see Elder Coy and talk to him. I have a grandson now so that's awesome. It was a good day and very spiritually filling. Elder Hartvigsen has been feeling kind of crappy lately so it's been hard for him to work, so that's a bummer for me too. But the works rolls on. Elder Heese in Middleburg has also been feeling terrible so we decided to tradeoff and get work done in one of our areas. So Elder Servoss has been with me for the last four days and it's been AWESOME. He is so hilarious and nerdy, but in the funny sociable kind of way. Anyways we have been doing some WORK the past four days. We set a baptismal date with this guy Saunders so we'll how that pans out. He's awesome though. Life is good in Fleming and the members are great. OH. And guess who I had dinner with this past week. ELDER LANE. He's back from the dead and lives 40 mins away from us. So he'll be visiting us on the regular. I didn't get a picture but he is eating at the Meccas this Thursday with us so I'll get one then! Bro. Mecca reminds me of Jim a ton. It's weird. 

Anyways, love y'all and have good thanksgiving!

Elder Toolson, Elder Barney, and Elder Richins

District Lunch (minus Middleburg) plus a Mini Missionary

Transfers

November 16, 2015

Hey y'all!
This week has certainly been an interesting one. I finished saying goodbye to everyone in Gainesville on Tuesday and Wednesday was transfer meeting. Transfer meetings are my absolute favorite because I get to say hi to all of my old buddies. I gave Elder Coy and Elder Sunderland the biggest hugs ever. I also got to say hi to Bro. Barber! I came to Fleming Island and it is super classy here. For the most part people are super nice! We have been doing ridiculous amounts of tracting because the Elders before me did basically nothing and stayed in the house all the time... but I guess I'm the one to fix it! Fleming island is going to be golden by the end of this transfer. Elder Hartvigsen is from Salt Lake City, Utah and has been out for about 10 1/2 months. He's super shy and nerdy and has all sorts of health problems but the Lord will provide!

Love you all! My email is super short because of that last video. Ultimate Frisbee!

Elder Smith and Elder Toolson (David's Greenie)

Ultimate Frisbee

A Funeral and a Transfer

November 10, 2015

Hey Y'all!

This week has been awesome one. Well, first things first, I'm getting transferred! Just found out I'll be going to Fleming Island to be with Elder Hartvigsen, and I'll be the district leader, so I'll let you know how that goes. I've actually served around Elder Hartvigsen before. He was here in High Springs with Elder Purcell for two transfers, so it's pretty nice that I already know my companion. 

This past week has been full of major ups and downs it's been a crazy one that's for certain. Last Monday, we had a Drop lesson with these investigators, oh my goodness. We walked in and they had 8-9 pages of Anti and I spent an hour and a half addressing all of it.... It was definitely one of the most exhausting "bashes"(debates) I've ever been in and a humongous waste of time. E. Smith was pretty quiet because he's still pretty new to that stuff. It was definitely an unforgettable experience. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the apostle Paul, who sometimes spent months, the scriptures say, "And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks." (Acts 18:4) 

Anyways, on Tuesday I went on a trade off with Elder Randall and it was sweet! We did service for this lady and pulled a bunch of weeds out of the back of her yard. We had an awesome lesson with Kurt that night, and we took Bro. Williams with us. It was really powerful and we got him to come to church Sunday as well as Book of Mormon class Wednesday! I gave Jim's Book of Mormon to him (note--we sent BOMs with our testimony in it to David) and he almost started crying... He's a great guy, I'll really miss him. 

On Wednesday I said goodbye to Andrea and we had Book of Mormon class. The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, except yesterday was probably the best transfer Monday ever. I took it upon myself to throw a funeral for Elder Rodriguez. Me and Elder Smith baked him a tombstone looking cake and we gave him a (?-not sure what word this was supposed to be) and baked funeral potatoes for him. I'm very proud of myself. Anyways we had another lesson with Kurt and said goodbye. We drove out to Archer with the Andersens because about a week or two back I set up this awesome situation and long story short we have a new couch and I love it. Your welcome future Gainesville 2nd Elders. I'm totally sleeping on it tonight. Love y'all! 

Also, we went bowling today and I beat EVERYONE. #I'mPrideful. I love my life.

Elder Toolson

Elder Toolson and Andrea Miller

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