A Tradeoff, Meeting Masons, and Missionary Stuff

June 29, 2015

Hey y'all! 

     This week has been a killer one! Good stuff, all around. Monday night we saw Bro Murray and helped him move some furniture while we were there. Tuesday we had District Meeting. Oh yeah I totally gave a training the week before and forgot to tell y'all. I can talk FOREVER now. I ended up giving a 30-40 min training but it was fun. I don't know why but I enjoy doing that kind of stuff now. I'm totally giving one next week too. 

Anyways, Tuesday we had District Meeting and I had my trade-off with one of the leaders that day. So we had the meeting and then we all went out to KD's afterwards. It's basically tradition now. I forget if I've told y'all but KD, the owner and everyone else there loves us and feeds all the missionaries for free! They are probably some of my favorite people here and some I'll remember the most. 

I went with Elder Boyson to Kingsland and it was sweet. He's actually the first zone leader/ leader I've had that's younger than me, but only by a transfer. We went out with a member and poor Elder Boyson, his plans kept falling through, but that's the beauty of trade-offs not in your own area. I'm just sitting there clueless, but we eventually saw someone. We saw a couple more people before the night ended but it was pretty average as far as a regular day goes. We traded back in the morning and came back to our area. We got back and went out and had a lesson with Chuck and had to go fix our car key with the other Elders. They totally threw it in their dryer so they to had pay for it and we all had to go get a new one. We went to the Wasdins in 1st ward for dinner so that Elder Sunderland could interview one of their gators for baptism.

Thursday was a pretty average day. We had a couple lessons but the most interesting was this mason that we met doing yardwork. We did our regular thing and shared the restoration with him, and asked him about his mason stuff in return. He was super funny and friendly and had the longest name ever. I still can't remember it. 

Friday the highlight was going to dinner with the Wilkersons. We went to the Mexican Trailer with them and it was hilarious! Bro. Wilkerson had the entire restaurant up in fits with the things he said and his opera voice that he did, much to the embarrassment of his family and the enjoyment of the missionaries. 

Saturday I was pretty sick but we still managed to go to the Smiths for dinner. We talked a lot about the recent events and other church doctrine and stuff. Sunday was pretty fun. The best part of the day was dinner the 2nd week in a row with the Bennetts. We were all laughing our heads off the entire time and I ended up crying I was laughing so hard. They busted out the old baby books for us, which they said they'd never done before. It was great! This week was a good one!

Bonus: spiritual thought. So this topic has been on my mind a lot lately, especially with recent stuff. Follow the prophet. Follow his counsel. I watched a video clip of President Uchtdorf at a Guatemalan youth camp and and he gives them this counsel, "Simplify your life, be true to the gospel. Simplify your life, learn as much as you can, get a good education. Simplify your life, keep the commandments of God. It's that simple, and it's that great." 

Follow the prophet. It has never been convenient to follow the prophet's counsel and I don't believe it ever will be. Countless members of the church have died, because they, first of all, knew what they believed in, and second did not falter in their beliefs, even until death. Follow the prophet. Thomas S. Monson is meant to be the prophet at this time and at this place and if God wanted-it would be otherwise. So follow the prophet. He knows what's best for you and for the world. So, with that being said, learn all you can about the gospel and prayerfully make the decision for yourself. I have been studying the gospel for 2 hours a day, every day, and teaching it the rest of the day, every day, for 10 1/2 months and I still haven't even scratched the surface of what the gospel has to offer us. So, that's my words of wisdom for this week. 

I love every single one of you! Y'all have a good week.

▪️Elder Toolson▪️