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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Halloween 2015

November 3, 2015
Hey y'all!
    This week has been an awesome one. Last P-day, I forget if I told you but we all went biking as zone on the Hawthorne Trail and hiked La Chua Trail and saw about 5 or 6 alligators. I was about 4 or 5 feet away from one at one point. It was super cool.

Tuesday we met this couple while tracting and the lady was from England and her husband from Australia, so they had some pretty awesome accents and invited us in for a while. The lady offered us some English biscuits. She was pretty funny. We had a trade off that night with Bro. Salmon in our ward and went to go home teach our ward mission leader with him since he didn't have a companion haha We also tried a few less-active families that night. 

Wednesday was an awesome day. We met with this less-active, Kurt. We had a super good lesson with him. I think he's pretty close to coming back at this point. We had Book of Mormon class that night and his scooter died so he walked it to a gas station like 2 or 3 miles away and still made it for the last 15 mins. It was awesome.

Thursday was definitely one of my favorite days this week. We went on splits with the high priests and I went with Bro. Anderson jr. (he used to be our ward mission leader) and we drove out to Archer to go home teaching and see some people. We had a blast and got done seeing our people before Elder Smith and Bro. Anderson Sr. so we went back to his house and ate ice cream. It was great.

Friday we went out to lunch with Aaron Aagard, who just got back from his mission about a week ago. So we went out to lunch and tried to see some people and ended up getting lost (Gainesville is very confusing) but it was tons of fun. We also had dinner with the Andersons that night and we went to go see Ann with Bro. Christensen.

Saturday we had the Fall Festival for ward which is the biggest thing this ward does all year so it was awesome. We got to the church at 10 and helped them set-up for everything and we had a ton of less-active people and investigators show up so it was pretty successful. They had a chili contest and a bunch of desserts and cornbread. They had a haunted house, a cupcake walk, a few others games and had all the kids do a costume parade for us. Every one went trunk or treating afterwards. We mostly sat around eating food and talking to people so I loved, two of my favorite things. 

Yesterday, we had church and had 2 investigators come! Rob came to sacrament and LOVED it and he said he'd would definitely be back again. Gabe also came and we had a lesson with him that night. We didn't really know what to
teach him so we just went over the baptismal questions until we got to the Joseph Smith question and he said, "Well, I don't know...." so we read the first 15-20 verses or so of Joseph Smith history and when we hit verse 9 he said, "hey guys, ask me that question again." so we did and he said, "YES, I do believe it" and went on to explain. IT was
really awesome to see that happen. Also the priesthood lesson was really good. It was all about family history, and Bro. Anderson Sr. (a former member of the seventy by the way) taught us the doctrine and Bro. Williams showed us how to do it and told us some awesome stories. It actually got me super pumped to do it. if only I had the time....

Love Y'all! have a great week!!!

▪️Elder Toolson▪️
1505 Fort Clarke Blvd Apt.16-203
Gainesville, FL 32606

Payne's Prairie with Gainesville Area Missionaries