Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Alive and Kicking

January 18, 2016

Hey Y'all!
     This week has been insanely good. Best week this area has seen in a long long time.We taught a whopping 21 People this week!!! woo! (as opposed to the usual 12) But it was Great! Nothing too great happened on Monday but Tuesday was amazing! We had a trade off here with Middleburg and I was with Elder Servoss. We taught like 4 people that day including a lady that had already met with the missionaries and almost got baptized. It was awesome and she is super cool! We also met a really old guy that night that kept saying the same thing over and over it was too great. Wednesday we taught a bunch more people and the same with Thursday and Friday and Saturday haha. Honestly I don't remember much about the week except it was awesome. Yesterday we had a multi stake conference for the southeast region of the US and it was super good. We had dinner at the Taylor's that night and it was super fun. The end!

Elder Toolson


January 25, 2016

Hey everyone! I'm still alive and kicking. I don't have a ton of time and honestly can't remember too much of what happened this week. On Tuesday we had a trade off with first Ward Elders and I got to be with Elder Dean! It was amazing. We also set a baptismal date with one of our investigators, Dave, this week. He is awesome and I'm super excited about him. The Allreds left this week so that was super sad. They moved out to Utah (the picture of the man picking me up is Bro. Allred) We had the trainer/trainee meeting this week and it's always fun to see everyone and learn. We also did service and me and Elder Loder dug out a huge tree stump. It was awesome. We had district p-day today (why I'm writing so late) and had a massive bonfire, I'll attach a couple of pictures. Good week. Woo!

 David and Brother Allred

Trainer/Trainee Meeting


Fleming Island District P-Day at Brother Luke's

Elder Loder and Elder Toolson






Tuesday, January 12, 2016

A Broken Foot, Dutch Clogs, and Beans

January 11, 2016

Hey Y'all!
   This week has been a CRAZY one. Monday we had P-day and all of the elders played soccer. Elder Loder got kicked in the foot and hurt something so he's been on crutches for the past week and we call him "crutchy" now.

Tuesday we had a trade off with the Zone Leaders in their area and it was super fun. I was with Elder Foust and we had a fun time. We saw some people and went and got this guy's mail.  We went out with the bishop that night to a less active member's house and they told me that I looked like Pee-Wee Herman and a young Buddy Holly, haha! When we asked who they wanted to say the closing prayer they said, "How about Buddy Holly over there?" Oh my goodness. And then the bishop took us out for Firehous Subs! Firehouse Subs is the bomb. 

Wednesday we did service raking leaves with the Zone Leaders and then came back to our area. Thursday was super good. Friday we did service for Bro. Luke in the First Ward. All the elders in our district were there and we helped him rake leaves and cut stuff. After that we weekly planned and went out to see people. 

Saturday was awesome! Ivan got baptized into the 1st Ward. It was the first baptismal interview I'd ever done, so it was a good learning experience. It was insanely spiritual and people were crying. It was great. And the Jensens from the first ward's kids were there and they LOVE me so they sat with me in the back and were just going nuts the whole time. 

Saturday night and yesterday we had stake conference and Elder MacArthur of the seventy came. We also got kidnapped by the bishop last night to eat dinner and we spent forever over there. The food was so good though. 

My week has been awesome! Hope y'all have too! I think my pictures tell my week better than I do haha. Email me if you have questions! Also, shoutout to Kameron and Hunter for sending me 5 1/2 Pounds of Swedish Fish this week. Holy cavities.


















Elder Dean and Elder Toolson at Chick-fil-a




Elder Loder


Elder Servoss trying on the Luke's Dutch clogs


Jax West Zone





Saturday, January 9, 2016

Miracles and New Years

January 4, 2016

Hey y'all!
     This week has been a long one. Monday we saw this super nice old couple and took our bishop with us.

Tuesday was probably the most notable day of the week. We had district meeting that morning and it was great! We all went out to Chili's afterwards and had district lunch together. Me and Elder Loder from 1st ward went on a trade-off in my area. It was AWESOME. A really cool experience. We had 2 crazy awesome miracles happen. We prayed before we knocked doors that we would find an awesome christian lady who wanted to learn more and she was the first person we talked too! Her name is Abby and she's great. And later on in the night I had to use the restroom and I prayed to find someone who would just let us into their house haha. But it worked! And we found this awesome guy Ken-dell. It was so funny when he was telling us his name and told us that there is literally a hyphen in his name. So cool. 

Wednesday we did service for a less active sister in the ward and I got to jump in a huge pile of leaves. It was super fun. And afterwards we asked her if we could practice teaching with her, so Elder Flake could get better, etc. She said sure and we planned to do restoration but she wanted the plan of salvation which Elder Flake has never taught or even practiced yet, and she GRILLED him. It was so hilarious. I was on the end of the sofa dying laughing while Elder Flake was sweating to answer her tough questions haha. She gave us a bunch of food and we ate at this gorgeous little place that looks out onto Doctors Lake. It was great. 

New Years Eve was rough. At least teaching people wise. SO we got some lunch at Steak N' Shake to make ourselves feel better. It worked. The other elders have been staying at our place for about a week since they have bed bugs and it has been a party! New years eve we kept with Toolson family tradition and watched a ton of movies, church approved of course! We shot off little popper things before we went to bed too, so all in all it was a good new years eve. 

We had another run in with Rex who I talked about last letter I think. He kept kept texting us on the phone so I don't think he knew we dropped him, so we went over and made sure he knew that he was dropped. He kept trying to prove us wrong and trying to bible bash and I just got really tired of it. After he finished his speech and asked us why we aren't more worried that our religion is false, I just said, "I really don't know what to tell you, the Book of Mormon is true." Which it is! 

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful except yesterday was pretty funny. We were on our way back to our apartment at night and it was raining, so everything was slick. and on his way up onto the sidewalk Elder Flake's bike slid and he totally ATE it. So this lady stops and asks if we are alright, and me and Elder Flake are just doubled over dying laughing and we tell her it's all good. That's my week, kind of boring one this week, but hey, Happy New Year!!!!! It's going to be a GREAT one.



Elder Toolson, Elder Flake, and Elder Loder
Elder Flake





Left: Elder Flake, Elder Loder, Right: Elder Dean, Elder Toolson












Lunch after a District Meeting