Tuesday, May 31, 2016

MLC March 2016, April 2016, May 2016 AND Gainesville Zone Conference May 2016--FJM Blog Pictures

Missionary Leadership Council
March 2016



Elder Vance and Elder Toolson

Elder Vance and Elder Toolson

Missionary Leadership Council
April 2016



Missionary Leadership Council



 Zone Leaders and APs




Zone Leaders and APs


Elder McAlister and Elder Toolson

Elder McAlister and Elder Toolson

Elder Toolson and Elder Coy


Gainesville Zone Conference
May 2016


Elder Foreman, Elder Toolson, Elder Smith

Missionary Leadership Council
May 2016
MLC May











We Hit Our Daily Goals and had some Killer Lessons

May 30, 2016

Hey Y'all! This week was super great! But seriously it's been crazy. Last P-day and Monday we spent in Ocala because we had to do a baptismal interview for Elder Boyson. So we went down and had a super fun p-day, played soccer, basketball,etc. At night we had the interview and Elder Smith did it, so I talked with Elder Boyson and Elder Moreno for like and hour and half. Longest interview ever. 

It was already like 8/8:30 ish when we got back home so we only had time for one lesson. I went with Elder Moreno and he is still relatively new so we totally got lost....BUT we said a prayer went one way and eventually ended up where we needed to be! It was awesome and we had a good lesson. So we spent the night and went to Ocala's District Meeting the next day. It was way awesome and we had such a good time. So we drove back, had a good rest of the day, and we taught Book of Mormon class that night. 

The next day we had our District Meeting and I had a trade-off with Elder Stanley and biked our tails off riding around town.

The next day we also had Elder Fadely's District Meeting here in G'ville as well. The spirit was Definetely felt and we all had a good time. We all went out to Sam's Club for lunch (I didn't even know you could do that) and I got insane amounts of food for super cheap.


Friday, we did some service with a member and we moved a bunch of wood and cleaned out their pool. Saturday was pretty amazing too. We hit all our daily goals and had some killer lessons. We were just biking along and this guy stands up and stops US and ask us if we are from the 5th ward and of course we say yes, and he starts going on about how he used to take the lessons and how he needs the church in his life. And he ended up coming to church yesterday and wants to get baptized! Woo! We are totally going to dunk him. 

And one of our gators, Sheila, I threw down on Thursday in a lesson and basically said if she doesn't start coming to church EVERY week, we would have to stop seeing her. And. She. Came! It was so awesome and she loved it. I'm so happy for her! Here's to another great week! The first picture is from P-day in Ocala, and the second is Elder Folsom and Elder Stanley taking tons of photos on my iPad. Also I've been super in love with this video this week from the addiction recovery program, makes me tear up like every time. 

https://www.mormonchannel.org/12steps
(This is the first video in the Addiction Recovery Program: 
Step One Honesty)

Anyways have a good one. 

Love y'all!



P-Day in Ocala


Elder Stanley and Elder Folsom

A Really Powerful Zone Conference



May 23, 2016

Hey Y'all!

This week has been really good. Hmm. Really good things that happened this week... We had a really powerful Zone Conference on Thursday and learned a lot about different things. The church just came out with new pamphlets for the laws and ordinances lessons so those are super fun to use. I love it because I just freestyle it and don't have to worry about getting stuck in a teaching rut because there isn't even one existing. 

We had our trade-off with Elder Boyson and Elder Moreno this week. I went with Elder Moreno and we spent basically the whole day in the ghetto (75%) of our area. We had a good time though and met some good people. It gets really hard to judge what's a lesson and what's not because people will listen to you all day and even agree but they just don't go anywhere or do anything. Very disorienting. 

Saturday we had a killer miracle with this lady we are teaching named Mel. We came over and she said she was a having a really crappy day and starts going on about the fact that she doesn't know why she's here and doesn't really want to live and we had a super powerful lesson about me and Elder Smith's conversion to the gospel and the plan of salvation and she had a piano and Elder Smith started playing hymns and she said she could really feel the spirit.

We also saw Emmanuel that night and talked to him about serving a mission. He is honestly one of the most kindhearted charitable people I've ever met. I love that boy! I hope he serves. 

But Sunday was good. We had dinner with the Ures after church and it was way fun. Bro. Ure reminds me a ton of Stuart and he asked Elder Smith and Elder Folsom what their most embarrassing stories were and it was way funny. 

Good 2 weeks. We've been teaching monster amounts of people by the grace of God. Like 27 total lessons the past two weeks! I love Gainesville.... I guess I have too if I've served here twice. 

Love Y'all! 

Have a good week!
Something he found while cleaning the apartment.  He thought it was funny.  






Wednesday, May 18, 2016

This Mission is on Fire!

May 16, 2016

Hey Y'all!

This week was way good. Not a whole lot of special events went on, so we had a ton of time to teach this week. We did have a Zone Meeting on Wednesday and it went amazing. It was really good, we set a Zone goal and had a bunch of good trainings. My training was called, "This mission is on fire!" And it was basically like a pump up speech to get people excited, and apparently something worked, because our Zone killed it this week! It was really good. Makes me love what I do on weeks like this.


I had a really good Trade-off with Elder Foust and we taught about a billion people. Everyone just decided to be home that day so it was pretty great and we ended up teaching most of the day. We also had a detour to go give a blessing at the VA.

Yesterday we had this investigator Josh come to church and it was awesome! The Ward fellowshipped him SO good. First time he had come to church in 2 years. It did wonders for him and he is progressing super well.

In other news we had a freak rainstorm and Elder Smith told me to take a picture of him while I was backing out the car... So I did :) 
Best Companion Ever Award? Me. 

Haha, but yeah my week was great! 

Love y'all!



Changes and Craziness

May 9, 2016

Hey Y'all!

This week has been good. Full of change and craziness, but good. Monday we said our goodbyes by playing warrior ball for about 3 hours. I'm still sore from it... 


Tuesday we had our very last district meeting before Elder Ward left. He got called to be a Zone Leader, he'll do awesome. So after we got a call from the Spanish Elders, Elder Hopkins and Breitenbeker saying they were in Gainesville and wanted a Trade-off so we went on spots with them. Elder Vance said goodbye to a ton of people and me and Hopkins taught in the ghetto. We spent like 2 1/2 hours in a .1 mile stretch just teaching everybody. It was awesome. Elder Hopkins left the zone and I will dearly miss him. 

Wednesday we had transfers and it was pure chaos. Especially when you are zone leader and are responsible for making sure is everybody is getting where they need to be o time. So me and Elder Stanley worked together for a little while. Elder Smith and Elder Folsom (E. Stanley's new comp) finally made it here and we got off to work. We taught a few people that night and went to dinner at the Jack's. We had hot dogs as per the usual. It was awesome. 

On Thursday we went to Elder Fadely's District Meeting. It was pretty good, and we all wrote up on the board what we were willing to put on the altar of sacrifice to see miracles (mine is Dr. Pepper if you didn't already guess...) It's going to be rough month... But anyways we had service with the District afterwards and cleaned out this lady's pool, all the gunk at the bottom and we bleached the whole thing. Elder Duggins paid a visit too! He was in the mission a few months ago and came back to visit! It was great! Afterwards we had dinner with a member and Elder's Quorum trade-offs. Trade-offs were super terrible. No one was home and we tried like 6 different usually solid people.... Ugh.  But yeah, on Friday we, or rather I weekly planned. That's usually how it goes 1st week though. We had an amazing night that night and taught 2 of our main investigators with a member and we set a date with Kyle! He's one of my favorite people right now.

Saturday we had a killer busy day we had appointments all day. We taught the Grants and tracted out in the boonies. We found this awesome lady Mel, who's in her 50's, and has 2 kids. She should be coming to church this week.

And yesterday I got to call home! It was so good to see all of your faces! Other than that it was a Really slow day. We did teach the granddaughter (9) of one of our investigators. She was WAY funny. This other kid was being a punk to her and she says this, "Hey! When I get my car, when I get my car, NO, when I get my cute little moped, I'm gonna run you over! Okay?!" 

But yeah, good week.

Elder Toolson



Elder Toolson and Elder Hopkins
Elder Ward and Elder Toolson

Elder Vance holding Elder Toolson








Monday, May 2, 2016

A New Companion

May 2, 2016

Hey Y'all!
     First off, transfers have struck again.... I'm getting a new ZL companion. His name is Elder Parker Smith. This will be my second Elder Smith companion. Super sad to lose Elder Vance but he gets to go up to Georgia. There were TONS of switches in my zone this transfer so it'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. In all we have 23 companionships in the zone (46 missionaries). We have 4 districts, with 2 here in Gainesville, one in Chiefland and one in Ocala. But I'm really excited for this transfer! A lot of good thngs are happening.

Tuesday this week we went to MLC (Mission Leadership Council) and got our new focuses for the mission. It was awesome. Really good experience. We had our Trade-off with the AP's after and I went with Elder Beard and we had a super fun time. We taught some people, ate some dinner and set a baptismal date with someone too! We also got harmonicas from a recent convert.

We had to wake up at 5 on Wednesday to go help out with seminary (we ended up just sitting there and eating donuts...) we played tennis with some others elders and I got to see Elder Coy again! Gotta love those reunions. We traveled back and went straight to district meeting and I gave a training about the Holy Ghost in our teaching. It went pretty good.

We had a pretty average rest of the week. We knocked into a gay guy, who was super hilarious and he asked if I wanted water and I said yeah, so he comes out with a regular kitchen cup and tells me to keep it.... So I was walking around the rest of our knocking time with a cup in my hand... And then pretty much the only other noteworthy thing is we knocked on this door looking for a potential investigator and found this guy who had just moved here. He had been taking the lessons for 3 years and went to church and everything! He's is gonna get dunked! And yesterday we had a bunch of people in church and a break the fast after! Have a good week. 

Love y'all!!!

Elder Toolson

 The cup the guy gave him knocking doors.

 The kid is from a Farmshare food distribution we did in Williston. He modified his back tire so that he just rides on his rim and we thought it was way funny


The car was from my Tradeoff in JAX. We ate at a member's for dinner and he let us sit in his Jaguar.


Sunday, May 1, 2016

Detours and Service

April 25, 2016

Hey Y'all!

This week has been WAY busy, in a good way. Monday we had an amazing lessons in the Grant's home with some of their friends! One of their friends wants their daughter to get baptized so we just have to make sure that she has a solid structure and doesn't go less active before we dunk her. But it will be awesome!


Tuesday we were supposed to go to a District meeting down in Chiefland but I had a little bit of a detour.... About halfway down to Chiefland I get a call from one of the elders in the district saying that he spilled hydrogen peroxide in his eye (how do you even do that?) SO I had to drive him around ALL day. And Elder Vance got to stay and enjoy district meeting. We called the mission nurse and she said we had to come all the way back to Gainesville (an hour's drive) for medical treatment. So, long story short I ended up driving for  about 4 hours that day and spent about 4 hours sitting in the waiting room as well. He burned a hole in his cornea but it's no big deal. It'll get better in a couple of days. 

Anyways, on Wednesday we had our own district meeting which was amazing, and had a Trade-off with the Ocala Elders after. I went with Elder Moreno, a short little Hispanic kid from Provo, UT, and he is HILARIOUS. I love this kid! We had a way fun day, and taught tons of people and saw some miracles. I'll attach one of our role plays in the morning haha they were way fun.

Thursday we did some service with Sis. May. We put this massive fountain in her front yard and dug out a bush and replanted it. We drove way out into the Boonies to have dinner with a member and had Elders Quorum trade-offs that night. 

Friday we weekly planned and had a way good dinner with the Whitakers. We went on mini trade-offs because the other Elders wanted a gauge on how deep the conversion is in one of their investigators, so I took Elder Stanley with me for the night and we had a BLAST. It's a good thing we aren't companions or it would just be pure chaos. 

Saturday morning we got an emergency call for some service way down in Williston for this company called Farmshare (I might have mentioned it before).  We went and distributed food from about  10:00 - 12:30 and my forearms were screaming for mercy. The bags were somewhere in the range of 50-60 lbs.... We rushed back to Gainesville and interviewed 2 people in the YSA for baptism. We had dinner with Sis. Braun that night.  

Sunday we had 4 'gators at church!!!! Total miracle since we have been in a drought. But it was great. We are going to follow up and see if we can set some baptism dates. But yeah, that's my week! 

Love y'all!

Elder Toolson



Elder Stanley and Elder Toolson