Tons Upon Tons of Work Getting Done Here.

April 29, 2015

Hey y'all!
     This week has been amazing! Tons upon tons of work getting done here. Me and Elder Sunderland are basically redoing the entire area since our teaching pool is full of people who just aren't progressing, which means lots of finding which means getting to meet a ton of interesting people. Friday in particular was probably the strangest/coolest/ I don't even know day this week.  We had probably the strangest golden hour I've had on my mission. It took us one hour to knock three doors. The lady that answered was a Calvinist (look them up if you don't know) and she basically shouted her beliefs at us for a solid while, and cried quite a bit. The second door didn't answer and the third door was probably the best. It was this really old preacher guy that was very very animated about everything. The highlight was when he got really quiet and spoke to Elder Sunderland, "There's a mosquito on yer face." SMACK. A straight punch to the jaw basically. Haha it took all I had to keep it together. He held out his hand with the dead mosquito on it just to show us it was dead. Pretty funny. 

We helped rebuild some rooms this week too. It was awesome. We helped out with rerouting the power lines to this one room so they could have a washer and dryer inside. We dug up a few ditches and glued a ton of pvc and cpvc pipes together and worked a bit under the house. But we got it done in like 5 or 6 hours. Wish I got some pictures.... But I got a cool shirt from it! 

Me and Elder Davis had a trade-off this week in my area. It was super fun. We were basically teaching like all day which never happens.  Also we had an impromptu dinner at the bishop's and are going there again tonight! I pranked Elder Davis when he wouldn't wake up too. Evidence below. That was my week in a nutshell! Love y'all!

Elder Toolson

Elder Sunderland

Elder Davis

A Whole New Life

April 24, 2015

Hey y'all!

This week was awesome! I totally captioned those pictures last
week.... Guess it deleted them or something. Anyways an explanation.

So the first two were our district and zone pictures from zone meeting which was super fun. It's all different now because of transfers though. The third one is a picture of this backwoods lake me and Elder Carrington found while trying to find this one lady. The fourth picture is me drenching wet. We had to bike home in the worst rain storm and I had like a full cup of water in my shoes. Summer's here, people. The fourth picture was me, elder Curtis and Sister Blair and Sister Despair. We are all from Arizona and it was awesome. Except Sister Blair is gone now so our clique got ruined... And I think the last one was a picture of Elder Curtis eating some Guam fried rice I made for everyone as our last supper before transfers. 

As for this week. I love Elder Sunderland. He's from Alberta, Canada and has a family opposite from me, four older brothers! Craziness. This transfer should be good. 

This week was great. It's hard and pretty stressful when you take over an area especially when you've only had one transfer there and barely know anything yourself. But we're still doing work and stuff. We have a huge service thing coming up this week that we semi prepped for last Friday. It's called rebuilding Waycross, and is basically a whole ton of people going to different run down houses and fixing them up for people. It's going to be awesome. Anyways the house we'll be working on, we went over there with Brother
Kirkland and Brother Bennett and relaid some power lines in a ditch. It was some dirty dirty work. 

Nothing too ridiculous has happened this week. Just the adjustment of getting a new comp and taking over an area. Oh and we found a snapping turtle the other day that almost killed us! It was pretty awesome. Have a great week y'all!

Elder Toolson

Lamest Letter EVER! (Mom's title not Elder Toolson's)

April 14, 2015

This week was pretty good. I can't remember much so I'll just tell you in pictures.

These Four Missionaries are all from Arizona.  They were all serving in Waycross, GA. Sister Blair, Sister Despain, Elder Toolson, Elder Curtis

Elder Curtis eating

Fried Rice that David made

Got caught in a rainstorm while biking

Random Lake in Waycross,GA

Waycross District

Back Row: Elder Mellor, Elder Lewis, Elder Curtis, Elder Carrington, Elder Anderson, Elder Toolson

Front Row: Sister Blair, Sister Despain, Sister Smith, Sister Egbert

Kingsland Zone

It's a Small World After All!

April 6, 2015

Hey Y'all!
     This week has really been a blur. A lot has just been teaching
and finding people. We've been sharing the 'Because He Lives' video, y'all have probably seen it, in an effort to boost up the Easter season. It was pretty great! People recognize the Spirit that comes from it, even when they aren't of our faith. Anyways the whole week was basically building up to general conference and how awesome it was. The only things I can remember from the week are that one of our investigators prayed for their spouse's parents to "stop being buttholes" and I almost lost my composure during the prayer. Close call. It was hilarious. Anyways we had a couple members come out with us this week too. Brother Musgrove and Brother Bennett are the only ones I really remember. The Musgroves lived in Mechanicsville, VA for a time so we bonded over the fact that we were in the same stake when I was growing up. Also Curtis Musgrove, in addition to that, served in the Tempe Arizona Mission and guess what one of his areas was? Queen Creek. Crazy right? Like 12-14 years ago or something like that. I don't know if you remember an Elder Musgrove but he was there. He asked me if I knew the Zappettinis and my jaw just dropped.  Apparently the missionaries used to live in their garage. Anyway, conference was amazing, and it's even more amazing when you go in having questions and they are directly answered. We watched it at the church with all the other missionaries and with some of our investigators some of the sessions. My favorite talk was probably Dallin H. Oaks on the parable of the sower and how it's about the soil that we plant in. One of my favorite quotes from Dale G. Renlund quoting Nelson Mandela was "a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying." Only six more months till the next time...last night was pretty sweet though. We went over to a member's house for dinner and they asked us if we wanted to hand feed a baby goat it's bottle, so we did. It was pretty cool. I picked up a baby goat too so heck yeah. Cross that one off the bucket list. Hopefully should get those pictures to you later. We also went fishing almost all day today and I caught four fish. Pretty proud of myself. Hope y'all have a fantastic week!

Elder Toolson

Feeding a baby goat!

Waycross Water Tower!

A Hog Show and a Spiritual Experience

April 3, 2015

Hey y'all!
     This week has been amazing! Monday was probably like one of the best days of my life! The Bennetts, who were supposed to have us over for dinner invited us to the Hog Show, which they put on once or twice a year, I think. A bunch of kids show their hogs and drive them around the pen, trying to impress the judge. They beat 'em around with a show stick and are supposed to maintain eye contact with the judge to get points. It's probably the best thing I've ever seen. Tuesday was another ridiculously awesome day, Elder Mellor and I were on a trade-off in my area! We had so much fun. We found 2 new investigators just asking for directions and had some crazy lessons that night. Long story short, I ended up getting a Jehovah's Witness Bible and meeting a bunch of drunk people. Best.trade-off.ever. We had back to back trade-offs and the day after, I traded off with Elder Andersen. We had a super good day too and actually met the brother of one of their investigators so that was pretty interesting. We picked up some little candy things called Zots and they were super good, we also patched up my ghetto bike seat with some electric tape. We traded back the next day and to be honest the rest of the week was a blur. Just the usual, finding people, teaching lessons, etc. Yesterday we had fast and testimony meeting and it was awesome! Made me realize how sheltered life in Gilbert was. Almost all of my friends were Mormon and not being Mormon made you different.  But here it's the exact opposite. This young teenage girl got up and talked about how everyone basically shuns her at school because she's Mormon. She sits alone, but she's still reading the scriptures and holding on. It was super spiritual. We had Brother Corbitt come out with us after church and had "dinner" at the Bennetts. It was pretty much lunch though. That was super good and we did more missionary stuff that night. I've had a pretty amazing week though. Definitely one to remember. Thanks everyone who has sent me cards, and packages, etc. I LOVE them. Hope y'all have a fantastic week!

Elder Toolson 

Hog Show

Barking Dog

Bike Master