Transfer Week

August 24, 2015 *(I forgot to post this last week)

Hey Y'all!
     So this week has been pretty good. We've been doing a lot of biking since we are almost out of miles for the month. So me and Elder Coy went to transfers on Wednesday with Elder Martin (a senior missionary) and we ended up getting there a little bit late. Oops. So I went into the gym and they always have all the new missionaries practice street contacting people and it's really funny to see how awkward I used to be haha. 

We did that and I had to go to training meetings for most of the day where they teach you how to be a trainer. It was pretty good. We went to the room and met all of the trainees and told us who our new companion is going to be. I'm with Elder Smith. He's 18 and came right out of high school. He's from Sandy,UT. This has been a lot of stress because he's brand new so he still is in that mode that I used to be in, just sort of looking around like, is this real? 

Anyway we drove back from transfers and me and Elder Martin talked most of the time. He's pretty awesome. He even took us out for shakes at Powells in Starke, a place me and Elder Lane used to frequent quite often. So we got back and went straight to teaching the Book of Mormon class that night. After that I took him shopping to get his stuff and we came in for the night. 

Thursday we were on bikes all day and it was pretty brutal. No one was home that day--it was weird. BUT, at the end of the night about 15 minutes or so before we were about to head I felt like we should check on someone we knocked into who had surgery. And she was home and doing well and we had a lesson with her. Definitely a tender mercy that we at least got to teach someone that day. 

Friday we saw Retha (recent convert) and we found this guy Michael on the street. He was pretty nice and said we could come by and teach him. We also called up another recent convert, Pauline and had a mini lesson with her over the phone because she is up in Savannah, GA right now. We also had dinner with the Dahls that night too. They are awesome and their kids are hiliarious. We had a good time. People here seriously feed us the best food. She fed us chicken cordon bleu and we ate stuffed scallops and salmon last night, but I'll get to that. #spoiled. 

Saturday we did ridiculous amounts of biking. Side note, whenever we get home Elder Smith is always fascinated at how many miles we biked that day and asks me how far we went. I think Saturday was a 30-35 mile day. We biked out to some apartments to try and see some people but only got some return appointments which is still pretty good. We biked over and had dinner at the McDonalds. I always get what they call the "mcAwesome" which is a mcdouble add mac sauce and a mcChicken stacked on top of each other. It's fantastic and cheap and filling. Anyways we biked out and knocked some doors in a pretty wealthy neighborhood. Not a whole lot of success. I've really learned that the humble are the ones 9 times out of 10 who are willing to listen. We saw Andrea (a recent convert) and after that and I had Elder Smith take the lead in teaching the Restoration. It went pretty well. We biked over and saw Anne and Nancy as well and read from the BOM with them. 

Yesterday we had church and had a couple investigators show up so that was good. We had to help a second hour youth class learn how to respond to their friends when they get asked what the church thinks about gays and marriage and temples, etc. I think I made it pretty fun and enjoyable while still teaching them. I LOVE teaching the youth because for some reason I can just get my point across better to them. All of the converts/ people I have helped so far have been under 30 now that I think about it haha. After church we had dinner with the Blaylocks in the ward and they made us stuffed oyster, and salmon and key lime pie, all of which were new introductions to my diet, but I loved it, it was SO good. We found out later that night that Retha was in the hospital so we went over with our ward mission leader and I gave her a blessing. Please pray for her if you would. We ended the night teaching a Hindu man. It was rather difficult. We don't run into too many non Christians and the ones we do are adamantly against it, so we had to try and take a different approach. WE eventually got him to take a Book of Mormon but he wants to study on his own for now. Oh well. 

Speaking of study, I finished the Book of Mormon this week for the first time on my mission!!! Pretty sad right? It took me A WHILE to get through it all. so now I get to start all over again! :) Something that David A. Bednar suggested  in a talk he gave at the MTC was that when Book of Mormon study gets old or hard, pick a topic you want to study and read through the BOM on that topic. So I chose change of heart (or lack thereof) and the atonement of Jesus Christ. It'll be fun. Also, I've been  in love with this video lately, it is super powerful to me. so check it out. Y'all have a good week!

Elder Toolson 

(**He did not attach a video, so not sure what he is referring to.)