Thursday, December 31, 2015

Training Day July 2015, August 2015 Transfer Meeting, Elder Dube' Conference-October 2015, Gainesville Zone Conference October 2015, Training Days December 2015--FJM BLOG

 Training Days July 2015






August 2015 Transfer Meeting
His first "Son" Elder Smith






Elder Dube Conference--October 2015





Gainesville Zone Meeting October 2015






















Elder Caputo and Elder Toolson


Training Days December 2015


His second "son" Elder Flake


Elder Call and Elder Toolson

Sister Tofilau and Elder Toolson


Elder Loder and Elder Toolson
Elder Toolson and Elder Loder
Elder Toolson and Elder O'Bryant



Elder Toolson and Elder Flake







Christmas Craziness

December 28, 2015

Hey Y'all!
     This week has been good, definitely a different one with Christmas and all, but overall it was AWESOME. We had an amazing district meeting and the spirit was WAY strong. I went off of the conventional route a little and we were able to learn a ton. One of the best I've ever had. We all had district lunch (per tradition) after and we went to Steak N' shake for lunch. It was Elder Servoss' birthday on Christmas day and I told the people at Steak N' Shake but they didn't do anything... so take note, if you have a birthday don't go to Steak n' Shake because they don't do anything. But it was good. We had a trade off that day and Elder O'Bryant came here to my area. He is probably the nerdiest kid in the world and I love it so much. We knocked doors in the pouring rain that night. We went over to a member's house that night and shared a spiritual message about prayer that involved kneeling down. So I had him kneel down and he fell on his stomach and kicked a few ornaments off of their tree hahaha! It was priceless! 

Wednesday I was sick (great way to spend the holidays, right?) So I slept A LOT and took plenty of drugs. Christmas Eve I was back to normal. Those were a WEIRD 2 days since you can't really knock doors and a ton of people are busy with family. SO, we did service from about noon to four thirty in the afternoon, and had dinner with our ward mission leader. They gave me some awesome ties for Christmas! And seeing that it was Christmas Eve we decided to have a little bit of fun (as much as possible within missionary standards...) and camped out on our patio and watched Meet the Mormons. One to remember. 

Christmas day was SO FUN. We went over to a member in 1st ward's house at 8 in the morning in our PJ's (per their request) and had the biggest Christmas breakfast ever. We all opened up our Christmas presents and spent the next while playing with them and or eating them (I was doing the latter). One of their kids got one of those hoverboard things for Christmas and I got to try it out, so that was definitely a highlight. We ate a Christmas lunch, which basically was a ton of barbecue and this guy is from Texas, if that tells you how good it was. Super Good. We biked over to the church and I skyped with y'all for the next little while and it was super good to see everyone's faces. Its freaking me out a little bit how much all the nieces and now nephew have grown. 

Saturday was fairly average, we were knocking doors and came to this one that said, "ABSOLUTELY no soliciting!" So we knocked anyways (duh) and this old couple comes to the door. They made it seem like they were about to chew us out for a second but they were SO nice and we taught them the restoration and they gave us soda and even asked for a Book of Mormon!!! Miracle if there ever was one.

Yesterday we had a pretty good church and a good rest of the day. We somehow visited this potential investigator and saw the Cranfords, this AWESOME family that I knew in MacClenny, when I was serving in Starke! I had a 20-30 min. blast from the past with them and we carried about our night.

Elder Loder, Elder Flake, Elder Toolson



My New Life



December 21, 2015

Hey Y'all! This week has been SO good. I feel like so much has happened this week it's crazy. I think the wifi goofed up last week so whoops. (Note:  He wrote a letter but we did not receive it.)

Monday and Tuesday were my last days in the trio with Elder Faber and Elder Dean. It was too much fun being in a trio for a week and I loved it. Tuesday all of the Elders went Golfing for FREE. There was this member that owns a golf course and he let us all golf there. It was awesome and tons of fun. We had a district P-day afterwards and played a bunch of games at the church. We played signs and the missionary version of Mafia. We call it Gadianton Robbers haha. It was super fun. We spent our final night just saying goodbye to people in the 1st ward. I super miss 1st ward already but absolutely LOVE being back in my own ward. It feels like coming home, it's great. 

On Wednesday I picked up my new son (greenie), Elder Flake. He is a pretty cool guy from Sonora, California and actually has social skills so that's a bonus. Training is a little bit different the second time around since I've actually done it before. I'm a lot less stressed and am not nervous whatso-ever. A lot more relaxing than last time for sure (well, as relaxing as missionary works gets I guess). We came back and knocked doors and had dinner with the Waltons (the family that sent you that picture mom) and they are Awesome. They gave us these huge Christmas stockings full of a bunch of food and a McDonald's gift card. They are my favorite people. 

Thursday we did service for a sister in our ward and a recent convert in the first ward. We also had correlation that night. 

Friday we weekly planned. Its always rough the first week since your companion still has no clue what's going on. We went out and talked to this guy Doug for a long long time. He was super funny but definitely hit just about every uncomfortable subject possible--Polygamy, Blacks and the priesthood, etc. etc. We knocked doors for awhile after and nothing happened so we were all depressed BUT right before we got in to our place for dinner we stopped and talked to this guy who was super excited and wants to meet with us again! woo!


Saturday was a crazy day. We had to drop this guy Rex because he is constantly trying to bible bash with us and tell us we are going to hell and stuff, so that was pretty terrible, but we went and did service for a less-active sister in the ward and raked some leaves, so that was super good. She was the NICEST lady. And we made a late night pit stop at a members house to share a quick message with them and tighten my bike seat up. It was pretty good. 

And Yesterday. Yesterday was the BEST. We had an investigator Bill come to church!!!!!! The first time we have had someone at church since I've been here! He LOVED it and said he'd be back next week. I'm so excited. He is probably one of the coolest guys ever. Unfortunately after church both me AND Elder Flake's back tires blew out, so we were on foot all night. We knocked some doors, saw some members and called it a week. 

Merry Christmas and God bless! Email me back if you have any questions about the picture :)

▪️Elder Toolson▪️


Sister Dixon's "funeral"
 Elder Flake and Elder Toolson at the Walton's home
The Walton's for Christmas

Sunday, December 13, 2015

A Weird and Uneventful Week

December 7, 2015

Hey Y'all!
This week was definitely weird and uneventful. Elder Hartvigsen has been having some serious health issues and he was sick on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. He is most likely heading home this week due to his deteriorating health, which is sad, but what can you do? 

I went on Tuesday to Fleming Island 1st ward with Elder Dean and had some major nostalgia from the last time I went on a trade off with him about a year ago. We went and saw a couple people and had an awesome night. MY favorite thing was we saw this lady named Valerie, and she was so dang funny. My favortie quote was, " I don't care what the law says, I'm the law up in here!"

Thursday I went on trade offs to Middleburg with Elder Heese and we had SO. MUCH. FUN. It ended up so that we basically did service all day in the freezing cold. We helped this less-active wire some lights and re-do his rain gutter and we mowed this investigators gigantic lawn, but it was great! We also had a crazy fun night. I'll attach the videos that resulted. 

Saturday was long and we worked but no one was home. But yesterday was Great! We took a member out with us and taught two awesome lessons and had dinner with a member that night. So that's my week in a nutshell!

Love y'all!!! Have an awesome week!

▪️Elder Toolson▪️
2285 Marsh Hawk Lane Apt. 16-203
Fleming Island, Fl 32003
Elder Toolson, Elder Dean, Elder Faber, Elder Hartvigsen
50 cent grilled cheese from Sonic


Elder Hartvigsen

Sunday, December 6, 2015

I'm Still Alive


November 30, 2015,

Hey family,
     I have been out and about doing stuff all p-day, and I don't have much time. I'm still alive, and love all of you. I'm doing good. Promise I'll email next week.



Fleming Island District Lunch