March 28, 2016

March 28, 2016

Hey Y'all!
     This week has been good. Very long, but good. Lots of people were gone (Spring Break and Easter combined) but we had some good days.

Monday we went out with our Ward Mission Leader Brother Davis and saw one of my favorite investigators, Shiela. We had an awesome lesson and afterwards went to go see another man Darnell. We were about to drop him but we just talked to him about why he listened when we knocked on his door when we first met him. It was really awesome to see him realize that God wanted to give him a message that we had to share and he is starting to progress again!

Tuesday we had district meeting which was awesome, I learned a lot and it was way good. We went to Taco Bell after since I had a gift card (thanks dad) and had scripture study class that night. It was way awkward since no one else was using the building because of spring break so it was literally just us teaching and two others there. But hey I'm sure they learned something haha. 

Wednesday we spent an insane amount of miles. We went and picked up Elder Fadelys (in 2nd Ward) and took him to some other Elders for transfers. We carried on and got an emergency call from the 2nd Ward Sisters since they had flat tire and no way to fix it. So we ran them over a patch for their tire. We went out to our recent convert, Emmanuel's house, and played basketball with him and a couple of his friends. We had the idea to make it a regular thing. It's mega fun and we could probably start teaching some of his friends if we want too.

Thursday was pretty average we biked all day (like 35 miles) and had Brandon come out teaching with us to go see Sheila. Friday was pretty boring. We had weekly planning and went and saw some people.

Saturday was another LONG Biking day. Nothing really happened and not a lot of people were home. Sunday was awesome though! We had Easter and 3 investigators in church. After church the Aires invited us over and we had an Easter dinner with them. They are awesome! And it rained that night so we had the pleasure of biking in the rain. 

That's my week!
Love y'all!



Elder Toolson

Police Cars Everywhere

I flipped Elder Vances mattress at night and he decided

to sleep like that for the rest of the night.... 

A really funny meme Thing I made this morning

March 14 and March 21, 2016

March 14, 2016

(I asked him where his letter was and I got this response.)

Honestly... It got deleted about a half hour ago and it was super long and I lost all motivation. I'm sorry mom. I'm still alive though!

Here's some pictures!

 David and Patrick (a convert he taught)

P-Day at Sister May's house in Gainesville

Road Trip to Ocala

March 21, 2016

Hey Y'all!
     Sorry I didn't write last week.... I spent most of my P-day at a cook out and the email I did write up accidentally got deleted sooo.... Yeah! 

Anyways Monday night we had sort of a continuation of our trade off with Elder Peterson and Elder King. I was still with Elder Peterson and we went out to this trailer Emmanuel lives in. We knocked doors and found a couple of awesome people. We also taught Emmanuel that night and it was awesome. Me and Elder Peterson had tons of fun. It was pure craziness, and I totally made a red velvet cake that night. It was great! But sadly he is leaving my zone... 

Tuesday it rained all day and both me and Elder Vance were WIPED. I think the picture below says it all. We had Book of Mormon class that night and Eric one of investigators came! It was a miracle and it was awesome.

On Wednesday President Craig came for interviews here in Gville and it was great. Interviews were way long this time but it was great. It was about 4-5 hours of interviews but it was great! Thursday we did service for this guy named Pete in the 3rd Ward. He is an investigator who totally just uses the missionaries for service, but hey he isn't my investigator. He was a slave driver haha.  He was just shouting the whole time at us to keep working. He was hilarious though and he bought us all pizza at the end of it. 

Friday was pretty good too. We went and saw Emmanuel and taught him a lesson and also saw some investigators, Matt and Jen, and we got a chili recipe from them as well as some ingredients to make some for the cook off on Saturday. 

Saturday it rained all day too but it cleared up in time for the Ward chili cook off. We made our very own chili for it! It was way fun and we came in like 6th, BUT the moral of the story is that our chili wasn't the worst. At the end of it all, all of the dads got all of their kids up on their heads and decided to race. So naturally the Elders wanted to join in too. So I hopped up on top of Elder Vance's shoulders and Elder Stanley (who is 6'7") hopped up on top of Elder Ward (who is 5'5"). It was awesome. I wish I had a picture. But as we raced Elders Stanley and Ward just absolutely ATE it. I was in tears and the whole Ward was dying laughing.

Sunday we had our investigator Eric and his 2 kids come to church!! It was so great. And we had a less active fellowship him! Sunday was good and we found the most elect man ever. It was this guy named John that was sitting in his car. And after we talked to him his mouth just kept hanging open in shock. He had his very own Book of Mormon and he kept saying goodbye over and over "I'll DEFINETELY read this!" And we saw him reading it as we walked away. GOOD week. 

Love Y'all!

Elder Toolson

Elder Vance is WIPED!

P-Day at Sister May's house

 David and Patrick 

Chili for the Ward's Chili-Cookoff

Training Meeting January 2016, MLC January 2016, Gainesville Zone Conference February 2016, Bike Check February 2016--FJM BLOG

March 7, 2016

Trainer/Trainee Meeting January 2016

Elder Toolson and Elder Boyson

Trainers and Trainees

LEADERSHIP TRAINING JANUARY 2016

Gainesville Zone Conference February 2016

Elder Toolson and Elder Clark

Bike Check February 2016

My Week!

March 7, 2016

Hey Y'all!

This week has been killer! Monday was great. We had dinner with
our WML and got an emergency call right after dinner to go give a
member of our Ward a blessing. I lost my oil vial in Fleming and Elder Vance didn't have one either... So we went and borrowed one from 3rd Ward.

Tuesday we had a super good district meeting and then we ate at PDQ (Tim Tebow's restaurant). Wednesday was insane. We weren't even close to hitting the goals we set for the week, so we decided we needed to teach a monster amount of people that day. I actually went with Elder Boyson (one of my former Zone leaders) so it was just like good old times. We set a goal to mix up our door approaches and we knocked doors for 4 hours. And we loved it. We had so much fun! We ended up finding seven new people and street contacted this guy teaching him how to repent. It was super great. I biked like Lance Armstrong that day and destroyed myself. But it was great! 

Thursday we went down to Chiefland for their district. Chiefland is in the country and I miss the country so bad. I'm actually writing this from Chiefland because they begged us to come down for P day...so we did. 

Friday we had weekly planning and went on a trade off in 3rd wards area. I went with Elder Clark and we had a crazy day. We had this drunk woman yell at us that Donald Trump hates uneducated people. It was hilarious. I was dying laughing. And we also taught this guy Waldemar and he let us hold his snakes. He was awesome!

We had a blitz in 3rd wards area on Saturday which basically means the entire district tracted in their area for an hour and a half to find people for them. We did service for some members after and helped them move in. 

Sunday was the cherry on top of the week. Emmanuel (our recent convert) got to church half an hour early and he prepared the sacrament, passed it, AND got up to bear his testimony and he just broke down on the stand telling his life story and the Ward rushed up. ushered him off, and it was one of those "I want to cry out of happiness right now" moments. That's my week! Love all of you!

Elder Toolson

Elder Toolson and Elder Vance

 A Snake--Yikes

Basketball Selfie

Elder Toolson and Elder Vance removed all the furniture from Elder Stanley and Elder Ward's apartment as a prank. That is Elder Stanley on the floor of his empty apartment

District Meetings, Bike Checks, and Good Eats

February 29, 2016

Hey Y'all!
     This week has been amazing. Lots and lots of Miracles as usual!
Monday night we did service for a new member in the Ward and we ate at his place called The Red Onion. It's super swanky, like 14 bucks for some Mac and Cheese if that gives you an idea. A member of our Ward owns it so we get to eat there once a month and it is SO good. We saw a less active family, the Grants, and visited some old investigators.

Tuesday we had our own District Meeting and it was super good!
President and Sister Craig came and it was a really good experience. We had bike checks in the pouring rain afterwards and President Craig took all of us out for pizza after. It was awesome. We found a few new people and taught Book of Mormon class at the church that night.

Wednesday we had trade offs with the AP's and that was super fun. I went with Elder Thompson in Jacksonville and we taught a couple of people. We went to this guy Toms house for dinner and he fed us some super good meatballs and cake balls for dessert. He's been investigating the church forever. 

Thursday we drove back and went to Elder Fadely's district meeting across town. It was pretty good. It's interesting being abl to go to everyone in the zone's district meetings and see the different ways each district leader runs their district. We contacted some people and had Elders Quorum trade offs that night. I went with Bro. Weiler to go see Emmanuel and we had a super good lesson with him. It got a little bit weird after that. We tried to see 2 other potentials we had and one dropped us due to Godhead concerns and I had to bear down in pure testimony against this guy and then this crazy lady answered the door and just started yelling about who knows what. Anyways! 

Friday we weekly planned and saw a few less actives and contacted a referral. One of the less actives, Sandi, we had a lesson with outside and as it ended a huge German Shepard jumps up from inside and locks the door! So Elder Vance gave me a boost up onto her roof (super scary) to see if I could open the second story window. I couldn't. So we went around back and actually got one of her sliding doors open, so it all worked out. It was fun. 

Saturday we drove way out to Archer, (like 30 Miles) to help out this food distribution place called Farmshare. They LOVE the missionaries and all of us from Gainesville were there to help. These people were the nicest and it was great to get to talk to them as we helped them. We saw a few other people on Saturday and brought Emmanuel (baptized last week) with us to go and teach one of his friends! He is amazing. 

And Sunday Emmanuel got confirmed and got the Priesthood already! After church we went door knocking and found three new investigators out of the seven doors we knocked. Miracles! 

Happy P-day everyone! Also I got to drive through Starke to get to JAX and saw a confederate flag flying again. It's been such a long time...

Elder Toolson

The Red Onion

 Starke, FL

I'm assuming this is Starke also.

A Huge Lemon, and a Baptism

February 22, 2016

Hey Y'all!
This week has been beyond Amazing and busy. Monday and Tuesday were pretty uneventful. 

Wednesday we went over to Sister May's house and helped her bleach her patio. I also bleached my shoes while I was at it and it destroyed them. I should send you a picture of my service shoes one of these days.... anyways! Sister May has this ridiculous tree that grows the biggest lemons I have ever seen in my whole life. It is literally the size of my head. That night Was ridiculous trying to figure everything out. Basically we had a baptismal interview with Emmanuel that night but also 2nd Ward need an interview and our district leader had to do it, not theirs, etc., etc. missionary stuff. So we ended up going on triple trade offs. I somehow ended up with Elder Clark from 3rd Ward and we went over and I interviewed 2nd Ward Bap Date. It went super well and it was probably my favorite night this night. I got to see all of my old buddies from 2nd Ward and got to see Andrea Again!!!! She was definitely one of my favorites during my time there. I also saw the Gordons, the Willinghams and few others. And I walked around the building with Elder Smith and said hi to everyone that remembered me. 

Thursday we went over to Sis. May's again for lunch. It was super good, but the reason I mention it is because something awesome happened. After lunch, we found not one but two birds in the house! (Sis. May left the door open) We scurried one of them out and in the process. Elder Ward caught one of the birds and went to release this thing. So he goes out to the door and he throws the bird from his hands into the air and it can't spread it wings and just comes crashing back Down into the grass. It took me about 5 minutes to compose myself I was crying so hard. SO funny! But the bird was alright. 

On Friday night we realized that we weren't even close to hitting the goals that we set for the week and needed 8 lessons on Saturday to reach them. So we prayed our hearts out and hoped for some miracles and. IT. HAPPENED. We taught 8 people that day and it was great! Awesome day. 

And then yesterday. We baptized Emmanuel!!!! It was incredible. An awesome spiritual experience and he's come so far. After the baptism he was talking to us and said, "I just feel like my cousin and aunt are so proud of me right now". They passed away sometime last year. He is awesome and it was a GREAT way to end the week.

Elder Toolson

Elder Toolson and Elder Vance

Elder Toolson, Brother Whitaker, Emmanuel, Elder Vance