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

Three Trade-offs and the Blitz

March 23, 2015

Hey y'all!
     This week has been probably one of the best weeks ever! I went on three trade-offs this week and it was fantastic. Tuesday I was down in Kingsland with Elder Bell and he's pretty cool. He's the zone leader. We went to a member's house and she had me sign my name and my favorite scripture on a card.  She has a whole picture frame full of them from every missionary that visited.  We had some grilled cheese and we went tracting with an investigator and we talked to some awesome people at night and did service for a lady. We traded back the next day and then traded off again like 50 minutes later. I was here with Elder Lewis from Jesup on Wednesday and we had the time of our lives. We tried a ton of people and brought a member out with us and taught this guy Samuel Adams who is super old and knows a lot and has a ton of awards. He says he was one of the last people to sign out before Watergate which is pretty sweet. Anyway we traded again on Thursday with Elder Curtis from Waycross 1st and we had a ball. We could totally be buddies back home. He's from Mesa too which is awesome! We tracted a ton and I've found the more flexible you are in a door approach the better it goes.  We talked to some awesome people. Yesterday was a pretty great day too. We go out teaching with Shane Bennett all the time. He's a recent RM and he's pretty awesome. We tried seeing a few people and had lunch at the bishop's house. We helped them hook up a trailer too. Today, in a couple of hours or so some members invited us to the hog show. Basically people raise their hogs and show them off to the judges. I'll try and get some pics--goin to be awesome. Anyways after that we did a Ward Blitz which is basically a ton of people in the ward came to the church at 5 and we all went out trying to contact a ton less actives and new members and other things. I split and went with Brother Duncan Bennet, the Young Men's President. He's pretty awesome. We saw a couple people and came back but it was fun. Hope y'all had a week as awesome a mine (but probably not :) )

Elder Toolson

 Richmond Avenue, Waycross, GA

Elder Toolson, Elder Curtis, Elder Andersen

David's Zone--Lake City Zone
Back Row: Elder Toolson, Elder Brian, Elder Payne, Elder Walgamott, Elder Vance, Elder Cooper, Elder Monson, Elder Mann
Middle Row: Elder Warren, Elder Abeyta, Elder Collett, Elder Ericksen, Elder Anderson, Elder Stoker, Elder Moose, Elder Crawford
Front Row: Sister Whetstone, Sister Williams, Sister Donahue, Sister Chamberlain, Sister Craig, President Craig, Sister Call (?), Sister Francom, Sister Knoll, Sister Hart

"Oh I Semi Saved Someone's Life so That was Cool."

March 16, 2015

Hey y'all!

     Sorry for last weeks email, it was super short... Anyways more of an update on Waycross. It's awesome here. The ward is super cool, and we have several RMS that just got back that want to come out with us so that's awesome. I've been really bad about writing in my journal so I'll try and remember this week as best I can. Alright so Friday was a Mission Conference down in Orange Park with Elder Kapischke which was absolutely amazing.  We had a lesson with this lady Leslie this week that lasted almost 3 hours. She could talk for days haha. She's super sweet though. Oh I semi saved someone's life so that was cool. This guy was walking down the street and was like super drunk so we talked to him and he said he was on his way to kill himself because his aunt died. I told him how much we loved him and how much Jesus Christ did and a bunch of other things and at the end he kept saying, you saved my life, you saved my life. So that was pretty crazy. The main family in the ward here is the Bennetts which is pretty cool because it reminds me of Eric. They are pretty awesome too.  One of the sons, Shane got back from his mission in Brazil  Friday and is awesome.  He already has come teaching with us once. We spent all last week biking. We are on a car share here so we have the car every other week. We have an apartment but it's pretty nice and a tiny countryish. I totally planted some carrots so I'll send you an update on that. This ward is a lot harder to learn the names of members since it's pretty much double the size of Starke ward. About 160-170 ish people come every week. I'm in Waycross 2nd Ward. Elder Carrington has been out one transfer (6 weeks) longer than me, and he's District Leader. I've been District Leader buddy my entire mission.... He's from Salem, Utah anyway. Waycross has 2 wards and a set of elders and sisters in both. Think that hopefully answers all y'all's questions.  Ask me questions if ya got any. Later. Hope y'all have a solid week.

Elder Toolson