Dumpster Diving

Another week? Already?

Well, we are doing better with each week. We got one more than we found last week and we have one more on date as well! We found a family, which was a miracle! We only had like fifteen minutes to seek one day and we found Luis in just that amount of time! We than went back again on Friday, picked up his daughter Denise and invited Luis to be baptized!!

I had my exit interview this week and it wrecked me. We got Krispe Creme afterwards. I'm okay...I think.

We had LOTS of adventures this week from dumpster diving to find the Hermanas' baptism programs that someone threw out, not realizing we left the mission until we saw a building that said Murrietta (I was not driving), and having to jump start the Hermanas' car because it decided to die right before leaving for church.

We did seven hours of service, so it's a miracle we even did proselyting.

Honestly, a lot more happened buuuuuuuut I can't even remember what I had for dinner last night, not to mention what happened this week. We saw miracles, we worked hard, and we put our trust in the Lord.

I am going to be a missionary forever....but when I realize that it isn't the truth, I get anxiety in my belly. I used to talk about my plans when I get home with excitement and longing and now, I just don't want to think or talk about it. All I want to do is serve. I've never been good with goodbyes. They wreck me. And saying goodbye to the mission is going to be the hardest one of my life.

BUT, I have four weeks left so I'm going to stop crying about it, get some dirt in my shoes, pound the streets and get lost in the work.

Con amor,
Hermana Tonini

Buncha Billy Hillies

WHAT A BUSY WEEK. Can you be out of breath from finishing a week? Because that's how I feel.

So we ran into Juan while we were seeking with fe near his house, and he tried using a word that I taught him in English: Hillbillies.

"You know...up here...all of us are a bunch of billy hillies."

I love that guy.

Then Tuesday was a crazy day in Idyllwild...we legit did a home visit at 9:30 in the morning. That was a first for sure.

Wednesday we had the best lesson we have ever had with Juan!! He is now on date for July 1st! He told us he felt dumb when he went to church with the Sisters before us because he couldn't sing the hymns so he wanted us to practice with him...so we spent THIRTY MINUTES of him reading the hymn, then I would read the hymn so we could follow along, and then we would sing a couple of verses for him.....we were willing to do whatever it would take to get him to church and HE DIDN'T COME 💔. But the other thirty minutes were super powerful and the Spirit was super strong!

That same day we also did a home visit, our first Facebook lesson EVER and it was with Hector, and a less active visit. FOUR LESSONS IN ONE DAY. Which is really actually a normal thing but not for Anza. We are lucky if we get one lesson a day here...

Thursday we did our food group service and pony service AND weekly planning so that shot the whole day.

We had interviews and exchanges on Friday. So, it's looking like a 50/50 chance that I am staying or going for my last transfer. One hermana is leaving and none are coming in....so he will either have to take me down or make a trio. But if he takes me out then there is a domino effect and he will have to change a lot of other things. So, transfers are a mystery once again. I know and have faith that the Lord will let me finish my mission where he needs me the most.

Saturday we had zero set appointments besides a home visit late that night so we just walked for three hours and talked to 3 people.

Mother's Day was SO GOOD. We spent it with the Merc*** Family. We do FHE/home visit with them every week becaue they don't have kids and we temporarily don't have parents. So it was nice to spend time with our "mom". Calling home was so good! You know, I told myself I wasn't allowed to freak out about going home until Mother's Day. I freaked out a little after knowing my itinerary but now my freak out day is pushed to July 4th and now I will go back to being in denial.

OH AND HECTOR CAME TO CHURCH. I was so happy!!! He is progressing!

Whew. I think that's it. I love y'all and thanks for your prayers and support!

Hermana Tonini

P.S. we got roses from the branch even though we aren't mothers? #win

The Rains Came Down...y Tambien el Lodo

Sooooooo, it rained for like two days straight here in Corona. Since we had that big fire when I first came into Corona, all of the brush was burnt down meaning we had a MUD SLIDE. It only hit the houses that were up against the mountains, but it hit them HARD!!!! Friday and Saturday morning were dedicated to helping the Bishop of Prado View Ward and his neighbors shovel mud out of their backyards. I have never seen so much mud in my life...The first day involved shoveling mud into a wheelbarrow and then running it up a small incline and dumping it out.....a very long and physically exerting process. The mud was up to our knees! Then on Saturday, we got some help from other zones and went at it again! We worked on emptying a pool full of mud....so I was in the bottom of a pool, barefoot, carrying buckets of mud out. Super cool, not going to lie.

I think the neatest part of the whole thing was watching the whole community come together. Some off-duty firefighters came and helped on Saturday and a lot of families in the neighborhood  came to help as well. I love how there is light in a time of feeling helpless. The wonderful thing about the Gospel is that the feeling never goes away. We don't need a natural disaster to feel love for others and desire to serve them.....it's a daily objective! That is one blessing I have seen on my mission is how my love for serving has grown. I think I get a little antsy if we don't have an opportunity to serve during the week.

Well, I love y'all and I hope y'all continue to find ways to serve in your homes, in your communities, and in your callings. Because there is no greater joy that we can feel than serving our brothers and sisters and serving our God.

Love,
Hermana Tonini

Friday Pday = TEMPLE!!

So, we didn't have Pday on Monday because we get to go to the temple today!!!! I am so so so excited because it has been around seven months since I got to go last!





Here was our recent MFAM project.....repainting a helicopter! I had to paint the inside of the door frame but the door wouldn't stay open so I had to get a little creative.

Here is the aftermath:

Our little Familia N is progressing super well! We taught them tithing this week and Angel comes up to me, drops two quarters in my hand, and said, "Here is my tithing!!" They come to church every Sunday and last Sunday during church, we finally taught the dad and he is willing to listen and give us a chance! It was a miracle because he is never home so the only time we see him is when he goes sometimes with the family to church! So that just means we will have to teach him and his wife during second or third hour, because that is the only time out of the week he has. Also, the little three year old Penelope picked a bunch of flowers for us and Hna Moran attempted to make a flower crown...which kind of worked?

Had a ton of testimony-building experiences that I wish I could share but they are kicking us off early today. Love y'all!

Look up 2 Nephi 4:20...it's my new favorite!

Love,
Hermana Tonini

Part 2

I dusted the top off a really old plane with a flipping paintbrush. It took two hours of me sitting on top of a ladder to just get this far. Super cool though. 

 Are you even surprised?

Sister Mackley's birthday picture. 

Stray kittens and helicopter restorations, yes please!

Scrapbook email

This week during my studies I have been focusing on the section Jesus Christ, Exemplar. I have learned so much about what it means to follow His example and try to become more like Him. I learned a lot about sacrificing. What are we willing to sacrifice to follow the Savior? With Arian's baptism, my testimony grew of this. He flipped his whole life around the follow the Savior and His teachings. When we follow the Savior it brings us so much JOY. He sent us a text after his baptism saying he has never smiled so much in his whole life.  When we invite people to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized, they truly are following His example. I feel so blessed to be able to follow His example by being a missionary while teaching repentance and baptizing converts. The Gospel of Jesus Christ truly does change lives and offers so much hope and joy. I love this work, there truly is nothing else like it out there.

I have so many pictures form the past two weeks that all I am going to do is send pictures for my mass email with a  few comments.

HIKE! We hiked all the way up to the M!! It was exhausting but so worth it. Hermana and I took a whole bunch of pretty pics with the city in the background, but this one is my fav because my comp is such a cutie and laughing.

Service pictures from the Air Force Base

The old car we cleaned rat poop out of

The plane we pushed by hand

The vehicle I drove the other week out to the plane we painted

the plane we painted

When my comp makes my buy a hat because I burn

Baptisms!

Vicky T

NAPOLEON!!!! THE MYTH THE LEGEND!!!!

Arian featured Hna Soto who is our abuela in MoVal.

Baptizing [Father] Converts

WOW WOW WOW this week was full of miracles. First off, we had SEVEN new investigators this week. That may not be a lot compared to other missionaries, but for me, it truly was a miracle because of all of the people Heavenly Father put in our path.

Okay also, service at the Air Force museum was so cool. We physically moved an airplane by hand and we also cleaned RAT POOP out of an old car they are restoring. Then the week before, we got to help repaint an airplane!!! And I got to drive an air force like....cart kind of thing out to the site. I love service here. Especially since my grandpa was stationed here, it just makes it even more special. Pics to come of this.

Multizones were this week and I got to see one of my fav humans Hna Harper.

On Thursday we had the craziest miracle. So, we were at dinner with the Ten***'s, and they have their sister-in-law who lives with them, Vicky. She took lessons like years ago, but never got baptized. She comes to work in primary as like a service calling every Sunday. Well, the hnos were all like, "She just needs a little push and she is there." So we got her to sit in on the dinner lesson and once she saw it wasn't crazy intimidating she agreed to take lessons again! However, we had an appointment to get to after dinner so we had the Elders teach her for us. We got a call from them after they taught her the Resto saying they invited her to baptism and put her on date...but that she asked them, "Why can't I just get baptized on Saturday?" Like, in two days. And she did. So on Friday, we officially picked her up as our investigator and took an hour and a half just to review all of the lessons with her. Like the Plan of Salvation and Gospel of Jesus Christ plus all of the commandments. It was exhausting, but we somehow taught it all. So she legit was our investigator for less than 24 HOURS before her baptism. Like, stories like this don't happen to me. Like, why is Heavenly Father blessing me so much? Her baptism was beautiful and we are so happy for the family. Man, I don't ever want to go home.

Speaking of home, I hit my FIVE MONTH MARK this week. Crazy, huh?

Another miracle was on Sunday my investigator Napoleon was baptized! It was so special to be at the baptism of not only a father but a grandfather as well. I love him so much. He has such a special spirit. As I sat next to him for a couple of minutes before the program started I went back to the first lesson I had with him. How he kept saying "Lo creo. Lo creo." He truly does believe. And it was incredible to be with him from day one to the day of him opening up the door to so many blessing and other covenants to make with Heavenly Father. Every baptism is a miracle.

In spite of having TWO baptisms this week, oh, and having our investigator Arian being found worthy of baptism for next Sunday, there was one miracle that beat them all. This miracle was a prayer. We are working with a less active family and their daughter Monse is on date. Her date has been pushed back because we are trying to get her father reactivated and have him receive the Priesthood so he can baptize his daughter. However, he is very stubborn and doesn't really want anything to do with the church. (He had some bad experiences in the past) Like, he refuses to even pray. Nothing. It was almost difficult to even give Monse the opportunity to be baptized. However, after each visit we can see his heart softening. And when we went by and taught Monse, his wife and daughter tried getting him to pray at the end....like they do every time. Except this time, HE PRAYED. He humbled himself and let his 8 year old daughter teach him how to pray and he prayed. His prayer was beautiful. I have never been touched by the Spirit before in a prayer like that. It was so strong tears streamed down my face during his prayer. He prayed, and that was the grandest miracle yet.

Want to end with a quote from a RM I met from Norway, or one of those countries, this week. He said,

"It was an honor to get spit on and cast out like He was."

It truly is an honor to walk in the Savior's footsteps by being one of His missionaries. To teach and love and sometimes, yes, be rejected like He was. However, I know that miracles do happen today. Miracles have not yet ceased. My love for the Savior has grown so much this week as I have witnessed all of these miracles. I know my Savior lives. Without a shadow of a doubt.

Love,
Hermana Tonini

ps I had to email at the library so pics will just have to come next week sorry!!!

Voy a regresar...OTRA VEZ

Holy moly this week flew by. And I don't have much to say, so sorry!

So we do a TON of service here in MoVal and we had the opportunity to pick up a million and five American Flags at the Riverside National Cemetery after Memorial Day. Plus, when I was up in Riverside one day this week we threw away old food at Feeding America which was disgusting but fun to be with the missionaries up there.

Then at MFAM, or March Field Air Force Museum, I got to work on building these metal fort thingies. Like legit I was drilling in sheets of metal. They have a couple of these metal covers and missionaries have built all of them!  So there's some pics from some of the service we did this week. Sister Palmer, my half comp, has a ton of pics from this week so I will send them later once she gets them to me. I actually spent half of the week with Sister Palmer because there were THREE exchanges this week. Having a five-week transfer is rough because your STL comp has more exchanges to cram in each week. Like, we had one Wednesday, Thursday was MLC so I was with Palmer for half of the day, and then we had back-to-back Friday and Saturday. AKA I didn't see my companion at all this week.

OH ALSO, here is a picture of Hermana Hernandez Sanchez and I wearing each other's black dresses. Isn't she so cutie?

So, as a mission we are still sharing the Prince of Peace video, and a comment that was made after the video was, "It's incredible how he performed so many miracles and that they haven't stopped. We still see His miracles today, in our own personal lives." Isn't that so true? Well, yesterday we had a little miracle. We role played in the morning, and it was supposed to role play to invite to church. Well, I accidentally goofed and invited Hermana to be baptized instead. Well, while we were doing a little seeking with the little time we had left in the day, a man let us teach him for fifteen minutes, and the lesson went EXACTLY like the role play. Like his concerns were the exact same as Hermana's fake concerns in the role play. So not only was it a miracle that we found a new investigator at the last second possible of the week, but we were prepared! I know without a doubt that if we are prepared then we WILL see miracles in our every day lives, especially here on the mission.

Also, I got a call from Hermana Chandler this week saying that they had a lesson with our investigator Ruben. They were going to change the date of his baptism because there wasn't enough time to teach everything by his date because we could only get in like once a week maybe twice. You want to know what he said? NO. He refused to change his date!!!!! He said he would do whatever it takes to get baptized the 11th. I legit cried when I heard this. And his interview was yesterday and he was found worthy!!!! So Ruben is getting baptized this Sunday and I get to go back for it! I have such an overwhelming love for him, and my joy cannot be described. This work is so rewarding and I just can't get over it. So stay tuned until next week for pictures!

Also, here is the picture of us after Jacki's baptism with her cute little mini quincenera dress.

Love y'all.

Hermana Tonini