Spiritual Time-Outs

WOW WOW WOW. What a week. It has been the longest and shortest week of my LIFE. Hermana Hernandez and I were talking about how it felt like we had been companions for like a month...but it had only been like five days. But it also went super fast because now I only have two weeks left which is surreal. I still feel like it's forever, in a good way. There is still PLENTY of time to find, teach and baptize.

On Tuesday, my comp and Hermana Peters' comp had to go to Riverside for their appointments so Hermana Peters and I had a mini exchange and we saw so many miracles! We were able to find four new investigators, went seeking for three hours, and found three potenciales. IT WAS AWESOME. One lady we found, her name is Mayra and she is so precious! She is from Guatemala and has so much fe aunque she has had SO MANY TRAILS. SO MANY. It was incredible...she told us her whole life story and was doing it with a smile on her face....which on my face my jaw was dropped because this lady has SERIOUSLY HAD A CRAZY LIFE.

With the other three we found, Jose is super elect. He said that the message of the Restoration just made SO MUCH SENSE to him. He is so excited to read the Book of Mormon!!! When I asked him if he had ever wondered why there are so many churches if we all believe in the same God, he was like..."YES!!!" However, the other two family members broke my heart. It was his sobrino y la hija de su sobrino [nephew and daughter of his nephew]. I went to give a copy of the Book of Mormon to Ana and she flat out shook her head at me. She refused to take it, and that broke my heart like no other rejection. Like, people reject us in the streets all the time...but I have never had someone reject me after them letting me in to teach them about the Restoration. They are very very set in their beliefs....but they said we can come back? So we will see what happens with those two.

We had a lesson with our investigator Guillermo and he went to la clase del Libro de Mormon con nosotras el viernes! He had LOTS of questions...and it turns out that he knows nothing about the Bible. He didn't even know who the Jews were when we were reading in 1 Nephi 1. So we have made plans in how we are going to adjust our teaching to meet his needs.

Multi Zones....my last one...wow. I couldn't even begin. I had two trainings, and I think they went pretty well. We all gave our outgoing testimonies...all NINE OF US. Just from two zones. Got some crying out of my system so that was good. I wish I could just write a whole email on everything that happened that day buuuuuuuuut, no va a ser posible [that's not going to be possible].

On Friday I had my exchange with Hermana Chase and she is SO MUCH FUN. I love that girl! We were able to find a family together so that was awesome!!!

Saturday was super cool. During planning, we felt inspired to set a goal of finding someone who would come to church....and the first potential we tried by, Victoria, straight up told us she was going to come to Church on Sunday. Like.....WHAT??? Okay, so she didn't end up coming but it was still really cool to see how fast Heavenly Father answered our prayers. She has a TON of potential and we are going to stop by and teach her this week!!

Then, we decided to go try Eloisa...and they didn't answer the door. So we decided to walk to another potential that lived a couple of streets away. We both felt prompted to knock on the door of this little house, and as we were walking towards it, we realized it was on the same property as Eloisa. There was a woman outside, who was 92 years old AND ELOISA'S MOTHER. She was sitting outside of her other daughter's house (the one we were going to knock on) and so we also met Luz. She said she would come over and join us in the other house. Well, Eloisa ran away from us....literally...when the abuelita [grandma] let us in the garage door. So we decided to go back and try Luz and she let us in!!! She just wants guidance for her two daughters and we had an awesome lesson with her! We can't wait to see her again today :)

Elder Cousineau said this yesterday, "In an apostasy, God puts His people in a spiritual time-out." I am so grateful to help people come out of their state of apostasy and find LIGHT, PEACE AND JOY. I am so excited to soak up every minute of my last two weeks here in the field. There really is no place I'd rather be.

Love y'all!!

Hermana Tonini

P.S. My parents came and toured the mission and I about died. I was going to send a picture but I couldn't decide between all of them.

P.P.S.

My fav little future misionera. 

My two favorite things are my truck and Hermana Chase

My cutie pie companion

Lovin' it

To be honest....not much happened this week. We found some awesome potential converts that we are going to see next week so we have that to look forward to! We weren't able to get in with any of our investigators this week except for Juan.

He is so precious! We invited him to church and then asked why he thinks we invite him to church. His response in his heavy Spanish accent was, "Because you guys like me....no....because you guys love me!" At first I thought, "Nooooooooo, because it's a commandment! We have to partake of the Sacrament!" However, his answer was still true. We DO love him, and just like his Heavenly Father, we want him to make changes in his life that will make him happy and help him progress towards eternal life.

And what makes US happy is seeing and hearing about those changes. He told us that he found himself singing while he was cooking.....and he NEVER sings. He said he has felt the desire to be better and is happy because he is learning the gospel. It was really neat to step into Heavenly Father's shoes and see and feel what he does....even for just a second.

I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father. He DOES love us and wants us to be happy as we progress towards becoming more like Him.

Love y'all! Last week of the transfer....we'll see what happens!

Hermana Tonini

Also, here are some more pictures from the hike last week, San Jacinto Zone, and a lovely road we walked up in dear Anza.

Dia de la Accion de Gracias

Well, Thanksgiving was a success! It started with football in the morning with two other zones. Our zone, the Corona Kings, KILLED IT OUT THERE. Then we had Thanksgiving dinner with the Familia Ga*** and our Spanish Elders in our ward. To answer your question Dad, we ate birria instead of pavo. Some Hispanics do turkey, others tamales, and in our case, whatever they wanted :) We went out and taught them how to play futbol americano and we even played a little baseball with a plastic bat.

So, last week we invited to Diana to think/pray about when she wants to go to the temple and when we followed up yesterday she told us the 9th of December! Ha, she won't even have her membership record in time for that, but we think we will be able to do December 16th!!! We love the fire in this family. The Familia Ga*** is going to invite a non-member over for a family home evening in a couple of weeks after we do a FHE role play with them next Monday, so we are pretty impressed. MEMBERS won't even do that most of the time. Daniel LOVES the Book of Mormon. He always has questions, and when anyone mentions the iron rod or something that he has a read about he gets SUPER EXCITED.

Well, I love y'all.

Bonus Pictures

Please enjoy a victory by Hermana Tonini with our loot from Cici's Pizza and our zone in matching tshirts.

When the Phone Rings

Sorry, I have zero time to write because we are doing transfer journal signing! Just know that lots and lots of tears were shed this week because I am leaving the best area, comp, and ward ever. My heart truly is here in MoVal. I am really nervous about doubling-in to Corona AND training...so prayers and advice would be wonderful! I am excited for the new challenges ahead of me and I know I will grow a lot. I can't wait to meet my trainee and hopefully set the pace and tone for her whole mission...it's a lot of pressure but if President and the Lord believe in me, then I will not doubt.

SPANISH CREWWWWWW. Elder Spittle (far left) and Elder Parson (far right) are both going home and I am super sad. The older you get in the mission, the more people you know who go home..

THE ZONE ❤

THE LOVE OF MY LIFEEEEEE! (pizza, not my companion) (jk, I love her more than pizza)

MY WARD!!!!!