Feeling thankful in January!

Before I tell you anything about my week I gotta let you know that this whole week I was just overcome with gratitude. I don’t know what it was, but I was. I felt so my joy, love for my Savior just everything was good!! I know I am so crazily blessed and that me being on a mission is one of the biggest blessings Heavenly Father could ever give me. That trusts He’s had to put in me makes me so wonderful. I love Him. 

Monday- Sister Van Heel and I put on a mud mask one night after leaving a dinner where they gave us left over cucumbers to ‘treat ourselves with a spa night’. #classy “Other than that, that’s about it!” as one of the people we teach here would say :p

Tuesday- after almost 4 months of 24/7 with Sister Van Heel I realized how we think SO differently a lot of the time. She is super like “I love chaos. I work really well under stress and I like everything to be hectic.” That’s just how she works. And then there’s me…who loves order and tradition, things staying the same and having a schedule hahha. We are so very different, but luckily we work super well together. It helped me understand how our companionship works a little bit better though :)

Oh…for whatever reason I had a moment where before going to bed I just bust out dancing. I missed dancing a lot for whatever reason this night. Hahaha. Boy, oh boy. 

Wednesday- We had zone conference and it was awesome! I always love getting together with other missionaries. The spirit is just so strong. Some things I took away from the meeting??

·         We can’t help someone physically until we help them spiritually.

·         God can do what He wants with us…we’re disobedient? He can punish us in any way He pleases. Yet, because He’s so loving/merciful He gives us the least amount possible. He is so good to us.

·         We love Jesus Christ and so as members of His church we want to bring Him things HE loves and wants, therefore we show Him our love by bringing more of Hid children unto Him. 

·         IF WE ALWAYS DO WHAT WE’VE ALWAYS DONE THEN WE WILL ALWAYS GET WHAT WE’VE ALWAYS GOT. Think about it people. If you want your life to be going a different way then you’re going to have to change things up and figure out a better way to go about things. Living the gospel of Jesus Christ will ALWAYS bring forth the results that we want/need in this life. It requires effort though. 

·         You can only be efficient in relationships, not effective. 

Thursday- Our recent converts called and in their voicemail said “Hey, this is brother and Sister Garcia” it was adorable. So adorable.

ONE OF THE WORST QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED AS A MISSIONARY: what would you like me to make for dinner when you come??? Man. So many choices. So much pressure. Haha. 

Friday- Our Zone Leaders brought us donuts after having a conversation with them where I told them I am a ‘donut connoisseur’ ever since being companions with Sister Treadwell. I thought that was really nice. I think listening is something we are really bad at as humans nowadays. But when we actually take a min to do so, we can really help someone out. Sister Van Heel gave me the bright idea to unscrew my camera to try and fix it and I LISTENED TO HER haha. Luckily, it didn’t break any more than it already is hahah. 

Saturday- We had to sing at a baptism this night and Sister Van Heel woke up without much voice. I became really appreciative for my experience down in Diamond Bar around this time last year when it came time for Guillermos baptism where I had to not only give a talk, but sing also and I got sick. Heavenly Father literally gave me a voice to do everything and then RIGHT after I finished singing I lost my voice for like 3 days. SO CRAZY. Because of that experience though it made it really easy for me to put trust/have faith that the Lord would provide a way for Sister Van Heel and I to sing. You’ll be happy to know that we did it and she sounded fantastic, as always :) 

Sunday- since church doesn’t start til 1 oclock in the afternoon now we get to do our studies and such before we leave for the day which makes things nice. Well, this morning I was thinking about how I hadn’t gone to church with a question in mind for a while and that I needed to. So I thought of something and started to pray heavily over it. It was weird though because by 9 AM during my personal study I had already received an answer to it? I was like…hmm…that was strange, I guess I’ll just keep my mind open at church too so if He has more to let me know…come to find out after a few meetings van Heel still wasn’t feeling well and had a fever so we had to stay home from church. Later that night it hit me how perfect Gods plan is for us. He knew that I had a serious question in mind that I needed an answer to. He also knew that even though we wanted to, we would NOT be going to church (where I planned on getting this answer) so He provided a way for me to get it during my studies. He is so great. I love Him. 

Due to Sister Van Heel being sick like 3 days this week and us having to stay inside it gave me plenty of time to 1. Practice the piano and 2. Study up/practice ASL. Needless to say, I did NOT get bored at all the whole time haha. That stuff will seriously work your mind. Especially if you aren’t really good at it to begin with. 

Mom, I can’t wait to blow you away with how much better I’ve gotten at the piano since my mission :) 

I LOVE YALL BUNCHES AND BUNCHES ALL I GOT. I love getting to tell you allllllll about my week. This is the best time of my life. Don’t forget to listen to people, love people and stay busy in things that actually matter this week. Yall daaaaaa besssstttttttt ;p

-hugs-

Sister Toolan

Add sister ellis, my MTC companion :)