Crazy P-Day

it's been quiiiiite the morning already lol. we woke up bright and early (6:30 just like every day) and went to wash our car since it's pday..get back, in the bathroom ready to shower and the power goes out!!! so we are like it's cool, we can just flip the breaker...NO. everything was out, so i didn't care just showered in the dark, ya know, typical day on the missssh hahha. so we call the other sisters in our ward (oh yeah, forgot to tell you there are 5 sisters in our ward lol, whoops :p) and tell them we are coming over to do laundry and finish getting ready and such and they say it's fine. we take the walk of shame with all our laundry, lettering materials, things to get ready for the day with, ect. to the car, put it all in and get ready to head out..but we forgot about one big important thing...we live in a gated area..which is GREAT because it's super safe, but when the power is out it's REALLY bad because you're LOCKED in. hahahah my companion and i got so darn tickled over that we could hardly stand it. it was such a funny start to our wonderful pday :)

Diamond Bar Missionaries

^the best thing ever happened the other day: the first night i was here in cali i had to teach a lesson to these 2 young girls who were interesting in getting baptized. they were/are spectacular! they know so much about the church and understand everything so perfectly! after a few more times of teaching them we set up the baptismal date, nov. 30th YAY! so we started asking them who they wanted to talk at the baptism, the songs they wanted to sing and the people they wanted to pray. brother arnold goes "who do you want to give the talk on the holy ghost?" and the sweet little 10 year old looks down, thinks, then looks straight at me and says "i want sister toolan too!!" it brought THE biggest smile to my face. it made me think: you know what? being a missionary is hard. it's demanding. people are mean. it's a lot of work. but this right here...THIS is what makes all the bad things worth it. How grateful i am to get to be apart of these little girls big day this coming up weekend. thinking about it just makes me happy :)

Loving the headband I got her for Christmas - Toni Bludworth hooked me up!  She is still taking selfies:)

^at zone meeting this week one of the elders brought up a really great point. he ask all 20ish of us misisonaries "how many of you have family who you wish you could go home and teach the gospel to RIGHT now??" everyone raised their hands.."how many of you have less active member family who you wish you could go home and help make them feeled loved again and get them back to church?" everyone raised their hands...then he goes "well you know what? we are ALL brothers and sisters. these people here in california are your family and you should love every one of them enough that you share the message of jesus christ with them. you need to take care of the people here just like you hope the missionaries back home are taking care of the people you love." i was like WOW. how amazing. i never even thought of it that way. i am done being scared to talk to people here because i am NOT passing up the chance of someone being able to come closer to christ because of the message i have to share with them. the church has made me WAY too happy to not want to tell everyone of my brothers and sisters in cali about it.

Sister Cardona from Puerto Rico (the 2 "greenies" or new missionaries)

^take a min. to think about this: do we want to be covenant people or a convenient people? do we want to do the right thing only when it's convenient for us to do so, or do we want to remember christ always be doing the things he's asked? do we only go to church when it's good for our schedules or do we make church the center of our schedule and work around it? do we talk to the kid who has no friends because no one is there to make fun of us for befriending him, or do we go out of our way to be nice even though it embarrassing? are we a covenant people or a convenient people?

neat thinnngs happenin:

^my comp has the tendency to talk in her sleep. a lot. it's so funny though, the other night i woke up to her teaching one of the missionary Discussions in her sleep. at the end she invited me to be baptized hahaha i was sooooo confused until i realized what was going on. it was a fun topic to talk about when we were running the next morning :p

^want to know why i think anyone and everyone who has the chance to go to EFY should? becuase like the church, it makes the world so small! i was at the mission office this week and the secutary goes "do you know chase wills?" and i was like huuuuh? she then went on telling me how he called the office that very morning asking if there was a katie toolan in the mission and when he found out there was he was like COOOOOOL please tell her i say hello the next time you see her, hopefully we can run into eachother!! (he did that because since he is an elder and i'm a sister in the same mission we can't email or anything, so this was his way of communication!) HOW COOL. she showed me a picture of him then it hit me! i knew him!! i went to EFY with him for years!!! we became good friends because of it and now we are in the same mission and will probably see eachother at some point!! COOL.

^new motto: don't complain if ya ain't willin' to change!! i mean, commmeooon yall, you know it's true.

^everynight when the members feed us they are literally having to add on a whole new family, there's 5 of us!!! hahah it's a big party everynight when we get together and eat :) there hasn't been a night that one of us hasn't cried from laughing so hard yet hahaha. when you're a missionary, the dumbest things bring you the greatest joy hahah

A great scripture that got me through the week: Alma 37: 36-37

36 Yea, and ^acry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy ^bdoings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy ^cthoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.

 37 ^aCounsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for ^bgood; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the ^cmorning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

-hugs-

sister toolan