It’s not hard to be obedient; it’s hard to NOT be obedient

I feel more than blessed right now it isn't even funny. The new area that I'm in has SO much work, so little time. Not even close to joking. I tell ya what though, that's the best problem I've had in a while!

Speaking of problems, I have this one where I get really, reallllllly nervous about the future. Like I sit up at night thinking...thinking...and doing more thinking. OVER thinking is of the devil. I ain't even playin!! Anywho, I mostly get nervous because I know going home means I have a lot of decision making to do. And if you know me, you know I HATE (ok, just kidding. I mean I really disLIKE..(I'm working on not saying 'hate' anymore) making decisions. It stresses me out. I know now after the mission, if I have served the Lord well and have done all I could in bringing people back to Him by sharing the gospel, Heavenly Father will guide me in my every decision I have to make. I know  the blessings of my service will bless my life, not only in this life here on earth, but also in the life to come. I know I need to just focus, not worry about the future, take one step at a time and embrace the time I have to devote all of my time and attention on serving the Lord.

I lalalaLOVE when members will watch us as we walk out to our car and won’t go in until we are in the car with it started and everything. It makes me think of my daddy watching to make sure everything is okay before he sends me off. It always puts a smile on my face :)

Some things that hit me hard this week:

-Our obedience shows our relationship with Heavenly Father and Christ. What we are willing to do because we don’t want to let Them down. “It’s not hard to be obedient; it’s hard to NOT be obedient.” Once you know the blessings that come, you see you can’t live without those blessings.

-I truly believe training is more for the trainer than anything. It makes you ponder on all the things you’ve learned and the experiences you’ve had with certain things to help you see the importance and also growth in yourself and missionary work.

-since technically stress is GOOD it explains why people that don’t have anything going on in life like work, school, social life, etc.…are miserable. We NEED stress. We need challenges and tough times in our lives.

-I don’t think it’s fair to say ‘people can’t change’. Being on a mission has proven that to be false. Sure, you shouldn’t go into something like marriage thinking you can change the person, but because of Christs atonement and the way He works, we are fully capable of changing, for the better, for good.

Random: I'm not sure if I told you this or not but while I was in my last area we got Italian food (a variety of spaghetti and lasagna) and root beer floats every.single.night. for like 3 weeks straight. It was..hmmmmm. Not the best 3 weeks of my life hahaha. I think if I died without having either of those two items again in my life I'd be JUST fine!!!

Oh Elders!!!!!!

Wednesday- Went to lunch with 2 older gals and had tons of laughs. At one point the 79 year old told us “I gotta 52 year old boyfriend right now, girls. Well, kindof. I dumped him. He calls….I don’t answer! I know it bothers him!!!” AHHAHAH she still playiiiin the gammmmmme! #yougogirl

We went to meet with a lady the sisters had talked to before and while we were there I was amazed. We didn't know this before but the woman had a daughter that was a member of the church. She also had a grandson out on a mission in Brazil. The best part was she knew her grandson emails home back and forth. She talked about how happy he is. We explained why he was. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. She showed us a Book of Mormon that her daughter had sent her once and I sat there realizing HOW important it is to share the gospel, especially with our family. I know there was more I could have done before my mission and that there is a ton of work to do when I get home. We have no clue how much the little ways we live our life influences others. We have no idea just have many would be receptive to our unique message to the world if only we would tell them what it is.

Also, while there my heart broke. She told us she was raised to believe that she wasn’t good/worthy enough to pray directly to God himself, so she had to through “the saints” and they’d relay the message to Him. HOW SAD :( Heavenly Father loves us all so much regardless of how we are behaving or anything. He wants to hear directly from us. I couldn’t believe there are a ton of people walking around who believe that. All the more reason to get out there and spread the good news :)

I realized I’m not an emotional wreck, I’m just an emotional person. Does that make sense? It does to me. I don’t go around crying all day because I’m sad and life is horrible, things just touch me allllllllll the time and my response is always tears hahah. Just wanted to share this piece of information with you haha.

Thursday- COOLEST THING OF MY LIFE HAPPENED! When Elder Kacher came  and talked to our mission a few weeks ago he pretty much promised us we would find people to teach if only we would do what we are supposed to be doing by asking EVERYONE for referrals. Well, that’s something I’m really bad at but last week I challenged myself to putting him to the test. I asked everyone, everyone. Even people we were meeting on the street and still no one was giving us names. Either way, I just kept asking. SO…drum roll please……we get home this night and the member we live with had taped a note to our door. What was on the note you might ask? A MESSAGE TELLING US THAT THERE WAS A WOMAN WHO WAS MARRIED TO A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH WHO WANTED US TO CALL HER AND START TEACHING HER. 

We met with her 2 days later and while  explain that it’s important to go to church to get her answer about the truthfulness of our message she goes “oh…no, that’s not a problem. At all. I already know it is. I just need to do what I need to in order to get baptized.” WHAT?!?!?! We set a baptismal date with her there and then. She came to church and while there was asked if she was visiting..homegirl goes “nope, I’m here to stay!!!” :D I can’t even. I know that she was sent to us as a testimony that if we’ll do what Preach My Gospel and leaders ask us to do, our Heavenly Father will bless us, in His owns ways and in His own time.

Friday- I woke up, worked out, everything was fine…and then during studies I got sick. I “got sick” a few times :( as always it made me a little homesick. But it made me even more upset that we weren’t going to get to go out and work anymore. I hate knowing there are people who need our visits when we can’t make it. This work is so important to me now. Luckily, my district leader came over and gave me probably the most powerful, beautiful priesthood blessing I’ve ever had. I slept a few hours and we went back out to work!!! Everything was great and dandy until we went out in the boonies for a lesson. It was dark, there were dirt roads, no lights and no cell phone reception. We drove around on dirt roads for 40 mins haha. Yeah…Never ended up making it to the lesson. We decided going on dirt roads we don’t know at night might not be the brightest thing to do ever again. Ya live and ya learn ;p

Hesperia Zone

Sunday- church was so wonderful. Everyone was so welcoming and loving. I felt right at home :) One of our investigators (I hadn’t met yet) walked in and guess what??!?! SHE HAS A NUB (shorter arm) LIKE MY DADDY :D AAAAAAH! I LOVED HER INSTANTLY!!!!! I’m so excited.

I can’t wait to update you on life next week! I love yall. BE SILLY FOR AT LEAST 5 MINS EVERY DAY :)

-hugs-

Sister Toolan