Fw: Honduras uPs & doWNs

Hello everyone!

tHIS WEEk has been FuLl of uPS and DOwns!

UP...We made our own VG's :) see photos

Down...No baptisms! An off week for us but we are working hard.

We passed by a lady who had a fecha(discussion) for this Saturday but she wasn't their and neither did she come to church:( but we did have 5 investigators at church and it was a great time in church.  But the real treat was that we did a drama on the plan of salvation and it was incredibly powerful! My favorite part was at the end we all sang (as a congregation) "familias pueden ser eternas" (Families Can Be Together Forever) y it was absolutely amazing! The spirit was so strong. Those uPs are so high!

One bummer is we were teaching this couple and they needed to get baptized (like the rest of Honduras, living together) but they were progressing! Then the husband had increased his drinking and there were problems, he has been in the streets drinking since last Monday... :(  but the woman left him and went to her dads house about three hours away but she is going to get baptized up there :) because she knows its the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Other than that this week was pretty amazing full of spiritual moments and great lessons! I love talking about the Book of Mormon to people that are open to the idea that God gave writings to other people! Isn't it wonderful to also have the testimonies of prophets, seers and revelators in the Americas! 

Tell Johnny he's loved by Elder Ty Toolson and that I am praying for him and that I am with him in spirit and he is going to learn SO SO much from this hardship.

Hey Mom:) What's going on with football these days? Now your gonna have to watch espn and NFL network all day for me so you get the scoop on everything! Ya know what? I love trials!!! They make you feel terrible, but right when you feel you can't go any longer, when all the personal strength you have is drained, its in that moment that you stop, let your knees buckle from the pressure of life and you simply plead with the Lord. The atonement is real, lo hizo para que el nos pueda socorrar. I truly am so thankful for every bump bruise or gash I've ever had in my spiritual body. Something that Pres Dester related to me: The healing power of the atonement is like the healing of a cut. Many times in life we fall and most of the time we can pop up and just continue on completely fine, but sometimes, when we become more daring and able, our falls are much more dramatic, we get cuts, even gashes and we still expect to pop up and continue on. But what would happen if we did just that? Our skin could still heal itself... but infection would be possible, we wouldnt receive a restoration of our original body (or innocence.) Many times in life when we fall, we need to pop up and hobble over to the doctor, y what does he do? First he examines the wound, he might even take an x-ray if we are willing to look deep into our bodies to truly inderstand what we need to do. Finally he takes action. He cleans us, he digs deep and takes out every spec of dirt, rocks, grass, and then he stitches up. After we do physical therapy, to change and form ourselves into what the doctor has recommended. Many times we need our Savior, our all knowing doctor, to examine us, to tell us what we should do, and finally he cleans us. Never have shame to go to the doctor. When we are broken we are simply broken and only Christ can heal us. I love this gospel because we have a wonderful knowledge of the atonement. The atonement wasnt given to us for just the big things but EVERY THING that we need help with.

Well changes are this week so my emails might be late, I dont really know if I'm going or not but I guess we will alll have to wait and see;) Pray for us. May you all have an amazing week and make sure you are all writing your brothers or sisters if they are on missions. You need to write to them just as much as they need to write home.

Que le vaya bien!

Elder Toolson IV

No Stinkin'!

Hola Mi Amigos!!!

 

This week has been a great one!

It went by real fast starting with a quick Tuesday full of lessons! Something that i really like about my comp is that we WORK together. He teaches me so much but also makes sure that I don't feel too much like the student. He is very very complementary and we are always laughing! This week was full of contacting and dropping investigators that weren't progressing. That is the hardest part of missionary work right now, to say OK, we cant help you until you help yourself... it's actually much much much harder than you think. At least harder than I thought!! Anyways we continued on with our week and got another baptism for the twenty third, Right now we are focusing ourselves on part families and men so that we can get the priesthood goin down here. Honestly most all of investigators in the past are girls. There's a term down here called "mujerdocio" and man it hurts that the men are so caught up in their jobs/work that they forget their spirituality and leadership for their family, but its ok we are not down at all!

Something that I really have been smackin' myself in the head about is reading the Book of Mormon more alone. WHY DIDN'T I READ MORE BEFORE THE MISSION???!!!! The truth is that i thought i never had time, but if you ask my dad he can a test that i had a lot of time and i wasted it playing video games or watching TV, what a bummer!!! I hope you all can make the decision to read it more than just at family time. It needs personal investiture. If you want a testimony of the church of Jesus Christ, read the Book of Mormon. If you don't know if Joseph Smith is a prophet, read the Book of Mormon, if you're bored read the Book of Mormon, to have a knowledge of this book is priceless!!!  This past week I was reading the Bible a ton because many were wanting to challenge us, just "bashing" with people and it didnt really help a ton to be honest, haha! The people still disregard the words of Christ whether it be by his own mouth or the voice of my servants it is the same. I know I tweaked that scripture a little bit but I am a servant of Christ. I know he lives and that he established his church on the earth and that today it is here again. The Church of jesus christ of latter day saints is led by Christ. Read the Book of Mormon daily and know the Bible but never Bash!

Well...I STINK PEOPLE!  A bummer is that right now we have no water at our house! No water in our area!!! Today is our third day without water and wow I never realized how much we need water!But we have a pila(tank) so we are makin it work, little by little its goin down though! Hopefully the colonia(town) figures their problems out soon! Theres one colonia in our area that was without water for a full week! I have no clean clothes after today :((( so please pray for water para la victoria! The people get all mean/grumpy when their is no water haha hopefully we can brighten their day with the gospel. Please help us by simply praying for water, its a bummer without it.

I love you all have an amazing week! Mom and Dad HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!! You are still both very attractive;)

Love

Elder Ty Toolson

Photos:

I've been spoiled, the good people of Honduras love a Birthday Party!

Yes, they tried to shove me in the cake!  ha ha ... Feliz Cumpleanos

Elder Ty's Wonderful Week

 

Helloooo Fam & Friends,

What a wonderful week here in Honduras! Full of lots of walking and lots of contacting, but every aspect of the mission is wonderful! We had two days were every single one of our lessons fell through and we had to contact and get in a door to teach a lesson. We found some great people and then some others that were not so receptive! I know the Lord is preparing the elect and i love finding them and teaching them! I am still getting to know our area. Elder Roberts and I focused and taught in places close to the chapel, but me and Elder Meono are determined to invite all that live in our area to come unto Christ. Although there are people who live about a forty five minutes walk away they deserve the gospel and so we pick out certain days to go to certain areas that are super far and its awesome:)

We have two baptisms this Saturday and another one the next week, we are loving it out here! The language is coming along as well, but I did say something that was wrong... just wrong. There was a less active sister we were reaching out to during a hard time and I said my companion and I would comfort her but I used a word that here in Honduras it means an "intimate kind of comfort" and everyone was in SHOCK...Awkward silence... and no one would tell me what I said for like 2 mins because it was just  aaaarrrgghhh awkward!  It was Terrible!! Well that's what happened when a Gringo speaks Spanish in Honduras! I felt so bad.

Anyways don't have a lot of time unfortunately I wasted most of it staring at my family photos and how tan they were! You all look so beautiful! Thanks for the Birthday shout out photo and for the $$ Grams and Gpa! Love you! 

This Sunday was Fast Sunday and the testimonies were beautiful, absolutely beautiful! All were filled with the spirit and very inspired, I felt that many testimonies were meant for me to hear as well our investigators, so then we went to gospel principles and we had a wonderful lesson on obedience! At the end of the lesson one of our investigators raised his hand because he wanted to say something. He stood up and said "there are going to be two baptisms this week... but why not three?" He looked at us with a big smile and said "What stands in the way of my salvation" and sat down... WHOOOPP WHHOOOOPPPP!!! This guy is ready for baptism and I have been waiting for him to make that decision since the first time we taught him! It was a miracle for us because we had been fasting for him and for the other investigators that were close to baptism. The Lord answers our prayers and fasting is more than starving ourselves!! HAha I hope we all realize that the Lord is waiting to bless us, but god is a god of covenants and only through baptism and the temple do we receive the opportunities to be blessed. GO TO THE TEMPLE! It is the house of the lord and if you are not a member you can still go and walk around the gardens there is a peace there that is not of this world (john 14:27) (i think) ui hope we all have a great week and that we are constantly praying for and expecting miracles in our lives:) I love you all so much! Have a beautiful day!

Love

Elder Ty Toolson

Pray for Elder Roberts

Hey everybody, how we doin?? I hope we are fantastic, and that we are making time to enjoy this beautiful life we are given. But OOKKAYAAYYYY lets get down to the nitty gritty of the mishiiooooonnn=)

Alright first lets start Wedensday morn, because thats when stuff gets hectic! I wake up and i look at elder Roberts and he has a rash all up on his body and the man has a fever and has pain in his darn huesos (bones)! I just looked at him.... you got the dangue elder... and so we fuimosed rapido to the doctor and she was freaking out saying that my comp was going to die but that is just something I call Honduran exagerration. Something funny was that he had to pee in a cup and take some of his blood for a test and so a dude came and took the blood and pee, or urine for you formal people, and went to a clinic.. but the pee popped open and got all over the guy hahahahhahahahahah ah poor guy, it was some potent stuff i felt terrible for the guy but anyways we figure out that elder roberts has to be hospitalized for three days! But i got a new comp the next day so i was only with Elder Roberts for one full day at the hospital. I Love Him.

It was sad to say goodbye to him but I/we got through it and went to changes. My new Comp is an amazing elder named Elder Meoño! We were in the mtc together but he is my trainer technically so that is absolutely amazing and we are ready to baptize and strengthen our ward! The first couple of days were hard because i had to plan because elder Meoño doesnt know the area, but now we are on a roll! SATURDAY WE HAD A BAPTISM! YESSSS its wonderful to see someone take the eternal step of baptism! It was a wonderful service and we cant wait to get some more people to gain a testimony of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints=) 

That's all the time I have today but i know the church of Jesus Christ is truly his church. Faith is the first principle of his gospel and we gain our faith through action! Lets be members and people of action! I love this work and i echo the testimony of every missionary to ever serve a mission that this is his work! I love you all and am praying for all of you! Know you are loved and know that someone is praying for blessings and you are the answer to that prayer! Have a fantastic week!

 

Love

Elder Toolson  

Fw: Ty's week July 24th

 

Hello Everyone!

This week has been another amazing week in the mission! Its been great because we taught a bunch! We had a ton of references and a ton of new investigators and now we will see who will truly progress and embrace the gospel as the truth it is!!! Lets see we had a really good lesson with a guy named Freddy. We had been teaching his brother for over a month and one time we made a point to ask everyone if they wanted to listen to the message, i personally didn't think that Freddy would be interested, but he came to church! Man it was great to have him there! He told me he learned a lot about the spirit so that was great! He was a little timid to leave for teachers quorum but he eventually did. He will for sure get baptized! Another blessing was that we have a baptismal date with a guy named Jose but we couldn't find him for a week at his house. then Sunday rolled around and he showed up! Shirt and tie and smilin:) I say shirt and tie because usually he is wearing an unbuttoned shirt with his chest hair just flowing all over the place. He will be baptized this Saturday! All in all we had 11 investigators at church! That's the most me or my comp have had in the mission:)

The Lord is waiting to bless us everybody! The church is true, christ is our redeemer and Thomas S. Monson is his prophet! Its a beautiful thing to see a testimiony develop in our investigators. We taught tatiana again and she is so ready. She reads every day and even is starting to read about hte church history on the church website, we Told her to be careful with what she reads because most sites are false. She completely understood and told us that she could feel when it was truth or not. She had a lot of question about poligamy and homosexual relationships and me and my companion did great in answering those questions! We talked about the beauty of modern day revelation and how for every generation there is different cautions needed and she just ate it up! What a gal, she has a baptismal date for the 9th of august:)

Something that we are doing is focusing on getting help from less actives. We go over to less actives houses to share the gospel with them and then we ask for references! Its great because as they are helping us they are also building their testimonies! They then come out with us to contact and they always bear their testimony and it makes me just cry. I love this gospel. I testify that the lord qualifies us for this work. I know that i am a small and simple thing, but through small and simple things great things shall come to pass!

I love you all BIGGGG SHOUT OUT TO ELDER SCHENK for being such a stud and being 20! He's an amazing missionary and i hope you all tell him happy birthday! Have a great week:)

Love

Elder Toolson

Ty's Week 5 alive!

HELLLLLOOOOO to ALL!

Yaayyyyy :) Did you say you sent a package... Any package by itself will be amazing! OKaaayyy what a week! My camera has problems uploading pictures but im pretty sure it is all these crappy computers, but don't worry everyone, one day I will send you all the pictures I have taken. You are gonna Love them :)

Well this week was absolutely wonderful! It was frustrating as well.  Sometimes I look around and feel like I'm home, but then sometimes I realize that my bed has been infested with ants, that I have sweat more in one day more than how much I would sweat at football practice, or sometimes I realize I smell funny all the time... Hahaha! True but this is where the Lord needs me and Im trying my hardest to Love and Serve as he would! Can't wait to get wet!  We only had four investigators at church today which was pretty depressing for us because that's the lowest number I've had! But whatever we will keep goin'! So this week was great because President Dester came to our zone to do interviews, MAN that guy is inspired. I love hearing the advice he had for all of us. As a mission we all have to start putting together 72 hour kits, and buy more water and even set aside more money for our emergency fund... signs of the times??? President said he loves the work me and Elder Roberts are doing and even our ZL's pulled me and Roberts aside and told us we were doing great! that was amazing to hear. I love my leaders in the church, not because of the praise but for their leadership and counsel, they are all inspired and called by God:)

As For teaching it was a rough week. It turned into a lot of contacting and a lot of lessons with people who didn't want to progress. One lady who is a gem feels like she cant break away from her religious roots so that was a bit of a bummer even though we tried for the better part of an hour to listen and make some sense for her. She wants the membership of this church and knows it's the full truth but feels torn. We still have about 4 super great investigators that are choo chooin along (get it its like a choo choo train =) 

On Thursday i was super thirsty so we went to this tiny snow cone shop and i casually bought two little bags of water. we then went behind his shop and sat down in some chairs.. then the guy comes out and says: 

guy: "y'all Americans?"

elders: " you bet your bottom dollar we are!"

guy: "im from Pasadena, born and raised"

We all had a nice chat, it was great to talk to the guy in English. He had a Texas accent and everything it was great! We are gonna go teach him sometime at where he works so I'm excited to talk to him again! it reminded me of Nic Mastergeorge who is serving in Houston. He's gotta teach a ton of hondurans because everyone here says that they worked construction in Houston haha.

Well, that was just about my week! It had a ton of ups with very few downs and that's what I love on the mission, there's never a way down when you are focusing in the service of our Lord =) We have sooooo much service and work hard but if you guys could pray for all the missionaries to find new investigators that would be amazing! We really gotta start teaching more:) I know the church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the church Christ established on the earth. it is true and that the Lord is hastening his work! Something we should all ask ourselves is if we individually are hastening the Lord's work? I hope all who are reading this can know that Our Heavenly Father Loves us, that he is the only one that knows us better than we know ourselves and he sent his Son to help us. I know that our past is just that and we can start anew every day if we take the Lords yoke upon us. Have an attitude of grattitude this week and the lord will bless you for it! I love you all!

Love

Elder Toolson IV

You and dad blessed me with your great advice this week...I love it and this is exactly what I have needed to hear! I love how the lord answers our hearts desires through loved ones, it makes the answers much more close to my heart and they penetrate me:)

I've changed, I am not perfect, but over the past year I finally have a testimony that is undeniably my own, that is set in Christ and his atonement. My life is beautiful because of the beautiful things Heavenly Father has given us. I miss you all more than ever but I am starting to truly love my mission.

Well, I dont have a lot more time to write you but I love you. Im going to refer to that awesome story from the Rookie you sent last week. It is crazy to hear about Bear Lake and see all of the pictures, Elder Jones one of the elders we live with has a ranch right by bloomington lake! I showed him the picture of Tiara and the swing and he freaked out haha! Home Sweet Home! And TIARA is  OFF to efy, am I right momma? Gooooooooo TTTTT -You Got This!!!

Week 3 for Ty ~ Dads birthday =)

Whattup everyone!!!

Its been another FANTASTIC week in the San Pedro Sula West mission! I still cant speak too well, but I've learned if you smile and shake peoples hand and listen really hard and then agree at the end, people like you! =) Its crazy how much just listening does!

This is my 3rd week in Honduras!!! Week three was much much better than week two! It was a slower week because of the World Cup and we had a seventy come! Elder Ochoa came and spoke to us about ¨Faith to Repent" It was awesome and I felt the spirit all throughout the meeting! Lets see the next day we had a good day of lessons! I'm so Lucky that our ward really likes me and my comp so we get references all the time and we visit the members all the time! Elder Roberts (my dad in the mission) focuses a lot on the members and then we get a ton of ideas & leads for references. Contacting is difficult because everywhere has been knocked multiple times. We knock for only about four or five huors every week and its usually effective! Lets see Thursday nothin huge happened just another great day of lessons and then my comp started getting intense nose bleeds everyday since then! We have gone to a doctor and gotten a bunch of mediction but we are in Honduras so who knows what will happen. =D This place is awesome! I have learned how to wash clothes by hand. I washed ten white shirts in an hour... thats pretty good so be impressed!

Oh Ya, I was almost violated by a HUGE dog here. Honestly, truly, the BIGGEST dog I've ever seen in real life! We go to a sisters house to wash our normal clothes and garments and she said to repay her we have to wash the dog, we say "Great, no problem!" We wash the dog and the dog was super mellow. Then we finish and my comp takes him back to the front. This dog is LARGE, my comp is 6´3¨and skinny-smallish like 140. So the dog just starts yankin' my comp around the yard and then the dog slips out of his leash! REX (the dog) starts goin crazy and jumpin all over us so I try to calm him down by holding his front legs up when he jumps up on me, but then he just tries to reproduce the earth with me and he alllmmmooossstttt touched my leg with his filthiness!!! When I figured out what was goin on I threw the dog off and just started saying "Que feo! Que feo!!" over and over and my comp was just laughin' his head off!!!

Well the beauty of this week was definitely Sunday. We had 9 investigators at church!!!!! WOW we loved it. The most Elder Roberts has ever had is 10 and we are gonna break that soon... I'm so excited! But ok, I wrote last week about my two favorite investigators and im just gonna stick with them because I'm pretty sure they are gonna get baptized soon! WHOOP WHOOP! I just wanna dunk someone in the water so bad its killin me! NO just joshin' kinda...these people are so ready to make covenants with the Lord and they just soak up everything they can about Jesus Christ and the restored priesthood and church on the earth.  Anyways, so SUNDAY! We had an investigator activity at 4:00pm that was to watch "The Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration" man that is one powerful movie and that is one amazing prophet! I love every second of Joseph Smiths life and I'm so thankful for a boy who was looking for the truth and had the faith to find! At the event we had about 15 investigators and about 30 people in all there! thats awesome =)

Today is my comps brithday! What a guy! Everone say happy birthday to him. I call him ¨roroRoberts¨ its pretty great. We are really becomin close, I think.  It's been a great p-day ( FYI preparation day is when they shop, do wash, write home and take care of all personal needs for the week). Because it's Elder Roberts birthday we went to Wendy's which was so nice to taste American food. I only have a couple minutes left so I gotta go but everyone I need to tell you that the Church of Jesus Christ is so true! This is the Church the Savior established when he was on the earth. The priesthood is so real and I know it is meant to bless all of us! Men hold the priesthood but by no means ARE they priesthood without women in their "life giving" calling we are NOTHING! I love every girl out there in the whole wide world=) Know how special you are and know how much Heavenly Father treasures you and dont think you are anything less than a daughter of god! Ever!

Gosh, Tiara in High School? I'm gonna come back and she will be sixteen! HOLY COWI thought the second coming would happen before my little sister would be at the date eligible stage of life haha! She is a light for many and as long as she has friends who will respect her and look up to her for standing by her values and beliefs she will be great! She should talk to Tucker because he was great at being everyones friend but never going anywhere he or doing anything he shouldn't have!  I would say Trey as well but trey had a lot of "good Mormon friends" his age that would completely support his decisions. Anyways, Tiara is my freaking idol she is such a stud, ha ha! Congrats Wave and go LCC Volleyball!

Guess what!!!! We went to a shopping center that is actually pretty nice and there was "Mane and Tail" shampoo and conditioner! There was only one so I sprinted over there and grabbed it and threw it in my cute little cart it was great... haha. 

Is dad at work? Did he have a good birthday? Or is today his birthday?  Mom please, you have to send me all family birthdays on a calendar cause I'm the worst at it! Sweet grams and 2gramps too! Okay I believe I am getting off soon so remember that I love you all ESPECIALLY dad on his birthday!!! I bet he is workin his tail off right now, probably skipped lunch and is just workin as hard as he can so he can go to Bear Lake and enjoy some time with you guys! =) Dad you are the man I cannot believe that you are 52? SO YOUNG! Im so glad you have at least another fifty years to live haha! Just kiddin but at least till all my kids are grown up alright? Your week sounds hectic but fulfilling, like a missionary! Thanks for always being my example. Anyways I love you dad with all my heart!

Have an amazing week everyone! Its hot out here, people are crazy, I've never been so out of my comfort zone, but I Love it because the church is true and that is all that matters. Share the Gospel with everyone because we all need to know our Savior better.

Love,

Elder Ty Toolson