Monday, January 30, 2017

week 74

Hey! Things here are pretty good, I have been feeling pretty good this week so all is good health wise. Things with my companion are really good, he is one of my favorite comps I have had yet. The only problem is we both are kind of passive with each other. Like neither of us like to make decisions, so we both always say "no! Whatever you want to do!" I mean, for the work of course we go hard! I just mean for like what we are going to eat that day and stuff haha.

Mario's daughter started studying this week so that was a crying shame. I think she is going back to elementary school with her mom, they just didn't have the chance to go when they were growing up. I'm not really sure what the story is, I'm just sad because it means neither of them can go to church for a year which means they won't really be able to progress. They are studying here in Teleman but can only study on Sundays. They tried to find a different time slot but couldn't. If the daughter can't come to church, she can't get the attendance she needs to be baptized.  And Mario's wife needs to get ready so she can go to the temple with him and be sealed in December. I don't really know what to do about it. We are trying to find a solution. We will talk with them again tomorrow. They are a special family, I wish I could be there when they get sealed. That's the hard thing about going home, you miss all the awesome things that happen with the people you taught.

Something exciting is we started teaching an English speaking investigator! He is this guy that has taken English classes and understands just about everything perfectly. It is pretty weird teaching him. English is hard haha. President of the Rama (Branch President) says that he only wants to practice his English and doesn't really care about the church, but we are going to give him a couple more citas and see what he says. The President of the Rama is really pilas as a president (pilas is like where you are a stud at something, so pilas in church means they do everything they are asked to dobut he doesn't offer a lot of missionary support.

Things here are good but we are having a hard time finding people who will really progress. We have people that talk really encouraging but never make the final step to be baptized. But we will keep working! We had some new people show up to church this week so we are going to go visit them and see what they thought. 

Mom and Dad, you both asked if we had heard the announcement about the changes in the missionary schedule. ("Possible changes and flexibility in the daily schedules of the LDS Church's full-time missionaries were announced Wednesday... Missionaries — in counsel with their respective mission presidents — now can customize their schedules to accommodate safety, local culture, health, productivity and other circumstances." You can read more about it here.I think we are going to talk about that in our meeting next week. Hopefully it doesn't cause any more problems with obedience. It should help here though because normally after 7, unless we have a cita, nobody will accept us. We are thinking about setting early morning appointments, maybe doing all our studying at night and eating breakfast and going out right after. But we don't want to change anything until President tells us. We are pretty excited for it, we just have to make sure we get everything in and it will be a good day.

Today I am in my area, we played soccer in La Tinta, then cut our hair with an investigator, and now we are writing. Here in twenty minutes or so we are going to go make pancakes with some recent converts and an investigator. The pancakes here aren't quite the same as at home... I am craving some of dads Swedish pancakes right now, haha.

My spiritual thought comes on an experience that I had with our investigator in English, His name is Victor. I was sharing my testimony at the end of the first lesson and was telling him that we are here because we know the Gospel is true. I started to say all the usual stuff about how we left our family and studies and friends because we want to share what we know, but it hit me in the middle of saying that stuff - this mission is not a sacrifice in any way. I am extremely blessed to be able to give two years of my life for the Lord. I wish I could give more. 


us, tinwotz bayaq´ xnawom inch´ool eerik´in se´ li loq´laj aatinob´aal a´in, ab´ana chinaakuy eb´ li neke´xnaw li qeq´chi´ xb´aan naq ink´a nanaw chi us xtz´iib´ankil se´ qeq´chi´. Ab´anan ninaw rik´ink chi anchal inch´ool naq li JesuKristo nokoxra ut naxnaw li qu ut li qach´ool. Ninaw naq a´an kixtoj li rix li qamaak re naq tookolek wi toochalk rik´in a´an ut naqaq´axtesi li qach´ool choq re a´an. Ninaw naq ka´ajwi xb´aan lix tojb´al li rix li qamaak li JesuKristo tooruq chi xtawb´al li qakolb´al, ut maa´ani chik nachalk li qakolb´al. Ninaw naq maaka xwankil li kamk sa´ qab´een xb´aan xq´axtesihom li JesuKrstio. Junelik nokoruuk chixyotb´al li qach´ool ut chixjalb´al li qayuam, ut Li Yos ut Li JesuKristo junelik nokoxra ut naraj chi qilb´al wichik. Jwal osob´tesinb´ilo xb´aan naq nokoruuk chi wank rik´ineb´ ut rik´in li qajunkab´al chi junelik q´e kutan. (Ok, I am going to share a little bit of the knowledge of my heart in this holy language, but endure with me those that know Kekchi, because I don't know how to write very well. But I know with all of my heart that Jesus Christ loves us and knows us and our hearts. I know that He paid for our sins so that we can be saved and come with Him and surrender our hearts for Him. I know that only through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we find our salvation, and only through Him comes our salvation. I know that death will have no power over us because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We can always repent and change our lives, and God and Jesus Christ always love us and want to see us again. We are very blessed because we can be with Them and our family forever.)

I love all of you! Have a good week!

Love, Elder Toolson

P.S I forgot to take pics this week...I'm sorry...

2 comments:

  1. I love this! He is an inspiration to me. How awesome is it that he realizes what a blessing it is to serve the Lord. Keep up the good work Elder Toolson.

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  2. God speaks through you Joe! You are not only inspiring folk where you are but also many of us here at home. thank you. Diane

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