December 28, 2015

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO WHEN YOU ARE A MISSIONARY??!!

Heyo everybody!!

First off, I hope everybody had fantastic Christmas!! I know mine was super great and filed with love and laughter! It really is so great to remember that our Savior really is a gift! The day after Christmas I hit my four month mark and it has been such a gift to have the opportunity to serve the Lord! I've learned lots and am always learning more! As far as work went this week, it's been a bit slow but still great!

So this week we went to go see Christian and he is super great! We actually saw him a couple times. The first time we taught a lesson and I tell you what that kid just soaks it up! He's so excited to learn more and he's just super great! The second time we surprise visited him and his older sister Dominique to see if they wanted to build a snowman. We almost built one but then Christian decided it would be way more fun if we had a snowball fight. Sister Tekurio and I have been training for this since we've had snow do we were prepared! Since Sister Tekurio is from Tahiti she gets all excited about the snow. But anyway, we ended up burying Christian later and we told Dominique we lost her brother, but of course she didn't believe us.

We want to go see Robert but his aunt wasn't home so we go in, but he's doing great and still going strong! Amy is also doing great! We didn't get to see her this week either because she was working like crazy. We tried going to her house to carol to her but she wasn't home then either. Next week will be a bunch fuller I think!

Anyways I love y'all bunches and I'm grateful for each and every one of you! I'm grateful for my savior and for his great atoning sacrifice. I know that I would be lost with out Him. I know Heavenly Father has a plan for each and every one of us and He loves us! I hope y'all have a fantastic New Years and I'll talk to ya next year!!

Sister Tomkinson

December 21, 2015

Sorry...a little late!   

Hey everyone!!

First off sorry I've been a huge slacker and haven't written a blog post in forever and ten years! Alright if I remember right, I already told you guys I got moved to Taylorsville and I was white washing. If I didn't say that then SURPRISE! Ok so my new companions name is Sister Tekurio and she is from Tahiti and she's been out 16 months so she's almost done! Ccrrraaazzzyyy! 

So it's been a bit of a slow start but things are picking up for sure! So we've been working with Robert and he's awesome! He's working toward the temple and he's sooo close!! Not sure when he'll for sure get to go but I think it'll be semi soon. He participates a ton in class and has lots of awesome insights!

Next is Amy! She's also working toward the temple! We took her to temple square on Wednesday and she loved it! I mean she's been there before but it was still amazing! We took her to the Joseph Smith museum and watched the new video for the First Vision and it was amazing and the Spirit was soooo strong! She has a friend on a mission that really got her going back to church and so she's waiting for him to get back to go through the temple and he'll be back in Januaryish and that's gonna be soon too!

Now we have Mandy! She is seriously amazing! She's so great and just so ready for the Spirit in her life! She has kids that like to go to scouts and a daughter that is going to start going to achievement days. They all went to the Christmas party and just loved it! Everybody is super busy this time of year so we won't officially get to start teaching her until after the first of the year but we've stopped by and shared a scripture with her a couple times. Just short and sweet visits. Also her kids love us so that helps too(: 

So a major event that happened this week was that we went on exchanges with our STLs. STLs stands for sister training leaders and they just help us be better missionaries and such. Now exchanges are when we just switch companions for 24 hours. So I went with Hermana Ochoa. Now I'm sure you saw the "Hermana" and so yes, she is a Spanish speaking missionary. Yeah I went to the Spanish speaking area for exchanges and it was wonderful! So we went to one of her investigators houses for dinner and there were a ton of people there because they were celebrating the death of her grandma a few years back. So they made tamales (they were delicious and it was my first time having them!!) and had a family gathering. So Catholics say a prayer for the person and they asked us to say it. Hermana Ochoa was flippin out cause she's like I CANT PRAY TO THE VIRGIN MARY BECAUSE CONFLICT OF INTERESTS. Of course this was all internal. But I guess they usually get somebody from their church to do it but last year they couldn't get anybody to do it so they asked the elders and any way she just said a regular prayer to Heavenly Father and asked for peace and other good stuff and they said it was perfect. But any way after that there was one kid there that was golden! He's been going to church with his friends and he was sitting there testifying to his family about how great he feels at out church and how much more he learns and he loves that we split up and go to different classes and he's amazing!! (Sorry for the run on sentence I was really excited) but anyway he's not in either of our areas but he now has an English Book of Mormon (which was a miracle because he said he couldn't understand the Spanish one and the Hermanas don't really carry English ones but Sister Tom does so I had one and it was wonderful and he's super excited) anyway fun stuff!

So yeah miracles happen when you least expect them! I'm loving my mission, it's been an absolutely amazing, growing, spiritual, exciting, wonderful opportunity! God really does love each and everyone of us and wants to help us grow and learn. Sometimes we might disagree with His tactics, but He really does know what's best for us. We just gotta keep having faith and trusting in the Lord. It's not our job to do the heavy lifting, it's our job so seek out God the Father and Jesus Christ. I love you all and hope you have an absolutely wonderful Christmas!

Sister Tomkinson

November 9, 2015.......Miracles

Hey everybody!

This week has been break and crazy all in one! Everybody has been cancelling on us due to sickness and other reasons. But I've seen 3 major miracles this week!

Miracle 1: Angie King
Ok so we've been trying to get ahold of this woman since I've been here (2 and a half months!
)! On Thursday we were in her neighborhood (we are there 65% of the time because that's where majority of our work is) and we were walking by to go to some bodies house. We were gonna be about 15 minutes early so I asked if we should try again. Every time we go there she is super busy, doesn't know what her schedule is like, family in town, you name it and it's happened. Anyway after a prayer we decided to try again. So not only was she home, but she didn't have family in town, she knew what her schedule was like, and she had been reading up on Mormonism and her daughter suggested they learn more the day before! See now this is a woman I had a best 2 years experience with. We met her prolly my second week out. She didn't know what her schedule was like but she said she would call us. Me being a greenie, was super excited because I just knew she would call! My companion at the time, was not so excited because they never called. Well ya know what, she shot us a text apologizing saying her schedule was crazy but she wanted to meet with us. Shooting 2 months ahead, here we are, FINALLY with an appointment and I swear they are golden!

Miracle 2: Jason Hook
This is another guy we've been trying to get ahold of for forever and ten years! He lives way out there and there aren't very many people in his area so we don't end up over there very often. When we've been over there it been semi late so he's been going to bed because he gets up super early or he's been sick. He's had the lessons before but it's been awhile. The awesome thing was.... HE WAS AT CHURCH ON SUNDAY! We were able to set something up with him and everything! So that's pretty neat.

Miracle 3: McGary family
So earlier that night we had an appointment at 8 o'clock with this one kid. We get there and he's not home. We start going to other places and seeing other people and by this point it is about 8:30. We got a call from one of our bishops telling us about this family that just moved into his Ward. The father is less active but wants to go to church and his wife and daughter aren't members but want to look into it. They like the idea of families being together forever and being sealed in the temple. After we got off the phone with our bishop and looking at our schedule and trying to figure out when we are going to go see them, we look at their address and I kid you not, WE WERE 200 FEET FROM THEIR HOUSE. So we go to the door and we baby knock because it's super late and they have no idea who we are and no answer. We can hear stuff going on inside but we semi decided to come back another time. But no, the Spirit had other plans because all I heard in my head I FEAR NO MAN and WE WERE SEMT HERE FOR A REASON. So we knocked again, but an actual knock. They opened the door and were super excited. They said they have lots of questions but are really looking into it. So we set up an appointment and we're going to see them this coming week!

The Lord works in mysterious ways and it's all in his timing. The important thing to remember is that faith in God includes faith in His timing. We really do have to learn how to endure the storm because the deepest sorrows have brought forth the greatest joys. A mission is the best choice I've ever made. I don't understand why Heavenly Father wanted me to go so bad or why Utah, but some things we don't ever really understand. All I know is that it truly is a blessing, even when it's freezing outside and were stranded in the dark trying to figure out what to do next. The church is true, the book is blue, and Moroni is on the ball!

Sister Tomkinson

November 2, 2015

Hey everybody!

Sorry I've been slacking! There's lots of good stuff happening and being a missionary is pretty sweet! Erm, I don't even remember what I said in my last post because I don't remember what my last post was! 

Alright so this last week has been bombin! We picked up 4 new investigators! We also helped a woman named Denise Ann stop smoking so she can be baptized! Woot woot! So Sister Wiley is one of our new investigators and she is golden I swear! We taught her about the restoration and she just ate it up! We asked her to be baptized and she said yes before we finished the question! Her husband is LDS but she grew up Catholic. She has a 3 year old grandson living with her and when we taught her the Spirit was so strong and that kid PASSED OUT! She said that never happens!

Another one is Laticia. We met her when we were walking home for lunch. She was on her porch smoking and we just started talking with her and we ended up teaching her about the Book of Mormon and she was super excited! So that was pretty neat! We went back and taught her the restoration and she loved it also! So those guys are awesome!

Also Halloween was pretty great, too! We had to be in by 6 but it wasn't too bad! We had a zone activity in Stansburry which consisted of a ton of volleyball and basketball. We also played mofia which was pretty fun. We were supposed to carve/paint pumpkins  but that never happened. So the elders that brought 14 pumpkins were trying to stuff them in all the other cars and it was pretty great! We also had a pretty awesome dinner appointment with the grim reaper so that was good! Also we got locked out of our apartment again and I was the one to brake in again so there's a video of that too. Anyway, love y'all tons and more to come next week! The church is true, the book is blue, and Moroni is on a ball!

Sister Tomkinson

October 5, 2015

Sorry for the late one this week!  I'm still figuring this out!  I think I have it!!!   For some reason the pictures didn't come in.  I'll figure that one out!  PS.....You are so welcome Sister Tomkinson!

Hey everybody! 

Sorry last week was missed! I sent my post to my sweet mama and it was blank for some reason! So shout out to you Mom for updating my blog for me! So two weeks of stuff to catch up on, I don't even know where to start! Well I got to go to the general women's meeting and the Saturday morning session of conference at the conference center so that's pretty exciting! We had pretty good seats for general conference, too!

So this week has been busy! We've been working towards 30 lessons a week and we get soooo close! We got 28 lessons these last couple weeks! Anyway is been way good! Last week was also Sister Rice's birthday! So we were pretty much having a party all weekend! I got her a Wonder Woman onesie to go along with my batman onesie! So essentially, life is great! Teaching lots and loving the work!

Earlier this week our zone leaders called us with a challenge. They told us to summarize our testimony in three words. They gave us examples like "God is love" or "church is true" or "repentance is real". Anyway, you get the jist. So I've been thinking of mine and I've heard some other great ones, too. I also heard, and I think this is great, "Angels round about." I finally figured mine out before conference and the more I listened to conference the more my three word testimony seemed so perfect for me. "Christ is key." Everything I believe and everything I've experienced, everything seems to come back to Christ. We are able to be forgiven because of the Atonement. We are able to be comforted because of Christ. Every good deed we see shows us the true love of Christ. We're not perfect but we can be perfected through Christ. After everything He has done for me there is no way I can ever even begin to repay Him. So I want to challenge you guys to sum up your testimony in three words. It really helps you dig down and find out what you really believe. It helps you find the core of your testimony. Or at least it did for me. Everybody is different and nobody is perfect. There is perfection in imperfection and that's the way it is supposed to be. We aren't supposed to be perfect, so that is why we have CHRIST! Anyway I love you all and I hope you find your three word testimony! Please share it with someone when you do! It's an awesome experience and it'll help you feel that much closer to your Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ! Until next week! 

Sister Tomkinson

Hello Everyone September 21, 2015

Hey everyone!
It has been a CRAAAZZYYY week!! There have been lots of missionary
firsts! On Monday I broke into a house. It was my house but all the
same. And probably the strangest, we had a tooth fall down the drain.
We also had a guy brake into our house for us before that. Also a
first. We committed somebody to baptism!! Woot woot! I had my first
zone meeting... And gave my first zone training. I saw fireworks this
week. Not just baby ones either. Like BOOM *oh my lanta I felt that!!*
kind of boom. So this week has been real crazy! Also the new season of
Doctor Who came out this week and I can't watch for 18 months so that
happened. Anyways...

Ok to expand on the braking into our house thing... So this was on
Monday. We had gone on splits because sister soelberg and sister
rice's car was being lame. So sister rice and I had just realized
neither of us had a key to the house. Soooo we tried braking in with
an old credit card that I had. This was sister garcia's idea. She my
senior couple mama. Anyway so we're working on this and we cannot for
the life of us get in. Then this guy yells across the street, "you
guys alright?" We wave him on, because ya know, nothing to see here.
Just 2 missionaries braking into a house. Then sister Garcia gets the
idea that he might know the credit card trick. So I yell across the
street plus some because he's a ways a way at this point, "HEY! Do you
know how to brake into a house using a credit card!?" So he comes over
to help us. Yeah he didn't actually know how to do it. Bbuuuuuttt
luckily earlier that day I had opened my window!! Except my window is
a ways up. But it just so happens that the guy who lives next to us
has a razor (jeep type thing but cooler). So the guy climbers on top
of that and jumps through my window and let's us in. THANK YOU MATT!
Turns out he was already a member. Good thing to because little did he
know we woulda baptized him! Anyway later that day when I was back
with sister Wilcox, we realized neither of us had a key either....
Soooo I went through the window. Yes there's a video. Shoot me an
email with a request and I'll send it to ya!

Next on the missionary firsts is a tooth down the drain. This was
Tuesday. For all of you that don't know, i have a fake tooth on a
retainer thing. Anyway to clean it I just use my tooth brush. Soooo
the tooth broke and fell down the drain! *dramatic gasp* I'm laughing
way hard and my companion is having a semi panic attack. At this time
I'm or allying the time the tooth went through the tuba. So I call
elder Garcia to see if he has plumbing skills. Turns out he does and
he safely retrieves the tooth! He didn't know he was gonna get paid
but turns out there was a quarter, three dimes, four nickels and a
pair of nail clippers that were all completely black and smelled like
death. The tooth was not black and yes I cleaned it and super glued it
on my retainer. Boom crazy day. Also the day we got somebody to commit
to be baptized!

Now the fireworks I feel aren't a huge deal but still kinda neat. That
being said we gonna skip that one and move onto bigger events. I don't
know what was running through the zone leaders head when they asked
sister Wilcox and I to give a zone training. At this point I was a
week old, didn't know anybody, and slightly panicked. I mean I tell
you what I don't know why they wanted a week old greenie to train
missionaries that have been out for many much more months than me. But
turns out they did. It was on discouragement vs. hope. Not the topic
isn't really that big of a deal, it's what happened before that. Oh my
lanta all the embarrassingness! We were the last ones to do the
training and so were walkin up there and sister Garcia decides to grab
my hand to tell me good luck. Yeah that was all fine and good until I
tripped over a garbage can. I kid you not. This was in front of the
whole zone. Luckily there wasn't that much garbage but I'm still
embarrassed and everybody's laughing. Then we did the training. All I
can say is that afterwards I felt like Fat Amy after the acapella
additions in pitch perfect. *crushed it* anyway afterwards I was
looking for a garbage to throw away a muffin tin thing and this sassy
lady from a senior couple I didn't even know starts laughing and says
"I know where a garbage is!!!" Well played senior lady, well played.

Needless to say, it has been a crazy, fantastic, obnoxious, uplifting,
save me I'm surrounded my crazy, I love everybody, let's baptize the
world! week. I've seen the hand of Heavenly Father in ways I've never
seen before. Sometimes the timing is so right that there is no way to
deny that it wasn't from above. The Lord knows who needs That guidance
and he'll find a way for them to have it. There have been moments that
I have struggled, of course, but the thing is, I know why I'm out
here, I know that the gospel is true, I know that Heavenly Father has
a plan for each of us. I know my plans don't even compare to the plans
of my Heavenly Father. I've tried making my own plans and I think it's
safe to say that I'm not in Italy right now teaching English. I am
exactly where I am supposed to be, right here in Tooele, Utah serving
the Lord. Not my will, but thine, be done.
I love you all!
Sister Tomkinson
Sent from my iPad

Hello Everyone from Tooele UT!

Ok everybody it's been awhile and lots have happened!! I went to the MTC and i absolutely loved it!! It wasn't what I expected but I also didn't know what to expect! My companions name was sister Kemble And I just loved her! She is in the same mission as me so I'll see her and transfer meetings and such. I roomed with two other wonderful sisters named sister Farley and sister Arrington. They are both currently in the Bentonville mission right now and probably baptizing everybody!! The elders in my district were seriously all fantastic also! Most went to the Bentonville mission too. They are elders green, McDonnell, Kealer, and bedolla! I miss them like crazy! Two elders came to my mission and they are both fantastic! They are elders Stephen and Tyler! It's pretty great because elder Stephen is in my district again!  Moving on to more important matters....

Soooo I am currently in Tooele. My companions name is sister Wilcox and she's fantastic! This is her last transfer and is going home soon! I live with two other sisters and I flippin love them all!! There is sister rice and she does sign lango so that's pretty neat. I mean how neat is that!? Then there is sister soelberg! She is also fantastic and pretty much the queen of street contacting!  Anyway they are great!.... On to other matters...

So my companion and I are opening up a new area. Before we came sister rice and sister soelberg were covering one stake that consisted of TWELVE WARDS!! Yes twelve.... That's insane. Buuuut there was a stake split (hallelujah) and so now they cover six wards and we cover six wards. We got here on Tuesday and have just been trying to get to know the area and people and such. Yeah I can't keep names and stories straight it's out of control. We do everything on iPads and that's all good and dandy but we don't have wifi in our apartment. Soooo when we are planning it gets tricky. Most of the time we go mooch off of the wifi at the church.

Also I got to go to temple squAre twice this week! One was for an appointment for my companion and the other we got to take a family of investigators and it was seriously amazing! We watched a video about families and I swear in that moment I saw them being baptized! My companion says I say that about everybody sooooo.... 

Ok imma end on a funny and maybe a spiritual at the end... We'll see. So last night I kept waking myself up because I was talking in my sleep. But the thing was I wasn't just talking in my sleep... I WAS TEACHING IN MY SLEEP!! I kept waking up and thinking "why am I teaching laying down? That's not appropriate missionary behavior!" So yeah apparently my life revolves around missionary work and that's good and exciting! 

Good timber does not grow with ease,

The stronger the wind, the stronger the trees.

The further the sky, the greater the length.

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow

                           Douglas Malloch


Until next week! 

Sister Tom

Hey everybody!! I'll be leaving in a few short days and I thought I should catch up everybody on my summer!! Let me just start by saying I have had a fantastic summer! I got the chance to go down to Idaho for almost a whole month to see my mom, sister, and brother. My dear big ol' brother, Jake, got married and in doing so, I gained a new sister!! So shout out to Shalimar! I also got the opportunity to meet 3 of my adorable nephews! Ayden (sorry if I butchered the spelling Shalli), Ruben, and Logan! Logan is Angie and Ryan's and Ayden and Ruben are Jake and Shalli's!

I also got the opportunity to meet some fantastic people while down in Idaho! So here's a shout out to Brittney and Anthony Puckett! We made some delicious and of course unhealthy food! We also went to the Rexburg temple to do ceilings! It was my first time doing ceilings but it was super neat! This is a bit out of order but I got to go the Logan temple to receive my endowment (I did this first before the ceilings of course)! While I was in Logan I got to see one of my old friends Jackie Tew! So here's another shout out! I got some crazy shopping done and I can honestly say I now have more fancy clothes than I ever have had in my entire life! I suppose that isn't saying much considering my usual wardrobe... but all the same.. SOO MANY MISSIONARY CLOTHES!!

After Idaho, both of my sisters, Angie and Kayci, and their chilluns all flew back up to Alaska! It was a ton of fun having most of the cousins together! They finally started liking each other towards the end of the week(;  I got to have some one-on-one time with Kollin and we went and got some ice cream and had a jolly ol' time! We went up to Whale Pass and did some fishing. Of course my daddy-o out fished Angie and I put together! Zed was super excited to use his knife to gut fish (which we all did a mental fist pump and let him)!

Anyway it was super hard to see them go and realize that the next time I see them they will all be older and doing crazy things! I know I'm going to be bawling when I leave home. This last week at home is pretty much just quality time with my Alaska family. I had to say goodbye to Sophie last night, also. I'm also studying the scriptures like crazy and of course Preach My Gospel. As that one quote goes, "A missionary is somebody who leaves their family for a short time so that others may live with their families for eternity" I know I am embarking on a mission that will not only bless me, but bless my family also. I am truly grateful that I have the opportunity to serve even if it means leaving the most important thing in my life for a bit. I will have my family for eternity and that is exactly what I want for others. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and a necessary mile stone on the way to eternity. I love you all and the next post will be officially from Sister Tomkinson!

Until then,
Future Sister Tomkinson