Thanksgiving and Christmas Sweaters Dec 1, 2016

Heyo friends and family!!

I hope you all had a glorious Thanksgiving! Everything has been so good over here I'm just loving it. This past week we had exchanges and I got to be with a couple of my favorite people... SISTER MCREYNOLDS AND SISTER THETFORD. It was glorious. But also other stuff happened!

JENLEI GOT MARRIED AND BAPTIZED. Oh man it was great. Most of her family aren't members and she got up after and bore her testimony and it was just great. What was even better is that Bishop served his mission on her island (Chuuk... I dunno if that's actually how you spell it) so while he was baptizing her he was able to say the thing in chuukese and the spirit was just so strong! Now Jenlei's family is going to start meeting with the missionaries!! GGGAAAHHH. Guys the gospel is just good.

SAMANTHA. Oh boy she's doing really good too. So her kiddos are all members and so is her husband. So she was meeting with the missionaries about 6ish months ago and she's had all the lessons a couple times so we've been reading the Book of Mormon with her and trying to help her to understand it more. She is from mainland china so she reads the Book of Mormon in traditional Chinese while we read it in English so we can answer any questions she has and discuss it. 

DAVID. He's doing great as always. He's planning on baring his testimony this coming Sunday! On thanksgiving we went to his house and built a snowman and had a snowball fight. It was good fun. He is just on fire though and an all around good kid. He helps his grandma lots. It's just super cool to see how much he loves the gospel at a young age.

Guys I'm just so grateful for the gospel. It truly is a blessing to see how it blesses lives and gives hope and such a crazy world. I know the Savior lives and that He loves us. I hope you all have a fantastic week! Keep being great and know that I love you all!

November &, 2016

Heyo World out YONDER!

So we got TRANSFER calls this week and I will be staying in my area!
My companion is getting transfer and my new companion is Sister
Poepoe. So fun fact me and Sister Poepoe went to BYU-H together and we
never thought we'd get one companions! Anyway I'm super excited!

So we picked up a new investigator this week! His name is Jesse and
he's awesome! Missionaries were teaching him about a year ago and then
he moved. His girlfriend is a member and they are pretty great. Jesse
hasn't really grown up religious or even spiritual so he's kind of
starting from the beginning. When he was being taught before he was
going to church pretty consistently and he said he really liked it!
Then stuff got in the way like work and other random stuff. He said
he's ready to start coming back and learning more!

Anthony is doing fantastic! Usually when he comes to church (which can
is pretty much every week) he only goes to sacrament meeting. THIS
WEEK HE STAYED AND WENT TO GOSPEL PRINCIPLES. We had a lesson with him
later that night and he said he really liked it! He had some questions
about what was taught and we were able to talk them out and help him
figure out some more stuff.

ROD AND JENLEI. Ok so confession, they aren't in my area anymore and
I'm not teaching them anymore. BUT I am kept very informed because of
the missionaries that are there and because of them. So Rod bore his
testimony in church on Sunday! Also Jenlei has a baptismal date for
November 18! She is also getting married that same morning!

Sorry there was a ton of excitement in that section, but man the
gospel is just awesome. It's really amazing to get to see how the
atonement can change lives when we let allow it to. I feel like I have
learned so much out here and am so grateful for the opportunity to
serve! I know the Lord loves and He knows and loves us individually. I
love you all and hope you have a great week!

October 3, 2016 Conference and Mystery Busses!

Heyo World Out Yonder!
The Taylorsville North Central Stake is awesome! Usually when we
whitewash (take two missionaries out and put brand new ones in) it
takes awhile to pick up the area, but this time it's going pretty
quick! This week we've been working on meeting with our ward mission
leaders, bishops, and relief society presidents to see how we can
help. We've been able to set up a few new appointments for next week
as well!

The first person we met was David. He was baptized not too long ago so
we're just doing the after baptism lessons with him. He's a super
sweet kid and he remembers quite a bit! He likes to share jokes so we
made a deal that we would tell jokes after the lesson.

We also met John. He's an awesome guy working on coming back to
church. The elders hadn't taught him before so he's starting with us.
He has a daughter named Emma and she wants to start going back to
church as well. She loves going to mutual and young womens.

Now this guy, Anthony Evans, is a solid individual! He wants to get
the priesthood and get to the temple. When we got there he set the
expectations! He said, "One if my past missionaries said 'if' I get
the priesthood. I told him what do you mean 'if'?? This is a 'WHEN'
thing." We said, " OH GOOD. WE ARE WHEN MISSIONARIES." So yeah,
Anthony is a pretty cool guy.

Ok so now for the subject line. So we got to attend the Saturday
morning session of general conference and it was Sister Greene's first
time! Now we don't have a car anymore so we ended up taking the tracks
to get there. We don't really know anybody so we walked to the tracks
station which was a ways off. So on the way back we saw a bus station
and decided to do that because we were both super tired. Weellll... we
might have gotten on the wrong bus and ended up by my last apartment
headed the wrong way! So we went to my last apartment and watched
conference there.

Through all the shenanigans of white washing and all, I wouldn't take
it back for anything. This Gospel has blessed my life and I know the
Savior lives and loves each and every one of us. The road isn't always
as smooth as we'd sometimes like, but it is always worth it. I love
you guys and hope you have a great week!

Sister Tomkinson

 

September 26, Transfers and Such

I'm a week behind so this week you get 2!!!!!  She is such an awesome missionary!  I'm one proud mama!

Heyo Everybody!

This week was superb, but sadly I am getting transferred out of the 

Tongan stake! I am going to be pink washing (when they kick elders

 out and put sisters in) the Taylorsville North Stake. My new companions 

name is Sister Greene.  I'm sad to be leaving so many awesome people and 

to be leaving Sister Afungia again!

This week we found out that Crystal got married and so now she is

 on date for October 15! She was taught back in Washington and for

 some reason there was some miscommunication or something and she

 didn't get baptized there. She is excited to be baptized and absolutely loved 

women's conference!

Siua and Honoree are doing awesome! Siua went through the temple 

two weeks ago and received his endowment! It was the first time 

Honoree had been back in awhile and she had a really neat experience

 while she was there!

Sheri is doing awesome too! We hadn't seen her in awhile because 

she was all sick and afflicted but she's better now! She told us she 

wanted to go to church this week as soon as we got there. She basically

 bore her testimony to us telling us that when she went to church when 

she was younger she was happier and she's feeling happier now that 

she's starting to go back!

Also something fun that happened was that we got to got to two 

propinara programs this Sunday and one of them was basically all in 

Tongan! All these little chilluns got up there and just raddled stuff off. 

Generally the younger generation can understand Tongan but can't 

speak it so it was really neat to see these super young kiddos speaking 

Tongan even though I had no idea what they were saying. 

It has been so great serving here! When I'm at church I don't know 

what they are saying but I can feel the Spirit and that is so neat because 

the Spirit speaks all languages. I feel I've learned a lot while out here 

and have been blessed to be here. Heavenly Father truly does know 

what we need when we need it. I love you all and hope you have a 

great week and enjoy General conference!

Siua and Honoree 

Crystal from the Marshall Islands 

Sister Afungia fell asleep in the car

 

           

All the Sisters in the zone after temple day at Bountiful















The most promising door I have ever knocked on... of course it was a member

Elder Angsioco forgot his name tag... but I always carry and extra!

The zone!

I saw this sign and chuckled a bit

Sister Tomkinson

Golden Investigator September 11

GUYS. WHAT A SPECTACULAR WEEK.
Ok so we have been working like crazy to find new people to teach and
it has been great! We found two new people! Woot woot. Also one of our
people went to the temple and he and his wife are going to get sealed
soon. So yeah Tongan stake is fun! Sorry I haven't written in a
while.... I'm repenting I promise😁

So this week we found Jenley and she is soooo awesome and way
prepared! She is from Guam and came to America to avoid an arranged
marriage. She has heard about the church her whole life but hasn't met
with missionaries because her family wouldn't let her. But anyway her
fiancé (Rod) is a returned missionary and has been teaching her stuff
and she has been coming to church when she doesn't work. She loves the
idea of families being together forever and told us she wants to be
baptized and sealed to Rod! She told us that she feels something is
missing and she thinks this is it. It was way exciting to see the
difference in her between just the first and second visit! We're super
excited to keep working with her!

Our other new person were teaching is Sherri. We found her looking
through our area book. So she actually has no Tongan connections but
decided she wants to try to the Tongan ward anyway. She grew up in the
church but was never baptized. She told us she is ready for some
positive and wants to go to church and get baptized! She is super
sweet and we're excited to work with her!

Last week we found somebody new to teach as well. Her name is Crystal
and she is also super prepared!! She is from the Marshall Islands but
has lived over here for awhile. She met with missionaries over in
Washington but didn't end up getting baptized. This time as we were
teaching her she told us she knows it's all true and wants to get
baptized! She will be getting married here in a few weeks and wants to
get baptized after.

We have seen so many miracles out here and I feel so blessed to be
serving where I am. I'm so grateful for the atonement and how it
enables us to change and grow. I'm grateful for all of you and hope
you all have a fantastic week! Love ya!

Sister Tomkinson

August 15,2016

HEYO everybody!!

Sorry I've been a slacker! Feel free to get on me about that anytime I
promise I'll work on it! Ok anyway... So we got transfer calls on
Saturday and I will be leaving Tooele. Saddest day ever. I've been in
this area for 6 months now and I have lots of family here now. BUT. IM
GOING TO THW TONGAN STAKE. That's right, you read it correctly. This
kid is going to be covering 9 Tongan wards. Woot woot! It now makes
sense why I've had so many poly companions (I've had 5 polys and 3
white comps). I am also getting my greenie back... SISTER AFUNGIA.
We've only been apart for 6 weeks but I guess we really were meant to
serve together!

Everybody here is doing great! This weekend we had stake conference
and Elder Chidester from the 70 came out and made a couple visits to
some of our people! So here's a really neat miracle. Elder Chidester
told the stake presidency that he wanted to visit 2 families while he
was out here. So the stake presidency has been praying about this for
awhile. Last week President Frailey called us into his office (we
thought we were gonna have to speak) and asked us who we thought they
should visit. We both decided that they should visit the Kenecht
family. Afterwards... We were talking to President Frailey about how
they chose names and they said that last week they had narrowed down
the names of the whole stake to 3 and the presidency went separate
ways and prayed about it. They all came together and they all got the
same answer. The Kenechts. So it was super cool because the Spirit
told us the Kenechts and the stake presidency! When we visited them
Travis was tearing up and saying it was an answer to his prayers!
Travis and Stacy are both close to baptism and even more sure about
it!

Man, I know this work is true. I know the teachings of Christ are
absolutely true. I have never been happier than I have been out here
and I know it is because it is of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I've
have been so blessed to see so many miracles out here and especially
this area. Tooele North Stake will always have a big piece of my
heart. It's the small and simple things that make the difference. It's
like when you're baking and you keep the thing in the oven for 2 extra
minutes, it's a small thing but it is necessary and it makes all the
difference! It's the same with prayers, scriptures and church. By
small and simple things are great things brought to pass! Remember you
are sons and daughters of the most high God and he loves you with and
individual love. He sees you as beings with infinite potential and He
loves you for who you are and where you're at today. It's never to
late and it's never too early to follow the Savior. I love you all and
hope you have a glorious week!

Sister Tomkinson

JUNE 13, 2016 (Just a little behind)

HEYO WORLD OUT YONDER!
This week has been glorious and soooo full of miracles! Well actually
the last couple week have been great.. Sorry I've been a slacker at
doing posts and stuff... BUT! We've had two baptisms in the past two
weeks and we have more coming up! My mission president came to the one
this past Saturday and there is a really embarrassing story to go with
it! But anyway I'll get to that later!

Ok so about a month ago we got a referral for a lady who just moved in
a few months ago. We went to go see her and she was real frustrated
about a bunch of stuff. But we kept on visiting her just to let her
know we loved her. Her husband isn't a member and wasn't at all
interested. He had a rough experience a few years back. Recently he
had some medical problems but he wasn't in Utah and so long story
short the elders there gave him a blessing and a bunch of other small
miracles have happened and he told us he wants to start working
towards baptism again! WOOT WOOT! Seriously a huge miracle!

We've also been meeting with this guy named Randy. He met with
missionaries awhile ago but something kept getting in his way. He
called us and was like can we set up a time to meet? I want to work on
getting baptized! Yes. Yes Randy we can do that. So he's been doing
great and just has a strong desire to learn and come closer to
Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ!

Another one is Katherine. So I've been in this area for close to 4ish
months now and we're set up so many appointments with her and her
family but they ALWAYS cancelled. Well she shot us a text one day
asking if we could meet and have a lesson. I almost cried! So we've
met with her a few times now and she wants to be baptized and she's on
date for July!

So we've had a couple weeks full of miracles! Now it's time for our
embarrassing story ... So my comp likes to put her mascara on in the
car and since I'm kind of a punk I always do quick turns and quick
stops when she's doing it just for funsies... Well we were headed to
Liz's baptism and she decided to wipe some on me when we got into the
parking lot before I could even park. So I stopped right in the middle
and I was trying to wipe it on her and she was trying to wipe it on me
and we were brawling (not angrily I promise) and so we look over and
we are stopped in front of a car and we see movement inside so we
hurry and park in a real parking spot and this car pulls up next to
us... And LO and behold it was President and Sister Palmer! We were
laughing sooooo hard! But anyway they were laughing too and I'm
president will never look at us the same... But liz's baptism was
great and Nathan's baptism was great last week so it's been glorious!

Missions are crazy but they are so much fun! It's amazing how much you
learn about the gospel and about the Savior! I am seriously loving it
because the gospel is amazing and it just blesses us so much! I'm so
grateful and blessed to have the knowledge that my family can be
together forever and that I get to share it with others! I hope you
all have a glorious week and here's some pictures! Love y'all!

May 19 PICTURES!!!!! A Day at the Temple!

Hello everyone!!!!!   Ashley sent some fun pictures from her mission so I thought I would share them on her blog!

April 25, 2016

Heyo everybody!

This week has been glorious! There has been lots of stuff happening
and Tooele is till great! So fun fact the high school has a song that
says forever and forever in Tooele. I think it's coming true... But am
I ok with it?? ABSOLUTELY. FOREVER AND FOREVER IN TOOELE. Anyways...

So this week we met a new investigator! His name is Barnabe. He's
pretty awesome. So we went to go contact a referral in this one
apartment complex and we weren't sure which building it was in so we
just parked somewhere off to the side. We went to the first building
we saw and Barnabe was standing there so we started talking to him! He
said he's never seen girl Mormons before. I think he really meant
sister missionaries because living in Utah there are Mormon girls
everywhere... But anyway! He said he wanted to learn more about the
church so we went and taught him on Saturday. Later he ended up
telling that when he saw us the first time he felt like he needed to
talk to us and that when we taught him the restoration he felt
something he hadn't felt before! We explained the Holy Ghost and he
said that makes sense. So yeah Barnabe is pretty great!

 Emily is also doing super great! She's just super pregnant... So
she's planning getting baptized as soon as she has her kiddo! She
always has her kids like three weeks early and that's about where
she's at right now so she said it'll be any day now. But yes, Emily is
awesome and we are way excited for her!

We also met with Wiggy and Vanessa. Those kiddos are on fire! Their
dad wants them to wait until they are twelveish to be baptized though,
so we are just praying that his heart softens! It was a good sign
though, because he called us the other day to set up an appointment
because the last time we were there they weren't sure of their
schedule. We were going to text him but he beat us to it! It's those
little miracles!

So Heavenly Father is awesome and really does watch out for us! He
knows exactly what we can handle and of how much. It has been a super
huge blessing to be out serving a mission. It's also been a huge
growing experience to train Sister Afungia! She is doing amazing and
sometimes I feel like she's been out longer than she actually has!
Both of us are learning so much and has just been a really good couple
of weeks! It seems shorter and longer all at the same time... It's
crazy! But I love you all and hope you have a great week! Remember
that you are a child of God and he loves you bunches and bunches!

Sister Tomkinson

PICTURES!!! LOVIN IT!!! April 2016

Madness in a Handbasket! April 18, 2016

Hey everybody!

Ok so this week was REALLY great! Sister Afungia is doing great and
just jumping right into things! We've been really busy and even picked
up a few new investigators! Heavenly Father has been helping us a ton.

Ok so for awhile we weren't able to get ahold of Wendy because she was
going through a hard time and she was struggling to find a new job. On
Friday we were driving to somewhere and we ended up taking a wrong
turn and Wendy all of the sudden popped into our minds. So we went to
go see her and she wasn't home. We went to leave and we really felt
that we needed to be there for some reason, so we stayed. This one
door really just stuck out to us for some reason. When we went to that
door, it was an active member. They invited us in and we talked a bit.
When we left we were confused because we didn't know why we were
supposed to be there, but it didn't feel like we needed to be there
anymore. So we went to leave and WENDY WAS GETTING OUT OF HER CAR. So
we start talking to her and she was telling us about some of the stuff
going on and we asked if she knew about fasting. She said no and said
to come over the next day to tell her. She also told us that she had
been reading the Book of Mormon and that at first it didn't make
sense, but after awhile she started to understand it! So yeah we had a
miracle with Wendy!

One of our new investigators is named Mike. He has never met with
missionaries before, which is rare in Utah. We met with him on Sunday
and talked with a bit and got to know him better and some of his
background. He was in a situation where he was kind of compelled to be
humble. He said ever sense stuff started going down he's just kind of
turned it over to God and decided to trust Him. He said since he's
done that he's just been so much happier. We had a member with us that
he knew and he was just ballin'! We had to leave to go to another
meeting but the member stayed with him a little bit longer to answer
some more of his questions and it was great! When we walked into
Mike's house, we felt the Spirit and knew that Heavenly Father has
been preparing Mike to hear the gospel for the first time! We so
excited to work with him!

Heavenly Father truly does work in mysterious ways. We may not always
understand why things happen the way we expect them too, but when we
put our lives in Heavenly Fathers hands we will be so much happier,
just like Mike had said. We just need to learn to listen and trust in
Him. So the gospel is super cool and I'm grateful that I have the
opportunity to be a missionary and to see how much the gospel really
does bless our lives. It's been cool to train Sister Afungia, too and
see how excited she is to do the work and how much she's even changed
since day one in the field! Guys, the gospel is awesome and I love it!
I love y'all and hope y'all have a glorious week!

Sister Tomkinson