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