February 6, 2017 HELLO YA ALL!

Heyo everybody! Sorry it's been awhile but I figured I'd give ya an
update since stuff has happened! Ok so I got transferred and I am now
covering TWO stakes! The Kearns south stake and the West Jordan
Westbrook stake. So now here's the tricky part... we live in
taylorsville which is part of our area but we also cover parts of
Kearns and West Jordan... I tell you what though I don't know where
I'm at half the time. Utah is weird😬 Also I got a new companions and
her name is Sister Milligan and she's pretty great! So I've only met a
couple of people so far but they all see, fantastic!

CAITLIN. Ok so she's super great! She's a single mom and has been
going through a rough time and next thing you know... MISSIONARIES. So
since she's been meeting with missionaries she's been praying and
that's not something's she's ever done. She says she feels more peace
in her life since she's been doing that and her prayers have been
answered! So she's pretty great!

ALYSSA. So we met with her on Friday and it was our first meeting with
her. Her friend from work invited her to meet with us and it was
pretty neat. She's doesn't have any religious background and so it's
kind of different teaching her because people we usually teach have
either met with missionaries in the past or they are members that
don't go anymore but would like to come back. So r we talked about
prayer and had the opening prayers she was like WOW ITS FEELS MORE
PEACEFUL. So that was pretty neat. We also taught her the restoration
and we will be meeting with her next week as well.

KYNDRA. She's is 8 and turning 9 at the end of February. Her mom wants
her to understand what baptism and what it's all about so she can make
a choice for herself. She is super smart and knows quite a bit. She
has lots of younger siblings so it was a lot of fun to get to teach
them all.

But man I just want you guys to know how many miracles we are
constantly witnessing but don't recognize it. It truly is a blessing
to be out here at this time. The Lord is just so good and loves us all
so much and that is something I am constantly learning and relearning
this. So no matter what you are going through the Lord is watching out
for you. Love you all! Have a fantastic week!

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