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

March 21, 2016

Hey everybody!

So this week is been pretty crazy! I've spent some time in the west
stake with sister Martinez and got to see some people that I used to
teach. Sister craft is still sick so that's no fun. Also the Provo
city center temple dedication was this week and that was amazing!I
also found out that somebody I used to teach in the tooele stake is
getting baptized on Saturday so I'm we pumped for that!!

So Julia is doing awesome! We saw her on Saturday and talked about her
baptism. She is planning on being baptized on either April 2 or April
9. She is super excited because this is something that she's been
waiting for but could notdo you because she was not married yet. But
her husband is super supportive of her decision to be baptized so
that's gonna be awesome!!

When I was with sister Martinez we went and saw one of my favorite
people from the west stake! When I left that steak we were helping
Julie get to the temple so she could do her daughters work. She didn't
quite ready yet so we were just kind of helping her prepare and get
ready. When I saw her this week, she said she was ready to move
forward and get the work done! Not only that, but her granddaughter
Hannah who is living with her, decided that she really wanted to learn
about the gospel! Hannah is almost 16 and really eager to learn! I
don't know if I will get to teach her again because she is not in my
area but I know she's going to do amazing!

We found a new investigator this week named Emily! She has been
meeting with missionaries before but with her work she got super busy
and was not able to meet with them anymore. She called us on Wednesday
I think and asked if we could set up a time to meet. We are really
excited about that! We saw her on Sunday and had a really good meeting
with her. We reviewed the restoration with you because it is been a
while since she had met with missionaries. She talked about how her
end goal is to be baptized. She really wants the Gospel for her and
her kids! We invited her to be baptized on April 23. So will continue
working with her and it's going to be great!

This week we also had the temple dedication of the Provo city center
temple. It was absolutely amazing! They did a live broadcast to all
the stake centers in Utah. This just happened to be the week that all
of our investigators and all of our less actives wanted to go to
church but could not because of the dedication so we're hoping that
next week is the determination to go! The dedication was pretty cool
it really felt like there was angels all over the room! All of the
sudden the room just felt super full and I looked up at the ceiling
expecting to see Angels but I didn't see anything but I know they were
there.

It's amazing how fast the Lord is hastening his work! I'm glad that I
get to be a part of it to be a missionary. It's a huge blessing to
have the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people and to gain so
many incredible experiences! It goes by so fast it's crazy! I know the
Lord has a plan for all of us all we have to do is listen. That
sometimes the hardest part, but it's really worth it! We are down here
to be happy and to find joy, and Christ makes that possible. I'm
grateful for the gospel and for my Savior Jesus Christ. I love you all
and hope you have a fantastic week!! Remember you're a child of God
and he loves you lots!

Sister Tomkinson

March 13, 2016

Hey Everybody!

Sorry it's been forever and ten years it's been a crazy couple of weeks! I have been transferred to the Tooele North Stake and I'm in a trio again! I tell you what it's been busy and crazy and fantastic all at once! I've met so many crazy awesome people already I'm just loving it here! Also fun fact I'm living in my first apartment again!

So going back to last week a bit, I got to meet Wendy. She is awesome! We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she loved it! She is in her 20s and two super adorable little girls! One of them pulled apart everything that was in Sister McReynolds bag. It kept her occupied enough so that Wendy could learn more. She is now on date to be baptized on April 9th!

Another one we are working with is Julia. She she has been taught by missionaries for a long time and wants to be baptized, but she was living with her boyfriend and needed to be married before being baptized. Well on Monday morning she called us and asked if we knew of anybody that could perform a marriage ceremony THAT DAY. Well let me see, we have 6 bishops to choose from...  So it was a crazy day planning a wedding, finding a bishop, finding a building, and all that other crazy stuff. All of this started around 8:30am and the weeding was at 6. So Julia was married and now trying to find a day to be baptized. She's trying to work it out with her sister who just had a baby. She said she wants to do it within the next couple weeks! So exciting stuff happening!

This week I also got to go on splits with Sister Martinez in the West Stake (my greenie area) and see some of my old people! I got to see Denise Ann and Kharyn and Cody! Kharyn and Cody are set to be baptized this month and are super excited! They've had some trials come up but are still determined to be baptized! 

Also we are working with Talon and his dad, Carl. Talon is 13 and wants to get baptized. Carl is working on being active again so that he can baptize Talon. So on Sunday, Carl got up and bore his testimony! It was so great! They are in the process of moving so most of their church clothes are packed up. Carl came in flip flops and a man bun. It was absolutely glorious! He just marched up there like a boss and bore his testimony! We were sitting there like GO CARL

So life is good, missions are great, and I'm of course loving it! It's amazing how blessed we are. I feel super blessed to be able to set so many wonderful people and hear and see how Christ has changed their lives. I'm really grateful for my Savior who made it possible to not only be with my family forever, but return to my Father in Heaven. Guys, the gospel is super cool and I love it! I honestly don't know where I'd be without it. Anyway I love y'all and hope y'all have a fantastic week!

Sister Tomkinson