Week 31: The Lord works in mysterious ways

Hola my familia,

Scripture of the week: D&C 124:113-114

Wow can you believe it is already week 6 of the transfer, transfer calls will be here this Saturday. I don’t forsee me going anywhere, but you really never know.

Well I have a lot to report on some good and some not good at all, so I’ll get the not good out of the way first.

My head aches were so bad this week I finally gave in and went to the chiropractor. I still haven’t decided if I am glad I did that or not, but so is life. Well it turns out that I have been diagnosed with a SEVERE spinal sprain. Dr Brown described it as a sprained ankle, but from my lower back up through my neck. So yup that explains the headaches. He was glad I came in, but was also very upset with me for not coming in and doing something about it much sooner. So things this week have been pretty dismal, I have been flat out scared they were going to send me home for some recovery time, but im pretty sure we got them talked out of that. Dr Brown has put me on a two week bed rest. He wants me flat on my back as often as possible. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I feel so worthless just sitting in the apartment not teaching. But he told me I either do that, go home, or I can count on having serious back surgery in a few short years. So I’ve had to force myself to be lying down as much as possible. He hopes that because I am so young I will heal fast and it won’t have to be a two week bed rest. I have to go see him every day, once it starts to heal he is going to get me on some strengthening exercises and then I will be back to work. When he first worked on me these were his exact words “if you had come to me before your mission you would not have passed a physical, and if I had a chiropractic hospital I would admit you right now".

 But no worries I got a blessing from president Goodrich who is a member of the mission presidency and everything is going to work out just fine. In the blessing he told me I would heal just fine and be back to full health, he also said the lord works in mysterious ways, and then blessed me to know how I can share the gospel with dr brown, who is married to a member but is not a member. It was the coolest blessing I have ever had. 

So yes the lord does work in mysterious ways, and as bad as these back troubles are, it’s a blessing in disguise. Kind of funny though while he was working in my back the other day he found that I have a torn rotator cuff as well. Ha the things football does to us...

But hey on a happier note my interview with President Stoker was so great. I was totally able to feel that he was called here for a reason. The love he showed for me was so incredible.

I am so glad you were able to go to the wilkeys talk. I am glad you now see why I love them so much, the love that emanates from them is incredible. that’s awesome you got to meet the chenster, he looks like he is doing well. He sent me my favorite cd that we used to listen to when we were comps this week he is a good guy, I miss him a ton. But each companion is given to us for a reason. Elder Vanderholm is being such a great support during this trial.

 This week I got some awesome letters from the primary, I got them the day I was told about my back so it was a great uplifter. Also got pics from the Oregon trip, looks like you guys had such a good time. The picture of the horses all ready to go looks awesome too thanks for sending that. Tuff looks really good; I really can’t wait to ride him. It will be the dead of winter when I get home, but I’m still taking him out right away. I am so appreciative of Brittany working with him. make sure she knows that.

Mom that pic of me and audra was great, also another uplifter that I needed that day. I hope she soon looks good enough to send me a picture of her. I would also like a picture of Norma, of the rest of the heifers at home. Of Janet and contender, of faith and the Goldwyn, and of daysha when she calves in. I need to keep track of my cows.

Well I hope I was able to cover everything.

Keep me in your prayers this week as I suffer through lying on my bed while no missionary work is getting done. Extra letters from home would be greatly appreciated to keep me from going absolutely insane.

Love you guys

Elder Toner

Quinton's Address:

71 Eastern Ave #3

Newport Vt, 05855

Week 30: Miracles do happen in the NHMM

Family family family.............

Scripture of the week: 1 nephi 8: 10,12

Ah man no niece yet. I was so anxious to get on here and see if i had a nugget, but not yet. That's ok though she will come when she is ready. 

"Me riding my new horse (mission approved horse back riding haha)"

What a week. First off i did not get to attend the baptism. The rule in the mission is we have to have an investigator that will attend with us. Well we were not fortunate enough to get one to attend with us. But there was a reason the Lord works things in his own way. I wish so bad i could have been there, because guess who baptized her?? Brother Gregory baptized Tina. I so badly wanted to be able to see that. But it was still neat. I was there when tina asked him to do it so that was cool. The Bap interviews were so neat. Being District leader is the bomb. The spirit in the interviews was so incredible. And it was a really neat experience to get to interview tina even though i had taught her. From reports of members of the district, and an email from sister gregory it sounds like everything went fantastic. 

Instead of being at the baptism i was at a funeral here in the newport branch. Sister stevens passed away from cancer at age 49. I never got to meet her, but it sounds like she was an incredible lady. Her family is incredible. She has 8 kids, 3 of them still at home. Thank goodness for the knowledge of the plan of salvation. 

I got to talk to bishop tucker at the funeral, that was really neat. He thanked me for being such a good missionary, and then grabbed the branch president and told him that i am one of the top ten missionaries he has ever served with. that was really a wonderful compliment. 

I am so beyond proud of Elder Guinn. He has grown so much in the past month. Its been really special to get to be part of his mission still. Even though it most likely drives him crazy. Sister Gregory told me he spoke at the baptism and did an incredible job.

"View out over lake Memphremagog"

This week was a good one. By far our best numbers week in the area. We taught 16 lessons, so not quite to my 20 in lyndon, but we are getting there. We found two new investigators. One named brenda, she has investigated for years and just could never stop smoking. She contacted us and said she is no longer smoking. She should be gettting a bap date set tomorrow. The other is a man named chris who upon opening the door told us he was atheist, but by the time we left he was totally convinced there is a God. 

This thursday we have interviews with president i am excited for that. And on wednesday i am going back to lyndon on exchange. Those poor people just can not escape me. 

Oh so speaking of miracles... If you remember back a few months youll remember me telling you about elder guinn and i being prompted to go to a small town way far in our area in lyndon, called granby. Well we did and had no success or so we thought. Last night elder guinn called me very excited about there new investigator from GRANBY. It turns out he lived in one of the houses we knocked on. He saw them in st j and asked if they would teach him. So yes miracles are real and they do happen in the NHMM. 

There are a few signs in english and french. I am still convinced that someday ill learn french. whether on this mission or on one when im older i do not yet know. 

Vermont...

Newport itself is way bigger than lyndon, but lots of smaller towns around it. I have so may pictures from this week that i wont be able to include half of them. It looks like high adventure went so well. i want to go on a horse ride so bad. Its interesting how the mission makes you love things you used to love. So please dont sell tuff while i am gone. 

I sure do love you guys. 

Leaving it all on the field

Elder TONER

Week 29: .....humidity....

Hello my family,

"I may complain about the humidity, but it is sure beautiful here"

I was really quite anxious to get on email today to see if there was any new news about my niece, but it looks like I will still have to wait a bit to know when she is born, maybe next week??

 

Well it sounds like the Oregon trip was wicked awesome. It sounds so beautiful, and I can’t wait to visit there someday, I’m pretty sure I’ll probably live there. Not too hot and not too cold. It’s funny cause the temp would be perfect here if it wasn’t humid. The temp itself has been a high of 82 this past week, but the humidity makes it seem like its 120 degrees, the shirt and tie don’t really help either. But oh well nothing I can do about it. I have decided the lord sent me here so I will learn to appreciate the winter. It rained everyday this week. The good thing about when it rains is then it’s not humid, but soon as it stops raining its wicked humid.

It sounds like it’s been wicked hot in Weston. The lawn and garden sure look good in the pictures of the calves. All the calves look good too. Zee looks like she will be a great calf, as does Vesta, I take it Zadee is still making plenty of milk to keep her going? Action Holly looks great. I am excited to see what she develops into as she matures. What age is she again? She looks like Lou could have a good time with her in the show ring. Any updates on my Audra girl?

I got 3 post cards in the mail today, that was really fun. Elder Vanderholm and I like the one with the cows the best, but then I being who I am made the comment that the jersey doesn’t have a very good udder at all. So yup I’m still always judging cows, I’m continually looking at cows as we drive around here.

So this week I found out why it was I brought Thor home right before leaving on a mission.... So we were out contacting some people and we started talking to some people sitting at a picnic table, I don’t remember how we got on the subject, but somehow I found out he had an aussie and we talked about our aussies for 15 minutes, he couldn’t believe how much Thor man weighs.

 

Well meeting President and Sister Stoker was great. They are definitely not the Wilkeys, but they are very great people. We only got to spend two hours with them, it was just a short meet and greet with just our zone. We each got the opportunity to share our testimony with them so that was neat. The next time we see them will be July 18 for interviews, so then I will be able to get a better feel for him and what he is really like. Saturday night I felt very prompted to send my district a voicemail about the fact that the Stokers are not the Wilkeys and they never will be. So I asked the district to please take time in their personal and companionship prayers to ask Heavenly Father to help them love the stokers for who they are.

 

President Stoker is making some great changes in the mission. He is anti tracting! Which is totally fine with me I hate knocking on doors. He has asked that we use tracting as the very last resort. It’s been great elder Vanderholm and I went from tracting close to 3 hours a day to not at all.

 

This week our branch president announced that he took a job in New Mexico, so now after a month of being branch president he will be moving. So changes just never cease in my life. The branch members yesterday were giving me a hard time, they said I was going to be branch president, I assured them that would not be happening, they returned with the comment of "missionaries have been branch presidents here before".

 

Still working to get to know the area, but we are getting there. Elder Vanderholm and I are getting along great. This Wednesday I will be conducting two baptismal interviews in the Lyndon ward. One for rob, the Littleton sisters are teaching him, and the other for Tina. They are both getting baptized Saturday the 13. Brother Jablonski is baptizing rob, so that will be so cool. We are going to try to get one of our investigators to go to it with us, then we would be able to go to the double Lyndon ward baptism. I really am so glad that I still get to be a part of it, it’s so neat.

We got this pic from Sister Gregory last night on FB, This was during interviews. Quinton and his old comp. Elder Guinn:)

Whelp I do believe that is all. Hope everything this week goes well, high adventure, and dairy jeopardy. .

 

Sure love ya

Elder Toner

The Dixon Family-a Neat family visiting from Utah that have gotten to know the Elders!

 

Week 28:Prayer is 100% real!

Hello my wonderful family,

Scripture of the week: D&C 128:22

Well it sounds like life on the homefront is going quite well. This week has been.... well its been wicked crazy. It seems as if my life never stops spinning, but its great, i am just as happy as can be. So big news, last monday night we recieved a call from President Wilkey and he informed us that Elder Uhl would be being  transferred to a new area. So Elder Uhl is now in Derry New Hampshire. So yes that means i have another new companion, and it also means that neither of us know anything about the area. In mission lingo when two new companions go to an area it is called a white wash. So this has pretty much turned into a white wash, the extent of my knowledge for the area came from my one week of being here with Elder Uhl. So needless to say this week has been rather crazy.

My new companions name is Elder Vanderholm, he is from Spokane washington. He has been on his mission for 9 months. It feels a bit wierd being senior companion in a companionship where i have been out less time than my junior companion. But the best part about him is he grew up on a dairy. Well kind of a dairy, his whole life they milked 6 shorthorns by hand. So its pretty cool we are both dairy kids, and we just happen to be in one of the highest dairy populated areas in the mission. One of these days we are going to find a dairy that will let us do service for them. But we have had no such luck yet. 

 

 

President and Sister Wilkey left Thursday the 27th. For his last goodbye he sent a voicemail out to the whole mission. It was really awesome, i just wish i could have said bye in person. But hey its all good i will see him when i get home. He promised to go on a horse ride with another elder and i. and he doesnt like horses so it should be fun. 

 

We get to meet the Stokers this coming saturday. So i have no new updates on them as of now but next week i will be able to tell you all about them. 

 

My District is doing awesome. The two brand new sisters are adjusting into missionary life very well. Elder guinn and elder chapman are rocking things down in lyndon. Oh and cool thing about the Lyndon ward, the new councilor in the bishopric is Brother Batchelder i never really said much about him, but he was less active when i got to lyndon and now is in the bishopric. Isnt that sooooo wicked awesome? 

 

 

Being district leader is great. I am always pretty much on the phone, either answering questions, or doing call in reports, luckily i have a very well behaved obedient district so i dont have to do any disciplining. My favorite part of it is teaching and preparing the lesson for district meeting. Its really cool to feel the spirit in a meeting full of 8 missionaries. We are all there for the same purpose so we all bring a very special spirit. Its really cool. WE are given a lesson outline, but are also told to teach and prepare what we as district leaders are inspired and what the district needs most. Its been really neat to see how most the time the lesson gets shifted in a different direction than what the outline says. I love it so much. 

 

Sounds like my family has turned to quite the group of world travelers. I am quite jealous that you are going to oregon, so you best take plenty of pictures and send them to me. My new area is absolutely gorgeous. The lake  is awesome and we of course border Canada. Yesterday we went to a town called Derby Line, and if we had missed the exit to get there we would have had to go through a customs check so that tells you how close it is to the border. Derby line is also the home of Cowtown Holsteins so dad i'll need that address. Vermont is so beautiful i hope you all get to see it someday. Granted the humidity kind of stinks but you get over it.

 

Our car was involved in a hit and run this week. we parked it to go tracting and came back and it had a massive dent in the back door. I was super upset, but luckily the church has wicked good insurance. 

Pretty big dent! :(

So we have a washer and dryer in our apartment so we dont have to go anywhere to do laundry, and we do emails at the church. Our apartment is nice, much nicer than the lyndon apartment. Sometime maybe ill send a picture of the place. 

We have some pretty awesome investigators. One of my favorite is a lady named Pat, she is in her 70s and is the absolute best cook in the world. 

John is a guy in his 60s he is a football fanatic so we get along quite well. 

Matthew is in his 30s and has 5 kids, he was recently divorced, so that is rough. Coolest thing about him is he is almost finished with the Book of Mormon. 

I will be heading down to lyndon to conduct two baptismal interviews on the 10th. One for Tina, and one for a guy named Rob who the littleton sisters are teaching, im excited for that. 

Well to close i will tell you about the awesome dinner we had last night with a family from utah. they live in st george and come up here every summer for a few weeks. they had us over to there lake side cabin it was so gorgeous i will include some pictures. this lake is lake Willoughby which is the deepest clearest lake in vermont its a glacier lake. Its not the big lake right in Newport that is Memphremegog.

 

Lake Willoughby

But family i sure do love you! hope you have a wonderful week in Oregon, remember take lots of pictures. 

 

Love Elder Zilles

 

P.S This week we knocked on so so so many doors and no one would let us in. I was getting so discouraged. So i prayed that the lord would help me have a better attitude and would help me increase my desire to find people to teach. And he did. So always remember that the power of prayer is 100% real. 

 

Leave it all on the field.