Sundays over Sundaes

One thing that I love about Sunday, is that it is the one day that has been set apart by Jesus Christ to literally spend the entire time thinking about Him, and going to church, and resting (unless you are a missionary haha then it probably still your favorite day). But, there is one question that may have arised and that may be, 'how can I keep the Sabbath day holy?' I know that Sunday is the Lord's day, and that we should be willing to do everything that He wants us to do. Of course it is going to take a great sacrifice, but it will always be worth it. I've heard this quote from somewhere that say something like, "you have to open some doors to let something's out, to let in the blessing of heaven." I know, I totally just butchered it :) but, the important thing is that if you put the Lord first, then everything will fall into place, the moment you don't put him first, and you tell God what to do, is when your life all falls apart, because He has already told you what needs to be done, and it is your duty to follow through and do it. Here below are some awesome ideas to do on Sunday. I really like #25-doing a talent show for the elderly, is seriously really fun to do. I remember doing this with my family when I was little, and they absoluatly love it (it was treated as more of a FHE). I also love #16, #34, #35, #2, #17, #23, and literally all of them

https://www.lds.org/blog/80-ideas-for-more-satisfying-sundays?cid=HP_FR_26-8-2016_dOCS_fBLOG_xLIDyL2-1_

I hope that y'all have a wonderful week! I love you!

Sister Toomey

The Rains Came Down, and the Floods Came Up

sent on 15 Aug 2016.

Hey Y'all! Y'all have probably already heard about the major flooding going on. But luckily, my area is safe. It has been raining daily for weeks. But a few days ago, while Sister Bell and I were weekly planning, it started raining a lot more than it does normally. I heard that we got about 9" of rain just in that one day, but luckily, our parish (county) has good drainage systems, and the neighborhoods are spread out enough to have swamps in between which also suck up the water. I have heard of Elders and Sisters saving lives. Luckily, we are all safe, so no worries :) 

Lately I have been really focusing on reading the Book of Mormon, the New Testament and Isaiah. There are so many "nuggets" of golden knowledge in these books. Like wow. I have been trying to pick out the parts that will be useful for teaching. and Wow, they are literally everywhere, especially in the book of Mosiah. I also love reading about how Alma and Amulek begun their missionary work (Alma 11).

School started in the parishes down here, and sometimes when we go tracting, people think that we are teachers hahaha. We are not exactly the teachers they think we are. We teach the doctrine and principles of Jesus Christ, and the math we teach is for tithing, finding 10% of your income + all of your heart to show your love for Christ and to build up his kingdom. "We are the only tools that the God has to work with," -Brigham Young. 

Have a blessed day and be safe!

Sister Toomey

Even-Kelled

Hey Y'all!! Every week, we have this thing called missionary coordination, which is a meeting with us, the branch mission leaders, and the other elders in our branch. This week, we talked about having temperance, and how we need to be even-keeled. To be even-keeled on a boat, means that it is balanced, unless everyone and everything go to one side of it, then it will flip over and bang, everything is in the water, and you boat is flipped over. I think that we could all be more even-keeled and temperant. Read this beautiful talk by Elder Watson:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/being-temperate-in-all-things?lang=eng

I am staying here in Lulling for a 4th transfer now. I was warned by many branch members that people who start off their missions in Lulling, tend to stay there for a while, so it's not really a surprise that I am still here.

So far, we have been teaching a lot more than just the normal missionary lessons, we have been teaching ARP (Addiction Recovery Program) and newly as of this week, we have been helping someone try to get the Pathway program here in Louisiana. We are also trying to start teaching the Stop-Smoking Workshop. Most non-members here smoke, and they know it is bad for them, and they want to stop, they just haven't had that push to stop.  

While we were in Killona, we were about to teach H, but she had to let her dog out for a minute, so we went with her, and while we were outside, this guy comes sprinting down the street, and at first we thought that he was trying to talk to H, but he was coming for us, and he told us, "give me something to read, give me somethin' to read" and he thought that we were the Jehovah Witnesses, and we made it clear that we were Mormons, and he still wanted something to read, so of course we gave him something to read. We didn't have a Book for Mormon on us, so we gave him a Restoration and Gospel of Jesus Christ Pamphlet, and we got his name and address so we can go back and teach him. It was AWESOME!

Also, while we were in the same town, we tracted into someone, who already knew a member, and she let us right in, we taught from the Book of Mormon, and her grand-daughter, referred us to her other grandmother. We are really excited to see where this all goes :)

LOVE YOU!

Sister Toomey

Just a great week

Our church building has turned into a Pokémon hot-spot, which I find absolutely hilarious! We need to set up a table with Restoration pamphlets or something inviting them in to the church for our Sunday services. I keep hearing stories of people going to church historical sites to find Pokémon. The plus that I see to this, is that more people are getting out of their house and going out into the public, to where we can meet them, and teach them about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have run into at least 2 people that have said that they were praying for answers to their religious questions, and then we popped up! I feel like this has happened a lot. We run into people who God has prepared, and it is their decision to know whether or not what we teach is true. Also, of the many people that we run into, many of them ask us if their baptism, usually into a Baptist church is valid, especially after we teach them about having the power of God, also known as the Priesthood. It breaks my heart to respond, but I cannot beat around the bush, especially when it is so important to understand that we need to be baptized with the priesthood, power from God for it to be valid. But, those people were acting on the knowledge that they knew at the time, and we can only add to it. I know that the Book of Mormon, clarifies doctrine in the Bible (there cannot be so many different teachings one book).

Anyways, next week is "miracle Monday" where we proselyte on Monday, and P-day is on Tuesday, when we will find out whether or not we are being tranfered.

The Church is true!! I love you guys!!

Sister Toomey

2016Aug1- Sister Bell & I

2016Aug1- eating crepes