Patience

I'm in Peoria North! I moved north a stake. I'm serving in the Liberty
and Rose Garden Wards. I'm finally living with other missionaries
again! We live in a home that was donated by members. It's pretty
classy!

My companion is Elder Richards. He's the man. I love being with him!
We're going to have a great time as a companionship.

I'm excited to get to know this new ward and work with the members.
It's going to be a delightful time!

We have a sweet Corolla. I'm the designated driver! It's a good time.

I was asked to give a discussion this week. I prepared a discussion on
patience. I realized how important it truly is to have patience. I was
able to study the scriptures and see how patient Christ truly was.
It's incredible how much patience he truly had. It inspired me to
continue to work on my patience and love those around me.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!!

-Elder Toph Tribe

2 week post...

Sorry I didn't write last week! We didn't have wifi past 3 on P-Day so I didn't have the opportunity to send it off. So you'll be reading a two week update.

These past two weeks have been interesting.

Nothing that we planned actually happened besides our dinner appointments. We still accomplished quite a bit though. We may not have done what we intended to, but the Lord got what he needed done. That's all that matters.

We had a zone meeting  2 weeks ago and then zone conference this week. Both meetings were great. Lots of insights to be gained. Both had a lot of discussion on unity and developing a culture. Primarily a culture of service.

We've been able to give lots of service these past couple of weeks. We go to a thrift shop twice a week that donates money to a battered women's shelter. We have fun sorting goods, bringing in donations, and interacting with customers. We also had the opportunity to help at a fundraising brunch for a group that helps individuals with mental disabilities lead normal lives. Service always makes me feel better, because I know that I was able to make someone elses burden lighter. It's a great feeling.

I got a flu shot this week. The mission office set up a system so that all missionaries have the opportunity to receive a flu shot at zone conference. For all of you who have gotten a flu shot, you know that you can't really feel it. Well I found out that there are missionaries that are terrified to even get a flu shot. This semi shocked me. I guess some people never grown out of that fear.

Biking. I went on an exchange this week with a missionary who's in a bike area. So I was back on bike for the day. I really enjoyed being able to bike around for the day. We were able to talk to so many more people. That social interaction is so nice. People are a lot nicer on the sidewalk than at their doorway.

Exercise. I talked Elder Bunn into working out with me. Usually we run together, do some stretching and such, then he would shower while I played around with the weight set we have. Now we're working out and getting fit. It's so nice to be able to have a work out bud. He's new to this lifting thing, but he'll be a regular in no time. It's really fun!

This week I am being transferred. It's been a good time here in the Sun Valley and Rio Vista YSA wards. I'm excited for my next adventure though! I'll let you all know where I end up next week, because I won't find out until tomorrow.

I love you all and hope life is dandy!

-Elder Toph Tribe

Picture explanation.

1 Elder Bunn and I at MLC

2 Me at MLC

3 My zone

4 Showing off all my watches. Including a new addition, the watch ring.

General Conference was phenomenal...

Hellooooooooo!
(If you catch the reference above, I applaud you.)

This week was a great week! General Conference was phenomenal. I
throughly enjoyed every minute. I have pages of notes that I'm so
excited to go over with the talks again when the text is released. If
you didn't have an opportunity to watch all sessions of General
Conference, I would exhort you to go back and watch or read them.
As I was comparing notes with a few other missionaries, it's incredible
how we all could pull such different perspectives from the same talks.
That's the beauty of General Conference though. No matter where we are
as individuals, we can get something from the talks that is specific
just to us. It's truly a testimony builder to me that God inspires
those men and women to give us the messages they've prepared.

This week I had the opportunity to spend the day with one of the
missionaries in my zone. He is from Mexico and doesn't speak the best
English. I love him so much though. His testimony of the Book of
Mormon is so inspirational and motivating that once you hear it, you
feel as if you need to read it cover to cover at that moment. It's not
what he says that makes you feel that way though. He has a hard time
wrapping his mouth around the English words he's looking for. The
simplistic message he can utter brings the Spirit of God so strongly
to the room that no one can deny it. He's a wonderful missionary and
one of he most Christlike people I know.

People who just hear the gospel love to share it. We have a couple of
investigators who go and tell their friends about what they just
learned. We'll get texts from them asking for the scripture references
we used so that they're friends can read them too. These non members
are doing more missionary work than most members of the church!
They're on fire. I love being a missionary!!

I hope all of you have a terrific week! I love you all!

-Elder Toph Tribe

Pictures: Here are some pictures we took as a district this week.