Week #12

Hey guys,

Well this was another great week. We are staying pretty busy with the people we are working with. On Thursday we had interviews with President Wells and then also met with Sister Wells and had some activities and games as a district. The area is doing well and we are meeting some great people. Yesterday at church we had this guy walk in and he told us he felt like there was something guiding him to this church. He is a nice guy and he really enjoyed church and stayed for 2 hours. We are going to meet with him later this week. James is still progressing well and really loves the Book of Mormon. I really love when people we teach start reading the Book of Mormon and they really start engaging in it and seeing the goodness and joy it brings into their lives. That has made me really thankful that I grew up in the church and have been blessed with this gospel. I was listening to President Oak’s talk called By Small and Simple Things. I really enjoy it and love that he talks about just as Alma says by small and simple things are great things brought to pass. I really like that because it truly is the small and simple things that can bring great blessings into our lives, like reading the Book of Mormon daily can help us to grow spiritually and grow  our knowledge of the gospel. I know that just by doing simple acts of kindness each day in our natural course of the day can bring blessings to others and lift many who need help. On Saturday evening as we were heading to an appointment we saw these two white things in the road and as we got closer we realized it was 2 white bunnies, but then they just hopped away. That was pretty interesting. Anyway I hope everyone is doing well and has a marvelous day and week. It has been another great week in California and I look forward to the next week! Have a good day! Love you guys! 

Pres. Oaks' talk: Small and Simple Things

Love,

Elder Toller 

Dinner with the Heslop's - the members feed the missionaries often.

Week #11

Hey guys,

This was another great week! We have been really working hard to find people to teach and we have found some nice people. Nothing super exciting really happened this week, just another week in the mission field. The highlight of my week was Saturday night as we were biking back to our pad this guy calls out, "hey, I heard BYU beat Wisconsin." I thought he was kidding but later found out from a member that it actually was true.  Wow! That is great for BYU. There is a guy in our ward who is a huge BYU fan and loves to talk about everything BYU  and in elder's quorum he wouldn't stop talking about the game. The work is going good in this ward and since we have 4 elders it seems like we are more busy covering the whole ward. I listened to President Eyring's talk on the Holy Ghost the other day and it was really good. I loved how he talked about how his wife was always beating the bishop to helping someone in the ward because she was in tune with the Spirit. I strive to be able to listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and I know if you do you will be blessed and those you help will be thankful for you being in tune with the Spirit. I would recommend reading that talk - it really is a powerful talk. Also general conference is coming up soon and that will be super exciting! Anyway hope you all are doing great! I'm doing mighty fine! Have a good day everyone! 

Love,

Elder Toller 

Click here for Elder Eyring's message

Week #10

The four elders serving in the Las Flores Ward: Elder Himmelberg, Elder Bradford, Elder McAllister, Elder Toller

Hey everyone,

This week I sent my first trainer (my Dad) Elder Groll home. I got my second trainer Elder McAllister from Iowa. He is a good trainer. He was called Armenian speaking and now he is in an English area with me. There are a lot of Armenians in Glendale so that's where he mainly has served. On Thursday we were biking down the road and I got a flat tire so I was bummed but then this guy came walking up to us and said, “hey you guys, I have some questions about your church.” He said he had been meeting with missionaries before and then lost contact with them. So now we have taught him some things and he is a super nice guy. My mission president’s wife always said if you get a flat, look around because things happen for a reason and she knows stories similar to what I experienced. At first I was like yeah whatever that's never gonna happen to me - I have a good bike and great tires. But I know that guy needed his questions answered and Heavenly Father was preparing us to meet him. Anyway we are still teaching great people and the work is moving along great! We have a nice pad we live in. It is nice and there are a few members that live in the same apartment complex as us.  Friday I had my 6 week training at the mission home. That was fun to see everyone who came out with me and see how they are doing. I saw a mormon message called, “Good Things to Come” by Elder Holland. That is a super great video. I would challenge you guys to watch it. I love how it says keep trying, keep believing, blessings will come, they may not come in this life but they will come. Always do your best in all that you do and put the Lord first and things will always work out. Sunday was ward council and I actually enjoyed it. This bishop in this ward is such an amazing man. He is on top of it all and loves the missionaries and wants the best for everyone in the ward. I have been reading in Helaman 5 lately and I am amazed at how many times it says “remember.” It must be important. It is important to remember things taught by prophets and leaders of the church in the past. It is important to remember things and by reading the Book of Mormon daily I am able to remember the great blessings and knowledge I receive from it. Love you guys! Have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Toller 

Click here to watch  "Good Things to Come" by Elder Holland

Week #9

Hola everyone,

This was my last week with Elder Groll since he is headed home tomorrow. I will get my new companion tomorrow. On Tuesday we went on splits with the zone leaders to go and tract this trailer park area. The zone leaders know Spanish so just in case we tracted into Spanish speaking people we had at least one person that spoke Spanish on splits. It was definitely an interesting experience and we met different kinds of people. Then later that day I had the opportunity of going to the Los Angeles temple with Elder Groll because someone he baptized was going through for the first time. That is a really neat temple and apparently it's one of the bigger temples. I really love going to the temple and it is such an amazing place. Wednesday we mainly did a lot of tracting. Thursday we had district meeting and Elder Groll had his funeral since he was leaving soon. Friday we went on a blitz with the other members in our district and went to Claremont and visited people in that area. Saturday we got transfer calls and they said I would be staying in Las Flores but there would be another companionship coming to this ward. So it will be good having 4 elders in this ward. We are splitting the ward north and south and I will cover the south area which is Pomona. It will be a good area because we mostly already worked down in Pomona a lot and not much in La Verne. Sunday was good! James who we are teaching brought his friend and his friend who really liked church so we will start teaching him. Today President Wells made us breakfast because our district won this competition we had. We had the most members present, lessons taught, baptismal dates and investigators and we were assigned to focus on one each week and we did the best overall as a district. I will be moving to a new pad (apartment) tomorrow that is down closer to Pomona. The LA county fair is going on in our area and it is good because lots of people come so we get to contact lots of people. Hope everyone has a great day and great week! 

Love,

Elder Toller 

President Wells made breakfast for the district.

Elder Groll's "funeral".

The Dowdle family