Week #17

Hey guys! 

Well this was another great week! We have been doing well in this area. Last Monday we played basketball for a while and that was fun. On Tuesday we  got fed by members and they made a Halloween dinner. They made mummy dogs ( pigs in a blanket), skeleton skulls hot pockets, this green punch, and fruit in a monster shape, and for dessert we had cat litter box with chocolate cake vanilla wafer crumbs on top and tootsie rolls representing the cat poop. It was tough to eat because it made me feel like I was eating sand. It was interesting. The members here treat us like we are celebrities! Everyone is so nice and feeds us a lot of food.

On Wednesday we biked to the top of our area up hill 2 miles and it was a big workout. Later we visited with a priest who is getting ready to go on a mission. It was fun to visit with him and answer his questions.

On Thursday we did exchanges with the zone leaders and that was fun! I was with elder Reimer from Washington state and he was recently in this area so it was fun for him to be back. We were sitting at our desks and Elder Reimer fell back in his chair and broke the chair. It was funny! But later that day we found a chair in the road that said free and we pushed it home.

On Friday it was a Korean elder's birthday and we went and got chicken at this store and it was good. It is still warm down here. We had our ward party on Friday and it was neat.

Sunday I had to speak in sacrament. I spoke on the importance of prophets and talked about how lately they have been stressing the importance of temple attendance. I love this quote by president Nelson from this last conference. "My dear brothers and sisters, the assaults of the adversary are increasing exponentially, in intensity and in variety. Our need to be in the temple on a regular basis has never been greater. I plead with you to take a prayerful look at how you spend your time. Invest time in your future and in that of your family. If you have reasonable access to a temple, I urge you to find a way to make an appointment regularly with the Lord—to be in His holy house—then keep that appointment with exactness and joy. I promise you that the Lord will bring the miracles He knows you need as you make sacrifices to serve and worship in His temples." Temples are amazing places and I promise your lives will be better if you take time to go to the temple and the Lord will put out his blessings upon you. 

Today was awesome - we played basketball for a long time and it was fun and I got a super great workout from it. We also played uno. It's fun playing basketball even though my companion is 6 foot 7. Also I heard the dodgers lost the world series so lots of people aren't happy around here but the gospel will cheer them up! I'm doing great. Have a wonderful week. I love you all! Have a great Halloween too! 

Love, 

Elder Toller 

Week #16 - Welcome to La Crescenta

Hey guys,

Well this was a good week. I came to my new area on Tuesday morning. This whole area is a super big hill and we live towards the bottom of our area. My new companion is Elder White from Gilbert, Arizona. He is a good companion. This week we taught a few people and got introduced to ward members. We cover 2 wards and they both have many members. This is definitely the complete opposite of Pomona because of how nice the area is. We live with a member and also with 3 Korean elders. On Saturday we did exchanges and I went to Sunland with Elder Holm. That is a nice area but hilly. 

On Sunday we had great meetings. We had a stake priesthood meeting Sunday morning and the speaker talked about the importance of having questions and studying them out. We all will have questions and if we study them out then we can keep that line of revelation continuing with Heavenly Father. It was a very good talk. Also in sacrament the speaker talked about how the gospel is the same everywhere and how when you travel around the world you can find a ward or branch meeting on Sunday. It is awesome that we have faithful people all around the world and you can still feel the Spirit there too. And they are all similar and do the same things we all do in our church. He told an experience when they went to a little branch in Mexico and how the people were super humble and they felt the spirit strong there too. 

The members here are super great and take care of us great. We have some good people that we are teaching in this area. One of the guys we are teaching is a manager for a Disney store and he is a super nice guy. Have a great day and week everyone! 

Love, 

Elder Toller 

Dinner at a member's home in La Crescenta

Week #15

Hey guys,

This was a another good week. Lately I have noticed a lot of stray dogs down here in Pomona. We have had a few dogs chase us on our bikes but we have survived so far. We are still working with good people in the area and the work is going good. There are a lot of interesting people that we get to talk to here in Pomona. 

On Friday we had a huge rain storm with lightning and thunder. It was crazy. I thought this is southern California and it doesn't rain this hard. We had to bike about 10 minutes to our apartment in the rain and we were soaked. It was a nice day earlier but in the evening it got dark and just started raining really hard. It even sprinkled a little Saturday.  

On Saturday we got our transfer calls. I will be going to La Crescenta and will be finishing an elder's training. I have heard good things about this area. I will go there on Tuesday morning. 

On Sunday we had church and it was a neat. It was sad that it was my last Sunday in this ward because there are lots of great people in this ward. It's been great being with Elder McAllister and he's a great missionary. I am doing good and hope you all are doing well. Have a great day everyone! 

Love,  

Elder Toller

This is James and me at church yesterday. Such a great guy! 

This is us after the rainstorm. 

Week #14

Hey everyone, 

Well this was a gooood week! I can't believe it's already October! Wow time is going fast! On Wednesday we had zone conference. President talked about the importance of revelation. It was a neat zone conference. There were lots of great talks and great advice given to us as missionaries. We are still teaching great people and have found some new people who are very nice and enjoy the message we share.

This last weekend was great! General conference was super neat! I enjoyed all of the talks. I felt there was a lot of talks that talked about keep moving forward with faith through tough times. I loved conference and am going to go back and listen and study the talks. It's such a blessing to have modern prophets and apostles who receive revelation for the church and keep the work moving along. Heavenly father loves us so much that he sends prophets and apostles to guide us through these crazy times. I know that what they say is very important and it's what Heavenly Father wants us to know and do at this time. I was super shocked they announced 12 temples because I thought they only announced them once a year but that was neat! I can't believe another one in Utah, wow! That is such a blessing!

This morning we had the opportunity of going to the Los Angeles temple. It is a really big temple and super neat! It sticks out in the city pretty well! Temples are so neat and I love President Nelson's statement that says the construction of these temples may not bless your lives, but the time you spend in the temple will bless you. And he said last conference to find the things you can do to go to the temple more often. After going to the temple today I wished I could go more often as a missionary. I love the spirit in the temple because it truly is the Lord's house. I would invite you all to go to the temple soon or just walk around it. Hope you all have a wonderful day and week! Love you guys! 

Love,

Elder Toller

LA temple

Looking tough

I found my street.

James came to conference.

Week #13

Hello everyone,

Wow another week has gone by. Well this was a good week. On Tuesday we were biking around and it was getting a little late but we decided to stop by and visit Veronica and her kids and usually they aren't home Tuesdays but my companion had the thought to go visit them and I was like it's kind of late but we just did and we found them home. They really needed us to stop by and I'm thankful that we decided to stop and visit with them.

On Thursday we went to give a man a blessing in the hospital. We were running a little late and I was worried but we got to the hospital and this lady was there and said, "Elders I'm so glad to see you -can you give my mom a blessing? She just went into the hospital." The lady tried to get a hold of other people but no one answered.  So we were there at the right time to help both people who needed a blessing. I know Heavenly Father is aware of what we will do each day and will put opportunities for us to serve others throughout the day. He knows where would be best for us to go and gives us opportunities to serve others as we go through our day.

Friday we were out biking and we were looking for this one guy but ran into this lady that lives in the house and she was super nice and had some great questions. We weren't able to find the guy, but we found this lady and she enjoyed our visit with her.

Saturday we did exchanges and Elder Himmelberg came with me to my area and we had a successful day. It's neat to learn from other missionaries and see how they do missionary work. Sunday I had to give a talk about the first vision and the other elders gave talks on faith, repentance, and baptism and holy ghost. It was alright. This guy just out of the blue showed up to our church these past two Sundays and he loves church. He is a solid guy and really is smart about religion and the Bible. We will continue to work with him. Here in Pomona we often get random people just showing up at church, but they aren't always interested in our church.

Also,last night we had a thought to visit this recent convert and family who we couldn't get a hold of the husband in a while, but he was home and we had a great visit with them. I know that following the promptings we get truly can bless many people's lives. I really have had many experiences with that lately. I like what someone in church said about promptings, that if you are unsure if it's good or not, try it out and follow it and see what happens. It never hurts to try. Today we had a zone activity and we played lots of sports and that was fun. The picture only has a few people in it because some people left early. This has been a good week. Have a wonderful day and week everyone! 

Love,

Elder Toller