Aaron 3/4/13

Hello family!

 

Thanks for the continued emails and support, I love hearing from you and hope things are still going great!

 

This week has been pretty boring for me I must say, especially compared to the past two weeks! We found a couple of new investigators and taught them the first discussion, and they both agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We'll see later this week how that's going for one of them, and the other we'll talk to again in a week or two, as he wanted time to read, ponder, and pray. As I believe I've said before, it's not at all the teaching that's so hard about missionary work. It's the finding, and the concern and disappointment when someone rejects the gospel, or doesn't keep their commitments to read the Book of Mormon, or pray, or come to Church on Sunday morning. It's definitely hard work. But worth it! Hopefully within the next few weeks we'll be having another baptism for a couple who have been taught by the missionaries for months and years. Elder Cook and I have been fasting for them and our other investigators.

 

I've really been thinking a lot about families recently, and how incredibly essential they are in Heavenly Father's plan. The family brings more joy and happiness than anything else, and truly is the most important established group in God's Kingdom. Family's firmly planted in the gospel have the solid foundation to withstand anything the deceiver can throw at us. As Helaman says, "...remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo..." That even more so applies with families, who together build upon that sure foundation, and together stand against the "hail and his mighty storm." A family unified in Christ is built on "a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." (Helaman 5:12).

 

How difficult it must have been for Nephi when his brothers turned against him, tearing down that foundation that he and his father had built, removing themselves from that sure footing that only the Savior can bring. I know that, though we are imperfect, we as a family have enough of that foundation built in which together we can withstand many things. Though I'm sure we could continue to build that foundation better. I think it'd be a pretty good family goal :)

 

In other news, this past week I finished Jesus the Christ, as well as Our Heritage. Both are great books, especially Jesus the Christ! I have learned so much, though I;m sure I've already forgotten most of the content. It took me 300 pages to get used to the language James E. Talmage uses, so that first half I'll definitely have to re-read at some point.

 

I'm now reading Our Search For Happiness, which I would definitely recommend to anyone, even nonmembers :)

Especially nonmembers hahaha.

But other than that, things are pretty much what you'd expect for a missionary's life. Knocking on doors, teaching a lesson now and again, and just being plain awesome! Something my companions brother told him in a letter this past week. "According to newsweek magazine, Missionaries are the second sexiest men there are, right after the UPS guy." ;)

 

Oh! If you could do me a HUGE favor and send me the driving GPS, I'd really appreciate it. We've been using our district leaders GPS, but he wants it back... So that would be super helpful if you could send that out to me. Pleaseeeeeeee :)

 

I love you all! Hope to hear from you soon, and have a great week!

 

Elder Aaron Toombs

Answers to some of my questions:

1. I am blessed with an amazing ward, so we get fed basically every night! And for the nights we don't have real meals we just eat with the SUPER AMAZING ward mission leader and his wife, or just eat with the Lindaus. One of the many perks of living with the coolest members ever! The Lindaus have 5 Honda Odyssey's (super awesome gokart-type things), and I've already been invited to go back and take a trip with them up to Wisconsin (where the Lindaus are from) and ride with them/go backpacking/canoeing on a trip with them after my mission haha. I'll try to drag Tanner along too probably hahaha.

 

2. Elder Cook and I have been struggling with actually getting out of bed with the alarm, so we end up skipping the workout a lot. It's no bueno. We've made it a companionship goal to do that really well, and we're going to "kick out own butts" getting in shape, starting this morning. They have a scale, so I'm able to tell that I've (luckily) not gained any weight so far. 

 

3. Elder Cook and I are getting along great! We have our differences, one of the biggest is that he LOVES to talk, so I'm learning a little bit of patience with that, but things are still really great between us. We teach well together, and he's a good trainer! He's a total jock (despite the lack of working out recently), and plans on walking onto the BYU football team after he gets home, and then wants to play pro football. Since being on a mission and being with him I've realized how much I wish I had done sports growing up, and not wasted the natural athleticism that I do have. My goal is to get in shape enough and play on the BYU-I intramural teams when I get back. Probably football or Rugby, and possibly volleyball :)

 

4. I have not ridden my bike at all yet. It's sitting in the garage, brand spaking new. hahaha. The Lindau's live a ways out of town, and that combined with the cold weather has prevented us from using them. Sooner or later we'll get out on them though.