A week of miracles

This has been another great week! Our two main investigators right now, 신효면 and 구병철 are both doing great! They both are pretty excited to be baptized and now we're just working on helping them use that desire to keep the commandments and overcome any challenges. They are so amazing!!

 

We didn't have a lot of appointments this weekend, so we spent some time in the Subway because there's lots of people waiting around and it's warm enough for people to actually want to have a conversation. We ended up having pretty miraculous success within in the last couple days as we prayed to find people willing to listen and God seems to be answering those prayers. There was a pastor who walked up to us, said he was really interesting in learning about our church, and we set up an appointment for tomorrow. We also met a man yesterday that said he wants to find religion and to stop smoking and drinking. There was another man who used to have religion, but never really felt like he understood it or felt sufficient and we might be able to meet with him this week. I know that God really is aware of us and helps us to accomplish His will according to our faith!

 

We are reading the Book of Momon from start to finish this transfer as a Zone and one of the scriptures that stood out to me recently was 1 Ne. 21:15-16. It talks about how Christ will never forget us because we are engraven upon the palms of His hands. He cannot forget and He never will forget. He knows us perfectly and knows How to succor us in every need and every trial (Alma 7:11-13). Let's not forget Him, especially this season. A big part of that is not denying the fact that He not only suffered for us, but also for all those around us! Let's have faith that the atonement applies to them too and that there is nobody that is not worth inviting to come unto Christ through the restored Gospel. I know that as we have faith in the Atonement and seek opportunities to invite others, we will be blessed with the ability to do so!

 

Have a wonderful week!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

A wonderful new transfer

It has been an interesting week with transfer and the change of responsibilities, but I feel that I am adjusting well. I definitely have so much to learn and I have a lot of imperfections, but I know that God is perfectly aware of my strengths and weaknesses and He will qualify me to accomplish His will, whatever that may be. I am so excited to strive to live up to the higher expectations and learn a lot along the way.

My new companion's name is Elder Dursteler (pronounced Dur-Stell-Er). He is absolutely amazing! I have been so blessed to have so many absolutely incredible companions. He is fresh out of high school (graduated this last may) and he is a 6' 4" football star from Logan, Utah who is so enthusiastic to serve God and just ready to work. Right from the first day, he was so eager to just talk to everyone in his limited, broken Korean. He's a great example to me. I am really excited to spend the next 6 weeks, and very possible more, with him. 

The work went well this week. We had a hard time meeting our investigators this weekend, but 구병철 (Gu Byung-Cheol) came to church for the first time and we met a really cool new investigator named 박지상 (Park Jee-Sang). He's willing to meet 3 times a week and seems to really be open to listening and trying. In our first meeting, he said "Please invite me a lot!" I'm excited! For 신효면 (Shin Hyo-Myun), we've had to keep pushing back his baptismal date because he hasn't made it to church yet. We'll be focusing on that this week.

I had an interesting though this week as I read in 1 Ne. 8 about Lehi's dream. I thought it was interesting that in verses 11 and 12, as Lehi partakes of the fruit, experiences the blessings, and desires others to join him, the thing that he desires to share is not his own. The tree was already there and the fruit was already provided for Lehi to partake and for others to come and join him to do the same. Neither the tree nor the fruit was Lehi's. He just wanted to share the fruit so others could experience the same joy. As I thought about it that way, I realized that sometimes I go about sharing the gospel the wrong way. I sometimes let fears of whether or not my ability to give is good enough, if others will like "my church," or if "my message" will really be what other people want to hear. The problem is that there is too much of "me" in all of those concerns. This is God's work, Christ's Church, and His perfect message. The fruit is already prepared! We are just inviting people to partake of the love of their Father in Heaven and He will provide us with the opportunities, strength, and ability to do so according to our faith and desires. I am so grateful to a part of the work of God!

I love you all! Have a fantastic week! 

Love, Elder Tolman

Today is transfer calls!! Elder Strahl is leaving and I will stay. He has been such an amazing companion! I have progressed so much with him and I feel so blessed to have spent the last 6 weeks learning from his diligent, loving example. I will be training again next transfer and will also be the new district leader over the 8 missionaries in 충장 와드 (Chungjang Ward). Our ward is doing really well right now and is one of the areas leading the mission, so it will be a pretty big, fun responsibility doing my best to help us all keep up the good work and be worthy for God's blessings. It's slightly intimidating to train and go district leader, but I'm not worried. I know it's God will, so I know He can provide the way. It will definitely be a learning experience.

This week we met a new investigator on the street. His name is 신효면 (Shin Hyo-Myeon) and he is 61 years old. He's pretty poor and doesn't really have a regular job, so he met us every single day from Tuesday to Saturday last week. He learns really well and is beginning to understand what we teach and he said he wants to be baptized! He's been a pretty big miracle this week and I am so excited to keep teaching him this week and help him come unto Christ through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! 

We also have done a lot to improve the way we teach by finally making our lessons more interactive. Why didn't I do this earlier?! It has been really helpful to both make it easy and simple to understand and to help us teach more simply and directly. It has been a lot of fun figuring out those changes.

I have thought a lot this week again about opening my mouth. We have the promise in the scriptures that if we open our mouths, they will be filled. I have come to the realization again that I think in my efforts to talk to everybody and teach everybody, sometimes I find my self talking and never really opening my mouth that it may be filled. I have felt the difference between when I open my mouth with words already there that I hope to say, and when I open my mouth with trust in the promise that God has something He wants to say and it will be given to me that which His children need to hear. I had a really cool experience with this yesterday as we visited a less active. We ended up changing the scripture we were planning to share mid-lesson and just focused on testifying about our Savior and she began to cry because the Spirit was so strong. I know that God had something He wanted her to know and that we were willing to really open our mouths that God could fill them with His words, not just our own. This really is God's work and I know it! We really do have a Savior and He lives! Through Him, according to God's perfect plan, we can gain peace in this life and eternal life, the greatest of all the gifts of God. So amazing!

I love you all! Have a wonderful week and don't forget to open your mouth that it may be filled!

Love, Elder Tolman

Wonderful Baptism in Chungjang Ward

Today at 8:58 PM

On Saturday 조백열 and 민유란 were baptized!! They have made a huge change in their lives and in their entire countenance over ther past few months. I have only been here for the end of the process, but only a couple months ago they would hardly let the missionaries talk to them about anything spiritual, but now they are eager to learn, to act, and now to begin a new life under sacred covenant with God. Their daughter converted to the church a couple years ago and is currently serving in Seoul, but she came down for the day to attend the baptism of her parents and it was so amazing to see the joy the gospel can bring, especially as these amazing people begin to enjoy it together as a family. It was an amazing experience!

 

We've had some struggles meeting and teaching a lot of our investigators this week, so we'll have to focus more on finding new people this week, but I am so excited because we have so much good potential for God to work some miracles this week! It is getting pretty cold and wind lately so chances are it won't be an easy week, but I know that it will all be worth it because the worth of souls truly is unfathomably great in the sight of God!!

 

I made the interesting discovery recently that soy milk is actually really good! I don't know if it's just because Korea doesn't really have a lot of real milk and I'm just deprived of what milk is supposed to taste like, but soy milk is cheaper than normal and it turns out to taste so good too! Who would have thought!

 

I also have been impressed this week by an interesting pattern with Koreans. I don't really know the reason, but it seems like Korean people are really "dreamy/visionary" people in general, and not just within the church. I have heard multiple experiences of people who have had some pretty incredible, meaningful dreams and apparently it's not rare here. For example, one of our members' non-member mother had a dream before she was born of her as a missionary with other missionaries, which ended up being one reason that softened the mothers heart enough to let her daughter serve a mission later. It's really pretty interesting. I wonder why...

 

This week I have focused on hope! I learned more that hope is trusting that God will fulfill all His promises according to our faith and obedience. I have realized that God makes sooooo many promises to us and almost all of them are dependent on our willingness to trust Him enough to obey His commandments. I think that definitely applies with missionary work, both as a full time missionary and a member. God has promised us the ability, opportunity, and guidance to share these precious truths with His children. We just have to have the faith, the hope, and the love to put forth our imperfect, yet diligent effort to try!! I know He has the power to bless, guide, and consecrate our efforts as we rely on Him!

 

I love you all and hope you have a wonderul, hope, faith and love filled week!!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

A wonderful difficult week Nov. 17

This week has been bitter-sweet. We had so much potential at the beginning of the week but had such a hard time meeting people. Some of them were just busy and some stopped answering calls. I think that Satan knows this is God's work and that God is prepared to really pour out His power and blessings on our mission and our area and Satan is doing everything he can to hinder it. But he can't compete. Bring it on. 

Regardless of our setbacks, Brother Jo and Sister Min, our beloved investigators with a baptismal date for next week, are still on track! He finally threw away all his cigarettes and is ready to quit. It's going to be tough this week, but he has so much desire. During our lesson on Sunday, I mentioned he would have to be clean for this whole week and he cut me off and said "No, I need to be clean for eternity." He's definitely got his sights set. I'm so excited for them. They are amazing!

We also have just had a lot of opportunities to learn and improve ourselves this week, which was such a blessing. I have been thinking a lot about the beauty of the promise of sacrifice. In True to the Faith, it mentions that sacrifice is giving up something we value for something of greater worth. God provides us countless opportunities to give up ourselves, our things, or our ways with the loving promise that it will always be worth it and that he will overcompensate every cost. Every commandment and every principle of the gospel is an opportunity to partake of the promise of sacrifice, trading our imperfect selves and accompanying results for God's glory, power, and blessings. I am working to more fully sacrifice myself with faith in the reality of the power of Christ's atonement.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Elder Tolman

Another great week in 충장 Skyler Tolman

 

Nov 10 at 8:23 PM

This has been another great week. Our two investigators with baptismal dates are doing well, but they are progressing kind of slow and I don't know if they will make it by the 23rd, which is their baptismal date. 조백열 (Jo Baek-Yeol) is still struggling with Word of Wisdom. I know they will make it to baptism, so if not on the 23rd, then definitely soon after. They are amazing.

 

We also met with another new investigator this week who is pretty amazing. His name is 김형호 (Kim Hyeong-Ho) and he is 72 years old! We met him on the street and he is just a really sincere adorable old man who wants to follow Christ and is willing to study and act in any way he needs to to do so. We set a baptsimal date for December 8. I love teaching him.

 

I have been doing well this week and have been thinking a lot about progression and such. Something I feel like I have come to the conclusion of again and again, especially on my mission, is that God cares a lot more about us learning, growing, and gaining experience than He does about most results. I also know that as we seek to improve and progress, the only way to truly do so is through the atonement of Jesus Christ. This morning I reviewed Ether 12:26. The closer we get to God, the more we will realize our imperfections, but as we consider them as opportunities identified to progress and then rely on the cleansing and enabling power of the atonement through humility and faith, God can really help us to be more than we could ever become on our own.

 

I know that this really is God's work and that He really is such a real part of it. Let's truly become a light to others and let the joy and power of the Gospel shine!

 

I love you all!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

Transfers! Oct. 21, 2013

안녕하세요!!!

 

This has been an incredible week! We had an awesome 선교전시회 (Missionary Expo? I think that's the english version) yesterday and it was super cool. We met in the park with our whole branch and all the 14 missionaries in our district and we set up a bunch of streetboard that our branch made explaining all the missionary lessons, then we just all went out and talked to everybody and brought anyone who was interested back to show them the boards and explain what we believe. It was so fun. We got a bunch of numbers that we will be diligently contacting today and tomorrow to hopefully find lots of wonderful people to teach! Also, after conference last weekend, I have just felt more courage and more strength to be diligent, dedicated, and to re-focus my efforts and thoughts to be the best missionary I can. I have also seen a ton of improvement in my greenie, Elder Ahn this week, which has been so fun. He's amazing. I love that guy. I will attach a fun picture of us at a fun huge flower festival we visited last P-day.

 

Also, today we got transfer calls..... I'm going to be Zone Leader!!! I'm super nervous, but I guess if God calls me to do it, then there's a way for it to happen. The craziest part is that I'm actually not going to be Zone Leader, but I am transferring from 광양 (Gwangyang) to 충장 (Chungjang) in 광주 (Gwangju - one of the biggest cities in the mission). I'm really sad to leave Gwangyang, but I'm excited to be wherever God needs to be. I've also heard that the ward there is going crazy with missionary work and they are moving fast. I can't wait to run with them!! I will be serving with a 3rd transfer Elder name Elder Strahl. I've heard he is awesome and I'm really excited. Elder Ahn is staying here as a junior. I know he'll take good care of this wonderful little branch!

 

As for one little funny thing that happened this week, I have begun to occasionally have a hard time with English when we talk to foreigners. In Korean, if you ever say just one word alone as a response or question, it is 반말, which means their lowest form of language, which can be rude and isn't really appropriate for missionaries. So instead, you always have to say the word along with "요" ("yo") at the end to make it more polite. So we were talking to this guy on the street and he said he was just here for a couple days but was leaving tomorrow, to which I replied "tomorrow-yo?" I felt pretty dumb. He was from Poland and his english wasn't perfect, so hopefully he didn't catch it too much, but I just laughed at myself. Silly me.

 

One of my favorite parts of conference I have been keeping in mind this week is from Elder Uchtdorf's talk in Priesthood Session about "You can do it now!" I often feel like I want to be better and sometimes get discouraged focusing on those things that I feel ought to be better, but aren't yet. But as I have thought about this talk, I realized the truly, it is not God's will for us to get stuck in the past focusing on our weaknesses or imperfections when we can rise up, look up, and trust Him as we press forward towards becoming better. He is reaching out to us all saying "You can do it now!" maybe not so much telling us to fix all of our imperfections immediately, but to let our fear and doubt go as we take His hand and allow Him to lift and guide us forward. I also had a related thought this week about imperfections. I realized that rather than considering my weaknesses as obstacles or things to greive over, I ought to gratefully consider them as opportunities identified to progress onward toward perfection.

We aren't perfect. But we do have a perfect Father who gave us His perfect Son who both know and love us each perfectly. Let us all both rely on them and reach out to others to provide them the opportunity to do the same.

 

I love you all! Have a fantastic week!!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

Another great week in Gwangyang

Hello everyone!

This has been a good week. We had a hard time setting up appointments with a few of our investigators so we spent a lot of long tired days trying to find more appointments. A couple of our investigators we've had for a long time, 김지웅 & 김홍기 have been progressing SO slow, but this week they read the Book of Mormon more and had some pretty thoughtful questions, so hopefully if they can keep it up, their hearts will soften enough to be willing to start making more changes in their lives.

We also saw a pretty neat miracle this week. It was maybe the third day or so that we weren't able to set any appointment or that our appointments canceled and so we had spent a bulk of the day walking, talking, and trying to find new investigators. That being the case, we were getting pretty tired and we could both feel we didn't quite have the enthusiasm that we needed to keep being effective. It was maybe 8:20 when we stopped for a second, re-evaluated, and decided we could most effectively finish off the night by visiting a couple people near our apartment. Just before we took a turn to head towards home, I thought that we'd probably be just a bit too early, so I decided we'd walk around the block one more time and do our best to give out least one Book of Mormon. So we were walking and the first guy we saw coming the other way we stopped and began to teach about the Book of Mormon. The crazy part is that he stopped and listened! We were able to teach a quick lesson about the Book of Mormon, give him a copy, and get his number. Feeling incredible blessed and pretty fulfilled, we started to keep walking when suddenly we hear someone yell out from a few yards behind us, "Hey, are you the Mormons?" We enthusiastically turned around and said "Yes!" She said that she was a little late going home and so she didn't have time right then, but said she wanted to learn about our church and asked if it was ok to get our number and call us later. So we exchanged numbers and went our ways. It all happened in just a minute or so, but I was so touched by a simple yet powerful testimony from God that he was aware of our situation, that He knew we were trying to do His work, and that He is always always ready to reach out His hand in love to the eternal benefit of His beloved children.

I know that this is God's work and that when we rely on Him, His power is manifest. If we rely solely on ourselves, we are "left unto [our]selves" and can only draw upon our personal talent or power. But as we lay our pride down and in humility seek God first and His will, we gain access to the powers of Heaven to pour out God's promised blessings upon us and those we serve. I was impressed again as I ready Ether 12 about the importance of faith preceding the power of God in our lives. If you get a chance, read it again and think what you might be able to change or improve to more readily allow God to be an active part of your life!

Have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Tolman

PS: a fun fact of the week. I heard Korea just had it's 4400th birthday!! Crazy!

Sept 22 2013 추석 week

This week was good, but definitely a little different than normal because we had the massive Korean national holiday, 추석, on Thursday. We had a hard time meeting our investigators and such, so it was a good thing that President Shin had us meet together as Districts and practice teaching for a few days this weekend. In a lot of ways the meetings were really helpful and I remembered a lot of things I need to be doing better to be a more effective teacher of the gospel. This weekend we had a kind of interesting and somewhat exciting announcement from our mission president about a change in some of our focuses as a mission. Previously, we were focusing on talking to a certain number of people each way to help us strive to open our mouths. It had the right focus, but it was too easy for missionaries to distort into a quota that had to be met (whether or not it was effective), often at the expense of other more important opportunities. So, we dropped that focus and now we have a new one called "BRT 1-2-2." Usually BRT stands for Building Reletionships of Trust which is definitely good and we are still doing, but President Shin redefined it as Baptisms, Referrals, and Teaching. So now, we are expected to strive for at least 1 baptism each transfer, 2 referrals each week, and 2 hours of teaching every day. The teaching part has to be in 20 minute blocks of teaching, which is cool because it makes us be sure that we always strive for meaningful extended gospel conversations, whether with members, on the street, or with investigators. I believe it is revelation from God through our mission president and I'm excited to give it my all and see what blessing the Lord has in store for our mission as we do.

 

As for the actual 추석 day on Thursday, it was just a P-day. We had also done our e-mailing and shopping earlier (since everything is closed), so we had a pretty open, relaxing day. Or at least so we had hoped... We went to the church to play piano, play ping-pong, etc. and Elder Brady, one of the other elders living with us accidentally dropped the edge of the ping pong table on his toe. 안되요. It totally broke is nail bed, split his toe pretty bad on each side and it was just nasty. 징그러웠어요. So we spent a few hours getting him the the emergency room, getting him all patched up, cleaning the church, etc. before finally enjoying the last hour or so of P-day. It was necessarily relaxing, but it was definitely a memorable P-day. Poor Elder Brady.

 

Recently, I have realized that one of the things that would help me progress most in the language and helping bring people to Christ is that I need more confidence. As I was praying and pondering about how to gain more confidence, the somewhat paradoxical thought "I need to be humble enough to be confident," came into my mind. I realized that I needed to be more humble, not so much because I was being cocky or over-confident, but because I was refusing to let go of my imperfect view of myself and accept God's. God really does know us perfectly. He also sent His Son to atone for our Sins, our sorrows, and our imperfections, so we always have someone to turn to who not only understands us perfectly, but is the means of overcoming those imperfections. So this week I am working on being humble enough to give up my imperfect view of myself and to allow God to fill me with His love, both for me and for those I serve. There is no way I, or any of us, can do it all alone. The beautiful thing is that we don't have to! I know that my Redeemer lives and I am so grateful to be able to proclaim that truth to the world!

 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

Sept. 15 to Mom

Thanks Mom!

 

I got a kick out of Tyson's car story. That is so him to "steal the show" in everything he does, isn't it? It made me chuckle. I also loved Landon and Chases "Classic carpool" that they did. What funny studly guys. Haha I bet everyone just adores Landon at school. He's amazing. I bet he has so many incredible examples to be a great example to others - probably even far more than he realizes. Let him know that I think he's pretty amazing and that so many people will look up to the amazing example I am sure he is setting in all that he does. And I love that they were all able to sing together! It will be a blast to re-join the new and improved Tolman Choir when we're all back together. Fun stuff. My showed my companion the Inside-Out versions of Brightly Beams and he loves it. He's listened to it maybe 50 times and made me teach it all to him in English (because it doesn't exist in the Korean hymnbook).

 

I'm glad to hear you are all doing well. Good luck with your cupboard project! It sounds like a lot of work, but I'm sure it will be beautiful!

 

Thanks for your wonderful loving letter and your stalwart example to me and the rest of your loving sons and daughter. I love you! Have a wonderful week!

 

-Love Elder Tolman

Another Transfer in Gwangyang Sept. 15, 2013

Last Monday we got transfer calls and I am staying in Gwangyang with the same companion, Elder Ahn Gwang Oak. I love working with him and I love serving in Gwangyang, so I'm really excited for the next six weeks! I really believe that as we continue to work hard, to improve, and to be obedient, God will bless us with bountiful opportunities to bring people to Christ. I had a quick thought today. Maybe part of the reason missionaries see so many blessings and so much of God's hand in their lives is because we have so many opportunities to recieve God's promised blessings through obedience to their respective rules or commandments. We ought to look at commandments as opportunites for God to promise us His blessings!

 

This has been a pretty good week. Some of our time was caught up in spending with time who don't really have desire to accept the gospel, but no person is worthless and no effort is completely wasted. We'll just be looking for more effective, more useful ways to use our time this week. But regardless of our desire to use our time effectively this week, it is going to be pretty tough because this week is 추석 (Choo-seok) which is one of Korea's two biggest national holidays. It is a lot like our Thanksgiving and is a holiday celebrated on the same day as the harvest moon. But other than the origins and the fact that they don't eat turkey, it seems, all in all, to really be pretty much the same as Thanksgiving. But because of that, President Shin is having us meet togethers as districts to practice teaching and stuff like that rather than most likely very fruitlessly trying to scramble together appointments around our investigators' hectic holiday schedules. So we won't be doing a lot of traditional missionary work this week, but I'm excited for the opportunity to practice teaching and make the most of what opportunities we are given.

 

As I have been in Korea (for almost 6 months now), one of my favorites things is when Korean try to make up their own advertisements in English. The country is crazy about English, so most stores and most products will have something in English, but there are not a ton of people who are fluent in English, so their advertisements are almost always really awkward or just slightly off enough to make them funny.

 

Here's my favorite so far (this was found just on a cabinet at a store):

 

It is the good morning.

I open my eyes in the morning, and I make a base crab.

I make up, and I wear wonderfully clothes.

Today what kind of thing is come into being?

It is the girl whom a war is attractive, and it is kind, and it is bright.

I'm not give it up. I'm not disappointed

Let's always laugh.

 

Hahahaha I have no idea what it's supposed to mean, but it love it. Koreans are so cute.

 

Last week I mentioned that I had a thought from our mission tour that I wanted to share, so I'll do that today. It's about how to petition in prayer. Elder Whiting compared prayer to if our mission president had a super nice Ferrari and then we came up to him and asked if we could have the keys. The first things he would want to know are why we want them and exactly what we will do if we have them. Prayer is the same way. Often I find myself just asking for a list of things, often genuine requests for good things, but I don't usually explain why I want them or what I will do both to obtain them and if I receive them. Obviously God knows all our intentions and desires, but there is something powerful about expressing those desires in humble prayer to God. In my case, sometimes I really haven't thought about exactly why I want certain blessings and haven't committed to God what I will do with them and what I am willing to do to obtain them. But I know that as we think about those things and express them to God in prayer, our prayers will become more effective, not just on the recieving end, but also I think it provides us the opportunity to receive revelation as to what blessings we need and what things we can and ought to be doing to live up to the full potential of God's blessings for us. I really enjoyed that counsel and want to continue to learn how to apply it better. Prayer is so powerful!!

 

I'm so grateful for the knowledge that we have a loving Father in Heaven who's ultimate desire is our happiness. I am thrilled to have the opportunity every day to proclaim that priceless truth to the world!!

 

I love you all! Thank you for everything!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

 

 

Great Week Sept. 8, 2013

This has been a great week! We had lots of meetings, so some of the "numbers" side of things didn't indicate success, but I definitely learned a lot, made some improvements, and saw miracles, so it was a successful week to me.

This week we were able to find 4 new investigators!! 2 of them are the husband and daughter of member referral that we just met. They are all amazing and really seem to be looking for truth! I'm so excited to keep teaching them. The other one is a brother of one of our investigators we've been meeting a while (김지웅 - Jee Oong Kim). And the last one was a miracle find. I might have mentioned him last week, but I'll mention it again, just in case. We were just talking to people on the street and my companion had an impression that we needed to go talk to a kid a little ways down from where we were planning on crossing the street. We did and it turns out that he was attending a church, but it was pretty far, so he was looking for a closer church to go to, and yesterday, he came!! He's a total stud and seems to be really honest, pure, and open. I can't wait to keep meeting him!

Chan Ook Lee, our super cute amazing 13 year old investigator was finally able to get the Gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday. I can't wait to see him progress in the gospel. He's amazing.

I'm out of time, so I'll have to share my thoughts from our meetings another time, but we learned what it means to really "petition" God in prayer, and it has really helped me improve my prayers. If I don't share later, remind me!

I know this is God's work, not just because we see miracles as it goes forth, but because the witness of the Spirit undeniably testifies it is! Nothing can imitate the redeeming power of Christ and His Atonement that we can feel through the Spirit! 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

-Love, Elder Tolman

This has been a good week, but wasn't as effective as we had hoped. We got rained out this weekend and just haven't been as effective with out time as we should have. We are definitely looking forward to pushing forward more this week. This has been my first transfer staying with the same companion, so it has been interesting, but I'm so glad that I am able to stay two transfers with Elder Ahn. He is technically the greenie, but he is amazing and I learn alot from him. We have a lot of differences, but plently of similarities and have been able to kind of cover each other's weeknesses. I love serving with Elder 안광옥!!

 

This week we were able to find three new investigators again!! We hope we can keep it up and teach them all effectively! One of our new investigators, though, is still kind of mystery to Elder Ahn and I. We first met her one night when we were coming home for the day and we was at one of the entrances of our apartment complex. The wierd part though is that is seemed like she was waiting for us. She seemed really apprehensive and almost scared and just asked some kind of strange questions. But we taught a little, gave her a Book of Mormon and went on her way. We ran into her again a couple days later and it was still a little weird, but not as bad because it was just on the street in the middle of the day. We met her again at the same entrance to apartment one night and it just felt super weird again. So we were just going to be careful and keep our eyes out. Then this week, we got a call from someone asking if we could come teach. Elder Ahn said it was a lady who wanted us to teach her son English, so we went right away with a member. When we opened up the door, my heart took a jump when I saw it was Serena, the lady. I was especially worried because she doesn't even have a son at all. Also, in her living room, there was a little bike with a soccer pattern seat just like one we had seen a couple hours earlier halfway across town outside our apartment complex. I was kind of freaking out. The teaching appointment went alright, but it was still a bit strange. We found out later that the bike wasn't the same and that Serena never said anything about English and he had just confused her with someone else, so that easied our worries a lot. I think she is just a really troubled lady who needs a lot of help and doesn't really know what to do with her life at the moment. I think God might have some work for us to do to help this poor daughter. It was just an interesting experience getting to know her. I'll keep you posted if anything else exciting happens.

 

I am so grateful for the Gift and power of the Holy Ghost. In 3 Ne. 19:9, the people pray for that wich they desired MOST and it was the Holy Ghost. What an incredible gift God has promised to give us as we live up to our covenants!! I realized as I read that scripture that I ought to focus more not on just living worthy for the companionship of the Holy Ghost, but to be constantly striving, desiring, and asking for it's constant presence, guidance, and influence in my life. I know that only through the Holy Ghost can we truly understand and come to know these truths and only through the Holy Ghost can we effectively share these truths with others. The Holy Ghost truly is the channel God has provided for us to transcend our imperfect knowledge, ability, and desires as imperfect people and partake of God loving power, truth, and guidance as our perfect Father in Heaven. That is so amazing to me! I love this gospel and I am so grateful for the opportunity to share it with others!

 

Have a wonderful week! I love you all!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

Hello!!

This has been a great week! We were pretty busy with a lot of random things this week, so we weren't able to just get out and talk to people very much, which is kind of a downer because I love that part of missionary work, but we had some great things happen that were probably even better.

On Tuesday after our Combined District meeting, we went to a little block in the city and did a mini "English Village" which is a new idea President Shin has been trying to implement throughout the mission. English Village is where we get a bunch of missionaries together and set up a few stations where we simulate different scenes such as a restuarant or hospital, then invite people off the street just to come practice English with a bunch of Americans, role-playing the different scenes. We have them cycle through a few stations, then the last one is a Church where we talk simply about God and religion and if they are interested, teach a lesson. Then we ask if they are interested in our English programs or our message and get their contact info and such. At first when we did it, almost nobody came, but then somehow, all at once, it just filled up with people. It was a miracle! I think all in all we taught 15-20 lessons and got even more numbers all within a couple hours. It was super cool.

The other fun experience this week is that we had our branch activity! We got permission to ride a big ferry about 15 minutes out from the harbor to an island where we spent the day playing together. Not only was it super fun and pretty, but we were also able to get 3 of our investigators out along with one of our investigators' mom (who we've never met). It was pretty awesome. I'm a little short on time, but I'll try to send pictures sometime in the near future. It was a fun day.

As for a quick update on my exciting eating experiences in Korea, I added a new delicacy to my list yesterday! I got to eat 장어 (a.k.a. eel). When I heard that was what we were eating, I wasn't really looking forward to it, but after eating it, I can honestly say that eel is amazing! It was super good and apparently it is really healthy! Once they cook it and slice it up, it just takes like a really good fish. It was pretty fun. Also, at our branch activity, I had 회 for the first time, which is essentially just raw fish. It was less good than the eel, but still not too bad. I'm definitely becoming more accustomed to just eating things that I usually wouldn't be too keen on trying before. It's fun. And as for the octopus, it's beginning to grown on me too. I've had it a few times and it really doesn't bother me much anymore. It's kind of weird, but really not so bad. Hopefully I can find a way to have you all try it sometime... ^^

I forgot to mention about the baptism! We ended up having some complications with their dad going out of town and wanting to spend time with them, so we couldn't do it this week, but we will have at least one, if not two baptisms next week! I'll keep you posted!

Also, we saw a miracle this week! We met a guy on the street, talked a bit and gave him a Book of Mormon. He said "Oh, what a wonderful gift." We ended up (kind of miraculously) meeting him again at a bus stop a talked some more. He has been reading the Book of Mormon every night for an hour or so and thinks it's a great book! We will contact him this week with the senior couple and see if we can start teaching the lessons. Super cool.

This week I have been thinking about a scripture I read recently that I really like. It is 1 Nephi 17:51. It is Nephi telling his brothers about how if God has worked so many miracles throughout history and throughout their lives, then how is it that He cannot help him (Nephi) to build a ship. But as I read that, I think we all ought to replace Nephi building a ship with our own personal hopes, goals, and desires. It is so important to recognize and remember the hand of God in our lives and in the lives of those around us (perhaps our friends or family). And then as we remember those miracles He has wrought in our lives and throughout all of history, truly, if He can do all those things, how is it than He cannot help us to ......  . You fill in the blank. I know and testify that God lives and that He is our all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful father in heaven. He is aware of us and can help us to overcome or accomplish any thing with which we are faced. I think one of those things is the commandment to feed His sheep. It isn't an easy thing to do, but if He has done all these miracles, how is it that He cannot help us to share the gospel and bless the life of someone else! I challenge you to prayerfully seek out and act upon such an opportunity with the faith that God truly can help us to do all things and will provide a way for us to accomplish His commandments! I promise as you do so, you will be blessed with a greater conviction of the gospel and can be a tool in God's hand to bless and gather His precious lambs.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Tolman

Another Great week in Mokpo May 5, 2013

Hello!

 

This has been a great week. We worked hard and we have seen more success in the work, which was a blessing. We actually challenged the guy we ran into miraculously (I will call him Brother Shin) and he accepted! I still think that most of his enthusiasm for meeting us is centered on English, but he is coming to church and learning and hopefully we can really help him realize how important and valuable the decision really is to him!! In addition to that, we just had a bit more success all across the board, which was nice.

 

Today we recieved transfer calls. I am staying in Mokpo and my companion is transferring to be our Zone leader for this same zone, which we kind of expected. It will be a bit tough to be the only one who knows the people and the area for a while, but it will be a good fun experience.

 

To make up for last week, I have a couple cool/funny things that happened this week. This week we went to visit a couple old members in the southern old part of town just by the coast and it was probably one of the most exciting days so far on the mission. The main reason is that because it was an older more poor part of town, I really felt like I traveled back in time about 30 years ago to old Korea. The houses were all tiny and were crammed all over up and down the mountainside and the only way to get through them were these tiny alleyways that zig-zagged up the mountain. It was crazy to see and lots of fun to experience. I will try to send pictures in a week or two. It was a cool experience.

 

The other story is another one of funny joys of being a foreigner in Korea. Often we will be told by members and people that we look like famous people from America, even if we look nothing alike and it's pretty funny. I have gotten Arnold Schwarzenegar (however you spell it) and my companion has gotten names all over that map. But this week, we were with some less active members and they said something like I looked like that famous basketball player .... oh, yeah, Micheal Jordan - but more hansome. I cracked up. That's definitely a first - and probably a last too. I'm not sure exactly what the connection is, but it was super funny.

 

I am just so grateful for gospel in my life and for how reliable it is. As we study and teach people about why the gospel should be important to them, it makes me think why it is so important to me. I think that at least one of so many answers I could give to that question, is that God is always there, He always pulls through, and the gospel is what leads us to realize and take advantage of that. The hard part, though, is remembering. I love how often the Book of Mormon beckons us to remember what great things God has done for us and for those we love! Remembrance is such a powerful tool. God has been present in so many ways so many times in all of our lives, but they are often the small and simple blessings we receive each day. I think the trick is to never let a day pass by without acknowledging them and then find a way to always remember them! I know that God lives, that he loves us, and that as we remember that every day, He will ALWAYS pull through. We just have to be true to the covenant we make each week to "always remember Him" so we can have the priceless blessing of always having His spirit to be with us.

 

Thanks for all you do! I love you all! Have a wonderful week!!!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

Week 1 of first Transfer in Mokpo May 12

Hello!!!

 

This has been a pretty crazy week. We got transfer calls on Monday (as I mentioned) and then spent the next few days saying goodbye to people in Mokpo. Mokpo will definitely miss Elder Allen. He has been here for 6 transfer, which is 8 or 9 months, and he has done a lot for Mokpo. I am just hoping and praying the Elder Barney and I can keep it up and take advantage of the great potential that Elder Allen worked so hard to prepare.

 

This transfer will be a lot of fun, but also a "growing experience." Elder Barney is in his 5th transfer, so he is less experienced than Elder Allen in a lot of ways which means we will learn a lot together. For the first couple weeks, if not most the transfer, we will be working more like co-seniors as I lead the area and help him get everything figured out. It's a lot of responsibility, but I know it will all work out. (see spiritual thought at end of letter).

 

I had a couple fun/crazy experiences this week. The first was that we went to a meat buffet wednesday night with a member and his referral. It was a ton of fun and the food was so good. Similar to a lot of Korean meat restaurants, you have your own like grill at the table to cook the meat yourself and we just could choose from a ton of different meats at the buffet. It was almost the perfect meal because I had had tons of great food and even an ice cream cone to top it off, and then the member went for one more serving and brought back some octopus to cook. I was hoping that the fact that I had just eaten ice cream would signify that I was done eating and didn't need anymore, but, as expected, I was eventually pressured into trying it. It didn't taste bad, but the texture was pretty tough to handle. I eventually just shoved some kimchi in my mouth and swallowed it all together to get it down. That was fun.

 

The other crazy experience was our only member lesson this week. It was with an investigator who is really religious and researching lots of churches, but is going about it the wrong way by trying to prove with facts which one is true. So she agreed to meet, but she brought a preacher or something from another church and the lesson ended up just being a bible bash debate between the preacher and our member. Neither my companion nor I are too good at Korean yet, so we could really do a ton about it. It was crazy. After a couple hours, the investigator and her friend just stormed out. Not a good lesson. Hopefully she will eventually realized the real way to know truth - through the Holy Ghost.

 

It was also so nice to call home this morning. I am so lucky to have such an incredible family! I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!

 

My favorite thought of the week relates somewhat to transfers and how I have a new less experienced senior to help carry the momentum here in Mokpo. I was reading in 1 Nephi and when I read the part about how the Lord commands Nephi and his brothers to return to Jerusalem a second time, I couldn't help but think how crazy that is! When I read that, it's easy to think that there could have been a better way... Why didn't God just line it all up and have them snag the plates, get the family, and take off all in one night, never to return? Couldn't God have provided a more effective way? As I thought about it, the thought occured to me that my question was all wrong because I was defining "effective" by the world's standard. We often measure effectiveness by how much time is spent, how much resources we use, or what amount of effort we have to put into something. But God measures effectiveness with eternity in mind. He is the only one who really knows how to determing "eternal efficiency." So really, returning to Jerusalem twice was maybe perfectly effective, but based on God's standard of eternity. In our own lives, I think we often get caught in the need for worldy effeciency and we forget to consider God's view of eternal efficiency. I know that whether or not we can always see it, God is aware of our position, our potential, and the perfect path that will lead us back to Him. So we just need to trust in Him - to "be still and know that [He] is God." (D&C 101:16)

 

Thanks for your love, your examples, and your support. You are amazing! Have a wonderful week!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

Week 5 in Mokpo

Wow. Another week! I think time is beginning to pick up speed now and time is flying by faster and faster. It has been a good week in Mokpo, South Korea. It hasn't been easy and wasn't as successful as we would have liked, but it has, nonetheless been good. We had quite a few appointments cancel this week, but the fact that we have people agreeing to meet with us is a blessing in and of itself. Just hopefully more of them will follow through this next week. Probably my favorite success of the week was with our member referral. He is so quiet all the time, but especially during lessons and when we ask questions. But this week, he kep the committment we gave him to read a page from the Book of Mormon everyday and he also was willing to pray at the end of the lesson. He is progressing pretty slowly, but I have high hopes for him and I think that he is humble enough to make the changes in his life that will bring him closer to God, even if it takes a while. I am excited to see that change take place! We also met with our old investigator who had a baptismal date but couldn't drop alcohol. We just visited and played ping-pong, but I think he is remembering his desire to attend church and spend time with us, which gives me hope, even though I think it's still a long way away from being enough to help him quit alchohol. We will keep him in our prayers.

 

As for me, I had some pretty tired rough days, but I'm doing great. I love the opportunity I have on my mission to be stripped of pretty much any false form of comfort or solace and only have God and the gospel upon which to rely. It is a powerful lesson to me of how able God really is to aid us and carry us through ANY situation, whether it be a spiritual, emotional, or even physical challenge. Christ knows it all, He experienced it all, and He payed it all. What a blessing to be able to rely on Him for strength and comfort.

 

Thank you all for being such wonderful friends and examples to me. I am forever grateful for your love and support! Keep being spectacular!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

week 4 in Korea

Week 4 in Korea

Show Details

From

• Skyler Tolman

To

• Sheri Tolman
• Brad Tolman

Hello, Hello!

 

Before I talk about my week, I just want to express my love and gratitude to all of you! Thanks for your love, your consideration, and your support. It means a lot! You are all wonderful!

 

This week has definitely been better than last week, but the progression is still slow. We have a lot of people who are mostly interesting in English, but who are hopefully taking on more interest in the gospel. It is difficult to make the switch, but we are working on it. Our member referral is SO quiet and so it is really hard to understand his current situation, but he listens intently and is opening up more. I have high hopes for him. We also had a cool miracle happen this week. We took a bus to an appointment about 45 minutes away and we got there about 30 minutes early, so we just sat in a nearby convenience store to stay warm. While we were there, some guy a table away from us said "Are you missionaries?" We were happy to say yes and talked to him for a bit. He was heading to an English class and was mostly just practicing his English. But then he said "I want to go to church." I was way surprised that he invited himself. He also knew where are church was too, so we think he met missionaries before, but didn't really take lessons or anything. But we told him the time, got his number, and headed to our appointment. Then yesterday, he actually came! He felt bad and apologized because he was late, but I was just happy he was there at all. We taught him a little intro lesson at the church and will try to meet during the week. I hope it all works out!

 

As for me personally,  I am doing really well. I am beginning to comprehend more and more (although I still only understand about 5 or 10% probably). But the language is slowly coming. I also had the chance to give the special musical number for our Zone Conference. It was fun, but it was at like 10 in the morning and I hadn't warmed up at all, so it was pretty bad. But I did my best and at least tried to bring the Spirit and it was fun.

 

Here are a couple fun stories. Yesterday morning while we were studying, there was a mini earthquake! It only lasted about a second and it was really small, but it was kind of exciting to feel. When we felt it, we couldn't help but wonder if it was a nuke or something, but all is well in Korea and it must have just been some tremor or something. Hopefully it wasn't a side-effect of something worse somewhere else.

 

Also, I learned a super interesting funny thing about Korea this week. As we were waiting for a bus, we saw this tow-truck drive by, but it was the nicest tow-truck I had ever seen in my life. It looked pretty cool, was shiny, was all "suped-up", and had (what my companion confirmed to be) a big tank of NOS in the back! It was crazy! The funny part is that all the Korean tow-trucks are the same way! The reason is that the tow-trucks are all individual businesses and when an accident happens or something, all of them are notified at the same time. After that, it's just first come, first serve. So it's pretty much like fast and the furious, but with tow-trucks because whoever gets there first gets the job. And Korea seems to be a lot less strict in enforcing traffic laws, so they can actually do it. I even was able to witness it a little later because there was a little accident near our apartment and the tow-trucks just kept zooming up to scene hoping they were quick enough to get the job. It's kind of crazy, but super funny.

 

I am so grateful to be a missionary and to have a knowledge of this gospel in my life! Sometimes I think I forget that the God that is a God of miracles and of power doesn't just exist to prophets and in Ensign articles. He really is a God of miracles to each and every one of us personally! I am beginning to realize that and to become better at remembering that more and more. One of the best ways to remember that is gratitude. A great example is Nephi and Laman & Lemuel. When God delivered them from destruction in Jerusalem, Nephi and Lehi thanked the Lord for the absolute miracle while his brothers completely missed it as they focused on what they had lost rather than the miracle they gained. It's important to have the faith that God can bless us with miracles, but we also need to have the gratitude and ability to see those miracles.

 

Thank you all for everything! That is a really broad statement, but I really do mean it! You all mean so much to me! I love you all!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

Letter to Mom:

 

Wow! That is a lot of incredible news! It is wonderful to hear about all the great things you experiencing and enjoying! I will definitely look forward to seeing Scarlett on Mother's Day in a month! I hope you will be able to figure it all out with Cameron and I both trying to call into so many different places. I don't have any details about how that will work, but I will let you know when I do.

 

As for Mokpo, it is definitely a big city compared to Orem and maybe our standard, but you could consider it either a small big city or a big small city. It is a lot more empty compared to some of the other big cities like Gwangju, Daejeon, or Suwon. But yeah, it's fun. I don't really know a lot of the history of Mokpo as a mission area, but I don't know of it being closed and reopened recently... As for the e-mail thing, I'm pretty sure that was just a mistake because we have talked about it in district meetings and such and it's ok for everyone. And you can buy peanut butter in Korea, but it is just really expensive and probably a bit harder to find. I would definitely choose creamy over crunchy.

 

For our meals, we mostly eat them at our apartment and eat out every once in a while, but we haven't really had very many meal appointments. I've only eaten at a member's house once or twice so far. It's more just if they want to have us over, they offer, I think. I don't know if there is any set program of the ward feeding the missionaries. But it's not too bad. We get by just fine. It is a bit difficult not having access to a lot of the same things I am used to for making meals in America though, so I'm going to have to learn more and more how to eat the "Korean way" (which definitely isn't necessarily a bad thing).

 

I am happy to hear about the garden and the yard! You put a lot of effort into all of that and it's so fun that you are finally seeing the fruits of you labors! Maybe missionary work is a lot the same way. Sometimes we have to get through the cold of winter until we finally see growth in the spring.

 

I will talk about the rest of what's been going on in my letter to everyone, but thank you so much for your love, Mom, and for all the love that I know you send me from the rest of the family through your letters and prayers. I definitely appreciate and am so grateful to have such an amazing family!!

 

I love you!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

This week has been good, but not easy. We saw some good things happen this week, but there were also a lot of disappointments and frustrations. Our investigator with a baptismal date broke down on Tuesday and pretty much completely dropped us. He just isn't ready or willing to give up alcohol. I guess we were a bit too enthusiastic in helping him quit before he really had the desire to do so for himself and he just said that he has too much stress, that he doesn't think he can quit, and that we can't continue to contact him because he is too stressed. It was pretty heartbreaking to hear. Hopefully he will find a way to come back later and we will try to keep in touch, but we can't help him progress if he is not willing. We also had another investigator drop yesterday who just doesn't have time or enough invested interest to continue to meet with us. He seems to be pretty religious and eager for truth, so it's hard to see him reject the truth, but I have hopes that he might still find it in the future.

 

On the bright side, we have been meeting with a member referral and although I think progression might be slow, there is a lot of potential and I'm very excited to work with him. There was a lot we couldn't control this week, but there is always room for improvement, so we will press forward, hopeful for a better more successful week!

 

Maybe my favorite part of this whole week, though, was General Conference. I know you all already saw it, but it is still just as good a week late halfway across the world. I loved it! There is a lot that I learned, was reminded of, and definitely need to improve upon. It is such a blessing to have living prophets to give us up-to-date reports and guidance on how we can improve our lives, come closer to our loving Father in Heaven and our Savior, and to increase our efforts to help others do the same. Most of the English speaking missionaries in the area all meet at the Stake Center to watch it together, but we stayed in Mokpo to watch it on a laptop because we had a lot of appointments we didn't want to miss out on and we were out of money to make the trip. I loved it!

 

Here are a couple interesting/exciting things that happened this week. One day were were proselyting and we heard from behind us someone call out "Hello! Hey!" We turned around to see who it was and it was some random Korean kid on the street. He came up to us and just wanted to talk with us, so we were happy to oblige. His English name is "Ocean" and apparently he saw us a few times but just wanted to talk with us (probably to practice his English). But he took us to his nearby business and we just talked for a while. He is 26 and he is pretty much a genious. He owns his own whole compositions studio, a game programming company, and a stock trading company, and he works at the three for a living. He was just a super cool guy and has some cool perspectives on life, like how he notices he is blessed and just wants to help other people because he can only be truly happy if both he and others are happy. I hope we will be able to meet him again and teach him more about the gospel.

We also helped a member salvage some glass shelves from an old store. It took us an hour or so to take it all apart and then we headed back to drop it off. We were about to pull into an intersection when we heard a massive crash from behind the truck. The back of the truck had opend and the glass slid out and shattered all over the street. It was crazy. We scrambled to pick it all up with cars honking and driving on either side of us. Luckily we weren't in the intersection yet, but it was still a pretty exhilerating experience. Crazy days... gotta love 'em.

 

I'm pretty much out of time, but I just want to share one thought I have had recently that has really helped me a lot. I have kept the last line of "Come Thou Fount" in my mind a lot recently and it has had a renewed and deeper meaning to me over the last few weeks. It's the part where it says "Here's my heart, O, take and seal it! Seal it for they courts above!" I love that because I think that that is one of the hardest things to remember to truly give to God - our hearts. I think a lot of us are pretty diligently in doing our best to give our offering of time, effort, love, tithing, and almost everything else, but in our scramble to sacrifice it all, we forget that we are still clinging to our hearts. I often worry if what I'm giving is enough, if I'm truly doing my best, or if everything is really all going to work out the way it should, but all of those are sure signs that I'm still holding onto my heart and haven't let God take it - let HIm heal it, seal it, and send it back to me full of peace, power, confidence, charity, and assurance that He is God, that this is His work, and that I am His son. I know that through the power of the Atonement, as we turn to God and give it ALL - especially including our hearts - He will make up for the lack and imperfections that we unavoidably have bless us with the peace and power to press forward in all that we do.

 

Thank you for being wonderful! Thank you for being 1004s!! (haha that's a Korean language joke - I challenge you to try to figure it out)

I love and appreciate you all! God be with you!

 

-Love Elder Tolman

Dear Family and Friends,

 

This has been such a crazy eventful week! I will try to remember all the important things that happened. After about 16 or 17 hours of traveling, I finally arrived at the mission home on Tuesday night (Korea time). It was pretty interesting though because for us, the sun never went down from when we woke up Monday morning in America until when it set on Tuesday night in Korea. We followed the sun around the earth, so I pretty much just had one massive 30-something hour day. The first night in Daejeon, we went straight out on the street to proselyte. I was pretty nervous. We had an experienced missionary with us, so it wasn't too bad, but it was tough. It's still not super easy and it's hard when I don't really know what people are saying, but I'm getting better at it and it's definitely less frightenening than the first time.

 

We spent a couple days in Daejeon doing some orientation stuff and then we got assigned to our first areas. I am serving in Mokpo! It is a decent sized city, but small compared to Daejeon. But it is right on the coast on the southwest edge of Korea. I can see a inlet of the ocean from my apartment. I have a bunch of pictures from both the MTC and here, but I forgot my camera today, so I will try to send some pictures next week.

 

It is still pretty crazy to me that I am actually halfway around the world in Korea! Here's a few things I have noticed so far. I was actually surprised how much English there is here. English is a pretty big deal in Korea, so there are a lot of signs and stuff with English on them and a lot of Koreans have decent English. But even though English is pretty common, Americans (or any other people other than Koreans) are really rare here. It's pretty crazy! I would say that 99.9% of the people here are Korean. I might be overestimating, but we were pretty suprised when we saw 3 or 4 foreigners in one day. That's rare. It's fun. Because Americans are so rare and English is so popular, sometimes people get excited when they see us, especially the little kids, because they love to practice their English on Americans. So sometimes we'll get bunches of kids yelling "Hello!" or other English phrases from windows or from cars as we pass by. It is funny.

 

As far as religion goes in Korea, there are actually a lot of Christians here. It is super crazy, too, because there are TONS of churches in Korea! I can see 4 or 5 just from our apartment. It is like walking through Orem or Provo and seeing a church on every corner, except instead of all being our church, every single church has a different name and a different congregation. It's crazy. The tough part about it is that so many people have the mentality that because they go to a church and "believe in Christ," they are good to go, so they are happy that we are missionaries, but say something like "Oh, I already believe. Go save someone who doesn't believe yet." They aren't looking for a "true" church. They are just religiously complacent, which makes it really hard to do work here. There is also a lot of cultural pressures against the Word of Wisdom and stuff too, which also makes it tough.

 

As for the work, this week has been a pretty rough first week. We are the only two missionaries in Mokpo (which actually covers a pretty huge area), so there is a lot of responsibility. Also, this is my trainer's 6th transfer in Mokpo, so he will probably be leaving after this transfer, which means it's all on me to learn the area and keep any momentum going when the switch happens. I feel like I've definitely been experiencing some "growing pains" as I've tried to figure everything out and fill the responsibility of being a missionary. But I think I am starting to get the hang of it. My Korean still is not very good at all, but I'm learning little by little everyday and I know it will come even if it's not as fast as I would like it to. This has also been a tough week for the work just because we haven't seen hardly any success. We had 5 appointments cancel this weekend and an investigator who can no longer come to church because he has a class at that time. We do have one investigator with a baptismal date, but he is struggling with the word of wisdom and finding the desire to quit drinking. We went hiking with him on Saturday and he drank a cup of coffee and took a couple swigs of alcohol from his bottle while we were on the hike. It wasn't fun to see. But we will keep working with him and I really hope that he turns around. Mokpo hasn't seen a baptism in over a year and we are determined to do our best to change that this transfer. So the work is not easy by any means, but I know that it is God's work, so as I continue to do it in His way and diligently consecrate myself to this work, He will bless and guide our efforts.

 

Other than some disappointments and trying to adjust to a whole new world, I'm doing really well. It's not fun to see so much disappointment, but I am keeping my head up and will keep doing my best. Often we just do not understand the full grand scheme of God's will and His way, but I know that as I trust in Him and just give my best, that everything will work out for the best. I know that He is always there, ready to bless and deliver, but we need to do our part and we need to remember that it mus alway happen by His power, in His time, and in His way. But when it does happen His way, we have the absolute guarantee that there is no other better way. I love that. I also hope you all had a wonderful Easter! What a blessing it is to remember our Savior and His Atonement, the most significant, loving, eternal, powerful, intimate event in all of history. I am so grateful for His sacrifice. May we all seek to better sacrifice and consecrate our lives to Him through our service and love!

 

Thank you all for you prayers, your love and your support. It means so much to me and is always very needed. I love you all!

 

-Elder Tolman

This next email is from Skyler to me regarding giving people permission to email him.  You all may email if you desire as you read in this message:

Skyler's email is: skyler.tolman@myldsmail.net
I was just wondering who you gave permission to email me. You can give it to anyone that I actually know. I think I said to only give it to a few people last time, but I mostly just didn't want to have it posted on my blog for the whole world to email me. So go ahead and let everyone know if you haven't already, and then if you can, mention to have them put their physical address too in case I don't have time to email them, but can write them a letter instead. Thanks! Love you! Bye!

Dear family,

Right now I'm waiting for my laundry to finish so I can go pack up to leave in 30 or so hours! We are able to write today because Korean P-day is Monday and we will miss it this next week, so this is sort of my P-day. I am doing fantastic and I am so excited to be heading out to Korea so soon. I can still hardly believe that I will be in a completely foreign country with the full-blown spectrum of missionary work (in Korean). I am pretty nervous, but I'm doing my best to just be confident in my ability to give my best and to be happy with that. It's going to be really hard being submerged in a language I still hardly know, but I know that it will come. It might be a few more months before I actually understand the people and a few more months after that until I begin to feel comfortable responding, but I know that God is in this work and that accordingly, He will provide a way for me to magnify my calling and accomplish what He needs me to do. It's a humbling experience and I'm sure I will be able to attest to that even more so next week, but I am so excited to go!

This week has been a bit crazy, but really good as we have been preparing to leave. I'm doing really well. I have stayed pretty healthy here and I think that I am actually healthier and in better shape than I have been for a while. I have been doing push-ups pretty regularly and I finally worked back up to doing 100 push-ups. They weren't very good, but I think they were all 90 degrees, so I figured that it counted for something. I'll see if I can keep it up in the field. We also had another opportunity to practice street contacting, but this time with the native Koreans. It was so hard!! It made me realize how much I still have to learn, but it was a fun opportunity. Probably the other coolest thing that I did this week was "In-Field Orientation." It was pretty much a big recap of everything we should have learned at the MTC and just an opportunity to tie it all together before we head out. I really liked it! It reminded me how important it is to really believe in the power of God, and not just in a general way, but that He can and will bless us in specific ways. Every single day is filled with opportunities for me to serve Him and to allow Him to work through me. It does me no good to doubt or hinder the magnitude of His power to bless me and bless others through me by not believing He has the power and not acting when opportunities arise. I am so grateful to be a servant of God and to be serving Him in this great work.

I probably won't write again until next Monday, so I hope you all are well until then! Thanks for being so incredible and for all your amazing examples to me. Oh, and I am so grateful for all the notes and/or packages that you sent for my birthday! I loved each and every one! Unfortunately, if you sent a letter or anything and it didn't get here by yesterday, then I probably won't get it. I don't know if that is the case for anyone, but I'm sorry if it was.

I love you all! Woo hoo! This is my last missionary e-mail from America! Goodbye USA!

-Elder Tolman

PS: Family - I sent a package today of a couple things that I don't need, but it's through some company that allows you to come pick it up so it is free for us both. They will probably call you soon and you can just go pick them up. I gave them Mom's cell-phone number. And as for calling on Monday, I might get lucky and be able to call in the morning. We probably won't be at the airport until about 6 and then we'll have to go through security and everything, but be available and I'll try to sneak in a quick call before I take off. If not, I love you all and will look forward to talking to you on Mother's Day! Thanks!

사랑하는 친구와 가족!!

 

I can hardly believe that I am finally almost heading to Korea! This past Thursday evening, I got my travel plans. We meet at the travel office at 4 am (which means I be waking up around 3...) and head to the airport. Our flight leaves SLC around 8 am and we land in San Francisco at about 9 their time (which is about 10 our time). We have a two hour layover in SF, leave at 11 straight for Korea. We land in Korea at about 3 pm the next day, their time, but I think the flight is about 13-15 hours. So pretty much I get to time travel next week and skip a day. I can't wait to be going! It's pretty intimidating, but mostly exciting. I know that I have so so sooooo much to still learn, but rather than focusing on what I'm not prepared to do, I think it will be best if I just focus on what I know I am prepared to do - to give my very best in learning and serving the people. I can do that. I just won't be too good at it for a while.

 

All of the new Korean missionaries that came last Monday are native Korean who flew from South Korea, so it has been a ton of fun getting to know them, learning from them, asking lots of questions, and getting in some good Korean practice as we struggle to effectively communicate back and forth at times. The other Zone Leader, the Coordinating Sister, and I all got to do our intro/orientation spiel again for the native Koreans and it was so much fun. We went to their introduction testimony meeting with the Branch Presidency on Thursday night and it was pretty incredible. I could only pick out a few words and bits of grammar when they were bearing their testimonies, so I really couldn't understand much of what they were saying, but it was a really spiritual meeting. I think it is so incredible that even though I couldn't understand hardly anything, I could feel the spirit so strong during the meeting. It is comforting to me that even though I won't be very effective at communicating at first, the Spirit isn't hindered by those language barriers. All of the Koreans are a ton of fun to talk with and to be around. It has been so fun to have them here. Sunday night, I had a good (and quite broken) conversation with one of the Koreans about pride and loving the people, which was cool. That same night, I also taught one of the Koreans to tie a tie. I noticed that when we went to the temple all together last Tuesday (which was absolutely incredible!) he had one of the other Koreans tie his tie for him. So on Sunday, I asked him if he wanted to learn and we practiced it a few times. It was a lot of fun. They are incredible people. I love Koreans already and I can't wait to go be among them and serve them every day!!

 

On Sunday, our Branch President was released because he needs time to prepare to be my mission president this Summer. He is amazing, so it was sad to know he is leaving the MTC, but it wasn't too bad because I know I can just look forward to seeing him later this year in Korea! His wife is also so sweet. Her English is pretty broken and heavily accented, so I am excited for when I can actually communicate in Korean so that I will be able to talk to the Korean her. I thought I was going to be released as Zone Leader on Sunday because that's how they have always done it in the past, but instead, they are keeping us as Zone leaders for this week, but calling a third Zone-leader-in-training to shadow us and learn from us this week. I think they are hoping it will make the transition a little easier and smoother. I don't really mind. We also had another Korean film night on Sunday, which was fun. But this time, they didn't use the subtitles, so I just had to listen. I didn't catch many full phrases or ideas, but I caught a lot of words and grammar forms and could sometimes piece together the meaning. It's slow, but it's definitely coming!

 

I had a somewhat funny experience yesterday during one of our classes. For class, we talked about 전도-ing (jundo-ing, a.k.a. proselyting) and then we just went throughout the MTC and found random people to talk to and share a message with. The purpose was mostly just to be comfortable with it and to learn to have quality conversations and share a message without it being robotic or awkward. So as we were doing this, we ran into some German Elders who are leaving today who were actually doing a similar activity. So we let them share a message in German before we shared a quick message to them. The funny part was that when they were talking, I could understand probably 80-90% of what they were talking about! Obviously their German was really slow and simple, so that made a difference, but I couldn't help but be slightly jealous that I could understand more German than Korean. It just made me laugh. But it will come.

 

That's pretty much it for this week. We are just getting all ready to head out to Korea and to be as prepared as possible. President Shin said that they are considering putting another temple in Korea, but that they are currently thinking about putting it in the Pusan mission. So he said we should work really hard and have an unofficial competition with the Pusan mission to see who can get the next Korean temple. That would be incredible.

 

As for my spiritual thought for the week, during the devotional last Tuesday, we learned about becoming perfected and focusing on God's will. One of the biggest things I learned from that and that I think I continue to learn throughout my stay here so far is that we really cannot do this ourselves. We cannot perfect ourselves and we can't really expect to do all that is asked of us by ourselves. It's not possible!! That is why it is so important to remember every single day that we are children of God and that this is His work. It won't help me to get up each day asking "Am I good enough for this work?" or "Am I perfect yet?" because those questions are solely inward and are focused on my ability to do this work, and not God's. Rather I should remember that God is good enough for this work and God is perfect and as I look outward and focus on His will, He will direct this work and magnify my best efforts. He can do all things. I know that through God and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all our imperfections and inabilities, all our trial and sorrow, will be made up and can be blessed and strengthened as we turn our lives over to Him. This is such and incredible work and this truly is God's gospel. The church is true!!!

 

I love you all! 감사합니다!!

 

Love, Elder Tolman