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

 

It has been another great week here at the MTC. It's crazy though that while I'm here at the MTC, I will have seen at least 5 or 6 groups come and go. I'm definitely so excited to go to Korea!!! But I'm not disliking my stay in the MTC at all, so I will try to make the most of the last couple weeks I have here. I heard from some of the older missionaries who have been in Korea for a couple weeks now that they wen't out on the street, both greenies, and went proselyting the first or second day. I'm getting better at Korean, but I'm going to have to make fast progress to prepare here and to learn there how to be more effective and at least communicate with people. It also is crazy since we have 3 weeks less of Korean before we have to use it in the field. It's a good motivation to work really hard here so I will be as prepared as possible there. But I'm so excited.

 

We had the new group of Korean missionaries come in this week. It is interesting having so many Sisters in the group, but I like them so far and they seem like they will do well. It was a bit more of a busy week since the Zone Leaders had to do a bunch of orientation stuff and we had to train the new district leaders on top of the other little things we do. It really wasn't that bad, but I was just running all over the place for a couple days. But I don't mind being busy as long as I think what I'm doing is actually important. It has been fun being with and getting to know the new missionaries. It also makes us feel at least a little better about our Korean for a couple weeks. Until we get to Korea... It's fun.

 

I have also loved the warmer weather over the past week! It was so nice to have the chance to have class outside a couple times this week. I don't think the field will be open before we leave, but it has still been way nice. One of the other exciting things is that the native Koreans showed up yesterday! They came in after dinner and they aren't staying in the same residence so I didn't see them at all yesterday, but I have talked to them some today. Also, there are a few of them in the room next door with one of them improvising on the piano and it is so fun to hear. He is playing the Marion theme song right now and it is so cool. I love the Koreans. I am way excited to meet them more and talk to them more especially since this is the group that will actually be heading out to Korea with us.

 

As for the language, I don't know that I'm really learning a lot of grammar or anything like that, but I'm working on expanding my vocabulary and just practicing speaking and reading. It is really fun when I can sit in a lesson or read through the Liahona and catch a fair amount of what is being said. I absolutely love Korean. There is still a ton to learn, but it's an amazing language from an amazing people with an amazing culture. I really am so excited. Our lessons have been going fairly well. We are still becoming less and less dependent on notes and pre-planned scripts and I feel like I'm beginning to actually teach. I still have a hard time actually expressing and explaining things the way I would like, but I'm just happy I can usually at least understand and even respond. It's coming.

 

Yesterday in class we had a pretty intense discussion about missionary work and how it's really never meant to be an all-fun-and-games opportunity for any one of us to just go have a cool experience. We talked a lot about the atonement and how throughout our mission we might have a lot of opportunities to feel maybe an inkling of the sorrow and love the God feels and that Christ felt for us through the atonement. It really reminded me to keep my focus in the right place. My mission is not for me. It's not about me learning a cool language, it's not about me having a cool experience, and it's not even really about me to become a better person. All of those things will happen, but they aren't the purpose. My mission is an opportunity to try, in an incredibly relatively small way, to give up a tiny part of my life to serve the Savior who gave absolutely everything for me. He needs each one of our efforts to reach out to love and lift those who are lost and don't know how to come to Him. It is not an easy thing to do and it isn't meant to be easy. But through the power of His atonement, He promises to bless, lift, and carry us as we give our all to do the same to others. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve. I am also so grateful for all of your incredible examples of love and service which help me to be my best. I am so grateful for this gospel and the love that God has for us to show us the way back to Him. The gospel is so amazing and it is SO TRUE!!!

 

I love you all and am so grateful for each one of you!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

Dear beloved friends and family,

This has been a great week! I'm still doing my best to learn quickly and to try to improve every day. Our lessons have been getting better and better, which has been encouraging. I've been getting better and better at teaching lessons without script at all, English or Korean, and just making up my own Korean sentences that relate to the topics and/or questions of the investigators. One lesson we had this week went really well. We ended up not even really following the plan we had set, but just worked on answering her questions. I had the chance to recite the first vision in Korean and the Spirit was so strong. It was just a testimony to me about how powerful and true that experience really is. There is a reason that that is one of the only things we are specifically asked to memorize as missionaries. It was a cool experience.

Here are a few fun/interesting things that happened this week. Just a couple nights ago, my companion woke up in the middle of the night with a scripture in mind that he felt he needed to write down. He keeps his planner and a pencil next to his bed in case some thing like that happens. When he woke up in the morning, he had written D&C 19:43:19. He was pretty sure he meant D&C 43:19 (and there aren't even 43 verses in section 19), so we looked it up to see what revelation he had received. It ended up being something like "Gird up your loins that ye may not be found among the wicked." We all laughed and it was pretty funny that he had essential received condemning "revelation" in his sleep. Maybe that was something he needed, but it definitely was unexpected.

Another funny thing that happened is that during class this week, one of my teachers said he was going to show us something crazy/awesome, so he began taking off his shoes and said we all had to close our eyes until he said we could open them. I had no idea what he was doing and I thought he was going to have prosthetic feet or something... It turned out that he was showing us some awesome socks he got in Korea that he was wearing underneath his church socks and they were pretty awesome. They were the mushroom from mario with half of his face on each foot. It was funny. Everyone in the district was then excited both to buy cheap ties and awesome socks in Korea. So I'll keep my eye out for awesome ties and socks to send/bring home.

It has been sad but nice at the same time to have the older group of missionaries gone because the lines are a lot shorter. But I'm way excited to be getting the new set of Korean missionaries tomorrow and the new set of 23 Native Korean missionaries next Monday. We are getting 31 new missionaries tomorrow, but the crazy part is that 20 of them are Sisters!! Every new districts has almost twice as many Sisters as Elders. I've heard that other districts in the MTC have all Sisters and they are trying to figure out with Church Headquarters what to call the Sister equivalent of a district leader for those situations. It is so interesting to see the changes they are having to make to adapt to this crazy, yet incredible situation.

Probably the best part about this week, though, has been the incredible talks and devotionals.

Last Tuesday (a week ago) we had Elder Ballard come for our MTC devotional. It was incredible to feel the power and authority that he has as an apostle of God, just by sitting in the same room as him. He talked a lot about how Christ is so central to everything we do and everything in the Gospel and it reminded me where my focus really needs to be. We also had an incredible devotion by the Provo Temple President this Sunday. He talked about how powerful, important, and holy the temple really is. He reminded me about how the temple is really the only place on earth we can learn and gain the power necessary to become like our Father in Heaven. It was inspiring! Probably my favorite, though, was a film we watched of Elder Bednar's MTC talk, "The Character of Christ." Essentially, he talked about how the Character of Christ is learning to always turn outward rather than inward. That is exactly what Christ did 100% of the time. It is so hard to try to turn outward and seek to love and serve others when we are in the midst of trial, pain, and affliction, and really it is not even possible to do it ourselves. But He talked about how through the healing power of the atonement, if we turn our sorrow and pain over to the Lord through His atonement as we look outward in service to others, then He promises to lift us and bless us enough to continue to do His work. It was pretty much a life-changing talk. I loved it!

That's pretty much it for this week. It is crazy that I've been here 6 weeks already and that 3 weeks from today I will be in Korea! Time flies. I am so grateful for every one of you and for your love and support! God bless you all!

-Love, Elder Tolman