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
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