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!