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