Happy New Year

This week is 설날 (pronounced Sullar) which is the Chinese/Lunar new year! It's pretty much their biggest holiday of the year, so the whole nation will pretty much just shut down from Thursday to Saturday. Kind of crazy, but fun. 

We had a great week this week! One of our highlights was that we called up a former investigator and met last weekend and he is so amazing! His English name is Jason, and his Korean name is 이지훈 (Lee Jee-Hu) He just wants to help and serve people in his life and he's just a good person. He stopped meeting missionaries just because he was busy and one of the missionaries left, so we picked him back up and he seems to be pretty prepared to listen to our message. I'm so excited to meet and work with him!

We also have been meeting with a man name 이신건 (Lee Shin-gun) who calls himself Mr. Lee. Right now he mostly has English interest, but we are working on helping him apply the gospel to himself. But he is probably one of the most interesting men I have met in Korea. He is 73 years old, but is probably as healthy as most 40 year old men in America. He is currently teaching as a professor of Business Management, but he speaks at least some of 5 languages, has been the official Tae-kwon-do instructor for generals and stuff in the Korean army, he served as part of the Korean special forces, he has done infiltration and reconnaissance in the army and was also a tactical instructor. He has traveled to 54 nations and also wants to work as part of the United Nations some day. When it was rainy the other day he said his back aches when the weather changes because of the time he was skydiving and his parachute didn't open! He survived and is ridiculously healthy (at 73 years old!) And yet he is just a funny cute old Korean man who loves the missionaries and wants to learn English. He's a mystery to me.

I absolutely know that God lives, that we are His children, and that He loves us. That really is the foundation of everything we believe and everything that God does for us. I feel like so often I get tied up in the details and forget the foundation of it all. We are children of God. He loves us. Because He loves us, He sent His Son who made it possible for us to return to Him!! When we understand the significance of those truths, there is no need to fear, no need to worry, no need to feel insufficient, and no need to despair. We truly are the children of God and I know that is true. We are entitled to power and peace through the atonement and faithfulness to our covenants! Wow!!! I love this gospel and I know it is true!

I love you all! 새해의 복 많이 받으새요! (Literally "receive many new year blessings", but essentially means Happy New Year!!)

Love, Elder Tolman

It's Always a Great Day When You're Serving the Lord!

Happy New Year! Woo hoo! I finally turned 21 this week! In Korea, they begin their life at 1 year old and then everybody changes age at the same time on January 1st (with a couple other complicated rules based on the Lunar calendar) So I am officially 21 years old in Korea. Kinda fun.

We had some interesting experiences this week.

We thought we'd try a new finding idea by going to the hospital! We asked one of the front desk nurses if there is anyone who might be alone that we could keep company. She said it was ok and pointed us to a wing of the floor, so we looked around for a few minutes with little luck. We were about to leave when my companion said "Wait, we need to talk to that guy," referring to an old man we had just passed. So we did and he mentioned something about President Kimball and wanted to go sit down and talk!! That was when the hospital security guard came and told us we needed to leave because there were probably people who didn't want us around. We tried to explain that the little old man actually wanted to talk with us, but we couldn't really argue, so we followed him as he escorted us out of the hospital. It broke our hearts as we saw how disappointed the man was when we were told we had to leave. I don't know exactly why we needed to talk to him, but I trust and pray that God  will take care of everything.

Also, on Fast Sundays, the ward brings food to put in our missionary basket, for which we are always so grateful. We had a decent sized box to take home, so we decided to take a taxi which is only a couple dollars more expensive than taking the bus. We tried to talk with the taxi driver but with little success, so when we arrived we got out of the taxi and just headed up to our apartment. After a few seconds, I realized that we have forgotten all the food in the trunk of the taxi!! We ran back out the road, but he had already taken off and was long gone. We waited on the side of the road hoping and praying he might turn around and come back, but after a minute or two, we realized it was pretty hopeless. He had no number, we had no number, and there was really no option of contact. We felt so bad for the other Elders in our room who would now be without the donated food as well and felt bad for just mindlessly wasting our members' sacrifice. We headed up to our room and started studies when we got a call to the room.... It was the security man at the front office saying we had some stuff to pick up at the front office! The taxi driver remember, turned back, brought us the box of food, and the front office knew we were the only Americans in the building, so they knew exactly where to call. It was such a simple thing, but we were so grateful for the miraculous display of God's love for His missionaries. 

However small and simple, I know that God really does reach out and touch our lives so often. I know that He perfectly loves and knows His beloved children and is always seeking for our happiness and eventually our salvation. I know that regardless of our struggles, our questions, our trials, or our mistakes, nothing can mar or take away the fact that we are children of God. I know that through this restored Gospel we can learn how important that relationship truly is and can come to obtain the eternal blessings God is already so eager to pour out upon us according to our obedience and our faith. I know that we have a Savior and that He atoned for each one of us personally. I love this gospel and I'm so grateful to be able to share it with others!! 

I love you all!! Never forget the ever important line "I Am a Child of God!!"

Have a wonderful week and a wonderful new year!!

Love, Elder Tolman

Skyler and companion in Gwangyang 10-13-13

Skyler and companion in Gwangyang 10-13-13

Baptism and companion pictures

December 29, 2013

here's the picture of 신효면 at his baptismal service. The one Korean isn't my companion (my companion was sick, so we had to split) The other Korean is our bishop.

This is my real companion.

This week 신효면 got baptized! He is such a funny cute old man and his desire to learn and live the gospel is so incredible sincere. He's maybe read more of the gospel library than I have in the past 4 weeks or so since we met him. And to think that he was just another man on the street that we could have just as easily passed up without a word!!! The worth of a soul truly is great in the sight of God. He will do everything He can to do to help His children come back to Him, including using us as tools in His hands. It's so important to be prepared and willing to do so!! 

We have a lot of potential with our other investigators and potential investigators, one of whom will hopefully be baptized in the next week or two (구병철). I'm hoping this week we will really be able to get things moving a little more. 

For Christmas, one of our amazing members whose son is now engaged to a British girl here in Korea invited us over and served us a British style Christmas dinner. It was sooo good! It was weird to pass food around the table like normal and use a fork for a whole meal. It was fun.

My companion, Elder Dursteler has been sick this past weekend, but he's doing a bit better today. He works so hard and is such an amazing missionary! I have been so blessed with such amazing companions. 

On Saturday we saw a pretty cool miracle. We were debating whether to stop by our recent convert's restaurant or just wait to see them on Sunday, but they've been struggling a bit, so we decided to just go for it. It was a little stiff at first, but he ended up putting up a bunch of wallpaper that day, which was an answer to our prayers for a way to serve them and show them we love them. When we sat back down to finish our meal, the customer next to us, who we had briefly introduced ourselves to a little earlier, asked us "What's the name of your church again? It's kind of long..." We told him and he replied "I want to attend your church." He explained how he's never attended church before and feels like he needs to, but doesn't want to just show up alone. He called us the next morning because he was at the church about 45 minutes early!! He stayed all three hours and also for the baptismal service after church. It was amazing! 

God is so aware of His children! I feel like I say that every week, but it's so true! I have seen witness after witness that God really does love us soo much!! I know that because He loves us, He sent His Son as our Savior and has restored all the truths we need to utilize the eternal and personal power of the Atonement! "Oh is it wonderful that He should care for me enough to die for me!" I know this is the true and restored church of Jesus Christ!

I love you all! Have a wonderful new year!!

Love, Elder Tolman