Sunday, February 23, 2014

Transfer Calls

Today we got transfer calls! But very little is actually changing, so we just get to continue on in this amazing work with these amazing people!! Elder Dursteler and I will stay together for a 3rd transfer and only two of the sisters switch out in our district of 4 companionships. So the work goes on in 충장!
This has been a great week! We saw a couple pretty amazing little miracles getting back in touch with old investigators! One day I was contacting another set of Elders from a nearby area about someone we had referred to them and he was having a hard time, so they suggested we give him a call to see if he would respond. I hadn't remembered his name exactly, so they told me the name and I hung up and called the name I had heard. To my surprise it was the wrong person! I had accidentally called an old potential investigator we had met once before who was kind of hard hearted and usually just argued with missionaries. It was awkward cause I didn't even mean to call him, but I felt like I might as well shoot for an appointment. He agreed and we met this week. He talked a lot about how he used to just argue with missionaries, but he has changed and soften some and would like to look into our church again with a more open mind! Wow!! 

Also, we were calling a bunch of numbers we had received to set up appointments and my companion randomly felt like he needed to call a guy who was a miracle find on the street a couple months ago who just kind of disappeared and never answered since. He answered for the first time in maybe 6 or 7 weeks and he just so happened to be at a cafe in the area and wanted to meet right away. We were just about to head home for dinner, so we met him and his friend, had dinner with him, and he came to English class that night. He says he is really interested in our church and wants to come learn! Miracle!

Also, we were just heading home and asked a man at a stop-light for directions of which bus to get on and he was so excited to help a couple foreigners find their way (like every other Korean here. They are so funny. They absolutely love helping Americans find directions cause they assume we are probably hopelessly lost). So he took us to the bus stop and then said "Yeah, I've met missionaries before. My name is 조만진." When I heard the name, I realized it was a man that some other Elders had referred to us a while back, but his contact changed and we couldn't get a hold of him. He even had my name and number in his phone! So we set up an appointment and will meet him this week! Crazy. God works miracles!

One of the other miracles to me this week was Matt. 13. I read this chapter and learned a lot from a couple of the stories of Christ. The first is when Christ fed the 5000. This is just after Christ heard news of the beheading of John and he went into the desert, at least to some degree, I'm sure, grieving the death of His beloved cousin. Regardless, he takes the time to heal the multitudes that follow Him, and when his disciples have assumed they have done all that they could and are about to send the people home, Christ stops them and beckons them to "give them to eat." The disciples, recognizing obvious insufficiency, acknowledge "we have here but 2 loaves and 5 fishes." Then Christ in His wisdom, just asks them to "bring them hither unto me," proceeding to feed 5000. Christ has given a similar call for us to feed His sheep to which we probably often reply with a similar excuse of our lack and imperfections. But if Christ can feed 5000 with 2 loves and 5 fishes, He can feed His sheep through imperfect servants. We just need to trust and follow the call to gather our best efforts and our love of God and bring them unto Him. Christ can. 

I was also impressed with the story of Peter on the water and how he really did walk on water, but began to sink as he diverted his focus from Christ to crisis. We just need to trust that truly "the winds and the waves shall obey His will" and humbly obey the follow command - "Peace, Be still." Fear not, have faith. We are imperfect, but we have a perfect God who sent His perfect Son, who completed the perfect atonement for us. Christ can. I know that He lives and that He is our loving, merciful, perfect Savior!

Have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Tolman

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