Happy Easter

Wow, this has been a bit of a crazy week! We had a bunch of meetings and other random things that came up so we were kind of all over the place, but it was a good week. We still have two investigators who have baptismal dates in the next few weeks. It is a humbling experience to invite people to be baptized and re-realize the importance of the covenants we make with God and the love He has for us in the promised that He gives back to us. I know that when we make a sacrifice to fulfill a covenant or to obey a commandment, God will always repay us!!

Our two investigators with baptismal dates are 최광식 (Choi Kwang-Sheek) and 이진형 (Lee Jeen-Hyung). We had some great meetings with them this week and probably the biggest miracle to me this week was the opportunity to feel a portion of God's love for them. I think that is one of my favorite parts of being a missionary.  I feel like more than ever before God has blessed me with the humbling opportunity to understand just an inkling of the eternal love He has for His children to the degree I will open my heart to let it in. In those moments where I begin to understand a tiny bit of how God might feel for these people, it makes every effort worth it. Sometimes we get stuck in the rat-race of life and focus in on the little details of life, forgetting the bigger picture. But I know that God fully understand that bigger picture and He fully understands each of us. His love for us is more powerful, more precious, more deep, more pure, and more dear than we can imagine. And I think the best way we can come to feel it in our own lives is by first seeking to share it with others. 

I know that God loves His children!

I know that every sacrifice and every effort is worth feeling that love in our lives!

I know that through following the gospel and staying true to our covenants, we are promised the opportunity to dwell with our families in that loving presence of God for eternity! 

Let's do our best to make sure nobody get's left out! It is eternity, after all!

I love you all and hope you have a spectacular week!!

Love, Elder Tolman

Transfer to Punghyang

Apr 13

안녕하세요?

This has been a great week! Last Monday we received transfer calls and got transferred! But the funny thing is that I moved to the closest possible area. I was serving in Chungjang, the south part of Gwangju, and I moved to Punghyang (풍향) which is the north part of the same city. The funny thing, too, is that the two wards are actually going to combine in May, so I will practically be back in the same area! I am serving with Elder 권동엽 (Kwon Dong-Yup) as co-zone leader. 

Elder Kwon is a convert of about 3 years and he's just a stud. He works really hard, he's really smart, he is funny and personable, and he just gives his all to the work. I'm really excited to work with him! It will also be fun to have a Korean companion again. Koreans are the best! 

I will definitely miss Elder Dursteler, but he's still in the area we are combining with in just a few weeks and we have lots of combined meetings up until then, so it wasn't too hard to transfer. I am so grateful I was able to serve with Elder Dursteler. 

One thing I really like about Elder Kwon is his "all or nothing" urgent perspective of missionary work. This weekend we made two new baptismal dates and I'm super excited to work with these people! 

One of the investigators is 최광식 (Choi Gwang-Shik) who is in his mid-30's and is really good at "Hanja" which is the chinese characters which about 60% of Korean words are based on. It's super interesting. So this weekend my companion and him gave me a Korean name based on the Chinese characters that ends up sounding something like "Tolman." (see below) It was a lot of fun.

One related interesting Korean fact is that almost all Korean names are 3 characters long and they are almost always based on chinese characters which each have special meaning. So each name has it's own cool meaning, which they like to talk about sometimes when they meet each other. It's really cool.

Also, I obviously enjoyed conference and was so grateful for the opportunity to listen to the words of the prophets!! One of my favorites was Pres. Uchtdorf's talk on gratitude. It is so easy to let our situations heavily influence our attitude and desires, but one of the miracles of God is that He is eternal and consistent. We can always trust in Him and can always find a way to cultivate an attitude of gratitude!

I also liked the common themes of truly loving God and being true to the faith. We are all going to face times when we will be required to stand up for our faith! Sometimes we are asked to stand strong in the face of opposition and evil. Often we are asked to not only stand strong, but to press forward doing good and preaching the truth. We are asked to make and keep sacred covenants and to more fully and more diligently focus our efforts on helping others do the same. Regardless of the situation, it will not be easy, but despite the difficulty, it is always worth it!! 

I am so grateful for living prophets who guide us in these latter days!! I would like to echo the invitation of President Ballard to treasure up the words of prophets not only in the standard works, but to also turn to Preach My Gospel often and seek guidance and revelation there. I know from personal experience that Preach My Gospel is written by revelation by prophets of God. Study it!! And let me know how it goes. I would love to hear!

I love you all and I know this gospel is true!! I hope you have a wonderful week being true to the faith with an attitude of gratitude!! 

Love, 

Elder Tolman (or)

톨만 장로 (or)

도온만 (Do Ohn-Mahn) 장로 (or)

Elder 道溫滿 (Do Ohn-Mahn in chinese characters - it ends up meaning something funny like "the path full of warmth")

                                    Korean Relief Society March 2014

                                     Brother Jo baptism March 2014