New Stake Center

This week was great and the weekend was especially interesting. They built a new stake center in Gwangju so that the four smallish wards in the area could all combine into two wards that are attending the same building. The building is soo nice!! One of the floors is a lot like a normal American church, but maybe just a tad smaller. But there are 3 floors plus a big basement patio parking lot underneath. I almost feel weird because it is so big and so nice, but as soon as we started our first sacrament meeting there yesterday, I could feel a peace that confirmed it was God's will. It was crazy because nobody knew where to go or what to do, but it was so fun to see a Korean ward that is big enough to function like a normal American ward. It's so fun! I'm glad I've had the opportunity to stick around long enough to see them combine and just to keep being with the same people I love. When summer comes, I will have experienced at least a little of all 4 seasons in this area. I love it here in Chungjang!

We also had another baptism in our ward from another set of Elders. We've really seen some miracles over the past few weeks. That was the 3th week in a row that we've had a baptism in the ward and there is another baptism planned for next week. God is blessing us! Thank you for your prayers!!

I don't have a lot of time or a lot else to talk about, but I definitely want to say how grateful I am to be serving a mission. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to learn and to change. The whole reason we are here on earth, the reason God created this plan, and the reason Christ suffered in Gethsemane is so that we can change. The incredible thing is that God has so much more change in mind for us than we can even imagine for ourselves. He knows perfectly who we can become and He's provided the gospel, our families, and fellow laborers in the vineyard to help us learn, grow, and improve. I know that this gospel is true and that there is no greater peace or happiness than that which comes from becoming more like our Savior through the gospel and helping others to do so! 

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

Love, Elder Tolman

family history is big in Korea

안녕하세요!!

 

This week we pushed back our P-day a couple days because of a big holiday weeking in Korea with Children's Day and also Buddha's birthday. So I'm a couple days late...

 

It's has a been a great past week or so. The weather is really starting to warm up and we can feel summer coming! My companion, Elder Kwon, isn't too excited for summer just because Korean summers are so hot and humid, but we'll just make the most of it.

 

Right now we still have two investigators who are really progressing well towards baptism! Gwang-Sheek Choi (최광식) will be baptized this Saturday!!! Woohooo!!! It will also be the last baptism in the old building since we are moving to the big new building soon. Also, Jeen-Hyung Lee (이진형) will be baptized on the 18th. So exciting!! If you can pray for them, that would be great! It's really weird to type out their names in English, but I do my best to type it similar to how it is really pronounced...

 

One fun experience I had this week was that for the 3rd hour of church on Sunday, the ward all met together and had a little discussion about how to get their family history work going. Family history work in Korea is so amazing. Korea is huge on family trees and respecting ancestors and such, so every family in Korea has these massive volumes of their whole family tree all printed out in crazy old chinese characters that trace back to as far back as 300-400 AD (maybe some even further. So all they need to do is just type it all in. The hard part is that it is always all done in Chinese, so they have to know how to read it to be able to do their family history work. Super interesting. Here's a picture of one of the member's old family history book:

So cool!!

 

One of the thoughts that has reoccured to me often lately is the importance of the phrase "In the name of Jesus Christ." As a missionary, we probably say that phrase 10-15 times a day and even as a regular member, hopefully at least 3-5 times on an average day. But because we repeat it so often, it almost becomes more of a thoughtless tag saying that we are done talking. But it's not. It ought to be a sincere acknowledgement of who our divine Mediator is. It ought to be a humble declaration that both the words we just said and the actions that will follow will be, according to our best efforts, in harmony with what our Lord and Savior would say and do Himself. Every time we say the phrase we are reaffirming to God our covenants to always remember Him and to give everything we have and are in our efforts to follow Him. We are promised that when we really act and speak in His name that we will have His spirit to be with us and we will be given guidance, blessings, and strength from on high.

 

I know that Christ is our Savior, our Redeemer, and our Mediator with the Father. I know that there is nothing in this life that will be more important or bring more joy and satisfaction than following and serving Him, including our efforts to share His message to all the world!! Let's be a little more conscious of how we use His name and truly, humble, meaningfully act and speak "in the name of Jesus Christ."

 

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful splendid beautiful week!!!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

A baptism!

안녕하세요!!!

This has a been a good week, especially the weekend. 최광식 (Gwang-Sheek Choi) got baptized on Saturday and was confirmed on Sunday. It was a beautiful baptismal service! It was so great to see him just at peace after his baptism. He's come a long way in preparing for baptism and you could just see the calm and cleanliness in his expression after having just made a covenant with God. The gospel is true!!! 

 We also combined wards on Sunday and had our first meeting all together. Next week we will all meet for the first time in the big new stake center. It's pretty massive. I moved from Chungjang to Punghyang a few weeks ago and now the two wards and areas will be combining, so in a sense, I transferred right back to my old area and just brought a bunch of new friends with me! It's pretty fun to see them all together in one ward now. I'm really excited to work with the new big ward.

We also have another investigator planning on being baptized next Sunday! His name is 이진형 (Jeen-Hyung Lee). If he can just live the Word of Wisdom, he's all ready and wants to be baptized. So if you could spare an extra second in your prayers for him, that would be great! 

Last week we also were interviewed by a reporter for a Foreigner newspaper in Gwangju because he wanted to do a story on missionaries in Korea. With a few rare exceptions, we are the only non-koreans in Korea who aren't here as foreign exchange students or here teaching English. He took some pictures and wrote a short little summary of what we do and it might show up in their little free newspaper next month! Kinda fun, huh?

One of the lessons I feel like I have been learning lately strangely comes from Saturday morning soccer... My companion, Elder Kwon, is a Soccer athlete and actually lived in France for a year to play soccer for some semi-pro league in Europe, so he's the real deal. Koreans also generally love playing soccer, so we often will invite investigators and referrals to play soccer on Saturday mornings. I love to go, but I'm honestly pretty horrible, especially compared to all the Koreans who grow up just playing all the time. My companion gave me the nickname "자동문" which means "automatic-door" because I'm better at missing the ball than hitting it. Yet, when I forget about my inability or what other people might be thinking, the game is a blast. 

It's a silly analogy, but there are so many times in life where we get so tied up in what the world view of us and how well our ability matches up to responsibility. We sometimes become "automatic doors," so worried about ruining opportunities that we let them pass by. President Uchtdorf compared life to a toddler learning to walk. We are sometimes so worried we might fall that we never take the steps necessary to learn to walk and eventually run. It's ok to fall. We will fall! We just need to always get up and keep moving forward! And one of my favorite parts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the promise that we can get up and we can always keep moving forward. He knows what it feels like to fall and He has promised to lift us up, dust us off, wipe our tears, and lead us along the trail of devoted discipleship. He truly is our Savior. Through Him we can find peace, forgiveness, and strength. Through Him we can be healed.

I know that God lives and that He loves each one of us!!! Have a wonderful week! I love you all!!

Love, Elder Tolman

revised article for the GN newspaper

Here's the updated draft of the article for the GN newspaper.

When encountering a fellow waygook on the streets in Gwangju, it’s typical to assume that they’re another English teacher. Either working in the schools during the day or working hard in the infamous Korean Hagwons in the evenings. It becomes easy to forget that there are foreigners in Korea whose jobs and lives have nothing to do with the instruction of the English language. One such foreigner never travels anywhere without their companion and actively speaks with all the locals they can. These are the Elders and Sisters of Gwangju. The missionaries of the Mormon church, sharing their message with anyone who wants to hear it.

Tucked behind NC Wave downtown is one of the Mormon churches in Gwangju. The Elders and Sisters inside are extremely gracious and warmly greet any visitors. Elder is the title given to male missionaries and Sister to female missionaries. The Elders and Sisters are extremely accommodating and the church kindly granted interviews with Mission President Shin, and Elders Kwan and Tolman.

The Mormon Church allows young men and women to volunteer to become missionaries at the age of 18 and 19 respectively. Once they’ve begun their mission, Elders and Sisters are assigned a mission companion and spend the first two months at a missionary boot camp where they learn the rules, requirements, and most importantly the language of their mission locations. All foreign Elders and Sisters have an incredible proficiency in Korean. Which is a result of their extremely diligent practice and use of the language every day.

Upon arrival to Korea, Elders and Sisters change companions and are typically assigned a companion that is a local missionary. This isn’t a permanent assignment however, as companions change throughout an Elders or Sisters mission. Though it is possible for a pair to stay together through more than one transfer period. The longest time Elder Tolman spent with a companion was three transfer periods, or 18 weeks. Elders and Sisters are required to be with their companions at all times. This means that every six weeks a missionary faces a potential move where they must pack up their belongings and move to a different area, apartment, and companion.

Elders and Sisters have an extremely strict schedule. They rise at 6:30am have until 8:00am to prepare for the day; eating breakfast, exercising and, grooming. After this, missionaries spend an hour studying scripture. First alone and then with their companion for an additional hour. The also take this opportunity to review their planned activities for the day. Finally, language study occurs until 11:00am. After this and until 9:00pm, Elders and Sisters are expected to proselytize with 1 hour breaks for lunch and dinner. Activities include talking to strangers on the street, visiting current members of the church in their homes, visiting prospective members from appointments made in the street, and possibly collaborating with other missionaries for more elaborate displays to attract more attention on the street.

Mondays are reserved as a preparation day for the Elders and Sisters. It’s during this time that missionaries do any chores to prepare for the next week. They also email family and the Mission President. During the rest of the week, Elders and Sisters don’t use the Internet and besides this weekly email, they can Skype video call home twice a year. For waygook missionaries, Mothers’ Day and Christmas. For Korean missionaries, Lunar New Year and Chuseok.

When asked about the difficulties that missionaries typically face in their time in Korea, both President Shin and Elders Tolman and Kwan agreed that the language barrier is of course incredibly hard to overcome initially. But once again, it is a true testament to the hard work and diligence of the missionaries that they all speak incredible Korean and English. Even when faced with unfortunate circumstances such as an unlucky kimbap roll causing stomach problems, “It’s always a great day serving the Lord”.

As mentioned earlier, Elders and Sisters avoid the use of the Internet. They also don’t consume media such as radio, movies, or books beyond what is approved by the church. During their time here, Elders and Sisters are completely devoted to their mission. Seven days a week, 365 days a year.

- Relja Kojic

moving forward with the work

Hello!!

This has been another great week. We don't have a ton of investigators, but they can meet fairly often. We've been blessed to be decently busy meeting with them and helping them make good progression. We've also been focusing a lot on helping the members prepare to bring someone to a big fireside on June 1st that Elder Christofferson will be coming to. It's a pretty cool opportunity for the members here because it has been 24 years since an apostle or prophet has visited 광주 (Gwangju), the city I am in now. We are super excited!

It will also be held the in the big new building in Gwangju that they are almost done building. We are combining wards on May 11th and will meet in the new building together on May 18th. Fun stuff!! 

My companion, Elder Kwon is doing great and I love serving with him. He is really good with working with members and investigators and is just a selfless person. He's a great example of how to serve God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength. He's also a stud at soccer! He played for a league in France for a year because he's pretty much pro. He's awesome!

I know that God truly love His children. Sometimes when I'm riding on a bus or walking down the street, I try to imagine if I were able to take upon my self all the struggles, frustrations, or trials of the people around me in that moment, and can only imagine how heavy and difficult it would be to bear. I can only imagine how much more I would love them and seek to help them find peace, comfort, and strength. And then I fruitlessly attempt to imagine the burden that Christ bore when he took upon himself not just a few minutes worth of the the struggles of a bus-full of people, but willingly and lovingly took upon himself the eternal weight of all of God's creations. We can't even imagine how hard it was or how much He loves each one of us because He so perfectly and intricately understands us. I know that God lives and that He truly loves His children.

And I love you all too!! I hope you have a wonderful week! Always remember to ask, seek, and knock. He's there. He answers!

Love, Elder Tolman