Jangma June 15

This past week we can feel that we are approaching "장마 (Jangma)" the big long hot rainy season in Korea. We had a fun random flash flood rainstorm that poured like crazy for an hour or so, almost as though the weather is warning us to be prepared for the real deal in a couple weeks or so. 

Last week the Soccer World Cup started and it's interesting to see the nation react. Koreans love soccer, especially my companion. He's having a hard time with not being able to watch the world cup, especially considering that fact that if he had stayed in France playing soccer up until now he could probably have been not just watching, but participating in it. Poor guy. He's the best.

We didn't have many particular things happen this week. Most of our investigators are college students and they are all taking tests this and next week, so appointments have been a little more slim and the days a little longer and hotter. 

One thing that I have had a lot on my mind recently is importance of learning to really exercise our agency. Part of becoming like God is learning to act and to do so righteously. In every situation, we have the opportunity to act or to be acted upon. For example, we can be acted upon by difficult circumstances and get angry or we can choose to act, look for the good in the situation, and be grateful. We can allow our situations to instill fear in our hearts or we can choose to seek courage, love, and charity which casteth out all fear.

Every moment is an opportunity to make some sort of decision, but I know that through understanding and applying the principles of the gospel, through daily scripture study and prayer, through relying upon God and the atonement of Jesus Christ, we can "become agents unto [ourselves]" filled with the power of God to not only make the most of our own lives, but help and lift others as well. 

I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that it is true and I know that it has been restored. I know that the Book of Mormon is an undeniable witness of that restoration. I am so grateful to be called by God's living prophet as witness of that message. I'm so grateful for your love, support, and examples!!

Have a wonderful week!!!

Love, Elder Tolman

June 15, 2014

This past week we can feel that we are approaching "장마 (Jangma)" the big long hot rainy season in Korea. We had a fun random flash flood rainstorm that poured like crazy for an hour or so, almost as though the weather is warning us to be prepared for the real deal in a couple weeks or so.

Last week the Soccer World Cup started and it's interesting to see the nation react. Koreans love soccer, especially my companion. He's having a hard time with not being able to watch the world cup, especially considering that fact that if he had stayed in France playing soccer up until now he could probably have been not just watching, but participating in it. Poor guy. He's the best.

We didn't have many particular things happen this week. Most of our investigators are college students and they are all taking tests this and next week, so appointments have been a little more slim and the days a little longer and hotter. 

One thing that I have had a lot on my mind recently is importance of learning to really exercise our agency. Part of becoming like God is learning to act and to do so righteously. In every situation, we have the opportunity to act or to be acted upon. For example, we can be acted upon by difficult circumstances and get angry or we can choose to act, look for the good in the situation, and be grateful. We can allow our situations to instill fear in our hearts or we can choose to seek courage, love, and charity which casteth out all fear.

Every moment is an opportunity to make some sort of decision, but I know that through understanding and applying the principles of the gospel, through daily scripture study and prayer, through relying upon God and the atonement of Jesus Christ, we can "become agents unto [ourselves]" filled with the power of God to not only make the most of our own lives, but help and lift others as well. 

I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that it is true and I know that it has been restored. I know that the Book of Mormon is an undeniable witness of that restoration. I am so grateful to be called by God's living prophet as witness of that message. I'm so grateful for your love, support, and examples!!

Have a wonderful week!!!

Love, Elder Tolman

Stake Conference and a baptism!! June 23, 2014

During the week we have a hard time getting the work moving, especially because all of our investigators are busy taking tests, but we had an amazing weekend to finish up the week!

 

One of our investigators, 김수엽 (Soo-Yup Kim), is originally from Seoul but is in Gwangju for school, so he is heading back up home for the summer vacation that begins this week. He is a referral from our recent convert who was baptized just a month or so ago and he's really come a long way. He used to smoke about 20 cigarettes a day a few weeks ago and he has cut down probably faster and more confidently than any other investigator I have ever seen. He is a stud. We originally had a baptismal date for this next weekend, but when we heard he was leaving sooner than expected back to home, we prayed and discussed it with President Shin and decided that it would be better for him to be baptized here and then be passed to the missionaries and ward members up in Seoul. So we had a bit of an unexpected baptism this week and it went really well!! It is so amazing to see the difference that the gospel makes in the lives of those who accept it.

 

We also had a stake conference with Elder Whiting and another member of the seventy this past weekend and it was amazing. When Elder Whiting stood up to speak, he said something to the effect of "I have had a strong prompting to talk about something different than I have ever spoke about before and different than what I had planned." We all knew it was going to be good. He talked about the First Vision and taught some basic principles of receiving revelation, then explained that because he had received assignment from the First Presidency, becuase he is a special witness of Christ, because we exercised our agency to be in that meeting, and so on, that we were in an environment to receive revelation. He then said that he was going to play a video and that if the members were prepared, as they watched the video with an "I-will-go-and-do" attitude, that a mind or a face would appear in their minds of someone they out to reach out to. He played one of the videos from The Work of Salvation world-wide training, and the spirit was so strong.

 

It was so amazing to me the reality revelation and how it can work through us and our leaders. I know that God lives and that He speaks.

 

I don't have much time, so I'll have to try to write more about our fun/funny experiences and such next time, but I just want to express gratitude for my family, for the opportunity to serve as a missionary, and for a loving Father in Heaven who truly love and knows each one of us. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to often be humbled as I realize how little I know and how much I have to improve and to, at the same time, realize how merciful God is for giving us those opportunities to learn and to grow. I am so grateful for His Son, Jesus Christ, who not only died for us but lives again as a witness that regardless of the imperfect world we live in, there is a way prepared for us to have joy, for us to change, for us to forgive and be forgiven, and ulitimately for us to live again. I am so grateful that those truths have been restored and that we have the Book of Mormon as an undeniable witness of that. I am grateful to be His servant, however young and imperfect, to testify of Him and participate in this, the work of Salvation. I love it!!

 

Be grateful! Be an example! Be happy! ^^

 

Have a wonderful week! I love you all!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

 

transfers! Skyler's letter to Mom

Dear Mom,

Wow! What a fun week you have coming up!! When you were mentioning about all the comings and goings of the Tolman family this upcoming week it reminded me of how our mission President must feel trying to figure out transfers... Which, by the way, is what happened this week! This week is transfer week and for the first time in my whole mission I am moving out of the south end of Korea - I am moving to North Korea...

Just kidding. Of course I'm not going that far north, but I am going to Daejeon. President has asked me to serve as one of his assistants, so I will be transferring early (in a couple hours) to the mission home. I think that more than anything it will be a humbling learning experience. I am so excited to work with President Shin. I often thought of leadership as becoming the person with all the answer, but I've come the believe that's not the case. There's just no way to automatically be able to solve every problem and no every answer. But I do know that leadership, at least in the church, is a God's appointed way of helping us to fulfill the commandment to "organize yourselves." Leaders are examples. They have the rights to revelation. They are undoubtedly just as involved in the learning process as everyone else is, but they act as a guide to help us make that journey together. When we doing things as one, we become entitled to the help of the One, our Loving Father in Heaven. He truly said "If ye are not one, ye are not mine." I will be seeking for opportunities to learn, to grow, and to help our mission become one as we learn and progress together! 

As for your questions: 

I don't think my body really adapts. It just sweats more. But the weather is only as difficult as you decide it will be. I have seen missionaries who complain and murmur about having to work in the heat and I've seen missionaries who just go forward smiling, just happy to be here serving in Korea. God's gift of agency sure is amazing!

I probably have about 1 or 2 weeks left of deoderant after which I am praying I will find someone who will let me borrow a stick or two... 

My suits are great! No, we don't wear suits in the summer. Thank goodness. Also, I think I will buy a suit or two here in Korea because they are so stylish and so cheap. You can find some pretty nice suits for about $50 here. 

I love you and am so grateful to be your son!! Have a wonderful healthy safe happy family-fun-filled week!!

Love, Elder Tolman

Wow, what a week! 

First, this is transfer week! For the first time in my whole mission I am moving out of the south end of Korea - I am moving to North Korea...

Just kidding. Of course I'm not going that far north, but I am going to Daejeon. I'm so sad to leave all the of the people that I love here but Korea is pretty small, especially in the church, so I think I'll still have a few more opportunities to see them when there are big meetings and such. And obviously it's God's will that I go, so I am excited for more opportunities to learn, grow, and serve the most amazing people on earth! 

I also had a kind of interesting experience this week... I played a solo on the trumpet at an activity we had! It was the first time I've performed with the trumpet in about 6 years, so it was pretty rough, but it was a fun opportunity that I definitely had never expected, 

One thought for the week is the promise that comes out in D&C 121 that we can have our "confidence wax strong in the presence of God." One thing I have learned a lot from my companion Elder Kwon is the importance of being confident in everything you do. We all have weaknesses, but worrying about whether or not we are good enough often just amplifies the very weaknesses we are worrying about! But when we have confidence, we are able to amplify and highlight the strengths that each of us have. There are lots of ways to try to find confidence and there are a lot of things that we can try to have confidence in, many of which are worldly and superficial. But when we turn to the scriptures we find that our confidence out to be the kind that we have not in the worlds eyes, and maybe not always in our own eyes, but in God's eyes. Our confidence is a way of telling God that we acknowledge who we really are as His children and is a way of expressing our gratitude for the gifts and blessings He has giving each and every one of us. As we keep the commandments, stay pure in desire, thought, and action, serve others selflessly, and keep our covenants, I hope that we can have our confidence "wax strong" in God's eyes to the point that we can boldly say in any situation, as Moses did, "For behold, I am a [child] of God, in the similitude of His Only Begotten." (Moses 1:13)

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

Love, Elder Tolman

One Heart, One Mind

This weekend was a little different, but lots of fun. The stake had 3 days of events and such as a commemoration of the new stake center being dedicated and as an opportunity to get to know each other a little more having recently combined wards. They had a big sports conference on Friday, lots of fun little exhibitions and a culture night on Saturday, and the Korean Area Seventy came and spoke in Sacrament meeting yesterday. It was a cool opportunity to build trust with the members and especially to help our investigators get to know all the members. In a way, it was hard not to be out talking to people and teaching lessons as much as usual, but I was a neat opportunity that I think was really good for a lot of members and investigators.

Yesterday we met a new family!! They are attending another church that is kind of extreme, but they have recently felt like it's not really all right and especially that it's not really the way they want to raise their kids, so they have been looking for "better options." He prayed to know what he needs to do and our church kept coming to mind as one that is just full of good, kind people and he feels like it might be helpful for his family. So we met, gave their cute little family of 4 a tour of the building, and talked for a while. They will probably get a lot of opposition and persecution from their current church if they start coming here, so he said he needs some time to figure out what is best and how they need to act. As we spent that hour or so with him and his family, I could just feel the eternal value of families and I promised them that if they are really searching for truth, God will guide them and help them do what is needed for their family. 

I know that God really does love and watch over our families. I couldn't help but think again how important families are. Especially as a missionary, one thing I have noticed is that there is a distinct difference in the spirit and atmosphere when teaching individuals and when teaching families. There is just something inherently sacred and pure about a family, especially one seeking or prepared to receive truth. FAMILIES ARE SO IMPORTANT!!! I'm so grateful that God gave us families and I'm especially grateful for mine. I am so blessed. Thank you, I love you all!!

Have a wonderful week! 

Love, Elder Tolman