This week in Korea

사랑하는 여러분,

This has been a wonderful week, especially this past weekend. We had some investigators that weren't able to meet because of things that came up, which was tough, but we also had a lot of good things happen!

This week we had some fun multi-cultural experiences. On Saturday we went and had lunch with Rudra, a man who owns a fancy Nepalese restaurant and will probably be the president of Nepal someday. He is such an amazing giving man and is probably a better example of Christ than most Christians I know. We are seeking opportunities to share the gospel with this wonderful man! We also met Joseph and Irene, an amazing christian couple from Tanzania! They are so amazing! We had lunch (again) in a restaurant near our church. We were able to talk about the Book of Mormon and what we believe and talked a lot about Christ and what we each believe. At their request, we even practically had a mini testimony meeting right there in the restaurant in the middle of downtown Korea. It was so fun. They now have 2 Swahili Book of Mormons and are so excited to read the word of God. 

We have made some more progress on our Work Smart project as we are getting all our names and records organized into areas and more effectively coordinating that information throughout the district. It's so fun to seek to improve! Life is to short to live it all below our potential!

I have also thought a lot about potential and progression. I re-read Elder Uchtdorf's talk "Four Titles" from 2013 April Conference and one part he talks about how it is so important to remember that we are children of God, but that sometimes it is so frustrating understanding what being a child of God really means and feeling like we are not living up to that potential. He talks about how Satan often tries to take advantage of that and does all he can to get us to define ourselves by our mistakes rather than our potential. "Don't listen to him!" Sometimes I think we confuse humility and self-degradation. Humility is not denying our power, excellence, or potential, but is just acknowledge the true source of which. We are the literal children of God and He has promised to help us live up to that potential as we trust in Him and believe. Believe that you are great! Believe that you are able. Believe that you are a son or daughter of a living, loving God and choose to be so through the power of Christ's Atonement. Fear not, only believe! 

I know that God lives and that He really sent His Son, Jesus Christ as our Savior. I know that through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and living prophets on the earth today, we can know what it really means to be a child of God and how to choose to define ourselves by that eternal potential! I am so grateful for the opportunity to proclaim that message to the world! 

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

Love, Elder Tolman

PROJECT: Work Smart!!!

This week we unanimously decided as a district to be better and improve the way we are doing missionary work. We have so many incredible missionaries in our district and we have a super high potential area, but we just haven't really been seeing a whole lot of results. We decided that one of the reasons is because we are all working hard but are doing an amazing job as working smart. So we are revamping our records, our planning, and our coordination with each other within the district to more fully become one. It's been a lot of fun figuring out ways to improve and doing them all together. I feel like our area is finally moving toward fulfilling it's potential!

I am mostly out of time, but I do want to say that I am doing well and so is the work here in ChungJang! This week I was struggling some just with feeling frustrated at how often I make mistakes or don't accomplish what I feel like I have the potential to, but I read a quote from conference this morning that I really liked. It is from last April Conference in the talk titled "For Peace at Home." Towards the end of the talk, it says some thing similar to "We don't need to be concerned if we can't simultaneously do everything the Lord has counseled us to do." He went on to say that there is a time and a place for everything and we just need to seek to make one diligent step at a time. I know that principle is true. The purpose of this life isn't to accomplish perfection, but to learn and progress toward doing so. God just needs our broken heart and a contrite spirit as we give our best to Him. I know He love each and every one of us and is fully aware of us. I am so grateful and happy to proclaim "I am a child of God!!" 

I love you all!! Have a wonderful week!!

Love, Elder Tolman

The Work of God in Korea

This week was 설날, Korea's number one holiday, so we didn't have any appointments for half of the week, but we had some great meetings, saw some miracles, and the work of God continues!! 

As for the holiday, I don't know all of the traditions that go along with it, but here are a couple things I do know: They all get together with the family. They have a special soup (떡국) that has the funny tradition that your age officially advances when you eat the soup. They have a traditional Korean game they play with special sticks they toss and depending on how the sticks land, they get a certain amount of points or something. They also have a traditional ceremony to respect and remember their ancestors that they all do either late in the evening or early in the morning. Some of the people at church and around the city wear their tradition Korean clothing (한복). It's fun.

This week we didn't meet a ton of our investigators, but we saw some amazing miracles in meeting incredibly prepared people!

One was a man that our president met in a taxl and referred to us. He changed his number so we couldn't get a hold of him, but he came to the church one day and pretty much just said that he has never had religion before, but he has made lots of mistakes and wants to change his life. He wants to quit smoking and just become clean. He is willing to do whatever he needs to change his life and come unto God. Amazing. His name is 조병수 (Jo Byeong-Su)

The other man just walked into the church and said that he's seen our church a few times and was curious who we are so he came in.  He asked about our worship services and how he could attend. As we briefly explained the time and concept of sacrament meeting, he asked if we have other ordinances, especially to become a member. So we explained baptism and he asked what that process is and how he could start. We explained he would need to come to church and meet with us to learn, to which he agreed. He said that before he came to church, he would like to meet and have us explain more about our church. He also added that it would be good if we brought someone else to help explain, so we agreed to bring a member. Our appointment is tentatively set for next Saturday! He pretty much set up his own member lesson, church attendance, and baptismal commitment! Wow!! We will work hard to help him come and learn! His name is 이근표 (Lee Geun-Pyo). God knows, loves, and guides His children!!

One of the thoughts I really like from our Zone Conference this week is a pattern of study that I think is really cool. The pattern comes from a sentence in PMG about how we ought to (1)believe, (2)love, (3)live, and (4)teach what we study and what we learn. We have so much that talk about in church and things that we learn from the scriptures, but I don't think I always take the time to really think about exactly what I personally believe, why I LOVE it, what I can do to more fully live it, and seek for opportunities to teach it and share it with others. 

I KNOW this gospel is true and that it has been restored in these latter days! I LOVE the assurance the gospel brings that we are God's literal children and that we have a great potential to enjoy happiness, joy, and progression than we can imagine! I know that as we truly LIVE the gospel by consistently praying, studying the scriptures, and being true to sacred covenants, we really can obtain the priceless blessings God has in store for us. And I am soooo grateful for the opportunity to TEACH this precious truths to the world as a dedicated servant of God! I know He lives and I can promise He loves!!

And I love you all too!! Have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Tolman

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.