Wonderful Baptism in Chungjang Ward

Today at 8:58 PM

On Saturday 조백열 and 민유란 were baptized!! They have made a huge change in their lives and in their entire countenance over ther past few months. I have only been here for the end of the process, but only a couple months ago they would hardly let the missionaries talk to them about anything spiritual, but now they are eager to learn, to act, and now to begin a new life under sacred covenant with God. Their daughter converted to the church a couple years ago and is currently serving in Seoul, but she came down for the day to attend the baptism of her parents and it was so amazing to see the joy the gospel can bring, especially as these amazing people begin to enjoy it together as a family. It was an amazing experience!

 

We've had some struggles meeting and teaching a lot of our investigators this week, so we'll have to focus more on finding new people this week, but I am so excited because we have so much good potential for God to work some miracles this week! It is getting pretty cold and wind lately so chances are it won't be an easy week, but I know that it will all be worth it because the worth of souls truly is unfathomably great in the sight of God!!

 

I made the interesting discovery recently that soy milk is actually really good! I don't know if it's just because Korea doesn't really have a lot of real milk and I'm just deprived of what milk is supposed to taste like, but soy milk is cheaper than normal and it turns out to taste so good too! Who would have thought!

 

I also have been impressed this week by an interesting pattern with Koreans. I don't really know the reason, but it seems like Korean people are really "dreamy/visionary" people in general, and not just within the church. I have heard multiple experiences of people who have had some pretty incredible, meaningful dreams and apparently it's not rare here. For example, one of our members' non-member mother had a dream before she was born of her as a missionary with other missionaries, which ended up being one reason that softened the mothers heart enough to let her daughter serve a mission later. It's really pretty interesting. I wonder why...

 

This week I have focused on hope! I learned more that hope is trusting that God will fulfill all His promises according to our faith and obedience. I have realized that God makes sooooo many promises to us and almost all of them are dependent on our willingness to trust Him enough to obey His commandments. I think that definitely applies with missionary work, both as a full time missionary and a member. God has promised us the ability, opportunity, and guidance to share these precious truths with His children. We just have to have the faith, the hope, and the love to put forth our imperfect, yet diligent effort to try!! I know He has the power to bless, guide, and consecrate our efforts as we rely on Him!

 

I love you all and hope you have a wonderul, hope, faith and love filled week!!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

A wonderful difficult week Nov. 17

This week has been bitter-sweet. We had so much potential at the beginning of the week but had such a hard time meeting people. Some of them were just busy and some stopped answering calls. I think that Satan knows this is God's work and that God is prepared to really pour out His power and blessings on our mission and our area and Satan is doing everything he can to hinder it. But he can't compete. Bring it on. 

Regardless of our setbacks, Brother Jo and Sister Min, our beloved investigators with a baptismal date for next week, are still on track! He finally threw away all his cigarettes and is ready to quit. It's going to be tough this week, but he has so much desire. During our lesson on Sunday, I mentioned he would have to be clean for this whole week and he cut me off and said "No, I need to be clean for eternity." He's definitely got his sights set. I'm so excited for them. They are amazing!

We also have just had a lot of opportunities to learn and improve ourselves this week, which was such a blessing. I have been thinking a lot about the beauty of the promise of sacrifice. In True to the Faith, it mentions that sacrifice is giving up something we value for something of greater worth. God provides us countless opportunities to give up ourselves, our things, or our ways with the loving promise that it will always be worth it and that he will overcompensate every cost. Every commandment and every principle of the gospel is an opportunity to partake of the promise of sacrifice, trading our imperfect selves and accompanying results for God's glory, power, and blessings. I am working to more fully sacrifice myself with faith in the reality of the power of Christ's atonement.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Elder Tolman

Another great week in 충장 Skyler Tolman

 

Nov 10 at 8:23 PM

This has been another great week. Our two investigators with baptismal dates are doing well, but they are progressing kind of slow and I don't know if they will make it by the 23rd, which is their baptismal date. 조백열 (Jo Baek-Yeol) is still struggling with Word of Wisdom. I know they will make it to baptism, so if not on the 23rd, then definitely soon after. They are amazing.

 

We also met with another new investigator this week who is pretty amazing. His name is 김형호 (Kim Hyeong-Ho) and he is 72 years old! We met him on the street and he is just a really sincere adorable old man who wants to follow Christ and is willing to study and act in any way he needs to to do so. We set a baptsimal date for December 8. I love teaching him.

 

I have been doing well this week and have been thinking a lot about progression and such. Something I feel like I have come to the conclusion of again and again, especially on my mission, is that God cares a lot more about us learning, growing, and gaining experience than He does about most results. I also know that as we seek to improve and progress, the only way to truly do so is through the atonement of Jesus Christ. This morning I reviewed Ether 12:26. The closer we get to God, the more we will realize our imperfections, but as we consider them as opportunities identified to progress and then rely on the cleansing and enabling power of the atonement through humility and faith, God can really help us to be more than we could ever become on our own.

 

I know that this really is God's work and that He really is such a real part of it. Let's truly become a light to others and let the joy and power of the Gospel shine!

 

I love you all!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

Transfers! Oct. 21, 2013

안녕하세요!!!

 

This has been an incredible week! We had an awesome 선교전시회 (Missionary Expo? I think that's the english version) yesterday and it was super cool. We met in the park with our whole branch and all the 14 missionaries in our district and we set up a bunch of streetboard that our branch made explaining all the missionary lessons, then we just all went out and talked to everybody and brought anyone who was interested back to show them the boards and explain what we believe. It was so fun. We got a bunch of numbers that we will be diligently contacting today and tomorrow to hopefully find lots of wonderful people to teach! Also, after conference last weekend, I have just felt more courage and more strength to be diligent, dedicated, and to re-focus my efforts and thoughts to be the best missionary I can. I have also seen a ton of improvement in my greenie, Elder Ahn this week, which has been so fun. He's amazing. I love that guy. I will attach a fun picture of us at a fun huge flower festival we visited last P-day.

 

Also, today we got transfer calls..... I'm going to be Zone Leader!!! I'm super nervous, but I guess if God calls me to do it, then there's a way for it to happen. The craziest part is that I'm actually not going to be Zone Leader, but I am transferring from 광양 (Gwangyang) to 충장 (Chungjang) in 광주 (Gwangju - one of the biggest cities in the mission). I'm really sad to leave Gwangyang, but I'm excited to be wherever God needs to be. I've also heard that the ward there is going crazy with missionary work and they are moving fast. I can't wait to run with them!! I will be serving with a 3rd transfer Elder name Elder Strahl. I've heard he is awesome and I'm really excited. Elder Ahn is staying here as a junior. I know he'll take good care of this wonderful little branch!

 

As for one little funny thing that happened this week, I have begun to occasionally have a hard time with English when we talk to foreigners. In Korean, if you ever say just one word alone as a response or question, it is 반말, which means their lowest form of language, which can be rude and isn't really appropriate for missionaries. So instead, you always have to say the word along with "요" ("yo") at the end to make it more polite. So we were talking to this guy on the street and he said he was just here for a couple days but was leaving tomorrow, to which I replied "tomorrow-yo?" I felt pretty dumb. He was from Poland and his english wasn't perfect, so hopefully he didn't catch it too much, but I just laughed at myself. Silly me.

 

One of my favorite parts of conference I have been keeping in mind this week is from Elder Uchtdorf's talk in Priesthood Session about "You can do it now!" I often feel like I want to be better and sometimes get discouraged focusing on those things that I feel ought to be better, but aren't yet. But as I have thought about this talk, I realized the truly, it is not God's will for us to get stuck in the past focusing on our weaknesses or imperfections when we can rise up, look up, and trust Him as we press forward towards becoming better. He is reaching out to us all saying "You can do it now!" maybe not so much telling us to fix all of our imperfections immediately, but to let our fear and doubt go as we take His hand and allow Him to lift and guide us forward. I also had a related thought this week about imperfections. I realized that rather than considering my weaknesses as obstacles or things to greive over, I ought to gratefully consider them as opportunities identified to progress onward toward perfection.

We aren't perfect. But we do have a perfect Father who gave us His perfect Son who both know and love us each perfectly. Let us all both rely on them and reach out to others to provide them the opportunity to do the same.

 

I love you all! Have a fantastic week!!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

Another great week in Gwangyang

Hello everyone!

This has been a good week. We had a hard time setting up appointments with a few of our investigators so we spent a lot of long tired days trying to find more appointments. A couple of our investigators we've had for a long time, 김지웅 & 김홍기 have been progressing SO slow, but this week they read the Book of Mormon more and had some pretty thoughtful questions, so hopefully if they can keep it up, their hearts will soften enough to be willing to start making more changes in their lives.

We also saw a pretty neat miracle this week. It was maybe the third day or so that we weren't able to set any appointment or that our appointments canceled and so we had spent a bulk of the day walking, talking, and trying to find new investigators. That being the case, we were getting pretty tired and we could both feel we didn't quite have the enthusiasm that we needed to keep being effective. It was maybe 8:20 when we stopped for a second, re-evaluated, and decided we could most effectively finish off the night by visiting a couple people near our apartment. Just before we took a turn to head towards home, I thought that we'd probably be just a bit too early, so I decided we'd walk around the block one more time and do our best to give out least one Book of Mormon. So we were walking and the first guy we saw coming the other way we stopped and began to teach about the Book of Mormon. The crazy part is that he stopped and listened! We were able to teach a quick lesson about the Book of Mormon, give him a copy, and get his number. Feeling incredible blessed and pretty fulfilled, we started to keep walking when suddenly we hear someone yell out from a few yards behind us, "Hey, are you the Mormons?" We enthusiastically turned around and said "Yes!" She said that she was a little late going home and so she didn't have time right then, but said she wanted to learn about our church and asked if it was ok to get our number and call us later. So we exchanged numbers and went our ways. It all happened in just a minute or so, but I was so touched by a simple yet powerful testimony from God that he was aware of our situation, that He knew we were trying to do His work, and that He is always always ready to reach out His hand in love to the eternal benefit of His beloved children.

I know that this is God's work and that when we rely on Him, His power is manifest. If we rely solely on ourselves, we are "left unto [our]selves" and can only draw upon our personal talent or power. But as we lay our pride down and in humility seek God first and His will, we gain access to the powers of Heaven to pour out God's promised blessings upon us and those we serve. I was impressed again as I ready Ether 12 about the importance of faith preceding the power of God in our lives. If you get a chance, read it again and think what you might be able to change or improve to more readily allow God to be an active part of your life!

Have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder Tolman

PS: a fun fact of the week. I heard Korea just had it's 4400th birthday!! Crazy!

Sept 22 2013 추석 week

This week was good, but definitely a little different than normal because we had the massive Korean national holiday, 추석, on Thursday. We had a hard time meeting our investigators and such, so it was a good thing that President Shin had us meet together as Districts and practice teaching for a few days this weekend. In a lot of ways the meetings were really helpful and I remembered a lot of things I need to be doing better to be a more effective teacher of the gospel. This weekend we had a kind of interesting and somewhat exciting announcement from our mission president about a change in some of our focuses as a mission. Previously, we were focusing on talking to a certain number of people each way to help us strive to open our mouths. It had the right focus, but it was too easy for missionaries to distort into a quota that had to be met (whether or not it was effective), often at the expense of other more important opportunities. So, we dropped that focus and now we have a new one called "BRT 1-2-2." Usually BRT stands for Building Reletionships of Trust which is definitely good and we are still doing, but President Shin redefined it as Baptisms, Referrals, and Teaching. So now, we are expected to strive for at least 1 baptism each transfer, 2 referrals each week, and 2 hours of teaching every day. The teaching part has to be in 20 minute blocks of teaching, which is cool because it makes us be sure that we always strive for meaningful extended gospel conversations, whether with members, on the street, or with investigators. I believe it is revelation from God through our mission president and I'm excited to give it my all and see what blessing the Lord has in store for our mission as we do.

 

As for the actual 추석 day on Thursday, it was just a P-day. We had also done our e-mailing and shopping earlier (since everything is closed), so we had a pretty open, relaxing day. Or at least so we had hoped... We went to the church to play piano, play ping-pong, etc. and Elder Brady, one of the other elders living with us accidentally dropped the edge of the ping pong table on his toe. 안되요. It totally broke is nail bed, split his toe pretty bad on each side and it was just nasty. 징그러웠어요. So we spent a few hours getting him the the emergency room, getting him all patched up, cleaning the church, etc. before finally enjoying the last hour or so of P-day. It was necessarily relaxing, but it was definitely a memorable P-day. Poor Elder Brady.

 

Recently, I have realized that one of the things that would help me progress most in the language and helping bring people to Christ is that I need more confidence. As I was praying and pondering about how to gain more confidence, the somewhat paradoxical thought "I need to be humble enough to be confident," came into my mind. I realized that I needed to be more humble, not so much because I was being cocky or over-confident, but because I was refusing to let go of my imperfect view of myself and accept God's. God really does know us perfectly. He also sent His Son to atone for our Sins, our sorrows, and our imperfections, so we always have someone to turn to who not only understands us perfectly, but is the means of overcoming those imperfections. So this week I am working on being humble enough to give up my imperfect view of myself and to allow God to fill me with His love, both for me and for those I serve. There is no way I, or any of us, can do it all alone. The beautiful thing is that we don't have to! I know that my Redeemer lives and I am so grateful to be able to proclaim that truth to the world!

 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

 

Love, Elder Tolman

Sept. 15 to Mom

Thanks Mom!

 

I got a kick out of Tyson's car story. That is so him to "steal the show" in everything he does, isn't it? It made me chuckle. I also loved Landon and Chases "Classic carpool" that they did. What funny studly guys. Haha I bet everyone just adores Landon at school. He's amazing. I bet he has so many incredible examples to be a great example to others - probably even far more than he realizes. Let him know that I think he's pretty amazing and that so many people will look up to the amazing example I am sure he is setting in all that he does. And I love that they were all able to sing together! It will be a blast to re-join the new and improved Tolman Choir when we're all back together. Fun stuff. My showed my companion the Inside-Out versions of Brightly Beams and he loves it. He's listened to it maybe 50 times and made me teach it all to him in English (because it doesn't exist in the Korean hymnbook).

 

I'm glad to hear you are all doing well. Good luck with your cupboard project! It sounds like a lot of work, but I'm sure it will be beautiful!

 

Thanks for your wonderful loving letter and your stalwart example to me and the rest of your loving sons and daughter. I love you! Have a wonderful week!

 

-Love Elder Tolman