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

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

Another beautiful baptism in Korea!

On Saturday 조병수 (Jo Byung-Soo) got baptized! He is an amazing man. He has had a lot of difficulties in his life over the past couple years and it has been so humbling to see him seek and find for the first time the only true source of pure joy, help, and purpose! He doesn't look super excited in the picture because he works like 120 hours a week and is just a tired guy, but it was a beautiful baptismal service. President Shin (our mission president) was the one who initially met him in his taxi and President said that he didn't even recognize Brother Jo as the same person because his countenance had changed. The gospel is true!!

We also saw another pretty amazing miracle somewhat related to the baptism. We went out to lunch with Brother Jo and his son before the baptism at a little buffet near our church. As I was getting my food, a man came up to me and asked "You're the mormons, right?" I said yes and he went on to explain that he had met with a Elder Nephi Choi (who was one of the AP's when I got here) for about 5 months, but moved from that part of Gwangju to our area and lost contact. He suggested told me to take his number and give him a call later because he wants to meet. I was there with our investigator so I didn't want to take too long, but we swapped numbers and a general idea of times that would work and then parted. About 1 hour later, he called us, gave us his address, and set up an appointment for us to come by tonight to visit. Holy Cow! I am so excited to meet this man tonight that God placed in our path. We didn't do a thing, but I know that God can do all things through us as we seek to give our all to Him. God sure is amazing!!! 

Apart from miraculous coincidences and even baptismal services, I think that one of God's miracles I have enjoyed the most as a missionary is the joy of being a part of His work, a tool in His hands to spread the love of God! We definitely aren't perfect and the fact is that there are very few perfect things in the world, but God is perfect, His love is perfect, and this Gospel is perfect and our eternal divine destiny is to become as He is!! I know that God loves us so deeply and so personally. One of the best ways to find happiness is to seek to receive and understand that love as we strive to share it with others!! I know that as we do so, we are filled with the power, strength, and peace of God. I know that because God promises it and He always keeps His promises!!

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

-Love, Elder Tolman

PS:

Here are a couple fun pictures: (1) Brother Jo's baptism, (2) We had a relief society program for sacrament meeting and all the sisters dressed up in their Han-bok's (the traditional Korean outfit)