Week 16 Pictures

 

Here's me with Great Salt Lake Drive

 

 

 and My hair was crazy long for a missionary but I got a haircut today. before..

 

 here's the gym before the party

 

 

 

 this is Chantha and Jonathan

 

 

 Here's A member named sophany's whole family

 

 

 this is Charley Mey and His Wife Elizabeth's family!

 

 



Week 16

This week was totally packed with HARD WORK. On monday we went straight from email to a lesson with a member who fed us this awesome garlic shrimp khmae dish, then went and finished the day with a lesson with Prim.

Tuesday we had district meeting and then all our plans fell through again, so we went and found like 10 new less actives we didn't know about! It was awesome!!

Wednesday I was on exchange in Walnut Creek with Elder Languido. He's a good elder. I met a Guy who is pagan and he had some pretty scary tattoos, but he was interested in the gospel, and he taught me how to properly comb a beard, it was pretty cool.

Thursday I was on another Exchange with Elder Weaver in Oakland! All our plans fell through once again, which was kind of nerve racking since I was leading out the area, but it ended up being ok, we did what president hang asked us to do and went through the ward directory to find the lost sheep and ended up visiting 56 less active members by the end of the day, we felt pretty good.

Friday we had a lesson with a less active named Daven, and he is hilarious. He has some mental issues as a result of drug abuse (don't do drugs) and he ended his prayer by saying "Heavenly father, Fight for us homie, peace out, amen". It was totally hilarious. We also asked him if he was still praying to find a new job, and he said that now he is praying that heavenly father will help him teleport to Iraq so he can get a cool face cover. Regardless, this is a leap and a bound from where he was when we found him haha! We also went to decorate for our branch halloween party that night! it was super fun, and we got to know a ton of the members and schedule some teaching appointments for the week! We also taught Jonathan while we were there, and he has an awesome testimony. He stopped drinking coffee 100% since we taught him the word of wisdom last week, so we are super excited.

Saturday was great. We had our branch halloween party. We've been giving out flyers for it for like the whole time I've been here. There were a ton of Cambodians there and we hadn't met like half of them, so we went to work and started to meet some people and speak some Khmer! We figured out a ton of our branches family tree too, it was cool. Our whole branch is related, and it's really cool. Prim came to the halloween party too! it was awesome! Elder Hibbert and I had a room, and elder hibbert stood at one side of the room with a pass along card, and I hid behind the door and scared the kids when they turned around then gave them candy. It was hilarious, I would just scream really loud and come out from behind the door, I loved it!

Sunday was good too! Prim came to church, and Poamrong gave a lesson on Jseph smith in priesthood, and he aske prim where the book of mormon came from, and he just said " I think it came from the Elders, they brought it to my house and told me to read it so I did", It was super funny haha! and We had a meeting with President Hang about what he expects for the branch, and we are super excited for this week, because we have a really specific need and direction our work will be going, and it will be awesome!! I'm pumped to see how much work we will get to do!!

We also had a funny experience running one morning! we went to a park and we saw these two guys there smoking and went to say hi to them, and we said we were missionaries, and they just busted up laughing, and they said "dang! we thought was comin up here to rob us! but you two wanted to share Jesus! Thats like the opposite!" They both are investigators now for the spanish Elders! along with their 15 family members!! It was definitely guided by the lord that we were there that morning!!

I have been slowly developing a super strong testimony of the word of wisdom while I've been here. we constantly are learning of people who have utterly destroyed their entire lives because of their history with drugs and alcohol. God warned us about how dangerous it is before it became what it is today, and whether or not you see it or not, your life will always be blessed when you follow the word of wisdom. Your life will be blessed when you follow anything that god says. It's really cool that God only asks us to do things that brings blessings!! The church is true and I'm grateful for the oppurtunity I have to have been raised in a family centered on christ and his gospel!! I love you all have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Cameron Tolman

Week 15 pictures

 

Here's the sunrise from our apartment 

 

Here's the Oakland Temple at night!

 

S....'s brother had this super cool drone thing that he controlled on his ipad, we played with it a little bit

 

 

All the persimmons we picked

 

 

There's this awesome mural in Oakland that everyone takes pictures with, so we went and got one!

 

 

Here's San Fran in the distance!

 

 

The Whole Bay Area

 

Here's me and P...

 

 

"Elder Tolman" in Khmae (:



Week 15

This week was once again FANTASTIC! 
Tuesday we had all our meetings!  We ended up going out and visiting less actives with a member named T.., who is amazing.  I love T..., he has an amazing testimony and knows like very Cambodian in the Bay Area! 
Wednesday we had all of our lessons fall through before personal study ended, so we went and visited less actives and family of members all day!!  It was fun.  Grandma H... fed us a ton when we stopped by, it was super cool.  We saw this homeless guy who came up to us and said "hi" and washed our windows, and we gave him some food from Grandma H.... and then a Book of Mormon.  He was super excited, it was awesome!
Thursday we had two less active lessons with two less actives we had never met!  One of them wants to come to the Halloween party, so that's a start.  We got a referral too for the first time!  It was cool!  
Funny Story: There is one street called "International" where all the bad things in Oakland happen every night, and the less active we were visiting that night lives there.  We were there trying to knock on the door, and they didn't end up being home, but a prostitute walked by to go start the nights shift I guess, and Elder H.... contacted her!!!  He didn't think about it or something, I honestly don't know, but she asked what our favorite bible stories were, and he said the story of Saul to Paul, and how no matter what horrible, awful things we've done in our lives, God will forgive us if we come back to him.  It was hilarious, we were dying! He didn't even realize what he had said, or who he had contacted!
Friday we had weekly planning and then S.... R...'s family fed us dinner, we love them so much!  They do so much for the missionaries and the branch.  After that we went to teach C.....'s husband, J...., and he is going to be baptized on Nov. 8th!!!  We are so excited for him, he has an awesome testimony of trusting God with everything he does, we love it!!!
Saturday was great too, we got to go to S..... again after our interviews with president!  We picked a bunch of little Persimmon fruits for his dad, it was so awesome!  We talked to his dad and brother a bunch because they are both less active, so we were excited to actually meet with them!  We had correlation with P...... that night too, it was fun, I seriously love P........  We went to teach two investigators, C......'s brother and mom, and it went really well, so hopefully they don't get flaky on us! 
Sunday was good too, one of the less actives we've been working with came back, and J...... came!!  It was great!
I don't have a lot of time today, but the Church is true and it is continually changing lives!!!  Take the time to learn about God's Kingdom on Earth!!!

Love,  Elder Tolman

Week 14 Pictures

 

 

 

 

And Here's Elder Pike from seminary!

 

 

 

 

Here's Elder Kloosterboer and Elder Weaver and me!

We went to the thrift store last Monday to look for some service shoes, and I found these bad boys

 

 

Here's a Cambodian Karaoke cd we found in our apartment!   The music is ridiculous!

 

A super neat Oakland Sunset!

It was super foggy Saturday, and driving onto the temple grounds was spooky because no one was around and you couldn't see the buildings around you, we had to get close to the temple to see the outline.

This is a weird little num that one of the cute little old ladies from the branch gave us, it's like a ball of dough with coconut and cinnamon on the inside.

Today we went to a place called "Oaklandish" and I got some goodies!  I got a beanie, a hat, and this awesome shirt!  Woo!

 

 

Another neat sunset from the temple grounds



Week 14

This week was AWESOME!  Literally every week is just even better than the last one.  We do crazy hard work always and I love it. Oakland is the very best of places.  There are people that absolutely love us and people that absolutely hate us!   It gives us a huge pool of people to talk to about the Gospel!!  Elder H works crazy hard, and I love it.  That's exactly what I want for the rest of my mission. 
Monday night was rough.  We had some lessons we were way excited for that didn't work out, then every less active person we went to that night wasn't home.  We did have a couple really great contacts though, that was awesome!
Tuesday we had meetings until about 4, then got some dinner and went to a lesson with an investigator, but he wasn't feeling like a lesson that night and didn't let us in, so we went and talked to a less active that lived pretty close to him, it was super great.  We went and found some less actives in Oakland that night!
Wednesday we had lunch in downtown with a member at this place called crossburger, it was awesome and delicious and M.. L... is the coolest Commercial building manager in the world.  She likes missionaries and helps us a ton with our Khmer (which by the way is coming along well enough to actually have a normal conversation now!)  After that we had a lesson with this 12 year old son of a less active, and it was a struggle.  He is super shy, but he is awesome.  We went to another ladies house named M.. L.., and she is so funny!  She doesn't want to come to church though so we're working on that.  We went on splits with the ward that night I went with P..., he's the coolest.  I love P... so much!!  We went and visited this way old Cambodian lady, and she just wanted to feed us a ton, but we managed to share a message.  Ha ha! 
Thursday was awesome.  That morning we were woken up by gunshots, so we didn't go running .  Ha ha!  We hear lots of gunshots, but they were just like right outside our apartment complex!  it was awesome!  We had three lessons planned that day, but they all canceled on us before ten.   Ha ha! So we went to correlation with P....  We went to the Library, it was pretty neat, and they thought we were coming there with the government or something, and got really mad at us and were all like "what do you want now, we already had an inspection!  The community is more than happy with the Library!!!"  We were super confused and it was funny. P... started laughing and said "they just think you're here to get mad cause you're the only white people that have ever been here."  After that we went to San Leandro to try to contact a less active, and he wasn't home, we were pretty bummed out that day because nothing ended up working out.
Friday we had a couple lessons with investigators and less actives, and a member fed us an awesome dinner!  One of our investigators got married, so we went to his wife's house to teach him.  He's the only white guy I will probably ever teach, and that's because his wife is a Cambodian from our ward!  It was super great.
Saturday we had a bunch of zone training, and I love our zone so much.  They have such a strong desire to work all the time, it's awesome.  I also found out that a kid from my seminary class in high school is in my zone now!  It's awesome! 
Sunday we just had church and a lesson with one of the recent converts from the branch.  That night she was speaking at a fireside called "Why I Believe"  where recent converts share their testimony, it's really cool!  She did awesome!  We went and set up three lessons for the week afterwards, it was awesome!
I love the Gospel so much.  The work it require is ridiculous, but it is worth it.  God has so much love for his children, and I can't explain it well enough  Take the time to learn about what it means that God loves you.  Make sure that you understand how important you are and the plan that God has given in order for you to know him and return to Him.  There is nothing more perfect for us to follow than the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I know that Christ is my Savior.  I love you all so much!!  Thank you for all the emails and support it helps so much.  Please continue to keep my updated on what you are all up to!  I love you all!

Elder Tolman

Week 13 Pictures

 

A REAL CAMBODIAN tie!

 

 

 

 

Me and Elder J

Sunset on the Bay!  This is right outside one of our members house!

I got permission to have a guitar too!!!  One of the other Elders had this sitting in his closet, so he said I could have it!!!

 

 

the Oakland Temple

 

Temple Grounds

 

View of the Bay, right outside a members house

 

We wanted to get a picture but no one was around to take it, so we did our best!

 

Week 13

Holy Cow!  What a great week!!  General Conference was amazing!! We were well fed!!  My favorite talks were Uchtdorf, Holland, and Bednar, and then the three new apostles testimonies.  There was so much power in Conference this year, it was amazing!

Monday night we had family home evening with our branch members, it was so fun!!  There was a ton of food and people that speak Khmer, so we had a great time!!! 

Tuesday we had an exchange with our zone leaders and it was a blast!!  I went over to the Walnut Creek Young Single Adult ward with Elder J, and he is fantastic, he lives in Kalispell Montana, so I will be able to still do the trip I was planning with my friends and we'll stay at his house!!  Ha ha!  Elder J is awesome, I love him!!  We went to go contacting at DVC, which is a college, and I got 26 contacts in 20 minutes, and six of them are investigators now for Elder J, and his comp, I loved it!!  The spirit was so strong the whole time, and people wanted to talk to me, it was so different from Oakland!!  We got to go to a couple district meetings and eat dinner, then we went to teach a progressing investigator named A, it was super fun!  Right after that exchange, I went back to Oakland with Elder K for another exchange! 

Wednesday we went and contacted a ton of previous investigators and less actives.  We got so much done, and we ended up having three lessons that day!!  And got a new investigator!!  She hasn't let us into her house again, but we will keep trying!  It was really weird, she like set up another appointment and stuff and asked for a book of Mormon but she won't get back to us.

Thursday we got to go do service with some of the Spanish Elders at the Salvation Army by our apartment, and they gave us like three boxes of food!!  It was awesome!  The catch was it all expired like two days after, so we just had to eat crazy fast and eat a ton!  It was tons of fun!  Later we got in contact with some less actives that other Elders have never met before, we were pretty excited!  We also had a lesson with P again, and committed him to be baptized November 1st!!!   We are working really hard with him right now.  Elders have been meeting with him for a long time, so hopefully it works out this time!

Friday was pretty rough, we had all of our lessons and backups fall through right before they happened.  We didn't get any good contacts either because we were driving pretty far for our lessons, so we weren't out walking around much.  Saturday Conference started!!  I loved Preident Uchtdorfs talk so much.  Holy cow, Simplify the Gospel!!!  And then Elder Holland was amazing.  Moms are the absolute greatest and I love my mom a ton.  That second session we watched at a members house his name is S R .  He's awesome, and he loves missionaries a ton!  And his wife is a crazy good cook.  It was super fun.  Sunday we got to go see conference once again!!  My favorite talk was Elder Bednar talking about God's Prophets.  I love hearing the testimonies of prophets, and it sounds dark, but especially their last ones.  They finalize everything they have stood for in one last powerful statement, and it always has an undeniable power to it.  Nephi's is one of my favorites.  I love the prophets we've been blessed with, and I have a knowledge and a testimony that they do speak for God, and the things they teach will change our lives if we apply and live them!!! 

I love the gospel and I love my Savior!!!

I want everyone to know that my mission is the hardest thing I have ever done, but I have never learned so much in such a small amount of time.  God is helping me, and I was able to see that especially this week.  Every day, we have small instances where we happen to go somewhere to find some one that didn't end up being home, then we find some one else who is willing and eager to learn about the Gospel.  This last week was hard for us, but one of my teachers in the MTC said something along these lines: "When things are really hard, it just means a miracle is coming."  There are miracles coming in the Oakland/San Francisco mission, and I'm ready to help God make them happen!!!  The Church is true!  Don't ever doubt Gods love!!! 

 I love you all!!! 
 
Elder Cameron Tolman