Wow. I freaking love the Bay Area. Oakland is insane. Monday night the street in front of our house was closed because of and attempted armed robbery haha, and we went a week without hearing gunshots, granted I was only there half the week, still a blessing!
Monday was the start of a crazy week. We had a lesson with a less active family that lets us come over, and we had a super cool lesson with their family. next, I went to Walnut Creek to start and Exchange with Elder Pike, and Elder Apostollos surprised us and came too!! It was super fun, Elder Apostollos and I played guitar with each other and it was the coolest.
Tuesday we went to work! We had service in the morning and then went to a lunch appointment that ended up falling through, so we went and ate in the car haha! next we tracted a bit and then went to a lesson with one of their investigators that is doing really well, she was super nice and like to talk about music a lot! after that we went to the local college for elder apostollos to do some work, cause his companion Elder Jensen got moved up to the new AP! we had a lesson that night with their progressing investigator, and God sent elder apostollos and I to teach her, I have no doubt. The spirit was so strong when we shared our experiences with confirmation from the spirit. I'm so grateful for the ability to be guided by the spirit, she told us that she knew God wanted her in his church, because we told her exactly what she needed to hear without ever meeting her before and not even knowing the questions she had, It was awesome.
Wednesday I was with Elder Rowley for a day, and not too much happened, but we did get to go to Sister Sally's house for lunch and it was really good Khmer food, some type of neat soup. We also met this one less active that owns a Laundromat, he was super nice and said to stop by as often as possible!
Thursday we had Zone Leadership Conference, then Zone Training right after. It was a good training on family mission plans! After that, Elder Jensen and Elder Apostollos came with us to a dinner appointment at a members house, we had a meat fest! It was a great dinner.
Friday Elder Apostollos was with us in Oakland for the day, and we had an awesome time meeting cambodians and making fun of him with them in cambodian. We taught him how to say "I'm a dog" in Khmer and he just said it to every cambodian we met, it was hilarious. He did Jonathans baptismal interview that night too, we were super grateful he was there!
Saturday we went to Walnut creek with Elder Apostollos and we went to teach one of his investigators named chris. He was kind of crazy but he was awesome. We went back to Oakland to teach Saroueth, then went to contact for a while. Later we went to teach a less active named sreng, and he just had found out that his friend died when we got there, it was perfect. After that we went to teach prim again! It ended up being a day full of small miracles!
Sunday was great too! The Hells Angels headquarters is in Oakland, and they all drove by our apartment during personal study, it was pretty cool. We had one investigator we dropped come back to church on his own, it was super cool, and we are going to teach him on Tuesday. We got to go eat dinner at Chanthas since Jonathans baptism got canceled because of scheduling conflicts on several different accounts... it was good though! We went to teach a less active member next, and it was really strange.
We have been to his house before, and not had any necessarily bad experiences, but we went in to his house and it felt weird. His mom told us he couldn't see well and that he would scream all the time and she didn't like it. He came down, and when he walked into the room the spirit left immediately, and we could tell he was super super high. He sat down and didn't really talk, and I told Elder Hibbert we needed to leave, so he said a quick prayer, and then The mom asked us not to leave until her son went back upstairs. She tried to feed him and had to hand feed him, and when he took the last bite he just stared at her and screamed, it was really weird. But he went back upstairs and she thanked us and said that when we came inside she felt safe. It was an incredible experience
God is so real. I have a perfect faith that I represent his son and His Church on earth. I have the power of God on my side as I do his work. I have no fear as we go to teach after dark in the most dangerous parts of Oakland every week. I am just a piece of Gods plan, and I have a purpose for being on a mission. I know this church is true, and I see the blessings of it on a daily basis. I love you all, have a great week!!!
Love,
Elder Tolman
No comments:
Post a Comment