Here is Sean after his mini mission last week!
The thing on the back of my tie came off, so i sewed it onto my beanie ha ha!
Monday, January 25, 2016
Week 29
I am super excited to tell everyone about this week!!!
Saturday, we had a few houses to visit in West Oakland, then we had a lesson with Puu Dee, and he and his wife ended up Giving us dinner! It was great! after that we had correlation with Poamrong, then went to Siphals again to teach prim!
Sunday, we had the usual church block, and there are these two 8 year old twin girls whose family we have been visiting, and they both asked their mom to take them to church!! Their mom hasn't been to church in 20+ years, and it was really cool seeing them sitting together in Sacrament meeting. Prim came too, we were pretty happy! After church, we didn't have anything planned, so we called a recent convert named Sierra that we haven't met with in a long time, and asked if we could meet, and she said yes and that she wants us to teach her boyfriend, who is Samoan. He is Enormous. He's 6'3 and probably around 260, and he is super cool. he said he would be interested in learning more about the church, because his cousins in Alaska are Mormon! Right after that lesson, we went to a potential named Vanny that we met last transfer, and she let us teach her, and the more we taught, the more interested she became! It was so awesome!! She said the closing prayer and thanked heavenly father for sending people to help her become closer to him, it was awesome. Her family also has a pet rooster named Jeremy Stuart that acts like a person, it is hilarious. I took a picture with him.
I love being trusted by Heavenly Father to go and find all these people that he has been preparing, what an incredible and deep trust he gives to his servants. I am so thankful to be a missionary, and I am so grateful for the examples of righteous service I am given. There are people every where that the Lord has prepared to learn and receive the gospel, and he has entrusted us to take the gospel to them. Go and DO!!! I love you!
Monday we had a really cool Khmer dinner at Sister Sally sin's house with her son Sean, and Poamrong! After that we went out to visit a few less actives in the area!
Tuesday was the usual district meeting, then we went to Taco Bell! We got to in touch with Bunthai, all he said is that he is homeless and thinking of God, so hopefully that means he will actually meet with us again soon! We went and talked with some Cambodians that live by us then went over to Prims house!
Wednesday was good too, We met Samey at the Visitors center for a lesson! After that we went to see Sokunthea and Saruath! and at five we went to Siphal's for dinner and Prim and his daughter came over!
Thursday, we had service that morning, then we went to eat lunch with Yiay Sokham Plek, she was so happy to see us, and we got to talk to her about her daughter for a long time, it was fun! after that we had a lesson with Ming Sambath, she is so nice, she talked alot about her trip to Cambodia to see her husband (He got deported...) and we shared some scriptures with her. After that we drove to Castro Valley to go eat dinner with the Yim family, it was alot of fun, and we talked to their Dad about coming to Church, he isn't a member. It was a good night!
Friday, we had studies, meals, weekly planning, and Dance Practices. So not much happened all day, but we taught Jonathan, and he went through the bible and found things he had learned about prophesies that told about the Book of Mormon, it was cool to see how much the gospel is staring to mean to him!!
Saturday, we had a few houses to visit in West Oakland, then we had a lesson with Puu Dee, and he and his wife ended up Giving us dinner! It was great! after that we had correlation with Poamrong, then went to Siphals again to teach prim!
Sunday, we had the usual church block, and there are these two 8 year old twin girls whose family we have been visiting, and they both asked their mom to take them to church!! Their mom hasn't been to church in 20+ years, and it was really cool seeing them sitting together in Sacrament meeting. Prim came too, we were pretty happy! After church, we didn't have anything planned, so we called a recent convert named Sierra that we haven't met with in a long time, and asked if we could meet, and she said yes and that she wants us to teach her boyfriend, who is Samoan. He is Enormous. He's 6'3 and probably around 260, and he is super cool. he said he would be interested in learning more about the church, because his cousins in Alaska are Mormon! Right after that lesson, we went to a potential named Vanny that we met last transfer, and she let us teach her, and the more we taught, the more interested she became! It was so awesome!! She said the closing prayer and thanked heavenly father for sending people to help her become closer to him, it was awesome. Her family also has a pet rooster named Jeremy Stuart that acts like a person, it is hilarious. I took a picture with him.
I love being trusted by Heavenly Father to go and find all these people that he has been preparing, what an incredible and deep trust he gives to his servants. I am so thankful to be a missionary, and I am so grateful for the examples of righteous service I am given. There are people every where that the Lord has prepared to learn and receive the gospel, and he has entrusted us to take the gospel to them. Go and DO!!! I love you!
Love,
Elder Cameron Tolman
Monday, January 18, 2016
Week 28 Pictures
No Pictures this week, we're so sad :(
So here's a throwback to Cameron's pre-mission pictures:
So here's a throwback to Cameron's pre-mission pictures:
Week 28
Hittin' the pavement. . . . in San Jose!?!
This week was awesome. We have had a few big things happen this week!
Tuesday we had district meeting and then went back and taught Prim and Bunthorn! Not a ton of stuff happened that day.
Thursday was awesome! We had zone conference in Antioch, so we had to drive an hour to it and didn't have any studies haha, but it was so good! President Frandsen was my favorite talk. He talked about obedience and how there is no difference between the spirit and the letter of the law, and that as missionaries we promise God to follow both in order to fulfill our calling to the fullest!! After zone conference, we went to see a potential investigator. He is one of our members 14 year old grandson's, and he is super awesome, totally willing to listen. We took two of the young men from the branch with us to teach, Tyler and Spencer, and we started teaching, and Elder Hibbert asked if anyone there had seen God while we were teaching about prayer, and all three of the members there told us that they had seen God, so Elder Hibbert and I this next week are evaluating whether or not we are actually obedient or not.
Friday we had weekly planning, Interviews, and Cambodian New Year Dance Practice. So we didn't get to go out and teach. BUT at the practice we taught Jonathan one of the most powerful lessons we have ever taught, it was so cool. He is amazing, his testimony is unstoppable. He got a calling to be the Gospel Essentials Teacher!
Saturday we went finding all day. we found 5 Cambodians though!! which is more than we have just found at any other point that we have been here! It was awesome! Then that night we taught Prim, and he had read 5 chapters out of the little book of Mormon reader we gave him! It was awesome! He has come so far since I first met him, and 100% of it is because he is applying the gospel!!
Sunday we didn't have a lot going on. We went to church and then went home to finish studies. We tried to go find people to teach, but finished the night knocking on doors! It was fun!
There is one really cool big thing that happened this week. Our area has been extended to the San Jose Mission!!!! We are allowed to go teach Cambodians in San Jose now, because there aren't any Cambodian Elders there!!! Woo!! The work is being pushed forward for the Cambodians here, it was really cool talking with President Frandsen about it, I know that it was inspired for us to go there to teach, and I know we will find success with the people there!! I love you all!! have an awesome week!!
love,
This week was awesome. We have had a few big things happen this week!
Monday we had a lesson with Bonath, It was funny because we went to visit his room mate but his room mate didn't want to have a lesson that night, but then Bonath showed up all of a sudden and was like "bob they want to teach you because you say you believe in God but you don't go to church" it was hilarious.
Tuesday we had district meeting and then went back and taught Prim and Bunthorn! Not a ton of stuff happened that day.
Wednesday we had lunch downtown with one of our members then went to teach Saruath our less active that really really loves the Gospel! Next we had Language study and stuff. We got invited to dinner with Poamrong and his brother after that it was cool. That night we had everything fall through, so we went and tried to track down Cambodians for the rest of the night!
Thursday was awesome! We had zone conference in Antioch, so we had to drive an hour to it and didn't have any studies haha, but it was so good! President Frandsen was my favorite talk. He talked about obedience and how there is no difference between the spirit and the letter of the law, and that as missionaries we promise God to follow both in order to fulfill our calling to the fullest!! After zone conference, we went to see a potential investigator. He is one of our members 14 year old grandson's, and he is super awesome, totally willing to listen. We took two of the young men from the branch with us to teach, Tyler and Spencer, and we started teaching, and Elder Hibbert asked if anyone there had seen God while we were teaching about prayer, and all three of the members there told us that they had seen God, so Elder Hibbert and I this next week are evaluating whether or not we are actually obedient or not.
Friday we had weekly planning, Interviews, and Cambodian New Year Dance Practice. So we didn't get to go out and teach. BUT at the practice we taught Jonathan one of the most powerful lessons we have ever taught, it was so cool. He is amazing, his testimony is unstoppable. He got a calling to be the Gospel Essentials Teacher!
Saturday we went finding all day. we found 5 Cambodians though!! which is more than we have just found at any other point that we have been here! It was awesome! Then that night we taught Prim, and he had read 5 chapters out of the little book of Mormon reader we gave him! It was awesome! He has come so far since I first met him, and 100% of it is because he is applying the gospel!!
Sunday we didn't have a lot going on. We went to church and then went home to finish studies. We tried to go find people to teach, but finished the night knocking on doors! It was fun!
There is one really cool big thing that happened this week. Our area has been extended to the San Jose Mission!!!! We are allowed to go teach Cambodians in San Jose now, because there aren't any Cambodian Elders there!!! Woo!! The work is being pushed forward for the Cambodians here, it was really cool talking with President Frandsen about it, I know that it was inspired for us to go there to teach, and I know we will find success with the people there!! I love you all!! have an awesome week!!
love,
Elder Tolman
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Week 27 Pictures
One of the gifts the Peav's gave us! its a krommaa! its like a scarf, but sometimes older people wear them like skirts in Cambodia!
These are some cool Women's sweatpants they said they wanted us to have
We were driving around looking for an address, and we accidentally went to Pixar studios.
These cool ball things.
cool street
reppin' the home team
they had these weird stick figures all over the place
I'm a big fan of palm trees
driving around Oakland.
some graffiti outside a PI's house.
the grocery store we shop at started carrying Arizona!
In Downtown.
More Oakland.
Elder Hibbert doing some P-day shopping
lake Merrit.
Driving around Oakland
closest I have yet come to San Francisco
Week 27
Not too much happened this week, but it was good! for whatever reason, the work in our area slowed down a ton this week, it was weird.
Monday we finished the day by heading over to a guy named Sokunthea's. He is super cool but LA and he asked us if there was any way we could bring him tithing slips, it was cool haha! next we found ourselves going to the Peav's house, a less active family that just got back from cambodia, and they had some gifts for us, I'll send some pictures. After that we went and Taught Jonathan!
Tuesday we didn't have much, we had the Usual District meeting and then went home to eat and find some PI's and then go teach Prim, it was good!
Wednesday, we met with Samey and taught about repentence, then we went to Mcdonalds with Poamrong and then went to his house for Correlation. It was a good time.
Thursday, we went to our service for a little and then went to teach Saroeuth. It was a really cool lesson, and we learned a ton about him. He was a Soldier in The Khmer Rouge fighting against pol phot (I don't know how to spell it...) and he came to america when he lost a battle and had to leave his wife and son there so they couldn't connect him to them. He met missionaries in 2007 and learned about the plan of salvation and then got baptized. He is amazing, and he has a really sincere deep love for the gospel, and we learned how much it means to him that the missionaries came back and found him again. We went to one of our members houses that night too, it was fun.
Friday we had weekly planning and then the first of the Cambodian New Year Dance practices!! It was fun, there were like 60 new faces out of nowhere, and this one guy brought his guitar and his friend had a ukulele and we played together, it was super fun! we can't teach them unfortunately, they're from fresno...
Saturday we didn't have anything until 5, which was sad :( but we went to dinner with Jonathan and Chantha at Boston Market! It was super fun! after that we went back to searching for people to teach.
Sunday was pretty good! we didn't get the memo that there was no PEC, so we did language study at the Church! Prim and Chantha's mom came to church, which was a nice saving grace to our week! They brought King Kong with them too which was even better! After church we had a lesson with Lyana and then with the Loun family! we had never met they're whole family before, so it was cool to sit down with them. There were five kids there, only one of them is active, but they all love missionaries and have been around them their whole lives, so it's fun going over! after that it was "Why I Believe", and jonathan came for the first time, and we got King Kong to come too, it was super fun.
I am so grateful to be a missionary. I love the gospel so much. This week was slow,and in all honesty a little rough, but for whatever reason I LOVED it. I am so grateful to be sharing a message of Joy with everyone I meet. It is really special to meet people and immediately only have incredible things to say to them no matter who they are. I know this Church is true, I know my work is bringing blessings for the people it affects. Just try to find one thing you can do this week to bring yourself closer to christ, and once you've seen it work, go share it with someone, literally anyone. There is no substitute for the joy that will come from sharing simple truths. I love you all and hope you all have the best of weeks!!
love,
Elder Cameron Tolman
Monday, January 4, 2016
Week 26 pictures
Lokruu!!!
New Year's Toast!
Cool Street
Walking down the road to go home
Today Elder Hibbert locked our keys in the apartment and we had to walk down the road to ask the manager to unlock it for us.
Waiting for the manager at the apartments
Waiting for the manager (he never came so we broke into our apartment)
it's really hard to tell, but it snowed for about five minutes last week!
New Year's Eve game of Pool!
On the hunt for new investigators!
the people we do service for weren't there yet, so we just hung out and waited.
Week 26
Holy cow!! I love being a missionary!! I'm not even gonna lie, this week was super hard, I have been kind of sick all week and it has not been fun, but we were so blessed for our willingness to keep working!!! We had to full days off from proselyting, and still managed to get 14 lessons!!! In the Cambodian program, that is unheard of. We are quite literally experiencing miracles in everything we do because we are willing, obedient, and BOLD!!!
Monday, we had a short P-day, so we went to work and had four lessons!!! We taught Bunthai again and Jonathan and Puu Dii and one other less active, can't remember who, but it was a miracle and an awesome start to our week!!!
Tuesday we went to teach Saroueth, and he let us try to play his cool Cambodian instruments, it was a ton of fun, he said he would teach me if we keep coming to see him! after that we had district meeting, which was fun as always! especially because it was transfers, so we got to meet a bunch of new missionaries!! after that we went back home to eat and finished up the day teaching Prim! it was an awesome lesson, we talked with him about who God is and he decided he really wants to know if God loves him, so we committed him to pray and ask for help to know!! It was so amazing.
Wednesday Siphal Rith came out with us to teach, it was awesome! We taught Samey, who is less active and has come back to church for the last three weeks and been meeting with us consistently, we are so happy for her!! She has been working so hard to help her family! We taught Puu Dii about the plan of salvation also, he had a lot of good questions and the spirit was really strong! after that we went to teach Bunthorn, Bunthai's twin brother! It was a good lesson, his girlfriend listened in too!
Thursday we had weekly planning and a New Years Eve Zone activity! It was a ton of fun! I love the missionaries I get to serve with! We got to watch Inside out and Big hero 6, It was awesome!
Friday was also awesome. We had an all day P-day! We helped Bunthorn move houses, and it was a bunch of fun, he's a super funny guy! After that we went to arbys to fulfill our dream of eating a Philly-cheese-steak sandwich and then drove to walnut creek to hang out with Elder Dey and Elder Apostolos the rest of the day! We went shopping for some winter clothes, it was a blast! after that we went to this place called Rasputin's Music. It was fun, they had a ton of really cool Vinyl records and stuff and we just looked around for a bit! after that we went to Chili's for dinner, cause Elder Hibbert was kind enough to share a gift card he got for Christmas! It was an awesome day!
Saturday was my favorite day of the week. After we finished studies, and ate a little lunch, we drove to the temple to meet up with a very special Member that was going out to teach with us....
LOKRUU MICKELSON!!!!!!!!!
His wife is from Danville, and they were over here for the holidays, and he happened to speak Cambodian really well, so he came out to teach with us!! It was the best!! We visited two older Less-active members, and he had no problem at all talking with them and helping them come unto Christ!!! The spirit was there in both lessons and it felt awesome and it was really cool to be able to have him come teach with us, he is the greatest!!! After that we drove to walnut creek to deliver some luggage to a sister that is getting ready to head home, and then we drove back to teach Bunthai, and he had set goals for himself for the new year to help himself stop smoking and doing drugs and start building up his testimony!! It was so amazing!!
Sunday we saw a few miracles!!
1- We had 4 investigators at church. Prim, Bunthai, Bunthorn, and their mom!! It was awesome, almost their entire family was their! (prim isn't in their family but he is still great)
2- We had a goal to find a new investigator this last week, and our lessons fell through, so we went and visited some potential investigators, and the very first one we visited let us in!! It was so cool!! His name is Om Ly, and he met with missionaries in '91 and showed us a bunch of pictures he took with them! he let us share a message and asked if we wanted to learn to read Thai so we could read the book of Mormon to him and help him understand! so we will start learning Thai with Om Ly and eventually get him to get baptized!! We are so excited for him!!!
The other thing that happened sunday was Lokruu mickelson came to our branch and bore his testimony in cambodain, it was hilarious because I was sitting next to Bunthorn and Prim, and their jaws dropped and Prim was like "Elder he speak better than Elder Khpuah (Elder Tall)!" and then Bunthorn was like " F he speak better than I do!" It was hilarious!!
I am so grateful to be apart of the plan that the Lord has for the Cambodian People in the Bay area, they have the best intentions and want to be good people. I am lucky enough to have to chance to show them and help them learn how they can do that Through the Savior and Their heavenly father. I know that the gospel will Change the lives of all those who apply it and seek to receive help! I have seen it myself and am watching it change people little by little every single day! I have the best mission and am a part of the most amazing work that has ever been manifest on the earth! I LOVE it!!! The Church is true!! I love you all!!
Love,
Elder Tolman
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