Week 59 Pictures

Still staying at the A.P's house because of our cockroach problem

the following are all from the ap's sweet apartment. Staying with them is the best, because we all get along super well and like to have a good time. neat.

here is the best mission find of all time. Hoping mom and dad will let me keep it.

I ripped a hole in this huge bear to make it a giant puppet!

Last goodbyes to the Hollingsworths

Sweet Morning Exercise Hike

Sunday goodbyes and crazy eyes!

Sophi fed us dinner and said that if I want a Cambodian wife she could set me up with her niece...

Here it is folks, Pixar Studios!  One of the coolest things I've done since I got here!  



Week 60 Pictures

Elder Crump gave me this picture of a hawk, it's supposedly my "Spirit Animal"

 

Our New Apartment

Meet Elder Stokes

Week 60

First Week in the Woods!

Wow. It's like I'm in a totally different mission. I haven't seen a Drug dealer, Prostitute, dirty public park, homeless person, or anything relative to Oakland in like a week. No Gunshots.
Our neighbor told us good morning the other day. What? Totally different.
Any ways, Brentwood is super rich, super close together, and there are TONS of members. Both of our wards are super solid, and we get fed every day now, it's amazing. 

Monday-prepped for transfers and taught a quick lesson

 

Tuesday- transfers! I went with Elder Habel for a day to his area while we waited for our trainees!

 

Wednesday-went to get the kids! My new companions name is ELDER STOKES! He is from Lehi, and he is here and ready to work!! We went home and got there at like 8 because of traffic and dropping off Elder Habel and his comp, then we walked into a dirty, smoky apartment.  The last elders left trash everywhere, we couldn't unpack it was bad. BUT on the bright side, the apartment is huge and the kitchen is awesome. And the best part... We have a full gym. #blessed.

 

Thursday- had a full day to go out and meet the members and investigators and make our apartment less crazy. fun fun fun. 

 

Friday- we had a meeting in Oakland, then went home for weekly planning.

 

Saturday- we had studies, weekly planning, and then an activity with both of our wards haha, people are super excited that we are here, I am excited to work with them!!

 

Sunday- got up nice and early for meetings, and then stayed at church all day, went to dinner, then went home to do studies for the day, it was awesome. We got to get up and speak in both wards, and then two of our investigators came to church! It was such a cool day, we are really excited to go out and work with the people here!! Our dinner was really cool, they just moved from Pacifica into the Marsh Creek ward, and they have a HUGE St. Bernard named Hank. fun.

 

Well, I am stress free and happy. This area is awesome, training is fun, the members are great, everything a missionary could want! Now we just need to go out and build up a teaching pool! I love you all and I truly hope everyone is doing well. I love being a missionary more than anything and am beyond grateful to be where I am. The Church is true!!!

Love,

Elder Tolman

Week 59

Transfer Doctrine is in. I shall become a DL trainer in the BRENTWOOD 2ND/MARSH CREEK WARDS. Super cool. I am Elder Hibberts district leader, and he my zone leader. Neato.

Last week was awesome, I honestly can't remember what happened for the life of me, but I remember it was great. We met a man in the grocery store today that had a tattoo that said "100% Black Man", he was cool. we also toured Pixar Studios today, that was pretty incredible. We have been staying with the AP's and we just talk about missionary work and all the miracles we see and then listen to all our cool music on the killer dual 11' sub guitar amp i found in the trash. Life is Good. we are a part of miracles. The Cambodian branch will be in good hands until my return. I get another son on Wednesday. I feel more blessed than ever. Also, they say here that every missionary has to spend their time in Antioch (the yach), and I am thinking that means something good, but we will see! Lots of great things coming, keep yoselves posted.  Lots of love to all who partake in the weekly mission updates, I'm terribly sorry I haven't had much time to actually update lately. Please forgive.

 

love, Elder Tolman

Week 58 Pictures

 

 

​This palm tree is enormous and was ripping up the road, I would have gone higher up, but the part my left hand is on broke off right after the picture and I fall. sad.

 

 

 

 

On exchanges we were contacting at the Martinez Marina, and we asked this couple to take our picture that got really mad at us, it was pretty funny.  Elder Mason is the man, he's from Tokyo

 

 

 

 

 

We have been staying at the ap's house all week cause the spraying they did at our apartment didn't work, so we got tired of having cockroaches on us while we sleep. We can get on the roof there.

 



Week 58

This week was great!! I will tell you all about it on Wednesday night, cause we are going to the temple this week!! I have some pictures I will send to ya'll.  Bye for a bit! I love you and the church is true!!

Love,

Elder Tolman

Week 57

SO. All in all this was probably the least productive week of my mission in regards to our area, BUT.  We worked hard.  I have never been as tired in my life as I am at this moment, It's great. (part of that might be because we slept on the floor for two nights, but that's not important...).

 

So Monday, we met a NEW CAMBODIAN FAMILY!!! AND THEY AREN"T LESS ACTIVE!!! We are going back to teach them tonight!! We also got to eat dinner with the A.P.'s and Bishop King, it was awesome.

 

Tuesday we had the usual district meeting travels, then went home, went tracting, and had to spend some time getting the apartment all prepped and ready to FINALLY get sprayed for our cockroaches. 
 

Wednesday we went and helped Lyana move back to West Oakland, then taught a lesson to her room-mate who kept trying to flirt with us. Not the best situation. We definitely passed her off to the Berkeley YSA sisters. On the other hand it was a great lesson. Then we taught Pream about testimonies, to try and help him get ready for Testimony meeting, he has been wanting to get up and talk.

 

Thursday we went to town visiting members all day, we are trying everything to find people to teach right now, and we have been committing ourselves to talk to everyone. no one gets by us without hearing some kind of truth about the gospel and receiving an invitation to learn more. Cool.  After that we drove to W.C. to stay with the zone leaders while they fumigated our apartment.

 

Friday we had weekly planning. Not too exciting. Then we went to Oakland again to teach Jonathan and our new investigator, Kenny, except Kenny wasn't home and his son just yelled at us for being mean to his dad, so we will go back another day. Jonathan was awesome though. (fun thing- Our high councilman is doing temple prep with him, and all he talks to us about at church is how incredible Jonathan is and how he corrects brother Blotter on doctrine in the temple prep class). Then we drove back to Walnut Creek!

 

Saturday we had a hecka ton of meetings, and we were in Walnut Creek all day, our meeting ran long and we had to cancel our only investigator lesson with the family we met before, it was super sad. We did get to teach Pream about fasting though, he got really excited about asking God for help to find a better job.
 

The best part about Sunday was Poamrong's Elder's quorum lesson and sacrament. We went to the visitors center and watched the Joseph Smith Movie, then we all shared our testimonies.  It was the best lesson I have ever been to, because it was 100% taught by the spirit. Then in Sacrament all the testimonies were super great and focused on the Savior, which made me really happy, that is what we have been teaching people about when we visit them!  Then that night we were supposed to have a lesson with a part member family we have been talking with, but they canceled at church... so we went to a referral for the less active the ap's found! We went to his house and he told us he didn't have time for church, but we ended up staying and talking to him for about 30 minutes, it was great. He wouldn't let us teach, but it was the best thing that had happened that whole week, we had been trying almost everyday to catch him when he was home, so it was good that we finally got to say hello and meet him!

 

Overall, the stress, lack of sleep, spiritual experiences, and hard work continued from the past weeks. We know there are people here who are prepared, the Lord wouldn't have sent two Cambodian missionaries here if there were not any Cambodians to teach, we just need to focus and go follow the promptings of the spirit to find them. I have been studying a lot about sacrifice and trusting the Lord, and really, it doesn't matter if we don't find people to teach this next week after we give everything we have. All the Lord asks for is our best. In D&C 4, the promise isn't "he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might will have lots of people to teach and lots of baptisms", but it is "he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul". I will continue to do everything I can to be a disciple and servant of Jesus Christ, no matter what kind of trials that entails. This is the work of the Lord, and I have established that I am I part of it, and I will continue to do my part no matter what others will do because of it.  I love being a missionary so much.  I have grown more from being here than I could have any where else on earth. Our Heavenly Father loves us, and the Power of his Sons Atonement is available to help us receive forgiveness, and be changed. I love all of you so much!!  Sorry I don't have any pictures this week, please forgive me.

 

Love,

 Elder Tolman

Week 56 Pictures

 

 

Here's the burmese shirts we got from Taweedee

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a video of me making fire.

Here's me and Elder Prete on exchanges

 

We hiked Mount Diablo today, it was crazy.

 Here's a bunch of pictures



Week 56

This week was cool, not a lot happened and we don't have a lot of time, but we got like 10 referrals, but they all were for houses of Less active members, so that was a bummer, but it was pretty cool to have some work to do! We started teaching two of them. Blessings. We also found a new investigator in the Oakland 9th ward! His name is Kenny, he smells like urine and is really nice, said we look like good guys. Perfect. So he will probably get baptized in the coming weeks! Lots of love to the great and wonderful people at home, I hope everyone is going well!! The church is true!!

Elder Tolman

PS, I have pictures this week. lots of 'em. 

Week 55

So this week had a lot of crazy things happened, whether it be crazy people, crazy miracles, or crazy problems. Lots of crazy. Part of life in the East Bay.

Last Monday was awesome, we went to the Nixon outlet in Emeryville and the Burton outlet in Berkeley. We also got chased by a crazy guy downtown with the AP's, stole Elder Jensen's toothpick right out of his mouth and pulled his pants down to show us his polo underwear.  He was right, it was very nice.

Tuesday we had nothing eventful happen, not even a lesson.  It was a bummer, no reason to get down though!

Wednesday we went out to our car, and we found out that we had a flat tire. It turns out during the night someone put a screw in our back two tires, so we threw on our spare, made due with one semi-flat tire, and went to Pep boys!  After Pep-boys we went to district meeting, after district meeting we had dinner with Elder Prete and Elder Yoshida, they are awesome. Me and Elder Prete had probably the best gospel conversation I've ever had inside Panda express, super cool.  Then we went home to say hello to Pream and go Tracting! 

Thursday was also good, lots of tracting, no luck, but we went to see Taweedee with the Lao elders, cause he said he speaks Thai, but it turns out he lied.  He doesn't speak Thai.  That was awkward.  Plus he was drunk.  Sad.  Then we did service that night.

Friday we had interviews, so we didn't get home until like 3, then we did weekly planning and went to teach Jonathan, that was it haha!

Saturday was awesome.  We went to a picnic with the branch for pioneer day and scheduled some appointments with some potentials that were there, it was awesome!! after that we went to see Taweedee, and he sat down and told us that he didn't want to learn about Jesus any more, because he is a dictator, so we won't be going to Taweedees house any more...  after that we went and tracted, ate dinner, and went to get Poamrong to go and teach a lesson with a referral!! We went to their house with a member and everything, it was awesome, then they didn't answer the door. It was pretty sad, but instead we just went and did our correlation meeting with Poamrong.

Sunday was cool. nothing happened until after church. There is an Elder Here from China, and his parents decided they want to get baptized, so they flew to America, and the cheapest ticket they could get was to the San Francisco airport, so they came here and went to the mission home at like 10 at night and went and knocked on President's door, and asked if their son could baptize them before they had to go back to China the next night!! We went to the baptism, the spirit was so strong, and they knew exactly what it meant for them to be baptized and confirmed members of the church. I am so grateful I got to go and see it happen!! I'm out of time, but I love all of you, I really do. the Church is true, this work means something so much more than we can understand!!!! Be a part of it!! 

Love, 

Elder Tolman 

Week 54

Good week, not a lot of time. Emailing at the ghetto library, only have an hour.

Monday was sick. Nothing happened but it rained a little bit.

Tuesday we had nothing to do, all our appointments fell through, all is well. Lots of tracting, lots of angry black people cause a white guy came to tell them about Jesus (I guess racial tension is pretty bad or something?).

Wednesday we saw Saroeuth and Taweedee and Pream, good day. Taweedee read his scriptures, cool.

Thursday we got called to Walnut Creek to do a big service project, it was fun.

Friday we did weekly planning and taught Taweedee, but he was drunk so we left pretty quick, but he gave us some cool Burmese clothes, that was neat.

Saturday we had a whole bunch of meetings for the zone and zone leadership, so we tracted in walnut creek and went to meetings, but the meetings were really good. Blessings.

Sunday was pretty normal, and Taweedee came to church. He was drunk again, but thats ok, we also found out he speaks Thai, so we will probably be passing him off to the Thai elders.

I love being a missionary, I see miracles everyday and get to see firsthand the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know the church is true and wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Love,

Elder Tolman

sorry no pictures, the computers in this library have way too many firewalls