Week 72

When priesthood authority meets burger authority!

This week was AMAZING. So much goodness. 

Monday we got to go eat with the smiths, then taught Rick, then said goodbye to the cox's for Elder Forsyth, it was awesome. 

Tuesday we got up and packed up and headed to transfers, said our goodbyes, and he was off! crazy. Now Elder Henson and I are leading the zone! Lots of fun things... We went to work and went and planned out the transfer and set some goals. It was great. 

Wednesday we got up and got going nice and quick. We went and visited a few members and then drove ourselves out to Oakland to help with the new missionaries. we had two new sisters come to the zone, and also Elder Ey is training!! I have a Grandson!! It was an awesome day. We didn't get home until 9:30 again though, it was definitely a long day. 

Thursday we got to go do missionary things all day, it was marvelous. Just kidding. We had to go to Oakland again because one of the new missionaries here didn't realize he needed a bike, and we are the only ones that have the means to transport a bike over here so we had to get it for him, which was definitely ok. We got back and went to the Cox's for dinner, and then went to teach brenden and Jason, which definitely went well, Jason is doing pretty good! We tried to go and see a guy named scott then, but he wasn't home...

Friday was weekly planning, and it was great. we got a lot done and set a couple appointments for this week. That night there was a big elders quorum activity with virtual reality since like 10 people are VR designers in our ward, it was amazing. We couldn't do much, but I am totally blown away with how cool technology is. Super fun.

Saturday was awesome, we had district meeting, then we went to dinner with the Hunters, or so we thought.... we got to Red Robin, our designated dinner location, and then we waited. Waited some more. A bit more. Suddenly it was 6:00! We had to be in half moon bay at 7 and hadn't even ordered yet! Uh oh! Luckily, the Lord provides, and there was a Lady named Clara who is a member!! She changed shift and went up front and saw us and said, "Elders! Do you need to be fed??" and she graciously seated us, giving us priority over all the people in line, and there were many, and we ended up getting to our appointment on time! Amazing!! It was a great day. 

Sunday was also good, after church we studied and went to dinner with the Ramirez family, then taught Brenden a lesson, adding yet another of the wayfarers to our teaching pool. His name is Collin, he is really cool, he likes church architecture. Then we met Scott!!! We have been trying to meet him for 6 weeks!!! And we finally did!!! we set a lesson for tonight!!

This week was great. I love the gospel, and I love working in faith to see the hand of the Lord in the lives of the people around me. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else!! I love you all, Happy Thanksgiving!!!

 

Love Elder Tolman

Week 71 Pictures

 

Goodbye fire to burn all his gross clothes. Deuces Elder Forsyth.

 

on exchanges me and elder sonntag did language study by the golden gate bridge at the war memorial, it was amazing

 

 

at the end of the zone blitz we got mexican corn on the cob, kind of like the stuff on nacho libre.





Week 71

It's that time of the month again... It seems Elder Forsyth has reached the end, we will say good bye to him tomorrow and then I will head back with the one and only ELDER HENSEN!!!! He is companions with Elder Ey in the Cambodian branch right now, but now he will come to San Mateo with me! How fun!

 

Monday was good, we didn't really do anything. We went tracting, and Elder Forsyth was sick most of the week, so we were inside a lot. 

 

Tuesday we had district meeting, and afterwards we had dinner with Sister Smith and Jarrett.  Next we went to see Rick, and he committed to go and home teach with Brother Mcmannis who teaches him with us! It was awesome! 

 

Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Fijians again, and Elder Sontag and I went and committed their investigator to be baptized, it was awesome. We had dinner with President Roden again, which is always awesome. 

Thursday we went with the Tagolog elders and just went and talked with Filipino's all day, I didn't  know what they were saying but it was great.

 

Friday was weekly planning, and Elder Forsyth was sick all day, so I planned by myself and wrote thank you cards to members all day, good day.

 

Saturday we had zone blitz's, there were so many miracles this week, it was awesome!! This week our zone had the highest numbers in the mission, it was pretty cool, most of it came from the blitz.  Super neat.

 

Sunday was awesome. Enoch has been coming to church every week, and he has read through all of the lesson pamphlets we gave him and is living all the commandments he knows of, so all that needs to happen is he needs to let us actually teach him the lessons haha! We also got to eat with the Argyles that night, and they are SO COOL!! He works for Pinterest and basically runs the website, so if you have any improvement ideas let me know and I'll tell him. I love them. That night we went to teach Brenden too, and the guys in the recovery house with him kept coming outside to smoke, and we invited five people to sit in on our lesson, and one guy named Jason was super interested in the church, so we added him as an investigator, and Brenden is there to read with him all the time and answer his questions. Pretty cool.  He said that he wants to get baptized, so we have a lot of high hopes in our prayers!!!

 

I love being a missionary.  Have I said that before?  Probably. This is the best experience I have ever had. I prayed this week a lot for opportunities to go and share the gospel with people who really need it, and I was definitely blessed with an answer to that prayer. So much is happening in the work here to strengthen the members and myself, and I couldn't be more grateful. THIS IS AMAZING. I'M SO HAPPY ALL THE TIME!!! I hope you all have a great week!! I love you!!

 

love,

Elder Tolman

Week 70 pictures

 

Dressed up for Halloween

 

 

Left my blanket at home, used an emergency blanket we found

Elder Nattress

Referrals Please

 

This is Elder Tu'ua, and the guy with Elder Forsyth is his copanion Elder Sonntag, they're the Fijian Elders





Week 70

What a neat time I'm having! This week was filled with cool things left and right...

 

Monday we had a great time.  We went to Oakland and then went to hang out with Sister Smith and Jarrett for Halloween, then at 6 we went home and deep cleaned our apartment. 

Tuesday we had exchanges with the Crystal Springs 1st Elders, I went with Elder Castillo. It was a slow day until right at the end, then we met a Less-active family named the Araves, the wifes parents are actually the senior couple in Oakland that I'm friends with named the Robinsons! Crazy! We talked with them for a while and just got to know them. Then that night we drove to Oakland and stayed the night at the Assistants house since we had a meeting there at 8:30 that morning with Elder Nattress of the 70. When he came in and shook our hands it was really funny, He came to shake my hand and he said "How are you feeling Elder?" and I said "I'm not listening" (sorry you'll have to listen to his conference talk if you don't get it). He thought it was hilarious. He is so cool!! He just asked us questions about us and talked about how he ended up being assigned to talk to us.  After the first meeting, all the other missionaries from our Zone and two other zones came in also, and he talked about how we truly teach Christ's Doctrine, it was a powerful meeting. We had a mission leadership council meeting with him after that talking about how we need to seeking the guidance of the spirit the same way for missionaries as we do for investigators. It was great.

Thursday was good too, we ate lunch with Sister Giland, then went to ZLC, then we had three lessons that day! We met with Rick, then went to Tim's house, and then the Samani's had us over to teach their nephews again, they are hilarious. Their names are Evan, Ami, and Voli, I don't know if those are spelled right haha..  But it was awesome!

Friday we planned and prepared to present our stake reports and then went to dinner with the Fijian Elders.

Saturday we had the zone blitz's, I managed to teach a few people in both of the areas we worked in! It was a ton of fun!

Sunday was all meetings.  Church was awesome though, the elders quorum has been discussing the gospel topic essays once a month, and this month was super cool. Lots of intelligent humans. We got to eat dinner with Brother Christensens family though, that was fun, he's our ward mission leader! 

I am content. I feel really good about being in uncomfortable situations and have no problem going and teaching anyone I can about Christ. It's a great feeling to be involved in the work of the Lord, and I encourage everyone to hop on board and start to get involved on their own! I love you all! I actually have pictures today, get ready... 

Love, 

Elder Tolman

Week 69 pictures

Ward Halloween Party

Week 69

What a great week. One after another. I am never not amazed with what is going on.

Monday we went and hung out with Sister Smith and Jarret for the rest of our P-day, then contacted like 5 of our referrals that night, very productive. 

Tuesday we had district meeting and a lot of tracting, and also dinner with the Haupeakui family, we love the Haupeakui's. Fun thing! The wife actually is the sister to the Leakaehe's (sorry I definitely spelled that wrong), who live like across the street from me in Herriman! I was in young mens with their nephew!! Super cool. Also, on the way to district meeting, we got Rear-ended, so another incident to add to the list of all my car challenges on the mission.

Wednesday we had exchanges with the Fijian elders again, it was a blast, me and Elder Tu'ua went out, and we are definitely going to be good friends. He's from provo and got here about two months after I did, but we hadn't met each other until about two months ago, mostly cause we were in totally opposite parts of the mission the whole time, but we went and contacted people and tried to organize the massive list of 700 some less active members we have, then we also got to go to President and Sister Roden's house for dinner, they are amazing. He's in the Stake Presidency, and he is one of the most incredible missionaries I've ever met, He's great.  

We also taught Brenden our Recent Convert that night!

Thursday was good, we went to help the spanish elders get rid of some nasty furniture that some missionaries before them left behind, then went to help Ruby, one of the tongan members that owns Samaritan house food bank. We had dinner with the Samani's after that, and they had some non-member nephews that are staying with them While they wait for visa's to go with their parents to scotland, cause their dad is a professional rugby player there! fun. Then that night we went to splits with the ward!

Friday we had Weekly planning and Stake Reports again for the end of the month, so we were on the computers all day. 

Saturday we had blitz's!! I got to go and work with Elder Mclaw's from farmington for 2 hours, he's brand new and we just went to town, it was a blast. We were in the meanest part of the south San Francisco area, and we had two hours to go and be as loving and bold as we possibly could, and even though we were met with lots of hard hearts and rude words, I got to show him a new piece in the path he's allowed the Lord to start him on, he's a great missionary! Then that night we had our ward halloween party, it was awesome! There is a lady named Marilynn that has a boyfriend named Enoch we have been getting to know. He's come to church with us three times and finally started talking to us about the gospel. He is a scientist and a theology major, and he asked how we gain spiritual knowledge, because we know more than he does about how God feels about his children, and he didn't understand how that was possible!! it was so cool!! He agreed to meet with us next week, and then we went and ate chili with him. 

Sunday was the usual, we had dinner with three families, two work for google in development and one is a world-wide trade officiator, so it was cool to hear all about how they are tired of bmw's and the stereotypical fancy seafood rich people eat, very exciting dinner appointment. 

Overall, my prayers are answered daily and I am a witness of Christs divinity and power every single day, and I get to teach people about him every single day. My life could not be any better right now. I hope everyone is taking time to know more about the Savior for themselves so that they can be as happy as I am. I love you all and am sincerely grateful that you care enough to even read this, you are all saints and the best of friends. Have a great week! 

Love, 

Elder Tolman