Week 82

Got a nice smooch this week!

What a great week. Monday... we made progress on our sub-area organization. We have been procrastinating it so we have a lot to do. 

Tuesday we had a list of families we were asked to go and visit that we did some of those, we met a guy named Brad and are going back to teach him tonight! Then we had district meeting. After D.M. we had dinner with the Dales, I like the dales. After Dinner we went tracting by Ricks house, then met with Rick! 

Wednesday we had the Missionary Broadcast, it was really exciting, except our mission isn't really applying all of them yet, so that's ok. We went to IHOP afterwards for lunch, then we went to teach an investigator that moved into our area. She's actually in a psych ward in our area, her name is Cynthia. She was in a nursing home, but acted out, now she's in a psych ward. we had a pass off lesson with the Crystal Springs 1st elders, after getting through three security doors. All the doors had signs warning you to look behind you for possible escapees before you left, it was pretty intense. She was doing well though, when she gets out they will set a date with her. After that we went to the Richards house, we had a really cool dinner with them and they talked about how they want to be better member missionaries and that they feel like the rest of the ward does too. Hopefully the whole ward follows their example and starts making some changes! After that we went and visited the rest of the Less actives we were asked to go see. 

Thursday was great. We did a lot of tracting and visiting until dinner, then we went to the Barlows house for dinner. They're really cool, they had the Shirleys over too. after that we went with President Rodent to go and teach, but our appointment canceled, so he went to his meeting and we went to tract.

Friday was stake reports and weekly planning, then we went to a lesson with Adam! Benj came with us to teach, he was good. Adam got pretty fiery and Muslim, but he ended up on a good note and we had some really really cool opportunities to bear testimony to him, and he gave a Quran that actually isn't the Quran because it's in English and can only be the Quran if it's in Arabic. We are pretty sad to say it but we probably won't be going back to see him much...

Saturday was good, we had a blitz in our area and sent missionaries to a ton of less actives that no one knows in Belmont and met like 20 less actives, it was pretty cool.  After that we had a visit with Cynthia again, and we went in and this guy ran up to us and grabbed our hands and kept saying "Looks like I'm finally at the gates right Peter?" it was super funny, but super sad at the same time. we had a good lesson with Cynthia though, it was fast. after that we went to dinner at Benj's house, then went to retry a few of the address's we had before our ward council meeting. 

Sunday we had studies and then ward council, then a super super cool sacrament meeting where the ex-patriarch/ex-stake president/ex-area authority gave a talk on the symbolism in the temple from John 7 & 8 and it was incredible, i don't have time to type the details but it was awesome. right after church we had a super fun dinner with the McQuays, and we had a few minutes at the end because we ate fast, so we did a puzzle with the little girls at their house and then had a lesson, then went to go and do accountability for MLC this week. 

This week had a few disappointments, and we didn't see the fruits we would have liked to be totally honest, but that's ok. We had a lot of spiritual experiences with the people we were able to meet with and were able to have a lot of success developing better relationships with our ward, so it went very well  in reality! I love missionary work. For sure. I love you all as well, and wish the best for the next week!

Love,

Elder Tolman

PS- The smooch came from Cynthia. we walked in with the elders on Sunday and she kissed up all on the cheek, it was super funny. nothing crazy, just a nice grandma in a wheelchair in a psych ward

A story I forgot is that Tuesday morning we got a call at 5:30 am from the Spanish sisters, and Sister Tripp had passed out in the bathroom and they needed help getting to the hospital, so we ran to their aid and got them there and then waited to see what happened, it all ended up being ok! all is well.