Week 87 pictures

Week 87

Good week!! let me recap really fast, we don't have a ton of time...

Monday was good. we didn't really have anything happen, just tracting and
visiting a few members

Tuesday was also good, we went to downtown union city (if you can call it downtown haha, it's all one place pretty much) not too much luck. We then had district meeting and a yummy dinner with some old ladies and the missionaries. That night we went to teach Frank, and he was ready to anti
us pretty hard, but luckily we know our doctrine like the back of our hands and ran it all into the ground and confounded him, now he's ok again, he was freaked out by some stuff his friend showed to him. He is still good for baptism. Thank goodness for the power of the Holy Ghost and him being sincere. After that we met with an investigator named Luis, and he's a money investor. He loves the idea of the restoration, and loves that our is all-encompassing, unlike other "restored churches".
We committed him to be baptized on the 22nd of April. Good deal.

Wednesday we had a pretty normal day. To be honest I don't even remember what happened besides a lesson with our recent converts, David and Haylee, other than that I couldn't tell you haha

Thursday was pretty similar to Wednesday, except we taught Frank again. We read the book of Mormon with him, because he didn't read the last time, and he is loving it so far, it's really cool. We are teaching him the plan of salvation next, we are so excited. we went to Luis again after that, and we taught him the plan of salvation, and he loved that as well, so he is totally on track. We invited his sister that lives with him to join us, and she said she was sick but will join for sure next time we come! woot.

Friday was weekly planning, and Elder Johnson passed out asleep at his desk like six different times, so we took a break and he took a nap and I updated the area book, then we finished and went to dinner.
That night we went to meet with bishop because he is going out of town and wanted us to talk about the ward blitz that is coming up in ward council, then we went to visit some fairly recent move ins to seek out some referrals.

Saturday was great. We met three or four people with really solid potential that we will be able to follow up with this week. We were supposed to have a lesson with frank, but he wasn't home when we went, so we aren't sure what happened.

Sunday was pretty good. We had church as usual, then did choir practice and talked with some dry Mormon church goers that need to get baptized, then went home and studied, then had dinner with the Tuitauvukis. It was so fun. One of the couples they invited just went to the Warriors vs. nets game and they were so funny about it, they went on and on and on about how many times they made the bench laugh, cause they swiped some court level seats on the internet for his birthday, it was great. after that we went and tracted a little while with no immediate success, then went to Brother
Barbers to go over the progress record! Good day.

I am in the right place, I will probably finish my mission here and I'm pretty alright with that. I hope everyone is doing well! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Tolman

Week 86 Pictures

We found some dough and I made scones

enjoying all the rain with some hot chocolate

(I don't need rain for hot chocolate but I thought it was a good time)

Here's Elder Johnson and I since I haven't sent a picture of us yet

Seafood buffet 

Us at our old person service

 Elder Johnson at the cathedral in Oakland

(we went after the temple)

Week 86

What a good week! 

Monday was cool, we got taken out to a seafood buffet, I don't remember if I talked about it or not. We stunk like fish afterwards, but it was a fun way to start conversations. We also taught Mario after that, he had read, but not really prayed, so he kept half a commitment haha.

Tuesday we taught a lady named Kat whose mom has dementia really bad, and she kept asking us where we were reading from, then we had district meeting and a cool dinner and all ate at the church and just hung out for an hour and ate food. Then we taught two recent converts named David and Hailee, two Tongan kids that got baptized like two weeks ago. We went from there to try to meet the locals and share a neat message with them, but the locals are all that excited to see us it seems.

Wednesday was temple day, yes it was awesome. Lots of neat knowledge gained. Our ward was all there working at the temple so we got to build some Celestial member trust. Woot. That night we went to visit Dawn, our new investigator. It probably was the best lesson that  I've taught to an investigator, we were mega blessed with the spirit. She committed to start sincerely praying about it and reading and really wants to come to church, so we told her when it is, and she said "Do I have to wear a dress?" haha. Good stuff. After that we had dinner with the missionaries and Sister Fiek the relief society president got us In-n-Out and we ate and hung out again, then we went to see a lady named Laura. She's nice and wants to find a way to start coming back to church haha, it will take some time to work it out, but it will happen!

Thursday we had service and helped serve old people lunch. They were super nice and all Chinese and Japanese, so they didn't understand us. Then we got to have interviews with president after that, I like President. My interview was really short, but he said my studies are good and I will learn a lot if I keep it up. Happy days.  we went to a trailer park after that and tracted a little bit and met a less active on accident. After that we went to clean up after interviews. We ate dinner with the Kelly's that night, they are really cool, he's the second counselor in the ward. Next we went to contact a referral we got for a guy named Steve, and whatever missionary talked to him totally messed up. Our referral said he was interested in learning more and wanted a book of Mormon, but we got there and he said he was not interested and just wanted a Bible. We are going back tonight, so we are praying that his heart has opened up a little. To end the day we taught Manuel about the apostasy and Priesthood for the restoration, it was cool. His son came in and out in between hits of cocaine in the bathroom (I've gotten good at seeing the signs of a cocaine user, my mom will be proud). 

Friday was weekly planning, but there was an emergency and we had to take the Spanish elders to Oakland because their other car got taken away to get body work done, and they can't work their area without a car, so we had to take them to get one. That took a good two and half hours cause of traffic, but it got taken care of. We planned, met with Bishop Patolo, then ate dinner with Brother Barber our ward mission leader. I love the Barbers a lot. Afterwards we went through a list of Single Adults that are inactive that he doesn't know.

Saturday we studied and finished our weekly planning, then ate at the Browers. He was in the marines in Vietnam as a helicopter gunman, then he sent out ordinances for bombs to be dropped, then he went to the Philippines and did the same thing, just less often. We went tracting after that and then met with Brother Barber to go over the progress record.

Sunday was eventful. We had church at 7:30 with meetings, then Dawn never came.... :'( In between Sunday School and Priesthood, there was a lady sitting in the foyer next to us while we talked with a member, and her water totally broke. It was crazy. Everyone started screaming and our huge Samoan bishop came running in and took her to her husbands car and he stopped and looked at us and said "Hi missionaries" in his huge Samoan voice, I was dying it was so funny. After church we were told its a tradition that the missionaries sing in the Easter Program, so I was excited to participate. Sister Brower at one point stopped to acknowledge a "celebrity", a new move in that used to sing with Motab, I thought it was funny, I didn't know that was equated with being a celebrity, everyone clapped for her when she stood up and "ooh"ed and "aaah"ed. After church we ate with the Eriksons, they are really cool. Sister Erikson has a glass blowing company and makes really cool stuff all the time. After that we went to a baptism for the Hayward sisters investigators. next we went to teach a man named Frank. He used to be a trucker and now just drives a huge escalade that is as big as the trucks he drove. We talked about how he can be with his wife forever and he said "wow that answers some questions I wanted to ask but didn't" and committed to baptism  on April 15th, we're pretty pumped.

We are being supremely blessed for the work we are putting in, and our ward is seeing us as truly devoted servants of the Lord. I love it. I love being here. I am going to be sad when Elder Johnson leaves! Lots of good things to come!

Love,

Elder Cameron Tolman

Week 85 Pictures

.

here's the smiths,

then the district

 then what was formerly known as the San Mateo zone

Elder Henson and I saying our goodbyes, what a guy.

someone kindly wrote this lose and find sign for somebody.

we found this little guy while we were tracting the other night.

the real deal.

Week 85

Short P-day yo, sorry to my fans

Thus far the scoop is that Elder Johnson and I are best buddies in the best area. We found a new investigator this week and sat down to teach her, and at the beginning she said "I am NOT interested in converting" ten minutes later she asked to come back and meet her again to explain more about the restoration because "It just makes so much sense". Her name is Dawn, she's super cool. Other than that we had meetings pretty much all week. Our other investigator is named Mario, and he's super cool too, he committed to read and pray this week fo' real, and said he is going to give us sweet bread when we go back tonight because he likes us. What a neat guy. I will have pictures a little later today hopefully, if not, then Wednesday after the temple!! 

Elder Johnson is from Jamaica!!! He doesn't have an accent, but we won't hold that against him. Our apartment is SO COOL. It's pretty dirty actually from a few transfers of not being cleaned, but we can fix that. I think every apartment I go to is automatically super cool after my first one, I'm so blessed. 

I love being a missionary. I looking in the mirror and seeing a name tag on. I'm in the thick of it and I'm eating up the challenges the Lord is putting in front of me. WOO.

Week 84 pictures

Here's some pictures! we've got us and CS1 and hot chocolate,

The legendary Bill Callahan,

The Watkins,

 the Tarbuttons,

and Rick!

Week 84

Transfers are in, Elder Tolman's out

That's right, I'm out of here! I'll be going to the Union City 1st ward in the Hayward. My new companion will be Elder Johnson! If anyone remembers my run in Brentwood, he was my zone leader there, so it should be pretty party filled, He's from Jamaica so he knows all about that kind of stuff.

Any who, this week was really good and offered my companion and I success and good food.

Monday we got our accountability ready for MLC and went to teach Matt Colvin. Good night.

Tuesday we had District meeting, then continued accountability and I did a little bit of an emergency college essay thing, so in other words elder Henson did accountability, what a champ. After that tracted by our dinners house, who was President Watkins!! I love the Watkins. He used to be the Mission President in Madrid, Spain. after that we did the final touches on our accountability and then went to teach Rick.

Wednesday was MLC, that took all day, but then the Rodens took us out to a cool Indian restaurant in Oakland, then we went back to San Mateo and Taught Tomasi and that was our whole day!

Thursday we had a lot of time to go do some member work, unfortunately we had our appointments fall through, so we went tracting instead. That evening we ate with the missionaries and had a Zone Leadership Council Meeting. 

Friday was weekly planning and stake reports, that took all day. we did get to eat with the Ramirez's though, that was super fun, I love their family.

Saturday was the second half of stake reports, then we had a blitz, then we went to teach a guy named David that has been less active for 16 years since he moved to the Bay area, he was super nice and said we could send him a home teacher, we were excited about that. We ate with the Tarbuttons, they're the best. I left my suitcase full of vinyl records with them, so I will need to come back and get it sometime haha. After that we finished the very final pieces of our stake report and got it all ready, then we had transfer calls!

Sunday was a blur, I honestly don't remember what happened except that we said good bye to a ton of people and didn't get enough sleep. we woke up at 5 to go to stake reports then went to bed at 11:30. It was long.

New things await this week, miracles are coming! I love being a missionary!!

Love,
Elder Cameron Tolman