week 91 pictures

I tried to grill a piece of chicken, but we got a call and had to leave really fast and I forgot it.  I was really sad, I didn't get to eat... my chicken...

This is a picture of my area, it all looks pretty much exactly the same with little to no variation.  Woot.

I said goodbye to Elder Johnson, and we followed Sister Frandsen up on the roof, it was neat.

I also said goodbye to Elder Prete and Elder Hyde.  I love the lot of 'em.  "Ya, I'll see you in a couple months dude, peace"-Daelan Prete

Week 91

This week was a lot like Elder Hollands conference talk from last April yo

This week was nuts, it was like a giant high-five train, and at the beginning all the high fives are really solid and pump you up for more, so you really get going, then at the middle they get a little

worse, and it's ok, because you're still all excited, then by the end it's totally turned and every once in a while someone misses the high-five and smacks you in the face.  Pretty exciting.

Monday y'all heard about already, but it was great.

Tuesday was cool, We did some last minute shopping for my Jamaican friend Elder Johnson, then took him to the mission home and sent him off... I'll miss him a ton, definitely a friend for life. I have Elder Gomez now!! He's awesome, and he plays the clarinet and speaks Spanish AND English. now when people try and lie that they only speak Spanish, we have them caught. we went to the habit really fast with a bunch of the new elders in our zone for lunch, then took bags to everyone's  apartment and got all his stuff inside, then we went to dinner with the Feiks, then went out

to teach Frank. He tried to get all "saved by grace" again, and we managed to leave on the note that he cannot know if what we are saying is true without praying to know the truth about the restoration. It was a great lesson if I do say so myself, Elder Gomez knows his stuff. 

Wednesday was great too. We went to service, then afterwards finished studies and ate a quick and early dinner, then went and taught James and Geraldine. Guess what? THEY'RE GOLDEN.  James read all the way to 2 Nephi already and has marked the heck out of the Book of Mormon

that we gave him.   SO cool. They are on date still for the 15th of April. next we taught David

and Hailee. there were these really obnoxious other kids that came early for mutual that night, and they were I guess riding a scooter around in the hallway while we taught in a classroom, so we had no idea, then after our lesson, we heard a member talking about how we are terrible missionaries because we didn't do anything to stop them. Well sorry we were helping two recent converts learn about the gospel like we are supposed to be doing, lol. Brother Kelley laughed and told her she doesn't know the elders she's talking about, then he came with us to teach a lesson to Luis, and he was

frustrated because he thinks that this isn't true because God won't answer him. We had a good talk and committed him to put more into getting an answer, it was cool.

Thursday we had service once again, then we finished studies and did some more service, then we ate and then went to tract a street we had a referral at. It was cool, because we started with the first house on this really long cul-de-sac, and once we went all the way around the entire thing, we had one house left. I told elder Gomez before the door opened that we were going to get a new investigator at this house, and low and behold... Norman Machinery. He is the man. He was super prepared and was

really curious about what the book of Mormon teaches about the world today. He is learning

Arabic right now so that he can read the Quran and learn what they said about the world today. He committed to read and pray and be baptized if he learns that it's true. Neato. Then that night I don't

remember what happened.

Friday we did weekly planning, went and taught a Kid name Samra, and found out he's 19, so they got a solid new investigator, then that night we taught the Cambodian family. I ended up teaching them by myself in Cambodian, and they promised to commit to praying every morning and every

night, so we are making steady progress. then we stopped by a lady named Barbara Egan who has dementia and her daughter is inactive. brother Kelley was with us at both of those, and everyone we meet loves him, and in turn loves us. Last, we went by Frank. wow. let me tell you a thing... He was

not happy with us. He thinks that we are telling him that Joseph smith is greater than Jesus Christ. "I found Jesus already, screw this joe smith guy" a flaming and totally hilarious argument ensued between frank and brother Kelley, and I have never seen a man say so confused about religion.

I don't have time to give all the details, but we made his Philippine girlfriend very very angry when we got bold and testified, the spirit was testifying hardcore, and they were too angry to recognize

it... very sad.  No more Frank it seems.

Saturday was good, I don't really remember what happened except our Lesson with James and Geraldine. They are going to pull a cold turkey and quite smoking after 40 years!!! They're going strong!!! and they've both read a ton now!! the rest of the day was kind of lame, but we got

to eat dinner with brother and sister barber, that was cool.

Sunday was weird. James and Geraldine didn't come to church.... we were really sad. Luis did though!! But just to tell us that he doesn't want to meet with us anymore... we were really sad at that point. A guy came in off the street during gospel principles, then the class got way off topic and

really weird about how old we will be when we're resurrected and stuff with the millennium, it was really bad. He walked right back out the door after, I was really upset with the GP teacher.

We were incredibly blessed this week, I can't believe it. We had some sad things happen and lost three or four investigators that we had really high hopes for, so it was rough in that sense, but we are

continuing to work in  faith and teach teach teach. All is well in Union City. I love you all!!

Love,

Elder Cameron Tolman

Week 90 Pictures

Found some Geese and fed them a cookie. Found out it's also illegal to feed geese.

We went hiking last week, but none of the computers were open I could send pictures from haha, so here they are!

 This is the only picture I took at Cambodian new year

Week 90

Monday was GREAT. We didn't do much, our  appointments fell through, but that's ok.

Tuesday was similar. Frank had to drive to Rodeo so we couldn't meet with him... so instead we went to go contacting at the BART station!! It was fun, we met a Jamaican guy for elder Johnson to talk with, he swore at us and started dancing. Turns out he is definitely crazy. We have started seeing him all around the place now too. Street corners, medians, Walgreens parking lots, he gets around, and he yells and dances the whole time!

Wednesday was cool. We went to contact a few referrals that we had, one was a dud, he saw us coming through the window and ran to shut the blinds. He definitely didn't answer the door... next we visited a few members here. We had service at the Senior Center for their St. Patrick's day party. It smelled like the old people's diner we ate at a few weeks ago. Probably because all the same people were there eating the same old people food. That night we went with Brother Kelley to go and teach Luis. We had a super super long lesson, because everyone there except Elder Johnson and I have been blessed with the gift of gab, so we had to rein in the lesson a few times, but we had a great lesson on how to recognize answers and why he needs to have one if he wants to get baptized. We are excited.

Thursday we had service again, then went and did some service at Brother Hapiuks house, then went and ate dinner with the Hayes family, then we went and took are of a couple things for elder Johnson going home, then we went to visit frank and taught him!

Friday we planned. not much else to say.

Saturday was amazing. through the week we had dropped two baptismal dates, which was a bummer. Luckily, we had a lesson that we had scheduled with a referral we got earlier in the week with a man named James! We got there with Brother Kelley, and he was waiting on his porch for us. We went in, and turns out him AND his wife want to learn!! So we sat down and got to know them, then Brother Kelley was like "So when can I baptize you?" (I don't recommend doing that, but it worked out) and they said whenever it's possible, so we explained what they need to do to prepare for baptism and what that means, and set a date for April 15th, it was really cool. We taught the Restoration to them after that and corrected a lot of false doctrine and bore a lot of testimony, honestly it was one of the cooler lessons I've been able to teach. Plus, at the end James's mom joined in, so we added three new investigators and two baptismal dates, we are really excited! after that we taught a recent convert named Mi Mi, then went to contact another referral, AND THEY WANTED TO GET BAPTIZED TOO, but they couldn't talk right then but asked if we could come back the following Saturday. Miracles galore. after that we had a fun dinner with the plowman family, then went to CAMBODIAN NEW YEAR. I saw Pream and Jonathan and Ming Savorn, I was so happy. Jonathan is going to the temple on March 31st at 6 pm, and I get to go!! I can't wait (:

Sunday was pretty normal, James and Geraldine came to church though, and we sang in sacrament with the Chinese elders, and everyone cried, it was pretty cool. we sand Brightly Beams Our Fathers Mercy. that evening after dinner with bishop we had a zone testimony meeting.

Monday we got elder Johnson all ready to go, got a fresh haircut, then went to Sister Fieks house for a goodbye dinner with the ward and a few investigators for Elder Johnson, it was super cool.

My new companion will be Elder Gomez. If anyone remembers my days in the Walnut Creek Zone, he was there with me!! He is from Guatemala! 

I love Union City 1st ward, I love elder Johnson, I love the Savior. I am very very blessed. I love you all, sorry this is a day late, We had some emergency things happen for transfers in the zone and we didn't end up having time to come send emails yesterday, so we snuck in really fast this morning hehehe...

Love,

Elder Tolman

Week 89

3/13/17

Righto. This week was awesome. That guy Dave we met is set to get baptized on 4/29.  We are really excited, that is four planned baptisms right now. The week was slower because everyone we teach was sick with the flu and the cold.  Hopefully it's really sickness and they aren't just dodging us... haha. Well I 'm about out of time, so Have a great week!!! I'm sorry I don't have a lot of time this week!! Sorry I can't upload pictures either on this computer.... 

Anyway. So Long!

Elder Tolman

Week 88 pictures

so here we have a few things, 

-our tiny grill we burn stuff in on our porch

-a dinner where there was very little room

-playing with my kendama

-our apartment, some of it, we are in the process of battling the leftovers of elders not cleaning, today we took care of the kitchen.

-Elder Johnson

Heres a few more

-This duck was super freaky making weird noises and throwing it's head around while it ate this egg

-the end of exchanges

-Goodies galore (thanks Ashley!)

-neat temple. we went to Oakland today.

Week 88

Shabbot shalom!

We got some hail this week, everything I could have dreamed of and more.  #blessed

SO.

Monday was cool. I did a baptismal interview for someone, then we went and did FHE with the Feik family, they're awesome. Bishop came too, because we love bishop. Good times.

Tuesday we went to some people that bishop asked us to visit, then had district meeting, then ate with the Mellors, he is a 3D printer product design specialist, pretty neat! We went to teach Frank after that and had a cool lesson for the Plan of salvation. the rest of our night fell through so we went tracting once again.

Wednesday we went to service at the senior center, and there was this guy named Dave that we have been talking to that asked if we could help him become a missionary in India so he can help Indian kids learn about Christ and go on missions, so we set up a time to meet with him this week. After that we went to try and visit some old less active people, then went home to eat, then went to teach Frank, but he wasn't there.

Thursday not much, we set a date with Dawn while we were on exchanges. I went with Elder Kirkman, it was good. 

Friday was stake reports all day and weekly planning a little bit.

Saturday we had Mission Leadership Conference and Elder Carl B. Cook of the 70 came with his wife and talked, it was really cool. Such a nice man. After that we taught Frank and Mario and met with Brother Barber.

Sunday was good. Frank came to church, thank goodness. It was good. After that we went and finished the last of stake reports, then ate with the Eriksons (I love the Eriksons) and then we met with Brother Lee to go over the stake report, then we went to do a zone leadership meeting that night to finish up.

The church is true. In my reading right now I am in Alma, and I read about how Alma's joy overcame his strength, and that this Joy come only to the truly humble and penitent seeker of Happiness. I don't know about you, but I want to have that kind of joy in my life. I hope that we will turn to the savior and focus our efforts on being truly humble and penitent so that we can be guided to the things our Heavenly Father has prepared for us.

I love you all (:

Elder Cameron Tolman