Week 95

This week was kind of a bummer, but it had some neat moments!

It all started Monday night when our member appointment canceled, and went tracting all night, which is fine, we were able to teach a lot of lessons, but nothing immediately fruitful came out of it. We also got a training ready for Zone Conference the next day. Oodles of fun. 

Tuesday we got up and went to zone conference in Castro Valley, it was a good one. We focused the whole thing on the Savior, because for some reason missionaries are not focusing on Him as much as they should. It was really powerful, I don't have my notes with me, but President Frandsen had a cool talk on the house of Israel and how the Saviors teachings are all connected to gathering them, it was neat. Deep doc from P-Fran. after we went to get lunch with our district, then we had to get an oil change so that was lame, then we found out they needed to put on new tires too, so we had to walk five miles to dinner with our Bishop, which was fine because we got to talk to tons of people, and we found a new investigator for the Hayward sisters! after that we had a really cool lesson with Norman, and had a great member present, we basically gave him the run down of what our job is and testified that this is Christ's church, and told him to pray about it if he is really interested in what we are teaching.

Wednesday we had exchanges, I went with elder Barr. We had a good day, met with James and Geraldine and talked with lots and lots of people.

Thursday Elder Gomez went to see the orthodontist, it was great. we ate lunch with Elder Henson and Elder Tu'ua. that was pretty much it. We ate dinner with the President in the Chinese branch. 

Friday was weekly planning and we had a few member visits scheduled that was good, but the members don't trust missionaries because of the missionaries in the past we found out.. so we will be working on that. We went to the vc with James and Geraldine too, it was fun. 

Saturday we had a mini missionary named Christ with us from San Ramone, it was really fun! we went to teach Norman and the Jehovah's witnesses stopped by and told him a bunch of anti stuff, we were pretty sad, but it is what it is. we went tracing the rest of the day and unfortunately didn't have any success.

Sunday we had a ward council meeting, and people were upset that the focus families aren't getting visited, and then we explained how the focus families work and that they hadn't done their job yet, and some things were said by people to/about us that were pretty lame and untrue. we went and picked our mini missionary up again after that, and then went to all the home teachers for the focus families before church and set up appointments with them so that we can show the ward council we are more than capable. We're really excited. We also visited the Furniss family before our day was over, and they asked us to have family home evening with them, it was really cool. It was the best member visit I have had since I got here, the spirit was so strong, they felt bad they didn't have anyone to have us teach, and said that we can come over to eat this week and they will have friends there. Cool.

Last week was frustrating and we lost our last investigator, but it also presented a lot of new opportunities for this coming week that we are excited for. We are expecting a lot of help from the Lord, and we are gearing up to give it everything we have show we need it. Expect and prepare to accomplish the impossible (: I hope everyone has a good week, I love you all!

Love,

Elder Cameron Tolman

Week 94 Pictures

During general conference, we were in the family history center doing stake reports for one session, and we turned on all the computers and got them to play it at the exact same time and it was

super funny, it sounded like all the speakers were speaking as a crowd in near perfect unison. I  thought it was funny at least

Pday Making hot chocolate, another thing that I often do.

You wouldn't believe hot much hot chocolate mix I have collected in two years

Bishop Patolo

 The

Barbers

me burnin things on our porch, as I often do

 Here's the baptism

Week 94

This week rivals last week in it's crazy levels, but in a totally different kind of good crazy.

Monday was neat, we had a lesson with James and Geri, and then they told us they were really  excited about being baptized on Saturday, and that they had a goal to go a whole day without smoking the day before their baptism. Of course Elder Gomez and I were pretty panicked at that, since that is totally impossible to have happen (them being baptized on Saturday, not going a

day without smoking) so we kept talking, and reminded them that they had to go three weeks without smoking, and then they looked at us really confused and said "but bishop told us at church yesterday we could get married Saturday and then we can get baptized! We called our Daughter and she

bought a plane ticket when she heard to be here!". Shoot. alrighty, let the explanation begin... we taught them the organization of priesthood leadership after that and explained why Bishop can't tell them they can get baptized without living the commandments, and then James got really mad and yelled "That's it, just call the whole thing off! First it's three weeks, now we're turning it in to six weeks, I'm done!" and he walked off and we were left with Geri in the living room.

whoa. scarier than a bad jazz pianist with a 24 bar solo.  Geri was all ok with it, and apologized for James, then James walked in and sat down with some tears coming on.  (side note- His Dad had a heart attack that morning and then they road the train to Oakland to get their marriage license

so they could get married and baptized, then they got home and we came over and told them it can't happen). We had a talk on the Atonement and the Savior, and what it means to repent, and James and Geri both bore their testimonies about what we had taught them when we taught the gospel of Jesus

Christ, and we told them we would talk with our mission president, but that if they really wanted to be baptized this week, they had to quit smoking right there, and they didn't even hesitate and said "We don't even need it! we only had like two puffs today, just because we were stressed! I'll get me one a them suckers y'all brought us every time I wanna smoke, heck I'll buy a thousand more if I need to! Sure if cheaper than a pack a camels!". Needless to say it was an awesome lesson, the spirit was super strong. neat. Next, we called President Frandsen and got his ok for it after we explained the

situation. All things are a go.  Tuesday we had District meeting, and I shared a talk with the District on yielding our Hearts to the Lord and read Helaman 3:35, it was really cool. We followed that with a discussion on Obedience, then everyone read a talk they had prepared on Obedience. Neat. Next we

ate with the Jones. After we met with Norman, who had a question about Faith we talked about. We went in planning to commit him to be baptized, but the spirit said "Invite him to church and teach him to act more on his desire for faith" so that's what we did. Turns out he had been given a courtside ticket to the warriors play off game on Sunday afternoon, so that didn't happen, but he was

fascinated that we believe that if we act in obedience our faith grows, so that was really cool.

Wednesday we had a very normal day of service and going through the list of visits bishop needed help with that week. We met with James and Geri again  today too, and they were goin' strong without a cigarette. We called president, and he asked "when are they getting married?" and we told him at 5 before the baptism, and he didn't like that, and so he asked for our bishops phone number. a minute or so later we got a call from him telling us he talked with Bishop Patolo, and that he was going to let it happen. whew. Next we met with a Filipino guy named Antonino who's wife is a recent

convert, it was pretty good.

Thursday I woke up with the worst sore throat of my life, so we stayed in and ate oranges and

cleaned most of the day. Elder Ey came and stayed with me while our comps went out to teach, because he had his wisdom teeth taken out last week, so we spoke Cambodian and talked

about mission stuff and life and all the good stuff. I also took elder Ey to Jamba Juice for the first time, because we didn't have anything that he could eat at home haha.

Friday we planned and went to the other district meeting and planned and then got a training ready for this weeks zone conference.

Saturday we had a lesson, then we had set up for the baptism/Marriage! It was awesome. They had a ton of their friends and family come, and their son baptized them. It was really funny, we went to check on the font, and we opened the door and BAM. A sauna. someone had turned off the cold

water, so it was nice and toasty. We couldn't help but think how bad this was, the baptism was in 15 minutes!! This was just worse that a giant squid blocking traffic on a Thursday around 4 o'clock. just kidding, not that bad, but we were dying laughing. Just imagined a baptismal font turned into a hot tub, that is what it was like (fun fact that actually happened in our mission a while back). anyway,

it all went well. 

Sunday the two lucky children of God were confirmed members of the church by their Son. What a

happy Easter. 

I am happy all the time, despite all the crazy stuff we had to do to make this week work out. I don't have time to get into all the details of what needed to happen for us to have this miracle baptism, but lets just say the adversary didn't want it to happen. The Lord was with us as he always has been and we simply have stronger testimonies now, A very productive week if you ask me. 

Love, 

Elder

Cameron Tolman

Week 93 Pictures

Sorry, there aren't very many pictures this week

Week 93

What a doozy!

I cannot believe I made it to Monday this week, I can easily say this week was the craziest of my whole mission. 

Monday was normal, we went out to teach a lesson to Norman, and It actually went really well, he is still trying to figure out the reason why JW's he talks to don't like us he said, we are happy with hi, he is reading sincerely right now, so we have a good start. After that we actually met the JW's and they didn't want to trade a NWT bible for a book of Mormon, we thought it sounded fair, guess not...

Tuesday we got a call at 6 in the morning and were told by two of the bike elders that they needed to take our car to Oakland to have emergency interviews with President, we were on bike while they did that, and had to bike to Hayward for the other District leaders DM, because it was our day to be at his meeting, and then had to bike back. Yes, that might not sound bad, but it was stressful for me none the less, I'd been in a car my whole mission until then haha. We got back home to eat lunch, then got our car back, then found out one of the Elders was getting sent home that week, and that the other was getting emergency transferred also. Whoa. After that we went to district meeting, and then that night had a really cool stake report, everyone kept talking about how much better the zone is doing than last year and that they are really impressed with the improvements they've seen since Elder Johnson and I started to change to focus of missionary work. We don't hear about how the members feel about what we're doing very often, so this was great. 

Wednesday we had MLC, then race home to teach James and Geraldine. It was a good lesson, except we found out they aren't married, so we have to move their baptismal date... which is ok, that way they will repent and be more converted, so it's a win. We are just going to be having a wedding next Saturday instead of a baptism for now (: after that we got ready for a Zone leadership meeting the following day.

Thursday was good too, we had service, then finished preparing for our meeting, and then we actually had the meeting, and it went pretty well if I do say so myself. We managed to take the ridiculous idea of waking up and immediately doing jumping jacks as a mission to be more obedient, and made it inspiring (It's not as ridiculous as I'm making it out to be sorry). After that we went and had dinner with a retired air force fighter pilot, he was really excited to have the missionaries over so he could talk about Doctrine with someone, we like him. His name is Brother Dickey. We went back to teach Marcella after that, and she didn't answer the door, so we called her, and she told us she was busy and forgot, and gave us the "I'll call you when I have time again" response, which pretty much means "I'm not interested anymore, so don't worry about coming back". We were really bummed about it. We felt like we needed to go and see Norman after that, so we stopped by, and he was super surprised to see us, he had been directed to some anti stuff by his JW friends, but only to their own downfall, it was a really cool chance to teach him about the holy ghost and relate it to how he feels, so he is not too excited to hear more from the JW's. 

Friday was weekly planning, then we had a zone meeting where we talked about doing jumping jacks as a mission and working really hard to follow the missionary schedule, and it was really good. after that we helped the elders clean out their apartment.

Saturday was crazy. we had exchanges with the AP's, so Elder Khamvoungsouk(?) and I took the elders to Oakland for them to either go home or go to their new area, it was pretty weird. it was like a really really awkward transfer day with only a few missionaries. After that we headed back to my area and went to a baptism in the zone, then we did our studies, then we had a small emergency with the two elders ward mission leader freaking out with the new elders covering the ward so we went over and settled that drama, then we had about 30 minutes before our lesson with one of the less actives in our ward. We got their, and bishop came with us, and in the lesson he totally fell asleep. out cold. Snoring and all, It was so funny. after that we went to a few lessons that fell through and ended up having to help with an emergency at the Hayward chapel, so we didn't do much that day, kind of lame. But good exchange.

Sunday was average, we found two less actives on the focus family list that the ward had asked us to see that day, good stuff.

2 Cor. 4:8-11 is a pretty good one to match this last week. Missions are nuts. I love it and can't believe how close it is to ending... I actually have about the same time left on my mission that I spent in the MTC right now, so it's pretty much the end of the 11th hour for me. We are working in overdrive right now, and we can see the results very clearly. I hope everyone is doing well, continues to do well, and is blessed with spiritual experiences!! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Cameron Tolman

sorry I only have a few pictures...

Week 92 pictures

Jonathan and Chantha (:

Our apartment building

This 1 lb. hamburger I got at a dinner this week

Heres bishops salmon head

week 92

I love love love the work!

Sweet. I feel great. Here's why...

Monday was awesome. We got a referral for a lady that waved down the Samoan sisters, and we went to meet her, her name is Marcella. We ended up teaching her and her husband, it was awesome. Her husbands name is Keith, and he is kind of crazy, so we aren't sure about him, but the wife is solid as can be, and we set a baptismal date to work towards, so we are really excited (:

Tuesday was pretty normal. District meeting and all that. We did get to meet with Marcella again, and had a really cool lesson on the book of mormon. She is really really excited about the plan of salvation, we mentioned it a little bit and told her to start reading, and we will talk more about it next time.

Wednesday was an average day as well. We were on exchanges though, so that was fun. I went with Elder Butters. We taught a less active named Paul Huntoon, he was cool, he is the manager a rock climbing gym. After that we ate with Bishop Patolo at a sushi place, then we went to go teach James and Geraldine, but they were really sick ): we did meet James's brother, and HE HAD A FREAKING HOLE IN HIS ARM. LITERALLY A HOLE THAT WE COULD SEE THE BONE OF HIS ARM THROUGH. I asked if his arm was ok, and he said "ya brother, it's fine, I just got a spider bite, I'm still on antibiotics, y'know." We walked away still in shock at the "spider bite" he had. Wow. After that we taught David and Hailee, they're doing really well, almost done with all the new member lessons! that night we had a lot of time to go finding, and we found some Chinese people for Elder Butters area, good time.

Thursday was long, we had interviews and stake reports, so we didn't do much til the evening. We met with Norman first, and he is progressing so far, he read the bom to 1st nephi 12, good stuff. We will see him again soon! After that we met a lady named Susie, who has a HUGE issue with paying tithing. "Somewhere there is a Mormon that is rich because of how kind you are, and I don't like that one bit". we talked with her about the restoration and testified of the blessings of tithing, and talked about where the money goes, and now she is an investigator. Cool.

Friday was stake reports all day. UNTIL we went to the Temple. With Jonathan and Chantha Hollingsworth. That's right, my first convert! HE WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!! It was so cool to be there with them!!! Siphal and Jessica came too, I was so happy. The best moment of my whole mission. I love them all a lot. 

Conference was awesome. We had investigators with us for three of the five sessions, so we were beyond happy with all the blessings we saw for our work this week!! I loved President Nelsons talk about Drawing the power of Christ into our lives!

I love you all, we have to get going, I hope everyone is doing well!