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...
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