Chapter 10: Armed with Cookies

A radiant sunset from outside our stake center.

Hello! Hope everyone's enjoying the holiday season kicking into high gear. It's definitely characterized a lot of work we've been doing here, talking with members about their Christmas plans and passing out invites to Christmas events. At the start of the week, the relief society provided us with a whole bunch of cookie plates that we could pass out to whoever we wanted. It gives one a strange feeling of power, having a car full of goodies to unleash upon unsuspecting innocents. It's also quite the trump card when paying someone a visit. "Oh yeah?? You DON'T want to hear a message? Well guess what?! Here are some treats ANYWAY! Be GLAD you answered the door!"

One of the first targets for our edible ammunition was Susan. She's been a friend of the ward for a while and we've stopped by a couple times to chat with her. She has some relatives in the church and has seen second-hand the blessings that come from the gospel, so she's very interested in learning more about us and finding new ways to draw closer to God. Unfortunately both of the lessons we've tried to schedule with her so far have fallen through, but we're really looking forward to hearing more about her beliefs and discussing all that God has done for us. It's funny: can we schedule a 30-minute lesson and actually pull it off? Nope. Can we "stop by real quick" to drop off cookies and then get invited in and spontaneously chat for 30 minutes about her history with religion and how she brings God into her daily life? Absolutely. She has so much divine potential! She was telling us about how she tries to use her knowledge of Christ to be more forgiving.

Two of the others on our sugary hit list were Shawn and Grace, a young nonmember couple who hadn't been taught in a good month. We went to their apartment to gauge their interest in lessons and invite them to our ward Christmas party. When we knocked, at first the only response came from an enormous dog on the other side. After a full minute of us listening to the dog scratch and sniff at the door (surely seeking blood, I dare say), Grace barely cracked the door open, holding the beast at bay. We talked a bit with her, she accepted the cookies appreciatively, and she said she'd ask her husband about potentially setting up a meeting with us once he got home from work. No sooner did she say this than I saw a guy in a suit with a bag over his shoulder and stuff in his arms walking toward the staircase beneath us. "Once he gets home from work, you say?" Our conversation with Grace had ended, and we were heading away from the door when, sure enough, we ran into Shawn on the stairs! He's been pretty overrun by work (his hours are crazy), but he told us he was actually planning on calling us in the next few days. We learned that he and Grace would be busy during the ward party, but we told him about a Christmas devotional we'll be having at our stake center next weekend (with Brad Wilcox, I might add) and worked out returning to give them a flyer for that. High hopes that that tender mercy will lead to more discussions with them.

Elder Creasy got hit with a fever in the middle of the week, so I had my first sick day as a missionary, though thankfully I felt fine. But, being stuck in the apartment was definitely discouraging, especially since I'm REALLY wishing we can build some momentum in this area. To add to that, it's just the two of us in this apartment, and he passed out for a solid 3 hours, so I was alone with my thoughts for that time, listening to the rushing of the freeway right beside our complex. Pretty surreal experience as a missionary. However, it actually turned out to be an enormous blessing, cause I got to spend the whole time reading the Book of Mormon! And to think I've been constantly yearning for a chance to just sit down and read to my heart's content. God said to me, "Oh you've been wishing for some extra personal study time? weLL hERe YOu gO!" It's like the apostles hoping for fish and then suddenly receiving more than their boats could carry. And from that experience: the last several chapters of 2 Nephi  Blow. My. Mind. With each new readthrough of the Book of Mormon, I find myself saying "Wait, it openly prophesies about this thing??" The translation of the plates, the 3 witnesses, the sealed portion of the plates containing all things from the beginning of time, it just goes on and on. I found myself literally highlighting entire chapters (which kinda defeats the purpose of highlighting, but they were relevant to what I've been focusing on in this readthrough). And, what's more, when Nephi wrote all that, he was holding back!

Saturday evening was the ward Christmas party, which was a blast. Those who worked on decorating did a fantastic job, stringing lights overhead and putting the various names of Christ across the walls and in the table centerpieces. We were there early to help with final preparations, and another companionship from our zone randomly showed up, thinking their ward was holding an event there XD. Once they cleared up the confusion, they decided to just join us for setup and the first half of the event. Then, in the second half, another companionship waltzed into the gym, and the ward insisted that they join in too. The party was well attended by elders that evening. Speaking of elders, toward the end, the primary kids were called up to the front for caroling games, and 12 members of the elders quorum in the ward were abducted to dress up as and accordingly act out the 12 days of Christmas. Their commitment was admirable (especially Brother Andrew as our leaping lord), and the primary was delighted. We also had a couple storytellers there and the adults grew just as invested as the kids.

Elder Bell and I at the ward Christmas party

The 12 days of elders quorum

A most deadly temptation was provided for dessert on that fateful night. An eternal weakness of mine. Cheesecake! As we were filling water pitchers beforehand, I glanced through a doorway to discover a whole just room filled with cheesecake! I had and ENJOYED my allotted slice after the dinner, and I exercised superhuman willpower in telling myself "No more. Even if there are extras, you've had quite enough." This was going quite well, right up until ward members targeted me with siren calls of "Elder, there's so much extra cheesecake. Have some more! Take some home!" My defenses were breached, but only slightly. I did take a slice home. I thought I had escaped relatively unscathed, but then the following evening, we were about to head out from a member lesson when Sister Linnell said "Do you guys have time for dessert?" And brought out...cheesecake leftovers from the night before. Health was never an option :).

The legion of cheesecake slices

We spent a good portion of the Christmas party with Brother King, a recent convert who I've had one lesson with so far, and who is working toward going through the temple! We've admired his dedication to keeping commitments. We gave him an invitation earlier this week to help with his progress, and on Saturday when we only planned on giving him a reminder about it, he told us he had already followed through, and that it was so much easier than he thought it would be! He's told us some pretty crazy stories, mostly involving injuries he's received. Apparently he's broken over 40 bones over the course of his life, and he's still recovering from a broken femur earlier this year! He even showed us some x-rays.

On Sunday we sat in an absolutely incredible church lesson during second hour. It felt like it was addressing me directly. We discussed the difficulties of waiting for answers to prayers, and read 3 different scripture accounts of prophets expressing worry and doubt to the Lord, in Habakkuk, Mark, and Doctrine and Covenants. 

"O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!" (Habakkuk 1:2)

"And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?" (Mark 4:38)

"O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place? How long shall thy hand be stayed, and thine eye, yea thy pure eye, behold from the eternal heavens the wrongs of thy people and of thy servants, and thine ear be penetrated with their cries?" (D&C 121:1-2)

In a way, it's comforting to know that even prophets, those who have the closest thing to a perfect knowledge of God here in mortal life, faced and struggled with times when the Heavens seemed closed off and God seemed silent. It assures me that this is a part of our mortal experience, and doesn't necessarily occur because of some fault of my own. In the lesson, we reached a powerful turning point where we read about the answers each of those 3 prophets received. 

"And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry." (Habakkuk 2:2-3)

"And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?" (Mark 4:39-40)

"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes." (D&C 121:7-8)

A discussion later in the lesson also yielded a cool new perspective on Moses 1:39 with regard to temple work. Our eternal progress is God's glory. Thus, the very act of becoming more like Him is, in fact, the same as glorifying Him. In other words, each step we take toward Him adds to His glory (infinity plus 1, if you will). Some of the most definitive steps we can take toward Him are making covenants with Him through the saving ordinances He established. Each time we assist in giving our departed brothers and sisters the opportunity to covenant with God, we are directly bringing glory, which you might also call holiness, to Him. Isn't it therefore fitting that we inscribe on the outside of His temples "Holiness to the Lord"? That is precisely what is happening inside.

We got to watch a good portion of the Christmas Devotional on Sunday evening, and we were excited to see that Ricardo Giménez, the former mission president of the San Diego California mission, gave the opening prayer! I never met him, but I hear a lot about him from the other missionaries (they like to mimic his accent in an endearing way, so it was funny hearing what he actually sounds like). Also, as usual, I loved spotting my mother and aunt in the choir! Thank you both for the music you share and the spirit you invite!

On the topic of choir, we joined our stake choir for an upcoming Christmas performance. They're already a ways into rehearsals, so we barely knew what we were doing, but it was good to be there anyway! "Sing Alleluia, Christ is Born" by John Purifoy is such a beautiful song, and it just make me want to, well, sing alleluia! Circularly.

God be with you,

Elder Tolman

Frozen yogurt with 2 other companionships
(they collapsed our table's umbrella around us...
I wish I had a picture of what that looked like from the outside)