Chapter 16: "We're thankful for the moisture we've received."

Hello! I've been struggling to organize my thoughts, so I've just got an elaborate photo show & tell for ya.

•Lots of gloomy skies lately. The intense rain buffeting Northern California has made its presence known down here in San Diego. Saturday evening turned the streets into streams, but aside from that it hasn't been too crazy in our area. During the opening prayer of one of our member lessons I was about to say "and we're thankful for the moisture we've received" but caught myself and rephrased, thinking "Is that a Utahn thing?" Fast forward to church on Sunday, and what was on the docket of gratitude for the opening prayer there? Moisture. Though I still haven't drawn any conclusions, cause I feel like half the ward here has lived in Utah at some point.

•We've been visiting more inactive families in this past week. One afternoon while out on said visits, we came across a lost cat sign for a fellow named Baguette, which was both fantastic and tragic. 

As a follow-up to one of those visits, we had a really good lesson with an inactive part-member family last night. A priest in the ward kindly joined us to invite a youth in that family to quorum activities. We don't know what's holding them back, but the mother shared a sincere testimony of prayer and miracles, and she has many good friends in the ward, so we just hope they'll reach out to us with any needs or questions.

•We strive for variety in our selfies.

•As I drive up and down the hills of Peñasquitos, the palm trees against sunsets can be very distracting--in the best of ways.

•My unworthy mortal coil before the legendary Boedy Burger. Elder Meilstrup has finally been initiated into the ward and dubbed a true missionary by trying it. It was pleasant teaching and eating with the Jack family again. They were the very first ward members I met in Rancho Peñasquitos.

•Elder Meilstrup teaching Boedy the Eldridge knot. Soon all the youth will be converted.

•Ah yes, Firestone. Our car has needed an oil change for a concerning and undisclosed amount of time, so we finally got that scheduled and took it in this past Saturday. We would be stuck without a car for a good long while, but we were both assigned to speak in sacrament meeting the following Sunday, so we decided to walk 15 minutes over to a library to write our talks while we waited. And we continued to wait...for FOUR HOURS. As we wrote, the rain started up outside and did not relent for the rest of the day, so we had a lovely time hydrating our clothing during the walk back. 

Did either of us finish our talks in this sprawling allotment of time? No sir, we did not. We were overthinking those things all the way past dinner hour. BUT, they went very well the next morning, and we've noticed their impact on the ward in the couple days since. We've been excited to continue to build trust with the members. Our topic was "strengthening our relationship with Jesus Christ", and it was really cool speaking as a companionship since our focuses complemented each other. In mine I discussed how we draw closest to others when we trust that they accept us both at our best and our worst. 2 Nephi 4:19 reads, "And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted." Thankfully, Christ is unconditionally trustworthy.

One last note that I don't have a picture for. On Friday I went on exchanges with our district leader, Elder Spencer. I've got a couple highlights from that day. First was tracting, cause Elder Spencer has a knack for turning doorstep approaches into games. There were a lot of front porch potted plants in the complex we were visiting, so he became set on the goal of finding someone who would let him water their plants. No luck, unfortunately, but it got a couple conversations going, and we met a friendly man named Jorge we said we could come again. One of the doors we knocked was answered by a Muslim woman who immediately brushed us off by saying she was leaving for something soon. Elder Spencer quickly changed gear and said "I was just wondering if we could get some water. We've been out all day." The woman told us she'd be right back, closed the door, then after a solid minute she reemerged and thrust a gallon jug of water and two cups into our hands. "You can keep the cups." she said, closing the door before we could do anything more than thank her. Closed-off charity at its finest 😆. The second highlight was having dinner with the mission nurse and her family. Lots of fun stories and inside information, and they gave us a referral!

Minutes before giving my sacrament meeting talk, I pulled out a pen and added these words onto the end. I'll let my email reflect my talk by adding them here.

I bear my testimony that as we choose to rely on the Savior's mercy even when we feel farthest from Him, our trust for Him will grow, and with that trust we will know Him as we never have before.

God be with you,

Elder Tolman