Chapter 27: Imperial Beach

Happy early Easter! I hope everyone can find a special deeper meaning and closeness with Christ during this sacred holiday, especially after the insightful emphasis placed on it in this last General Conference. The repeated admonition to give Easter the same love we give Christmas got a chuckle out of me. The sheer amount of tradition and excitement we stack on Christmas does create a sort of "outshining" illusion that can draw attention away from Easter. But, the truth is indeed that we rejoice not just in the fact that Christ lived, but more especially that he lived again, and lives now. Christmas points to Christ entering the world with a work to do. Easter points to the realization of that work. Considering both, the former is really a preface for the latter. I appreciated Elder Stevenson's idea of finding a scripture about the resurrection to remind us of this. If Christmas has Luke 2 engrained in its traditions, what will we give Easter? The suggestion of reading Christ's ministry to the Nephites in 3 Nephi stuck out to me, because I happened to be studying that very part of the Book of Mormon on a completely unrelated note. The messages shared this past weekend wove Easter and my studies together!

Actually, permit me a quick tangent on that topic. Isn't it inspiring when, in our daily pursuits, things are woven together like that to accomplish a greater purpose? When we need to accomplish something, we often assume "more" is required than what we already have. With enlightened eyes, however, we see certain things are far more compatible than we first perceived. Then our needs are met. Miracles often start out in separate pieces, only to transpire when those pieces combine. The pieces were always there. That's a pattern I notice in how God sometimes works blessings, and it comes back to our willingness to see as He sees.

Well, with that, here I am after my first week in Imperial Beach! It's been good! Our mission boundaries "end where the sand begins", but we're able to go out on the pier while street contacting, so that's been a highlight in our efforts to find new people to teach. Plenty of people fishing, skating, or taking a stroll. 

As for the members, I've loved each and every one I've met so far. This ward's a lot more mysterious than my last area was. We've got a hefty list of member records to go through, verifying who still lives here and searching for inactive members who we can offer support to. About 75% of the members are unknown.

Some members in our ward had us over for dinner in their SUPER nice condo where they get to watch this ocean sunset every night! As an aside, guess what their last name is? Hammond! We consulted Relatives Around Me and, funnily enough, discovered that Brother Hammond was more closely related to me through my dad's side than my mom's (unless there's a piece we're missing!).

This area is harkening back to my first area in a few ways:

• We're right up against the border. Tijuana is just right there!
• We're double-covering with the Sister missionaries. This takes extra coordination, but it's a lot of fun.
• Calexico was in Imperial Valley, and now I'm in Imperial Beach. A ward member told me the two are actually related! The beach was named after the workers from Imperial Valley who would go there on vacation.

Elder Rhodes has been awesome to work with. He's 20 months into the mission, and has actually served in Rancho Peñasquitos (my previous area) before. We've done a lot of reminiscing. Other notes about him are that he loves cross country, compulsively makes people cookies (it's a marvel to behold), is quite aggressive when we play soccer, and might be the kindest Elder I've ever met. Another noteworthy thing is that his hands-down favorite food is spaghetti with red sauce, and 3 different members fed us that this week without knowing that about him! Well, one of the meals had penne instead of spaghetti, but still! The Lord has blessed him abundantly.

We got to go to a Padres game for p-day today! It was a little surreal being surrounded by the rowdy environment of a baseball game while in proselyting attire, but we had a great time! We got to witness multiple home runs, join thousands of voices in singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," buy overpriced stadium food, and even got a moment of glory on the big screen as the cameramen singled out members of the crowd! They later favored 2 other groups of missionaries, but our group was proud to be the first.

Allow me to turn my attention back on General Conference. Two things I loved about it. Firstly, it was a great context in which to meet the ward. A different family had us over four of the five sessions, and we appreciated being a part of each of their little conference traditions (especially when those traditions were edible). Saturday evening we watched as a district, but our friend Francisco was able to watch that session on his way to work, and he really approved of what he heard. We suspect Elder Bragg's talk on spiritual poise resonated with him since he works as a cop.

Pointing out my mom to the bishop's family

Secondly, there were many well-needed admonitions and insights, but did you notice how the conference grew most powerful when its testimony of Christ was the strongest? As we watched, our souls absolutely swelled when the choir paired "This is the Christ" with "I Believe in Christ" at the end of the Sunday morning session.

Another little detail: prior to the weekend, Elder Rhodes printed out a couple General Conference prediction sheets his family fills out every time (speakers, temples announced, hymns, tie colors, etc.). I'm apparently pretty good at guessing who's going to wear a blue tie, but my prophetic powers end there for the most part. However, one of the themes I guessed was contention, and boy oh BOY did that get coverage. Elder Christofferson, Elder Soares, and President Nelson gave quite the call for introspection on our part.

I haven't got an all-encompassing takeaway from the weekend's firehose of counsel and invitations, but I'll end by choosing and copying just one thing I made note of in my study journal. This was from Elder Christensen's talk. Sometimes the problems we face in letting go of sin or enduring hardship are rooted in not understanding the gifts God has in store for us in the end. Consider how that understanding applies to Christ. He didn't suffer the atonement thinking only of the need for it. He suffered in anticipation of the joy that would come thereafter. Is that not a perfect example of the hope we need? He suffered in anticipation of joy.

God be with you,

Elder Tolman

Pepper, the bishop's cat.
Her whiskers are slightly shorter on one side because
she habitually presses her face up against a fan
and they poke through the guard cage to meet the fan blades.
I learned this after asking what that faint rattling sound was.