Hello! There's another week gone by for all of us! Another week enjoyed/endured/conquered/
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| A lovely park we stopped by to make phone calls. We revisited it for p-day today to play ultimate frisbee with half the zone. |
This week was pretty alright! Though, let me expound on what pretty alright means. To be totally honest, as a missionary thus far, it's been hard to feel like I've experienced much momentum in the work. Aside from in my first area, it has been pretty uncommon for us to find anyone new to teach in all my time in San Diego. We have good conversations here and there and opportunities to help people in ways other than teaching them, but we rarely (and I mean RARELY) meet the weekly goals we set for finding people, even when those goals are as low as one person. I can't say whether the hang-up lies in the disposition of the people, our mindset, our methods, or our dedication, but whatever the case may be, we do our best to serve with love as our motivation, and most of what we do consists of supporting the ward, helping part-member families and inactive families, producing content for our mission Facebook page, and teaching a few select people willing to listen. This week we've continued to teach Myron, Francisco, and Ariel, and in each case, things are going pretty well. That's the first great thing. The second is that there have been many mini-miracles throughout the week. I'll share a few of them here.
The week kicked off in a funky fashion. We had 4 lessons scheduled for Wednesday and none scheduled for Thursday, but then 2 of them rescheduled for Thursday. *Thanos voice* Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
One of the lessons that rescheduled was with Ariel's family, and as we texted to coordinate a time for the next day, Sister Ramirez hit us with a "I have a surprise for you guys". We went "ooOOoo" and told her we were excited, but didn't really think too much about it. They've given us treats before (cuz they're wonderful!), so in the back of my head I expected to be loaded up with brownies or something along those lines. The time for the lesson arrived on Thursday, and we biked over to their house to discuss the Law of the Fast and the Law of Tithing.
We knocked on the door, it opened, and we were confronted with...cardboard. 2 big narrow cardboard boxes, to be exact. As we entered and took in the full scene, we discovered that Brother Ramirez was hard at work assembling something. Now, I won't reveal what this contraption was just yet, but it didn't connect in our brains at all that this was in any way related to the impending surprise. We just made small talk about the item in question with Brother Ramirez as he worked. The family caught us up on how they were doing, and as we neared the opening prayer and start of the lesson, they broke the news to us. Those two items WERE the surprise! "These are for you!" Want to know what they were? Electronic bikes! The Ramirezes bought us electronic bikes! We were absolutely stunned. Our immediate reaction was one of both overwhelming gratitude, and worry that we wouldn't be allowed to accept them. I mean, this seemed like exactly the sort of thing mission standards would veto. But even the thought of rejecting this immense charity was pretty disheartening. We texted our senior missionaries, who redirected us to the AP's, so we sent them a message and held our breath. Their response was, "Well Elders, today is your lucky day!" We were approved!
Henceforth, Imperial Beach will be an e-biking area! Every missionary who serves here in the future will have the Ramirezes to thank. We've been riding them ever since, and they are so much fun! We're able to get to our destinations so much faster with them, and they've already been a life saver for our schedule. The best part isn't even the speed though. It's the baskets! They have baskets on the front! I was almost more excited about that than about the bikes as a whole😆. We can actually bring stuff with us as we travel rather than having our options be between traveling light or slinging our bags over shoulders and letting them swing around awkwardly as we ride (which we've just completely avoided doing). Paper scriptures in lessons are BACK! Boom baby! AHahahaHA!
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| E-Bikes! |
Update on Myron: we have a fantastic member fellowshipping him, who we actually also met with and gave support to a couple times this week. He gave Myron a ride to church on Sunday! It's incredible the difference having a friend to go to church with him has made.
Another quick tender mercy. We had a dinner appointment scheduled with a family one night, but the husband was deployed, so without another man present we couldn't hang out there. The wife arranged to have us just drop by and pick up dinner from her, which we've done with her in the past. But, we determined that we wanted to still share a message in that short time, even if it was just a quick verse with an insight. I had recently reread the Sermon on the Mount, so what came to mind was to share a selection of Beatitudes that we felt applied to their family.
"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." (Matthew 5:4-7)
We focused our brief message on how though these statements talk about eventual gifts from God--a promise that all will be made right in the end--they say that we are blessed in the present. It isn't "Blessed WILL BE they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." But rather, "Blessed ARE they that mourn..." This slightly changes the outlook we can have on the Beatitudes. Perhaps Christ is not just saying he will provide relief to the afflicted in time, but that afflictions, when viewed with an eternal perspective, coincide with being blessed. Not "There are those that mourn?! How horrible!" But instead, "Blessed are they that mourn. God is with them." The gospel can sometimes relieve pain in the present, but often times, it doesn't. What it does do is change that pain to be far greater in meaning (2 Nephi 2:2). Trials become blessings not just when they are relieved, but also when they are taken before God and humbly placed in His hands.
After we picked up dinner and shared the message, the member told us she would be sending those verses to her husband along with that insight. She said it was exactly what she thought he needed to hear at that time. It's incredible to see little things positioned just in the right place at the right time.
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| One of the many gorgeous flowers we pass by as we make visits. |
Much of Friday was consumed by helping set up for a huge ward activity. It was cruise themed, featuring 3 stops: Greece, Italy, and Hawaii. These stops manifested as elaborately decorated tables in the gym with food and dessert samplings from each country. Before the gym, however, everyone was given tickets to the cruise, got photos with the cruise ship (a booth depicting it, anyway), and watched a funny little walk-through sketch with various characters played by many of our favorite ward members. To give you an idea of the tone, they passed out those paper toilet seat liners for everyone to put around their necks as life preservers😆. It was a great time, missionaries were seen dancing, and we came home with a lot of leftover food thrust into our possession.
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| Our tickets for the cruise. |
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| Vacation pic during the cruise activity! |
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| Reenacting Hercules as we helped set up the Greek booth for the ward activity. |
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| For my family: "BAK-lava!!" |
The latter half of Saturday was absorbed by...baptisms! The Spanish missionaries had 3 happening that day and they requested that Elder Rhodes play piano at 2 of them. They were an honor to witness (well, I wasn't one of the witnesses, but you know what I mean).
Another mini miracle! I have a theory that sometimes a confirming revelation comes in the form of a "theme of the day". Sunday was a prime example. I once did a study looking for scriptures that stand as evidence for every single individual's value to God (rather than the value of mankind as a whole or the value of certain important figures). This study filled a page in my journal which I titled "Our Undeniable Value". On Sunday, during companionship study, we were planning a lesson for that evening, and Elder Rhodes said the topic that came to his mind was God's personal relationship with each of us. I pulled out that page in my journal and we selected a couple scriptures from it to use. A couple hours later at church, we joined the youth class where the teacher started off the lesson by discussing...*drumroll*...how God loves each of us personally. She went around the room and asked each person if they believed that for themselves. The day went on and our lesson in the evening went very well. We shared Luke 12:6-7 as a part of what we had planned. After the lesson, we went to the church at the end of the day so I could virtually attend a memorial for my recently deceased cat, Tuxie, who has been an emotional support to my family for the past 14 years. My dad prepared some remarks at the beginning of the gathering in which he shared two scriptures that put the lives of animals into perspective with the gospel. The first was D&C 77, a scripture I happened to turn to for comfort the evening I found out our cat was going to be leaving us. The second....was Luke 12:6-7, a scripture about the value of all God's creations, which we happened to have shared in a lesson barely an hour before.
I've got a final thought, and I'll see whether I can dress it up in the right words. I've been reflecting on the commandment we've received to be a light to the world. To show forth good works, to stand for truth, and above all, to love others. The prospect of shining as a beacon to numberless concourses of people in desperate need of that illumination is a pretty delightsome thought, right? So why doesn't it always feel that way when we are doing just that? Why do acts of charity sometimes just feel silly? Why doesn't truth always resonate proudly in our hearts? How is it that we can sometimes feel so bad when by all accounts we're doing so much good? What I keep coming back to is that it's easy to enjoy light when we're surrounded by it. We can see its splendor and the ways that our own light fits in with it. However, we are not just called to shine light into light. We are called to shine light into darkness. This light is venturing out into an abyss. It doesn't receive a warm welcome from the environment around it. But it is light nonetheless. It may be at uncomfortable odds with the mist of darkness it penetrates, but it is changing that darkness for the better. There are times when light is there to be enjoyed, but there are other times when it is there to be wielded. Venturing into darkness makes one feel dark, but soon enough, that venture will bring the darkness to light, and at that day, we can bask in its glory.
God be with you,
Elder Tolman
Photos:
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| There was a basketball half-court right next to the beach, so we decided to play some speed there for our exercise one morning. Very memorable. |
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| The Lovely Park |
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