Chapter 31: A Gift and A Place To Offer It

 haHA! You thought I was gonna write another 2-3 page monologue, didn't ya? Well you'd be wrong! Cuz today I'll just be garnishing the previous week with a handful of bullet points!

(...in other words, it's only going to be a 1-page monologue with dots before each paragraph, and some of the paragraphs will be slightly shorter...)

(Q: Has Elder Tolman figured out where bullet points should be used yet?

A: No.)

• Quite a few opportunities to give blessings have come up both in this week and in the transfer as a whole. The first one arose during our proselyting hours after p-day time last Tuesday. The hermanas asked that we join them for a lesson on the priesthood with their friend Myra and she requested a blessing on both her and her house. It went delightfully well, and we left with an air of having left her place better than we found it. Similarly, the other opportunities happened in the context of very successful lessons. Those were definitely the highlights of the week, and it's such a privilege to be entrusted with authority to offer healing and comfort and to be placed in situations where it is not only needed, but specifically requested.

• A member outside of our area texted us, letting us know her nonmember friend Beverly needed help with some yard work. We got to meet her and her drop-dead adorable baby boy and then tear down the base of operations for a mite infestation (a.k.a a bunch of weeds). We really admired that member's dedication in reaching out to us. She's taking things slow in introducing the gospel to Beverly, but she's convinced she'll be baptized one day. We connected Beverly with the Sisters on the chance that she'll eventually take interest in lessons. (One of the big advantages of having both Elders and Sisters in an area is that we can pass men and women living alone off to each other so we don't always have to find another adult of the same gender to be present.)

After service with Beverly

• Ariel is on date to be baptized next month! Her family is absolutely wonderful and continues to grow closer to the ward, and she just lights up whenever we mention her baptism to her.

• We've been in charge of making short video ads for Facebook, and I've appreciated being able to apply some video editing skills to the mission. Amid the torturous perfectionism, pained groans, and violent hair tussling, it's a jolly good time!

• There were some tragic lesson cancellations and we had a referral that was looking super promising but didn't end up going anywhere. *sigh* Wish I could say that was unusual.

• This transfer in particular, I've been enormously grateful for my district. Let the record show that they're fantastic!

Whiteboard finding!

• We had a pretty unique p-day today. We started off by visiting a cemetery so Hermana Garrett could find an ancestor of hers that happened to be buried there! This worked out perfectly cause Elder Rhodes happened to want to visit that very cemetery so he could find Sam Brannan's grave. He gave the rest of us a mini lesson on Sam Brannan's role in church history.

Visiting Sam Brannan's grave

• We spent the next part of our p-day on Coronado Island and enjoyed the shops and architecture there. We indulged in some gelato as well!

San Diego as we crossed the bridge to Coronado Island

Rendering ourselves fancy dancy at a hat shop on Coronado

Gelato on Coronado. Their flavor of the month was horchata,
and it definitely exceeded expectations!

• I've recently been thinking about the comparison between Lehi's family in 1 Nephi and Jared's family in Ether. Both were set apart from a calamity among their people and given a land choice above all other lands. And in both cases, it all began with a singular faithful plea for mercy. The Lord expects us to pray, and He works wonders on the condition that we do.


God Be With You,
Elder Tolman

Selfie amid Coronado Shores after a lesson there.
Probably the fanciest place I've been on the mission thus far.

There was a pathway coming out of Coronado Shores that led right up against the beach!
We're not allowed to go on the sand, but the concrete allowed us to get closer than ever before!
The pier is up over the beach, so it feels a little removed from it.

We had no idea the pyramids of Giza had counterparts in San Diego! Amazing! (Dirt.)

The flowers around here have been blowing my mind!