Chapter 38: Barbecue Ice Cream

 Imagine being worried about weight gain on the mission and then reading this:

"He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife: but he that putteth his trust in the Lord shall be made fat." (Proverbs 28:25)

...gee, thanks. -_-

I just love how we can always turn to the scriptures for comfort.

Although, present build considered, maybe I haven't been putting enough trust in the Lord...

Ah well. Hello! I pray this email finds you well. We had a lot packed into this week, and I shall partially unpack it here.

We near the end of the transfer with but a couple days left, and I'll lead off by remarking we are very pleased with the progress we've made with the ward! We started off with 75% of the records being unknown, and it's now down to 30%! We've loved working with the ward council, being involved with the youth, and working on reaching part-member families. The active members of the ward are a joy to be around and so supportive of us.

 

The first half of the week presented an interesting change. We had an extra elder with us! This transfer, our mission has tried out having a companionship of traveling missionaries that split off from each other to join a new pair of companionships every three days. It sounds absolutely exhausting, but the two chosen elders were well up to the task. We had Elder Oligschlaeger join us, and he brought some new momentum to the area. He's especially good at street contacting, so it was a treat seeing how the pros do it. We got a good number of lessons set up in those few days (SOME of whom actually followed through! -_-). Better yet, our trio got the traveling missionaries' car! Being on bikes has meant we've been neglecting many of the dots in the distant reaches of the area since it's hard to justify a 30-40 minute travel time (even with our majestic and coveted e-bikes) so it felt like we got a lot of well-needed work done from Wednesday to Friday.

Us with Elder Oligschlaeger at Coronado Shores

One of the lessons we had was with our friend Alexander, and apparently he was also in the Spanish elders' areabook, because unbeknownst to us, while we were sitting in his front yard going over the restoration, they happened to bike right up to his house to pay him a visit and see whether he was still interested, only to find us teaching him. Pretty crazy timing, right? There was a little tender mercy from that as well. It was a bit of a rough lesson because it was a noisy setting. The front door was open, Alexander's mom was blasting TV from inside, they refused to close the door, and someone a couple houses over had their power washer going. To add to that, Alexander is extremely soft spoken. But, just as things felt like they were going downhill, the power washer suddenly turned off, lowering the overall volume just enough for us to press on. We found out later that evening that the neighbor with the power washer actually paused because the other missionaries started a conversation with him.

The ward had a barbecue cook-off on Friday night, and we—the Imperial Beach missionaries—were selected as the judges! We discovered Elder Rhodes and I's barbecue preferences are very different from the sisters'. It was good that we balanced each other out though. There were some fantastic ribs that took first place, and it was no surprise to me that Brother Carter from the elders quorum presidency was the winner. We spent a session of general conference at his house last transfer where he served us steak.

Rubbing it in to the other missionaries that we got to try
the Petty family's highly acclaimed jello fruit salad.

We had a lesson with Myron at the church just before the barbecue, and boy are ward activities just the perfect follow-up to a lesson. We go over the doctrine, and then there's food and fellowshipping waiting for us right there at the end! Myron really seemed to enjoy himself, and he commented appreciatively on how everyone helped clean up afterward. Our friend Libby also spontaneously made it, which was an exciting surprise. We met her at the library and have plans to do service for her later this week.

I haven't yet touched on the most curious thing about the barbecue though. Every time the ward has any sort of food competition, Brother Espinoza, a counselor in the bishopric, likes to get creative with it. He joined us for our lesson with Myron, and just before it, he was hinting that he had something special in mind for his entry. We made several wild guesses, but he told us no to each of them. Eventually he let on that the thing he was going to barbecue wasn't a plant or an animal. We were stumped.

"Ties?" Elder Rhodes guessed.

"Nope."

"Milk?"

That was the closest we got.

Ice cream! He revealed to us that he would be barbecuing vanilla ice cream! How does that work, you might ask? He puts it in a smoker, and apparently the trick is to keep it from melting as it adopts its new flavor. How was this new flavor? Interesting, that's for sure. I didn't mind it, but Elder Rhodes and the Sisters HATED it 😆. Apparently it's best served with chocolate and graham crackers to give a sort of s'more vibe.

Sister Ward's expression after trying barbecue ice cream.

Our finding efforts this past weekend featured the glorious whiteboard again. When we arrived at Imperial Beach pier to set up, we discovered that the whole area was covered in booths. It was a Native American festival! There was everything from arrows to dream catchers to carved stones being sold, and the food was extremely enticing. They had various performers singing and dancing, and it was a fun venue to explore and mingle at while we waited for the sisters to arrive. We even ran into a recent convert who had just moved into the area, and we were able to give him the church address and meeting time.

The question we wrote on the board this time was "What did you learn today?" and we got everything from answers praising God to random fun facts like "horseshoe crabs are covered in THOUSANDS of eyes". It was both entertaining and effective, as when people would say "I don't know, nothing" we could reply "well, would you like to learn something new?" I got to tell a couple people about Alma 7's teaching that Christ took upon Himself far more than just our sins. Also, someone tried to bible bash later on! *party horn*

Whiteboard Finding!

Speaking of bashing, we were walking out of the church one day when a truck pulled up in front of us. Inside were two men, looking at us through the rolled down window. Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned we met two guys from different Christian denominations one day? There was one who we had a friendly discussion with and another who just wanted to bible bash. Well, there they were, sitting in a truck together! After we first met him, we discovered that Zachary, the one who didn't bash us, was actually very well known by missionaries and was in our areabook as a "do not contact" because he actively targets missionaries of other faiths and tries to convert them to his own.

So, they pulled up, and he called out to us "How's it goin' fellas?" We had a brief exchange, and then he asked, "We were wondering if you could let us in so we can look at the bulletin board with all your church's events on it." Hmm, I wonder why they'd want to see that... They were really straining the declaration "all are welcome". Thankfully, our church building doesn't have an event bulletin board. It does have a *table* with announcements and fliers, but...they didn't ask about a table. Given the circumstances, we were okay with that little sin of omission.

We've gone through an emotional rollercoaster with Myron in the past few days. His baptism date was for this upcoming Friday, and by this past Saturday, we had only gone over the first three lessons and a couple of the commandments with him, notably excluding word of wisdom, law of chastity, and tithing. Scheduling with him has been so shaky over the last couple weeks 😞. We were stressed out and gearing up to teach him every single day this week, desperately dividing up the remaining doctrinal points and preparing to sacrifice p-day time if necessary. Just as we entered the week with a battle cry...he didn't show up to church or the subsequent lesson we had planned. No response to our bajillion calls and no luck when a member showed up to his house to pick him up. We finally got ahold of him later that evening to discover he had been exhausted from his night shift and slept through much of the day. Understandable, but tragic. The next day our lesson with him had to be abridged because of time constraints, and that really sealed the deal with us pushing his baptismal date back. Twas for the best 😔. And this honestly works better, considering Friday is also transfer day.

On a brighter note, Francisco's shift changed, so he was able to make it to church on Sunday!! It was so good to have him there, and it was a superb sacrament meeting. Hermana Archunde gave an engaging and spiritually enlightening talk and the primary favored us with two songs for Father's Day (which young William punctuated the end of by calling out "Is that it??"). Brother Espinosa was the last speaker, and he concluded his remarks by pulling out a ukulele and singing a heartfelt Aloha Ói, for which the sister missionaries joined him the second time around, and the whole congregation joined for the third. It was a nice note to end the meeting on, and touchingly fitting, as that was two of our youths' last sacrament meeting there, since they are moving. Both are recent converts, and get this, their names are Nephi and Sam. Best memory with Nephi was playing laser tag in the church gym for mutual one night and best memory with Sam was when he showed us his rock/crystal collection. We'll miss them!

We had our final district council of the transfer on Monday! I made pineapple crisp, but it was Hermana Christian's birthday, so she brought a whole oreo birthday cake from a generous member, AND the sisters brought cookies. Naturally, we were quite sugared up. Elder Rhodes gave an excellent training on recognizing and using spiritual gifts, and we went through a thought provoking exercise where we considered the spiritual gifts of the friends we are teaching. I thought of Myron, and how he has the gift of bearing powerful testimony. It was a profound reminder that by helping our friends along in their conversion to Christ, we are unlocking divine potential within them. Spiritual gifts are richly beautiful on their own, but when put into the hands of He who gave them, they are instruments of miracles. We ended with a testimony meeting, and that was the best I have felt sharing my testimony in quite some time.

At a dinner with some members, a good friend shared this quote with me, and I wanted to pass it along.

"The thing you are worrying about most is the thing you are trusting God least with."

My initial reaction was "Heyy, that's pretty good." Then I thought about some of my recent struggles, and not only did it ring more true, but it hit hard. At the core of my deepest worries is often a simple lack of surrender. A belief that God won't deal justly with the things that bring me joy. What on the surface presents itself as fear and pain is in fact rooted in an attitude of "my will be done". I pit my own ideal against God's wisdom. However, recently, in a sacred moment, I was reminded just how great and glorious God's plan truly is for me. Far greater than what I have in mind for myself. The future He works to build is something I would surely marvel at if I could see it now. He knows the most direct path to my eventual happiness, no matter how fond I am of the other paths I sometimes fixate on.

"Believe in God; believe that He is, and that He created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that He has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend." (Mosiah 4:9)

God be with you,

Elder Tolman

Pictures:

District Council

District Council 

Final Ward FHE of the Transfer

What a jovial and insightful bunch they are!

William helping Elder Fisher up after
doing a jiu-jitsu takedown on him.

Chapter 37: Breakthrough

Welcome to another Tuesday! I've got something pretty cool to share with you all. Pardon me if I get too descriptive with it. Finding clear cut words is always a challenge.

Subtle change is frustrating. When your back is painfully out of alignment, you'd much rather twist it in just the right way, hear a pop, and be relieved all at once than wait for the more realistic slow, incremental recovery over the course of several days. Yet, most things in life—physical, mental, and spiritual—take time and persistence before results are seen. This is almost certainly by divine design. It teaches us patience, and it leads us to trust what we can't yet see or feel. Giving your body sufficient exercise, nutrients, and rest will not necessarily improve your health overnight, yet it is crucial to remaining healthy. Taking slow, calming breaths when you are anxious isn't the most dramatic of solutions, yet it really is enormously helpful.

So it is with waiting on the Lord—for blessings, for answers, for relief. We receive line upon line. We prosper by degrees. We gradually discern the rising sun. I believe most (if not all) of us experience mortal life this way. It makes our relationship with God a little terrifying at times, not being in control. When will His answer come? Is it already in the works, and I just can't tell? Is it coming at all? However, in retrospect, we can usually see the wisdom in His actions, different from our will as they were. Accepting this is an essential part of living at peace.

But that is not the whole picture.

"Endless monotonous trudge" is not in the order of "men are that they might have joy". Heavenly Father loves us so much that though we must endure bleak times as a condition of mortal life, He still sees fit to bestow glorious gifts upon us in grace-filled moments. These moments are precious and rare. They break forth from the luminous clouds of tender mercies as radiant beams. They are moments of revelation.

I've been on a long journey which I can't pinpoint the beginning of. For the past couple years I've found myself walking a fine line between faith in Christ and faith in crisis. So many questions unanswered. So many prayers seemingly unheard. So many doubts never put to rest. In preparation for my mission I was able to let go of many things that held me back, and I set out for San Diego expecting my missionary experience to yield the insight I was struggling to find. I expected an upward slope. Instead, as you might expect if you are familiar with the challenges of missions, the past 8 months have plummetted me into even deeper darkness.

Each and every question returned in full force, weaving into a taunting, looming narrative of confusion. And the crux of the issue was the dissonance—the clashing notes between where I was and what was happening inside me. As I preached to people about God, I questioned whether that God even existed! I couldn't tell whether that made me noble or hypocritical. In my head, I fought for every venue of relief I could formulate. I grasped at insight after insight, each one likewise failing to conjure up the faith I lacked. Fabulous new ideas came to my mind constantly, tender mercies worked around me, but I just couldn't close the gap between myself and my God. It was like running up a sandy slope only to slide back down every time.

That was the state I was in as I entered Imperial Beach last transfer. However, over the course of obsessive studying, many key discussions, and some sleepless nights, the weight inexplicably seemed to grow lighter. I'm not sure why. I can't point to a change in attitude, a singular scripture I studied, or a revelatory moment, but I found myself increasingly accepting of the dilemmas that troubled me. This gave me the space I needed to begin to trust God again and, for as many personal struggles I've been having on the mission, I began feeling Christ's light more and more often. With each topic I wrestled, "good enough" became enough. But I still had earnest questions that deeply troubled me.

Then, this past Wednesday came.

I was on an exchange with Elder Nielsen, one of our zone leaders. Times were rough, and I had a lot on my mind, but we spent a full hour that morning simply sitting in the apartment, talking. This is actually something our mission leaders are encouraging for exchanges, to the extent that we had blocked out time in our day simply labelled "chat". We discussed the things we were dealing with, the people we wanted to become, and how we wanted to get there. I want to bear record that Elder Nielsen is one of the kindest missionaries I've met. I knew him back in Imperial Valley, and we were all so excited when we found out he would be zone leading Chula Vista this transfer.

After that hour, we broke off our conversation to turn to our desks and begin personal study. I was reading "The Everlasting Covenant" by President Nelson, when I paused to ponder on the conditions which began the Abrahamic covenant. Then, an epiphany came to mind.

But I quickly realized it was more than an epiphany.

Only once before to I recall receiving an impression that clearly came from something outside of myself. For the sake of keeping it sacred, I won't describe it here, but this sensation was similar, and that was telling to me. I have been praying that God would communicate with me in a way He knew I would understand, and this new experience hearkened back to the only other time I was willing to admit I'd received revelation. An answer came to my mind! It directly addressed the question that lied at the very core of my concerns. Just like that, after all the waiting, there was an answer before me that I could accept. I had a breakthrough! This is an email that I never dared to hope I would someday write, yet here I am writing it. XD

On the chance that it will help someone with their own concerns, I'll record the epiphany here, but first, let me clarify. It wasn't this singular moment that put my concerns to rest. This moment was a breakthrough in a long, gradual process. Truly difficult questions can't be answered by merely writing out an explanation. There is far more at play than the surface level reasoning, and of course, there are other questions I've asked that needed different answers. 

Here is the main question I was trying to answer: how do we distinguish between an act of God and a coincidence? What if we sometimes ascribe meaning to things God didn't actually do? In other words, how does God act in my life, and how do I handle the insecurity that I'm just making up my relationship with Him?

Let's first consider what we learn from the scriptures, and then I'll get into what occured to me.

God is aware of all things. Even if coincidences exist, no coincidence will catch Him off guard. (2 Nephi 2:24, Words of Mormon 1:7, 2 Nephi 9:20)

God is aware of our thoughts. We will never surprise Him by attributing a coincidence to Him. (Alma 18:32, D&C 6:16)

God can work through anything for our good. (Romans 8:28-30, 2 Nephi 2:4)

God is the author of good. When we recognize good, it ultimately stems from Him. (Moroni 7:12-13, 16-17, Ether 4:12)

God's power lies in all things. (D&C 88:6-13, 41-50)

All things were created to testify of Christ. (Moses 6:63, Job 12:6-10, Alma 30:44)

We are commanded to thank the Lord for all things. (Ephesians 5:18-20, Mosiah 26:39, D&C 98:1, Alma 7:23).

What I came to understand as I thought about the miracles in Abraham's family was this: coincidence or not, God will use every venue He can to reach us—every venue that we will accept. He knows all things and He knows how to use each and every one of them for our good. Just because something may not start out as a true miracle from God doesn't mean it can't become one. He watches for where we praise Him. He asks us to attribute things to Him. Perhaps not every event comes of God, but every event can certainly point to God if we let it, and that universal law was intended by Him. Mortal life doesn't consist of me searching for God as He stubbornly waits in a hiding place. It consists of me and God searching for each other.

When [insert event here] happened, was that God acting in my life? Maybe. Maybe not. But here's what we can be certain of. If you persue the meaning you saw in whatever happened, and use it to glorify God, He promises that He will act upon our lives and He will speak to us.

Now, are all my questions answered? Certainly not. Is all doubt removed from my life? Nope. Am I absolutely sure about the answer I received? Don't be silly. I feel much the same as I did before that blessed day, with one key difference. I don't need to worry as I did before. I have faith that God has spoken to me.

Alright, I've successfully ranted my guts out. Now, the real big news. Ariel's baptism was on Saturday!!! It was almost pushed back at one point and we ran into a few hiccups here and there, but it pulled together, and it went well! President and Sister Merritt came to attend, so the pressure was on. Ariel did so well, and we're proud of her family for pressing forward through an exhausting week and following through. They showed admirable faith. It made me so happy seeing all the other kids run up to Ariel afterward and start chattering away at her.

Here's a fun touch. Beforehand, Elder Rhodes asked Ariel what her favorite dessert was. We were expecting her to say brownies or cupcakes or something along those lines. Her response: s'more cake. Had she ever had s'more cake before? No. But it was her favorite nonetheless. Luckily, we knew a guy. William, another primary aged kid in the ward, happens to be a MASTER cake maker. Like, he tries making new cakes on a weekly basis and posts them on a facebook page, he frequently sells cakes and cupcakes, and he uses the money he makes to stockpile more ingredients. So, a week prior to the baptism we had a lesson with his family and pulled a little secret combination over dinner. We extended not only a missionary invitation that evening, but also a challenge...of the edible variety. S'more cake. Now, we had only the most basic of expectations. What he brought to the baptism...was the stuff of legend. I've enclosed a picture.

Zone Conference was on Thursday! Elder Mark A Bragg, who gave the talk on Christlike Poise from this past conference, was our guest this time, and he gave exceptionally helpful missionary advice. Insights filled pages on my study journal. Here are a few of them (I may have already talked your ear off, but you do have another one!):

•The constant companionship of the Holy Ghost is not just a gift that affects you. It affects those around you.

•Nephi talks about how with the gift of the Holy Ghost we can speak with the tongues of angels. What does this mean? Perhaps what it's referring to is the fact that with our testifying words, the Holy Ghost allows us to quite literally step into the role of an angel, proclaiming Christ's words and ministering to those around us.

•It is repeatedly reiterated throughout the Book of Mormon that the authors are only writing the smallest fraction of the content they are covering. This means the content of the Book of Mormon is very much incomplete, yes, but it also means that the things it contains are of the utmost importance. Imagine if you were given the task of going to 10 different libraries and selecting the most important book in each one. In principle, that is how that Book of Mormon was compiled.

We were spiritually and emotionally drained after sitting in conference all morning and afternoon, but we had a lesson with Francisco immediately afterward that we powered through, a little more stoic than usual (this just meant with didn't pepper him with quite as many questions about being a police officer at the beginning). Now that he's heard all the lessons twice, we've been focusing on messages that give him powerful overviews of the church's beliefs, and this time, that carried us into reading The Living Christ with him. I absolutely love that document and the testimony it conveys, interweaving accounts of prophets both ancient and modern. What especially stuck out to me was how Christ touches every part of our beliefs. A focus on Him points to His doctrine, just as His doctrine points us to Him. A few days later we went over The Family Proclamation, and appreciate the timely writing of that document just as much. Francisco's unique perspective from his line of work helped us all see the deep wisdom in family principles.

A few days following each Zone Conference we do a review and debrief with President and Sister Merritt zone by zone. Ours was on Monday, BUT, we started doing district FHE's, and on Thursday evening we focused on what we learned from Zone Conference. It was simply excellent! Spiritual, yet hysterical. Between Thursday morning, Thursday evening, and Monday morning, we got to hear the messages reiterated three different times. Repetition brings new revelation.

Okay, there's always more to talk about, but this length is getting quite ridiculous, even for me. I'll end off by talking about Sunday evening. I got to sing at another missionary devotional! This one had a multicultural theme, so there were speakers of different ethnicities, we had translators for several different languages, and the Merritts focused their message on how Christ is the name under which the whole world can unite. It's significant that the church was restored in America, whose culture is a blend of so many others. We got to sing Rock of Ages and Amazing Grace. That medley of How Great Thou Art and I Feel My Savior's Love also made a triumphant return, although we found out only a week in advance that we would actually be singing the last verse in Tagalog. We had a grand total of one partial rehearsal with that song before Sunday, but, miraculously, the performance went smoothly, and it hit hard. There was also a Congolese choir there and they were so enjoyable to listen to. They brought a special spirit.

Last thing from that night! As we met up at the church to carpool to rehearsal, a man named Jens just walked right up to us and said he was looking for a church to attend and was sad he missed the services that day. We're so excited for him to realize the pearl of great price he's stumbled across. And by that I mean "was led to"! I suppose stumbling and walking in the spirit go hand in hand often times.

God be with you,

Elder Tolman

Pictures:
Ariel, safe in Christ’s arms for this new stage in life.

•The wonderful Ramirez family.

•I saw my mission father at the devotional! In the middle is Elder Spencer. I've been in a couple districts with him. He has a cannon for a leg in soccer.

•The majestic s'more cake, crafted by William himself.

•We got a LOT of online referrals this week, and this meme just illustrates how it feels trying to set up lessons with them. "You typed out all of your personal information in a missionary ad from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and you're telling me you're not interested?! *siiiiigh* Go join that line over there. Yes, the long one."

•District FHE! Minus the hermanas. *many tears*

•Zone picture from zone conference. This one (Chula Vista) is SO much bigger than my last one (Peñasquitos) 😆

Chapter 36: Counterministering

Onetwothree rapidfire bulletpoints! Let's go!

•We had a day of reporting only "no answer", "not interested", and "moved" on our areabook. Then, on our last visit, a man answered the door, immediately opened up to us, requested a blessing, and agreed to come to church on Sunday. And he made it! After sacrament meeting, a couple awesome members invited him to attend their FHE.

In fact, it was not the door we were looking for.
Turned out the person on record had moved.😜

•Thursday was set to be such a busy day...then our service project fell through and 3 lessons cancelled. We definitely mourned.

Watching the sunset as we bike home.

•We briefly helped an inactive member move and had a lesson with him afterward, for which he invited a nonmember friend who had done Bible studies in the military with him. The discussion was so insightful, and they said a part of the lesson tied directly into a discussion they'd had beforehand, down to the very scripture we used.

District service project helping some people the Sisters are teaching move.

•We took a plate of cookies to a member who lived a 15-minute bike ride away. We folded the plate slightly so it would fit in my basket, but it was a bumpy ride, and...well, let just say the cookies nearly reverted back into cookie dough. (Hagrid: "I'm sure it tastes fine just the same.") Blessed tupperware made our next two cookie visits much smoother.

•We were calling inactive members when we encountered a man who said "I'm attending a nondenominational church now, but can I still be a ministering brother to the ward? They don't have that in the church I'm going to." Absolutely! We're arranging for his companion to be the Elders Quorum President and he'll be ministering to a member of the bishopric. Gottem! 😆

•Some members of the ward took our whole district to SeaWorld for p-day today! Perfectly allowed by our mission's rules! Crazy, right? I've now ridden on a rollercoaster as a missionary. Pretty weird, but fun nonetheless! We got lots of "Hey Elders!" from Utahn vacationers.

Tickets at the ready! Many strange looks from people as we entered.

Orca show that blew us all away. We stayed well above the splash zone.

Shark tunnel! (pretend there are sharks visible in the background).

Heading out (right on time, I might add).

Do you ever see great potential within yourself but constantly feel like you can't live up to it? Your resolve just isn't enough, or you don't know what the right step forward is? Imagine if you had a wise old trainer who knew exactly how to unleash this potential within you. It would be a process—long, rigorous, and painful, but never a waste of time. Always for your good and for your growth. What if you knew this trainer had a plan for you to follow, and that that plan would surely allow you to attain all that you see within yourself? Would you trust him, even when things didn't make sense? This trainer is real. He is our Father in Heaven. 

God be with you,

Elder Tolman

Pictures:

Weekly dose of cat!

Jose the shark toy, with whom we did a teaching roleplay.

Giant dolphin stuffed animals!

Elder Fisher being devoured alive. (His name is exquisitely appropriate.)

Weekly dose of random sky photo!

Chapter 35: Just One More

Hello! T'was a quick week! Here it is in package form.

It started off with interviews with President Merritt. I continue to be amazed at the personal love the Merritts have for each of us and it's been cool hearing more and more of their testimonies over the course of the mission. Since it was at the stake center, which is a 30 minute drive away, we carpooled with the zone leaders, who had their interviews last, so we ended up being stuck at the stake center for a good chunk of the day. That wasn't ideal, but as we waited for interviews to finish up, we heard an animated story from Sister Merritt about a squirrel infestation, which made it pretty worth it. In the middle of interviews we had a mini zone conference with just our zone, and the Merritts offered insights that blew my mind and illuminated my spirit. You know how I can monologue, so I'll have to just sum up here: what is the "secret sauce", the "silver bullet" to successful conversion in missionary work? It is how loved the friends we are teaching feel. It all comes down to charity. The pure love of Christ. How do we obtain this? That comes down the submission of our will to God's will. Charity is a majestic outgrowth of our surrender to Him. Thus, in a way, converting others to Christ comes back to converting ourselves to Christ. 

We had dinner with two of our favorite families combined! We were so excited when we found out that morning that our lesson would actually be a double lesson. We focused our message on the ways we remember our loved ones when we're separated, how each individual participating in the lesson remembers Christ, and Christ's enduring promise that He will never forget us, even when we assume He has.

"But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me—but he will show that he hath not.

For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." 

(1 Nephi 21:14-16)

On Saturday, we biked a half hour out to San Ysidro and spent the evening making visits to inactive members. Of all the people we tried, we had just one long, solid conversation with a follow-up appointment scheduled, and we reached a point where we needed to make our way back so we could start our end-of-day calls. However, Elder Tolman murmured in his heart and saith unto Elder Rhodes "Aw man, we biked all this way! Can we make just one more visit?" And it came to pass that Elder Rhodes rebuked him, saying "O ye wicked and perverse generation!" ...jk, he saith "Yeah sure we can do that." We made one last visit, which turned out to be a house we tried last transfer with no answer, and they were home! We checked in on them, learned more about their situation, and set up a lesson! Fast forward to Sunday, and that exact family was brought up in Ward Council! The Spirit often works through "just one more".

That same day, we met with Myron at a member's house and went over Lehi's Dream so we could reference holding fast to the iron rod whenever we check in on his scripture study. At the end, we told him of the promised blessings associated with diligent scripture study and then turned to the member hosting us, asking if he had any final thoughts. The member...turned the topic to baptism! Elder Rhodes and I were stunned, as we've still been very concerned with whether Myron can keep the small commitments, let alone the big ones. But, there we were. Myron had expressed an interest in being baptized before, and he expressed it again. We are glad a member gave the invitation (that is ideal!) but we were totally caught off guard. Nonetheless, Myron's on date for baptism! It will be good to have a specific timetable to fit lessons and commitments into. We look forward to continuing to teach him! He's such a great mix of chill and energetic, and we enjoy talking with him.

The next morning, we were trying to call Myron to confirm he could make it to church—something we had a whole truckload of emotional investment in. This call had our heartstrings wrapped around its digital finger. But alas! *I'm sorry, but the person you are trying to reach cannot accept calls at this time* That was all we got. We texted first thing in the morning, we called during companionship study, we called before Ward Council, and we called after Ward Council. Nada. Greeting people before church came and went, and not a Myron in sight. I sat next to Sister Kaae (a wonderful person!) in the back row of the chapel and the meeting began. After the sacrament, I glanced at the doors to find Brother Tizzard walking in! Now, Brother Tizzard is the main member fellowshipping Myron, and we'd been trying to reach him all week with very little success. He's been very under the weather, making it hard for him to be up and about, let alone make it to church, so I was delighted to see him! I shook his hand as he passed by, and he whispered "Myron's sitting over there." I turned to see Myron in the back corner sitting next to Elder Rhodes (we sit separate to cover more ground)! Brother Tizzard had picked him up! I assumed the two had been in correspondence the whole time, but after the meeting, I talked with Brother Tizzard to discover that he had actually spontaneously decided to pick Myron up! ...when he was stressed about being late to church, I might add! He couldn't reach Myron over phone either—apparently it turned off and wouldn't turn back on that morning—but when he arrived, Myron was ready to go. It was a direct answer to prayer.

We went over the Articles of Faith with Francisco, and I gotta say I'm so grateful we've got a concise, comprehensive overview of the church's beliefs that we can turn to in the standard works. It was the perfect thing for Francisco, who we're basically just reviewing things with until he can start coming to church. That should be in a couple weeks!

Hope you have a marvelous week! Remember that our covenant relationship with God is not just a means to an end, but it is itself the end. Christ is not just the way to eternal life (John 14:6), but also the subject of eternal life. Both doorman and host. We are currently building the same relationship with God that we will have with Him when we dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven. Eternal life is not a gift separate from God. Rather, we learn from D&C 19 that "eternal" means "Godly". Eternal life is Godly life. Life like God's and life with God. That is why it is not synonymous with the immortality all mankind has been guaranteed. Remember that closeness with God is not reserved for after judgement day. It is a decision you must make every day.

God be with you,

Elder Tolman

Pictures:

The South Bay District at the temple this morning!
It's truly an incredible place, and the truths taught inside have increasing power in my life.

Eating at Snooze after the temple. A couple members of the district definitely snoozed afterward. I wanted to as well; early temples sessions are wonderful, but they do make p-day exhausting.

Took a selfie to celebrate the blue water.

Return of the Random Sky Photo - Extended Edition (Disc 1)

Return of the Random Sky Photo - Extended Edition (Disc 2)
...I miss Lord of the Rings...

Elder Rhodes and Elder Jezik happened to have matching socks at district council.

The water pollution from Tijuana was significantly less horrifying this week!

Cat!