We meet again! Let’s see what words appear on the screen this time (I rarely know where this is going to go).
First, big, flashy news from my main assignment! For the GSD missionaries, July is known as the "Month of Pressing Forward", featuring a greater variety of service and devotionals than we normally have, in honor of the latter-day saint pioneers. We kicked it off this past Wednesday with a service project for Tiny Tim's Workshop, which provides toys for children around the world.
We were given 400 unfinished wooden cars to sand and oil, and we spent the day hopping back and forth between the stations we'd set up for that and our usual service. Both Wednesday and Thursday were set aside for this, but we ended up finishing in one day! This was the first of two projects we'll be doing for Tiny Tim's. Next week we'll be helping them out on-site instead of going to the West Office Building, so that'll be interesting!
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| Service project for Tiny Tim’s Workshop |
We held a sendoff devotional for two more amazing missionaries at the GSD on Thursday: Sister Fry and Elder Cleverly. Sister Fry was on phone support and was also one of my awesome media team designers. She helped us with some script writing and made custom desk tags for incoming GSD missionaries to help them have a little more ownership of their space (she made a middle earth themed tag for me 😆).
Elder Cleverly was an HR missionary handling ***SECRET INFORMATION***, served as a group leader (at the GSD, we have groups of missionaries for purposes of gospel study meetings), and has been such a Christlike example to everyone. There were so many instances where something would go wrong and he'd be right there to calmly and cheerfully pick up the slack. He was also well-known for doing funny accents when leading morning devotional—most notably, a cowboy voice, paired with an accordingly themed presentation.
Whenever we do sendoff devotionals, the directors of the GSD missionaries give some comments. During said comments, one of the directors, in heartwarming fashion, referred to Sister Fry as an angel, and then affirmed that all sister missionaries are angels. He then said, "So, here we have the Angel and the Cowboy" to the congregation's energetic approval. When he added, "Someone needs to write a book called that", an elder and a former missionary in the room, both of whom attend a writer's group, exchanged a delighted look.
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| Elder Cleverly and Sister Fry’s send off (the cowboy rides off into the sunset with the silhouette of an angel barely visible above in the golden light) |
Gearshift: For SOME reason we have a silly policy about district council where we don't hold it if we have zone conference in the same week 😜. So, as a leadership council, we decided to take advantage of the open time by holding an informal event for the zone at the service mission leaders' house. Since our zone is divided into two halves with separate SMLs and separate meetings, this was a great opportunity to feel more unified as a zone. Elder and Sister Alston hosted this one, and they knocked it out of the park!
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| Combined zone activity at Elder and Sister Alston’s. |
The blessings of heaven have rained down upon two particular elders in the past week or so,. For, lo and behold, the local teaching area is now a car area! No more biking for Elder Castro and Elder Chatterley (for now). They're not sure how long this will last, but they were delighted, and it made things on Friday quite a bit more efficient. I find it funny how many areas are now car areas in this mission—which recently shrunk, mind you—when, last I left San Diego, they had an increasing number of biking areas, and my last zone was so short on cars that I had to ride in the trunk just to make it to zone conference!
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| The teaching elders in their rolling metal fortress (they handed me a pair of shades to complete the vibe) |
Friday featured a prominent but unintended bible bash on someone's doorstep. We stayed quite civil, but it's one of those cases where the more I reflect on it, the more the arguments raised bug me (in a facepalmy sort of way 😆). Elder Chatterley stayed mostly quiet for the 20 or so minutes we were there, and afterward he revealed that he was FUMING and had been holding it in the whole time. That's some mad willpower right there in multiple senses of the word. We debriefed, blew off steam, and joked about it as the day continued. Elder Castro had me dying with laughter over a comment that was shot at him.
If nothing else, it was a good opportunity to listen to another Christian's beliefs and to practice clarifying a couple of our beliefs without actively trying to change their mind. Although, it was pretty disheartening to not at least find confident common ground in our belief in Christ. It's been a prominent topic on my mind of late: it is SO important that all Christians unite with each other in these latter-days, differences in belief and all. It was concerning that some semantic difference in doctrinal points and the topic of "Trinity vs Godhead" could bring someone to the point where they adamantly refused to accept members of the church as their brothers and sisters in Christ.
I LOVE what the Book of Mormon teaches about children of God being judged according to the knowledge they have (Mosiah 3:11). Can we not have confidence that God has allotted everyone, through their culture, family, and life experiences, every piece of knowledge necessary for them to get what they need from mortal life, regardless of whether all of it perfectly matches His complete truth (Mormon 8:12)? He gives every one of us the most important resources for us to grow, and He ensures—through the sacrifice of His Son—that if we are good stewards of what we were given (Jacob 3:5-7), and seek Him when given the opportunity (Alma 9:16-17), our eternal progress will carry on (2 Nephi 28:30).
Imagine for a moment, whatever faith you belong to, that, on the day we all come face to face with God (whoever He may be in this hypothetical), He turns to another church, reveals to all that they were the true church all along, and utterly condemns everyone else for choosing the wrong religion. I can't find words to express how horrifying a reality that would be. After a life of seeking and searching for truth, struggling to hold onto what you believe to be right, taking comfort and counsel from a unique conception of the Divine, your work, faith, and connection to Him are unceremoniously invalidated because of a reality you were unaware of.
No! I can't accept such a stark fate for myself, or anyone else, no matter their religion or lack thereof. I do hold fast to the idea of objective truth, and I choose to put faith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that its teachings and authority can connect me with a key portion of that truth, but in order to hold the view of God that I do, I must believe He has a hand in everyone's life, no matter how distant from my faith they are.
We all play some role in God's plan that is beyond my awareness, even in the absence of the gospel of Jesus Christ. All are invited to take part in the restoration of the gospel, but that particular work can't devalue anyone else's journey. “God is using more than one people for the accomplishment of his great and marvelous work. … It is too vast, too arduous, for any one people” (Elder Orson F. Whitney, quoted by President Dallin H. Oaks).
At the end of the day, my confidence can't come from being dogmatic in the doctrine I've been taught, bold as we need to be these days. It must come from trusting that God holds in His hand every flawed perspective, He condescended and atoned to experience each one, He can reconcile all of them with the truth, and He entrusted me with my own.
The application? Christ taught in His ministry to the Nephites, "there shall be no disputations among you, as there have hitherto been; neither shall there be disputations among you concerning the points of my doctrine, as there have hitherto been. . .this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away." Seems simple enough when the Savior is right there to spell out His doctrine in no uncertain terms. "Here's the truth. Follow it and stop bickering over it."
But what about when people start to interpret things differently? What about when they dispute what Christ actually said, and question which records are actually true? Disagreements do arise, and we can't spontaneously decide to be likeminded on so many particulars. When Christ commanded the Nephites not to dispute His doctrine, I think it was not only an exhortation to hold fast to the simple things He taught, but also a way of saying, "When you disagree, if you are arguing about who knows me better, the reality is that neither of you know me. Just work together to draw closer to me, finding whatever common ground you can, realizing that no matter who has their facts in better order, I have a plan for both of you, and you will both equally rely on my grace."
"We are too diverse and at times too discordant to be able to come together as one on any other basis or under any other name. Only in Jesus Christ can we truly become one." (Elder D. Todd Christofferson)
I live my life all-too-aware of the fact that it's a possibility—if nothing else, just a possibility—that I could be entirely wrong in my beliefs. In a world of far, far too much information to parse through to obtain objective truth, the evidence and character of Jesus Christ are the greatest hope I have.
Aaaaalrighty, just a pinch more recounting to do.
Also on Friday, we met with a returning member named Dillion, who I've visited once before, and he wanted to talk about preparing for a mission! We had a fantastic discussion, and better yet, he's trying to determine whether a service mission or teaching mission would be right for him. I was grateful to have had both experiences to bring to the table there.
My temple shift on Saturday was entirely spent coordinating initiatory, though it was spiced up by the opportunity to train another brother in that position. However, a fate so tame as being initiatory coordinator isn't what's on his horizon. No, something far more fearsome awaits him. He'll be a shift coordinator once the Oquirrh Mountain Temple moves from three shifts per day to four, so he's getting some familiarity with E V E R Y position. *cue lowest note on the piano*
We held Service Mission Leadership Council at the mission home on Sunday! It was a great chance for the zone leaders and sister training leaders to touch base with President Mitchell as he and Sister Mitchell have been acclimating to their new calling. We talked about what's been working well and what needs improvement in our missionaries' experience, and my zone's leadership got to share some of the success we've had with building zone unity, adding to a great discussion from everyone.
I also checked in with how the mission's goal setting program is going, a little worried that it's faded away by now, but I was happy to discover that it's still on everyone's radar, stronger in some places. weaker in others. It'll need some revision soon, so I might have my work cut out for me. Eek!
Toward the end I led a teaching moment on serving with loving kindness, and I felt like it went very well! Ain't nobody got time for me to recount that though. Bottom line for the meeting as a whole was that we're all increasingly excited to work with the Mitchells.
Clearly I'm assisting you with the goal you may or may not know you've set to do more reading today. Congratulations and you're welcome!
Elder Tolman
Pictures:
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President Mitchell after SMLC. We took this picture for Bryce at the Global Services Department, who I sometimes serve in proximity to. I found out last Tuesday that he and President Mitchell got their MBA together!
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| Service project for Tiny Tim’s Workshop |
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| Our ingenious attempt to recreate the Tower of Babel. Thankfully our language wasn’t confounded. |
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| Whenever we aren’t at service sites or otherwise occupied with our calling, our remaining time is referred to as “agency hours”, which are on us to spend well. For some of his, Elder Anderson in my zone decided to invite friends and family to his own outdoor concert, so I got to attend (heh, while scrambling to get my weekly planning done :P). The man’s confidence is unreal! |
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| sUrE-LoC HarDWaRe |
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