Chapter 64: Charity & Explosions

 *ragged gasping* How many unique beginnings/greetings must I commission myself to come up with? The number of emails I’m writing doesn’t even match the number of weeks in my mission, and already my idea spring is drying up! I shoulda made these consistent a long time ago. Here, just imagine this as the most riveting, original hello you’ve ever heard:

Hello!

The momentum of the service ever escalates! As my days are increasingly numbered, I’ve found myself wishing, if only a little bit, that I had the chance to transfer between more service sites in my mission adventure, simply for a greater variety of experiences and for a broader reach in the service I offer. But the site managers just love holding onto their missionaries too much, and in church office building assignments it’s especially difficult to have missionary turnover due to all the training and permissions necessary to bring a missionary up to speed. That’s been especially true of the positions I’ve filled in department comms and missionary media, so much so that my release date has adopted titles such as “the dreaded day” between me, Elder Lee, and Emily. Putting all your responsibility eggs in one missionary basket definitely creates a lot of inertia when filling soon-to-be-vacant assignments. Divvying things up has put me and a few others on red alert over that few weeks, but, thankfully with each new week I’m more confident in the future.

There may be a bit of opportunity cost staying at the same assignment most days, but the upside is the depth of relationships you get to form and just how firmly you’re able to get entrenched in what you do. My time at the GSD has answered my prayers in small ways and fulfilled promises from the Lord in HUGE ways. This past week I’ve been especially grateful for the incredible people there—the caring senior missionaries, the diligent employees and young missionaries, my edifying (and ZEALOUS) supervisor in communications, and so on. They all strike a beautiful balance between focus on the work and focus on the fellow workers. 

Immediately after a “Celestial Zone” (a sendoff ceremony we do for departing missionaries)

An explosive highlight—quite literally explosive—from this past week was a 4th of July party hosted by Elder and Sister Cima (a senior couple at the GSD). …It was held on the 3rd of July, but we can go ahead and move past that plot hole. Many missionaries and former missionaries from the GSD came, and afterward we walked up to Eaglewood Golf Course to watch a spectacular firework show they put on each year. I think I heard that 30,000 people attended. Traffic was terrible afterward, so a lot of us stayed at the Cimas’ to wait it out until a VERY unmissionarylike hour, sitting in their front yard in an undead stupor. BUT, things were livened up when a New Zealander named Aidan and his girlfriend strolled up to us, asked what we were all about, and conjured up a deck of cards for an impromptu game. As that happened I sat among spectators to simultaneously be shown butterfly comb tricks by the appropriately named Elder Coombs (I literally only just made that connection 😆).

Waiting for the roads to be drivable with a dandy NZ duo

My teaching area had zone leader exchanges last Friday, so I got to work with Elder Chatterley and Elder Mackay! It was fun having the latter gent back in the area. The dude’s memory is on-point, so he was right on top of our resurrected inside jokes. It was also pretty interesting seeing the intersection of two different halves of companionships I’ve joined before. Guess that’s always been the novelty of exchanges/transfers.

Friday proselytizing time (we finished off the day by knocking my family’s door 😆.
We pride ourselves on how exceptionally hilarious, clever, and original this joke was)

Between Independence Day and Pioneer Day, we’re in a month of honoring the sacrifice of those who came before us. At the same time, I’ve been reflecting on how, in a positive way, I’m not only blessed by, but made up of charity from those around me—family, mentors, friends, etc. In cases where immense discouragement weighs me down and I can’t see the worth of my effort, this thought has helped me keep going: “Honor the gifts you have been given. On a temporal level, other people have toiled, building you up to be who you are, and on an eternal level, you are not your own.” (See 1 Corinthians 6:19)

Remember too that the incredible sacrifice of those who have given us the lives, culture, and possessions we enjoy is only a darkened reflection of our Savior’s sacrifice, which encompasses every blessing and every hardship, even extending infinitely beyond them (2 Nephi 9:7).

God be with you,

Elder Tolman

Keeping up the bulb light obsession (the other elders have to remind me
that I have this quirk…when they don’t, my bulb light selfie collection stagnates :P)