Week 16

October 08, 2018

Week 16

10-08-2018

Lo siento, yo hablo pequito espanol

The first line of this email is a phrase I've said more in the past week than I have my entire life! That being said, Spanish is coming along more quickly than I had hoped. It started out slow and frustrating(both of those are still prevalent) but it's getting a little better every day. I can pray in Spanish and do short contacts. Big step from where I was. The first thing my companion taught me to say was "we are here to baptize you" so I said it at a door and they yelled at us and shut the door and we started laughing, funny stuff. Anyways, more about my week

The rest of Monday was good. We got back to the apartment, did a little tracting then went to a newly baptized members house. She wanted all of us to come over and say bye and she made us dessert. She's the sweetest old lady. When we left she started to cry and gave us all huge, which as a missionary feels super awkward because you aren't supposed to hug people. But when they just throw themselves on you, you just kind of stand there. Oh well, she got her "hug". And then I said bye to everyone in the district.

Tuesday was transfer meeting. So we went down and took everything to Lilburn. We got there just on time and the meeting started right when we sat down. So, on the 22nd of this month DAVID A. BEDNAR is coming to speak to the mission as well as the Georgia Atlanta mission! It's a double mission conference! Exciting stuff is going to be announced. President Marsh told us that he was going to talk to us about 11 different things. That's all we know so guess we'll find out here in a little bit. After that we went to my new area, Gainesville. We are over the entire Sugar Hill Zone and the lower half of the Coal Mountain zone. Huge area. We have the most miles for our car than anyone else in the mission. That night we taught an English class which was good, but kind of hard because I don't speak Spanish. So the people who came wanted me to say things in Spanish that they said in English. It was fun.

Wednesday was pretty good. We had district council and I got to meet the district. Everyone seems really nice and fun. The district includes the STL's, ZL's, the district leader, and me and Elder Araujo. It's fun. After that we got Zaxbys for lunch. Then we went back and did language study. Let me tell ya, I don't know hardly any Spanish. And that really started to show from that point on. We went tracting after that and there are entire neighborhoods of all Hispanic people, it's the coolest thing. And by far the closest I can get to full immersion in the mission. It's exciting but super scary at the same time. After tracting for a little while, a member took us to..mm you guessed it, Zaxbys. It was good. Then we went back and went to bed.

Thursday was pretty good as well. After morning studies we went to Wal-Mart and got a pillow because I forgot mine in the old apartment. Darn. Then we did our weekly planning a day early because tomorrow is super packed already. Then we went to a lesson, and that fell through so we re-tracted the area. Every house except one was Hispanic. We got in two lessons then went back to try again and she answered! So we got that lesson in as well. Good stuff. Then we went to a members for dinner. Then we went tracting again. That's pretty much it.

Friday, Spanish is finally starting to come in spurts. I'm able to understand more and more every day, but I still can't speak it very well. Which is ok, that will come in time. Friday was weird. The district leader and his companion needed a ride to a meeting so we drove them there and waited until it was over to give them a ride back. Then after that we went tracting again because all of our lessons fell through. Nothing was working and then at 7:50 right before we went back for dinner we knocked on this apartment door and a Spanish family opened and let us share a message. After the message they said we were angels and that they wanted us to come back. Cool. That's pretty much it from today.

Saturday...... GENERAL CONFERENCE! WAHOO! How amazing was it that we got to hear from a PROPHET OF GOD?? One thing that really stuck out to me was in Paul B. Papers talk. It isn't exact wording but it went something along the lines of... The only way to earn salvation is through Jesus Christ, that being said, our return back to heavenly father is not guaranteed. In order for us to receive that blessing we have to put in the work. Take action in coming closer to Christ... I just loved that because it's something a lot of people here in the South don't quite understand. That effort needs to be made on our part to return back. We can't just say, "I messed up, sorry" the atonement wasn't easy for Christ, so why would salvation be easy for us? That's it from Saturday!

Sunday, another day we get to hear from our beloved Prophetsand other leaders of the church. After the first session we went to a member dinner and after that we went and got stuff ready to leave after the second session. After the afternoon session we went to the stake presidents for a fireside. It was fun, everyone in the zone went so I got to meet everyone. Then we went to the Sugar Hill elders to spend the night there.

Well, hope everyone had a great week! Love and miss you all-

- Elder Tolman

Here's my new address for those of you who might want it