Week 6 Last Week!

Hola!!

How is everything going! I leave on Monday and am so excited but I still have to pack everything.

Last Pday we went to the temple and did an endowment session and then did initiatory after. We were in the temple forever but I loved it! Sunday Elder Fatiaki actually participated in class and then gave a talk in sacrament meeting and it was amazing. Could really feel the spirit and I was so thankful for his testimony. He has always had it but is kind of shy to share it. Then later in the day we had a district activity and basically we went around telling everybody why they were awesome. When it was my turn for people to talk about I was like ok lets make this fast, but they actually said like nice sincere things so I was happy about that. Then at choir Brother Egget compared our MTC experience to the movie Rocky. It was funny but I didn't get any of the references. We sang This is the Christ but not my favorite. We then watched a film with Elder Holland about opening your mouth and using preach my gospel and studying and being converted so we can teach by the spirit.

Monday was the start of our Spanish only week. Before I continue lets just say our district sucked at speaking only Spanish. The next few days kind of blurred together but basically we would all start off Spanish and by our first class everyone was speaking English except me and Elder Cox but he lasted longer than I did. Found out that hermanas in Connor's district call me the "Work of God" so that's funny. My companion teases me about it all the time.

Hermana Cheney

Tuesday I ran 3 miles and it was fun but so tiring and the rest of the day I felt so dead.We sang in the devotional and Elder Claudio Costa and his wife spoke about what we should be doing as missionaries. While he was talking about helping members be apart of missionary work, dad's quote came to my head, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." So thanks dad.

Wednesday we got ANOTHER district so now 4 and we also practiced two songs we are singing in choir. One is God Be With You Till We Meet Again and we will sing that in English and Spanish and then a song called How Can I Be. Elder Fatiaki is going to play the ukulele while we sing. I love it so much. Look it up on youtube. Also it was so nice outside that our teacher let us go outside and we went around sharing the first vision Elder Fatiaki was timid at first but then after a few he was sharing with everyone. It was awesome. Then we had an English TRC which went pretty good. Probably the best one we have had. Also talked to an hermana that ran XC at Deseret High and ran a few halfs and a full marathon. Never got her name tho. She didn't sound very fast so you know not much competition here.  Then we had another TRC on Thursday with the English person and then one later at night with a native over Skype. Her name is Carolina. She was so cool. We also had a class from the dude who makes the curriculum and he talked about our brains and learning Spanish so that was cool. Then yesterday everyone wrote in journals and we passed it around and stuff. Connor stole mine so his hermanas could write in it. Got the package from mom and it had Martinelli's and we had a toast and party and it was awesome! 

Celebrating with Martinelli's

Overall a good week with tons of spiritual experiences. I'd like to share one before I end. I was in the shower because that is where all my revelation happens and I was thinking about if I didn't learn Spanish in high school or if I just didn't put that I did on my mission papers and how that would affect where I'm serving and what language I'm speaking. Then the spirit said this, "you are not called to speak Spanish because you took Spanish in high school. You spoke Spanish in high school because I knew you would be called to speak Spanish." It was so cool. I love the spirit and the ability to have it with me always. I know the Church is true and that Jesus atoned for our sins so that we could all return to live with God. Jesus is our advocate, our closest friend and we can turn to him for anything. I know the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was called of God to restore the gospel and I am so grateful for this knowledge and to be able to share it with anyone.

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Tolman