1 month in McAllen

Hola mis amigos y familia,

Not much to report this week. Last pday we went fishing. Then we sent a goal as a zone to help 11 of God’s children make a covenant with Him in the month of July. So we had a goal this week to invite a ton of people to baptism. Unfortunately for us, the guy we had on date wasn't able to meet with us or go to church so his date fell, but everyone else in the zone has been super successful and it's so awesome because almost every day this week someone was accepting the invitation to be baptized!

We were able to go talk to some people in the street, keeping social distance and with masks on. It's so fun to be able to talk to people face to face! Also, we had been invited to mark the Books of Mormon we pass out and so we spent a lot of time doing that.

Another huge blessing this week was being able to see President and Sister Barlow’s farewell devotional. We had had a difficult day and hearing their words really helped me. I am so grateful for everything they have done for me and in the Ecuador Quito Mission!

I have to go to the doctor today to do some lab tests and see if I brought anything from Ecuador so hopefully this week, I will have results!

I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the 4th of July!

Les quiero mucho

Elder Tolman

Classic Sunday pic in the bathroom

The sisters came to give us food and an ice cream truck came by, so I bought everyone some.

District shenanigans

4 Man

Hola mis amigos y familia!

So, this week has been a roller coaster. Full of great days and good days. We have been grinding and finding as many people as possible, but unfortunately the person we had on date doesn't want to be baptized anymore. We also found two people who want to hear our message but they live in other areas! But we have the faith to find the Lord’s elect so we will keep grinding!

Also, this week I have come in contact with many people that don’t think what we share is true and they try to find every scripture or any way possible to disprove what we know to be true. One instance this guy was just asking questions and in that instant I felt similar to how the Lord must have felt with the pharisees asking questions to set traps, but I just bore testimony to each question and I was able to do it so fast and without a doubt. I know the Lord was blessing me then and it definitely strengthened my testimony of this gospel. Then that same day we were able to put another investigator named Nic on date for July 4th. He wasn't able to come to church or talk to us the rest of the week cause he is so busy, which worries me, but I pray that he will be able to go through with it and receive so many blessings!

Thursday, we had zone conference on zoom. President told us we had to move the other elders into our apartment today because they had black mold. We also found out we can now go outside and talk to people but we have to have masks and keep social distance and basically we can't proselytize full force. It's just casual conversation. We moved the other elders in and so now we have four people in our apartment.

Then this week elder Uchtdorf asked us to sing a song for a virtual choir. None of us were planning on doing it but President Ocampo told us that it was instruction from an apostle so we had to repent. We were singing it, each taking turns and we just laughed the whole time because none of us can sing! (Also the music we were listening to was cutting off at the end so we had to kind of guess how to sing it cause once again we can't sing or read music. 

On Sunday we had church. We have four missionaries in our branch so we bless and pass. There were not many people there at all, but a sister was leaving for her mission so she gave her farewell talk. 

That's all for this week. I took more photos so hopefully you can enjoy those!

First week back at Church

Hola mis amigos y familia,

So this last Monday we went to the border and took some pictures. It was just a big metal fence but still pretty cool none the less.

This week we started running in the mornings and it is so hard to run because for one I haven't done it for a while and two the humidity makes it harder to breathe, but we have been having fun. 

We had a rougher week with people not wanting to talk to us or ignoring us. Some people just have super hard hearts. And with being able to reach out to more people than we normally do without technology means we find a lot more rejection than normal. We have found some people who are interested, but they usually live in a different area so we just pass them off. One particular funny example is that an Elder had given us a referral. We taught her and she was super awesome. Said that she would read the Book of Mormon and be baptized. We posted in our group chat of missionaries our little miracle and then sisters commented back that they were already teaching her so whoops! 

We were finally able to do service this week. We loaded some stuff into the back of our truck and then dropped it off at the member’s house. They bought us food for that which was awesome.

Then on Sunday we finally could go back to church so Elder Pico and I blessed the sacrament and of course everything had to be done super carefully. Afterwards we had to disinfect almost the whole building.

All I have are pictures from the border. It's hard to take lots of pictures during the week when all you do is stay in your house. 

Les quiero mucho!

Elder Tolman

The USA/Mexico Border

Let's go to the beach!

Hola mis amigos y familia!

So this week we started our week by going to Boca Chica beach. It's just a small little beach, but on the way there you pass Space X! Funny story, we were taking cool beach pics when a wave came up and took our name tags. I hurried and took off my shoes so I could go search for them. Luckily, I found mine, but Elder Picos got lost jaja. Later that day we set a baptismal date for someone we found on Facebook, but she lives in Matamoros Mexico, so we have to try and get in contact with the missionaries there. 

Space X

 

View of Boca Chica Beach

This week there are not a lot of highlights because we basically just stay in the house all day. One day we tried to set a lesson with some members but just over a Facebook call. They insisted we come to their house and we would talk outside. Long story short they invited us inside and fed us jaja. I also did a baptismal interview for my first time with this guy named Jose. He was super cool and so prepared. I was so privileged to get to know him! He was baptized on Thursday! 

Thursday night I felt super bad and ended up throwing up a few times that night. The next morning, we had a devotional with Brother Hank Smith which was super cool. Later Sister Ocampo came over I think to do apartment checks. They found out I had been sick and so now they want me to go to the hospital to get it checked out. I'm not too happy about that. We had interviews with President and then Sunday night we received transfers. Elder Pico and I will be staying. Which I'm not sure means a lot since we get missionaries every 2 weeks. But we are having the most fun we can being locked up. We laugh every day. Sometimes it feels we have no success because an appointment cancels and instead of going and knocking doors like we normally do, I'm in a chair trying to contact on Facebook so I don't feel like I am working as hard, but I just have to remember that this is the work now and the Lord will bless me for all my efforts!

I hope you guys have enjoyed some of our content! I would love ideas for some topics we could talk about that might interest people more.

Les quiero mucho!

Elder Tolman 

Riding in the rain

Views of Brownsville

Ward member's doggie

Welcome to Texas baby!

Hola mis amigos y familia!

It’s great to be back out in the field! So as many of you know, after waiting 2 months I have been reassigned to serve in the Texas McAllen Mission. Last Tuesday I flew out and had a 5-hour layover but made it to Presidents house and had dinner with him and his family. On Wednesday we received our companions and it was all over zoom which was super weird. My new companion is named Elder Pico and we are serving in Brownsville. He was originally going to serve in the Spain Barcelona mission but after 3 weeks in the MTC he got reassigned here. He has about 3 months in the mission. Upon receiving my new companion president Ocampo also told me I would be a district leader which caught me by surprise. A district leader is a missionary who has the assignment to work normally, and to also help a small group of missionaries work effectively. I have been super nervous because I don’t know anyone or the area here and I have never been a district leader before, but as I rely on the Lord I am humbled and reminded that he has control of everything so it will be alright.

My first day with elder Pico was very strange. We had a lesson with a guy some missionaries had been teaching and they were passing him off to us because he lives in our area. Just a super amazing guy and he has definitely been prepared. Later my companion taught me how to Facebook find and ever since then we have been finding lots of success. We also do Facebook posts on our personal account as well as some for our Brownsville page.

We also had a devotional with Elder Soares over zoom. It was super cool and to be able to connect with an apostle of the lord over zoom was just amazing. Technology is doing soooooo much good right now! I encourage you all to join the train and bless people's lives through the tools that we have been given.

The days here are super long and I have found myself longing for home more than ever in my mission which is weird because I wanted to come out again. But every time I have those feelings I try and push them away and work instead of being a lazy butt and boy do the blessings follow! We are allowed 3 30-minute breaks a day, but we haven't been taking them and instead working and talking to people literally from 6:30 when we wake up until 10:30 when we go to bed. The Lord loves effort and because of ours I know he is continually pouring down blessings and help from on high. I've also been reading a book called faith precedes the miracle and it has changed my perspective on a lot of things.

Being in quarantine is definitely hard, but we make the best of it and are having an awesome time!

I love you all and miss you. Hope you have a great week!!

Elder Tolman

Dinner at Presidente Ocampo's

New companion, Elder Pico