Endure to the end!

 Hola a todos!

 This is the last email I will be sending out. This week was very uneventful. It was freezing cold and so not many people wanted to open their doors to some strangers. It even snowed last night! But we did have some little miracles that I will share!

 So Wednesday we had a family history appointment. We were going to help this guy set up his account and I was so excited for it. It finally came time, we called, and he said he couldn't and we rescheduled (he ended up not answering later). So, we went to a member’s, Jesse. He is always saying his wife is mean, so this is a two in one miracle. First, we called him and asked if we could help him with family history. We started doing it and he was all into getting all the info right because his sister had previously done it but according to him, she doesn’t know anything jajaj. So, he was feeling the spirit and we talked about patriarchal blessings and temples and set up an interview so he could get both of those. We also helped him reserve names for the temple. Then as we were leaving his wife said she had made soup for us. So, we ate her soup and talked and got to know her and so now she doesn’t hate the missionaries anymore!

 Later in the week we went by a member that hadn't been visited in a long time. This house was in a gated community. Very rare for Rio. It was a big house. Super nice. We knock it and this younger lady answers. We ask for the member and she tells us the member had moved out 10 years ago. But we got talking and she was super interested in what we do and where our church is. Before she left, she gave us chocolate and hot chocolate. It was so good. We had done our Come Follow Me as a mission that day. This was a Friday. And we had talked about the ministering of Angels. She was literally an angel for us. 

 Third miracle of the week is that we haven't been having success with our own efforts. People say they want to get baptized but then fall off the face of the earth. Kayla and Kassy both ignore us and it is sad. But we found 2 part-member families that we have planned to start teaching!

 Last highlight is on Sunday members brought desert to the church. I got mordidad. That means a donut got shoved in my face. Then we went over for lunch and had a big lunch and they put on a little slide show of my mission. It was very nice. 

 Anyways see you all in a few days 😬😬
Elder Tolman

The Restroration

 Hola a todos!

 This week I was pondering a lot on the apostasy and the restoration. There are so many examples of the apostasy in the bible, but people still don’t want to believe that the Church has been restored by Prophets. We stopped by one of our people on date, Third, and while we were talking about modern day Prophets his uncle came up trying to tell us the bible says there are no more prophets. It was sad and frustrating. It led me to think how I can help people understand better and then I remembered how others always ask me well if you didn’t grow up in the church then you wouldn’t be in the religion you are. I've always taken a little offense and then shared that I know for myself and that it has nothing to do with the fact that I was born in the Church but recently I have pondered more on that and I am so grateful I was! If I wasn’t taught by good parents at a young age what I needed to do to be happy and if they had never invited me to act on my own then I would have never received my own testimony. It is such a blessing! I would encourage you to think upon the mercies of God and the times that he has blessed you. Alma 5 has some really good questions of reflection! 

 So this week on Monday we went hiking with brother Peña. He was so funny. We went to the river and took a few pictures. 

 Tuesday, we had a few lessons. We tried meeting with Kayla but she wasn’t home. The same thing happened on Wednesday except we got to her house the same time she got home, and she ignored us so we got the idea she doesn't want to be baptized anymore. 

 Wednesday, we had a zone conference over zoom. I was sad because we couldn't go in person. Then we had a ton of errands to run before we went out to visit people. We taught Kassy and she is so funny. Wants to know so much and a lot of it is things about God that we don’t know. We call that deep doctrine. We had mutual and played kickball, but only Emilee came so that was sad. We still had a good time though.

 Thursday, we had district meeting. Elder Taylor's birthday was on Friday, so we were going to mordida him. As he was leaving the building, his companions were outside with a cake and last second, he limbo-ed under it! Elder Jordan and I were behind him too and had to dodge it. It made a big mess in the church and we told him he had to come clean it up. But we had a backup cake and he wasn’t expecting it so we got him good. Then later for our branch activity we watched the first vision and then painted our own interpretations of it. 

 Friday, we drove up to Zapata in the morning and did a blitz with the elders. I was with Elder Winward. We had a few good lessons. Some of them we had to drop because they weren't keeping commitments and then our last lesson was a family, they we’re teaching and we were planning on putting them on date. They had questions about baptizing little kids and we answered their questions, and we were about to set a date and the dad gets up and starts talking about a whole bunch of stuff. And long story short, goes oh by the way we are also members, you can look in your records. Sure enough they were already baptized so that was awkward. Lol

 Saturday, we had Carlos baptism and then after that we worked on some Facebook posts. We haven’t done a video in a while. Then we went to go out contacting but remembered we had to go find a receipt, so I was making calls while Elder Jordan was contacting. We got to one street and the first people we contacted seemed super cool. Then we got a phone call from a member that she was at the church to give us food super early. We were so sad we couldn't contact more, but the Lord blessed us with at least that one. We took the food to the sisters and ate in the back of our truck. Later we visited Kassy and she said she didn’t want to get baptized. Everyone was telling her she wasn’t ready. Including her brother who is already a member. But while he was there, we asked her to summarize the previous lesson. She did it with ease and her brother was super impressed and said never mind you already know more than I do. So, we were able to put her back on date.

 Sunday, we visited members all day long. Found out this one guy who comes almost every week isn't baptized so we are going to ask him this week. 

 Love you all!
Elder Tolman 

Last time at the Rio

Painting the Restoration

Hiking with Brother Pena

Michael got baptized!

 Hola a todo!

 I hope you all had a great week! I can’t believe it is already February! This week was a roller coaster full of ups and downs. 

 Monday, we started off the week teaching Rigo and we set a BD with him. But then for the rest of the week we never saw nor heard from him and every time we went over to his house or called, he wasn’t there or didn’t answer. We also stopped by a few recent converts and invited them to our activities. 

 Tuesday, we had meetings all morning. Later went out to visit a member taught her about patriarchal blessings. Then later the sisters were having some lessons at the church, so we had to be present for those. Afterward Michael asked Brother Peña to baptize him. So, we called Bro Peña to tell him and he answered saying don’t ask me to talk or nothing. We told him it wasn’t that and that Michael wanted him to baptize him. He gasped and yelled, "that's even worse" we knew he was excited though. 

 Wednesday, we mowed a lawn early in the morning and then helped at Casa de Esperanza. Then we prepared for our youth activity. It was a scavenger hunt. We had 4 youth show up which is a record for us. They are all super crazy and stayed at the church until 9 but we had a good time. We also went by Kayla. She is a girl we were teaching a long time ago but then she went to Mexico. She is back and we were able to put her on date for Feb 9!

 Thursday, we had District Council and then went to McAllen for my companion’s doctor appointment. We got back right before our Branch activity. Sister Babcock was able to help get us a virtual tour set up of Carthage Jail. We thought a lot more people would show up but not a lot did so that was sad. Also, our video system just decided to not work so we couldn't hear or see most of it. But I am so grateful for the sisters and their efforts because we had a recent convert and an investigator on date able to grow from watching it.

 Friday was just crazy. All I remember is that it didn't go as planned we found some members that we didn’t know before, we talked to a few people but weren't able to teach anyone until super late and when we went over they just talked and talked and talked and never let us share anything so we spent an hour of just listening. It was very sad and they said they felt the spirit telling them to listen to us but then they didn’t come to church so that was an emotional roller coaster in and of itself. 

 Saturday we were busy all in the morning again. Then we planned a training we have to give later on in the week. So, we didn’t get out to work until 4. We went by some people and none of them were home, so we just went to the baptism of Michael. We had a musical number and I had to give a talk last second because a member couldn't. We taught brother Peña how to baptize and it went super well! Then President Vélez took us to Chili's to eat. They sat us right under a speaker and were playing some really good music but President Vélez being older thinks the music is dumb and was mocking the younger generation and how they dance, and it was hilarious! We were with Brother Peña and Sister Langenstein also, so you know I was just laughing the whole time.

 Sunday Michael was confirmed. We had a church audit afterwards and so we were at the church until 3. We tried to go visit some people afterwards but like I mentioned earlier, people were being flaky. Third and Rigo who are on date didn’t come to church. Kayla said she couldn't because she was sick. So, she attended online church. Billy didn’t come just cause he didn’t feel like it even though he complained about flaky people because he sells insurance. And Billy cancelled our lesson! I was pretty grumpy. We went to Third’s and he just isn’t progressing. Doesn’t want to act on anything. At the end of the day, we went by Kayla’s because she wasn’t answering phone calls. She wasn’t home so we are thinking oh boy what a liar. Our only person on date that is willing to act is dodging us now. I was mad. But we found out she went to her cousin's house who also is a recent convert. We went to his house. Found Kayla and talked to her. We said she has to come to church and meet with us every day. We told her satan doesn’t want her to get baptized and she used the examples of her going to Mission and getting sick but then being fine later. So she knows and things were starting to look better. And then out came her other cousin and was asking a million questions and we would begin to answer one when she would spit out another. Long story short Cassy, her cousin, also wants to get baptized and we put her on date for March 7. The Lord is so merciful and so good! I may not be able to see the fruits of my labors from now on, but I count myself blessed to be able to at least plant the seed and have the privilege of working alongside my Savior. I know He lives and is the one who is the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and He directs His perfect work!

 I love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Tolman

Brother Pena