Alofa ia te oe,
Elder Tolman
Well.. This week was AWESOME! I don't even know where to start!! Once again the beginning of the week was AWFUL haha we couldn't seem to make any progress in finding and teaching. We couldn't meet any of the goals we were setting each day, and things just kept falling through. Luckily my faith has grown just a little bit ;) so i didn't get down at all, we knew the Lord would provide. So up until thursday we only had 6 lessons taught. Our goal for the week was 23. So Friday things got a little better, we get five lessons taught and found a new investigator, but still not close to our weekly goals. Then, SATURDAY rolls around. We decide to take three of the young men with us, who are 14 and 15, to teach some lessons. Elder Fat and I split up into teams with them. I was with a kid named Neil, and Fat was with some kids named Jay and Fredarius. In one hour, between our groups, we taught 16 lessons, found 4 new investigators, and had an ending week with 13 scheduled to be baptised!! What an AWESOME DAY! To put the cherry on the cake. About an hour before we took the kids out with us, I had the opportunity to baptise a man named Robin! What an overwhelming feeling of priesthood power and the holy ghost! I must say it's days like that, that make you so thankful for the privilege it is to be on the Lords errand! So yeah, this week was so amazing! Well my personal study has been pretty awesome this week! I love READING!! I can hardly put down the Book of Mormon or Jesus the Christ. I have also been reading a lot from the new testament this week. That's been really good to deepen my understanding with, through Jesus the Christ, so that I can relate to my investigators here in "the bible belt" haha. This week really has been awesome all together. The temple sounded like it was great, I'm so jealous I only get to go every so often. Take advantage of that blessing you have, it's as close to heaven as you'll get down here! :) To answer your question, yes, I doesn't snow that much here. But the winter chill with the humidity honestly chills you to the bone, especially while riding bikes! So it may not look dark and cold, but it gets cold haha. Well thats all I can think of to say, but it was a nice week. Thank you so much for your prayers, they help! I hope you can see mine helping your lives as well! The church is true, I know it from the bottom of my heart and soul! Jesus lives, and has made it possible for us to be forgiven. The atonement is CONTINUOUS, so continue to us it! Of all people, I know of assurity that it is NEVER TO LATE to be forgiven! Your the biggest blessing of all time to me, and I'm so thankful I have all of you to spend eternity with. Keep on keepin' on, and always do what's right. I love you more than you could ever know, and so does heavenly father!
Well first off, I was FREAKIN out once again in the Library haha because you both told me forever ago it was a BOY and now it's a GIRL hahaha you two are off the freakin chain. I was honestly freaking out so bad tears were in my eyes haha I dont know if it was because I was so excited/shocked/happy/sad haha they just started coming out! I think I know why all the people in BAMA think the missionaries are crazy haha, because they sit at Library computers and cry hahaha. Well shoot I'm excited to meet this little McKinley when I get home! :) (that's my vote by the way). You two are gonna be the coolest parents ever. Well this week was pretty good, not the best. Honestly EVERYTHING feel through this week. We'll start with Monday. Well I played basketball with probably 80 black kids haha, that was crazy! They all either call me "white boy", "slim" "slim shady" or "eminem" hahaha crazy people. I definitely felt out of place though haha but I soon felt in the crew when I started ballin them up :) hahaha. Tuesday and Wednesday we pretty okay. A lot of our lessons fell through. Tuesday we went and taught a named Clint Moore, he's the one who feeds us ribs like twice a week haha. We played some darts with him, the game where you count down from 301, you better believe I'm the overall champ. Wednesday was sloooowwww..... we rode our bikes everywhere that day and only got 4 lessons.. Bummer. Thursday was pretty sick though. Elder Fat had to go to a Leadership training, so I got to go to Clanton and do some exchanges. I was with two Elders named Elder Haderlie and Elder Banks. Elder Banks is an OG! He's from DC, and was way fun to work with. He was in the MTC with me, I was Zone Leader over his District. We helped Clanton out a lot, I actually committed two people to baptism for them ON THE DOOR STEP! :) that was pretty awesome. Friday was depressing, we had 12-13 lessons planned and all fell through but 3. Saturday was better though. We rode about 55 miles up to the Craigs Field Airforce base and tracted. We found 3 new gators and taught 8 lessons in about an hour and a half, so that Lord helped us out a lot. :) Sunday was pretty awesome, we had 6 new investigators at church, and it was a pretty spiritual meeting, so we hope they will come back :). But other than that, that's about all that happened this week. Transfers are coming up on the 9th, pray that Fat and I will have 1 more transfer together. We have 13 baptisms scheduled, and it'd be awesome to see them all preformed.Keep on the straight and narrow, don't let go of that rod! I love you two more than you could ever know, your truely the greatest brother and sister ever! and soon to be some of the greatest PARENTS! Keep on keepin on.
Tasi Alofa (ONE LOVE) as Bob Marley would say :)
Okay this week has been OFF THE HOOK! :)
Lets just start out with day by day of what happened. Monday, we BALLED UP so brothas haha and got threatened haha. We played with about 80 black kids, and one white kid (me) haha, can you say JUNGLE BALL. There was about 30 playing 21 on each side of the court at one time. Then the 2 Highest scores get "ups" and they choose 3 people each to have a 4 vs. 4 game. They get pretty intense haha. Tuesday stunk haha, we had a District meeting with Elder Kendall over the phone, that was pretty good, but other than that every lesson fell through hahaha AGAIN! So we rode about 35 miles that day for nothing! Wednesday was sick!! We had a Multi-zone conference in B-ham. President Holzapfel talked on the atonement. WOW is all I can say! He is by far the best speaker I have ever heard! Honestly he is going to become a member of the 12 like a week after he gets off his mission. I really cannot explain to you how incredible his talks are, they would BLOW YOUR MIND!! Other than that haha that's all the happened Wednesday because we got home late, so by that time we planned, worked out and went to bed haha. Thursday started looking up. We tracted quite a bit and taught five lessons and found 2 new gators, so it was an okay day. Once again though, FRIDAY comes to save us haha. Within a period of two hours we had already taught 11 lessons and found 4 new gators, yeah buddy :) Then Saturday was awesome. We went with the youth up to a place close to Birmingham called the DeSoto Cavern. It's a cave that they have found bodies 2000 years old in. They are bodies of ancient indians too. So yes, I was chillin in a cave with a bunch of dead lamanites in it haha. The inside is HUGE! It's about 12 stories high and as big as a football field. This was a way fun activity for the youth. After that they have an amusement park haha or so they call it out here. The rides we so red neck haha. One of the rides, you side on TOILETS that have wheels and an engine on them haha and you race around a tract thats circumference is maybe 30 feet hahaha. Alabama continues to impress/surprise me. After that we went to a members house and ate. He told us we could come at 7 but that he wouldn't turn off the TV haha because he wanted to watch the Bama vs. LSU game. Just to make them mad we go for LSU, and of course LSU won haha he was livid. I think Bama and LSU are going to the National championship. Well anyways moving on haha Sunday was pretty awesome too. I LOVE FAST SUNDAY! The power of fast continues to build my testimony each time I do it. I never knew how important it really was. I havent missed a testimony meeting yet. I bear it everytime. :) Our testimony meetings are good! Even though we are just a little branch, we have some BIG HEARTS! Well hmm.. you asked about some of our investigators.. Well we are teaching a girl named HAWATHA, and her kids TYRONE, TYREL, ASHANTI and TYSHAIRE. Awesome names haha I know, quality african american names. Hawatha is a DJ, her name is Lady-Watha. We are actually baptising their whole family this week!! :) All five of them! I'm stoked! We are also teaching a guy named Dennis. I don't know if you saw the picture where I'm standing by the old red restored Mustang Mach 9 I think it is, but if you did that's his car haha. He's a pretty cool guy, he is going to be baptised on the 26. We are teaching these two girls name Catherine and Linda, but we think they are Lesbian, so they might be a struggle, but they are supposed to be baptised on the 26 too. Hmmm.. there is a lot of them so I'll leave some for next time haha. That story about old creeper was hilarious haha. Elder Fat and I were bustin up in the library haha. Old men have the hots for you sis haha. Is that why you like her Brock, so you can feel older, sorta like a mountain man haha? :)Well I hope your all having a good week and a good up coming week!! I love you all so much! Brock and Shay your gonna be AMAZING PARENTS! Keep reading and praying everyday! I pray everyday that the baby will be healthy and strong too! Keep the faith! I hope I'm setting a good example for you guys, hopefully a making up for all the bad ones! I love you so much! Until next time! (another week down until skype :) )
alofa ia te oe,
Peace, Love and Blessing,
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