Remember some of these? My favorite is the poor little guy eating cereal and starting to cry...

Buenos Dias!

It has been an awesome, stressfull, and highly-rewarding week. Thankfully, my companion is a very cool character and helped me calm down in preparing for baptismal interviews, going for baptismal clothes, getting on the wrong bus on the day of baptisms, etc. It was one of the best Sundays of my mission yesterday. We took more than half the sacrament meeting confirming people. Attatched is a photo of those who were all baptized and confirmed this past weekend. The little girl in yellow was baptized too, but there wasnt enough baptismal clothes for the photo. We have interviews tomorrow with the MP, the doc, and the psychiatrist. I could not imagine a more daunting interview. Just pray for me so that there will be no needles involved. Pretty much everyone has written me about the fantastic time you all had together this past weekend. Sounds like ya´ll had a blast! Apart from my father cursing my firstborn for a vicious move by Sarah, I think all went well. I love you all! -Elder Tolman

One of our best letters yet...

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Love, Laurie 9-Febrero-2009 Let me start off by wishing luck to Sarah in her productions this week, to Josh in choosing a new house, to Mom in finding someone to fix the house, to Dad in his business decisions, to G&G Tolman in starting up their mission soon, and congrats to Ben for starting a new job. This week went by well. I have an excellent companion who loves the Work. We had lots of success be the end of Sunday. Things are looking up, way up. We have a golden investigator- José Acosta - who just swallows up anything Gospel related we give him. He is getting baptized this Saturday, which is always stressfully exciting. Along with him, varios persons from the Blanco Family are planning to be baptized with him. The Blanco family is HUGE. And VERY poor. Sadly, many members here are a bit arrogant and prideful, but there are enough humble, hard-working families to keep the blessings coming to this ward. Luis is beginning to ask us to leave his house. We had a talk with him the other day while we helped him sand down a desk he made in his workshop (all sanding skills I possess I due credit to Exterior Structures/Potterman Hollow) and later we talked about the repentance process of Alma, jr. He is letting us come back, but he´s losing his family because he cant/wont give up selling/doing drugs, and he´s blaming us for it. A delicate situation, especially cause of the people he knows. I absolutely love being a missionary. I dont think that I have ever been so happy for my efforts in my life as I am now. Its great! I HIGHLY recommend it for all who are wondering if they should go or not. We had a Ward leadership meeting yesterday where we discussed the baptisms of the Blanco family and someone made comment that in the entire leadership there, every one of them were RM´s, except for one who met the missionaries after getting married. Being a missionary is so pivotal in future church service. There is just so much to learn that one can only learn in the field. I have been blessed with a great area, great companion, and great leaders. There is so much inspiration going on here. THere is so much to do. And so little time to write about it in my journal. I just cant begin to explain to you all for helping me get here. I love you all so much. Trust in God. There is a promise oft repeated in the BoM - ¨Keep my commandments, and ye shall prosper in the land.¨ It is repeated some 22 times. ¨Ask, and ye shall recive; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you,¨ repeated some 125 times in all canon of scripture. I think He is trying to tell us something. -Elder Tolman

It's true! It's in print.

Someone crafty should make this and hang it at Grandma and Grandpa's

Silly Questions

I sent some silly questions to Jake to see how much more detail I could get from him on his life in Mexico. I thought you might all enjoy his answers (well - some of his answers.. The chicken soup - not so much). If you don't remember the bug after the "amen" let me know and I'll send you the picture. Love to all. Mon, 2 Feb 2009 11:13:15 -0800 What is the weirdest thing you've eaten? Menudo (its like chicken noodle soup, just without noodles and chicken but with cow stomach) and caldo de cabeza de rez ( like beef stew, but thew use the head of the cow and you see and feel the little tentacles that cushion the brain on impact) What is the most awesome thing you've eaten. Flour tortillas What do you and your comp have in common. The love of the Gospel and the desire to laugh Who is the strangest person you've come across. The crazy guy from Angostura, I forgot his name. Who is the coolest person you've met. My MP and my current ward mission leader What is your shower like without hot water. Very short. What is the strangest bug or spider you've seen. The one that appeared after the ¨amen¨. What is the funniest thing that's happened this week. We were talking with the Fierro family about the gospel one night and then Sis. Fierro looked at her youngest son and said, ¨Kevin, if that is MY booklet you are writing in, I am going to hit you really hard!¨ In which Kevin replied, ¨Mom, you know very well that this is your booklet.¨ -pause- BAM! What is your Sunday like? How are church meetings different from home? There are hardly any rest hymns. Ever. Love you,Mom