December 29

Things haven't change much since we talked on Skype and it still is
going pretty good here in Redding. I'm kinda getting tired of being a
greenie. The rest of Christmas was a little weird. We went to a
member's house for dinner but they had all of their family there so it
was a lot of people. We got a lot of gifts from people I hardly know.
They had us play a card game called Play Nine which I won at and they
accused us of having played the game before. We shot off plastic
rockets and I accidentally hit a car luckily no damage was done.
Something cool that happened the other day was we didn't have a dinner
for that night and we were meeting the zone leaders and then an old
lady calls us over and says she is the grandma of the missionaries and
when she found out we didn't have dinner she gave us money to buy
dinner. It was either a huge coincidence or a blessing, that was
pretty much how my week went. Remember ties, sunglasses, and cookie
recipe.
And here are a few pictures pick your favorite.

Skyping with my Boy on Christmas!

Letter from Ward Family

To The Families of Elders Kokkola and Thomlinson,

Thank you for sending your sons on a mission.  Considering you will see your sons via Skype on Christmas, this photo may serve little purpose, but while our son was on a mission he was not allowed to Skype so photos like this were exciting to us.

We appreciated having your sons in our home Christmas eve, they are both impressive young men that were enjoyable to talk with.

They are serving the Lord with honor.
Thank you again.
The Ogden Family of the Redding Second Ward, of Redding, CA

Text from Ward Family Member

Hi! Just wanted to send the moms a picture of their wonderful sons! We love having them in our ward. They said miss you and love you so much!

Assigned to Redding

Hey mom,
I have been assigned to the redding second ward area which is the northern part of the mission. My bike is still being put together so I'm using another bike right now. My companion is Elder Kokkola and he is a great guy. I'm the first person he's been trained before. My ward is full of awesome people and we had an investigator baptized last Saturday and have two more that have commited to be baptized. California rains a lot. Which is good because the people are in a drought but bad because I am in a biking area and so I get really wet. The Christmas call I'll be able to do over Skype with my iPad. I will probably be calling around 1 California time so 3 Missouri time. After spending time in the mission I wish that I had brought my other ties because the mission president is pretty chill about that kind of stuff. He is like having a third grandpa which is funny because his wife, Sister Marston, is all business meanwhile he will give you a hug every time he sees you. That's great that you graduated from college, now get a job, lazy bum. Tell everybody to friend me on Facebook. I have the chilliest/most spiritual account ever to exist. I'll talk to you on Christmas.

Elder Tomlinson

Pictures from the MTC

Another Letter from the MTC

Hey,

Everything is going good at the MTC. I have been able to teach some amazing investigators and have really felt the spirit. The MTC is weird about having me send photos but I will as soon as I can. Thanks for sending me all the stuff, I just got it today and it was great to actually have all that stuff. I have my tennis shoes(the orange ones) but I was talking about my under armour ones. its crazy that I leave for the mission field on tuesday. I gave the district a quote which said "You will never receive a commandment from God that is not beneficial to your eternal salvation." After I told everyone that they keep saying that I am going to be a member of the seventy or something. I really feel unprepared for the mission field but then I realized that the second I feel like I can do everything on my own is the second I stop relying on the Lord for help. Also if anyone goes to dearelder.com and while I'm at the MTC any letters you send me from there are free and I will get them that day. MTC food is actually pretty good, today I had a western burger for lunch which was pretty good. The food is mediocre but there is as much as you want of it. I fairly certain the sister missionaries are trying to flirt with me which is a NO-NO. I mean that is pretty much all that is happening with me, probably will have more going on once I get into the field.

Remember dearelder.com,

Elder Tomlinson

First Letter from the MTC

Hey Mom and Dad

The MTC is great! I have a great companion, Elder Campbell. I was called as district leader for the district I will have as long as I'm in the MTC. It comes with a lot of responsibilities and I have to remember to do a lot of thing but I know there is a learning curve and I welcome the challenge. I feel as though I have learned more at the MTC in a couple of days than in all my years of church going. The branch president said not to only be looking forward to going to the mission field and to focus on the MTC. Is it bad that I still want to get out to the mission field still? I have a few things that I might need you to send me. I have no way to charge my camera, it uses the same cord as the phone I had before I left so I'm guessing you still have a few of those lying around considering every phone outside of Iphone uses it. I also need a way to be able to transfer pictures from my camera to the computer and if you could send me my under amour shoes so I can run in those. A water bottle would also be nice. I also don't have an alarm clock, which isn't a problem now but could become one. but I just wanted to let you guys know what is going on, I haven't been here long so there isn't much. Mom, once I have a way to send you pictures, because the wifi on my the camera doesn't work very well, I have about 100 pictures already so be ready for that. also here is my MTC address:

Elder Riley James Tomlinson
DEC16  CA-ROS
2009 N 900 E Unit 165
Provo UT 84602

All the best,

Elder <----- ☻ Tomlinson

Entering the MTC and a Little Before

Riley was able to go to Utah a few days early to spend some time with his grandparents who happened to be in Utah at the time.  He got to go to one of his favorite places, In N Out Burger and he also got to see Temple Square all lit up for Christmas.

Then on Wednesday, December 3rd, his grandparents dropped him off at the MTC.  Since his cousin, Shalis, works at the MTC, he was lucky that he got to have her walk him in.

Sending Riley Off to the MTC

 We said goodbye to our Elder this morning at the Kansas City Airport.  There were lots of tears from mom and lots of looks from Riley like he just wanted mom to stop. He is so handsome!