Baptism

he baptism went off with only a few hitches. Elder Fife was baptizing her and she kept floating on top of the water so he had to push her down so she would be fully immersed. She talks a lot too so it was funny when a member was giving a talk and she kept trying to interject with her own thoughts.  Besides that the week has been pretty much ordinary. We have an old lady investigator in Wheatland who is obsessed with my dimple. She says something about it every time we see her. The. We have another investigator that is convinced that everything she thinks is from the Holy Ghost. She will hand us some candy and say "The Holy Spirit told me that you wanted this" and she is completely serious about it. It's kinda weird. Not much else is going on here.

Jan 11

Still doing good here in Cali. Not much has changed but our investigator is getting baptized this week. Those pictures make me feel so old I didn't even recognize Matthew or Conner. That's good that Aaron is putting in his papers. I'm so jealous that you get to go to Texas, land of the free and home of the brave. I've realized that missionary work is really boring most of the time and very repetitive so it's hard to come up with things to put in my emails. I don't know if Jake shared with you the photos I put in my shared album. So I'll attach them in this email.

Jan 4

Hey, things are pretty much the same since I talked to you guys on
Christmas. I have gotten all of the packages that were sent to me for
Christmas. Elder Fife is getting transferred so me and Nunley are
staying together and now we are double covering wards. We have the two
biggest areas on the mission so I wonder how that will work. My
trainer is now back in my zone training another greenie so that will
be awesome. We have an investigator that is getting baptized on the
15th so be ready for that. How is it going back home? Is Jake ready to
graduate? Other questions.

Love. Heart. Gooey emotional stuff. Elder Tomlinson

Christmas

Things are going pretty good here. I got your package but I haven't gotten grandpa Latimer's yet. Hmong is still interesting as ever. In the mission we are having a Christmas devotional where I think we are going to read the gospel of Luke? I don't know something of that nature. I can't believe that this will be me last Christmas as a missionary. Time does fly by on a mission, it's so well re to think in a year I will be home. I don't know if you heard but training in the MTC for English was changed from 2 weeks to 3 weeks so that made my missions week longer so instead of coming home Dec. 6th, I am coming home Dec. 13 just thought I should let you know that.

Love. Heart. Gooey emotional stuff. Elder Tomlinson

 Hey, just wanted to let you know that I did get both Hannah and grandpa's cards. Hannah's didn't make a lot sense though. I already bought shoes with the gift card to because I couldn't wait. Guess I will talk to you guys on Friday. Oh ya I'm no longer Hmong. It's really complicated so I just tell you guys on Friday. Here's a picture of the shoes I got.

12/7

No, I haven't received anything in the mail yet. Things are very
interesting in the mission field being in a Hmong branch. Sunday's are
extremely confusing! I never know what any one is talking about. It's
crazy that I am half way done with my mission by now, time has gone by
so fast. I heard from one of my former coworkers that Takoda was
working at Taco Bell. Tell Jake he need to quit being a lazy bum and
get a job already. Things are going good here.

Love. Heart. Gooey emotional stuff. Elder Tomlinson

Hmong

Just so you know I have no idea what you just said. I had my companion translate it and he said it made no sense. Yuba city is a big city and is mostly trashy. It isn't so bad being in a Hmong branch because most of the members speak English but during church 95% of it is in Hmong so I just sit there with no idea of what is going on. I am not expected to learn Hmong, I will only be in this area for 2 transfers at the most and I am only in this area because of a shortage of Hmong Elders for the time being. My new Comp is weird but in a good way, his name is Elder Stephenson

Or his Hmong name is Elder Vam Xeeb. I probably get a Hmong name pretty soon too which will be cool because then I can get a Hmong name tag and not a lot of missionaries get to do that. There are book of Mormons in Hmong although I am told that translation is constantly being fixed to make more sense. Thanksgiving was great, we had two dinners and they were normal turkey dinners and yes, Hmong people celebrate Thanksgiving. As for my size, I would guess Medium but I'm not 100% sure on that so you could just have Jake try it on and go from there.

11/23

Hey, sorry I haven't written in a while things have been really crazy. My companion went home and so I have been in a tricompanionship for the last couple of days. Transfers are up and I am being transferred to the Linda Hmong mission in Yuba city which will be interesting because I don't speak Hmong. We only have 4 Hmong elders on the mission and one is going home so president is having me take his place. I don't know how I feel about it because every lesson and sacrament meeting I will just be sitting there with no idea what people are saying. It is crazy that I am so close to my year mark. They say in the mission that days feel like years, weeks feel like months, months feel like weeks, and years feel like days. I'm not sure what my plans for thanksgiving are because I am going to be in a completely new area. Some things that would be nice for Christmas is a jacket like just a normal looking jacket for when it gets cold. My sunglasses also broke so some more like those would be nice, they are called the wayfarer style. That's all I can think of right now if I do think of anything else I'll let you know. I'm counting down the days too.

Love. Heart. Gooey emotional stuff. Elder Tomlinson