Getting a New Companion in Casper

So everything is going good. Don't have a lot of time today but I had a good week.

We had a crazy hail storm at the beginning of the week, Golf ball size. Elder Juarez and I had to run out in it to get food from a member and it felt like paintball shots. no fun. Nothing else really happened this week. I was super happy to get the letter from hannah. Saturday we found out that Elder Juarez is getting transferred. He is leaving Wednesday to Gillette Wy. He has been in this area for a year so thats crazy. My new companion is Elder Juglar. I got to meet him today. He is a really nice guy. Hopefully the two of us can speak enough spanish. He is a spanish missionary so we will be ok. But thats all that happened hope you had a good week. Talk  to you later.

-Elder Tomlinson

Pictures from Casper

Twenty Questions from Elder Tomlinson

Things are going good here in Wyoming :) We are having transfers today and Elder Juarez and I are both staying here. Which is really good :) Still working on my Spanish. Elder Juarez says its really coming along...I disagree...

Its so good to hear about every one.  What all is Hannah up to? What does she do at summer school? Is she riding her bike a lot more now that she know how to ride it? Are you going to go on family bike rides again like we use to? Riley or Jake can use my bike. I'm not going to use it for awhile. Where is Jake going for scout camp? What merit badges is he trying to get?

Maybe Riley should get a second job..? The Price Chopper seems to have flexible hours so get a job with more hours and work around that one... Work at like Zona or something. Riley went to Scout camp too? or did he go to High Adventure? He only has a month and then he can go on his mission! 

Elder Juarez younger brother just put in his mission papers because he just turned 18. Crazy! A mission is the best thing ever. Really hard though. He will love it.

Grandma is there!!!! I was just about to send  a postcard to her house today. When will she get back? Nauvoo would be really cool. You could drive here :) Its pretty far... What movie does Hannah want to see? Yeah that all sounds like fun.

Linda and Leslie and you all together?!?!?!? That's just asking for trouble. I miss Aunt Shelly and Aaron. Wish I was there. Is jake liking the waterpark?

Not much going on here. We had stake conference this past weekend and so we went to the adult session on saturday night and then the sunday session. A lot of members from the spanish group are out of town and we had no investigators come to church because it was Stake Conference mostly because its in english. We were translating for them in the Relief Society room and no one was there. It was funny cause the Stake President started off by thanking the spanish group for being here and for the opportunity to have translators...and no one was there.. haha.

But work is going good. We still have a ton of investigators and 5 on date to be baptized July 5th. Im super scared cause I don't know how to baptize them or give them the Holy Ghost in spanish.... :/ There is no way I could do learn that by July 5th. Everything else is good. Spanish is better, not great.

I miss all of you so much :) I will email Riley and Jake but they got to email me back....Tell everyone that I love them.

-Elder Tomlinson

Heard from Devon!

Hey Mother :)

I'm sorry I didn't write last Monday. Our Mission President instructed us not to have P-day on Monday because it was a holiday and that it was a perfect time to find families. But we had no success. It sounds like you had tons of fun on Memorial Day. We went and did service to a family in Casper 1st ward helping them make a wall of rocks and then the McIntoshs invited us and a couple other missionaries over for some BBQing outside. It was fun. The McIntoshs are really nice and help us all the time. They are from Brazil so I try and speak Portuguese with them. Doesn't work out so well. I'm so glad that everyone got a job this summer. Here the weather is really starting to feel really good. 

Hannah is going to have fun at summer school. Sounds like that will be a blast. 

Keep on pushing Riley to get his Eagle done. And make sure he is ready to go out on his mission. One thing I wish I would have done is go out with the missionaries every free moment I had. Looking back on it I should have gone out alot more than I did.

This site will help: http://lds.about.com/od/programs3foldmission/tp/prepare_lds_mission.htm

And read Preach My Gospel all the time. It is your life out here.

I received my Ipod. thanks so much but I have to turn it in on Saturday because one missionary on the other side of the mission was looking at things he shouldn't be so ipods are not approved now. Which stinks cause I downloaded tons of Mormon Messages and was showing them to little kids and it was awesome. Plus I know of at least 10 missionaries in this zone that have ipods and President Anderson is coming to pick them all up.

Everything is going good. We are teaching alot of lessons. On Wednesday, we went on exchanges with our District leader which are the missionaries in Casper 8th ward. But I stayed in my area speaking Spanish and Elder Gardener was with me. He is a new missionary only been out about a month and doesn't speak Spanish. But it was really good. I taught 4 lessons by myself and had we had dinner with some investigators and its so much harder to just talk then it is to teach but it was tons of fun. But now they think I speak Spanish when i was just trying my hardest.Now they expect me to always speak an take over and what not. It was so hard. and now Elder Juarez thinks I can take over even when he is there. It was tons of fun.

this last Sunday we had "Break the Fast" and had tons of investigators come. It was a good time. 

About my visa. I emailed the travel agency and told me this:

Elder Tomlinson,

Your visa application is currently at the Consulate and not additional documents are needed at this time.  If at any point something changes we will notify you and your temporary mission office immediately.  There is not a standard wait time, each missionary will have a unique situation.  It is likely that you will have to wait until after the World Cup ends in July.  However, we will notify your mission president once a visa is received.

Thank you,

Yep so wont be getting my visa til after July. for more info go to:

https://www.lds.org/callings/missionary/missionary-travel/global-location/south-america/brazil?lang=eng

Well I love you so much :) How is everyone doing? How is Jake and Dad and Carly????

Can't wait to hear from you :)

-Elder Tomlinson

Wyoming News

Well Things are going good in Wyoming. It hasn't snowed for like a week now. I think Its done snowing for a little while. Which is really good because we can bike everywhere. When it rains or snows we have to call everyone for rides. But everything is going really good. We are having about 6 investigators come to church each week. But they are always different investigators. We are trying to work with all of them to come each Sunday. But i think they all get together and plan out when to switch off or something. No but its going really good.  We are trying to teach around 20 lessons per week. And really trying to take members with us. because we have so few that speak Spanish its hard. But tonight we are having a big Family Home Evening with our whole Spanish group and Alot of our investigators are coming. 

Yep things are going good here. Just waiting for my visa. 

Love you,

Elder Tomlinson

Letter 5/12/2014

Hello Everybody,

Everything is going really good here in Casper. This week has been pretty good. We put two people on date to be be baptized for the 24 of May so we are super excited about that. They are really good people. they came to church on Sunday and they are really trying their best and are really excited for baptism. If everything goes good that would be my first baptism. 

All week we have been biking everywhere. Which is no fun because of all the hills but saves or miles for p-day. Going to bed is nice because our legs are tired and from being out in the sun all day we just crash. But we don't mind biking at all. We get all the work that we need to done. Whats funny is I have the same bike that Jake has back home. But the most exciting day this week was yesterday, Sunday. Saturday night we received a call from our Spanish group leader asking us if we would give the talks in Sacrament meeting tomorrow on Mothers day....in Spanish. I freaked out. I started putting together my talk in English and then I translated it to Spanish. Elder Juarez made many corrections to my Spanish. But I was so nervous up until I gave my talk. While I was giving my talk my face got super hot. I was trying my best not to look at my notes and just talk but I was so scared I was going to say something wrong. Elder Juarez said I did good. But when he gave his talk he didn't have notes or didn't really prepare. He made it look so easy. Then after church we were able to Skype our families for Mothers day It was super amazing. I miss my family so much. its hard to not be able to talk to them. Its almost been 4 months and I feel like everything has change already.  So it has been a really good week. Can't wait til this week. I love you all and at the end of this letter is my talk that I gave on Sunday. Hope I spell it all right.

-Elder Tomlinson

Hola hermanos y hermanas. Feliz dia las madres. Me an pedido que pueda hablar hoy acerca de la inportancia de las madres. Estoy tratando de hacerlo en Espanol, entonces espero que no serian. En el capitulo 56 de Alma, Habla acerca de los des mil Jobenes Lamanitas. Los dos mil Jovenes Hijos de Helaman peliabon con un maravilloso poder, y ninguno de ellos fue muerto. En Alma 56:47-48 dice... La rason por su sabiduria, fuerza, y poder fue por lo que sus madres les ensenaron. Nuestras madres nos an ensenado muchisimas cosas. Como misioneros, nosotros somos soldados del Senor. Nosotros dependemos en todo lo que nuestras madres nos an ensenado. Yo estoy exremadamente agradecido por mi mama. Les contare que: Mi padre esta en las fuerzas armadas. Cuando era mas pequeno, mi padre fue reclutado muchisimas veces. Y tenia que viajar mucho por muchos anos. A un punto mi madre tenia 3 ninos, todos a la edad de menos de 5 anos. Ella es una de las personas mas fuertes que conosco. Pero una de las cosas mas importantes es que ella le enseno a mi hermano y a mi, cual importante la oracion es en la vida, y como obtener un testimonio del evangelio.

En Mosiah 13:20 dice... Dios nos manda a honrar a nuestros padres y nuestras madres. Mi meta en esta vida es que ellos esten orgullosos de mi. Me gustaria agradecer a todoa las mamas, usteded an sido llamadas por dios a ser madres. Hacegurensen que sus hijos les agradescan. Hay 2 videos en lds.org acerca de las madres. Les invito a todos a verlos hoy en la tarde.

Then I bared my testimony in english.

Digo estas cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo amen.

Pictures of New Apartment