Glen and Lynne Tolman Missionary Blog

The Cedar of Lebanon tree on Temple Square has nearly 75,000 lights, but it’s only lit every other year so the lights  don’t damage the tree. The beloved tree has been growing on Temple Square for over 75 years, after a woman gave the seed to a grounds gardener – a seed she brought back from a visit to the Holy Land.  It is lit this year.  Here are two pictures.  Cedar of Lebanon - taken Monday November 25 in morning  Cedar of Lebanon taken Friday night November 29 Sunday Nov 24 We attended Music and the Spoken Word.   The theme was thanksgiving and gratitude.   We are so grateful to be able to witness the broadcast live each Sunday morning.   Our branch meetings were spiritual and uplifting.   The subject was gratitude for our Sacrament meeting and all three talks were excellent.   The subject for our Priesthood / Relief Society lessons was President Eyring's talk to the women at the last conference titled “Covenant Women in Partnership with God”. We attended

Here is a picture of a sunset taken from our apartment on Sunday night. Sunday Nov 17 We attended Music and the Spoken Word.   It was held in the Conference Center this week and will be until the first week of January.  We like the sound better in the Tabernacle but with the increased crowds that come along with the various concert events in December, the broadcast moves to the larger venue. Our Sacrament meeting speakers shared uplifting messages with the theme based on Elder Ulisses Soares Oct 2019 conference talk titled "Take Up Our Cross".     Our Sacrament meetings have been very good and I look forward to our meetings each Sunday. We invited four Young Elders for dinner and Sister Tolman prepared a potato bar and pistachio salad. We all ate our fill as normal.   We signed up for six but enough other Senior missionaries signed up to feed them that only four came to dinner, Left to Right- Elder Moss, Elder Arndt, Sister Tolman, Elder Waetchler, Eld

Sunday Nov 10 Today Music and the Spoken Word was the Veteran’s Day program.   It was excellent.   I talked to a women tourist from Ontario, Canada.   She was very impressed with the choir and with Utah and Salt Lake City.   This was her first time visiting and attending the broadcast.   Here is a picture that is a contrast from us sitting in this section last Monday night.  We sat in the balcony on the opposite side of the Tabernacle right in the middle so we had a excellent position to take pictures.  Choir Program and text for the spoken word by Lloyd Newell As we were coming into the JSMB for church, we met Sister Kate Lucas from the Grandview Ward who is in Salt Lake City for some training prior to going to New Zealand to serve a 23-month mission.   She was just finishing her first mission when we started in August 2018.   It was wonderful to see her again and get a chance to visit briefly. I spent some time getting ready for Sacrament Meeting and prepari