April 27, 2017 New Companion!

Dear familia, 

Sorry that i didn't get the opportunity to write this week, I'm in the secretary office right now getting a cell phone and key to our house,

I got my new companion, his name is Elder Ferreira and he is a Brazilian, he is super cool already and I'm pretty excited to work with him

I'll explain more when i get more time this Monday.

Love you ALL

Elder Toma

April 17, 2017 Baptism of Nene'

Querida Família,

This week was super good, with our investigators and less actives,

Tuesday, we brought Cevada (barley) I think, to Nenês house and we watched the restoration of the gospel video with her as like a little Family home evening, and she didn’t like the cevada very much but she still drinks it instead of coffee ha-ha. but this Saturday we baptized her and confirmed her on Easter. On the way to the baptism my companion and I were walking with Nene and another less active to the baptismal meeting and my companion walked into this pole and somehow his pants got caught on it and when he kept walking his pants completely Split down the middle all the way down to his ankles, I couldn’t help to laugh but it was so terrible ha-ha, I had to give him my name tag that had a safety pin on the back of it to close his pants up and then we walked Nene and her friend to the church and then we had to go home really fast to change pants ha-ha.

But all went well, she was very happy at the meeting and excited to be baptized. It’s so crazy though that she was an investigator 4 years ago and finally she was baptized. I don’t think it was just luck that we found her the very same day she finished the Book of Mormon. It was also a miracle that she gave up drinking coffee, I could really see Gods hand helping and working with her.

Yesterday was an ok Easter ha-ha. It rained very very hard in the morning when we were going to the less actives and investigators houses to bring them to church. So, when we went to church I had to give a talk and my comp after said that he could see everything through my shirt because I was so soaked ha-ha so that was embarrassing but I think the talk went well. After church, our lunch fell through so we went home and ate plain rice and plain noodles ha-ha it wasn’t the best meal I have eaten here, but they have huge chocolate eggs here that are just amazing and we got one as a present so at least we got some chocolate to eat ha-ha.

Sounds like everything is going well back at home, I’m glad to hear about the SOTW going well,

tell Conner that I didn’t get his email, I would love to write him too,

Miss, you guys!

Love Elder Toma

April 10, 2017 Highlights of the week

This week was good, the highlight of the week was probably seeing this super tiny car in front of this store and then this midget came out and he drives it! I’ll send some pictures hahaha. 

But it’s been good with all the investigators and member. we have an investigator Nené and she is the one that finished the Book of Mormon and then the day later we showed up at her door. She has an addiction with coffee but she hasn’t drunken it in a while and she is preparing to be baptized this Saturday so pray for her. We have lots of other baptisms that we have prepared for next Saturday also so it’s been busy trying to accompany them every day but also visiting all the less actives and as well the actives making sure they stay strong. 

Other than the busy week nothing too new happened. 

The transfer is passing really fast, we only have this week and the next and then its transfers again.

My guess is that I will stay here with my companion, the mission president told me that he wants to try something new with this area and he felt to place me there with my companion and I don’t know what we have been doing different but the area seems to be progressing. This week I ate this weird meal to and for the first time I didn’t like the food too much ha-ha it was like slop that was brown and it was weird hahaha but for the most part the food has been great.

It sounds like everything there is going good. I wish I could watch the Savior of the World production it sounds very good this year. Also, every Saturday we teach English classes hahaha it’s so funny to teach English but at first I was dying with speaking, like I can read it and I know what it means but then I try to say it and I can’t ha-ha but after a little I was able to speak English perfectly. My companion is even worse ha-ha he had to call home one time for some banking thing and he couldn’t communicate hahaha he just didn’t know what to say and he completely froze. 

Also, we have family nights with the me members and investigators and that’s super fun and good for them to connect more.

The branch is super small, I already have to give a talk and it’s the first normal Sunday since I’ve got here hahaha. But I like giving talks here, I don’t know why I disliked it so much back at home but here it’s something I like.

Hope everyone had a good week,

Love you guys

Elder Toma

April 3, 2017 Finding More

This week we had a little bit of more success by praying and fasting to help this area grow better.

On Friday we looked in the area book to find a less active so that we could maybe reactivate him. But the address written on the paper was wrong and it lead us to this house with a woman named Nei Nei and she was an investigator 4 years ago and never got baptized but when we came to the door we just had a normal conversation.  We asked for directions to the house of the inactive and also asked her if she has already talked to missionaries. She said yes and told us that she finished the Book of Mormon yesterday. I was very surprised, after 4 years she finally decided to read the Book of Mormon and we end up on her door step the next day that she finishes it, and also if the paper wasn’t wrong we would have never have found her. We then sat down with her and asked about the Book of Mormon and then we committed her and her daughter to baptism. 

This week was also good because we had the opportunity to watch General Conference, my favorite talk was of President Thomas S. Monson.  I liked how he talked about the power of charity, kindness, and love.

Conference was very good but the Sunday session was hard to get investigators because it rained sooo much that the roads flooded completely to the point where water was entering houses ha-ha. It was like a legit current and we were stuck in the church until 2nd session so we spent 6 hours in the church ha-ha.

But this week we also have had success with finding more baptisms, Silvãnia who has a super strong testimony of this church and she is moving from the boyfriend of her because she doesn’t want to live in sin anymore and he doesn’t want to marry. Also, Angelica is super cool, she is progressing a lot and has no problems yet and we are marking baptism here in the next visit and I’m sure she will get baptized here. 

Sounds like everything is good down there at home,

miss you all

Love

Elder Toma

March 26, 2017 Transfers: Tobias Barreto

Dear Family so this week was a little different because of transfers but it was cool.

So right now i am serving in

Tobias Barreto and it is in the state of Sergipe. But also sometimes we go to a state called Bahia because we are right on the border here. The area is cool and it is a branch here but its kind of sad because the area used to have over 100 members but they all went inactive and now there is about 15 to 20 members that are active. So we are working with a lot of inactives and also its a hard area that hasn't baptized in over 3 transfers so that's a long time I think.

My companion is cool, his name is Elder Talbot and he is from Seattle Washington. he likes football and sports. I'm not worried about speaking English with him because he basically forgot. The Presidente told me a story of when he had to call the bank and he could barely communicate ha ha. 

Other than that this week has been pretty normal, just working with a lot of inactives and investigators. I don't have any pictures of the area yet but I'll send some next time maybe.

Sounds like everyone has had a good week and conference is coming up soon so that will be good.

Hope everyone has a good week

Miss you all.

Love

Elder Toma