July 17, 2017 Transfer and call to be new district leader

Dear Family,

I have good new but also bad news.

The bad news is that Adresando didn’t get baptized this week. So, the night before the baptized he was interviewed and it was amazing, our District leader said that is was super good, and then the next day his cousin broke her arm and he had to drive her way out to another city and the baptism was cancelled. Also the water was super brown, the water here is getting weird ha-ha.

But the good news is that I will be getting transferred to Arapiraca which is in between Sergipe and Maceio, but I heard it is super cool. and I will be the district leader there and the other district leader there is my companion from the CTM, Elder Crowley.

I’m a little sad because I will miss my companion, he was such a great companion and probably my favorite up until now. But I’m also excited to face new experiences and gain some leadership experiences.

 

I heard about Ian being baptized! Elder Uhler told me and so did Sister Uhler,

but how was it to talk with Cole on the Skype?  How was the baptism?  Tell Ian congrats for me!

So this week will be busy with settling in and everything and now I have to plan for doing trainings during district meetings.  I don’t know if I look forward to that or not but, I’m sure it will be fine.

I hope Conner enjoyed EFY, I miss going to those but the mission is just as good, if not better.

but I hope you all have a great week and I miss you guys.

Love

Elder Toma

July 9, 2017 Meeting our new mission president and his wife

Dear family!

This week went well, we went to Aracaju to meet our new president and it went very well,

I like our new president a lot, he spoke about obedience and work but mainly about love.

We also did interviews with him and I felt that he will really help our mission, his wife Sister Taylor doesn’t speak any Portuguese, (yet) but she is super nice, when everybody was waiting to be interviewed, I had to translate for her and it was super hard because the transition from English to Portuguese just killed me ha-ha but then I think I warmed up and I was able to do just fine.

SO this week is transfers and I think that I will be transferred to another area because I have been here for a while and I have 9 months with just 2 areas so its likely that I will get transferred next Monday or Tuesday.

This week we should be having a baptism, the other baptism is on hold because the lady had to travel but she will be returning in a few weeks. but this week is Adresando, he is a great guy and I think he will be a great leader in the branch here.

It’s interesting that once someone is needed to be a leader the Lord shows a way and calls upon someone.

Also, something interesting about the new president is that he is really trying to put English into the mission to help the Brazilians and he said that when he met with the quorum of the 12 that they were really emphasizing on this so I have been helping my companion study English. 

I hope you guys have a good week

Love
Elder Toma

New Mission President: President Mark W. Taylor

Mark Wilson Taylor, 58, and Patricia Micheli Taylor, four children, Afton 4th Ward, Afton Wyoming Stake: Brazil Maceio Mission, succeeding President Henrique Gomes Jr. and Sister Maria Aparecida Gomes. Brother Taylor is a former stake president, bishop, ward executive secretary, elders quorum president, and missionary in the Brazil Recife Mission. Instructional facilitator, Sublette County School District 1. Born in Evanston, Wyoming, to Harold Wilson Taylor and Joyce Hickey Taylor.

Sister Taylor is a former ward Young Women and Primary president, ward Relief Society and Young Women presidency counselor, and Primary music leader. Born in Evanston, Wyoming, to Joseph Giorgis Micheli and Rebecca Twitchell Micheli.

July 2, 2017 Rough week with no water -- but small blessings along the way!

Dear Family,

This week was good but also rough ha-ha I like how in moms email it said how I never complain but this week I had plenty to complain about ha-ha.

First of all, our water was cut because the people that live underneath us had moved and they cut the water of the wrong house, at first I thought that it was normal because this happens every once in a while, we lose water. But after a couple of days it the water didn’t come back, and the conserved water was running out so we called them and they told us that the water was cut.  So we went down to the place runs the water and it was closed until Monday(today).  So we spent Saturday and Sunday without water with dirty dishes and without taking a shower or washing clothes ha-ha.

But other than that, the teaching has been going really well. We plan to baptize Adresando on the 15 of this month and another investigator that we have.  Her name is Mere and she is super humble and wants to learn more, we taught her yesterday about the plan of salvation yesterday and in the middle of it she interrupted us ha-ha, and told us how she saw the picture of Moroni putting the plates in the ground and prayed to if the picture was fake and never happened. She said that night she saw two super bright personages that almost blinded her vision with their hands extended out towards her but then she woke up and sat up in her bed astonished.  But then she said when she went back to sleep she slept all night like a baby ha-ha.  But it was a cool experience for her and we explained that this was an answer to her prayer and that now she can use this to strengthen her testimony.   We challenged her to baptism on the 15 and she accepted without any questions or doubts. 

I think it’s interesting that many people here receive answers through dreams, I never received an answer through a dream, I also receive through longs periods of time ha-ha, I think the Lord likes to teach me that way, just like how Paul said about the meats and the milks of the gospel.

This week we will also be going to Aracaju again which is pretty far away, to meet our new mission president.  I’m pretty excited to meet him and see everyone again, and this time I will be able to receive the package that mom sent me. 

This Sunday was pretty good even without water, fast and testimony meeting was good, and it seems like we also receive little miracles whenever we fast.  one big miracle is great but all the small miracles together are even greater.  The week went slow but in the end pretty good. 

I hope everyone had a good week,

Miss you all,

Elder Toma

June 26, 2017 We say "Goodbye" to President and Sister Gomez

Dear family, 

This week went well but for two of the days we were out in Aracaju, another part of the state of Serjipe.  It was a 2-hour trip and we had to be there by 8am so we slept at our District leaders house for the night and then went to Aracaju in the morning which cut the morning trip by an hour.

The conference was very good, but it was sad to say goodbye to our President Gomez and Sister Gomez, I really liked them a lot.  After the conference, we ate some sushi that was sooo good but then a gay guy asked for my number which was weird.

This week we had some success with our investigators.  We taught a family the restoration and the Spirit was very strong, every single one of them cried as we bore our testimonies of Joseph Smith. and the next morning they went to church with us.

The branch is a little weak and its likely that every single priesthood leader will be moving, our president of our branch is moving because of his job and his 1st counselor is serving a mission and the 2nd will be getting married and will move to another city, that leaves the missionaries in charge of the branch.

If everything goes well we should be baptizing this family in the next week, and our investigator Adresando would help the branch a ton.

Pray that everything goes through.

love you guys 

Elder Toma