November 20, 2017 Seeing lives change

Dear family this week has been good, 

So this week is also going to be stake conference, I’m interested to see what changes will be made, maybe there will be changes in my area. 

Transfers is tomorrow, I’ll be staying as district leader and I’ll be finishing up my companions training, 

It’s crazy how time is passing by, I’m now the oldest missionary in the district, it seems like yesterday I was the youngest.

This week we also went to an activity that was about an hour away, it was fun to go to a little city and leave with members of the church that we didn’t know and do splits inviting people to an activity about the restoration of the gospel. From me it was a good experience but also an experience that I have every day so I was already used to it, but for the members it was a super experience and it really strengthened their testimonies. 

We are also teaching a young man named Adriano which is 20 years old, its seems like his baptism is set for this Saturday, he will help a lot in the church I think as a priesthood holder and he still has time to serve a mission.

On Wednesday my ward mission leader Daniel is going to leave for his mission, he has been a super great example for me, he gave his farewell talk and Sunday and had everyone crying including our bishop, 

I’ve never seen someone’s life change as his, he made a complete 180 and his family is already being blessed for it, and I already have such a great desire to share the gospel, he baptized his mom, his sister, his friends, his neighbors, his girlfriend who is now going to serve a mission also, and I truly believe that his father will be baptized in these next two years. The bishop told me that he changed the missionary work in our ward, it’s sad that he is leaving but everyone is happy for him. 

It was good to hear about how everyone is doing, chase Cole and the Maos.

Conner is looking good, Mao sent me some pictures this week, he really enjoyed visiting with you guys.

Continue to also be a good friend, especially to the recent converts.

miss you all,

Love 

Elder Toma

November 12, 2017 God always has His perfect plan

Dear Family,

This week went great, it was really busy but it was good.

So on Friday we went to another training for trainers and for trainees. It was a good meeting but a lot of traveling,

it’s about a four-hour travel and it planned for me to go to this meeting and then after the meeting buy a bus ticket to another city called Penedo and I was going to do 4 baptismal interviews there because it was already Friday and the baptism was set for Saturday, so we were really in a rush.

When I got to the bus station I asked for the next ticket to Penedo possible but the lady said that there were only tickets to Penedo for Saturday morning which wasn’t going give, so I just traveled back to Arapiraca and I was going to get a van from Arapiraca to Penedo 

I called the missionaries from Penedo if I could do the interview in Saturday morning and they said that the interviews were set for Friday night, so I called the zone leaders and one of the zone leaders got permission from the president to take a van to Penedo alone while the other zone leader was doing another interview in our zone and the zone leader that stayed called our ward mission leader Daniel to do splits with him. 

My zone leader was doing an interview of a boy who wanted to be baptized but his dad wouldn’t let him, they went there about two times trying to help the father understand about baptism and help out when finally, Daniel my ward mission leader went on splits and when he got there

he recognized the family and knew the dad, he then talked to him and the father let his son be baptized. 

It was a complicated week and we all were throwing out plans last minute for everything to go through but in the end Penedo baptized and also the boy from the Verdes Camps ward who´s dad wouldn’t let him be baptized. In the end everything worked out perfectly.

It was another reminder that God always has HIS perfect plan. The plan that we had was good but it fell through for a reason because if our plan went through Penedo would have been baptized but the boy from our stake wouldn’t have been. It was important that Danile was there to talk to the boy’s father. 

Sunday was also a very good day, president and his wife came to speak to our ward and it was super good, it really helps our ward. They talked a lot on missionary work and it was good for our investigators that were there too, very spiritual.

Today we are going to throw a barbecue and play a bunch of games because this month we were the baptizing zone, and this month is already going well also so we are all pretty excited about that.

ha-ha while it is getting colder there, it is getting super hot here. Its definitely summer time here and its only going to get hotter. 

I hope every has a good week

miss you guys.

Tchau

November 5, 2017 Power is something that depends on us

Dear Family

This week was a good week, we had the opportunity to go to our zone conference which was super good, I have already come to love my president and his spouse. They are such good people and are helping the mission a ton.

It was good to see some old companions at the conference so that was fun. This week we are just preparing for Mateus’s baptism on Friday, it sounds like his whole family is going to be there.

One scripture that I like that I read this week is words of Mormon 1:17 that says, " For behold, King Benjamin was a holy man, and he did reign over his people in righteousness; and there were many holy men in the land, and they did speak the word of God with power and with authority; and they did use much sharpness because of the stiffneckedness of the people"

I like to sometimes apply the scriptures to modern day so I replaced King Benjamin with Presidente Monson. Today he guides us and we can be the many holy men or women preaching the word of God with power and authority.

I realized that authority could be our callings for example I’m called and ordained as a missionary and so I have the authority to preach the Gospel, but power is something that depends on us. If we are more obedient and if we have more faith then we have more power to preach the word of God. Russel Ballard said that the only true conversion is through the power of the Holy Ghost. I liked that a lot because it is so true.

I think it is very possible to baptize someone without that person feeling the spirit but either they will feel it and be converted or the will fall away from the church.

Congrats to Conner and for his team for beating Battlefield.

At Zone Conference

Sounds like everyone is doing good.

Miss you guys,

I’ll send some pics

Love

Elder Toma

October 30, 2017 A week of miracles

Dear family,

This week was a week of miracles. So we all decided to fast so that Mateus’s parents would sign the baptismal record and also another investigator Gemison because also his mom didn’t want to sign his baptismal record.

So we did our fast, Matheus, my companion and I. On Thursday we went on splits, I went with one of the zl to interview our investigators. We first went to Matheus’s house and we left a message with his mom who afterwards refused to sign it and said that she would not sign it until Matheus was 18 years old! but then as we talked to her we discovered that she was afraid that Matheus’s father would get upset that she signed it and that if he agreed to sign it then she would support it. 

I won’t lie when I left I was pretty upset and even tempted to break my fast, but I knew that wasn’t the right thing to do so I continued fasting. We then went to Gemison´s house, he is a 12-year-old boy and his brothers are all baptized, and he has a ton of time in the church too, but his mom never let him get baptized, so when went there and did his interview and he passed with excellence and then we talked to his mom who surprisingly agreed to signing his baptismal record and on Saturday we baptized him and his mom even showed up to support. But then the next day on Saturday Matheus came up to us saying that he talked to his dad and that his dad will sign the baptismal record to let him be baptized!

Fasting really does bring miracles when we put our faith in the Lord, Gemison could have been baptized any day for these past few years, Matheus´s parents could have signed his record any time this year, but they didn’t,

All this happened in one week with a little fast to soften the hearts of this boy´s parents. I know that God´s hands played a part in this. Every baptism is a miracle and a testimony that God is real, 

I know that conversion without the Holy Ghost isn’t a true conversion, he plays a major role in the conversion process, Doctrina e Convenios 42 says that if ye don’t receive the spirit ye shall not teach.

I’m excited for this week because I know that we will experience even more miracles, it’s a new miracle every day. 

Hope everyone is doing well, I miss you all 

Happy Halloween! 

Love 

Elder Toma