February 18, 2018 A new Area! Boa Vista!

Dear Family,

This week was a good week. It rained a ton but we still worked a ton in the rain ha-ha. To me it’s better than the heat.

My area is called Boa Vista. It’s a good area and a good ward. Our house is SOOO small, it is for sure the smallest house that I have lived in. 

You walk in and it’s the room where we study and were we cook at the same time and then it’s one super small room where we sleep and a small bathroom ha-ha. The house is probably the size of just our kitchen, but one the bright side it’s easy to clean and its close to everything including the bus station, bakery, and supermarket. 

My companion is really really cool. His name is Elder Duarte and he is from São Paulo Brazil. He is a recent convert but man he works hard. Every day we come home just exhausted ha-ha.

My new assignment so far has been good, I’m really enjoying it. tomorrow it seems like all the zone leaders and sister trainer leaders will be going to the president’s house for a training.

We are really trying to focus on working with members. IT really makes the difference when the members help. Because the missionaries don’t stay in the ward forever, we pass by fast and it’s the members that stay so it really makes a difference when the investigators have friends and the chance of them falling away is less. 

I also discovered that one of the guys from my ward was porter´s companion, it’s funny because it’s the second time that I have ran into somebody that served with Porter. It’s a pretty small world. 

I hope dad gets better, I will be praying for him.

My package didn’t arrive yet but it should be coming soon, ill check tomorrow. 

I hope everyone has a great week.

Love 

Elder Toma

It’s funny because "Toma leite" means drink milk in this pic that I sent

February 10, 2018 Call to be a new Zone Leader

Dear Family, 

This week was a pretty good week. Carnival has started so the work has slowed down and everyone is travelling. 

Last week was a tough week but it was like my Zion’s camp. 

Zion’s camp has become one of my favorite events because of what I have learned from it. It was when Joseph smith sent a bunch of men to go win back Zion,  they had to travel days to get there and when they finally got there, he decided that they weren’t going to fight. And what happened is many of the men fell away from the church because of that, they became frustrated. But the men that stayed faithful later became apostles and leaders in the church. I saw a quote that brother Schetselaar has on his email that states "we can´t control the wind, but we can adjust the sail" - Thomas. S Monson.  It’s true that we can’t control everything but it’s how we deal with it that controls our destiny. 

Yesterday afternoon president Taylor called me and told me that I was going to be transferred and be the new zone leader in Boa Vista. I was surprised because I only have one transfer in this area but now I’m being transferred, he congratulated me and told me that the zone leaders will call and give me more details. 

I’m pretty excited to have the opportunity to learn new stuff, I heard that my area is good and that my companion Elder Duarte is good too. I’ll be arriving there tomorrow so next week will send more details. 

This week I was reading the Book of Mormon, I’m now in Moroni chapter 7, but I was reading in ether early and something that really marked me was the faith of the Jaredites. I mean they made entered boats and then trusted in the Lord to guide them. That is some real faith! just imagine, I would be so scared to do something like that. During their travels there were storms too. 

I was really inspired by the faith that they had. In Doctrine and Covenants 4:2 it says "O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all thy heart, might, mind, and strength, 

that ye may stand blameless before God in the last day" I thought about what embark could really mean. To me it doesn’t mean have one foot on the land and the other in the boat but to embark and be fully in the boat. I see that with many missionaries that are trunky ha-ha, they focus on going home rather than focusing on the service of God. To me the Jaredites really embarked and trusted in the Lord. Sometimes we get scared, before the mission I never wanted to talk about our religion or even share it because I was scared. But we need to embark into our boats and trust in the Lord that he will guide us, just like the Jaredites did. I love the scripture in D&C 6 that says "Look unto me in every thought, doubt not; fear not"

They mission is a perfect example of embarking in the service of God but the thing is that the mission ends faster than we know it and sometimes we tell ourselves that it’s over, that we already embarked but that’s wrong, for we have not yet reached the promised land. Missionary work should never have an end point in our lives. The purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel. That can be anything. Making friends in the Church, helping reactivate less actives and sharing the gospel with those that don´t have this restored gospel. 

IM grateful for this gospel, for a living church. We have living prophets and apostles, the authority and priesthood keys. ITs a living church, not a dead one. Missionary work is what helps the kingdom grow. Like I said during our skype "we aren’t climbing then we are falling" I think that’s interesting how that works, serving helps us the kingdom climb but it also helps us too. 

I’m glad to hear that everyone is doing well

I’m going to start sending more pictures home because I don’t want to lose my pictures again ha-ha. 

Love you all

Elder Toma

February 4, 2018 I know the Gardner loves me

Dear Family, this week went well and also kind of so so.

We had a go week working with investigators and all but when Sunday came, nobody went. We called members to pass by we even got up early to pass by and nobody went. Every missionary passes through this and has the same frustration. By the end of the week is somehow formatted my card on my camera so I lost every picture that I have taken since the mission, unfortunately I learned my lesson by never saving my pictures to another source. I’m still pretty upset by it but I think there is someone her that can help me get my pictures back. My companion got better but maybe too much, I had to have a lot of patience with him this week ha-ha, I likes to joke around a lot. 

But I learned from brother Schetselaar something. 

He told a story about how he always planted potatoes and how he buried them. He would wait for a stem to come up and then he would through more dirt on it.

And when the stem came up he would do that again. So he would keep doing that until a flower blossomed. and he would do that because that’s how he would strengthen the potato, without doing so, the potato wouldn’t have enough strength to support itself. So I learned that I was like that potato this week but what helps is to know that the Gardener is someone that knows and loves me and it’s just to strengthen me. 

This week I was also reading in my journal and I had some great laughs at how I was at the beginning of the mission. My second day of the mission my companion and I had to teach a lesson in the MTC. They gave us these green books that had everything. All you had to do was read out of it and it was simple as that. But my companion and I wanted to teach the lesson without anything but the Book of Mormon and the Bible in Portuguese. We were excited because we were so confident that the gift of tongues was going to kick in and we would be speaking fluently ha ha. We went to teach our lesson and nothing came out! we said nothing! we couldn’t even find james 1:5 in the Portuguese bible. After that lesson I remember just feeling like an idiot and we were pretty discouraged after that. 

I learned that nothing works like that. We have to do our part. When I got to my first area I had an American companion, he helped me a ton but we spoke only English. 

When he got transferred the President sent another American to be my companion, he only had one more transfer then me. So here we have to new Americans in the middle of Brazil that don’t know barely any Portuguese. I’m not going to lie, I thought that the president was crazy! I had no faith that everything would go well.

This was the transfer where I saw the gift of tongues the most. That transfer we hit the standard of excellence with baptisms.  I believe that I was able to speak Portuguese so well because I needed to. I think that our Father likes to let us do what we can do but when we are in need he helps. Who knows maybe I learned how to speak Portuguese so well just because of that transfer when I needed to. 

I’m glad everyone is doing well,

I miss you all and I would send pictures but I got to get all my pictures back unfortunately. 

I hope everyone has a great week.

Love you all

Elder Toma

January 28, 2018 Thirty Pieces of Silver

Dear Family, 

So this week was lots of success and lots of baptism which made me pretty happy and helps motivate me to always continue working hard because the Lord really blesses when we work hard. 

Yesterday we had a special activity of the Restoration of the Gospel. The missionaries from our zone put it together so we had narration and we sang and bore lots of testimonies. 

We had some of the recent converts bare testimony also about the restoration, the book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith. It was a very spiritual meeting and I saw many members and recent converts cry. 

It was a good turn out too, the chapel was filled with people so it was a good day to end the week. 

Also this week was pretty interesting with my companion, he woke up on Saturday and told me that he wanted to go home! it was so random because he always is excited to work and we have never had any problems but he just woke up wanting to go home. We talked for a little and he got better after I gave him a blessing. I felt that I had to show love but also give him a little roasting. I told him the story of Judas the apostle that sold Christ for 30 pieces of silver. Sometimes we think it’s so silly, how could he have sold the Savior for 30 pieces of silver!? But really we sometimes do it all the time. We choose to watch or play football on the sabbath day, we go shopping or do other activities that aren´t for the sabbath, maybe we listen to music or watch bad movies. These are little things that can precious to us, but it’s merely 30 pieces of silver too. It’s nothing when compared to following Christ. 

I told him not to sell Christ for 30 pieces of silver. He understood that he would regret it also and decided that what he was thinking was dumb. This also helped me a ton, I always think now. 30 pieces of silver or following Christ. I think that it’s interesting that we sometimes sit there holding the 30 pieces of silver in our hands and it’s so hard to let it go, but I’m learning that this year’s mutual theme is true, and that’s to let go of our 30 pieces of silvers that we have in our life and "Learn of Him, and listen to His words, walk in the meekness of His spirit, and ye shall have peace in Him". I love that, I want to live by that. 

I know that we can not only know of our Christ but we can come to know Him by learning of Him, listening to Him, and walking in the meekness of HIs spirit and the promise is that we will find peace in our lives because of Him. 

I’m glad that everyone is doing well, I miss you guys but I don’t want to go home in 7 months! 

Serving the Lord is what makes me happy. 

I hope that everyone has a great week.

Love 

Elder Toma