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

March 19, 2017 My first transfer!

Dear Family,

Today will be a little bit shorter because I have to clean the house today and pack and leave the area early tomorrow morning.

SO, this week was really good. This week I traveled a lot. We traveled to Curoripi which is like 2 hours away and then the next day we went to São Miguel Dos Campos to interview the sisters’ investigators and then we had to travel there again the next day and then in the same day I went to Maceió to do division where we went to Curoripi that same and we slept in the patriarch’s house and then traveled back to our area and got our interviews with our investigators done. SO, this week was very very busy. But we were able to get 2 super beautiful baptisms performed.

So, the news is that I will be going to Topís or something like that, but it’s in Cerjibi which is not even Alagoas it’s a different state. And my companion will be an American once again ha-ha. I heard the area is pretty hard but its good. Also, its a branch there which is one upgrade from here which is a group ha-ha. But this week has been good, I’ll send more details next week when I get to the area. It will be a 10-hour drive, so wish me luck.

Love you Guys

Elder Toma

March 13, 2017 Hearing the testimony of an apostle

Oi família, 

Carnival is over but they are doing ´´blocks´´ which is basically mini carnivals. I just don’t understand why they can’t give up Carnival ha-ha. 

This week was crazy. Tuesday, we had our baptism and we made cookies mixed with brownies and everyone thought we were such amazing cooks but we just made it from the box ha-ha. and we almost screwed that up! 

Thursday, we got permission from the president to go to this city called Curopipe. It is pretty far away so when we got there it was already noon. We were trying to call the member that lives there but his phone wasn’t working so we just decided to ask the people on the bus. We asked the people on the bus which stop we should get off of to arrive to Curopipe, they told us what stop and we got off the bus. We then realized the road of this member isn’t in this city. We arrived in Pontal de Curopipe not the city of Curopipe. So, we had to take this mini Volkswagen bus to the city of curopipe where the only information that we had was a road and name of this investigator that we needed to teach to be baptized. SO, we arrived in the city and just asked everyone where she leaved. Finally, we arrived to her house and were able to teach the restoration and invite her and her 19-year-old daughter to baptism this Sunday because they have already gone a couple times to church in another city and also one time in our area A Barra de São Miguel. After that it was basically night time and so there weren’t any buses that were passing so we had to call a taxi and we finally arrived to the Patriarchs house were stayed there overnight.

The next day we woke up at 4:30 and left at 5, I fell asleep on the Bus and I had the cell phone in my pocket. I think while I was sleeping the cell phone fell out of my pocket and then when we came to our stop I woke up and got up really fast because we almost missed it and grabbed my bags and left. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get our cell phone so the secretary took R$70 out of my funds. Today it poured rain and we had to travel miles asking people where the Work center or secretary office is and we finally found it and we got our new cell phone and then travel back in the rain and now I’m here ha-ha.

But also this week was super super good. Saturday all the missionaries got the opportunity to listen to Elder Basette, Elder Robins, and Elder D. Todd Christofferson. We got to shake all the hands and ask many questions. All three of them gave fantastic talks that were sooo amazing. I didn’t bring my notes with me so I can’t tell you guys everything but something that I thought was cool was Elder Christofferson’ s testimony is super simple yet very powerful and he is so sure about everything almost like he has seen it all. And then Sunday Our stake got the opportunity to listen to him again in church. it was very cool. So, that definitely made up for this week ha-ha.

Also we found some really good investigators. We brought lots of investigators to hear Elder Christofferson so that was really really cool. This week I’m excited because on Sunday we will baptize the two from Curopipe, one of a member’s friends, and maybe two others so it’s going very well. I think I will be transferred though this coming Tuesday. I want to be a part of all the new investigators we found but I’m also excited to serve in a new area.

Sounds life everything is going well back at home

tell everyone I said hi

Love 

Elder Toma

March 5, 2017 Baptisms scheduled

Dear Family,

This week has been a little bit more normal now that Carnival is over. This week we were able to work a little and get some new investigators. My companion and I are excited because we will have two baptisms tomorrow and also another one on Sunday. 

Also, we are super excited to get to see Elder D. Todd Christofferson, he will talk to all the missionaries in this mission and then we will have a stake conference on Sunday and the stake will be able to listen to him. So, we get to listen to him twice! 

This week has also still been kind of weird with carnival ending, like one night all the men dressed up like woman and the women like men and it was very very weird ha-ha. Last night was hard to sleep because our neighbors were blasting music soooo loud, and it was like American 80s music, sometimes Brazil drives me nuts ha-ha. But other than that, all is good. Our investigators are doing pretty well, I was kind of upset because a lot of our investigators didn’t go to church and we walked all the way across our area to bring them to church to find out they wouldn’t go. The investigators that we already baptized are doing well too though, they are going to church and really progressing. 

This month I think we will get a couple of people married. In Brazil, nobody gets married they just live together so its super hard to baptize but a few of our investigators are willing to get married and be baptized soon. I talked to my mission president a couple of weeks ago, and it sounds like I may be transferred soon because I have served here for over 4 months I think, and transfers is coming up this month. So, I just have a few weeks left here and then I might go work in another area.

Sounds like everyone is doing well.

I’m excited for Hunter to get married, He´ll have to send me pictures!

Hope you guys have a good week.

Love,

Elder Toma

February 19, 2017 "Seeing how God is working" in the life of an individual

Dear family.

   

This week I’ll start off by answering mom’s questions ha-ha. The package has arrived! thanks I’ve already almost eaten all the candy ha-ha I’ve just had a crazy week so the candy kind of helped out. And thanks for the recipes and pictures and sunglasses! I think moms second question was about my companion.

My companion is Elder Richmond and he is from Draper Utah I think. His mom is from Brazil so he has already visited Brazil as a child but he is about American as it gets ha-ha. I have a lot of pictures and I brought my camera here and everything but I forgot the cord unfortunately but I promise I will send pictures next week.

The third question was food I think, Here I basically eat rice beans noodles chicken meat fish clams and a bunch of super good fruits. The weather here has just been hot as usual ha-ha but today it poured on us on the way here to the laun house.

This week we had a baptism of Carlos. He used to be like a gangster or something but when he saw us one day he stopped using drugs and selling and doing all that. Then we helped him quit smoking and drinking coffee and his life has already been feeling way better and he feels way healthier he said. ITs funny though because the other day his mom was telling us that he still gets scared at night and sleeps in her room hahahaha. He is like 6´1 300bls and used to be like a drug dealer ha-ha. It’s really cool because I have really seen how God is working in this young man’s life. To be honest me and my comp were actually worried about baptizing him because of just everything and we thought maybe we should wait another week. so, we decided to pray and after our prayer we both just got the impression to call our zone leaders. We called them and they told us that he passed the interview questions and that we need to now just put our faith in him that he will continue to keep the commandments and so we both got our answer to baptize him. I know it was the right decision because he really is doing so good and so dedicated. We already set a baptism date for his girlfriend who loved church this week and already knows some members and also his mom who is sooo grateful that his life has really changed. Also, this week we should be having two baptisms, actually tomorrow so remember them in your prayers.

Claudette who has been fighting smoking but has gone a week without it and Cristiani who has been going to church for a year but kept pushing the baptismal date back but we finally got her to commit for tomorrow. Carnival is crazy, it has really slowed down our work. And it looks like we will be staying in Maceio indoors for a week straight. But after Carnival I have a feeling baptisms and new investigators and everything will just become way better.

Tell everyone I said hi. I promise I’ll send pics next week.

Love Elder Toma

February 11, 2017 God gives us tender merices

Dear família,

This week has been good but the work here has been getting rough with Carnival coming up. Everybody is working and the iniquity is rising so we aren't teaching very many people. But we are working with a lot of good investigators. Right now we are working with a young man named Carlos. We will be baptizing him tomorrow so we are pretty excited about that.

This week has just been pretty busy though. Lots of meeting out in Maceió. We have to take a bus there every time and it is more or less a 45-minute ride.

This week we had a pretty cool miracle. Last Tuesday we were returning from Maceió and my companion left our phone on the bus and we prayed and prayed because he needs the phone because he is district leader so he is always having to call the missionaries and the zone leaders and stuff. But then the next day we got a call from the sister missionaries because a woman found our phone and kept it and then called one of the contacts which was the sisters. The sisters then wrote the address of the woman and were we could find her. So, Wednesday we took a bus out to the other part of our area called A Alto da Barra. We then knocked on the woman’s door and she gave us our phone! and then we talked to her a little bit about the gospel and she said she really really wants to visit our church. So I think this week she will visit. This was just a little testimony of the miracles that God does for us. It reminded me of the story that you told me Dad, of the little red bike and how God gives us little tender mercies over small things too. It was only a cheap cell phone but God still helped us find a way to receive it.

This next week we will probably baptize Claudette. She had problems with smoking and was very very addicted but our zone leader told us to bring oranges. We brought oranges and told her that when she is feeling tempted to smoke, to suck on an orange and it will take away the drive to smoke. We talked to her the next day and she told us that it completely worked! We have tried everything and we finally found what helped and it is oranges. Interesting, right? I don’t know why oranges help but they do ha-ha.

Anyways everything is going well here after next week we probably won’t have baptisms until after Carnival and we will probably stay in Maceió with the Zone leaders.

Tell everyone that I said hi.

Sounds like everyone is doing good!

Miss you all

Love Elder Toma 

February 6, 2017 "Never give up on anybody"

Dear family, 

This week my trainer left but I will be staying with the other Elder that I have already been working with.

My companions name is Elder Richmond and he is from Utah. He has about 5 months out so one more transfer than I have so it has been interesting to have two newbies working together but we actually have been doing really well. This week we have been working with an investigator that when we met him he was wearing a hat that says 420 (marijuana). He said the moment he met us he decided to give up drugs and all. To be honest I didn’t think he would be able to progress this much and I guess I learned my lesson to never give up on anybody. Now he has given up coffee, drugs, smoking, and he says his prayers every morning and night and already has started ready the Book of Mormon. He has just been such a good investigator to work with. He said he liked church a lot, and that he would go to church every day if he could.

We have a lot of other people just ready to receive the Gospel too so it’s been fun to work with my new companion, it feels good to feel more equal with my comp and I’m leading a lot because he doesn’t know the area or people yet.

Looks like the house is changing a little and looking good dad. Ha ha hunter and McKinzie will email me every once in a while. It would be good to hear from my little brother though, how is Conner doing?

Well I hope everyone has a great week tell everyone that I said hi.

Love,

Elder Toma