June 18, 2017 Happy Father's Day

Happy Father’s Day!

I would just like to start out by saying I love you and I’m so grateful to have such a great example in my life, if it wasn’t for you and mom I would have never grown up in the church and gained the opportunity to serve a mission, thanks for being my dad and thanks for all the support that you give me.

This week was good, but success wasn’t the best that I have had.  we had a holiday this week called Corpus Cristo I think, and everyone traveled so it was super hard to find anyone, but this week will be a better week. 

I’ve been emailing with Elder Uhler, it seems that he is doing super well, he says that this mission has been the best thing for him its crazy that he only has 4 months left. It sometimes feels like the mission will be my life forever but then I realize how much time has passed.

I’m so happy for Hunter and Michelle, tell them I said congratulation, the wedding looks great and everybody is looking good, Tell Conner that now that school is out he has time to email me, I know he has an iPod lol. 

The weather here has been cooler than normal and has been rainy so that’s good, on Sunday I wore my sweater! I never thought that would ever happen on my mission ha-ha.

I hope everybody has a good week

Miss you all

Amo Voces 

Elder Toma

June 12, 2017 The Book of Mormon changes your life

Wow, I’m glad to hear about the wedding and that everything went well ha-ha,

I guess something in common that Brazilians have and Latinos is showing up late hahaha, 

But I’m super happy to hear about the wedding, two down, so two more left ha-ha.

This week went very well, the baptism went through, we baptized young boy named Breno, he is 12 years old but a very good kid, I’m almost certain he will serve a mission, it also helps that his best friend is a member and the good kids.

We had another musical number, I played the piano and sang with my companion ´´I Like to Look for Rainbows´´ it went well I think ha-ha.

This week a gay guy chased us with a weird wig, he always flirts and then tries to bible bash with us so we just ignore him and walk really fast ha-ha.

I also gave a talk this Sunday and I liked it a lot, it was about the importance of the Book of Mormon in our lives, I explained briefly about the Book of Mormon and what it is and the story of Joseph Smith but I also shared to examples of how the Book of Mormon and change our lives, I gave an example about the story of Samuel the Lamanite and how he preached the gospel on the wall and how he was protected by the Lord, I compared that to my life, how it helped me learn to have more faith and trust in the Lord and with obedience and faith the lord will protect us from the arrows and stones of the world, I explained that this is a little example and then I also told the story of Dads friend who was Jewish that decided to burn the Book of Mormon so that his family wouldn’t find out, but he heard a voice saying ´´don’t burn my book´´ and how this changed his life completely, my companion really liked the story and the members as well, a-ha sorry for not asking for permission to tell the story beforehand but it fit really well in with my talk. 

The Book of Mormon is just one of the best gifts from God that we have received, it answers all of the most important questions in our life, it answers that God lives and that Jesus is the Christ, it answers that Joseph Smith is a Prophet and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church and kingdom of God, for this the Book of Mormon is the Key stone of our religion, and it is by the Spirit that we can know that it is true. (2 Nephi 32:5, Moroni 10:3-5)

I miss you guys,

Hope everyone has a great week

Love

Elder Toma

June 5, 2017 Baptism of Delaine

Dear family, 

This week was good, the news is that I will stay in my area another transfer! I’m excited because we have some really good investigators here,

The other good news is that the baptism went through! finally ha-ha, her name is Delaine and she has had tons of missionaries pass by, she never got baptized when she was 8 years old and has waited up until now with 29 years of age! but the baptism was perfect. We had two members speak and then we did a musical number that me and my comp made, it was hymn 7 in Portuguese with the tune of Come Thou Font and my companion sang with a young woman in our ward and it was super good, he said that Delaine almost cried.  I’ll send a picture of the baptism also in this email. 

This week we will be baptizing a friend of a member, his name is Breno and he has 12 years and he is super cool, he has been going to church for a couple of months now and has decided to be baptized. 

It’s so crazy that Hunter will be getting married this week, time flies by and I can’t believe I’m on my 9th months of the mission, 

I really just want to make use of the time here because I know I will miss the mission after the mission as much as I miss the stuff back at home, it doesn’t even compare because the stuff back at home is all waiting. 

Brazil is really growing on me and I’m loving it here more and more every day, the culture the food and the people are great but I’m glad to be here serving the Lord and learning about Him more and more each day. 

Its seems like some of the youth are preparing for missions back at home, I’m excited for them because it’s really the best thing,

It’s crazy to think that Elder McGary and elder Uhler and elder snow will be returning home soon,

Good luck with everything, with the productions, the marriage, and all the other stuff going on,

IT was fun to have a baptism on the same day as Conner’s birthday ha-ha, it makes it easier to remember for me.

miss you all,

have a good week

Elder Toma

May 22, 2017 Companion breaks the bed!

Dear Family,

This week went well very well, we made a lot of new investigators and this week we are planning on baptizing a couple and then on the 3rd of June we plan to baptize more. 

Haha this week my comp laid down on his bed and his bed broke in half hahahaha it was so funny but he wasn't happy.

My companion is really good i like him a lot, he is always very excited to work but i think the thing that i learned most from him is the way he teaches, he teaches very well and in way that always captures the attention of the person, he likes to use a lot of analogies also and i like this.

I just had my last interview with my presidente, it was kinda sad because he will be leaving in June and i like him a lot, but I'm also excited to meet my new president, also i guess the secretary will be receiving a married couple of missionaries that are Americans.

Nothing too new happened this week, with the interview with the president he said that he trusts us a lot and that he knows we will help the area, and he gave us a challenge of baptizing 3 men this month and we are pretty excited about that, the branch lacks priesthood so we want to help a lot with baptizing more men.

I'm glad everyone is doing well,

Miss everyone

Elder Toma 

Dear Family,

It was good to talk to you guys yesterday!

This week has been pretty good, we will be making lots of contacts this week and so I'm pretty excited about that,

Nothing too new haha but tell everyone i said hi, 

love you guys

Elder Toma

May 8, 2017 Hard to dry your clothes with all of this rain!

Dear Family,

This week went very well, we had an activity on Saturday and all the missionaries near our area and all the members help us do contacts and lessons for an entire day so this week we have been working on contacting all the references that we received.

This week it looks like we will be having a baptism on the 13th, of a lady that is about 25 or 26 years old. 

The weather has been a little bit cooler because of the rain, last week I was actually getting a little frustrated because we dry our clothes on clothes lines and it kept raining so I couldn’t dry my clothes hahaha. 

It looks like on Sunday about 4 o clock to 5 I will be getting on to skype with you guys.

It sounds like everything is going well down there, Savior of the World finished up right.  My companion he had the Savior of the World music and I told him that my dad was directing it in the DC Temple,  He got pretty excited to hear that ha-ha.

But I’m excited for Hunter and Michelle, tell them I said hi and everyone else

Everything is going well here, I’m staying busy with all these references that we have to contact ha-ha and with our investigators,

5 of our investigators are progressing really well but lack marriage so that’s a little complicated but we are trying to get them married,  Here the culture is a little bit different with marriage.

I’m excited to talk this week, I hope I won’t talk weird ha-ha like Hunter did.

Love you guys

Elder Toma

April 30, 2017 Visit by Elder Christofferson

Dear Family,

This week has been great!

I’m still in Tobias Barretto but I have a new companion, his name is Elder Ferreira and he is a Brazilian, he is from São Paulo interior and he is super super cool. He has about 1 year and 3 months in the mission and is super excited to work and is very determined with his goal of 10 baptisms this month. He grew up in the Church but it is very common for Brazilians to be converts here. Yes, Elder Christofferson came to visit Maceio’ when I was in Maceió two transfers ago.  We had an opportunity as the mission to hear from him but also, I was serving in the Barra De São Miguel which was part of the stake that he spoke in the following day on Sunday so I got to hear from him twice. It was so amazing to be able to talk to him and ask questions and hear from him.  He is really someone that knows that our Savior lives. Two things that he said that I thought were interesting is he said that Jesus is the Kings of Kings but Joseph Smith is the prophets of all prophets and the other thing he when he said that if we saw God right now we would instantly recognize him because we once knew him very well.

But this week went super well, we went to McDonalds when I went to pick up my companion Elder Ferriera and it was soooo good but here McDonalds is like super high end ha-ha also subway is super high end its crazy. Our investigators are doing well and we found new investigators that are soo good but all 4 of them lack marriage but they already accepted the invite to be married so I think we will help with that.

But how is everything back at home?

Miss you guys

Love

Elder Toma