Sunday, November 30, 2014

The sun will come out tomorrow

Dear Family,

So for this week we just were fighting like mad men to get these baptisms for this week but it seemed like everything was against us so I really tried to help my companion this week learn about patience
 and hope and faith that the sun will come out tomorrow.

But it did seem  like we weren't going to have any baptism though everything was just going all the wrong way and we could see that Satan was definitely attacking not only us but the whole mission we seem to be struggling as a mission right now don't really know exactly why but it makes me feel bad for my President because of how much stress he must have right now. But we I have found that when you truly have the faith that God will do his part but on HIS time we will do it and it is happening know we did have a miracle baptism of a girl that had been talking to the missionaries for over a year!!! But my companion and I really focused on her and what she really needs and what is stopping her and we helped her through it and the Spirit always does the rest and now she got baptized and it makes me happy because her sister was baptized almost a year ago but has been staying faithful the whole time and I hate seeing members that are alone without the support of their family so now she has her sister too. But at first we didn't know if she was going to get baptized because her mom wasn't giving permission!!! But we had a very very powerful lesson with her about how God loves us and will guide us when we look for him and she just started crying when we asked her if she felt that God was trying to guide her daughters and her and she said yes and gave permission for her to get baptized and we are now working with the mom I just love the spirit!!
And know we are seeing the fruits of our labors because we are going to try and baptize 5 people this week and we need all the prayers we can get because every single one of them has been a pure miracle and un planned for  really but that they are going to get baptized so please pray for
1.            Jocilyn and Mindy Jal
2.            Carolina Reys
3.            Melisa Dabila
4.            Cristina and Monica Sian
5.            Pablo and Esperanza Reys 

But we also had a wedding and those are always the best when you get those and we have no idea what we are going to be doing for Thanksgiving this year because they don't celebrate it here!! I think we are just going to hang out as a district and eat together like Dominos or something haha

But it sounds like you are all doing really well its weird that I turn 20 don't feel like it at all haha and that Christmas is all ready coming again it feels like yesterday I was in Santa Barbara celebrating my first one  the time just goes now and its weird how everything changes the more time you start to get everything is just weird haha but I love it


Love you all

Sunday, November 16, 2014

I love the mission and I am grateful that I decided to go

Dear Family,

Well this week was yet another week of miracles. it's a little overwhelming and there really aren't words to explain how grateful you get for them. We had another baptism that wasn't planned.  We just went in there asked if she wanted to get baptized because she had gone to church more than once and she said yes. She is a young smart girl named Danlia. and her father and mother and sister will be getting baptized this change as well.

This week I have personally been seeing the power of the atonement and the real desire that everyone has to change. We have been talking to a lot of investigators and they have all made mistakes in the past but they all want to be cleaned and have a fresh start and it has been a privilege to help and teach them how to do it and where to point their focus to. But I think really the best part for me in a mission is really getting to see people change and be cleansed from their past and it is incredible to get to see and have that  experience  for yourself. and I love the quote that dad shared about how that God won't look at or ability but for at availability then at our dependability and later he will increase our capability and I have found that to be completely true in the mission.

This month we have put as a goal to baptize as a mission 400 for the month of November but right now as it is we are very low for this number and the assistants come and start to try and encourage everybody to have faith and not doubt and that this is revelation from God given to our president and I feel that we can complete the goal but that every missionary has to follow those four steps of availability dependability and then he will increase or capacity and I have seen when we first show the Lord that we are ready for anything and then show that we are doing everything we can that is when he will increase us so that we can complete his purpose. so please pray for us that we can complete this goal and see this miracle.  
I love the mission and I am grateful that I decided to go.

 Love

Elder Toma

Sunday, November 9, 2014

God wants to bless us

Dear Family!!
This week has been awesome week I received my kid his name is Elder Bell he is from Orem Utah. He is a really great missionary and is going to make a amazing one it really is a honor to train especially in this mission.

 But we also saw more miracles we had a baptism!!!! Which we didn't even plan for we were just working and I got the impression that we should visit a investigator that had been talking to the missionaries for over a year!! and she had been waiting so long to get baptized because the other missionaries wanted that she could get married to the man of here children. but the problem is that she is from Salvador and doesn't have her papers so its super complicated to get them. But not only that I began to talk to her and really ask her what she wanted and she told me she wanted to get baptized and then I asked her if she really wanted to get married to this guy and she said no not at all and turned out that he wasn't even living there anymore and they hadn't been a intimate couple for over 14 years so I called the elders and they gave permission and she was baptized that Sunday and we had a miracle baptism.

I am beginning to see that God wants to bless us we just have to go to him and put our trust in him and make covenants with him in our prayers every night and that is the difference between and normal prayer and a fervent pray or a powerful one like it says in the scriptures I love the example of this in Enos 1:2-5 and How first he had the desire in his heart to know the mysteries of God  and second he began to pour out his souls and speak with him and listen and make covenants with him based upon the promptings of the Spirit and more importantly he lived and kept his covenants and desired for more when he finally received answers and blessing that were in his heart.
Elder Toma and Elder Bell
and that we should always follow these 5 steps so that we have powerful prayers not just normal ones were we talking and then just go to bed or get up and do the normal day routine.
that we need to follow these five steps every time

1.Desire
2.Speak
3.Listen 
4. Make convents
5. Live them
  
and that's how you progress get to know your father and receive blessing and miracles. 

And I know that it works because I do it every single day and have witnessed the difference.
But there is also knew that our mission is doing we have 4 assistants know 2 that are normal and 2 that only travel around the mission to teach and help missionaries to complete their purpose better and we have the chance to work with them and one of them is my trainer elder osegura so I went and did divisions with him and that was really really fun to be able to work with him again probably for the last time because he finishes in December. But the mission is just getting crazier and crazier as President is changing more things but it's cool to see the difference.




But I love you all

Elder Toma

Sunday, November 2, 2014

I thank God every day

Dear family and friends...and everybody else,

This week was absolutely incredible and I thank God every day and night for it.

So to begin my companion and I put as a goal 10 baptism for the change but the thing is one that's a lot for a change but two its ridiculously a lot for a change of only 4 weeks!!! But I felt that it was what we should put.

So me and my companion began to work hard and be as obedient as possible. And the weeks went by and we had challenges we had set up weddings and they all fell through our investigators would drink or something would happen that would stop them to be baptized but then we had a miracle of baptizing the Lima family which was four then we only faulted 6 more and we had a family that was already to go and a couple of others that could do it.
  
But that week that we were planning to have these 6 baptisms they all fell through except for two because of drinking or something happening Satan was really fighting in this week. But then we had the miracles.

Me and my companion went to a members house were we found a young man that we had seen in the church every single Sunday but my companion  said that he is sure that he is a member but I went ahead and asked him and he said no!!! then I asked him why not and he said it's because his family didn't give him permission but he had just turned 18 that last month. So we invited him to be baptized and he said yes!! So we taught him everything and he was baptized that following week. 

The second miracle we had planned to baptize a man that is part of the family lima but when we came he was super drunk so we knew that he couldn't do it that week. But then his sister who was just baptized came up to us and told us that his daughter that was 10 years old felt that the church was true and wanted to be baptized and she had come to church 2 times already! so we could see that hand  of the lord in this moment the father couldn't be baptized but the daughter could so we taught her as well everything and she was baptized.

Then we had our family that we found on a bus!! That's my first bus contact that I have ever had that was baptized they are incredible this family. But their daughters had doubts and it came to the point that they didn't want to talk to us they liked going to church and knew everything but didn't want to be pressured. And if they weren't going to be baptized we wouldn't get 10 baptisms but one day on Friday the day before they would have their interviews the father wanted to meet with us and talk about his daughters. And he just starts asking us what should we do and we started to plan on how we could help them so that they could all be baptized as a family. So we met with the daughters and we talked with them  and the sprit helped us in this moment and we had a powerful lesson and we got them to say that yes they would come and have their interviews. after we left the father sent us a message that said I don't know what you guys did or said  but they have changed dramatically and they want to do it now thank you my family is a lot happier for what you have done. and we had the blessing of having this family be baptized.

And we had the miracle of having 10 baptisms  exactly for this change and I know that it was the Lord that did it not us we were just his hands in this moment. And my mission president told me that he knew that me and my companion were going to complete this goal that's why he sent me here.
 but my current companion is named Elder Cabellero he is from Honduras and has only 8 months in the mission but he will be leaving this change and I will be training haha and I already know that it will be a gringo so we will see what happens in this crazy change. 

But hah my Spanish is good I just work on learning random words now but yeah the Mayan slaughtered my Spanish and English for awhile but its normal again thank goodness.  But I hope everything is all good with your guys Braden is turning into a gorilla and I hope Conner is doing really well and keeps killing it in his studies.

Love you all


Elder Toma