4/28/14 Modelia!

Hello!

So yep, I am in my new area, Modelia! It is in the Kennedy zone, and actually borders with Tintal a little. However, this area is a little richer than the others; they have Papa Johns! And Pizza Hut! And like a ton of other American restaurants! And they have Dr. Pepper! There are a few downsides, however. Everything costs more. Somethings like a ton more! It was bad enough before when people would charge me more just because I'm white, but now it is a ton more. And the other thing is: normally, when an area has more money, there are fewer baptisms. And in this case, that statement is true: Modelia hasn't had a baptism in 6 months! 6 months, that is, until last Saturday! The last two missionaries had found someone completely prepared in the last transfer, and she (Angela) just got baptized! 

My new companion's name is Elder Alcántara, a missionary from the Dominican Republic. And, this is his last transfer in the mission! He has had a lot of success in his mission, and I think that's why he was sent to Modelia, to get the work going. And he did! We are working with a few investigators, and have been finding new ones pretty quickly this week.

One thing about the Modelia ward is that about a third of the members are young single adults, a few of which are getting ready for their missions. However, a lot of them hadn't been too active, so that is what Elder Alcántara had been working on, and now they are animated and active! It is really cool to see, and a different experience to work with so many young people. They are getting more excited to share the gospel, so we will see how they do in the coming weeks! 

Well that is what I have. I'm looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store here in Modelia, and to learning from a super-experienced missionary! (who hopefully isn't too off haha) I am grateful for the opportunity I have to be here, serving the people and serving the Lord.  I know this gospel is true, and that we are able to receive personal revelation to help us in our lives! I have been working a lot recently on learning to better recognize and understand the influence of the Holy Ghost, and I feel like I am better able to receive answers to my prayers. Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Toombs

4/21/14 Me voy!

Hola todos!

So we found out about transfers this morning...I am leaving Bosa! (already!) I will be going to zone Kennedy, in area Modelia. It is pretty close to where I am now, but that's ok. It is exciting to get to move! I feel a little mixed, as we have gotten several new investigators this week, and we have people that straight up want to get baptized, but I'll go where the Lord wants me to go!

This past week wasn't too eventful. We spent a lot of time getting to know the area, and the members here in the ward. It is kind of a good thing I am leaving, as there are a few members that are infatuated with me haha, but I will miss the area all the same.

On Thursday we celebrated my birthday in the night! I made hamburgers from scratch for the first time in my life (I had no idea what I was doing, but they turned out pretty well, and we ate cake! It was a good time. 

I don't remember if I said it last week, but we have English classes every Saturday here! The leader of the district here, Elder Albrecht, is a gringo, and has been teaching for a while. It was cool to be able to teach English the past couple weeks!

Yesterday we gave talks in the ward. I based mine on the talk from Elder Gary E. Stevenson, about how life is like an olympic event, and I got a bunch of compliments on my Spanish! That always helps, but I really need to crack down on my studies, I could be progressing a lot faster.

Then today we went to the stake center and played...risk! It wasn't too bad, and while we were playing, the sister missionaries made food! How much better can it get! ;) quite a few of us are leaving, so it was good to meet together again.

So I had a good conversation with my companion during study time about the role of the holy ghost in giving us revelation, and how sometimes God just expects us to use our judgment to make a decision. My testimony has really grown of how prayers are answered! I know that God loves us enough to guide us in our lives, and it is incredible to see how these people can follow their little promptings to join the true church of Jesus Christ. Thank you all!

Love,

Elder Toombs

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Bolon (made with platano, butter and cheese)

P-day playing Risk

Weight Lifting!

4/14/14 Good-bye Tintal!

Yep, I'm not in my first area anymore! Welcome to Bosa Centro!

So this week was pretty eventful. On Monday night in Tintal, we got a new family of investigators! That was something long waited for. Then Tuesday, we started our district meeting by bringing Dunkin donuts from the mall in Tintal! Then after the district meeting and lunch, the sister missionaries from Bosa came over to Tintal, and we gave them a tour of everything, showing where the members lived, and the investigators, and all that. It was a pretty fun day, and we ended with a lesson with Johan that turned out really well. I'm not sure when he is going to be baptized, but I feel it is coming soon; his testimony has grown tremendously since the time that I met him, he just needs to find a way to change his new study schedule from Sundays.

Then Wednesday, we went over to Bosa to learn the area with the Sisters! It turns out, Bosa is really, really big. I was talking with the zone leaders the other day and they said they might split the proselyting area to have two companionships. Then, after returning late to Tintal, we squeezed in a lesson with two new investigators! In this entire transfer in Tintal, we had only taught 2 new investigators, then in 3 days we taught 5! Pretty sweet!

On Thursday we had a multi-zone conference (great!). We were planning on exchanging places with the sisters on Friday, but our zone leaders told us to do it that day, so we canceled all of out things, packed our bags, and took off for Bosa! We could only take half of our stuff in the taxi, so we came back on Friday to get the rest. The apartment in Bosa is fantastic! It isn't the biggest, but there are 2 bathrooms! With a shower in each! No more waiting for my companion to get out of his 40 minute showers! The only downside of Bosa is it is a little more sketchy than Tintal. That was one of the reasons to send the sisters to tintal, because it is safer, so it was expected haha.

Well got to go! Thank you all!

Love,

Elder Toombs

4/7/14 5 Months In!

Hey all,

So yeah, I have 5 months in the mission as of yesterday! It really doesn{t feel like it, but I went back and read a few of my journal entries from the CCM and realized how far I´ve come, it is a great experience. I am looking forward to the next 19 months! :)

And more big news! I will be having transfers this week, almost two weeks early! And I am going with Elder Giler! We are trading positions with the Sisters in the Bosa Centro area. It is still in my same zone (la Libertad), but I am excited to get to experience a new area. So tomorrow the sisters are going to come to Tintal so we can show them the area, Wednesday we will do the same in Bosa, and Thursday we switch!

One sad thing: We left one of the Recent Convert families this week. Luisa, Brenda, and Andres are incredible people, they just weren´t ready for baptism and don´t really have testimonies or desire to go to church; we have been visiting them ever since I got to Tintal, but they have only become less active than before. There wasn´t amy more for us to do; we just have to hope that between help of the members and the Lord. I hate to see such great people go; I will do all I can to make sure my converts have more of a surety of the truthfullness of this gospel.

General Conference was great! My first conference in the mission, and all the gringos get to watch in English! It was super great, and also, because the gringos go to a different room to watch, we ate a ton of food (mostly candy). Then, after the Sat. Afternoon session but before priesthood, all of the Elders in the zone went to the Zone leaders´ house to eat Dominoes Pizza! And each missionary had half of an extralarge! So I definately ate way too much on Saturday, but it was a good time. I love how Elder M. Russell Ballard applied the Preach my Gospel book to all of the members, so I invite you all to read it, no matter if you aren´t in a mission! Another highlight from the conference: Linda S. Reeves spoke about the importance of daily family prayer and scripture study, and how it doesn´t matter if the house is a mess as long as you keep those things up. I will definately apply this principle to my mission ;)

One thing I will definately miss from Bogotá: Paying less than $4 to get a haircut AND your hair shampooed (is that a word?). And last week I usede a Bicitaxi for the first time! It is just a guy with a bike and a little two-person covered carriage thingy pulled behind, and it is way less cool than I thought it would be haha.

I don´t remember if I ahve mentioned them before, but back when I was with Elder Garcia at the begining of the mission, I had tw0o investigators named Jonathan and Erica, a young unmarried couple. She was super pregnant, and when she had the baby, I couldn´t get in touch with them anymore. But, just last night, I called Jonathan one last time, and he answered and invited us to his house! HE actually lives in Patio Bonito, so Elder Giler and I went shopping over there (lots of cool stuff!) and then visited them. I got to see the baby, and they are doing great! They also accepted to ahve the missionaries from Patio visit them! It was great to be able to see them one more time before I left the area.

Well that´s all! Have a good week, and re-read those conference talks!

Love,

Elder Toombs