Third Letter From Cody- July 25, 2011

 

First of all i miss the mtc so much, i never thought that i would miss it so much since i wanted to get out to texas so badly. But on last monday morning we had to wake up at 3:30 am, yes thats 3:30 in the morning, so we could say goodbye to the 4 elders in my district that are going to arizona cause they left for the airport at 4. Then we started getting ready for our departure. our bus to the airport left at 5. there were only 5 of us, counting me going to texas because the 6th elder, my companion, hurt his shoulder so he had to stay in the mtc for an extra week!! My district in the mtc was the best and i already miss them a lot.  When we got to the aiport everyone kept staring at us cause now we totally stick out cause we are missionaries with the black name tags!!!!! I loved talking on the phone to people when i was waiting to board my plane!!!!! there was a total of 19 of us going to the texas dallas mission. 14 were spanish speaking and then the five of us are english speaking!!! we were greeted by president and sister durrant at the airport which was so cool and then we went to the temple to take pictures!!! then we went to the durrants house and we had lunch and orientation which was a lot of fun!!! Then after we had dinner we were told that we were going out teaching with some of the other missionaries that have been out here for a while!! i was like WHAT?!?!?!!?!?!? i just got there and i already had to start teaching!!!!!!! These two zone leaders took elder flitton and i out to teach!!!! I was in a trio going to texas cause my companion had to stay at the mtc.  Well i went with elder olvera and elder flitton went with the other elder.  elder olvera and i taught a lesson to this black guy. even though i was SO nervous, the lesson went SO well and the guy made a return appointment and said he was going to read the book of mormon!!! then when we got back that night we slept at the ap's apartment which has so many beds and then in the morning it was TRANSFER MEETING!!!!!!!!! time to meet my companion!!!! they announced me and my companions name and then of course we hugged and then it was time to get to my area!!!!! my companions name is elder sullenberger and he is so great, i love him!!!! he is such a great trainer and he helps me out so much!!!!! we finally got to my area which is called the melissa/farmersville area. we cover the melissa ward and the farmersville branch!!!!!! right when we got to the apartment we dropped off our stuff and went tracting for 4 hours!!!!!!!! it is so hot here and you HAVE to drink a lot of water or you'll pretty much die!!!! The week has been great!!!! we got 12 new investigators and set two baptism dates which elder sullenberger said is the best week he has ever had!!!!!! One of our investigators is this family and they are so nice and when we met them they seemed mormon!!!! they came to church yesterday which we were so stoked about!!!! another one of our investigators is this couple and the girl is HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!! she is so crazy and outgoing and i love her!!!!!! she says the funniest things and she is from brazil!!!!!!!! they didnt come to church yesterday but we are hoping they come soon!!!!!! i love my zone leaders, they are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! im in a trio now because elder parker needs to wait for elder child to get here from the mtc. elder parker is so cool and i love him too. so far the first week has been great!!!!!!!!!! yesterday at churcha all of the members tried talking to me but i couldnt cause i had to go to so many meetings!!! and i had to talk to my investigators and ask them how they liked church. so it was really hard to talk to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love tracting and i love teaching, it is so cool to be able to talk to people about the church and the investigators love my enthusiasm!!!!!!!!!! I hope all of you are doing well!!!!!!!!!!!! write me letters!!!!!!!!! you cant write letters to the mission office and then they will forward the letters right to my apartment!!!!!!!

Second Letter from Cody- July 13, 2011.

I cant believe i am almost out of the the MTC!!!!!!!!!!!!! after the first week time goes by so fast here!!!!! my distrcit got our travel itinery this week and we are scheduled to leave the MTC monday morning at 5 for the SLC airport and then im off to texas!!!!!!! i am so stoked to get to texas but im also kinda sad about leaving the MTC cause i have become so close with my district, they are all so great and we have become good friends!!!!! we are all still trying to learn to love my companion but i only have five more days with him. Also i probably have like 100 mosquito bites on me right now!!! i did not know that utah has so many mosquitoes but its really annoying cause mosquitoes love me so i hope there arent that many in texas!!!!  the sunday before you leave the mtc your district gets to sing a hymn in front of everyone at sacrament meeting and my district is going to sing "come thou fount" which i am so stoked for. we have been practicing and it sounds so good.  The wife of our branch president told our district that we are all wimpy singers but we are going to BLOW HER MIND on sunday, im stoked!!!!!!!!!! we have gym everyday which i love so much cause we get to go outside and play on the fields by the provo temple, we havent gotten a chance to go in the provo temple on our p-days cause the temple is closed for cleaning so i wont get to do temple work until i get to dallas. i play sand volleyball and i have gotten so good at it!!!!! we all get so hyper while we play and we do the funniest things and we all just laugh the whole time. my district thinks im the funniest kid and they all call me elder popular haha cause i get so much mail!!!!!!! I see mark and thomas and other friends from byu a lot which is so great!!!!!! i love class here and i learn so much, my teachers are so great and im gonna miss them a lot!!!! they love me cause i am always so enthusiastic and positive about everything!!!!!!! one of my teachers is a convert and we have almost exactly the same conversion stories. we have to prepare a 5 minute talk every week for sacrament meeting and then they randomly call two people up from our branch to give the talks, i havent been called up yet, but i definitely have been preparing the talks. i get to leave the mtc today cause my companion hurt his shoulder so he needs to go and see a specialist so itll be interesting going to the outside world wearing a black name tag and being a missionary, maybe i'll get to teach some people!!!!! at the mtc we get "investigators" which are just people that volunteer and pretend that they are interested in the church. two of my investigators have commited to getting baptized which is good!!!! Our devotional last night was about Jesus Christ and the atonement and they showed videos of everything that he went through. it just made me love him even more and made me even more grateful for everything that He did for me.  It also made me realize that i am an actual representative of Jesus and that I wear his name!!!! i am so blessed to be on a mission right now and i know that its going to be great once i get to texas!!!!!!!! they keep us really busy at the mtc which is nice, we are always moving around all day!!!!! and i learn a bunch of new things everyday. this week we are learning about teaching the word of wisdom and the law of chastity to people which are kinda awkward subjects but if you teach with the words of the spirit then it isnt awkward at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss everyone and i hope you all are doing well and enjoying your summer, it is so hot here but i know its even hotter in dallas. my time on the computer is running out and the red thing is flashing!!!!! ill get more time on the computer once im out in texas!!!!! this will be my last email from the mtc!!!!!!!!!! TEXAS HERE I COME!!!!!!! FIND TEACH BAPTIZE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First Email From Elder Cody Larkin Tuma July 6, 2011

No one told me that the mtc is a learning machine!!!!!!!! we have class like 6 hours a day and we have like three hours of personal study time. Stephen and i went to luch when my airplane landed and As soon as Stephen dropped me off i was taken to this room where they gave me my black name tag and my mtc id card and my room key and stuff. Then i dropped off my bags and stuff in my room and then i was taken to class, yes i had class within the first 30 minutes of arriving here. We just met our district and then we introduced ourselves. Then we all went to this devotional for all the new missionaries and the MTC president spoke at it! It started off with us singing "We'lll bring the world his truth" which is one of my favorite hymns but at the end of the song we changed the words to "we are NOW the Lords missionaries" instead of "we will be the Lords missionaries. Then after that song there was a musical number and guess what the song was...COME THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my FAVORITE hymn!!!!!!! it just testified to me that i definitely need to be here. And of course it made me miss Sister Wynn. It was so great that her and Sister Money did that song at my farewell.  There is such a special spirit felt here at the mtc that cant be felt anywhere else!!!!!!! I LOVE IT HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The food here is just like the food at the cannon center and its really good. We already have fake investigators that we teach and it is so great to teach. i love teaching through the spirit. When i got here i realized that i was going to be here for the 4th of july and it made me sad cause i thought that i wasnt going to get to watch the fireworks but it turns out that i got to!!!!!!! On saturday night we had one of the best devotionals i have ever been to!!!!! It was an independence day devotional!!!!! We sang hymns about america which was so awesome!!!! Then scottish bagpipes started playing "praise to the man" and as that song was playing people from different countries came through the sides of the audience holding the flags from their countries.  that testified to me that this gospel is being spread all over the world through us missionaries. i get chills typing about it!!!! On sunday night we had a fireside and Elder Oaks' daughter spoke and played the violin and it was very spiritual.  On tuesday we had a devotional and this guy from the seventy and his wife spoke.  his wife told us that even though we are paired up in two's we are all actually in threesomes: us, our companion, and the spirit. Its so great to think that the spirit is with us all the time and helping us teach!!!! I am so stoked to get to Texas and start spreading the gospel. My p-day is on wednesday so i can respond to everyones letters on wednesdays!!! Dearelder.com is one of the easiest and fastest ways to send me a letter, its free and we get to read the letters every night before we go to bed! I am learning so much about the gospel. When i first got there, i was kinda discouraged because everyone knew so much and i thought that i didnt know enough. then later on i learned that i dont need to worry because i will be speaking through the spirit. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY FOR THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS!!!!!!!!!! ok this timer thing is kinda sketch and its blinking and the time is almost up so this email will almost be done.  I love my district they are all really cool and we get along well.  4 of the people from my district are going to arizona and then 6 of us are going to dallas.  We have a little under two weeks until we leave. Oh i also really like my two teachers. they are so awesome.