October 24, 2011

Well this week was another great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday we had district meeting and my district planned a huge mega surprise for me without me even knowing about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At the end of district meeting they told me to close my eyes so I did and when I opened them they wrote "HAPPY THREE YEARS ELDER CODY LARKIN TUMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and there was a cake sitting on the table and a bunch of happy birthday signs!!!!!!!!!!!!! We celebrated the day I got baptized. October 19, I cant believe it has already been three years since I became a member of the church!!!!!!!!!! I couldnt believe the party that they suprised me with!!!!!!!!! I dont even know how they remmebered that I got baptized on October 19!!!!!!!! My district is the best ever, i love them so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to have a lesson with John on wednesday and he is still doing so great!!!!!!!! He is so close to getting baptized and I know that he is going to recieve his answer so soon!!!!!!!!!!!!! He hasnt been able to go to the melissa ward yet because he goes to church with his ex wife and daughter down in dallas. Then on wednesday night we got to go to young womens!!!!!!!!!! I love that the first time i have ever been to young womens was on my mission!!!!!!!!!!! The two girls from the family that we are teaching went to mutual on wednesday night so we were invited to go also!!!!!!! We carved pumpkins and did some service by cutting up beads and stuff!!!!!!!!!!! The youth in the melissa ward are so great and our two investigators had so much fun and the youth welcomed them like no other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am sosososososo proud of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on thursday we had a lesson with William and he is doing great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When we told him that he was going to have his baptismal interview the next day he got so scared!!!!!!!!!! He told us that he wanted a copy of the questions and he wanted to write all his answers down and bring them into the interview with him!!!!!!!!! We let him know that the interview is not a test and he has nothing to worry about!!!!!!!! It is just there to make sure that he has a testimony and that he knows what he is doing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So he was fine and he is sooooo stoked to get baptized!!!!!!!!!! On friday we had specialized training down in Dallas so we got to hear from President and Sister Durrant and Elders Jensen and Westfall which was so awesome!!!!!!! I love training days because we get to learn so much and our leaders our truly inspired by the spirit which is so great!!!!!!!!! After specialized training I got to go on exchanges with Elder Hong and Elder Seager and I went over to their area with Elder Hong which was great!!!!!!! Elder Hong is such a great example to me and I learn so much from him everyday!!!!!!!!!!!! So it was fun that I got to spend the night down in Allen!!!!!!!! Then on saturday it was the day of service for the Allen Stake!!!!!!!! All of the missionaries in our district went up to Bonham to do service on a farm up there and elder sullenberger and I went to Anna to do service there at a park with the melissa ward!!!!!!! We cut down branches from trees and cleared up the trails!!!!!!! It was a lot of fun because we all got to serve together and service is so great because in the scriptures we learn that when we are serving the people around us, we are also serving our God!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of the members tied up an old tree to his truck and pulled it out of the ground with his truck which was hilarious!!!!!!! He had an audience of like 50 people and it was the best!!!!!!!!! Stuff like that doesnt happen in california!!!!!!!!!! Then at night we had a great lesson with the Hamm family and we watched the Testaments, and they are doing so great!!!!!!!!!! My week was great and I love serving the Lord and being a representative of Jesus Christ!!!!!!!!!!! I hope all of you have an awesome and blessed week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

October 17, 2011

HI MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks for the great email and for the package that you sent, like you said, I wont get it until Wednesday!!!!!!!!!! President Durrant called me after he spoke on the phone with you and he said that he had a great phone call with you!!!!! What did you guys talk about?!?!?! I know that you really want to see me but right now Im set apart as a full time missionary and I need to be obedient to the rules and guidelines that I have been given!!!!!! President Durrant told me that he ride the part in the white handbook to you about how we cant see family for thosen two years because it will distract us. The white handbook is our missionary rule book. Id love to send one home to you so you can read it and get more of an idea of what a missionary is. I know that if i see you its only going to make it harder for the both of us!!!!!!! Itll distract me from the missionary work and itll make you miss me even more!!!! I do get to talk on the phone with you in two months which is good!!!!!!! I know that you guys will love texas and you can just think of me while you are here, but i dont think that a visit will be a good idea!!!! I love you a lot and it sounds like you guys are doing great!!!!!! I miss all of you and tell everyone that i say hi!!!!!!!! Is caileigh and stephen still wrtiting?!?!?!? You should go to church with mrs money or have her and the missionaries over for dinner or something, itll probably make it a little easier!!!!!

 

For the blog:

 

Well this week was another great first week of the transfer!!!!!!!! Since there was no changes im still in the samer area and with my same companion!!!!!!!!!!! I got to go on a two day exchange this week with Elder Treasure and he came over to my area!!!!!!! He is such a great missionary and we both love talking to people so its really fun to go tracting and contacting people with him!!!!!!! We got to meet a lot of great people that day and we got to talk to a lot of people about the church!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday we had a great lesson with a boy named William!!!!! He is nine years old and he wants to get baptized and he already has the greatest testimony ever and he LOVES the church so much!!!!!!!! The only problem is that his family is less active so we need to get them to come to church also!!!!!!!!! Then that night we had dinner with the roberts family!!!!!!!!!!! I love them so much!!!!!!! They are so awesome and two of the boys in the family are already such great missionaries and examples to their friends at school!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on wednesday we had a great lesson with John!!!!!!!!! He is doing so great and his testimony is growing so much and he is progressing so much!!!!!!!!!! I love how the spirit can change peoples lives and how it can make them have that desire to make their lives better by learning about Jesus Christ!!!!!!!!! Since we have been bike missionaries lately since the mission cut back a lot on our miles, we have been riding our bikes a lot which i LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When we are on bikes we get to be seen by everyone!!!!!!!!!! Well on friday we got to our bikes after we were done tracting and we realized that all of our tires were FLAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so we had to go and get new tires later that night!!!!!!!! Luckily a member lived close by so we could get a ride to the church where our car was parked!!!!!!!!!!! But while we were tracting we met this 17 year old named Zack and he seemed really interested in learning more about the church!!!!!!!! I really do see him becoming a member and we are going to go visit with him later this week!!!!!!!! We talked a lot about his desires and how happy his life is and i know that the gospel can bless his life so much!!!!!!!! Then that night we had a lesson with Kendle and it went so great!!!!!!!!! She is doing so well and she is getting baptized on October 29th!!!!!!!! Her mom is the best!!!!!! Her mom was baptized in January and she has such a great spirit about her!!!!!!! She loves the gospel and she loves the church so much!!!!!!!!!!! I love being a missionary so much and I love talking to everyone about the church and sharing the gospel with everyone!!!!!!!!!!! I hope all of you are doing great and loving being at school or wherever you are!!!!!!!!! All of you have an awesome week and remember that Heavenly Father LOVES you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

October 10, 2011

Well this week was another great week being out here in texas!!!!!!!!!!!!! First of all the weather has been cooling down a lot and thats great because its not as hot anymore!!!!!!!!! Its a great thing that the weather has cooled down because we have become partly bike missionaries!!!!!!! The mission has cut a lot of miles from all the cars so now we have to put our bikes on a back rack on the back of the car and we park in a central location in the town that we are working in that day and then we ride all around town on our bikes all day!!!!!!!! Its great because when we are on bikes people see us more often and when members see us they always yell hi to us from their cars which is really cool!!!!!!!! Its a little harder now though because we have to get more rides from members and a lot of members are not very willing to give us rides!!!!!!!!!! We got to teach this man named John this week and he is such a cool guy and he is progressing so much!!!!!!!! His ex wife is a member of the church so he already knows a lot about the church from her!!!!!!!! Whenever we come over to his house to teach a lesson with him he always makes some kind of snack for us which is so great!!!!!!!! He always keeps his reading assignments from us and he even highlights his favorite parts!!!!!!!!!! He is still praying to find out if the church is true or not and i know that he is going to recieve his answer that its true and get baptized!!!!!!!!!! We also got to teach Kendle again, she is 17 years old and she has a baptism date for the end of this month and its going to be great!!!!!!!!!!! She has progressed a lot also!!!!!!!! On wednesday night we had dinner with a family in the Melissa Ward and they have a nephew thats in the Anaheim California mission which is so cool!!!!!!! He is serving in the Santa Ana 11th ward!!!!!! So i got to talk to them about the area!!!!!!! There are two members in one of the Allen wards that are serving in the California Anaheim mission right now!!!!!! Its so funny how many people i have run into that are serving there or have served there or have kids that are there!!!!!!! Well another transfer has gone by and we didnt get a transfer call on saturday night so im staying here for another transfer with Elder Sullenberger!!!!!!!! I know that we will see more miracles this transfer and that there is more work to be done here for me to do!!!!!!!!!!! For the past few days it has been really cloudy and rainy!!!!!!! I hope it gets better because i dont like the rain or clouds!!!!!!!!!!! On friday we also got to meet with a less active part member family and they have a 9 year old son that wants to get baptized so we set a baptismal date with him for the end of october also!!!!!!!!! I love how the spirit can change peoples lives!!!!!! It can even change peoples reactions right in a second!!!!!! We knocked on someones door the other day and she answered how most people normally answer and she said she wasnt interested in learning more but i told her about the book of mormon and how it has helped my life so much and I immediately saw a change in her eyes and she said that she really wanted to learn more about the Book of Mormon!!!!!!! As long as people open their hearts to the spirit then it will definitely be able to affect and they will be able to recieve more blessings than they can even imagine!!!!!!!!!!!! Well i hope that all of you are having great weeks!!!!!!!!! Halloween is almost here and i have already seen so many crazy halloween decorations on peoples houses, its hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you all have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

Well this week was another fantastic week out here in Texas!!!!!!!! On tuesday i got to spend the day with elder calderwood down in his area which went really well!!!!!! Elder calderwood is a great missionary and he is very diligent and obedient which i love!!!!!!!! We went tracting around Allen and then we went and visited a few people and we met this black guy on the street who is very interested in learning more which was great!!!!!!! Then on thursday we got to go and visit Sister Lawson, she is an old lady that lives in a nursing home and she cant come to church so the young men come and bring the sacrament to her!!!!! But when we visited her she said that she is feeling much better and she is going to be able to start coming to sacrament meeting on sundays which i am so stoked about!!!!!!! she loves when missionarys come over and when people come and visit her!!!!!!! she got baptized four years ago!!!!!!!! On friday i had the weirdest dinner of my life!!!!!!! we had steak but the member that made it only cooked it for a couple minutes so it was so raw that it was basically like sushi!!!!!!!! i didnt want to be rude and tell her to cook it more so i had to eat it!!!!!! it wasnt very bad but i was scared that i was going to get sick from it and guess what?!?!?!!? i didnt get sick!!!!!!! the Lord really watches over us, its so great!!!!!!! then we went to go and visit this family that got sealed in the temple this week!!!!!! they are such a great family!!!! the dad has cancer but they are so optimistic about everything, its so great!!!!!!! all the mom cared about while they were in the temple was that her son could feel the spirit!!!!!! the family has been through a lot, they were excommunicated a few years ago but then they got baptized again a year ago and then they got to go through the temple this week and get sealed!!!!!!! they are moving to Potomac, maryland next week so the dad can get treatment for his cancer in washington dc!!!!! So emilee crowder tell your family to look out for them when they move there!!!!!!! their last name is farqueson!!!!!! also at dinner the other night a member gave me a whole half of a watermelon, emilee you would have loved it!!!!!!! Then the next day we had a few appointments planned but they all fell through so we went tracting instead!!!!!! we had to drop all of our investigators baptism dates because none of them are coming to church and they forget about our appointments with them!!!!!!! its okay though because i know that everything happens for a reason and the Lord needed us to be in a different place at that time!!!!!!!! Then on saturday night we ate at a members house and they have a PIG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it is HUGE!!!! we got to pet it and everything!!!!!! i love it so much!!!!!!!! yesterday was stressful because i almost got stranded at church again but everything worked out in the end so it was ok!!!!!!!!!! Even though this week was pretty tough because our investigators are being boofs, it was still a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

October 3, 2011

 got to spend most of this week down in the city of allen!!!!!!!!! i LOVE allen!!!!! it reminds me a lot of newport beach and the people are very similar!!!!!!!! all of the missionaries tell me that i have a good personality for the city and that i should be in the city!!!!!!!! On tuesday I spent the day with Elder Dunbar down in the Allen 1, 4 ,and 6 wards!!!!!!!! We went tracting and we taught a realy awesome lesson to this part member family!!!!!! The dad isnt a member and he LOVES the church he just doesnt want to become a member because of temples but we cleared that up with him and he said that he is going to sincerely pray to find out if the church is true and i know that he is going to become a member!!!!!!! I wish that he was my investigator!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on thursday I got to spend the day with Elder McHardy in the Allen 2 and 3 wards!!!!!!!! Its always great to spend the day with Elder Mchardy!!!!! He is hilarious and he is such an awesome missionary!!!!!!!! We got to do service for one of his investigators which was great!!!!!!!! Its so great doing service for investigators but it shows them that our church really does focus on serving other people and helping them out!!!!!!!! Then on friday we got to go to the temple!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the temple so much, it is such a special place for me and its my favorite place to be in the entire world!!!!!!! The things that we learn in the temple are so great and I want everyone to be able to learn those things!!!!!!!! Our main focus is to get people to go to the temple!!!!!!!! Then it was conference weekend!!!!!!!! General conference was so great this october!!!!!!! I learned so much and so many of my questions were answered!!!!!! My favorite talks were President Eyrings talk at the priesthood and I really liked Brother Callisters talk on the Book of Mormon at the Sunday Morning session!!!!!!!! We got to watch the Sunday morning session with one of our investigators which was awesome because she loved it and it just testifies to me that the apostles and the prophet are just such great people!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so thankful for the leaders that we have in this church!!!!!!! They are able to be an example to us and we are able to learn so much from them!!!!!!!! It just testifies to me that this church is the true church because Heavenly Father is the same yesterday, today, and forever so why wouldnt he give us a prophet and apostles here on earth!!!!!!!!! I cant wait for all the talks to come out in the ensign so i can read all of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well transfers are next week so this saturday i'll find out if im changing areas and getting a new companion!!!!!!!!!! I hope all of you have great weeks and always remember that Heavenly Father loves you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Be loyal to the royal within you"

 

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