January 30, 2012

This week has been a fantastic week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In the
beginning of the week we had some rain and its very interesting being
a bike missionary when it rains!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday night it started
pouring!!!!!!!! Even though it was pouring we still went out and
worked!!!!!!!!!!!! My whole entire body just ended up getting soaking
wet, good thing i didnt bring my backpack or everything inside of it
would have gotten ruined!!!!!!!!!!! All i had with me was a book of
mormon and i kept it in the back of my pants!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on
wednesday it was still raining but it wasnt as bad, it was just
sprinkling which was good!!!!!!!!!!! We were out tracting on wednesday
and we came up to this one guys door and for some reason I felt so sad
when we were standing at the door!!!!!!! We knocked on it and the guy
answered and he was like "i worship the devil!!!" and then i realized
why i felt so sad!!!!!!!!!!!!! I tried to ask the guy if we can share
a message of happiness with him and to help him feel joy in his life
but he kept saying all the satanic things!!!!!!!!!! that really made
me realize that there are so many people out there that are lost and
it is up to us and the spirit to help them feel joy!!!!!!!!!!! i am so
thankful for the spirit and the comfort it brings to our lives and the
happiness we can feel from it!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so thankful to be a
missionary for the Lord's church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On thursday we got to
meet with this great lady named Sister Jones (She isnt related to Carl
because shes black) she is hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she got baptized a
couple years ago and she is so enthusiastic about the gospel, i LOVE
it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She hasnt been going to church lately
because of medical reasons but she will soon!!!!!!!!!!!! She has been
having the Jehovah Witnesses come over and she ends up teaching them
all about the church, she is great!!!!!!!!!!! She wanted us to talk
with her about the 144,000 that it talks about in the book of
Revelations, so we did and it went great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we
talked a little bit about her going to the temple!!!!!!!!!! She has a
recommened except she calls it her endowment which is
hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! when we asked her about it she realized
that she lost it so she spent like 20 minutes running around her
apartment yelling "where is my endowment?!?!?!!? i am not going to bed
tonight until i find it!!!!!!!" she found it so it was all ok!!!!!!!!
She has had her recommend for a year and a half and she has still not
gone to the temple with it!!!!!!!!! She is a great example of patience
to me!!!!!!!!!!!! She is gonna go in the next few weeks but she wanted
to wait until she felt all the way ready!!!!!!!!!!! she is an awesome
lady!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on saturday we spent the day in dallas
finding some new people and visiting less active people which was
great!!!!!!!!!! And sunday was great also because we got to stop by
some other people!!!!!!!!!! Its been a hard week for the Starks (the
family we live with) because their nephew just passed away!!!!!!!!!!
His mom is in the first ward!!!!!!!!!!!! The funeral is going to be
this thursday!!!!!!!!!!!! He was helping someone by giving them gas on
the side of the road because their car ran out and a car hit him, i
couldnt believe it when i heard the story. he is such a great example
to me!!!!!!!!!! we should always serve people!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well I
hope all of you are doing great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss you all and
dont forget to choose the right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! have a
great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

January 23, 2012

This week was another great week here in
texas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a tiring week because I
did a ton of service but it was still so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On
tuesday i got to spend the day with Elder Ricks because i went over to
his area and he is a great elder!!!!!!!! He got here to texas the same
time Brazil Will did!!!!!!!!!!! His area is a little part of
Lewisville which is the town right above Carrollton and he also covers
the YSA ward for the Carrollton stake which i am so jealous of because
i want to serve in a YSA ward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was fun to meet
all his investigators and to go over to lewisville!!!!!!!!!!!! the
part of lewisville they cover is very ghetto so it was way fun at
night!!!!!!!!!! We ate at Emilyns house for dinner that night which
was funny because I had dinner there with my companion the night
before!!!!!!!!! Emilyn is a girl that is 18 that just got baptized and
she is in one of the wards that im serving in!!!!!!!! Her conversion
story is a little like mine except her mom kicked her out of the house
when she got baptized and now she lives with her dad which is pretty
close to her moms house!!!!!!!!!!!! She has a great testimony and the
Lord is definitely helping her with her
situation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on wednesday morning we found
out that they are moving the districts around so I am now in the
carrollton south district and elder mchardy is now my district leader
which is the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He served with me in the allen
zone and it so funny to have him as my district leader now!!!!!!!!!!
He is a great elder and i have learned a lot from
him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On wednesday, elder hedberg and i rode
our bikes over to east carrollton to go visit the man that came to
church with his friend last sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is waaaaay ghetto
over in east carrollton by the train tracks!!!!!!!!!!!! good thing it
was the afternoon when we were over there!!!!!!!!! The man lives in a
warehouse and he is such a great guy and he is so humble!!!!!!!!!!!!
We got to talk to him about the book of mormon and he is going to read
it and pray about it and we are meeting with him again this week which
will be great!!!!!!!!!!!!! His roommates name is Greg and he is a
talker!!!!!!!!!! He talks waaaay more than me and he just goes off on
tangents everytime we bring something up so its really hard to teach
about the gospel when Greg is there!!!!!!!!! Greg is really interested
also so hopefully he keeps the commitments that we left with
them!!!!!!!!!!! Then the next day we did a ton of service in the
morning and in the afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we helped a family thats
in the spanish branch load up all their stuff because they are moving
to Venezuela!!!!!!!!!!! Our whole district was there helping and it
was a lot of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on friday we did MORE
service!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! theres a lady in the Carrollton 1st ward that
needed a ramp for her front stairs so we went over with our ward
mission leader to help build that!!!!!!!!!! While my companion and the
ward mission leader built the ramp, i went around the house and pulled
all the weeds and picked up all the dead leaves!!!!!!!!!!! I was so
exhausted and when i was done they couldnt believe i did all that work
by myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It reall is so great serving other
people because in the scriptures we learn that when we are serving
other people we are also serving God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday
we had a great lesson with this lady named Becki!!!!!!!!!!!!! She and
her husband and her two kids just moved here from Nigeria!!!!!!!!!!
and it was my first time meeting with her!!!!!!!!!!!! For some reason
im always finding people to teach that are from africa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
she is such a great lady and she really wants to find out if we can
have prophets in these latter days so we left her some chapters to
read and she is going to pray about and hopefully she will be at
church next sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love being a
missionary so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we get to do so many great
things and we get serve everyone around us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it is
seriously the best!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this gospel is the most
precious thing that we can have here on earth and its here to help us
with any of our trials!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope that all of you have an
awesome week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cody's New Address

Cody has moved to a new address in Texas and loves to get letters!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Cody Tuma
1204 Wild Cherry Drive
Carrollton,  Texas  75010

January 16, 2012

Well I absolutely love it down here in Carrollton, its so great being
closer to the city!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I love being on a bike,
its so much easier to talk to people and everyone gets to see
us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well this week it has been very cold and rainy
which is one of the disadvantages of being on a
bike!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday morning it was raining outside and
it was freezing and we went tracting at an apartment complex and we
came home for lunch and Elder Hedberg eneded up getting a really high
fever so we had to stay in for the rest of the day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He
ended up throwing up all night long so we couldnt really go out on
wednesday either!!!!!!!!!! On wednesday afternoon we had interviews
with President Durrant so we got to go out of the house for those but
then afterwards we had to go back home because he was still pretty
sick!!!!!!!!!!! I am so thankful for inspired leaders and the counsel
that they give to us!!!!!!!!!!! President Durrant is the best mission
president ever!!!!!!!!!!!! Every time I see him or hear him on the
phone i just feel the spirt times a
million!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But on thursday we got to go
back out to work!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so mega great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We
got to meet with a man named marcus and he is so awesome!!!!!!!!! He
got baptized a couple months ago and he is such a great
guy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! About a year ago he had a stroke and he cant talk
or swallow anything!!!!!!!!!!! So he carries around an iPad looking
thing with him and he'll type stuff on it and thats how he
talks!!!!!!!!!!! Even though he doesnt say a word, I can see the
spirit radiating from him every time we go over there!!!!!!!!!!!! It
humbles me so much to think that I am so lucky that I dont have to
worry about having problems like that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But even if i
did, i wouldnt have to worry because Jesus Christ is with
me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on friday we got to do service at the bishops
storehouse which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love being so close to
it so we can help out there!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on sunday night we got to
meet with the doss family, the rastas from Jamaica, they are so great
and I love them so much!!!!!!!!!!!! They love reading from the book of
mormon and every time we read it with them they really want to
understand what everything means so they always love to go over
everything!!!!!!!!!! They are so sincere and I know that they are
feeling the spirit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And yesterday at church there
was another miracle!!!!!!!!!!!!! Once of the members brought his
friend to church and his friend wants to meet with us and learn more
about the church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Lord really does place
people in our path!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so lucky to be a
missionary for this great church!!!!!!!! The Lords
church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I get to see miracles every single day and
I get to have the spirit guiding me all the time!!!!!!!!!! The gospel
is so simple and it truly is made for everyone here on
earth!!!!!!!!!!!! All we need to do is follow the example of our older
brother Jesus Christ!!!!!!!!!! I love Jesus Christ and I love the
light that He is to us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He never told us that our path
is going to be easy but He did tell us that He is going to be there
with us every step of the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a
great week everyone and stay focused on
Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

January 9, 2012

I LOVE being here closer to the city, it is so
great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Carrollton is the best, I love
it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are so many houses and cars and people
everywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And oh I dont think I told
you last monday but my new companion is from Sweden!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is
so cool, his name is Elder Hedberg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and he says that I
look very European!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is the first time I have
been transferred and its great getting to know new wards and other
missionaries!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im in the Carrollton Stake and Im serving in
the Carrollton First and Second Wards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Carrollton is just outside of dallas and my area covers a little
section of Dallas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im getting closer to my dream of
being in Downtown Dallas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We live with
members which is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!! Its so great not having to worry
about taking care of an apartment!!!!!!!!!!! The members are such nice
people and I already love them so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One thing
different down here in Carrollton is that there are sooooo many
different races!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Up in Melissa and Farmersville everyone
is white!!!!!!!!!!! Here when we are tracting we run into Hindus and
Muslim and Asian and Black people all the time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I
love it!!!!!!!!!!!!! Last night we got to have a great lesson with a
Rasta family!!!!!!!!!! They are from Jamaica!!!!!!!!!!!! We found them
on wednesday when we were out tracting and we got to meet with them
last night!!!!!!!!!!! When we walked into their apartment (oh yeah
thats another thing, there are soooo many apartments
here!!!!!!!!!!!!!) I noticed they had bob marley posters everywhere
and I told them that i LOVE Bob marley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So when
we were leaving they gave me a bob marley cd and this really cool bob
marley metal cd case!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! of course Im not going to listen
to the cd until i get home but it was still so cool that they gave it
to me!!!!!!!!!!! They are such a cool family and I love them so
much!!!!!!!!!! Their house stinks like pot but we can change
that!!!!!!!!!!!!! We live right across the street from a Jehovah
Witness Kingdom Hall so it will be interesting being
here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Hedberg said that we will run into Jehovah
Witnesses all the time!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love being here so much, I keep
telling my companion every single hour that I love being here in the
city!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was a baptism on Saturday which was really
great to be at!!!!!!!!! My companion and his old companion started
teaching her like a month agom, she is 18 years old and she is so
cool!!!!!!!!! Her grandma used to be inactive but now she is active
again!!!!!!!!! When her grandma started becoming active she started
becoming interested in the church so just went to church every
sunday!!!!!!!!!!! Now she just got baptized and she said that she is
teaching all her friends at school about the church which is so
cool!!!!!!!!!!! She is a great example of someone who has really felt
the spirit and wants to spread that happiness to others!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This week I have really worked on baring my testimony more when we
contact people and it really has helped a lot!!!!!!!!!! When you bare
testimony the spirit is always there so you know that the person has
felt it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Theres a lot of youth here too which is great
because then we can plan activities to get their friends involved and
then they can learn more about the church!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited
to be here and I know that there is a lot of things waiting to happen
here in Carrollton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

January 2, 2012

This week was a great week and we got to do a lot of cool things!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Transfer calls were on saturday night and guess what?!?!?!!??!?! Im getting transferred!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im going to Carrollton which is in the city!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its just south west of plano and everyone has been telling me that im going to love it there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It has been so sad to say goodbye to everyone!!!!!!! Yesterday at the Farmersville Branch I had to say goodbye to everyone at church and guess what else happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Farmersville Branch became a ward yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I could stay there longer to see them progress as a ward, of course it happens right when I leave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On Friday we got to go to the BYU game at SMU stadium which was so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got to see a lot of people I knew there including Margot and Sister Money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This week I also got to go on exchanges down in Allen with Elder Calderwood!!!!!!!!!! It was a lot of fun and we got to visit a lot of people and talk with a lot of people and help spread the gospel, im going to miss allen a lot!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we had dinner at this members house and when we walked in the door I thought I saw Becki Judge standing right there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They have a daughter that looks exactly like Becki and I almost started freaking out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry that this letter is really lame, Im just too focused on transfers right now!!!!!!!!!!! Im going to my new area tomorrow so hopefully it will be GREAT and all of you will get to hear about it next week!!!!!!!!! I absolutely love being a missionary, i just dont like having to say goodbye to everyone in my wards that Im serving in!!!!!!!!!! But I know that the Lord has prepared people for me in Carrollton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a great week everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

December 26, 2011

Hi MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I loved getting to talk on the phone to you yesterday!!!!!!!!!!! I hope that you guys are having fun in mexico!!!!!!!!!! i miss all of you!!!!!!!!!! Dont forget to send the pictures from the transfer day, i want to see them!!!!!!!!! Christmas was fun, we were allowed to watch 1 disney movie, so we watched tangled last night!!!!!!!!!!! dont forget to get 17 miracles!!!!!!!!!!!! you will love it!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

For the blog:

 

Well this week was a crazy week and it was so much fun and great being a missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On monday night we got to have dinner at Bishop Fry's house which was the best!!!!!!!!!!! It was my first time eating there ever since I have been here!!!!!!!!!!!! Him and Sister Fry are the best, I love them so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on Tuesday after district meeting we just planned on tracting down in Fairview where all the huge houses were!!!!!!!!!!!!! But after we got done tracting we realized that we werent tracting in our area!!!!!!!!!! We were tracting in the Allen 3rd ward!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we got to plant some seeds for them which was way great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then that night we had dinner at Ihop which was mega good!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had these peppermint pancakes that they had for the season and they were way great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on wednesday we just stopped by all of our investigators houses so we could invite them to church and that was great and they love seeing us because we bring the spirit to them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Since wednesday was the first night of Hanukkah and we were eating dinner at Sister Alons house, she was going to make latkes but she didnt have enough time and she called us after we left and she told us that we were going to light the menorah but she forgot to bring it out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to meet with Joe that night and he is doing great, we taught him the word of wisdom and he took it very well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On thursday we got to meet with Alonzo and talk to him for a little bit which was awesome!!!!!!!!! He is this 14 year old kid that we are teaching and he loves the church so much!!!!!!!!!!! He just needs to come to church and then he can get baptized!!!!!!!!!!!! He has such a great spirit about him and he already has such a great testimony about the Book of Mormon and about the church!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I have seen the spirit change his life so much and it has been so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then that night we got to meet with the Mack Family!!!!!!!!!!!! William is doing great and he LOVES being a new member of the church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Friday was a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had specialized training with President Durrant down in dallas from 8-5, usually its only from 10-4 but we had a special christmas get together type thing!!!!!!!!!!!! we had a talent show in the morning and our "Dont Give Up" music video played, it turned out to be really good and everyone loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we all got to watch 17 miracles and I have been waiting FOREVER to see that movie!!!!!!!!!!! All of the members were talking about how great it was when it came out in August and I have been wanting to see it so badly and President Durrant let us watch it on friday and it is such a great movie, I cried, and I normally NEVER cry in movies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It made me realize how much the pioneers had to go through just so they could get to Salt Lake City and go to the temple and be in Zion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then that night we got to go to a christmas party at the Ravstens house and they live in the Farmersville branch and the party was a lot of fun and we got to meet and talk with a lot of non members!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then christmas eve and Christmas day popped around the corner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On christmas eve i had three dinners and I stuffed myself at every single dinner so after the last dinner I was basically about to throw up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was really great though and we got to eat a lot of good food and talk with a lot of people about the Christmas season and Jesus Christ and we got to spend time with a lot of members!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on christmas day we opened presents in the morning and then we went to church and the church christmas program was really good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to call our families which was great!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so weird to talk to my mom and my sister on the phone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to watch one disney movie so of course we watched Tangled because I love that movie so much and the members house we were at wanted to watch that movie too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was my first christmas away from home but it turned out to be great and I loved every minute of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love seeing the spirit change peoples lives every single day and I LOVE seeing so many miracles and being guided by the spirit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is so great working for the Lord, its the best work you can do here on earth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope all of you have an awesome week and Happy New Years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!