Time be flying. We be working

Howdy Y'all

Another fine week here in tennesee. Much thanks for all the birthday wishes, including those on facebook which i do not see. I got a book in the mail from my dad, called 'The Continuous atonement'... Its really good. I read the entire book in 24 hours. dang. That surprises me. Im not much of a reader but i guess this book does a good job of understanding the atonement and his healing process and such. (see online at http://deseretbook.com/Continuous-Atonement-Brad-Wilcox/i/5013881).. Mom also sent me some cool stuff :)

So a few weeks ago we gave brother delori a blessing. He went to the doctor also, but didnt take his medicine because he had already been feeling better. Now three weeks later he is better than ever. He had asthma for twenty years and had to take an inhaler. Thats cool to see that faith and a good blessing through the power of God really works.

As i had reported last week (sorry this book will be really jumply, like always) I just started memorizing bible scriptures. I am currently at 70... and counting. Its been really usefull in our lessons. now if i just got to start working on a few in the book of mormon.

We are still teaching David Key, and his roomate Dwyane. It turns out that Dwyane really wants to quit smoking also. They are helping eachother out so that should go good. David smokes occasionally but Dwyane makes him go in the bathroom dwayne. They, nor any of our investigators, showed up for church. But next week i will have a different story to tell.

Lastly at church yesterday Lisa Fisher (the mother of the family we just baptized) shared her testimony in sacrament. Its was real cool. Mentioned how president pulver's spirit was real sweet and thats what made the difference for her. I guess my companion and i might of done a little but really so many things aligned for all of us. We are blessed. I imagine he (lisa's wife lance) will be a stake president some day. (our stake president here is a convert...)

Before i leave i promised to share with you my favorite conference tals (i got my notes not)
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We got 139 temples. dang. and 27 under construction. 166!!!

Dieter F Uchdorf (sat morning)
We are all mortal. Spend time with people you love. Dont waste time on the internet. being busy is not an accomplishment. Find your unknown, unimanged talents, let yourself be happy. Avoid the regrets for tomorrow but following christ today. Do, be, become better. Begin to walk today.

M. Russell Ballard (sun aft)
A bee makes 1/12 of teaspoon of honey. work is lighter when we all work together. Have coopertive energy. Service is the definition of pure religion. (james 1:24) Be anxiously engaged in a good cause. Daily practice for everyone. During your morning prayer ask for oppertunity to serve. When you see one. Jump up and do it. Prayers often get answered through other people.

Robert C. Gay (watch at http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/what-shall-a-man-give-in-exchange-for-his-soul?lang=eng)
My favorite... What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Would you sell your soul for a nickle? Dont justify sin. Will we shrik or finish the call. Its more than just not doing bad. (to him that knoweth to do good, and does it not. To him it is sin james 2:24 i thinks?) God is mindful of each of us. Follow the spirit no matter what the time.

Dallin H. Oaks. - also find online for yourself.
Protect the well being of a child. CHild a buse in worst form... Deny them birth. 40,000 abortions a year. (matt 18:16 it were better drown in depth of sea then offend little child) Teach by example. 41% of birthds are to single moms. (your not alone) Be a Role model to your children

Anthony Perkins (priestood)
6 steps to deep conversion.
1 pray alwasy. (never stand taller than when your kneeling)
2 study scriptures
3 participate in ordinations (be a worth priestood holder)
4 show genuine love
5 pay your tithing (duh)
6 fully live law of chastity.

Dieter F Uchtorf
Its easy to find somethign to complain about. Priestood cant be baught. Spiritual power is a heavenly law. Everyone wh is thirsty can come and drink (isiah)

Henry B Eiring (Sun Morning)
God is nto far from us. he is aware fo us. dont put a pavilian between you and god. Have a desire to know, and do his will. dont insist on oru timetable. he has the best wasys. (my thoughts are not your thoughts isiah 55:8-9)

Jeffery R. Holland.
DO you love me. Strong talks. take a look for yourselves.

Thats all i got time for. wooo wee this is a long letter. Thanks everyoen much love. Bye.
Elder Toomey

Veinte Uno!!!

Holy cow. That was a great conference ay! Starting out with the announcement by President Monson about the change of missionary work. I can wait to hear all of the people that will come out and do this great work. If Jordon decides to go on a mission I will still have a couple months with him before he gets shipped out. Also If y'all see Halofome, Roman and the rest of the young men, tell them that i dont want to see their face for 3 1/2 years! I also hope that more sisters will be able to serve. Its a great thing here the lord designed for us.

There were also many other talks which i enjoyed. My favorites (i will write more next week, i forgot my notes) Elder Walter F. González talk on "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul" Matt 16:26 (i am still memorizing scriptures, as of now im only doing bible scriptures, I am at 31 now) - He spoke about a youth experience about getting a 12 year old movie ticket at age 13 and bragged to his father. Of cource that did not workout so much.

I also love the one Saturday night (possibly by Dalin H. Oaks) about children. The one think that really stuck out to me was "The worst form of child abuse is to deny the child to be born" Listen or watch online. Also the talk by Elder Holland on sunday "Do You Love Me?" and the talk by elder Uchtdorf..

We actually watched the last session in spanish. :) The only one who came to the church was a less active spanish man. I didnt understand elder scott's talk about family history work but the rest i got 95% That was pretty amazing.

This week... hmm. We are still teaching Deah and Rodger. They are both so cool. Rodger is a little more wanting to push forward, they have made so many changes to bring them closer to the gospel. They didnt go to conference but we watched the joseph smith movie with them and saw the sacrifice that was made in the early day of the church.

David Key, we have been teaching him for about three weeks. He went to priestood session, had to take a couple smoke breaks but he really love the talks. He enjoyed hearing a living prophet and his apostales. Right before president monson he was out on a smoke break and his wife called (She left three months ago and he didnt expect that she would ever call him back) He talked to her and his daughter but had to let them go so he could listen to the prophet. The next day brother Jim Elkins went to his appartment, david couldnt go but he asked elkins to pray for him. They ended up saying a kneeling prayer and the second they said amen the phone rang again. He was jumping for joy so high.

Today we taught him (tuesday, the library was closed yesterday due to columbas day) We covered the priestood, which he wants so much, he know what we teach is true and he wants to make god happy. We also got to the word of wisdom and although it will be hard to stop smoking he knows that god will push him through. We are aiming for a date in about a month.

Now to the wozer thing. On saturday we were told by brother deloire that he had a friend who he wanted us to teach and to meet at the church monday at 7pm. We rearanged our plans to make room for it. We were going to go out to eat with Johnny Howard but it ended up that Gary Smith was in the hopital so we went and gave him a blessing. Then Johnny dropped us off at the church. We met Bro Delorie and his friend a 15 year old boy and headed to the relief society room to start the lesson. I took one step in as a large SURPRISE came with the light flickered on i saw 20 or so of the people of this great branch. It was so cool. We had a party with Carrot cake that said Happy Birthday To Me (not sure why i told that to johnny last week) and spagetti and all this other stuff. I sure didnt expect that to happen and it brought a big smile to my face. (PIctures will come soon)

My time is up. Much love to all.

Elder Toomey

Pictures

From helping out at Habitat for Humanity. Fun Stuff.

Trained.

My addy until next year.
613 Reeves St - apt #1
Lenoir City, TN 37771

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Que tal che?

Another positive week here in the TKM. We got to go mini golfing last week so that was cool. It was Sister Irion's birthday. (Her dad is Russell M Nelson of 12) We gotta eat cake twice and had good times together. The misson home is just the city over from us so we see them quite a bit.

Side note. I found out that Brother Ray. (Dr. Ray) is the reason i am in tennessee. He is in the same ward as our mission president and he is pro at the throat and all that stuff. So its his name that brought me here. I gotta thank him sometime. :) Well today he is taking our entire district to Brazerios. (Like Tucanos, but better so i hear) I gotta team up with the doc when was on an exchange in farragut last week.

Our main investigators, Deah & Rodger (+ Dreamah), and David Key are doing just dandy. Diedre (deah), rodger and dreamah all came to church. They seem to do okay in it. Dreamah absolutely loves primary. She ran into her class seconds after sacrament meeting had ended. I got called on last second to teach the lesson in sunday school. The meeting was pretty good. She (Deah) made a few comments and both seemed to have a good time. Although they are not use to the 3 hour block yet so they left asap.

David Key should be coming to church next week. We taught him the plan of salvation and he really likes it. The thought of raising his kid (died in first hours) and being with him in heaven was really cool. He had questions of where we came from, our purpose and where we go after so the lesson was a hoster for him.

The reason that i had to teach the sunday school lesson last minute is because lately we have been doing a lot (thanks again dianne) of work with the less actives, especially the spanish people. We had a few come (not as many as hoped for) so the original teacher and my companion took the spanish class this week. Speaking of spanish. My companion and I have decided to speak only spanish (well 95%) spanish to eachother this transfer. Its actually not that bad, and when you get in the "zone" it makes it that much easier to teach in spanish. Todo esta bien aqui.

Since we have been here 12 weeks the branch is really starting to get to like us (especially cause we had a bap) we have a meal appointment every week. Thats a huge blessing.

 

Random other thing but every week we do Habitat for Humanity. The service there is pretty fun. Normally we just do easy labor and a little hammer and nails. Last week we got to go up in the attic and work with a bunch off cool toys. We had to wear a full suit thingy to protect us. It was pretty hot up there. All the wood had rotted (if thats a word) We got to replace lots and had to james bond it up so we didnt fall through the ceiling. (this house is 70 years old) I will upload picures in a bit when we get to a members house. The library wont let you hook up anything.

Thats about all for this week. Tune in next time as the aAadventures of Elder TOOOO-ME return.

jaja. A member, Johnny Howard is going to buy me a cake. He says he'll go to the grocery store, food city, and tell them he wants a cake. When they ask what to write on it he'll say "happy birthday to me" haha i wanna see their face. I bet its not to often you write that on a cake.

Also pss. I have started memorizing scriptures (first time since mtc) Due to another elder who had memorized 100 in just 5 months. I have been doing it for now and it is really cool. I use many of the ones i memorized in our lesson yesterday and its cool. Everyone here in the bible belt thinks i know the bible good because i can quote a few verses. I know the Book of Mormon so much better but i am learning them both, and utilizing them big time.

Paz y amor
Elder Toomey.

Ten is a 10

G'day people of Utah (and afar)

What a beautiful day we have today, no importa what day today is. We can make the most of every day. Well i am doing dandy right now. Tennessee is a ten right now. We are working real hard and having lots of fun. We got to go on three exchanges in the past ten days. I went to Knoxville with Elder Shoemaker and everyone is crazy about U.T. football down there. Its a pretty big city and that is where they have dollywood. (id say between size of provo and slc.) I also had Elder Warhurst come down. We worked out with Johnny and he did us hard. We were both hurting for the next 24 hours. He hadnt done anything for over a year so he was a lil sore. Finally i went with Elder Michael Snow to farragut. Thats a higher class part of town. He is from Pleasant grove, yes a bout 3 miles away. (just off artic circle) and he actually worked at walmart when i worked at subway inside walmart. We never met, maybe seen each other but thats pretty cool.

Lets see, we moved the smith family (larc) It took 8 hours. Which is pretty good for moving. It was cool. We ate pizza and got chatting with the neighbor. Hopefully we could teach him sometime soon.

Amazing lesson learned while moving the smith family. I thought that i was showing real love and doing good service with them. Until the appartment we were moving into was the one we helped an investigator move out of last week. I told Sister Smith i would had helped him move faster had i known it was her who was moving in. It really caught me after i said that. If i was helping them both as i would want others to help me i would had helped move both of them in and out faster. Charity is just what we need and thankfully i got a step closer to having it after this experience.

Deah and Rodger are still doing good. Rodger is gonna continue to go to church and he really likes it now. Everyone is nice to him. The whole branch loves us also. We got meal signed up twice the first three weeks of the month and the next three are full. (a. a new relief society president (sis wick) and b. we just had a baptism) so thats all cool. Its been a pretty quick week with not too much big things. But i got pics again so enjoy them (see below http://bit.ly/elder2me )

Although I have only been out here for 10 weeks we have done so much work. The fishers are continuing to do great work; feeding us, as well as other branch members, and teaming up with us. They are hoping we can come over and teach their neighbor. Lance taught them the plan of salvation a few days ago. Last weeks baptisim was so amazing. I cant be content. I need to keep working and find more peace seekers ready for the peace of christ.  (see John 14:27)

Cool music by Alex Boye: Its a remix of "Have i Done any good in the world today" This helps me on those days...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIeA_5yYgB4

Much Love,

Elder Toomey

pictures:

Justin Harwood, Joe Carr, Steve Francis, Jim Elkins, Me
Luis Roman (romeo)

Fwd: Three more in his hands-

Good day to all; and what a good day it is!

This week has been great. We have been working really hard. Two hours after i emailed last week we received an text from Lance Dale Fisher, "Hey guys. We are ready to be baptised!" WOooooooo whooooooooooo as johnny would say. We were jumping with joy when we recieved that text. The entire week we were working on the plans and all that. We went over on thursday to teach the last lesson and go over everything with jacob. He knew it was true and will do good work soon. He has read the book of mormon. "its scriptures in a sence" haha. His dad said that when he was younger jacob wanted to join the military and lance said no your joining god's army. He wasnt so into that idea. Then a few days later he talked with president pulver and next time we saw him he was talking about how he was saving up ten grand so he could go on a mission!!! how cool is that. Jacob is legit.

The baptism was Sunday night at 6pm (9/16/12) Lance was baptized by president pulver then after the comfirmation and priesthood ordinance he got to baptize his wife, lisa, and jacob. When Lance came out he said "hallelua, Praise God" Soo sweet. The spirit was extremely strong. Especially as the 70 (yes seventy people came to the baptism) were singing hymns. It was louder than back home so that was peaceful. After Lance baptized his wife. He had to do it twice because he held her hand out of the water. We showed a few mormon messages (mormonmessages.com) they show alot of good things and talks but sinked down to 3 or 4 minutes. One good one about one boy who opened his mouth and his friend joined, who brought a friend and so on. They had 1 man then now they have 36. Wow. We are all missionaries and its good work.

My companion Elder Harwood comfirmed Lisa. Then i did Jacob. I went in with my mind completely blank. It was a good blessing i hope, i only remember saying he will be an instrument. Then lance gave jacob the priesthood and all was well.
 
Only been out here 70 days and we have been so blessed with this fisher family. The zone leaders said they will put in a word so harwood and i can stay here a little longer. I wouldnt mind that. The branch is good and our sucess is just getting started. If that happened i would be in loudon, Tn for 24 weeks of the 92. Im happy wherever i go.

As far as our other investagator, Deah, her daughter Dreama and the roomate Rodger are great. Some days are up and down but they also came to church and are continuing to read and pray daily. Deah is on page 240 after only having the Book of Mormon 17ish days. Nice job sister!

I am attatching pictures.
people in pictures are
Me: The cool guy.
My companion: Elder Harwood from Mesa.
Brother Qualls: works at cannery, first to make contact with fishers.
The Fisher Family. Lance Dale Fisher, Lisa Michelle Anderson-Fisher and (15) Jacob Craig Anderson.

Much love to all.