The jumping flea allegory

Hey alright! thanks for all the letters and everything, it helps i appreciate it a lot.

So yeah things are going a little bit better. It's always like up and down, i swear some times that i am on a roller coaster, i don't know. I think i am finally getting used to it somewhat , haha. this past week my companion elder Cisneros told me a story from Elder Holland. It is a way good one. It's about Faith. The story talks about faith and relates it to an experiment a couple of scientists did. Oh, little brief explanation: this is a translation of the story because he told me it in spanish haha, so it might not totally be the same quality of story, but for me it was good. So there was this experiment and what they did was they had these flees in a bottle with a cap on the top and they wanted to see what would happen because usually flees jump super high, but they were confined in this small bottle so they wanted to see if they could break the cap. so they jumped regularly and nothing happened they couldn't get past the cap, so what the scientists actually found out was that the flees were smart, who would know. but what the flees did was they learned that there was something there that they kept hitting and it hurt and so they adjusted their jumping and only jumped right below the cap. so the scientists thought okay, let's take off the cap and see what happens. So they took off the cap and nothing changed, the flees kept jumping the same height even though the cap wasnt there. But then the scientists got a new flea, just one single flee that wasn't in the group with the cap and put it in the bottle, still with no cap and that little guy started flying and then what happened was the other flees when they saw that started doing the same thing. So basically what Elder Holland said was we have this great potential because we are sons and daughters of God not some human or just created from the earth, God created us and we have this great potential of trying to be like him. but Satan knows that, he knows how good we can be, so he puts a cap on us, we get put in hard spots and hard times because that's the only way we are going to grow, and then satan tells us we can't do it. But Faith isnt that, faith is not saying yeah i have faith but then when the hard times come you fall. we are suppose to have faith and follow Jesus Christ through the good and the bad. If not, we are just like the flees, every time satan tries to cap us and stop us, we just keep jumping up and down up and down at the same height. and then he doesn't even need to put the cap and we are still the same. I know i have done that a lot in my mission. during lessons when i can't understand becuase my head hurts and it's so hard to pay attention, i tell myself, "self, oh man i can't do this, i need to go home and study then i can do it." but then i end up just staying at the same place. But so now i tell myself that i can do it and i try so hard just to be able to understand them and at times i think shoot how do i even understand. And just all i can explain it is God because it's his work and he wants his children to be happy in this life and happy in the next life with him and our families. Which is the best thing we can ever have. One real quick thing too. Love is power it's so strong and God works by faith, but also by love. because i see like when i have love for the people we are teaching it is so much easier. and it helps. But shoot i have to go already my companion needs to use the computer really quick so yeah. I love you a lot and don't worry about me i am doing good in the ghetto, walking in the alleys at night with the gangstahs, its all good, haha.

well, this mexican cholo has to leave.

Love Elder Thomas