Feliz Navidad!

Hey Everybody!

Merry Christmas. shoot i still cant believe that its christmas in a few days. still trying to find a cactus that we could go get and decorate, no luck yet. it was pretty fun this past week because we had all the church parties celebrating christmas. it was sweet too becuase we got to go to two of um becuase we cover spanish and english. But i not gona lie, the Spanish party was way fun haha. i swear they know how to have the fiestas. in the party the branch president turned to us and was like haha could you imagine if they were drinking tequila. man i dont know, but it would be pretty intense if they were. Oh it was pretty cool too becuase his daughter just got back from BYUH. and so we were talking about food and the beach and everything, finally someone knew what i was talking about. someone finally knew what a musubi is. but its lame becuase out here in the desert theres no L&L. we would eat there sometimes back in my old areas. so no hawaiian food.. no wait i lied. there is this one lady in the english ward that is from hawaii haha oh man she is hilarious, she reminds me of grandma. Bishop introduced me to her and i saw her before and said hi and everything but didnt know she was the sister from hawaii. so i was just standing there and she comes behind me and wacks me in the back, then she was ike, eh you bettah watch out, i didnt know you were from hawaii. it was funny. so we talked a little bit, shes from mililani side. oh yeah there is actually a bunch of people out here who knew hawaii, becuase they have been there before. no matter what though, no body knows where hawaii kai is, jeez i mean we got to talk to these map people over here. tell um to put hawaii kai on the maps in big bold letters.

Oh man i dont know how i forgot this but last week we had a baptism. his name is Jesse. he's 10 years ols. i got some pictures no worries, il send them out as soon as i can. It was a nice baptism. it was funny though kus at first when we were filling up the font we turned all the valves to make it go faster and we head back in to check it after about 30 mintues and we walk in there and its a SUANA. is that how you spell it? im pretty sure thats wrong. SAUNA, i blame it on the spanish learning. but the font was steaming and we thought it was gonna be bad but nothinghappened.it turned out that the water was normal. dont ask me how but it was. so now we at least found out our new workout routine:

1. run around the block

2 Run to the church

3. sit in the font

4 soak up the steam

So next week ill let you know how its going. But good news too. Janelle, not sure if i told you guys about her. but its one of the people we are visiting and teaching. shes doing really good. she was able to come to the baptism. and so that was really good for her, she has her baptismal date for the 7th of january and so far so good. we are stoked! we hope everything goes well.

um lets see what else..

oh spiritual thought, something i was thinking about the other day.. We all know the Gospel changes lives for the better, i mean it helps us out so much, and like as missionaries we tell that to people while we are teaching and so of course they are like yeah i want that i want it. But many people think that it comes as long as we believe and go to church and pray and read scriptures. its true those things help. but i mean its not all. we obtain the blessings of the gospel, like peace and happiness from obeying the commandments becoming more like Christ and obtaining those attributes that he has, love patience and charity, selfless. and when we try to change ourselves to be more like him and when we really live the commandments thats how we experience the blessings. That was just something i was thinking about. but i better head out and play some sports before they head out without me. I love you all and miss you. hope everyone has a good christmas.

Elder Thomas