That other Chris is cool.

Hey Everyone,

Hope you are all doing good and had a good week. It was a pretty good
week out here. We had a baptism this past Sunday. It went really well.
Sergio Loya is the person who got baptized, and he is a way cool guy. It was good to
see him get baptized. He was so excited for it and it was sweet too
because his whole family was there to watch. He is married and has
three kids haha and one of his daughters, when we were doing the
baptism, went up to the font and was all excited because there was
water and she said, "oh wow, i want to go in the water, i haven't seen
water in a long time" haha man! that's gota be tough being in the
desert so long and not seeing any water. i would probably die.

So yeah the family liked the baptism, and now hopefully Sergio will get the
Priesthood soon, that would be sweet! Shoot i got some pictures but i
forgot my cord to connect the camera, so I'll just print some pictures
out and send some home today, kus we are going to wal-mart. Let's see
what else is happening. Oh Bro. Smith in the english ward out here, he
is the man. He does a lot out here and he invited one of his students
to church because he teaches PE at the high school. So the guy came to
church, his name is Chris. He is always trying to compete and beat everyone
at everything and he was a trouble maker too... haha sounds like some other Chris i know. no, i am just kidding dad. He is actually a really cool guy. Way nice and
he said he liked church and should be coming back and he also came to
the baptism. so it was way good. we are going to try stop by his house
and see if we can teach him this week.

Oh it was funny this past week because well its been like 3 weeks since my bike has been broken, funny story is... well my cable to switch gears wasn't working too well
and it was kinda loose so i figured ah you know what? i'll try to be
cool and try to fix it. I figured i was smart enough to figure it out
haha, i was wrong, ended up busting the cable and so i bought a couple
new ones to fix it, and i couldn't figure it out... haha and so for
three or two weeks, i just shoved a rock into the gear switcher to
make sure it doesn't move haha and so i couldn't change gears for a
while. my bike was ghetto! So i finally went to a member in the ward
to try and fix it and it looks good now, but he gave me a hard time and
was making fun of me. But he taught me how to do it too. so now i know how to
fix my bike! one step up on the intelligence scale.

Oh a really good scripture i like alot that i found the other
day.. its in Moses 7 i think. it's just the whole chapter to get the
whole meaning of the story. Well anyways i'll kind of describe it.
its God and He is talking to Enoch and Enoch is seeing a vision of the
world and everyone on it and everything, and there is a part where
Enoch says he saw God cry and asked him, "How is it that you are
crying? you are holy and full of justice and mercy and peace and of
all power, you sit on your throne in heaven and you are perfect. So he asks how God is able to cry, and so God told him that he has created men (us) in his image and that we are His children and He is our Father and that He gave us a commandment to love Him and our neighbor. Then He says yet they hate their own blood and something
else, i can't remember it all right now. When i heard that, man i got humbled strong, because I am not going to lie, it's tough not to get mad
at people especially here in the mission because everyone has so much
pride out here sometimes it's ridiculous. So i get mad and i get
frustrated with my companion sometimes and then i read this scripture and man i
don't know, it made me think alot differently. i felt bad because hate
towards our brothers and sisters isn't good and it's so important that
God Himself would cry over it. So i have been trying to love everyone, it's
tough but i know it really is important and its something we got to do
even with our enemies, ooh man that is hard, but like lately i see like
it's just better, we are more happy ourselves, it's a choice we make
to take offense to something someone does, or we can just love them
and treat them as we would our best friend or as a part of our family.

I always joke around though out here that i learned love from Bob
Marley too haha but its true, "One Love" we got to have the One Love for
everyone because that is truly what solves everything if it is the
perfect Love of Christ. SO Love everyone alright!


Well i think that is it for this week. I love you all, hope
everything is good!

Elder Thomas

The good and the not so good

Hey everyone!

Hope your weeks going good. it's going pretty good out here. Although it was kinda junk though today because the stake center where we usually write is getting renovated and so we can't go there to use the computers and so right now we are at this unemployment place kus the person who works there reserved some computers. but we only got a little time, so i can't write for too long. Um... lets see, ooh man we cleaned the apartment today, that place looks way clean i think we could probably hold up our own against the sister missionarie's apartment even haha. it took us all morning though!

Oh this past sunday was really good too because alot of people came to church. but pretty much all of them were Spanish which was even sweeter. we have been teaching a lot more in Spanish, so that is good. Pretty stoked about that part. Man i had a funny story to write you guys but i forgot it. Oh but something that happened this week was a Seventy came to the mission. his name was Elder David F. Evans. It was way good. I don't know how he did it but he talked for pretty much the whole day, for like 5 hours haha. how would you like that assignment? i could imagine like me getting this call. alright brother you will be going to San Diego to speak for 5 hours haha. i would probably die! But for all that time he spoke he had my attention. it was really really good and there was this point were he asked us what we learned today or something like that, and i was about to stand up and talk, and that this isn't a joke. hah but i didn't, it probably was the spirit constraining me to save me from myself, haha. But like it is tough sometimes because some people just get caught up in stuff with missionary work like oh we need to find more people to teach kus we aren't doing anything or man we haven't had a baptism in a while and stuff. so it was nice to get a good reminder and a good boost i think for the real reason why we are here.

Oh yeah the other day I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish, that was pretty cool. There are some really powerfull testimonies though right there in Moroni. Makes you really think about where you are at spiritually and how you are doing with faith, and man, I still got a long long way to go. but something i really liked that i read today in doctrine and covenants stood out to me. i think it was something in section 6 or some where in the first few sections. It was the Lord telling Joseph Smith to remember to always trust in the Lord first and not to listen to the persuadings of men and other people. And i was thinking about that lately because it is true and it is tough. but then it says again to search for God first and then you shall be rich with his gifts. Hopefully one of those includes a really sweet surfboard.. nah just kidding. But like the whole Faith in God's way is something i have been thinking about alot.

Ok I told you about the people who said thanks for rescuing us, well the husband's name is Marcelo. So Marcelo and his wife where two of the people that came to church and they really liked it and said they want to keep on coming, which was really good to hear. Even cooler yet they told us that they want to be on the right path already and want to be baptized and just follow all of God's commandments. i was pretty much jumping up and down on the couch when i heard that, man it was just so nice to hear. But then with the good always comes something else. So then they actually told us that they weren't married and that the wife right now has been seperated from the ex husband for years but hasn't gotten a divorce and so they cant get baptized until she takes of that and they both get married. So we gotta wait till that happens. I just hope i am still here for that though, because that can take a long while. so everybody you got to pray that i can stay haha.. But yeah so that's the latest news. but i got to get going. LOve you guys and hope you have a good week alright!

Elder Thomas