Missionary Raider

Hey Everyone!

Hope everything was good for everyone this past week, Oh mom you said in one letter that you had the Elders over, how was it pretty good? Things out here are good, this past week was way long though, We just had transfers that's why. It was weird too because out here there is Brawley and 4 elders cover it, but its split North and South and we cover South. Then there are two other Elders who cover some out skirt towns, so 6 altogether. At transfers the two Outside Elders got pulled out and we found out that they weren't bringing new missionaries in so now there is just 4 Elders out here. Its crazy becuase we got to share the outside areas too now. So we'll see what happens i guess. It was funny though because we all have our own apartments, each pair of missionaries and so when the others left we just raided their apartment for food and stuff, just like vultures, haha. I got some good stuff though, best thing i would say would be the ice cream and blender. Made some pretty good smoothies this week.

But the work kinda slowed down this week. Just didn't have anything and a lot of the people we were trying to visit just couldn't meet with us and so that's why it felt so long. But on the brighter side of news, on Sunday it was like 8 pm so it was late and usually no one wants to meet with us, kus they are all sleeping. So all our plans fell through and we were just trying to think of what to do and so i just thought oh Marcelo. We haven't seen him for like 2 weeks or something like that, and so we stopped by and there he was and we talked with him for a while. You remember him right? the one who has seen all these miracles whenever he prays or reads the scriptures. Well we found out he wasn't doing any of that and we were bummed out. So we read with him and talked about why we need to do those things and just the whole time, the spirit was testifying to him, you could tell, i just saw the desire he had to do those things and he started to understand, it was just way sweet to see that happening and then at the end we had a kneeling prayer and he said it. But the thing with Marcelo was that all the other times he always just has us say the prayer, everyone always rather just have us say it for some reason. This time he was like yeah sure, he would say it. So hopefully he keeps reading and praying and listens to the spirit.

Oh another thing this week that i thought was pretty cool to learn. Well... man, sometimes its tough living with someone 24/7 haha and like you just always find out things that annoy you and so i was reading some things and i remember i read a qoute from President Monson. I think it said if you are judging someone, then you have no time to love um. I thought about that pretty hard and all the stuff about charity and forgiving and stuff. I figured i would try it out. To try and live the gospel... i know, it sounds bad, but so yeah one day i went in the kitchen to make some food and there was a ton of dishes, it was like ridiculous. We didn't have anything to eat on and it was all my companion's dirty dishes, so usually i would have just washed what i needed and then wait till he cleans up his own mess. But then i realized that man, that's prideful and weak sauce, so i just cleaned all the dishes, and it felt alright, i felt good trying to help out. I'll admit like i was hoping for a, "oh wow, thanks Elder Thomas," but nothing and then i was like, wow ungrateful.. But yeah then i though of Charity and how it doesnt seek a reward and so i just shrugged it off. And i mean im not trying to brag or anything like that, but like after all that, i felt good! i dont know, i cant explain it, it was just good and i have been thinking about it and its like you know what? we can choose whether to be offended or whether we can jus not be offended and Love and help and we may not get rewards from people but we will have a peaceful feeling that we know we are following Jesus Christ. I thought that was pretty cool, so i am gonna try work on that more. So Yeah

What else can i tell you guys about here in the desert? Oh man dad we might have alot of surfing lessons to give when i get back, because a lot of people want to learn and i tell um if they ever come to Hawaii just give us a call. So hey maybe we could start a business.. haha nah nah just kidding. Oh man but i was thinking about how next month is General Conference again and jeez time is flying by way too fast i got to press the slow down button a couple times. So wait when is Cait graduating. April? oh yeah that reminds me, anything from BYU provo?

Well hope everything is going good over there, oh yeah jeez almost forgot, i meant to thank you Mom and Dad for everything you do. I am grateful! Well Have a good Week!

Love ELder Thomas