Now you see him...now you don't

So this past saturday i got a call at lunch time telling me to pack my suitcases - at first i didnt believe it so i called a second time haha. But yeah we had an emergency transfer meeting 3 hours after the call. it all went pretty quick! but its crazy because you'll never quess where i got transfered too... Pacific Beach...English! So now im not in spanish any more and its way weird, plus im super close to the beach haha and we were trying to find a couple referrals and no joke we were so close to the beach driving and it was ridiculous. felt so weird but i wasnt doing anything wrong haha. so yeah im doing english work now in a humungus ward! i walked in and asked my comp "shoot so how do you know everybody..?" then he told me you dont haha.. yet im so used to saying hi to everyone even before sacrament starts. Then the bishop asked me to go up and give my testimony since it was fast and testimony meeting. it was pretty good. weird though that i was speaking english im pretty sure i slipped in a couple spanish words in there haha.

It was funny kus there is a hawaiian family in the ward and so i thought i would be funny and use the aloha thing since everyone else does it. but the hawaiian brother went right before me and did it so he stole it haha.. but it was cool kus we ate at their house this past sunday. super sweet family! oh the food was way good and it felt like home which was nice. One of the sons is a RM and he has a uke and taught us a couple songs. So im gonna practice and get good. play some musical numbers up here in the firesides and stuff. good tool to find too. But they said next time i come over i can send a request for whatever hawaiian food i want to eat!!!

Anyways another sweet story that happened in Poway. We were trying to visit this recent convert but he wasn't home so we started talking to his grandma and while we were talking to her.. the son comes in and just sits down, then asks us what we are doing? like what are we talking about? so we told him about our message and How we invite others to come unto Christ. Then he just starts telling us his story and how he has a huge drinking problem and how his wife took the kids and left him.. I felt way bad. But i was really trying to understand where he was coming from but it was way hard. but then he told us that the hardest part was that he got put in jail.. so he was pretty much super depressed no hope no happiness nothing.. and all he does now to try feel better is drink more. But just throughout the whole time i felt bad for him but i didnt feel hopeless for him only because i know that there is the atonement of Jesus Christ. We don't need to fear about being sad forever or feel like we are alone, because of what he did and that he provides a way out and that way is for every single person. and so we told him that and we said basically thats what we do and we told him it was possible for him to give up drinking and follow Jesus Christ to happiness and the spirit was just way strong in the lesson and at the end we gave him a priesthood blessing and after that he said he would come to church, but im not sure whats happening now since i got Emergency transfered. but maybe tomorrow i'll figure out something. Just goes to show you though that when we follow the spirit and go where we are supposed to be..God will put people in our path and we can share the love of God that we have felt with our brothers and sisters through the Gospel. Pretty amazing stuff.

Well, thats some of the good news haha. This past week was pretty intense though. with the change. A TON of stuff happened.. So like on Friday Alfredo and leticia the people from guadalajara, they came back up to Poway for a visit and so i got to see them once. they are doing way good!! Alfredo has the priesthood now and is a priest. it was way nice to see him and know that he's still doing good. But it was kind of a bummer that i left the next day.. But aparently he was going to bless the sacrament this past sunday! cool stuff ah.

Then just yesterday actually we taught this lady here in PB and she has had a lot of problems in her life and tough stuff that she went through because of drinking and smoking and all that junk. its just a testimony you know that we are blessed to know the gospel becuase its the truth and it protects us, it gives a foundation that saves us from all this other crazy stuff. its true when it says theres no other way just got to follow Jesus Christ and get access to his atonement and the only way is through us as members who already have a testimony of these things and it's our responsability to let them know.

So yeah we were talking to this lady and we were talking to the gospel and she asked wait.. so you pretty much mean if i dont get baptized then i wont be saved..lack of a better word. so we said yup pretty much because we know its true and we have the only way for them to access the atonement. and we just testified that she can get her answer from God and not just have to take our word for it. so it went way well and the spirit there was super fuerte there too.

Well alot of stories but i better end it now. So yup now i am here in PB its pretty sweet. way excited to work here, so we'll see what happens.. Oh i forgot to tell you about my companion his name is Elder Turner, he's from Draper Utah. super cool guy, we think like each other its pretty hilarious! Its been a good time so far. So good things in the future!

LOve you guys have a good week

Elder Thomas