San Diego K5NE News

Hello,

... and welcome to the 5 O'clock hour news from K5NE, the place to be, my name is Elder Thomas and i will be the Anchor for you folks in Hawaii and Utah and other places in the world.

This past week has been very spastic as far as weather goes. starting from tuesday to wednesday and then to thursday we recieved alot of wetness and moisture in the air, for those of you who don't understand my news lingo, basically this means it has rained alot on the days mentioned above or to the right (tuesday to thursday). But then as you do know, and are familiar with the news, and our capability to tell of the weather, the weather changed (unsuspectedly) and was sunny for the rest of the week, which turned out nice for all those beach goers. On to some other business, as far as missionary work goes, it has been quite pleasant.

ok, that's as far as i can act and write like a news cast person haha. but yup so that's a weather update mostly for you mom. but yeah since it rained during the week, no one was out in the street so we hardly got to talk to anybody. but we did have alot of times which we got to meet with our investigators, haha they couldnt bluff us finally. i better pray for rain more often. but so yeah it has been good, we taught the most this week by far. it was good i enjoyed it although it was tough for me to understand and talk kus i feel like i don't even know what they really are talking about. but its getting better i mean i feel like i dont understand alot during the lesson, but then i ask my companion afterwards every time, haha. i am pretty sure he's annoyed by it oh well, maybe he's learning to have to deal with me because he's going to have a kid that acts like me, haha i dont know. but all the time, i just like look at him afterwards and say "so what just happened in there" and then he tells me and surprisingly i have the gist of whats being said so i just got to talk more. but yeah its good, the best investigators i think we have is this family of four, the dads name is Jose and the wifes name is Adela and they have two daughters, Brenda y Yoselina. Yoselina is like 10 months old but she has tubercilosus. again i dont know how to spell, but yeah so they always go to the hospital and don't have alot of time, but they are really nice and open and so we have really just been praying that Yoselina will be alright and that everything will be alright and that they can make it to church because i think they will see how nice it is and how good of a place it is especially for families.

Ok tons of stuff happened this week though, pretty funny stuff too. we get alot of people that yell stuff at us from their cars and so this one night it happened like 4 times and we were with a member, and me i got bad hearing, so i asked my companion what they said because i thought they were saying like hara hara for israel, haha you know like from Other Side of Heaven. and he said they said we were going to the devils home. so i might be going deaf... not to sure. but yeah that happens to us, but maybe i should be like Elias or who ever in the old testament and send she bears at them. haha for real its in the old testament. dad its funny kus he was a prophet and there were these kids making fun of him for being bald (not implying anything) but you should joke around with people who might say that to you. tell them you'll send some bears at them. haha.

But yeah and then we went on exchanges this week. i went with Elder Heidbrink and we found these arabian pamphlets in our apartment and so i was like ok i am going to pass these out, and he said "now i know your a greenie because you dont know how bad of an idea that is," i just laughed and said oh well lets see. haha so we went and we stopped this arab guy. then i was like hi and i wanted to know how to say hi in arab and so he was like oh no sorry, "i noa speakah da inglish". so that didn't work out to well haha and then we met this lady who did the same thing but we handed her the pamphlet anyways and she knew about Joseph Smith somehow, but then she left kus she didnt understand anything.

Oh and lets see what else can i tell you. oh P day is changing from mondays to tuesdays, so next tuesday i will have Pday and not monday. so dont expect anything on monday. this is only for our mission i think. i forget why they are doing it though, but yeah not too sure when i can talk to you guys on mothers day, but i will let you know next week tuesday. um yeah sorry i have to go i think but i will write. sorry it takes me a while to write though haha. i miss you and i love you guys. have a good week.

Love,

Elder Thomas

The disappearing snacks

Hey Dad,

I just wanted to let you and mom know that i got the box. thanks! it was really good, good snacks too! that should hold me till tomorrow morning haha, but yeah could you tell mom too thanks for sending the copies of the book. it was really good, especially the one about the language. i like the homesickness one too, though haha, but dont worry i am doing good here. i just wanted to ask if you could send my mexican soccer ball and my indoor soccer shoes, the blue ones. but if you can't its okay, i just wanted to see if i could get those so i could exercise playing soccer each morning. but i know it costs a lot to mail boxes so it's alright if you can't. i still have to mail the letter i wrote to you last week...sorry but i will get it out to you probably tomorrow. but yeah, so i will talk to you next week tuesday because thats my new P-day. I miss you guys and hope everyone is doing good back home.

Love, Elder Thomas

What not to do in an earthquake

Hey!

Oh, so yeah, it really doesn't matter to me, you can either send emails to me or write letters, whatever is easier for you. because now we just head to the library and email for an hour and so i have enough time to read and stuff, so its easier to send emails, its all good, as long as its something, haha. But yeah so week 2 out here. crazy, like it's always going by fast, i guess in a good way. But yeah, to answer your question mom, yeah we felt the earthquake it was pretty fun, we were cruising on the couch (during lunch ok? haha), and it started to shake and so i turned to my companion because i thought he was shaking it haha and i was thinking dang you are strong and then the whole apartment started to shake and so everyone dove under a desk. i was just sitting on the couch, nah jus kidding, i dove under the table too, which probably wasn't the best idea because the table was glass! haha. but yup that was the epic tale of the earthquake. but shoot, i don't have alot of time. dang i'll write letters to everyone ok? mom and dad, so expect some letters from me alright? but oh, lets see what can i, say... oh we had church yesterday and so i got to see all the members in the branch. we don't have enough members yet to have a ward. but that will change haha. and it was pretty sad because the chapel was so empty. but the members are way nice, they are awesome i just can't understand them, haha. no, but its getting better. but so i had three hours in spanish. my mind was killing...aye, but the parts i could understand were way good, it was fast sunday for them and so they bore their testimonies, i think. but yeah church in spanish is alot harder than in english so you are lucky haha. oh funny story, so we were on exchanges and i went with a ward member, and so my companion told me to just meet him in back of the house. and so the ward member took me back and i saw the car and i was like ok they are back and so i told him its all good, and so he left and so i went to knock on the door because you need a key to get in. but then i saw the lights were dark and no one was home, haha.. i freaked out! i was like dang, some mexican or black guy is going to come by and beat me up and then take my scriptures or something, or maybe they could take my planner or my pen kus that is all i have, haha. but i was like - oh man, this is ridiculous. so i was waiting for like 5 minutes by myself and then down the street i saw elders so i felt like i was rescued so i booked over to them and they were just cracking up. so there you go mom and dad, your son has been out on the mission for 2 weeks and is disobedient already, haha. another story too, we were visiting members for referrals and the mother said that she has been seeing spirits or like crazy scary ghosts at the house of her work and she asked us to pray for her and so we left with a prayer of course and so we asked to bless her house kus all we knew was that it was a house. and so after the prayer she was just laughing and she said no, no, no, this house is perfect and everything is fine here, but i need the other house where i work to be fine. haha, so hey at least we got that it was a house and not something else. but yeah no more time, i Love you all and hope everything is going good. i will write you all letters again. there will be two sets, you too Carly cause i couldn't send my letters last week becuase i didnt have stamps, so expect two. didn't forget about you guys. have a good week!

Love

Elder Thomas

Language barriers

Hey! Hows everything going back home? Well i sent couple of letters this past week wednesday because the mission president let us write you. so i hope you got it. oh and i got the packages too, thanks! it was way good and the pillow is comfortable with the hawaiian print, haha i laughed when i saw it but yeah.

so San Diego is way sweet its so nice here. the weather is so good, but like in the nights it gets pretty cold, but not too bad or at least not as bad as Utah. but i got my first companion out here in the field. His name is Elder Burnell and he's pretty cool, good guy/ elder. he is from utah and has been out for 6 months, but its funny kus he was first called as english speaking and then he got switched to spanish the first day he got here. that would be pretty funny, it would have been hard. but he's pretty good at it, he understands a lot. Our area in the mission is called El Cajon but we also cover an area called Santee. its a huge mission and the mission president and everyone says that it needs work. it's true cause its only a branch but the people in the branch are super nice. it was funny because the day of transfers i was so excited to know where i was going but i had to wait for a long time to find out i dont know why though, so i had to preocuppy myself with stuff haha, but yeah its good out here but really tough too. My companion has been really sick too so we couldn't really do any work because he had to rest, which is kind of was lame but all good, i finally read the book of mormon again. so yup i know its true haha. but so yeah really havent gotten to do any real work but we will this week. this week we have zone conference and then this thing they call MTE which is like something, i dont know haha. but all i know is afterward we have like these coaches who come and watch us for two days and help us apply the things we learned from the conference and then he like gives feedback. but our zone leaders called and told me i am going to have to be a coach, which is retarded i dont even know anything but its all good. so yup that is what we got for this next week.

But anyways Mom we went to the Mormon Battalion visitors center. it was pretty sweet, it shows like a video and what you kind of would have experienced and what they want through, its a pretty cool story and the presentation of it is pretty hilarious too, we had this old couple show us around.. oh man it was funny, but it reminded me of you. i could totally see you and dad doing that haha, but you would like that place because its exactly the cowboy and frontier stuff that you like, haha.

And then after that we went kind of street contacting. People can be jerks, so dumb sometimes, we can be smiling and be nice and they would just give you the kind look where they don't acknowledge you, but man, they are lucky i'm a missionary and have the pure love of Christ, or at least trying... haha. like this one guy, aparently there are alot of arab people here... they call um caldians i think, but yeah, they are..... and so i saw one and thought he was a mexican and so i was "hola, como esta," and then he was, "you###, i'm not a ####mexican," and i was like oh.. dang thats right people swear in the real world haha.. and then he was like yeah yeah this world is bleap bleepp bleepp,... i was like braddah you have one dirty mouth, but i couldn't say anything i just froze, it was so funny and then my companion saved me and we left and we were just laughing about it forever.

And yeah another story, so we went to a members house, and here's me thinking (oh thank you God, you are the best) and so we are talking to the member and we asked if she had referrals for like anyone we can teach. Oh yeah by the way - give referals to the missionaries we need it plus its the best way! ok, so she starts talking and talking and i thought she was talking about her friend that we could teach possibly, and while she is talking I probably got like two words, "i didn't see and i didn't feel or something" haha and my face the whole time was this :0, with my jaw touching the floor... i didn't know anything. haha so after i asked my comp so what did she say about her friend and he laughed and said she was talking about her conversion story. that first day was the day i realized i'm a dead man haha, i didnt get anything haha and so i was like yup now i know why we are called for 2 years haha. there is another story too with a investigator named Marcos, so we are teaching him and talking with him and everything and i didn't really say anything because he was talking a lot and i didn't know what he was talking about. but during parts of the lesson he would get up and act out stuff. and i thought to myself, maybe he's playing charades with me hahaha kus he thinks i don't understand, and he was right - kus i didnt haha, but his acting out didn't help hahah. so he sits back down and then tells me two words, he turns straight at me (at which moment i about peed my pants) and said "Platica conmigo" and so i got the conmigo part, but that's about it, conmigo means with me. and so i sat there and asked him to repeat it, i felt retarded haha oh man. and he said it again, and i sat there like i was like oh i am officially retarded someone said one word and i cant respond haha. and so i turn to my companion thinking he would explain it to me, but he turns to Marcos and says sorry he doesn't speak alot of spanish and then i just sat there with my smile on my face and said si. and that is about the intelligence level of a household plant. so yup my name now is elder Roca kus i am basically like a rock in the lessons, haha. I just sit there, haha. but i keep trying and trying to learn and speak more spanish to get better, but that's a couple of funny stories for you. but oh, by the way it is going good and its fun and general conference was way good and gave me a boost of more faith along with the scriptures too. so its been really good. i cant wait for this next week to prove myself, haha. oh and dad did you watch priesthood? it was so good yeah! so sick i liked the talk about paciencia by President Uchtdorf and yeah, general conference was really good, it was funny though i fell asleep while they were sustaining all 1000 people of the 70 it seemed like so i missed the first talk haha i felt bad. but yup all is good, hope everything is good back home, praying for you guys, and you too carly - hope school and finals are going good. i thought i would throw out a shout out for you haha. but I love you alot (thats directed for everybody).

Love, Elder Thomas (who is trying to learn the language so needs a lot of prayers and pray that the mexican people will speak slower too. one or the other or both are good haha. Thanks!)

Arrival in San Diego

From: Lee Donaldson
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 11:24 AM
To: Thomas, Chris (USAHI)
Subject: Your son has arrived in San Diego

Greetings from the California San Diego Mission!

Your son, Elder Thomas has safely arrived in the mission field. I am delighted to have him serving with us among the wonderful people of Southern California. In addition to the tremendous weather and scenery, we have remarkable missionary opportunities.

Thank you for sending such a wonderful missionary to our mission. I am confident that with your prayers and his hard work that he will have a rich experience here in San Diego that will bless both him and those he teaches.

I have attached a couple of pictures that were taken this afternoon at the Mission Home.

God bless you for your sacrifice in sending us your son to labor among some of Heavenly Father's choicest spirits.

Lee Donaldson

President, California San Diego Mission

One week and then he is off to CA

Hey everyone,

I have thoroughly enjoyed this past week. In my email today, I will be addressing the following topics: first i will be talking to you about my experience in this week, second i will be chastising you and leaving you with a commitment to become better people....haha, just kidding, that was my short attempt at trying to write like this is an english paper mom, haha, since you told me to do so, haha. but yeah ,so it's my last week! finalmente! i think that's a spanish word possibly. but yeah, it's been good and we got our travel plans this past tuesday! so sick i was way stoked and still am, we leave next week tuesday at like 8 in the morning from salt lake and we get to california around 10 or something like that, who cares as long as i am there. so i can't wait and then when i get there i am supposed to am supposed to find out where my first area is which will be pretty sweet too. i keep dreaming that i'm going to go to the airport and talk to everyone i see especially the brown ones so i can speak spanish, haha. oh and yeah we got our seats too and then there is like 5 seats all in a row and there is one seat ahead by itself and so when i saw that i was like i call that seat! so then i can just talk to other people, i got two hours on the plane so the way i look at it, i got 15 minutes to contact and stuff then give them the first two lessons hahaha. just kidding but yeah, that would be pretty cool.

this week has been good though because alot of things have been happening and its more realistic towards our time in the field. because now we only have one hour of teachers a day and the rest of the time is free so all we do is go around the MTC and go and contact the other spanish missionaries and teach them lessons and stuff so that is way cool. but any ways quick story for you. so we were sitting around and studying for our next investigator and then there were these two hermanas sitting across the room and my companion pointed them out (its not what you think, haha), and said that one was crying and i felt way bad for her, because it sucks to not feel good. so i turned and i was looking in my scriptures trying to find a scripture we could share and i found one and i told my companion we should go and teach them a quick lesson, it was about losing our life for the Lord and then after that, that is when we actually find it. i thought that was good so we went and we started to teach , i was teaching and then when i was about to turn to the scripture and then i thought when i got it, nah, that's not good, and then i came across Mosiah 24:14 and the background on this scripture is about people of alma and how they were in bondage and how they prayed to the Lord for help. just simply for some help in their hard times, and then she read this scripture and she started to cry. she couldn't read it, because it just hit her hard and it's what she needed at that time. After she read it she said that she was reading this chapter in her personal study and that she didn't get to that part yet and she was like thank you that is what i needed. I have thought a lot about that it wasn't a coincidence that it had happened like uncle Dayle said. but that we were guided by the spirit and that Heavenly Father put us in her path because he knew her personally and knew what she needed and he heard her in hard times, and we were there to help him. It's crazy because my companion had prayed for something like this to happen so he could experience it. I just know without any doubt that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us and he will listen and he will bless us even when we may not feel like we deserve it. He does all this because He has great love for us. Another thing is i have had the chance to give blessings and it is amazing. Just last night i was giving a blessing and i started to tear up kus i realized something when i was giving it and i knew it wasn't me talking but it was the holy spirit and he was talking through me and i was learning as i was talking. the craziest thing, but it was nice really nice.

Love Elder Thomas

Lesson in perserverance

Hey Everyone,

Ok so i hope no one thinks i'm chastising or anything cause i'm not. it's just that we learn so much stuff here and its a huge testimony builder. like my faith has grown a lot and its true - faith leads to action, but yeah, any ways.

i wanted to let you know that you guys are always on my mind and a lot of the things i experience here, i just wish you were right here with me kus it helps me so much and i know it would help you too. So yeah, i just wanted to let you know that and that i love you guys a lot. Mom and Dad i wanted to really thank you because you really helped me be the person i am today. i dont know what i would be like without your examples and all the things i have learned from you.

A quick story.. here at the MTC it is tough, it drains you so much and some nights we head back to our rooms and i am like dead beat. but i keep studying and keep trying and the thoughts that go on in my mind are like: "you better not give up," and "you better not let a second go by," and i think about that a lot and that's why i am always studying, but it was cool - someone said that through our actions we can show our love for Christ. i really believe that. you guys know i have made a ton of mistakes that i'm not happy about, but it's really comforting to have the knowledge that i'm working as hard as i can and that the Savior sees that and knows that i love him (ok, brief explanation for these emails, i don't know what to write, i just write what goes on in my mind - so hopefully this helps you know how i'm doing and stuff and maybe it helps you too). Oh, another cool thing is that in my scripture studies, i found in Jacob 6:5 this morning that the Lord always helps us. like that is my big concern for me right now. it's really comforting knowledge.

Oh ok, another story, so one time in class we were about to teach a certain part of a lesson in front of the whole class. and right before that i prayed for the help of the Spirit and its power to be able to speak the words of God through my mouth and to be able to say what God wants me to say. while teaching i really was thinking how i can help the class. then i thought of something and i thought it was really good. mid way through my explanation i lost it and couldnt remember anything. i was like what? God - you got to be kidding me...it was silent for like 20 seconds, then the teacher said "time." we stopped and then the first thing he said was bear your testimony. and i was like wow, okay, shoot i'm an idiot. but God answered my prayer and i wasn't suppose to say it and instead i was suppose to bear my testimony. so sometimes we need to just do that instead and yeah. um, oh this past week too, i fasted one day for hope and to be able to push through no matter what, so that i can forget about myself, because really, i don't care about me, i could care less, i just want to be able to get out and serve others and share with them what i have and know, and to just love them with all my heart because i know how much God cares about them. so yeah, really, all that i have been doing here is straight reading the scriptures in the book of mormon and preach my gospel and learning spanish every single minute till i go to sleep. And its amazing because i wake up and even though i'm tired i know that the lord blesses me with strength to do what i need to do. its way cool. haha, but yeah this place is sweet, i love it here, its been going by way fast - its crazy, and yeah its just way good. hope everyone and everything is good back home oh shoot, i heard about the tsunami from my teacher kus she's hawaiian and in my mind i was thinking, "crud - from chile, thats south - that means there's gonna be a south swell! haha, i wanted to surf so bad. your probab ly right dad i would probably be in the water like that one guy... haha. but yeah it sounded pretty cool though. Praying for you guys. no worry, be happy.

Love, Elder Thomas

oh remember to not respond kus i no can respond to you on this one kus i get only limited time on um. so yeah take it easy.. dear elders are better. thanks for everything again