Low Riders

Hey Everyone,

Hope you guys are having a good week, things are pretty good out here, but man it was getting a little bit hot this past week. Jeez we were sweating like dogs or at least i was haha. Tons of bike riding because we haven't had a lot of appointments, just can't get a hold of anyone. So we have been trying to just visit Less Actives and Members and knocking on tons of doors too. That's one thing, we can't do nothing without members, well we can but it's not as effective like the ratio of people accepting the gospel multiplies with the help of members, like i think for every 1 out of 10 people we find might get babtized by ourselves and then it goes down to 1 out of 3 people with the help of members. So its crazy, but its true. So don't leave those Elders hanging out there guys haha.

Oh but yeah during the week, we went over to this guys house, Chris and yeah you already know him and so his cousin was there too and he wanted to go eat out somewhere kus he was hungry and so we ended up all riding our bikes to some burger place called Rally's, which is really good by the way. But it was so funny, kus it was me and my companion and then it was him and his cousin. and he and his cousin had these two small low rider bikes haha, man i cant stop laughing kus the bikes are ridiculously low, and super slow and so when we were riding there man we were pretty much going so slow that we could have just walked fast and still been able to keep up with them. i wish i had a picture becuase it was like these two missionaries and then two gangsters. maybe i can try get a picture this week when we go visit them and show you guys. So thats one example of how bad we just want to teach people, that we'll go to a burger place to teach um.

Let's see, what else oh so yeah this past week we weren't able to have alot of lessons. Just tons of bike riding trying to find new people, we knocked out a trailer park the other day, and there seemed like a couple people that we could go back and see so that was good. But all that hard work turned out good because we had 4 people at church this past week. One of those was Marcelo, which was so sweeeet! kus we havent seen him in a while at church and he actually called us and said he wants to come to church because he knows he needs to and that he has been getting a lot of blessings and so it was cool to see the Lord working with him and him feeling the spirit and knowing this is what he needs to do. We always try to pass by his house and he is never there and so we get discouraged some times but he told us this past Sunday that he appreciates us never giving up and so that was really cool to hear, to know that they see it and someday they will get the feeling to come to church again or read the scriptures or pray. We just can't give up on anyone and just always have to share the gospel with um.

But i got to go now, got to get a haircut, but have a good week and have fun. Love you and miss you guys!

Elder Thomas

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

Eating off the street

Hey Everyone,

So this week was transfers and nothing changed I am still with my companion Elder Avalos in the same area, so its pretty good. I still don't want to leave here because i like it out here and there is a lot of stuff that can happen. So I am gonna be here until April. Hopefully i make it and stay out here the whole summer, that would be sweet haha but i probably would die from the heat, they say it gets up to 125 degrees and that it's so hot, you can fry an egg on the street, jeez! that's crazy.

Anyways this past week was really busy, the most we ever taught. It was fun but way tiring, i remember on thursday we were running all over the place, we had appointments every hour it seemed like, so it was definitely a good day. Oh this past week we found someone new, his name is Chris oh wait i think i told you about him right? Well anyways we taught him like 3 times this past week it was really good, he came to church again and attended some other activities as well. He really likes it and wants to keep going with it and so hopefully everything continues to go well with him. He can talk though! but it's not useless talk, it's good talk, but never ending.

It was funny because this past Sunday we couldn't find a teacher for Gospel Principles and so we had to teach it, and man i always get nervous in teaching a group, but this wasn't that bad. We asked one question and than bam next thing you know we had to end, haha that was pretty easy. Chris and then another new member now Sergio just kept talking so it was good. Oh yeah Sergio got confirmed this past Sunday which was way sweet, hopefully he gets the priesthood soon, because then he could baptize his wife Myra. But she hasn't said anything about baptism, we still need to talk to her about it, but hopfully she will, that would be way good to see them go through the Temple and be sealed. Their family is awesome.

Shoot i can't think of what to write... Oh ok so the city i am in is called brawley but there are all these different outside towns close to here. The farthest one that some other elders cover is called Niland. it's way small and far from where we are at, it takes like an hour to get there. I was on exchanges with someone else and we went out there to visit a member, and it was sweet kus her husband is not a member and so we got to talk about the Restoration with him and he seemed really curious and interested, and he lived in that small town for his whole life and so he didn't know anything bad or rumors about any of the churches, and so it was nice because he just wanted to know the truth and there wasn't any bad rubbish blocking him from finding it out. So that was nice to see.

Just yesterday we actually didn't have anything to do, so we were trying to find some new people and we met this one guy who the missionaries used to see years ago! He was way nice. He came to us and was saying Hey Brothers! and we didnt even know him haha. Usually people are just try to avoid us. So yeah He asked us yeah you guys have the other bible, the Book of Mormon and well how come no one else has that? So i was like well, that's a good question, i think we may have an answer to that one haha. So we set up an appointment with him this Thursday and so that will go well.

So yeah, everything is going good out here. Hopefully you guys are doing good and have a good week!

LOve you all

Elder THomas

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

To Touch Someone

Hey everybody!

So alright tons of stuff i got to write about this week. pretty cool stories. But before the cool ones we had some tough times too. This week we finally had a chance to talk with joey, and well we tried calling him in the week because we really wanted to meet with him and we told him we could meet at any time, so he called us back and we were stoked but we realized that we had a service project we had to do and we asked him if we could do it sometime tonight or tomorrow but he was mad kus he felt that we didn't want to visit him so he hung up and so that wasn't good. However, later on saturday we got a text from him and so we stopped by his house and talked about it and he was really mad at us and said some stuff and we felt really bad becuase we well let him down you know. It got way bad too before we left, just told us he doesn't want to talk to us again, he'll learn some other way with some one else. So we just felt like horrible missionaries, i mean it made me really feel inadequate and i questioned, even though i knew i shouldn't have, why i was here. i felt that i should've prepared better before my mission, that way i could be the best missionary i could be. So that's how we felt.

Then there was something really cool that happened on sunday, the next day. We had the confirmation for Janelle, so she could recieve the Holy Ghost, and originally my companion was going to give it, but it didn't work out, because he was in another meeting and so i had to give it. i really don't remember what i said, but i remember feeling that the spirit was there and that i knew it was testifying that what we were doing was right. For me it was a huge blessing, because probably for the first time in my life, well that i could remember, i felt that way.

What happened after that was even more crazy. So this past week we were trying to find more Spanish people to teach and visit, so we passed by this one former investigator's house. When we stopped by, her son-in-law was there with his wife and we gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to church, andcome Sunday he came! He stayed there for all three hours and loved it and met all the members, it was just a really cool thing. Then we stopped by his house just yesterday and his wife told us a cool miracle that happened. For the first time in years, in years...he woke up and got down and prayed and she said she thought he was crazy, like what are you doing? But he then told us that he felt peaceful for the first time in years... because he hasn't worked for two years and has been looking and looking but can't find any work. After that day he prayed, he found some work for next week, and he said that he knew it was by God. Then he told us something that i will never forget, he said thanks for rescueing him, for bringing the spirit into his life, and for me, i would give my whole life for just another person to say that. I would work my whole life knocking on doors or trying to share the gospel just so i could know again that it has touched someone else's heart. It is true when it says how great your joy shall be, i felt it and it was the strongest thing i felt and it was nice. From that point I knew that God knows the way to true happiness and that he has given us the gospel to live in order to be on the path, and no matter what the world has to offer or no matter what any other thing there is in the world, it will sink into insignificance compared to the joy and happiness that comes from the Gospel, and thats truth at its finest.

And just even going more back earlier in the week. i really saw the importance of being obedient to God's commandments and following all the missionary rules even though i don't understand why they are there. I know that all these good things are happening because of we obey the commandments and the rules and there are so many blessings that I have seen, it's awesome.

So those were the stories I wanted to share with you guys this week. i hope everyone is doing good and everyone is happy I miss you all and love you all too!

Love
Elder Thomas

The Work Is good

Hey Everyone,

So this past week was crazy!! So much stuff happened, and didn't happen at the same time. We found a lot more people to teach. it was a pretty sweet week. Well first off, we had this dinner at the Whittles family house. So we pull up and then his next door neighbor that we met two weeks ago popped out of his house and said hi and we got to talk to him. It's cool because we weren't able to find him for two weeks or something like that. What happened was his house caught on fire two weeks ago like two days after we visited him and that's why we couldn't find him. he showed us the house and it was bad. the soot pretty much ruined everything, but his house is still standing which is the good part. So the very next day we came over and helped clear out his whole house, it was good to finally do some service, felt way good. He also got to come to church this past sunday which was gooood! He liked it, and he is humble and really does want to make a change, which makes it even better. and the cool thing all about it is that his neighbor the member is Bro. Whittle and he is a really good example. Joey, that's his name always talks about him and how he admires him and his family. So that's a big reason why he is letting us come over too.

We just have a lot of other teaching opportunities as well, it's really sweet. You can definitely see the Lord's hand in the work. hey you need to let me know how the dinner was with the missionaries. They might of showed you a video that was filmed here in San Diego with the missionaries here. I t's really good, we share it in a lot of our appointments, because it talks about the work and what our purpose is, not only for us missionaries but for everybody, it's really good. So keep a look out maybe.

Um lets see, oh this week we had a ton of appointments set up during the week and it seemed like one by one they all fell through. one day we had three in one day and we were stoked and we planned for everyone and got super excited to go visit and talk with them and then bam, all gone and no one had time to meet with us. it was like those times dad when we would be surfing one day and a set a nice waves would come and then after we would be pumped and keep waiting and waiting and waiting for more to come and then nothing happens. so at first i was just disappointed and then after a while, after it happened again and again. i start getting mad. So it wasn't good. But in personal study i am at around Alma the war chapters, but it's in Spanish so i am completely lost haha,i have no idea what half the words are in there. but i was reading about Capt Moroni and how it was talking about what he was like and that if we were like him the power of the devil would be as much power as a butterfly or something like that. and so i was thinking and you know i bet Moroni got angry too guarantee, to be fighting like the beast that he was. but at the same time he kept his cool and knew what he needed to do. and then i started thinking a lot about a good attitude. haha dad you remember when we were kids? you would always tell me and cait, hey i dont like that attitude, you better change it haha gosh. I dont know i guess it was just a constant reminder that things will come up. unfortunate or fortunate. but we have an understanding of what we need to do and should do, and so no matter what we just need to keep going and keep pushing until the next life where we will probably have to push still. thats alright haha.

oh got side tracked. um well anyways things are going really good here. so yup oh dad so i bought that translator with the card and also that knife don't worry, i just needed the knife to make a gift for carly. kus i was going to carve her something. shoot its hard! if you know any tips let me know. haha um

Thanks for eveything and i love you guys. take it easy!

Elder Thomas