Sweet alright, hope everyone's doing good!
This past week I got my new companion haha and it was crazy! We were sitting in transfer meeting and we were almost done and i still didn't know who my companion was going to be, and then i stood up and President Clayton said Elder Reagan and it was funny kus at first i didn't think of Elder Reagan from the MTC, but i just was like "wait who is Elder Reagan? and then i saw him and i yelled No Way! That was weird, i still can't believe it. It's pretty sweet, we already know each other and stuff, so that's easy. Its funny too because everyone asks how much time he has out and then we tell them that we were companions. It would be pretty funny if they leave us here until we are both done haha and then all we got to do is drive to the airport together haha. So yeah can you believe that, its pretty intense, companions again. but its pretty sweet. This past week was way fun and busy! We found a TON of people and so it's going really good.
Ok, remember the people we met last week, well we got in and taught them and they were really interested and it went well, the only thing was that we couldn't watch the DVD we wanted to because they couldn't switch it to Spanish, bummer, but oh well. So yeah, we got the hook ups with them too because his name is Tomas! He's always like eh what's happening Tomas? and then i am like, oh nothing much, what's happening with you Tomas? We got the Tomas connection over here, only lame thing is that they live in Arizona and so they are going to head back but not for a couple weeks. For some reason we always find people that don't live here haha. dang it! but its all good...
Oh, weird story for yah. Ok you know how there's all those shows or commercials about peer pressure?, well i never even had that, no one asked me for a hit or any of that dumb stuff, but it was funny because we were walking on the street and these guys were smoking in a couple of bushes, it looked some dumb haha. i started laughing and then we were like, nah we're good, we like to think, but you want to learn about Jesus Christ? and they didn't want to so we left.
So yeah, lately all these new people we have been finding are all Catholics, but they know their saints. I still don't know Spanish fairly well and sometimes they just go off in these weird crazy stories about the saints and stuff like that. This past Friday we taught Tomas and his wife and she told this intense story about this headless guy and he had this book which a three headed eagle was guarding and apparently it's Saint Tomas' book....but i'm pretty sure i didn't understand or at least i hope haha. After that story we just told um, well - we don't know about that, but we know about Jesus Christ so we think we should talk about him rather then crazy headed animal books. We just kind of left the story behind. Super weird. It seems like tons of people have stories like that and they always tell us for some weird reason. We are trying to combat the whole idol worship, you know no biggie. haha but on the good side we met this guy yesterday who said he doesn't believe in that stuff, just focuses on the Savior so we got a good one there. We just had to fist pump after that lesson since we were so stoked that he didn't beleive in that stuff.
We got some sweet plans for this week, we should be headed down to Mormon Battallion with some investigators so we are hoping it goes through becuase that will really help some of the people we are teaching to progress.
Other than that, things are going way good. Have a good week. Oh and CAIT - Happy Birthday! i have a birthday card that is currently being held hostage until you write me haha, nah just kidding.. sort of.
LOVE you guys,
Elder Thomas
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Low budget marriage technique
Hey everyone!
So yeah... we just finished another transfer and we thought we would just stay the same but aparently not. My companion Elder Plant is going to leave, and i am staying. Its crazy!! We thought that we were just going to stay together and we were down for it. We have some good stuff coming up pretty soon. So i'm glad i never got transfered, but ah man, now i don't know who my companion is going to be..so stay tuned it might get pretty intense. We'll see tomorrow because we have transfers in the morning tomorrow. I am gonna miss that guy though kus me and him got along pretty good. it was always pretty fun stuff. so hopefully my new companion is sweet too.
So yup... that's the latest news for yah... but anyways, this past week was pretty sick! We had a lot of stuff going on and it seemed like the work is picking up. we finally found some people!! yeah baby, it was funny too because we were just walking to go see some members that live in our same complex and when we walked by, this one door swings open and this guy just starts talking to us... way sweet! He was really interested and so we will probably stop by after i pick up my new companion tomorrow. Then another time we were walking to a member's house again and we started talking to these people in the streets just cruising in their garage. It was crazy though because man they were super funny. i think only 4 words that came out of there mouths were serious "how are you doing" and then the rest was just pure jokes, so it was kinda hard to teach/ share the message, but we set a time to come back and talk more with um.
Oh funny story for you guys. So we stopped by our recent convert's house this week to help her get rid of her bed kus it had bed bugs in it. ohhhhh it was nasty! but we threw it away and then she asks us to help clear her vacuum tube thing kus it was clogged, haha and i didn't really know what i was doing but we got a hanger and we were trying to get all the junk out. So we were outside just like hitting it on the ground and shoving the hanger in there and it was a pretty funny sight. But anyways after a while we had to leave but there was still more junk in it so we just brought it home with us, haha ... and we were just walking around with a vacuum hose around our neck. But later that night after more trying we finally got it cleared out. So now we are experts in the vacuum cleaning department too.
But yeah... so we have had a couple new people that we taught this past week. one of um we went to last night. It went pretty well, he has talked with the missionaries for like two years already and so we kinda wanted to see where he was at and we talked about the Book of Mormon and then asked him a question if he was able to pray about it to know if it was true.. and man i don't know if my spanish is really bad and i asked it wrong, but he started going off about the virgin of guadalupe... haha, i swear he talked about her for a wopping 20 mintuers just about the virgen guadalupe. i think i could write a solid report on her know... it was so ramdom. So after he stopped talking about her, i was like alrighty then... well, um ... so then you didn't pray..maybe.. haha we had no idea what to say after that. it was pretty intense.
Then we taught this lady who is the Mom of a member here in the branch and it went very well. she already knows its true and she wants to be baptized. the only thing holding her back is her husband becuase he is hard head. She doesn't want to learn or anything, but crazy story about that. One of his sisters almost died recently and now she is all worried for everyone's salvation and she is trying to get everyone to be married in a church and go back to church and everything. So she comes to this husband of the lady we are teaching and tells him he needs to get married in a church but he was mad because he's Catholic and to be married Catholic costs a ton of money and time so it's tough to do it. So his wife tells him, hey you know you can just go to the Mormon Temple and be married for free.. its easy.. hahaha, and then he said, oh, ok... let's look into it. So hopefully that goes well. pretty funny stuff. Now we know of a new way we can find people... ask if they want a free marriage, then bam start teaching um! Shucks, i got to get going, but hope everything is going good!
Miss you guys and love you choke!
Elder Thomas
So yeah... we just finished another transfer and we thought we would just stay the same but aparently not. My companion Elder Plant is going to leave, and i am staying. Its crazy!! We thought that we were just going to stay together and we were down for it. We have some good stuff coming up pretty soon. So i'm glad i never got transfered, but ah man, now i don't know who my companion is going to be..so stay tuned it might get pretty intense. We'll see tomorrow because we have transfers in the morning tomorrow. I am gonna miss that guy though kus me and him got along pretty good. it was always pretty fun stuff. so hopefully my new companion is sweet too.
So yup... that's the latest news for yah... but anyways, this past week was pretty sick! We had a lot of stuff going on and it seemed like the work is picking up. we finally found some people!! yeah baby, it was funny too because we were just walking to go see some members that live in our same complex and when we walked by, this one door swings open and this guy just starts talking to us... way sweet! He was really interested and so we will probably stop by after i pick up my new companion tomorrow. Then another time we were walking to a member's house again and we started talking to these people in the streets just cruising in their garage. It was crazy though because man they were super funny. i think only 4 words that came out of there mouths were serious "how are you doing" and then the rest was just pure jokes, so it was kinda hard to teach/ share the message, but we set a time to come back and talk more with um.
Oh funny story for you guys. So we stopped by our recent convert's house this week to help her get rid of her bed kus it had bed bugs in it. ohhhhh it was nasty! but we threw it away and then she asks us to help clear her vacuum tube thing kus it was clogged, haha and i didn't really know what i was doing but we got a hanger and we were trying to get all the junk out. So we were outside just like hitting it on the ground and shoving the hanger in there and it was a pretty funny sight. But anyways after a while we had to leave but there was still more junk in it so we just brought it home with us, haha ... and we were just walking around with a vacuum hose around our neck. But later that night after more trying we finally got it cleared out. So now we are experts in the vacuum cleaning department too.
But yeah... so we have had a couple new people that we taught this past week. one of um we went to last night. It went pretty well, he has talked with the missionaries for like two years already and so we kinda wanted to see where he was at and we talked about the Book of Mormon and then asked him a question if he was able to pray about it to know if it was true.. and man i don't know if my spanish is really bad and i asked it wrong, but he started going off about the virgin of guadalupe... haha, i swear he talked about her for a wopping 20 mintuers just about the virgen guadalupe. i think i could write a solid report on her know... it was so ramdom. So after he stopped talking about her, i was like alrighty then... well, um ... so then you didn't pray..maybe.. haha we had no idea what to say after that. it was pretty intense.
Then we taught this lady who is the Mom of a member here in the branch and it went very well. she already knows its true and she wants to be baptized. the only thing holding her back is her husband becuase he is hard head. She doesn't want to learn or anything, but crazy story about that. One of his sisters almost died recently and now she is all worried for everyone's salvation and she is trying to get everyone to be married in a church and go back to church and everything. So she comes to this husband of the lady we are teaching and tells him he needs to get married in a church but he was mad because he's Catholic and to be married Catholic costs a ton of money and time so it's tough to do it. So his wife tells him, hey you know you can just go to the Mormon Temple and be married for free.. its easy.. hahaha, and then he said, oh, ok... let's look into it. So hopefully that goes well. pretty funny stuff. Now we know of a new way we can find people... ask if they want a free marriage, then bam start teaching um! Shucks, i got to get going, but hope everything is going good!
Miss you guys and love you choke!
Elder Thomas
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
The answer to a prayer
Hey Family!
Hope you guys had a good 4th of july! It was kinda lame here, we had to be back in the apartment. and we thought we would get lucky and see some fireworks through the windows. but nothing! haha oh well, we heard the bangs and the booms though, way loud. Oh good news, we met the new Mission President on Thursday. He is a really cool guy, funny too. But he's different from President Donaldson though garantee and he puts a new twist on things. It's not different stuff, but just a different way of teaching and explaining it in a different way, which is pretty sweet. S o i am stoked to have him here for the next 6 months. It should be way good.
Um, lets see... oh, so funny story - we went tracting this week a couple days because we really need to find people and so we did that and this past Sunday this member was teaching the class for Elder's Quorum and he made a comment about the Jehovah witnesses, how they knock and talk to people in the streets sharing their message and how he admired them but he thinks its crazy and wouldn't do it. So i was just sitting there and i looked at my companion and started laughing kus thats us haha. so funny thing right there.
Oh, good news. So you know the brothah we baptized here and then he left for Mexico? Well he called us this past week and he said he is doing really good and that he's bringing his 4 kids to Church and his wife who was less active is bringing her 4 kids to Church too and all their kids are grown up and married! So that's a ton of more people who are going to be blessed with to talk to, wooooo!!! i was so stoked when i heard that. it's some pretty cool stuff man.
Another story. So well... we are kinda having a hard time right now. Not complaining or anything. It's just tough... and so this one night i was really trying to pray to know what i might be able to do. Like how can i be better and help the work shoot up here, and so when when i was praying, i felt good and felt that i received a couple answers of stuff that i could do, so it was sweet... and then i crashed out. Then when I woke up I couldn't remember what I was thinking. But i think it was two days after that when we were in an appointment teaching this part member family, when the wife said that she couldn't understand us and said pretty much that our Spanish is bad, so i was like... ooh, ouch! felt that one lady, jeez. haha, and so i was pretty bummed out about it and then later that night when i was praying and thinking about that, i thought dang! that was an answer to my prayer in a weird way, because after that i felt like i need to study better and so i made plans to do that and try harder and keep working on that stuff and not be comfortable where i am at, and now my studies are a lot better! So lesson learned. e Be careful what you ask for ...haha, but nah, just sometimes if you don't look or think about stuff, that at first, it seems like nothing, however, it could really be an answer to a prayer or a way that God is giving you to see that you can do even better, so i thought that was pretty sweet.
But yup... we are trying to do the best we can here. Nothing really happened this past week other than that. i think, not to sure.. well, if i remember something, i'll write it next week.
Love you guys!
Elder Thomas
Hope you guys had a good 4th of july! It was kinda lame here, we had to be back in the apartment. and we thought we would get lucky and see some fireworks through the windows. but nothing! haha oh well, we heard the bangs and the booms though, way loud. Oh good news, we met the new Mission President on Thursday. He is a really cool guy, funny too. But he's different from President Donaldson though garantee and he puts a new twist on things. It's not different stuff, but just a different way of teaching and explaining it in a different way, which is pretty sweet. S o i am stoked to have him here for the next 6 months. It should be way good.
Um, lets see... oh, so funny story - we went tracting this week a couple days because we really need to find people and so we did that and this past Sunday this member was teaching the class for Elder's Quorum and he made a comment about the Jehovah witnesses, how they knock and talk to people in the streets sharing their message and how he admired them but he thinks its crazy and wouldn't do it. So i was just sitting there and i looked at my companion and started laughing kus thats us haha. so funny thing right there.
Oh, good news. So you know the brothah we baptized here and then he left for Mexico? Well he called us this past week and he said he is doing really good and that he's bringing his 4 kids to Church and his wife who was less active is bringing her 4 kids to Church too and all their kids are grown up and married! So that's a ton of more people who are going to be blessed with to talk to, wooooo!!! i was so stoked when i heard that. it's some pretty cool stuff man.
Another story. So well... we are kinda having a hard time right now. Not complaining or anything. It's just tough... and so this one night i was really trying to pray to know what i might be able to do. Like how can i be better and help the work shoot up here, and so when when i was praying, i felt good and felt that i received a couple answers of stuff that i could do, so it was sweet... and then i crashed out. Then when I woke up I couldn't remember what I was thinking. But i think it was two days after that when we were in an appointment teaching this part member family, when the wife said that she couldn't understand us and said pretty much that our Spanish is bad, so i was like... ooh, ouch! felt that one lady, jeez. haha, and so i was pretty bummed out about it and then later that night when i was praying and thinking about that, i thought dang! that was an answer to my prayer in a weird way, because after that i felt like i need to study better and so i made plans to do that and try harder and keep working on that stuff and not be comfortable where i am at, and now my studies are a lot better! So lesson learned. e Be careful what you ask for ...haha, but nah, just sometimes if you don't look or think about stuff, that at first, it seems like nothing, however, it could really be an answer to a prayer or a way that God is giving you to see that you can do even better, so i thought that was pretty sweet.
But yup... we are trying to do the best we can here. Nothing really happened this past week other than that. i think, not to sure.. well, if i remember something, i'll write it next week.
Love you guys!
Elder Thomas
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Husbands who actually want to listen!?
Hey my family!
This past week was way good... thanks for the packages! i pretty much used all of it. I made the the cupcakes on Saturday and everything, It was funny too because i decided to go to Walmart to get some sparkling cider for the shot glass... and so we go there and were looking all over for it, and then we found it and there was only one left in all of Walmart! I think it was meant to be that i got that cider... it was really cool too because we had a fireside here in the stake and President Donaldson came and gave his last talk como Mission President. It was super cool. I'm gonna miss listening to him. He's gonna leave this next week or something like that. We sang as a missionary choir for the fireside and it was really cool, good testimonies and everything. Tons of people showed up too, It was way packed!
Um ...let's see, oh yeah and so for the choir i sat in the wrong section and had to sing tenor. Holy spam that was super hard! Haha, i think i cracked about 100 times trying to sing.
Anyways, oh yesterday we had a sweet lesson with a part member family who recently got married and so we are going to start teaching them and that should go way good becuase the husband actually wants to listen!! We are on fire teaching husbands that want to learn its really cool! His name is Armando or Amado. Aaparently, he is a super good cook and that's what he does for a living.
Let's see what else happened? We had a couple new people show up to Church this past Sunday which was really cool too, Only bad thing is they live in Tijuana and so we cant visit him. Oh i forgot to tell you that this Thursday we are going to meet the new Mission President - President Clayton. I'm pretty stoked for that. I'll try to send out a letter to you guys to let you know how it went.
Um, let's see ...oh, last Tuesday was intense - we went to go play wiffle ball at this little field for kids right outside Petco Park, Padres stadium. and it was way fun. but the crazy part was we lost the car keys, or so we thought. We looked all over the place and couldn't find um and so we had to wait 2 hours for another senior couple to come with the spare keys. We were bummed out that day because of that, Then we found out like 3 days later that somehow the keys were in his bag and he didn't know. so it was a huge bummer! haha but oh well.
Ok, well i got to get going because we got to go pick up mail from the office.
Love you guys!
Elder Thomas
This past week was way good... thanks for the packages! i pretty much used all of it. I made the the cupcakes on Saturday and everything, It was funny too because i decided to go to Walmart to get some sparkling cider for the shot glass... and so we go there and were looking all over for it, and then we found it and there was only one left in all of Walmart! I think it was meant to be that i got that cider... it was really cool too because we had a fireside here in the stake and President Donaldson came and gave his last talk como Mission President. It was super cool. I'm gonna miss listening to him. He's gonna leave this next week or something like that. We sang as a missionary choir for the fireside and it was really cool, good testimonies and everything. Tons of people showed up too, It was way packed!
Um ...let's see, oh yeah and so for the choir i sat in the wrong section and had to sing tenor. Holy spam that was super hard! Haha, i think i cracked about 100 times trying to sing.
Anyways, oh yesterday we had a sweet lesson with a part member family who recently got married and so we are going to start teaching them and that should go way good becuase the husband actually wants to listen!! We are on fire teaching husbands that want to learn its really cool! His name is Armando or Amado. Aaparently, he is a super good cook and that's what he does for a living.
Let's see what else happened? We had a couple new people show up to Church this past Sunday which was really cool too, Only bad thing is they live in Tijuana and so we cant visit him. Oh i forgot to tell you that this Thursday we are going to meet the new Mission President - President Clayton. I'm pretty stoked for that. I'll try to send out a letter to you guys to let you know how it went.
Um, let's see ...oh, last Tuesday was intense - we went to go play wiffle ball at this little field for kids right outside Petco Park, Padres stadium. and it was way fun. but the crazy part was we lost the car keys, or so we thought. We looked all over the place and couldn't find um and so we had to wait 2 hours for another senior couple to come with the spare keys. We were bummed out that day because of that, Then we found out like 3 days later that somehow the keys were in his bag and he didn't know. so it was a huge bummer! haha but oh well.
Ok, well i got to get going because we got to go pick up mail from the office.
Love you guys!
Elder Thomas
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
CAKE!
Alright, so some intense stuff happened this past week. You wont believe it, no worries, haha, its all good stuff. So you remember Alfredo the guy from Guadalajara, well earlier last week he said he was going to leave on Sunday and so we were pretty bummed out but we were like ah its all good. So we went to where he was staying on Thursday night because they told us to pass by and we did and they said they wanted to get baptized... I know crazy, we asked them about it before but he didn't feel ready and then he just told us that. It was intense! So this past weekend they had to get their marraige license so they could get married and then he would get baptized afterwards. They did get married at the beach on Saturday afternoon, and then baptized later that night. It was some pretty cool stuff! Not as intense as the other baptism though, it went way smooth, so we are getting the hang of it now.. knock on wood. Funny thing too was they were holding a father's day activity on the beach and they just decided to get married at the activity, then no need to worry about food for the wedding kus its already there haha, it was a sweet set up. and it was cool too because the members told us it was a park, so we asked our Mission President for permission and he gave us permission to go, but when we got there it was pure beach no park. We were so bummed, and the crazy thing was that we brought the food and got there at 12:00 when it was supposed to have started, and we called on the phone to see where everyone was. No one was there but they said like in 30 min they would be there so we just waited and then it was 1:00 pm and still no one was there...so we called again and they said that they were still at home. haha and we called Alfredo who was getting married and he was like, Oh what time is it? He didn't even know what time it was...hahaha. We waited 2 more hours until a member came to the beach to meet us and picked up the food. Such a waste! I have never felt so awkward at a beach in my entire life.. haha so yeah after that we could finally leave.
So yup, this past Saturday was busy, married then baptized. This next week should be really good too.. kus on sunday we have this Mission President fireside where President Donaldson is gonna talk and we are gonna be in a choir. President Donaldson is the man, but i cant remember if i told you guys, he is leaving this july in the first few weeks or something like that, and we are going to get a new mission president - President Clayton, so its gonna be wierd having two different Mission Presidents, but it'll be good. We are trying to get a ton of people to go to that fireside kus it'll be super bueno! Things here in Poway are going really good though, its shooting up. I think it helps that members are seeing people get baptized because we are teaching more and more of members' friends and family, so it should be really good. I think July is gonna be a really good month, we have a lot of people to teach this week. or at least we have a bunch of citas in the week right now so hopefully they go through.
It was pretty hilarious too this past Sunday after Church they had a little get together, well, actually it was a huge fiesta! There was food and CAKE. Oh man dad the best cake ever, tres leches.. you should try it but dont tell mom because she won't let you have it kus its bad/unhealthy, but that's ok we will just surf it all off anyways. Try find it though. So we were at this party, and Alfredo shows me the dog that the fmaily has, its a super nice dog but it was in a fence so i started petting it and then Alfredo comes behind me and barks while he pinched me...haha that scared the heck out of me, and i jumped and he just like starts cracking up and falls on the ground and everything, thats how he is though, he is a huge joker, kinda like you dad. So i don't know if it was good or not to baptize him haha nah just kidding.
Oh and you know we went to Aurora's house to help her clean up a little bit kus she needed help painting and stuff. We went and helped her out it felt good to do service finally, it felt like forever since we were able to do it. It was so ridiculous too because she had some of her kids there and they were just lying on the couch watching tv while we were cleaning. I felt bad for them. that would be lame, just lie down and do nothing... super boring. but whatever. Dad, I'm glad you used the beelt on me so i wasn't like that... hahah just kidding. We are trying to teach the kids, it's hard though kus they never talk, but hopefully they listen more and that they let the gospel change um.
Let's see what else, um oh yeah, one year from now, i am totally going to Guadalajara, Mexico because Alfredo and his wife Leticia are going to get married in the Temple... SWEET! So any of you guys that want to come can, you are officially invited... it's gonna be way cool. It was just awesome to start something and finish it off becuase you see the change and its powerful. Like i remember the first time we went with Alfredo and taught him, he fell asleep through the movie haha and now he loves the movie haha. funny stuff!
But yeah, love you guys and hope you had a GOOD FATHER'S day. Those were some sweet pictures of Grandpa, haha, Dad you should try do your hair like that haha that would be hilarious.
Alright, well i better get going.
Love, Elder Thomas
So yup, this past Saturday was busy, married then baptized. This next week should be really good too.. kus on sunday we have this Mission President fireside where President Donaldson is gonna talk and we are gonna be in a choir. President Donaldson is the man, but i cant remember if i told you guys, he is leaving this july in the first few weeks or something like that, and we are going to get a new mission president - President Clayton, so its gonna be wierd having two different Mission Presidents, but it'll be good. We are trying to get a ton of people to go to that fireside kus it'll be super bueno! Things here in Poway are going really good though, its shooting up. I think it helps that members are seeing people get baptized because we are teaching more and more of members' friends and family, so it should be really good. I think July is gonna be a really good month, we have a lot of people to teach this week. or at least we have a bunch of citas in the week right now so hopefully they go through.
It was pretty hilarious too this past Sunday after Church they had a little get together, well, actually it was a huge fiesta! There was food and CAKE. Oh man dad the best cake ever, tres leches.. you should try it but dont tell mom because she won't let you have it kus its bad/unhealthy, but that's ok we will just surf it all off anyways. Try find it though. So we were at this party, and Alfredo shows me the dog that the fmaily has, its a super nice dog but it was in a fence so i started petting it and then Alfredo comes behind me and barks while he pinched me...haha that scared the heck out of me, and i jumped and he just like starts cracking up and falls on the ground and everything, thats how he is though, he is a huge joker, kinda like you dad. So i don't know if it was good or not to baptize him haha nah just kidding.
Oh and you know we went to Aurora's house to help her clean up a little bit kus she needed help painting and stuff. We went and helped her out it felt good to do service finally, it felt like forever since we were able to do it. It was so ridiculous too because she had some of her kids there and they were just lying on the couch watching tv while we were cleaning. I felt bad for them. that would be lame, just lie down and do nothing... super boring. but whatever. Dad, I'm glad you used the beelt on me so i wasn't like that... hahah just kidding. We are trying to teach the kids, it's hard though kus they never talk, but hopefully they listen more and that they let the gospel change um.
Let's see what else, um oh yeah, one year from now, i am totally going to Guadalajara, Mexico because Alfredo and his wife Leticia are going to get married in the Temple... SWEET! So any of you guys that want to come can, you are officially invited... it's gonna be way cool. It was just awesome to start something and finish it off becuase you see the change and its powerful. Like i remember the first time we went with Alfredo and taught him, he fell asleep through the movie haha and now he loves the movie haha. funny stuff!
But yeah, love you guys and hope you had a GOOD FATHER'S day. Those were some sweet pictures of Grandpa, haha, Dad you should try do your hair like that haha that would be hilarious.
Alright, well i better get going.
Love, Elder Thomas
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Ghetto reunion
Hey, hows it going everyone?
It's going pretty good out here. Good past week. Oh, but i gotta tell you this story we heard this past Sunday at Church. Alright so basically what happened was the past few weeks we have been trying to meet with this less active sister, and the only time we got to meet her was this one time where we gave her a blessing because she was feeling sick. So this past Sunday was the first time we saw her at church since we have been here which was sweet! We were pretty stoked that she came. So when we were in Sunday school she shared a story about how you know she stopped coming to Church and everything and she said that we, the missionaries, would stop by and she would think to herself "ah no" so she would just hide.. and she just didn't want to talk to us haha. and the funny thing was we were sitting next to her when she was telling it, haha and i was like oh wow.. but then she told us how that one day we stopped by and some of her nieces were there and they opened the door haha and she said she scolded them for opening the door. But it was the day when we gave her a blessing and she said that she just felt the spirit really strong and that she felt better after that. And now, as a result of that experience she came back to Church. So that was way sweet. It's always cool to see little stuff like that. But yeah its so lame! everyone just hides! Oh well, I think that's why we find families too, becuase the kids don't know anything so they just open the door, haha.
Oh yeah, on Sunday too there was this way good Spanish fireside in San Diego that we had to go to because my companion, Elder Plant, can play the piano way good and he had to help out with this musical number. So anyways, we get to this stake center in San Diego and i recognized a bunch of people from my old area in Barrio Logan, the ghetto... it was so wierd seeing people i knew because it felt like forever ago! and oh I heard from my first convert, i actually got to call her today, and she told me that she is getting married in the temple!! You remember Margarita. Well heck yeah, she is going to the temple, and i baptized her, it's crazy! So sweet... so i am going to try to see if i could go and see her sealing. That would be awesome! I think i could die after that moment. Alright, i am done, haha, it's just that it feels really good. Man, i bet that's how Elder Cheney and Elder Sorenson felt. So yeah, everything is going pretty good here.
Oh, so in our branch, the dinner calender for missionaries got destroyed haha because it's just something our Mission President asks us to do here. Just because it's more effective for us to be out working, I guess because dinner should be a way to do missionary work, like we can be invited to dinner to teach someone, or we can eat with less actives or just pretty much anything like that. Well, i brought that up because one day this past week, all i ate was rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner, hahaha. It was good rice though, when i come home I'll show you how good it is. So it was funny, i think i might turn Asian before i get home too, eating so much rice, haha.
Let's see what else... so we are teaching this husband and wife who are from Guadalajara, Mexico, who are visiting some family up here who are members. The wife is less active and the husband isn't a member. We have been teaching them and they are awesome, he is the best. He's really progressing and everything. He is reading the Book of Mormon and coming to Church and he really likes it, but we got the lame side of the stick, because he is leaving to go back to Guadalajara this week. But I'm for sure that he'll keep it up back there which will be good. They are just an awesome couple. They told me about a surf spot there, so hey Dad looks like we might need to take a trip over there and we can visit them. I'll send you guys a picture of them with us this next week. Their names are Alfredo and Leticia. But they are pretty elect man! i am gonna miss stopping by and teaching them but for sure we'll find someone else like them. We are getting to know more and more people.
This guy yesterday pulled up in this van when we were walking yesterday, he was Arabian so he didn't speak Spanish, but spoke good English, i can't remember his name, so we'll just call him Aladin. He just had some questions for us and so we were talking with him for a while yesterday, which was kind of wierd too because Aladin had some crazy questions. Don't worry Carly for some reason, all the wierdos come up to us too... haha. Oh shoot, well the computer is going to turn off kus my time is done.
I Love you guys! Have a good week! I'll talk to you next tuesday!
Elder Thomas
It's going pretty good out here. Good past week. Oh, but i gotta tell you this story we heard this past Sunday at Church. Alright so basically what happened was the past few weeks we have been trying to meet with this less active sister, and the only time we got to meet her was this one time where we gave her a blessing because she was feeling sick. So this past Sunday was the first time we saw her at church since we have been here which was sweet! We were pretty stoked that she came. So when we were in Sunday school she shared a story about how you know she stopped coming to Church and everything and she said that we, the missionaries, would stop by and she would think to herself "ah no" so she would just hide.. and she just didn't want to talk to us haha. and the funny thing was we were sitting next to her when she was telling it, haha and i was like oh wow.. but then she told us how that one day we stopped by and some of her nieces were there and they opened the door haha and she said she scolded them for opening the door. But it was the day when we gave her a blessing and she said that she just felt the spirit really strong and that she felt better after that. And now, as a result of that experience she came back to Church. So that was way sweet. It's always cool to see little stuff like that. But yeah its so lame! everyone just hides! Oh well, I think that's why we find families too, becuase the kids don't know anything so they just open the door, haha.
Oh yeah, on Sunday too there was this way good Spanish fireside in San Diego that we had to go to because my companion, Elder Plant, can play the piano way good and he had to help out with this musical number. So anyways, we get to this stake center in San Diego and i recognized a bunch of people from my old area in Barrio Logan, the ghetto... it was so wierd seeing people i knew because it felt like forever ago! and oh I heard from my first convert, i actually got to call her today, and she told me that she is getting married in the temple!! You remember Margarita. Well heck yeah, she is going to the temple, and i baptized her, it's crazy! So sweet... so i am going to try to see if i could go and see her sealing. That would be awesome! I think i could die after that moment. Alright, i am done, haha, it's just that it feels really good. Man, i bet that's how Elder Cheney and Elder Sorenson felt. So yeah, everything is going pretty good here.
Oh, so in our branch, the dinner calender for missionaries got destroyed haha because it's just something our Mission President asks us to do here. Just because it's more effective for us to be out working, I guess because dinner should be a way to do missionary work, like we can be invited to dinner to teach someone, or we can eat with less actives or just pretty much anything like that. Well, i brought that up because one day this past week, all i ate was rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner, hahaha. It was good rice though, when i come home I'll show you how good it is. So it was funny, i think i might turn Asian before i get home too, eating so much rice, haha.
Let's see what else... so we are teaching this husband and wife who are from Guadalajara, Mexico, who are visiting some family up here who are members. The wife is less active and the husband isn't a member. We have been teaching them and they are awesome, he is the best. He's really progressing and everything. He is reading the Book of Mormon and coming to Church and he really likes it, but we got the lame side of the stick, because he is leaving to go back to Guadalajara this week. But I'm for sure that he'll keep it up back there which will be good. They are just an awesome couple. They told me about a surf spot there, so hey Dad looks like we might need to take a trip over there and we can visit them. I'll send you guys a picture of them with us this next week. Their names are Alfredo and Leticia. But they are pretty elect man! i am gonna miss stopping by and teaching them but for sure we'll find someone else like them. We are getting to know more and more people.
This guy yesterday pulled up in this van when we were walking yesterday, he was Arabian so he didn't speak Spanish, but spoke good English, i can't remember his name, so we'll just call him Aladin. He just had some questions for us and so we were talking with him for a while yesterday, which was kind of wierd too because Aladin had some crazy questions. Don't worry Carly for some reason, all the wierdos come up to us too... haha. Oh shoot, well the computer is going to turn off kus my time is done.
I Love you guys! Have a good week! I'll talk to you next tuesday!
Elder Thomas
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Missionary on a diet
Hey Family!
So sorry i didn't send out this email earlier, we went to the temple today! and then we had this other thing too, so that's why i am emailing so late. The temple was way sweet, and I took some good pictures. I will send some pictures your guys way. Oh so yeah i can't believe that it is tuesday again. So crazy! this week just flew by way quick, i think it was because we had a baptism this past saturday.. It was SWEET.. but crazy story. Here it is:
So an hour before the baptism... i know right, you probably see where this is going. Aurora called and my companion answered and she just was wondering if she could change the time. She wanted to do it for another week. and my companion was like ah no but he didn't know what to say so we told her we would call her back and so we talked about it. Praying in our heads the whole time and i called her back, oh and by the way we were even on the way to her house when she called...super last minute...so basically we just talked about it a little and then we told her we will just meet her at her house. When we got there she was changed and ready to go! So we were like oh, ok, sweet, let's go then. But she needed an interview with a counselor to the Mission President. and he was on his way and then he got lost and so it took a while for him to get there, and by that time it was almost 7 pm which was when the baptism was supposed to start. We were waiting, when we called our ward mission leader who was at the church getting the baptism ready to happen when he told us the baptismal font was not full (it should have been filled because they had a baptism before that and we called to ask them to leave it full. but i guess they forgot) and we were the only ones with the keys. So we raced from Aurora's house to go start filling the font and then when we got there, the partitioners were locked too (you know the ones that open up so you can see the baptism) and none of our keys worked for it. So we were freaking out about that too. Then after 10 mintues we figured out that the keys where in the closet and so it worked out alright... SO finally the baptism happened at 7:30 pm with a ton of work but ni modo it was super good!
But i remember just thinking holy smokes man it was so hard just to do it. and then afterwards everything was just way calm. Aurora was ready and she picked the date for this past Saturday after she prayed and then the day of the Baptism she just felt super super nervous, a total change. Then after she finally went through with it, she was way glad she did it and she was happy and smiling. It just goes to show, i think, that satan is really working hard, he doesn't want people to get baptized or follow the Gospel because he knows that it's a good thing and that they are on the right path. So he'll do everything to try to stop it. That's how we felt that one night for real.. but too bad anyways satan kus you cant beat God! No matter what it's still gonna happen. So yup, Aurora was baptized! i have to send pictures of that to you guys too, with my SWEET looking suit, haha. So needless to say this week was really good and we felt good about it. It's just good to see like, well not results, but just know that if you keep trying hard enough...we will see people accept the Gospel.
Let's see what else.. Well pretty much everything is going good, we have a lot of stuff to do and we have been really busy which is nice and tough at the same time, haha - no complaints though!
Oh so funny story, we were going to go shopping last week at wal-mart and this lady walks up to us and gives us this card to get a free smoothie and stuff!! TENDER MERCY. So when we went.. come to find out its a health place, so i thought, oh man great..... its gonna be nasty, but it was actually pretty good, haha and we got our body composition, and the paper told me i was fat! haha it gave us our body fat percentage, which i shall not reveal at this time haha and then classified us. so because of that I'm trying to eat better haha, dang it oh well SPAM lite is still good right?... haha. So now we are all trying to be nutritious, which is lame! But its not too bad though i guess. haha Dad you remember BUFF MAMA? hahahaha. ah man i still can't believe i did that with you and Cait. Oh and you know the funny part too? A couple of the missionaries did the master cleanse workout. it was wierd kus i remember when you did it. but well anyways. We got an appointment to head out too, so I will talk to you guys more next week. love you guys! ADIOS muchachitos!
Your nutrious pious islandous mexican missionary,
Elder Thomas
So sorry i didn't send out this email earlier, we went to the temple today! and then we had this other thing too, so that's why i am emailing so late. The temple was way sweet, and I took some good pictures. I will send some pictures your guys way. Oh so yeah i can't believe that it is tuesday again. So crazy! this week just flew by way quick, i think it was because we had a baptism this past saturday.. It was SWEET.. but crazy story. Here it is:
So an hour before the baptism... i know right, you probably see where this is going. Aurora called and my companion answered and she just was wondering if she could change the time. She wanted to do it for another week. and my companion was like ah no but he didn't know what to say so we told her we would call her back and so we talked about it. Praying in our heads the whole time and i called her back, oh and by the way we were even on the way to her house when she called...super last minute...so basically we just talked about it a little and then we told her we will just meet her at her house. When we got there she was changed and ready to go! So we were like oh, ok, sweet, let's go then. But she needed an interview with a counselor to the Mission President. and he was on his way and then he got lost and so it took a while for him to get there, and by that time it was almost 7 pm which was when the baptism was supposed to start. We were waiting, when we called our ward mission leader who was at the church getting the baptism ready to happen when he told us the baptismal font was not full (it should have been filled because they had a baptism before that and we called to ask them to leave it full. but i guess they forgot) and we were the only ones with the keys. So we raced from Aurora's house to go start filling the font and then when we got there, the partitioners were locked too (you know the ones that open up so you can see the baptism) and none of our keys worked for it. So we were freaking out about that too. Then after 10 mintues we figured out that the keys where in the closet and so it worked out alright... SO finally the baptism happened at 7:30 pm with a ton of work but ni modo it was super good!
But i remember just thinking holy smokes man it was so hard just to do it. and then afterwards everything was just way calm. Aurora was ready and she picked the date for this past Saturday after she prayed and then the day of the Baptism she just felt super super nervous, a total change. Then after she finally went through with it, she was way glad she did it and she was happy and smiling. It just goes to show, i think, that satan is really working hard, he doesn't want people to get baptized or follow the Gospel because he knows that it's a good thing and that they are on the right path. So he'll do everything to try to stop it. That's how we felt that one night for real.. but too bad anyways satan kus you cant beat God! No matter what it's still gonna happen. So yup, Aurora was baptized! i have to send pictures of that to you guys too, with my SWEET looking suit, haha. So needless to say this week was really good and we felt good about it. It's just good to see like, well not results, but just know that if you keep trying hard enough...we will see people accept the Gospel.
Let's see what else.. Well pretty much everything is going good, we have a lot of stuff to do and we have been really busy which is nice and tough at the same time, haha - no complaints though!
Oh so funny story, we were going to go shopping last week at wal-mart and this lady walks up to us and gives us this card to get a free smoothie and stuff!! TENDER MERCY. So when we went.. come to find out its a health place, so i thought, oh man great..... its gonna be nasty, but it was actually pretty good, haha and we got our body composition, and the paper told me i was fat! haha it gave us our body fat percentage, which i shall not reveal at this time haha and then classified us. so because of that I'm trying to eat better haha, dang it oh well SPAM lite is still good right?... haha. So now we are all trying to be nutritious, which is lame! But its not too bad though i guess. haha Dad you remember BUFF MAMA? hahahaha. ah man i still can't believe i did that with you and Cait. Oh and you know the funny part too? A couple of the missionaries did the master cleanse workout. it was wierd kus i remember when you did it. but well anyways. We got an appointment to head out too, so I will talk to you guys more next week. love you guys! ADIOS muchachitos!
Your nutrious pious islandous mexican missionary,
Elder Thomas
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