No need for fancy words...just love

Hey Family!

So It was good talking with you on christmas. Pretty fun stuff. Sounds like a lot of good stuff is happening out there in hawaii. Things here in Cali are going way good. It was fun this morning we got to help a sister out with her back yard. man one of nicest yards i have ever seen! i mean looked like the magazines haha. her name is carmen and we are teaching her the lessons and sharing the message with her. she is a super nice lady i love that sister. so we got to cut some trees and make some borders for the garden and take some ferns out. i took some pictures. before and after pictures. it's sweet to see the difference. man we should show how good we work for free haha. we are going to go back and help somemore next week. But i forgot to tell you the story how we got to talk with her again. Well it was kinda the same deal with the other family and so it was hard to get a hold of her and set a time to come back. but we went to carol to her and she loved it. she told us to come back that wednesday and it was a super good visit. she told us how we were the only ones who sticked through the hard times with her and how she feels close to us and just feels different when we come over and we have only been there twice no joke! so it's not even that much. but she took our hands and looked us in the eyes and told us that and thanked us. it made me realize how simple God's work is. so simple it passes over our heads if we don't pay attention. God doesnt require fancy words for us to speak or huge acts of service. he requires us to love and if we love our brothers and sisters we just talk to them, love um, visit them and offer to help and the spirit is what makes those acts powerful. it's kind of like the story in the Book of Mormon with Ammon. how he just served the king and then did more. my companion and me were talking last night just how so many people are having hard times and getting mistreated. taking their hope away and leaving them with sadness and worry but i realized you know what? true love fixes everything. we can be the people to love them and help them because we know God's plan and that he still loves um and we can give them a reason to hope. that's the good stuff! i love being on my mission and learning that but i know i don't have to be a missionary to do it.

But funny thing going back to carmen, she asked what can she do for us and we told her well listen to the message haha and she told us oh yeah i have plenty time for you guys... so that was sweet! it's going to bless her so much we are pretty stoked.

Funny story.. so we were biking to an appointment and we were kinda late and i waved to this one guy and he asked a question about if their was a bike shop or something nearby. i don't know but we pulled over and started talking to him and he asked hey so you all just talk to everyone and we were like yup... then he asked well why were you going to not talk to me haha. so it was kinda funny he was getting on us for almost passing by him. good thing we stopped...

Ok well i got to go, but have a good week!

LOVE you guys
Elder Gidiyaon..haha
Elder Thomas

Scary...but nice

Hey whats up family,

We had a way good week.. a ton of stuff happened but haha i can't remember right now what it was.. my bad! Just know it was really good.. oh We did meet with a family and for the first time we talked with the dad because he was in Mexico for a few weeks and so we didn't meet him until this week. It was crazy too becuase he walked in and he looked pretty tough and angry too. so we were like oh man... but we talked with him and he sat in. it turned out good. i mean he's a nice guy. well they are a nice family. But that night we taught the plan of salvation and it was way good. it seems like a long time since that lesson, hopefully i didn't tell you this before. if i did..then my bad but it's a really good one anyways. so we started to talk about the atonement and invited them to be baptized this month. but i mean the spirit was super strong. you knew that it wasn't us asking but God and i know they felt that... because they were quiet! i mean not one noise. not even a no... and this family is a strong catholic family but they felt the spirit that they couldn't deny it and say no. it was a really good experience. the crazy thing too is that their kids listen in too but they don't know a ton of spanish so it's kinda hard for them to understand. but after we asked them to be baptized in spanish they knew it was a question and so they asked us to say it in english and when we said it in english one of the kids said yeah i would be baptized. so one of the kids wants to be baptized! it was cool. only thing is he is moving up to Fresno this week so we are gonna send the missionaries up there for them to visit with him. so we are stoked for that!

Oh we also went and stopped by this one kid that we are teaching. He's only like 15 but super cool. well after two weeks of losing contact with him, we stopped by again and talking a little bit more about the restoration and it went really good. we ended up inviting him to be baptized december 31 and he said yeah. so right now we are just helping him continue to read and pray and also come to church. we are trying to talk to his parents. but no such luck right now they are always at work. but we keep praying for an opportunity. so it will come. So far things are going good. really good. It's super cool especially right now because we go around sharing christmas messages, inviting people to remember the real reason for the holiday and inviting them to learn more about Christ. Its pretty sweet.

Anyways i'm doing really good. gotta get back to work. so i'll talk to you next week.

love you guys!
Elder Thomas

The Flying Calendar

Hey whats up family,

Hope thanksgiving was good. it was pretty sweet here. we got invited to this one members house to go eat dinner there and it was some good stuff! there were these one stuffed mushroom things.. oh bradduh those things were crazy good! it was nice to have mashed potatoes too, haha i haven't had that in a long long time. so things are going way good right now. we got tons of appointments this week. it's gonna be sweet!! i got to tell you about some stuff that happened yesterday. Well we got to teach this one girl, she is 16 but is super open to the message. we stopped by yesterday and we shared our testimonies and why we're here being missionaries and we left her with a Book of Mormon and we are gonna come back tomorrow and teach the restoration. She is way nice and picks up things from the spirit real quick which is cool. so theres alot of potential right there. But ok this story is the sickest one ever. most coolest miracle. so last night we planned to go see this one less active guy named fernando and we didn't know him or anything, we just decided we would try and pass by and invite him to learn again and come back to church. so we find the house and were walking up to it when he opens the door and comes outside and just welcomes us in. It was a blessing because this past week for some reason we were just not able to get in many houses and so we go inside and he just told us that we couldn't have come at a more perfect time and he was just asking who sent us. but really no one sent us. we just wanted to go and stop by and see him and so it really was God. s o we told um God sent us and he was just super thankful we passed by. before we started anything or even talking he just asked if he could say the prayer and he just really needed that visit because he hasn't been to church in years and hasn't even heard the gospel in years, no visits nothing...and he just has been having a hard time too because he drinks and that just has been killing him inside and he feels really bad. but this guy is just ready and so we had a lesson with him and it went way way way good. So we left him a chapter to read and we set up another appointment for this friday. so we are excited to help him come back to church and the whole 100 yards baby.

Oh and its crazy its almost december! november flew by way too quick and i was tired of seeing how much time was flying by so i threw away the calendar haha. that way i don't know what day it is or anything and when its time for home. it will just pop out of no where. so that's my plan. Because everyone i talk to is like oh wow well elder your almost done... so i'm just gonna stay in denial haha. wait ah i forgot what i was gonna say. oh so for december we have a christmas activity in our ward. it's gonna be a dinner kinda thing, but we wanted it to be more missionary work kus thats really what the activities are for. so one of the sisters came out with a sweet idea of having a church tour, and with each room have one of the groups like young women or young men, priesthood all of those groups share a presentation of a part of the life of Jesus Christ, so it is gonna be really good. i'm stoked. so right now we are trying to set it all up and everything and get a lot of people there too so the activity can be good.

Let's see what else is happening...well nothing much. everything is going pretty good here. trying to invite more and more people to Christ. it's really cool. man i'm just glad i'm here. hope everything is going good there in hawaii. oh and eat some hawaiian food for me! i miss that heavenly stuff. But there is this one place called big kahunas that just moved down here in our area and we got cupons for it so i'll see if it lives up to the real stuff. i hope so! well love you guys alot...

Love,
Elder Thomas

Your prayers will be answered

Hey family!

Yeah sorry for the late email, we went to go play soccer earlier with a couple latino guys. it was way sweet. good intense game.. but now i don't have a lot of time to email. Anyways, things are going way good. we have been walking every where though. by the end of the day my legs are dead sore haha so hopefully i'm getting rid of these chicken legs i got over here. but we got a call from the bike shop and we are finally gonna get my companion's bike back today. so it'll be a lot easier to move around. oh, so i'll just tell you some sweet stories that happened this past week. we were trying super hard to get some work happening and having someone progress and do things but it seemed like it just wasn't happening. This past sunday night we were out working and it was heavy raining. so we go to this one appointment and they ditched out on it and weren't there and we were just like.. tired of it all, so we just decided to pray and ask for help and for someone to just listen to us. Right after we prayed we turned around and knocked the door that was right next to our appointment and this guy comes and answers the door and says oh man you guys are out working in the rain, your message must be good, so i'll listen to what you have to say... and man that was crazy! Pretty cool miracle, answer to the prayer and we went in and taught the restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he has been to every religion looking for one and hasn't found one yet but he hasn't tried the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints baby. so he is solid. he's gonna go this sunday but in english because he doesn't know a lick of Spanish so we passed him off to the other elders.

Well i gotta go but that's a little quick story to let you know how i'm doing..which is way way good and happy. hope you guys are too. Happy thanksgiving!

love you guys

Elder Thomas

No wimpy rain can stop God's work!

Hey whats up family!

So last week was transfers but my companion and me stayed together so it's pretty sweet. but we arent in san ysidro anymore. we are up here in Imperial beach. haha you know me. always gotta be close to the water. so i'm pretty stoked to be here. It's a way nice place and we work close to the church building and our apartment which is way nice. So this past week we were pretty much trying to get a hold of all the people the sisters were visiting before we got here, and yesterday oh bradduh it was a sweet day!!

We had zone conference yesterday and President Clayton talked to us and at first i was like man i just want to work rather then go to a meeting, but it was the bomb. President Clayton he is the man! I learned some good stuff and i feel like i'm on fire, haha it's pretty crazy. He talked alot about finding and how to go out there and find people who can help build up God's kingdom and he told us to think of the area and our converts and stuff... how it will be in 40 years. It made me think about us when we got baptized. kus i mean who woulda known from the missionaries coming over to our house and sharing the message that i would be here right now having the time of my life. it's crazy, i was praying last night and i couldn't stop thanking Heavenly Father. kus i feel like he is blessing us ridiculously alot. haha its like the scriptures when it says my cup is overfilling or something like that. I mean yesterday was the bomb, ah well just right now its the bomb. God's work.. just tearing it up right now. So after the meeting yesterday we went outside and we were waiting for our ride back home and we were just chilling outside by the car still stoked to go out and work and we seen this lady working on her yard and she was this old lady. so we were like eh let's go help her and teach her the gospel haha. So we ran cross the street haha and started talking with her. she didn't even let us help which was lame! but we talked about our message and she said she was busy but we could come back another time. so woo! that's at least some potential right there. and oh cool story last night.

ok so i think i told you about it but back in the day we seen this one guy watering his lawn and so we stopped by and contacted him. it was a pretty lame contact. but we gave it to the sisters anyway kus it was in their area and well now its in our area! so we went over last night at 8, so kinda late and they said they were going to go to bed right then, but watch the skills right here - my companion asked to use the bathroom haha kus he had to go. so we went in and i started talking to them while he used the bathroom. yeah baby! and we started talking and we talked about the Book of Mormon and they were super interested about it and said they want to come to church this week!!!! one more on the miracle list. but it was cool kus you knew God was in that house helping them feel the spirit. oh and they invited us to thanksgiving with them! that family is just golden. we're stoked to teach them. they are gonna be blessed a ton! so yeah cool story

Oh and this past saturday it poured all day. and we were walking in the rain everywhere. the streets were like rivers of water it was pretty cool. we got so soaked that we just gave up trying to keep dry and just started walking through puddles and everything. we were pretty much the only guys on the street. but we went and saw this one guy tony and he came outside and had this confused face when he saw us haha and said what are you doing? and we just told him sharing the gospel like every other day. it was funny kus he thought we were crazy. but eh... God's work don't stop in no wimpy rain. so we got to meet a couple people but no one let us in so we had to just teach at the door step. i think we should just carry a fold up chair with us so we can sit down at the doorstep and teach. it was a nice day though with the rain, closest i can get to swimming right? haha. anyways the work is awesome we are seeing so many miracles it's intense. it's better then breathing i promise. like it just feels so i can't even describe it. i just know i love it alot. So everything is going way way way good here. hope everything is good back home and that you sold the kamehame house too.

I love you guys and miss you alot!

Love

Elder Thomas

sacrifices

Hey family,

So i just got a call from President Clayton, and he told me about what happened back home about Grandpa. Man that was just out of nowhere and it was sad. but thanks Dad for i guess what you told him to say. You know, to me that's just more of a testimony to me that the Gospel is true. psh. there's more to life than just this, and knowing that helps me a lot, just gives me peace. That just makes me want to share this message even more.

Oh by the way the work is going good. we didn't have any appointments set up for yesterday, but we worked our butts off, talked to everyone we could and tried to share the gospel to everyone. man when we got home, we just knocked out because we were so tired. it felt good. it's just nice to be able to work for God. i love it, i remember when i first came out i was kinda scared, i don't\ know why, about saying i'm a representive of Jesus Christ, i guess because i never really felt that good to be one. but now i get it and i'm just trying my hardest to hit my dream and that's a servant of the Lord and it feels good. well, it feels better then good. i dont know, i think there isn't a good enough word to describe it. Yesterday one of the street contacts we made, it was this lady and her fiance, they were American and asked us if we could help them out with something and of course we did and they were just way thankful and we told them about our message. they don't live here but they will be here until tonight so we are going to stop by and give them a Book of Mormon, and it was just a cool blessing. something that stuck out to me this past week is that sacrifices brings blessings. we should face sacrifice with courage and with faith knowing that we will be better for the sacrifices we make.

We have been trying really hard and making sacrifices, not big ones i mean it's not a big deal. but we just keep trying and pushing and it's crazy to see all the blessings we get. to me they are huge blessings. This past tuesday we went to stop by an appointment and she wasn't there but her sister was. and it was actually her that we wanted to talk to in the first place. and so we went in and started talking and it went well. she has her own beliefs and doesn't want to change religion or go to church and we were kinda bummed but we kept going kus she said she was willing to listen so we keep talking and at one part we just asked towards the end. hey can we help you with your house.(kus she had some stuff to do in it like cut trees.) and she just looks at us and starts balling.i mean she started crying hard core. she told us that no one ever asks her if she needs help. come to find out she has been praying for help because shes having a hard time. shes always working and is just super busy. and she does everything by herself pretty much and so she was touched by us wanting to help and we are going over tomorrow and teach her afterwards baby! so it'll be good. crazy how some times people have no help. man it's crazy we are all brothers and sisters anyways we gotta help each other out. we gotta spread the love and help each other. i think it would make this place alot better.

well family i love you guys alot sorry i have to write my letter to president before time stops. Have a good week.hope everything goes well with grandpa's funeral. il be praying.

Love Elder Thomas

Doing the 180

Whats up Family!

So this week was way good. it started off pretty tough but we had some cool stuff happen this week. First story. you might want to brace yourself for this one haha. Ok, so the bishop in the english ward gave us this referal to go visit. it was an older couple and we stoped by once but didn't get a chance to go in and teach.. but we decided to stop by again this past saturday and she answered the door and she told us that she wasn't interested and kept going to say that she is studying with the catholic and her husband doesn't want us to come over and just all this stuff how she doesn't want to listen.. and you'd think that we would take a hint and leave. but i don't know. i felt like we should stay and just share with her more and talk about the book of mormon and how Jesus Christ came to America and just our special message. and not joking or trying to be corny or anything. but the spirit was so strong in there, even she felt it and completely changed her. she told us that she has never heard that before and how it was just blowing her mind. so she said she is going to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. She started asking us about church and when it starts and where it is without even talking to her about that. it was pretty cool, and then afterwards she couldn't stop saying thank you. I thought that was a pretty crazy story. pretty sweet how the spirit can turn it around 180. it was pretty much a miracle. at the beginning she was happy with where she was at and didn't want to know anything else. but at the end she was committed to read the Book of Mormon. And afterwards we were talking about how sweet that was. and man if we didn't listen to the spirit and keep talking she would have never known and would have just kept on going like nothing happened, and we could have missed out on a cool experience.

Oh then just yesterday we were riding bike to an appointment when we passed by this one guy on the street. my companion was in front and i was following and we got to the intersection when i felt like i should turn back and talk to the guy. so i did but my companion couldn't hear me and so he kept going. so i pretty much had to talk to the guy by myself. but he was a super nice guy. not really religious but he was open to us coming over and talking more about our message of Jesus Christ and so i was stoked. pretty cool contact. Oh man funny story... so this past sunday we had two dinner apointments back to back. The first one we had was super good food. so i ate choke and i was super full. not too good of an idea though because in an hour we ate again and they loaded our plates. me and my companion were jsut looking at each other wondering how we were going to do it. he was smart haha kus he put it in the container when they weren't looking so he got away with it and just went to go sit on the couch, but then i couldn't do the same thing. i musta been there for an hour i think trying to down that food. i made a good attempt. close but no cigar, but oh man i could not even move after that. but the good thing was we taught them a lesson so i could recover. haha

Anyways, we have been talking to alot of people walking on the street and its been pretty good. we are finding a ton of more people to teach so we are getting more and more work. its funny too because sometimes you run into people and come to find out they are actually members but they either just moved here and don't know where the church is or they are less active. pretty small world. we ran into a guy the other day and he started calling us hermanos! he told us he was a member and gave us his address so we could visit him. any ways lets see what else happened this week.

oh we had a halloween party here at church this past week and all the missionaries in the ward decorated a room. it was the bomb and we carved pumpkins which turned out pretty sweet too. oh but what was funny was. afterwards we went to go get a california burrito at this taco shop and my companion started talking to this cashier.. his spanish is good but he's still learning and so he asked her if she had any plans that night for halloween, but it sounded like he was asking her out in spanish it was hilarious. i just started laughing and she just tried avoiding us after that. pretty funny stuff.

Ok well family love you alot i gotta go but have a good week!

Love

Elder Thomas