Elder Sean "Santa Marina" Thomas

Hey - What's up everyone?!

Hope you guys are doing good and having some fun!

This week has been pretty slow, not a lot of things happened for us. It was pretty tough. We keep trying to visit all these people, but is has been hard because a lot of people are busy and so we have had days where everything fell through and then we are just like standing there wondering what to do. Oh, but it was way good because yesterday we had a meeting with President Donaldson and so he taught us a lot of stuff that I forgot already. Haha, good thing I wrote it down somewhere. But it was sweet because he talked a lot about the mormon.org website, because it is suppose to be way sweet. We are suppose to encourage the members to go and visit it and everything and then they picked a profile to show us. The profile was of Joy Monahan, and so we watched the video. I had already seen it before but this time with sound, so it was better, haha. This time I wasn't just watching the waves and the surfing part, haha. So we watched that and then President Donaldson told us that he wanted us to call ourselves Mormon missionaries, and so we were like, alright, you have the revelation to tell us what we should do. So after that we go and contact some people, and so the first person we see, we say, "Oh hey - what's up! We are Mormon missionaries." That was a rough sketch but right after we said that, he was like, "no, I am good, I am Catholic and yeah...bye." and then he just left. I was like, alright, have a good day and we kept trying and the same thing kept happening. Haha, it was pretty funny. But, ahhh, what can you do? So I think that we will just keep trying and get some more laughs in haha...jeez.

So earlier this week we had a dinner with a member at McDonalds, haha. We were just eating and talking and then somehow it turned into them giving all of us nicknames. It was pretty funny and so they called me Santamarina. At first I thought they called me Santa Maria, as in Mother Mary, that's the translation. So I was like, wait...what? That doesn't make any sense. But they said it again and they said it is an actor whose name is Eduardo Santa Marina or something like that and he acts in Spanish Novelas. Like the ones in Korean we used to watch (you remember that Mom? haha). They showed me a picture and I thought, that's weird, because I guess it kinda does look like me. I don't know, you should check it out (see picture at upper left). I thought it was way funny.

So there is one kinda funny story. Oh, but we learned something cool yesterday in John 21:15-17. When Jesus asks if Peter loves him three times. President Donaldson said that there are three different words for the word "love" in Hebrew that means some kind of love. The first is unselfish and consecrated love...

(email from Elder Sean "Santa Marina" Thomas unceremoniously and unexpectedly ended)

From Barrio to Bountiful

What's up!?

How's everyone doing?

So yup, now I am in Linda Vista, San Diego. It's up north from Barrio Logan and is pretty close to the Temple in La Jolla. It's also close to a place called Pacific Beach. It's really nice over there. Super nice area. It's a lot different from the Barrio. Jeez, there aren't any dark alleys or sketchy places, I felt weird at first but it's good. So yeah, well the thing about Linda Vista though is that there isn't a lot to do or that's what people say because they don't teach a lot and they haven't had any baptisms for awhile. Not saying that's all that matters, but yeah that's just how it is.

So the first couple of days we really didn't do anything or at least that's how it felt. So it was way boring, so shoot! But that all changed yesterday. So yesterday we planned for tracting for 2 hours! I was thinking - oh man, this is going to be a long day. But I tried to be positive and to make the most out of it. So we started knocking on doors and then the next thing we know, after like an hour we found 9 people with dates to come back and talk more. It was awesome! We talked to so many people it felt way good!

Later that night, we went to go visit a brother, his name is Eliseo, he is a nice guy. Eliseo isn't a member but his wife is a member and she was baptized in 2003, one year after us, so he has been exposed to the Church for 7 years. He still feels like he hasn't received an answer if these things are true and if whether getting baptized is what he needs to do. So I shared an experience with him that I had about reading the Book of Mormon. Because I felt the same way he did and I had doubts about things because I didn't understand it. I don't know if I ever talked about it before, probably not. But I remember just really wanting to know and so I grabbed my Book of Mormon and started reading and I couldn't stop. I remember reading every single second that I had and I read it and read it and it felt so good. After I finished I did the promise in Moroni and it just came to me then and I knew that it was true and I also felt it in my heart. So I just shared that with Eliseo and encouraged him to read Moroni in the Book of Mormon. So maybe that will help him find what he is looking for.

Oh, but let's see...funny story before I head out. Shoot not enough time left, but uhmmmm, ok I can't think of anything. I will tell you next week. How's that huh?! Okay, well, hope everthing is going well over there and that you guys are having a good time and everything. Miss you guys!

Love yah!! Elder Thomas

So are you sure you got the right guy?!?

Hey!

Okay, yeah I am sorry that I didn't get to write last week, but that's because Mom was at her computer, so I was able to exchange emails back and forth to kind of "talk" to her. I like it a lot better because then I am actually writing to someone and then they respond, haha. Especially because sometimes I don't know what to write. There tons of stuff hapenning but I always forget when it comes to write. I seriously don't even know what happened on Saturday, it's all just a huge blur.

So transfers are upon us again and I am getting out of the ghetto man!!! It's pretty funny though because, well...we had a meeting with President Donaldson this past week, just me and my companion. My companion, Elder Olberg, was feeling really down and out and he just has a hard time because he doesn't talk a lot and gets down on himself for that. What ends up happening pretty much throughout the whole day, is me just trying to cheer him up and help him feel better about himself and how he is doing. It is really hard and so I felt that it would be better if President Donaldson could talk to him and help him. We made an appointment to see President Donaldson and he was able to talk to Elder Olberg. Afterwards, President Donaldson wanted to talk to me alone and then he told me that I was getting transferred! I was kinda mad, ah man, I was actually pretty disappointed and angry, because everything is starting to come together in our Ward and was looking really good, the members are helping out a ton with the work after a lot of effort to motivate them and we had so many other ideas that we were planning to try out. Our investigators were progressing and we also found a lot of new investigators.

So, needless to say I wasn't happy and was actually kind of frustrated. I just sat there and asked President Donaldson why? haha. President Donaldson just laughed at me. He knew I was mad, and then on top of that he told me that there is a possibility that I am going to be a district leader...?!? Oh man, that's when I started freaking out. I came back to our home and I had to calm myself down by just thinking about surfing to relax me, haha. So I was kinda just in a daze. I don't even know, I was thinkin like shoots man, I have a hard time just trying to be a good missionary and now I gotta be an example for others? Me? Ahhh, but after awhile it became alright. I resigned meyself to put it in the Lord's hands and I know that He can and will help me. I figured that I just got to be myself and try my hardest, and so we will see what happens.

I believe that I am going to be transferred to Chula Vista. Apparently, the work is really slow there and there aren't a lot of members, nor are there a lot of Spanish speakers. So we shall see what happens over there. But hey, it's right next to the beach! haha...um nah, but we will live right across the street from the mission office, so that will be sweet. I can receive my letters on Tuesday morning for the first time on my mission. Here in the ghetto it's bad. They don't bring our letter until Wednesday sometimes. But actually for me it doesn't really bother me.

Oh shoot! Well, we have to get going already. We have two sweet appointments planned for tonight so I hope it all goes well. Last time here so we have to make it count.

I miss you all and I love you. Thanks for everything that you do. Thanks for the packages and the sweet hook ups and the letters and everything! Hope everyone has a good week!

Love, Elder Thomas

It is now Team Hawaii/Canada!

Buenas!

So another week has gone by. This week really went by so fast. It was the last week for Elder Morales' mission. We actually drove him to the Airport on Saturday morning. It was really wierd that whole Saturday, my companion, Elder Olberg, and I felt like it was a dream and that we were gonna wake up at any time and come to the realization that none of this really happened, I guess because Elder Morales was our Salvation. I know, that sounds quite drastic and dramatic, but it's true because he was a native speaker and our lifesaver. Whenever we didn't understand something that was being said in Spanish we turned to him. But now we have no one to turn to and ask "wait what did they just say?" haha. I have a couple of funny stories about that.

Oh, but jeez, i almost forgot. The night before Elder Morales left we had a baptism of an 8 year old boy from this family that we visit and talk to often. His name is Steve. It was pretty awesome. The baptism went alright. But just a little back ground, the mom of Steve is the only member of the Church out of her siblings. She has 5 sisters and they all came with their families to the baptism. Come to find out at the baptism, I was assigned to give my testimony and so when I found out about it, I was thinking, okay, I can do that. But when it came for me to give my talk, for some reason I just didnt know what to say and I found myself stumbling over my words and everything... oh, it was so bad. I don't know why I am talking about this, haha, I should be talking about all the good stuff we did so I look a little bit better as a missionary to all those who are reading this right now... ah, oh well. So it didn't go very well while I was up there and actually the Mom came up after me and saved me and gave her testimony and it was really nice. So good thing that happened. Ahh, I was way sad about how poorly I felt I did, I don't know why I let it bother me so much. I think it was just the fact that I tried so hard to do my best and then that happened. I think too that because I have to be senior companion after Elder Morales was leaving, I think it was just that I let the pressure of all of the responsibility get to me. But after Elder Morales left, I began to think that things are always going to come at us and hit us hard and try to knock us down so that we can't get back up again. All I kept thinking about was that although I felt I haven't become any better as a teacher and all that junk, I can't just give up. It means I gotta try even harder. I mean we will always come upon hard times. Always. Because of those hard times, we can go up easily and come back down even more easily just like a roller coaster. But whenever I have the tough times like that, I always think about Jesus Christ and how he has felt everything we have felt and has suffered all of that, and way more, not only for me, but for everybody, then now and in the future and overcome all of that. I always feel strong when I follow what our Savior asks of me because I know that He is helping me. It give me great comfort and is pretty sweet.

Well that's enough of all of that, I need to get something funny and a little sunshine in here. So this Sunday at Church we got a call from our investigators and when I answered it I thought they said that they were waiting outside of the church and asked if we could come to bring them in so we walked outside but there was nobody there. hahaha and I felt so embarassed because I knew I must have misunderstood them haha. So I called them back and asked where they were and it turned out they were at their house and that they needed a ride. Everyone got a good laugh in, especially them, so that was good, at least they weren't mad, haha. But yeah, a lot of people ask us whether we know Spanish and everything, so I tell them that I am from Hawaii and that no, I don't know Hawaiian but i can dance the hula. It's usually at that point when they all start to laugh. I guess people don't think I am a good hula dancer... I am not sure, but it's all good.

Well, shoot I need to leave already. The time flew by fast. I love you all and hope everything is going well and that everyone is happy and having fun.

Love,

Elder Thomas

The Last of the Three Mariachis

Hey Alright!

A ton of things are happening over here. This week is the last week for Elder Morales and then he goes home. He lives in Provo, so i kind of feel bad for him, leaving paradise to... um yeah... Provo. Nah! Provo is fun and nice too. He's leaving early in the transfer because he has to start up school. After this Saturday it will be only me and Elder Olberg haha back to the normal two companion thing. It will still be good fun. But because he is leaving, we were all going to go the temple today. It's gonna be my first time to go to the Temple in San Diego. Finally! After what, 5 months? haha, man i feel bad about that. Ahhh...i am just looking so forward to feeling that peace and serenity and to just sit down and relax and contemplate for a little bit. I love the Temple. It's different too kus before, in the MTC, we would go every week. It was way nice and now its been 5 months since we were able to go to the Temple, so it'll be so good. I will try take some pictures but i not gonna promise anything, haha.

Uhm lets see... what else do we got this week? Oh we have 3 baptisms! One is a 8 year old kid named Steven and the other two are this Husband and wife who are pretty old. We found them because a member invited them to church and well we got introduced to them and so we started talking with them and after the first lesson we gave them a chapter to read about baptism and they read it and couldnt stop reading. It was pretty much a miracle. It's awesome, we actually committed them to baptism and they didn't feel ready but after reading they called us and said they want to get baptized. Their names are Luisa and Gustino. So they are all getting Baptised this Friday. I will take pictures of that guarantee! We are way excited!

Other news about Pablo kus i gotta tell you guys what happened with him. So he has a ton of questions each time we come and it's so hard because he has never learned these things before and it just doesn't make sense to him, it's not because he is stupid or anything but it's just different for him. He is a really nice guy. Dad - it's hilarious how much he is like you. Every time we go to his house I observe how he teaches his kids and everything. It's the exact same way like you do it Dad, i swear it's pretty scary. We have been trying to find a friend, someone who can just be nice to him and show him around the church and fellowship with him. But it's hard because we know a lot of the members and they don't have the patience to work with him or know what to say to him. We just still don't know who would fit in that role. That's why i wish you were here dad. But anyways he came to church but I think that it was a bad experience for him. In sunday school they were talking about the Plan of Salvation. and they started going way too deep. They started talking about the War in Heaven and the third part of Heaven was sent down. AHHH me and my companions were just like - you got to be kidding. So I could see Pablo was just sitting there and he started to ask some questions because he didn't understand. There was this other lady there as well who started bashing and bashing, saying where is this in the bible? kus she wasn't a member either. What happened was people in the church started arguing and everything and so Pablo just felt way bad and didn't really like church at all. Then after that we had a Family Home Evening with the church and invited him and we told all the members just to be his friend and to be really careful. But the same thing happened. We got into the same dispute as in Sunday school. It was horrible. Pablo was really sad and FHE started at 5 until 8 and we were going to leave but we couldn't because he didn't feel good at all. But he likes us a lot and we are good friends. So after FHE we went out for pizza and went to go and talk in the park. We talked and talked and we told him why we were on our missions and we talked to him about all this stuff and the plan of salvation again. After we talked about all of that he turned to us and looked at each of us and said.. " you guys really believe this stuff." We told him yes we do, and then he said, "well you know what if you guys do i think i can too.'"

I know it's not good that he puts his faith in us. Because really he should know that its true from God and the Holy Spirit but we also know that this knowledge comes in steps. It was just a strong testimony to me that we are nothing, for real, we are nothing without charity without that pure love. I also believe that before anything, we need to show love and to be entirely sincere and try to be nice to others and everything else will fall together in it's place. we are grateful that Pablo is progressing and we gave him all the pamphlets and everything to read ,haha so it should be good and we shall see what happens next.

Miss you guys and I love you guys a lot!

Love, Elder Thomas

The Three Mariachis

Alright! Hows everyone doing? Things are going way good here. Today we had Zone Conference where all the missionaries in the Zone meet together and then the missionary president talks to us and teaches us a ton of stuff. It's always really good and way crazy because there is a bunch of stuff that we learn. All of it is focused on how we can become better missionaries and improve our talents or lack there of. haha just kidding.

So I don't know if i can write everything that has been happening to us because there has been a lot. I guess i will just explain the one big thought that is on my mind right now. I t's about Pablo. So we have been going over there alot lately, practically every day. He loves us for some reason, we don't really talk that much just cause we are all pretty shy, and yeah I don't know but he calls us everyday to see if we are coming over and actually he found out that we have our P days on tuesday, so he was like ok you guys are coming with me and we will just cruise all day haha, so we did and we played Frisbee golf with him and his two kids MIke and Nico. He has 3 other kids too, Amor, Dulce and Daniel, all really nice kids. It was really fun and that's the reason why we didn't email yesterday, sorry. Oh and another thing he feeds us every single time too. Oh man it's ridiculous. Some nights we have 2 huge meals, when i say huge its like bambucha! Becuase everyone just likes to feed us, so dad i think you gonna have some competition with whoever has the biggest keg when i come back home. So yeah that's Pablo. But teaching him is a whole different thing, it is hard. He goes all over the place, sometimes he will have questions and try to explain himself through giving examples and by the time he stops talking it has been 30 minutes and so it is hard to follow him, well that's what my companions say. It's different for me though, its kinda funny. I think at least my family and some know how i think, Dad you are probably laughing right now. But Pablo thinks the same way its weird. But basically with him he has his own views and he is really headstrong in his beliefs kind of like grandpa. He doesnt really believe in tithing or the word of wisdom and he has his doubts about the Book of Mormon at the same time. But one thing he has said is that he wants to follow Jesus Christ but he just hasn't made the decision and i really think he hasn't yet because he has fear that he will fall. I mean that's normal, heck i do that a lot. But everytime i hear that, bam a red flag comes in my head, saying no don't think like that. And i always remember what Dad said " you don't go into something thinking your going to lose, because if you do, you will." For some reason that hits me hard. Props to you dad ha. But it's true and it goes to the principles of Hope and Faith. You have a hope that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ you can change, and you can be a disciple of Christ if you desire to be one but of course it's hard, there is going to be challenges but through the Help and power of Christ we have Faith that we can overcome this and that when we put ourselves to doing it and trying to change, we know not because we have seen the Lord help us, and we believe he will. That's what always comes to mind and we try to tell him that, but he's just having a difficult time. We have something planned tonight and we will see how it goes and i will write about it in the letters i send out kus i still havent written.

The thing with Pablo too he has told us that he was in bad shape, two weeks ago. Three weeks ago he didn't really do anything because his back causes him alot of pain, he hurt it a while ago and hasn't been to work in a year and he has been really depressed, But now he has been doing a lot better. Not trying to say that we did something or that it was us, but the Lord provides ways that our brothers and our sisters and our family can have the strentgh of the Gospel. I remember the talk by uncle Dayle, nothing is a coincidence and it is true.

Cool story about no coincidence. One day this week, we came out of this members house and we saw this guy and his family in the street and the man was looking at us and pointing at us, showing us to his family and he was like "oh look it's the Elders" and us we were like, what the... how do you know who we are? and he started asking all these questions, we didn't do anything he was just so curious and interested. One thing he asked was wait you have water as the sacrament instead of wine... we said "you bet we do mister" haha and he got so excited, everytime we said something new to him he was so surprised and excited it was fun. Heck i even got excited, i was like we even wear shirt and tie in the church. I just wanted to jump and cheer or something it was just way funny. So he is going to come to church this Sunday and he promised in the name of God that he would read the Book of Mormon. There has just been a lot of miracles happening its great.

Just one more thing. Being a missionary, we have been focusing a lot with members, because without members there isn't anything and it's not just people to come out with us and teach sometimes but to be a real friend because they really need it. Just the people we have taught i just wish i could be their friend and help them with anything but i can't all the time and i know whoever is reading this. That there are people that need your friendship but more importantly they need your friendship in the church, being with them in Church and helping them to make the changes and everything. If you could also please pray for our investigators, that they can have the hope and strength and faith to keep going. Thanks! and I pray for you guys too.

I hope everything is going well, I love yah all!

Thanks again,

Love Elder thomas

Ah...the good times

Hey! How's everyone doing?

Hope everything is going good, because it is way sweet here. So much good stuff has happened this past week. So Sunday was pretty much the best day so far during the whole mission. It was as if constant miracles were happening left and right and up and down and sideways. From everywhere as well, some from utah even. haha. I'll explain that one later. So, I will start off with Saturday. Heres the story....

So it all started on Saturday at approximately 8:01 in the evening time Saturday night. We had this one referral that some other missionaries gave to us. His name is Pablo and they contacted him on the street and they said he was interested about learning more, so we thought, what the heck, let's go and see if we can teach him some more. At first, we all thought - well whatever, this is probably gonna be bad, because a lot of the times the referrals aren't even that good. It usually turns out that the people aren't even interested. But this time it turned out to be different!

But before I say what happened I gotta explain some thing that we have been trained on and were taught out here in the field. President Donaldson has been stressing to us a lot about asking inspired questions and just teaching from that method. I don't know, I just doubted that technique sometimes especially for me, when it has something to do with teaching, I mean I guess my ability has gotten a lot better though, I don't get down on myself like I did before. But still I didn't think I could ever be like one of those amazing missionaries who just blow the people away. So there... that's the background for the story. Anyways, we were walking to the appointment and Elder Morales turns to me and says ok you got it, its all you, you can teach everything. And I was thinking, wow... I don't know... but I really didn't mind. I just felt a little pressure. Anyways, we met Pablo and I was thinking ok, what am I going to say? So I just asked him a question and he was just like, wow that's a good question and he thought for a while and he just started going off. He started talking about what he thought about religion and his experiences with his church and everything. Basically, he said he didn't like his church because he felt they were all hypocrites and that the pastors and all the teachers weren't humble and that they would just talk but didn't do, and so he was tired of all that junk and he just wanted to have a closer relationship with God. A personal one.

When he was talking, I was like are you kidding me, are you serious? I couldn't believe all the stuff that happened to him and how everything felt right at that moment in time to be sharing our message with him. Because it felt like he was ready to hear our message and he was somehow prepared for us to come and visit him at this very point in his life. It turned out to be a really good lesson. We listened to him and just started to get to know him as a person and we also talked to him about what we teach and what our message is and what we like to share. He liked it a lot, and he said he respected us a lot and what we did as well. We were just ashocked (yes Mom I know its not a word but it fits good in the sentence) and amazed. So we invited him to go to church the next day, it was a pretty soft invitation, plus he already knew that it was for 3 hours. Oh another thing too - his best friend, he calls him his Dad, Aristeo, is a less active member for years. Apparently, Aristeo has a lot of problems, at least that's what my companions told me. But Aristeo was there too throughout the entire lesson. Pablo told us that if Aristeo woke him up he would go to church. That didn't sound like a very definite response, so we thought that Pablo might end up not going. Oh and another issue, during the lesson Pablo smoked about 4 cigarettes. But that's ok, our next lesson will be the word of wisdom with him and I think it will go well.

Anyways, the next morning we went over to go see Aristeo and Pablo at their house before church to make sure Pablo was coming along with Aristeo. But he didn't answer the door and we were disappointed and just went to church. No one came to the Priesthood meeting either. Then we went to Sunday School. It was packed! So much people came, there wasn't enough seats and we needed to go grab more seats even.

Ok, quick break from the story. We just got mail. Thank you all for the boxes and food and letters! Thanks for the card Cait! Oh man it was funny, I was cracking up. Thank you too for your card Carly! It was way funny too! Hey please say a big Thank You to Sister and Brother Lui. Just tell them that I am really thankful for their support and everyone else in the ward too.
Oh cool thing... just now one of my friends Elder Heidbrink turned over to me and said, "Thomas check this out". When I looked over at his computer monitor I saw Joy Monahan surfing! It was crazy, he was watching it on Mormon.org. It was a pretty sweet page, and I liked the videos. There were some sick moves. Ah! that was probably not a good idea to watch that, makes me miss the water. But its okay... So thanks everyone for the mail and the packages!

So let's see back to the story. We were sitting in the Sunday school class and we saw Pablo and Aristeo come in and sit down! I just wanted to ... ok shoot! I need to get going already. ahhhhh!
I love everyone! Thanks again. I'll finish the story in the letters I send out later.

Love, Elder Thomas