Karma...

Ok. Best story last week jeez, lets see. Oh okay i got one. but its not too good. so every week in the branch here we have a family home evening in the chapel and anyone is invited and we try to get the people we are teaching to come. and so everything was set. tons of people were going to come and we were stoked! like i mean alot! and so everything is going good. we talked to an awesome member named sister aquilar. she offered to teach the lesson and plan everything else. so we call her monday you know just to check see if she needs help with planning or teaching or anything we called her up and asked her and she was "like wait what do you mean.. wait i am teaching oh no no no no no i am not teaching i cant teach i didnt have any time." so me and my companion looked at each other and were like oh gosh you got to be got to be kidding. so she was like "no its you no its you its you." oh man so we hung up after yelling at her. nah just oh hermana come on.. so we had no idea what we were going to do/ teach and so we started thinking and came up with a decent lesson and then an activity. and it turned out way good. everyone showed up.. all our investigators and we taught about the book of mormon and then played a game called cat and mouse with ties. it was fun.

ramen, rice, spam and tuna. yummy!

Hey Everyone!

Well another month gone! Our whole apartment was stoked that it was a new month because we got paid, haha. We were all broke! But that's alright, I just ate all the snacks that you guys sent up. So here's my time to give my thanks because those snacks saved me. haha. So thanks for being so nice and helping me survive. It is definitely appreciated.

So this month, to try to save money, we went to WalMart and me and my bright ideas, I decided to get 30 ramen, hahaha, one for each day. I also got a huge bag of rice and then tuna and then some spam. So that's what my meals are like. Maybe I shoulda kept that one to myself, but I figured at least you Dad would get a kick out of that. Mom, don't worry, I work out every morning. So I hope that helps. haha.

Oh, ok, my companion is being a loser telling me that we have to go. Nah, it's all good. He said that we will come back later. Alright, so I will try to email later today. Well it was good talking to you a little!

Love yah!

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