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
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
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
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Little Flecks
Hey, sorry for writing late! We went to San Diego today and we just got back. It was sweet, we didn't really do anything though haha, just kinda chilled out. So things are still way sweet here in Poway. This past Sunday we gave talks in Sacrament meeting. I think i blew it... haha. but eh, it's all good. Still way sweet giving a talk in Spanish, or well, in my case, trying to ha. It's so funny though because in the rama there was only half the members present for some reason. It's always like that, but then again it fluctuates. One time one half isn't there and then the next week they will be there, but then the other half won't be there.. haha, they got some good sychronized moves man. Oh and get this, well Aurora, who we were going to baptize before, we told her to pray about it and to ask when she feels that she should get baptized, so after a while, we go to visit her and she's oh guess what mis hijos. I want to get baptized next week. i was like dumbshocked, just sat there while inside I was yelling YES! in my mind.. because first off she has been way ready for a long time already and she was pretty much just missing out on all the blessings. So now she should be baptized soon. I'll let you guys know how that goes. Oh and this one family in the branch had some relatives who are staying here for like a few weeks that we met and have been teaching. super sweet people! just way open to listen which is nice! We are way stoked for that. We should also be getting quite a few people this week from other friends of members, which will be awesome tooo..
Um man i can't believe its June already. That's ridiculous to me right now. But oh well, can't stop the time ah, just got to ride with it. Oh so the other day we did a district fast just for the work over here. and then we ended it and i ended it with Spam Musubi! haha it has been a way long time since i had it and it turned out really good. Let's see what else happened. Ok funny story, So There are a couple members that live in the same complex as we do, and they have a ton of little mexican kids that are crazy! maybe not as crazy as mario and luigi, but nevertheless, still pretty crazy. Ok so everytime we pass by somehow they see us through the window, spidey senses, i don't know. Well all we hear is a loud high pitched, "MISIONEROS!" and then that's when my companion and I look at each other and bolt haha kus they will just grab you and try and just jump on you and everything. Well anyways we had dinner yesterday with that family yesterday, and while we were eating the member has some music playing in the background.. and we are eating. and may i add - Spinach salad... I know, so we were eating salad and bam. i hear bob marley haha and i just froze, and the member just started laughing because i was surprised and i had like the salad half in my mouth and half out of it aparently haha.
Well anyways, everything is going really good over here. i was reading the other day the talk by Elder Ballard from conference. Man i love that talk! I think that's one of my favorites, and President Uchtdorf's one too. Kus Dad you remember when you would say sometimes that i am too hard on myself, and then i would just laugh and say whatever. haha well like i guess i always want to see results super quick and i want to see huge miracles or just big stuff happen often, because when i think of those things, i think alright, now i know i am doing good or now i know i am successful, and I always have thought like that. Then i remember thinking when i read those talks, well man i am dumb. i really have been thinking wrong the whole time. I just remember thinking, you know what? things are going to come by in little flecks, or little spots here and there and if you keep going and collect those little things you have a alot. So it really doesn't matter where we are at right now. so what if we are junk at reading or surfing or teaching or talking or whatever. If we start off small and do it constantly we will get good, we will see those big things because of all the little things we do. Like maybe you might not be good at reading, well braddah if youread enough books after awhile. who knows? maybe you could. So that's what i liked this past week from studying in the morning.
Well, hope everything is all good back there in Hawaii. Love you guys alot! Hey Cait! sorry, quick note... i thought i sent a letter to you a while ago but i didn't... i found it in the car the other day. SORRY. but I'll send it off ok? So yeah
HAVE a good week!
Love, Elder Thomas
Um man i can't believe its June already. That's ridiculous to me right now. But oh well, can't stop the time ah, just got to ride with it. Oh so the other day we did a district fast just for the work over here. and then we ended it and i ended it with Spam Musubi! haha it has been a way long time since i had it and it turned out really good. Let's see what else happened. Ok funny story, So There are a couple members that live in the same complex as we do, and they have a ton of little mexican kids that are crazy! maybe not as crazy as mario and luigi, but nevertheless, still pretty crazy. Ok so everytime we pass by somehow they see us through the window, spidey senses, i don't know. Well all we hear is a loud high pitched, "MISIONEROS!" and then that's when my companion and I look at each other and bolt haha kus they will just grab you and try and just jump on you and everything. Well anyways we had dinner yesterday with that family yesterday, and while we were eating the member has some music playing in the background.. and we are eating. and may i add - Spinach salad... I know, so we were eating salad and bam. i hear bob marley haha and i just froze, and the member just started laughing because i was surprised and i had like the salad half in my mouth and half out of it aparently haha.
Well anyways, everything is going really good over here. i was reading the other day the talk by Elder Ballard from conference. Man i love that talk! I think that's one of my favorites, and President Uchtdorf's one too. Kus Dad you remember when you would say sometimes that i am too hard on myself, and then i would just laugh and say whatever. haha well like i guess i always want to see results super quick and i want to see huge miracles or just big stuff happen often, because when i think of those things, i think alright, now i know i am doing good or now i know i am successful, and I always have thought like that. Then i remember thinking when i read those talks, well man i am dumb. i really have been thinking wrong the whole time. I just remember thinking, you know what? things are going to come by in little flecks, or little spots here and there and if you keep going and collect those little things you have a alot. So it really doesn't matter where we are at right now. so what if we are junk at reading or surfing or teaching or talking or whatever. If we start off small and do it constantly we will get good, we will see those big things because of all the little things we do. Like maybe you might not be good at reading, well braddah if youread enough books after awhile. who knows? maybe you could. So that's what i liked this past week from studying in the morning.
Well, hope everything is all good back there in Hawaii. Love you guys alot! Hey Cait! sorry, quick note... i thought i sent a letter to you a while ago but i didn't... i found it in the car the other day. SORRY. but I'll send it off ok? So yeah
HAVE a good week!
Love, Elder Thomas
Thursday, May 19, 2011
The friendly neighbor
Hey whats up family,
This past week flew by way quick, it was a pretty good week. Except today its kinda weird the clouds came out of no where and so now we don't know what we are going to do for Pday. But oh i got start this off with a funny story haha. Oh man so the other day we met our neighbor who is from Armenia or something like that and she knows like 4 languages, persian and arabic and all those kinds. So we were talking with her in english, but she speaks it pretty broken. So we were talking and talking and then she wanted to show us somthing she had in her home, but she lives alone so we couldn't go in, so we explained to her that we couldn't unless there is a man. So she laughed and told us.. "no worry, for you boys i half man half woman".. .Yup i know your all laughing but it was kinda freaky. So i turned to my companion like hey i think we should leave haha and so we left and walked a whole 2 steps into our apartment. So yup thats our awesome half lady half man neighbor. haha.
Oh another story this past Sunday we went to this brother's house to have dinner with him and may i say it was some darn good food. But so much!! We got there and sat at the table and i was watching him serve the food, and he got a bunch of noodles and started piling, i mean piling it on a plate, so i thought oh its gonna be like chinese dinner style where we just grab a little from each different thing. and then he got a second plate and did the same thing and then at that point i started praying that i would have enough space in my stomach haha. It was crazy. Oh but he told me a way funny joke that i got to tell you guys.
Here it is - Alright there are 4 people in a boat, A Russian, a Frenchacan, a mexican and an american. And when they were on the boat in the middle of the ocean, they realized they were sinking and so they tried unloading as much stuff as they could so the boat could be super light. So the Russian takes his vodka and says ah we have ton of vodka in the motherland, so i dont need this, so he tossed all his vodka. Then the frenchacan took his wine and tosses it too and says wi wi we have much vine in our country we dont need all this wine. Then the Mexican takes his tequila and says the same thing that he has alot of tequila in mexico so he tosses all his tequila, so then the American takes the mexican and tosses him and says oh we dont need him we have plenty of those in our country... haha it was so funny because the brother was Mexican and he heard it from another Mexican so i guess its alright to tell it. But there you go your joke of the week.
Oh so Church this Sunday wasnt too bad, we got to meet more members and we got to meet with the Branch President and had a good meeting, we found out the goal for our branch baptisms this year and its 36, and that was the most i heard so i was definitly stoked, just becuase all the members hear love the work and so there will be alot of stuff happening here. Actually this past monday, yesterday the President's wife, sister Orjuela called us about an hour before a family home evening they were going to have with a part member family and they wanted to have us over to get to know them. IT was way sweet. i think i even did a little celebration dance after she hung up haha. Hey dont send this email to everyone or else they are going to think i am crazy after they hear that part haha. But yeah it turned out really good too, it was a way fun FHE. So if you want to make the missionaries happy.. hint hint.. haha just kidding kind of.
Well anyways so yeah oh this past Sunday i got to bless the sacrament. It was like only the second time i did it in Spanish. It was awesome i always like blessing the sacrament. Question: is there any spanish branch or anything like that back home? that would be cool if there was. I'd go there everyweek. Oh and yeah today we should be going to the Mormon Batalon. Sorry dont know how to spell it in english. But yeah its this small family, Ricardo and Flor and they have two kids. I'll try see if we could get a picture and try send to you guys later on today. Um lets see what else do i got to tell you..
Oh mom you'd probably laugh at me for this one. But we were listening to this motab song haha i think its my favorite now. Its called old time religion. Ah man that song is the bomb haha. If you dont know it you try listen to it and tell me what you think haha alright? (Mom's response" Are you kidding? Hit it boys - followed by singing and clapping)
Ok well i cant think of anything else, but i miss you guys, everything is way good, just trying to work hard and find some people to share the gospel with!
Love you Guys
Elder Thomas
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