If you are breathing I would like to talk to you

Hey family,

hope everyone is doing good. having a good time. So we went to the temple today.. it was way sweet, i love that place. This past week was super good. A ton of stuff happened. Just yesterday President came to the zone and was giving interviews and i wanted to see if i could get an extension, but he said nah just because it's really rare, they just want us to go back and yeah i was hoping maybe to stay a little longer. never hurts to try ah. so that happened yesterday and afterwards we had an appointment which we brought one member with us, so we were way stoked... but that guy wasn't even there!! it was a huge bummer. so we were walking away and we seen this lady walking and we said hi and just started talking to her. come to find out it was this lady we have been trying to get a hold of for a couple weeks now. so it was a blessing that the appointment fell through or else we probably woulda missed her... super nice lady too. way busy but she said she is going to call us when she gets some time to sit down and talk the message.

Oh and you know the family i told you about...well we stopped by and taught them last tuesday... and it was sweet!! such a good time... they were just eating it up. it was way cool because they just kept asking questions and we talked about the temple and families, the book of mormon, prophets in america. it was crazy. they loved it and they understood everything. it was cool to see kus garantee it was all the Lord. He prepared them alot! probably the coolest family i ever taught on my mission... It's so wierd still because i promise they remind me of us back in the day. family of 4 and it's kinda cool to think that now i'm in the shoes of Elder Cheney and Elder Sorenson. Pretty sweet stuff. So i'm still stoked to keep going back and teaching um more and seeing them change and get all the choke blessings for their family.

Funny story... so on Sunday i don't know why but our appointments were not going through and everyone was not home. it was like a ghost town and were getting tired of not teaching, so we decided to just look for someone breathing that we could talk to. Then we saw this one guy vacuuming his car... but we said nah... let's keep going. then right when we passed the vacuum turned off and so we turned back around and went to talk with him. way cool guy and he seemed super interested too. believes in God a lot and wants to know more about God's plan and it was just the smoothest street contact we ever made haha. pretty cool stuff.

Oh so yeah it was my comps birthday yesterday and it was sweet kus he got hooked up... we had cake and food... some good stuff. the other elders came in at night and threw confetti and stuff all over the place. it was pretty funny when we woke up. still have yet to clean it hahaha... some day right?

Ah lets see... so this one guy that we were teaching... his name is alfredo and we have been teaching him for a while now and he knows everything is true so its fustrating kus he just won't get baptized, plus he needs to get married first. but what is cool is the other day after this lesson we had, he came outside and said you know what? i want to get baptized. which was good news. he said sometime in november and we'll see when and get him and his girlfriend ready for it!! Ton of stuff happening out here. oh and i heard from elder Reagan in poway that Auroras kids that we were teaching got baptized! super happy when i heard that.

Anyways, love you guys have a good week!
Love
Elder Thomas

Border lights

So this week was pretty sweet!! There was a lot of stuff that happened down here first off super cool story. So there is this one lady that we talked to. she works at this house where we are trying to teach the husband there. She doesn't live there... she lives in Tijuana and just crosses every day to work and take care of his kids. The thing is though, we would try pass by and he is never home. he is always working. so we started talking to her and we talk about the message and she is just eating it up. she is a pretty open and is a nice lady. So anyways, right before we left we invited her to say the last prayer and she did. I mean it was unreal, during the prayer you could just feel the spirit. it was way strong... and she just started balling while she said the prayer and she told us how she just feels different when we are there and when we talk and share the message... so that was a pretty cool experience right there. Oh and she lives way close to the border too in some apartments and when we ride to her house you can see the border fence. it's pretty intense, super nice looking fence too.. haha and then there are a bunch of lights like the kind in a football stadium shining at this open field right on our side of the border. i t was unreal. There is just one complete change from here and Tijuana. it's so weird. i gotta take a picture and show it to you guys.

We had this other cool story too this week with this one family. There are a ton of people in the family. but only the mom and her daughter are members and they just got baptized like a month ago. They are a way cool family because they Love the color purple... haha they have some pretty sweet shoes and stuff. so got that connection there...haha anyways, so we stopped by this one day and her other daughter was there and we started talking and everything. come to find out, she's having a really hard time and we shared with her how we know that our message can change her life and make it better with Jesus Christ. I don't know, but when i said it this time, i guaranty knew it was true and it wasn't just me saying something but rather i had like that testimony that it could happen because i guess i've seen it with me, just in my mission. as the time flys by (way too quick) i have changed. it's pretty cool.

Like right now, man i love the scriptures. I'll be reading and reading and then i start getting into it, haha and it's more intense then surfing... just learning more about sutff. I don't know, it's hard to explain it, but i know it's cool and i love it haha. One thing i was thinking about - we were at this one guy's house and he is living with his girlfriend and just doesn't want to get married till they are 30! but they are only 20... so they want to wait 10 years... and we were talking and talking and trying to help them see why it's important and how it's a commandment. but it was just not working and it was weird because i was thinking and then a thought came to my mind about the Book of Mormon and so i asked if he was reading it and he said no he hasn't read it in a while. so we started talking about that and it just made me realize... before we understand anything... we need to read God's plan for us. we need to read what he tells us to do and so when we start off with that, everything else makes sense. at least for me each time i read more and more i'm like dang.. Gods plan is perfect.

Oh and this past sunday we had a mission fireside down here in San Ysidro. it went pretty well. a lot of people showed up and so it was a good turn out and the recent converts who shared their testimonies were bomb too. all of them are way strong... and plus we all sang in a choir too. So do you know if there are mission firesides there in the stake. because if there are... you should check um out! they are always way good. i love um. oh man, i better send this now because we gotta leave. but i love you guys!

Talk to you guys next week!

Elder Thomas

NOTICE: This email message is fo

Sean's pineapple upside down inside out cake

Hey family,

What's up!? Hope everyone is having a good time. this past week flew by like nothing, just took one wink and gone. It was pretty good. We visited a ton of people. there is a ton of work here in San Ysidro. So much people here, it's pretty sweet because we get to talk to a bunch of people on the streets. funny story that happened yersterday. We were riding our bikes and we saw these two girls further up and then these two guys in a fancy car pull up and start talking to them and stuff but they just shrugged um off and kept walking and so we got there and my companion rides past the car and says watch how it's really done and so we go and contact them.. come to find out one of their moms is a member and so it was pretty cool. but they werent really interested either.. but it was some pretty funny stuff.

Oh heres another story.. so remember how i told you how i bought this pineapple cake. ok so i thought it looked way good. it was kinda like a pineapple upside down cake, but i didn't know what do with the pineapple. First i thought well shoot i can't put it on the top or else it would sink to the middle.. so i was trying to figure out how to make it look like the picture and i thought.. ok well i'll just let it cook till it gets a lil hard and then put it on the top. but after cooking it . it looked way ghetto. but tasted super good. and one of the sisters later released a little revelation about baking pineapple cake and said you gotta put it on the bottom and flip upside down. haha i was ohhh now that makes sense. so watch out.. now i am gonna be a pro baker.

Oh something else cool happened to us this week. we got this referral to stop by this guy's house who went to the mormon batallion. so this one night we stopped by and it was kinda late no one looked home. but decided what the heck lets just knock anyways.. i kinda got scared kus the guy opened the door super quick and we started talking with him and everything.. super cool guy. he kept thanking us for coming over and really wants to learn more with his family, which wasn't there. it was only him. but we have an appointment to go see him tomorrow. so we are pretty stoked to go visit them. it's a family of 4. the son is 11 and the daughter is 9....THAT was like us!! crazyness! it's a sign.. haha.no but it should be really good. i got a good feeling about that family.

We taught some good people this past week too. This one guy miguel, he's a little bit older and he can't read but he listens to his wife read him the book of mormon each night out loud. and he is going to come to church this week, we just have to find him a ride and he told us too that he wants to get baptized, which was pretty sweet.

OH and we are teaching this other guy named Israel. we are teaching him and trying to help him get ready for his baptism on the 22nd. he's a stud. he is a really good guy. keeps all the commandments and is just way willing to follow the gospel. the other sisters are teaching his aunty or something like that. cool story about her.. we went to go give her a blessing. and the sisters were teaching her about baptism and she just wasn't having it, she just wasn't listening, nothing, just kept saying i can't, i can't, i neet to know more, i need to know more, and so we just stopped and gave her a blessing.. and boom! complete change. it was intense. she just looked up and said ok here i am, and will do what you ask. she became more willing to listen to what the spirirt has to say. so i know there is some power in blessings. any ways i gota get going but

LOVE YOU

Elder Thomas

Might as well be in Mexico

Hey whats up Ohana.

So yeah right now they transfered me to San Ysidro. It's pretty much Tijuana because its right by the border. its the furthest south place in the whole mission. It is so sweet!! I'm still on bike and it's kinda lame because we don't live in our area. So everyday we got to bike a couple miles to get to the area, but it's all good. It just means my legs are gonna get huge! nah probably not haha i'll just loose weight darn it. It's a pretty small area but a ton of people live there and are always walking on the street which is way nice because we just talk to a ton of people walking everyday. It's awesome too kus its pretty ghetto and all the people are really nice, well the ones i met so far. It's funny too because this one family they are from Panama! haha so i told them how we went there to surf and they were all excited, really cool family. So much stuff is happening here. I'm a district leader again but the whole district is pretty much sisters, it's kinda wierd. Ah they are all way nice though. So this week i was gonna make district meeting hawaiian style haha and bring some pineapple cake. It's kus i saw the box shopping last week and that thing looked good! so im gonna try and make it for everyone.

My new companion is Elder Krasovec, he is from Texas. He's a stud, super funny guy. We get along way good it's crazy. unbelievable. So we just work our butts off everyday and it just feels really good. He can sing too, so we have this plan. we are just gonna play uke and sing to people.. trying to find some more people to teach. I'll let you know how it goes next week.. haha. People might try to stone me kus i sound so bad, but whatever can't lose anything for trying.

Oh, so how was General Conference this week.. Pretty bomb!! shoot that was so good! learned alot of cool stuff. revelation off the hizzie. This one talk Elder Clayton said that this is the time where the gospel will fill the world. everyone will hear it... and i just felt like i heard in my head.. yups and its gonna fill San Ysidro too. So right now we are working on getting a branch down in San Ysidro because right now we meet in a ward but its kinda far from San Ysidro and so we are gonna get a ton of members down there to start a branch!

Lets see. oh something cool that has happened here in San Ysidro is i feel like my charity has shot up alot. it's not like i did anything special... just prayed for it and it just came... its intense... like i can't see anything wrong with my companion i love everyone and heck i iron my companion's shirts everyday...haha it's so wierd but feels way good. just to want to help someone out kus you are actually a good friend and everything. so yups it's pretty cool. i'm loving it here right now.

Oh super funny story! i thought it was hilarious. so we went to this one family and i told um i was from hawaii and they were oohhhhh thats cool.. but then they asked me where it was...and i thought they were kidding. but they werent!! They had no idea where it was and so i had to show them on a globe. So i guess some people don't even know hawaii exists...man they are just missing out haha.

Anyways cool story.. So this past week we were biking to an appointment with someone so we were booking it there, when we saw this older man with a cart walking. so we waved and when we waved his cart tipped over and all his stuff fell out. which was awesome!! kus then we got off our bikes and started to help him and talk with him... He was interested in learning too. so now we are gonna stop by and teach um. so yeah if you're ever walking or anything and you see someone carrying some stuff. just kinda push their stuff down, by accident, and then start a conversion up and share the gospel... easy haha nah i'm just kidding.

Well, i hope everything is going good and your having a good time.

Love you guys

Elder Thomas

Here today - gone tomorrow

So yup Bad news! Im getting transfered again. they just called us earlier today..Its so weird because I have only been here for three weeks, so im way suprised that im leaving so quick. But thats okay that just means i learned everything i needed to here in PB haha.. pretty quick.. nah well see where i go now. Hopefully its back to spanish. that would be the bomb!

Anyways i gotta tell you about this cool story/sweet huge miracle that happened the past 2 weeks.. sorry about not writing last week, never had time.. so now you know im still alive. OK so two weeks ago, after sacrament meeting, this guy dressed normal came up to us and told us that he wanted to start taking the lessons. His name is destry. He's a way cool guy. So we started to teach him and everything and he told us how his parents got baptized when he was a kid and then he didn't really want to do it. so he went his own way. but after all the trouble and hard times. he knows he needs to do it. Man i mean no joke.. he is the most willing guy i've met on my mission.. he listens to the spirit so well. its pretty cool to see. But anyways, the first lesson we had with him, we went to the mormon batallion and we started to talk about Joseph Smith and he said he had some doubts about whether he was a prophet or not and we watched the movie and i was just praying that he would feel the spirit and so after the movie was done. he turned to us and asked us if we felt it.. and i was like heck yeah we felt that. Then he just tells us that he knows he's a prophet. So after we gave him a Book of Mormon. that all happened last week. We got to talk to him again this past sunday and he told us that right now he is reading in Alma 32. Shoot i was so stoked when he said that. he has like this burning desire to follow God's path no matter what and it's way nice to see. Its just cool because you know he's gonna be alright. he can get through anything because he understands his true purpose and is gonna give everything to stay on the path..because sometimes i feel bad for people that have hard times but they dont know God and they reject the message too. i just know that they are going to have alot of sketchy times. but if someone is so willing and has good desires, then bam they got a way bright future. So he has a baptismal date for december 25.. which is a bummer because i won't be able to see but that's okay. his dad is gonna come done with the rest of his family to baptize him. it'll be a way good experience.

So that's just a huge miracle that we saw this past week. But that's just one of many. Yeah its a big one but there have been alot more, maybe not as big or maybe some people wouldn't call them miracles, but i believe they are. This one time while we were headed to the mormon batallion to meet with Destry, this old lady was carrying a couple bags up some stairs and i just went up to give her some help and we actually carried it a couple blocks. but it was the nicest old lady and we didn't get her information or anything but she was still very thankful and she said there needs to be more people like that, who want to help in the world. She didn't even know anything about missionaries until that point. So that was pretty cool

.

That same night heading back to the bus we saw this guy walking and i just said hello and waved and then we started talking and everything. same thing as the nice old lady.. had no idea who we were. But we talked about the message we have and he liked it alot.. he doesn't live in our area, but some other missionaries will be able to teach him. so it's all good.

Oh here's a funny story. we met this guy walking on the streets. and he asked what company we work for.. haha. just a ton of people still dont know who we are.. even in the states! pretty funny stuff. anyways we told him we are mormons and he asked us what that meant and he asked if that means .well pretty much stuff about the law of chasity and then all of a sudden he just is really impressed. and gave us props.. haha which was pretty sweet. so we gave him a card and everything.

Oh by the way, in PB, there's a mountain called mount soledad. its pretty gigantic. and we had to bike up it to the top pretty much because we were going to visit someone. Holy smokes it was way hard.. then i remembered back in the day when the missionaries would come visit us and would have to go up the hill. thats ridiculous. haha then when they came we would always give um some gatorade. ooohh that would have been so good afterwards. oh well. But it was all good afterwards going down that thing. we went about 40 almost 50. the speed odometer clocked us. going that fast. haha it was pretty fun. Anyways i got to start packing for tomorrow.

love you guys. have a good week!

Elder Thomas

Eagle Scout skills

Hey!

So this past sunday, we got to go back up to poway to see Ricardo and Flor's baptism, which was sweeet!! It was cool because their dad, who was less active got to baptize them! so that made it even better. Then I got to see the members and everything up there. It was nice to hear spanish again too. i miss it, i knew i loved serving in spanish and teaching and just meeting new spanish people, but i didn't realize how much i love them. they are awesome people and their culture, man its pretty cool... then at the baptism, Alfredo the guy we baptized back in june, well he was there too and he had his tie on and everything, looking good. He's even got the aaronic priesthood now! i was just thankful you know that i could see that. I mean he gets it, he has the truth now and understands it and he is still doing good, taking the next steps that he gotta take and preparing to get married in the temple. just seeing that and knowing that is the best thing i ever received.

Anyways i got those other pictures too. so i'm sure you heard of the black out. well just for those who didnt know. me and my companion are eagle scouts and so after being told to go back to the apartment... we thought that we would put our eagle scout knowledge to good use and we made an oil lamp... with a bowl and a toothpick (as the wick) and then wait for it...WD-40 and a pair of pliers to hold the toothpick. So we put that in the bowl and it worked super good and it made some good light so i left the room to get something and then the room got alot brighter... so at that moment i kinda got a little prideful about how good it was working then when i got back to the room it was a huge flame... haha so it kinda backfired on us and then we put our fire in the bowl outside on the porch so it wouldnt burn the apartment down, haha. Nevertheless it did provide us with light for a short amount of time haha...

Love, Elder Thomas

Now you see him...now you don't

So this past saturday i got a call at lunch time telling me to pack my suitcases - at first i didnt believe it so i called a second time haha. But yeah we had an emergency transfer meeting 3 hours after the call. it all went pretty quick! but its crazy because you'll never quess where i got transfered too... Pacific Beach...English! So now im not in spanish any more and its way weird, plus im super close to the beach haha and we were trying to find a couple referrals and no joke we were so close to the beach driving and it was ridiculous. felt so weird but i wasnt doing anything wrong haha. so yeah im doing english work now in a humungus ward! i walked in and asked my comp "shoot so how do you know everybody..?" then he told me you dont haha.. yet im so used to saying hi to everyone even before sacrament starts. Then the bishop asked me to go up and give my testimony since it was fast and testimony meeting. it was pretty good. weird though that i was speaking english im pretty sure i slipped in a couple spanish words in there haha.

It was funny kus there is a hawaiian family in the ward and so i thought i would be funny and use the aloha thing since everyone else does it. but the hawaiian brother went right before me and did it so he stole it haha.. but it was cool kus we ate at their house this past sunday. super sweet family! oh the food was way good and it felt like home which was nice. One of the sons is a RM and he has a uke and taught us a couple songs. So im gonna practice and get good. play some musical numbers up here in the firesides and stuff. good tool to find too. But they said next time i come over i can send a request for whatever hawaiian food i want to eat!!!

Anyways another sweet story that happened in Poway. We were trying to visit this recent convert but he wasn't home so we started talking to his grandma and while we were talking to her.. the son comes in and just sits down, then asks us what we are doing? like what are we talking about? so we told him about our message and How we invite others to come unto Christ. Then he just starts telling us his story and how he has a huge drinking problem and how his wife took the kids and left him.. I felt way bad. But i was really trying to understand where he was coming from but it was way hard. but then he told us that the hardest part was that he got put in jail.. so he was pretty much super depressed no hope no happiness nothing.. and all he does now to try feel better is drink more. But just throughout the whole time i felt bad for him but i didnt feel hopeless for him only because i know that there is the atonement of Jesus Christ. We don't need to fear about being sad forever or feel like we are alone, because of what he did and that he provides a way out and that way is for every single person. and so we told him that and we said basically thats what we do and we told him it was possible for him to give up drinking and follow Jesus Christ to happiness and the spirit was just way strong in the lesson and at the end we gave him a priesthood blessing and after that he said he would come to church, but im not sure whats happening now since i got Emergency transfered. but maybe tomorrow i'll figure out something. Just goes to show you though that when we follow the spirit and go where we are supposed to be..God will put people in our path and we can share the love of God that we have felt with our brothers and sisters through the Gospel. Pretty amazing stuff.

Well, thats some of the good news haha. This past week was pretty intense though. with the change. A TON of stuff happened.. So like on Friday Alfredo and leticia the people from guadalajara, they came back up to Poway for a visit and so i got to see them once. they are doing way good!! Alfredo has the priesthood now and is a priest. it was way nice to see him and know that he's still doing good. But it was kind of a bummer that i left the next day.. But aparently he was going to bless the sacrament this past sunday! cool stuff ah.

Then just yesterday actually we taught this lady here in PB and she has had a lot of problems in her life and tough stuff that she went through because of drinking and smoking and all that junk. its just a testimony you know that we are blessed to know the gospel becuase its the truth and it protects us, it gives a foundation that saves us from all this other crazy stuff. its true when it says theres no other way just got to follow Jesus Christ and get access to his atonement and the only way is through us as members who already have a testimony of these things and it's our responsability to let them know.

So yeah we were talking to this lady and we were talking to the gospel and she asked wait.. so you pretty much mean if i dont get baptized then i wont be saved..lack of a better word. so we said yup pretty much because we know its true and we have the only way for them to access the atonement. and we just testified that she can get her answer from God and not just have to take our word for it. so it went way well and the spirit there was super fuerte there too.

Well alot of stories but i better end it now. So yup now i am here in PB its pretty sweet. way excited to work here, so we'll see what happens.. Oh i forgot to tell you about my companion his name is Elder Turner, he's from Draper Utah. super cool guy, we think like each other its pretty hilarious! Its been a good time so far. So good things in the future!

LOve you guys have a good week

Elder Thomas