Hi everyone!
We only have 2 weeks left here at the MTC! I cannot believe how fast the weeks go by. We
should get our travel plans to Mexico before this time next week. So everyone
in my district (all 6 elders) is going to Mexico City West. Only 3 of us have
gone to the Mexican consulate, so I don't know if everyone will be leaving with
us. Everyone has taken Spanish except for my companion. He has been a little
behind, but for the most part we are now at the same level. Most of what we
talk about is Gospel stuff, so sometimes when our teacher tells a story there
is a lot of new vocab. I don't know how our Spanish level is. Like some people
I can understand really well, or others I am completely lost. I would
definitely say I have passed what I learned in high school Spanish.
This past Sunday was fast Sunday. It was
difficult to fast because you wake up at 6:30 and you realize how hungry you
are. It was still really good though. We had a great testimony meeting. I
mentioned that I lost a brother 5 years ago and one of the hermanas in my
district asked about him later. Apparently
she had lost a brother unexpectedly a few years ago. It was really nice to talk
to someone about going through it all. She
said none of her siblings are active in the church but she is still really
close with them. I have realized how interesting it is that we all grow up
differently and come from different backgrounds with our own story. Later at
night we had a devotional with Brother Hemingway who is the head of the social
media missionary department. He talked
about how Facebook and technology can bring people the gospel to people all
over the world and especially our friends. It was way neat. After that we
watched the John Tanner Story and the
Only a Stonecutter story. One thing
said in the Stonecutter movie was that most callings are seldom convenient. I thought about serving a mission, and how
that isn't very convenient, but it is what we are supposed to do.
On Monday, Elder McCrory and I started teaching
our TRC (teaching resource center) progressive investigator, Ivette. She is so
nice and ready for the Gospel. We don't
know if she is a real or fake investigator (they leave it unknown). We met with her a few times this week. The
first meeting we just met her and found out what she needs. Then the next we
taught most of the Restoration and then we got her to pray. She started crying
and she could definitely feel something special. She talks to us in English a
lot though, so I kinda feel bad for not practicing as much Spanish... She did
agree to eventually be baptized though! The next lesson we taught about the
Plan of Salvation and she asked us a bunch of obscure questions like about
Satan and what not. We told her we would study them and then yesterday we went
to teach her and apparently she is sick so the TRC teacher told us we could
email her. We told her that those questions about the Plan of Salvation are
good questions, but aren't vital to her coming closer to Christ. We wrote more
about the Plan of Salvation and we sent a video about it from lds.org. It was so cool to teach by email. Technology
really is helping people find more about the church!
We aren't teaching our other investigator Adam
(our teacher Hermano Doblin) because of our TRC person takes up that time. We
are still teaching Samuel (Hermano Eaton). We are still trying to understand
him better, but I don't feel like we are making a lot of progress with him. We
are meeting him later tonight, so we will see how that goes.
On Tuesday Elder Schwitzer of the Seventy came
and spoke for the devotional. He and his
wife talked about loving our investigators and seeing them as children of God. It
was a good reminder to not see our investigators as just people to teach, but
people to come closer to Christ and return to God.
This morning we went to the temple and we did
sealings for the first time. It was such a cool thing. I am so glad that our
families can be together forever! We all came back and took a nap (I LOVE
NAPS!) and then we went to Burger Surpreme. It's Elder Jordan's birthday today,
so hopefully we can do something fun – because we have so much free time....
haha. Anyway, that is mostly my week. The oldest district of 4 hermanas and 4
elders leave this Monday, so my district will be the oldest. It'll be sad when
they are gone because they have some fun missionaries in there. We should be
getting at least 1 or maybe 2 more districts in our zone this week. I think
they are expecting over 100 new missionaries this week for west campus. Last
week there were about 50. It is about to be packed here!
It sounds like you have been having a nice week!
I am glad that the scholarship night went well. I wish I could have been there.
How is it been a year since last years award ceremony and my graduation?! I
still can't believe that Aaron is almost done with scouts (and you are almost
done with scouts too!) Let me know how Aaron does at states! I wish I
could have gone to the branch temple trip. That sounds awesome. I am sure it'll
be a good bonding experience for everyone and nice to go to the temple. It
doesn't really feel like summer because we don't do summer stuff. One week from
today and you will be cruising on Lake Thompson watching the sun go down
listening to some Keith Urban and eating a pizza. Ahhhhh, the life. It's sad how much we all
think about "when I get home, I'm going to do" or "watch"
or "listen to". It's almost
been a month since I've been gone. Crazy.
Anyway, I hope you are all doing well. I love
getting letters from you all. Excited to
hear from you all!
Love you and miss you!
-Elder Thomas
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