Good companions...lost umbrella...Dominoes

Hi Family!

Wow what a week. This week felt really long, but as always short at the same time. So after p-day last week we started at 6:00 our day of teaching. Of course since I knew the area I had to lead to our appointments. We went to this lady’s house and I had to lead the lesson. It is really stressful because I have no idea what to teach, or even how to say a lot of stuff. It is helping me grow, but at the same time I just don’t know what to do.

My new companion Elder Wanner is a big football player and you can tell. He is really different than my last companion and pressures people a lot more. It is hard to get use to and I usually just sit in silence because that is not who I am. We get along really well though. He has been out 8 months and we are pretty good friends. It has been a really fun week. 

On Wednesday we had our district meeting and we met with the zone leader’s district. After the meeting we did interchanges and I went with the zone leader Elder Jex to our area. He is also from Utah in Spanish Fork. He is super nice. We went to help the hermanas in another area move because they just opened a new area. We finally got back to our area and then had to go to some other hermanas area because one of the hermanas was sick so we contacted in their area for a few hours. Elder Jex is such a good missionary. He is the type of missionary I want to be. He teaches with the spirit and is still himself. He isn’t robotic. He has been out 17 months, and I hope I get to work with him more this change. He reassured me to be patient with myself and that the language will come and so will the doctrine. 

In our area we hardly had anytime to work. We spent a lot of time in Almoloya because the hermanas needed help with something or Elder Wanner had to interview someone for baptism. Hopefully this week we spend more time in our area.

We have been working hard with this one family to get their boy baptized. He is 9 years old and the dad isn’t a member but the mom is. The mom thinks the boy needs more time to prepare. Elder Jex helped teach the mom the importance of baptism and he has a date to get baptized the 31st of this month. 

This past Saturday was interesting. We had to go to Almoloya for the day and then we came back to work a bit. After the food we were going to visit some people and it just started pouring rain. And then hailing. It set off a car alarm. (see picture). 

We decided to wait it off, but then we had to meet Elder Jex and his companion at the chapel so he could come with me to an appt. with that lady and her son and convince her to have him baptized. We ended up just taking a taxi. After the appointment we went back to the chapel to switch back with our companions. We were almost back when it started pouring again. With hail and thunder and lightening. It was insane. The thunder was so loud that it set off another car alarm. It wasn’t stopping so we ran the rest of the way to the church. We met the other elders who were waiting under a house ledge. Elder Wanna and I went to go find a taxi. We found one and picked the others up back at the church. Since it was already 10:15 we all went to Elder Jex and his companions apartment to sleep. It was fun night just hanging out in their apartment. But through all this, I left my umbrella in a taxi. I am super sad because I loved that umbrella. We tried to find one today but they are all so cheap.

So today on this p-day we went to Wal-Mart and I got a bunch of food. Yay! We then went shopping for Elder Wanner and he got a new suit. We also got me a new backpack. The shoulder bags just aren’t the best for Mexico for how much walking we do. All the missionaries have a backpack so I decided I will use my shoulder bag when I go to church on Sunday. For lunch today, we went and got Dominoes! WAHOO! I was so excited and it was super yummy. All the food here is always Mexican. In America we have variety, but here it is always Mexican so it was nice to have something else. 

That’s my week! Sorry it’s super random, but this week kinda felt random and super crazy. I hope you are all doing well. I miss and love you!

-Elder Thomas

PS - Hey Dallin and Dad and Aaron! Wow your backpacking trip looks awesome! I am super jealous! Hope you are having fun in aine! I miss you! Aaron, tell me about your summer and EFY. Sorry I don´t have more time. You are awesome!  

Here are some pictures in case you missed my face. Elder Jex took pictures while playing with my camera: