Groundhog Day is a weird holiday

Hi Family, 

Hopefully you get this letter deep in the snow. Haha it is hot here. That is so crazy your weather. snow snow and more snow. Here it is warm and sunny. People in swim suits and lots of sweating. Haha but I do actually miss the snow. You always miss what you can’t have.

So last P-day before we started working we went down to the lake and took some cool pictures. I know I am obsessed with putting my nametag in pictures, but this is a cool one. 

So on Monday, Concepcion calls us and tells us she has some people over for us to meet. They are so good. They wanted us to teach them so we started teaching the Restoration. The people though were super rude! They just started attacking us. We couldn’t even get a word in. They were super Christians and just attacked. Concepcion and Bruno stayed pretty positive the entire time though, but I got a little frustrated. Because they kept interrupting us, I decided to just sing Joseph Smith’s First Prayer to get the message. Then after the song, they started attacking us again. I just was like, "okay we are going to end here, but I just want to leave my testimony". I shared my testimony with them about how this is the church of Christ and after they were silent. They didn’t know what to do, and they were like "okay we are going to go now". It’s kind of ironic, but I gained a testimony of the power of a testimony. When it’s all we can do, the Spirit will testify to the people.

On Wednesday, we started the day off helping a lady do service. A member from D.F. called us and gave us some names of his family here in Valle. We visited his mom and helped her paint her department she will rent. She said she would go to church and she came yesterday! Service is such a good way to open people’s hearts.

Later that day we went up this mountain to meet this one guy for a cita we had. We went up and up and up. We were so tired and then we came to this dirt road. There was this dog that wouldn’t let us pass. He didn’t have a lot of hair and looked sick. With a rock in hand, we eventually made it past (all the dogs are scared of rocks). We went to this house and knocked on the door to find this guy’s house. I said "buenas tardes!" and they said "sorry! we can’t open the door. We don’t have keys". That is the lamest excuse haha. I said that we didn’t want to get bit by this dog. They said "Oh don’t worry. His name is Tomas. He doesn’t do anything" haha. We started laughing. We went ahead on the road and still couldn’t find the house. We went back to the house with the dog and guess what, the people were out of their house. Looks like they found the keys. hahaha. They showed us where the house was. It was even higher up. The path was just dirt and was falling from under us, but we eventually made it. After all of that adventure... he wasn’t home.  Good memory though.

On Friday we had a meeting with the other district leaders. It was pretty good. The advice they gave us to be better leaders will definitely come in handy. When we got back that night we went to visit the family that went to the temple and to church this past Sunday. We taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited them to be baptized. They all said yes. We invited them to church and they said they would go and we would meet them in the main street (the house of prayer is super secluded and hard to find. Harder to find than ours in Maine). Sunday came and they didn’t answer their phone or come to church. I was super bummed because we missed the sacrament waiting for them... The thing is, is baptism makes sense to people logically here. They understand that they need to have a knowledge from right and wrong (to be older than a baby), have someone with the authority (John the Baptist), and be completely submerged in the water. People just don’t realize the commitment or the promise that we make with God, or the importance of it. I think that is something I need to improve in my teaching. So that was this past week with them.

We are working with this one girl who has a kid and is from Arizona. We are teaching her in English. She wants all these changes in her life that I KNOW the Gospel can bring. She was going to come to church yesterday, but she just started a new job cooking in a house. Hopefully we can get her to church this next week. I know it will help.

Bruno and Concepcion are doing well. I was kind of bummed yesterday because I saw Bruno going to work. People have such a hard time keeping the Sabbath Day holy. He said he needs the money to pay rent from last month. I promised him that he could receive even more blessings for not working on Sundays, but he went to work anyway. Such a bummer, but hopefully we can help him understand the importance of following God’s commandments. The thing is, is that they aren’t just things we have to follow, but they are things to help us live happier.

So today is the 2nd of February. And Mom, if you think Groundhog Day is a weird holiday, you should see here. This past week, they literally set up a big fair with rides and games outside of our house. We live in front of a Catholic church so it’s for that. Last night they had fireworks (their fireworks don’t have lights, they are just the big boom) and music playing ALL NIGHT. I think it is to celebrate the virgin or Christ being born. I don’t have Wikipedia so who knows. This is the odd part. Everyone carries little baby Jesus dolls with them. They are dressed up and some have little cribs. They bring them to the church and the priest or someone changes them or something. I don’t know. It is a bit odd. Even the adults all do it. (see picture). I know I need to respect the traditions, but still. I have been studying about loving people. I read today that even if people are sinning, we should still love them as Christ did. If we are to be disciples of Christ we need to love our brothers and sisters. My patriarcal blessing talks about loving the people so that’s what I am trying to do. It will come as I practice patience. 

So there is my weekly letter. Hopefully as you sit at the dinner table and read this, you can laugh a little, cry a little and maybe all come together for a family hug. haha. I miss you! Hope you can dig your way to school, work and seminary! Love ya!

-Elder Thomas