Mexicans don't have bagels?!

Hola familia,

Tuesday was pretty fun. I think I told you that Elder Jordan is in my district from the MTC. So on Tuesday we did interchanges. I went to his area. It was pretty fun being with him. He is such a funny kid. We went to this super fancy panaderia. They had police officers outside of the place. We ended up buying this funnel cake thing. I was thinking about Whitney and I making them as I was eating it.

We also visited this other old lady who is very, very sick. We gave her a blessing. It was such a weird experience. Seeing someone who is so fragile and close to ending her life. The doctor said that she would die within the day, but she has managed to keep holding on a little longer. Seeing it was really sad, but I thought it’s more sad for us here on the earth to lose someone. For them, it’s just a part of the next phase. It made me think a lot about losing Clayton. I don’t think it was as hard for him to leave us as it was for us to lose him. Life really is super short.

On Thursday, I did interchanges with Elder Huber. He is so funny. It was super crazy to work with him as well this week. I’ve worked with half my district from the MTC. We contacted a ton and worked with a ton of members. So by Friday night, Elder Ibarra and I were a bit frustrated because we hadn’t had any success. The lady and her family who went to church this past week told us that she wasn’t interested and tried to give us back the Book of Mormon. It was so sad. We told her to keep it and to pray about it. We really tried hard to explain that Christ established His church, we lost it, but it is now restored. She just couldn’t understand it. She just would say the God is wherever we are. It was a big bummer, but if anything, we planted a seed.

So anyway, by Friday we had only 1 investigator. He is the father of a member and his sister was just baptized. He is in his 70s and has a lot of addictions. Other than him, we only had 2 others that said they MIGHT go to church. We had been working super hard, but we just weren’t seeing the success.

However, yesterday many people came to church. The two people that said they might go to church came on their own. That one guy also came to church. Also, three other people who are friends with members came as well. We had our ward conference so a bunch of people came to church. We have citas with these people this week. I am pretty excited because the people in this area who join the church are friends of members. They all seem like good people who could really progress. I know that when we show our faith and continue to work hard in our trials, God will bless us.

Last P-day we went to Costco. I bought muffins and bagels. I miss bagels soooo much! They don’t exist here. My companion was like “What type of donuts are those?” That made me mad. These poor Mexicans don’t have bagels. haha. There were so many rich people at Costco. Almost everyone had iPhones. It was weird. We also went to this tie factory place. It is pretty sketchy. We knocked on this black door. There are no windows and this guy opened the door. They just have boxes and boxes of ties. They have a ton of security cameras also. There were only two guys making ties. The ties however are pretty nice and only 45 pesos (like 3 dollars). I bought a few.

Yup, so that was my week. Hope you are all doing well. I love you guys!

-Elder Thomas

PS -- That is super sweet about your Book of Mormon challenge. I am in Omni right now.

Wow I can’t believe they changed the home teaching. We have been their home teachers for years. I miss Bibbers and I love Bart and Dawn Seymour. I actually just wrote them a thank you card from Christmas (I just got it a few weeks ago) and should get that in the mail tomorrow.

The area is good. Super small and the success here is working with the members. 

That is super cool about Aaron’s piano playing. The other day at the food, this guy put on Piano guys. They are sooo good! I have a few goals when I get home. 1. learn to play piano better.  2. learn to play guitar 3. maybe take a dance class. I also want to work at the Apple store and make money. haha. Anyway. Love you dad. You are the best. I am more and more grateful for your support ever day. Thanks for everything!

Love,

Tanner