One year...I hope to make the second half of my mission even better.

Hola mi familia,

I don’t have that much to write. This past week was a bit of a challenge. Elder Roca and I were dying in the heat. It was super hot with the pollution. We made it through. I am hoping it will be cooler this next week. The first week of the change went super well and everyone would stop and give us a direction. This week however no one would stop. Lots of hands in the face. One guy even said that we were children of the devil. Muchas gracias random guy. haha. It has reminded me once again of how Christ was rejected. He literally did miracles and paid for everyone of our sins. He knows exactly how everyone of us feels. However, after everything that He did, the people still crucified Him and rejected Him. As missionaries we are trying everything we can to share the Gospel, something good, and the people still reject us. My appreciation everyday of Christ grows. I received my Easter package this past Tuesday (wahoo only 1 month of waiting!). I really liked the quotes that you sent me.

We have been working with Monica a lot this past week. I am not sure really how to help her in this point. She wants to get separated from her partner because they are only together for their little girl, but the relationship isn’t working at all. She is looking for a house and a job right now. Who knows what she will choose to do. 

Oliva and Diana (the family that we found last week) are super good. Diana went to the young woman’s New Beginnings and they went to church on Sunday. They have a baptismal date for the 17th of May. I don’t remember what I told you about them, but they live in very humble circumstances. The husband just past away a year ago and there is the mom and 3 girls living in this small house. I am so excited for this family.

I think our biggest problem right now is that almost all of our investigators have some marital problem. They aren’t married or have another partner. Mexico City baby. We shall continue on though! 

Today is a pretty big day. One year from today and I will be heading on home. I don’t know where the time has all gone, but I am grateful to be here. I hope to make the second half of my mission even better. Thanks for all your support and love. I miss you all tons. I am excited to talk to you in 2 weeks (even if it is only for 30 minutes...). I love you!

-Elder Thomas

Time is flying...another good week!

Family!

Here I am again sitting in the cyber. Time is always flying. 

So this week was a pretty good week. First of all, Valery was baptized! Wahoo! It was a pretty small service but it was very nice. We had the services on Saturday and she received the Gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday in Sacrament meeting.

We also found this one family who are really nice and super humble. They are socially awkward, but super nice. The father just passed away a year ago and it is a mom and 3 girls. They all live in this little room with their beds and kitchen. The girls are 5, 6, and 15. We invited them to baptism this past week and they accepted and went to church yesterday.  We are going to go by today to see how it went. I am pretty excited about it.

We also found this other family who seem SOOO good. They also have 3 little kids, but the parents aren’t married. We taught them the Restoration and at the end we asked the dad to say the prayer.  He said it and after the mom asked if she could pray. They really seem interested. They weren’t able to go to church because the dad had work, but hopefully next week they can come.

We also found some other good people that we are working with. It was a pretty good week in terms of work.

Elder Roca and I work really well together. He is so nice. He definitely misses his family a ton and I try to keep a good balance of him thinking about them and focusing on the mission. The thing is that he seems exactly how I was when I first came here. Except, he speaks Spanish. So that’s a bit of a plus. He teaches really well and seems very prepared. He is very young. He just turned 18.  I am 20.5. I am viejo. 

The sun is super strong and I have been pretty dizzy the past few days.  Just gotta drink that purified water! Haha I love Mexico.

Fun story. Yesterday a group of drunks yelled at us to come over. I didn’t want to stop, but they kept yelling at us to come. We talked to them all. One of the guy’s family are all members. I ended up contacting them all, gave them pass along cards and invited them to church. Who knows, maybe I planted a seed. That is if they remember anything...

Today for P-day we went to this huge mall. I heard it is the biggest in Latino America. It was huge!  So NICE! SO PRETTY AND CLEAN. Haha. 

So that was my week. I love you all. I can’t believe Mother’s day is coming up. Who will I get to talk to? Miss you!

-Elder Thomas

FAMILY!

Many things happened this week. I will first tell about the work and this last week of the change.

First off, we unfortunately weren’t able to baptize Valeri this week. Valeri was all set and had her interview and everything. But she decided to wait til next Saturday.

Ambrosio. Ambrosio. Ambrosio. Honestly I don’t know what to do with that guy. He had his interview but apparently he has a girlfriend and doesn’t want to leave her. He has been 30 years with her. He doesn’t want to marry her either. We’ll keep working with him and see if he really wants to follow Christ and be baptized.

Speaking of relationships. I don’t know if you remember Monica from a few weeks ago. We have continued working with her to encourage her to get her married. The thing is, is that she is thinking of getting separated because their relationship is not working.  He doesn’t want to change. We will see this week what happens.

So that is what happened in terms of investigators.  

We had a good zone conference this past Tuesday. We are working with the members better. We asked, “How many times did we share the Gospel in our homes?” Many have only done it 2-3 times, and the reason why is because we often are scared or don’t know how. We are trying to now teach the members how to contact people and invite people to church or to a family home evening.

So now about changes. The change has ended and I am changing companions. Elder Ibarra left this morning. This change was probably the hardest in terms of the companion, but I learned a lot. He didn’t do some things well, but he really worked hard to be here in the mission and loves the people. I am ready for another companion, but I am glad I had the time with Elder Ibarra.

On Saturday I got the call from Elder Huber giving me the changes. I am TRAINING AGAIN! Papa Thomas is back. I am pretty excited. I feel very blest to be training for the second time. Also Elder Davis from my district is training, so it is just him and me and our two kids. My companion is named Elder Roco. He seems awesome. He is from here in Mexico, but reminds me of a Mexican me. He has 10 siblings who are all strong in the church, his Dad was stake president, he likes music, and he is pretty nervous just as I was when I started the mission. I am excited to teach him the things I know. He will be a good missionary. 

So that’s my week. Hope all is well in the States and we aren’t at war with anyone (I am so out of the loop). Love you all!

-Elder Thomas

p.s. pictures of zone conference and a baptism of this awesome guy that the Elders in my district baptized.

Happy Easter, General Conference, Scorpions

Howdy Family,

So the last week of the change has arrived! I have to say, I don’t really care what happens. I could stay or I could leave. I wish I felt more connected to the area or the members here, but I don’t really. Maybe if I stay another change, I will. We will find out on Saturday night!

Happy Easter by the way! Easter isn’t exactly the same here in Mexico. One thing I love about the Church of Jesus Christ is that we focus on the resurrection and not the crucifixion. Three days before Easter, the people all reenact Christ’s crucifixion. They have actors who sign up to be Christ. Apparently it is a privilege to represent Him. The person gets beaten, put thorns on them and all.  I saw this one group of people surrounding this guy who had thorns on his head and beating him. It was pretty sad. They then take the person as if he is dead to the church and march behind him as he is covered in a cloth. They don’t actually crucify him, but I know in some pueblos they get super intense about it. Then Sunday comes and nothing happens and no one does anything... I think even the Easter bunny and eggs are better than nothing.

This week was pretty hard in terms of the work because almost EVERYONE went on vacation. They have these 2 weeks off for la semana santa. There is hardly anyone in the streets and the ones that are here aren’t actually from here and just visiting.

So, we have been working with what we have. We have this one 16 year old girl named Valeri who is planning to be baptized this week. She has been to church a bunch and is going to Young Women’s camp this next week, so I think it will be good for her to be preparing to be a member of the church.

We are also working with this Ambrosio guy. He is in his 70s and like I said he has had a sketchy background. Because of the things he has done it is a bit hard for him to retain the things we teach him, but I am trying to find different ways of explaining things. He wants to change, but it is a lot of work. He could get baptized this week as well, but I really want him to understand these things and have a testimony of the Church before.

On Tuesday we had interviews with President. It was a really good interview. He always gives me good advice and I love talking with him.

General Conference was SOOO GOOD! I love conference so much. I wish it was every weekend. Unfortunately the internet at the chapel was awful for the first session so I missed it all. I got little chunks of what the talks were about. It seemed really focused on families and the roles we play. We luckily got it working and saw the other sessions AND we saw them in English. That was super nice. I understand Spanish but the talks they give have a different vocabulary so I have never heard a lot of the words they use. I loved Elder Bednar’s talk about Godly Fear.  I definitely want to study that more.  I also loved Wilford W.Anderson’s talk about keep practicing to “tune” ourselves.  It got me thinking about learning how to play the piano.  Dale G. Renlund’s was also really good about God cares more about if we keep trying and who we are becoming more than who we are now. This life really is about learning and becoming better. His story about the 2 missionaries where one had the thought about all of us falling behind God was like a punch to the stomach. Haha. But a good punch. I also loved all the talks from priesthood session.  They were so good. I love being able to apply the talks as a missionary. I just think of it all differently.  Anyway, I love the Gospel.  It is true. Keep going to church, reading the scriptures, praying.  All the good standard Primary answers. J

Love ya!

-Elder Thomas

P.S. - So today while cleaning the apartment I found a scorpion. My companion says that it is the type that could kill if it bit us. We killed it instead. I kind of want to move houses now. J

In response to Dad's letter:  Hahaha. You should some how send that to your work and the stake. I think they would like it.

Kristoff Impression...celebrating the FROZEN winter leaving Maine!

Glad you are doing well! Miss you Dad! The talk by Larry M. Gibson really got me thinking about you. I thought about the backpacking trip we went on. That was one of the hardest things I've done, but I am so glad you took us on the trip. You are awesome and the perfect dad. I love you! [Note by Dad: I wasn't going let this message slip by without being posted!]
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