Staying put with Elder Roca

Wasuppppp mi familia,

Coma están? otra semana aqui en el campo misional. Sabe que? I am staying here in good ol’ Madereros! haha. With.... Elder Roca! I am pretty excited. We got the call on Saturday about changes and they told us. We were pretty excited. However, then on Sunday the assistants (whose ward also meets in our chapel) called me and said we were having special changes and that Elder Roca is leaving. We were so sad. However, then we went back up to the chapel for a baptism of the elders in my district and the assistants were still there. They said we weren’t going to have special changes after all. Whew. So we are excited to be together this change. It’ll be interesting though to have the same companion two changes because I’ve always had a different one. We want to work differently to have more success this change, but still trying to figure out what to work on.

A little Dairy Queen type dessert
 in honor of Whitney's job!

So today, to celebrate, we went to Santa Fe. (Singing the Santa Fe song right now.) Super fresa. It is so nice. There are six levels to this mall and they get nicer on the way up. We compare them to the 3 kingdoms of glory and the 3 levels in the celestial kingdom. Typical missionaries. We didn’t want to come back. So that was our P-day.

The cement story is a little funny. I definitely learned a lot from it. However, my head hurt the rest of the day... J

Since the last time I wrote you, this is what has happened:

General Authority, Elder Nash, visiting our mission

We had a devotional with investigators and new converts with Elder Nash on Wednesday. It was really good. It was cool to see all the converts who are still strong in the Church and really have testimonies. Elder Roca and I got a picture with Elder Nash.

We have been trying to do more Family Home Evenings with the members which has been fun. We have had some good ones with a game and then a message. The Spirit has been super strong in a few of the lessons. We are working on getting this one family reactivated and yesterday we visited them and I think they felt the Spirit. I hope they just act on it.

Yesterday a dad baptized his 8 year old son. It is super cool because they just completed a year as members and they are still super strong. 

The elders in my district baptized 2 ladies yesterday. One is the wife of a recent convert and the other once contacted me and Elder Jordan my last change when we were on interchanges. They seem like really good converts and will do well.

Diana and Oliva received the Gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday.  They are pretty odd people but I love them and their family.

In terms of the work in our area, we are struggling a bit. We had 10 people who said they would go to church and all but one said we could pass by for them in the morning to go to together. Half were still sleeping and didn’t want to go and the other half weren’t home. The one who we didn’t pass for ended up coming. haha. Of course... But that one is going to get baptized in 2 weeks. He seems like such a sharp guy. I think I told you about him. His girlfriend’s mom is the relief society president and a good family. His name is Marco. I am excited about his progress.

So this week we are going to try to talk with our investigators and see their interest levels. Sometimes it’s hard to know if they really are interested because they say yes even if they don’t mean it. We shall see this coming week!

I am also pretty excited because in the other area in my district was Bellavista 1 and in Bellavista 2 the assistants were there. The assistants have now moved so now there will be an extra companionship in the district. I hope all goes well.

So that is pretty much my week! All sounds well in Maine, Connecticut, and Colorado! Love you all!

Elder Thomas

P.S. - the sun did this weird thing in the sky. Something like there was ice in the clouds and reflected the light of the sun. Everyone thought something terrible was going to happen here.

It's only wet cement...

Buenos tardes está miercoles!

How weird it is to be writing on a Wednesday. On Monday we had a mission tour with Elder Nash and his wife. We have a half P-day today, so that’s why I am writing you.

The thing on Monday was super good. Elder Nash has such a big spirit. He taught us about 3 Nephi 11 and how we can apply it to ourselves as missionaries. He also talked about when people don’t keep commitments, how we can explain why we need to keep the commitments. How it is all part of the plan of God. We came here and when we don’t keep the commitments we aren’t following the plan of salvation. It was really good. Elder Roca and I and about 7 other missionaries sang in a choir. We sang the new primary song "la familia es de Dios". It was super good. I love that song. Anyway, tonight we have a devotional with Elder Nash with the new converts so that should be good.

Yes, we did have the baptism! It was such a nice service. Elder Roca and I sang I am a Child of God. I sang the first verse in English then Elder Roca in Spanish and then together in Spanish. It was super nice. pure improv, but nice. I am excited for this family. They need a lot of help and they will need a member to pass by for them every Sunday because they aren’t very outgoing and have a lot of health problems, but I am so excited for them. (see pictures)

This is this one investigator that we were teaching.
Two Mexicans and one American. How is it that
I am darker than the both of them? ;-)

We also had a few people in church. We have this one guy named Marco. He is the boyfriend of the relief society president’s daughter. The daughter was inactive, but she is coming back to church and he is looking like he is going to be baptized in a few weeks. We are working with him to prepare him. 

We also got a few other people to church. One guy named Jorge Salvador went for the second time and is trying to change his life. 

We have another family that we are working with. The mom and daughter have gone twice, but we are working on the other 2 daughters and the dad. We will see where all of it goes! 

We have changes this week. I can’t believe it. We just started this change. It has flown by. I probably will stay here another change. I imagine that I stay and Elder Roca leaves or we stay together another change. Who knows though? 

I did have a bit of an experience this past week that really got me thinking about my purpose that I’d like to share. We went to visit Monica for her birthday and wish her a happy birthday (even though she didn’t answer the door). While waiting for her to answer the door, all of a sudden someone from the roof dropped a big handful of wet cement on me. I first was in shock of what just happened. They later dropped another handful. It was clearly on purpose. There was an older lady to the side washing her clothes who began laughing and said that they were just playing. I moved out of the way and realized what had just happened. Out of frustration I just said out loud "I hate Mexico". I literally was so frustrated and humiliated. I was covered in cement and this lady just started laughing at me. In this vicinidad, I went over to a sink and started to clean my self up. I had cement all in my hair, and on my backpack, shirt, pants and shoes. As I was cleaning myself up I began thinking about Christ. I thought, "How did Christ do it?" His whole purpose in life was to help us, to sacrifice himself. After everything the people did to him, how did he still love everyone?" It got me thinking about my initial reaction to the situation and regretting what I had said. From this situation, I really gained an appreciation even more of Christ. I thought about how humiliating it was for Christ to have to be whipped, have thorns on his head, and carry his cross to be crucified. 

This whole experience was a challenge mentally for me, but I learned a lot. I am really trying to love the people and have more patience with them. I love this work, I love the church and I am so grateful for Jesus Christ. Thank you all for your support. I miss you tons family, but this is where I should be. I love you!

-Elder Thomas

P.S. - here is a picture of the city. If it is clearer another day, I’ll take another picture. There is a lot of contamination here some days.

Great to see you...rain season has started

Mi familia!

That was super fun to talk to you. I don’t really feel like we talked about anything, but it was fun to see your faces. I am glad I got to see Tyler and his family! 

So a quick update on my week. I believe rain season has officially started. Every day this past week it poured rain. It is always sunny in the day and then rain and thunder. On Thursday I did interchanges with Elder Davis in my district. Nothing super exciting until night. We got some tacos and then I tried to call Elder Roca who was will Elder Davis’ companion, Elder Tovar. The phones didn’t work for some reason and they didn’t have the keys to the house. We went back to Elder Davis’ house and I tried calling them. Then a bunch of dogs started barking and I told Elder Davis that storm was coming. I saw a lot of dark clouds earlier. It then began to downpour and water started entering the house. The lights then went out and lightning was lighting up the sky every 5 seconds. We had to get in contact with the other elders to see if they were okay so we ran out side to a public phone to call them. We later figured that our phone didn’t work because of the electrical storm. There was so much water, we got soaked. It was a pretty fun night. The next day we decided to study Spanish outside in the sun :)

Elder Roca and I are looking forward to the baptism of Oliva and Diana this week. I am thinking of teaching them the Plan of Salvation maybe using the puppets to help the girls understand. Maybe something like our bodies and our spirits? The girls really love church. It’ll be good.

On Wednesday we had our training with all the new missionaries and trainers. It was similar to the last one I was in. I talked with Hermana Whitehead and unfortunately she said that we probably won’t be able to be at the temple rededication in September. I really want to go, or at least to the open house.

One year ago I entered the MTC and one month ago my companion started, so we decided to take a picture. 

So that is my week. It was great to see you. I love and miss you! Have a good week!

- Tanner

PS - we also had a zone meeting on Tuesday. After talking to a few people, we realized how many of us our going to BYU! That’s pretty rare to have that many people. We decided to take a picture.

Happy Mother's Day!

Tanner Facetime'd us for Mother's Day.  He's doing great.  He's assigned to work with Elder Roca and they seem like a good pair.  Tanner is learning to work with people and create relationships, and teach and help people understand the gospel.

Tanner's Spanish is becoming fluent as he spoke with his brothers during the call (Nancy and I had NO clue what they were saying).  Amazing to see the personal growth in Tanner the past year, not just in language but in social and spiritual maturity... and realize he'll be home next year at this time.

We miss him but so glad to see he's doing well serving the Lord.

Jeff/Dad

Screenshot of Facetime conversation during Mother's Day call. :-)

Fun facts...

Hey there family,

So another week has passed here in Mexico and it sounds like it has as well in the states. I think the more letters I write, the less I have to say.

Tuesday we had our district meeting and the zone leaders came to it. Luckily it went ok. Sometimes when planning I have no idea what to teach. I want to have cool ideas or activities, but it’s hard to think of ideas (especially without the internet…haha). If you have any cool stories or ideas, send them!

Thursday we had a district leader meeting with the other district leaders. It was pretty good. I learned about how we can do practices in our district meetings and how we can learn from the practices. After the meeting, I did interchanges with Elder Alegre Soto from Argentina. He is the other zone leader, but only has 6 months in the mission. He is a good elder and we had a good time. For some weird reason, with him we saw a lot of Santa Muerte stuff. He was pretty creeped out of my area. A lot of people in my area worship it. Not the most happy thing.

The family of Oliva and Diana are doing well. They went to church again for the 3rd time and I am excited for the progression. They are slow to learn the things but they accept it all. We are planning their baptismal interviews this week.

Elder Roca is doing well. He has started getting the hang of things, but now I think it is going to his head. He is a fast learner though. 

I am excited to talk to you! I will try calling at 4 pm my time (5 pm your time). 

I am trying to get over the hump day of my mission. It has been hard to stay focused as all of the sudden everything is closer. I need to stay focused to have success and be the best missionary. 

I love and miss you all! 

-Elder Thomas

PS - Fun fact1: only Puebla celebrates 5 de Mayo. Nothing happens here. Feliz 5 de mayo a Natalie Hymas!

Fun fact 2: even though they don’t celebrate 5 de mayo, they celebrate dia del niño on the 30th of april. All the kids get toys and don’t have school. The kids here are always on vacation.  Haha.