Hey parents...I'm still your son.

Hey parents, I haven’t heard from you in 2 weeks. I might check my email at like 5 (in 3 hours) to see if you’ve written me. Hope you are doing well. Miss you!

Still your son,

Elder Thomas

(Note: Doh! Dad ... you're sending email to the wrong account!)

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Hey Family,

This week was a good week. The days are all feeling the same... They are different, but still the same. Nonetheless, it was still a good week. We found some new people to teach. One is a mom with 3 little kids who has lots of problems with her husband. She would be such a good member. She came to church yesterday and she seemed super happy. We also found this other single mom with a 27, 25, and a 16 year old. They are Catholics who have been studying with the Testigos so they are a bit confused with a few things (like who is God, Christ, and Jehovah). Only the 16 year old came with us, but I think he liked it as well.

We also had the baptism of Omar. He is a nice guy. A little awkward, but a nice guy. He knows that after his baptism his life wouldn’t be 100% easy and it would be a fight, but he is ready to fight the temptations. He really wants the blessings of an eternal family with the Gospel. I hope he stays active and can reach his goal.

On Thursday, Elder Lagunas woke up at 2 in the morning throwing up. So all day on Thursday we stayed in the house. It was nice to relax all day in the house, but I felt pretty antsy not doing anything. Friday he was doing a bit better so we went out to work. I got pretty sun burned and we were exhausted by the food.  Asi es la mision. 

I really wish I had more interesting stories to share. Elder Lagunas wants to teach me to dance to Mexican music, but it’s really difficult without a partner and super awkward with a guy so we gave up on that.

Well 9 months from today and I will be home. Time is really flying.  I can’t believe I am still alive. I miss you guys a ton. I love you all! Have a good week!

-Elder Thomas

Worn out shoes, strong families are rare here.

Dear family,

Wahoo! Congrats to Tyler and Nicki and the family! Super exciting. Uncle Elder Tan Tan Thomas still alive.

Nothing too exciting this week. We have this one guy progressing named Omar. He has gone a few times to church. We are planning his baptism his Sunday. We also have this 16 year old guy who is the boyfriend of a member who is progressing. The people here give directions to their house a lot more than an address, but if they are home when we visit or their addresses exist is another question. We are trying to find more people to teach. We have FHE with members every single day this week, so hopefully they bring their friends to the FHE. 

Honestly, this week wasn’t very eventful...sorry.  My shoes are coming apart (both the black ones and brown ones), so I might need some new shoes. We were looking today, and these Mexican shoes don’t match up to Eccos... Maybe I just buy them so you don’t have to send shoes.

Yesterday the 3rd hour in church was about the gay marriage being passed in the states and the Church’s opinion. It is interesting because everyone recognizes that the US is the most powerful nation in the world. What we do is what the rest of the world will follow. It is too bad that this is the example that we are giving. A strong family with a father and a mother is so rare here in Mexico. I am so glad that we have a strong family.

The only cool story this past week was there are some recent converts who have had some bad spirits in their house and it is from all there crosses and creepy dolls they have. They told us to get rid of these for them. We talked to this one member in the ward who told us to burn them to get rid of the bad spirits.  So last night we had a bit of a fire. It was kinda fun.

So yeah that was my week. I have my district meeting tomorrow. President called me and said he wanted to come to a few minutes of it....ehhhhh. Oh boy. Hopefully it goes well.

Love you!

-Elder Thomas

Corn fields, dogs, rain, and a guy named Omar.

Hey family,

Still alive. So when I mean pueblo mom, it means lots of corn fields and farmers and gray houses with not a lot of stuff going on. You can see a few pictures of some parts of our area. Some places have random horses tied up. In the picture there is also a baby horse lying down. The good thing is that there are 2 streets in my area filled with outlet tienda shops. They sell a million shoes here and super cheap. I want to buy a lot of stuff, but I try to resist the temptation. I only have bought an umbrella because the other one was broken. It is very necessary here. It rains a ton. The first part of the last week it poured. Not only rain, but lots of hail. Enough to make little snowballs. Closest to snow I will get. I don’t know if my shoes will make it out of the area alive. My brown ones have to go in for some repairs :P. On Monday night, it POURED. After we were trying to find a way back to our house where the streets weren’t flooded. We were walking on this grassy area and then my companion just fell in a hole to his waste. We ended up giving up trying to not get wet because we kept falling in holes. It was pretty funny.

We have a few investigators we have found. One guy named Omar who has been interested in the church picked up interest again this week and says he wants to be baptized. We also have a lady who has 5 little kids and is a 24 year old single mom. rough... The members are great here. Lots of personality. The chapel is kinda far and we have to take a taxi and a bus to get there. (The people here in Mexico don’t really have cars). Elder Lagunas and I want to have a house of prayer here closer, and a member has offered to give his house for it, but we don’t know if the bishop and some other people would be up for it.

Elder Lagunas and I are doing well. He is nice and funny, but at times he is pretty dramatic (in a femmy way). Sometimes though, I laugh at his reactions to certain things. If something bad happens he blows up the story... It’s kinda funny. But we get along and have a good time. We have walked A TON this week because we are trying to find some good new investigators. I have been super tired.

I really don’t have too much to tell. A dog tried biting us and we had to make a run for it. I saw another dog get hit by a car, but crawled out from under the car and was okay. I saw a dead dog in a corn field.

Love you all!
-Elder Thomas

New area: Technologico in Lerma

Hey there family,

So yup. I am here in another area. It’s called Technologico in Lerma. It is about 15-20 minutes from Toluca, my first area. I guess President Whitehead doesn’t know whether to keep me in the city or in a pueblo. This area is probably the most pueblo of all my areas. It’s all flat which is nice, but rains A TON! It will be an interesting change. My companion is Elder Lagunas from Sanora, Mexico. He has 5 months in the mission. He seems nice. I don’t know a ton much about him so we will see. We just got together about 3 hours ago. I hope I can have as good of a time as I did with Elder Roca. I am not a huge fan of changes. I always feel "homesick" from my last areas and companions. It’s good though. I know I can learn from every change. 

So a recap on my last week. The week in terms of finding people was pretty rough. The people we were teaching including the family, couldn’t go to church. We were trying to find some new investigators. We had the interview for Nancy (Maria del Pilar had hers last week). Nancy still had some doubts, but with some things we will always have doubts until we just do it. Her main doubt is that she thinks that after her baptism we aren’t going to pass by anymore. Of course we are going to keep passing by... Anyway, yesterday I went up to share my testimony and said I was leaving. Then my companion went up and as a joke said he was leaving as well. Nancy and Maria were so sad. He told them he was joking and that he would keep passing by, but they were still pretty sad that I left. There are funny ladies, but they are going to be good members. I am excited for them. We were able to have the baptism of them.

At the baptism, we had a nice small service. The elders from Bellavista and Elder Roca sang "when I am baptized" and I played the piano. It was really good and the people wanted us to do another song. Haha. Encore in a baptism... we didn’t do it. Even though I can’t play piano super well, I can play well enough to get by. I am so grateful that I have that skill to read music. Sometimes when the pianist didn’t come to church, I would just go up and play the piano. And even if I can’t play really well, I can at least do the right hand. Thanks mom and dad for the lessons! :)

There wasn’t a whole lot this past week other than that. Yesterday I went by to visit some members. 

1. Guadalupe and her sister. Guadalupe was just baptized and confirmed my first week in the area. She is so good and she seems like she has years in the church.

2. Familia Mejia. They have 1 year in the church and super nice people

3. Familia de Oliva and Diana- Diana has to work on sundays to help earn money for the family, but Oliva and her 2 youngest daughters go every week walking to church

4. Marco and the Familia Olguin (the relief society president to the left of me and her two daughters)

5. A message from the mission leader’s family

6. Our mission leader, Hermano Zarza and his family

7. Baptism of Nancy and Maria del Pilar 

8. district photo

Super jealous of your 4th of July. I wore my red tie and blue pants and made my companion sing American songs. That’s as much as I can really do to celebrate. I don’t like being away for summer. Thank goodness this is the last one I have to miss. Haha It’s still nice to see you all in your activities and hear about them. I love and miss you all. Have a good week!

-Elder Thomas

Part 2:

Happy Birthday DAD! wahooo! 51! I feel like you just had your birthday. I wish I could be there to celebrate. I will be thinking about you this week. Thanks for being awesome and so great. I hope you have a special day!

AHHH looks like so much fun. I just love being out on the boat hanging out as a family. There really is such a calming feeling about being together as a family. Like right now I am happy, but I still feel something that isn’t with me. I can’t imagine how it will feel to be back with God again in the grand family. A feeling we can’t even remember anymore. I am glad you had a fun week. Tell the Scott’s hi for me. I listen to Michelle every day! Haha and about 150 other people singing as well  :)  Love you dad. Miss you! 

Your son,

Elder Thomas

Missing Clayton, Celebrating the 4th

Hey Mom,

Trek looks like super fun. I tried to not think too much about Clayton this past week, especially yesterday. I had to give a talk (they told us about it at 9 the night before...) Haha. I didn’t really want to talk about Clayton. However, later at night I was writing in my journal and my companion had gone to bed. I was listening to MoTab and Homeward Bound came on.  I just let myself think back to 6 years ago and that whole experience. I cried to myself about it all.  It is still hard for me and I feel like he is always going to seem like the older brother to me, even though I now have 4 more years than he did. Thinking about him last night really helped me think about how much I want to help families here.  In Mexico almost all the families are separated and just aren’t strong. So many single moms and dads drinking in the streets and doing drugs. I am so grateful for the family I have and the Gospel in our lives.

I hope you have a fun 4th of July.  I love the 4th. I am so glad this is the last 4th I have to miss!

I don’t hear anything about what is going on in the news. Gay marriage...bueno. well that much closer to Jesucristo coming. 

Love you mom. You are the best. I miss you tons, and even more today when trying to make decisions on a suit. Don’t worry.  It’s good looking. 

Love you!

-Elder Thomas