Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving family! 

Even though they don’t celebrate it here, I still am super thankful for all of you. I love you all and I am so grateful for your love and support while I am serving. This week I am ponderizing Doctrine and Covenants 78:19. I drew a turkey and a cornucopia next to it to remind me it is thanksgiving this week.

Sorry I didn’t write you yesterday. We had our zone conference with President and the assistants. It was really good. We talked about some the basics as missionaries, such as finding people to teach, and teaching when you find, how to be missionaries of Predicad mi Evangelio [Preach My Gospel], and some other great stuff. President Whitehead also talked about the Christmas initiative that they are going to start in a week called “Ha nacido un Salvador” [A Savior is Born]. It is like El es la Dadiva from last year. I am excited for the Christmas season. We set up the Christmas tree but we are poor so we only could decorate it on one side (the side that faces us). haha. So it is pretty empty from the other side looking in from the window. I also already got my Christmas package Mom! I don’t know if I will be able to wait more than a month to open it. haha I opened the little things on top. 

Some stories to share:

I forgot to say that 2 Saturdays ago we went to this one house to eat for la comida. This family is recent converts and when we got there they had some surprise visit from their old pastor from the Baptist church. It was pretty uncomfortable because he wanted to start arguing with us. We didn’t say much, but the dad of the family just started sharing his testimony of the church and how his life has changed and his family has changed a ton. He said that he has never felt such progression in his life until he joined the Church of Jesus Christ! It was sweet! I love the Gospel so much.

It was funny because after we all ate the food and they invited the pastor and his wife to eat with us. While talking to them I asked where he was from. He said he was from the pueblo Santa Maria Citendeje.  We asked him if he knew the Segundo Rangel family who lives there. He said they are part of his family. ooooooo. We just baptized his family.

Another fun story. This last week I went harvesting corn! I put on jeans for the first time in almost 2 years and we went to the field. It was sweet. This old member hurt his back so we went to do some service. There is SO MUCH corn. So what we did looked like nothing. It was fun though and super tiring. I got pretty sunburned haha my neck hasn’t seen the sun for a while. haha We are going on Friday with some other members again to help. I will try to get some pictures. Using machetes! haha

Quick update on our investigators. They are doing well, and are all ready to be baptized. They all have accepted fechas [dates] to be baptized at some point, but for some reason they have some fear to take the next step. It is frustrating because they are progressing, but when they don’t take this next step, they just are in front of a wall and just don’t continue progressing. I think they then loose interest. We are trying to resolve their doubts though. 

One cool story. We have this lady that works in the pet shop below us (did I tell you there is a pet shop below my apartment? it is great. there are always puppies :) ) and she is super good.  She has done all the homework we leave her. She is reading the Book of Mormon, she reads every folleto [pamphlet] and has watched meet the Mormons. The only think is her boss won’t let her go to church... But anyway, my companion the other day said a prayer to help us find a new family to teach. We went down the stairs and Nora says ¨hey my family wants you to come talk to them next Wednesday¨. Elder Goodrich and I looked at each other and just said ¨that was fast¨. haha. Nora says her family is almost done with the Book of Mormon! WHAT?! I am excited to see what happens tomorrow.

There is nothing really else that happened this past week. I ate Chinese food for the first time in 2 years. It didn’t really taste the same, but I am still alive.

I love the Gospel, love the mission, and love the Book of Mormon. We are so lucky to have everything we have. I am so grateful for all the blessings in my life. I miss you a ton! But the time is going fast and I really have to enjoy the time I have in Mexico. Love you!

-Elder Thomas