No need for fancy words...just love

Hey Family!

So It was good talking with you on christmas. Pretty fun stuff. Sounds like a lot of good stuff is happening out there in hawaii. Things here in Cali are going way good. It was fun this morning we got to help a sister out with her back yard. man one of nicest yards i have ever seen! i mean looked like the magazines haha. her name is carmen and we are teaching her the lessons and sharing the message with her. she is a super nice lady i love that sister. so we got to cut some trees and make some borders for the garden and take some ferns out. i took some pictures. before and after pictures. it's sweet to see the difference. man we should show how good we work for free haha. we are going to go back and help somemore next week. But i forgot to tell you the story how we got to talk with her again. Well it was kinda the same deal with the other family and so it was hard to get a hold of her and set a time to come back. but we went to carol to her and she loved it. she told us to come back that wednesday and it was a super good visit. she told us how we were the only ones who sticked through the hard times with her and how she feels close to us and just feels different when we come over and we have only been there twice no joke! so it's not even that much. but she took our hands and looked us in the eyes and told us that and thanked us. it made me realize how simple God's work is. so simple it passes over our heads if we don't pay attention. God doesnt require fancy words for us to speak or huge acts of service. he requires us to love and if we love our brothers and sisters we just talk to them, love um, visit them and offer to help and the spirit is what makes those acts powerful. it's kind of like the story in the Book of Mormon with Ammon. how he just served the king and then did more. my companion and me were talking last night just how so many people are having hard times and getting mistreated. taking their hope away and leaving them with sadness and worry but i realized you know what? true love fixes everything. we can be the people to love them and help them because we know God's plan and that he still loves um and we can give them a reason to hope. that's the good stuff! i love being on my mission and learning that but i know i don't have to be a missionary to do it.

But funny thing going back to carmen, she asked what can she do for us and we told her well listen to the message haha and she told us oh yeah i have plenty time for you guys... so that was sweet! it's going to bless her so much we are pretty stoked.

Funny story.. so we were biking to an appointment and we were kinda late and i waved to this one guy and he asked a question about if their was a bike shop or something nearby. i don't know but we pulled over and started talking to him and he asked hey so you all just talk to everyone and we were like yup... then he asked well why were you going to not talk to me haha. so it was kinda funny he was getting on us for almost passing by him. good thing we stopped...

Ok well i got to go, but have a good week!

LOVE you guys
Elder Gidiyaon..haha
Elder Thomas

Scary...but nice

Hey whats up family,

We had a way good week.. a ton of stuff happened but haha i can't remember right now what it was.. my bad! Just know it was really good.. oh We did meet with a family and for the first time we talked with the dad because he was in Mexico for a few weeks and so we didn't meet him until this week. It was crazy too becuase he walked in and he looked pretty tough and angry too. so we were like oh man... but we talked with him and he sat in. it turned out good. i mean he's a nice guy. well they are a nice family. But that night we taught the plan of salvation and it was way good. it seems like a long time since that lesson, hopefully i didn't tell you this before. if i did..then my bad but it's a really good one anyways. so we started to talk about the atonement and invited them to be baptized this month. but i mean the spirit was super strong. you knew that it wasn't us asking but God and i know they felt that... because they were quiet! i mean not one noise. not even a no... and this family is a strong catholic family but they felt the spirit that they couldn't deny it and say no. it was a really good experience. the crazy thing too is that their kids listen in too but they don't know a ton of spanish so it's kinda hard for them to understand. but after we asked them to be baptized in spanish they knew it was a question and so they asked us to say it in english and when we said it in english one of the kids said yeah i would be baptized. so one of the kids wants to be baptized! it was cool. only thing is he is moving up to Fresno this week so we are gonna send the missionaries up there for them to visit with him. so we are stoked for that!

Oh we also went and stopped by this one kid that we are teaching. He's only like 15 but super cool. well after two weeks of losing contact with him, we stopped by again and talking a little bit more about the restoration and it went really good. we ended up inviting him to be baptized december 31 and he said yeah. so right now we are just helping him continue to read and pray and also come to church. we are trying to talk to his parents. but no such luck right now they are always at work. but we keep praying for an opportunity. so it will come. So far things are going good. really good. It's super cool especially right now because we go around sharing christmas messages, inviting people to remember the real reason for the holiday and inviting them to learn more about Christ. Its pretty sweet.

Anyways i'm doing really good. gotta get back to work. so i'll talk to you next week.

love you guys!
Elder Thomas

The Flying Calendar

Hey whats up family,

Hope thanksgiving was good. it was pretty sweet here. we got invited to this one members house to go eat dinner there and it was some good stuff! there were these one stuffed mushroom things.. oh bradduh those things were crazy good! it was nice to have mashed potatoes too, haha i haven't had that in a long long time. so things are going way good right now. we got tons of appointments this week. it's gonna be sweet!! i got to tell you about some stuff that happened yesterday. Well we got to teach this one girl, she is 16 but is super open to the message. we stopped by yesterday and we shared our testimonies and why we're here being missionaries and we left her with a Book of Mormon and we are gonna come back tomorrow and teach the restoration. She is way nice and picks up things from the spirit real quick which is cool. so theres alot of potential right there. But ok this story is the sickest one ever. most coolest miracle. so last night we planned to go see this one less active guy named fernando and we didn't know him or anything, we just decided we would try and pass by and invite him to learn again and come back to church. so we find the house and were walking up to it when he opens the door and comes outside and just welcomes us in. It was a blessing because this past week for some reason we were just not able to get in many houses and so we go inside and he just told us that we couldn't have come at a more perfect time and he was just asking who sent us. but really no one sent us. we just wanted to go and stop by and see him and so it really was God. s o we told um God sent us and he was just super thankful we passed by. before we started anything or even talking he just asked if he could say the prayer and he just really needed that visit because he hasn't been to church in years and hasn't even heard the gospel in years, no visits nothing...and he just has been having a hard time too because he drinks and that just has been killing him inside and he feels really bad. but this guy is just ready and so we had a lesson with him and it went way way way good. So we left him a chapter to read and we set up another appointment for this friday. so we are excited to help him come back to church and the whole 100 yards baby.

Oh and its crazy its almost december! november flew by way too quick and i was tired of seeing how much time was flying by so i threw away the calendar haha. that way i don't know what day it is or anything and when its time for home. it will just pop out of no where. so that's my plan. Because everyone i talk to is like oh wow well elder your almost done... so i'm just gonna stay in denial haha. wait ah i forgot what i was gonna say. oh so for december we have a christmas activity in our ward. it's gonna be a dinner kinda thing, but we wanted it to be more missionary work kus thats really what the activities are for. so one of the sisters came out with a sweet idea of having a church tour, and with each room have one of the groups like young women or young men, priesthood all of those groups share a presentation of a part of the life of Jesus Christ, so it is gonna be really good. i'm stoked. so right now we are trying to set it all up and everything and get a lot of people there too so the activity can be good.

Let's see what else is happening...well nothing much. everything is going pretty good here. trying to invite more and more people to Christ. it's really cool. man i'm just glad i'm here. hope everything is going good there in hawaii. oh and eat some hawaiian food for me! i miss that heavenly stuff. But there is this one place called big kahunas that just moved down here in our area and we got cupons for it so i'll see if it lives up to the real stuff. i hope so! well love you guys alot...

Love,
Elder Thomas

Your prayers will be answered

Hey family!

Yeah sorry for the late email, we went to go play soccer earlier with a couple latino guys. it was way sweet. good intense game.. but now i don't have a lot of time to email. Anyways, things are going way good. we have been walking every where though. by the end of the day my legs are dead sore haha so hopefully i'm getting rid of these chicken legs i got over here. but we got a call from the bike shop and we are finally gonna get my companion's bike back today. so it'll be a lot easier to move around. oh, so i'll just tell you some sweet stories that happened this past week. we were trying super hard to get some work happening and having someone progress and do things but it seemed like it just wasn't happening. This past sunday night we were out working and it was heavy raining. so we go to this one appointment and they ditched out on it and weren't there and we were just like.. tired of it all, so we just decided to pray and ask for help and for someone to just listen to us. Right after we prayed we turned around and knocked the door that was right next to our appointment and this guy comes and answers the door and says oh man you guys are out working in the rain, your message must be good, so i'll listen to what you have to say... and man that was crazy! Pretty cool miracle, answer to the prayer and we went in and taught the restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he has been to every religion looking for one and hasn't found one yet but he hasn't tried the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints baby. so he is solid. he's gonna go this sunday but in english because he doesn't know a lick of Spanish so we passed him off to the other elders.

Well i gotta go but that's a little quick story to let you know how i'm doing..which is way way good and happy. hope you guys are too. Happy thanksgiving!

love you guys

Elder Thomas

No wimpy rain can stop God's work!

Hey whats up family!

So last week was transfers but my companion and me stayed together so it's pretty sweet. but we arent in san ysidro anymore. we are up here in Imperial beach. haha you know me. always gotta be close to the water. so i'm pretty stoked to be here. It's a way nice place and we work close to the church building and our apartment which is way nice. So this past week we were pretty much trying to get a hold of all the people the sisters were visiting before we got here, and yesterday oh bradduh it was a sweet day!!

We had zone conference yesterday and President Clayton talked to us and at first i was like man i just want to work rather then go to a meeting, but it was the bomb. President Clayton he is the man! I learned some good stuff and i feel like i'm on fire, haha it's pretty crazy. He talked alot about finding and how to go out there and find people who can help build up God's kingdom and he told us to think of the area and our converts and stuff... how it will be in 40 years. It made me think about us when we got baptized. kus i mean who woulda known from the missionaries coming over to our house and sharing the message that i would be here right now having the time of my life. it's crazy, i was praying last night and i couldn't stop thanking Heavenly Father. kus i feel like he is blessing us ridiculously alot. haha its like the scriptures when it says my cup is overfilling or something like that. I mean yesterday was the bomb, ah well just right now its the bomb. God's work.. just tearing it up right now. So after the meeting yesterday we went outside and we were waiting for our ride back home and we were just chilling outside by the car still stoked to go out and work and we seen this lady working on her yard and she was this old lady. so we were like eh let's go help her and teach her the gospel haha. So we ran cross the street haha and started talking with her. she didn't even let us help which was lame! but we talked about our message and she said she was busy but we could come back another time. so woo! that's at least some potential right there. and oh cool story last night.

ok so i think i told you about it but back in the day we seen this one guy watering his lawn and so we stopped by and contacted him. it was a pretty lame contact. but we gave it to the sisters anyway kus it was in their area and well now its in our area! so we went over last night at 8, so kinda late and they said they were going to go to bed right then, but watch the skills right here - my companion asked to use the bathroom haha kus he had to go. so we went in and i started talking to them while he used the bathroom. yeah baby! and we started talking and we talked about the Book of Mormon and they were super interested about it and said they want to come to church this week!!!! one more on the miracle list. but it was cool kus you knew God was in that house helping them feel the spirit. oh and they invited us to thanksgiving with them! that family is just golden. we're stoked to teach them. they are gonna be blessed a ton! so yeah cool story

Oh and this past saturday it poured all day. and we were walking in the rain everywhere. the streets were like rivers of water it was pretty cool. we got so soaked that we just gave up trying to keep dry and just started walking through puddles and everything. we were pretty much the only guys on the street. but we went and saw this one guy tony and he came outside and had this confused face when he saw us haha and said what are you doing? and we just told him sharing the gospel like every other day. it was funny kus he thought we were crazy. but eh... God's work don't stop in no wimpy rain. so we got to meet a couple people but no one let us in so we had to just teach at the door step. i think we should just carry a fold up chair with us so we can sit down at the doorstep and teach. it was a nice day though with the rain, closest i can get to swimming right? haha. anyways the work is awesome we are seeing so many miracles it's intense. it's better then breathing i promise. like it just feels so i can't even describe it. i just know i love it alot. So everything is going way way way good here. hope everything is good back home and that you sold the kamehame house too.

I love you guys and miss you alot!

Love

Elder Thomas

sacrifices

Hey family,

So i just got a call from President Clayton, and he told me about what happened back home about Grandpa. Man that was just out of nowhere and it was sad. but thanks Dad for i guess what you told him to say. You know, to me that's just more of a testimony to me that the Gospel is true. psh. there's more to life than just this, and knowing that helps me a lot, just gives me peace. That just makes me want to share this message even more.

Oh by the way the work is going good. we didn't have any appointments set up for yesterday, but we worked our butts off, talked to everyone we could and tried to share the gospel to everyone. man when we got home, we just knocked out because we were so tired. it felt good. it's just nice to be able to work for God. i love it, i remember when i first came out i was kinda scared, i don't\ know why, about saying i'm a representive of Jesus Christ, i guess because i never really felt that good to be one. but now i get it and i'm just trying my hardest to hit my dream and that's a servant of the Lord and it feels good. well, it feels better then good. i dont know, i think there isn't a good enough word to describe it. Yesterday one of the street contacts we made, it was this lady and her fiance, they were American and asked us if we could help them out with something and of course we did and they were just way thankful and we told them about our message. they don't live here but they will be here until tonight so we are going to stop by and give them a Book of Mormon, and it was just a cool blessing. something that stuck out to me this past week is that sacrifices brings blessings. we should face sacrifice with courage and with faith knowing that we will be better for the sacrifices we make.

We have been trying really hard and making sacrifices, not big ones i mean it's not a big deal. but we just keep trying and pushing and it's crazy to see all the blessings we get. to me they are huge blessings. This past tuesday we went to stop by an appointment and she wasn't there but her sister was. and it was actually her that we wanted to talk to in the first place. and so we went in and started talking and it went well. she has her own beliefs and doesn't want to change religion or go to church and we were kinda bummed but we kept going kus she said she was willing to listen so we keep talking and at one part we just asked towards the end. hey can we help you with your house.(kus she had some stuff to do in it like cut trees.) and she just looks at us and starts balling.i mean she started crying hard core. she told us that no one ever asks her if she needs help. come to find out she has been praying for help because shes having a hard time. shes always working and is just super busy. and she does everything by herself pretty much and so she was touched by us wanting to help and we are going over tomorrow and teach her afterwards baby! so it'll be good. crazy how some times people have no help. man it's crazy we are all brothers and sisters anyways we gotta help each other out. we gotta spread the love and help each other. i think it would make this place alot better.

well family i love you guys alot sorry i have to write my letter to president before time stops. Have a good week.hope everything goes well with grandpa's funeral. il be praying.

Love Elder Thomas

Doing the 180

Whats up Family!

So this week was way good. it started off pretty tough but we had some cool stuff happen this week. First story. you might want to brace yourself for this one haha. Ok, so the bishop in the english ward gave us this referal to go visit. it was an older couple and we stoped by once but didn't get a chance to go in and teach.. but we decided to stop by again this past saturday and she answered the door and she told us that she wasn't interested and kept going to say that she is studying with the catholic and her husband doesn't want us to come over and just all this stuff how she doesn't want to listen.. and you'd think that we would take a hint and leave. but i don't know. i felt like we should stay and just share with her more and talk about the book of mormon and how Jesus Christ came to America and just our special message. and not joking or trying to be corny or anything. but the spirit was so strong in there, even she felt it and completely changed her. she told us that she has never heard that before and how it was just blowing her mind. so she said she is going to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. She started asking us about church and when it starts and where it is without even talking to her about that. it was pretty cool, and then afterwards she couldn't stop saying thank you. I thought that was a pretty crazy story. pretty sweet how the spirit can turn it around 180. it was pretty much a miracle. at the beginning she was happy with where she was at and didn't want to know anything else. but at the end she was committed to read the Book of Mormon. And afterwards we were talking about how sweet that was. and man if we didn't listen to the spirit and keep talking she would have never known and would have just kept on going like nothing happened, and we could have missed out on a cool experience.

Oh then just yesterday we were riding bike to an appointment when we passed by this one guy on the street. my companion was in front and i was following and we got to the intersection when i felt like i should turn back and talk to the guy. so i did but my companion couldn't hear me and so he kept going. so i pretty much had to talk to the guy by myself. but he was a super nice guy. not really religious but he was open to us coming over and talking more about our message of Jesus Christ and so i was stoked. pretty cool contact. Oh man funny story... so this past sunday we had two dinner apointments back to back. The first one we had was super good food. so i ate choke and i was super full. not too good of an idea though because in an hour we ate again and they loaded our plates. me and my companion were jsut looking at each other wondering how we were going to do it. he was smart haha kus he put it in the container when they weren't looking so he got away with it and just went to go sit on the couch, but then i couldn't do the same thing. i musta been there for an hour i think trying to down that food. i made a good attempt. close but no cigar, but oh man i could not even move after that. but the good thing was we taught them a lesson so i could recover. haha

Anyways, we have been talking to alot of people walking on the street and its been pretty good. we are finding a ton of more people to teach so we are getting more and more work. its funny too because sometimes you run into people and come to find out they are actually members but they either just moved here and don't know where the church is or they are less active. pretty small world. we ran into a guy the other day and he started calling us hermanos! he told us he was a member and gave us his address so we could visit him. any ways lets see what else happened this week.

oh we had a halloween party here at church this past week and all the missionaries in the ward decorated a room. it was the bomb and we carved pumpkins which turned out pretty sweet too. oh but what was funny was. afterwards we went to go get a california burrito at this taco shop and my companion started talking to this cashier.. his spanish is good but he's still learning and so he asked her if she had any plans that night for halloween, but it sounded like he was asking her out in spanish it was hilarious. i just started laughing and she just tried avoiding us after that. pretty funny stuff.

Ok well family love you alot i gotta go but have a good week!

Love

Elder Thomas

If you are breathing I would like to talk to you

Hey family,

hope everyone is doing good. having a good time. So we went to the temple today.. it was way sweet, i love that place. This past week was super good. A ton of stuff happened. Just yesterday President came to the zone and was giving interviews and i wanted to see if i could get an extension, but he said nah just because it's really rare, they just want us to go back and yeah i was hoping maybe to stay a little longer. never hurts to try ah. so that happened yesterday and afterwards we had an appointment which we brought one member with us, so we were way stoked... but that guy wasn't even there!! it was a huge bummer. so we were walking away and we seen this lady walking and we said hi and just started talking to her. come to find out it was this lady we have been trying to get a hold of for a couple weeks now. so it was a blessing that the appointment fell through or else we probably woulda missed her... super nice lady too. way busy but she said she is going to call us when she gets some time to sit down and talk the message.

Oh and you know the family i told you about...well we stopped by and taught them last tuesday... and it was sweet!! such a good time... they were just eating it up. it was way cool because they just kept asking questions and we talked about the temple and families, the book of mormon, prophets in america. it was crazy. they loved it and they understood everything. it was cool to see kus garantee it was all the Lord. He prepared them alot! probably the coolest family i ever taught on my mission... It's so wierd still because i promise they remind me of us back in the day. family of 4 and it's kinda cool to think that now i'm in the shoes of Elder Cheney and Elder Sorenson. Pretty sweet stuff. So i'm still stoked to keep going back and teaching um more and seeing them change and get all the choke blessings for their family.

Funny story... so on Sunday i don't know why but our appointments were not going through and everyone was not home. it was like a ghost town and were getting tired of not teaching, so we decided to just look for someone breathing that we could talk to. Then we saw this one guy vacuuming his car... but we said nah... let's keep going. then right when we passed the vacuum turned off and so we turned back around and went to talk with him. way cool guy and he seemed super interested too. believes in God a lot and wants to know more about God's plan and it was just the smoothest street contact we ever made haha. pretty cool stuff.

Oh so yeah it was my comps birthday yesterday and it was sweet kus he got hooked up... we had cake and food... some good stuff. the other elders came in at night and threw confetti and stuff all over the place. it was pretty funny when we woke up. still have yet to clean it hahaha... some day right?

Ah lets see... so this one guy that we were teaching... his name is alfredo and we have been teaching him for a while now and he knows everything is true so its fustrating kus he just won't get baptized, plus he needs to get married first. but what is cool is the other day after this lesson we had, he came outside and said you know what? i want to get baptized. which was good news. he said sometime in november and we'll see when and get him and his girlfriend ready for it!! Ton of stuff happening out here. oh and i heard from elder Reagan in poway that Auroras kids that we were teaching got baptized! super happy when i heard that.

Anyways, love you guys have a good week!
Love
Elder Thomas

Border lights

So this week was pretty sweet!! There was a lot of stuff that happened down here first off super cool story. So there is this one lady that we talked to. she works at this house where we are trying to teach the husband there. She doesn't live there... she lives in Tijuana and just crosses every day to work and take care of his kids. The thing is though, we would try pass by and he is never home. he is always working. so we started talking to her and we talk about the message and she is just eating it up. she is a pretty open and is a nice lady. So anyways, right before we left we invited her to say the last prayer and she did. I mean it was unreal, during the prayer you could just feel the spirit. it was way strong... and she just started balling while she said the prayer and she told us how she just feels different when we are there and when we talk and share the message... so that was a pretty cool experience right there. Oh and she lives way close to the border too in some apartments and when we ride to her house you can see the border fence. it's pretty intense, super nice looking fence too.. haha and then there are a bunch of lights like the kind in a football stadium shining at this open field right on our side of the border. i t was unreal. There is just one complete change from here and Tijuana. it's so weird. i gotta take a picture and show it to you guys.

We had this other cool story too this week with this one family. There are a ton of people in the family. but only the mom and her daughter are members and they just got baptized like a month ago. They are a way cool family because they Love the color purple... haha they have some pretty sweet shoes and stuff. so got that connection there...haha anyways, so we stopped by this one day and her other daughter was there and we started talking and everything. come to find out, she's having a really hard time and we shared with her how we know that our message can change her life and make it better with Jesus Christ. I don't know, but when i said it this time, i guaranty knew it was true and it wasn't just me saying something but rather i had like that testimony that it could happen because i guess i've seen it with me, just in my mission. as the time flys by (way too quick) i have changed. it's pretty cool.

Like right now, man i love the scriptures. I'll be reading and reading and then i start getting into it, haha and it's more intense then surfing... just learning more about sutff. I don't know, it's hard to explain it, but i know it's cool and i love it haha. One thing i was thinking about - we were at this one guy's house and he is living with his girlfriend and just doesn't want to get married till they are 30! but they are only 20... so they want to wait 10 years... and we were talking and talking and trying to help them see why it's important and how it's a commandment. but it was just not working and it was weird because i was thinking and then a thought came to my mind about the Book of Mormon and so i asked if he was reading it and he said no he hasn't read it in a while. so we started talking about that and it just made me realize... before we understand anything... we need to read God's plan for us. we need to read what he tells us to do and so when we start off with that, everything else makes sense. at least for me each time i read more and more i'm like dang.. Gods plan is perfect.

Oh and this past sunday we had a mission fireside down here in San Ysidro. it went pretty well. a lot of people showed up and so it was a good turn out and the recent converts who shared their testimonies were bomb too. all of them are way strong... and plus we all sang in a choir too. So do you know if there are mission firesides there in the stake. because if there are... you should check um out! they are always way good. i love um. oh man, i better send this now because we gotta leave. but i love you guys!

Talk to you guys next week!

Elder Thomas

NOTICE: This email message is fo

Sean's pineapple upside down inside out cake

Hey family,

What's up!? Hope everyone is having a good time. this past week flew by like nothing, just took one wink and gone. It was pretty good. We visited a ton of people. there is a ton of work here in San Ysidro. So much people here, it's pretty sweet because we get to talk to a bunch of people on the streets. funny story that happened yersterday. We were riding our bikes and we saw these two girls further up and then these two guys in a fancy car pull up and start talking to them and stuff but they just shrugged um off and kept walking and so we got there and my companion rides past the car and says watch how it's really done and so we go and contact them.. come to find out one of their moms is a member and so it was pretty cool. but they werent really interested either.. but it was some pretty funny stuff.

Oh heres another story.. so remember how i told you how i bought this pineapple cake. ok so i thought it looked way good. it was kinda like a pineapple upside down cake, but i didn't know what do with the pineapple. First i thought well shoot i can't put it on the top or else it would sink to the middle.. so i was trying to figure out how to make it look like the picture and i thought.. ok well i'll just let it cook till it gets a lil hard and then put it on the top. but after cooking it . it looked way ghetto. but tasted super good. and one of the sisters later released a little revelation about baking pineapple cake and said you gotta put it on the bottom and flip upside down. haha i was ohhh now that makes sense. so watch out.. now i am gonna be a pro baker.

Oh something else cool happened to us this week. we got this referral to stop by this guy's house who went to the mormon batallion. so this one night we stopped by and it was kinda late no one looked home. but decided what the heck lets just knock anyways.. i kinda got scared kus the guy opened the door super quick and we started talking with him and everything.. super cool guy. he kept thanking us for coming over and really wants to learn more with his family, which wasn't there. it was only him. but we have an appointment to go see him tomorrow. so we are pretty stoked to go visit them. it's a family of 4. the son is 11 and the daughter is 9....THAT was like us!! crazyness! it's a sign.. haha.no but it should be really good. i got a good feeling about that family.

We taught some good people this past week too. This one guy miguel, he's a little bit older and he can't read but he listens to his wife read him the book of mormon each night out loud. and he is going to come to church this week, we just have to find him a ride and he told us too that he wants to get baptized, which was pretty sweet.

OH and we are teaching this other guy named Israel. we are teaching him and trying to help him get ready for his baptism on the 22nd. he's a stud. he is a really good guy. keeps all the commandments and is just way willing to follow the gospel. the other sisters are teaching his aunty or something like that. cool story about her.. we went to go give her a blessing. and the sisters were teaching her about baptism and she just wasn't having it, she just wasn't listening, nothing, just kept saying i can't, i can't, i neet to know more, i need to know more, and so we just stopped and gave her a blessing.. and boom! complete change. it was intense. she just looked up and said ok here i am, and will do what you ask. she became more willing to listen to what the spirirt has to say. so i know there is some power in blessings. any ways i gota get going but

LOVE YOU

Elder Thomas

Might as well be in Mexico

Hey whats up Ohana.

So yeah right now they transfered me to San Ysidro. It's pretty much Tijuana because its right by the border. its the furthest south place in the whole mission. It is so sweet!! I'm still on bike and it's kinda lame because we don't live in our area. So everyday we got to bike a couple miles to get to the area, but it's all good. It just means my legs are gonna get huge! nah probably not haha i'll just loose weight darn it. It's a pretty small area but a ton of people live there and are always walking on the street which is way nice because we just talk to a ton of people walking everyday. It's awesome too kus its pretty ghetto and all the people are really nice, well the ones i met so far. It's funny too because this one family they are from Panama! haha so i told them how we went there to surf and they were all excited, really cool family. So much stuff is happening here. I'm a district leader again but the whole district is pretty much sisters, it's kinda wierd. Ah they are all way nice though. So this week i was gonna make district meeting hawaiian style haha and bring some pineapple cake. It's kus i saw the box shopping last week and that thing looked good! so im gonna try and make it for everyone.

My new companion is Elder Krasovec, he is from Texas. He's a stud, super funny guy. We get along way good it's crazy. unbelievable. So we just work our butts off everyday and it just feels really good. He can sing too, so we have this plan. we are just gonna play uke and sing to people.. trying to find some more people to teach. I'll let you know how it goes next week.. haha. People might try to stone me kus i sound so bad, but whatever can't lose anything for trying.

Oh, so how was General Conference this week.. Pretty bomb!! shoot that was so good! learned alot of cool stuff. revelation off the hizzie. This one talk Elder Clayton said that this is the time where the gospel will fill the world. everyone will hear it... and i just felt like i heard in my head.. yups and its gonna fill San Ysidro too. So right now we are working on getting a branch down in San Ysidro because right now we meet in a ward but its kinda far from San Ysidro and so we are gonna get a ton of members down there to start a branch!

Lets see. oh something cool that has happened here in San Ysidro is i feel like my charity has shot up alot. it's not like i did anything special... just prayed for it and it just came... its intense... like i can't see anything wrong with my companion i love everyone and heck i iron my companion's shirts everyday...haha it's so wierd but feels way good. just to want to help someone out kus you are actually a good friend and everything. so yups it's pretty cool. i'm loving it here right now.

Oh super funny story! i thought it was hilarious. so we went to this one family and i told um i was from hawaii and they were oohhhhh thats cool.. but then they asked me where it was...and i thought they were kidding. but they werent!! They had no idea where it was and so i had to show them on a globe. So i guess some people don't even know hawaii exists...man they are just missing out haha.

Anyways cool story.. So this past week we were biking to an appointment with someone so we were booking it there, when we saw this older man with a cart walking. so we waved and when we waved his cart tipped over and all his stuff fell out. which was awesome!! kus then we got off our bikes and started to help him and talk with him... He was interested in learning too. so now we are gonna stop by and teach um. so yeah if you're ever walking or anything and you see someone carrying some stuff. just kinda push their stuff down, by accident, and then start a conversion up and share the gospel... easy haha nah i'm just kidding.

Well, i hope everything is going good and your having a good time.

Love you guys

Elder Thomas

Here today - gone tomorrow

So yup Bad news! Im getting transfered again. they just called us earlier today..Its so weird because I have only been here for three weeks, so im way suprised that im leaving so quick. But thats okay that just means i learned everything i needed to here in PB haha.. pretty quick.. nah well see where i go now. Hopefully its back to spanish. that would be the bomb!

Anyways i gotta tell you about this cool story/sweet huge miracle that happened the past 2 weeks.. sorry about not writing last week, never had time.. so now you know im still alive. OK so two weeks ago, after sacrament meeting, this guy dressed normal came up to us and told us that he wanted to start taking the lessons. His name is destry. He's a way cool guy. So we started to teach him and everything and he told us how his parents got baptized when he was a kid and then he didn't really want to do it. so he went his own way. but after all the trouble and hard times. he knows he needs to do it. Man i mean no joke.. he is the most willing guy i've met on my mission.. he listens to the spirit so well. its pretty cool to see. But anyways, the first lesson we had with him, we went to the mormon batallion and we started to talk about Joseph Smith and he said he had some doubts about whether he was a prophet or not and we watched the movie and i was just praying that he would feel the spirit and so after the movie was done. he turned to us and asked us if we felt it.. and i was like heck yeah we felt that. Then he just tells us that he knows he's a prophet. So after we gave him a Book of Mormon. that all happened last week. We got to talk to him again this past sunday and he told us that right now he is reading in Alma 32. Shoot i was so stoked when he said that. he has like this burning desire to follow God's path no matter what and it's way nice to see. Its just cool because you know he's gonna be alright. he can get through anything because he understands his true purpose and is gonna give everything to stay on the path..because sometimes i feel bad for people that have hard times but they dont know God and they reject the message too. i just know that they are going to have alot of sketchy times. but if someone is so willing and has good desires, then bam they got a way bright future. So he has a baptismal date for december 25.. which is a bummer because i won't be able to see but that's okay. his dad is gonna come done with the rest of his family to baptize him. it'll be a way good experience.

So that's just a huge miracle that we saw this past week. But that's just one of many. Yeah its a big one but there have been alot more, maybe not as big or maybe some people wouldn't call them miracles, but i believe they are. This one time while we were headed to the mormon batallion to meet with Destry, this old lady was carrying a couple bags up some stairs and i just went up to give her some help and we actually carried it a couple blocks. but it was the nicest old lady and we didn't get her information or anything but she was still very thankful and she said there needs to be more people like that, who want to help in the world. She didn't even know anything about missionaries until that point. So that was pretty cool

.

That same night heading back to the bus we saw this guy walking and i just said hello and waved and then we started talking and everything. same thing as the nice old lady.. had no idea who we were. But we talked about the message we have and he liked it alot.. he doesn't live in our area, but some other missionaries will be able to teach him. so it's all good.

Oh here's a funny story. we met this guy walking on the streets. and he asked what company we work for.. haha. just a ton of people still dont know who we are.. even in the states! pretty funny stuff. anyways we told him we are mormons and he asked us what that meant and he asked if that means .well pretty much stuff about the law of chasity and then all of a sudden he just is really impressed. and gave us props.. haha which was pretty sweet. so we gave him a card and everything.

Oh by the way, in PB, there's a mountain called mount soledad. its pretty gigantic. and we had to bike up it to the top pretty much because we were going to visit someone. Holy smokes it was way hard.. then i remembered back in the day when the missionaries would come visit us and would have to go up the hill. thats ridiculous. haha then when they came we would always give um some gatorade. ooohh that would have been so good afterwards. oh well. But it was all good afterwards going down that thing. we went about 40 almost 50. the speed odometer clocked us. going that fast. haha it was pretty fun. Anyways i got to start packing for tomorrow.

love you guys. have a good week!

Elder Thomas

Eagle Scout skills

Hey!

So this past sunday, we got to go back up to poway to see Ricardo and Flor's baptism, which was sweeet!! It was cool because their dad, who was less active got to baptize them! so that made it even better. Then I got to see the members and everything up there. It was nice to hear spanish again too. i miss it, i knew i loved serving in spanish and teaching and just meeting new spanish people, but i didn't realize how much i love them. they are awesome people and their culture, man its pretty cool... then at the baptism, Alfredo the guy we baptized back in june, well he was there too and he had his tie on and everything, looking good. He's even got the aaronic priesthood now! i was just thankful you know that i could see that. I mean he gets it, he has the truth now and understands it and he is still doing good, taking the next steps that he gotta take and preparing to get married in the temple. just seeing that and knowing that is the best thing i ever received.

Anyways i got those other pictures too. so i'm sure you heard of the black out. well just for those who didnt know. me and my companion are eagle scouts and so after being told to go back to the apartment... we thought that we would put our eagle scout knowledge to good use and we made an oil lamp... with a bowl and a toothpick (as the wick) and then wait for it...WD-40 and a pair of pliers to hold the toothpick. So we put that in the bowl and it worked super good and it made some good light so i left the room to get something and then the room got alot brighter... so at that moment i kinda got a little prideful about how good it was working then when i got back to the room it was a huge flame... haha so it kinda backfired on us and then we put our fire in the bowl outside on the porch so it wouldnt burn the apartment down, haha. Nevertheless it did provide us with light for a short amount of time haha...

Love, Elder Thomas

Now you see him...now you don't

So this past saturday i got a call at lunch time telling me to pack my suitcases - at first i didnt believe it so i called a second time haha. But yeah we had an emergency transfer meeting 3 hours after the call. it all went pretty quick! but its crazy because you'll never quess where i got transfered too... Pacific Beach...English! So now im not in spanish any more and its way weird, plus im super close to the beach haha and we were trying to find a couple referrals and no joke we were so close to the beach driving and it was ridiculous. felt so weird but i wasnt doing anything wrong haha. so yeah im doing english work now in a humungus ward! i walked in and asked my comp "shoot so how do you know everybody..?" then he told me you dont haha.. yet im so used to saying hi to everyone even before sacrament starts. Then the bishop asked me to go up and give my testimony since it was fast and testimony meeting. it was pretty good. weird though that i was speaking english im pretty sure i slipped in a couple spanish words in there haha.

It was funny kus there is a hawaiian family in the ward and so i thought i would be funny and use the aloha thing since everyone else does it. but the hawaiian brother went right before me and did it so he stole it haha.. but it was cool kus we ate at their house this past sunday. super sweet family! oh the food was way good and it felt like home which was nice. One of the sons is a RM and he has a uke and taught us a couple songs. So im gonna practice and get good. play some musical numbers up here in the firesides and stuff. good tool to find too. But they said next time i come over i can send a request for whatever hawaiian food i want to eat!!!

Anyways another sweet story that happened in Poway. We were trying to visit this recent convert but he wasn't home so we started talking to his grandma and while we were talking to her.. the son comes in and just sits down, then asks us what we are doing? like what are we talking about? so we told him about our message and How we invite others to come unto Christ. Then he just starts telling us his story and how he has a huge drinking problem and how his wife took the kids and left him.. I felt way bad. But i was really trying to understand where he was coming from but it was way hard. but then he told us that the hardest part was that he got put in jail.. so he was pretty much super depressed no hope no happiness nothing.. and all he does now to try feel better is drink more. But just throughout the whole time i felt bad for him but i didnt feel hopeless for him only because i know that there is the atonement of Jesus Christ. We don't need to fear about being sad forever or feel like we are alone, because of what he did and that he provides a way out and that way is for every single person. and so we told him that and we said basically thats what we do and we told him it was possible for him to give up drinking and follow Jesus Christ to happiness and the spirit was just way strong in the lesson and at the end we gave him a priesthood blessing and after that he said he would come to church, but im not sure whats happening now since i got Emergency transfered. but maybe tomorrow i'll figure out something. Just goes to show you though that when we follow the spirit and go where we are supposed to be..God will put people in our path and we can share the love of God that we have felt with our brothers and sisters through the Gospel. Pretty amazing stuff.

Well, thats some of the good news haha. This past week was pretty intense though. with the change. A TON of stuff happened.. So like on Friday Alfredo and leticia the people from guadalajara, they came back up to Poway for a visit and so i got to see them once. they are doing way good!! Alfredo has the priesthood now and is a priest. it was way nice to see him and know that he's still doing good. But it was kind of a bummer that i left the next day.. But aparently he was going to bless the sacrament this past sunday! cool stuff ah.

Then just yesterday actually we taught this lady here in PB and she has had a lot of problems in her life and tough stuff that she went through because of drinking and smoking and all that junk. its just a testimony you know that we are blessed to know the gospel becuase its the truth and it protects us, it gives a foundation that saves us from all this other crazy stuff. its true when it says theres no other way just got to follow Jesus Christ and get access to his atonement and the only way is through us as members who already have a testimony of these things and it's our responsability to let them know.

So yeah we were talking to this lady and we were talking to the gospel and she asked wait.. so you pretty much mean if i dont get baptized then i wont be saved..lack of a better word. so we said yup pretty much because we know its true and we have the only way for them to access the atonement. and we just testified that she can get her answer from God and not just have to take our word for it. so it went way well and the spirit there was super fuerte there too.

Well alot of stories but i better end it now. So yup now i am here in PB its pretty sweet. way excited to work here, so we'll see what happens.. Oh i forgot to tell you about my companion his name is Elder Turner, he's from Draper Utah. super cool guy, we think like each other its pretty hilarious! Its been a good time so far. So good things in the future!

LOve you guys have a good week

Elder Thomas

Ding! Ding! Ding!...it's the Magic Question!

Hey Family!

So this past week was super busy!! We had so much stuff to do through the whole week. We taught like 20 lessons. it was intense! We went to the mormon batallion twice too. it was way good. We went with Aurora and her 4 kids and at first we weren't sure how to get them a ride there. but we ended up taking our ward mission leader's bus! Oh, it was so funny because its pretty old and beat up. but it was something and it helped us get them there. They enjoyed it alot too, but they are still trying to find their answer whether this is something they need to do and so we have an appointment with them today and so we shall see how they are doing.
Then just yesterday we went to the mormon batallion with Ricardo and Flor who are gonna be baptized on the 10th. They are solid, but it was funny because the last week, we couldn't get a hold of them practically the whole week and they didn't come to church so we thought oh dang, something happened and now they don't want to do it anymore. Come to find out though that they were just on a trip, so they just came back sunday night and yesterday they called us up and asked us if we could go to the Mobat and so we were stoked and it went way well. They loved it and afterwards we stopped by the temple and had a super good lesson about the temple and how families can be together forever. They are super stoked to keep going, be baptized and then enter into the temple.
Then we had a good lesson with eduardo and well the last time we left the restauracion dvd about joseph smith and he watched it and told us that he felt the spirit and believes the story and thinks its all true. So we talked about baptism and we set a date for the 17th this month. so he's doing way good too, and we planned an activity to watch the testaments at a members house. which turned out super good! he loved it, so h'es doing really good too.
Funny story - so we went to go set up the projector for the movie at the member's house and it's the brother who loves surfing and so when we walk in, his screen saver from his labtop was projected on the wall and it was this super sweet point break in mexico and it was such a nice right! haha and he starts telling the story of how they found it and it was pretty intense and funny too. i was just standing there "thinking you got to be kidding me!"trunky moment right there.. haha nah just kidding.
So ok another story - well we passed by Quirino and natalia and we went to the church to have a lesson about the plan of salvation, which turned out good, it helped them alot to understand why they are here and we ended up setting a date for the 24th this month for their baptism! So tons of people following Jesus Christ this month!!!! and we just met with them again yesterday and they asked us "so what do we need to do now to prepare us to be baptized?" ding ding ding the magic question! So we explained it more and they are willing and excited - so there we go!
Funny story - so we were talking to people and we met this one girl she was kinda gangsta. so she was talking like she was from the hood. no joke after everything we said or question we asked she was ask us "what is it?" to mean "what?". so we asked something like "oh so whats your name?" and she would say "what is it?" it was just funny. so i thought man we should just tell her the word baptism or God so she asks what is it and then boom oh well thats a good question let us explain to you who God is.. haha and just explain everything to her.
So anyways we had a lot of good stuff happen this past week, alot of the people we are teaching are really progressing and so no complaints here. But i think with everything that has happened we learned alot about patience this past week. How it really is key to be patient no matter what because things happen not always the way we planned it and it might take longer then expected, but if we are patient and not only just waiting until the time comes but enjoying and doing all we can, working hard and being optomistic in the between time, we can see miracles. Thats what we saw last week, just a ton of people keeping commitments and really preparing to be baptized. Even though our situation could give us all reason to complain and be angry and stressed out, we can choose to turn it around and make it a good thing.

So yeah a ton of good things happening i'll keep you guys updated and everything so you know whats happening!
Love you!
Elder Thomas

Strictly saimin

Alright, so this past week was way sweet! We had three people that we are teaching come to Church for the first time which was awesome. There are alot of people who are progressing - it's pretty cool to see. Francisco, the person who called us wanting us to come over, he came to Church, but he came half-way through Sacrament meeting so we had to go out and bring him in, but he loved it! Then afterwards we went to the temple and the mormon battalion. If you see the picture he is the guy on the right, in the top corner. He's a way good guy and he has a strong desire to keep learning and coming. So good things are looking up for him. He loved the temple, it was pretty sweet kus we went at night and so they had the lights on and everything, it's a super nice temple, like a castle. Then the other two people we had, Quirino and Natalia they came with their daughter, who is less active, and so it was good to see them there.

Oh, but yesterday was a way good day too. In the morning we thought, Eh! we should bust out the bikes today and go biking around and talk to people in the streets between appointments trying to find new people. For the first 5 seconds it felt good to be out and riding bike haha but then i started get tired, jeez! i'm so out of shape. i started to die riding and we got to this hill. and i was thinking, oh bradduh you gotta be kidding me! But i did make it without walking haha, a small accomplishment. So we had to walk down some stairs coming back down from the appointment and i almost ate it because my muscles, or lack thereof, were sore, it was pretty funny. Oh that reminds me... so this past Sunday a couple of young men were talking about preparing for your missions in sacrament meeting. Ooohhh, it was hilarious just because they were talking about being able to manage your money so you have enough food for the month, knowing how to shop and cook too because your going to have to do that on your missions. So me and my companion were just cracking up becuase we have been eating saimin for the past 2 weeks kus we ran out of money and so we probably just went up and gave our testimony about the truthfullness of it haha. pretty funny stuff.

Oh and yesterday we taught the dad of a member who just got baptized with her family. We have been trying to pass by but we hadn't had luck finding him because he has been really sick. But yesterday we passed by and we got to teach him and it went super good! He said he felt the Spirit and he told us a couple of stories about how he had faith in God and he is pretty strong and knows alot about God, so we are stoked to keep teaching him.

We are trying hard to do the best we can, trying to give it our all, still got a long way to keep getting better, but it's possible even though change is kinda hard. It's kinda crazy because President Donaldson, before he left, said 90 percent of people don't change by the end of there lives, they still have the same habits and everything, only 10 percent change and its crazy to think about that, maybe i already told you that but i was reading about repentance in the Book of Mormon and how it says Jesus Christ has the power to help us change and help us to leave the things and bad habits we have in order to follow him more fully. That's what I have been trying to do, and it's so much easier just to decide to follow him no matter what happens and to always have faith because then everything will go better. He will bless us tons! Maybe it's reading the scriptures, or maybe praying, or church or loving others, or sharing the Gospel whatever it is, if we choose to do it now, it will turn out better in the future and blessings will come becuase the Lord promised and he keeps his promises. That's the only reason why i can explain all the good stuff happening right now, just tons of blessings.

Oh and guess what?!! You remember the couple that got married and the husband got baptized and then they went back to Guadalajara... well, they're coming back at the end of this month baby!!! So excited to see um again. I'll let you know how they are doing, hopefully they come this week or next week, and i will take some pictures and send you um next tuesday, we'll see what happens.

Well have a good week! love you!

Elder Thomas

Pupusas!

Hey Everyone,

So yup, new transfer, but nothing is changing for us, so it's all good. I'm glad i am staying because there us a lot of stuff happening here, it's going way good.

Ok so this past Saturday, we got this random phone call from a former investigator, he was taught before i even got here, but he just called us asking if we could stop by this past Monday. Miracle! haha, and so we stopped by just yesterday and we talked about the message and the Book of Mormon, and he just ate it all up, he was super interested and it was cool to see how prepared he was to hear the message. So we are starting to teach him now.. Oh and we are teaching this part-member family, and they are from El Salvador. So this past week, we brought a member with us, who is from El Salvador too and they kicked it off together. Now they are super good friends and this past Saturday we ate dinner with them and they cooked some pupusas! super good!! Man it was some awesome food. Then the best part, the husband came to Church with his daughther this past sunday and they loved it! they stayed all three hours and afterwards he told us that he wants to keep coming.

What else is happening, lets see.. Oh you know how i said we were going to have a baptism, well that got moved back until September 10th because the dad wants to be at his son's baptism but right now he is on a trip in Mexico and so we are gonna just wait until he gets back. At least we will still be here. So yup, a ton of potential that's coming up. So be prepared haha.

Oh funny story, yesterday we passed by this one house, its an older couple, and well. each time we go to someone's house we always let the head of the house pick who they want to say the prayer. but every single time no lie, i think we are saying it wrong of something, the husband yesterday he starts freaking out. haha like no, no i can't pray, i don't know how and all this stuff, but the wife understood what we were trying to say and so she was trying to explain it to him and they just kept going back and forth arguing for a couple of minutes haha. I think next time we'll probably just pray... haha nah but it was pretty funny.

Anyways, everything is going really good and i'm doing good, having fun and working hard. Hope you guys are doing good.

Today we are going to go to the U.S.S. Midway pretty soon, so i'll take some pictures of it. But take care! Love you guys!

Elder Thomas

Donut blessings

Hey Family!

Hope you all are doing good. This past week was pretty good, kinda emailing late today because we went to the temple this morning at 11 and we just got back, it was super crowded but really good. It's always nice to go to the temple. So earlier today too in the morning we went to go help a brother with roofing, which was pretty fun. I hadn't done service in a while so it was a good workout... but after like an hour and a half my legs were killing me! haha, man it was tiring - still good though. We have another service project this Friday with our ward mission leader, Hno. Webb, it's funny because he owns his own little bus! haha and it's always just cruising right in the front and so i don't know what we are helping him with on the bus, we might paint it or just clean it up a little bit. I'll take some pictures so you guys can see.

Oh, this past Sunday we had a sweet lesson with this family like right before calling it a night. perfect timing too, we got there at 8:30 pm almost, and they let us in and we taught them about about God of course and about prayer and they really opened up and it went way well. Afterwards it was cool because the husband came out with us to our car and just thanked us for coming over and sharing God's word with them because he really appriciates it and wants to keep learning and having us over!!!! wooooo! That's what i am talking about. We are pretty stoked about that. This other night, on Saturday, we went to go visit this super nice lady, and we taught the restoration and she thought God was a spirit and some kind of energy but we explained it and taught her about how He has a body and that it's the Holy Spirit we feel when we get that energy or whatever she was saying, and she just sat there amazed and was wow! ok yeah yeah that makes sense. So another fist pump! We were pretty stoked again and she's reading and praying, so now we are just trying to help her get to Church.

What else is happening... Oh Ricardo and Flor are still coming to Church, still ready for their baptism, it's on the 20th, but we have transfers this next week already, which is crazy! If you guys wouldn't mind praying that time goes by slower kus man it's going by too quick! So yeah, and we the branch is getting a little bit smaller too because a family is moving out, which is a bummer. Oh well, we got a couple more families that we are teaching and still trying to find more.

Um ...oh, funny story. We were in this appointment this week and we were talking about the Apostles - Peter, James and John. But i was saying their names, and i said "si, San Pedro, San Juan and then.." then i dont know why, but i couldn't say san santiago. Instead i said san diego haha. Everyone started cracking up, it was pretty funny. So now we got another new Apostle San Diego.

So yups. everything is going really good here. The work is getting better each week, it's like this ongoing ramp. which is way good we just got to keep it going. Oh, we found out that there is a less-active member who works at a donut shop...oh yeah baby! So we went there the other morning and got some donuts! She's a super nice lady too. i guess we got to keep going and visiting her.. oh well no complaints here. Hopefully one of these days the owner of L and L will be a member. Still got the fingers crossed.

Wel,l hope everything is going good. Love you guys! Have a good week!

Elder Thomas

The miracle

Hey Everybody!

Ok... so everything is going pretty good, not too bad of a week! But before i forget i got to tell you this funny story. So we went to go visit our branch Mission Leader this past week and oh man it was so funny! Alright so we go over and he comes out and asks us if we would like some bread so after some hesitancy we obviously said Yes! Something better then saimin, haha. So he comes out and says "Elders.. there are two loaves in the bag. Last night there was only one loave in here and now there are two!!" and he was amazed and then he asked us if we prayed for food, haha...and his wife walked in and he told her the same thing and then she said that there was three, but he was like no no there was only one. it was so funny then he went to the shelves to see the can food and he came back with just this amazed face again and told us that there were only two cans of fish and now there are four! haha... oh man, we started cracking up so hard. So we had another bread and fish miracle right here in Poway by our Ward Mission Leader!

So anyways this past week was pretty good. We got to go to the Mormon Batallion with a member. It was super good. We watched the Restoration movie, the one about the prophet Joseph Smith and the beginnings of the Church during in that time period. It helped her a ton. She could feel like that's what she is going through and so she's excitied to keep moving on and trying to progress and follow Jesus Christ even more. So we were stoked that it went well.

We also taught this other older couple and this time we actually got to watch another short video clip, and it's good because sometimes people don't get it, and they didn't get it before, but after that video, they understood it a lot better. So as a result, we got some people who are moving along.

Then what else... oh, yesterday we found this lady who moved from El Salvador and shes been here for a couple years working to send money to her family, but she hasn't been to church and so she is less active and she is living with this other family. She is a super nice lady, so we got to talk with her and so we are working on trying to help her get Sundays off so that she can come to Church, it was just a good appointment, then as we were leaving... the family that lives with her pulled in the driveway and we started talking with them as well. Come to find out that the wife is a member too and so we're gonna start visiting them too and teaching the husband, who's pretty open to learning. That's so sweet!

Oh and then we had this other appointment with another investigator. Previously we had given him a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read and he read it!! He really has good intentions because he felt the Holy Spirit tell him that these things are important and that he needs to look into it and do it. So that was another sweet blessing right there. The work is shooting up out here though. It's been really good. The only junk thing is when you have a lot of stuff to do the time goes by too quick! but oh well... can't do anything about that.

Oh yeah... ok, so i think i told you the story about that one less active member who we gave a blessing to and now she is back at Church way strong? Well this past week she gave a talk! It was super good. She talked about prayer during Sacrament meeting. it was just pretty cool to see someone get it and understand everything and do it too. That's one thing i love out here, is to just to see the people change and then to see how good they feel when they do the things God asks us to do.

Eh... but how was the birthday this past Sunday? Hopefully you guys didn't do it on Sunday! haha, i'm just kidding.. kind of... haha. Anyway...everything is going way good here. Hope everything is good back home!

Love you guys!

Elder Thomas

Three headed eagle

Sweet alright, hope everyone's doing good!

This past week I got my new companion haha and it was crazy! We were sitting in transfer meeting and we were almost done and i still didn't know who my companion was going to be, and then i stood up and President Clayton said Elder Reagan and it was funny kus at first i didn't think of Elder Reagan from the MTC, but i just was like "wait who is Elder Reagan? and then i saw him and i yelled No Way! That was weird, i still can't believe it. It's pretty sweet, we already know each other and stuff, so that's easy. Its funny too because everyone asks how much time he has out and then we tell them that we were companions. It would be pretty funny if they leave us here until we are both done haha and then all we got to do is drive to the airport together haha. So yeah can you believe that, its pretty intense, companions again. but its pretty sweet. This past week was way fun and busy! We found a TON of people and so it's going really good.

Ok, remember the people we met last week, well we got in and taught them and they were really interested and it went well, the only thing was that we couldn't watch the DVD we wanted to because they couldn't switch it to Spanish, bummer, but oh well. So yeah, we got the hook ups with them too because his name is Tomas! He's always like eh what's happening Tomas? and then i am like, oh nothing much, what's happening with you Tomas? We got the Tomas connection over here, only lame thing is that they live in Arizona and so they are going to head back but not for a couple weeks. For some reason we always find people that don't live here haha. dang it! but its all good...

Oh, weird story for yah. Ok you know how there's all those shows or commercials about peer pressure?, well i never even had that, no one asked me for a hit or any of that dumb stuff, but it was funny because we were walking on the street and these guys were smoking in a couple of bushes, it looked some dumb haha. i started laughing and then we were like, nah we're good, we like to think, but you want to learn about Jesus Christ? and they didn't want to so we left.

So yeah, lately all these new people we have been finding are all Catholics, but they know their saints. I still don't know Spanish fairly well and sometimes they just go off in these weird crazy stories about the saints and stuff like that. This past Friday we taught Tomas and his wife and she told this intense story about this headless guy and he had this book which a three headed eagle was guarding and apparently it's Saint Tomas' book....but i'm pretty sure i didn't understand or at least i hope haha. After that story we just told um, well - we don't know about that, but we know about Jesus Christ so we think we should talk about him rather then crazy headed animal books. We just kind of left the story behind. Super weird. It seems like tons of people have stories like that and they always tell us for some weird reason. We are trying to combat the whole idol worship, you know no biggie. haha but on the good side we met this guy yesterday who said he doesn't believe in that stuff, just focuses on the Savior so we got a good one there. We just had to fist pump after that lesson since we were so stoked that he didn't beleive in that stuff.

We got some sweet plans for this week, we should be headed down to Mormon Battallion with some investigators so we are hoping it goes through becuase that will really help some of the people we are teaching to progress.

Other than that, things are going way good. Have a good week. Oh and CAIT - Happy Birthday! i have a birthday card that is currently being held hostage until you write me haha, nah just kidding.. sort of.

LOVE you guys,
Elder Thomas

Low budget marriage technique

Hey everyone!

So yeah... we just finished another transfer and we thought we would just stay the same but aparently not. My companion Elder Plant is going to leave, and i am staying. Its crazy!! We thought that we were just going to stay together and we were down for it. We have some good stuff coming up pretty soon. So i'm glad i never got transfered, but ah man, now i don't know who my companion is going to be..so stay tuned it might get pretty intense. We'll see tomorrow because we have transfers in the morning tomorrow. I am gonna miss that guy though kus me and him got along pretty good. it was always pretty fun stuff. so hopefully my new companion is sweet too.

So yup... that's the latest news for yah... but anyways, this past week was pretty sick! We had a lot of stuff going on and it seemed like the work is picking up. we finally found some people!! yeah baby, it was funny too because we were just walking to go see some members that live in our same complex and when we walked by, this one door swings open and this guy just starts talking to us... way sweet! He was really interested and so we will probably stop by after i pick up my new companion tomorrow. Then another time we were walking to a member's house again and we started talking to these people in the streets just cruising in their garage. It was crazy though because man they were super funny. i think only 4 words that came out of there mouths were serious "how are you doing" and then the rest was just pure jokes, so it was kinda hard to teach/ share the message, but we set a time to come back and talk more with um.

Oh funny story for you guys. So we stopped by our recent convert's house this week to help her get rid of her bed kus it had bed bugs in it. ohhhhh it was nasty! but we threw it away and then she asks us to help clear her vacuum tube thing kus it was clogged, haha and i didn't really know what i was doing but we got a hanger and we were trying to get all the junk out. So we were outside just like hitting it on the ground and shoving the hanger in there and it was a pretty funny sight. But anyways after a while we had to leave but there was still more junk in it so we just brought it home with us, haha ... and we were just walking around with a vacuum hose around our neck. But later that night after more trying we finally got it cleared out. So now we are experts in the vacuum cleaning department too.

But yeah... so we have had a couple new people that we taught this past week. one of um we went to last night. It went pretty well, he has talked with the missionaries for like two years already and so we kinda wanted to see where he was at and we talked about the Book of Mormon and then asked him a question if he was able to pray about it to know if it was true.. and man i don't know if my spanish is really bad and i asked it wrong, but he started going off about the virgin of guadalupe... haha, i swear he talked about her for a wopping 20 mintuers just about the virgen guadalupe. i think i could write a solid report on her know... it was so ramdom. So after he stopped talking about her, i was like alrighty then... well, um ... so then you didn't pray..maybe.. haha we had no idea what to say after that. it was pretty intense.

Then we taught this lady who is the Mom of a member here in the branch and it went very well. she already knows its true and she wants to be baptized. the only thing holding her back is her husband becuase he is hard head. She doesn't want to learn or anything, but crazy story about that. One of his sisters almost died recently and now she is all worried for everyone's salvation and she is trying to get everyone to be married in a church and go back to church and everything. So she comes to this husband of the lady we are teaching and tells him he needs to get married in a church but he was mad because he's Catholic and to be married Catholic costs a ton of money and time so it's tough to do it. So his wife tells him, hey you know you can just go to the Mormon Temple and be married for free.. its easy.. hahaha, and then he said, oh, ok... let's look into it. So hopefully that goes well. pretty funny stuff. Now we know of a new way we can find people... ask if they want a free marriage, then bam start teaching um! Shucks, i got to get going, but hope everything is going good!

Miss you guys and love you choke!

Elder Thomas