Another Christmas message

aliciathomas@myldsmail.net wants to share this video with you:

Personal Message
inspiring message for the members up there. you are important in this missionary work. share with everyone you know, on my blog on facebook, forward to everyone i email, and also forward to all of your friends.

Let Your Light So Shine

Video:
A recent convert saw the gospel in action in the lives of a member family and desired those blessings for himself.
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid2474508834001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAmtViA3E~,Up340RR3ihuKkQLfNfHScZNvwr7K2nnT&bclid=0&bctid=2474840929001

Video from Christmas

video for christmas. post this on facebook on my blog, and please share this and forward this to everyone i email. love you!!!!! merry christmas
The Mormon Channelhttp://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2874125972001#.UrisjsHPjsw.email

Temple

family and friends!!! 

totally saw the devotional last night. it was sooooo good!!! and i saw it in spanish and understood. wow, i cannot believe christmas is here. it is kind of weird to think it is christmas without the snow. But christmas here, well celebrations have already started, and sometimes go through the entire night with loud music, and sometimes with drunks. hahaha but it is great. everybody is inviting us over to eat on christmas eve and christmas day.

well thank you for sending me christmas packages. lol hahaha i will let you know when i get them. you are pretty much the most awesome of awesome moms i could have ever asked for. hahaha i dont need anything better, because i already have you guys. the best family EVER. 

we did go to the temple, and it was amazing. i will send you a picture. we got one in front of the temple with hermana estevez and hermana groneman.  i realized how much i missed the temple. and i will make it a weekly goal after my mission to do a session. it is such a blessing to go to the temple that is just like ten minutes away. i think you should make it a weekly goal to go with kyle. i will even watch the kids for you when i get back so that you and grandma and kyle can go. we cannot live our lives fully without the blessings of the temple. it was so special to go in the mission. us sisters got to see the brides room, and the sealing room. i cryed..i really just sat there and cried, and i am so blessed. i love to think that after my mission, i will be able to enter that room one day, and be sealed to my spouse for eternity. and to have you be there.....i cannot wait to recieve that eternal happy blessing. 

i am so proud that you guys started a family service day. you will all be so blessed for your service, especially when you are serving the Lord. You are angels, as well as the other members of the church. You dont have plaques to wear on your chest, but you all have one painted in your heart. you as members are the life and soul of missionary work, and to just think how happy heavenly father is when we bring His children back to salvation. Heavenly Father is extremely pleased with each and every one of you. you are angels....and life savers. dont ever forget the great special part you all play in missionary work. us missionarys love you, and we pray for each and every one of you. dont ever give up, because this work has eternal blessings. 

oh and about v3 construction....just hire me, you know you want to. i will be the best spanish speaker ever. better than chris. hahahaha dont tell him that, just a broma. jaja

as far as the baptisms...well we will still have them. but later in the month, because the people we had dates with for baptism, didnt make it to church yesterday. but we will still be baptizing this month. and right now the goal is to baptize at least one family next month. please pray for us to be able to find a positive family to teach and baptize.

i love you all my family. hang in there with your hardships, and remember to smile. remember to always go to church, read your scriptures and pray. remember when you are in the service of your fellow man, you are only in the service of your God. have a great week!!!!!!!! remember to be of service during this month of christmas. I will write more next week!!! 

love you tons!!!! 

hermana thomas 

ps sorry this email is way general and personalized. but i love you all so very much. always remember that. haha

pics of the temple. and pictures of the car ride there. we have hermana groneman from utah, hermana estevez from honduras, elder brown from uath behind me and his companion elder aldude from peru. best day ever. haha

Baggy for Christmas

hey I need to say, I got the package of the christmas decorations!!!!!! thank you so very much!!!!!! :) And what is even better is that I recieved it on thanksgiving!!!!!! Thank you so much!!!! Me and my companion are getting pretty "baggy" for christmas. We want to decorate the house with all the decorations you have sent us, and all these members are like, hey come over and eat with us!!!! so pretty much I know we will be eating great that day!!!! 

and we also have great news!!!! we have two baptisms this month!! one for hermano carmelo and one for a guy named stewart. He is 17 and loves the church and all the lessons we have. He is extremely ready and excited to be baptized!!!! and as far as thanksgiving goes. It was awesome!! we had a special zone meeting with the president, and we ate well...but nothing compares to yours and grandmas cooking. The potatoes were extremely missed as well as the pumpkin pie. Good thing I will be home next year to have thanksgiving with you!!!!!!! :) 

Thank you for everything!!!!!! All your love and support!!!! That is all for this week!! 

and and hey.....i dont know if you guys have been having crazy snow storms up there is utah, but we have been extremely cold here with really strong cold winds. sounds like it is time for christmas!!!! 

oh, and yep, i survived a tiny earthquake.....during our session in the temple. That was pretty much sweet!!!! 

LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving

Hey Everyone!!!!!!!!

 

Hows it all going back at home? Plans for thanksgiving and christmas? haha well people started pulling out their christmas decorations pretty much the day after halloween....and in my last zone, we were singing christmas hymns every reunion we had. Lets just say...people are getting pretty "baggy" for christmas. haha it is very exciting...and kind of scary to see how fast the time really has passed in the mission!!! Everyone has their lights up, and it is realy pretty here at night. We already have members inviting us over to eat for christmas...its kind of amazingly awesome! But hey, we do have a special multi zone meeting this thrusday for thanksgiving, and we are goin to eat with the zone as well as president. I am excited!!!! hmmmm, what else? OH YA!!!!! We are going to the temple this friday to do a session. I cant even describe how much I miss the temple. I think I have forgotten how a session even goes, but I will let you know how is goes!

This week has been an interesting one...full of work, geting to know members, the less actives and finding new people to teach....as well as full of parasites. :( yucky....haha it truly has been once in a lifetme experience. But i am feeling much better, so dont you worry about a thing!!!

well with hermano carmelo, he didnt show up to sacrament meeting yesterday, but showed up after for class. Poor guy..he is so humble and so special for us. He sells milk and cheese on the streets for a living. And he gets up earlier on sundays to do it, in order to make it on time for sacrament meeting. But since he came late, we have to change his baptism date, because he has too go to sacrament meeting 3 times to be baptized. His baptism will be in December. The whole ward is so excited for him, and I will keep you all up to date!!! We are just working now on placing a date for baptism for his wife. She is a little bit harder to work with, but with much prayer and fasting, I think we will be succesful. :)

That is all this week, short and sweet..but things are going great, and I think things will just get better from here. Have a great week!!!! Count your blessings every day!!!!!! Love you all so much!!!

 

Hermana Thomas 

Pics

I have one picture here of ex missionaries. we had a reunion of all of the ex missionaries in the ward of nopal. decided to take a pic with them. Every member a missionary!!!! And the other pictures i have are of the young men in the ward. We went and weeded hermano carmelos lawn last week...no, not with a mower, but with machetes! thats how we do!!!! :) and then just pics of the area i am serving in...told you it was jungle!!!!! Enjoy!!!

Just when I thought it was too good to be true...it just got better

Hey family and friends,

 My pday has now changed to mondays...because guess what... I have been moved to a new area!!!!!!!! My area is called Ahuachapan, Nopal. Crazy name huh. Yep, well I am now an hour away from the mission office. And I have been sent to the jungle!! haha well I live in a city part, but we work mostly in the jungle. This is the most humble part I have served in, in my mission so far. And it is absolutely beautiful!!! We walk a little bit of mountain terrain, rocks, hills. through grade and trees, and boulders. Whoooo I am telling you, its a lot of exercise. haha I thought I was going to miss the hot water shower, and serving in the ward of the president....but just when I thought it was too good to be true, it just got better. I would gladly serve the rest of my mission here!! My companion is super nice too...Hermana Rodas. She is from Guatemala, served her mission for 8 months in the mountains of guatemala, and now has had one month in the mission here in el Salvador. It is still pretty new for her. Well the good news is, we had a baptism on Saturday. Baptized a little kid named Enrique. I still don't know him all that well, but he is a kid of great faith. His mom isn't a member and he doesn't have a dad. But he had the desire to be baptized, and his faith is what got him there. I am grateful for little examples like him. We also have an investigator right now, hermano carmelo. He is like 60 years old, and lives in the jungle. I guess what happened, is that the missionary's didn't find him...but he found them. I don't really know the rest of the story, but here we are teaching him. The cool thing about him...is that he isn't even baptized yet, but he is teaching the gospel to his friends and family and neighbors. He is amazing, and I think he could take my place as a missionary, because he is so good at serving others and sharing his testimony. Things are well here, and I am happy and doing well. I pray for you all, and hope you are all doing great. I have about 40 pictures I need to send, but just for today...I will send a couple. Have a great week!! And share the gospel with everyone you know!!!!

 

love, hermana thomas

 

I will write more next week!!!

Serve

Dear family and friends.....

this week has been one of the best in my mission so far. :) I just feel so happy with this work, and am always grateful to have this opportunity to serve, and I think we truly have taken that opportunity to serve all we could this week. We did some service activities for the members this week, unplanned. We just showed up on their door step, and said, " we are here to serve you...what can we do to help?" We were in our normal clothes, and they were not excpeting us. But they couldnt turn us away, when we were ready to serve. So each time, they found something that we could do for them. I find this is more effective in working with the members. I felt like we gained their trust and confidence. Normally we will visit the members and talk about the mission work, and then ask them if they have any friends or family that we could teach. Much of the time here, that is not too succesful. So now our plan is to show up unplanned on the door steps of the members for 2 hours every day, to serve them. I find that once we gain the trust of the members...then we can start working with them a lot better. We also have a video about the mission work, its only about 5 minutes...but we went and visited our bishop in the ward and showed him the video with his family. He was very touched. And after this we recieved 10 references to contact. I know that this work is true, and is magnificent. We cant do a whole lot without the help of the members....and I know that you all have a great part in this missionary work. You are truly angels for us as missionarys. This week, I want you to contact a neighbor or a friend or family member, and share the gospel with them. You can help them make the better change in their lives. :) 

We have also found other opportunites to serve other people. We just moved into our new house this week, and as we were walking the otehr day, we found this old grandma trying to weed her garden. You have to understand, that here..sometimes gardens are like flippin jungles  haha...seriouosly more of a jungle than an actual garden. Any way, we said, " hey we are missionaries, and now we are your neighbors. Let us go back home, change our clothes, and we can help you out." She kept sayingshe was okay...but we knew better. We weeded her whole garden within about 40 minutes, taught her the first lesson, and invited her to baptism. Although she didnt accpet the invitation right away, we have an appointment with her again tommorow. I know her heart was touched....and our hearts were touched as well. During the month of Thanksgiving....take the opportunity to serve others daily. You will be blessd, and they will be blessed also. :) I love you all, I hope you are all doing wonderful. Have a great week, serve someone, always work hard, and remember to have fun. I will write more next week!! For all of you who I told I would be sending letters to....well, the post office is on strike here, and I am unable to send letters right now. But I will get them out to all of you as soon as I can. :) 

Cuidase mucho!!!!

 

Love, Hermana Thomas 

hey!!!!!! 

 sorry I didn't get through to you last week, the computer was not working. and the thing is..i totally wrote a bomb letter, and then I tried to send it. and the computer wouldn't let me. lameness. but hey, its another week, and I am doing flipping great!!!!!!! we are just truckin along, working hard, looking for success, and seeing little miracles every day. We don't have any dates set for baptism, and we don't have anyone really progressing with us. But we are doing our best, and we are happy. Me and my companion get along great, and today we are actually moving to another house. I failed to mention forever ago that the house we live in, is pretty disgusting. Hermana Toher, the girl I was with in the ccm...lived in this house before I came. But she got dengue a second time in this house, and then got sent home. So I pretty much have been living in a house with a curse of dengue. It is known as the mosquito house in the mission, and nobody wants to visit it. we don't even like it. But thank goodness we found a really beautiful house, with two floors...and guess what else??? HOT WATER!!!! whoooooo!!!!!! pretty much the best blessing ever!!! haha 

my Spanish is the best it has ever been in the mission, i keep improving on that daily. so I gotta say, I am pretty much a flippin professional. hehe jk

oh and Halloween here, well, they celebrate on November 2nd. They don't do trick or treating, which means no candy for us missionaries. But thanks to the most awesome family ever, I received my package this week!!! So for Halloween. just last night, we had hot chocolate, mixed with the Hershey's bars I received, and Oreos. So I must say I feel fat today and am on a chocolate hangover. its whatever. Its probably the best thing I ever ate in the whole mission. Chocolate..mmmmm....never gets old. But now I am having cravings for mountain dew (hint hint) ;) hehe anywho...the way they celebrate Halloween here is different. They call it dia de los muertos. They respect their dead here. and on this day, they clean the graves and decorate them. That's it. In Mexico it is a little more elaborate. They will make the favorite food of the person, and decorate the graves with this food and all this other stuff. apparently it is way crazy.

hmmmmmmm what else can I talk about?? not too much else to talk about this week, except to say the mission is so awesome. cant believe I received my call almost a year ago. how time flies. now I have about a year before I return home. I don't want to think about that right now though, because there is so much work to be done here!!! :) 

just a goal I have for all of you. Start

 

inviting your friends to church, from work school or the neighborhood. Every member a missionary. The goal from Elder Ballard in conference it for every member to have a new convert friend in the church by Christmas. I know you can all do it!! us missionaries are here to help with the rest. I want to hear of your success stories of fellowshipping and inviting your friends and family to hear more about this gospel.

thank you so much for your love and your support. i love you all. we are doing great, and I couldn't be doing any better. have a great week!!!! I will write more next week!! 

 

love hermana thomas :) 

 

Companions :)

Be a Missionary!

hey im back!!!!!!!

 

how are you all doing in the states???? how is school, work, family and everything????

hey so I am totally sending off letters today to you and kim and britt....and josh smith. lol ;) but i am hoping you get them soon!!!

this week has been great, I have learned a lot this week about working with the members. Without the members we have nothing, and they are truly key in this misionary work. I dont know if you remember the message that elder ballard had for us in conference, but he talked of the importance of missionarys and the members working together. The goal is to have every single member have a new convert in the church by christmas. This is a goal I have for all of you before Chrsitmas to have a new convert in the church. So all of the friends you have at work or in the neighborhood, or school..start inviting everyone you know. Start inviting the missionarys over to your house to have lessons with these friends. Help us bring others unto christ!!!! :) I know you will recieve many blessings as you do so! Things are great...... I am alive and I am healthy and happy. Love you all!! Have a great week, and let me know how your successes go. I want to hear from you all!!!

 

Love ya tons!!

 

Love, Ali

 
 
 

Great Week!

Hey friends and family!!!!!!!!

so this week has been the bomb!! we are working so hard, and we have found so many new people to teach!!!! we found this one family, and they are so special. we found them last week, familia Martinez. The first appointment we had with them, they fed us pupusas, and we taught them about the restoration. The mom asked us....so how many weeks do you have to wait until you can be baptized? My companion and I smiled at each other and said three weeks. We had our second appointment with them last night, and invited them to baptism. Although they didn't accept a date, they did accept the invitation on the condition, that only if they felt it was right, then they will get baptized. We will continue to work hard with them .:)

We have also been working with a less active couple. They are an older couple. And they went inactive i think about ten years back...although they had over 35 years in the church. They went inactive because their bishop would steal their tithing money. So we have been knocking on their door everyday for about three weeks now. The husband always opens his door....just a crack, and tells us that he is done with this church, and that he doesn't want to have anything to deal with us. Well one day, his wife opened the door. We sang her a hymn in the doorway, because she wouldn't allow us to enter her house. After we sang, I bore my testimony and I told her to pay special attention to how the spirit spoke to her, and I told her to pay attention to her feelings. She smiled a little bit, and agreed. The next time we knocked on the door, she let us in. I think that just goes to show that through faith and diligence, miracles can happen. That is my message for this week. Through your diligence and obedience in the gospel, I testify you will receive blessings!!! :)

I will write more next week!

 

Hermana Thomas :)

Lots of pics

a picture of me and my daughter. a picture of hermana peterson and her daughter. we are all in the same zone. its funny because hermana peterson and i were comps in the ccm, and our daughters were comps in the ccm. what a beautiful thing. :)

 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 

New Comp

hey everything is good here. i have my new companion hermana banuelos. she is actually from texas, so she speaks englsih too. but we make sure just to speak spanish. haha but i think she totally came ready to work. and i am pretty sure she has taught me more than i have taught her. i love her, and we are such a team, we work so hard. i only have two weeks here, so sometimes we just walk in circles, because i cannot find where all of our investigators are. so then we just start kncoking doors. haha but we will get it down with time. i have had a lot of fun with her. ummm, well i dont have a lot of new news this week, but i will have more next week!!!! love you and hope you are doing well!!!! 

GREAT NEWS!!!

I HAVE THE BEST NEWS IN THE WHOLE FLIPPIN WIDE WORLD!!!!!

 

I think you will like this news this week......I got a call from my zone leaders here in Palmar, at around 11 last night. I recieved news that I really was not expecting to hear...so, guess who is going to be a trainer for the next 12 weeks??? I am!!!!!I just got called to train. And if you remember me talking about hermana peterson, she has been called to be a trainer as well this change. And my mom, well she has again, been called to be a trainer this change for her third time in the mission. She is only a change ahead of me. So crazy, I am overwhelmed with emotion. I honestly dont feel ready, but I think that it is natural to feel that way. But I am grateful president has enough trust in me, to call me to train a new missionary. Not only am I training a new missionary, but I am also opening up a brand new area here. This is such a blessing, really. I remember the scripture that says something like, you recieve the blessings only after the trial of your faith. I have finally recieved this blessing of this sacred call of being a trainer.

Being close to president was great...this area is so beautiful, and we have so many strong members here. I sat next to hermana cordon in gospel principles with the other missionarys and our investigators. And I love here so much, she is a great mission mom!! But this change I have no idea where I am going, so I will let you know on my next p day. I will find out tommorow where I go.

I will miss working with hermana beltran, besides my mom, she was probably the best friend I have had in the mission so far. We worked so hard, and talked to so many people. And with her, in this one week I got to enjoy with her, I learned so much about what the mission really is all about. And I really felt the spirit every time I worked with her. I will miss her very much.

Hmmm what else.....oh so, I had an ingrown toenail, that got taken out on monday in the hospital. Gosh, that hurt worse than having dengue, i swear it did. haha I had pain in my toe for about 3 months, but never said anything, because we never really had time to get it checked. But when the doctor cut my toe open, the ingrown toenail was HUGE!! ha i rested on monday, and then started to work again on tuesday. It hurts a little, and this week I have been walking like a zombie down the street in my little flipflops. haha "hola, yo soy hermana thomas...y yo soy un zombie tambien..pero tenemos un muy importante mensaje para usted y su familia, queremos compartir este mensaje ahora se su familia es esta." hehe, people think i am a weirdo. But i talked to the doctor again, because it is still hurting, and is now infected. He said that if it still hurts next monday, they will have to cut off my whole toenail. NASTY. we will see, I am praying it gets better, so that I will be ready to train my newbie comp.

This week we had a good experience, well, we have them every day, but i think this one is good to share. We always take a certain bus to get to the church. And for some reason we always have the same bus driver. He is a big fan of the Spain Barcelona soccer team, and it shows, because he has his whole bus decorated of flags and other things that represent this team. Anywho, every time we take the bus with him he lets us on for free. He never allows us to pay him. We dont know why, because he is not a member. So the other day, me and herman beltran were like, "what can we give him?" We had a snickers bar, so we gave that to him when we got off. Then the next day, again we took the same bus he was driving. Again, he did not let us pay him. Hermana Beltran looked at me, and asked, "what can we do for him?" Well, I looked down at my lap, and I saw the Book of Mormon that I had in my hands. I smiled really big and said, "lets give him this." We wrote out testimoneys in it, and our number, also with a pamphlet of the restauracion. When we gave it to him, we smiled really big, and was kind of suprised, and yelled a big "THANK YOU!!!!" as we got off the bus. Well the next day, we got on the same bus. We asked him if he had read the promise found in Moroni. He said yes, and yet again gave us a really big smile. I know the Lord has something in store for him....and I know he is ready to hear the gospel. Its funny what the Lord does to put people in your path, but I was so grateful for that opportunity to hand out the book of mormon to him. :) 

that is my experience for this week, and I hope you are all doing wonderful at home. Let me know how everything is, and again, thank you so much for all of your support at home. I will write you more next week!!

 

hermana thomas

New Area, New Companion, New Everything..... :)

hey family and friends,

I now have my pdays on Fridays, because I am now in a new area with a new companion, and a completely new zone. Let me explain why....I had some problems in my old area, with a recent convert . For these past three weeks, I was given 13 love letters from him, and I would find them in front of our house when we would go out to work, or when we would return home. He would find us in the streets up to four or five times a day on his bicycle. It started to get bad..and as much as I dearly loved my area, I asked president for a change. He called me on Tuesday morning at 8 o clock, and told me to pack my things and to come to the office as fast as I could for an emergency change. I was out of my area by 11. I had about an hour to say bye to all the people I had been teaching, and all the people I had gotten to know. I have to admit, that was completely heart wrenching. To say goodbye to your loved ones, kinda like your family, and to know that you are probably never going to see them again in this life. Wow.....it has been an emotional week!! But I am grateful for the opportunity I had to work there, and I know that the people there truly changed me, and my testimony grew, and the love for these people grew a ton. Goodbye Metapan...you were my first area of my mission, and I will always have a very special place in my heart for you.

But now I am in an area called Palmar, this area is a "colonia" in Santa Ana. It is all city, and completely different than Metapan. This area is huge, and I am still trying to become familiar with it all. I feel like I am a new missionary again haha...but that is okay. My companions name is Hermana Beltran, and she is the biggest spiritual giant I have ever met in the mission. Wow, she is such a powerful teacher, and she has such a love for everyone here. She truly radiates with the spirit. She has had three months in the mission, and I just completed 5 months not too long ago. We are both pretty fresh in the mission, but we work together as as team very well. I would not mind working with her the rest of my mission. I have never felt the spirit so strong before, but it just radiates from me, and I feel it every moment. And I am so happy. I think the Lord knew my struggles and I think he knew I needed a change, so I am truly blessed for this change I had, for several reasons. My zone is the most powerful zone I have been in before. Probably because I work with all the assistants, and because we are also in the ward of our mission president! (Yikes!!) haha a little pressure, but it helps us to be better missionaries and better people. We are all so strong, and everyone in this zone is always so excited to out and to work every day. It is a nice change from my old zones. :) I cannot wait to see what lies ahead of us, for me and Hermana Beltran. Oh ya!! I forgot to say, she is from Bogota Colombia!!! Woot!! Woot!!


Well, I have a message this week for all of you, and it is very important, and i think it can be useful and very special in your lives. But first I want to tell you a story that pertains to this. It is a sad one. So my old district leader ...from my first change, had an emergency change. A bad one too...he had it because his companion found out that he had a girlfriend in the area he was serving in. And then the another elder in my first district was sent home early last week, for also talking to a girl he shouldn't have been. He would go out with his companion, and go see movies all the time. He was sent home dishonorably. And then just yesterday, I found out, that an elder in metapan, my old area, just had an emergency change, because he has had a girlfriend in that area for awhile....a member. We all have temptations that surround us....everyday we have them. Especially in this day, sometimes it is hard to stay true to what you believe. When you dont have standards set for your life, it can be easy to conform, HOLD TRUE TO YOUR STANDARDS!!! You have an iron rod you can hold on to in your life....it is this gospel of Jesus Christ. It can be used your foundation in this life, and it should be used as a foundation in all of our decisions and actions you choose to make throughout your days. People are going to try and tear you down..and pull you from that rod. They are going to tell you, that you can be happy without the gospel, that you can be happy with temptations. But I am here to tell you, there is no gray area in this gospel. You cannot be happy with these temptations. You hold on to your standards....you do what you know is right. You will be blessed for your efforts. When you think you stand alone, when you stand for what is right...you need to remember that you always have a Big Brother up above that is with you always. Keep holding on, and never let go to that iron rod. :) These elders in my mission let go of that rod, and they are unhappy now, and were unable to fulfill their purpose as missionaries. But I want you to fulfill the purpose for your life. When you hold strong and true to your standards, and to this iron rod..I know you will be blessed. Not only temporally, but also for eternity. :)

Love you all my family and friends!! Hope this letter finds you well!!! Thanks for all the dear elders I received from kim, maurie and grandma kathy! And also thank you for the letters from maurie and kyle!! You are my inspiration!!! MWAAHHHH!!! Love ya all tons!! Be strong, and have a great safe week!!

Love, Hermana Thomasita :)

PICS

sorry a lot of these are coming to you late, but here you go. One is for maddi sheridan....i need you to know, that i am now in the same district as your friend elder dennis. Woot Woot!! haha and i have one of all the sistas in my new zone. and some of my old area too....enjoy!!  

more pics of my old area, one with my old comp  hermana hospina, haha.. And then i have a flippin sweet story with one picture in this email. It is of a cup, and in that cup there is a frog. This was in Metapan by the way....but after the big rain storms, we have a lot of frogs. I found one in our house, and I caught it in a cup. Hermana Chiquin saw this and freaked out!!! She was like, put it outside please, I hate frogs! So I decided to chase her with it all around the house. She locked herself in her room, and didint come out for a good 20 minutes after that. I felt like such a jerk...but it was kind of funny. we all laugh about it now! Oh, and I also have a picture of all the love letters I recieved from the weirdo. The sad thing is, is that two hours before I changed areas...the elders recieved letters from him saying that he was not going back to the church, and that he made a big mistake in joining, because he only joined to get to know me. It is bad...I felt so guilty at first, but then I realized that it is not my fault, and that everyone makes their own decisions. I hope one day he will return to the church with a will to change, and that he will return for the right reasons. Thats all I have in this email. Enjoy the pics!! :) Love ya all!!!! Look forward to a lot more next week!! And oh yeah, I have been put in the same zone as my old companion in the mtc, hermana peterson. little does president know, this was a big mistake. haha we are like a bomb when we are together!! We missed each other so much, and are glad to spend this time together. We have real changes in 2 weeks, and we will see if she changes or not. I will let yall know!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

more pics

reunion de hermanas (we are such dorks!) my district (distrito texis..my very first district in the mission) and my baptisms. :) enjoy!!!! 

 
 
 

Baptisms and Metapan

Hey everybody!! 

so everything is great!! we got a call from the zone leaders telling us about changes. so hermana chiquin got called to be a trainer again, so we will not be compaions this change. but the good things is that we just had a new area open up in metapan, and hermana chiquin will be training there. And i will get a new companion, but will continue to work in my area in metapan. So we are getting two more hermanas in our area, and we will all be living together in the house i am staying in now. I am very excited for this change, and i just know we are going to get so much work done here this change. WHOO!! haha i will probably get another latina compaion..which i am ok with because i love latinas!! some of the nicest people i have ever met!! and i will still be the only gringa in my district. :)

this week we had two baptisms. Hermano Ricardo, and then a teenager, Hermana Katherine on saturday. Hermano ricardo is amazing. he has such a good spirit about him, and he is so excited to progress in the gospel. his goal is to get to the temple next year. all the members just love him to death to.  i am always so amazed when we find people who are ready to hear this gospel, and who wants a change in their lives.
as for hermana katherine, well she is one of the nieces of my first investigator we baptized here. its sad to say, but i wasnt really close to her. when we asked her for baptism, she told us no. But then one of our elders here, elder velasquez asked her if she wanted to get batpized..she said yes. but elder velasquez does that with all the girls here in metapan. flirts with them, then baptizes them. so it really didnt feel right for her to get baptized, because i feel like she just got baptized for him. On sunday, we waited for her to come to church..we were excited because she was going to be confirmed a member. she never showed up. and when we asked her cousins where she was, they told us that she didnt want to go to church, and that she was busy. we passed by for her yesterday in the night, to see what was up, and she didnt want to talk to us. haha oh all the teenage girls here, and this elder. drives me freakin nuts!! 

haha but all is well here. nothings much has changed, just continue to work hard everyday. we had a "sister reunion" this week with all the hermanas in the mission. that was a lot of fun. we got to hang out with president and his wife for a day, and they fed us lunch and we played basketball and futbol. it was fun to kinda let our hair down for a day. lol

well, that is all for this week. i will fill you in more next week about my new companion and everything. love you all!!!!! 

with much love, hermana thomas

p.s. mitch and gina......FELICIDADES!!! i am just so happy for you two. i knew from the moment you two met, that you would get married. congratulations for taking this big step in your lives. :) oh by the way...you two will have really cute babies...i just know it. jaja

Baptisms

so these are pics of my bapstism and the elders baptism on saturday. :) so so beautiful!!  enjoy. :)

 
 

Baptismal Commitments and No Water

Yayayayayayayaya!!!!! you guys finally moved!!!!

Things are great here. we have three baptisms set for august 17, and these ones are for sure. i think i told you about Ricardo and his mom Maria and his brother Oscar. well, I thought "Ricardo" was "Carlos", ha but we misunderstood his name this whole flippin time. that is such an ali thing to do. ha but anywho, this family rocks. and their faith blows me away. we taught this family the word of wisdom last week. Ricardo smokes, and his mom drinks coffee at every meal. when we taught them the importance of the word of wisdom, they were like, yeah ok..if that's what God wants me to do, then I will stop that habit right now. and ever since last week, they haven't touched one cigarette or a cup of coffee. I am so proud of them. hmmm, what else can I talk about?

Nothing too new here...oh actually yeah there is one small thing. so the water in metapan has been shut off. we haven't had running water for 3 days now. but we have purified water in 5 gallon buckets that we use for our drinking water. we now use some of this water to shower. whoooo, let me tell yeah, I love this dip and pour method a lot better than what I had when I first got here. hahahaha ok, just joking, but you can tell grandma that my shower time has officially been cut down to 5 minutes.

We have changes in 3 weeks, and it will be my 3rd change in the mission. cant believe it is almost august!! anway, hermana chiquin thinks that she will be leaving and that I will be staying. the thing is, is that metapan is a training area for new missionaries. which means, I have a chance of being a trainer in 3 weeks. crazy to think about, but I think it is unlikely right now.

We continue to try and find new people here in metapan...a lot of our investigators that we think we have a good hold on, usually slip through our hands. I am so grateful for our few investigators we have that are committed to making a change in their lives.

Anyway, this letter is super short this week, but I love ya, God loves ya. have a great week, and thanks for all of the support back home. keep working hard, keep doing what you know is right and you will be blessed for your efforts!!

until next week,

Hermana Thomas :)

oh and ps, we get to go to the temple on august 6th with our investigators and members. so i am sorry for my lack of pictures the past few weeks, but I will make up for it in the next couple of weeks ok?? lots of love! MMMMWWWAAAHHHH!!

You are a Child of God

Dear Family and Friends,

Hey, well it is time to write you once again. How has your week been? How is work and everything? This week has been great! This mission work is so great, and I just love it so much. So if you remember me talking about family rivas, we have commited them to baptism in august. The spirit was so strong and I knew they would get baptized all along....it just took a little more time, but that is ok. Also this week hermana chiquin and I had a miracle. We had an investigator in my second week in the mission, hermano carlos. After week 3, he left to san salvador for work, and we never saw him again. We were so bummed because we had committed him to baptism and everything. I was so bummed because he was one of our best investigators. He was so ready to be baptized, to have a change in his life. And it touched me, because he was so excited to receive the priesthood too. Well guess who we found while we were walking down the street?? Hermano Carlos.  He returned to Metapan, and we never knew it. But we found him. Right then and there we had a lesson with him in his house. His mom and brother joined in on the lesson too. We recommitted him to baptism as well as his brother and mother. They are also getting baptized in august. Finally after being here for a change and a half, I am seeing the fruits of my work. It feels good bringing people to Christ, to share this happiness with them.

There are some people we have here that we teach, that sometimes decide to discontinue the discussions. We had hermano santos...I talked about him a little bit in my last letter. We were so sure he was going to get baptized. Well he has had problems with the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. We had been working with him really hard. Last appointment we had with him, we went to his door to find him drunk. We shared a message with him outside his door, and afterwards, my companion took his bottle of alcohol away. We thought that maybe he wouldn't remember us taking the bottle away from him our next appointment. Well next appointment we had with him, we knocked on his door. He opened it and started screaming at us. "You took my bottle away....how can I trust you again..you are not welcome in my house, and I am not getting baptized in your church, EVER."

With that we tried to convince him that we were only there to help him. We got a slammed door in our face. The feeling as you walk away from a person you worked so hard with....its hard to explain. Just devastating. Devastating because you want what is the best for him. And because you have the knowledge that he is a son of God, and he doesn't. To know that we need to follow God and do our best in this life to return to Him someday, and he doesn't have a willingness to do so.

This week we have a lot of people like this....they don't understand the happiness the gospel can bring to their lives. They feel alone and so sad, angry and confused. I sit there in the lessons awestruck. How do you not know that you are a child of a loving Heavenly Father? Do you not know of your worth and divinity? And to be without that knowledge in this world, that you are a Child Of God, is so sad. I cannot imagine how different my life would be, if I was without that knowledge. So I found a scripture I like....D&C 50:41. It says, " Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my father hath given me."

Challenge for this week: "Remember you are a child of God Challenge". During your family home evening I want you to take a piece of paper. For every person in your family, write down a good quality that the person has. Then pass the paper around for everyone to write on until it gets back to you.(Everyone should have a piece of paper at the end with qualities specifically just for them.) After this, put this paper where you can see it. When you are having a bad or hard day, look at this paper and remember you have good qualities and are a child of God.

 :) Well, love ya tons...gotta go. But Remember, I love ya, God loves ya, and that is all that matters.

Until next week, Hermana Thomas

CHARITY

Good news family and friends.... I am staying in Metapan for another 6 weeks with Hermana Chiquin!! Whoooo!!!

Well this week has been pretty good. Because I was sick with dengue, me and my companion had to work twice as hard to get all of our work done, and we have sure been busy this week. I realize that I havent shared much information about my investigators with you, so this week I want to write about one specific family we are teaching. Their name is family pacheco. They are very special to me. This particular family is different from the other familys that we teach. They live on dirt floors, and honestly dont have much. There are 8 people in this family, all squished into one insy teensy little thing they call their home. They go to the river for their drinking water and to wash their clothes, and to shower. And I have to say that this place never ceases to humble me. This family has a daughter, Blanca. She is 11 years old, and is unable to walk. They also have a grandma who is 85, and she can hardly walk. She has cancer, but they dont have any money to pay for treatment, so she is in a lot of pain all the time. But the thing that is special about them is their special spirit. Despite all  of the trials they face, they are probably the happiest family I have ever met!! They take care of each other, and they are always serving others. We brought them to church this week. It took us about 20 minutes to walk there, because we were pushing Blanca and the grandma in wheelchairs. But when we got there, the spirit was incredibly strong. It was fast and testimoney meeting, so everyone got to bear their testimoneys. A lot of people talked about charity. I thought that, that specific topic was so fitting for that day. And I got to thinking how it is so important that we are always in the service of others. We talked of the story of the good samaritan, and how it is good to always serve our friends and neighbors.

I think sometimes in life we get caught up in the moment, we get caught up in school and work and other things. And sometimes we stop thinking of others. We dont recognize others needs because we are so caught up in ourselves. I have a goal for all of you this week. Look for someone to serve. In your neighborhoods, in your family, or maybe some random person on the street, or the homeless shelter...anything. It doesnt matter who, it just matters that you served someone. In the mission, we are always looking to serve someone...and before my mission, I didnt do that too often. But I learn that as you make it a specific goal to do so, I promise you that you will find someone. You will find lots of people. Always. I cant describe the special feeling I have after I have served someone. Just peace, and tranquility. It feels so good. I know that if you accept this challenge, you will be blessed for your efforts. We were put on this earth to help each other, right? There are people all around you that need you. They are just waiting for you to come to them. So next week, I want to hear your experiences of who you served, what you did to serve them. I promise as you make an effort to do this in your daily life, you will feel a change. I havent been in the mission long, but the people here have truly changed my life. This work has changed my life. I love this work, and I dont want to stop. It is so addicting.

I love you all!! Til next time,

Hermana Thomas

 

PICTURES:

 

People in my zone...ZONA MOLINO!!!!!!

After my awesome experience in the hospital in san salvador, we got to pass by the temple. So of course I took pictures. I had fun playing with my camera. haha but really in all seriousness, isn't it so beautiful??

 These are pics from the hospital. The first hospital I went to was in Santa Ana, Centro Medico. But the nurses weren't too good there, so we transferred to a hospital in San Salvador. It was much better. haha

 

Love my area. It is beautiful. Wouldnt trade this experience for the world!!