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!!!