The Thumb Incident (Week 2)

Hola everyone!

This week was pretty wild. On Tuesday we had a devotional and 10 of
the 12 apostles were there. Elder Bednar gave an incredible talk about
the word of God and how we can teach with the influence of the spirit.
Elder Rasband waved at my class through the little window in the door
which was pretty cool, and I was waiting outside the bathroom for my
companion and a huge guy with a Guy Fieri mustache and an earpiece
came and told me that Elder Ballard was going to walk by and that I
shouldn't engage him which was kind of weird. It's been cool to have
the apostles down here with us, and it was even cooler to hear from
them.

Also, I was talking to Elder M., one of my zone leaders, the
other night, and suddenly Elder W., who came to the MTC the same
week as me came into the room and his left thumb was, as the nurse put
it, "not in the right location." He had been throwing a football in
the hall of the dorms and caught it in a way that basically ripped his
thumb out of its socket. It was hilarious, but he had to go to the
hospital where the doctor tried 3 times to get it back in place by
just taking on it I guess and he finally got it. After the first
attempt, the doctor left the room and Elder W., a generally quiet
kid, reportedly shouted "You'd do me dirty like that, Doc?" Eventually
the thumb was fixed, and they came back at like 4ish in the morning. I
have pictures.

Also, there's been real intense water fights in the hallways of the
dorm at night, our zone has the entire bottom floor of one of the
buildings. Elder Mi., whose brother served with mine in Arkansas,
brushes his teeth for at least a half hour a night and so I decided to
join him. Gradually Elder Ha., Elder R. from San Clemente,
 Elder Cr. and more all joined in.
Elder Ha. calls it toothbrush club, and its growing quite rapidly.
I'll send a picture.

  We were taking a break from our class in the new buildings
yesterday, and we walked past a class where the tv had been
accidentally ripped off the wall and some elders were holding it up
while the teacher desperately struggled to cut some zip ties off of it
so they could lower it to the ground. I had my keys so I used them to
twist off the zip ties, but it was pretty crazy.

 In my personal study I've been reading Job and I highly recommend
that you all read it. All of us have problems, and it'll always be
hard, but we always have the choice to glorify our Heavenly Father and
seek to grow. Job lost his kids to a windstorm, his livestock to fire
from the sky, and his skin to boils but he still maintained his faith,
as can we.

I love you all, stay close to the Lord and focus on the good
-Elder Thomas