January 21

We had a blessed week. The people we're teaching are progressing, the people we're finding are coming to church. Its all a miracle. I'll tell you a few cool stories

We're working with a Congolese family and they are so awesome. Thats Shanne and Edoumi that I've been talking about. We went over on Monday night to teach them and we heard some loud conversation coming from inside. So we knocked and they let us in and they had invited some friends over. Shanne then introduced us to them in French. I'm getting to the point where i can understand french enough to know what they're saying, and basically Shanne told his friends (Gi and Franc) That we were messengers from God and Missionaries from his church. Its so cool to hear him say "my church". He's locked into it. Super dedicated and he hasn't even been baptized yet. Then I whipped out a Gospel of Jesus Christ Pamphlet and when Shanne saw it he held his hand up to me so I would stop and I heard him say "the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what God gave to prophets and Apostles in the past, and what he gives to us now with prophets today" and then he basically taught them the restoration. He then set a baptismal date with his wife and committed his friends to come to church with us. SO cool.

We went over again yesterday to teach the Word of Wisdom. I was worried, because I really love this family and I was worried it might make them question. I was dead wrong. Shanne immediately understood it and told us he had no problems with any of it. His wife, Evodie, drinks tea, but she said that from then on, she would never have another cup of tea. So much Faith. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, Shanne asked us "My wife is giving up tea to follow Jesus. I don't drink alcohol or smoke, I don't drink Coffee or tea, what can I give up to follow him? I just couldn't believe it. He has such a great attitude. I love them

A week or two ago we saw this guy shoveling the sidewalk so we talked to him and he seemed super standoffish. His name is James, we learned, and we gave him a book of Mormon and set up another time to come back. When we came back he said he had read the part of the Book of Mormon we left with him (Moroni 10) We asked him how it went and he said "I didn't have a vision or anything, but I have a feeling in my soul that this book is true." Wow. He came to church and is now working towards baptism

Some guy that elder Jarvis found on exchanges this week just randomly showed up to church which was a tender mercy.

Also last week 2 people randomly showed up to church in the sister's ward(David and Allison). They actually live in our area so we're teaching them now, and they are so prepared. David just said that one day he felt strongly that he needed to look into the church so he spent hours on lds.org. He wants to get baptized real bad and he said he felt spiritually inclined to throw out all his alcohol, coffee and tea 2 weeks ago so he's been living the word of wisdom. Wowza

Today marks 19 months since I started the Mission

Never in my life have I been so happy. 

I love you all a lot! Choose the right 

arctic craziness

this week was nuts. i'm exhausted so ill just write some quick highlights

we have been pretty chilly here. this week the temperature with wind chill is gonna hit -60. a member told us that it'll be warmer in some parts of Antarctica on wednesday. yeeee

we found this guy last week from the congo who has this problem where his eye is getting bigger and bigger and he doesn't know whats going on. last night we were talking to him and he asked us if we would pray for him, and we talked to him about Priesthood Blessings and he asked for one. we talked to him about having faith and he basically just bore his testimony to us that he knew god could heal him so we gave him a blessing and he was promised that his eye would be healed. It was so cool and we know it will happen

we were scrambling all week trying to get people to church. it was crazy trying to get members to help us out. it was really frustrating but we ended up having a ton of people come. i sat next to this one family that came and after every prayer their 8 year old would whisper his opinion of how the prayer was to me. After the sacrament prayers he said "Those were good prayers. Short and sweet, just how I like them" haha it was hilarious, he was just absolutely dialed into the talks. So cool.

In Elders Quorum we filled up a whole row with visitors. we went over the "One in Christ" talk by Elder Soares about fellowshipping new members and visitors, and when they would ask for volunteers to read parts of it, the first hands that would go up were our people we are teaching. They participated a TON. and it was incredible. so cool

One of the guys we're teaching, James, introduced us to his neighbor and family friend named Sissy. We taught them both and she immediately wanted to come to church. James told us "Rest assured, I will get my people to church and they will become part of the covenant of God." He is so cool. He's the one who told us about how he had a feeling in his soul that the Book of Mormon is true and he is so faithful and excited to get baptized. He's basically a member already. He tells us to call him when we go teach people from liberia so he can come help. wowza

Channe and Evodie are doing great. They came to church this week and brought their friend frank. After church I was talking to frank about baptism and he said something in french to Channe. Channe just said to me "he wants to know when he can be baptized". they are so cool and such faithful people. We asked them how evodie is doing with quitting tea and they said "Since you asked her to stop, she has not had another cup of tea." i was just amazed.

David and Allison, the couple who just sought out the church themselves are doing great. WE had dinner with them at a members house and we left after about an hour and the member later told us that they talked for FOUR HOURS about the gospel. They're so cool

Lots of cool stuff happening here. But of course it couldn't have stayed so great and I got a call last night and I'm being transferred back to des moines. I am very sad but I know that god is leaving my friends here in good hands. I'm excited to see these people in waterloo progress in the gospel and Im excited to see more miracles in Des Moines.

Love you all

La Rama Capital Round 2

Wus good friends

I'm back in the spanish branch! Unfortunately I got booted out of waterloo after one transfer but I'm back in the only spanish unit of the church in our mission so I'm hyped. There are some awesome people here, some of my favorite people in the world. 

I've got 2 comps, Elder Diaz- Pacheco from arizona, and Elder Morales-Figueroa from guatemala city. They're great

Yesterday we went to visit somebody that Elder Diaz had found here last transfer, and when we knocked on the door they opened up and their whole family was there. We talked to the Mom (Ana) and the oldest daughter (Maria) a lot. Apparently they had met with sister missionaries for like a year, they had come to church, knew a whole bunch of the members, and read the Book of Mormon. We asked " Did you pray and ask god if it is true?" Ana said yes, so we asked "Did you get an answer?" And again Ana said "Yes, its true" and the spirit just filled the whole house. Way cool. So we asked her what we need to do to get them to church and she said that we didn't have to do anything, but that she would be there. Pretty awesome

Thats probably the coolest thing that happened

In other news, the missionary that I trained is now training which is pretty sweet

I love you all! I love being a missionary!

Moving a couch x2

This week was a bit of a bummer, a lot of the people we are teaching are being flakey and church got cancelled -_- which is the wurst but next week will be better

In other news, we went to try by a lady that my trainer taught when he was here two years ago which was cool. She is famously super nice to the missionaries, she would feed them all the time so we were excited to go see her. We found her door, knocked, and we heard her yell "quien es?" and when we said we were missionaries she whipped the door open and asked us where our gloves were, offered to give elder morales a better coat, offered to feed us, everything. she is so nice. She also told us that she needed help moving a little couch thing so we lifted it into her truck and started walking away but before we could leave she gave us a bag of fruit, some cookie things, crackers, tortillas, she gave elder morales a hoodie and gloves, and asked us to come back on tuesday so that was cool.

Last night we were getting a little bit late to a lesson with a man from el salvador. when we initially found him, he was just trying to bash with us but it seemed like his heart softened a little so we decided to come back. When he called us he asked if we were coming and we said yes. Before he hung up we heard him say "they're coming" to someone. We were a little wary, but still went. We knocked, he opened the door, and we walked in. Sitting on his couch was a small old man with a smile on his face that I've only ever seen on super villains and in my nightmares. He had a bible in his lap and introduced himself as the pastor of our el salvadorean friend's church. We started talking and he asked us a few seemingly innocent questions and before we knew it he was trying to bible bash us. Probably 20 minutes into his tirade his phone started ringing and he took the call. We heard him tell the guy "well, ill probably be busy for the next 2 hours." We were not down. So he started going again and I raised my hand and asked if I could say something. I asked the guy we originally taught if he had read the book of mormon. He said he had read a little bit and started trying to bash us and tell us that it wasn' t true, and then I asked him if he had prayed and asked god if it was true and he said he hadn't So we said "We are here to help people grow their faith. We have other people who have real interest in coming closer to Jesus Christ, and we are wasting our time here." Then I told them that I knew that the book of mormon was true and all three of us stood up, shook their hands, invited them to read and pray and call us if they ever had genuine interest, and left. It was pretty crazy 

I was on exchanges this week and the last door we knocked on was this dude who told us he was getting evicted and told us he needed to empty his apartment in like 2 days and he had a ton of stuff. so we offered to help and came back the next day. He didn't have anything packed so we helped for like 3 hours lifting his wildly heavy couches and tv out of his apartment. It was pretty crazy. He didnt care too much about his stuff so we were just knocking paintings off of the walls and destroying vases while we tried to fit his sectional out of the door.

Anyways, I love Jesus Christ and I love being a missionary! I hope you all have a great week

Merry Christmas!

People in my mission call Des Moines the "Promised Land", and I can see why. The people here are incredible, the city is beautiful, and they have a Buffalo Wild Wings.

Last night we had a dinner with this family from El Salvador. Before I ate with them, my only experience with this family was a video I saw of their son, kevin, destroying a cake with his face. Needless to say, my expectations were off the charts. When we got there, we ate some tasty mystery part of some animal and then we had the coolest spiritual thought ever. It was pretty normal at the beginning but the dad started to tell us how he loves the missionaries, and how he hates to see them go, and he started to cry when he told us about how he's looking forward to see us and talk with us after we've all been resurrected. It was something I had been thinking about a lot, especially after I left Ottumwa. I miss those people a lot but I'll see them again, one way or another.

I love you all, have a good Christmas and make sure you do what you can to do what Christ would do this time of the year. 

Hello Des Moines!

Hey everyone! I just left my home in ottumwa and im now in des moines,

Des Moines is so awesome. I got a Panda Express gift card when i was in Ottumwa but there wasn't a panda express there or even a wendys haha but now i can use it haha

Before I left ottumwa we had a P Day in muscatine and a few missionaries did the Blazing Challenge at Buffalo Wild Wings and a Sister from draper finished it and that was crazy

I'm serving in the only spanish branch left in the mission and it is awesome. The members feed us dinner every night and sometimes lunch as well. My companion, elder rocha, is a recent convert from the Dominican Republic and hes so cool. The Members love him because he is a native and super funny

Elder Rocha and I have been telling people that im from Chihuahua, mexico and a lot of people believe me haha, Elder Rocha thinks its hilarious haha. A member took us to an el salvadorean restaurant here and we were talking with the owners, and this guy said "But you're all white! You cant speak spanish!" And then we convinced him i was mexican and he believed me but then the member saw my name tag and called me out because of the H in Thomas and then they all laughed at me haha

In the branch they have sacrament meeting third which is kind of weird, but at church this week I really felt a desire to go to sacrament meeting. Usually sacrament meeting on the mission is a substantially stressful experience, what with waiting to see if people will start progressing towards eternal salvation or not. But the branch is a special place for sure and even though the congregation cant seem to figure out singing hymns I really felt the spirit. There was a lot of love there and you can tell. There's this one hermana who passed mints out to like 1/3 of the building, the youth bring friends, it crazy. I love it here.

Church is really important, I wish I would have shared it with more of my friends back home. Please share it with your friends and the people you love because this gospel is the best gift you could give anyone.

I love you!

Goodbye Ottumwa

Well it looks like my time has come to leave here. I wont know for sure until tomorrow but we're pretty sure I'm leaving. Its really sad, but I'mm excited for whatever is next.

We've had a very, very rough transfer and no one had come to church for all seven weeks. But this week we had stumbled back into a micronesian guy named Moses and his Sister, San San. They had been waiting for us for a long time haha but we had forgotten, but they were probably the most prepared people I have ever met on my mission. We invited them to church, and prayed a lot in the hopes that they would come. A miracle ensued, and San San brought 3 friends so we were able to have 4 people at church that day. We were able to see the fruits of our labors at the very last second, and those people are doing really well. 

Also this week we got kicked out of a trailer park in the cold night and the owner made us walk down the freeway or he said he was going to call the cops if we didn't, so we had an opportunity to take a picture of the Ottumwa sign!