Hola mis amigos y mi familia,
My experiencia here has been great, sorry if my spelling isn't good or it doesn't make sense I'm in a hurry, I only have an hour to write everyone!
So we all got here, showered, found our companeros and then we sent an email and ate some strange mexican dish. But don't worry, if the food is bad there is always unlimited cereal, Isaac would love this place! We shuffled around looking like deer in the headlights, but people helped us along. All the veterans gave us advice. Make it to Sunday. that was all. Make it to Sunday. The first couple of days were hard. Being away from anyone you know, except with the occasional run into Wade, Riley... er i mean Elder Hansen and Elder Williams, but we made it. The first couple of days my companion and i were just getting to know one another. Elder H. hails from the north west, Vancouver, Washington not Canada and don't you forget it. A tall lanky fellow like myself, with glasses and very short brown hair. I have never met someone so much like me with so many differences. We both swim, we both love music, we both cant lift weights we both like frisbee, we are very similar however we see things a little differently. He is like bizarro Ian, I mean Elder Thomas, but things are good and we are the ultimate tag team. I mean, did anyone ask superman if he worked together with bizarro superman, they would have ruled the galaxy or something! hahahah
We bumped into some elders at lunch that had some more advice for us. They said, there are two unspoken rules here, ( it was like hearing about the CCM underground or fight club or something, it was so cool!), one, the days seem like weeks and the weeks seem like days, (he could not have been more right.) and the other is spicy in spicy out. Too much information? Sorry, it is so great here i have many stories to share but not enough time! So many stories ah!
On Sunday the spiritual atomic bomb went off. The spiritual radiation permeated me throughout the whole day. Every thing made me cry, I was a mess all day. During sacrament meeting we sang "I Am a Child of God. When singing in Spanish you can feel the spirit so much stronger, I love singing the himnos en Español. When we sang that in that meeting I cried big wet tears. Maybe because it reminded me of home, but I think it was because of the espiritu. What a great experience these devotionals and meetings have been to me. I feel the spirit everyday here. I am growing learning and loving this gospel more than I ever have before. And people are right, this is very very difficult and there is nothing that can prepare you for the trials you'll experience here except for the spirit, so just pray and have hope that you'll make it. We were told this morning that someone in our district went home, I was so sad. I don't know who it was but it makes me sad. Dad said have no regrets on your mission, and i think that missionary will regret that. I feel really bad for him. I wont lie, I felt sad and thought about it, but then I remembered why I was here and who was helping me. I have faith things will get easier and I know that I need to work harder.
I'll end with one final miracle. This was so cool, its one of those funny but spiritual miracles. You don't know one of those? Oh, sorry, I will have to inform you. Elder Edwards, an Arizona guy in my districto, broke his watch when he dropped it in his room, the time read 2:40 when we were praying for a investigator, oh yeah we teach this guy who is an "investigator" but we don't think he really is, and he said in his humble Spanish, "please fix my watch... amen", when he said amen the watch read 2:41, it was fixed. Hallelujah! It was so cool, we all were laughing so hard we were crying! It was awesome! I know this church is true, this mission thing is hard but I'll make it! I feel the spirit and cry with the spirit everyday, it's great, I feel bad for mi companero, I cry too much, oh well.
Mom, I'll pray for your shoulder, that's a bummer you broke it. I will pray for you with my district. I love you all.
Love,
Elder Thomas
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