Nerf Battles

The members of this Church are very kind. Some believe that when

missionaries leave their homes and are in the mission field during
Christmas, their families forget about them, which isn't true but is
probably one of the greatest blessing of being a missionary. Every
member gave us food and gifts here for Christmas. They are very kind
and we, in turn, are quite fat.

Christmas began with the Blanca family, where Santa had left us gifts
of candy and hot chocolate. We spent the morning playing chess and
watching my favorite movie of all time Frozen.  This family's father
is in Mexico right now and they had several children that the English
Elders had been teaching for some time. We retired to another member's
home where Santa had left us Nerf guns which is one of the more
questionable moves Santa has made in his career. I believe it is
called by some to be a 'career ruin-er'. We grabbed the guns and were
immediately bombarded with bullets from above at the hands of their
toddler. A fire erupted in the eyes of Elder Powers as he was shot
several times in the face, a fire that I had only seen on one other
occasion. He grabbed the new gun and trampled over their other child
and told us to follow him. A battle ensued with much carnage and many
wounds were delivered. The toddler named Justin was specifically
targeted by myself and elder Powers. (Cruel? Maybe. Did he deserve it?
Yes. Is that Christ-like of me to do? I plead the Fifth.) I managed to
escape with nothing but a bullet to the eye. It was awesome and very
enjoyable.

We went to visit Tony on Christmas Eve. He is always so inspired to
stop smoking when we talk with him but when we saw him he was kind of
drunk and just ended up hugging us. I felt bad, like we hadn't taught
him well, but them I remembered earlier on in the week. We taught him
another commandment, and neither of us were sure why. He wasn't
appearing to having any issues with it but when we brought it up he
said that he had been struggling with it. The Lord is in charge and if
we listen to Him our lives will be better. I am really trying to do
that. My mission president said be obedient and work hard and watch
the miracles. I am trying really hard, and hope that my efforts will
suffice. I know the Lord will carry them the rest of the way, because
He has carried me.

Thank you for your prayers and continue to send them my way and in the
direction of the people I am teaching. I know the Lord will hear you
and me and bless us and those that need help.

Merry New Year,
Elder Thomas

The Nield Family had the Elders over on Christmas Eve to make gingerbread houses.

Sister Nield said they didn't get one serious photo of  Elder Thomas the entire night. :)

Ian called this ~ "The Rule Breaker"

The great people of Aurora who take care of the Elders.

Ian was surprised with our gift - A replacement Lego watch to the one that broke before he left home.

Mom's best Christmas gift this year!

Festivus for the Rest of Us!

Elder Thomas top row second over on left. OK, Tulsa Conference

I thought I would begin this email to my fellow friends of the faith
by wishing you all a very merry Festivus. (If you are ignorant in the
ways of this celebration I would invite you to inquire my family.) May
your day be full of many grievances aired and many feats of strength
displayed. Please watch that (Seinfeld) episode for me, family.

This week I had a one of those 'first' experiences. Like the first
time you drove or the first time you ate pizza. This week  was the
first time I was ever pulled over for shoplifting.

We were sitting in the car on an exchange with my Zone Leader,
(obviously something of this nature would happen to me as I was on a
important exchange.) looking through my planner, as a suspicious black
car pulled up along side of us. My Zone Leader said, 'I believe that
is a cop.' I dismissed the notion assuming the fellow with much more
experience and knowledge was trying to mess with me. But I looked up
out the window and saw the Aviator sun glasses and Magnum P.I.
mustache staring back at me. he put the car in reverse and came up
behind us, lights a blaring. Now, our car wasn't moving, yet, Doug,
the police officer, still turned on the lights. This decision, I
believe, was just to look cool or show off to the Hispanic on-lookers.
He came up next to us as sweat began to build above my brow. The Zone
Leader, said in his wisdom, 'Just act cool.' He obviously knew
something I didn't. The Officer came up to the window and said his
name was Doug Franklin, (or some other name that could easily be put
in any-given '70's cop tv show), with the Monet Police Department and
he needed my Drivers license. I gave it to him and heard an intercom
go off in his car, ".. the car belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints, I dont think they stole all that stuff from the
Walmart." Doug informed us of the misunderstanding and said someone
with Oklahoma plates driving our EXACT car had shop lifted at a
Walmart. Relieved, I left. It was later that the Zone Leader brought
to my attention that we were parked next to a No Parking sign. My
friends, the mercy of the Heavens above shown down on us that day.

All in all a good week. Thank you for the prayers and letters you send
my way. Y'all don't know how much they mean to me. I love you all and
wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Festivus.

Love,
elder thomas

Ian's mom (Rosemary) posted this picture.

The Dorky Kid with a Lego Watch in a Polygamist Community

Santa and the Elder with his helmet on backward

Wearing a nail gun chain.

(I have debated on calling this one, "What are you talking about?! I
WAS at church." due to this story, but the polygamist one has a nice
ring.) We have been teaching this nice older Mexican guy who has been
golden the past couple of lessons. We asked him if he would follow the
word of wisdom and he said, 'of course', we asked him if he would be
baptized, he said 'of course', (KInda like that guy from the Princess
Bride who says 'As you wish', except this fellow is quiet a bit older)
we asked him to come to church and this is where it gets weird... On
Friday he said he was coming, but there was no Adrian at church. The
kind gentleman with a mustache of barb wire and a heart of enchilada
sauce was no where to be found. However, we went to his home after and
said we missed him at church. He scrunched up his facial hair and
said, "What are you talking about?! I WAS at church." Now, the normal
observer would estimate that Adrian either had a lost a few marbles or
that Elder Thomas and Elder Perkins are blind. It wasn't either. His
ride was late and he wanted to go, so we drove to the chapel in Monet
and went to the English ward. Yes, it is true, we asked the
missionaries in Monet and they said they did stumble into a clueless
Spanish speaker, but with the help of a quick game of charades they
aided our Hispanic compadre. Pretty cool right? He told us he didn't
understand anything in English, that was a set back.

Now for the Polygamists. On an exchange to the small village of
Stockton, I ate dinner with an ex-polygamist family. They had one
maternal parent and 19 kids. Yes, 19. We only met three but I met one
in another location a couple hundred miles south of my present
location in a missionary training center. One of their daughters was
in the CCM at the same time as me and I met her. A couple of my
friends from Alta were actually in the group that left with her. They
were a kind family and the parents were surprisingly stable
considering at one point they had 19 kids running around their crammed
cottage in the backwoods of Missoura. They are pretty patient parents.

We taught a man how to pray in a trailer this week. Teaching people to
pray is one of the greatest blessings out here. As mice ran across his
oven and his daughters pulled his sleeve saying, 'Papi, yo tengo un
tableta! Papi, hay un rato en nuestro casa! Papi, mami esta
dormiendo!', we taught him that God loves him. Then the mice returned
to the dirt-filled chasm from whence they came and the children lost
interest, and we asked him to pray. Presumably, he didn't want to, but
with some encouragement he did. It was humble, brief and very
powerful. As he ended he looked at the ground with eyes wide open. You
could tell he knew he just spoke with his Father in Heaven. He looked
shocked, but the light in his eyes suggested a sense of peace. It was
awesome and a great blessing.

Pretty cool week all in all, and I am looking forward to the next.
Keep on praying for these people in this area. I love you all and
Merry Christmas from the Aurora library, they say hello.

Elder Thomas

Like a Chevy Cruze Stuck in Mud.....

Me, cross eyed helping a burro find its way...

I think this will be the new title of my Spring rap album, but it is
still in production so things could change. I got this phrase when
this actually happened to us.

So, me, being the not so intelligent critter that I am, decided to
turn around in a driveway of mud in the rain even after my companion
told me not to. As I felt the tires slip around beneath us, I had a
humbling experience, the feeling of being stuck. We got out and I had
a feeling that we would get out in a jiffy. Nope. After putting wood,
grass, leaves, small dogs and barrel lids (we used all of those but
one IRL), we came to the conclusion that we were going to have to dry
clean our suits again. The mud that we were traipsing about in was not
actually mud, but a mud hybrid. It was about 80% mud and 20% of
something else. There are many animals that also graze where we stood,
such as horses and dogs. And we stood in what was left. Yes, it is
what you think it is. I am pretty cool under pressure, but after about
45 minutes I got a bit frustrated. Luckily, a man that we had taught
earlier came out and helped us with his whole family, but even with
little Bobby pushing on the back, it wouldn't budge. The mud was angry
that day, my friends, and several prayers were sent heavenward. We
went trailer to trailer begging for cat litter, which definitely tops
the charts of weird things I have done. Cold, soaked and my legs
drenched in... mud, and begging Hispanics for cat litter. Then we went
to the Hispanic woman who fed us Thanksgiving. She greeted us with a
smile and then she saw our appearance. She let out a sigh and said,
"Oh, Thomas." She immediately called her spouse and kids and they
promptly drove their car over and hauled us out of the mud. Yes, that
fast. After an hour and a half we were out, just like that.

Now, several Gospel application could be made here but I am not going
to make one because you have probably already created one in your mind
with the anticipation that I would make one. And I can't really think
of a decent one. We have used in just about all of our lessons in the
past couple of days though, which I think is the reason we were stuck
in it. Elder P kept asking why we got stuck, and I think that
might be it, so we could tell people about it and laugh or help them
understand baptism.

This week has been a week of growth, (that sounds a lot better than
this week has been a bummer, haha) But don't fret my young friends, I
have grown. Each opportunity I have had to go absolutely nuts and drop
kick the Chihuahua that will not stop barking in the middle of our
lesson, is a moment for me to grow. And I have had a couple of those
this week. As I look back I feel really happy because I am that much
closer to Christ and my Heavenly Father. Closer today than I was
yesterday and hopefully closer tomorrow than I was today. Just like on
the Christmas special where Santa and a penguin teach that Yeti Snow
Wizard guy to walk with that song, "one foot in front of the other,"
that is how I have taken this week. And from that I have learned that
it is only through our Savior that we can make it to the finish line.
Really rely upon Him, that is all we can do and that is all we need to
do.

Another cool experience I had was watching a kind elder man get called
to be a Patriarch. He feeds us with his wife and she knows how to
cook, but this is what he said when asked to bear his testimony at the
Priesthood Conference; "...The Gospel is true. And nothing else really
matters."

I love you all, thank you for praying for the people I teach and for
my friends and for my family
Love,
Elder Thomas

The reason Verona smells like dog food 24/7.


Lesson for the week..."Put one foot in front of the other...."

Colloidal Silver: The Cure for it All

The Elder on the far right is in Ian's ward.  His family takes good care of the Elders in Aurora.
 He received a call to Ogden, Utah Spanish Speaking and is headed to the Mexico MTC.
 Ian was excited to share his experiences of the Mexico MTC with him.  

I received this via text from an angel in Aurora, Missouri.  She invited them to Thanksgiving dinner.

Our ward mission leader is convinced that he can cure anything with Colloidal Silver, which is basically just particles of silver in water with some hidden magically properties only known to the ancient Indian tribes of southeast Missouri. He told us it is the cure for everything. He makes it, which is also a bit sketchy, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

I don't have a whole lot of time, but I will say that the Hispanics know how to have a Thanksgiving. It usually commences with the watching of a Boda, or wedding party. Then everyone eats while the crazy Uncle from Zacatecas explains how he speaks every language and how avocado in Italian is just a high pitch shriek. I had an awesome time. I felt like I was at home just minus the family part. We devoured lots of meats and tamales while enjoying the beverage of choice of the Hispanic population, Coca-Cola.

It was an awesome week, remember the Hispanic people of southern Missouri in your prayers, and thank you for the prayers you send my way. I love you all.

Elder Thomas