Radio Silence

Glorious Pizza!

I apologize for the radio silence that has occurred over the past week or so and I hope to make up for it with the following stories.

It was the evening like a January evening in Utah. A bit chilly, cloudy and just one of those days that makes you want to do nothing but be miserable and watch Spongebob or local PBS programming until the sun returns. But remarkably we weren't depressed in the slightest. We ate an enchilada dinner, (the American variety not Mexican) with a family in a large log cabin-like home and laughed about the father of the home's experience hunting wild pigs on his mission in  Hawaii. After I briefly mentioned how planning saps my energy, he told us that he had energy drinks in his garage that he didn't want, so I did what any missionary would do and took them all. The following morning we needed to do weekly planing. And so the experiment began. With excitement and anticipation for the worst in our eyes, Elder T, and the new Elder in the area, Elder C and I all drank one. Elder P was the only one with enough sense to not drink one. We had all heard stories of people drinking two of them and going into comas or having heart palpitations and being hospitalized, so our hopes were high.  The sensation was different for all of us. Elder T immediately began to laugh hysterically and Elder C's face got really red and his hands started to shake and as for me, I remained the same. I was expecting to start flying or explode and all that happened was a headache. A complete let down. But we will search for another energy drink and let y'all know what happens.

We burnt a tie for my 6 month mark and it was about as exciting as us drinking energy drinks. And it is kind of strange that I've been out this long, it feels like a week at Camp Steiner.

We have been teaching many people and trying to teach them English as well. An older lady in our group, (who has a problem of informing the Catholics at her work about their eternal salvation if they stay their current course), can't read or write in English or Spanish. My companion teaches her daughter and I am teaching this 67-year-old woman from Monterrey, Mexico the alphabet. She is having a really difficult time learning how to write "G".  Never thought I'd be doing this.

Do y'all remember the crying gentleman that we taught in the Pontiac? He now has a baptism date and is progressing very well. He told us something very interesting. He said, all the Hispanics believe that God is everywhere and no matter how you believe in Him, no matter what you do to believe in Him, you'll be saved, but it isn't like that. We teach a lot of Hispanics and they believe that, but something was different about this man named R. R gets it, the Spirit touched his heart and he will probably be baptized soon. I don't know what we did differently but he understands. As missionaries, we can work with people forever, teaching them the same doctrine over and over, but the the real teacher is the Spirit. And for that I'm grateful because the Spirit speaks much better Spanish than I do.

Thank you for your prayers, they do more for me than any of you can imagine.

With love and apiece of steak from lunch stuck in my teeth,

Elder Thomas

He said, "Two excellent photos that had to be taken!"

Car covered in pennies