Monday, February 29, 2016

Service is addictive!

What´s up y'all!

This week was a bit of a tougher one, but that´s alright! We have two different families and four other investigators that we are teaching that are all progressing really nicely, and they were all committed and excited to come to church yesterday! Then...none of them came. :( So that was pretty lame! We did everything possible to get them to come, but due to things out of our control, none of them could. One got really sick, one got called into work, stuff like that. It´s pretty clear that even though we´re out here working really hard with these people, so is Satan! But we´re going to keep working hard this week to get them all to church next week!

On the bright side, even though we didn´t bring anybody to church this week, our zone did!  Our zone won a competition for who could bring the most people to church this week, so for our reward we got to eat at this super delicious fancy hamburger restaurant with the whole zone today. So I ate my first giant burger in quite some time! It was a pretty nice taste from the States, but I prefer some nice tortillas and beans. ;D

So that was awesome! Another awesome thing. I don´t know if you all remember Yaquelin, but she is a recent convert who I baptized with Elder Sánchez. And she is AMAZING. Honestly, I´m pretty sure she has a stronger testimony than I do, and she got baptized a month ago. When we visited her the other day, she told us she turns down every guy that asks her on a date because she wants to stay focused on preparing for a mission. She also told us she reads ten chapters of the Book of Mormon daily, and today she left to serve a mini-mission here in Guatemala for one week! Every time we visit her I can´t believe I baptized someone that strong in the Gospel. It´s incredible to see someone I taught with a testimony like that! All of our other converts are doing super awesome as well!

We had an awesome lesson with a new investigator named Jose this week! We taught him the lesson, and we were about to challenge him to be baptized, but before we did I asked him if he had any questions about what we had taught. He responded: "No, just...about this whole baptism thing...I would like to get baptized!" Well...alrighty then! Hahaha so that was pretty awesome. The problem is that he kind of struggles to get to church because he cares for his sick dad, but as soon as we can find a way to get him to church regularly he's going to get baptized! Sooo that was pretty sweet. I always wonder how these people are often so receptive to our message, when I feel like I´m not really doing anything. But then I remember that I don´t have to do anything, the Spirit is the one teaching them! So that´s pretty awesome. I´m so blessed to work amongst people so humble and receptive.

Another cool experience! This transfer has been good, but to be honest, this companion has been a little bit less than easy for me to get along with. I was laying in bed one night thinking about how we could improve our relationship, and I remembered that people always told me that if I have a tough companion, serve him! So I decided to dedicate the entire next day in service to him. He woke up really sick, so he stayed in bed until about noon. During this time, I shined his shoes, made him breakfast, gave him medicine, washed his clothes...everything I could think of! And let me tell you guys, service is addictive! I got pretty frustrated when I ran out of things to do for him! But that day was really good, and as I´ve been trying to find ways to love and serve him, I´ve definitely seen things improving a lot. So that was great!

Well, that´s about it for this week! I´m loving it down here. Guatemala is awesome! Even though there are some things I don´t love about the culture down here, there are definitely some things about it that I think would be good to incorporate into American culture. Even though the people down here don´t have much, they´re always offering us food, something to drink, or to serve us in one way or another. And that´s members and non-members alike. So I encourage you all to try to be a bit more generous and find ways to serve those around you!

Sorry for the super long email...haha but I love you all! Have a great week!

-Elder Thomas

I was in the Liahona! If you can somehow get a hand on the March Spanish Liahona, you can see it!

Sooo I just think it´s awesome when I think about how my picture might be displayed in these people´s houses forever...so awesome to change people´s lives!

Yaquelin heading out to her mini mission

Missionary party in the ball pit
My comp and I at the burger restaurant

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