This week's quote was "This isn't a car."--Batman


Hey all,

Faced the biggest temptation of my mission so far this week. Did Batman come out on DVD this week or something? It's been in stores here for months, but now people aren't afraid to play it in their stores, so it must be legal to have now...Long live Batman.

We had 7 people come to church this week, which is really, really awesome. The 11 year old boy and his mom came (Sneider and Sonia), he will be baptized Saturday and the mother will be baptized the 8th. We have another mom and her son, Elena and Dennis, who will be baptized this Saturday, and one more brother, Luis, who will probably be baptized this Saturday, too, if he can get off of work. We had a 21 year old come, too, his name is Adrian, and he is really black and really awesome. And we had the mom of the two girls who were baptized finally come to church, and she'll hopefully be baptized the 8th. It was a really great Sunday, and almost everyone stayed all three hours, which is also really hard. We worked really hard to get people to come to church this week, but more importantly, we prayed really hard that people would have the desires to come to church, and the Lord really helped us out. We've got some really, really great investigators, and I love being with them and learning with them. It's so awesome to have good investigators that really progress well.

The Escobar family is just the best. The father choked to death 5 years ago, and the first lesson we taught was the Plan of Salvation, and they loved it. They're progressing super well. The get all dressed up for church, and have made some really good friends. They're from the coast, and people from the coast are known to cook really well and to be really buff. Yesterday, we had dinner with them, something called encocado, delicious. It's like a chicken soup think with coconut, tough to describe, happy to eat. They're an awesome family. Plus, Sonia called me "tuco," which means muscular, and coming from someone from the coast, I was super happy. Helps me on my road to being Batman. They also gave us a reference, their neighbors, and they want to learn more from us... She really liked the picture of our family, so go Team Thomas on that end!

Ate a mango this week, UNREAL: It was so darn good. I am going to spend a lot of money on mangoes here. Dried mangoes are delicious, but ain't nothing compared to the real thing. I just can't describe the greatness. They are honestly the size of my hand, gigantic, juicy, and just perfect. One more will be eaten tonight. 

A park near our house just got some exercise equipment stuff, so we go there every other day, I run for 20 minutes and do some other stuff there, and on the off days I'm still ab ripping. I feel really good right now, exercising makes a big difference. With Elder Richimondg, we never ran, but it makes such a difference to really exercise well during the week...We went to the offices today, and for the first time every I didn't have a letter for me! But the package with the blankets was there, so thanks for that to you guys and to Sue...

Christmas is super close, which is awesome. One month, más o menos. I'm 99% sure I'll still be here for Christmas, because I'm training, and if I go, then one person from each companionship would leave, so I'll probably be here till February. When I first got here, to be honest, I wanted to leave after six weeks because it's such a hard sector. But now it feels like my home here, and it's weird to think about leaving here. It's also exciting because there is a lot more to see of Ecuador.

I'm glad to hear that you all had a great Thanksgiving... I missed being home with you guys, but not to worry, I was greeted with a delicious Thanksgiving meal. Cow stomach. Round 2. Cow stomach was leading with a score of 1-0, but Elder Thomas played his best, and now the score is cow stomach 1, body of Elder Thomas 1. In your face, stomach of cow. Never again will you destroy my bowels. Which probably means that I have some kind of parasite inside of me now that makes me immune to cow stomach, but hey, immunity is immunity, right?...

I got so prepared for the cold here with sweaters, heater, and whatnot, and now we haven't had rain for almost two weeks. It's really weird, and really not too cold here now. As soon as the rain starts again, the cold will return, but for now, it's really not that bad. The volcanoes are like Death Mountain from Zelda, with clouds always surrounding them. So Trevor and Andrew, if you have a few minutes, could you come here and kill the dragons? Much appreciated.

That's about it this week for me. Nothing too exciting happening this week, and I want time to send pictures. I think we get to see the devotional this Sunday, I hope we can. We still don't have the conference edition of the Liahona, which kind of stinks. But soon, I hope, it will come. I love you all, and will talk to you in a week.

Con amor,

Elder Thomas