Happy Monday! Josh's quote of the week was "...I misspelled the word 'failure' in front of my whole class." That's from Dwight from The Office..another classic one..Enjoy!

Hey all,

 

Today I don't have as much time to write. Carnaval started on Satuday, and they said it would get kind of nuts, but it's been raining so we haven't really seen anything crazy yet. But they say that tomorrow is the worst day, so we'll see. Everything is closed. We looked for an open cyber café for an hour, and finally found one, but only one computer is open, so we have to share the hour we usually have. We haven't gotten attacked yet, thankfully.

 

Tomorrow we have our zone conference, it lasts like six hours, but Sister Ghent makes us food, and pizza here is 2 for 1 on Tuesdays, so I can't complain. President and Sister Ghent have been so good to us, helping us to get on our feet here. They came to our sacrament meeting on Sunday and President kind of lovingly chastened the ward, and said that one of the saddest things about missionaries going home is when the members are doing the bad things with them, and then talked a lot about how we all need to be very obedient. They've just been so supportive to us, and we really feel their love and excitement as we open up the new sector. I gave a talk before President Ghent, and talked about the importance of members in missionary work. I forgot all my notes that morning, so I made the talk up, and somehow made it last 20 minutes. It was a good Sunday for us. 5 investigators came to church, one new family that we found, and we now have 7 people with baptismal dates, all in March. We worked really hard this week, and the Lord blessed us greatly. Almost all of the people are from the references, but the new family we found contacting.

 

President Ghent said that February will be our month of faith. "La fe de FEbrero traerá el milagro de marzo." So for February, we can't listen to music, and a few other new rules just for the month, to help us to really focus on the work, find new people, and see miracles in March. We're excited to work really hard, and find new people. One new investigator, Angela, is awesome. She's a reference from the assistants, and is golden. We went to teach her, and she said that her life had no purpose, that she just sat in her house alone after work, waiting for the day that she would die to come quickly. She said she talked to the missionaries, felt so good, and wanted to learn more. She cried for almost the entire lesson, and excitedly accepted a day to be baptized. It was a really cool experience, to really see how the Gospel can give so much purpose to life.

 

I have my new camera, but I don't think I have time to load a picture of me and Elder Paz. He's doing well, has a lot to learn, as do I, but we're progressing together and having fun with each other. He sleeps a ton. I go to the bathroom for like 30 seconds, and somehow he's fallen asleep. Not sure how that works, but oh well. I haven't taken a nap yet on my mission. I've wanted to, but even on P-day there isn't time. I've accepted that I just won't sleep much for 2 years, and I can sleep all day when I get home. Mom, I think you said that you'll send a package soon. Is there any way to send another one of those fleece-thermal things from Fleet Farm. It rains a lot here, and that thing is perfect to wear under my rain jacket. If they don't have them in stores still, it's fine, or maybe a sweater or something. If they don't exist, no worries. And did you send contact solution? Do you think it would be better to buy it here? It costs $8 for 90 mL of solution, so I don't know how it would work out.

 

Eliza is so darn cute in the pictures you sent me, I can't believe how big she is! She is just adorable. Jack, too. He's gigantic. I have a picture of them in my scriptures to show off to people, the one where they're both laughing at home during Christmastime.

 

Okay, I should give Elder Paz his time. Sorry it's a bit shorter today, pero así toca. Next week I'll write more. Oh, and P.S., I think you guys think that the Embassy is in my ward, and it's not. The missionaries there are in my district, and I'll do splits there and hopefully see the Dowlings every now and again. Just to clarify. Also, when it rains hard, the work doesn't change, and we let the air dry our clothes. The lady who cleans our clothes is a magician. I haven't had my shirts so clean in months! Thanks for all your love and support, I appreciate it all. Love you guys tons, talk to you in a week!

 

Con amor,

 

Elder Thomas