Letter Dated September 9, 2013

Hello, Hello!! :)

Oh my heavens! I wish every single one of you could be here with me to experience how awesome my mission is!! :) not to brag or anything...but I'm pretty sure I've got the best mission in the whole wide world...with the greatest companion you'll ever find! :) This past week has been suuper awesome in some aspects....and not so much in others. Haha! We've had kind of a rough week with our investigators.  We'll start first with my friend Dalitza. We had such an amazing lesson with her this week! oh my goodness, she opened up to us like she never has before and expressed so much to us! and we tried our best to follow the promptings of the spirit and the lesson was just amazing! We had a member there, her name is Belen! and she ROCKS!!! oh my gosh! I love her so much!!! We have a lot of fun! Her family is soo awesome and so kind to us! they definitely take care of us! and Belen just has such a strong testimony! She is so good at finding a way to relate to other people, and she has really befriended Dalitza and has tried really hard to relate with her and involve her in a lot of church related functions, as well as outside of a church setting.  She just really cares for her so much and wants so badly to help Dalitza, so it was cool to see their friendship within that lesson and the hear the advice and the testimony that Belen was sharing! :) She's basically the best! But it was really sad, that even after that really awesome lesson...this Sunday we had arranged for Belen's family to pick Dalitza up for a ride, and before church Dalitza said that she just really didn't want to come to church yesterday.  Ugh...it was so sad! it just breaks my heart to feel the spirit so strongly in a lesson, and know that they are feeling it too..but then for them not to act upon that to build their faith.  But it's okay, we just keep trying.  And then, we have this other man, his name is Dale.  We've taught him quite a few lessons and have invited him to come to church three times, well the first two Sundays he was having feet problems and cancelled on his ride at the last second. :( well he had agreed to come with us this Sunday (yesterday) and he was really excited to come! We had called a member and got a ride all arranged for him, and talked to the member Saturday night...well, then yesterday morning we get to church and see the brother we had arranged to pick Dale up...but we didn't see any Dale....weird.  So we walked up and Sister Walborn put her hand on his shoulder to get his attention, and he looked up at us and immediately gasped, dropped his chin to his chest and said that he had forgot.  Ooops! that's a big oops.  So we called Dale and it turns out he had been waiting outside for over a half hour waiting for his ride to pick him up.  Oh, it was so sad and frustrating.  Dale said it was okay though and that he was looking forward to coming next Sunday! I had felt so bad, but I was so happy that Dale responded so well despite the suckish situation. So this last Sunday was kind of sad, we didn't have any investigators at church. :( but there is always room to improve so its okay.  We'll get em next time! haha and we'll definitely have one other one at church this upcomingSunday! his name is Ken, him and his wife are so cute! I love them to death! haha but he had promised us that he would come to our church to check it out. But he also requested that we went to his church to see what it was all about.  So we said we could do that, unfortunately his service started about the same time  ours did and so we couldn't go to his service, we could only go to his Sunday School.  We went to that yesterday morning, and it was really interesting.  Ken is a Methodist, and their church was so different. haha it was really fun to see! when you walked in it kind of felt like a school building, but he showed us around, and their chapel was very pretty.  It had a lot of pretty stained glass and big crucifixes everywhere, and this room that he took us to was where they had what he called the traditional service, and then he took us down to a different room where they hold a "contemporary service" and they had a rock band warming up and preparing for the service that day...and that's what he says he likes the best! He says they all sing and dance and sing their praises to the Lord....It was a very interesting experience for me....definitely different from what I'm used to.  I think it might be a little strange for him when he comes to our service because we're so reverent...and don't have rock bands! :) haha its going to be fun! oh my! and I saw their preacher people and they really wore the big robe drape things..it was pretty cool.  haha! I definitely don't see that every day.  anyways, the best pats of this week were probably my companion and the weather! Oh my heavens! the weather was amazing this week! we had like, no humidity at all!! and it wasn't so stinkin hot! it was perfect temperature! It was awesome! And my Sister Walborn and I had so much fun! I mean of course we worked suuper hard! But we just made the most of this week! We just had so many fun bonding moments and we were able to understand each other so much better, and we laughed and had a good old time, with absolutely no problems whatsoever! not that we ever really have problems! haha you know, we're just sisters and we sometimes tend to be emotional. haha! But Sister Walborn is so awesome! and I'm sooooooo SOOOO excited that I get to be with her for another transfer! She has taught me so much! and she just has such a fun personality! You'll all have to meet her some day! because she's awesome! haha! Well I love you all! and the church is still true! :) And I love E-town sooooo much!!! I can't even express how thankful I am to be here and the overwhelming feelings that I get that I know I'm supposed to be in this place at this time! :) it's the best! stay true and be diligent in your works! I love you all so much! Talk to y'all next week! :)
Love,

Sister Thomas

Letter Dated September 3, 2013

(Message from Kelsey: I am sorry that it has taken so long to get this posted. Life has been a little crazy. I will try my best to get them posted the day after I get them but I make no promises but send Sister Thomas some love she would love to hear from you all! Send letters she LOVES them!! Anyways thanks for being patient with me!) 

Hey Hey! I'm sorry! I didn't write a group email last week! and this weeks is going to be kinda lame...But that's okay! Because you love me anyways, right? ;)

Welp, as you all know yesterday was Labor Day! :) I hope you all had a good time! And I hope you enjoyed yourselves at the extremely long Payson Parade! hahaha! Believe it or not...I really missed it this year! haha I couldn't help but to think of all of you that are at home sitting at the parade in front of Grandpa's Shops enjoying each others company! :) It was weird not being there! But we have the best ward here! (but don't worry....our ward at home is still the very best! :) haha) but the Greenway's invited us over to their house for a barbeque to celebrate Labor Day! and it was the best! because yesterday was P-day, and the library was closed we couldn't email or anything, and we got to go to their house in our jeans and enjoy such nice company! The Greenway's are seriously some of the best people I know! They are sooo good to us!  They both served missions in Brazil and they just have the cutest little family! An oldest boy, and two little girls! and they are so stinkin cute! the Greenways also had the Hansens over, and they are just a cute little family too! so we all piled in their home, with the other two Elders who ware serving in our area, Elder Cooper and Elder Jones, and we had the best lunch! It was so fun and yummy! and It was just really nice to be wearing pants! haha instead of a skirt, and to just be able to sit and chat with the girls, while the Elders and the other guys were in the other room chatting! haha it just felt normal for a few hours, and that was so nice! Sister Walborn and I really felt at home and it was just a nice way to spend our P-day! haha, now we can get back to the good stuff right? the work that is going on! We had one of our investigators, Deb, come to church this Sunday....and guess what, She brought her husband too! :) that was soo awesome! and they really seemed to enjoy it! It was fast and testimony meeting on Sunday, and it was so fun to hear all of the testimonies that were given! they were all so sincere and so in tune with the spirit! The spirit was so strong, and I know that some of the things that were said were just for Deb and her husband! Right now we're teaching a few different investigators.  We've got Deb, Dale, Mikey, a different Deb and her husband Ken, and Dalitza. I swear all of their names start with D's :) And Ciara moved. :'( that was really sad! But it was so fun to get to know her! and we got to meet her family before she left and they were just as sweet as could be! They were loads of fun! and Did I already tell you that Athena and her mom moved too? That was so sad! The whole time they were talking about moving we were all under the impression that she would be in the same ward, but they moved just like a mile and a half out of the ward boundaries.  We miss them so much! But when we were helping them move is where we met Mikey and Deb and Ken, and it was really awesome, that's how we got in contact with them, and I've really enjoyed teaching all of them! I feel like Deb and I really had a connection, we're actually going with her and her husband to their Methodist church this Sunday, and then the next Sunday they will be coming to ours. :) It's going to be really cool to learn more about other religions.  There are so many different religions around here I can't even believe how many there are....some that I have never heard of my whole life. But it's really cool because I feel like everyone here belongs to a religion and a lot of people exercise a faith in Jesus Christ, which makes it both hard and awesome all at the same time.  Ahh! and now it's time for me to go.. :( haha I'm sorry I'm so disorganized and I bounce around so much! let me know if I've talked about anyone and I've left you hanging, because I can't remember everything! haha, but I love you all so much! and I can't wait to hear from you all and to get to talk to you again next week!

I love you all so much!

love, Sister Thomas!