BAPTISM

 

FINALLY! We were able to baptize Cristian Saturday, he was confirmed yesterday. It was awesome. I got to do the baptism, even though we were trying to get a member to do it. Next time maybe.

After the baptism, Cristian and I were changing and I asked him, "how do you feel?" Almost shouting and laughing simotaneously he repsonded, "FELIZ!" haha. I loved it. I didn´t notice, but my comp told me that he had never taken the sacrament before because he was always afraid for some reason. After being confirmed, he took it for the first time, and just looked happy. So excited to take it. I don´t get this kid. He´s just now going to turn 13 and he is so cool. He´s going to be made a deacon next Sunday and then I´m never going to pass the Sacrament again while I am here if I can help it. Now we have three, and a priest, and they are all active. We baptized most of them. SO COOL! I love being a missionary!

Some cool stories.

We went to a sister named Lorena who has lots of health issues and can´t walk. She´s really young too. But her faith just never ceases to blow us away. She told us that she knew that Christmas Eve was going to be rediculous with all the music and stuff that always goes on here, so she prayed the night before for the power to go out. Then the power went out immediately. She said, "No God, not now. Tomorrow." The power came right back on. The next night, the power went out exactly at midnight and stayed out for several hours.

I can testify personally to both of those, because I remember where we were when the power went off and came right back on, as well as when it went out at midnight. How Cool!

We´re teaching quite a few potential Aaronic Priesthood holders, and they are our new best friends. They are going to be hard to get to church, but they are really receptive.

The first lesson we taught them was powerful powerful powerful. One is named Edwin, and he told us that before, he was athiest, and since he started talking to us he feels differently. Now we´re reading the Book of Mormon, and he read a lot on his own. If he gets baptized, he will bring a ton of his friends to the church. We can see it. He has a lot of influence over them and is really popular. He´s about 17 and would be the great missionary!

I love this work! I love the Lord, and know that He is watching over this great work. I love you all and miss you all less and less. But my love is growing for you and for everyone I know more and more. I hope you can all say the same. Let us not be sad for the unity we have in purpose!

Love,

Elder Thalman

TESTIMONY

 

This week was awesome! We have been working like crazy, and seeing some long awaited changes in this work. We got our future deacon to chruch on Sunday... which means we finally are going to baptize this weekend! We also set two other dates for the next weekend. Here we go. They dynasty begins!

So you may be wondering if I got a change... I did NOT! Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Florida. Elder Young is still my companion. I will be here for about six and a half months now because of this transfer being long. I am excited to spend Christmas here, and to prepare the area so that I leave it with lots of baptisms and others on the way for the new guy. It truly is a merry Christmas!

So Cristian is all set and ready to go. He is so cool. In his prayer, we asked him to ask if the Book of Mormon is true. The next day, he said he knew it was true, and in his prayer to end the lesson he said, "thank you for telling me that the Book of Mormon is true." How cool! I love the faith of youth. They are the best.

The other two are named Luis and Alexander. 14 and 15. They are brothers, and live super far away. We did anther movie night in a members home, and this time 8 investigators came! Many were invites of the family. But the best was that Luis came. The next day, he and his brother were in church. We gave them a stack of panflets to read durring the week, and then we are going to teach them Sat and Sun. Haha.

Okay, so the story of the week happened yesterday. Solomon, the son of the branch pres, is a single adult and friend of Luis and Alexander. We taught them the restoration after church yesterday and it went really well. But the best part was Solomon. I asked him to explain how he got a testimony, and then bear it. He explained that when he was younger, as a teen, he doubted, and wanted to know the truth about the church and all that stuff. He prayed and said the first thing that he felt was feeling of peace, that he was in the right path in his life. Then he said he got the desire to read the scriptures, and went on to explain certain scriptures that effected him greatly. Then he just bore his testimony. "I know that the chruch is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I know that this is Christs chruch and that this is where he wants me to be."

This may sound unremarkable, and I do not know what the two boys felt, but when this young man said that, I just got cold chills all over. Then I just felt a great warmth, and I knew that he knew that this truly is Christs church. His testimony is real. He knows it, and I could feel. I have never experienced anything like that with someone elses testimony before. Now I just want him, more than anything, to on a mission. He is so meek, and humble. Quite, but not shy or incapable. I just want him to share that testimony with everyone in the world.

I love this work. I love this area. I love the Lord. I hope that when I bear my testimony, that others can feel what I felt. I, by no worthiness on my part, know, by power of the Spirit, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I know that He called Joseph Smith to be a prophet, and that this church today, is true. It is the same chruch established by Christ in His mortal ministry. May you all seek to know that same this Christmas season, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

So there is the blog. I do not like contractions because I cannot use the apostaphy function on this keyboard. haha.

 

Love,

Elder Kenter Thalman

Let No Man Dispise thy Youth.

This week was super excellent. We really have finally started to figure out how to get good work done together. Elder Young is the best. So here´s what happened.

We, on Thurs, found a young man, the son of two investigators that seemed so so... that night we just stopped by to invite them to an activity, and they couldn´t come. However, the young 12 year old boy named Cristian decided to come, and he did so very willingly. We got there a little early, so we taught him a lesson next to the baptismal font. We challenged him and set a date with him right then and there. He accepted, and then we took him home. Then we went back and taught the Restoration on Saturday, and he came to church on Sunday. He´s awesome!!! He was with my companion while they were trying to get other people to come to church, and was really surprised as to why no one seemed to want to come. "That one neither?!" He would say. While we were trying to fight depression, like usual on Sunday mornings, it was funny to see his innocent reaction in retrospect. He´s already read the intro and all the testimonies in the Book of Mormon, and his parents seem cool with him going to church. They own a bar, but they don´t drink and seem like good folks. Surprising to see just how spiritually receptive he really is.

Side note... super weird, but the day after, we found another kid, 13 years old, named Cristian. Really receptive. The day after, we found TWO! One was 14 and the other 10. They were both so so, but still. We were really weirded out. When we met the fourth one, we asked his name. When he responded, I just looked at my comp and he said, "that just happen!" haha.

The other really cool part was that we started teaching Jasmín again, who I believe I mentioned several weeks ago. I loved teaching her, but we had to drop her because her husband wasn´t cool with letting her go to church. This time, she specifically asked us to return, so we did. Then she just determined to go to church, and she did!!! I was excited. I knew she would. She said it with a lot of faith. It´s cool because I could tell that she could feel the Spirit. I asked her Saturday, "why do you listen to us? Why did you want us to come back?" She responded, "I just want peace in my life and in my home. I want to change." She felt the Spirit, and she felt it leave with us. Now she wants it for good. She´s really cool, and we´re going to fast with her so that her husband lets her progress and all (including getting married). I can see that she has a lot of faith, and I know that God will open the way for her.

My companion and I started a new thing, following the advice from a multi zone conference we had on Wednesday. The general idea was from the conf, but the activity and the details were inspired. We went and shared 3 Nefi 11 with a member and bore our testimonies about the BOM. Then we talked about how we can share this heritage of how Christ came to this continent with other people. We set a date for a movie night (the Testaments) and the went with her on Sunday to invite tons of peeps (all her neighbors) to the activity.  Yesterday we left to invite with Pancha (short for Fransisca), and she is soooo coool!!! haha. We´ve always loved her, but yesterday was just hilarious. We would just walk up to a door, and she didn´t even knock. Just walked in and told them all, "we´re showing a movie about Jesus on Saturday in my house. 6 O´clock. Be there." and then she´d leave. We love her! I did have to tell her, "next time, please at least try and introduce us to them before we leave." She´s way cool, but the only problem is that she knows EVERYONE. We were going to just invite a few select people, but she just went from door to door and invited the whole street. the whole block! She´s so funny. Sometimes she just makes us bust out laughing.

So this work is pretty much the best ever. I love this mission. We went running this morning on the new high way, and my comp had to ask a guy to use his bathroom. I thought it was funny. Gotta love Honduras.

I know that Jesus Christ is directing this work. I feel Him changing and qualifying me. It´s exciting the more and more I feel the Spirit directing me in what to do and say. It just doesn´t get old. It´s the most exciting, most rewarding thing ever. I love my Savior and feel so blessed to be part of His work. I love these people. Sometimes they really try my patience, but I don´t want to leave them. haha.

I love you all, and always pray for you.

Os Quiero demasiado,

Elder Kent Thaman

Waters of Mormon

 

So, this has been a way cool pday. We went to an awsome little river and ran all over the rocks and stuff. I love this district. At the end, we chilled and I read Mosiah 18. It was beautiful outside, and sometimes I forget how cool it is to be here in Honduras. I submit that this was likely where it really happened... haha.

This week we taught some really cool lessons. One that was pretty cool was one we taught to a guy named Nery. He´s this guy we started teaching because I always saw him and he seemed really nice. He really loves his two boys, and his family is really important to him. He told us that he never really worrid about the afterlife or anything. He just figured that we should live a super positive life, and not worry too much about things like that. I explained to him that he probably will reach a point in his life where he will loose someone close to him, and contemplate if he can live with them again. This week he said that he was with his dad in the hospital before an operation, and he told me that what I had said to him came back, and he realized that if he were to loose his father in this moment, he would want the asurance that he could live with him again. It was really cool to see how the Lord is already preparing the people. He´s really starting to open up. I just really hope he goes to church now.

We have a part member family that we started teaching again (he´s been taught in the past), and he seems like this time he will be ready for baptism. He read the whole panflet for the Restoration, which is rare here. He Understands everything, and I think he´ll get a testimony (or recognize that he already has one). the big thing will be getting him off of the lottery, which he already has a goal to do. The trick in this country is just GETTING THEM TO CHURCH! As you can tell, I´ve been through some frustrating experiences on that front... haha. But I know that the Lord will bless us with success if we just keep moving forward.

I love you all. I pray for you too. Keep praying for me. Thanks so far for all the prayers.

Elder Kent Thalman

El Espiritu Santo

This week has been stellar. We have had some incredibly cool experiences and personally I was really happy with ever thing even though we didn't have too many people in the church. Politics here are killing us. But whatevs.

We have this one investigator that we've been teaching who we knew had some word of wisdom problems and stuff like that. She read the two pamphlets we gave her of wow and chastity, and before we even went with her to teach it, she started living it. I love LOVE it when that happens. She started lying to her friends and making up excuses to not go partying and stuff to stay away from alcohol and all that. Shes awesome, and we know shes going to start progressing and going to church.

We also started teaching a new gal name Ingrid. Shes AWESOME! We gave her a pamphlet of the Restoration and for some reason we both knew she was going to be really good even though the contact was normal. We came to teach her, and her little girl immediately told us that her mom wasn't home... then Ingrid said, "don't worry, I told them to come." haha. I laughed and said, "shes already trained!" She told us that she had read the whole thing and we asked her what it was about to see what she remembered. She remembered everything! then my comp showed her the page about prayer and praying to know if it was true, and she said that she had already done that. That is the hardest thing to get these people to understand. This was the day after the contact! And then we asked if she had heard of the Book of Mormon. she said it was mentioned in the pamphlet, so she went to her sisters house, where she knew there was one, and she read the intro on her own. All this before the first lesson!!! It was so cool. It just got to the point where I could feel the Spirit strong. It was one of the coolest lessons ever.

Rudi continues to be too intellectual for her own good, but the lessons we have with her are excellent. We felt like we really needed to help her understand the Spirit, and how He speaks with us. The Spirit was really really strong. In this lesson, and another lesson, my companion took the advice of our president and asked the question, "How do feel right now?" Unfortunately, Rudi is still having trouble understanding and feeling the Spirit... or rather, recognizing it.

The other lesson where my comp asked that question was with Jessica. Shes the wife of a family we've been teaching. Our best family actually. She straight up responded that she felt really happy whenever we were there. "Have you ever felt exactly like that?" She said that she never has, and that she wanted to feel that way all the time. We explained the gift of the Holy Ghost, and once again, I could feel it really really strong. It was an awesome lesson. We have a lot of confidence that these will all progress and get baptized, though we aren't sure when.

Our future missionary, Joel, finally came to church! He is way cool, and I think that he will probably be our next baptism. Stellar kid, and really receptive. He wants to go to a big seminary activity that they are going to have soon. I think he might have a crush on one our young women... but hey whatever gets him to church. haha, totally just kidding!

I love and miss you all. I know that the Spirit bears witness of the truth, and that listening to the whisperings thereof will guide us all in the paths of truth and joy.

Elder Thalman

Hurry up and Wait

 

Hello everyone! I´m so happy to have gotten all or your dearelders this Friday! There were a few that were really late... like from may. One from Mitra, Victor, Ben C., Ariel, and Anna. There were also a couple more recent ones from Casey and Anna. Thanks so much. I really love and appreciate you all!

So this week was a lot better, and we finally feel like we´re progressing with the area a little more. We had some good investigators in church finally! One was this lady we visited Friday. We hadn´t gone with her much, but the lesson on Fri was cool. We asked if she had read the Restoration pamphlet, and she had. What´s more, she remembered stuff! haha. Usually they all just say... "yeah, it was interesting, but i didn´t remember anything." She´s seems to have been really well educated, and we think that her kids and her could be super great members of the church! Also, Juan Francisco is walking better now, and came all on his own. One day he will get baptized once he can work on his leg and live on his own. He´s read like all the way to Alma 32 since we gave him the book to read four weeks ago! He reads more than we do... haha. He´s gonna be awesome.

We´re working with a really sweet family that´s already married, Jessica and Wilmur. Love them. They are really interested, and we are going to help them prepare for baptism. They just need to start coming to church, and they´re a go. They really like us, and they are a reference of a lady we recently helped come back to church who went inactive. Mari. She´s so excellent. She´s so excited to be living the gospel again, and helps us a lot! When we call her to come to a teaching appointment with us, she says, "yeah, I´ll go over right now before the appointment to remind them to read and everything." Missionary´s best friend!!!!! Love her.

We have found that this week we are learning something that is hard for two north Americans to learn. Slow down!!! Focus on the investigators and their needs. There´s no substitute. Goals are great, but there´s no number better than baptisms. And no one is going to get baptized if they don´t think you care about them. It´s tough to think that we´re just learning this for real right now, but it´s the truth. Not to say we´ve been stone cold robots, but we just have been so focused on the work and not slowing down to really think in the moment. When you´re with the investigator is the most crucial moment. Some of the best lessons are when you just feel the Spirit and say "okay, we´ve gotta go, thanks for your time." Then they´re just stunned with the Spirit. It´s hard to do that just right, but it´s cool when it happens. They almost always seem more likely to progress after lessons like that.

I love this mission! It´s going by way too fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I´m not even half way through, so I´m happy. Just keep going, that´s what I´m going to do.

I love and miss you all. I will do my best to stay in contact with all of you. Permit me to send a quick personal note to Victor. I think that the Lord sent me your letter late for a reason. You said some things that I really needed to hear, and I´m glad that I got it when I did. Love you man. You´re awesome!

You´re all awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Thalman

Starting Over

 

So, Elder Andersen and I have started totally over with this area. Almost all of our investigators totally quit on us, so we hit heavy on new investigators through member references and prayer. We pretty much stopped doing tricky things to find new people and started having them introduce us to everyone they know. While that isn´t what a good missionary does with all of his members, it is possible to just ask people, and those with more faith will help. We have one lady who just showed us everybody! We found a family of 5 and another of 10! haha. Her name is Francisca, and we both love her.

 She is a really childlike 60 year old lady who loves the missionaries. She loves leaving with us to introduce us to all of her friends. And she is constantly inviting people to church. We love and greatly appreciate her childlike faith. If the church were composed of members like her, the church would grow at an incredible rate!

Conference was a little stressful because we set it up using internet... kinda nuts. We missed the first session, but after that it all worked out. My comp and i may need to repent for how bad our attitudes were durring this trial. But God teaches with lots of patience, and I know that we will start seeing success here. Listening to priesthood session helped us realize a lot of things that we could change. Forward!

I love and miss you and am grateful for the letters and the package from the Berbert Fam. Also, for the letter form Casey! Loved them all, and I send you my love in advance of whatever slow reply I may send in the future. I have lost a lot of faith in sending hand written letters as I have received no news of a single one reaching anyone. Post as a comment to this post if you have in fact ever gotten anything from me.

with great love and effection,

Elder Thalman

Fruits of Thy Labors

 

So, some really sweet stuff this week! First, we did not have a change!!! I´ve got six more weeks with Elder Anderson!!! We´re gonna tear it up! I´m super happy about it.

We have been working super well, but unfortunately we don´t have investigators coming to church...

Well, we had three, but we´re used to having like 12 or 14. But the members are finally coming again. I ended up giving a talk on Sunday, which was fun. Our last fam, Jaun and Maria didn´t come to church... and we can´t find their new house. Agh!!! But we´ll figure it out and I´ll keep you all updated.

On Friday I had a really cool experience. Melissa, the girl who got baptized that first Saturday after I left Nuevo San Juan called me! She doesn´t understand that that´s against the rules. So now she knows, but we got to talk for just a few minutes. She said, "they called me as a missionary!" I was like... I don´t think so.  She´s been a member for six weeks and is only 16 years old.  She´s a branch missionary!! haha. and she leaves (I think he means goes) with the sister missionaries out there all the time now. She already sounds like a missionary.  She said, "We´ve already had two baptisms this month!" haha. Nicol, whom we were working with forever finally got baptized!  Then she said she got a friend of hers from school going to church, and he joined!!! I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. A few people I think thought that she was only a flirt bc of the missionaries, but now both missionaries are gone and she´s helping the work progress in that area! 

 

Another really cool experience was on Saturday... the whole branch found out that it was my birthday,  and if you don´t know Central American culture, birthdays are a really big deal.  They threw me a surprise birthday party! haha. they smashed eggs filled with confeti on my head and gave me cake and pizza. It was a really sweet experience. I love them all so much, and I´m so glad that I´ll have more time in this area. It´s pretty much for sure now that because we didn´t get changed, that I will have at least 4.5 months here in the end.  Who knows. maybe six! But let´s not push my luck. haha.

And our zone leaders didn´t get changed, so that pretty much means for sure that I will have Elder Polendo as my zone leader for three transfers! I love that guy (my trainer for those who have forgotten).

Love and miss you all! Keep me updated!

Elder Kent Thalman

Teaching The Unlearned

So this week we have been working really really hard. We were able to break all of our goals, and we taught some lessons that were really powerful. We taught one to a really cool family, Juan and Maria. They can´t read, so we were nervous that they weren´t going to understand. We taught lesson one and when we were about to teach apostasy, my comp came up with this whole idea about agriculture and leadership, and applied it to authority and the apostasy. The guy understood really well, and the Spirit was super strong. One of the best lessons of all time. Super cool.

 

Sorry for the lack of time, but there have been some crazy tech. difficulties today. n

Next week I hope I can send you all the recording and some pics. I´ve not really taken any, but you should get to see Karina´s baptism. Love her so much. Her and her fam´s lives have changed so much! You can really see the change in her eyes, and feel the difference in her home. I´m always just so happy when I see her. She gave us tons and tons of references and was teaching lessons with us this week. She´s a great missionary!!! We just tell her to bear her testimony and she looks at the people and tells them, "I really can´t tell you how great this gospel is. It´s been the only thing to bring real change to me and my family. I can really feel the difference. I´m a different person. just try it out. Listen to the missionaries." I think she´s my favorite convert, if I´m aloud to have those... haha.

I love and miss you all!

Elder Kent Thalman

The Invisible Hand and the Spirit of Promise

Well, this week has been really awesome. We baptized Karina Sat!!! and we had 50 people in the room. Incredible! And a lot of investigators too. She´s an awesome member already, and I can see the change in her eyes. This Gospel truly changes people. I love it so much. There´s pretty much no better feeling than seeing the Spirit of the Lord truly enter into the life of another person and change their world. She´s so at peace and happy. I love it. I will never leave behind a single convert here. I love them all so much. I´ve even come to love some of the recent converts that were baptized before I even got here. Love them all!

So, I hope the title doesn´t sound like a science fiction thing. Haha. this week, we realized that there are some things here that we can do to improve the work. We´re pretty much out of good investigators and now we´re looking for more. Some are progressing well, but for the most part, we feel like we can do better. It hit us that we need to put the focus way heavier on FAMILIES. That´s where the gospel needs to take effect. We made a goal to get families, and the left. Everything....like EVERYTHING yesterday fell through. I looked at my comp and said, "mk, let´s get a new family." We went to visit Karina, and she gave us three families to go contact with recent babies. She´s awesome!!! Then we left. I saw a young guy, and the first thing that came to my mind was the word "priesthood!" haha. I contacted him, and he was really cool. We walked with him to his house and now we are teaching a new family! the Hand of God is truly moving this work. The Spirit of God inspires. I love this. Love it all!

I love this mission as always. Can´t believe now it´s a third gone! NOOO! I found out that they already opened my last area. I´m so grateful. I´m still writing some people there, and I hope it keeps growing. They put Sisters! Way better...

Os amo mucho,

Elder Kent Thaman

I have no Title Ideas!!!

So this week was so totally awesome, and I feel bad for not having come up with a title...

I just got back from the ruins in Copán!  they were totally awesome.  My camera was full, so all the pics are on my comp´s camera.  we´ll see if I can get them up.  His camera is fun.  Honestly, Honduras can be really loud and crazy sometimes.  But there in the ruins, there were hardly no people, and it was so quite.  there was one point where the others separated, and it was just me and my comp in a big green court yard surrounded by green and pyramids.  It was amazing.  I just was overcome with the Spirit.  I don´t know why it was such a great experience for me, but I was just blown away at how beautiful it all was.  I will be taking my family there after the mission, no questions asked.

So, this weekend... we baptized and confirmed four!  Norma and her three boys!  They are the best.  Really solid converts.  Also, Karina is totally ready for this Sat.  She is possibly one of my favorite people in the world.  her whole family is great.  Her 12 year old Jafet is way cool.  Smartest kid I´ve ever met.  We went and built an adobe house with him on Friday.  He´s totally going to serve a mission.  He was so excited to hear that his mom is getting baptized!  I love this area.  I love this people.  Love this mission.

I don´t even know what else to write.  I´ll post some pics and ... a voice recording!  I had that idea and thought it was great!  haha. (these will come in a later post)

I know that Christ came to these lands.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true.  I´m fulfilling the promises made to prophets of old.  I can´t even believe my life right now, but I love and miss you all.

Elder Kent Thalman

Amazing... That´s all I can Say

So, we´ve been having a really cool week, all topped off by a really neat Pday.  Dat´s right, just used the word neat!

We had been having problems setting a date for baptism for this lady and her four boys... mostly bc of the 16 year old boy.  He was just being sort of lazy about baptism... We had no idea what to do.  We finally got him alone and talked.  He had literally no desires at all.  Pretty weathy and said he´d never had any need for anything in his life.  Never had a trial.  Ugh.  So we spoke pretty blunt to him.  Tried to inspire him.  Tried everything.  In the end I just thought, "this kid just won´t give place in his heart for this stuff."  We knew he could holdup the whole fam in the end.  I thought "just have him read Alma 32"... and in the end he actually read it!  I couldn´t believe it cuz he said the Book of Mormon was too boring. haha.

We talked to him and he said that he knew he was ready for baptism but didn´t feel it yet.  When he read Alma 32, he said he realized that if he didn´t get baptized, it would just be a matter of time his his seed (tree) would die.  Awesome!  So that wasn´t what I was shooting for, but I guess what Elder Bednar said was true.  If you´re living righteously every thought is a Spiritual Prompting.  Love it!  So they are all getting baptized this Saturday!!!

Today I bought a sick Ranaldo jersy.  Real Madrid.  thats what´s up.

clearly i like jumping... and that last one is my dist leader.  haha.  Elder Shirley.  Totally awesome.  Here´s one with him and my comp and I.  elder Anderson.
I´m also in the one with the big pyramid.  I´m just really small.  haha.

This last one is my last comp and I and Melissa.  she got baptized the Saturday after they closed the area.  she´s really awesome. I called her last monday and verified.  She was really happy.  Love her to death.  Kinda funny.

I love this area. love my comp Elder Anderson. love this mission!!!



Love,

Elder Kent Thalman

The Spirit has Called Him to Another Place

So... I got tranfered.  But honestly, the worst part is that they closed my area.  Bishop Funes and the Stake Pres called my mission pres to ask him not to do it, but we simply don´t have enough missionaries to keep it open.  Nuevo San Juan will still be made a branch, and i know the Lord will watch over His flocks over there.


Now for the good part.  My new area is La Florida (Flor EE da) in Copan.  If you know anything about Copan, that´s where all the cool ruins in Honduras are.  We are really close to all of them, and for pday, we will visit them all before we go.  I´m so excited!!!  My dad will be jealous. ;)


We´re up high in the mountains and it is really cool.  We also have air conditioning in the room where we sleep.  I´m blown away.  I feel like I live in another country.  My last area was so small.  like walk all the way around it in 30min small.  Here, you can´t drive from one end to the other in less than 3 or 4 hours.  Crazy.  Our branch pres lives 2 hours away walking.  He lives in the mountains where it´s impossible to drive.  We´re going to his house next Sat.  with the climate in this area, my skin is feeling a lot better, and the problem should go away now permanantly in just a few more days.  Hurray!


We have a church house in this area!  Who´d have thought I´d be so excited.  haha.  The branch is pretty small, and like always, a lot of less actives, but I love it.  The members are really excited to work with us.  They all like me and my companion.  We´re teaching a bunch of people, and this area is really stellar.  We had 13 investigators in church....  yeah.  that´s a great change from the max of 4 in my last area. 


My companion is Elder Anderson, from Idaho.  He´s a real nerd, and we get along great!  He only has a little more than 2 months more than me which I like.  The younger missionaries always work harder I find. 


My zone leader is... my DAD!!!  haha.  Elder Polendo, who trained me is already a zone leader, and he only has 10 months in the mish.  We all keep telling him he´s gonna be Assistant.  He doesn´t want to be.  He´s an awesome missionary, and I´m so glad I´ll get to work with him a little bit once again.  I´ve really missed him.


Story time.


We´re preparing a woman and her four grandsons for baptism.  Norma is the most well prepared investigator we have ever found in our lives.  she has such a powerful testimony and read the BOM like crazy.  We went to teach her the word of wisdom a few nights ago. Knowing the people here, we thought for sure she´d have a coffee problem.  Turns out, we explained a little to her about the word of wisdom, and she cut us off before we could explain anything.


"In this house we don´t drink alcohol, and there´s no tobacco.  Never.  And we don´t like any other drugs.  Tea and Coffee are bad too, and we don´t drink those anymore!"


"umm.... where did you learn that?"


She explained that she didn´t learn it in church. she just always knew it was bad and that she shouldn´t have been doing it.  We asked her how long it had been since she drank coffee.  she said she always knew it was bad, but knowing that she was preparing to be baptized, she quit.  she´s not had any for over a week now!  How nuts!  She taught HERSELF the word of wisdom and started living it before we said anything!  haha.  The Lord really does prepare these people.


Something else to give you a culture idea.  After that appointment, we left her house to visit a young 17 year old kid who wants to be baptized named Manuel.  Norma´s house is huge.  Nicer than a lot of houses I´ve seen in the states.  Manuel lives in a mud shack smaller than my room.  He said he didn´t feel comfortable going to church because he doesn´t have shoes...


The Lord´s children are one.  He can touch the hearts of the rich and the poor.  The bond and the free.  This is not an American church, nor is it for the rich.  I know that God loves each and every one of His children.  I´ve seen him touch the hearts of so many different people and different sides of the world... but it´s the same message.  It´s true.


I love and miss you all, and will try and find a way to send mail to the states so that it doesn´t get lost.  Please forgive me if you haven´t gotten letters from me.  Chances are, I´ve written you.  Continue in patience.  I´m so grateful and humbled by those who have written me with no reply at all.  thank you so much!


Mitra, and John Ross.  I still need your addresses if you read this.  Thanks.


Love,


Elder Kent Thalman

Open Houses and Open Hearts

So, I did not write a single soul last week.  I am sorry.


First, I will explain the Open Houses.  We started doing a little activity to try and excite people to go to church on Sunday.  Saturday at night we discovered nobody does anything, so we started showing cool church videos in the little house we call church.  The whole idea was to send less actives and investigators to bed Saturday night thinking about church Sunday morning.


Last Saturday we had our first try.  We basically spent the whole day just inviting tons of people.  Then, it started to rain... okay, people here really don´t go places if it´s raining.  Then, while praying that it would all just work out and stop raining... the power goes out in the whole are near the church!  No!!!!!!  Also, no power in our house.  So, you can´t really use a tv without power.  At the point of giving up, Hermano Tony calls us and says we´re gonna do it anyway.  In the end, we just did it in the house of a member that had a tv and power.  It was really great, and all the people at the activity came to church the next day!  We haven´t been able to get more than 30 people to church for the whole transfer.  Last week we couldn´t fit into the little house!!!  It was awesome!  46 people!!!!!  Who´da thought 46 was so many.  I was worried that it was a one time thing.


We did the activity again this Saturday with many more people, including several investigators.  Yesterday we had.... wait for it...
47!  haha.  I was stoked. 
Our little 16 year old Melissa came, and is totally ready for baptism this Saturday.  She´s awesome, and is already going to seminary and making friends.  she´ll be a great member.  We´re also working with our ward missionaries that we didn´t know we had.  We found out last week that Joselyn is a ward missionary, so we started bringing her to lessons.  She was really excited, and I can see how she is helping our investigators.  But more than that, she is more solid coming to church herself, and is activating other less actives.


In the end, we only have had one baptism in the last 12 weeks.  I´m really not used to that.  But we just got approval to be made a branch!!!  And they´re searching for a lot to put a building in the colony of Nuevo San Juan!  It´s gonna be awesome, and I know that a building will increase activity, organization, and baptisms.  It will also be great to have priesthood leadership in the area.  I´m so excited for the growth we´re seeing in this area.


Open Hearts.  We found a family last week that is pure gold.  We contacted the husband and then started teaching the wife.  They accepted to be married and baptized in the very first visit.  We haven´t been able to teach them in their home since, but the husband and daughter came  to the last activity Saturday and church yesterday.  Some people are just prepared.  I can´t wait to see what happens with this family.  His name is Alfredo.


I already told you about Melissa.  We also found a guy named Cesar.  Super cool!  His wife and him are planning on getting married.  She´s not all that interested, but he has spoken with missionaries before.  He said he almost became a member last time.  "What stopped you?"  He replied, "they took the missionaries out of the area, changed the building, and I started working Sundays.  But now my wife and I are thinking about getting married, and I don´t work Sundays as of last week."


"perfect.  So, we meet in a house in the 2nd level near so and so.  Do you want to get baptized this time?" 


"Oh, absolutely!"


Haha.  I love this guy.  We don´t know why he didn´t come to church Sunday, but I´m sure he´ll start progressing.  He´s been prepared, I think we´ll just have to fellowship a little bit.


I keep saying this to my comp.  I don´t want a change!!!  This area is honestly killing me.  I have had all sorts of problems with the sun killing my skin and getting sick before (I´m totally fine now, so please don´t freak out), but I love this area.  There are a lot of people that are so close to baptism and others that just started but are golden.  I really love the members here too.  Even investigators that don´t want to progress.  Sometimes we eat with people who don´t even want to listen to us, but love us and give us food.  Usually they are family of members, and really funny.  I love them all, even though it pains me to not see them progress.  I´ll let you all know next week about transfers.


I love and miss you all!


Quick shout out.  Mitra, Ariel Stewart, Amanda Mo, John Ross, Kyle Reis... and any other friends enrolled in college.  I have no idea where to send letters.  Please post your addresses as comments on this blog post and my mom will email them to me.  Thanks!!!


I have sent other letters to family and friends regularly, but no one has reported any reception.  I get all the letters you all send to me in dearelder and snail mail.  I think.  I apologize for third world mail.


Elder Kent Thalman

Don´t Freak Out. I´m Alive and Baptizing.

That´s right... we had a baptism finally!!!  That´s the first baptism in this area for seven months!  There hasn´t been one since January.  So we´re happy about that, and we are going to have more coming up soon.  One got baptized once and never got confirmed... and there is no record of her baptism, so we have to do it again.  haha.  How weird.  So that´s that, and we will baptize her without complaining. 


This week has been great, and I´ve been totally healthy!  However, one of the brethren in our ward hasn´t been so healthy.  He´s getting a tumor removed, so please pray for him.  His name is Antonio, and he is the most interesting person I have ever met.  When I met him the first time, I was shocked at how well he understood all the doctrine considering he is a convert.  He´s really quite old, and can´t even walk to church.  He was attacked by three men with machettes several years ago, and was hit three times in the neck, so his voice is really soft and a little raspy.  But also epic.


So we were talking to the Bishop about him, and he asked us if we knew his conversion story.  I thought I did, but I´m glad the Bishop told us anyway, cuz it turns out I didn´t.


When he was a lot younger, he worked in a factory, and Nuevo San Juan didn´t even exist yet.  There were no members in that area at all.  One day on the floor at work he found two pages of an unidentified book.  One was the testimony of three witnesses, and the other, a random page that had the words 2 Nefi on top.  He read them and immediately recognized that they were from God.  He tried, but had no way of finding out where the book was, or anything about it.  But somewhere in the pages he saw the word, "Mormon" and it stayed in the back of his mind.


Several years later, he returned home and greeted his wife.  She informed him that two younge men had just come by on bikes with some messages.  They were called Mormons.  He asked her which way they went and then bolted after them on his own bike.  He finally found them and yelled after them.  They stopped and he got to talking with them.  He showed them the two pages and asked if they could identify them.  They showed him The Book of Mormon and where the pages fit in.  They gave him a copy, and as he held that book in his hands for the first time, he stood there a wept.


Later, he was baptized and worked with the missionaries to try and establish the church in the area.  He worked with them all the time, and came under heavy criticism by his former religious friends.  He´s still a very active member (for his weak cercumstances) and his testimony is super powerful.  My comp and I went to visit him before his surgery to comfort him.  We just spent 30min listening to him share his testimonies of simple clear truths.  But the powerful spirit behind his words just left me and my companion in a dumb awe.


I love Antonio, and I am talking to the bishop about recording him sharring his conversion story and testimony on tape and video.  We want the church to publish it, because we know that it would be a powerful missionary tool all over the world.  I´ll let you know how that all goes soon.


This mission is amazing.  If I came here just to get to know that man and share his story, then so be it.  That´s why I´m here.  I hope his story will carry on, changing hearts as an eternal legacy of the Gospel truths that this man represents.  He never served a mission becuase he never had a chance, but how great was his mission.  God truly will let that man´s life stand to confound the false doctrines of the world and bear shinning testimony of the truest book on earth!


I love and miss you all, and hope that you will read that book!  How rare a possession it is! There should not a single day pass by without spending time within its pages.  I bear my own testimony that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.


Love,


Elder Kent Thalman

Moving Forward...

So, no huge huge news for the week, but some cool experiences as Elder Vega and I are trying to boost the area as best we can.  Things are proving harder than we thought as this week we had only two investigators in church, way way less than we were expecting.  We are realizing that we will have to boost the strength of the members here first if God is going to trust this area with new converts.  Tough, but we will not become discouraged!


An update on an investigator named Hector.  This week, we talked to him about how he´s doing with quiting smoking.  He said that he has gone from about 20 cigs a day to 5!  And he hardly drinks coffee now too.  He´s made incredible progress for just one week.  We gave him a blessing, and then commenced to teach lesson one... that turned out to be a funny experience.


We started if he had ever heard the word prophet before.  "well, I think they are people called of God to lead and direct us here on the earth."  That was a little to much of a perfect answer, and my comp and I actually started to laugh a bit.  Then my comp just straight up asked him, "so what do you know about the life of Jesus Christ?" 


"Well, He organized His church, primarily upon the blocks of prophets and apostles, whom He gave His authority to act in His name."  What the!?


We asked him how he knew all that, and aparently he was listening in the other room when the missionaries spoke with his wife when she was baptized.  He didn´t remember too well about the Book of Mormon, so we gave him one and we will see how he does with reading it.  Easiest lesson one I´ve ever taught.  Haha.  I am blown away by the faith of this man!  I really love Hector.


We also have a baptism scheduled for a little girl named Leivi!  This will be this Saturday because she´s come to church for four weeks straight, and we´ve only just now gotten to talk to her.  We didn´t even know if she wanted to be baptized.  We talked to here and said we got permission from her Dad to baptize her, and she just smiled.  We asked if she would like that, and she just smiled and noded her head yes emphatically.  The next day in the lesson, she said she had a dream that she was being baptized and that she can´t wait.  Haha!  How cool is this kid!


We don´t really want to get a reptuation for being baby baptizers as they say, but this girl wants it and this will be the first baptism in Nuevo San Juan since January.  Almost seven months.  Pretty cool.


We´re still preparing many really great investigators, and families!  Byan and Marisela are still really good, and they came to church yesterday minus Bryan.  He said for sure he´ll come next week.  We´re getting them started on family prayers and the Book of Mormon.  I love how much we´re using the Book of Mormon now in the work.  That´s def how it should be.


I love this mission, and can see the hand of God ever in this work and in my soul.  I feel Him changing me, and I´m starting to feel more capable of enduring the trials before me.  That´s what I think David Bednar means when he used the phrase, "enableing power of the Atonement of Christ."  He doesn´t just take things away when they´re hard, but rather He gives us the strength to overcome them through the Atonement that we might grow. 


I have hope that this week will be even better than the last.  I love my companion.  I love this mission.  I love the people here, and mostly, I love the Lord Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father.  I also love and miss you all, and pray that you will try this week to experience the sweet fruits of missionary work in your every day lives this week.  Try and put more effort this week to help someone learn about the gospel and then write me about it! ;)  haha, but seriously.  do it.


Les Quiero mucho,


Elder Kent Thalman

MIRACLE

So, it´s finally happening again.  I´ll explain...


Wednesday, I got my new companion.  Let me first explain some back story.  In my first area, I remember several of the missionaries in my zone.  I really like Colón, and it was an awesome zone.  One of those missionaries was Elder Vega.  He was pretty tall, and honestly, really crazy.  I remember just watching him and thinking, "wow, he seems like he´d be a really immature companion to have."  I didn´t really think about it too much from there. 


At the changes meeting on Wed in San Pedro, I was nervous.  Nervous.  Almost everybody is to get a new companion.  You know me, jittering and twitching, and moving all over.  They keep calling name after name after name... where´s my comp?  Finally they call "Elder Vega...".  He stands up. 


"Elder Vega´s gonna be my comp," I said to Elder Baldwin. 


"...has been to assigned to serve in Nuevo San Juan with Elder Thalman."  I knew it!


Haha.  He might be my favorite comp so far!  A really fun guy, but we W O R K.  And that feels good.  I´m really happy to be talking with everybody again, and I can just see the miracles happening.  You´ve just got to open your mouth, and people will listen.  I´m learning a lot about the kind of missionary I want to be with him.


Saturday we contacted a guy who was just sitting on the grass outside his house reading the paper.  Seemed normal.  We talked for just a moment, and he seemed pretty receptive, and we started to get bold.  Elder Vega asked if he had ever read the book that was in my hand.  I realized I was holding a Book of Mormon, and I handed it to him.  He was immediately interested and was looking at it and skimming its pages the moment I handed it to him.  He said he´d read it and come to church the next day for sure.  We asked him if he´d ever been baptized and if he thought it was important.  "No, but I would say it´s really important."  We asked him right there if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized.  He said he would, and we left.  It was a really cool experience!  I love it when stuff like that happens.  He didn´t come to church, but I am sure we can work with this guy to help him progress.


We´re working with two other really great families.  One is a reference from a member.  This member is a little bit like a little girl dispite her having four children, but that´s really normal for all the people here.  However, she is really helpful with these references, and this family is awesome.  We´ve got them to agree to prepare to be married.  Hopefully we´ll be able to help them accept baptism soon, but We´re convinced they´ll progress.


The other family is a street contact, they too are so awesome.  Immediately we met the husband and were talking with the two of them and laughing like we´d been friends forever.  It only took like 5 min to establish a relationship with Marisela and Bryan.  It was probably the most fun I´d ever had in a lesson ever.  We got them to accept to be married, and they are super interested, and seem more responsible than most of the people here, so their commitment to come to church means a little more I feel.  Such a cool family.  I really love them, and am just having so much fun here.


We´re also visiting less actives more diligently and working with the active members as well.  I feel like we are going to start changing this area a lot, and I know we are going to start baptizing a ton.  The fact that this area hasn´t baptized doesn´t mean we can´t do it.  To me, it means that no one has put forth the effort for a really long time here to do it, and now that it´s been so long, there are tons of people prepared.  I feel like we contact really likely baptismal candidates every day now.  It´s only been four days, and I feel like our relationship with the members is excellent, including our communication.


We are looking for a new house, because the water is making my skin break out still with a bacterial infection... so yeah, we´re gonna look for something better.  This place is pretty ghetto to be honest, but I don´t mind it.  My comps last area, as well as mine, were pretty nice.  His was a tourist site, and on the beach.  Trujillo.  The best.  Really really nice.


So yeah,  Elder Vega and me.  He´s from Nicaragua, and he´s totally insane and focused on baptizing tons of people.  Yeah man!  Also, he´s really tall and weak, so I´m taking him to the gym in the mornings... make him strong.  I just wish he could tell me how to get taller.  Haha.


This mission´s the best, and I´m super excited for the next 6 weeks with Elder Vega.  I´m praying that I´ll have to changes with him. 


I know that this work is changing people´s lives.  I am so grateful to God for the oportunity to share these things with everyone I meet.  So grateful for the ways I´m learning and growing, and for the relationships Im developing.  I sent out a few letters.  Thank you so much to those who have written me.  I´m trying my best to write people, but I really don´t get much time.  I´m doing better, so please be patient in getting a response.


I know that Jesus is the Christ.  I know that God calls prophets.  I can´t believe the power I feel whenever I listen to or read the words of our living prophets, seers, and revelators.  I love the Book of Mormon and testify with all my soul that it is true.  Let it change your life.


Les Quiero mucho!


Elder Kent Thalman

They´re Everywhere! Part II

Sooo... first, Elder Tavita has a transfer this week!  Ugh!  So this means that in four changes, I will have had four companions!  I really want to know who my next comp is goin to be.  I hate waiting.


This week has been a lot of fun, and I´ve been having so many great, personal, spiritual experiences.  That´s the point of the title!  Spiritual experiences and miracles ARE EVERYWHERE!  We should have them and recognize them Every Day.  Last night, I finished with everything a little early, so I decided to watch some Preach my Gospel videos about how to help people read the Book of Mormon.  One of them just really helped me figure some stuff out, and I realized that I could be focusing on the Book of Mormon more in this work right now.  At the end of the video it showed a clip from Elder Holland´s famous talk where he really testifies boldly of the Book of Mormon.  I´ve seen that one before, but for some reason, this time something really stuck out to me.  He said something really close to no member or investigator can come to full faith and full conversion in this church without knowledge and conviction of the divinity of this book!  How true!


When I heard those words, once more (and this really hasn´t happened too often for me in my life) I felt a powerful witness in my heart of the truth and divinity of the Book of Mormon.  The feeling was rather transcending this time, and I am confident in saying that it was probably the most powerful witness I´ve ever received concerning this thing.  Don´t misunderstand.  Since the beginning of about highschool I think, I´ve known without a doubt that this book is true.  But what I think made the difference this time was simply prayer.  Recently I started including in my prayers to have my testimony of certain things fortified, that I might with more conviction help these people feel the Spirit concerning our message.  I have only very very recently started praying for that the last couple of nights, and did I ever receive an answer!  If God so quickly answers these prayers, I think I will continue asking, in this and other Gospel aspects.


I testify to everyone reading these words that I know for myself that the Book of Mormon is the word of God!  It truly is the very keystone of my testimony.  Because I know that it is God´s word for me in my life, I know that Jesus Christ truly is God´s Son and my Savior.  That´s what the whole book is about.  I also know that Joseph Smith was not a liar.  On the contrary, I know that he most surely was and is the prophet of this last and great dispensation!  How wonderful it is to know these few simple truths in my life!  I want everyone to know and feel these things.  I want the blessings I have because of these things to be a part of everyone elses lives.


I invite everyone to read the Book of Mormon.  If you´ve already read it, please read it again.  If you read it with the Spirit, and prayerfully, it never gets old.  I invite everyone to ask God, in the name of His Son Jesus Christ if it really is true.  If you´ve already asked, ask again.  I testify that He will strengthen whatever conviction you already have of it´s divinity.  Even if that conviction is zero.


So, will you read the Book of Mormon tonight, even just one page, and then ask God to know if it´s true.  I promise you that if you do, you will know, just as I do, that it is true, and that it will bless and guide and change you life forever.


I´m not just saying it.  It´s a promise.  It´s God´s promise.  Prove Him.  In the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.


Love,

Elder Kent M. Thalman

They´re Everywhere!

The title this week is to draw attention to this very fact: people who are ready to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ are everywhere!  Pretty amazing.  All the members of the church think, "yeah, they are probably in South America or something." But that´s not true.  They really are in all parts of the world.  How do I know?  Well first, I talk to people on the bus, street, etc, and all the time there are people who are interested.  If a member of the church were to help these people come to church and get to know this message on a "friends" level, they would progress much better.  My comp and I are focusing on this right now. 


So what are you doing right now to help your area progress??  Before the mission, I never thought about that stuff.  But guess what... one of my best friends just got baptized!  I knew him since like 7th grade and I don´t think I did much at all to really help him come to church or talk to the missionaries.  They are there.  Just help them.  Sometimes I think about myself before the mission and realize that I had so many friends that I really didn´t talk to much about the church.  I could have probably had a friend at church every other week if I wanted.


It´s hard.  Especially for the people out here, to talk to their friends about this stuff.  There is a sister in our ward name Rosa, and she´s awesome.  All the time, she talks to us and says, "hey, I´m going to go visit a friend right now.  Wanna come?"  Ummm... yes.  haha.  She is a true friend.  Why?  Well, the definition of a friend is, "someone who helps you live the gospel of Jesus Christ."  I forget which prophet said that... sorry.  But that´s so true.  What´s the greatest gift of God?  Eternal Life.  If we have a true hope in salvation through Jesus Christ, how can we stand blameless and not share that with others.


Maybe I´m getting too preachy.  Sorry.  But it´s really true; they´re everywhere!


We finally contacted a family the other day that was a reference from a member named Franklin.  This couple is preparing to get married.  This actually shows a high sensitivity for the Spirit on their part because most people here just don´t care about getting married.  We talked to them, and they were incredibly receptive.  Why did we find them?  Because a member told us where they live.  It was that easy.  Every person I´ve had the oportunity to see get baptized has been a reference of a member of the chruch.  Every single one.


I testify that there is more that we can be doing.  I know that this church is true.  More than that, I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.  He suffered and died for you, for me, and for your friends.  Help them accept this sacrifice which the Lamb of God gave for them.


I love and miss every one of who are reading this.   Yes, you!  :P  And I want Kyle to know that I´m so proud of him.  Reading about you baptism this week gave me so much motivation to keep moving forward this week.  Take care of yourself and send me a letter!  Haha.


Les Quiero mucho,


Elder Kent Thalman

Start From the Beginning and Don´t Skip Steps and Keep Moving Forward.

So the title is a personal thought that I had several weeks ago.  Sorry for the silence last week.  I literally had no time to write a blog... kinda stinks. 

Honestly, I have no idea what to write about this week that I can really share.  A lot of personal stuff this week, but not much else.  I´m going to start loosing readers if I keep this up.  Haha.

The other day I was on a bus, and I decided to talk to a lady who sat by me.  Contacting on the bus can be really nice because they can´t run away,  and you can really get to know them before sharing anything.  When you´re  on their porch, you kinda have to cut to the chase sometimes... haha.  But you know they´re not busy if they´re on the bus.   I was talking to this lady named Liliana, and she had a little boy named Owen.  I asked if she knew the actor Owen Wilson... you know me! 
She actually said that she did!  Haha, I was surprised.  And she knew the movie Midnight in Paris, which really made me happy........... okay, ADD moment sorry.


I started talking to her about her family, and how she felt about it.  Turns out she´s already legally married!  That´s really, really rare.  She seemed pretty receptive, so I talked to her about eternal families, and that God wants her and her family to stay together for time and all eternity.  Some people just think, "amen brotha, adios." but this lady really seemed to comprehend that this was something that only our church had to offer.  She called us later, and I couldn´t help but think of the scene from Best Two Years... "it´s him!"  Haha.  That was really cool, and I can tell this family is a great possibility.


I´m getting to the point where I can tell when people get our message and accept it, when they know it´s true but are too afraid to change, and when they just don´t get it.  Sometimes the last one is frustrating... we´ve got an old lady that we´re teaching; yesterday was her 70th birthday or something.  She gave us cake, which was awesome, but the lesson was pretty tough.  It´s really hard for her to understand, and she can´t see enough to read.  Bummer.


But some people just straight up know it´s true and refuse to change.  That´s hard to see, because you can just tell that they know.  But they just won´t accept it.  And the majority just don´t care. 
But God always seems to lead you to the people who really want to change.  From there, it´s  your job to be worthy of the Spirit, and to work hard so you can help them.  That´s the whole key.  There´s really not much more than that.


I had a pretty sudden Spiritual experience randomly this week.  I´m not sure what it was, but I was listening to a cover of "I Stand All Amazed" and the words just hit me.  It just became very clear to me, and I was just filled up inside with love for my Savior. 
Directly after, it seemed to give me a clear mind to want to be obedient for that reason.  I feel like I´ve been really obedient so far my whole mission, but I´m starting to understand why God gave me that added witness.  Lately there seems to have been a total and complete attack on my resolve to be obedient.  And everytime, it seems ever so simple.  Because of the love I have for my Savior, and the gratitude I feel for His atonement, I simply can´t disobey.  Sometimes the last written words of Nephi will fill my head.  "I must obey, amen." 
It´s incredible, but I really feel that way sometimes.  I just keep having it made clear that if you truly love, you will obey.  Nothing is possible in this work without the Spirit.


I testify that Jesus is the Christ.  There really is no doubt in my mind anymore that He infact came to earth, suffered and died for all sins and all people.  He specifically did so for me.  I know it.  I can not deny it without calling upon myself the greatest of condemnations from God, reserved for those with a witness.  I really just can´t even imagine denying it.  It´s true, and my heart bursts with great joy and confidence before men because of it.  I feel no fear to be obedient.  No fear to try and be like Jesus Christ.


I love and miss every one of you!  Congrats on your call Brian!  You´ll do great out there.  and you´ll be able to teach me German in two years :P 


Until next week,


Elder Kent Thalman

180 degree shift. that´s not just the weather here...

So, new area.  New everything.  I´m in Nuevo San Juan, 1hr outside of San Pedro Sula.  My comp is named Elder Tavita from Hawaii.  But most recently he´s from St. George, UT.  Haha.  He´s pretty awesome, and totally nuts.  He´s a big Polenisian guy who loves football and rugby, and he´s got some pretty crazy stories.


Basically my life is now totally different.  He´s a lot more chill than my last comp.  We worked our tails off with Elder Gomez, and this elder is much more relaxed.  Honestly, I still feel like we have the potential to baptize, and we are working on reactivating a TON of inactives.  So I´m convinced that it´s just a matter of how well you work, not so much how hard.  But I sometimes feel like we could work a tiny bit harder, but there´s just got to be balance in all things.  We learning how to blend our two styles, and we´re pretty much already super good friends.  At least I think so.


There´s not even a branch in this area.  we´re an extension of a ward and we meet in a house, not a church.  We should have a building soon, and then we´ll be a branch.  Elder Tavita and I feel like the elders before in this area baptized a bunch, and then just left it.  It was only opened 6 weeks ago, and almost everyone has gone inactive.  Missionaries need to stay in contact with their converts!!!  Don´t just ditch ´em!  So a lot of damage control.  there haven´t been any baptisms here yet since it´s been opened, but I know that Elder Tavita and I will baptize.  It´s a good area and there are some great people.


In Olanchito (and in general thoughout Honduras) the problem is that no one is married... if you remember.  Well, here is Nuevo San Juan, the problem is that everyone is married to someone else, and then they have their real family and kids and stuff.... so that stinks cuz it´s like impossible to divorce people out here.  But we´re not going to give up because some of these people are just too amazing to just leave.  Progresing investigators who go to church and keep all their commitments and WANT to be baptized... but we can´t do it.  I pretty much hate the work that Satan has so effectively executed down here.  We are going to work with the ward to set up a fund for divorces for those with great desires to be married and baptized.  Obviously we´re trying to do this with all wisdom and direction from the Lord, because with stuff like this, you could really cause some problems.  So there´s that.


We have an awesome cook out here.  Her food is incredible, but we only pay her for lunch.  I eat less out here, and work out a lot more.  Being such an athletic nut, Elder Tavita is sort of a nut about it, so I´m very grateful for that.  I think that I have already reversed the damage done from Olanchito as far as getting fat.  Haha.  I feel great.


Honduras is as awesome as ever.  Next week I´m sure that I will have more stories about specific people.  It´s been slow going the first few days.  My comp was a little sick, but now we´re full throttle again.  This place truly is amazing, and I´ve never learned so much in my life.  I truly feel like I´m changing significantly, and I just feel better about myself to be honest.  Much more relaxed and effective.  The Lord truly can do anything.  He is guiding my life so closely, and I pray that through my obedience I can allow His hand to work more miracles in me and around me.  I love this mission more than anything.  And I love my Heavenly Father more than anyone.  I´m only now starting to understand faith and repentance this week, even though I´ve taught those "lessons" to a hundred people now (more like several hundreds, which is crazy to think about).  Funny how that works, huh?


I love and miss you all.


Les quiero mucho!


Elder Kent Thalman

Vinimos Juntos, y saldramos Juntos

So... I getting transferred.  No!!!!  Goodbye Olanchito... I have no idea where I´m going or who will be my companion.  I am really going to miss this area.  Olanchito is awesome.  And, according to pattern, once I really start to become friends with my companion, I get changed.  I learned a ton from Elder Gomez, and he´ll always be my great friend.


Well, this Friday we married the family Bienvenida Acosta.  Saturday they were baptized, and Sunday they were confirmed.  They almost weren´t confirmed because of how late they came to church...  They live like 3-4 miles walking from the church and she is due for surgery in a few weeks.  Incredible, the faith of this family.


This whole week we´ve been finding really good new families.  I swear, there are going to be like 30 baptisms here next change and I won´t be here.  Haha.  Honestly, it doesn´t matter to me.  I really hope that there is a lot of success after I leave.  I know that I helped prepare a lot of these people for baptism, even if I can´t see them enter the waters thereof.  What an incredible first 12 weeks.  Speaking of which, I´m officially not a greenie!  Haha. 


So Cristi gave me the most offensive compliment I´ve ever received.  "Se ve usted un poco más gordito."  Thanks Cristi...  So I think that due to the fact that she is my cook, this is a compliment, but I need to loose weight.  I´m definitely gaining weight lately.  My next area is going to be a cruel answer to my prayers.  God´s gonna send me to a wasteland with a cook who gives me meager servings of rice and sardines.  Haha.  I love Honduras.  I´m going to miss Cristi I´m sure!


Otherwise, things are normal.  We just got 5 ward missionaries (I guess they are more like branch missionaries).  A super huge help to the work here... and now I´m leaving.  But this will really help, I´m sure.  Elder Gomez will keep things rolling here.  Olanchito won´t be known as an area where there aren´t baptisms anymore!  There´s a reputation now, and I know that Elder Gomez will continue the legacy.  :P


I love and miss you all.  Please keep me in your prayers.  Thank you for the ones you´ve already offered in my behalf.  I feel them, and know that God is directing this work.  Jesus Christ is leading this church, and no one can stop this work from progressing.  There are literally miracles everywhere.  I´ve seen the power of God work mighty changes in the hearts of men whom never have looked to anyone for help before.  We asked a young family to start praying together before anything.  They couldn´t be baptized because they weren´t married.  They wouldn´t get married because they were fighting too much.
In one of week praying together, they told us that they had completely stopped fighting.  We could literally see how God totally changed this family.  Now they´re preparing for marriage and baptism.  Amazing.


I know my Father in Heaven lives and loves.  He loves me.  He loves you.  More than either of us even can understand.  It´s my goal to live worthy to feel this love that He has for me more and more every day.  Feeling this love more in my life has been the greatest blessing I have ever experienced.  All those who live His gospel will also feel this joy.  It´s a promise and an invitation.


Les Quiero mucho!


Elder Kent Thalman

A Compiled History of The Week of Elder Thalman

So this week was... intense.  That´s really the best words I can find for it.  And there were lots of cool things that happened, so read on!


On Sunday we heard the story update on Adolfo.  He´s the guy who sold us the pens and taught us lessons 1, 3 and 4.  Remember?  He´s mentioned a few blogs back.  Anyway, he has absolutely no money to go to church, and he can´t be baptized because he´s married to someone, but his family and wife right now are totally different.  Divorce is impossible and super expensive in Honduras, and he has no money.  But, that didn´t stop him from going to church on Sunday.  He lives very far from any church house.  He in fact does not have one in his area.  So he got up at 5am and started biking for the church house closest to him.  He arrived at church at 10am!  Holy cow!  So I really pray that he can eventually figure out the baptism thing, because his faith is really inspiring.


On Saturday we baptized Olga.  She´s an awesome lady who has been going to church for two years, and hasn´t been able to get baptized because her husband is a drunk who refuses to get married.  But he doesn´t really spend time in the house any more and she told us that she is 100% living the law of chastity now, so she qualified.  We baptized her and I can already see how she has changed.  This Sunday I saw her receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  I also had the opportunity to visit with all my other converts.  I was surprised to notice that they all in fact looked different.  People´s countenances truly do change when the Spirit of God dwells with them.  Amazing!

After the baptism of Olga, we got some good news.  But let´s back up.  Early in the week, an investigator named Joselina told us that she would read and pray to know if the Book of Mormon was true.  This isn´t mind-blowing, because a lot of people say this.  Honestly, I believed her.  Then she said, ´´and tomorrow I´m going to fast as well.´´  Woah.  that´s one I´ve never heard.  She just decided she really really wants an answer.  So, we told her that we´d fast with her, and we did.  We followed up with her, and she said she felt good, but she wasn´t quite accepting the baptismal date.  So we tried to explain how she was going to recognize the answer.  Basically we explained the Spirit.  She said she was going to fast again (which in my opinion is too much fasting but I didn´t say anything...).  On Saturday she came to the baptism of Olga, and afterwards said that she wanted to talk to us.  She wants to be baptized!  So we´re going to baptize her the 2nd of June.  She´s awesome, and she showed a lot of faith.  Honestly, I´ve not seen such faith demonstrated in an investigator to obtain an answer.


Another really great experience yesterday after church.  We have a golden investigator who showed up at church two weeks ago.  She´s named Saida (sigh da) and she´s the niece of the district president.  She´s living with her aunt and uncle (the pres) ´til the end of the year, so we thought she´d be a good person to teach... duh.  She´s actually really really receptive!  And she understands way fast.  We explain stuff to her, and then ask her questions to verify if she understands.  She always gets it.  Really cool.

So we were trying to commit her to baptism and then realized that we had effective skipped lesson one...  Not that you can´t do that.  Sometimes you can.  But if they still have doubts, actually teaching the first lesson may be helpful... A tip for all you future missionaries out there.  We taught lesson one on Sunday.
One of the best lessons that Elder Gomez and I have taught together.  The Spirit was super strong.  By the time we got to Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon (which she is already reading) I could just see it in her eyes.  She could feel the Spirit.  Her aunt was with us in the lesson.  To give you some context, this women is a little obnoxious... is that a bad thing to say?  Either way, usually she is a pretty boisterous person.  Kinda loud.  When we were teaching the end, she (the aunt) was in total silence.  Afterwards, I realized that she was just crying her eyes out.  We were saying goodbye, and all  she said to me, in very soft tones was, ´´gracias.´´  It was pretty cool.

Another story.  We contacted a guy on Saturday named Angel.  Cool name.
He was in his backyard, and couldn´t hear very well.  I wasn´t sure if he was all there, but the more we talked to him, the more I could tell that he was complete enough to continue with the lessons.  We started talking to him about who we are and our purposes as missionaries.  He told us that his wife recently died, so we started with lesson two.  Seemed pretty obvious.  I don´t remember what caused it, but eventually he started talking about how there are so many different churches in the world, and how they couldn´t all possibly be true.  Pull back.  Start lesson one: the restoration.  Then he made some comment about how he has the bible, and the Book of Mormon.  Pull back.  Have you talked to missionaries before?  I don´t think he remembers it, but he did in fact have a Book of Mormon.  He showed it to us... I´m not sure he got it in this century.  It was a 1980 print, and looked really cool.  The pictures were still in the book with the corresponding stories.  How Cool!!!

He´s honestly pretty golden, but the problem is he never leaves his house.  Hard to baptize if they never leave.  But he´s super funny.  We would say something like, "we testify that you can live with you wife again."  He´d respond, "Si, bueno, bueno, bueno, bueno... bueno."  Haha.  You just had to be there.  I hate to say it, but he is like a funny character in a movie.  I just love him.  We´ll keep working with him.

Well, that´s quite enough stories for one blog I´d say.  I hope you´re all happy, and hungry to read more.  I really do hope people read this thing.  Please tell all your friends to read this blog!  Haha.

I left out some of the more personal stuff that was actually really hard this week.  But I´m growing more here on the mission than any other time in my life.  I love it here.  I love this mission.  I´m so blessed, and I know that these trials are shaping me.  The price I´m paying to know God.  I feel like I know Him.  He is my Father.  I know that He loves me.  And honestly, this is the first time in my life that I can say that, and really truly mean it.  Or at least it means more now than it did before.

I love and miss you all so much.  I feel bad on how much you´re all missing.  The mission´s the best.  All you kids out there who are busy studying, keep it up.  It´s hard stuff to go to school.  I prefer this. :)

Les quiero,


Elder Kent Thalman

Small Miracles

So this week was nuts.  So much happened, and I can understand why the prophets of the Book of Mormon said they couldn´t write a hundreth part.  I really don´t know what to include.


I´ll start with the first crazy, random miracle.  I think it was Tuesday, Elder Gomez and I are walking down the street, and we hear a voice shout from behind us, ´´Elderes de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias!´´  We turned to see who it was, and neither of us recognized him.  He started just talking to us like we were best pals.  I interjected as nicely as I could, ´´perdon, pero no creo que le hemos conocido.´´  ´´Sorry, but I don´t think we´ve met you.´´  ´´really, I´m Adolfo...bla bla´´


He proceeded to give us a run down of the Book of Mormon, the Restauración through Joe Smith, etc.  Then we eventually found out that he wasn´t a member.  At this point, I was just thinking... ´´what the?´´  By the time he started explaing tithing to us, I was figuring he had talked to the missionaries before...  He had.  Once.


As it turns out, he lives in Jocón, where there are no missionaries.  There is no ward either.  Previously, some time, somewhere, missionaries gave him a stack of all (and it would seem to have been ALL) of the missionary panflets.  He seemed to understand the doctrine great.  I have to admit, I didn´t think that he was that golden at first because I figured that someone who knew that much and wasn´t already baptized just thought that the church was interesting, and didn´t actually want to change.


But... then he went into a whole story of this fight he had with his pastor, about how he started defending the church and pretty much bearing his testimony.  CRAZY!!!  Why wasn´t this guy baptized.  That question isn´t as hard to answer as the other one I have.  Why were my companion and I the ones blessed to find him?  He found us in the street pretty far from his home.  That´s a miracle.  I don´t care who you are.


So by this time, HE gave us lessons 1, 3, and parts of four, shared a spiritual experience, and in a round about way, born his testimony.  The kicker at the end was that afterwards, HE asked us for our info so he could come to church on Sunday.  We gave him the info for the Elders in Bellavista (cuz they are closer to him) and we took his info as well.  AMAZING!


More amazing was that he called us the next day, and the elders from Bellavista.  Elder Dever just told me that he came to church yesterday with his whole family.  He paid for a taxi... with the last money had.  Turns out he has no job, but he´s trying to get one.  He makes cool little pens and sells them for a little more than a dollar (I bought one).  His plan was to sell pens at church to pay the way home, but the elders had to explain how he couldn´t do that.  Haha!  I love this guy.  He´s incredible.  So he wants to be baptized, and they are working out a way to teach him somehow.  I think for a while they were trying to explain the lessons through the phone... haha.


Next story.  Luckily, this guy lives in OUR boundries. :)


My comp and I were contacting doors.  We hardly never do that because lately we´ve been blessed to have enough investigators to fill our day.  But as it turns out, God had someone prepared for us and used this tiny window to lead us to him.  Probably the third house we contacted was Pedro.  (So much for the one in a thousand statistic.)  We sat down, and the Spirit just got really bold.  He seemed really receptive.  We started off by just trying to break up the ice a bit, and finally he started to ask questions (which is what we wanted).  He had a little bit about Joseph Smith.  We explained it as fast as possible.  ´´Oh, okay.  They always told me he was your God, but I guess that´s not true.´´  Well that went well.  So then we just started going through a quick lesson three.  ´´Do you have faith in Jesus Christ?´´  ´´Claro que si.´´  ´´Well, then you need to repent of your sins and be baptized.´´  That is a condenced version of what took about 20 minutes from the contact to the closing prayer.  ´´We always offer the invitation to come to church on Sundays.´´


That´s the hardest part.  Getting them to church.  We set a date for baptism right then and there, and he said he would come to church.  CRAZY!  His  date is the 19th.


So we were fasting and working hard Sunday morning to try and get people to church.  When we finally got Josue to church (which was way too much work, but now we can baptize the kid this week, haha) we started looking to see which investigators were there.  We had a great turn out!


I was feeling great, thinking about those who were there.  Naturally I started thinking about the ones not there.  Pedro wasn´t there.  I started praying hard.  ´´Father, just give him the desire to come and to be able to get here.´´  Five minutes later, Pedro walked in.  We´re definitely going to baptize this guy.


I just want people to realize at this point in this update, you (like Aaron) might be thinking, ´´Wow, you really must think you´re one stellar missionary.´´  And while I risk the appearance of arogance by adopting the response of Ammon, I honestly am sharing these experiences to glorify God.  His hand is literally in everything!  We´ve seen it every day this week.  Miracles are following us around everywhere!!!


I really couldn´t be happier.  Things are great.  This church is true.  These weren´t even the most spiritual experiences I had this week, but the others are too personal.  In that vein however, I simply want to testify that God is our loving Heavenly Father.  He´s my Father.  He loves every one of us.  I know He loves me and that I am His Son.  Possibly, for the first time in my life I can truly say that without a single doubt in my mind.  I love Him, and I love this life that He has given me.  It´s really hard.  But He gives me peace, and all that I need to be happy.


I love you all, and pray for you all, all the time.  THANK YOU SO MUCH for the letters, support, and most of all the prayers.  I can feel them.  Know that God is answering them.  Thank you.


Les amo muchisimo!


Elder Kent Thalman