Oposite Day

 

(Sarcastically speaking)

Life stinks. Everyone in this new area is too excited about the gospel. They all just want to get baptized. So annoying. They all want me to help them do it. My comp is all cheerful and Mexican, and he only wants to speak to me in English. The seats in church are all cramped because everyone wants to come every Sunday... ugh.

The members keep trying to get us to eat their food, and I'm pretty much have no time to buy and make food myself. The selfish little kids in the USA want in on the cash cow of baptisms here, so they are having to divide the mission now.

I showed up, and a whole family of three wanted my comp and I to go watch them get baptized as well as another young man. Four people.

I want to go home really bad.

Don't write me.

Insincerely,

Elder Kent Thalman

;) ;) ;) ;) Oposite Day!

My comps name is Elder Rodas, and he's tight. My comp from my last area, Elder Young is now training. He's soooo cool! I miss him but I know that elder Rodas and I are going to tear it up here in Dos Caminos, zona Merendon. It's way hot though. I'm going to have to use sun screen so I don't repeat what happened in La Lima when I got scorched.

the family is Familia Melgar. they are so great! So pilas. They are really excited to be members and the dad already has the priesthood. they remind me a lot of the first family I baptized, and the branch loves them.

They are planning on building a building here in August and I know that after there's a building, we're for sure gonna be a ward. there is so much priesthood here. There are three missionaries in the field here, and four more leaving really soon. One just got his call this week, so that make five under call. there are like 40 youth, as opossed to the 5 in my last area, and all the young men want to leave and work with us. It's nuts!

I've never seen a branch like this anywhere in the world.

I love and miss you all, and am so proud of my friends who are going on missions!

Love,

Elder Thalman

Pics of the week

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

So, this week we are going to need to go three forward if we want progress. None of our possibilities got baptized, even though we did some good work.

We had a lesson on Monday with Rita. We immediately saw that something was different with her the moment we saw her. A good different. She just seemed so bright eyed. haha. That´s the best we can describe it. We taught her the atonement using Mosiah 3 verses 5-11, and the spirit was really really really strong. She knows it´s true. But she wouldn´t accept the date. We visited her quickly every day this week. On Friday (her birthday) she said, "I don´t think I´m getting baptized tomorrow (we´d been reminding her all week) but soon though." So we feel good that she at least has admitted that she will do it now. She puts up her catholic faith as a front, but now she´s starting to just accept that she can´t deny it any more. We ran by the house quick last night and shared 1Nephi3 verse 7. At the end we asked if she had any questions and she was just glowing...she wanted to say something but said, "no, I´m good." We left and looked at each other. "She so wants to get baptized now!" We both had the same thought. We´re going to set the date for this Saturday. But as it turns out, her nine-year-old grand daughter is a tough little cookie. She´s just too darn Catholic! haha. But she´ll come around.

Kevin will be getting the new job this week selling water, which will give him better pay, and free in the evenings and on Sunday. We´re really happy about it, and we know that it´s because Kevin is exercising his faith to live the commandments. He told us that what he´s praying for is a job that is free on Sundays, his own house to raise his daughter, and a wife who will marry him legally. Preferably who´ll go to church with him. We told him that those are righteous desires and that he should keep praying for those things. I promised him that if he lives the commandments, within six months after his baptism he will be able to move into his house with his little girl. Right now he lives in some tiny apartment and we don´t like the environment. But he already has a house, but there´s no floor or anything, and he doesn´t have the money to make it livable yet. God is really blessing him, and has really prepared him. He said that he´s was praying for months before he was invited to church to be able to find a church where he felt happy. SO COOL!

We are teaching a young thirteen-year-old named Nelcy who is really tight. She was a reference of a member, and we didn´t see too much in her at first. The second time we found her, we asked if she read the pamphlet, and we quickly realized that she is very prepared to hear the gospel. We taught her in the house of a member this Saturday, and we started the Plan of Salvation. She, at the end, bore her testimony to us. "At the beginning of this school year, I was thinking of not entering because i had nothing. I thought I would have to drop out. But then Reina gave me the shirt I needed, and Orbelina gave me the bag. Then someone gave me the skirt. I know that my Heavenly Father is watching over me, and it´s because of Him that I can study this year."

We hear stories like that a lot, and honestly, this was way more sincere. We both just felt the Spirit really strong, and we could feel the love that God has for this young woman. It was cool, and we feel good about it all.

This mission is the best. It´s really hard, and sometimes it feels like what we´re doing isn´t bearing fruit, but I know that´s not true. I can feel us changing lives. We will move forward!!!

I know that Christ is our Savior, the Redeemer of the world. He came to suffer for all, that His own may come unto Him and receive everlasting life.

Love,

Elder Kent Thalman

Priorities

 

So, we got really sick of people going right up to their baptismal dates, and then falling through for not going to church, so decided to put all we had in the three with dates for this weekend. It worked!!!

We have been really diligent with Rita and her grand daughter Gaby for a while now. They went to church all on their own this week! So, if they can get ready, they should be baptized this weekend. We love them, and are excited for them. One night, we didn´t have too much to do, so we went and helped them destroy half the house that they´re remodeling. FUN! We spend like an hour taking out a giant cedar post and got my shirt all stained up... but it´ll come clean. I hope. haha.

The other one this weekend is Kevin. We hadn´t been able to get a hold of him for a lesson for almost two weeks. He´s really cool, but every time we went to his place we felt awful. then we get him out of there, and we feel better. Some thing Saturday night. We got him to a house of a member, and he expressed all of his desires to still get baptized, but his work is killing all of his time, week day and Sundays. We taught him about the sabbath day and our member showed him the scripture about the guy getting stoned to death in the book of Numbers.. That´s why you prep the members before the lesson. haha. But... he went to church! And he´s got connections with a cousin of his for a job that will give him evenings and Sundays off work. So, he´s set up for this Saturday if he gets the job. We are really excited for him, and know that he´ll be a great member. He was the only investigator we had second hour in our gospel doct class, so we taught him lesson two, which he needed. It was really cool, and my comp and I now love teaching lesson two because of how excited investigators get. It´s really fun.

Missionary work is the best!

I love you all!

Elder Kent Thalman