Hermana Thomas is boarding a plane bound for Santiago, Chile!!!

She called!  It wasn't easy.  The calling cards I sent with her didn't work and she search the entire terminal for a working pay phone but we were able to speak with her for about 10-15 minutes.  It will be a long overnight flight to Santiago this evening, but, she sounds excited and humbled to be heading to the field.  Here are a few picks she sent before leaving the MTC today!

Nachoooooo!

Hermana Thomas after one month at the Mexico City MTC...!

¡Yo ustedes ama!

 

Familia y amigos! I sure love you guys. Thanks so much for the emails (and I got your DearElder, mama!) I really really appreciate them! Even if I don't get to reply to them every week, know that I absolutely love all of them! Wow! I am so lucky to be so loved.

 

So my feet are absolutely blistered. It all happened the first week, but I am looking at my feet right now and I thought I would share. (Mom, my shoes feel fine here. Absolutely fine. Took a few days to break in, but they are good. BUT THEY TOTALLY STINK. WHY. ¿POR QUE? Anyway...I don't know about Rancagua, though. I'll let you know when I get down there!) Anyway, that's the status update on my feet.

 

So every single week my love for the people I spend my time with grows so much! First lets start with the Hermanas. I seriously love their guts. Poor Hermana Fast...she has the worst luck ever. The other day was the icing on the thoroughly-frosted cake. So they've served this chicken a few times this week that is SO DANG DELICIOUS. Better than any chicken I've ever had. It's like...KFC on drugs. (Can I say that on a mission?) Anyway, it's that good. So they served it one lunch and RIGHT before Hermana Fast got to the front of the line, they ran out. So we took the alternative (not good. no bueno. ugh.) Then a few minutes later, they had more, so Hermana Fast jumps up and waits in line AGAIN...and RIGHT BEFORE SHE GETS to the front, they run out again! And if you can believe it, it happened a third time...RIGHT BEFORE SHE GOT her chicken. So at the very end of lunch, I went up with her to support her during her final, desperate attempt. The servers were cleaning up, no food in sight. However, one of them recognized Hermana Fast as the girl who had tried to get food three times that day, took pity on her, and said that she was going back to get her some chicken. Hermana Fast started crying out of joy, and I was laughing my head off. Like, it's a miracle I stayed standing, I was laughing that hard at her.

 

Then....it wasn't even the chicken she wanted. The look on her face.....I felt so bad, but I probably should have choked and died on the air, that's how hard I was laughing.

 

Hermana Clawson is a dream compañera. I honestly think I'm going to bawl when we get separated. I love her! She is so funny. She laughs at pretty much everything, and it only takes a few seconds of laughter for her to produce tears! Whenever something funny happens around her she has to say "stop! stop! STOP!" or else she just laughs so hard she cries. It's unbelievably adorable. I am so grateful I have her as mi compañera!

 

Hermana Wilson is an athletic fun-sized person. She's so awesome! She can do, like, fifty million backflips in a row. When we play volleyball, she hits the ball like Mario in our old-school Wii game. (Not a joke. You know when you jump to hit the boxes and his fist goes up and he bends his knee? She is so funny. Ugh. I love her.)

 

As for my district, lets just say that I may or may not have dedicated an entire journal entry to the order in which I plan to hug each of them in 23 or so months. But...they are awful at volleyball. All of them. They are awful. We made them play with us one day....big mistake. We play ultimate frisbee with them every once in a while...to say I am dominating that sport would be a massive overstatement. Also, I was thoroughly entertained the other day as one of them drew up a design they had come up with for the perfect urinal...? Is this what it is like to have brothers?

 

Well, I want all of you to do something for me. Will you look up Elder Scott's MTC devotional he gave this last week? We had the amazing opportunity to be a part of the first ever world-wide MTC live broadcast from Provo, and Elder Scott was the speaker. It was about communicating with our Father in Heaven through prayer. I was a TOTAL bawl-baby, but that talk changed my life. It really did. I need all of you to go watch it. Right now. It's only an hour long, and it is beautiful. I know that you are reading this sentence right now. I'd rather have you stop reading my letter right now and just go use this time to watch it. STOP READING THIS GO WATCH IT. (Just kidding. Read this.) Really, though. Incredible.

 

I had a thought the other day that I shared with my district. I was looking in the mirror, and I saw my nametag. I realized that I've made a lot of mistakes in my life so far. I've done a lot of stupid things. I haven't always been who I wanted to be. But suddenly I saw "Hermana Thomas" on my chest, and right underneath it, "JesuCristo." I realized that these people here at the CCM...and the people I will be serving in Chile...they don't know McKenna. They won't know McKenna. They don't know my past. They don't know my weaknesses. The only thing they know about me is that my name is Hermana Thomas, I am a representative of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and other than that, the only thing about me they will learn is the way I act and how I decide to serve the Lord these next 17 or so months. (17 MONTHS?!? THAT'S IT?!?) I have the chance to be exactly who my Father in Heaven knows I can be. It's like a blank slate. It felt so good when I had that thought. It was right after that devotional. Did I mention that Elder Scott's devotional changed my life? Anyway, I'm going to do all I can to become that person. Then, I'm going to incorporate this person into whoever McKenna is in 17 months. (17 MONTHS?! SERIOUSLY, where has the time already gone?!)

 

Did you guys start your Book of Mormons? Don't disappoint me.

 

Spanish is coming along. I know it will all leave the moment I set foot in Rancagua, but it'll come. I don't know whether any of the Spanish from my early years is contributing or not, but I know that el Espiritu Santo is definitely doing so. A week ago, I had the hardest day so far. And it had NOTHING to do with my spanish! It had everything to do with the fact that one of our mock investigators said that she hadn't felt the spirit once with us. (Mama, this is in answer to your question about what the hardest thing is out here.) It really, really deflated me. I'd felt like we were doing so amazingly, and then suddenly it felt like I'd regressed two weeks. It was awful. That night I prayed so hard, without stopping, for the spirit to inspire me and to teach with converting power. It was really difficult, because I didn't even feel like doing it. I didn't even want to teach.

 

Well, I'm here to tell you that the next lesson we had with her was one of the most amazing experiences so far. Hermana Clawson and I were both inspired to teach different things, but they worked together amazingly. That lesson, the spirit was tangible. We noticed a difference in her countinance. And then the next lesson. And then the NEXT LESSON...in which we committed her to baptism. THAT is the spirit, everyone. THAT is the power the spirit brings. I have so much confidence in the Lord, especially after that experience.

 

I love you all so much. I know that the Lord loves you. Please keep writing me! I absolutely love hearing about your lives! I miss you all so terribly. If you think I haven't thought about you, you're wrong. I've thought about all of my friends, all of my family, even those people who I'm not that close to. I've thought about my friends on missions. I pray for all of you, and I feel your prayers on my behalf, and they are a strenght to me.

 

Keep praying!!!

 

Love, Hermana Thomas

Fruit, earthquakes, false rodent alarms.....and Testimony!

¡Familia y Amigos! ¡Buenas Tardes!

 

I LOVE YOU ALL. WOW I JUST LOVE YOU. (Now that that's out of the way, let's get on to that letter.)

 

First of all, I'm sorry, but I will never think of hymns the same way again. Hymns in english are just so inadequate! The Spanish language is absolutely beautiful. Even though I usually don't understand half of it, I think that it just sounds muy bonita. It's almost as soothing as someone playing the guitar. They have a hymn that we don't have in English about missionary work...it's numero ochente y ocho....I can't remember the name of it, but you should definitely look it up. It's beautiful.

 

Well there are these fruits here....pretty sure they are guavas? I've never seen a guava before, but when I asked a native what it was called, she said like..."heh-whaa-ba"...and I'm guessing that it translates to guava...? Anyway, it's yellow and about the size of a fist...nope...smaller. It looks like a dried out lemon. But you just bite into the skin and there are a billion seeds in the middle that are hard to chew, but SO delicious. So they have them every once in a while, and Hermana Wilson and I aboslutely love them. One day we were eating, and Hermana Wilson, in her cute and absolutely innocent way, says (out of nowhere) (and she was cradling the fruit in her cupped hands) "...if I were at a king's birthday party....I would bring him this magical fruit." We all pretty much died. Oh man, I love these girls to death.

 

One night, Hermana Clawson and I knelt down for companionship prayer, and I closed the door and all the sudden we heard this violent squeaking, and I just flipped out. It sounded like a mouse. And I did that thing where I just remove myself, and I just walked away from the door, leaving my compañera to take care of it. Anyway, she couldn't see a mouse so we were going to change rooms just in case, and when we opened the door the squeaking happened again! We freaked out! But then...we realized it was the door. So...awkward.

 

Also, I've never seen such consistently remarkable sunsets in one place. Literally every night is breathtaking. I don't know what it is about the sky in Mexico, but it's always beautiful! It makes me want to just sit down and sing hymns. I was humming one the other day while I looked up at the sunset, and then Hermana Wilson and Fast came up behind me and started to hum this corny back-up harmony to throw me off, and we all laughed. Did I say that I love these girls? Because I do.

 

We've got THE BEST district. Hermana Clawson and I are the only two hermanas, but the elders impress me every single day. Literally, I looked around the room yesterday and I could think of at least one instance with each of them where they really impressed me with their testimony or input in a lesson. Also, they are hilarious. There's an Elder here who does the most accurate impersonation of Thomas S Monson I have ever/will ever hear.

 

So I'm looking in my journal, and on 3 de Agusto I wrote "I've been doing better at studying (smiley face.) I love the elders in our distr---" And that's all I wrote. It's because a fly was like obsessed with my face and hitting me in the face a million times because of my reading light. So there's that. It was the worst experience that could ever happen to anyone in the planet ever.

 

Anyway, the elders are really great. It's really really REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY hard not to hug them because they are SO AWESOME.

 

We got to watch the Joseph Smith movie on Sunday. I want you to know that I have a firm testimony of Joseph Smith. I know that he was called of God to restore this gospel on the earth. I have an ever-growing testimony of the Book of Mormon--ERIN AND IRELAND--read the Book of Mormon. On your own. Before the end of the school year, at least. Go get some good scripture markers and assign all of the colors something different. For me, I have red for missionary work (personal), bright green for helping investigators, dark green for teaching my children principles, orange for things we must do to continue to grow in the gospel, blue for things that we have now adays (like sacrament prayers) or prophecies that have already come to pass (like Christ's atonement), yellow for things yet to happen/concerning the second coming, purple for attributes of the Father and of Christ....okay?? Get the picture?? Then I want you to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the school year. You can do family study, too, but I really think you should read it on your own. That's one of my regrets being out here...I wish so badly that I had been better at my scripture study.

 

The language is difficult. This week was kind of hard that way. But I know that I need to put my faith in the Lord that He will help me learn what I need to know in order to best serve Him if I am doing everything in my power to learn! It's like the atonement. He will make up the difference.

 

The days have been flying by (for me, at least.) It really just feels like I had a P-Day like...2 days ago. Crazy crazy.

 

The Elders found out I sing, and they found me and Erin on lds.org. They are so nice. They want me to sing all the time. They love when I sing parts of "Savior, Redeemer of my Soul." Since people found out I sing, I sing in the shower like no one's business. My poor roommates/compañera. ;)

 

I got your package, mama! Gracias! It made my day!!

 

Also, congratulations to Jean and Nate! My mom and dad sent me pictures of the wedding/reception...it was beautiful. I loved her dress and I loved the set up of the reception so much. Congrats!! Love you guys!

 

Well, I'm going to try to attach some more pictures to this email. I love you all with all my heart! Keep writing!

 

I love being a missionary!

 

Sincerely, Hermana Thomas

 

ps: If I can, I'm going to send a short video I made of the other night....YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE THE RAIN. Just know that the video doesn't do it justice. Not in the slightest.

 

pps: I (almost) lived through an earthquake. The siren went off so we had to gather in these safe spots, and we stood there for a while, but it didn't hit us. CRAZAY.

 

ppps: that last ps sounded like I died. I didn't.

¡Familia y Amigas! ¡Ustedes amo!

 

HELLO.

 

First of all, thanks for all of your emails! I felt so loved...again! I can't believe I'm so lucky to have so many people writing me emails of encouragement. I love you guys!

 

Yes, mamasita, I got the Dear Elder package!! Muchas gracias! I was so excited! All the elderes in my district were muchas....jealous....(Side Note: I know I told my mother to correct my spelling....but as I was reading through the email I sent last week, I realized that you might think I'm spelling things wrong that are actually in Spanish. Just so you know, I know how to spell "elders"...but here, it's "elderes." Just so you know.)

 

I also got your Dear Elder letter!! I was excited about that, too! I LOVE YOU GUYS.

 

So for my week...first of all, can I just say something? Whoever said that NYC is the city that never sleeps must have lived under a rock. Mexico City doesn't know the first thing about sleep. It can get kind of hot in our casa en el noche, so we will keep some windows open...but it's never quiet! Sirens! Gunshots! Fireworks! Dance parties! (I think we are across the street from a night club or something.) Don't worry about the gunshots. We're 100% safe. But...santa baca (holy cow,) it gets crazy sometimes.

 

We have some native hermanas in our casa. They are so wonderful! I love them! They help me a ton with my Spanish! One of them speaks a little English, so it's easy to communicate. It really put into perspective what I must sound like to them, though, because the other day we were teaching them some English words, and they could not say the word "pillow." They sounded like...."purrluub. proolib. pendow. prruurrlurr." If that's what they sound like to me when they say "pillow".....wow. I must sound like such an....American to them! But they are adorable. I love them. They are OBSESSED with Hermana Fast, which is hilarious, because she doesn't know why! She's got the super blonde hair and bright blue eyes, so maybe that? Anyway, it's super cute. They told us this morning that one of them had a dream that us four America Hermanas were angels.

 

Spanish is coming along fine. I felt like I wasn't progressing for a few days, but then we taught a lesson and I realized I could speak so much more fluently! I need to trust in the Lord more, and have faith that He is always helping me as I study!

 

Also, our casa is haunted. One of my butterfingers from my package went missing, someone drank half of my Mucho Mango drink, the door to room 5 locked by itself (no one lives in that room yet,) Hermana Wilson y Clawson's clothes got rearranged in their closets, someone stole some of my hangers...one day we walked in and the sink in room 4 was overflowing! We were the only ones there! Water was all over the floor!!!!!! (There's a really good explanation for that, but I like to think it's a ghost.)

 

I am learning that even though I have a strong testimony, I have so much to learn and room to grow in the gospel. We watched a devotional by Elder Holland, where he said that we can guaruntee at least ONE convert on each of our missions....and that is ourselves! WE need to be converted before we can even hope to bring anyone else to Christ. Then, in my personal study, I read 3 Nefi (that's how it's spelled out here...and it's pronnounced "neh-fee"...weirdness...) Anyway, 3 Nefi 14:3-5, which says:

 

"...why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the bean that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother: Let me pull the mote out of thine eye--and behold, a bean is in thine own eye?...first cast the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of they borhter's eye."

 

We can't hope to help anyone if we haven't fixed ourselves. I'd always read that verse as "don't judge anyone, because you have your own faults, too," but after Elder Holland's video devotional, I read it differently. We need to convert ourselves to the Lord before we can hope to bring anyone else there.

 

I hope you guys at girls camp are having fun! I'm loving it here. I was a bit more down on myself than last week...I'm getting pretty frustrated with the language...but I'm feeling much better now! I just needed to remind myself that...it's only been two weeks! Look how far the Lord has helped me along already! I'll be fine. (:

 

(That awkward smiley face was in honor of Lindy, who still seems to lack the concept of how socially unacceptable an awkward smiley face is, judging from her last email...JUST KIDDING! LOVE YOU, LINDY.)

 

Keep emailing me! Keep praying! On your knees!

 

¡Hasta Luego!

 

Hermana Thomas