I
LOVE YOU GUYS. Thanks for the emails!!! I love love love them!!! ALSO
I'd like to make a public statement to my favorite Cambodian, Sistaa
Davee--Chloe, you can use lines from Nacho Libre whenever you want.
SO. This week. Let's start with the fact that I hit FIVE MONTHS in Chile!! (Well...okay...technically tomorrow.
But five months ago today I boarded the plane and left Mexican soil.)
That is crazy. Missionaries talk about how their missions fly, but I
never bought it...well. Here I am. Living it. I know my mom will never
say that the time passed in the blink of an eye, but you would not
believe how little time feels when you're doing something you love...and
also doing the thing that has challenged you more than anything else in
your entire life!
I'm loving being companions with Hermana Kenney. We
laugh all the time...BUT, may I just repeat that we work really hard,
too. I truly am enjoying the mission! Something that I really love about
our companionship is that we are always trying to change things up. If
we're not having success one day, we just turn to each other and figure
out what we're going to change in that moment, then we change it! And
it's a pattern of changing, changing, changing...
The best change we've made has been in...our exercise habits. (Hear me out.)
As
missionaries, we have thirty minutes of exercise every morning, right
as soon as we get out of bed. We have gone running a few times (twice,)
we've done some lifting (chocolate into our mouths,) and we've stretched
a lot (laid on our backs and stared at the ceiling.) (I call these my
"guilty-conscience-parenthesis.
We were contemplating what to do while we were
proselyting, and Hermana Kenney asked me what motivates me. I told her
chocolate.
Wednesday
morning, we started from the thirteenth floor down the stairs to the
first, and on every floor we left two fun-sized snickers bars. We then
made the ascent to our room by the stairs, gathering the snickers as we
climbed. The end result? We made it. WE MADE IT. THIS IS MY LIFE PEOPLE.
I RAN UP THIRTEEN FLIGHTS OF STAIRS WITH AN ARMFUL OF SNICKERS. THIS
WORKED.
(Hey, Mom.)
Speaking of
chocolate, there is this cupcake thing here that is a crappy mimic of
hostess cupcakes (yes, I just said a crappy mimick of hostess
cupcakes...like hostess cupcakes aren't crappy to begin with...) They're
called "penguinos." Anyway, one day we were starving, so Hermana Kenney
and I bought snacks. I chose penguinos, and she bought this chocolate
bar that we thought was going to be good, but it actually tasted like
90-year-old bubble gum. Anyway, there were two penguinos, and I had
already eaten one, so I offered her the other. She said she didn't want
to take my food, but I insisted, and she finally took it. Then we took a
few steps more, and I sarcastically said, "...hey wait have you seen my
other penguino...?"
There was a little struggle, but in the end she
managed to smash this penguino cupcake on my face. Very thoroughly. I
guess I deserved it. I'm a punk.
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| Sister Kenney and Sister Thomas. |
As for the
people we've taught, we've had a few break-throughs. One of our
conversos recientes opened up to us about some problems she's been
having with the Word of Wisdom, and we were so happy that she chose to
confide in us. She reminds me a lot of my little sisters! We're going to
work with her on that. It was a really cool experience, because it was
my turn to share the scripture, and while I was flipping through my
Libro de Mormón, the scripture about "men are free to act for
themselves, and not to be acted upon" came to my mind. I haven't read
that scripture in a really long time, but I'd marked it near the
beginning of my mission for some reason...if I hadn't done that, I don't
think I would have been able to find it in spanish! But after we shared
that scripture, the spirit moved her to share with us this challenge
she's been having. She even asked us if we'd planned that scripture to
share. When we told her no, she said that it was exactly what she needed
to hear. I know that the Lord is working through me--and every other
missionary in the world--to help his children on the earth through the
Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I had another experience this week that I absolutely
loved--Hermana Kenney and I randomly decided to put a whole day aside
during the week to just contact and find new people to teach. We chose Friday, and we decided not to plan any citas fijas on that day if we could help it. Before Friday
came, however, we found ourselves with seven new people to teach
already! That's a pretty good number to have by that time of the week.
Anyway, as soon as we started out Friday
morning, we got a call from Hermana Jett (the mission nurse) asking if
we could hurry to the hospital and stay with an hermana who was going in
for surgery later that day. She didn't have a companion, and also
didn't want to be alone for the hours leading up to her operation...she
was nervous! So Hermana Kenney and I went over to the hospital to be her
companions. We spent about four hours with her while she was a little
drugged in her hospital bed, just talking with her and singing hymns. I
think she really liked us by the end, because she turned to us, and in
her druggy-state, said, "you guys are fun." (In Spanish.) In these few
hours with this hermana that I'd never met before, I really developed a
love for her. When we had to leave at night, we each took her hands and
gave them big squeezes and assured her that everything would be fine,
that she didn't have to worry. She said thank you about a million times.
I learned how just serving and being there for someone is the best way
that we can feel Christ-like love for even strangers. I loved that day
so much. As we were walking back to our sector, my companion and I were
talking about how amazing it is that we just happened to have this whole
day wide open, and how the Lord had already blessed us with new people
to teach the days before. I know He prepared us to have the time and
ability to give this service to one of His other valiant missionaries.
The Lord is in every aspect of the work! I know it.
In these six months I have seen so many miracles and I've seen His hand
in every one of them. I wish I could put exactly what I want to say in
this email, but words can't express how grateful I am to be an
instrument in the Lord's hands, and to share this happiness I feel with
the people here in Chile.
I feel like this was one of my
less-eloquently-written letters...sorry about that! I'm a little tired.
BUT HEY. ARE YOU ALL READING THE BOOK OF MORMON? I'm not just talking to
my family...I'm talking to everyone reading this letter! Mormon or not!
Go read it. Why not? Try it out. I promise your life will be blessed,
and you can have a little taste of the happiness I have felt every
single day for the last...six months and ten days!
I LOVE YOU ALL WITH ALL MY HEART. Keep reading and praying and going to church and being AWESOME and also emailing me please!
LOVE, Hermana Thomas!
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