Look for the lie......hehe

Well, it's hot outside, but it's raining, so we get to jump in a puddle, don't we?

Sorry. I'm pretty sure...Erin is the only person that will get that. But I remembered it last night and laughed pretty hard and have been bursting to start my letter out with that. (Don't disappoint me, sis.)

Anyway. How's it going, my people? As honesty is an attribute of Christ (though not listed in PMG,) I am going to just tell you all straight out that I did not write a single word in my journal this week. A SINGLE WORD. But don't worry. I wrote down some things this morning to stir my memory. I'm sure it will be enough to stir your interest. 

Let's actually make this into a game. I am going to sneakily hide one lie in this email. All of you have to guess what the lie is. Okay? Let's go.

First of all, my companion has gotten me HOOKED on something SUPER. WEIRD. So you all know how I don't like popcorn? Well, okay, I don't like it very much...but, when presented with the opportunity to eat it, I CAN'T STOP EATING IT. It's the worst, because I don't even like it. At all. Anyway...I mentioned that to my companion, and she told me that the first time she went to the movie theater in Provo (she lived there for a little bit,) she bought popcorn and then immediately asked her friends, "okay, so where's the salsa?" They all looked at her really confused...yeah, I guess in Mexico they put salsa on their popcorn?!? What the?? Anyway, she bought popcorn this last week and she squeezed a LEMON on it and then poured HOT SAUCE on it! I was dumbfounded, and she just went about making her little weird popcorn, stirring it up and all...so then...I thought...I would try it...

GREATEST. THING. EVER. Can you get in trouble for smuggling hot sauce and half a lemon into a movie theater? Because THAT is how it is DONE. They know how it is. 

Last week, I had a little extra time on the computer, so I went through and sent every single email I've ever written home to my iPad, and spent a significant portion of the day reading them. IT WAS HORRIBLE...AND AWESOME. A few things:

1) I would like to apologize to my posterity for leaving behind a nine-month-legacy of getting pooped on.

2) I am never attempting to speak Spanish in these letters ever again. "Yo Ustedes Ama"?!?!?!?!?! WHO THE HECK DID I THINK I WAS?! 

3) IT HAPPENED.

...what happened, you might ask? Well. A few weeks into the MTC I wrote a letter about bugs. We had a bit of a cockroach problem in our house, and I had to sweep up all these dead mosquitoes and I was gagging...anyway, at the end of that letter, I said that one of my goals during the mission was to become a "FEROCIOUS BUG MURDERER." (I do believe that is an exact quote.) 

Well, who would have thought that this goal would be realized, not in Mexico, not in Chile, but in TEMPE, ARIZONA? We have cockroaches in our apartment. Nothing awful, but...okay. It's awful. Just because I HATE BUGS. (Not as much as I HATE BIRDS.) But do you know who is even MORE traumatized by bugs?.....MY COMPANION. Oh my word. She squeals. You'd think a thousand of them were crawling up her arm. Anyway, at first I tried to push them aside, like if I saw one, I pretended like I didn't see it, and hoped someone else would kill it. Then one night I was laying in my bed, and I thought about how horrible AWFUL ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE it would be for one of them to be crawling around in my bed...so...the next day...in the name of sleeping peacefully...I became the Tempe cockroach murderer. I have killed SO. MANY. COCKROACHES. IT IS UNBELIEVABLE. 

So. That. As for people we are teaching...I LOVE TEMPE. We don't have a ton of people, but the people we ARE teaching are incredible. I love them!! We are teaching a girl who is 17 and her boyfriend (I think I've talked about them...she has a 3 year old daughter...?) and they are AWESOME. She is from Mexico and he is from Guatemala (I LOVE GUATEMALANS.) Anyway, they might be getting married on the 14th of June, so if you all could pray for that, that would be amazing. They are the cutest couple and WE LOVE THEM SO MUCH. 

We are also teaching a man named Juan. He's a crack up. He lives with his parents and his sister and nephew, and he always answers the door without a shirt on...and he always goes back and gets one on. (And it's not in a creepy way. He just doesn't like shirts.) Anyway, he's overcome a few addictions and is really looking for a deeper meaning in his life, a way to change. We are teaching him and his sister, and they are awesome! Pray for them, too! 

President Toone went to a big mission president's conference the other week with Elder Bednar, and this last week we had the chance to meet with President and hear about what counsel Elder Bednar gave. He told us a LOT of things...things that really, really changed...A LOT for me...but there's one thing in particular that I wanted to share. Elder Bednar told the mission presidents that he wanted the missionaries to feel SUPER "WEIRD." In fact, he wants EVERY MEMBER OF THE CHURCH to feel that way. Isn't that an odd word to want to be known as? "Weird"? But Elder Bednar said that if we do not feel "weird," we are not living the gospel of Jesus Christ.

How many times have you tried to comfortably live the gospel, and maybe compromised a little? I know I have a thousand times. BUT FEEL WEIRD, PEOPLE. Jesus Christ himself felt weird. He knew He was different. He was supposed to be. And as members of His church, WE ARE ALSO EXPECTED TO FEEL WEIRD! Weird, huh? 

Elder Bednar also said that the future of the church does not consist of chapels or meeting houses. It only consists of prophets and temples....what does that mean? A direct quote from President Toone: "The home will be the MTC. It will be the mission field. The persecution is going to increase. Something is coming. It will come down the the essence of our personal lives and homes." 

Now don't get all worked up and think the end of the world is coming next week...but I believe that what he said is true. The world is not going to accept the teachings of Christ as willingly in the near future. This time is a preparation for that. What we do now, how we live our lives, how we prepare our children will have a direct impact on our posterity's safety in these worsening times. Live the gospel! Make it a part of you TODAY. Start converting yourself fully to the gospel NOW! You will have so much security! Christ is the rock that will not be moved...build yourself on him! 

Well, that's my spiritual thought this week. I love you all so much! I can't believe...I've been out...for...more..than...three...months....ugh. I am going to stop looking at the date...

PRAY READ ATTEND LOVE (pray read the scriptures attend church love everyone the whole shabang.) AND WRITE (me.)

LOOOOOOOOOOOVE, Hermana Thomas

PS oh my gosh I forgot to tell you guys this week a GIANT APE CRASHED THROUGH OUR ROOF AND TORE UP THE FURNITURE AND ATE ALL MY HONEY BUNCHES OF OATS I'M SERIOUS IT WAS so weird.

So......(letter from April 21, 2014:-)!!!

So let's get to the nitty-gritty (still haven't figured out if that's how you spell "nitty"...? Help me someone.)

9 MONTHS. NINE. COUNT 'EM. Holy cow. It seriously feels like two weeks ago that I hit 6 months in the mission. I can't believe how quickly time flies here. Why didn't the hours feel like minutes when I was sitting down practicing for my piano lesson? I remember wishing SO BAD that I had a remote control that fast-forwarded life for those few hours I spent practicing. Can I have a remote that slows time down a little, now?

My nine-month mark was a little different than I'd imagined it would be. Usually that's the point where people think, "yeah, I kind of get this mission-thing," they've kind of been around the track a few times, they get it. Well, welcome to THAT IS NEVER MY LIFE. I never know what's going on. Here I am in the middle of Arizona, learning new mission rules, new traditions, a new language (MEXICAN SPANISH. IS SO. DIFFERENT.), etc. But if there's one lesson I've learned in my life, it is to love where you are while you're there! So that's the plan. And so far, it's worked out pretty nicely.

So many things have happened in the last nine months, including...drum-roll, please.................TUBERCULOSIS. Yes, that happened. And, I am happy to announce that this week I finally started my treatment! Wahoo! (Mom can take a big, huge sigh of relief.) 

Hermana Berbert and I spent some quality time getting totally LOST in Arizona together to retrieve this medication. And while I'm glad (hopefully) that this saga in my life is finally coming to an end, let me tell you, it was not as easy as a "snap the neck" ending. It took Hermana Berbert and I TWO DAYS to get it all sorted out. Her companionship has an iPhone, so we put the address to the doctor's office in there, but lo and behold, thanks to my eternal pot of guess-what-it's-not-that-easy, the phone died in less than ten minutes of our journey, and we were left to fend for ourselves in the midst of the Gilbert Arizona deserts. Luckily, we pulled into a photography place with a REALLY nice lady who has a LOT of Latter-Day Saint friends, and she was more than happy to help us out. 

With her directions, we found the doctors office. The doctor is awesome, he's a member and doesn't charge missionaries anything, so that part was nice a quick (but not without my terrifying fears that someone somewhere in that office was preparing a needle-injection for me while I was unawares.) Anyway, then we went and took an x-ray, where there was confusion about some insurance, then we went out to search for this B-6 Vitamin in 25 mg that we have to take with out medication to avoid the side effect of our limbs going numb (kind of important,) which, SURPRISE, almost no one sells in 25 mg. Anyway, through this whole adventure, I just reminded myself how thankful I was that I was getting the help I needed. It was actually fun...Hermana Berbert and I rehashed them ol' Chilean memories, and talked about how excited we are to work in Arizona. 

Really, this mission is so cool. It's so different, but it's so cool! I love it here. I love the President and his wife, the missionaries, and especially the people! Arizona, man...it's its own thing.

This week was also scattered with some more "Baby's First"s. Hermana Berbert and I "stumbled upon" (code words for "searched embarrassingly-diligently for") a Chic-Fil-A...chicken nuggets have never tasted so heavenly. I also indulged myself with my first pint of Ben and Jerry's cookie-dough ice cream. (#health) (It was me and a spoon. That was nice.)

Hermana Arellano and I got to help with the Easter Pageant again! It was so awesome. There were two highlights of the night. I will start with the spiritual one: we were all given little hand outs to give to people, inviting them to visit the Visitor's Center. I got to a group of women, two daughters and their elderly mother, who I assumed were members since they had been to the pageant for years, now. However, when they asked me if I was just visiting and I replied that I was a missionary, they asked, "what does that mean?" and I realized that these three women were actually not members! I talked with them for a little bit about the church's missionaries, and they asked me if it was hard to sacrifice my life before to be doing what I am doing now. I told them that it was a little hard, but that I LOVE what I'm doing SO MUCH now, because I've seen the joy the gospel brings into my life, and I love to share that with others. One of the women immediately said, "I can tell, because there is a light around you, and you glow!" That comment really touched me. Sometimes I think that I take the gospel for granted in my life, but we really do GLOW when we live it! Other people notice it! It lights them up! This comment was one of my favorite moments so far in my mission.

The other highlight is that Hermana Arellano and I "stumbled upon" (remember the code word) a sheep to pet! Cast members were walking around before hand letting the kids touch real, live sheep, and we found one! THEY ARE SO SOFT. The rest of the night, Hermana Arellano was explaining how she believes wholeheartedly that every apartment in the mission should have at least one sheep, as a reminder to find the "lost sheep." She made a good case. 

My companion also has a habit of calling herself "Sister Pooh." For a while I thought she was saying "Sister Poo" and I kept wondering why on earth she was saying that, but I finally asked this week, and she said it's because she's gotten so fat on her mission that her shirts bunch up on her stomach like Winnie the Pooh. 

Well, everyone, the mission is awesome! But even more awesome than that is the gospel of Jesus Christ! I love it! It has the answers to everything, it can heal every wound, and it brings light where there is darkness. Two days ago we met a woman who has harbored some really negative feelings for more than two years over the death of her young son. She doesn't understand why he was taken from her. It has obviously left some serious wounds in her soul. We are so excited to go back and teach the Plan of Salvation...that her son is not lost! That in fact he is SAVED through Jesus Christ. I love the gospel!

Keep reading and praying and serving! And LOVING. I loved President Monson's simple talk about Charity and Love. We can all do better.

O ;PBR UPI S;;@

...okay. that sentence was "I LOVE YOU ALL" with my fingers on the wrong part of the keyboard. But...it conveys the message, I think.

LOVE, Hermana Thomas

Hello Familia- Letter from April 14, 2014 (I slacked off...)

Hola familia y amigos! Les amo mucho.

Another week in good ol' Arizona. (Once again, it just took me twenty seconds to find where the apostrophe was on this keyboard. Ay.) First things first: if you ever want to know what melted gummy-worms taste like, buy a pack and leave it in your car in the middle of Arizona for FIVE MINUTES. FIVE. Five, people. My beautiful sour gummy worms were literally a puddle when we got back into the car. Curse you, Arizona heeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttbut that's beside the point. The point is, everything is still good in the hood here! I love being a missionary! There is nothing better.

I told you all that I was being changed...well, it happened! On Wednesday we had a big Transfer Meeting, everyone who was getting a new companion met in Tempe to be assigned. I wasn't really nervous, actually, since I still had no idea where I should even HOPE to go, or who I should even HOPE to be companions with...I was like...bring it. 

I have my new companion! And guess how lucky I got?? There are maybe six sister missionaries who are native-speakers, and I got one! Her name is Hermana Arellano, and she's a crack-up. She's from Mexico, but she speaks near-flawless English. It took me a couple minutes to realize that she wasn't a gringa! Hooray for me, because I still get to have someone correcting my spanish! I was so nervous about that. Anyway, we are working in the Tempe Zone, in the Rio Salado ward, and it's awesome!

Hermana Arellano is awesome. She always wants to learn more and more English. One of the first things she said to me when we were assigned companions was...well...she was pretty frustrated about the difference between "sucks" (like "this sucks") and "socks." 

That was only the beginning. Two days ago we were driving and I asked her what her favorite restaurant is. She says, "I don't remember what it's called, but it's in Provo, it's a sandwich place, and the name is like...'noodles'..." I was wracking my brain trying to think of a noodle/sandwich place, and I kept saying "are you sure it has noodles in the name?" and she was very insistent that it did. Finally I gave up, and told her that now that I'd been thinking about sandwiches so much, I was craving something from Kneaders. She goes, "YES. THAT'S IT. KNEADERS." (Which, in hindsight, I can see how that might sound like "noodles.") Then she goes on this long tangent about how there are so many random foods named "noodle" that aren't noodles...and I was like..."like what?!?" And she starts describing this cookie with cinnamon on it, and I'm like, "you mean SNICKER-DOODLE?" and she's like "YES. THAT."

The other day in companionship study she explained that it takes a big wake-up call for her to realize that she needs to change something...then she said that that's why the spirit doesn't speak to her with "spiritual promptings"...it speaks to her with "spiritual smacks to the face." She said this in English. It...was awesome. 

The list goes on and on...she cracks me up. She has learned A TON of slang from some of the elders, like "that's legit" or "that's messed up" or "I'm pumped"...the other day in one of our prayers she asked that God would please help us "get pumped," and that was probably the best plea I have ever heard in a prayer. Amen to that, sister. 

We are white-washing the area, which is interesting. Sometimes we get frustrated with the giant map we bought the other day, but we've been busy trying to get to know the members. Yesterday at church I was SHOCKED by how AWESOME this ward is...I guess I'm just used to the Chilean disorganization. (Which I love. But. Still.) The bishop is awesome and all the members are so happy! There really is something special about this ward.

We've started to teach one girl who is only 17 (almost 18) but has a 3 year old daughter. She is living with her boyfriend, and they are SUPER great! They are so open to the gospel. She came with us to the Mesa Easter Pageant on Saturday, but didn't make it to church. We are going to work on that, but we are so excited to be teaching them. AND they have the CUTEST puppy in the world, so that's a plus. 

Oh, back to the ward/stake...our stake president was just called about a month ago...and he's only 27! Yeah! But he's incredible. We had a meeting with him the other day and he started telling us that we need to just be "thorns in the bishop's side" until we get done what needs to get done for the people we are teaching. He is practically fresh off the mission, his wife just had their first baby, and he is SO awesome. At the end of the meeting, he said, "missionaries...which wheel gets the oil?" We all responded, "the one that squeaks...?" And he says "EXACTLY. You gotta squeak! Sure it's annoying, but if it wasn't squeaking, we wouldn't know there was a problem, and it wouldn't ever get what it needed!" Then he slammed his fist on the table and shouted, "SQUEAK!"

It was a memorable experience.

Anyway, I love you all so much. You are in my thoughts and prayers all the time. I am loving being a missionary. A few people we've contacted have asked us an interesting question lately...as missionaries we promise that the gospel blesses families, and that we've seen these blessings in our lives, and they are SO BIG that we are here to bring them to other people, because they've made us so happy...well, I've been asked by three different people lately...why? What are those blessings? What miracles have you seen? 

This has made me think. And now I've begun a list of ways I've specifically seen the gospel bless my life. I think you should all do that. If someone asked you to share an experience where the gospel blessed your life so much that you'd want to share it with the world, what would you say?

I LOVE YOU ALL. KEEP PRAYING AND READING AND GOING TO CHURCH AND WRITING ME LETTERS BECAUSE I LOVE IT.

Love, Hermana Thomas

Hello---Letter from April 7, 2014

Hello, everyone! I will just tell you one MAJOR bummer to being in the United States...no more Spanish keyboards, which means CHOW to my awesome upside down exclamation points...(I'm sure I could find it if I tried real hard...nah.)

How are all of you?? I'm doing great. It's been a little rough for me to adjust to a new mission, but as for the people and the work, I am loving it! 

First of all, I went on my first Good-Will trip last week. Apparently this is a thing. We walked into this giant store house of thousands of blue baskets filled to the BRIM with smelly clothes and useless, broken items. We were seriously digging through these piles for gold. I could not believe the culture I encountered there...THOUSANDS of women, pushing and shoving, grabbing and hogging, throwing and diving for...something they didn't know existed! (By the way, props to me, has anyone noticed I found the apostrophe key??) Anyway, I actually got two good finds. One is a dress that i cut up and turned into a skirt (I am currently wearing it this minute,) and another...oh my word. I wish you could all see it. AGH I should have taken a picture. It is...a 'MURICA shirt. It's giant, red white and blue MADNESS. We ran into the Zone Leaders there and they were breakin some major "thou shalt not covet"s there. They wanted that shirt. They called it a "treasure." 

We also found a really pretty picture frame, but when Hermana Homer picked it up, we found that it came fully-furnished with a photo of the creepiest looking grandma I have ever seen. We almost convinced the elders that it was my grandmother. 

Then on Tuesday...I got hit by a truck and died. JUST KIDDING APRIL FOOLS (...sorry guys. I just downed a Doctor Pepper and it's showing.) We actually had our zone meeting that day, and the sister training leaders made us a very creative lunch...ice-cream that looked like hawaiian haystacks, meatloaf that looked like cake (topped with mashed-potato frosting,) juice with straws that actually turned out to be jello, and something that looked like water but actually tasted like bananas. I was thoroughly impressed.

Also, great news...I HAVE A WONDERFUL BICYCLE. (Thank you, family!!!) I feel so much better on that bike. No more squeaking...

Speaking of bikes, one night my companion and I were riding to an appointment. It was a little late, but we were making sure to ride on the busy streets with as much light as possible. The busy street made a right turn, so we followed it...and...

Okay, first of all, it's a little funny because the missionaries here told us that there were SO MANY DOGS HERE. Hermana Berbert and I were like...yeah. We just came from Chile. Bring it on.

The truth is, there are a LOT of Chihuahuas. I'll give that to them. TONS of little Chihuahuas. (There is one in particular who is black with a red collar...I swear, if Satan had a dog...) BUT...nothing. NOTHING compared to Chile. But these dogs do have a very annoying habit of chasing people on bikes...for a long time. There have been a few times where I've honestly had the thought, "should I run this dog over?" I've seriously felt like Nephi when Laban was presented into his hands..."it is better that one satanic-chihuahua dies than thousands to perish in unbelief..." (or something like that.) But...don't worry. Eventually, common sense kicks in. "Thou shalt not kill."

Anyway, we turn this corner, and out of the darkness this little itty bitty Chihuahua comes prancing out of his yard to chase us away, so we start peddling a little faster...and then, out of the SHADOWS of the DEEP UNKNOWN, RIGHT EXACTLY next to Hermana Homer, THIS HUGE. GIGANTIC. MONSTER OF A DOG comes BOUNDING out of the shadows, BARKING AND HOWLING AND BOLTING RIGHT FOR HERMANA HOMER.

I tell you, I have NEVER heard a scream from anyone like I heard from her that night. This dog was full on FLYING after her, and I just hear "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" and I am just helplessly watching this scene unfold before my very eyes...

It probably only lasted, like, two seconds, but I swear it could have been two minutes that I watched my companion peddle herself away from this dog. Then he gave up and sunk back into the shadows. But I think we both almost died of shock. It took a few minutes, but we finally started laughing so hard I almost fell off of my bike.

So there's your story for the week.

As for things I'm actually doing...some of you have probably noticed that I am cleaning out my Facebook. THIS IS THE WORST. All I'm going to say is...nothing is more personally humiliating than to realize that you, yourself, in fact, were that annoying eighth-grader on Facebook. I'M DISGUSTED. But I'm actually really excited to just finish cleaning it up so that I can use it as a missionary tool! I'll let you know more about that when I start really using it. 

This week was GENERAL CONFERENCE! Did you all watch it? Let me know what you loved. I especially liked Elder Nelson's talk about living ALL of our lives as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Do your friends know you are "a mormon?" Do they know your standards and believes? How about co-workers? Acquaintances? WE SHOULD LIVE IT SO LOUD AND PROUD. 

As a companionship, we really put an emphasis on having sincere prayers this week, too. I loved this! We've tried to pray for people by name and specific necessity. We've also tried to be more grateful for things than we are asking for things. It's been a really amazing experience. You should all make that effort with me!

And, I have news...last night we found out CAMBIOS, and I'm actually leaving! In fact, everyone in the house is being transferred except for Hermana Homer! I've got some mixed emotions, here. I LOVE HERMANA HOMER. She is so great. I'm so grateful that I got to come into the mission with someone who made me laugh so much! 

In this mission, they don't tell you where you're going or who your companion will be until a big meeting on Wednesday called "Transfer Meeting," so...I'm afraid that's all for now!

I hope everything is awesome for you all! I love you all so much! With all my heart! Read and pray every single day. Keep me in your prayers, too! 

LOVE, Hermana Thomas

Arizonnaaa.......................

Well well well. Ladies and Gentlemen, bienvenidos a Phoenix Arizona! Ayayay! No lo puedo creer. En serio, esta semana ha pasado SUPER slow...but also...super fast...? I don't even remember how to type on an English keyboard anymore.

I went to the mission home last Monday night. Everyone was there with their bags, weighing them...we were only allowed two bags to check and two carry ons. The two checked bags had to weigh under 23kg...AND I AM PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE that my final weigh-ins for those two bags were 22.7 and 22.8. PROFESSIONAL PACKER. RIGHT HERE. High five me someone please.

A member who had driven us all to the Santiago temple came by to drop off another missionary, and had bought all of us who had driven in her car a little Chilean-flag pin to wear...it was so sweet! And I really wanted one. (PS: I am typing on a computer that is missing seven buttons of the letters of the alphabet. Ill do the best I can with spelling and grammar. But...not really.) 

Hermana Kenney and I cried a bit when we said goodbye. I am so grateful that she and I have become such great friends! Then we packed our bags into the minivans and headed out. We shook President Warnes hand goodbye, then walked through this tunnel...and that was it. Chow, Chile Rancagua. Oh. It was so weird. I had no idea where I was going or anything. I felt like I was in this limbo of some sort. I am so grateful that I had Hermana Berbert with me, going to the same mission--I didn't feel so alone for that! 

We actually immediately ran into a member who lives in the Tempe Arizona mission! In the middle of Chile! It was awesome. He was really excited to see us, and bought all four of us missionaries dinner. Then he left us to leave for his flight. A few minutes later us four were joking around about how we wanted something to drink now, and that we were going to go find him and ask him if we could have one (we were all TOTALLY joking,) when in that very SECOND he comes up behind us and said, "hey, just found two more missionaries, Im gonna buy them food too, you guys want something to drink?" It...was awesome. And pretty funny.

Hermana Thomas with President and Sister Toone of the Tempe, Arizona mission.

 The flight was long, and Chile sent me off with an AWFUL stomach ache from that Chilean airline food (thanks, Chile, been nice knowin' ya,) so that made the sad parting a little more (or less) bearable. Anyway, when we got to Dallas all of us parted for our connecting flights, wishing each other luck. Hermana Berbert and I searched for our next terminal, which was actually difficult to find (when we asked a nice old lady employee how to get there, she delicately described this gate as the "unloved stepchild" of the airport.) Anyway, we were still lost after her directions, and luckily another employee spotted us in our confusion. He was a big, black guy, and he goes, "you ladies lost?" We sheepishly told him yes, and he told us he would bring us to our gate. (Has anyone caught on to the fact yet that I can't find where the apostrophe mark is on this keyboard...?)

So we were walking with this guy, and he looks at our name tags and goes, "oh, for a second I though you guys were Mormons." We told him we actually were, and he goes, "Oh! Okay, so I got a question for y'all. Who..is the second prophet in the Book of Mormon?" We looked at each other, confused, and said, "umm...I guess...Nephi. Why?" He repeated the question, as if expecting a different answer, but we firmly said Nephi again. He shook his head and said "Nah, nah, nah, Brigham Young, y'all." (Obviously this guy has never read the book.) Anyway, we kind of laughed, still not sure why he was talking about it, and he asked us, "is he dead? Is Brigham Young dead?" "...yes...hes dead..." "alright, yall, but what does death really mean?" At this point, we had no idea what to say. I mean, I was about to whip out my PMG and explain how death is only a separation between our physical bodies and our spirits, when he just says exasperatedly, "I AM BRIGHAM YOUNG!" Hermana Berbert and I were pretty weirded out by this point, and kind of awkwardly chuckled, and he was like, "fo real, y'all, check it out," and we look at his name tag and sure enough his name really is Brigham Young. For reals. So we both start laughing hysterically, and hes laughing, and he says, "so y'all can go tell your little Mormon friends that y'all met Brigham Young, and hes black." And then...he left us at the gate without another word. IT WAS THE GREATEST MOMENT EVER. We were DYING of laughter.

So. Then we took another plane to Arizona. We were met by Sister Toone (the wife of the president,) and two other cute as heck, happy as anything Sisters. They took us around, helped us get to know the office workers a bit, and then we ate lunch with them and waited for President Toone to come. 

President Toone is awesome. Amazing. The spirit is so strong when he speaks. Hes also seven feet tall. Literally. But he and Sister Toone and amazing, consecrated people. I know Im going to learn a lot from them.

We slept the night in the mission home, then we went with President to a zone conference he was having in Tempe...it was awesome. Seriously. I have so much to learn from these people.

The mission here is SO DIFFERENT. First of all, we have bikes and cars. We also have touch screen phones and IPADS. WHAT. And if that wasn't enough...FACEBOOK. Its wigging me out. I was so uncomfortable the first time I logged on. I felt like I needed to repent.

Also, there is an attitude in this mission...and its OUT OF CONTROL HAPPINESS. Oh my word, it is so funny. I mean, we were happy in Rancagua, but in a..tired way (as Hermana Berbert put it.) But here...its like...bouncing off the walls, missionary work is the bomb, were gonna rock it today, smiling laughing CRAZINESS. I think my Zone Leaders must fall asleep smiling with their teeth all night. I kind of love it, but at first it was actually overwhelming! But they are so happy!

Which brings me to my companion...Hermana Homer! She is awesome. So funny. I love her laugh! Shes from South Dakota and has been out for five months. I'm actually very impressed with her Spanish. Oh my gosh, shes so funny. The other day we were biking and she out of nowhere swerved around to grab a hat off the street. It was this ugly ratty hat, and she said she just wanted it. No other reason. Oh, she makes me laugh. I think she is the perfect companion for me, because if we weren't laughing all the time, I think Id be a little more down about switching missions.

Hermana Thomas and Hermana Homer in Phoenix

I live with Hermana Berbert, and we are having a blast! Also, we are riding bikes every day since there aren't more miles on the car...BIKING IS KIND OF THE WORST. I think Id rather have a walking mission. My  legs are hurting in places I didn't know existed. I ran into a car the other day. Parked car. I need to buy a bike pronto, this one is SO OLD. Everyone that sees it is like, holy cow, how did you get stuck with that one. The other night Sister Homer let me ride her bike for a bit and she rode mine, and she started singing that music from the Wizard of Oz when the wicked witch is riding on her bike/broom. Its so true though. AND THE SQUEAKING. OH, THE SQUEAKING.

I love Arizona already. Hermana Homer and I are pretty much white washing, but were praying for a miracle! I wish I had more time to type and tell you EVERYTHING, but I cant print my emails and I still haven't read them so I'm going to end now so I can read, but I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH. I'm doing good!

Love, Hermana Thomas