I live in a cement box

Well... this was probably the fastest week of my mission and it was awesome. We got a ton of work done. I am now in an area that is like in the middle of nowhere. And I actually live in a cement box. It is not very homey, and the roof is tin, so when it rains we really can't hear anything. But, life is good. My area is beautiful.

My branch out here is awesome. The oldest members in the branch are just 2 year converts. Our branch President was baptized a little over 2 years ago. But, they are awesome and there are like 140 people that attend each week. It is awesome. And we had 10 of our investigators attend this week which was amazing!! I have never had even half that amount of people attend in a week. We were super excited. 

Since our area is way out in the boonies, we are allowed to do like anything to get into town. Hitchhiking is totally allowed. We got a ride into town this week in the back of some dudes truck. And on another day, we went on the biggest bus chase of the century. We were in a trike and we were chasing down the last bus that was leaving town. We called the sisters (who were on the bus) and told them to stop the bus. We threw some pesos to the trike driver and with backpacks flying everywhere, we dove onto the bus. It was wild.

As a zone leader, I got to go down to Mission Leadership Council, which was awesome. Our new mission is amazing. He talked about how starting with the people in that meeting, we were going to get the work rolling. He talked a lot about leadership and the things that we can do to lead by example. Me and my companion came home super motivated to start by working in our area, but my comp got sick so we weren't even able to work on Saturday. Super big bummer. But, we finished the week with only 31 proselyting hours, but we had 31 lessons which was amazing. 

One of my favorite people that we teach is a guy named Dante. He is just working on stopping coffee and he is incredible. He invited us over to have rice coffee with him. It is nothing more than burnt rice, cream and sugar. But, if it will help him, it is worth a shot. 

We also had an amazing lesson with a family. The father of the family has never joined a lesson in the year that his family has been taught by the missionaries. We actually got him to join and we just shared about the power of family prayer. Then the mom actually came to church with some of her kids who are members. Her kids got up (because it was fast and testimony meeting) and both cried as they talked about how blessed they are now to see their family slowly starting to become more united. It was incredible. 

The church is true and the work is certainly hastening. I love it. It is amazing to be a part of. If you don't read the Book of Mormon, then read it. And it you have read it, then read it again. And again you will feel of the truthfulness of the message that it contains. 

I love you all and am grateful for the thoughts, prayers, and emails. 

Love Elder Thomas.