Humbled and Grateful

 Mi querida familia!!

This week just FLEW by! We were SO blessed. I am truly so humbled and grateful for the many miracles and blessings we received this week. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY :)

ANA GOT BAPTIZED on Saturday!! It was a beautiful crazy day. Ana told us that she really wanted sandwiches at her baptism. Sandwiches, really? For some reason Latinos LOVE sandwiches. So what did Hermana Sharp and I do? We made so many sandwiches Saturday afternoon! We had a fun time and just laughed about it. Saturday evening at the baptism was such an amazing experience and the spirit was so strong. Best day on mission so far!. She was so excited and ready. She was just gleaming and had a smile from ear to ear. She was touched by the spirit and was very emotional during the baptism. She kept saying how wonderful she was and how happy she is. She understands and is truly converted. I feel so blessed to have been able to be involved in her conversion process.  We kept asking her to invite her family but she was nervous and said maybe. Saturday morning we were with her doing some service and she said, "Gurls (she has the cutest accent when she uses English) can I bring my family to the baptism tonight?" OF COURSE!!! We were so excited. Her two young daughters (13 and 9 years old) and her sister attended. It was so great to see them all there and you could tell they were touched by the spirit. Now we will work on getting them baptized too! :) haha. What a joyous day it was to watch one of Heavenly Father's choice daughters enter into the waters of baptism.Guess what!? For the month of June as a mission we had 93 baptisms! The Lord is truly blessing our efforts out in the greatest mission ever (California Sacramento). What a fun surprise to see the Dallin, Lex and Karissa at the baptism. Everyone was in love with Karissa and her Spanish (just returned from Argentina Mission). It was fun to say goodbye to Dallin (leaving for Blegium/Netherlands July 24th). He will be a great missionary.  Lex and I had no words, favorite cousin, lots of giggles.  I am glad they got permission to come and surprise me, it made it that more special. I have the best cousins in the world and for a moment with me in Sacramento!!!!!!!! Thank you President Lewis.

 

Transfers... I have been called to TRAIN again! yahooooo :) I am really excited and looking forward to learning and growing from my new companion.. Training is such a blessing. I will be picking up my new companion from the mission office tomorrow! We will be living at Sister Schow's house again and staying in our area. It's a good thing I love East Sac and can't ever imagine leaving!!

We had a specialized sisters training meeting with all the sisters in the mission this week. It was so great! President taught us as well as the 5 Sister Training Leaders. We talked a lot about how the Lord requires our ALL. That means our HEART, MIGHT, MIND and STRENGTH. We also talked about dress, conduct and companionship unity. That was a very strong and spiritual breakout session. We all could really feel the Lord's love and someone shared 1 Nefi 11:22 which is such a great scripture. 

One thing that I have really pondered and tried to apply this week is a quote from Preach My Gospel (page 11). It can apply to anything, not just missionary work, but is SO powerful to missionaries. "Your calling gives you authority, keeping your covenants gives you power". How true is that? We were able to go to the temple this morning and is was so powerful. The 4 of us sisters were going with a YSA sister. Some how none of our alarms went off this morning (super early, the missionaries alarms) and we woke up at 6 and we were freaking out. She waited outside for us and we were able to leave to go the temple a 6:30 and arrive at 7. We missed the session but had the wonderful opportunity to do sealings as daughters. It was wonderful and I realized how blessed I am to be sealed to our family. After we witnessed a lady sealed to her deceased parents then a live sealing of another sister sealed to her parents. The spirit was so strong in the room and made me so much more grateful for temple work. The sealer said that we were "Saviors on Mount Zion" today. Such a tender mercy from the Lord that we were able to be apart and witness those sealings today.

Thank you so much for the package! I have the greatest family in the world. Sister Sharp loved her Timp tennis shirt. She said she is going to wear it every day! haha. The pics you sent were the perfect ones and I loved all the special notes. Thank you so so much.

Isidro got back from Mexico on Monday so Thursday we went over to taught him and Socorro. It was so great. The spirit was so strong and we invited them to be baptized. He said yes after he learns more and she was super quiet. Finally she said, "I don't want to be baptized because then I can only talk to my family on the phone 2 times a year! I LOVE my family and that would be too hard". hahaha. She was so confused. We told her as missionaries we can only talk to our families twice a year over the phone and she thought all members of the church had to do that to show their faith haha. It was so funny and we were all laughing. So Sunday Isidro came to church! He LOVED it and said he wants to keep coming back. Learning little by little.

There are a lot of great things happening in this area. I am sad to see Hermana Sharp go (she is going to South Sac with Hermana White and Hermana Cardullo) but It will be so fun to train and get this new missionary LOVING her life in East Sac. I love and miss you all. Have a great week!

Con Amor,

Hermana Thomas

Best Week Ever Doing the "Work of Salvation"

This has been the GREATEST week ever. I am soo blessed. Sooo many great things and blessings happened but I will just mention the most exciting!

Ana is GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!! We are soo excited. She truly is converted to the Lord. She hasn't had any coffee since Wednesday (almost a week). We were able to take her to a YSA baptism a few days ago (she understands English as well) and it was the best thing that could have ever happened. She was so nervous, but loved it all and is so much more confident for her own baptism this week. The young man (25?) that got baptized is named Frank. The spirit was so strong. He is from Africa and speaks Portuguese as well. So they had a cute RM sister give a talk on the Holy Ghost in Portuguese and I could understand it all!!! So could Ana, she was just loving her life. It was so cool. Sitting there in that baptism I was so full of love and gratitude for the Savior, for the gospel, my testimony, my love for Hermana Sharp and Ana and my life and the wonderful opportunities I have right now. I don't think I have ever been happier in my life. WHO KNEW THIS MUCH JOY WAS POSSIBLE!!!?? And can you imagine what it will be like when Ana gets baptized this week? If I can feel this much joy and love for others, imagine what my Father in Heaven and brother Jesus Christ feel for me!? I am beyond blessed.  Ana came to all 3 hours of church and just soaked it up. We are going over tonight to plan her baptism. So excited. Thank you for your prayers for her. Christina (an older investigator) also made it to church and it was such a miracle.

I had the opportunity to do exchanges with Hermana White this week! We had a blast and worked so hard. It was just like the old days. We taught in perfect unison and just spoke Spanish all day. I am grateful for all the great things she has taught me and the dear friendship we have developed. We had a great day.

I taught a little training in District Meeting this week on obedience. It went really well and I learned so much from preparing! I love in Preach My Gospel where it says "Obedience is an act of faith". What I am really learning is EVERYTHING is dependent on faith. There is no time to be weak or not do the great things to strengthen our faith. Hebrews 13:17 is a great scripture on how we can receive joy by being obedient and listening to our leaders counsel. 

I hope you all were able to see the "Work of Salvation". Was that not the greatest broadcast ever? The spirit was so strong! I had chills the whole time and just thought about how we are all working together to bring our brothers and sisters into the gospel. "Everyone is a missionary!" I loved when Elder Nelson said, "Actions motivated by love" and when Elder Anderson said, "He works in us according to our faith". Of course I loved everything but those two phrases really stood out to me. And how fun was that to look up and see my dear friend and fellow missionary Sister Jessie Beck (serving in the Tampa, Florida mission)! She is so amazing and great example. 

Well I am out of time now but I love you all so much. I hope you had a great week. His work is great and we are being blessed. Les quiero! :)

Con Amor, 

Hermana Thomas

Had a little haircut

Exchanges with Sis. White

What a week! Where should I even begin?

Hola mi querida familia! What a week! Where should I even begin?

Well I had the most interesting meal of my life this past week. We were fed fish. Not just fish, but fish from a bag, put  in the microwave... it tasted...yucky haha. I was just laughing so hard inside while trying to eat it. So funny. I also got to play Mexican bingo with the Aleman's and won! I also got some Pine Sol and Bleach in my eyes this week..haha. Smart huh? We did a lot of service and cleaning and so I have been washing my eyes out A LOT and wearing glasses. Yep, just rocking the glasses haha. Don't worry, they don't burn as much anymore :)

We had a special zone training with President and Sister Lewis. President shared Mark 9:23 where it talks about how anything is possible through believing (faith). Then we focused one 3 main things. How to become 1) Believing, 2) Bold, and 3) Baptizing missionaries. I really learned a lot and it helped change my perspective. I have faith, but its not enough. I need to believe with everything and put my trust 100% in the Lord. There is no room for doubts here and there. Not in the Lord's work. So my goal is to continue working on increasing my faith and  attitude. That is one of the greatest blessings of a mission. You realize you have a lot of weakness and things to work on to become more like Christ. We have tools to help us, we can change and become like him. What a blessing.

We got to go to the elders baptism of Marta y Mario Friday night! It was so great and the spirit was so strong. Hermana Sharp and I sang a duet while they were changing. ME? SINGING A DUET? I know, pretty funny huh? Well it was in a Spanish ward so I sounded good to them! haha. We messed up a little and Hermana Sharp's face went BRIGHT RED. But we made it through. A funny memory for sure.  We are moving Ana's baptism from June 22nd to June 29th. She needs a little more time preparing to live the Word of Wisdom.

I went on exchanges with Hermana Cosby this week! We had so much fun and went out in her area (so part of my old area). The rich, whiter area is a little more challenging looking for Spanish people. Lots of the places we tracted reminded me of Park City! We met some cool people and had fun experiences. In one lesson I prayed after and the lady (a less active) just looked at me like, "that was nice, but not good enough" so she just started praying again...haha.  We ended the night going to the Beltran's quincenera for our dinner hour. WOW. It seriously was like a mini wedding. So much dancing, food, dresses, etc. We sat with the Bishop and Sister Woodland and it was so funny. Sister Woodland was having a hoot.

So I told you that I have been reading conference talks in Spanish. I just read the talks from priesthood! I really loved this quote by David L Beck, "Tenemos el deber de ministrar donde sea que estemos. Ministrar no es solo algo que hacemos, sino que define quienes somos." That is such a great quote about the priesthood but I feel like it also applies to missionaries! I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, yes it's a title but it also is WHO I am. What a privilege. I feel so blessed to be able to strap on my badge each day. I wear it with love and pride. We will see if President McGinn can get me to take it off one day... haha jk.

Yes, we have finally heard all about the "Work of Salvation" with the mission presidents and get to attend! I am so excited to watch it and see how everything works. I am excited to be able to talk about with you and mom after as well.  Thank you for your love and prayers! I love and miss you all :)

 Homemade chicharones

 Exchanges with Herman Crosby

Father's Day at the Bishop's Home

IT IS SOOO HOT, time to cool people off in the waters of baptism :)

I hope you have a great fathers day daddy! I am so blessed to have the best dad in the world. and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my best little friend Stratton! I can't believe you are turning 5 now. This week was soo hot. It reached 111 on Saturday!!! How is the weather at home?

WOW!! I LOVE being a missionary. This week was amazing! We worked really hard and the Lord blessed us. We had really hard days that turned out to be our best! We surpassed all of our goals and really lost ourselves in the work, it felt so great!

I was able to finish the Book of Mormon Challenge. So when I first came out to the field President and Sister Lewis gave all the new Missionaries a book of Mormon with a 6 month challenge. To read the whole thing and mark all the doctrine in blue and then every time Christ speaks or his name is mentioned in red. Wow, my testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown so much more. I really was able to see, feel and understand how it really is another Testament of Jesus Christ. My testimony grew as I really studied and didn't just read. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and I LOVE the opportunity that I have now to share it with my fellow brother and sisters. After I finished reading I said a prayer to know if it was true again. I felt this grand love and comfort in my heart and then a little voice whisper, "you know it's true". What an amazing, strong spirit I felt. I will never forget it and my love for the Book of Mormon and for my Savior increased beyond what I thought it ever could.

This week was a week of following promptings. There are 2 experiences I want to tell you about. One, we were tracting and saw this lady and said "hi" and walked by her. She didn't really say anything and was walking her dog so we just kept going. We were around the corner and I said "We need to go talk to her." Hermana Sharp looked at me like ok! So we went over and talked to her. Her name is Irma and she has a medical problem so it is hard for her to speak and understand everything but invited us to come back and share a message about Christ. Normally I would have just been scared and kept going, but why should I let someone go by when I have the greatest message to share? 2nd time. We have gone to this street to tract a lot and we always knock on this door but no one answers. We were about to leave again but then I felt like we needed to knock on the garage door. Hermana Sharp thought that was so weird, and I did too but i thought, "hey, what could happen?" So we did and a sweet lady named Romy answered! She was so impressed we could speak Spanish she let us in right on the spot. We got to know all about her life, testified of Christ, gave her a Book of Mormon (Hermana Cosby was with us as well on exchanges so she added a lot to the lesson) and then she told us she had a dream that night that people would come to her house and teach her about God. WHAT!? MIRACLE!! How great is that? So she is a seamstress and a client stopped by. She can speak a little English to do her business so she was talking to this lady. Come to find out she is a member and had just returned from the temple. She said she had a prompting to go visit her now instead of tonight like she was supposed to see if her dress was done. She bore her testimony and I translated. Look at all these great things that happened from following the spirit? DON'T EVER BE SCARED AND FOLLOW PROMPTINGS INSTANTLY! We are so blessed to have the Holy Ghost, and I am learning that more and more each day! So Romy is one of our great new investigators and we hope to make a lot of progress with her fast. She is ready! Thank you for your love, support and prayers. They do not go unnoticed! 

Anna had to work this week so she was going to miss church. yeah right! We had a solution for her.  She understands English and can speak it really well so we took her to an English ward at 9 am so she wouldn't miss church! She loved it and cried during a talk on being spiritually prepared. I am so excited as I watch her feel the spirit and progress. There are a few baptisms this week by the elders so she is going to go and see what hers will be like! We still have a lot to review with her but we are so excited! It felt so weird to go to church in English haha. I had to concentrate a lot more.

Ready for the funniest story ever? We stopped by to visit Carmen and Ricardo to see how they are doing. Well she invited us and gave us all this stuff! She said she made me nightgown.. haha. She made Hermana Sharp this skirt and blouse. Then greatest part, Mom she said that since the first day she met me she has been working on making you a sweater for the winter. She made you a sweater "from her heart". She ignores us for weeks, doesn't want to talk to us but then makes us all these clothes? She was so excited to give them to us, she was crying and kept telling us she made them from her heart, love us like her daughters, etc. It was so sweet of her. So of course when we got home at night we dressed up and took pictures :) Hope you enjoy.

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week :)

con todo mi amor,

Hermana Thomas

 Clothes by Carmen

El Espiritu es tan PODEROSO!!

Wow, this was SUCH a great week! Trial after trial lead to blessing after blessing. The Lord is truly watching over Hermana Sharp and I. Thank you for all your prayers and fasts. The Lord answers righteous desires!! :)

Karissa is engaged!? What!? Wow. I am so excited for you! That is weird you didn't want to wait for your favorite cousins (Elder Holt and I) to be back for it??????? CONGRATS!! :)

Happy Birthday to the best sister in the world! I hope you have a great day Kand! Also, my best friend Shay Shay is getting married this week? SOO crazy! I am so excited for you and that you are getting married in the temple. You will be blessed so greatly, I can't wait to hear how it all went. I got your invitation last week and you look gorgeous!!

So about our great week. We had a Spanish Missionary Training this week out in Elk Grove for all of the Spanish speaking missionaries. It was awesome! The Spanish numbers in the mission have been decreasing so we got some great instruction on how to improve. President Martinez (in the mission presidency) shared with us a bunch of scriptures to help us understand how important the Latinos are in the gospel. He shared Alma 37:18-19 and then said, "You are fulfilling the mercies and promises of the Lord to these people". Some other scriptures you can go read are D&C 90:11 and my favorite Helaman 15: 12,16. He really helped me understand how important my calling is and gain a deeper love and desire for them to come back. They were once a covenant people. We talked about using members more for referrals, finding when we teach, etc. One thing he said really stuck out to me. "YOU are as special as the special people you teach". Could that have been explained any better!? Loved it! In one of the training segments they picked Hermana White to do a role play. She got to pick a companion and chose me! So we did a role play in front of everyone in Spanish on the restoration lesson. I was soo nervous but it went really well and Everyone gave us great comments and things to improve on. President Lewis encouraged us all to become CEO missionaries. Cheerful, Enthusiastic and Optimistic. He said not to just be "busy" but be focused on your purpose. It was such a great training and got me excited to work even harder!

Ready for the best miracle every!!!?? So Saturday night we had the privilege to attend a Spanish fireside (charla fogonera!!) and Elder Mark Bassett of the 70 came! Wow, it was the greatest thing ever. We decided to invite Ana Mata (remember how Hermana White and I used to teach her. But now Hermana Sharp and I have been doing service for her). Well she wanted to come! So Hermano Pallares picked the 3 of us up and we headed out to Elk Grove. Elder Bassett is an incredible speaker and has really good Spanish! He really focused on FEELING the spirit in your heart. What that meant, what we need to do, etc. He read a bunch of scriptures from 1 Nefi about the desire for the spirit and pondering promptings. He helped me realize that reflection=pondering in your heart, not just your mind. I seriously felt like I was sitting in the Celestial kingdom. We were surrounded by members, investigators, missionaries and church leaders. Elder Bassett included everyone and asked questions to where it was more of a discussion, the spirit was so strong and it was all in Spanish! I have never felt happier, the spirit brilliantly so strong. It seriously was like a glimpse of what heaven will be like. Being instructed spiritually by great church leaders. I was edified in my heart and mind. He said, "Yo no se todo, pero se como siento". That is the mindset we all should have! Ana Mata was loving it. She felt the spirit so strong and was crying. She has been taught by multiple sets of missionaries and most of them were at the fireside so it was great for her to see them. On the way home she just kept talking about how great it was and how much she loves our church. She talked about baptism so I gingerly asked, "when is yours?" and she said. Yes, its time now. I know. WHAT!!!?? GREATEST THING EVER! So we invited her to be baptized on June 22nd and she said yes!!! AHHH :) We were so excited and she is too. This was that push she needed. The spirit brings miracles and I am so grateful!

We were at the emergency preparedness fair this week to translate and met the firemen! So I talked to them about all this EMT stuff and they asked questions about missions. It was a neat experience. Well I love you all so much. Thank you for your example and love. Have a great week! Les quiero!

Con Amor, 

Hermana Thomas

Hermana Sharp and Hermana Torres Relief Society President

Emergency Preparedness Fair

Sacramento Fire Department

Great Hard Week

Our friend in the ward Jesus Gutierrez

Wow, what a hard week but we still saw great things! We really need to focus on making our pool of investigators bigger! Finding!! :)

Familia Aleman- we had a great lesson with Hermana and she really opened up to us. We talked about the power of prayer and how it can give us comfort and direction. We are afraid Hermano has started drinking again so we are trying to figure out how we can best help there family. The kids want to come to church so bad but the parents are being lazy and starting to ignore us. The girls BEG us to come over, teach them and bring them to church. Hopefully we can get things rolling and help them gain the desire, even if it's just for the kids at first.

Wednesday we stopped by to visit Anna Mata (remember we used to teach her) because we were in the area. We found out she was moving and needs help. So we had the whole district come over and we loaded the truck and put things in storage. It was a lot of fun and she really appreciated the help. She wants to come to church now haha. So we will see, but it was a great opportunity to show our love and that we all care for her.

I want to tell you about one of my great friends Jesus Gutierrez! When I first got to the area he had not been to church in years (he was baptized about 2 years ago). We have been working with them and now he comes just about every week. He is the greatest! He is so funny but has a lot of self doubt and is hard on himself. His family lives in Mexico and is working to get money to go live with them again, (it's been 8 years). They talk on the phone or skype everyday. My heart aches that he is so far away from them. We hope he can go back soon and bring them the gospel! :)

We found Olga this week and she is awesome. She really enjoyed the restoration lesson and seems interested. We are going back to teach her tonight. Last lesson Hermana Sharp used more Spanish!! She is slowly getting a little more comfortable with the language, I am so proud of her!

We decided to not give up on Francisco and so we stopped by and invited him to an English baptism. He said sure and he came! The baptism was for James from the YSA ward. It was so awesome! Bu,t Francisco felt so uncomfortable and there was not a good spirit with him. It was so sad, the spirit was so strong. He left as soon as it was over and said he was feeling terrible. He is not living in harmony with God's commandments and it is really having an impact on his spirit and those around :( We will wait a while before we contact again. We know he felt the spirit but still wants to deny God. It is hard to watch.

We had correlation with the Bishop at his house this week because the ward mission leader will be gone for 2 months. It was so great to have the Bishop give us counsel and the names of members that can help. Just more ideas. We are starting to have the ward help us a lot more which will really helps the work to progress! :)

Funny stories. So remember how I hate oranges? Well that is how Hermana Sharp feels about mushrooms. So we went to a members house and sure enough there was mushroom soup. She was FREAKING OUT! Now, I don't really enjoy soup (you know that) but I ate mine, then when the member got up to get something from the kitchen we switched and I finished hers for her. I was SOO full. We were trying so hard not to laugh. It was great and Hermana Sharp was so grateful. Now, if only she can do that for me next time we get fed beans...haha. 

The Relief Society is singing in sacrament in a few weeks and I will admit, I am kind of nervous... haha. They like to have their own tune and "out sing each other" yesterday two hermanas were fighting over who sang louder and better during practices...haha. Hermana Sharp plays the piano and she can't even play along because it sounds so off.  It is so funny. An adventure for sure...haha. Relief Society is my favorite part of church sometimes.

Well I hope you had a great week!  Sorry this email was so scattered. We really need to find those seachers, keep us in your prayers! I love you so much! :)

Con Amor,

Hermana Thomas

Lleno de Gratitud

Wow, what a week!! Sorry not to much time for details. Transfers happened and Hermana Sharp and I are staying together in east Sac to finish training!! Yahoo!! :) I am excited to continue our work and get people baptized. She is so great and it will be another fun transfer!

We had the most amazing experience with our investigator Isidro (the husband to Socorro). He told us all about his operations on his leg and how he has had eye sight problems. He has been getting injections in his eyes to help him see but they hurt a lot. We talked about the priesthood with him and he expressed his desire to receive a blessing. WOW! Hermano Garcia and Nunez came over and gave him a powerful blessings. The spirit filled my soul of gratitude for the priesthood. What a precious gift to have the priesthood on the earth. I don't know if I have ever felt so grateful for the priesthood before in my life. I am so grateful for the Hermanos for coming over and serving. They are both humble servants of our Heavenly Father. I love the Delt Norte Ward. They are always on the call to serve and love everyone. It's a great Spanish ward full of converts helping each other to learn the gospel. What a blessing. 

Leticia committed to be baptized June 30th!! We had an awesome lesson with her and she truly has a desire to learn and progress but has concerns. However, this week we haven't been able to get a hold of her. I think she is hiding from us..haha. It's so funny to me that people are scared of us. Her neighbors told her that one day we will come over with a "bill" for her to pay us for teaching her. She laughed and told them no, but I do know she cares a lot about what they all think. Hopefully she will let us in this week!

So ready for a funny story? Well Yesterday the Zone Leaders called us. They said "Hey sisters, we have some flyers for the Spanish fireside coming up and need to get them to you. Will you meet us in the Walmart parking lot?" so we headed over there. Once we got there we saw that a car sitting up a rock.  It was stuck! Hermana Sharp says, "WHAT!!!?? THAT IS THE ELDER'S CAR!" I'm thinking no way, who would do that? So we call them and say "hey Elders, where are you?" Elder Stone says "On a rock" hahahahahahaha. Sure enough, only the elders would drive up on a rock on accident. Apparently, there wasn't enough room to turn... haha how funny. It was the funniest thing of my life... wow. We got to talk to the cop about the gospel though and he was so cool and nice. He said "you people are really good people.Tthank you. We need more good people like you" so that was cool!  The elders both have one transfer left before they head home. Random people were walking by taking pictures of the car.

I love you all. My "joy is purpose" all explained in 2 Nephi 33:3.  "But, I Nephi, have written what I have written, and I esteem it as of great worth, and especially unto my people.  For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry".  I worry about and think of my investigators all day. I want to help them come unto Christ. Love you!  

 These pictures need no words.