September 26th, 2011

Friends, Romans, countryman, lend me your ear-

Now, after that overly dramatic and very cliché salutation, here comes my report for the week. Because I felt lazy, most of the week is in the form of voice recordings which, if my parents choose to, will be summerized and added to this post/letter/email. Anyways, onward!

Blackouts and Injuries

So, I am sure that probably a few of you have heard about the massive power outage in Chile on Saturday. Well, all of Santiago was out, as well as several other regions (Chilean equivalent of States). We happened to be out in our sector contacting someone, when suddenly it went pitch black. We had to walk through a slightly shady part of our sector with only a cell phone for light. We ended up contacting another person and then going to our ward mission leader`s house for our meeting with him. The whole meeting was by candlelight and then as soon as we left, the lights came back on. Now, as for injuries, Elder Tialavea gashed open his leg playing soccer today and the assistants had to come pick him up to bring him to the hospital. We still haven`t heard from him, but he will be fine. As for my injury, several weeks ago  I heavily bruised my big toe (picture attached for those who like details) when I kicked somebody´s foot that they put in front of the ball. It is still getting better, but I only mentioned it because it looked impressive.

Pictures and closing words

I have attached several pictures of La Reina (where the park that we went to to climb the Andes) which is where our President lives. You will see a marked difference in the size and quality of the houses there. I have also attached a foto that Hermana King took of me and my comp when he arrived and we were leaving. Hope you all have a great week!

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

September 20th, 2011

Dear Friends-

A week of fun, in email format.

La obra misional

The missionary work was kind of slow this week because it was the week before Fiestas Patrias. This year was much more peaceful than last year. I did have an asado and a lot of empanadas. Many of our citas fell through, but we did contact some cool people. We contacted this one lady grilling some meat outside of an apartment building. She had never heard of the church and was just gobbling up the Book of Mormon when we talked to her about it. It was cool to see that the Lord prepares people, even on National Holidays when most people are partying and/or drunk.

Mountaineering extreme

So, believe it or not, we got permission to go to the base of the Andes Mountains for P-day. I have been wanting to do this since the beginning of my mission. We unfortunately didn´t get that high up because some people got tired. But I am hoping to go again in the future to get higher. It was really fun because there were a bunch of food stands for the Fiestas Patrias (we ate ice cream in a pineapple and sichkabobs-no idea how to spell that). It was really beautiful and tons of fun. I have attached pictures and will send another email with more picutres of the trip.

That is all for this week. Hope you are all enjoying the coming cold in North America, because I am going into summer down here. :D

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

September 12th, 2011

Hey friends-

So I am not going to have subheadings today (don´t cry too much) because not too much happened this week. We suffered from appointments falling through syndrome, and the week ended with 11 de Septiembre. This is a day of riots here, but nothing much happened in our sector. Our sector is a really quiet part in general, but some of the other Elders in our Zone have it pretty bad sometimes.

I don´t have any fotos this week, but I hopefully will have some really cool fotos next week. We are still waiting on total authorization, but we will probably be going to the Andes next P day. Well, I hope everyone is doing well.

Love-

Elder Thomas

New Companion!

Mom is technically challenged and can't figure out how to post the audio files.  If anyone is interested, please email me and I will send them to you.


Hey everybody-

I don´t have much time to write, but I have included several pictures to illustrate what happened this week. There are also 2 voice recordings, which should help to explain the pictures. But, I am sure all of you are wanting to know who my "son" is. His name is Elder Hudkins and he is from Alberta, Canada. He is the first missionary in his whole family, which I think is pretty cool. He is an awesome guy and I am sure we will have fun together. Hope everyone is doing well!

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

                                                          Elder Speakman and Elder Thomas

                                                        Elder Thomas and Elder Hudkins

                                        President King, Elder Hudkins, Elder Thomas, Sister King