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

August 29, 2011

Dear friends-

Yay for news from the mission. Here we go:

Sickness

I got sick this week with something gross, but luckily it only lasted one day. It was one of the few times when I have had to stay in because of my own sickness. 

The work rolls on

There isn´t too much new things from the sector. We have had lots of learning about how to set goals and using faith to set and complete them. We also finally have one progressing investigator. He is a 17 year old (we are teaching the entire family) named Felix. He is really nice and seems to have a sincere desire to know the truth.

Changes

So, guess what? Big surprise, Elder Barrett is leaving. He is following in my footsteps and will be having a 5th comp in his 5th change. Want to know the real surprise? I am going to be training! Yep, the only details I have is that my comp will be a gringo fresh from the U.S. of A. I am not sure if he will get here tomorrow or on Wednesday. I am really excited to train.

Well, that is all for know folks. Have a great week and I will have fotos next week!

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

August 15th, 2011

Hey Friends-

This email should be a bit more interesting.

Progress?

I guess it depends on how you define it. In terms of investigators progressing to baptism, nil. However, the ward is progressing. The Bishop is still doing well and we had an awesome PEC (for those of you who are deficient in the realm of Church acronyms, Priesthood Executive Commitee) yesterday. We actually talked about people, plans to help them, and that next week`s meeting is to follow up on the assignments. So cool, I was really impressed with these new leaders we have in the ward: new second counselor in the Bishopric, new EQP (Elders Quorum President), and a new Dry (intentional mistake) Priests Group leader. I will inform all of you next week of the moment in which we have a progressing investigator.

Pizza Night

So, now that I am back in the city, I have started eating Pizza again (because it basically didn`t exist in the Coast or in the campo). It has been great tasting and makes me miss American food.

Weird divisions (what we call splits)

So, Elder Call (one of the elders in the pension) is leaving today for the USA 2 weeks early so that he can go to school. Because of this, we had a strange day of divisions. I won`t lie that it is absolute terror leaving your companion with another member of the ward. Yes, the members are trustworthy, but it is companion seperation anxiety. I actually had to have Elder Barrett stay with the Bishop while Elder Tialavea and I went to pick up his comp from President King. But, no one died or got lost. Anyway, sorry for the random thought. Maybe it will shed some light on missionary life.

Up next week...

I now have in my possesion a voice recorder; therefore, I got the idea that I would record "A day in the life of a missionary" (a very unimaginative title). So, if I have time this week, I will record roughly every hour a little note about what is going on with the goal to satisfy the curiosity of what actually happens during a normal day here. This proposition depends on whether or not I have time and if I do not get lazy/forget. I hope you all enjoyed this final, very noncomittal, paragraph. I also hope that all of you are doing well.

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas

P.S. We got our portable DVD player, it rocks. 

Miracles

NOTE:  The first paragraph is answering Vallen's question about a program in Chile that is helpful in the reactivation efforts.


Dear amigos-

So, quick updates

The reactivation thing he was talking about is called Permaneced (literally the command form of the verb "to remain, stay") and comes from the vine and the husbandman in John 15. I really like it, but the members still don´t completely understand the purpose of it in my opinion. They just think it is a program to get people back to church and only really think of it as the paper that has the message. Really, Permaneced is about the meaning of Endure to the End and how we need to do anything in our power to keep the Spirit with us. Elder Amado of the seventy (the old Area President) emphasized it with a message he gave in the area Chile add in of the Liahona. He talked about the it isn´t some glorious attempt to increase the attendance or home teaching numbers. He said that it was a review of the plan of Salvation and something that we need to do everyday. 

Miracles

We have seen quite a few miracles with our Bishop here. When I got here, all I heard about was problems with the Bishop. Since then, Elder Barrett and I have worked with him a lot and he has become so cool. We had a FHE with him last week, and yesterday he accompanied us on visits for 3 hours. He wants our ideas and help and is working really well with us. Now we are helping him get the ward fired up to do missionary work! We have seen the hand of the Lord in our work as we have done this.

Our Zone activity and pictures

So today we went to Santa Lucia (again) as a Zone. I found some cool things and took some cool pictures. Today was really clear because the rain yesterday cleared out the smog. One picture is a zoomed up view from the hill on my sector, one is me with Elder Barrett, and the others are some hopefully artistic fotos that you all should like. I have to say that I really like downtown Santiago.

Love-

Elder Taylor Thomas