MRE'S Aren't That Bad

23 April 2012

Dear Family,

     So, I only have a short time to write.  First, I will answer the questions.

Tell Ken that I did enjoy the MRE´s. I was surprised that they tasted good.   I thought they would taste terrible, but actually, not bad! I would be up for more of those.

     With the Seventh-Day Adventists,  I got frustrated with an Adventist sister the other day and burned her a little bit with her own Bible, but she started it. She pulled out her Bible and started to Bible bash.   She tried 10 or 15 times to burn us with different scriptures.   Then I lost a little patience and showed her a few things in her own Bible.  It was an interesting lesson, but she invited us back so maybe we will fight again...

     So an uplifting story for the newsletter...  I would say to trust in the Lord. We are following the trail of life. We are as a person lost in a valley, mountains on everyside, and we can only see a short distance in front of us.  We have to choose a trail, but can´t see beyond the next turn. Some of these mountains could be volcanos and others could be filled with dangers that we can´t combat.  But, God is above us; he CAN see these dangers and he CAN guide us WHEN we chose to follow him.  Sometimes, following his guidance, the path might look bad and we might think there is a better one to choose, but we can´t follow our desires.  We need to follow him and he will guide us to Machu Picchu. (Isaiah 55: 8 y 9)

     So the pants did fit perfectly. THANKS!!!!

     Thanks for everything and the fotos too!   Tell Jeff and Kels congratulations!!  I will try to get a letter off to them but I have like 2 minutes left.   So I can´t send the pictures here because the Peruvian computers, most of them, are so antiquated that they can´t handle the higher definition pictures.  

     Tell Roger sorry about the divorce, but I do hope that one day Roger will start thinking about more long term stuff and I hope younger rather than older.   Older people hang on to ideas and become incapable to change their minds. (I see that every day.) We found one guy here who is Catholic, but prayed about our church and the Book of Mormon and feels that its true.  He accepts Joseph Smith as a Prophet and Thomas Monson as a Prophet, and that the church has the authority of God and no other (his words).  But,  he is Catholic and doesn´t want to go to our church. nor be baptized.  He is about 88 years old.

     Well, thanks for the letters.  Could you send me my baptismal pants and my baptismal tie. I really could use some.  Thanks!

Love you!

Ketch-Up Is Good!

     Hey, I am going to try and send that video file again.  I am working on a better computer this week.  This is a video I made of my birthday.  I have one more, but I will send it apart.  For now let's see if one works. 
     So this week was interesting.  I have come to learn that I can eat anything with the proper quantities of ketch-up (ketch-up is really hard to spell by the way) and that it can be used in infinite quantities with rice. 

Elder Thomson with his comp, Elder Samame

     So I am short on time today.  I was fighting with the computer to send this video to you but it won´t do it.  So here are a few pictures instead.   Probably similar to the pictures from Facebook, but these are what I have.  I will ask Hma Graciela to send the video to you if it's possible.   Other stories this week... we found a religion out here that has their own Christ.  Nobody is allowed to see him,, but everyone has to send him money and do what ever he says.  He is supposedly the reincarnated Ezekiel and  that Ezekiel is Jesus Christ.  We had a very fun conversation with this poor woman about it and now she wants us to teach her more so it worked out alright.  This church, to gain members, says that Jesus Christ is in the mountains here and that if they don´t follow him,  they will be condemed.   People out of fear that he is the real Jesus Christ, go join the religion.  It's interesting.  
     We have 2 people preparing for baptism right now. One is a 14 year old kid and the other,  a 20 year old guy.  The older guy is way cool to talk to, but his dad supports every doctrine from every church he has found and so it's way frustrating to talk to him.  He says he believes in the Book of Mormon as the word of God and in Joseph Smith, but not that this is the Restored church.  He is in the 7th day adventist church.  (their church believes everybody is right. Their prophetess is Elena White who was the Secretary of Brigham Young.  She told him to give her the priesthood and when he said no, she got mad and formed her own church.)  Anyway, this guy is all over the place its really annoying to try and talk to him.  His son is way cool and wants to investigate the church.  The brother of this guy is way funny, too.  They know that their dad is all over the place and is super confused about the churches.  Sometimes he makes fun of his dad in English.  I feel kinda bad sometimes but he's so funny.  Anyway. here are a few pictures.   I will send more later. I love you and take care.  I will answer more questions next week.
Chao!

A Happy Birthday

9 April 2012

Dear Family!
     Hey, how is it going back home?   I only have a minute to write.  We were doing service all day
today moving the sister missionaries to another house (the roof started falling in on theirs 2 days ago),  so we spent all day over in Monsefú moving them.    I have an idea to send home a few pictures and a couple videos so let me know if it works.  They will be in a zipped folder so you will have to unzip it on the computer, but let me know if it works for future reference. 
     OK , I now have all the packages, I think.  I got 3 in one day and then one the other the week
before.  I have my visa.  If you could activate it and put some money on it I would appreciate it.  I don´t have time to do it today.

     This week was good,  just work like normal.  We didn´t do anything too special.  For my birthday, we had a quick little party in the Pension as you saw.  I am trying to include a few more pictures and a sister is going to come by the house this week with a package for you.  Thanks for all the birthday wishes from facebook and from you and dad and the fam.  I appreciate it.
      How are things back home?  I was sad that Polly died.  She was our bird for a really long time.  I am glad she wasn´t here because when animals die here, they eat them.  I don´t have any new
stories this week.  We have officially "whitewashed" our area.  We dropped all but 3 of our old investigators and now have 15 or 20 new ones that we are working with.
      I am going to try and include this video file for you but it's distinctly possible that it won´t work.  We will see.  I appreciate all the food, but I don´t need so much!  haha!!   I appreciate it but my pensionista has more than she knows what to do with.  Tell Ken and Grandma that I appreciated their package.  I got the mp3.  Thanks for it!!   I have greatly enjoyed the change in music.  (I did
delete a bit of the music but not Marty Robbins or John Denver or Johnny Cash. Thanks!!)  My birthday was good.  I had 3 separate cakes from different members so I am gaining a bit of weight back... and tell Matt he got fat.(haha just kidding... but not really...)

Thanks!!! I love you all.

Yeah, Pictures!

Elder Thomson ripping up Peru!

Dear Family

     Hey! I am working to attach some pictures. I have 2 DVD´s coming home with almost all my picture minus like 8,  so I will see if these computers can handle a few.   All is well here.   My companion, Elder Samame' speaks all Spanish and can more or less read English. He knows lots of words but can´t quite talk.   He sounds a touch like a dictionary, but I understand.

    So, this week has been good.   I did end up getting one of the packages.  There were some changes in the office this last transfer and also the office was reorganized so lots of stuff got lost (I have been telling mom for years that stuff gets lost when my room is cleaned and reorganized but she never believed me).   So, I got one package and there is for sure one more in the office that I  saw a while back.   It's possible it's the one from Ken and Grandma.   I also discovered this week that Korean superglue can be used to repair the leather on a football.  That was good to know.   I also learned I can glue 2 fingers together with said glue.   It's strong stuff.   I would rivel it to Gorrilla glue except it lacks endurance.   It only lasts for a few weeks where as I had something gorrilla glued for almost 2 years in the basement!  

    I found a sister here in the other ward that lives in PG.  She spoke with Matt a while back and has the address of the house so I am sending home a package with her.   It has more pictures, also, a little Peruvian cookie.  It should be good for around 10 years so I hope it makes it home... (If opened it will only last for a week or so.)

     Cookies were good.   All the Latinos liked them. I was afraid to eat the first one knowing that they had been in there for a while, so I shared one of the packages with all the missionaries in my Zone. They all looked okay afterward so I kept the other package... thanks.   And yes, you found the right Graciela.   She was rather confused with who Nathan was, but she accepted and asked me about it.  Haha and yeah, I explained,  but it was funny.  She told me we were friends on facebook right after I finished telling my companion how important it was to follow all the rules in the handbook!   Then, she told me she accepted me as a friend on Facebook.    haha oh well!

     So, not a whole ton of new stories. I did see conference in English - all 5 sessions of it.  I was with 4 other missionaries to watch it in our zone, one Latin elder from Nicaragua named Elder Nicaragua, also Elder Seitz, Elder Martin and Elder Callis and a couple sister missionaries.  That was cool. Elder Seitz´ is going to be heading back to Utah at the end of these transfers. Well, I need to go. Take care. Tell the family I love them and thanks for the birthday wishes. I will write again next Monday.