Weeks 15 through 18

January 18, 2016
This week has been amazing! To start off on last Monday, we started with going on exchanges with zone leaders. This started at three, and our preparation day doesn't end until 6, so I admit I was a little ticked at first. The zone leader Elder Johnson told me we'd be blessed in missionary work if we skipped some of our pday time. But anyway, we ended up able to teach six lessons, get in contact with many other old investigators and find new people to teach too. It was a crazy night. The rest of the week was pretty great too, now we have another on date for baptism, Heydi, and we taught over twenty lessons this week!

Feeling great! Eating good! We have that cheap grocery store so it's easy to eat good here, but I'm stocking up for when I get to the city because food is really expensive there. No scheduled dinner appointments, but we do go to the Leons' house to teach Kenia once a week, and they always have food for us, last week we had papusas there, super good el salvadorian food. Love you, heading out to a lesson talk to you later!

The duck is one of the tourist attractions out on Long Island.

January 25, 2016
Been a bit of a crazy week! Mainly because the storm, which I'm sure you heard about, starting Friday night it started to snow and didn't finish til Saturday night, we were pretty much trapped inside the whole day, it was kinda boring, but we made the best of it. Apparently the storm almost broke records in New York but didn't by 1/10th of an inch, and there was a travel ban on all of Long Island and probably more, but all is back to normal now other than the roads are still un poco peligroso.

Yesterday pretty much all we did was service, first we shoveled ourdrive way to get out which took about two hours getting stuck twice because of how ridiculously narrow and steep our driveway is, but then we drove around just making sure everyone was good and helping people with snow that couldn't do it on their own.

We also had a lesson with Jose Martinez yesterday, I think I might have already talked about him some, he's super intelligent, but a little crazy too, but when we walked in to the lesson once, he had
this huge stack of boxes against the wall with his stereo facing the wall and classical music playing, so his neighbors in the apartment complex always have their tv on 24/7, he's always talking about how it's destroying their minds and stuff, so we asked him about the stereo, and he said that they may be destroying their brains by watching tv but at least they have good music, we thought it was pretty funny but he was serious about it. But Jose is actually doing very well, despite his vast knowledge and little bit of stubbornness, he's becoming more and more open every time we teach him.

Let's see, and also on Friday we had a Spanish activity at the church. It's funny, it was pretty much planned on the spot this last Sunday, in Sunday school by sister Arreola, she told everyone 7 o clock, and not Hispanic seven o clock (730ish) but actual seven o clock, let's just say it still started at 745, but still it was a great activity, and a lot of investigators were there and fellowshiped very well by everyone. It's a great family here within the Spanish members of the church.

Don't know if I've talked about Matt yet. Matt Troy is a new member, and he loves the missionaries. Every pday we meet him at the church and play board games with him. He is a board game enthusiast, he has about 195. It's crazy.

Feb. 1, 2016
My week was great, really bus. We decided to do lots of knocking doors and talking to people in the streets and such. That's actually pretty fun, I definitely couldn't picture myself doing that a year ago.
The families we are teaching are doing great! We will have four baptisms on February 13th! The Penafiel family and Kenia, I will have to send you some pictures of them and us!  I don't have any yet though. And he other main two families we are teaching are doing great too!

Not sure if we've talked about Israel yet, but he is super cool, only talked with him a couple times. But he loves the missionaries and looks forward to every time we come. The only problem is he is about as far away as we could go in our area, like a 45 minute drive, and he's about the only one out there right now that we are teaching, but we are focusing on finding more people.

I'm doing great, super excited for these next two weeks, there is a lot planned and a lot to do!

So this week I found a talk by a mission president that I've been studying a ton. It's called becoming a consecrated missionary by Ted Callister, very very good talk. Next transfers are on the 16th, my trainer Elder Honey will be transferred for sure because he's been here a long time, but I really
hope I stay. There is a chance that I wouldn't, but I really hope I stay. I love you and am excited to send you baptism pictures in two weeks!

Orient Point. Sam's wearing Christmas scarf knit by Zoe

A shipwreck

Atlantic Ocean

And Sam can never resist finding shells and other beach treasures

Feb. 8, 2016 Hi mom! It's been a crazy and great week! I'll start off with Friday morning with the explosions and fires. So on Friday morning it started to snow really heavy and wet, we were on exchanges, so Elder Hendrickson and I were just sitting in the apartment doing our daily studies in the scriptures when the power went out. Then about 20 seconds later it came back on, and when it did, out of the corner of my eye, out the window, I saw one of those boxes on the power line sparking like crazy, then next thing I saw was a huge blue explosion! Then our power started going crazy! The lights would go dim, then bright, then dim then bright so we ran and turned everything off just in case. We sat back down thinking it was over for now but then saw this bright flashing glow still coming from where it exploded, so we went to go check it out ;) Tons of people were already up there taking videos of this live wire that created this mass of sparks and fire close to the size of a car. It eventually caught a car on fire, and that was when the police shooed everyone out, luckily they got the fire out before there was a gas explosion. But we could see all the smoke and hear the tires popping from our house.

Supposed to be another storm next Tuesday.

Anyways... Things are going very well here besides that, Elder Honey and I are busy planning the baptism for this upcoming Saturday and getting everything ready and perfect.

Today:  Well, we finished laundry, now we are just at the church emailing, then Matt will come and will play some board games with him, then Family Home Evening, then a lesson with a less active family.

L-R: hermana Leon, Kenya, kenya's son (I always forget his name
because they call him pollito) Alex (but everyone calls him gato) then
Elder Honey and me.

Here is Jose Martinez

Sometimes there are swans in our backyard

Not sure if I sent you this picture of the shipwreck last week but on preparation day all of us went the beach, that's when I found those shells I sent you the picture of, but there are actually three or four shipwrecks right in that area.
This week we are going to take lots of pictures with everyone since there is a chance some of us could be leaving on the 16th, so I'll have a lot more next week so you can see everyone.

Weeks 13 and 14

January 4, 2016
This was a really good week! We've been really focusing on increasing our teaching appointments, and even though it was a holiday week, we were able to have 13 teaching appointments, with several people falling through. But I have a lot of pictures for you today!

Don't know if I could pinpoint a certain spiritual experience this, week but we did teach the Peñafiel family tithing! The lesson was great, and this family continues to amaze me how easily they accept
each lesson so well!

One thing I'm becoming a lot better at is learning how to be open and honest with my companion, not letting things get to me and keeping them inside me. Super glad I'm learning this now. He and I still get along really well.

Well, transfers are this Tuesday, (note: transfers are every six weeks) and Elder Hunt is leaving, which is really sad. This next transfer we should have a lot of baptisms, which is really exciting. It's crazy though that I'm three  months into the mission already! Love you a ton!

 Christmas party

Family home evening with the Resabalas

 Sergio's pizza! We will go there for sure after my mission

Reorganized my study area

Sketching at church (sorry, can't get this to flip in post)

January 11, 2016
The families we are working with are doing very well, the Peñafiel family, who I talked about before, are probably going to be baptized this month, and that will be really exciting. Also, we finally met with Israel and his family again, they live up in Greenport, which is a 45 minute drive from here. They are really happy to listen to us and know what we teach them is true. In their words, by the peace it brings into their house.

Church attendance was a little iffy this week, big rain storm and lots of wind, and some people stayed homebecause of that, apparently that's just part of Hispanic culture here, they don't like to go out in the rain, but anyways Kenia made it to church, which was really cool. She is the new person we are teaching this week. She is from El Salvador and incredibly nice. She has a 1 year old boy, and she loves having us teach her. She was taught with the sister missionaries about two years ago,

So in general, the work is really starting to move forward here. I wouldn't be surprised if I saw more than five baptisms while I'm here!

Haven't done service this week because we had so many lessons with people this week, but the mission is slowly putting into effect the Just Serve website, and soon we will be doing 10 hours of service a week. It's been really rainy, so raking leaves didn't work out.

I'm loving it here. I love all the people I am working with, and I can't wait to see what God has planned for this area.

Today Elder Honey and I went to the beach. It was freezing and super windy. I love you!

New Haircut, free from a barber in Flushing, Queens

With his companion at the beach

Yep, it's a crab, Atlantic ocean style.
Sam can't go to beach without looking
for crabs and other sea life.

The Atlantic ocean

December 28, 2015

Hi! Well, it hasn't been long since I've talked to you, but there is one story I forgot to share over Skype. Christmas Eve, after the Christmas devotional in Queens, we had to drive back to get to an appointment, but traffic was crazy, and we had to take the long way through downtown Queens and Flushing. At this point, I realized there was no we were getting to the teaching appointment, and I was kind of disappointed. Then we got to an intersection, and we weren't sure which way to go. We were lost, so we turned down this little one way small little alley street. After we pulled in we could see traffic was completely stopped on this street. Someone was trying to push their car that died until they found a parking spot. His wife, I think, and a couple kids stood on the side of the street, so the three of us missionaries got out to go help. It was a pretty cool Christmas experience. He asked us if we were the Mormons, and we said yes. We didn't have much of a chance to talk to him, and I'm not sure if anything will come out of it, but I think we were led to that street that night for a reason, even if it was just to brighten their Christmas.

MTC Overview

Oct. 15, 2015
It's not my p-day (preparation day when missionaries write home) but they gave us permission to send a message to our moms :). its just a real short time, but I want to tell you I'm doing fine and have already learned so much, its amazing how fast learning goes when you are in the MTC preparing to do the Lord's work. But I'm doing great. Don't worry, my next letters will definitely be longer. I love you so much and tell Zoe I love her!

Oct. 21, 2015

My district is amazing! We are already all best friends. My companion is elder wiestler, and he's super nice, and we work very well together, and my other two roommates are elder kaufusi and elder jeffery. Elder Kaufusi is Tongan and he has a scholarship to play football at BYU. It's amazing how much we can learn at the MTC in such a short amount of time, in just a week I've learned so much spanish. The promise to receive the gift of tongues is real, and its really a blessing. What they don't tell you until you get to the MTC is you already start teaching on your second full day, and that is in spanish. The whole system is really miraculous and really stretches me, but just enough that I'm able to learn a ton.

The feeling of the holy ghost is super strong here! It's really incredible. We went to the temple this morning, and it was the best way to start out the day. I also joined the MTC choir, our whole district did! I know for a fact now that this is where I'm supposed to be. Many of the people I've met have already had a huge influence on me and who I want to be.

Oct. 28, 2015

This week has been great! There's a saying here the days are like weeks, and the weeks are like days, and its really true. While everyday is packed full of learning and spiritual experiences, time is really starting to fly! To start off yesterday Elder Neil L Anderson came and spoke to us at the MTC and gave a talk about sacrifice. I'd like to share a couple thoughts from it. First he said "We must give up something to become something more, and there is no other way." This spoke to me so much. It reminds me that to gain anything that is of eternal worth, its gonna take a lot of work and sacrifice.

I feel like I've grown so much, and its only been two weeks, I'm teaching all sorts of people here at the MTC, and every lesson is in spanish. It's crazy how we start teaching in spanish before we've even learned it. It really is a miracle! My district is like my second family. I love and miss everyone at home, I'm not denying that :) but I really feel at home here and so loved. The love everyone here has for everyone else makes it an experience unlike anything I have ever done. It's incredible! My companion elder weistler is super great, and we get along and work together super well, its super sweet. hes also going to New York same day I am.So I'm a third of the way done with my stay here at the MTC, and my date to leave for New York City is november 23 so I'll get there right in time for thanksgiving and the holidays,


The haka is that polynesian dance thing that the rugby teams do before the games, Elder Kaufuci is Tongan.

​This is our district! We are the best in the MTC, left to right is hermana Clegg, Hermana Quintana, Elder Tolman, Elder Hewitt, Elder Jeffrey, Hermana Staker, Hermana Frost, Elder Weistler me in the back, and Elder Kaufuci
Nov. 4, 2015This week has been really good. Been learning even more Spanish, but we are getting into all of the conjugating stuff, and its starting to get a little complicated, but its still fun. This sunday we went to a devotional that was really awesome. there were some guest speakers that were a recently baptized family and the people that introduced them to the gospel. They said that stood to most was, "the reason they kept having the missionaries come teach them was because of what they felt when they were taught and the spirit the missionaries brought into their home." The holy ghost is really the only one who can convert anyone to the gospel, I'm just god's messenger. You know going to new york city is gonna be real different trying to share my message with people, because of how fast and busy everything there is, but what I've learned is that as a representative of Jesus Christ, the way to share this amazing message, has to be by loving everyone and being friendly and serving others. I've been making lots of goals recently to be more outgoing by randomly going up and talking to people that I've never met. In my district, I've mentioned him before, is Elder Kaufuci. He's a huge example to me. If you've ever known any Tongans well, you know they are super friendly, love their family a ton and make friends all the time. But elder kaufuci especially loves everyone he talks too, and I'm trying to be more like that.

The older district left a couple days ago, most of them going to argentina and ecuador. They were kind of the teachers and examples for our district, and I already miss them a ton. Like i said before, its really crazy how fast you become great friends at the MTC, and what's even more crazy is in a week we'll be the oldest group in our zone. Time is really flying. Also, next week my companion and I are going to be the zone leaders, which means we'll be in charge of meetings and stuff, but more importantly, just checking up on everyone in our zone and making sure they are all doing good and not having any worries or anything.

Tonight the new district is coming to the MTC, I'm helping to show them around, it's crazy how fast I'll be out of here and in New York and I'm really excited to meet the people there.

Nov. 11, 2015Every friday we do service to help out at the MTC, our district got lucky, and we help unload food from the food trucks that come and load it into the freezers. Other people clean bathrooms and stuff, but we while we were doing this I met a man who served in my mission, he drove the truck from the creamery. He actually told me a lot about it. So apparently on long island there are a bunch of comunites of spanish speakers that represent each country. There is a whole neighborhood of argentina and ecuador and el salvador. Its definitely gonna be hard to learn to understand every different spanish accent.

It's been another great week! During the last few days all of the older (been at the MTC a couple weeks longer) left to their missions, so we are the "old" ones now. First I want to tell you about Elias. My companion and I are teaching him right now, and he's super cool. He is this huge guy, looks like he was a bodybuilder, from Dominican republic. All of his family are members, but until now he's never met with missionaries. He's super fun to teach and listen to his stories. He actually used to live in New York, and he's told us a lot of stories. It's sad though, because friday is the last day we get to teach him.


Nov. 18, 2015So it's my last week at the mtc... its actually a lot harder than I thought it would be to leave. I mean, it's only for training, but everyone I've met here has affected me in so many ways. To start off, my district is fantastic! Elder Kaufuci left early this monday to go to el salvador because they are short on missionaries there, and we all miss him a ton. I can hardly imagine leaving everyone else. and its only been 5 weeks! I'll also really miss my branch president Brother Doman. He is honestly the most incredible man I've ever met. He's really taken me under his wing to help me prepare, and I'm gonna miss him a ton. He's actually being released this weekend too.
On the other hand, NYC awaits, and I can't wait. I'm terrified because it's gonna be completely new, but it's gonna be incredible. I leave monday morning at 330 am (probably won't sleep at all the night before) apparently the church is going to be doing a bunch of Christmas advertising messages in NYC this year, starting about when I get there. It's gonna be so fun to share about the savior during the holiday season!
This last week I've really learned a lot. I've learned for myself the reason I was called by God to go to NYC. I've heard tons of miraculous stories from teachers and general authorities and other missionaries, and I know I'm going to teach people in NYC that only I will be able to help bring to Christ.
Excerpt from an email received from Brother Domam, Sam's MTC branch president (church leader) after his departure.

"We were released from the MTC last Sunday after four years ...Our hearts are very tender still and filled with gratitude for our missionaries and the love and Spirit from the Lord we witnessed at His sacred MTC ...

What a tender mercy it was for me to have Elder Thomas as one of my last missionaries. ..he left at the same time we did ...

He organized a song (my favorite hymn from the Spanish Hymn Book .. page 88) to be sung to Sister Doman and I by ALL of our missionaries who stood in Sacrament Meeting after our release was announced ... and sung it to us! ...we cried

It was his doing! ... he was the leader. He's very talented ... big heart ...

He was a phenomenal Zone Leader .. and he'll be an outstanding missionary ... husband ... father ... and leader in life ...He has a great great adventure ahead of him and he has much to do in his work and Mission in life for the Lord ..." Brother Doman and his wife pictured below with missionaries in Sam's district

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Catching Up in New York

First night in New York City

Nov. 30, 2015
Hi everyone!
I'm doing good, all is well! So, picture the most crowded busy city street you can, then think of the opposite. And that's where I am, haha I didn't think that a place like this existed in my mission area. So I'm in a town called Riverhead, smaller than Wenatchee by a bit and really spread out, we've seen several deer on the road since I've been here. It's on the very end of Long Island. There isn't really a main industry here, it's just kind of an average town, there are wineries and even some farms. We live in a little house right next to a river. Our branch (congregation) is one of the few bilingual branches in the mission. About 60 or 70 regularly attend each Sunday. Sam's house below. You can see the river in the backyard.

My companion and trainer is super cool! His name is Elder Honey and he is from Vegas, he's been out on his mission for about 10 months, here for five months. In our area there are four missionaries, elder Honey and I are the Spanish speakers, and elder Hendrickson and elder Hunt are the English. We are teaching quite a few people right now, and they are all super cool, There are the peñafiels who I haven't had the chance to teach yet but met at church, brother banks, Jose Martinez, the Cerna family, the Areolla family, Oscar and Blanca and a few others, and I've been able to teach several of them in Spanish!

Since it's thanksgiving we haven't had too many lessons because people are with family, but we've done a lot of service, lots of raking leaves.

On Thursday I'm going to Manhattan! My companion has an appointment there, super excited to see what the city is like and ride the subway!

Starting tomorrow we are gonna be sharing the new church Christmas video. Look up the "savior is born" video, it's 2 minutes long, I'm already getting tons of chances to play piano for church things.

Just a quick spiritual thought: As I've really left all I know and have behind I feel like I've grown spiritually faster than I ever have before, and I know that is because I have sacrificed, God promises to those who sacrifice that they will be blessed with his spirit and I've really noticed the difference. Everything is going great! Below: church messages in NYC Time Square

Dec. 7, 2015
This week actually went by pretty fast, I got a little sick last Tuesday but nothing to worry about, I was all better by Thursday, it wasn't anything to stay home for.

I have to admit I miss setting up the Christmas tree. So as far as missionary work goes we are kind of in a rut, there is one family that we are teaching that is doing really well, but just about everyone else falls through on their appointments, so we do a lot of driving around to meet people, and when they are not there we go somewhere else to try to establish contact with another family that is in the same position.

The other day we were up in green port, a smaller town, and almost as far east on Long Island as you can go, and so this one family let us in after a long evening of nobody answering, and this family is probably one of the coolest families I've ever met, it's this super humble chef named Israel, his wife, 3 kids and his father, but they let us in and we shared stories and taught them, and I've gotta say I learned about as much from them at least, as much as they learned from us, the room was just filled with the Holy Ghost as we talked with them. Afterward they told us they knew we were messengers from God and that we were welcome back anytime, that was really cool and humbling for me to see God work through me like that. I mean that was not the best lesson I have ever taught, my Spanish wasn't that good during it, but yet, it was an awesome experience. We are headed back up there on Wednesday, and since we don't really know anyone in the area, we are going to ask this family if they have any friends who would want to hear our message. I think this will be a great opportunity for us in the area because we really need to change our approach, since we aren't getting anywhere right now.

If you look on google maps, Sam's area is from Ridge to Orient Point, top half of Long Island. The branch (congregation) is pretty small, he wrote, lots of Spanish members but most aren't active, but this last Sunday we had like 10 Spanish members, about 50 people total. I'm good being in the country, but I'm excited to eventually be in the city.

Dec. 14. 2015
A quite a bit has happened this week. It doesn't really feel like Christmas time yet because it is so warm here, people are saying it's record highs for temperature. Hope it snows soon though. As far as New York stereotypes go, the pizza here is incredible, but I was disappointed how easy it was to understand the intercoms on the subway, it didn't quite live up to the tv shows haha!

Anyway, we've been teaching the peñafiels quite a bit, they are an amazing family and they are willing to do so much to follow Christ, they all want to be baptized in January!

We are still doing a lot of service raking leaves, that's actually a lot of fun, but we are pretty limited on time because it gets dark at like 4 pm, and people normally don't appreciate missionaries knocking on their door when it's pitch black outside, even if it's only six o clock. We also had the church Christmas party on Saturday.

The missionaries all helped a lot to put that on, we hung up all the snowflakes, it was also really cool because most of the people we are teaching were able to come and meet all the members, including the peñafiels, gato, Heidi, Kevin and his family and Jose Martinez. Jose martinez is super cool, he's super intelligent, his way of thinking and his interests are very similar to Graham's so I'm almost able to hold my own in a conversation with him, but he is super fun to teach although he goes on crazy tangents about quantum physics and politics, and his life story. I really love the people here especially all of the people from Latin America, they are all super friendly, even if they don't want to listen to us they still invite us in and treat us well. Im really starting to love spending time and teaching the people, and surprisingly I'm really starting to like to meet new people even though in the past that was way out of my comfort zone

Also if you haven't seen the church's new Christmas video you need to watch it. Also look up the song oceans (where my feet may fail) super good song we listen to it all the time!

 

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