Changes 4/20/10

(MOM NOTE: Usually, when there are changes, we get emails on Wednesday or Thursday, so we hadn't written our emails to him yet. Guess we won't do THAT again...)

Hey fam!

Thanks for the uplifting emails! I love hearing from you guys and hearing all about the family's progress. I'm good too, thanks for asking. :D

Well changes are here, and I did in fact leave the area. And Elder Polera too. He's doing another whitewash, this time in Pueblo Nuevo, Durazno (same stake as Trinidad). He's super excited. I'm headed to Camino Carrasco in Este Centro. My comp will be Elder Belleau (you should already have a ton of pictures of him, so I'm not going to send one today) and he's of course excited. It sounds like a really awesome area and we are just going to tear it up.

We had some pretty hard goodbyes yesterday. Sister Libonatti and Carolina both cried, and Sonia (the primary president) and Florencia (a recent convert) almost did. But it is all good. Nadia is still on track to get baptized Saturday, but there is Stake Conference, so she'll have to get baptized in the morning. Elder Zanuttini is going to take care of it though. Nadia seemed OK with the changes, that's good.

Ummmm... since I don't have any questions to answer or anything, I think I'm pretty much done. Oh, you'll have noticed that I pulled out some money from my checking the other day. It wasn't for me - there is a little package coming for you guys. Happy birthday, mom and dad. Mom's is in the small black bag thing (it's classy), Tina has a little something (just so she doesn't feel bad) in the smaller black bag thing, and everything else is dad's. He'll know why. I love you all. (Mom note: We got them--a necklace for Mom, ring for Tina, Golf hat for Dad.)

Well, that's it for this week, just a quick check up letting you know I'm alive.

-Elder Thorderson

P.S. I'm a Zone Leader.

also, what's the package status? Did you ever get the package sent that I asked for at Christmas? :P

Sister Arnais from Las Piedras says hi, says she looks forward to meeting dad.

Love you all (again!)!

Almost Changes 4/12/10

Hey fam!

First - pictures.

cerro.jpg is my district on top of the big hill we climbed. L > R Sisters Grindstaff (TX), Guerrero (Honduras), Campos (Chile), and Kleinmann (Orem). Elders Polera (Northern US), Thorderson (The Hood), Rosales (Toronto / El Salvador), Williams (Idaho Falls - I think).

utah.jpg is a funny story - a kid I met in the street. Take special note of the shirt he's wearing. Utah pride strikes again! (if you recall the U of U bowl from Florida with Cundick).

We had a kickin week this week. Taught a bunch of lessons, and had some pretty chill interviews with the Pres. We have Nadia - the awesome Primary President's neighbor who wants to get baptized next Saturday. She loves the charlas and her mom is really supportive - and really catholic. But she is willing to let Nadia choose - unlike Romina's mom. We will have a pretty intense charla with Romina's mom this week with the Stake 1st Counselor's wife who sends her daughter to a catholic school. We'll see what happens there, but it is looking pretty grim because Romina is slated to take the communion this week. Bah. We also have a drug addict named Diego - he's a pretty cool guy. He got in a car crash a couple of weeks ago (he was on a motorcycle) and got pretty banged up. We think it scared him and he wants to clean up his act. Then the Libonatti family is introducing friends to the gospel quicker than we can learn their names. The Libonatti fam says hi, by the way. Even though I have explained that we aren't sure yet, they are very excited to meet dad in December. haha

So funny story about Elder Polera. After interviews we were getting ready to head to the Libonatti house. Out of the blue, Elder Polera asked me "A que hora tenemos que estar en la casa de Libonatti?" Just kinda joking around with him, I answered back in Spanish "cinco y media." I could tell that something wasn't registering, so I asked "Alguna otra pregunta para hacer?" He stood there looking at me for about 10 seconds - then got a terrified look on his face as he realized he was speaking Spanish. Hilarious. I told him it is OK - it means Spanish is becoming his native language. "Spanish isn't my native language! It isn't even a language! It's just a tool I use, that's it," he says.

Oh mom, I was in San Carlos the other day for a baptismal interview, and I saw a lady with a sweatshirt from the 1999 Fiesta Bowl - Florida State vs. Tennessee. It said something about Florida State being too good for Tennessee or something like that. I almost stopped her to take a picture, but I decided not to.

We are planning on a fun zone activity tomorrow - the ZLs are going to cook us a breakfast while we have a little fireside with the oldest member in Maldonado (the one who has the most time as a member, that is). Should be pretty cool. Then we'll have our district meeting. Pretty cool, but they are trying to go overboard with it. We'll be eating pancakes, french toast, eggs, caramel apples, torta de fiambre, and who knows what else.

Changes calls are this Sunday! This change has really flown - I guess that means we are working hard. We are pretty sure I'll be leaving.

Ummm I think that's a pretty good email. Hope mom is having some fun in Chicago and that Tina and Emily don't burn down the house! Love you all!

Hey! 4/5/10

Hey guys!

Well we had a pretty fun p-day today, but we got home late so it is going to be another quick email. Sorry!

We just went to the cross again - but this time we made it! Our whole 22-person zone made it up the hill, practically without incident! I had to help Hermana Campos and Hermana Guerrero up the last part, and then back down because it is always harder getting back down, but we made it! It was pretty fun, but we are pretty dead. We are all really happy that we made it, good times had by all. No pictures (next week!) because this is a new cyber that we haven't been to.

Well handing the comp over to my comp, I love you all!

Just letting you know I'm alive, and we have the president coming to our house for interviews on Friday, they want to see every house in the mission and make sure it is ready for winter.

Chao!

lost count (I need to standardize!) 3/29/10

Hey fam!

Well we had an OK week this week. We had a big event with Valentina's friend Romina. She told us that her parents are making her take the first communion and she really doesn't want to. She hates her catholic school and wants to get baptized in our church. But her parents are fine with her being mormon, as long as she can be catholic too (catholic in the catholic school, she says). That, and we had a really open charla with her and she told us that when she prays, she doesn't ever really feel anything and that she used to pray every night but stopped when her parents would never listen to her (that's the only thing she's ever prayed for, apparently) so now she hasn't prayed for like three years. It's all a pretty weird situation.

Zone Conference was pretty awesome. We got blenders. :D Haha the assistants showed us basically last week's numbers from all the zones (to show us miracles that are happening) and I ended up feeling like crap. They showed Durazno and talked about how they whitewashed all four Elders out of Trinidad and now they are having lots of success. Elder Bulloch, Elder Belleau and I were there... and I don't think we could have shrunk any farther down into the benches. Same story with Libia. But we learned a lot. :D

I don't have too much to say this week... the other guys are FINALLY moving out of the house. (4 Elders in 1 tiny house=not good) They have like half of the stuff that they need, but decided it would be best to move out. So they are moving and we need to go help them. Then we need to get the house cleaned. It is all a party.

Ummmm.... when you send off my next package... I am gearing up for winter. Could you send some gloves and an umbrella? That umbrella you sent me last year was awesome, and it fit inside my backpack. But that kid broke it....

I think that's it. I'll send a better letter next week!