Elder Alex Thomson: So Much Candy!

Thanks so much Mom & Dad! You guys really are the best! :D Thanks again for the weather report, it is more helpful than you know. And thank you also for the update on politics. It’s been killing me the last few days.

We just got back from the store actually. I was able to get the evaporated milk and pie crust and cool whip so that we can make a pie sometime before Thursday. The directions you sent seemed to say that it would make two pies, so I was thinking if they turn out we might give the other pie to our investigators, since we have a lesson with them that day and they are like pure golden (as far as investigators go ;P ). So if we are still craving pie I just might have to take you up on the offer to buy one at the bakery. :D

I don’t think I've told you about our new investigators yet; A is a former Investigator who Elder A and Elder S taught before I got here. She was super golden then, she knew a little bit about the church (her mom was a member), but she grew up in a different religion (in a foster home), and in recent years has sort of lost touch with God. So she was meeting with the missionaries to kind of rekindle that faith that she felt was missing in her life, and everything was going great, she was hearing the lessons and feeling the spirit and then her dad died and she sort of fell off the map. The missionaries had the hardest time getting a hold of her and when they did she said that it wasn't a good time and she didn't ever meet with them so she kinda got put on the back burner.

But then a couple of weeks ago we were in Overwaitea (a Canadian version of a Safeway, except not quite as classy) looking at cheese (because you know I'm addicted! ;P ) and this employee comes over and asks us if he can help us with anything (All of the employees are weirdly friendly at Overwaitea. It’s almost a little bit creepy. Like, one time, we were looking at milk and this one guy comes up to us and is like, "Oh hey guys! Getting some milk today?" And we were like, "... yeah?" And then he was like, "Oh, we just got a truck in with some fresh stuff today, would you like some of that?" And we were like, "Sure,why not?" And he went into the back and brought us out two gallons of milk, and the expiration date was only a few days further out. It didn't make any sense, but it was still really nice of him. Too bad we haven't been to Overwaitea since Wal-Mart opened. :/ You just don't beat Wal-Mart’s everyday low prices. ;P) Anyway, back to the story! He asks us if we need help with anything and we're like "No, we're okay; I just suffer from a severe addiction to cheese based dairy products." (Or something to that effect) And somehow the topic got around to "S? You're S!? A's brother!!" We kinda freaked out and I think it kinda freaked him out, but apparently not too bad because a few days later we got a text from A (Miracle!) saying that she AND S wanted to meet with us. :D We had a really good lesson with them Friday, and like I said we're going back Thursday for a second lesson, so needless to say we're pretty jazzed about that! :D

We also (finally) got to meet with C and S this week (if you don’t remember [or I haven’t told you] C is A's mom, and S is her [C's] significant other. If you don't know who A is, I don't know how to help you there... it’s a long story. Okay, so A is a young boy that's ready to get baptized but he needs permission from his parents. His step mom is a member, and his dad is cool with it, so we just need to get permission from his mom) We have been trying to meet with them for what seems like forever (forever in missionary time is about two weeks. if you have a life and hobbies outside of missionary work it’s really not that long.), but we finally had a lesson with them and pretty much straight up asked if she would be cool with A getting Baptized. She said that he had already been baptized in another Church, and we used that as an excuse to teach the Restoration (Score: 1 Missionaries!). We left a Book of Mormon and invited them to read as a family, they said that they would and we have an appointment for Tuesday next week. (Right before we head out of town!)

In other news: Elder A was sick for three days last week (Thursday, Friday, Saturday), he was just super achy and stuff, luckily I haven’t got any of it yet. And so I had a bit of time to work on some stuff while he was pretty much passed out the whole time. There’s not a lot you can do while your companion is sick, but I was able to make it through most of Genesis, all of Matthew and Mark and a few large swaths of the Book of Mormon. We watched all of the District 1 and 2, and I was able to get some hand written letters done. I'm sorry to say that I did spend the most time on Zach's letter and sort of neglected some other people. Specifically Dad, I’m sorry that I didn’t get your letter that I told you about in the airport finished yet, but I’m still working on it. I promise. And Mom, you didn’t get a huge letter either, but you know I still love you, right? :) Zach's letter was kind of the prize for working out the creepy owl drawing, and he can sort of share, I guess. I hope you guys get a kick out of it; it took up a TON of my letter writing time because it required so much planning and research. ;) I should probably make a copy of it before I send it because I'm going to be heartbroken if it gets lost in the mail. :/

I went and blew $10 on postage today. I only got 6 stamps and a bubble envelope to send the SD card home in. So don't expect a ton of hand written letters. Their expensive! I’ll try to get those in the mail tomorrow, and I still haven't ordered a magnet tag yet. I still need to do that for you guys.

Oh! One more thing! Elder A (one of the Zone Leaders) and Elder A are both coveting my Mormon Helping Hands t-shirt. They wanted to know if it'd be possible to get some more of those in my next package. They even gave me their shirt sizes (L and XL) and said they'd pay the cost of the shirts if they cost you guys anything. Of course I'd just pocket the cash if they gave it to me, ;) but I told them I’d ask and see if you could score them some. :D

Why do you send me so much candy!?!?!?!?! We ate this all in like a week! We tried to make ourselves feel better because we some other Elders came over and they ate some of it, but we really ate most of it ourselves. It was really, really gross. Thank you. :D Next time I’m going to ration it out by week and only eat the candy for that week in that week. Also, the Costco steak strips were the best!