Dec. 16

(Did the Barras family get baptized)  yes they did! it was honestly one of the best days of my life! haha I came to Chile to help people! And that is exactly what we did! It was seriously so cool and I haven't been that nervous for something in my whole life! I'm not sure how many times I said the baptisms words that day but it was A LOT! It was only the mom and daughter this saturdaybecause the younger boy had to go to a fundraiser for his school. thats catholic haha. but it was more because he went with his dad and he doesn't get much time with his dad. this week we should have his baptism on saturday! but yeah. The mom asked me to baptize her and the daughter wanted E' Artiga to baptize her so thats what happened! on friday it was the daughters birthday but she had her party after the baptism saturday so we went to that also and we watched shreck 1. haha it was pretty sweet!

the zone conference was really cool! E' Svec of the 70 and his wife spoke to us. that guy was straight Chileno. it was way hard to understand him. chileans do not say the S at the end of the word. so 2 is do and 3 is tre. haha but i understood his wife. it was fun! heard from pres and his wife and they challenged us to read the book of mormon once every 3 months for a grand total of 4 times this year. haha. its going to be tough but i want to do it! when we were coming back from the conference (which we only got a roll and and apple for lunch because they were in a hurry! and we had to get up a 4:30 in the morning to leave to breakfast was way early!) we got stuck in a traffic jam on a mountain haha. for 3 hours. a semi full of grapes rolled. and right when we were leaving another truck driving past us had a tire of the edge of the road haha. it was a litte crazy! but we got free grapes out of it! 

but that doesn't sustain you when you haven't eaten in 12 hours! we eventually had dinner at 11 o'clock when we got back. however i didnt get my packages! i will get them after x-mas it looks like. which sucks haha but there isn't anything i can do about it. but the zone leader told me that they have at least one at the house.

those trampoline places are fun! and pizza! they have pizza here but its not the same!

its definitely getting hotter here! it is only a little bit more humid here than our house. but i still sweat. haha if i get sent any further north things are going to get really intersting with the heat and my attributes of sweating like a pig. haha yeah we will see what happens! and we have changes this week so there is a posibility that i could change but for new missionaries pres usually keeps them in the same place!

the allergies are fine which is awesome! so far nothing her bothers me whick is really nice!

the forgien comp sucked for the first 2 weeks but now its a huge blessing! my spanish is flying! and i only studied once  this week haha whoops. i can understand almost every conversation that we have and if i dont its because i dont know the word that was said. which is really nice. i taught half of the lesson yesterday with the fam. barrasa sanchez. its fun. the gift of tongues is real haha. that is for sure! also during the conference  i met a elder from enterprise utah and he has been out the same amount of time as josh and my spanish is equal if not a little above his and he has the gringo accent. and i an latino elder in my district has told me before that i don't have a gringo accent. haha that was humbling! I didn't realize how much I have been blessed. thank you for your advice of having paticience and making mistakes! applied that right of the bat and that has made a huge difference! very grateful for what i have been given! like an awesome mom :)

LOVE YOU MOM!

im having fun here, so enjoy yourself there!

read the scriptures if you need help with anything!

love you

Elder Ethington

(This email came 5 minutes after the one above!)

MOM!  THE MOM AND DAD JUST DECIDED TO GET MARRIED!!!!!!!!!! LIKE 1 MIN AGO THEY CALLED US AND THEY ARE DOING THE PAPERS RIGHT NOW FOR THE MARRAIGE! CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!!!!!! AHAHA I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY! 

Dec. 9th

haha for some reason im not even surprised that all this is happening to josie. haha it seems like if anything ridiculous can happen. it happens to her! walking disaster is right! i hope she feels better! for good!

ill be honest i miss the snow! it doesnt really feel like christmas without the snow! haha this whole week it was like 50 in the morning and then 80 during the day. its very much like the weather in utah! haha.

well they have a baptism date for this saturday! yesterday they had thier interviews and they all passed. and by they I mean the mom, daughter and son. the dad left for work for the week and when he left they were separated and H´gabriela said that she wants to be baptized and it came to a head that her and jime were going to serperate. but when jime left for work he called us at 10 that same night and said that he wants to support her and do his part in this! he is like a child. also thank you SO MUCH! for the advice. i finnaly cried this week :) on wednesday H´gabriela was trying to figure out what she was going to do about jime and all that, and i told her what you said about change and having patience! thank you! it was spot on and we both cried haha! that was pure inspiration on your part THANK YOU! everything has gone a lot smoother since then! THANK YOU!

we talked with geraldin the JW. but only talked. haha she doesnt have adults to talk to so we just had oncé (its what they call late dinner here) and talked with her. that is one thing with here they have late dinner and all it is, is bread avacadoes eggs and ham. and herb tea. I love it!

yeah Schramms are nice. they came with us to a lesson with fam Barrasa and they helped a ton and we are very grateful for that!

im in the zone Illapel, but im in the district, Los Vilos. haha but i will remember that if i get to be in illapel. haha i kind of hope i don´t! it is like an oven there! its not even the middle of summer yet!

haha yeah its crazy that christmas is here. it doesnt really feel real! they are a few houses that have lights but it is not the same! haha but its is still fun. we had a christmas/ night of sweets activity on friday and it was sweet! there was a ton of members and a ton of cake and chilean plates! me and my companion made scones with family barrasa and they had a little sauce thing they made for them! it was sweet! they have cake here that is almost like  your tres leche but yours is much better. and if you put manjar on you tres leche. WATCH OUT! that would be deadly! they celebrate the same as us i think haha. and the family barrasa invited us over for christmas to so that will be fun. the son carlos. he is a lot like ely! haha its really funny but it really sucks sometimes! it makes me miss everyone! but really ill survive! haha im going to have a good time and i also get to talk to you all on christmas so that is going to be sweet! only 15 more days!

i hope my package gets here too! haha it has been almost 2 months! we have a christmas conference on friday with president and also one of the 70 is going to come speak to us also! but more importantly i hopefully will get your packages! or something! haha i hope! 

thank you for everything and i love you! you are a huge example to me and i look for your support when i am on the other side of the world right now. im here so others can have the same happiness that we have.! i love you mom! you are my hero!!

elder ethington

Make sure to watch Thomas's MTC group sing "How Can I Be"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100846156@N02/11174799906/in/photostream/

Nov. 18

this week went by ridiculously fast haha. it literally feels like i just wrote you all yesterday! when i got here we actually didnt have any and now we have 6 VERY good investigadors and 4 others that could be good! 5 of the really good ones is a family and the husband and wife are married which is not very common down here. they were way excited to hear the lessons and 20 minutes after the first lesson they came to our activity at the church for the ward. its crazy! the dad even looks like he want to be baptized to which is even more rare than them being married! when we tract everyone has gate to we get to yell HALO! infront of the gates! the first time i didn´t it we got a contact. haha. i got lucky! we walk a lot but it doesn´t really bother me. all i did in golf was walk haha. and now im not trying swing a club so im pretty happy haha. the inserts are working way good and i can tell they will help even more when we walk more.

our first zone conference was pretty boring. wow. 4 hours of powerpoint. 1 brake. haha and i understood what was being said but i had to concentrate that whole time haha. it was in illapel. that is one thing that has clicked is that 80% of the time now i understand what is being said without concentrating and just listening and most of the time if i dont know what was said its because i dont know the word. very grateful for the gift of tongues. its my best friend right now!

well president is kind of a stick to the rules guy. haha. i dont know how many times i heard ¨your a representative of Jesus Christ so you need to follow the rules with exactness¨ it is important and im doing my best to represent Jesus Christ . after the first day of stuff i actually felt bad that i had my ukulele with me. haha but ive made the goal to learn how to play the hymns with it and maybe to a song or two with it. but he is a nice guy with a big heart. i like him!

yeah i wasnt able to sent the little army man doll thing but i will try to sen it again!

 i actually really miss watching football. especially going to games that was a blast!

well the people here are very backwards. they all have suped up honda civics and then they live in a metal shack. with a 50 inch plasma flatscreen tv. haha i dont really understand it but oh well!

 

we have lunch at a members house everyday except for our p-day. (lunch is the big meal here) and i have yet to eat something i didnt like so all is well! haha.

i actually played(the piano)  in church yesterday! i had to play for the sacrament a song i had never even heard of so that was interesting to say the least! that is one thing also, other than family and friends, i miss music more than anything. haha i really like playing the piano because i can do something that i actually understand haha.

for christmas if you could somehow send 4 things i will be happy! 1 chia. 2 coffee creamer, the icecream kind 3 ukulele chord book with chords strum patterns and if possible church songs. 4 a piano arrangement book for hymns!

thats it and i will use them quite often!

one thing here in chile that is delicious is MANJAR! you have to look it up and make some! it is great!

also could you send me the carmel popcorn recipe and also dads sodapop chicken recipe! and his sauce that he makes!

it feels pretty good to be a real missionary. haha i have waited a long time for these next 2 years.

 

 

Make sure to click on the flickr pictures on the right to see his most recent pictures!

 

November 11

i will send a letter next week with a postcard but it probably won't get there till like christmas haha! that mail is way slow!

sorry i haven't wrote we didn't get a p-day last week because we left the mtc! its was a somewhat crazy day and i made some really good friends in the mtc!

well halloween was pretty bland haha. except that night everyone was going around where we sleep and trick or treating and we started getting loud and so pres. allred came out and told us that we could trick or treat as long as we were quite.. and then a kid dropped his bag of candy, people started yelling and so did president haha. we didn't get to trick or treat for very long! haha. thats crazy that you hardly used that much scones! usually we don't ever have enough!

 

haha that is alot of toilets backed up all at once! kind of glad that i'm not the there to help with that! but it do wish i could have heard grandma say that! thats hilarious!

i haven't got the goodies yet but we have a zone conference on wednesday so i might get it then!

im excited to find more people like that lady and see who i can help!.

well everyone in my district is latino. haha so i hear spanish 24/7 but its good for me! my companion is elder artiga! he is very pacient with me which helps a lot! my spanish is slowly getting better! haha

my companion is very cool! he's from guatemala and is very nice! and pretty funny also! 

Im in illapel, los vilos. basically it looks like the town that nacho libre lived in haha!

ill try to upload pictures onto flickr! and the video!

everything is going well. i am learning how to have patience with just about everything. and learning to laugh at myself about 20 times a day!

 we went by bus (to get to the mission) and we are able to use some computer store(to send emails)  haha. its pretty ghetto!

 

 there is 4 compainonships (in the town) and we do have a mamita! she is very nice and she can even clean suits too! and right now its actually pretty cold! especially at night! like i have 3 blankets sweatshirt long pjs and socks on haha! and very windy!

 

haha during the mtc we saw a city bus that had been taken over by crazy fans. they had two flags out the side 4 people on top of the bus going 30 mph and smoke rolling out of the windows. haha crazy latinos! 

 

 word of the week is BACAN. its means freaking awesome!

 

Amanda's  BACAN Update:

The Vina del Mar Mission has a website and they are really great about posting pictures.  We found these great one's of Thomas and his group on their first day in the mission (I only cried a little when I saw them:) .

A little info on where Illapel is and what it looks like:

 

 

 

October 30th

its really good! my spanish is 100 times better than it was last week because my new companion (that reminds me of Greg) doesn't dominate every lesson and now i have to speak! the gift of tongues is real! its crazy! yesterday we went contacting and i can understand 75% of what everyone says and if i don't its because i don't know the word they said! contacting is very nerve racking at first but it is so fun and even just talking to people in a park you can feel the spirit when you talk to them. its so crazy! and yesterday we went on the bus and metro! its a blast! and no i haven't seen any gypsies yet haha!

bro saunders is one of the best seminary teachers ive ever had!

if you see him tell him that he is going to do great things and he is there for a reason!

yeah my other comp left beacuse he is fluent in the language and now he is our zone leader.

there is about 20 of us going to vina and most of the are pretty cool!

well the completos are really good its basically just a hot dog with avocados and tomatoes and other stuff but they are really good!

thats cool that you saw katie! its going to be cool to have everyone in the field! ive talked to almost everyone so far! pretty fun stuff!
to Ely:

Good to hear from you bud! i heard you are missing me! don't be sad! just think of the day when i come back and get to see you! have someone take you to that big hill we longboarded down and ride it! when i get back we will go do that the first day i get back! that game sounds pretty fun! and thats awesome that you caught that many fish! we will do that when we get back! write down stuff that you want to do when i get  back and those weill be the first things i do when im home again! hope you are having fun!

love you bud!

so this week my district sang that How Can I Be song for family home evening for the whole MTC! i will have to uploard it when im out in the field beacuse its to big of a file! its was way fun and i've wanted to do that for a long time!

things are freaking awesome right now! thank you for the quote!

love you so much mom and i can wait to see you all again.

LOVE YOU!

thank you so much for that quote! (from scot My creed that I follow in life is a quote by Emma Wheeler Wilcox- "There is no chance, no destiny, no fate that can circumvent, hinder, or control the firm resolve of a determined soul." When you add the power of prayer and the power of action to that it is awesome what the Lord can achieve through you.")

i know you could destroy those state records! that is the coolest thing i have ever heard! and i gaurntee that you will get even stronger because you are are way competitive and you have something to work for! YOU ARE AWESOME!!!!!! go destroy some old farts!

that is the inspiring thing i have ever been told dad. I have a page for the things you send me and I am shaking from writing it down and saying it in my head. thank you.

i was sent to chile for a reason and i found out one reason why yesterday. so we went contacting in the street. and another missionary started talking to a lady about the gospel and she said she didn't believe in god. but she did believe in The Secret. no one else in my district  knew what she was talking about. i was able to talk to her and tell her how i applied it in my life with the gosple. I should her in the introduction how it said Ask Believe and you will recieve an answer about the book of mormon and all things that you need from our heavenly father. we gave her the book and i have never been more grateful for your guidance in my life than in that instant. when you told me i had to read that in like 10th grade I didn't want to but i had a feeling that i should. you were inspired to tell me read that and i know it was because it was so i could talk to that lady about the gosple. THANK YOU!

I miss you guys a lot but when i look at the pictures of you guys i always am alittle sad but i make myself think of the joy i will have when i see you all again!
 keep the quotes coming they are something i look at when things get rough!

I LOVE YOU!!

Thomas

Oct. 22

the maids are nice!

i will try to take as many pictures as i can! the one attached is of some building that looked cool and then of elder workman. that kid is honestly one of the funniest people i have every met!

i heard about the water heater! that is not fun! if it makes you feel any better we either have to shower in an iceberg or in hot lava here! there is no in between!
that is really weird! i feel like if something weird happens it always happens at our house! it never fails!

thank you for the quote! those really help alot during the week!

so 2 weeks ago a guy from the ensign took pictures of the mtc pres and me and some other missionaries were able to be in a few pictures so look in all the magazines for president allred of the santiago mtc! i might be in one of the pictures!

also i sent some post cards last week and one is for ely and the other is for great grandma jones if you can get it to her!

finally i would like to proudly say that i have started the muah kaboinski thing in the MTC. everyone is doing it now haha!

and thank you for the advise to pray last week that helped a ton and i had a prayer answer about what kind of missionary i want to be in the field!

love you!

Oct. 16

it was for our p-day but then 2 days ago we actually were able to go and talk to people and give them a pamphlet and invite them to go to church just around the corner from us! it was crazy! they speak so fast i could barley understand anything but my spanish has improved quiet a bit while my english is slowly starting to go down hill, from all the spanish. on p-day we write and then we can go out in the city and do whatever so today we are going to the ghetto mall and then we are going to the store called liders, which is like the walmart here and im going to get some pasteries! yes they have someone that does our laundry everyother day so thats nice. every once in a while they hand out little pastries at lunch or dinner and those are really good! i even got 2 in one day before. basically the most exciting thing thats happened haha. not really. kinda.d

dang i wish i could have been there for janies baptism that would have been fun! and thats really cool that jeff baptized her also!  trevor also emailed me so we are able to talk which is nice. inviting him over for halloween would be awesome he would love that!

Im defeitly praying harder than i ever had and some have been answered already!

love Thomas

 

 

hey dad it going pretty good! my spanish is getting slowy better and this week im focusing on preterit and imperfect. they teach us alot of stuff but its too hard for me to learn everything at once so when the teachers are teaching stuff i pay attention but i really focus in my persoal study on the preterit and imperfect so i can get those down and move onto the next thing. my english is also starting to go downhill so i guess that is a good thing. haha.

Thank you so much for the scriptures it helps a lot to have something to read that is directly advise from you!

well i pretty much just sit in the same room for 12 hours and try to learn spanish haha. and eat the same food everyday. so in the picture i attached the kid that is in front staring down the camera is elder workman. he is from manti and is one of the funniest kids ive ever met. so like 2 nights ago i got in my bed to go to sleep and after 20 seconds of laying there a hand starts grabbing my arm and pushing me around. i thought it was the guy above me but then he started telling another guy in our room to leave me alone because he thought it was him. mean while elder workmans companion knocked on the door and asked if elder workman was in our room. then the hand proceeds grab me form the side of my bed again and then the rest of elder workmans body comes out from under the bed and attacks me! the guy is a goof ball!

and then the night after me and elder dirkmat went and did it to some other kid another room. it was pretty great!

thats cool to hear about your bench. i was telling the guys in my distric about it and they were all shocked that you were that strong haha.

its weird to think aobut the stake presidency changing they have been there for so long.

i am learning right now what it really means to pray! thank you again for the scriptures they really do mean alot! keep them coming!

Love you dad!

October 8th

It's been fun to get his emails!  This week we were a little nervous because he didn't email on Monday.  Apparently they have a roving p-day so this week it was on Tues.

"we were able to watch conference live and in english so that was a bonus! we watched it at the mtc! it was really fun!
my allergies are fine but my freaking companion got me sick! he won't keep his his fingers out of his mouth because he is constantly biting his nails and skin on his hand and then asks for a hi five! im on the tail end of it but sunday was not fun to say the least!
funny story for you. so me a kid in my district and then a guy from my room all decided to sumo wrestle with pillows in our shirts while someone else was a referee. 10 seconds into the battle the MTC pres walked in on us all and proceded to yell at us because we were knocking pictures of the wall. it was worth it!
our teachers speak english but they push us in spanish till we don't understand! Our pday changes so thats why im writing today! we just go out into the city! its really crazy but way fun! the completos are really good! had those today for only 3 bucks!
the idea to bring a ball was amazing! our district calls it the thinking ball when we need to focus and then on break we throw it to each other! really good idea! simple entertainment!
it is really weird not to see halloween decorations out anywhere here!
thank you for the scriptures i can't wait to read them all when i have time!
no they don't so ive been trying to do push up sit ups and run in the morning. my freaking companion got me sick so for the last couple days i haven't done as much so i can get better faster.
. i don't really know how but i have yet to cry. haha it is weird but as much as i miss you all there is an equal and greater feeling that i have been waiting longer then 18 years to serve a mission and im still so happy to be here.
 yesterday i got way lucky i had a pastery for lunch and dinner! haha they are really good.
beast mode missionary style! i like it!
this is a view from my room! its cool"

 

 

 

Remember the "completos" from Kid History?!

 

Kid History: Chile Episode

Sept 30th

the MTC is way fun here! there are a bout 60 missionaries and about 75 of them are latinos so there is a lot of spanish being spoken here, which helps! yeah most of the kids on the plane are in my district. we have 2 elders and 1 sister from brasil in my district also so we get some portugues thrown in to the spanish also. my compaion is the district leader. he is also freaking weird. he is the kid that won´t  walk around the corner of the wall because our mission president said we need to have line of sight at all time with our compañero. and he tells the other kids in out district to be quite if they talk to much in our class. BUT he has a photographic memory so he is really good at spanish and is helping me a lot and also pushing me to learn faster.
we mainly eat rice pasta bread with some kind of chili with it all and then some fish thrown in also.
i was kinda mad about missing travis´ farewell but im glad that it was good!
the weather is really nice here! its basically 50 and 60 here the whole time and it actually gets pretty cold at night! i think its acutally drier here in santiago than it is in utah!
thats crazy that its snowed already!
D&C 31:3 explains perfectly how i feel right now! it feels so good to finally have started my mission! its hard with the spanish but it really is hard to be discouraged or sad right now just because it can finally work hard and serve our Heavenly Father!
here is a picture of elder rooney who went to clearfield high. with the temple in the background!
the next one is a picture of my district!

Elder
Thomas

The wise words of Nachoooooooooooo!

The 1st Email

We got our first email today!

"well i made it to the MTC on a whole 45 minutes of sleep! im glad that im not getting on another plane for 2 years or i would probably kill someone! im utterly lost in the language but ill survive and eventually understand it! its starting to become more real that im going to be gone for 2 years but it will be alright! miss you all and love you all!"

The MTC in Santiago, Chile