Whoever Sent Me Root Beer, Thank You

Hola everyone!

This week has been a rollercoaster of events. So many that I wasn't sure what to title this email. I felt like my own series of Harry Potter books:

Hermana Thunell and the Fake Phone Numbers

Hermana Thunell and the Dreaded Sacrament Talk

Hermana Thunell and the Cow Stomach

Yep. We ate cow stomach. We also got chased by dogs, taught a dental health class, laughed until we cried, and got put on bed rest. Well. I got put on bed rest. 

Hermana Thunell and the Attack of the Chihuahas

Hermana Thunell and "Agua De La Llave Es Mejor"

Hermana Thunell and the Jokes That Really Weren't That Funny

Hermana Thunell and the Mysterious Illness

The whole collection will hit a bookstore near you in May of 2019. 

BUT this week has also been really really great. We got to eat cactus (which made up for the cow stomach), played Language Study Pick-up Sticks (thank you Grandma and Grandpa), and made a video about the Book of Mormon. 

I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON

For those of you who saw the video (it's on Facebook) I know we were kind of flat and not very excited. But the great thing about taking on a challenge like that is that now I know what I want to do better next time. The next video will be better, I promise. But for now: I LOVE the Book of Mormon. Seriously the best part of my day is in the morning when I get to spend an hour reading and taking notes and dissecting the word of God. It's like that TV Show with the Great Big Book of Everything. The Book of Mormon is the Decently Sized Book of Everything. IT CAN ANSWER ANY QUESTION. I carry around this life-changing book in my bag cada día. We have 4 in the backseat of our car and about 10 more Spanish ones in our trunk. I have the word of God, access to personal revelation, in an app on my phone that can fit in my pocket. How cool is that??? (Answer: very)

This book is meant to be read, it's meant to be marked up, it's meant to be understood. So read it! Mark it up! Understand it! It has changed my life and continues to be my source for daily course correction. Not to mention it's like reading a high-action novel, or the sickest history textbook ever. The Book of Mormon: It's interesting. It's real. It's ready to give YOU personal guidance. 

Read it guys. Hands down my favorite book. 

Seriously, Sabrina, Emily, Lauren and Liz, get your hands on one of these. I can send it to you if you want, but please just take a glance through it, read a few pages, just hold it and revel in its glory. I love this book and I get to pour out my love for it to strangers every day. I want to share this thing that has made me so happy with all the people I love too. 

Thank you everyone for all the letters and emails this week...and for the care package of root beer! 

-Hermana Thunell

Persistencia

As missionaries, our job is pretty much to annoy people until they finally give in and listen to us. Just kidding, but that's what it felt like this week as we got to see some of our persistence finally pay off.

I'm not really big on second chances, and when people ignore us for three weeks straight my first instinct is definitely to stop trying, but last week while we were knocking we accidentally knocked on a member from the English ward's house. They let us in and gave us cookies and hot chocolate, and told us their conversion stories. Essentially, the wife was converted by persistence, because her home teachers would NOT leave her alone (her words). As she told us her story I immediately thought of all the people we've been trying to get a hold of but couldn't, and I decided that this week I wanted to make more of an effort to knock on their doors, rather than just call or send a text. 

So on a whim one night we stopped by the house of one of our referrals. The one that's been ignoring us for 3 weeks. She pulled into her driveway about 30 seconds after we parked in front of her house and we made some calls to give her a chance to get inside before we spiritually assaulted her.

When we finished our calls we got out of the car and she was walking out her door. She told us that she had been avoiding us but when she pulled into her driveway and saw us sitting across the street she knew we were there for her, even though she's never met us before. She told us she admired our persistence and that she was ready to hear our message because it must be important (it is).

We taught her the Restoration and she promised us she'd pray about it because she believes God sent us to her for a reason. The next day we called her to check how her prayer went and she didn't answer. We continued to call her every hour after that, afraid she was avoiding us again. Finally she answered at the end of the day and said she hadn't received an answer to her prayer yet so she started reading the Book of Mormon to help her figure things out!

On Sunday we invited her to come to church but when we called her she didn't answer so we figured she wouldn't come. Five minutes before sacrament ended she showed up with one of her friends! She told us she couldn't find the address of the church and she tried calling us three times but we didn't answer. So she looked up the address online and came for the last two hours anyway!

Persistence, everyone. When you put effort into people, they put effort into listening to your message and acting on the word. And that was just one example. 

This week has been crazy. On Tuesday we got snowed in, but Hermana Bent and I got picked up by a member of the English ward and we did service for them all day. I now know the ins and outs of putting on doorknobs. We also watched President Nelson's broadcast and that was awesome! My favorite part was when he said "We're going to begin with the end in mind", because that's the THSM motto! So pretty much it's been confirmed by the prophet that our mission is the best!👍😄  I'm glad to be serving in the best mission in the world! Sorry to all my other missionary friends who don't have the same opportunity. 

But persistence!  I may not be one to give second chances, but God is. He gives second chances and third chances and two thousandth chances, because He wants us all to have the opportunity to hear His word and return to live with him again. So while I'm out here I just need to forget myself and the amount of chances I think people deserve. My job as a missionary is to be that second or third or two thousandth chance. 

Thanks everyone for all the emails! I love you all!

- Hermana Thunell

Gatos y milagros

Another week has disappeared!  And another month!  Today marks two months on the mission.  Just 16 left!  But, who's counting, right?

This week was...interesting. 

Hermana Bent describes me as "sweet but cynical," and out here I definitely agree with that.  I wish I weren't so cynical and I'm working on it, but it's just so common for people to cancel, or ignore us, or drop us.  Our plans fall through every day, people leave us at the door more often than not, and we're not really teaching any of the lessons we plan for. 

It all sounds negative, and it is hard, but I'm not feeling as negative as it sounds. I love talking to people who make us laugh, and knocking on cute blue doors, and doing service, even if it means cleaning out a hoarder's bathroom closet (thank you to my mother for making me watch Hoarders so I could be a little bit prepared to deal with that.) 

I'm not discouraged, though it's hard to get to 6:30 every night and be stuck in the same situation of not knowing what to do because everyone has canceled.  I'm just trying really hard to magnify my calling and find my purpose in everything we do. I'm trying to be Alma and find the back way into Ammonihah.  That's a great chapter in the Book of Mormon, by the way.  Alma and Amulek were some bomb missionaries and I've been trying to emulate their examples this week! 

Also. Cats. Welcome to Houston, the land of stray cats. There are four we see pretty regularly around our apartment complex-just found four more as I'm looking out the window right now-and four others in a neighborhood that we visit and knock in a lot. The funny part is that all the stray cats of the world seem to be drawn to us. Whenever we come back to our car there are cats all over it or under it or leaving cute little pawprints on our windshield 😊 it makes me so happy to be driving and see little kitty tracks across the windshield. Tender mercies, everyone. 

We've had some bigger miracles, too. Yesterday we left the apartment early to go do some major Church and Rescue with two of our investigators that are on date but haven't come to church yet.  They're 8 and 10 years old and their mom is a recent convert.  We stopped by and pounded on the door three times, called them once, and then pounded on the door four more times.  We were not going to let them sleep in.  Finally their mom answered, but she said that the kids were sleeping and she didn't want to wake them up.  She told us they'd all had a late night and so she wouldn't be going to church either.  We left feeling pretty discouraged.  When church started our spirits sank even lower when we saw that our other two kids that are on date weren't there either.  Sacrament meeting started and it was good.  Then a little while into the meeting I saw some people walking in out of the corner of my eye.  I turned to look and saw the niños walking in!  Then someone sitting behind me tapped my shoulder and I turned around to see the recent convert with her two kids!

I don't even know what else to say about that except that it was the best feeling ever! 

When I woke up yesterday morning, I didn't feel like being a missionary.  I buried my head in my pillow and just wanted to cry.  But the day turned out so much better than I thought it would.  The mission is dang hard, but I'm so grateful for the little things like watching kittens play in the grass outside our window, and the big things like seeing our investigators in church.  The mission is hard, but it's SO great. 

And also everyone should read the story of Alma the Younger this week.  Pre-conversion AND post-conversion.  His example is an amazing reminder of what it really means to repent, and how we can replace our sins with good works. 

Sorry this is a long email, but thank you everyone for all the support!

I love you all!

Hermana Thunell

Church and Rescue

Well. I am officially back in Texas! 📣 

This week has FLOWN by, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I also don't even know where to start!

I LOVE Houston!  It feels like being home, except I also have a little piece of Provo with me still since it's been so cold this week.  It's finally starting to warm up, thank goodness. 

As for actual missionary life, it's hard, but so SO rewarding. The people here really have been prepared by the Lord to hear our message. And I love my trainer!  She's only been out here for four months so she's pretty recently gotten out of being trained herself but she's amazing and such a hard worker!  I was feeling REALLY nervous about my Spanish, but in one appointment the person we were talking to said a word Hermana Bent had never heard before and I told her what it meant.  Afterwards, in the car Hermana Bent asked me how much I could understand of what was going on and I said ALL of it, but I felt bad that I couldn't respond or input anything very well, if at all. She told me that understanding is the first part and if I could understand that much already then it won't take long for me to be fluent. So that was a nice confidence booster 😂 but for now I'm still letting her do all the talking, at least in our Spanish lessons.  We teach lots of English investigators as well, so that's really nice, too. We've met some awesome people this week and it just testifies to me that none of this happens by coincidence. 

Saturdays are called "Church and Rescue" days, which I LOVE.  It basically means we invite the whole world to come to church the next day, and we definitely did that. Hermana Bent was having a rough day on Saturday and every single one of our plans fell through for one reason or another so that night we just started knocking doors and we came across Lupe. She said she's religious but has never felt complete at any of the churches she's gone to, and hasn't been sure of where to go next. She invited us in and we talked for an hour and a half with her, answering all of her questions and testifying that there is a living prophet on the earth today.  I've never felt the Spirit so strong in a lesson and as we were getting ready to leave Lupe told us that she knew God had sent us to her. She said that she doesn't usually let missionaries in and that she's seen the elders around and would never have let them in her house, but something about us spoke to her. She said that God told her to "sit down and listen for a second." 

I've spent a lot of time studying my patriarchal blessing this week, looking at what blessings it promises me in relation to my mission. One thing that stood out to me the other day was that it says 'sister missionaries have something different about them than elders.' As I read, the Spirit testified to me that if I work hard as a missionary, I will be able to get into houses that elders sometimes can't get into. Lupe was one of two houses like that this week.

This week has been so hard. I never thought I'd be so homesick or miss the MTC this much, but I know that God wants me to be out here, and that there's nowhere better that I could be. I'm right where I need to be, right with the people I need to be with, and at the time the Lord needs me to be here. I have so much love for the people we've come across. It's amazing that it only takes one meeting to feel so much love for strangers, but every time I talk to someone, I can see them bearing their testimony on Fast Sunday or leading the music in Relief Society, or getting to go to the temple with their family.  I'm so blessed to be given these little sneak peeks of God's plan for people, and so blessed to be the vessel that helps them achieve that.

Can't wait to see what next week's adventures are!

-Hermana Thunell

Hello from the Texas Houston South Mission!

Dear Missionary Family and Friends,

Hello from the Texas Houston South Mission, the best mission in the world!  We were blessed to have your missionary arrive safe and sound to Houston today.  After we welcomed her at the airport, we had the blessing of getting to know her better and hosted her for an early dinner at the mission home.  Your missionary has been assigned to her new companion and is on her way to her new area this evening.  First thing tomorrow morning she’ll be out the door serving and blessing someone with the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We love them and we know they will do excellent work.  They are well prepared to serve the Lord and we expect great things from them.  We also know you will support and encourage them to become the best missionary they can be.  

We appreciate all you have done and we are grateful for the sacrifice you are making as a family.  You can follow us on www.facebook.com/thethsm, we try to post regularly (individual pictures of your missionaries are posted there now).  You can also view the weekly email I send to the missionaries at www.texashoustonsouthmission.com (President's Pen).  Sister Hall and I feel so blessed to serve with your missionary.  We will love them, support them, and help them become powerful missionaries that are committed find, teach, invite and help bring others unto Christ.    

We love this work and we know you and your family will be blessed through their faithful service.  

All the best, 

President & Sister Hall

Texas Houston South Mission