Welcome to San Antonio!

Hello Everyone! So we decided to create this blog for people interested in following Tommy through his mission in San Antonio. Here's a little recap for those of you who are not familiar with Tommy's recent life. Tommy started attending The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in January 2008 and was baptized a member in May 2009. He then went to the LDS Business College for his freshman year of college. While he was there he prepared to serve a full-time mission for the LDS church. He put in his mission papers in February and received his mission call from the First Presidency of the church on St. Patrick's Day. He was called to serve in the Texas, San Antonio mission speaking Spanish. His two-year assignment started June 2 at the Provo, Utah Missionary Training Center. He spent his first 9 weeks there preparing to teach the gospel to the people of San Antonio. Then on August 4 Tommy finally headed down to the Lone Star State! He is on fire! Here is his first email from the mission field:

Hello from San Antone!!!

Well I don't know really where to start so I am just going to dive right in! I got off the airplane and the second I got off.... Sticky. Haha I sure felt that heat and when you travel you have to have suit on. So yeah like 110 heat index in a suit... I've been through worse ;). On the plane Hermana Snow and I were able to talk with a husband and wife for awhile and were able to give them a Book of Mormon and they gave us their phone number to be referred to the missionaries in their area. This was all in spanish and he was very impressed with our spanish. It was a neat experience even though I know it was probably really broken spanish haha.

So anyway the first day was fun, we went to the Mission President's house for like the entire day where we kind of had our orientation. Got our medical cards, debit cards and all the stuff that is essential really. Knowing who to contact was important too. We had lunch then were out to the Alamo, where traditionally you go on your first day and learn about the Alamo and you then get out and hand out a Book of Mormon each. Kind of a thing to get you jitters out I guess. That's exactly what we did! Elder Lord and I gave away 3. It was way fun and a great start to the mission. After that we went back for some more preping, dinner, then we spent the night at the Assitants to the President's apartment (not sure if that is grammatically correct...). They had plenty of space and it was weird knowing that this was the last night, maybe, that I would be seeing Elder Lish, Lord, Thomas, ect. But we lived it up, for all of the 10 minutes we were awake hahaha we were so tired!

We woke up, got ready and we were off to the transfer mtg. at the stake center by the presidents area, to figure out who our trainers were and where we were going!!!!!!!! I was sooooo stoked!! It was awesome! We got there and they took all 16 of the "greenies" to a room at the church to announce it where lo and behold I was NUMERO UNO!!! I am serving with..... Elder Berntson (BURN-son).... In the St. Cloud C area!!! It is in the Noth zone. The most southern part of the North zone. The city San Antonio itself is divided into 4 zones North, South, East and West. It is pretty close to downtown, maybe like 10-20 minutes... But yeah it is super sweet!! So after the meeting Elder Berntson turned to me and said we have to go, we have an appointment in an hour! And we were off! We got my bike and hit up St. Cloud C.

Elder Berntson is about 6'4" 240, with a scholarship to Utah State to play football as a defensive end. He is from Logan, UT and also is the had the fastest time in all of Utah in the 300m hurdles! And 8th fastest in a California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Utah Regional Tournament. He is a beast! Best of all though he loves to work! He is an extremly hard worker and he gets after it. For a trainer he is relatively young. He has only been out 7 months but he spent the first part of his mission on the border so his spanish is pretty good. He leads by example and lets me work too. That is what i like most. I just wanted to jump in, I didn't want my trainer to feel like he has to drag me around and punch me to talk. I participate fully in the lessons and love biking down people to talk to them haha. Needless to say, he is an incredible trainer and he is funny and loose at the same time.

Already we have seen some really cool things!! We teach everyone, and it is about 30-40% spanish in my area. On the first day we taught The Ramirez family and their friends. I held my own and felt like we delivered a strong message. We have another appointment with them coming up so we will see how they progress.

There are fantastic things going on in my area!! Yeah, there was this woman named Bambi :) and she is so solid! If all goes well this next Saturday... I should have a baptism!! I won't want to jynx it so I'll stop there. But she is so nice and really just rocks my socks. Someone that is super solid too is Anna. She is phillipeano (sp?) and on the smaller side. But she had the neatest experience and she is always so kind to us. That's one thing I have noticed too, like no one is super rude, most people polietly dismiss you it is way nice! Any way, she lost the directions to the church, and instead of giving up, she prayed and just left in her car to church. She said the Spirit told her where to go and when to turn. She stopped at a gas station to try to find help but they didn't know where it was. So she got back in her car when she just kept following the quiet promptings of the Spirit and she got there!! It was so incredible, what a miracle! Come to find out too that on her own she has read 10 chapters into 1st Nephi! She is incredible!!

I love my district! They are so nice and last night at a members house for dinner, we all ate a hobenero......!!!!!! Hahahaha quite the experience, great bonding time! Hahaha! I am doing more than fine!! Thank you so much for your support and for all that you do! I love you all and know that this church is true as I witness miracles everyday! I love Texas and can't wait to bring yall down here!

- Elder Walter