Feb 25, 2013

Hey Family!!!

Sorry it has taken so long to write.  Monday was president's day so the library was closed, and then tuesday was super busy, and then yesterday I was really sick.  Yes, the flu got me, and it got me bad!! Wednesday morning I woke up at 2:30 and threw up, and then at 4, and then at 5:15, and then at 7, and then at 9:30, and then at 10:45......needless to say, it was the longest night ever!!! At 11 some Elders came and gave me a blessing, and it helped, I haven't thrown up again yet, cross my fingers I don't.  I just barely started eating regular food, so hopefully all will be well, I still feel pretty crummy though :(  Being sick on a mission is way worse than being sick any where else because all I want to do is go out and do work, but I can't really.  It's frustrating!!

Anyway, on to happier things.....

So last week was a good week.  We went to this families house for dinner one night and it was really funny because their little boy was pretending to call our houses, and he was like, just kidding I can't talk to your family.  We told him he actually could, then he said...but not with you here right?  And we told him we could be there while he was, and then there was a pause and he said, "YOU COULD USE ME?!?" It was really funny, we all died laughing.

We also had interviews with the mission president last week.  They were good, it's always good to talk with President Weaver because he is one of the nicest people I've ever met, and he can discern you in like 2 minutes, which is kinda scary, but super awesome at the same time.

On Valentines Day it was really funny to go Finding/ Knocking.  There were lots of people that said, "Um, we're really busy right now, maybe later" and you'd see the dimly lit room in the back, and hear romantic music....it was pretty awkward.... then there was one house that was completely decorated with hearts and pink lights and everything, and one room was lit in only red lights, and we decided not to knock on that one......

We did find a couple that was interessted on Valentines Day.  Their names are Kay and Patty.  They've been together for 30 years, but they aren't married because of social security or something like that.  He is a retired Marine, and she is just a funny 78 year old woman who has given up faith in finding a faith.  She told us she's researched every church, and tried everyone and she's tired of looking.  She said she hadn't heard of ours and we said, you don't have to look, we found you.  We went to go visit them again last Saturday and barely caught Patty as she was heading to the hospital because Kay had something happen with his heart.  We told her about blessings and asked if she wanted us to come to the hospital to give him one, and she agreed....we took our Zone Leaders and they gave Kay a blessing and it was amazing. Afterwards he wiped away a tear, and we said our goodbyes, and told them we'd be by to visit them soon.  We haven't been able to make it back sadly because we don't want to get them sick.  Hopefully they want to change and come to church and check it out.  It's hard sometimes because the church is like 30-40 minutes away from some people....we have members by them though so that should help.

Something else that happened this week was we took Josephine to a baptism some other missionaries were having in our district so she could see what it was like before her own.  We had her come early and we gave her a church tour, which it was my first, and man that is quite the powerful thing to do.  We walked her through the foyer and talked about Jesus, with all the pictures around of Him.  Then we took her into the chapel and talked about Sacrament meeting, and how it's designed so we can sit with our families, and then we took her up to the sacrament table and talked about the Atonement and the Sacrament.  Then usually, we didn't do it with Josephine because she's getting baptized, but with most people we'd take them to the picture of Jesus being baptized and we'd talk about baptism and how it is following the example of Jesus Christ, and we'd try to put them on date.  I hear they get a lot of people that way, it's pretty amazing the spirit that is felt in just being in the church building.

I'll get to do one on Friday with these 2 guys we met tracting on Tuesday.  We're bringing a male member with us because one of the guys we're kind of scared of, the first thing he said was "Oooooh, so they have the girls coming around now huh?  Get the good looking ones out to find people."  Then he kept saying things and trying to hit on us, it was uncomfortable, so we're gonna have a male member just in case.  It will be interresting, the older man seems really interessted though, so that is good.

Oh a super cool thing happened with David Hodgdon this week.  We were over at their house and we got a call from a new investigator named Joseph Rose whose car got stuck off the side of a road.  He asked if we could help, or find someone to help and we told him we would find someone and get back to him.  We called the Elder's Quorum president and he said, "The only person I can think of that has a big truck is David Hodgdon"  That's when we were like, duh, ok we're here, we'll ask him.  He was in the middle of playing Call of Duty with a bunch of his Navy friends, and we asked if he could help us out.  He immediately said, sorry guys I've got to help a friend out, and turned off his game and came and helped.  Sarah, his wife, had the most shocked face I'd ever seen.  She couldn't believe he just got off that quick, it usually took a lot of work to get him off. He came and pulled Joseph out of the whole, and when he drove off he had the biggest smile on his face.  He's going slow, but I think he's taking baby steps to having a better life, we still haven't seen him drinking again.  It helped us with Joseph Rose too because it showed him that he can call us when he needs to and we'll be there.

Oh on P-day this week we went down to the Mullinex, which is the stake building  for our stake, and we played games with our zone.  I forgot my gym clothes and shoes of course so I played in my pencil skirt I made, and my little tan shoes.  We played volleyball it was fun, and then we played speed, and I WON!!! Say what?!? It was crazy! I beat like 7 elders, and 2 sisters, and I was in a pencil skirt.  Needless to say they were pretty impressed...Then we played again and like the 4th game an elder (Elder Bowser) whose name is pretty legit, shot it behind me and it hit off the rim perfectly so that it came straight at me, and hit me really hard in the nose, he felt super bad, but I just kept going so that I wouldn't realize how bad it hurt.

Well, I think that is all for this week...I can't really think of anything else....but I love you guys, and miss you, and I pray for you every day!!!! 

Stay Awesome!! I love hearing from you guys each week, it's fun to see how you're doing.  Love you TONS!!!  Have a great week, I will be back on Monday.  Love you and miss you!  And stay healthy please, being sick is a pain!!! :)

 

Sister Brittany Thomas

Feb 21, 2013

Hey Family!!!

Sorry it has taken so long to write.  Monday was president's day so the library was closed, and then tuesday was super busy, and then yesterday I was really sick.  Yes, the flu got me, and it got me bad!! Wednesday morning I woke up at 2:30 and threw up, and then at 4, and then at 5:15, and then at 7, and then at 9:30, and then at 10:45......needless to say, it was the longest night ever!!! At 11 some Elders came and gave me a blessing, and it helped, I haven't thrown up again yet, cross my fingers I don't.  I just barely started eating regular food, so hopefully all will be well, I still feel pretty crummy though :(  Being sick on a mission is way worse than being sick any where else because all I want to do is go out and do work, but I can't really.  It's frustrating!!

Anyway, on to happier things.....

So last week was a good week.  We went to this families house for dinner one night and it was really funny because their little boy was pretending to call our houses, and he was like, just kidding I can't talk to your family.  We told him he actually could, then he said...but not with you here right?  And we told him we could be there while he was, and then there was a pause and he said, "YOU COULD USE ME?!?" It was really funny, we all died laughing.

We also had interviews with the mission president last week.  They were good, it's always good to talk with President Weaver because he is one of the nicest people I've ever met, and he can discern you in like 2 minutes, which is kinda scary, but super awesome at the same time.

On Valentines Day it was really funny to go Finding/ Knocking.  There were lots of people that said, "Um, we're really busy right now, maybe later" and you'd see the dimly lit room in the back, and hear romantic music....it was pretty awkward.... then there was one house that was completely decorated with hearts and pink lights and everything, and one room was lit in only red lights, and we decided not to knock on that one......

We did find a couple that was interessted on Valentines Day.  Their names are Kay and Patty.  They've been together for 30 years, but they aren't married because of social security or something like that.  He is a retired Marine, and she is just a funny 78 year old woman who has given up faith in finding a faith.  She told us she's researched every church, and tried everyone and she's tired of looking.  She said she hadn't heard of ours and we said, you don't have to look, we found you.  We went to go visit them again last Saturday and barely caught Patty as she was heading to the hospital because Kay had something happen with his heart.  We told her about blessings and asked if she wanted us to come to the hospital to give him one, and she agreed....we took our Zone Leaders and they gave Kay a blessing and it was amazing. Afterwards he wiped away a tear, and we said our goodbyes, and told them we'd be by to visit them soon.  We haven't been able to make it back sadly because we don't want to get them sick.  Hopefully they want to change and come to church and check it out.  It's hard sometimes because the church is like 30-40 minutes away from some people....we have members by them though so that should help.

Something else that happened this week was we took Josephine to a baptism some other missionaries were having in our district so she could see what it was like before her own.  We had her come early and we gave her a church tour, which it was my first, and man that is quite the powerful thing to do.  We walked her through the foyer and talked about Jesus, with all the pictures around of Him.  Then we took her into the chapel and talked about Sacrament meeting, and how it's designed so we can sit with our families, and then we took her up to the sacrament table and talked about the Atonement and the Sacrament.  Then usually, we didn't do it with Josephine because she's getting baptized, but with most people we'd take them to the picture of Jesus being baptized and we'd talk about baptism and how it is following the example of Jesus Christ, and we'd try to put them on date.  I hear they get a lot of people that way, it's pretty amazing the spirit that is felt in just being in the church building.

I'll get to do one on Friday with these 2 guys we met tracting on Tuesday.  We're bringing a male member with us because one of the guys we're kind of scared of, the first thing he said was "Oooooh, so they have the girls coming around now huh?  Get the good looking ones out to find people."  Then he kept saying things and trying to hit on us, it was uncomfortable, so we're gonna have a male member just in case.  It will be interresting, the older man seems really interessted though, so that is good.

Oh a super cool thing happened with David Hodgdon this week.  We were over at their house and we got a call from a new investigator named Joseph Rose whose car got stuck off the side of a road.  He asked if we could help, or find someone to help and we told him we would find someone and get back to him.  We called the Elder's Quorum president and he said, "The only person I can think of that has a big truck is David Hodgdon"  That's when we were like, duh, ok we're here, we'll ask him.  He was in the middle of playing Call of Duty with a bunch of his Navy friends, and we asked if he could help us out.  He immediately said, sorry guys I've got to help a friend out, and turned off his game and came and helped.  Sarah, his wife, had the most shocked face I'd ever seen.  She couldn't believe he just got off that quick, it usually took a lot of work to get him off. He came and pulled Joseph out of the whole, and when he drove off he had the biggest smile on his face.  He's going slow, but I think he's taking baby steps to having a better life, we still haven't seen him drinking again.  It helped us with Joseph Rose too because it showed him that he can call us when he needs to and we'll be there.

Oh on P-day this week we went down to the Mullinex, which is the stake building  for our stake, and we played games with our zone.  I forgot my gym clothes and shoes of course so I played in my pencil skirt I made, and my little tan shoes.  We played volleyball it was fun, and then we played speed, and I WON!!! Say what?!? It was crazy! I beat like 7 elders, and 2 sisters, and I was in a pencil skirt.  Needless to say they were pretty impressed...Then we played again and like the 4th game an elder (Elder Bowser) whose name is pretty legit, shot it behind me and it hit off the rim perfectly so that it came straight at me, and hit me really hard in the nose, he felt super bad, but I just kept going so that I wouldn't realize how bad it hurt.

Well, I think that is all for this week...I can't really think of anything else....but I love you guys, and miss you, and I pray for you every day!!!! 

Stay Awesome!! I love hearing from you guys each week, it's fun to see how you're doing.  Love you TONS!!!  Have a great week, I will be back on Monday.  Love you and miss you!  And stay healthy please, being sick is a pain!!! :)

 

Sister Brittany Thomas

Feb 11, 2013

Hey Family!!!

It sounds like you are all doing well, that is so awesome!! This last week for me was pretty slow, mostly because everyone and their dog (I don't know if you know this but everyone in Washington has a dog) has the flu.  Apparently its the biggest spread of the flu in like the history of the world.  CRAZY!! But because of it most the people we went to visit were sick and couldn't talk to us, it was insane.....We made all the plans for Jodi and Hannah Seeley's baptism though, Hannah's is on the 23, and Jodi's is on the 26!!! I'm so excited to see my first baptism, it will be such an amazing experience. 

The best thing that happened this week would probably have to be last night at our fireside.  The mission has been going stake to stake doing a musical fireside about Christ.  The last one for this cycle was down in the south conference, about 1.5 hours away, but they wanted all the new missionaries there, and I was happy to go.  Basically we sang some songs, both everyone and small groups, and then between the songs missionaries shared their testimony of Jesus Christ and it was amazing.  We sang Amazing Grace as one of the songs which is now one of my favorite songs.  It's amazing!!! My testimony of Christ and the atonement was strengthened leaps and bounds from it.  I love my Savior Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he made for me, and I know that he can take all your pain, and suffering away from you if you just turn to him and trust in him.  'All that is unfair can be made right through the atonement of Jesus Christ' (Preach my Gospel)

Other than that not much has happened....I feel bad that this is so short....Oh actually on Wednesday I started getting a cyst, of course, and so I asked the Elders for a blessing and it was such an amazing experience, and while it didn't go away completely the pain was so small it was almost un noticeable.  Even greater though was since I was getting a blessing, and it was during YW's, we encouraged Hannah Seeley to get one because Satan was after her, since she decided to get baptized.  She agreed and got one and it was incredible.  She was scared but afterwards she said that she had never had such an amazing feeling, and she felt so at peace, it was incredible.  The priesthood is such an amazing blessing!!

Well I hope all is well back at the homefront, it sounds like things are going good.  I can't believe Emily's registered for SENIOR YEAR!!!!! Crazy, it seems like only yesterday I was in high school.....what internship are you going to do, I wish I would have done that. 

Oh, and dad I met Bill Street's daughter the other day, it was super funny.  I was saying how you worked at Word Perfect and she said so did her dad, and then she asked when and I said 92- sometime and she asked her husband when her dad moved to novell, and I said my dad moved there to, then she went on facebook and saw if you guys were friends and you were and it was CRAZY!!! Her last name is Burnside, which is pretty awesome, reminds me of the civil war...General Burnside. 

Well I think that is all that happened this week.  I started getting the flu, which sucks, but is pretty inevitable when there are little kids running around with it, but its not to bad now, and I'm praying it doesn't get worse.

I love you all, and hope that everything is going great!! I pray for you every day, and I love hearing from you!!

Hey Family!!

Hello!! How are you guys? I'm doing great, the mission field is very different from the MTC but I think I'm really gonna enjoy it once I get the hang of it.  Right now its still really new, so it's strange, but great.  Um so I guess I'll just tell you about what I've been up to this week.

Tuesday: So Tuesday was a 20 hour day, with the time change, full of stuff.  I woke up at 3:30 utah time, 2:30 washington time, and got ready to head out.  Our district saw us off (4 didn't leave til Wed so it was super cool of them) and then we drove up to the airport, I got to call you for a very limited amount of time, which was sad, and then I got on the plane and was off!!  I fell asleep on the plane because the seat next to me was empty and all the others around me were missionaries so there wasn't anyone to talk to. 

When we got to the airport, the 18 SISTERS, and 7 ELDERS (which by the way is the first time there have been more sisters than elders, and also been so many that came) President and Sister Weaver met us and they are the nicest people ever!! President Weaver is one of those people that can just look at you and know you're entire life story.  He is very good at discernment.  Then we drove to the mission, which was about an hour away, and had some training.  After the training I met my companion Sister Jensen.  She is from Hooper, Utah, and she is awesome!  She only has 4 weeks left, so one transfer, so it's funny to see what I will be like by the end of my mission.  We left Tacoma in our BRAND NEW 2013 TOYOTA COROLLA, which is pretty nice I guess :) and we went to my first area which is called Kitsap Lake and Seabeck.  We're over 2 wards, and the area is beautiful.  The members are super awesome too!!  When we got back we went knocking and it was strange, We got some nice no's, but we mostly got a lot of doors slammed in our faces, so that was fun.....

Then we went home and I finally got to go to sleep at 10:30!!

Wednesday:  We woke up at 6:30 and got ready, personal/companion studied, and then we headed to district meeting.  Which included, Elders Thornton and Lonas, and Sisters Daines and Esplin.  At the meeting I got called as like a Q something where I have to give an object lesson at every district meeting so that will be fun, Sister Jenson has already shown me some pretty cool ones.  We met with a lady named Josephine (Jody) who we put on date for Feb. 28! Then we went and met the Hodgdons, who I'll tell you about later, and we had dinner at a members house.  Then we went home for the day, after some knocking. Finding is 5-7 usually.

Thursday: We were in Tacoma all day doing a new missionary training.  The Weavers took us to the Sound, a big river ocean thing, and told us about how the song "I'll go where you want me to go" is pretty much describing our mission. My area is like mostly Navy base and most the members are military families, so I will learn alot bout military things I'm sure, I already have. For dinner a member took us to Olive Garden and it was delicious, if I get fat it will be the members fault, I have been fed dinner every night so far, and sometimes lunch too. 

Friday:  In the morning I went to one of my bishops houses, Bishop Nauman.  He is an orthodontist and has like a multi million dollar home on the lake, it's insanely nice!! We went back to the Hodgdons, who I'll tell about later.  When we went knocking we met this really funny old man that as we left he said, "you better leave before I fall in love with you, god bless you, and may your boyfriends be rich!"  It was really funny.  His name was Ray Roberts, he's a Navy veteran.

Saturday: On Saturday we went and visited a bunch of people, and went tracking in a trailor home where we met this mother and daughter named Levondra and Sophia.  We're taking them on a church tour on Wednesday so I'll have to let you know how that goes.  Then we had dinner at my other bishops house, Bishop Batschi.  After that we met a less active named Sarah Richards who has started going to church more, and she has 3 super cute little girls.  Then we went home.

That brings us to Sunday.  Sunday was an amazing day!  We started at 7:30 PEC meeting for one ward then went at 8:30 to our other ward PEC meeting  which we left to go to 9am sacrament meeting, sunday school, and then we went to 11 am sacrament meeting, sunday school, and Relief society, it was busy to say the least.  After church we ate with a member, and then we went to the Hodgdons.

The Hodgdons are a part member family (PMF) Sarah, the mom, has recently become active, and David, the dad, was until I came, completely against the church.  They also have 2 kids, carson and Morgan.  a girl and a boy.  So anyway, Sister Jensen used me as bait and asked David if I could practice teaching on him, and uncharacteristically he agreed.  So we went and taught him the 1st lesson which started out with him refusing to agree with anything, to him saying that he would pray.  It was incredible the change that there was.  He is one of the most stubborn people I've met, and somehow we got through to him.  So then on Sunday we went and visited them during the Super Bowl.  We knew he wouldn't turn it off so as we watched it, and by watched it I mean it was on, we were showing him Mormon Messages, and teaching him about different stuff, like prayer, since he hadn't done it yet, and family,because they understandibly are struggling a little bit, he's in the Navy by the way.  So we noticed he was drinking beer, trying to hide it by putting it in a mason jar, and Sister Jensen said, I can go dump that down the drain for you, and he was like "HECK NO, this cost a lot of money, that's stupid" They argued a little about how it's bad and such and that was it, or so we thought.  At 10:15 last night we got a text from Sarah that said right after we left he went to the sink, dumped out his beer and got an orange soda!!!!!! We couldn't believe it, the gospel is an amazing thing.  I don't know if he'll continue progressing at the rate he is, but I can see him in white, and I can see their family in white, being sealed in the temple, and it would be amazing because if he was baptised within the next 6 months I could go to their sealing while I'm on my mission!!! So that was the miracle of the week.

Well I hope all of you are doing good.  I love and miss you guys so much.  The homesickness finally kicked in the other day and it was tough, but seeing the change in David motivates me to stay and stay strong.  I love you guys so much!! Oh and I don't know if you sent my stuff already, if you did they will just forward it but for anything else you send my address is:

6665 Newberry Hill Rd.

Silverdale, WA 98383

It's a members home, and it's super nice, I'm told the nicest in the mission so it only goes downhill from here :)

Once again I love you, and I pray for you every day!!!

 

Sister Brittany Thomas

 

PS- Hey if you see him, you should ask Allan if he served in this area and if he baptized anyone here, that would be awesome if I met someone that he had baptized.  Anyway, I'll talk to you next week.

Miracles happen after the trial of your faith

Hey all you party people! I hope everything is well! It sounds like things are moving along with the house so that is awesome! Yay for new soft carpet in the family room!! Blessing in disguise I guess. 

So this week has been the toughest, but GREATEST week of my life.  I kind of had a break down last Thursday, but it made me way stronger!  Maybe I'll write you a letter with details it's quite the story.  Don't worry though, since that Breakdown, like I said I am growing stronger and stronger everyday. 

So my district like I said before is sooooo AWESOME!  They are seriously my family, and luckily most of them are from Utah so we can hang out after the mission.  So there are 12 of us and 8 are going to Tacoma (6 Sisters, and 2 Elders) and then the other 4 Elders are going to Vancouver.  They each have blessed my life and touched my heart in more ways than I could ever explain, it's an amazing thing.  By the way mom, EVERYONE LOVED your brownies.  Every one of them took a bite, starred at it, and then looked at me and said, "seriously? this is the greatest thing I've ever tasted!!" and then devoured the rest.  I have still yet to meet someone that doesn't like, actually love, your brownies.  They all say thank you! and that you're the best!!  One even said I wish my mom loved me that much!

So some of the things that happened this week....Thursday I had that melt down and the sisters in my district talked with me, and another sister (Sister Stucki).  Then, Friday morning I asked the Elders in our district to give me a blessing and it was AMAZING!!  The Elders in my district are so strong in the priesthood.  They didn't know the details of what I was going through, but the words of that blessing fit perfectly with the needs I had at the time.  The priesthood is an amazing, and truly powerful thing.  I'm grateful I have been able to grow up with the priesthood around me so I could know of its great power.  During lunch on Friday, as we were getting food the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate, which meant NO FOOD!! But then there was a little miracle because we got mail and Emily, my roommate, had sent me an 'Emergency Chocolate Bar' and so I had something to eat! :)  
Then, Friday night I went and talked to my Branch President, Pres. Oswald, and he helped me so much.  He suffers with clinical depression like me, so he gave me tips on how to work with it, and how to get through it.  It was so helpful, God truly put me in this branch and district for a reason.  

After these stressful days I was so relieved and happy when I woke up on Saturday Happy and excited about the day ahead.  It was the first day since Wednesday that I had truly felt the spirit, and it was the greatest feeling in the world.  And everyday since then it's just gotten better and better!  One evidence is that on Monday I had to teach our investigator the law of chastity.  She has lived with her boyfriend for 6.5 years, and she just had a baby.  The way I knew that I had the spirit was that she accepted it whole heartedly, and I know that I couldn't have done that on my own.  The spirit said through me the things that she needed to hear, and she chose to follow God instead of the natural man.  

Sometimes it's crazy how real the investigators here seem.  They're just our teachers playing investigators they had on their mission, but it seems completely real, even when it's a guy playing a girl....it's weird!

Thank you for the love and care you put into that package! It was seriously the BEST!  It also made me realize something.  I miss you guys soooo much, but I haven't wanted to go home because I'm excited to see you AFTER my mission, when I'm the person God wants me to be, and when I have completed the work I have to do!  This week has really shown me that God is there, and that he loves EACH and EVERY ONE of us.  He doesn't care what you've done, where you are in life, he just wants you to be happy, and live a life where you can grow closer to Him so you can eventually live with Him throughout ALL ETERNITY!!  I know that I am where I'm supposed to be, and I'm where I personally NEED to be.  This week especially taught me that miracles come AFTER the trials of your faith.

As I sat in the temple today I felt true peace in the first time, in a long time, and it was INCREDIBLE!!!  On Sunday night we watched Elder Bednar's talk "Character of Christ" which if you haven't read it or seen it you should, like RIGHT NOW!!  It was amazing, it changed me so much.  He talked about how we need to be like Christ and turn outward when we feel like turning inward.  He also talked about how we need to not be like the cookie monster who says, "I WANT COOKIE NOW", or in our case "I WANT BAPTISM NOW!!".  We need to get to know those we teach and we need to get them converted to God, not just get them a testimony.

I'm so grateful for my experience here at the MTC.  All the people I've met are such examples to me, and they are all truly great friends!

I love you all so much!  Thank you all for your letters, I'll try to write you all back, but if I pass out from exhaustion in the process and have a nap don't hate me!  I've never experienced physical, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion all at the same time before, it's insanely crazy, but at the same time, it's really cool!

Well, I love you all, keep me updated on life and stuff.  I can't believe in a week I'll be out in Washington teaching real investigators the gospel.  I love you and miss you!!  Oh and I don't know if there is money on my card for the airport, I need to pay for baggage but then they'll reimburse me when I get there it's like 70 or so dollars....I'm gonna copy and send you my travel plans so you're on the same page, and guess what, I can get a $5 phone card and call you from the airport, so look forward to that my flight leaves at 8:30 on Tuesday morning so it will be before that.  I love you guys again! And I'm praying for you every night!!

Sister Brittany Thomas