Monday was just a good P-day, oh and we got out pictures taken. There's this lady in the stake that is a photographer so she offered to take pictures for Sister Jensen because she was leaving and then she took mine to because I was there. They're pretty cute, I'll have to send them to you sometime. I haven't figured out the best way to send pictures yet so hopefully I'll find a good way.
Tuesday we went and saw the new apartment that we are moving to. Oh, so you know how I've been over the 2 wards (Kitsap Lake and Seabeck) well for my transfer call I found out that I am now just over Kitsap Lake! And my new companion is going to be Sister Nanto, who I've met once and she seems super awesome and I'm told she's super awesome so I'm excited. She was also already in the area before so I'm not as scared about not knowing the area, because she'll be able to help me out. Anyway, so even though I'm not leaving my area, I still have to move, so that's a pain, but it's alright. The new apartment is super cute, it's just a small 2 bedroom basement apartment that is underneath a members home. Members also own it and they are already super good to us. The church is such an awesome organization. They post on Facebook that they need furniture and dishes and such for the missionaries, and next thing you know you've got not only the necessities, but an electric ice cream maker, a rice cooker, a magic bullet, a keyboard, and so many other awesome things! Plus, the mission bought us brand new mattresses that are super nice. I'm way excited! I move in tomorrow!! So Tuesday we went and helped move things in there and move the furniture around and clean up a bit.
Also on Tuesday was Josephine Eichel's baptism. It was so incredible! She's been investigating the church for so long, and seeing her finally make that step to being baptized was a MIRACLE! She was so happy she was smiling from ear to ear! Then yesterday to see her receive the Holy Ghost was just another amazing experience. Funny story, so at her baptism the Sister in charge of giving the Baptism talk wasn't there and we couldn't get a hold of her, so Sister Jensen informed me I would have to give it if she didn't show up, so I started reading a little bit and looking up scriptures and then right as the ward mission leader (WML) gets up to start the meeting, the lady walks in, and I have a big sigh of relief......She gets up and thought she was speaking on the Holy Ghost so she talks about that. Then the WML gets up and says, now Sister Thomas has some words to share about Baptism....so I freak and get up, and somehow, well it was obviously the spirit, I give a talk on baptism. It was such a terrifying amazingly spiritual experience. I'm grateful I had that opportunity, it's true that your testimony grows the more you share it with others.
Wednesday was a pretty slow day we went to District Meeting, which was really long since it was the last one of the transfer, and then we went to visit a bunch of people, but none of them were home, it was frustrating. We went finding with little success, but we did find a less active member with a non-member husband and they said we could come back next week so we'll see what happens there.
Thursday was my first park day, which is where you have to walk....EVERYWHERE....unless a member offers you a ride. So we started out and walked about 2 miles and then a member of the Relief Society Presidency pulled over and drove us the rest of the way, we have the best ward ever by the way....I know that if they hadn't picked us up that there would have been 4-5 others behind them to do so. It's so cool to see how much they love the missionaries up here. So we went and visited a bunch of people in the ward, actually only like 2 since we had to walk between the houses. It was fun actually, until my knee started being dumb....but all is well with it now, it's just sore. When we were finding we found this guy named Jason who had read 1/2 the Book of Mormon just because he has nothing else to do on his ship, he's in the navy like everyone here, and he said he had questions but couldn't talk then, so I'm excited about that one.
Friday was full of driving from house to house. We went and did visits with Sister Stanger, the same woman that picked us up the day before, and we got to know lots of the new people in the ward. We met one less active member named Linda who is super sweet, she's 45 and had a stroke so the left side of her body doesn't really function great, but she still walks around, with a cane, and is such a strong and amazing woman. She has 5 sons, 4 of which aren't members but they love learning about it so we have an appointment set up with them for tomorrow night, hopefully it will go well.
When we were finding we met this kid that was really funny. His name is Chase and he's 21. The first thing he said to us was I'm Catholic my church says I shouldn't talk to you, and then 45 minutes later he said we could come back anytime and talk to him and his roommate. We talked to him about lots of the church, but mostly the Word of Wisdom. He was shocked that we had never had even one beer before.....he then offered us a beer, and we rejected and it was just a funny, spiritual conversation. We taught him the importance of living right, and keeping your body healthy and clean. He seemed to think that was really cool, he even said he'd check out church on Sunday but we told him it was at 11 and he said he works every Sunday 7-2, so we're gonna bring the YSA elders because it starts at 2:30, hopefully they will connect with him.
Saturday was Transfer Call day! Besides the transfer call, which wasn't until about 9:30 at night, we went and saw Kay and Patty, who are just so awesome. And we saw the Hodgdon's again. It was really funny, David was playing Minecraft, which I don't know if Adam or Andrew has played that but it's actually kind of cool, I think Dad would actually like it, it makes you think, I don't know it seemed cool. But he paused it to listen to our message and we brought the spirit, it was great.
That night we went to a members house for dinner and it was their sons birthday so we got him little dollar store gifts because he was turning 2 so he didn't really care, he loved them. The Vaughts, another member family there told us a funny story about how they were at the store and the cashier offered them a coupon for coffee. They said they didn't drink coffee and the lady said "Neither of you? Wow, what are the chances of two people that don't drink coffee finding each other?" They were just thinking to themselves....We could actually show you a lot of that....Its funny the things people view as strange or different.
Sunday was just an awesome Fast Sunday. I got up in the Kitsap Lake ward and bore my testimony, it felt awesome! We visited some families so Sister Jensen could say goodbye, and left her last words of love and advice to them. It was a great, yet exhausting day.
Well I hope you are all doing well. I love you all so much! I pray for you everyday!
I want you to know how grateful I am for being able to grow up in this Church, surrounded by so many wonderful examples leading me and guiding me to the point where I was able to learn for myself the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I said in my testimony yesterday that I have learned more in the month of my mission than in the last 21 years of my life. I think the reason for that is because I have seen here the joy and happiness that comes from living the Gospel. My testimony of the Book of Mormon has been strengthened tremendously. I know that if you read the Book of Mormon EVERYDAY that you will be blessed in every aspect of your life, and you will learn, if you're not entirely sure yet, that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's church restored to this earth through the prophet Joseph Smith. I challenge everyone who reads this, and I mean EVERYONE, to read even just one verse of the Book of Mormon a day for a month, and see if your life doesn't improve. I promise that if you do you will see a change in your life and it will be for the better. I promise if you pray, as well, that God will answer you and you will have his spirit with you. Just try it please, it can only help, I PROMISE!!
Well I love you all, have a great week, I miss you but I'm so grateful to be here serving the Lord, and it's already going by so fast. I'm 1/13 done!!! WHAT?!? Oh and I found out I come home on July 23, 2014, which is Amy's sweet sixteen!!! also, WHAT?!?
Well, that's all now, I love you so so much!! Stay happy and healthy!!
Sister Thomas
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