Hey Family! Hope you are all doing AWESOME!!
So yesterday was my 5 month mark! Can you believe it! I'm so old! The end of this transfer I'm going to be a third of the way done with my mission. Like 1 out of 3, 33%, a year left, crazyness! I don't know where the time has gone, but I can already see such a change in myself, it awesome!
This week while tracting we ran into the meanest guy I've met on my mission. We simply said hello, and he started telling us that we were teaching false doctrine, that we needed to re-evaluate our beliefs, that we were gonna go to hell, that we were possesed, that we'd been brainwashed. And then he got right up in my baby's face and I said,
"Sir, we are simply out inviting, I know that this is true because I prayed and got an answer from God. You obviously believe you have have as well"
then he cut me off and said,
"I have and I know that this book is trash!"
Then he tried to grab the Book of Mormon out of Sister Downs hands to throw it on the ground, and she held it will all her strength and said,
"Don't throw this on the ground, this is a sacred book"
And we said, we have to go, and we walked away.....he started laughing creepily and we got away from there as fast as we can. This may just sound like a normal encounter with an unbeliever, but I can't even to begin to explain how scared I should have been. It was as if I was staring Satan in the face and he was throwing everything at us that he could. As scary as it should have been, it wasn't. Sister Downs and I were able to stand our ground because we knew that we had the truth. We are representatives of Jesus Christ and nothing anyone says will change that. I know that at the beginning of my mission I would have been terrified, but I have changed so much, it's AMAZING!!!
Another thing that I've noticed is I can teach by the spirit a lot easier. Yesterday the gospel principles teacher didn't show up so the sunday school president was going to teach it, and then he said,
"well the sisters teach about the spirit alot, so do you guys wanna teach?"
so we did.....and I wasn't nervous!
We got up there and lets just say we didn't teach, but the spirit taught, and everyone in the class shared such amazing comments, it was incredible.
So, miracle for this week!
In Zone Conference they told us in weekly planning to pencil in the next 10 days, or plan 10 days in advance. Anyone who has been on a mission understands that you can't really plan that far in advance, people fall through all the time. But, we were asked to do it, so we did. We penciled things in and on the 15 we penciled in a baptism. We didn't know who's but we felt like we should. Then,Saturday night we went and visited the Smith Family.
Sister Smith is a Less Active member, she's in the Army so she's been deployed for a while. She has 4 kids; Laurie (14), Tristan (11), Andrew (9), and Landon (8). Laurie and Tristan are baptized, but Andrew and Landon aren't. We talked to them and Landon wanted to be baptized so bad, Andrew was a little unsure. We taught them The Restoration and they loved it! We invite to baptism on the first lesson so it came time. Sister Downs had never done it, so I decided that this was her chance. She looked at me and I nodded and she said,
"So Landon and Andrew will you follow the example of your Lord Jesus Christ and be baptized by His Priesthood Authority?" they BOTH said yes!
Then was the time for the specific date, Sister Downs looked at me and I nodded again, and she said,
"We are holding a baptism service next Saturday, will you prepare to be baptized by then?"
and they said YES!!!
So we have a baptism this saturday! And they are sooo excited. We are visiting them pretty much everyday this week, and they are just the cutest little things. They are so smart about the gospel, and it doesn't seem like their listening, but we'll ask them to explain at the end and they do it perfectly it's soo cool.
So we planned a baptism for saturday without knowing if it would happen, and now we have a baptism planned and on its way! It's amazing when your plans line up with Heavenly Fathers plan. Now we are just praying that everything will work out for it to happen this week.
Well, that was my week. It has had its ups and its downs for sure, but all of it has made me stronger and has made my testimony grow leaps and bounds.
Read and pray everyday!!! It brings so many blessings, and it aligns your will and Gods will, which makes you happier than you can ever imagine.
I love you all, and hope all is well! I'm sad I'm missing the reunion this week, let them know I love them all, and golf badly just in memory of me haha!!
I love you sooooo much!!
Sister Thomas
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