Week 4, the Thursday of a transfer

So this week was one of those weeks that you just wanted it to get over so you could get a new start.  There were still miracles, I mean on a mission theres not a day without a miracle, but everything just went wrong this week!

No one was home when we went knocking so it was just walking around for 2 hours in the cold knocking on doors of snow birds (people that live in Washington in the summer but move to Arizona or California during the winter) aka Belfair area.  Knocking will be a butt this transfer, but we've gotta do it, even if most people aren't home, there can always be that one that needs us, and we've got to be there for that! So sadly I don't have much excitement this week, it's been rough. 

Yesterday was the primary program though, and I just LOVE how funny little kids are, and how much spirit they bring to the meeting!! It's so incredible the faith of a child!! It's also incredible the air that some 4 year olds can get off of a theater chair up on the stage.  And also how hard boogers can be to find that both fingers need to go up the nose in the middle of I am a child of God! haha, I can't wait til I'm a parent and my kids are up there, sadly that will be at least 6 years, if not more, but one day I will be the parent laughing so hard at my kid that my face is blue! haha!!  I can't wait!

I learned this week from reading the Book of Mormon.  I learned that there is right and there is wrong.  That's it.  It's not easy to accept, but that's how it is. 

Oh and to make the week end on a good note the power of course went out last night, so we were without light for 2.5 hours, but not only that, but our bathroom is a septic tank, which means when the power is out theres no water, or toilet.  And we both had to pee....really bad, perfect way to end this week!  haha, sometimes I just think God is up there laughing and saying one day you'll see why this happened, but for now it's just funny!

I love this Gospel and I know the church is true and that true joy comes from keeping the commandments of God, as hard as they may be.  I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!! I love you all and miss you to pieces!! I can't believe it's almost Christmas! AHH the downhill portion of a mission is just too fast!! 

Have a great week! I love you all!!

Oh, and Happy Halloween! I'll be stuck in a church from 4:30-8:30 but I hope you all have fun! haha, stupid people that dress up like missionaries and do dumb things so they have to confine us to a church so we're all accounted for.  At least we get to hang out with the other missionaries, that's always fun!!

Well I love you sooo much!!

Sister Thomas

So. Much. Spirit.

This week I have felt the spirit like never before!!! The missionary work has been going good, we have 2 solid investigators, and we had 4 investigators at church yesterday, that was exciting! And a miracle!! Now if only we can both be healthy the work can progress even faster!! This week we had the greatest spiritual experience of my life.  On Thursday night we were invited by the Branch President to do an FHE at the Women's Correctional Facility (the women's prison).

I didn't know what to expect going in, I was a little nervous to be honest, but the experience was so AMAZING!! We got all checked in, they previously did background checks and such on us, and we went into the little room that they set aside for the church on Sundays and Thursdays.  We had been asked by the Stones (Branch President&RS President) to teach the first lesson, but sad thing is we're not really allowed to proselyte, which meant we couldn't invite them to be baptized, we could just give them the information. 

There are 4 less active (LA) members that are currently at the facility so when there were 5 women we assumed that it was the 4 LA and 1 non-member.  Afterwards we found out that only 2 of the women there were members and the other 3 were non-members.  As we were teaching the Restoration the spirit was SO STRONG!  Especially when we started to talk about the Atonement and how everything that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  These women need that Atonement, obviously they had made choices in their life that have led them to where they are today.  The thing that was so amazing though was that they now had made the choice to turn their lives around when it matters.  They truly understand that Christ can and will forgive them when they turn to him!  So we weren't allowed at the end of the lesson to invite them to baptism, which was hard because all 3 of the non-members would have said yes.  I KNOW they will all join the church when they get out, they pretty much told us as soon as they had the opportunity they would be baptized. 

One of the ladies, Mary, was incredible, and I know we were there for her.  She told us afterwards that our personal experiences we shared helped her to see the truth of the gospel, and she had had questions about Joseph Smith, but we had helped her.  The best thing she said was "When I came in today I was on the fence about the whole Joseph Smith thing and my legs were over the side of it being wrong about to jump off, but after tonight I think I hopped over the fence to the side of knowing it's true."  Man, I almost cried, it was more spiritual than the MTC, which sounds weird, but its completely true!! I wish I could explain and have you experience it, so AWESOME!! I can't wait til they ask us to come back again!! We're trying to get permission from President to write letters of encouragement to them, hopefully we'll be able too!! They are such incredible ladies!! One of the Less Active ladies was in there because her family wanted to come back to church so to complete the repentance process she had to confess to something she'd done in the past and do some time, she was telling us how grateful she was to be back, even if it meant having to go through the correctional facility.  Her son is planning on serving a misson as soon as he graduates high school and she couldn't be more proud.  I love the gospel, its so incredible!!

I am so grateful to be a missionary and to be able to know the things I know and to be able to share them with the people here in Washington!!

I love you ALL!!! Have a great week!!!

I LOVE YOU SOO MUCH, EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU!!!!

 

LOVE,

Sister Thomas

This week has been so great!!

It's been another great week here in the WA-TAC!!! Even though the flu hit and we were down a couple days, we still had tons of miracles.  The biggest would have to be Heather!

We met Heather one day while we were knocking doors.  FYI: Knocking doors in Belfair is walking for 15 minutes then hiking to a house, where people usually aren't home, and then walking another 15 minutes followed by another hike to an abandoned door. 

Anyway, so we were knocking and we ran into Heather.  She is in her 20's and she's the sweetest little thing ever!! She has a 1 year old son named Hayden, who is stinkin adorable, and she's engaged to a guy, not our biggest fan at the moment, who is in the Navy.  We met her Wednesday and set up to give her a church tour on Friday.  She came and loved it.  She kept saying, that makes sense, yeah I can see that!  Then, she asked if our church did any fun events during the holiday season, and we were like......oh do we?  And we told her about 4 of the upcoming events and then she asked if there was anyone in our church that liked to craft or do quilting or stuff like that, and we wanted to just say,

"Heather, you've found the perfect church for you, we're full of crafters and we love having huge events with tons of food!!  Get baptized now and forever hold your peace!!!"

But we restrained ourselves.  She came to church yesterday and loved it.  Our ward was way awesome too, she got invited to 2 different dinners, and invited to all of the playgroups the mothers have.  Man, the Belfair ward is just taking off with this member missionary work, and its only just beginning. 

Our area, if we were to activate the whole ward, and bring people into the gospel as well could become a stake.....thats our goal! It obviously won't happen super soon, maybe not even while I'm here, but we can shoot for it!  We have 78 Less-active, Part-member families, thats like 156 people right there if they all came back to church and their significant others joined the church!! It's possible, Elder Holland in conference said, if ever member invites 1 person to an event between now and Christmas, millions will be baptized.  He didn't say if they come to church, or if they teach them something, or if they introduce them to the missionaries, but if they just invite them to an event.  One of the millions of potlucks that go on all the time work perfectly, I mean who doesn't love FREE FOOD!! haha

Ah man!! I love being a missionary.  Its incredible to know with no doubt that what we are sharing is true.  I was able to this week finish reading the Pearl of Great Price.  For anyone who doesn't know my goal on my mission is to read all of the standard works (Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, D&C and Pearl of Good Price).  I've completed the Book of Mormon (4 times so far) and Pearl of Great Price.  I can do it.  I think the Old Testament will be the hardest, I've skipped to short stories at time, b/c leviticus is so hard to get through with all the rules and weird customs, but I have learned things about myself and about the temple that have been really cool!  I've also learned that God is really funny sometimes.  For example, with the walls of Jericho falling down.  He just is so funny with how he goes about it, it's almost like he knows he has the power to have them obey him, so he has them do funny things like walk around the city and then scream and it will fall......what? I just love God so much!! He truly is my father, thats why I must love his humor so much!

My Book of Mormon reading has been great too!! I love just how faithful Nephi is, he's just so incredible, I wish I could be that faithful, and I know I can be.  One thing I learned is that its all about perspective.  If you look at the story Laman and Lemuel did everything their father asked, they just complained about it, while Nephi did it without complaining.  Unfortunately I fall under the Laman and Lemuel category lots of times, when I complain and don't do what I need to as joyfully as I could.  Its something I'm working on!!

Oh, exciting news!! I found out today that I'm a grandma!!! Sister Downs is training so I have a little Brazilian Grandbaby down in Brazil!! So fun, too bad I'll probably never meet her.... :(  I'm so glad you got to meet Mama Nanto!! I love her so much, she helped me through alot as I'm sure she mentioned!!! I'm glad you liked her, she said she loved all of you!! 

Well, I think thats all I got this week!! I hope I made sense!!

I love you all and miss you!! I can't believe its almost Christmas and I'll get to see your beautiful faces soon!!

Have a great week and pray and read your scriptures every day! I promise it will bless your life!! 

I LOVE YOU!!!!

Sister Brittany Thomas

Out in the Boonies!

This week has been great!! My new companion, Sister Chapman, is awesome!! We're like the same person, like legit, it's crazy!! We both just came out of tough companionships/transfers too so we're glad to have someone that is excited to work!!

So Belfair is legit the boonies, there are 5 different little cities that are included in my area.  We live in the most beautiful place though.  We live in a townhouse right on the waterfront of the Hood Canal!! It's gorgeous, I'll send you a picture when I remember my cable....

So as you all are aware I'm sure, General Conference was incredible!!!! It was so good!! I haven't loved conference so much in my life, I felt like everyone was talking directly to me!! Oh and I'm saying this for record, but I bet Richard Dube, the african member of the 70 is going to be one of the twelve Apostles one day, he was just so incredible!

Also this weekend I got to go back down to Parkland for Rachel's baptism!! It was so awesome!! Not only did I get to see her take this incredible step in the Gospel, but her husband was there and the spirit was just incredible!!  I also of course got to see all my great "family" members!  They were all so shocked to see me, it was so fun!!  I can't believe its only been a week, yet somehow I miss them all so much already!

I also got to see Melissa, and she told me the most incredible news ever!!!  One day she was reading Mosiah 18 (Baptism chapter- covenants and so forth) and she realized that she really needed to be baptized.  So she called the state and worked out how she could still get her social security money and medication when she got married, and they figured it out.  So she's going to propose to her boyfriend and get married and then immediately baptized in November, and she wants Sister Ryser and I in her wedding, so Ryser asked President and he said we could be, as long as we were missionary attire and had our name tags!! So I get to be a bridesmaid on my mission, so I'll get to go back for that!! I'm so excited!!!  I was in pure shock when she told me!! She is just so amazing, I love her so much!!  She is one of the many that God has prepared for us to find and teach!!

So this week with my Book of Mormon reading (1 Ne 1- 1 Ne 16) I really noticed how important it is to Trust in God.  I don't know how Nephi is so perfect, I'm guessing maybe Mormon kept out some weaknesses to make him cooler and more heroic, but not too much, he's just an incredible guy!! I learned this week that its because he Trusts so much in God.  He has no doubt that when God makes a promise he'll fulfill it!!! He has such awesome faith, it's so inspiring!!!

So for anyone who may be reading along with me by the end of next Monday we should be to 2 Nephi 9, or somewhere close to there.  I encourage you all, even if you don't stay exactly with me, to read the Book of Mormon everyday, even if it's just a verse, that's all it takes to be happy!!

Well, thats all I have for this week, I hope you all are well!!

I love you all and miss you!!

I love you!!!

Sister Thomas

Take me home, country roads

Hello Family!!

So I got my transfer call and I'm headed to Belfair, WA, aka, the country.  My area is about 1.5 hours from one side to the other....I'm getting a Sister named Sister Chapman.  I don't really know her, but from what I've heard she's a great missionary so I'm excited.  This means though that sadly I'm leaving Parkland.  I knew it was happening but it didn't hit me until we were sitting in fast and testimony meeting yesterday and I realized I'm not just leaving another ward on my mission, it's like leaving home again.  This ward has seriously become like my family, there are so many people that I know will be friends for life.  Now I just have to get better at writing letters so I can stay in contact with them.

One family I love with all my heart is the Pathakis'.  Brother and Sister Pathakis were less active when I got to the area, however God had perfectly timed them to come home from a trip to temple square in SLC the Sunday we got there.  Since then we have been able to go over weekly and keep Sister Pathakis pumped.

On their trip she realized that she NEEDED to get to the Temple, and she would do whatever was needed.  She was baptized10 years ago, and besides the 2 weeks she had quit smoking in order to be baptized, she had smoked for 37 years.  I believe today she is 32-37 days without a cigarette, and really without any desire to smoke.  She starts her Temple Prep classes on Wednesday, I'm so excited for her.  Not only has she been changing her life, but she has been changing the lives of those around her.

Her next door neighbor Rachel has become a dear friend.  We were able to attend her wedding which was in the Pathakis' backyard, and since then she has come to us asking about the Gospel.  She came to the General Relief Society meeting on Saturday, and then to church on Sunday.  She told us yesterday that she just knows its true.  Sister Pathakis said during church Rachel just leaned over to her and said, "Renee, It's true." and sister Pathakis said, "what is?" and Rachel said, "This Church, it's all true!"  She's getting baptized next Sunday after General Conference and she's so excited.  I love when God blesses us with such amazing people.  She is married and has a 18 month old son, Felix.  We talked about the temple yesterday and she loved it, she's hoping Edgar, her husband, will feel something at her baptism and feel of the truth.  He's hispanic and was raised Catholic, so he's a little unsure right now.  I hope President Weaver will let me come back for the baptism, I remember last transfer when Sister Downs and I met Rachel for like 2 seconds I said to Sis Downs, "She's going to get baptized, not now, but soon!"  I realize now that the spirit allowed me to see that, which allowed me to not be scared when we shared the Gospel with her! 

Another family I will love forever is the Ani's.  The Senior couple and sis downs and I were able to help bring them back to activity.  And I saw on Sunday that Sister Ani is starting Temple Prep classes as well!! I know lots of missionaries hate working with Less-actives and just want baptisms, but I've come to learn just how important it is to do both.  I'm just as happy seeing my sister get ready to enter the temple as I am to see a brother or sister of mine be baptized.  They're all God's children trying to find a way back. 

Sister Staples is a great example as well.  The first time sis downs and I met her 3-4 months ago she said she'd never come back to church, and now she is working on getting back to the temple.  Yesterday when she found out I was leaving she was crying, and said, you better stay in contact with me.  You're invited to my temple wedding when I find the right man!  Tears swelled up in my eyes, especially when her little 5 year old grandson walked up with tears in his eyes and said, "Bye, Sister Thomas, we'll miss you!"  Man, this ward.....I was balling like a little baby bearing my testimony because everywhere I looked someone was crying.  I wish I could move areas and companions, but keep the same ward, why can't that happen? haha!  I know it will all be good though, God has a plan, and it's a plan of happiness, so what ever is going to happen, as long as I keep my end of the bargain, I will be full of everlasting Joy!

So, tomorrow, OCT 1, there will be 100 days til my 1 year mark....CRAZY!! I'm starting the downhill slope, and it's starting to go too fast!! Anyway, since there are 100 days I am doing a 100 day Book of Mormon reading challenge! I hope you all do it! It's only 5.3 pages a day, and it will be so fun!  Each Monday I'm going to share a little of what I learned, I'd love to hear what you've all learned too!  By the end of next Monday you should be around page 37, I'll get a better schedule set up and send it out, I haven't had time to do it yet!  I'm going to try to have the week of Christmas be a little less to read a day since it will be crazy busy, so I'm trying to figure it all out!

I hope you all have a great week!! I can't wait to hear more and more fun things from you!! And I can't wait to hear what you all learn from the Book of Mormon!!

I love ALL of you SOOOO MUCH!!!

I love you!

Sister Brittany Thomas

Let us all Press on in the Work of the Lord!

This week has been another crazy week!!

One of the greatest things we were able to do was go to a place called Zions Camp.  It's an lds owned property up in Belfair, WA, where girls usually go for girls camp.  Our mission was able to go up there for a day and do the ropes course which taught unity and trust.  Then we had a little devotional, sang some songs of course, and headed home.  It was a beautiful and incredible day!  It was so beautiful, I wish I had taken pictures, I'm so bad at that, I'm sure theres some on the wa-tac blog though...in fact, here's one from the blog,

 

 

It's a really cool place! At the end of the day we all wrote down our "weapons of rebellion" like the Anti-Nephi-Lehites and we burned them in the fire....it was such a spiritual experience up there, being in nature I just feel so close to God, it's incredible!

At the end we sang "Amazing Grace" and when we sang the line, "my chains are gone, I've been set free" I just about started weaping....that song has become so dear to my heart, it will always remind me of my mission. 

The rest of this week has been pretty average, people saying no, people saying yes but then not being there when we come back, and Melissa being SO GOLDEN! but not willing to act on the answer she's received and get married or stop living with her boyfriend....man Agency is the worst sometimes.....so let me kinda explain in a little more detail.

So Melissa has believed everything that we've taught her, like in her prayers she says "thank you for sending the truth to my door", and "thank you for the spirit being able to speak to me through these women", and "thank you for showing me the only true church and the truth of the Book of Mormon", not to mention she has come to everything since we met her 2 weeks ago.  She came to a baptism, church 3 times (one of which was stake conference), the Relief Society Activity, and the Ward Social last Saturday. 

We took her on a church tour this week, and at the end she said, "The Spirit keeps saying to me 'be baptized my child'."  From all these signs you'd think that I'd be saying, and she's getting baptizedtomorrow, but unfortunately Satan is the worst, and she's scared to get married or move out because of money and medication and such!  It's hard, we don't know what to do because we can't really help her move forward any more, it's all about her choosing to take a leap of faith, and put her trust in God, and Trust that He would provide for her if she followed Him.  I know that she will be baptized, and I will be there, even if its in a couple years and I have to come back.  ohhhh agency so awesome but so frustrating!!! 

So I talked with President this last week and he pretty much told me my transfer call, he said he doesn't know where yet, but I'm going to have a new companion and most likely leave Parkland.  I'm excited, Sister Ryser has been TOUGH!! Everything is somehow always my fault.  I love her, but I just get frustrated when I'm always being put down, its not very fun.  Theres only a week left though, it will be ok!  President promised me that if I did my part in making sure I was exactly obedient, then next transfer would be the best transfer of my mission.  I can't wait, but I'm sad to leave Parkland if thats the case, this ward truly is my family! I have come so close to so many of them, I guess I'll just have to be really good at writing letters! :)

Well, I'm afraid thats all my brain can or wants to recall from this week, this last week of transfer will and HAS to be the BEST!!! 

I'm so grateful to be a missionary, man I can't even believe I'm almost at 9 months!! This last week I totally had a mid-mission crisis, like bad, I was a mess, but now I see that I need to appreciate every minute of being here.

I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints is the only church on the earth that contains the fullness of the Gospel, and I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and it can bring anyone, along with the Bible, the greatest Joy!

I love you all and miss you!!! I hope you are having an INCREDIBLE week, and I hope it gets even better!!! 

I love you!!!

Sister Brittany Thomas

I love the Priesthood!

This week has been a week of ups and downs of course!! (That's missionary work!) On Monday we saw Josephine and Jaylene, her granddaughter, and taught the Word of Wisdom.  We found out she smokes and drinks coffee and tea, but she said she'd live it and she knew God would help her!  We found out Tuesday I believe that her manager was evicting her from her house.  Josephine has been struggling with money b/c her husband is in jail and she was getting the retirement (since he's retired) wired to the joint account.  Aparently someone closed that accound and the money is getting wired to a different account that no one seems to know about.  Obviously theres some fraud going on, anyway, Josephine doesn't have a good enough income without that to pay rent, and her manager, even though Josephine has never been late on a payment, kicked her out for not paying.  It makes me really upset, and the worst part is we haven't been able to get in contact with her the last couple days, she didn't come to church yesterday, I'm just hoping and praying she's ok. 

On Thursday we went to a Relief Society meeting that was so uplifting.  Josephine as well as Melissa were both able to come.  It was a former stake presidency member, President Hjelm, and he talked about the Holy Ghost and recognizing it.  It was incredible, both Melissa and Josephine loved it.  Afterwards Josephine asked for a blessing.  President Hjelm and Bishop Thompson were able to give it to her.  It was so AMAZING, and afterwards Josephine was crying!! I wish I could portray just how truly incredible it was.

Oh man, I have to tell you about Melissa!!

Melissa is incredible.  On the door step you could say, no she said she wasn't interested, but for some reason (which we know now) the Spirit just told us to keep pushing, so we did.  After an hour or so we were in her house showing her mormon messages and other talks.  By the end she said she'd read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and come to church one time.  We knew leaving she'd do more than that and she has. 

She is so elect!! Everything we teach her, she knows is true!! Its amazing.  She asks us about things before we teach her too. For example, she came to a baptism last week and afterwards she started asking about smoking, drinking, word of wisdom stuff.  We told her we'd talk about it, then she brought it up again, and then finally as we were walking her to her apartment she said, "so I smoke and drink a little bit, do I have to stop doing that?" and so we taught a little short word of wisdom lesson, and told her we'd teach it in more depth when we came back.  When we came she told us she'd decided to slow down smoking and she had called the doctor and scheduled a time to get a nicotine patch....by herself, before we really taught her about it. 

She did the same thing with the Law of Chastity.  She lives with her boyfriend, and even after we  taught the Law of Chastity doesn't see that changing.  But, she's been talking about getting married alot the last day or so, especially because at church yesterday the Gospel Principles lesson was on Eternal Families, of course because God's timing is just PERFECT!!  She leaned over during it and said, "this is for me!"

Thats really the only thing holding her back from baptism right now.  and she has a mental disablility and she's struggling with making sure that she really wants this. 

Yesterday it was so cool! She said, "so do WE have rules about movies and music and stuff, is there stuff WE should stay away from?" I was in awe because 1. investigators don't usually just bring that up, and 2. She said we, like she was already a member, and its because she KNOWS its true!! I love being a missionary!!

Well I said I love the priesthood in my subject and thats not only because it helped Josephine, but also because I was able to get a blessing last night from Bro. Childs and Bro. Thompson in our ward, and it was so peaceful and comforting.  I love hearing, audibly, my father in heaven talking to me.  I didn't want to ask for a blessing at first because I just wanted one from my daddy, but that was impossible with me being on a mission.  But I finally realized that my dad wouldn't want me to suffer the hardships I was so I asked the next closest thing to my dad which is Brother Childs!! It was such a great and peaceful thing.

Well, you're probably tired of reading by now, and super confused, I feel like I've been all over, but hopefully something was fun for you to read :)

I'm so grateful to be out on a mission!! I miss you all so much, but honestly there is no place I'd rather be than in the Parkland ward, in the Lakewood Stake, of the WA Tacoma mission, in the great Northwest state of Washington!!! I love it so much! And I love my Heavenly Father and Savior so much as well!!!

I hope you all have amazing weeks!! 

I LOVE YOU!!!

Love,

Sister Brittany Thomas