CRAZY slow week, legit lessons, Women's Meeting

This week has been interesting.  It has been CRAZY slow, but we have had legit lessons when we've had them!!

I don't have much time, I've been reading and watching videos, and looking at pics, so I'll try to sum up some awesome things that happened. 

So the greatest thing this week would probably have to be the Women's Meeting!! It was so great!! The spirit was so strong, I felt like it was really showing that crazy "ordain women" group that women don't need the priesthood, we have such a divine heritage, our divine nature is so great.  They may have the priesthood, but we have motherhood.  We are equally yoked....sorry about that, we've met a lot of feminists lately :) haha!!

Anyway, cool story!!

So at the meeting we were sitting behind this family and afterwards we talked to them.  Turns out they just moved up to Washington from the Northridge 12th ward in Orem, UT!!!! It was crazy!! They lived behind the Weenig's over by the Elementary school!! It was cool! We talked about different people, and the 2 girls (11 and 13) took a picture with me so they could show their friends that might know me, it was fun!! It's cool when the church makes the world small!!

We have been struggling a little bit with the work, just lack of interest, but we had 3 investigators at church yesterday, so we were renewed!!

I'm so excited for General Conference this week!! It's going to be exactly what I, and the world need!!!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!

I LOVE YOU!!!!

Sister Thomas

Is this real life?

This week has been the weirdest, fastest, slowest, lame, cool week in a long while.  It was the worst of times, it was the best of times.....really it was just strange.  So it was transfer week! I stayed as you know and so transfer meeting was able to be purely spiritual with no stress of getting all your stuff moved!! It was nice.  I  became the designated driver! WOO!!

Thursday I got a blessing because I had been feeling very weak and dizzy and tired, and it was a great blessing! I have felt so good since then and since I talked to this member, whose an EMT, and he gave me tips on how to help.  He thinks it could do with anemia or iron deficiency so I started taking iron and eating a lot healthier and I've been feeling great.  So with the spiritual help, and the physical help I am feeling great!!!

We're in that awkward moment of an area where your entire teaching pool gets baptized and all your potentials and new investigators are super flaky, it's pretty annoying, but we're getting some really good prospects so we're hopeful for another great transfer!!

All of our recent converts are doing amazing.  Jacob is just enjoying learning more and growing each week! Eddie got the priesthood last week and is still so excited about a mission in a year! Tom got confirmed yesterday and his parents told us he's changed so much, his teachers are asking what happened to help him open up! And Linda is one of those converts that if you met you'd think she'd been a member for like 20 years!! I am so blessed to have the opportunity to help God's children find the Gospel!!! I love being a missionary!!!!!

Yesterday church was great!!! I got to sing in a quartet!! I swear, apparently God has blessed me to get over my fear because that's now 2 solo's (I sang a solo in one of the songs yesterday) who would have ever thought that I would do that? It's crazy!!!

Well, I hope you have a great week!! I'm so glad I have the opportunity to be a missionary, it is such a privilege!!!  I'm out of time, and those were the highlights!!

Have a great week!!!

I LOVE YOU!!!

Sister Thomas

PS Oh you'll be getting a visit in a couple weeks from my current bishopric, they are going down to Utah for general conference and they said they'd bring some stuff down for me and so you'll get some boxes of my stuff, and get to meet my current bishopric, they're awesome!!

Have a great week!!

T9O - Land of Miracles

First off! On Saturday we got our transfer calls....and Sister Stevens and I are both staying in Tenino!!! I'm so excited!!! This is gonna be the 2 time when I've had a companion for more than 1 transfer! Well, Sister Halll til the ET, but besides that just my baby Sister Downs has been my companion for 12 weeks!! Hopefully there won't be an ET to ruin this one! Sister Stevens and I are having such a good time, and we're being blessed to find so many incredible people!!

This week we had the baptism of Linda Goolsby.  She is so awesome!! I haven't felt the spirit so strong at a baptism in a long time!! It was so incredible, we had more non-members there than members, she invited her friends and family, hopefully we'll be able to start teaching them.  Well, her granddaughter, not her friend she's from Aberdeen! Anyway, she got confirmed yesterday, and it's like she's already been a member for years, she is so awesome!

Another awesome thing that happened yesterday is that Eddie got the Priesthood!!!! Bishop told us he came up to him at church last week and said, "So I've already decided I'm taking this next year to work and save up money for my mission and prepare, and I'm gonna need the priesthood to go on a mission, so when can I get that?" haha!! Yeah, he is so awesome!!! I haven't really been able to see recent converts progress, it will be awesome to stay here another week, and see all those we've been able to teach, grow in the gospel!! I'm so excited!!!

Also this week we got some awesome referrals! The coolest is the girlfriend of this boy in the Centralia ward.  She is 17 has been coming to church for a while, and her adopted grandpa is a bishop in the Winlock ward nearby.  We said, oh so he wouldn't mind baptizing you...and she said, "yeah, he'd love to do that, he'll totally have to!"  We haven't even taught her yet! She is elect, I can feel it!!

Man, God truly is a God of miracles! I see that everyday!! I'm so grateful that I get to be His missionary and do His work!! Especially at this time, he has prepared SO MANY of his children to accept the Gospel.  We aren't hastening the work, he is, and we just need enough people to teach who HE is preparing!!

I am so grateful for this Gospel! It truly is Jesus Christ's church fully restored to the earth!! I know that God is our Heavenly Father, that He loves us and that he sent His only begotten son to pay the price for each of our sins!! I am so grateful for that knowledge, that even though life sucks, it can get better.  I'm so grateful to know too that this life in the whole scheme of things is so short!! After this life we will be able to be PERFECT!!! It will be a great day!!! I won't ever get sick, that would be nice!! :)

Well, I hope that you all have a great week, and remember all the blessings that God has given you!! I LOVE YOU!!!!

Sister Thomas

"I can't tonight, it's my mom's birthday"

This week has been a week of miracles,

First Miracle....Eddie Fonua!

So, Thursday Feb 20 we tracted into this 18 year old kid named Eddie.  We taught him the Restoration on his doorstep and he said, yeah that's awesome, he's read the BoM and has been praying about baptism, and then he went on to explain that Elder Penney and Elder Baxter had taught him that.....that's right...THEY POACHED!! Anyway, I'm over that now.....anyway, we texted them pretending to be super upset about it and they said we could have him.  We thought, alright, we'll check up on him sometime....Fast forward to Monday.  We get a call from the elders and they say Eddie just called and said he wanted to get baptized!!! But he "can't tonight because it's his moms birthday!" haha...oh we can help you, we thought!

So we taught him, and still let the Elders be involved, and he was baptized last Friday by his Best Friend Cory Richardson!! He is incredible!! He honestly has so much faith, he doesn't fully understand everything, but he knows that the Church is true, and the rest will come!! I've never grown so close so quickly to an investigator!! He's awesome!!!

Miracle #2....The Hess Kids

This last Thursday, Feb 27 we were tracting again, and we knocked into this member family that is in the Lacey Spanish branch!!  The Mino's family! They are awesome!! Anyway, we asked them about the Hess family and they said, yeah, we're like best friends with them, so seconds later Caleb calls, and they tell him to come over, and we end up teaching him a super awesome lesson, then, yesterday we taught him and his sister the full Restoration, and they are tentatively on date for the 16!!

Miracle #3....Linda Goolsby

Linda is a referral from Spanish that has been in Utah for weeks visiting her Mormon boyfriend.  She called us last night and asked the soonest time that she could be baptized, so she also is on date for the 16th!!!

Man the work truly is just hastening like crazy!!!! The Lord is preparing his people and I'm lucky enough to have a part in helping them come into the gospel!!

There were so many other miracles this week, but if I kept going I would have a forever long email, and I wouldn't have time to finish....so that's all I'm going to share for now!!! I hope you all have a great week!!

I LOVE YOU so much!!!!

Love,

Sister Thomas 

Who's that random girl singing at my Funeral?

So first off I did something this week that I never thought I would do.  I sang a solo....at a funeral! There was a man who died that knew a member in our ward.  He wasn't a member but his daughter and her family were, so they wanted it in the church, and they wanted missionaries there.  So we agreed to go.  They asked Elder Penney, my district leader, to play the piano.  Over the week he asked if I would sing a little part in the special musical number he was doing, I said I would, then the night before it turned into me singing "Where can I turn for peace?"....by myself, in front of 100 non-members!! Who were mourning the death of their friend/father/husband's death! Apparently I did good, because my bishop asked if I'd be willing sometime to sing in sacrament meeting, and everyone said it sounded great! It was SOOOOOO scary though, I can't believe I did it! but I'm so glad that through God you can do all things!! I kept imagining the guy who died sitting in the spirit world thinking...."Who is that random girl singing at my funeral? Who invited her?"  haha! funny thought!

The rest of this week was pretty average.  Except on Saturday Jacob Rhoads got baptized!!!  It was really cool!! He was so ready!!  It is always so incredible to see a child of god come into the fold!!

We also had Stake Conference this week! It was really good! About missionary work and the importance of members, which fyi, MEMBERS ARE THE BEST!!  We as missionaries are at the bottom of the totem pole, but if a member is with us, all of a sudden we are magically cooler.  It's like the story of Alma and Amulek.  Alma teaches the people and fails, but then when God tells him to go back he gets the great member companion Amulek, who is one of the people and they together are able to teach so many people and baptize them!! If that doesn't show the importance of members, what will?

I am so grateful that I'm a missionary and that I'm able to be out helping God's children to come unto him and be baptized!! I can't believe the miracles that I'm able to see each day!! I love you all!! Have a fantastic week!! I love you all!!!!

Love you!!

Sister Thomas

PS--Picture is us with Jacob Rhoads, and his brother Jonathan

Another Week in the Life of a Missionary

This week was quite the week!! First off I'm emailing today because Monday was President's Day, and yesterday was Zone Conference so we were in Olympia all day!! I got to see the Clarke's again, they said they love you dad! They loved working with you!

Lets see all that has happened...

We checked up on a lot of potentials! There wasn't much success, except there was one referral from Spanish that has a lot of potential.  Her name is Virginia King, she's black and is super sweet.  She's been through quite the past and as we taught the Restoration she just ate it up!! It was so awesome!! We're going to see her again this week, I'm excited!

We also met with Jacob again.  He's getting baptized on Saturday! He has been investigating the church like his whole life pretty much, and has gone to church the last 3 years! And on Saturday he's finally getting baptized!! I'm so excited! It's going to be a great day!!

We also have stake conference this week! I'm excited to get to have a stake meeting, they're always really good! Plus they are all focused on Missionary work this year, so that's way AWESOME!!!!

We also got to yesterday, go to a RS activity that was way fun.  They had us bring an item that was connected to a scripture in a bag and then it was like the white elephant game, and we all picked one and then opened it! I got a cute plack that says faith on it and then has a little saying over top, it's way cool!!  The scripture that went along with it was "walk by faith not by sight"  It was a fun little game idea!

This week hasn't been super exciting, mostly because of course I got the flu which knocked me out for like 2 days......I hate being sick, I'm excited to get home and get like every test and then figure out what's wrong with me! It will be nice!

I hope you are all doing super well!! I love you sooooo much!!

Sister Thomas

SNOW DAY!!!

So, this week was quite the week!! I got a new area, a new companion, and a new kind of weather for Washington!

So this week has been pretty chill!  Sister Stevens is cool! She is from Ogden, UT and played volleyball through high school.  She went to Utah State, of course, and she has a cool style...she is one of a kind!!

We have 2 on date right now, and they are solid! It's cool, down here in tenino there are so many part member families that are wanting to learn!! We have Tom on date who is 10 and Jacob Rhodes who is 26.  The work here is good, but it's exactly like when I got to Belfair.  The past missionaries, except Sister Stevens did NOTHING so the ward expects that we'll hang out at their house all day and do crazy things with them.....yeah, not good, but I guess I've just been called to help build wards up because I'm willing to work!! I'm glad I got some of the harvest up in Belfair, but I'm ok with seed planting too, it has to be done sometime!!

I don't have any crazy stories except one:

Yesterday Church was cancelled!!!! There was like 6 inches of snow and so we had to stay in our apartments until like 2 in the afternoon when the snow had melted from the 50 degree weather....yeah Washington is weird!! Sister Stevens and I were just laughing thinking of all the times we went to school in like 2 feet of snow and that nothing skipped a beat, but the problem is that Washington doesn't have the equipment to clear the roads and such, so people driving are dumb and the roads are icy and there are tons of accidents!! It's crazy!!

Well, I wish I had more to tell you this week!! It's kind of been a slow week and I'm still trying to adjust to the new area and get to know everybody!! One day!! The worst is its usually awkward until the first Sunday, and then you meet everyone at church, but church was cancelled so I'll have to make it unawkward on my own!! It will be good though!

The church is true!! The book is Blue!! I know that through and through!! :) haha! I hope you are all doing well!! And fyi I now email from about 10-11 am and have an hour only so....yeah! Just so you all know when to send me emails :)

I hope you are doing so good!! I love you all SO MUCH!!!

Love,

Sister Thomas