We'll Harvest this Field from Sunrise to Sunset!

Monday, February 15, 2016

Plot Twist

Dear Family and Friends,

This week I felt like I was in one of those movies with all the plot twists.

I started out the week with the Zone Leaders! It was super cool. On
Tuesday we drove to Harlowton, one of their outlying areas, which is 1
hour and 30 minutes from Billings. This is the branch where that
family was baptized last week. The Zone Leaders mostly just cover Blue
Creek, but they also cover Harlowton, which works out because the
members do most of their own missionary work. We had dinner with the
Major family that night. They are an older couple and they made sure
to have a non-member at dinner. The non-members name is Festus. Festus
is a cowboy, a real cowboy. He spent his life riding and breaking in
horses (the harder the better), working with cattle, and writing some
really really good cowboy poetry. You can tell he's not quite all
there, the Major's told us that he has sustained three serious
concussions over his years of breaking in horses. We taught him the
first lesson even though we didn't know whether he could actually be
baptized or not. It was a good lesson and many of his beliefs are the
same as ours. After that lesson we got to go over to the Farnsley's
(the family that just got baptized). It was so cool to go over and
just see the light in their eyes. They are each determined to stay
active in the church. They read the scriptures every night as a family
and even on their own. They just want to know everything! It's so
exciting.

We stayed in our very own house that night. The place was huge. It
felt weird to have this house just sitting there waiting to be used.
It was an old creaky thing. I love houses like that. Even though
they're kinda creepy when you have to get up in the middle of the
night. The next morning we had breakfast at the branch president's
house and headed out to a place called Judith Gap to help an old
farmer with his firewood. We were there most of the morning. The three
of us worked really well as a team and we got a lot done. After we had
stacked the wood for quite a while fed us some pizza and soup. The
pizza and soup were both very good but his water smelled and tasted
like something straight out of a pond. The problem was that the soup
was very spicy which made the water necessary. I finished that meal as
fast as I could.

Friday morning I began to pack up my things a little bit because they
told us the truck would be done that day. Right in the middle of
packing, Elder Ross gave me a call. Change of plans, apparently the
truck wouldn't be done till Tuesday. Plot twist! A little grumpy about
this, I unpacked again. We needed to run to the mission office that
day so we hopped in the truck and ran to the mission office. While in
the office I talked to the vehicle coordinator, Elder Baird, and told
him about our frustrating situation. I love Elder Baird, he's the
coolest. A little while after I talked to him he came back to me
holding something in his hands, car keys. He was letting us borrow a
truck until Tuesday! Plot twist! I called Elder Ross and told him to
pack his bags! I then went back to the apartment and had to pack,
again. Driving alone behind the zone leaders (which was super weird),
we drove to Laurel, I picked up Elder Ross, and we finally headed back
to our area.

I was so excited to wake up and get to work the next morning, but I
woke up sick. Soar throat, stuffy nose and a headache. Plot twist!
Needless to say, I wasn't very happy. I tried to get a lot of sleep
and drink a lot of fluids. I started feeling a little better around 3
that afternoon. We made up our minds to go to the basketball game at
4:30 I felt terrible, but it was nice to be out doing something.
After Junior Varsity played, the team came and sat right in front of
where we were sitting while we watched Varsity play. That was so cool.
The two members on the team weren't ashamed of us at all! After the
game we had a late dinner and went to bed.

Saturday was the coolest day! We went to church at Red Lodge and it
was so great to see all our own members again. We had a great Sunday!
Afterward, the Branch President told us about some new records he'd
received and asked if we would go check it out. We came back to the
apartment, ate lunch and went out to contact this individual. We had a
hard time finding the house because he lived way out in the middle of
nowhere (like everyone around here) and unfortunately he wasn't home
(like everyone around here). After that attempt, we tried stopping by
an investigator that hadn't ever answered the door, Kathy Heartman. We
had caught her outside once and she set up an appointment, which she
missed. We pulled up hoping we could catch her at home. Right as we
were about to get out of the truck and go knock on her door, she
pulled up in the spot next to us! We hopped out and greeted her. She
immediately launched into her excuses of why she missed he
appointment. My mouth was immediately filled by the spirit.  I asked
her if she even wanted to meet with us anymore, because we weren't
there to force her to do anything. You could see the relief on her
face as she admitted she didn't want to meet with us. We reassured her
that if she ever wanted to hear our message again or if she needed any
service or anything that she could just call us. It was cool to follow
the spirit and do something I wouldn't normally do, but to also know
it was the right thing to do. We had dinner with the Fikes that night.
The Fikes always feed us breakfast and they are so much fun to talk
to. It was particularly funny to watch their faces as we told them
about how big our high schools were. There are only about 200 kids
total in there school with all 12 grades. Their jaws dropped when I
told them that there are about 1000 kids per grade at my high school!
That night we attempted to contact some more less-actives and finished
off the day with some online proselyting. It felt good to have a day
where we just got to work our heads off all day in our very own area,
and even though we can't see the fruits of our labors yet, I know we
will.

Last bit of news, we called the shop today to see when our truck would
be done. They told us it wouldn't be done till Wednesday. Can't say I
was surprised. The Zone Leaders then called us and told us that the
mission office needs the truck back today. Looks like we're packing up
and headed to Laurel till Wednesday. PLOT TWIST!!

Love you all!

Love,
Elder Thomas

P.S. I'm not being transferred and neither is Elder Ross!

We're weirdos. 

Gun rack on the roof of the old old farmer's truck. (Forgot to tell y'all, his name is Ray)

 Saw a lot of beautiful places this week! 


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