The Master is Calling! : Birthday, Easter, HAPPINESS!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been fantastic.

First off, we haven't had any lessons with the Pratt's this week. They
have been having a difficult time progressing because of all the
things they're dealing with. We're quite worried about them, keep them
in your prayers.

The week started off pretty well with an awesome exchange with Elder
Okerlund! He is such a great missionary and we worked really hard. The
highlight of the exchange was when we were able to stop in at State
Farm and check on Patty. Patty has been reading the Book of Mormon!
She had some questions about learning to understand the language, so
we told her the best way to learn to understand the language is to
pray for help and inspiration before she reads. She really liked this
idea and said she would give it a try.

The next morning exchanges ended. We volunteered at project hope
again. While we were there we ran into a cool little lady who lived in
Absarokee. She began asking us some questions as if we worked there,
but we told her we were volunteers. We then told her that we're always
doing service and asked her if she had any service we could do. She
said she did and that she would give us a call. We also gave her a
#hallelujah pass along card and told her to watch the Easter video.
We're hoping to stop by her place soon, she lives in a little hot pink
house, she calls it the Barbie house.

On Thursday we went down to Red Lodge to see how some of our in-store
investigators were doing. First we stopped by State Farm to talk to
Patty and Gail. A little backstory, for Christmas, the Linton family
sent me 4 copies of the Book of Mormon with their testimonies written
in them. I've been pondering and praying on who to give these to. This
last week after reading the two little boy's testimonies, Jeffrey and
Sam, I felt that I should give them to Patty and her daughter. Patty
doesn't just read the Book of Mormon by herself, she reads it with her
11 year old daughter. I presented the two copies of the Book of Mormon
to her, explaining what was significant about these books and showing
her a picture of me with my nephews! She absolutely loved them, and it
meant so much to her that I would give them to her. She loved reading
their testimonies. I am so glad that my family is helping me in my
missionary work! We also stopped in at the Village Shoppe which is
where we met a super cool Lutheran lady we love talking to. She always
asks what's been going on (in her sweet little southern accent:) so
this week we told her that we had just given a Book of Mormon to an
investigator and we were so excited! She immediately said, "Well I've
never read that! I want one!" Oh man, how cool is that? So we gave her
a Book of Mormon and read Moroni 10:3-5 with her. Her eyes got all big
and she kept saying, "Wow!" We can't wait to see her again!

The highlight of Friday was definitely the dinner. We had dinner with
the Greens, but they also had a non-member there. The non-members name
is Mitch Johnson. Mitch is married to an active woman, Carla, and he
is a very good man. He comes to church every week. We are not
currently teaching him because he hasn't wanted to meet yet. It was a
really good Easter dinner. The table was decorated beautifully and the
food was wonderful. The conversation was light and fun and we were all
kept laughing by Mitch. After dinner we had desert, but not before
singing happy birthday, for Mitch whose birthday was the week before,
and me who was the next day. After dinner we all made our way to the
living room for a spiritual thought. We started it off by sharing the
#hallelujah video and talking about the many meanings of "new life."
New life can mean that we change our lives through the atonement and
redeeming power of Christ. It can also meaning finding new life after
death, meaning resurrection, as Christ did on Easter! We talked about
how spring is the perfect time to celebrate Easter because of all the
new life rising from last years death. As we talked I felt prompted to
take the lesson in a little bit different direction than I planned, I
asked everyone in the room to bear their testimony, starting with me.
The spirit was so strong. Mitch even got a little emotional right at
the beginning, which is significant because he is your typical rough
n' tough, tall, oil mining, Montana cowboy. His testimony was
beautiful and simple. After testimonies, Sister Green presented Mitch
with his very own full set of scriptures. He loved them! We are so
excited for him and we hope and pray that he will start meeting with
us soon. He has offered to take us hiking sometime soon, which has me
totally stoked. I have missed hiking.

Saturday was MY BIRTHDAY!! Wow, such a happy day! I opened my presents
first thing in the morning! Elder Ross just covered his head with a
blanket and tried to sleep while I told him (to his annoyance) about
all the cool stuff I got! What a great way to start the day:) THANK
YOU EVERYONE FOR ALL THE WONDERFUL GIFTS AND BIRTHDAY WISHES!!! You
are all the best! I'm going to be fat with all this birthday food. We
spent a large portion of the day doing service with the Smith family
in the ward. We stacked a ton of wood, and when I say "ton," I mean
"ton." Ok, that's an exaggeration, it was about 3 cords. (Whatever
that means, right? Everyone here in Montana knows what that means, but
I sure don't.) Anyways, it was a lot. I wish I'd taken pictures! We
were hauling it back and forth in wheel barrows, throwing them all
over the place and stacking like crazy. It was good, hard work. The
Smith's are the family we want to fellowship Adam Watson and
Christina.

Speaking of Adam and Christina, they have been gone all week, AGAIN!
Craziness. However, we're pretty much ok with this one, considering
that they went to UTAH and their Mormon friend took them on a tour of
TEMPLE SQUARE and they uploaded all of the photos on FACEBOOK and them
standing in front of the statue of Christ is now his PROFILE PICTURE!
What? They loved it. He sent us a text this week, sincerely
apologizing for not being able to come to church and he said he'd come
next week. We are going to need to explain the concept of conference
to them... Haha. Anyways, keep them in your prayers.

Easter Sunday was amazing! Especially sacrament meeting, it was
beautiful. I am running out of time so I just want to end by saying
that I love the Lord. He helps me out so much! He really watches over
us missionaries and blesses us more than we deserve. I am thankful for
the joy that the gospel brings and I am grateful to be here in
beautiful Montana! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Thomas

Still snowing! Dang it. That's Elder Okerlund :)