The Master is Calling! : A Little Break

Dear Family and Friends,

As I'm sure many of you noticed, I didn't write last week. So sorry!
But in all honesty, I just simply needed a day to relax a little bit.
We went hiking last Monday and it felt so good to just stretch my legs
and get out into nature. It was cold and windy, but fun!

That evening we had our regular Monday dinner with the Latu's. We are
so excited for this family! They have begun to come to church again
and they were there this last Sunday. I have been hoping this would
happen for about five months now! Go to the rescue everyone, it is
such a wonderful experience.

On Tuesday we had exchanges with our Zone Leaders in Hamilton. Elder
Dabel went to Hamilton with Elder Porter and I got to be with Elder
Rich here in Corvallis. It was such a good exchange. On our exchange
we taught Randy Walker. Randy is making progress! The only thing
keeping him from church at this point is his back issues that keep him
up all night. He really wants to come and he understands that it will
help him get his answer! He is progressing step by step.

That evening, we stopped to visit Debbie Herzog and her boyfriend
Doug. Debbie is an elderly woman who acts half her age (just recently
got back from waterskiing in Hawaii) and is very friendly to us. She
was raised Jewish but has been learning about Christianity. It has
always been hard to have a sit down lesson with her because she lives
alone, but lately she has a boyfriend that is at the house sometimes,
so when his truck is there we can stop by too! This last week she was
telling us about the difficulties she was having with one of her
children and some hard things he was going through and bad choices he
had made. She asked us how this could be part of God's plan for him.
We explained that it wasn't part of God's plan for him by teaching
about the Plan of Salvation. God's plan for him was bigger and
happier! As she put the pieces together, she began to tear up. We
testified of our purpose and promised we had so many more amazing
things to share with her. We can't wait to see where this goes.

We taught Kennedy Gold twice this week! She has a lot of questions,
which is so good. We were able to answer all of her questions and we
invited her to begin finding a testimony of President Thomas S.
Monson. Honestly, she is the coolest girl. We love teaching her!

The next evening was amazing. We had one lesson cancel so we stopped
in at Jim and Paula's, two investigators we've been working with for a
while. Jim just recently had a surgery and is recovering from that,
please keep him in your prayers. These two are a delightful elderly
couple and we love spending time with them and discussing the gospel.
They do become a little nervous if we ever bring up the Book of Mormon
or church because of past biases, but they are open to discussing the
gospel in general. Looks like it's step by step with these two! We
love them to pieces.

After meeting with them we rushed up to a lesson with Ben Williams and
his family. One of the many things we're working on with Ben right now
is figuring out where he stands. He doesn't seem to focused on
learning anything but he really wants his kids to be listening and
participating. According to rumors, he still believes and teaches AUB
doctrines/opinions, but really wants his children to join the church.

Saturday was CRAZY. The moment we finished studies, we had to run off
and teach a recent convert lesson at 11:00. Immediately after, we ran
to lunch for a few minutes 12:15-12:45, and then we ran to our second
lesson with Kennedy Gold that week at 1:00. As soon as that was done
we had to run to the church and get the baptismal font filling at
about 2:00. When we got there we asked the Zone Leaders to open the
Family History center for us so we could make the programs for the
baptism. Alas, they had loaned the key to the sisters. The sisters
were able to arrive at about 3:10, so we began making the program.
About 5 minutes later Amy, Arden and Tracie showed up to get in their
baptismal suits and greet people, so I showed them around till about
3:20 and then filled out most of the rest of the program. When 3:30
rolled around I left Elder Dabel and a few ward missionaries to finish
up the last few things and fold the programs while I changed. When I
came out around 3:45 we took pictures and greeted people right up to
4:00 when the baptism started, at which point someone leaned over to
me and whispered that they were excited to hear me song. "Oh Yeah," I
thought to myself, "I'm singing and I haven't practiced today or
warmed up or anything. Great." The baptisms were incredible. Amy was
baptized by Bishop Hawkes of the Hamilton ward and I had the privilege
of baptizing Arden and Tracie. It was amazing. The spirit touched
everyone's hearts powerfully. After the baptisms we all eventually
made it back into the chapel, and I got to sing. I love singing. I
always feel that music expresses feelings and thoughts much better
than speaking does. I was privileged to sing Savior Redeemer of My
Soul, and Heavenly Father helped me hit all the high notes even though
I hadn't had time to practice. The Lord is so good (Psalms 100:5).
Bishop Hawkes confirmed Amy and I got to confirm the two girls. It's
amazing how much love you feel for those you teach and witness getting
baptized. I am so proud of these three, and you can just see the
spirit emanating from them.

Love,
Elder Thomas

Amie, Tracie and Arden! (From left to right)