The Master is Calling! : Spring Cleaning

This week has been so very long. Not that it wasn't fun or anything,
It just feels like so much has changed and happened!

Monday was pretty awesome! We got to go hiking and see a great view of
Kalispell. Pictures to follow. That night, Elder Christensen got a
really bad migraine and started speaking gibberish so we took him down
to the Gardners theater room and had him sleep. It was VERY boring.
But I got a lot of thinking and praying done!

So this week... I don't even know where to start. This week I backed
over Nala. The puppy that I love. I was backing and she ran behind the
back tire. My companion tried to get me to stop but I didn't notice
soon enough. I hit a bump right as I realized he was trying to get me
to stop, and realized it was my Nala. My heart just fell apart, right
there, I thought I'd killed her. My companion came up to my window and
helped me know which direction to pull. I finally realized she wasn't
dead as I rolled off her because I could hear her yelping. I jumped
out of the car and looked under the truck to see where she was. Then I
saw her coming out from under the truck, dragging her legs. She
dragged her little body over to me, still crying, and stuck her little
nose in my side like she always does while I comforted her. She
finally calmed down and sat there shaking. Her owner came over to see
her so I went and stood a ways off. My companion was grabbing a towel
to wrap her up in because she was coughing up blood. I sat on the
stairs to gather my thoughts. I heard a car pull out, and realized
they had left to the vet without me... which was weird for both me and
my companion because we were separated. So I went inside and cried. I
thought she was going to die. I prayed so hard. I know my God is a God
of miracles. I knew he could save her. But my heart still hurt. They
got back a while later, she was still at the vet, but they gave me the
news. No broken bones, no fatal damage, only bruising and scratches.
THE ENTIRE TRUCK TIRE WAS ON TOP OF HER. I know God's hand was in
this, there is no other explanation. I didn't say much or eat anything
for a while. Elder Christensen was an amazing strength to me during this
time. Nala got home that evening and I almost cried when I saw her, she
was pretty beat, but she was alive and healing quickly.

The next night was cookie night at the Boyce's! And I know I mention
this every time I talk about them, but I absolutely love this family.
The entire evening with food, laughter, Easter celebrations and Easter
messages was awesome. When I got there, they informed me that we would
be having a special desert... MY MOMMA's POUNDCAKE! When they went
down to Utah for Conference and spring break, they also picked up some
cake and a beautiful Easter package from my mother:) it was so good,
my mom is the best. As I started opening my mothers Easter basket I
found a little wrapped package in it. I started to open it and had
everybody guess what it was, without hesitation, Brother Boyce
volunteered, "maybe it's driving for dummies!" Hahaha nope, but mom, I
really might need one of those! Later that night we were sitting
around the dinner table and we found out that the friend Payzlee had
over had just had a birthday. The conversation went like this,
Us: "So what did you get for your birthday?"
Her: "A puppy!"
Us: "Ooh what kind?"
Her: "A yellow lab... (then looking at me with a smile) just like the
one you ran over!"
Haha it was hilarious! Kids say the darnedest things.

We had a crazy weekly planning session this week. We are calling it
spring cleaning! We went through our areabook and dropped everyone
that wasn't progressing unless the spirit told us not to! Our areabook
is a lot whiter now, but that's just more room to grow! You've got to
weed the garden until it almost looks empty so that the good stuff can
fill it back in, and that's what we're doing.

We haven't been able to contact our recent convert, Tifani, for a
while because her phone ran out of minutes, so we stopped by randomly
this week. It turns out that she had just then gotten minutes back on
her phone and was typing out a message to send to us! So we got to
stop in for a little bit and teach her family. I LOVE little miracles
like this!

Saturday morning we got to go do some service for the Stuart's again!
It was tons of fun. While we were working, Brother Stuart, the
less-active member, walked by and said, "did you guys see the
rainbow?" What a sight. I have never seen a more vibrant rainbow in
all my life. You could clearly see each color as if it were painted on
the clouds that worked as a bright white backdrop for this
masterpiece. I love this beautiful world God has given us, it's
amazing. Even better was the beautiful Easter message we shared after
lunch. You could tell the spirit was touching their hearts, even if
they didn't really want it to. The spirit is such a sweet, sweet gift.

That night after a rough evening of work, Eric Gardner and his friends
were in the hot tub listening to music, so we stole the speaker and
put out of their reach playing I am a child of God haha. Eventually we
went down and talked to them, it was good to just talk to some people
that actually liked us for a while. Mormons are the best. These silly
ducks are always threatening to play pranks on us in our sleep, but we
inform them that they don't have the guts... maybe we shouldn't
challenge them haha.

Testimony meeting in the Kalispell 2nd ward was incredible! Both Elder
Christensen and I were able to bear our testimony. After that the
mom's with missionaries got up and brought the spirit super strong. It
was fun to hear them and think of my mom back in Utah getting up and
bearing her testimony:) after sacrament meeting we got to go beat our
testimonies of missionary work again in a primary class! Children are
so innocent and good. No wonder Christ wanted to spend so much time
with them.

Testimony meeting in the YSA branch was pretty amazing as well. There
were like 15 of us, so pretty much all of us bore our testimony haha.
The YSA branch is such a fun place to be. It's weird to think this
will be my life soon.

One of my favorite songs on my mission is called happiness, but every
time we listen to the song, Elder Christensen sings "happy days"
instead of "happiness." So I have started correcting him. As we
listened to it this week he almost sang happy days, but caught himself
mid-word and ended up saying happy desk... so now we sing about
eternal happy desk every time we listen to it hahaha.

Anyways, long email this week! Yay:)

Love,
Elder Thomas

Lone Pine hike!