BILLINGS

Dear Humans,

I arrived in Billings safely this week! Leaving Kalispell was pretty
hard, but I am SO EXCITED to be here in Billings, I know this is where
I need to be for the last few months of my mission.

On Monday we did nothing all day, we mostly just relaxed and wrote
emails until it came time for us to go to my final cookie night. I
love the Boyce's and all they have done for me, so this last cookie
night with them was a rough one! There was a lot of laughing, good
food and other shenanigans throughout the whole evening.

The next morning I hurried and finished my packing and we walked
around to do some contacting and also say bye to a few people. I said
my final goodbyes to Lori (The "Cookie Grandma") which was pretty hard
because she is one of my favorite people in the whole world! I also
said by to the Creer's. The Creer's are a wonderful family that I have
grown very close to over my time in Kalispell. Brother and Sister
Creer moved from Arizona recently and they are still adapting to the
strange and mystical phenomenon that is Montana. They fed us an
AMAZING bagel lunch and then took us with them to pick the kids up
from school. I got to read a picture book with their toddler Gracie
and I got to say goodbye to the others that we picked up at school. I
am going to miss that family a lot.

Dinner Tuesday night was with the Westover's. I love Bishop Westover,
he was incredibly helpful during the time I spent in Kalispell and it
was so good to say goodbye to their amazing family.

After dinner, Bishop drove us to the church so we could have institute
and meet with Allie and Autumn beforehand. It was an amazing last
lesson with Autumn and I am confident she is strong enough to keep
pursuing baptism! She asked about some of the common questions we get,
including the temple garment and the homosexual issue. The spirit was
so strong and testified to each of us that what was discussed was
true. I am so grateful for the spirit and the load it takes off of us
when we teach!

Afterward, good ol' Grant from the YSA gave us a ride to the Denna's
house. Grant is a total geek and I am going to miss arguing with him
about the most inconsequential things! Haha. Barb forgot about the
lesson so we chatted with her parents for a little while until Paxton
Boyce picked us up and took us by the house for a quick picture and
the last goodbye. That was so hard. I can't really express how much
they have done for me, but they have a very special place in my heart.

Pax then drove us home and we went and harassed Erk (Eric Gardner)
until it was closer to time for bed... and then we went to bed
promptly at 10:30... Jk we actually talked till 4:30 in the morning,
which was not wise, but hey, It was our last night as companions!
Don't judge. Imma miss Elder Christensen a ton, more than he'll miss
me I'm sure haha. He did a lot for me, to help me grow and become
better and he is a very faithful friend. Not to mention how
hilariously weird he is!

The next morning Erik woke us up at 6:00 AM!! Haha he was all laying on
the horn and yelling at us... a whole 1 1/2 hours of sleep... I was
TIRED. I told him to get out of here and started trying to get ready.
We hit a ton of traffic because of construction which made us late but
oh well! In total that day I drove for 9 hours on only 1 1/2 hours of
sleep. It was rough. Eventually I had to pull over for a few minutes
and take a nap in an attempt to keep us alive. We made it though!

That night we had no dinner so I got a good nap in instead of eating,
which was exactly what I needed. After dinner we went and met the
mission leader, did some tracting and added the ward on Facebook!

Thursday morning was the greatest because we got to provide service at
the temple, planting flowers! It was sick, because I LOVE the temple
and I LOVE flowers. We spent most of the morning there, then we got
lunch, did our studies and had an early dinner. After dinner I got to
meet Bishop Hall! Bishop Hall is awesome and I am so excited
to be serving in his ward. We talked about all the things we could do
to make this transfer great and all just got really excited. After we
met with him, we went and met with the Wilsons, Brother Wilson is the
assistant ward mission leader. This man is hilarious and his kids are
SUPER adorable. Then we hit the streets. We knocked doors, talked to
people, street contacted and even found a new potential investigator!
This area hasn't had a baptism in over a year and I have never been
filled with so much fire to do missionary work!

I am running out of time so I will try to make this fast. Friday was
awesome and we had a great lunch with the stake president, president
Zaugg and we weekly planned and it was all pretty great. That night we
had dinner with the Cappelli's, which was SUPER good. We love the
Cappelli's! He is the ward mission leader so we will get to see him a
bunch. They are so educated in the gospel and life in general and it
is incredibly fun to just sit and have intelligent conversation with
them! They also have five adorable little girls and one baby boy which
makes life a little interesting haha.

That night we visited with the Tuletts, who I happened to meet before
a year from this last February because I was staying with the Zone
Leaders for a few weeks and they visited them, so that was kinda
weird.

After that we got out and did some more walking and talking. Gotta
find those elect souls!

Saturday morning we had a training with our District Leaders in the
stake office waiting room. After the meeting we all stepped into the
hallway to get a drink, but when we tried to get back into the room,
the door was locked, and our stuff was in there. We spent the next few
hours making calls and borrowing keys to try and get into the darn
offices... oh our lives are just crazy haha. Eventually the stake
president was able to loan us a key and we finally got our stuff out.
It was rough.

Let's see, that night we had dinner with the Gray's, Elder Chamberlain
ran over a kids bike as we left dinner (no kid was on it. Don't worry)
and we had to run tell them about it while the girl cried, we went out
and did some more finding and praying and some lady said she wouldn't
even pray for us. Rude haha. We finished the night up with an awesome
correlation meeting with Brother Cappelli and went home totally
inspired!

The next day was Sunday! I was SO happy to finally meet the ward! I
love the people in this ward already and I can't wait to serve them
the rest of this transfer. Cool connection in the ward; the former
temple president, president Jorden, happens to be the father of Emily
Jorden Barry who married my awesome cousin David Barry. So now he has
claimed me as his nephew, which I am totally fine with because he is
the coolest!

That night we had dinner with the Huffakers and the bishops family,
the Halls. The food was amazing and the company was even better! We
had a super spiritual thought on missionary work and talked about
praying with a promise. The idea that when you pray, you promise
Heavenly Father something in return, and then watch the miracles flow
as you act! The spirit was super strong.

After that we drove down to Pryor to have a big group restoration
lesson with 6 non-members and 6 members. It was SWEET. Probably the
most powerful Restoration lesson I have taught to this point! I love
teaching with Elder Chamberlain, he is an amazing teacher.
Unfortunately none of the nonmembers are in our area, but we committed
ALL of them to be baptized haha! They are all very choice and will
pursue baptism, even if it isn't with us.

Ok, long boring email. Sorry about that, but I love you all!

Love,
Elder Thomas

PS Amanda was baptized this Saturday! It broke my heart not to be
there for it, but I am SO PROUD of her for making the rapid progress
she did. She is truly elect.