The Master is Calling! : LONG WEEKLY. SORRY IF IT IS BORING.

Hi Peeps,

On Monday, a member and his two non member friends joined us for
basketball and pod ball, and it was awesome! I love moments like this,
when people put aside beliefs and biases and just laugh and have fun
together! That night we went and had a pretty good lesson with Aaron,
but the lesson was cut short when we got DUMPED on and started seeing
lightning left and right. It was wild. We wrapped up the night with an
awesome Facebook post from Elder Chamberlain and some contacting on
Facebook.

Tuesday was CRAZY. In the morning, we got to have interviews with
President Wadsworth himself! This amazing man has blessed my life, and
continues to bless my life every time I have the privilege of
interacting with him. When Elder Dyches was here, he revered President
Wadsworth by saying that he is "the best of the best." And I stand by
him on that statement.

After interviews, we went to lunch with the Pioneer Park elders and I
got a puny little salad at Wendy's because I'm trying to be all
healthy... It was rough. I don't think vegetarian is for me haha.
After lunch we exchanged companions, and Elder Chamberlain went with
Elder Epperson to Pioneer Park, and my good friend Elder Lester came
with me to Blue Creek! We had the very best Companionship Study ever,
with awkward roleplays and everything, then we went out and did some
contacting. Dinner was much needed that night after only eating a pile
of leaves and the amazing Nethercott family saved my starving self! We
were able to contact our investigator named Pete, and though he had
company over, he managed to once again prove he is the kindest man
alive by emphatically telling us how much he loved our ties and asking
us to come back soon! I want to be kind like him someday.

Wednesday morning we switched back to our regular companions at
District Meeting and Elder Lankford led us in another incredible and
revelatory journey through the gospel. He is such a great District
Leader, and have I mentioned that he is serving in one of my former
area's?? He is in Red Lodge and Absarokee so we have had a lot of fun
just talking about people we both know. My exchange with Elder Lester
was awesome, but it is always good to be back with your regular
companion.

Thursday was full of little gems. After doing some weekly planning in
the morning and early afternoon, we headed back home to grab some
things before going to find some people and we walked up on our
upstairs neighbors, Josh, Elizabeth and their friend, trying to move a
bed into their apartment. We offered our help and the two women very
gratefully accepted haha. We were able to move the rest of the bed
upstairs for them and had a fun conversation with Josh. We have begun
to grow so close to our neighbors and we are praying that we will have
the opportunity to share the gospel with them.

We then left the apartment and went out to follow the spirit. It lead
us to a nearby street and soon we saw a man walking his dog, so I
asked if I could pet it (which always gets them to stop haha) and we
talked with him for a while. Although he wasn't interested, he asked
for our card so that he could contact us if anyone he knew ever needed
help with anything, so we willingly obliged! The spirit then guided us
even further down the street and prompted us to knock on a random
door. We knocked on the door, a very kind man came out to greet us, he
told us he was busy right then but that he really wanted us to come
back. Sensing our doubt he said, "no seriously, I used to live up in
the heights and I would have the missionaries over and feed them all
the time. Come back Monday or Tuesday at any time." Haha that
convinced us. What a fun miracle that was!

That evening we were blessed to find a less-active member outside
cleaning out her car, so we went and offered our help, convinced her
to let us help, and then spent the next hour chatting with her and her
daughter while we helped clean out their suburban. It was such a
miracle, considering we hadn't been able to find them home in the
past. It was also a blast, even though the little girl kept walking
over the seats with her dirty shoes haha. We don't know how rapid the
progress will be with them, but we know that is where the spirit
wanted us to be that night.

Friday morning we were privileged to spend most of the morning giving
a couple blessings in two different hospitals. One of the most amazing
was being able to give a blessing to a little one year old that had a
cist (however you spell that haha) on her arm that needed to be
drained, she was also diabetic. It was so much fun to watch her
parents taking care of her and her twin and the love and patience they
had. I love witnessing love:)

Afterward we stopped at great harvest, got some AMAZING bread and a
free loaf of bread because members who own stores are the kindest
people on earth. We then stopped at the mission home to grab some
supplies and had a great time chatting with Sister Baird and Sister
Kasper, the greatest office staff EVER. And then we went down to Elder
Baird's office, the greatest vehicle coordinator of ALL TIME, and
laughed with him for a while. (The Baird's and the Kasper's are senior
couples in the office and they are hilarious, just in case I haven't
mentioned that before) And if this doesn't already sound like the best
day ever, that night we had dinner with the ward mission leader (the
Cappelli's), his lovely wife, 5 daughters and 1 baby boy AND THEN we
got to go out contacting people in THE RAIN! It was awesome. We
splashed each other the whole time and had some amazing lessons with
an active member family, and a recent convert. I DOING MISSIONARY WORK
IN THE RAIN! Not to mention I got to meet the most beautiful husky in
the entire world on the way home. Her name was Akiera. Anyways, great
day:)

Saturday was pretty darn cool too! We woke up early in the morning to
go help direct traffic for a local run called, "the heart and soul
run." the morning was beautiful and the people were awesome! It kinda
made me miss my half marathon's, but the mission is still better than
any marathon ever. Anyways, we had a little more planning and
"babysitting" (resolving silly little issues in the zone and
re-explanation of all the rules) that day and then we got to go to a
ward Father's Day Barbecue. At the barbecue there was a large group of
men taking about a 50K run one of them had just done and I missed
running again! What is this, who even misses running?? After the
dinner we tried to do some street contacting and tracting but found no
new potential investigators, so we then went and had an incredibly
insightful correlation meeting with Brother Cappelli. After the
meeting we still had to walk home and walked out onto the street to
find a woman walking her ADORABLE puppy beagle. We asked if we could
pet it and she said yes! We chatted for a little bit and then bluntly
asked, "have you ever talked with missionaries before?" She replied in
the affirmative and so we asked if we could come share another message
with her and she replied simply, "yes!" Batta-boom-batta-bang, God is
SO GOOD TO US!!

I was sick for a large portion of the day Sunday but were still able
to get out a little before dinner. Dinner was awesome, ESPECIALLY when
I found out that the members daughter is currently studying landscape
architecture at USU, which is what I'm going to do!! Needless to say,
I got pretty excited and asked a million questions. That night we had
an amazing lesson with Sister Beadling, totally down a different path
than planned, but the spirit was so strong and that is what matters
most.

And last, and not least at all, happy Father's Day to my amazing
father! I love you Dad.

Love,
Elder Thomas