We'll Harvest this Field from Sunrise to Sunset!

Monday, June 26, 2017

Trial Week

Aloha. Mi llamo Elder Thomas.

Monday was BUSY. We gave up a little preparation day time to help a
family move in. We then finished laundry, shopping, and emails in time
to have about an hour and a half of games at the church. That night we
had another lesson with Aaron Clark, and it went even better than we
thought it would. Everyone, Aaron really needs your prayers right now.
He has had some experiences that seem to have softened his heart a
little and any help would be awesome. The lesson was amazing and we
were able to really connect with him and answer his questions. Pray
hard!

Tuesday was also extremely busy, but we had an amazing lesson with our
investigator Kathy Segmiller. She absolutely loves having us over and
asked if she could adopt us (don't worry momma, I said she had to ask
you first haha). She picked our mind on the churches opinion on a
bunch of things and sought some comfort regarding some personal and
family challenges she was having. It was an amazing lesson because we
were able to use the scriptures, stories, personal experiences and
other things to teach. The spirit was SO helpful the whole time and was
just helping us left and right. Another great lesson. Also during the
course of the day we got caught in a torrential downpour that only
lasted for about 5 minutes, but COMPLETELY soaked us so we had to run
home and change real fast because it looked like we had just taken a
shower fully clothed haha.

Wednesday morning we had Zone Conference in Billings so we woke up a
little early, grabbed some McDonald's breakfast (best breakfast ever,
except for yours mom) and went to Zone Conference. Zone Conference was
AMAZING. Any opportunity to hear from President Wadsworth is a good
opportunity. I love how obedient my mission president and his wife
are. They don't bend rules, they don't cut corners, and yet they still
manage to be some of the funniest and funnest people I know. After
Zone Conference we got to go help some other missionaries with some
service, and let me tell ya, moving people is pretty hard! Sometimes
the stuff is just way too heavy and you just gotta pray that you won't
drop it because you know they will hate Mormons and never talk to
missionaries again! That probably wouldn't actually happen, but it
feels like it would. Anyways, that night we did a lot of tracting and
contacting, and though we talked to a lot of kind people, no one was
interested.

Thursday was weekly planning! Yay! We have been trying really hard to
act enthusiastic and excited about weekly planning, even if we are
faking it haha. We just act all excited and it's the cheesiest thing,
but it works and it helps us get through it! Thursday evening we did a
bunch of tracting and contacting. It was one of those nights that
tries your faith but you just keep going anyways!

The next evening we tried a bunch of people and no one was home again!
Summer is awesome and all, but I am pretty tired of everyone taking
week long vacations! What on earth, don't they know the world revolves
around me?? We had a youth with us that night and he was pretty shook
by about halfway through the night after we had been cussed at and
yelled at a few times, but right at the end of the night we met some
very kind people who were willing to talk for a little about Christ
for a little bit. Though they were not interested it was still such a
relief. After we left the last door he turned to and said with a
smile, "that makes it all worth it, doesn't it?" I would have to agree
with him.

On Saturday we went to help some other Elders in the ward do some
service for a member in their ward. We put up some fences real fast
and then ran off to Sister Beadlings to help her with some things.
Sister Beadling has some old paint that needs to be scraped off her
house and she gave us two tiny scrapers for this huge house... haha we
barely made a dent. We were outside from the morning till the late
afternoon, and it was HOT. We went to dinner feeling pretty beat.
After dinner we hit the streets again and tried contacting a bunch of
people that appear to never be home. After another disappointing day
of trying to find more investigators and keep the ones we have already
found, we headed back to our truck when we saw a young woman out with
her dog. We did the usual and asked if we could pet the dog haha. As
we pet her dog she told us that she has a good friend that is Mormon,
and being desperate to see some fruit of our labors we blurted out
that she should go to church with her tomorrow! Her friend wasn't in
our ward, but sure enough, we saw her on our way out the door the next
day! So that made us pretty happy. Hoping and praying her parents will
let us teach them.

Sunday was ROUGH. I was already beat from the sun exposure the day
before AND I needed to fast that day. I stumbled through the day
(literally) and somehow made it all the way to dinner and we still got
work done.

This week was a little harder than some others but I know we did our
best and we will be blessed for that. I hope and pray that this coming
week will yield some more fruit for us to harvest and we'll be able to
see someone grow. Thank you for the prayers and the love!

One more thing I want to mention before I close this letter. Families
can be together forever. Our families often know when we need a little
help and a little love, even without our saying it.  This week as we
headed out for an early morning meeting, we almost tripped over a bag
of goodies on our doorstep. This was weird and we suspected some
members or some of our neighbors until we saw a little letter
addressed to Elder Neal Thomas... then we were REALLY confused! I
opened it up and found pictures of my two sisters, Colleen and
Diana!!! What little stinkers haha. On their way to Bismarck North
Dakota they had stayed in Billings, looked up my address, took
pictures of their journey to my apartment and WITH MY APARTMENT
NUMBER, got the photo's developed, bought me food and left it all on
my porch! It was just what I needed Wednesday morning. :) I love my
family!!

Co-knee-chee-wah

Love,
Elder Thomas


No comments:

Post a Comment