The Master is Calling! : 6 more precious days...

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been beautifully heartbreaking. Everything we do I feel
more and more fulfilled, and yet the empty feeling in my gut grows
bigger as I realize I'm going to have to leave this all behind. That
is my cheesy way of saying, I'm flipping out.

Met with Carlos twice this week!! We love him! The first time was a
little insane and their adorable little daughter was super
distracting, BUT it was still an amazing lesson. We taught about
baptism and why we get baptized, and he stated over and over that he
wants to get baptized! One of his biggest confusions is why people
don't like Mormons. He loves everything we teach and do! He is
realizing how confused the world really is. For the second lesson with
him this week, we were on splits. We showed up and he had an errand to
run, so Brother Wilson and I jumped in the truck and taught him and
his son Charlie the Plan of Salvation! It was cool because Brother
Wilson took over teaching in the front seat and I got to explain
things to Charlie in the back. The spirit was super strong and they
both responded incredibly well. Imma miss them a ton!

Tuesday all day was MLC!! I love MLC. It is by far, my favorite
regularly scheduled meeting as a missionary. This time we discussed
technology pretty much the whole time!! We can use technology for so
many things in missionary work! One thing that I'm most excited about
is that missionaries are being encouraged to skype returned
missionaries into lessons to be present as a member, especially if you
know the person they're teaching, so I expect to be getting some
calls, missionaries!

That night we came home and had dinner lesson with Yessica, Mari, and
Mari's boyfriend Kylan! They are all SO COOL! Dinner was fantastic!
Mari is quite the cook and everything on the table was amazing. After
dinner we taught all the Commandments in one lesson, including the law
of chastity, the word of wisdom, and some others. We also planned and
scheduled everything for the baptism on Sunday! Yessica then created a
Facebook event and started inviting people. It was a crazy evening,
but we got everything done! On Sunday Kylan came to church and loved
it:)

On Wednesday, Yessi passed her Baptismal interview with ease because
she is more prepared for baptism than we are. We then went to visit
Pete and have begun reading the Book of Mormon with him! It is going
so well! He loves the story, he loves Nephi, and he gets so excited to
read more!

Thursday we contacted a referral for a less-active man who hasn't come
to church in many years. We were very clear with him and asked him why
he wasn't coming. He said he just hadn't worked up the courage to come
since his wife passed away, so we taught him the principle, invited
him to come, and promised him blessings! On Sunday he sat next to us
and took the sacrament for the first time in years.

On Friday we had a double booked evening, so I went with Brother
Wilson to Carlos, and Elder Emms took Brother Stonehocker to Yessica
and Mari! That is when we had our truck lesson, but apparently Elder
Emms had a wonderful lesson with Yessica, Mari, and Kylan about
families and temples. Kylan informed him that he would be at the
baptism as well as church!

Saturday we exchanged with the assistants and I spent the day taking
care of mission wide business with Elder Tucker, who is the coolest
guy ever, just btw. In the morning we went to a primary program
practice so I could play guitar with them. Afterward we had pizza and
the kids shaped my hair into a Mohawk while I chowed down on pizza
haha. It was a busy day, but Elder Emms and Elder Shumway were able to
find a TON of success in the assistants area, which is super good
because they have such little time in their own area.

And then Sunday hit. Highlights are as follows, I got to play guitar
with the primary kids during the primary program, and it was amazing.
Those kids bring the spirit like no other, it was unreal. I got to
bear my testimony for the last time in church on my mission, and I
realized how much I LOVE this gospel. Had some amazing lessons with an
amazing ward and said many sad goodbyes. Ran home, ate some food,
studied and then headed off to start filling the font. Couldn't get
any warm water out of the faucet but had to run to a lesson, so we
left it to our assistant ward mission leader and went to teach Shaylee
Leavitt. It was so hard to realize this was probably my last lesson
with the Leavitt family. AJ and his two kids, and Amber and her two
kids were all there. I have grown so close to all of them and it was
so hard to say goodbye, but the little human hugs made it a lot
easier. We then ran to Bishop's Halls house for dinner, and Sister
Hall fed us the MOST fantastic meal ever, Fettuccine Chicken alfredo
with broccoli, and banana creams pie for dessert!! Oh boy, it was
something else. It was so hard to say bye to them as well. Then, off to
the baptism:)

We got there and Brother Wilson gave us the report, the water was ice
cold! I absolutely hate cold water so I immediately got super nervous
haha. Yessica and Mari showed up a little later (with Kylan, Edgar,
and Edgar's less-active girlfriend who wants to become active again!)
and I told Yessi about the water. She was about ten times more
nervous than I was. As people trickled in, we slowly realized that the
relief society room wasn't going to be big enough, we had almost 80
people show up! The meeting started and the spirit was there
immediately. The talk on baptism was given by Yessi's best friend from
another ward, Katrina. She got quite emotional as she talked about how
happy she was to see her dear friend convert! After the talk she ran
down and cried on Yessi's shoulder for a moment, and then we proceeded
to the baptism. The water was SO COLD, we were both shivering pretty
bad. I said the Baptismal prayer in Spanish as a surprise for Yessi,
the spirit helped me not mess up, and then I put her into that
freezing cold water haha. She came out of the water and the spirit
filled both of us. The cold was no longer a problem. After that we
went back in and Elder Emms and I did a special musical number, Love
One Another. We had the talk on the Holy Ghost by Sister DeLapp, and
then the confirmation. As we blessed Yessi with the gift of the Holy
Ghost, it filled the rest of us as well and brought some of us to
tears. She was welcomed to the ward by her new young women's president
and all the other young women, then by bishop. Yessi was absolutely
glowing, and her sister was almost giddy. We ate dessert, laughed and
mingled, talked a little more, and then everyone left, and Elder Emms
filled out some forms while I cleaned up the font and wet clothes one
more time...

I cannot express how much I LOVE this gospel. I love these people, I
love this place, I love the Book of Mormon. I testify, with all that I
am, that this is the church of Jesus Christ. Here we will find truth,
and amazing blessings. Here we will feel peace. I challenge every
single one of you to find out for yourselves, to come to know, that
this is the true church and it is where you need to be! If you read
the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true, you WILL find out
it is true. If you feel you already know, I promise you can still be
even more sure. I love you all, and will see many of you soon. Thank
you for being there for me all along the journey my dear friends!

Love,
Elder Thomas

MLC madness.

Zone Leaders from my transfer group!