The Master is Calling! : All is done in God's time.

Hallo!

This week did not turn out how we planned it at all, but it turned out
the way God planned it, and that's what matters!

Montana has been blessed with rain!! Tons and tons of rain. Also, from
Monday to Wednesday, the temperature dropped almost 55 degrees! In
some parts of Montana, it's been snowing. The weather this week has
certainly been weird. This is all an incredible miracle because it has
cleaned the air of smoke and aided, if not completely, in putting out
all the fires! Always pray for those things that you are in need of.
Heavenly Father desires to bless you!

Started exchanges with the Pioneer Park elders after preparation day
on Monday and went until Wednesday morning, (totally random thought;
why is Wednesday spelled that way??? Why not Wensday?? Every time I
write this day, I have to think in my head... wed-ness-day... ???)

Lately, our approach to teaching Pete has been to conduct frequent,
short visits encouraging him to read the Book of Mormon! So, we
started off the week with a short lesson at Pete's. We promised him
that if he would do the Lord's work first, like reading the Book of
Mormon, praying, and going to church, everything else would fall into
place! Did I mention he gives us a big Gatorade and king size Reese's
every time we go over there? This guy is so Christlike, I mean, it's
hard to get much better than that. (Another random rant; it's REESE's
not REESIE's... just sayin'...)

Had the GREATEST lesson with Sister O'Conner this week! We reviewed
the restoration story and the need for the restoration, and let me
tell ya, THE SPIRIT WAS SO STRONG!! The gospel is true, this story is
true! Read the Book of Mormon. IT'S ALL TRUE AND I LOVE IT!!

We had an open window of time so we did the most logical thing... and
made cookies! Pro Tip: Every once in a while you just gotta make
cookies for all the people you're teaching. If the cookies are good
enough, they might think you're sister missionaries and actually
listen to what you teach haha.

Then we got to see Halee Brubaker! Halee was an investigator of ours
in Columbus. And she was a vey dear friend. Well this week she shot me
a Facebook message and let me know that she was in the Billings
hospital because the smoke was affecting her. So Elder Wheeler and I
got to go visit her and bring her cookies! It was so good to see her
again after such a long time, reunions with old friends are the best:)

That night Mari and Yessi fed us and Sister Gray from the ward, some
of the best Mexican food I've ever had in my life and we briefly
discussed the gospel of Jesus Christ... then they helped us change the
flat tire we gained on the way over because someone stuck a razor
blade in it... strange. Mari almost knew more about changing tires
than we did, which was humbling, but hey just read Ether 12:27.

Wednesday was weekly planning and temporary exchanges with the
Sweetgrass Elders because they had too many appointments. Exchanges
were... interesting haha. I got to be with my MTC companion and dear
friend, Elder Parrish! Elder Parrish and I ran off to teach a lesson
in Czech, while Elder Emms and Elder Black went and taught Spanish.
Anyone notice the problem yet? Yeah I don't speak Czech, and neither
does Elder Parrish... well, we tried to use Google Translate the whole
time and it worked alright, and we think she got it because she said
"good" a lot... haha it was very unique. One thing we can know, the
spirit was there.

We taught Shaylee Leavitt again this week and she has set a Baptismal
date for the 14th of October! Brother Leavitt knows his kids so well,
and it is a joy to see him bear his testimony to his kids. I hope to
be able to know and teach my kids as well as he has.

I got to see Ron Venema this week! Ron is a very good friend of mine
from Corvallis, and he's kind of the coolest!

2nd lesson of the week with Pete was fantastic, we just told him our
favorite stories from the Book of Mormon, and now he is all excited to
read it!! We love him.

Had our 2nd meeting with Mari and Yessi, and Elder Emms was back for
this one! The lesson was on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and let me
tell yah, Yessi is so prepared. She is ready! She actively
participates, learns from the spirit and scriptures, makes
commitments, keeps those commitments... she is truly one of the elect!
The lesson went well, and they really clicked with Sister DeLapp, the
member we brought with us. She decided to set a goal to be baptized by
October 7th and told us she would pray to know that was the right day.
Quote of the night:
Yessi's Friend: "Basically your brain never stops."
Yessi: "Neither does my mouth!!"

Had a day of service Saturday morning! Our project cancelled, but we
did our best to serve anyways. If you haven't yet used the JustServe
app or gone to JustServe.org, do it! That is what they are using in
Texas, and all of us need to be aware of how this program works!

Elder Jon Christensen left us to go be normal this week. Elder Parrish
and I were both companions with him so we went and got to spend one
last lunch with him eating his favorite pita from pita pit. It was
nice, I'm going to miss him a ton, and his weekly emails, that little
goober. He served well and made us all proud.

Dinner Saturday night was awesome! We had dinner with the family whose
dog bit Elder Emms, and the dog was so nice! It just played catch with
me the whole time... I was still super scared of it though. The wife
in the family is a member but has never been active and she always had
the best questions! The spirit led the whole dinner lesson, and we
were able to answer every question to her understanding! She was led
to say, "I never heard it that way before. I like it!"

On Sunday Yessi and Mari came to church:) they loved church as usual,
but the unique event occurred as Yessi left the building that day. She
received an answer from the spirit as to when she would like to be
baptized! We got a text shortly after they left that she wanted to get
baptized on... THE 24TH!!! We are SO EXCITED!!! So, you'll be hearing
more about that next week!

Carlos was not home when we tried him Sunday evening, as we were
informed by his kids when we arrived. However, we did see his dogs
down by the river on our way up and we asked his kids if they were
supposed to be down there. Their kids seemed a little worried and
mentioned that they normally don't go that far! So, we said a prayer
and spent the next hour or so trying to find the dogs. We could not
find them anywhere, but we did talk to all the neighbors down there
and gave them Mormon.org cards with our number on it in case they
found something. These are all people we would have never talked to
otherwise, so that made us very happy. After all our efforts it was
dark and we had not found the dogs so we headed back to the house. As
we turned onto their long driveway, there they were!! Just chilling at
the end of the driveway haha. So I hopped out and walked the dogs back
into the gate. They came out and treated us like heroes despite our
protests and attempts to explain that they were just at the end of the
driveway haha. It was a crazy night to end a crazy week!

Next week I will be sending my last weekly email. Though I love you
all very much, I will probably not be sending personal emails next
week. I'll probably just spend my last Preparation day relaxing and
playing sports! I'll see y'all soon!

Read Alma 31:5 this week. This is what the world needs:)

Love,
Elder Thomas

This is Elder Muhlestein, he comes home with me. He's also a genius