Transfers are INSANE

Dear Family and Friends,

It was hard to say goodbye to Elder Fleming but change is good, it helps us grow! Elder Christensen and I get along extremely well. In missionary work, the ideal situation is when you have two missionaries that are trying their hardest to be more like Christ and to be the best missionaries that they can be! When that happens, the companionship will have unity, and Elder Christensen and I are very unified.

The last few days before Elder Fleming left were full of a lot of hard goodbyes and visits. He is very loved here and nobody really wanted to see him go. On Tuesday we woke up and drove to Helena to drop him off and bring Elder Christensen back. That is about 4 hours of driving there, and then 4 hours back. The drive back was full of a lot of talking and getting to know each other. We knew right off the bat that we were going to get along. I am pleased to announce that their were no accidents this time haha.

The rest of the week has been busy and crazy! One of the best things that happened this week was that Mike Roberts is starting to show some serious, consistent progress! He asked a lot more questions about specific teachings in the Book of Mormon when we came back this last time, he came to church, AND he has made it through two hours of church now! He's getting closer and closer.

Our investigator that is on date for baptism, Noelle, came to church this week! This has been a goal of hers for a little bit and she is hoping to make this a lot more consistent. She is a very brave, determined woman and we are proud of her. Please keep her in your prayers as she tries to find a job.

Please also include Chelsey Junkin (hard to find a time to meet with her), Tifani Curtin (trying to get work off on Sundays), and Autumn (a member's non-member friend we are trying to meet with).

We have also been working a lot closer with the YSA branch, and we have already seen miracles. One girl has a good friend, Autumn, that has started coming to institute with her and a less-active young man everyone has been worried about just came back to church! This is a very choice group of people, we are lucky to get to work with them. This week the YSA had a game night and a "cookie and soup cook-off," and they were some of the funnest/funniest nights I have had in a while. Just so y'all know, my Disney trivia skills are lacking after these last 18 months haha.

One of the funnest things that happened this week was when we ran out to Whitefish to deliver some supplies to the elders out there. While we were there, Elder Christensen wanted to see an investigator that he knows, so we went to his work to say hi. His name is Trini, and he is one of the coolest people I have ever met in my life! He was extremely kind to us, and invited us and the other elders over in about an hour, so we went and grabbed lunch and then headed over. This man and his wife have been investigating the church for 13 years and they're getting really close. They are basically Mormon. We had such a fun time getting to know them and discussing the gospel. You never know when they will finally be ready, so you just keep trying!

I love you all! Remember to pray for missionary experiences.

Love,
Elder Thomas

Elder Christensen and Chick-Fil-A (the Only one in the mission)

Beautiful sunrise from this week

Comp of the year. Getting tucked in 👌

Trini's motorcycle collection

NALA!

Haha Daylight Savings was just too much for him 😂

Transfers Are Here!

Dear Family and Friends,

No time today my friends, no time! First of all, we found out that
Elder Fleming is getting transferred to the Billings East Zone, which
we are NOT happy about. I am going to miss him a ton, he has been an
incredibly kind and patient companion. We worked hard together and got
a lot done. Elder Jon Christensen will be my new companion, and
honestly I do not really know anything about him. He looks like a cool
kid, we should get along very well.

Also we helped the Stuarts pull down trees. (See attached video)

We had some very good lessons this week! They were great haha but I
don't have any time to write about them! We did put a woman named
Noelle on date for baptism this week though, which is super cool. More
next week, I love you all and hope you are remaining close to the
Lord.

Love,
Elder Thomas

The District

We got caught eating Banana Cream Pie (new fave dessert)

Elder Fleming tried to open a can without a can opener haha

Photo Cred: Elder Brandon Rich. Caption Cred: Me :)

Photo Cred: Elder G. Austin Porter. Caption Cred: Also me!

Also we pulled down a tree at the Stuart's because we're manly. 

Don't worry mom, I'm fine. :)

                                        

It is STILL SNOWING.

Dear Family and Friends,

There are few things sweeter than when someone you have been teaching
looks you in the eyes and tells you that they can feel the spirit. At
that point they have learned to recognize the spirit for themselves,
and that will help them to chase after it when you are gone. This
exact thing happened this last week during a lesson with Barb, an
inactive member in the ward. Barb has never been active, though she
was baptized as a kid. This week we taught about the Book of Mormon
and she told us she believed it was true because she felt the spirit!
She is an amazing woman.

A while ago I wrote about helping a partly active family (she and the
children are active, he is not) do demolition on their house, the
Stuart's. Well this week Brother Stuart chopped down a bunch of trees
and asked for our help hauling the wood into piles. Let me tell ya, I
felt SO MANLY, running around with logs on my shoulder and chucking
them. It was cold, snowy, wet and everything felt so REAL. I love this
kind of work. By the end we were each sore, dirty, and tired, and then
they even gave us dinner! I love the Stuart's.

Thursday morning we woke up at 4:30 AM to go to a meeting in Missoula
called Zone Conference. The entire Zone Conference was amazing, but
there is one thing in particular I would like to share with all those
reading this. Studies have found that the longest lasting conversions
happen in the teens to mid twenties. So all you youth reading this,
get to it!! We need you.

I'm not sure whether I have mentioned Melissa and Nathaniel before,
but they are two less-actives we have been teaching recently.
Nathaniel was in a bad accident a while ago so he is in a wheelchair
and Melissa is his caretaker. They are both amazing. Nathaniel is one
of the most positive people I have met in my life, and Melissa is so
kind. This week we talked about trials and how they can strengthen us,
and they both participated so well. Nathaniel's testimony of Christ
being there for us made me want to cry, the spirit was so strong. We
are so proud of these two.

Last of all, we got to teach Mike Roberts again! Mike really likes to
talk... a ton. So it's kinda hard to keep him on track, but this week
he kept his commitments to read the Book of Mormon and come to church!
He is making progress, even if it's slow.

Happy news of the week, the Gardners got a puppy, and I love her! Her
name is Nala, and she is perfect. She did scare us half to death
yesterday though. As we were leaving to go to another one of our
meetings, she ran under the truck with out us knowing and Sister
Gardner had to come running out to get us to stop, we had already
driven a few feet. We thought we had killed her! But it was just a
close call. It took some coaxing for us to get her to come out from
under the truck, but she was totally safe, thank goodness.

Wow, this email is super long today. I love you all!

Love,
Elder Thomas

The Zone at MLC

Elder Chamberlain and Elder Anderson 

(these two look like cousins or something)

Beautiful Montana 😍

The Gardner's new puppy! Her name is Nala :) 

(S/o to the Latu's cute dog!)

She likes to chase the shovel when we're snow shoveling haha

We're in the 40's!

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you all for your Valentine's Day wishes:) I felt very loved this
last Tuesday. I forgot to take a picture with all the Valentine's
y'all sent me, but they made me so happy!!

This week was so fulfilling because we worked hard! There is nothing
more satisfying than that. We even broke out the bikes on Friday
because the temp got up to 45 degrees! Crazy right? Our backs got
covered in mud though... so it was a success!

We challenged the Shockley's to read the Book of Mormon this week! She
was a little hesitant but he seemed all for it. I think a part of him
misses the church he was raised in, the true church. We can't wait to
see if they read it! Every time we go over there, her little one year
old crawls over to me and tries to climb up my leg, and it's torture
because I can't hold her! She is very adorable.

Last thing I have time to talk about is our snowball fight! This week
Eric Gardner (the 15 year old son of the members we live with) had a bunch
of friends over and they were hot tubbing pretty close to our
apartment. They started throwing snow at our apartment so we snuck out
the bathroom window and started throwing back! This began an epic snow
battle (which we won of course) but ended after about half an hour
when Sister Gardner came out with a spotlight and told us, in her very
motherly way, to stop it right now... whoops;) I love living here!!!

Love you all!

Love,
Elder Thomas

40 DEGREES BABY!!!!

Passed a cool barn on the way home :)

Hi

HI EVERY PERSON,

The weather this week was... Ridiculous. We had snow, hail, rain,
wind, sun, and ice EVERYWHERE. When it rained, the sun also melted the
snow and there ended up being giant puddles everywhere. The Bitterroot
Valley (corvallis) had some flooding, so at least I didn't have to
deal with that! We did do some more shoveling when it was snowy at the
beginning of the week though. It was weird because there was a layer
of ice on the top that we had to break through to actually get to the
snow because of the freezing rain the night before. Sounded cool
though! (Shout out to Jenni, remember that crazy hike we did at the
cabin when the snow was like that? That's what it reminded me of:)

One of the coolest things that happened this week was when we ran into
a man named Andy Dunn. Andy is a less-active man that we went looking
for because there was a record for him in the areabook. When he came
out on the porch to talk to us, we were surprised at how genuine and
kind he was! He seemed very excited to see us. As we talked to him we
learned that he had been bed-ridden for 5 years because of back
problems and they had just recently been fixed. As we talked, we felt
prompted to ask about his conversion. He talked a lot about his
conversion and what brought him to the church in the first place. He
spoke with an incredible fondness toward the church that we did not
expect. It was amazing to us that God had brought us to the right
place at the perfect time to talk to this choice soul. That's all
missionary work is, following the spirit to be in the right place at
the right time! We can not know exactly who needs us, but God does. I
love this work so dearly.

Significant events this week:
KENNEDY GOLD GETS BAPTIZED THIS SUNDAY:):)
Happy birthday to Alex and Emma on the 14th! Love these two.
Happy birthday to Evan on the 16th!

Love,
Elder Thomas

Snow Shoveling

Beautiful Kalispell Mountains

Patriotism :):)

Just Pondering

The ice rink (AKA our driveway)

Snow, snow, go away...

Dear Family and Friends,

It is cold, windy and snowy right now. Every time I see a picture from
the summer time I find myself wishing that the weather was like that
right now! But I'll be patient. In the next two days we are supposed
to receive 2 feet of snow, and we are a little nervous haha.

This last Tuesday was INSANE. Every transfer all the Zone leaders in
the mission meet with the assistants and President Wadsworth to
discuss the needs of the mission. That meeting started at 9:00 Tuesday
morning... so we woke up at 2:30 and left by 3:30 because the roads
were bad. That was one of the hardest drives of my entire life.
Co-drivers have to stay awake whenever their companion is driving, so
I tried my very hardest to stay awake. Luckily, at about 5:30 we got
to Missoula and the Missoula Zone Leaders drove the rest of the way to
Helena. We got there around 8:30. I don't know how but I stayed up the
WHOLE MEETING. I felt rather impressed with myself. It was an amazing
thing to be a part of this meaning and witness how much President
Wadsworth and the other leadership in this mission love these
missionaries. Everything was focused on them and helping them become
better, grow and feel happier. We discussed many things, one of the
biggest discussion topics being the new missionary schedule. For the
most part, we are just doing the suggested outline. We left about 4:00
and didn't get home till almost 9:00. We were SO TIRED.

We had quite a few lessons this week, but I'll only be able to touch
on a few. One of the most exciting lessons was with the Shockley
family. The Shockleys are a part-member family and they are very
welcoming every time we go over! Sister Shockley is the non-member and
Brother Shockley was a member as a young boy, but he hasn't been
active in a very long time. It was really cool to talk with him this
last time because he kept talking about all the memories he had of
missionaries and looking up to them. He stopped going to church very
young, but he still remembers! We are hoping and praying this goes
somewhere.

The other lesson we are super excited about this week was with a young
woman named Chelsey. Her Mom is a member but has not come to church in
a while. Chelsey is very interested in taking the discussions and
learning more. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go to this one because
we were on splits, but hopefully I get to go this week!

This last week as we were working out in the morning, we thought it
might be a good idea to try some hand stand push-ups up against the
wall. Now, a quick disclaimer, Elder Fleming is HUGE. When he falls,
he falls hard, and when he breaks things, he destroys them. So, when
his arm buckled and we heard a loud crack when he hit the ground, we
knew something bad had happened. Turns out his rear end had hit the
wall and put a big hole in the wall! Call me insensitive, but it was
everything I could do to keep from laughing haha. The Gardners handled
it really well and Elder Fleming will be helping with the repairs:)
whoops!

Anyways, no time. Sound familiar?? Sorry, haha. I love you all!

Love,
Elder Thomas

COOKIE NIGHT!

Got to see Elder Angle and Elder Porter again! One of the very best parts of MLC

The matching ties I made for us!

Elder Angles made me this sweet wooden ring

Elder Tippetts wouldn't let me go :)

Elder Fleming's little accident...

I made this and I liked it

We got tons of snow this week :P