EASTER IS THE BEST.

Dear Family and Friends,

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Oh my good gravy, where to start with this week... last Monday we did
shopping, I got home and thought, "I don't really feel like emailing
today... so I didn't haha. But I did send my last weekly this morning
so y'all can't complain. Instead I pretty much just played with Nala
all day. She is completely healthy and growing like a weed! Love that
dog.

On Tuesday we tried some street contacting and came to the harsh
realization that our street contacting skills are very rusty haha.
We're going to have to get used to the fact that people actually go
outside again! Later that night we had a great institute lesson with
the YSA. The coolest part? One of the members of the YSA, Allie,
brought a friend! Her name is Autumn and she is the coolest. She
expressed to us after institute that she was just looking for God, and
Allie asked her if she would come to her church activities! Missionary
work is the best when members work with the missionaries. We just
chatted with her for a while after Institute and established that our
goal was to help her find God and that it would be her responsibility
to do the reading and praying. She really seemed to like that! Can't
wait to see where this one goes.

Wednesday was our last District Meeting of the transfer and it was so
good! I gave a 25 minute discussion and it really just felt like the
spirit took over and guided my every word. So nice when that happens!
After district meeting, we got together with the other district and
took the most epic Zone picture ever! It was awesome. That day there
was free ice cream at the local ice cream shop so we stopped in, and
let me tell ya, there is nothing quite like honey cinnamon ice cream.
Best thing I've tasted in the history of ever. That night we did
splits and I got to go with good ol' Brother Burningham. This man is
just good! He is fun to be around and he is a great teacher. While he
and I were out contacting less-actives, we knocked on the door of a
family that neither of us knew. When he came out, he was extremely
kind and said that he was busy right then but wanted us to come back,
share a message and have dinner with them! Sometimes you wonder how
some people went less-active. We can't wait to get back there. As we
left he said, "don't worry, I'll make sure you are fed very well!"

Thursday morning we had a really good lesson with Mike. We discussed
what he got out of the last chapter he had read and some of his
reflections on General Conference that he had been pondering on. We've
been feeling that he is just a little to comfortable with where he is
at so we have been praying that he will soon realize that there is so
much more available to him! That night we had an awesome YSA activity.
We played catch phrase, which is a very difficult game after being on
a mission for 18 months! Seriously don't remember anything.

Ooh this week we went to the post office to send a package off for
Elder Fleming and before we went in we decided to talk to as many
people as we could. It was sick, I was teaching the lady in front of
me while Elder Christensen taught the lady behind him. I love moments
like this! You can share the gospel wherever you are, especially
around Easter, everyone wants to talk about their Savior right about
now.

On the way out from the post office we bumped into a member and felt a
prompting to ask them if we could have dinner with them because we
didn't have a dinner that night and they always told us it was an open
invite. They got all excited and told us about this cool Passover
dinner thing that they were doing at another member's house. It was
one of the cooler things I've been a part of on my mission. There were
a bunch of nonmembers there and we went through the Passover the way
the Jews do and learned so much! One of the coolest things we learned
was that at every Passover feast, they set an extra place for Elijah
the prophet who was prophesied to return and turn he hearts of the
children to the fathers and the fathers to the children. Well guess
what, he did return... to Joseph Smith... on April 3rd... which in
that year was the same day as Passover!! Crazy. We also got some pics
with baby goats!

Had a fun, short, exchange with the Columbia Falls Elders. Elder Emms
came with me and I went and conducted a Baptismal interview with an
investigator of theirs. It was one of the coolest interviews I have
ever had, this woman was so kind, so good and so ready! One of the
interview questions asks if they believe that Joseph Smith was a
prophet. Before I could finish talking she stated her solid testimony
that, "Yes he is." What a cool lady!

Friday night was SUPER cool! Allie, the girl that brought her friend
to institute, invited us over for a super fancy, super yummy dinner
cooked by them because Allie, her non-member friend Autumn and another
member friend of theirs are all going through a culinary arts program
and they are very good! It was fantastic food. The dinner was at her
uncle Scott's house, Scott is a non-member as well and he was very fun
to be around. He is very intelligent and very funny. We spent the
night learning from each other and laughing together. Scott is also an
incredible woodworker and I was like a kid in a candy shop looking at
all the stuff he made! Before we left we got to share the Prince of
Peace video and talk about Easter. The spirit was powerful and
testified to each of us of the truthfulness of the message.

Easter was AMAZING! The talks in the ward were amazing. And I got a
few ideas and scriptures for the talk I would be giving in the YSA
branch a little later, so that was good! We also had Mike at church
with us and the non-member fiancé of a guy in our ward. To add on to
that, we also had a less-active member named Lee show up today to! She
is a character, I will have to tell you all about her a little later.
In the YSA ward, Allie brought Autumn and her uncle Scott. We gave the
talks during sacrament meeting, on the Atonement and Resurrection and
the spirit absolutely filled our mouths!

Last of all, but not least... Cookie night was on Easter and it wasn't
at the Boyce's, it was at Lori's! It was SO much fun. We had an Easter
egg hunt, which was surprisingly very hard. I felt like a little kid
again haha. We had so much fun! I was having a hard time finding any
at first, but then I got the hang of it. Elder Christensen however...
haha he only found one! He got ruthlessly teased haha. Afterward we
went in and had a scrumptious dinner and lively conversation. It was
sick.

Love you all!!

Love,
Elder Thomas

When Elder Christensen feels sick but we still gotta work haha

Nala!

Made Elder Christensen and I matching ties this week! 

We wore them on Easter.

More Nala :)

Passed this lake and had to take a picture!

Have I already sent a picture of Nala?

Cool passover dinner thing! 

We got to see baby goats!!

Exchanges in C Falls

Took this through a telescope

Easter photoshoot on side of road...

Easter egg hunt! 

Spring Cleaning

This week has been so very long. Not that it wasn't fun or anything,
It just feels like so much has changed and happened!

Monday was pretty awesome! We got to go hiking and see a great view of
Kalispell. Pictures to follow. That night, Elder Christensen got a
really bad migraine and started speaking gibberish so we took him down
to the Gardners theater room and had him sleep. It was VERY boring.
But I got a lot of thinking and praying done!

So this week... I don't even know where to start. This week I backed
over Nala. The puppy that I love. I was backing and she ran behind the
back tire. My companion tried to get me to stop but I didn't notice
soon enough. I hit a bump right as I realized he was trying to get me
to stop, and realized it was my Nala. My heart just fell apart, right
there, I thought I'd killed her. My companion came up to my window and
helped me know which direction to pull. I finally realized she wasn't
dead as I rolled off her because I could hear her yelping. I jumped
out of the car and looked under the truck to see where she was. Then I
saw her coming out from under the truck, dragging her legs. She
dragged her little body over to me, still crying, and stuck her little
nose in my side like she always does while I comforted her. She
finally calmed down and sat there shaking. Her owner came over to see
her so I went and stood a ways off. My companion was grabbing a towel
to wrap her up in because she was coughing up blood. I sat on the
stairs to gather my thoughts. I heard a car pull out, and realized
they had left to the vet without me... which was weird for both me and
my companion because we were separated. So I went inside and cried. I
thought she was going to die. I prayed so hard. I know my God is a God
of miracles. I knew he could save her. But my heart still hurt. They
got back a while later, she was still at the vet, but they gave me the
news. No broken bones, no fatal damage, only bruising and scratches.
THE ENTIRE TRUCK TIRE WAS ON TOP OF HER. I know God's hand was in
this, there is no other explanation. I didn't say much or eat anything
for a while. Elder Christensen was an amazing strength to me during this
time. Nala got home that evening and I almost cried when I saw her, she
was pretty beat, but she was alive and healing quickly.

The next night was cookie night at the Boyce's! And I know I mention
this every time I talk about them, but I absolutely love this family.
The entire evening with food, laughter, Easter celebrations and Easter
messages was awesome. When I got there, they informed me that we would
be having a special desert... MY MOMMA's POUNDCAKE! When they went
down to Utah for Conference and spring break, they also picked up some
cake and a beautiful Easter package from my mother:) it was so good,
my mom is the best. As I started opening my mothers Easter basket I
found a little wrapped package in it. I started to open it and had
everybody guess what it was, without hesitation, Brother Boyce
volunteered, "maybe it's driving for dummies!" Hahaha nope, but mom, I
really might need one of those! Later that night we were sitting
around the dinner table and we found out that the friend Payzlee had
over had just had a birthday. The conversation went like this,
Us: "So what did you get for your birthday?"
Her: "A puppy!"
Us: "Ooh what kind?"
Her: "A yellow lab... (then looking at me with a smile) just like the
one you ran over!"
Haha it was hilarious! Kids say the darnedest things.

We had a crazy weekly planning session this week. We are calling it
spring cleaning! We went through our areabook and dropped everyone
that wasn't progressing unless the spirit told us not to! Our areabook
is a lot whiter now, but that's just more room to grow! You've got to
weed the garden until it almost looks empty so that the good stuff can
fill it back in, and that's what we're doing.

We haven't been able to contact our recent convert, Tifani, for a
while because her phone ran out of minutes, so we stopped by randomly
this week. It turns out that she had just then gotten minutes back on
her phone and was typing out a message to send to us!  So we got to
stop in for a little bit and teach her family. I LOVE little miracles
like this!

Saturday morning we got to go do some service for the Stuart's again!
It was tons of fun. While we were working, Brother Stuart, the
less-active member, walked by and said, "did you guys see the
rainbow?" What a sight. I have never seen a more vibrant rainbow in
all my life. You could clearly see each color as if it were painted on
the clouds that worked as a bright white backdrop for this
masterpiece. I love this beautiful world God has given us, it's
amazing. Even better was the beautiful Easter message we shared after
lunch. You could tell the spirit was touching their hearts, even if
they didn't really want it to. The spirit is such a sweet, sweet gift.

That night after a rough evening of work, Eric Gardner and his friends
were in the hot tub listening to music, so we stole the speaker and
put out of their reach playing I am a child of God haha. Eventually we
went down and talked to them, it was good to just talk to some people
that actually liked us for a while. Mormons are the best. These silly
ducks are always threatening to play pranks on us in our sleep, but we
inform them that they don't have the guts... maybe we shouldn't
challenge them haha.

Testimony meeting in the Kalispell 2nd ward was incredible! Both Elder
Christensen and I were able to bear our testimony. After that the
mom's with missionaries got up and brought the spirit super strong. It
was fun to hear them and think of my mom back in Utah getting up and
bearing her testimony:) after sacrament meeting we got to go beat our
testimonies of missionary work again in a primary class! Children are
so innocent and good. No wonder Christ wanted to spend so much time
with them.

Testimony meeting in the YSA branch was pretty amazing as well. There
were like 15 of us, so pretty much all of us bore our testimony haha.
The YSA branch is such a fun place to be. It's weird to think this
will be my life soon.

One of my favorite songs on my mission is called happiness, but every
time we listen to the song, Elder Christensen sings "happy days"
instead of "happiness." So I have started correcting him. As we
listened to it this week he almost sang happy days, but caught himself
mid-word and ended up saying happy desk... so now we sing about
eternal happy desk every time we listen to it hahaha.

Anyways, long email this week! Yay:)

Love,
Elder Thomas

Lone Pine hike! 

Little Nala the day she got run over. This picture breaks 

my heart. God is so good, people.

Light trails with Elder Christensen's GoPro camera! 

Yes my current initials are ET haha

District Pics!

MOMMA's pound cake with The Cookie Grandma and those 

two little girls that are always roasting me haha.

A not very good picture of the rainbow... I wish y'all 

could have seen it in real life.

2 Decades Down, and Conference!

Dear Family and Friends,

What a crazy couple of weeks it has been! I am sorry I did not write
an update last week, I was busy buying A cowboy hat with my birthday
money! I can't even tell y'all how much I love this thing, makes me a
little sad that I'm not a legitimate cowboy haha.

First off, my birthday was last week and I received so much love from
all of you, it was almost overwhelming! Thank you all for your well
wishings, gifts and cards! It meant a great deal to me. As previously
mentioned I bought a cowboy hat with that money, as well as some jeans
because I ripped my old ones a couple weeks ago doing service with the
Stuart's... Anyways. I'm also looking to buy a new dog kennel for the
Gardners friend because I sat on the one they were borrowing from
their friend and broke it... I must be getting fat. Anyways thank you
all for making my birthday great!!

In the last two weeks we have been doing so much finding! We have
mostly been turned away but we've still just been working our heads
off! As long as you are doing your best, God blesses you. Elder
Christensen and I both have tons of fun knocking on doors, even when
someone is rude or short with us! We have the funniest conversations
as we walk around. They usually make no sense haha.

We've been working pretty close with a less-active named Barb. Barb is
a super cool lady that comes from a very active family but has never
been active herself. This last week we went and visited Barb at her
re-consignment shop again and were able to provide service by pressure
washing the alley that her shop is on. Barb is a cool woman, she
listens during lessons, is sensitive to the spirit, and she serves us
constantly! Please keep her in your prayers as she continues to make
this incredible climb upward.

General Conference was this week, and it was absolutely incredible! I
think my favorite talk was by Elder Sabin. I love the way he presented
the information, I love the idea of being "all in." The other thing
that really stuck out to me was when Elder Nelson talked about
spiritually stretching beyond anything you've done before. I want to
be all in! I want to spiritually stretch beyond anything I've done
before. I want these last few months to be completely given to the
Lord. I know Christ will help me as I strive to achieve this goal. He
has before, and always will.

Some quick finding miracles from this week. As we were trying to
contact some less-actives given to us by the ward, we found a new
potential investigator! We knocked on the door and this kind woman
answered the door. She wasn't able to talk long because she said she
was making dinner, but she asked us to come back when we could! When
we were on exchanges this week, Elder Pierce and I felt the spirit
tell us that there were 4 different houses we needed to visit that
day. So, acting on faith, we hopped in the truck and let the spirit
guide us at every turn. After driving for a while we felt that we
needed to stop, and we also felt like we were supposed to knock on the
door directly across the street. We did so and a wonderful lady named
Joan came out and greeted us. She was pretty closed at first, but we
showed her the video "none were with him" by Jeffrey R. Holland and
she softened up quite a bit! We gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon
and she told us she would read it, and to come back. We then felt we
should walk across the street and knock on the door directly opposite.
They also answered the door! They were not quite as open, but they
said they were willing to have us come back. The spirit then directed
us down another street and sure enough, the first door we knocked on,
they invited us in! Their names were David and Kelee. They were
incredibly kind and friendly. They both served missions of their own
for their churches and were completely supportive of what we do,
though we had different beliefs. This isn't luck, these are miracles.
The last door we knocked on, a kind man named Joe answered the door.
He said that he didn't know how interested he would be, but that his
kids might be interested! We're hoping to get the whole family.
Anyways, that was kind of a crazy night, Elder Pierce and I were both
stunned. Miracles happen! These things are too much of a coincidence
to be a coincidence!

I love you all so much. Remember to be "all in!"

Love,
Elder Thomas

COWBOY HAT!!!

The BOM.com :)

Chilling by the fire with my cowboy hat and Nala :) YUS.

#PRINCEofPEACE! Share the video.

Pressure-washing Barb's alley

Awww look at them being peaceful!

ETTE. Endure to the End!

Pictures from the week

Eating lunch in paradise :)

I LOVE KALISPELL.

Elder Christensen and I. We have been having so much fun!

Cool fire pic.

Happy Birthday to me :) The Taylor family made me 

apple crisp and put a candle in it! They are the best :)

Kind of a Clumsy Week

Dear Family and Friends,

SO MUCH has happened this week.

On Monday we celebrated Payslee and Brother Boyces birthdays for cookie night! I cant tell you all enough how much I love this family. They are so much fun and they take such good care of us.

Tuesday morning we woke up at about 3:30 AM to get ready to go to MLC in Helena. 30 minutes later we were in the truck and driving. It is in moments like this that I really wish I wasn't the designated driver, I was so tired. At 6AM we finally got to Missoula, I crawled into the back, put my earplugs in and had a glorious nap until we got to Helena 2 hours later.

MLC was really cool! We discussed Facebook and some changes we were going to make so that the entire mission could be on the same page. We also discussed the focus of the transfer which is chapter 4 and chapter 10 in Preach My Gospel, recognizing the Holy Ghost and improving our teaching. We are excited for this transfer. Quote of the Day: "There are no dead areas, just dead missionaries." -President Wadsworth

Aaaaaand then we drove back. We got home at 8:30 that night. Insanity.

On Friday we woke up early so that we could go help a nonmember family move some furniture. I was wearing my favorite gray suit that I had owned since sophomore year, so you can imagine how thin the fabric on the seat of the pants is. When I squatted down to lift the couch, my pants ripped all along the back of the pants haha. I was already holding the couch, so I just had another elder walk right behind me as we carried the couch outside. Needless to say, we were a little late to Zone Training because we were getting me some new pants haha. Best part? President and Sister Wadsworth were at our Zone Training haha, ill never hear the end of it. Every time I did something that day someone said, don't rip your pants!

One of the last crazy things that happened this week was when we went and tried to contact a former investigator. When we first got there she just seemed like this nice old lady who was willing to listen, then everything changed, all the sudden she just went very anti. It was a little scary to be honest.

We had stake conference this week with Elder Rawson! I got so much out of it, but by far my favorite quote was this, "When you ask a question, you create a place in your mind for an answer. If we don't ask the question, we may get an answer but it won't stick because there is no place for it to go."
-Elder Rawson I love that! Ive never thought about it that way, and this new perspective has made me always want to have a question.

I don't know what it was this week, but a lot of crazy stuff happened. I got beat in a game of PIG by an 11 year old girl (It was on a little nerf hoop, but STILL), I got pulled over at 5 AM on my way to MLC because I missed a speed limit sign, I slipped in mud as we were trying to take a picture, I slipped off a porch into a thorn bush while tracting, and I ripped my pants trying to pick up a couch. It was... Interesting haha.

QUOTE OF MY LIFE:
"There is a crack in everything, that's how the light get's in."
-Leonard Cohen

Love,
Elder Thomas

When you woke up at 3AM

City streets (Tyrna get some Pita Pit in Missoula)

Thrift shop treasures

When you just really like dogs...

Photoshoot!