FIVE.

Dear Family and Friends,

This would be so much easier if you could all just read my mind and know everything that happened this week. So i'll let you all figure out how to do that, because I am very short on time today... jk, I do have a little time.

Mitchell Gold is one of the most humble humans I have ever met in my life. We absolutely love him. I have learned time and time again from his example. This week we taught about prophets and polygamy and cleared up some questions and confusions.

The Walker family is so welcoming to us! We love them. Randy has a testimony of the Book of Mormon but he has not realized the significance of that knowledge. We feel that if he will commit to come to church and keep that commitment he will receive the answer he is looking for.

We resumed our visits with a man named Sandro this week. Sandro has had a rough past, one that makes it hard for him to trust others. Sandro has asked us to prove the Book of Mormon to him historically. We explained to him that he must prove it to himself by reading the Book of Mormon and praying. He didn't like that answer too much. While Elder Angle was still here we tried to have a drop lesson with him but he wouldn't let us! He enjoys our visits a lot and really wants us to keep coming back. He is humble enough to have us over so we will be working with him step by step, scripture by scripture, precept upon precept. It may be slow but he definitely has potential!

There is a non-member who comes to church every week. This man was excommunicated for leaving the church and joining the apostate group up in Pinesdale. He now wants to rejoin the church and has been working on that for about a year already. His daughter, age 12, is now beginning to figure out what religion she wants to join and has begun the discussions with us! She is so intelligent and is completely willing to read the Book of Mormon and seek a testimony of it.

Taught the Plan of Salvation to Amy and Cory Weidow this week and it went so well! Amy and her kids are hoping to be baptized soon but Cory is lagging behind a little. We talked about eternal families and making certain that we will all be together someday. I think Cory understood the message but is not ready to act yet. He understands though, which is good.

Fred and Cara are just like many of the other incredible investigators coming from Pinesdale, golden! They do have some incredibly difficult questions, but we have learned how to answer them and the spirit always comes in with the save. This time we taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we were also able to answer their group doctrine related questions on polygamy and the sacrament. A challenge for each of you: Go to D&C 20:76 and answer this; what does the word "administer" mean in this verse. This is a huge stumbling block for those in Pinesdale because they feel we do the sacrament wrong. If you can't figure it out email me.

We did five service projects this week. FIVE. We helped a less-active family paint the floor in an upstairs room, we helped the sisters in Blodgett Canyon move a fifth wheel trailer hitch from one truck to the other for an investigator, we helped a physically handicapped woman dejunk and downsize her storage unit and ended up with all the junk (trying to get a member of the ward to come pick all this up and take it to the dump for us), we helped some non-members move into corvallis with two other sets of missionaries, and we helped our investigator, Linda, paint her shed. It was CRAZY.

Wild week. Love you all!

Love,
Elder Thomas

Big dog named Finnick. Love him! 

Rainy days :)

Service. I am working hard in my head, ok?

Can it get any better than Montana? 

One more door... Just a little longer...

Dear Family and Friends,

Story time. Saturday night Elder Peterson and I were discussing the silly little things satan tries to distract us with and we came to some conclusions. The first being that satan always tempts us with the same silly things. The second being that he always does it around the same time of day and in the same situation. Because of this, we have the ability to look forward and prepare for any temptations that he may try to bombard us with. As I pondered on this subject I thought it would be a good idea to change the iPad password as a reminder to always be preparing for the next moment. I did just that and went to sleep. The next morning my alarm went off and I tried to unlock my iPad... and I had completely forgotten my passcode. Here is the deal, after 9 failed attempts at unlocking a missionary iPad, it wipes all data and information on the iPad. Notes, PDF's, Pictures, Gospel Library... and it did not take me long to get to 8 attempts. I tried many different variations of what I was pretty certain the password was based on, thinkahead, lookahead, thinkforward, lookforward, beready, prepare... other stuff. I was panicking. We prayed, and pondered, and prayed again. I just could not remember! At the end of the day we were sitting in our room as Elder Peterson wrote in his journal. Randomly he looked up at me and said, "plan ahead." Immediately I knew what he was talking about. He was simply thinking about his future and "planning ahead" and it hit him! We had to wait till the next morning to try it out because we wanted to make sure that there were no other options. We called the mission office and they let us know that if I couldn't remember the password, I would just need to wipe the iPad and start over. At this point it was the worth the risk. We entered in each letter 1 by 1... p-l-a-n-a-h-e-a-d... then I re-entered it just to make sure I did it right. I pushed done and... IT WORKED!!!!!! My iPad truly has 9 lives, and we saved it right on the last one, but only through personal revelation. God loves us and if our desires are righteous, he will make a way.

Other miracles, one night we prayed to know where to go. I felt a prompting to go tracting, Elder Peterson had the names of a member family come to his mind, Jeff and Maria. We put two and two together and went tracting on Jeff and Maria's street, got a referral from another member and got a referral for a less-active at the end of the street who is in need of service this week! God sends us two by two for a reason.

Around 8:00 in Montana, everyone goes inside and gets ready for bed, or some other form of relaxation, but God has asked us to be out till 9:00, so we do it. As we walking home this week at about 8:50 we saw a man out on his porch. We talked to him and found out he was a less-active! He was so willing to have us come over. His name is Bradley and he is such a cool man, we have high hopes for his future progression.

Sometimes you just have to have a list of people you could go visit and then pray about it. We prayed over a list of potential investigators and felt a prompting to go visit some investigators that we believed had moved and were intending to drop. We knocked on the door and no one was home, but we knew God had sent us there for a reason so we knocked the other doors on the street. No one was interested till the last house, when a young man named Sam saw us approaching and he came out to talk to us! He told us most of his friends were Mormons. He was so willing to listen and have us come back! He gave us his address, phone number and set up an appointment with us for this Thursday. We are so excited, we have heard nothing but good from his friends in the ward. Always knock the last door.

Another night it was getting late and we felt a prompting to send a facebook message to a young man, Ron. I personally do not like doing Facebook messaging unless we have to, but God told us to do this one. It turns out that it was an answer to prayer and from what he tells us it was one of the most powerful spiritual answer he has received in his life. He was really seeking for guidance and we messaged him at the right time. He just recently moved to Billings, but the Billings missionaries will be teaching him. We had only met him two times before this. God knows his children, he knows what they need, listen and act.

God blesses you when you knock that last door or stay out for that last ten minutes.

I'm sorry, that's all I have time for. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Thomas

Blodgett Canyon hike

Zone Leadership Conference

Love Montana

Y'all Gonna Be Mad At Me

Dear Family and Friends,

I know I'll be in trouble with at least one of you (Mom) for doing
this, but this will be another very short email.

First cool thing, Mitchell has decided that he is ready for baptism
and has had his first interview! It was such an amazing lesson, to see
his countenance change and all the wait he has been carrying fall
away. He finally realized the difference between being imperfect and
being unworthy. So important!

We were able to get up and see Jim Neaves, the bow maker, again. He
has dropped us and asked us not to teach him, but there is still a
friendship and a bond there, so we went up to see how he was doing. It
was a wonderful visit, and it was good to see him again.

Went on an exchange with Elder Porter! (The one taking selfies at the
interviews) He is a good missionary and we saw miracles. One of the
miracles was that we got to see Jordan again! It is not very easy to
catch him at home, but we did! He has been reading the Book of Mormon!
He had a few questions about the origin of the Book of Mormon and
Joseph Smith, which we were able to answer to his satisfaction. It was
cool. On the way home we felt a prompting to stop by our next door
neighbors and talk with. When we got there he was grilling some steaks
(yes at 8:30 PM. Here in Montana they cook meat whenever they feel
like it haha) and was visibly distressed. We began talking with him
and he opened up about all the problems he was having and how hard
things were. We were able to testify of the love Christ has for him and his
perfect plan. He kept saying, you'll probably be hearing from me
again.

We did have other cool experiences but I don't have enough time.
Sorry! I love you all very much.

Love,
Elder Thomas

Beautiful Rainbow :)

Just before bed selfies

Waiting our turn for interviews with President

Sunset

I must be working him too hard :)

We Out About and We Workin'

Dear Family and Friends,

Some quick updates:

Last Monday was crazy. While we were out getting lunch we got a call
from a woman named Adrienne. Elder Angle met Adrienne in a parking lot
a few weeks ago. We got to talk to her while her husband worked on a
locksmith job in the back. It was a delightful conversation and we
learned a lot about her. Her father was dying soon and we got to
testify of the plan of salvation and eternal families. We also learned
she was moving and stayed in contact through texting. When Adrienne
called us on Monday she was asking for our help with moving. It was
preparation day, but who cares! When God's children need help, you go
no matter the cost. It was so cool and they were extremely grateful!
We were able to lift some very large boxes that they may not have been
able to lift and get to know them really well. They are a wonderful
Christian family and they have very great potential. She wants to have
us up for dinner as soon as she can!

Randy is continuing to progress! He has asked us to read the Book of
Mormon with them every time when we come over. He is reading on his
own when he has time too. His son RJ has autism but he loves the
gospel! We love this family.

This week we had a meeting with a man named Joe Jessop who is a church
historian. We call it the Pinesdale meeting because he teaches us the
history behind Pinesdale and the reason for some of their different
doctrines. It is a very detailed meeting and so much information is
brought forward. I love it, it helps us understand where our Pinesdale
investigators are coming from.

We had a second meeting with Michael! We taught about the Restoration
of the gospel. Michael was very receptive and loves meeting with us.
We brought a member with us who is a wrestler because Michael loves
wrestling. It was such a perfect fit! We invited him to be baptized
but he felt he wasn't ready to make that commitment yet. He said he
might be in the future. The member we brought invited him to church
and even said he would pick him up. He seemed like he wanted to go!

Will and Kara have had their general authority interview, and it was
such a wonderful experience for them! They spoke of the powerful
presence of the spirit and the love they felt. We are so happy for
them.

As of right now that is all I have time for. I LOVE YOU ALL!

Love,
Elder Thomas

Swamped

Dear Family and Friends,

Truth is, all this responsibility is really wearing me out. I am super
sorry that my last few emails haven't been very detailed, I will try
to make up for that with this one.

These last few weeks have been packed. I'll probably just tell you all
about this week and hope that it covers some of the things I haven't
in the past few weeks.

First off, Mitchell Gold is still going strong! We met with him again
this week and discussed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Mitchell is
probably one of the most humble men I have ever met in my life and is
so willing to restart. I think the lessons we have with him are some
of the most spiritual I have had my whole mission. He always talks
about the strong presence of the spirit during our lessons. What a
gift being a missionary is.

In these last few weeks, we had our last lesson with Clint, Audrey,
Martha, Sarah, and the children. We taught them about laws and
ordinances last week, which is the last of the organized discussions
we have. They understood this, so they invited us to come back again
this last Monday to have a barbecue. We went back and had a wonderful
time, talking, eating, holding one of the older children's (Katie) pet
hawk. We do not think they will invite us up for any more lessons but
they said that they wanted to do a barbecue thing again sometime! This
makes me a little sad because I have grown to love this family and
want so very dearly to help them more but they are not ready at this
time. Sometimes the most we can do is pray.

Randy Walker is an amazing man, God is working many mighty miracles in
his life. He is the one who we found by helping them move in. He has a
very good understanding of the doctrine and helps us teach his
children. Randy is now reading the Book or Mormon with his family, and
even really wanted some copies of the children's Book of Mormon with
pictures for his kids. For some reason they are having a hard time
making the commitment to come to church, but we have high hopes for
them in the future if they keep working this hard.

Michael is a young man we met one time while doing some inspired
tracting a long time ago. We tried to meet with him for a long time
but he never kept his appointments. A while ago we were feeling like
he wasn't interested, so we prayed about it and decided to drop him if
he didn't answer the door. When we knocked he came right out and
greeted is kindly. We were able to teach him the Plan of Salvation,
because he has a newborn, and he understood and received everything
very well. This week we taught him the Restoration lesson, it was
incredible. He kept mentioning how it all made sense. His only concern
with everything we had taught so far was the "three heavens" that he
had heard about. We felt inspired to ask him what he thought hell was.
He told us that hell was wanting something, being able to see it, and
never being able to get there. What a perfect description! We told him
that's exactly what hell was and read from some scriptures in the
Book of Mormon that taught us that same concept. We also read from 1
Corinthians 15 which teaches us about the three degrees of glory. It
was an amazing lesson!

We just started meeting with Fred and Cara Jessop! Fred is related to
Will and Kara because he is Will's brother, and Cara is related to
Andy and Michelle because she is Michelle's sister (it's all good if
you don't remember all these people, there are a lot of them.) It is
so much fun to teach people from the same family! Fred and Cara are
just ready to be taught and willing to learn. We taught the
Restoration and it was a loooooooong lesson, but they just wanted to
know more and more! It was cool.

Will and Kara, and Amy Weidow all had their interview with a general
authority this week! I haven't been able to hear about it yet but I
can't wait! We saw them at church on Sunday and they all looked
absolutely radiant.

One more miracle from this week: The first day Elder Peterson was
here, we were walking down a street and a young woman road up to a
house on a longboard. By all appearances, she did not look like
someone that would ever accept the gospel, however the spirit
constrained us that we should speak. Her name is Alexis, she goes by
Alex, and she was so kind, yet she did not seem that interested. This
last week we felt a prompting to send her a text and ask how she had
been. She texted back and told us she hadn't been well and really
wanted to come to church because it would help her. As a missionary
you sometimes worry that things are too good to be true, but they
weren't in this case! Alexis was at church! She found a ride and came.
We were helping pass the sacrament, so we couldn't sit by her right
away, but she found a member she knew to sit with. After the
sacrament, we were about to go sit by them when an elderly lady
noticed her, stood up, came back to where she was, bent over the other
member to give her a hug and then sat by her. Wow, this is a cool
ward. The rest of the day, member after member introduced themselves
and welcomed her to the ward. By the end, when they would invite her
back, she would say, "oh, I'll definitely be back." We pulled her
aside right in the middle of it and learned a lot about her. It wasn't
easy for her to get to church that day, the devil was working on her
in every way possible, but she made it and she is being blessed for
it.

I love this work, there is nothing better than this work out there. I
love these people. I love my savior and the fact that he made it
possible to change and grow. I love my Heavenly Father and how he
guides us through he Holy Ghost. I never want to stop doing what I'm
doing. Y'all will probably have to kidnap me to get me back home.
Seriously.

Love,
Elder Thomas

Holding Katie's hawk!

This darn chicken wouldn't leave our yard.

Holding a bed... ?

SO BUSY

Hello Family and Friends!

I apologize for the short emails but the longer my mission goes, the less time it feels like I have.

The coolest thing I want to mention this week is that WE MET D. TODD CHRISTOFFERSON. It was amazing, he was in the area for a leadership conference so we got to have an early morning devotional with him. We had to wake up at 4:00 to get to Helena on time... craziness. It was incredibly spiritual and inspiring.

Being a district leader and trainer is crazy. Sometimes it is a little overwhelming but I have been learning a ton. I love Elder Peterson, he is such a good missionary! I am lucky to know him.

Love you all!
Elder Thomas

Driving at 4 AM

Epic sunset!

The mountains are burning in Idaho... So more smoke

My depiction of commandments and sin :)