The Keys

Stake Conference with Elder Andruski

This email would be longer but a miracle just happened. Me being the few neurons shy of a functional brain, went outside the church just now with my companion. We turned around to head back inside and the door was magically locked. I grabbed at my pocket and lo and behold, no keys. Along with every other door at the church. And I had left every possession I owned, minus my clothes and tag, inside the church. No phone, no way to start a fire to signal a plane to save us, not even my watch. After sighing and looking around for a large rock to throw through the window a thought came into my mind. The family down the road. I imagine it might have been the Spirit from protecting me from another foolish experience involving broken glass. Well, we went down the road to the house and no one was home. We tried the neighbors and they told us to try their house again. We went back and after several silent prayers were made we heard the back door open and she came and called a member who let us back in. That family is a part member family, and the Elder's Quorum President just asked us to go visit with them, and we told them we would be bringing them cookies for helping us. Now we have a way in! I will need some practice making cookies... Any suggestions?

     Now the real email. P, a man who called us telling us he wanted to be baptized, is accepting the message. We saw him on Wednesday and set a date with him. We explained baptism and at the end with tears in his eyes he thanked us for visiting him. On, Sunday, we saw him come to church for the first time and he appeared to enjoy it even though they were surrounded by a group of little kids.

     We had nothing to do and found ourselves in a parking lot of an apartment complex. We weighed our options and we prayed. We both felt to stay there and tract with the 20 minutes we had. We knocked 2 doors and found 2 people interested. One was named S. She is a single mom, has two little girls and lives in a humble home. We shared the Book of Mormon and even though her kids were having a sword fight and the end of the lesson, she felt something. When we returned she had read to 1 Nephi 5 and said she couldn't put it down. We are very excited for her and the many more like her we were guided to this week. 

     A lot of people are turning up left and right. We have found many more people and taught many of them. A lot of the eternigators, (n. 1. someone who has been investigating the church for a long time and potentially for ever, 2. an alligator native to south west Louisiana), have slowly vanished. The work is becoming quicker and more productive. The Lord is in this work and we see help from Him every day. I love being part of it and love seeing the hastening before my eyes.

     Thank you for your prayers and support! 

Adios,

Elder Thomas 

Bentonville meal with the kind Trudo family!

Bug bite!

Wish we knew where this was taken....death masks

Party in Bentonville!

Asombro Me Da ~ "I Stand All Amazed"

Thanks to the Starks family we received these photos last night of Elder Thomas and missionary buddies at the BYU-I Orchestra Fireside.

The week began much like any other week. The sound of our louder than loud alarm waking up our neighbors and us and then preparing for the looming transfers. Elder Millett was on his way out and I was going to be left to run the show with Elder Andruski. Due to this change and a handful of other things going on earlier in the week I was feeling a little overwhelmed. There were a lot of changes and some other things I was dealing with. It was becoming rather stressful and I felt really tired and drained for a couple of days. In my mind I thought that it was a trial that I had to get through. In my dense mind, it never occurred to me to simply ask for help. After cutting trees and hauling branches for a couple of hours we came home and I knelt down and ask for help. A few moments later I felt peace. It was like someone was working in my thoughts helping me think how everything was going to work. It was a simple request from a weak servant and it was answered abundantly. I knelt again and I asked some questions and the answers came quickly. In a moment of receiving answers I paused and asked is this all real? Can I really be hearing this or is this just my mind? I still can't believe the help that the Lord will freely give us. It truly is wonderful.

      We visited a man named P before Elder Millet left. He and his inactive wife had been found miraculously by the Stake President. Due to health challenges we haven't been able to visit them very much. But our visits usually entailed them giving us lots of food and making us laugh harder than I ever have in my entire life. As we visited, he told us he watched General Conference and really liked it and said some brief words about baptism being an interesting idea. We left them with a prayer and took a couple pictures and then left. At 10:25 that night, we got a call. "Is this Elder Thomas?" the voice said. I responded yes and P told me he hadn't been very clear about baptism. "I want the Stake President to do it and I think I want to do it on May 8th, is that ok?" My jaw dropped and after he said hello a couple of times I said yes. I was confused at the grace the Lord had given me to be a witness to all these miracles.

     Transfers came and things moved on. Elder Andruski had served here before, like me, and had some people to visit. We went out visiting the people he knew and I knew. I had been feeling a little discouraged due to some of the really promising investigators discontinuing our visits. We made a stop to someone Elder Andruski knew. First stop, and a little boy looked out the window, parting his long hair and the curtain to see us. His eyes got wide and he ran away. The door opened soon after and the father and the boy came to the door. They remembered Elder Andruski and were very excited to see him. After a brief discussion about the power of Christ's Atonement and sharing the Hallelujah video he looked at us and he promised us he would be at church. The day arrived and he wasn't there. We visited him after church and he told us the address didn't work. We told him we could lead him there another day if he wanted. But he grabbed his keys and shouted to his son and then said, "I'll follow you there" as he ran to his car. He looked around the inside of the church and we taught him the Restoration. He told us he had similar questions to Joseph Smith. The man said in his search for the truth he had always followed his instincts. He said, "that is what I am doing right now. Following my instincts". He was led to the truth by the Spirit and I was again left speechless at the love Jesus offers me, allowing me to see this all happen.

     I woke up Sunday morning singing "I Stand All Amazed" in Spanish in my head. Specifically one line. Cuan asombroso es que por amar me asi muriera el por mi. Which means something similar to, how amazing it is that he loved me to die for me. In our little group of Spanish speakers, they sang Asombro Me Da. With only four of us in the room who could read and sing it was a struggle but we all felt the Spirit as we had the Sacrament. Later on that night we heard the BYU Idaho orchestra, who was passing through on a mid-west tour. The conductor began with a quote from J. Reuben Clark who said, "We get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps any other thing except prayer". And when they played I knew that to be true. It was an odd and peaceful feeling with no applause after a song. Just the Spirit lingering in the room. They played many hymns with orchestra members sharing brief messages in between. One woman, who had obviously seen the help of the Lord, bore her testimony of the Atonement. She then said they would be ending with I Stand All Amazed. The music played around me and the words played in my mind. It is wonderful what He did for me. I can't believe how much help I receive everyday. I know Christ lives. He is real. And I know that He will bless you with strength and help you in every aspect of your life. Because He has done that for me and it is incredible. 

Adios,

Elder Thomas    

Stories from Missouri

As most exchanges go with really important people, such as the Stake President, our appointments all fell through. After some visits to some people, I prayed and asked what we needed to do. I felt like I should ask the Stake President. He had a couple ideas and so we were off. 

     We stopped by a less active member who told us to visit his son. We were given bad directions to his son's house, but we got a referral to another person. We walked over there and found a little old lady raking leaves. Before my brain could process that helping her would be a courteous and kind thing to do, the Stake President was over there bagging up leaves. We ran over as well and by the time she told us, "You are going to get your suits dirty!", about thirty times, we had finished it and she invited us in. 

     Her husband had passed away and she had epilepsy which restricted her from going to church but she had some people come do a Bible study with her fairly often. We invited her to read in the Book of Mormon and she said she'd love to hear more. It goes to show, when you ask for help from the Stake President you'll end up raking leaves and finding a bunch of new people to visit.   

We met a man a month ago who read in the Book of Mormon. When we first met him he told us about his family struggles and we offered him the Book of Mormon. We saw him again and he told us of how he felt peace come into his life as he read it. But lately, we tried by and his Mom would come to the door and while holding back crazy carnivorous dogs, she would say, "He's in Springfield, I will let him know you were here!" We eventually managed to give her a card and she said she would watch the video.  

     A couple of days ago, she answered the door and came outside. She said that her son hadn't come back from Springfield ever since we saw him last and that she had only talked to him on Facebook. She then told us that she had missed us passing by, which we thought was strange considering we had only talked to her son and she wasn't interested. After some talking she told us that her life was getting very difficult and with tears in her eyes she told us of the problems her son was facing with his ex-wife. We shared the Hallelujah video and the member we were with testified of the Savior. After, we shared about the Book of Mormon and how we can come to know God better by reading it. We left her with a prayer and she looked up crying and said the most sincere thank you I have ever heard. I am really glad to be sharing this message, that we all take for granted to often, with people and how humbling it is. Thank you for your prayers!

Adios, Elder Thomas

In the middle of Stotts City Population 243

Towing the smallest dog house ever seen...

Ian asked if he wanted help, he said no.  Towing his lawn mower Kip and Napoleon Dynamite style.

     

Someone stole our parking spot.

General Conference

Flour War with zone and YSA (Thanks to Starks for picture!)

There is a man that sings missionary/church songs on a ukulele. It's like a little piece of Hawaii here in southwest Missouri. He sings one about service and it has helped me find a true happiness. I never thought I would have so much fun helping people with really strange service activities. Some missionaries and members in a neighboring town needed help unloading a tanning bed from a trailer. That was a first.

     

We watched General Conference at the church and with a couple members. I had several questions, one of those questions was 'how can I have a better memory?'.  As I watched Elder Gong, he mentioned something about memory. It was just a blip, but it answered my question. "It's part of life", and that was all I needed to hear! I found the answer I needed and more answers came later on. General Conference answered many of my questions and I am very grateful for living prophets and modern revelation. 

    

Thanks for all you all do. (Sorry for the short email, we were in a neighboring city for a zone activity.) 

Adios,

Elder Thomas