God Controls the Dogs

Well... another week down here in the beautiful city of Baguio. It is awesome here. This week was super fun. I was able to go on splits with one of the Elders that I live with. It was a super awesome day. We worked in their area and had plans to visit 7 of their investigators. But, all of them fell through and by like 3 in the afternoon, we had nothing planned.  Then, we had a pretty cool experience with some dogs here. The dogs here are super crazy and I am surprised that I have not been attacked yet. But, we were walking down a stairwell when the biggest dog that I have ever seen came out of this little cage and went nuts. I was pretty sure that both of us were going to get killed. We slowly backed down the stairs and went another direction. We were completely lost because we had never been in the area. So we just started knocking doors. We ended up teaching 3 new investigators. We found 4 part member families. And we extended a baptismal date to a guy that we found who used to be taught by the missionaries. It was awesome. I am pretty sure that God has control of all the dogs here. They took us in a direction that led us to a lot of success after a pretty rough start to the day.

Another highlight was yesterday at stake conference. It was a broadcast to the whole Philippines and the key speaker was Elder Holland. He is one of my favorites. He gave an awesome talk. He talked about how the second coming is sooo close now. We really have been chosen to prepare the world for the second coming of our Savior. He talked again about how we really have to make our home the center of our worship. We go to church for only 2 out of the 168 hours in the week. If that is all that we are doing then it is not nearly enough. The devil is constantly increasing his attacks in strength and variety and wants nothing more than for us to be miserable. For this reason, we need to make sure that we are doing the things (scriptures, prayer etc) every day that will give us the strength to endure. "The second coming is one day closer today than it was yesterday. And it will be one day closer tomorrow than it is today." None of us know when it will come, and we are soo blessed to be part of the Church of Jesus Christ, but, we must continue to do our part. 

I know that God has given us everything and that through Christ, it is possible to make it back to live with our Father and our families forever. This is what I try every day to teach the people of the Philippines. I love the mission, the ups and the downs. I have already finished 6 months out here and it is crazy. It is going wayy to fast. I love the time that I have now to really make Christ and his gospel my focus. This really is the most important thing that we can do in this life. 

I love you all and am grateful for the examples that you are to me. I know that I would not be where I am now if it were not for you. I send lots of prayers you way and think about you tons. 

w/love Elder Thomas

http://lifey.org/philippines-baguio-mission