One little story... We were walking out on the beach and we started throwing a ball with some little kids. Somehow, I lost my name-tag with my little booklet. It had my license and my debit card in it. We didn't notice that I had lost it until like another 45 minutes later. The moment that we saw that it was gone, Elder Sanford said, "we should just say a prayer." We did and then we ran back to the beach. We didn't find it there, so we retraced our steps for like 45 minutes looking for it. It was nowhere. We had the feeling to go back to the beach even though we had searched every inch of it. We went back and like 2 minutes later a guy walked past with his dog. He came up and asked for my name. I said "Elder Thomas." Then he handed me my tag and booklet. It was awesome that we happened to be there at the beach almost an hour later at the moment that he was walking back up the beach with his dog. But, of course it wasn't a coincidence. It was the hand of the Lord in every part of our work. Even the little things. If it is important to us, it is important to Him.
We also had kind of a cool experience with an investigator that wasn't even in our area. He is like a 70 year old man we call tatay Bautista. He is confined to a wheelchair with some pretty crazy health problems. But, we got to church and we saw him there. He is actually supposed to attend the other ward. He said that he had woken up at 4 in the morning so that he could wheel himself almost a mile to the church. We told him that he should just attend our ward and that we would help him get home. We got to push him home and he was super grateful because we made it home in just under a half hour and it took him 2 hours to get to church. Man, I wish that my faith was like this guy. He has a lot of excuses to just sit and home and rely on the grace of God. But, he knows that there is more that he can do. He acted and I know that he will be blessed.
This week, I also did my first baptismal interview. It was awesome. I was able to see how the gospel truly had changed the life of this lady. No one else in here family is a member yet, but she hopes that one day they will follow her steps. She actually still had a problem with coffee. So, her baptism ended up getting pushed back for 2 weeks. But, She is sooo prepared and loves the gospel. I love seeing the faith of the newest members of the church.
This week, I also got ba-blasted by the flu. We missed a day of work which was kind of sad. I was sitting in my house (87 degrees) wrapped in a blanket and I was freezing. It was awful. But, I got over it quickly and we worked the next day. Did you really make it to one year in the mission if you didn't miss at least a day of work due to sickness? I don't really think so. But, I did it. I made it 1 year and I am even more excited for the year to come. Thank you all for the thoughts, emails, support and prayers.
-Elder Thomas
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