"Why do you have hope?"

This week was awesome. I really don't know where the weeks go. They are just ripping past. All of the sudden, I am back here at the computer sending out another email. 

This week was super cool. We got to go down to another zone to help with a multi-zone training for the district leaders. The focus in our mission has been to do the work with "Excellence and Enthusiasm." We haven't changed very much as far as procedures, but our mission has changed a lot. We have seen a lot of progression in every part of the work as we have put our whole heart into the work. We have worked to be PERFECTLY obedient because that is how the Lord will work miracles in His work.

This week one of the coolest things that I got to do was another baptismal interview. It was for a young girl who has been taught by missionaries for a long time. Her mom is no longer a part of her life and her dad has some pretty serious health problems. She has been raised by some of her relatives that are members, but it is awesome to see how the gospel has given her direction in her life even when things are not easy.

After that, we went to this lady. She has a son on a mission and 2 of her daughters are active members. But, she rarely lets missionaries into her house. She let us in for some reason and then we just started talking to her. I asked her how she was doing and she said that she was good. I then asked her why she was "just good." Why not great? She didn't really have an answer. Then I asked her what brings her joy in her life and what gave her hope in her life. She also didn't really have an answer. Then I shared one of my favorite scriptures from the Book of Mormon (Moroni 7:41). In this scripture, we are asked why we have hope. Then Moroni gives an answer telling us "I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the Atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in Him according to the promise." Guys... we have hope because we have a Savior. Jesus Christ suffered and died for us and then he rose again on the third day. And... because of that, we will someday live again. We have hope because of the faith that we have in our Heavenly Father and the plan that He has prepared for us. 

After teaching this, I saw the lady's face change. I was only on exchanges, so I will probably never see the lady again, but I saw a change in her because of the short message that we shared about hope. We have so many reasons to have hope. The gospel changes lives and we are blessed in every way as we are obedient to it's principles. I love the mission and the short time that I have to be completely devoted to sharing this message with everyone. 

We also got to give a blessing this week to the uncle of some of our investigators. He had a stroke and just got out of the hospital. He has a tube in his nose and cannot really speak or move. We showed up to the house and everyone was crying. They were all super sad because of the state of their uncle. We gave him a blessing and then left. Later, we found out that after we had left, the uncle had started to speak just a little. He said his first words in 2 days. And he started to eat just a little. It was a crazy awesome miracle. The same power by which Christ healed people when he was on the earth is once again on the earth. Worthy members of the church can perform miracles just the way that Christ did when he was here. God is aware of us and he knows what is best for all of us. He loves us and is involved in every part of our lives. 

Thank you for all of the thoughts, prayers and emails. 

Love Elder Thomas

This week was not quite as wild

Well... I will give you the update first from our whole experience last week with the wild cow. We are now famous in this whole area of the Philippines. The whole experience made the radio and some of the other missionaries in our zone heard it. Now if we walk into town and tell anyone that we are from 'Banacao,' they know that we are the ones who "saved the guy from the crazy buffalo." And we also saw the guy at his house. He has 5 broken ribs and a lot of stitches, but he is doing better. Hopefully we will be able to teach him and his family this week.

This week we had a baptism. It was awesome!!! Dante Bantag was baptized with 5 other people from our branch. It was incredible. It was extra special because President Oldroyd and his wife were able to attend. It is the first baptism that they have been able to attend since arriving here 2 months ago because of their crazy schedule. The baptism was seriously incredible. The baptismal font is a little tiny font dug into the ground out in the church yard. Lots of prayers this week kept the rain away on Saturday for the baptism. (That was the one day that it didn't rain in the last 10 days). 

Then on Saturday and Sunday, we had district conference. It was awesome. President Oldroyd his wife both spoke. He gave an awesome talk from lessons that we learn from the Saviors first words to the people in America in 3 Nephi 11. He talked about how Christ was about to ascend again and then he "had compassion on them." He stayed and he ministered to all the people one by one. He then tied that to the way we need to be motivated to minister. Then Sister Oldroyd talked about how we need to use and apply the teachings from the Come Follow Me manual. 

It was awesome even though most of the members understood very little from both of those talks. They all told us that they understood just enough to recognize what the topic was and they could tell from the spirit how important the words truly were. It was an awesome meeting. 

Now, just a quick update on our area because my area is awesome!! There is a river that we need to cross to get to our area. There was a little bridge that used to work to just ride a trikes across the river. But, because of the CRAZY rain, the river is like 10 times the size now. And the little bridge turned into a raft. They started loading up trikes, motorcycles, and people and then people in the water would push the raft across the river. It is a crazy experience and I seriously love it. The work in our area is rolling and we are doing all that we can to help people. The church is true and it moves forward because we are led by a living prophet. The gospel blesses lives and it is the reason that we can all have hope in the world that progressively gets more wicked. Thank you all!! Thank you for the thoughts, prayers, and emails. 

Love, Elder Thomas

 

This week was WILD!!

Alright, I honestly don't even know where to start for this week. I am just going to start with a story...

We were biking up the road in a pretty good rainstorm when a lady came running down the road yelling about how someone had been rammed by their cow. We kept biking and found a man laying on the path with a huge gash in his head. His shirt was covered in blood and his pants had been completely torn off. He was just laying there saying (in Tagalog) "my cow killed me. I am going to die. My chest hurts. Tie up my cow." His cow was just to the side of us eating someones rice field. We carefully grabbed his rope and then pulled him away from the field and tied him to a bamboo tree. My heart was pounding like crazy. Then we went to help the guy while we waited for a trike to come to take him to the hospital. He has been in the hospital for 5 days now and as far as I know he is still alive. We are kind of legends in our area now because we are the two white guys who tied up the "killer caribou (water buffalo)." So that was wild.

Then the next day, I was on splits with one of the district leaders in our zone. I woke up with a super swollen lip. I decided that I was either allergic to something the member had fed us the night before, or I got bit by something. The swelling went down that morning but, it was like impossible to speak (especially in Tagalog) with the swollen lip.

Then, we were on a trike ride home when we had to cross yet another river. We now have to cross like 6 rivers on the ride home from town. We got into the middle of a river that ran across the path. It was like 1 1/2 ft deep. We completely got stuck and the driver told us that one of us would have to get out to push. So, I jumped in and we made it across the river. 

All that being said, we did actually get some awesome work done this week. We had a lesson with 2 investigators and the spirit was soooo strong as we talked about the Plan of Salvation. We hadn't planned to, but we extended baptismal invitations and they both accepted.

We also had a lesson with an investigator who will be baptized on Saturday. We went over the baptismal interview questions and he bore an awesome testimony about the change that he experienced since he met the missionaries. One of the biggest changed that he made was to stop drinking coffee. He found a replacement... rice coffee. It is nothing more than rice that is burnt black and then boiled. And then you add a scoop of brown sugar and creamer. So, after we taught him, had a nice coffee break. 

Well... sorry this email is kind of everywhere. The week went by faster than like any other week in my mission. But, the church is true and the work is hastening. I love you all. Thank you for the thoughts, prayers, and emails. 

Love, Elder Thomas

I live in a cement box

Well... this was probably the fastest week of my mission and it was awesome. We got a ton of work done. I am now in an area that is like in the middle of nowhere. And I actually live in a cement box. It is not very homey, and the roof is tin, so when it rains we really can't hear anything. But, life is good. My area is beautiful.

My branch out here is awesome. The oldest members in the branch are just 2 year converts. Our branch President was baptized a little over 2 years ago. But, they are awesome and there are like 140 people that attend each week. It is awesome. And we had 10 of our investigators attend this week which was amazing!! I have never had even half that amount of people attend in a week. We were super excited. 

Since our area is way out in the boonies, we are allowed to do like anything to get into town. Hitchhiking is totally allowed. We got a ride into town this week in the back of some dudes truck. And on another day, we went on the biggest bus chase of the century. We were in a trike and we were chasing down the last bus that was leaving town. We called the sisters (who were on the bus) and told them to stop the bus. We threw some pesos to the trike driver and with backpacks flying everywhere, we dove onto the bus. It was wild.

As a zone leader, I got to go down to Mission Leadership Council, which was awesome. Our new mission is amazing. He talked about how starting with the people in that meeting, we were going to get the work rolling. He talked a lot about leadership and the things that we can do to lead by example. Me and my companion came home super motivated to start by working in our area, but my comp got sick so we weren't even able to work on Saturday. Super big bummer. But, we finished the week with only 31 proselyting hours, but we had 31 lessons which was amazing. 

One of my favorite people that we teach is a guy named Dante. He is just working on stopping coffee and he is incredible. He invited us over to have rice coffee with him. It is nothing more than burnt rice, cream and sugar. But, if it will help him, it is worth a shot. 

We also had an amazing lesson with a family. The father of the family has never joined a lesson in the year that his family has been taught by the missionaries. We actually got him to join and we just shared about the power of family prayer. Then the mom actually came to church with some of her kids who are members. Her kids got up (because it was fast and testimony meeting) and both cried as they talked about how blessed they are now to see their family slowly starting to become more united. It was incredible. 

The church is true and the work is certainly hastening. I love it. It is amazing to be a part of. If you don't read the Book of Mormon, then read it. And it you have read it, then read it again. And again you will feel of the truthfulness of the message that it contains. 

I love you all and am grateful for the thoughts, prayers, and emails. 

Love Elder Thomas.