Find Them

The highlight this week was our Zone Meeting. We had an awesome discussion with our President about finding. He talked about how it is hard to find motivation a lot of the time. People often really don't know what they are missing and reject the chance to hear the restored gospel.

This week, we had a lot of appointments, but of course, we also had a lot of downtime. One day, we had just finished an appointment and we had 2 hours before our next appointment. Me and my comp asked each other where we should go. We both had no clue and then my comp said "we should pray. Our Father in Heaven knows who is ready to hear the gospel." It was awesome. I had never really prayed out-loud on the go. But, we stopped right then and there in the alley and said a prayer. We told each other after the prayer that we would both point in a direction and decide which way to go. But, we both pointed in different directions. We ended up going in the direction that my companion chose. 

We got down a staircase and ended up finding 2 less active families. It was awesome. Then we talked to a few more people and got 3 more return appointments. We came walking up the road and ended up in the direction that I had pointed to earlier. We both really felt that we would have found those people regardless of which direction we chose. It was awesome!

Sorry, the story was kind of all over. I hope it made some sense. We are a little bit short on time. But, I kind of just want to end with my testimony. This week especially, I learned that God definitely has a plan for all of His children. As missionaries, we don't get to choose who gets to receive the gospel. Our job is to talk to EVERYONE. God will put into our path those that really are prepared to hear the message of this amazing gospel. 

This next week, I am also really excited to talk to lots of people. This week there is a huge festival in Baguio. They shut down the main road in Baguio City for a whole week and there are parties everywhere. The church will be putting up 2 family history booths at the festival. It is a chance for people to come and set up a family search account. This week we will talk to people using family history as our main finding tool. People naturally have a desire to know their ancestors and those that they are related to. I am exciting to get started this week. 

I love you all and send prayers your way. Thank you for the thoughts and prayers. They are definitely felt out here. 

Love Elder Thomas

sorry... no new pictures. I just sent some old ones

 

The moving crew + Valentines Day

Well... this one is going to be kind of short. Our emails were under maintenance this morning, so we did not have the chance to email. We just got a few minutes to come back to the computer shop and respond to the family and send an email.

The highlight this week was the new update from the church about communicating with families. Me and my companion were in the middle of a lesson when we got a handful of texts to our phone. Usually we just kind of ignore them until the lesson, but we got like 3 texts and our investigator told us that we better look at our phone. My companion read the texts and just about jumped out of his chair. We were told that we would have a half hour each week to talk with our family on top of the hour that we are given to email. It was super exciting. This morning, our emails were under maintenance, so we spent the whole hour and a half talking to our families. 

Anyway, this week went by super fast. I had a lot to do. Tuesday, I made my way down to the mission home because I was training again. I had my training on Wednesday and then worked with some Elder's in the area for the rest of the day. We basically just became the moving crew because the Elders and Sisters were trading houses because the were some creepy dudes apparently that lived outside of the sisters apartment. So, we basically just became the moving crew for the day. I attached a picture of one of the trikes that took a load from one house to the other. It was packed full and had stuff hanging off in every direction. It was quite the sight to see as it drove down the highway. 

Then I picked up my trainee on Thursday and had a training and then we made our way back to Baguio. We worked all day Friday and taught like 6 lessons in one day. Which was incredible. Then on Saturday, we worked in the morning and then went to our ward party in the evening. You can see my whole Valentines experience in a nutshell in the picture below. 

That's about it for the week. I love you all and send prayers your way. 

Love Elder Thomas

 

Training Ulit

I just finished my first transfer here in Baguio. That is crazy. It went by really fast and I learned a lot. It was not the easiest transfer for me, but I learned a lot and am definitely grateful for it.

We got transfer calls on Saturday. I got told that I am going to train again. I was definitely not expecting that because I haven't hit six months yet in the field and I have already trained once. But, I am super excited. I will find out on Thursday who my companion is going to be. I still don't know if it is going to be a Filipino or foreigner. Either way would be good for me. I already have 2 Filipino roommates for the transfer. So, If I trained a Filipino, it would be 3 of them and we would definitely speak a lot of Tagalog in our house. But, if I train an American, I really have to be the one to take the lead in contacting and lessons because they will be new with the language. Either way, this transfer will be good for me and I am really excited. 

This last week, the coolest experience that we had was actually another blessing that we gave. It seems like that has kind of been the highlight of like my last 3 weeks. This one was actually to a non-member. Her dad is a member and we have taught her and her husband like twice. But, they really aren't interested. We got the feeling to stop by their house so that we could help the dad (who is a member) learn how to use the Come Follow Me study manual. But, he actually wasn't home. We found his daughter and son in-law who were just about to leave to the hospital. The daughter was super sick. We asked if we could help them with anything. Then we offered to give them a blessing. It was awesome. We told her basically that according to her faith, God would bless her. The coolest part was to look at her husband after the blessing. He never really likes to listen to us, but he was almost in tears after we gave the blessing. The spirit in that little house was awesome. It is soo cool to see how the gospel and the priesthood can bless both members and non members. 

God has a plan for all of us and he wants nothing more than for us to return to him as families. I love the chance that I have to share that out here with the people of the Philippines. I love you all and send lots of prayers back your way. 

-Elder Thomas

 

"I met you Jesus. He is actually pretty nice!"

Well as the title indicates... We met some weirdos this week. We met this lady who told us that she met our Jesus. I am not sure if that is different from her Jesus. But, she said that He is nice. So, I guess that is good to know haha. We drunk people all the time that say things like this. I am pretty sure that this lady was just not quite in her right mind. But she seemed to have faith in something. So, that is good.

We had another awesome experience with a blessing that we gave to an Elderly man that we teach. He is probably 71 and he told us that he has had a headache for like the last 2 weeks. He asked us if there was anything that we could do for him. We told him that there was something that we could do. We told him we would give him a blessing and that according to his faith, God would bless him with what he saw fit. I had the opportunity to give the blessing. I had the feeling to tell him that within the next day, according to his faith, he would begin to see changes in his health. And that God would bless him as he read and studied the scriptures and prayed. 

Anyway, we went back to visit him the next week. He told us that once we left, he read the chapter in the Book of Mormon that we had given to him. It made his headache a little bit worse, so he went to bed. The next morning, he woke up and said a prayer. Then he showered and he said the moment that he got out of the shower, his headache was completely gone. I know that it was because of the power of the Priesthood and the faith of this man. We really do have the power of God here on the earth and the ability to bless our brothers and sisters here. 

We also had a good Word of Wisdom lesson. I am always kind of scared to give these lessons. This is one of the major holdups for people here in the Philippines. But, we taught this man. He had drank coffee his whole life and he smoked 3 times a day. He told us that if this is what God had commanded, that he would follow it. That day, he went out and bought hot chocolate to replace the coffee and bought little candies that he could eat whenever he thought about smoking. His faith was seriously incredible. He knows that God has a plan for him and blesses all of us as we follow His will. 

I love you all and know that God has a plan for each of us. No matter how hard. We don't have the eternal perspective. Our Father in Heaven has a perfect plan for each of us and wants nothing more than for us to return to His presence. 

Love Elder Thomas

 

Well, That Week Went Super Fast

Well, this week went by super fast. I feel like I was just sitting here at the computer writing my last email. Thanks again for all the birthday thoughts and prayers. Sorry, I couldn't respond to them all. But, they are much appreciated. 

This week was pretty good. We had the awesome opportunity to go and give a handful of blessings to members and less active members this week. It was awesome. Priesthood blessings are incredible. My testimony of them grew like crazy this week. We were able to give one to a 89 year old sister, a 65 year old man, a 24 year old girl, and a 4 year old boy. They were all super different, but the spirit was the same. I know that we really do have the power of God here on the earth. The same power through which Christ was able to perform miracles when he was here on the earth. It is incredible. Before we gave every blessing, we had a mini lesson on faith. Of course, things happen according to God's timing, which might be different than what we want. That is hard for a lot of people. But, I know that God's plan is perfect. He has a plan for us and he wants nothing more than for us to return to him. 

This week, we also had a service project. We went out for a couple of hours on Saturday morning with a bunch of members. We painted curbs and railings. Lets just say... If curbs were painted like that in America, a lot of people would get fired. It did not look very professional, but it made the whole road actually look a lot better overall. And it was an awesome opportunity to find people to teach. We were all wearing vests with the church logo on it. People would stop and ask us what we were doing. We were able to share a quick message about what we were doing and about the church. It was awesome. 

I have just 2 more weeks before my comp should transfer. I am about to finish my 4th transfer in the mission. It has been kind of a rough one. My comp hit his year mark last week and it made him not really want to work. It was pretty hard for me because I knew that all the time that we were not working, we were missing the opportunity to share the message of the gospel with others. I had a pretty good talk with my comp and I think that we turned things around a little bit. 

No one ever said that the mission was easy. If someone says that, then they did something wrong. It is by far the hardest thing that I have done, but I wouldn't change it for anything. I am able to see the blessings every day and it makes all of the hard days soo worth it. "Challenges are at times an indication of the Lord's trust in you." This really is the most important work that we can be a part of and I am so grateful for the chance that I have to spend a short 2 years to make it my focus. 

I love you all and send lots of prayers back your way. 

-Elder Thomas

 

19 Years on Planet Earth

Well... I made it another year here on earth. I turned 19 like 15 hours before my sisters this year, so that is kind of cool :) Thank you all for the birthday wishes. Sorry I could not respond to all of them. Our email time is really limited. But, I read them all and am grateful for the thoughts.

This week was pretty good. We had an awesome lesson with a sister that we are teaching. She told us a story that happened to her about a year ago. She told us that she had just delivered her first child when her boyfriend left her. She was only 19 years old and was left alone with a new child. She hit a low in here life and told us that she had plans to end her life. She had bought enough medication to overdose and take her life. That very day, a young pair of missionaries came up and knocked on her door. She told us that she immediately felt peace and has had missionaries come and teach her every week since then. She is not quite ready to get baptized because she does not feel like she has forgiven herself for things that she has done in her life. That is one of Satans greatest tactics. He wants us to believe that we are past the point of no return. That we have gone to far. That we cant be saved. BUT... we are children of a God. Who is infinitely more powerful that Satan. I love the quote by Elder Holland that says something to the effect of "you have not gone to far or sinned to much. I testify that no one has gone farther than the infinite light of Christ's atonement shines." That is not exact. But I love the point of it. We all make mistakes and all far short of the mark. But, the perfect plan of our loving Father in Heaven allows us to repent and become better each day. 

We also had kind of a sad lesson with our most progressing investigator. He is a man in his late 60's. We showed up to his house to teach him and he really did not seem to be doing well. We asked him what happened and he told us that his son (40 years old) had recently been killed in Mexico. He found out only that morning. His son had moved out there when he was 18 and had not yet been back to the Philippines visit. He was supposed to come back to visit this year. It was super hard for him. But then, we had an amazing lesson on the Plan of Salvation. We testified that his son was in a better place and that without a doubt, he would be able to see him again. The spirit was sooo strong and I know that there were lots of people in that room from beyond the veil. 

I love the gospel and the chance that I have to share it out here for a short 2 years. The peace that it can bring to even the most broken on lives is amazing. 

I love you all and am grateful for the prayers and thoughts that you send this way. They are definitely felt of this side of the world. 

Love Elder Thomas

 

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