New People

Well... Thanks again for all of the birthday wishes. Sorry if I didn't get the time to respond to your email. 

We had another awesome week up here in Bangued. One of the highlights was going down to the mission office for MLC. It was an awesome meeting. Our mission is changing focuses a little bit as we realling work to find NEW people that are prepared to hear the gospel. Sometimes, we have noticed that we kind of end up teaching people just to teach. And that we are missing opportunities to find the people that the Lord is preparing for us every day. It is super hard to "drop" investigators, but it is sooo rewarding when you find someone that you know the Lord has been preparing. 

As a companionship, we decided that we are going to add more time into our schedule to simply find. Find those who are reading for the gospel. This last week we found a couple of new people that we are really excited to work with. 

We have still had a lot of success as we just simply start our lessons by asking some basic inspired questions. A lot of the time, we end up teaching a small portion of the Plan of Salvation to people the first time that we meet them. This kind of peaks their interest and makes them think about what they really believe when it comes to God's plan for us. 

Studying Come Follow Me this last week was awesome!! We had a cool lesson with a group of members about how blessed we really are to have the Book of Mormon in our lives. Lots of them bore awesome testimonies about how the Book had truly changed their lives. It can honestly say that it has changed my life too. It is the reason that I am in the Philippines right now, and I am beyond blessed to spend these two years teaching people about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Goodbye Teenage Years

Well... I am just going to start this one by making it clear that I am the first of the triplets to leave the teenage years behind. Addie loses the race this year by approximately 8 hours and Caitlin still comes in last about 5 hours after that. haha :)

Anyway... Thanks for all the birthday wishes. It should be a good one this year. 

We had another good week out here in Banacao. The weeks are going by faster than ever. Our work kind of got thrown a curveball into the middle of it because last Tuesday the daughter of a member died in a crazy motorcycle accident. That just makes our work a little bit hard because she is basically going to have a 2 month viewing. Kind of weird, but basically they just leave the body out on display in the casket and for the 2 months, people come every night and play card games (gamble). So, since they are a big part-member family in our area, teaching them will be a little bit rough for a bit. 

But, it has opened some other doors to let us teach. We have taught some awesome lessons about the Plan of Salvation. People are super willing to listen when they really realize that the lesson applies to them. A death in the family is an awesome time to easily talk about questions like "Where do we go after we die?" So, we have had some super cool lesson teaching about life after death.

A knowledge of the Plan of Salvation is seriously the coolest thing. This week in our area an old lady and a 2 week old baby passed away. We watched a lot of people mourn this week because of the loss. It is super sad, but a knowledge of the Plan that God has for us makes it very bearable. 

I know that the plan that God has for us is perfect. I know that he wants nothing more than for each and every one of us to return to live with him. I am grateful for the time that I have to be out here to share this knowledge with the people of the Philippines.  Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers!!

Love Elder Thomas

-sorry no pics this week. 

BYE BYE SISTERS!!

Whelp... 18 months have now come and gone and the sisters in my batch (along with my trainer) are headed home. So that is CRAZY!!! I really have no clue how the time has gone so fast. But, it is definitely a little push of motivation to make sure that I do everything that I can with the time that I have left. 

This week was super cool. We spent one day with our recent convert and hiked a mountain to go to a little community up on the other side of the 2 mountain ranges. It was an awesome hike and the view of our area and the view on the other side was beautiful. We got to the other side and found a good handful of people to teach. They were all super cool (probably because I am like the first person that has ever come to their little community that could actually speak Tagalog). We found a ton of people who new missionaries or members of our church because of work or school. So, it was super fun to make little connections with them.

This week we also spent a lot of time finding more and more part-members. We have found lots of relatives of members that are super fun to teach. 

Plus transfers kind of came and went. I am lucky enough to spend another 6 weeks here in Banacao. There is definitely a lot of work to be done and it should be another awesome transfer!!

I love you all. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!!

Love Elder Thomas

2020

Well... New Years was awesome!! We had a curfew, but we sat on our porch and watch our whole area explode with fireworks. It was super fun. But, we didn't get to sleep until like 2:30 because of the explosions and music that echoed through our little cement house and tin roof were wayyy too loud. But, it was good. 2020 is now well under way.

We had a cool experience with one of my favorite investigators. We showed up to his house and his two daughters answered the door. They started by saying "We are grateful that you have been teaching our dad..." We both thought for sure that they were going to say "BUT..." and then tell us to not come back anymore. But instead, they told us that ever since we started teaching him that he has slowly started to stop drinking and smoking. They said that they are super grateful and hope that we continue to teach him. 

This week we also spent like an hour one evening watching a few of the Book of Mormon videos with some of the members and investigators in our area. We ended up with like 30 people inside of this little house and it was super fun. 

We also studied the new Come Follow Me manual in our area for the first time. It was super cool. It will be awesome to be able to really focus on the Book of Mormon for the year. We had an awesome discussion about the 3 and 8 witnesses at the front of the Book of Mormon and talked about how we can be witnesses through the way that we live. 

That about wraps it up. We are coming into the last week of the transfer, so we will see what happens next week. Love you all!!

Love Elder Thomas

...And a Happy New Year

This week was awesome!! It went by way too fast and was full of food and parties. But, the highlight was the 3 baptisms that we had. 3 of the grand-daughters of our recent convert were baptized. She was probably more excited than all 3 of them. There was also another kid baptized from the group that is under our branch. And an 8 year old kid whose family are members. So, it was an awesome service. Super cool to be a part of. 

We also went around for Christmas and handed out little bouncy balls to all of the kids. It was probably one of my favorite things that we did this whole week. It really is so cool how even the littlest things mean the world to people who have so little. People out here are all so happy and it has little to do with the material things that they have. 

This week, we spent a lot of time talking about making new year's resolutions. The new year is a good time to take a look at our lives and make sure that we are heading in the direction that we want to be. If we aren't, then it is a good time to change. 2020 will definitely bring some awesome changes. 

One that I am really excited for is the Come Follow Me topic. It will be so fun to really focus even more on the Book of Mormon for a whole year. And the new Book of Mormon videos are awesome. We have used them a ton as we share with members and investigators. It has given lots of them a new desire to really read from the Book of Mormon.

I hope that you all have an awesome New Year and find a way to be just a little bit better. 

Love Elder Thomas

-Baptism of LJ, MM, and Mariel

-my shoes have done well until now and a little tape might let them last just a little bit longer :)

 

Merry Christmas

This week was awesome!! It is so fun to go around and talk to everyone. Talking about the gospel is sooo easy and natural as we get closer and closer to Christmas. 

One of our biggest successes this last week was actually with an inactive couple. They have only been members for like a year and a half, but haven't been to church since 2018. I have been teaching them on and off for the last 5 months. We finally decided to watch the new Book of Mormon videos that the church has produced. We went twice a week until we finally got to the video of the tree of life. They easily related to the video and realized that they were part of the group who had once tasted of the fruit, but had wandered away. They actually came to church on Sunday!! It was awesome! 

I was also one of the speakers on Sunday. I read a little bit from the accounts of the time that Christ was born from Luke 2 and 3 Nephi 1 (and Helaman 13-15). I talked about the message that both Samuel (in America) and the angel (in Jerusalem) brought to the people. They both said that they had good/glad tidings. They both told the people that Christ would be born. And because of that, we need not fear. 

That is the amazing message this Christmas. That Christ was born. He grew up and Atoned for our sins. Eventually, he died for us and was then Resurrected 3 days later. I hope that at sometime this Christmas season (behind all the presents, food, and traditions) that you will take a second to remember why we celebrate Christmas. He is the reason. And He is the way for us to have hope and light in a world that continues to get darker and darker. I love you all and hope that you have a Merry Christmas!!

Love Elder Thomas

Jesus is the reason

Whelp... I am not sure how it happened. But, we just made it through another week. 

This week was solid. We started with our Christmas Conference which was awesome. We met with half of the mission which is always super fun. We had presentations, games, lots of food, gifts, and watched the movie "Coco." It was super fun.

Then we got right back to work. It is seriously an awesome time to be a missionary!! The holiday season makes it so easy to naturally talk about the gospel. Everyone focuses on our Savior during this time of year. We found a lot of awesome new people this last week just asking people about what they are going to do to celebrate Christmas. Then we ask them 'why' they celebrate Christmas. It has led to some awesome discussions about why we do what we do this season. If it weren't for the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, then we really wouldn't have a reason to celebrate Christmas. 

So, behind all of the awesome traditions, food, and gifts, make sure that you take some time to remember why we celebrate!! Jesus is the reason. I know, without a doubt, that Jesus is our Savior. He suffered for all of our sins and died on the cross. But, then, 3 days later... he rose again. He showed us what to do and then prepared the way for us to do it. The gospel and plan of salvation lay out the steps and give us the ability to live happily in a world that is getting ever more wicked. 

Go Light the World!! Take your light and this knowledge and share it with someone. Merry Christmas!! 

Love Elder Thomas