Goodbye Ottumwa

Well it looks like my time has come to leave here. I wont know for sure until tomorrow but we're pretty sure I'm leaving. Its really sad, but I'mm excited for whatever is next.

We've had a very, very rough transfer and no one had come to church for all seven weeks. But this week we had stumbled back into a micronesian guy named Moses and his Sister, San San. They had been waiting for us for a long time haha but we had forgotten, but they were probably the most prepared people I have ever met on my mission. We invited them to church, and prayed a lot in the hopes that they would come. A miracle ensued, and San San brought 3 friends so we were able to have 4 people at church that day. We were able to see the fruits of our labors at the very last second, and those people are doing really well. 

Also this week we got kicked out of a trailer park in the cold night and the owner made us walk down the freeway or he said he was going to call the cops if we didn't, so we had an opportunity to take a picture of the Ottumwa sign!

Thanksgiving in Ottumwa ~ Pumpkin Pie and Puppies

This week was super fun, we taught and walked and made pie.  We ate Thanksgiving dinner out in the middle of nowhere with a member family who just had a little of puppies. They are incredible!

We found a little marshallese boy this week named JC, whose mom had been baptized like 20 years ago and gone inactive. We were trying to talk to mack and beana again, but they're always asleep. But we pulled into their driveway and when we looked up from our prayer there was a new car there with a new marshallese family that moved in with mack and Beana. We decided to try to talk to them, and that's when we found out about the moms baptism. JC Is a really shy kid, and couldn't read. But the second time we came over, we showed him some videos of the book of mormon that the church has made and his entire personality changed, he loved them and now he wants us over every day. His mom was telling us that she had been praying for guidance about her son, she knows he is special and she wanted the best for him, so she asked God. Then she saw us praying and she told us that when she saw us praying she felt the spirit real strong, and she knew we had come for JC. It was a really cool experience and JC is progressing really well to baptism. 

Also, I have been really worried about mack, an investigator. He got a job at a meat plant here called JBS and he works 12 hours, 6-7 days a week. I have only seen him once this transfer and it bums me out because E Wood and I were really close with him. But we went back to see JC last night, and once again we looked up from praying and mack was right there, so i got to see him for probably the last time. Its sad, but I know Heavenly Father gave me that opportunity, and I'm very grateful for it.

This week, elder Caterson and I made 3 trays of my aunt debby's awesome pumpkin cookies, and 3 pumpkin pies made from scratch, with a crust and filling recipe from an awesome recent convert named stacy.

God guides us in everything we do and that is such a privilege, I love being out here and I'm sad to probably see Ottumwa go this next week. 

I love you all, I'm grateful for everything you all have done to help me

Week in pictures

A Decent Week

I've got like 4 minutes to write this so it'll be brief. Sorry if I didn't reply to some of your emails, i saw them and will reply when i can

This week we continued teaching all of m's family. He kind of stopped progressing so we turned to his family, they're doing well and they like to play soccer with us.

Also we helped a member teach her unruly class of youth and it was cool. We taught about teaching and it went well.

I love you all

Exchanges and A Marshallese Miracle

This week I went on exchanges with my district leader, Elder Caterson and one of my zone leaders, Elder Roskelly. They were both super awesome.

With Elder Caterson, we did a lot of knocking, talked through Karate Kid, and 1 1/2 Lord of the Rings movies while we worked. Towards the end we found this lady named M who wants to get baptized, and the other elders are working really well with her. So awesome.

With Elder Roskelly, we also did a lot of knocking and found this Guy named R and his wife S. If you've read my emails before, you know that Fairfield is a special place. For example, S told us that she had had a telepathic communication with the center of the earth a few times. Really interesting people, but also super nice. I love Fairfield a lot.

Recently we have been getting held in the refiners fire a lot. People keep on telling us they will come to church but don't. That happened again this week and I was really mad. But we were able to find this group of like 7ish Marshallese ten year olds who we taught, and they want to come to church with each other and accepted a baptismal invite. SO cool. We slayed them in a quick game of soccer and then they fought over the one Book of Mormon we have. I love seeing people, especially young ones, with a real desire to learn. 

I love you all a lot. In the words of the massive gingerbread man from Shrek 2: "Be good."

House Hunters: Ottumwa

So this week we found out that our house had been sold out from under us so we're on the search for a house now. So thats exciting. 

Also this week we gave this one member lady a blessing and then afterwards she tried to go all fortune teller on us and told my district leader that he had seen the three nephites. Woah.

That's about it. I love you guys and stuff

A New Everything

This week has been nuts. I said goodbye to my trainer, Elder Wood, which was sad. He taught me everything and I miss him a lot. He's a good dude. After he left, my new companion arrived; Elder Matthews. He's a cool guy and lived pretty close to me, he's only one transfer older than me so we're learning together. 

I don't have a ton of time, but this week we've been working with a ton of Spanish investigators which is awesome. 

Sorry for such a weak email but time is short

I love you all a lot. 

-- 

Homecoming and a Temple Trip

Elder Thomas-- Outstanding in his "corn" field!

This week was packed with exchanges and Zone Conference and whatnot. However, early in the week we were invited to a powderpuff game by the "H" family, an El Salvadorean family we are teaching. When we got there, we first watched an assembly where the homecoming royalty got picked and one of the "H"'s was homecoming queen! This opened the door for me to finally achieve my dream of being homecoming queen, so Elder wood and I took pictures in the king and queen sashes and crowns. The Herrera's have a picture, I'll have to get it from them.

Also this week, we went to Nauvoo for a zone conference and then went to the temple with a recent convert to do a baptism for her son, who died in a car accident a long time ago. It was super awesome, and probably for the first time I could totally feel that he was there. The temple is an irreplaceable thing, and I really wish I would have gone more when I lived down the hill from one.

I love you 

Rain, Bikes, and Baptisms

Baptism day!

This week was awesome. 

Early in the week, we were informed that we had another car appreciation day, and it was raining, and we had appointments on the other side of Ottumwa. So Elder wood and I took the 1950's bikes we have all the way up the hills to this lady's house who wanted to feed us dinner. Dinner's at her house are usually interesting, like when we're done eating she tells us that she found all that food in a dumpster or something. This time, she said we were watching a movie she found on LDS.org called "Passage to Zarahemla" so she put her laptop up on the table and pressed play. Within seconds we knew something was up, and then a guy took an arrow to the chest and we told her this probably wasn't approved. We left there, and all the hills we climbed up we had to go down. Elder Wood's brakes didn't work so he rode in the grass with his feet dragging on the ground. At this point the rain was approaching tropical storm level and we had to make our way to a marshallese kid's house to deliver his baptismal suit. We finally got there and survived.

There were two marshallese kids getting baptized, and one family brought  upwards of 6 pizzas and a whole bunch of dessert which was d0pe. 

I love you all a lot, and God does too

Ottumwa  Elders

Stan, Stan The Ice Cream Man

We had a lot happen this week.

We were eating dinner with a family of Investigators from El Salvador this past week, the H's,  and they told us that there was going to be a huge Latino festival in Ottumwa where they were going to close down main street and have a big old party. Elder Wood and I went and it was pretty crazy. We're going to start teaching an English class so we thought it would be a good place to hand out our fliers, but I started explaining it to this one guy in Spanish and he just said "Dude, I can speak English." I felt like a real dweeb. I asked him if he knew anyone who needed help with English and he said that most people already speak it alright, so I failed. But we saw the H's and they gave us free candy which was cool

Also, we were eating lunch or something a few days ago when we heard the ice cream man, and Elder Love (the English trainer in Ottumwa) and I decided we were going to buy some popsicles and convert an ice cream man. So we grabbed some Books of Mormon and like three dollars and ran out the door. We waited in line and when it was our turn he said "You're money is useless here" and I assumed he was about to bash us but then he explained that he was a lifelong member of the church haha so he wanted to give us free stuff but we still paid him. What a neat guy.

Elder Wood and I have been trying to come up with simple ways we could teach for our Marshallese Sunday School class, and this week we decided to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ with our classic Funfetti Cookies. We had an ingredient for every part of the Gospel, and mixed them all together and explained them. Like Faith is the cake mix we use, the eggs are repentance, and all that. Then, when we had it all mixed together, Elder Wood had everyone close their eyes while we switched out the mix with some cookies we made earlier, and then they opened their eyes and ate cookies. I love the Marshallese people a ton, we also played volleyball with them this week and this one kid, J, did a back flip off of my hands which was cool.

There's a ton of Squirrels and other animals just cruising around in Ottumwa and a lot of times they become roadkill. For example, there is a full grown beaver laying on the side of the freeway right now. But there's a lot of squirrels, and we picked one up that wasn't too mangled and Elder Love skinned it, mounted it on a piece of an old table, salted it, and now its tanning on the top of our roof. The goal is to make it into a tie. Elder Love does what he wants and I have massive respect for that haha.

This week was an incredibly rough one as well, at least for me. But no matter how difficult a test, God loves us and won't leave us comfortless. I just randomly decided to read in Second Corinthians a few days ago and found a scripture that says 

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory"

Every difficult experience we have enables us to feel joy. There's a lot going on in the world right now that it rough, and I've got a few things I'm burdened with right now just like everyone else. God loves us so much, and he knows the best way to help us is to teach us how to turn to him in times of struggle. I think one of the apostles said that any difficulty will be lightened in the moment we turn everything over to God. The answer is always to put everything in your Heavenly Father's hands and trust him with it. He will always do what is best.

I love you all more than I ever have

Marshallese Volleyball

AWOL Investigator

American Gothic House ~ Eldon, Iowa

An Iconic Companionship

President Eyring???

There's this investigator we have, R, who we heard from a few weeks ago saying that his car broke down in Keota, and since then we hadn't been able to make contact with him. He lives way out in the boonies and he was never there. R is this really awesome massive, lonely dude who lives like 100 feet away from the house his great grandfather grew up in or something, and I love him to death. So we were driving home from his house yesterday and my companion told me this story about saying specific prayers so he was like "let's pray and tell Heavenly father that we will be at the library at like 11 or 11:30 tomorrow and ask him to let R be there too." So I prayed while we drove and for whatever reason I felt like we should say 10:30 so I did, and Elder Wood told me that was his original thought but he didn't want to go that early haha but it wasn't meant to be. So we planned to see him here at the library, and we pulled into the library at like 10:20, waited until 10:28ish, prayed again, and we walked in here and here he is, sitting behind me watching Latin Music Videos. A Miracle.

Also, there's this Marshallese guy named M and his girlfriend B that we've been teaching, and they're awesome. Mack and us are super tight and he's hilarious. We taught him the word of wisdom but he couldn't give up chewing tobacco and it was really really a bummer. I think a lesson I've learned before my mission and during my mission is that when you Love someone deeply enough, you open yourself up to the possibility of getting hammered by an equally deep sadness. It was so sad to see him cling to his tobacco. So we prayed and fasted for another miracle. The next time we went over, he told us that the same day he went to get a job interview, there was an emergency so the guy couldn't interview him and M couldn't work so he didn't have money to buy chew, so he was three days off of it and he decided to keep going with it. He's really, really struggling with the addiction but he knows that he can do it. We are taking him and B to Bubba Q's tomorrow. Also he invited us to he and B's birthday party and we are going to get Beana a Can of Beans for her birthday because her name is "Bean"a.

God knows the ways that things must be done. I've got a few situations that I've been thinking about a lot lately, and they're definitely not going the way I'd like them to. But I've been finding strength in the knowledge that God has something much better in store for me. Always trust the love that our Father has for us.

I love you all a ton