I Survived a Japanese Game Show

Hello everyone! Its been an emotionally packed week in Marshalltown, Iowa. Who knew that I could get so attached to a patch of land in central Iowa. I love it here and am contemplating chaining myself to a tree and refusing to leave. Of course, I dont know for sure that I'm leaving for sure until tomorrow, but I'm fairly certain I'm off to Hampton.

Not a ton happened this week, really. We're working with Amy, and she's really excited for her baptism on saturday.

Early in the week, we went on exchanges with Elder Esplin and Elder westover. I had the privilege of going on Elder Esplin's final exchange of his mission. He is an awesome guy and I look up to him a lot. Nothing too special happened on the exchange, but we had a good opportunity to go knocking for a good amount of time. I love knocking, I really love talking to people and sharing the good news of the restored gospel. It never gets old

I went to say goodbye yesterday to one of our younger investigators, Danel. Her sister got baptized a few years ago but went less active and we knocked into them. She is a really cool 9 year old and really excited to get baptized. She said "If you don't come to my baptism, I will hunt you down."

Also we were invited to go do what we were told would be a 3 hour project of moving a compost pile that has been accumulating for 2 years. It was a mountain of mud, essentially, and we had the task of loading it into a trailer, dumping it at the compost facility, and doing it again. The owner of the muddy monstrosity knew I was most likely leaving on Thursday and purposefully scheduled it before that. There was no escape. Just like the 3 hour tour on the TV classic "Gilligan's Island", we quickly realized that we were in for something we never would have wished upon our worst enemies. After 6 hours of breaking our backs with shovelfuls of mud, we crawled to our car and narrowly escaped. I never want to lift a shovel again. 

I'll be sad to leave here. I love the people here and my companion is a champ. God is looking out for us and we've been blessed to see the fruits of our labors. It's hard to keep moving areas just as I start making good friendships, but I know God knows best and I'll love my next area as well.

The Church is true! I know it for a fact. I wouldn't trade that knowledge for anything,

I love you all a lot!

-- Elder Thomas

Pictures

The New and Improved Version of Me

Danel & Friends

Elder Ostergaard meets a Frog