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