May 21 2018

This week we went way out into the country to visit a Portuguese speaking referral. We didn't really have any ideas as to how we were going to talk to her, but we decided that it would be a good opportunity to find people who had probably never met with missionaries. 

When we got out there, we found out that the address was wrong, and the lady who lived at the address wasn't interested, so we started knocking all the farmers houses. We didn't have a lot of success with the people we talked to, but it was super beautiful. It was the most silence I've experienced in 11 months and it was awesome. It was like we were driving through that old windows screen saver, what more could anyone want? Also Elder Ostergaard came to the conclusion that the world was not flat, so that was a plus.

We also had some exchanges this week in Ames, and Elder Westover and I knocked a street and got bashed at nearly every door. Bashing doesn't get you anywhere, as we know, but it was  so weird that it happened so often on this one street. On the last door of the street, a little old lady cracked the door open and told us that she wasn't interested, and that the entire street was heavily involved in this one church they all went to. At first I kind of felt like I had wasted an hour and a half getting yelled at, but I know for a fact that they were all changed by the interaction they had with us. 

Other than that, we made a hat out of a volleyball and made fried chicken

I love you all a lot! 

Raccoons, Fried Chicken, and Church

This week was one to remember. I achieved a life goal and ate some food outside

During the week, an older lady asked us if we could come say a prayer over her house. After driving 15 minutes on gravel roads, we arrived to find her bottle feeding my favorite animal:

A raccoon.

The lady talked to us for a while, but I couldn't focus on anything but Jacob, the baby raccoon, climbing all over the couch and curtains. Eventually I broke and asked for a picture with him. (see below).  

In other news, yesterday after church we continued our tradition of making fried chicken for dinner. Only this time we ate in our backyard and watched trains pass. We had gatorade, flaming hot cheetos, apples, and chicken with Jello. It was the single best meal I've eaten in 11 months.

This week we also had some great spiritual experiences. We have been focusing on finding new people to teach, and we saw miracles. Early in the week we were knocking in near 100 degree weather, and is was dragging. Houses here are  sometimes split into apartments, and one house we knocked had a little path that led to the back of the building. I really didn't want to go, but we did and ended up finding a super solid investigator who was looking for a church and super prepared. I felt strongly that we were led to her, which is an awesome feeling. 

WE also went to the local newspaper here and asked to be in it. See the picture below

Later, we went to the church to drop off some stuff and saw an african member in his car with one of his friends. The member came up and insisted that we speak to him. We did, and found out that he had been reading the book of mormon and wanted to come to church. He gave us his phone number without us asking and insisted that we'd see him in church.

Yesterday at church, we rolled up and saw a family of our investigators greeting people at the door, and other members coming with their cars full of friends who we are now going to teach. God is watching out for us here and the members can feel the urgency and are a great help. I love Marshalltown and I love being a missionary. The church is true

I love you all a lot

Haircuts and Weeds

Hello everyone! This week flew by again. I got a haircut in a garage, pulled some weeds, shoveled some mulch, and went back to des moines again!

Last P Day I decided it was time for a haircut. A member's daughter's boyfriend offered to do it for free so I decided to do that instead of paying 15 bucks at great clips. When I got there he told me he didn't have any of those cape things, and I saw that his only tools were a variety of clippers and a toothbrush. Needless to say, i was horrified. There wasn't a mirror, but I could tell from Elder Ostergaard's suppressed giggling and my near-bleeding neck that things were not going well. After an hour of razorburn and intense regret, I left the garage with a white shirt full of Elder Thomas Hair and the worst haircut of my life. 

The next day, we went to go help out everyone's favorite gardener: Brother Jay. I was still nursing crazy razorburn and by the end I had a razorburn sunburn combo. We spent the whole few hours ripping weeds out of his garden. To make matters worse, these were no normal weeds, they were thorny vines that ripped our hands and arms apart and left us with rashes and self loathing. It was the worst few hours of my whole life. 

The next day, we went to another members house and shoveled a schoolbus sized pile of mulch into a part member family's garden. It took a long time, and by the end it felt like my back muscles were about to slide off of my skeleton. Not fun.

Besides slaving away in people's yards, we were able to teach our investigators some good lessons. We taught edmund and his family the word of wisdom this week, and they accepted it really well. He only had a problem with tea, but told us he would give it up. He is so awesome. Last we asked, he and his family have read all of first and second nephi. They are the coolest. 

Also We were teaching another African guy this week named Jonathan and he started telling us about how he had come here with no family, and how he felt that Elder Ostergaard and I were his family. He refers to the church as his church, he's the coolest. Another member brought a friend to church yesterday and Jonathan helped us set up a time to come meet with him. He's already fellowshipping people

Also I got to go back to Des Moines yesterday to see an old investigator get baptized. He is awesome, when Elder Rocha and I were teaching him he talked about wanting to serve a mission. I'm really thankful I got to go see him again.

I love being a missionary. I love being able to share the gospel that I love with the people of Iowa. 

I love you all!

Fireflies and a Hurricane

Hello everyone! Elder Ostergaard and I had a real good week. We had unlimited fried chicken with a member, caught fireflies, and drove through what can only be described as a tropical storm.

To start off the week, we went with some members to a restaurant name "Sunrise Cafe" where a greek family sells enormous amounts of food for a relatively low price. When we got there, it was just us 4 in the restaurant but soon, a bus arrived from the veterans center and the place was filled. It was a cool time, I was able to eat 2 1/2 plates of chicken and save the rest for laters. It was awesome. 

While we were in the restaurant, I thought the sun had set. When I looked at my watch I realized that it was still supposed to bright as ever outside. We went outside and saw a cloud that struck fear into the depths of my soul. They sky was a weird blackish green, and the cloud blotted out the sun well enough that the avatar could have fought firelord ozai. It was eerie, to say the least. Elder Ostergaard and I left and drove right through the middle of it. We couldnt see very much ahead of us at all, and the wind and rain tried to take us off the road. It was pretty nuts

Yesterday, we made our sunday fried chicken dinner, according to tradition, and ate it outside. The member we live with have a big old backyard that stretches back until it meets a cornfield. Just as we finished up our chicken, we looked to the yard and saw little blinking lights floating around in the dark. Fireflies were everywhere, elder ostergaard and I ran around catching them in our hands just like in the movies. The corn right now is probably knee high, and we looked out over the field and the whole thing looked like it was sparkling, there was an unbelievable amount of them. Eventually we got tired from chasing bugs, so we hiked our office chairs out to the edge of the field and just watched the blinking of the fireflies. Soon after we settled in, a lightning storm started in the distance. Then the wind started to blow and i heard what I thought was rain but really was just the wind on the corn leaves. Then when I thought it couldn't get any better, a train passed in the distance. It was unbelievably beautiful.

Times like that strengthen my testimony a ton. We had a disappointing sunday and a family we're teaching didn't show up to church. That really stressed me out because I love them a lot. But I know for a fact that Iowa is the place I am supposed to be, and I'm grateful that God let us have that time to relax and see something as beautiful as that. He loves us a lot

I know the message we share is true, and I love sharing it. I'm about to hit my one year mark this week and it makes me sad that I only have one year left of the best experience of my life.

I love you all a lot! Have good weeks!

Killer Bugs and an Interview

We had a crazy week. During the week we had 2 exchanges, interviews with our president, and a baptismal interview for a family. We were stressed all week but it turned out well. 

On one of our exchanges, it was a blazing hot day outside and for whatever reason, a cloud of flies was following us all day and trying to kill me. They tried to crawl into my brain through my ears, they tried to burrow into my eyeballs. I was in a terrible mood. Every time we got out of our cars they were right there, waiting for us. It was a nightmare. 

During the week, we were desperately trying to prepare The Mavuangi family for their baptismal interview. I was incredibly nervous all week, and I couldnt get rid of the stress. For the whole week. The most stressful moment of the week was when the member who was going to give them a ride bailed, so we were running all over town trying to find someone, and I had to go to the bathroom more intensely than ever before and we had to make sure they got to the interview because the guy who was interviewing them was going to go out of town for like a month, so they needed to be interviewed right then. Eventually we asked a spanish member and he said yes, so a guy who only speaks spanish loaded up a french speaking family in his car and took them. Then, we got to the interview and the dad's interview lasted 2 hours. I was literally sweating, his kids were trying my patience and pushing me to my wits end. At the end of the day they both got interviewed and both passed. So that was a tender mercy. 

Even though we had a stressful week, I really loved it. We had a great time at church and our investigators were able to come, and we had a good time on our exchanges. I'm always stressed as a missionary, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Theres nothing I've done that is more rewarding that serving a mission. Sharing the joy that comes with following the savior is the best experience of my life. I know that what we share is true and I love sharing it

I love you all! I hope you have a great week

Frolf, Zone Conference, and a Cold Font

Last P-day we went to Ames for a zone p-day. Towards the end, I went for a last-minute frolf game with my boi Elder Christensen and the 2 missionaries he is training. They all had their gym shorts and t-shirts, but all I had was my missionary clothes but they convinced me I would be fine so I went with them. It started out great, we had a quality time throwing pieces of plastic around in the woods. At one point we lost sight of the next hole, so I threw my frisbee into the trees with the hope that it would land somewhere good. It did not. I ran after the frisbee and saw that it landed in a creek that was just beyond the tree line. So I climbed down into the muddy pit and got my frisbee. I sunk pretty deep into the mud, and by the time i worked my way back up onto solid land I was dripping in sweat, but I got out. I've since made a pact with myself to never go frolfing again.

We had a zone conference as well this week, its always good to meet up with old companions and hear from our leadership.

Yesterday was Edmond and Rovy's baptisms. everything was looking good and I was beginning to feel a little bit more relaxed about the whole thing and had a few moments of peace while we were driving to the church to start filling the font. Suddenly we realized that we had gotten the timing wrong and gotten to the church way too late for the font to be filled in time and my peace went away. We started filling the font, and scrambled to try and find some way to speed up the process. We decided to fill up pitchers with water from the kitchen and spent an hour doing that. Just as Edmond and Rovy arrived, we finished filling the font. We also realized that we had been using ice cold water and that the water in the font was cold enough to take your  breath away. When all was said and done, Edmond and Rovy got baptized and they loved it. Their family was very excited and happy to become the newest members of the church. They are a cool family and I feel very blesses to have been able to help them. 

I love you all a lot! The church is true

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