New Companion

Hey there everyone!

 

There has been so much going on this past week and I need to tell you all about it! so here it goes-

 

We have been teaching so many people that it is crazy! Our stats are off the charts! We now have 22 investigators of the church and out of those 22 people we have 13 of them with baptismal dates. 11 of them within the next 6 weeks. The work here has been exploding, I know that it is because of our hard work and obedience to the rules of the mission. I love seeing blessings from God every day because of the sacrifices we make.

 

Has anyone seen any miracles or blessings in their lives back home?

 

We had 3 baptisms on Saturday the 12th. Erick K., Debra H. and Kevin S. all were baptized. Erick and Kevin were baptized by members of the ward and I had the wonderful opportunity to baptize Debra. When she was walking out of the water after the ordinance was performed she let out a "whoo hoo!" - that was really funny! She was so happy to be clean of all of her sins.

 

The mission had a total of like 147 baptisms this transfer (six weeks) My companionship had 7... so what is that, like 4 percent? SWEET

 

One sad thing did happen this week.... My odometer that I use on my bike to track how many miles I ride a day broke!!! I was soooo mad, but it is ok because I know that I was averaging 10 miles a day so I will just add up my total miles by how many days I will be on bike. That odometer was a gift from my brother too, that's why I was upset.

 

I had an incredible experience this Sunday, let me tell you about it - We were sitting in church on Sunday and we realized that one of our recent converts wasn't there. So we called her (Amanda S.) to see if she needed a ride and she did. We got a member of the church to take us to Amanda's house and when she opened the door she told us that she couldn't go.  She said that she was hemorrhaging, she had just had a baby the previous week. She told us that she was feeling weak and that she was about to pass out. She started to collapse and right then I grabbed her arm! She fell to the floor, but I did soften the fall and I made sure that she didn't hit her head at the same time. We had to call 911 (only the second time I have had to do that in my life) and the ambulance came right away. This was super scary! she was on the floor twitching for a while and I made sure that she was awake until they got there. This was without a doubt a prompting from the spirit, to tell us that she needed help. I am so thankful that I am living my life in such a way that I could hear such guidance. Can you imagine what could have happened if we wouldn't have been there? The bishop told us that she could have been in pretty bad shape if we wouldn't have been there to get her. This experience has strengthened my testimony of the spirit, how it tells us what needs to happen and puts us where we need to be at the right time.

 

Sadly, transfers were today. My first companion, my trainer, and my good buddy from Oregon - Elder Cornilles has been transferred out into east mesa (rich neighborhoods). I have a new companion, Elder Brown, he is from Dalles Texas and he has been out for 21 months. He will be going home in September and I don't know if I will be here til he leaves or if I will leave, but that is up to the Lord to decide where he needs me. This puts me in a spot to show what I can do. He doesn't know the area, or the people that we are teaching, he is the senior companion, but I will be taking the lead because I do know the area and the people and their needs. I am excited to take over the area and to be with a different missionary, so that I can see how he operates and such.

 

I am excited for these next 6 weeks. they are going to full of hard work, I want to make sure that this missionary isn't lazy and if he is, well, he wont be by the time I am done working with him.

 

I am happy here. Arizona is a great place! I passed my two month mark yesterday (I cannot believe that it has gone so fast!) and I am starting to think that if my whole mission goes this fast then pretty soon I wont be proud to announce my month mark, I will be sad just thinking of it.

 

Stay strong, with the lord anything is possible and I can witness to that.

 

Pictures soon to come

 

Love,

 

Elder Thomas