Week 27 and loving it!

January 18, 2016

Happy Monday!

I hope you guys had a great week. It has been a really good week here
in the WVM. The first piece of good news is that President Taylor's
surgery went very well, was preformed by one of the top surgeons in
the northwest, and he is now recovering quietly at home. Unfortunately
he can't act as our President for a while, so they're sending in a
senior couple to take his place temporarily. That's pretty much all we
know. Some other good news is that we got transfer letters and I will
be staying in the Rose City Tongan ward! This is the ward that makes
missionaries in other wards break the 10th commandment! The ward
mission goal is 20 baptisms and 20 reactivations within the year, and
the whole ward is really on board with it! Unfortunately Elder Andrew
will return full time to the Rocky Butte ward, so we can't be comps
anymore, but at least we'll still be in the same district. My new
companion will be Elder Bruciaga.

Other blessings include some really good personal studies, a Tongan
vocabulary book I bought for $10, good service projects to break up
the week, and a whole lot of food. Seriously, I have never been given
so much food in my life. Just at church on Sunday we were given: a
frozen pizza, some lemon squares, a case full of chocolate chip
cookies, two boxes of fudge stripe brownies, four cans of Arizona
juice, cupcakes, and two plates of chocolate waffle cookies made my
Lori Mower who was visiting the ward on stake business! The northwest
certainly has exceptional members.

Unfortunately the baptism did not take place this Saturday. Surona's
Grandpa got called out of town on emergency business and Surona really
wanted to wait until he got back. We've rescheduled for this Saturday.

Twice this week we've had the opportunity to give priesthood blessings
to people who were in both emotional and physical pain. What a
blessing it is to have the priesthood.  Like anything else, blessings take time and faith. But in both circumstances, as we ended the blessing I felt immensely grateful for a God that loves his children so much that he trusts 18-19 year old men to act in his name and hold his authority. I mean I have a hard time
trusting my mission companions to not use too much of my hair gel and
the God of the universe is trusting me to stand in his place and say
and do what he Himself would say and do.

Have a great week!

~Elder Thomas

Adios to the current trio