Short on thoughts, long on P-Day

October 31, 2016

It has been a great week in the WVM! Lily is getting married and
baptized this coming week! Also our mission President granted us an
all day Pday, so we met up as a zone and are playing glow in the dark
volleyball.

The evidence that will prove or disprove the Book of Mormon does not
exist.” ~Hugh Nibley

The gospel is either true or it is not. The Book of Mormon is either
true or it is not. The only way you will know is by your desire and
the revelation from the spirit.

Also, there’s an elder serving with us in Astoria who lives on: Paul Thomas Dr.,  in GeorgiaJ.

Have a great week!

~Elder Paul Thomas

Going down to one of Elder Flynn's baptisms 

Pre-Baptismal interview sweater, pocket hankie, suit pin matching 

Astoria Halloween decorations 

Astoria

Tuesday night miracle

October 24, 2016

Another great week down in the WVM! I know I say that every week, but
that's mostly because it is true. Even the tougher weeks and the rainy
ones are great because it is a week spent getting tired in a righteous
cause.

Miracle story: 8:40 on Tuesday night Elder Flynn and I found ourselves
in a random parking lot downtown with a cancelled lesson and nowhere
to be. We said a quick prayer and when we looked up we saw Fred Meyer
truck driving by with the slogan "You'll find it at Fred Meyers"
painted on the side. Fred Meyers is not even in our area but we both
felt pretty strongly we should check it out so we went to the store
and tried to find whatever it was we were looking for! We can't
proselyte in stores so I was praying while we were walking around that
whoever we were supposed to talk to would bring up the church first.
After a little while it was about time to go home and we had found no
success. We decided that we would walk around the store one last time
and just give a compliment to everyone that we saw. One aisle we
turned up, we started complimenting a man on his ring and his
girlfriend spoke up and was like "hey Elders, where is the ward
building around here?" turns out she was a less-active member of the
Warrenton ward and they didn't  have her records in the ward. We saw her
and her boyfriend walking into the church building on Sunday.

The church is true people! Life is hard with or without the gospel,
but with it you at least have the Priesthood, the Holy Ghost, and
treats in Sunday school.

gratefully,

Elder Paul Thomas

If there is one word that describes all the woes and threats that exist today, it's indifference. You see tragedy on television for three minutes and then comes something else and something else. Indifference, to me is the epitome of evil. The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's Indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference. Because of indifference, one dies before he actually dies. - Elie Weisel

View from the Seaside apartment

Costco:)

Typhoon

October 17, 2016

Hey Fam!

Like always, it has been another great week in the WVM. I guess to
start off I should address all the damage done by the huge typhoon
that came over from Japan - to start off, our garbage can blew over. A
traffic cone was knocked sideways, and my shoes got really wet.
...yeah that's about it haha. Everyone and their dog was prepping us
for "the biggest storm since Columbus Day 1977" But when it hit I
would rate it an anemic 4 on a scale of 1-10.

Besides the storm he have had some cool miracles these past few weeks.
* Lily, an investigator we have been teaching for 3 months just told
us that she and her boyfriend decided to get married in November
instead of April, and then we got permission from our Mission
President to baptize her on the same day of her wedding right after
the ceremony.

* Chevy, a less-active we have been teaching for a while just told us
that he lost his job and normally that pressure along with other
pressures he has been dealing with right now would have caused him to
make some really irrational decisions. But he said the first thing he
thought about when he got the call was that he needed to pray and read
the scriptures. Now he has a job working for the bishop. For some
reason I don't think that was a coincidence.

* The Spanish group has also been doing really well recently. Last
Sunday we almost filled up the entire relief society room, which has
never happened before. Granted, most of the people there were Spanish-
speaking members who came to support, but the excitement was still the
same!

By far the biggest bummer of the week was that our mission conference
was cancelled. The whole mission was supposed to meet in Vancouver for
a meeting with Elder Anderson, but last minute they had to cancel it
for the storm that never came :(

Saturday morning the whole mission was instructed to stay in for a few
hours right before the storm was supposed to hit. We watched "The
Other Side of Heaven" and it made me think about how John Groberg felt
when he arrived on the island of Tonga, and how he must have felt when he left. That first week if he were asked to list what had caused him grief, I'd be
willing to bet that the language, the people, the heat and the food.
Then at the end scene when all the Tongans were singing to him as he
got on the boat after three years, I asked myself what he was
thinking about with fondness. Probably a lot of his memories had a lot
to do with the language, the people, the climate, and the food.

I hope you all have a great week!

~Elder Thomas