May 15, 2017
Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!
Oh, just tracting through a Washington Forest.
Much love!
~Elder Thomas
May 8, 2017
HeyyyyyyHappy Monday! Life is good here in Longview. It's been sunny at least half of the week, Elder Anderson visited our mission, and Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday!We had a great variety of things happen this week:
- I met my trainee and probably last companion of my mission. His name is Elder Atwood. His dad is in the military so he doesn't have anywhere to really call home, but most recently he is from Fort Leavenworth Kansas. He's pretty funny, If you've ever seen The Best Two Years he acts exactly like the new missionary in that movie.
- Elder Atwood's first day in the field we didn't have a dinner appointment so He asked if we could go to Subway. Pretty funny because my first day as a missionary I had subway, and my first day training Elder Fouts some members dropped off some subway subs for us!
- Sunday Austin and Vanessa finally came to church! Sunday was also 30 something days into the forty day fast our ward is orchestrating for missionary work, so probably 80% of the testimonies given talked about missionary work and the blessing it has been in the lives of the saints
- We had a cool experience on Thursday: Our bishop had asked us to Stop by and visit a guy named Richard B. that the missionaries have not been able to get in contact with for a really long time. We drove out to his house in the mountains and his wife, in not the friendliest of manners, said he was in a really important meeting back in town. We decided to head back to town for a meeting we had at the church. As we were driving in we realized we would be 20 minutes early so we pulled into a complex to see a member that had been on our minds. The member was busy but said we should visit next door because a member not on our records lived there. We stopped by and the guy that answered said "oh Hi Elders, I'm Rich B. nice to meet you." Our jaws dropped open haha. so crazy! It turned out he was just visiting his mom for a few minutes before his big meeting.
- By far the biggest highlight of the week was Elder Anderson coming to visit the mission. He was scheduled to arrive at 10:30 so we were supposed to be seated and quietly studying by 9:30. At 10:25 he walked in and asked to shake everybody's hand. Good stuff. Before he got up to speak Elder Craig C. Christensen of the presidency of the 70 got up to speak about the doctrine of Christ. He explained how we need to learn how to repent during the sacrament so we can teach our Investigators how to repent. He said that most new converts go less-active because they'll sin after they are baptized and we have not taught them how to repent. So they feel guilty and don't want to come to church.
- Elder Anderson spoke for like 90 minutes. His talk was kinda all over the place but two main themes stood out. He wanted us to focus on Jesus Christ. Even if it seems useless, a testimony of Jesus Christ is never wasted. Then he talked about working with the youth and how that is really who you want to convert. Because if you convert a youth then hopefully you can get them on a mission and even if not you'll have converted their entire future family as well. Something else that was kinda cool that he talked about was that Vancouver/Portland area is really important to the church because it has really strong members. As a result, the church is trying to make it into a stronghold in the NW.
"Your witness of the savior never falls empty on ears. - let the thought come into your mind that as I testify of the savior over and over again, that good things will come to me and the people who I testify to." ~Elder AndersonHave a great week!
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