Time and Prayers

August 8th

Helloooooo,

Sisters temple trip with my trainer Sister Hoffmann!

Another great week in Kirkland! The work is continuing here, and we are just here to be helpers in it. One thing I've learned this week is just that I'm the messenger of the truth. We can't force anyone or push annoying into accepting our message, nor do we want to, but all we do as missionaries is just lay it out in front of them and invite them to partake in the blessings it brings. And when people do choose to partake, to pray, to read, to change ultimately, I can honestly say that it is the happiest process I've ever seen unfold.

ahhhh so much love for our Sister Training Leaders

 

So that process is what we have to keep in mind when, we as missionaries, are rejected or shrugged off, because when we can remember what CAN happen it helps us keep our eyes focused on what is ahead of us, of the potential of the people around us, and the blessings the gospel WILL bring into lives of these people.

Our investigators are doing well. Progressing and reaping the rewards that come from feeling the spirit more abundantly in their lives. Sister Morgan and I are doing well and we are excited for this coming week and the potential it brings. I would like to ask, if I can ask, that you pray for us and our investigators. Pray that we can find people to teach, people that will receive us and the gospel, and pray for our investigators so that they can have the courage and faith to continue on in learning the gospel of Jesus Christ. We feel your prayers already, but we have seen the blessings that can come from specific prayers. They are powerful. Specific prayers can bring specific blessings. I know that to be true. 

BRIDGET HAD THE BABY AND HE'S BEAUTIFUL AND I LOVE HIM. 

World, meet baby Great :) featuring Awesome.

I've also thought a lot about time this week. Last week I hit 6 months as a missionary. And at the same time I hit two years since I had left for Basic Training. What a remarkable thing it is to look back at what's happened over the course of two years and the growth and the different experiences I've been able to have. Each experience has changed me and shaped me into what I know the Lord whats me to become. It reminds me of that scripture in Isaiah, 

"But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand." (Isaiah 64:8)

He is the Master Potter, and through our experiences, He is changing us and molding us into what He wants us to become. And I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful for time and the consequences that come from it.

That's all this week, hopefully next weeks email will be more dynamic (and hey that should come with the help of your prayers), but know that I'm grateful for blessings that come from being a missionary and the support I have from friends and family. 

Sister Thomas

 

 MY MISSION IS SO BEAUTIFUL LOOK. THE SKY THE WATER AHHHH SO BEAUTIFUL

And the Work Continues

August 1st


Helllloooooo everyone,

 A cute Chinese couple that we contacted and gave a Chinese book of Mormon to.

 We asked if they could take a picture of us at the pier, 

but then they wanted one with them too. Ohhhhh I love them.

This week was so wonderful. I know I say that every week, and I know that some weeks have been harder than others, but every time Monday rolls around and I come to email, all the cruddy things that may have happened during the week are forgotten and all I can remember are the miracles and the happy things. So yes, another successful week. 

Sister Morgan is adjusting well to the mission! She officially completed her first week in the field, and she's still smiling, so things must be going okay. Sometimes I forget that she's so new to everything, and that I have to explain everything, even the little things like how they sell gas here or how milk, for whatever reason, is sold in bags. I just got used to Sister Zobrist and I being on the same page with everything, so training is just a little different. But she's learning and so am I. 

We helped Bridget a lot this week (the pregnant Nigerian) with setting up her house and cleaning for the baby. I'm so stinking excited to meet this child. She went to the hospital yesterday so he should be here sometime soon. I've only ever known Bridget as pregnant so that'll be a weird transition. And then on Saturday the ward threw her a baby shower and it was the cutest thing. The women here really take care of her. They took care of everything! The crib, the clothes, the stroller, diapers, wipes, and a baby bath, readily supplied and freely given by people who genuinely care for her. And Bridget is just so overwhelmed with gratitude. Man, she is a special women. She showed up to her baby shower looking like a Nigerian Princess. She was so beautiful. Even at 9 months pregnant she was wearing a beautiful gown and fabulous make up. She's my favorite.

the FABULOUS BRIDGET at her baby shower. OH man, she is the Queen. 

A Pregnant Nigerian Goddess.

We also had not one but TWO investigators come to church! I about died. James came and all of Sacrament meeting was about how we can grow our testimonies, and it was everything he needed to hear and more. He's making great progress. And then we picked up another investigator this week. His name is Salman and he's from Pakistan (so he speaks like 5 languages) and he is AMAZING. He grew up Catholic in Pakistan and was super persecuted for being a Christian (which is a real problem there). But he found the Church when he moved to downtown Montreal and the missionaries started teaching him, but then he moved to the West Island then he called US and we've been teaching him since. And he's come to church twice now, and the ward loves him, and he is just smitten with the people in the ward. He always talks about how nice they are and how good of an atmosphere it is. Then we taught him the restoration this morning and he was very attentive the whole time, and he had a lot of questions, but he said that he would pray and ask God if what we taught was true. So send prayers his way people, because he is something special. 

I've also learned a lot about prayer this past week, as we've explained it to people we've contacted on the street and as we've explained it within the walls of peoples homes, I've realized it is such a special thing. It's so tender to express the fact that we can talk with the Divine Creator of all things, and that He does listen to our prayers and hear the pleadings of our hearts. And it's all because He loves us. The Maker of us all actually knows each of us individually. And He wants us to talk to Him! The Father of our spirits is much like our earthly father, in the fact that He loves us and wants to communicate with us. To see how we're doing, to have us ask for advice, so that He can help us and guide us along the way. And as I've prayed to Him more sincerely, I've felt Him comfort me and guide me, and I truly do feel closer to Him. And that's because I am. It's because I was making the time to talk with Him, to listen to His promptings, and then to do what He wanted and needed me to. Prayer really is so special. So please, don't forget to pray. 

And, of course, a lot of other things happened this week, as they usually do, but time won't permit me to explain everything, but I promise a lot of great stuff is happening here in Kirkland, and I'm excited that I get to be here for it, especially with Sister Morgan. 

But have a beautiful, wonderful week. I love and pray for you all,

Sister Thomas

 A scary sign we found this past week. 

It translates to something like "pay attention to our children, it could be yours," 

and that may not be super weird, 

but it's really the picture of the mutilated child that's disturbing.

New Compainions, Training, and Faith

July 25th

HELLO WORLD

On Wednesday I picked up my new companion and welcomed her to the mission field! Her name is Sister Morgan, and she grew up in Oregon (Salem), and then moved to Eagle Mountain, Utah, so like me she has two homes. She learned Spanish growing up and was actually called to serve in Spanish, but learned French in the MTC, and now she's in an English area, so that's fun for her. The members already love her, and so do I. I'm looking forward to spend this next 3 months with her to show her the ropes of missionary life!

Me and Sister Morgan pointing to our area :)

Investigators:

James is still doing great. He said a few prayers after lessons with us this past week, and it's been really cool to see his progression. He is getting more and more comfortable talking to his Father in Heaven, and his prayers are more and more meaningful. He has some problems understanding the Book of Mormon, but we are working on that with him by reading it with him and explaining some of the things that are happening. We are also reading passages in the Book of Mormon as we are teaching him the lessons to help give him good experiences as he reads and learns the principles of the gospel. So keep praying for him, because the prayers have obviously worked so far.

We also taught Denise this week, which was all in French, and that was interesting to say the least, because my French is still soooo bad, and Sister Morgan's is still so new, but Denise was so patient with us. It was fine displaying the doctrine, the only hard part for me was actually being able to answer the questions she would ask. But it'll get better, and Sister Morgan and I will both improve. We have the faith to make it happen. 

This week I've also learned a lot about following the Spirit and acting on the promptings. Before, Sister Zobrist was always so intuned to the Spirit, so I would always look to her when we needed direction on where to go or what to do. And now, that I'm here with a new missionary, she is looking to me to figure out what to do. So this week I've been doing my best to listen for promptings and then acting upon them. For example, there is a family that is moving out of the ward in the next few weeks, and one time at church they expressed that they might need help packing. Then on Friday, while we had other things planned, I kept feeling that we should go see this family. So we dropped in, unannounced (a typical missionary thing to do) and ask the wife what we could do to help them. She put us right to work and we were able to get almost a whole room packed away, and we really helped them start the actual packing process. They kept expressing how grateful they were to us and how we had come "at the perfect time" and that was a huge testimony to me that that was the place we were supposed to be at that time to help them. Several other similar experiences happened, where we visited people we hadn't planned, called people we hadn't thought to call, or walked where we hand't been before, and amazing things were the result. I know that if we follow those little promptings, or nudges, by the Spirit, we can really align our will with Heavenly Fathers, and we can truly make miracles happen. 

I pray that we can all listen a little better to what God may be telling us, because it really could be a direct answer to someones prayers. You could literally be saving someone.

Have a great week, and know that someone in Canada loves you, 

Sister Thomas

 The essential first picture with the mission president and his wife. 

President and Sister Phillips are seriously the best! 

We love them sooooo much.

Week 24

July 18th

Hello Friends and Family!

Another beautiful, hot, week in Canada. 

SOOOO PRETTY CANADA AHHHHH

This week we contacted, met with members and less actives, and taught lessons to investigators, therefore, making it another successful week. 

We had a really cool experience teaching from The Book of Mormon to a part-member family. We had the objective of teaching them the Gospel of Jesus Christ that being, faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Concepts that we'd talked about before, but this time we wanted to have a formal lesson on. And what better way to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ than by using the scriptures, which we believe to be the words of God. So we read 2 Nephi Chapter 31 (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/31?lang=eng)  together. It was powerful. And then their 10 year old daughter had a question about faith, so we answered it by having her read Alma 32: 21-28 (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/32?lang=eng). And it had answered her question perfectly. It was a beautiful experience teaching and reading out of The Book of Mormon with a family. Because our goal as missionaries is to help bring families together, and there is no better way to do that than by reading The Book of Mormon. Prophets for decades have promised that by reading of it's pages we will be strengthened and sustained in every sphere of our lives. I know that to be true. I know that The Book of Mormon is true. I have been blessed by reading and abiding by its precepts. It's such a special book. Please read it. Everyday. "Et puis" (And then in French) watch the blessings flow. 

 Just trying to gather the wheat from amidst the tares (hehe scripture reference)

Update on our investigators:

James: Is doing great! Still reading The Book of Mormon and praying. We are seeing him again tonight, so pray for him!

Denise: She's doing great. We are going to start teaching her family and we are so excited. 

We also go our transfer calls this week. I will be staying here in Kirkland, my first and only area so far, and Sister Zobrist will be leaving to Ottawa this Wednesday. We will be super sad to be separated after only 6 weeks together, but these past weeks have been a huge blessing to us and I'm forever grateful that the Lord allowed us to be companions. She's so wonderful. But I will be receiving a new missionary, and I don't know her name yet, but I will tell you all next week! I'm super excited to show her around Kirkland and just help to love the heck of these people. 

And because Sister Zobrist is leaving, we went and stopped by some of our members houses yesterday, so she could say goodbye. She said goodbye to Bridget, a member who we love so dearly, and we both bore testimony of the Church and its truthfulness, and then Bridget opened up to us about how much we'd helped her in just the past 6 weeks. She told us all of the ripple effects of all the things we'd done with her. We laughed together, and cried together as she told us how grateful she was for us. Never before had I been so humbled and full of love as I had been at that moment. We had no idea the magnitude we'd had on her life in just that short time. And just seeing at least a little bit of the fruits of our labors was so inspiring to Sister Zobrist and I. We were so grateful that we had gotten to serve this women, and obviously I will continue to serve her as long as I'm here in Kirkland, but long story short, you NEVER know how much good you do. You never know the ripple effects you have on people's lives. WE are one of the ways Heavenly Father administers His blessings to His children. WE are HIS hands. So please, don't ever be discouraged when you don't think you've done enough to help, because you've probably done more than you'll ever know. But also, never be afraid to give more. To help more. To comfort more. To love more. Because people definitely need it. And God needs you to do it. So give freely, and love will freely come to you. 

 Bridget and Jesse, loves of my life

AH okay, I'll get off my soapbox, but really I'm so happy doing the Lord's work here. Nothing has been a greater blessing to me. 

I love and pray for you all,

Sister Thomas

Scripture of the week:

1 Nephi 4:6-7

"And I was led by the spirit not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. Nevertheless, I went forth..."

 An Elder finished his mission in Kirkland, so we made him a strawberry-rhubarb pie. 

Oh my gosh, pretty sure I should be a baker now because it was

  SO GOOOOOOOOD. and it's beautiful and artsy,

 so here's a picture

Promising Blessings!

July 11th

Hellloooooo world,

 AHHHHHHH CANADIAN SUNSET

Wowowowow, what a week. We, again, spent a lot of time contacting, but didn't have the mass amounts of success as we did last week. And I think that just goes to show that everything that happened last week, was truly a miracle from the Lord. But it was successful in a lot of different ways. We visited a lot of our members, and helped them cultivate a greater vision for missionary work within their own homes and that was cool. 

And yesterday we decided to go contacting in this park we've visited a few times before, it's beautiful and it's right on the water, so usually there's a lot of people who are walking through. And in previous times, we've went and walked around and have run into people from literally all over the world, and then after talking to them, finding out their first language (then realizing that we had a copy of the Book of Mormon in their language in the car), we'd tell them we'd be right back and run back to the car and get them a Book of Mormon. This process happened severally times for a few different languages. So last night, we decided we'd be prepared and so put in our bags and carried in our arms about 15 or so copies of the Book of Mormon. In an assortment of languages. We had several French and English, but then we brought Arabic, and Farsi (which we've given out quite a few of recently), Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and Creole. And then we walked around for about an hour and half and tried to give these sacred books of scripture to people. And we even met a few Arabs and a Chinese lady, but they didn't want a copy of The Book of Mormon. So by the end we still had almost all of our copies and our shoulders and our arms tired, and we were a little bummed, but we knew the Lord would provide us with a miracle that day if we had sufficient faith.

Which leads me to the miracle of the week. James. James is a young man who is a young man who is the nephew of one of our members. We visit his aunt once a week on Sunday evenings and we read scriptures and watch conference talks with her. And we would invite him to come join us, but he never wanted to. Then last week, we went over a watched the new Children's Bible Videos the church has released, and we invited James to watch them with us and he said yes! He watched all of them with us and he said he really liked them. But then we had to leave to make curfew, so we gave him a Book of Mormon told him we'd be back next week to talk more. Sooooo, finally we get to last night and we get to the house and no one is home. We call our member and she tells us to wait, so we do, and finally like 15 minutes later they show up. And I start talking to James about the book, and he said that's actually started reading it. Then we started talking about prayer, and he said he felt like he couldn't pray, mostly because he didn't feel like he was able to actually talk to God after some decisions and the way his life has turned out. But then we taught him about repentance. We taught him about how God will always forgive us, because He has and will always love us. He said that he's kept a lot of anger in his heart, and that he didn't like it. We promised him that that anger could go away. That Christ could heal him and that he would be able to be let it go. He said that he felt like he wanted to give up sometimes, but I promised him that it didn't have to be that way. I promised him the Gospel of Jesus Christ could, and would, help him. Before we left he offered a prayer, asking for forgiveness from God, the spirit was so strong as he offered his simple but fervent prayer, angels might as well have been there. It was a beautiful lessons filled with heart-felt pleadings for help coupled with heart-felt pleadings of promise. We are meeting again with him and his aunt tonight, to talk about the Restoration and The Book of Mormon. So please keep James in your prayers.  

With our new best friend Laurie (she's Jewish) 

We stopped by her pizza shop right before Zone Meeting and had this amazing pizza 

and she told us that we could come back so we love her.

And that is the miracle I have to report to this week. It was a good week, we didn't get to teach many lessons though, because no one wants to schedule a time with us, but we are optimistic for next week.

Speeeeeaking of next week, it'll be the last week of the transfer for me and dear ol' Sister Zobrist. Can't believe six weeks has actually gone by already. We will get our calls on Saturday night to see if we will be staying in Kirkland or leaving the area. So that will be exciting.

Hope everyone has a beautiful and safe week!

Remember that God loves you! 

Sister Thomas

"But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage."

Mosiah 7: 33

Children's Bible Videos

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-05-001-baptism?lang=eng&category=childrens-bible-videos

 

 We saw this and our hope was reassured that at least some people in Quebec

 are still aware of the commandments. hehe

An Anchor For The Souls of Men

HELLO MY FELLOW AMERICANS, 

I hope everyone is having a beautiful and safe 4th of July! 

Here's a picture of me celebrating Canada while it was pouring rain. wooohooo Canada.

This week has just been too good, we had a goal this week to contact 16 people who might be interested in learning more about the gospel. Now normally, that number would seem super hard in Kirkland, because everyone who speaks English is either, Jewish or Atheist. But we knew that if we trusted in the Lord it was possible. So guess what happened... 

WE FOUND 20 PEOPLE. Sister Zobrist and I died. At the end of the week were were both so happy and we reflected on how the Lord had guided us, and how He truly made miracles happen for us. Miracles like how in one day we found 10 potential investigators. It was NUTS, and it was nothing short of a miracle. We found 4 new investigators, they are sweet. They are in their 20s and are super golden. 

Went on a district hike in a small town called Rigaud. 

It was the closest thing to a mountain we could find,

 but we found a giant cross at the top. The view was soooooo pretty.

  Miracles kept coming as we visited one of our less active members. We'd seen her a few times but every time we went we either helped her clean her house, or she just talked to us about her work the whole time, but this time, it was different. We still talked a lot about her work and her life, but she really opened up to us about how she just felt really lost in life. She said she felt like she was just "floating" and had nothing to hold on to. We then told her that the gospel would give her everything and more of something to hold on to. Something that would give her hope and peace in this life. Something that had already embraced before. She was baptized in the early 2000's but went in-active two years later because she felt it was too hard to be single in the church. For her, at the time, being in the world and distancing herself from the church just seemed easier. But now, she's at a point where she realizes she needs the stability the church once gave her. She openly admitted that the happiest she's been was while she was in the church, even though she's had plenty of fun and "happy" things happen since she'd left it, she knew that the happiness she had while she was going to church was a different kind of happiness. A lasting and beautiful kind of happiness. 

   We then talked to her about coming back to church. She said it'd be really hard. That it would cause to her to change COMPLETELY. To rearrange her whole life again, basically. She said sometimes it just seemed too hard. I then promised her that it would be hard, that it would be difficult, because that's sometimes what change is. Difficult. But I told her that it would be worth it. That her life could, and would, change for the better, that there was a happy and bright light at the end of the tunnel. And I promised her that Christ would be there right by her side through the whole thing. We all were really emotional as she just shook her head and said, "I know, I know." 

  That's one thing I've learned on my mission, that hearts can change. That the gospel of Jesus Christ and change and heal a wounded heart. That it truly is a place where people can find rest from their afflictions. And I'm so grateful for that knowledge, and I'm so grateful that I get to share that knowledge with the people around me. Being on a mission has been a priceless gift to my life. I am, and forever will be, grateful for it.

Awhhhh me and Sis Zobrist hit 5 months in the mission TOGETHER. 

I love her soooooooooo much. Forever grateful that she's my companion <3

 

5 months ago, I entered the MTC and started my whole missionary work adventure. And it's beautiful to see how much I've changed in these short 5 months, and I'm optimistic and excited to see how I'll continue to change in the next 13 months I have ahead of me. Man, life is the best.

I love you all so much, have a beautiful week, and know that someone in Canada (AKA me) is praying for you,

Me standing in the rain because even though no one wanted to talk to us I just felt SOOOOOO HAPPY.

 Can't even describe it. But I guess that's what missionary work does to ya. :)

Sister Thomas

 

An overexposed district picture taken w/ a selfie stick. Weeeeeee. Love my district

 And here's a better one of all of us together.

Bonne Fete de Quebec!

The Quebec Temple

Allooooo World,

How is it already Monday again? And how the heck is next week July? I have honestly no idea how that's possible. I swear my concept of time is so contorted right now. But hopefully I figure out it sometime in the next 13 months. 

Friday was the national holiday for Quebec. It's where they celebrate St. Jean de Baptiste, who's the patron saint of Quebec, but really it just turns into a huge party for the most prideful providence in Canada. And it's funny because Canada Day is this next Friday. So all the Francophone Quebecois people celebrate on the 24th, but the rest of the English speaking Canadians celebrate on the 1st. So really it's just two straight weekends of people partying and not wanting anything to do with missionaries. So that's fun. 

There was this party thing at a park in town, and no one wanted to talk to us, 

but I had to get a picture of the cute little Quebec national party signs

But this week have still found people! On St. Jean de Baptiste day we actually found a group of college kids and started talking to them about religion. There was one girl who was really interested. Her name is Daria, and she said she's been having a hard time with college, but that she's always been interested in religion. She grew up Catholic, but said that their view of God is something that's never matched hers. When we taught her that God is our loving Heavenly Father she was like, "YES! Now that sounds right." Then she had to get on a bus, but we got her phone number and she said that she looked forward to the next time she would see us. We also gave her a pamphlet about the Plan of Salvation, soooo seeds are being planted. 

We also started teaching a woman named Denise, who's from Haiti. We just had a lesson with her today where we talked about the Restoration of the Gospel and she understood everything so quickly. And she actually said that she wanted us to help her change her life, something that I have not heard anyone say since I've been on my mission. She was so humble and prepared to hear about the gospel, she truly is the definition of a miracle. The only annoying thing is that she's a French speaker, and we are in an English ward, so we have to pass her off to the other Sister Missionaries who are in charge of the French people in her area. So dang. But she said that she would be baptized on August 6th. So everyone pray for Denise! SHE'S AMAZING.

Our Saturday Morning Breakfast Club. These women have my heart <3

We also helped a cute family paint their first home. It was so tender. The wife is the daughter of one of the members of in the stake, but she hasn't been to church since she was a teenager. But she moved into a home 5 minutes away from us, and now we love her soooo we are definitely going to be seeing her more. Pray for her (Lindsay) that she might have the desire to come back to church! 

 

 PAINTING YAY! (she wanted to paint the whole house white, go figure but it was so fun!)

Sister Zobrist and I are still awesome. We get along so well and really help each other to be better (in a super loving way). I am so grateful for her and for Heavenly Father knowing how much I needed to be with Sister Zobrist. We have so much fun together and we work hard too. I love her so much.

And I love you all too. Have a great week and remember to pray. It's the way we communicate to our Heavenly Father, and I promise that He really wants to hear from you. 

Till next week,

Sister Thomas

 

 Comp Selfie!!!!!