Pirates and bearded dragons

Hey guys!

Transfer #2 is off to a good start! Last transfer was kind of the pits with all the traveling and whatnot, but Miracles are abundant in the ELSM! We're working pretty hard out here and the Lord has blessed us with 9 new investigators, 2 of which will be baptized next month! Good stuff. It's good to have some people to teach so we're not contacting for 8 hours a day.

A bunch of awesome stuff has happened this week! On P day we got to go to Christ's church in Oxford and see where they filmed Harry Potter and stuff! We saw the big dining area with all the floating candles and moving pictures and stuff where the sorting hat is (Elder Raveneau got Slytherin) so that was fun!

We haven't been getting very many lessons lately, but that all changed on Monday night. Something clicked and we had fire in our bones! We ended up having 30 lessons for the week which was more than our total for last transfer. Miracles are everywhere!

I also got to go on an exchange with one of my brothers since birth (the mtc), Elder Phelps! We are both greenies so we didn't know how that was going to work out, but we ended up getting 10 lessons and a bunch of return appointments! Our trainers were impressed. Later that night we bought a bunch of soda, snacks, and just partied. It was so fun, we ended up sword fighting with carrots while singing the Pirates of the Caribbean song...pretty cool.

One night we decided to knock on a guy's door we had contacted on the street. His name is Mark and he's huge! He let us in. On the walls were pictures of Star Wars and batman, and on his shoulder was a big bearded dragon named George...he kinda looked like a pirate, so I liked this guy already. After we taught him the Restoration, He didn't ask many questions and said everything made sense, so I didn't know if he was being serious or not! We decided to throw in the invitation to be baptized, which he accepted. The next lesson was about the word of wisdom, so asked him if he would be willing to stop drinking coffee. Done! Then he asked if he could be baptized right there in his flat 😂 This guy is a golden miracle: he's got the gospel, a bearded dragon, and a baptismal date! What more could you ask for? The Rathbone family (Teasel Way) is also progressing towards a baptismal date.

I'll leave you with a challenge: I was reading a conference talk called "What Lack I Yet?" By Larry R Lawrence and he encourages everybody to pray and ask God simply "What lack I yet?" I did it and I got my answer, which I am working on. I want you to do the same!

We still have fire in our bones out here so crazy stuff is going to happen!

Until next week

Elder Thomas