Temple Trip, Reactivation, and Olympic Champions

Hey guys!!

Alright! This week was nuts. Lots of miracles, lots of piano, and lots of trains. On Tuesday we went to Reading for zone conference and it was awesome. My zone leaders are Elder Richins and Elder Rivera and they are studs. Pretty sure Elder Richins is going to be a prophet someday so watch out for him...but I got to play the piano for the whole meeting! I'm the only one in the zone who can play the piano so it's pretty nice. I also played piano in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday...never done that before! But I left zone training with fire in my bones, and the next day we taught a lady named Tina and she is set to be baptized on January 2! White Christmas coming right up.

Wednesday night we slept over at the Oxford Elders' flat because we had to wake up early to go to the temple. Sleep overs are always fun and make for the best conversations. Elder Watson, the Scottish guy was there so I had him imitate Austin Powers all night. Good times! The next morning we took a train to the temple. We went through London but had no time to go anywhere...I only managed to get a picture of the Shard! We got to the temple and it was amaaaazing! Such a nice one. It felt good to go because I've been having temple withdrawals.
We had lunch afterwards and President Gubler taught an amazing lesson on hearing the music of the Gospel. We can do the "dance," or go through the motions all day but unless we align our will with God's, we won't hear the "music," or happiness that the Gospel brings! President Gubler is the best. I always leave his lessons feeling great--even though it was a 3 hour train ride home.

Although the Rathbones weren't able to make it to church on Sunday, Candace came! Candace is the less active lady from Las Vegas who we found. She hasn't been to church for a few years, but she loved church and wants to be active again! Everybody in the ward loves her, her testimony is still strong, and it was a total miracle to find her! I'm excited to have her in the ward. The Rathbones are coming to church this Sunday, and they're also having us over for dinner on Friday. Imm is making Thai food so we'll see how it is.

Inspirational quote of the week goes to Jonathan, one of our investigators. His wise words came as we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ. At one point in the lesson he sat back, pondered for a few seconds, and then said: "So...Jesus is like....THE OLYMPIC CHAMPION OF GOODNESS!" Even though he was totally serious, I couldn't help but laugh!

Anyways, hope it's been a fantastic week for you. I love my mission and I really think it's the best place to be (I may be biased). It was such a good, spiritual week! It's the Season of Miracles in the Witney area, and we are going to give Heavenly Father a White Christmas. Cheers from Witney!

Love, Elder Thomas

#seasonofmiracles #whitechristmas