Big News and Fufu

Hello!

Most of you are probably really confused about why I'm emailing on Wednesday, but don't worry--I have the answer! We had a big mission leadership council (MLC) last Tuesday and it was fantastic! A big concern was that we spend most of Sunday evenings inside accounting for our zones while families are walking around aimlessly outside. So we decided to move accounting to Monday mornings and to move Preparation Day to Wednesday. Pretty big change, but it's not a problem.

The week!:
-lost at tennis again
-MLC (with breakfast)
-exchange with the APs with Elder Rivera from Arizona
-exchange with Elder Garnett from Texas (greenie)
-Specialized Zone Training with President
-District Leadership Council (DLC)
-saw Elder Phelps
-ate lots of ice cream
-lunch at the Gublers'

But wait there's more!

We are the chosen ones! Our mission has recently taken on the area book planner on the iPads, and now on top of that we are the pilot mission in Europe for online proselyting. Translation: we will now be using Facebook. It feels weird since Facebook is someone I left behind to serve, and now I'll be using it to move the work forward. Our whole mission has changed...in the last month half of our missionaries have finished their missions and brand new missionaries have taken their places. And now we are a digital mission...apparently it's possible to Skype our friends and families into our lessons with president's permission! It's a new age in missionary work and it's pretty exciting. Members will be teaching lot more now, and it could be you!

With all these changes, we were asked to go to the Lord and inquire of Him if this was His will. I did so and can testify that the Lord is guiding this mission and has great things in store. There is a harvest for this blessed land and it has arrived! It's a great time to be a missionary, no doubt. This confirmation gave me a lot of comfort. Ice cream is also a blessing when adjusting to a new schedule.

With all the meetings this week I have been drinking from the fire hose of knowledge. President Gubler has taught us some serious doctrine this week and has born his powerful witness numberless times. He's is sooooo connected with God and it's amazing! I learn so much from him. Through him, the Lord has revealed to us something called the Mission Training Plan, which brings us closer to Christ through faith, obedience and works. Each day we strive to achieve a goal in each of those categories. I'm taking this seriously and my faith has grown to a whole new level. It definitely works!

Sunday was a special day. Not only was it fast Sunday, but it was the first Sunday that we had the whole evening to get to work. And boy did we see great things...the Lord was good to us! On that day things started to click for one the less actives, we were spiritually fed, and we saw miracles in the evening. A potential investigator opened the door and told us that he was busy eating some fufu, which is traditional African food. He was shutting the door when I told him I had never had fufu. He paused, let us in, gave us some fufu and we taught him about the Book of Mormon. A nice tender mercy for us :) God is so good and I believe that we can get a baptism this transfer! I'm confident in Him about that.

So I want to talk to you about my favorite book. No, it's not Harry Potter! It's the Book of Mormon and it's very special to me. It truly is one of a kind! Joseph Smith said the Book of Mormon has the power to bring us closer to God than any other book on earth. There is a library in Oxford which contains every single book that has ever been published in England. No matter how much wisdom those books contains and no matter how wise their authors may be, NONE of those books can do for us what the Book of Mormon can. Research was done at the Yale library (the 4th biggest library in the United States) to find out how many of those 4 million books claimed to have been brought forth by an angel. The search commenced and concluded, and guess how many books there were with such a claim? Just one. That's right, it's the Book of Mormon! And we have access to it! I will be forever grateful for the blessing and privilege it is to drink from those pages each day. It fills my life with Christ and is my motivation. The Book of Mormon is true! I want you to know that I know it. If you don't, then you can. That is my testimony of the Book of Mormon in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Love you all!

"Two people can do anything...as long as one of them is the Lord."
~President Gubler

Love, Elder Thomas

ELSM