Progress and Important Lessons

Hey Bros & Sis's!

First of all, thanks to everybody for the birthday wishes! I'm always amazed at how supportive you all are. This is a lonely island and often it's easy to feel forgotten by everybody except the Lord, but I know l'm never alone. I'm really blessed have so much support from you, so thank you. I honestly doubt I could've made it to this point without all your love and positive influence! Thanks to you and thanks to the Lord, I won't just finish this mission, but I'll finish it strong!

Elder Ferreira and I have worked ourselves ragged this week. Each night we come home and barely make it up the stairs to our flat because our legs have been wrecked by our bikes. Bikes are good for using time effectively, but not for maintaining stable energy levels. But the Lord gives us extra energy each morning to do His work! You should see the contrast between us at night and us in the morning...literally night and day! :D

We've been greatly blessed for our efforts this week. Our long-awaited teaching pool has began to grow! Gary is still in the game although he hasn't progressed much this week or come to church. We have another Portuguese man called Castro who is bent on receiving revelation from God. We are teaching him in about 15 minutes which is why this email isn't terribly long but you understand! We have a few other potentials up in the air who we hope will transition to become new investigators this week, one of which has already read the entire Book of Mormon (what!?). Last but not least, the Lord in his infinite mercy has blessed us to find a family of 6 to teach. We found them knocking, set up an appointment, and then taught them the Restoration! I think their motive was curiousity at first, but I feel that it will change soon. They definitely felt the Spirit during the First Vision and THEY KNEW IT. So hopefully they'll act in accordance with the knowledge they now have and get baptized. We will see them again on June 2 after we get back from Poole. Big things are coming!

This week I've thought a lot about why I'm here on this island. My view of my service here has changed a lot from when I first heard I was coming. At first I was psyched out of my mind to be coming here because every missionary drools at the thought of coming to Jersey. But after a while being here, my view began to change due to the loneliness and the stress I was feeling from running against the clock. But this week the Lord has showed me how much of a blessing it is to be here! I see my service here like that of a horse and his owner. Lots of times a wise horse owner will take a wild horse and spend a lot of time one-on-one with him in order to tame him and teach what needs to be taught. Sometimes it's the only way for the horse to learn because he is free from distractions. There are probably wilder horses out there than me, but I feel like the Lord has taken me here to have a lot of "one-on-one" time with me. This week he has taught me that without faith we can do nothing, but with faith in Christ, we can do ALL things! I know this is true, my friends! Have a fantastic week and finish the school year strong.

Elder Thomas, out.

Love, Elder Thomas

ELSM