Hope you've all had a fantastic week full of miracles and good weather! Here in GB, both of those things usually fall on the same day. It's always a miracle when we have good weather! But the Lord has blessed us this week with sunshine in abundance, so we've been able to replace the raincoats we usually have in our bags with extra Book of Mormons. Books of Mormon? Copies of the Book of Mormon. There we go.
This week has been held in much anticipation by the Jersey district because it's the week that we got to fly back to the mainland for zone conference! It's proper weird flying places as a missionary...not many missionaries do it. This week our district traveled in pretty much every form of transportation I can think of: planes, trains, cars,
bikes, shopping cart, you name it. But it was a week full of lasts for me. Had my last exchange, my last interview with President Gubler in person, my last zone conference in person, and my last birthday on my mission. Thanks so much for all the birthday wishes, you guys! I thought that by being on a small island in the middle of the ocean
that some of you might forget about me, but I stand corrected. I'm truly blessed to have such awesome people in my life. To be honest, I'm a spoiled missionary. The elders we were staying with were cheeky and brought home a cake to celebrate. 20 feels weird, but it feels good! By far the best gift I received was being able to participate in God's work of salvation. Good stuff.
Our special guest at the mission conference was President Kearon, the Europe Area President! What a spiritual giant that guy is. He taught us about power and how to obtain it. He taught us how to find and teach more effectively. He taught us to be a better version of our own selves through living the Savior's gospel. The phrase he repeated the most was "stop worrying". He felt that we worry too much about the work and about ourselves, so he made sure that we understood that we shouldn't worry and it was loud and clear. It's true though! I myself worry about loads of things. Sometimes I have better causes to worry than other times, but as I look back I've realized that worrying hasn't gotten me anywhere, and I don't know of any case where worrying has gotten anybody else anywhere. So I think it's safe to say that we shouldn't worry. Instead, we should be doers! If the escalator stopped working while we were on it, we wouldn't sit there and call out for help--obviously we'd just keep walking. And that's what we've got to do! Just keep walking. Elder Holland has taught us to just keep trying and believe in. Heaven is cheering us on every single day! We were taught to not listen to negative voices because they're from the adversary. Again, I don't know of anybody who ever got anywhere good by listening to the destructive criticism of the devil. When we do that, we begin to hold his words in higher esteem than the words of Christ. In this case, we need to stop worrying and rewrite our inner conversations by filling them with the words of Christ. That is when real change begins! It was such a privilege to be with one of the Lord's anointed. I'll never forget shaking his hand.
So yep, last night we flew home and we're back in our little island! There are people prepared here, I know it. Please keep Elder Ferreira and me in your prayers and we will continue to continue. Thanks again for your help! Take luck and have a good week :)
Cheers!
Love, Elder Thomas
ELSM
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| Birthday omelette... too poor to afford a cake. |
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| True blue |
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| Hittin 'em with the word |
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| Jersey sunset |
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| The Warrior. That's what his burger was called. |
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| Reunited with Elder Baum |
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| Flying over the coast of France |
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| When you don't have room in the kitchen, you do a wall sit |
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| Birthday breakfast... Pastel de nata |
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| Old Jersey district minus 1 |
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