Thanksgiving AND a Baptism!

11-26-12

Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a fantastic week we just had here in Bruxelles! It was so amazing. Topped off with a great baptism yesterday. Ludovic is a member of the church and has the holy ghost! So i have a ton of stuff to write about this last week and so i am going to write one email about last week and then one answering your questions and stuff. Okay here we go haha. So this week started out with pday last week in which we saw Ludovic and taught him at his friends house Samuel. We wrapped up a lot of stuff for the baptism and he was super excited for it. Then Tuesday i went on an exchange with the district leader. He speaks spanish and so we had two rdvs with people who only spoke spanish. That was fun haha. I actually understood about 80% of the lessons though. Gift of tongues! haha. But of course i couldnt speak haha. Then wednesday was interview day! So awesome. I love seeing president and sister poznanski. They Ygave great trainings preparing us for our challenge to find a family before Christmas. Then we ate a thanksgiving meal as a zone! It was so good haha. I guess you saw the pics. I saw them on the blog. After that we had our interviews. I love president and his wife so much. I feel so much love from them in the interviews. President told me to keep preparing myself because we will be getting a ton of young missionaries soon and so I'll be the older one haha. He said to prepare to train again and also to be a district or zone leader. Oh boy... haha. We will see. Then our whole zone went and had a turkeybowl!!!!!!! It was a ton of fun. I was like "megatron" out there! haha. Then we came back for dessert and oliverson and i had to get into our church clothes sweaty to go teach Ludovic at our church building. We taught him the last lesson we had and then he had his interview. He passed! duh. Haha but he was so happy when he did. On Thursday we went to a sweet tie shop and bought ludovic a couple ties to give to him at his baptism. Then that night the Curtis family invited us over for thanksgiving dinner! It was so much fun. Their family is awesome and we had a blast with them that night. The food was so good too. They took a pic and said they would send it to you soon. Then on friday we had luch with frere Fraikin again haha. Thats always fun. ANd we had a rdv with Owen. He said he will be ready to be baptized in February haha. Okay... On saturday we went knocking doors for like 6 hours haha. ANd not a single person let us in! Oh well. Then sunday was amazing!!!!!!!!!! I cant get all of the details down in this email but i wrote a ton in my journal. We got to church and then ludovic came and his mom came too! That was awesome. SHe is super nice and was crying like all day haha. SHe has been against him at church but i think she was touched and wants to see us now! The baptism was absolutely amazing!!!!!!!!! He was just smiling the whole time and was so happy. The ward did a wonderful job of integrating him and supporting him. If it could be like that with all of our investigators they all would be baptized! haha- I translated for the service and the talks that were given were great. His friend Samuel baptized him which was so cool. When he came up out of the water he was shining and so happy. He looked like a new person. Then the bishop gave him the holy ghost. I got to stand in the circle for that which was great. Then he gave his testiomny to everyone there and it was so powerful. I cant really describe the feeling at that baptism but it was incredible. After the baptism we went to the Holloways house for a barbeque with them samuel and his wife and ludovic. He also invited our amis Owen and Jonathan and Natacha. It was such a fun night. Oh and Ludovic's mom was there too. SHe enjoyed it a loyt and ludovic was so happy for that. Yesterday was the best day of my mission. SO amazing. ANother member also brought a friend to church and the baptism and he wants to be taught by us too! So literally so much happened yesterday! Well that was my week. IN a nutshell anyways haha. The church is true!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving Dinner and Turkey Bowl with Pres. & Sis. Poznansky

The Bruxelles Zone

Sightseeing in Bruxelles

11-19-12

Hey mom! I am doing fantastic today. Hope you are doing well too. First of all i apologize for the email today if there are sa lot of typos haha. Because today the okelberry couple let us do emails at their home and so they have a regular american computer. I have been using a fgrench keyboard for so long so i have to really concentrate and peck to type haha. SO this make take me a while and i have a lot to say! haha. The weekend was pretty good. this las week was great with elder anderson to top it off. Ill start with chisttian. SO he reffered himself to a ward member that he found online or something. SO they gave us his info and we contacted him when i first got to bruxelles. He has six kids but they dont live with him because he is divorced. But we saw him a few times but he was really busy so he couldnt see us often. Then we didnt see him for a long time. Until last week. We taught him about faith in christ because he told us he wants to change his life and fix things. He got divorced because he was a drinker :( SO we talked about the path that christ has given us to live with him and introduced baptism. I felt prompted to invite him to baptized on the 8th of december and he accepted! He said he normally works every saturday though but when he checked his schedule he said oh i guess i dont that day thats weird haha. Not weird.... but Heavenly Father helping him out haha. SO thats where we are at with him right now. We havent been able to see him again yet but we will work on getting him ready. Paris was amazing!!! We went to a chappel in versailles. We took a train at 8:15 in the mornign to paris that took us about an hour and a half to get there. Then we met with every missionary in the mission at the chappel and got all set up for a huge group photo wioth elder anderson! Then we heard frtom the area presidency of the 70 for europe. Elder texiera and elder butoille. Then we heard from pres and sister poznansky and then from sister and elder anderson! It zas amazing. HE spoke about how our goal is to baptize. But thats not the only goal and that if we dont baptize a lot we arent failing our missions. But that our goal is to strengthen others faith in christ and we do0 that by simply talking to them on the street. It was great. He also thanked us for all of the work that we have done. ANd said that president monson sends his thanks and love to us all here. I dont knoz if you remember but we made a mission goal at the start of september to have 78 baptisms in the mission before elder anderson came. ANd we ended up having 81!!! The conference ended at 4 and then we got to visit with all the missionaries and then had a train to catch at 6. We had to sprint to the train and only a couple of us caught it haha. But im glad we made it because the others had to wait until 10 for the next train! ouch haha. Good day though. Everytyhing is all set for ludovics baptism. He is awesome. We just have a few things to go over with him this week but he is great. I am so excited for this sunday!!! We will see him tonight and a few times throughout the week. This week we also have a cool day planned for wednesday. We will have our training from pres and the zone leaders. And then interviews with pres. Then a turkey day potluck haha. I think they got turkey! We will see. The we get to have a turkey bowl with the whole zone! That will be so sweet.

Thank you so much for the bday pkg! It is so awesome. I love it! We are going to have a sweet party today haha. That will be fun. I love the journal. That was such a great idea. I loved all of the things written inside. Especially the testimonies. I loved parkers. I cant believe he is going to get the priesthood soon. SO crazy!

Things are going great with my blue. He is a good guy and we are both learning and progresing together.

Woo! go saints! haha Thats so awesome. LOve you so much mom. Thank you for everything. Hope you have a great thanksgiving with lots of food and football!!! Love you and talk to you soon!
Elder Thomas

11-9-12

Sweet strawberry Tart my Comp got me for my birthday!!!

11-12-12

Hey mom! Things are doing pretty well here in rainy Bruxelles. It is getting pretty stinking cold and I guess I got used to the az weather too. Haha, I'm good though. I dont really feel older yet haha. I don't really want to feel older haha. I can't believe that I am not a teenager anymore. I will always be a little kid! My comp and I get along well and are becoming better friends every day. Its great! I am pretty sure that I will be here for Christmas. Almost always the trainer and blue stay together for two transfers. So I am almost positive that we will still be here together. Ludovic is doing super well! We only have a couple lessons to teach him. Follow the prophet, chastity, and word of wisdom. But he already knows all three. We just have to officially teach it so he definitely understands. He is pretty excited for his baptism day. His family and other friends aren't very supportive so that is tough for him. But he knows that this is the choice to make. He is making good friends in the church too. He asked his friend Samuel to baptize him. That will be really cool. He is just too awesome haha. We weren't able to see natacha this week because she got sick. We taught a guy named aden who could be pretty cool we will see. Other than that it was a difficult week. A lot of people cancelling on us and just people not interested. But we keep on working hard, looking for those who are ready. They certainly are there. Yesterday in church I gave a talk. Even as a missionary you can't escape that. Of course I was asked to speak on missionary work. It was great. The ward isn't super helpful in that departement aside from a couple members so I really laid it down! haha. I used a bit of a talk by Pres Hinckley in 1999 called find the sheep or something like that haha. It is super good talk. Sharing the gospel definitely isnt easy but we need to do it! Just pray for opportunities to do so and they will be there.
Yesterday at church Pres. Poznanski's first counselor showed up at church and he loved my talk. haha. Then after church we had a meeting with him and our ward mission leader and the stake pres. to discuss what needs to be done in the ward to help us as missionaries. So grateful for that.
This week we get to go to Paris to listen to Elder Anderson speak to us! that will be so awesome! Super excited for that. They don't celebrate Thanksgiving here. But all the missionaries in our zone will get together next week for a lunch and then a turkey bowl!!!! That should be sweet! Well, thats about it for this week. Always, I'm sure that I forgot some stuff haha. Love you guys so much!!!! Love you and miss you tons. Elder Thomas

Arch by our appartement

11-5-12

Hey mom! It really is getting close to the halfway mark isn't it?? Its crazy to think about. I have been trying to get into the christmas spirit haha. Because you know how much I love christmas! We found a tree in our storage and put it up haha. And now all we need is some christmas music. If you could send some that would be cool!
Our halloween was different haha. It was like the holiday doesn't even exist haha. Oh well.
This last week wasnt quite as easy as last week haha. But who expected things to be easy?! It was a pretty tough week. But it was all worth it because Ludovic will be baptized the 25th of November!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO excited for that. He is very excited too haha. We had a great lesson with him and I invited him to be baptized. The spirit was so strong. He just looked at us and smiled and asked if we were doing it this sunday. haha. He was like, well there is a bathtub in the other room haha. He is so great. We found out that he is only 21 too. SO cool. He is very ready and so hungry to learn more about the gospel and progress. He is even talking about how he will prolly have to find a girl and convert her so they can get married in the temple! SO awesome haha. It is a miracle like this that makes everything worth it :) So we are working on teaching him everything and helping him to be ready. But he is just golden. He is even talking about possibly serving a mission! I cant even begin to describe how much love I have for him and how happy I am for him. Its just great. Thats all I can say haha. Nadia isnt going to work out. At least not for a while. She isn't really interested in changing. Well she actually doesnt seem to be serious about it at all. So we will see where that goes... haha. Natacha is doing well. We tried to fix a date with her but she isnt ready to commit yet. But she did say she wants to be baptized and that when she knows for sure that its true she will be. So thats great. She is really looking for her answers too. So things are going well. Not teaching a whole lot. But we are certainly very blessed at the moment. Thats for sure! We just continue to do our best and try to find those people that are ready. Elder Oliverson is learning quickly. I remember being a blue. Its tough. But I love training. And He is a really good elder.
My french has continued to skyrocket too haha. So grateful for that. I have to translate now in church for a couple meetings haha. So that is fun. Im doing super well though. Healthy and happy haha. I love you so much. Thank you for raising me to be the kid that I am. I can still claim the title of kid until friday right? haha But thank you so much. I love you and miss you soooooo much! Christmas is around the corner haha. I'll be watching for the bday pkg! And I got a card from granny today. Love you so much. Talk to you soon. Love Elder Thomas

10-29-12

Hello!
Well this week has been terrific! That is so awesome that you got to see the facebook post of us. I didnt even know that she was taking a video haha. I saw her take a couple pics but that was it. Super cool! I am very excited to be training. My new comp is elder oliverson. He is the one with the sweet ray ban glasses haha. He is really cool and we are getting along great!!! Couldn't ask for anything more right now. It is a lot of fun being a trainer. I am loving the new responsibility and opportunity to teach. I have really been blessed this week as well in the french departement. Because now I have to be able to understand everything and speak all the time haha. Because he doesnt understand much. I remember being a blue :) He always listens to what someone says and then looks at me haha. Its fun. But I can understand everything now and say so much more than I could a week ago. Its almost weird But I know how blessed I am. We are the only missionaries in this area now. So I'm leading out haha. The okelberrys still live down the street. Ludovic is absolutely amazing!!! His story is golden. This last week he was looking on youtube. And I guess that there is a side bar that suggests videos for you to watch. And he said that for a while the top video for him has been the joseph smith movie from the mormon channel. He said he had never watched religious movies or anything that would be related to that. So he didnt know why that video was there. I do!... hehe. So he watched it and loved it. He got hooked on the mormon channel and general conference all week long. Legit!!! He came to church again on sunday and in class he testified to the members that this is the true church. And that he loves being there. So cool. We will see him tuesday night and will fix a baptismal date with him. We will try for the 24th. Wish us luck! This last saturday we met with a woman named Nadia. I dont know if you remember her but we met with her when I first got here. Anyways we saw her again and she accepted to be baptized!!! We will fix a date with her this wednesday. Things are just rolling here. Out of nowhere I have just gained so much confidence and am being bold with people. And it works! haha. We are excited to baptize a lot together.

By the way I got a halloween package from our wards ym and yw! Tell them thanks!!! The letters were sweet. I loved seeing all of you guys costumes. Hopefully you guys have a great halloween. Im glad to hear that grandpa is doing better.

I really am so grateful to be here on a mission doing the lords work. It is the best. Certainly not easy but worth it. There are people here that need us.

I love you and miss you so so much mom. Hope you have a great bday and week. Stay safe and warm haha. Love you a ton.
Elder Thomas