A Super Cool Miracle...

We are just rolling along here in rennes. I can't believe that it is December. It snuck up on me. Everything is going pretty well here. We werent able to find very many new people this week but we had a super cool miracle. Ill tell you about it later.

Edward is doing well. We think that he is actually just a little odd haha. Not exactly crazy. He is super smart... we think haha. He is studying biochemical engineering apparently. Thats what he says. We just think he is lacking in the social departement. But we taught him about the restoration and the book of mormon and he understood very well. He has been praying more and more and his prayers are getting pretty good. Its cool to see his progression.
We havent been able to see liz this week but will see her tomorrow night. We havent been able to see the family either with the little boy. Bummer. Marko is doing super well though. We taught him about the priesthood this saturday and he grasped it super well and is excited to prepare to recieve it! He was there at church too and had a good day. Then we went to a members house with him that night to eat.It went super well! He is just progressing so much and is just a happier guy. So cool.
Once again we had a ton of lessons fall through. Its a fun time haha. We visited a few members. They are all so great.

This last sunday was fast sunday so i took advantage and bore my testimony for the last time on my mission. All the members loved it and were surprised to learn i am leaving so soon. I dont tell people when i will finish haha. Ive been in denial :) SO a ton of them invited us over this week to eat and visit them. Sweet!

ON thursday we had our zone turkey day. It was s o good. We all pulled togtether a really good meal. We each had to bring our own "meat" and then we were each assigned a dish. We brought the gravy and drinks haha. And for our meat we made bbq pulled pork because we happened to find a crock pot in the appartment... thank you sisters!! haha. It was really good. We played games together for a long time. I bought this french card game called loups garous. It is the funnest game ever. We will definitely play it when i get back!! you can play with up to 28 people so we will play with all the extended fam! woot!
That night we saw the castro family. Thats the family witht the dad who is not a member. We invited him to be baptized. But he declined. He said he doesnt see the need and doesnt believe in the book of mormon. SO we challenged him to read it sincerely with his wife because he never hasd and to pray about it. He will do it. So we will see what happens there. We went and did service for a non member family who is rebuilding their second story. That was fun. He works for the metro service and offered us a tour of the metro headquarters so we went on saturday. That was actually really cool.

So now for the miracle! Tuesday night we went porting.. tracting... in an area we had bneen planning on hitting for a while. We could just never get out there. We finally did and started. The first house we talked to a man and he wasnt interested. So i asked if he knew anyone of his friends or someone in the neighborhood who would be. And he told us there was a street with an apt building and there is a house in front of it with a family who believes in god. So we left adn went to find that house. We started porting that street across from the apt building and a few doors down a girl answered. We recognized her as the daughter of the second counselor! It was there house haha. We didnt know that they lived there. She let us in and told us that her dad was really sick. We went into the living room and he was lying on the couch looking like death. Seriously he didnt look well at all. He said he had a fever and hurt all over. Was hot and cold. And could barely walk or see straight. He said that he was just thinking about who he could call to give him a blessing. And then we showed up. So i gave him a blessing and then his wife came home. She invited us to stay for dinner and said that it would be cool becazuse they have a nonmember staying with them from lille. SO we went porting for a bit more and then came back and ate with them. The man christophe was really cool and the best part is that at the end of the meal the dad was so much better. He was up walking around and seemed almost normal. Amazing. Then on sunday the friend christophe came to church and lovied it. And we are going to go to their house this week to eat and teach him! SO cool! It was amazing how we were led to their home that night when he was in need.
And thats about it for this week! It soudns like you guys had a super good week. Cant wait to see you all! I hope you have a great week and i will talk to you soon! And then see you a few days later! Crazy! Love you.

Elder Thomas


My beautiful Zone...

The only catch is, he might be slightly crazy...

Rennes is doing just splendid this week haha. It is sunny right now which is a nice change. Getting pretty cold though. I used to love the cold! But arizona has changed me it seems.

Marko is doing super well. He was sick this sunday so he couldnt come but we are going to lunch at a members house with him on wednesday. We read the talk by prez monson where he talks about seeing others as they can become. He loved it. Haha i figured you had pictured him looking different. We found and taught a new family this week with three kids. They are hilarious. The one and a half year old loves us. 

The family that lives far away... the mom is named florian the 20 yr old daughter is liz and the 18yr old son is named Farelle. Florian the mom is kind of a bum haha. farelle listens sometimes. But Liz is super cool. We had two great lessons with her this week. She is really looking for acceptance from god and believes that she has made too many mistakes in her life and that gopd shouldnt forgive her. We were able to really testify of the atonement and its power. The spirit was so strong. I felt that i was able to relate to her personally. She told us that she is the biggest sinner... which i highly doubt. So i pulled out alma 36 and read about almas conversion with her. She was like wow he was a big sinner haha. But it really touched her and she said she understood and now knows that god loves her and wants to forgive her. She kissed the book of mormon she was so happy. It was great :) 

We found a man named edward who when we talked to him in the street told us that he was completely atheist and that he only believes in science. We taught him the next day and i asked if he had ever believed in god. He said he does now and i asked since when?! and he said since yesterday when i talked to you guys. So that was pretty cool. But the only catch is that he might be slightly crazy... we will see. Lets hope not. I was able to give one of the sisters a blessing this week because she was pretty sick. SO that was cool. She is all better now :) 

Thats about all for this week. 

On Thursday, We are getting together as a zone here in rennes to play games and stuff. Should be fun. I hope you guys are doing well and getting excited for the trip back!!! Its going to be so fun!!! Love you guys so much. I cant believe that i only have two weeks left... so crazy. Love you tons. Hope you have a great week. Talk to you soon and see you soon too!  

Elder Thomas 

Marko's Baptism...

So first of all....... Marko was baptized!!!!!!!!!! It was so amazing. It was so great to finally see him be able to make this big step in his life. The baptism was great. There was a special spirit there in the chapel and all of the members said that they could feel it. He also asked me to baptize him which was so cool. I was very honored that he asked me to do it. I tried to get him to pick a member but he wouldnt haha. He told me that in yugoslavia the person who baptizes you is basically family and you have to respect them for the rest of your life. But the baptism was great. He just kept thanking us for helping him to become clean. He has seen so much bad in his life. He really is a changed man. Its amazing to see how powerful the atonement of christ is. That it could completely change him and turn his life around. It was just a wonderful day.

 The exchanges in lorient went pretty well. It is a city on the coast more west than rennes. It is like an hour and a half train ride away. We werent able to see the far away family but will on wednesday. Also we saw the other family with the two girls with the muslim dad. We had a good lesson about the plan of salvation but then he told us that it wasnt logical and that he needed to be able to know that it was true by logic. He said that it didnt make sense that we can pray to get an answer that it is true. He also refused to just try and pray and ask. Because it would be against his religion. They have to say every day that muhammed is the last prophet and they dont recognize christ as the son of god so i guess if he prayed then he said he would be denying his faith and that would be a bad sin for him. SO i told him that he is basically trapped and cant learn or grow and he really reflected when i said that. But in the end he said he will never pray to ask. It was really sad because i know that if he would just pray and ask he would know that this is the truth and he would be so blessed. But i feel comforted knowing that i was able to testify and do all that i could to help him find the truth. But its sad to see someone just reject it. When i know how simple it is to just pray and ask! 

We dont have a lot of investigators right now but we just keep trucking along looking for them. I know they are there! Im just trying to do my best to stay focused and keep working hard. Hope you have a great week. Talk to you soon! 

Elder Thomas 

Marko's  Baptism...

My "Dying" Testimony...

Hey!  Thanks for all of the bday wishes. I had a great bday week! The pkg was so awesome! I was able to open it with the sisters and my comp and we all had a ton of fun with it haha. Thank you so much. I loved the notes from the family too. Thank them all for me please! I cant believe that i am so old... haha. We had a super good zone conference this week. Interviews were great and our training went well. I also gave my dying testimony as you saw. That was weird. THe whole day prez kept cracking jokes about how long i had been on my mission haha. It was a pretty good week.

 Again we had a ton of lessons cancel or fall through. Like ten!!! We had four lessons set on my bday and so i was super excited for that. But they all fell through. OUch. Satan is definitely trying to stop us out here. We have some important things to do. And i think he is really trying to stop me and discourage me before i finish my mission. But i wont let it happen :) 

Marko is doing well and excited for his baptism. Please pray for him that everything will go well and he can finally pull through this saturday. He needs this so badly. BUt as of right now all is well and he is super excited! We havent seen the castro family yet but will see them this week and he talked to us about baptism this sunday so things are looking good.

This week we also were able to see the family that we found a few weeks ago that the sisters ended up seeing. We have the car now so we were able to go visit. Only the 20 yr old daughter listened but she is super cool and very believing in christ! We had a great lesson and she is open to baptism and is excited to come see markos on saturday. We also saw a family yesterday. The dad is muslim and the mom is french not really religious. They have two adorable little girls. We had a pretty good lesson and he is open to learning. We will go back on saturday. We have a lot of potential right now. So hopefullyt everything works out. Things have been tough for a while so i have to think that things will work out soon.  Tomorrow we are going to the city of lorient to do exchanges. That will be fun. And then we will get ready for the baptism!

 THat was pretty much it this week. Zone conference was the highlight. Im very grateful to be a leader and also to be an old missionary haha. We also made enough burritos for all 24 members of the zone haha. That was fun. President was raving over how good they were. ANd then sister poz called me on my bday and told me again that he mentioned them to her a few times in the week. Pretty funny. 

 I cant believe that there is only a month left! I am just trying to give it my all with this bit of time that i have left. BUt still cant wait to see you. Love you tons. Talk to you soon!!! 

Elder Thomas 

My "Dying" Testimony, Birthday  Party and bday dinner at a members home. 

Marko is back!....

   This week was a tough one again haha. Aren't the all?? But we still saw some good things happen. Even small miracles are great! We had a lot of lessons fall through so that was tough. And we havent heard from reis or the marie family. Fely is in paris still and so is paul and his family. We werent able to see the other family either. Mince! That basically means bummer in french. But guess who is back?? Marko! He texted us this week and wants to be baptized again. I think he is for real this time. we saw him once and he came to church. We will see him tonight at a members home too. So he should be baptized the 16th of november! We also saw two of the thai people again at the members home. We ate with them and taught about the book of mormon. It went super well. We also ate with a member family where the husband isnt a member. He really likes us and opened up a lot to us as he drove us home. He was open to baptism so we will see! Monday and tuesday were filled with packing and moving. SO fun. The apt is super nice. We really like it. I feel like we live in a hotel. We have the car now and elder smith learned how to drive manuel... all the cars are manuel here. I cant drive in france. SO he will always drive. We dont have very many miles a month. Basically enough to get to church and then to visit a few people. SO we still walk a lot haha. ON friday we went to Paris.. no big deal... for mission council. It was super good. Except we got up at 530 and then had to walk a ways to the metro because the busses didnt work because there was a holiday. Then when we got to the metro it was closed for the holiday so we had to jog to the gare... train station. We didnt catch the train because it was super far away haha. SO we took the next one and showed up a little late. Once we arrived in paris we were running up stairs and i took three at a time, like a beast i know. BUt i pulled something in my knee and it swoll up super huge. So i thought i was going to be in trouble because it was pretty hard to walk. But now it is all normal haha. SO no worries. 

 OUr zone this transfer should be really good. There are so many new and really young missionaries which will be great. We have a zone conference on thursday and then interviews so we will give a training. Im excited for that.  A member family found out that it is my bday and they invited us over to eat. SO nice. This ward is the best. By the way there were 160 members at church this sunday... thats a ton for france.  Well thats about all i got for this week. I hope you all have a great week! Loves! 

Elder Thomas 

The Final Countdown!

Its been a great week this week. We had some harder days but saw a couple cool miracles this week. We werent able to see fely since last monday because he went to paris to  visit his family. Hopefully we can see him again soon. We werent able to see the marie family because they didnt answer their phone or call us back... usually they do so hopefully everything is okay with them. We also havent been able to get ahold of reis. So thats a little hard. Hopefully everything is okay with him. 

So i will be staying here in rennes for my last transfer!!! Im super excited to stay here. It is going to be great. I will stay here as zone leader with elder smith. They also are going to put a new companionship of sisters here in rennes so there will be four sisters and then us. That will be interesting in the ward. Hopefully they dont just focus on the sisters and forget us! haha. But i am really excited for this transfer.

This week we found two super cool families! One of them we knocked on the door and a lady answered. We thought that she lived there but turns out that she was the maid. But we talked to her and she wanted to see us. So we went to try to see her saturday and her two teenage kids but it turns out that it is impossible to get out to where she lives haha. If you dont have a car. So we passed her info to the sisters because they have a car. They said they had an amazing lesson with them. Also we were on our way to a little village to tract. And we talked to a guy named paul on the bus bench. He turned out to be really cool! We taught him saturday night along with his wife two girls and then his niese as well. So cool!!!! Finally we are finding families! We are really excited about them... 

okay random turn of events. We just got a call from the mission secretary and i guess we will be switchiing appartments with the sisters... Ouch. So now we have to take the next two days to pack up and switch our stuff over. Not fun... But on the bright side we will have the car now! so we will be able to go and teach that far away family now! So that will be an exciting adventure. 

On sunday i gave a talk. It went really well. I talked about the blessings that we have as members of the church. And then talked about alma 36:24 to 26 and how we need to share these blessings and joy that we have found with those around us. They loved it and all said that i was a great public speaker! Weird haha. I think thats about it for this week. Super excited to start this last transfer and give it my all. Going to see miracles!!! Love you tons! A bientôt!

Elder Thomas 

Such a good District...

Random Adventures and Memorable Moments...

Well, We had another really good week. It was full of random adventures. We didnt havea  ton of time for "normal" work in our area. But it was good. Fely is doing well. We saw him twice and taught the word of wisdom and then talked about the atonement using alma 7. Then we shared a talk by elder oaks about the holy ghost and revelation from august. He is doing well. Reis is doing super well too. We had a great rdv where we taught about faith and repentance. He really liked repentance and is progressing well. We havent been able to get ahold of rishard. We will keep trying. The marie family is doing well. We had an amazing lesson where we taught the second half of the plan of salvation. The mom florence was in tears when we talked about the celestial kingdom and how we can live as a family forever. We couldnt get her to open up at all but i know that she was feeling the spirit. Hopefully we can see them again soon. The dad is pretty clueless and that was frustrating to florence. But they are doing well. 

On tuesday we went to paris and then to versailles for exchanges witht the assistants. That went super well. We taught some good lessons and did good work. The elder that i was with goes home in a week. Weird to think that i will be in his place soon. We didnt get home till late wednesday nightbecause the train was delayed. 

Friday we helped a member move some books. Actually we moved four thousand books twice. It took forever and we were so tired. We loaded the boxes into a truck from the library and then drove them to a huge shipping container and put them in there. It was pretty much just my comp and i moving them because the member was older. It was like 3000 pounds of books haha. Fun. 

That same day i got a call from the first counselor in the stake presidency. He told me that they needed someone to translate for the stake conference that weekend and that president told him that i would be the best. OH boy haha. So i spent saturday and sunday translating french into english for elder kearon of the first quorum of the seventy and also for elder charles who is an interregion seventy. Crazy! It was a little stressful haha. Translating for a general authority. But i really witnessed the gifts of the spirit. It was amazing how i was able to translate. Even When the speakers were going so fast in french and i had to listen and translate at the same time haha. It was cool. I also got to talk a lot with elder kearon and charles. They were super cool. But i didnt get any pics. 

After the stake conference we had a mini conference with my zone and prez. That was super cool. There are a lot of trials in the mission right now since we set our new goal. So they talked to us about how to overcome those trials and succeed in our goals. Super good. 

That was about it for this week. Always full of surprises!  I cant wait for our trip back here.  It is going to be so much fun! Love you guys so much!!! Have a great week. Loves!

Elder Thomas 

Pic of the sunset from Versailles 

Good thing Frenchies can't throw!!!

Well it's been a pretty good week. It definitely is getting cold here. Im freezing and  its not even winter yet! Fely is doing well. Still searching for his answer though. We are going to see him tonight. We have planned to teach him in a few members homes this week so that should help a lot. Rishard is doing okay. He just lost his home and pretty much everything. So he is working through that. But he came to an activity at the church and loved it. They learned how to do breton dances. Its kinda like a circle folk dance. I Think like the dances they do on tangled haha. It was pretty funny to watch. Rishard really got into it! I dont know if you remember the marie family. Its a french family that we found back in june. We were able to see them again and they are really cool. We taught them the first half of the plan of salvation and it went so well! THey loved it and are opening up more and more to the gospel. We also were able to see reis again and had a great lesson. We taught him the plan of salvation and he had tons of great questions that were all answered by the lesson. He really liked it and it seemed to just click with him. We also talked a lot about prayer and how we pray. He was so intrigued and excited to find out that we can pray from the heart to god and that he hears and answers our prayers. It was really cool. Sunday we had lunch with a really cool member family. Super nice. THen that night we went tracting in a 21 story apt building that we found haha. A lady let us in that is working on a worldwide monetary system. She was kindof interested but moreso in the fact that we are american. THen while leaving someone threw eggs at us from the top of the building haha. Cool. Good thing frenchies cant throw! Today we went to a city called st malo to visit a member. THats why im emailing so late. It is such a cool city! It is an old fort that used to have pirates too. Ill send pics.

Well,  THats pretty much it for this week.  I just have two months left out here and its going fast. Im just trying to give it my all and help as many of my brothers and sisters as i can. I love serving the lord and his children. Its the most accomplishing work ever. I wouldnt trade it for anything. Love you so much! Thank you for all that you do. Have a great week! Loves! Avec amour, Elder Thomas

Anyone recognize the elder in the pic with me??? 

Hallelujah!

 Well it was a busy week this week but it was super good. On monday night we had three lessons scheduled which normally doesnt happen on pday nights. So we were pretty excited for that. But all of them fell through. Ouch! The russian family told us they dotn want to see us again so that was a bummer. 

Then on tuesday we went to  st brieuc for exchanges. We ended up taking a bus all the way there instead of a train.  So that was fun. On the exchanges we had a crazy experience.  We were tracting that night around where the cassais family lives. We were walking up to a big group of apt buildings and we can hear a guy yelling halleluia! at us. So we thought that someone was just messing with us because that happens often haha. But finally we went over to him and he was this short african guy. He asked us if we were here preaching about christ. And so we explained who we were and he yelled halleluia! again. He was so excited to see us. Turns out he is super religious and is evangelist. He is 19 and has a 1 yr old kid and a soon to be wife. He invited us in to pray with him. Ive never met someone so excited to talk about christ. We went up to his apt and talked for a bit and then he said ok its time to pray! So i was thinkging we would pray with him there. But we proceeded to get into his car and then drive across town to a mans house. His name was michael and he is like 7 feet tall. Super nice guy. Turns out they do family home evening type deals too. We sang with them gospel hymns for like 30 minutes. The type of hymns where you clap and sing crazy and sway side to side and randomly pray in the middle haha. It was great. Then he taught us a lesson about love of god from the Scriptures. They are also a little interested in learning about us and what we believe. It was really cool. 

Then wednesday we had good lessons with Rishard and Pathy. We taught Fely the law of chastity. He is still seeking for an answer if this is the true church. But he came to two sessions of conference and loved it. We will see him tonight to see if he is still good to go for this sunday or if we will need to push it back. 

On thrursday we went to Angers at 430 in the morning for zone conference. It was super good though. We fixed a new goal in the mission for every companionship to baptize at least one family before christmas. Im super excited for that. On Friday we my comp and I went all the way to Lille for his legality. It was different than I remember. I was there such a long time ago. 

 Hopefully things will pick up more this week. I love you tons! and miss you a lot. But there's just a short time left. Have a great week and I'll talk to you soon! 

Elder Thomas 

A good week...

Hey!!! Time really is starting to fly. Weird. Things are going super well here in rennes. Fely is doing really well. We were able to see him a few times this week and he is awesome! One of our lessons he asked us questions about jacob five and about melchesideck and other complicated stuff like that :) It was good though. He is seriously just seeking the lords will in all things. He just wants to do what is right. He came to church on sunday and loved it of course. We saw him last night and retaught him the restoration. He had questions about the priesthood and other stuff. We were able to teach well and really just testify to him of christ. He knows that he needs a confirmation from god that this is the true church. He is also excited to go to general conference this week. I believe that he will get his answer there.

 Rishard is doing good. He got sick but we were able to see him once. And then he came to church yesterday. Hes doing well. The cassais family isnt doing so well. The son lindsky is still awesome. but his mom is struggling. 

On monday we had a really cool experience right after emails. We went to the store to do our shopping and were looking at the veggies... yes we actually eat them... and a girl around our age came up and asked us if we speak english. We said yes and it turns out that she is from colorado and had met the missionaries because of her member friend. She met with them a bit but then moved here to study. She wanted to find the church but couldnt. Then she ran into us in the store! So we ended up seeing her on saturday and we had an amazing lesson with her. She talked about how she just recently let christ into her heart and is realizing that god is there. We taught about the bofm and she is so great. She really wants to learn and come to know god and christ. So we are really excited about that. But... we will have to pass her to the sisters because shes a 23 yr old girl.  Bummer. But oh well haha. We also contacted a woman from georgia.. the country. And she came to church on sunday and is really cool. 

Also twice this week we had lessons scheduled that fell through. So both times we just went tracting in the area and ended up finding a family both times! One was a mom and son, from russia and another was an african family with like 6 kids. Sweet! We are really excited about the russian family. The son who is 17 is really cool. They were super nice to us. 

Also this week we did service for a member and had to move three huge piles of fire wood haha. Our arms are covered in bruises haha. Good stuff. this week we have a crazy schedule. Tomorrow and wednesday we are doing exchanges with elders in st brieuc in our district. Then thursday is zone conference in a city caller Angers. Its like a 3 hour train ride. Fun. Then friday we are going to Lille!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! elder smith has to do his legality there. Im so excited to see my first city again! That will give us 8 more hours of train travel! Then saturday and sunday we have general conference. This week will fly by. 

Well, thats pretty much my week :) talk to you soon. 

Elder Thomas 

Sightseeing...

Share The Gospel With Your Friends!!!

 This week was super busy. But it was good. On tuesday We said goodbye to a few members for elder canadian and then wednesday we got up at 5 to take a train to paris! Woot! haha. I met up with my new comp elder smith (who is cool by the way. He replaced me in Bruxelles. so we talk about it all the time) Then we ended up helping the bleus or new missionaries out. We took them all down to notre dame haha. It brought back memories to my first day. Weird haha. Then we took the long train back to Rennes  and saw Fely! We fixed a baptismal date with him for the 13th of october!!! He is still searching for his answer and confirmation from the spirit but he wants to be baptized and will work towards that goal. He is doing super well. We saw him a few times this week. He has such a faith in christ and just wants to do what is right.

 On thursday we had some cool miracles. We went to lunch with a member family and they invited some of their non member friends! It was really cool. We just got to know them and shared a spiritual thought about christ. They loved it. Then we ate with them all. Hopefully they will be interested in learning more! Then that night we went to another members home and he invited his best friend to eat with us too! We also shared a thought about christ and she had tons of questions about the church! I also ate giblets for the first time that night haha. They are pretty She is really interested and wants to see us again. It was great to see members sharing the gospel with their friends.

 Then friday we went back to paris at 5 in the morning for mission council! It was super good. We recieved great trainings from prez and sister poznanski and the assistants. We got the vision for the transfer and talked about what our next new goal will be as a mission. Should be good!

 Tomorrow we will give a training to the zone about spiritual finding. It should be good. I love giving zone trainings. Who would have thought that i would actually enjoy speaking in public?! This weekend we did a lot of planning for the transfer and zone. There was a baptism for a kid in the ward,  a guy that we found named rishard came to it and then to church on sunday. We will teach him this week. The cassais family is good. Still cant get them to church... And reis went to Algeria for about a month. 

Well thats about it for this week... they are just ticking away. Talk to you next week!   

Elder Thomas 

  

Training the new Zone Leader...

Well it was a pretty awesome week with the conference this weekend. I will be staying here in rennes this transfer and probably finishing the mission here. We will see. I will be getting a new comp and Training him as a zone leader... It will be his first time. SO that should be really good. Excited for that.

We were able to teach the muslim guy Reis a few times. He is progressing pretty well. Hopefully we can see him tonight. He leaves for algeria for the rest of the month tomorrow. The cassais family is good. Havent seen them for a bit because we were gone all weekend and they were busy.
But Fely is back! Not sure if you remember him. He has the brother that won the nobel peace prize. He is back from paris. SO we were able to see him this week twice and he is doing well. We saw him friday night at a member family's home and it was great. We did a FHE together. He has a lot of health issues and it is really hard for him. I felt impressed to give him a blessing at the end. I offered and he accepted thankfully. It was a great experience. I got to give him the blessing and it was really cool. He is progressing well and really seeking the will of the lord in his life. Its amazing to see. The mongolian family was in nantes this week so we didnt get to see them. But a couple in the ward actually brought the 13 yr old daughter to the conference and she loved it! We will see them this week.

THis weekend was crazy and awesome haha. On saturday we took a four hour train... there was work on the line so it took that long instead of 2 hours. We rode it with the sisters and they decided we needed to do a picnic haha. So they made sandwiches and candy and we got veggies and dip haha. It was a lot of fun. Our sisters are awesome. Amazing people. They keep us in line haha. Then we had some time to walk around downtown paris and then stayed the night in antony. Got to hang out with elder jensen. We then got up at 430 in the morning the next day to get ready and make the trek to vesinet le peq for the conference. It was great though. They rented a huge auditorium for the 3000 members. Elder Oaks was awesome and really funny. He talked about the stakes and how France is now covered in stakes and about the new temple. He also talked a lot about covenants and their importance. Its always great to be in their presence.

OUr train didnt leave for a while sunday so i got to see some members from antony and we just ate lunch out front of notre dame haha. NO big deal haha. Then we took the 2 and a half hour train home! Fun stuff haha. It was a great conference though. The work is progressing and miracles are happening! Im super excited to stay as zone leader too here. I love serving the other missionaries.
Hope you all have a good week! LOVES
Elder Thomas

Big things are happening in this Mission!!!

Hey! It has been a good week. Still a little tough but it looks like things will pick up soon. This week i wasnt in rennes very much haha. On tuesday after our district meeting i went to vannes for an exchange with our district leader who is from la reunion. He is super awesome!! We had a great exchange together and we both learned a lot. Im so grateful to be able to go on exchanges and teach other missionaries and help them learn and improve. Its a very humbling responsibility. Then on thursday my comp and i both went to the city lorient to do another exchange. I wen twith an elder from my group back in the mtc. It was such a frustrating exchange. He doesnt want to be here and is just doing it to look good and please his parents. SO that exchange was interesting.
We were able to see the cassais family this week too. They are doing really well. We taught them half of the plan of salvation and they loved it. Their cousin norline is doing super well too. She told us that she really feels the spirit strong when we are there and when we speak.
THe sisters talked to a man from algeria and passed him to us. We saw him last night and taught him about the restoration. He is muslim but interested in christianity. He has so many questions. All of which we can answer! It was hard to not just sit there and answer all of his questions. He also already believes in chastity and he asked us if we drink and we said no and he high fived us haha. SO he should be cool.
I dont know if i told you about the mongolian couple who has been coming to church. They are members who live in laval a city that is a 45min train ride from rennes. tHey were at church yesterday and brought a thirteen yr old mongolian girl to church who isnt a member. They told us that they are friends with her family in laval and that they want to meet with us! It is a family of five! SO we will see them this week. Super excited for that. Thats about it for this week haha.

THis upcoming week will be a historical one for france. Elder oaks and elder ballard will be in paris all week preparing for sunday. They are closing the district of lorient which is out here in the brittany area and it will be incorporated in the new rennes stake which is moving from the angers stake. They will also open a new paris stake and work on the temples foundation which begins this week!!!!! Thats huge! France will no longer have districts but will now have all stakes! Super big stuff happening here. SO grateful to be a part of it and to be a missionary speeding things along. SUnday will be an awesome day. Im also hoping to be able to see some of my recent converts in paris while im there. Mainly Xavier.

This week There was an elder that finished his mission in our ward. He had his homecoming yesterday and i couldnt help but picture that first sunday back... haha, Okay enough being trunky. Love you guys so much. The time is flying by and im just trying to do all that i can with it! Have a great week. Love you so much! Je vous aime

Staying Positive Despite Trials...

Well with good times there are always bad times too... sadly haha. It seems like every good week is followed by a tough one. This last week was pretty rough. It started out monday night when we were supposed to have a rendezvous with marko. He got there before us and there were a few members at the church. He had a little problem with one of them and left. So we didnt see him that night and he was furious. We were supposed to see him the next day but he cancelled until wednesday. He cancelled again and then thursday night dropped the bomb that he doesnt want to see us again or be baptized. So that was a big trial. It was so hard to see him get so close and then fall. I dont think he will come back this time either. We also didnt hear anything from Pierre this week. No answers or calls from him. So it doesnt look like we will be seeing him again. Not sure what happened. So we were a little bummed this week. Two huge blows. The rest of the week was rough and we werent able to find anyone to teach. We did find one man who we saw on thursday who seemed really cool and said he would come to church with his son. But no news since then... So we are at square one for the moment.

But on a huge bright side we have had a goal since the start of last transfer in the mission to get 100 baptisms before the 15th of september. Thats when elder oaks is coming to france (including Rennes) to create another stake and reorganize our stake here in the brittany area. It's Big news! Well this weekend we hit 100 baptisms!!!!!!! That means we did it in 10 weeks! Just In the month of august which has been the toughest month in france for missionary work because of the dreaded french vacation, we were able to have 52 baptisms!!!
Prez looked back at the past 20 years in the mission and we have never come close before. So needless to say miracles are happening in the mission!!! We were supposed to be able to meet as a mission to hear from elder oaks in two weeks but he will be so busy that he cant see all of the mission anymore :( But I should be able to see him since i am in rennes. We will go to paris for the conference where they reorganize the stakes. It will be a huge deal. So we are super excited about that in the mission :)
I am doing well and staying positive despite the trials. I know they are for a reason. I just keep trying to do my best and push through. Love you tons!!! Have an awesome week and let everyone know i love them!!!! Tootles!

Marko and Pierre are getting Baptized!

This week was super awesome! We saw a ton of really cool things happen and lots of miracles. We were so blessed this week. We were able to see marko a lot this week and he is on track to be baptized this saturday the 31st. He has been through a lot of bad stuff and so it will be a great miracle to see him baptized. Fely is still in paris i think. His phone doesnt work anymore and we passed by his house in the beginning of the week and his brother said that he was still in paris. So we arent sure. We didnt have a lot of time to just pass by his house. The cassais family is doing well. The mom has a boyfriend in haiti with her other 3 kids. SO she doesnt want to get baptized until she is either married or he is a member too. Understandable. But we saw them earlier in the week and she actually lives with her cousin and she is super interested too! She really wants to know if the church is true and i can see her getting baptized soon. Her son the eight year old Lindsky is super cool. Just so strong in his faith.

The rest of the week was just full of miracles. The sisters met a guy from cameroon named pierre on the letro last week. He said he wanted to meet with us so they passed us his info. We had a lesson with him earlier in the week and it went super well. We taught him about the restoration and invited him to pray to know if joseph smith was a prophet. We also invited him to be baptized when he knows these things are true and he accepted. Then on saturday we saw him again and did a follow up of our engagements and asked if he had prayed. He said no that he didnt ask to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet but rather prayed so that he could belive and accept it. Then he said that he believes it is true. At the end of our lesson on the book of mormon we asked him if he had any questions. And he said well yeah. How do i join your church and become a member?? So crazy haha. We told him that it is through baptism and we set a date for the 8th of september! He is ready to do it! He has such a strong faith in christ and just wants to follow him.
We also got to see a guy named jared that we met last week and he is doing really well. He is really searching for the truth. We were just able to find a lot of new people who are searching for the gospel. It was a great week. We taught a ton of lessons too. Busy all week.

I also went to a members house to eat galettes. A specialty of rennes. They are like crepes but bigger and made with black flour. They are like dinner crepes. So good!
Hope you all have a great week!
Love you and talk to you soon!
Elder Thomas

I made the sisters cry...

Well another week ticks by. I feel like my mission is on fast forward. Where's the pause button??! This week we had interviews with Pres. and Souer Poznanski. The interviews went super well and so did our training that we gave. The zone was pretty excited to go out and follow the spirit! I told a cool experience that i had in antony with the family we tracted into. The ones that saw angels. How we met them for the first time. I had the sisters all crying. hehe. President Poznanski's brother came and made pizza for us. It was super good!

The week has been alright, One of those rougher ones haha. But good things are on the way. The family that we found... the one in the video, The Casais family, is doing okay. The mom isnt quite ready for baptism. She says maybe in october... so we will work with that. So excited to be working with them.
Marko got thrown into political prison. But he is out now, it was a mistake by the government. They now owe him 1300 euros haha. He came to church on sunday and everything went well. He is on his way to being baptized the 31st!!!
Fely went to paris for the week to visit his family. Hopefully he will be back soon.
We also have some cool potential people too. We Met two african ladies in the store while grocery shopping haha. I was making the baby laugh and so she talked to us.
Im feeling well and doing well. May have gotten food poisoning again on thursday haha. We ate a really sketchy kebab... But by saturday i was back to normal.
That's our week. Hope you all have a great week. Love you!
Elder Thomas

Chilling in the Apt... What Rennes looks like...