Xavier's Baptism...

Hey!
Well The zone is doing super well this week. Glad you got to see some pics of us. I think that was from our zone conference and interviews. It's been really great to have a good comp too. We always have a ton of fun and still are doing great work.

Xavier's baptism was great!!! He was so happy. A member baptized him and when he came out of the water he was all smiles. Then on sunday i gave him the holy ghost! That was super cool. So grateful that i got to participate in that. After the confirmation he gave his testimony in sacrament and he was super happy. Afterwards we told him that he did great and he said it wasnt me, it was god telling me what to say. That was cool.

The rest of the week was full of teaching xavier and kareena. She is going to be baptized on sunday!!!! That will be so sweet! She is doing well. Marino is doing well too. He asked us for a copy of d&c so he can know what was revealed to joseph smith. He is super cool. I think we will set a date with him this week. He also came to church.

This week we will just prep for kareenas baptism and try to find new peopel to teach! Madeleine and rabbi are good. We saw them last week. And the valenzuelas were at church and are cute as ever! haha.

Oh and seeing oliverson was awesome! We just spent the night catching up and laughing about all the times that we had haha. I miss him.

Thank you for everything that you do for me! Love you and miss you tons. We will get to skype in two weeks and then it will be the last time until december in person! haha. So crazy! Love you tons. Have a great week!!!!!
Elder Thomas

Pics of Xavier's Baptism and eating African food...

Zone conference Facebook pics...

Great conference and interviews!!!

Another Great Week!!!

Hey! Well this week was another great one. I'll try to run through all of the important events. On monday we played some basketball and soccer haha. Then that night we met up with kareena the 29 yr old and took her to a members home for a family home evening. We taught her about the restoration and joseph smith. But the best part was the testimonies of the members. They really brought the house down! The spirit was so strong and they just testified so powerfully. I was almost crying. After that we invited her to be baptized the fourth of may and she accepted! SO awesome!

Then on tuesday i went on an exchange with elder miller. We taught a kind of crazy lady. That was fun. She brought up some weird law of chastity stuff.

On wednesday we saw a lady that only speaks spanish. That was interesting haha. We gave her a book of mormon though. We saw kareena again that night with another awesome member. She is doing really well and got some answers to her prayers. She was praying to feel gods love and also to get a new job. She felt the spririt and got four job offers. Legit!

Thursday we taught xavior with a member about the law of chastity and tithing. While i was on exchange they taught him the word of wisdom. He told them that he smoked 20 to 30 cigarettes a day when he met us. But he is doing better with it. We also saw marino and he is doing really well. He has all kinds of deep doctrine questions. He is really searching and is really intelligent.

On friday we did service and dug out a huge tree stump. Made me think of washington. We taught kareena again about the word of wisdom and baptism because she smokes. She accepted it and is doing well. We Also met with the chinese guy that we found a couple times this week. He is super hilarious and really wants to know if there is a god. He is great. His name is robert.

On saturday we taught xavior about Thomas S. Monson and he loved it. He is super awesome and just willing to do gods will. He is super happy now too. I gave him a blessing to help him overcome his smoking problem and the spirit was very strong as i did so. That night we went tracting in a big appartment building and a guy let us in. It was a huge african guy from senegal. he is super cool and really believes in christ.

On sunday xavior and the black guy françois came to church. They loved it. After church we went to the Lalaus home to eat with them. Then she called you guys! So awesome! Glad you liked it. I could hear you and dad in the calls. It was so weird haha. I was super glad that you answered.

That was pretty much the week. A lot of funny moments with elder webber and i. A lot of crazy people, and people yelling at us in the street. Thats always a hoot haha. I am super excited for xaviors baptism this saturday!!!

Today i am just going to chill and sleep. Need to catch up a bit! So for the best moment of the week... hmmm. Prolly when i saw the email from the okelberrys and the pics of owen ludovic and natacha. I was freaking out haha. So awesome!!!!!!!!!!!! Im so grateful for them. Love you guys so much! Hope you have a great week and know how much i love you and how much god loves you! Have a great week!
Elder Thomas

Here are pics of Owen and Natacha at their baptisms! And one of me and elder webber. Not sure whats going on in that one...haha.

Missionary Work is the Most Important Thing We Can Do...

Wow this was a great week! The zone is doign super well and i love being zone leader. It is a ton of fun and i love the responsibility. Time is flying though with the hard work. I fell like i was just here emailing last week. Yesterday was the first warm day in a long time. Probably Since i first got to Bruxelles, haha. It was hot!

You asked what my most memorable moment this week was...hahahaha, well there were these two hobo guys. An asian one sitting on a bench drinking a beer and then his friend. The friend was yelling at him and then turned around and shook his butt in the asian guys face hahaha. Then he turned to a crowd of people at the tram stop and dropped his pants... i saw too much haha. But it was so funny. We had a member with us from tahiti and he was dying. Yup... Paris is great.

I am doing well and am happy. Things are going so well! So on to this past week. Monday we went to the top of the eiffel tower... well as far as stairs would let us haha. It was over 800 stairs. Woot! Then on tuesday we gave a training for the zone which went pretty well. It was fun. We had a rdv with a cool lady named nadage that we found. She invited a friend over too. They are from the ivory coast. Then we had a rdv with marino. He is doing really well. We saw him another time this week too. He is praying for his answer. In our other rdv with him he had a friend over who thought that we were just weird cult polygamists. So he was questioning us. But marino defended us and taught his friend about the restoration and the bom. And he was like these guys are normal. Elder Webber likes the rapper drake and Elder Thomas plays football! haha It was funny.
On wednesday we planned a spiritual finding day. We fasted all day and prayed a ton throughout the day. And we saw so many amazing things! we prayed and fasted that we would be guided to the people that are ready to be baptized. So in the morning we were contacting and we talked to an indian looking guy. He said we could teach him in a nearby park. So we went and he is so legit! His name is xavior and he is from sri lanka. He believes in God but didnt know where to find the truth. He told us he thinks that we were sent by God to answer his prayers. We told him what we were doing that day and testified that we are called of God to help him. We saw him several times this week and he came to church. He lost his whole family in sri lanka and has nobody here. He is super poor too. But we have seen light come into his eyes this week. It has been an amazing change. He also recieved the answer to his prayer that this church is true and said he feels great when he is with us and feels peace. We invited him to be baptized on the 27th of april and he accepted. So awesome! Then later that day we were contacting with a member and we contacted a young girl... turns out she is 29. But she was super happy to see us and told us that she is searching for God in her life. We fixed a rdv with her and when we taught her she said she knows that God sent us to her. Amazing! She is super interested and just searching for the truth. She came to church and loved it. The members welcomed her so well. We also found a lady and her sister from Ecuador. They speak almst only spanish. But they are interested and we bring a member to translate. It was an amazing week!

I know that prayer and fasting works. God hears our prayers and loves us so much. I know that this church is true. No doubt. Missionary work is the most important thing that we can do. It can also bring us the most joy. I love you guys so much. Know that i love you and miss you tons. keep going strong and dont forget to pray!
Elder Thomas
P.S. I got a new camera. Pics next week!

Facebook pics of T at General Conference!!!

Thank you Souer Poznanski!

For Cali & P "My Missionary Rap"

We bring a message of peace and joy,
It all starts with the story of a young boy.
He heard preachers yelling and lying,
But none of their doctrine was satisfying.
One day he read in the Book of James,
And so to a grove of trees he came.
While praying in quiet humility,
The Father and Son appeared in simplicity.
They called him as Prophet of this dispensation,
And that's how we have these revelations.
Of a plan of Happiness and Salvation,
We must preach it to every Nation.
We can all live with God again,
His work is for Eternal life of man.
The key to this perfect plan,
Is found in the sacrifice of one man.
Jesus Christ the beloved Son,
He paid the price for everyone.
We must have faith, repent, be baptized,
Receive the Holy Ghost and endure all our lives.
He also gave us commandments to follow,
So we can avoid worldly sorrow.
And when you receive a witness that it's true,
The spirit will tell you what to do.

Time is starting to fly...

This week was a really good one! Definitely busier. but it is good. We had transfer day on wednesday and i got my new comp elder webber. He is pretty cool and we get along great. We both just have a desire to work our hardest and just find those people who are ready! Its refreshing to just work our butts off, haha. We come home at the end of the night exhausted. Then we have to make a bunch of calls to other missionaries and organize stuff. Then its lights out and another day! Time is starting to go by super fast.

On Thursday we had zone leader council with President. He gave us a training and his vision for the mission this transfer. We are going to see some good things! The mission is growing too. Elder miller's blue is cool too. Great elder. We met with Marino again and he is really cool. We had a great rdv and he accepted to be baptized when he recieves his answer that it is true. We also found a super sweet guy but he lives in another Paris area.

Saturday and Sunday we went to Versailles for conference. It was so good! We didnt get to see the Sunday night session. I loved all of the talks haha. So many about missionary work. I cant pick a favorite! I loved President Uchtdorf's from the priesthood session. And, So cool that there will be a Temple in cedar!

Madeleine and rabbi came to conference on Saturday and followed online sunday. Owen is doing well i hear and he did baptisms in the Temple. Ludovic is doing super well. I guess he baptized both Natacha and Owen!!! Sweet! He is going to the Temple to do some of his family names!!!! Legit! The work is going great right now! Im doing really well. Today we will go to the Eiffel Tower again haha. Sweet! It never gets old.

Love you a ton mom! miss you so much! Thanks for everything you do! Talk to you soon and have a great week!
Elder Thomas

P.S. no pics this week:( I sent a new camera so hopefully next week the pics will be back.

The new Zone Leader for Paris South!!!

Hey!

Well what a surprise for this transfer! Its going to be crazy! Our mission is really growing and changing. So friday night i got a call from president calling me to be a zone leader! Yeah! I was super excited haha. So then i was wondering where i would be going. Because there are specific cities that have zone leaders. And then he said i would like you to open a new zone in antony. It is called the paris south zone! So sweet! I was like ok sounds good prez haha. My new comps name is elder webber. He is in his 13th transfer and has been zl for a while. I have heard he is super funny and cool. So im super excited for that. Ive been wearing down with my comp now. He slept in till like 730 today. I got a good video of us waking him up! So basically in the mission there are districts and zones. There is a district leader for each district and then zone leader for each zone. Right now our zone is smaller but next transfer it will grow because we will get 40 new missionaries. Basically as zone leader we do trainings for all of the missionaries in my zone and run exchanges and other stuff like that. We carry out presidents plans and other random stuff haha. Im super excited and grateful for this responsibility. I think it will help me take the next step to being a better missionary. We get to work a lot closer with prez too so i am excited for that.

It was an alright week. We are still trying to ffind new people to teach. We saw the valenzuelas twice and played basketball with the dad and son today for pday. We also saw madeleine and rabbi. They are doing well. Also sunday night we had a lesson with a younger african guy who is pretty cool. Either his girlfriend or wife was there too... hopefully wife. But we' had a great lesson and they want to keep meeting with us. Also tonight we are going to a members house to do an FHE and eat with them. They are inviting a friend to who is interested in the church! Sweet! Last time that happened we found ludovic. Oh! Owen from bruxelles got baptized this weekend!!! so Awesome!

I am staying in the same apt and elder miller is too. He is training a new missionary. It should be a sweet apt. Elder willden is getting shipped to the middle of nowhere. And mataele is training in belgium. Legit! I got the pkg too. I laughed so hard when i saw the giant chocolate bunny! It is almost gone with four of us eating it haha. Thank you so much for that pkg. It is so awesome!!!!!!!!! Glad you like the pics of the valenzuelas! haha. I will get some new ones soon. I plan on taking videos of them haha. They are so funny! I hope you guys are all doing well and are happy. I miss you guys a ton! But in a month we can skype!!! woot! Love you tons! Talk to you soon!
Elder Thomas