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...