October 10, 2016 Hurricane Matthew Survivor

Hello Friends and Family, I am still alive. I survived Hurricane Matthew. In Gaffney, we got a whole 3 inches of rain and a little bit of wind. In other words, it wasn't much of a storm. I haven't heard much, but the missionaries down in the lowlands are probably going to be doing a lot of hurricane cleanup. I still don't know if I will be headed down to do anything, though. 

Something else cool that I got to do this week was work in the local soup kitchen. We made a bunch of hot dogs, chili, and macaroni. It ended up being a really good opportunity to meet people as they were coming in. I don't know if any of the pass along cards that we handed out will go anywhere, but I hope it will. 

One of the coolest things that has happened this week is that the efforts that Elder Wille and I have put into looking for people to teach by referrals have paid off. We set a lofty goal of 4 referrals for the week, and we ended up with 6. To put into perspective exactly how awesome that is, 2 referrals for the whole week was a good week. It is amazing to see what prayer will do to help us solve our problems and meet our goals. 

Anyhow, I hope that y'all are doing well. I pray for y'all every day. 

October 3, 2016

Hello Friends and Family. I have been informed that I spend a lot of these emails talking about food, so I'm going to try to do less of that. That should be pretty easy, since this week was pretty eventful. First of all, we had a lesson set to teach a really solid investigator named Candy. We had taught her about the Book of Mormon and how to pray to know if it is true or not, and that first lesson went really well. Anyhow, we called last Thursday to confirm that we were still good for our second lesson with her, and found that she had died a couple days after we had taught her the first lesson. As sad as that is, it is good to know that she is being taught by much greater teachers than I like Brigham Young  and Alma right now. 

This week I also went on a companion exchange with the Zone Leaders in Boiling Springs. I went over there to Boiling Springs and Elder Wille stayed in Gaffney. It is my second exchange so far on my mission, and it was great. I learned a lot about stress management and how to get referrals from everyone, not just investigators and members that I know really well. 

I also really enjoyed watching General Conference this week. For those of you that haven't been on missions before, watching General Conference is like Christmas. It is one of the only days where we don't have to be out proselyting all day. We went to a members house to watch most of it on both days. The members we went to have a tradition of making crepes throughout the conference. Suffice it to say that I really enjoyed eating crepes all day. Don't get me wrong that the only reason I enjoyed conference was because I got to eat. I learned a lot about how to involve members in missionary work, particularly less active members. 

I also realized that I haven't included many pictures, so I took a picture of the district this morning so y'all can see my brother and sisters in arms. See you next week! 

 Sister Graham is in the floral dress. Sister Smith has the dark blue shirt on. Elder Wille has the red tie on. Elder Thomas is the hardest to recognize. He is wearing a green Goodwill tie.

September 26, 2016

With the exception of the last couple days, last week was pretty normal. I did hit some milestones, though. I had catfish for the first time on Friday at the fish camp, and it was pretty good. That, and I had gumbo for the first time last night. After all of that, I think I am starting to develop a drawl. The most eventful thing that has happened all week was the fact that I got food poisoning for the first time on my mission. Consequently, I got stuck in the apartment for most of the day. That wasn't fun. 

Another thing I have learned is that the best way to be invited to a meal on short notice as a missionary is to fast. In all seriousness, we were given food by four people yesterday. That, and some members invited us to their house after church to have supper after three weeks of not going to a single meal. It has really shown me how good Satan is at tempting people. 

I hope you are all doing well. I pray for you every day, and I love y'all!

September 19, 2016

Sorry about the lack group last week. With the way P-day worked last week, Elder Wille and I didn't have time to go to the church to use email. Thus, we used our iPads, and with the way that the iPads we have are configured, I could only send an email to one person at a time. So, just to briefly catch y'all up on last week, Elder Sherlock has left and is now serving in Cheraw, which is near Florence. Elder Wille is still with me, though. I have learned that it is a lot simpler to only have one companion in many things. Like, for example, daily planning at the end of the day. 

On to this week, there a couple really eventful things that have happened. Elder Wille and I have moved into Gaffney itself. See, we have been living in the far Northwest corner of our area, so we wasted a lot of our very limited miles getting places. Now that we are pretty close to the middle of our area, we use a lot less miles. On Saturday, we used a grand total of five miles the whole day, compared to the forty that we used to use. Moving itself was a pain in the butt. We moved into a third floor apartment, and had to get a washing machine and a dryer up there. That was the hardest part about moving. Fortunately, we had a few people with trucks come and help us, which was good. We managed to make it with all of our stuff in one trip. Our apartment right now looks like a bomb went off, but it should be a lot better since we plan to spend today cleaning. 

Speaking of the new apartment, we have discovered our apartment has some unexpected issues. The first one was the fact that the shower didn't have a shower curtain. Our last apartment had a shower with the glass doors, so we didn't have a curtain to put on it. Then we came up with the brilliant idea to string up a tarp by the shower to act as a curtain. It would have worked really well had we had a functional shower head. See, the shower head is really rusted out on the inside, so when I actually went to turn it on, it sprayed more water out of back of the shower head than the front where there was actually supposed to water coming out. When I got finished with my really fast shower, the bathroom and everything in it was completely soaked. That still isn't fixed, so maybe I'll keep taking glorified sponge baths for a while. 

The last weird thing about our apartment is the fact that the AC doesn't turn off when it gets to the shutoff temperature. When we walked into our apartment, it had gotten down to Fifty something degrees, which is freezing cold compared what I have gotten used to. That isn't a huge deal, since we have AC to begin with. 

The second major thing that has happened this week is Sister Graham has finally gotten here from the MTC. She is going to be a great missionary, but she is having a really hard time adjusting. Any prayers y'all can send her way would go a long way. One thing I know is that all of your prayers have really helped me. I love y'all!

September 5, 2016

Hey yall. It has been a very good week, productive week. Probably the most noteworthy thing that happened this week is the first baptism on my mission. Tammy Littlejohn, one of the sisters' investigators, was baptized a couple days ago. Besides the fact that the baptism started late, it went really well. I was sitting next to Sherri Spake, a recent convert, during the baptism. She is quite possibly the most bubbly person I have ever met. She spent most of her life in a Baptist church, so whenever you sit next to her in meetings in church, you always hear quiet amens and hallelujahs. She actually reminds me of my sister, Catherine, plus about 60 years. 

Another item worthy of note is Bryson Addy. He is really the only progressing investigator that we are teaching right now, and he really wants to be baptized, but his dad won't let him. Basically, we have asked him to pray, study the scriptures, and fast yesterday so that he can prepare to ask his dad himself. We promised him that this would go a long ways to toward softening his dad's heart. That is actually what I spent yesterday fasting for. Prayers on his behalf would go a long way.

There have been many who have sent me emails to warn me about Hurricane Hermine. I really appreciate the concern. I was actually really surprised when all that we got in Gaffney was a thirty minute rainstorm. With 20 mph winds. In all seriousness, all we had to do was talk to a member on their porch and we stayed pretty dry. Granted, the rainstorms here are a lot bigger than out West. This one happened to be big enough that the drains on the Spencers' roof couldn't handle all of the water. Most of it spilled off of the top. But it still wasn't near as bad as I was expecting. 

Last night we went to the Devaney's house for a visit. Just by way of background, the Devaneys are a young family with three kids. There oldest child is named Jewel. She is five, and is the sweetest little girl I have ever met. Every time we see her in church, we compliment her dress, to which she says "Thanks" and promptly twirls. Anyhow, when we went to go visit last night, she gave a painting of a flower garden that she made. It is my favorite gift from a member so far, and so we hung it up on the wall. 

I hope you all are doing well and really wish I had time to email all of you individually. I love yall!

August 29,2016

This week has gone really well. We have been finding a lot of people as of late, though no one is on date for baptism. Probably the most exciting person being taught, though, is Tammy Littlejohn. Sister Morris and Smith have been teaching her since Saturday before last, and she is going to be baptized on Saturday. I personally haven't been super involved in her conversion, but this will be the first convert baptism I see on my mission. Another person of note is a guy named Robert. We were visiting with the Walls, a less active family, last night and they invited us over for steak and said they would also invite Robert over so that we can teach him at their house. Just as a bit of background, he broke his back and his wife left him with their three kids, all under the age of 4. Needless to say, I think he has being prepared. 

I also made fried chicken for the first time. I was surprised at how good it ended up. I did take pictures since this is the first time I have really tried making Southern food, which I consider to be a milestone. I also have been collecting souvenirs a lot quicker than I had expected to, including comic books, a Motab record, a sock monkey, and a  palmetto tie. 

There is also a really cool story that happened on Saturday. There was a ward picnic that had planned and it started out being freakishly hot. At one point, though, it started getting windy and sprinkling, threatening to turn into one of those legendary Southern rainstorms. Anyhow, Elder Wille was sitting with a kid named Mouse, who is about six years old, holding his hand because he was scared he would blow away. His mom after chasing down flying tin foil and whatnot, took him back to the SUV so that he could get out of what we thought would turn into a really epic rainstorm. Mouse walked out of the SUV a few minutes later and told his mom that he prayed, and Jesus said in would be alright. It was at that point that the storm died down very quickly, almost to the point of totally clear skies within the next hour. It was absolutely incredible. 

I love yall! 

August 22, 2016

Things have started to look up finally. We now have a few investigators and a great story to go with a couple of them. On Thursday we met Cassie Jeffries. She was having a rough day to say the least, and prayed for God to send her help. Then we knocked on her door not five minutes later. We had a good discussion, and found out while we were talking that this isn't the first time that missionaries have shown up within minutes of praying and asking for help. We also met a guy named Chad, and he basically taught the lesson while we were in his house. He was telling us that in the last year since he dropped the missionaries, he realized that he needed to turn his difficulties over to God. He also started reading the Bible voraciously and talked about faith and its role for nearly 45 minutes, and it was incredible. He also showed off his '78 Camero that he is working on after the lesson. It has been incredible the difference that the Purification Challenge has made in hastening the work in general. Thank you for praying for me! I love you all !

August 15,2016

This week has been a rough week to say the least. So, all of those investigators that we put on date for baptism a couple weeks ago just dropped us. When Misty Parris, our golden investigator, dropped us it was particularly difficult. It has ended up being a good thing, though. It has made me realize that perhaps I had gotten lax in doing things like my personal study and, in general, focusing on the mission. The sentiment is the same throughout the district, and we have decided because of that we are going to do what is referred to as the purification challenge. Basically, you start with a fast, make a list of everything that inhibits you spiritually, and then you don't do those things for forty days. So far it has gone pretty well. As far as things that we have done this week, we basically have spend the entire week trying to find people to teach. So far we haven't had any luck, but that is the point of the challenge. I love yall! See you Next week!

August 8,2016

Howdy Yall. Suffice it to say that the last week has gone by in a flash with a few noteworthy events. First of all, my apartment got attacked by fire ants on Wednesday. We came back from proselyting one day and there were ants everywhere! Between vacuums and re purposed lint rollers, we thought we had gotten all of them after battling for nearly an hour. As it turns out, they weren't brought in by food that we had been given like we had thought. We figured it out when Elder Wille, who's bed in right next to the wall, was bitten just shy of twenty times over the course of the night. Not long after getting up, we noticed that the ants had gotten everywhere again. Shortly thereafter, we had a pest control party and treated pretty much everything in the apartment. Between that and the pest control guy that the landlord sent, we managed to get them under control by Saturday. 

Another thing worth mentioning is an experience I had earlier this week that really strengthened my testimony of the power of the priesthood in our lives. My mom ordered me to get tested for Diabetes, which requires getting your blood drawn. Many of you know how afraid I am of needles, and how stressed out and dysfunctional I get for sometimes weeks before and after a given shot. I realized that I had tried everything except a priesthood blessing to try and deal with my phobia, and I felt like that would be a good idea to ask for a blessing. It is a good thing that I did, and the promises made in the blessing did come to pass. This is the only time I have ever had a clear head and been totally in control in general when getting poked, and that would not have been possible without the blessing. 

I also got my first hardcore rejection this week. We were teaching a kid named Jordan on his porch, when his dad came out in the middle of the lesson and told us that our church was false and that he would have none of it. He then basically told his son that he washes his hands of any condemnation that comes from listening to us. It was at about this point that they both walked inside without a word. This isn't to say that people haven't told me no yet, but most of the time it basically amounts to them being nice while you are there, hoping you leave soon, and never answer the door again whenever we knock. One thing that has helped a lot is what is called the South Carlina Initiative, though. Basically, it is a plan that focuses on reactivating less active people, and teaching only referrals from members. In other words, we don't ever tract. 

The other thing that I didn't expect was the meal policy. Basically, we can only go to dinner at a member's house if there is a non-member there. Granted, people are still really keen to feed us, almost to the point that I wonder why we went grocery shopping last P-day. In the last week, we have had spagetti, cookies, rice, chicken, creamed corn, funeral potatoes, a 10 pound chocolate cake, jalapeno chips, orange sherbet, 3 bottles of soda, etc. We haven't even touched the food that we bought shopping because we have so many leftovers, except for milk. I drank most of the gallon that we bought, but that is beside the point. 

The first week that I got here was apparantly a dry spell. I got my first true South Carolina rainstorm last week and it scared me a bit. It was raining so hard that in the fifteen seconds it takes to back out Elder Sherlock, I was completely soaked. It is probably worth mentioning that rivers form on the sides of the roads a couple feet deep when this happens. This happened every few days, by the way. It really puts to shame most "thunder storms" I have seen out West. This especially makes me really glad that I have a car. 

Anyhow, I have really enjoyed all of the emails yall have been sending me. Bye Yall!

August 1, 2016

Howdy y'all! This last week has been very exciting as this is my first full week in the field. I actually have two mission daddies (trainers) and they are named Elder Willie and Elder Sherlock, who happened to have a car with a lot of miles when I got here. Elder Sherlock comes from Oklahoma and has been out for Sixteen months thus far. Elder Willie grew up on a ranch in Wyoming and has been out for nine months. Anyhow, my first area is in Gaffney, South Carolina. In proper Southern, it in the upstate. In the upstate, people have really thick drawls that I am actually starting to understand now, and the other day, I actually caught myself slipping into one myself. I haven't quite got the ma'ams and the sirs down yet, but yall is staring to become habitual. People here are really nice and will let you eat the table cloth should you want to. There are fried chicken places everywhere, and they are all way better than anything out West. I actually had mashed potatoes with sausage gravy the other day at Bojangles the other day, and it was delicious. Bojangles, by the way, is to KFC as In-n-Out is to McDonalds, for those of you who don't know what it is. Something else worthy of note is that I am apparently in the best possible area for the summer months. Reason being, it isn't very humid relatively speaking and it hasn't gotten over 95 degrees here. I have actually gotten used to the humidity and now, it actually feels pretty normal now. Granted, I do spend the majority of my time indoors. That is not to say air conditioned indoors, because the AC systems here are run 24/7 and break pretty regularly. There other really eye opening thing for me here are the ghettos. We have been in some sketchy parts of Gaffney to try and contact members, and it has really surprised me some the places that people will live here, especially given that a lot of those houses will have really nice cars out front. Prosilyting there has paid off, though. We met a family there on Saturday who committed to baptism on the first lesson. Later that day, we met a sister name Misty. She had actually prayed the day before that God would reveal himself to her, and the next day we showed up at her door looking for her sister originally. She is very accepting of what we have taught, and seemed really happy in church yesterday. In our district, there is only one other companionship of sisters, who serve in Blacksburg. There are a bunch of other weird things that people do here that I think is worth mentioning. For example, most of the cars at the end of a demolition derby would still be considered roadworthy here. My companion was telling me that he once saw a car that looked like it had been cut clean in half, and the two halves were being held together with bungee cords and duct tape. In terms of the work in general, it is definately being hastened here. I love yall as always! Until next week!

July 22,2016

Elder Goertzen says that it may take a while for his mom to accept his friend request because she doesn't get on very often. Anyhow, I can relate with being really tired because now I have the best MTC story ever. My companion left the residence at about 10:45 to go use the bathroom and promptly realized that he forgot his key. Rather than knock on the door and avoid all of this hullaballoo, he went out to go sit in the lobby and wait for one of us to come out for something so he could get back in. Another Elder from the residence next door said they had an extra bed that he was welcome to (this is against mission rules, by the way). So, Elder Goertzen went and slept in their room for  the night. By this point I was asleep, but was woken up by Elder Fackerell with a campus security guard standing just outside the residence at about midnight. As it turns out, Elder Fackerell had been unable to sleep, got out of bed, and noticed that my companion still hadn't come back yet. After searching the entire building, he called the security guard over to try and help find him. For the rest of the night, I accompanied some 12 other Elders in addition to the BYU campus police force and the entire security guard staff here at the MTC to look for my companion. I was also questioned for a good 30 minutes by the police after returning to the residence. We found out later that the Eagle Mountain police had been contacted, and they were looking all over for him, including showing up at his parents' house and 3 in morning. His Stake president and his Bishop were called in the wee hours as well. Anyhow, he walked over to the bedroom at 6:30 and knocked on the door where those of us who were out searching all night had only been asleep for a short while had planned to, understandably, sleep in a bit. That is when he figured it out. Anyhow, it is all good now, and he didn't really have any consequences since it basically only happened because Elder Goertzen was too considerate to wake us up by knocking on the door. 

Anyhow, I do have my flight information back at the residence, and I will get that to you by the end of the day. I am pretty sure, though, that I will have to call you really early in the morning or not at all. I assume that, though, that you would rather get a phone call at 6 am than not at all. 

I love you Mom!

Week 3

Greeting from Missionaryville, all ye that read my emails. Things with one exception have gone normally and according to plan. The short version is that my companion got locked out, so he slept in the room next to ours. The police got involved, and I along with a horde of other missionaries and the police spent the entire night looking everywhere except the room next door. Just as an update with Erika, we taught her about faith and the Atonement of Christ in our last lesson. We were also able to help resolve her concerns about temple marriage (her boyfriend is a member). Paula is doing well after our last lesson, and now I know that she is a role playing TRC because a couple Elders in my district were assigned to teach her this week, and she apparently forgot everything we had taught her, so I guess there is no first baptism yet. This week I have been teaching Ny (pronounced like knee) and she is from Madagascar. She is also really quiet and doesn't really trust Elder Goertzen and I yet. Granted, we have only had one lesson so far, so maybe that will be different tomorrow. Megan, on the other hand, is a BYU student who grew up in an LDS family but was never baptized. She is very talkative, and has a lot of questions. The thing that we have been focusing on with her is, first of all, being able to recognize the impressions of the Spirit, and second, baptism. She is so scared of the baptismal covenant that she doesn't want to commit to baptism. I hope we can help ease her mind on the matter tomorrow, though. Beyond that, I only have a few days left in the MTC because I fly out into the field on Tuesday. I love you all! 

Week 2

I apologize that last week's email didn't go through. A few people have told me they didn't get it, so I assume the same is true to all of you. So, this time, I have sent this to every email address that I have for anyone. Anyhow, things have been a bit crazy lately, and I have never been so exhausted in my life. We have classes starting at about 7:30 and ending at 9:30 at night. It has been so spiritually uplifting that I can't deny that God has given the energy to keep going. Probably the most noteworthy thing are the TRC investigators. I don't know what TRC stands for, but basically people come to the MTC either as real investigators or role players, probably pretending to be a friend, that we teach several lessons to over the course of the week. Our first investigator, even though the leaders don't tell us at all, is a real investigator by the name of Erika. She comes from Iowa, and has been investigating the church for close to a year and a half now. She is incredibly knowlegdable about the Gospel, and has a lot of questions that she will spend several minutes asking and explaining about. To all those people who told me that I would never talk about the finer details of the War in Heaven and the Davidic Descent of Christ, you lied. That was our first discussion with Erika and Elder Goertzen and I basically threw our lesson plan out the window that first day. They second day was similar. The last time we went, we talked about the Word of Wisdom and she shared some very personal struggles about it that really showed how faithful she actually is. We have one more lesson with her, and my companion and I are fasting right now to know how best to help her. Our other investigator is Paula. She hails from Colombia and moved here with her father. She is probably a real investigator, but we are nowhere near as sure as with Erika (she showed us a video of her sister's wedding from her Facebook page). She is basically investigating the church out of curiosity because of a neighbor. She started out quiet, but really started to open up when we taught the Plan of Salvation. In the last lesson we taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she committed to baptism on August 18. Unfortunately, we will be unable to be there, but still, FIRST BAPTISM! Beyond that, there are just funny stories like Elder Goertzen started singing the Spirit of God when he was asleep and it was hilarious when he repeated "like a fire is burning" roughly eight times. Love y'all! The Church is true!

Provo MTC

Here is the traditional MTC picture in front of the world map!

Elder Goertzen is Brent's companion and is also going to the South Carolina Columbia mission.

Erika is one of his investigators.

His zone.

They spent hours in classes everyday.

The closest I got to a companion picture!

Here is Elder Thomas' official certificate to preach as a full-time missionary.

Elder Goertson is from Eagle Mountain, Utah, and comes from a family of 11 kids. He was adopted as a child, and otherwise is a faithful and much more focused missionary than I am. We get along pretty well, and have taken to every night, starting last night, saying three positive things about each other to help us become closer as a companionship. He also sings a high tenor that is very resonant and firm. Because of this, we are in agreement that we need to join the MTC choir. I love you guys! I'll send full details in the group email!

Could you send me a bathrobe? It would make the shower situation here a lot simpler.

You were also right about the camera. In fact, there are guys in my district who are having other guys take pictures at about three feet and sticking their arms out so that they can face a selfie. 

There are Elders in my district, not guys. Sorry.

Diana Thomas <dianasdarlings@gmail.com>	Jul 8
to Brent

We're driving across Nevada at the moment. We'll try to get a robe in the mail today.

It's every parent's dream to have their child say "you're right Mom".

Day 1

Dear Elder Thomas,

Today was the hardest day of my life. Telling you it was time to go was so hard. But once you walked away, I started to feel very peaceful. Don't worry the tears well up once in while still. Now that the good byes are said and you are exactly where you need to be, the dread and wondering is gone.

 One of the first things I saw on Facebook after leaving was a picture of a joyful Eli and Matt Maughan together at the Orlando airport. I am so excited to hear about their experiences and look forward to hear about your's! Take lots of pictures, your camera should arrive on Monday. I hear waiting for that first email is torture, since you don't know when it will come. So we will anxiously watch and patiently wait.

We're so proud of you. We can't wait to hear about the hearts you will touch and the lives that will be forever changed. We will watch and record all the miracles and blessings that come from your service. Trust in the Lord and you will find success. The angels will surround you and that brings me great peace. 

I love you to the moon and back!

Love,

Mom

I have been surprised by getting to use my email today, so that is cool. Things are going well overall, although, it does feel like trying to drink out of a firehouse with how much I have to figure out all at once. My companion is a really cool guy by the name of Elder Goertzen. Beyond that, today we congregated as an army of 70-some-odd missionaries to teach real investigators. I love you guys! The Gospel is True! By the way, P-day is on Friday. 

Hi all,
Just a quick note about contacting Brent over the next two years. It is recommended that you mail packages by priority mail, so it can be quickly forwarded to his apartment. He will leave the MTC on July 26th for South Carolina. Here are the addresses for you  if you decide you want to send something.

MTC until July 26th:
Elder Brent Thomas
JUL26 SC-COLU
2005 N 900 E Unit 236
Provo, UT 84602

After July 26th:
Elder Brent Thomas
110 Oak Park Dr, Ste. B,
 Irmo, SC 29063

Email: brent.thomas@myldsmail.net

Love you all! I really appreciated all the support you've given us.

Saying goodbye!

In order to make the 2:30 drop off time, we had to leave about 10:30 am. The last thing we did before leaving was Brent gave me a blessing and then our final family prayer. We even made him carry his own luggage.

His last meal was In-n-out, double double animal style and a neapolitan shake. 

Our family selfie!

On a whim, we decided to drive by our old apartment. Then we decided we needed to recreate the picture below, the day we brought Brent home.

19 years is a long time!

We drove near the Provo Temple to say our goodbyes and have our last few minutes together.

We did lots of hugging.

Is there such a thing as too many?

I think we proved that there isn't!

Lucy was not going to be left out!

Last time for the boys, now dad is all alone.

This was a no mascara day!

So proud of our boy!

All the excited missionaries greeting the new ones.

Lots of mixed feelings.

One last family picture!

The last few minutes were so hard.

The hardest part was telling Brent it was time to go and then let him walk away. It felt like part of my heart left with him.

Off to his next adventure!

Trying to catch a last glimpse!

See you in two years!