Week #12

Hey yall!! It's been a long but awesome week in Chillicothe, Ohio.

I started the week with becoming an AUNT!  HI Max!!! I love you!!! She is seriously so precious. I love her so much. S/O to Ben and Court for making a really cute kid!! On Wednesday we were eating at a less active member's home, the dinner was good but afterwards my stomach started to hurt real bad. We were out proselytizing and I was going from hot and cold sweats to chills. I felt HORRIBLE! My companion kinda just told me to suck it up, so I did. I get it, we were productive and she didn't want to stop.  We had about a half hour left of proselyting before it was time to turn in for the day. I looked at my companion and straight up said "I'm going to poop my pants if you don't take me home right now." It was that bad! On the way back to the car I threw up twice. (: Luckily, I made it home without the diarrhea, but barely. I spent that night and the next morning on the toilet. No fun. Probably some food poisoning, IDK. So anyway, there's your gross story for the week. Ya'll are welcome. 

We have about 12 new investigators this week! And out of those 12, about 7 or 8 are pretty solid. Such a blessing! We have been working hard at contacting and with referrals.  The hard work resulted in 12 new investigators! HOLLA! 

Here's a freaking miracle that happened this week: 

We got a referral from another set of missionaries in Columbus. One of their brand new investigators moved to the VA, which is an amazing living center for war vets in Chillicothe. Most of those who live there have been homeless, but are now working for the state in  order to pay for their residency at the VA. It's a really cool place. Lots of awesome people there. The VA is in our area, we went down to the VA and we couldn't find the new investigator's apartment complex ANYWHERE. We looked and looked and when we finally found it, we realized we didn't have an apartment number!  Aaaargh!  This meant we would have to knock on every door in the entire complex until we could locate the investigator/referral we were looking for.   His name is Larry. So, we prayed a little and decided to take this as an opportunity to meet lots of new people. We walked to the front doors of the complex to begin our search.  The complex was FREAKING LOCKED. I was not happy. I was like, "No way. We did NOT drive all the way out here to find him just to find a locked door!" I wasn't trusting in God very much.  Because I was impatient, I started banging on the front door of the complex, loudly, until someone answered.  Finally, this really nice, elderly, black man opened the front door! Whew! My and companion and I said, "Uh hi (with smiles), we are looking for a man named Larry."  The man said, "Hey, that's me! Hi Sisters how are you? I've been waiting for you to show up!" ???? (What the heck?) God's timing is a miracle. I need to trust in Him more often. We met with him and set up some appointments to return.  Upon our return, he brought a friend along to hear our message.  They were so awesome and they were full of questions and comments. My companion and I felt the spirit strongly prompting us and so we followed the prompting and invited them both to be baptized.  They responded with "probably!" THAT AIN'T A NO SO I'LL TAKE IT. A probably can turn into a YES!  What a miracle, God is aware and I need to place more trust in Him.

Anyway, it's been an awesome (and long) week. Thomas didn't come to church as he had assured us he would. So we are gonna go woop his butt!  Not really but we are going to try to better help him understand the importance of committing to a better understanding of what we are teaching him. Belinda randomly dropped us without a real reason and this made my heart hurt badly. The good news is that we have been working with a less active named Brother Young. He was baptized like 30 years ago and hasn't been to church since, we finally got him to come to church yesterday! It was wonderful and this made my heart tingle with joy! He decided he wants to start working towards receiving the priesthood, so he is going to start coming every week! He is even committed to having us teach him and help him into full activity. So cool! 

I want you to know this is the Lord's work and it's all in His timing! I definitely learned that this week. Anyway, that's all. Make good choices, ya'll. I love you.

Have a good week!! 

--Sister Hannah (I survived food poisoning) Thomas 

Week #11

Hi!!! Happy Easter!!

It has been a great Easter in Ohio. Thanks mom for the cute Easter dress! I felt like a beautiful tropical fish with the color and I love it. The Griffith family invited us for Easter dinner.  They are the most awesome members and I love them. They are an older couple and they remind me of you and Dad (not just because they are old LOL). Sister Griffith made Sister Asay's favorite dessert and she also made my favorite dessert.  That was so nice of her.  The Griffiths are so great to help teach and they are always giving us referrals. I love this ward!! 

This week was pretty boring. We did lots of driving because we had to travel to zone conference and my companion has been sicky, so we had to drive all the way to London (Ohio, not England) for her medical appointment. It's all good though. Zone conference was really awesome. My companion and I had to teach the Restoration in front of the whole zone conference  I wanted to die. I had to teach all the missionaries in our zone. I had a never ending prayer in my heart to help me be calm and not sound like an idiot missionary in front of everyone. Because God loves me, He helped me and I didn't do too bad. I think President and Sister Daines could tell I was nervous because afterwards they were so nice and were like, "You did so great!!"  Much stress. Much anxiety. But Sister Asay and I did it and we are still alive to tell about it.

I had a really awesome experience with Thomas this week! My companion and I have been praying lots to find out what Thomas needs and how we can best help him understand and feel the spirit. We decided we needed to teach him more about Christ. I had a thought and I shared it with Sister Asay, "Thomas is so left-brained that I think he might not understand the Atonement. I said, "He's not going to understand how Christ dying thousands of years ago applies to him and his own personal sins today." I don't know why I said that, I just had this thought and well, I kind of understand Thomas. My companion just kind of brushed off the comment and I just thought I was over thinking things so we went on with our day.  We arrived at Thomas' house.  He is awesome, by the way.  He had finished all the reading we had asked him to do.  We shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with Thomas and while we were talking about the Atonement, Thomas stopped us.  He said, "I just don't understand how Christ dying thousands of years ago applies to me or my sins and mistakes. It doesn't make sense." My companion and I just sat there for a second, speechless but with our mouths wide open. He said the exact thing I had thought just hours before. Luckily, we had both studied and prepared lots to teach him. The spirit was directing and guiding me to help Thomas. It was such a special experience. I could understand the influence of the spirit. We  then told Thomas that he needs to try using the Atonement of Christ in his life before he can fully comprehend how it works. He wants to know and understand, so he said he would try. I also explained to Him that Jesus knows him personally and knows of his trials and mistakes. We issued him some challenges that I think will help him better understand the power of the Atonement. We also extended a baptism invitation to him. He said "that when the Holy Ghost tells him it's right, he would get baptized." He just wants to know and better understand first. I kind of get super frustrated when people say that, but that is a huge step for Thomas!  We now just need to get him to church!!! He really is receptive and he feels the spirit.  He always mentions how he feels so good when we are teaching him and how he wants to feel that way all the time.  I love how the spirit works!  This work is miraculous.

I studied alot in Matthew this week about Christ's Ministry and his last week on Earth. Powerful stuff. Jesus Christ is the LIVING son of God. And because he atoned for our sins, died on the cross, and was resurrected,  we all have the ability to repent and be made clean, and then eventually be resurrected and perfected. But this only comes through Jesus Christ and his selfless acts of love for all of us. God knows us. Jesus Christ knows us. And because of that I feel so much comfort. I know that the Atonement has great healing power and I know that the Savior lives.

I hope ya'll have a good week! Pray it stops down pouring here! I'm sick of the rain!!! Be good!! Or dont!! Whatever!! The Church is true.  It's weird how my thoughts are consumed by the Savior, those that we are serving, and my family.  Sometimes I think about Harry Styles but then I repent! 

Much love!

--Sister Hannah Thomas

Week #10

HI!!!!!!!!

It’s been a long time since I emailed ya'll so I thought I'd send ya'll an update on life...jk. Last time I emailed was Wednesday and nothing that exciting has really happened since then. LOL!

Stephen was confirmed a member of the church and was given the gift of the Holy Ghost at church!! It was such a cool experience to be share with him. He was so happy and the Spirit was so strong. He is going to be given the Aaronic Priesthood next week!! We are planning a temple trip for him as a ward next month! I've never seen anybody more enveloped in the gospel. He has such beautiful insight and his testimony is so strong. I just feel like a proud mom every time he shares his testimony. (':

We extended a baptism challenge to Belinda, again, and she didn't accept, again. She doesn't feel like she has received confirmation from God yet, so she is still waiting. Pray for her!! Hopefully she will find her answer soon!!

We knocked a lot of doors this week and honestly, I really hate knocking doors because I'm so awkward in general.  So can you just imagine me on someone's door step trying to tell them about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith in less than five minutes!! It's terrible. I'm terrible. My companion usually just steps in and takes over for me and I let her because I'm the worst companion in the world, but this week she said she was going to LET me do it all by myself, and I didn't believe it, so we got to this door step and she didn't say ONE WORD. I had to do the whole thing by myself!!! Yikes!! It was terrible!! The guy took a copy of The Book of Mormon, probably because he felt bad for me!! And then when he closed the door my companion said, "Well Sister, at least we got that out of the way, and now you won't be that awful ever again!" We both laughed so hard. It was awkward. I was awkward. I got messed up in the door contact and I said, “Lehi’s family was leaving Babylon instead Jerusalem.” It was GR8. But I (kind of) got over my door knocking fear (hopefully)!  Now, I'm not afraid to speak up a Lil’ bit! Baby steps!!

I do want to share a brief testimony/story about the Holy Ghost. My entire life I have struggled to find how the Holy Ghost talks to me. It's always been hard for me to figure out what is coming from my own brain and what is coming from God through the Holy Ghost. I have been working every day to be better at it as a missionary. I want to be able to recognize a prompting when I have one. So this week when we were knocking doors, we knocked on the door of this woman who wasn't interested, but when we were leaving her house she told us NOT go to her next door neighbor’s house. She said it "wouldn't be a good idea." How creepy (: Right as she said that, I had this feeling that we needed to go next door, creepy or not. I tried to ignore the feeling because I thought I was going NUTS and well, because it was a creepy thing for the woman to say. We walked past the house and I told my companion that we needed to go to that house. She looked at me like I was a crazy person!! I don't blame her!! We went and knocked on the door and the woman who answered looked at our name tags and said "You know, a month ago I would have invited you two ladies inside to argue with you about your beliefs, but last week my son was baptized into the Mormon Church, and he's now a way better person!" She invited us in and we shared with her the new Easter video! She felt the Spirit so strong I know it! Although she didn't want to hear more about the gospel, her heart was touched by the video we got to share. Her heart will continue to soften to where it needs to be one day to hear the message of the Restoration. That was such a testimony builder for me! I acted on the prompting of the Spirit and we were able to meet and talk about Jesus Christ with that woman! Her heart was touched. It was so cool. Always act on your first prompting you guys, even if you think you are NUTS!! It's worth it!!

This Gospel is a gospel of happiness and I'm so happy to be a part of it. I'm so grateful to share God's word with the crazy people of Chillicothe. Some days are really rough and it's hard to find the motivation to keep going, but somehow I find strength and I just keep swimming. When I do, the Lord seems to bless me with some sort of crazy, funny, or beautiful, tender mercy or miracle. Like meeting that woman whose son was baptized, or like walking into Walgreens and hearing One Direction over the speakers!! It happens! Blessings!! Miracles!!  I love this work!  I love the gospel!

Anyway,

I hope you all have a gr8 week. Be good! Pray! Keep the commandments! Remember I love you!

-Sister Hannah Thomas

P.S. Rumor has it that HARRY STYLES RELEASED A SINGLE??? WHAT?!!!?!

Week #9- Transfers

It's transfer week! I'm not transferring, thankfully. That’s why I am e-mailing today instead of Monday.  PDay falls on Wednesdays during transfer weeks. I can't believe I've survived a whole transfer!! It's a miracle I ain't dead yet!!! Seriously, I'm like a lost puppy all day every day, it's a blessing I've survived this long. Hahaha!  But I’m the happiest lost puppy there ever was!

It's been a crazy week! Yesterday was probably the best day I've had on my mission so far! We had an incredible lesson with our dear friend Thomas Walker. Thomas is our friend who loves Brigham Young. He is such a wonderful man. Words can't even describe the love, charity, and kindness that is in his soul. He struggles with faith a lot. He went on LDS.org and watched General Conference and he started talking about Elder Rasband's talk about the God head and the Holy Ghost and he said "I need that ghost to come spook me!" I giggled at that one. We told him that he just might have to take a step into the water before Christ could help hold him up. He used to be a police officer in Chicago and he says “he's seen a lot of bad in the world.” It's hard for him to believe that a loving God would let people be so terrible. He also thinks that he is "damaged goods" and he isn't worthy of love from our Savior. I could relate to that one. I got to share with him my testimony of Heavenly Father and Christ's love for him.  I testified that God has always loved him and that He will always be there for him and we both cried. He looked at me and Sister Asay and said "I don't think it's a coincidence that you ladies ended up on my doorstep." He said a beautiful prayer that made me cry even more. He said in his prayer "Thank you for sending these two angels to my door step to help cure me of my lack of faith and cynicism." I laughed and cried and felt the Spirit so strong. He is going to be baptized. I KNOW IT!

The Lord is blessing Monica so much! She has a friend who said she would be willing to watch her son, Alan, for a couple of hours in the day before her boyfriend gets home so that she can go to work! She has a couple of job offers and she's really excited to start working again! Blessings and miracles!!!

STEPHEN GOT DUNKED LAST NIGHT. It was such a cool/beautiful/ stressful day!! Sister Asay and I basically planned the whole thing by ourselves. We even baked cookies. Yes, MOM I BAKED! Stephen had a huge smile all night and shared a beautiful testimony afterwards. He had a huge turnout from the ward. No family showed up to his baptism, but his ward family did. (:

General Conference was amazing and was a MUCH needed break. We spent Saturday with Brother McCoy (our awesome ward mission leader) and his mom. We were able to relax and watch the first session of conference.  Afterwards, we went to Sister Server's house and baked cookies and watched the second session of conference and then she took us to dinner. Sister Sever is one of the loveliest and kindest human beings I have ever met. She's also a doctor so her house is HUGE and beautiful. *PERKS* She has a cute daughter named Caroline. They are such stalwart members. We spent Sunday at the Church watching conference with Stephen. He ate it up. He loved conference. He took like 6 pages of notes and afterwards kept talking about all of his favorite talks. It was awesome. I have always enjoyed general conference but I learned to greatly appreciate it from Stephen.  He could not contain the excitement he felt and how awesome he thought it was.  A wise old man once said "General Conference is a weekend off with pay" (Burt Roberts). I've never agreed more to something in my entire life. Hahahahahaha! I loved all the talks but I most especially loved Elder Renlund’s talk and Elder Holland’s talk.  I encourage everyone to read those two talks.

I've had such a wonderful week and I've seen so many miracles. God loves us all and He has sent us hear for a divine purpose. I know this to be true.  He is mindful of every single one of us. God is not a fearing God. He is a merciful and loving God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His love for us is unconditional.  There is nothing greater than that.



Quote of the week:

"You're a Mormon? My friend lives in Salt Lake and he's not a Mormon but he says we will all be one when we die!"

-- Some crazy old man we met this week.

The church is true!

Love you all! Be good!

--Sister Hannah Thomas