Sunshine and "merry half Christmas"

 Exchanges with Sister Kezos <3 New Iberia is cajun country
and borders Opelousas so it felt like coming home <3

Hey y'all!! 

Good news: we didn't get hit by the tropical storm Cindy! We heard a lot about it and were getting ready for lock down but we ended up just getting a bunch of rain instead. Sister Edwards and I both love the rain so we had some good times tracting and dancing in the rain. Life is good! So much rain and yet so much sunshine in my life.

Speaking of sunshine...y'all. Sister Edwards is incredible. We have been so happy together and have been able to work hard and give everything to this area. Something I love about her is her ability to make the best of any situation. We have so much fun because we laugh everything off and find the joy in every day. Yesterday we celebrated HALF CHRISTMAS. It's a running joke from when we celebrated our first "half Christmas" (June 25th) as a joke in the MTC. So of course we set up a Christmas tree and listened to Christmas music all day!

Monday was a bit of a mess. We were so excited for Alex to come to FHE and meet the ward for the first time. It was going alright until we were playing reverse charades and our Bishop elbowed Alex really hard in the face. Like she was bleeding. She was a total champ and was a good sport about it. The great thing about it is she is solid and so ready for the gospel that even a solid elbow to the face didn't phase her. 

Alex is a literal light and glows a bit brighter every time we see her. We've only been teaching her for a week and a half and I can't believe the growth we've seen in her. She has already read through 2 Nephi in the Book of Mormon, she's come to church and three activities this week, and she just craves the spirit. She is going to be baptized July 8th! Alex is a miracle and she is exactly what this ward needs.

My testimony of prayer has grown so much this transfer. I know without a doubt Heavenly Father loves us, hears us, and answers our prayers. When we take the time to talk to Him - to really open our heart to Him and listen for what He has to say, we see miracles. I don't know why I'm so lucky to have the gospel in my life and to know that I can turn to Heavenly Father and rely on Him for everything. But it sure makes me excited to share that knowledge with others! I love being a missionary.

I love y'all! I hope you find sunshine in your lives this week. Have a blessed one! 

Sister Thomas

Half Christmas festivities

Cute Sis Edwards at the Red Cross

"Can we be best friends? I don't have any white girl friends!"

Stake Conference yesterday with Elder Parker (Y'all this guy speaks like a baptist preacher and it was just the best thing)

Riding the ferry for exchanges part 2

Hey y'all!!

It was a week packed full of miracles. I am so in awe of Heavenly Father and His tapestry of love and individual plans for each of us. It's incredible as a missionary to get a glimpse of that love and thought He puts into the lives of those I'm serving. I truly get a front row seat at watching the atonement of Jesus Christ change people's lives.

My favorite miracle right now is Alex. To make a long story short we got a phone call from Sister Ory, a member in Covington about our fourth day in the area. She explained that Alex reached out to her son who is on a mission in California. Alex was going through a really tough time and she remembered how happy the Ory's were and recognized the light they had. She recognized that the light they carried came from being members of the church! Because of some hard things that just happened, Alex didn't feel comfortable meeting with Elders. Sister Ory was called us and we explained to her that we had JUST been put into the area! There weren't sisters at LSU before. Again, I am just so amazed at Heavenly Father's plan. There have been so many moments in Alex's life that have prepared her for this moment. We met with Alex this week and she is so ready for the gospel! 

When we pray in specifics, God answers in specifics. Something Sister Edwards and I have started focusing on recently is praying for specific experiences. We'll talk about the people we meet and ask ourselves "What kind of experience should we pray for this person to have?" Then we pray together for them and work as hard as we can to allow it to happen. Heavenly Father is so good and I know He is answering our prayers. The work continues to move forward, one little miracle at a time.

I love y'all! Have an amazing week. 

Sister Thomas

We took a tracting break to take a picture with Mike the Tiger...

 ....and ended up teaching this cute girl about the Book of Mormon! She's excited
to meet with the missionaries in Lafayette and learn more. God is so good!

ONE YEAR

Sis Edwards is the cutest and made this adorable sign

Huge tender mercy: We got to see Sister Johnson at MLC on our one year! All of us back together again was a
dream come true (these Elders were in the MTC at the same time as us, we just didn't know them then)

Tracting adventures :)

This week at LSU has been full of firsts!

·         Our first time teaching Isis (not the terrorist group, just our cool new friend who is very prepared for the gospel)

·         Our first time at Free Speech Alley! Free Speech Alley is a sidewalk on LSU campus where different groups can set up tables and talk to students. It's the only place on campus we are technically allowed to proselyte so we set up there a couple days a week and contact people. I thought it might be intimidating but it was actually really fun! We talked to a lot of people and were able to find some great potential investigators. This is going to be an amazing finding tool.

·         Our first time volunteering with the Red Cross. Our mission is doing something new where we're pairing up with Red Cross and all the missionaries spend a couple hours each week volunteering. So this week we got to put on some fancy vests and teach people about fire safety and install fire alarms. Kind of random, but it was an adventure.

This week made ONE YEAR that I've been serving Jesus Christ here in Louisiana. The time has flown by like crazy. I remember when I first came out Sister Amezcua told me she was jealous of the amount of time I had left. I thought she was crazy. I had 18 months left! As excited as I was to serve it felt like a pretty long time. Now I look at the new missionaries coming out and I am honestly jealous of the time they have left. Don't get me wrong, the mission is really tough. But it is also so beautiful. The mission is a roller coaster of moments that build up to life changing and eternity shaping experiences. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

I forgot to mention it last week but Sister Edwards and I came out together so it was fun to celebrate our year mark together and reminisce on all our MTC adventures. I am not the same person I was a year ago. I'm not even the same person I was last week, or yesterday. Being a missionary is an incredible opportunity to rely on the Savior and make changes every day that lead me closer to Him. 

It's not that I am any greater; but I do have greater faith in Jesus Christ. I am quite human. I have more weaknesses than I can count and I fall down a lot. But something I love about the mission is it strips you away from everything. When I have a tough day I can't call my mom, or a friend, or rely on outside sources. When life gets too hard to handle I turn to Jesus Christ and He is my strength. This is how it should always be! I am incredibly grateful for this and everything else I continue to learn on this crazy journey. 

I love y'all! Have an incredible week and remember this crazy missionary loves and is praying for you. 

Love,

Sister Thomas

One of the many, many things I love about Sis Edwards is she loves the Louisiana rain just as much as I do

Our first day at Free Speech Alley 

 We helped set up for the YSA multi stake dance

Life at LSU

Putting our investigators in our brand new area book

(we accidentallymatched/clashed every day this week)

The Plan of Salvation on campus

This cool guy read the Book of Mormon with us!

Y'all, what a week!

Sister Edwards and I were walking out to our car on our first morning here. We were being positive and pumping each other up about the day! Sister Edwards exclaimed, "Adventure is out there!"......and then she slipped on some mud and fell flat on her back. After I knew she was okay we both laughed really hard about it and decided it was the perfect start to our time at LSU together. 

One of these days I'm going to wake up and realize that all of this is a dream. I'm so excited to be serving at LSU with Sister Edwards. I should probably be more nervous to be opening an area where we have no investigators, no area book, don't know how to get around, etc. but honestly I'm way happy and excited to be here. It's cool to be able to start fresh and get the work moving. 

We've had a running joke that we were going to baptize ALL of our investigators this week (because we had none lol). But it turns out Heavenly Father had other plans for us! We ended up finding a good amount of new investigators and actually have some appointments this week. So between that and spending time finding other investigators we'll be keeping ourselves busy. It's great to see Heavenly Father's hand moving the work along. We have nothing to do with it, but He has big plans for LSU. I'm lucky to be here to work hard and see Him work miracles.

Some exciting parts of LSU:

 - We have a bayou right outside our front door

 - It rains every day (I'm in love with the Louisiana summer rainstorms)

 - We taught a lesson to our neighbor. We invited her to pray and she grabbed her scarf and knelt down and did a full out Muslim prayer. It was beautiful and so rad!

 - We were walking on campus and the bell tower went off. Sister Edwards and I looked at each other and wondered why the bell tower wasn't playing hymns! (#BYUproblems)

I love y'all!! Have an incredible week!

Sister Thomas

New Address:

1645 Brightside Dr. #168

Baton Rouge, LA 70820

Wow I'm just so happy to be here

Sister Edwards is SO STINKIN CUTE