We matter to Him

Saying "see ya later" to Sister Edwards

Hey y'all! 

It's been a wet week! No worries, we are completely safe from Hurricane Harvey. It looked like it was headed our way for a while but it turns out we'll just be getting a whole lot of rain. We're keeping the people in Texas in our prayers <3

The lovely Sister Beck is my new companion and we've had a great start to the new transfer. It's fun, Sister Beck is one of my good friends in the mission but we've never been able to serve in the same district or zone. Now she's my comp and I am counting my blessings!

We had a pretty cool experience last night. We tracted into this one apartment where a couple seniors were hanging out together. We had a great discussion about religion and science. They are both science majors and they were talking about how compared to everything, the human race is pretty insignificant. We are nothing. It was amazing to be able to answer questions about why we are here, where we are going, and testify of Heavenly Father's individual love for us. 

"This is a paradox of man: compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God."

I stand all amazed at how well Heavenly Father knows each of us and how much He still loves us. It's hard for me to imagine that kind of love, especially as I recognize my own weaknesses and shortcomings.  But I know His love is real. I can't comprehend it and I don't know if I ever will but I am so, so thankful. We matter to Him!

I love y'all. This gospel is true! Have a bless'd week!

<3 Sister Thomas

GREEN DINNER. Bishop and Sister Lambert cooked green pork, green rice and
beans, green cornbread, etc. to celebrate the new "greenies" (new missionaries)
in the district. They even invited President and Sister Varner!

And the adventure begins!!

"do you know what it means to miss new orleans?"

School started yesterday and free speech alley is crazy

Dreams do come true in New Orleans

You can bet we broke our no sugar streak for some cafe du monde beignets

The dream team is breaking up y'all. 

Sister Edwards is heading to New Orleans to open up an area and train. I'll be staying at LSU and the one and only Sister Beck will be joining me! The change was totally unexpected and I'm really going to miss my best friend, but I know this is Heavenly Father's plan and I feel peace. I'm excited and ready to do anything He asks of me. Sister Edwards is going to kill it. I'm excited for her to spread her light to another area of the mission.

The bright side of all of this is we had a rad week! Major highlight: WE WENT TO NEW ORLEANS!!!

Elder Klebingat of the Seventy came to visit our mission and we were lucky enough to hear from him three days in a row. We had a leadership meeting, a zone conference, and he came to the YSA ward for sacrament meeting. The leadership meeting was down in New Orleans. I've been telling Sister Edwards since day 1 that I want to take her to New Orleans and our dreams came true! We took a couple hours out of our Pday so we could explore the French Market and see some sights before the meeting. It was too good to be true!

The meetings were powerful. Elder Klebingat is German and he's great at being bold with love. He honestly threw down on us quite a bit, especially in our first meeting with him, but it was good because it was exactly what we needed. I especially loved his message in zone conference. He talked about consecrating everything we have and all that we are to Heavenly Father. Many of my prayers were answered :)

Some of my favorite little parts:

• Coming unto God is never a negotiation. It is always complete surrender.
• We're called not because we're great but because we have potential to be great
• Understand whose servant you are
• My will is no longer as important as the Lord's will
• Only in complete humility can we approach the throne of God
• All that you think about and do every day is a reflection of your conversion
• The Lord will bless you and make up for everything you're lacking. But you have to be facing the right direction

I love y'all! Put the Lord first and everything else will fall into place. Have an incredible week!

<3 sister thomas

p.s. A shirtless guy passed out while we were teaching him the restoration on his doorstep this week. That was pretty wild.

mission "posterity"

Bishop and Sister Lambert <3 

"Make Jesus Christ a main character in your life"

Back at the mission home....again <3

                               PHILLIP

Pday adventure at the Cajun Village

What a week.

I guess the trio was too good to be true! We got a call from President on Tuesday. There is a sister serving in Alexandria who had to go home for health reasons so there was a lot of switching around and President needed Sister Crayton in Marksville. We packed everything up again and headed to the mission home! It's kind of funny how much we've been there lately. We joke about how the last couple of weeks we've been spending more time in the mission home than out of it. We love it; the Varners are amazing. 

We got to spend the night there with Sister Johnson, who was my companion in the MTC! Sister Edwards, Sister Johnson, and I didn't expect to be back together in the mission home for a good while longer. It was a blast! 

....And then there were two. We jumped back in our area and hit the ground running trying to make up for basically dropping our area for a couple weeks. Heavenly Father is really good though, fall semester doesn't start until next week anyway so the few people we were working with will be moving back in the next couple weeks. We're excited to see this beautiful campus filled with people!

Y'all, Sister Edwards is incredible. We were talking this week and she was explaining how Jesus Christ is the true main character of the Book of Mormon. She told me we all need to "make Jesus Christ a main character in your life". I love that!

Have a great week! I love y'all!

<3 sister thomas

Don't worry, we were only companions for 4 days,
but we took enough pictures to last a transfer

Trying to predict the next wild change

Too good to be true

Plot Twist

It was a close call, y'all

Exchanges with my girl Sister Pedro

Hey y'all, I have some exciting news! We had a fun little surprise this week....we're in a trio! We picked cute Sister Crayton up from the airport on Saturday. We had assumed we'd be taking her back to her area but luckily we get to keep her! She'll be our companion for at least the next couple weeks until transfers. We didn't see this coming at all but it is a major blessing. Y'all, Sister Crayton is so rad! Now I have two incredible companions. Heavenly Father is just pouring down those blessings.

Speaking of blessings, the work is picking up here. Students are starting to move back in for school so this "ghost town" is about to start poppin! We had some solid appointments set for the week and I can't even tell you how much of a tender mercy that is. Even if they fall through, the fact that they were set in the first place is a miracle. The next couple weeks are gonna be crazy with lots of exchanges, adjustments, and good old hard work and I couldn't be happier. Life is good!

We had zone conference this week and it got me excited about where the mission is headed. I learned a lot about the missionary I want to be. A common theme on my mission has been focusing on my intentions and where my heart is at. I want to give my all to Heavenly Father and that means not just doing the right thing, but doing the right thing for the right reasons. I'm not great at it. I mess up a lot. But when I try to do good things out of my love for my Savior, not out of hope for reward of fear of consequence, that's when I am happiest. Outward "success" doesn't really make a difference in the end; true happiness comes when I'm working hard and loving the Lord. So no matter what happens, no matter what role Heavenly Father has me play in helping others come unto Christ, I want to come home at the end of the hardest days and just thank Heavenly Father for allowing me to serve. I love being a missionary.

I hope y'all have a great week. I love you!

Sister Thomas

The LSU dream team

Up on top of the state capital building