Thomas News:

This letter from a week and a bit ago:

"My trainer, Elder Harris, is going home this transfer. He gave a "Farewell" call and gave me his email. If it's okay, I'll probably send you an email for him next week- this week we are somewhat pressed for time.

The dedication has worked amazingly this week. I find that as I continue to re-dedicate myself every day, and really involve the Lord in the work, He does absolute wonders. On Saturday for example, I'm on the bus to a place called New Vilnius- It's a small town just outside the city with a VERY large Russian population (well, larger than Vilnius' 30-40% anyway). Bus rides are not simply transport to Baltic missionaries- they're prime contacting times. I managed to set up two meetings thanks to riding to and from New Vilnius- One with a father of a 13 yr old kid (Finding families are really stressed in the mission- them and priesthood holders) and with of a guy who looked like he really needed the Lord in his life (in fact, the song that came to mind was "A poor wayfaring man of grief"- which I know in Russian now, well, first verse). Both of them were named Vidas and we have appointments with them today.

On Monday I also met Alec, a nice kid who listened intently as I told him about the Joseph Smith story. He works at one of the Pizza chains in Vilnius and is the first Russian Orthodox in his family. I'm really excited about meeting him, I see a lot of strength in him. Finally, yesterday morning, I met another kid, also named Vidas (I think there's a pattern here). He also agreed to meet with us and talk to us about prayer. We tried calling him last night, but to no avail. Will try again today, because it seems that his phone was just turned off. Since dedicating myself, I've somewhat been on fire.

Now, instead of contacting maybe 1 or 2 people on every bus, I contact the whole thing. The standard for missionaries in the Baltics is 10 contacts per-day. This is outside of planned street-contacting and tracting. I'm now contacting somewhere between 13-20 each day thanks to the Lords help. And I'm seeing results. Of course, I get some funny experience. One kid, riding for free on the bus, thought I was trying to check his ticket- which he didn't have. Another lady told one guy not to look me in the eyes or I'll hypnotise him. It's actually Jedi mind tricks we use, but they can call it what they want. "

And this from this weeks letter:

"I know you want to get details about my life as well as my missionary labours, but one problem exists there- My life IS my missionary labours.

But in the spirit of telling you the *minutest* details possible, my flat is kinda ordinary. There's not a whole lot of difference between it and the flat I had in Tallinn. They are, of course, small and nothing fancy. But they are warm and that is very encouraging, particularly in this weather.

Elder Lind is from Utah, near Logan. He's an awesome bloke (excuse my using any excuse to use Australian slang), very loving and dedicated to finding more effective ways to find investigators. Him and I get into very in-depth discussions occasionally about what we consider to be gospel truths. Example he believed that if mankind's knowledge was perfect they could arrange enough matter to make themselves immortal and to create planets, I maintained that Resurrection into Godhood was necessary for us to even begin to do that. These conversations get more in-depth as we try to defend our claims- never to any harsh feelings.

President Watterson, to be simple, is a man with incredible energy everything he says he says with gusto and enthusiasm. He is incredibly warm, friendly and knows what the Baltic Mission needs.

Lithuania continues to be both wonderful and strange. For example the snow that was laid inches thick on the ground just last week has melted by virtue of (of all things) rain, which has continued on-and-off for a while. However, having lived in Australia, and Utah for that matter, even the rain looks alien- there's so much of it. And people say even stranger things. So far I've spoken to two men who have told me that unless I could pay them, we couldn't talk. I've made a mental note to tell them that salvation isn't something you buy.

Speaking about salvation, for a couple of days this week, I was sick with what Sister Watterson called "intestinal flu". Not a nice feeling, partly because of the sickness and partly because of the fact that I did VERY little work because of it. But by the time we figured out what it was, I was on the upswing. Actually, at first she thought it might be just plain fatigue and counselled me that milk and cookies before bed would help. I couldn't help but laugh a little. It was the strangest remedy I'd ever heard.

As for the work (there, NOW I'm talking about my life). I don't know how much I've told you about these two- Pjoter and his daughter, Taisia- but Pjoter is an inactive member from a long time ago, stopped coming to church because he felt that he couldn't pay tithing, and therefore didn't feel worthy to attend. Taisia had been given the Children's book of Mormon ages back, but that had really been all the work that had happened with her. Well, in the last few weeks, working with them has taken a real upswing. The last week of last transfer, we spoke with Pjoter like missionaries had been doing forever. This time, however, we asked to speak to Taisia as well. I told them the Joseph Smith story, about the Book of Mormon, and shared my testimony of the Book, which included telling about how the book had blessed my family for generations. We then offered Taisia a copy. She stood a little nervous and looked to her dad to pull her out of it. This is the sort of thing that Pjoter normally does (like, almost every time). He didn't this time, he seemed to show a desire for Taisia to have the Book of Mormon. She took it and in the course of a week, read the first verse. Next time we met we read the whole 1st chapter with them. Wow! She loved it, you could hear it in her tone as she read with us. Between then and this week they had read, as Father and Daughter up to the middle of 1 Nephi 4. Last night, we read Lehi's dream with them. This time there was beauty in it. Both Pjoter and Taisia read together just loving the scriptures. After we read, we needed to go, but we left them with a few pondering questions and a commitment to read up to 1 Nephi 11 before our next meeting. After the closing prayer, Taisia runs to get a piece of paper and a pen and draws perfectly the Tree of Life vision with labels indicating exactly what they represented. This family is drawing closer together in the Lord, and I'm excited for their futures.

Other than that, we have been really working with members. We have so far committed two people to find someone (very specific as to who) we could speak with. It's exciting, because I can sense good things on the horizon."