Thomas News

Ouch! My heart bleeds for Dad! The operation sounds like VERY painful business. Hope he's getting some actual rest instead of doing working around the house (which is what "rest" has meant in the past).

Well, something of a landmark for the transfer happened yesterday- we finally knocked over a whole suburb. Elder Berryhill and I had been tracting pretty much every night this transfer in only one suburb of Daugavpils. Now between us and the sisters (who have been tracting in our area behind our backs, mongrels) the area is now pretty much invalid at least for a year. And we've gotten some pretty good investigators out of it.

The family I told you about, and Nina, who now has a baptismal date. A little bit about them now, by the way. Nina has now finished the Book of Mormon. It's very impressive, because she only got the Book a little over a week before. She's an old lady and stays at home a lot, so I think she had plenty of time. The problem is getting her to pray. She's really lacking desire.

The Family are still wonderful. The parents have baptismal dates for the 17th of August and the children are now calling us the "uncles". It was very cute. We took two of their children to sacrament on Sunday, for non member's they were dressed very well. Maxim (9) was dressed a little punky, but still clean. Karina (10), looked like I may as well have been taking Simone to church. It was hard not to think that I was.

At church that day, Aleksandra also came. It was so good to see her again. We still need to hold off before we speak to her. That Devil of a daughter I think is still ready to kill her if she sees us again.

This week we had one Elder get very sick. To all future missionaries- Do everything you can to stay in good health. In this mission, every district is essentially made up of two companionships of Elders (who each handle one side of the city) and one Companionship of sisters (who take care of all the women), so if one missionary gets sick both companionships have their effectiveness cut in half at least for a day, one missionary will look after the sick Elder, while the other two go out and try to fit two days of work into one day. It's no fun at all.

My companion just gave me some VERY disturbing news. Missionaries are now no longer going to be sent to Russia. They are closing the whole country down. It will be a two year process, where all the missionaries trying to go there will finish their missions there. But aside from that, it's game over there, at least for now.

Louisa, tell me about the kids who were teasing you, I can't beat them up yet, but I can make a list. Well, that's all from me this week. I love you all, and hope you are well.

And my birthday letter:

Dear Mum,
I think now is a good time to wish you a Happy Birthday for yesterday. I want to thank you for having written to me every week. It amazing, but not all missionaries get that. I knew one missionary who didn't get a single letter or email for his first three weeks in the field. I wanted to send him one of yours to him, and tell him to insert his family members names where appropriate. There of course have been hard times as I've tried to serve here. But it is always comforting and encouraging when I read your letters. You know how you don't know what you got 'til it's gone? I guess it's a similar idea.
Love you,Tom.