Thomas News

I've just gotten the Blog Stuff- all wonderful, of course. But why don't I get any letter from you guys? I'm kinda desperate to hear about Max's Baptism.

Good week so far. The remainder of last was definitely one of those "Trials of your faith". None of our meetings worked out for about 3 days. Then on Sunday we found one amazing, very humble young guy named Yuri. He lives with his girlfriend, and has a 3 month old child, but is still very receptive to the spirit. We'll let you know how he progresses.

The last three days have been some of the most amusing on my mission thus far. I went tracting with my district leader on Monday while on splits. In this mission we rarely tract houses, the majority of Latvia's population lives in large apartment complexes. Anyway, we found in one apartment complex a homeless man sleeping on the top floor. My district leader was a little creeped out. He told me that he had never seen that before. I told him I had once- in Vilnius. It certainly makes you feel old when you have had experiences in the mission field that your district leader has not yet encountered.

Other experiences involve two from last night: first of which was a drunk man who came over to talk to us. This happens more times than I would prefer. We asked him if he had been drinking (as if we couldn't tell- vodka leaves a stench on you that can knock a grown man unconscious). He said he had. We asked if it was some sort of holiday today- prime drinking time in Latvia. His reply was "Well... it's Tuesday." Such is the attitude toward drinking in Latvia- any excuse will do.

The second was an elderly lady we knocked into. She told us she wasn't interested, and we left. before we could knock on the door next to hers, she told us "Don't knock on that one, they're all Russians. They're always drunk. So is the next door, all drunkards. Now the door after that one. Those are good Latvians. You want that door." She was probably the most racist lady I've met in Latvia- and that's a big call.

Other than that, not a whole lot happening this week. We tracted into a lady named Regina that we want to go back to tomorrow. My Companion and I are just giving it all we got to find people this transfer, and it's showing off.

I've been reading a little out of "Jesus the Christ" lately and have been incredibly impressed by the trials of our Saviour. One thing that impressed me the most has been his temptations during his forty-day fast, and Satan comes to tempt him to turn stones to bread. It says that the temptation was not to eat, but to heed to the word "if". To have Christ doubt his divine sonship and think "If I'm the son of God, surely God would not let me suffer like this. Why would he?" I'm led to think of our own trials in our life. Many times it is tempting to think "is it right that we should suffer like this?" I was particularly thinking so last week, when it seemed like everything in my area was falling down around me. I began to wonder if God actually cared about anything I did. I have since come to realize that Satan's temptations are universal. Not just the temptation to do what is not right, but to think incorrectly about our relationship to our Heavenly Father. I know that our Heavenly Father has a sincere and deep love for all of us- and that love isn't removed simply by the presence of trial (see Romans 8:35-39).

Well, that's all from me this week. If you can give me some last-minute details about Max's baptism, please do. I'm kinda desperate. I love you all.

Then he got my letters and replied - a bit sad:

Don't worry I'm getting them. That section in "Jesus the Christ" helped me put a lot into perspective. I ended up with not only a better understanding about My Heavenly Father or about Christ, but about my place as a witness of him. I'm not gonna deny, last week was one of the most difficult of my mission. one of those weeks where you just feel like you're trying to nail jelly to a wall. I was lucky to have have the help of a Good district leader, a companion who told him I needed help and the help of the spirit to give me even greater insight.

Then it got tragic:

If you look in the chapter that talks a little about his baptism, (I think, I was kinda just flipping through) there is a part in there about his 40 day fast. I'm coping fine. Sunday at church was very difficult for me. I went into the library there, locked myself in and started praying as hard as I could- I had found before that this was the best way to find relief. Some opened the library, I presume they saw me because they closed a while afterwards, I never really payed attention. Somehow or other my companion found out, told my district leader that I was having troubles and he spoke to me later on (which helped a lot). I guess I really just felt beaten. I was never at the point of wanting to go home- I knew full well that no matter how hard things got here, going home before I had fulfilled my duty to God would just make things worse, if for no other fact than I would have feel ashamed beyond my strength to bear it. As a missionary I have felt temporarily beaten at times, but never ashamed for what I have done here. And I don't see that changing in the near future. What I felt was that I was going nowhere, like I was doing more harm than good. The long and short of the whole situation is that Satan worked hard on me this week. He knows missionaries make great "trophies" if he can win them over, which makes him zealous when using his powers on them.