All About Tom's Mission

I just realized today that I have never once done a post about Tom's mission. I write about how much I love, and I whine about waiting, and I talk about the fact that he's a missionary, but I've never posted how his mission is going. And I think I'm going to start posting updates. I wish I had been all along.

So! Tom's been out for a little over a year now. August 8 marked 13 months out in the mission field. He has been serving in the Boise, Idaho mission which means he covers Boise and the surrounding cities. As a missionary, he teaches people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He teaches, performs baptisms, does service work, and all the while grows closer to God and builds a stronger testimony. It will be the best two years of his life.

Tom's been doing great. He absolutely loves being a missionary and serving a mission. He has met tons of great people, seen many lives changed for the better, has grown so much, and has built amazing friendships. But he has also had hard times. He's seen people grow close to God but suddenly pull away and abandon the faith they had briefly found. He has sicknesses and injuries. He's had to deal with "Mormon Haters" who harass and hassle him and his companion. But overall, without a doubt, it has been an amazingly wonderful experience for him.

He's had several different companions. Most of them he's gotten along great with, but there's been a couple where they really butt heads. Some have become his best friends, others he probably won't ever speak to again after the mission. Recently he became a trainer and has been training his current companion, Elder Garcia. Elder Garcia is a "greenie" - a missionary fresh out of the MTC. They get along extremely  well. Tom says they are best friends, and they want to go to school together when they both finish their mission. And now, now Tom's been called as a Distric Leader. The mission is divided into companionships, distics, and zones, with companships being the smallest (that's the pairs of missionaries you always see) and the zones being the largest grouping of missionaries. So Tom is now the leader of the district he is a part of. 

His area he is in right now is doing great! The last couple weeks he and Elder Garcia have had many many lessons. Usually, as companions they do about a dozen lessons a week. The past couple weeks they've had over 30 and two weeks ago they had 41! The work is progressing at an incredible rate! It's amazing!

It's always so great to hear from Tom. You can just hear and feel all the excitement and passion and joy in his letters. It really is an amazing experience, the experience of a lifetime. He is growing so much, in his faith, in his character, in patience, in honor, in every way possible.