Poppin Week - Mission Week 21

"Our daily discipleship will determine our eternal destiny.

Kevin W. Pearson 

Heyo this week was poppin as the title suggests. Where do I start.....

Awesome Thing 1 -

On Monday, we had an appointment with a Less Active family that I've been trying to get in with for casi 3 months. Every time we have had a "lesson" with them the house is crazy. There's like 5 kids running around holding tablets and phones and each one has a different show playing at full volume. Just about the worst environment to feel the spirit. We have been trying to teach this family's 9/yo kid because he hasn't been baptized. When we got into the house for this appointment, it was like a completely different house. The 9y/o was listening, the Dad was listening, the other kids were just quietly playing... it was amazing. We ended up giving the kid a "Book of Mormon Stories" book and he was super excited! He is now preparing to be baptized in April. His dad hasn't been to Church in years and committed to us that he would make whatever changes necessary so he can come back and eventually baptize his son. 

Awesome Thing 2 - 

A member told us he saw a Mexican walking around a pond and so we went to go check it out. Turns our there was some temporary housing where people who come here to work during harvest live. We got let inside and ended up teaching 5 of them about the Restoration and gave away the copies of the BoM we had. We ran out to our car to grab more and when we came back they were all reading it already! It was super awesome. We went back yesterday and taught 1 more person so if you are keeping track that's 7 new people to teach this week! That's a pretty unheard-of number for Basin City so we are stoked. 

Awesome Thing 3 - 

Zone Conference in Pasco was Wednesday! Car inspections happened and we get to keep our Car :) We talked about finding a lot and then President White taught us about repentance. It was really a great time. 

Awesome Thing 4 - 

Edgar is still on date for baptism! Please pray for him, he's so ready. He just needs to make the final decision and commit.

Awesome Thing 5 - 

This super nice little puppy followed us across town and so we had to drive all the way back and drop it off where we found it. (Pic included) 

Welp nothing else is coming to me right now. Time is flying, I can't believe this transfer is basically halfway through. I'm pretty sure this is the last of my time in Basin City so I've gotta make it count! Thank you for all the prayers on my behalf! 

- Elder Thompson 

Washington Kennewick Mission

8202 W. Quinault Ave, Ste D

Kennewick, WA 99336

Fotos: 

1. Facebook Profile Pic attempt
2. Nice view
3. This is Elder Harmon. Idk how/when this got on my phone. 
4. The aforementioned perrito

El carro más elegante - Mission Week 20

 "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" 

Matthew 6:21

¡Buuuuenos Dias! ¡Que semana tan padre! 

This week started out with a call from our Mission Driving Coordinator that we should drive all the way to Kennewick on Tuesday to pick up a new car! We had one of the oldest cars in the whole mission and it honestly didn't suit our area. That poor little Corolla got so beat up because someone *cough cough* E. Barlow  didn't clean the nice Nissan Rogue that was in Basin City before I got here; so they took it away. But anyways, we went into town and 5 hours later after some confusion and paperwork we drove a schnazzy 2019 Chevy Equinox home. It had like 80 miles on it when we got it! It'll probs be a while before I drive another car as new as this one. I'm the designated driver even though E. Harmon is the Sr. Comp. his vision is too bad to drive. We're still trying to figure out all the features and functions it has but we love it so far! 

We had 3 lessons with the main person we are teaching, Edgar. We're very hopeful he will get baptized this month, he just needs to recognize the miracles that have happened in his life and take that leap of faith! Please pray for him! 

We also spent some time this week knocking some random doors which doesn't happen too often in this area. There so few houses and people here, there are very few people that I haven't met. But we did manage to talk to 6 people I'd never met before this week so that was good. 

I'm sure some of you saw the new thing about the safety videos that we have to watch. Honestly they're super entertaining. We're allowed to watch videos on Gospel Library and LDS.org during dinner and stuff. Basically The Safety Zone is a gold mine, we watched it all this week. I kinda wish all the episodes were available to everyone, but at the same time I see why they didn't do that. They talk about some pretty serious situations. 

Funny story this week (hopefully...I thought it was hilarious but it might not make sense)

We went by a Less Active's house and for some reason there were just Chickens, Goats and Pigs everywhere. Now, those things aren't uncommon in Basin City...but they were just wandering around and in trees and stuff. I have some pics. Anyway we didn't know if this was normal or not so we texted the owner just to let him know. We sent a very detailed text just letting him know about what was going on, to let us know if he needs help, etc. After about 3 hours we got a response from him that just said, "Asi se ponen en la tarde." Now, roughly that translates to "That's how they get in the afternoon" We happened to be telling this story to the other Spanish Missionaries around and it was just super funny. It was probably a combination of how useless of an answer it was from our original text and as well that it just sounds funny in spanish. I dunno if that makes any sense or not but "Asi se ponen en la tarde" is the new phrase is North Pasco now :) 

 We got to visit with a bunch of active members this week. One of them in particular shared his conversion story of how he was so depressed for 3 years that he didn't talk to anyone. This was serious enough to the point that people thought he was autistic because he didn't talk to people. He didn't have direction or meaning to life. Then he found the missionaries and felt like he should talk to them! Fast forward 30 years and he's a happy business owner with a wonderful, eternal family. This story really touched me because it made me realize that when we truly understand the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it does give us a sense of direction. It leads us to true happiness. 

If you want to learn more about this, or need to remind yourself of why this is important, head to ComeUntoChrist.org :) Or email me, I'd love to talk about it!

Les amo muchisimo! 

- Elder Thompson

Fotos(I know they're bad): 

1. Like 40 chickens in a tree
2. Cerdo
3. Elder Thompson and Elder Harmon (some local members texted this to E. Thompson's mom)

Trespassing - Mission Week 19

I'm gonna start doing a quote at the beginning of each email

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably...He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of....You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."

C. S. Lewis

Welp, transfers are complete and Elder Harmon, my new companion, is getting settled in to Basin City. He came from a much more populated area so he's kinda been in shock how we do anything around here without endless doors to knock. He's from Riverton, UT (probs like 10 mins away from my house) so that was a cool connection. 

We had a very eventful week. As missionaries we keep track of all the people we talk to each week and this week we talked to 11 which is pretty crazy. Our average is like 2 conversations per week. Other areas you get >11 per day sometimes haha.

Back to the beginning of this week when Elder Barlow was still here, we went around and said goodbye to a bunch of families. That picture that my mom sent last week is of the Shaw family and they always like to take pictures with every Elder that comes to BC. They're pretty great! We also said goodbye to the Holst family and devised a little plan to spook E. Harmon when he came. 

The whole first day E. Harmon was here I was planting seeds of doubt that our visit with the Holsts might fall through because 'they're very busy people' and 'we scheduled it a long time ago so maybe they forgot.' We get up to there house at 8pm and go knock on the door a few times. No answer, the house is dark. 

E. Harmon says, "Well looks like they aren't home" 

I just say, "yeah. They're super nice though and probably wouldn't mind if we grab a snack" then I just open the door and walk into the completely dark house. 

E. Harmon was pretty shocked and just timidly followed me in saying things like, "Uhhh Elder are we actually doing this." "What are you doing?" "We are literally tresspassing right now and we just taught a lesson about Sustaining and Upholding the Law!!" Then as soon as we got to the fridge all the lights turn on and the entire Holst family came out and spooked him. 

It was pretty great, we had it all planned 2 days in advance. We had a few ways to check with them before hand that they would actually be home. The Holsts are all just so funny and love doing that kind of stuff with the missionaries. We had a great visit afterwards too :) 

Other stuff, 

• Because of transfers I got the good bed and the good desk at home :)
• We had a really good lesson with Edgar this week and we're pretty sure he's going to get baptized this month :) 
• We got in with an unusual amount of Less Actives. Most of them I have only seen once in 3 months :) 
• New Pizza place opened in Connell :) 
• E. Harmon kicked the meanest dog in our area and earned the nickname Elder "Alpha Dog" Harmon :)
• I spoke so much Spanish this week, it was crazy :)

Alrighty well I think that's about it, sorry no pics I'll try to remember to grab one with E. Harmon but as for now I'll just send a meme that was made with E. Barlow's face.. Fellow Spanish missionaries will appreciate :) 

Transfers otra vez - Mission week 18

Buenas Dias Hermanos y Hermanas!

This week was super fast. I ended up going to Connell for almost two days. Elder Barlow had to interview Louisa in Connell for her Baptism. That whole day I stayed in Connell and helped Elder Wood plan a bunch of stuff for the baptism. It was a great learning experience! 

The rest of the week we did what we could to find some people and set up lessons. We contacted a few referrals from members, none of them were interested. 

We did try to set up a super awesome lesson with a PMF we are teaching. We had this whole plan to do a BoM + Bible matching game where we show how the Book of Mormon and the Bible are similar, but then it snowed on Sunday so they cancelled on us. The snow seems to keep getting in our way haha. We just moved it back a week so if I don't get transferred, it'll be awesome.

Speaking of transfers we're just sitting here waiting for the transfer call, hopefully it comes soon because I titled this email 'Transfers' and I don't wanna change it :)  

We got to go to the baptism in Connell on friday, it went super well. She was pretty nervous and it was nice to see the relief on her face when it was all over :) 

Pretty short email this week, but it flew by honestly so I don't really have anything else to talk about!

Cool Scripture this week: D&C 67: 10 - about Humility 

Ok just got the transfer call, looks like I'm stayin in Basin for another transfer! I'll be receiving Elder Harmon. Elder Barlow is headed to Boardman, OR and he's pretty pumped. 

Les amo!

- Elder Thompson

No rules - Mission week 17

¡Buenas Tardes!

Well I'm sure you all have heard by now... there aren't rules for missionaries anymore...apparently we can call home every week. At least that has been the joke around here haha. Any time someone asked a question about how we do something the answer now is, "Well you can do whatever. There are no rules any more since we can call home every week :) " Also, "Hey I'm kinda bored I think I'm going to call my Mom" is a classic. We'll see how this goes haha

This week was pretty solid. We were allowed to drive a little bit more this week so we could actually get to 75% of our area haha. We had a few more lessons with some part member families and made some good plans for events this week. We also put Edgar on date for Baptism! He told Elder Barlow and Elder Stopa (On exchanges) that this weird thing happened where he was falling asleep and he heard someone say, "The Church is True" over and over again. Then he realized it was him saying it! He told us about this and we straight up told him that's an amazing answer to all the praying and reading he's been doing. He is trying to blow it off as not an answer but we are too stubborn to let that happen :) He said if he feels ready, he will be baptized on Apr. 1st. We made sure it wasn't a joke, he just randomly said that date. 

Today was my first temple day in the mission! We got up early and made the hour drive to the Colombia River Temple in Richland. It was super great, I really like our temple. It's one of Pres. Hinckley's 'Small temples' So that was new for me, growing up in Utah. 

Funny story for the week, we were going to a return appt. waaaay out in the boonies and there's always this super happy dog that jumps on us. We were opening the gate and Elder Barlow apparently dropped his glove. Unbeknownst to us, the dog swooped in and grabbed his glove and started to taunt us, just staying far enough away so we couldn't catch him. Eventually the dog ran way into the field (through a barbed wire fence), dropped the glove, and came back smiling :). I told comp, "you know you have to go get that right, we can see it right there." 

We decide that I'll distract the dog with my gloves and he'll try to sneak out and grab his glove. As soon as he squeezes through the fence, he steps on a stick. Like it was straight out of a movie, the dog looks... then bolts. I yell for Elder Barlow to ¡run! and he just starts trucking through a foot of snow waaay out into this field while the dog chases him. With a dive, he barely made it :) It was soooo funny I was dead. 

Bonus story: we accidentally left the mission and had to call President :) It was dark and we were way out in the boonies so we just totally missed the turn. After that I saw a mountain lion walking around so that was cool.

Transfers are next week, which is crazy....I'll be done being trained and I'll be 4 months into my mission. I decided to kick up my language study this week so I've been translating Ensign + Liahona articles Eng -> Spa. and Spa -> Eng. in my free time. 

Something I've been thinking about a lot this week is James 1:5-8. We normally just read v. 5 but the rest is super good.

5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. 

All of us are lacking wisdom. Maybe we are needing to make a big decision or maybe we have a question about life. No matter what it is, if we sit around waiting for someone else to tell us what to do, God or man; chances are we won't ever end up making a decision. 

We need to take counsel from D&C 9:7-8 and "study [things] out in our mind" or in other words, use ya brain and make a decision even if you haven't had a vision about what the correct choice is. We also have to have the necessary faith to actually MAKE a decision and pursue something. Once we have stopped wavering, made a decision, and had faith enough to do something; that is when we can more fully see the hand of God in our life. The video "Wrong Roads" talks about this topic as well, how sometimes we might not choose the right thing at first, but because God loves us, that wrong road can be a blessing.

Reminds me of a Spanish Proverb I learned..."Un camarón que se duerme se lo lleva la corriente" 

Love ya'll, never waver

- Elder Thompson

Fotos:

1. Elder Barlow and I

Hace Muchisimo Frio - Mission Week 16

Well, this week was a little weird! 

At the beginning of this week I went to Connell again, this time to exchange with Elder Farmer. It was fun as always! We got to meet some interesting people and give a blessing. We also had P-Day a week ago and while we were in Pasco they called and told us we needed to park our cars for the day because of the weather. It was pretty snowy, but honestly it wasn't very slippery. When they tell us to park our cars, we just have to wait until we are allowed to drive again.

Basin City is a pretty big area with lots of farmland so if we can't drive we are pretty much confined to Basin City itself. It's like 5 streets + a small trailer court. Luckily the next day we could drive again but that wouldn't last very long :)

Flash forward to Friday, we were on our way to Pasco again, and we got a call to park the car! We were really confused because it was all nice and sunny in Basin City but apparently in the cities it was super bad weather. We turned around and did our best to walk around that day. We ended up being able to drive in the evening so we talked to the Branch Pres. about some stuff and it turned our really well. 

Saturday and Sunday.... Ooof. Saturday we wake up and we can just hear super loud wind. We look outside and it's a literal blizzard. After our morning studies we donned our armor of layers upon layers of clothes and went out. At first we were trying to use umbrellas to shield our faces from the freezing wind, but it was too strong. I could hardly walk some of the time since I'm so big (especially with a big coat). We walked around the edge of Basin City and some members saw that we were (crazily) walking around! She yelled at us and told us to go home, but we made it to the Church just fine. She ended up texting us for the rest of the day to make sure we were ok :) 

At the Church there was a funeral for one of the Counselors in the Mission Presidency's daughter. They weren't expecting anyone to show because of the weather but the parking lot was packed and they had 25 volunteers to shovel during the services. After that we made it home and then we got the call to stay home for the rest of the night. Crazy Stuff! The snow was up to my knees in some places. Some local people have said that was the worst storm since the 80's. 

Sunday, everything was cancelled. We did our best to shovel driveways for old people. We ended up only doing 3 in the space of 3 hours, but it was good. The snow had drifted into some piles around that were a few feet deep and it was like shoveling concrete! 

Today should be interesting, hopefully our little corolla does fine driving to Pasco haha. 

Les amo mucho! 

- Elder Thompson

Fotos:

1. About to shovel the Casper's (Members we live with) driveway. 
2. Elder Barlow truckin ahead. This was Saturday the craaazy day. 
3. We had a little drifted mountain of snow outside our door. Doesn't look that big but it was probably 2.5 feet deep where we had to walk. 
4. The impending doom Friday 

Kahlotus! - Mission Week 15

Well this week was quite full. It went by so fast I don't even remember much! It's a good one though! 

Lets see... This week started out with exchanges. Exchanges are way fun because I get to leave Basin City and go to Connell which is basically a metropolis compared to Basin City! Funny thing is that it's totally just a small town, there's like 3000 people there or something. This time I was exchanging with Elder Stopa from Orem. He's a pretty funny fella. All 4 elders in Connell are super fun to work with! We talked a lot about Yellowstone maybe exploding and our game plan if that happens ;) 

On exchanges we went to a super small town in the Connell area ~20 mins away (The GPS calls it a Hamlet....which the dictionary says is smaller than a village.....So I guess that means that Basin City is a village). This place is called Kahlotus and it's the weirdest place ever! It's basically one street with a store, a post office, and a library. They also have their own School which is pretty crazy. The school is so small they put everyone's birthday on the billboard they have (pic below). There's all sorts of weird art around and so it's possible that Kahlotus is just a front for a secret combination hideout or something. 

We talked to some members in Kahlotus for...waay to long. They wouldn't let us leave! Let's just say I know a lot more about Sturgeon than I did last week. Also Dams. We were going to talk to an old guy who basically lives at the library but it was closed. We came back to Connell and had some Lasagna with the Spanish Elders. They told me this crazy story of why we didn't see them on P-Day. However, I was sworn to secrecy while I am on my mission, but after, ask me about the 'Connell Beaver Tail". I'll know what you are talking about ;) 

Cool miracle this week is about Manuel! He came to church again and we had a Spanish Branch lunch after and he came to that too. We talked about the Priesthood and Missions. He said that if the Prophet has said that he should go on a mission, he wants to work towards it! We got him to talk to President Davidson about an interview to be Ordained a Priest, so that should be happening this week. 

We had Zone Conference this week which was pretty great. I (jokingly) kept asking people when the Talent Show was because my only other ZC was the Christmas one with a Zone Talent Show. We talked a lot about New Convert retention, Covenants, and Revelation. 

One thing I really liked that one of the AP's said was how "Revelation is dead without Application." This was backed up by some things that were mentioned in Sunday School about how prayers are answered. What we talked about was how if we pray for help and then wait and wait for an answer, there's a good chance that we are looking for the answer to come in a specific way. What I've learned is that prayers can be answered through what other people say. 

How this relates to revelation is that a lot of times our prayers are being answered in the things the Prophet or other Church leaders say (Or anyone else honestly). But when we look at that and think, "Oh... well it didn't spontaneously come to my brain so it must not be my answer" we are potentially ignoring the answers to our prayers! We need to use every resource we have to better receive answers. Then when we hear something or read something that applies to our question or problem, We do something about it! That way, our revelation doesn't die or be overlooked. 

Other things this week that I'll just throw in here is we had a super cool dinner with Manuel and Edgar at a members home, Elder Barlow thought Lambs and Sheep were two different species, I learned to Juggle with one hand, I had Pizza for the first time in 3 months! We visited a member that lives in a Grain Silo! 

Gracias por todas de sus oraciónes! Me dí cuenta de que yo debería praticar Español mas cuando escribo. Leí "La Liahona" en Español mucha esta semana y pienso que me ha ayudado muchísimo. Me dijo Elder Barlow que es possible que yo podría ser El Entrenador la cambio que viene, entonces yo debería practicar mas Español si esa pasa. 

Les amo mucho! 

- Elder Thompson

Fotos:

1. The Kahlotus school has a sign on their "Mountain"
2. All the Birthdays this Month! 
3. Probably a code for the Secret Combinations that live in the Kahlotus hills.