Cut the Flour! - Mission Week 14!

Pues, aqui estamos en el tercer mes de la mision!

Not a ton of stuff happened this week. We've been trying our hardest to get appointments with people because we have like 3-4 people that realistically could be put on date for baptism really soon. Most of our appointments fell through, but asi es la vida! We have some pretty solid plans for this week. 

We had a ton of less active members come to church this week. I think final count was like 5 people, most of whom hadn't been in years. That was super cool. Manuel, came to church this week with us! We were a little worried about how it would turn out but it was super awesome. He got a haircut and everything just for church! He came and probably 10 different people introduced themselves and were super inviting to him. We talked a lot about the Holy Ghost and the Atonement. After the 2 hours he told us that he really enjoyed church and that it answered some questions that he'd had for a long time. We're going to start working on helping him get ready to receive the aaronic priesthood! 

After that we went over to a members house for food and to get to know a member family in the Spanish branch that lives outside the mission. It was super fun, we played Mathew, Mark, Luke, John (Throwbacks to playing that at the Bolingbroke's when I was like 12) and then we played Cut the Flour. If you don't know what the game is, it's pretty fun. There's a pile of packed flour in the middle with a quarter on top and then you go around a circle counting to a beat. If it is your turn and the number has a 7 or is a multiple of 7 you clap and don't say the number. If you mess up at all you have to slice some flour off of the pile in the middle. When the quarter falls, the person that caused it has to pick the quarter up out of the pile with their teeth. (If you want an extra challenge, do it in Spanish like we did!) 

That's pretty much it for this week. Not a ton else besides exchanges with the ZL's and mobs of Chihuahuas :) 

- Elder Thompson

Miracles! Mission week 13

This week started out slow but then it just didn't stop! 

First thing that happened was we got in with Gerardo again! He was the one that Elder Barlow found in his first area. We talked to him about his job, what we would like to teach him, and stuff like that. He has this funny habit where he'll say something like, "No disrespect at all......but.....I just REALLY feel the Holy Spirit in your Church". It freaks us out because we think he's gonna say something negative but then it's just the best thing ever! He did that like 2 or 3 times. 

Transfers were pretty good, I wasn't affected by it but we had to go help get people where they needed to be. The new ZL's and English Elders seem pretty chill! Also I'm in Elder Farmer's district now because the ZL's changed up some leadership!

We got in with a Less active that has an unbaptized 9 y/o son and we're planning on teaching him the lessons so he can be baptized! 

Last miracle I'll talk about is Manuel. Manuel was baptized in Mexico about 5 years ago and he has some struggles with depression and anxiety. We haven't been able to talk to him for about a month because he wouldn't leave his house or open the door. We decided to message him on Facebook one day and he responded! When we got to his house he let us in and told us he was feeling way better because he read like 10 chapters in the Book of Mormon the night before! 

That just adds to my testimony that there is power in the pages of the Book of Mormon. Go to it for comfort!

Love you all! 

- Elder Thompson

Transfers! - Mission Week 12

Welp first transfer in the field is pretty much done! 2 more days. Our zone wasn't changed much, in fact my entire district is the same which is pretty crazy, especially because we have a tri-pan (3 missionaries) of Hermanas which is pretty uncommon. Another 6 weeks in Good Ol' Basin City for me! 

This week I had exchanges in Connell again, this time with Elder Escandon from El Paso, TX. When we were there, we went to a super cool antique store with the English Elders in Connell during our dinner. They just had a ton of everything. I got a pretty cool button that has a Tri-Cities logo on it. Elder Stopa got an old military flashlight that was like $3 and he walked around with it for the rest of the day shining it in our eyes and sneaking around. He's a goon but I love hanging with him!  

At Spanish correlation they gave us some crickets to try. They had lime and chili on them so they weren't that bad, it was just hard to get past the fact that they look e x a c t l y like the stuff I fed to my pet lizards and frogs growing up. Louisa is a ward missionaries that comes to correlation and shes pretty funny. She seems to know something about everyone and get's really excited when we mention a new name! She says "Ohhh....si...Oh si pues...." pretty much the entire time. 

We had a miracle happen this week! Edgar was in town for some shopping and he decided to go visit the temple since we couldn't walk around when we were there before. Right as he got there, my boy Brother Casper and his wife just got out of the temple! They saw Edgar and ended talked to him for an hour about the temple, baptism, and Church in general! It was a really great experience for everyone. 

This week we found a new guy named Oxavier (Awks-avier). We thought it was Javier but he told us that it was pronounced the other way. He's an interesting fella. He doesn't like other Christian churches where the Pastors make a lot of money so we're hoping he sees something different about our church. He's a total Hispanic hippie though, so it's funny to talk to him. 

This week in Come, Follow Me I was thinking a lot about Christ and the Circumstances of his Birth. He was born in the lowest possible place. He was born in the place where cows and sheep ate their food. I feel like this is a symbol that Christ is 'below' all of us, in the sense that his Atonement gives everyone the chance to go higher. There is nothing too low that the Atonement of Jesus Christ cannot help. 

Ándele pues, 

-Elder Thompson

Ven, Sigueme! Mission Week 11

 Mission life this week was solid!

Starting last Tuesday we took Edgar to the Colombia river temple for a tour. We usually couldn't do this just because our area is pretty far from Tri-Cities but it was P-day so we were in town already. Normally we would walk around the temple and have certain places to stop and talk about things but the temple was closed! We had no idea that they might close it for new years day so we just had to look at a distance. It ended up being a good experience but didn't match our vision. 

Wednesday we had an absolute miracle happen! Flash back to a year ago, my companion Elder Barlow was being trained in his first area: Prosser, WA. He and his trainer met this guy named Gerardo who was super great. Very receptive and loved the Book of Mormon. Only problem, he randomly moved so they lost contact with him. Back to Basin City and I'm planning who we are going to go by. In our records I see someone named "Jerry" so we decided to stop by his trailer. When Jerry opened the door he just says, "Hey!.... I know you! Whats good man?" Elder Barlow was confused at first then he just says, "Gerardo?" Turns out Jerry is the same Gerardo that Elder Barlow met in his first area! We're super hopeful for him, hopefully we can start teaching him soon. 

Thursday I got to go to Connell for the day for exchanges with Elder Wood! It was way fun and we had a great time walking around. Yesterday I played piano in Church and that was pretty good. Surprisingly I've had a lot of opportunities to practice and I've learned a few new hymns. 

We're going to play some Glow-in-the-dark dodgeball for sports today, It should be pretty fun! 

I hope everyone had a good experience with the new Come follow me this week. I think it will be really good for those that make time to do it. In our Sunday school hour our discussion turned to how different people were raised and the effect that had on their testimony. We came to the conclusion that whatever way you were raised did not have to determine the person you would become. However, It definitely has an amazing influence; good or bad. Our investigator, Edgar had a good point. He said the most fertile soil grows the best flowers but also the best weeds. 

We are the ones who are in charge of our own learning and the Church has provided an amazing resource for us. I have enjoyed it and I hope that every one of you did as well, or if not, I hope you come to enjoy it! 

Love you all, Thank you for all the support and love! 

- Elder Thompson

Fotos:

Here's some pics of the Columbia River Temple in my Mission in Richland, WA. 

What a week! Mission Week 10

I hope everyone had a stellar Christmas and New Years! I'll tell ya what, Christmas is a great time to be a Missionary.

Alright now, last week after P-Day stuff, we went caroling with some Elders in Connell and it was way fun! We went to Los trailers so a lot of the stuff was in Spanish and we had 2 English elders with us. We just told them, when in doubt just say "Si, pues." After an hour or two we got pulled into this one trailer that had like 9 people in it and they made us sit down and eat all their food! We had Pasole(..?), Tamales, Hot wings, Jello, Fruit, and "water"(super sugary fruit drink but they called it water). It was super good and I got a pic from it :) 

Christmas was super great, after we opened packages we spent the whole morning cleaning which was pretty fun. We had lunch with the Marshall's and they fed us a whole traditional American Christmas dinner. Turkey, stuffing, cranberries, the whole 9. Best part was we got a giant box of leftovers :) Later that night we went Caroling in Basin City with the same group and had another great evening. 

As for regular missionary stuff, it's going well. We are working with 4 new people we have found and hopefully we can keep teaching them consistently. Everything has been pretty hit-and-miss with the holidays. We're taking Edgar on a tour of the temple grounds today so that should be pretty good! 

Other stuff this week, I gave a talk in the Spanish branch which was pretty interesting. No one said I did bad so I'll take that as a win! We had an all day training in Kennewick called Doctrine of Christ and I'll share something that I loved from it. Elder Richard G. Scott has a quote in a talk about Character + Faith that goes something like, 

"You become who you want to be by consistently being who you want to become."

 It seems like a "duh" kinda statement but this is something I'm really trying to take to heart. If you know what kind of a person you want to be, whether that is physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually, nothing is going to magically happen or change unless you do it.

We set goals every week in the mission so I've seen a change already. When we set goals that help us develop habits of good things, we become better people in whatever area you focus on. 

Thank you everyone that sent me cards and packages! Extra blessings for you ;) 

- Elder Thompson

Elder Chayse Thompson

Washington Kennewick Mission

8202 W. Quinault Ave, Ste D

Kennewick, WA 99336

Fotos:

1. We finally went outside when there was Sun!
2. Saw this tiny little horse at a farm
3. The Mexican dinner we had! Pictured left to right: Elder Farmer (mid bite), Elder Escandon, Elder Barlow, Elder Wood, Me, Elder Stopa

Feliz Navidad! Mission Week 9

The time has just about arrived! I hope everyone has had a great week leading up to Christmas Eve and Christmas! Hopefully you all had great Sacrament meetings yesterday with great songs and scriptures of Christ. 

 We spent a lot of time this week inviting people to our Christmas service yesterday and giving Christmas messages to members! Lots of people have family over so sometimes it was very efficient to give a message at a house. One family, the Hawkins, have 8 of their kids over for Christmas and they had 1 other family from the ward with them for a dinner. We happened to stop by so we gave a Christmas message to 9 families at once! Talk about efficient. 

I went on exchanges this week with the Zone Leaders since my companion is District leader. Elder Hall and I had a swell time attempting to find people that were home. Basin City was like a ghost town that day, we didn't see a soul for like 5 hours. Not even a car!

We had our special Christmas zone conference which was so much fun! I totally forgot to take pictures! There was a talent show first which was pretty great. There were some interesting zone talents we saw! One zone sang "In our Lovely Deseret" while inhaling helium every 2 lines. It was honestly really funny to watch, I was dying. Our zone sang "Follow the Prophet" with some funny verses about old testament prophets we wrote. We also did a skit of the story of Jacob and Esau and the Birthright, with some last minute adjustments that made it chaos. It was pretty funny and I was narrating so it was super hard for me to not just laugh the whole time. 

After that the Relief society in the Pasco Stake fed us some really good potatoes with gravy and stuff. We actually had fruit and cooked veggies, it was really good. I'm still trying to figure out this whole "eat healthy on $25 a week" thing :) 

We had a short Christmas program after that and we talked about the Book of Mormon and heard some great testimony's from soon-to-be departing missionaries. Overall, a great day!

I hope everyone has a fantastic Christmas! Spend time with family and remember what Christmas is all about! Also remember that Christmas can be hard time for people who are alone or have bad memories of this time of year. Be friends to those who need it! 

Love you all have a great Christmas! 

- Elder Thompson

Fotos: 

I had one, but I forgot to get it from Elder Hall. I'm setting a goal this week to take 3 pictures with me in it! (So they count) Thanks Marilee :) 

I'll also repent that I don't have pics. 

Andele Pues.... Mission Week 8

Pues.... Feliz Navidad and all that. Apparently, Christmas is next week or something!

This week has been great as usual! 

P-day was pretty fun. As a zone we played some games in the gym and wrote some alternate verses to "Follow the Prophet" as our zone conference talent. Found out last P-Day that most Subway and Costa Vida in the mission give missionaries 60% off, so that's pretty great. I finally got to meet the members we live with since they got back from their 10 day cruise to Tahiti. They're pretty nice and love the missionaries! 

This week we tried to get in contact with all the members of the Spanish Branch because we have some events coming up. That helped a lot with my Spanish because we've been doing a bit of English work too. It is funny how much Hispanics hate the cold here! Some people won't even open the door they just yell, "Quien?" when we knock then say it's too cold to open the door. The people I got to meet were super nice and excited to meet me. Since not too many people would open their doors to us, we were driving all around our area. I've kinda got a feel for it now, but it's so dark and we 'andele pues bounce' between places so fast I am not super familiar. 

We started teaching a new family this week, hopefully it continues to go well. They've talked to missionaries off and on for nearly 8 years so we have to make sure we are very proactive and bold when we speak to them. Pray for Raul y Karina! 

One really cool thing we did this week was we helped out at the Food Bank. For a few hours we made up boxes and boxes of food. It's amazing the sheer amount of stuff that gets donated during the holidays! It was really fun to work in the assembly line and meet a bunch of the Hispanic families in the area. 

I got to speak in the English ward this week. I spoke on Christlike Attributes and how we can develop them. Everyone said I did a good job and I felt pretty good about it. Edgar came to all We've got big plans this next week as we come closer to Christmas!

Remember to pray and read Scriptures every day! It's amazing the power such little things have. 

Merry Christmas! ¡Feliz Navidad! 

Elder Thompson

Foto: A field (Sorry only one, I kinda forgot to take pictures we were just so busy!)