Tri-Cities Mission: Campo Semana 1!

¡Hola!

I have safely arrived in the beautiful area of the Kennewick, Washington Mission. Let me tell you a little about it first... My first area is a little pequeñito pueblito called Basin City, Washington. It might not even pull up on a map because it actually isn't a real city! It's about as close to Othello as you can be without being outside the mission. Basin City proper is only 5 streets. We have one burger place and one little store so not much shopping options (They have some poppin pan dulce though :) ) This place reminds me a lot of Delta, UT. It is muuuch smaller (people wise) than Delta but it has the same vibe. I'll try to get some better pic's next week, but It has just been really foggy. Basically it is miles and miles of rolling hills and farms. There's all sorts of orchards; cherry, apple, more apple, and more apple. Honestly I think my Henke side of the family would absolutely love it here.

Saying goodbye at the MTC was bittersweet. I had the best teachers, district, and companion! I wish all of them the best of luck in their lives and missions. It was amazing to have such good friends in the MTC.

Back to day one, we made our way through UTA all the way to the airport no problem. In fact, we even met someone who has a son in this mission right now! He sat down next to me and we started talking in Spanish and when we told him where we were headed he just said, "OH! MY SON IS A ZONE LEADER THERE!!" I'll probably meet him some time. The only thing I'll say about the little plane we flew on is that it was not exactly... me sized.

President and Sister white were waiting for us at the airport and we headed straight to the mission home. They are really nice and I can tell their main focus as mission president is happiness and obedience. It get's dark really early here in the winter (~4pm) so they have everyone take vitamin D3 every day to compensate. After a day and a half of training and getting to know people, we were introduced to our new companion! Elder Barlow is my trainer and he's a swell Elder. A Swelder one might say.

Elder Barlow has been out for 14 months, so he's got a pretty good handle on things. Great at Spanish and over all a motivated missionary. Our area is actually one of few places were you stay with members. We live in the Casper's basement and it has it's upsides and downsides. Upside, our beds are actually really nice. Downside, we don't have a kitchen. We have a microwave and 2 plug in hot plates. It will definitely be an adventure figuring out things to cook here, especially since the whole Northwestern region of missions has discontinued member dinners! Wish me luck! (Send me easy, cheap recipes if you want, as well. You'll get blessings and stuff)

We spent most of the week trying to get to know people in our area. Elder Barlow has been here for one transfer already but that's not too much time. Since it gets dark at 4, it's pretty hard to get into people's houses. We haven't been able to teach a full lesson yet. Luckily towards the end of the week we got into Edgar's. Edgar has been getting lessons for a few months so we're trying to help him do what he has to do to get baptized. He came to all 3 hours of Church yesterday so that was a great miracle this week!

Some other stuff about our area, it is what is called a 'Zebra' Area. Basically this just means we do both Spanish and English work. We cover 1 of 2 English wards in BC and then the Spanish branch we share with the Hermanas that cover the other English ward. This will probably make it a little hard to learn Spanish since I'm not usually speaking it but I'll do what I can.

On Thursday we were knocking around trying to meet people and these 2 friends let us into their house (come to find out it was their duck hunting cabin). One of them started to shoot out some rough questions about controversial things in the Church. I was kinda freaked out but luckily Elder Barlow is a beast and had that on lock-down, no problem. Eventually they realized we just wanted to talk with them so they had us sit down and we avoided a bashing sesh. It turned into a really good conversation later about faith. One of them happened to be a member, he just hasn't gone to church in 30+ years. They fed us some Duck Poppers (Duck, jalapeño, cream cheese, and bacon. Smoked) that were way good. By the end of it we definitely improved their view on The Church and Missionaries.

Friday I got to go with the missionaries in Connell for a day. Elder Barlow is District Leader so he had a meeting. It was a great time and I'm friends with 4 more elders now! One of them I already knew, Elder Farmer. His little brother Dallin and I grew up together so that was sweet to hang with him for half a day. I went with Elder Farmer and Elder Stopa on a Church tour for one of their people they are teaching. I also got to practice piano a bunch that day since they had a keyboard in their apartment and they were planning for their area.

Other notable things this week include:

I found a suit at the mission office that was my size! Honestly it is more comfortable than the one I brought out so that was a great blessing.
Elder Barlow taught me how to solve a rubix cube!
I ate pan dulce!
I shared my favorite scripture in Spanish! Alma 26: 35

The thing I'll leave off with is about Light the World! If you haven't yet, go to lighttheworld.org. This year light the world is a bit easier to keep track of. It's not 25 different things to do in December, not everyone has time for that. This year it is broken up into 4 themes, one a week. I encourage you to watch the video and do something this week! It's super easy to do. In fact, how about this... This week is light your community! Do something to light your community this week and send me a picture! It will make my day, but more importantly it will make someone else's day. It will show your love for the Savior by serving others as he did.

Love you all!

Elder Thompson

Housekeeping things:

New address is this:

Elder Chayse Thompson

Washington Kennewick Mission

8202 W. Quinault Ave, Ste D

Kennewick, WA 99336

P-Days are Mondays, I have 1.5 hours to email/message. We are allowed to use google hangouts during that 1.5 hours so if you wanna chat, just get the app or go on a computer. I do emails in the morning, usually around 9:30 - 11 MST.

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