Campo Semana 1! - Mission Week 7

¡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. 

Fotos: 

1. Our travel group selfie
2. Nuevo Compañero, Elder Barlow
3. Foggy day
4. Class with Hermana Truman
5. Class with Hermano Durrant

Finding Friends and Familiar Faces

On Friday, Dec. 7, just a couple days after Chayse arrived in Washington, I received a text from Sister Kelly with this picture saying: "Just finishing a church tour with these fine Elders. Wanted to show their moms that two friends found each other in Connell, Washington! Also in the picture is Karisma, who is on date for baptism this month!"

Elder Thompson's companion was in meetings today so he joined these Elders on exchanges. The missionary in the green tie is Elder Farmer, the older brother of one of Chayse's friends that he grew up with in Layton and the son of my friend, Diane, that I used to play basketball with all the time in Layton. Fun small world moments!

Safe Arrival Email

Dear Family,

We are thrilled to inform you that your missionary has arrived safely to the mission field.  Elder Thompson appears to be healthy, and in good spirits, and seems eager to get to work. He will be staying the evening in Kennewick, and will be meeting his Trainer on Wednesday morning, and then after some orientation and more training, will be traveling with his companion to their new area Wednesday evening.  Thank you so much for raising such a fine young man in such a way that he is willing and worthy to serve a mission. 

Elder Thompson is in good hands!  Just so you don’t worry, he is writing a handwritten letter tonight to be sent to your mailing address tomorrow. Also, his Preparation Day will be on Mondays through the end of his mission, emails will be exchanged then. Elder Thompson will let you know, in advance, if a Preparation Day changes due to a Federal Holiday or a special temple visit.

Do not hesitate to email or call if you have any questions or concerns, as we are here to ensure that your missionary is happy, healthy, and successful.

Warmest Regards,

Sister Finch

Mission Secretary

**Photo with President Doneal L. and Sister Claudia Esplin White from Mapleton Utah.**

Ha llegado el momento - MTC Week 6

Hola Familia y Amigos! 

Well, it's just about time for me to leave the MTC! I leave on December 4, at around 6am.  This email will probably be short because I'm supposed to pack today, my next email will be from Washington! 

The week has gone by so so fast. There were lots of "last" things this week. Last Pizza Friday, last volleyball game, last Language Assessment, last P-Day, last Tuesday devotional, etc. It's a bittersweet time for everyone in our district. We've all become so close and such good friends, it's like another family! We're all sad to leave, but mostly excited to start the real stuff! 

We're sitting in the Computer lab right now and our entire zone is writing our emails, we're just laughing and having a good time with all the stuff we've learned in Spanish. Our volleyball squad is splitting up now and they're saying it won't be the same without us! 

I got to see some of my friends from Middle/High School at the MTC this week. I knew Elder Ari Lacanienta would be coming this Tuesday so we looked for eachother at lunch and luckily I got to say hi! I'm super excited for him, he's gonna do great! It was a surprise to see my friend Elder Adam Lore from middle school at gym time! He's headed to Bolivia in ~4 weeks.

One of my favorite things from this week was memorizing 'The First Vision' in Spanish! I'll quote it for you right now (I promise I'm not cheating :)  )

Vi una columna de luz, mas brillante que el sol directamente arriba de mi cabeza. Y esta luz gradualmente descendió hasta descansar sobre mi. 

Al reposar sobre mi la luz, vi en el aire arriba de mi a dos personajes, cuyo fulgor y gloria no admitten descripccion. Uno de ellos me habló, llamándome por me nombre y dijo: Este es mi Hijo Amado. ¡Escuchalo!

Estoy agradecido por la opportudad estar en el CCM y por mi distrito y genial amigos! Yo se que La Iglesia de Jesucristo de Los Santos de los Últimos Días es verdadero, y cuando oramos, Dios contestará nuestras oraciones. Estoy agradecido por mi familia y amigos, y el amor ellos me dan. Ojalá, seré un misionero bueno. Tengo la fe en Cristo y su Expiacion. Yo se que la Expiacion puede ayudarnos con todas cosas en nuestra vida. 

Los amo a todo! 

Elder Thompson

Fotos: 

1. There are full-wall murals on every floor in the new classroom buildings. This one is of Moses crossing the Red Sea
2. Our precious District
3. The Classy Elders

Well family, I hope everyone is home safe and sound from Cali at this point! I was glad to hear about all the fun times, sounds like a memorable vacation. I'm jealous of the warm weather you had! It was raining/snowing a lot these last few weeks in Provo. 

I have a fun surprise for everyone! I bought a "call card" so I'll be able to call you guys and talk for a bit when I'm at the airport. I'm there for like 4-5 hours so If possible be ready for a call around 7-8am or so. I guess most of you will have school but I'll try to catch you when I can. Let me know if there's a specific plan/time you want to shoot for. 

There should be a special surprise in the mail for Ruby and Mom sometime soon! 

I've got to go pack/ clean our room so email me if you wanna talk about anything specific. 

Love you all! 

Elder Thompson 

Elder Uchtdorf es mi ciudad! - MTC Week 5

Bienvenidos a semana 5!

This week was pretty insane, we had lots going on. This email will probably be long but It should be worth it :)

One thing that my district has been saying a lot is "_____ es mi ciudad" when we thing something is awesome. It means "_____ is my city" and I'm not entirely sure why everyone does it but it's caught on fast (Hence this email's title). We've been playing a lot of volleyball this week and a lot of the people in our district weren't very good at volleyball (Including me) but now we are a pretty great team! 

We had our last TRC with Jerald this week, which was pretty sad. We're pretty good friends with him and he eats lunch with us sometimes. With next week being our last week here, there's a bunch of other stuff we have to do so we don't have time for more lessons. Also we had a Skype TRC where we talked to a member over Skype. Our didn't go too well because our Hermana was driving while skyping with us! We could hardly hear her and I'm pretty sure she could hardly hear us. Other people said it was fun, though. 

Alright, now Thanksgiving.... Happy Thanksgiving by the way! (And happy birthday Mom :) ) 

Thanksgiving at the MTC was probably one of my favorite days of all time. We got up early at like 6am so we could go get good seats for our devotional. We were in the Choir so we had to be there anyways, but we had some insider information this week and so we knew who our speaker was going to me. Elder Freeman, my companion, told us that his Mom saw Elder Uchtdorf at a training meeting and he said he was going to be "spending Thanksgiving with the Missionaries." So, we knew like 4 days in advance who it was going to be! 

Elder Uchtdorf was amazing, as to be expected. His wife also came and she told us the story of how the missionaries found her. I'll include somethings about his talk at the end. After they spoke, the spent probably 20 minutes walking up and down the aisles shaking people's hands. Riight at the end they came to the front of the Bass section in the Choir so me and Elder Fifita got to shake their hands! Way cool. Come to find out, all the elders in our district got to, but none of the sisters did. 

After our first devotional, we went to our class for a bit while we waited for our assigned lunch time (Lunch was our Thanksgiving meal). Lunch was honestly better than expected. The food is getting kinda old at this point but I could tell the kitchen staff put some extra work into this thanksgiving meal. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, candied yams, dinner rolls, pumpkin desserts, and eggnog. The eggnog was from BYU creamery and was like 850 calories for this little tiny bottle! Of course what ended up happening was my lactose intolerant companion chugged 2 of them in a minute, against my counsel :) I was still hearing about that mistake for 2 days after. 

After lunch we had a short devotional, then we went to watch "The Other Side of Heaven". It was pretty good and it was pretty fun to see hear the reactions of 600 missionaries when there was a kiss on screen. After that we went to do a service project. The service project as a whole was to make 350,000 breakfast meals that would be sent to kids in Utah that don't get breakfast. They had everyone in the MTC in the parking garage and we spent 1hr 45 mins making these meals assembly line style. My job was to get a bag, open it, put it under the funnel, then 4 people would dump the ingredients in and I would run it to the next station. Way cool experience and it was a lot of fun too. Our group supervisor said her goal for Thanksgiving was to send some pictures to our Moms so my mom should have a picture of me :) 

After that we had a sack dinner in our classroom then went to our 3rd devotional of the day. Hermana Arnold and Hermana Hopkins wrote some personalized notes for all of us too which was super cool. It was very sweet of them. At the devotional they had a singer and a guitarist come and play some songs for us which was way cool. Tanner James was the singers name I'm pretty sure, Michael Dowell(?) I think was the guitarist's name. I've definitely heard some of Michael's music before and If you've ever heard a hymn played on a guitar, it's probably this guy. He has recorded and published like 150 hymns/hymn medleys on guitar. It was waaay good. After that we got to walk around before bed and see all the Christmas lights around the MTC. Definitely a fantastic day. 

Now, for the good stuff. Here's what I learned from Elder Uchtdorf on Thanksgiving. He talked about gratitude for a good chunk of his talk. Some of the things he highlighted were how the "higher law of Gratitude" Is being grateful for everything, including our trials. Trials always bring us closer to God if we remember him and endure them well. He also talked about how Gratitude can be a tool for us, when we are struggling. He promised that, 

"Gratitude brings clarity, calmness, and happiness. It gives us wings to fly over the darkest valleys and the deepest pits. 

It's great to be grateful all year round, and it's sad that we usually only focus on it during this time of year, but I know it's something that can help us always. Elder Uctdorf also said 

"Grateful hearts lead to Greatness." 

I know that when we are grateful it really does make us great. It makes us more like Christ and people notice when we are more like Christ. 

Well my stay at the MTC is almost over, only 10 days left!!! I got my Travel plans this week and I'll be in Washington by 1:00pm on December 4th. My Spanish is getting way better, but I'm excited to get absolutely destroyed in the field for the first few months while I learn more about Spanish. Wish me luck! 

Los amo a todo! 

Elder Thompson

Fotos: 

1.  Our terrible Thanksgiving picture
2. Some cool clouds and the Provo temple
3. MTC lights!
4. Nativity Scene at MTC
5. A nice message one of our Teachers left for us before she left for Thanksgiving

Family,

Thanks for all your emails this week, I hope your Thanksgiving was good with Grandma and Grandpa! Also thanks for your Thanksgiving card, I always love getting mail! I hope the usual crazy stuff with work, school, and home are going well. 

I got my travel plans this week, so I'll be getting up at like 5:15am so I can be at the travel office by 5:45am. My flight is like 2 hours, but I go back an hour with time zones, so the flight is like an hour haha. Pretty crazy how close it is! I won't be under the "Y" for much longer.

That food place really does sound like something I'd love. The MTC cafeteria is like that sometimes. We'll have like Korean beef, taco salad, and yogurt parfaits or something. There's just always new stuff. Sometimes it's good, usually it's just OK. Actually last night they had this chicken skewers with rice thay had a spicy peanut sauce. It was probably one of the best things I've had here. 

I was pretty sick yesterday and still kind of today. My skin is all sensitive and my throat hurts. I'll probably be fine by tomorrow. No worries. 

Same deal as always, email me if you can, I can chat most of today! I attached my travel itinerary if you wanna look at it. 

Love you all! 

Elder Thompson

Surprise Thanksgiving Text

We just sat down to enjoy our Thanksgiving feast when we received a surprise text from a kind stranger with this picture and message.

"Hi Moms! My name is Katie and I am working with your elders while they are packaging breakfast meals for local families. "Happy Thanksgiving" "Feliz dia de accion de gracias" "I love you" "Thanks for getting us here""

We were able to pass the phone around and share the picture with the Thompson's that we were enjoying the holiday with. It was a fun little moment.

Then later that evening another mom in the group text sent a link to an article about the service they did.

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900043458/mormon-church-missionaries-grateful-to-serve-others-on-thanksgiving-at-the-mtc.html

MTC Week 4

Hola Familia y Amigos! Benvenidos a semana cuatro! 

18 days left in the MTC! Santa vaca! 

Last Sunday there was a Chamber Choir called Lux Singers that came to the MTC for our Sunday Night Devotional. They sang ~8 songs about the Atonement and The Crucifixion and it was sooo good. It was probably my favorite devotional yet, just reminded me of my Choir days.They even sang a different arrangement of a song that I sang in Choir. 

Not even 2 days later on Tuesday we had Elder Gary E. Stevenson from the Quorum of the 12 come speak to us! He talked about how our Mission calls were divine and inspired, no matter where you're going. Pretty much the rest of his talk was focused on using the Scriptures, Preach My Gospel, and the Missionary handbook as our "Missionary Survival Kit". It was definitely a cool experience to see him in person! They broadcast the devotional live to all the MTCs around the world. I'm pretty sure me and my district got a close up shot in the broadcast because we were in the choir so I guess I'm technically worldwide famous now ;) 

Another thing this week is we had our first TRC with a member. (TRCs are practice lessons completely in Spanish). It was pretty cool to have someone who was actually fluent in Spanish to help us teach. Our members name was Jerald (Her-ald) which was pretty funny because the person we are teaching is named Jerald (Gerald). It was a really good experience and probably our best lesson yet! 

This week I've been learning and studying a lot about how the Book of Mormon plays a role in the Church. My companion and I are teaching a lesson about this in Priesthood meeting on Sunday so wish us luck ;) There's a really good quote from Preach my Gospel that says

"... The only problem the objector has to resolve for himself is whether the Book of Mormon is true. For if the Book of Mormon is true, the Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was his prophet, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, and it is being led today by a prophet receiving revelation." 

I believe this applies to everything in our lives. Any questions of the soul, objections to The Church, or even personal questions you might have can be resolved by the Book of Mormon. It's also good to pray for a renewed answer that the Book of Mormon, even if you've felt you've received an answer in the past. 

My challenge this week is to read the Book of Mormon every day. BUT there's a catch :) Don't JUST read it. Every now and then, take a pause in your reading and ask yourself "Why is this in here? Out of ALL the things that could be in here, why is this in here for me." If you do those two things, I promise you'll feel a closer connection to the Book of Mormon and better understand its importance. 

Con amor,

-Elder Thompson

Fotos: 

1. The Elders in our District with one of our Español Maestros, Hermano Durrant

2. First Snow at the MTC

3. Panorama View South of the MTC

4. My Companion and I with our mission shirts

Hola Familia, 

Hope y'alls week went well! 

It was fun to hear about Alyssa's dance this week! All the pictures look great and it looks like fun times with good people. My district thinks it's hilarious how Alyssa was low-key roasting me by saying she was "Blazing the Trail" for the Thompson family ;) I thought it was funny too :) 

Glad to hear of a fun week of plays, shows, works, and more work! 

Mom was wanting to know more about my companion so here's some more info

So his name is Justin Freeman, he's from Santaquin, so not too far from Provo. He's going to Wisconsin, Milwaukee and loves to tell us how cold it is there every day :) He's a pretty cool guy and we get along pretty well. He definitely has presence in every room. He's a theater/choir person so he likes attention for sure. People say a lot here that there's a reason for every companionship. Elder Freeman is often very hard on himself with Spanish, and he's expressed a lot that he appreciates that I always have a good attitude to help him when he feels down. Not going to lie, that's not what I was expecting to be in the MTC, but I really am pretty much always happy here, even when I'm tired or hungry. 

I think one of the main things I'm learning from Elder Freeman is patience. He has a tendency to pack up slowly, get ready slowly, etc. I hate being late to things and so there's a conflict there sometimes. He also occasionally reminds me of some people that I didn't particularly like in High School, which totally isn't his fault. This week especially I've come to love him more for who he is, even if we have contrasting personalities. 

I was reading in the book Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: President Hinckley and I read something that I thought might help for you all to hear. 

I meet so many people who constantly complain about the burden of their responsibilities. Of course the pressures are great. There is much, too much, to do. There are financial burdens to add to all of these pressures, and with all of this we are prone to complain, frequently at home, often in public. Turn your thinking around. The gospel is good news. Man is that he might have joy [see 2 Nephi 2:25]. Be happy! Let that happiness shine through your faces and speak through your testimonies. You can expect problems. There may be occasional tragedies. But shining through all of this is the plea of the Lord:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30.) 

I just like this so much! Even in the most stressful times, turn to the Lord. You don't have to do anything alone! Like I mentioned earlier, I'm surprised at how much staying positive has helped me here. We're always busy, so much to do and learn in short amounts of time. But when you look at the good in the word and focus on that, you can truly be happy. 

Like usual it's Saturday and I have my phone so if any of you wanna talk about other stuff I've got all day! 

Oh, and to answer your question, some of my favorite things about the MTC is all the languages you hear. Like I'll say Gracias to someone holding the door and then the person behind me is like Merci. Or maybe it's just a group of missionaries having a conversation in Hungarian, or Finnish, or something. I think languages are super cool so it's awesome to hear all the different ones. I like talking in Spanish too, we try to as much as possible. 

I also like the Choir here, Elmo Keck and Brother Eggett are the conductors and they do a good job. For Thanksgiving there's another General Authority coming to speak, (Everyone's pretty sure it's another member of the 12 or first pres.) and they specifically requested that the Choir sings "Let Zion in her Beauty Rise" which is a pretty cool Hymn I forgot that existed. 

Also the food is good.....sometimes it's too good. This week I've been super consistent with not eating too much since last week I went a little overboard :) Feelin good though. 

Alsoooooo Happy Early Birthday Mom! Have fun in San Diego! We get to watch a Disney movie on Thanksgiving! 

Con amor

-Elder Thompson