Enseñando familias - Mission Week 68

RIP I forgot to hit send last week...............

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Buenos Dias mi gente que tal?

We had an awesome week here in good ol Prosser, WA. I'm seriously loving this area, God has blessed us so much and he is continuing to do so!

For Yadira the woman who has a baptismal date, nothing really happened :/ this weekend she got busy and couldnt make it to church or to a lesson. We just had a bunch of texting contact which is good but not ideal. 

We got in contact with a family that the Hermanas used to teach and they are super awesome!! Right now there are 2 boys and their mom, but we are going to start teaching the dad this week. They have loved us coming over and teaching them and we are very hopeful that they will continue to progress!

I can't remember if I've ever written about my man Serafin, but he's the best let me tell you :) Serafin was baptized a few years ago, then he moved and kinda fell away from regular church attendance. Then some missionaries in Prosser knocking some doors and they found him and were surprised to find out that he was a member!Since that day, Serafin has made a lot of progress in the gospel and he is a super awesome member missionary. His schedule allows him to come out with us to lessons any day after 2pm which is sooooo good for anyone who knows how hard it can be to get a member coordinated for lessons. We had a few visits with him this week trying to help him understand how to study the scriptures and how to work towards going to the temple. 

We had a district blitz this week and it was pretty fun! Basically a blitz is where the district/zone changes up the companionships and areas for a few hours of work. Sometimes you put all the missionaries in one area to just find as many people as possible. It was really fun even though we didn't meet our goal of how many people we wanted to find, we had a lot of cool little miracles happen. 

The Peñas are doing good. This week they have an apt with a lawyer to see if they will be able to get married so please pray that we will have a miracle!! 

One final milagro for the week, we got a referral for a "Super nice lady" (They didn't know her name haha) and we went yesterday to meet her. She let us in and we ended up teaching the whole family! They were kinda confused about a couple things we were talking about & about our purpose (at first they thought we were catholic) but we will try to keep working with em. 

Anyways, thanks for reading! As for me, I'm still doing well! I love being a missionary! I'm grateful for all the relationships I've built so far with missionaries, members, and non members. I hope you all have an awesome week! Remember to feed your soul with the scriptures :)))

- Elder Thompson 

Evangelicals & On Date - Mission Week 67

This week was súper chido!! 

Earlier in the week we had transfers. As i mentioned in the last email, we shuffled the areas around a little bit. Our area is huuuuuge now haha. We got two more Elders in our branch so that makes 8 of us in our little ramita. Elder Springer got released as a ZL so he could train a new missionary. His trainee's name is Elder Romay and he is originally from Venezuela but has lived in South Jordan and riverton for the last 3 or 4 years! They are both super awesome and are already tearing it up in their area. 

Tuesday we went to say goodbye to Gerardo since he won't be in our area anymore. He wasn't home when we went the first time but he called us later and invited us over because he was making Pho! It was super good haha honestly I never expected to get so much good asian food from a random hispanic guy in Mabton WA. The mission is great haha. I'm sure Gerardo will get baptized one day, he's just one of those that will take some time to get there. 

Wednesday was the actual day of the transfer so as usually I had to drive to kennewick to give the Phone presentation to all the new missionaries. That will probably be the last time I do it, which is kinda sad cuz it's pretty cool to meet all the new missionaries every transfer, but at the same time it's been like 9 months at this point haha. I've seen that presentation 8 times now lol. Afterwards we went and picked up the ZLs to give them a ride back. Elder Newton is the new ZL in grandview, he's pretty cool. I served around him in Pasco for 2 transfers. 

Thursday and friday we met some of the new people we are teaching in our new area. Hugo is super cool, he's in Alma in the book of mormon and really enjoys coming to church. He's got some obstacles that will prevent him from getting baptized suuuuper soon but we're working on it. 

On Friday we had an interested run in with some missionaries from another church that are trying to swoop in on some people we are teaching. We show up for the lesson and there were some Evangeligcals there in the middle of a lesson on the Trinity. We let them finish then at the end they asked us what we felt about the Trinity and got ready to bash with us. I knew that wouldn't result in anything very productive so instead we just shared the BoM! We did pull out a bunch of stuff from the Bible that teaches about how God will give us more scripture and the prophecies in Ezekial and Isaiah about the BoM. They weren't able to disprove the case we laid out for the Book of Mormon, everyone in the room (except for one of the two missionaries) were pretty fixed onto our message and the spirit was pretty strong. I know bashing isn't super great and I did my best to stay away from it, but it was really cool to be able to defend the BoM against these 2 people that were trying so hard to attack it. (Bless E. McBride's heart it was a pretty fast paced lesson with lots of obscure bible verses so he didn't catch much of what was happening. Spanish is a doozie sometimes) Anyways, we are going to check back in on the people we are teaching this week to see if they are actually going to progress or if they just like hearing the word of God. 

Now to finish off this super long email with an asombroso milagro!!! Yadira & Cesar came to church again!! It went super well they loved it. Cesar got a little restless during sacrament so I made him an Origami dragon and he loved it alot haha. We set a lesson later that evening to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we invited Yadira to be baptized Feb 22 and she said she would work towards that date!!! The lord is providing some elect people here in the WKM. 

De todos modos se que este correo está muy largo pero quiero testificar de la veracidad del Libro de Mormon y Jesucristo. Sé que Jesucristo vive y que él es la cabeza de esta iglesia. Sé que su expiacion tiene poder para sanar cualquier pesar que llevamos. Sé que El Libro de Mormon y la Biblia testifiquen que Jesus es el Cristo y mi Salvador. Sé que Dios hablará a cualquiera que tenga ganas para encontrar la verda. 

Los quiero mucho, hasta luego!

- Elder Thompson

Foto:

1. This is the Pho gerardo made for us. Sorry I'll try and take better Pictures next week haha. 

Mexican Sushi - Mission Week 66

Heyyyyyyyy

This week was super great! Some crazy stuff, E. Schmitt in my district got called to be AP so his comp E DelBarrio has been in a Tri-Pan with the English elders all week. Since E Delbarrio can't drive we got to use his car all week! Bendiciones 

We taught a bunch of lessons it was really good. We taught word of wisdom to the Peñas and the are doing good so far. It'll be a process but I know they can do it. They all came to church this week as well.

We had another good lesson or two with Gerardo. He got a blessing of comfort before his job interview and a few days later he told us that he really felt a change after the blessing. He felt like he was more aware of his spirituality, when he was doing things that God wanted and when he wasn't. We cleared up a lot of concerns that him and his family had like after someone gets baptized are they allowed to drink soda, dance, listen to music, play video games, etc. We cleared all that up pretty quick but I'm sure there are more concerns like that Haha. Oh yeah our second lesson we had with him we walk in and he is hand rolling a bunch of sushi haha. He made a ton and gave us some, it was pretty solid. 

We also had our second lesson with Yadira and she is super cool. She's really looking to have God more in her life and her sons life. Our lesson went super well and we talked about church and read the BoM with her. They were super excited to come to church and they loved it! Hna McWhirk came in clutch and took her to and from classes and sat with her during the sacrament meeting. 

We had a district lunch this week before our district council. I made chicken fajitas for everyone, it was pretty fun. Our district is pretty much staying the same next transfer except for E Schmitt and we are getting one new companionship. The areas are getting shaken up, we are going to lose Mabton and then probably get the rest of prosser that isn't currently our area. Honestly this transfer went by so fast time us flying but we have some awesome stuff in the works! Super pumped for this transfer :)

Anyways that's it for this week! Les quiero 

Elder Thompson 

Fotos: 

1. Crystal and the Sisters 

2. Gerardo and Sushi 

Zone Conference - Mission Week 65

Que tal? 

This email will probably be shot cuz I don't even remember anything that happened this week. 

Things of note: 

We had zone conference! Our mission is finally swapped over to the new missionary Handbook which means that now during the week I can read any emails or messages I get during the week. Still can't respond but it's cool I guess. A lot of things are changing from a set rule or policy to "just use common sense". It's frustrated a lot of people just because it's a big shift from 'know and follow every rule exactly' to 'just do what you think is best and what a representative of Christ would do'. It was awesome as always to see President & Sister Rasmussen, they are the best! 

We had a few lessons with Gerardo this week, he's doing pretty good. He's an eternigator but he's honestly progressing at a pretty good pace right now. He has a really strong testimony of a lot of important things in the gospel, just doesn't feel like he can get baptized yet (it's a long story). He hasn't been super consistent with coming to church so we taught him about the sacrament and how that is the real reason church is so important. Afterwards he couldn't stop telling us how much sense that makes and how we changed his mindset about church! It was really good. 

We also had a few lessons with the Peñas but they flaked on church again. They didn't have to work but they took an odd job at a members house and decide to work through church even though the member told them they should stop and go to church. 

We finally met a referral Yadira this week and she is super cool. She works a lot though so we will see how much we realistically can work with her. She has member fellowship already and has a lot of interest. She has a super cute son named Cesar and he's awesome. 

Anyways, that's it! This is the last week of the transfer. I'll probably be staying here there is no reason for me to leave. 

Los quiero! 

- Elder Thompson 

ACTUALLY week 64

I totally forgot to send this last week so this is from last week and the one I sent earlier is from this week (week 65). Thanks mom for noticing haha! 

Bienvenidos a esta carta! Me pregunto cuantas personas todavía leen mis correos ya que soy viejo en la misión jaja. 

This week we had tons of meetings & stuff so we weren't able to get out and work as much. It kinda stinks when that happens but ni modo. 

We started the week off with Doctrine of Christ which is a meeting for all the new trainees. Now that they've all had 3 weeks of work we give them access to Facebook and they recieve some additional training. It was good! There were like 50 missionaries there so it felt like a Zone Conference. E Jones & gave our presentation and afterwards I realized that that was my 5th time going to that meeting. Normally people only go once, unless they train.

We also had district council which went well. We talked about some things that President Rasmussen has noticed is keeping us from achieving the vision for the mission. Overall it went well and I think we talked about some good things that will keep us going even when it seems like few things are working out. 

The next day we had interview with President and Sister Rasmussen! They were amazing as always. They are some of the most loving people I have ever met. You just feel it oozing out of them that they love their missionaries more than anything. 

In our area we had a really hard time this week having lessons with people. It seemed like everyone we are teaching just dissapeared. Saturday, we had an exchange with the Zone leaders so I went to Grandview for a day. It was actually really good. E Del Barrio and I talked about some good stuff to help the people in our zone be better missionaries. We also had a few lessons and I felt really powerful when I was teaching! I don't know what it was but I can remember a specific lesson where I could feel the power and truthfulness of what I was saying very strongly. 

Something I've been thinking about this week is the gift of repentance. Something I've realized about sin is that it is somply an opportunity to come closer to God and to better understand the Atonement. I read this scripture in Alma 34: 

Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.

What I learned from this scripture is that we shouldn't feel like we need to wait to recieve help from God or that there is a time limit on the Atonement. Like it says in the scripture if we don't harden our hearts (If we are humble) and we repent, Immediately will the plan of redemption come down upon us. The Plan of redemption is made possible by the Atonement because it is Jesus Christ who redeems us from our sins. I hope everyone takes some time each day to evaluate your lives and see where you can improve & repent for things you may have done wrong :) 

De todos modos, les quiero! Que les vaya muy bien y que tengan una buena semana!! 

Un friazo - Mission Week 63

Que tal! Casi no me acuerdo esta semana porque pasó tan rápido. 

New Years Eve was this week! I was kinda nervous that we wouldn't be able to find anyone to talk to but the Lord provided! We got in with our man Efren and his Family. It was actually pretty funny, we got into his house cuz his wife let us in. It seemed like every 2 minutes we talked, a new person came into the house until there was this huge group of family! They were about to have a new year's get together with all of Efren & Almas kids and they invited us to stay and have some tamales with them! It was super good we have a pretty solid relationship now with them. They gave us tamales, pozole, and atole. This was my first time having atole and it was super good it's like a super thick hot cider and it goes amazingly with tamales. We ended up talking a little about the life of a missionary and then we started talking about temples! It was super cool.

We spent the rest of the evening with the Elders in our apartment since we had to be in by 6 then we went to bed "early" at 10:30 :) Happy New Year! (Not gonna lie it messed Elder Peirce and I up when we realized that 2020 is the year we both go home... ) 

We had something good happen in Mabton, we met like 3 of the people "Being taught" in our area. Turns out they were probably not actually being taught since none of them were interested or wanted us to come back. It was a good thing though, a lot of times when you are in a new area, you can waste a lot of time with people that aren't actually interested so it was good to find out earlier rather than later that we wouldn't need to spend a lot of time on them. 

Saturday was a super rough day. At the beginning it looked like it was gonna be awesome, we had a day packed with lessons and if everything had gone according to plan, we would have invited a bunch of people to church and found a few new people to teach. Well what happened was every single lesson fell through, leaving E. McBride and I walking in the cold & wind for 8 hours. We even took an early dinner to make it to one of these appointments so we were literally just standing outside in the 25 degree + wind weather. We just knocked and knocked and knocked and no one answered. I think we only talked to like 3 people that day. Anyways it was kinda disheartening because we didn't know how we were going to achieve our weekly goals but we realized that maybe God was testing us to see if we would continue working hard. 

Then yesterday we had church then we had this one soft appointment in mabton with a family. We weren't sure if they would remember since we didn't have their phone numbers and couldn't confirm with them, but we went anyways and they were there! They were super chill, humble, and ready to learn. We started to teach them and we were able to achieve our weekly goal for finding! It was an awesome little miracle :) 

Also on Sunday we had dinner with the Winders, a super nice English member here. They had 2 recent converts and 6 missionaries at this dinner and it was super cool. They had everyone bear their testimony in 1 minute as we were eating. Apparently after we left the recent converts invited the Winders to go to the temple with them to do baptisms for one of their father's who had passed away! They are a great example of good member missionaries who just love the people around them. 

Anyway, that was my week! Elder McBride's Spanish is coming along, we are still role-playing a ton and helping him get the hang of missionary life. 

Los quiero! 

- Elder Thompson 

Última Navidad - Mission Week 62

Ayyy Feliz Navidad (ya que no lo pude decir a tiempo) 

This week was pretty weird honestly. Pday was on Monday, Christmas Eve was Tuesday, and Christmas was Wednesday so it almost felt like a 3 day weekend. A lot of our plans for christmas didn't end up happening so we were pretty much just winging it. 

Christmas Eve was good, we started it off with a Zone Breakfast! Pancakes, and Ham it was super good actually. We made a massive table too so all 26 of us were sitting around the same table. Then, we went caroling in Benton City. The Hermanas there have a lot of cool people they teach that we got to meet and sing to! We had a pretty good group too so the singing didn't sound terrible. Later, the Peña's invited us to dinner at their house and so we had some suuuuper good pazole and ham. They had a new stereo too so they showed it off with some.... Not missionary songs haha. We had to be in after 6 so we just chilled in the Apt with the Elders and had some good deep conversations. 

Christmas we got up and did 'Boonie Sports' for like 3 hours. (all the missionaries in the boonies get together idk if I already have explained this). We didn't really have anything set the rest of the day but we last minute got invited to this dinner where like 10 missionaries and 20 members ended up being there. The food was pretty solid but the highlight was the homemade eggnog and playing Chess with this old dude that completely and utterly destroyed me haha. Later all the boonie missionaries got together for the rest of the evening and some members bought us some treats and stuff. Overall, super chill. 

After that, we got back to work! We had some sweet lessons with Efren, the peña family and a few others. We ended up walking a lot since the other elders needed the car to get to a person they are teaching. My brain is having trouble remembering everything since it went by so quick but we had this super rough lesson Sunday night. It wasn't a bad lesson, it was just all over the place. We talked about everything from polygamy to sabbath day worship to prophets. It was a really good test of my Spanish since I had to explain some complicated stuff. They were super nice tho and invited us back next week for another lesson. 

Elder McBride is doing way good his Spanish has improved soooo much. We are still working on it but he's getting there. 

Sadly no one came to church, we are gonna do a better job of reminding people (Like go knock their door at 10am to wake them up haha) but we taught the fifth Sunday lesson and it went pretty well. We did our best to excite the branch about missionary work! They are still figuring everything out with the new branch and pretty much no one knows anything so that's fun. We'll get there though! 

Los quiero, hasta la próxima semana 

- Elder Thompson