On My Way

My last Crescent City sunset for a while

Friends and Family - 

Well, my time in beautiful Northern California is just about up. I want to thank all of you and share with you some of my final thoughts about my mission. 

My mission has meant the world to me. It is where I solidified my testimony of Jesus Christ and in His gospel, it has allowed me to see and meet all sorts of people and learn more about a different part of the world, and it has helped me to grow in countless ways. I've learned people skills, picked up good study habits and time management skills, and gotten to know even more what exactly hard work is. But most importantly, I've gotten to see people change their lives for the gospel of Jesus Christ as we have taught it to them and I have seen my own life change because of their example. I can't tell you the joy it is to see someone willing to change to follow Christ. 

There is so much I could write about these last 2 years here but I want to highlight just a few experiences. For more about it, you'll have to come to my homecoming ;)

Very early on in my mission, one of the worst fires in California history swept through Santa Rosa, taking out entire neighborhoods and leaving only chimneys and the frames of cars. The thick smoke in the air lasted for weeks and missionaries and even our Mission President was evacuated. Even myself, being a ways away from the big fires, had to keep a suitcase ready by the door in case we were evacuated.  Over the next couple of weeks, I got to witness people coming together like I've never seen before. People opened up their homes to total strangers who lost everything. The community came together with big signs and slogans such as, "Sonoma Strong" and "Rise From The Ashes." The bishop of one of the wards up there spent a whole night evacuating people and making sure they were okay, without knowing if his house was safe and sadly, it was also lost in the fire. But these people did "rise from the ashes," and even now, almost 2 years later, houses are still under construction and people are starting to move back in to their old lots. But in those moments, it didn't matter who you were or what you believed in, everyone was a brother or a sister to each other in the Fall of 2017. 

I was over the moon excited when I got sent up to Fortuna, a town just a few minutes south of Eureka, California. As it sits in the middle of the Redwood National Forest and The Avenue of Giants, it overlooks the coast of Norcal. I couldn't have asked to get sent to a more beautiful place. It was here that I truly experienced the value of obedience. 

In Fortuna, I got to see the first person on my mission accept the gospel and be baptized into the church. Cinthya and Jody will always have a special place in my heart. They are some of the kindest people I've ever met and true examples of treating others as Christ would. Teaching Cinthya was a great experience. She had such a desire to learn and we even committed her to a baptismal date during the first lesson I had with her. Her husband, who had been a member already but just not active for a while, was able to receive the priesthood and baptize his wife. Now over 18 months later, Cinthya and Jody are now sealed to each other for eternity. Very few things bring me as much joy as knowing that they are still strong in the gospel. It was definitely inspiration for me to come to the California, Santa Rosa Mission because I needed to meet them and others in the Norcal area.

Like Brodee, who I consider my long lost brother and someone I knew personally in the premortal life. He lives in a fun place called Redway, California, just a few minutes north of Garberville California, where the most people in the United States go missing every year. Needless to say it was very interesting knocking some doors down there. Brodee accepted the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ without hesitation. He knew it was true as soon as we showed up and started talking to him. I had the privilege of baptizing him about 3 weeks later. Brodee helps out the staggering now 13 members of the Miranda California Branch.  He serves like no other and has very generous heart. Even though his own circumstances and being paralyzed from the waist down for the last 10 years hasn't stopped him from thinking of others more than he thinks of himself. I find it crazy to think that if we had been 2 minutes early or 2 minutes late the first time we met Brodee in his truck, we might not have gotten to teach him the gospel. I'm grateful for God's perfect timing, I've seen it time and time again every day of my mission. 

Rohnert Park is almost like a home to me. I spent 9 months of my mission there and became close with the ward members and people there. I was very overwhelmed to be sent there with more responsibilities for someone pretty young in the mission, I had only been out for 9 months up until that point. Our zone covered everything from the south border of Santa Rosa to the Golden Gate Bridge and every single missionary in the zone except for 2 brand new missionaries were quite a bit older than me in the mission. But the good news is I got to be reunited with my trainer and that was one of the best things that has happened on my mission. He taught me how to be a missionary so who else would be better to teach me how to be an effective leader?? I'm grateful to have learned more about being a good leader and example. Not to mention getting to see the vineyards of Sonoma County and the beauty of Marin County, including all of its BMW's and Teslas, not mention the Bay of California. It's difficult sometimes in Marin and Sonoma because most of the people are very wealthy but it just makes it even cooler when someone accepts the gospel there, you know they have been prepared. 

Like Yanping, she is a convert who moved from China about 8 years ago. She is one of the smartest people I know. She uses quantum physics to understand the gospel. It's so cool to listen to her. She moved from China because China wouldn't allow her to learn about God, so she gave up her VERY well paying job and she and her husband moved to the United States in search of the truth. It was there that the missionaries knocked on her door and started to teach her. Then it was my opportunity to get transferred down there and meet her and finish teaching her and watch her get baptized. 

In Lakeport, I saw the complete opposite end of what I saw in San Rafael and Santa Rosa. It's a very poor area with a lot of crime. I'm grateful I went there because we got to find, teach, and baptize Cari. She was so prepared. Every time we brought up a new principle she would say something like: "that answers a question I've had my whole life!" She accepted the gospel quickly and has become a very important person to me. We attended the Oakland temple open house with her and it was a special experience! She loved every bit of the temple and was excited to go back after her baptism. It's amazing the results that can come from simply knocking on someone's door. 

Now here in Crescent City, even more north than Eureka, believe it or not, I've been very lucky to have met our friends Chris and Jenna. Chris is a member but Jenna was not. When we first got up here, she was very sure that she would not be able to make a lifestyle change needed to be part of the church and she just didn't think she was ready. But as we kept teaching her and being her friend, we saw her change and her confidence in Heavenly Father's plan for her grow. She has a lot more faith in Him now. Within a few weeks, she has been able to recognize the spirit so much better than I ever have. We felt that she was ready and we extended the trusty baptismal invitation. She accepted and said she was ready! We committed her to August 10th, the last Saturday of my mission. The day I came up to Crescent City, my Mission President pulled me aside at transfers and told me I was coming up here for a reason. I think Chris and Jenna are a huge part of why I was here. I'm so excited for both of them and I'm grateful that I got to be a part of their experience. 

Jenna and Chris

There's so much more I could say about these last two years, too many memories to count, and too many experiences to speak of.  I've really loved my mission. It's definitely the hardest thing I've ever done but it's also the most worthwhile thing I've ever done. 

I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to come here and serve the people of Northern California. 

I know God lives and answers prayers. I know His son, Jesus Christ, came to earth, lived a perfect life, suffered for not only our sins but for our sicknesses and our weakness and infirmities, died, and lives again today. I know that He loves us all. I know that if we follow Him and the plan that his Father and our Father made for us, we can have joy forever. I know that Joseph Smith was the tool God used to restore His church to the earth for the eternal benefit of all of us. I know how much happiness the Book of Mormon can bring. I've read it and received a witness for myself that it is the word of God. I know I was meant to be in the California, Santa Rosa Mission. There were specific people waiting here for me to meet, and I'm grateful Heavenly Father allowed me to cross paths with these people. His plan is perfect. 

I'm grateful for all  I've learned on my mission. It has been the greatest experience of my life so far. Despite trials and discouragement and disappointment, all of which are a part of life, I've had a lot of joy out here. I've been able to learn how to go through trials with the help of Christ and His Atonement. With that, I can do all things. Thank you all for your support it has meant a great deal to me. 

I'm excited to see you all very soon. I get home on Wednesday evening and then if you want to hear more about my experiences in Norcal, I'll be speaking in my church on August 25th at 11:30am (2215 E. Roosevelt Ave). 

For the very last Song Of The Week, I'm giving you 2 for the price of 1. 
They are On My Way by Phil Collins, and Hymn #152 - God be With You Til we Meet Again. 

May God be with you all until we meet again and may God continue to bless my people of Norcal until the wonderful day I get to see them again. This place is sacred to me now. 

Much love to you all and for the last time, 

Elder Henry Thompson 

California, Santa Rosa Mission 

The Final Four

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsE0KtttoBs  On My Way  Phil Collins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQlv_xUYATg God Be With You Til We Meet Again

Final Saturday Splash

Hello everyone! We had a fantastic week here in CC and let me tell you why:

First off, we had lunch again at "A Good Place To Eat" down in Klamath. It's a little on the expensive side which is weird considering it's not even a great place to eat, just a good place to eat.

That's not the entire reason this week was fantastic. 

We had a lesson with Jenna and Chris again on Tuesday and when we got talking, Jenna opened up and told us of a spiritual experience she had at church. She couldn't stop crying during the Relief Society lesson and she felt it was time to be baptized!!!! Sweet! So Elder Sanders and I just absolutely sent it and committed her to being baptized on August 10th. She was a little surprised but when we asked her to pray about the date, she said "let's just do it then!" So we are having a baptism this Saturday, my last Saturday in the mission. Jenna can recognize the Holy Ghost so well and I've seen a big change in her. The Spirit has been working on her! When I came up here, my Mission President took me aside at transfers and told me that I was coming up here for a special purpose. I think I found a big part of that purpose! It has probably been the easiest baptism I've ever planned because the whole ward knows and loves her a ton already and everyone was so willing to help and give talks and do whatever is needed.  It's going to be a great day Saturday! 

We also had an awesome lesson with our family of 6 last night. We cut up the cover of a Restoration pamphlet to look like a puzzle and we gave each of them a piece. We wrote down essential parts of Christ's true church on the back of each one such as: "priesthood authority" or "prophets," and had each of them read their piece. We had them put all the pieces together so it makes the picture complete and told them this is what Christ did when He came to earth. He organized His church. But after He and all of the other Apostles were killed or kicked out, people changed the structure of the church and many truths were lost.  We took the puzzle apart, each piece representing a different church. But we gave them the good news: God always calls another prophet and He did just that when He called Joseph Smith to be a prophet and put together the whole puzzle again. It was a great lesson, especially to keep their kids' attention. I'd call it a success. When they found out I'm leaving soon, they invited us over for dinner this week.  They told me they want to keep in touch with me and they want to come out to Utah and go to Lagoon with me. They lived in Utah for a few months and absolutely love Lagoon. I told them I'm more than down!

I love meeting great people like this family, Chris and Jenna, and too many others to name.  Definitely one of the best parts of the mission. 

To cap off a great week, we did some service for a lady and she bought us Dutch Brethren in return which was a nice treat. 

This is my last week here in CC. On Sunday, we will drive down to Santa Rosa and then Monday I will have my departing interview with President Meservy and then dinner and testimony meeting. Tuesday I'll spend the day with the AP's and continue to work and then fly home Wednesday! I'm definitely excited to see friends and family who I haven't seen in 2 years, but I'm going to miss a lot of things out here. The beauty of NorCal, lots of great people, and just thinking about others a lot. Life is coming up quickly, so I'll continue to make the most out of this "Week of Lasts."
Shout out to Jack Perry who leaves for Brazil next week!  In a lot of ways I'm envious as you're about to begin your "Week of Firsts."  Way to represent for FH7!

So stay tuned for next week, I'll send out my final group email with some thoughts about my time in the CASRM. Thank you for sticking around and reading these every week.

The Song of the Week is "American Teen" by Khalid - in honor of my last week as an American Teen. I'll turn 20 the day before I go home! Crazy stuff. 

Much love to all of you and I can officially say: see you next week! 

Love

Elder Thompson  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NChtZCDCsY  American Teen Khalid

In The Middle of The Redwoods

Another amazing Crescent City sunset

Hey everyone! It's been a week for sure here in beautiful Northern California! Walking into church yesterday, we met some visitors and one of them said, "how did you two get so lucky as to get called up here??" and I thought,"man, he's right."  I think it's going to be a bit of a shocker going from this sweet coastal town with really good temperatures to the mountains and heat of SLC right now. But for now I'm just living it up here in Cali. 

Last Monday we drove down to Fortuna, my old area, to have FHE with the family I used to live with. It was great to see them again! They were surprised to see me and were also surprised my foosball skills were as strong as ever. We had a fun time catching up. It was also sweet to see my Fortuna dogs again! They missed me too. 

I had my last interview with President Meservy before my departing interview. He told me to keep working hard until the end, no problems there. 

We did some service for a member of the other ward here in CC. I got to practice my wood splitting and I gotta say I got pretty good at it. If anyone needs some wood split in like 2 weeks just hit me up, all I need is an ax and a couple cans of Dr Pepper. 

We did some more service for that guy whose foundation we fixed. We went under the house again and fixed a few more things. Once we got out, I probably sneezed a total of 25 times. 

Jenna is doing well, we had an awesome lesson with her and her husband this week. We still haven't set that date yet but they love us. Because of that, she was able to open up to us way more than in the past.  She told us she does want to be baptized but she just wants to make sure she is doing it "with full purpose of heart," like it says in 2nd Nephi 31. She is awesome! 

We also had a great lesson with our family of 6 last week. We had some BBQ and talked around a fire! They are so prepared. We left their whole family BOMs. We keep seeing them everywhere too, it's pretty funny. David, the dad of the family, almost died of a tooth infection last week but he is doing well now! He said it really hurt to eat the steak he fed us. I could see them getting baptized in the next couple of weeks! 

Our Klamath group went well yesterday! Nobody was there at 4 when it started but then people showed up and it was good! We watched the video "How Rare A Possession," the story of Parley P. Pratt learning about the Book of Mormon. He read it cover to cover in one night without stopping. The only reason he got it in the first place is because he left his nice house and land to go preach about Jesus Christ without even knowing about the Restored Gospel. He ran into a guy who had a copy of the Book of Mormon and let him read it. Then he set out to find Joseph Smith and joined the church! I think everyone liked it. Hopefully they come back next week! There was some good food as well, Hawaiian haystacks. 

First Klamath group meeting in the laundromat

I went on exchanges with one of my good friends, Elder Chipman. He went to Lone Peak. He is hilarious. He and I chopped wood together. We had the sickest lesson ever. A family they're teaching invited us to come teach them at the campground where they were camping. We went and taught them in the middle of the redwoods -  around a campfire - while the sun was going down. It was the coolest setting for a lesson ever! 

Shoutout to Bryce for finishing his mission this week. I'm sorry you had the garbage classroom in the MTC. I'll make it up to you somehow in a few weeks. 

The Song of the Week is,  "The Way You Make Me Feel" by Michael Jackson. A classic.  I'm surprised I remember so many songs. After I absolutely crush these last 2 weeks, I have a date with my Spotify account. 

Love you all! 

Elder Thompson 

Dogs chillin on the roof

Native American smoked sturgeon jerky

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzZ_urpj4As&list=RDHzZ_urpj4As&start_radio=1&t=133

 The Way You Make Me Feel - Michael Jackson

I Live In The Most Beautiful Place In The World

Hey everyone!! 
Man, these weeks just keep going by faster and faster! We had a good one, it got up to 70 degrees here and man, it was a scorcher.... I guess we had a heat wave come through! 

Nothing wild happened except we spent about 4 hours underneath a house doing service for a guy. We were fixing the foundation of his house.  I'm not sure how qualified we were to do it but we did it anyway and it turned out okay.  I think we are going back to do more this Thursday.  The dude is a really great artist and his signature is guitars he makes out of driftwood from local beaches.  They look pretty sweet, I might see if I can snag one! 

Remember the family I talked about maybe 2 weeks ago? The one where the wife was from SLC? Well her husband had to go to the E.R. so we hadn't heard from them for a while and we were worried they were ghosting us.  One of the senior couples from the Eureka Zone is going home and took us to Burger King before they left. As we were leaving, that very same family walked in! Their daughter was hyped to see us and we were able to see how they're doing and make an appointment to go see them! It's cool how God makes things happen because I can guarantee  that I wouldn't have been at Burger King any other way than someone taking us there haha.  Things work out! 

Another cool thing, Cinthya and Jody were endowed and sealed in the Medford Oregon Temple this past week! They stopped to see me in CC when they were passing through to go back to Fortuna. It is so fun to see the first person I baptized still active and thriving in the church!! They were so happy and it was great to see them. I wish I could have gone with them but it was a little too late for me to make it back in time. Medford is about 2 hours away.  

In other news, I am too old in the mission to order a new name tag. I tried to order a new one so I could have one from the beginning of my mission and one from the end of my mission and the mission secretary was like, "Elder Thompson, it's too late for you! You are too close to going home and the name tag won't arrive here in time." 

That was a reality check! 

Things in Klamath are going well. We are going to have our first ever group study session there on Sunday! We have been inviting people and seeing who would be interested in attending. We are "doing our homework" as President told us to do. We have become pretty cool with a lot of the Native American families and I love them, they are so awesome. I'll let you know how the group goes! There will be food so I think a lot of people will show up. All of you are invited as well, text me for the address.

We did a lot of knocking and meeting some wack people! 
The Song of the Week is, "The Gospel of John Hurt" by Alt-J.

Also shoutout Ritt Momney! I heard about the newest album release, I'm sure it's amazing. I'll be able to listen to it in just about 3 weeks! That's crazy.... Time to continue enjoying to the end! 

Love,

Elder Thompson 

P.S. I live in the most beautiful place in the world!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXkpWY5Y02Q The Gospel of John Hurt   Alt-J

The Time Is Far Spent

New address:
1385 W. Washington Blvd. #61
Crescent City, CA 95531


What's up everyone?! I'm sure you're super stoked to get another weekly email from yours truly. We had a pretty great week up here in Crescent City. 

Things are going well trying to get the branch started. There's a great member down in Klamath who is helping us get everything together. We are going to meet in the laundromat he owns, in an adjacent room where we can have chairs set up. We're now just asking everyone who would attend if we had a little group set up down there. Yesterday we went around to all of the Yurok Tribe members we are teaching because our member's wife is actually Yurok so we have an in there. In the native culture, once you get to know people and they know you're friendly, you are instantly family and can basically just walk into their houses. So we met some great new friends yesterday! We are going to go back to teach many of them this week. We're going to create a little study group or get together before we can get the branch going just to see what kind of turn out we'd get. We walked into a store and the clerk said, "hey, you're Brad's boys!" and was so nice.

We had a cool experience the other day: we decided to go knock a street called Murphy Avenue (s/o to my dog, Murphy). We decided to knock on the right side of the street first. As we knocked one door, we were standing on the porch and a car came into the driveway and then another car. A husband and wife got out of their respective cars, just getting home from work. They invited us in and I totally thought we had tracted into members. Turns out, the wife is from SLC and loves going to the temple lights in the winter. The husband is from Cali but was super down to have us come teach him and his family of 4 kids! We are so hyped about them! They have Sundays off and have been looking for a church lately.  Right time, right place... God makes it happen! 

It was a week of a lot of knocking and weeding out the promising people from the less interested people. Time is of the essence!!!! 

The Song of the Week is Hymn #266: The Time is Far Spent - my Mission President told me to read the lyrics as I finish my mission soon.  There is still so much to do in the coming weeks, there is no slowing down now! 

Love you all, have a great week! 

Elder Thompson 

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/music/library/hymns/the-time-is-far-spent?lang=eng&_r=1  

The Time Is Far Spent

Crescent City Vibes

Hello all! 

Wanna know an amazing thing? I was transferred to pretty much the coolest area in my mission. I'm now in Crescent City, California; which is at the VERY top of California, right on the coast. It's so beautiful!! We have the huge redwoods on one side and then the coast on the other side! We're about 20 minutes south of the Oregon border and 2 hours north of Eureka which is about 4-5 hours away from any other civilization, so this is a great way to start the end of the mission! The best part is it's always 65 degrees here, all day, which is so much better than the 105 in Lakeport. 

I'm with Elder Sanders from Syracuse, Utah and he is only 1 transfer after me so we are a pretty experienced duo! We both came into the area new so we have a lot to learn but we just got to work. The teaching pool the previous elders had was pretty garbage except for like 2 people so we are starting from scratch and trying to find new people and families to baptize in our final weeks. We also cover a sweet little town called Klamath, which is where the Trees of Mystery attraction is located.  It's also home to the Yurok Indian Tribe, whose people are primed and ready for the gospel. Elder Sanders and I have been tasked with starting a branch in Klamath.  We already have a building set up, we just need members to commit and people to baptize down there! It's going to be a very exciting transfer. It also makes me nervous because I'm going to have to leave soon and I'm going to miss it very much. 

We are teaching a part member family, Chris and Jenna. Chris is a member, Jenna is not. We are just trying to help her feel ready for baptism and get to a point when there really isn't anything to wait for. We are hoping for her to be baptized this transfer! 

The 4th of July was so great! We did the Book of Mormon Experiment and had a booth at the parade. People come by and read a page of the Book of Mormon without knowing what book it is and they mark references to God and Jesus Christ or anything which stands out to them. Then we take their picture and put it in a little display we have.  It was a huge success! We were allowed to dress down for it so more people would talk to us and it was weird to say the least! 

https://www.comeuntochrist.org/beliefs/book-of-mormon/experiment

Then in the evening, we got to go to a super nice house right on the beach, next to a lighthouse, to watch fireworks and eat food. We built a fire on the beach and watched the fireworks! It was a night to remember! Everyone is super patriotic up here...  there were so many fireworks going on alllllll night. 

Also, I guess this is a different state than California... or so some think.  Some say this is a state called, "Jefferson, " you can look it up if you want to.

We had Zone Conference yesterday, my last one. I gave my departing testimony, which felt weird. I loved learning from President and Sister Meservy and just soaking up everything they teach. I can't believe how much I still don't know! There's always something to improve upon. President and Sister Meservy expressed their appreciation for me because it was my last Zone Conference and it made me feel great. The last thing President said to me before we drove back up to Crescent City was, "now go tear it up up there!" 

I'm just enjoying to the end, working hard, and focusing very hard on my purpose here. Thank you all for your support! If  you ever have a chance to come up to Crescent City, do it! It's the most beautiful place ever! 

The Song of the Week is "Let it Go" by James Bay because it was playing on the 4th of July. 

Shoutout to Dallen and Thomas for finishing their missions this week. I'm so excited to see you guys in about a month! I've been blessed to serve at the same time as some of my best friends!  Love you all, have a great week! 

-Elder Thompson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsPq9mzFNGY   Let It Go  James Bay