Hunters And The Hunted

1.29.18

So this week we went rabbit hunting! No guns or anything but we did chase a rabbit with some sticks so I guess that counts.... This happened on Tuesday when we were at the bottom of town looking for potentials. We got 2 new potentials but nobody else answered so we decided to take a shortcut home through this gigantic field. Elder Jones saw the bunny and we both took off after it. It lost us of course, but then we found it again and tried to sneak up on it. That didn't work either.... so we continued on and went in for comp study. 

On Wednesday we had Zone Conference so you already know it was a good day. We learned about teaching with the Spirit and online proselyting. I came away a better, more informed missionary than I had gone in. 

Thursday was weird, we set up some appointments with people which is good.  However, in the morning, Elder Jones and I were out tracting when a woman pulled up behind us and honked. We both turned around and she got out of her car and jogged toward us. She  told us that she wanted her and her son to learn about God and then gave us her card and left. That doesn't usually happen in California.... so we set up an appointment with her! We also had a really great dinner message with a part member family in the ward who is looking really hard into the church. We are hoping to meet with them again and help them progress toward baptism! 

Saturday and Sunday were both really cool yet hard.  Saturday, we had 5 lessons lined up and 4 of them cancelled for the morning.  We ended up walking around and street contacting and looking for potentials. Needless to say, we got wrecked.  Elder Jones and I needed to sit for a minute, so we sat on a wall by the sidewalk and waved at everyone who passed by.  After about 10 minutes of that, we get a wave from the corner of the street a bit away. Turns out, it was Gabriel, one of our investigators who lives all of the way on the other side of town! He had just started a job like 2 days ago that was up near us so that he could help his mom out more. We had a small lesson with him on the street and made an appointment for Sunday to come over and talk more. He was very receptive which seems to be a new concept for most Californians.  After that, we had a lesson with an investigator family from Nigeria and they loved it. They have a really cool Nigerian accents so it's fun to talk to them. The grandma, mother, and daughters all agreed to start reading the Book of Mormon and study it. We will be going back this week to check up on how it is going! So we ended up being in the right place at the right time for that day even though we got destroyed in the morning. 

Yesterday, we had a multi stake conference in which they played a broadcast from Elder Christofferson. I enjoyed it. After it was over, we fulfilled our main priesthood duty by taking down all of the chairs. 

We had two great lessons that day. One with an investigator named Angel. We taught him the Plan of Salvation because one of his close friends just passed away. He really liked it. We told him that nowhere in the scriptures does it tell us more about God's Plan for us than it does in the Book of Mormon! That's true. We also had a really great lesson with Gabriel again. He asked us questions and we taught him about a lot of things. He soaked it all up and we were able to set up another appointment with him and his mom. The work continues to progress in my area. I've seen it grow from practically nothing to where it is now. By this time next week, I'll know if I'll be leaving here or staying my first 6 months in one area. 

For those of you who want to skip to the funny part of the email, it's right here. This week, an Elder in my apartment (not going to name names) wrecked our bathroom. Not just any wreck though.... the toilet is now disabled and literally does not work anymore.... we are hoping to get that fixed really soon because I'm not sure how long I can use the sketchy town park bathroom.

 

The song for this week is "Sound and Color" by Alabama Shakes. Very nice one. 

I know that God has a plan for you and for me. He made it just for us individually. His work and His glory is to bring to pass immortality and eternal life for all of us. I'm grateful for this plan. You can read about it more in depth in the Book of Mormon! 

pebbs and pepps,

Elder Thompson 

Dinner with the Ferriera family

Rabbit hunting

Woodland Zone Conference

https://open.spotify.com/artist/16GcWuvvybAoaHr0NqT8Eh  Sound and Color  Alabama Shakes

video is a bit risque so you just get audio this week.

That One Time Frosty's Was An Answer to Prayer

1.22.18

Right now it's a measley 50 degrees here in the Upper California.   I might be turning into a local because that's actually kind of cold for me now.... I had to put on a jacket.  Back in Utah it's snowing and everything and I would probably be wearing shorts still. 

Big shout out to the group email squad. Mine might not be as well-worded or spiritually sound as Elder Gessel's and they might not be as crazy as Elder Pratt's, but thanks for reading these anyway. 

This week was a good one! On Wednesday during exchanges, we met a man named Angel who loves to talk about God. He really liked our message about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He accepted our Book of Mormon and a time to meet with us again. 

Saturday was a pretty solid day as well! Elder Jones and I were a part of a really cool answer to a prayer. Our dinner appointment fell through because they got sick but they still gave us money to go eat. Elder Jones suggested we go to Frosty's, a small fast food diner here in town. I had never been there and I have been wanting to try it. It was really good by the way. While there, we saw a woman who needed help starting her old 88 Toyota pickup with a huge camper on the back.  I have no idea how that little thing could carry it!  Jeez. We helped her out and before she left, she told us that she had actually prayed for help with her car and then we showed up at Frosty's. This answer to a prayer required 2 things: 1) Our dinner appointment had to get sick, and 2) Elder Jones had to suggest going to Frosty's. It was so cool to be used as an instrument in the Lord's hands to answer a prayer. 

Earlier that day, we met with Angel again.  By the time we got there, he had read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and also the first chapter of 1st Nephi. He told us that he is going to read the book cover to cover! I'm so excited for him to feel the special spirit that comes along with reading the Book of Mormon. It's really special to me because I just finished it for the first time since being on my mission. It took me 4 months but I marked it up like crazy and I learned so much more this time and I treasure this copy so much now. 

Sunday was good too,  though I'm not sure what kind of stuff people say about Mormons online.  Let me just say it's probably very good.... I had a lady say to me through the crack of her door in a really snarky voice "Jesus Christ is the Son of God" and then slam her door.  Thank you for that enlightening information, door-slam lady. 

Things are great though!  We are hoping to get some more investigators this week and get more of them to church! I trust that it will happen.  I love being a missionary.  It's hard, but it's really rewarding! And I'm learning things that will help me throughout my whole life. 

For those of you who enjoy the Song Of The Week portion of this email, here it is!  Baba O'Riley by The Who. One of the greatest songs ever, a total classic. 

Along with listening to that, I would encourage each of you to read any talk from President Russell M. Nelson. He is called by God to be our Prophet in these days. His words are inspired and they will bless your life as you abide by them. 

Getting really good at playing basketball in dress clothes,

Love, Elder Thompson 

Baba O'Riley - The Who

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY5rztWa1TM

It's been a week...

1.15.18

Hey all! This week was pretty uneventful. We worked really hard though. 

We were able to have two lessons with one of our investigators this week! She really liked and believed what we taught but said she wanted to try out some different churches to make sure that this was the right one. She told us that the Lord would probably tell her to come back to this one though!  Prayers for Sheila would be appreciated.

We also got a new Ward Mission Leader in our ward so that should be a fresh new start for the mission plan here in Dixon. 

We did a lot of tracting this week, it was fun and we met a lot of crazy people. That's always fun though!! 

I was also able to go on exchanges to Woodland last week with Elder Cawley (Zone Leader who goes home in 3 weeks) where we set a baptismal date with a woman who was having her first lesson! It was a really great experience and I hope to get some of our own investigators on date very soon! 

Song of the week is Billy Joel's Lullaby.  

I encourage all of you to read the Book of Mormon every day.  Even if it's just a chapter or a verse.  I've seen it bless my life a ton, especially while I've been on my mission. 

I hope it doesn't snow in Utah until I get back! 

Much love from Northern Cali. 

Elder Thompson 

Hank is able to receive emails on his tablet daily, whenever he has wifi.  He would love to hear from you, especially during a week like the last, when the work is hard and rewards feel few.

thompson.henry@myldsmail.net

We will have an entire album of California trucks by 2019!

I'd like to think this means he's thinking of his mom. :)

Billy Joel Lullaby:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcnd55tLCv8

High on the Gospel in Dixon

1.8.18

I wish that I could come up with something funny for the beginning of this email but the funniest thing that happened this week was Elder Abraham tried to stand on a basketball and fell so hard. So there is the beginning of my email. 

This week was really great! We had been praying for people to teach and these last few weeks have been a little slow. 

A few highlights from this week were all about being in the right place at the exact right time to be able to help out two different potential investigators. 

On Tuesday, we went tracting in an apartment complex and on the way into it, I saw an elderly woman looking out of her blinds.  I smiled at her and waved and then she invited us in!  We talked for a good long while and then she invited us to come back later! So cool! I will get back to her later. On Wednesday, we were planning on visiting a woman at around 3 but we were a little late. It's hard to catch her at home though.  As we walked up, we noticed that she was really struggling to put some Christmas decorations away in a high spot in her garage. We helped her and then set up a time where we could come and teach her! We had arrived at the perfect time to help her!  On Thursday, we had interviews with President and we visited a potential investigator named Sarah. We had delivered a children's Book of Mormon to her for her kids and we found out that her daughter had been reading it a lot! Super cool! 

Saturday was the coolest day of them all! We went down to visit another potential investigator and as we were biking there, I stopped at a cool Jeep to look at it.  Well,  it so happened that on that same street, one of our other potentials was running there at the exact same time! We hadn't been able to contact her for a while so it was really cool that we were led there. We went down to visit that woman that I was talking about on Tuesday, her name is Sheila. We talked for a bit again and she said that she would come to church the next day!! We then went tracting there and the first door to open was Priscilla and Gabriel who were interested in our message! They accepted a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet and invited us to come back! 

Then we were supposed to visit a woman named Sister Thomson for our Bishop.
We have never been able to catch her at home but she was just leaving when we pulled up! We introduced ourselves and made a return appointment with her!  Then next door, another member friend was working on his car outside, we offered to help but there was nothing that we could do to be helpful but.... they invited us in for dinner which was great because we didn't have one that night! We also made a return appointment with an inactive family who is also hard to catch at home! It was a day that I needed badly. Oh yeah, and everyone has the flu right now in Dixon so yeah. 

Sunday was cool too, Sheila came to church and loved it! She said she would come back next week and also she made some good friends in the ward with some old ladies haha she is 83. Also, remember that man who was inactive for like 30 years who Elder Siebach and I went up to see? Yeah well, he has been coming back to church and everything with his family.  He gave his testimony yesterday, it was so cool. He talked about all that had happened that helped him come back into the fold. Happy to have been a part of that.

Im excited to keep going with these new investigators and a few other families that we can get on track for baptism in the coming weeks. 

It was sad to hear about President Monson but it's all okay because of the Great Plan of Happiness! He was such a great man. 

The song of the week is "Annie" by ARIZONA, it's a good one but not related to missionary work at all.  

Let me know what's going on with everyone,  I hope you're all doing well! 

On a side note, I've been offered beer more in this last week than I have in the rest of my life.  Also, weed is recreationally legal here in California now so everyyyyyone smokes it in front of us... but on the bright side, I've never slept better in my entire life! haha

Thanks for reading this. Email ended. 

Love, Elder Thompson

Dixon sunsets are the prettiest.

Tour de Dixon with Elder Jones.

Truck or motorcycle shopping... or both.  

Happy New Year!

1.1.18

Happy January everyone! 
Let's just hope that 2018 is the year that Isaac can finally beat Jack in 2k. 

New Year's Eve was super uneventful. We tracted most of the day after church and then we went to dinner with a member and had comp. study after since we had to be in early. We stayed up until about 11:30 (would not recommend) playing this dice game and then we heard some fireworks while we were in bed so thats how we celebrated. 

Last Wednesday, we were able to go to the Sacramento Temple.  The spirit was so strong in there and it was so beautiful. If you have the chance to go there, do it! The second best part about it was we were able to get some Prands (Panda Express) right after so that made my day even better! Sacramento really reminds me of the Sugarhouse area so that was pretty cool! 

On Saturday we visited a bunch of members to introduce my new companion to them. We shared with them Mosiah Chapter 3, which deals with the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ and how because of him, we are able to do all things! 

This will be a shorter email because not too many things happened this week.  The song of the week is "Trouble" by Coldplay. It's been stuck in my head for the past few days but it's a solid song, so all good! 

I hope that everyone has a fantastic beginning of 2018! Try to keep those New Year's resolutions for more than 3 days! 

2018-fully,

Elder Thompson 

Ping Pong on P-Day

Sacramento Temple day in December

Temple grounds on a 70-degree December day

Not a mission car! 
But according to Elder Thompson, a prime example of driving (and parking) in California.