Craziest Sunday I've Ever Had

5.29.18

Everyone sit down and buckle up because boy have I an email for you. 

The week itself was pretty boring but yesterday was the craziest Sunday I've ever had at church. It all started with inviting a man, who it turns out has dementia,  to church. We got him a ride and everything. but he lives in Loleta which is about a 15 minute drive north from Fortuna and the chapel is at the very south end of Fortuna. So he came and wanted to leave after the first hour because he gets tired.  We told him we would go find him a ride but then when we came back, he wasn't there anymore and we looked for him for like 10 minutes all around the church but couldn't find him anywhere. We decided to go look outside and there he was, about a quarter mile down the road, just trying to walk home!  I guess he forgot where he was and started to WALK back to Loleta which would've taken him a while but we got him home safe. 

THEN: There is a woman named Shauna who is Pentacostal but takes care of one of the really elderly ladies in our ward who also has dementia (it's a trend up here guys) and so that means  Shauna comes to our church on Sunday. We have tried to teach her about the church but honestly she is kinda crazy and very stubborn so we have stopped but she still comes to church. I guess Shauna had taken a month-long vow of silence for Jesus.  So she wasn't talking to anyone at church but she was writing notes to the MVP of our ward, Sister Jutila, who puts the team on her back. They were writing to discuss the woman that Shauna takes care of because Sister Jutila has power of attorney or something for her. But Sister Jutila is old too so she couldn't read the notes that Shauna was writing her in pencil and after a few tries, Shauna just got really upset and started yelling at Sister Jutila in the middle of church.  I walked in there and tried to calm the situation down. Shauna was upset that Sister Jutila couldn't find a time to meet about taking care of the elderly lady and she was REALLY upset that Sister Jutila made her break her vow of silence for Jesus. (I was actually kind of upset that she broke it too because honestly I was having a good time not hearing her for a while) Back to the story though, Sister Jutila then fired Shauna in the middle of church from being a caretaker and then (this is where it gets crazy) Shauna stood up and said, "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" and then proceeded to rebuke sister Jutila using "the gift of tongues" which was just random noises and babbling. I told Shauna "I don't think that's how it works," and then she left. Man! what a day of church! 

Later that day, we decided to drive an hour down to Redway to see our investigator with a baptismal date, because he didn't show up to church and we were worried about him. We got there and it turns out that Brodee's wheelchair broke and he had no way of getting to church anymore. I breathed such a sigh of relief. He is still as prepared and golden as ever. Even teaching US the law of tithing saying "I feel like if God gave you a job and money, you should give at least 10% back to Him" and we were like that's exactly right! haha. We moved his baptismal date to June 16th (right before transfers) and he said that we were part of the "SoHum Family" (Southern Humboldt) now. Guys seriously, I don't think we could have met a more prepared person in the world. He is willing to give up anything on the spot and already believes in all of the things that we do. We found him because we literally talk to everybody. He and his buddy were sitting in his truck while we were tracting down there and so of course we talked to him and now he is getting baptized. He was ready. It's been such a testimony builder for me seeing people actually prepared for the gospel, even in Southern Humboldt county. 

Duane and Clinton are doing well also, Duane came to church yesterday with his granddaughter but Clinton wasnt feeling well. They both have some serious health problems. but Duane is down from 10 cups of coffee a day, to about 3 or 4 so we are super stoked for them! Hopefully we can get them baptized in a few weeks! 

Yesterday was also good because we had 6 investigators at church which is a new record for me! even beating out last week's 5.  

Today Brother Lorang took us out for breakfast and we helped him pick some blackberries.

Sorry for the long email today but some interesting things happened and I thought you would want to read about them! The Song of the Week is "My Brain is Hanging Upside Down," also called "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" by the Ramones.  One of my absolute favorites and something I would jam to with my friends all of the time!! I hope everyone has a great week! 

Love from Humboldt's favorite hot shot,

Elder Thompson

HYPE = Help Your People Energize
HYPE Companionship of the Week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su0Hvt6hTmA  My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down/The Ramones

New, New Mission Pres and Baptismal Dates Baby!

May 22, 2018

This week has been one of the greatest weeks on my mission and let me tell you why... 
That's right: BAPTISMAL DATES BABY!  We set 3 dates with our investigators for early June and also had 5 people at Sacrament Meeting this week with a possibility of having 11 come next week! A record for my mission so far!!  Dwayne and Clinton who are on date for June 9 are two brothers in their 60s or so.  They decided they needed a change in their lives when one of their ex-wives got baptized and they saw a drastic change in her life, for the better.  We just need to help them lose the coffee and cigarettes but we are working on that!

I don't have much time but I'll tell you that the Lord is preparing people to be baptized! We also have a bunch of progressing investigators so the work is awesome. We will do a booth in Miranda tomorrow.  I'm fulfilling my district leader duties well and I'm loving it.  

We got some news the other day and we were all super shaken up for a minute.  President Bentley, the new Mission President who was supposed to come next transfer, is now going to the Chile, Santiago North.  And the Mission President who has been in Chile for a year, President Meservy, is coming here.  I'm sure there's a good reason for the change and I am just as excited to meet President Meservy.

We went to the beach up in Trinidad today even though it's kinda cold. We walked all around and climbed on the rocks.  I smashed a clam on a rock and another Elder ate it haha! 

EAST LAX FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP!! How awesome is that.  I'm so proud of the boys for sure, they deserved it and it was our time.  And super cool that it was for Coach Hearn this season, I wear his name and number on the back of my tag. 

Song of the week is "Pulling Me Under" by Kevin Garrett,  my favorite artist. 

Love, Hank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkdMG8Gkt1Y  Pulling Me Under   Kevin Garrett

Lucky 13

May 14, 2018

Hey everyone!! This week has been a long one but it was also good! 

I was able to talk to my family yesterday!!  I was so happy to see everyone... it also marked 8 months out for me.  Hey, ask my little sister about her new cookie business, maybe I'll even get some samples here in California. hint hint.
I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day. We spoke in the Miranda branch again and they fed us a fantastic lunch after church.   I love my mom so much, so give her a hug for me when you see her!
We picked up a ton of new investigators, 13 to be exact... because we talk to everyone!! My new companion is Elder Justus (he's from Tennessee) and we have been working hard! 

We saw some pretty great miracles, like inviting people to come to church and having them say yes! Also, running into people and asking if we can help them and having them turn into some of our most promising investigators! 

We had dinner at a member's house and their Rottweiler threw up all over my shoe, dang it sucked but they washed it off for me!

We have just been doing a ton of finding but we will start having more lessons soon and then we will get some good progressing investigators! 

Sorry this is short but I'm sure some of you will appreciate it actually.... 

Wish me luck on all the tracting! 

This church is the true Church of Jesus Christ and it has brought me so much happiness! I hope to be able to bring that into many other lives! 

Song of The Week is The Girl  by City and Colour in honor of all of the amazing women in our lives.

Go East Lax!

Love Elder Thompson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVHk4dc7yaE  The Girl  City and Colour

Thompson and Justus take on Fortuna

May 7, 2018

Hey there everyone happy May!! 

So there's some transfer news this week!  I'm staying in Fortuna thankfully and I'm becoming a District Leader with my friend Elder Justus! We will see how that goes. 

The one really significant day I had this week was Wednesday. I was on exchanges with former AP Harker.  I wanted to go really hard with him and hit the streets. We set a goal of 4 new investigators for the day. We had found 3, mostly from contacting or knocking some doors. It was getting late and also we had comp study coming up. I told Elder Harker that we weren't going to go in for study until we found a new investigator.  He agreed and we set off again. After countless doors with nobody behind them, we went to see a couple of potential investigators who lived In the area. As we were pulling up to park, we saw a woman walking her dog.  I rolled down the window and asked if we could share a message about Jesus Christ. She said yes! We shared with her the amazing message of the Restoration and it seemed to really resonate with her. She told us that as she has been getting older, she has started to have more questions as to what is really right. She had always been religious but didn't know where to go. 

We gave her a pamphlet and then she asked for a Book of Mormon!! We set up a lesson for Tuesday evening and then we were off to go back home.  We achieved our 4 new investigators goal!  It was such a testimony builder that the Lord puts people in your path if you are patient, diligent, and faithful. 

That's about it for this week! I say goodbye to Elder Kelly and hello to Elder Justus tomorrow.  We are going to go super hard and I'm really excited!  The work is about to move forward in leaps and bounds and we are going to baptize nations!! 

Song of the Week is Angels by Khalid.  

Love Elder Thompson 

Elder Kelly saying goodbye to the Harrison family

let the dogs loose on Elder Harker

Exchanges with Elder Harker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2CP7DoECnc  Angels by Khalid

Pizza and The Plan of Salvation

4.30.18

First off, I want to shout out Kate for getting her mission call!  I couldn't be more proud and I know that Jacksonville is getting the best there is!

This week not too much happened, but it was still a good week!! 
I went up to Arcata for the day for exchanges with Elder Justus.  We worked hard which was good and I also got to talk to a guy about jeeps for a while so I'd call that a success!  He had a perfectly restored CJ-7 in his driveway so of course I had to knock his door! They are going to follow up with him soon so if I hear something good I'll tell you! 

Other than that, we spoke again at the Miranda branch and will be speaking again in 2 weeks.... lots of talks. I gave a talk about the Plan of Salvation and it was very spiritual because about 95% of it was plagiarized from Preach My Gospel haha but the branch loved it still!  We had a feast with them after complete with pizza, homemade bread, salad, and cake and ice cream but i didn't have any sweets because I gotta stay healthy out here. 

I'm trying to finish the Doctrine and Covenants next transfer and so far it's been great! I've learned a ton about what the Lord expects of me as a missionary. Along with that, I've been reading and marking up the Book of Mormon and also the New Testament! My testimony is only growing. 

Thank you for all the support everyone! Have a great week! 

The Song of the Week is "Little Bit of You" by Kevin Garrett, one of the greatest artists ever! Check it out of you have like 3-4 spare minutes after you've read your scriptures!

Much love from the 707 

-Elder Thompson 

Arcata exchanges with Elder Justus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUS7NqDzzzk  Little Bit of You  Kevin Garrett