Thank You God Guys

July 31, 2018

Hello all!! Its been a week in California so I think that might count as two weeks anywhere else.... not really sure though.  So far the current fires are not close to where I am.  The Lakeport elders have been evacuated.  Redding is part of the Roseville mission so I haven't heard anything about the missionaries there.

This week I had a really fun time on exchanges with an Elder named Elder Grillo, one of the Spanish elders. He is from Ogden and he played hockey as well. I also live with him so we are already great friends. While on exchanges, we went to Panera to get smoothies, (it was like $5 for 8oz....) and I said,  "wouldn't it be awesome if we left them with a message as if we were at dinner?" and Elder Grillo is like, "I'll do it if you do it."  So we gathered the whole Panera Bread kitchen staff together and I read a part of Mosiah to them.  They actually enjoyed it.

The other day, we were visiting a man who had talked with missionaries in the past.  His two younger daughters went upstairs as soon as we came in, but about halfway through our conversation, they gave us two papers with drawings of us on them that said, "God guys: Thank you." I thought it was super cute. The man is pretty solid as well.  He said that there were a few things he couldn't get behind in the church but he would have joined years ago if he can get behind them. I'll figure out what his concerns are. 

As for transfers, we found out yesterday morning that Elder Siebach is leaving to be a Zone Leader in the Fairfield/Vacaville Zone. I'll miss him, he is a good companion. I'll be getting Elder Pearson, who I've never met but the only consistent thing I've heard about him is that he's from Idaho and that he really likes to talk about cattle. I'll have to see about that. I'll be training him to be a zone leader. I'm going to be living in ANOTHER 5-man with only one bathroom!  My good friend, Elder Walker, is coming to live with us again so it's like Dixon part 2. Should be fun!!!!

The Song of the Week is "I want to hold your hand" by The Beatles. Really anything by the Beatles is going to be good. Check it out if you haven't heard it! 

Thanks for all the support everyone! I hope everything is going well in college or life or whatever you are doing. Keep it up!! 

Also  the biggest of shoutouts to my girl Kate for leaving on her mission this week!
Jacksonville is so lucky to be getting the very best!  

Much love, 

Elder Thompson

Signing transfer journals and sending some elders home

Sweetest note and looks just like Elder T!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jenWdylTtzs  I Want To Hold Your Hand  The Beatles

San Rafael is Swell

July 27, 2018

Yes, it's that time of the week again... the time where you get a bunch of missionary emails and try to decide which ones are worth reading. Thanks for choosing this one. 

This week was good, but not too exciting really, but that's okay because I still have a bunch of good stuff to tell you! 

Kenya is still progressing and reading every day.  We just have to sort through some things before she can get baptized next month. We have time though so she is definitely on track. 

Josue is also progressing really well! This man is a stud! We had a lesson with him yesterday about the Plan of Salvation.  He was asking some really good questions and he gets all of it. He wants to get baptized sometime in August so I'm hoping I'll still be here for it!! I'm so stoked for him.

We also had Zone Conference this past week and it was the Santa Rosa/San Rafael Zone Conference combined. We had to set up so many tables and chairs. It was nice though.

We learned all about how we should be doing personal and companionship studies and how to make the most out of them. It's nice having time set out during the day to study the gospel, it's something that I know I'll need to make time for at home for sure. We also touched on some good other topics like diligence and charity. I got to eat lunch with my favorite guy, Micah (the one who calls me "elder Zac" or "Elder Efron". (I still don't see it but hey, it's alright)  Overall, it was a very successful day!! 

That's about it for this week.  By this time next week, we will know what's happening with transfers so I'll keep you in the loop!! 

The Song of the Week  is "Too Late To Say Goodbye" by Cage The Elephant. You know what, just go listen to that whole album, its fire!!!! 

Also shout out to all of my friends who hit their year mark this week! I'm super proud of you guys. Keep killing it!! 

Much love,

Elder Thompson

haircut!

Combined July Zone Conference - buddy Micah is in the red jersey

pretty Rohnert Park sky

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxL4XVs_B9M  Too Late To Say Goodbye  Cage The Elephant

Teslas At The Temple... A road trip to Sacramento

St. Helena Vineyards

July 16, 2018

Hello everyone!! 

I'll keep this short since I know most of you only care for about 2 paragraphs worth then I lose you, but it's alright. 

Had a great week this week!! The highlight was going to the Sacramento Temple again with our recent converts! It was 102 degrees which I didn't like, but the Spirit was strong and our converts loved the feeling of being there. We got to do some baptisms. Our converts couldn't stop saying "Wow" when they first got to the grounds. The Sacramento Temple is so beautiful. It's small, but that's all you need really. The grounds are full of trees and nice grass and it's just a great time to be there, inside or out. I hope to go to the Oakland temple when they re-open it. 

The other cool thing that happened yesterday was we taught Josue who is progressing greatly!! He has already read the entire Gospel Principles book and is for some reason reading a little bit of Preach My Gospel, maybe he could go on a mission??  We will see. He just wants to know what needs to happen before he gets baptized. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ along with a few commandments and he soaked it all in. He is going to start reading the Book of Mormon and continue coming to church. He told us that in the 6 months that he has been coming to church, he didn't want to have the lessons because he needed to make sure it was for him, but once he figured out that it was true, he told us that he wanted to be baptized. He is going to be thinking about a baptismal date so we can start working toward that. 

Things are good in the great state of California. The adjustment from being up north to down here is almost like switching countries but I'm doing fine. It's just weird being in civilization again. Up in Fortuna, I was about 4-5 hours away from any big city. Now I'm maybe 45 minutes from San Francisco... crazy. 

I'm enjoying every minute. The work is hard, but I have some divine help. Many of my friends are going to  be hitting their year mark within about 2 weeks and I'll still have a few weeks after that before I hit mine, its helping to put things into perspective for me that I only have two years here and I have to make the biggest impact I can before I have to leave. Preach My Gospel tells us that we can determine our success as a missionary by our commitment to find, teach, and baptize people. I'm continually striving to be a better missionary and learn all that I can before I'm heaped back into the world. Once you're about halfway through your mission, things kind of get scary haha, but it's great. 

One scripture that I've loved recently is Alma 48:17, which says "Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men."  I think that is such a cool scripture and I think it's equally as great that I can replace the name Moroni with the names of many people in my life. I could replace the name Moroni with people like my dad or neighbors, or Young Mens leaders, or Matt Gessel... you get the point. It's just really special to me that I have such amazing people in my life.

The Song of the Week this week is "We Don't Eat" by James Vincent McMorrow. This is one of my favorite songs and it really holds a special place in my heart so please appreciate it the way I do.

Much love!! 

Elder Thompson

Tesla at the Temple

Sacramento Temple

Temple trip with recent converts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR3HRMO7nZg  We Don't Eat  James Vincent McMorrow

Teach A Man To Fish...

July 10, 2018

Sunrise over the bay

Hey all, how's it going? 

It's about 6:40 Monday morning and I've been up since 4am. We decided to go fishing early today down in Marin City by the Richmond Bridge! We got here as the sun was rising over Oakland and the bay here, it is super beautiful!! This is a very wealthy area let me tell you.... the houses here are insane!! 

We had a great week and even though I don't remember most of it, that's alright!! It was still good nonetheless. 

On Thursday we got to meet President Meservy, his wife and three of their five kids. They are awesome!! They're both super nice and they are definitely hitting the ground running which is great.  I get along particularly well with their 11 year old son, Micah, who reminds me of me when I was younger and also thinks I look like Zac Efron. So he now calls me "Elder Efron." 

Sunday was a really exciting day for us. There's this guy who is dating a member, his name is Josue. He comes to church every week for the full 3 hours but has always refused the missionary lessons or visits everytime they asked. Well yesterday, Josue told us that he wants to be baptized and wants to know about the process going about that!!!! We were so happy! This area is awesome for sure. There are 7 recent converts in the ward which is a ton!!  We will have the opportunity to go to the Sacramento Temple with some of them on Saturday.

That's literally all that I remember from this week but I know we did a lot of tracting and other finding which is good. We did good stuff the rest of the week too, believe me.  The 4th of July was just another work day, we did some tracting and looked for old contacts in the area book.  Good to stay busy but not very productive. 

The Song of the Week  is Dead Man's Party  by Oingo Boingo. Very classic!! 

Happy birthday to the fam this week!! Kate and Lindsay, Lauren, Kimbo, Erik, Carter and Connor, and Bishop Perry too!  Have a great week everyone!!

Love Elder Thompson 

Marin County

P Day fishing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtM2WSFv4UI

 Dead Man's Party  Oingo Boingo

Hello New Converts, Goodbye President and Sister Wright

July 2, 2018

This week was a great one!! We were very busy and we had a lot of meetings, but we had some really great stuff going on!

To start off the week, we had a BAPTISM.  Yanping got baptized on a Tuesday because it was her husband's birthday and she wanted that day to mean even more to her. She also helps us to teach an old Chinese lady and we really couldn't do it without her. She's awesome. The spirit was very strong during the baptism and she gave a great testimony at the end, telling her story of leaving China to come to the U.S. and learning about God. She is really anticipating China to open up to missionary work here soon and so are we!  Meanwhile, up in Fortuna, Duane and Clinton were finally baptized.  Awesome to hear that everything is going well up there!

On Wednesday, we had some special training with President and Sister Wright since they were leaving soon after. We talked about some good things and what to keep doing in our missionary work. It was sad to see them go, but I had another day with them Friday so it was alright. 

On Friday, we had Mission Leadership Council or MLC. It was my first time going since only zone leaders and sister training leaders are on the council.  It's basically a Zone Conference where we talk about the needs of the mission and how we can help our individual zones to be successful. Everyone loves it and everyone participates. I also got to see some really great friends whom I don't get to see often, so that was a plus. I really enjoyed it and it was also President and Sister Wright's last full day in the mission, so they both bore a powerful testimony about the divinity of this church and gospel. President Wright offered me some kind words as I said goodbye to him.  One of the things he said was that I am "an exceptional missionary and young man," and if you know Eric Thompson, "exceptional" is the highest of compliments. So that meant a lot to me.

On Saturday, we had a lot of finding time so we were happy about that. We have found some new people to teach and also did a lot of tracting. Sadly, the JW's had gotten there right before us and left their pamphlets everywhere.  We ended up with pockets full of JW pamphlets but let's just say that we did the neighborhood a favor and cleaned up for them. 

The Song of the Week is "Tompkins Square Park" by Mumford & Sons. It's super good, go check it out. I had never been much of a Sons fan until I heard this one. 

Shoutout to Noah and Jakob for hitting their year mark this week! So crazy that I haven't seen you guys in a year but keep killing it!! One down and one more to make it count!! 

I hope everyone has a great upcoming week! I'm going to do my best to make President Meservy and his family feel at home here. I'm sure they're great. We haven't met them yet but we will on Thursday! 

Go Jesus!

Love -Elder Thompson

Cary's baptism from last week

Duane and Clinton were baptized too!

Last MLC with President and Sister Wright

Yanping's baptism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHzc_DLHztA  Tompkins Square Park  Mumford & Sons