Elder Henry H. Thompson: 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