Elder Henry H. Thompson: Who Are The People In Our Neighborhood?

Hey, here is your weekly update about what's happening in the California Santa Rosa Mission. Buckle up everybody because boy, have I a story for you.

This week, we were supposed to have a lesson with a super awesome family and also a recent convert but BOTH of them fell through; wonderful. So we decided to try to see someone who was in the area and maybe tract a little bit in another area because we now had 2 hours of unplanned night ahead of us. We went tracting which was kind of eh this time, we felt like we shouldn't be there. We prayed and asked God where it is that He would have us go. We both felt like we should go to the plaza in the "downtown" part of our area, where there are normally a lot of people. So we went there and the second person we talked to was an older woman named Rebecca. She was sitting against her car and it seemed like she was in deep thought. We approached her (keep in mind, it's really dark by this time) and she asked if we were LDS missionaries. We said yes and talked to her more - turns out she is an inactive member who has been moving around a ton and has had missionaries come across her a lot recently. Her conversion story is crazy: she ended up in jail on false charges for something and her cell mate was a Native American woman who was also an inactive member. But still, they talked about the gospel and Rebecca just had to know more as soon as the charges got dropped and she was released. She met with missionaries after that and got baptized but then she got really sick and was supposed to have a blood transfusion but she wanted to get a priesthood blessing from her stake president beforehand. She did, and went back to the doctor and she was completely healed, she no longer needed to have a transfusion. We sat in a pavillion with Rebecca and taught her a quick lesson about how God is watching out for her and we also shared some scriptures from the Book of Mormon to help her out. As we were finishing up, a man came and sat down behind us just minding his own business. I felt prompted to give him the Book of Mormon that was in my hand because what was I going to do with it?? So I asked if I could give it to him and he said yes, kind of confused almost. I bore a short testimony about how it has helped me in my life and then said goodbye. We walked Rebecca back to her car and talked again for a second when from behind me I heard, "some crazy things just happened, guys." I turned around and it was Joe, the man who I had just given the book to. He told us that he had been thinking about his son, Noah, the whole night and as he was flipping through the pages of the Book of Mormon, he randomly landed in the Index and the first word on the page was 'Noah'. He took that as a sign from God and told us that he was going to read the whole book because of that. We exchanged information and he told us that he wanted to bring his girlfriend to church with him on Sunday. We are going back to talk to him this week! Just a story about how God knows what we are going through and he knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. And if we keep trying, even when things seem discouraging, He will put us in situations that will help build our testimony even more!

That's basically the update from me for this week, but I need to wish my Grandpa Jeff a Happy Birthday, along with Kadi, Cole, Mason, and Todd.

And a huge shoutout to my cousin, Sarah Jane, who has been called to serve in the Berlin, Germany Mission!! It's a special place for our family because both my great Grandpa Eric and great Grandma Phila served in that mission and they got married in the mission home there. Also, great Grandpa Eric's hometown of Zwickau is in that mission. And finally, my other Great Grandpa Stew was a missionary there too. There are no coincidences.

The Song of the Week is No Grey by The Neighbourhood. Basically any song by them will be good, I think.

Have a great week!

Love, Elder Thompson