Elder Henry H. Thompson: Light The World, West Coast Style

Hello everyone!

As I look out over the thick morning bay area fog, I write to you the events of my past week. Hopefully you enjoy it and are able to make it through the whole thing. I'll make it as painless as possible.

Last Tuesday, we woke up early and drove down to San Rafael at about 7 to go talk to some of the other elders in our zone and help them out. But the worst part about California is definitely the traffic. So as everyone is going to The City for work in the morning, it makes a 40 minute drive take an hour and 45 minutes, which is terrible. Man how I miss those 75-80 MPH speed limits that Utah has. It makes so much more sense

We started teaching this family the Spanish elders found for us last week. They seem super promising and I am really happy to be able to teach families. Families are such a big part of the gospel! Speaking of family, happy December birthdays to Millie and Chad!

On Wednesday we went to a park in our area to try and tell people about Light The World and other gospel subjects but nobody was at the park. Literally a ghost town. So we decided to take our tactics to the street. At a nearby stoplight, whenever the light was red, we would run out to all of the stopped cars and trucks and we would give them Light The World cards. It was a fun experience! People were pretty cool about it actually.

We also met up as a district and did a big Light The World table in downtown Petaluma. It was raining pretty hard so that made it fun! We handed out cards and candy canes and free hot chocolate! We went really hard contacting people and telling them about the initiative. I met this lady who had a little bird on her shoulder and I asked her if I could have it. She said sure and put it on my shoulder so I got to walk around for a few minutes while she was getting hot chocolate and I talked to people with a bird on my shoulder, in the rain! I got some funny looks but I did have to give the bird back. We named it Rick Ross.

Light The World

Rick Ross the bird who enjoys contacting with me in Petaluma

Northern California in the winter isn't necessarily cold, it's just humid so it feels colder. Mostly it's just really foggy and rainy. It's pretty cool to see the fog set in in the evenings.

So yesterday, it was raining pretty hard, and you already know I was about to have a good time! I love going out in the rain. I think it makes things interesting. We talked to a lot of people and they were really confused as to why we were out. We got soaking wet but we did have some nice people let us in. They mostly just wanted to talk to us about their religion which is great but we left them with a Book of Mormon. They told me to give props to my parents for helping me to do what I am doing. So props to you guys! It was nice though that they would let us in from the rain for a bit.

We had an awesome lesson with Branden and Anissa and they also came to church! I want to see them join the church so badly! We are just going to send it on the baptismal invitation this week. Pray for us that it goes well! I took a picture with their baby daughter this week because they told me that she loves cameras and selfies. They're a great family.