Missionary Work In The Bay

Welcome to another edition of Missionary Work In The Bay. 
We had a good week, most of it was spent preparing for Zone Conference.  It took a lot of time but went well so it worked out. It was a fantastic day, we talked about the power/role that the Book of Mormon plays in missionary work. It is central to our teaching because it is part of our unique message. Since the beginning of my mission, my love for the Book of Mormon has only grown.  I've learned so many things from it; life lessons, warnings, and uplifting stories. Most importantly, it has granted me the opportunity to know more about our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Also to feel the confirming witness the Holy Ghost gives to any honest seeker when they want to know if the book is true. I know that it is, there is simply no other way! One of my favorite conference talks is "The Book of Mormon, God's Compelling Witness" by Tad R. Callister. I love any talk by Tad R. but this one of my favorites!  
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/10/gods-compelling-witness-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng&country=car

I could go on for a while about the Book of Mormon but I'll just leave it at this: if you would have asked me 2 years ago if I enjoyed reading the scriptures or just reading at all, I would have given you a fat NO. But I love reading the scriptures now which is something I never thought I would say. They contain a pretty cool power.

As for the rest of the week, Barbara is still super stubborn and Italian so she admits she's very sassy but she's good natured and funny most of the time. She is in Enos in the BOM and really loves the study guide/timeline that we are making for her.  She told us that maybe the book is true, but she is just worried that she isn't going to be able to make such a change in her life at her age. We continue to assure her that it won't be the easiest thing, but our Savior promises to help her. She also loved learning about the Plan of Salvation and where we will go after we die. That it's not just heaven or hell, but it's more personal and loving than that. We told her if she joins the church,  she would have to go to church 5 less days a week than she already does. I think she liked that. We also assured her she doesn't have to give up any of the friendships and relationships which are so important to her in her current church.

On Tuesday we got a text from Anissa saying that she just finished the Book of Mormon (!) after having started it 2 weeks earlier!  She was excited to talk with us about it. It was pretty wild, because just the week earlier, I had prayed to find/teach someone who would just eat up the Book of Mormon super quickly and well, He answered.  Elder Taylor and I were so hyped all day! We went over that day around noon and asked her what she thought. She said at first, she wasn't sure if she would be able to get into it, but by the end she was wanting to read more and go back to it as soon as she could. We told her that was the Spirit speaking to her! She even thinks other churches should implement the teachings from the Book of Mormon! We asked her if she now believed the Book of Mormon to be the word of God and she said yes!! We then had a wonderful lesson on Saturday with them and we challenged them to baptism! Branden said he would like to know more about what baptism is before he commits but Anissa said that after reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon and reading about how important baptism is,  she had been thinking about getting baptized! That was so awesome! One concern is that she really loves the church she is currently attending and runs a group there so she is really going to have to pray about where she needs to be. I know Heavenly Father will answer her prayers. 

One other cool experience this week: after a prayer, we knocked into an evangelical pastor and his family. We asked if we could share a message about Jesus Christ and he said no because they were evangelical and already knew Jesus and in fact, were reading Matthew 12 as a family at that very moment.  I'm not sure why but I'll credit the Spirit, I asked if we could join their family in reading. He said sure and then let us into his house and we sat down in their kitchen and read the Bible with him, his wife, and their 4 kids. After we finished, I shared John 10:16 about the other sheep that Jesus needs to bring into the fold. I introduced the Book of Mormon to them as those other sheep and the spirit was strong. They shared their doubts but I assured them as they read and prayed to know for themselves, that they would get an answer. We left, but it was a cool experience. I think we will try to see them again in a few weeks. I'm really grateful they welcomed us into their home! 

Sorry this is long, the church is just true and so I have a lot to say about it. The experiences I'm having are undeniable, that's for sure. 

The Song of the Week is "Little Black Submarine" by the Black Keys, a solid song and an OG Ritt Momney cover from years back. 

Have a great week everyone! 

Love, Elder Thompson 

pics:

I cook a mean chicken now and also comp ties. 

Elder Taylor's bday at Sister Auva'a's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k8es2BNloE  Little Black Submarine Black Keys

Rainy Season Slam Dunks

It's the start of a new transfer here in Rohnert Park. Things have been going well! Elder Taylor is awesome and we get along so I feel like this transfer is about to be a great one! Elder Taylor is about 6'6" so it's a pretty interesting combination, the two of us. The cool part was when we went to MLC last Friday, he walked into the gym where the meeting was being held, picked up a basketball, and while wearing a suit, threw down a two-handed slam dunk on the spot. I enjoyed watching it. 

Me with Sister Olmo and Elder Taylor. I'm the one on the right.

We didn't have much time to do missionary work this week since the first 2 weeks of the transfer are always a killer, but the time that we did have was pretty good! Here are a couple of things that happened

-It rained SO hard this past week! We were tracting in it for about 3 hours on Wednesday morning and nobody was willing to listen to us. We got a lot of "stay dry"'s though. But then a guy who looks like Mad-Eye-Moody from Harry Potter opened the door. He invited us in for some hot chocolate and a little bit of pizza. He wasn't very interested in learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ, but he told us some crazy stories of his about how he left home in the UK only planning on being gone for a few weeks but ended up being gone for about 4 years and wound up in Israel for 18 months, climbing Mt. Sinai and walking through the desert of Egypt to get to the pyramids of Giza.  He was interested in my trip to India because he had also been there and had been to Pakistan for a few months as well. It's crazy all of the stuff that he's done. I enjoyed hearing about it and it was nice of him to let us in to get out of the rain for a bit. I took off my shoes that night and my brown shoes had leaked through my socks and stained my feet brown and yellow. It freaked me out for a second but it's all good. 

-On Thursday, during our daily 6am run, it started pouring on us and we had to do the second half of our run way faster than I ever have before! 

-We had a super spiritual lesson with Barbara about how she can receive answers to her prayers about the Book of Mormon. She is in Jacob now and continuing to read with the help of the study guide we are making her! All we need is a sincere heart, real intent, and faith in Christ. Then the Holy Ghost can let us know that it is true when we pray! She is a tough cookie to crack, but I know that she felt the spirit because I felt it. Slowly but surely, she will come around. She still loves meeting with us and learning more, but she is a bit shy of change because she has been part of her religion for all 76 years of her life. I would imagine change would be hard at that point. But nothing is impossible with Christ on our side. 

-We got put on bikes for the night because the other Elders needed our car.  We had to go take more of the Book of Mormon study guide to Barbara since we are making it a little bit at a time. We biked to the church to 3-hole punch it and then rode across town to Barbara's house. It was Saturday night so we weren't sure if she was going to be at church or out doing something but we went for it anyway. When we got there, her truck wasn't there so we were sad about that but I thought we should knock on the door anyway just in case. We knocked a few times and no answer. But as we were walking out of the driveway, she pulled in with her truck coming home from dinner! It was great. We were able to give her the timeline in person and also have a nice chat with her. Looking back on it, if we hadn't have been on bikes that night we wouldn't have been able to get to Barbara's just as she was coming home, we would have gotten there much sooner and totally missed her. 

God is in the details and one of my new goals is to focus on the small promptings we get which sometimes don't even feel like promptings. Sometimes it's just a thought or a feeling and it doesn't feel like anything special or spiritual whatsoever. But I've seen miracles come from those small promptings so I'm trying to follow them more no matter how weird or inconvenient they may seem.  There's always a reason and sometimes that reason is to see if we will recognize and follow it. It's a pretty big blessing to be able to show God that He can trust me with more in the future. We can know that it doesn't matter if you think its a spiritual prompting or not.  If any thought or feeling prompts us to do good things, we know  that it's from God and all we have to do is act. 

Sorry this is long, I guess I just have a lot to say. Congrats on making it this far. 

The Song of the Week is "Oceans Away" by ARIZONA,  it's a really good one. 

Love from the North Bay,

Elder Thompson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MoAdVyuEuU  Oceans Away  ARIZONA

I'm Registering to Vote In Sonoma County

What's up everyone, it's been a good week! 

First of all, transfers: I'm staying for a 6th transfer in Rohnert Park! The ward keeps joking that they should start letting me sign the lease on the apartment and also that I should register to vote in Sonoma County. In reality though, I'm pretty stoked! This ward is so great with missionary work and the work is booming so I have no complaints being here for 9 months. My 2 companions though, Elder Staten and Elder Van Katwyk, who have only been here for 1 transfer, are both leaving. I am getting a new companion who is a little younger in the mission, probably about 6 months in. His name is Elder Taylor from Vegas baby. He has been banished to Crescent City his whole mission so I'll be happy to welcome him back to civilization. This will be the 2nd zone leader I've trained, I think it's going to go well! 

As for the week, we had Elder Whiting of the Quorum of the Seventy as well as the area presidency come visit the mission. He said, "Go Leopards" when I told him where I was from and where I went to school. He gave us some great advice and motivation on how to be better missionaries by being more bold and inviting people to be baptized a lot more often. In his words: "People expect you to ask them to join our church, don't disappoint them!" We have been inviting people to be baptized a lot more this past week and it has been great! It helps us to know who is actually willing to commit and also lets them know what we are actually here for and what our goals are. It was an inspired meeting. 

Weird experience, we knocked on a door and a deaf lady opened the door and started talking to us. She could read lips so that was nice. She is also a caretaker for a guy who is blind AND deaf. She told us to meet her at a pizza place in town. We met both of them there and they talked to us for like 15 minutes and then said they had to leave so they just got up and left. It was unexpected but I got pizza so I can't complain. It was just super random. Maybe time to learn ASL?? 

One other cool thing was we were meeting with a recent convert and she was telling us about Lotus flowers and how they are symbolic of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and baptism with the way that they go under the water and come back up 3 days later. That night, we were walking through a neighborhood and saw a woman with her garage open. Naturally we had to see if she was someone who the Lord had prepared for us to talk to, so we did. She listened to the whole Restoration and was even asking questions about the prophet and other things like the Book of Mormon.  When we asked for her name, she told us that her name was Lotus. No coincidences! 

In other news, Barbara finally came to church!!!! She goes to her church EVERY MORNING, but she finally came to our church! She really enjoyed it and she said that maybe God was keeping me here for another 6 weeks just for her. I told her I believe that too. Prayers that Barbara will accept a baptismal date! 

Also, Anissa is up to Mosiah 26 in her Book of Mormon reading and is planning on finishing it by the end of January! She went online and found a day by day study guide to help her finish the BOM at the end of the month! I've never read it so quickly, so sweet! We went over and gave their baby a blessing because she is sick and it was really nice. Their baby perked up right after the blessing was over! I think I have a few reasons why God wants me to stay in this area for another 6 weeks. 

2019 is off to a good start! I love being a missionary and the experiences that I get to have every day.

The Song of the Week is Tessellate by Alt-J. I started beatboxing the drum part of that this week and Elder Van Katwyk was like, "you know Alt-J?!" so we found a good connection. 

Have a great week everyone, thank you for all of the support! 

Much love,

Elder Thompson

Mission Conference with Elder Whiting.  Peep me standing in the back right. 

Elders Staten and VanKatwyk saying their goodbyes

Love the Auva'a  family!!




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg6BwvDcANg  Tessellate  Alt-J

Malibu Miracles and Transit Teaching

It's crazy to think it's already 2019. 2018 flew by and this year probably will too. I have to make the most out of the time that I have left!  

New Year's Eve was fun, we had to be in early so we just hung out and talked for a little bit. We stayed up until midnight, which was a mistake because waking up at 6 was tough, I made it though. I was still feeling the effects of that for a few days though. I wrote a lot in my journal that night about what I learned in 2018 and how I've grown as a person and missionary. It's wild how a mission and the gospel can change a person. After witnessing how it's changed me, I can better tell other people how it can change them. But, suffice it to say, the mission is one of the best things I've ever chosen to do and I'm blessed with a strengthened testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and the things that go along with it, like prophets, apostles, scriptures, and the priesthood. I'm so grateful to be out here. 

Here are some more highlights before I get into the nitty gritty:

-starting off 2019 with some cinnamon rolls.

-going on exchanges with Elder Larrea from Lima Peru (shoutout to Elder Fetzer) and while we were knocking a trailer park, a Spanish JW tried to bash with us. 

-having a 4 x 4 at In N Out

-on Wednesday, we were about to go finding but Elder Staten got a bad bloody nose for like 45 minutes..... After that, we decided to go finding in a different place than we had planned and we ended up running into 2 former members of our church and we are going back to teach one of them and his family! Then we talked to a guy down the street and we shared the Restoration with him and turns out he has a childhood friend who is member! God is in the details and He puts us where He needs us. 

-having Andi and her son come to church and loving it! 

-a member took us out to Round Table Pizza and The National Junior League Hockey Championship game between USA and Finland was on. tender mercies. 

-in the pouring rain yesterday, a woman answered the door and said "Don't you have anything better to be doing?" we were like, "No, this is literally the best thing we could be doing right now." she closed the door. 

Here is the nitty gritty: 

On Thursday, I had one of the most spiritual lessons I've had on my mission, with Barbara. We decided to just send it. I told her that she has been studying diligently for quite a while and that it was time for her to get her answer.  Basically the most bold I've ever been on  my mission. As she was praying, I was saying my own prayer. The spirit flooded into the room and it was powerful. After a while, Barbara finished her prayer and she was crying and said she felt a little shaky. After explaining to her what the Holy Ghost feels like and how it is different for everyone, she said that she had never felt it like that before. She was smiling so big!  She said that she wanted to confirm what she felt during her prayer that night and to call her in the morning. We left her house on one of the biggest spiritual highs ever. When we called the next morning, she said that it's a huge change that she isn't quite ready to dive into yet but that she is going to keep reading the Book of Mormon and praying. It is a big change and it takes time. But the Spirit was there and it was there to testify of the truth. I'm excited to see where this goes and willing to wait for Barbara to feel ready. 

That morning, our car along with pretty much every other mission car, was in the shop. Ours was getting a new windshield. The problem was, we had so many appointments crammed together, we never would have been able to make them all. So we were able to borrow another set of Elders' Chevy Malibu for a while, and then our vehicle coordinator told us our car wasn't going to be ready by the end of the day like we thought. Big bummer. But, he said, he could do us a big favor... The mission Ford Transit van, the one they use to take all of the stuff around in and take all of the office people to zone conferences, was finishing up its oil change in Santa Rosa and we could take that. We gratefully agreed and went to pick up our trusty steed! It was so fun driving a bus all day, I'm pretty tired of the Toyota Corolla. But because we had our van, we were able to get to all of our appointments and get invited into 3 separate houses!! It was great! We picked up 4 new friends that day... it was the day we had Malibu Miracles and Transit Teaching.  

First 2019 Song of the Week is Shake Me Down  by Cage the Elephant, it's a good classic CTE song so give it a listen in honor of me. 

Have a great week! Happy 2019 and RIP 3 hour church!

Much love,

Elder Thompson

The legendary Transit Van flying down the 101

"I saw a big truck with a huge tailpipe and of course I thought to myself,
 'I could fit my head in that,'   You're welcome."

Rollerskating and repping Ritt Moms

Post skate sushi... I'm coming for your record Bryce!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v27TRan1SBI  Shake Me Down  Cage The Elephant

California Love

December 31, 2018

Happy New Year's Eve! 
Crazy to think that 2018 is almost over. It has been a great year, definitely full of ups and downs, but the ups outweigh the downs by far. I'm grateful for the knowledge that I've gained of Jesus Christ and His gospel that was restored to the Earth for us. For sure it's a blessing to enjoy. 

I'm going to try to make this short but no promises. Last week, it was great to talk to the fam and a bunch of friends as well. Christmas was super fun, we had a breakfast and a dinner appointment with some great families. I was stuffed but that's how holidays should be out on the mission! We also went out to a fun diner here in town to finish it off.

Christmas Caroling

Christmas pj's and the aftermath

Here are some highlights for you though:

-We played beat-to-teach basketball against this guy at a park while we were tracting and I was on fire. I could probably beat Bryce and Isaac at this point. We beat the guy, but he still wouldn't let us teach him, which was the deal so that's pretty dumb.  Happy we wrecked him anyway.

-Going on exchanges with one of my greatest mission friends, Elder Brinkerhoff.

-District Council on Christmas.  I wore a tan suit that I found at Goodwill for $13. What a steal!

-Yesterday, running late to an apartment community to tract a little bit, the first person we saw was just getting home from work let us right inside to teach him. God's timing is perfect. Then, the guy in the complex that we were actually looking for was just leaving his house so we got to talk to him as well! 

-Tracting a street where someone we are teaching, but haven't seen in a while, lives.  We knocked on her door and she let us right in and we taught her and her son! She said it was a sign and that it was perfect timing for her because she is always busy but she was able to have a quiet night at the time we showed up! No coincidences.

-Right after that, going to see another family that we have been trying to see.  They were taught by missionaries yearssss ago but stopped for some reason. We got in contact with them and the mom was asking us great questions and we set up an appointment to go back next week! Super solid! This was actually the day that we prayed to find a family! 

-and right after that, going to see a guy named Eduardo who we have been teaching for a while but weren't able to see last week.  He was right on his porch when we walked up and we were able to set something up with him as well! 

I've stopped believing in coincidences completely. To paraphrase the wise Elder Maxwell, the same God placed the star in orbit thousands of years before it appeared over Jerusalem the night that Jesus was born, pays equal attention to us and our lives and if we listen to what He says, He will place us exactly where we need to be in order to be a light to others. 

I'm grateful for this year that I have had in the service of the Lord. It has been a huge blessing in my life and the lives of those who are close to me. I've learned a lot, grown a lot, and sacrificed a lot, so have many other missionaries in the world. The Gospel of Jesus Christ as restored by the Savior through Joseph Smith is real. I know that better now than ever. Here is to 2018 and what it brought and also to what 2019 will bring! I'm excited for it. 

The final Song of the Week in 2018 is California Love by Tupac

Much California love to you all!

Elder Thompson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWbXQQG9B6c  California Love  Tupac