Swimming To Santa Rosa

What's up everyone?!

So here's the deal, I don't have much time to email because we had transfers today instead of tomorrow. Imma getting transferred to Santa Rosa!  Exciting stuff! I'm pretty excited to get a new area but also nervous because Rohnert Park is my home now. But it'll be okay because God knows the plan and will make what needs to happen, happen. 

I'll write more next week but until then, the Song of the Week is Pinball Wizard by The Who. Love that one! Have a great week!

Much love,

Elder Thompson 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AKbUm8GrbM  Pinball Wizard  The Who

Waffles First, Basketball Later

What's going on SLC and beyond?! 

Here's the story behind the title: we woke up early to play basketball with my favorite assistants, Elder Dixon and Elder Nelson. Seminary was going on while we were playing in the gym and they were having waffles so at the end of seminary, they invited us to eat some waffles. When Sister Simpson came in the gym to invite us for waffles, I asked her how much time we had before the waffles were ready. Her response was, "waffles first; basketball later." So we had some good waffles. 

In other news, I no longer feel like a real missionary now that we can call home each week. It's going to be weird for sure but I know the parents are going to appreciate it and it'll be nice to be able to communicate better with family! I guess it's just a big change. I'll see how it goes! We spent like 30 minutes freaking out and talking about it on Friday. All of the missionaries in our zone were freaking out as well. 

So now for the tough part of the week, Barbara pretty much dropped us.... she said she wants some time to read on her own and we have "done our job" with her. I know that God has a plan for her and maybe it isn't her time right now but eventually it will be. You hear about stories like this all of the time -  when people are so close but just don't get there - but it's a lot different when it's someone you've taught so much and you have developed a close relationship with. 

Grace also dropped us again and said that she doesn't think the Book of Mormon is for her. That made me pretty sad..... just because I know the Book of Mormon is for her! It's given to us to give us hope and happiness through these hard times. 

And I can't remember if I ever talked about the Pastor and his family who let us in to read the Bible with them. We went back to see them and he said he would be willing to talk with us. Hopefully he doesn't just want to bash with us but if he has real intent and a sincere heart, then it'll all work out! 

We found 9 people this week who said we could come teach them! That's more than we have found in a long time! It feels pretty good. So along with the hard parts of the week, with people dropping us, we still found others! God's plan always moves forward! 

Elder Taylor can't figure out how to ring a doorbell properly, haha. He accidentally double-rang 2 different doorbells on the same court! I tell him he will get it one day if he practices hard enough. 

Shoutouts for the week:

• The Davis family for the waterproofing spray for my coat and also for the stew and donuts and my favorite pink frosted cookies
• The Norton family for the best cookie-brittle stuff ever
• Mtn. Dew voltage
• Moses for roasting Satan using the phrase: "who art thou?" 
• The family from Nairobi I met yesterday and made me think of Austin. Sorry I didn't get a picture with them. I'll go back. 

The best news of the week was the text I got from Cinthya, who I baptized a year ago in Fortuna, saying that she and her husband were finishing their temple prep classes and were going to Idaho soon to receive their endowments and to get sealed!!!! Music to a missionary's ears. Especially for me because she was the first person I baptized and I gained such a special relationship with them. It makes me so happy to hear they are still progressing in the gospel!! Even through all of the hard times, stuff like this makes the tough times worth it!! 

The Song of the Week is "Welcome To Paradise" by Green Day. Shout out to Tommy J!! 

Much love to you all,

Love Elder Thompson 

Elders Brinkerhoff and Djahanbani

San Rafael

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOcrKFiB_ts Welcome To Paradise  Green Day

Keystones Til Kingdom Come

What's happening friends and family? 

First off shout out to my parents for their 27th wedding anniversary this week. They are a pretty good pair, I would say. 

I'll do this in dash-form just to make it better and because I like when other people do it too. 

-Started the week off right with exchanges with Elder Nelson, my greatest friend since Day One of the mission and also my current AP. We had a baller time and did some good work. His biggest goal in life is to trick out a van so that he can live in it for a few years and just go on adventures. That sounds pretty sick to me so catch me in a Ford Sportmobile in a few years! 

-We had a wonderful lesson with Barbara where we gave her what she asked for, which was the differences between her beliefs now and the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ. Turns out, she is basically already a member. She believes God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost to be 3 separate beings as well as that God should have modern day Prophets.  We taught her a little more about baptism and I'm really hoping that her heart will soften up a little more to accept the message. 

-Getting out of the car while trying to go see someone and getting the feeling that we should talk to the guy across the street at the park throwing a ball to his dogs. The guy we went to see wasn't home so we walked across the street to the park and talked to the guy. He wasn't interested but as we were walking away saw some other people on the sidewalk we could talk to. We ended up meeting Diane there, who talked to us for like 40 minutes. We introduced the Restoration and she was asking us where church was and what time. She showed up on Sunday as well and loved it! I've made it my goal this transfer to recognize and follow the small promptings but I realize  it's hard to recognize the small promptings because they just feel like regular thoughts.  But as you follow the ones that lead you to do good, you can come to know where each thought comes from and recognize which ones are from God. 

-Interviews with President Meservy, always a great experience. 

-Gaining a greater testimony of the power of fasting. 

-Having a wonderful lesson with Branden (Anissa was sick) and really got deep with him and found out his true needs. We talked about the power of prayer and how to become a "pray-er" when you really aren't one. I think it was a really effective lesson. Talking about baptism, he said "I'm down if Anissa is down." haha he is a great guy. I really hope to see their family join the church. 

-Doing the Missionary Moment during a baptism in Petaluma and talking about the power of the Book of Mormon using a life sized version of what is in preach my gospel. The Keystone is the part of the arch that holds everything else together, without it, everything falls. The Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion. Every truth that we testify of eventually goes back to whether or not the Book of Mormon is true. If it isn't, then the whole church falls along with our claim to prophets, revelation, and the priesthood. But if it is, which I know it is, then this is God's church once again brought back to the earth and we are lead by a true, living prophet who receives inspiration from God as to what we need. I think that's a pretty cool thing. 

The song of the week is "Till Kingdom Come" by Coldplay. 

Have a great week!

Love

-Elder Thompson 

pics:

  Mine and Elder Taylor's pictures are next to each other in the mission office, meant to be!

 

                            I found something even better than a van, adventure bus! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo49REpQCwA Til Kingdom Come  Coldplay

No Soliciting

Hey again everyone,

This week was pretty wild really, we had some good success even though we faced several unpleasant people, but that's all part of life! 

We were knocking in a little community this past week and this guy opened up the door and was cool at first. Then he yelled and had some choice words for us.  So we started to walk away but then he opened his door and told us that he was calling the police.   

The next day, we were knocking in a trailer park and we had gone pretty far without anyone trying to kick us out. But then a guy in a golf cart said we were soliciting and needed to leave.  We left.  I was pretty upset because we let the guy win but I realized that Christ himself went through similar persecution. Everything He did was good but the people still rejected Him and treated Him badly. So there's a cool analogy, take it or leave it. 

Yesterday was interesting because it was raining SUPER hard plus it was Fast Sunday and it was Superbowl Sunday so everybody was either preparing for a party or away at a party.  Elder Taylor and I decided to try our luck and get into a gated community of apartments that missionaries had not been able to get into yet.  We slipped in the open gate after a car went in and BAM! we were in. We spent about the next 4 hours knocking on about 260 doors in the complex and as expected, most people weren't home. A lot of people asked us how we got inside and we just told em we walked in. We only had a few people get mad at us  and also we had some nice people tell us we could come back! But nobody kicked us out! It was super cold so I was wearing my church pants with sweats over them with rain pants over those and also a big coat and sweater to keep warm. The apartment buildings were covered and we had to run up and down 6 flights of stairs per building. It was fun though because we were running out of time before dinner so Elder Taylor and I were each knocking a door at the same time and we would just talk to whichever one answered. One of the times, one guy closed the door right as the door across the hall answered so we just flipped around and talked to her! Pretty good stuff. 

Barbara is still doing well, we invited her to read The Book of Mormon from a new perspective, to learn more about Jesus Christ. She came to dinner with us at a member's house last night and it was really great! Mom, you would be proud, I played and sang them a song. Barbara was very mad that I didn't tell her I could do that haha! 

We met some other good people this week and taught some others but nothing really new. Being a missionary is still great! I'll let you know when the cops actually show up to something. Now that will be a story. 

The Song Of The Week is Ice Cream Paint Job, by Dorrough. That was a good mobbing song with the boys! 

 

much love,

Elder Thompson